Indian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) is an annual engineering college entrance examination in India. At DPIRS students are encouraged to pursue coaching in IIT-JEE. The interested students are given expert training by professionals within the campus.


text:
Ben Wilkinson
poet | critic | writer
Way More Than Luck
Chris Morris's Four Lions
There can be weeks when I find very little to engage on BBC2's The Review Show (formerly Newsnight Review, though the name change seems to have accompanied nothing more than the sickly new colour scheme of its redesigned set), so it was a pleasant surprise to see Chris Morris, Britain's foremost satirist and creator of series The Day Today (1994) and Brass Eye (1997), featured on the show this week, having finished his latest project, a darkly comic film about a bunch of hapless, amateur terrorists based in Sheffield.
I'd almost forgotten about the movie, having last read about Morris's current project when I stumbled across a letter, "The absurd world of Martin Amis", in the Guardian a few years back, in which Morris takes the bestselling author to task for "prowling the thickets of his research [into Islam and terrorism] like a demented flasher".
But as Morris's first film, and given his reputation for dealing with difficult topics (such as drugs, war, paedophilia, and AIDS) with biting satire, sharp observations and prickly wit, Four Lions promises to be impressive. In the meantime, I'm returning to DVDs and online clips from Morris's previous work, particularly the excellent The Day Today. For those who haven't seen it, here from the fifth episode of that series is Morris's rebarbative newsreader character at full tilt, deliberately sparking off a war after an unlikely peace accord in order to capitalise on the ensuing pandemonium with up-to-the-minute news coverage, invasive, sensationalist footage, and even (later in the episode) marketing a CD titled 'Our War', including pop songs inappropriately set to war footage.
film funnies this mad world
Labels: film funnies this mad world
POETRY IN MOTION Why one Reds supporter is committing his love for Liverpool FC to verse Liverpool FC and poetry have a lot of previous – from John Toshack's Gosh It's Tosh collection in the late 70s, to the verse of Dave Kirby and Peter Etherington in the fanzine Red All Over the Land , to the lines written by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, a University of Liverpool graduate, in the aftermath of 2012's Hillsborough findings. Now there's Ben Wilkinson, Reds fan and book critic for The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement , who's compiling a series of poems commemorating the club's legends. "Football is part of the fabric of life, and anything that's important to people finds its way into poetry," he says. "Wilfred Owen's poem 'Disabled' describes a soldier who loses the use of his legs, meaning he can never play football again. Philip Larkin's 'MCMXIV' compares boys queuing to join the army to fans outside Villa Park. These poems have stood th
Michael Hofmann - Changes
Changes Birds singing in the rain, in the dawn chorus, on power lines. Birds knocking on the lawn, and poor mistaken worms answering them ... They take no thought for the morrow, not like you in your new job. - It paid for my flowers, now already stricken in years. The stiff cornflowers bleach, their blue rinse grows out. The marigolds develop a stoop and go bald, orange clowns, straw polls, their petals coming out in fistfuls ... Hard to take you in your new professional pride - a salary, place of work, colleagues, corporate spirit - your new femme d'affaires haircut, hard as nails. Say I must be repressive, afraid of castration, loving the quest better than its fulfilment. - What became of you, bright sparrow, featherhead? poem by Michael Hofmann republished with permission of the author first published in The New Yorker from Acrimony (Faber, 1986) I've loved Hofmann's poetry since I first came across an old copy of what I still think hi
'World is crazier and more of it than we think, incorrigibly plural'. Even if you're not that well-versed in modern British and Irish poetry, chances are you'll still know 'Snow', or a line or two from the poem will seem naggingly familiar. While still in his twenties, Louis MacNeice wrote it in 1935, and since then, it's been a favourite with readers, writers and editors, cropping up in every kind of poetry anthology. Weird, then, that MacNeice's work has often been seen as a footnote to that of his illustrious pal W.H. Auden, when he's so clearly a hugely original poet in his own right. And when, among more recent generations, the likes of Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Don Paterson and Conor O'Callaghan have all cited him as a major influence in their own writing. It's not like 'Snow' was a one hit wonder, either. Despite some of the less exciting – and often lengthy – stuff he wrote in the early 50s, MacNeice only got better, perfecting his moving, atmospheric an
Ben was born in the English Midlands and now lives in Sheffield, Yorkshire. He has won numerous prizes for his poetry including a Northern Writers' Award, the Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition, and an Arts Council England Writer's Grant. Way More Than Luck (Seren, 2018) was highly commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. A second collection is due in 2022.
'Wilkinson's gift for finding the poetry in football terraces as well as crafting lyrical intrigue demonstrate his range and place as an upcoming voice on the UK poetry scene.'
- Poetry Book Society
'The verse is brave, and hugely authentic.'
- Matthew Stewart, Rogue Strands
'Technically adroit, Ben Wilkinson's poems are also willing to wear their heart on their sleeve. A striking collection.'
- Carol Ann Duffy
'Ben Wilkinson is one to watch'
- Nick Laird
'A stylish, poised lyric voice that looks built to last.'
- Paul Farley
'"I can't make you feel what I felt" (David Foster Wallace), one of the epigraphs to For Real, is a challenge to which Wilkinson rises with considerable success.'
- Andrew McCulloch, Times Literary Supplement
Tweets by @BenWilko85
All content copyright of Ben Wilkinson

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Many Christians struggle with their prayer life. Praying Scripture is a form of praying that can help you. In some ways it is very easy, because the Scripture itself is helping you. In other ways, it is difficult because as with anything, it takes time and energy. You will find pursuing praying Scripture will worth the time and energy. May God richly bless your prayer life!


