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Category: Strategic News
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Massive New Jersey Corruption / Politics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Three city mayors, two state politicians, several city councilmen and five rabbis were among 44 people arrested across New Jersey yesterday when federal agents cracked an alleged Sopranos-style crime ring accused of bribery, money laundering and trafficking body parts and counterfeit handbags.
Read full article... Read full article...
Artificial Brain 10 Years Away / Politics / Strategic News
A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed.
Iframes Injection Trojan Downloader Virus Hacking Sites and Desktops Protection / sitenews / Strategic News
The Market Oracle web site was the victim of being hacked on Saturday the 23rd of August 2008 at 10.42am (CST)
The site was brought down for 5 hours on Saturday, following which we managed to bring the site back online, following which we attempted to determine exactly what had happened to bring the site down.
Site Down for 50 minutes - Attack and Server Load Issues / sitenews / Strategic News
The site was down earlier today for about 50 minutes, this was due to excessive server load apparently caused by an denial of service attack which crashed our main server and the back up host was only able to cope with the load for a few minutes hence the account suspension message, until the main server was rebooted.
Top 50,000 web sites ranked by traffic as measured by Alexa / sitenews / Strategic News
Despite there being hundreds of millions of website's around the world. The fact is that the top 50,000 website's account for approximately 50% of the worlds internet traffic. Alexa is one of the few organisation's that is both able to measure traffic accurately for sites that feature in the worlds top 50,000, and makes their traffic rankings available to the general public via their toolbar and site for easy comparison.
Market Oracle Traffic Ranks in the Top 69,000 Global Website's - Alexa / sitenews / Strategic News
The Market Oracle continues to go from strength to strength, now passing into the top 69,000 World Traffic Website's as measured by Alexa.com's unique base of tens of millions of web user's.
The key reasons for our continuing success are :
The Market Oracle's aim has always been to provide quality content for FREE, so as to advance the debate on market analysis and forecasts without any limitations, and to provide a non competing platform for authors from across the world to contribute towards.
Server Upgrades in Progress / sitenews / Strategic News
Please note access to the MarketOracle Site maybe erratic during the period 6th May to 8th May 2007. This is due to DNS propagation. DNS propagation can take up to 72 hours to fully complete for all Domain Name Servers, so some users may experience problems in site access. If so, then please again try later.
Sarah J.
New website facility this weekend - Easier to locate the articles you want to read / sitenews / Strategic News
Thanks to Tim77's suggestion, The Market Oracle website will introduce a new facility this weekend, making it much easier for site visitors to find the articles that they want.
Tim77, emailed to us that he wishes that he could easily find like articles to the ones he is reading, as the Topic categories contain far too many articles.
Server Move In Progress / sitenews / Strategic News
Please note that the MarketOracle Server will be moved to a new data centre at 2am GMT. This will affect site access whilst DNS propagation takes place. DNS propagation can take up to 24 hours to fully complete for all Domain Name Servers, so some users may experience problems in site access. If so, then keep retrying, as your browser will query alternative name servers during the 24 hour transfer period.
US and Global Economy Strong and inflation under control - Henry Paulson / Economics / Strategic News
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson expressed confidence in the global economy - "We have a very strong global economy," Paulson said after a meeting with South Korean Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu. "We have a global economy with low inflation, high levels of liquidity and I feel very comfortable with the global economy."
Dow Jones Index gave 150 point false Index reading on Tuesdays crash - Who profited? / Stock-Markets / Strategic News
By: Brady_Willett
Late Tuesday afternoon, Dow Jones Indexes made a seemingly minor confession about a technical glitch that took place earlier that day. Specifically, in the middle of Tuesday's market decline – beginning at 1:50 pm precisely – Dow Jones Indexes began incorrectly reporting the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow). In other words, instead of displaying say 12,200 - the actual trading level of the 30-Dow components - the Dow was showing 12,350. Ever vigilant, they eventually identified the problem and "switched over to a back-up system" at 3:00PM.
Now there is no question that computers sometimes do err: instances of market miscalculation and/or miscommunication have dotted the financial ledger in the past - like between the futures and cash markets during the crash of 1987. However, and although a potentially innocent event, the interesting thing about Tuesday's computer malfunction is that it persisted without being recognized for 70-minutes! The question to ask, naturally enough, is what on earth was going on during this 70-minute interval?
Bank of England February Minutes of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - To Hold UK Interest Rates / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
The latest MPC minutes show that the decision to keep interest rates on hold at 5.25% was tighter than expected, with two members (Tim Besley and Andrew Sentance) voting to raise interest. And 7 electing to adopt a wait and see attitude following the last rise, and better the inflation figures for January. This implies that a future rate rise is still on the cards.
The Market Oracle Server Upgrade in Progress / sitenews / Strategic News
The Market Oracle, is in the process of upgrading to a new servers. In the meantime the site is hosted on a temporary backup server, which may not be able to cope with access during periods of high demand. If you experience any difficulties, please try again later.
We hope to complete the upgrade by Thursday the 15th of February.
Bank of England leaves UK Interest Rates on hold at 5.25% / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
Despite speculation of another rise in interest rates, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep interest rates on hold at 5.25%, following January's surprise rise to 5.25%. In a wait and see attitude, hoping that January's rise will be enough to curb pay deals and inflation.
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) Attack EMail on Article about Gold Price Manipulation / Commodities / Strategic News
By: Clive_Maund
After my article Gold price manipulation - DOES IT MATTER? was posted yesterday on www.clivemaund.com and The Market Oracle, I was somewhat surprised to find myself the subject of a personal attack by a Chris Powell, who is apparently the Secretary/Treasurer of an organization going by the acronym of GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee), that was delivered in the form of an Email circulated to the "Friends of GATA and Gold", the contents of which are reproduced unedited below.
This unwarranted attack, which was foolishly made not just against myself but against Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter and Technical Analysts generally, is something I feel entitled and obliged to respond to, and you will find my response lower down the page, but first read the contents of Mr Powell's Email...
Uranium Bull Market Set to Continue During February / Commodities / Strategic News
By: James_Finch
Buyers have begun to show willingness in paying higher prices for uranium oxide (U3O8). Sellers remain confident they can get even higher prices. The recent six-week stalemate ended when Trade Tech raised the uranium spot price indicator to $75/pound in the consulting firm's month-end report.
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) - Award Winning Premier Current Account with the 12% interest Premier Regular Saver Offer ends on 7th of Feb 2007 / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
Alliance & Leicester's award winning 'Premier Current Account' with the associated record paying 12% AER interest Premier Regular Saver Account, closes to new accounts on 7th of February 2007. So if you have been waiting to open an new A&L current account with the 12% Regular Saver, then its better to act now whilst time remains, as the 12% Regular Saver offer will be withdrawn as of 7th February 2007.
The Key Account Specs of the A&L Premier Current Account / 12% AER Premier Regular Saver are -
Microsoft Vista goes on Sale Today 30th Jan 07 - But NO Mad Rush to Buy / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Certman
The big day for Microsoft finally came, when consumers could buy one of the 5 versions of Vista as it went on general release. Yes that's FIVE versions, you are probably only aware of the 4 consumer versions, but there is also a developers edition which makes the total 5.
Halifax (HBOS) Bank Error - Posts account details of 75,000 customers by mistake to an unsuspecting customer / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
Halifax the Bank that likes to give a little Extra, surely did when it posted off the bank details of 75,000 customers in 5 parcels to Stephanie McLaughlin of Aberdeen.
Ms McLaughlin had requested a copy of her own bank statement, but instead Halifax sent her 2,500 sheets of paper containing the bank details of 75,000 customers, which included names, sort codes, account numbers and details of transactions.
UK Tax 2005-06 Self Assessment Tax Return Filing Deadline - 31st January 2007 / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
The billboards across the UK seem to have been taken over with the JAN 31 deadline for filing of self assessment tax returns, for the Tax year 2005-06. Failure to meet the deadline will mean an automatic £100 fine and ongoing penalty and interest charges for further delays in both filing of the return and making payment of tax due.
Upgrade options for Microsoft XP to Vista / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
Less than 2 weeks to go before Microsoft Vista goes on general release.
The favoured install option is to perform a clean install, however if you do need to upgrade your current version of XP to Vista then please see the table below to determine which version of XP can upgrade to which version of Vista.
UK inflation hits the Bank of England's 3% CPI limit / Economics / Strategic News
The UK inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), hit the upper limit of 3% today. The highest level in over a decade supports the Bank of England's surprise decision to raise interest rates last week to 5.25% from 5%. (Bank of England raises UK interest rates to 5.25%, catching the financial markets off guard )
Bank of England raises UK interest rates to 5.25%, catching the financial markets off guard / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
The Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.25% to 5.25%, whilst most of the city of London was caught of guard and had already started to consider the next move for a cut in interest rates. If you have been following our forecasts and analysis at the market oracle you will be aware that we are expecting interest rates to rise to 5.50% this year and possibly even as high as 5.75%. Whilst the first anticipated rise in interest rates was Feb. 07, this rise is one month early. Though only one of 50 economists polled by Reuters predicted an increase in interest rates.
Russia cuts oil to Europe in response to Belarus syphoning off thousands barrels of oil / Commodities / Strategic News
Belarus smarting from the doubling in the price of gas agreed just over a week ago, started to illegally syphon oil from the Druzhba pipeline,after the Russian pipeline operator Transneft refused to pay a retaliatory duty imposed by Belarus of $45 per metric ton of Russian oil shipped to Western Europe in pipelines that cross Belarus.
NHS runs out of money - Despite a £100 billion budget , time to privatise ? / Politics / Strategic News
NHS trusts up and down Britain have reportedly run out of money, and as a consequence are cancelling routine operations such as treatments for varicose veins, teeth etc. We highlighted this possibility in our article of 25th December 06 - The NHS is killing Britain as it wastes tens of billions every year , Hospital trusts continue to request billions more as GP's are told to refer fewer patients to hospitals. As well as hospital departments being told to turn patents away.
Whilst in the meantime, the debt that has built up through utter incompetence and mis-management by NHS Trusts CEO's, that have in some cases tripled salaries of none front-line staff, which is the primary reason why £100 billion per year is not enough to meet the needs of patents, despite reduced patient load due to lengthening in waiting lists
Site Down For Maintenance 2-1-07 - 5.45pm to 11pm GMT / sitenews / Strategic News
The Market Oracle website will be down between 5.45pm to 11pm(GMT) on 2nd Jan 07 for Server Maintenance / Upgrades.
Microsoft Vista - More security flaws revealed in the new operating system / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
More security flaws discovered in Microsoft's Vista operating system, weeks prior to going on general release to the public next month by a Silicon Valley security firm Determina and a russian programmer.
Serious security breaches include :
A flaw in Internet Explorer 7, that could allow hackers to take over any computers that visit a rogue website set-up to exploit the flaw in the browser software.
Another flaw allows users upgrade their privileges on a computer, potentially allowing them to change system settings and to install software as well as access the wider corporate network.
Another flaw found in Microsoft Exchange lets anyone shut down the mail server by sending an infected e-mail to the server
Shell sells controlling block of shares in Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom for $7.5 billion / Companies / Strategic News
Russia's state controlled gas monopoly Gazprom has purchased 50 percent plus one share in Sakhalin Energy , the project operator of Sakhalin-2 oil and gas venture in the Far East, for $7.45 billion, in a deal that consolidates Putins control over Russia's energy resources.The agreement was announced at the Kremlin, in a meeting between President Putin, and executives from Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell as well as top executives from Japanese shareholders, comes after months of mounting pressure from the Russian regulators.
