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Romney (left) says his greatest political inspiration was his father (center), the author writes.
Mitt Romney is no George Romney
By MATTHEW DALLEK
Mitt Romney is casting himself as the lone Washington outsider in the Republican presidential field with the best shot at defeating President Barack Obama. He describes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a "lifelong politician" who "spent his last 30 or 40 years in Washington." He labeled another rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as a career politician. Romney insists that, in contrast, he had "spent most of my life outside of politics."
"Career politicians got us into this mess," Romney said, "and they simply don't know how to get us out."
Romney's complaint could well be his most hypocritical to date. For it belies an inconvenient reality that Romney's father spent much of his adult life inside politics — as a liberal moderate in the Republican Party. George Romney was a three-term Michigan governor, ran for president in 1968 and served in the first Nixon administration as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Romney also led a grass-roots campaign in Michigan to reform its constitution.
That résumé suggests just one aspect of Romney's judicious devotion to the politics of governmental reform. He consistently harnessed the power of the state to lift up citizens' lives — sharply contrasting with his son's repeated denunciations of "career politicians" and Big Government liberals as failed economic stewards.
We've seen this cognitive dissonance before. Just as George W. Bush famously divorced himself from his father's moderate GOP legacy, Mitt Romney is now skating past his father's largely liberal Republican record in his rush to stand on the right of the Republican spectrum.
Yet Romney has claimed that his greatest political inspiration was George Romney. He told The New York Times in 2007 that running for president made him feel like a member of "a relay team where the baton passed from generation to generation."
That inspiration seems genuine on the most personal of levels: Mitt Romney learned "how to do [politics]" while collecting signatures for petitions and campaigning as a teenager at his father's side in the early '60s in Michigan.
When Romney challenged incumbent Ted Kennedy for his U.S. Senate seat in 1994, George Romney virtually moved to Massachusetts to be on the ground full time during that campaign. He proposed ideas for his son's race and helped organize get-out-the-vote efforts, infusing the campaign with enthusiasm and ardor. He was so excited about that campaign that he practically "came out of his skin," Mitt Romney later marveled.
But the cognitive dissonance is clear when considering that Romney 2011 is far removed from where his father stood — politically and ideologically.
While Mitt Romney is busy tearing government down, George Romney viewed government and public-private action as forces for good. His reform proposals made it easier for Michigan to raise taxes. He used government to improve public education, won the support of organized labor, fought "a right-wing … element" in his own party and became a leader of the national GOP's moderate wing.
As governor, he used a tax hike to close a budget gap, established environmental protections and vigorously opposed Sen. Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign — because Goldwater stridently opposed civil rights.
Whereas Mitt Romney is now seeking to prove his bona fides to the tea party faithful in his party, George Romney didn't shy away from showing his faith that government wasn't the people's enemy. In 1968, he mounted a short-lived presidential campaign partially based on his support for civil rights, combating slums and opposition to the Vietnam War. More broadly, he strove to direct national Republicans onto a moderate ideological path.
After withdrawing from the '68 campaign — Romney had claimed the U.S. military had "brainwashed" him on a visit to Vietnam, stirring a media storm — he later accepted an appointment as Richard Nixon's first HUD secretary. He used his power in Washington to expand federally financed public housing. According to a Brigham Young University sketch of his life, "fewer Americans were homeless" when he led the department.
George Romney, it's true, spent part of his adult life outside of politics. In the 1950s, he gained fame as an effective CEO, who improved the fortunes of American Motors Corp. He also worked as a lobbyist for Alcoa, the aluminum company. It's true that Romney's legacy, as his son argued in a 1996 tribute at BYU, included his belief that individual — as opposed to collective or state action — and volunteer efforts, could improve the lives of Americans.
But still. Any full account of George Romney's career must grapple with his liberal, pro-government leadership of the Republican moderates in the '60s and early '70s. He used government at the state and federal level to protect the environment, strengthen public education, expand public housing, raise more revenues and further civil rights at a moment when doing so wasn't politically expedient for a Republican eyeing the White House.
Mitt Romney's ardent opposition to using government as a lever — his opposition to achieving any of these goals through state power — is testament to the shifting character of the Republican Party over the past five decades.
If Romney's positions now aligned with his father's from the '60s, his poll numbers today would be near the bottom of the Republican pack. At the same time, the younger Romney's latest incarnation provides a jarring contrast — politically and ideologically — with George Romney's political career. The son's anti-Big Government zeal can be seen as an indirect effort to unwind the ideas, politics and policies for which his father once stood.
Matthew Dallek, an associate academic director of the University of California Washington Center, is the author of "The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics."


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Off Grid Energy Independence
Right electrolyte doubles material's ability to store energy
Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Drexel University and their partners have discovered a way to improve the energy density of promising energy-storage materials, conductive two-dimensional ceramics called MXenes. The findings are published in Nature Energy. For more information see the IDTechEx report on Advanced Li-ion and Beyond Li-ion Batteries 2018-2028.
Today's batteries, which rely on charge stored in the bulk of their electrodes, offer high energy-storage capacity, but slow charging speeds limit their application in consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Tomorrow's energy-storage mainstays may be electrochemical capacitors, known as supercapacitors, which store charge at the surface of their electrode material for fast charging and discharging. However, at present supercapacitors lack the charge-storage capacity, or energy density, of batteries.
"The energy storage community is conservative, using the same few electrolyte solvents for all supercapacitors," said principal investigator Yury Gogotsi, a Drexel University professor who planned the study with his postdoctoral researcher Xuehang Wang. "New electrode materials like MXenes require electrolyte solvents that match their chemistry and properties."
The surfaces of different MXenes can be covered with diverse terminal groups, including oxygen, fluorine or hydroxyl species, which interact strongly and specifically with different solvents and dissolved salts in the electrolyte. A good electrolyte solvent-electrode match may then increase charging speed or boost storage capacity.
"Our study showed that the energy density of supercapacitors based on two-dimensional MXene materials can be significantly increased by choosing the appropriate solvent for the electrolyte," added co-author Lukas Vlcek of the University of Tennessee, who conducts research in UT and ORNL's Joint Institute for Computational Sciences. "By simply changing the solvent, we can double the charge storage."
The work was part of the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center led by ORNL and supported by the DOE Office of Science. FIRST research explores fluid-solid interface reactions with consequences for energy transport in everyday applications.
Drexel's Ke Li synthesized the titanium carbide MXene from a parent "MAX" ceramic—containing titanium (denoted by "M"), aluminum ("A") and carbon ("X")—by etching out the aluminum layers to form five-ply MXene monolayers of titanium carbide. Subsequently, the researchers soaked the MXenes in lithium-based electrolytes in various solvents with dramatically different molecular structures and properties. The electrical charge was carried by lithium ions that easily insert themselves between MXene layers.
Transmission electron microscopy revealed the structural integrity of the materials before and after electrochemical experiments, whereas X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy characterized the MXene's composition and the chemical interactions between the MXene surface and the electrolyte solvent.
Electrochemical measurements showed that the maximum capacitance (amount of energy stored) was achieved using a less conductive electrolyte. This observation was unusual and counterintuitive because one would expect a commonly used acetonitrile solvent-based electrolyte, having the highest conductivity of all tested electrolytes, to deliver the best performance. In situ X-ray diffraction showed expansion and contraction of the MXene interlayer spacing during charging and discharging when acetonitrile was used, but no changes in the interlayer spacing when the propylene carbonate solvent was used. The latter solvent resulted in much higher capacitance. Furthermore, electrodes that don't expand when ions enter and exit are expected to survive a larger number of charge-discharge cycles.
To probe the dynamics of electrolyte solvent media confined in the MXene layers, the researchers turned to neutron scattering, which is sensitive to hydrogen atoms contained in the solvent molecules.
Finally, molecular dynamics simulations done by Vlcek revealed that interactions among the lithium ions, electrolyte solvents and MXene surfaces strongly depend on the size, molecular shape and polarity of the solvent molecules. In the case of a propylene carbonate-based electrolyte, the lithium ions are not surrounded by solvent and therefore pack tightly between MXene sheets. However, in other electrolytes, lithium ions carry solvent molecules along with them as the lithium ions migrate into the electrode, leading to its expansion upon charging. Modeling may guide the selection of future electrode-electrolyte solvent couples.
"Different solvents created different confined environments that then had profound influence on charge transport and interactions of ions with the MXene electrodes," Vlcek said. "This variety of structures and behaviors was made possible by the layered structure of MXene electrodes, which can respond to charging by easily expanding and contracting the interlayer space to accommodate a much wider range of solvents than electrodes with more rigid frameworks." The title of the paper is "Influences from solvents on charge storage in titanium carbide MXenes."
Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Top image: Drexel University
Learn more at the next leading event on the topic: Business and Technology Insight Forums - Tokyo, September 2019 on 18 - 19 Sep 2019 at Tokyo, Japan hosted by IDTechEx.
Audi opens battery storage unit in Berlin
Fuel cell forklifts powered with solar hydrogen energy
Grid-scale lithium-vanadium hybrid project in the UK
MGX enters next phase of high energy lithium-ion battery development
IDTechEx Reports
Supercapacitors: Applications, Players, Markets 2020-2040
Quantum Dot Materials and Technologies 2019-2029: Trends, Markets, Players
Electric Motors for Electric Vehicles: Land, Water, Air 2019-2029
Electric Vehicles in Construction, Agriculture and Mining 2019-2029
Off Grid Energy Independence Tags
Energy HarvestingOff Grid & Energy Harvesting
3D Printing ProgressAdvanced Batteries & Energy Storage ResearchArtificial Intelligence ResearchElectric Vehicles ResearchGlobal Biotechnology InsightsPrinted Electronics WorldRobotics ResearchWearable Technology Insights