text:
Later Vedic Age
rishi upsc — July 1, 2020 add comment
Later Vedic Culture
The Later Vedic culture is dated to the period between 1000 BCE and 700–600 BCE. The Painted Grey Ware Culture of the Iron Age, which has been identified by archaeologists at many excavated sites, is associated with the Later Vedic culture. This period witnessed political, social, economic complexity and developments.
Fig : Painted Grey Ware
The Late Vedic Texts
The Later Vedic texts were composed after the Rig Veda Samhitas. The Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas were composed after the Rig Veda.
Eastward Expansion of the Aryans
The Aryan speakers expanded from the Punjab to Western Uttar Pradesh in the Ganga Yamuna doab in the Later Vedic period.
The history of ancient India was thus marked by the movement of cultures, and interactions and battles among various groups for territories and resources.
It has been suggested that while the Aryans migrated to the region of eastern part of the Ganga valley, the Indo-Iranians migrated from the region of Iran to the region of Punjab.
The later Vedic texts speak about the region of Kuru Panchala which falls in the Indo- Gangetic divide and the Upper Ganga Valley. The area mentioned as the southeastern boundary of the Aryans in Rig Veda is listed in Aitreya where the Vedic people encountered the local people following Chalcolithic material culture.
In the Upper Ganga valley, the Vedas acquired Munda words indicating that Munda speaking-people lived in the Ganga valley.
The region of Kosala and Videha were the easternmost territories of the Aryan expansion during this period. By the end of the Vedic period Panchala and Videha were Aryanised.
The area beyond this region in the east was seen as an alien territory. In the Atharva Veda, the people of Anga and Magadha (Bihar) were seen as enemies.
Similarly, the Pundras of Bengal and the Andhras were seen as outside the Aryan identity in the Aitreya Brahmana. This suggests that these regions were not influenced by Aryan culture. What we gather is that the process of Aryanization gradually spread from the north-west to the south-east mainly into the Ganga Valley.
Later Vedic Culture and Iron
Iron was an important metal used for implements in this period. It was called syama-ayas or krishna-ayas or the dark metal.
Iron is believed to have played an important role in the conversion of the forests of the Ganga Valley into agricultural lands. By the end of Vedic period, the knowledge of iron had reached eastern Uttar Pradesh and Videha.
Earlier it was believed that iron originated around 700 BCE, but recent research dates the beginning of iron to around 1200 BCE or even earlier.
The early views gave excessive emphasis to iron to the colonization of the Ganga Valley, but new scholarship argues that iron was not the only factor behind the expansion of the population.
Settlements and territories
With the intensification of agriculture, the Later Vedic people led a settled life leading to formation of territorial units.
The term janapada, referring to territory, is found in the Brahmanas dated to ca. 800 BCE. There are more than 1000 sites of painted Grey Ware culture in this area, suggesting that new settlements came up and the Upper Ganga Valley was densely populated.
People lived either in mud-brick houses or houses with wattle and daub walls. The foundations for the towns must have emerged during the later Vedic period.
This was a period of intense interactions. The term nagara, referring to commercial quarters, is found in the later Vedic texts. However, large towns appeared only at the end of the Vedic period.
The sites of Hastinapura and Kausambi are considered proto urban (urban-like) settlements. The material culture of this period shows more diversity and is an improvement over the Early Vedic period.
It can be surmised that there was surplus production to support various classes such as chiefs, princes and priests.
In the Early Vedic Age tribal polities were dominant. The king was elected by assemblies.
In the Later Vedic period the assemblies became less important and the power of the king increased. The influence of assembly called vidhata disappeared, while samiti and sabha continued in the period.
The development of large kingdoms reduced the power of the assemblies.
The Rajan was the leader who led the army in the battle. The concepts of Samrat/Samrajya developed and they suggest the increase in the power and ambition of the king.
The legitimization of kingship became important with the performance of various sacrifices such as vajapeya and rajasuya.
The king developed more control over the territory, people and resources. Purohita, which means 'one who places the king in the forefront', became important in the establishment of polity and kingship. Monarchy developed.
The Rajan became the controller of the social order. Srauta sacrifices (sacrifices to achieve some benefits) were carried out to control the resources. The kings presented cows, horses, chariots, gold, clothes and female slaves to the priest.
The Aitreya Brahamana says that king has to provide 1000 pieces of gold and cattle to the Brahmana who anoints him. Thus the priest became important in the formation of polity and royalty.
The terms such as rashtra, to denote a territory, and rajya, meaning sovereign power appeared. The king received voluntary or compulsory contribution called bali from the people (vis). Such voluntary contributions became tributes.
The development of state level political organization emerged only after 500 BCE, and the Later Vedic society was therefore in transition. Several lineages became more territorial and settled in the Later Vedic Age.
This is evidenced by the term janapada, as we saw earlier. The mid-first millennium BCE had political organisations such as rajya and ganasanghas (oligarchies) and these institutions developed in the later Vedic period. Lineage is a group of people descended from a common ancestor.
As we saw earlier, the clans of Bharatas and Purus combined to form the Kurus, and along with the Panchalas they occupied the central part of the Ganga-Yamuna doab. Panchala territory was in north-western Uttar Pradesh.
The Kuru-Panchalas became one major ethnic group and Hastinapur became their capital. The war between the Kauravas and Pandavas was the theme of the Mahabharata and both of them belonged to the clan of Kurus.
Traditions say that Hastinapur was flooded and the Kuru clan moved to Kausambi near Allahabad. Sacrifices and rituals gained importance in the Later Vedic society.
The king became more independent. Rituals dominated kingship, and this increased the power and influence of the Rajanyas and the Brahmanas, while distancing the king from the vis.
The Asvamedha-yaga involved letting a horse loose into areas where it moved freely; this was an assertion that the authority of the king was recognized, and a battle ensued when the horse was challenged.
The vajapeya ritual involved a chariot race. Such innovative modes of rituals helped to increase the power of the king. The formation of social, distinctions became prominent.
The social transformation in the Later Vedic Period is much more clearly reflected in the references in the Vedic texts. The social divisions of varna became more established.
Fig : Varna System
Teaching was seen as the occupation of the Brahmanas. The wives of Brahmanas and cows were given important status.
Rajanya refers to kshatriyas and they were the warriors and rulers who received bali as tax.
Striking changes took place in the Varna System. There was an increase in the privileges of the two higher classes, the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas at the cost of the Vaisyas and Sudras.
In the Panchavimsa Brahmana, the Kshatriya is placed first, higher than the Brahmana but in the Satapatha Brahmana, the Brahmana is placed higher than Kshatriya.
In later Vedic society the importance of the purohita (priest) is stressed, as mentioned in the Vedic texts. The Kshatriyas challenged Brahmanical supremacy and their exclusive privilege of entering the asramas, a regulated four stage life namely brahmacharya, grihasta, vanaprastha and sanyasa.
The outcome of this was the birth of Jainism, Buddhism and Ajivakam. The system of four Varnas had taken deep root and became rigid in the course of time.
The popularity of rituals helped the Brahmanas to attain power. Brahmanas became important and the kings supported them, although they had conflicts with Rajanyas, the warrior nobles.
The concept of dvija (twice-born) developed and the upanayana (sacred thread) was limited to the upper sections of the society. This ceremony marked the initiation for education.
The fourth varna was denied this privilege and the Gayatri mantra could not be recited by the Sudras.
Women were also denied upanayana and Gayatri mantra. The king asserted his authority over the three varnas.
The Aitreya Brahmana refers to the Brahmana as the seeker of support and he could be removed by king from his position.
Certain craft groups managed to attain higher status. For example, the Rathakaras, the chariot makers, had the right to wear the sacred thread. Vaisya referred to the common people.
They were involved in agriculture, cattle breeding and artisans. Later they became traders. Vaisyas paid tax to the kings. Some social groups were placed in ranking even below the Sudras. However, cross varna marriages did happen.
The idea of gotra emerged in the later Vedic period. Gotra literally meant 'cowpen' and it referred to a group of people from a common ancestor.
Persons of the same gotra were considered as brothers and sisters and could not therefore intermarry. Several unilineal descent groups existed with common ancestors. Several related clans formed the tribe.
The household became more structured, which means it became more organised. The family was an important social unit. The family was patriarchal with patrilineal descent.
The relations within the family were hierarchical. Polygyny (taking many wives) was prevalent. Several household rituals were also developed for the welfare of the family.
The married man with his wife was the yajamana. The concept of asramas, referring to various stage of life, was not well established in this time. While brahmacharya, grihasta and vanaprastha are mentioned, sanyasa had not developed.
The status of women declined as the society became more structured and the patriarchal family became more important. In the family the father was the head.
The right of primogeniture was strong. Though women had participated in rituals in the Rig Vedic period, they were excluded in the later Vedic period.
Daughters are spoken of as a source of trouble. Their work was to look after the cattle, milking animals and fetching water.
The economic activities of this period were quite diversified. Agriculture, pastoralism, craft production and trade contributed to the economic development.
Agricultural activities increased during the Late Vedic period. The Satapatha Brahmana mentions rituals related to ploughing undertaken by the kings. This suggests the importance given to cultivation by the rulers, and the shift to agriculture to support the increasing population.
The god Balarama is depicted with a plough, which suggests the importance of cultivation. The Vedic people cultivated barley and rice, and wheat.
Wheat was the staple food of Punjab region. The Vedic people began to use rice in the Ganga- Yamuna doab. The use of rice, rather than wheat, is noticed in the Vedic rituals.
Pastoralism continued to be important. Cattle were considered sacred. They became part of exchange and redistribution. The offering of cattle as part of dakshina continued. Pastoralism supplemented agriculture.
Craft Production
Arts and crafts proliferated during the Later Vedic age and craft specialization took deep roots, when compared to early Vedic period, since more occupational groups are mentioned in this period. Evidence of iron work is noticed from about 1200 BCE.
Metals such as copper, tin, gold, bronze and lead are mentioned. These metals were smelted and worked by specialized groups.
The copper objects were used for making weapons for war and hunting. Weaving was undertaken by women. Leatherwork, pottery and carpentry were well known.
Terms such as kulala referring to potters and urna sutra referring to wool appear. Bow makers, rope makers, arrow makers, hide dressers, stone breakers, physicians, goldsmiths and astrologers are some of the specialized professional groups mentioned in the texts.
Professions such as physicians, washerman, hunters, boatman, astrologer and cook are mentioned. References to the elephant are often found in the Atharva Veda, along with the elephant keeper.
The increase in references to such groups indicates a society in transformation. The performers of Vedic sacrifices were also a type of service providers. The priest played an important role in legitimizing the role of king through various rituals.
Wealth was measured in terms of cattle and animals. There is a mention of offerings of 20 camels, 100 gold necklaces, 300 horses and 10,000 cows as dakshina.
Trade and Exchange
Trade and exchange had developed in the Later Vedic age. The material culture found in the archaeological sites reveals the movement of commodities and materials. Specialised caravan traders existed. No evidence of coins has been found and therefore barter must have been the medium of exchange. The introduction of coins took place after about 600 BCE.
Religious Faith and Belief System
During the Later Vedic period the upper Ganga Doab was the centre of the Aryan culture. This region is described as the land of Kuru-Panchalas.
The Vedic gods Agni and Indra lost their importance. Prajapati became the main deity. Rudra, the god of rituals, identified with Siva, became important. The Satapatha Brahmana lists the names of Rudra as Pasunampatih, Sarva, Bhava and Bahikas.
Vishnu was conceived as the protector of people. There is no reference to Vishnu's incarnations. Each varna had its own deities.
Rituals became important in society. It was believed that rituals and sacrifices could solve many problems.
The rituals became more complex, required more resources, and took longer time. This indirectly reflects the demand for rituals and the formation of elite groups who could spend more resources on rituals and sacrifices.
The correct performance of rituals was stressed. Stress was laid on paying dakshina.
Numerous rituals were prescribed for solving all kinds of day to day problems.
The resort to rituals and sacrifices as a solution for problems led to the view that material wealth could achieve anything. The ideas in the Upanishads argue against such a view, and stress the importance of realising the atman or inner self.
Such degeneration of rituals and the material-oriented nature of the priests created dissension and led to the development of heterodox faiths such as Buddhism and Jainism which emphasized correct human behaviour and discipline.
The disciplines of philosophy, literature and science developed in this period. Various branches of learning such as literature, grammar, mathematics, ethics and astronomy developed.
Education was limited to males. Teacher-pupil relationship was cultivated through person-oriented training. The development of Vedic texts and the importance given to pronunciation, grammar and oral transmission suggest training in utterances and memorization, as part of the Vedic system of education.
The development of various types of texts could be considered as developing solutions for certain mundane issues and a quest for knowledge.
Araynakas are concerned with priests who were in the forests. Upanishads (which means to sit nearby) texts with philosophical enquiries, were composed during this period.
They were also referred to as Vedanta, since they were attached as the last part of the Vedic texts. Satyameva Jayate is from Mudaka Upanishad.
They lay stress on knowledge and the realization of the self or atman and Brahman (the Supreme Being), meditation, cycle of birth and death. They convey the ideas of karma, and good conduct, self-restraint, mercy and generosity as virtues.
Despite the ritual dominated aspects of Vedic life, some seers were in pursuit of knowledge and virtuous conduct.
Dara Shukoh, the Mughal prince, translated the Upanishads into Persian in 1657, much before the colonial scholars developed any interest in ancient Indian literature.
Other aspects of Life
The Late Vedic culture has evidence of music and fine arts. Music instruments such as lute, flute and drum are referred to in the texts.
With the development of cultivation and pastoralism, different types of food and drinks made of grains, milk and ghee and plants were consumed. Evidence of the use of silk and ornaments of metal, gold and copper is found.
Metal mirrors were also used. The archaeological sites have uncovered beads and ornaments and the fabrication of glass beads was also developed in the later part of the Vedic period.
Characteristics of Later Vedic Society
Later Vedic period is marked by lineages of clans, and small kingdoms developed in many parts of the Ganga valley, leading to the development of the state after 600 BCE. The idea of janapada and rashtra as territorial units had developed. The raja wielded much power and the social divisions began to strike deep roots. The varna system had developed well and Sudra identity became more marked during this period.


