With its purchase of Whistler Blackcomb, Vail Resorts becomes North America's largest resort operator. But what does the deal mean for the king of Canada's ski hills–and the pricey mountain town living in its shadows?
In early August when news broke that Whistler Blackcomb, ranked North America's number one resort by U.S.-based Ski Magazine, had been sold to Vail Resorts Inc. for $1.4 billion, there were mixed reactions—from concern over what merging two blockbuster brands might mean for the already-crowded mountain town to excitement about the potential for future growth.
However, ownership announcements from Whistler Blackcomb's head office no longer shock Peter Smart, a former ski racer who moved to Whistler in 1991 and three years later founded the ski instruction and vacation company Extremely Canadian with his wife, Jill Dunnigan. After all, Smart has experienced 25 years of change, including the merger of Whistler and Blackcomb in 2003, the highs and lows of various owners (including a near-death experience for the resort in 2006), the euphoria of the 2010 Winter Olympics and, now, the arrival of a ski-resort behemoth.
There never has been anything subtle or small about either Vail or Whistler, however, whose corporate trajectories follow a similar pattern. Vail Resorts was born in the 1950s, when Second World War vet Pete Seibert and rancher Earl Eaton hatched resort plans for Vail Mountain. Over the following six decades, Vail grew into a North American resort empire—with the odd hiccup, including a 1985 bankruptcy. Apollo Management took the company public in 1997, and Apollo executive Rob Katz stayed on to lead Vail Resort's growth. Today Vail's holdings include the flagship Colorado property, along with Breckenridge and Keystone, three resorts in California's Lake Tahoe region, former Winter Olympic host resort Park City Mountain Resort in Utah and lesser-known properties in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. In 2015 Vail bought Perisher Ski Resort, Australia's largest resort.
Meanwhile, north of the border, four businessmen led by Norwegian immigrant Franz Wilhelmsen launched the Garibaldi Lift Company in the early 1960s and in 1965 opened Whistler Mountain. For much of its history, Whistler would compete fiercely with neighbouring Blackcomb Mountain (largely supported with taxpayer dollars), but in 1986, real estate developer Intrawest bought Blackcomb, scooping up Whistler in 1997 and merging the two operations six years later. Ownership of the now-megaresort changed hands again in 2006 when New York-based Fortress Investment Group bought Intrawest, but just three weeks before the 2010 Winter Games opening ceremonies, Fortress failed to make payments on loans, forcing Intrawest to divest its holdings. Canada's premier resort—75 per cent owned by the publicly traded Whistler Blackcomb Holdings—was ripe for the pickings when Vail came knocking earlier this year.
Whistler Blackcomb represents the 13th resort in the Vail empire and now makes it the largest ski resort owner in North America. Management on both sides of the deal (which was expected to close this fall after it received shareholder approval and sign-off from Investment Canada) are calling it a win-win for everybody involved.
Despite challenging conditions throughout the industry, both partners are experiencing impressive numbers of late. Last season Vail Resorts Inc. clocked 11.1 per cent and 19.4 per cent increases in visitation and lift revenue, respectively, while Whistler Blackcomb saw 2.16 million visitors, up 22 per cent from the same period last year (corporate revenues were $278.8 million for the first nine months of 2016, up 22.9 per cent year-over-year). Whistler Blackcomb spokesperson Lauren Everest credits increased marketing, $54 million in capital improvements over the past four years and a strong snow year for the increase.
While the low Canadian dollar was not a key factor in Vail's decision to enter the Canadian market, according to Katz, the CEO does view the purchase as a hedge against future currency fluctuations, allowing Vail to benefit both when the Canadian dollar is low—and Canadians ski at home and Americans are travelling north—and vice versa, when the loonie is high and Canadians head south to ski. Katz also hopes the deal will enable Vail and Whistler to make inroads into each other's foreign skier markets: Whistler's expertise with the Asian market and Vail's strong Latin American focus, particularly in Brazil and Mexico.
As for what changes locals and visitors can expect from the new owners, Katz says Vail's influence will be more behind the scenes—mostly in the form of financial and strategic resources. Critically, Vail has pledged support for Whistler's planned $345-million Renaissance: a six- to-eight-year project that includes new lifts, on-hill restaurants, snowmaking, revitalization of Blackcomb's base area, a six-star boutique hotel and the development of between 55 and 65 ski-in/ski-out townhomes on Blackcomb Terrace. The plan—which is estimated to bring in as many as 400,000 additional annual visitors—also calls for some climate-change weatherproofing, with the addition of outdoor and indoor activities and adventure parks. Approval of the plan is contingent on successful negotiations currently underway between Whistler Blackcomb, the province and the Lil'wat and Squamish First Nations, which Vail's Katz says he fully supports.
Christopher Nicolson, CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, sees the Vail deal as providing widespread opportunities for all his members, not just Whistler Blackcomb. And that, says Nicolson—who spent 20 years working in tourism and marketing at Sun Peaks Resort—is good news for an industry where most resorts are happy to reach 50 per cent occupancy in a given season.
Bigger is definitely the way of the future for North America's resort business, according to many observers. At the 2015 Snowsport Industries America tradeshow in Denver, keynote speaker Bill Jensen, a former Intrawest executive and now CEO of Telluride Ski and Golf Resort in Colorado, predicted that of the 470 ski areas left in the U.S., 150—what he called the "sunset" resorts—would ultimately fail. Jensen pointed out that 10 "uber resorts" (in other words, the Vails and Park Cities of the industry), along with 35 second-tier "alpha" resorts, now account for 40 per cent of the ski business in the U.S.
Whistler Blackcomb is not the only iconic ski resort in B.C. set for a change of ownership. On September 19, Grouse Mountain on Vancouver's North Shore was listed for sale with commercial real estate company CBRE Canada. During 40 years of ownership by the McLaughlin family, Grouse evolved into a four-season operation, with not only skiing and snowboarding but also sightseeing, hiking and grizzly bear viewing at the mountain's wildlife refuge. At press time, CBRE had not publicized an asking price for Grouse, which includes all infrastructure and 1,200 acres of private land, but has said it is expecting national and international interest in the property.
Mount Washington Alpine Resort on Vancouver Island also changed hands last year, when Utah-based Pacific Group Resorts Inc. agreed to buy the hill in November 2015 from a private group led by Campbell River logging contractor George Stuart (the initial asking price was rumoured to be $30 million). The sale followed two dismal seasons when the resort had to open late, close early or both, due to a lack of snow—a troubling turn of events for a resort that once smashed North American snowpack records (more than 18 metres as recently as 2010-11). Mount Washington joined Pacific Group's portfolio of three lesser-known American properties: WISP in Maryland, Wintergreen Resort in Virginia and New Hampshire's Ragged Mountain. Mark Fischer, executive vice-president of resort investment and brand development for Pacific Group, says his company plans to introduce snowmaking and invest in four-season attractions to boost revenues (a lift-accessed mountain bike park was reopened after Stuart's ownership team closed it in 2013).
"I'm not in the business of putting down other ski resorts, but public companies usually grow through acquisition and consolidation and ultimately have a duty to shareholders. You tell me if that's good for keeping skiing affordable and community-focused. What I'm saying is that Red is one of those places that are memorable and unique, and I see myself as a custodian of that," says Katkov, adding that Red's 2015-16 season was its biggest revenue-earner on record.
While the crowdfunding model might work when you're in need of $5 million, the challenge is a bit different when you need hundreds of millions of dollars to pursue capital projects on the scale of Whistler's Renaissance. So too is the challenge for residents living in the shadow of a "world-class" resort with global ambitions. Unlike Rossland, where traffic is nonexistent, a house can still be bought for less than $300,000, and lift tickets at Red go for $89, Whistler residents grapple with perpetual traffic jams from Vancouver, a real estate market in which $800,000 detached homes are considered a bargain and $140-a-day lift tickets.