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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About Regina Molaro
Regina Molaro is a freelance editor whose work has been featured in more than 20 publications, including Bespoke Magazine (St. Regis NYC); In Season (Mandarin Oriental, New York); City Guide New York, Modern Luxury Hawaii, Adweek, and beyond. In addition to writing for several lifestyle magazines in New York and New Jersey, she has written copy for websites and catalogues. Prior to enjoying a freelance career, Regina covered the art, fashion, beauty, home decor, food, and brands categories at several business publications, including Accent, Global Cosmetic Industry, Soap & Cosmetics, and License. Through a commission, she wrote a textbook chapter on fashion licensing for Pearson Education.
Valentine's Violets
Support Locust Grove by shopping its African Violet fundraiser sale, which is being held through February 3
Embrace local history and send a gesture of love to that special someone while supporting Locust Grove—a National Historic Landmark estate located in Poughkeepsie.
The 200-acre park-like estate, which overlooks the Hudson River, includes homes, a carriage […]
By Regina Molaro|2023-01-20T11:14:01-05:00January 18th, 2023|Main Streets Presents, WOTS|
Living in the Real World
Artist John Morra arrived in the Hudson Valley about two decades ago with two pugs in tow. He soon took up residence and set up a studio in an old church in Stuyvesant where he currently lives with his wife Isabelle Bosquet-Morra – a floral designer who initially hails from France.
Knowledge and experience are sources […]
By Regina Molaro|2023-01-07T11:02:42-05:00January 6th, 2023|Featured Artist|
Foreign Concepts
The holidays are behind us. We spent our time gathering with loved ones, sharing meals, exchanging gifts, baking and gifting cookies, and indulging in all the feel-good festivities that make the season bright. As we approach the rest of the winter season, we can continue to create […]
By Regina Molaro|2023-01-06T21:04:18-05:00January 6th, 2023|Featured Article|
Aging and Attitude
After celebrating the New Year (and for most of us, when we celebrate another birthday), we become even more conscious of time and how quickly it's slipping away. In my opinion, there's no point in lamenting about aging. There's nothing we can do to stop time from ticking on. Rather than focusing on all the […]
By Regina Molaro|2023-01-06T20:29:26-05:00January 6th, 2023|Wellness|
New Year's Traditions Around the World
For more than a century, people around the globe descend upon Manhattan's Times Square to watch the ball drop. Some history: that inaugural New Year's Eve bash, held in 1904, commemorated the official opening of the headquarters of The New York Times.
At midnight, there was a fireworks […]
By Regina Molaro|2022-12-01T10:35:23-05:00December 1st, 2022|Featured Article|
Holiday Festivities
Winter is such a wonderful time of year. The Hudson Valley and Berkshire region are quintessential places to celebrate all the sparkle of the season. Beyond the serenity of the nature that abounds in the region and the possibility of snowfall sprinkling our country roads and mountain […]
Art on View
Art is so inspiring. Beyond the visual appeal, art reveals a glimpse into the various perspectives of others. While some focus on politics and current events, others draw inspiration from history, music, and beyond. There are certainly lots of galleries and museums nearby that are showing diverse […]
By Regina Molaro|2022-11-09T19:06:08-05:00November 9th, 2022|Featured Article|
Building Community Through Design
Design is a powerful tool that transforms our daily lives. Everything from the colors we select in our homes to the subtleties of lighting, evokes a mood and creates ambiance.
After devoting many years of marketing, business development, and public relations expertise to Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PwC, and […]
Sharon Hospital Update
Christina McCulloch MBA, BSN, RN, President of Sharon Hospital presents Nuvance Health's side of the debate about the future of its Labor & Delivery unit
In September, 2021, Nuvance Health announced plans to shut the Labor & Delivery unit at Sharon Hospital. In January, 2022, Nuvance submitted its application to the state of Connecticut. The next step in […]
By Regina Molaro|2022-10-13T15:32:18-04:00October 13th, 2022|WOTS|
Renowned for his short stories, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, American author Washington Irving is regarded as the Father of the American Ghost Story. Born in Manhattan in 1783, Irving was also a historian, essayist, and biographer.
Both of the ghostly tales mentioned above […]
By Regina Molaro|2022-10-08T17:04:13-04:00October 8th, 2022|Featured Article|


Are you feeling stuck? There are times when all of us do. Here's how to avoid it or get unstuck.
BLOG - 9 things to remember when you're feeling stuck. Click here to read.
Limitless Episode 46 - Getting out of a rut.Listen here.
Feeling stuck is normal. Don't beat yourself up!
Your 'why' must be bigger than the 'how' in order to push through being stuck.
The key: when feeling stuck, ask yourself, "What can I do right now?"


BOMB is a random chance game where you have to defuse the BOMB before time runs out. Final version 5!
Tic Tac Toe game using MS Flex Grid.
BOMB is a random chance game where you have to defuse the BOMB before time runs out. Version 5 is still in development, so only the demo version is included. If you have any suggestions, or discover any bugs, please email me.
Random Chance Bomb defusing game V.3! This Version features a much improved GUI. Please email me if you have any ideas for it, or if you find a bug.
This is a puzzle game. Player has to select the image and the difficulty level. There is also a help option to display the image for sometime.
Tic tac toe game in VB 2008.


@Canisa is a she. I think.
Canisa is a she. Typical of male normative attitudes on the internet.
No, I'm not going to defend Canisa for this comment. Not even the slightest. That was purely provocation. But don't forget that Vendetta isn't so guilt free either.
No, I'm not going to pursue this anymore. It's obvious nothing's going to change. I just think that we can cease with the personal attacks. If anyone wants to debate (about gender issues and entertainment, not who is right and wrong), come to my thread instead. We'll hold all of the debates there.
I guess it's easier to dismiss this as I'm a guy, so I don't care so much for just having a male character to play.
Oh well, I really liked the idea and the execution of the game though.
Vendetta, I have just joined this site, but have been addicted to CoG site for awhile now. When I finally discovered that I could access works in progress I nearly had a heart attack lol! When I played your game I instantly fell in love with the writing, setting, story, and characters! You really need to complete your story! For yourself, for all your supporters, and for the all the others works of art and games that were never finished. At the end of the day nobody is ever going to love someone or thing 100%, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that you stay true to your vision and make this game the way you intended it to be (which is amazing so far!). Please continue working on your game, and don't worry so much about people like Canisa, she is irrelevant and can't force you to change your story. Never let your vision die!!!
@ScalrletGeisha: And your thread would be where?
I've played your game a couple times. I really liked it and thout it had lots of potential. Please don't stop now. If it makes you feel better, I'm a girl too and don't really care about the gender choice.
It looks like I've a few apologies to make.
Firstly, to Jason, for completely misconstruing his closure of the Vendetta thread. In (somewhat calmer) hindsight, it was precisely the right thing for a forum moderator to do as that "debate" was going nowhere and was completely out of control. I did Jason–and, by extension, CoG as a whole–a grave injustice with my knee-jerk reaction, but I hope they can understand that my misunderstanding at the time was caused by anger and sheer disappointment, not malice.
Secondly, my apologies also to everyone else on the forum for even rising to the bait offered by my detractors. Had I not done so, had I just ignored it as any sensible person might, then things might not have come to a head as they did. I'll try to bear that in mind in future.
I should also say sorry for leaving the forum hanging for several days. This was entirely unintentional and was caused by me taking my partner away for a long weekend break, as it was her birthday last Friday and (to be frank) I just wanted to get away for a while and reflect upon my plans for the immediate future.
And finally, I would also like to say sorry to Canisa. While I still don't agree with her point of view as I don't believe history should always be whitewashed to suit modern perspectives–even in leisure entertainment–I could perhaps have not reacted to every barb and just let things slide more, on the very sound basis that we would never see eye-to-eye on this subject so why even bother arguing about it?
In closure (as this simple "sorry everyone" is turning into something of a speech) I would also like to thank everyone for your support and encouragement, both public and private. I am very happy to announce that I have resumed work on Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster. I'll start a new thread when a major update is available (hopefully within the next week or so), in hopes that we can leave this whole sorry mess behind us.
I'll pass this on to Canisa.
I suggest, as a fresh start, that the last thread be deleted. Maybe this one too, when his new thread comes back. We'll all start new, no grudges, no hate, just a good author asking for suggestions and feedback to his new game.
Glad to hear it man, look forward to reading your amazing story.
Thank Comrade Lenin!I was getting nervous with all the waiting.
We also have a tendency to forgive. Also, future CoG members don't need to know the argument that happened there :x.
And some people think people don't need to know about WWII. But they're wrong. People need to know about past conflicts so they don't happen again. Though whatbi said is kinda overkill for just a thread.
That's a fair argument. I was just suggesting, so it's ultimately their choice.
Or we can not post here ever again since Vendetta's already started up the new thread.
Yeah, well, it should probably be locked. That's for sure. Waste of space now.


