text:
"Bread and Roses"
The problem with Ken Loach's half-Spanish, half-English film isn't the lefty politics, it's that the Brit knows nothing about Los Angeles.
Check out this article! https://www.salon.com/2001/06/07/bread_roses/
June 7, 2001 7:32PM (UTC)
For Ken Loach, the veteran English leftist who is in some ways the ultimate anti-Hollywood director, to make a movie about the striking Latino janitors of Los Angeles is an act of admirable bravado. I only wish it wasn't such a patchy affair. Loach's best work is his semidocumentary exploration of the desperate fringes of the British working class, but the Los Angeles of "Bread and Roses" is almost entirely unspecific, a blank screen on which he can project a predictable drama of class struggle. It's ridiculous to suggest that a foreigner can't "get" L.A., since "Sunset Boulevard" and "Chinatown" were both directed by Europeans, but Loach, for all his hard work and boundless good intentions, doesn't have the remotest feeling for the place.
Before I had seen any of Loach's movies he was described to me as "the other Mike Leigh," and as unfair as the comparison may be on a number of levels, to American viewers it's still likely to seem appropriate. Both have their roots in documentary-style British TV drama, and both are avowed leftists who gained a reputation for exploring the underside of British life in the Margaret Thatcher years. But while Leigh focused on bittersweet portraits of sub-bourgeois family life (like "Life Is Sweet" and, of course, "Secrets and Lies"), Loach's world in films like "Riff-Raff," "Raining Stones" and "Ladybird, Ladybird" was the world of crap jobs and their absence, of the grasping poverty that's a half-step above desperation.
Loach's last film, "My Name Is Joe," starring Peter Mullan as a Glasgow alcoholic struggling to rebuild his life, was brutal and riveting drama, perhaps the best work of his entire career. But throughout that career, Loach's left-wing, anti-imperialist politics -- which I admire, with certain reservations -- have occasionally lured him into the doldrums of didactic drama. "Land and Freedom," his long-awaited Spanish Civil War saga, was somehow less memorable than it should have been, and "Carla's Song," with its peculiar segue from Scotland to the Sandinista revolution, was an uneasy work, sometimes bitterly etched, sometimes treacly and sentimental.
"Bread and Roses" is clearly a labor of love for everybody concerned, and no doubt its raw material is a gold mine of stories: the lives of the immigrant workers, often undocumented, who clean the office buildings of L.A.'s entertainment-industry power brokers. There is also no question that Hispanic life in America is drastically underrepresented on-screen (unless you count Jennifer Lopez), but after its dynamite first 10 minutes, "Bread and Roses" isn't much more than canned political-organizing drama, "Norma Rae" with a little norteño music. (For an immigration drama, try the far superior "El Norte"; as a portrait of Latino East L.A., see the modest but appealing "Mi Vida Loca.")
We start with a bang as Maya (Pilar Padilla), a spirited young woman from rural Mexico, is ferried across the border by vicious "coyotes," or smugglers, and must escape from the one who kidnaps her as a sex slave. First Maya finds her beleaguered sister, Rosa (Elpidia Carrillo), who gets her a job working for the janitorial company managed by the loathsome Perez (George Lopez). Then she meets Sam (Adrien Brody), the young white activist trying to rally the unorganized janitors to the union cause, and most of her spirit seems to leach away into the movie's plodding formula.
When her hunky co-worker Luis (Frankie Davila), himself a paragon of virtue who is saving to go to law school (it's unclear whether he intends to go to college first), quite plausibly suggests that Maya is mainly interested in the labor struggle because she's sweet on Sam, she denies it. "I'm doing this for the 40 million people who have no health insurance in the richest country in the world!" she pronounces. Oh.
As that example suggests, Paul Laverty's screenplay is frequently balky, unidiomatic and laden with clichés, whether in Spanish, English or the territory in between. There are a couple of nicely compact scenes showing exactly what members of the janitorial staff do when they work, always a fascination of Loach's and an invisible arena in most American movies; and the core group of Latin, Caribbean and Eastern European actors (mostly nonprofessionals) is undeniably appealing.
But we get few glimpses of their home lives or idiosyncrasies, with the lone exception of Rosa, an embittered, weather-beaten beauty (wonderfully played by Carrillo) and the only one among them who does something selfish and apparently evil. The explosive scene when Rosa finally tells Maya why she has betrayed her own sister and her co-workers almost redeems this halting, stuttering movie, and lends its ending an unexpected sting. What it really suggests is that Loach and Laverty, on their American adventure, have chosen the wrong story and the wrong central character.
Andrew O'Hehir is executive editor of Salon.
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Q: Displaying load message in popup window I am redirecting my customer to new site using window.open(). I wanted to display some message or image before that site is loaded.
Here is my code.
 <input class="btn add-to-cart-btn" onclick="two();"
            type="button" value="More Info At {{ product.vendor }}"/>

JavaScript code :

Here {{ product.metafields.google.custom_label_0 }} is a dynamic URL. The test alert message is displaying in same page.
any help ?

A: Let's add a variable:
var newWin = window.open('{{ product.metafields.google.custom_label_0 }}');
newWin.alert('Message');

EDIT
If you do not want alert, just write message then try this:
newWin.document.write('Message');

newWin is a window object, so you can use it as is.
You can found more details here: Add content to a new open window

A: The function two() you are calling is being executed from your page1(suppose) and you are opening page2(suppose) in new window. Your function is called by page1 so the alert will be shown in the same page. So either you should have a reference to the new window opened and then trigger an alert like
var NewWindow = window.open('{{ product.metafields.google.custom_label_0 }}');
NewWindow .alert('please wait your page is loading');

But this is not a good solution because javascript alert is a blocking function your JavaScript stops executing until they return so if there is some part of page that is dependent on javascript wont be loaded unless you close the popup.
What i would suggest is: there are lot of CSS loaders available on the net you just need to google out a bit. Use that in your page which will be shown to the user until all the data is populated or the page has finished loading. Something like have a modal div and make it visible and once the page finishes loading hide that div. Here is a demo for you which you can use as reference.

$(document).ready(function(){
  setTimeout(function(){
    $("#one").html("finished loading");
    $("#cssload-contain").hide();
  },2000)
});
#allthethings {
  width: 20%    ;
  height: 30%;
  left: 45%;
  top:35%;
  position:fixed;
  -webkit-transform: scale(2);
}

#cssload-contain {
    position: fixed;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    background-color:rgba(248, 248, 248, 0.50);
    z-index: 1000;
}

.cssload-preloader {
 position: absolute;
 top: 0px;
 left: 0px;
 right: 0px;
 bottom: 0px;
 z-index: 10;
}

.cssload-preloader > .cssload-preloader-box {
 position: absolute;
 height: 29px;
 top: 50%;
    width:500px;
 margin: -15px 0 0 -146px;
 perspective: 195px;
  -o-perspective: 195px;
  -ms-perspective: 195px;
  -webkit-perspective: 195px;
  -moz-perspective: 195px;
}
.cssload-preloader .cssload-preloader-box > div {
 position: relative;
 width: 29px;
 height: 29px;
 background: rgb(204,204,204);
 float: left;
 text-align: center;
 line-height: 29px;
 font-family: Verdana;
 font-size: 19px;
 color: rgb(255,255,255);
}

