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by Havantgottaclue
Astral Chain is looking very promising. There's a very enthusiastic preview on Wccftech today.
It's pretty much locked in for a purchase on 30 August.
Stardew Valley is brilliant, but you did say you wanted games that weren't a massive time sink. Well, I played SV for over 100 hours on the Switch and there are still challenges I haven't finished (the fishing ones were fairly low down my list of priorities). That said, it is one of those games you ...
Naturally, the on-the-go aspect gives the Switch its unique selling point, it fulfils the promise of home console style gaming on the go, as the PSVita aspired to but never reached. To expect the standards of Xbox One (even the base model) would be foolish, of course. I'm not being critical as such,...
Topic: New highly impressive CPC game
Re: New highly impressive CPC game
It's interesting to see these projects - if you look at the software library of the Spectrum, C64 and Atari 2600, you get the impression that on these machines, having sold in such vast quantities, the programmers really pushed the machines far beyond the original vision of the machines' designers. ...
I've been playing Switch quite a lot recently. It's amazing how the library has boomed - it is the perfect platform for those little indie and retro titles that you want to play on the move as well as at home. I put in over 100 hours on Stardew Valley. Baba is You is a fantastic puzzler, a sort of w...
Topic: Amstrad, Spectrum or C64. What is the worst and best hardware for gaming?
Re: Amstrad, Spectrum or C64. What is the worst and best hardware for gaming?
Yes, I sort of forgot that the best thing available at the time was the C64 programmer's reference guide, which was pretty dry. There was also a fairly heavy tome for the BBC that gave you an explanation of every single mnemonic. The problem was that none of these guides had any sample routines - no...
Topic: iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch game recommendations
Re: iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch game recommendations
The iPad mini is really good for gaming on the move. Lovely crisp screen, not too big, not too small. I've found the iPhone 8 to be a bit on the small side. I'm out of contract in December, and I just wonder whether an iPhone XS will be a good buy at that time. The iPhone 11 doesn't really whet my a...
I look back on my C64 days as a missed opportunity to learn coding. I was reasonably conversant with BASIC but the fact is that so many things, from displaying sprites to programming the SID chip and sensing joystick inputs, was no harder in assembly than in BASIC. Furthermore, by using assembly you...
Topic: Backwards Compatability
Re: Backwards Compatability
Ray-tracing seems a likely culprit for that. Haven't tried it out myself though - tempting though it is to try out a fancy new tech, I'm not certain the RTX cards are a great deal at present. Seems like the tech needs to mature a bit and developers need the chance to get used to it. On the subject o...
I just wonder how many of those are really suited to a system without physical controls though.
iPad really comes into its own for games like Civ VI ... it would be great to see other games like the Endless Space/Legends series come to that platform, it's made for games like that.
Now The Outer Worlds slated for release ... what won't they port to the system?
I'll get Outer Worlds with Game Pass. But if it's good enough, a mobile port might be just the ticket for my commute, even if it is heavily cut back graphically.
Topic: Retrogaming Spotlight: Missile Command
Re: Retrogaming Spotlight: Missile Command
I remember playing this one on the Atari 2600. I've never played it with trackball but I must have played a few remakes with mouse. I may be wrong, but I think this was one of those games that you often found in PD libraries for the Amiga/ST. I think the fact that you had mouse control meant that it...
Yes, absolutely right. Thankfully I kept a lot of my 360 games around and the improvement with games like RDR on the X1X is quite something. In particular the amount of detail resolved at distance makes the game look far better. I just wonder whether what's going on now is that developers are alread...
Given that the next gen consoles are going to be sporting very similar CPU/GPU architecture to the current gen, I'd say what could be more interesting is "forwards compatibility". I'm sure this was something that was mentioned on one of Digital Foundry's videos shortly after the announcement of next...
I've had a quick go on Doom 3. It looks as though it uses assets from the OG Xbox era - but while close-ups aren't flattering, it actually looks half decent in normal play. And as it's fairly unambitious it hits 60 FPS, which is much smoother than the perhaps overambitious Doom (2016). Got to say £7...


