Ping pong passing in box?
any idea if they plan on making it harder it to blast passes in the box? 80% of the goals i score is from 100 passes in my box. came off it with 15 games remaining and 19 wins in the weekend league, just feels like a chore to play the game, its not enjoyable. computer games are meant to be fun.
If you need FIFA to be fun - you need to either go offline or play against some people that can actually play real football with fully manual controls - know that is fun and that is a true football experience.


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Written by Anna Tobin
9th October 2018 @ 17:43
Keeping audiences engaged is key to any successful video service, but how are traditional content providers adapting to today's market? Anna Tobin reports.
With the exception of live reality shows and major sporting events, mass audience appointment TV is an experience few of our children may remember. In a matter of years, streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have rapidly encroached on the space that traditional linear broadcasters have owned for decades. These streamers have taken eyeballs away from trusted local and national broadcast TV schedules, and it's not purely due to the freedom offered by anytime, anywhere viewing. The recipe for their success is the creation of an engaging user experience. But what are the key ingredients for this and how can traditional content providers compete?
Crucially the SVOD giants notch up screen time without the audience realising how hard they are trying to keep them engaged. "The consumer experience or journey to the content they love should be as unobtrusive as possible," says Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, senior director of product marketing at Nagra. "Easy, intuitive and fast with a consistent journey are equally important elements as people consume media on a plethora of different devices throughout their day. Embracing data for deeper consumer insight and a journey to better personalisation with the notion or feeling that all the content they love is accessible in one place will make a holistic, engaging TV-user experience."
A seamless UX that allows the viewer to aggregate and access all their content from whichever device they are using, should also be clever enough to anticipate the user's needs and this is where the latest technology comes in.
"This type of interface relies on new technologies like hyper-personalised recommendations and the power of voice as an input method to rise above the experience of legacy systems," says Charles Dawes, senior director of international marketing at TiVo.
Broadcasters need to adapt the way that they interact with their audiences too, claims Neil Berry, chief revenue officer at Airbeem. "One thing TV does not do well, largely due to most of them relying on interaction via remote control, is complex navigation. As such, menus and layouts need to be clean and easily accessible, getting users to content in as few remote presses as possible," he explains. "Similarly, the large amount of screen real estate means that dynamic, interesting imagery should be used to create a visually interesting UI. This had been a challenge historically, due to many smart TVs not having the hardware capability to show off a lot of visually stimulating imagery within a reasonable amount of time, but thanks to technological advances in TV set design, there is no reason why TV UIs shouldn't aim to create the most visually compelling experiences available."
The TV remote was once a symbol of power both within the home and back at TV companies' headquarters. Whoever had control of it had ultimate control of viewing. This is no longer the case, says Dawes at TiVo.
"TV operators have for many years had control of the remote – their 'brand in the hand' – for the whole viewing session. However, as new entrants have come to market, and most importantly have been easy to access on the best screen in the house – either directly through a smart TV or via a cheap streaming adapter – this position has been challenged. Once a user has strayed from your service it's hard to get them back," he explains.
"Therefore, having a user experience, like TiVo Experience 4, that can seamlessly integrate content from multiple sources becomes important for the operator in the retention battle.
Having this kind of experience keeps the user within the pay TV world, allowing them to understand the value the service brings and ensure they are able to find what they want to watch at the time they want to watch it."
It also has to be remembered that there are now several distinct audiences for different content within a single household. In recognition of this, Ron Downey, CEO of Massive, says that the TV user experience needs to be optimised to different viewers, rather that treating the audience as one. "If a viewer isn't watching TV with others, why should they be offered the same viewing experience, content and promotions as everyone else?" he says. "Making this a reality is a bit more complicated than it sounds though. It depends on bringing three different areas together: the platform, the data, and the UI. Hitting this trifecta of video delivery is what's needed to offer a tailored user experience that can cater to different subsets of the audience and meet different tastes and preferences. It's a tried and tested route to make any pay TV or OTT service 'sticky', which naturally increases ARPU and reduces churn."
The decline of exclusivity
Exclusive content has always been the USP that linear providers have come to rely on, but all-rights deals are declining in importance now that so many TV platforms have added third-party services, including in some cases their old rival Netflix. Consequently, they've had to find new selling points and Smith-Chaigneau at Nagra reiterates that what will become increasingly important is being able to step seamlessly between different user interfaces.
Anthony Smith-Chaigneau
"As it stands in the OTT landscape, consumers are having to step in and out of different interfaces, through apps on different devices. This is not how content consumption is best served to the consumer," he says. "A non-siloed approach that provides consumers with access to all content in one place with a global and unified search capability that makes for a seamless experience is what should be delivered."
Linear broadcasters' main advantage over their OTT counterparts is that they have full control of their signal. Content may not be as exclusive as it once was, but the quality and desirability of that content can differentiate one pay TV operator from another, points out Håkan Tranvik, co-founder of Magine.
"Content is still king and even though you could say exclusive content deals have a declining value for pay TV platforms, it is still quality content that a consumer pays for and it is important to have prime content available in the service – sports, TVOD, latest TV series whether it is in own packaging or from a third-party service.
"A reliable video signal, whether it is SD, HD or 4K, is also part of a general user experience, and from that point of view the pay TV platforms still have an advantage. OTT services can seldom fully control their signal end-to-end as they need to rely on the broadband delivery from another party."
Quality of service is what sets linear operators apart from OTT providers, agrees Isla Sutherland, head of product at Freesat. "A key differentiator for us is the amazing reliability of satellite," she says. "There's a good level of tolerance around the on-demand viewing for content buffering, but when streaming live TV over IP introduces a few seconds lag, moments such as the penalty shoot outs at the FIFA World Cup and hearing neighbours celebrate a few seconds before you, have shown us that 'not quite live' experience isn't always good enough."