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Fiddle

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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"Together with members of the Open Nuclear Network (ONN), a private research organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, I thought about North Korea's information strategy of 'showing only what it wants to see.'
In November last year, ONN released a report titled "IMPROVING DATA ACCESS AND CREDIBILITY IN LOW-INFORMATION ENVIRONMENTS: CASE OF DPRK," summarizing the key points of North Korea's information analysis. First, the report points out that North Korea's official coverage should be judged based on five key factors: 'level, audience, timing, tone, and others.'
It's also important to think about 'who is North Korea talking to?' said Rachel Lee, senior analyst at ONN. North Korea released various missile launches and air force drills on October 10. Lee said, 'Externally, we will appeal North Korea's military readiness and progress in weapons development, as well as the policies that Kim Jong Un emphasized in January 2021, and will respond strongly to external forces' hard line. There is a message: Internally, the aim is to reassure the public by showing that the enemy's threat can be thwarted.'
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'North Korea, which has strict information controls, sometimes makes mistakes,' said ONN analyst Tianran Xu. A 2015 documentary released by North Korea's Korean Central Television showed Kim Jong Il inspecting the Hwasong-13 ICBM, Xu said. A closer analysis of the screen reveals the missile's first stage engine. From the images, the Hwasong-13 could be estimated to have two former Soviet R-27 SLBM engines or two Hwasong-10 engines with a total lift of 50 tons. Mars 10 and Mars 13 may have been abandoned after the program turned out to be a failure. 'The image was very difficult to grasp and was overlooked by many analysts,' Xu said."
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Former Odeon Middlesbrough collapses
posted by jbn6773 on July 12, 2006 at 6:14 am
MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND — Part of Middlesbrough Town Centre was closed today, when part of the former Odeon Cinema collapsed during demolition works.
The collapse also took away scaffolding that had been erected on the Fry Street side of the auditorium. It is believed the wall gave way whilst work to remove the auditorium roof was being carried out.
It appears that the demolition was being done from within using large bulldozers to remove the ceiling. luckily, no-one was injured, although some cars parked in Fry Street are believed to been damaged.
The roads are expected to remain closed until Wednesday Evening to allow emergency demolition work on the remainder of the auditorium and removal of the scaffolding.
The Evening Gazette has more information on the collapse.
I've also added photos of the collapsed building to Flickr.
Odeon Middlesbrough
Glazy on July 13, 2006 at 12:31 am
I had just travelled into town to take some pics of the Odeon that day when I arrived and seen all the carry on !
Panoramic Pic taken on the 13/07/06
Glazy on July 14, 2006 at 8:05 am
Here's a bigger version that a friend has kindly let me host on his site
http://www.qurios.com/Blog/Odeon_panorama.jpg
jukingeo on July 16, 2006 at 11:24 am
And this is a reminder to all who want to tear down and old theatre. Oh yes, they can bite back. As they say, payback's a bitch!
sdoerr on July 24, 2006 at 5:42 am
Love this pic >:D
jbn6773 on July 26, 2006 at 10:41 am
After almost 2 weeks of little activity, demolition seems to have re-started, with the two bulldozers once again tearing at the building, contractors seem to be busy stripping out the balcony and upper floor(where the projection box is located). It was interesting to see today, that the 'Jumpin Jaks' signs have been removed from the tower, revealing the red 'ODEON' signage that was covered over. It seems that this building will finally disappear in the next few days (unless it has another suprise in store!!!). This will have been a costly demolition, with Fry Street still closed to traffic and the security costs to keep intruders out of the part demolished structure.
jbn6773 on August 4, 2006 at 9:03 am
It looks like they are now taking it apart brick by brick, almost a week just to remove the top part of the tower where the ODEON sign was fixed and to demolish the projection room and upper corridor rooms. At this rate the building could still be there at Christmas!!! Poor old Mandale properties, they wanted their new shiny tower block to be ready for September 2007, hope they are not using the same builders that are doing Wembley Stadium!!!!!!!!!


text:
Александр Ильич Шпаковский ( — ) — русский полковник, изобретатель различных приборов и машин, педагог.

Биография
Шпаковский родился . Происходил из дворян Смоленской губернии, образование получил в Новгородской гимназии и в январе 1840 года поступил на службу в Перновский гренадерский полк.

В 1842 году был переведён прапорщиком в гренадерский эрцгерцога Франца-Карла полк, а в следующем году — в Астраханский карабинерный. В мае 1847 года он был прикомандирован к Павловскому кадетскому корпусу, в феврале 1851 года утвержден репетитором по физике в корпусе, а в октябре 1854 года назначен преподавателем того же предмета.

По упразднении Павловского кадетского корпуса 31 октября 1863 года переведен в 1-е военное Павловское училище штатным преподавателем по физике. 27 марта 1866 года произведён, за отличие по службе, в подполковники с зачислением по армейской пехоте и с оставлением при училище. 15 октября 1867 года переведен в 12-й гренадерский Астраханский полк, а 20 апреля 1869 года произведён в полковники, с оставлением при училище.

В январе 1870 года вышел в отставку, а в октябре того же года определен на службу по Министерству внутренних дел, с приказом для занятий в строительное отделение Санкт-Петербургского городского правления по механической части. Шпаковский был известен, как один из замечательнейших деятелей по развитию различных отраслей техники в России. Не будучи специалистом-техником, а лишь самоучкой, он пользовался, однако, в 1860-х и 1870-х годах большой известностью, благодаря своим многочисленным изобретениям, находившим нередко обширное применение не только в России, но и за её границами.

Его деятельность, в качестве изобретателя, началась со времени назначения его преподавателем физики в кадетском корпусе. В 1850-х годах он устроил остроумный регулятор для дуговых электрических фонарей, введённый с августа 1856 года в Москве. Описание этого регулятора напечатано в статье Le Roux: «Regulator für das elektrische Licht von prof. Spakowski in St.-Petersburg» («Dingler's polytechnisches Journal», т. CLXVI, стр. 24—26; «Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement», 1862, май, стр. 270). Ещё большее применение получил изобретённый им аппарат для производства ночных сигналов во флоте. В конце 1865 года прибор этот был передан морским министерством для испытания в морской учёный комитет и сигнальную комиссию по всем вопросам сигналопроизводства. После целого ряда самых тщательных опытов прибор Шпаковского был признан отличным, и морское министерство распорядилось снабдить этими приборами всю броненосную эскадру и суда, отправлявшиеся за границу (1866 год). Не довольствуясь этим успехом, Шпаковский решил отправить своё изобретение на суд английского флота, и получил полное одобрение.

Работая над своим сигнальным фонарем, Шпаковский в 1866 году напал на мысль воспользоваться пульверизацией для применения её к паровым котлам с жидким топливом, главные удобства которых — лёгкость, отсутствие трубы и искр и быстрота разводки паров — делали его особенно полезным всюду, где имели значение сбережение пространства, выигрыш в весе прибора и уменьшение помещения для топлива. На пульверизации горючей жидкости основана была также изобретённая им лампа, в которой скипидар разбивался в пыль механическим способом.

В 1867 году Шпаковский построил новую паровую пожарную машину, для которой он применил пульверизационную топку. Машина отличалась чрезвычайной лёгкостью, простотой устройства и быстротой изготовления паров. Получив заказ от Министерства внутренних дел России на изготовление 6 подобных машин и обещание заказать ему ещё 60 штук, Шпаковский устроил фабрику паровых пожарных машин в Петербурге, но вследствие перехода пожарного дела в ведение города заказ этот не состоялся, отчего Шпаковский потерпел большие убытки.

В том же 1867 году Шпаковский представил Вольному Экономическому обществу паровую пожарную лодку с изобретенным им паровым котлом с пульверизацией. 26 сентября того же года он производил весьма удачные опыты на Неве с этой лодкой. Тогда же он произвел ряд исследований, по поручению одной из Каспийских пароходных компаний, относительно выгодности применения нефти для топки больших пароходных котлов. Затем, в 1870 году, он занялся химической обработкой каменного угля, произвел ряд исследований над получением жидких углеводородистых соединений из угля, устроил аппарат для добывания светильного газа из угольного масла, а также особую печь непрерывного действия для сухой перегонки каменного угля.

В 1872 году он изобрел дымогарный очаг, предназначенный для отапливания каменным углем, коксом и торфом обыкновенных комнатных печей и обусловливавший надлежащее сгорание топлива и перегорание неуспевшего сгореть в очаге дыма. Очаг этот в марте и апреле 1873 года был исследован и одобрен соединенной комиссией Русского технического общества и Общества архитекторов (см. «Отчёт об опытах над очагом Шпаковского» в «Записках Императорского Русского Технического Общества» 1874 г., вып. I, стр. 54—63).

Кроме вышеописанных изобретений, Шпаковский изобрел ещё водоподъёмный инжектор (1868 год), проволочные бесконечные ремни вместо кожаных (1873 год), усовершенствовал способ переработки натровой селитры в калиевую (1872 год), упростил способ фабрикации поверочных камер для артиллерийского ведомства (1872 год), изобрел упрощенный способ изготовления шаровидного торфа и стал изготовлять из торфяной массы кирпичи для внутренней отделки домов, а также орнаменты (1873 год). В 1874 году он занимался изготовлением массы для углей дуговых ламп по способу Лодыгина, в 1875 году — разработкой способов изготовления лаков и олифы, в 1876 году изготовлением искусственного цемента, а в 1877 году он составил проект, сигнализации посредством пуль с парашютом, а также посредством небольших цветных аэростатов и монгольфьеров с азотным метилом.

Имея в 1850-х годах фотографию в С.-Петербурге, считавшуюся в то время самой лучшей, он ввел целый ряд усовершенствований в способах печатания и, между прочим, старался применить к нему легкоплавкие сплавы по способу Вудбюри (1878 год).

Простое перечисление всех изобретений Шпаковского свидетельствует о его неутомимой энергии. Тем не менее, будучи человеком мало практичным, он не сумел извлечь материальных выгод из своих работ: ими воспользовались другие. Сам же он впал в долги. Доведенный неблагоприятно сложившимися обстоятельствами почти до нищеты, он в 1878 году поступил по вольному найму в минные мастерские в Кронштадте, где занялся исправлением различных физических приборов. И там он не переставал работать над своими изобретениями, усовершенствовал гальванический замыкатель, занимался разработкой ракетных составов, и результатом этих работ явилось важное изобретение в минном деле, основанное на применении изобретённого им ракетного состава к движению мин. Это изобретение, будучи доведено до конца, дало бы ему возможность выпутаться из критических обстоятельств, так как по контракту, заключённому с морским министерством, он при успешном окончании этого дела должен был получить 50 000 рублей, но и тут судьба помешала осуществлению его надежд.

