The March Forefront Suicide Prevention LEARN Training held recently at Shorewood High School felt somber yet hopeful. By arming a community with tools of knowledge, it can help identify and support students who could be susceptible to suicide ideations due to depression, anxiety or a variety of factors and reasons.
LEARN is a five-step approach that brings understanding in the form of education and actions that can be taken to help save a life.
Two Washington State youth die by suicide each week. The Center for Disease Control states that means there are twenty-five other youth who also tried to take their own life, but were intervened by someone or something.
This affects anyone from any economic or cultural background.
Almost 50% of all youth suicides involve a firearm, and 82% of youth suicides by firearm involve a family gun.
Parents at Shorewood and Shorecrest High Schools researched and garnered support and donations to bring in the University of Washington's Forefront LEARN model that teaches suicide prevention to all parents, teachers, staff, and students.
The Forefront LEARN program stresses, with its data-driven approach, the need for the responsible locking up of weapons, pharmaceuticals and especially any opioid medications. But parent attendees learned to even eliminate plastic bags in the home if there is a teen experiencing suicide ideations.
Empathy, the appropriate responses, and working with skilled professionals also play a significant role in suicide prevention.
Shorewood High School Principal Bill Dunbar also explained why teens and young adults are particularly vulnerable; executive function skills such as impulse control don't fully develop until around the age of 26.
So when a teen is experiencing an intense emotional pain, they may not have the necessary brain development to control an impulse to want to end that pain. The pain becomes so dark and deep within them - they could be feeling a burden to others around them - that the urge to die by suicide is brought on by the need to stop all the pain and takes over any ability to cope.
Several parents told their story of how the need for suicide prevention has touched their lives and why they support this training for every parent, teacher, and student.
One Lake Forest Park parent spoke of how she was not aware that her daughter had been experiencing suicide ideations until two teens died of suicide while she was attending Shorecrest High School. Then, at that time, her daughter spoke up about her own feelings. This parent has a strong bond and relationship with her child, so it was a shock that her teen was having such silent struggles.
Parents and teachers and students are working hard in the Shoreline School District to develop a robust approach so the whole community can have eyes on all teens and especially those silent ones suffering who may not even realize they need help.
When any person becomes so ill with depression that they are contemplating taking their own life, they most likely do not have any ability to cry out for help. They are using all their human capacity just to survive the pain of the day.
At Shorewood, the school has incorporated another program called the "Life Savers" Club. In this model, the high school students themselves have become an essential support system that provide peer to peer suicide prevention support, and now combined with the LEARN training, Shorewood has an even stronger integrated approach.
Washington State Teen Link peer-to-peer helpline received 3,700 requests in one year. This indicates the need is enormous.
Depression or anxiety can cause suicide ideations.
If a teen becomes socially isolated and withdrawing from activities that he or she usually enjoys.
Events that have caused shame or having the experience of being bullied.
Lack of sleep or changes in mood.
Suddenly giving away of personal or meaningful possessions.
A sudden burst of joy in a depressed youth could be a sign that they know their pain will end as they have then made a plan.
Listen with an open heart as you would about any other serious illness, but do not try to fix the problem. Please get comfortable with discussing suicide awareness issues with your teen or young adult. Programs like LEARN can help you do that.
Always seek help if you feel someone is at risk.
Crisis Textline-National-24/7 Text about anything.
For any immediate danger call 911.
Both Shorewood and Shorecrest High Schools have a safety tip line on their websites – upper right hand corner on their individual home page.


Part of having a good business continuity plan is ensuring that when disaster strikes, the company is back up and running again like it had never gone down in the first place.
It's ironic that as I type this, my own little business had "disaster" strike in the way of my email being hacked and spam email was sent to my contact list – at least I hope it was just my contact list. It amounted mostly to family and close friends, but just the fact that I had over 160 emails in my sent folder to various clients and resources, I am now trying to figure out just how much damage this might have done.
For those of you who have ever been in my shoes, whether small or large business, then you know how important it is to be up-and-running again.
Business continuity is basically an insurance policy, Bill Hall (no relation), president and CEO of New Albany, Ind.-based Boice.net, an information technology firm, told me.
Most people probably take a look at their policies once a year, which is also a good timeframe for a business continuity plan.
A business will have to make sure to deliver that and know what the points and places in its network that it can control if there is an outage.
Technology today has become a utility, Hall said. For example, when someone turns on a light switch, he doesn't stop and think about how the light works, just that it either does or doesn't.
As a result, technology is also a business enabler, with business owners using it to be more profitable and efficient, but having the business down is not part of the equation, he added. Having the network down for even an hour could probably make a company lose business it didn't even know it had, Hall said.
The bad news is, most people only look at their business continuity plan after something happens. So how can a business go about fixing up its continuity plan?
One of the most important things is to evaluate how long your business can be down – called the "mean time operation," (also known as recovery time objective) Hall said.
Over the past six months, his area of the country has been hit with tornadoes and ice storms. One client, a school, was totally lost, but because its network was in another area, the school was able to shift to another location and continue on.


The course is designed to build on the agile knowledge that testers possess by providing the opportunity to take their skills to practitioner level in an intensive learning environment. It brings together the most up-to-date thinking and innovation to enable agile testers and test teams to add quality to the rapid development times that can already be realised using agile techniques.
This new iSQI certification involves completing a practical examination based on a test scenario. The course is designed for completion by whole testing teams, given that everyone has an equal responsibility for product quality in order to ensure consistent and effective delivery.
From an organisation perspective, opting to take part in the new PAQ course can provide the knowledge and skills required to develop agile competency within the team and accelerate quality across the organisation as a whole.
We have dates for this new course available to book online now, so don't delay and get ahead of the competition by being amongst the first to have a test team of highly-skilled PAQ's.


A heartbreakingly beautiful book about an old man and a young girl whose life stories are linked by a book called The History of Love.
I've read this book three times, and it always makes me cry. The characters are so wonderfully developed; the voice of the old man is captured extremely well, and I see shadows of myself in the girl (a smart, adventurous Jewish tomboy who likes wilderness survival).
This is a book about emotion: strong emotion, complex emotion, can't-quite-put-your-finger-on-it emotion, too-painful-to-feel emotion. The beauty of love and the bittersweetness of loss, and regret about things that might have been. It tugs on heartstrings you didn't know you had. A beautiful, beautiful book.
My copy also happens to be the first gift my husband ever gave me, before we were even dating. He tried to read it (in English) but didn't make it past the first line. I hope that someday he is able to.
Yes, you read that right – she WALKED around the WORLD.On her 5-year journey, she raised over a quarter-million dollars for breast cancer education and awareness. I initially thought "awareness" sounded lame, like a non-action – but what that really means is she has taught women about breast self-exams and early detection in countries where this is not common knowledge and where cultural taboos may make it difficult for women to talk about breasts or see a male doctor – and this "awareness" will save lives.
The book opens by describing how she almost got killed by a flying cow in India, and the cultural experiences and interesting people she meets along the way are golden. In my opinion, the text started dragging a bit towards the end, and I think that actually reflects some of her exhaustion from having been on the road so long, especially in Europe where she received very little support. All in all a fascinating read.
I bought this book before realizing the author was offering it free on his website – oops – but I don't regret it. I've read a lot of articles on how to grow your website or blog, but they often assume you already have a steady stream of traffic/visitors/subscribers that you want to increase.
This book, which is a collection by various authors who have built successful blogs, websites, and communities from the ground up, helps you build traffic from zero. The advice comes from different angles and some of it is even contradictory, which I like because you can try out all the strategies and find what works for you. Plus, the success stories are inspiring!
Nonna was not Jewish, but the Holocaust nearly destroyed her. In 1950, she immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 23, married, and didn't speak about her past for half a century.
One day, she led her husband up to the attic and revealed the diaries she had kept as a child and teenager during the Holocaust.
Born into a large, wealthy Russian family, she wrote about how one by one their freedoms were taken away and options were limited by the war until her family was decimated. The descriptions of the warm, loving, rich memories of her childhood are a stark contrast to the cruelties she witnessed and experienced.
But throughout the suffering, there are notes of hope and love, showing an incredible strength of character.
This is the true story of a woman born into slavery who never accepted being a "possession" of her master. She resisted her master's sexual advances and fought for her freedom for years – eventually gaining it after spending seven years hidden in a crawl space in her grandmother's attic, then making a risky but successful journey to the North. (That's perseverance!!!) Her thoughts and observations on the society of that era are amazing.
This book is free for Kindle or you can read it online here.
1) Seeing how incredibly different daily life was just 100 years ago. Elinore makes her own clothes and grows and/or hunts all her own food – and this was normal for life on the frontier.
2) How she lovingly and joyfully thinks up creative ways to bless others – from organizing a sewing party to make a ton of clothes for an orphan girl, to befriending a lonely old man far from home, to taking Christmas dinner packets to the cowboys out on the field. I'm struck by how much she did for others, with so little in terms of material possessions.
3) Her descriptions of nature – they can make you smell the pine, taste the clear mountain water, and feel the sting of the chilly winter air.
As a fan of classic sci-fi, I'm kind of amazed I'd never read these. I love story arcs of several hundred years, as well as intelligent and non-cheesy science fiction writing.
I found a couple of chapters in the first third of the story less than memorable – but got really hooked towards the end, which I couldn't have guessed.
Now I need to read the last two of the series: Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth !
One of the better marriage-preparation books, in my opinion. Each of the 12 "things" is solidly developed and illustrated with anecdotes, and each one ends with discussion (or food for thought) questions that help you personalize the lesson and think about how it applies or plays out in your own relationship. I plan to read this again a year or so into our marriage.
Unlike The Secret Holocaust Diaries, this story is a fictional account of a young Ukrainian girl's survival of WWII. It jumps back and forth between 16-year-old Nadya and 75-year-old Nadya, and secrets are unfolded throughout the book until she finally finds the peace and happiness that have eluded her for so long. The writing isn't nearly as poetic as The History of Love or The Secret Holocaust Diaries, but I enjoyed the way the author weaves in Ukrainian tradition, superstition, and spirituality.
This book is pure gold for anyone who loves languages! If you thought Esperanto was the only invented language, think again – there have actually been hundreds.
Okrent, a linguist, delves deeply into 5 of these languages, exploring their histories and the visions of their founders, entering their communities of aficionados, and making honest attempts to learn them.
She also discusses their difficulties and the reasons why invented languages have just never seemed to catch on.
My favorite chapter was the one about how a "symbol language" – despite the intentions of its inventor – ended up helping children with mental, physiological, or communicative difficulties to express themselves.
Got any book recommendations for me in 2012?