Celebrate our 74th Season with five stunning classical orchestra and chamber performances at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and one at the Riverview Performing Arts Center.
Free community concerts featuring acclaimed local artists at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center.
The content of the Artists' Programs will be published on this website as they become available. They are subject to change according to the decisions made by the artists.


Summer is always super exciting around here because we LOVE bright colors and pastels are our favorite! New snapbacks are available, and our new jumbo tote is huge and perfect for beach or pool days.
Jason Blake in his Stay Cute pink rose snapback.


Iran Front Page- IFP has taken a look at the front pages of Iranian newspapers on Monday, April 16, and picked headlines from 23 of them. IFP has simply translated the headlines and does not vouch for their accuracy.
The US-led coalition's Saturday attack on Syria and the ensuing reactions to the "criminal" move remained a top story today.
Several papers particularly highlighted the remarks made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and the harsh comments made by Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on the recent aggression on Syria.
Also a major top story today was the Iranian Judiciary's failure to arrest former Tehran prosecutor Saeid Mortazavi, who has been sentenced to two years in prison for complicity in the death of a prisoner in the notorious Kahrizak Detention Centre back in 2009. Posters have been put on the walls of Tehran in the past couple of days, depicting Mortazavi as a "wanted cowboy", implicitly criticizing the Judiciary and its spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei who said we haven't found him.
What Happened to Secrets of Notorious Prosecutor Mortazavi?
Iranian People in Past Days Put Posters on Walls to Find Mortazavi!
Nasrallah: They Bombed the Air!
Brutal Crackdown on Critics in France, the So-Called Advocate of Democracy!
Turkey says not siding with anyone on Syria, policy different from Iran, Russia, U.S.


Personal finance is one of those areas where there are many fundamental topics. Just like when you begin working out, you understand that you need to train hard and eat well. You know that these are the basics. With money management we all know that we need to make money, spend less than we earn, and save. In between all of this there are many tactics and tricks to make things easier.
As we continue in the Saving Tons of Money Series, we shift our focus to paying yourself first. Before we get into the meat of the article, let's understand why do you need to pay yourself first?
Once your pay yourself first, you really can't screw up the process. The process gets all messed up when you delay your plan to save your money. Delaying to save money will almost always cause you to not save this money. No matter how good your intentions might be at the moment. You want to create a system that you can't screw up if you realistically want to start saving your money.
Forces you to save money.
You're forced to save your money when you set it aside and lock it up in your savings account of choice. If you save your money and let it be, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see how quickly your savings are building up.
Our wants start to kick in.
Anytime I see any sort of advertisement or I walk into a mall I start to think of things that I need to buy. I know that I don't need this stuff. The thing is that everyone is susceptible to marketing. This is why we need to save our money and put it away so that we don't start thinking of crap that we need to buy. At that rate you'll never save any money. You'll constantly find new things that you want. This will bring you further from your money goals.
Okay so you know that you have to pay yourself first. What's next? What are the best ways to pay yourself first?
Get the money deducted from your paycheck.
This way you'll never have to even see the money. You can pretend that you got a pay cut or something. The funny thing is that after a few paychecks you'll get adjusted to your "new income." All you have to do is go to your payroll department in HR and request that they take the money off your paycheck. At the most you might have to fill out a few forms and decide where you want your money to go. I recommend that you take the simplest option. You don't want to put off automatic deductions just because you can't decide where you want to put your money. Don't let the paradox of choice prevent you from saving your money.
Manually transfer the money over every time you get paid.
This is the ideal strategy for those of you that have an irregular income. Whenever you get paid through your freelance work or your business, you can decide how much money you want to put away. I don't want to throw out an arbitrary percentage. It all depends on your bills, goals, and of course taxes.
The only caveat here is that you might get lazy if you need to manually transfer your money first. This is why positive reinforcement helps and it makes sense to stay tuned to your favorite personal finance blogs for a reminder of some of the fundamentals.
Do you believe in paying yourself first? Has this strategy worked for you?