US Retail sales gain by a surprising 1% , reducing expectations of an early Fed interest rate cut / Economics / Strategic News
Two reports released on Wednesday showed retail sales surging in November by 1%, contrary to the expectations of a hard landing for the economy. The market had been expecting a rise of just 0.1%. Bonds immediately fell and the dollar strengthened on the news as the markets reevaluate the expectations of an early cut in US interest rates.
Russians file $10 billion lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell for environmental damages on Sakhalin-2 project / Companies / Strategic News
Russia's Environment agency Rosprirodnadzor, today said it was to file lawsuits against foreign oil companies developing the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas fields during early 2007. The agency estimated initial costs of the damage at $10 billions but could rise as high as $50 billion. Intense pressure from the Russian government is forcing Royal Dutch Shell to give up control of the lucrative $30 billion Sakhalin-2 project to state gas monopoly Gazprom as an attempt to elevate the pressure and get the project moving forward. Shell holds a controlling 55 percent stake in Sakhalin Energy. Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi own 25 percent and 20 percent.
ECB raises interest rates to 3.5%, whilst the BOE keeps rates on hold at 5% / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
In widely expected interest rates moves, the European Central bank raised interest rates to 3.5% (a 5 year high) and the Bank of England kept rates on hold at 5%.
Gordon Browns Pre-budget report increases petrol by 1.25 a litre / Economics / Strategic News
Gordon Brown presented his last pre-budget report before he is destined to takeover from Tony Blair as the next Prime Minister of the UK.
He pledged increased expenditure on education and defense. Brown also reiterated that Britain had enjoyed the longest post-war period of continuous growth, now sustaining a record 38 quarters. Ten years ago Britain was 7th in the Group of Seven, bottom of the league for national income per head. In the last two years, Britain has been second only to the USA," he said. Brown also raised UK's growth forecast to 2.75 percent for 2006 and 3.25 percent for 2007.
Who owns the world ? Most of the wealth in the hands of 2% of the people / Economics / Strategic News
Whilst most of the worlds attention is focused on the GDP growth rates of China and India, a study published by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research (part of the United Nations University), reveals that the worlds wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and a handful of developed Pacific rim countries. With 2% of adults owning more than 50% of the worlds wealth.
Pfizer shares plunge after new heart drug Torcetrapib fails clinical trials / Companies / Strategic News
By: Phillipa_Green
Pfizer shares fell by nearly 12 per cent after the worlds largest drug manufacturer, announced it was halting trails of its heart medicine Torcetrapib , after it revealed deaths and cardiovascular problems among people taking the drug during the clinical trials. The stock was also downgraded by several market analysts on concern that Pfizer's revenue growth will now weaken.
US Dollar tumbles against most major currencies falling to historic lows against the British Pound and the Euro / Currencies / Strategic News
The dollar hits new lows against several major currencies, plunging to 1.96 Dollars to the British Pound, 1.33 Dollars to the European Euro, and to 115.5 Japanese Yen to the Dollar. The recent downtrend has been developing since early October, since when US interest rate expectations of further rises have shifted to a possibility of cuts in the new year in the face of a slowing economy on the back of a slump in the US housing market.
The downtrend was recently further reinforced by the outcome of the US election and rumors that the Chinease were planning on significantly diversifying their reserves away from the dollar, including comments made by the Governor of the Chinease Central bank as implying as such.
British Pound (GBP/$) Euro (EUR/$)
Japanese Yen ($/JPY) Canadian Dollar ($/Can$)
Japanese economy continues to grow as the dollar weakens / Currencies / Strategic News
The Japanese economy grew by 0.5 percent in the three months to September, with GDP at 2.0 percent, showing a seventh straight quarter of positive growth, according to the Japanese Cabinet Office, beating market expectation of just 1.2%. This supports the view of a further strengthening in Japanese stock and housing markets.
FTSE 100 falls to 6160 on oil price fall and MPC minutes / Stock-Markets / Strategic News
Despite moving higher into mid-day, the FTSE slumped to close 42 points lower on the back of a $2 drop in the price of Crude OIl to $55 and fears of a rate rise. A large part of the decline was attributed to declines in a few stocks, namely, DSG, BP, RDSB, Vodafone and HSBC, which pulled the rest of the market lower later in the day on the back continuing worries about the US Economy. Also many stocks went ex-dividend today which further depressed prices. Read full article... Read full article...
US Housing slump continues as housing starts plunge 27% / Housing-Market / Strategic News
Contrary to Alan Greenspans comments last month that the US housing market was showing signs of having bottomed, the latest data released by Commerce Department show that the housing market is still weak and likely to continue to drift lower well into 2007
Sony releases Playstation 3 (PS3), after giving Microsoft Xbox360 a 12 month head start / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
Sony finally releases Play Station 3 in the US and Japan, though other parts of the world will have to wait a while. This might sound like good news for US & Japanese game players, but Sony is not expected to be able to satisfy the demand until well into 2007, so most game players wanting the Sony 3 will still have to wait a while longer. The official price for the PS3's is between $549 and $659 (depending on extras), but some of the PS3s are being offered on eBay for up to five times their retail price i.e. $2,500.
Dispute between Biscit CSP (V21 V Two One) and Netservices leaves thousands of internet users disconnected and in limbo / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
As of 15th November, thousands of internet users across the UK, woke up to find their internet service with V21 has been disabled with a message on screen informing them that due to a legal dispute V21, which has recently been acquired by Biscit, would no longer be supplying their broadband service. Instead, customers had the option of moving their account to a company called ezeeDSL, or waiting until 24 November to have their service terminated so they could get broadband from a different provider. Read full article... Read full article...
First Direct to end Free Banking for some by charging 10 pounds per month, which can easily be avoided / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
First Direct (HSBC's online banking arm) is to charge Current Account customers a fee of £10 per month if they do not deposit £1,500 per month or maintain an average balance of £1,500. Other banks could follow suit to recoup money lost as regulators clamped down on fees in other areas.
The £10 fee will be charged from the 1 February 2007, if the only product held with First Direct is a Bank Account or Cheque Account and if paying in less than £1,500 per month or maintaining an average monthly balance of £1,500 or less. The banking fee will be charged monthly in arrears, so the first charges will be debiting accounts during the month of March 2007.
How to Avoid paying the £10 monthly fee Read full article... Read full article...
Microsoft Vista operating system to be released on 30th January 2007 / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
The release of Microsoft's new operating 'Vista' has been scheduled for 30th January 2007. It was originally expected to be released in Mid 2006, but the launch date has repeatedly been postponed. Microsoft had to agree to make changes to Vista in order to avoid antitrust actions and to prevent a delay in releasing the product in Europe. The EU threatened in March to ban Vista over concerns that software included in the operating system violated antitrust laws.
Microsoft has scheduled a press conference for November 30th, to announce the new operating system, along with Office 2007. The releases, mark major updates to Microsoft's two key money makers. Vista's debut has been a long time in the making. Microsoft announced detailed plans for a new Windows release, code-named Longhorn, in October 2003.
China's plan to diversify $1trillion reserves sends the dollar plunging / Currencies / Strategic News
The statement by the Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Thursday that 'China has a clear plan to diversify its $1 trillion foreign exchange reserves and is considering various options to do so', sends the dollar reeling in response.
The diversification comment made by Zhou, was in retaliation to Democratic US Senator Schumer an leading US-China trade/currency critic's celebratory comments following the Democrats election victories. Senator Schumer, has been pushing for tariffs on Chinese goods amid charges it artificially keeps an undervalued yuan to make exports cheap. Along with others, Schumer wants a 27.5 percent levy on imports from China
China's currency reserves pass $1 trillion and likely to double to $2 trillion by 2010 / Economics / Strategic News
China's currency reserves pass a record $1 trillion, and continue to grow at a rate of $20 billions per month. China's reserves have grown from 100billion in 1996 to $1 trillions today and are expected to double to $2 trillions by 2010. Now China accounts for almost 20% of the world's foreign exchange reserves, Japan being second with some $900 billions of reserves, also mostly in US dollars.
The reason for the growth in reserves is primarily due to the under valuation of the Yuan which in turn is contributing to the large trade deficit that the US is running.
The UK Housing Boom continues as Abbey relaxes lending rules to X5 to further inflate the housing bubble / Housing-Market / Strategic News
The Abbey is to offer home buyers mortgages of up to five times their salary to help them cope with the booming housing market. The traditional limit has been 3.5 times salaries which has gradually been relaxed over recent years by many of the prime mortgage lenders and in some cases will lend as much as 7.5 times income depending on an individual's circumstances.
'With house prices rising and the market going that way, people are having to borrow more to be able to afford a home,' an Abbey spokesman said last night.
'What we are doing is offering people the opportunity to borrow up to five times their salary. This is all dependent on affordability, salary, credit rating and deposit. We do not want to bankrupt anybody by doing this, but the high earners out there, with healthy deposits behind them who want to buy these houses that are just slightly out of reach will now be able to do that.'
Metals and Mining Sector Consolidation likely as Russia's SUAL targets Anglo American / Companies / Strategic News
With rumours of Russia's metals giant seeking to takeover South Africa's Anglo American, this on the back of a merger between russian minerals giants RUSAL and SUAL, creating a $25-30 billion company supplying one-eighth of the world's aluminum and 16 percent of its alumna.
The new russian giant is headed by Brian Gilbertson, former chief executive of BHP Billiton who wants to create a similar diversified company to BHP Billinton, which he was instrumental in creating in 2001. It may end up being called Anglo American Russian. Brian Gilbertson, former chief executive of BHP Billiton, reportedly wants to cobble together the global mining company Anglo American with Russian Aluminum.
India's takeover of British Steel as Corus backs Tata's takeover bid / Companies / Strategic News
Reports say that Corus, UK based steel giant, has backed Tata's $9 billion take over bid. According to the Financial Times , the board of Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steel maker, has recommended 5.1 billion pound takeover bid to the shareholders.
And the report says that Corus will make a statement about this, possibly as soon as Friday. The move will end the chances of any potential counter-bidders for the world's eighth biggest steel maker. Novolipetsk and Severstal, two Russian steel companies, and CSN, a Brazilian steel maker, are thought by some steel industry observers to be interested in making a counter bid.
Sharp fall in US Wholesale Inflation whilst Core inflation rises strongly / Economics / Strategic News
US Wholesale inflation fell by the largest amount in more than three years in September 06, as a record drop in the cost of gasoline offset rising prices in a number of other areas. The U.S. Labour Department reported that wholesale prices overall fell 1.3 per cent last month, nearly double the decline that analysts had been expecting. Gasoline prices plummeted 22.2 per cent, the biggest one-month decrease on record. But at the same time core inflation rose strongly by 0.6%.
Online Gambling Companies hit by Fundamentalist Law !!! / Companies / Strategic News
Today online gambling stocks took a big tumble ! As the senate passed a law on Friday effectively banning online gambling sites. PartyGaming alone saw over £2 billion slashed from its market value as its shares more than halved, crashing 60p to 46p. It was by far the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 index. There were equally large losses in the rest of the sector. Sportingbet, which also said it has abandoned its planned merger with rival firm World Gaming, saw its shares collapse by 63%, from 118.25p to 68p. Shares in 888 tumbled by 34% to 97p. Read full article... Read full article...
Muslim Outrage at Danish Cartoons / Politics / Strategic News
Worldwide protest prompted by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have spread to New Zealand and explosively, to Beirut, where the Danish Embassy was set ablaze. There, thousands of Lebanese troops and police used tear gas to quell riots and the country's Interior Minister has resigned. In Afghanistan, one protestor was shot dead and others were wounded. And in Turkey, a Catholic priest has been gunned down on the doors of his church in apparent retaliation. And, as Stephen McDonell reports, now the cartoons have been published in Australia, where debate continues over insensitive media comment versus freedom of speech.


