I'm not sure if it is intentional or not (I suspect it is, as every part of this program has been planned out in excruciating detail.) but over the past two weeks our courses have taken on a sustainability theme.
In Entrepreneurship we have been studying cases of social entrepreneurs, startups that help people and/or the environment while still generating profits. In our presentation skills workshop, one group presented, received feedback, and then re-presented a new system for measuring the net social value added to society by businesses. In POM we have studied how one of the world's largest power companies was able to develop and implement a social responsibility plan with very little time and budgetary requirement. Tomorrow in Economics we will analyze the economics of trade, development, and sustainability.
It's great the way it all comes together from several different angles. Because this is a general management program it is important for us to understand how a key goal (in this case, social responsibility) can be accomplished by different business functions--individually or all together.
Furthermore it is gratifying to me personally that IMD emphasizes sustainability. As anyone who has read my first blog entry will know, sustainability is very important to me and I'm pleased that this program does more than pay it lip service. I can see on their faces that there is very genuine interest and inspiration in my classmates too. We are not here just to learn how to "get rich." We are here to learn how to be more effective at making the world a better place. It's a hell of a challenge, but it is worth it.
American professor Corey Billington teaches our Production and Operations Management class where we never know exactly what we're going to get. Our first few sessions were focused on supply chain optimization but now we have transitioned into driving innovation. Today's case is about one of the world's largest power & gas companies which created an award-winning Corporate Social Responsibility strategy in only one week. Naturally they had some help from IMD.
As a former HP executive, Corey has a great deal of industry experience to share, which he does by providing "management tips" in each of his lectures. I have found these very useful as they're a part of the curriculum that you can't read in any book. His greatest contribution today, though, has been quoting the Major General song from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance--"with many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse!" It takes me back to 5th Grade, when I was the Pirate King in our class's production. No time to reminisce, though; the coffee break is over so it's back to business!
Cigars and port go together like ramalamalamalamalama-dingdong. Tonight's meeting of the IMD Cigar Society was a wonderful, relaxing experience with 15 or so current and former IMD students. I puffed on a Monte Cristo while catching up with classmates and meeting alumni. Although I broke my rule of never drinking vintage port younger than I am, it was the right call. The Ramos Pinto 1982 was delicious and full of fruit. The Taylor Fladgate 1985 was darker, richer, and had an incredibly long finish. To quote my friend Ron Moore, those blokes sure know how to make port!
By the end of the night I had melted into my chair and was ready to roll home--unfortunately "home" is up a steep hill, so rolling was hard. This kind of sublime evening was very welcome before what promises to be a very intense week.
Many thanks to Daniel, a German classmate, who helped me with my smoke ring technique. Who cares about accounting? If I make it out of this program with improved ping pong skills and the ability to blow Gandalf-like smoke rings, I'll call it a success--an expensive, hard-earned success.
Tonight's attendance of La Bohème by the Opéra de Lausanne was magnificent. Aside from featuring a great Musetta, the performance itself wasn't exceptional, but it's still hard not to enjoy such a wonderful libretto and score. It reminds me why I love opera so much. It's an art that features music, singing, acting, dancing, elaborate set/costume design, and even a a little audience participation when one considers the "bravo"s that erupt after an excellent aria. It stimulates many senses simultaneously to create a powerful emotional impact.
The show itself was just half of what made tonight so great. Several other IMD students and partners were there so part of the fun was just dressing up and going out for an evening of something different. As we sipped champagne during intermission we all agreed that we had made the right event choice tonight.
It was also a cool challenge to remove English completely from the operatic experience. The singing was in Italian while the supertitles were in French. It felt good just to go from one to the other, eliminating English from the equation for a few hours.
But enough about tonight; 9.5 hours of Finance starts early tomorrow morning so I'm off for now.
Today was a great day. Accounting has moved from archaic ledgers to useful tools (cashflow forecasting and investment valuation, for example) and our afternoon was spent with our leadership coaches working through issues in our study group dynamics. There were some difficult topics in those discussions but the fact that we are addressing them feels really good. This is the part of IMD I really love: the focus on the softer side of business.
What made today really great, however, was world class ping pong! We had more time than usual to play today and there were few enough people that we could play singles instead of doubles. This allowed me to play several matches with Martin, Alex (both in my study group), and Paul, the staff ringer. My games with Martin were pretty evenly matched and a lot of fun. Alex, after he warmed up, showed off why China dominates in this sport. Standing 10 feet off the table he dug everything up and brought serious offense too. It was inspiring to watch. Although he beat me soundly, my level of play increased as I played him. The hard forehand smashes I wrote about in a previous post were coming several-per-match instead of a few-per-week; it felt great!
The icing on the cake was beating Paul, though. Three weeks ago he would destroy me every time; today I was able to pull out our last match in extra points. He's still going to beat me nine times out of 10, but winning once was a big step. I feel like Rocky. AH!
To commemorate this feeling, I must share a link sent to me by one of my buddies back in the States: The 9 Manliest Names in the World. Somehow "Bryan Guido Hassin" was left off the list so take these suggestions with a grain of salt. I'll just assume I was #10—who knows why they only published the top 9?! Don't follow this link if you're easily offended by profanity. Do follow it if you ever had a conversation with me about how envious we were of a friend living on a street called Iron Master.
I must end this post here as there is much work to prepare for tomorrow and the weekend. After all, I'm sacrificing tomorrow night's productivity for the most manly of activities: going to the opera!
On Monday I realized that the Opera de Laussane would be presenting La Bohème this weekend and this weekend only. How could I miss such an opportunity to break free of the IMD dungeons?
"argh - [can't make it. However] I'm in for Carmen in May - the last time I sat down and listened to it in its entirety was at about 3am working night-shift with a bunch of crazy Norwegian riggers off the north west coast of Africa . . ."
I love it. Reason # 8,264,921 to come to IMD: rubbing shoulders with people like Lucy.
Now I can't wait for Friday's performance. Then Saturday will be cigars and Scotch/Cognac/Port with students and alumni at the 5-star Beau-Rivage Palace. This may be the closest I come all year to the post-wine-dinner environment of the Petroleum Club of Houston. What better way to relax after 9.5 hours of Finance on Saturday? Fortunately the IMD Cigar Club is a standing tradition so there will be more opportunities to partake.
I arrived later to Steffen's party last night and stayed longer than anticipated. It was a lot of fun and it seemed like everyone was there. When I'm around many people I really feed off the collective energy and I could feel that starting to happen as we took eastern European shots, drank exotic beers, and talked about things that had nothing to do with school.
Although I took a lot of heat for it, I managed to be strong and extract myself pretty early. I was home before 11 and still accomplished several tasks before crashing early. It was a cold, clear night and the stars/moon were beautiful during the walk to my apartment. I'm glad I stuck to my decision. Now I'm well rested, ready for my workout, and measuring the progress of the sunrise against the mountains and lake outside.
Willpower - just like the 1968 song by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap. I'm almost finished with 1970 now. Since 1967 (my last musical blog), we've seen the rise of Simon & Garfunkel, the Doors, Tommy James & the Shondells, Steppenwolf, Neal Diamond, Three Dog Night, and Creedence Clearwater Revival--what an exciting time for music. The ongoing prominence of groups like The Temptations continues to surprise me (They seem somehow out of place in this era.) but I'm certainly not complaining.
I have updated my February album with additional pics--enjoy!
Last night was awesome: no studying, no partying; just great wine and even better conversation with a colleague followed by an early bedtime. Then I woke up early this morning and went for a run along the lake. It was cold by my standards, about 20 degrees F, so I really appreciated the Underarmour ColdGear items I received for Christmas. Between the topography and the temperature, running here in Lausanne is a lot different than running in Houston.
I was planning to take a nice, slow jog but the cold air and rest must have envigorated me; I quickly found myself running at my fastest pace since my arrival. Two of my study group members (Martin and Sergei) and I go running together once a week, which is always a pleasure. However, I still find it beneficial to run by myself now and then. It's a great opportunity to get away from the IMD world for a little while and do some thinking.
Additionally, whenever I run on my own I finish with two steep, uphill sprints. These are followed by yelling "DRAGO!!!!!!" as I struggle to refill my lungs with the cold air--I know at least one of my readers will get that reference, AH!
Now I'm back at IMD for another day of presentation skills. Steffen, our Danish student, is throwing a party tonight, which I'm sure will be a lot of fun. The work is really piling up for the coming week, though, so I'll need to resist the temptation to linger. Still, after this morning's run, I'm pumped and energized.
Today and tomorrow are dedicated to studying presentation theory, making presentations, analyzing video recordings of our presentations, receiving (and providing) feedback, repeat. Our leader for these sessions is Steve Knight, who has been awesome so far. He has offered plenty of relevant advice to everyone, especially the non-native English speakers.
My mobile phone all but died last night so I am in the market for a new one. Accordingly it may be a few days before I am taking pictures again. In the mean time, February's pictures thus far are here.
Happy [belated] Valentine's Day to all and thank you SO MUCH to those who sent me cards. I know it isn't cheap to send real mail across the Atlantic but the smiles your cards induced were priceless.
Ping Pong has become a regular part of life here at IMD. After lunch it is a great way to get the blood pumping before afternoon classes. Most of the people who play are a lot better than I am, having played much longer and more consistently. This afternoon, though, I was briefly on fire. I absolutely nailed a forehand with just about everything I had. It felt good. ICA/E with Boschek felt less good. Oh well, I call it a net positive.
Last night was a blast. At least a third of our class made it out to l'Atelier Volant, a night club in Lausanne's Flon district. Several girls in our class have been going there practically every weekend so I figured it must be good. Surely they would have hookups with bartenders, doormen, etc.
