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US Senator slams 'long arm of China' after US Marriott staffer fired over Tibet tweet
US Senator Marco Rubio. Photo: Gage Skidmore, via Flickr.
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US Senator Marco Rubio has denounced "the long arm of China" after an American Marriott customer care manager was fired for hitting "like" on a tweet relating to Tibet.
According to a report in the Omaha World-Herald last week, Marriott employee Roy Jones logged onto the official Marriott Twitter account and clicked "like" on a tweet that thanked the hotel for listing Tibet as a country, rather than as a part of China, in a survey. Jones said he believed that he had done so by mistake, the Nebraska daily said.
Marriott in January triggered an online uproar with a customer questionnaire that listed Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet and Taiwan as separate countries. President and managing director of the hotel's Asia-Pacific office Craig S. Smith reportedly told China Daily that it was a "huge mistake," added that it was "probably one of the biggest in my career."
Jones handled complaints, questions and reward-point requests directed to the hotel's Twitter account. He had been working an eight-hour overnight shift when he "accidentally" liked the tweet from Friends of Tibet, a pro-Tibetan independence group.
The 49-year-old said the role was his "dream job" and said he did not receive any training on China-related issues. "I had to tell my dad that I got fired from this job because I pissed off China," he told the paper.
The hotel previously apologised for the move and said it had fired the employee. It also announced an "eight-point rectification plan" after the controversy.
Rubio tweeted about the incident on Sunday, saying: "An American worker was fired by Marriott for accidentally 'liking' a tweet about Tibet after pressure came from China communist government."
"This is the long arm of China. They can get an 'American' company to fire an American worker in America," he added.
Communist China began running Tibet after the military invasion of Tibet in 1949, assuring that freedom of Tibetan people would be respected. But Tibetans say the dictatorship government led by Mao— known as one of the most deadly mass killings of human history, went back on his word, forcing His Holiness the Dalai Lama to flee Tibet in 1959, destroying more than 6000 monasteries and temples and killing over 1.2 million Tibetans, out of a total of 6 million. Since then, Tibetans have launched an international campaign against the "occupying" China's authoritarian state that continues to face criticism for human rights violations in suppressing the people of Tibet.
Tibet	China	United States	Senators	Marriott


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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The following files will generate and test the sudoku board of different size with 25x25 being the largest board.

The files are under development, so don't expect perfection.

There are tests on the default sudoku board, where other python files can inherit from the base class.

Have fun!


