Even though Jeremy Corbyn and the men and women who support him are often shabby and occasionally reactionary figures, the rarest criticism you hear of them is criticism from the left. Political commentary in Britain runs like water through pipes. Conventional opinion holds that if you are left wing, you support the Labour leadership, and if you are not, you don't. Even though there is an essential left case to be made against the degeneration of Labour into conspiracy theory and personality cults, authors who make it are ignored because they do not fit into the familiar pattern. More than any formal censorship, this control of thinking is the most effective way of shutting out new arguments. Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts' Corbynism: A critical approach is a rare left-wing critique by authors who are virtual Marxists. Inevitably, it has been all but ignored, which is a fault that needs remedying as this rich and urgent work deserves better than that.
I and many others have argued for years that 'the left', or to be fair the voices that dominate the far left in politics and culture, became a regressive force after the Cold War. Its leaders allied with and excused regimes that were the enemies of socialism, feminism and liberalism: Iran, Saddam's Iraq, Milosevic's Serbia, Putin's Russia, and Hamas and other clerical fascist versions of Islam. Why its supporters did not care, or even notice, is a question with many answers. Bolton and Pitts' are worth reading because theirs is an explanation not just of the Corbyn Labour party but of the post-crash West.
Since 2008, the most strikingly successful political movements have evaded the world as it is by blaming voters' troubles on a simple enemy. David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg said that the disaster was the result of overspending rather than the collapse of the financial system. As surely as Viktor Orban or Donald Trump, they told a story about an honest, hardworking people, who had been betrayed by a liberal elite (in our case the Labour government) which had lavished their money on scroungers who lay in bed while the plain folk were shaken awake by the alarm that called them to work.
The left wing variant of the undeserving poor, whose greed threatened the honest and cozened people, was the one per cent – the bankers and speculators – who had so rigged the world that it operated as a conspiracy against everyone else. The Brexiters shifted the pieces around the board. Their evil geniuses were no longer members of the Labour government or the organisers of neo-liberalism but the Eurocrats. The undeserving minority, on whose behalf they were rigging the system, was no longer scroungers or the one per cent but migrants who were undercutting wages and taking money from the NHS.
All these reactions to the crash involve a flight from complexity. Just as supporters of Brexit cannot acknowledge that Britain is a part of an interdependent European economy, and that tearing up the compromises our position in the world entails will create enduring damage, so Corbynism has freed the left from thinking about the compromises living in a part-capitalist economy have always imposed on it. Until now, no centre-left government has been able to escape the constraints, and few have wanted to. They have had to acknowledge that there is no conceivable way to find the taxes to fund a decent society without allowing profit and attending to the needs of the business. The two are dependent on each other and conflict with each other. Neither side can walk away. The right must accept in turn that a productive economy rests on a well-educated and healthy workforce, which the wealthy must help pay for, as well as on trading relationships with neighbours, which limit sovereignty.
To say the far left has never understood interdependence is to understate the case. As surely as the Brexit right, its sole reason for existing is its belief that no compromise is desirable, and its function is to "take back control" from the bankers and the parasites.
As Bolton and Pitts observe, the result is a highly personalised and moralistic politics, a thousand miles away from rigorous economic and class analysis. The hook-nosed "Rothschild" is the left's version of the Polish plumber or layabout scrounger. The symmetry with the Trump and the Brexit movement is close to perfect. All oppose the EU. All admire Putin, and in the case of Arron Banks and Seumas Milne pay homage to the Russian state. We should not be surprised. If you believe that liberal democracy is a sham – a conspiracy that hides the machinations of the real rulers of the world – any attack on the liberal order is better than none.
In their best passage, the authors describe why a dim, unprepossessing man with no noticeable characteristics beyond obstinacy and self-righteousness can inspire the level of devotion as a Trump or a Putin. The true face of the 21st century far left in Britain is George Galloway. Say what you will about him, and I have said much, he is honest in his own way. He was not just against war in Iraq but for Saddam Hussein. Corbyn produced propaganda for the Iranian state but was he for its oppression of women, gays and religious and ethnic minorities? Unlike Galloway he is too slippery to say. The trick of his supporters has been to alchemise his slyness into modesty. They have elevated the leader's personal goodness and placed him 'in a higher realm above the tainted institutions and processes of liberal democracy'. If you support him, you too are good. And if you are good you cannot possibly be an antisemite or misogynist or a supporter of barbaric dictators – even though to outsiders you give every appearance of being all of these things.
Yanis Varoufakis leaves the ministry of finance after relinquishing his post yesterday, with his wife Danae on the pillion of his motorbike.
Where is the wife's helmet?
Graffiti by none other than Lord Byron on the columns of Temple of Posidon in Cape Sounio, Attica, Greece.


Everett Philharmonic's Spring Fling with Duke Ellington!
Oooh - so sorry you missed the deadline, but please call Cami at 206-270-9729 to see if you can be put on a wait list!
Join the Everett Philharmonic Orchestra in it's third annual Spring Fling Gala Event. Maestro Paul-Elliott Cobbs will lead the orchestra in the performance of Ellington favorites featuring the scintillating voice of Laurie Swanson.
A champagne reception and no host bar will begin the evening's festivities complete with the delightful music of the Curators live combo.
A Silent Auction will include adventure, gourmet food and beverage items, show tickets & restaurant gift certificates, items for gardeners, readers, music lovers, and some very special surprises!
...Bacon wrapped Roasted Port Center Loin with maple buerre blanc, pistachio crusted roasted red pepper rice cake and seasonal vegetables.
...Garlic roasted "airline cut" Chicken Breast with chervil Chardonnay beurre blanc, pistachio crusted roasted red pepper rice cake and seasonal vegetables.
...Minted Sweet Pea Ravioli with pea shoot saute, white wine butter sauce and chive finishing oil.
Our special guest Emcee, Dave Beck of KUOW will heighten the event's festivities!
To continue the evening's festivities the Curators will ramp up their tempos for your dancing pleasure!
An evening to remember without question!


