Learn how Groupe Renault moved from its ad hoc way of managing secrets, to a more comprehensive, automated, scalable system to support their DevOps workflow.
Groupe Renault uses a hybrid-cloud infrastructure, combining Amazon Web Services with on-premises OpenStack and vSphere.
At the start, Renault was keeping secrets in unencryped text files, or even in Excel files. Obviously, this wasn't secure and didn't scale.
In this video, from HashiDays 2018 in Amsterdam, Mehdi and Julien explain how they achieved scalable security at Renault, using the HashiCorp stack.
Medhi: Thank you very much, Julien. So hi everybody, my name is Mehdi Laruelle, I'm from D2SI, it's a consulting agency. As you can see, sorry for my accent, I'm French. D2SI are working with a large company, we are proud to focus on cloud on automatization, and we have clients for this part. This is why we do some formations, some courses for each of your clients. We are an AWS training partner. We love some social, so we are proud to be a co-founder of the HashiCorp User Group in Paris, and that's cool. And most important for us is the experimental part. So we work a lot, we get some feedback, some experience in field work, and we use technology. We are a partner with HashiCorp, Docker and AWS for our main partner. So it's cool and we help everybody, only our client, to use this technology on the field. Let's make some context, I'll let Julien do the context.
Julien: So now today we will explain how we use Vault in the lifecycle of our project. So the main part is we want to make a global solution to share every secret. Before, just for fun, between the ops we share some Excel files with all our secrets, for example for the database, or we had a plain text with all our secrets.
It's just not acceptable, so we try to use Vault to manage, as a global solution, every secret during the pipeline for the project and for ops during the deployment. For this, for the moment we use three kinds of security. The App Role, we will explain what it is later. The RADIUS is ID-authentication for ops, and the LDAP for the project team.
We work on multiple environments. We work on public cloud with AWS, and the private cloud with OpenStack, and we use Swarm for real internet path. So the context is we really want to have secret management on each path. And for the pipeline, we use two kinds of orchestrator. One is GitLab CI, and another one is Jenkins. And at the end, for the running application, we use ECS on AWS, and on-premises we use Swarm as a Docker orchestrator.
As I said before, we really want to have no secrets on the SEM, so for example, on the user data, if you use their form, we can have some token to register the GitLab owner or something like that. So during the presentation you will see how we are onboarding the project and how we manage the policy for this project. So now I'll let Mehdi explain the architecture that we have implemented.
Mehdi: Thank you very much. For the architecture part, we use best practices for HashiCorp. So you can see this diagram on the official documentation of Vault. We use free Vault for HA-8 availability and Consul for storage as a backend. We use only Consul for storage. We have another poster to extra features like DNS discovery etc.
For the Consul part, we use five nodes, and we have three Vaults on each Consul agent to communicate with the Consul cluster. So we use all the best practices, so TLS encryption, the encrypt key, access control list, etc. for the security purposes.
Mehdi: Today we will show you a project lifecycle illustrating how Op can use Vault in your site. We will start with the provisioning part as an ops. The second part is the tool updates. So some admin storage, some tools to generate the pipeline of the storage part, and we'll provide some tools to help us update the secret part. The third part is the human part, so sometimes the ops need to update secrets or create secrets, so we give access to it. And the last part, but the most important is the pipeline part.
Mehdi: Let's start with the provisioning part. For the provisioning part, we have three actors. The first one is the ops, the operator. The operator for Vault needs to be authenticated to Vault with RADIUS. Why you use RADIUS? It's for strong authentication. We have special policies to create or update secrets because in the Renault environment, some ops need to provide some environments and create secrets. And for that, the ops have one-usage secrets for the policy, which is to create another policy for the project site.
The second one is the project. The project uses special authentication called AppRole. AppRole needs two pieces of information. The first one is role ID, the second one is secret ID to have the token. We will see later what AppRole is in more detail. To retrieve the first one, the role ID information, the operator sends the role ID to the project.
The second one, secret ID, is provided by the last actor, the orchestrator, it's Jenkins or GitLab inside the pipeline, and the authentication is very easy, it's just a token, and it has a simple policy to only create the secret ID. So let's look back to the project.
The role ID is provided by ops, and the secret ID is provided by the pipeline, the orchestrator's job. It's the segregation of duty and security purposes. So only the project can have both pieces of information. Very important first. And with both pieces of information he can create the token. With that token, they have one policy.
We have two types of token: one for production environments, and the second is for non-production environments. Let's see how we can, as an ops, provide this environment for a project.
First, the project sends a request to us. We receive it as a mail or catalog. Second, we see the specific usage and specific needs of the project. So we make Terraform file, because we use Terraform for the policy part to provide the policy provisioning. It's a role provider if you are interested.
So we make a Terraform file, and adjust the policy for the needs of the project. After that, we push the Terraform file on the GitLab, and after that we use a specific pipeline from GitLab to use, plan, and apply Terraform with this policy. So everything is automated. After that, the ops authorize the pipeline, the orchestrator to gives the secret ID for a project.
For a specific project, only GitLab CI is authorized to provide the secret ID. It's a security measure. So if the project wants a biplan on Jenkins, he cannot retrieve the secret ID. After that, we send some information for the project to retrieve the role ID. We use a specific wrap.
What is a wrap for? Some people don't know that in Vault, a wrap is one usage envelope. So when you receive this, you cannot use this kind of information a second time. So you receive a wrap, you unwrap, and that's all. You cannot unwrap a second time. This is very useful if someone else tries to retrieve this information, or use this information, he cannot reuse it.
After that, we send a specific graph to the project. It is a policy graph so here you can see the paths you have access to for read or write. The other path here is for a development path. So you can see one only path, but there are two other paths from the project perspective, but it's for another token. We have two tokens, one for production, and one for non-production. This is an example path for this non-production token.
Let's see a little demonstration, it's not really a demonstration, more like an example. Let's start with the first step. The project makes a request, we have a lot of information. Here is a test project. The test project wants an environment in infra, on-premises, for the devs on a production environment, and only for GitLab CI usage. And he wants all the path lists on the left, and he wants to add one extra path just for the project needs.
So we make a Terraform file with 'Make New.' Here you have an example gif. We have four commands, just Make, CD, and let's do a VIM on the policy. So it's pretty simple as you can see. This is a policy example for the dev environment we can see. The project has one usage. It's a specific path for the project need. As you can see, we use an extra path. We add only an extra path for date on create. So that's good for the project. It's very easy.
After that we just make a new path. We have some granularity on the project policy, it's very easy. You have some variables with different values, and then we have Terraform TF Vault dedicated to change this default value for the project needs. If you want to have a duration of a token be two hours or maybe more, you can just add this value on the roles, and just set the value you want.
After that, we just git permit and git push on the GitLab CI. Very simple. On this is a pipeline view. So for the pipeline view, we have a test stage here just for testing the script, testing the environment to deploy. The verify part is the most important part, because it checks each policy. So for example, we have some access permissions and some non-access permissions, so this stage verifies just the policy. We have some status, so for the people who know what Vault status is, it's just to see if the environment is up. And the plan on apply bottom.
Then one of the most important stages, the last job. It's, of course, the token revoke. Here I put my ops token, with a lifetime of 40 minutes, and after this job, there are a number of stages dedicated to revoke this token. After that, we make some authorization of the orchestrator. Here I make the new command. And again, we can see a dedicated policy to only print secret IDs for GitLab CI in this project. At the end, we send an email with the graph and some information.
Here, the token TTL is two hours, and again, how to retrieve the role ID, because it goes to ops to send the role ID. So this is for the provisioning part.
Mehdi: Let's talk about how to update or create secrets from the other roles. Some project operators like project owners, DBAs, or storage admins use some tools to generate environments. So it's very important to integrate all these tools, Vaults, creates, or update policies from that. So we send a script for each of the team to integrate with the tools.
It's a script dedicated to Vault just to create a secret. The first part of the script is to use AppRole to authenticate like a project. There are specific policies to create or update a policy for a specific path. For example, DBAs only have access to the DB path. And the last one is of course, the update part of the Vault inside the Vault of the secret. I'll let Julien do the rest of the presentation.
Julien: Now you have seen that we have all onboarding projects with the project path, and with a tool like Terraform for constructing the various paths. I've put all secrets inside a Vault, but after that, we have some secret that we can't manage as ops. So we let the product owner, DBA, storage admin, or any other people that can access this secret, use the UI if there is no capacity to call some script with Vault. We let them use a UI to manage every secret that may be used during dev acceptance and production.
We can have the same path everywhere. For that we use LDAP for the connection. After that we provide to the team, the development team, some template for example, for generating a SSH key, and they are created and stored in Vault. So we have some template to provide this, and we share this with the project.
With the UI, it's a really quick demonstration, but with the UI, it will connect, and after that it will create the specific path that I load with the policy that we have created as we're onboarding. And after that, it can put the key-value, because Vault works with key-value secrets. So on each path, you can have a specific key-value.
So here it set the new path. And after, we have an example script that we provide. Don't care about the name inside, but it's really how to launch the script and store all the secrets inside Vault. After that, it's just the log of the script.
The next step is the project is, there are some jobs dedicated to regenerate the visuals of all paths that we have on Vault. So here we see that the human adds specific keys on the path, so we know when they will originate. This came up with a GitLab CI job or Jenkins. They will receive by email, for the moment it's by email, a visual definition schema of all paths. And after, we can provide this to the dev team to see, ah, okay, my create I'm sure is stored in this.
And after that we have the same architecture on each environment, and we can manage that. So it's really interesting for communication between the ops and the dev team.
Julien: After a quick introduction, the create code is linked to the HashiCorp website about AppRole. Just to explain how AppRole works. Here the admin provides some role ID, and the role name. With this we can generate the new secret ID. After that, we deliver the role ID and secret ID to the application, and with this component, with the role ID and secret ID, the application can authenticate through API or binaries to Vault, with the role ID and secret ID, for generating the new token.
With this token, the application can retrieve all secrets from Vault for the specific environment. So now, just to come back to the pipeline for the project, here we consider that the operator has sent a wrap with a role ID and role name to the project. When the project receives these variables, the team defines this on the CI. After that we can manage some secrets inside GitLab CI.
Here is the screen of secret variables in GitLab. The team has put the role ID inside the secret variable. After that, the project team launches a job. That triggers the building of the image. On this specific script, it's getSecretID. The getSecretID is a script that we make inside and we share on all GitLab owners and Jenkins slaves.
With this script, it's an example of gitlab-ci.yml. We call this script with a role name, and with this, the getSecretID has an orchestrator token as explained Mehdi before. This orchestrator token is really a policy to get all secrets for this whole name. It's really mandatory to have this in order to have segregation between Jenkins and GitLab. So if the team calls getSecretID with the role name of this project, the getSecretID authenticates with the orchestrator token, Vault delivers a wrap with a secret ID, to getSecretID, and the getSecretID exports this in variables.
After that you call the orchestrator, in this case, it's Swarm. So as I explained for the AppRole ID, we define the role ID and secret ID inside the deployment stack. And after, when the container starts at the Docker entry point we provide some scripts to help the team get all secrets and use the role ID and secret ID and authenticate through Vault.
Inside Vault it's a basic command with a binary Vault where we log in with a role ID and secret ID, and we get back the token. After that, with this token we can retrieve all secrets inside the containers, and the application can start. This is the way that we manage secrets inside the GitLab CI and Jenkins.
Now just a quick introduction to getSecretID. We have two methods. It's mandatory to have a rotation of this script because inside we have an orchestrator token. So we have some cron job to do that, and every day we originate a new getSecretID for each environment. After that, some specific ops can originate a new one manually because maybe it's corrupt or, I don't know, but we can originate a new one.
We construct these binaries with the ops token AppRole because it's really helpful for cron jobs. AppRole is for machine to machine. So when it's a cron job, we use AppRole. When it's ops, we use ops tokens. So we ask Vault, "please give me a new orchestrator token for GitLab." And after that, we generate a new orchestrator token, we construct the binaries, and we store it on an extra bucket. Then we share all scripts on each amendment as a GitLab owner or Jenkins. This is the way we implement things for sharing that. Each runner on Jenkins is on Docker, so we have some mounts inside, and we have some on the host, the getSecretID. Now all jobs can directly access this script through the GitLab CI and pull it exactly.
Mehdi: It's very important for us to separate the role ID for the ops side and the secret ID for biplan, like GitLab or Jenkins, for security purposes. In here, as you see, only a pipeline can provide a secret ID, a specific biplan, and ops is authorized to send the role ID. It's the segregation of duty, and an ops cannot generate a secret ID. So only the project side can use the token, so it is very important to us for this side to provide this environment.
Julien: And for the moment, we use this kind of authentication with AppRole because with Swarm as our orchestrator, we can't manage Kubernetes with Kubernetes is directly connected, so we can allow the namespace to get all secrets, but for specific usage, you can use AppRole. Here it's really specific usage, but for ECS and Swarm, we use this kind of authentication for getting all secrets. And with this kind of secret, for example, if you work with AWS or if you work with GCP, you can work directly with the Role IAM for the LDS part, for example. You can generate this and directly put the secret in Vault. Then the application can retrieve all secrets inside.
Mehdi: That's all for us Thank you very much, everyone and see you for the next, thank you.