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Magabala Books goes to Canada
Photo: Rachel Bin Salleh, Jared Thomas, Jane Harrison and Robert Watkins at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
In early April, Magabala Publisher, Rachel Bin Salleh travelled to Alberta, Canada to deliver a presentation on Australian Indigenous publishing at the Indigenous Writing and Publishing Forum, held at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The purpose of the three-day forum was to bring together Indigenous writers and publishers from Canada and Australia to celebrate the literary accomplishments of Indigenous writers and exchange thoughts and ideas about the current and future needs of Indigenous writing.
The Australian delegation included Magabala authors, Jared Thomas (Calypso Summer, Songs that sound like blood) and Jane Harrison (Becoming Kirrali Lewis), as well as Robert Watkins, Publisher for Hachette Australia.
Rachel, Jane and Robert came together again in May to discuss their experience of the forum at the Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) Program in Sydney, where they spoke about the opportunities and challenges for publishing work by Australian Indigenous writers nationally and internationally.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Pamela Denoon Lecture
Pamela was proud to call herself a Feminist
Pamela Denoon Lecture 2020
More on Pamela Denoon
About the Lecture
Donald Denoon
Nelly Thomas
Sexual equality: negotiating a modern minefield
Pamela Denoon Lecture 2016 from Mosquito Productions Pty Ltd on Vimeo.
Thank you to Mosquito Productions for your generous contribution.
ABC Big Ideas, Radio National
In 2016 we know everything there is to know about sex. Sex is available on a screen or through hook-up apps that allow us to find sexual partners. We have school-based sex education – though not yet universal – for young people, Respectful Relationships Programs, and celebrities galore wearing White Ribbons and talking about respect for women. Prime Ministers talk about 'gender equity' and yet, Nelly will contend, we risk being a fraud if we don't start modeling equality and respect. She argues we are telling young people to do one thing but model another. We're asking them to do as we say and not as we do. Hardly seems fair.
We've got sexual equality right? We can do whatever we want, with whomever we want, whenever we want and it's all fine. Germaine told us to throw off our chastity belts, Chrissy Amphlet told us we could touch ourselves and Madonna showed us how. Literally, live on television. Gone are the days of Madonna (different one) and whore. Women are sexually liberated and completely free to make healthy, positive sexual choices. We're all much more sexually fulfilled and the negative aspects of sex have been neutralised by access to contraception, abortion and condoms. We are all thrilled. Sound accurate? Yes and no.
Before I get into the notions of sex and equality themselves, I first want to preface my remarks by addressing the notion of choice. If there's one thing we urgently need to do as modern feminists, it's to interrogate the notion of choice. In contemporary discussions about almost everything, choice is spoken about as both the ultimate virtue and an end in itself. To put it simply, you can win almost any argument these days by saying, "it's my choice" or "that's their choice" or, if you're my mum, "fine, your choice" (which means it's neither fine or my choice). In an age where the individual reigns supreme, limiting a person – a woman's – choice, is sacrilegious.
Except that some women choose vagioplasty.
You know vagioplasty? That's when you think your vagina is ugly and so you jazz it up with a bit of plastic surgery. On the one had – go for it. Your body, your choice. If you want a symmetrical vag with a cross-stich design and some diamantes, it's none of my business. But as a feminist – or as anyone really – aren't I compelled to ask why? Especially – and this is key – when it is pretty much only women doing it. I mean no disrespect, but if we're talking "unusual" genitals, I'm yet to see a pair of testicles that are going to end up on the cover of Vogue. In short, I don't care what the context, but when there's an actual or cultural rule for one gender and not the other, my waters get unsettled.
I'll still give you the choice.
I will not ban your vajazzling.
But I will ask why.
As a feminist, I must.
Choice and sex are interesting and complex notions. It's important to distinguish between legal concepts of consent and choice and cultural ones. Unhelpfully, definitions of legal consent vary from state to state in Australia (and across the world) and ethical notions of choice and consent are even trickier. The Fifth National Survey of Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health by La Trobe University (the research that everyone in this field relies on) showed that "unwanted sex" is a big deal for boys and girls. Unwanted sex is sex that may not have been technically illegal, but where the person felt they hadn't really had the choice or made a good decision. Basically, it's the kind of sex where you're left feeling like crap. It found that about one quarter of the 1000s of young people they surveyed had had unwanted sex. This experience applied to boys and girls but the results were gendered – many of the girls were apparently being pressured by partners for sex and a third of them reported being actually frightened. For the boys it was more peer pressure related (in some kind of intriguingly postmodern homoerotic dystopia, lots of the boys are apparently having sex with girls to please their mates).
Doesn't sound that liberating.
Of course, it's important to point out that the majority of young people surveyed didn't have an experience of unwanted sex to report. Presumably they are either not having sex or they're having wanted – very wanted – sex, but the individual, peer and perhaps cultural pressure – and in some cases outright coercion – are concerning to say the least. And that's without considering the sexual assault and family violence stats that don't bare repeating here.
What's the solution? There's many, but I think it's pretty clear we're not going to police or shame our way out of this situation. Frankly, policing hasn't worked and shame should never be a health promotion tool. Instead, we must have – and I'm certainly not the first person to call for this – meaningful discussions about sex and relationships both at school and at home as minimum. At the moment there is no nationally mandated sex-ed curriculum for schools and some schools – about ten percent – offer no sex education at all. Personally, I would suggest that if a school takes a cent of public money, they should be required to offer a sex education that is designed by health professionals, is comprehensive and is based on quality research. (Hint: it won't involve the words "just say no").
The Equality Rights Alliance Young Women's Advisory Group surveyed over 1000 young women last year. They found, among other things, that 76% of young women reported that they had learned nothing from their sex education classes in school that helped them deal with sex and respectful relationships. That is, 76% didn't get the information they most wanted. There's other research that could be quoted but suffice to say, a lot of young people are not learning what they want or need to know about sex.
And, this despite the fact that sex is ubiquitous! We are culturally schizophrenic about it! We can talk sexy – The Kardashians, Miley, Nicki, Manus – but can we actually talk about sex and sexuality in a calm, reasoned, reasonable or open way? I would say not often.
So, imagine being a young person: sex is like, the most exciting thing ever, the physical and emotional stakes are very high, your parents may or may not be talking to you about it, your sex-ed classes at school might be ok – might even be good – but it's a very big might (and you might not get one at all) and outside of porn (which is clearly a great influence when it comes to respectful relationships!) no-one is telling you how to do it. It's like you're surrounded by something you're supposed to know about and be good at – and if which you get "wrong" is a really big deal – but hardly anyone talks about it.
This whole area reminds me of so many other major societal issues that we deem too "complex": we keep asking the same questions over and over again, not because we don't know the answer, but because we don't like it. If we want a society of people with healthy, happy sex lives and relationships, we NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT. All of it. Yes, pregnancy and STIs and all the stuff that traditional sex-ed focuses on, but also consent, pleasure, respect, gender equity, gender roles, porn, culture and sexual and gender diversity. What is a positive sexual experience (both inside and outside of a relationship)? Who deserves to be treated well and when (we all do, in all circumstances).
If the ridiculous blow-up over the Safe Schools Coalition Program can tell us anything it's that the sex education space is still a minefield. The modern-day book-burners would have us believe that the world is ending and we're all going to hell in a highly sexualised hand-basket. They make it very difficult to talk about sex and relationships in general, but also to tread that very line between warning young people of the potential dangers of sex while remaining sex-positive and living in the real world where sex is great and lots of young (and not so young people) love it. One thing is for sure though, informed consent – really informed consent – is a precondition for sexual equality and until we insist on it properly and universally, we're part of the problem.
Nelly Thomas is an award-winning comedian, author and health promotion ambassador. She has toured nationally and internationally and performed in over a sixteen festivals in Australia and around the world. Nelly's first book What Women Want was published in 2012. She has made a sexual health and ethics DVD for teens, directed numerous shows (including by Maria Bamford and Stella Young) and is a regular guest on Radio National and 774 ABC Melbourne. Nelly also writes for Daily Life, The Age and The Curio.
Nelly Thomas is well known for custom shows in health promotion and social change, most notably the No Means No Show for teens and Smokes and Jokes as part of Close the Gap for Indigenous Victorians (among many others). For this work Nelly was listed in The Age Newspaper's, The Zone as one of Australia's "most innovative thinkers" and she was featured on ABC's Big Ideas: The Smartest Stuff on TV, Radio and Online.
Nelly has grown two humans of her own. She was once an under-13s girls BMX champion and she longs to be on Dancing with the Stars.
More information see: http://www.nellythomas.com/
EVENT OVER
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Home security is an incredibly important but often overlooked aspect of homeownership. Security needs to be effective but should also fit a typical household budget. Though people will have different resources at their disposal, cost effective home security is within reach as long as you're willing to do the research. Here's a quick overview of home security and your budget.
For most people, budgets are going to play an important role in the security of a home. It's tempting to spend "whatever it takes" to make your house security but it's unnecessary. In this instance, figure out what you can spend on home security and determine your options. Some home security devices can be purchased for a one-time fee but others will require a monthly subscription. If you feel comfortable spending a few hundred dollars in initial fees plus $20 to $60 a month, there are a number of home security options that will dramatically reduce threats to your family and property.
This is probably going to be the most difficult aspect of your home security experience. A wealth of advice is available online but much of this information will largely be controlled by home security companies. (Sorry about that by the way!) Independent advice for home security is really shockingly difficult to come by though police departments tend to be the most readily available source of information.
To identify your home security weaknesses, you must understand were attacks are most likely to occur. The front door and first floor windows are the most vulnerable with more than 70 percent of burglars using those points to access your home. It's also good to remember that most burglaries happen between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., when most people are at work.
This information might seem convoluted but it effectively means that when someone robs your home, you or loved ones probably won't be there. (Homeowners or occupants are only present during a small percentage of burglaries.) How you want to defend against this is largely up to you. Do you want to collect evidence? Prevent the break in? Call police? Do you want any other monitored security service, like smoke detectors? These are questions that need to be answered by homeowners and their families to determine the right solution for your lifestyle.
For most common home security situations, a wireless alarm system is a cost effective and reliable solution. When customers order a monitoring solution from Protect America, they receive a wireless home security system for free. Just pay the monthly monitoring fee and your equipment belongs to you! A wireless home security system can call for assistance, record evidence, and prevent burglaries with one, low cost solution.
Other options for home security include door jambs, independent video surveillance systems, and security film. While each of these are feasible, and potentially effective options, they are limited by cost or situation. Security film, for example, makes it more difficult for burglars to shatter your windows for entry. However, security film also deafens the sound of shattering glass. Many home security devices are tradeoffs between cost and reliability. Carefully weigh your options before making a final decision on your home security.