In 1901, one of the most famous metaphysical experiments of the 20th century was performed by a Massachusetts physician. His name was Duncan MacDougall, and he believed that, if the soul were real, it should have measurable weight. He therefore attempted to compare the weights of patients before and after death. After testing six patients dying of tuberculosis, he concluded that dying results in the small but measurable loss of ¾ of an ounce – the weight of the soul.
To MacDougall's way of thinking, the soul should be found only in human beings and not in other animals. He therefore performed similar measurements in dogs and found no loss in weight as the animals expired. This he regarded as confirmation of his belief that souls are found only in living human beings, and that when a human being dies, the soul leaves the body.
MacDougall's investigations were flawed at many levels.
When his results were first published, critics argued that the weight loss could be explained by physiologic factors, such as evaporation. Moreover, his report failed to mention several patients in whom he found no weight loss. Finally, subsequent attempts to reproduce his results failed to find any weight loss. Indeed, MacDougall's vision may have been clouded by confirmation bias, the tendency for investigators to see what they expect.
As a radiologist, I look at the interior of the human body every day, but have yet to see a soul. That does not mean it doesn't exist. Taking the fact we cannot locate the soul on a CT or MRI scan as proof that it does not exist is as problematic as suggesting that the flaws in MacDougall's experiment disprove the existence of the soul. Indeed, seeking physical evidence to prove the existence of the soul flies in the face of a great deal of philosophical and theological scholarship.
The ancient Greeks understood the soul as something insubstantial. They used the same word for both breath and soul, and they understood both to be intimately bound up with life.
This linkage is preserved in our usage of the term "expiration" for both breathing out and dying – in both cases, the breath or soul leaves the body. The same linkage is apparent in the Bible, where the spirit is said to move like the wind, unseen but with unmistakable effects.
Plato and Socrates appear to have regarded the soul as the essence of a living thing, including each human being. Both supposed that the soul and the body could be separated, and that the soul could carry on even after the body ceased to exist. Aristotle regarded the soul as essential to understanding the body.
In fact, Aristotle thought different kinds of living beings have different kinds of souls. A plant has a purely nutritive soul, which is responsible for growth and reproduction. An animal also has an appetitive soul, meaning that it seeks out what it needs. A human being, he thought, also has a rational soul, which gives us the desire to understand the natures of things, including souls. Following the lead of his teachers Socrates and Plato, Aristotle may have regarded this part of the soul as eternal.
Thomas Aquinas took Aristotle's arguments even further, holding that the soul must be insubstantial because it is able to know – and thus to take the form of – every other kind of thing, whether substantial or not. For the same reason, he argued that since the soul is not made of matter, it is impervious to injury by physical forces. This in turn leads him to argue that the soul is immortal and eternal, never coming into being or passing away.
Those inclined to the materialist position – which denies reality to anything devoid of weight – would be well-advised to examine the arguments of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas very seriously. Physical properties such as weight, color, size, location and velocity do not characterize everything we regard as real. For example, these very ideas themselves exhibit none of these properties, but who would say that they are therefore unreal?
The work of these ancient and medieval thinkers offers important insights to contemporary neuroscientists, some of whom have speculated about the existence of a "God nucleus" – a brain center involved in religious faith – and that the minds of human beings are "wired" for religious belief. The structure and function of the brain may indeed offer important insights into how the mind works, but it would be a mistake, in my view, to suppose that the mind is "nothing more" than the matter of the brain.
Misguided materialists will no doubt continue trying to pin down the physical existence of the soul, but those looking at the matter from the vantage point of the greatest minds in Western civilization can understand that the effort to prove the soul's existence through physical means is little more than a fool's errand, like trying to prove that the number 2 is twice as big as the number 1 by weighing it.
The soul, whatever it may be, cannot be proved or disproved by natural science.
August 10, 2016 What can a 1.7-million-year-old hominid fossil teach us about cancer?


Large and spacious 3 bedroom apartment directly in front of the beach, at Playa Las Ballenas in Las Terrenas. Everything is within walking distance. Beach in front, restaurants, and apartments 2 minutes and center town 2 minutes walk more. You don't need a car.
The block has in total 9 apartments, nice pool, jacuzzi, parking and of course 24/7 security. The hoa fees are 300 usd per month.
Apartment on the third level with a perfect view over the beach and the ocean directly in front of you. Outdoor living is important. For that, the salon and kitchen have large sliding doors which open up to the spacious terrace.
In the kitchen countertops in granite, dishwasher and stove included. Bathrooms natural stoned, floors in Spanish tiles. Solid wooden doors. 3 bedrooms with each airco: the master has its own private bathroom and the other 2 bedrooms have a shared bathroom. The complex has a backup generator, laundry facilities, 2 parking for this unit, tv, and internet.
Hoa fees 300 usd per month.