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Tom Selleck's Daughter Owns Her Own Horse Breeding Stable!
David Prowse, The Original Darth Vader, Dies at 85
Silke Jasso, November 30, 2020 3:06 pm
It's a sad day for the Star Wars fans today. British actor David Prowse, the man behind the original Darth Vader in the original Star Wars Trilogy, died at the age of 85. His management company announced it on Sunday. Prowse died after a short illness, according to his agent Thomas Billington. Back in 2018, it was announced that he was being treated for prostate cancer. Through Twitter, Bowington Management stated, "It's with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and millions of fans around the world, to announce that our client DAVE PROWSE M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85.
His former agent, Burlington releases a statement to BBC saying ?May the force be with him, always! Though famous for playing many monsters — for myself, and all who knew Dave and worked with him, he was a hero in our lives." Prowse wore this black suit and helmet to play Darth Vader, but it was actually actor James Earl Jones who's been provided the character's voice. Creators thought Prowse?s West Country accent was unsuitable for the part.
Darth Vader Actor David Prowse
Although he played the legendary Darth Vader, Prowe stated that his role as a Green Cross code man from the British Road Safety campaign is one he was most proud of. He was awarded MBE, a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, in 2004. Actor Mark Hamill, who played Darth Vader's son Luke Skywalker alongside Prowse sent his condolences through Twitter. He stated, "So sad to hear David Prowse has passed. He was a kind man & much more than Darth Vader. "Actor-Husband-Father-Member of the Order of the British Empire-3 time British Weightlifting Champion & Safety Icon the Green Cross Code Man. He loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP"
Mark Hamill on David Prowse's Death
So sad to hear David Prowse has passed. He was a kind man & much more than Darth Vader. Actor-Husband-Father-Member of the Order of the British Empire-3 time British Weightlifting Champion & Safety Icon the Green Cross Code Man. He loved his fans as much as they loved him. #RIP pic.twitter.com/VbDrGu6iBz
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) November 29, 2020
The weightlifter grew up in a council estate in South Meade and was born into a working-class family in Southern England. He then got a scholarship to attend the Bristol Grammar School. He also not a passion for bodybuilding and was crowned British Weightlifting Champion several times back in the 1960s. According to IMDb, he then became friends with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his weightlifting years. His very broad physique and towering figure are what helped him land the roles as villains and monsters and TV shows and movies.
He played the monster in the Horror of Frankenstein back in 1970 and a torturer in Carry on Henry and 1971. That same year he also made an appearance as a bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick?s film A Clockwork Orange in 1971. He then went on to play the popular Darth Vader in the three original Star Wars films A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, alongside the late Carrie Fisher and Hollywood actor Harrison Ford. Fitness and health were a heavy interest for the actor, who famously worked as a personal trainer for several actors playing the role of Superman, which included Christopher Reeve.
Watch: Harrison Ford: Get to Know Han Solo?s 5 Children
About the author: Silke Jasso, Editor
Silke Jasso is a bilingual editor, writer, producer, and journalist specialized in online media. Born in Laredo Texas, her previous work includes LareDOS Newspaper where she was an editor and writer and Entravision Communications where she was a Co-Anchor and Multi-Media Journalist for Fox39 News and Univision 27.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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PARODI Daily Moisturizing Hand Cream is perfect for everyone with hands frequently exposed to water, chemicals, heat, gloves and other irritants.
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Holiday Marketing Campaign Ideas - How to Win this Holiday Season.
A holiday marketing campaign is no different than any other time of year, but it's arguably more important. Many businesses rely on an excellent 4th quarter to meet goals, fulfill obligations, and set a strong foundation for next year's performance. The holiday season is part of the yearly rush to wrap up the year on a good note.
Before the hectic holidays begin in force, you need to tune up your approach to ensure you get the most out of this time of year. Check through our extensive list of holiday marketing campaign tips to get a head start for this season.
Everyone has a story. Most companies put their story in the "About Us" section and leave it at that – but have you ever really considered the power that your brand's story has? You know where you've come from and what you've accomplished, but do your customers? Share your "why" this holiday season as a way to connect powerfully with your audience. Good storytelling not only feels good, but it also helps separate you from the crowd for the rest of the year.
Social Media is a year-round endeavor. Don't back down because it's the holidays! Use Social to promote sales, start conversations about holiday plans, and maybe even show off your holiday spirit. Engage with sincerity and purpose.
Knowing when you plan on running your holiday promotions lets you plan how you want to communicate value to your customers. The sooner you have those ideas on paper, the sooner you can let your loyal customers know – so they can plan ahead if they need to.
Well timed, targeted ads can help put you in front of the right audience. Consider optimizing your approach even further with some extra seasonal value. Standing out from the crowd with your advertising is a surefire way to increase the odds new customers will find you.
Few things are better than a repeat customer. What better time of year to show them just what they mean to you? Providing special discounts or early access to a sale are effective ways to communicate your appreciation, and all that travel really can make the laundry pile up.
If you aren't utilizing email campaigns to reach your audience, you're missing out on some enormous potential for your business. Relationship building is a process, and most of the time the sales funnel on your website just doesn't cut it. Consider talking to us about an email platform for your business.
Getting into the holiday season can sometimes be difficult with a broad audience. That's where good storytelling comes in, which is always something to consider with your brand. Share what you're doing as a business to celebrate the holidays, and don't be afraid to make an impact on your customers with your story.
Segmented campaigns are targeted messages for smaller sections of your prospect pool based on demographics like gender, age, or how often they use your service. The holidays are an optimal time for that last demographic – the regulars, but opportunity abounds for everyone on your email list. If you've never looked into segmenting your audiences, we're here to show you how lucrative the results of a targeted campaign can be.
Not all customers stick around forever, but it shouldn't be for lack of you trying to win them over. If you haven't heard from someone in a while, consider creating a re-engagement series to try to win them back.
No one knows your business like you do, which puts you in the best position to let your prospects and customers know what your top products and services are. Why not share that info in your holiday marketing campaign? Take a look at what your best sellers for the year are and let people know. There are even ways for you to create targeted recommendations based on what specific customer demographics are buying. Powerful, right?
If you've ever seen the websites and social pages that get festive for the holidays and wonder if you could do that for your business – the answer is yes. It's always a good idea to do a seasonal refresh of your online platforms, just like you do for a brick and mortar store. Holiday decorations can range from extremely simple to frighteningly complex, and we'd love to help you plan and execute some holiday cheer this year.
While it's tempting to change your tone for the seasons, the best practice is to have consistent guidelines for the voice of your business. Consider how you talk to people during the year and make sure you don't deviate from that. Use holiday messaging, but make sure it's consistent, transparent, and on-brand.
The holidays come once a year, but you shouldn't have to reinvent your holiday marketing campaign every year. Take notes on what works and doesn't work for this season, and start thinking ahead for next year. Consider the storytelling, campaigns, promos, and everything else you do to see how it performs. Next year's holidays will be here before you know it, and there's always a new way for your brand to shine.


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Offline Games To Download
Cindy Oyervides, Reporter
There are thousands of games to download if you are a game lover. Some people don't have Wi-Fi and may worry about not having games to play because of it, but there are currently quite a variety of games for those who don't have Wi-Fi to download. Downloading these games will require Wi-Fi but once they are downloaded, you won't have to have any signal in order to play them. From childhood favorites to games that have gone viral, there are options for everyone.
Games can be a good way to pass time if you are bored, so many people like to have one or two games on their phone for that reason. Puzzle games are one of the types that are commonly available to play offline. Games such as Farm Heroes Saga, Candy Crush and Panda Pop require a player to use various strategies in order to move on to the next level. Players have to defeat bosses during different stages of the game in order to unlock even more levels. Game boosters are tools that can be utilized to help a player defeat these bosses. Rewards are usually given for beating harder levels which will help a player when they are interested in purchasing game boosters. All three of these games can be played without Wi-Fi once they are downloaded.
Another game genre commonly available to be played offline are baking and cooking games. Hundreds of these food games are available for people to choose from. There are many different baking games such as cupcake baking, cake baking and creating other desserts. Although these games can get boring after a short period of time, some people really enjoy having them on their phone anyway. While playing these games, players usually get to create their own custom treat. They can choose from a variety of ingredients and toppings in order to make a unique dessert. In most cooking games, things are more complex. Players are given an order in the game and have to create whatever they are told. If a person downloads this type of cooking game, they usually have to try their best to create the food as soon as possible and get it to the customer right away. Cooking games get more and more difficult as the levels progress whereas baking games tend to remain the same throughout their entirety.
While only two of the most common types of offline games were mentioned, there are dozens of other genres to choose from. Games can be played to pass time while you're bored and some may even easily become very addicting. When there's Wi-Fi, check out the App Store or Google Play for more offline games to download during your free time.
Positives of the Pandemic
Things to do in quarantine
Was COVID-19 predicted?
Top 5 Best Young Adult Books
Bad Bunny new album release
Making money off Tick Tock
Random Acts of Kindness Week
Best Buddies Valentines Day Party
Belvidere North's Wizard of Oz play: Cast perspectives


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Q: Communicating with dial-up modems I want to if know is there any way to call to a number and send some digits to it after picking up the phone using a dial-up modem in Python?
I already did a Google search and found the PyModem library, but it is written for Linux and for GSM modems, while I want its counterpart for Windows and for dial-up modems.
I also found some related topics here and here that containsome piece of code for working with modems using the serial library, but I don't understand why a modem is recognized as a serial device! (Maybe in the past, dial-up modems used COM port to communicate with computers, but my modem is connected to the main board using a PCI slot.)
So, How can I communicate with a dial-up modem (d-link 562is, for example) using python in windows?