Во время присутствия Шпаковского в минном классе в Кронштадте произошёл сильный взрыв при набивке патронов гремучим составом, и он получил сильную контузию, вызвавшую кровоизлияние около полости затылочного мозжечка, последствием чего явились нервные припадки, сильно потрясшие его организм и сведшие его в могилу. Не будучи в состоянии лично продолжать работы по своему изобретению и не получив разрешения передать его доверенному лицу, которое бы занималось под его руководством, он получил обратно уничтоженный контракт с министерством. До чего доходила его энергия, видно из того, что, не будучи уже в состоянии, вследствие начавшегося паралича спинного мозга, работать стоя, он все-таки одно время работал над своим изобретением сидя, поддерживаемый кем-нибудь сзади.

Ещё до потери своей работоспособности, он изобрел особый способ приготовления призматического пороха и приказом генерал-фельдцейхмейстера от 23 сентября 1880 года был допущен на Охтенский пороховой завод для приготовления 5 пудов изобретённого им пороха, на что ему было отпущено 300 рублей. Между тем болезнь его, вызванная контузией при взрыве, быстро подвигалась вперед. Сперва он, за неимением средств, был помещен в клинический военный госпиталь, а затем, после признания его неизлечимым, в больницу для умолившего Святого Николая Чудотворца, откуда был переведен в мае 1881 года в больницу для чернорабочих на Удельной, где вскоре и умер (25 июня 1881 года, в Петербурге). Даже на смертном одре его не покидала страсть к изобретениям, и он все просил докторов принести ему желатина, альбумина, глицерина и каких-то ещё других веществ, из которых он хотел составить для себя новую свежую нервную массу взамен старой, которая уже испортилась и должна быть заменена.

Научные труды

Из печатных трудов Шпаковского следует указать: «Сравнительная оценка топки паровых котлов каменным углем, скипидаром и нефтью» («Морской сборник», 1866, ч. 85, № 4), «Практические исследования паровых машин» (там же, 1867, 97, № 12), «О применении пульверизация к топке паровых трубок» («Записки Имп. Русского Технического Общества», 1867 г., вып. II), «О паровых пожарных трубах» (там же, 1868 г.), «Печь непрерывного действия для сухой перегонки каменного угля» (там же, 1872 г., вып. I), «Рациональный способ пользования земляными углями в России» (, 1871 г.).

Примечания

Литература
Carl Cuhn. «Handbuch der angewandten Elektricitätslehre» («Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Physik, herausg. von Gustav Karsten», т. ХХ. Лейпциг, 1866, стр. 1327). — «Лампа Шпаковского» («Технический Сборник», 1866 г., № 2). — «Сигнальные фонари Шпаковского в Англии» («Морской Сборник», 1867 г., № 7). — "Первая пожарная лодка: «Русская» («Морской Сборник», 1867 г., № 11, стр. 22—24. Из «Кронштадтского Вестника»). — «Очаг дымогарный. Изобретение гг. Шпаковского, Жукова и Зонна» («Лесной журнал», 1872 г., вып. I, «Труды Императорского Вольного Экономического Общества», 1872 г., т. I, вып. III). — Лешедко. «О применении пульверизованного скипидара, как топлива» («Морской Сборник», 1866 г., ч. 86). — Некрологи: в «Голосе», «Новом Времени» и «Кронштадтском Вестнике» (№ 75) за июнь 1881 г. — «Голос» 1882 г., 25 июня. — H. А. Бунге. «Указатель литературы по математике, чистым и прикладным естественным наукам, медицине и ветеринарии» за 1872 и 1874 г. (Киев, 1873, 1875 г.). — «Систематический указатель к запискам Императорского Русского Технического Общества» за 1867—88 г. (СПб. 1889). — В. Сабанин, «Систематический указатель предметов и имен к постановлениям совета и общего собрания Имп. Русск. Технич. Общ.» за 1866—1884 гг. (СПб. 1886).

Ссылки
 Волынец А. «Эра нефти полковника Шпаковского».

Выпускники Новгородской гимназии
Похороненные на Смоленском православном кладбище, чьи могилы утрачены

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Since it was released into the market about a month ago, the Tecno Camon C8 appears to have become a crowd's favourite. This has a lot to do with the the fact that it is touted as the "ultimate camera phone" for those on a budget – it costs below N30,000 but its camera packs features that make us feel like it could rub shoulders with the big boys.
Having spent some time using the Tecno Camon C8 as my daily driver, I can verify that it does pack a very decent camera for its price range. However, the Tecno Camon C8 is much more than just a decent camera phone. It happens to have a bunch of really cool features you'd probably never expect from a sub 30k smartphone. So much so that I'm finding it hard to fathom Tecno's reasons refraining from publicizing them.
The Tecno Camon C8 already has great battery life that can last you a whole day of active usage. But you can get even more juice out of it especially when its very low, by activating "ultra low power mode" where the screen displays in grayscale and only the most essential features – phone, messaging and clock – work. You can get as much as 100% additional battery time enabling this feature.
Battery was at only 52% at this point.
By simply drawing figures on the screen when inactive, you can "quick start" the phone unto a predefined app.
For example, drawing a 'C' on the inactive screen quick starts you unto the camera.
And drawing a 'W' takes you to WhatsApp.
If you use the cover that comes bundled with the Tecno Camon C8, you can equally activate/deactivate the phone's idle screen using a nifty flip movement.


Lake Conley is a well maintained gated, active 55+ Community on Lake Conley in Holiday, Florida. Low property taxes and incredibly low ~ $60 monthly fees.
Community amenities include heated pool for year round enjoyment, clubhouse, shuffleboard court, horseshoe court, boat ramp, lakefront dock and fishing pier. Boat and RV parking lot (fees required) based on availability. One pet under 25 pounds permitted. Property can be leased minimum of 2 months, and once per season (July 1st - June 30th).
If you have any questions or comments regarding Lake Conley then please feel free to use the form below to get in touch with us. Please make sure to fill out as much information as you can so we can get back to you promptly. Thank you for using the Lake Conley website.
© 2015 Lake Conley MHP. All rights reserved.


Saki and her friends Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, and Shun have lived their entire lives in what seems to be a perfect utopia: a world where almost all technology has been rendered irrelevant by "Juryoku," the psychic ability to materialize anything one desires. But when Saki discovers a long-lost artifact from the past, the façade of their world is shattered and the cracks that split the foundation of their reality threaten to swallow them whole!
Faced with a bloody secret history of how their world really came to be and thrust into a nightmarish new paradigm, Saki and her companions are confronted with dangers they never knew existed and a series of choices that may change the fate of every intelligent creature on the planet - human and otherwise! Because when your whole world is a lie, the truth can be the deadliest weapon of all in From the New World!