NAOSITE : Nagasaki University's Academic Output SITE: A novel role of serum cytochrome c as a tumor marker in patients with operable cancer.
A novel role of serum cytochrome c as a tumor marker in patients with operable cancer.
Title: A novel role of serum cytochrome c as a tumor marker in patients with operable cancer.
Abstract: PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate serum cytochrome c (cyto-c) levels as a novel role of tumor marker in patients with operable malignant tumors. METHODS: Serum cyto-c levels and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) activity were measured in a total of 257 cases (232 malignant and 25 benign). To identify the relationship between serum cyto-c and current tumor markers, six variables, such as gender, age, invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and LD, were analyzed by uni- and multivariate regression analysis methods. The test performance of serum cyto-c for the prediction of malignant behavior was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: The serum cyto-c level was significantly higher in patients with malignant tumors than patients with benign tumors (20.6 vs. 15.5 ng/mL; P = 0.017, Mann-Whitney U test). No difference in the levels among subtypes of cancer was found, indicating that the change in serum cyto-c levels reflect cancer individually and not specific subtypes of cancer. The survival in patients with serum cyto-c levels over 40 ng/mL was poor (Kaplan-Meier test, P < 0.0001, Hazard ratio 16.76, 95% confidential interval 4.45-63.04). Multiple linear regression analyses disclosed the close association of serum cyto-c levels with invasion (P = 0.0004), metastasis (P = 0.0262) except for regional lymph node metastasis, and activity of serum LD (P < 0.0001), all of which are well known to represent malignant behavior. Conversely, the measurement of serum cyto-c was verified to have excellent diagnostic accuracy of 0.802 and 0.781 for the detection of invasion and metastasis (the area under curves of the constructed ROCs). CONCLUSION: Serum cyto-c is a potent tumor marker as a predictor for malignant potential in cancers.