The person Ryholt, K. S. B. represents an individual (alive, dead, undead, or fictional) associated with resources found in University of Manitoba Libraries.
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text:
Q: Cosmosdb Saved data cannot be found in portal but from azure-documentdb-spring-boot-starter My project is using azure-documentdb-spring-boot-starter:0.2.0 to interact with cosmosdb:
@Repository
public interface PingEasyRepo extends DocumentDbRepository<PingEasy, String> {
}

@Document(collection = "test")
public class PingEasy {
    @Id
    private String id;
    private String content;

    public String getContent() {
        return content;
    }

    public void setContent(String content) {
        this.content = content;
    }

    public String getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(String id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
}

The code runs and can do save and findAll. But when I go to the azure portal and cosmosdb data explorer, the data not appeared. When I open browser tools, I see failed requests with

"500 Internal Server Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object." and exceptions:

Uncaught TypeError: xhr.getResponseHeader is not a function
    at Object.DocumentClientFactory._shouldForceRetry (DocumentClientFactory.js?v=1.17.110.1:12)
    at HttpRequest.xhr.onreadystatechange (documentdbclient-1.14.0.js?v=1.17.110.1:3287)
    at HttpRequest._onAjaxError (Request.js?v=1.17.110.1:42)
    at i (jquery.min.js:2)
    at Object.fireWith [as rejectWith] (jquery.min.js:2)
    at y (jquery.min.js:4)
    at XMLHttpRequest.c (jquery.min.js:4)

The following is the script I used to auto create my cosmodb:
{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "databaseAccountName": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The MongoDB database account name. Needs to be globally unique."
      }
    }
  },
  "variables": {},
  "resources": [
    {
      "apiVersion": "2015-04-08",
      "type": "Microsoft.DocumentDB/databaseAccounts",
      "kind": "MongoDB",
      "name": "[parameters('databaseAccountName')]",
      "location": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "properties": {
        "databaseAccountOfferType": "Standard",
        "name": "[parameters('databaseAccountName')]"
      }
    }
  ]
}

A: The issue is that you are creating a MongoDB account and using a sample that writes data using the DocumentDB API, as stated in the article you linked.

Microsoft's Spring Boot Starter enables developers to use Spring Boot applications that easily integrate with Azure Cosmos DB by using DocumentDB APIs.

MongoDB accounts are meant to be used with MongoDB clients and applications, not DocumentDB API clients and applications.
The main difference is that MongoDB's required identifier field is "_id" while DocumentDB/SQL account's required identifier is "id". When you write documents to a MongoDB account through a MongoDB client (application or a code using one of the MongoDB SDKs), the driver/client makes sure your document has the required "_id" field or autogenerates one. And when you work with a DocumentDB API sdk/client and a DocumentDB/SQL account, the sdk/client will autogenerate the required "id" field.
The Portal uses a MongoDB client to read the documents in a MongoDB account, but it is failing to read the documents because they are not valid MongoDB documents (don't have the required identifier). You will run into the same error if you try to read the documents with a MongoDB application coded by yourself or if you try to read that using a MongoDB client like Robomongo or Mongo Chef.
In your case, if you want to use the Spring Boot sample, you need to create a DocumentDB/SQL account. In the screenshots of the article you can see how to create a SQL account.
Hope this helps.

A: I tried to reproduce your issue but failed. I followed this official tutorial to use the Spring Boot Starter with Azure Cosmos DB DocumentDB API.
You could refer to my code and my steps as below which works for me:
Main Class :
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;

@SpringBootApplication
public class JayGongCosmosDbSpringBootProjectApplication implements CommandLineRunner{

    @Autowired
    private UserRepository repository;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(JayGongCosmosDbSpringBootProjectApplication.class, args);
    }

    public void run(String... var1) throws Exception {
        final User testUser = new User("testId", "testFirstName", "testLastName");

        repository.deleteAll();
        repository.save(testUser);

        final User result = repository.findOne(testUser.getId());

        System.out.printf("\n\n%s\n\n",result.toString());
    }
}

User Class :
public class User {
    private String id;
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;

    public User(String id, String firstName, String lastName) {
        this.id = id;
        this.firstName = firstName;
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public String getId() {
        return this.id;
    }

    public void setId(String id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return String.format("User: %s %s", firstName, lastName);
    }
}

UserRepository Class :
import com.microsoft.azure.spring.data.documentdb.repository.DocumentDbRepository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

@Repository
public interface UserRepository extends DocumentDbRepository<User, String> {}

pom.xml:
<dependency>
        <groupId>com.microsoft.azure</groupId>
        <artifactId>azure-documentdb-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
        <version>0.1.4</version>
</dependency>

Then I execute the jar package and create documents successfully.

