The CFI - A Low Cost Solution to Congestion!
The CFI, also known as a Displaced Left Turn (DLT), and Crossover Displaced Left (XDL), was first seen in Mexico over 20 years ago, where there are reportedly upwards of 50. They are catching on fast in the United States. The nation's third opened in April 2006 in Baton Rouge, LA for a total cost of $4.4 million. Where vehicles had been delayed an average of 4-minutes before the project, this was reportedly reduced to below 1-minute after. The fourth CFI opened in Salt Lake in 2007, and a month later the fifth opened in St. Louis. These state DOTs have been so impressed that many more are under construction, and even more soon will be.
At a traditional intersection, through traffic must wait while left turns get their "arrow." The magic of a CFI is that it allows opposing lefts and throughs to occur at the same time using one signal at the main intersection, and up to four interconnected mid-block signals (one for each leg that has the CFI strategy). For example, while east-west traffic is moving, lefts on the north-south street cross-over oncoming traffic at a mid-block intersection. Then when north-south signals turn green, both through and left movements can go at the same time, because lefts are already on the opposite side of the throughs.
It looks complex from the air, but has proven simple for drivers to understand. Controlled simulations suggest that CFIs can reduce intersection delay between 20-90%, depending upon conditions at the site. Capacity or throughput also increases by 15-30% or more. Costs are expected to be about 25-50% higher than building a traditional intersection, excluding right of way costs.
to just 40 seconds, creating a benefit/cost ratio of 11 to 1!
Simulation of left-turning vehicles crossing over while the cross street is running.
Continuous Flow Intersections, and "cousins" called the Parallel Flow Intersection, and the Continuous Flow Interchange, are among a series of concepts collectively known as Alternative Intersections, Alternative Intersections, or even Unconventional Intersections. The key trait that links all Alternative Intersections is that they successfully eliminate the "left-turn arrow" phase, which otherwise reduces intersection efficiency considerably.
So instead of your choices being either 700-800 vehicles per hour per lane as the maximum throughput of a typical arterial street, or constructing a bridge to get 2200 vphpl in one direction, but almost no added benefit for the cross street, now there are choices low-cost solutions that land somewhere in the middle and create benefits for all movements.
The CFI and other Alternative Intersections such as Median U-Turns, Bowties, Quadrant Intersections, Town Center Intersections, Roundabouts, Diverging Diamond Interchanges, and others can all be found at www.alternativeintersections.org, where you can search for every Alternative Intersection that exists or has been planned anywhere in the world (or at least those that our members are aware of).
This site as well as www.alternativeintersections.org, are sponsored by www.metroanalytics.com.