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Why Stop At Only 12 Imams? An Intellectual Query
By warisshah2012, December 9, 2012 in Guest Forum
Imams
divinely appointed
imam mahdi
imamate
warisshah2012 42
Location: pale blue dot
Religion: I follow the religion of Love & humanism
I am reading about Imamate and it is very interesting intellectually but here are some questions I have:
If we have a divinely appointed imam to guide us on the way of the Prophet (s.a.w.) why only stop after 12? Why not continue with one imam after another till Imam Mahdi?
I would like you to answer this without referring to the Sunni hadith books about the hadith of 12 caliphs or similar narrations in your own books but only using intellect and logic. See, I am almost convinced that the idea of a divinely appointed ruler for the Muslim Ummah, who is protected from sin is a good one and it makes sense to my intellect but since we do not know when the Day of Judgement will be and when the world will end, shouldn't there be a continuous line of imams, one after the other, until the last one (whom we can call Imam Mahdi (a.s.) ?
I am a Sunni Muslim and a member of a Sufi tariqah but have recently been reading about Shi'ism as well and this question came to me.
shia farm girl and funklebits reacted to this
mohammad_mahdi 682
Location: Oztralia
Religion: Muslim
Good question warrisshah. The truth is, in the school of thought of Imam Jaffer (politically speaking the Shia school of thought), we believe the 12th Imam is a present and active Imam for the last 1000 years, though most of us do not directly see him. He has guided the top scholars which most followers of this school of thought adhere to. Imam Mahdi (as) will stay in this world till the end of time, and after his death, there is no other reason for the world to remain in existence, and so Allah Almighty will start the processes for the Day of Ressurection, before the Day of Judgement
The concept of the prolonged life and the wisdom behind the occultation of Imam Mahdi (as) is a whole topic in itself, and if you search the site you will come across quite a few threads which talk about this is detail
Best of luck with your research bro/sis
funklebits reacted to this
Ethics 4,405
Religion: Imami [12 Imams] - Shia Islam
If you are talking about the number of Imams then, purely in my opinion from an intellectual way, you cannot deduce this intellectually because there are things which only Allah know, like why is there male and female, why does a human have two eyes, why is there only a day and night. But, there has to be a beginning and an end. Starting from Adam till Imam Mahdi A.S., that is all that is needed in Allah's plan. Look around you. now Islam alhamduillah is prevalent, and every doesnt just believe, they want to know intellectually why they believe. Subhanallah! Still, Islam proves to be the most intellectual religion. But if you are wondering why Imams stop at 12, because after Imam Mehdi A.S its the day of judgement. But you ave to understand the reason between Imam Mahdi's disappearance and his return. At the same time human kind is advancing, but we are losing what makes us human, morality, ethics, piety, truthfulness, justice, freedom, these are all going downhill and there will be a time where there will be consent bloodshed and injustice done upon innocent people. Islam will be the target, there would be no peace at all, this is when Allah commands Imam Mahdi to come and to restore Justice and Peace and Tranquility upon the world with the will and help of Allah. You can think of it as utopia, after this, there is no need for Imams protecting the religion because it is said when Imam Mahdi comes all will be Muslims(Shia). True Islam will be established. This is why only twelve is needed.
Hope I helped alittle...Wa Salaam
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GreyMatter 1,559
Me being a happy baby :D
Had the Imams been alive today, our Madhab would be all over the place, like the many divisions Ismailis have, and also the Ismaili concept of infallibility of their current Aga Khans is beyond me.
Their present Imams party it up (Yes, research, I can back it up as well) and yet they are infallible.
An Imam was to guide us, which they did, and were really infallible based on Shi'a and Sunni narratives on their pious and generous lifestyles. But their influence was severely limited (except Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (as) ) and were all murdered ruthlessly.
This harshness towards the Imams led to a breaking point by the time the 11th Imam Hassan al-Askari (as) came around, and thus, our last Imam (atfs) had to go into occultation. as it became clear that the whole bloodline would be wiped.
Ibn al-Hassan 821
Mūsawī Wāqifī
Religion: دين الحق
The question of why only 12 Imams is a difficult one to answer. I would consider this a non-rational element of our beliefs. That is to say that our rational faculty could not possibly deduce why only 12. For the same question could be posed in regards to why only 124,000 prophets. Why not keep that same system of guidance of prophethood till the Day of Resurrection. It's one that we simply do not possess the ability to rationalize. As I could say that 13 Imams would have been better and provided a case as to why it would have been so. And another person could bring forth an argument in which 1 Imam would be the best scenario. Only Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) knows and His Wisdom cannot be comprehended.
However, what we can do, like you mentioned in your post, is to rationally concluded that an Imam must exist and that he must be infallible (at the very least in regards to his action and words). So, rationally speaking, we could say that Allah ( سبحانه و تعالى) must provide us with Divine Guidance at all times and for that to be relatable to humans (i.e. The guidance must also come in human form). With this, we try and live according to the famous and widely-acknowledged hadith of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). The hadith which states that one must adhere to two forms of Divine Guidance in order to stay clear from error, The Noble Qur'an and the Ahlul Bayt (as). This reaffirms our rationally-derived statement that Allah ( سبحانه و تعالى) must provide us with humans who can guide us to the right path. And His Book to act as a miracle proving the veracity of their claim as "heirs to the Prophet (pbuh)" (i.e. they must not contradict the dictates of His Book).
So, yes we can conclude that an Imam must exist at all times to guide the Ummah. However, such questions as to how he guides the Ummah, how many Imams there are, who exactly are they, how much knowledge do they have, what is their status and position, along with thousands of other theological queries cannot be rationally-derived. For these questions, we must refer to the traditions that have so far reached us. Hope this helps.
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Ratohnhaketon 109
Religion: Truth
Salam alaikum brother
It's a pleasure to have the opportunity to interact with someone who demands logic and reason, just as the Qur'an demands from us.There are multiple functions of the Imams but among the most important are two.
1) To serve as protectors of Islam, both in keeping the teachings pure (which has been successful most prominently due to the events with the third Imam at Karbala, Hussein ibn Ali, and the other Imams that were able to spread their teachings to such an extent that it would not leave the people such as Imams Jaf'ar ibn Muhammad and Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir) and in serving as mercies for those who have the chance to interact with them.
2) To give people a chance to have leader, and thereby a government and a source of knowledge, that will serve to show the true potential of a human being, and demonstrate to us that we ourselves are capable of being mahsum (pure and sinless).
The question as to why twelve Imams, and why an occultation is similar to the question, why was Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) sent so late after Hazrat Isa (peace be upon him)? Could not Allah (Swt) simply send the last message earlier so as to help more people? The non-Muslims often ask this question, and it is a perfectly valid one to think over. Allah (Swt) has not sent the Qur'an, The Prophet (or any prophet), or the Imams as a necessity for ourselves to understand the principles of Islam. That is to say, if we had our divinely established intellect but no Qur'an we would be capable of fulfilling our purpose in life, but if we had no intellect and a Qur'an we would be unable to make use of it. And as Allah (Swt) says in the Qur'an: "They will also say, 'Had We listened or used our minds, we would not have become the dwellers of hell.'" (67:10) The Qur'an in of itself acknowledges that the faculty of our intellect is on par with the Qur'an, and the Qur'an's constant call to ponder on its verses demonstrates that the intellect is the means by which you distinguish truth from falsehood. So then, these three things (Qur'an, etc.) are mercies given to us to rid us of our excuses on Judgement Day and to assist on our journey towards the Almighty. The gap between Hazrat Isa and Muhammad is the same as the gap between Mahdi's occultation and his return from occultation. If Muhammad had come at any other time and at any other place in history he would have been killed, and you can see this by observing the perfection of the timing and location when he came between two dying empires and among a community ripe for something new. Likewise, if any Imam were to be appointed now they would be killed, and the occultation continues not due to the reservations or fear of the Mahdi but due to the fact that in general the people are not ready. Whether there be 12 or not is irrelevant to these previous factors being the case. Hadiths and things like the fact that Allah (Swt) has always instituted leaders (not just prophets) and not allowed the people to be the ones doing so (a good example is the story of Talut in Surah Baqarah) serve as reinforcement for what we see philosophically.
Thanks for the replies but I believe you brothers, being 12ers, are back-projecting your belief to answer the question. i.e starting from the premise that there
are 12 imams (as per your belief) and working backwards. As a neutral--i.e. I am not Shia neither 12er nor 7er nor 5er (Zaydi) --I cannot see why Imamate had to stop
with the Occultation. If Allah had divinely appointed someone surely He will protect them too--after all, He protected the first 11 without them going into Occultation.
So, why not a 13th and a 14th...until Imam Mahdi comes and rules the whole world (as per Sunni and Shia belief).
You mention the Aga Khani Ismailis and yet their position seems to be more logical. They have an Imam going back all the way to Imam Ali (a.s.) and you cannot
say he is not from Aal Muhammad (s.a.w.) Also, if He is divinely-appointed then doesn't he have the right as Imam to make any changes he likes to the interpretation off the Deen?
I am finding it hard to believe why a Divinely Chosen leadership for all the Muslims would have to stop at a fixed number and not continue till Qayamat.
Thanks for the replies so far they've been food for thought.
funklebits and just a muslim reacted to this
Allah guides in his own ways...Why did Allah take Jesus, why did Allah take him into hiding? most of the prophets and all the imams got killed by people, did Allah protect them? Allah protects in his own way, death must come upon us one way or another, how ever it may be...
Mzwakhe reacted to this
To throw hadith out doesn't entirely have philosophical backing since the idea of Imamate is not a philosophical requirement for discovering Truth, and therefore the idea in of itself is presented through hadith and Qur'an. I'm personally a convert to Islam so insha'Allah I do not believe I have any bias except that the ones among men I have found worthy of being Imams are those twelve and no other, it would not bother me in the slightest if someone proposed new imams to me if it is true it should be accepted, if false it should not.
Surely Allah (Swt) is fully capable of protecting the Imam should he emerge, however this would only be done with one of two options:
1) Enslave the vast amount of people who would oppose him
2) Kill them
Otherwise, the vast amount of people (even Muslims) would be constantly attempting to kill him. The other alternative is magic shield or what have you.
What then is the point of giving the people this opportunity of guidance present within Imamate if it is to be predicated by ridding the majority of human beings with the free will that is the crux why our existence is important. It would require that Allah (Swt) violate His own principles in His own book 'there is no compulsion in religion'.
Abul Hussain Hassani 198
Religion: القــــرآن والســــــنة
Waleykum Salaam,
Good questions. These are the questions that Shia can not answer.
Waiting for HIM 2,758
OP: first answer first two questions stated below. Answering the two below might help in answering the limit of 12 questions.
I liked it the limitations.. let's don't refer to Quran and Hadith. Let's prove is using Aql (reasoning, logic).
1. Why limit to one God? Why not 2 03 3 or many..
2. Why the limit on the prophet hood? Why the nabuwa stopped at the Khatim ul Anbiuya (pbuh)?
chosen313 reacted to this
Peace lover 40
There is never any answer to 'WHy' in this world. We can only answer 'WHAT' and 'HOW'.
These are our limitations as humans, we can do nothing about it.
Chose any 'Why' question for yourself and try to answer it yourself. It should be a very easy question so that you can answer.
Of course, everybody is going to carry some preconceived notions with them into a discussion. So, there is no way of getting around that. However, what you should do is consider the arguments on their own merit.
Like I mentioned in my earlier post, you cannot get a rational answer as to why only 12 Imams. You can only rationally derive a proof for the necessary existence of an Imam (a representative of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) on the Earth). You can't demand a certain method of proving a particular claim when its impossible. It's like what atheists demand of us. That we provide by empirical evidence the existence of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). Not going to happen.
For the sake of this discussion, let's put the issue of Imamate aside for now.
I'm sure that you agree with me that there were roughly 124,000 prophets that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) sent to mankind. Of whom, the last was our Beloved Prophet (pbuh). Now, how did we come to know this? It is through the prophetic traditions themselves. And even if you disagree with this number you would agree that our Prophet (pbuh) was the "Seal of prophets". So, this implies a finite number of prophets from Prophet Adam (as) to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). And there has not been another prophet for almost 1400 years since the demise of our Prophet (pbuh). Now, with the same issue that you bring forth regarding Imamate, how do you explain the finite number of prophets? Why did Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) only send a certain number of prophets? Why did he not send any more after our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)? If you only accept Prophethood but not Imamate, how do you explain why Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) would leave us without someone to guide us to the right path at all times? Could you please give me an objective and rational answer to this question (i.e. without referring to the traditions)?
I am simply pointing this out to you to show that we prove Imamate in almost the same way that we prove Prophethood. The only exception is that the number and identity of the Imams must be given to us by the Prophet (pbuh) himself (i.e. the Imams were not given the ability to prove their own claim through miracles). So, we must refer to the traditions. The objections that you raised regarding Imamate can also be applied to the concept of Prophethood. And if you do that, you're essentially saying that Prophethood also cannot be rationally established (or at least the prophethood of our Beloved Prophet (pbuh)).
InfiniteAscension 349
Religion: التوحيد
We do believe that the world till Qiyama will never be free of Divine Leadership, so whatever number it stops at isn't quite the point. If it stops at 12 or 1000, the world will never be free of a leader, and our narrations clearly and explicitly confirm this. In fact the presence of a divine leader is what allows the world to subsist, and were there not a divine leader, the world would cease to exist.
Secondly and more importantly (because this is where the confusion seems to have arisen for you), the divine leader does not have to be physically seen for him to have a role in this world. The Imam plays a vital role, and as mentioned earlier, the world ceases to exist if he was not there, what greater role than that could be found?! We believe the Imam, despite the occultation, influences, helps, guides and has an active role in this world. The occultation - reasons of which we perhaps cannot understand due to Divine Wisdom - does not negate the presence or understate the role of the Imam [ajtfs].