Noah Lyles, winner of the 200m in Lausanne last weekend, loves running on a Mondo track. He is quoted in the Italian sport magazine Gazzetta dello Sport as saying: "My favorite tracks are the MONDO tracks. When you run on them it feels like running in the clouds."


Interested in art ever since I can remember. Lover of surrealism and minimalism.
Ideas get translated into clean designs, bold lines and catchy palettes. My personal projects often involve illustration and a lot of experimentation.
In my free time I dabble in photography, drink plenty of tea, learn foreign languages, read historical fiction and listen to the sound of rain.


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Predicting Danger to Themselves
The problems of self-mutilation, threat of suicide, suicide attempts, and suicide itself are extremely complex. Here I will limit myself to some comments about the grounds for justifying involuntary commitment regarding suicidal threats and suicidal behavior.
The first problem arising from suicidal threats is that it is generally accepted that these may be but are not necessarily related to a psychiatric disorder. There are people who, being quite capable of doing so and aware of their responsibilities, assess their own situation and arrive at the conclusion that their future prospects are unacceptable to them. This type of "rational" suicide does not qualify for involuntary commitment. In 1982 a court in the Netherlands refused to order commitment of a man who seriously neglected himself and lived in a way which was hazardous to his life, as "the patient not only realized very well what he wished, but also was sufficiently capable of freely determining his will in this regard." The problem here is how can the professional judge whether people's assessments of their future prospects are more or less correct? The extent of this problem is illustrated by a poll conducted by Giel and Bloemsma regarding an actual case of suicide threat. Of the 160 helping professionals polled (mostly psychiatrists and other physicians, but also nurses, psychologists, and social workers) 54% considered the patient in question "psychiatrically ill" and 35% would have wanted to have her involuntarily committed. Among the physicians (the only profession that can request involuntary commitment) 68% judged the patient to be "psychiatrically ill" and 65% wished to have her involuntarily committed. "These facts richly illustrate the confusion regarding the background of suicidal behavior, as well as the contradictory feelings helping professionals have about the how far one must go in intervening." A similar investigation by Peszke et al revealed that psychiatrists were fairly unanimous about involuntary commitment of people who are both psychotic and suicidal. There was equal unanimity about not committing people who were neither. However regarding people who were psychotic but not suicidal, or suicidal but not psychotic, there were major differences of opinion. As such an invasive measure should be based on more than one subjective assessment anyway, as is the case with Peszke's two subgroups, involuntary commitment could be considered when the intention to commit suicide is explained in totally absurd terms that most obviously contradict all reason as in a manifest psychosis. This would imply that a judge and anyone else who bothers to talk to such a person could reach the same conclusion.
Opinions differ about the ratio of "rational" suicides to "sick" suicides. People's views on this are probably strongly influenced by their philosophical, ethical, and religious convictions. Diekstra found that the public's view of suicide is quite negative ("objectionable, shameful, crazy") and dominating psychiatric and psychological views are equally negative.
According to Diekstra there is no direct empirical relationship between (attempted) suicide on the one hand and the existence of psychiatric disorders on the other. He states that suicidal behavior is quite frequent among people who display no psychiatric symptomatology. He quotes Stengel and Cook, who estimate suicides by the psychiatrically disordered to be about one third of the total of suicides.
In a later publication Diekstra quotes comparable research by Robins in 1959 and by Barraclough in 1968. They investigated cases of suicide (the former 134, the latter 100) for signs of psychiatric disorder by interviewing the relatives. Barraclough compared his findings with 150 cases of people who died some other way and presented the findings to an independent panel of three psychiatrists. They concluded that in 94% of the cases (93% for Robins) psychiatric disorders were obviously present. Diekstra concludes that psychiatric disorders are much more common in people who commit suicide than in the general population. He cautions, however, that one cannot conclude from this that such disorders are responsible for the suicidal behavior, and presents several arguments for that. Furthermore, it seems to me that in the investigations by Robins and Barraclough the surviving relatives' judgment of whether or not the person who committed suicide was psychiatrically disordered could have been influenced by the suicide itself.
In general a distinction should be made between those people who truly wish to end their lives and those who by attempting suicide are signaling despair and a wish to be helped. In the latter case the entreaty has a strongly dependent nature. It is an appeal to others to assume responsibility. An involuntary commitment would seem to confirm the patient's negative opinion of himself as incompetent, dependent, and not responsible. As every treatment should be aimed at mitigating this irrational dependency, involuntary commitment is in most cases not only unnecessary but also undesirable.
Also in cases of suicidal behavior prediction of repetition can be highly unreliable due to the large number of false positives when predicting behavior that is statistically speaking unlikely. Rosen has demonstrated this mathematically already as long ago as 1954.
Schudel relates that in the years 1975 and 1976 only one out of every 40 people who attempted suicide in the municipality of The Hague were involuntarily committed. Of the remainder, 1154 cases in total, only 20 later committed suicide, ten of whom did so during psychiatric hospitalization. Furthermore, of the 99 people who actually committed suicide in The Hague in 1975 and 1976 only 20 had been known to have attempted it earlier. (Schudel does not reveal whether the other 79 were known to the social services because of other problems.) This means that most suicides transpire without advance signals that reach helping professionals. This also indicates the dubiousness of preventing suicide by involuntary commitment, both because it is apparently not discernible which people who have attempted suicide remain at risk and because the involuntary commitment apparently offers no protection against suicide. De Graaf provides statistics that show that the number of suicides in psychiatric hospitals between 1970 and 1977 rose much more rapidly than outside of them. The cases of suicide in the hospital were doubled whereas in the general population the rise was only 4%. In numbers, in 1970, 1092 people in the Netherlands committed suicide of which 66 did so while staying in a psychiatric hospital. In 1977, 1252 people committed suicide of which 132 did so while staying in psychiatric hospital. In 1977 the risk of suicide in a psychiatric hospital was 26 times the risk outside of it.
Diekstra posits that the custodial approach to the hospitalized suicidal patient has serious drawbacks. By constantly guarding patients to prevent their committing suicide they increasingly develop a suicidal identity which augments the risk. On the other hand following a more permissive policy, meaning less guarding, more freedom, and a larger supply of conversational contacts, can provide the opportunity for suicide to someone who really does need to be protected against himself.
It remains unclear whether the high frequency of suicide in psychiatric hospitals is caused only by a less custodial climate than formerly or whether the (involuntary) hospitalization itself or all sorts of events occurring during hospitalization are a factor. Van Ree suggests that there may be some relationship with (planned) changes of ward.
The possibility that some suicidal patients who commit suicide during involuntary commitment might not have done so if they were free cannot be ruled out. This is an alarming possibility when one realizes that the only justification for involuntary commitment is the elimination of this danger. De Graaf concludes that suicides in psychiatric hospitals occur most frequently during involuntary commitments which last longer than 3 but shorter than 12 months although this cannot be inferred from her data. The longer the stay, the lower the rate of suicide. Copas & Robin found the suicide risk to be highest during the first week of hospitalization.
Stone relates that California law sets a maximum of 31 days for involuntary commitment of suicidal patients. An investigation of 335 patients revealed that after six months not one had committed suicide. Caution must be exercised in interpreting such figures. As suicide is a rare event only very large numbers should be considered representative.
Pokorny's comprehensive and thorough research confirms the inability to predict a future suicide. He assessed 4,800 hospitalized patients using a number of tests in order to determine whether in the long-term suicide would appear predictable. Five years later he followed up on what had happened to these people. Based on his research he posits, "The conclusion is inescapable that we do not possess any item of information or any combination of items that permit us to identify to a useful degree the particular persons who will commit suicide, in spite of the fact that we do have scores of items available, each of which is significantly related to suicide."
Pokorny points out that his research relates to long-term predictions and that the situation is different regarding people in the midst of a suicidal crisis. He posits that in such a situation the suicide risk is essentially not researchable "as it would not be ethical to withhold taking appropriate emergency steps to ensure safety." Here Pokorny is touching on an extremely complicated problem about which I will make some comments.
In the first place, there is a contrast between the ethical inadmissibility of refraining from involuntary hospitalization and the ethical relative inadmissibility of the involuntary hospitalization itself, which can be justified only as a last resort. In those cases, as here, where one is confronted with an ethical dilemma, it is important to deal with that dilemma, and seek either to augment our knowledge of such situations or offer alternatives. In my opinion Pokorny's position is valid only when every other possibility of approaching the problem is barred.
Secondly, several treatment methods and strategies exist for such situations. In fact, as Schudel's limited research revealed, the overwhelming majority of people are not involuntarily committed after attempting suicide. An involuntary hospitalization is evoked only when that seems to be the last resort. This shows that further research as to treatment methods can not only change the ethical dilemma but is very much necessary.
Thirdly, Diekstra repeatedly notes that crisis services for suicide prevention are often not an acceptable option to people who are about to commit suicide precisely because they are so focused on suicide prevention. It is quite conceivable that people who wish to talk about their plan to commit suicide do not want to do so with others who may be their adversaries, let alone who will foil their plans by forcing them into hospitalization. It is not impossible that helping professionals make themselves inaccessible to certain people in a suicidal crisis by expressly opposing suicide.
