text:
Sudbury column: No evidence that proposed gun ban is needed
Special to The Sudbury Star
Published on: December 11, 2019 | Last Updated: December 11, 2019 4:29 AM EST
Bill Blair, the federal Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, came to Durham, Ont. to talk about his review of a possible ban on handguns and assault-style weapons. Beforehand he spoke with reporters at a local coffee shop on Sunday, February 3, 2019. Scott Dunn/The Owen Sound Sun Times/Postmedia Network Scott Dunn / Scott Dunn/Sun Times
By George Fritz
As expected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals took advantage of a tragic event from 30 years ago to advance a particular agenda.
Through Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, the Liberals have announced Friday (the 30th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique murders in Montreal) they will use orders in council to arbitrarily ban most semi-auto firearms in Canada.
While permissible within our system of government, orders in council are really a throwback to the days of governing by decree in which monarchs, despots and, in Canada's case today, elected governments may dictate to the populace with no regard for process, fairness or legal recourse.
The Liberals are claiming that they are removing "military assault weapons" or "assault-style weapons" — whatever they may be — from circulation. What they are really doing is banning anything they do not like the looks of, including many historically and technically significant firearms.
Put in another context, the Liberal ban is akin to wanting to eliminate all race cars by banning any car upon which one can find or place things like spoilers or fins; however, we all know that such things do not transform civics into Formula One cars.
Assault rifles such as those used by military forces around the world have been banned in Canada for decades. The use of the term is disingenuous and deliberately vague: there is actually no legal definition of an assault rifle under Canadian law.
So, in effect, this legal grey area allows the Liberals to confiscate any firearm they wish, including many popular hunting rifles and shotguns on the basis of things like being centrefire and magazine fed. As a result, that means many popular hunting arms like Remington and Browning rifles and shotguns will be confiscated and sent to the smelter.
Nickel Belt MP Marc Serre has come out in support of this move by his government and has demonstrated a profound lack of understanding of the issue and what is at stake for many of his constituents by merely toeing and parroting the Liberal Party line on this matter. In fact, he has not even bothered to respond to attempts to speak with him about this issue.
Well, Mr. Serre, many of your constituents are hunters and stand to lose thousands of dollars worth of legally owned and used personal property because your government wishes to virtue signal its progressive bona fides to other such groups and people.
And yes, it is virtue signalling. After all, the Trudeau government has always talked a big game in terms of evidence-based policy. Well, where is the evidence that legal firearms owners and their firearms are a problem?
There are many questions surrounding the government's sincerity regarding any such bans and many legitimate concerns pointing to it as mere political opportunism.
For example, why is the government choosing to ignore its own consultation, results which show minimal support for any such ban?
Why is the government ignoring the judgment of police and police leaders nation-wide (such as the commissioner of the RCMP) who say any such bans will not affect the gang violence we see in our urban centres?
Why is the government moving to ban firearms now, based on one event from 30 years ago?
If gun owners could be trusted for the past 30 years, what has changed (in the face of no evidence to the contrary) to dictate that their guns must be banned now?
The Trudeau government has gathered no data, commissioned no studies and done zero scientific research into the relationship between legally owned guns and gun violence. If there is no evidence, what justifies the new policy and urgency to ban firearms and confiscate them from their legal owners?
In truth, it's nothing more than vote pandering and crass political opportunism.
— George Fritz is a concerned citizen who lives in Garson.
Sudbury court: Con with a long, violent history facing more jail...	 Freeland signs new NAFTA pact, urges Parliament to ratify as quickly...


text:
Pulse Intelligence (Your Practice)
CQC registration fees to rise by 2.5%, but could double in future years
8 October 2013 By Madlen Davies
CQC registration fees for GP practices are set to rise by 2.5% from next April, but could double in future years as the watchdog seeks to recoup the full cost of regulation from registration fees.
The CQC has launched a consultation about the fees it proposes to charge all registered providers in 2014/15, in a move the GPC said will be 'very concerning' to practices battling rising expenses.
It proposes an increase of 2.5%, meaning registration fees will be set at £565 to £875 for practices with one branch, depending on the number of registered patients.
Practices with multiple branches, will pay from £1,230 to £15,375 depending on the number of locations.
While a 2.5% rise is proposed for 2014/15, the CQC have admitted that they currently only recover half the costs of regulation from fees paid by primary medical service providers.
Currently, the CQC is given a £31 million grant-in-aid from the Department of Health, but have been instructed by ministers that they must move towards a model in which they recoup all the costs of regulation from providers.
The CQC's impact assessment said: 'We are proposing an increase in fees for all providers by 2.5%. This will enable us to make a modest amount of progress towards cost recovery in line with current government policy.'
It added: 'NHS primary medical care providers are currently at a 50% cost recovery rate as they were first registered in April 2013, whereas other sectors have been registered for longer.
'Where the costs of regulating a sector new to registration are not yet fully known, such as in the dental and primary medical care sectors, our policy has been to set fees at an anticipated 50% of full cost recovery and then maintain an upward trajectory once these costs and data to support this are more fully known.'
GPC deputy chairman Dr Richard Vautrey said practices would be 'very concerned' with rising CQC fees, and the lack of restriction on the CQC's regulation of GPs.
Practices will be very concerned about rising costs at the time when expenses are rising rapidly. The results of the DDRB review showed expenses are rising and reimbursement has not caught up. This comes at a time when practices, and the wider NHS, are facing financial problems.
'It is a big concern for practices. They'll also be concerned that the CQC doesn't have any restrictions. GPs have to fund the CQC's regulation and there seem to be no constraints on the CQC financially, or them being proportionate.'
Previously, the GPC has argued that NHS England should pay GP's CQC fees, as the costs of hospital registration fees are paid by the trust.
GPs face 9% increase in CQC fees
Chief inspector 'full of admiration' for hospital staff
CQC inspections 'flawed' admits new chief inspector of primary care
CQC inspections uncover minority of GPs providing 'shocking' care
Walk-in practices charged higher CQC fees regardless of size
Practices to pay up to £15,000 in CQC fees
Edoardo Cervoni 08 Oct 2013 3:28pm
A very bad piece of news for practicing healthcare professionals and patients alike.
To no surprise, nevertheless...
DrDeath08 Oct 2013 5:09pm
Still, will be all ok when we are salaried,eh!!!!
Anonymous08 Oct 2013 9:18pm
When will they stop turning the financial screw???? Another pay cut!
Nhsfatcat09 Oct 2013 12:19pm
It's only fair for the CQC to do this to cover the 8am 'til 8pm, 7 day a week inspecting they'll need to do to check that quality is uniform throughout the new working week[end.]
Chris Kenyon10 Oct 2013 10:47pm
WHY ON EARTH should WE pay a single penny for this totally un-necessary extra tier of inspection that has been imposed on us from above!! I deeply resent this.
Pulse Locum Guide
Battling Burnout
Practice topics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Registration-Inscripción
by Brandon Gage
from AlterNet Website
On January 15th, 2022, Tonga's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, spewing tons of gas and ash into the atmosphere.
According to a Wednesday report by National Public Radio, the blast contained enough water vapor - notorious for its heat-trapping abilities - to temporarily raise Earth's temperature.
"The massive amount of water vapor is roughly 10 percent of the normal amount of vapor found in the stratosphere, equaling more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools," NPR wrote.
The chemicals,
"came from a volcano that's more than 12 miles wide, with a caldera sitting roughly 500 feet below sea level.
One day earlier, Tongan officials reported the volcano was in a continuous eruption, sending a 3-mile-wide plume of steam and ash into the sky.
Then the big blast came, sending ash, gases and vapor as high as 35 miles - a record in the satellite era - into the atmosphere," per NPR.
In a July paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists discovered that Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha',
"may be the first volcanic eruption observed to impact climate not through surface cooling caused by volcanic sulfate aerosols, but rather through surface warming."
Water vapor lingers in the air, which contributes to its ability to retain heat.
"It normally takes around 2-3 years for sulfate aerosols from volcanoes to fall out of the stratosphere.
But the water from the Jan. 15 eruption could take 5-10 years to fully dissipate," NPR explained.
"We've never seen anything like it," said atmospheric scientist Luis Millán, who led the research team and works at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The volume of water was "unprecedented," Luis Millán noted.
"Three natural pathways for direct injection of H2O into the stratosphere exist: overshooting convection, pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) storms, and volcanic eruptions."
Millán added that,
"the HT-HH eruption injected at least 146 ± 5 Tg of H2O into the stratosphere, not only surpassing the magnitudes of all other injections in the MLS record, but also eclipsing a theoretical estimate of 37.5 Tg from Pinatubo."
'Tg' stands for 'teragram' - or a trillion grams.
That, Millán concluded in his paper, is "an exceptional amount of H2O."
Return to Earth Changes


Published 04/24/2019 08:15:59 am at 04/24/2019 08:15:59 am in Microwave Oven Hoods.
microwave oven hoods microvisor range hood for use with microwave ovens microwave range hoods with gas range.
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Saturday, March 30 2019 at 6 p.m.
Come join us at the home of Paul and Mary Almany for the annual FBYC Bermuda High Party.
Chase the winter blues away with a tropical menu, island spirits, and great friends!
Please register by March 23. Tickets are $15.