text:
Q: What is the best way to initialize a complex static member in Java? My objective is to have a private static Properties object in my class, to act as defaults when creating other Properties objects needed by my application. The current implementation looks like this:
public class MyClass {
    private static Properties DEFAULT_PROPERTIES = new Properties();

    static {
        try {
           DEFAULT_PROPERTIES.load(
               MyClass.class.getResourceAsStream("myclass.properties"));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }
 }

Looking at it, it works, but it doesn't feel right.
How would you do it?

A: There are basically two ways. First way is using the static block as you have shown (but then with an ExceptionInInitializerError instead of the RuntimeException). Second way is using a static method which you call immediately on declaration:
private static Properties DEFAULT_PROPERTIES = getDefaultProperties();

private static Properties getDefaultProperties() {
    Properties properties = new Properties();
    try {
        properties.load(MyClass.class.getResourceAsStream("myclass.properties"));
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new ConfigurationException("Cannot load properties file", e);
    }
    return properties;
}

The ConfigurationException can just be your custom class extending RuntimeException.
I personally prefer the static block because it doesn't make sense having a method which is executed only once ever in its life. But if you refactor the method so that it takes a filename and can be reused globally, then that would be more preferred.
private static Properties DEFAULT_PROPERTIES = SomeUtil.getProperties("myclass.properties");

// Put this in a SomeUtil class.
public static Properties getProperties(String filename) {
    Properties properties = new Properties();
    try {
        properties.load(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(filename));
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new ConfigurationException("Cannot load " + filename, e);
    }
    return properties;
}

A: Instead of a generic RuntimeException, I would throw an ExceptionInInitializerError, which is ment for exacctly this purpose. From the API documentation: "Signals that an unexpected exception has occurred in a static initializer."

A: Seems acceptable to me; load in the static initialiser, it gets called only when the class is referenced, and is only called once. I like it. The only thing I'd do is make it final.
Well, aside from the exception. I'd try and avoid that somehow (I have in the back of my mind that you should avoid exceptions in those types of initialisers, but I could be wrong on that).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Merge fields allow you to insert Expert Agent data into your template. Merge fields are codes that do a simple find and replace with data from Expert Agent.
PLEASE NOTE: We strongly advise using Chrome as your browser. This part of the manual is based on using Chrome.
Find the merge field you require from the list. All codes are grouped together in various sections such as Property codes, Applicant Codes, General Codes etc.
The merge code you have selected will display highlighted at the top of the list. You will need to copy the code to paste in your document. Hold down your CTRL key and press C.
Find the place in the document you would like to code to appear and paste it into the document. A shortcut for this is - hold down your CTRL key and press V. This will paste the code into the document.
Continue to do this for the rest of the codes you want to add.
In the example above you will see that the original text has been replaced with merge codes. You will mainly be using your Property Codes when creating your brochure templates. Within the Property Codes you have a sub-section called "Property Advert Text" which you will also use regularly.


text:
The Five Best Pence Quotes from the Vice Presidential Debate
Erika Haas / Townhall Tipsheet
Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, summed up last night's debate perfectly; Tim Kaine was "planned and canned" while Mike Pence was "like a glass of southern sweet tea."
Kaine spent most of the night interrupting Pence, hurling attacks at Trump's character, and cramming in as many sound bites as possible. He didn't debate, he recited a script.
Pence, on the other hand, spent the night trying to converse with his opponent. He was natural and spontaneous; he reacted to what Kaine and the moderator had to say. Pence may not have had a script, but he definitely cast some great lines.
1. "There's a reason why people question the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton. And that's because they're paying attention."
Kaine was asked why 60 percent of voters think Hillary's untrustworthy. Pence had a simple answer.
2. "Senator do you take all the deductions that you're entitled to?…I do."
Kaine went on a rant about how it must be "smart" to not pay for our military, our veterans, or our teachers, because Trump said he was smart for paying as little tax as legally possible. Pence pointed out that no one is going to pay more taxes than they have to.
3. "At the risk of agreeing with you, community policing is a great idea."
The candidates were asked whether or not the country asks too much of police. Kaine mentioned that we need more community policing. Pence wasn't afraid to agree.
4. "Did you work on that one a long time? Because that had a lot of really creative lines in it."
After Kaine gave a rather long speech about Trump admiring dictators, having a personal Mount Rushmore of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Moammar Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein, and wanting more nations to have nukes, Pence only had one question.
5. "We could put cyber security first if we just make sure the next secretary of state doesn't have a private server."
Pence couldn't resist bringing up cyber security. Elaine Quijano, the moderator, tried to change the subject, but Pence had to get in one last comment.
The Five Best Pence Quotes from the Vice President...
Big U.S. school district 'submits to Islamic su...
DISASTER: Hillary Torches Trump on Taxes… The...
EU orders British press NOT to reveal when terror...
CENSUS: Record 42.4M immigrants, Muslims biggest ...


The following business and service characteristics are the some of the key traits of the use case that could leverage this pattern.
Business rules are volatile and are subject to change due to changing business conditions, competition, or operational environment.
Business variations are manifested in the way a business concept is populated to respond to situational changes, such as weather changes or sports events.
Business rule changes are driven by external regulatory and governmental bodies.
Business rules affect or alter the attribute and attribute values assigned to the business concept.
Business users require a facility to simulate business conditions to alter the business concept state to understand how to react to business opportunities.
The following caveats need to be kept in mind to prevent over dependence and over use of this pattern.
Over indulgence in using this pattern of externalizing the business rules of all types can cause the service to become ridden with the inconsistent application of process and business logic and will negatively impact the performance profile of the service. This is especially so when externalized business rules are used as a mechanism to short circuit analysis time needed to discern between the volatile rules and core business behavior.
If the primary driver is protecting oneself from change rather than supporting (appropriate) business variation, this would have a negative impact on how changes are rolled into the service. This results in affecting all the consumers as the service has non-deterministic and unreliable service behavior.
Service flexibility undoubtedly breeds complexity and has impacts on both deployment and on-going maintainability of the service.
Flawed analysis may cause the consumer context to start influencing the other aspects of the service not related to the core behavior of the business service. Not having strict separation of concerns may lead to the business service becoming tied to a single consumer context instead of encapsulating business rules that are generic and enterprise-worthy. In this case, the service provider code base will end up with consumer-specific information that is not just related to the context-based population of the business entity but also includes behavior related to the application of information to a specific consumer usage context. This renders the service non-reusable and will steer the service behavior and the expressed semantics expressed away from that of the published service interface.
Business rule and policy management is critical to the ongoing maintainability of this model. It is crucial to have a repeatable governance process in place to allow the alteration of business rules that affect service behavior.
Reliable tools that enable "what-if analysis" and "rule simulation environments" are required to insure that the new rules are in fact valid prior to being promoted into production environments.
It is imperative to have an audit trail of changes to the business rules being published to the service implementation environment. Additionally, the discipline of performing detailed impact analysis in releasing new rules to the services' production environment has to be practiced.
People and training are an important aspect that needs to be addressed in dealing with this architectural pattern. Business users need to be aware of the role they play and have to take ownership of the process of both defining the rules and the consequences of the rule changes.
As can be seen, contextual information such as business divisions and/or regulatory influences can all affect the service behavior and the population of the business concept. The "situational awareness injection" pattern leverages an external rules engine to apply rules to the service implementation layer. The service interface is retained across the enterprise despite the need to support variances in operational contexts across the multiple business divisions.
These externalized business rules are based on the business context of the consumer and are applied to alter the behavior of the business service while preserving the service interface. The business context is supplied either by the service consumer in the request or it is provided to the business service as part of the "configuration" or is embedded as an environmental parameter supplied during the deployment of the service. Regardless of where the context comes from, this pattern enables not only the ability of insulating the consumer from the rules and policy changes but also allows the encapsulation of all of the "situational" business rules in the service, thus making it easy for the enterprise or the business division to alter the rules without impacting the business consumers.
The reader will conclude that their company should seriously investigate applying the Situational Awareness Injection Service pattern. This includes the identification of business services fitting the Situational Awareness Injection Service pattern and the identification of required infrastructure services and runtime assets that might be needed to enable contextual variation without having to undertake service replication.
The architecture model presented here has great applicability in the realm of SaaS-style service offerings as well as in a service grid market place. The core architecture model and the interactions defined in this article promote the service interface preservation while allowing variations in cross-divisional business concept information. These variations may be needed to support situational behavior resulting from changes to regulatory policies or to the business unit-operating environment.
Surekha Durvasula is an enterprise architect who has had 10 plus years experience in designing and architecting a variety of enterprise applications in the financial services sector and the retail industry vertical. Most of her work has been in the area of distributed N-tiered architecture, including JEE component architecture. Her more recent focus has been on Service Oriented Architecture, Business Process Management, and Business Architecture. Her efforts as an Enterprise Architect involve not only architecting new applications and business services but also in leveraging the principles of SOA to extend the life of existing Enterprise Information Systems. She currently manages the Enterprise Architecture Group that involves establishing the discipline of Enterprise Architecture for the organization including preparing the organization to take advantage of the concepts of Service Orientation.