I notice that the version of azure-documentdb-spring-boot-starter you're using is 0.2.0 and I'm using 0.1.4. I suggest you changing the version and try again.
Hope it helps you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It's official. Phil Murphy and Kim Guadagno will face off this November in a race to determine who will be New Jersey's next governor.
Roosevelt J. Donat, Special Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Murphy Partners LLP, celebrates with Phil Murphy, Democratic nominee for New Jersey governor.
Phil Murphy, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Obama, won a highly anticipated victory to become the Democratic nominee for governor. In total, six candidates sought the Party's nomination, including state Senator Raymond Lesniak, former federal prosecutor Jim Johnson, and state Assemblyman John Wisniewski. Ultimately, Murphy's backing of all 21 Democratic county organizations, along with a well-organized team made up of some of New Jersey's best political operatives, proved decisive.
On the Republican side, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno won the Republican Party's top spot, beating her closest competitor, state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, by a decisive margin. In a hard-fought battle, Guadagno was one of five candidates seeking the Party's nomination. Currently serving in her second term as New Jersey's first lieutenant governor, Guadagno has spent the last eight years traveling the state, leading New Jersey's economic development efforts.
Murphy and Guadagno will face off this November. In a state with 800,000 more registered Democrats, most observers give Murphy the edge. Nevertheless, Guadagno is a fierce campaigner and will prove to be a true competitor in the coming months.
We wish nothing but the best to both candidates and look forward to watching a hard-fought general election. The voters of New Jersey deserve nothing less.
Murphy Partners LLP is a boutique law firm specializing in governmental affairs, economic incentive advisory, and land use and redevelopment law. Headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, the firm was founded to provide effective, efficient, and creative legal and government affairs services to meet the distinctive needs of our clients. Through the development of comprehensive legal and government affairs strategies, our team works tirelessly to create a blueprint for success and advance our clients' interests in every matter.


text:
ResearchOnline Home
Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship
Charles Ikerionwu, David Edgar
In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client's business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client's server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.
International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences
https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
secured channel
10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
Charles, I. & Edgar, D. (2019) Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship
Copyright © 2019 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 1.38 MBLicence: CC BY
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Business Process Outsourcing Business & Economics 100%
Service Delivery Business & Economics 74%
Service Provider Business & Economics 61%
Outsourcing Business & Economics 47%
Party Platform Business & Economics 32%
Security Protocols Business & Economics 32%
Teleconferencing Business & Economics 30%
Client/server Business & Economics 26%
Ikerionwu, C., & Edgar, D. (2019). Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship. International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences, 4(1), 7-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
Ikerionwu, Charles ; Edgar, David. / Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship. In: International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences. 2019 ; Vol. 4, No. 1. pp. 7-17.
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Ikerionwu, C & Edgar, D 2019, 'Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship', International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 7-17. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship. / Ikerionwu, Charles; Edgar, David.
In: International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences, Vol. 4, No. 1, 04.06.2019, p. 7-17.
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AB - In business process outsourcing (BPO), the model of delivery of processed service and communication media between the client and service provider are critical factors in a successful client-provider relationship. The client's business objectives would not be achieved if processed services are delivered through unsecured channels and truncated communication. This study explores these issues through a case study of seven medium and large scale Indian BPO service providers, followed up with a larger scale questionnaire-based on Indian providers. Analysis revealed that a significant number of providers have onshore and offshore clients whose processed services are delivered through secured channels. The choice of a delivery model is influenced by both the client and service provider when the provider is either a medium or large scale organization, whilst small scale providers do not contribute to decision making for choice of delivery model. Further, the study revealed that in successful outsourcing relationships, providers deliver services through remote access to a client's server, email through a dedicated server, dashboard on a cloud, and teleconferencing. To improve security, these channels could be enclosed in any of the following: virtual private network (VPN), transport layer security (TLS)/secure socket layer (SSL), internet protocol security (IPsec) and third party platform, such as citrix. Thus, outsourcing relationships that are built around these security platforms, and decision making process surrounding the choice of a delivery model could reduce outsourcing failures witnessed in BPO relationships.
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Ikerionwu C, Edgar D. Secured service delivery model for outsourced services in a business process outsourcing relationship. International Journal of Information and Communication Sciences. 2019 Jun 4;4(1):7-17. doi: 10.11648/j.ijics.20190401.12
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The best approach is to give the selection committee what it is looking for. Here are a few pointers that can help you structure your essay for a sure winner.
What is the College Selection Committee looking for?
To cut the long and painful story short, they are looking for an insight into your personality, character and goals. This is the section where open ended questions are asked with the intention to gauge your maturity and intellect besides academics. This is the part where you talk about those aspects of your life that have not been covered elsewhere in the application form!
The best essays are known to be styled as excerpts – specific incidents from your life that brought about a major change in you or other similar noteworthy instances from your life. The reader of your essay has no personal experience with you and is looking to learn about you only through your essay. Your word choices, content and writing style reflects your true personality and character – more so than you can imagine! A well-documented logical explanation that links a specific incident to your character traits can go a long way in building a promising picture of you in the minds of your readers.
The essay serves as a tool to estimate your depth and broadmindedness as a person. It is the only piece of paper that represents the real you and sets you apart from your competition. In the mountainous piles of applications, there may be people sharing similar or higher qualifications than you. A well-constructed essay can give you the upper edge you deserve. So use it well!
What the College Selection Committee is NOT looking for?
Talking about oneself is not a problem. However, it is easy for you to lose track while doing so. Here are a few pointers you should keep in mind in order to limit the scope of your essay for maximum impact.
They are not looking for information that is irrelevant or have not been asked. For instance, praising the college will not help in building your image as the reader already knows it!
They do not want repeated information. The academics section is sufficient enough to reflect your performance thereof.
They are not looking for longwinded complex answers that often do not seem to make sense. So you need to be simple and straightforward while answering and also keep your thesaurus at bay!
They are not looking for a jumbled up account of your life that has no direction. So stick with one or two incidents and try to avoid overdoing the self-expression.
They are not looking for an essay that seems to have been written by a fifth grader. So read and proofread your essay a couple of times to remove all spelling, typographical and grammatical errors.
They are not looking for an essay that is painful to read. Rather, they are looking for something that touches their hearts and makes an impact that compels them to select you. So let your creativity flow and win you their decision.


Ideally located in the prime touristic area of Necochea, Hotel El Quijote promises a relaxing and wonderful visit. Offering a variety of facilities and services, the hotel provides all you need for a good night's sleep. Take advantage of the hotel's free Wi-Fi in all rooms, 24-hour front desk, luggage storage, car park, room service. Designed for comfort, selected guestrooms offer wake-up service, heating, desk, telephone, fan to ensure a restful night. Enjoy the hotel's recreational facilities, including private beach, golf course (within 3 km), solarium, garden, before retiring to your room for a well-deserved rest. Friendly staff, great facilities and close proximity to all that Necochea has to offer are three great reasons you should stay at Hotel El Quijote.
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The Lawyer Awards 2014: Funds Team of the Year
Amy Jensen Cunniffe joins DLA Piper as senior policy adviser in Washington DC
DLA Piper announced that Amy Jensen Cunniffe has joined the firm's government affairs and healthcare public policy and regulatory practices as a senior policy adviser in the Washington DC office. Cunniffe is the latest senior policy adviser to join the firm, following former US transportation secretary Ray LaHood and former CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton, a […]
No5 Chambers' Simon Hunka represents officer jailed for misconduct in public office
Simon Hunka from No5 Chambers has represented an officer jailed for misconduct in public office. PC Ian Langford, a police officer who served in Ledbury, Worcestershire, has been jailed for 18 months. Gloucester Crown Court heard that Langford started relationships with two women after being called to incidents at their homes and visited them during […]
The Lawyer Awards 2014: Employment Team of the Year
Phone-hacking and the lawyers' feeding frenzy
Karanovic & Nikolic client wins Emerging Europe Deal of the Year award
At the 2014 Private Equity Awards in London, Mid Europa Partners was awarded Emerging Europe Deal of the Year for the strategic development and sale of SBB/Telemach Group. Karanovic & Nikolic, led by partner Rastko Petakovic, advised Mid Europa Partners throughout the acquisition and development process.


We launched our excellent AFCbay auction page earlier this year and we need your help to maintain the momentum.
You may have seen that memorabilia from the play-off final at Wembley resulted in a bit of friendly competition from supporters bidding for a slice of history!
But AFC Wimbledon gears up for League 1 next season, we need your assistance to raise vital funds with all money raised donated to the club.
The AFCbay page is at http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/afcbay .