Ease of content discovery is another way that TV operators can differentiate themselves from the competition. If the EPG allows the viewer to clearly see both the operator's content and third-party content, viewers will be less likely to look elsewhere. Creating a consistent user experience, however, is complicated by the fact that many people in a single household consume TV content from a single entry point on many devices.
"Creating a consistent user experience that can deliver 'multiple access points' e.g. via a simple menu, an advanced EPG, app store or recommendations portal and other journeys to content like voice search, caters for the spectrum of tastes and age groups that want to use the TV 'their way'. Allowing for multiple journeys means users get the feeling that the experience is personally designed for them," says Smith-Chaigneau at Nagra.
With competition for audiences now so fierce, it's tempting to want to constantly tinker with your user experience. However, 'if it's not broke don't try to fix it' is a valuable rule to keep in mind too says Sutherland at Freesat. "While we'll always want to take advantage of new trends and technologies, being innovative for the sake of it is not going to make a great TV user experience. Some parts of the UX are almost best left alone. For example, a TV guide [EPG] that has worked well for decades. Even though we now have the ability to implement image-rich navigation, this is probably best left for on-demand box sets and movies, rather than live TV."
UI's impact on marketing
By the time anyone is using a TV operator's service, they're normally a paid up subscriber, but that doesn't mean that the marketing team has done its job and can move on to the next potential customer. "While it's by no means the lead part of any strategy, the UX of a service does play a prominent role in marketing a service, given how it is the way that potential customers will first perceive the service," says Berry at Airbeem.
"It serves as a representation for the brand, and it becomes one of the most powerful pieces of marketing a service has. It doesn't matter how many slogans are deployed or however much is written about a service, users will make their judgement based on what they see of it way before they read and digest any text."
If you get the user experience wrong, churn will rise and the poor customer service will become a talking point – not just through word of mouth, but through social media where it could easily go viral. Bundling OTT content with regular linear content can also be used as a selling point by marketeers, who can demonstrate to the user the benefits of having all your content accessible from one central point. Crucially, linear TV operators need to be flexible so that marketeers can implement new user-experience strategies quickly.
"Newer user experience and content management platforms make it possible for small teams of schedulers and marketers to test, adapt, and evolve the front-end without needing to involve the engineering department at all," says Downey at Massive.
"It's a way to redesign the UX, introduce new content layouts, rebrand the service, and even completely flip the business model in response to changing demands. Marketers can also use platforms like this to push promotional up-sell campaigns to specific audience segments without needing to update the service via the set-top box or connected device," he says.
"Underpinning all of this is a need to tap into usage data from subscribers. This supercharges personalisation efforts, making it possible to roll out real-time UX alterations based on what the audience wants to see. It's an approach that can also be used for identifying a segment of users that are likely to churn and tailoring promotions to prevent this, or increasing customer loyalty through more targeted content offerings."
What now for legacy boxes?
Many established TV operators have numerous legacy set-top-boxes deployed across their subscriber bases that don't have the capabilities of more advanced devices – a handicap in this competitive market.
Magine uses the same framework for IPTV boxes and mobiles.
"Tech development moves fast and it's not easy to stay competitive with old installed bases of legacy set-top-boxes. And, it is hard to create a comparable seamless media experience for set-top-boxes and TV-everywhere devices in parallel," says Tranvik at Magine "Magine Pro's experience from our pay TV operator partners is that the best insurance for the future is to build everything in the same framework for both IPTV boxes – with Android TV – and mobile devices. Then you have the ability to maintain feature parity on different devices and platforms and rollout of features would be cross device and platform, meaning all features will look and feel the same, regardless if it is a set-top-box or other devices."
If legacy boxes are up to date enough to work with cloud-based software, they will also be in a better position to compete with other operators, says Smith-Chaigneau at Nagra.
"Many of today's services are delivered in the cloud and are server-side bound. We have taken the PVR out of the STB and moved to nPVR. Other advanced services, such as catch-up, start-over and playback trick-modes are all now server-side based. The embedded software specialists once worked hard to ensure that low-power set-tops with little memory were able to function well. They created efficient software to allow for service overhead in the devices, but it was always a challenge for resources. However, the heavy-lifting that a set-top used to have to do is no longer the case, which makes many legacy in-the-field boxes able to be used for more advanced services."
Investing in advanced operator-controlled set-top-boxes should give operators more control over their Quality of Service and Quality of Experience and increase the longevity of the box, so it could pay off in the long term. Combined with a more complex remote control, a managed STB will provide much more functionality than a simple OTT device. Some operators are using the introduction of 4K to upgrade their whole service, points out Dawes at TiVo, and some are even letting customers use their own devices.
"Many operators have recently or are going through deployments of 4K television so they have the opportunity to roll out new hardware SKUs," he says, referring to Stock Keeping Units – the serial numbers that uniquely identify a product. "Some have chosen to remain with a more expensive box, but many are looking to take on the OTT players at their own game and either deploy cheaper hardware using new platforms like Android TV or moving to a model where the customer can bring their own device."
Get the user experience right and viewers will be automatically loyal to their box and the TV operator's service and one thing that viewers like about their box is its record function.
"The ability to record live TV has sat with traditional set-top-boxes and this functionality continues to resonate with users. Users want to record more programmes at once and to watch them back on any device, says Sutherland at Freesat. "Amazon's Frank DVR could potentially present a threat to this, though details on the exact experience are limited at this stage.
And let's not forget the household without super-fast internet. This may sound a bit conservative, but all we need to do is wait for the internet to go down or find ourselves in an area with limited internet access or speed and we quickly realise the value of live TV," she says. "Yes, the reliability of broadband is increasing, but we'd be kidding ourselves if we said it was as reliable as satellite. This is simply something OTT players cannot offer at this stage."
Control the signal, provide the right content and make it easy to access anytime anywhere and 'traditional' TV providers should always be able to trump OTT. If they slip up on any one of these they will find their viewers looking elsewhere.
Tags: Airbeem, Anthony Smith-Chaigneau, Charles Dawes, Freesat, Håkan Tranvik, Isla Sutherland, Magine, Massive, Nagra, Neil Berry, Ron Downey, TiVo
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Karen Bronzo promoted to EVP marketing at @hgtv digitaltveurope.com/2019/07/17/kar… https://t.co/6DdrVAcImZ