We all know kids can be wild about ants, too. If that's the case, they might be interested in a new picture book I found at the library yesterday, Just Like Us! Ants by Bridget Heos and illustrated by David Clark.
The book is set up as a series of two-page spreads on different topics such as "Sister Cities" and "Bug Eat Bug Job." You might not be able to see from the image of the cover above, but each spread features a photograph or two of real ants (photographs by Alex Wild) surrounded by cartoons.
Although the cartoon illustrations may make it look like this isn't a serious book, don't be fooled. Serious facts and concepts are discussed, but in a lighthearted way that will attract the most reluctant of readers. Throughout the author compares what ants can do to what humans do, making them more relatable.
What I like is it is not simply a rehash of older books. The author reveals recent scientific discoveries, such as how bigheaded ant larvae process food for the colony or how fire ants build rafts to float on water. That's nice to see.
If you know a lot about ants, you might quibble about the wording here and there. For example, "all ants in the colony come from one mother" might make you pause if you know about polygyny. However, by and large it is a case of keeping things simple enough for children to grasp readily and it works overall.
Just Like Us! Ants gives an up close and personal look at how ants do things that are remarkably similar to the way humans do, and it is an accurate and informative introduction to the world of ants that is perfect for young readers. Check out a copy today.
Looking for more children's books about ants? See our growing list (organized by reading level and genre) at Science Books for Kids.


The Porbeagle shark is the UK apex predator and is on the tick list for all shark anglers. North Cornwall is one of if not the best stretch of coastline in the uk. We only take three anglers max for all porbeagle charters.
We supply and use top of the range quantum Cabo gear for porbeagles.
In 2017 we caught one of the biggest porbeagles in the uk at a estimated weight of in excess of 400lb but didn't bring it aboard to measure as it was a pregnant female so realised alongside the boat.
Shark fishing is strictly catch and release.
If you are lucky enough you may even catch a thresher shark. We had two in 2016 and now one of a very few boats in the uk that have landed three of our four species of shark so just the Mako to go.
Blue sharks have made a huge come back and are in big numbers off our coast in the summer months. We take a max of six anglers per charters.
For the Blue shark we supply and use the Fin- nor range of reels which are loaded with braid and the Fin-nor rods are 20lb-30lb class which gives you great sport.
You do not have to be a experienced angler to have a go.


Yo Art has been helping more than a thousand underprivileged students in the Lowcountry this year to get the experience they need in media arts and coding that is crucial to their success in finding meaningful careers and jobs when they get out of school. Our organization depends on donors like you to get the necessary equipment (cameras, iPads and software) into their hands. Not only do we need the equipment, we also need to fund field trips to places where students can document their research and to companies where they can come to understand the type of job or career that is possible with their new skills.
Please visit our donate page, and help us reach our goal of $15,000 before Christmas!


Folic Acid or Pteroylmonoglutamic acid belongs to Vitmain B complex. It helps in the development of neural tube, which closes by the 27th day of conception. It helps in preventing birth defects like spina bifida, cranium bifidium, encephalocele, meningomyelocele, meningocele & spontaneous abortion. Mostly, females confirm their pregnancy after 3 rd week of conception. After which, the supplementation of foilic acid will be too late. Here comes the need for taking it preconceptionaly. Each year 3 to 4 lakh infants world wide are born with neural tube defects. Around 4000 pregnancies are affected by NTD each year in US. In a random test conducted during 1985-87 in South India, 40 out of 3500 were found with NTD. Out of nearly 2000 antenatal cases that visited our college hospital during the last 12 months, 5 were found to have NTD. Mrs.Santhi of age 23, belonging to class 4 socio economic group was diagnosed of having fetus with meningomyelocele at 9 th month!! Folic acid was not taken by her preconceptionaly or after conception. It�s high time to spread awareness about the need for taking it preconceptionally. Prevention is better than cure. But here the actual scenario is that there is no cure. Just spreading awareness is not sufficient. Health Ministry must implement steps to supply folic acid to women in the child bearing age, atleast for those who belongs to below poverty line.
Anu Jacob has secured 22 nd rank in Progressive Curriculum Management Examination conducted at the National Level for Std 2. She has published her collection of poems titled ?Stream of Imaginations? while doing her class 8. She has also passed Grade 1 violin and Grade II piano exam conducted by Associated Board of Royal School of Music, UK. She secured first place in the essay writing competition in District level and second place in the state level on ? A better Environment for a Better Life? organized by Ministry of Environment and Forest in connection with World summit on Sustainable Development. She has passed ICSE and AISSCE. Currently she is doing her III year MBBS course under Dr MGR University.


text:
package com.twitter.graphjet.algorithms.randommultigraphneighbors;

import com.google.common.base.Objects;

/**
 * This interface specifies the required information from each of the neighbors returned by
 * a {@link RandomMultiGraphNeighbors}.
 */
public class NeighborInfo implements Comparable<NeighborInfo> {
  private final long neighborNode;
  private final double score;
  private final int degree;

  /**
   * Constructor for Neighbor Info
   *
   * @param neighborNode                the neighbor node
   * @param score                       the score of the neighbor node returned by the algorithm
   * @param degree                      the degree of the neighbor node in the graph
   */
  public NeighborInfo(long neighborNode, double score, int degree) {
    this.neighborNode = neighborNode;
    this.score = score;
    this.degree = degree;
  }

  public long getNeighborNode() {
    return neighborNode;
  }

  public double getScore() {
    return score;
  }

  public int getDegree() {
    return degree;
  }

  @Override
  public int hashCode() {
    return Objects.hashCode(neighborNode, score, degree);
  }

  @Override
  public boolean equals(Object obj) {
    if (obj == null) {
      return false;
    }
    if (obj == this) {
      return true;
    }
    if (obj.getClass() != getClass()) {
      return false;
    }

    NeighborInfo other = (NeighborInfo) obj;

    return
        Objects.equal(getNeighborNode(), other.getNeighborNode())
            && Objects.equal(getScore(), other.getScore())
            && Objects.equal(getDegree(), other.getDegree());
  }

  @Override
  public String toString() {
    return Objects.toStringHelper(this)
        .add("neighbor", neighborNode)
        .add("score", score)
        .add("degree", degree)
        .toString();
  }

  @Override
  public int compareTo(NeighborInfo otherNeighborInfo) {
    return Double.compare(this.score, otherNeighborInfo.getScore());
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Test your knowledge of Japan, from its postwar alliances to its territorial disputes.
Test your knowledge of Mexico, from its president to its border with the United States.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of the purposes, scale, and history of U.S. aid to the rest of the world.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of the concepts and controversies surrounding U.S. trade.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of Canada's government, economy, society, and geography.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of the trends and policies surrounding U.S. immigration.
Take this quiz to test your knowledge of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military alliance underpinning U.S. global leadership.


SafeCentral Blog: Take the Guided Tour!
I've posted a 5-part "Guided Tour" on the release version of SafeCentral. This is the most complete and compelling look at the entire service, and should help even SafeCentral veterans understand the service a little better.