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Deutsche Merger Chatter Spooks Markets
By CMC Markets (Michael Hewson)Stock MarketsJan 31, 2019 13:59
uk.investing.com/analysis/deutsche-merger-chatter-spooks-markets-200205946
By CMC Markets (Michael Hewson) | Jan 31, 2019 13:59
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It's been less than a year since Christian Sewing took over from John Cryan as CEO of Germany's biggest bank over growing dissatisfaction with respect to the progress of a turnaround plan that began way back in 2016 and which was showing little sign of returning the bank to sustainable levels of profitability.
John Cryan did manage to avert a government bailout by securing €8bn of new funding back in April 2017, something that looked very unlikely towards the middle of 2016, however the problems for Deutsche showed no signs of receding, and while we did get a minor recovery the gains proved to be somewhat short lived.
Since then the share price has continued to come under pressure, hitting record lows of €6.68 in December, before rebounding over the course of the past few weeks.
Over the last few months we've heard multiple rumours of a potential merger with Commerzbank (LON:CZB), a bank that is also struggling and which the German government owns a 15% stake. It is no secret that the German banking sector is extraordinarily competitive, with a significant number of regional banks, which means that the main profit centres for the bigger banks have tended to come from their international operations.
As most banks have been discovering in recent years, investment banking has also become significantly less lucrative as a result of lower rates, as well as much stricter regulatory scrutiny. We've already seen in the past few months both BNP Paribas (LON:0HB5) and Societe Generale (LON:0J6Y) announce significant numbers of job losses in their investment banking divisions, in an attempt to hit performance targets.
With Deutsche Bank's latest quarterly numbers out at the end of this week the talk of a merger with Commerzbank has once again hit the headlines with reports that senior executives are concerned that they are running out of road in their attempts to turn around the struggling lender, and that they may be forced to merge by the middle of this year if all else fails.
News of yet more scandals haven't helped in terms of projecting an image of a bank that is in control of its own destiny, with pictures of German police raids at its head office; over the Panama Papers; as well as getting drawn into the investigation into money laundering at Danske Bank (LON:0NVC), all in the past 12 months.
Unsurprisingly this has caused some investors to become a little restless, and while Sewing seems to have their support for now, that doesn't mean they aren't worried. The bank has managed to secure some additional pledges of investment from Qatar, which is encouraging but this seems more a case of doubling down, than a vote of confidence.
High level talks between the German government and senior management have been reported to have increased over the past few weeks, which suggests that senior German officials are growing increasingly concerned about the financial health of its biggest global bank, though quite how merging it with Commerzbank, whose problems are similarly acute, will help is beyond a lot of people's comprehension.
If we've learnt anything over the last few years, it's that you don't resolve the problem of a struggling bank by merging it with a rival who is also struggling. If anything it makes the problem even bigger, though it may prolong the eventual denouement.
What won't be helping German government officials or Deutsche management sleep at night is the fact that interest rates remain anchored to the floor, with the potential to go even lower, while growth flat lined in the second half of 2018.
The German consumer doesn't appear to be in any mood to splash out either if this week's December retail sales numbers are any guide, cratering 4.3% in December, and down 2.1% year on year.
Compound that with a slowing global economy, and Germany's key export markets under pressure and there is rising concern that Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) might struggle to weather a prolonged economic slowdown in Europe.
Add in the possibility of a disruptive Brexit, which could adversely impact Germany's industrial heartland and it's no wonder that German officials are worried about how the German economy might fare in a worst case scenario.
Both Deutsche Bank's share price and Commerzbank's share price have dived sharply lower on these merger reports - which probably tells you all you need to know about what investors think of this story.
In April last year we were talking about moving the deckchairs on a sinking ship when Cryan was replaced, today's reaction from the markets would suggest that some investors are heading to the lifeboats as investors worry that this week's numbers from Deutsche could leave a nasty aftertaste.
Expectations are for annual revenues to come in at €25.46bn, a decline of 16% and net income to come in at €710m.
DISCLAIMER: CMC Markets is an execution only provider. The material (whether or not it states any opinions) is for general information purposes only, and does not take into account your personal circumstances or objectives. Nothing in this material is (or should be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed.
No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by CMC Markets or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Bonnie Hunt complains to director Pete Jones because she's concerned about how she's being lit and shot during an emotional bedroom scene. The DP, Pete Biagi, is unsympathetic to Hunt's problem. "Is this a Hollywood movie where everything's slick and glossy?" he asks. Some on the production team think Jones has put too much faith in Biagi to handle the visual aspects of the film. The director disagrees. Later, the filmmakers need to shoot three pages of dialogue before lunch, which is a lot. Biagi takes an excessive amount of time to light the location, leaving Jones with inadequate time to work with his child actors, Adi Stein and Mike Weinberg. The film's editor, Gregg Featherman, tells Jones he's not happy with the kids' performances. So Jones confronts Biagi, telling him they can't spend so much time waiting for lighting. Biagi lets the crew know he's unhappy with Jones' approach. Later, shooting Hunt and Aidan Quinn in the bedroom, Biagi doesn't get the shot he wants on a pan, so he intentionally shakes the camera, making the pan unusable. He calls it a "sly dog trick to protect the visuals." Producer Chris Moore calls it a very "aggressive" move, displaying Biagi's lack of trust in the rest of the production, and his desire to protect himself. Later, for a crucial scene at the beach, Biagi and Jones want a crane shot for the climax. This entails a long day putting together scaffolding for the camera out in the ocean. Moore and Jeff Balis both question the need for the complicated shot, which Biagi insists on shooting during "magic hour," at dusk. Another problem arises at the beach. The water is freezing, and neither Stein nor Weinberg knows how to swim.


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Dawyn- all I can really say is I LOVE YOU!!!!! YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!! If the world had an opportunity to meet amazing -YOU- we all would live in a better place!!!! As I sat in the chair opposite from you, the hair on my arms and neck stood on end —-your positive energy, spirit, and love overflowed in the small space we were in! It was palpable. WOW! You are such a special person! I knew it from the moment I met you, —-today it was confirmed!
My daughter and I have been to many counselors over the years, but most just talked at her, trying to extract information, feelings, and emotions from her. NONE were so laser dead-on as to what she was feeling as you were. None really seemed to understand the "big picture". You were incredibly intutive and described EXACTLY what has been so difficult for her to put into words. Funny how the energy of the universe brings special people into our lives; ones who make a difference, ones who have an incredible impact on us. I am grateful and feel so blessed we had today together. When I asked her what she thought of you she replied " Mom, I really like her—she's a real person. She is the only counselor who gets it, I'm serious".


I didn't know it wasn't OK to be white.
I didn't know it wasn't Ok to black or Asian or mixed race.
There is some American Indian blood in me from past generations. I have never scalped anyone or burned anyone at the stake.
We are what we are. As long as we are decent people, IT DON'T MATTER what the the race is.
There is good and bad in all races.
I just have to wonder who some people are listening to and believing. When was it not ok to be white? When was it not ok to be black? No matter what others think or do to you, you should not be ashamed of your own skin color or heritage. That's just plain stupid.
I just have to wonder who some people are listening to and believing.
Remind be so give you an 'atta boy' thing on here... you slammed it spot on. - 'listening and believing'..... do most people sit around today worrying about what anyone else thinks of them and then actually listening to that other person's 'fix'??? Happens a lot - codependent people ? there are a load of them.
Thank you again Erehs059 for bringing out a huge point in this thread!
Location: Where ocean meets up with the naked land.
Oh. I'm so tired of some White people pulling the race card.
I've see so many "PROUD" White people. Usually they narrow it down by ethnicity though. So you have the proud Italians, proud Russians, proud Bosnians, proud Germans... I could go on.
I think what people confuse White "PRIDE" of is the KLU KLUX KLAN which is a White supremacy group. They are an extremely hateful group who feel their race is far more superior than any other race. People who are proud of their own ethnicities and culture don't 'down' other religions and ethnicities, they just embrace their own. It's that simple. There shouldn't be 11+ pages of arguments.
WHITE PRIDE Shirts that I casually typed and easily FOUND in on the Computer. At one point they were even selling fashioned "White Pride" shirts.
Not so sure about that. Whites, especially white men, have been held up to be the root of all evil for half a century now. No slander is too outrageous.
You're welcome. Thanks for the 'atta boy'....let me go on record for saying I'm a 'girl,' but that doesn't matter to me--it's the thought that counts.
But when the n*ggers of the black race hate every race besides blacks it's alright? Yeah, that's not hypocritical. . . at all.
Classic straw man argument. That poster did not even mention that your example was "alright". You just created a statement and then attacked your OWN created statement.
And no, I do not think it is "alright" for ANY race to blindly hate every race besides their own.
Because most of the people reading this probably live in a place where 'white' is the majority.
Why was my post deleted by "Mike from back east" when I was only asking a simple question about someone using racist language to describe one race?