Motivational speaker and 2019 ACN Presidential candidate, Fela Durotoye attended the premiere of 2face Idibia's latest movie titled, 'Power of One'. Durotoye shared the photos on Instagram saying, 'the Power of ONE Pledge: I believe that One person can take action to make a difference. I believe YOU (You & I) can be that ONE PERSON. I believe in the Power of ONE'. The post Photos: Fela Durotoye attends 2face Idibia's movie premiere appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.


The Buttons pop off a 2nd single from 3rd album, 'Slow Focus'. The slow, lumbering prog excesses of 'Brainfreeze' grip the A-side with towering layers of synths and a churning, slo-mo momentum. B-side 'Royal Flush' is exclusive to this record and diffuses the intense density of the flip in favour of jagged, oddly-cut crystalline melodies and stodgy groove that gives way to celestial breakdown and roll-out.


Prime Numbers: A Computational Perspective by Crandall and Pomerance (2002) contained exactly 547 pages.
In the Disney movie The Black Hole, the crew of the Palomino escape from the parallel-universe Cygnus on Day 547.
There were 547 live broadcasts of "Watch Mr. Wizard" by the time the show was canceled in 1965.


Television stations & Cable networks now have an innovative new resource to help them increase profits and market share: Revnew (www.revnew.com).
Revnew is an innovative company that produces customizable, high-end, broadcast commercials for local news stations. They turned to Lord Creative for their end-to-end web solution. The result is a clean, dynamic and custom themed WordPress website, which allows the client to easily add news items, update imagery and video and descriptive text throughout. This enables any Revnew employee to keep the site up to date with their latest product offerings. This iPad friendly site features an automatic RSS feed of current news items onto the home page along with links to their social media outlets, which were set-up and branded by Lord Creative as well.


You can download Pain Solutions 2nd edition by A Lee Dellon free in pdf format.
Pain Solutions is a book of HOPE, written for those in PAIN, by a Plastic Surgeon with 30 years experience evaluating and treating people who have been told there is no hope for them. This book is written in a friendly, personal, and at times, humorous style so those in pain reading this book, or their friends, can relate to stories of those who were in pain and are now relieved. Dr. Dellon, a Professor of Plastic Surgery at the leading hospital in the United States, applies his creative problem solving ability to common pain problems, like Nerve Compression in those with Neuropathy, Groin Pain after Hernia Repair, Persistent Joint Pain after Knee Replacement or Shoulder Surgery, Morton's Neuroma, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Facial Pain, Phantom Limb Syndrome, RSD or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Anyone finding their pain problem in the Table of Contents of Pain Solutions will learn the origins of their pain, and also will learn there is hope for them at a Dellon Institute for Peripheral Nerve Surgery.


"At SDSU's GreenFest concert this weekend, the song in question was played by YG and he was paid for his performance that evening," SDSU Interim Chief Communications Officer Gina Jacobs told the Union-Tribune Monday afternoon, via email.
Speaking anonymously, because they were not authorized to publicly comment, a source familiar with the event said SDSU's Associated Students had requested in advance that YG, 26, not perform his Trump song. When the rapper (real name: Keenon Jackson) objected, a conversation ensued that eventually led to the students withdrawing their request he not include the song at his Friday concert here.
However, fueling a fast-spreading urban legend that YG may have helped spark with his on-stage comments Friday, some hip-hop fans posted comments on social media praising him as a free-speech advocate who willingly opted to forego his $60,000 fee and perform the song here.
Representatives for YG did not respond to a request for comment.


text:
\section{Introduction}
The production of high-$p_T$ jets probes the short-distance dynamics
of photon-photon reactions. In addition to providing tests of
perturbative QCD, $\gamma\g$ processes with real or almost real photons
give us information on the photon structure function which is
complementary to the information gained from deep inelastic scattering
on a real photon. The latter process essentially probes the quark
distribution while high-$p_T$ jet production is also sensitive to the
gluon distribution of the photon.

As it is well known high-$p_T$ processes induced by real photons have
a rather complex structure. This arises from the fact that the photon
couples to the hard subprocess either directly or through its quark
and gluon content.

In leading order QCD (LO) the cross section for the production of
jets can therefore be decomposed into a direct, single-resolved,
and double-resolved component. In next-to-leading order (NLO) the
photon-quark collinear singularities in the direct and single
resolved components are subtracted and absorbed into the quark
distribution of the photon in accord with the factorization theorem.
This subtraction at the factorization scale $M$ introduces an
interdependence of the three components so that the separation
into the direct, single-resolved, and double-resolved contributions
becomes scale dependent. This means that in NLO all three components
must be considered together and consistently be calculated up to
NLO in the photon structure functions and in the hard scattering
cross sections.

Complete NLO calculations have been done previously for the case of the
inclusive single--jet cross section \cite{ref1, ref2, ref3} and
compared to experimental data from TRISTAN \cite{ref4, ref5}. Satisfactory
agreement between data and theory has been found. In our previous work
\cite{ref2, ref3} we also calculated the NLO inclusive two-jet cross
sections for the direct and single-resolved contribution and
estimated the double-resolved contribution by the LO calculation
with $k$ factors taken from the NLO inclusive one-jet cross section.
In the meantime the calculation of the NLO corrections for the
double-resolved cross section has been completed also for the
inclusive two-jet cross section using techniques also employed
for the direct and single-resolved cross sections in our previous
work \cite{ref2, ref3}.

In this paper we shall present the complete NLO predictions for the
inclusive two-jet cross section incorporating all three components,
direct, single-resolved and double-resolved. We shall compare
these predictions with the older TRISTAN data \cite{ref4, ref5} and with
recent data from LEP at $e^+e^-$ energies of $130$ and $136\,GeV$
(LEP1.5) \cite{ref6}. The details of the NLO calculation of the
double-resolved cross section are given elsewhere \cite{ref7}. Those of the
direct and single-resolved cross section are described in \cite{ref3}.

The outline of the rest of the paper is as follows. In section 2
we explain the formalism used to calculate the inclusive two-jet
cross section. Section 3 contains our results for the cross sections
and some studies on the overall scale dependence and the dependence
of the two-jet cross section on the cone radius R. Here we also
present the results for different sets of photon structure
functions and the comparison with the TRISTAN and LEP1.5 data. Section
4 contains a short summary.

\section{Inclusive Two-Jet Cross Sections}

As explained in the introduction inclusive jet cross sections at
large $p_T$ receive contributions from three parts according to how the
incoming photons take part in the hard scattering subprocesses.
For example, when both photons are resolved the inclusive two-jet
cross section has the following form
\begin{eqnarray}
 \frac{\d^3\sigma^{DR}}{\d p_T\d\eta_1\d\eta_2}&=&
 \sum\limits_{i,j=q,g}\int\limits\!\d x_1\int\limits\!\d x_2\,
 F_{i/\gamma}(x_1,M)\,F_{j/\gamma}(x_2,M)\nonumber\\
 &&\left(\left(\frac{\d^3\sigma^{DR}(ij\to\mbox{jet}_1+\mbox{jet}_2)}
              {\d p_T\d\eta_1\d\eta_2}\right)_{\mbox{LO}}
 +\frac{\alpha_s(\mu)}{2\pi}K_{ij}^{DR}(R,M,\mu)\right)
 \label{gl1}
\end{eqnarray}
In (\ref{gl1}), $p_T$ is the transverse momentum of the measured or trigger
jet with rapidity $\eta_1$. $\eta_2$ denotes the rapidity of another
jet such that in the three-jet sample (in the NLO calculation only up
to three jets occur in the final state, the photon remnant jets are
not counted) these two jets have the largest and second largest $p_T$
$({p_T}_1,{p_T}_2>{p_T}_3)$.
The first term on the right-hand side of (\ref{gl1}) stands for the LO
cross section and the second term is the NLO correction which
depends on the factorization scale $M$ at which the initial state
singularities are absorbed into the parton distributions of the
photon. $\mu$ is the renormalization scale. The variable $R$ is the
usual cone size parameter which defines the size of the jets with
transverse momentum $p_T$, rapidity $\eta$ and azimuthal angle $\phi$.
When two partons fulfill the Snowmass constraint \cite{ref8} with
the cone size parameter $R$ they are recombined in one jet. The same
jet definition is used in the analysis of the experimental data
by the TOPAZ \cite{ref4}, AMY \cite{ref5} and OPAL \cite{ref6}
collaborations. It is clear that either of the two jets can consist
of a recombination of two partons inside a cone with radius $R$.