A: If you look at the description of the d-link 562IS, you'll see mentioned that it is a software modem. So most if not all of the functionality is in the driver, not in the hardware.
The Linux driver seems to emulate a serial port because that is the standard way to talk to modems on UNIX. Apparently the windows driver doesn't.
Looking through the dll files in the windows driver, there is a ModemOpen function defined in MdmXSdk.dll. You could call that using ctypes.
Or you could try using the telephony api.

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Liverpool hopeful of winning race for one of Europe's deadliest strikers | The Transfer Tavern | Where football transfer rumours fly or die!
Liverpool fans in the Transfer Tavern have got all their fingers and toes crossed as they sip their pints of bitter, amid reports that their manager is hoping to pull off an audacious transfer swoop.
The Daily Telegraph state Jurgen Klopp is hopeful of convincing Robert Lewandowski to move to Anfield if he leaves Bayern Munich, which would see the lethal Polish international reject the advances of Real Madrid.
Klopp has played a direct role in the meteoric rise of Lewandowski, after he plucked the striker from obscurity at Lech Poznan by bringing the Polish star to Borussia Dortmund for just £3.4m.
Lewandowski, who has 23 goals in 26 games this season, is now valued in excess of £50m and Franz Beckenbauer, Bayern Munich's club president, recently confirmed that Real Madrid are keen on the striker.
Despite Klopp's hopes, snatching Lewandowski would be a massive coup for Liverpool- especially as the Reds are extremely unlikely to be able to offer Champions League football to the 27-year-old.
Our landlord has urged the excited punters at the bar to lower their expectations, as he believes this approach will only end in heartbreak.
Liverpool fans, is their any way you can land Lewandowski? Let us know in the comments below!


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Excel Builders of Tennessee > Posts > Uncategorized > As construction continues downtown, what will Nashville look like in future?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – No doubt about it, Nashville's skyline is changing.
Right now, cranes and construction can be seen in several areas downtown, but how will the Music City of the future look?
As News 2 found out, the answer to that question is still in motion.
As a geographic information system analyst, Micah Taylor has an interesting job. Using 3-D modeling and gaming software, he creates three dimensional maps of what the Nashville of the future could look like.
"You can see how the sky line will change over time, before and after," said Taylor.
As New 2 learned, the maps are simply a projection and are constantly changing.
"It happens so fast. Sometimes you know if there is a crane and something is under construction, and sometimes, something is still in the proposal phase. And we may or may not get a model to put on a 3-D version like this," said Taylor.
Craig Owensby is with the planning department. He told News 2 we can expect to see Music City change both in its structure and demographic layout.
"The research we did as part of 'Nashville Next' shows that there will be about a million additional people over the next 25 years. It will be about 2.6 by 2040. Davidson County will be the population of Denver, Williamson and Rutherford will have the population of Davidson," said Owensby.
As Owensby explained, like it or not, you can't stop the growth, which is why city leaders are trying to get out ahead of it.
They are brainstorming on structural changes they can make to the city. They are also taking into consideration more than 19,000 community comments on what people who live here now would like to see happen.
Owensby showed News 2 an animation of how an upgraded Lower Broadway could look, again the animation is simply a concept. An exact plan for construction on the designs could change.
The Metro Planning Department animation created for News 2 shows current projects that have been approved or are already under construction.
To see the Metro Planning Department's animation of approved downtown projects and projects under construction click here.
"The growth is coming, for a good reason. It's positive growth, and if we charge our responsibility not only as planners but as citizens, to ensure that growth is positive. Then we will all benefit," said Owensby.
Click here to see the Metro Planning Department's animation of approved downtown projects and projects under construction from your mobile device.


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Massive Black Hole Smashed Into Milky Way 10 Million Years Ago
Evidence is emerging that a small galaxy, with a huge central black hole, must have recently collided with the Milky Way, say astronomers.
Emerging Technology from the arXivarchive page
The Milky Way gives the impression of a beautiful, calm field of stars. At the heart of all this is a supermassive black hole that sits, innocently, at the galactic centre.
In reality, however, our galaxy is a maelstrom of havoc on a scale that is hard to comprehend. And now evidence is emerging that the galactic centre has recently been much more active.
For a start, there is the dramatic recent discovery of two giant bubbles of gamma-ray emitting gas that extend some 20 kiloparsecs to the north and south of the galactic centre. Nobody is quite sure what generated the so-called Fermi Bubbles but they have more than a passing resemblance to the kind of jets emitted by active galactic nuclei.
Then there is the strange level of star formation going on near our supermassive black hole. The huge gravity associated with this black hole ought to tear gas clouds apart and that should make star formation tricky. And yet, the galactic centre is home to three massive clouds in which tens of thousands of stars are currently being born.
While we're talking about stars, we ought to mention the distinct lack of older stars in the centre. That's certainly fishy since there's no shortage of them elsewhere in the galaxy.
Finally, there is the unusual fluorescence coming from iron nuclei in a gas cloud close to our supermassive black hole. This is almost certainly an echo of gamma ray bombardment that must have occurred just a couple of hundred years ago.
Clearly, the centre of our galaxy was once much more active, perhaps even in the time since the American War of Independence.
Today, Meagan Lang at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and a few pals say they think they can explain all this activity.
Their idea is that a small satellite galaxy recently smashed into the Milky Way, bringing with it stars, gas and a huge black hole some 10,000 times more massive than the Sun.
Here's what they say happened. The new black hole spiralled into our own, but not before slinging away most of the older stars from the galactic centre. Much of the new dust was devoured by our own supermassive black hole, causing it to belch gamma ray-emitting jets into intergalactic space. The Fermi Bubbles are the remnants of these. The rest of the dust became a maelstrom of turbulence, perfect conditions for triggering the star formation we see today.
According to Lang and pals, the collision must have begun when the universe was still young. But they conclude that the collision effectively ended when the new black hole eventually combined with our own, an event that probably happened in the very recent past, perhaps just 10 million years ago.
That's certainly an exciting idea, indeed one that has a touch of Hollywood about it.
But it's also a theory that'll need some careful thinking about, as Land and co readily admit: "While the case for a merger of the Milky Way with a satellite galaxy is not ironclad, it is a plausible explanation that naturally accounts for both the old and young stellar distributions and the recent violent past of Sgr A* [the supermassive black hole at the galactic centre]."
With any luck, it'll generate some interesting debate, something that cosmologists are generally exceedingly good at.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1107.2923: Can A Satellite Galaxy Merger Explain The Active Past Of The Galactic Center?
by Emerging Technology from the arXiv