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News Releases - As Senators Debate Expiring Patriot Act, ITI Announces it will Key Vote Bipartisan Surveillance Reform Bill
As Senators Debate Expiring Patriot Act, ITI Announces it will Key Vote Bipartisan Surveillance Reform Bill
WASHINGTON – Today the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice for the tech sector, announced it will key vote the Senate's consideration of a bipartisan surveillance reform bill that was already passed by a strong vote in the House of Representatives. Citing the importance of reforming U.S. surveillance laws to restore eroded trust in the U.S. government and technology sector, ITI signaled its support for H.R. 2048, the USA Freedom Act, in a letter addressed to Senate leaders.
ITI is the only tech trade group to score votes that are key priorities for the technology industry. The following is text of the letter announcing the tech organization's intention to key vote the legislation:
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
The Honorable Harry Reid
Democratic Leader
Re: H.R. 2048, Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping,
Dragnet-collection, and Online Monitoring (USA Freedom) Act
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Democratic Leader Reid:
On behalf of the 60 members of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), I write to express our strong support for H.R. 2048, the USA Freedom Act. Given the importance of surveillance reform to the high-tech community, we will consider scoring votes in support of final passage of the USA Freedom
Act in our 114th Congressional Voting Guide.
Senate passage of H.R. 2048 would be a vital step in addressing public concerns foreign and domestic about surveillance programs in the U.S. The surveillance revelations of the last 2 years have had a corrosive impact on the public's trust in our government and on perceptions of the independence of U.S. technology companies. Without action, not only are American jobs at risk, so is the open and borderless Internet upon which our innovation economy relies. The USA Freedom Act is a meaningful surveillance reform effort that will aid the rebuilding of the public's trust not only in the technology sector but also in the U.S. government by effectively ending indiscriminate bulk collection and allowing companies to be more transparent about the orders they receive.
We urge the Senate to move forward on the reforms contained in the USA Freedom Act without delay in
order to restore the public's trust in our sector, protect the open and borderless internet, and ensure the continued vitality of our innovation economy and the growth it creates here in the U.S. We also urge the Senate to refrain from adopting harmful policies such as a data retention mandate during the USA Freedom Act debate. Such amendments would threaten the path of the USA Freedom Act to final law.
Because it is critical that the USA Freedom Act be free of harmful amendments, we will consider scoring votes against any such amendments in our 114th Congressional Voting Guide.
On behalf of ITI's member companies, I thank you for your leadership and continued bipartisan efforts on this critical issue.
Dean Garfield
cc: Members of the Senate
About ITI. The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is the global voice of the tech sector. As the premier advocacy and policy organization for the world's leading innovation companies, ITI navigates the relationships between policymakers, companies, and non-governmental organizations, providing creative solutions that advance the development and use of technology around the world. Visit www.itic.org to learn more. Follow us on Twitter for the latest ITI news @ITI_TechTweets.
Public Policy Tags: Surveillance Reform, Data & Privacy
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Home » Visit Gatabaru Devala:best way to break a curse
Visit Gatabaru Devala:best way to break a curse
Leave a Comment / CULTURE / By Sanjeewa Padmal (Seerendipity)
Getabaru Devala sits on a mountain known as Gatabaru mountain, at an elevation of 1500 feet above sea level. The temple is conveniently located on the Galle-Deniyaya main road, about 50 km from Galle. It is easy to find and easy to reach due to its location on the Galle-Deniyaya main road. Even though the temple is located in the southern province its reputation is gone far and wide on the island.
The temple of Gatabaru
Gatabaru Devala dedicated to God Rajjubandara
The historical value of Gatabaru Devala
What can we see in Gatabaru Devala
Worshipping God Rajjubandara
Why Gatabaru Devala important
Jagath left his home very early morning (at 03.00 AM) to take Matara bound bus from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Jagath is living in Moratuwa, a suburb of Colombo. He is on a secret mission and heading to the Gatabaru Devala, only his wife knew about his journey. The remote temple sits near Matara town, well over 150 km from his home town.
The temple sits in the southern province, near Matara town. Gatabaru Devala is an off-the-beaten-track tourist site in Sri Lanka and is rarely included in package tours such as 7 days Sri Lanka trip and 5 days Sri Lanka trip packages.
I had been to hundreds of temples on the island, as far as my experience the biggest draw of the temple is its historical value or exceptional belief involve with it like Gatabaru Devala. Usually, the religious value of all temples is the same. Temples like Dambulla cave temple, Tooth relic temple are popular due to its historical value while Temples like Gatabaru and Kataragama temple are popular for the supernatural power vested on them.
I had heard about Gatabaru Devala and its supernatural power but never had a chance to visit it. I was on the way to visit a tooth relic temple to find information for my articles. I also visited the tooth temple with my family and friends many times in the past, because the tooth relic temple is extra special to us, but never visited Gatabaru temple.
This time I thought of visiting the temple because I can visit it without any detour and without wasting time. Today I'm heading to the Sinharaja rainforest from Galle via Akuressa. I was on a trip to publish an article on a hotel, to promote their hotel, which sits near Sinharaja rainforest.
It took 1 hour for me to reach Gatabaru Deavala from Imaduwa exit of southern expressway. After leaving the southern expressway I drove towards Akuressa on Akuressa-Galle main road, for 53 km to reach Kotapala village, where Gatabaru temple is located.
I think you should be very attentive as you drive on this route otherwise you can easily miss the place. The temple is not very prominent to the passerby. The temple is like hidden in the woods, you can't see it clearly from the road.
The journey is very enjoyable, the road is well maintained but a little bit narrow. It is better to maintain a moderate speed as the road is narrow and bends are frequent. There are few small towns on the road but you pass a large number of empty lands that are in the grip of nature. The houses are built at regular intervals and there are big gaps like 50-100 meters between houses. The road is quite empty and as you nearer to the temple it is getting more and more rural. However, a perfect trip for nature lovers. Open the windows and turn your AC off to feel the fresh air.
The temple sits on the left side of the road and on the opposite side of the road is a spacious parking area dedicated to the visitors. There were 2 big buses and a few small vehicles as I came to Gatabaru Devala. The people on the buses had made a long journey from Kalutara to visit Gatabaru Devala. Chanasena, who is working in Devala as helper told me that a large number of devotees are visiting the temple, a lot of pilgrims make on their way to temple.
From the northernmost city of Jaffna to the southern tip of Sri Lanka, many thousands of Buddhist temples, monasteries, hermitages, stupas and pagodas are scattered all over the island, and show the way for the people to find eternal bliss or Nirvana. The primary objective of the Buddhist temple is to function as a place of worship and teaching the devotees of principles of Buddhism.
Rambadagalla Buddhist temple
King Buddhadasa the great physician
Queens of Sri Lanka
Wahakotte Church
Dagoba that comparable to Pyramid
Sri Lanka Anuradhapura temple
Seruwila Raja Maha Vihara
Hindu Shrines of polonnaruwa
Degaldoruwa, Gammaduwa, Gangarama temple
Sinhala and Tamil new Year
Mysterious palace of Mahavihara temple
Visiting first Dagoba Sri Lanka
However, the temple of Gatababaru not only functions as an average temple that teaches the teaching of Buddha to devotees but also that helps the devotees with its supernatural power. Usually, the Buddhist temples are consisting of 4 major elements Bo-tree, image house, Stupa and living quarters for monks. Other than above mentioned 4 element this temple has a Deavala, which is dedicated to worship God Rajjuru Bandara.
According to the ancient chronicle Mahawamsa, the historical value of the temple goes back to the 1st century BC. The temple is believed to have functioned as a temporary residence of King Walagambahu. Gatabaru also can be described as a cave temple made of natural granite caves. However, it is not the historical value or religious importance of Gatabaru temple that is popular. The Gatabaru Deavala, a separate quarter in the temple, which is dedicated to God Rajjuru Bandara is the main draw of Gatabaru religious site.
The temple is located in a very picturesque surrounding, which is frequented by monkeys. The temple is surrounded by Sinharaja, Morawaka and Rankwana mountain ranges.
A large number of Statues belong to Buddha Buddha statues as well as God figures can be witnessed in the temple. The is placed in many places and most of them are either in standing or seated posture. Apart from the statues, the visitors can also see a large number of paintings, which are depicting various scenes of life of Buddha.
God Rajjubadara is believed to fight against injustice and punish the people, who commit a crime. Most people visit the temple based on this belief.
The devotees place the fruit plate on the altar when they visit the temple and keep the hands on the forehead while the priest begs the god to help the devotee, who present in the temple. The God of Gatabaru has the power to punish people and incur an ill fate on someone if he or she had committed a wrongdoing. Most people, who are visiting the Gatabaru Devala had been subjected to the wickedness of someone and he or she has no way to find justice in a formal way, therefore, they resort to God Rajjubandara and ask for justice.
I asked Jagath, who is at the temple with a fruit plate, "what made you visit Gatabaru Devala. Because People are not visiting Gatabaru Devala on religious purposes". Jagath said "We were having a lot of problems for a few years, a witch doctor told me that someone had cast a spell on my family. My business was not performing as it was in the past and kids were getting sick very often, especially the small ones. Doctors said that the kid was fine and they could not trace any reason for his unceasing abdominal pain. Many "Kattadiya" witch doctors tried to remove the spell but did not work. "
Jagath further said, "One of my friends told me about Gatabaru Devala and I came to the temple and told God about the troubles that I was going through." Then Jagath was silent for a moment, he started to speak again a bit emotionally." It was a miracle after my Pooja at Gatabaru Devala, the spell was broken, my kid was back to normal and his pain disappeared. Now we are happy again, thank you God Rajjubanadara. I don't know what could happen to us if this mighty god had not been there. My business is also performing as it was earlier."
Then I asked Jagath, who had cast the spell on your family. Jagath said "It was a neighbour, he was envy on me because my business performing very well. He is not talking to us anymore and we have no friends anymore."
Anything happened to your neighbour since you came to Ggatabaru Devala, I asked Jagath. "Yes, the cast is directed to, where it originated. Unfortunately, his kid has a lot of problems now and the entire family is going through a very troubled period. He might be feeling the same pain that I had."
It is customary to visit Gatabaru Devala again with a parcel of fruit when the wish is fulfilled, to thank God for the help rendered.
Most people that visit Gatabaru Devala have similar kind of stories about Jagath. Some have lost their value and are not in a position to find it. Someone has broken their relationships and while some others have family problems. The belief of the devotees is the God Rajjubandara invoke the blessing, which causes them to see the relief and end of troubles.