The 6th most popular snorkel dive spot in Queensland.
South of Gold Coast, the snorkelling at Miami Beach is known for its usually calm conditions and sand flats. During Gold Coast snorkeling, you may encounter stingrays and nurse sharks along the sand flats. Keep in mind there isn't any coral or reefs to be found from Gold Coast beach-accessed snorkeling dives.
While most people recommend April and May, the surf can still be quite high for beach-accessed Gold Coast snorkeling spots. The best time of year for snorkeling at Miami Beach is really from August to October when the surf is low and the visibility is higher. However, the water temperature is cooler, so you may want to wear a thick dive top for warmth.
Overall, Miami Beach is the 6th most popular snorkel dive spot of all 43 snorkeling dives in Queensland. Several of the better snorkeling spots are nearby Miami Beach including Cook Island Aquatic Reserve, Gold Coast Seaway, Kirra Reef, Wave Break Island, Spiral Beach and Palm Beach Reef.
For snorkeling at Miami Beach in Australia, our printable snorkeling dive guides offers dive descriptions, maps, lodging suggestions, driving directions, levels of difficulty and points-of-contact.


text:
package com.talis.hbase.rdf;

import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;

import com.hp.hpl.jena.graph.Graph;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.graph.Node;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.query.Dataset;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.Model;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.ModelFactory;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.Resource;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.shared.ReificationStyle;
import com.hp.hpl.jena.update.GraphStore;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.connection.HBaseRdfConnection;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.connection.HBaseRdfConnectionDesc;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.connection.HBaseRdfConnectionFactory;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.graph.GraphHBaseRdfBase;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.store.DatasetStore;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.store.DatasetStoreHBaseRdfGraph;
import com.talis.hbase.rdf.store.StoreFactory;

public class HBaseRdfFactory
{
    // ---- Connections
    public static HBaseRdfConnection createConnection( String configFile, boolean isAssemblerFile )
    { return HBaseRdfConnectionFactory.create( configFile, isAssemblerFile ) ; }

    public static HBaseRdfConnection createConnection( HBaseRdfConnectionDesc desc )
    { return HBaseRdfConnectionFactory.create( desc ) ; }

    public static HBaseRdfConnection createConnection( Configuration config )
    { return HBaseRdfConnectionFactory.create( config ) ; }

    public static Configuration createHBaseConfiguration( String configFile )
    { return HBaseRdfConnectionFactory.createHBaseConfiguration( configFile ) ; }

    public static Store connectStore( String configFile )
    { return StoreFactory.create( configFile ) ; }

    public static Store connectStore( StoreDesc desc )
    { return StoreFactory.create( desc ) ; }

    public static Store connectStore( HBaseRdfConnection hbaseConnection, StoreDesc desc )
    { return StoreFactory.create( desc, hbaseConnection ) ; }

    public static Store connectStore( Configuration config, StoreDesc desc )
    {
        HBaseRdfConnection sdb = HBaseRdfConnectionFactory.create( config ) ;
        return StoreFactory.create( desc, sdb ) ;
    }

    // ---- Dataset

    public static Dataset connectDataset( Store store )
    { return DatasetStore.create( store ) ; }

    public static Dataset connectDataset( StoreDesc desc )
    { return DatasetStore.create( connectStore( desc ) ) ; }

    public static Dataset connectDataset( HBaseRdfConnection hbaseConnection, StoreDesc desc )
    { return DatasetStore.create( connectStore( hbaseConnection, desc ) ) ; }

    public static Dataset connectDataset( Configuration config, StoreDesc desc )
    { return DatasetStore.create( connectStore( config, desc ) ) ; }

    public static Dataset connectDataset( String configFile )
    { return DatasetStore.create( connectStore( configFile ) ) ; }

    // ---- GraphStore

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( Store store, ReificationStyle style )
    { return new DatasetStoreHBaseRdfGraph( store, HBaseRdf.getContext().copy(), style ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( StoreDesc desc )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( desc ), ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( StoreDesc desc, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( desc ), style ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( HBaseRdfConnection hbaseConnection, StoreDesc desc )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( hbaseConnection, desc ), ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( HBaseRdfConnection hbaseConnection, StoreDesc desc, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( hbaseConnection, desc ), style ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( Configuration config, StoreDesc desc )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( config, desc ), ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( Configuration config, StoreDesc desc, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( config, desc ), style ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( String configFile )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( configFile ), ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static GraphStore connectGraphStore( String configFile, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectGraphStore( connectStore( configFile ), style ) ; }

    // ---- Graph

    public static Graph connectDefaultGraph( String configFile )
    { return connectDefaultGraph( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Graph connectDefaultGraph( String configFile, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectDefaultGraph( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectDefaultGraph( StoreDesc desc )
    { return connectDefaultGraph( StoreFactory.create( desc ), ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Graph connectDefaultGraph( StoreDesc desc, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectDefaultGraph( StoreFactory.create( desc ), style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectDefaultGraph( Store store, ReificationStyle style )
    { return new GraphHBaseRdfBase( store, style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( String configFile, String iri )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), iri, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( String configFile, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), iri, style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( StoreDesc desc, String iri )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( desc ), iri, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( StoreDesc desc, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( desc ), iri, style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( Store store, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return new GraphHBaseRdfBase( store, iri, style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( String configFile, Node node )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), node, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( String configFile, Node node, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), node, style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( StoreDesc desc, Node node )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( desc ), node, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph( StoreDesc desc, Node node, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedGraph( StoreFactory.create( desc ), node, style ) ; }

    public static Graph connectNamedGraph(Store store, Node node, ReificationStyle style  )
    { return new GraphHBaseRdfBase( store, node, style ) ; }

    // ---- Model

    public static Model connectDefaultModel( String configFile )
    { return connectDefaultModel( StoreFactory.create( configFile ) ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the default model in a store
     * @param desc
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectDefaultModel( StoreDesc desc )
    { return connectDefaultModel( StoreFactory.create( desc ) ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the default model in a store
     * @param store
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectDefaultModel( Store store )
    { return createModelHBaseRdf( store, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Model connectDefaultModel( Store store, ReificationStyle style )
    { return createModelHBaseRdf( store, style ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the named model in a store
     * @param desc
     * @param iri
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectNamedModel( StoreDesc desc, String iri )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( desc ), iri, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Model connectNamedModel( StoreDesc desc, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( desc ), iri, style ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the named model in a store
     * @param store
     * @param iri
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectNamedModel( Store store, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return createModelHBaseRdf( store, iri, style ) ; }

    public static Model connectNamedModel( Store store, String iri )
    { return createModelHBaseRdf( store, iri, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the named model in a store
     * @param configFile
     * @param iri
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectNamedModel( String configFile, String iri )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), iri, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Model connectNamedModel( String configFile, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), iri, style ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the named model in a store
     * @param desc
     * @param resource
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectNamedModel( StoreDesc desc, Resource resource )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( desc ), resource, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Model connectNamedModel( StoreDesc desc, Resource resource, ReificationStyle style )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( desc ), resource, style ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the named model in a store
     * @param store
     * @param resource
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectNamedModel( Store store, Resource resource )
    { return createModelHBaseRdf( store, resource, ReificationStyle.Standard ) ; }

    public static Model connectNamedModel( Store store, Resource resource, ReificationStyle style )
    { return createModelHBaseRdf( store, resource, style ) ; }

    /**
     * Connect to the named model in a store
     * @param configFile
     * @param resource
     * @return Model
     */
    public static Model connectNamedModel( String configFile, Resource resource )
    { return connectNamedModel( StoreFactory.create( configFile ), resource ) ; }

    // ---- Workers

    private static Model createModelHBaseRdf( Store store, ReificationStyle style )
    { return ModelFactory.createModelForGraph( new GraphHBaseRdfBase( store, style ) ) ; }

    private static Model createModelHBaseRdf( Store store, String iri, ReificationStyle style )
    { return ModelFactory.createModelForGraph( new GraphHBaseRdfBase( store, iri, style ) ) ; }

    private static Model createModelHBaseRdf( Store store, Resource resource, ReificationStyle style )
    { return ModelFactory.createModelForGraph( new GraphHBaseRdfBase( store, resource.asNode(), style ) ) ; }
}


For questions call the Sandpoint Ranger District (208)263-5111.
Class ratio- The required ratio of instructor to students is seven students to 1 instructor. We can accommodate up to 21 students.
Class duration- Level 1 courses are 24 hours- 8 hours of classroom (2-4 hour evening classes) and 16 hours of field (2- 8 hr field days). Level 2 courses are 16 hours of classroom and 16 hours of field.
Curriculum overview- American Avalanche Association- Avalanche Fundamentals, Level 1. In this class we teach you, how to recognize avalanches, how to avoid them, the factors that result in each type, and how to become your own avalanche forecaster. We will also discuss avalanche dynamics and how to use the avalanche triangle (Snow, Weather, Terrain) to assess the stability of the snowpack. There are several tools that help with the avalanche assessment process and we will discuss their pros and cons. Finally we will spend a good portion of time avalanche rescue. We will talk about what to do if you get caught in an avalanche as well as practice organizing and executing an effective rescue.