text:
Africa, News, Resistance, Spiritual
Sheikh Zakzaky, Defender of The Syrian Arab Republic, Has Now Been Unjustly Imprisoned For 13 Months
It has now been 13 months since Sheikh Ibrahim Yaqoub al-Zakzaky, Africa's most important revolutionary and Islam's most prolific preacher, was thrown into a hellish prison cell on baseless charges by the Amreeki-Saudi-'Israeli'-backed Nigerian regime. And for these past 397 days, we have watched the Zionist media, "human rights" organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, "Islamic" activists, "Palestine Solidarity Movement" workers and "Anti-Imperialists" of all different stripes go all but silent on the Sheikh's plight and the fate of thousands of Nigerian Shi'a from the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) who were slaughtered, wounded and disappeared in the Zaria Massacre. There were handfuls of reports, tweets and posts from the aforementioned hypocrites in the immediate days following the apocalyptic scenes at the Husseiniyeh Baqiyatullah–the home, prayer-space and sanctuary of Zakzaky–on December 12th, 2015, sure. From that point however, they've all taken a powder.
No doubt that these spineless ones have backed away from the sublime and saintly Sheikh because he's African, Shi'a and TRULY Anti-Zionist. But there's another reason why Westoxified "Muslims" in the Diaspora and the NGO-Human-Rights-Industrial-Complex's Sorosites have gone AWOL regarding Zakzaky: He's staunchly pro-Syria and has been exposing the Zionist-Takfiri agenda against the Syrian Arab Republic from day one. The leader of the IMN has put his life on the line to bring truths on Syria to light, routinely drawing comparisons between Boko Haram and the Daesh/Nusra nexus and highlighting that they were all created by Zio-Imperialist intelligence agencies. Zakzaky has hailed Syria's role in arming the resistance movements of occupied Palestine and Lebanon and has also spoken of Syrian President Dr. Bashar al-Assad as a man of uprightness targeted by the Hegemon because of his defiance. Even when something in geopolitics ISN'T about Syria these days, i.e. Nigeria and the suffering of the IMN, it's STILL about Syria because Zakzaky has not allowed the "revolution" hasbara to manifest among his partisans. Like his other stances on Palestine, Iran, Hizbullah, Bahrain and Yemen, he's paying a price for this veracity.
But just as the Sheikh has raised his voice for Syria, anyone and everyone who considers themselves an ally of the Syrian people, army and government in their struggle against this universal "regime change" conspiracy should scream at the tops of their lungs for Zakzaky. Solidarity begets solidarity and resistance begets resistance. After more than a year in hell alongside his wife Sayyeda Zeenat and several of his deputies, not to mention the fact that there is an outstanding order issued by the Federal High Court of Nigeria in Abuja calling for his prompt release, the Sheikh must be freed for the simple sake of justice. And make no mistake, his freedom will be as much a triumph for the Syrian Arab Republic as it will be for Nigeria's Shi'a, for there is no voice on the entire African continent as thunderous and vociferous as the Sheikh's when it comes to safeguarding Syria. May Zakzaky be liberated without any further delay, any further meddling from the US-'Israeli' Empire and any further torment. #LongLiveZakzaky #FreeZakzaky #LongLiveSyria
Bashar al-AssadFake Palestine Solidarity ActivistsIslamic Movement of NigeriaMuhammadu BuhariNigeriaNigeria's Federal High CourtNigerian martyrsNigerian Shi'a MuslimsSaudi crimesSheikh Ibrahim ZakzakySorositesSyrian Arab ArmySyrian Arab RepublicSyrian peopleTakfirismWahhabismZaria MassacreZionist crimesZionist War On Syria
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It's been a quarter of a century since the world's governments convened to draft up a common set of regulations about the conduct of international telecommunications. In December of 2012 the world's governments will convene to reconsider these regulations, to hopefully sign an updated set of regulations. This time around, this activity is generating considerable levels of public interest. Congressional hearings in the United States have been held, and various pronouncements of intent from various governmental, regional, and industry groups have been made. The level of interest in international telecommunications is high, and the diversity of views about what should be expressed in a revised set of regulations is also evident.
Rather than adding specific measures, conditions, or constraints, it may be prudent to consider a set of regulations that says far less and encompasses our common aspirations in the area of international telecommunications, rather than attempting to arbitrate among a diverse set of often conflicting specific demands.
Telecommunication: Any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems.
International telecommunication service: The offering of a telecommunication capability between telecommunication offices or stations of any nature that are in or belong to different countries.
While this definition is highly inclusive, the ITRs were in reality referencing only telephony and related telephony-based telecommunications networks. At the time, all wide-area, national, and international data networks were built on the margins of oversupply of existing telephony-based infrastructure. It's therefore unsurprising that the effort to generalize the concepts of international telecommunications was naturally defined, and limited, by that telephony-based communications paradigm and its concepts of technology, tariffs, and inter-provider interaction. While the regulatory language was generic, the concepts described by these regulations matched quite precisely the technological, operational, and business profiles of telephony.
By 1988 the data network industry was flourishing, and Ethernet was a nearly universal substrate for local data communications.
It's interesting to observe just how revolutionary Ethernet was at the time. The prevailing data communications technologies were point-to-point technologies, that connected two computers together. Ethernet was a common bus technology that allowed hundreds of computers to connect to this common bus, allowing any computer to transmit a data packet that was addressed to any other connected computer. But it was not just the transformation from point-to-point to common bus that was so radical here. It was also the transfer of functionality from the network to the computer. Point-to-point circuits were typically "network-clocked," so that the network provided the timing signal for the transmission. The network clock had to be stable over periods of months or even years, which implied a centralised clocking model with high precision and very stable clocks and the propagation of the clock signal across the carriage domain. Obviously this was not cheap. Ethernet used "self-clocked" packets. While each computer's etherclock was a high speed oscillator (20Mhz), it only had to maintain sync for around 12,000 cycles, allowing for a far cheaper time function to support the data transmission. This allowed Ethernet to be a purely passive cabling system, where the entire functionality of the data communications service was defined by the connected computers, with no active network component. This was indeed a revolutionary shift for data communications.
But such specialized data technologies operated over a dimension of a campus at best. Any communications over longer distances, in particular internationally, required the transformation of the data into a stream that matched the characteristics of the voice carriage hierarchy, injecting it into the voice network, and performing a complementary extraction of the data stream from that network at the other end. In 1988 it was still possible to assume that at the carriage level, the general entirety of global telecommunications was in the form of telephony.
A lot has changed during the last 24 years. Large-scale data networks are constructed using a digital data transmission network, which is architected from the photon all the way up to the packet. These systems are commonly engineered to carry IP, the Internet Protocol, and comprise the modern Internet. The massive array of applications, ranging from traditional data streams all the way to today's social networking environment, have been constructed and layered above this common carriage substrate.
On the Internet, voice, mail, messaging, and television all group together as instances of application categories on this common data carriage network. There is no enduring need to architect service bundles, such as the once popular "triple-play". There are now meta-applications that blur the distinction between particular communication transactions. Social network applications have achieved huge success due to their agility in bringing together what were considered to be discrete application environments in novel forms. The combination of these varied media and communications models have given rise to an immersive peer-to-peer environment of interaction among literally hundreds of millions of people.
The "datagram", which is the very heart of the technology of the Internet, is what makes this all possible. What this represents is a stripping down of the functions performed by a network to the most simple and basic operation. Every "transaction" is a single packet, and there are no guarantees about each transaction. It's up to the devices at either end, outside of the network, to construct all other aspects of the communication. The network is as minimal and efficient as possible.
If anything about the Internet could be termed "revolutionary," it is this concept of removing functionality from the network itself and shifting that functionality to the computers that are collectively the sources and termination points of all these packets, But what particularly characterises IP is the extent of this shift. Compared with other very generic packet switching protocols of the 1970's and 1980's, including OSI, X.25, Frame Relay and ATM, the position taken by IP was extreme. It was extreme in terms of removing so much functionality from the network function that what was left was incapable of making any guarantees at all about packet transmission. No only could individual IP packets be dropped in transit, but a stream of IP packets could be delayed by variable periods, re-ordered, or even fragmented on the fly. The result of this network architecture was an extremely simple network that was incredibly cheap. The switching units for IP packets had no need to operate with expensive clocks, and no need to maintain local state for every active traffic flow passing through the switch. There were no network admission functions, or transaction setups, or even transactional states generated within the network. This shift of functionality was one that shifted the onus of service support from the network to the devices at the edge of the network, and even further, a shift of making a service an outcome of the operation of the network to a service that is an outcome of an application that is run on end users' systems. This is at the heart of why the Internet heralded such a significant, even revolutionary, change in the telecommunications environment. It really did turn everything we thought we understood about networking inside out.
This stripping out of network functionality in the Internet has profound implications in terms of the business models of interaction of network operators. In telephony the "transaction" was visible to the network operator as a "call", which in turn created a resource reservation state in the network. These "calls" were asymmetric, with a "calling party" at one end of this virtual circuit, and a "called party" at the other. Calls also have duration that is visible to the network operators. These characteristics formed the basis of the tariff models for the telephone network's subscribers, where callers were charged for the duration of calls, at a rate that reflected the distance between the two parties. This common tariff structure was reflected in the financial arrangements made between telephone operators, which formed the basis of inter-provider settlement of caller payments via the call accounting financial settlement models that are described in the ITRs.
In a stateless datagram transmission network, a "call" is an abstract concept managed by an application, and there is no counterpart in terms of a transaction that is visible at the network level. At the level of IP packets, the level where the networks themselves operate, there are no calls, no calling party, and there is no duration or any clear concept of distance. There is not even any knowledge of the application that generated the packet. A generic tariff concept such as "caller pays" simply has no analogy at the network level of the datagram Internet. This implies that the concept of inter-operator call accounting at a network level also has no counterpart in Internet networks. The larger significance is that some concepts previously thought to be generic concepts, which spanned all telecommunications media in 1988, were in fact concepts that were implicitly tied to a particular family of network architectures.
In revisiting the ITRs today, and attempting to update them, it may be tempting to try to integrate the Internet into the ITRs through an editorial process. Proposals to this end have been presented, simply inserting "and the Internet" to the provisions of the existing document, while other proposals advocate extension of existing definitions in the document to include Internet concepts which appear to deserve similar treatment. There are also proposals to add specific references to particular Internet-related activities, such as packet routing or data caching. Some proposals also attempt to bring some of the more poorly defined concepts that have not enjoyed any widespread deployment in the public Internet, such as Quality of Service mechanism concepts, into the regulatory domain. Such efforts at incremental editing run the risk of producing a regulatory framework that is a sequence of compromises that is internally inconsistent and largely disconnected from today's reality, let alone being applicable to tomorrow's reality.
Aside from the question of merging a fundamentally new environment with a framework built on one that is undeniably outdated, there are other difficulties appearing in the current early-stage negotiations on the ITRs. The most visible of these is an apparent lack of common motivation and common perspective regarding the ITRs, the Internet, and telecommunications regulation more generally. Some nations that have experienced a long-term erosion of revenue streams from international telephony financial settlements may understandably seek some relief in a new set of ITRs. However there are also national telecommunications environments that, via a process of progressive liberalization of their domestic telecommunications markets, have experienced large-scale adoption of these new computer-mediated communications services. These services are layered upon a common data substrate of the Internet, and these national economies have realized large-scale economic benefits from such changes in their telecommunications environment. Understandably, such nations may be very reluctant to impose additional regulatory-inspired overhead or inefficiencies onto what they regard as a highly beneficial environment. If no commonality of purpose can be found in this diversity of national interests, then it seems a challenging objective to define common "solutions" through changes to a single common instrument, that is, the ITRs.
It may be prudent to consider how to avoid a committee outcome that demonstrates potentially the poorest outcomes of such a process: a pastiche of compromises that neither satisfies nor offends anybody, but at the same time contains such a volume of internal inconsistencies that its utility is completely compromised.
To avoid such an outcome, one possible approach is to maintain a perspective of the ITRs as an aspirational document that expresses common expectations and desires about worldwide telecommunications in a succinct manner. Perhaps it would be better to aim for a much smaller body of text that simply states a common desire to promote the development of telecommunications services and their most efficient and beneficial operation, while harmonizing the continued development of facilities that enable worldwide telecommunications.
P.S. The title of this article is a reference to the writings of William of Ockham (c. 1288 — c. 1348), an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher. Wikipedia's entry, is about as good a reference as any as to the merits of economy and siccinctness. Less is indeed often better.
Geoff, can you please provide attribution for the quotations, or clarify that they are not quotations, as appropriate.
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With the majority of important family documents, photos, music, movies and videos now residing on computers and laptops, backing-up your hard drive is more critical than ever. However, research shows that up to 90 per cent of computer users fail to regularly back-up content on their PCs because they don't have the time, the desire, or the knowledge to use complicated and often confusing storage products.
Well, now there's an easy and relatively inexpensive way to get this important job done.
Clickfree back-up products make use of a proprietary software that is simplicity itself. At the heart of the Clickfree product line is a collection of portable hard disk drives that range from 120GB to 500GB.
No matter what size you choose, the process is literally as easy plugging in the back-up drive via a USB cable. The software to accomplish the back-up is contained on the back-up drive itself, so no installation or configuration is required.
The Clickfree software automatically finds, organizes, and backs-up all your data onto the Clickfree portable back-up drive. It's that easy! You just kick back and watch it go through a process that only takes a few minutes.
Each drive recognizes over 400 file types and can be used for multiple computers. Clickfree will separate each computer within its application making it extremely easy to go back and find your files.
Restore Data by Category: Clickfree's restore feature lets you restore files by category, such as Photos.
Migration: You can use the restore feature to move data from one PC to another. MS Outlook is also fully supported by the restore tool. You can back-up e-mail from one PC and restore it to another instantly; even back-up files from a PC and restore to a Mac.
Instant Uploading of Photos to Facebook, MySpace and more: Clickfree now comes with integrated support to upload photos to sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Integrated Music Player: With Clickfree, there's no need to restore music files to a PC or to launch another application to listen to a tune. There's an integrated music player built into the back-up application for your convenience.
Thumbnail View for Video: With built-in thumbnail view, identify and select your videos and just click the restore button.
Reminder: Clickfree software now includes a back-up reminder application that can be configured to remind users to back-up their files every week or month.
Password protection: Clickfree devices and content can be protected by a password to maximize security of data.
Clickfree products work with all recent Microsoft operating systems and they recently announced that their products now work with Macs as well. One catch – you have to be using MacOS X 10.5 Leopard with an Intel Processor. Clickfree also plans to introduce an online back up service later this year.
Clickfree products can be found at leading retailers such as Best Buy, OfficeMax, and Walgreens as well as major online retailers like Amazon.com, Costco.com, Newegg.com, and Walmart.com, and their own site.
If you're looking for an easy answer to the back-up problem, Clickfree is a terrific solution.
The portable back-up drives start at $89.99 for the 120GB version and range up to $219.99 for the 500GB. A 160GB Transformer with Hard Drive retails for $129.99, while the Clickfree DVD back-ups start at $9.99 for a 3-pack set. These are sold as single-task units, i.e. they can find and back-up photos or music or office files but not all three.
Looks great - like the 'restore data by category' aspect. How much does this retail for?


