text:
"""Classes for displaying peer review analytics."""

__author__ = 'Sean Lip (sll@google.com)'

from models import analytics
from models import courses
from models import data_sources
from models import jobs
from models import transforms
from modules.dashboard import tabs
from modules.review import peer

class PeerReviewStatsGenerator(jobs.AbstractCountingMapReduceJob):

    @staticmethod
    def get_description():
        return 'peer review'

    def entity_class(self):
        return peer.ReviewSummary

    @staticmethod
    def map(review_summary):
        key = '%s:%s' % (review_summary.unit_id, review_summary.completed_count)
        yield (key, 1)

class PeerReviewStatsSource(data_sources.SynchronousQuery):

    @staticmethod
    def required_generators():
        return [PeerReviewStatsGenerator]

    @staticmethod
    def fill_values(app_context, template_values, job):
        # What we want to produce as output is a list of review results for
        # each unit, ordered by where the unit appears in the course.
        # For each unit, we produce a dict of {unit_id, title, stats}
        # The unit_id and title are from the unit itself.
        #
        # The 'stats' item is an array.  In the 0th position of the
        # array, we give the number of peer reviews requests that have
        # had 0 completed responses.  In the 1th position, those with
        # 1 response, and so on.
        # The 'stats' array in each unit's dict must be the same length,
        # and thus is right-padded with zeroes as appropriate.

        # First, generate a stats list for each unit.  This will have
        # a ragged right edge.
        counts_by_unit = {}
        max_completed_count = 0
        for unit_and_count, quantity in jobs.MapReduceJob.get_results(job):

            # Burst values
            unit, completed_count = unit_and_count.rsplit(':')
            completed_count = int(completed_count)
            quantity = int(quantity)
            max_completed_count = max(completed_count, max_completed_count)

            # Ensure the array for the unit exists and is long enough.
            unit_stats = counts_by_unit[unit] = counts_by_unit.get(unit, [])
            unit_stats.extend([0] * (completed_count - len(unit_stats) + 1))

            # Install the quantity of reviews with N responses for this unit.
            unit_stats[completed_count] = quantity

        # Fix the ragged right edge by padding all arrays out to a length
        # corresponding to the maximum number of completed responses for
        # any peer-review request.
        for unit_stats in counts_by_unit.values():
            unit_stats.extend([0] * (max_completed_count - len(unit_stats) + 1))

        # Now march through the units, in course order and generate the
        # {unit_id, title, stats} dicts used for display.
        serialized_units = []
        course = courses.Course(None, app_context=app_context)
        for unit in course.get_peer_reviewed_units():
            if unit.unit_id in counts_by_unit:
                serialized_units.append({
                    'stats': counts_by_unit[unit.unit_id],
                    'title': unit.title,
                    'unit_id': unit.unit_id,
                })
        template_values.update({
            'serialized_units': serialized_units,
            'serialized_units_json': transforms.dumps(serialized_units),
        })

def register_analytic():
    data_sources.Registry.register(PeerReviewStatsSource)
    name = 'peer_review'
    title = 'Peer Review'
    peer_review = analytics.Visualization(
        name, title, 'stats.html',
        data_source_classes=[PeerReviewStatsSource])
    tabs.Registry.register('analytics', name, title, [peer_review])

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 1996 – The longestrunning humanitarian airlift in history officially ended Jan. 9 during a ceremony at Sarajevo airport, according to DoD officials.
Throughout nearly four years of war in Bosnia, U.S. forces helped keep a multinational lifeline of food and medical supplies flowing into Bosnia.
Over the past three years, Joint Task Force Provide Promise airlifted more than 160,000 metric tons of food and medical supplies into wartorn Sarajevo despite severe weather, snipers and political turmoil.
When U.N. convoys were unable to reach isolated areas or regions surrounded by Serb forces, task force aircrews dropped nearly 18,000 metric tons of bulk food, medical bundles and individual meals. Deliveries began in February 1993 and continued for 19 months.
The joint task force began deactivating Feb. 1, turning over its remaining responsibilities to U.S. Army Europe, according to DoD officials. By March 15, all personnel, equipment and facilities will have returned to their parent agencies and units.
Air operations were only part of the Provide Promise mission. U.S. forces also ran a field hospital in Zagreb, Croatia; provided reconnaissance information gathered by unmanned aerial vehicles; and patrolled the borders of Serbia and Macedonia.
A 60bed treatment center provided emergency medical care for U.N. Protection Forces. U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force units on sixmonth rotations staffed the field hospital. DoD officials said the hospital served more than 47,300 U.N. military personnel. It treated more than 46,000 outpatient cases, admitted more than 2,000 patients and performed more than 1,200 surgeries. A Czech facility has replaced the U.S. one.
From July to early November 1995, U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles collected highresolution video and stillphoto images. NATO and U.N. officials used the images to monitor ongoing operations.
One part of the Provide Promise mission continues. Task Force Able Sentry will continue monitoring and reporting troop movements along the SerbiaMacedonia border. The U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, from Schweinfurt, Germany, currently mans observation posts and conducts patrols. U.S. Army Europe is expected to assume operational control of the unit in midFebruary.


text:
'It was more difficult because Novak Djokovic defends', says top coach
Rafael Nadal claimed the first ATP title on hard court in style, defeating Andre Agassi in the 2005 Montreal final to make a name for himself on the more common surface. Two years later, Nadal did not play at the level required to chase the title, beating Marat Safin, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Frank Dancevic to reach the semi-finals.
Third seed Novak Djokovic waited in the quarterfinals and proved too strong for Rafa that night. The Serbian earned a 7-5, 6-3 victory to set up the title clash against Roger Federer. It was Novak's second win over Rafa in seven meetings, suffering losses in Rome, Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the previous three months, but he found his best game in Montreal to advance to the final.
Djokovic fired 11 aces and defended all eight break opportunities to keep the pressure on the other side. He broke Nadal twice on four occasions to seal the deal in straight sets and stay on track for the title. The Serbian had 25 winners and forced more than 30 errors from Nadal, placing himself as the most aggressive player and eager to beat the rival after tough defeats at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Djokovic built a huge advantage in the shorter range of up to four strokes and also dropped Nadal in the longest exchanges to seal the deal in style and prepare for another formidable opponent in the battle for the trophy.
Uncle Toni on Federer and Djokovic
Speaking to Eric Han on The Double Bagel Tennis Podcast, Rafael Nadal's uncle Toni revealed he would rather have his nephew face Roger Federer than Novak Djokovic. He cited their ability to hatch a game plan against the Swiss star as a key factor behind his choice.
He said, "I don't prefer to play against any one of these two guys. I prefer to play with other players. But, a little more with Federer. Because with Federer, I thought we have a way to win". He also mentioned Djokovic's ability to make opponents doubt their strategy makes him a tougher opponent.
"Against Novak, it was more difficult because he defends. You don't know exactly what you have to do," said the 50-year-old. "But, it was not a big difference". Nadal's head-to-head records with the two superstars do justice to Toni's comments.
While he trails Djokovic 28-30, he leads Federer 24-16. The US Open presents an opportunity for Nadal to make history. With Federer sidelined due to knee surgery, only Djokovic can go ahead of himself to win a 21st Grand Slam.
el: 0.0033

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
1525 Rycroft Street
reservations@pagodahotel.com
The New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center
The 2017 New York Auto Show presents the latest in innovation.
Set to usher in the latest trends in automobiles, this year's Jacob Javits Convention Center Car Show, promises visitors a showcase of cutting-edge design and amazing innovation. There are going to be more than four floors of incredible displays from the globe's automobile manufacturers and will be featuring the latest futuristic concept vehicles and newest cars. Over 1,000 trucks and cars will be on display at what has been labelled North America's first and most attended auto show…dating back to the 1900's.
This year's New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center will be held from March 30 – April 8. Whether you're a car collector or simply love checking out the latest trends, this is the show to go to.
Every year before the show opens, a number of auto companies debut their latest productions and concepts for the press.
If you're coming to New York for the show, book your stay with us at The Manhattan Club. We're ideally located in midtown, close to all of the greatest New York City attractions.
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text:
The doubting parent's guide to the holidays (WaPo)
In belief and believers, holidays and celebrations, nonbelief and nonbelievers, Parenting
By Mari-Jane Williams
From the Washington Post Lifestyle section, Dec. 6, 2012
Answering awkward questions is an inevitable part of parenting: Where did I come from? Why doesn't Santa ever die? Why is that lady so big?
Often, though, the toughest questions are about God and religion. For parents who are not religious, the holidays highlight those queries and at times make us second-guess our choices.
It's one thing to be ambivalent about religion yourself, but as parents, we want to make sure we expose our children to as many different views as possible.
"It's easy when you're childless to sort of float and do what you think is right for you," said Dale McGowan, author of "Parenting Beyond Belief," (Amacon, $17.95). "As soon as you have kids, all those questions come to the fore. A number of friends of mine were entirely nonreligious, but once they had kids, they felt that they ought to be going to church."
Other parents have the added stress of trying to navigate a holiday of another faith, because Christmas is so pervasive this time of year.
"It's hard," said Esther Lederman, the associate rabbi at Temple Micah in the District. "If you're a Jewish parent, you're trying to make your child not feel bad that Santa isn't coming to your house. "
We spoke with McGowan and other experts about how to expose children to the religious traditions of the holidays without compromising your beliefs. Here are some of their suggestions.
Be honest about your doubts, and ask them what they think. The questions don't need to cause anxiety for parents, McGowan said. Just be honest with your child and tell him that many people celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus, but you don't. Then give him a chance to talk about what makes the most sense to him.
"They need to know that most of the people around them see the world through a religious lens," said McGowan, who lives in Atlanta.
"Every time I make a statement about what I think is true, I let them know that others think differently and that they get to make up their own minds. It's not necessary to put blinders on them and not let them see the religious aspect of the holidays. That would be strange."
Take your children to religious services during the holidays. Andrew Park, the self-described "faith-free dad" who wrote "Between a Church and a Hard Place" (Avery, $26), says he and his wife take their children to services at different churches on Christmas Eve to expose them to a variety of faiths and customs.
"Christmas Eve is an opportunity to experience what religion means to people other than their parents," said Park, who lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. "The greater the variety of the experiences, the better. It gives them context and understanding about religion. That's powerful. Whether they become believers in a faith or not, having that understanding helps them become citizens of the world."
Read biblical stories. Even if you don't believe in the Bible as a literal text, many of the stories are still fascinating and can capture children's imaginations. Read the story of Christmas and talk about it in the context of history or ancient mythology.
"There's something about the Christian story that is very engaging to a kid," Park said.
He also noted that his two children, ages 8 and 10, are starting to make connections between the practice of modern religion and the way it was practiced in ancient societies, how it's portrayed in fantasy literature, and the role it has played in history.
Make it secular. Nothing says you have to observe Christmas or Hanukkah as religious holidays, McGowan said.
If you are ambivalent about religion, you can make the holidays a celebration of family and generosity. Or focus on the celebration of light, or Santa and cookies.
"What some parents find is they pop back into the church and it really doesn't satisfy what they're looking for, so they look for secular ways to fulfill those needs," McGowan said. "They are looking for ways to have important landmarks in their lives or rites of passage, and there are lots of equivalents that are entirely humanistic: naming ceremonies for babies, coming of age ceremonies around age 13."
Read at WashingtonPost.com