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17 August 2014 / 2014
Tahir Qazi - Caliphate as a Political System
Presentation (with video) and Article by Dr. Tahir Qazi
Dr. Tahir Qazi is a writer and contributor to countercurrents.org, Patheos, Foreign Policy in Focus, South Asian Journal of Diplomacy, and has been a guest on political TV programmes.
Dr. Qazi talked about identity politics, evolution of the concept of state, and the search for identity in Muslim-majority countries – from a secular perspective.
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Tahir Qazi
Dr. Tahir Qazi
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Historical Forms of Succession in Caliphates
The Caliphate, Sharia and the Search for an Islamic Political Theology: A Contemporary Perspective
Discussion: Caliphate as a Political System - Myth or Reality?
by Dr. Nevin Reda Dr. Nevin Reda is an assistant professor of Muslim Studies at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Her main research area is the Qur'an,
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Chronology of the Historical Caliphates
By Javed Chaudry Javed Chaudry is a political commentator, writer and frequent guest on political and social TV programmes. His articles have appeared on countercurrents.org. Mr. Chaudry will present current geo-political realities
Javed Chaudry
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This 50A, 14-50 assembly connector can be used to wire a new cord or rewire an existing cord with the same configuration. It is a straight bladed, grab cord type with a black nylon body. The 14-50 configuration is commonly used with RVs, generators, electric vehicles, and industrial usage.


Let's be clear from the start: there's no good way to decide where to cut one billion dollars from a five billion dollar aid program in just six months. Indeed, there's no good reason to make the cut. Aid is less than 1.5 per cent of Australian federal government spending: too small for changes to have any real impact on the country's fiscal health. Yet the cut will hurt people in developing countries. And it may well hurt Australia too. Promises will have to be broken in the international arena, and international goodwill (of the sort that helped get Australia onto the UN Security Council, for example) may be eroded.
At the very least, if cuts must be made, they should be made more slowly — over the space of several years. If this was the case, aid could be cut judiciously following careful performance assessments. But this won't be possible in a space of six months. Only blunt heuristics will be available to guide the knife.
Reflecting these circumstances I'm going to offer two guides for where the cuts should land — guides geared to minimising development damage. Neither is great, but they are better than nothing, and combined they offer something to work with at a time when political decisions have ensured there is no good way forwards.
Both guides have the same underlying logic: minimising the 'shock' felt by any particular country as Australian aid is cut.
The first guide compares Australian aid to recipient countries' GDPs and prioritises cuts in countries where Australian aid is small in comparison to GDP. The logic to this is simply that when aid is small in comparison to the recipient economy in question, the overall economic shock will be minimal. This is not a perfect means of choosing where to cut aid — it doesn't guarantee that individuals currently benefiting from good aid projects won't be hurt, but it does minimise the likelihood that whole economies will be buffeted by the cuts.
The chart below shows Australian aid as budgeted for the 2014/15 financial year as a percentage of recipient GDP. (For detailed descriptions of the data, sources, assumptions and limitations see the detailed note here. For now, the most important points to note are that, where country groupings are used rather than individual countries, this reflects the way DFAT has laid out its most recent aid budget data. Also, the Australian aid amounts used in the calculations for the chart are those from the DFAT country budgets for each recipient country, and so exclude Australian aid that may go to a recipient country via multilateral aid or other Australian government departments.
are questionable and whose situation is supported by their relationship with New Zealand, there are a clear group of Pacific countries (and Timor-Leste) where large aid cuts would be unwise.
Aid to GDP isn't a perfect guide though. There are limitations: countries can have large economies without much of this wealth trickling down to the average person, meaning the need for the sorts of services aid can fund remains high.
This brings me to my second guide to where cuts should fall. This approach focuses on reducing 'aid shock' by avoiding cuts to aid in countries where Australian aid is a large slice of overall aid. The figure below reflects this approach (for data details see the data notes referred to above). As with the chart above, each bar is an Australian aid recipient but this time the Y-axis plots Australian aid as a percentage of total aid.
The charts aren't identical, but there is considerable overlap at the upper end. Both charts suggest there are a number of Pacific countries (and Timor-Leste) where cuts could be expected to cause significant shocks. The overlap isn't complete though, and so in this spreadsheet I have calculated the weighted average of each country's rank in the two measures (the other sheets of the spreadsheet show background workings for the charts and detail data sources). Importantly, because most countries where Australian aid is high as a percentage of total aid are also countries where Australian aid to GDP is high, or countries such as Indonesia where other donors have started giving less because aid is needed less, it is, I think, reasonable to treat the aid to GDP measure as more important than aid to total aid measure. Reflecting this, I have weighted the average in favour of aid to GDP (0.75 to 0.25). If you disagree, you can change the weighting in the spreadsheet in cell E1 and see re-calibrated results (you can change any of the yellow cells in the spreadsheet, the rest of the cells are locked, though you don't need a password to unlock them).
From the weighted average I've then (in the same spreadsheet) targeted where I think the cuts should fall in a way that minimises overall damage. The table below shows the output of this in its third column, where I've suggested a percentage aid cut. Once again, you may disagree with the percentage cut I've suggested for each country (rankings aren't everything: perhaps, for example, you think the humanitarian situation in Palestine requires aid there not be cut). If you do disagree, go into the spreadsheet and change the percentage values in column G to values you think more appropriate and the changes will be reflected in the spreadsheet calculations. The final column of the spreadsheet shows the cumulative savings as they total over each of the recipient countries.
In addition to country savings, in his recent blog post, Robin Davies suggested savings could be found from regional programs of between 10 and 20 per cent (which I've averaged to 15 per cent for a total saving of $47.3m), as well as a ($351m) saving from 'Cross Regional Programs', further savings from UN and Commonwealth organisations ($32m), central NGO and volunteer programs ($20m), DFAT departmental spending ($50m) and aid given via other government departments ($39.2m). All up these savings tally to $539m. For the sake of easy maths and also because, pessimist that I am, I doubt all these savings will be realised, I've rounded this down to $500m, which leaves another $500 million to be found from country aid programs. Which, give or take a couple of million dollars, is what the savings tally to in my table.
And that's how I would suggest cutting one billion dollars from an aid program in a hurry. In practice my approach means big cuts born by parts of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, so as to spare the Pacific. Such cuts are far from ideal, but it is hard to see a better alternative at this point.
Terence Wood is a Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre. His PhD focused on Solomon Islands electoral politics. Prior to study he worked for the New Zealand Government Aid Program.
These figures (and all the figures I come across on Australian aid expenditure) never provide answers to the important questions: how much of the total spend is on DFAT administration and management and consultants' fees, how much is on recipient government/NGO administration and management, and how much is spent by local non-government actors actually relieving poverty or building capacity.
Why is this information not readily available? It's the information that every disinterested citizen and taxpayer wants to know, but is seemingly denied to us.
Thanks for your comment. A good question.
With regards to government aid, the aid world is quite transparent about overheads, although its efforts at transparency are hampered by poor website design and maintenance.
The OECD DAC's website provides detailed data on government donor expenditure and if you go to this link and then reconfigure the table (click on customise) and move country to the filter and aid type to the row field, and then filter for Australia you can find out how much money has been spent on staff and TA.
In the case of New Zealand (which I know best, being a New Zealander) we are also provided with very clear information on overheads in the government aid programme by our Treasury. I imagine this may well be the case in Australia too. (We make use of the NZ data in this paper, and report on NZ govt aid programme overheads, which average at around 10% of total spend; I suspect Australia is similar).
Just as a more general point, while I agree that transparency on overheads is important, as I've written here, focusing on lowering them will often lead to worse aid, not better.
I agree that there are much better ways of cutting an aid programme. Just not in 6 months.
Similarly, while I think decisions might be made to stop working in a particular sector or cut spending to a particular multi-lat, I doubt any of this can be done as quickly as country-based cuts.
To be clear on the main point of my post: I don't think there's any good way of cutting an aid programme by 20% in 6 months. Nor any good cause for it. All I can offer is what I think is the least worst way forwards now.
Thank you for continuing to highlight the importance of this process Terence.
Cutting one fifth of the aid program will have a significant effect on millions of people's lives and it deserves to have the best, and most transparent, process possible especially given the short time frame available.
No doubt the culling process will in some way involve proportional cuts to current country funding but I hope that DFAT does not use the model you propose which takes no account of the levels of need or likelihood of benefit of current projects. I understand and sympathise with your method. However focussing on the countries you suggest will make the program even less poverty focussed, is likely to cull many of the most cost effective activities and will reduce the aid program's support for the extremely poor people who need it most.
Given the active monitoring and management of country programs by DFAT staff there is also no reason that the effectiveness and likely impact of activities could not be central to the selection process. Yes six months is a short time frame, but DFAT staff have access to the large body of evidence on the likely impact of different types of projects and they actively monitor the implementation, quality and impact of current activities. They are not starting with zero knowledge here.
It seems to me that it is quite feasible in this time frame to implement an effective, if not perfect, system for assessing the likely impact and cost effectiveness of each major activity and making informed culling decisions within and across countries on this basis, in association with other pragmatic factors.
Thanks Garth. And I agree with some of what you say. In terms of your proposed alternative, I your approach is definitely preferable if it is possible. However, I don't think it is. I think that the amount of information on activity efficacy available to DFAT staff is less than you make it out to be. All the more so because of the AusAID re-integration.
That said, I could be wrong and maybe a better guide to cuts is possible. My fear though is that the cuts may possibly be guided by worse heuristics (i.e. geostrategic ones) and so part of the reason I have proposed my approach is that if the cuts land in significantly different places, we are then in a position to ask why. Perhaps we will be provided with good answers, in which case I will have no objection.
Also, WRT need. This needs to be thought of in terms of immediate need (depth of current poverty) and ongoing need (the odds of development progress that is not driven by Australian aid in the medium term). In terms of of immediate need countries such as Indonesia would obviously score highly, but in terms of ongoing need I would say Pacific countries such as PNG and Solomons are much more worth focus countries.
– which programs are working and which are not?
– what can be achieved in a $4b aid program?
– do the cuts require a new strategy rather than just variations on the level of cuts (10% or 20% or 30%)?
I guess I am arguing that rather than having calculations drive the cuts, DFAT needs to re-develop its strategy and have that drive the cuts. Of course I doubt this will happen partly due to the tight timeline (cuts announced in December and first round of budget proposals needed in February) and partly due to the fact that redesigning the aid strategy less than a year after the launch of the new strategy in June 2014 would be an admission of complete failure.
I would prefer some bold (and likely unpopular) decisions by DFAT – pulling out of certain countries; cutting all work in certain sectors; ending contributions to certain multilateral agencies – that are based on a revised strategy of what the aid program can and should achieve.
Thanks for this-very interesting and possibly the only option to make aid cuts with the time constraints.
To be clear: I agree with you, effectiveness should be our guide. But, thanks to political decisions, the timeframes are too short for much of this to be done. Given this case, I think the approach I offer is (at least as a starting point) the least worst option.
As to whether aid is given to assist development or for other reasons such as geo-strategy, like you I want my taxes to fund development. And one way of thinking about the the tool offered above is that it offers an approximate guide to the development impact of the cuts. And where we see deviations from those suggested above we should ask why. There may be good answers (i.e. DFAT might demonstrate they have good evidence to show that our aid to Pakistan is strongly justified on development grounds, or working very well) but it will fall to those deciding where the cuts will fall to offer this.