OurDigitalWorld new virtual exhibits on Ontario's multicultural history.
There are lots of digital divides. There is a literacy divide (understanding the production of the things you see), an access divide (having the infrastructure in the first place), and then there are representation divides – seeing people like you in the materials that circulate online. As archives and heritage organizations increasingly digitize and share their unique historical collections, it can sometimes feel like we're widening that gap in representation, not closing it. I experienced this firsthand on a recent historical research project focusing on Ontario's multicultural history.
OurDigitalWorld is a nonprofit that works with hundreds of Ontario libraries, archives, historical societies, and interest groups to make digitized historical materials online and accessible. With funding from the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, we are undertaking a series of projects bringing together materials from across Ontario to explore the histories of women and multicultural communities. We've assembled three virtual exhibits: one on Ontario's women's history, one on black history, and one on Japanese history. These exhibits include artifacts, photos, news clippings, manuscripts, maps, and drawings from over 50 cultural heritage organizations in Ontario.
The first stage of the project was to build the virtual exhibits and to show what can be done when we bring hundreds of heritage collections together. The next stage will allow for an expansion of these virtual exhibits and develop curriculum resources which will allow Ontario public school educators to bring these primary sources into the classroom. We plan to produce a range of educational resources including: exercises and activities, homework assignments, assessment rubrics, presentation slides and handouts, and multimedia modules that students can explore, appropriate for a variety of grade levels. All of this material will be made openly available under Creative Commons licenses, so that people can reuse and adapt them however they want.
I'm a regular reader of Active History and always find myself inspired by its content. In fact, after reading about Ontario's history curriculum, I reached out to Dr. Samantha Cutrara to talk about this stage of our project. We'll be working together this summer, schedules permitting, on ways to bring primary sources to Ontario students. I also spoke to teachers, archivists, and librarians who have experience using primary materials in the classroom—to talk about archival literacy and how best to share and teach with materials that deal with trauma, such as oppression of and discrimination against underrepresented groups.
While building resources relating to Ontario's multicultural past I've found, so far, that marginalized communities have worked tirelessly to document themselves and share their histories: the Ontario Black History Society, the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, and SEDAI were great resources for timelines, exhibits, facts, and materials. Published books helped quite a bit—from children's books about Richard Pierpoint and Henry Bibb to the fantastic book about early black settlements by the late Linda Brown-Kubisch.
Rarely, though, have the established heritage organizations in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada made overtures to help preserve and steward these materials. A fantastic exception is Brock University's collection of documents and photographs capturing 19th century POC, donated by Rick Bell, a firefighter in the St Catharines area who found this family memorabilia in his inherited home. Many of the materials are so old Rick and his family aren't able to identify the people in portraits, but it's still sadly uncommon to see so many beautiful photos of Black Canadians or Americans from the 19th century. As we move into the 20th century we see more candids, celebratory moments, and commemorative photos before heading off to war.
In contrast, at our National Gallery of Canada, part of their permanent exhibit is a selection of studio portraits from the 19th century where you can learn about how much white settlers liked to photograph their pets.
Frankly, while white people are documented both as accomplished individuals with serious achievements, and as part of everyday life in candids, portraits, and group photos, people of colour get documented only when they overcome the significant hurdles of racism and prejudice to become "first black ____" or "first Japanese ____." Rarely are they present in the archive as regular everyday citizens with full and fulfilling lives. While communities have collected their own documentation, established heritage organizations such as our public libraries and municipal archives aren't making collecting and digitizing these materials a priority. That needs to change.
I also found, during the process of building these exhibits, the utility of working iteratively with Wikipedia: looking up dates and factoids, at first, but then adding new information as I went along. For instance, I was able to add links to several historical newspapers where Agnes Macphail's political journalism was published; during her tenure as an MP in Ottawa, she often sent columns and reports to rural publications. While I was there I noted some glaring omissions: her profession in the introductory info-box was listed solely as "schoolteacher," not "journalist" or "politician"—an embarrassing inaccuracy for someone so notable. You can see my before-and-after changes at this link. In total, I improved 12 relevant Wikipedia articles before I curbed the impulse for the sake of time.
OurDigitalWorld is motivated by Ontario's Culture Strategy, which emphasizes, among other things, diversifying our curriculum and diversifying our online culture. That includes heritage and history, and means that we need to shift our focus away from documenting the most famous people of our past (who, through systemic advantages, are rarely non-white and non-male), and start filling in the gaps. "Documenting the now" should mean not just taking up community history projects (especially as a way to mitigate our dwindling community journalism) but prioritizing materials from those least represented in the past.
There has been a 20th-century shift, in official document repositories like the Archives of Ontario or Library and Archives Canada, away from simply being the depository of government and business records. Archives now focus on the everyday, the family, the grassroots, and the bottom-up. This sounds great, in theory, and sounded great to many an archivist of the past 40 years—but it does tend to perpetuate existing scales of injustice.
White families with money and prestige and a sense of their own history often have rooms full of photo albums, scrapbooks, and family documentation; the retired members of the family had time and energy to exert on obsessive genealogical documentation and finding links back to Charlemagne. A refugee family who arrived in Canada in the 1980s with nothing may have quite a collection of documentation from that time onwards—and may have been able to persevere into economic stability and even prosperity—but by virtue of their citizenship, their family history will be cut off at the point of entry into the country. Anything further back has to be solicited by way of oral history and memoir—which takes time and money, and isn't in a traditional archivist's skillset. We see this notably in the history of Japanese-Ontarians, where almost every person in our documentation has some tie to World War II internment, which included being robbed of their homes, businesses, and possessions, including family heirlooms and memory objects.
So what's next, after this part of the project? Ideally, active solicitation from underrepresented groups to keep diversifying the digital historical record. Our VITA platform has a contribution module that allows anyone to upload digital documents (photos, stories, documents, audio, video) and describe them for us. We want to coordinate a province-wide contribution campaign that helps citizens across Ontario pinpoint the best place to digitally donate their materials—and, ideally, encourage analogue donations to physical archives and special collections as well.
First, though, we want to get diverse materials into the classroom. If you're an Ontario educator, we want to talk to you! Please consider this post an invitation to contribute your knowledge and expertise, and offer us feedback or suggestions. We'd love to hear from you.
Allana Mayer is the Media Coordinator for OurDigitalWorld, an Ontario-based nonprofit. She is an archivist, researcher, and writer in Hamilton, and writes about art and culture, technology, copyright, and history.
The access divide seems to me to be the biggest challenge. Consider the extensive collection of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, very little of which is digitized, and likely will not be for quite some time due to (what else?) extremely limited resources. They have a goldmine of oral history recordings… most of which are on cassette tape, in bankers' boxes.