Objectively speaking, I was a little disappointed with it. First off, no such hookups existed. This may just be a difference between European and American clubs, but I suspect that it's not universal. If my Houstonian partner in crime (whose birthday it was yesterday--Happy birthday, Cox!) and I had been to a place several times, I think we would have established more relationships--as we did when we took St. Martin by storm.
The club featured three levels, each with a different style of music. The upstairs was purportedly 80s music. It turned out actually to be mostly 70s and 90s, without a great selection of either. When pressed for 80s staples, the DJ didn't even recognize most of the names (although that could have been affected by my French skills!). I miss The Handsomes. At least this floor DID have Top Gun playing in the background, although most people there didn't know the movie well enough to catch quote references. I miss my wing man.
The middle floor was salsa/latin, but we didn't spend any time on this floor. The bottom floor was supposed to be Top 40 and it was . . . from four years ago. By the time we made it down there, it was nearing time for my departure and hearing the same tired reggaeton beats over and over again (which, apparently, are the same songs they play there every Saturday night) reinforced my decision to go.
Griping aside, I had an awesome time. It was great to get out there and let loose for a few hours. Each time more members of our class showed up there was this great feeling of inclusion and excitement as we welcomed them to . . . somewhere that wasn't IMD! We had one classmate with a birthday and another with his wife's birthday so it was fun to celebrate with them. It's actually a good thing that the club didn't wow me. If they had been playing classic 80s and/or rock upstairs or good hip hop downstairs, I may have been caught up in my own energy and stayed way too long. Instead I extracted myself by ~1:15, got some reading done at home, and went to bed in preparation for a morning workout--which I'm off to now!
Yesterday was awesome. It was full of surprises from our faculty, each one better than the last. Because some prospective students read this blog and because the surprises were critical to today's success, I'll refrain from any real explanation. The cool part was that it was our first day of cross-functional project work: addressing a business case from accounting, marketing, and leadership perspectives within our groups.
At the end of the day, three groups were selected randomly to present their arguments. For each group, one member was selected randomly to do the presentation to a panel of faculty members who played roles of actual decision makers/influencers in the case. Given the amount of time we had to prepare, any presentation was essentially an improvisation.
When we were first told about the presentation part of the assignment, my natural reaction was to hope that I was selected. After all, I love presenting to an audience; it's my element. Then, as I realized that I had gaping holes of knowledge about the accounting and marketing aspects of our group's proposal (We split up the work but didn't have time to regroup before the deadline.), I became a little more apprehensive about being selected.
Our group was the second of three selected to present; I was selected from my group to be the presenter--be careful what you wish for! The faculty decision makers' roles were intended to poke holes in whatever we presented, be interruptive at times, and generally stress the presenter out. I didn't know the supporting evidence for several aspects of our plan and hadn't even seen the powerpoint in its entirety, but hey, I didn't come here not to be challenged!
The faculty gave me a hard time, especially on the quantitative stuff, but it was a big rush to be up there. The class gave me a lot of support from the audience, which felt great. At the end of the day, my presentation was pretty BSy, and probably was especially underwhelming to Stewart, the Accounting prof. I spent a significant amount of time afterward thinking about what I would have/should have said and receiving explanations from my teammates about what our slides actually meant. However, I received numerous backslaps and congratulations from my classmates afterward so I think I held my own.
Regardless, it was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again. Afterward the class and the professors (out of character) met in the lobby for Brazilian (The case was set in Brazil.) caipirinhas before heading down to the dungeon for a long night of project work. What a day; I can't wait to do it again!
On another note, the Chinese students made a very gracious presentation for lunar new year and gave away Chinese gifts to all the students. Coming from a country where everyone seems to be leery about competition from China, I found their unsolicited offering to be right in line with the warm, generous culture I've come to know and expect from these students.
"Odkryt okna byla tvoja lucnaja idea sevodna." Excusing the probable misspellings, this translates to "Opening the window was the best idea you've had all day!"
If I had to choose one word to describe Accounting professor Stewart Hamilton, it would be "curmudgeonly." He's a crotchety old Scot who is very emphatic that we should not question the "why" of accounting practices; we should just accept them. He has already yelled at me in class because I applauded him. I can't help it; his stodginess is hilarious.
So far our accounting education conjures up images of dusty old books and quill-written ledgers. As a software guy, that's a little hard to stomach. IMD is very clear that we are not here to learn to be accountants. We are here to learn to be better general managers--the best general managers--so the intent of this course is to educate us just enough to be dangerous.
Our major takeaways from this course have been centered around how to analyze balance sheets, income statements and cashflow statements to support investment decisions. I've had plenty of exposure to these reports before in a software context so it's interesting to see them applied to manufacturing, services organizations, etc. I'm also hoping to benefit from Stewart's knowledge of fine Scotch whiskey.
I'll leave you with a quote from Stewart: "You know you're due it so you have to accrue it!" Imagine it with a thick Scottish accent.
Our group's ICA/E presentation on the electricity generation industry is due this week and we're far from completion. We've just ordered pizzas to give us an energy boost (CHF 80--$70--for two pies!!!) and I think it's going to be a long night.
At least we're not the only ones. People are whistling in the hallways. One person starts then others join in. I whistled Daryl Hannah's solo from Kill Bill on my way back from the bathroom and I had at least three others join in.
ICA/E revolved around a WalMart case today. How did it grow to dominate its much larger rivals such as K-Mart? Why and how could it diversify to include Sam's Club? Why and how could it diversify into other countries? At what price to the small, rural town comes WalMart's strategy? The case was set in 1986. I always find these retroactive cases interesting because then we have the opportunity to see how things played out with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.
What really made the discussion personal for me is that Ralf chose Janet as the name of a hypothetical WalMart customer in Arkansas. I have an Aunt Janet who lives in Arkansas and is probably a WalMart customer. Ralf usually chooses Frieda or Greta for hypotheitcal names so good on him for proposing an accurate Arkansan name!
Let's bring it on, duuuuuude!
At this stage in your career it's important that you show leadership . . . and hold hands.
Coffee breaks are so 70s anyway.
I'd rather eat myself instead of letting someone else eat me.
The soup du jour today was cauliflower. Off to Finance!
What Ralf refers to as "tra la la" is actually quite interesting. Co-taught by Martin Koschat (Austrian) and DominiqueTurpin (French), this course is a case-driven exploration of the entire marketing function, from understanding a market to taking products and services to that market. So far we've studied DVD production machine manufacturers, discount airlines, sport watches, and Espresso machines. The watch maker came to our discussion and offered us goods in kind if we could help him re-position one of his brands.
Marketing is the art of differentiation.
2/3 of all transactions are business-to-business, so most marketing is business-oriented.
Marketing permeates all aspects of a business and essentially gives the customer a "voice."
"Excitement," performance, and basic factors influence customer satisfaction and fulfillment in radically different ways.
Different customers value different factors; good marketers understand this differentiation and react to it.
The difference between "product" and "brand" is essentially emotion.
A brand reflects a company's values, its product's benefits, and its target's commonalities.
Buyers can only process a few issues simultaneously so sometimes branding requires sacrifice of some positive qualities in order to focus on the few that are most important.
Mass media advertising isn't cheap. In the US it costs about $.02 per customer reached and each customer must be reached at least three times before your message sinks in. It costs a lot more to reach more homogeneous, targeted audiences.
At R7 we always knew in the back of our minds that we "should do more marketing" but it's impressive now to see just how much we neglected. Marketing should drive your business, not be an afterthought.
Before I moved over here I acquired the Billboard Top 100 hits for each year from 1950 until 2007. During the few hours a day I haven't been in my study group I've been making my way through them chronologically, loading one year at a time onto my phone. Usually, as I load the songs, I skip over the ones I'm not fond of. A few days ago, as I was loading 1966, it dawned on me that there weren't any songs in the top 100 I wasn't fond of. Wilson Pickett, Yardbirds, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Beatles (twice), Bobby Fuller Four, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Herman's Hermits, Turtles . . . and those are just songs 91-100! It only gets better from there. 1966, what a year. My parents lived through it. What did I live through? Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. Great.
It's also interesting to me how much genre overlap there was in the 50s and the 60s. I grew up listening to radio stations that just played oldies. Then my tastes evolved to classic rock so I listened to stations that played just classic rock. In my mind I always envisioned there being some definite time when rock & roll definitively ended and what we now call classic rock definitively began. In fact, though, classic rock was making inroads into popular culture while rock & roll was still going strong. I'm in 1968 right now and here is Cream right alongside the Temptations, the Doors right alongside the Supremes. It seems obvious but I had no idea. Here's to many more years of great music!
Welcome to the Year of the Mouse!
It has been a wonderful weekend of work, wine, and winter weather. When I woke up this morning to work on a Leadership paper, the crescent moon was bright over the snowy mountains, the stars were reflecting off the serene lake, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was positively surreal. Even if my camera could have captured it, no reproduction would have done it justice; it was like something you would see in a computer-generated 3D desktop wallpaper.
Here are a few pictures from my first month at IMD. Enjoy!
It's funny that I chose to introduce our Industry and Company Analysis/Economics course in last night's blog because our prof was in fine form during this morning's class.
Why are we going into such detail? BECAUSE IT'S GOOD FOR YOU!
You're tired? Why? Because you're only sleeping four hours a day? That's just half of what you're supposed to have. There, problem solved.
At IMD, many professors will call this element "people." In economics we call it what it really is: "labor."
Cartels rely on facilitating devices, such as long-term contracts or implicit agreements to get around the prisoner's dilemma. It's a lot like marriage, actually.
Where did this great new technology come from? GERMANY, of course!
This is not some tra la la like marketing; there is only ONE right answer.
Why do you need a toilet break? I don't need a toilet break, but that's fine because I'm a hero.
This afternoon's class is Marketing. Tra la la, here we come!