Aug. 15, 2016 11:05 AM PT12:05 PM MT1:05 PM CT2:05 PM ET18:05 GMT2:05 AM 北京时间11:05 AM MST1:05 PM EST1:05 PM CT22:05 UAE14:05 ET17:05 - Billings underwent knee surgery on Monday to repair a torn meniscus and could miss the entire season, according to multiple reports.
Analysis: Selected in the fourth round of the 2016 draft, Billings was carted off the field during a joint practice with Minnesota on Wednesday. While playing for Baylor, the 21-year-old was named Big 12 co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2015. The 6-foot-1, 311-pound Billings was expected to provide depth as a run stopper behind Geno Atkins for the Bengals, who still have Domata Peko, Marcus Hardison, Pat Sims, DeShawn Williams and Brandon Thompson on the roster.


The selected Software Engineering Manager will lead a team of talented technologists responsible for a portfolio of applications within the Corporate Functions space at Fannie Mae. In general, the selected candidate will be responsible for: using modern tools, techniques, and methods to develop, modify, or update applications used by business units or infrastructure units; Lead, or play lead technical role in development teams' efforts to determine unit needs and business processes that are automated by the application; Assess high level design issues relating to platform, enterprise software, and interactions with other systems.
Evaluate and assess new software development projects.
Participate in COTS / Vendor management.
Take ownership of stakeholder engagement and project deck preparation.
Responsible for financial tracking of projects / resources.
Leverage at least 3 years of experience in an Agile environment to coach and mentor seasoned technology staff on Agile practices / principles.
Be a strong advocate for development process as well as a culture of continuous improvement.
Serve as a hands-on technical manager that contributes in design, production code, and code reviews.


text:
AIRLIFT T12, Shutter Exhaust Ventilation Fan 12", Temperature and Humidity Controller
AC-ALT12
A high-airflow exhaust fan designed to ventilate out heat, moisture, odor, and dust from various spaces.
Programmable controller with corded probe, can adjust fan speeds in response to temperatures and humidity.
Innovative EC-motor with PWM-control maximizes airflow while reducing energy consumption and noise levels.
Features steel shutters, aluminum blades, and IP-44 rated to be highly resistant to liquid and dust.
Fan Size: 12" | Dimensions: 15.75 x 15.75 x 8.15 in. | Airflow: 830 CFM | Noise: 62 dBA | Bearings: Dual Ball
A high-airflow exhaust fan designed to cool and ventilate greenhouses, garages, attics, workshops, and sheds. The system can automatically eliminate heat, moisture, odor, and dust from enclosures, rooms, and buildings. Features an LCD display with remote smart temperature and humidity sensors, as well as customizable fan speeds. Innovative EC-motor with PWM-control maximizes airflow while reducing energy consumption and noise levels. Heavy-duty build features aluminum blades, steel wire guards, and steel shutters. Includes everything needed to mount the fan unit and power it through an outlet.
Smart Programming
The controller included with each unit features active temperature and humidity monitoring. Fan speeds can be programmed to automatically adjust to high and low temperatures and humidity. The program can be manually set to run continuously or on a timer at custom speeds. Also features alarm warnings, fan failure alerts, eco-mode, and backup memory. Included 12-foot corded sensor probe plugs into the controller to provide temperature and humidity readings. The controller can control up to two AIRLIFT series fans.
Heavy-Duty Performance
Features steel shutters that are weather and corrosion resistant, and automatically closes when not in use. The blades and impeller are constructed of lightweight aluminum, weight-balanced to reduce vibrations. Utilizing an innovative EC motor that is controlled electronically using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), the fans can maximize airflow while reducing noise and power consumption. The fully-enclosed motor is also permanently lubricated and houses dual-ball bearings that are rated at 67,000 hours. The unit is IP-44 rated to be highly resistant to dust and liquids, and performs well even in harsh environments.

    Product Identification

    Manufacturer	    AC Infinity Inc.

    Product Name	    AIRLIFT T12

    Product Model	    AC-ALT12

    UPC Code	    819137020917

    Product and Mounting Dimensions - Fan Unit

    Total Dimensions	    15.75 x 15.75 x 8.15 in. (33.0 x 33.0 x 20.7 cm)

    Frontside Enclosure Dimensions	    13.38 x 13.38 in. x 2.20 in. (34.0 x 34.0 cm x 5.6 cm)

    Required Mounting Hole 	    13.54 x 13.54 in. (34.4 x 34.4 cm)

    Hole to Hole Distance 	    14.21 x 14.21 in. (36.1 x 36.1 cm)

    Screw Hole Size	    Ø 0.27 in (Ø 0.7 cm)

    Cord Length to Controller	    240 in (20 feet)

    Product and Mounting Dimensions - Controller

    Total Dimensions 	    5.19 x 2.91 x 1.06 in. (13.2 x 7.4 x 2.7 cm)

    Hole to Hole Distance 	    4.71 x 2.64 in. (12.0 x 6.7 cm)

    Screw Hole Size	    Ø 0.119 in (Ø 0.3 cm)

    Display Size	    3.5 x 1.4 in. (9 x 3.5 cm)

    Cord Length to Plug	    96 in (8 feet)

    Sensor Probe Length	    144 in. (12 feet)

    Product Performance and Technical Specs

    Total Airflow	    830 CFM

    Total Noise	    62 dBA

    Static Pressure	    73 Pa

    Operating Voltage	    100-240V AC

    Power	    54W

    Current	    0.75A

    Operating Humidity	    35 to 85% RH

    Operating Temperature	    32 to 140°F

    Fan Bearings	    Dual Ball

    Mounting Positions	    Horizontal or Vertical

    L10 Life Expectancy 	    67,000 Hours

    Product Manual

    Product Manual
	     PDF

AIRLIFT S10, Shutter Exhaust Ventilation Fan 10", Speed Controller


text:
Monotes hutchinsonianus är en tvåhjärtbladig växtart som beskrevs av Arthur Wallis Exell. Monotes hutchinsonianus ingår i släktet Monotes och familjen Dipterocarpaceae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Tvåhjärtbladiga blomväxter
hutchinsonianus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Zapper!: "Burning in from the Gate"
Posted: Monday July 14th, 2008 by
Ughh where to start? The story has bounced back and forth as to the fate of Hellgate: London, but the fate of Flagship Studios is pretty much sealed. After word hit the Hellgate community that Hellgate might be switching hands and subsequent denials were issued, confirmation began making its way around the gaming news circuit that Flagship and its online service subsidiary Ping0 had layed off a significant portion of the two companies.
Source: Gamasutra [ more info ]
What followed that article, for me at least, was a mess of back and forth legal shenanigans between Flagship and it's creditors over who now has exclusive rights to the Hellgate IP. There's so much news out there about the drama surround Flagship's closure and the impact on Hellgate though, that's it's really hard for me to list all the sources I used in researching this topic before committing to the comic.
Ultimately Flagship is making a scorching entrance into the Zapper. We'll just have to wait and see if Hellgate and Mythos follow suit.
Thanks for the story lead James M.
Today's Pimpage: The Shadowbane and Horizons Istaria flies are eating Mmmm Delicious! Popcorn from the Mmmm Delicious! Popcorn Emporium.


text:
Razer Blade 15, Blade Pro 17 updated with 30-series GPUs
2 min read January 13, 2021
Earlier today, we talked about the new mask from Razer, as well as the company's new Project Brooklyn gaming chair. Well, now we're diving deeper into the updated Blade 15 and Blade Pro 17, which will now feature NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards. What other updates are being made to the company's high-end gaming laptop platforms? Keep reading to find out.
Razer's Blade Pro 17 updated with RTX 30-series GPUs + 360Hz displays
Razer wants to ensure that its Blade Pro 17 laptop has more power than you'll ever need and that's why the company is updating it with the latest RTX 30-series graphics cards.
Leveraging the power of NVIDIA's latest GPUs, the Blade Pro 17 will feature up to 360Hz displays, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and an 8-core i7 processor. There are multiple options when it comes to choosing your screen, which can be configured in either 1080p 360Hz, 1440p 165Hz, or 4K 120Hz. These are all fantastic choices and you can't go wrong with any.
Plus, when it comes to graphics cards, Razer plans to offer all three 30-series GPUs that NVIDIA is making available for mobile devices. That's right, the 3060, 3070, and 3080 will all be available from Razer, giving you the ability to choose which machine you have depending on the budget you're working with.
The Blade 15 gets the same treatment with up to 360Hz displays and 30-series GPUs
If 17-inch is too big for your computer, the Blade 15 could be a great option. You'll find the same 8-core i7 processor here and up to 32GB of RAM with 1TB SSD, but a few other options when it comes to screen tech. Namely, in addition to the 1080p 360Hz and 1440p 165Hz offered on the Blade Pro 17, there is also 4K OLED 60Hz, 1080p 144Hz, and 1440p 240Hz options to choose from here. This really gives you a well-rounded assortment of machines to pick from as there's likely a configuration to fit your needs.
Pricing on the Blade 15 starts at $1,699.99 and the Blade Pro 17 begins at $2,299.99, going up from there on both models depending on what configuration you purchase.
alipay, Briefing, Chinese digital payment, Douyin, Fintech, News, tiktok, WeChat Pay
TikTok's Chinese version Douyin launches e-wallet to compete with Alipay, WeChat Pay
WOWCUBE offers 2x2x2 digital grid for STEM learning, more
Best smart plug 2021: Wemo, Philips Hue, meross, more
New Samsung 870 EVO storage chases limits of SATA 6
Pottery Barn Valentine's Day Shop has hundreds of gifts
Wyze Handheld Vacuum recharges via USB-C, more
eleven − 10 =
Alphabet, Behavior, Buzz, communication, Facebook, Google, Las Vegas, mass shooting, new media, Social Media, Structure, TC, Twitter, Web 2.0
Search and social media was filled with clickbait and propaganda in the wake of Vegas shooting
3 min read October 2, 2017
Apple Plans First iMac Desktop Redesign In Nearly a Decade
Is There a Tech Worker 'Exodus' From the San Francisco Bay Area?
JetBrains' build automation software eyed as possible enabler of SolarWinds hack
ExpressVPN 10.0.0 (Commercialware)
ANITH SINCE 1979 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