Liberty Lake resident Holly Haneke is executive director of GraceSon Housing Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to providing housing, resources and support for teen moms and their children.
Holly Haneke understands that a well-woven safety net can make all the difference during trying times.
When the Spokane native found herself in a freefall after the death of her husband in 2005, a move to Liberty Lake and reinforcement from family and friends cushioned the landing. Now Haneke is working to provide the same sort of support to teen moms trying to find solid ground of their own.
A resident of Liberty Lake for the past eight years, Haneke is the executive director of GraceSon Housing Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to providing wraparound assistance to young mothers and their children. The group is planning construction of a site in north Spokane that will be central to providing what Haneke describes as "opportunities for success."
Haneke graduated from Mead High School in 1997 and went on to attend Gonzaga University, where she played basketball. A heart ailment sent Haneke to the sidelines for her senior year, relegating the former starter to the role of a supplemental coach. She graduated from GU in 2001 with a degree in speech/communications.
Holly and her husband, Andy Bruno - a fellow Gonzaga grad - moved to the Dominican Republic after college as part of a mission to the Dominican Republic through a nonprofit called Children of the Nations. The couple assisted Haitian migrant workers and helped in various orphanages before Holly's heart issues brought them back to the Inland Northwest.
After Andy joined the Marines, the couple was on the move again. In 2005, they found themselves in Meridian, Miss., where Andy was enrolled in jet training.
In February of that year, Andy was flying a biplane when an equipment malfunction occurred. He perished in a crash, leaving behind Holly and two young children. He was 27.
Holly would eventually remarry. She and Matt Haneke have a child together in addition to Holly's previous two.
What: A white carpet event featuring live art and local musicians, The Rub, to raise money for the GraceSon Housing Foundation.
For more or to register: www.gracesonhousingfoundation.org, 509-939-5370 or 916-501-7273.
Hoping to make a difference, Haneke started mentoring with Young Lives in 2009. The program - connected to the faith-based Young Life organization for youth - provides support and advocacy for teen moms and their kids. The lack of housing for local mothers led to the purchase of a home and land in the Hillyard area as well as the formation of GraceSon. When it became clear the building was too dilapidated, the group forged on with a blueprint to build from the ground up.
GraceSon has its headquarters in Liberty Lake at the Meadowwood Technology Campus, collaborating with local groups like Life Services of Spokane. A kickoff fundraiser is scheduled on Feb. 22 at the Spokane Convention Center. While the home in Hillyard is being built, Haneke said the group will "continue to focus on providing a better life for these moms and their children through a holistic approach."
The Splash caught up with Haneke last month to talk about the path to GraceSon, the challenges of leading a new nonprofit and a project built on a foundation of hope.
Q. When you were at Gonzaga or even before, did you think you might want to go into the world of nonprofits?
A. I always knew I had a heart for nonprofits. I interned at the American Red Cross for a while in their PR department. I've just always had a heart for the underprivileged and those who may be struggling.
Q. You were at Union Gospel Mission in communications and the after-care department before accepting the job as GraceSon Housing Foundation's first executive director last year. What did you learn at UGM that might help in this new role?
A. As my kids have grown older, I knew I wanted to do something. I learned a ton at UGM and really grew there. I soaked in so much, not only how nonprofits work but also what they were doing to change people's lives. I was very thankful to be there, but still I knew I wanted to work with these young moms.
Q. How was that transition from UGM to a brand new nonprofit?
A. Shanna Miller of Young Lives talked to me about it. I wanted to make sure she knew I'd been a stay-at-home mom for 10 years and, yes, I'd been working at UGM for a year and a half, but still. I knew I needed some time to think about it and pray about it. Finally, I just said, "OK, I'm all in." When I gave my two weeks' notice at UGM, everyone was super excited and very supportive.
Q. You've experienced what it's like to be a young, single mom facing an uphill battle. How did you get through the loss of your husband and stay strong for your kids?
A. It was a pretty dark time in my life. I was in Mississippi, and there were people and family and you're going through all this stuff you have to go through, dealing with the military side of it. Then the family left, and here I am in Mississippi and that's when everything kind of hit. People would come over to help me, and I wouldn't answer the door. I just wanted to shut myself in. I think I went a week by myself and then I called my mom. I was just trying to re-establish my life. I knew I had to move forward. I was super grateful for my girls at the time. You can't stop living. I had babies that I needed to take care of. It kept me going. The other thing was my faith in God. I knew where Andy was, and I knew he was safe. Even during that time when it was difficult and I was grieving, I still felt a sense of hope. I knew it was going to be OK.
Q. What did you learn as a mentor with Young Lives that can translate into relating to some of the challenges these teen moms are facing?
A. We see all different sorts of scenarios. What we were seeing working with these girls - and I think on average, they're helping around 75 teen moms a year - was that they don't often have a place to live. You may have a mom who's kicked her out or someone else is facing domestic violence. There weren't enough places to live.
Q. How did GraceSon Housing Foundation get started and where are you at now?
A. A donor connected with Young Life stepped forward a year ago to buy a home for teen moms. A property was purchased in Hillyard and, initially, there was a thought of renovating it. We set up a separate nonprofit. It's just been a process of baby steps, just getting this on a good foundation. Our construction chairs are Tom and Kathy Hansen, who own Walker Construction. We worked with an architect all summer. We developed plans. I did research in Spokane of the different places, the maternity homes. I went over to Seattle and visited a home over there. We just started breaking down our needs. Now we're organizing a huge fundraiser. We have a budget for the facility, so we're working toward a campaign, so we can go out and start talking to people about what we're doing and what we're looking for.
Q. How do you work with young moms in a way that is nurturing but also provides the structure and accountability that they may not have had before?
A. They need to have boundaries, but there also needs to be a balance. They want to be independent, but they're not there yet. It's a matter of working to get them there. They want to be part of a community where they have the support of those who are going through the same thing. That's huge when there's some camaraderie there. That's a very positive thing for them. They are learning to be moms, learning new skills. Some of these girls will tell you, "My baby saved my life."
Q. How are things progressing with the home itself?
A. We would love to break ground by the spring. We want to be good stewards of money so we can actually help these girls. We just really believe this is something we can raise the funds for. We have girls right now who need housing. That's where we're at.
Q. So, you've got the home that will be built. What's going on with GraceSon in the meantime?
A. We work with Young Lives right now, helping with case management connecting the moms to resources. The other thing is we were asking, "How can we help these young moms now?" What we were seeing was these gaps in some areas. We've developed what we call the Hope program. When the home is built, we'll help young moms in the home and outside of the home with life coaching. Do you need legal services, do you need TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)? We want to help them access those resources in the community. We are here to help them, not do everything for them. We're trying to teach them how to be independent. We are also not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're just here to provide hope.