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Home » UC In The News » UC graduate students take their research to the Capitol
UC graduate students take their research to the Capitol
March 20, 2012 • UC In The News • Add Comment
To many people, graduate research is a little-known corridor in the halls of higher education. To some it is perceived as a mysterious side nook in the ivory tower, where esoteric research is conducted for obscure ends.
On March 14, a delegation of 20 UC graduate students and deans traveled to Sacramento to give lawmakers a very different perspective: that of graduate student research as central not only to the future of the University of California, but to that of the state and the nation as well.
"All of the research ever brought by UC was enabled by graduate students," UCLA Dean of Graduate Education Robin Garrell said. "They bring the fresh perspective, the hard work, the new ideas. They have an incredible influence on shaping the direction of research.
"Just today," Garrell related, "my department is filing a patent on a device for enabling reactions with very small particles that was the idea of one of my graduate students."
In a series of face-to-face meetings, graduate students from each UC campus sat down with lawmakers to give them a better sense of the work they do — and why it is of vital importance to California and its residents.
They recounted their work on imaging that can detect very early stage cancer, designing smarter systems for managing infrastructure, maintaining the safety of prescription drugs in the era of Internet pharmacies and looking at how climate change affects animal and plant life in California. They shared research that could expand our understanding of how human languages are structured, how media shapes our worldview and the way we use reading and writing of literature to construct an understanding of ourselves.
Part of the goal of the day, UC organizers said, was to show legislators the direct economic benefit of graduate student research. Graduate students also are a key factor in attracting and retaining top-quality faculty at UC; and eventually will fill faculty ranks at both UC and CSU.
But, as UC Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Steven Beckwith noted, graduate education serves an even greater function in training individuals with the ability to think, uncover, question and problem-solve. These attributes are critical to today's complex economy and society.
"There's a misperception that all graduate students are being trained to be professors," Beckwith said. In fact, the skills honed by graduate students have the broadest possible applications.
"The problems you will be charged with solving are not problems we are seeing now. They are not problems we know about. They are things we haven't even seen before," Beckwith directed to the students. "What you bring is the capacity to wade into brand new territory equipped with only your curiosity, your intelligence and your ability to solve problems. That is the talent the world will need. And it is talent that, thanks to the strength of our graduate students, UC will be well poised to provide."
Spreading the 'wow factor'
Giving lawmakers the chance to meet with graduate students gives them a whole new perspective on the importance of their role, said UC Legislative Advocate Kate Daby-Horpedahl.
"I greatly appreciate hearing directly from the students who are currently immersed in graduate work," said state Sen. Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), whose staffers met with the UC Merced delegation. "It is only through these firsthand accounts that legislators and their staffs can be reminded of the importance of these programs and what their continued investment means to the state."
In a meeting with a delegation from UCLA, State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chair of the Senate Health Committee, echoed Fuller's admiration for the work the students were doing. But while affirming his support for UC, Hernandez conceded, "My hands are tied." If ballot initiatives to raise tax revenue — intended to help fund public higher education — don't pass, "I won't like taking those votes [to cut funds], but we have to. The solvency of the state is paramount."
Participants said the goal of the day was met in giving lawmakers a broader sense of graduate students and what they bring to the table.
"I'd like them to understand the really exceptional base that we have here in California in our UC graduate students," said UCLA's Dean Garrell. "They are already the knowledge producers, inventors and creators — and we expect even greater things to come."
For the full story by UCOP Communications Coordinator for Academic Affairs Nicole Freeling, including a slideshow of graduate students in their work environments, go to the UC Research website.


Articles Archives - Krumpers Solar Solutions Inc.
As fall approaches, this is the time to prepare your home for harsh winter weather. Here are some tips to improve the energy efficiency of your home before winter is upon us.
Tips on how solar shades can dramatically reduce your A/C costs. Reflect sun rays from your windows to reduce your air conditioning operating.


As soon the support acts finished their jobs, the crowd – a mix of young guys/girls and older rockers – is waiting for the headliner of tonight. When the lights go down, the band starts to play behind a large black curtain which drops down after a minute. They start relatively heavy with the powerful and uptempo songs "I Was Just a Kid" and "Ban All the Music". The stage presentation is awesome with a great light show and a big screen behind the drumkit, showing a diversity of videos, animations and shots from the band members.
Every and each band member is having a blast on stage and are jumping around wherever they can. The sound of the band is amazingly good, just like the voice of lead singer Conor Mason. His voice is raw, high tuned, penetrates into your soul and is filled with a certain kind of emotion. With his contagious vocals and their catchy music, Nothing But Thieves knows how to let the crowd move and sing. Everyone, except me because I don't know the songs that good, is singing and clapping along with every song the band is playing.
I checked a few songs on Spotify when I traveled to AFAS Live, and what I noticed is that the band sounds live much heavier than they do on album. It's just much more layered, intense, raw and pure. The setlist of songs is very diverse, going from heavy up tempo (hard)rock songs to intense singalong ballads. Especially the heavy songs are more appreciated by the fans, there is more movement, jumping and there are more hands and fists in the air.
The band saves their most popular song like "Trip Switch", "Sorry" and "Itch" for last. Of course they end their show in Amsterdam in style with their song "Amsterdam"! Nothing But Thieves surprised me with their energetic and very decent show. They know what the audience wants and how to give it to them in the right proportions. Let's see where they will play next year!


Last year MaximumPC wrote an article, "The Disk Defrag Difference" in which they claimed that the defrag programs that they tested were not much better than the built-in defrag program in Windows Vista.
For these tests, we use RankDisk, an application developed and copyrighted by Intel®. In our testing, we found RankDisk to be suitable for a neutral benchmark. RankDisk is used to record a trace of disk activity during usage of typical applications. These traces can then be replayed to measure the performance of disk operations for that usage.
RankDisk records disk access events using the device drivers and bypasses the file system and the operating system's cache. This makes the measurement independent of the file system overhead or the current state of the operating system. In replaying traces, RankDisk always creates and operates on a new "dummy" file. This file is created in the same (or closest possible) physical location of the target hard disk. This allows the replaying of traces to be safe (does not destroy any existing files) and comparable across different systems. Due to the natural fragmentation of hard disks over time, they should be defragmented before running these tests.
The traces used for each test were created from real usage. The traces contain different amount of writing and reading on the disk; total ratio in the HDD test suite disk operations is 53% reads and 47% of writes.
Bear in mind that the PCMark benchmarks are written to compare different systems to one another to see which one is faster. So it makes sense for them to record a "trace" of disk activity, and then try to emulate it on various systems. But the "trace" data does not refer to files on the test system, only clusters. In other words, the original reference system may have had a system file like user.dll that was loaded from clusters 25,26 and 27. When the HDD "read" benchmark runs on my system it reads clusters 25,26 and 27, irrespective of the location of my copy of user.dll, which could be stored on clusters 127, 254 and 55 if it was fragmented.
In order to benchmark the "write" activity, the original reference system could have written data to cluster 1020, 1021 and 1022. On my system these clusters may be in use, so the benchmark program finds the "nearest" available clusters, say 1200, 1201 and 1203, and does its timing accordingly. It's the only safe way to do a "write" benchmark without corrupting the test system, so from PCMark's point of view, it's close enough.
In my example, notice that cluster 1202 is not available, and this could ruin the benchmark's measured performance, depending on the characteristics of the drive. That's why they say that the benchmark should be run on a defragmented system.
So when I run a PCMark HDD benchmark on my system, I am comparing the read speed of my hard drive to the read speed of the reference system's hard drive. Similarly, I am comparing write speeds, with the exception that the software will use available empty space on mys system, rather than the actual space used on the reference system. It's a limitation of the software, but is required for safety purposes. The benchmark results bear no resemblance to the actual location of system files on the test system, only the location of free disk space.
So in effect MaximumPC was measuring the ability of each defrag program to create free disk space where the benchmark required free space, based on the write patterns of the reference system. This is not the same as measuring the improvement in file placement and thus performance boost claimed by the defrag software.
It's incredibly difficult to measure a "performance gain" on a Windows system in any kind of objective way. I'm still not convinced I have the answer, but time will tell. Raxco have a utility called FileAccessTimer, and Diskeeper refer to readfile in some of their literature.
A package that reads all the files on a PC and times them doesn't help either, because it will read both the "fast" files and the "slow" files, so these will balance one another out. I would love to find a way of timing how long it takes to open a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, but have yet to figure out a way of doing this accurately. Maybe I'll have to write one.
Unfortuantely it is only accurate to the nearest second, so I'm not sure how useful it will end up being. Time will tell.
Update 2: It seems that Word 2007 and Excel 2007 return control back to the VB program after they have opened the file requested. This enables me to get the launch time accurate to the nearest 10th of a second. Since Access97 already has the "Timer" function built in, the accuracy is maintained there too. I am also including my SMSQ "Stress Test" program in the benchmarking mix.
Test Results: see article above, and more results collected. It turns out the results can be measured within a 15% variation, using an average of 10 measurements taken to the nearest 100th of a second.