In this paper we propose new solution methods for designing tag sets for use in universal DNA arrays. First, we give integer linear programming formulations for two previous formalizations of the tag set design problem, and show that these formulations can be solved to optimality for instance sizes of practical interest by using general purpose optimization packages. Second, we note the benefits of periodic tags, and establish an interesting connection between the tag design problem and the problem of packing the maximum number of vertex-disjoint directed cycles in a given graph. We show that combining a simple greedy cycle packing algorithm with a previously proposed alphabetic tree search strategy yields an increase of over 40% in the number of tags compared to previous methods.


1. Stains come out if you get them out quickly—the longer they sit, the more permanent they become so have a soaking bucket ready to chuck linens into quickly at the birth.
3. you have to remove clots and mucous-y gel or that stuff just goes round and round in the machine and re-stains the sheets and towels.
4. Once you've run it through a cycle of tepid water and soap, take each piece of laundry out individually and eyeball it for persistent blood stains. Don't put in dryer till they are out completely or you'll bake the stain in permanently.
Some people put a cup of salt in the tepid water to wash the linens. It does work but this can corrode your washing machine if done too often.
6. My buddy Lisa Barrett takes a big Rubbermaid tub full of her own "birth" towels to each birth. When she gets home from the birth with the tub, she fills it with water and lets everything sit for a couple of days. Then she puts it through the laundry ready for the next birth. She's got a house and I live in an apartment building so I haven't taken on her method but if I'm in a house someday, will do the same thing.
This entry was posted in Holistic midwifery & doula education, Homebirth and tagged blood stains by Gloria. Bookmark the permalink.
Gloria, my midwife told us to use Murphy's Oil Soap (the wood floor cleaner), which is made of 98% naturally derived ingredients, is biodegradable and contains no phosphates. I filled our bathtub with cool water and a cup or so of Murphy's, let the bloody sheets soak for an hour while swishing around a couple of times, and then rinsed. Before adding to the laundry machine, there was absolutely no evidence that they had been covered with blood and now still look as good as before! 😉 Give it a try!
um… keeps making me think.. since i'm on my period … clean up would be very similar wouldn't it?
I suggest that mamas have two or three large bottles of peroxide on hand….then we pour it on any blood spots and wash in warm water. Haven't had a stain yet. I still want to try the salt water soak that I've seen suggested by other mothers and birth workers.
I am a midwife and do laundry at the birth center where I work. Definitely washing promptly helps reduce stains. I like to throw stained linens into the washer as quickly as possible and wash on cold water with Oxyclean and Tide detergent. Our protocol is to wash twice with cold before a sanitizing wash on hot with bleach. Because of OSHA and state regulations we can't have soiled linens soaking in tubs but a front-loader washing machine does a great job and reduces exposure to blood and other potential pathogens. The hardest stains to remove are always Betadine (I hate that stuff), olive oil, and meconium.
What's a boil wash, Lisa? Do you just mean on hot in a washing machine or do you literally have a copper?
Best thing to use is hydrogen peroxide, works great except for set blood stains.
I was amazed to not find a single stained item from my home birth! Not the towels, not the sheets, not the baby hat or blankets! Nothing! We now use all the towels we bought for the birth even though we figured they'd be stained and have to be packed away for the next birth. The mw's assistant washed everything less than two hours after the birth in our washer and used our soap (Charlie's soap). I don't know whether it was luck, our soap or timing but I was surprised not to find any blood stains. Hoping we can be stain free next time too so I'm glad to see the tricks above!
Here in New Zealand, it is still common for households to have a clothesline–I haven't had/used a drier in my 19+ years of parenting. It's amazing what stains will vanish with a few hours of pure sunlight.
The midwives I started homebirthing with had salt to put in the tub ( early waterbirth days!) and any spots of blood on carpets or upholstery got a good amount of salt on them as soon as possible which seem to work well!!
My MW suggests washing sheets, etc with ammonia poured in the washer.