text:
@interface ViewController () <UIScrollViewDelegate, MandelbrotViewDelegate>

@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIScrollView *scrollView;
@property (nonatomic) MandelbrotView *mandelbrotView;
@property (nonatomic) CGPoint pinchPoint;

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
     _mandelbrotView = [[MandelbrotView alloc] initWithParam:-2.0f cxmax:1.0f cymin:-2.0f cymax:2.0f rect:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds delegate:self];
     [_scrollView addSubview:_mandelbrotView];

    [_scrollView.pinchGestureRecognizer addTarget:self action:@selector(checkPoint)];
}

- (void)viewDidLayoutSubviews {
    _scrollView.contentSize = CGSizeMake(_scrollView.frame.size.width, _scrollView.frame.size.height);
}

- (void)checkPoint {
    _pinchPoint = [_scrollView.pinchGestureRecognizer locationInView:_mandelbrotView];
}

#pragma mark - UIScrollView delegate.
- (UIView *) viewForZoomingInScrollView:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {
    return _mandelbrotView;
}

- (void)scrollViewDidEndZooming:(UIScrollView *)scrollView withView:(UIView *)view atScale:(CGFloat)scale {
    if ( scale > 2.0f ) {
        _scrollView.userInteractionEnabled = NO;

        double width  = _mandelbrotView.cxmax - _mandelbrotView.cxmin;
        double height = _mandelbrotView.cymax - _mandelbrotView.cymin;
        double x = (_pinchPoint.x / [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.width)  * width  + _mandelbrotView.cxmin;
        double y = (_pinchPoint.y / [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.height) * height + _mandelbrotView.cymin;
        NSLog(@"%lf %lf", x, y);

        double cxmin = x - (width  / (2 * scale));
        double cxmax = x + (width  / (2 * scale));
        double cymin = y - (height / (2 * scale));
        double cymax = y + (height / (2 * scale));

        NSLog(@"%lf %lf %lf %lf", cxmin, cxmax, cymin, cymax);
        MandelbrotView *newMandelbrot = [[MandelbrotView alloc] initWithParam:cxmin cxmax:cxmax cymin:cymin cymax:cymax rect:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds delegate:self];

        [_mandelbrotView removeFromSuperview];

        [scrollView addSubview:newMandelbrot];
        _mandelbrotView = newMandelbrot;

        _scrollView.zoomScale = 1.0f;
        _scrollView.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
    }
}

- (void)didEndDrawRect:(MandelbrotView *)view {
    NSLog(@"%@", NSStringFromSelector(_cmd));
}
@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
package com.dremio.exec.catalog;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertNull;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;

import org.junit.Test;

public class TestVersionContext {
  private static final String NOT_HEXADECIMAL = "nothexadecimal";
  private static final String EMPTY_STRING = "";
  private static final String REASONABLE_HASH = "0123456789ABCDEFabcdef";
  private static final String HASH_TOO_LONG = // 65 characters
    "012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345";
  private static final String REF_NAME = "refName";
  private static final String BRANCH_NAME = "branchName";
  private static final String TAG_NAME = "tagName";

  @Test
  public void notSpecified() {
    VersionContext versionContext = VersionContext.NOT_SPECIFIED;

    assertFalse(versionContext.isSpecified());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isRef());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBranch());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isTag());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBareCommit());

    assertEquals(VersionContext.Type.UNSPECIFIED, versionContext.getType());
    assertNull(versionContext.getValue());
  }

  @Test
  public void ref() {
    VersionContext versionContext = VersionContext.ofRef(REF_NAME);

    assertTrue(versionContext.isSpecified());
    assertTrue(versionContext.isRef());

    assertFalse(versionContext.isBranch());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isTag());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBareCommit());

    assertEquals(VersionContext.Type.REF, versionContext.getType());
    assertEquals(REF_NAME, versionContext.getValue());
  }

  @Test
  public void tag() {
    VersionContext versionContext = VersionContext.ofTag(TAG_NAME);

    assertTrue(versionContext.isSpecified());
    assertTrue(versionContext.isTag());

    assertFalse(versionContext.isRef());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBranch());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBareCommit());

    assertEquals(VersionContext.Type.TAG, versionContext.getType());
    assertEquals(TAG_NAME, versionContext.getValue());
  }

  @Test
  public void branch() {
    VersionContext versionContext = VersionContext.ofBranch(BRANCH_NAME);

    assertTrue(versionContext.isSpecified());
    assertTrue(versionContext.isBranch());

    assertFalse(versionContext.isRef());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isTag());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBareCommit());

    assertEquals(VersionContext.Type.BRANCH, versionContext.getType());
    assertEquals(BRANCH_NAME, versionContext.getValue());
  }

  @Test
  public void bareCommit() {
    VersionContext versionContext = VersionContext.ofBareCommit(REASONABLE_HASH);

    assertTrue(versionContext.isSpecified());
    assertTrue(versionContext.isBareCommit());

    assertFalse(versionContext.isRef());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isBranch());
    assertFalse(versionContext.isTag());

    assertEquals(VersionContext.Type.BARE_COMMIT, versionContext.getType());
    assertEquals(REASONABLE_HASH, versionContext.getValue());
  }

  @Test
  public void bareCommitHashNotHexadecimal() {
    assertThatThrownBy(() -> VersionContext.ofBareCommit(NOT_HEXADECIMAL))
      .isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class);
  }

  @Test
  public void bareCommitHashEmptyString() {
    assertThatThrownBy(() -> VersionContext.ofBareCommit(EMPTY_STRING))
      .isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class);
  }

  @Test
  public void bareCommitHashTooLong() {
    assertThatThrownBy(() -> VersionContext.ofBareCommit(HASH_TOO_LONG))
      .isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class);
  }
}


A warm welcome in Prague! After checking in on Sunday, we invite you to socialise with your colleagues and other delegates in a pleasant atmosphere in the Clarion Congress Hotel Prague.
The Welcome Reception is free of charge.
Prague says Hello! Feel free to enjoy a good mix of American and Czech culture and food in the oldest Hard Rock Cafe.
A ticket is 80 EUR, and registration is possible via the online registration system.


Tantalum Corporation announced it has partnered with Openbay to deliver an automotive repair and maintenance services platform to wireless carriers and auto manufacturers. Tantalum's Connected Car platform integrated with the Openbay marketplace seamlessly connects motor vehicles with a nationwide network of automotive service providers.
Expectations for in-vehicle speech recognition systems continue to rise. As in-vehicle connectivity and infotainment systems are becoming increasingly important in the daily lives of drivers, novel HMIs are needed, not only to differentiate, but also to ensure minimal driver distraction.
Vehicle emissions are the primary cause of air quality standard excesses in the majority of UK Air Quality Management Areas. Increasing pressure to reduce the impact of pollution from vehicles has led to growing interest in the introduction of 'Clean Air Zones' and 'Low Emission Zones'.
Are drones and autonomous vehicles the answer for smart services in rural areas?


text:
cubelizr
========

#### JavaScript Cube Animator ####

Build easily a cube-craft animated logo and put it in your web.
Cubelizr uses Three.js and it only works in browsers compatible with WebGL.

Setup a JS object to configure the desired design and animations.
We provide you some examples.

## Prerequisites
* Three.js - http://threejs.org/
* TweenJS - https://github.com/sole/tween.js/
* [Optional] Stats - https://github.com/mrdoob/stats.js/

## Demo

Visit http://gyss.github.io/cubelizr

## Installation

Download dist/cubelizr.min.js or install via `$ bower install cubelizr`

## Configuration

There are two sections to be aware when configure your Cubelizr

### Setup
* zone: selector that points to the div that will contain the Cubelizr.
* tilesize: tile size of a single cube (default 50).
* gridsize: number of tiles for the floor grid's side.
* url: URL for the cubelizr json (see Scene).
* height: height of the canvas (if not defined, the height of the div will be used).
* width: width of the canvas (if not defined, the width of the div will be used).
* backgroundColor: color for the background of the canvas (if not defined, the background color of the div will be used).

### Scene
This object contains the defeinitiion of each cube animation. It is separated in these three sections: config, textures, defaults and objects.
#### Config: global behaviour.
* mouse_control: if set to 1, the camera will move accordingly to the mouse move.
* display_grid: if set to 1, the floor's grid will be displayed.
* display_stats: if set to 1, ThreeJS FPS stats will be displayed.

```json
	"config" : {
		"mouse_control" : 1,
		"display_grid" : 1,
		"display_stats" : 0
	},
```

#### Textures: here you can define textures for use them later in your cubes (referenced by unique ids). You have two choices, one texture for all sides of the cube or define all six textures.

```json
	"textures": [
		{ "id": 1, "url": ["./img/textures/threejs.jpg"]},
		{ "id": 2, "url": ["./img/textures/1.png", "./img/textures/2.png", "./img/textures/3.png", "./img/textures/4.png", "./img/textures/5.png", "./img/textures/6.png"]}
	],
```

#### Objects: this is an array of objects that will appear in the scene depending on its parameters. Those are:

* type: shape of the object. For now only "cube" is available.
* opacity: from 0.0 (transparent) to 1.0 (totally visible).
* height: height from the animation will start.
* x: tile measured x position.
* y: tile measured y position.
* texture: id of the selected texture from the array of textures defined previously.
* color: if you want just a plain color, you can set this to an hex RGB color (e.g. "#ff3300").
* animation: type of the animation (e.g. "Quadratic.In"). You can check every animation available in [this page](http://sole.github.io/tween.js/examples/03_graphs.html).
* start: second indicating the beginning of the animation.
* duration: duration of the animation.

```json
	"objects": [
		{ "x": 0, "y": 0, "color": "#ff3300", "start": 0.1},
		{ "x": 7, "y": 0, "color": "#ff3300", "start": 0.1}
	],
```

#### Defaults: many of the previous params are probably common for all the objects of your animation. you can use this section for define the parameters that will be used by all the objects.

```json
	"defaults": {
		"type": "cube",
		"opacity": 1.0,
		"start": 0.1,
		"duration": 1.7,
		"animation": "Quadratic.Out",
		"height": 1000
	},
```

## Troubleshooting

If you notice that the animation is not working correctly make sure javascript is not crashing.
Open the inspector/console of your browser and refresh the page.