LONGPOP | LONGPOP Web site - Do environmental factors influence cognitive development of children?
ESR14: Do environmental factors influence cognitive development of children?
University of Edinburgh (Centre for Research on Environment Society & Health; Scottish Longitudinal Study).
It is known that early life conditions can impact health and mortality. Using newly developed transcribed data juxtaposed with place-based information, this research will make novel contributions to understanding how social and environmental conditions in early life affect subsequent health outcomes. The research—which will connect with the ongoing Digitising Scotland (DS) project within the LSCS—will make use of transcribed birth, death and marriage certificates. The certificates have essential additional information—such as place and occupation of parents at birth and at marriage—which make socioeconomic and geographical research possible. To gain experience in longitudinal GIS methods—as it is anticipated that the DS data will not be fully transcribed at the start of the project—the project will make use of a cohort data from the Cohort and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources (CLOSER) program. There are 9 cohort studies included in CLOSER with sample members born from 1911 to 2007, including the 1946 MRC National Survey of Health and Development, 1958 National Child Development Study and Millennium Cohort Study. The aim of the research is to gain an understanding of how early health environments—including physical environment such as sunlight duration, social environments such as deprivation and crime rates—affect subsequent health and well-being.
Crucially, because the address (geocode) is available or will be available at most time points (i.e., events), it is feasible to use GIS to construct a range of geographical variables and examine the effects of constructs such as area-level deprivation, crime prevalence and sunlight duration. Additionally, DS offers (albeit in a more restricted capacity) life-course data for a longer time period, and hence we will make use of transcribed birth, death and marriage certificates from 1855 onwards (i.e., no survey data). The focus of the research will be investigating specific groupings for certain geographical areas which we know from historical research contain particular environmental insults or following the development of later cohorts (for example, the last potato famine in Scotland was around 1946, just before the records began in 1855).
The substantive topic in this IRP is concerning individual life histories (life course) in the study of health and mortality.
The researcher will develop expertise in utilising the rich longitudinal resources available in the UK. The findings will provide novel insights into how social and environmental conditions in early life affect cognitive development and subsequent health and well-being influence health later in life. The workplan will consider whether these factors accumulate over the life course to affect health and/or there are critical periods during life where certain factors are particularly pertinent. The work will generate new research data integrating individual life course data and geographical information be produced that can be reused for further research.
14.1 Research design. Coherent research plan for the project building on previous work.
14.2 Data production. The project research data produced can be reused for further research by others. The first phase will involve developing historical GIS measures of past environmental circumstances. This involves complex data manipulation and management, and in particular linking ecological information with cohort information available for a population born in Scotland in 1936.
14.3 Analysis/algorithms. Longitudinal modelling of the data prepared, including multilevel and GIS techniques, to answer the research questions.
14.4 Working papers/articles. At least 2 working papers relating to the empirical results. Based on the longitudinal modelling results, at least 1 working paper produced will in turn be submitted to an academic journal.
14.5 Analytical tool. Personal development plan, including appropriate GIS and research methods courses offered by University of Edinburgh, AQMeN and the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods.
Claudio Colandrea has achieved his bachelor degree in Statistics, Economy and Society at La Sapienza University of Rome in 2014 with a thesis on gravitational models applied to interregional mobility in Italy. Then he has focused his studies in demography and epidemiology during his master's degree in Statistical, Economic and Demographic Sciences held in 2017 with a thesis on public health. He developed his research project on a comparison between Italians and foreigners about the use of hospital structures in 2015 in Lazio. The project started with an internship at the Epidemiology Department of Lazio region. After a short period working on a survey about health assistance in Lazio, he worked in an Italian institution belonging to the Italian Ministry of Finance and Economy. His main task was as SAS programmer and he improved his skills in data mining and analysis of large datasets. He joined the LONGPOP project in September 2018 at the Geosciences Department of the University of Edinburgh. As Early Stage Researcher, Claudio's work focuses on the impact of pollution on cognitive ability of children.
Link to his LinkedIn profile here.