Fourthly, the severity of the emergency is not uncommonly partly determined by the therapists' circumstances: how much time they have available, their personal stress in such situations, the degree to which they dare take risks, and the services that happen to be available in particular regions. These factors, too, are in principle mutable.
Fifthly, in such emergency situations, involuntary hospitalization provides therapists with a feeling of safety and security and of having successfully dealt with an urgent matter. Considering the many suicides in psychiatric hospitals one wonders whether this is not an illusion, comfortable for therapists but no real help to patients.
It is altogether uncertain whether suicide prevention by involuntary commitment produces the sought effect. Diekstra stated, "In conclusion, for now we can state that the preventive effect of forced commitment is unclear." Most successful suicides appear to be committed before contact with mental health services has established suicidality. Only a very small amount of suicide attempts are followed by involuntary commitment. The subsequent suicides are not only unpredictable but it also seems there is no convincing evidence that the involuntary hospitalization provides any protection whatsoever. Finally, whoever wishes to make the fewest mistakes statistically should never involuntarily commit someone on the bases of suicidality or suicide attempt.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Follow South Africa's Brandy Route for a taste…
Things to DoTravel
Follow South Africa's Brandy Route for a taste of some of the best
(Karen K. Hansen Gurstelle)
Cooper Vernal Wollow demonstrates the skill and speed with which he crafts barrels from French oak at Van Ryn's Distillery. (Karen K. Hansen Gurstelle)
One of the authors enjoys learning the fine points of comparing pot still brandies in the tasting room at Van Ryn's Distillery
By Karen Hansen Gurstelle and William M. Gurstelle | Special to the Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: February 7, 2015 at 11:01 pm | UPDATED: January 22, 2016 at 4:11 pm
Part of the fun of traveling is experiencing places that are fascinating enough to attract big crowds before the word gets out. The Brandy Route in South Africa's Western Cape wine country is one of those places.
Much like Americans who learned to appreciate wine as the popularity of tastings grew in Sonoma and Napa valleys in California, South Africans increasingly are wetting their whistles on their own wines and brandies. Travelers in the know from Europe and Asia are joining them, although American visitors still are relatively scarce.
The time to visit is now.
Europeans have been producing wine in South Africa since the late 1600s, and the wines have long been prized. The 18th-century English sea captain James Cook stocked up on Western Cape wines during his journeys around the world. They are "not unlike those of Madeira, but of an improved flavor," he noted in his journal. "The vines here are highly sublimed by the warm of the sun and dryness of the soil."
Given 350 years of successful viticulture, why are two of South Africa's premier products only recently becoming known outside Africa?
In a word, apartheid.
During the dark decades of apartheid, international sanctions and divestment made South Africa a "no-go" zone for many vacationers and excluded South African products from world markets.
Since its first democratic election in 1994, South Africa has been undergoing social and economic transformation. Industries that declined during the international divestment era are resurging. Since making wine and brandy takes years of investment and aging, the vintners and distillers of South Africa are now introducing to the world products in development since the 1990s.
FIRST COMES WINE
There being no brandy without wine, we began our exploration of the Brandy Route with two wine tastings. It was ideal for a pair of travelers, one a wine lover and the other a spirits fan.
Stellenbosch Valley and Franschhoek Valley vintners offer tastings of wines that the region is known for, including Chardonnays, Chenin Blancs, Bordeaux blends and Pinotage. Some vintners are pushing tradition and developing fine wines from grapes less commonly grown in South Africa, notably Viognier.
Among them is Jacoline Haasbroek, who produces 7,500 hand-made unfiltered bottles per year under the label My Wyn from local grapes in a tiny cellar in her hillside home overlooking Franschhoek Valley.
Tastings don't come any more authentic than being one-on-one with the winemaker. We sat at a large wood table with Jacoline and her husband, Johan, sampling sparkling, white, red and port wines.
Of particular note was the Shiraz from local La Motte grapes, which garnered raves in 2001. We also wished we had room in our luggage for her 2013 creation, Sauviognier, a fulsome Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier blend.
"I don't interfere with my wine; I let nature go its own way," she said. "The nude female on the label symbolizes the contents — unadorned and authentic — just as Mother Nature made her."
A few miles away at Lynx Wines, Dieter Sellmeyer crafts wine from grapevine to bottle with 20 acres and 11 workers.
Because we were there after the winter-holiday rush and during the season when vintners aren't madly busy harvesting and bottling, Sellmeyer had time to talk after we'd sampled a soul-warming Cabernet and savored a new-to-us Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noir.
"The thing about a small cellar like ours is that our people do everything, inside and outside," he said.
The way they handle the outside production — tidy rows of meticulously tended vines against a backdrop of blue-and-green mountains — shows up in the wine as warm, balanced tannins.
"Our soils are alluvial soils and very well-drained," Sellmeyer said. "We want small grapes, so we don't irrigate. That way we get a higher concentration of flavors."
THEN COMES BRANDY
We got a higher concentration of flavors and alcohol content when we turned our focus to brandy.
Along the 250-mile Western Cape Brandy Route, developed in 1998, more than 20 distilleries and tasting houses offer what many connoisseurs think is the world's most complex and satisfying higher-proof alcoholic beverage.
Our visit to Van Ryn's Distillery in Stellenbosch served as a Brandy 101 course.
The Van Ryn family pioneered wine- and brandy-making in the Western Cape in 1867. Now, Van Ryn's is home to what many consider the world's best brandy, crafted and nurtured by master distiller Marlene Bester.
Fans of the aged brandies of California or the cognacs of France, you read that right: The world's best brandy these days is from South Africa. The judges of the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London have awarded Van Ryn's the annual title of IWSC Worldwide Best Brandy five times.
Three types of brandy are made in South Africa: blended, vintage and pot still. The differences have to do with how the wines of origin are selected, blended, distilled and aged.
The best of the good stuff is pot still brandy, made from local wines, double distilled in classic copper pot stills and aged in French oak barrels for a minimum of three years, by law, and at Van Ryn's, from five to 30 years.
In the tasting room, brandy adviser Sean Case laid before each of us a tray containing three pot still brandies (ages 12, 15 and 20) in snifters, a demitasse of coffee and three artisan chocolates from the Huguenot Chocolate Factory in Franschhoek.
First, we tasted each brandy on its own with a palate-cleansing sip of coffee in between. Instructed not to swirl the snifter, we inhaled complex aromas and tasted an array of flavors that blossomed in our mouths. The older the brandy, the smoother and more integrated and longer-lingering were the sensations.
Then we mixed and matched, pairing bites of light and dark chocolates with sips of the brandies. This magnified and varied the spirits' attributes remarkably. Fruity flavors, earthy tones, sweet scents and dry sensations emerged almost as if we were drinking entirely different brandies.
It was multiple matches made in heaven and still only 11 in the morning.
From Van Ryn's, we headed to the larger Blaauwklippen vineyard and farm, founded in 1682 on the slopes of Stellenbosch Mountain.
Blaauwklippen (Dutch for "blue rocks") offers tastings of its wines and brandies, as well as those from other vineyards and distilleries, making it ideal for visitors whose interest is keen but whose time is limited.
We sampled brandies of various maturities and provenances in a librarylike room where a display of an old pot still and accessory vessels gleamed copper-bright.
Tastings are offered in indoor and outdoor bistros with options for pairing wines and brandies with chocolates, charcuterie and cheeses — all made on site or sourced from local artisans.
Among the brandies we sampled, an 8-year-old Blaauwklippen pot still stood out for us, as well as for the judges who awarded it a gold medal at the 2013 World-Spirits Awards. This youngish tipple features a sharper taste that many people like.
"Notice how the spiciness comes early, yet one can still discern vanilla, caramel and apricot," said brandy adviser Marlin Geswindt.
DRINKING, NOT DRIVING
Among the options for traversing the Brandy Route are tour buses and rental cars. But even if one member of a party is comfortable driving on the left side of the road, the driver will have to forgo the pleasures of the tastings. South African laws on drunken driving are Scandinavian in their severity. At a .05 blood-alcohol level, you are not legal to drive.
Engaging a driver-guide is not very expensive. Prices are low in South Africa, so even budget-conscious travelers can afford excellent services, meals and accommodations.
We stayed in Cape Town at Table Bay Hotel, traveling one day to Franschhoek and another to Stellenbosch. The full Brandy Route is better when traversed over two or more days.
Signing on with Roots Africa Tours garnered us much more than transportation. Our driver-guide Owen Jinka was a lifelong Cape Towner who experienced the degradations and deprivations of apartheid as a young man.
En route each day, our view out the car window was a whirl of magnificent coastal Cape Town giving way to shanty towns and ending in pristine villages.
Jinka provided commentary about the subjects of our excursions as well as first-hand accounts of what happened in South Africa under apartheid and how the essentially new country and its people are faring.
The drive-time conversations with Jinka put our pleasures in the context of a country in which lingering poverty and racial divides are paired with pride and inspiring optimism about the future.
Blaauwklippen Vineyards: Stellenbosch, South Africa; 27-21-880-0133; blaauwklippen.com
Van Ryn's Distillery: Stellenbosch, South Africa; 27-21-881-3875; vanryn.co.za
Roots Africa Tours: Cape Town, South Africa; 27-21-913-9553; rootsafrica.co.za
Huguenot Chocolates: Franschhoek, South Africa; huguenotchocolates.com
My Wyn: tastewine@telkomasa.net, mywynfranschhoek.co.za
Lynx Wines: info@lynxwines.co.za, lynxwines.co.za
Karen Hansen Gurstelle
William M. Gurstelle
More in Travel
Attention, airport travelers: Minnesota 5 will be one direction from April to October
Attention travelers to and from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport: a 1.8-mile road resurfacing project will limit travel on Minnesota 5 to one direction from April through October, closing access between Interstate 494 and the Mississippi River in the opposite direction for months at a time. Most of the impact will be felt in the eastbound lanes of Highway 5, which...