(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) are seeking information from the National Rifle Association (NRA) regarding allegations that the NRA violated campaign finance laws by coordinating communications with the Trump Campaign and several campaigns for Republican Senate candidates. Multiple media reports have raised questions about the NRA's relationships with contractors and shell companies that purchased political ads.
The NRA is named in four pending complaints to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) alleging campaign finance law violations. In their letter to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, the Members seek information regarding the NRA's relationship with media consulting firms that also worked for the Trump Campaign and other Republican candidates.
Raskin and Whitehouse are also pressing for information from five of the media consulting firms named in these reports: OnMessage, Inc. (On Message); Starboard Strategic, Inc. (Starboard); Red Eagle Group (Red Eagle); American Media & Advocacy Group (AMAG); and National Media, Research, Planning, and Placement (National Media).
According to Politico, OnMessage, a prominent consulting firm that's worked with major Republican candidates, established Starboard as a shell entity meant to disguise the fact that individuals working to direct campaign strategies and advertisements for Senate candidates were also coordinating "independent" expenditures by the NRA, Starboard's only client.
Additional reporting suggests that that Red Eagle, AMAG, and National Media are functionally identical entities, organized in a way that allowed the NRA to coordinate "independent" expenditures with the Trump Campaign.
John Feinblatt, President of Everytown for Gun Safety, also expressed concern: "With each passing day, the NRA's silence on questions of alleged shell companies and shady political contributions grows louder and louder. Congress is right to demand answers from the NRA on behalf of the American people, and we applaud Senator Whitehouse and Representative Raskin for leading the charge."
The Members have requested responses to their inquiries no later than March 6, 2019.


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BAI, IJDH Hail Appeals Court Decision on Duvalier
On February 20, 2014, a three-judge panel decided to reinstate political violence charges against Jean Claude Duvalier, because under international law, the 10-year statute of limitations doesn't apply to crimes against humanity.
Haitian court reinstates political charges against Jean-Claude Duvalier
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 21 (UPI) — Two human rights groups hailed a Haitian appeals court panel's decision to reinstate criminal charges against former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.
"The court's ruling … applying crimes against humanity against Duvalier is a significant step towards combating impunity in Haiti's justice system," said Mario Joseph, director of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux.
While the Haitian Constitution grants the court the power to use international law to protect victims of human rights violations, "this is the first time that a court has invoked international law to protect the poor," Joseph said.
A three-judge panel, reconvening after a nine-month break, reinstated political crimes against Duvalier.
Criminal charges for political violence, embezzlement and corruption were filed against Duvalier in January 2011 just before he returned to Haiti from 25 years in exile. In January 2012, a magistrate judge upheld the financial crimes, but dismissed the political violence crimes upon the recommendation of the government prosecutor, who argued they were past Haiti's 10-year statute of limitations. Both sides appealed.
The court reinstated the political violence crimes and held that under international law, a statute of limitations does not apply to crimes against humanity.
"We congratulate the survivors of Duvalier's brutal regime for their hard work and patience in bringing Duvalier to justice," said Nicole Phillips, a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, based in Washington.
Presiding Judge Jean Joseph Lebrun appointed colleague Durin Junior Duret to further investigate allegations of corruption and crimes against humanity, the Miami Herald said.
The investigation report will be considered by the court when deciding whether Duvalier should stand trial.
Click HERE for original.


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New to motogp.com?Register here
By motogp.com
Morbidelli: "We just need to put everything together"
Italian happy with his work on Day 3 to finish P7 overall – but there's still work to do ahead of the opening race of the year
Tags MotoGP, 2019, QATAR MotoGP™ TEST, DAY3, Franco Morbidelli, Petronas Yamaha SRT
Petronas Yamaha SIC's Franco Morbidelli completed the Qatar Test in P7 after ending the third and final day of preseason in sixth place, a 1:54.660 his fastest lap.
Upon reflection, the Italian was happy with his work on Day 3 under the lights, but insists he and the team need to piece everything together ahead of the race.
After The Flag: Qatar Test with special guest Randy Mamola 25/02/2019
Join Matt Birt, Simon Crafar and special guest Randy Mamola for an analysis of the final day of the Qatar Test
"I'm very happy about today. We've been struggling in a few areas, but we were able to not solve completely the problem we had but at least we were able to solve it in some occasions. So we just need to put everything together for the Grand Prix. I would say that we put on great work, I would just say we need to put everything together to be competitive in the race and in the time attack."
Morbidelli completes a Yamaha quartet that sits inside the top seven at the Losail International Circuit. A good sign for the 2019 machine's potential and the 2017 Moto2™ World Champion is hopeful he and the team can fix the issues they've been having before the lights go out on 10th March.
"I really hope so, I don't know. I will tell you in two weeks," responded Morbidelli, when asked if he thinks the problem can be fixed in time for the opening round of 2019. "According to the data we collected, I'm really hopeful we can fix the problems we have.
What happened at the Qatar Test? 25/02/2019
Take a look back across the 3 days of testing at the Losail International Circuit in this video, exclusive to motogp.com
"I'm struggling with tipping the bike into the corner at the moment. We've been trying a lot of stuff. As I said in some moments of the day the tipping in was good, so let's try to put everything together."
With teammate Fabio Quartararo ending the Qatar Test in P2 on the timesheets, things are looking good for the Petronas Yamaha SIC team ahead of their debut race in the premier class. Find out if Morbidelli can solve his issues when the MotoGP™ riders return to the Losail International Circuit on 8th March.
Watch every 2019 race LIVE & OnDemand and enjoy the whole motogp.com video library, including technical features, exclusives interviews and classic races, with the MotoGP™ VideoPass
2019 preseason: what do the numbers tell us?
Take a look at four pieces of data extracted from winter testing ahead of the Qatar GP
Qatar MotoGP Test
Honda vs Ducati: who is most prepared after the preseason?
How was the preseason, from 1 to 10?
What do the MotoGP™ riders say after the Qatar Test?
Which engine will they use?
Fast Fabio surprises at the Qatar Test
Qatar MotoGP Test, Fabio Quartararo
After The Flag: Qatar Test with special guest Randy Mamola


Chargeback Alerts are your first line of defense to prevent disputes from initiating chargebacks with automated and meaningful actions.
Without prevention mechanisms, your business is hit with more chargebacks—which bring costly fees and damaged customer relationships, even if you win a given dispute. You could even lose your ability to have a merchant account, effectively putting you out of business.
Disputes are often created when a customer first questions a transaction on their bank statement by contacting their bank to dispute a charge. This time-frame between the customer's initial point of contact and when the dispute becomes official is a critical 24-72 hour period. In this time, with Alerts, your team can automate meaningful actions like refunding and cancelling orders to stop chargebacks and minimize losses.
The Chargeback App connects you to global networks that cover over 65% of bank-card transactions, providing a huge window of opportunity for prevention. These inbound network notifications are enriched with your processor, gateway, and order management system data inside the Chargeback App as Alerts.
Chargeback Alerts are more than early-warning dispute notifications. It's dispute interception bolstered with powerful automated actions that you set based on business rules and workflows. Chargeback is the only SaaS based, technology-driven solution. Which means that as with each of our solutions, Chargeback Alerts are: easy to implement with no setup fees, integrated seamlessly into your business stack, and scaleable with seasonality and growth.
Ready to intercept disputes with Alerts?


Judge Maria L. Dantos received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University in 1982 and her law degree from Syracuse University College of Law in 1985. Judge Dantos served Lehigh County as a Public Defender from 1986 to 1989. She began her service in the District Attorney's Office as an Assistant in 1989. She served as Deputy District Attorney, Chief Deputy District Attorney, and in 2001 was appointed First Assistant District attorney. She was the supervising attorney for the Lehigh County Investigating Grand Jury and the Homicide Task Force. She has been an instructor for the Allentown Police Academy, the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association, and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. She is the recipient of the Colonel John J. Schafer Award for excellence in law enforcement. She was appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy on the bench in June of 2007 and was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Lehigh County in November 2007.


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Talented people working in building engineering are to be recognised as part of a campaign to encourage others to follow a career in construction.
Launched in March 2018, UK Construction Week (UKCW) established its Role Models campaign, with help from the Construction Youth Trust, to inspire others and raise awareness of the breadth of roles available in the construction industry. The winner will be announced on 10 October on the UKCW Stage at the NEC, followed by a champagne reception and a meet and greet with keynote speaker, Barbara Res.
After much consideration, the judges put together a shortlist of 36 people from more than 130 high-quality entries. Six people on the shortlist are engineers:Annabel Davis from Costain Ltd; Daniel Sullivan from Ridge & Partners LLP; Diego Padilla Phillips from WSP; Sally Walters from Pell Frischmann; and Christina Riley from Kier Group, who is also a member of the UKCW Diversity and Skills Panel and founder of LGBT Construct.
The judges were impressed with the role models' passion for improving the image and culture of construction; breaking paradigms and changing stereotypes; promoting the possibilities of learning while working; sharing their personal experiences with young people; and championing LGBT in the engineering sector and wider construction industry.
Nathan Garnett, UKCW event director, said: "As part of being shortlisted, role models will take part in an outreach programme to help build connections with local schools and colleges. It's about sharing their construction career journeys and inspiring the next generation by dispelling the myths surrounding the construction industry.
The role models will share their thoughts on key industry issues as guest bloggers for the Construction Matters Blog. They will have VIP access to UKCW, which takes place on 9-11 October, and will be available to talk to others about their careers in construction and their visions for the future of the industry.
Ahead of the presentation for UKCW Role Model of the Year, a discussion will take place on the UKCW Stage about creating the new generation of construction professionals. Shortlisted role models Emma Ferguson-Gould and Ryan Williams will join architect Elsie Owusu and BBC presenter, Steph McGovern, will be the host.
UKCW will be an event that inspires, with speakers such as Barbara Res – an engineer, lawyer and the project manager behind Trump Tower, the first BMF Young Merchants' Conference at the BMF Pavilion, and a timber structure project by Manja van de Worp and students from the school of architecture at the Royal School of Art.
The Institute of Civil Engineers' 'Save Civil City' challenge.
Has the green agenda slipped?