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World Cat Congress Member News
News from our members around the globe 2015-1
Australian Cat Federation Inc
ACF now has 11 member bodies and continues to be represented in all states and territories of the continent – just a bit more so than in the past!
The 2014 National (sponsored by Proplan and Ozpet) was once again organised by a team of 'freelance' ACF personnel from all over the country. This time it was held in Sydney and Cats NSW personnel (headed by Brad Curtis as Show Manager) provided the local muscle and knowledge needed to help run a successful event. Judges from TICA, FIFe, NZCF and of course, ACF, officiated.
Items of business at the meeting were recognition of the Aphrodite, golden in Burmilla, reports on ongoing work by various sub-committees, a change to the Ragdoll standard to keep it in line with TICA policy on paw pad colour in mitred and bicolour and a great deal of time was spent on adjustments to the Manx breeding policy, to bring it in line with that of the body of origin, GCCF.
Our President since 2011, Prof Diana Davis, retired in 2014 and was replaced by Prof Eleanor Ramsay whose impartiality and empathetic yet incisive style was much appreciated at her debut meeting in Perth, this June. Long-term Secretary Nell Evans retired this year and her successor is Carole Galli, of WA. Nell is to be thanked for her 17 years' service to ACF in that capacity.
Cats NSW - since 2013, a provisional (probationary/patronage) member was granted full membership at our June 2015 AGM. We are looking forward to their very experienced judges (of course, on the ACF panel) being recognised by CCCA and understand that this will occur in November. Long-established former CCCA member body COAWA (Cat Owners' Assn of Western Australia) applied for and was granted provisional membership of ACF Inc.
2015 AGM and National Show weekend
Ambritt Hurricane Harry, Supreme Exhibit 2014 (Sydney) and 2015 (Perth).
The 2015 National show and meetings were hosted in Perth, by Cats WA (previously FCCWA) and for the first time, the National was of 8 rings. Again, our thanks to Ozpet and Proplan for supporting us. Judges were varied: representatives from TICA, FIFe, GCCF and NZCF were on the panel as well as ACF judges. Ambritt Hurricane Harry (BSH a) was for the second year in succession Supreme Exhibit in show at the ACF National – 2014 and 2015.
A real crowd pleaser was the first occasion on which a Manx won Best of Group at an ACF National (judge: M Peltonen, Sweden) in a very strong field of 64 Group 3 adults. Ch Rebuss Wassa Matta You was subsequently selected as one of the five contenders for Supreme All Breeds Exhibit.
A most interesting seminar was held by the Judges Guild. Adriana Kajon (TICA genetics committee) spoke on recent developments in newer colour determination in a 'extension gene 101' style, while Vicki Shields gave food for thought with a presentation on structural faults. Martti Peltonen led a discussion which covered many aspects of judging, but essentially, its essence was the responsibility of judges to the breeds, breeders and the standards.
The first Manx to ever win a Best of Group award at an ACF National: Ch Rebuss Wassa Matter You (MAN n 22 52) owned and bred by R Kuss.
At the official dinner, Sandi Gemmell joined the ranks of those (4) awarded the ACF's Distinguished Service Award. This is an award rarely given and marks not just longevity, but exceptional dedication to ACF and its interests over a considerable period of time.
The 4 winners of the ACF Distinguished Service award – Nell Evans (2007), Margaret Bush (2004), Lesley Morgan (2002) and Sandi Gemmell – honoured this year.
The General Meeting determined, among many other decisions, the following: that in all breeds, reduced, pinched nasal aperture and audible breathing is a W/H certificate fault; that cow-hocking be a W/H fault in all breeds; that the Scottish breeds be judged in agouti/agouti & white and equivalent agouti classes. The allocation of points was amended. Suggested changes to the Russian standard were successful, as was acceptance of pointed Siberian, under the name "Neva Masquerade".
Lesley Morgan
International Liaison Officer,
The Cat Fanciers' Association
It has been a busy year for CFA, with the usual highs and lows, but accentuated each weekend with the beautiful cats who bring us all together.
The 2014 CFA Annual Meeting was held June 26-29, 2014, in "the Big Easy" – New Orleans, Louisiana. The event featured lavishly-decorated hospitality suites, including a Thursday night "Taste of New Orleans" hospitality night (self-explanatory – yum!) and featured a live band playing dance music until the wee hours, a Friday night "Mas-purr-ade" Ball with the best costume winner being awarded an all-expense paid cruise, topped off by the Saturday night Awards Banquet with a Mardi Gras Queen Parade, at which we honored our National Winners. The following cats, along with their breeders and owners were recognized, as well as the top 24 other cats in each of the categories and the top 3 winners in each breed.
CFA's Cat of the Year was GC, BW, NW Belamy's Desiderata of Cinema, a Calico female Persian born on June 24, 2012.
CFA Cat of the Year
CFA's Cat of the Year was GC, BW, NW Belamy's Desiderata of Cinema, a Calico female Persian born on June 24, 2012. Desi's breeder is Monika Vowe of Leverkusen, Germany. Her owners are Connie Stewart of Temple City, California, and Blake Mayes and Dennis Adler of Boise, Idaho. Desi also took the highest honors at the Best-of-the-Best competition at the 2013 CFA-Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Litter World Championship Cat Show in Novi, Michigan in November. The Championship competition is for unaltered pedigreed cats over the age of eight months.
The Kitten of the Year was GC, NW Dotdotdot BornintheUSA of Wild Rain ("Uncle Sam"), a Chocolate Spotted Male Ocicat, born on March 25, 2014.
CFA Kitten of the Year
The Kitten of the Year was GC, NW Dotdotdot BornintheUSA of Wild Rain ("Uncle Sam"), a Chocolate Spotted Male Ocicat, born on March 25, 2014. Breeders/Owners are Roger & Nancy Brown of Elkhorn, Nebraska & David and Carol Freels of Pleasant Grove, California. Uncle Sam was named second runner up in the Best-of-the Best competition at the 2013 CFA-Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Litter World Championship Cat Show. The Kitten competition is for unaltered or altered, pedigreed kittens between the ages of four and eight months.
CFA Premiership Cat of the Year
The Premiership Cat of the Year was GP, NW Sandesox Justsweetness of Whitesox ("Tommy"), a Blue Point Birman neuter born on August 17, 2012. Tommy's breeders are Karen Lane & Sandy Faust. He is owned by Karen Lane of Delray Beach, FL, Sandy Faust of Antioch, Illinois and Yvonne Griffin of Casselbarry, Florida. Tommy is the first Birman ever to receive the title of CFA's Premiership Cat of the Year. Tommy was the third runner up in the Best-of- the Best competition at the 2013 CFA-Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Litter World Championship Cat Show. The Premiership competition is for altered pedigreed cats over the age of eight months.
The Premiership Cat of the Year was GP, NW Sandesox Justsweetness of Whitesox ("Tommy"), a Blue Point Birman neuter born on August 17, 2012.
Delegate Meeting
The delegate meeting was chaired by Vice President Mark Hannon, who went on to be elected CFA President and is now serving a two-year term. 450 member clubs voted for officers and regional directors, with the follow results:
OFFICERS:
President: Mark Hannon – Linden, Virginia
Vice President: Richard Kallmeyer – Scottsdale, Arizona
Secretary: Rachel Anger – Wayne, Michigan
Treasurer: Barbara Schreck – Ann Arbor, Michigan
REGIONAL DIRECTORS:
North Atlantic (1): Geri Fellerman – Clark, New Jersey
Northwest (2): Pam Moser – Gresham, Oregon
Gulf Shore (3): Steve McCullough – Caldwell, Kansas
Great Lakes (4): John Colilla – Columbus, Ohio
Southwest (5): Lisa Marie Kuta – Glendale, California
Midwest (6): Kathy Calhoun – Chicago, Illinois
Southern (7): Jean Dugger – Loganville, Georgia
Japan (8): Edward Maeda – Ohtsu Shiga, Japan
Europe (9): Pam DelaBar – Tampere, Finland
The October meeting features changes to our Show Rules. Notable action includes the creation of an award recognition program and scoring for Household Pets, a "three bites and you're out" rule, and the implementation of mandatory specialty rings. Also of note was the reconsideration of acceptance of the ticked tabby Maine Coon for registration, which was approved by the Board.
The 2014 CFA/Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Litter World Championship Cat Show was held November 23, 2014 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. The 1,000 entry show was divided into two competitions (named "Red" and "Purple"), which each sent their highest scoring cat in Kitten, Championship and Premiership to Best of the Best judging. Selection was based on total points earned. The six cats were judged by CFA All Breed Judges Larry Adkison of Springfield, Missouri; Diana Doernberg of Akron, Ohio; and Kathy Black of Duncan, Oklahoma, who selected their first and second runners up along with the Best in Show. The excitement of the two day event came to a colorful end on Sunday with the selection of Best-of-the-Best Winner.
Best in Show was GC, GP, NW Velvetkist Pack'n Heat of Krimpurrs ("Frankie"), a cream and white Persian neuter who was 4 years/7 months old.
Second runner up was GC Tombrock's Chopin, a black Exotic male bred by Salvatore Cuccu and Giovanni Giordano, and owned by Salvatore Cuccu, Maria Christina Bertello and Giovanni Giordano of Italy.
First runner up was GC/NW Wynterwynd Clair De Lune, a Russian Blue female bred and owned by Annette Wilson of South Haven, Michigan.
Best in Show was GC, GP, NW Velvetkist Pack'n Heat of Krimpurrs ("Frankie"), a cream and white Persian neuter who was 4 years/7 months old. Frankie was bred by Noralyn Heisig of Finksburg, Maryland, and is owned by Noralyn Heisig and Beth Holly of Huber Heights, Ohio. Frankie went on to become CFA's Premiership Cat of the Year for 2014-2015.
In February, the Board considered previously balloted items regarding changes to breed standards or registration rules which received a favorable recommendation from each of our 42 Breed Councils. The Breed Councils are comprised of qualified individuals experienced in their chosen breed/division section, and serve as an advisory body on breed standards to the CFA Executive Board. Notable action taken was as follows:
British Shorthair declined to accept chocolate and lilac for registration.
The showing of Longhair Exotics in Persian color classes was upheld.
The 5-generation Persian pedigree requirement was upheld.
Persian Tabby pattern description was expanded to penalize for indistinguishable pattern or lack of pattern.
Selkirk Rex allowable outcross to Exotic was extended until 2025; Persian outcross was upheld until 2020.
Siberian added golden and blue golden tabby pattern descriptions to the standard.
Sphynx now allows the registration and exhibition of Sphynx whose pedigree contains Devon Rex in any generation, and clarified that coated Sphynx be registered "for breeding only".
The Chinese Li Hua Mao was accepted for registration in February 2010, and was removed from Miscellaneous status, effective 1 May 2015. CFA no longer registers the Li Hua Mao.
The policy regarding Breeding of Domestic and Non-Domestic Cats policy amended as follows (deleted text in strikeout): "The Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc., does not encourage or promote the breeding of non-domestic (wild) cats of any species to any domesticated Cats. The Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc. will not consider for registration the offspring of such a breeding."
This newsletter finds our Board of Directors and delegates preparing for the 2015 CFA Annual Meeting, which will be held in Toronto, Ontario Canada on July 2-5, 2015.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, we wish all of the members of the World Cat Congress success in bringing our beautiful cats onto the show bench and showing them off to the world!
Rachel Anger
Secretary, The Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc.
Governing Council of the Cat Fancy
The GCCF held its Annual General Meeting on the 17th June 2015. The delegates elected the Board of Directors for the company, with three new directors joining twelve who were standing for re-election, and a new Vice Chairman in John Hansson, who will serve for two years. A new system was introduced to elect to the committees of the disciplinary system, enabling greater participation. Candidates submitted CVs in advance to state what qualifications, skills and experience they have to take on a position on one of these important committees.
To coincide with the AGM, GCCF launched its new look official website, which we believe gives a modern, clean image and a site that is both highly informative and easy to navigate. Please take a look at our site and enjoy some super photographs of all our recognised breeds.
Breed and show news
The Sokoke has been recognised at Preliminary level, in both the original and Snow varieties.
The Blue Chinchilla, Blue Shaded Silver Persian and Blue Golden Persian were welcomed into the Persian breed classes.
A round of applause greeted the RagaMuffin's promotion to Championship Status and the Blue Chinchilla, Blue Shaded Silver Persian and Blue Golden Persian were welcomed into the Persian breed classes. The Sokoke has been recognised at Preliminary level, in both the original and Snow varieties, and may now be shown in competition at GCCF shows. Following a request from the Ocicat Breed Advisory Committee, a change of name was granted to the Ocicat Classic, which will now be known the "Aztec" (EMS code agreed as AZT) on the GCCF register.
A Guide to Outcrossing, with an introduction by Professor Lyons.
Welfare incentives
A rule change was agreed at the meeting to ensure that all kittens sold must be fully vaccinated against panleukopaenia (FPV), FHV and FCV at least one week prior to sale unless it is agreed otherwise is writing and signed by both parties.
The Cat Welfare Trust (GCCF's own charity).