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Araxos (, ) is a village and a community in the municipal unit of Larissos  of the municipality West Achaea in the northwestern part of Achaea, Greece. The community consists of the villages Araxos, Akrotirio Araxos and Taxiarches. It is located in the coastal plains near Cape Araxos, which separates  the Gulf of Patras from the Ionian Sea. There are two lagoons near the village Araxos: Prokopos to the southwest and Kalogria (or Pappas or Araxos) to the north. The Mavra Vouna hills are in the north, Cape Araxos being their northernmost point. It is 4 km west of Lakkopetra, 1 km west of Araxos Airport, 5 km north of Metochi and 13 km west of Kato Achaia.

Strofilia wetlands natural park
Near the village of Araxos we find the Strofilia natural park and the famous Kalogria beach. Strofilia  is a national park of 22 km² which is part of the Natura 2000 network and is protected under the Ramsar Convention. The wetlands ecosystem occupies a coastal zone of about 22 km in length and with an average width of 1500 m. It is a compound coastal ecosystem, that includes the lagoons of Prokopos and Kalogria (or Pappas)  the Lamia marshes, as well as the forest of Strofilia (Natura 2000 codes: GR 232001 and GR233006). The Stone pine (Pinus pinea) forest of Strofylia, is the most extensive Stone pine forest in all of Greece and one of the largest in Europe. Most of the area lies in sand-dune formations.

Historical population

Araxos Air Base

An auxiliary military airfield was constructed in the area in 1939. Construction of the base began around 1958 and it became operational in 1962. Currently the base is used by 116 Combat Wing of the Hellenic Air Force which consists of 335 Bombing Squadron and 336 Bombing Squadron, both equipped with F-16C/D Block 52+ aircraft. The runway length is 3352 m running in a south to north direction (18/36). The military installations are accessed from Lakkopetra to the north.

From 1978 to 2001 Araxos Air Base was also home of the NATO 345 Air Munitions Company. This unit was responsible for U.S. B61 nuclear bombs intended for delivery by Hellenic Air Force A-7H aircraft under NATO nuclear sharing arrangements. The nuclear weapons were stored in vaults inside the base's Hardened Aircraft Shelters using the WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System.

Araxos Airport
Araxos Airport (IATA: GPA, ICAO: LGRX) is a civilian airport that uses the military base runway. Araxos is the closest airport to the city of Patras. During summer time the airport serves a few civilian charter flights from northern Europe. The civil aviation installations are accessed from the south.

Gallery

See also
Dymaean Wall
List of settlements in Achaea

References

External links

 Araxos Airport in Greek Airport Guide

Military installations of Greece
Populated places in Achaea

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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ROBERT HUTH GREW TIRED OF FOOTBALL
byindex December 20, 2020 Uncategorized
Ex-Chelsea and Leicester City defender Robert Huth has revealed that grew tired of football at the end of his playing career. According to the German, football was no longer interesting for him towards the end of his playing career. Robert Huth spoke to media outlet Der Tagesspiegel about how…
James Maddison pens new long-term contract with Leicester City
byindex November 4, 2020 Uncategorized
James Maddison has ended the speculation regarding his future by putting pen-to-paper on a new long-term deal with Leicester City. The England international has been a valuable signing for the Foxes since his arrival from Norwich City two years ago and he has registered 16 goals and 10 assists…
Brendan Rodgers Confident of Picking up Form Immediately after the Restart
byindex August 10, 2020 Uncategorized
Brendan Rodgers says that he is quite confident about Leicester City managing to pick up where they left off in the Premier league campaign. The Foxes have had a good time under the former Liverpool manager so much so that the team are back to the highs of the…
James Maddison aiming to win trophies at Leicester City
byindex June 2, 2020 Uncategorized
England international James Maddison has revealed his ambition to win trophies with Leicester City amid the speculation regarding his future. The midfielder joined the Foxes from Norwich City during the summer of 2018 and he has since been a regular in the attacking midfield role for the east Midlands…
Vardy insists Leicester City must regain focus in Champions League pursuit
byindex March 27, 2020 Uncategorized
Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy has said that the Foxes must regain focus as they seek to qualify for next season's Champions League. The Foxes have been in a poor run of form over the past few months and they have accumulated five points from the previous seven Premier League…
Paul Merson urges Arsenal to recruit Brendan Rodgers as manager
byindex January 15, 2020 Uncategorized
Arsenal legend Paul Merson believes his former club should recruit Brendan Rodgers as their new manager following their struggles under Unai Emery this term. The north London giants are currently nine points adrift of the top four of the Premier League and they recently suffered a 2-0 defeat at the…
Mata believes Leicester City have the players to take them to a different level
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Rodgers praises 'sensational' Maddison after Leicester City's first win
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Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has praised the performance of James Maddison following the club's 2-1 triumph over Sheffield United on the road. The Foxes opened the scoring through Jamie Vardy and Maddison was the distributor with a sublime through ball which the former converted with relative ease. Olivier McBurnie…
Brendan Rodgers insists no club has matched Harry Maguire's valuation
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Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has said that he is relatively calm over the future of Harry Maguire, considering no club have matched their asking price. The Foxes have placed a £90m price tag on the head of the England international and so far, neither Manchester United nor Manchester City…
Evans insists Leicester have plenty to play for before the season concludes
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One year later and over 200 students enrolled!
Bring Mindfulness into your classroom or daycare.
Incorporate Mindfulness for kids into your yoga/fitness/tutoring classes.
Launch your very own Mindfulness for Kids business!
Run weekly classes, set up monthly workshops, run successful summer programs! Create a business that will fit and grow with your family!
Online training means that you can go at your own pace. Breeze through as quickly as you'd like or take your time, breathe, and soak it all up! It's not going anywhere!
9+ modules that will walk you through how to set up a mindful space and create a Mindful Kids series that families will love!
Each module contains a 1 hour instructional video* and Mindful Kids handouts.
*I've run this exact course before (many many times), and because it has always been such a huge success, I finally decided to hit record on one of my classes, and upload it here online.
Watch this Sneak Peak vid to see exactly why I created this online program!
Take this course NOW and create yourself a summer full of Mindfulness, and set yourself up for the best school year yet!!


Raj Sukheja Stray exciting-happy moments put together into a collage - Life!
The attempt to survive routine lifeless moments scattered in the midst of life is called existing. We probably exist in order to ride the wave of the exciting-happy moments which keep us alive and going in our daily life. That is all there is to it.
An individual lives for his happiness. That is the nature and that is the root. I probably think I should justify this statement since it will involve a lot of hot debate between my blogger friends who will misconstrue the nature of this statement. An apt example would be that if a mother feeds her hungry infant while remaining hungry herself, she is doing it because of her happiness. Satiating the hunger of her child gives her immense happiness. Any person taking care of his family at the cost of sacrificing his personal desires does so because it gives him happiness. In this manner, no one is obligated to another and so goes the cycle. Whatever you do - you do for yourself, so don�t blame another for the things you have agreed to do for the other and expect the same return.
I am not straying from the topic but rather making a foundation towards the blog topic - fear. It is when your outlook changes to inner and you are able to understand that whatever you do, you do for yourself. Your expectations simply drop. Once there are no expectations from the outside world - you are free. With freedom comes responsibility. In fact freedom asks for the greatest responsibility.
Freedom also translates into lack of fear. The chains - Golden (Golden Chains are Chains set by yourself - Limitations to your freedom) or Otherwise are broken. So there is no fear of failing, doing, acting (for the sake of other�s) and no fear to be anyone but yourself. A analogy I like to use is that �one becomes water� and welcomes everyone to share from its essence and be blessed. Water niether uses and nor is used. It just is.
Fear is what causes us most misery in our lives. We pre-determine our failure by believing we cannot succeed. Nature clearly states that the impossible is possible. I call it the ompossible phenomenon. Ompossible - anything is possible (check out www.yetworld.com/chapter1.asp). Look all around you. If anything, failure is a difficult thing to achieve. It takes a lot of hard work to fail and failure usually happens because you didn�t believe that you would succeed anyway.
So let go of the fear. The earlier para�s of this blog are meant for you to understand the root of fear. Fear is not something you have to fight as most ask you to do, it is rather the result of a lot of hard work from your end in believing that you will fail since you believe you are dependent on the environment, other individuals, other individuals opinions or something else.
Fear not Fear for Fear Only Exists if You Allow it to Exist! Richard Branson, CEO Virgin Group has published a book called - Screw it, let�s do it! There is no scope for fear in that situation. Action negates fear whereas worrying enhances it and creates an environment where failing becomes a viable option to get rid of the suspense of your intent.
So Act (Action). Just Do. Fear will wither away. Be the free spirit - you already are!
Subhash Bakshi Paramhansa Yogananda says " look into the face of fear and fear will go away"
I fully agree with you if we can take fear out of our life our life will be a pleasant experience3.