Most of the extra features are in the Customizer under Theme Settings, Theme Fonts, or Theme Colors. You can see Checathlon Plus features in action on demo site.
Here are the sections and extra features highlighted.
There are several font options from Google fonts and from basic web safe fonts.
Note that there is not a color option for every section of a theme. But still enough for setting you brand colors and get you started.
Checathlon Plus package include premade child themes which have all the color and background styles. That'll help you customize your site even more.
Service and pricing widget is good fit in front page or Pricing Page Template for highlighting your most important part of your site.
In the Customizer go to Widgets→ Service and Pricing Widget area.
Add Service and Pricing Widgets.
In checkout page when cart is empty.
Note that you need to have Easy Digital Downloads Plugin installed and activated before you can see this feature.
Under Theme Settings → Before Footer Widgets Settings you can set extra title and icons for the before footer widget area.
This works like a callout section so place your most important widget at first.
show downloads when the cart is empty.
Note that in empty cart and after single download featured downloads are coming from the same tag as in section Front Page Featured Area.
Under Theme Settings → Footer you can enter custom footer text or hide footer section all together.
Enter custom Footer text or hide Footer.
Social links menu appears in the Footer. But if you set Custom menu widget with the same social menu, you get the similar looking social links in the sidebar.
Create a menu under The Customizer→ Menus.
You can name it whatever you want. My social links for example.
Set menu location to Social Links.
You should see social link icons in the footer.
Go to Widgets→ Main Sidebar.
Select the same menu as above. My social links in our example.


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Q: Set dynamic variables in foreach loop I have a set of categories I want to loop through, and set a dynamic variable/array as the page loops.
The code I currently have is:
foreach($categories as $category)
{
    $category_ads[] = Advert::listforPageArea(2, 1, $category['id']);
}

The Advert::listforPageArea function returns an object of an advert based on what category is chosen.
I want to be able to calculate the expiry date of each advert to use elsewhere.
I'm struggling to explain exactly what I want, but I simply want to set custom content within a loop.

A: What you're searching for is called 'variable variables'.
See http://foundationphp.com/blog/2010/12/18/understanding-php-variable-variables/
The linked blog entry also answers the question of variable scope (contrary to Geoffroy's answer, variable variables are valid outside of the loop they are created in) and states (correctly) that this method is highly insecure without validating the variable names.
Could you go with an array within an array instead? $arr['cat1']['cat2']
EDIT: how to do this with multidimensional arrays (see http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php)
$ads = array(); // not explicitly needed, but clarifying
// ... some code
foreach($categories as $category)
{
    if(!array_key_exists($category, $ads)) { $ads[$category] = array(); } // not explicitly needed
    $ads[$category['name?']][] = Advert::listforPageArea(2, 1, $category['id']);
    // or (see comment below)
    $ads[$category][] = Advert::listforPageArea(2, 1, getCategoryField($category, 'id'));
}

!!! Important: You're using $category like a variable one time and like an associative array the other time. You can't simply evaluate an array to a string. I guess your array $category may contain some field name?, as it seems to contain a field named id. You'd have to use that field name in $ads[$category['field???']][] or your line Advert::listforPageArea(2, 1, $category['id']); is not correct.

A: The content you set in your loop will be restricted to that loop. So it won't be usable elsewhere (as far as I remember).
If you want you can create a variable like :
//In the foreach loop
$cat_name = "whatever";
$var_name = $cat_name . "_expiryDate";

$$var_name = 5 /* Calulcate the expiry date here */;

To be able to access your variables elsewhere, you will need to store the value outside of the loop, such as in an associative array.
One other solution would be to include the expiry date in the Advert object, or expose a method to get it in the class.


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> Fashion News
How much do Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss make for one Instagram post?
May 20, 2016 - 14:45 BST hellomagazine.com Just how much money are the most influential supermodels in the world making per post?
After Scott Disick's awkward Instagram blunder earlier this week, where he accidentally revealed the PR message instructing him what to post and at what time, we couldn't help but wonder how much other social media moguls made for their sponsored posts. So if Scott Disick is being paid to promote a protein shake, just how much are the most influential supermodels in the world making per post?
new @calvinklein underwear
A photo posted by Kendall Jenner (@kendalljenner) on Feb 17, 2016 at 10:11am PST
Frank Spadafora is the founder of D'Marie Archive, a group that helps agencies put value on the social media influence of certain famous faces, and spoke to Jezebel.com about the most influential supermodels of the moment. According to Frank, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne are the best paid stars in the business, and the three can earn "between $125,000 and $300,000 for a single post across their portfolio," (around £85,000 to £205,000).
Meanwhile, former Victoria's Secret angel Karlie Kloss is apparently considered 'second tier' when it comes to promoting products, alongside fellow supermodels Behati Prinsloo and Miranda Kerr. That being said, these stars can still make between £17,000 to £34,000 for a single post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Thank you @Lorealparisofficial for always keeping me red carpet ready 💅🏼💁🏼
A photo posted by @karliekloss on Feb 25, 2016 at 7:39am PST
Indeed, social media is so influential that a model's online following can have an effect on their careers. Talent agency Next Models' manager Jennifer Powell revealed that casting directors will "for sure" ask about how many followers models have before hiring them, while Frank revealed how important a social media presence is to have a successful career in modelling.
He said: "As far as commercialising a career, a girl won't get very far in 2016 if she's not socially savvy. Can I say that you can be a big star without a social media presence? I'm not encouraging it."
Celebs are wearing this special necklace - and it's in the sale for £69.99
More about kendall jenner
Kendall Jenner's sculpting gym wear is everything we want for a Christmas
Kardashian-Jenner clan's $191m colossal homes: Kourtney Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and more
15 outrageous Kardashian/Jenner Halloween costumes that will make you feel inspired
This girl broke the internet with her Beyoncé-inspired prom dress
The hot 90s celebrity fashion trend to tap into now
Cannes 2016: Kristen Stewart nails bright red eyeshadow
Rainbow eyebrows: How to nail this amazing trend
Who wore it best? Bella Hadid steals Rita Ora's style
Have Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik split?
Gigi Hadid reveals how she and Kendall Jenner deal with social media trolls
What's going on with Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik?
Gigi Hadid is giving us serious family goals with her latest shoot
Kendall Jenner fuels Jordan Clarkson dating rumours
Cara Delevingne opens up about her love for girlfriend St. Vincent


1984: Research begins on the Superconducting Super Collider.
1987: President Reagan and Congress back construction of the SSC.
1988: Project is awarded to Texas after bidding war with 25 other states.
1990: Estimated construction costs soar from $5.9 billion to $8.25 billion.
1992: Construction begins in Waxahachie, Texas.
1993: Project is 20 percent completed. About $1.7 billion has been spent and 2,000 people are employed.
2001: Project expected to be finished, at an estimated cost of $11 billion to $15 billion.