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Movie review: It's another, better 'Murder on the Orient Express'
Ed Symkus More Content Now
Nov 8, 2017 at 11:29 AM Nov 8, 2017 at 11:29 AM
Here�s what you need to know about Hercule Poirot: He�s from Belgium; he�s a foodie, and his soft-boiled eggs must be perfect; he�s a natty dresser, but he�s got a silly moustache and a teeny sprig of a beard; he has a special gift for solving crimes, and often works as a consultant for the police; he loves examining details, even if it�s just during a conversation with another person; he reads a lot of Dickens; he was in love with one woman, long ago; and he considers himself �probably the greatest detective in the world.�
But near the beginning of this third English-language filmed version of Agatha Christie�s �Murder on the Orient Express,� set in 1934, Poirot (Kenneth Branagh, who also directed), is tired, and in need of a holiday. A boat trip from Jerusalem � where he�s just solved a case involving a rabbi, and priest, and an imam � lands him in Istanbul, where the aroma of fresh baked goods starts to calm him down.
Well, even if you haven�t seen an earlier version of the film or read the book, you just know his euphoria isn�t going to last long. An urgent message from London, where his expertise is needed, results in him getting the last available spot on the luxury train the Orient Express, which will zig-zag its way east.
This signals the start of both the story and, just like in the 1974 version, the introduction of numerous famous faces playing oddball passengers. Among them, there�s the professor (Willem Dafoe), the princess (Judi Dench), the doctor (Leslie Odom Jr.), the husband-hunter (Michelle Pfeiffer), the �art dealer� (Johnny Depp), a woman with a dark past (Penelope Cruz), many more.
The only spoiler-ish bit of story that will be revealed here is that one of them is concerned about personal safety. The wealthy, nasty, pushy, gun-toting Edward Ratchett (Depp) approaches the cool and calm Poirot, confesses that he�s new in the business of dealing art, that a couple of fake paintings might possibly have been sold through him, and that some angry customers might be after him. He tries to hire Poirot for protection.
But Poirot, who prides himself not only on the ability to always know right from wrong, refuses. �No,� he says. �I detect criminals, I do not protect them.�
The plot doesn�t just thicken, it erupts. There�s an avalanche, and the train is partially derailed and stuck on a wooden trestle high up in a snowy mountain range. While everyone is waiting to be rescued, wouldn�t you know it, there�s a murder, involving multiple stab wounds, late at night, right there on, as the title suggests, the Orient Express.
It�s up to Poirot, who thought he�d find some much-needed rest on this journey, to get cracking on whodunnit. And it�s at this point that viewers start meeting and getting to know the passengers, all of whom Poirot now considers suspects, through his eyes, as he interviews them one at a time.
With the relatively small train � an engine and four cars � stuck in the mountains, the film gives us a cramped setting, which adds to the claustrophobic mood of the piece. But Branagh, as director, regularly pulls his cameras outside, initially showing the train churning through the isolated terrain, now showing some of the characters wandering around in the snow to pass the time.
This is a classic and clever story, although there are a few moments where it seems to move a bit slowly. Poirot finds �a riot of clues, dropped conveniently,� and keeps pushing onward in his investigation. Again, if you haven�t seen an earlier version of the film or read the book, you�ll never figure out the mystery before he does. The most fun of all is watching Branagh�s robust performance which, like his Belgian accent, never wavers. Or maybe the most fun is staring at that silly moustache, which I expected to come to life and start twirling on its own at any moment.
� Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.
�Murder on the Orient Express�
Written by Michael Green; directed by Kenneth Branagh
With Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp
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Linked Learning is an approach to education that transforms the traditional high school experience by bringing together strong academics, a demanding technical education, and real-world experiences to help students gain an advantage in high school, post-secondary education, and careers.
Linked Learning prepares students to succeed in college, careers, and life.
Linked Learning prepares high school students for a full range of post-graduation opportunities.
Linked Learning connects academics to real-world applications.
Linked Learning improves student engagement.
Linked Learning provides a teaching and learning environment that offers students the opportunity to authentically apply the Common Core State Standards in real-world contexts, ultimately leading to increased engagement and achievement.
Rigorous Academics: A rigorous academic component that includes English, mathematics, science, history, and other pertinent courses.
Real-world Technical Skills: A technical component of three or more courses that help students gain the knowledge and skills that can give them a head start on a successful career.
Work-based Learning: Students engage in job shadowing, apprenticeships, and internships, before they leave high school, helping them understand all the possible choices available to them.
Personalized support: Personalized support services, including resume and interview counseling and supplemental instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics, that help students master critical academic and technical components of their education.
Selecting a pathway in high school does not determine a student's lifelong career path. Instead it enhances the high school experience by exposing students to a range of professions and develops students' skills and confidence, which are needed in any profession.
Students gain real-world experience and make connections with professionals in their field of interest through paid internships, job shadowing, and apprenticeships.
Linked Learning includes a college-preparatory curriculum that helps meet the necessary A-G requirements for admission to a UC or CSU.
Linked Learning prepares high school students for a full range of post-graduation opportunities and ensures that students gain both academic and technical skills, since both are necessary for a complete education and a successful future.