The art installation at Lot F Gallery by the !ND!V!DUALS, "Janky Donuts: Handmade Donuts for Your Mouth," has wooden doughnuts on display in front.
Folks showed up at Lot F Gallery's opening for the !ND!V!DUALS collective's show, "Janky Donuts: Handmade Donuts for Your Mouth," looking for — not surprisingly — a new doughnut shop with out-of-the-box pastries, such as the "Farm to Mouth" doughnut, topped with bacon.
The art installation "Janky Donuts: Handmade Donuts for Your Mouth" has weapons on display in the back room at Lot F Gallery.
Oops. "Janky Donuts" is an art installation, and the doughnuts — like everything else there — are made of scrap wood. !ND!V!DUALS, around since 2003, builds increasingly ambitious, fable-like installations featuring cartoonish animal characters. This one is a hoot, and a crafty marvel. A human-size, pop-eyed lizard stands behind the doughnut counter, ready to pack up boxes of sugary (or splintery) treats. The shop has a jukebox with a three-ring song list you can flip through, with hits by groups such as "The Four Donuts" (OK, the wordplay could be wittier).
It's all so wholesome, so mom-and-pop, until you walk into the back room. The doughnuts, it seems, are a front for dealing weapons. Guns — as wooden as the doughnuts — hang on the wall. You can even use one to shoot BBs for target practice. There's a rocket launcher, which I initially mistook for a blunderbuss, and a missile. A second giant lizard, wearing snappy wooden high-tops, mans the counter, where we learn that the boxes in which doughnuts are sold have a secret compartment that can hold a pistol.
Work by the !ND!V!DUALS leans toward clever storytelling and crackerjack woodworking, not rigorous social commentary. "Janky Donuts" is no allegory about gun control. Rather, it's a tale about a thriving business with a shady side — right down to duping the press about what's really going on there.
Nature's majesty in Karen Halverson's landscape photographs, now up at Robert Klein Gallery, usually pivots around something man-made. Amid the sun-washed cliffs, brooding skies, and endless tracts of land squat ugly sheds, plastic chairs, and gaudy silos.
A nubbly sea of ferociously pink flowers garnished with greenery fills two-thirds of "Mulholland at Cold Canyon Road, Los Angeles, California, 1993." It bumps up against a field of dried grass and shrubs. That edge is littered with roughly 20 big wooden poles, splayed like pickup sticks. The image raises a question of degree: What is natural here? What is cultivated? Is the carpet of flowers more natural than the discarded poles?
"Hoover Dam, Arizona-Nevada Border, 1995" balances the crisp beauty of the dam's design against the craggy backdrop of the cliff faces beyond. As twilight settles, lights illuminate the intake towers; they might be temples. The high, red streaks of an 18-wheeler's taillights edge the top of the dam like a halo.
It's easy for a lover of landscape to deploy knee-jerk distaste of traces of human interference. These marks of habitation don't scar the landscapes. Sometimes they're lovely, sometimes strange. Halverson doesn't judge what she sees; she merely witnesses.
Self-taught Cuban artist Sandra Dooley, who has a show up at Galeria Cubana, makes fey, often overly romantic paintings that celebrate domestic and spiritual life. Flat, almond-faced women hold cats in her paintings, and are visited by spirits. Her work gains traction when she introduces collage, affixing fabric to her canvas and often painting over it.
Dooley builds portraits out of textiles, as in "Isabel." Hanks of burlap make up her brow, buttons run along pleated fabric at her jaw line. Her sleeves look like lace. Paint covers the fabric, giving the figure chromatic consistency. It makes her seem less fractured, but also as if she's only barely disguising her tetchy textures. She's a regal figure, but the cloths Dooley chooses often suggest roughness, labor, and domestic life. There's a complexity to the character, and to her implicit narrative, that Dooley doesn't achieve when she uses paint alone.
Out of the Blue Art Gallery, a community venue that offers exhibition opportunities to artists who have never shown their work before, will shutter the doors of the space it has long occupied on Prospect Street in Cambridge come September.
"The rent has gone up beyond what we can afford," says founder Tom Tipton. A fund-raiser will take place on Saturday with a sidewalk sale at noon and a barbecue, with live music, at 5 p.m. Tipton has initiated online fund-raising at www.gofundme.com.
Tipton says plans are in the works to move into a larger space on Massachusetts Avenue, closer to MIT. Out of the Blue is a supporter of all types of artists, new and established. In addition to exhibitions, it stages concerts and open-mike nights, and Tipton curates exhibitions at the Middle East and 1369 Coffee House.
Although it has hosted countless benefits, Saturday's events mark the first-ever fund-raiser for the seat-of-the-pants (i.e., for profit) operation.


text:
El Camino Hospital Physicians Launch Trial to Find Early Diagnosis Tool for Lung Cancer
Mountain View, CA - November 1, 2010 - Physicians at El Camino Hospital are starting a medical trial called REACT, which they hope may give doctors a new and cost-effective tool for early diagnosis of lung cancer, the deadliest of the common cancers.
REACT, a collaboration between the hospital's Cancer Center and its Genomic Medicine Institute, will combine the use of Respiragene, a new, genetically based test that identifies smokers at the highest risk of lung cancer, and low-dose CT (computed tomography) scans. It aims to improve the likelihood of identifying patients with lung cancers before physical symptoms emerge.
"Most patients with lung cancer are diagnosed too late for effective treatment, and so far we don't have a reliable, universally accepted screening test for it," said principal investigator Dr. Elwyn Cabebe, who is affiliated with El Camino Hospital and Valley Medical Oncology Consultants. "The study will look at whether this test can be used to reliably identify smokers and former smokers at highest risk of lung cancer and define who would benefit most from follow-up with low-dose CT scanning. If so, it may mean better detection for early-stage cancer in a high-risk population." Although other studies have shown that low-dose CT scans can detect lung cancer in its early and potentially curable stages, scans also find non-cancerous nodules in the lungs of many smokers. The high number of false positives, the risks associated with subsequent follow-up procedures, and the high cost of regular CT screening for large groups has limited the wider adoption of CT screening for lung cancer, despite its early detection promise.
Lung cancer kills 10 to 15 percent of long-term smokers and is the country's leading cancer killer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 157,300 Americans will die of lung cancer in 2010 and 222,520 Americans will be diagnosed with it. But only 15.2 percent of those diagnosed live for five years after lung cancer is identified, and half die within one year of diagnosis.
The trial will study 200 smokers and ex-smokers aged 50 or older who have smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for 20 years or more and have no lung cancer symptoms, which include a persistent cough, chest pain or weight loss. They will be tested for their predisposition to lung cancer using the Respiragene test, and then all will receive a low-dose chest CT scan. All patients will be followed for up to three years with appropriate additional scans, as well as treatment as needed.
"One of the dilemmas we face with lung cancer is that almost always, by the time we find it, the chances of treating it effectively are minimal. If we could develop a more cost-effective diagnostic tool, we could start to change the odds in favor of the patient," said Shyamali Singhal, M.D., Director of El Camino Hospital's Cancer Center. "It's exciting to think that by combining personalized medicine--the utilization of unique family and genetic traits to personally tailor management and care--we might improve our ability to predict, prevent, diagnose and treat lung cancer."
All smokers enrolled in the trial will be required to undergo counseling to help them quit smoking. The trial will also look at the impact of the Respiragene test on success rates for quitting smoking.
The test gives smokers a personalized estimate of their own lung cancer risk, using their DNA and three non-genetic risk factors for lung cancer--age, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema, and close family history of lung cancer.
"We're excited to be working with El Camino Hospital on this trial," said Dr Robert Young, chief scientific officer of Synergenz Bioscience Ltd., a company formed to commercialize an 8-year research program conducted at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. "Their team has grasped the potential for a non-invasive risk assessment tool such as Respiragene to help direct preventative care and resources towards patients most likely to benefit from them."
If you are interested in being considered for the trial, please contact the Clinical Research Coordinator at El Camino Hospital at 650-988-7623.
El Camino Health and Me
Your Community Partner


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Албрехт фон Тримберг (; † сл. 7 октомври 1261) от франкската благородническа фамилия Тримберг, е господар на замък Тримберг при Елферсхаузен в Бавария.

Произход и наследство

Той е син на Конрад I фон Тримберг († сл. 1230) и съпругата му Мехтилд фон Грумбах, дъщеря на Алберт I фон Ротенфелс-Грумбах, фогт фон Китцинген († 1190), и съпругата му фон Лобдебург. Внук е на Попо фон Тримберг († сл. 1189) и правнук на Гозвин фон Тримберг († сл. 1151), който започва през 1135 г. да строи замък Тримберг. Брат е на Хайнрих фон Тримберг († 1236), женен пр. 1236 г. за Мехтилд фон Хенеберг, на Попо III († 1271), епископ на Вюрцбург (1267 – 1271) и на брат, който е комтур на Йоанитския орден във Вюрцбург (1239).

Албрехт фон Тримберг и баща му Конрад I фон Тримберг дават през 1226 г. замъка Тримберг за ползване на манастир Вюрцбург. Родът на господарите на Тримберг изчезва по мъжка линия през 1384 г.