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Reservations/Call Ahead
The story of SMASHIN CRAB winds its way from Tampa, FL, with a quick stop in Chicago, IL, through Phoenix, AZ, and with time, research and courage, took root in San Antonio, TX with the first restaurant opening in April 2017.
In the Summer of 2016, Mr. Pablo Felix (Co-Owner), who at that time was kept busy in Tampa Fl with an active career in the food service industry, decided to act upon his dream to one day own a full-service restaurant. After visiting a restaurant concept in Chicago, where the menu feature was a seafood boil, Mr. Felix's passion was sparked and he sought to research the concept for himself as a prospective venture. Mr. Felix's research lead him to contact a restaurant franchise group involved in a similar concept as the restaurant he previously visited in Chicago.
Prior to speaking with the franchise group, Mr. Felix recognized the need for additional restaurant resources. As a result, Mr. Felix contacted an active restaurateur Mr. Robert Blalock (Co-Owner) and inquired about his interest in pursuing a new restaurant venture. After receiving an interest affirmation from Mr. Blalock, Mr. Felix communicated and disclosed an active opportunity to meet with the leadership of a seafood boil restaurant franchise group in Phoenix, AZ, interested in selling franchises to quality candidates. To make the most of the meeting, Mr. Blalock enlisted Mr. Paul Griffith (Co-Owner) a college friend, entrepreneur and career accountant/auditor to assist both Mr. Felix and Mr. Blalock with assessing the viability of the franchise, when meeting with the leadership of the seafood boil restaurant franchise group.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Griffith advised both Mr. Felix and Mr. Blalock that the franchise opportunity reviewed, not only appeared to represent a viable business venture relative to entering the full-service restaurant space with a seafood boil concept, but also appeared to be led in a manner that contained some noticeable but intangible cultural "magic". Upon Mr. Blalock's request of Mr. Griffith to participate as an investor in purchasing a franchise, Mr. Griffith declined. Not willing to pass up a promising opportunity, one week later, Mr. Blalock again asked Mr. Griffith to participate in purchasing a franchise. After discussing the opportunity with his business partner Mr. Jamal Pratt (Co-Owner), Mr. Griffith agreed to participate in the restaurant venture under one condition. A condition requiring the development of their own seafood boil restaurant concept from scratch. Mr. Blalock and Mr. Felix agreed with the condition.
Next, came the issue of how to finance the restaurant start-up. In the spirit of diversifying the risk of starting a restaurant concept from the ground floor up, Mr. Blalock and Mr. Griffith decided to initiate a capital raise to fund the venture. Together, they developed a list of trusted friends and family and contacted them with the idea of becoming an owner/investor in a seafood "Cajun" restaurant. Everyone contacted, decided to participate in this restaurant venture (representing 5 entities).
Once the ownership group was identified, the organizational structure and bylaws were developed and approved and the group named Mr. Paul Griffith as CEO. Additionally, the group voted to name the parent company Potbelly Stove LLC and submitted entries to vote on the trade name of the restaurant. Of the entries submitted, the group voted for the trade name SMASHIN CRAB which was submitted for vote by Mr. Jamal Pratt.
In the Autumn of 2016, Mr. Felix introduced Mr. Dan Sevilla (Co-Owner) to Mr. Griffith. Discussions with Mr. Sevilla, whom represented a restaurant managerial group with 75 years of collective restaurant operational experience; noted: they were in transition from one opportunity and seeking another. In recognizing the value of including an experienced restaurant operations group (with demonstrated success in the industry), to the existing structure of the newfound SMASHIN CRAB organization: Mr. Griffith offered an equity position in SMASHIN CRAB to Mr. Sevilla's group for their intellectual capital in the restaurant industry. Mr. Sevilla's group wholeheartedly accepted the offer and the ownership structure was complete.
In January of 2017, up for the adventure of moving their home base and the challenge of co-creating a new brand with like-minded professionals, Mr. Sevilla's group moved from Phoenix, Arizona to San Antonio, TX to found the first incarnation of SMASHIN CRAB. In April 2017, the construction of SMASHIN CRAB's legacy location, at 8910 Bandera Road – San Antonio, TX was complete and subsequently open for business.


Redistribution is Socialism. No need to go looking for some dead economist's definition of the S word. If a central agency with the power of coercion, which is to say a government, takes money from some and distributes it to others, that is Socialism in practice. The reach of government is widened, individual freedom narrowed.
It should not be called an economic system, because it cannot create wealth. It stultifies innovation and productivity. It kills incentive. It levels down. It is the primrose path to poverty.
Under the leadership of Obama and his gang of collectivists, redistribution is well under way in America. Change to Socialism is well under way.
And Obama's vision is not just of a socialist America but of a socialist world.
The Investor's Business Daily comments on how a small, failing, Chicago bank that – inter alia – redistributes US tax-payers' money to Kenya (the homeland of Obama's father) is kept going by effort of the redistributionists in the White House.
Sometimes banks are too small to fail, such as when they are in the president's hometown, deal with the president's friends and serve the president's agenda. Or should we perhaps say too connected to fail?
While President Obama rails against the robber barons of Wall Street, the politically connected Chicago financial institution with a politically correct agenda gets a pass and gets a bailout all its own. It is the poster bank for hope and change.
ShoreBank was in trouble and needed financial help, either from the government or other financial institutions that have already received government money.
Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., has joined Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., in a letter to Obama asking for records concerning ShoreBank and how it lined up at least $125 million in capital from major banks to qualify for $75 million from the federal government.
During his visit to Africa last year, Obama praised the bank for its involvement in projects in Kenya.
Kenya? Why is a struggling community bank in the Windy City involved in projects in Kenya? We hesitate to guess.
Ten other Illinois banks have already failed in 2010, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ShoreBank has reportedly received $20 million from General Electric, $20 million from Goldman Sachs and $20 million from Citigroup — with more promised by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.
Considering ShoreBank's track record, is this where taxpayer money should be going?
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in an interview on the CBS "60 Minutes" program.
He did run to fundamentally transform America — and if those banks are on Main Street and they follow Obama's agenda, they get help from those fat cats now in thrall to the government, not to mention all the president's friends. Pretty sweet deal.
Does Obama have some urgent need of Bob Bauer (husband of Anita Dunn, the fan of Mao)?
He lists many more in his book Unholy Alliance.


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Neuvy-en-Champagne  es una población y comuna francesa, situada en la región de Países del Loira, departamento de Sarthe, en el distrito de Mamers y cantón de Conlie.