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Q: Where does external caches like ehcache / redis fit w.r.t hibernate level 1 / level 2 caches? Hibernate (and so JPA which is wrapper on hibernate) provides two levels of caching mechanisms.
a) level 1 cache which is at session object layer/level
b) level 2 cache which is at session factory layer/level
If I am using external caches like redis or ehcache, where does this cache sit in the above.
Or should I disable level 2 cache to enable redis/ehcache. Not sure how and where the external cache fits with level 1 & 2 caches.
Or - Are various configurations possible?
Could someone explain. Thanks in advance.

A: Level 1 cache is considered a local in-memory cache, it can be a local Redis/Memcache cache as well. The 2nd level cache is like a proxy server that caches the results of a query and all subsequeuent queries from any server will provide the result from the cache if it's available.
Level 1 cache result is only available to one server, where as Level 2 cache can be considered as a distributed cache that's available to all servers. If your application is running on only one server/instance than it does not make sense to use Level 2 cache.
You can consider using proxy server as well for your database for example if you're using MySQL than you can consider using ProxySQL, mysql-proxy etc.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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My 2-Year Plan 2014-2016
In life, as a Co-Creator with the Universe, I must have vision and a plan. In 1981, I finished my B.A. in Music and Communications and moved from Philly back to my hometown, New York City. There, I worked as a keypunch operator at a computer school on Columbus Circle with Quincy Jones' first wife, Jerry Jones. I learned Lanier word processing from a wonderful friend Patricia and worked as a temp for Ernst & Whinney at the Citicorp Building on the 53rd floor. This enabled me to increase my earning capacity from $8 to $14 an hour. Eventually, I was making $25 an hour, working 6 hours a night for a very prestigious law firm that sent me home in a limo, every evening after work!
Often, I walked from 53rd and Lexington to 60th and Madison, stopping at travel agencies, collecting travel guides that I would use to create a DREAM BOARD in my home office on 139th Street and 7th Avenue, in Harlem. Eventually, I visited most of the countries on that board. That plan came to fruition in 1990, when I began touring Europe as a jazz vocalist.
Also, I embraced my musical career by performing with Artie Simmons and The Jazz Samaritans that included George Cables on piano and Cindy Blackman on drums. When singing in Central Park and in front of the Plaza Hotel became too much for my vocal chords, I booked my band Joan Cartwright & Jazz Hotline at the Blue Note and at Freddy's. I had begun attending Barry Harris' piano and vocal workshops, while I lived in Philly, and continued until I moved to Fort Lauderdale, in July 1984.
My career really took off in South Florida, where I was a big fish in a very little pond on the Jazz Scene. By 1990, I was on my way to Europe – Holland, France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, England, Austria, and Italy – where I sang and made a really good living. In April 1994, when I completed my Master's in Communication at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, FL, I moved to Switzerland, where I lived until September 1996.
My first European contract was for $6,000 for the month of November at the Janus Club at the gorgeous Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Diana Ross got married. This contract was negotiated by my dear friend Cecile Weltman, a Belgique woman, who spoke five languages. There, I met my life-long friend Isabella Romeo, who took me to Taormina, Sicily, where I've been 7 times and look forward to revisiting with a travel group in 2015-16.
Isabella Romeo was the hostess and Angelo Unia was my accompaniest
My first trip to Brienz, Switzerland, was magical! In 2015, through my new travel biz, FYI TRAVEL, I plan to take a group to the Seehotel Baren, owned by my dear friend Monique Werro.
This club was in Hamburg, Germany, owned by an elderly American gentleman, who asked me to take it over, when he passed away. However, it is just tooo cold in Hamburg for me
This is my Sicilian quartet led by Giovanni Mazzarino, who co-produced my first CD – Feelin' Good. Here, we are in Lipari, one of the Aeolian Islands, off the northwest shore of Sicily
Giovanni worked with me at the Montreux Palace in Switzerland for one month. We met at the San Vito lo Capo Jazz Festival and toured together for four years in Italy
I was a featured artist on a Jazz fest in Reggio Calabria with talented bassist Dario Dieda from Salerno, Italy
This was my band Jazz Hotline. We recorded my first demo tape in 1990 at Philip Michael Thomas' Miamiway Studio. The three songs are on my second CD – In Pursuit of a Melody
After touring Europe, I moved back to Fort Lauderdale, and semi-retired for one year, until the owners of Ellington's in Hollywood, FL, hired my band to perform on the weekends. From August 1997 to March 1998, I organized Gaiafest, A Celebration of Mother Earth with Women in Jazz, honoring vocalist Dakota Staton, and featuring fabulous and Amazing Musicwomen.
From 2001 to 2002, I owned Motherland Bridge Gallery, where I featured several local artists and sold batiks and Shona sculpture that I acquired on trips to Johannesburg, Ghana, and The Gambia. That lasted for 18 months, until July 2003, when my daughter packed me up and moved me to Atlanta, where I helped run her business Caustic Entertainment Group, continued my work as a website designer, and wrote my first of 11 books, a memoir In Pursuit of a Melody. While awaiting my copies of the book to be delivered, I was contracted to perform at CJW Club in Shanghai, China, for three months (May-July 2006), thanks to my friend and colleague Sandra Kaye.
In 2002, I joined a press tour to Brazil for nine days and had the time of my life! That was in May, and in June, I traveled from Milan to Palermo, Sicily, and back with my best friend Bess Covington, in an Alfa Romeo, as Divas on Wheels!
Nothing was more fun that touring Italy with Bess! We celebrated 33 years of friendship with 33 days in Italia!
From July 2003 to May 2006, I lived in Atlanta, where I renovated Caustic Studio, where we recorded my song Talkin' That Jazz.
Now, in 2014, I am realizing my 2-year Plan: To complete my PhD in Business Marketing – www.drdivajc.com and become a Director at YTB TRAVEL and travel everywhere on my bucket list. Visit my Travel Club blog and join my team at www.fyitravelclub.wordpress.com
JOIN MY TRAVEL CLUB
JOIN MY TRAVEL TEAM
Posted in abundance, appreciation, blessings, books, events, global, home, music, people, places, positive, thought, travel, universe, usa, videos and tagged art, author, books, business, composer, educator, festival, gallery, life, musician, non-profit, plan, producer, touring, travel | Leave a comment

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Charlotte Hornets Lakers Vs. Jazz 10/27/19: Odds And NBA Betting Trends
Lakers Vs. Jazz 10/27/19: Odds And NBA Betting Trends
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Lakers Vs. Hornets Preview & TV Info: LeBron James, Anthony Davis Look To Build Chemistry Against Rebuilding Team
Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
The Los Angeles Lakers are 13-5 straight up and 10-7-1 against the spread in their last 18 games as a home favorite. The Lakers will try to pick up a win and a cover on Sunday night at home against the Charlotte Hornets.
Los Angeles is a 13-point home favorite on the NBA odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. In their last 17 games as a double-digit favorite, the Lakers are 14-3 SU but just 5-12 ATS.
Hornets at Lakers | OddsShark Matchup Report
The Lakers bounced back from their season-opening loss to the L.A. Clippers with an impressive showing in their home opener, cruising to a 95-86 win as 3.5-point favorites against the Utah Jazz.
LeBron James led the way with 32 points and 10 assists while Anthony Davis scored 21 points and provided a third-quarter spark by playing center to start the second half.
It was also a reassuring effort on defense to allow only 85 points after the team finished 21st in the NBA in scoring defense last season allowing 113.5 points per game and opened this season allowing 112 to the Los Angeles Clippers.
With the win and cover over Utah, Los Angeles improved to 4-1 ATS in its last five games overall and 6-1 ATS in its last seven games at home according to the OddsShark NBA Database.
After pulling off a 126-125 upset over the Chicago Bulls in their home opener, the Hornets lost their Friday night game against the Minnesota Timberwolves by a score of 121-99. Now the Hornets embark on a four-game road trip through the Western Conference's four California teams, entering this trip with a 3-10 SU and 4-8-1 ATS record in their last 13 games against Western opponents.
Charlotte is also 2-7-1 ATS in its last 10 games against the Lakers.
Sunday night's total is set at 215.5 at sports betting sites. The UNDER is 4-1 in the last five games between the Hornets and the Lakers.
Los Angeles entered the 2018-19 season as the favorites to win the NBA Championship at +300. Charlotte entered the season as the biggest longshot on the board at +30000. Both teams are 1-1 SU and ATS at the moment, but their paths aren't likely to stay on the same course for much longer.
Check out OddsShark on Twitter and Instagram or head to YouTube for analysis on this week's top games. As well, the OddsShark Computer serves up daily NBA picks for bettors.
Timberwolves At Lakers 12/08/19: Odds And NBA Betting Trends
The Los Angeles Lakers are 20-2 straight up and 14-8 against the spread over their last 22 games. The Lakers…
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The machine offers two juice alternatives and water. You can choose to have the juice served with or without fruit pulp. The illuminated front sign is easy to change to suit the design and message for your environment. A machine that is very easy to care for, both for management and for cleaning.


text:
Festningsporten Pass is an ice-covered gap in the middle of the north face of Festninga Mountain leading to the mountain's flat summit, in the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. it was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photos by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition (1956–60) and named Festningsporten (the fortress gate).

References

Mountain passes of Queen Maud Land
Princess Martha Coast

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


NICHES Land Trust | Oh, Ranger!
NICHES Land Trust, at Clegg Memorial Garden. NICHES Land Trust is located in Lafayette, Indiana to maintain norther Indiana's land and species. NICHES Land Trust features fishing, boating, picnicking, trail hiking, and wildlife watching. For more information on other trails contact, Dan Towery [email protected] 765-490-0197.