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A scene from The Mill Project, by TheatreTruck, which was founded by Elizabeth Pangburn and Brianna Sloane. Photo courtesy of TheatreTruck
Making Space, Making Work, Making People: Alumnae Brianna Sloane and Elizabeth Pangburn consider the place of women in theater
By Anna-Maria Goossens | Wednesday, December 20, 2017
By Anna-Maria Goossens
In 2016, the Wellesley Centers for Women released the findings of a study that illustrated a disappointingly low percentage of women in leadership at non-profit regional (LORT) theaters and an even lower percentage of women of color in leadership at those same theaters. The need for change inspired WAM Theatre in the Berkshires to organize the first-ever Berkshire Leadership Summit this October 28 and 29. Among the 80 women (cis-, trans- and gender non-conforming) whose application to attend the summit were accepted were two alumni of UMass Theater's graduate program, Brianna Sloane '14G and Elizabeth Pangburn '15G.
Collaborators in their artistic lives as the co-founders of the Pioneer Valley's TheatreTruck, which performs devised work in found spaces, they found the summit both motivating and validating. Even now, they are still mulling over how to act on the ideas that came to them during the conversations, calls to action, and workshops they experienced.
"One of the biggest themes I heard from the participants was this idea of making space," said Pangburn, whose MFA is in Costume Design. "Making space for marginalized groups in the conversation, literally making space, and making space in the institution for more voices and more faces and more ideas."
With a large number of artistic and management positions open in LORT theaters right now, the conversation was not just theoretical. Sloane, who has her graduate degree in Directing, said the group spoke about "specifically, not just hiring women in these upper positions where they're seriously missing right now, but also preparing the institutions to make space for their leadership and to support their leadership so they can be successful. It isn't just about hiring, but it's about making a space and creating a support within the entire culture."
Both women make a living as educators and artists. In addition to running TheatreTruck, Sloane teaches acting at Mount Holyoke College and at American International College. Meanwhile, Pangburn is a fulltime faculty member at Mount Holyoke teaching costume design and costume history, is involved with the makerspace at the college, and designs for Chester Theatre Company. Both are also outspoken about how their creativity in theater spaces is firmly enmeshed with their family lives, and specifically motherhood.
Neither is an employee of a regional theater, however — and they wondered, at some points, how they fit in at a summit organized in response to the leadership picture in the LORT theaters.
"It's not that I'm not positioned to go that way, or that I don't have the resume to go that way," said Sloane, "but it isn't the work that I'm doing." Ultimately, however, getting a better understanding of how the system works, the idealistic underpinnings behind the founding of the LORT system, and where these theaters are currently struggling led her to a mantra: "Decentralizing and recentering."
Originally, she explained, regional theater were created "to decentralize the focus from Broadway, but now they've become the center. Meanwhile, the majority of American theater isn't there — the majority of American theater is these scrappy little companies like TheatreTruck." In additional to wanting to acknowledge that reality, she thinks it's time to "recenter on value, as opposed to money."
To Sloane and Pangburn, that means making theater by and about people not always represented in the canon. It means putting those same people into positions of leadership, and supporting them. It means rethinking theater boards of directors so that these bodies are less driven by financial concerns and more effectively collaborating with the artistic side of the theater.
Pangburn, who also initially questioned her place in the conference, noted that as with many in the room, her work as an educator puts her in a position to teach these newly recentered values to the up-and-comers. "We want to focus on them (women in assistant and associate director positions), we also want to focus on the women slightly below them who are coming up the ranks, and then also our students, who will be the next generation of leaders. …They're going to create — and benefit — from the system. I think that's huge."
Both women also found that some of the workshops and conversations were an "affirmation" for some of the things they do as co-founders of TheatreTruck.
"We started the company partly as a response to wanting to work differently, wanting to work in a less wasteful way, wanting to work in a more lateral, less hierarchical way. (We wanted) to work in a way that saw our families as assets and not as liabilities, or our motherhood as a creative asset and not as a liability," Sloane said.
"A sustainable approach," Pangburn chimed in, noting that they mean that in all senses of the word — not just environmentally, but in terms of being able to sustain the work. Many women get out of theater by 30, she said, overwhelmed by the challenges of trying to build a career, crack a glass ceiling, and be the primary caretaker for children or aging relatives.
Participating in a workshop about budgeting at the Summit, Sloane talked about "politicizing" her budget: "How I can assign monetary value to things I have ethical value for." For example, she pointed out that TheatreTruck has included child care as a line item in the budget on two of its projects because it's important to them to support artists' family needs.
The company also actively engages in community-building. Its members create work about the community — to wit, a piece about Emily Dickinson set at the Dickinson House, as well as its recent devised piece, The Mill Project, a piece of physical theater that uses primary text, dance, music, and song to tell the story of the women who worked in mills and began one of the early labor movements in this country. They also hold meet-and-greet events to which they invite local artists, and they're interested in fostering a cultural arts scene together in the area because having a scene creates a sort of momentum that benefits all the organizations involved.
"We're really trained in jealousy and envy as part of our craft, and I wanted artists to meet each other with this idea that we were all in it together and we were all going to come together to create work," Sloane said.
The ideas the attendees brought home from the summit are only just starting to shape themselves into action. They were encouraged to write manifestos. There was talk of writing a letter that would put LORT theater on notice that their newest round of hires would be scrutinized to see if the women and people of color working just below leadership were given chances to move up.
Pangburn and Sloane are still thinking and talking over what's next in terms of putting the summit's ideas into action, although Sloane did note that the workshops she took prompted ideas for the next evolution of The Mill Project. She noted that the particulars are different, but the story has obvious resonances with where we are, and what she and her collaborators are dealing with.
"It's amazing how linked our experiences are over the century," Pangburn said.
Click to visit the TheatreTruck website
Click to watch the video summary of the Wellesley Center study on Women's Leadership in Resident Theaters