GCCF has published a revised General Breeding Policy and to accompany it, a Guide to Outcrossing, with an introduction by Professor Lyons, is designed to help breeders who wish to use an approved outcross in their breeding programme to broaden the gene-pool. Both documents may be viewed on the GCCF website.
Following the recent retirement of three trustees, the Cat Welfare Trust (GCCF's own charity) has appointed new trustees: Dr Karen Kempsell, Mrs Pat Perkins and Ms Juanita Sharp. Last year the charity broadened the scope of its award, to enable the support of projects initiated by clubs and Breed Advisory Committees. The first of these of these is in progress as the Russian Blue Breeders Association is gathering DNA from a cross section of their breed so that an assessment of the genetic diversity of GCCF UK Russians can be made.
New Zealand Cat Fancy
NZCF News
Supreme all breeds exhibit National show.
It has been an exciting year for the NZCF with the opportunity to host the 2015 WCC meeting. This gave us access to a wonderful array of international judges and motivated us to put together a great seminar. It was also great to have the opportunity to learn from the wisdom of other cat associations in the closed meeting.
In the seminar, after the WCC delegates were introduced by Eric Reijers, we moved on to an excellent presentation by veterinarian Elsa Flint who is also behavioural specialist. The presentation dealt with inappropriate peeing - and gave a clear outline of how to figure out what type of inappropriate peeing is going on (is it because of a medical problem causing pain or discomfort so the cat is avoiding the litterbox, or is it a marking issue?) and then depending on the issue, what some possible solutions may be. Along with suggestions about managing the environment, Elsa spoke about the benefits of Feliway in reducing anxiety in many contexts. Much of this advice would be familiar to breeders but it was an excellent and comprehensive review.
The next speaker was Steve Crow, Chairman of the GCCF in the UK. The GCCF faces many of the same challenges that the NZCF does. Steve's presentation covered the ways in which they are striving to meet those challenges. These included organisational changes, managing their money more carefully (just like us) and updating their IT systems (as we would like to). They've also made commercial partnerships with cat related businesses to the benefit of members but also increasing cash flow to the GCCF.
Eric judging supreme companion exhibit
A large part of the talk dealt with what the GCCF is doing to improve the health and genetic diversity of breeds through developing breeding policies around DNA testing for harmful conditions and also developing outcrossing policies for each breed. This is in response to the adverse publicity that pedigree dog breeds have received and resultant negative attitudes among the public and intended to pre-empt the same thing happening with cats.
The GCCF is working (as we are) to promote themselves and their breeders as the first stop for anyone looking to buy a pedigree cat. Steve concluded by suggesting that cat associations look at adopting a world pedigree cat/cat fancy day as a means of raising the profile of pedigree cats and our organisations.
Royal Canin gave a very interesting presentation about the research that has gone into formulating some of their foods, particularly their baby cat milk replacer and baby cat biscuits and wet food They continue to have a strong commitment to research to improve their breed, veterinary, and age stage products.
This was followed by a very entertaining talk by George Sofronidis in which he revealed to us the results of his own DNA profiling and also related this to dog and cat genetic research and testing. He also acknowledged the recent issues his company Orivet have had with their chocolate test, and how this came about (some incorrect information was published which they based their test on).
Leslie Lyons' talk gave us a catch up on current genetic testing research and outcomes - there is now a test for white spotting, and also for the W gene (solid white), and some associated research showing no obvious link with the deafness that occurs in white cats, two polydactyly genes have been identified, there is a test available for the Scottish Fold gene, there are tests for two forms of PRA (progressive retinal atrophy causing blindness), and great news for Devon and Sphynx breeders, there is a test for the gene that causes spasticity. Leslie is currently involved with the 99 Lives project which is raising money to enable further genome sequencing and give more insight into genetic diseases that affect cats.
Finally John Smithson gave a fascinating account of the early history of the Cat Fancy complete with photographs. This was followed by a lively panel discussion as the audience brought questions for the speakers.
Awards dinner, Chris Lowe (NZCF) Andreas Möbius & Anneliese Hackmann (WCF)
This was an extremely successful, enjoyable and inspiring seminar day. The focus for the NZCF during the coming year (and beyond) is on developing breeding guidelines for each breed. This will include guidance on appropriate testing to minimise the chance of harmful conditions occurring. While we will be consulting with breed sections, these guidelines will be formulated in their final version by our breed standards advisory council to ensure that we are consistent and in step with ethical practice in other countries. Following a thought-provoking submission from a breeder member who is also a vet our guidelines will also include (where appropriate) information about extreme or incorrect conformation issues that can affect health and welfare. Breed standards may also be amended to ensure these are penalised. This is all part of our commitment to cat welfare and promoting best practice among our breeders. It has become very clear that if we do not take action to encourage, support and where necessary police these issues ourselves, the government will step in and do it for us (and not necessarily in the best or most appropriate way).
Zena Pigden
NZCF
World Cat Federation
27 years experience in loving cats!
This is our motto and the Olimpia in Riga/Latvia was a milestone in our idée of togetherness under the common bond of love for cats that we share.
Cat's Meow, WCF partner in Latvia invited and organized the most important event of the year in WCF. Cat Olimpia offers special competitions, for which you have to be pre-qualified, such as Olimpic Master Ring for example.
At this very event the most beautiful cats, which had collected the most points in our Best Cat of WCF competition were presented and their owners were honoured and awarded.
More than 400 cats were present from 11 different countries.
From Sweden the best household pet was also present as well as the best Aphrodite shorthair, which lives in Pskov/Russia.
The show started with a very emotional project of art, which you can watch.
The event lived from being carried away in our love for cats after this show. Next years WCF Cat Olimpia will happen at the end of March 2016 in Bukarest Romania and we can be excited which highlights WCF member Magnificats will present.
A highlight for 2015 was the First WCF Show in Bangkok, Thailand held by our member club CAT (The Cat Society of Thailand).
Growth of WCF
Even though the financial crisis is hitting all of us hard, WCF can proudly announce that we are still growing. New clubs affiliated with WCF from Serbia, Peru, China, Romania and Thailand. WCF clubs held already 347 shows in the first 5 month of 2015, and a highlight was the First WCF Show in Bangkok, Thailand held by our member club CAT (The Cat Society of Thailand).
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text:
Chimpanzees and children take PLEASURE in seeing punishments given to antisocial people
Children and chimps were taught to identify others as either pro or anti-social
Experts did so by having a character either share or withhold items from them
They were then given the option of watching them being punished - for a price
This shared pleasure is seen as evidence of a deep evolutionary roots to the trait
They argue it is a strategy to maintain cooperation between individuals in groups
By Tim Collins For Mailonline
Chimpanzees and six-year-old children want to see just punishment given out, even at a cost to themselves, a new study has found.
Previous research has shown that both humans and some animal species experience empathetic distress and concern when seeing others harmed.
But human adults have also been shown to experience feelings of pleasure when the harm is perceived as a deserved punishment for antisocial actions.
The findings shed light into the evolution of peer-punishment as a way to enforce social norms and ensure cooperation.
Chimpanzees and six-year-old children want to see just punishment meted out, even at a cost to themselves, a new study has found. The findings shed light into the evolution of peer-punishment as a way to enforce social norms and ensure cooperation (stock image)
CHIMP INTELLIGENCE VS CHILDREN
This is not the first time that children and chimps have been compared.
An experiment, the results of which were published in June, revealed most children surpass the intelligence levels of chimpanzees before they reach four years old.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Queensland's School of Psychology, tested for foresight, which is said to distinguish humans from animals.
The experiment saw researchers drop a grape through the top of a vertical plastic Y-tube.
The researchers then monitored the reactions of a child and chimpanzee in their efforts to grab the grape at the other end, before it hit the floor.
Because there were two possible ways the grape could exit the pipe, researchers looked at the strategies the children and chimpanzees used to predict where the grape would go.
The apes and the two-year-olds only covered a single hole with their hands when tested.
But by four years of age, the children had to develop to a level where they knew how to forecast the outcome, and they covered the holes with both hands, catching whatever was dropped through every time.
The study was conducted by an international team of researchers, led by the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany.
Experts taught children, aged four to six-years-old, and chimpanzees to identify individuals as either pro or anti-social.
They did so by having a character either share food or a toy with them, or withhold them.
The characters then received physical punishment out of the view of the participants, who could choose to pay a cost to witness the event.
For children, this was giving up valuable stickers while for chimps, this involved exerting physical effort.
The authors found that chimpanzees and six-year-olds, but not four- or five-year-old children, were more motivated to see antisocial individuals punished than their prosocial counterparts.
The findings support evidence that the sixth year is an important time in human emotional and cognitive development, when children become willing to sacrifice resources in the interests of fairness.
That this personal motivation to see fair punishment enacted is shared by chimpanzees may suggest deep evolutionary roots as a strategy to maintain fair cooperation.
Writing in the article, its authors, led by Dr Nikolaus Steinbeis, said: 'When misfortune befalls another, humans may feel distress, leading to a motivation to escape.
'When such misfortune is perceived as justified, however, it may be experienced as rewarding and lead to motivation to witness the misfortune.
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'Our findings demonstrate that chimpanzees and six-year-old children possess greater motivation to watch the punishment of others whom they had previously experienced as antisocial towards themselves as compared with prosocial agents.'
This is not the first time that intelligence in children and chimps have been compared.
The findings support evidence that, at six, children become willing to sacrifice resources in the interests of fairness. That this personal motivation is shared by chimpanzees may suggest deep evolutionary roots as a strategy to maintain cooperation (stock image)
nature.com/artic...
Chimpanzees and children will pay to see justice done
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'Good enough for most people': iPhone XR review On one hand, the XR lacks the high-resolution screen and dual-lens camera on the XS. but it is $250 cheaper and still get most of the other cutting-edge features found on the more expensive model.
The Pixel 3 outsmarts the iPhone (IF you trust Google with all your information) AI seems to permeate every part of its software, from the ability to answer calls for you to being able to almost perfectly predict your morning commute.
Bigger and better in every way: Apple's XS really does take the iPhone to the Max Apple's new iPhone XS and XS Max go on sale on Friday - and the biggest handset Apple has ever made is also its best (and possibly unsurprisingly, its most expensive).
The $250 beauty device that works like 'Photoshop for your face' Israeli beauty-tech firm Pollogen has launched its Geneo Personal device, which stimulates oxygen from beneath the skin's surface to give you a clearer, fresher face within minutes.
iOS 12 review: The update that really will improve your iPhone Rather than cram in a plethora of new features, Apple's latest update is about boosting stability, with improvements in everything from FaceID and battery life.
Naim Atom: The hifi that will change the way you listen to music It's eye-wateringly expensive at $2,999, but Naim's Uniti Atom is a revelation, an integrated amplifier than makes it easy to stream music at a quality you've probably never heard before.
The $1,000 wireless speaker that really IS worth the price: Naim Mu-so Qb review Naim's incredible Mu-So Qb takes you back to the good old days - where the music captivates and enthralls, rather that simply being something in the background.
The hi-tech $2,000 spin bike that really could change your life Peloton's hi-tech bike lets you stream live and on demand rides to your home - and it's one of the best examples of fitness technology out there - at a price.
The best all in one wireless speaker you'll ever hear: Naim Mu-so review It might not be a name familiar to the US market, but Naim is a legendary British brand hoping to make a splash with the American launch of its $1499 Mu:So speaker.