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News June 17, 2020
Phil Shiver
Albuquerque Democratic mayor announces plan to shift police resources to unarmed social workers
'We want to send the right resource'
Image Source: KOB-TV screenshot
At a news conference Tuesday, Democratic Mayor Tim Keller announced the creation of the Albuquerque Community Safety Department, a new civilian public safety branch that will send unarmed professionals to certain nonviolent 911 calls.
The move will reallocate millions of dollars away from the Albuquerque Police Department and will essentially give city residents a third response option besides police and fire when they call 911 dispatch seeking help.
According to city officials, the department will "include trained professionals such as social workers, housing and homelessness specialists, violence prevention, and diversion program experts" who would respond to calls involving mental health, addiction, and homelessness.
"We've placed more and more issues on the plates of officers who are not trained — despite their best efforts and despite some training — they're not totally trained to be a social worker, or to be an addiction counselor, or to deal with things around child abuse when they're just answering a call," Keller said at the conference, according to KOB-TV.
Mayor Tim Keller to Refocus Millions in Public Safety Resources with First-of-Its-Kind Civilian Response Department… https://t.co/ob41VVMYKP
— Mayor Tim Keller (@Mayor Tim Keller)1592259413.0
"It's time we stop asking officers to do everything, and time we get people the help they need instead of sending armed officers to knock on their door," the mayor said in a news release. "We want to send the right resource to the right call — especially where a social worker or trained professional can connect people with the services they need, instead of simply taking folks to jail or the hospital, which have been the only choices until now."
Alluding to the violence at recent protests, Keller argued that an armed police presence is not always the best way to de-escalate a situation.
Shots were fired resulting in one man being hospitalized during a protest on Monday as activists toppled the statue of Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador.
Keller called the shooting an "unacceptable act of violence" and blamed groups "armed with weapons" and "attempting to prop up white supremacy" for instigating the violence, though the matter is still under investigation.
"We want to reiterate that weapons have no place in public actions and protests," he added.
The announcement of the Albuquerque Community Safety Department also comes amid a growing nationwide movement to defund police departments in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. But Keller was insistent that completely dismantling police in Albuquerque is not his goal.
The mayor recently confirmed to KOB-TV that he is sticking to his plan to add 400 police officers over the next four years.


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Washington, D.C. (August 23, 2018) – Correia & Puth, PLLC was named by U.S. News and World Report to its 2019 Best Law Firms© list in the areas of Civil Rights, Litigation (Labor & Employment Law), and Employment Law (Individuals). Correia & Puth is dedicated to representing employees confronting workplace discrimination, retaliation, and unfair treatment. Correia & Puth's lawyers have earned a reputation as fierce advocates for employee rights and is rated as among the top "Tier 1" law firms in the areas of both Civil Rights Law and Employment Law.


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Spokane, Washington Est. May 19, 1883 42° Rain
News > Idaho
Former Idaho Gov. Butch Otter joins cobalt mining company
Fri., Feb. 22, 2019
In this Jan. 5, 2018, photo, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter speaks to reporters about the 2018 legislative session at the State Capitol in Boise, Idaho. Roughly seven weeks after leaving office, Otter has joined the board of a Canadian mining company that is expanding into Idaho. (Otto Kitsinger / AP)
BOISE, Idaho – Roughly seven weeks after leaving office, former Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has joined the board of a Canadian mining company that is expanding into Idaho.
The Idaho Statesman reports Otter will be on the board of directors for First Cobalt, a Toronto-based company with a cobalt project southwest of Salmon, Idaho, called Iron Creek. The area, known as the Idaho cobalt belt, is one of the most cobalt-rich areas in North America.
The metal is a key component of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and electronic devices.
In a prepared statement Otter says Idaho's Cobalt Belt is strategically important so America can reduce reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals.
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Plenty of us will be happy to see 2020 in our rear-view window come Jan. 1.