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Skip to Content Home / Podcast / Podcast | Episode 19: Brooks Health Foundation with Jessica Cummings
Podcast | Episode 19: Brooks Health Foundation with Jessica Cummings
Welcome to the Brooks Rehabilitation podcast where we talk to our rehabilitation professionals to shed light on the stellar programs and services we offer to help our patients reach their highest levels of recovery.
On this episode we talk with Jessica Cummings, VP of Community Engagement about what Brooks Rehabilitation being a nonprofit means and how it benefits our patients and community.
Send us an email with your questions, comments or podcast ideas to podcast@brooksrehab.org!
Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app! Search 'Brooks Rehabilitation Podcast.' You can also listen online. Below is a transcript of our newest episode.
Tracy Davis:
Welcome to the Brooks Rehabilitation Podcast. My name is Tracy Davis. On this episode, I'm joined by Jessica Cummings. She is the vice president of community engagement here at Brooks. I think you're really going to enjoy this episode. You're going to learn a little bit more about Brooks and who we are as a nonprofit, what that means and how it benefits our community and our patients. Before we get into the episode, I want to encourage you to head over to brooksrehab.org to learn more about our incredible organization. We have information about any of the things that you hear on this podcast, and so much more. Go onto brooksrehab.org, and also check us out on our social media platforms. We have all of the information about things that we have going on on those platforms. We would love for you to check us out over there and follow us to stay up to date on some timely events that might be coming up soon that you can be involved with. Thank you again for listening, and we're going to get right into the episode with Jessica Cummings.
Jessica, thanks for coming onto the podcast. If you would, just let everybody know who you are, maybe a little bit about your background and how you got to Brooks.
Jessica Cummings:
Sure. So my name is Jessica Cummings. I am the vice president of community engagement here at Brooks Rehabilitation and my path is probably not one that would be typical of someone that's in my position. I started my career as an athletic trainer.
Mm-hmm.
Very familiar with Brooks and what we do in the therapy realm, quickly dovetailed to working in professional sports, but on the marketing side and sales side, worked there for 10 years, loved it, but traveled 200 plus days out of the year-
… and your body can only take so much before you just go, "The lady at the Delta counter knows me better than my family. This isn't a good thing."
It sounds like it'd be a fun thing to do for a certain period of time.
It was, and it was great in my younger life. At some point my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's doing great now and at his graduation from the UF Proton Therapy Institute, one of their friends said, "Hey, Jess, what do you think about nonprofit work?"
I said, "Well, I've raised money here and there. Is it kind of the same thing?"
She said, "Well, yeah, it's kind of the same thing, but on a little bit of a bigger scale. Is it something that you'd be interested in and coming to work for the Proton Therapy Institute?"
I said, "Absolutely. Why wouldn't I want to give back to the organization that saved my dad's life?" From there, I started working at UF Health Jacksonville at the hospital, instead of at the Proton Therapy Center.
Loved it, loved interacting with Brooks, and when the position came available, it was only a natural fit to swing over. It married my first love of athletic training and therapy and my current love of nonprofit work.
Yeah, that's great. You had already had a little bit of a touch point with who Brooks was, you didn't come into Brooks kind of completely cold to who we are a little bit.
I did not. I was very familiar with what we did. I worked with collegiate athletes when I was an athletic trainer-
… and then some other local smaller athletes so I was very familiar with what Brooks did. The reputation that they have in the community was fantastic and so I didn't need to be caught up to speed on all of that.
Right. Are you still teaching swimming and all that still?
I still coach. I coach middle school swimmers for the Bolles School, which is a pretty elite level group of athletes.
It's one that I've done since the early 2000s. Everybody says, "How do you do it all?" I think it's probably when you have a passion that meets a fulfillment, you find time for it.
Whenever I was in high school Bolles was always one of those schools that everyone was a little bit scared. I guess it kind of depended on the sport at the time. Every high school seems to kind go up and down with which sport they're really good at. I went to University Christian and they got really good at football after I left, they won a few state championships and stuff, but I know that Bolles has always been known for their swim team.
They have, and we've had some really great athletes that have come out and done some amazing things on the professional circuit as Olympic athletes. One thing that people probably don't know about Bolles is the men's and the women's high school team has won consecutive state championships for now decades.
I'm not going to say how many decades, because then I would get it wrong and somebody would tell me that I'm wrong, but consecutive state championships for multiple decades is pretty fantastic.
Also these athletes have gone on to coach and succeed in many different realms.
But certainly the medal count is pretty high for that organization.
To me, Tipper Jones.
Sure, absolutely.
Because that was my childhood is the Atlanta Braves.
Finding out that he went there and all that, and he's a local guy it's always, and then we have Tebow and he went to Nice and stuff, but it's kind of whenever you have these people that go on and they're from your local area, it always means a lot more for some reason.
It is and all the unknown athletes too. All those that go on to do really amazing things that maybe you didn't know them in the high school realm, but they go on to do pretty fantastic things at the collegiate level and at the professional level.
Yeah. Well, let's get into the Brooks Health Foundation a little bit and anything else that you wanted to talk about with that. Just to kind of set the table, I'm sure a lot of people know who Brooks is, a lot of people's touchpoint with Brooks is maybe they've had therapy with us or they refer patients to us or some sort of a therapy level, but they probably don't realize that we are a nonprofit and a lot of people, they don't really think about that kind of stuff, the financial levels of companies. What is a nonprofit and how's that integrating with Brooks?
That's probably the number one surprising thing that I get from people is, "Wait, Brooks is a nonprofit hospital?"
Yes. What does that mean? And really it's, without getting into the legality of what is a nonprofit, what is a 501C3, why do we have that? I'm just going to break it down into some simplistic terms. Really that's we receive a credit in the form of taxes from the state and federal government that allow us to operate assuming that we are giving back to the community.
That's probably the real key there. The federal government requires that you do some reporting to say how you're doing this. Every three years we do the community health needs assessment.
Probably one interesting thing about Jacksonville in the medical community is Brooks is one of five nonprofit hospitals that is here. Instead of us all doing the community health needs assessment separately, interviewing the same organizations, interviewing the same specialists, we do it together. Collaboratively, we do this community health needs assessment, which really takes a look at where is Jacksonville and consider Jacksonville the five county area, where is Jacksonville falling short and what can we do in order to make our citizens better, healthier, and live longer fuller lives?
Sure. It's assessing the needs. Yeah/
It's not a pretty report when it comes out, it is …
Kind of hard to see, wow, we are really lacking in these areas.
It's tough to swallow. It's tough to look at and you say, "Wow, for another cycle, for another three years, mental health is still a problem." These nonprofit hospitals we've come together and we said, "Okay, well, let's help the citizens recognize the signs and symptoms of mental distress," and so we brought forth the mental health first aid.
Yeah. I remember that.
Trained 10,000 laypersons to recognize these signs and symptoms and that's something that a lot of communities can't do if we're not combined together. Financially, it just would be restrictive.
What some might see as competitors in the market, in the free market, we're actually coming to together as collaborators.
Right. Yeah, that program specifically, and mental health is always a bigger topic now. I remember we started that a while back and I remember it being a huge deal that, wow, we're going to partner with all these other organizations. We had people going and getting trained, just regular employees, it's anybody can do it, right?
Anybody can do it. We, the nonprofit hospitals, offer adults so that would be anybody over 18, but there is a child's component. Duvall County Public Schools has actually implemented it with all the schools so that way the kids can recognize if their classmates are having some of these struggles, which is what we need to be able to recognize that it's going to occur so that way the individual can get the help that they would need.
Because even back in the day for all of us, I'm sure anybody listening as well and you and I, whenever you're younger, you just think maybe they're just weird or something's off but now if you're trained to have that eye of maybe there's something going on here and the earlier that you can nip it in the bud or get them help, whatever, the better off that doesn't send them on some sort of a long years down the road journey of having a ton of issues.
Exactly. Or the worst happens.
Right. Or that.
That the individual decides that they need to take their life.
I think what we've seen at Brooks is as a traumatic incident occurs with an individual, there's going to be some amount of depression that's going to occur.
You're out doing your leisurely activities that you normally would've done, now you've got a spinal cord injury, now you can no longer use your legs.
There is going to be some form of depression that's going to occur so what can we do? How can we at Brooks help these individuals, whether it be through mental health first aid and getting them the help that they need with their mental health, or can we provide some other programs that might help bring them out of that depressive state?
Yeah, absolutely. That kind of leads me into my next question about how does Brooks give back to the community? I love doing stuff with adaptive sports whenever I get to go out there and do photos and videos with them like I just did with the surf event. Talk a little bit about that and you said that as Brooks, what are we doing to help give back as part of being a nonprofit, but also just a part of the culture of who Brooks is?
Yeah, so our mission is to enhance the lives of those with differing abilities and truly getting them to love things that they've always done before, regardless of their ability. Making sure that we can rehabilitate them in a way that allows them to really succeed in life. You mentioned one of them and that is adaptive sports, but we also have a whole menagerie of other free community benefit programs.
We do.
We've got a pediatric recreation program, we've got a school re-entry program that allows us to help those kiddos get back into school, we've got the Neuro Recovery Center, we have the Brain Injury Clubhouse we have Brooks Aphasia Center. I'm going to miss one in here.
But really it's … We've got an adaptive wellness program that we partner with a YMCA on, but it's all about how can we get people back to the life that they've loved in the past. The benefit that we have and one of the reasons that we are that nonprofit is because we can provide it for low or no cost.
Sometimes it's completely free like you talked about adaptive surfing, that's completely free to anyone within the community.
I think we had 70 surfers out there this year.
[inaudible 00:11:44] more volunteers, yeah.
It was a really cool event and for a lot of these people, it may be a first time that they've one, been in the water since their injury or two, it's probably the first time that they've had motion without using their chair.
Well, imagine being in some of their, and it's people that it's not just TBIs and spinal cord and all that, it's anything. Some of them, they would never think, "I'll be able to surf," and then here they are, out there riding, "I've never even surfed." They're out there riding waves and it's such a cool event. I've been doing it probably eight years now that we've been doing it, that I've been a part of it.
A lot of our individuals with differing abilities are better than an able bodied person.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I think I saw a photo that you took Tracy and it was awesome. It was an individual who was surfing on his hands and that was just a super cool photo.
But really back to your original question of how does Brooks give back? We provide all of these programs at little or no cost.
We provide millions of dollars worth of technology and then our recovery center that otherwise individuals wouldn't have access to. We have people that move from out of state, out of county, out of country to come here for some of these services. We also provide research and so we do a lot of research on how can we make sure that we're having the best rehab practices that we could.
We also provide extra education for our staff and for the community to make sure that everybody's up to par with the best practices and all of these things Brooks takes and underwrites as part of our give back, as our community benefit and really going above and beyond with what we do to keep our nonprofit hospital status.
Yeah, and I have had the pleasure of interviewing so many different people for different videos. One that stood out while you were saying all that is I did one specifically on some international patients that came here and they were like, "You guys don't understand. What you have here is completely unique." Some of them have been in whatever their disability is for either their whole life or for a long time after their injury. They would tell us, "We've been here, we've been there, we've been to this city, a;; over, and there's nothing like what you guys have here." A lot of them do move here just so that they can do adaptive sports and NRC and like you said, all those things,
Jacksonville's becoming this medical destination and not just for-
We have so many hospitals here.
Right. Not just for our acute care hospitals, not for just our specialty hospitals that we have here, but now for rehabilitation and how do we become, how do we take it beyond what insurance will stop paying for or how do we take it beyond what a doctor can prescribe, but really making sure that we live out the mission of Brooks Rehabilitation and really that of our founder, Dr. Brooks Brown.
Living here my whole life always taken it for granted, but whenever I go other places, and like I said, we just have so many hospitals here and not just hospitals, but just healthcare in general. Jacksonville's just so big on healthcare which is great for Brooks, that's just so many more patients that we get to help.
Absolutely. There's never a shortage. As we start to age, as the Boomer generation starts to age, we're certainly going to need these resources, which is even more imperative that we all work together and we collaborate.
Yeah. It's a theme that comes up on the podcast all the time is just our system. We've been talking about the community benefits, but like you're saying, our aging services. We kind of have everything from when you're born to the end of your life. We're that whole system and anything you want to do in between, there's something for you as far as at Brooks goes.
We have a lot of employees at Brooks, obviously. I used to know the number. It's quite a few thousand now and I'm sure a lot of them listening might say they want to get involved in some way, shape, or form. They might be saying, "I'm not a philanthropist, but there's something I can do." What can they do to get involved at Brooks or even if there's anything outside of Brooks can do too?
Yeah. I think back to an interview that I heard, oh, many moons ago, but it was with Dolores Bar Weaver and the Weavers have been such great philanthropists for the city of Jacksonville and outside of the city of Jacksonville. But one thing that she said was she wished she would've known earlier in life that her donation of any size would matter.
She said she thought she had to get to a point of where she can donate millions upon millions upon millions for it to make a difference. I think we have a really unique program, we call it WHEEL, which is an acronym. It stands for We're Helping Everyone Experience Life.
It's really our way for our employees to give back whether it be a dollar a pay period or $20 a pay period or as many dollars as they would like to give, but then it just becomes the collective power of all. I might not have the Weavers' type of influence, but I can certainly give out of my paycheck and that goes to a larger pot. What we can provide with those dollars is it could be scholarships to those community benefit programs that we talked about. For some of them, there is a cost and so we can supplement that cost with what our employees are giving back.
We also have the opportunity for employee assistance, so sometimes our employees fall on some really hard times and through the generosity of their peers, we are able to help them in their time of need, which has been just really great. If you think about what we're giving back with WHEEL, we also give to our patients. For our patients that might need durable medical equipment or some medication or ramps for their house, things that they can't afford, we can provide that through the generosity of our employees.
Yeah, and a lot of people take time to think about something like adaptive sports, again, how much it costs to operate that on a yearly basis and driving all the wheelchairs for the soccer event each week or rugby or whatever it is. Yeah, there's a lot of operating, just regular operating costs associated.
There's a lot of equipment and there's a lot of specialized equipment.
I think anyone who's ever experienced something where they might need a piece of medical equipment can tell you it's not cheap.
So for Brooks to be able to provide everything that the participant would need …
Yeah, they just show up.
Is pretty fantastic. They just show up, they can participate, and that's not alone from Brooks's dollars, but also from what our employees give to make sure that everybody has, as best we can, provide the needs that they so desperately need.
To go back to the mental health too, if there was nothing else that we did other than getting people to not be isolated, we wouldn't have to do anything else, you know what I mean? Because that is such a big deal to just imagine … Being here so long I think about it probably more than just the regular person, but something like that happens to you, whatever the injury was and now you can't do this, you can't do, there's a lot more can'ts in your life and you want to do those things so now you have to be at home on your couch or …
I've talked to a lot of our participants and they say, "It starts out when you're first injured, everybody says, 'I'm going to help. I'm going to help. I'm going to be there for you. I'm going to be there for you,'" which they do initially until they go on with their life.
A year goes down the road and …
Exactly. Then that social isolation that you talked about leads to depression and leads to really horrible outcomes.
The more that we can provide that transportation, so we've got our adaptive sports bus. We've got Bubba who so lovingly drives people, picks them up at their home, takes them to the event, drops them back off at home in order to eliminate any barriers that might be in order to participate, not just in adaptive sports, but in our other critically needed programs.
If there's anyone listening that wants more information about any of this, check the podcast feed that you're currently listening to and we've done a podcast on a couple of those other community programs, but also go to brooksrehab.org and you can see and get way more information on how to get involved or if you have a patient or somebody that could really use one of these programs.
With your career and everything, what's been the most fulfilling part of coming to Brooks and doing your job and helping raise funds for people?
I think it's the thank you that you get at the end of the day.
Whether it be from our volunteers that are here that are just so willing to give back, they've got some extra time, they want to give back to the organization or it's the families that just say, "You gave me my person back."
I think to me, and I will not look at you because I will start to get emotional but that's the greatest thing about it is you say, "Without Brooks, without us, without the philanthropy, without what we're giving back to the community there isn't that person's life that's changed."
I wish I had a nickel for every time I hear, "Brooks saved my person," whether that be physically, emotionally, or just really great care throughout the end of life. I think that's been the best part. Obviously I love working with my coworkers, I love working with my team.
But that thank you at the end of the day is what keeps you going.
Yeah, and it makes you wonder why there's not more stuff like, like why are we unique? It makes you wonder why isn't there more throughout the nation and the world of programs like this, where there's resources for people because yes, we are doing a lot, we're doing it for a lot of people, but then you think about how many more people would actually need Brooks if only there could be stuff in other cities across the nation that could have these resources for people.
I think what's really cool about Brooks is we were founded by an individual that was really a visionary.
Dr. Brooks Brown saw that these needs were going to becoming available and he took action upon it in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, not just waiting until we were here.
Why? Why? Why is Brooks one of the unique ones? I think it was his vision and I think that the beautiful part of it is there's enough of us lifers who've been at Brooks who can continue to carry Dr. Brown's vision throughout. I think really the beautiful part about it is a lot of people don't have these because they cost dollars.
They're non-revenue generating programs and so they either have to be funded by philanthropy or they have to be funded by the organization.
When you take a look at it, it's really hard to justify that so I think others cut those items out knowing that they're important, but they just can't financially afford them.
Yeah, yeah. It is a shame when a lot of stuff comes down to money.
When it comes to, you could get people out of their mental depression and stuff like that if you just threw dollars at it, you could change people's life, but that's everything.
Right? That is everything and we struggle … We do have more need than we have resources so I know that we do kind of a really cool program called Crowdsourcing and that's where our Brooks executive team asks the employees, "If dollars weren't an option, what would you do?" They bring forth all these super amazing programs and things that we probably should be doing but at some point you have to say, "We just don't have the resources to do it all," and so if there's anybody out there with super deep pockets that just want to fund something, trust me, we've got some needs that we can fulfill there.
But I do think that we could certainly change the world if not one person at a time, every couple of people at time.
Well and what I like about Crowdsourcing is that it perpetuates the original idea of how Brooks Brown was. He was a well connected man at the time and all that kind of stuff but he saw the need for people to need rehab after surgery. He's a surgeon, so people needed to continue on. It's not just like, "Here you are. Surgery, go home. Everything's good." There's a lot more to do.
Then we had employees come, "Hey, we need an adaptive sports program. Hey, we need a brain injury clubhouse."
They went out, researched the model for whatever it is. Like you're saying a lot of it is not just resources as in money, resources as in time and that's what Crowdsourcing is great. They come up with their idea. "Hey, we love that idea. You guys research it, figure it out, what's it going to cost? Who else has done it? How can we improve it?" They have the time to actually spend on that thing and really formulate what it is because so many people that here are executives and whatnot, they've got a lot of stuff they're already working on so if we can get people to really hone in on these things and then now we have a Helen's House and now we have the Clubhouse and the Aphasia Center and all these things that were just ideas.
Sure. I love on the website that we call it ongoing recovery because that's what it is and it's what is going to take us beyond, as employees, what's it going to take us beyond as patients? What's it going to take us beyond as families?
I think to know that Brooks is willing to take a therapist or a clinical employee off, I'm going to say the floor, but take them out of their clinical role and allow them to brainstorm and ideate in order to come up with something great is a pretty strong recognition that their ideas matter.
Yeah, yeah. Another one came to mind to me is the Brave.
Giving people a voice that they can't speak for whatever reason and then it's a small iPad-like device that they can actually touch on and whatnot and a lot of times they can communicate, they just can't verbally communicate. It essentially becomes a voice for them. How powerful is communication?
Sure and our day treatment program. It started out as just a spinal cord injury day treatment program. It's now transitioned into, we're taking a look at what does a pediatric day treatment program look like?
We have a brain injury, yeah.
Absolutely. All of our day treatment programs, which are just … I look at the families and I go, "What would you do without that?"
I think that's where that thank you comes back to is if you guys weren't here, what would I do? I would be trying to traverse this path on my own.
Yeah, and that's what makes me sad whenever I think of the other areas of the nation that don't have a Brooks, that there are people that are just going through all the things that we are trying to avoid here.
Anyway, we can wrap it up here. Is there anything else you'd like to let people know about, how to get involved and donate or anything?
Yeah, certainly. We've got a couple of different areas. If you'd like to volunteer, we'd certainly love to have you volunteer whether that be at a day of surf or serving dinners over at Helen's House. If you'd like to work in the hospital, we certainly are always looking for volunteers. If you've got something that we're not currently offering, but we would love to chat with you about that. If you'd like to participate in one of our events, we have two fundraising events. We have a golf tournament, which is usually in the fall and we have another event in the spring. Both of those benefit these programs that we've just been talking about, so the programs and services here at Brooks. Certainly if you are an employee who's listening who's not been involved with WHEEL before and you'd like some more information, I'd be happy to share with you about that. If you're just a community member that has been inspired, certainly we'd love to talk to you about how you can make a difference within the organization.
Yeah, that's excellent. All right, we'll end it here. Thank you.
Related Podcast Posts
Podcast | Episode 21: Spinal Cord Injury Clinic with Dr. Brian Higdon
Podcast | Episode 20: Helen's House with Ken Rudd
Podcast | Episode 17: Rehabilitation Nursing at Brooks Rehabilitation