This entry was posted in Community, General Business, KO News and tagged business, business mixer, castro valley, hayward, networking, san leandro, seo, social media, web design on April 11, 2012 by KO Admin.
The Rotary Club of Castro Valley is presenting no-limit charity Texas hold'em event tomorrow night Feb 11th at 6pm!
This entry was posted in Community and tagged castro valley, no limit, rotary, texas hold em on February 10, 2012 by KO Admin.
This entry was posted in KO News and tagged bay area, Blog, castro valley, east bay, press release, sem, seo, social media, web design, web design company on May 13, 2011 by KO Admin.


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KPBS Drought Tracker Update: Halfway Through Wet Season, Where Does CA Stand?
By David Wagner / Science & Technology Reporter
KPBS Drought Tracker Update: Halfway Through Wet Season, Where Does CA Stand? GUESTS: David Wagner, science & technology reporter, KPBS Dan Cayan,climate researcher, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
So far this winter in San Diego has felt like winter. We have had a fair share of clouds, chilly weather and amazingly rain. In Northern California it's been even weather the storm after storm passing through. But after six years of drought, we will take -- it will take an awful lot of wet weather to put California back on track. To assess rainfall and snow toddles we have an update from the KPBS drought tracker. Joining me is David Wagner, science and tech reporter. Welcome. [ INDISCERNIBLE ] is climate researcher with scripts institution of oceanography. Let's start with the big picture. Our new water year started on October 1. What to the snow and rainfall totals show so far? The big picture for the entire state is that we are doing pretty well when it comes to rain. Not as much when it comes to snow. So when you average out rainfall across the entire state, what you see is that California has so far received about 58% of what normally falls between October 1 and April 1. That is the six-month wet period. Today you can think about it this way. We are halfway through that season, but in terms of rain, we already more than halfway towards normal rainfall. So doing pretty well there. Looking at snow, we have not seen as much growth so far. The average snowpack measurement is only at 24% of a normal April 1 measurement. So the wet season is not over yet. There's still time for snow to fall. But the snowpack definitely has catching up to do. David, how does that compare to previous years? When we look at today's numbers and compared them to previous years in the drought, what we see is that the rain numbers are the biggest that we have seen since 2012. So rain is doing much better than in many previous years in the drought. One interesting thing is actually the rain numbers from this year are blowing past the rain numbers from last year. You will remember there was this El Niño in effect that was expected to bring a lot of rain to California. So even though we have this year a week La Nina no in effect which is the flipside which is more associated with drier conditions, we're still actually getting more rain this year than last year. Looking at snow numbers, they are pretty comparable to previous years in the drought. This is not the lowest December snowpack, but it is not the biggest either. Since it has been better -- weather, why have we not seen much of an increase in the snowpack? I think it is the timing and the character of the storms. These storms we've had this year has been wet and a lot of that the precipitation is actually fallen as a liquid rather than snow. Meeting the storms have been relatively warm. So we will see what the remainder of the winter does as far as stormy this and storm characteristics. David, remind us why the Sierra Snowpack is still so crucial to California. We look at the Sierra Snowpack because it is a really important source of water for so much of the state. Here in San Diego we actually rely a bit more on the Colorado River system for our water, but if you want a big picture of water supply in California, for many Californians, Sierra snow is this crucial natural reservoir where the snowpack builds up over the winter and as it melts it provides this really needed natural source of water for so much of the state. How much of San Diego's water supply still comes from northern California? I don't have that number off the top of my head, but more than half of our water comes from the Colorado River system. We are a little bit different than a lot of the state. A lot of other parts of Southern California even even that a lot -- in that a lot of our local water comes from outside the state. We look at the Sierra Snowpack to give that big picture look at water supply in California and just how the state overall is faring. Dan, even if the storms are too warm for snow, doesn't the rain increase the water supply in the same way? It does. An hour reservoir storage has been relatively on the low side, so a lot of the water that is running off is getting captured in are built reservoir system. The other thing to remember is, because we have had such a drive period -- DRY period leading up to this winter, much of the water that is falling is rainfall, at least initially is soaking in to the landscape and is really not that usable in the form of human consumption, but as time wears on, the system is going to get more saturated and hopefully we will generate an ample runoff. So the fact that this water is being absorbed by the ground is good long-term, but what you are saying is it is not the kind of resource for water supply that he snowpack would be. Yes. The snowpack has some desirable attributes in that it waits until later spring and summer off into melts and runoff, which is the period of intense consumption. It is also the period beyond when we would expect to really have heavy storms. So you can start filling reservoirs to their upper capacity. We talk about six years of drought in California David, but this is a very big stay. So not all areas of California are equally affected is that right? That's right. When you look at the US drought Monitor, what you see right now is that some parts of northern California are now officially drought three. Here in San Diego we are still mostly in was called a state of extreme drought according to the US drought Monitor, and that is true of much of Southern California. But we have definitely seen drought conditions ease in certain parts of the state. I think the statistic I have here is that today 70% of the state is still in severe drought or worse. One of those categories. That is definitely an improvement over last year when 97% of the state within that category. So for parts of the state, it is getting better, but definitely here in San Diego and for so much of the state deathly don't see the drought is over yet. Where can people go to get more information about the drought tracker? They can go to KPBS.org flash drought tracker and track numbers to previous years to really get a sense of how things have been changing and where we stand now. I've been speaking with science the tech reporter David Wagner and Dan, climate researcher with Scripps institution of oceanography. Thank you both.
After a week that brought rain and snow to San Diego County, an update from the KPBS Drought Tracker shows statewide rain totals growing at a steady pace, but the Sierra snowpack struggling to keep up.
We're now close to halfway through California's wet season, defined as the six months between Oct. 1 and April 1. So far, statewide rainfall is running a bit ahead of schedule. As of Monday morning, the state has received 58 percent of what normally falls by the beginning of April.
This year's rainfall eclipses totals recorded on this day in 2015, when a strong El Niño was expected to deliver above-average precipitation. A weak La Niña — a weather pattern typically associated with drier conditions in California — hasn't prevented storms from drenching parts of the state this year.
But warm temperatures have prevented the Sierra snowpack from keeping pace with rainfall. On average, snowpack measurements are hitting only 24 percent of the normal April 1 measurement.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography climate researcher Dan Cayan helped compile this data. He said despite the lackluster start, there's still time for the snowpack to grow.
"The winter's not over yet," Cayan said. "It doesn't mean that we won't get some storms that are relatively cool and large snow-generators. So, we'll see."
The Sierra snowpack serves as an important source of water for many parts of California leading into warmer summer months. Rain is helping to fill California's reservoirs. But Cayan notes that after six years of drought, parched soil is absorbing lots of rainfall, and not as much water is being captured as possible.
"Since it's been pretty dry in the last several years, some of that water really hasn't run off," said Cayan. "We're still in a catch-up mode as far as recovering from the long period of dryness we've had."
KPBS Midday EditionWeatherWater
David Wagner covers the science and technology beat for KPBS. Before arriving in San Diego, he wrote a research column for The Atlantic magazine's sister site The Atlantic Wire. Other positions found him producing web content for NPR's Arts & Life channel and writing features for the San Francisco Chronicle. He holds English and Political Science B.A.s from UC Berkeley.
See stories by David Wagner


SKOKIE, IL—AZEK® Building Products, No. 1 in premium decking, is unveiling three new deck colors at the 2018 International Builders Show in Orlando, Florida from January 9th - 11th. Under the AZEK® brand, the three new Vintage Collection® colors include: Coastline™, English Walnut™ and Weathered Teak™.
As homeowners continue to seek alternative building products that are not only durable and low-maintenance but also aesthetically pleasing, AZEK® Building Products remains an innovator in the industry. Scientifically engineered to last beautifully, AZEK's Vintage Collection has the most realistic, wood-like appearance, including diverse color palettes, realistic grain textures and superior durability. The Vintage Collection is backed by an industry-leading 30-year limited fade and stain and a limited lifetime warranty, and meets criteria for a Class A on the flame spread index. The lightweight boards make AZEK an ideal choice for both commercial and residential roof decks.


The subcategory Bridging the gap contains a total of 2 online games and is part of the main category Action games. On GameWolf you can play all games in this collection for free, unlimited and directly in your browser. Will you be able to achieve a new high score? We wish you lots of success and fun with the online games in the category Bridging the gap on this online games site containing the best HTML5 games!