"Stratosfear", 1976, is the eighth album by the German group Tangerine Dream, marking the beginning of their development away from the early experiments toward a more melodic sound, a trend that will bring them to "Force Majeure".
The title track "Stratosfear", played live many times and released in a re-mixed form on many other albums like Booster, will reach silver status in the UK for selling in excess of 60,000 copies.
Del 1976 "Stratosfera", l'ottavo album del gruppo di musica elettronica tedesco Tangerine Dream, ormai lontano dai primi esperimenti di Alpha Centauri e Zeit, verso melodie molto più orecchiabili il cui apice sarà toccato in Force Majeure.
L'omonimo brano, eseguito spesso dal vivo e distribuito in versione remix tra l'altro nella compilation "Booster", raggiungerà il disco d'argento nel Regno Unito per oltre 60.000 copie vendute.


You may have heard the term 'power of attorney' before but you may not understand what it means. There are different forms of power of attorney such as ordinary, limited and lasting, but in general terms, it means to give someone the power to act on behalf of someone else in legal or financial matters.
Some people have a power of attorney agreement in place which states how much control you wish to give someone else on your behalf. For example, you may state that you wish to give someone power of attorney for 3 – 4 months whilst you recover from an operation.
It is important to note that giving someone power of attorney does not take away your right to make decisions and take action for yourself.
If an individual is experiencing health problem which are known to be temporary, then this is the most appropriate type to choose. It allows an appointed person to be in charge and look after things such as legal and financial affairs for a period of time – often until you are back on your feet.
Some people may wish to appoint a power of attorney but have limits in place on what a person can or can't do. In this case, a limited power of attorney can be drawn up where you can stipulate exactly what your appointed person can deal with.
If an individual has been diagnosed with a condition or illness where your mental capacity may be affected in the future, an ordinary power of attorney may not be sufficient as they may not know the exact time frame. In this instance, a lasting power of attorney (LPA) should be considered.
Not only will the appointed person have the power to look after legal or financial matters, they will also look after personal welfare if the holder becomes mentally incapacitated. For a lasting power of attorney to be legal, it must be registered.
Property Affairs LPA – this allows the appointed person to look after any property, legal, financial or business matters on your behalf.
Personal Welfare LPA – the appointed person can make decisions on where you live, what medical care you receive (which includes the ability to refuse treatment) and your general welfare.
You can have either type of lasting power of attorney in place, or indeed both. However, you don't have to have both in place at the same time.
There are many cases where an individual becomes mentally incapacitated and they haven't appointed anyone as their power of attorney. If this is the case and you wish to take on this role, you can apply for deputyship. To do this, you need to contact the Office of the Public Guardian.


Sports Nut: How the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox.
How the Rays beat the Red Sox.
Over the next few days, you're going to learn a lot more about the Tampa Bay Rays than you ever thought you'd need to know. Thank goodness they're an unusually interesting bunch. Freakishly talented center fielder B.J. Upton, for instance, is only the second-best major leaguer to have played middle infield for the 1993 Virginia Blasters. Fifth outfielder Fernando Perez is a Columbia graduate with a taste for Howard Zinn. General manager Andrew Friedman, 31, was a Bear Stearns analyst before making a well-timed exit into baseball. And manager Joe Maddon has fashion-forward glasses and a taste for wine. Wacky!
For all their charming eccentricity, the Rays also happen to be really good at baseball. They beat out the New York Yankees for a playoff spot with a payroll one-fifth as big. They went into Fenway Park last week tied 1-1 in the American League Championship Series and kicked the Boston Red Sox around like dogs, outscoring the defending champs 29-5 over one stretch. And after the Red Sox made the greatest playoff comeback in at least 80 years in Game 5, winning a game they had essentially no mathematical chance of winning, the Rays still pulled it out, for reasons having nothing to do with Upton's mohawk, all of which were on display in their Game 7 win on Sunday night.
What makes the Rays so good? Start with defense. The Rays ranked first in baseball in defensive efficiency this year, which measures how many balls in play they turn into outs. Jason Bartlett, a great-field/no-hit shortstop of a kind that's been out of fashion for at least a decade, showed how they do it in the second inning, materializing from the ether behind second base to rob Mark Kotsay of a base hit. You won't see ostentatious dives from the Rays, but you will see them in areas of the field they have no business being in. Bartlett, left fielder Carl Crawford, first baseman Carlos Pena, and second baseman Akinori Iwamura all rated among the top three in the league at their positions in making plays outside of their zones—that is, ranging beyond the space they're supposed to cover to corral balls that would otherwise go for fits. With all those great fielders, the Rays play like they have 10 men on the field.
That hurts all the more for opposing hitters given that the Rays have so many hard throwers. Matt Garza, the ALCS most valuable player, mowed down the Red Sox in Game 7, striking out nine in seven innings. Ranked ninth in the league this year in average fastball speed, Garza was one of four Rays starters to rank in the league's top 30. The hardest-throwing Ray of all is left-hander David Price, the No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft. Price closed out the Red Sox with heat and brutal sliders, looking like the reincarnation of Steve Carlton. After Price's performance, the only good news for the Phillies is that the Rays' secret weapon is a secret no longer.
Defense and pitching are to baseball what transparency and accountability are to politics: Is there anyone who's not in favor of them? Of course, there's also virtue in hitting the living hell out of the ball. The main reason the Rays won is that they set an ALCS record for most home runs in a series, doing so against a fine Boston pitching staff. The Rays aren't, from one angle, a team of power hitters; they have five everyday players who hit fewer than 10 home runs this year. On the other hand, they did hit 180 long balls this year, as many as the Yankees, and they have a surprising depth of power, with bench hitters and platoon guys like Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar—who hit a crucial home run in Game 7 that turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-1 gap—up in the double digits. As Joe Torre said last week, the Rays have sneaky power.
A preference for pitching, defense, and the home run, the very strategy preached by crusty old-school manager Earl Weaver, doesn't quite qualify the Rays as baseball avant-gardists. Nevertheless, one could argue that the Rays provide a necessary corrective to recent heresies. The 2006 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals had all of one starter who threw harder than 90 mph; the 2004 Red Sox employed defensive butchers Mark Bellhorn and Manny Ramirez. But the Rays weren't built as a reaction against the game's fallen state.
The secret of the Rays' success could be found on the mound at the end of Game 7. A veteran of five major league games coming into the playoffs, David Price came on in the eighth inning with his team up by two, the bases loaded, and J.D. Drew, hero of Game 5, at the plate. (No pressure, kid!) Price struck out Drew, set down three in a row after walking the leadoff man in the ninth, and ended up at the bottom of a big dog pile.
Bringing on a kid who's pitched fewer innings in his career than Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Robins did in one game in 1920 is nothing you'll find in baseball's infamous book. Nor is a fair amount of what the Rays do. After Game 5, everyone wanted to know exactly why Maddon had left in right-handed relievers Grant Balfour and Dan Wheeler to face lefties Drew and David Ortiz; Maddon said in so many words that a good pitcher is a good pitcher, and that Balfour and Wheeler are his best guys, however things happened to work out. What's the common bond here? Going with your best players—regardless of what hand they throw with or how many innings they've thrown in the big leagues—no matter if baseball orthodoxy would tell you otherwise. This shows an almost disturbing tendency toward common sense.
Look at the Rays on the field, and this strange reasonableness abounds. Ace pitcher Scott Kazmir and catcher Dioner Navarro were thought by many to be too small to succeed in the majors despite having great minor league numbers; the Rays decided to let them prove they couldn't succeed, and lo and behold neither did. Right fielder Rocco Baldelli can't play a full game because of a rare disease that keeps him from expending too much energy; the Rays play him as long as he can go and then swap in a caddy. Upton couldn't handle shortstop in the minors, committing dozens of errors a year; the Rays shrugged and moved him to center, where he's been brilliant. Pena was a solid first baseman with Detroit for years before somehow managing to wash out on both the Red Sox and Yankees in 2006; the Rays figured the accumulated weight of his career counted for more than one bad campaign, installed him as the starter, and watched him hit 77 home runs over the last two years.
All of this seems obvious right now, but that wasn't always so. Somewhere in the Rays' story, as befits the general manager's background, there's a best-selling business book waiting to be written. Call it If It Isn't Common, Why Do They Call It Common Sense? It would sell a million.