If nothing else works, just open a ticket and we will solve it as soon as possible.


text:
Montreal Notre-Dame Basilica's Light Show
by Cayce McCarthy. Arts and Entertainment blogger.
Image of Aura light show from http://mtltimes.ca
 Light shows are a thing to behold whether one is watching the Empire State Building, The Eiffel Tower, or anything done by a Disney Park. But there is one particular light show in Montréal, Canada that is absolutely dazzling. The name of the show is Aura and it is held in the Notre-Dame Basilica that is over 200 years old. The show uses 140 lights, 4 lasers, 20 mirrors, more than 20 projections, and lasts forty-five minutes. The lights are also accompanied by an orchestra as the display moves around the Basilica.
Aura is supposed to express the beautiful architect of the Basilica itself. The show began back in 2017 to mark the 375th Anniversary of the building. It was originally going to be a one-time thing but has been extended to still perform in 2018 because of how popular the spectacle became. It is not known at this time if the show will end in 2018 or continue into 2019. An adult ticket usually costs $18USD and tours are normally held on Tuesday and Saturday evenings
Octavia Spencer to Executive Produce and Star in "Madam C.J. Walker" Netflix Series
Octavia Spencer - Photo: Netflix Media
Netflix announces Academy Award Winner, Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) will star and executive produce the eight episode Netflix series, Madam C. J. Walker. Spencer was cast as Sarah Breedlove, famously known as Madam C. J. Walker, the first self-made, black woman. The series is based on Madam C.J.'s journey to success and the book "On her Own Ground (A'Lelia Bundles)
Despite her being born to two former slaves, Walker, paved her own way by creating hair products that are specifically for black women. She is most famous for redesigning the hot comb, used for straightening thicker hair textures.
Lebron James is reportedly one of the executive producers on Madam C.J. walker and has created his own show, The Shop. James has been brewing his own creation with his first public "I Promise school" that will focus on educating the lowest performing kids in Akron Ohio.
People Have a Pickle Problem.
Image of pickles from www.cookstr.com
Image of yum emoji from dumielauxepices.net
Image of pickle Vodka from texastitos.com by BLUE SPIRITS DISTILLING
Image of Buffy Gif from http://www.reactiongifs.com
Pickles are a tasty treat that goes great with sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, cheese and crackers, and ball games. A pickle is an aged cucumber that is soaked in vinegar and other ingredients. The most popular pickle is the Dill. Dill pickles are either small, long spear-shaped, long and flatly sliced, cut up round parts, or they're those big fat ones you buy at any kind of sporting event. Other pickles include the Kosher Dill pickle, Sweet Pickles, Bread and Butter Pickles, and Gherkin Pickles, just to name a few.
But as much as we love pickles there's this new growing popularity of pickle flavored things that need to stop. Recently the Doritos company has decided to create a pickle flavored chip in order to compete with Lay's Dill Pickle potato chip. Then there's the really gross pickle flavored ice cream, milkshakes, cupcakes, toothpaste, and gum. Why on Earth would anyone want their already bad smelling breath to smell like a vinegar pickle instead of mint is beyond me. But the most disgusting has to be pickle flavored Vodka that I'm pretty sure will just cause someone to become very sick with the first sip.
There's even a pickle flavored beer. Pickles by themselves are tasty but all these flavored things sound very gross. So please just stick to the basic pickle and chip flavored one since it's the most understandable. It's the perfect snack and mini side dish that goes great with sandwiches and BBQs. The best pickles, in my opinion, are the fried pickles served at bars and pubs.
Amazon Lord of the Rings Series Brings on Writing Duo
Image of the Fellowship from www.gossipetv.com
Amazon's Lord of the Rings series that will be set in the time after Bilbo's journey and before Frodo's journey has now hired two writers for the show. These writers are JD Payne and Patrick McKay who are fairly new in this industry after only writing the script for Star Trek Beyond, were a part of the group that worked on the Kong vs Godzilla script, and are now writing the script to the sequel of Star Trek Beyond sequel. These two writers will help create and manage the writing room for this series. This news was announced during this past week's Television Critics Association press tour. It was the head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, who stated that they will now be moving furthermore into the project of this show.
As of right now Peter Jackson, the director of both film trilogies, isn't a part of this online series, however, there are still conversations being held with Jackson about becoming involved in the filming process with his sets in New Zealand. This isn't going to be exactly an adaptation of the Lord of the Rings series. Both Payne and McKay know that taking on this project is a huge responsibility. They both respect Tolkien's original work and writing style and are going to work hard to not mess this show-up. If they do this series any injustice they may or may not get a horrible backlash from the fans much like the Star Wars franchise has recently faced.
Explore The 'Hive Mind' Of The Internet.
Just a few days ago the great neo-soul band, The Internet released their new album 'Hive Mind'. This being their fourth studio album, they really came through with the chill vibes. The five member band has been bringing us their soulful funk since 2011. They started off as a few individuals apart of the Odd Future crew, and eventually members Syd, Matt Martians, Patrick Paige, Christopher Smith, and Steve Lacy formed to make The Internet. The album was released on July 20, and has received great praise.
The album was a refreshing getaway from many of the artist currently out. Their sound provides a new spin on funk and gives great hints of neo-soul. According to HighsNobiety, the album may go down as one of the most creatively rich pieces of music affiliated with the group. After the release of their third studio album, the band received great reviews from critics and fans. The album Ego Death, was released in 2015 and did so well that it was nominated for a Grammy. It was nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album but lost to The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness. After the release of their album Ego Death the band members decided to release solo albums.
All five members of the band released a solo project after the release of Ego Death. This may be the reason why they all meshed so well together for the Hive Mind album. Their collective intelligence and unified consciousness gave us fans multiple tracks that can be played on repeat. The album puts you in a peaceful state of mind when you need a break from your own thoughts. With songs such as Come Over, Stay the Night, and Mood you have every layer of chill that you may need for any night. According to The New Yorker, "the band has figured out how to preserve the tactile headiness of the soul and funk music from which they have sprung without rubbernecking.
The album is one of my favorite of the summer. It's a refreshing listen compared to all the usual artist people listen to. If you haven't heard it yet, you should be making your way to iTunes, Spotify, or even YouTube right now. How else are you going to listen to the album or check out some of their visuals for their singles.
Showbox Theater in Seattle to Become a Landmark Site or Torn Down For Apartment Complex?
Image of Showbox's main stage from showboxpresents.com
The Showbox Theater in Seattle Washington, originally elected to be torn down and turned into an apartment building, has been nominated to become a landmark site. The developer, Onni Group from Vancouver B.C. who were going to build the apartments are now fighting for the theater to become a landmark. The developer will be working with the Department of Neighborhoods to secure this title. The building itself is located on First Avenue between Union and Pike Streets. However, the group Onni has actually done this before to another building where the building and the printing plant were nominated to remain but only the front of the building was saved while the rest was demolished.
It is unknown at this time if the same will happen to the Showbox Theater, but what makes this theater special? Well, for one thing, it is 79-years-old and has hosted big artists, stars, and performers from the Jazz Age to the grunge era to today's pop music. Some of these famous stars include James Brown, Duke Ellington, Iggy Pop, Macklemore, and has recently hosted a gala that honored Pearl Jam's, Mile McCready. I can see why people are enraged because it's not like it's an old out of use theater. It's still hosting shows and who wants another apartment complex in a city full of them when there are plenty of other sites they can build one on.
Let Them Try to Eat Cake. Which Chain Has The Best to Offer?
by Cayce McCarty. Arts and Entertainment blogger.
Image of the Try Guys from famousbirthdays.com
 YouTubers, the Try Guys, recently released a video of Zach Kornfeld ordering five birthday cakes from five different chain stores to see who could come up with the best custom cake. The group, Eugene Lee Yang, Keith Habersberger, and Ned Fulmer, called five different stores and gave each store the same directions on how each cake should be done. So, together they ordered the cakes to see which chain came up with the best. It's important to note that the stores didn't know they were competing. The stores they ordered a cake from were Albertsons, Ralphs, Carvel, Baskin Robins, and Walmart.
Part of the instructions asked the bakers to have the cake say, "Hapy Birt Day Big Boy," to see if any of the stores correct it and then they asked for the background design to be a pink checkered pattern and see if they'd keep it. Lastly, they ask the baker to Google who Kornfeld is, so they can draw a picture of him on the cake however, he's only going to describe himself as the boy with glasses. For the next few minutes of the video, Kornfeld keeps running into problems while trying to order the cakes over the phone. In the end, Kornfeld had to go online to these companies' websites to get the cake he wanted for his challenge. Unfortunately, Walmart was disqualified for bad customer service over the phone and Calver was disqualified due to a website problem.
Image of Albertsons logo from twitter.com/albertsons
Image of Ralphs logo from twitter.com/ralphsgrocery
Image of Baskin Robins logo from twitter.com/baskinrobbins
 So, the three cakes for the final round were from Baskin Robins, Albertson's, and Ralphs. The top three were judged on appearance, following the instructions, and the taste of the cake. The Baskin Robins cake didn't follow the instructions at all, had an okay drawing of a boy with glasses, and didn't have the pattern, however, the taste was great. Albertsons offered them a St. Patrick's Day cake that just said, "Hopppy Birthday Big Boy," the taste was just average cake flavor, and apparently Albertsons can't replicate celebrities, so they couldn't put Kornfeld on the cake. Ralphs didn't have the pattern either, but they did draw Kornfeld on the cake, the spelling was corrected, and tasted the same as the Albertsons cake.
Ralphs ended up being the winner of the competition since it had the picture Kornfeld was looking for. Personally, I think they need to find a Publix somewhere because they make some of the best cake I've ever had, and I've had cakes from Walmart and Albertsons growing up. I've never had Ralphs or Calver's though. Baskin Robins, for me, makes a great cake but they can get very pricey. Also, it's important to note the cake tastes and designs can vary from baker to baker at each store so, don't completely write off each store when a cake is needed.
Why The Big 4-0
Contributing (Lifestyle) Writer - Sonja Mattison
Forty is a milestone birthday, and a gratifying age for a woman. She forms into a powerful being and reaches the peak of happiness, wisdom, and empowerment. Ashamedness is very rare. Confidence lies within her. In addition she displays ambition, endurance and willpower. She never gives up and stays encouraged with her own faith. For instance, she will work to maintain a living even if it requires working seven days a week at low wages.
The forty-year-old woman is an exceptional being. Regardless of the challenges and obstacles that she faces she handles them with grace. Nothing can break her. Even if the status of finances, friendships, and relationships are not at their best her joy and happiness is maintained, which is her everyday goal. Self-gratification is a must without any guilt of any kind.
She loves herself totally – physically, mentally, and spiritually. She could be any size and still love who she is. Nothing is an issue because she is her own leader. Accepting of whom she is she is ready to present herself to the entire world. She is dynamic!
It may sound as if the Big 40 is a bit self-absorbent, but so what because she deserves it. At this point she has made it through many journeys in life. This stage is a point of completion and new beginning concurrently. It is no wonder why she is the big 4-0.
By Sonja Mattison
Lock in for a Binge Watch: Orange is the New Black
Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman
Lock the door and park it on the couch to binge watch something on Netflix tonight. Season 6 of Orange is the New Black will come available to stream Thursday.
Unfortunately, if you're behind on the show I would suggest starting from the beginning to get the fully loaded back story. Last season, staff and prisoners alike were savagely exposed while others were killed during the Litchfield prison riot. The final episode of season 6 marks the third day of the riot. All the girls are extracted from the prison during a raid and separated to different prisons. Before that, things got real:
Left to right: Boo( Lea DeLaria) Piper(Taylor Schilling) Alex (Laura Prepon ) - a few prisoners are taken hostage by a former Litchfield guard.
Towards the end of the last episode, there are still many unanswered questions. A few the the main characters have hunkered down in an old swimming pool hidden deep in the prison. Viewers are left with the death of a former guard, explosions, and uncertainties of where Piper Chapman and her new friends will end up next. Season 6 will contain thirteen episodes of full on action and drama.