I HAVE MOLD ON THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE. WHAT IS IT AND CAN IT BE FIXED?
The same mold and mildew fungi that sometimes grow inside homes can grow on the outside as well. The biggest factor is excess water, so a gutter repair project from the professionals at Mr. Handyman can make all the difference. Here's more information about outside mold/mildew growth and gutters.
Why is gutter water worse than regular weathering?
Water on exterior walls happens all the time from precipitation like rain and snow. But when gutters aren't moving water away properly, the outside of the home can be exposed to water far more frequently and in far greater volume. The number one thing mold and mildew need to flourish is water, so exterior walls below inefficient gutters see much more growth.
The sooner you get rid of this fungal growth, the easier it will be. It can be treated with a cleaning solution (most commonly made from bleach) and a tough-scrubbing brush. However, this probably isn't the best long-term solution for mold and mildew. Gutter repair from Mr. Handyman can fix the source of the problem.
But my gutters aren't damaged!
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Cyrene Mission
Cyrene Mission became famous for its localised art of Christian content which was developed first in the classrooms and then extended to decorate the chapel.
Edward "Ned" Paterson (1895–1974) was a pioneering art teacher in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He is known for founding Cyrene School near Bulawayo.
The centerpiece of Paterson's career were his years in charge of Cyrene School, near Bulawayo in Rhodesia, where he moved to in 1939. This school, which Paterson started from scratch, focused on practical and agricultural education. It was the first African school in Rhodesia to have art classes, which were made mandatory for all students.
"Our aim is to turn out the self-contained burger type, able to farm rationally and to care for his cattle, able to build his own home and to make its furniture and even to enrich them by carving and design."[5] All students took painting and drawing classes with Paterson until he left the school in 1953. He also established an arts workshop that met in the afternoons, which typically included disabled students unable to take part in sports or construction. These students also learned to carve, sculpt and produce linocut prints.
Cyrene became well known as Paterson sought to exhibit his artists and sell their work in order to recoup the heavy costs of providing art education. By 1944 his artists were selling strongly among White Rhodesians. In 1947 the repute of Cyrene was sufficient to attract a visit from the King George VI's 1947 tour of southern Africa.
In the wake of the ensuing publicity from the royal visit, traveling exhibitions of Cyrene student art toured South Africa, England, and the United States regularly from 1949-1953, raising enough money for Paterson to cover his annual budget deficits.
These exhibitions made Paterson the best-known art educator in Africa of his era. Eventually a number of Rhodesia's first professional African artists emerged from Cyrene. These included Sam Songo, Lazarus Khumalo, and Kingsley Sambo.
Tags: Cyrene MissionEdward "Ned" PatersonEdward Paterson
Welcome to Cyrene Mission
Thank you for visiting this website.
Cyrene High crowned Nash debate national champs
The Cyrene High School debate club has broken Matabeleland region's nine-year barren streak after being crowned this year's National Association...
Cyrene High old boys rescue destroyed school
Cyrene High School has received a donation of roofing sheets from former pupils to repair two hostels whose roofs were...
Whirlwind blows off roofs of classrooms and hostels
By Nqobile Tshili A WHIRLWIND blew off the roofs of classrooms and hostels at two schools in Matabeleland South on...
Posthumous academic awards for two Cyrene pupils
Two Cyrene High School pupils who drowned and died during a school trip last month, were awarded certificates posthumously on...
Nomtee Moyoe on History
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© 2020 - Cyrene Mission