Before the premiere of Spike Lee's new documentary "2 Fist Up," Lee and interim UM System President Mike Middleton voice their hopes that the film has a positive impact on its audience.
After watching Spike Lee's "2 Fists Up: We Gon Be Alright" film debut Wednesday night at the Missouri Theatre, L'Damian Washington was a little torn.
On one hand, the former Missouri wide receiver thought the film "did a great job" of capturing the events that unfolded at MU last fall. In the film, Lee set out to examine "how the Black Lives Matter movement sparked activism at the University of Missouri, its football team and across of the rest of the United States," and in detailing everything from the Concerned Student 1950 protests to Jonathan Butler's hunger strike to the Missouri football boycott, Washington thought it did that.
On the other hand, though, Washington thought more emphasis should have been placed on the protesters' backgrounds.
Nearly 800 people filled their seats as the clock hit 8 p.m. Interim UM System President Mike Middleton and Lee took the stage to introduce the film.
Both Foster and Washington sat next to the film's producer and director, Marquis Daisy, Wednesday night. Daisy is a friend, Washington said, and he also produced and directed "Tigers United," the SEC Network film released this fall featuring Foster, Washington and former Missouri Tiger Michael Sam.
But covering is one thing and the takeaway is another.
As the first public screening and director's cut hourlong edition of the 22-minute digital short that'll be debuting as part of Spike Lee's "Lil' Joints" series on May 31, that's the most vaunted question.
For Foster, it was fairly simple.