The NLO corrections in the hard scattering processes are calculated
with the phase space slicing method using for the separation of the
$\gamma\g\to2$ jets and $\gamma\g\to3$ jets cross sections an invariant mass
cut-off $y$, defined as $2p_ip_j<ys$, where $s$ is the partonic
center-of-mass energy squared. For example, the cross section for
the direct process $\gamma\g\to q\bar{q}g$ has soft, initial, and final
state collinear singularities. The $\gamma\g\to q\bar{q}g$ cross section is
integrated over these singular regions up to the cut-off $y$ which
isolates the respective singularities. These cancel against the
singular contributions of the virtual corrections to $\gamma\g\to q\bar{q}$
and the subtraction terms at the scale $M$ to be absorbed into
the parton distribution functions of the photon. Outside the
cut-off region controlled by the parameter $y$ we have genuine
$q\bar{q}g$ final states. In this contribution two of the partons are
combined if they obey the Snowmass constraint. The LO contribution,
the NLO virtual contributions, and
the NLO corrections inside the $y$ cut contribute to the two-jet cross
section together with the contributions inside the cone with
radius $R$. The part of the $q\bar{q}g$ cross section  not fulfilling
the cone recombination condition is the 3-jet cross section from which
we have calculated the inclusive 2-jet cross section as a function of
$p_T$, $\eta_1$ and $\eta_2$.

For the exclusive 2-jet cross section ${p_T}_1={p_T}_2=p_T$.
To separate double singularities in the $q\bar{q}g$ contributions we
have used the method of partial fractioning. The same partial
fractioned expressions are applied for the calculation inside and
outside the $y$ cut. Inside the $y$ cut the calculation is done
analytically in the approximation that terms $O(y)$ are
neglected. Outside the $y$ cut the contributions to the inclusive cross
section are evaluated numerically with no further
approximations. Because of the approximation in the analytic part,
the parameter $y$ must be chosen very small, of the order of
$10^{-3}$ to $10^{-4}$. For such values of $y$ the inclusive cross
section should be independent of the invariant mass parameter
$y$. However the inclusive two-jet cross section depends on the cone
size $R$, which must be chosen as in the analysis of the experimental
data. In the case of the single-- and double--resolved contributions
the calculation of the NLO corrections proceeds in the same way. For
example, in the single--resolved case, we have in LO the contributions
from $\gamma g\to q\bar{q}$ and $\gamma q\to qg$ and in NLO we must consider
$\gamma g\to q\bar{q}g, \gamma q\to qq\bar{q}$ and $\gamma q\to qgg$ which are
treated in the same fashion as the 3--parton contributions
in the direct case. In the calculation of the double--resolved cross
section we have no photons in the initial state, only quarks and
gluons, and we have many more channels to consider as processes
with three partons in the final state, which will not be given
here. Otherwise the calculation proceeds in a completely analogous way
to the direct and single--resolved case.

Before the final results were
obtained some tests of the NLO corrections have been performed. First
we checked that the cross sections are independent of the cut-off $y$
if $y$ is chosen small enough. This was the case for $y\le10^{-3}$
in all considered cases. For $y>10^{-3}$ we observed some small $y$
dependence which is caused by the approximation in the analytical
part. Second the inclusive one--jet cross section for the
double--resolved  contribution was calculated and compared with our
earlier results for which a completely different method for the
cancellation of the infrared and collinear singularities was applied
\cite{ref2, ref3}. Very good agreement was found in all
channels. Third we tested that the sum of the NLO direct and
the LO single--resolved cross section is independent of the
factorization scale $M$. The same test was performed for the sum of the
NLO single--resolved cross section and the LO double--resolved cross
section. Details of these tests can be found in \cite{ref7}. In this
work also the details of the analytic calculation and the
cancellation of the singularities for the NLO corrections of the
double--resolved cross section are given. For the direct and the
single--resolved cross sections the calculation of the NLO
corrections was described earlier in \cite{ref3} and \cite{ref9},
respectively, and also in \cite{ref7}.

For the calculation of the single-- and double--resolved cross sections
we need the parton distributions of the photon $F_{i/\gamma}$
which appear in (\ref{gl1}) and in the equivalent formula for the
single-resolved cross section (see \cite{ref2}). We have chosen the
NLO set of Gl\"uck, Reya and Vogt (GRV) in the
$\overline{\mbox{MS}}$ scheme
\cite{ref10} as our standard set. For a comparison we shall
employ also the $\overline{\mbox{MS}}$ sets of Gordon
and Storrow \cite{ref11} and of
Aurenche et al. \cite{ref12}. We choose all scales $\mu=M=p_T$
except when we test the scale dependence. $\alpha_s$ is calculated
from the two--loop formula with $N_f=4\,(5)$ massless flavours with
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(4)}=0.20\,GeV
(\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(5)}=0.13\,GeV)$
for the $e^+e^-$ center of mass energy $\sqrt{S}=58\,GeV
(\sqrt{S}=133\,GeV)$. The charm, respectively, bottom quarks are also
treated as light flavours with the boundary condition that the charm
(bottom) content of the photon structure function vanishes for
$M^2<m_c^2\,(m_b^2)$ with $m_c=1.5\,GeV (m_b=5.0\,GeV)$ for the GRV
parton distributions \cite{ref10}. For the other two sets the
treatment of heavy flavours is somewhat different. The details are
found in the respective references \cite{ref11, ref12}.

\section{Results and Comparison with Data from TOPAZ, AMY, and OPAL}

In $e^+e^-$ collisions the jets are produced via the exchange of two
almost real photons. The spectrum of these small $Q^2$ photons is
described by the Weizs\"acker-Williams approximation \cite{ref13}
\begin{eqnarray}
   F_{\gamma/e}(z,E)&=&\frac{\alpha}{2\pi}\frac{1+(1-z)^2}{z}
   \left\{\ln\left(\frac{E^2\theta_{\max}^2(1-z)^2+m_e^2z}{m_e^2z^2}\right)
   \right.\nonumber\\
   &&+\left.2(1-z)\left(\frac{m_e^2z}{E^2\theta_{\max}^2(1-z)^2+m_e^2z^2}
   -\frac12\right)\right\}\label{gl2}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\theta_{\max}$ is the maximally allowed angle of the electron
(positron) which is given experimentally by the anti-tagging
counters. $E$ is the beam energy of the electron (positron) and
$z=E_\gamma/E$ is the fraction of the electron (positron) energy
transferred to the respective photon.

Then the inclusive two-jet cross section for the reaction
$e^++e^-\to e^++e^-+\mbox{jet}_1+\mbox{jet}_2+X$ is calculated from
\begin{eqnarray}
 \frac{\d^3\sigma(e^++e^-\to e^++e^-+\mbox{jet}_1+\mbox{jet}_2+X)}
      {\d p_T\d\eta_1\d\eta_2}&=&\nonumber\\
 &&\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!
   \!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!
   \!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!
   \int\limits\!\d z_1\int\limits\!\d z_2\,
   F_{\gamma/e}(z_1,E)\,F_{\gamma/e}(z_2,E)
   \frac{\d^3\sigma(\gamma+\gamma\to\mbox{jet}_1+\mbox{jet}_2+X)}
      {\d p_T\d\eta_1\d\eta_2}\label{gl3}
\end{eqnarray}
where the cross section on the right-hand side is for the
interaction of two real photons $(Q^2=0)$ and is obtained from
(\ref{gl1}) for the double-resolved case and similar formulas for the
direct and single-resolved $\gamma\g$ cross section (see \cite{ref2}).

First we show in Fig.\ 1 the dependence of the inclusive 2--jet
cross section on the cone radius $R$ for the special case of LEP2
kinematics, $\sqrt{S}=175\,GeV, \theta_{\max}=1.72^\circ$,
since we cannot expect this dependence to be tested with
TRISTAN or LEP1.5 data. Of course, the LO cross section is
independent of $R$ which is shown as the broken line in Fig.\ 1. In
the NLO calculation the cross section increases with increasing $R$,
first almost linearly in $\ln R$ for $R$ values up to 0.75 and somewhat
stronger for $R>0.75$. At $R\simeq0.9$ the LO and NLO cross sections
are equal for the special kinematical point $p_T=10\,GeV, \eta_1=\eta_2=0$.
Therefore for $R$ values, chosen between 0.7 and 1.0, the higher order
corrections are moderate. The LO curve is obtained with the two-loop
formula with the same $\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$
value and with the same NLO
photon structure functions from GRV. In a genuine LO calculation with
one--loop $\alpha_s$ and LO structure functions the cross section is
somewhat larger. That the NLO corrections near $R = 1$ are not very
large is due to
the dominance of the direct contribution which is not changed by
the NLO corrections very much \cite{ref2, ref3} in contrast to the NLO
corrections for the double--resolved cross section \cite{ref7}.

In Fig.\ 2, 3, and 4 the inclusive two-jet cross sections
$\frac{\displaystyle\d^3\sigma}{\displaystyle\d p_T\d\eta_1\d\eta_2}$ are plotted as a functions
of $p_T$, integrated over the rapidities $\eta_1$ and $\eta_2$
as in the experimental analysis of the TOPAZ \cite{ref4}, AMY \cite{ref5}
and OPAL \cite{ref6} collaborations.  The conditions for the TOPAZ
experiment are $\theta_{\max}=3.2^{\circ}, z_1, z_2\le0.75$ and
$|\eta_1|,|\eta_2|\le0.7$. The cone radius $R=1$ is used in all
three figures. The comparison with the TOPAZ data \cite{ref4} is seen in
Fig.\ 2. The full curve is the sum of the direct, single--resolved and
double--resolved contributions. The separate cross sections are
also plotted. From these curves one can see that at the TRISTAN
energy the resolved part is significant only at very small $p_T$.
At large $p_T\simeq8\,GeV$ the direct contribution is dominant. But
both, the double--resolved and even more the single--resolved cross
section make a non--negligible contribution. The agreement of the
theoretical prediction with the TOPAZ data is very good. It is clear
from this comparison that the data cannot be explained by the direct
contribution alone even at the larger $p_T$. In Fig.\ 3 the same
curves for the AMY experiment are shown. In this experiment the cuts
are $\theta_{\max}=13^{\circ}$ and $|\eta_1|,|\eta_2|\le1$.
$z_1$ and $z_2$ are not restricted further. We show again the three
contributions, the
direct, single--resolved and double--resolved cross section. The
data points must be compared with the full curve. The agreement
with the theoretical curve is again quite good. The AMY cross section
is larger than the TOPAZ cross section, essentially since
$\theta_{\max}$ is larger. In the fall of 1995 LEP was run at
center-of-mass energies of $130$ and $136\,GeV$. During this rather
short run the OPAL collaboration was able to measure inclusive jet
cross sections and analyze them with the cone jet finding
algorithm \cite{ref6}. The cone radius was also $R=1$. In Fig.\ 4 we
show their data of the inclusive two-jet cross section together with
our prediction (full curve) and the cross sections for the direct,
single--resolved and  double--resolved part. The kinematical
constraints are $\theta_{\max}=1.43^{\circ}, |\eta_1|,|\eta_2|\le1$.
Because of the larger c.m.\ energy we have taken $N_f=5$ and the
corresponding
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}=0.130\,GeV$. At small
$p_T$ the data are very accurate. The combined statistical and systematic
errors are shown. The agreement of the theory with the data is
good over the whole $p_T$ range. We see that the double--resolved
contribution is much more important at this higher energy. It gives
the dominant contribution for $p_T\le5\,GeV$. Even at $p_T=16\,GeV$
the direct contribution is only 60\% of the total. Except for the last
high $p_T$ point which has a larger error the pure direct curve is not
consistent with the data. This shows that the other two contributions,
the single--resolved and double--resolved, are needed to explain the
data. The OPAL collaboration measured also
the inclusive single--jet cross section. The comparison of their data
with our predictions is shown in \cite{ref6} and \cite{ref7}. The
agreement between theory and the data is as good as in the two-jet
case. The inclusive two-jet cross section for LEP1.5 contains an extra
factor 2 as compared to the definition used for the TRISTAN energy in
order to account for the definition as used in \cite{ref6}.