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When small stores go out of business, owners ask: Now what?
By Joyce M. Rosenberg, ASSOCIATED PRESS April 22, 2017
1of5In this Tuesday, April 11, 2017, photo, Reilly Starr, right, founder and president of Dapper Dame Cleaners & Laundry, talks with client Dahlia Gutierrez, in New York. Gutierrez said she has seen a 30-percent drop in her bill using Starr's laundry service. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)Photo: Bebeto Matthews, STF
2of5In this Tuesday, April 11, 2017, photo, Reilly Starr, right, founder and president of Dapper Dame, a dry cleaning and laundry business, talks with client Dahlia Gutierrez, in New York. Gutierrez said she has seen a 30-percent drop in her bill using Starr's laundry service. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)Photo: Bebeto Matthews, STF
3of5In this Tuesday, April 11, 2017, photo, Reilly Starr, founder and president of Dapper Dame, a dry cleaning and laundry business, poses for a picture at Manhattan's Sutton Place, near where some of her clients live, in New York. Starr launched in early 2017 without a storefront; using an app to connect with customers and contracting with a wholesale dry cleaning company to do the work. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)Photo: Bebeto Matthews, STF
4of5ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2017 AND THEREAFTER-In this Feb. 1, 2017, photo, Raymond Murray gets a visit from his lawyer, Robert Seewald, left, at his home in New York. What Murray believed was a mortgage restructuring was actually a sale, meticulously documented in the paperwork, making the fight to undo it a legal challenge. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)Photo: Bebeto Matthews, STF
5of5ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2017 AND THEREAFTER-In this Feb. 1, 2017, photo, Raymond Murray gets a visit from his lawyer, Robert Seewald, right, at his home in New York. Murray's lawyers are still fighting in court for the return of the title to his home. Meantime, he worries his neighbors will learn he was scammed and he says it's hard to trust people now, after his bitter experience with the scammers. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)Photo: Bebeto Matthews, STF
NEW YORK - When small or independent retailers post "Going Out of Business" signs, many ask themselves, now what? That may mean trying again - or forging ahead on a completely different career path.
Reilly Starr and her business partner had opened Naked Sports Gear, a Manhattan store that sold athletic wear for women, in 2011. They were successful, but faced increasing competition and high rent and other overhead. Three years ago, an underwear company sued over the word "naked." Starr and her partner fought it until late last year. Then, believing the workout wear fad was fading, they accepted a cash settlement and wound down the business.
"We were part of a trend and we seized that trend at the right time, and we rode it out as long as we could," Starr says. But she didn't see opening another store as an option: "Brick and mortar is the worst thing you can do in New York."
Her next move was instead starting a service company, a dry cleaning and laundry business called Dapper Dame whose target customers are women. She launched a month ago without a storefront, using an app to connect with customers and contracting with a wholesale dry cleaning company to do the work.
Starr had the idea for a women's dry cleaner in her head for some time. That kind of thinking about "what's next" is a strategy that even successful store owners should be using, says Bob Phibbs, CEO of the Retail Doctor, a consulting company based in Coxsackie, N.Y. He points out that stores are closing in cities, big malls and small local shopping centers.
"You need to have a Plan B, or at least be open to what else could be out there," Phibbs says.
Stores fail for many reasons, and retailers of all sizes have suffered because people are shopping more online and less in physical stores. Small retailers can be more vulnerable than the bigger players because they don't have the big cash reserves or the same negotiating power with vendors.
Some business owners who close their stores but want to stay in retail transition to online-only selling. Leigh Meadows-McAlpin had a furniture and home design business for nearly 15 years on King Street, a shopping mecca in Charleston, S.C. As the years went by, overhead including rent kept rising, to the point where she described King Street as "an unreasonably challenging environment to compete" in.
When Meadows-McAlpin decided to shut the store down two years ago, she was at first unsure about what to do next. Her answer was to create a new business focused on interior design.
"It was a very natural transition in some ways to move from a product-based business in which we were promoting consumer goods toward more of a service-based business which capitalizes on my experience," she says.


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Q: Use of needn't in sentences Are the sentences below correct?
Which is more commonly used in BrE? Do you use them both?
Need without "to", are they possible?
I need go to the hospital to get the special treatments.
I needn't go to the hospital to get the special treatments.
Need I go to the hospital to get the special treatments?
Needn't I go to the hospital to get the special treatments?
I've ever heard that "need" with "to" can be used in all verbs, and "need" without "to" Only can be used in the present, if you want to put "need" without "to", I must put "have" after the "need" e.g. I needn't/ need have gone.
Are the facts correct, I await for your explanations, thanks!

A: The question is confusing, here are the sentences:
I need go to the hospital to get the special treatments. [no]
Correction: I need to go to the hospital to get special treatments. [corrected]
I needn't go to the hospital to get the special treatments. [correct]
Need I go to the hospital to get the special treatments? [yes]  More common usage is: Do I need to go or Have I got to go.
Needn't I go to the hospital to get the special treatments? [yes]. Needn't I go means: Do I not have to go? Have I not got to go?. What is often actually said also is: Haven't I got to go etc.?

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Independent fashion boutique Tessies has opened its doors in Hull's Fruit Market just in time to launch its spring and summer collection.
Long-serving employees have been hailed for their 'amazing dedication' after clocking up more than 250 years' combined service at the Hull-based home improvement specialist EYG.
Planning permission has been granted for the next major phase of development in Hull's rejuvenated Fruit Market, including a new head office for Arco, one of the city's leading companies.
Beverley-based hair and beauty spa Sessions House will feature in a new Channel 5 reality series starting tonight, Monday March 18, at 10pm.