This seemed like a great solution at the time, but is quite a lot of code, as you are writing a method for every…single…datatype that your application interacts with. Being in a Small Business you didn't really get the ability to refactor code that often, so once it was written you stuck by it.
Moving along in my career I stepped into Environment that already had full DALs in place so I would mimic what the previous developer did in order to keep the code base easily maintainable, as there is never a lack of fun trying to understand more than one persons point of view across a piece of code.
This solution provides a source code friendlier way of returning values from a database and validating the data against your business rules [you can replace default(T) is a Generic way of handling your applications default values].


Housing minister Grant Shapps entered into a full-scale row live on air with a presenter of the BBC's Today Programme.
Mr Shapps reacted angrily when he was accused of cancelling the interview the day before and leapt to correct the presenter, John Humphrys, while also accusing the BBC of misleading listeners with an inaccurate report.
In exchanges which lasted for several minutes, the pair used up a third of the interview time with the minister requesting that Humphrys understand there was "no booking in place", although a "request had been made".
Almost embarrassingly, Humphrys was forced to explaining the procedure that was followed, where researchers "take notes" to avoid confusion, while Mr Shapps refused to sweep the issue under the carpet, demanding his point to be made "clear".
The interview finally moved on after it appeared that Humphrys had backed down, admitting there had, perhaps, been a "crossed wire of communication". Mr Shapps did not come out well either, with the show's Twitter followers branding the moment as a "meltdown".


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Kenneth J. Gruneisen started out as a licensed stockbroker in August 1987, a couple of months prior to the historic stock market crash that took the Dow Jones Industrial Average down -22.6% in a single day. He has published daily fact-based fundamental and technical analysis on high-ranked stocks online for two decades. Through FACTBASEDINVESTING.COM, Kenneth provides educational articles, news, market commentary, and other information regarding proven investment systems that work in good times and bad.
Comments contained in the body of this report are technical opinions only and are not necessarily those of Gruneisen Growth Corp. The material herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable and accurate, however, its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Our firm, employees, and customers may effect transactions, including transactions contrary to any recommendation herein, or have positions in the securities mentioned herein or options with respect thereto. Any recommendation contained in this report may not be suitable for all investors and it is not to be deemed an offer or solicitation on our part with respect to the purchase or sale of any securities.


Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer is the author of 13 books, a Stanford B-School professor, and one of the world's leading thinkers on the human side of business. In his recent book, Power: Why Some People Have It -- And Others Don't, Pfeffer reveals that acquiring real clout, the kind that helps you get stuff done, requires a few bare-knuckle strategies...and a lot of social capital. To build your path to power, you have to consider not just your social networks but the role you play in those networks. They will be discussing: •	Qualities that create power—and why intelligence is not one of them. •	How bridging different social worlds creates influence. •	Why likability is overrated. •	How to act and speak powerfully and persuasively.
To watch the webex recording, click here and hit the playback button.