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Trans-World Oil Company
One Nevada independent oil company made headlines just one month after it was formed in 1960. It would not bode well for Henderson and Las Vegas investors.
"Geologist Claims There's Oil At Foot Of Black Mt.," the Henderson Home News proclaimed in its February 4, 1960, edition. "Starts Drilling Operations Tomorrow," the headline continued.
The newspaper quoted Trans-World Oil's on-site petroleum expert, A.J. (Arthur James) Bandy, a consulting geologist who owned the Petroleum Engineering Company of Bakersfield, California.
"The oil found here is a gift of the sea, formed by deposits of marine mollusks and mammals, and still later by the hulks of enormous Saurians which stomped the earth in the Permian era," an enthusiastic Bandy explained to readers as drilling began. He was misinformed.
Company officers J.K. Houssels, Leonard Wilson and Bill Boyd had leased 5,000 acres southeast of Las Vegas. They chose a drilling site in what is today's O'Callaghan Park in Henderson.
With the Houssels-Wilson-Milka No. 1 well spudded on February 4, 1960, the Henderson Home News periodically printed updates for its readership, which included potential investors.
After a month of drilling with an obsolete cable-tool rig to reach 300 feet, the consulting geologist urged going deeper.
"I know that between seven hundred and eight hundred feet we will have a commercial showing – maybe even a gusher," Bandy declared of the Clark County wildcat well. By March there indeed were intermittent showings of oil and natural gas.
"We've struck oil!" Bandy proclaimed on April 4, telling the Henderson Home News that he had drilled into commercial quality oil strata at 1,312 feet.
"Henderson will have oil wells all over the place – there's oil under the whole town," the front page exulted. Bandy explained that drilling had been stopped so an electric log could be run the next day.
"If you don't believe it, go cut yourself a slice of sand up there which has been taken from the hole," Bandy said. "Put the sand in a bottle and put ether in it. Then shake it. Oil will come out of it."
However, at least one local oilman was skeptical. "I'll drink every gallon of oil that's found here," said Mark Leff, who reportedly "laughed off any possibility of such a find."
Despite Leff's doubts, "several Las Vegas people" invested in geologist Bandy and Trans-World Oil, which continued to drill until July 1960. There were no more showings of oil or natural gas, no Henderson oilfield.
When the total depth reached 2,155 feet, the company suspended drilling.
The well remained idle for two years as Trans-World Oil's fate became increasingly obscure – and "consulting geologist" Bandy discovered problems of his own. On August 9, 1961, a California court convicted Bandy of check fraud.
Court documents report that Petroleum Engineering Company was "a fictitious firm name adopted by defendant Bandy" and that the company's address "was a telephone answering service."
Bandy's deceptive business checks were "a specially printed form containing a picture of a gushing oil well."
Bandy's final appeal was denied on May 21, 1963. People vs. Bandy documents note the defendant's credibility was impeached by three prior convictions dating back to 1942, including one for federal criminal conspiracy. He ended up in San Quentin.
Former Trans-World Oil company officer Leonard Wilson in March 1962 returned to reopen the old Houssels-Wilson-Milka No. 1 well. He drilled another 145 feet over the next five months, but still found no commercial quantities of petroleum. He plugged and abandoned the once headlined well on August 6, 1962.
The last business days and fate of Trans-World Oil Company have been lost. The Henderson Home News has long since quit reporting on the Nevada oil patch venture.
A map of Henderson, Nevada, today a Las Vegas suburb. The blue dot is the 1960 drilling site of the ill-fated Houssels-Wilson-Milka No. 1 well north of O'Callaghan Park. Map courtesy U.S. Geological Survey.
After decades of noncommercial wells (the first drilled 1,890 feet deep near Reno in 1907), Nevada became an oil producing state on February 12, 1954. Shell Oil Company's second test of its Eagle Springs No. 1 well found oil in Railroad Valley, Nye County.
The well, 260 miles north of Trans-World Oil's attempt, revealed Nevada's first oilfield, according to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. The discovery well produced oil from a productive interval between 6,450 and 6,730 feet deep. A dozen wells in the Eagle Springs oilfield produce 3.8 million barrels by 1987.
Support the American Oil & Gas Historical Society and this website with a donation.


Tory Burch well known for rich color, bold prints and clean, graphic lines. Her designs have been making a splash since the brand debuted in 2004--always embodying the designer's own inimitable style and sensibility.
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Made of durable rubber, our equestrian-inspired April Rainboot is a modern take on the traditional weatherproof design. The style has a flexible neoprene shaft for a leaner look and a comfortable fit, plus it slips on with ease. Finished with a soft jersey lining and a molded 'T', it's a reliable way to stay dry and look put together on stormy days. With wear, white powdery marks may appear; this is a characteristic of high-quality natural rubber and does not impact performance or durability.
Each item is purchased directly from Tory Burch, and Kate Spade stores or authorized retailers only. Authenticity, quality and brand new condition are always guaranteed. Every item carefully packaged and secured. Immediate same day or very next business day shipment with Priority Mail. Always happy to answer any questions or requests:).


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Q: Suitable AD Structure - Users by Org, Devices by Network? I am working on my first AD structure design and I have read quite a few documents on best practices and most of them say to build users by company org and devices as they would pertain to GP. Our company is like a small city of departments with vastly different function, while at the same time we have segregated networks for computer function.
My question is if this design is what most of you would consider falls into best practice, or should certain elements be more generalized like servers at a higher level. I think we have the OU's themselves figured out, just unsure exactly at what hierarchy level they should fall.

*

*domain.com

*

*CCTV Network

*

*Servers

*Viewing Clients

*Cameras

*Corp Network

*

*Mac Clients

*

*Desktops

*Laptops

*PC Clients

*

*Security Terminals

*Accounting

*Servers

*POS Network

*

*Ticketing Terminals

*Food Service Terminals

*Cash Handling Terminals

*Servers

*Staff

*

*Executive

*Finance & Accounting

*Marketing & Sales

*Food Service

*Human Resources

*Maintenance & Development

*Risk Management

*Security

*First Aid

*Wardrobe

*Properties

*Motel Operations

Also, should these OU's be at the top level under the domain, or should I create a single OU to hold the networks and staff in? I've read not to use the default computers and users containers in the domain root.

A: Your staff OU looks good, but you may want to put it inside an OU called users.  this way you can have:

*

*ou=users

*

*ou=staff

*ou=contractors

*ou=service-accounts

but this is all personal preference.
for your hardware, you might want to consider grouping by type, so:

*

*ou=servers

*

*ou=cctv

*ou=client-machines

*

*ou=pc

*

*ou=accounting

*ou=mac

*

*ou=desktop

*ou=laptop

*ou=security

*

*ou=cctv-cameras

*ou=cctv-terminals

All of this is personal preference though.  It is also said that you will always hate your first deployment.  If you can, try to do some smaller scale lab testing with your tree and see how it works and how it feels to you.

A: I recommend having a Computers and a User root OU.  You can then use these for pinning Group Policy to.  Under here, divide up based on whatever makes sense for you.  One suggestion though, and this depends on the nature of your company... some folks get carried away with mapping the organisational structure into AD.  This may be fine, and, let's not forget that OU stands for Organisational Unit, but, in my experience, organisational structures change, and can change frequently.  However, if you are using AD OUs to make management of your domain easier, I'd seriously consider splitting things in a more IT-centric way.  For example:
ou=Corp Computers
   ou=Servers
       ou=CCTV
       ou=Exchange
       ou=File Servers
       ou=xxxxx
   ou=Client Machines
       ou=MAC
           ou=Laptops
           ou=Desktops
       ou=PC
           ou=xxxxx
ou=Corp Users
    ou = Normal Users
    ou = Contractors
    ou = Application
    ou = Elevated Privileges

In short, use OUs to make your life easier, and don't forget that their true power comes into effect once you get your Group Policy settings in place.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Empowerment, Health & Sexuality of Adolescents
Empowering adolescents using a gender-transformative approach through experiential education, community mobilization and health services
Mumbai (Dharavi, Kandivali, Kalwa)
Adolescence is often characterised by physical, mental and emotional uncertainty, and poses unique challenges for young adults residing in urban informal settlements.
of adolescents in India reported being depressed for 2 weeks or more in a row
of the disease burden among adults in India attributed to unhealthy habits during adolescence
Youth in these areas often have limited access to resources on topics relating to health, gender and sexuality. Stigmas relating to sexual behaviour and gender stereotypes are abound, making it difficult to find a safe and encouraging environment to openly discuss these crucial topics. In many cases, public institutions also don't have the capacity to address adolescents' needs.
Source: Mental Health Status of Adolescents in South-East Asia: Evidence for Action, a WHO report from April 2017
How can we equip adolescents, families, public systems and other support structures to overcome challenges relating to health, sexuality and individual agency?
We engage directly with adolescents to influence their physical health, social attitudes and promote gender equity.
Our programs in Dharavi, Kandivali and Kalwa aim to ensure better physical, mental and sexual health outcomes for young people between the ages of 10 and 19 years. We equip adolescents with skills to lead an empowered life through the following strategies.
Community mobilization
We hold community meetings, campaigns, home visits, street plays, and workshops on topics such as child sexual abuse and child marriage.
Collective learning
Our interactive modules for adolescents cover topics including gender, sex and sexuality, reproductive health, child sexual abuse, citizenship, human rights, careers, health and nutrition.
Screening and linkages to mental health services
We offer screening for mental health illnesses and link adolescents to institutional counselling, therapeutic and psychiatric interventions.
Strengthening health systems' response to adolescents' needs
We work in partnership with health posts and public hospitals like Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital to offer anaemia screening and annual health check-ups.
Creating a cadre of change agents
We train young people to emerge as peer leaders through a combination of personality development workshops and leadership bootcamps. These change agents are active in identifying cases of gender based violence and sexual abuse in their communities.
Creating resources for adolescent education
Our online resource library covers issues such as menstruation and sex education.
Engaging with youth on the ground
Our community-based resource centres offer a non-judgemental and safe space for adolescents to come and share their questions and concerns. The centres house a resource library with books and other media on sexuality, gender, health and human rights. In addition to its engagement with adolescents, these centres engage with parents as well as community gate-keepers through meetings and counselling sessions.
youth reached through life-skills and
health education programs
parents reached through community mobilisation and
sensitisation programmes on an average every year
reduction in anaemia
among adolescents
adolescents availed services
(like IFA and deworming, health talks, treatment of common ailments)
from health posts
An aspiring performer
and voice against violence
When we first began our Prevention of violence against women and children programme, we realized the importance of sensitizing men and women to gender issues at a younger age. We offer adolescents a chance to engage with these topics through activities in theatre, art and technology.
Arshad*, 19, first came to EHSAS with his mother, a community aide in the Prevention of Violence against Women and Children programme. He soon became a part of a play on mental health and developed a contagious passion for theatre.
Theatre exposed him to new perspectives, including insight into the violence and harassment faced by women.
Arshad became a spokesperson amongst his peers, disparaging violence and emphasizing the importance of treating all people with respect and dignity.
"I tell them not to tease women; sometimes it makes them angry, but I tell them anyway," he says.
For Arshad, EHSAS has become a part of his family. He has brought many of his friends to participate in the programme and hopes that they too, like him, will find confidence and a creative outlet.
Building digital skills
Our programme encourages adolescents to use and explore different forms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). We seek to enable self-expression and facilitate strong peer learning networks, while building digital skills of adolescents in urban informal settlements. Some activities we facilitate among adolescents include using mobile phones to make videos, creating storyboards using web-based tools and producing podcasts on topics like love and attraction.
Integrated Child Development Services
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
ACG Cares Foundation
N K Patni Charitable Trust
Karmatex Apparels Pvt. Ltd
Mariwala Health Initiative
Agiliad Technologies
Nihchal Israni Foundation