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Tiracol Fort and Village - Beautifying the Northern End of Goa | The Viking Abroad
post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-22747,single-format-standard,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,no_animation_on_touch,qode-theme-ver-7.8,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-4.11.2.1,vc_responsive
Tiracol Fort and Village – Beautifying the Northern End of Goa
28 Feb Tiracol Fort and Village – Beautifying the Northern End of Goa
Posted at 08:00h in Asia	by	thevikingabroad 4 Comments
Tiracol Fort sits like a cherry atop a cake on the Northern tip of Goa. North of Arambol beach, there is a ferry point called Keri-Tiracol and on the opposite shore is the Tiracol Village and Fort. During Novas Conquistas, the village was captured by the Portuguese from the Bhonsales of Sawantwadi in the year 1746. Tiracol was and till today remains a bold and brazen Goan toe-hold in the state of Maharashtra. The fort currently functions as a heritage hotel, overlooking the beautiful Tiracol river. The chapel of St. Anthony is located inside the fort and is open to tourists/visitors only when guided tours are available.
Tiracol Fort
A small fort, Tiracol was built by the Khem Sawant of Sawantwadi. If history is to be believed, it appears as if the fort was like a ball passed between its various lords. The journey began under Adil Shah of Bijapur, then moved on to Shivaji Maharaj and then was captured by the Portuguese. Even the British tried their hands at it, but in vain. There are many who believe that Tiracol fort is a part of a series of forts that line the Konkan coast. All these forts were under Chhatrapati Shivaji at one point of time.
Interestingly, the fort played a vital part in the Goan freedom movement from the Portuguese.
On 15th August 1955, freedom fighters Hirve Guruji and two others were killed in this fort for hoisting the Indian flag. A memorial stands in their name just outside the fort gate below a huge banyan tree. After Goa's integration with India, the fort was taken over by Goa tourism to convert it into a hotel. As mentioned above, tourists can take a ferry from Keri-Tiracol point in Goa.
The church of St. Anthony, which is more than a 100 years old, stands in the middle of the courtyard of the Tiracol fort. The entire village is in attendance for Sunday Mass every week.
The hotel has a vintage feel to it; there is too much history seeped in its walls and surroundings. Boasting of breathtaking views of the sea, there's a calm that enshrouds the place at all times. Interestingly, this heritage property is one of the best hotel in Goa.
Tiracol Village
A catholic village, Tiracol has a population of about a 100 families. The village has a chapel, a Padre's house and a small platform next to the river where all village festivals are celebrated. The two primary professions of the people are farming and fishing. Villagers usually refer to Tiracol as Terekhol. There's greenery all around the village and one can sight a few peacocks every now and then.
Tiracol is where you should escape to, if seclusion is what you are looking for. It's far from Goa's maddening crowds and chaotic scenes. In so many ways, it is a peaceful world of its own. You can cuddle up to read a book, daydream with sea views and enjoy morning and evening walks around the fort. Luxury and leisure follow you in this beautiful village everywhere you go!
india no pin
Stella Jane
I think it's wonderful that you found this little haven of peacefulness in Goa. It's true that my mental image of India is rather crowded and chaotic. It's nice to know that there are oases like these too. I will keep Tiracol in mind when I visit India in December.
I love seclusion! It's places like this where you really get the opportunity to see the culture and interact with the people. With a village of only 100 families, I bet everyone must know each other quite well 🙂
Wow, knowing that the fort was like a ball passed between its various lords, this sounds an interesting history to learn. I love ambling around one place that offers so much great history of the past. The village is really great, I love that is very secluded and you'll get to immerse and learn their culture. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
My mom and grandmother are from Goa and I've always wanted to explore the beautiful city! I love hearing others' experiences of their visits – thanks for sharing yours! Tiracol Village especially looks like a great spot to visit and get away from the hustle and bustle of the big Indian cities!
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Green Construction & Architecture in the Middle East: Opportunities and Challenges
While the world is innovating new technologies and incentivising new ideas, the core concept of building the Middle East that was strong in its commitment to sustainability became the prerogative of both governments and private players.
It was noted in an earlier report that, "Despite the high oil revenues reaped from hydrocarbon resources and their spillover effects on non-oil producing countries, Arab economies suffer from
structural problems, with fragile political systems, precluding them from adopting
effective green transformations." But this line of thought and course of action was soon changed when a transformational change overcame the Arab region.
"We are an oil-producing nation, but we are today focusing on renewable energy. Though there are many questions raised, the answer is very clear. We want to build the future like we build our present." – Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Sustainability is now no longer a term for a few chosen industries. It is being increasingly advocated by many including quite recently the global construction industry, owing to an urge in minimising the industry's adverse impacts. An important area when it comes to focusing on sustainability is the issue of project management teams given that these are the people involved from the project's inception to its completion. Ever since there has been a wide range of sustainability practices within the construction industry. Green architecture has picked up.
Considered as the most important advantage green buildings are said to be rather energy efficient. While traditional buildings are bereft of insulation and lose plenty of heat, eco-friendly buildings can retain heat because of better insulation.
Take the example of Morocco's Dazzling Domed Bank which features several ancient Arabic design techniques and a unique geothermal system that keeps it cool in summers. It was also one of the earliest projects handled by Forster and Partners.
Another important feature is that water-efficient devices are installed in all sustainable eco-friendly buildings. For instance, conventional toilets often use large amounts of water for every flush. However, a sizable amount of water can be saved by installing water-conserving toilets instead of conventional ones.
The beauty of green architecture is that the buildings also come off as very attractive, very much like the sustainable terra cotta-coloured buildings in Masdar City which was one of the earliest smart cities in the Middle East.
The UAE was the first to accept and empower the Emirates' green building design and implementation. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, announced a decree that mandated all new urban structures to conform to environment-friendly green building standards.
Ismail Radwan, Lead Economist at the World Bank writes, "Abu Dhabi introduced the Pearl Rating System in 2010 – a framework for sustainable design, construction, and operation of all new construction, specifically tailored to the hot climate and arid environment. In 2016, Dubai adopted the Al Sa'fat green rating system. Structures that do not meet the minimum bronze rating are not given permits. However, higher ratings are optional in both systems and standards vary across the country. To achieve deep emissions reduction in the construction sector, governments and regulators could introduce incentives that will encourage developers and builders to adopt lower carbon construction materials and methods."
Abu Dhabi's Central Souq has been constructed with a series of low-rise, ecologically sensitive shops, hotels, offices, and restaurants, as well as rooftop gardens, the internationally renowned firm has given this old-world market a sustainable lift.
With all the GCC countries looking at solar power a strong advantage of green building is that this kind of construction relies on the employment of green energies instead of conventional fossil fuels. In the case of green buildings, solar panels are often used to generate energy so that the building will not need to use energy that is produced with the help of fossil fuels. By using renewable alternative energy sources, green construction also makes a big contribution to revving up the energy transition process from fossil fuels to green energy sources, which is crucial to mitigate various environmental problems, including global warming and all sorts of pollution cesses in the construction sector. Abu Dhabi's Lattice-Domed Parliament Building in Abu Dhabi was designed by Ehrlich Architecture. By incorporating passive solar design and unique desert architectural techniques, the firm has ensured that this super-efficient parliament building won't use up all of the Emirate's own energy.
When Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 Soccer World Cup it came as a surprise to many, but when people saw the host of brand new solar-powered stadiums featuring cutting-edge technology afforded by the country's remarkable oil wealth they ensured that fans don't pass out from the heat.
This does not however mean that green Architecture has zero disadvantages. One of the key limitations identified is the high initial costs, for example, green construction often implies pretty high initial building costs which are usually higher compared to traditional practices which have the potential to discourage people to invest in green construction.
Although green building can mend, alter and change the ecological footprint, it is not a panacea for environmental issues. That part is still heavily dependent on individual practices. There is still plenty of work expected of the individual to make one's behavior as green as possible. There is no real weightage in investing in a green home but behaving in a quite eco-unfriendly manner since the ecological footprint might actually be worse as compared to a person who lives in a conventional home but behaves much eco-friendlier in his or her daily life.
Green alternative energies like solar power are also heavily dependent on outside weather conditions. In the case of heavy rains, chances are that you might run out of energy sooner or later. Thus, green buildings are compelled to turn to conventional energies as an emergency resource. Since green construction is a relatively new technology, the long-term effects of this practice are unclear. For instance, we do not know if there will be any potential side-effects of these practices in the future that are related to green buildings. Since the technology related to green construction is relatively new and not entirely mature yet, chances are that there might be some technical issues sooner or later which may translate into significant additional costs and efforts.
Since green construction often uses the latest technologies, the maintenance of those devices could be challenging because technology becomes increasingly complex and redundant soon enough. Depending on the area you live in, you might also have a pretty hard time finding a qualified worker in case you need repairs or for other maintenance tasks
Indoor air temperature may greatly vary over time because of limited control over the inside air temperature that would be centrally controlled in a green building. The potential for massive fluctuations in temperatures would affect the overall quality of life and the quality of life will decrease due to this insufficient control over the indoor room temperature. For those picky about designs, green buildings are optimized to use the daylight as efficiently as possible making the shape of those green buildings rather exotic which might not please everyone and many people may even refrain from buying a green flat since they just do not like the design of those green buildings at all. Experienced green construction workers may be rare since most of the construction workers are quite experienced in the conventional construction of buildings, but lack experience and knowledge when it comes to green buildings.
Another key issue is that green construction tries to use as much sunlight as possible in order to produce energy and to use daylight to further reduce the need of using conventional energy sources. However, in regions that do not have many sunny days over the course of the year, those green buildings may not be the way to go since the outside conditions may be increasingly unsuitable. Even though green construction has become quite popular over the past decade, it is still a relatively new building technology and the infrastructure around green construction has not been optimized yet.
Whether green Architecture is beneficial or not completely depends on the levels of awareness, the extends not only to its potential advantages but includes the adversities that may be in the immediate future or in the long term. The whole idea of green building and its relatively important features is subjective and must implore people to look beyond the realities of today into the possibilities of tomorrow.
Sustainable Construction | Morocco | Dubai | Abu Dhabi | Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Climate Change