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Q: jQuery, $(this).parent() and blur() I cannot get the blur() function in the following to work:
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A: Try this:
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Inside Biden's 'summit for democracy' amid pressure to make virtual meetings meaningful
CONOR FINNEGAN
December 9, 2021, 5:06 AM ·6 min read
By gathering leaders Thursday from 112 of the world's democracies -- some healthy, some challenged -- President Joe Biden has done the easy part of a campaign promise: He's held a summit for democracy within his first year in office.
But to actually make meaningful progress pushing back on the global "democratic recession," as his administration has warned of, will require far more than speeches, video meetings, and even a joint statement, which it's unclear his summit will yield.
Biden has cast the fight between democracies and authoritarian governments like China and Russia's as pivotal to the 21st century -- and said his administration will prove that democratic governments can still deliver for their publics.
MORE: Who was snubbed, who snuck through: Here's the list of invitees to Biden's democracy summit
Activists around the world are pressing the administration, along with their own governments, to demonstrate that this week -- taking or announcing concrete steps like strengthening free and fair elections, countering corruption, bolstering a free press and combating disinformation, among other things.
While the guest list has drawn lots of attention, especially for some illiberal heads of government, it's what the attendees agree on that will really matter, according to many experts -- with some skeptical that there will be impactful commitments.
PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks about the Infrastructure Law while visiting the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority in Missouri, Dec. 8, 2021. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
"The Biden administration is conceptually approaching it from the right lens in terms of looking inward and outward and being humble about the challenges that we're facing" in the U.S., according to Marti Flacks, director of the Human Rights Initiative at the think tank CSIS. But "in practice, translating that into concrete commitments and actions that resonate domestically is very challenging."
Those commitments will be tested over the next "year of action," according to the administration, with a second summit the White House plans to hold in-person next year to take stock.
"The interval period between these two events -- the virtual and hopefully the in-person -- really gives us, I think, a rare opportunity to translate into action commitments that are going to be put on the table," said Uzra Zeya, the top U.S. diplomat for democracy and human rights. "This is not a one-off event, but it's really an ongoing engagement process that we hope will culminate in an in-person summit with new platforms and coalitions working together meaningfully."
Democracy has been deteriorating consistently for the last 15 years, according to Freedom House, a Washington think tank that analyzes and rates governments. Its annual survey found this year that less than 20% of the global population lives in a country considered "free" in their analysis -- the lowest percentage since 1995.
That includes the U.S., but there are worrying signs that American democracy is slipping, including partisan attacks on elections, dark money in politics and racial disparities, according to Freedom House -- which ranks Belize, Mongolia and Romania's democracies as stronger.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a Swedish think tank, has gone even further, issuing a report last month that said the U.S. has fallen "victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale."
Biden has leaned into that reality, urging the passage of voting rights legislation or historic investments in social programs. But more politically, he's also gone after supporters of former President Donald Trump, who continued to spread unfounded conspiracies about election fraud, with a senior administration official blaming "Republican legislators" in particular for a "systematic assault."
"The president has been forthright and clear about the challenges facing democracy here at home throughout his presidency, and I think you can expect him to do so as well at the summit," the official said Tuesday.
Pres. Biden's first "Summit of Democracy" will convene virtually on Dec. 9-10, and now the administration is revealing who is invited—110 participants in total, from every corner of the globe. https://t.co/4Y8pw1TmuK
— ABC News (@ABC) November 24, 2021
The administration has also announced a series of steps in advance of the meetings -- an indication of what kind of action it wants other countries to take. For example, the administration is collecting a group of countries that will commit to stop exporting and sharing technology that could be used to violate human rights, like artificial intelligence.
The Treasury Department is also moving to implement a policy that requires the disclosure of who controls shell companies and has proposed increased oversight of all-cash real estate deals -- both of which corrupt foreign officials and other bad actors often use to hide money in the U.S. made illicitly overseas.
The White House also unveiled the first-ever strategy to counter corruption, laying out steps to do so that if "matched with appropriate resources... has the power to fundamentally change the calculus for kleptocrats," according to Gary Kalman, director of the U.S. office of Transparency International, a German-based nonprofit advocacy group.
"In a world where corruption fuels authoritarianism, today's strategy provides a forward-looking blueprint for bolstering government integrity and advancing democracy," he added in a statement Monday.
But the strength of these public commitments will be heavily scrutinized. Already, there's been criticism that some countries crafted theirs without any input from civil society.
"Having worked with parties and NGOs around the world, I was inundated with emails and calls pleading for advice as to how they could influence their own country's democracy plan," Laura Thornton, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan U.S. advocacy group, wrote.
Biden will address the summit twice, with opening remarks Thursday and closing remarks Friday. The heads of the other 111 invited governments will make their own speeches, which are expected to include some announcements of how they're strengthening democracy in their country.
But some of those leaders have checkered records when it comes to doing so.
PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin holds talks with President Joe Biden via a video link in Sochi, Russia, Dec. 7, 2021. (Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik via Reuters)
Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, for example, has weaponized a war on drugs and terrorism to crack down on dissent and journalists and to rule with violent impunity.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has sowed doubts about the country's presidential election next year and threatened to not accept the results, along with attacking the judiciary, political opponents and the free press.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will speak, but it's the military that rules as "political arbiter -- more powerful than either the judiciary or the elected government -- and sets the constraints within which civilian politics play out," according to Freedom House.
The Biden administration has defended its invitation list by saying it included a "regionally diverse set" of "established and emerging" democracies, according to Zeya, who added, "The invitation to join us at the summit -- it's not a mark of approval, nor is non-invitation from the summit a sign of disapproval from the United States."
But if the administration invited them anyway because new "progress and commitments" from these countries "would advance a more just and peaceful world," as Zeya said, it's notable then that allies like Turkey and Hungary or neighbors in Central America's "Northern Triangle" were left off the list.
Certain countries with authoritarian leaders will instead have their opposition leaders participate, including Belarus's Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Venezuela's Juan Guaido, who the U.S. still recognizes as the country's interim leader.
The administration also invited civic leaders, lawmakers and parliamentarians, journalists, and activists outside of government to address the summit outside of the leader speeches with dozens of side events. So while Duterte will get to pontificate, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, who shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize and has been jailed and harassed by Duterte's government, also spoke Wednesday.
Inside Biden's 'summit for democracy' amid pressure to make virtual meetings meaningful originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Earth's core is rapidly cooling, study reveals. Is our planet becoming 'inactive'?
Senate fails to change filibuster rule for passage of voting rights legislation
The Senate on Wednesday night failed to change the filibuster rule to allow voting rights legislation to pass with a simple majority. The rule change would have required 51 votes to pass but did not have the support of all Democrats, whose leader had pushed for it. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., joined all Republicans in opposing the change.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump's request for a stay of a lower court mandate that hundreds of pages of his presidential records from Jan. 6 be turned over to the congressional committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Justice Clarence Thomas would have granted the application. In November, an appeals court put a temporary pause on the records handover after Trump sued the committee and the National Archives, asserting executive privilege over more than 750 pages of records that the National Archivist had determined were relevant to the Jan. 6 probe into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the Capitol.
2 Marines killed, 17 injured in rollover crash near Camp Lejeune; driver charged with death by motor vehicle