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PhDr. Karel Altman, CSc. (* 11. května 1960 v Brně) je český historik a etnolog. Působí jako vědecký pracovník na brněnském pracovišti Etnologického ústavu Akademie věd ČR.

Život
Po absolvování gymnázia v Brně vystudoval v letech 1979 – 1984 historii a češtinu na Filozofické fakultě Masarykovy univerzity (tehdy UJEP). V roce 1984 se stal pracovníkem Etnologického ústavu Akademie věd ČR. Jeho vědecká práce byla zaměřena zejména na vývoj společnosti v Brně, kde prolíná jak poznatky přímo vycházející z historiografie, tak z etnologie. Významné jsou zejména jeho práce o brněnských hostincích a hospodách, různých neformálních sdruženích a spolcích na přelomu 19. a 20. století v Brně či o trampském hnutí.

Publikace
 Krčemné Brno. O hostincích, kavárnách a hotelech, ale také hospodách, výčepech a putykách v moravské metropoli. Brno 2003.
 Zlatá doba štamgastů pražských hospod. Brno 2003.

Odkazy

Literatura
 BROUČEK, Stanislav; JEŘÁBEK, Richard. Lidová kultura : národopisná encyklopedie Čech, Moravy a Slezska. 3. svazek, (Biografická část). Praha : Mladá fronta, 2007. . s. 1166.

Externí odkazy

Čeští etnografové
Narození v roce 1960
Narození 11. května
Žijící lidé
Muži
Narození v Brně
Absolventi Filozofické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Remember departed loved ones at a Solemn Choral Eucharist and Requiem on All Soul's Day.
Contact Patty Duffy to include the names of loved ones who have departed this year in the All Saints' prayers for the dead. Send in the names of any loved ones who have died so they can be included in the prayers for the departed to be read on All Souls' Day.
If you are able to serve at this service, please let Patty Duffy know as soon as possible.


Here is a contest open to residents of the United States, Canada, countries in Europe, Asia and Australia who are 13+. Focus Attack is giving away a Sony Playstation 4™ Slim Console and one physical copy of a single game title: Street Fighter V; Tekken 7, Mortal Kombat XL, Blazblue Central Fiction. Winner chosen at 8pm EST on 1/2.


Transformation of more fundamental aspects of the economy have proceeded much more slowly than did the reforms undertaken in 1990 and 1991. The most important feature of the longer-term transformation is the privatization of the means of production. The end of the communist system brought an immediate and dynamic growth in new privately owned businesses, most of which were small retailing, trade, and construction enterprises. In 1990 about 516,000 new businesses were established, while 154,000 were liquidated, a net increase of 362,000. Another 100,000 small businesses formerly owned by local government agencies were sold to private investors in the initial rush to privatization. By September 1991, an additional 1.4 million one-person businesses and 41,450 new companies had been registered since the beginning of the year. Overall, in 1990 and 1991 about 80 percent of Polish shops went into private hands, and over 40 percent of imports went through private traders.
Legal and administrative preparations for privatization of state-owned enterprises took much longer than expected. The "small privatization" of shops, restaurants and other service establishments was a relatively simple process, but privatization of large enterprises proved much more difficult. By October 1991, some 227 larger enterprises had been converted into stock exchange-listed companies, and twenty of them had been privatized by offering them for public or private sale. Some of these transactions involved foreign capital. To speed the process, the government of Prime Minister Jan Bielecki, which came to power in early 1990, had made capital vouchers available without charge to all adult citizens. The vouchers were to be exchangeable for shares in mutual investment funds. At first these funds were to be managed under contract with foreign and domestic management firms. Voucher holders would be allocated 27 percent of shares of the enterprises selected for "mass privatization" and would be able to purchase any 33 percent share of the privatized enterprises sold by auction. Because of their configuration, the vouchers were expected to give their holders effective control of these enterprises. Various technical problems delayed implementation of this program, as did the change of government at the beginning of 1992. At that point, vouchers for fewer than ten major enterprises were being traded.
Already in 1990, the private sector had emerged as the most dynamic part of the economy. The economy's overall GDP declined in 1990 by 12 percent, but it increased by 17 percent in the private sector. Total industrial production dropped by 23 percent, but the private sector production increased by 8 percent. At the end of 1991, the private sector provided about 38 percent of employment; it was responsible for 22.1 percent of total industrial production, 43.9 percent of construction output, 70 percent of retail sales, and 16.3 percent of transportation services. Surprising growth occurred in private foreign trade activity, which accounted for 28 percent of foreign transactions in the first three quarters of 1991.
By early 1992, some form of privatization had occurred in 17.4 percent of state enterprises. At that point, plans called for conversion of half of Poland's state enterprises to private ownership by 1995. The rate of privatization had already slowed in 1992, however, partly because of reduced government outlays and continual alteration of program goals. Enterprises were restructured in several ways: medium-sized firms typically were liquidated, and large enterprises were transformed into stock companies and limited liability companies.


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The future of Windows
Microsoft's Build Conference held in Anaheim this September meant a lot of things for a lot of people. Firstly, it was a first and this event will be held every year from now on where Windows developers can gather and learn about building applications for the Windows platform. And secondly, (you guessed it right!) there was a lot of talk – and demos – about Windows 8. Here are some things you might be pleased to hear:
Windows' new interface, dubbed "Metro", will represent the single biggest change to the Windows interface since the additions of the Start button – that was back in 1995. Dynamic tiles have replaced the traditional desktop and icons and these tiles, besides allowing you to interact with program, will also allow the applications to communicate with you by surfacing key messages, data, or photos.
This operating system has been designed to work on the next generation of hardware and though a commercial version of a Windows tablet will probably not be available till next year, Microsoft distributed 5,000 early version units at the Build Conference. We must say it's a good effort to get developers working on building "Metro" versions of their applications as soon as possible. And it looks like this operating system is also the first of its kind; it has been designed from a user-centric point of view. It is also probably going to be touch enabled.
This version, according to Microsoft, requires about half the memory of Windows 7 so that you can have longer battery life and much better performance on less powerful processors. Talking about less powerful processors, it is Microsoft's vision to have a single operating system that runs on all hardware platforms. And they are also trying to enable developers to write a single version of an application that is going to work on anything (phones, tablets, PCs, you name it), something that is yet to be done by Apple due to which it currently requires 3 different builds of a program to work across the entire Apple hardware universe. We suppose developers are going to like this and we are pretty sure this is also going to help Microsoft gain market share in the smart phone and tablet space very rapidly. No doubt they call it the reimagined version!
If Windows 8 lives up to the expectation of the people and does what they're claiming it can do, there is no doubt Microsoft will be giving Apple and Google a run for their money in the mobile and tablet space this time next year.
Are you in need of quality Microsoft Windows support in Saint John and across Atlantic Canada? If so, please call NetAdmins today to arrange a no obligation review of your business IT needs.


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Domino's – Learn More About the Origins, Rules, and Colors of Domino's
Posted on 06/09/2022 06/09/2022 by admin1989
There are many variations of the game, from the Origins of the Domino to the Rules and Colors. This article will provide an overview of the game, its rules, and variations. Once you've mastered these basics, you can enjoy a game of domino as a whole! Read on to learn more about this popular card game! You'll soon find yourself surrounded by new friends! And who wouldn't want to be a part of a lively and exciting game?
The origins of domino are a little mysterious, but the game is believed to have originated in France, and may have been brought to Britain by French prisoners of war. The word domino, which means "hood," is a reference to the black and white priest robes that were once worn in ancient Rome. Today, domino is primarily played in Latin America and the American South. Before it was created in Europe, the Inuit played the game with bones, and it is thought that this game may have been a resemblance to their priestly hoods.
Game variations
There are many different game variations of domino. The matador game involves matching dominoes that add up to seven. Double-twelve games are played by adding up the number of pips on the layout. There are as many possible game variations as there are players. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned veteran, there is sure to be a domino game that suits your needs. Listed below are some of the most popular game variations.
The game of domino dates back to the early eighteenth century. It was originally played by French prisoners of war in Italy and France, and was eventually introduced to England and North America. There are many variations of the game, but the basic rules of domino remain the same. Here is a brief look at the history of the game and some of its variations. Also, learn more about the basic rules of domino. Its rules are fairly simple.
The Domino's Logo features 3 different colors. The primary colors are Red and Blue. Each color has a unique PMS code, but all three are related to each other in some way. The logo is also used in the company's corporate branding. Read on to learn more about the colors used in Domino's. The Domino's Logo utilizes a similar color scheme. This article will explain the specific hues used in this brand's logo.
Ivory nut dominoes
The game of dominoes has been around for centuries. Ivory nut dominoes are made of the same material as elephant tusks. They are extremely hard and close-grained. This is why they look more like wood than ivory. While the ivory dominoes are now illegal for sale, pubs can still play with ivory dominoes in good condition. There are some important things to remember when buying ivory nut dominoes.
Hector's Rules
Hector's Rules for domino are variations on the traditional game that allow players to double tiles in their opponent's hands and add bonus play to their own hands. They are not taught as a formal rule, but many players prefer to play them to challenge their opponents. The objective of the game is to double as many tiles as possible before your opponent does, in order to win the game. This game is popular in Singapore and is quite different from standard domino.
Other games that can be played with dominoes
Other games that can be played with dominos include solitaire, dice matching, and block and trick games. There are also some variants on the classic game of dominoes like Sevens and Pope Joan. You can learn more about these games by checking out Joe Celko's page on the mathematics of dominoes. Once you learn the basics, you're ready to play!
Next: Baccarat – Rules, Variations and Betting System


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Q: How to fix the Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ',' in line 378 I'm having trouble installing modules and extension in Magento. This is the code that's failing:
$uriModified = $this->getModifiedUri($uri, $https);
    $this->_ch = curl_init();
    $this->curlOption(CURLOPT_URL, $uriModified);
    $this->curlOption(CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    $this->curlOption(CURLOPT_SSL_CIPHER_LIST, 'TLSv1');
    T, 'TLSv1');$this->getCurlMethodSettings($method, $params, $isAuthorizationRequired);

    if(count($this->_headers)) {
        $heads = array();
        foreach($this->_headers as $k=>$v) {
            $heads[] = $k.': '.$v;
        }
        $this->curlOption(CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $heads);
    }