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text:
import sys
import time

from ..storage import create_dirs, SampleDao

###############################################################################

def extract_batch(sample_type, samples, database_file_path,
                  log_file_path=None, verbose=True, update_features=None):
    """Parse the specified list of samples and store them in the specified
    database file.

    sample_type should be the type of the samples that should be stored in the
    database.

    samples should be a list of the Sample objects that should be stored in
    the database. All samples in the list should be of the sample type.

    database_file_path should be the path to the database where the samples
    should be stored. If the database file does not exist, it will be
    created.

    log_file_path is the optional path to the log file that the status of
    the feature parsing should be saved to. The log file will be appended
    to the document, so the contents of the log will not be overwrittern.
    If this file does not exist, it will be created.

    If verbose is set to true, the status of the feature parsing will be
    written to stdout. It is turned off by default.

    update_features is the list of features that should be updated for any
    sample that is already contained in the database. If this is none or an
    empty list, duplicates will be skipped. If this is simply the string '*',
    then any missing features will be filled in for duplicates. If this is the
    string 'ALL', all features will be updated for duplicates. Otherwise,
    this should be a list containing strings representing feature names for the
    features to be updated.
    """

    def write(text):
        """Writes the specified text to stdout or the log file depending on
        the settings.
        """

        # Stdout
        if (verbose):
            sys.stdout.write(text)
            sys.stdout.flush()

        # Log file
        if (log_file_path):
            log_file.write(text)

    # Ensure valid value for update_features.
    if (update_features == 'ALL'):
        update_features = [f[0] for f in sample_type.feature_methods()]

    valid = isinstance(update_features, (list, tuple)) or \
            update_features == '*' or \
            update_features is None
    if (not valid):
        raise ValueError('Invalid value for update_features: %s'
                         % str(update_features))

    # Create the log file.
    if (log_file_path):
        create_dirs(log_file_path)
        log_file = open(log_file_path, 'a')

    # Ensure samples were passed in.
    if (not samples):
        write('No samples found.')
        return

    # Log all of the samples passed in.
    samples_log = 'Found {0} samples:\n\t'.format(len(samples))
    samples_log += '\n\t'.join(sample.identifier for sample in samples)
    samples_log += '\n\n'
    write(samples_log)

    # Create a dao for the type of the samples.
    dao = SampleDao(sample_type, database_file_path)

    # Track how long the parsing takes.
    total_start = time.clock()

    # Track which samples were added, which already existed in the database,
    # and which samples caused an error while extracting.
    added_samples    = []
    error_samples    = []
    existing_samples = []

    # Add each sample to the database.
    for sample in samples:

        # Skip the sample if it is already in the database and the option to
        # skip duplicates is set.
        existing = dao.exists(sample.identifier)
        if (existing and not update_features):
            existing_samples.append(sample)
            write('{0} is already in database. Skipping...\n\n'.format(
                                                            sample.identifier))
            continue

        # Log sample start.
        write('Extracting features from {0}...\n'.format(sample.identifier))
        start = time.clock()

        # Add or update sample.
        try:
            sample.optimize()
            if (existing):
                features = None if update_features == '*' else update_features
                dao.update_sample(sample, features, verbose_callback=write)
            else:
                dao.add_sample(sample, verbose_callback=write)
            sample.cleanup()

        # Catch any errors that may have occurred due to the feature
        # extraction. These would likely be caused by a derived Sample class.
        except Exception as e:

            # Log exception.
            write(str(e) + '\n\n')

            # Add to the list of errored samples.
            error_samples.append(sample)

        # If the sample extracted successfully, log the end of the sample.
        else:

             # Log sample end.
            elapsed = time.clock() - start / 1000
            write('Finished extraction in {0:.5} seconds.\n\n'.format(elapsed))

            # Add the sample to the appropriate list.
            if (existing):
                existing_samples.append(sample)

            else:
                added_samples.append(sample)

    # Close the database.
    dao.close()

    # Log the results of the extraction.
    if (added_samples):
        added_text = 'Added {0} samples:\n\t'.format(len(added_samples))
        added_text += '\n\t'.join(sample.identifier for sample
                                                    in added_samples)
        added_text += '\n\n'
        write(added_text)

    if (existing_samples):
        action = 'Skipped' if not update_features else 'Updated'
        existing_text = '{0} {1} samples:\n\t'.format(action,
                                                      len(existing_samples))
        existing_text += '\n\t'.join(sample.identifier for sample
                                                       in existing_samples)
        existing_text += '\n\n'
        write(existing_text)

    if (error_samples):
        error_text = 'Encountered errors with {0} samples:\n\t'.format(
                                                            len(error_samples))
        error_text += '\n\t'.join(sample.identifier for sample
                                                    in error_samples)
        error_text += '\n\n'
        write(error_text)

    # Log the amount of time the entire process took.
    total_elapsed = time.clock() - total_start
    write('Finished in {0:.5} seconds.\n\n'.format(total_elapsed))

    # Close the log file.
    if (log_file_path):
        log_file.close()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