Two Marines have been killed and more than a dozen injured in a rollover accident Wednesday near Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, according to officials. Seventeen Marines were injured in the accident after they were ejected from the back of the 7-ton military vehicle as it tried to make a turn onto a highway just miles from the base at about 1 p.m., according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Two of the injured were airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, while the other 15 were transported on the ground.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, President Joe Biden held a formal news conference at the White House Wednesday, answering reporter questions on his handling of the pandemic, the economy and legislative agenda, characterizing the country as unified -- but not as much as it could be -- and raised eyebrows by saying Russia was likely to invade Ukraine. "It's been a year of challenges, but it's also many years of enormous progress," Biden said to begin, ticking through his administration's successes before fielding questions from reporters. With Biden facing the limits of what he can accomplish with an evenly-divided Senate, unable to get either his signature social spending package or major voting rights reform through Congress in recent weeks, and with the pandemic still raging well into its second, his approval rating in polls has hit an all-time low.
A Virginia man convicted of murder has been charged in connection with two decades-old cold case homicides, authorities said. Charles Helem, 52, is currently serving life in prison at a Virginia supermax state prison after he was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of a Chantilly woman who was found strangled in her townhome in 2002. "We now know even more about the dangers the killer presented to the entire national capital region," Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a press briefing.
Child tax credit: What parents need to know to get the rest of the payment in 2022
For millions of parents across the country, the New Year has started off without a monthly deposit from the child tax credit expansion, a deposit of several hundred dollars that parents had relied on since July, when the expansion went into effect. "That was the only income I was getting for the last six months," Tierra Hal, a single mom of two daughters, ages 4 and 2, said of the $600 monthly payment she has received since July. Hal, 25, of Ranson, West Virginia, said she has struggled to find a job because of a lack of child care options for her daughters, a struggle that has been amplified by the coronavirus pandemic.
A series of "missed opportunities" and an overreliance on false statements made by Robert Durst delayed his prosecution for the murder of his then-wife, Kathleen "Kathie" Durst, by almost 40 years, Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah said Wednesday. Rocah's office released a 13-page report that probed the entire scope of the investigation and found both police and prosecutors relied too much on Robert Durst's alibis that his wife was last seen in Manhattan before she disappeared from their South Salem home on Jan. 31, 1982. "In short, it appears that the initial investigation suffered to some degree from 'tunnel vision' -- having a theory of a case, which is maintained even when there are red flags that should cause those initial theories to be questioned," the report said.
Los Angeles police on Wednesday arrested the man they say killed a 24-year-old woman while she worked alone in a furniture store. The suspect, believed to be homeless, attacked Brianna Kupfer with a knife just before 2 p.m. Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Police on Tuesday identified the suspect as 31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith and asked for the public's help in finding him.
Willie O'Ree, 1st Black NHL player, reflects on his time in the league
The Boston Bruins retired the jersey of Willie O'Ree, the first Black NHL player, on Tuesday night -- 64 years to the day of his professional hockey debut. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 and currently in line to be the first hockey player to receive a Congressional Gold Medal, the ceremony, which was held at TD Garden, marked another historic moment for O'Ree's ever-growing, decades-long legacy. An avid ice hockey player from the age of 5, O'Ree knew he'd wanted to play professional hockey since he was 14 years old.
Vaccinated people with prior COVID infection had strongest protection during delta, CDC study finds
Both vaccination and a prior infection provided protection against another infection and hospitalization due to COVID-19 during the United States' delta wave, according to a study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between May and November 2021, researchers analyzed data from New York and California to determine the impact of vaccination and previous COVID-19 infection on cases and hospitalization rates. The analysis found that before delta became the predominant variant in June, vaccination offered better protection against breakthrough infections than prior infection offered against reinfection.
Final teen sentenced in murder of Barnard student Tessa Majors
The anguished parents of slain Barnard College student Tessa Majors sat in the front row of a New York City courtroom Wednesday, looking on as the teenager who stabbed their daughter was sentenced to 14 years to life. Rashaun Weaver, who prosecutors said wielded the knife, and two other teenagers were arrested in the slaying of 18-year-old Majors, who was attacked in Morningside Park, just off the Columbia University campus, on Dec. 11, 2019. Majors, stabbed four times, stumbled up the park steps before she was seen on surveillance video collapsing against a lamppost, dying on the sidewalk.
Inside the diplomatic dash to stop a Russian attack on Ukraine
The U.S. will keep pursuing diplomacy to prevent a Russian attack on Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukrainian leaders in a last-minute visit to the capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday. The visit, which included President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was meant to send a strong signal to Russia ahead of Blinken's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday -- a critical sit-down after the White House warned Russia could attack "at any point" now.
Alabama football coach Nick Saban urges Manchin to pass voting rights bill but punts on filibuster change
University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban and NBA icon Jerry West joined three fellow sports personalities native to West Virginia to pen a letter to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., urging him to help push voting rights legislation in the Senate without asking him to allow a rule change that would be necessary to ensure the bill's passage. On Tuesday evening, Manchin pointed out on C-SPAN that the version of the letter made public this week was missing a key footnote in which Saban indicates his objection to eliminating the filibuster while the other signatories take no position on it.
Cardi B to pay funeral costs for victims of tragic Bronx fire: 'I needed to do something to help'
Cardi B is giving back to her community following a deadly fire on Jan. 9 that left 17 dead and dozens homeless in the Bronx. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City partnered with the Grammy winner, who grew up in the Bronx, to cover the burial expenses for each victim of the tragic fire in the high-rise.
The University of Michigan announced on Wednesday that it's reached a $490 million settlement in connection with allegations against the late Dr. Robert Anderson, who served as the school's sports team physician from 1966 to 2003. At least 1,050 victims have come forward with accounts, stretching back decades, that Anderson molested or sexually abused them. Jamie White, an attorney representing 100 of the survivors, said in a statement that the school should be commended for taking responsibility financially.
Michigan school district defends actions prior to fatal November shooting
The leader of Oxford Community Schools fired back on Tuesday at a lawsuit alleging that the district failed to heed warning signs before the shooting that killed four students in November. In a letter to parents, Superintendent Tim Throne said that the district was unaware of a message on Ethan Crumbley's Twitter account the night before the shooting that read: "See you tomorrow, Oxford," until after the shooting occurred. Throne's statement contradicts allegations made by attorney Geoffrey Fieger, on behalf of two Oxford High School students, that Throne and the principal "reviewed the social media posts of Crumbley prior to November 30, 2021, which threatened Oxford High School students."
2 men indicted in Young Dolph's murder appear in 1st court hearing
Two Memphis men who were indicted in the killing of rapper Young Dolph were arraigned in Shelby County Criminal Court on Wednesday. Justin Johnson, 23, and Cornelius Smith, 32, declined public defenders and asked for more time to hire their own attorneys before the next court hearing, which Judge Lee V. Coffee scheduled for Jan. 28. The first hearing in this case comes two months after the Memphis hip-hop star, whose given name was Adolph Robert Thornton Jr., was shot and killed on Nov. 17 while visiting Makeda's Homemade Butter Cookies, a bakery in South Memphis that the rapper was known to frequent.
'Moon Knight' star Gaspard Ulliel dead at 37 after skiing accident
Gaspard Ulliel, a César Award-winning French actor who starred in 2007's "Hannibal Rising" and 2014's "Saint Laurent," died Wednesday after a skiing accident. The actor is set to appear on the Disney+ Marvel series "Moon Knight," out March 25, opposite Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke. Ulliel, who was the face of the Chanel men's fragrance Bleu de Chanel, won the César Award -- the equivalent of an Academy Award in France -- for most promising actor in 2005 for "A Very Long Engagement."
Britney Spears sends Jamie Lynn cease-and-desist letter, will 'no longer be bullied'
Britney Spears is threatening legal action against her sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, if she doesn't stop talking about her while promoting her new book, "Things I Should Have Said." Through her attorney, Matthew S. Rosengart, the "...Baby One More Time" singer, 40, sent a cease-and-desist letter shared with ABC News and dated Jan. 17, to the "Zoey 101" alum, 30, stating that she will not be "exploited" for her sister's "monetary gain." Rosengart's letter also states the pop star was the "breadwinner" of the family and "also otherwise supported" Jamie Lynn before referring to the "abuse and wrongdoing" Britney has already been through.
Suspect in fatal New York City subway attack arraigned on murder charges from hospital bed
The man accused of pushing a woman to her death on a New York City subway track was arraigned from his hospital bed on second-degree murder charges. Simon Martial, 61, was seen using "two hands to push another woman onto the train tracks as a train approached" at the Times Square station on the southbound N/Q/W/R train platform Saturday morning, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office said during the arraignment. Thee attack was "completely unprovoked" and Go, a New York City resident, was looking down at her phone at the time she was shoved, police said.