text:
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Champagne Price Guide
You may not recall hearing of Armand de Brignac but anyone who deems themselves "in the know" is sure to have heard of it by its other name: Ace of Spades. This high-end champagne is immediately recognizable by its metallic bottle and pewter labels featuring the ace of spades symbol. Ace of Spades Champagne price can start around $300.
A Key Acquisition
Relatively new to the pricey vintage champagne scene, Armand de Brignac started offering its Brut Gold cuvée in 2006. The Ace of Spades brand grasped a pop culture foothold when the brand was acquired by a gentleman named Shawn Carter. Like the brand itself, you may not have heard of this person but you are likely to know him as Jay-Z.
A Legal Name Change
When the Cattier family originally chose the name of the champagne, it was simply called "de Brignac". Unfortunately, a name change was required by the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, a French group that regulates the champagne industry.
There is a town that rests outside the Champagne region called Brignac and the CIVC had concerns there would be some confusion over whether the brand was in fact champagne. The family added Armand to comply and it has been called Armand de Brignac since the first 2006 bottles.
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Champagne Price
As you can see in our Ace of Spades prices list below, these bottles do not come cheap. How is it possible that one bottle of champagne can cost almost a thousand dollars? There are certainly a few factors that drive the price point up on the bottles of Armand de Brignac.
A Prestigious Grape Grower
While it may seem like this champagne is simply a new trend, the quality is well respected in the industry. Sure, Ace of Spades appeared in 2006 and saw a meteoric rise after being featured in a Jay-Z music video shortly after its release. According to other experts in the field, this champagne has legitimate chops.
While Ace of Spades met its first bottle in 2006, the Cattier family has been growing grapes in the Champagne region for over 250 years. Eventually, they would begin producing their own champagne in 1918 after the style gained momentum in the wine market.
The family produces champagne under its own brand of Cattier and the Clos du Moulin is highly regarded by aficionados.
The Power of Social Relevance
We would be remiss to ignore the fact that these bottles can support such high pricing simply by being popular amongst the social elite. Famous athletes, former Presidents, and high-end nightclubs pride themselves on being fortunate enough to imbibe such luxurious champagne.
From the 2006 introduction by Jay-Z to several music video appearances since Ace of Spades has been synonymous with ultra-luxury. Many sports teams have taken the opportunity to take in the brand after winning championships like the baseball World Series.
The Most Expensive Bottle
Armand de Brignac offers its flagship multi-vintage at almost $300. Specially made bottles can increase the price drastically. A 30-liter bottle (about 750-ml bottles worth) can go for almost $200,000.
Famous baseballer David Ortiz once uncorked a 15-liter bottle after winning the 2013 World Series with the Boston Red Sox. That is a quick way to spend $100,000.
Closest Comparisons
It can be challenging to compare champagnes priced so high. The closest comparisons are Dom Perignon and Cristal.
Dom Perignon features a vintage-only profile of champagnes. Coming in around $300 for certain vintages makes this a comparably priced champagne to Ace of Spades.
Cristal is often compared to Ace of Spades for both its luxury pricing and its frequent appearances in music videos. Probably the second-most popular "club" champagne, Cristal comes from the popular Louis Roederer Champagne House.
A Non-Vintage, Yet Still Expensive Wine
Interestingly, Armand de Brignac does not offer a single vintage which is unusual for this level of champagne. Rather, Ace of Spades is a blend of three vintages. The Silver Blanc de Noirs obviously takes the cake as the most expensive 750-ml bottle available.
With grapes from the best Pinot Noir vineyards and limited production of 3,000 bottles, the Silver Blanc de Noirs is the rarest and most expensive Ace of Spades available.
The Silver Blanc de Blancs comes in a close second by using only Chardonnay grapes for its cuvee.
Armand de Brignac is an expensive brand but is seen as one of the best champagnes available as well. The Ace of Spades Gold Brut has taken first place at blind wine tastings and is not simply a "name" but champagne that passes the expert taste test as well.
Common Armand de Brignac: Ace of Spades Champagne Price List
Food Suggestion
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Gold Brut $292 Shellfish, Crab and Lobster
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Brut Rose $449 Meaty and Oily Fish
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Demi-Sec $366 Cakes and Cream
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Silver Blanc de Blancs $612 Shellfish, Crab and Lobster
Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Silver Blanc de Noirs $943 Shellfish, Crab and Lobster
Veuve Clicquot Champagne Price Guide
Moët & Chandon Champagne Price Guide
Louis Roederer Champagne Price Guide
Korbel California Champagne Price Guide
Champagne Prices Guide 2022 – 10 Most Popular Champagne Brands in US


For Indian students, as for all students elsewhere in the world, acquiring a good college degree is a route to making a secure life with a well-paying job and a high status in society. While education is not necessary to become entrepreneurs, it is necessary for young Indians to seal jobs in good organizations with good growth prospects.
Though the heart and the mind yearn for the degree, the pockets may not support the yearning. Since India is still a developing country with high levels of poverty, many poor students cannot grab opportunities for higher education because of the prohibitive cost of higher education. Thankfully, education up to pre-university or pre-degree level is free and poor students can give vent to their intellect and shine. But, the aspirations for higher education meet roadblocks in the form of high cost of higher education.
The education system through its universities plays a vital role in educating the Indian students through hundreds of courses in tens of disciplines across the length and breadth of India. Many educational institutions in India such as IISC, AIIMS, IIMs, IITs, National Law Schools and university centres have achieved world standards and students can hope to study in these great institutions even if they don't have the means of financing the cost of study there. This is made possible by grants and scholarships to meritorious students awarded by various bodies such as philanthropic entities, social groups, central and state governments and the institutions themselves.
Even if such avenues are out of reach for students, they can still pursue higher education by availing education loans extended by the financial community including NBFCs such as Tata Capital. What follows is a guide to take education loan for students who don't have the wherewithal to fund the costs of higher education.
While students with the financial strength of their families behind them can avail education loan by satisfying all conditions including offering collateral, the not so fortunate students find it difficult to meet all conditions set by lender especially the ones on offering collateral.
These factors help NBFCs to consider offering education loans without collateral. Additionally, lenders consider collateral in the form of life insurance policies or gold ornaments, which students can leverage as they are idle assets.
NBFCs also consider one more avenue – personal loans – for granting education loans as they fall under the umbrella of personal loans. They do not seek collateral for personal loans as they are typically unsecured loans. If the credentials of borrowers are sound they can extend up to Rs 25 lakh as a personal loan. Tata Capital is the premier NBFC in India offering the Tata Capital education loan to all Indian students aspiring to obtain higher educational qualifications either in India or abroad.
Students should examine all avenues of funding available to them especially education loan without collateral. With these loans they can realize their dream of acquiring a good higher education degree in a reputed college of a reputed university. In regard to education, American author and politician Benjamin Franklin says, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Indian students craving for higher education would do well to acquire knowledge through higher education that will stand them in good stead throughout their lives.


text:
Teen Writers' Club - Virtual
with Little Falls Library
2022-12-08 19:00:00 2022-12-08 20:00:00 America/New_York Teen Writers' Club - Virtual Virtual Branch -
Add to Calendar 2022-12-08 19:00:00 2022-12-08 20:00:00 America/New_York Teen Writers' Club - Virtual Are you a teen who loves to make words sing? Then join us for the Little Falls Teen Writers' Club! Virtual Branch -
Are you a teen who loves to make words sing? Then join us for the Little Falls Teen Writers' Club!
Every Thursday night, you'll hang out with other teens who share your love of words and may even pick up a tip or two.
We play word games and make up zany stuff. We bring in writer guests to talk about the paths they've taken. Share if you want to; there's no obligation, no grades, no tests. No attendance taken; drop in as often or as little as you like. Mostly it's about having fun around writing.
Doesn't matter what you prefer to write, where you live or go to school, as long as you are of middle-school or high-school age, and a parent or guardian gives the OK, you are welcome.
The adult in the room is Frank S. Joseph. A published novelist (To Love Mercy, Mid Atlantic Highlands: 2006), Frank has been a Washington Post and Associated Press reporter and editor, a publisher and publishing entrepreneur, and an award-winning direct-marketing copywriter.
Teen Writers' Club is an activity of the Maryland Writers Association, hosted and supported by the Little Falls Library of the Montgomery County Public Libraries.
Looking for more resources for Teens? Take a look at these resources using your library card.
Don't have a card right now? No worries! Find out how to Get a Library Card.
AGE GROUP: | Teens |
EVENT TYPE: | Writers Group |


text:
Q: How to call a list of objects from a session? I am creating an invoice like this:
For signed in users, I save the invoices and the invoice units to database (one invoice has many invoice units) and for users that are not signed in, I am trying to save the data into sessions
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Create(Invoice invoice)
    {
        var userId = User.Claims.FirstOrDefault(c => c.Type == "UserId")?.Value;
        if (userId is not null)
        {
            invoice.UserId = Guid.Parse(userId.ToString());
            DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Now;
            invoice.DateCreated = dateTime;
            foreach (var invoiceUnit in invoice.InvoiceUnits)
            {
                db.InvoiceUnits.Add(invoiceUnit);
            }
            db.Add(invoice);
            db.SaveChanges();
            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }
        else
        {
            invoice.Id = Guid.NewGuid();
            var invoicesFromSession = GetInvoicesFromSession();
            var invoiceUnitsFromSession = GetInvoiceUnitsFromSession();

            DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Now;
            invoice.DateCreated = dateTime;

            if (invoice is not null)
            {
                invoicesFromSession.Add(invoice);

                HttpContext.Session.SetString("invoice", JsonSerializer.Serialize(invoicesFromSession));

                foreach(var invoiceUnit in invoice.InvoiceUnits)
                {
                    invoiceUnit.Id = new Guid();
                    invoiceUnit.InvoiceId = invoice.Id;
                    HttpContext.Session.SetString("invoiceUnit", JsonSerializer.Serialize(invoiceUnitsFromSession));
                    invoiceUnitsFromSession.Add(invoiceUnit);
                }

            }

            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }

    }

I am getting the invoice units from session like this:
    private List<InvoiceUnit> GetInvoiceUnitsFromSession()
    {
        HttpContext.Session.LoadAsync();
        var sessionString = HttpContext.Session.GetString("invoiceUnit");
        if (sessionString is not null)
        {
            return JsonSerializer.Deserialize<List<InvoiceUnit>>(sessionString);
        }

        return Enumerable.Empty<InvoiceUnit>().ToList();
    }

And then I am trying to call the function in the Edit controller
            var sessionInvoices = GetInvoicesFromSession();
            var sessionInvoiceUnits = GetInvoiceUnitsFromSession();
            var invoiceFromDbSession = sessionInvoices.FirstOrDefault(i => i.Id == id);
            List<InvoiceUnit> invoiceUnitsForInvoiceSession = new List<InvoiceUnit>();

            foreach (var invoiceUnit in sessionInvoiceUnits)
            {
                if (invoiceUnit.InvoiceId == id)
                {
                    invoiceUnitsForInvoiceSession.Add(invoiceUnit);
                }
            }
            GenericModel sessionData = new GenericModel(invoiceUnitsForInvoiceSession, invoiceFromDbSession);
            return View(sessionData);

From some reason tho, when I call the GetInvoiceUnitsFromSession(); in the Edit controller to retrieve the wanted invoice unit for the specific invoice, I only receive one invoice unit for each invoice (the first one I have entered). When I debug the invoiceUnitsFromSession variable in the create function, the number of units fits just fine for the specific invoice so I think there must be some problem in the way I am trying to retreive the session. Any idea what changes to make in order to retreive all of the invoice units I recieve for all invoices so I can get them in Edit controller?