The SPL are preparing to pull the plug on troubled broadcaster Setanta today to secure a lucrative new television deal with either Sky or ESPN.
Scotland's top-flight have been involved in delicate negotiations for weeks in a bid to prevent their clubs going into financial meltdown as the Irish-based company hurtles towards administration.
Unless Setanta are saved at the eleventh hour, an announcement on a new deal is expected this week. Sportsmail has learned that Disney-owned ESPN are willing to pay £112.5million to conclude a four-year deal and Sky up to £87.5m.
Setanta's outlay for the same period was £125m, but they are now close to collapse following the English Premier League's decision to terminate their contract with immediate effect.
Despite Sky's offer being lower than ESPN's, the Rupert Murdoch-owned company could still offer better exposure for the Scottish game.
It leaves the SPL in a similar position to last summer, when Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen all favoured a deal with Sky during television rights negotiations, while the rest of the top 12 clubs opted to extend the Setanta contract for four years to 2010.
Friday's collapse of US tycoon Len Blavatnik's £20m rescue plan for Setanta appears to have sounded the death knell for the broadcasters, and they could go into administration as early as today.
The SPL have already had to bail out clubs to the tune of £3m after Setanta missed the final payment of last season's agreement.
But the league remain confident that Setanta's demise will not trigger catastrophic effects for their cash-starved clubs.
'This Setanta crisis has been going on for weeks now and it would have been negligent for the Premier League to sit back and do nothing behind the scenes during this time,' a senior Scottish football source told Sportsmail.
'The problem is that you can't go public when you already have a deal in place with Setanta. But the truth is that talks have been ongoing with two major television companies over the past four weeks.
'We should be hearing an announcement on that within the next week. Nobody is holding out any hope for Setanta,' he said.
Bidding closes today in the auction for the 46-game package that Setanta held with the English Premier League. Sky and ESPN are expected to split them down the middle.
The same broadcasters will then compete for the rights to show live SPL matches, with no terrestrial broadcaster believed to be willing, nor able, to find the funds to screen Scottish football.
What is unclear is how Sky, if they take over the contract, would fit Scottish fixtures into an already packed schedule of football games.
In other news, Livingston today face slipping into administration for the second time in the club's short 14-year history if chairman Angelo Massone fails to settle a £10,000 rent payment with West Lothian Council.