The Twins announced long-term deals with Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco yesterday. Both are somewhat unusual players with whom to sign to a long-term deal, and thus required an unusual deal, which is fantastic, because truth is often found at the edges. Let's look at how these contracts usually are structured, how Kepler's is different, and what it says about the Twins and Kepler.
Kepler provides some unusual challenges to this structure. The first is procedural: Kepler is a Super-2 player, which means he got arbitration to start a year early. So even though he's only in his third year, he was going to make $3.125M this year.
The bigger issue is that Kepler is not an established young player. He's made peripheral improvements in his nearly three years in MLB, but his numbers have essentially stayed steady and underwhelming. There's a lot to like in his profile, and he just turned 26 years old this week, plus he's relatively new to this baseball thing being from Germany. But the later years of a typical contract provide a significant challenge to the Twins.
This year and next year were easy to work out. Even if Kepler doesn't develop further this year, the Twins would almost surely offer him arbitration for next year, meaning he would get about $6M. His numbers are worth that, and he would be entering his 27-year-old season, which is still on the upswing of a baseball player's career.
But if he didn't break through, there is a decent chance the Twins would not offer arbitration for the 2021 season. If they did, Kepler's salary would be raised to $8-9M, he would be turning 28, and he would be a middling hitting corner outfielder, albeit with good defense. He might improve and be worth that money, but maybe not. And if he stays the course again, there is no way they offer him arbitration in his sixth year.
That pessimistic career arc shows the challenge the Twins faced in working out a long-term deal. If Kepler doesn't develop, a typical long-term deal would really hurt them in the later years. A fiscally conservative (or if you prefer, "cheap") team can't guarantee $10M and $12M paydays to someone who might be a below average outfielder. The available spend every offseason is usually $20M - $60M for a team. Losing $10-12M of that hurts.
The Twins lock in a player that is arguably already worth $6-7M to a slew of $6-7M/year contracts. To do so, they pay him an extra $3M this year (remember, he was already going to make $3.25M), guarantee next year (which they almost surely would have done anyway), and then get two years of similar pay without having to worry if he takes a big leap forward. The only really risky year is Kepler's 7th year, when they pay him $8.5M, so they're betting on minor breakthrough sometime before he turns 30 years old.
The Twins reward? If Kepler does take that giant leap, he's a bargain, not just for this year and next (which he already was) but for FOUR more years. I'm a Max fan, admittedly, but even objectively that's a good risk on a 26-year-old with really good plate discipline and power who has a career .730 OPS, even if he's a career .233 hitter.
And for Kepler? He's guaranteed $35M, even if he never takes the next big step. That's nice. Plus, there's some upside for him too, if he can look out that far ahead. He'll be able to hit free agency as a 31-year-old, which is a plenty marketable age. If he's hitting and if salaries bump up a bit, he could be in line for a deal worth twice as much.
The Twins and Kepler have found a middle ground that balances the risk and reward each needed, despite Kepler not being the prototypical extension candidate. What's more, it appears the Twins were able to do the same with Jorge Polanco, and tomorrow we'll examine his contract a little more closely, to see what it tells us about the Twins tendencies.
Getting him for $6-7 million over each of the next three years is a steal. Buying out a year of free agency for just $8.5 million is incredible. Getting a second year of free agency (only if the team wants to) for $10 million is incredible.
I really like the contract. It's as if they agreed to the overall terms and then they moved the dollars around to make it more level. It's really unusual and creative.
It's like Denard Span...it might be a bargain contract if Kepler produces and easy to trade for younger talent. Span had defense and speed. Kepler has defense and power.
Great article, John. It's weird to see Kepler not bet on himself, but with the way he's stagnated at the plate the past 3 seasons, I suppose it makes sense. But for the Twins, this deal not only becomes a total bargain if he improves, and it makes him easier to trade since they've purchased an inexpensive year of free agency and have a second option on top of that.
Now if only we could get Rosario and Berrios to sign extensions like this! Of course, they'll require more money and probably less control of their free agency years.
If Kirilloff comes up in 2020, where does he play? I know, I know...it's a good problem to have. Just asking.
That is just the thing.FanGraphs disgustingly overrates player value, in my opinion.If you check Brian Dozier as an example he was "according to FanGraphs" worth $40 million and $46 million in 2016 and 2017 (if he were a FA in the open market).How does this jibe with reality?
The player valuations based off WAR seems completely arbitrary to me.While WAR is an indicator I like to see it is not infallible and should not be viewed as a singular confirmation of how much a player is worth.What exactly is the logic here?It starts to become far too removed from any kind of common sense and more about numbers.Seems to me in this valuation they assume "average player" has a WAR of 1.0 so that should be in proportion to the average salary.They set that at 7 million and for every WAR point they score you multiply by 7 million?Whatever they do to value Dozier over $40 million in two different seasons says all you need to know about it.
I appreciate everything else about FanGraphs, however, this valuation system is utterly absurd.Maddening actually.
This is a good idea John, really illustrates the structure. These guys make some thoughtful moves, just a breath of fresh air around here. All these smart details piling up relentlessly have got to put this team in an advantageous situation.
There is no way he was worth any of that? 21 million? Come on, what was Yelich worth? 8 trillion? Using whatever formula that is every single player including Bobby Bonilla is underpaid in today's game.
It was precisely this kind of thought process that generated the notion last winter that Machado and Harper could be signing $400 million dollar contracts.The kind of thinking that has Machado and Harper both believing they shouldn't take anything less than $300 in guaranteed money.
The reality is, you can't assess player value as a dollar figure on a static line like that, because the true value of a player by bWAR or fWAR increases the more WAR they contribute. A 6 WAR player (no matter which formulation you like) is worth more than three time aWAR player, because of the scarcity of a 6 WAR player. It's a real guesstimate to assess dollar value on a linear progression like that and mostly applicable to lower WAR players.
I'm a fan of Max, and I hope he has the hitting breakout. There's some data that suggests a change in approach last year that's likely to pay out in future years if he sticks with it. There's also data that suggests he may be who he is as a hitter. We'll see which way it goes.
I like Kepler and the contract, especially where the Twins are on the salary cap. A very prudent move, with low risk for the franchise.I don't know much about Fangraph's valuations, but it seems highly unlikely that anyone would pay him $20m as a free agent at this level of performance.If they would, Kepler's agent has done him a disservice. (Unless he is already dealing with a serious injury).
Here is discussion on Fangraphs regarding $/WAR.
The Fangraphs figure is based on free agency. I think one of challenges that MLB faces is historically the salary structure underpaid young players and overpaid older players. This is changing as teams get better at estimating production declines with age. This is likely one of the reasons Harper is not signed. It is extremely difficult to estimate his value 10 years from now and teams are not willing to take that risk. The flip side of this is that teams will eventually reallocate resources towards more productive (younger) players. Teams have been slow to do so because arbitration disadvantages younger players. (And also paying younger players more puts more pressure on arbitration salaries). Kepler's salary structure is an example of how paying more for present production can be used to reduce future risk. I would expect to see more of this type of salary structure in MLB going forward.
John. Your article was a very informative write up. Thank you.
That's the value of a win (1 WAR) on the open market. Kepler is not on the open market, and won't be for some time. Every team is getting "steals" and "incredible" values from pre-FA players by this measure.
That said, it's a good contract for the Twins. It adds 1-3 seasons of control at reasonable cost, which not only has the potential of value as a player, but also extends his value as a potential trade asset too.
I think that depends on whether Kepler improves his hitting.(Which I think he can and I'm in his corner on that)The "value" here isn't going to be determined by a corner OF who gets most of his WAR from defense....it's the bat that will determine that.2018 Kepler in 4 years, at this price, isn't much of an asset IMO.
The flip side, is that his defensive value means any incremental improvements we see on offense will lead to significant value increases.
The average major league salary is a shade over 4 million a year.By the rationale (or lack of it) provided through FanGraphs' valuation system Max is worth roughly five times more than the average player if he were to step into the FA market.
In reality, I don't think there is a team in the league that would have handed Max the deal the Twins gave him.It isn't an astronomical amount of money, but I cannot envision some other team handing him a 7 year deal.This is comes with him being a known commodity and generally well-liked within the organization.They are betting on Max, and that is a good thing for Max.He knows how to "play the game" and be a good soldier so he gets his deal.
As far as FanGraphs money goes, it is like the defunct Italian Lira to me.I had a few friends go to Germany/Italy for several weeks in the fall of 1984.They drank some towns dry in Italy and spend like $10 American dollars in the process.It was too hard to believe, but that was how the currency was valued.
That is just the thing. FanGraphs disgustingly overrates player value, in my opinion. If you check Brian Dozier as an example he was "according to FanGraphs" worth $40 million and $46 million in 2016 and 2017 (if he were a FA in the open market). How does this jibe with reality?
The player valuations based off WAR seems completely arbitrary to me. While WAR is an indicator I like to see it is not infallible and should not be viewed as a singular confirmation of how much a player is worth. What exactly is the logic here? It starts to become far too removed from any kind of common sense and more about numbers. Seems to me in this valuation they assume "average player" has a WAR of 1.0 so that should be in proportion to the average salary. They set that at 7 million and for every WAR point they score you multiply by 7 million? Whatever they do to value Dozier over $40 million in two different seasons says all you need to know about it.
I appreciate everything else about FanGraphs, however, this valuation system is utterly absurd. Maddening actually.
FWIW, this isn't really how Fangraphs values players. They have calculated a rough estimate of how much a win (1 WAR) costs on the open market. Yes, they use this figure in a table to illustrate each player's WAR value in dollar terms, but no, they don't really think that Kepler should have gotten $21 mil or Dozier $40 mil or whatever. It's really just saying, a player projected to perform at that level could cost that much on the open market for a single year (a long term deal would involve long term projections/discounts, of course).
A right fielder averages about 2 putouts a game.They can go weeks without having an opportunity to make a great play in even then it isn't a guarantee it's a game changer.Defensive value among major league outfielders really is difficult to pin down.A great outfielder doesn't get to do that much more than an average one, whereas a great hitter has so so many more opportunities to shine.
It was precisely this kind of thought process that generated the notion last winter that Machado and Harper could be signing $400 million dollar contracts. The kind of thinking that has Machado and Harper both believing they shouldn't take anything less than $300 in guaranteed money.
I'd say Harper's and Machado's expdctations are more set by actual contracts like Stanton ($325 mil), Pujols ($250 mil at age 32), and Cano ($240 mil at 31).
I could care less about the methodology used to arrive at this absurdity.When they are telling me that Dozier "could be worth" 46,000,000 dollars in the open market for a one year deal I stop listening.It has nothing to do with reality no matter how clever and detailed it might be.
The average major league salary is a shade over 4 million a year. By the rationale (or lack of it) provided through FanGraphs' valuation system Max is worth roughly five times more than the average player if he were to step into the FA market.
No. The average salary is suppressed by pre-arb and pre-FA salaries. You are comparing apples and oranges when you say "Fangraphs claims FA Kepler would be worth over 5 times the average player!!!!1!1!1!"
Look at the average FA projected to produce 2.6 WAR. No, they generally don't get $20 mil for a single year, but they often get a multiyear deal with a discount value based on something close to $20 mil (obviously context dependent on projection confidence, upside, age, other options on the market, etc.).
Player salaries resemble to me the way homes were priced in the mid-2000s.The way the stock market was as we moved toward Y2K.The writing has been on the wall for a while. These contracts just don't work and corrections happen.
FanGraphs has a valuation model that needs to be adjusted because in no way does it reflect REALITY when it comes to what players get on the open market as free agents.
How much longer did player salaries need to increase at ridiculous rates?Average player salariesincreased by over 100% from 2001 to 2015.Was this supposed to continue until the end of time?
No. The average salary is suppressed by pre-arb and pre-FA salaries.
I think that depends on whether Kepler improves his hitting. (Which I think he can and I'm in his corner on that) The "value" here isn't going to be determined by a corner OF who gets most of his WAR from defense....it's the bat that will determine that. 2018 Kepler in 4 years, at this price, isn't much of an asset IMO.
I think 2018 Kepler in 4 years, on a reasonable 1 year contract with two reasonable team option years, could absolutely still be an asset. Nothing elite, of course, but valuable enough to trade for something useful.
FWIW, in the story, I don't mention FanGraphs calculation. I haven't really studied it.
IMHO, A decent, but not stellar right fielder whose defense (and positional flexibility) also helps, is probably worth $6-7M in the open market. Even if he's nothing more than a guy who mashes the strong side of the platoon, he's worth about that. And if he's not, he's not worth too much less - $4-5M would be the lower end, so at most they're burning a year or two.
The non-monetary risk is that he never really develops enough to help a contending team. But if that happens, I still think its a tradeable contract to a team that is looking to fill a spot.
Would he have gotten that contract from any other team if he was on the free agent market? Undoubtedly. Would he have agreed to it? I bet not.
I understand that so need to explain.
Then you understand your comparison was apples and oranges?
FWIW, he would likely be on the sideline with Manny and Bryce waiting to get his money.Seven years for Max Kepler after last year?The Twins clearly like him and trust him.I can't see him getting that kind of security from an organization that didn't raise him.
This contract is unique.We could benefit enormously from it, but I cannot agree with anyone who says he'd get 7 years in the open market.Not until these kinds of contracts for 25 year old guys who hit .224 the season prior become the norm.


Quick and easy braised kale goes well with a simple roasted chicken, sautéed fish or a pork loin.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the onions, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 minutes.
Add the garlic, kale, and stock and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes longer, or until crisp-tender.


Drenching rains were inundating North Carolina on Friday as Hurricane Florence crawled inland. Storm surges, overflowing waterways and intense rain that might dump as much as 40 inches could leave entire communities underwater. "Catastrophic flash flooding is expected to continue to worsen today," the National Weather Service warned.


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Q: MVC Razor - Get Checkbox values from object? So the model for my view is any object.  In the view, I create the Metadata and iterate through all the properties.  Each displayable property gets a checkbox, like so:
ModelMetadata mm = ModelMetadataProviders.Current.GetMetadataForType(null, this.Model.GetType());
foreach(ModelMetadata prop in mm.Properties.Where(t=> t.ShowForDisplay))
{
@Html.CheckBox(prop.PropertyName, ViewBag.CheckedColumns.Contains(prop.PropertyName))@Html.Raw(prop.DisplayName ?? prop.PropertyName)
}

So some of these checkboxes are checked and some are not.  When I click on my ActionLink I'd like to be able to determine which are and which are not checked.  Am I going about this the wrong way?