In all the comparisons between experiment and theory shown above, we employed
the GRV presentation of the parton distributions of the photon.
Other NLO parton distributions are those of Gordon and Storrow
\cite{ref11} and Aurenche et al.\ \cite{ref12}. Before we compare the data
with predictions based on these other parton distributions we
investigate the scale dependence of the inclusive two-jet cross
sections for the two $e^+e^-$ c.m.\ energies corresponding to TRISTAN
and LEP1.5. The results are shown in Fig.\ 5a,b where we have plotted
the two-jet cross sections for three different scales $\mu=M=\xi p_T$
with $\xi=1/2$, $1$ and $2$, and compared them with the TOPAZ (Fig.\ 5a)
and OPAL data (Fig.\ 5b). In both cases the cross section is remarkably
independent of the scale change. Only at rather small $p_T<4\,GeV$
the cross section in Fig.\ 5a exhibits some scale change. For
$ p_T>4\,GeV$ the cross section at $\sqrt{S}=58\,GeV$ deviates less
than $\pm4\%$ from the standard with $\xi=1$.
Similarly the cross section at $\sqrt{S}=133\,GeV$ shown in Fig.\ 5b
varies by less than $\pm2\%$ above $p_T=8\,GeV$. This small scale change
of the $\gamma\g$ jet cross sections (the inclusive one--jet cross section shows a
similar behaviour) results from the fact that the scale change
originating from the change of the renormalization scale $\mu$ leading
to a decrease of the cross section with increasing $\xi$
is to a large extend cancelled by the dependence on the
factorization scale $M$, which is opposite to the change in $\mu$. The
dependence on $M$ is mostly cancelled between the NLO direct and the LO
single-resolved cross section and similarly between NLO
single-resolved and LO double-resolved cross section \cite{ref7}.
But some dependence on $M$ remains when all three cross sections are
evaluated in NLO. Thus this reduced scale dependence of the
$\gamma\g$ jet cross sections would be a good place to determine
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$. For this we need
photon structure functions with varying
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$ which are not available
yet and accurate  data in particular for large $p_T$. In order to see
the change of the two--jet cross section when we change from
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(5)}=0.130\,GeV$ to
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(5)}=0.250\,GeV$ in the
formula for $\alpha_s$ we have plotted the cross section for this
large value of $\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$ also in
Fig.\ 5b. As to be expected the cross section is larger now. At the
smaller $p_T<5\,GeV$ the data points lie below the theoretical
curve. Since $\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$ was not
changed in the photon structure function consistently we  do not draw any
conclusions from this observation. At large $p_T$ the data points are still
consistent with the theoretical curve for the larger
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(5)}$. The equivalent
result at $\sqrt{S}=58\,GeV$  is shown in Fig.\ 5a, where we compare
the results for
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(4)}=0.200\,GeV$ with
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(4)}=0.358\,GeV$ which
is equivalent to
$\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}^{(5)}=0.250\,GeV$ when
we choose four active flavours. Due to the larger experimental errors the
curve with the larger $\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$
value is still compatible with the
data. At the larger $p_T$ the agreement is even somewhat
improved. This shows that with the limited experimental accuracy of
the data at both energies it seems difficult to draw clear
conclusions even if the photon structure functions were given for
varying $\Lambda_{\overline{\mbox{\tiny{MS}}}}$.

In Fig.\ 6a,b we investigated the influence of the gluon distribution
of the photon on the two--jet cross section. It is clear that the gluon
distribution will have a remarkable influence only at small
$p_T$ since this distribution function is dominant for small $x$. To
see this we have assumed $F_{g/\gamma}=0$ with the assumption that the quark
distribution functions are already well enough constrained by the deep
inelastic $e$--$\gamma$ scattering data. As is seen in Fig.\ 6a,b the
prediction with $F_{g/\gamma}=0$ gives very bad agreement with the data at
small $p_T$ ($p_T<5\,GeV$ in Fig.\ 6a and $p_T<8\,GeV$ in
Fig.\ 6b). From this we conclude that the two-jet data require a
non-vanishing $F_{g/\gamma}$ in the photon structure function. This agrees
with earlier findings in \cite{ref4, ref5} on the basis of more model
dependent calculations and with LO calculations in \cite{ref14} based on
new GS structure functions.

The last point is the prediction for other parton distributions of
the photon than the GRV distribution in NLO. The comparison is
shown in Fig.\ 7a,b together with the TOPAZ and OPAL experimental
data. As we can see there is little difference between the results
for the GRV \cite{ref10} and the ACFGP \cite{ref12} structure functions.
The cross sections for the GS \cite{ref11} distribution functions are
somewhat smaller than for GRV. In average, for both c.m. energies,
the data agree better with the GRV and ACFGP curve than with the curve
based on the GS structure function, in particular in the comparison
with the TOPAZ data. In order to exclude one of these structure
functions much more accurate data are needed. In general, we
conclude, that all three NLO parton distributions of the photon
account remarkably well for the existing data of the inclusive
two-jet production. It is clear, that additional information,
as for example, the rapidity distributions for the two jets could
constrain these structure functions further.

The same comparison has been done with the AMY two-jet data. Since
in this case, the GRV curve lies at small $p_T$ above the data
points the agreement with the prediction with the GS structure
function is better than for the TOPAZ data.

Overall we can state that the agreement between the theoretical
predictions and the measurements of the two--jet cross sections is
remarkably good. This is true for the magnitude of the cross section
and its shape as a function of $p_T$. We should not conceal, however,
that the NLO calculation gives the jet cross sections for massless
partons, whereas the experimental jet cross sections are measured from
hadrons. Assuming the usual parton--hadron duality, no difference
between parton and hadron level would be observed. This parton--hadron
duality is very well obeyed in jet production for $e^+e^-$
annihilation at the $Z$ resonance. In this case the hard scale is
larger than in the $\gamma\g$ processes, so that it is problematic to draw
any firm conclusions from it. On the other hand it is not easy to
estimate the hadronization effects for jet production in $\gamma\g$
processes. For this one needs a Monte Carlo routine which generates
the final state partons including the NLO correction with subsequent
fragmentation into hadron jets. Such a routine is not available
yet. Estimates on the basis of LO Monte Carlos may not be too
conclusive. Further details for this case are reported in \cite{ref6}.

\section{Summary}

Differential inclusive two--jet cross sections $\d\sigma/\d p_T$ have been
calculated as a function of $p_T$ in NLO for the direct,
single--resolved and double--resolved contributions. The superposition
of these cross sections are compared to the TOPAZ, AMY and OPAL
data. We obtained good agreement between measured data and the
theoretical predictions. The same is true for the single inclusive
cross sections \cite{ref6,ref7}. The single-- and double--resolved
cross sections are obtained with the GRV \cite{ref10} photon structure
function. Two other sets GS \cite{ref11} and ACFGP \cite{ref12} were
also investigated. With them the data are described almost equally
well. The $\gamma\g$ jet cross sections are remarkably stable against
scale changes. With increasing center--of--mass energy the
double--resolved contribution becomes more and more important. This
is clearly seen by comparing the prediction for the TRISTAN and LEP1.5
energies. Similar to earlier findings we exclude a description of the
data without a gluon distribution in the photon. It is hoped that more
accurate data from LEP2 may be able to constrain the parton
distributions of the photon further.