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Defiance - and Wavering - As Albania's Rebels Face Army
President refuses to bend against insurgents in the south
By Lara Santoro Special to The Christian Science Monitor
March 6, 1997 | TIRANA, ALBANIA
Albanians' resolve to continue an all-out confrontation with the government and its Army seemed to waver as tanks rolling into the southern city of Gjirokaster met with little or no resistance from the previously insurgent local population yesterday.
President Sali Berisha appears staunchly set against any attempt at forming a broader-based government, which would include parties from the opposition.
Observers say the real issue at hand is whether the southern coastal town of Vlora - considered the epicenter of Albania's revolt against the government - will hold out against the approaching tanks.
Thousands of Albanians throughout the country blame the government for the loss of their life savings in fraudulent financial schemes.
Residents of another southern town, Sarand, announced the formation of an autonomous government, and reports of the Army being ill-disposed to challenge the protesters are widespread. In fact, two Albanian jet pilots who claim they were ordered to fire on civilians in Gjirokaster flew their MiG-15 to Italy Tuesday, where they asked for political asylum.
But the concern among opposition members is that Mr. Berisha will ultimately succeed in putting a lid on the violence that has left at least 18 people dead.
Indeed, not all soldiers have hesitated to confront rebellious citizens. The Associated Press reported yesterday that government jets dropped bombs on a town outside Sarand. And soldiers in tanks and armored personnel carriers continue to make their way through the south. According to one resident of Vlora, contacted by phone Tuesday, the mobs who ransacked an Army barracks with hardly any opposition are now rethinking their position in light of the approaching troops.
"First there was this rage. Protesters got the guns and shot like mad in the air," says Farouk, a businessman in Vlora who refused to give his last name for fear of reprisal by Albania's ubiquitous secret police. "Now there is no food, no gas, and the tanks are coming. People are starting to realize what they did, and they are afraid."
Anger against the collapse of the pyramid schemes - in which most of Albania's 3.5 million people invested an estimated $3 billion over the last five years - spiraled out of control last week. People in Vlora stormed police stations and military warehouses, taking control of the town.
Lured by the promise of interest rates as high as 25 percent, many Albanians sold their homes, livestock, and businesses to participate in pyramid schemes overtly sponsored by Berisha's government.
"That's why the people tolerated Berisha for so long after the rigged elections last May," says Gazim, a Tirana resident who also refused to give his last name. "They thought that if the government was behind the schemes, their money would be safe."
The hard-currency earnings of relatives working abroad, as well as revenues from illegal activities such as drug trafficking and smuggling gas into the former Yugoslavia during the war in Bosnia, were also funneled into the investment schemes. Money from one batch of investors was used to pay out exorbitant interest rates to the next batch.
"We knew that pyramid schemes in other countries never lasted more than six months," Gazim says. "But Albania's different. Here we had all that dirty money sustaining the operation."
But in recent weeks, it didn't take a genius to realize that the schemes were starting to unravel, Gazim adds: "The lek [Albania's currency], which had been stable for four years, lost 35 percent against the dollar over the last month and a half."
Berisha was told by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that the pyramid schemes would collapse, but he did not heed their warnings. Some say no action was taken because government officials were profiting from the situation, receiving kickbacks from the promoters of the schemes. By the time the IMF and World Bank issued their warnings, however, the schemes were already in full force: Upward of 75 percent of all Albanians invested in them.
Meanwhile, the state of emergency decreed by the government on Monday has gripped the capital, Tirana. Streets are deserted after the 8 p.m. curfew with a few Army vehicles and plainclothes policemen patrolling central Skandenberg Square, where the bulk of the international press has set up its headquarters. The city has also been surrounded by roadblocks.
"We are afraid," says Miriam, a journalist working at the opposition daily Gazeta Sqptari. "It started out like this in Bosnia too, with a few shots and then four years of war." The entrance to the paper, which Miriam says has always been wide open, was barred yesterday - a safety precaution after the burning down of the main opposition paper, Kola Jone, on Sunday. The attack has been widely attributed to Berisha's Shik secret police.
"We took away all the computers and the phones" because of concerns that the government would burn this office down like Kola Jone, Miriam says.
While the latest violence was set off by the loss of life savings, many say Berisha went too far last May when he presumably rigged elections. Polls had him at 35 percent, but when votes were counted, he came in first with 90 percent of the reported ballots.
"That was his big mistake," says Ilir Gurakuci, a journalist working with the Albanian service of the British Broadcasting Corp. Berisha then made a second mistake, he says: "He appeared on television nonstop. His face and his voice were everywhere, all the time. He became just like the old Communist dictators, and people couldn't stand that."
When even Vefa, the most conservative of Albania's pyramid investment schemes, collapsed, the scene was set for violence. "The powder was there," says Gazim. "It just needed a spark."
In Albania, new Turkish mosque stirs old resentments
Why Albania's refusal to take Syria's WMDs is a sign of democracy
Refusal to destroy Syria's chemical weapons sparks Albanian national pride