Campaign comes amid South African support of anti-Israel boycott and Netanyahu's failure to attend Nelson Mandela's memorial service.
The South African government is encouraging South African-born Israelis to take advantage of an amendment to the country's electoral law that allows them to vote from abroad in the upcoming national election, but some immigrants have expressed doubts about the prospects of the campaign's success.
Under the terms of a law passed in November, all South African citizens who live overseas and register at their local South African embassy or consulate by February 7 will be eligible to vote. This marks a change from the last election, in 2009, when only those South Africans who had already registered in South Africa or were traveling abroad on business could cast overseas ballots.
The South African Embassy in Israel opened on two consecutive Saturdays this month to process applications, in addition to its regular weekday hours. The umbrella organization representing South African Jewry has also jumped on the bandwagon, with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies targeting South African-born Israelis through social media as part of its "Make Us Count" voter awareness campaign.
Yesterday morning, Telfed announced on its website that a delegation of officials from the ANC would visit Israel next week to meet with South African-born Israelis and drum up support for the party. But by the afternoon, Wendy Kahn, the national director of the Jewish Board of Deputies and one of the trip's organizers, told Haaretz that the ANC delegation had backed out of the trip for unspecified reasons.
However, a member of the ANC who was involved in planning the trip said there is still "a good chance" that the delegation will come. "We are just working through the logistics," said the member, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The visit would come at a time of heightened tension between the Israeli government and the ANC, South Africa's ruling party since the end of apartheid in 1994. At the last ANC National Congress in 2012, the party passed a resolution calling on South Africans to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel. In the past two years, the country's deputy minister of international relations announced that South Africans should avoid visiting Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians, and the minister of trade pressured importers to label all products produced in the West Bank. Meanwhile, in what many perceived to be a politically motivated snub, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his plans to attend last month's memorial service for the late South African president and ANC leader Nelson Mandela, citing the high cost of the trip.
Darryl Egnal, a native of Johannesburg who has lived in Israel for four and a half years, said she was surprised to hear the ANC may be sending a delegation to the country she says it has consistently demonized.
"I think South Africans will have a lot of really pertinent questions to ask them because the community is very upset about the one–sided stance that South Africa is taking on Israel," Egnal said.
Earlier this month, Byron Gerber registered to vote at the embassy in Ramat Gan. Gerber, who immigrated to Israel five years ago, said he planned to vote ("not for the ANC") because most of his family still lives in South Africa.
But Gerber may be in the minority. Several of his South African-born friends told him that they were not interested in taking part in the election. "They feel that whatever happens in South Africa, we should just let it be," Gerber said.
There are approximately 25,000 South Africans living in Israel, according to the South African Embassy, yet the number of prospective voters is thought to be small. Community members said in interviews that many of the immigrants left South Africa during the apartheid era and do not have the necessary documentation to register, or are no longer tied emotionally or politically to their native country.
According to a report issued by the country's electoral commission, 9,857 South Africans voted from abroad in the 2009 election. The committee did not release the number of votes cast from Israel, but indicated it was fewer than the 374 cast from the Netherlands.
The only other election in which South African expatriates could vote was in 1994, when turnout was relatively high in Israel due to the excitement surrounding the country's first democratic election. Several people recalled standing in long lines at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds to cast their ballots.
The date of the upcoming election has yet to be declared by South African President Jacob Zuma, but is expected to be some time in the spring. The leading candidates for president are Zuma, of the African National Congress, and anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele of the Democratic Alliance, which has led the opposition since 1999.


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Publications > Straight A's Newsletter > Vol. 10 No. 18: October 04, 2010
PREPARE AND INSPIRE: President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Offers Recommendations on Improving K–12 STEM Education
By Jason Amos
"The success of the United States in the 21st century—its wealth and welfare—will depend on the ideas and skills of its population."
A new report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) argues that the nation must inspire all students to learn science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and motivate many of these students to pursue STEM careers in order to ensure that America is a leader in STEM education in the coming decades. The report, Prepare and Inspire: K–12 Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) for America's Future, offers a strategy for how the federal government can meet these goals and respond to the "tremendous challenges and historic opportunities" that currently face the nation.
"The success of the United States in the 21st century—its wealth and welfare—will depend on the ideas and skills of its population," the report reads. "These have always been the nation's most important assets. As the world becomes increasingly technological, the value of these national assets will be determined in no small measure by the effectiveness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in the United States."
In examining the nation's problems with STEM, the report finds both a proficiency problem and an interest problem. The proficiency problem—represented by American students' lower scores on international tests in science and math and low proficiency rates in math and science on the National Assessment of Educational Progress—is more well-known; the interest problem is not. According to the report, high-achieving African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and women lack interest in and have been gravitating away from science and engineering toward other professions. It argues that the United States must devote considerable attention and resources to all of its highest-achieving and highest-ability students from across all groups, even as it focuses on low-performing students.
Even schools that are generally successful in educating their students often fall short in STEM fields, the report notes. Often these schools lack teachers who know how to teach science and mathematics effectively, and who know and love their subject well enough to inspire their students. Additionally, teachers lack adequate support, including appropriate professional development as well as interesting and intriguing curricula, while school systems lack tools for assessing progress and rewarding success. "As a result, too many American students conclude early in their education that STEM subjects are boring, too difficult, or unwelcoming, leaving them ill-prepared to meet the challenges that will face their generation, their country, and the world," the report reads.
In addition to its proficiency and interest problems, the nation has historically lacked a coherent strategy and sufficient leadership capacity for K–12 STEM education, the report argues. In addition, it finds that relatively little federal funding has historically been targeted toward "catalytic efforts" with the potential to transform STEM education. At the same time, too little attention has been paid to replication and scale-up to disseminate proven programs widely, and too little capacity at key agencies has been devoted to strategy and coordination.
Even facing these challenges, the nation has great strengths on which it can draw, according to the report. First, the United States has the most vibrant and productive STEM community in the world thanks to its colleges and universities, start-up and large companies, and science-rich institutions such as museums and science centers. Second, a growing body of research has illuminated how children learn about STEM, making it possible to devise more effective instructional materials and teaching strategies. Finally, there is a clear bipartisan consensus that has emerged on the need for education reform in general and the importance of STEM education in particular.
The report also praises the state-led Common Core State Standards Initiative for establishing clear, consistent, and higher standards for mathematics and English language arts education in grades K–12 that can be shared across states. It notes that there is also "considerable interest" in the adoption of similar standards for science, which are essential for improving STEM education. Clear, shared standards for science and math would help all actors in the system set and achieve goals.
To bring its two-pronged strategy of "prepare and inspire" to fruition, the report offers five recommendations:
Improve Federal coordination and leadership on STEM education.
Support the state-led movement to ensure that the nation adopts a common baseline for what students learn in STEM.
Cultivate, recruit, and reward STEM teachers who prepare and inspire students.
Create STEM-related experiences that excite and interest students of all backgrounds.
Support states and school districts in their efforts to transform schools into vibrant STEM learning environments.
The council believes that many of its recommendations can be carried out with existing federal funding and through existing programs, although it acknowledges that new authorities may be required in certain cases. Fully funding the recommendations could cost up to approximately $1 billion per year—only 2 percent of the total federal spending on K–12 education.
The complete report is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-stemed-report.pdf.
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