Funko Pop-ularity at San Diego Comic Con.
Image of Funko Pop! logo from mercadolivre.com.
San Diego Comic-Con is mostly known for dropping some serious movie and TV trailers during the summer but what about the merchandise side of comic con? Almost all cons have a merchandise section where fans can buy shirts, jewelry, games, videos, music, and all kinds of collectible items. Some of these rare and collectible items this year are coming from the bobblehead franchise Funko Pop. Funko Pop does have a lot of bobblehead collectibles ranging from Marvel, D.C., Dr. Who, Star Wars, Disney, loads of TV shows, and just about any and all fandoms. But there are some rare collectibles that are only released once at certain events.
Funko had 58 rare collectibles released for this year's con however, it's important to note that Funko will release these items with retailers like Hot Topic for those fans and collectors who couldn't make it to the Con. Also, it's not known at this time how long these collectibles will be in store. Some of these items include the Transformers Knights of Unicron Set, an exclusive Josie from Riverdale, and many more. To even get a chance at buying any of these fans had to book a reservation for the Funko both ahead of time just so they could get a time slot to shop. I wonder if these rare colorful plastic bobbleheads will remain on the market for years or will they fade out of popularity like the Beanie Baby fad all those years ago.
The Working Blues
Work is a requirement in ordered to remain clothed, fed, and sheltered; however it does impose many blues upon us in the interim to survive, especially depending on the type of job performed and its "assigned duties." While most work is not enjoyable we definitely cannot live without doing it, which is a reason that many stress to "do what you love" because it will not feel like "work." But, on the other hand "doing what you love" can take years; thus working unpleasant jobs must be the substitute meanwhile before our dreams come into existence. So…we are forced to submit to unfulfilling work that contributes to our blues in order to sustain or jobs/careers.
Sometimes the 'blues' are to grave for us to in hold such as the call center blues- the job with an absolutely high turn over rates due to stress. The call centers of today are technology's modern-day slavery – mental hard work, low pay, and excessive force only without chains and whips.
The dynamics of customer service or the 'call center' is primarily focused to resolve customers' problems over the phone; therefore it is certain that the position will be stressful for the call center representative. Imagine hearing someone else's problems all day. Not only is the customer service representative required to hear problems all day in front of a monitor, but also he or she is required to come up with a resolution to the customer's problem within five minutes or less in most cases. It does not matter how many times the customer yells or calls them out of their name. The duty of the customer service representative is to resolve the angry customer's problem right then. This type of work is too stressful for the average person.
An eight to twelve hour shift of constant inbound calls full of disgruntled customers can negatively affect the customer service representative's whole day. The morning that starts off happy with a cup of fresh coffee suddenly can go sour after speaking to too many disgruntled customers. Opposed to battling over the phone with the customers, there is the work environment that has a low morale and is not very fun to be around. For instance, the work environment in call centers in noisy and smelly. The noise stems from conversations other than the customer and the representative. While some representatives are deep into their work others can be distracting.
For example, Suzie is speaking to her customer, Mike, her cubicle partner is yelling over her in his cubicle to his friend Don laughing. The laugh is loud that Suzie's customer can hear. In the interim, Suzie's supervisor is calling Suzie telling her he needs to see her for call review. Her customer can hear this too. This is absurd!
Unpleasant smells reek in call centers. Scents from tobacco, to cheap Tinker Bell perfume along with other odd odors makes some reps wish they were in a space bubble going to NASA. Who wants to work in such an unpleasant environment with stress and be pressured to meet unrealistic targets?
Although it is necessary for each company to ensure that its goals are met, it is dehumanizing to the representative to be under constant surveillance. Constant surveillance leads to poor performance. In reality no matter how much micro managing or monitoring companies push for, call center representatives are humans not machines. At certain point call center representatives realize this too. Once customer service representative realize they cannot work like a human machine, job dissatisfaction becomes an issue and they deliberately do not perform well due to burnout. The job suddenly becomes a dead-end job, which is should not be. After all a job is meant to enhance knowledge and promote career development, and not drive a person insane or cause them to take sick leave every other six months.
In summary, customer service or "the call center" is a highly stressful position and the conditions are like a sweatshop, underpaid and overworked. Although customer service is a job that is stressful, it is a job that is demand. With technology, customer service is one of the quickest ways for customers to have their problems resolved. However, it must not be forgotten, that the recipient of all the problems is only human. Also, the customer is not always right. Customer representatives should be treated like customers, not 'slaves'.
Beach Boys Reunion and New Album.
Image of the Beach Boys from hotpoptoday.com Photo by Dave Allocca/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock (5628077a)
The Beach Boys will be reuniting during a SiriusXM "Town Hall" radio Q&A. The show will be moderated by director Rob Reiner and will air on August 10th at 5 p.m. ET/PT on the bands' channel, Good Vibrations. The event will take place at Capitol Records in L.A., California where the band recorded some of their earlier music. The entire band will be there for the show so, that includes Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, and Bruce Johnson. The event is being held to celebrate the band's new album, The Beach Boys with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The band will answer fan questions and focus on promoting not only their new album but their radio channel as well. This Q&A will be the first time in six years that the group has been together after they ended their 50th anniversary tour back in 2012. It was also that year that they released the album, That's Why God Made The Radio, but it was Love and Johnson who carried on touring as the only Beach Boys. In fact, Love released a solo album back in 2017. The group's newest album was recently released this past June.
Yes It Does Matter
More than often it is argued that money does not matter. If that is the case and holds any truth then the subject of the matter becomes debatable because there are far too many 'money matters', for everyone. Despite the country that one lives in, its governmental system, or its financial system, money matters. Money matters cannot be ignored, especially with wealth and poverty at opposite ends. Everyday people are suffering from poverty and hunger while others are financial stable and rich, or even provided with sustenance.
Another myth that is followed by the stressed notion that money is not important is that it also does not bring happiness. These two generalizations may be beliefs that contribute to poverty. To live at the poverty level or below it is robbery of sustenance and happiness. More so, it deprives many of their humanity.
Sustenance is a requirement for life, thus a source of income is needed to sustain to a life. Since income is needed for basic survival, then albeit everyone should be entitled to it to beat the odds of poverty. As life is a gift, money should be provided to sustain the precious gift.
Bridging the gap between the rich and the poor is needed. This; however does not mean that everyone should be rewarded the same amount monetary compensation. But, no one deserves to live in poverty or close to it; for that is not "living." Poverty is an insult to mankind. Money does matter and should be accounted for all.
Sci-fi Films explained. Why Light-speed Travel Is Impossible
Image of Han and Chewie jumping to light-speed from www.express.co.uk
Star Wars has always been an iconic sci-fi world with amazing fictional technologies like spaceships, laser swords known as lightsabers, and of course the iconic light speed traveling done by the Millennium Falcon when it punches it in hyperdrive. But can one really travel at the speed of light? To understand this one needs to know about the speed of light and what light is itself. Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength which can be detected by the human eye. The speed of light is measured in a vacuum and travels 299,792 km/s (186,282 mi/s).
Light in a vacuum is a universal constant and the above number, even though he was off 80,000 km/s, was discovered by Danish Astronomer, Ole Romer, by observing the movements of the planets themselves. However, it's important to note that he wasn't the first scientist to observe light speed. Others include philosopher Empedocles, Aristotle, Dutch scientist Isaac Beeckman, and Galileo Galilei. The distance light travels in the course of a year is known as a light-year; which is a measure of astronomical distances.
Image of Albert Einstein from biography.com
 For example, the light of the moon reaches the human eye in about one second meaning the moon is about one light-second away. Also, when astronomers are observing light from another galaxy they're seeing the light the way it was when it left instead of how it is in present time. So, looking up at the night sky means a person is looking at light history. Now as for traveling by the speed of light, light can be slowed down depending on what medium it is traveling through. Meaning light can bend through a matter's particles causing it to slow down.
However, despite the light being able to slow down while passing through things like the Earth's atmosphere or even light shining through a diamond it still can't be slowed down enough for a person to travel safely at light speed. This is explained by Einstein's general theory of relativity. According to Einstein if an object moves faster its mass increases while it's length contracts. Meaning at the speed of light an object would have infinite mass while it's length would be zero; which is an impossibility. Therefore, no object can reach the speed of light because it cannot reach infinite mass while having the length of zero so in theory, a person would have to break down their atoms and be able to obtain this just to safely jump through light speed.
Welcome to Marwen.
Image of Steve Carell as Hogancamp from www.denofgeek.com
Actor Steve Carell has a new movie coming out this November 21st called Welcome to Marwen. Carell plays a character known as Mark Hogancamp who is an artist/photographer with a love for World War II history. One day he's brutally attacked by a group of men who beat him to near death. He did survive the attack but loses his memories. To help himself recover from what happened to him Hogancamp began to construct a toy town known as Marwen.
Hogancamp uses this town to help remember his old life and to battle the hardships of his new life. Hogancamp creates himself as a World War II soldier known as Hogie in his town along with the powerful female figures in his life who give him the strength and hope to recover. This film will be a mix of live action and CGI animation of the dolls coming to life in the fictional world of Marwen. This film will star Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger, and Janelle Monae. This film is also based off of the true story of the real-life Hogancamp who shared his story in the 2010 documentary Marwencol.
Supergirl to Include a Transgender Hero
Image of Nicole Maines at SDCC from www.nytimes.com by Mike Coppola/Getty Images
The CW Network is already making huge steps to have representation for the LGBTQ community with having the first lesbian superhero, Batgirl, to be the lead in her own TV series. But now they've progressed even further by having the first transgender hero to be included on the show Supergirl. Transgender actress and activist Nicole Maines has been hired to join the new season of Supergirl. Maines has previous acting experience from the show Royal Pains. Maines will be playing the hero Nia Nal who will be a part of the CatCo reporting team.
CatCo is the media organization in the world of Supergirl. So, much like her cousin Clark Kent, Kara Danvers works as a reporter as well. The plot device lost some importance back in season 3 when Kara focused more on performing the duties as her alter ego, Supergirl. Now it looks like the media group will be coming back into action in season 4 while introducing Nia Nal who will be facing the same feelings and responsibilities of Kara when she decides to become the hero, Dreamer. Nal isn't the only new character to join the world of Supergirl either as Colonel Hayley and David Ajala will be joining as well.
Post Summer Film Season. Hell Fest Film Promo.
Image of film poster from dreadcentral.com
With summer ending, film audiences will be saying goodbye to summer blockbusters and hello to Oscar bait film season. Well, okay there will still be some blockbuster quality films, but the fall and winter film season usually focus more on artsy films above just action-packed ones. But there is a part of the fall film season that is coming right around the corner that most people are going to love. Horror/Thriller/Halloween movies! One new Horror movie that's coming out this September is Hell Fest.
Hell Fest is the name of this carnival's Halloween Haunted Park experience where people pay to go in and get scared. Everyone thinks the danger is part of the fun, why would the danger be real right? That's exactly what a group of friends think until they realize a serial killer is using the act as the perfect cover up to murder innocent park goers. Will any of them survive and if they do will anyone believe them? I know one thing though, this movie will make me think twice about attending a well-known theme park's Halloween Horror Nights at Universal in Orlando, Florida. The film will be coming out this September 28th.