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Although many of our members just run for fun or for fitness, we also have an active race programme.
Each year, we designate a number of races as "club events" and these contribute to our yearly awards.
For news about upcoming races, race reports and photos, please check out our blog.
For 2018/2019 there will be separate Club Championships for road, off-road and fell running. We believe this encourages participation, irrespective of ability in competitive opportunities and supports local races.
Unlike the Club Championship which seeks to establish who in the club has run the fastest at designated races, the Club Competitor Championship recognises those athletes that have regularly represented the club throughout the year.
The competition is open to all first claim members who compete in these designated races and who have paid their Club subscription in full.
The best six performances for each member will be totalled giving you your final score.
The series takes place between April and March and consists of ten designated races with distances ranging from 5k to 10 miles.
The Fell championship is growing every year, this year (2018/19 there are a couple of changes with an extra race and a fell challenge that you can take on anytime you want.
The best five performances for each member will be totalled giving you your final score.


text:
Q: Extracting Synonyms
*

*I have ten txt files and generated a corpus of these files.

*After creating my corpus i need to generate vector space model.

*For VSM i preprocessed the corpus to remove stop words, number, punctuation etc...

*Now i need to read the corpus and generate the synonyms against each keyword/Character/Word present in the corpus.

*I am unable to use wordnet to get synonyms against each file present in my text corpus.

I want to generate synonyms of each word and append those keywords in the same file..

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package com.google.mockwebserver;

import static com.google.mockwebserver.SocketPolicy.DISCONNECT_AT_START;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.Proxy;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingDeque;
import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocket;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory;

/**
 * A scriptable web server. Callers supply canned responses and the server
 * replays them upon request in sequence.
 */
public final class MockWebServer {

    static final String ASCII = "US-ASCII";

    private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(MockWebServer.class.getName());
    private final BlockingQueue<RecordedRequest> requestQueue
            = new LinkedBlockingQueue<RecordedRequest>();
    private final BlockingQueue<MockResponse> responseQueue
            = new LinkedBlockingDeque<MockResponse>();
    private final Set<Socket> openClientSockets
            = Collections.newSetFromMap(new ConcurrentHashMap<Socket, Boolean>());
    private boolean singleResponse;
    private final AtomicInteger requestCount = new AtomicInteger();
    private int bodyLimit = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
    private ServerSocket serverSocket;
    private SSLSocketFactory sslSocketFactory;
    private ExecutorService executor;
    private boolean tunnelProxy;

    private int port = -1;

    public int getPort() {
        if (port == -1) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Cannot retrieve port before calling play()");
        }
        return port;
    }

    public String getHostName() {
        try {
            return InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostName();
        } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
            throw new AssertionError();
        }
    }

    public Proxy toProxyAddress() {
        return new Proxy(Proxy.Type.HTTP, new InetSocketAddress(getHostName(), getPort()));
    }