Фамилия
Албрехт фон Тримберг се жени пр. 1247 г. за Луитгард фон Бюдинген († сл. 1257), дъщеря на Герлах II фон Бюдинген († 1245) и Мехтхилд фон Цигенхайн († 1229).

Със смъртта на Герлах II фон Бюдинген след 1240 и преди 1247 г. фамилията на господарите на Бюдинген измира по мъжка линия. Герлах II фон Бюдинген е наследен от зетовете му, господарите Конрад фон Хоенлое-Браунек-Романя († 1249), Албрехт фон Тримберг, Еберхард I фон Бройберг († 1286), Роземан фон Изенбург-Кемпених († сл. 1264), и Лудвиг I фон Изенбург-Бюдинген († ок. 1304).

Албрехт и Луитгард имат децата:
 Конрад фон Тримберг III († 1281), женен пр. 21 юли 1264 г. за Аделхайд фон Вилдберг († сл. 13 ноември 1292), дъщеря на граф Манголд фон Вилдберг († 1277)
 Мехтилд фон Тримберг († сл. 1297), омъжена за Алберт фон Щернберг († 1253/1255), син на Хайнрих II фон Щернберг († 1228)
 Луитгарт фон Тримберг (* ок. 1216; † 1297), омъжена за граф Хайнрих IV фон Диц-Вайлнау († сл. 1281), син на граф Хайнрих III фон Диц-Вайлнау († 1230)

Литература
 Karl Heinrich Ritter von Lang: Baierns alte Grafschaften und Gebiete – Aus den Gütern der Dynasten von Trimperg, Nürnberg 1831, 2012
 Gustav Simon: Die Geschichte des reichsständischen Hauses Ysenburg und Büdingen; Zweiter Band: Die Ysenburger und Büdingen'sche Hausgeschichte. Brönner, Frankfurt, 1865
 Hermann Heck: Die Entstehung der Grafschaft Diez und der Ursprung des Diezer Grafenhauses. in "Zeitschrift für Heimatkunde des Regierungsbezirkes Coblenz und der angrenzenden Gebiete von Hessen-Nassau", Coblenz 1921 (dilibri.de)
 Unknown author, Europaische Stammtafeln by Isenburg, chart 22, Vol. 11, chart 18b.
 Europaische Stammtafeln, by Wilhelm Karl, Prinz zu Isenburg, Vol. XVI, Tafel 144., 151.
 Detlev Schwennicke, Europaische Stammtafeln, New Series, Vol. XXIX, Tafel 41.

Източници

Външни препратки
 Karl Heinrich Ritter von Lang: Baierns alte Grafschaften und Gebiete – Aus den Gütern der Dynasten von Trimperg, Nürnberg 1831, 2012
 Micha Strauß:Die Trimburg – Geschichte

Господари (Свещена Римска империя)
Германска аристокрация
Родени през 13 век
Починали през 1261 година


text:
/* The version here should match that in configure/configure.ac	*/
/* Eventually this one may become unnecessary.  For now we need	*/
/* it to keep the old-style build process working.		*/
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#define GC_TMP_VERSION_MINOR 0
#define GC_TMP_ALPHA_VERSION GC_NOT_ALPHA

#ifndef GC_NOT_ALPHA
#   define GC_NOT_ALPHA 0xff
#endif

#if defined(GC_VERSION_MAJOR)
# if GC_TMP_VERSION_MAJOR != GC_VERSION_MAJOR || \
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#   error Inconsistent version info.  Check README, version.h, and configure.ac.
# endif
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# define GC_VERSION_MINOR GC_TMP_VERSION_MINOR
# define GC_ALPHA_VERSION GC_TMP_ALPHA_VERSION
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#ifndef GC_NO_VERSION_VAR

unsigned GC_version = ((GC_VERSION_MAJOR << 16) | (GC_VERSION_MINOR << 8) | GC_TMP_ALPHA_VERSION);