911 Returning For It's Second Season
911 Promo poster season 1
At the beginning of the year, FOX released the American drama 911. The show followed a team of first responders as they battle conflicts on and off the line of duty. Show creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have been on a role with the creation of fan favorite shows since 2003. The first series they collaborated on was the FX medical drama, Nip/ Tuck. The show was created by Murphy and Falchuk helped write and executive produce. Since then the duo has brought of shows such as Glee (2009), American Horror Story (2011), Scream Queens (2015), and Pose (2018).
The cast of first responders in the show are put into many shocking and thrilling situations. The talent on the show definitely make the show much more addicting. Stars such as Angela Bassett, Aisha Hinds, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, and Kenneth Choi have definitely created a great dynamic with their characters and cast members. With majority of the main cast returning, it's hard to say goodbye to even one of the first responders we've come to love. If you missed last season, it ended with 911 Operator and narrator Abby Clark (Connie Britton) heading to France. Recent reports have revealed that she will be replaced by Evan Buckley's (Oliver Stark) sister who will be played by Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Hewitt won't be the only star joining the cast for the new season. The Boy Next Door (2015) star Ryan Guzman will be joining the Los Angeles Fire Department team under the guidance of Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause). It was great news to hear that the series had been renewed for a second season. Now I'm anticipating the two-day premiere on September 23-24. Will you be tuning in to see your favorite first responders?
'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' Musical in the Works
Image of the cast from proprofs.com
Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants, the book that inspired two films, will now become a musical. Ann Brashares was the original writer of the book that focused on a group of best friends, Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Tina who share a pair of old thrift store jeans throughout their first summer apart. There are three books in the series but only two films about the books so far. But it seems that the book will become a musical before the creation of the third film; which has been hinted at. The musical is being done by Blue Spruce Productions.
Scott Delman, the leader of Blue Spruce, has already gotten the okay to do the musical by Alcon Entertainment and Alloy Entertainment, which had the rights to do the two films. Although, it's important to note that both Alcon and Alloy both have the option to invest and co-produce in the project. There isn't much news so far as where the musical will be held, who the actors will be, and when it will be put on at this time. It appears though it could possibly be a hit considering the two films grossed $83 million worldwide and has a popular fanbase.
Chance the Rapper on Securing the Bag: Purchases "The Chicagoist"
Chancelor Bennet - Photo: Billboard - Ramona Rosales (2016)
"...Bet I get a statue in my hometown when I die". - single art "I Might Need Security. Photo: Spotify
Musical artist and community activist, Chance the Rapper speaks out against bias in the press and online dissenters of his personal life in his newly released track, "I Might Need Security". Chance caused quite the stir by announcing his purchase of Chicago online news publication, The Chicagoist.
"I bought the Chiagoist just to run you racist..[explicit] .out of business" - Chance the Rapper takes a shot at the news outlett, followed by another shot at a 2017 Chicago Sun-Times article about his personal life.
The Chicagoist had been mostly silent since late last year after the owner, Joe Ricketts shut down the outlet, putting a good number of people out of work. Chance did not take very kindly to the news . Chance previously expressed his disdain with the lack of community coverage on areas with majority POC. Nonprofit organization New York Public Radio's President and CEO, Laura Walker admitted there had been a "decline in local journalism" back in February, but it wasn't clear on the future of the site.
"I'm extremely excited to be continuing the work of the Chicagoist, an integral local platform for Chicago news, events and entertainment," said Chance The Rapper. "WNYC's commitment to finding homes for the -ist brands, including Chicagoist, was an essential part of continuing the legacy and integrity of the site. I look forward to re-launching it and bringing the people of Chicago an independent media outlet focused on amplifying diverse voices and content - The Gothamist - WNYC
The beat for "I Might Need Security" mostly samples that quite simply puts up a middle finger to whomever fits the shoe. It was not the only song he released Wednesday night. Four new Chance the Rapper songs are now available on most streaming platforms. Each song holds a mostly feel good and carefree vibe. Listen Here
New Marvel "What If" Comics.
Image of Spider-Man Punisher from cbr.com
Marvel comics are coming up with some new issues for the series known as Marvel's What If? This series started back in the seventies and it serves as an alternate universe for certain heroes. Kind of like if a fan ever thought to themselves, I wonder what Loki would be like if Odin hadn't have taken him in? Some of these new storylines focus on Peter Parker becoming his version of the Punisher after witnessing his Uncle Ben's death. Thor will be a frost giant who was born and raised in Jotunheim and instead of being defeated by Asgard he and the other Jotuns overthrow Asgard's rule. Other What Ifs will be Flash Thompson becoming Spider-Man, Ghost Rider will be in a heavy metal Nordic band, the X-Men will live in a digital landscape known as EXE/scape, and a few more What Ifs.
These issues will hit comic book stores in early October of this year. It'll be interesting to see classic heroes put in someone else's shoes for a change. Will they learn things they didn't know before while being this character, will they become totally different or have some of their key characteristics stay the same? One can only tell by reading the comics. Thor's story seems to be the most interesting because audiences have always seen his disdain towards Jotuns.
In fact, it was in the first Thor film that Thor decided to call for war on the Jotuns after some infiltrated Asgard during his coronation day. An action that displeased Odin and decided to cast his son out of Asgard and to Midgard as his punishment. Even in the original mythology, Thor was known to hunt Jotuns like they were game. So, it'll be interesting to see how he'll behave as a Jotun. Will his disdain switch to hating none Jotuns and will Loki the known half Frost Giant foster brother be the birth child of Odin in this realm or live beside his Jotun brother Thor?
Kawhi Leonard Traded to Toronto: How Does This Change the NBA?
By Joshua Hamer - Contributing Sportswriter
Photo Courtesy of The Big Lead
Potential NBA changing news has happened! The San Antonio Spurs have traded Kawhi Leonard, their superstar forward that has grown disgruntled with the organization, to the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors shockingly gave up their superstar shooting guard Demar DeRozan in return, along with young center Jacob Poetl. Leonard has made it publicly known that he has zero interest in playing in Toronto and will still attempt to join a team in Los Angeles as soon as he becomes a free agent.
On Toronto's end, trading their best player in DeRozan after allegedly promising him that he would not be traded, is quite shady at best. DeRozan is a player that expressed his whole-hearted loyalty to Toronto and signed a huge long term deal, especially when he could have departed in free agency to his hometown of Los Angeles himself.
Teams break player promises very often, and we all know that the NBA is a business. However, this type of blatant disloyalty and blindsiding of a player does not make an organization appealing at all. Toronto has put themselves in a situation where they are essentially "renting" Kawhi Leonard for one season, with the hopes that they can convince him to stay, despite how they treated their former All-Star.
Ironically, Kawhi Leonard can win in this trade either way. I know he is going to a team that he absolutely did not want to play for, but he will enter the building as the best player on the team outside of Kyle Lowry. Kawhi could literally use this season in Toronto to prove to the rest of the league that he is still the best two-way wing player in the game, in spite of his previous injury. If Toronto can gain some functional chemistry with Leonard, in a wide open Eastern Conference, they could make a run for the title. Moreover, if he doesn't care to stay with the Raptors, he will be a free agent able to run into the arms of the LA Lakers with his reputation rebuilt and intact.
The NBA offseason has definitely been a wild one this year!
Rugrats Reboot, But Is It A Good Idea?
The original five Rugrats characters from hollywoodreporter.com/Courtesy of Photofest
 Rugrats is getting a reboot along with a live-action CGI film. This isn't that big of a surprise since we are living in the era of reboots and live-action film remakes. Hopefully it's just going to be an animated movie instead of having creepy realistic babies running around on screen. According to Nickelodeon, the show will air a 26 episode season right before they make the film. Rugrats originally debut back 1991 with nine seasons and three movies before the series ended in 2006.
In 2003 the show got a spin-off series known as All Grown Up that focused on the beloved babies going through life as teenagers. This show was on the air until about 2008. It's no wonder that some fans are excited about a reboot, however, will they stay true to the original story? Most TV show reboots, despite being successful with the new generation, older generation fans have been angered and annoyed about some of their original shows being ruined such as Teen Titans Go, Powerpuff Girls, and Scooby-Doo where the artwork and character's personalities were drastically changed. The one re-boot of an old show that managed to please older and newer audiences was Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! Jungle movie that focused on Arnold going to find his parents ten years after the series ended.
Image of Dil Pickles from ugrats.wikia.com
Image of Kimi from behindthevoiceactors.com
Image of Kira from rugrats-babies.wikia.com
Image of Lulu Pickles from the Rugrats' Twitter page.
Image of Susie from behindthevoiceactors.com
Image from Publicdomainpictures.com
The movie was successful because the original creators were behind the film. They got the original voice actors to come back for most of their old roles and kept the artwork the same. The only things that really changed were the new outfits and phones to fit with today's fashion and tech, however, the outfits were just updated form the old ones. The Rugrats creators are going to be executive producers for this project, but it is unknown who the voice actors will be and what the animation will look like at this time. All that's known is that characters Tommy and Angelica Pickles, Chuckie Finster, and Phil and Lil Deville will be on the show with some new characters.
As to whether or not Tommy's little brother Dil, their grandma Lulu, Chuckie's sister Kimi and their mom Kira or Susie Carmichael will return is not known at this time. It would be disappointing, to say the least, if they completely got rid of four major characters from two major plot points in the series. It wouldn't make sense to write off Dil, Kimi, and Kira when there were two major motion pictures that introduced them to the series. Hopefully, more light will be shed on this project soon and that they don't change the show too much like changing the character's personalities, having weird looking artwork, or adding characters that add nothing to the show.
Diet-Exercise-Confidence
Sonja Mattison Contributing (Lifestyle) Writer
"Wow, that banana pudding, chocolate ice cream, and Oreo Cookie Blizzard sounds and looks delectable. I could eat them all in five minutes!" Some would exclaim. Others may state, "I'll just have a salad and water." The rest may conclude, "As long it is in moderation it is okay to eat anything." What ever we eat is our own choice. As it is our choice, it still affects our bodies and minds all differently. As a result, the most common factor amongst us all is weight, and how our weight looks on us.
Society has driven us to conclude that skinny is beautiful, or so-called cut-up, or toned is the best way to look. While what we eat does impact our figures, our shapes do not determine our overall health while they also do not determine our beauty. Just as gyms come with much equipment to get fit, so many bodies get fit differently. As obesity is not a healthy measure, being underweight is also an issue, so there must constitute a balance in between – being fit. But, being fit does not mean that our bodies are going to look exactly as society views as being fit such as billboard displays and magazines.
For instance, if five people run 12 miles everyday they still will have dissimilar shapes. Even if they weigh the same their bodies will have an absolute different contour. While diet and exercise are imperative to manage, so is confidence. It seems as though in the millennium age that so many are on the bandwagon to looking like fitness instructors, models, celebrities, etc.; however the goal to look like someone else should not be the goal. Getting fit on our own accord should be the goal(s) and loving ourselves.
We should love our bodies as they are; however if the status of our body is affecting our health chances are that we need to exercise, but in the meantime of making changes, we still need to love our bodies "as is" because they are the source of our lives. So, appreciating our bodies is a must. When we look into the mirror we should never be ashamed of how we look, or be dumbfounded by depictions of society how we should look. Last, but not least, we should treat our body well with what we put into it not limiting us to be a certain weight or look a certain way, but to live a healthy long life.
Sonja Mattison
Contributing (Lifestyle) Writer