Demografía

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 INSEE
 Elecciones municipales de 2008

Neuvy Champagne

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Join Live Chat Featuring Truck-Industry Expert Sean P. Holman
By Ashley Reyes
SEMA members are invited to connect with Sean P. Holman, content director for Motor Trend's Truck and Off-Road Group, during the SEMA Young Executives Network Facebook live chat on Wednesday, September 15, at 12:00 p.m. (PDT).
A longtime automotive enthusiast and journalist, Holman has been with the Motor Trend since 2003 and has held editorial staff positions at Truckin', Truckin's SUV and Four Wheeler, eventually taking on the editor positions at 4x4 Garage – JK Edition and Diesel Power. He is an avid truck-industry expert and consults with major truck manufacturers on current and future products. He is also the co-creator and co-host of the truck enthusiast podcast "The Truck Show Podcast with Lightning & Holman."
SEMA members will have the opportunity to ask Holman questions live as he discusses technology coming to the off-road segment, including active suspension and EVs during this live Q&A event.
Location: YEN Facebook page
MotorTrend Celebrates 75 Years of HOT ROD With Five-City Power Tour Event
HRIA Member Spotlight: Garret's Rod Shop
Submit Your Nominations Now for SEMA Hall of Fame


Offer valid until September 14, 2018 and is subject to change without notice. Hearing tests are provided free of charge for adults ages 18 and older. Offer not valid in Quebec.  http://campaignforbetterhearing.ca/research *This offer is non-transferable, applies to the purchase of select models of hearing aids, and valid until September 14, 2018. This offer cannot be combined with other promotional offers for hearing aids. The number of Miles issued to the Collector depends on the model(s) purchased. Please allow 45 days for Miles to be posted to your Collector Account. Limit one offer per customer per year. Some conditions may apply. See clinic for details.


So, you made a bunch of high resolution videos with your amazing iPhone. You press �Play� and all the beauty is upside down. It would be sad to see that on Facebook.... This iPhone video rotate app does exactly what its name suggests: it's especially used to rotate iPhone videos. It works with all of the latest versions of iOS and iPhone, and solves the issue of your iPhone incorrectly orientating iPhone video. It's highly rated among App Store customers.
It is very handy to capture videos using your iPhone or iPad, as you might carry it anywhere you go. The iPhone camera (especially those iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 6) shoots high quality 1080p videos that can be played on many different devices, like DVD players with a TV, computers, etc.... Shooting videos from your PDA or iPhone is common, however some of you might have realized that when you download your videos from your iPhone to your PC, you might find that they are titled, that is they are oriented vertically instead of horizontally or vice versa.
Rotate a Video on iPhone using Wander Bit�s App. If rotating videos is all you want to do, open the app and follow these steps. The upper left hand corner has a button. how to tell your parents your ftm Thankfully, this is a reasonably straightforward process. All you need is the iMovie app, two fingers, and a few minutes. In this article we show you how it�s done.
Directly convert iPhone videos to MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV and 1,000+ other formats. Convert iPhone video to MP4 in batch with 30X faster speed compared with common converters. how to turn off message 101 Another thing to recall is that when you change orientation on your iPhone, the video will seem OK when you play it back, but the changed position will be obvious when you play it on another device.
Directly convert iPhone videos to MP4, AVI, MKV, MOV and 1,000+ other formats. Convert iPhone video to MP4 in batch with 30X faster speed compared with common converters.
Another thing to recall is that when you change orientation on your iPhone, the video will seem OK when you play it back, but the changed position will be obvious when you play it on another device.
30/09/2016�� The easiest way to rotate the video would be in iMovie. Or you will need an app such as Video Rotate & Flip. Free app that can do the job for you.
Shooting videos from your PDA or iPhone is common, however some of you might have realized that when you download your videos from your iPhone to your PC, you might find that they are titled, that is they are oriented vertically instead of horizontally or vice versa.


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Donnerskirchen (węg. Fertőfehéregyháza, burg.-chor. Bijela Crikva) – gmina targowa (Marktgemeinde) w Austrii, w kraju związkowym Burgenland, w powiecie Eisenstadt-Umgebung. Liczy 1,81 tys. mieszkańców (1 stycznia 2018).

Współpraca
Miejscowość partnerska:
 Klaus, Vorarlberg

Przypisy

Gminy w powiecie Eisenstadt-Umgebung


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Would a tourist tax really help us manage the influx of visitors?
By Marianne Taylor @MarianneTaylorZ Features writer and columnist
UNTIL recently, few had heard of the term "overtourism". Listen carefully in places like Edinburgh and Skye, however, and you will probably notice it being used increasingly frequently to describe a very modern phenomenon: the negative impact of too many visitors.
Whichever way you look at it, Scotland's tourist industry is booming. A record 30 million people visited our diverse array of attractions last year, according to figures out this week, with the National Museum of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle each enticing more than two million through their doors for the first time.
The North Coast 500, the Highland touring route dubbed Scotland's Route 66, also had its most popular year to date, with numbers up by one-third.
International visitors and their increasingly generous spending were a big factor in all this success, encouraged here by a weak pound, increased capacity on flights, the popularity of TV shows such as Outlander and accolades such as being voted the World's Most Beautiful Country by travel bible Rough Guide.
Domestic tourism is also growing, as many of us weigh up poor exchange rates abroad and take advantage of the multitude of festivals and cultural events across the length of Scotland.
Edinburgh remains the jewel in the tourist crown, the gateway to Scotland for two-thirds of foreign visitors, with its four million visitors bringing in £1.4 billion a year and supporting 35,000 jobs.
But what happens when the natives start to feel frustrated about the impact tourism is having on the quality of their lives, the over-crowded streets and roads, the litter and inadequate facilities and infrastructure, the short-term lets driving long-term residents out?
Edinburgh resident and leading arts figure Richard Demarco warned recently in The Herald that big business was destroying the city's cultural offering, describing it as a "money-making machine" that is "out of control".
The city has more than 9,000 Airbnb listings – second only to London in the UK – with residents in districts such as the Grassmarket complaining that their once thriving community had been "ruined" by short-term lets.
Residents on Skye, meanwhile, called for help last summer to deal with overcrowding after a surge in tourism led to thousands of visitors descending on beauty spots, clogging their single-track roads with tour buses and campervans, dropping litter and relieving themselves outside.
In European cities such as Paris, Berlin, Rome, Prague and Vienna, part of the answer has for some time been a tourist tax added to hotel rooms – usually in the region of €1 to €5 per night – to help pay for the public services and staff needed to cope with high numbers of visitors.
City of Edinburgh Council supports the introduction of such a tax but the hospitality industry is strongly opposed, saying it would deter visitors.
The Scottish Government, meanwhile, would have to change laws to allow councils to raise revenues in this way, though ministers could be minded to make such changes in this difficult financial climate if they provide struggling local authorities with new opportunities to raise funds.
With the capital's SNP council leader Adam McVey behind a new drive to introduce a levy – which he believes could bring in about £15 million a year – added to research showing more residents support the move, the idea is gaining momentum.
Pressure is also mounting for changes to the short-term rental market. Indeed, last month Airbnb put forward voluntary plans to ban its Edinburgh landlords from renting their properties for more than 90 days per year, though peak festival times would not be included in this limit.
Mr McVey, who took over as council leader last May, believes the time for change is long overdue. "We've worked hard to create a strong business case and now we need to go out and engage with the industry before we take it to the Scottish Government," he said. "We need a solution that will secure the future of what makes our city such a brilliant place to visit. It is short-sighted for the hospitality sector to assume tourism will just keep growing if public-sector funding is not there to support the reasons people are coming.
"We are flexible on what the proceeds of the levy would be spent on but if we could use it to give long-term funding to our festivals, that would be fantastic."
He acknowledged a growing sense of unease among residents about the effects of tourism on the city. "Most of Edinburgh's residents see our festivals and tourism industry as a big part of what makes the city so special," he explained. "But they want the whole thing managed better and we all have a responsibility to ensure that happens. They have genuine concerns around issues like access and short-term lets.
"It would be embarrassing for the hospitality sector if Airbnb brought in voluntary restrictions before them. That would suggest that Airbnb has more interest in the city than a well-established industry and that simply cannot be the case."
Mr McVey is due to release the full details of the plan in the coming weeks, and says he will look to hold talks with the hospitality industry in advance of asking finance secretary Derek Mackay to draw up legislation.
"What's important is that the industry engages constructively with us about where the difficulties lie," he added. "They can't just say they don't like the plan."
Proponents argue that with so many tourist taxes already in place throughout Europe and the US, visitors are used to the idea of paying, and would not be put off by a couple of pounds a night on a hotel room. They also make the point that room rates fluctuate widely due to seasonality and web discounts, so a couple of pounds will make little difference.
The body that represents hotels and restaurants, however, the British Hospitality Association (BHA), strongly disagrees, labelling any tourist tax "a blunt instrument".
"No-one advocating this tax has been clear about what the money will be used for, what the rate will be or who would collect it," Willie Macleod, its executive director in Scotland, said. "We also know that once taxes are introduced they only ever go one way.
"Hotels and restaurants are already contributing through VAT, corporation tax and business rates – the UK has the highest level of VAT on hotel services in Europe.
"It seems to us absolutely inequitable to charge an extra tax on people who have chosen to come to your city to spend their money and support your employment."
He added: "We hear proponents say tourist taxes don't prevent people from visiting places. But charging yet another tax gives customers less money to spend on things like taxis and entertainment. Visitors are price sensitive – they have limited budgets and look very carefully before deciding where to go on holiday.
"It's also important to make the point that people who talk about tourist taxes elsewhere are not comparing like with like.
"Even in the US hotel rooms, which are quoted before local, tourist, state and federal taxes are added, the highest combination of 18.3 per cent is still cheaper than our 20 per cent of VAT.
"We simply can't keep taxing our visitors. And remember, this tax would also apply to Scottish residents."
Ultimately, it will be up to the Scottish Government to decide whether it believes too much tourism is a problem and, if so, who should pay to fix it.
Until then, the long-suffering residents of Edinburgh and Skye can only watch and wait.