I get this error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ','

On this line:
T, 'TLSv1');$this->getCurlMethodSettings($method, $params, $isAuthorizationRequired);

A: The line you said is failing looks like it duplicates the end of the previous line. This part:
T, 'TLSv1');

Is the end of the previous line:
$this->curlOption(CURLOPT_SSL_CIPHER_LIST, 'TLSv1');

I expect you copy/pasted something wrong, and could remove that part, leaving:
$this->getCurlMethodSettings($method, $params, $isAuthorizationRequired);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Buhari to Nigerians: Be fair to us… we're doing our best on insecurity
Motunrayo Saturday, January 15, 2022 Latest News in Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked Nigerians to be fair in assessing how his administration has handled security challenges. Buhar...
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked Nigerians to be fair in assessing how his administration has handled security challenges.
Buhari spoke on Friday when Tidjani Ali Bin Arabi, grand Khalifa of the Tijjaniyya Islamic Movement world-wide, visited him at the state house.
Arabi was accompanied by Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, and Dahiru Bauchi, a leader of a faction of the movement in Nigeria.
According to the president, the federal government is well aware of its responsibility with regards to security and will continue to do its best.
Buhari urged Nigerians to be fair to his government in assessing the response to security issues by reflecting on the situation at the time he took over in 2015, and the achievements "which mark a decisive break from the past".
He cited the successes recorded by his administration in the north-east and the south-south, adding that the situation in the north-west would experience a turnaround for the better.
Buhari urged Nigerians to take responsibility and show interest in the affairs of their own security and complement what the government is currently doing.
"We have done our best and we will continue to do more by pursuing coherent and consistent policies to deal with terrorism," Buhari said.
"I hope God will listen to our prayers."
The president thanked Ganduje for bringing the grand Khalifa to Nigeria.
"We thank you for inviting them to come to pray for peace and stability in our country. We are grateful that they agreed to come," he said.
Earlier, Ganduje said his government invited the Tijjaniyya world leader to Nigeria to lead the faithful in prayers against insecurity.
According to NAN, the governor said the visit of the grand Khalifa had also rekindled the old ties between the Tijjaniya and the many cultural and educational institutions in Nigeria.
"Specifically, Kano state government invited the Grand Khalifa to come to Kano and develop a good relationship between Algeria and the city of Kano," Ganduje said.
"We invited him and his team to pray for Nigeria for peace, stability and prosperity, and also to pray for peace and stability of Kano state."
On strategy to address the almajiri issue, the governor said the state government has introduced free and compulsory primary and secondary education for them.
According to him, most of the almajiri children are not indigenes of Kano state but as Nigerians, they are free to live anywhere in this country.
"We have built many Islamiya schools. We have reformed the almajiri system of education, and also, we have embarked on repatriation of almajiris to their respective states, some even to Republic of Niger, Republic of Cameroon," he said.


Canyon's Sandstone line of full grain washed cowhide has a soft, supple touch to the hand. These products are paired with washed cotton canvas giving it a stylish two-tone look. The Sandstone Line is identified with CT before the item number.


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Graham Sykes (20 July 1937 – 26 November 2008) was an English competitive swimmer.

Swimming career
Born in Coventry, he represented Great Britain in the 1956 Summer Olympics and 1960 Summer Olympics.

He represented England and won a bronze medal in the medley relay at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales. Four years later he won a gold medal in the 110 yards backstroke and a silver medal in the medley relay at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia. At the ASA National British Championships he won the 110 yards backstroke title five times (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960).

See also
 List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (men)

References

1937 births
2008 deaths
Sportspeople from Coventry
English male swimmers
Male backstroke swimmers
Olympic swimmers of Great Britain
Swimmers at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Swimmers at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Medallists at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games


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Michael Kors Acquires Versace For How Much?
by Khaoula Ghanem
Donatella Versace at Versace Spring 2019 RTW. Indigital
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd, renamed to Capri Holdings, is set to strengthen its brand portfolio by acquiring Versace. On Tuesday, the American conglomerate announced that it has purchased the iconic Italian fashion house for approximately US $2.12 billion dollars.
"The acquisition of Versace is an important milestone for our group. For over 40 years, Versace has represented the epitome of Italian fashion luxury, a testament to the brand's timeless heritage. We are excited to have Versace as part of our family of luxury brands, and we are committed to investing in its growth," said John D. Idol, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Michael Kors Holdings Limited in an official statement.
Rumors of the acquisition first surfaced on Monday, when multiple outlets including Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Kors is on the cusp of closing a deal with the iconic Italian luxury label for a whopping US $2.3 billion dollars. The transaction is expected to close in the last quarter of 2019.
Now that Michael Kors has acquired the brand, the Versace family— including Donatella Versace, who became the house's creative director after her brother Gianni's murder in 1997— will no longer have ownership of its namesake label. Currently, they own 80% of the company, while the other 20% belongs to the US private-equity firm Blackstone Group, which acquired the stake in 2014. Donatella will remain the creative director of the company, as well as a shareholder in Capri Holdings.
"Donatella's iconic style is at the heart of the design aesthetic of Versace," Idol remarked. "She will continue to lead the company's creative vision. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Donatella on Versace's next chapter of growth."
In the same statement, Donatella added: "We are all very excited to join a group led by John Idol, whom I have always admired as a visionary as well as a strong and passionate leader. We believe that being part of this group is essential to Versace's long-term success. My passion has never been stronger. This is the perfect time for our company, which puts creativity and innovation at the core of all of its actions, to grow."
Versace joins luxury shoe label Jimmy Choo, which was acquired by Michael Kors last year for US $1.2 billion dollars. Alongside Tapestry Inc. (formerly known as Coach), Michael Kors is vying to strengthen its foothold in the luxury fashion space by building a multi-brand fashion empire that could rival that of Paris-based conglomerates LVMH and Kering.
Versace Spring 2018. Getty
Versace has been having quite the year, starting with Donatella's touching, supermodel-filled Spring 2018 runway tribute to her late brother last September. Since then, the luxury Italian label has unveiled a collaboration with Kith and pledged to go completely fur-free. Meanwhile, Donatella Versace joined Anna Wintour, Rihanna, and Amal Clooney in co-hosting the 2018 Met Gala and was honored with the International Award by the CFDA. Additionally, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story has just scooped the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series.
There has been a surge of luxury brand consolidation in recent months. In August, Ermenegildo Zegna acquired an 85% stake in Thom Browne. Spanish luxury group Puig acquired a majority stake in Dries Van Noten in June, and in May, Richemont (Cartier, Monteblanc) purchased luxury E-commerce platform Net-a-Porter.
Now Read: Nicki Minaj Steps Out in Dubai Wearing Head-to-Toe Versace