#endif /* GC_NO_VERSION_VAR */


text:
Tag Archives: French Revolution
Attacks on Elizabeth Warren demonstrate her strength
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has the stuff of which U.S. presidents are made, which is why she has plenty of detractors. (And she really rocks purple. Just sayin': I want eight years of a purple-wearing president.)
Reading Yahoo! political commentator Matt Bai's recent column on why he believes Vice President Joe Biden should run for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination, I was stopped cold by Bai's casual, cavalier remark that besides Biden, "There's [Vermont U.S. Sen.] Bernie Sanders, who's an avowed socialist [as though there were something wrong with that], and Elizabeth Warren, who sounds more like a Jacobin."
I recalled that the Jacobins were associated with the French Revolution, but I couldn't recall exactly what they were about, and so I looked them up on Wikipedia. Wikipedia notes of the Jacobins, in part: "At their height in 1793-94, the [Jacobin Club] leaders were the most radical and egalitarian group in the [French] Revolution. Led by Maximilien de Robespierre (1758–1794), they controlled the government from June 1793 to July 1794, passed a great deal of radical legislation, and hunted down and executed their opponents in the Reign of Terror."
For all of the right wing's bullshit about "class warfare" — which, conveniently, according to the right wing's playbook always is waged by the poor against the rich and never vice-versa — Elizabeth Warren actually has not called for a violent revolution.* She has called for a return to socioeconomic fairness and justice, which is more than reasonable, especially given what has happened to the American middle class since at least the 1980s, during the reign of Reagan (another reign of terror from history, not entirely metaphorically speaking). But if you can't win an argument these days, you just accuse your opponent of being a terrorist (not entirely unlike Repugnican Tea Party Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recent comparison of Wisconsinites standing up for their livelihoods to the terrorists who comprise ISIS).
Matt Bai makes only one other brief reference to Warren in his screed about why, in his estimation, Biden should run for president for 2016: "Biden's a middle-class champion who makes the case for economic fairness with more conviction than [Billary] Clinton and less vitriol than Warren ."
I agree that Billary has little to zero credibility on the issue of socioeconomic justice, but if you Google "vitriol" you will see that it means "cruel and bitter criticism."
Wow. Warren is passionate, absolutely. She's one of the relatively few passionate and progressive elected officials in D.C., and passion is a normal response to socioeconomic injustice that is deep and widespread. But when has Warren ever been bitter and/or cruel? WTF, Matt Bai?
I'm not the only one who has recognized this. I was pleased to see soon later that Salon.com writer Elias Isquith wrote a column on Bai's drive-by bashing of Warren and on the establishment's fear of Warren — fear of Warren because she actually threatens to upend the status quo in Washington, D.C., the status quo that is toxic for the majority of Americans (and much if not most of the rest of the world) but that is working out just fine for the denizens of the halls of power in D.C. (which would include Bai, whom Isquith refers to as "the star pundit-reporter and longtime communicator of whatever the conventional wisdom of the political elite happens to be at any given time"; I would add that Bai is a mansplainer par excellence as well).
Isquith, too, takes issue with calling Warren a "Jacobin," and Isquith compares a quotation of an actual Jacobin (the philosophy of whom is that "[the] policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror. … Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs") to a quotation of Warren (one of my favorites):
"I hear all this, you know, 'Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.' No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."
This statement (from August 2011, when Warren was running for the U.S. Senate) is eminently fair and reasonable — I'd call it "common sense" if the wingnutty fascists hadn't already bastardized that term for all of their harmful ideas and opinions.
Why the establishmentarian attacks on Warren, whose actual words and actual record have nothing whatsofuckingever to do with what her detractors and critics claim about her? Isquith offers a plausible explanation (links are Isquith's):
… The first and most obvious reason is that Washington is, to put it gently, a swamp of corruption where many influential people live comfortably — thanks to Wall Street. Maybe they're lobbyists; maybe they work in free-market think tanks; maybe they're employed by the defense industry, which benefits greatly from Wall Street's largesse. Or maybe they're government bureaucrats who find Warren's opposition to the "revolving door" to be in profound conflict with their future plans.
My second theory is less political and more prosaic. Another reason Bai and his ilk find Warren discomfiting may be her glaring lack of false modesty and her disinterest in keeping her head down and paying her dues. Because despite being the capital of what is nominally the greatest liberal democracy on Earth, Washington is in truth a deeply conformist and hierarchical milieu, one where new arrivals are expected to be neither seen nor heard until they've been deemed to have earned their place. And while Warren may want to be seen as a team player, what she cares most about is reining in Wall Street. If she deems it necessary to accomplish her primary goal, she's willing to step on some toes and lose a few fair-weather friends. …
I would add that patriarchy, sexism and misogyny certainly play a role, too. It might not be conscious in all cases, but I surmise that because every single one of our 44 U.S. presidents thus far have been men, there is an ingrained cultural, even visceral, belief among many, many Americans — even women — that the U.S. president should be a man. Thus, the likes of Matt Bai is rooting for Joe Biden; Bai's support of Biden apparently stems, in no tiny part, from the fact that Biden is yet another older white man.
The U.S. president should be, in my book, the candidate who both is the most progressive and the most electable, and right now that candidate is Elizabeth Warren. That she happens to be a woman is great, as we are woefully overdue for our first female president.
Presidential preference polls consistently show both Warren and Biden to be Democrats' second and third choices after Billary Clinton (who, after E-mailgate, might slide in the polls of Democrats and Democratic-leaners; we'll see).
Joe Biden probably would be an acceptable-enough president – I'd certainly take him over a President Billary – but given his age (he's 72 years old today and would be 74 were he to be inaugurated as president in January 2017, making him the oldest president at the time of inauguration in U.S. history [even Ronald Reagan was a spry 69-going-on-70 years old when he took office in early 1981]) and given his reputation as a hothead, I don't know how electable Biden would be.
And while in fairness the vice president doesn't get to do very much, what has Biden done over the past six years?
Biden's age doesn't bother me — if you can be the job, I don't much care how old you are — but it would become a campaign "issue." And while perhaps it's not fair to Biden as an individual, it's pathetic and sad and deeply disappointing that in our so-called "representative democracy," our 45th president would be yet another white man, for a string of 44 out of 45 U.S. presidents being white men.
Elizabeth Warren is a twofer: an actually progressive Democrat who is electable as U.S. president, and thus also potentially our first U.S. president who is a woman.
Attacks on Warren by the shameless, worthless, self-serving defenders of the status quo are to be expected; when the voters hear and read what Warren has to say, versus the bullshit that the establishmentarians spew** about her, they will, I believe, put Warren in the White House, where she belongs.
*For the record, I don't rule out the use of violence in a revolution. Our plutocratic overlords never rule out the use of violence (state violence, usually) against us commoners. Unilateral disarmament is bullshit.
I'd much prefer a bloodless revolution, of course, but again, when the enemy doesn't rule out violence, you shouldn't either.
**Similarly, were most Americans actually informed about what democratic socialism actually is all about, they probably would embrace it, which is why it has been so important to the establishmentarians and the wingnuts (really, "wingnut" is too-cuddly a word for right-wing fascists) to lie about what socialism is all about.
Such a dog-whistle word has "socialist" become, indeed, that Matt Bai simply dismisses Bernie Sanders' entire being in one fell swoop in just one phrase ("an avowed socialist" — gasp!).
Thank you, Matt Bai, for so courageously doing your part to discourage all actual thought in the United States of America!
Tagged as American middle class, Bernie Sanders, class warfare, D.C., Democratic Party, Elias Isquith, Elizabeth Warren, equality, fairness, feminism, French Revolution, ISIS, Jacobin, Jacobins, Joe Biden, justice, mansplainer, mansplaining, mansplanation, Matt Bai, Maximilien de Robespierre, middle class, Politics, power, progressivism, Reign of Terror, Republican Party, Republican Tea Party, right wing, Ronald Reagan, Scott Walker, Socialism, socialist, socioeconomic justice, status quo, Terrorism, Terrorist, terrorists, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Joe Biden, violence, violent revolution, Washington D.C., White House, wingnuts, working class
Four more years (of [largely] the same old shit)!
Reuters photos
I expect little actual progress from the pseudo-progressive President Hopey-Changey over the next four years, but at least during that time I'll be spared of having to see the Ann-Cunter-like, bleach-blonde harpy Ann Romney trying to fuck us all repeatedly with her strap-on. (Yes, that's an actual news photo, and so is that one, too.)
Oh, yeah, there was an election on Tuesday.
As I have noted, I voted by mail for Green Party candidate Jill Stein for president — yes, practically speaking, as a protest vote — but I knew that President Barack Obama would win my state of California by an overwhelming margin, and he did: thus far in California's vote counting, Obama has 59.3 percent to Mittens Romney's paltry 38.4 percent. (Stein, in case you were wondering, is at No. 4, with a whopping 0.6 percent of the state's vote.)
What I didn't expect, however, was that as a result of Tuesday's election — elections, as they say, have consequences — the California Legislature would be on the verge of having a two-thirds "super-majority" in both houses, the state Senate and the state Assembly.
This "super-majority" — if utilized — makes the Repugnican Tea Party traitors in the Legislature even more irrelevant than they already were before Tuesday.
Not that the Democrats will use their power, of course. Although "super-majority" power, if used to its full extent, would make even the centristy Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown fairly irrelevant, since the Legislature could override his vetoes, there are plenty of center-right "Democratic" California legislators who could threaten any two-thirds threshold.
And, of course, already Jerry Brown has assured spooked California Repugnicans — whose registrants don't comprise even a full 30 percent of registered Californian voters (the Dems, on the other hand, have almost 44 percent of the state's registered voters) and whose party doesn't hold a single statewide office — that his party won't do too much to upset them, even though, of course, were the state's parties' positions of political power reversed, the Repugnicans would ram their right-wing agenda through ruthlessly.
When George W. Bush was "re"-elected in 2004 with a measly 50.7 percent of the popular vote, he called the election results a "mandate." A "mandate."
That's how the Repugnican Tea Party traitors roll: They don't care even if they don't even win the popular vote (recall the 2000 presidential election) — they just want to be in power no matter fucking what. They want to shove their Randian, theofascist, neo-Nazi agenda down our throats whether we, the people, give them our permission, via our votes, to do so or not. (So of course if you're perfectly willing to steal power even when you lost the election, 50.7 percent would be, I suppose, relatively speaking, a "mandate.")
Votes remain to be counted, but right now Obama is sitting at 50.6 percent of the national popular vote to Mittens' 47.9 percent. Obama on Tuesday sewed up 332 electoral votes to Mittens' 206. Including the all-important Ohio and Florida, Obama on Tuesday won all of the states that he won in 2008 (when he garnered 52.9 percent of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes), except for two of them, Indiana and North Carolina, which aren't exactly solid-blue states anyway.
(Indeed, in eight of the last 10 presidential elections, including Tuesday's, North Carolina went for the Repugnican, and in nine of the last 10 presidential elections, including Tuesday's, Indiana went for the Repugnican, so Obama's win in those two states in 2008 was the exception, not the rule, and his loss in those two backasswards states on Tuesday was the rule, not the exception, even though the pathetically straw-grasping Repugnican Tea Party traitors have tried to make some hay out of the fact that Obama didn't win those two states again on Tuesday. [Indeed, the bar, when it is set by whites, is always set higher for blacks than it is for whites.])
Cheer up, though, white-supremacist wingtards! Mittens did better than John McCainosaurus and Sarah Palin did in 2008. They garnered only 45.7 of the popular vote and 173 electoral votes against the guy with the Kenyan ancestry.
Of course, while George W. Bush in 2004 declared 50.7 percent of the popular vote to be a "mandate" and the fascist traitors who comprise his party talked of a "permanent [Repugnican] majority," only two years later, in 2006, the Repugnicans lost the U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic California U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to become speaker of the House in U.S. history, and then two years after that, in 2008, Barack Obama, the nation's first non-white president, won a higher percentage of the popular vote than either George W. Bush or even Bill Clinton ever had.
So some caution needs to be exercised before declaring a "permanent [insert party name here] majority," or even a "mandate" based on not even a full 51 percent of the popular vote, but at the same time, to the victor goes the spoils, and the so-called "leaders" of the Democratic Party need to stop acting like losers even after they've fucking won.
(Yes, on the heels of his second electoral victory, Obama still is talking about cooperation with the Repugnican Tea Party traitors in Congress, even though the past four years have demonstrated amply that you cannot negotiate with such terrorists, because the assumption that they are rational creatures capable of compromise is patently incorrect.)
The Repugnican Tea Party traitor-fascists act like winners even after they've lost, and if the damage that they've wreaked upon the nation is to be reversed (if that's even possible at this point [it very most likely isn't, perhaps especially in regards to global warming]), the Democrats really need to stop snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I'm not holding my breath, however.
I expect the next four years to look and feel much like the past four, although I expect things here in California to improve more quickly than they improve — if they ever improve — nationally, since here in California we have demonstrated how to edge the Repugnican Tea Party traitors more and more closely to the endangered species status that they oppose so much.
As California goes, so goes the nation, it has been said.
I hope that that is correct.
P.S. Of course I'm happy that on Tuesday the voters of three states — Maine, Maryland and Washington — voted for same-sex marriage, being the first states to adopt same-sex marriage upon a popular vote, and pushing the number of states that have same-sex marriage from six (before Tuesday) to now nine. (The other six states are Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. The District of Columbia also has same-sex marriage, as do two U.S. Native American tribes, apparently.)
The 2008 election results were a bittersweet pill here in California, because although Barack Obama had become the nation's first black president based upon his ubiquitous campaign promises of hope and change (and to a large degree they were just that — promises — we know now), Proposition Hate had shot down same-sex marriage, which the California Supreme Court had ruled earlier in the year was every Californian's constitutional right.
If same-sex marriage were put up to a vote again in California today, of course it would pass this time — even though, let me be clear, no one's constitutional guarantee of equality ever should have to be put up to a fucking vote — and it's gratifying to see that the Mittens Romney-Pretty Boy Paul Ryan ticket, representing the Mormon cult and the Catholick church respectively, were rejected by the majority of the nation's voters, since the Mormon cult and the Catholick church were the biggest sponsors of Proposition Hate, in their attempt to shove their brand of theocracy and theofascism down our throats, Taliban-style.
Karma is a bitch.
(Just like Ann Romney is. I am sooooo happy not to have to see her fucking face as first lady for the next four years, by the way. Ann Romney reminds me of an Ann Cunter who actually ate something. Why are so many Repugican Tea Party women bleach-blonde harpies who act like sorority chicks who are getting revenge upon all of us for the ponies that they never got as spoiled little girls?)
P.P.S. For all of their post-election sore-loserism crying and whining, the white-supremacist Repugnican Tea Party traitors are fucking lucky that we are seeing a for-the-very-most-part bloodless, demographic revolution in the United States, and not (thus far, anyway…) the actual bloody revolution that the Repugnican Tea Party traitors deserve to have launched against them, a la the French Revolution.
After all, the "47 percent" that Mittens "Let Them Eat Cake" Romney talked about in May when he didn't know that he was being video-recorded actually is a bit more than 50 percent, we see from Tuesday's presidential election results.
Tagged as "Election", 47 percent, Ann Coulter, Ann Cunter, Ann Romney, Ayn Rand, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, blue states, California, California Legislature, Catholic church, Catholics, Democratic Party, Democrats, elections, Elections have consequences, fascism, fascists, Florida, French Revolution, George W. Bush, global warming, Gov. Jerry Brown, Green Party, harpies, Indiana, Jerry Brown, Jill Stein, John McCain, Let them eat cake, Maine, Mandate, mandates, Maryland, Mitt Romney, Mittens Romney, Mormon cult, Mormons, Nancy Pelosi, North Carolina, Ohio, plutocracy, Plutocrats, Politics, President Hopey-Changey, Proposition 8, protest vote, Red states, Republican Party, Republican Tea Party, Republicans, Same-sex marriage, Sarah Palin, theocracy, theocrats, theofascism, theofascists, Washington, white supremacism, white supremacists
Raise THIS, baby-boomer bitches!
Repugnican U.S. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio (photographed above in Washington, D.C., earlier this month), a member of the get-mine-and-get-out generation, wants to raise the age of eligibility for Social Security retirement benefits to age 70 for Americans who have at least 20 years to go before retirement (that would be Generation X'ers and Generation Y'ers and those who follow the Y'ers). Boehner also wants these future Social Security recipients (including yours truly) to have to prove their (our) need for Social Security checks. Don't worry about the baby boomers, though — they'll be well taken care of.
Like I needed yet another reason to despise John Boehner, the Repugnican minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Not only is Boehner (pronounced like bay-ner, not like boner, by the way…) a fucking baby boomer and a fucking Repugnican, but his steely-cold reptilian eyes always have given me the fucking creeps.
Boehner's latest kick is his suggestion that the minimum age for receiving Social Security retirement benefits be raised to age 70 for those Americans who have at least 20 years left until they reach retirement age — and that these future Social Security recipients must prove that they need the Social Security checks before they can get them.
So the baby boomers, the get-mine-and-get-out generation, get it all — they get to collect Social Security retirement benefits as early as at age 62 and they get to collect these benefits even if they're millionaires.
Under the Boehner plan, we of Generation X, however (and those who follow us), get fucked up the ass by the baby boomers. Like we always do. With ground glass for lube.
But we're supposed to love the baby boomers. Love them.
I recently visited with my baby-boomer uncle. I always generally have liked him and considered him one of my favorite relatives, but during our recent conversation he referred to himself as a "socialist." And he meant it; his political philosophy is progressive. He always supported and still supports Barack Obama. (Which is not to say that the labeling of Obama as a "socialist" is anything like accurate, because it is not. Obama is a Clintonista, not a socialist.)
Yet my uncle the "socialist" is a contractor for the U.S. military, even though he acknowledges that the bloated military-industrial complex is not sustainable, and even though, he also acknowledged, the last necessary war that the U.S. military fought was World War II. He also lives in a gated community among golf courses in Tucson, Arizona — and he acknowledged that this lush community is not sustainable, being in the middle of the fucking desert but using so much water.
My uncle, to my knowledge, has no intention of changing his lifestyle before he dies, acknowledges that his lifestyle is not sustainable, yet calls himself, without any discernible hint of cognitive dissonance, a "socialist."
And he's one of the better baby boomers.
I'm so often called — almost exclusively by baby boomers — "angry!" As though that were a bad thing. (My baby-boomer uncle and my baby-boomer aunt both told me during our recent visit that they can't read my blog because I'm so "angry." [I wonder if they'll read this…])
It's easy for the members of a generation who had just about everything handed to them on a silver fucking platter and who are leaving not a crumb behind on that silver platter for those of us who follow them to criticize us Gen X'ers (and Y'ers) for being so "angry!"
In France, the young people are protesting right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Yes, from 60 to 62.
Reports The Associated Press:
Paris – The front lines of the latest French protest against raising the retirement age revealed a remarkable sight: Not the slightest wrinkle, not a single gray hair.
Brandishing "Save Our Pensions!" banners, students who haven't even entered the job market yet are already worried about what happens when they leave it.
Welcome to France, where workers' rights are so deeply entwined into the culture that even teenagers are unsettled about plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, which is still among the lowest in Europe. The reform protest brought nearly a million people out into the streets across the country Thursday.
Young people fear they will lose the most from President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms, which aim to cut France's ballooning deficit and make the money-losing pension system break even starting in 2018….
Shit. American young people are too busy texting to stand up against the baby boomers who are destroying their future. It's pathetic.
Boehner (whose name I wish were pronounced like boner), even while proposing to fuck over royally my generation and the generations that follow mine, accuses the current Democratic "leadership" in Washington of "snuffing out the America that I grew up in."
It's not the Democrats who are snuffing out the nation in which I was born in 1968 and in which I grew up.
It's the fucking baby boomers who are destroying the nation. (Indeed, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who could be poster children for the baby-boom generation, started the nation's destruction long before the black guy ever made it to the White House.)
It doesn't matter whether they're Repugnicans or Democrats, because even when they call themselves, in all seriousness, socialists, the way that the baby boomers live their lives demonstrates that they don't give a flying fuck about the fate of those who follow them.
I think the reason that the boomers love to call me "angry" — as though this actually is going to shut me up — is because they're terrified that anger sometimes leads to action.
What kind of action?
Well, why should we younger Americans just allow the baby boomers to continue to bleed our nation dry?
What if we decided, instead of just passively accepting our unfair and unjust treatment, to nip the baby-boomer problem in the bud?
Yeah, it just might come to that.
I hope that it does.
P.S. The French have so much more than Americans do because they fight the powers that be. The guillotines of the French Revolution, I understand, are always in the backs of the mind of France's power elite.
Guillotines just might solve the nation's problem of the baby boomers sucking up all of its resources, leaving future generations fucked.
I am reminded of that great line of Brad Pitt's in Quentin Tarantino's film "Inglourious Basterds."
To paraphrase: "We're in the boomer-killin' bidness! And bidness is a-boomin'!"
Tagged as "Inglourious Basterds", anger, baby boomers, baby-boom generation, Boehner, boomers, Democratic Party, Dick Cheney, France, French Revolution, Generation X, Generation Y, George W. Bush, get-mine-and-get-out generation, Greed, guillotine, House minority leader, John Boehner, Military industrial complex, Nicolas Sarkozy, Republican Party, Revolution, Social Security, Socialism, socialist