My mom is a very crafty and creative person. You can do a lot with a little if you encompass both of these qualities and she does just that.
She simply spray painted the H with chalkboard paint and then let it dry before writing Fall and Halloween messages on it with chalk.
You would never guess what she used to make this fall wreath for our front door.
I will give you a hint...men wear them.
Ok I will tell you. She used men's ties. She found the ties for 15 cents at a store we love called Dirt Cheap. Her creative mind came up with a use them for. She strung the ties on florist wire and created a ruffle effect. She then secured them on the wreath. She added paper mache pumpkins to the wreath which she wrote with a fine point sharpy fall messages like Happy Fall Y'all. The M (for Miller) received a quick paint job that transformed it from white to red. Voila` the simple wreath was transformed to a beautiful fall wreath.
My mom is also adding fall plants to our front porch to go along with the fall decorations. She simply taped off a square with painter's tape on a clay pot she had. She was able to give this old pot some character.
Decorating for the fall does not have to be costly or difficult. Think outside of the box. Find those mystery box items (think of the Masterchef episodes when the contestants are given a mystery box of ingredients and transform them into a masterpiece of a meal) around your house and yard and then use them in creative ways. Most importantly, have fun! Be sure to take a moment and revel in your work.


There's plenty of reasons why you would want and need your freezer to be running at optimum efficiency. Having a freezer that doesn't use energy effectively is not only bad news for the environment but also for your utility bills. It's also very easy to forget that when you buy a new freezer, the price of the unit isn't the only financial commitment you're making but you're also committing to how much it costs to run.
First, you need to figure out how many watts the unit uses and multiply that by the number of hours the appliance is being used every day. Since a freezer is going to be on all day every day you will multiply by 24 hours.
The next step is converting these watt-hours into kilowatt-hours. This is very easily done. You simply take the figure from the previous step and divide it by 1,000.
The next calculation depends on the scale that you want to measure your energy usage over. If you want to know how much you use per month, you would multiply the previous figure by 30 days for example. If you wanted to know consumption over a week, you would multiply the figure by 7 for the 7 days of the week.
The final step is taking the cost of your electricity and multiplying that by the most recent figure you have. Let's take the average price of a kWh in the UK at the time of writing, which is about 12.5p per kWh. You take your previous figure and multiply it by the price.
That is how you calculate the energy consumption of your freezer and any other electrical appliance that you use.
HOWEVER, this will give an overinflated figure as this assumes that your freezer is actively working at full capacity at all times which of course, it won't be. Once your freezer has reached the right temperature, it isn't constantly working at full capacity to keep it at that temperature.
So, if you were to take that £4.20 a week figure and multiply it by 52 to give you the cost of the whole year, your result would be £218.40. Your freezer won't cost that much to run a year. The real figure is closer to between £45 to £60 a year for modern units.
These calculations are still useful for freezers however as you can use it at the pre-purchase stage to compare between different units. Whilst it's not what it will actually cost to run for a year, these figures are still relative to each other.
Many manufacturers will already have an estimate of the wattage or kWh it will use in a year so do also look out for those before you break your calculator out, but if that information is not available to you this is a good way of conducting your own research.
We carry a wide range of efficient freezers on our website, all from our refrigeration section. Shop our full range of freezers here and don't miss our other refrigeration ranges including our fridges, fridge freezers and American-Style fridge freezers. We also carry wine coolers on our website as well as expansive cooking, extraction and laundry sections amongst our other lines. With appliances from top, market-leading brands from global businesses to local British manufacturers, we have it all on our website. Buy online today!


Join us on Tuesday, May 29th, at 6pm in our Private Room for another fun night as we explorer some wines from South America!
$35 per person, tax and gratuity not included. Comes with a small taste of 5 South American wines, and snack plate!
Reservations required. Limited seating available. First come first serve if not paid in advance. $35 per person not including tax and gratuity.
Call (972) 899-9820 or make your reservation below.
And who are you going to bring with you this time?