A:
call a list of objects from a session

Do you want the below way?
Configure your SessionExtension like below:
public static class SessionExtensions
{
    public static void Set<T>(this ISession session, string key, T value)
    {
        session.SetString(key, JsonSerializer.Serialize(value));
    }

    public static T? Get<T>(this ISession session, string key)
    {
        var value = session.GetString(key);
        return value == null ? default : JsonSerializer.Deserialize<T>(value);
    }
}

Then use methods like below:
////  your list object
List<MyClass> classCollection = new List<MyClass>();

//// To set value in session
HttpContext.Session.Set<List<MyClass>>("someKey", classCollection);

//// To Get Value from Session
List<MyClass> classCollection = HttpContext.Session.Get<List<MyClass>>("someKey");

Read Set and get Session values to know more.

A: The issue you see comes from this block:
                foreach(var invoiceUnit in invoice.InvoiceUnits)
                {
                    invoiceUnit.Id = new Guid();
                    invoiceUnit.InvoiceId = invoice.Id;
                    HttpContext.Session.SetString("invoiceUnit", JsonSerializer.Serialize(invoiceUnitsFromSession)); // Specifically this line
                    invoiceUnitsFromSession.Add(invoiceUnit);
                }

Here you're writing the value for the key invoiceUnit on each repetition of the loop before you actually update the value, so at least the last line will always be missing. You would want to either change the order:
                foreach(var invoiceUnit in invoice.InvoiceUnits)
                {
                    invoiceUnit.Id = new Guid();
                    invoiceUnit.InvoiceId = invoice.Id;
                    invoiceUnitsFromSession.Add(invoiceUnit);
                    HttpContext.Session.SetString(
                       "invoiceUnit",
                       JsonSerializer.Serialize(invoiceUnitsFromSession));
                }

or move the line that stores invoice units into the session out of the loop completely to avoid unnecessary repetition:
                foreach(var invoiceUnit in invoice.InvoiceUnits)
                {
                    invoiceUnit.Id = new Guid();
                    invoiceUnit.InvoiceId = invoice.Id;
                    invoiceUnitsFromSession.Add(invoiceUnit);
                }
                HttpContext.Session.SetString(
                   "invoiceUnit",
                   JsonSerializer.Serialize(invoiceUnitsFromSession));


Investigations are faster, backlogs have cleared.
The state's unusually swift and vigorous discipline of a northern Minnesota care facility where a vulnerable adult is believed to have been subjected to a fatal beating signals a larger effort by the Minnesota Department of Health to follow through on promises of tighter scrutiny over the senior care industry.
In early November, state health investigators arrived at Chappy's Golden Shores, a small assisted-living facility south of Grand Rapids, to investigate complaints of maltreatment. They uncovered what appeared to be alarming levels of violence — including physical, sexual and verbal abuse — and repeated coverup efforts by facility administrators.
By Dec. 6 they had suspended the facility's license — an unusual step that, in effect, caused it to shut down — and had begun working to relocate all 38 residents.
The episode reflects a broader shift at the agency, which came under sharp criticism a year ago for insufficient efforts to protect tens of thousands of vulnerable adults in senior care facilities across the state.
In late 2017, a Star Tribune series chronicled long delays in state maltreatment investigations, lost or destroyed files, and poor communication between the agency and abuse victims and their relatives. A scathing report by Legislative Auditor James Nobles followed a few months later.
Under pressure from families and legislators, new Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm overhauled the agency's system for responding to and investigating allegations, eliminating a vast backlog of never investigated cases while speeding up the pace of new investigations.
The changes are starting to show substantial results.
Since 2015, the Health Department has more than doubled the number of maltreatment investigations it completes annually, and is conducting them at a much faster pace. In the past, abuse victims and their families would sometimes be forced to wait a year or longer for basic information from the agency. Now, every allegation of maltreatment is examined within two days, and the average time to complete investigations has dropped by nearly half, from 187 days in 2017 to 110 days last year, state data show.
In addition, the agency is "substantiating" a greater portion of maltreatment allegations, which means that more facilities and employees are being held accountable for wrongdoing. The department's Office of Health Facility Complaints (OHFC) substantiated maltreatment in nearly 30 percent of the cases it investigated last year. While some elder care advocates still consider that too low, the figure is up significantly: The OHFC substantiated only 16 to 19 percent of its investigations between 2012 and 2016.
In the past, state investigators had come under criticism for not treating incidents of physical or sexual abuse with urgency, and for relying too heavily on interviews with facility supervisors and staff. The legislative auditor's report said investigators sometimes failed to interview key witnesses, including the vulnerable residents who were victimized.
By comparison, the state inquiry into Chappy's Golden Shores cast an unusually wide net. Starting in November, the Health Department launched nearly a dozen separate investigations of the facility and also interviewed members of the community. Investigators talked to therapists, crisis intervention workers, county social workers and physicians who had relationships with residents in the facility and could be seen as trusted sources.
Marie Skelly, a former caregiver at Chappy's, said she can still recall the evening in early November when a team of state investigators appeared — unannounced — at the front door.
"They came in like the cops, and it was clear they weren't messing around," she said.
Eventually, the state would determine that a 58-year-old man with dementia, Steven G. Nelson, was severely beaten by a caregiver at Chappy's while another employee held him down and a third watched and did not report it. Nelson later died of apparent brain injuries.
In addition, the agency determined that two staff members had sexual relations with a female resident with quadriplegia who was confined to a wheelchair. Separately, a resident with Parkinson's disease was hit on the head with a frying pan by a staff member while another threatened to kill his cat. And a man with anxiety suffered a decline in his mental health after he was subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse, the state found.
Staff members at Chappy's also told investigators they were prohibited from reporting maltreatment by management, and were not allowed to accurately document events, the agency found. Two residents reported having their phones taken away when they attempted to call "911" to report abuse, according to the investigations.
Founded 23 years ago, Chappy's housed a diverse mix of clients, including older residents with dementia and younger people with disabilities and mental health problems.
The facility's owner, Tricia Olson, said she is the victim of a "sham investigation" and has appealed the 90-day suspension of Chappy's license. "We did our job to the fullest and took care of all these people," she said.
Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, said the Chappy's case underscores the need for stronger protections for residents of senior care facilities. More timely and thorough investigations, while important, won't suffice to protect seniors from violent crimes, Dibble said. He noted that the Health Department still receives more than 400 reports of maltreatment at health facilities each week.
Dibble plans to introduce broad legislation next week, backed by a coalition of senior advocacy groups, that would require assisted-living facilities to be licensed by the state. It also would clarify state law to give people the right to place cameras in senior homes to monitor care of their loved ones, among other changes.
A prosecutor attacked a former Minneapolis police officer for his decision to shoot an unarmed woman who approached his squad car, suggesting Friday that he had "no basis" to fire when he couldn't see a weapon or the woman's hands.
While 49 other states are stuck playing Duck, Duck, Goose, Minnesota plays something that's "different."
An Indiana man has been sentenced to nearly 11 years in federal prison for his involvement in armed robberies of three pharmacies in Wisconsin.


text:
Opinion: Gold mining not necessary for renewable energy future
By Wendy Schneider, Executive Director, Friends of the Inyo
There are many reasons to protect Conglomerate Mesa, ancestral homeland of the Shoshone (Newe), Paiute (Numuu), and Timbisha Native Americans. These include its profound cultural significance to the area's tribes, its rare endemic plants, its thriving high altitude Joshua Tree forest, its spectacular dark sky, its irreplaceable geological fossil record, recreation opportunities, and the home it provides for wildlife. At this moment all of Conglomerate Mesa's values are threatened by mining exploration. There has been a lively debate about the merits of this exploration, and this debate is welcome and appropriate, as long as information that is presented as fact, is truly factual. Unfortunately, one narrative that has surfaced cannot be supported factually and at this juncture I feel a need to present fact based information that contradicts this narrative. This false narrative tells the story that proposed mining exploration on Conglomerate Mesa will support a renewable energy future. I have noticed two different angles this narrative has taken: One angle is that the mining exploration company is not really seeking gold, but is really seeking trace minerals that often accompany gold, which are used in renewable energy technologies. Another version of the narrative is that we need to mine more gold to support a renewable energy future. There is no truth to either version of this narrative.
First, let's make it abundantly clear: Conglomerate Mesa is being targeted for gold and nothing else. The mining exploration proponents were very clear about this until recently, when we've started seeing local articles and pieces on the proponent's website that claim their project is pursuing the minimal trace minerals that often accompany gold, trace elements that we need for a renewable energy future. (It should be noted here that this tactic is being used to justify destructive mining in other locations in the American West, including at the Stibnite Mine in Idaho where the project clearly seeks gold, but the operator promotes trace amounts of antimony found alongside gold deposits in an attempt to justify expansion. (www.earthworks.org/publications/just-minerals/.)) In the case of Conglomerate Mesa, the mining exploration proponents are pointing to the possibility that some copper could be recovered from their gold mining operation. The project proponents are using this claim to imply that their operation would be beneficial to the development of renewable energy production in the area. This claim is meritless. It is uncertain whether any copper would be recovered in their gold mining operation, and if it were, it would be in such small amounts that any claim that the mining operation is supporting renewable energy would be laughable.
Second, the project proponents would also have you believe that we need to mine more gold to support a renewable energy future, or to support our desire for new cell phones and other tech gadgets. This is also not true. The truth is, only modest amounts of gold are used in technology, even lower amounts of gold are necessary for renewable energy technology, and we already have the gold needed sitting in vaults to satisfy all foreseeable future needs. And if we did need more gold, it should also be noted that there is a stellar opportunity for recycling gold. With electric vehicles, solar panels and other low-carbon infrastructure, there is significant untapped potential to reuse and recycle minerals from batteries and other technology that has reached the end of its useful life. In 2020, there was enough recycled gold to meet 75% of demand (USGS). In 2019, the amount of gold recycled met 89% of demand. We, as drivers and stakeholders in a healthy U.S. economy, including government and industry, have an obligation to the people, land and climate to explore recycling and reuse options first, before considering any new mines, especially one as shortsighted as an open-pit cyanide mine at a place as special as Conglomerate Mesa.
As Conglomerate Mesa stands at a crossroads, we have a duty to seek and promote the truth. To base our decision on how to treat this precious desert gem, on facts, not baseless claims. The truth is, any potential mine at Conglomerate Mesa will be a gold mine. Not a copper mine, or another kind of mine. It is also true that we do not need to mine any more gold to support the renewable energy future we must pursue. Please take action to protect Conglomerate Mesa from a project that will destroy it, and produce no true sustainable benefit for our community. Conglomerate Mesa is too special to sacrifice for so little.
Wendy may be reached at Wendy@FriendsoftheInyo.org.