You didn't go to Grandma's house without eating. There were always baked goods: cookies, coffee cake, donuts. As soon as you sat down, she'd put on a fresh pot of coffee and start cooking. What can I make you? Want a sandwich? Macaroni and cheese? She would start going through the icebox and pull out everything. Have some braciole while I fry up some zucchini. If you called ahead, grandpa would make pizza (whether he wanted to or not).
What's a matter? Don't you like it? No. It's not that. It's just that, well, I've already eaten a couple times this month, and I just stopped by….
Hunger had nothing to do with it. Serving food was a way of showing hospitality. It was something she could do for you to make you feel welcome. And it worked. Everyone was welcome. Everyone felt loved.
But a lot of food went to waste. If she had two visitors, she'd make enough food to feed eight. Some of that would be recycled as appetizers for the next guest, but invariably a lot of things went uneaten.
For the first half of my career, the primary barrier to effective technology integration in the classroom was a lack of technology resources. If you asked teachers, principals, parents, or anyone else familiar with schools why educational practice was so firmly rooted in traditional instructional methods, even as technology radically transformed every other aspect of our lives, they would point to a lack of resources. I can't effectively use technology in my teaching because I only have one two four computers in my classroom, and I have 21 27 32 kids. But we've shifted a lot of our resources over the last few years away from textbooks and legacy teaching materials in favor of better technology resources. We've made huge investments in networking infrastructure and mobile technologies and display tools to eliminate the gap between what we have and what we need. And while we haven't jumped into the 1:1 computing pool yet, we are very close to the point where technology is available to all students when they need it. We have just about reached ubiquity.
The problem, though, is that we keep pulling computing devices out of the fridge and putting them on the table. Let me make a fresh pot of wifi. Try some of these iPads while I cook up a batch of laptops. It doesn't really matter if you're hungry. Someday, you will be hungry. And you'll have the resources when you're ready for them.
Over the last few years, our schools have been snacking a lot on negotiations and teacher evaluations and new testing requirements and SLOs. They've been choking down power standards to be polite, and they've been taking a helping of PLCs because they know they're nutritious. They'd love to have some RTI, and people keep telling them they should try the nextgen learning and personal learning networks. But if they take another bite right now, we're going to end up with half-digested formative assessments all over the carpet.
So this year, we've backed off. There's a vision of learning where we employ best practices, facilitated by technology, to systematically work through the learning standards, assessing and adapting instruction along the way to ensure that students reach mastery at their own pace. Meanwhile, we're using digital tools to develop students' innovative thinking, creativity, and collaboration skills. They apply their learning to new, real problems. They generate new ideas and new solutions and share those ideas in a variety of formats. Students are self-directed. Learning occurs both inside and outside the classroom. Learners engage in curriculum systemically while also synthesizing and applying that knowledge in creative ways. Assessments inform instruction, and grades are a reflection of student mastery of learning targets, measuring what they have learned rather than what they have done. But most of our teachers and principals don't have the appetite for that right now.
I'm sensing a need to back off on the hardware, too. We ordered the appetizers and went a bit overboard on the bread and salad. Now that the main course is here, it's pretty clear we're going to need a take out container. So before the waitress comes over with the dessert menu, I think we need to have a talk about whether we really need the calories. We should stop cooking and let our appetites catch up. Then, as people get hungry, let's feed them with some nutritious offerings full of whole-grain instructional methodology, organic intervention strategies, and vitamin-rich participatory learning. There's still a place for deep-fried gadgets, high-sodium mobile tools, and those sweet, sweet apps. But let's recognize that those are sometimes foods. Our schools need a healthier approach to our technology diet.
One of the trends right now in educational technology is a move toward individual computing devices for each learner. Whether you go with a 1:1 program, a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model, or a hybrid approach with several different solutions, it's clear that we are moving to a world where computers are assigned to people, not places. This personalization of technology is a trend we could have predicted: the same thing happened with the telephone just a few years ago. But I didn't expect this to come so quickly. There are no longer discussions about whether every student having a device is beneficial There's no debate about computers in classrooms versus computers in labs versus computers in students' hands. The conversations now are about managing 1:1 programs, supporting BYOD initiatives, extending wireless infrastructure to support multiple devices per student, and the changing pedagogy that comes with ubiquitous access to technology.
From my perspective, the decision of whether to go with a 1:1 program or a BYOD approach is a difficult question. I remember the early days of graphing calculators, when we told the kids to go out and buy a graphing calculator and bring it to class. They brought their Casios and Sharps and TIs and HPs in to school to improve their learning of algebra and pre-calculus. It took the whole class period to figure out how to do the most basic things, because everyone had a different calculator with a different interface. It wasn't until we standardized on TI hardware that they became really useful devices for learning math.
In a BYOD environment, the school has little control over the capabilities of the student device. Can it access Google Apps? Does it work with Flash? What about Java? Can we install apps on it? Can we print? What is the least common denominator, the basic set of things that every student's device can handle? These challenges make the technology get in the way of instruction. They keep the technology from being invisible. Many schools with BYOD programs in place report that not much has changed in the classroom. Teachers may turn to the devices as an add-on, but they are not an integral part of teaching and learning, because the technology gets in the way.
At the same time, a BYOD approach can force a change in pedagogy because it changes the role of "teacher" and "student" like no 1:1 program can. Traditionally, the teacher was THE authority in the classroom. She was the keeper of all knowledge, and the knower of all things. She used the textbook as the final word on the subject she was teaching, and there was no need to go beyond that resource. We don't live in that world anymore, but the argument can be made that a 1:1 program perpetuates the model of the school being in control. The school selects and provides the resource. The school supports the technology. The school tells the students what to do with the technology, and what can't be done with it. It's very clean. It's very efficient. But it doesn't really prepare the students for life in an information-rich society.
Ultimately, PARCC testing will probably make this decision for us. In an environment where computers are allocated to people rather than places, we don't need computer labs and banks of computers in classrooms. If every student already has a device, we don't have to have rooms full of devices, too. But in a practical sense, we are going to need a lot of computers to administer the PARCC tests. If we go with a 1:1 program, the school owns and manages the computers, and those computers can be used for testing. If we go BYOD, though, the school does not own the devices. We cannot install software on them. We cannot force the students to let us lock them out of basic functions on the device as required for the tests. So if we move to BYOD, we have to maintain the infrastructure of labs just to facilitate testing. It seems much more reasonable to just go with 1:1 and save the redundancy, and that's probably the direction we will head.
Photo credit: Clemson University Libraries on Flickr.