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Home » SFF Reviews » Call of Fire: Searching for friends in the shadow of Mount Rainier
Call of Fire: Searching for friends in the shadow of Mount Rainier
Reposting to include Marion's new review.
Call of Fire by Beth Cato
Call of Fire (2017) continues the adventures of Ingrid Carmichael, introduced in Breath of Earth as a secretary at a geomancy school with tremendous hidden powers and who, in this second BLOOD OF EARTH novel, is on the run from an ambitious ambassador with deadly secrets. This time, Beth Cato takes Ingrid, Lee Fong, Cy Jennings, and the brilliant engineer Mr. Fenris up the Pacific Northwest coastline to Portland and Seattle, where the Japanese influence of the United Pacific conglomeration is inescapable.
Ambassador Blum, a mysterious woman who can change her physical form and practices a dark form of reiki, desperately wants to get her hands on Ingrid, which forebodes all kinds of suffering, much like what her father was revealed to have been subject to in Breath of Earth. And since seismic activity is triggered when Ingrid experiences pain, with a correlation between the strength of the tremors and the intensity of the pain, she'd rather stay away from such sensations, thank you very much. When Fenris and Lee are kidnapped in Portland, along with Fenris' prized airship, another UP ambassador makes himself known: Teddy Roosevelt grants Ingrid and Cy safe passage to Seattle on his own craft, hinting that certain luxuries and protections could be granted to Ingrid should she choose to side with his personal motivations and, nominally, America's interests.
Meanwhile, Ingrid's beloved guardian Mr. Sakaguchi is missing, having been taken hostage by Lee's uncle; there are all kinds of riots and hate crimes being committed by white Americans against Chinese in seemingly every city along the West Coast; Ingrid is hot on the trail of hints and revelations about her father's past, previously unknown to her; Lee's true identity and heritage come into play; Cato scratches the surface of Cy's past and difficult relationship with his family while deepening the attachment between Ingrid and Cy; there's the ongoing war between the United Pacific and its enemies, including an insurrection in India and the Japanese encroachment into China; and quite a few new kinds of "fantastic" make appearances, including a qi'lin and a swarm of sylphs. If that all sounds like a lot, it is — some of it ends up feeling extraneous or remarkably coincidental, and some of it isn't given enough page time to support its importance to Call of Fire.
Cato's research into early-twentieth-century PNW towns and history, Japanese language and culture, and mythical creatures, does pay off. The mud-strewn streets of Portland and Seattle feel fully lived-in, the sudden gold-rush fever which sweeps region carries realistic consequences not only for Ingrid's little band but for international relations, and details like Japanese architecture and speech are authentic. (There's little to no translation of phrases like "domo arigato" or "ohayou gozaimasu," but there's enough context for readers to pick up on the meaning, and it's nothing that a quick Internet search can't clarify.) Her own inventions like geomancy, kermanite, and the inclusion of thunderbirds and other giant magical beasts add richness to the story, as well.
Certain aspects of Call of Fire fall a little flat, though. Nothing major, but it's in the small details: a few anachronistic terms and attitudes, a touch too much narrative meandering, a lack of character focus. The novel barely spans the passage of a week, and yet it somehow feels simultaneously too rushed and too contemplative, and spends quite a lot of time caught up in Ingrid's thought process as she takes strides toward being more actively in control of her life and exploring the limits of her powers. She's fascinating, but I wanted other characters to be given similar opportunities for growth and development. Teddy Roosevelt was, by all historical accounts, a force of nature, and Cato does a great job of exploring his complex and sometimes contradictory behavior in a fictional setting. I wish he'd been featured more heavily, but I also wish the same about Lee and Fenris, particularly because the short amount of time Ingrid spends with those two is overshadowed by the amount of time she and Cy spend together.
The last few chapters of Call of Fire are spectacularly dramatic, setting up what I hope will be another high-stakes adventure in the vein of Breath of Earth. Surprising revelations about Ingrid's lineage and personal history have the potential to provide an entire novel's worth of personal drama and character development, and the political turmoil could threaten the entire world should it reach a boiling point. I definitely want to see where Ingrid's story takes her, and what role she has yet to play in all of this.
Having confronted her villain father and faced the giant two-headed snake that inhabits the San Andreas fault, geomancer Ingrid Carmichael and her friends Cypress, Lee and Mr. Fenris are now on the run — or on the fly, heading their airship to Seattle in search of allies and answers. Behind Ingrid is the army and a powerful dangerous being called Ambassador Blum, whose magic may rival Ingrid's own. Ingrid doesn't know much about her own magic, and part of the quest to Seattle is to uncover what she can about her heritage.
2017's Call of Fire picks up nearly immediately after the first book, Breath of Earth, ended. On their way to Seattle, Ingrid and her friends are caught up in the Klondike gold rush although it has a different name here. The rush into the territory of Alaska puts airships at risk and while Cy and Ingrid are earthbound, their airship the Palmetto Bug is hijacked with Lee and Fenris aboard.
In spite of the various risks our heroes face, the pace of this book was leisurely, sometimes a bit too much so. Certainly, part of the story's purpose is to broaden even more the view of the elaborate alternate world Cato has created. Anti-Chinese sentiment has flooded Seattle, just like San Francisco, and all the people who live in the city's Chinatown are at risk. Ingrid's mentor and foster father Mr. Sakaguchi assured her that the Ambassador Theodore Roosevelt (there are twelve ambassadors, more powerful than presidents or prime ministers) would help them. When they meet him, his help seems limited — and self-serving. And Ingrid can't shake the ever more powerful Ambassador Blum, who acts like she and Ingrid have a magical connection.
In Seattle, Ingrid uncovers more news about her father, and frankly, most of it is bad. One breadcrumb, though, leads to an important clue about her ancestry — in Hawaii. Cy also uncovers some family news, and most of it is bad too. In one case, something that should be good news is catastrophic to his pacifist sensibilities.
The story continues to be interesting but Call of Fire's pacing is a drawback. Many of the events from the first book — such as the attack on the city's geomancers — are echoed here. I never got a visual sense of Seattle to the same degree that I did San Francisco, and most disappointingly, while Ingrid communes with the elemental that lives in Mount Rainier, we never experience it. We never see the angry supernatural thunderbird that attacks an airship either, although Ingrid does commune with it before it's killed. These felt like missed opportunities, a disappointment after the great visuals of the magical creatures in the first book.
Still, there is suspense enough. While Ingrid is successful in the short run, she has the rug pulled out from under her in a big way at the end. Serious questions remain. Can our heroes stop the global slaughter of Chinese people? Will Ingrid be able to embrace her power and be free? I'm committed to reading the third book, Roar of Sky, to find out.
Published August 15, 2017. A resourceful young heroine must protect the world from her enemies—and her own power—in this thrilling sequel to the acclaimed Breath of Earth, an imaginative blend of alternative history, fantasy, science, magic, and adventure. When an earthquake devastates San Francisco in an alternate 1906, the influx of geomantic energy nearly consumes Ingrid Carmichael. Bruised but alive, the young geomancer flees the city with her friends, Cy, Lee, and Fenris. She is desperate to escape Ambassador Blum, the cunning and dangerous bureaucrat who wants to use Ingrid's formidable powers to help the Unified Pacific—the confederation of the United States and Japan—achieve world domination. To stop them, Ingrid must learn more about the god-like magic she inherited from her estranged father—the man who set off the quake that obliterated San Francisco. When Lee and Fenris are kidnapped in Portland, Ingrid and Cy are forced to ally themselves with another ambassador from the Unified Pacific: the powerful and mysterious Theodore Roosevelt. But even TR's influence may not be enough to save them when they reach Seattle, where the magnificent peak of Mount Rainier looms. Discovering more about herself and her abilities, Ingrid is all too aware that she may prove to be the fuse to light the long-dormant volcano . . . and a war that will sweep the world.
November 11th, 2021. Jana Nyman and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Beth Cato | SFF Reviews | no comments |