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The Finnovate Show
By Gerry Purcell
This week's episode is a unique opportunity to hear from a seasoned financial services expert. Allan Schlar is a senior marketing executive with decades of experience in the industry. He shares his view on the need for financial services organizations to look at innovation through a different lens, to apply lessons from the past, and use these learnings to solve the problems that really need to be solved.
Allan Schlar: Bringing back excitement about innovation to legacy financial services organizations
...as a leader of your company, you muststay up to date with your strategies and execution or risk obsolescence.Welcome to the Fin of a show, financial services innovators bringing you thefuture today and now here's your host, jerry Purcell. It's the fin of eight show brought toyou by Innovation three 60 groups. I'm jerry Purcell. Get ready to think aboutyour biggest challenges and capitalize on your biggest opportunities. Afterthis. Executives depend on external consultants to fill knowledge andexperience gaps or to have an experienced mine audit their thinking.The Innovation 3 60 group brings together a wide range of proven thoughtleadership from around the globe and cost effectively makes it available toyou, get the insights, advice and systems. You need to succeed, learnmore at www dot innovation 3 60 dot com. Our guest today is Alan Sklar Allen isan entrepreneur and a customer focused marketing executive with many years ofexperience in financial services. He's a creative thinker and an early adopterof technology with a focus on the design and delivery of innovativeproducts and solutions. There was an earlier time quite similar to todaywhere innovation was the centerpiece of the financial services environment inits ecosystem today, Alan and I will talk about innovation and financialservices and what we think we can learn from the experience Allen, Welcome tothe show. Thanks jerry. It's a pleasure to be here today to share some of myexperiences. I've always thought that my career was really at theintersection of innovation and...
...disruption really a lot about the powerof combining marketing sales and using technology to enable innovation. Solet's start our conversation by casting our minds back to the olden days. Thatis pre Fintech. What was the lay of the land back then? From your perspective,jerry, I've gotta I've gotta initially laugh at the, at your question. I'mgoing to refer to the olden days or back then as earlier, so we don'teducate ourselves and the currency of our ideas. There's no question that theenvironment that fueled innovation was quite different and I think of itmainly mainly from people a risk and a technology perspective. And I hope toshare some of my opinions as we get deeper into some of these areas in ourconversation, I kind of see a lot of the innovation by legacy institutionsbehind us, At least by one definition of innovation. We look at the productsin the market place today, I see very little new product innovations. So wehave new flavors and mutual funds like ET EFS and we've got thematic investing.We've got S. G. What I really see our product innovations that are mainly reintroductions of old ideas like market linked investments, cash back on creditcards, double up and skip a pay mortgages. All of those were reallytruly innovative at the time. But be honest there behind us and just for our listeners, you know,both al and I have personal experience in the marketplace and for fulldisclosure. We both worked together in the 80s and 90s at Royal Trust inCanada. It was a very very good time and a place for innovation in thefinancial services industry. So Alan...
...tell me about the retail financialservices business in the 80s. Well jerry interestingly again, in myopinion, as I said, much of what we see in terms of innovation from legacyfinancial firms today. I I feel they were largely developed or begun byfirms like Royal Trust, which later went on to be acquired by Royal Bank ofCanada. I think I see Royal Trust and it's local and international affiliateswere really the driving force of that innovation. If I look back at whichCanadian financial firm was first to get into cross border banking andreally recognize that many older Canadians in increasing numbers wouldown property in florida and winter there and therefore would require newand innovative banking products and experiences to capture the U. S.Business. That's just one example from Royal Trust. Others include theownership of real estate arm Royal page to see a home purchase reallytransitioned to a mortgage. The ownership of an A. B. M. Firm fromhardware on first to introduce online branded chats. First to use proprietarypolling to drive pr and thus brand and product awareness. First to have adsthat straddled the 11:00 news and tell a story was never before done. So really in a number of ways. Firmslike Royal Trust were ahead of their time and have thought leaders tosupport the innovation and they have the appetite to accept bigger risk thatwas acceptable with a greater chance of success. And I think all of what Ispoke about was really ingrained in the culture of Royal Trust. So the culture was definitely adifferent place and I looked back...
...finally on my time at Royal Trust. Butwhat else was different about Royal Trust and that drove their innovativesuccesses? Well, the lynched him I'm going to talk about is really, there'sa lot of examples of innovative ideas that were born from some fundamentalphilosophical approaches to business and unique characteristics of RoyalTrust that made it successful. I think the biggest single discovery that I canpoint to that led to a lot of the innovation was the groundbreakingresearch that we did. And it led to a whole new positioning Where AdviceComes 1st. Let me repeat that. Where advice comes first. It was really aheadof its time. And the longevity is evidenced by it being copied in someform of others by probably every financial firm in the market today thatI can think of. It underpins all firms. Can you think of anything that comesclose to approaching that power and that longevity? In fact, it wasinculcated into the minds and throughout all our activities throughto the end client. You know, again, some other thoughts that I wanted toshare with uh with the audience today. Management support was easily obtained. There was a lot of ownership andcollaboration in the systems with a strong client focus. Secondly acommercial and entrepreneurial approach to everything we did and how he did it. There was an amazingly amazingly strongalignment of I. T. Marketing and sales. So we moved from what a developer sawas if you ask them, him or her, what are you working on today? Oh my petproject. We moved to really solving...
...customer needs and what the customerwanted. Yeah I think the other the other thing that strikes me as we werealways ensuring that we had a good appreciation of the balance betweeninnovation and customer readiness. Although we approached it it was alwayssomething in the back of our mind that it was really dangerous to allowcustomers to get ahead of the firm. And that possibility was there especiallyin the early days of the internet. You know the other thing I think aboutis forward looking employees. We're always really quick to identifysticking trends like digital being a new channel that really provided newoptions for clients and the foresight to surround themselves would likeminded individuals which is something I did to advance the journey,interestingly some wealth managers which was the division that I was in.We're really slow to adopt the internet as an example and therefore I alignmyself with like minded people in the retail bank. The wealth managers at thetime believed that their business was just face to face as opposed to anoption for clients to choose a new channel. I think there was moreacceptance of failure, failure with lessons learned was acceptable muchmore so than today. We recognized also data. The adoption of a data driven andbusiness intelligence approach at an early stage we really had pinpointideas about client relationships and data will come back to data laterbecause really I think in terms of a more contemporary definition ofinnovation, it has a really crucial role today. We adopted the concept of asingle system of record, a data...
...warehouse and the marketing databasepinpoint well ahead of other financial institutions and with advanced conceptson things like segmentation, a journey around customer information and howthat really related to marketing and sales. That single system of recordseems to have morphed into something else and not necessarily one System ofTruth. That's especially true for global firms with differentrequirements, different regulations, different needs for granularity of data.And initially, you know the old adage garbage in garbage out. Although Ithink the latter is seeing new investment in technology today thatI'll mention as we look at the future of innovation. The last point I wantedto mention I've got a left brain right brain mindset as did many of mycolleagues at the time I got and continue to get my best ideas whiletaking my dog for a walk. As bizarre as that may sound an example an I. T.Executive and I developed a number of concepts over early morning coffee.Many were implemented. So really what I'm saying is a lot of the innovationhappened outside the formal organization structure I've sometimesbeen accused of let's call it what was called elliptical thinking and reality.That was me listening to what you were saying or an individual is saying andthinking about how that idea where solution could be leveraged and extendit out sort of advantages were innovative and sustainable despitecompetition. Kind of like keep up with the speed of my thinking, would youinnovative ideas were planned to stay at least six months ahead of thecompetition. Yeah it was not always a fun place to to be looking ahead andtrying to keep up keep up the clients...
...keep up to people like you in themarketing space and as the operations guy used to go, oh my God, there he isagain. Um so I mean you talked a little bit about why but why why do you thinkthere was, what sort of differences in terms of approach and stuff did theytake in the Royal Trust environment? You think that made a difference? Wellit's it's a great question. I mean and if I think about it a bit there were anumber of factors that really combined to make a difference. You know, for onewe introduced pilots and testing the speed up the process. It was reallyinnovative. So we designed experiments around customer data that led to modelsthat resulted in significant increases in retention span of control was notonly a throughout trust but in other organizations was a lot larger than itis today. Employees like me had access to a number of levers that in my casecollectively delivered marketing and communication. Pr advertising researchpolls to drive success and it was kind of like knowing which levers to pushand to pull all at the same time in order to optimize the outcome. Ofcourse, people wear much fewer hats today have a much narrower span ofcontrol. So things are different. The industry itself has always been highlyregulated, but I think it's safe to say that we were unencumbered by the degreeof regulation that we see today. one of the other big things I think about isfailure was more acceptable. What do I mean by that? The attitude atthe time was very much try 10 things. Let's get one big home run that bighome run will pay for all of the other less successful outcomes that model, noquestion it's been out of play for...
...years. The other, the other thing Ithink about as being different is the research and time to implement havelong runways and that has much less appeal today and lasting employees,employees were more loyal unlikely to stay with firms longer in past, youknow, retire and so on with the same company has started working for. Sodeveloping I. P. That was retained by legacy firms and is retained by legacyfirms is much much less in place today. The personal risk reward curve today isvery asymmetrical. What do I mean by that? It's much safer for an employeeto stay the course. From a personal perspective with less willingness toinnovate and potentially fail, fail today is unlikely get fired. The world is moving fast. It'sdifficult to keep up your executive team routinely needs new ideas to keepthem ahead of the competition. Imagine having a plan in place in 30 days tofocus your innovation efforts, improve customer experience, accelerate yourmove to digitization or increase speed to market. Our guide to acceleratingyour innovation agenda provides you with insights and time saving resourcesto plan your path forward, contact jerry to book a quick call or for yourcomplimentary copy at www dot linkedin dot com backslash in backslash jerryPurcell, G E R R Y P U R C E L L. Or...