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text:
County puts library bond on ballot
By Amy Byres | Assistant Editor | Aug 7, 2020 | News
Sandoval County librarians stepped into government and negotiated what they need from the 2020 Library General Obligation Bonds.
General obligation bonds, or GO bonds, are debt instruments that, in this case, the county is using to raise funds for public projects in libraries that do not generate revenue.
The 2020 Library GO bond is for about $1.9 million, with $200,000 set aside for projects in Districts 1 and 5.
This year, libraries made a request for $2.4 million.
The commission formed a library bond committee made up of county librarians, County Manager Wayne Johnson, County Financial Advisor Rob Burpo and Chairman David Heil, District 4.
"This was not an easy process but it was, I think, a fruitful one," Johnson said.
After cutting about 30 percent from each library's request and then working through financial reports, the committee was able to reduce requests to $1.9 million so taxes do not increase, Burpo said.
At the Sandoval County Commission meeting Thursday night, commissioners unanimously approved placing the 2020 Library GO Bond on November's ballot.
"I just want to make a point that this was a negotiation among librarians, not by this county commission. The librarians have brought what they have agreed on to the county commission to approve," Heil said.
This bond would have a small premium and an interest rate of 0.75-0.85 percent over six years, Burpo said.
In the past, the bond was on a four-year bond cycle. This was changed in 2018 to a two-year bond cycle.
By making this change, the county will have an additional $600,000 to $700,000 to contribute to libraries, Burpo said.
"If things ended up following along, we will end up giving more money to the libraries and providing a really consistent revenue stream instead of the one-year gap situation that we had under the four-year bond," Johnson said.
In 2018, the Library GO bond was for about $3.3 million for 17 public libraries in Sandoval County. Five libraries in District 1 and 5 moved $200,000 to Rio Rancho to meet their requests. This money is now allocated back to the same five libraries.
When Rio Rancho "dug in its heels" in 2018, Commissioner Kenneth Eichwald, District 5, agreed libraries in his district would give up part of their funding for Rio Rancho.
"We are going to give it up this time, but we are going to get it back in (2020)," he said at the time.
Rio Rancho will get about $450,000 from the 2020 library GO bond, according to county documents.
"This is supposed to be a shared amount of money and everyone should get their proper share," Eichwald said Thursday. "Rural libraries in this county are essential to the people in those communities. I don't want to put Rio Rancho down — it is a good city and everything else — but they have more access to different things then what the rural communities have."
Sometimes the only access to the internet in rural communities is at libraries, and this is essential during the pandemic and school having to be partially online, he said.
At the meeting on Aug. 20, commissioners will vote to approve the contents of the bond question that will appear on November's ballot.
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Conservation charity Trees for Life has announced details of its Conservation Weeks for 2013, the Year of Natural Scotland – offering people the opportunity to make a positive difference to the environment whilst experiencing an unforgettable visit to the Scottish Highlands.
Trees for Life is restoring the Caledonian Forest to a spectacular wilderness region of 1,000 square miles in the Highlands to the west of Loch Ness and Inverness.
The award-winning weeks will allow people from all sorts of backgrounds and experience to directly help in the restoration of Scotland's equivalent of a rainforest. Trees for Life is running Conservation Weeks at eight locations in the Highlands between mid-March and November.
To mark the Year of Natural Scotland, Trees for Life is introducing new Wildlife Weeks for conservation volunteers who also want to spend extra time learning about and observing the Caledonian Forest's outstanding wildlife.
The specially-designed Wildlife Weeks include day trips to the Isle of Skye to see white-tailed eagles, the third largest eagle in the world; to Aigas Field Centre at Beauly, Inverness-shire to see the beavers living on the loch; and the opportunity to feed wild boar at Trees for Life's Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston to the west of Loch Ness.
The Conservation Weeks suit all abilities and anyone over 18 years old can take part. There is no upper age limit, but the work can be physically demanding, so volunteers need a reasonable level of fitness. Special weeks concentrating on work in the charity's tree nursery at its Dundreggan Estate offer a gentler but equally important option.
The charity has just produced a new film that shows what its volunteers have achieved, and how the long decline of the Caledonian Forest is being reversed through their work.
Although only a fraction of the former Caledonian Forest now survives, volunteers with Trees for Life have helped to plant more than one million trees at dozens of locations, and to create 10,000 acres of new forest.
"We have pledged to establish one million more trees by planting and natural regeneration within the next five years. Every volunteer who takes part in our Conservation Weeks will be helping to achieve something very special," said Alan Watson Featherstone.
BBC Wildlife Magazine has voted Trees for Life's Conservation Weeks as one of the Top 10 Conservation Holidays in the World.
Since planting its first trees in 1991 in Glen Affric, Trees for Life has planted over one million trees and has created 10,000 acres of new Caledonian Forest.
Its awards include 1991 UK Conservation Project of the Year, Millennium Marque in 2000, Top 10 Conservation Holidays worldwide in 2009, and 2012 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Environment Award.