Mind that if you are travelling!
During the early morning of Saturday 24th of October to Sunday 25th, at 3am we change our clocks to 2. Although not used by the majority of the world's countries, daylight saving time is common in the Western world.
This time change is done to take advantage of daylight hours and energy savings (which can reach 5%), but also to reduce energy consumption, pollution and it is always beneficial to the health.
Another alleged benefit of the time change is to reduce the number of traffic accidents, thanks to a more natural light and better lighting.
The change in daylight hours can have effects on circadian rhythms – are cycles of 24 hours in which organs fulfill their functions and are adapted to daylight and night – affecting some people in their sleep patterns and, consequently, mood.
People can present symptoms of drowsiness, irritability, nervousness, headaches and difficulty maintaining attention and concentration; anyways, it is not the usual.
Avoid long naps for you to overcome fatigue.
Keep a routine in your schedule of meals and go to sleep.
Avoiding stimulants like caffeine and drug, alcohol and tobacco.
Practice exercise will help you enjoy a good mood.
Take advantage of daylight hours as possible, reducing your activity late in the day.
In case you are travelling, be aware of this changes of time.


Check out this week's Geeky News featuring our very own George Jaray. Topics this week including a sneak peek at our new space, gaming news, movie releases, Amazon advancements, and flying taxis – yes, it's a thing.
P.S. Bruce Willis, this one's for you.
If you like the video, are excited about these updates, or think we're missing something, let us know in the comments section below the video.


The scale and speed of environmental collapse is beyond imagination.
Which of these would you name as the world's most pressing environmental issue? Climate breakdown, air pollution, water loss, plastic waste or urban expansion? My answer is none of the above. Almost incredibly, I believe that climate breakdown takes third place, behind two issues that receive only a fraction of the attention.
This is not to downgrade the danger presented by global heating – on the contrary, it presents an existential threat. It is simply that I have come to realise that two other issues have such huge and immediate impacts that they push even this great predicament into third place.
One is industrial fishing, which, all over the blue planet, is now causing systemic ecological collapse. The other is the erasure of non-human life from the land by farming. ……..
This entry was posted in Environment, Uncategorized on November 1, 2017 by BfM_admin.


text:
/* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.flowable.engine.common.impl.el;

import java.beans.FeatureDescriptor;
import java.util.Iterator;

import org.flowable.engine.common.api.variable.VariableContainer;
import org.flowable.engine.common.impl.javax.el.ELContext;
import org.flowable.engine.common.impl.javax.el.ELResolver;

/**
 * @author Joram Barrez
 */
public class VariableContainerELResolver extends ELResolver {

    protected VariableContainer variableContainer;

    public VariableContainerELResolver(VariableContainer variableContainer) {
        this.variableContainer = variableContainer;
    }

    @Override
    public Object getValue(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
        if (base == null) {
            String variable = (String) property; // according to javadoc, can only be a String
            if (variableContainer.hasVariable(variable)) {
                context.setPropertyResolved(true); // if not set, the next elResolver in the CompositeElResolver will be called
                return variableContainer.getVariable(variable);
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isReadOnly(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
        if (base == null) {
            String variable = (String) property;
            return !variableContainer.hasVariable(variable);
        }
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public void setValue(ELContext context, Object base, Object property, Object value) {
        if (base == null) {
            String variable = (String) property;
            if (variableContainer.hasVariable(variable)) {
                variableContainer.setVariable(variable, value);
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Class<?> getCommonPropertyType(ELContext arg0, Object arg1) {
        return Object.class;
    }