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Walmart says price cuts helped shoppers save billions on produce
Walmart shoppers have saved $2.3 billion by buying produce at its stores in the first two years of its push to sell more healthful fare and more of it, the largest U.S. grocer said on Thursday.
Walmart U.S., the largest division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc , also said it has exceeded its goal of reducing the amount of sugar in some products.
Walmart said in January 2011 that it wanted to improve the nutritional value of the food it sells, make healthier fare less expensive and make it easier for Americans to access such goods.
Walmart's customers are struggling to put healthful food on the table, especially with higher gasoline prices and payroll taxes.
"They've repeatedly told us that while they want to feed their families healthier food, they don't always know how to do that and they worry that it is simply too expensive," said Leslie Dach, Walmart's executive vice president of corporate affairs.
Grocers, restaurants and food makers are under pressure from consumers and public health officials to sell more healthful food in an effort to address the nation's obesity crisis. More than two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one-third of youth aged 2 to 19 are overweight or obese.
Food is a huge business for the world's largest retailer, which has been lowering prices, along with its healthier makeover, to boost sales. Groceries, including goods such as paper towels, account for roughly 55 percent of Walmart's sales.
Walmart said its shoppers saved $1.2 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables in 2012 and $1.1 billion in 2011, based on third-party verified pricing comparisons between its stores and those of unidentified rivals. Efforts such as buying more local produce and cutting supply chain costs have helped it keep a lid on prices.
In 2011, Walmart and other chains publicly committed to opening stores in designated rural and urban "food deserts" where access to groceries is limited. In Walmart's case, some of those urban areas include markets where it has faced resistance to its large stores.
Walmart has opened 86 such food stores since 2011 and aims to open a total of 275 to 300 by the end of 2016.
First Lady Michelle Obama traveled to one of Walmart's "food desert" stores in Springfield, Missouri, to tout the company's progress in selling healthy products.
"You've opened these stores, including this one, in underserved communities," said Obama, who published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday focusing on the need for companies to help make changes so Americans can find and eat healthier foods.
"You're building closer relationships to your customers and stronger communities. ... The changes you've made are good for Walmart's top line and bottom line going forward."
SODIUM IN BREAD, SUGAR IN SALSA
Walmart said it has exceeded its goal of cutting sugars by 10 percent in categories such as dairy, sauces and fruit drinks. It has reduced the level of sodium by 9 percent in categories such as luncheon meats, dressings and frozen meals, and aims for a 25 percent reduction by the end of 2015.
Sodium and sugar are often hidden in some packaged foods.
"Bread is the No. 1 source of sodium in the American diet," said Andrea Thomas, Walmart's senior vice president of sustainability.
Walmart's push has cut the sodium in products sold in the bread aisle by 13 percent, the equivalent of removing 1.5 million pounds of salt from its shoppers' diets, Thomas said.
Several products are starting to carry a "Great For You" icon, aimed to designate more healthful foods and drinks. Walmart announced the icon a year ago, and national brands will soon be able to add it to their packaging as well.
Fresh fruits and vegetables qualify for the icon, as do lean cuts of meat, whole grain cereal and pasta, and low-fat milk.
Some products are changing to meet the criteria. Walmart's Great Value salsa had too much sugar to qualify, but a reformulated version can carry the icon, Thomas said.
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; additional reporting by Deborah Charles in Springfield, Missouri; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)