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Q: Do M-estimators and L-estimators overlap? In my self-study, I have read the wikipedia entries and some books in regards to M-estimators and L-estimators.
I understand that M-estimators are so called "M" because they "Maximize" the likelihood function, and/or functions of the data itself. I also understand that L-estimators are so called because they use "Linear" combinations of order-statistics of the data.
It seems to me though that there are overlaps between M-estimators and L-estimators, is this not correct? (For example, the mean seems to me that it can be derived as an M-estimator, or as an L-estimator).
Put another way, if we were to draw a Venn Diagram of all M and L estimators, how much would they overlap with each other, if at all?
Edit:
Thanks to the feedback, I understand that such a Venn Diagram might have infinite elements. What I would like however, is very rough percentages of overlap, based on ones' experience, since I know that this experience is far greater than mine! I am just after a rough estimate based on what experts and practitioners in the field have seen and come across.
Thank you.

A: There are certainly M-estimators that are L-estimators.
An example: the sample median is both an M-estimator and an L-estimator. It's maximum likelihood for the location parameter of a Laplace (double exponential).
The sample midrange is arguably both an M-estimator and an L-estimator, too. I believe it's the maximum likelihood estimator for the center ($\theta$) of a uniform on $(\theta-\phi/2,\theta+\phi/2)$.

the mean seems to me that it can be derived as an M-estimator, or as an L-estimator

Yes, that's another example.

Put another way, if we were to draw a Venn Diagram of all M and L estimators, how much would they overlap with each other, if at all?

I don't know that this is an especially useful way to look at it; my guess is that the number of estimators in the intersection could well be infinite, but may well be a vanishingly-small fraction of the union. But I think it would be very difficult to actually do this calculation, and I believe most of the estimators contained in it would not be interesting for any real-world application.
What might be of more relevance is the proportion of estimators in wide use (amongst those that are M-, or perhaps L-), that are both. But this then gets into issues of personal opinion about definitions and difficulties of estimation (what's 'wide'? how would we measure this?)
I'd think there's probably quite a few that are both, but as a proportion of say all M-estimators that get used/discussed, probably not that large a fraction.

A: Here is a Venn Diagram showing the overlap between M- and L-estimators.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Rotary Screw Compressor/Generator Combos are an invaluable tool for any contractor or municipality. These self-contained systems units provide power and airflow for a variety of air tools and power tools, electrical lights and more. Built with long-lasting and efficient airends and driven by gasoline or diesel motors. Available with generators up to 55kW.


We at GRIP420 are very excited for Photonic Distress releasing on Steam. We are a tiny indie studio with just a couple of active devs and some very good friends helping us. Regardless of our size, we've put as much work into polishing PD as we could before we even thought of putting it on Steam. We avoided Early Access specifically. Nevertheless as we all know there is no such thing as a perfect piece of software (except Half-Life 3). So after release we will actively support the game and fix all bugs that might show up.
Photonic Distress Update v1.0.1-PLAZA download links are provided by Extabit Rapidshare Uploaded Rapidgator Netload Bitshare Freakshare Letitbit Dizzcloud and more.


A pair of Alberta baseball products will be competing for one of the biggest prizes in US junior college. Spruce Grove's Kobe Hyland and Lethbridge's Shawn Grandmont are suiting up in the JUCO World Series.
He may not come from what is typically considered a baseball hotbed, but Bonnyville's Nik Cardinal has baseball in his blood.
His coach at Allan Hancock College, Chris Stevens, describes the 21-year-old Cardinal as an extremely hard-working pitcher who is constantly working on his craft.
We caught up with Cardinal to talk about his season at Allan Hancock College – where he won a Gold Glove for being the conference's best fielding pitcher – and the upcoming WMBL campaign. We also spoke with him about overcoming injury and dealing with family tragedy.


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Home » News » HU's partnership with TinCaps grows with picnic pavilion sponsorship
HU's partnership with TinCaps grows with picnic pavilion sponsorship
FOR RELEASE: Thursday, May 30, 2013
HUNTINGTON, Ind. Huntington University has gone out to the ballgame.
In continuation of a long partnership, Huntington University is now sponsoring the picnic pavilion at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne, Ind., the home of TinCaps baseball.
Huntington University has been a proud partner of the Fort Wayne minor league baseball for more than 10 seasons beginning with the Wizards and then following the team's move to Parkview Field as the TinCaps. Huntington has been involved by sponsoring the foul poles, the outfield signs and hosting a 300-person student orientation event each year. The new Huntington University Picnic Pavilion allows for the university to extend its partnership with the team and share more of its mission with the Fort Wayne community.
"We are excited to be able to showcase Huntington University in such a unique way within the ballpark," said Jeff Berggren, senior vice president for enrollment management and marketing. "We encourage all of our students, alumni and friends to show their Forester pride by going to Parkview Field this season and checking out the HU Picnic Pavilion. TinCaps baseball is a true family friendly activity, and Parkview Field has one of the best fan experiences in the nation. Huntington loves to partner with high-quality organizations, and the TinCaps certainly meet that standard."
The partnership with the TinCaps officially began in 2001 at Memorial Stadium with the Fort Wayne Wizards and will continue for many years to come.
"Personally, I am honored to partner with an institution that is centered on Christ. Scholarship. Service. It is a breath of fresh air to work with like-minded, Christ-centered individuals that want to work on partnership and not one-sided relationships," said Mike Nutter, TinCaps president. "As the parent of an 8 year old and a 9 year old, I can honestly say it would be an absolute pleasure if one of our kids decided to attend Huntington University. I know the quality of individuals associated with the college and the great education and sports options it provides."
The 2013 TinCaps season is already under way. Get your tickets at www.tincaps.com.
Gov. Holcomb Cuts Ribbon at HU
RISE & RUN


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Republican Mock Convention
2000-02-05T00:44:22-05:00https://images.c-span.org/defaults/capitol.jpgWashington and Lee University students convened their annual mock Republican convention which included nominating speeches and state delegations. Rep. Goodlatte spoke about the need to elect a Republican president and about the accomplishments of the Republican Congress. Former Education Secretary Bennett talked about U.S. history and the history of the Republican Party. He criticized President Clinton for lowering the moral tone of the nation. Former Senator Dole, 1996 Republican presidential candidate, delivered the keynote address about the great opportunities ahead for the Republican Party. He also talked about the Declaration of Independence. Student delegates gave nominating speeches for John McCain, Gary Bauer, George W. Bush, Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes. Governor Bush was nominated as the presidential candidate and Rep. J.C. Watts as the vice presidential candidate.
Washington and Lee University students convened their annual mock Republican convention which included nominating speeches and state… read more
Washington and Lee University students convened their annual mock Republican convention which included nominating speeches and state delegations. Rep. Goodlatte spoke about the need to elect a Republican president and about the accomplishments of the Republican Congress. Former Education Secretary Bennett talked about U.S. history and the history of the Republican Party. He criticized President Clinton for lowering the moral tone of the nation. Former Senator Dole, 1996 Republican presidential candidate, delivered the keynote address about the great opportunities ahead for the Republican Party. He also talked about the Declaration of Independence. Student delegates gave nominating speeches for John McCain, Gary Bauer, George W. Bush, Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes. Governor Bush was nominated as the presidential candidate and Rep. J.C. Watts as the vice presidential candidate. close
Filter by Speaker All Speakers Ashley Anderson William "Bill" J. Bennett Chris Dewhurst Bob Dole Bob Goodlatte Allison Ralston Jean Rowan Mark Schweppe Kelly Scott Mary Elizabeth Winfrey
Ashley Anderson Chair Washington and Lee University->Washington, DC
William "Bill" J. Bennett Co-Director Empower America
Chris Dewhurst Chairman Washington and Lee University->Arizona
Bob Dole U.S. Senator (Former) [R] Kansas
Bob Goodlatte U.S. Representative [R] Virginia
Allison Ralston Coordinator Washington and Lee University->Mock Convention
Jean Rowan Chairman Washington and Lee University->Maryland
Mark Schweppe Chairman Washington and Lee University->Mock Convention
Kelly Scott Chairman Washington and Lee University->New Jersey
Mary Elizabeth Winfrey Chairman Washington and Lee University->Texas
Washington and Lee UniversityWashington and Lee University
Public Affairs Event
Lexington, Virginia, United States
Feb 05, 2000 | 12:44am EST | C-SPAN 1
Feb 05, 2000 | 3:23pm EST | C-SPAN 1
Feb 05, 2000 | 4:59am EST | C-SPAN 2
The Cheating of America
Charles Lewis and Bill Allison talked about their book The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the…
An Evening with Dole and Clinton
As part of the Nation's Capital Distinguished Speakers Series, former Senator Dole and former President Clinton talked…
National Student-Parent Mock Election
High school students and their parents from across the country spoke on issues in the 1992 presidential election during…
Aviation Forecast
Richard Anderson delivered the keynote address at the opening day luncheon of the 33rd Annual FAA Aviation Forecast…