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Buxton Spa History
Thermal waters that attracted the Romans
Buxton's long, yet intermittent, history as a spa resort began when Roman conquerors discovered warm bubbling springs right underneath what is today the Buxton Crescent, the town's leading spa break destination. As a result, this spa town has been a focus of aristocratic patronage and health pilgrimage for much of its 2,000-year history.
Mary Queen of Scots came to 'take the water cure' to treat her rheumatism.
One of England's richest men, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, commissioned The Buxton Crescent, an exquisite example of Georgian architecture.
Today's extensive restoration puts the town back on the heritage spa trail.
The thermal waters are now integral to an extensive, holistic spa and wellness programme for visitors.
Buxton - a spa town as rich in history as healthy minerals
Buxton's source of warm thermal water caught the attention of Roman explorers and since then has enjoyed a historic reputation for health and wellbeing. Today, thanks to national and international efforts and large scale investment, the spa story of this English market town is proudly restored to the map, making it once again a top attraction for anyone wanting to combine health, culture and outdoor pursuits with unrivalled spa experiences.
Buxton's beginnings
Centuries ago the area's warm water springs made it one of just two spa destinations in England that Roman rulers developed into a resort settlement, the other being Buxton's sister spa town at Bath. In AD 80 Buxton was named Aqua Arnemetiae, meaning Goddess of the Grove.
The jewel in Buxton's crown: The Buxton Crescent
This sweeping masterpiece of 18th century architecture is the town's focal point for visitors. It was commissioned in 1779 by the wealthy, 5th Duke of Devonshire living at nearby Chatsworth House. He wanted Buxton to rival Bath as a spa town of national importance, so he commissioned local architect Sir John Carr of York to create a crescent-shaped suite of buildings to copy the Bath style.
After 10 years of construction The Buxton Crescent became home to the original springs, in reality a warm water 27C degrees, underground reservoir plus two adjoining hotels, various lodges and the elegant Assembly Rooms, which are best described as a ballroom of gilded pillars and painted ceilings, and home to the town's glamorous gatherings.
In the late 1980s parts of the Crescent fell in to disrepair. After many false starts to regenerate the Crescent, Derbyshire County Council and High Peak Borough Council jointly launched the Buxton Crescent and Thermal Spa project with the backing of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England. Partners from the private sector were sought leading to the appointment, in 2003 of CP Holdings Ltd, owners of Europe's largest spa resort operator, Ensana and the Osborne Group, with a track record of successfully converting historic buildings. The two organisations then jointly established Buxton Crescent Limited which worked with the Councils to secure the necessary funding and prepared the detailed designs.
Timely transformation
For much of the 20th century Buxton faded into relative obscurity, its gracious buildings being used variously as the public library and tourist office, and at times laying vacant. In recent years, love and attention from several heritage organisations have put Buxton back in the spotlight as Britain's spa capital.
Sensitive restoration and huge public and private investment invite visitors to step back in time to enjoy the best of traditional and modern spa breaks in a beautiful, historical setting.
The Buxton Crescent lies at the very heart of this renaissance, proudly sharing our unrivalled expertise in all forms of hydrotherapy for reducing stress and supporting holistic wellness, with a wide choice from spa days for two to spa breaks for couples.
St. Anne's Well
The well has been a shrine to St. Anne since medieval times, prior to the Reformation it had been a pilgrim shrine, perhaps the best known in Derbyshire. A chapel then stood at the Holy Well, where pilgrims could pray and offer thanks, so many people believed themselves cured that the shrine was hung with cast-off crutches and sticks. This chapel was disolved on the orders of King Henry VIII in 1538. The shrine was locked and its idol, probably a statue of St Anne - was destroyed.
William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire moved the public well to its present position in 1780 when he built the Buxton Crescent opposite to the site. The well that can be seen today is a Grade II listed building and carries the inscription 'A well of living waters', it dates to around 1940.
The refurbishment and redevelopment of Buxton Crescent & Natural Baths was made possible with the support of
Enchanting Buxton
In Buxton, healing water isn't the only thing that's multi-faceted. The resort town's enchanting atmosphere, natural beauty, and hospitality will win you over.
Experience an unforgettable spa or wellness holiday.