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<< Back To Energywire
Ukraine's plight may boost small reactors if costs are tamed
By Peter Behr | 03/23/2022 07:03 AM EDT
An artist's rendering shows a potential NuScale Power LLC small modular nuclear reactor site. Business Wire
Correction appended.
Widespread revulsion over Russia's attack on Ukraine has European officials looking for alternatives to Russian energy — including small modular nuclear reactors, the chief executive of the leading U.S. developer said.
Oregon-based NuScale Power LLC, the only company with a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved design for small reactors, is pursuing projects with partners in Poland and Romania.
With the Biden administration's support, it is exploring options in Bulgaria and elsewhere in Europe, NuScale CEO John Hopkins told E&E News. Ukraine and NuScale leaders had discussed a project there before Russian President Vladimir Putin's assault began in February.
"People want to get off Russian gas. They want to get off coal," Hopkins said in an interview. "We're getting a lot of strong interest" in Europe.
NuScale's top priority is launching its small modular reactors, or SMRs, in the United States as a source of around-the-clock clean energy. That begins with a six-unit plant built for the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, a power provider for community-owned systems in Utah and six other Western states. The plant is scheduled to come online in 2029 at the isolated Idaho National Laboratory site 45 miles west of Idaho Falls.
NuScale's core challenge remains the same in the United States, Europe and Asia, Hopkins acknowledges — to prove it can deliver its factory-built, 77-megawatt reactor modules on time and on budget.
The company got a vote of confidence in December from an investment group that proposes to add $373 million in funding for the NuScale reactor project. Since then, South Korea's Samsung C&T Corp. has added $30 million to its part of the merger investment, bringing the potential total to NuScale to $443 million before fees. NuScale expects the transaction to close in the second quarter of this year, calling it a key to its strategy.
However, its Carbon Free Power Project won't get built in Utah unless its costs are on track to deliver power at an average cost of $58 per megawatt-hour, Hopkins said. The initial reactor's projected power costs will be recalculated as work progresses, and if estimates go above the target price, the Utah municipal power group can walk away, according to LaVarr Webb, a spokesperson.
"We believe it's going to be below that [figure]," Hopkins said, but it is battling nuclear power's credibility issue. "In this industry, you oversell and underperform, historically. You can't do that anymore. We need to do what we say we can do."
NuScale's target price is comparable to power from natural gas plants at today's gas prices, inflated by the sanctions on Russian energy, Hopkins said this month. But it would not be competitive with typical U.S. electricity prices from gas plants before the crisis, nor with the average price of $36 per MWh for onshore U.S. wind power at the end of last year, according to a LevelTen Energy price survey.
What's an SMR worth?
Such price comparisons raise a critical question about the future of new nuclear power technologies in a future of clean energy in the United States, experts said. What is SMR power worth?
Unlike wind and solar power, reactors run 24/7 unless they are being refueled, making them a source of "firm" zero-carbon fuel. Some such firm clean energy will be essential if the U.S. grid becomes dependent on wind and solar for a majority of its electricity, to cover the hours when sunshine and wind aren't there, or periods of a week or more when wind and solar power output is poor.
"There is a near consensus that we're going to need significant amounts of firm zero-carbon power that will enable wind and solar generation in order to have a reliable and resilient grid," former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in an interview with E&E News.
Detailed computer studies of future grid conditions, including extreme weather scenarios, back up the conclusion, the study authors conclude.
Jeff Dagle, chief electrical engineer at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and an expert on grid security and resilience, said firm power with zero-carbon emissions will be essential when very high levels of renewable power are reached.
It's particularly evident in the Pacific Northwest, when stationary high-pressure systems arrive and stay for multiple days, smothering wind power, he said. Today's utility batteries cannot cover such a lengthy loss affordably.
New nuclear reactors will compete with geothermal energy, natural gas plants whose carbon emissions can be captured and kept from escaping into the atmosphere, and long-duration storage solutions that don't yet exist, Dagle noted. A much larger long-distance transmission grid could be part of the solution, as well.
It is too early in the race to know which firm clean energy options will prove most affordable, reliable and efficient, Dagle said. Whether Congress will enact additional tax incentives for clean energy, including SMR nuclear power, remains unsettled.
"I am a big fan of an all-of-the-above strategy," Dagle said in an interview with E&E News. "But they all have to compete," he added. "The cost is going to be a key driver."
A NuScale reactor isn't just for backing up wind and solar. It must run full time to meet budgets, according to NuScale.
Its design seeks cost reductions by using reactor modules small enough for factory construction and shipment to sites by truck or barge rather than the on-site construction of giant reactors like two new units on the way at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. The units will each have a capacity of more than 1,000 MW, but the project has seen delays, and costs have ballooned by billions of dollars.
Hopkins said NuScale is counting on its manufacturing partners to achieve the efficiency it is promising, including Japan's IHI Corp. and U.S.-based Fluor Corp., both billion-dollar global businesses.
"These little modules can be built in a factory. They don't care where they go," Hopkins said. "So that's 30 percent of the cost."
The rest of the cost is concrete, steel and a hole in the ground, he said. The modules can be combined in four-, six-, and 12-unit assemblies, and the first module can be running and earning revenue when the next one is under construction, he said.
The design cuts more costs with a "passive" safety system that submerges the reactor in a below-ground reservoir, eliminating the need for pumps, pipes and emergency power sources that are costly features of current commercial U.S. reactors, NuScale said.
While the unique design of the NuScale reactor and its emergency cooling system were approved by NRC in a final safety evaluation report, certain specific "inspections, tests, analyses and acceptance criteria" will still have to be met before the plant is authorized to operate by NRC, commission spokesman Scott Burnell said, responding to an E&E News query.
NuScale acknowledges that nuclear power faces a level of public opposition that competing zero-carbon energy sources don't.
"If accidents similar to the Fukushima disaster or other events, such as terrorist attacks involving nuclear facilities, occur, public opposition to nuclear power may increase," NuScale said in a regulatory filing.
'Significant losses'
Skeptics and opponents also focus on the project's possible price tag.
"You have to question the credibility of their predictions on operating costs, construction costs and construction time," said David Schlissel, director of resource planning analysis at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which has advocated for renewables.
IEEFA issued a critique of NuScale's reactor last month. "New designs always have problems," Schlissel said in an interview, adding that he had raised the same cost issues when Plant Vogtle was being debated. "I warned them."
In response, NuScale points to the support from DOE and private investors who believe it can deliver.
NuScale has been on a winning streak recently, including a $1.36-billion matching construction grant from the Department of Energy in October 2020. Last November, it agreed with a Romanian utility to pursue development of a six-module plant by 2028.
Last month, a major Polish copper and silver producer said it will work with NuScale on building an SMR there for industrial and utility power. NuScale said it has 10 other "highly interested" potential customers in seven countries.
Also last month, NuScale announced it will explore a project with Dairyland Power Cooperative, a La Crosse, Wis.-based power provider for 52 cooperatives and municipal utilities in four Midwest states.
And this month, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and a division of Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. said they were working toward agreement for Xcel to operate the Carbon Free Power Project.
But as a startup with a track record still to write, NuScale operates close to the edge financially, according to statements accompanying a merger agreement with a Texas-based investment fund, Spring Valley Acquisition Corp., announced in December.
Spring Valley, a Cayman Island-registered corporation formed to seek out a clean energy company it could merge with, raised $230 million in November 2020 and went looking for a match.
Its chief executive, Christopher Sorrells, has experience in the nuclear industry. Its board includes Patrick Wood III, a former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
NuScale was also seeking a partner. It has been developing its SMR design since 2007, incurring high research and regulatory filing costs. In 2020, it recorded an $88.4 million net loss despite about $71 million from an earlier DOE grant, according to a statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"We have incurred significant losses since our inception well beyond the support we have received through cost-sharing awards from the DOE," NuScale said, as part of Spring Valley's SEC registration statement for the transaction.
In the filing, the company said it expected significant expenses and negative cash flows until at least 2024, with the expectation that final NRC approvals will be in hand in 2025.
In its complex agreement with NuScale, Spring Valley seeks SEC approval for the merger in order to bring the new cash to the SMR venture. NuScale's management has "substantial doubt" about the company's ability "to continue as a going concern through December if the [Spring Valley] transactions are not completed," the filing disclosed.
In its competition with state-backed SMR projects from China and Russia, NuScale is following a typical U.S. new model: starting with academic research at Oregon State University; picked up and advanced by entrepreneurs and investors who went into a financial hole over more than a decade of development; and backed by the Energy Department in pursuing costly regulatory approvals.
The NuScale reactor project must hit a cost target without receiving compensation — at this point — for the societal value of its carbon-free power.
"If we're not cost-competitive, it's not going to go anywhere," Hopkins said.
Reporter Miranda Willson contributed.
Correction: This story has been updated to include additional investment information.
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Novitchenko () is a rural locality (a selo) in Abramovskoye Rural Settlement, Talovsky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia. The population was 106 as of 2010. There are 5 streets.

Geography
Novitchenko is located 34 km northeast of Talovaya (the district's administrative centre) by road. Yelan-Kolenovsky is the nearest rural locality.

References

Rural localities in Talovsky District


It's a time for co-operation at the highest level. Grab your gun, along with fellow and face withthe with successive levels. Is this time you manage to win in such a situation? Don't let the enemies surrounded you and turned into a bloody pulp! Use all available measures to ensure that this shooting 2 player game and eventually seal the victory. Cooperation with a buddy will surely bring good results. Combine your movements, help each other, and certainly get in one piece to the end of the story. Action draws without rest! Do you also date to grab the whirl of this story?