    @Override
    public Iterator<FeatureDescriptor> getFeatureDescriptors(ELContext arg0, Object arg1) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public Class<?> getType(ELContext arg0, Object arg1, Object arg2) {
        return Object.class;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Exclusive Feature: Concentrated solar power innovators, Part I
The Rotem Industrial research facility includes a 12,000 m2 heliostat field from BrightSource Energy, which features 1641 2.25m x 3.25m reflectors and a 60 metre-high tower holding the 15 metre receiver. Photo credit: David Appleyard.
Solar Thermal: Spain shows the way forward for CSP
Solar thermal power, or concentrated solar power (CSP), can make a sizeable impact on the world's renewable energy industry, if governments across the globe can maintain supporting policies, says a new report by alternative energy analysts GBI Research.
CSP: Developments in heat transfer and storage materials
Photovoltaics (PV) is the dominant solar technology with more than 12 GW installed in 2010 alone, but PV (not to mention wind power) has inherent limitations of intermittency. This gives CSP a distinct advantage, and current advances in heat transfer and storage could increase the implementation of CSP as a significant renewable resource.
CSP - is it time?
In our new blogs, Paula Mints reports back from the CSP Project Development USA Conference, and Elizabeth Block gives her take on the European Future Energy Forum (EFEF).
REFocus contributor David Appleyard was recently invited by the Israeli Ministry of Economy to witness some of the country's innovators in concentrating solar power. One such specialist is Rotem Industries Ltd., a high-tech complex providing an environment for scientific research and technology development.
In the wilds of the Negev desert, Rotem Industrial Park in Israel has nurtured some of the world's best-known and commercial concentrating solar thermal power technologies. Unashamedly modelling itself on California's Silicon Valley in offering a conducive and collegiate research and development environment for cutting-edge clean tech, it's a model that nonetheless appears to yield results.
Approaching the Rotem technology institute across a Spartan and sun-baked landscape deep within Israel's forbidding Negev desert, the ancient ruins of a nearby citadel evoke a sense of mystery. Within though, and all thoughts of ancient ruins are immediately confined firmly to the past as cutting-edge concentrating solar power technology gleams under the blazing sun, generating clean, emission-free power for the modern age.
Formally established in the 1980s, Rotem employs around 150 people and the green energy centre is headed up by Meni Maor, director of business development. He explains that the Rotem Industrial Park, established by Rotem Industries Ltd., is a high-tech complex providing an environment for scientific research and technology development. Designed as an incubator for everything from tech start-ups right through to marketing, Rotem Industrial Park enjoys preferred area status from the government.
Naturally, this equates to substantial grant and tax benefit opportunities, but every developer at the park is also provided with a suite of technological services and management support covering contacts with the local and government authorities and the receipt of the appropriate permits and incentives. Designed to free developers from the bureaucracy, red tape and administrative difficulties that often accompany industrial start-ups, the aim is to allow developers' focus to remain exclusively on the project at hand. According to Maor, every technology and economic organisation interested in the application and marketing of scientific discoveries in Israel, as well as the Israeli government, support Rotem. "We invite you to bring your ideas and initiatives – everything else needed for successful implementation is already in place," he stated.
Maor also highlights the strong social ties that have developed in the close-knit community, which he says arguably enhances the distribution of information to ensure that new technological developments are securely and quickly shared among the various clean-tech residents to further support commercial development.
Indeed, Moar happily acknowledges that the site, near Dimona some 160 km from Jerusalem in the South of Israel, has been carefully modelled on California's Silicon Valley, offering a geographically concentrated locus with industrial and supply infrastructure and associated professional and technical networks.
In this case the free flow of ideas between industrial scientists, academia, engineers and consultants comes from fields as diverse as materials engineering, electronics, chemicals, computers, physics, and quality control. The Park does have a number of key technology centres, covering fields such as medical imaging, crystals growth and processing, radiation detection and computational mechanics, as well as the Renewable Energy Innovation Center. It's no surprise to learn this centre is actively engaged in technology incubation, research, development, industrialization and commercialization of renewable energy technologies.
Rotem's Renewable Energy Innovation Center
Rotem offers four principal activities for renewable energy technology players, including provision of hosting, supporting and technological outsourcing services to entrepreneurs and early stage technologies. Another key platform is the Renewable Energy Testing and Demonstration Center, home to the glittering structures that can be seen capturing the sun's energy all around the squat concrete buildings that form the institute's various laboratories and offices.
The solar demonstration, testing and technology validation center (SDTV) occupies an area of over 60,000 m2 in the Rotem Industrial Park, where it is estimated that over 15 different solar technologies will be hosted for demonstration, testing and verification purposes. Each technology will be installed in a 1000 – 20,000 m2 plot.
Within the green energy R&D centre Maor says a range of capabilities and expertise is available, including mechanical engineering, thermodynamics and computational simulations; metallurgy and materials Knowledge Centers and laboratories; the Thermal Solar Energy Applications Technological Center and Hydrogen Storage Research Center; meteorology; and, optics and coating laboratories, among others.
The centre also provides professional support for the promotion and establishment of solar power projects as well as its so-called Horizon GreenTech Ventures, an incubation programme for seed-early stage technologies in the green energy domain.
Formed by a 2011 partnership between Alstom SA, Rotem Industries and Gefen Biomed Investments, Horizon GreenTech ventures' mission is to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial green energy technology companies by providing initial funding, technological and business support, industrial orientation, resources and other services.
Creating a joint venture to finance and support renewable energy start-ups, Alstom has a 50% share, Gefen holds 30% and Rotem has 20%. Initially expectations had been to finance some 10 business-incubation projects in three-four years but Maor explains that this target had been reached within two and a half years. Maor suggests a typical timeframe of 1-3 years to develop a feasible product from seed technology with Alstom set for investment and a likely first mover role in any emerging technology.
Among companies nurtured by the Horizon programme is SunBoost, a PV technology with a novel optical collector that stands between the rows of panels reflecting light onto their surface. The company has contracted and is installing its first pilot plant – a 50 kWp plant near Ashkelon in Israel, in a demonstration project that its backers say should deliver a 15% increase in annual electricity production over a comparable PV project.
Alstom, whose power and energy assets are now being acquired by GE, says it chose Israel "because the country already has one of the world's most advanced technology industries in renewable and alternative energy sources". The initiative was also in line with Alstom's global innovation strategy and complemented other business acquisitions designed to strengthen the company's position in sectors such as concentrated solar power, energy storage and grid stability.
Alstom's subsequent scouting for novel technologies in Israel resulted in the execution of an international cooperation agreement with the Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel, signed in 2013. The agreement enables the support of the Ministry of Economy on joint R&D projects and enables Israeli entities access to a leading energy technology player.
Israel's Ministry of Energy and Water Resources has also supported the site in other ways. The Ministry chose a number of locations for commercial solar thermal and PV power plants in Israel with capacities of at least 50 MW or more. Four out of seven sites designated as feasible by Geo-Prospect Ltd., the company chosen to find land for the projects, are located in Dimona and the wider Mishor-Yamin area with a collective development area of some 10 million m2. Sites include one of around 6,000 acres at Dimona as well as a 2000 acre site in an industrial area west of Dimona and a railway loop east of Dimona of 5,000 acres. Other sites include about 6,000 acres southwest of the Rotem park and the current site of the park itself, which covers around 200 ha having been expanded. In 2009 the Ministry defined these areas as a national priority for the establishment of renewable energy and with good reason, the Mishor Yamin region is ideal for solar power facilities.
Rotem Industries and the Dimona Municipality are planning to establish a joint activity in order to development "in the near future" while the Ministry continues to promote programmes to expand the supply side of renewable energy development.
Maor notes that some 500 MW of solar capacity is planned for the region in the next five years and he is optimistic that the bulk of this capacity will be concentrating solar thermal though the projects are currently still in the panning process, which is expected to take at least another year to finalise.
Alstom had previously won the €450 million tender to design, build and operate a 121 MW solar thermal power plant at Ashalim the Western Negev in partnership with Brightsource Energy - having formed the Magalim consortium for the purpose. The Ashalim plant is due for completion in early 2017 at a total cost of some $851 million (€625 million). Megalim Solar Power Ltd - a special purpose company formed by Alstom (25.05%), BrightSource (25.05%), and NOY Infrastructure & Energy Investment Fund (49.9%) – has obtained financing from the European Investment Bank and the Bank Hapoalim for the project and announced financial close in July last year.
Located on a 3.15 km2 site in the Negev desert, more than 50,000 tracking heliostats will reflect sunlight onto a receiver on a 240-metre-high tower. On the financial closure, David Ramm, chairman and CEO of BrightSource Energy, said: "This is the first in what we expect will be a number of strategic partnerships with Alstom to leverage the expertise of both firms."
Indeed, BrightSource is a prominent but far from singular success story to have emerged with the support of the Rotem Technology Institute, which still hosts the BrightSource research installation. It is, of course, BrightSource technology which lies at the heart of the Ivanpah concentrating solar thermal power plant in California, in the USA. A joint effort between NRG, Google and BrightSource with Bechtel as EPC contractor, at 392 MW it is the world's largest such project currently operating since its full commissioning in early 2014.
Putting this in context, commenting at the official inauguration of Ivanpah, Ramm noted that "with all three units now delivering power to our customers' specifications, BrightSource has demonstrated its solar power technology at scale". His comments came a scant five years after BrightSource Energy implemented its 6 MWth Luz Power Tower 550 (LPT) solar thermal demonstration facility at the Rotem Industrial Park in June 2008.
This research facility includes a 12,000 m2 heliostat field with 1641 2.25m x 3.25m reflectors and a 60 metre-high tower holding the 15 metre receiver. It was designed to produce superheated steam at 540°C and 140 bar, similar conditions to those found in a typical 100 MW thermal power plant. In order to conserve water, the demonstration plant uses air-cooled condensers for the steam cycle. With their Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) providing the company with the ability to test equipment, materials and procedures as well as construction and operating methods, Luz II Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy, Inc., is responsible for all BrightSource solar technology development, plant design and engineering.
Late 2014, Brightsource followed the Ivanpah headlines by signing a joint venture deal with Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd to build utility-scale CSP plants in China. The venture's first proposal is for two 135 MW CSP plants with storage for the first phase of the Qinghai Delingha Solar Thermal Power Generation Project, majority owned by Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. A further four units without storage are also planned as part of the project. Construction of the first two plants is expected to begin in 2015 and be completed in 2017.
Part II of this features looks at some of the region's other CSP innovators, including Heliofocus.
Energy efficiency • Energy infrastructure • Policy, investment and markets • Solar electricity • Solar heating and cooling
ANUMAKONDA JAGADEESH said
CSP is the future Energy option.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
Note: The majority of comments posted are created by members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those Elsevier Ltd. We are not responsible for any content posted by members of the public or content of any third party sites that are accessible through this site. Any links to third party websites from this website do not amount to any endorsement of that site by the Elsevier Ltd and any use of that site by you is at your own risk. For further information, please refer to our Terms & Conditions.