Reinforcing its commitment to constant development, Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), the national body for marketing has been certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) covering all its operations, including branch operations in Kandy and Matara.
SLIM received the ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 29990:2010 in recognition of its superior quality management systems and is one of the first organisations to obtain ISO 29990:2010 certification in Sri Lanka which is for Learning Service Providers (LSP), providing non formal education and training services. ISO 29990:2010 quality assurance standard enables to establish, implement, and maintain a management system which focuses on sustained management of design, delivery and evaluation of courses for its Learning Service Providers.
In addition, ISO 9001:2015 is an international standard for quality management systems, which demonstrates an organisation's ability to consistently provide products and services which meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements while achieving excellence in customer service and delivery.
The certification was awarded as a result of the five-year plan of SLIM, long term stability and exemplary corporate governance, which were supplemented by initiatives such as the incorporation of quality systems into operational processes and creating a new quality culture within processes which drive high SLIM standards.
Commenting on the certifications, SLIM President Pradeep Edward noted that it symbolises the institute's promise of delivering unmatched quality.
SLIM CEO/Executive Director Sanath Senanayake said that the certifications would support SLIM in its endeavour to develop world class marketers in Sri Lanka.
These standards give serious consideration to the demands of today's dynamic and globally interconnected world. Some of the key advancements include a greater emphasis on building a management system more aligned to each organisation's particular needs, greater senior leadership involvement and accountability, alignment of quality with wider business strategy, and risk-based thinking and opportunity identification. There are also less prescriptive requirements for documentation and alignment with other key management system standards through the use of a common structure and core text.
The certifying authority for SLIM ISO 9001:2015/ and ISO 29990:2010 quality management system is the Bureau Veritas Sri Lanka and these certifications are bound to maintain and continually enhance SLIM's high quality standards for years to come.
As the national body for Marketing in Sri Lanka, SLIM has been promoting marketing excellence and elevating the status of marketing since 1970. It is a member of the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), and is a member of the Board of Management of the Asia Marketing Federation, which is affiliated to the World Marketing Association.


Union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma may want everyone, in particular the Election Commission, to take a charitable view of his violation of the model code of conduct last week during the course of his election campaign in Uttar Pradesh.
But only the naive would believe him, after he even expressly dared the Commission to initiate action against him over his strident advocacy of sub-quota for Muslims. Certainly, he wasn't unaware of the fact that a similar violation by his ministerial colleague Salman Khurshid a few days earlier had prompted the Commission to take the unprecedented step of writing to president Pratibha Patil, seeking action against a defiant minister.
Verma's belated –and, in the face of a notice from the Commission–plea that his outbursts were a case of 'slip of the tongue' is, to say the least, disingenuous.
It is not amusing. When Verma made the assertions at an election rally in UP, seated along side him were the original offender, Khurshid, and the state election campaign in-charge Digvijay Singh.
As the chief campaign strategist of the Congress, Singh has not left anybody in any doubt about the party's single-minded pursuit of the Muslim electorate in the present Assembly elections. He is convinced that if the Congress has to do well in the state, it must win back the support of the Muslim who constitute nearly 17 per cent of the total UP electorate. How else does one explain Singh's countless claims in the recent past that the September, 2008 Batla House encounter by Delhi police against suspected Indian Mujahideen activists was a fake encounter, notwithstanding Union home minister P Chidambaram's repeated assertions to the contrary?
What is evident, therefore, is a conscious plan underlining these repeated poll code violations by party leaders. It appears they wouldn't mind attracting the Commission's wrath and attendant controversies their violations rake up as long as they serve a purpose – publicising their sub-quota commitment among the Muslim electorate. Not surprisingly, top party leaders have chosen to maintain silence about these violations.
Time has come for the Commission to consider if it can debar the code violators from the poll arena or even countermand polling in constituencies where these kinds of serious violations have occurred. It is bad for the evolution of healthy electoral practices in the country if a message gets across that the Commission is toothless when confronted with poll code violations by high-profile leaders belonging to major political parties.


eating freshly caught trout every day and drinking water from a mountain spring.
the Petroglyphs at Wells Petroglyph reserve, did several new drawings, and much more.
chance to stop, breathe, and meditate on being connected to the past, the present and the future.


text:
Kim Clarke
Kim Clarke, LL.B. (Manitoba), MLIS (Alberta) is the associate vice-provost (libraries and cultural resources) for research support, director of the Bennett Jones Law Library, and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Calgary. She obtained her LL.B. from the University of Manitoba in 1989 and her Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree from the University of Alberta in 1997. Kim articled and practised with Thompson Dorfman Sweatman in Winnipeg before serving as a legal analyst with the Manitoba Law Reform Commission. Upon graduating with her MLIS degree, Kim worked at Ohio State University and then at University of Pacific's McGeorge School of Law where she was the assistant dean for library and research services. She has taught introductory and advanced legal research courses at universities in both Canada and the United States over the past 16 years. Her scholarship interests include legal education, teaching legal research, and library administration. She has presented nationally and internationally on these topics, including at the annual meetings of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Association of American Law Schools, and at the 2013 Joint Study Institute.


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Anne Dias Griffin: I should be allowed to argue I was coerced on prenup
Anne Dias Griffin
Anne Dias Griffin says her estranged husband's recent court filings misrepresent the events that led to the signing of a prenuptial agreement, and her attorneys are asking the court to strike Ken Griffin's request for a judgment on the contract.
The details are revealed in documents filed today in Cook County Circuit Court by Ms. Griffin's attorneys, in response to filings from her husband in their divorce case.
In three separate filings, Ms. Griffin's attorneys argue that the prenup is not valid on various counts. Specifically, they contend it was "dictated" by Mr. Griffin and that it was "procured by duress, coercion and undue influence." The documents also address Ms. Griffin's personal wealth and whether Mr. Griffin spends as much time as he says with their children.
According to the documents, Ms. Griffin didn't learn until "many years later" that the psychologist who met with the couple before their wedding day was "Mr. Griffin's psychologist."
The Griffins had "argued intensely over Anne's refusal to sign the agreement," and the day before their rehearsal dinner, Mr. Griffin "urged that Anne meet with him and a psychologist" to work out their differences, according to the court documents. It was "under the guise of a meeting with a neutral and impartial third party," the documents say, that Ms. Griffin finally signed the document. But because Mr. Griffin had a relationship with the psychologist, the meeting was "neither neutral nor impartial," her lawyers say.
For that reason, the attorneys continue, the court should reject Mr. Griffin's request to validate the prenup by issuing a declaratory judgment on the issue. Her filings also ask the court to strike allegations regarding whether the couple received therapy as part of that pre-marriage meeting, which would put the issue under the umbrella of the state's Mental Health Act.
"By causing Anne, an unwitting participant, to attend the meeting with the psychologist under false pretenses, Kenneth destroyed any confidentiality that might have existed," the court filing states. "Anne's meeting with Kenneth's psychologist, with whom she had no prior relationship or knowledge of, arranged solely at Kenneth's direction, the purpose of which was misrepresented to her, hardly classifies Anne — or Kenneth for that matter — as one who is 'seeking treatment' and certainly does not establish the type of 'therapeutic relationship' which the act is designed to protect."
A spokeswoman for Mr. Griffin declined to comment.
NET WORTH IN DISPUTE
The filings come a month after Mr. Griffin, the billionaire CEO of Citadel Corp., asked for a declaratory judgment on the validity of the prenup so as to resolve the extent of litigation of their divorce. His lawyers also asked the court to determine that the prenup doesn't cause Ms. Griffin any undue hardship.
The latest filings by Ms. Griffin also address Mr. Griffin's contention about her net worth. The documents acknowledge "she has net assets of approximately $50 million or more." But that wealth could have been greater had she been able to work. The Griffins were married in 2003.
Ms. Griffin is founder of Aragon Global Management, a hedge-fund company that she launched in New York in 2001. She also has funded a for-profit online media company called Reboot Illinois.
Mr. Griffin's "computation does not factor in what Anne would likely have earned had she been able to maintain her full-time career as a hedge-fund manager," the documents state.
The filings also refute Mr. Griffin's claims that he spent nights in the family home or vacationed with Ms. Griffin and their children during the past year. "Kenneth was physically present in the same location in which Anne and the children have vacationed, but (she) denies that he 'vacationed with' them," the documents state.
The court documents also have Ms. Griffin denying "that Kenneth has 'day to day involvement' with the children."
ACRIMONY RISING
Her court filings are the latest in a war of the roses that began in July, when Mr. Griffin filed for divorce. At the time, Ms. Griffin was traveling with their three young children.
With each court filing, the couple's accusations have become less and less civil. He has painted her as a money-grubber who isn't satisfied with the payments she's already received as part of signing that prenup — more than $40 million. She says he
">used "coercion"
to get her to sign the prenup in the first place. Mr. Griffin says she knew full well the terms of the prenup, or else she wouldn't have returned an extra $1 million in overpayment as set forth by the premarital document, according to his filings last month.
Up until their divorce battle, the couple was known for their generosity and even gentility. They have given tens of millions to civic, educational and cultural institutions throughout Chicago. They attend events sponsored by the exclusive Harvard Club. Their $19 million donation to the Art Institute of Chicago led to a portion of the new wing being named Griffin Court. The couple also sponsored the Griffin Early Childhood Center charter school and have contributed to numerous political efforts. Mr. Griffin was a major funder of Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner's political campaign.


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Mississippi Now Has Timeline For Medical Marijuana Rollout
MC News January 12, 2021 Mississippi Now Has Timeline For Medical Marijuana Rollout2021-01-13T06:52:51+00:00 Oregon Marijuana News No Comment
Roughly five months. That is apparently when Mississippians can expect their newly approved medical marijuana program to begin to take shape.
Two months after voters in the Magnolia State approved a measure legalizing medical cannabis, officials in Mississippi are previewing what the program's implementation will look like in the new year.
According to local television station WJTV, the next few months will see the Mississippi Department of Health examine best plans for implementation. By July, according to the station, the department "will outline the rules and framework"; on August 15 of this year, "licenses will be distributed, and then the program would officially start."
WJTV reported that "all medical marijuana" in Mississippi will be regulated by the department, something Ken Newburger, the head of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, told the station was an ideal arrangement.
"Because it's a medical program and everything about it needs to be handled from a health medicine perspective, the State Department of Health was the best choice. Most other states that have good, functioning medical marijuana programs chose the State Department of Health as their regulatory body. So that's really why we felt like it was the right place," Newburger told WJTV.
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