text:
package gaurun

import (
	"fmt"
	"net"
	"net/http"
	"os"
	"strconv"
	"strings"

	statsGo "github.com/fukata/golang-stats-api-handler"
	"github.com/lestrrat-go/server-starter/listener"
)

func RegisterHandlers(mux *http.ServeMux) {
	mux.HandleFunc("/push", PushNotificationHandler)
	mux.HandleFunc("/stat/app", StatsHandler)
	mux.HandleFunc("/config/pushers", ConfigPushersHandler)

	statsGo.PrettyPrintEnabled()
	mux.HandleFunc("/stat/go", statsGo.Handler)
}

// getListener returns a listener.
func getListener(conf *ConfToml) (net.Listener, error) {
	// By default, it starts to listen a listener provided
	// by `go-server-starter`. If not, then check port defined
	// in configuration file.
	listeners, err := listener.ListenAll()
	if err != nil && err != listener.ErrNoListeningTarget {
		return nil, err
	}

	if len(listeners) > 0 {
		return listeners[0], nil
	}

	// If port is empty, nothing to listen so returns error.
	port := conf.Core.Port
	if len(port) == 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("no port to listen")
	}

	// Try to listen as TCP port, first
	if _, err := strconv.Atoi(port); err == nil {
		l, err := net.Listen("tcp", ":"+port)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		return l, nil
	}

	// Try to listen as UNIX socket.
	if strings.HasPrefix(port, "unix:/") {
		sockPath := port[5:]

		fi, err := os.Lstat(sockPath)
		if err == nil && (fi.Mode()&os.ModeSocket) == os.ModeSocket {
			if err := os.Remove(sockPath); err != nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to remove socket path: %s", err)
			}
		}

		l, err := net.Listen("unix", sockPath)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to listen unix socket: %s", err)
		}

		return l, nil
	}

	return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid port %s (it must be number or path start with 'unix:/')", port)
}

func RunServer(server *http.Server, conf *ConfToml) error {
	l, err := getListener(conf)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	return server.Serve(l)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Get The Jungle Book from Amazon.com
Order our The Jungle Book Study Guide
Chapter 1 "Mowgli's Brothers"
Chapter 2 "Kaa's Hunting"
Chapter 3 "Tiger Tiger"
Chapter 4 "The White Seal"
Chapter 5 "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"
Chapter 6 "Toomai of the Elephants"
Chapter 7 "Servants of the Queen"
Social Sensitivity
Literary Qualities
Themes/Characters
Topics for Discussion
Ideas for Reports and Papers
Rudyard Kipling Biography
This Study Guide consists of approximately 56 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Jungle Book.
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865.
His father, John Lockwood Kipling, had gone to India to teach at the Bombay School of Fine Arts and later became curator of the Lahore Museum. His mother, Alice Macdonald, was one of five sisters in a prominent British family.
When he was six, Kipling and his sister were taken to England to attend school.
There the two children spent five unhappy years living in a foster home. In 1878 Kipling went off to boarding school at the United Services College, an inexpensive and inferior school for children of the military and civil service. He was later to recount his school experiences in his novel Stalky & Co.
Young Kipling returned to India in 1882 and began a career as a journalist, working for the Indian newspaper of Lahore, Civil and Military Gazette. Over the next seven years...
More summaries and resources for teaching or studying The Jungle Book.
The Jungle Book from BookRags. (c)2019 BookRags, Inc. All rights reserved.


After we use the phrase "Digital Advertising", we are literally referring to online advertising efforts from a model. This is so because if a person is wants footwear then he'll type shoes in the search engine and then the search engine will show the related outcomes only however then again if an individual is available in the market and somebody gives him the pamphlet of luggage then that's ineffective for him as he was in search of shoes and not bags.
Utilizing social media platforms resembling Fb, Twitter and different kinds reminiscent of akin to e-mail, text messaging and search engine marketing, it is easy to be aware and cater to the wants and wishes of potential clients and consumers.
Digital advertising corporations call this "repute management" or "online reputation administration" nonetheless, in actuality, it's creating methods to generate buyer opinions and customer feedback ensuing constructive customer satisfaction is captured and straightforward to find for potential clients.
YTB Travel presents a community advertising and marketing business alternative and their fundamental product of is travel. Save in your subsequent journey with Member Travel Privileges. The specialists at AAA Travel can help you get extra value, more experiences and extra recollections out of your next vacation, whether it is a cruise, river cruise, guided tour or vacation package deal. Whether you might be traveling for enterprise or for pleasure, it is most necessary that you just stay safe and enjoy your trip.
In case you do use an expert group travel organizer you need to look to see that they are a member GTOA (Group Travel Organizers Affiliation) or the ETOA (European Tour Operators Association) if you plan on making a European trip. It's doable to choose up a neighboring country's community when traveling near the border of two international locations.
Thirty years ago, world warming was thought of a joke. Some folks feel the government is doing so because of strain from "higher powers" to increase the tutorial nicely-being of scholars with out receiving any opposition to the modifications. The plan of action adopted by the company must be to come within the forefront and re-invent the continuing of your organization and at the same time think of procedures for world recovery.
With digital platforms, our viewers no longer is tied to simply the locations the place we've got TV and radio licences, so we will likely be including journalists to cowl native information in markets the place we see opportunity created by the recent closure or consolidation of native newspapers," stated Troy Reeb, senior vice-president of International News and Corus Radio.
As a part of a network-broad branding overhaul, local newscast titles and timeslots had been standardized efficient February 6, 2006, 7 following the BCTV model. Four digicam operators with World Information in the Maritimes are shedding their jobs, and native night news will now be hosted out of Toronto, the union confirmed on Thursday.
The automotive equipment business offers with the manufacturing of every sort of instrument and equipment that is needed for the manufacture, upkeep and repair of autos including cars and car elements. This is where technological acumen is essential to product success: If, for example, a customer desires to protect their automobile's electrical system from moisture, we'll assess each doable climate the automobile could encounter, then develop the venting answer that can maintain the system dry, wherever it travels, for the lifetime of the car.
– Executives within the automotive industry can preserve tempo with advances in autonomous driving by carefully monitoring developments. Automotive engineers care about two critical aspects of power consumption: thermal administration and effectivity. Shield your senses with workplace security products for respiratory, ear and eye protection that meet your calls for.
Design and production of excessive precision, active aligned automotive cameras, and LiDAR modules. As giant number of products can be found to shoppers across varied segments, offering a big variety of autos of all the categories, manufacturers purpose in the direction of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
If in case you have been questioning if yeast infection is transferable from pets to people the reply is: yes, certainly. However, there are ample cons and downsides of owning wild animals as pets. When you've got a field completely for storing your pet's essentials resembling their favorite toys and food, it'll guarantee that you're better organized and assist the pet to settle in a significantly better means in your new dwelling.
Travelers should also mark pet carriers with a sticker indicating an animal is inside if the pet is touring in cargo and let airline staff know about their pet if bringing it in the cabin. Delivery a pet requires dropping it off at a Delta Cargo location not less than three hours earlier than departure time at a location separate from passenger examine-in.
Because the PetSafe service is for animals within the freight compartment, different procedures for the program would not have helped defend the bulldog, which died in the passenger cabin. As well as, majority of the homeowners have no idea to maintain the animals and this causes them to fall sick or even die.


text:
Q: php pdo sql return if rows exist In PHP PDO trying to use SELECT COUNT(*) SQL to see if primary key exists (so then can update rather than insert),
When I call the function sqlCall; fetchColumn() returns 0 or 1 depending on if it exists or not, however when it is returned it always returns false?
How do I get it to return if row exists or not?
Thanks for help!!
 function sqlCall($primary) {

            $sql = $handler->prepare("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM  WHERE ". strtolower($primary)."=:".$primary);

            $sSqlParams = array(':'.$primary => $primary);

            $sql->execute($sSqlParams);

            if($sql->fetchColumn()==1){
                return 1;

            } else {
                return 0;
            }
            break;
}

try {
                $rows = sqlCall($primary);

                if($rows=True){
                    //UPDATE SQL
                } else {
                    //INSERT SQL
                }
}
catch(PDOException $er) {

                    die();
}

A: You are going about this wrong way - there is MySQL construct which allows you to do this without any need for workarounds. If you would like to update record if exists and if not insert it than use: INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
It goes like this:
INSERT INTO table (primary_key, field_to_update) VALUES(primary_key_value, value_to_update) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE field_to_update = value_to_update