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Sigma Alpha Iota – New York Alumnae Chapter
NYAC Awards
SAI National Links
Executive Board 2018–2019
Rose of the Year
NYAC's largest fundraiser and musical event is the Benefit Concert, which dates back to 1934. Its purpose is to raise money for local, national, and international charities while strengthening NYAC's commitment to supporting music and performers. The concert has grown to feature world-famous artists performing exciting and challenging repertoire.
Performers of note have included:
Mary Louise Boehm, piano, and Kees Kooper, SAI Distinguished Members
James Cohn, composer, National Arts Associate
Mirian Conti, piano, National Arts Associate
Lenora Zenzalai Helm, vocal jazz
NYAC was awarded the Annelle Chandler McAdams Community Service Award for two distinct concerts: In 2006, the concert featured Member Laureate Claudia Waite, a frequent soloist at the Metropolitan opera. In 2011, the concert featured a piano recital of Member Laureate Emily White, who is a faculty member at the Juilliard School, Brooklyn College Preparatory Center for the Performing Arts, and Lucy Moses School, as well as a private instructor. Both Ms. Waite and Ms. White have performed all over the world.
SAI NYAC
Shopping on Amazon?
Shop through Amazon Smile and select SAI Philanthropies as your charitable organization. Amazon will donate a percentage of your purchases to Philanthropies at no additional cost to you!
And if you'd like to donate to our chapter directly (thanks!), you can do so via paypal:


Marathon Monday Schedule – Normal schedule in the morning and afternoon. We will be running a reduced schedule in the evening. All Levels classes will be held in Southie Green at 4,5,6 & 7pm.
Athletes must complete round in 3 mins. or less or stop work at 3 min mark.


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Sen. Kamala Harris Gives Props to Black Press at 75th Anniversary of San Francisco Sun-Reporter
By Tank Henry, California Black Media
Amelia Ashley Ward, Publisher of the Sun Reporter stands with Sen. Kamala Harris and San Francisco Mayor London Breed at the 75th Anniversary of the Sun Reporter May 9, 2019. (Photo By Alain McLaughlin)
"Throughout the course of our history, there have been many moments in time where truth must be spoken. Truth that oftentimes make people uncomfortable, but truth that must be acknowledged so people can be seen and be heard," said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who announced her bid to run for President of the United States in late January.
"Truth must be spoken from a voice that is trusted," she continued. "And we know therefore the value, significance and need for the Black press in America.
Harris, who was born in Oakland and served as California Attorney General from 2011 to 2017, was speaking at the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter, the city's oldest African-American newspaper.
More than 800 people, including San Francisco first African American woman mayor London Breed, attended the event. Several leaders and journalists from the state's Black and ethnic media – including the Sun-Reporter's current publisher, Amelia Ashley Ward – were also on hand to celebrate the legacy and contribution of the paper at the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown San Francisco.
The Sun-Reporter was founded in 1944 at a time when Blacks migrated in large numbers to major cities in the north and west to escape Jim Crow laws in the south and seek better employment opportunities.
Many African-Americans came to San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area during that time to work at World War II military shipyard.
Like many historically Black dailies and weeklies across California and the rest of the country, the Sun-Reporter became a social and political advocate for African Americans on issues like civil rights, discrimination, housing and education as well as a vital source of information at a time when there was little media coverage of Blacks in the mass media.
"The Sun-Reporter is an example of the significance of the Black press in America," Harris said. "There are issues that are unique to the Black community, and until we have true diversity in the press, we must rely on papers like the Sun-Reporter."
Carlton B. Goodlett, a physician and activist who once ran for Governor of California and served as editor of Howard University's Hillltop newspaper, acquired his first publication, The Sun newspaper, through a poker game, according to the Sun-Reporter's website. The publication, as we know it today, was born out of a merger between the Sun newspaper, which Goodlett owned, and another African-American publication, the Reporter, which was edited and published by his close friend, Thomas C. Fleming.
Goodlett served as publisher of the paper until shortly before his death in 1997. Since then, Ward, a former reporter and photojournalist who started her career as an intern at the Sun-Reporter, has run the publication guided by the wisdom and vision of its founder.
Harris says when she decided to run for San Francisco District Attorney in November 2002, no one believed in her candidacy except Ward.
"There were many, many – friends and those who were not friends – who said it can not be done. Wait your turn. They are not ready for you," said Harris. "But one voice spoke loudly and said, 'I know it is your time, Kamala, and I will have your back.' And that was Amelia Ashley-Ward."
Harris also used the opportunity to talk about the climate of hatred and bigotry prevalent across the country right now, and tell the audience that the majority of Americans have more in common with each other than the things that "separate us."
She also shared policy specifics about some of the things she would prioritize if she is elected President of the United States next fall. They included mandating the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms to require dealers who sell more than five guns a year to do background checks and a $13,500 annual federal investment to increase each teacher's salary.
To achieve those things, Harris said, Americans must have honest conversations about problems the country is facing.
"We must speak truth each and every day," she said. "We must fight for the best that we can be."
Categories: National | News | News (Business) | Political
Tags: 85 Years of LA Sentinel | Black News | Black Press | San Francisco Sun-Reporter | Sen. Kamala Harris
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What are clusters of galaxies ?
Clusters of galaxies are the most largest bound systems in the universe . They are composed of thousands galaxies inside a radius of 1 - 3 Mpc (if H_o = 50 km/s/Mpc). Some clusters contain only few hundreds they are called "poor" galaxy clusters and even less in this case they are called groups of galaxies. The stars in these galaxies constitue a negligible part of the total luminous matter i.e stars and gas that shine of their own. Most of this luminous matter is in the form of hot gas located in the intergalactic medium (called Intra-cluster medium). The gas, which has a temperature of 10-100 million degrees, radiates in X-rays wavelength. Several space missions have been devoted to X-Rays observations. The image on the right shows Coma cluster image obtained with the ROSAT satellite. Clusters of galaxies can be detected up to very high redshift. One of such distant clusters RXJ1120.1+4318 has recently been observed with XMM up to more than half its virial radius. Such observations provides us with important information on how galaxy clusters form and evolve and their number is a key ingredient for the cosmological parameter determination.
Using X-ray observations, we can measure the masses of both the hot gas and dark matter. The image on the right shows that the gravity exerted on this group of galaxies observed with ROSAT exceeds all the individual component galaxies combined.
The nature and the mass of this dark component is one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology.
There are mainly two schools, a baryonic dark matter and a non-baryonic dark matter school.
The baryonic schools claims, that the "dark matter" is only ordinary mater (protons, neutrons and electrons and atoms that we cannot detect through visible radiation) which is actually missed from our census of the matter content of the Universe, this could be either MACHOs (MAssive Compact Halo Objects), white, red or brown dwarfs, planets, black holes, neutron stars, gas, and dust.These MACHOs are potentially detectable by gravitational lensing experiments, see this site on the EROS experiment which objective is to search for the "MACHOs" in our Galaxy. Many have been discovered through gravitational micro-lensing but not enough to account for "dark matter"
One of the outstanding problems in modern cosmology is to weight the universe, that is to measure its total matter (dark + luminous matter) content. Why is this important ?
It is important because it determines the ultimate fate of the universe. Will the universe continue to expand for ever or will it collapse back in a Big Crunch under its proper gravity? If the Universe has not enough matter, it will continue to expand but if it contains enough matter then it will ultimately halt its expansion and collapse in a Big Crunch under its proper gravtiational attraction. The parameter that is used to measure the mass of the Universe is called the cosmic density parameter omega W. W is expressed as the ratio of the observed mean mass density rho to that of the critical density, the boundary density between the case where the universe has enough mass to be closed and too little mass to expand for ever, rho_c. The current critical density is approximately 1.06� 10-29 g/cm3. This amounts to six hydrogen atoms per cubic meter on average overall.
If W >1 the universe is "closed"
If W < 1 the universe is "open"
If W = 1 The universe is "flat"
Clusters of galaxies provide good tools for determining the cosmological parameter W and there two most important tests to W, both rely on X-Rays observations: the baryonic mass fraction and the number counts of galaxy clusters.
If clusters provide a ``fair sample'' of the universe, then the fraction of their mass in baryons should equal the universal baryon fraction, known as OmegaB (WB) which can be predicted by primordial nucleosynthesis theory. In galaxy clusters there are two main reservoirs of baryons, stars, stellar remnants and cool gas which contribute very little (about 6% of the total mass) and the hot x-ray gas which is the main contributor to baryons in clusters. The brayon fraction in clusters can be estimated from x-rays observations by measuring the ratio of the hot x-ray emitting gas to the total binding mass fb = Mb/Mtot where Mb = Mgas+Mstellar. The mass of gas in a cluster can also be estimated from the scattering of Cosmic Microwave Background photons in the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. Combining the baryon fraction in galaxy clusters with WB, one may determine the matter density of the Universe WM= WB/fb. The exact value of such quantity is much discussed as current measurements yield to values of 10-30% indicating that the matter density WM is less than one (WM < 1).
What does RXTE do? This site introduces the concepts of X-ray astronomy, provides data and lesson plans, includes descriptions of discoveries RXTE has made, images and movies, and has a model of RXTE that can be printed and put together.
How does XMM-Newton work, and what does it do? Starting from the basics, this site explains the instruments and the scientific goals of XMM-Newton. This learning center also contains educational resources for teachers.
What is Astro-E2, what science will it do? Contains lesson plans, images, and a student competition.