After the collapse of negotiations to form a so-called Jamaica coalition, talks are taking place behind the scenes in Berlin on the formation of a new government in what increasingly amounts to a political conspiracy. Bellevue Palace, the official residence of the German president, has become the epicenter of a political conspiracy. Under a shroud of secrecy, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is meeting with the leaders of all parties represented in parliament, including the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD). He is pursuing the goal of avoiding calling fresh elections.
The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) opposes these proceedings. The ruling elites cannot be allowed to resolve the political crisis and establish a new government among themselves. The result would be a right-wing, authoritarian regime beyond any democratic control and beholden to the interests of the capitalist state.
We demand fresh elections. Under present conditions, this is the only way in which the working class can intervene into political events, bring their interests to bear and combat the far right's political offensive. The SGP would utilize the election campaign to fight for a programme that expresses the interests of the German and international working class, connecting the struggle against war with the fight against capitalism, and provide a socialist way out of the blind alley in which the current social order finds itself.


HB 5 bans abortion for reason of gender, race or disability of a fetus.
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a federal judge to order Gov. Matt Bevin to notify the judge and the ACLU when he signs House Bill 5, an abortion bill the General Assembly passed last week and becomes effective the instant the governor signs it.
HB 5, one of two just-passed abortion bills the ACLU is challenging in federal court as unconstitutional, bans abortion for reason of gender, race or disability of a fetus. Both bills carry "emergency" clauses, meaning they take effect upon Bevin's signature.
U.S. District Judge David Hale has already temporarily blocked enforcement of Senate Bill 9, which bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Bevin signed it at midnight last Thursday with no public notice.
The ACLU, in a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Louisville, said Bevin signed SB 9 "in the dark of night with no public notice," forcing Kentucky's only abortion clinic on Friday to abruptly turn patients away and cancel appointments for others.
"Instituting laws that instantly affect patient critical care should not be a cat and mouse game," its motion said.
A spokesman for Bevin has not responded to requests for comment from the Courier Journal about when he plans to sign HB 5, one of four bills meant to restrict or eliminate abortion in Kentucky passed last week by the General Assembly.
The abortion clinic, EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville, resumed operations Saturday after Hale on Friday night issued the temporary order barring Kentucky from enforcing SB 9.
SB 9 bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, about six weeks into a pregnancy. The ACLU has argued the law is unconstitutional, saying it would effectively ban all abortion in Kentucky because most women don't realize they are pregnant at six weeks.
It now has challenged HB 5 as unconstitutional because it infringes on a woman's right to an abortion by imposing restrictions on her reasons for doing so.
The uncertainty of when Bevin plans to sign HB 5 has already disrupted care for some patients, the ACLU motion said, including one patient seeking to terminate a pregnancy because of a fetal anomaly.
EMW was forced to turn that patient away because of uncertainty about if and when Bevin would sign HB 5, its motion said.
Meanwhile, the Bevin administration has filed a response to the ACLU lawsuit, indicating it plans to aggressively defend the abortion laws in court.
"Consistent protection of the lives of unborn children is an interest of the highest magnitude of the commonwealth," said the response filed by M. Stephen Pitt, general counsel for Bevin.
April 2, 2019, 8:26 p.m.


As a vegetarian, I often find that when hungry and perusing restaurant menus, people point out standard salads as options. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my greens, but vegetarians certainly don't crave salad for every meal or always get full from them.
That's why I wanted to go out and explore the variety of meat-free foods La Jolla has to offer. If you're another self-proclaimed veggie who doesn't feel like a bed of lettuce topped with tomatoes? Know that there is hope.
Oatmeal and fruit are delicious, but, if you're at breakfast with friends, they don't necessarily make your mouth water the way your neighbor's bacon does. Head to Harry's Coffee Shop for a wide variety of stuffed omelets and creative vegetarian dishes. My #1 recommend? The B.W. Florentine. It's a large, semi-sweet waffle topped with poached eggs and spinach, all covered in a creamy hollandaise sauce that doesn't simplish nourish, it satisfies. Trust me; you won't be looking longingly at sausage or ham dish your neighbor is tucking into.
If you're more of a french toast kind of lad or lass, the Brockton Villa is a must. Their coast toast has won awards for it's orange-hinted, souffle magic that entices carnivores and herbivores alike.
The Coffee Cup is ideal for both morning and afternoon meals. Some of the most popular breakfast favorites, the manager declares, include the Avocado Scramble (a scrambling of eggs served with vegetables, rosemary potatoes and rosemary bread), Soy Chorizo Scramble (a massive Mexican-inspired breakfast with truly chorizo-like "meat") and Zen Breakfast (an Asian inspired dish with a base of rice, veggies and marinated tofu). It's actually almost hard to find meat here; almost all of their power-packed breakfast dishes are vegetarian.
On the lunch side, you'll find many vitamin-loaded options with bases of rice, vegetables, ginger and peanut sauce. They offer an especially unique fusion dish called the Asian Quesadilla, in which this cheese and vegetable-filled Mexican favorite gets a kick from a far-off continent's peanut sauce and (if desired) marinated tofu.
The hunger you experience after a short amount of time post-salad eating? Definitely won't happen here. This wide variety of options with different types of proteins keeps you plenty full until dinner time.
If you had one of the massive meals at Coffee Cup for breakfast, chances are you may want a lighter lunch like a salad. However, that doesn't have to mean boring. Many La Jolla restaurants offer exciting salads with unique pairings, like the Roasted Beet Salad with Passion Fruit Dressing and Pistachio Panko Crusted Goat Cheese at Finch's Restaurant. This tangy yet sweet dressing makes it one of the most tantalizing salads I've ever tried.
There's also the Duo Beet Salad offered at the Estancia's El Adobe Restaurante. Simple and high-quality ingredients paired with the freshly baked bread and garlic butter brought to the table? Delicious. Especially when combined with the peaceful atmosphere of the resort, this spot gets a major thumbs up.
The Herringbone Restaurant is primarily known for seafood, as the name implies, but they have a few terrific vegetarian options such as the butternut squash risotto and four enticing types of olive wood fired flatbreads.
And if you do eat fish from time to time, classifying yourself as more of a pescetarian, my ultimate recommend for a more upscale meal has to be the Maine Sea Scallops served at the Grande Colonial's Nine-Ten Restaurant. Subtle yet succulent, each bite is perfect, somehow tasting more magical and flavor-packed than the next.


Any person who knowingly and with intent to defraud or deceive any insurance company submits an insurance application or statement of claim containing any false, incomplete or misleading information may be subject to civil or criminal penalties, depending upon state law.
For your protection, California requires the following to appear on this form: Any person who knowingly presents a false or fraudulent claim for the payment of a loss is guilty of a crime and may be subject to fines and confinement in state prison.
In Kentucky, any person who knowingly and with intent to defraud any insurance company or other person files an application for insurance containing any materially false information or conceals, for the purpose of misleading, information concerning any fact material thereto commits a fraudulent insurance act, which is a crime. Any application for insurance in writing by the applicant shall be altered solely by the applicant or by his written consent except that insertions may be made by the insurer for administrative purposes only in such manner as to indicate clearly that such insertions are not to be ascribed to the applicant.
Applicants applying for accident and health insurance in New York: Any person who knowingly and with intent to defraud or deceive any insurance company submits an insurance application or statement of claim containing any false, incomplete or misleading information may be subject to civil or criminal penalties, depending on state law.
In Ohio, any person who, with intent to defraud or knowing that he is facilitating a fraud against an insurer, submits an application or files a claim containing a false or deceptive statement is guilty of insurance fraud.
In Oklahoma, WARNING: Any person who knowingly, and with intent to injure, defraud or deceive any insurer, makes any claim for the proceeds of an insurance policy containing any false, incomplete or misleading information is guilty of a felony.


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text:
Shenmue 3 delayed until 2018
MCV Staff 8th June 2017	Publishing
In news that will be of little surprise to anyone, it has been confirmed that Shenmue 3 will not arrive this year.
I know you are all eagerly anticipating the release of Shemue III, however, we unfortunately we must delay its release," creator Yu Suzuki said.
Shenmue III started with you, the project backers. It's been almost two years since we started this incredible endeavour together. By utilising new technologies we have been able to discover new possibilities and expression. In many ways, the game has become bigger and more beautiful than I initially expected.
We do, however, need more time to deliver the game to you. In order to achieve the game concept you supported and my 16 year long personal dream, we have revised the development schedule.
We are moving ahead with a plan to release the game in the second half of 2018. Details will be revealed in the Backer Report later this month. Thank you very much for your understanding and continued support."
The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter broke records back in 2015, raising $6.3m. Its first few months were rocky, however, with questions being asked about its financing and subsequent additional funding campaigns raising eyebrows.
However, its supporters remain dedicated and, rightly, have largely said that they're happy to wait the extra time if it helps the game live up to the astonishing level of hype.
Backer comments include:
2018 is fine. I'm glad someone finally said it, and I'm especially glad that it was Yu Suzuki himself telling us. We all knew December 2017 was never going to happen."
Honestly, I'm just happy that it's happening, and don't mind waiting as long as need be to make it a great end to these games that were so important to me."
I think we expected this. Give it the time it needs – Also, please be sure to release it at the right time from a sales perspective… I'm sure we are all hoping for a Shenmue 4 down the line!!!"
Knew it was going to be delayed don't think it will be released until 2019 personally. In the meantime please send us the other items we pledged for."
Tags ben-parfitt delayed release dates shenmue 3
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