Market Monitoring Program tracking satisfaction and win/loss for emerging PSA market (Professional Services Automation). Identified and tracked competitive set, key strengths/weaknesses and satisfaction drivers to develop differentiated positioning that will address market needs.
Market needs assessment in the e-procurement space to determine level of acceptance among target companies and procurement executives. Identified needed subset of products and services and uncovered need to overhaul existing pricing model to be value-based.
E-Business tracking study of Corporate America design and execution for leading IT consultancy firm. Measured state of e-business (B2B and B2C) and identified priorities and success factors. Developed e-business adoption model.
Development of Global Services business unit for leading worldwide outsourcer. Started with secondary research, followed by market assessment and quantification with current project of account targeting, qualification and opportunity identification.
Comprehensive customer segmentation study for top manufacturer of mid-range and client/server hardware. Identified separate segments with similar behavior and uncovered reasons why client was not getting expected share of repeat business.
Design and implementation of customer satisfaction program pilot for leading vendor of asset planning and maintenance software. Measured current satisfaction level. Identified key drivers of satisfaction level and action items to address. Refined approach for complete roll out across entire customer base.
Customer feedback via interactive workstation interviews conducted at users' conference of a top enterprise-wide client/server application development tools company. Obtained timely, relevant and cost effective feedback on number of topics.
Market modeling of the transportation business (freight and less than truckload). In-depth qualitative and quantitative assessment of current practices and decisions related to shipping. Built interactive market modeling tool to allow scenario testing (what if) to predict potential shifts in demand based on changed market offerings and perceptions.


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Struggling with knee pain? For relief, consider aiming higher. Rehab routines that incorporate the hip—as opposed to the knee alone—appear to work better for combating runner's knee, according to a new research review published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Read the full article for Runner's World.