...email jerry at jerry dot Purcell atinnovation 3 60 group dot com. Mm hmm. So I remember back in the day when webought two million card mastercard portfolio from Shell and we had 16weeks to figure out how to integrate it into our existing portfolio of 100,000cards and and figure out how we're going to make payments and how are wegoing to service two million more clients and whatever. And, and uh,thinking about on the fly how to respond to that challenge. And wemanaged to succeed. And I thought we introduce a couple of things that werequite unique at the time. One was real time payment in branch and onlineanother was interbank ft for payments, which I think we got a little bit oftrouble from the, from some of our competitors about. But it was, it was avery interesting time From an innovation perspective, you have anystories of your own. I could probably write a book about some stories, butyou know, the ones that are sort of top of mind if I could turn the clock backsome of the innovative solutions that we brought to market at an early stage,I would probably take the market today in my own firm. For example, we came upwith a concept for what today is robo investing. We had avatars male orfemale and we developed that years before it came to market anotherexample, at the time that mutual funds were displacing low cost core deposits,I was tasked with coming up with an innovative solution that did two thingsallowed us to retain these deposits in more traditional investments and at thesame time, be fair to customers. The solution, a few colleagues and Ideveloped which you were involved in uh was steeped in the concept of volumebuying power and true relationship...
...banking. It rewarded a family by payingeveryone the interest rate on the pool of funds held by the group. I left thatgroup just after it was launched for low cost core deposits. But the wholeidea was to expand the concept to all asset liability products, making theexit barrier extremely costly, but at the same time being fair toincreasingly savvy customers. Yeah, I just think listeners, this is,this is 30 years ago. Almost anyways. And some of the concepts down in thefinancial services world are focused on these portfolio type approaches andlong term outcomes. And you know, so, so it is these are concepts that werereally ahead of their time. So let's fast forward to today, alan, and wheredo you see uh what's going on in today's financial services environment?I think innovation in legacy financial institutions has a bright side and ithas a downside or a dark side. The decrease of traditional legacyfinancial institutions to maintain the pace that we saw and consumer focusedin innovation is in part evidence by a declining share of financial innovationby traditional financial institutions. Some tend to now by promising iP tosome degree, the number of patents being taken out by financialinstitutions. Legacy ones that is has also declined financial institutions inthe past demonstrated significant innovation, especially on consumerfocused product and service innovation. That's the bright side. The downside isinnovation can also lead to crisis like the boom bust and housing. But I thinkthat the innovation that we saw in the past on product is largely over. As Isee it. I see innovation today is...
...shifting Ai and machine based learninghas been adopted in analyzing customer data behavior and what creates bettercustomer service and experience the better craft sales and marketing toreach customers. I mentioned earlier that financialservices is a data rich environment and we discovered the power of data atRoyal Trust very early on and we're eager to discover an adopt innovationto really advanced analytics and innovation. Today budgets and time arebeing invested in labor intensive and manual processes to reduce costs andimprove quality and reduce errors. The other area of innovation on theinvestment side on the asset side is really an algorithmic investing andperformance for customers, lots of opportunities within that part of thefirm to the extent that they are able to spend money, invest money in findingthis innovation. So, you know, it's really becoming, I think it's reallybecoming increasingly difficult to find. Perhaps more so in product innovation,something really breakthrough, you know, chasing the next shiny new marble. As Iprepared for our conversation today, I started to increasingly think even moreabout innovation and the shift to more promising areas, as I mentioned like Aimachine learning Quantum, there's really limited resources. There alwayshave been limited resources and and in my opinion, the current focus and thefuture focus will be increasingly on in the operating space, the front office,the middle office, the back office, um...
...you know, new ideas today cost a lotmore to implement and it puts pressure on our ally, something that has littleappetite today, you know, the global financial crisis that we've seen hasput increasing regulatory pressures in place. Uh and you know, you seetechnology and innovations and technology innovation increasinglybeing used for risk and compliance and less on product innovation. You know,the other the other big thing that I'm seeing uh new discoveries areincreasingly being found and delivered by, you know, for example, Fintech,another non traditional financial institutions. You know, I kind ofsometimes wonder if the changes are big enough or if they can scale and besustainable and I'll have a little bit more to say in my wrap up on on on whatpeople should be thinking about in terms of uh in terms of Fintech and uhinnovating in future? As I mentioned, entrepreneurial employees have muchless loyalty. They're likely to port promising discoveries to firms thatthey start. How do you get people to think about what's best for theseentrepreneurs and innovative thinkers in a more traditional organization? Yeah, I see a lot of financialinstitutions, let's wait until others have made mistakes. So they sort ofweight and bio or partner with something that turns out to besuccessful. Yeah. So those are some of the some ofthe things that I'm seeing and you know are part of the opinions that I have toyou know, so what now? Yeah. So so what now and what shouldthose who are now tasked in financial services organizations to be innovatorsdo and how can they learn from the experience of others and sort of thepast outcomes? Yeah. So I you know, I...
...see evidence that specialist businessunits within legacy firms are being created to make these discoveries andthese these sort of specialist units have ecosystems to make it happen. Theright compensation, the right people, the right mindset and so on. Businessmodels are being transformed in part as I mentioned to reduce costs. Uh there'slots of opportunities and new technologies to replace old legacysystems and tools with new technologies. You can make a very valid argument thatthose legacy systems of sort of rusted out to use a you know, to use a phraseum an innovation through technology has had a paradigm shift, especially wherehumans, I see humans now needing to catch up with technology where it wasprobably the reverse before enter investment high powered technologieslike quantum structures inside that are focused on innovation, moredigitization and work going on in data, new channels really more pushback onnon face to face. You don't have to look much further than the pandemic tosee a lot of events going virtual, you know, which is really a new a newchannel new way of doing business Ai and Quantum. I think thought processesare getting better over time and they're being programmed. I was disappointed and still continuein a way to be disappointed with some of the bots. The box really need tobecome more intelligent. And the other thing is we're seeing you know sort ofthis this sort of cycle or or sort of transformation ofbusiness and that sees a movement of...
...business models from businessintelligence the day to day. I a lot of focus shifting to Fintech now. WhyFintech? Well I believe that the fintech arrival was partly due to thefailure of legacy business and the draining of talent from legacy firms toFrontex and startups. Legacy firms are now seeing those Frontex and startupsas not as competition but really as an opportunity to help them with problems. The innovations are being adopted bylarger existing legacy firms. But in many cases with outside partners, legacy employees. The last point Iwanted to mention and capturing knowledge, they're being redirected toadded value work by some of these changes. So if I summarize some of the thingsthat you've said through the course of our discretion today, just in terms ofthe environment that is conducive to innovation. I wrote three or 4 down. Soowning the problem being I'll use my words for these things. But having truecollaboration being aligned internally about who you are and what what you areas a firm and making sure you're listening to clients and staying aheadof them. That's the second last point. And the fail fast concept really, whichis don't be afraid of making a mistake, you know, just don't make too many bigmistakes but don't be afraid to make a mistake through the process becausethat's how you learn and that's how you iterate on new ideas. What other advicewould you give new executives or new or old executives? I guess in the space aswe close off today. So, you know, I think as we wrap up, you know, I wantedto leave the audience with some things to think about. It's really aboutstarting to have conversations about the problems that really need to besolved. Getting smarter about limited...
...and tough areas and really looking atthe business and innovation through a different lens. Yeah, the business canreally be summed up as being more about being a data and technology business.It's really about taking a more holistic approach to innovation wheretechnology business processes and external partners will work together tooptimize the potential. So they start to think about things like whatecosystem of partners inside or outside lead to the innovation today. I thinkit becomes increasingly important to find firms that can help you withskills you need to take advantage of in terms of the shift and groundbreakingchanges in the focus of innovation and I would look to firms and people thatwant to make an investment of their time and capital in your firm. It'sreally about selecting the right partners and identifying the rightlevel two partner, not starting to low in the organization because up sellingis real tough. You know, a line shared outcomes with reasonable expectationsand lastly build excitement and momentum. I mean, if I think back to,you know, all of the work that I did and you did back at Royal Trust, therewas excitement. There was a momentum. It was a game, you played a game to win,you worked hard, you played hard, you're going to have a budget ofcapability, get some small early success, the right structure in placeand rewards that rewards innovation, success. Innovation really needs tohave a higher place in the organization than just the real 90 day pressuresthat you know, companies face today. I thought of an interesting expression,may you live in interesting times, it's both a blessing and a curse. I thinkthe future lies in regaining this...
...excitement about the possibilities tosolve real problems that goes along with innovation. That's very intriguing conversationallen. I found it thought provoking and and I know that listeners will find itthe same. I really wanted to thank you very much for for spending time with metoday. And that wraps up the episode. So for those listening, as always, Ilook forward to hearing your thoughts on today's show and please keep theconversation going. If you like the show, tell your friends and please takea minute to radar show or post a comment. Go to www dot innovation 360dot com or your favorite podcasts like to find out more and to listen to moreshows. Allen, thank you very much for chatting with me today. Thanks jerry.Stay safe and we'll see you next week. You've been listening to the Fine ofeight show with jerry Purcell. If you like the show, share it on your networkand subscribe on itunes or wherever you listen to podcasts and you can go towww dot innovation 3 60 dot com. To listen to more shows, download thetranscription from today's show or to contact today's guest. This is theinnovate show, Financial services innovators bringing you the futuretoday. Mm mhm.
Episode · 1 month ago
Mark Cohen: An insider's view of M & A implementation
Mark Cohen, a senior financial services executive, shares five keys to his success in Operations in the Capital Markets, Treasury and Transfer Agency worlds. Based on his thirty plus years of experience in global financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York and CIBC, Mark discusses lessons learned, how he dealt with the challenges of change and the factors that have impacted the industry and will drive innovation in the future.
John Rossman: What can we learn from the Amazon Way?
John Rossman, a former Amazon executive, shares his personal experiences and insight on the Amazon Way. He talks about the importance of applying the right combination of leadership, process, and culture for each organization. Discover why customer obsessed leaders look to remove friction, experiment with new ideas and how they achieve operational excellence.
Simone Lettieri Dezan: How Quantum Computing will revolutionize your business!
Get ready for perhaps the biggest game changer in the financial services sector. What if we told you that a quantum computer will break most of the encryption that protects transactions on the internet, and soon? Or that leading physicists are on the verge of building faster computers that will revolutionize everything. Or that the benefits of quantum computing applied to the management of financial portfolios and customer solutions will be renowned. The truth is that although there is some hype, quantum computing presents major opportunities. Forward thinking organizations are already in the game, and those who are successful will have "tangible first mover advantage" over their competitors.
Simone Lettieri Dezan, CDO of Meta IT talks about the power of quantum computing, what it is, and what it isn't, the knowledge and processing power it enables and the need for industry leaders, or those who wish to be, to develop their quantum muscles now.