\section{Acknowledgements}

We thank S.~S\"oldner--Rembold for information about the OPAL
measurements and for communicating the data before publication.
We are grateful to M.~Klasen for reading the manuscript.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Notre Dame's defensive line recruiting surge continues with Texas four-star's commitment
By Douglas FarmerMay 19, 2018, 6:17 PM EDT
Defensive line coach Mike Elston predicted Notre Dame would enjoy great recruiting success along its defensive line this cycle. With Saturday's commitment of consensus four-star defensive end NaNa Osafo-Mensah (Nolan Catholic High School; Fort Worth, Texas), Elston can consider his boasts backed up.
"I haven't had a stronger group of underclassmen that I'm recruiting than I have this year in 2019," Elston said on Feb. 7, the most-recent National Signing Day.
"This could be the best defensive line haul we've ever had here."
Osafo-Mensah is the third consensus four-star defensive end to join the Irish class of 2019 and the highest-rated of the trio, joining Howard Cross (St. Joseph H.S.; Montvale, N.J.) and Hunter Spears (Sachse; Texas). Per rivals.com, Osafo-Mensah is the No. 160 prospect in the country and the No. 17 in Texas. The recruiting service lists Osafo-Mensah as an outside linebacker, and the No. 6 outside linebacker in the country, but his 6-foot-4 frame holding about 220 pounds projects as a pass-rushing defensive end in the future.
Osafo-Mensah is not only explosive, but he has the length of a top-flight quarterback hound. Obviously, he remains a bit light as he finishes his junior year in high school.
Osafo-Mensah chose Notre Dame over his homestate Texas, with Oklahoma and Texas A&M also pursuing him strongly. Just about every college football power offered him a scholarship, notably including Alabama, Michigan and USC.
I AM 131% COMMITTED…
(Video courtesy of @SuperK_TFB) pic.twitter.com/BWNuyJrKgH
— NaNa Osafo-Mensah (@NaNaOsafo2) May 19, 2018
With the Irish, he becomes the 10th commit in the class, including consensus-four star defensive tackle Jacob Lacey (South Warren; Bowling Green, Ky.). Clearly the defensive line is an emphasis for Elston, defensive coordinator Clark Lea and Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly.
If not for the changes to NCAA recruiting rules in the last cycle, Osafo-Mensah and the rest may still be in the early parts of the recruitment process. First of all, December's early signing period gave the coaching staff a head start on chasing the next set of recruits.
"A lot of it is because I've been able to put [the class of 2018] to bed and get moving on the '19s and go visit in their schools all throughout January," Elston said.
Those impressions led to Osafo-Mensah's official visit last month. Before the new rules, he would not have been able to take a paid-for trip to campus until the fall.


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ECONOMYNEXT - SriLankan Airlines said it was experiencing flight delays and congestion at Colombo's international airport owing to what it called a combination of unforeseen events, including a bird strike which damaged an aircraft.
Issuing an 'Urgent Travel Alert' it advised passengers to check in for their flights online, to contact the national carrier's 24-hour call center on 011-97331979 or their travel agent before going to the Bandaranaike International Airport.
"SriLankan Airlines regrets the continuing delays and congestion at Colombo Airport," a statement said.
The airline advised passengers to maintain an up to date profile, including current mobile numbers and email addresses on FlySmiLes, its frequent flyer programme, as that help the carrier warn of delays or disruptions.
"We greatly appreciate the understanding and patience that our customers have shown. Please accept our sincere apologies and be assured that we are working around the clock to restore normal services," the statement said.


Five DJs, including Alex P  well-known on the Ibiza scene  will be giving their time for free and playing funky house and old skool garage at the Coach and Horses in Stevenage to raise funds for Garden House Hospice Care.
A charity music night has been inspired by a man who has been battling a brain tumour for more than a year and has now been told he only has weeks to live.
Marsha Schwartz-Read, who has helped organise the charity DJ night at the Coach and Horses in Stevenage.
Marsha Schwartz-Read, Lewis Harwood and Dean Curtis have organised a house and garage music night at the Coach and Horses in Stevenage's High Street to raise money for Garden House Hospice Care in Letchworth.
Marsha, who is close friends with the cancer-stricken man, says he does not want to be named and the focus of attention for the event because he is well-known in Stevenage.
The Light Up A Life event on March 3 will see five DJs, including Alex P – well-known on the Ibiza scene – giving their time for free and playing funky house and old skool garage.
Tickets for the event, which starts at 7.30pm, are £5 in advance and £7.50 on the door – with all money raised being donated to the hospice, where the 53-year-old is being cared for.
Marsha said: "My friend speaks so highly of staff and wouldn't be able to get through it without them.
For tickets, or if you are a business and would like to donate a raffle prize, call Marsha on 07943 421710.
Alternatively you can search for 'Light Up A Life' on Facebook, or pop into the pub.
If you want to make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com/GHHospice.


text:
Racquetball player Nikita Chauhan "serves" success on the court
Jeff Gallemore
Nikita Chauhan defeats Kaitlyn Boyle in a tie-breaker at the 2018 National High School Racquetball Tournament in Portland, Oregon, advancing to the finals.
Amanda Su, Editor-in-Chief
Making waves as a young athlete in a sport not often recognized, Dougherty Valley High School junior Nikita Chauhan, a Team USA racquetball player, dominates daily on the racquetball court.
Racquetball is an indoor, fast-paced sport, in which players hit a rubber, hollow ball against the wall in an enclosed space with a teardrop-shaped racquet, rallying against their opponents.
According to Chauhan, it's "one of the only sports where all the muscles in your body are worked out."
Because Chauhan's father used to play squash in college, a sport that is somewhat similar to racquetball, Chauhan was inspired to follow in his footsteps.
But when her family moved to San Ramon and joined the gym at Club Sport Pleasanton, they discovered that the gym doesn't have squash courts — only racquetball courts.
Despite initially thinking racquetball was a "pretty lame sport," Chauhan tried it out and soon grew to love it because of all the friends she has made in international competitions. She has now been playing for around six years and hasn't looked back.
Three times a week, Chauhan works on staying fit, conditioning — doing body-weight exercises — based on work-out schedules that coach David Horn creates for her.
"The things that I do for conditioning are actually a huge mixture of things and change all the time. Racquetball is one sport in which the greatest amount of muscles are worked out so I have to make sure I am working out my entire body," she said.
Outside the gym and on the racquetball court, Chauhan practices six days a week doing specific drills, such as footwork drills, using the ladder to improve her movement on the court, and practicing her serves "since it's the most important shot of the game."
In addition to this training, she also has a coach in Arizona, to whom she sends videos of herself playing and who responds with critiques.
Beyond preparing herself physically for competitions, Chauhan also noted the importance of preparing herself mentally: "I'll watch my previous matches and see what I could have done better. You know, finding certain words to tell yourself when you're in an important match that kind of help you stay calm and keep going. To keep your focus and attention and focus on the game."
As a result of her diligence in training, Chauhan has had numerous accomplishments in racquetball.
Most recently, at the National High School Racquetball Tournament in Portland, Oregon, from Feb. 28 to March 4, Chauhan and her fellow Dougherty juniors Reema Sreenivasan, Mansi Jain and Kashish Pandey brought home 11th place for Dougherty Valley for girls out of all the schools in the nation.
Chauhan's individual accomplishments at the championships include earning a gold in the level 1 consolation division of girls doubles with Pandey as her partner and bringing home a silver medal in the level 1 gold division of girls singles, making it to finals in that event.
Chauhan is ranked first in the state of California for girls aged 18 and under and has participated in four Junior World Championships as a part of Team USA. At her first one in 2014 in Cali, Colombia, she won a bronze medal. The following year in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, she was a semifinalist. In 2016 in San Luis Patosi, Mexico, she won a bronze in doubles. And in the 2017 tournament in Minnesota, she won a bronze medal in the gold division.
To compete in these tournaments as a member of Team USA and maintain her spot on the team, Chauhan has had to consistently perform well in the annual Junior Nationals tournaments and stay in the gold division. For singles, that means winning first or second at Junior Nationals and for doubles, that means winning the complete bracket.
Chauhan has thus far been to six Junior Nationals and competed as a part of the Team USA team for the last four.
Having been on Team USA for the last four years, in 2017, Chauhan had the honor of being chosen from all the players on Team USA to receive the Sportsmanship of the Year award for her good sportsmanship and positive attitude. She credits this as one of her proudest accomplishments and most memorable experiences in the sport.
"Normally they give it to players whose last year it is on the team and I think I was 15 at that time," she said. "My coach handed it to me, so it felt really rewarding. Smiling on the court and being a good sport really does pay off."
Although Chauhan has always worked hard to maintain a positive attitude, she admits that she has had to overcome difficult losses and obstacles as an athlete.
"Forgiving yourself when you make a mistake has been one of the hardest things," she said. "The most difficult [loss] was last year at Junior Nationals. I made it to the finals and I was training really had to defeat my opponent. But I guess I was just having an off day. I don't mind about losing or not but it's always tough when you don't give a tough fight and play your best game because you know you could have played better. But that's just helped me train to prevent that from happening again."
Chauhan, as a junior in high school, has also had to surpass the additional obstacle of managing her time — balancing her life as a student and an athlete.
"Honestly I'm not really good at it," she laughed. "But you just have to prioritize and see what is more important to you. At times, there have been tournaments I've missed because of school. Because you know, junior year … It's difficult as it is. And during tournaments, I would do some of my homework. I think also just also keeping a schedule really helps me. But just having a lot of things to do has helped me get better at time management and understanding what's more important."
Highlighting the importance of having the support and understanding of teachers at school, Chauhan also expressed gratitude to several individuals whose support has been formative in her growth as an athlete, including her coach, Horn, and her father, who sparked her interest in racquetball and continues to support her athletic endeavors today.
"I look up to my dad because all the sacrifices he has made in trying to help me become the best player and person I can be on and off the court … My dad is my main coach and takes time off [from] work to be able to coach me at important tournaments" she said.
Since her beginnings as a racquetball athlete, Chauhan's passion for racquetball has never wavered. But she is dismayed that racquetball doesn't get as much recognition as many other sports.
"I really don't know why racquetball doesn't get enough credit. It's an Olympic sport. And it's entered a bid for the 2028 Olympics in L.A. I think it just got unlucky and kind of died down after the 1970s-ish but hopefully it's popularity is going to start to gain back," she said.
To promote the sport and students' interest in it, Chauhan founded and is the president of Dougherty Valley High School's racquetball club.
In the future, Chauhan aspires to go to a college that has a racquetball team, or would herself like to start one there to continue to help the sport gain recognition.
Beyond this, she is also determined to win a world title and become a professional racquetball player. But, she said, "unfortunately, even if you do become a professional racquetball player you can't really make a living out of it unlike professional basketball players. Even though I do have a sponsor [Gearbox], it's not going to pay enough."
Consequentially, she is also potentially interested in pursuing a career in the fields of biology or biophysics.
Uncertain about what her future holds, Chauhan hopes to enjoy her time playing racquetball as much as she can and advises young athletes to "appreciate whatever you're doing and have a good attitude."
Never taking her talent and opportunities for granted, Chauhan continues to embrace pressure and challenges, stating that "there are many people who would want to be where I am."
Every day, she lives by tennis player Serena Williams's quote at the U.S. Open last year: "Pressure is privilege."
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