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Opening up the sukuk market
Despite the challenges faced by the sukuk market, there have been a number of significant developments in recent months, including regulatory changes in the US and the inclusion of sukuk in a number of key indices. These could help change market dynamics, address some of the shortcomings and increase both issuance and demand. One critical issue that continues to be cited by investors is the lack of liquidity, particularly in the secondary market where trading is limited.
A lot of sukuk investors, particularly Islamic banks, are hold-to-maturity investors not due to Sharia principals but because there is such a scarcity of sukuk assets. This is in turn a consequence of the limited volume of issuance, with demand far outstripping supply. Investors know that, if they sold a sukuk, they might face difficulty finding a suitable replacement for their portfolio. Nonetheless, an upside of this demand/supply gap is that sukuk has in the past proven to be a usefully defensive stock compared to conventional bonds, not least for distressed issuers. The demand-supply gap is itself caused, at least in part, by the complexity of issuing a sukuk, particularly for those unfamiliar with this segment of the financial market. Whilst issuing a conventional bond might take just a few weeks, an initial sukuk issuance can take many months as identifying appropriate sukuk assets and finalizing the sukuk structure often takes longer than expected.
That may explain why, after a wave of sukuk from new issuers such as the UK and Luxembourg in 2014, the number of new entrants to the market has dwindled. There are still some non-traditional markets where activity looks promising though, such as formosa sukuk in Taiwan – a number of large financial institutions from the Middle East and beyond have issued such instruments and other corporate issuers have looked closely at following them. The complexity involved in sukuks can also be off-putting for some investors, particularly the way that interpretations of what is, or is not, Sharia-compliant differ in different parts of the world, not least between the two key markets of Malaysia and the Gulf countries.
Unfortunately, this is unlikely to change quickly, despite industry attempts to improve standardization, and investors will need to understand and be patient in the meantime. Such concerns are not eased by reports that highlight how interpretations within a country may change over time. An example of this is the ongoing efforts of UAE-based energy firm Dana Gas to persuade a court in Sharjah to rule that its $700 million sukuk is no longer Sharia-compliant and should thus be cancelled and replaced with a new instrument.
Despite these concerns, investor demand is such that new issuance is almost always oversubscribed, even as the size of sukuks continue to grow. As a case in point, the market saw a $9 billion Saudi sovereign sukuk earlier this year, which became the largest issuance to date. Increasingly, we see that sukuks have become a part of mainstream investments for fund managers, central banks, sovereign wealth funds and banks. The demand momentum is also being helped by ongoing developments in the regulatory environment. One significant change came with the Saudi sovereign sukuk – among the disclosures in the prospectus was one which stated that sukuks might be considered an asset-backed security under the Dodd-Frank regulations. The full impact of that has yet to be seen, but it may be followed by a similar approach from regulators in other markets, in which case it could reduce issuance.
Another area of potentially great significance is the inclusion of sukuks in the EMBI and JACI indices published by JP Morgan. This is seen as a very positive development, as it brings sukuks onto the radar of many more investors and fund managers. It has already helped to bring the spreads on sukuks from the likes of Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa into line with their commercial bonds. With pricing relatively flat between conventional and Sharia-compliant bonds, issuers will need additional reasons if they were to tackle the complexity involved in a sukuk. "Maybe there is some pricing benefit but it's probably not enough in itself to be a reason to do a transaction. There needs to be something else out there," said Michael Bennett, Head of Derivatives and Structured Finance at the World Bank, during the recently concluded Global Borrowers & Bond Investors Forum in London. We saw this played out with sukuk issued by the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm).
The World Bank worked with the organization to issue two sukuks in 2014 and 2015, raising $500 million and $200 million respectively. For the IFFIm, it was a way to diversify its investor base and raise its profile in the Middle East. Against the backdrop of sector-specific issues, wider geopolitical events also have the potential to prompt concerns. The diplomatic and economic standoff between Qatar and three of its Gulf neighbours – Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain – which began in early June may raise the caution against getting involved in instruments issued from some of those countries. However, the general view is that this should be a short-term concern and the market is fairly optimistic that a solution will be found before too long.If this situation, along with the others mentioned earlier, can be successfully addressed, then the prospects for continued growth for sukuks look bright.
Nade Ali Shah Nade Ali Shah, Head of DCM Sovereigns and Supranationals at Standard Chartered
(Euro Money - 10 July 2017)
Pelaburan Unit Amanah Islam: www.unit-amanah-islam.blogspot.my
Posted by Editor at Monday, July 10, 2017
Labels: Sukuk
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George W. Parker III
Plenipotentiary Without Portfolio
« Yosemite Reservations
SING FOR AMERICA »
OBSERVER OF WAR
An Observer of War
I was hot, dirty, sweaty, tired, and thirsty. Perhaps a bath would make me feel better and awaken me to my duties here. I slipped down to the lagoon through a grove of scraggly pine trees, over a gravely bank and to the coral reef. There, I removed my shoes and clothes and waded cautiously over the sharp coral into the water. But no comfort. I was now in the full rays of the sun; the shallow water barely covered my knees and was as warm as the tropical air I was breathing. I rubbed some salt-water soap over my body, sat down as best I could and splashed rinse water over me. I carefully moved farther out, stepping cautiously, for this coral was sharp and, suddenly, I stepped into a deep hole- up to my shoulders. What joy! The water at my feet was cool, I guessed at least 30 degrees cooler than at the surface. I exhaled, held my breath, and sank to the bottom in a sitting position. Then back up, a few big breaths, another exhale, and back down. I repeated this several times in spite of the discomfort of holding my breath, but, Oh, that cool water.
But then, as I popped up I heard the rat-a-tat of a machine gun and saw bullets ricocheting in the water around me. Looking beyond the curve of the lagoon to a far point, I could see several figures moving around. Were they friend or foe? No time to find out. The bullets kept splashing around me. This time I took a deep breath and ducked down as far as I could. How long could one hold one's breath? I don't know, but when the pain got too strong, I rose up, gasped some more air, observed the splashes were still coming, and dropped down again. I kept wondering, were these Japanese firing at me, or our own troops, thinking I was a "Jap"? Finally, after some ten minutes of these maneuvers, the shooting stopped. Perhaps they thought I had been killed or wounded? I would never know. I dashed over the sharp coral, ignoring the pain, grabbed my clothes, ran up the bank, and out of sight of my antagonists.
Click here to read the rest
A fortnight before, my orders, dated 11 May 1944 directed me to report to the Commanding General of the 24th Provisional Corps Artillery for temporary duty as an observer. I was stationed at Camp Tarawa situated on the Parker Ranch at Kamuela, Hawaii, as Battery Commander of Battery "A", 10th Gun Battalion, Vth Amphibious Corps Artillery. At one time I was an instructor in the Seacoast Artillery Section of The Base Defense School in Quantico, Virginia, and Camp Lejeune in New River, North Carolina. Then, it was decided we needed no more Defense Battalions, so I learned Field Artillery from The 2nd Division on Hawaii. It was common to assign officers to an invasion force, as observer, to gain combat experience. I flew to Oahu and reported into an Army camp just north of Pearl Harbor, where I was assigned duty with a Captain, whom I will call Jack.
It wasn't long 'till we were part of a magnificent flotilla of war ships sailing east ward as a convoy. Forward, they stretched, so that only the masts of the leading ships were visible. And aft, they stretched, until out of sight. Cruisers, destroyers, cargo ships, troop ships, small anti-submarine boats, all zigzagging across the ocean in radio silence. The only communication was by signal lights and flags. It was a scene out of a movie! For five days we voyaged on under fair skies, with destroyers and anti-submarine boats, maneuvering around us, though I saw no splash of depth bombs being dropped. Our deception must have been good. Not much to do on board except eat, sleep, play acey-deucy, and, finally, examine maps of our objective. It was only now that we learned our objective was Saipan. Saipan is the northernmost significant island of the Marianas. Farther south is Guam, and in between, and very close to Saipan, is Tinian.
A few days later, we awoke to find ourselves anchored about a half-mile offshore on the western side of Saipan, with hundreds, or what seemed, thousands, of ships around us, many lobbing shells at the island. We heard that battleships had been doing the same for several days, but now had left and joined up with carriers to seek the Japanese fleet. We could see small craft ferrying troops and weapons to the shore only to be met by vicious shelling from hidden sites in the hills. But, ashore, the marines and soldiers did go and move inland.
Our units, 155 millimeter field artillery guns, went ashore on the 3rd day. My memory is vague, bur I recall wading in a bit, crossing the sand and entering a grove of trees, where I observed a building. It appeared to be an abandoned store, and my curiosity invited me in, only to find it empty, no goods on the shelves. Had the proprietors cleared the place and moved north with the Japanese, or had souvenir seekers emptied it? As I was leaving to join our group progressing forward, I spotted an object on the floor – a slide rule in a black case. It ended up in my pocket, and I have it to this day, my only souvenir of that Island. We ended up that night at our guns which were just being set up and slept in shallow fox holes dug by troops the day before.
The next morning I set out with Jack, a driver, and a radioman (actually telephone) in a jeep heading inland on the southern part of the island, which was somewhat secured, for our troops were now pushing the Japanese northward. We knew little of what was going on up there, but could hear lots of artillery fire. We holed up in a small grove of trees and awaited instructions, not knowing if there was enemy around us. That night we didn't sleep – our headquarters kept ringing our phone, in spite of our protests, to see if we were still connected. No better way for the enemy to locate us.