text:
package taesh.minecraft.vaneindustries.block;

import cpw.mods.fml.relauncher.Side;
import cpw.mods.fml.relauncher.SideOnly;
import net.minecraft.block.Block;
import net.minecraft.block.material.Material;
import net.minecraft.client.renderer.texture.IIconRegister;
import taesh.minecraft.vaneindustries.creativetab.CreativeTabVI;
import taesh.minecraft.vaneindustries.reference.Reference;

public class BlockVI extends Block {
    public BlockVI(Material material) {
        super(material);
        this.setCreativeTab(CreativeTabVI.VI_TAB);
    }

    public BlockVI() {
        this(Material.rock);
    }

    @Override
    public String getUnlocalizedName() {
        return String.format("tile.%s%s", Reference.MOD_ID.toLowerCase() + ":", getUnwrappedUnlocalizedName(super.getUnlocalizedName()));
    }

    @Override
    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    public void registerBlockIcons(IIconRegister iconRegister) {
        blockIcon = iconRegister.registerIcon(String.format("%s", getUnwrappedUnlocalizedName(this.getUnlocalizedName())));
    }

    protected String getUnwrappedUnlocalizedName(String unlocalizedName) {
        return unlocalizedName.substring(unlocalizedName.indexOf(".") + 1);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


As well as a striking and memorable theme for your exhibition, we can help you carry that message across every available channel to support your presence at the exhibition - and maximise the impact of your budget.
Hullabaloo is a full service design studio that works as happily in print as it does in digital communications. But what does that mean for you? It means we can support you whatever medium you wish to use, and help you decide what the best route is for you - digital or printed.
Hullabaloo delivers creative, professional exhibition design solutions that can be easily and cost effectively transferred from one medium to another. We'll show you how to achieve more with your exhibition and help you decide the best way to deliver optimum benefit for your budget.
Hullabaloo is located in Leicester, Leicestershire, central to the Midlands. One advantage of being based in Leicester, is the ease of travel to and from almost anywhere in the UK. We always value meeting in person to discuss the potential direction of your exhibition, and being central to the country means that no client is too far away, and milestone meetings are easily arranged to make sure your exhibition is delivered on time and on budget.
We work well with your own stand contractors - or if you prefer we can arrange that for you, and wherever you are based our central location makes for easy distribution, meaning that there is no problem in getting your support materials to you in a timely fashion and to meet your deadlines.
When a space became available at the last minute, we were asked to design and deliver the stand for Rocwool. The bespoke exhibition was designed to reflect the flexibility and effectiveness of Rockwool's range of products, and was built almost entirely from their materials.
Announcing the news that ASSA ABLOY would no longer be selling locks under the famous Chubb brand required careful management. Launched at one of the lock industry's leading events, this exhibition and supporting materials helped make sure that key people got all the facts.
We will meet with all the key decision makers (and even your clients if you wish) to understand their views, and find what each of them wants from your exhibition.
Having talked to the key people, we go away and produce a range of ideas of how we could achieve the brief's objectives. This will include a choice of themes for the exhibition that can be carried across a range of communications.
The concepts will show how each option would work on the stand itself, Audio Visual presentations, printed materials, PDFs and even online apps – all the factors that go to make an engaging and effective exhibition presence.
Once we are all agreed on a direction, we work with your event team to finalise the structure and content and make your exhibition a success.
From helping plan the content and how to deliver it - to copy writing, photography & illustration - we help you bring together all the elements into an electronic or paper outline that lets you see how your stand and supporting materials will look and work, and make sure it's exactly right before we proceed to production.
From there we work alongside your event team to produce the final stand in whatever form we have agreed - and put copies of them onto our secure web space so that you can check everything is saying exactly what you want it to say before approving it to go live.
Creating your exhibition is just the start. Hullabaloo can help find innovative and effective ways to take your exhibition message to all the right people - and achieves your objectives.
Beyond your exhibition, your team will need to be supported. Hullabaloo is a full service design studio that works as happily in print as it does in digital communications - so whatever you need, we will be delighted to help.
We would love to meet and talk about your exhibition design - or any specific projects you are planning.


text:
British Web Hosting
2020Media's hosting service has been 100% British since 1999, when the company was founded. We took the decision early on that we didn't want to outsource our most important assets – our staff – to far away territories. That's why our team are all based right here in London. We're close to our customers, we're close to our network, and we're close to the market we serve.
Made in Britain – UK Fast
For websites with a mainly British audience, you get a faster response from a UK network. Although the difference is slight (the speed of light comes into the equation!), when a browser can make up to a hundred requests to load a single web page, the small differences do add up. 2020Media's network is centred in London's Telehouse datacentre and is linked by multiple fast connections to UK backbone providers.
Choose a British Host
One of the hardest choices you'll have is who to use for hosting of your lovely new website. Whilst there are certain hosts that you should avoid at all costs (see 'unlimited hosting'), professional websites are advised to skip the generic, hyper-market style hosts and look for a specialised UK host instead. We look at some of the factors worth exploring before signing up on our blog, but one of the key things to check out is the support. Horror stories abound of customers who've been completely cut off by their host and it's important to speak to the host's customer service team (not just the salesman). British customers should ask: Are they local? Do they speak your language fluently? Can they provide support during the hours that suit you?
About 2020Media
2020Media is proud to be a British company and uphold the finest traditions of British customer service. All our customer service team are native English speakers and are available 24/7. Our London web hosting has a track record of excellent third-party verified Uptime.
We believe British web hosting can't be beaten for service and value!
Choose British Hosting
What are the reasons to choose a British hosting provider? Are there any benefits from selecting a UK host rather than one from another country?
This section explores the UK web service provider sector and what businesses and consumers can gain from hosting in Britain.
Hosting and Internet services can now be purchased from around the globe, and many overseas providers will show prices in Pounds Sterling (they snoop your IP number when you visit their site), and even display a British phone number.
But that doesn't mean criteria to choose a good web host have shifted. Far from it. The usual things like customer support, resources you will get, reliability and uptime, and location of the web host all play a part.
Larger web hosts are constantly merging and splitting, so what has been a good local service in the past may no longer be the case – when is the last time you spoke to someone at your hosting company? Has everything changed? Is the guy who you used to recognise long been put out to pasture in favour of a cheap overseas call centre where time spent on the phone with customers is measured to the second?
Read customer reviews at reviewcentre.com
There are benefits to having your website or service physically hosting in the UK. All our hosting, staff, servers, network and billing is done right here in London, UK.
If you host a website with us, or take out a virtual server or dedicated server account then we provide British IP numbers.
Why British or UK hosting?
Search engines want to show pages in the UK to UK users. They want their search results to be sites that load quickly, so that users don't abandon the site and go elsewhere. Therefore, it's important to have a hosting provider with close proximity to your target audience, preferable located in the same country. With a British web host your website will be a relevant, local site to your UK audience.
We do not neglect the rest of the world either. Our multi-homed, BGP powered network connects to multiple upstream providers over fast redundant links since 2002. Our network is based in Telehouse, the hub of the internet in the UK and Europe. As home to the LINX and LONAP most of the UK internet traffic passes through Telehouse – also home to 2020Media's network.
Our Uptime is "3 nines"
Don't take our word for it, we happily provide links to third-party independent uptime monitoring services.
webhostingstuff.com – webhostingstuff.com has been monitoring us since 2008!
montools.com – no outages detected in the last year.
At 99.98% overall uptime, 2020Media's uptime is considered excellent.
But don't all hosts have downtime?
Yes it's true, all hosts have times when they need to take a system offline for scheduled maintenance. If our scheduled maintenance periods were excluded from the testing our public results would show even better performance. For example webhostingstuff.com noted 38 mins downtime in December 2016. This outage of our primary website www.2020media.com was actually a period of planned maintenance for a complete physical move of servers from one datacentre to another.
But we believe third party data is the only data that 100% trustworthy so we're happy to link to their data to all prospective and existing customers.
In actual fact, since we joined RIPE* in 2002, our network has never been down – that's thanks to our system of multi-homing of network and redundant routing.
That's over 12 years network uptime at 100%.
* What is RIPE::The Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre is the Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. It oversees the alllocation of IP Addresses to it's members


Mr. Lifrieri is currently the President of Protective Countermeasures Inc., a security firm located in New Rochelle New York specializing in threat and vulnerability assessments. He is often sourced by both the local and national news media for commentary on security and terrorism related stories; and is a published author and frequent lecturer. Mr. Lifrieri is also the President of the Empire Chapter of IALEIA, the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts. IALEIA is the largest professional organization in the world representing law enforcement analysts.
• An Instructor at Iona College, New Rochelle New York, and a guest lecturer on "Terrorism and Executive Protection" and "Terrorism and Crisis Management"
• Lecturer for the NYPD's Homicide Investigators Course, teaching Major Case Investigation.
Mr. Lifrieri joined the force in January of 1982. He is a twenty year veteran of the NYPD and achieved the rank of Detective 1st Grade. His assignments began with patrol in the south Bronx, and progressed rapidly to plain cloths and robbery investigations. Later he was promoted to Detective and was assigned to the 46th Pct Detective squad, also in the south Bronx.
In 1993 he was assigned to the Intelligence Division where he was selected to create the departments "Russian Organized Crime Project." In this assignment he led major investigations into Russian organized crime both at the local level and with multiple federal investigative agencies.
In 1989 he was accepted as a member of this elite team.