A reflection on my participation with a collective looking at the re-imagination of student reporting and the innovation associated with people and processes.
I was recently reflecting upon an ongoing reporting collective that I have been a part of for the last year and a half. One of the things that I have noticed is how hard change is. It often takes a long time and considerable commitment to turn turn the ship. For example, in a previous project, a principal shared with me that it had probably taken his school five year to transform the way in which teachers engage with data to inform learning within his school. Unless it is a new school or a school in crisis (e.g. Templestowe College), this timeline seems to be common trend.
It can therefore be a challenge to identify the specific points of change based on a year and a bit. One of the reasons is that sometimes we have a predefined ideal as to what such change might look like. A mindset of revolution rather than renaissance. It therefore occurred to me that I might have been thinking about this all the wrong way. Although the schools a part of the collective had not radically torn up their reports. They were still restricted to what providers make possible and the expectations of the various constituents. Instead the innovation came through in the actions, rather than the end product.
One of the biggest inhibitors of change seems to be time. This is captured in part by Tom Barrett's discussion of innovation compression. There is something about committing yourself to regular meetings.
It is important to have structure to guide things. This has come in several forms, such as appropriate spaces to work collaboratively and activities that supported the reflective process.
Associated with the structure is the opportunity to celebrate the small wins to maintain energy and motivation. Sometimes when you work in a small team driving change this is missed.
Beyond the explicit structures, one of the most powerful aspects to come out of the collective has been the serendipitous conversations. Although it is possible to structure opportunities to share, sometimes the greatest learning comes through in the random conversation. This is something that I describe as the hidden professional development.
In the end, this experience has reminded me that content and change is people, the challenge is being disciplined about the process. As always, thoughts, comments and webmentions welcome.
Reporting on Reporting – Innovation, People and the Process of Change by Aaron Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Having just started a new edu adventure, change is people… and commitment. Agreed. I might add 'hope' to your list, but it's probably implicit inside of what you're saying anyway. So much of the edu-change process is making people believe that change is possible.
Thank you Dave for the comment, that is a really good point.
Student separate into two categories… those that care and those that don't care.
Maybe the precondition to caring is having something worth caring about in the first place? Maybe that is where the hope sits?


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By Lonce Lamonte - January 1, 2021
May this beginning--of the year of our Lord 2021--become a true and deeply spiritual beginning. We pray for it…
We've had the 20 millionth coronavirus case in the U.S as of today's date.
As of today, there have been over 2,300,000 cases of infection in California. There have been about 26,500 deaths so far from the coronavirus in California.
It's a frightening situation that's going on at this time. Reading the L.A. Times each day causes overwhelming concern. The news is bad…
Hospitals are turning away ambulances. Patients are on rolling beds out in hospital corridors. Patients are encroaching upon the emergency room space. Patients are in beds in the gift shops.
From November 2020 to December 2020, the infection rates quadrupled in Los Angeles county. The spikes were alarming. More and more friends, relatives, acquaintances are testing positive for each one of us for the coronavirus. Each one of us is more and more falling prey.
Someone with the coronavirus is becoming more of a norm than an exception and a rarity.
This situation of a pandemic has happened before in human history.
In 1347, the Great Plague hit Europe hard coming in from the East. It moved along the sea ports used for trading. It came to Italy, France, Spain, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden in a circle and back around east along the north. Around the year 1345 there were about 150 million people in Europe. By 1353 there were about 75 million.
That's a 50% loss of the population.
Now, with approximately 2,300,000 coronavirus cases so far in California, and approximately $26,500 deaths, that's approximately 1.14% of infections that result in death. 1.14% is a world of difference from 50%. This just puts it in perspective.
The vaccine is rolling out. Give it a year. 2022 might bring us back to where we were before the pandemic.
As far as business as usual, 2021 brings the minimum wage in California to $14.00 an hour for large businesses (26 or more employees); it brings $13.00 an hour to smaller businesses (25 employees or less).
2021 starts us out with a national unemployment rate of about 6.7%. This is what it was in November 2020. This is over what it was at the height of the Recession-Depression of 2008 at 5.8%.
Pretty bad. So it can only get better. But maybe not. The global unemployment rate at the height of the Great Depression of 1933 was 24.9 percent.
We hope for better in 2021. But, yes, things could get worse. They have been worse before in human history, as about quadruple the current unemployment rate hit in the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Plague of Europe starting in 1347 killed half the population or 75 million people.
So, let us pray. Let's have faith and positive feeling. It's in God's hands.
Happy New Year 2021.
lonce@adjustercom.com, Lonce Lamonte, writer. All rights reserved.


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Q: Using rewrite mod in .htaccess I'd like to write a rewrite rule to do the following: if any of the following files exist on the server as a static html file in a specific directory then I'd like .htaccess to serve that static file. Otherwise, I'd like the id (first number after the .com/ and before the first hyphen) to be passed as a query parameter to www.gallery.com/index.php
Redirect should occur for the following URLs if it doesn't exist as a static HTML page.
 www.gallery.com/2-swimming.html
 www.gallery.com/2
 gallery.com/2

Below is my entire .htaccess file
<Files .htaccess>
   order allow,deny
   deny from all
</Files>

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENANE} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENANE} !-d
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+)-(.*)\.html$ /index.php?id=$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Is there anything wrong with my rewrite condition.(I'm having a hard time). Also what is an efficient way to grab the id incase of a redirect.

A: Why not just always pass everything to index.php?
PHP is a lot better at manipulating strings than .htaccess
The -f line already takes care of existing static files. (And -d for directories)

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?id=$1 [L,QSA]

This rule matches and captures everything.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Downingtown Area Historical Society
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Ashbridge House
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Gifts of History
Downingtown and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918
During the fall of 1918 the war in Europe was nearing its end but another battle was raging back home. It was, according to the Downingtown Archive, "the greatest epidemic of sickness ever known," and, the Archive further stated, "Downingtown is no exception."
The Spanish influenza pandemic came in four waves between January 1918 and December 1920, infecting 500 million people around the world resulting in an estimated 50 to 100 million deaths. Downingtown was mostly impacted during the second wave which hit the Borough (as well as all of Chester County) the hardest in October 1918.
This graph shows the monthly deaths in Downingtown from 1917 to 1919. The impact of the influenza pandemic can be clearly seen in October 1918 when 38 persons died in the Borough.
Most Downingtown homes had at least one, if not multiple persons down with the flu. About 1,500 cases were estimated to have occurred in the Borough, which was about four of every ten residents. For most of October, public gatherings of any type were strictly prohibited by the Board of Health. Schools, churches, hotels, lodges, and other meeting places were all closed.
In a normal month during the 1917-1919 period, there were an average of three deaths in Downingtown from all causes. In October 1918, 38 deaths were recorded in the Borough, with 42% of them occurring over three days (October 13th-15th). Nearly all of these were from influenza, or from pneumonia with influenza being a contributing factor. Victims of the pandemic lived in all Borough neighborhoods, but Johnsontown was especially hard hit. On Bradford Avenue alone there were six influenza-related deaths.
Downingtown Influenza Victims, October 1918
The 38 deaths in Downingtown in October 1918 are plotted by the victim's home on this modern Google Maps view. The distribution is all throughout the Borough but a significant cluster is in Johnsontown, including six on Bradford Avenue alone.
Downingtown victims ranged in age from three month-old Stewart Nichols on Chestnut Street to 79 year-old David Parke on East Lancaster Avenue. But what made this pandemic especially alarming were the number of victims in their 20s and 30s including:
Emily Deets, age 37, living at 120 Webster Avenue. She left a husband and two children.
Edwin Dixon, age 33, living at 75 West Lancaster Avenue. He was an electrician on the Pennsylvania Railroad who left a pregnant wife and three children.
Mabel Hughes, age 36, living at 121 Brandywine Avenue. She left a husband and three children.
Alfred Cummins, age 36, a laborer at the Downingtown Iron Works who lived at 122 Bradford Avenue.
Mary Eachus, age 25, living at 219 Mary Street. She left a husband and daughter.
Catherine Beale, age 32, living at 207 Stuart Avenue. She left a husband and two sons.
Gertrude Dougherty, age 19. She lived with her parents at 154 Viaduct Avenue.
© 2023 Downingtown Area Historical Society ~ P.O. Box 9, Downingtown, PA 19335 ~ 610-269-1709 ~ dths1709@gmail.com