The next day I did some reconnoitering and came upon a grassy clearing with the bodies of perhaps a dozen Americans and an equal number of Japanese laid out in opposite rows. My first reaction was that they had faced each other in gunfire, as they might have done in Colonial Days, but then realized that they had been placed there, awaiting the "graves" detachment for burial. It was a sobering sight, a recognition of the inhumanity of war, and while we had been taught in boot camp to hate the Japanese, It didn't stick. I stood for a few minutes, weeping, something I had not done for several years.
And now, a few days later, feeling grubby, thirsty and useless, I slipped down to the lagoon for a bath.
I don't recall how we spent the next few days. At one time I discovered a water well on a meadow and thought "oh boy, fresh cold water!" I preferred to go thirsty than to drink the chlorinated water we were given. But a Marine guard stood by, preventing any military personnel from drawing water, though there were two natives there, filling their buckets. The dead cow lying along side did not deter them.
We finally got an assignment as forward observers to direct fire on the island of Tinian, about ten miles to the south and the next invasion target. We found a grove of trees that gave us partial shade, and obtained a bit more by erecting a tarp, supported by limbs we cut from the trees. We then set up a telescope where we had a good view of our targets, mostly buildings, called in approximate distances to the gun control officer by phone, located some two miles away, and puffs of smoke appeared around the target. Then, by ordering up and down, and right and left commands, we bracketed the target with just one gun, and when the target was hit, the command was "fire for effect!" and all four of the battery's guns opened up. We continued this for several days, noting that some smaller army artillery came out near us each day and fired continuously at a point of land ahead of us and to our left. We discovered that this was Nafutan Point, a rocky peninsula on the south end that was by-passed when this part of the island was secured. It appeared, now that the plan was to keep the enemy penned in their rocky retreat. But why did this small artillery draw back at night, leaving the four of us alone out there? Actually, we were not too worried, and probably not too smart, since hidden in a grove of trees, we felt we were unobserved. We joked about this light artillery cowardly backing away at night, while we were brave to stick it out.
Our targets on Tinian were rather vague, probably large warehouses, and, we suspected, an airfield beyond, but could not actually see it. The days wore on; the light artillery kept firing at Nafutan Point in the daylight, and pulled back at night. Our firing at Tinian became sporadic, our airfield had been rebuilt enough to allow our cargo and fighter planes to come in and perhaps they had neutralized Tinian. I was still hot, tired and thirsty. And then it came; a telephone message that I was to return to my home base in Hawaii. A vehicle would come and pick me up. Yes, it came around 10:00 P.M. . . . a jeep, with its headlights on, with rays of light flashing up to the light cloud cover ,and then disappearing as the vehicle drove through a ravine We screamed at the driver to turn off his lights, but to no avail. If the Japanese were watching, and they surely had guards posted, they would now know we had a position here.
I made my good-byes, threw myself and gear into the jeep and was driven to some head quarters and shown a cot. But before I could sleep, a bomb attack warning sent me down into a basement. It seemed no time at all 'till I was roused, put into the back of a big truck, alone, and driven to the airfield in the dark of early morning. The truck drove up to a large transport plane, deposited me, and drove off. And, just as I walked over to the plane all hell broke loose. The rat-tat of machine guns and rifle fire, this time all around me, with tracer bullets lighting up the area. I dashed to the plane and crouched behind one of its large wheels, assuming the enemy was in the direction of the tracers. Were these the Japanese that had been holed up on Nafutan Point? Did the jeep driving out to pick me up with its lights on have anything to do with this attack? Perhaps. A half hour later, and with dawn breaking, all was quiet. A Marine appeared and guided me to the ramp of the plane.
I entered, to see the interior of a cargo plane with no seats. Stretched down each side of the cabin were wounded men, some on stretchers, others sitting against the bulk head. All was quiet. The only activity was two nurses going down the line giving cups of pineapple juice to the injured. My mouth watered in anticipation of this delicacy, and, finally, a nurse stopped beside me and said she had one drink left, and as I reached for it – the drink I had been thirsting for over the last two weeks, the man lying next to me said he would like some more. I handed him my cup, and my thirst disappeared. The plane took off and the roar of the engines was the only thing that bothered my sleep for the next several hours.
In late afternoon we landed at Kwajalein. I was directed to a large mess tent where, sitting alone, I was served all the pineapple juice I could drink, and a hearty meal. How quickly I was rejuvenated. Then, a stopover at Midway Island, and the next day the sunny shores of Oahu.
The transportation officer looked at my orders, and with a wink, said he could not get me back to Hawaii for a week, but I could stay in the B. O. Q. and could borrow a jeep from the motor pool if I wished. In the B. O. Q. I found Captain John King and Lt. Dwight Sales of my outfit on Hawaii, who had also just returned from Saipan Captain Jack, whom I had just left, firing on Tinian had asked me to look up his girl in Honolulu to say he was OK. I visited her that evening where she lived in a house with several other girls, and made a date to see her the next night. But circumstances changed. John King had an introduction to the manager of the Dole Pineapple Company, He and I and Dale were invited to dinner at their house the next night, and then spent several days being shown around the Island by his daughter and another pretty girl. I phoned my broken date to find that she had taken a hotel room the night before, and had left directions for me to join her. She was not happy with me. Well, win some and lose some. Then, back to the big Island.
WAR IS HELL!
Did I learn anything as an observer? Not too much. Did I serve purpose? Yes, to some extent for Tinian was invaded two weeks later. Did I know what was going on north of me on Saipan? Very little. But, years later, reading the official history of the battle and the personal stories of participants, I now feel that I was there. Some 500 Japanese had come out of Nafutan Point that night and attacked the airfield. Did that jeep, with its headlights on have anything to do with their breakout? I heard later that the friends I had just left were killed.
No, I didn't crawl on my stomach, jump up and throw hand grenades, didn't direct a flame thrower into caves, didn't repel bonsai night attacks, didn't see men dying around me. I didn't even observe it. I was no hero, but, I was there, on this little Island only 12
miles long by 6 miles wide.
Seventy thousand Americans battled 30,000 Japanese. Three thousand Americans were killed and ten thousand wounded. Nearly all the Japanese were killed or committed suicide by jumping off the northern cliffs and taking with them some twenty two thousand civilians who were made to believe that the Americans were brutal.
George Parker
Tags: Saipan Invasion
This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 3:11 pm	and is filed under Marine Corps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Charities Must Act Now to Mitigate Misguided Oversight | Commentary
By Roll Call Copy Desk
Posted June 16, 2015 at 5:00am
By Steve Taylor Charities and foundations should brace themselves for a fresh round of excessive criticism; increased Congressional and state legislative scrutiny is likely to follow. As a sector, we need to act now to prevent unnecessary new laws or regulations that will make our ability to serve people and communities less efficient, more costly, and much more difficult.
Reports about the Clinton Foundation abound. Make no mistake — that coverage is fueled by politics, and it's bad for all nonprofits. To avoid the appearance of pure partisanship, Congress will likely explore regulation and oversight of nonprofits and suggest that new rules could ensure increased transparency and accountability.
The scheme to create sham charities to secure donations for non-existent cancer research also made a splash. While the federal and state prosecution of these fake charities demonstrates that safeguards to catch con-artists work, criminals will still try to take advantage of good-hearted people, no matter how much regulation exists.
Unfortunately, good news is rarely as appealing as a scandal, real or sensationalized, and charities are rarely in the spotlight for doing their work well. In the absence of media coverage and public knowledge about the incredible work that charities do—often on shoe-string budgets—tales of misspent funds will seem like the rule, rather than the rare exception.
We've also seen the inaccurate association of 501(c)(3) charities and foundations with political nonprofits. The confusion, often accompanied with calls for new regulations, is always to the detriment of politically-agnostic charities and foundations, as this narrative taps into the disillusionment the public has with partisan dysfunction.
Add to that the desire of some in government to substitute their own values and priorities for those of donors, along with a lack of clarity on the role of nonprofits in modern society, and you have an environment ripe for political posturing.
Perhaps we'll get lucky, but we can't count on it. The convergence of politics, sensationalism, misinformation, and misguided value judgments could result in damaging policy changes, changes that will ultimately harm the individuals and communities we strive to improve. But we can mitigate the damage if we act now.
Leaders of charities and foundations must step up and act to prevent policy-makers from pursuing unwise, uninformed policy decisions based on a few bad anecdotes or sensational news stories. That means better educating our elected officials about how our work impacts the communities both we and our elected officials serve.
Food pantries should invite their Members of Congress to meals served by volunteers. Museum directors should invite state legislators to attend after school arts programs for low-income children. Community foundations or local United Way CEOs should invite U.S. Senators to meet with their boards to see how committed these leaders are to their communities. As nonprofit leaders, part of our job is ensuring that the elected officials from our communities not only know our charities but can also articulate their value.
Members of both parties can be touched by our work, but too few get the chance. The vast majority of elected officials care deeply about what's happening in their communities. It is incumbent on us to give them opportunities to learn about our work, and we must do a better job of showcasing our stewardship of the trust donors have placed in all of us.
Steve Taylor is the senior vice president and counsel for public policy at United Way Worldwide.
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