Whenever your primar_key will be already in database the record will be updated and if primary_key does not exists than new record will be created.


text:
← Ptarmigan Lake Trail (San Isabel National Forest, CO)
Browns Creek Falls (San Isabel National Forest, CO) →
Lost Lake Trail (San Isabel National Forest, CO)
Posted on December 18, 2020 by Andrew Wojtanik
Lost Lake Trail, San Isabel National Forest, August 2020
There are many spectacular alpine lakes in the Colorado Rockies, but there are perhaps few that match the picturesque splendor of Lost Lake, a poorly-advertised but easily-accessible lake near Cottonwood Pass in central Colorado. Not only are the icy waters a stunning turquoise-to-green color, but they also boast a rocky island in the middle of the lake, making this one of the most enjoyable destinations in the area. The short hike to the lake is not half-bad either, following a meadow-laced shelf near the timberline at about 11,700 feet, with fine vistas of the Cottonwood Creek drainage and nearby Jones Mountain (13,218'), Turner Peak (13,237'), and Mount Yale (14,196').
Map of Lost Lake Trail, San Isabel National Forest; created using alltrails.com (Check out the PDF version, interactive map, and MapMyRun track)
The hike
To be fair, while there is no official trailhead for Lost Lake, its presence near the Continental Divide to the west of Buena Vista, Colorado is not exactly a secret. There is often a line of cars along the shoulder at the trail's start, about 1.4 miles south of Cottonwood Pass on Colorado Highway 306 (Cottonwood Pass Scenic Drive). Coming from Buena Vista, travel about 18 miles west on Highway 306; just after a hairpin right-hand turn and a left-hand bend, and before the tree-line, pull off to the left. (Note: If you begin to make the snaking final bend up to Cottonwood Pass, you have gone too far.)
At the pull-off, look for a well-trodden path heading west into the darkness of thick conifers. There is a brief climb at the beginning, and then the trail emerges out into the open, traversing a scrubby meadow that reveals views down the Cottonwood Creek drainage to the east. Working through the thick brush, the trail crosses a mild stream at 2/10 mile before merging with a much-wider double-track at the southern flank of an unnamed lake on the right. This chilly tarn is scenic—but only a teaser for the lake to come.
Unnamed lake with Continental Divide and Cottonwood Pass beyond
The barren slopes of the Continental Divide rise high off to the west while the onward trail veers upward to clear a hillside and then descends at about ½ mile. The path briefly bottoms out before climbing again, reentering the woods. At 8/10 mile, the trail splits, with the wider path heading left while a mild shortcut trail bears right; they meet up again at the edge of another meadow about 125 yards later.
Rock slide with Turner Peak beyond
After hugging the meadow for a short period, the trail traverses a muddy bog at about the one-mile mark—the biggest obstacle of the hike. If you're lucky, the area will be relatively dry; otherwise, one has to hop from log to log to avoid a mucky mess. Back on dry land, the onward route climbs steeply through mixed conifer woodlands, reaching the base of an impressive rock slide. From here, the final push involves a steep ascent that clips the rock slide on the right. About 1.25 miles from the trailhead, the magical lake comes into view.
Lost Lake is situated in a stunning, bowl-shaped depression, with the rocky scree slopes rising steeply to the west and mild outcrops protecting the lake to the north and east. A line of peaks to the south takes on a reddish-orange hue, a remarkable contrast with the teal colors of the exceptional lake. On busy days, expect see a few paddleboarders—and perhaps swimmers. While the lakeshore is nice, the best vista involves ascending the outcrop off to the right. From atop this point, the colors from the lake really pop out, and the island gives the lake the appearance of a peculiar donut shape.
Lost Lake from atop the outcrop
Looking east from the outcrop, hikers are also rewarded with excellent views of Turner Peak, Mount Yale, Gladstone Ridge, and the Cottonwood Creek drainage, which leads down toward Buena Vista and the Arkansas River.
Turner Peak, Mount Yale, and the Cottonwood Creek valley
One can easily linger for hours enjoying this exceptionally beautiful lake at 11,900 feet above sea level. But the threat of summer thunderstorms may cut some trips short. After taking in the views of the lake, head back the way you came. All told, the route is a moderately-difficult 2.5 miles out-and-back. (Note: Remember, at the unnamed lake, to bear right, off the main double-track, to find the single-track trail back to the start. Taking the double-track also leads back to the road but is longer and hillier.)
Lost Lake again
Heading back toward the trailhead
This hike makes for a good half-day complement to a longer, 6.2-mile round-trip to nearby Ptarmigan Lake, which is 200 feet higher than Lost Lake.
This entry was posted in Colorado, Moderate Hikes, San Isabel National Forest and tagged Collegiate Peaks, Colorado, Continental Divide, Cottonwood Pass, lake, Lost Lake, San Isabel National Forest. Bookmark the permalink.
3 Responses to Lost Lake Trail (San Isabel National Forest, CO)
Pingback: Browns Creek Falls (San Isabel National Forest, CO) | Live and Let Hike
Olympus Mountaineering says:
Lost Lake looks like a very nice place to go for hiking!
Thanks for the nice post
Pingback: Top 10 Hikes in 2020 | Live and Let Hike


Increasing demand for high data rates with the proliferation of wireless services is calling for powerful communication technologies that exploit the current spectrum more efficiently. Half-duplex (HD) systems, employ two orthogonal channels to transmit and receive, and thus cannot achieve the maximal spectral efficiency. Full-duplex (FD) system however, enables simultaneous transmission and reception at the same time in the same frequency band and can potentially double the link capacity. However, self interference (SI) at the front end of the receiver, which is caused by the transmitter antennas of a FD node to its own receiver antennas and co-channel interference (CCI) from uplink users to downlink users are some of the challenges in the implementation of FD systems. Fortunately, experimental research of late has shown that it possible to cancel this SI and CCI to the extent that such systems are actually feasible in the real world.
In our research group, we focus on the energy efficient design of transceivers for FD MIMO CR ad-hoc and cellular networks. Limiting factors such as SI, CCI under the effect of limited dynamic range at the transmitter and receiver and norm-bounded channel uncertainties are considered. The problems we face are usually non-convex and hence globally optimal solutions are difficult to obtain. We focus on designing and proposing several algorithms (eg. SDP based, cutting-set etc.) to solve these problems.
J. Xue, S. Biswas, A. C. Cirik, H. Du, Y. Yang, T. Ratnarajah, and M. Sellathurai, "Transceiver Design of Optimum Wirelessly Powered Full-Duplex MIMO IoT Devices," IEEE Trans on Communications, Vol 66, pp. 1955-1969, May 2018..
A Cirik, S Biswas, S. Vuppala, and T Ratnarajah, "Robust Transceiver Design for Full Duplex Multi-user MIMO Systems," IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 260-263, June 2016..
A Cirik, S Biswas, O Taghizadeh, T Ratnarajah, "Robust Transceiver Design in Full-Duplex MIMO Cognitive Radios," In Proc. the IEEE International Conference on Communications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 23-27, 2016.
A. C. Cirik, K. Rikkinen, Y. Rong and T. Ratnarajah, "A subcarrier and power allocation algorithm for OFDMA full-duplex systems," European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC'2015), Paris, France, June 29-July 2, 2015.


text:
Hungary says could quit U.N. talks on migration pact
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary could quit talks on a United Nations pact on migration because its pro-migration tone threatened Hungary's security interests, the foreign minister said on Thursday.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses a news conference in the chancellery in Vienna, Austria, January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader
Hungary's right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who seeks reelection for a third consecutive term in elections on April 8, has been one of the strongest opponents to the European Union's migration policy since his government fenced off the country's southern borders in 2015 to keep out migrants.
Orban has stepped up the anti-migrant campaign since last year, accusing U.S. financier George Soros of stoking illegal migration. Soros has strongly rejected an extended nationwide campaign against him as "distortions and lies" meant to create a false external enemy.
The government says illegal immigration threatens to undermine European stability and its harsh anti-migrant rhetoric has gone down well with voters.
Some analysts said the threat to quit the U.N. migration pact talks was part of Orban's domestic political campaign aimed at mobilizing voters. His ruling Fidesz party has a firm lead over the opposition in opinion polls.
"The U.N. wants to create a pact that encourages migration, we are of the opposite view, and if the first draft (of this pact) in February takes this line ... the question is why we would have to take part in this debate?", Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told M1 state television.
Szijjarto said migration posed a global challenge that was dangerous and must be stopped.
In December, the United States quit negotiations on the migration pact because, according to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, a global approach to the issue was "simply not compatible with U.S. sovereignty."
With a record 21.3 million refugees globally, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly adopted a political declaration in 2016, known as the New York Declaration, in which they agreed to spend two years negotiating the pact on safe, orderly and regular migration.
Formal negotiations are expected to start in February over the non-binding pact.
Peter Kreko, director of think tank Political Capital said the anti-UN comments were part of Orban's domestic campaign, and fit into the narrative of his battles with Brussels over migration.
"It fits into the fight for sovereignty," Kreko said.
According to a poll released on Thursday by institute Median, Fidesz' election support dropped to 37 percent from 39 percent, while the strongest opposition party Jobbik gained 2 percentage points to 13 percent. Among decided voters, Fidesz had 53 percent support, down from 60 percent, while Jobbik had 18 percent.
Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Toby Chopra