text:
Q: Make special pages from WordPress theme? I'm trying to figure out how a certain WordPress sets things up. I'd like to have a special page where I could make WP calls and interact with the theme, without affecting anything else.
I just making test.php and putting it into my theme's folder, but that doesn't work.

A: @Eliran provides one possible option, but you could also add a page in the back-end of WP, just make sure it has the slug 'test', and change your 'test.php' filename to 'page-test.php'. If you're worried about the public seeing this, set the page visibility in the admin to 'private'.
Edit:
to move your understanding along a little further also, you should review the way that WordPress determines what file to grab to render a particular URL. This can be pretty confusing to start with, so be patient if you're not familiar with it, but it's at the heart of designing WP themes. I'll link to the examples, and if you scroll down a little there's a diagram that, along with the text, will help you see how WP is 'thinking'.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy#Examples

A: You can see here: Page Templates
all you need to do is create a page named page-{custom-name}.php and add it to the theme folder.
and inside this php file add:
/*
Template Name: My Custom Page
*/

and than to use this page you need to go to the wp-admin, add/edit a page and chose it:

inside the php file everything you do is classic wordpress.
all this is giving you is a custom page tamplate.

A: Put it in your root folder. When you go to look at it, you'd look at www.mywebsite.com/test.php

A: It may be other ways to do this, but I rather use the rewrite API and custom query vars, to create custom routes.
A previous answer on the subject can be found here
The basic idea is to add a new url rule, catch the query var with the parse_request filter and maybe do a die or redirect to prevent the default wordpress template from loading.
I prefer this over theme templates, because with templates you need to create a page for each new url, and if that page gets acidentally deleted, that functionality would stop working.

A: What Pages are Not:

*

*Pages are not Posts, nor are they excerpted from larger works of fiction. They do not cycle through your blog's main page. WordPress Plugins are available to change the defaults if necessary.

*Pages cannot be associated with Categories and cannot be assigned Tags. The organizational structure for Pages comes only from their hierarchical interrelationships, and not from Tags or Categories.

*Pages are not files. They are stored in your database just like Posts are.

*Although you can put Template Tags and PHP code into a Page Template file, you cannot put these into the Page or Post content without a WordPress Plugin like Exec-PHP which Read overwrites the code filtering process.

*Pages are not included in your site's feed.

*Pages and Posts may attract attention in different ways from humans or search engines.

*Pages (or a specific post) can be set as a static front page if desired with a separate Page set for the latest blog posts, typically named "blog."

More About Pages.
In WordPress to add a new page you have to log in to the admin/backend and from the pages menu you can add a new page. In this case, you can select templaes for your page and also you can create a custom page template for that page.
You may read Createing a new page in WordPress. and custom Page template in WordPress.