GIZ has been assisting the Republic of Moldova with the difficult process of socio-economic transition since 1994. We are conducting these activities on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and other federal ministries. We also work on behalf of international organizations in the country and maintain an office in Chisinau to this end.
The Moldovan economy is dominated by the agricultural sector and downstream processing industries. While the emerging private sector accounts for approximately 80% of the economic value added, Moldova is still one of the poorest countries in Europe. Of its 4.4 million inhabitants, 700,000 (16 per cent) have already left in search of better living conditions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that remittances from Moldovans living abroad account for some 30 per cent of GNP.
The country's economic strength is further weakened by the long-standing and unresolved conflict over the breakaway region of Transnistria: this is where a significant part of industrial production is concentrated.
Romania's accession to the European Union (EU) has made Moldova an EU neighbor. It is therefore integrated in the EU's Neighborhood Policy, which aims to promote closer relationships with the new neighboring states. The overarching objective is to tangibly improve the political, social, economic and ecological situation, with a mutual commitment to sustainable development.
The Republic of Moldova is not a regular partner country in German international cooperation. GIZ projects there are generally financed out of supra-regional BMZ funds, by other federal ministries or by international organizations.
German international cooperation with Moldova focuses on promoting modernization in the agricultural sector and the food processing industries, as well as on improving vocational training and municipal services.
GIZ also supports selected municipalities and districts with participatory budgeting, public tendering and project management with a view to integrated regional development. A further priority area is the promotion of German-Moldovan business relations by means of training for Moldovan managers to help generate business contacts.


☆ Experience the world-famous Niagara Falls from both USA & Canada side.
☆ Explore eastern Canada's urban hot spots - Toronto and Montreal!
☆ Valid passport and Canada visa (if applicable) are required.
☆ All entrance fees included!
☆ Visit Athens, Delphi, Meteora, Olympia, Santorini!
☆ 4 Breakfasts and 3 dinners included!
☆ All entrance fees mentioned in the itinerary include: the Cape Sounio, Delphi Site and Museum, Olympia Site and Museum Epidaurus and Mycenae and 2 Monasteries of Meteora, Olympia.
☆ Discover the famous historical monuments of mainland Greece within 5 days!


Remove stems and seeds, put in a pot, add sugar and gelfix, let it boil for five minutes and pour it in jars.
Home made jams and marmalades taste great. They make a perfect gift. If only there was a way to make a boring jar of jam look more interesting... If only there was an easy way to clearly shout out how good they are just by looking at them... Oh, wait! There is!
And that is what this instructable is all about. In following steps I am going to show you how to make raspberry jam ornaments and more.
Now that you don't have any more excuses why not to make your own ornaments, let's get started!
Start by tying a knot at the end of the rope and cut the short bit off. Roll clay around the knot. It should look like a cone but don't make it too perfect as a sloppy cone makes for better final result (see image above). Note that this part should be made of same or darker clay as pink part of raspberry. I used brown clay as it is actually just old remains of clay, mixed together.
Next step is to roll pink clay in thin rod, cut it in small pieces and roll them in balls. Resulting balls don't have to be exactly the same in size. In fact they must be different! biggest ball should be approximately twice as big as smallest ball and remaining balls should follow gauss spread curve (most balls normally sized with some extremes in both directions). For better presentation of what you need, see image above.
Now you need to stick balls on centre piece. Start by sticking them on bottom of raspberry (part that is furthest away from rope). Don't put a ball straight on tip of the cone. Put it a little bit off as in nature, nothing is too perfect. Continue to stack balls one next to another all the way up to the rope. Be cautious not to press beads too hard as that results in flattened beads - you will see what I am talking about if you look at last image of this step. The result still looks great though!
To make leaves for your raspberry, start with a small triangle of green clay. Using a toothpick to make a dent lengthwise in leaf. Squeeze leaf from sides to tighten the crack. This also gives your leaf a beautiful curve.
You will need 6 or 8 of leaves per raspberry. I recommend you place leaf on raspberry right after you make it in order to avoid loosing or damaging it. Make bottom layer of leaves first and add second one on top of that. This helps to imitate natural stacking of leaves.
Use toothpick to seal visible cracks between leaves. I strongly disrecommend using any other tool as wood is one of rare materials that clay doesn't stick to. Also any sharper tool will leave tool marks on your pretty little raspberry and you don't want that now do you?
Now we are done with modelling raspberry. Time to put it in the oven.
If you were to put it on plate, you may end up with flattened raspberry where it was in contact with a plate. Since we don't want that, we will put a grated plate in top-most slot of the oven and tie raspberries to hang from there.
Make a loose loop, put the rope around one of plate's bars and put raspberry through the loop. It is very important to make loop easy to untie. Just make a normal loop and don't tighten the knot.
Now cure your raspberry at temperature your polymer clay requires. I put mine to 110 °C (230 °F) for half an hour as my polymer clay instructed me so.
Your raspberry is now finished. The only thing left to do is to tie it around jar of good home made raspberry jam and gift it to a friend or a relative.
Now is time for you to get creative and make many different colourful and pretty little jam ornaments. Roll a bit of orange clay to make peaches or apricots, add a small brown chunk to turn them into oranges or start off with yellow to make lemons. put a clump of purple balls on a green "leaf" to make blueberries. Start like you did with raspberries only make a base bigger and red and skip sticking balls to it. Add leaves and viola: you have strawberries!
Whether you are going to gift decorated marmalades or sell them, the added value given by such simple decoration is amazing.
Also the more I looked at resulting raspberry, the more I was thinking what a good piece of jewellery it would make. Since those raspberries are about as big as a nail, they'd make cute earrings or a necklace pendant.
Look through gallery for inspiration and favourite this instructable if you liked it. You may also consider sharing it and voting for rainbow contest and clay contest.
perfect idea how to spend some time in hot summer days!