Birst is the only BI and analytics provider that delivers the platform, management ecosystem and go-to-market process to help companies embed analytics into their product – and in a new webinar, you'll learn firsthand how we helped Vertafore, the leading provider of information solutions to the insurance industry, do just that.
Companies seeking to add analytical insights to their products inevitably must face the same question: should we buy analytics or try to build them ourselves? Too often they make this decision solely based on cost factors—big mistake. The answer is not as easy as simply comparing costs, because key elements may be omitted, strategic decisions might be overlooked and often the decision isn't appropriately matched to the product goals.
To build or to buy. That is the question often faced by companies seeking to add analytical insights to their product: whether to buy analytics or to build it? The answer is not as easy as simply comparing costs, because key elements can be overlooked, strategic decisions may be omitted and hidden costs might be missed.


Cloud Hosting insures your reputation and prevents any loss of business or traffic.
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Easy to use and packed full of great features to manage every aspect of your website and email, our cloud server control panel puts you in control.
Cloud hosting does not rely on one single server to display a website's data. Using fully optimised cloud server clusters to support each other, these resources can be called upon instantly at any time to keep your website up and running.
Why is cloud hosting important?
By choosing cloud hosting all your website pages load faster for your visitors, and in the unlikely event of an issue with one of the cluster's servers, another will instantly and automatically step up to continue powering your website. This insures your reputation and prevents any loss of business or traffic.


get_minus_sign: Get the locale-specific minus sign symbol in rich-iannone/i18n: Internationalization (i18n) Across All the Locales.
Internationalization (i18n) Across All the Locales.
fmt_date_time_standard: Get a localized date-time in a standardized form.
In rich-iannone/i18n: Internationalization (i18n) Across All the Locales.
an optional output locale to use for formatting the input value according to the specified locale's rules. Example locale names include "en_US" for English (United States) and "fr_FR" for French (France). If a locale isn't provided and certain require locale- based formatting then the "en_US" locale is used for this purpose.
rich-iannone/i18n documentation built on Sept. 23, 2018, 12:56 a.m.