    /**
     * Returns a URL for connecting to this server.
     *
     * @param path the request path, such as "/".
     */
    public URL getUrl(String path) throws MalformedURLException, UnknownHostException {
        return sslSocketFactory != null
                ? new URL("https://" + getHostName() + ":" + getPort() + path)
                : new URL("http://" + getHostName() + ":" + getPort() + path);
    }

    /**
     * Sets the number of bytes of the POST body to keep in memory to the given
     * limit.
     */
    public void setBodyLimit(int maxBodyLength) {
        this.bodyLimit = maxBodyLength;
    }

    /**
     * Serve requests with HTTPS rather than otherwise.
     *
     * @param tunnelProxy whether to expect the HTTP CONNECT method before
     *     negotiating TLS.
     */
    public void useHttps(SSLSocketFactory sslSocketFactory, boolean tunnelProxy) {
        this.sslSocketFactory = sslSocketFactory;
        this.tunnelProxy = tunnelProxy;
    }

    /**
     * Awaits the next HTTP request, removes it, and returns it. Callers should
     * use this to verify the request sent was as intended.
     */
    public RecordedRequest takeRequest() throws InterruptedException {
        return requestQueue.take();
    }

    /**
     * Returns the number of HTTP requests received thus far by this server.
     * This may exceed the number of HTTP connections when connection reuse is
     * in practice.
     */
    public int getRequestCount() {
        return requestCount.get();
    }

    public void enqueue(MockResponse response) {
        responseQueue.add(response.clone());
    }

    /**
     * By default, this class processes requests coming in by adding them to a
     * queue and serves responses by removing them from another queue. This mode
     * is appropriate for correctness testing.
     *
     * <p>Serving a single response causes the server to be stateless: requests
     * are not enqueued, and responses are not dequeued. This mode is appropriate
     * for benchmarking.
     */
    public void setSingleResponse(boolean singleResponse) {
        this.singleResponse = singleResponse;
    }

    /**
     * Equivalent to {@code play(0)}.
     */
    public void play() throws IOException {
        play(0);
    }

    /**
     * Starts the server, serves all enqueued requests, and shuts the server
     * down.
     *
     * @param port the port to listen to, or 0 for any available port.
     *     Automated tests should always use port 0 to avoid flakiness when a
     *     specific port is unavailable.
     */
    public void play(int port) throws IOException {
        executor = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
        serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
        serverSocket.setReuseAddress(true);

        this.port = serverSocket.getLocalPort();
        executor.execute(namedRunnable("MockWebServer-accept-" + port, new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    acceptConnections();
                } catch (Throwable e) {
                    logger.log(Level.WARNING, "MockWebServer connection failed", e);
                }

                /*
                 * This gnarly block of code will release all sockets and
                 * all thread, even if any close fails.
                 */
                try {
                    serverSocket.close();
                } catch (Throwable e) {
                    logger.log(Level.WARNING, "MockWebServer server socket close failed", e);
                }
                for (Iterator<Socket> s = openClientSockets.iterator(); s.hasNext();) {
                    try {
                        s.next().close();
                        s.remove();
                    } catch (Throwable e) {
                        logger.log(Level.WARNING, "MockWebServer socket close failed", e);
                    }
                }
                try {
                    executor.shutdown();
                } catch (Throwable e) {
                    logger.log(Level.WARNING, "MockWebServer executor shutdown failed", e);
                }
            }

            private void acceptConnections() throws Exception {
                do {
                    Socket socket;
                    try {
                        socket = serverSocket.accept();
                    } catch (SocketException ignored) {
                        continue;
                    }
                    MockResponse peek = responseQueue.peek();
                    if (peek != null && peek.getSocketPolicy() == DISCONNECT_AT_START) {
                        responseQueue.take();
                        socket.close();
                    } else {
                        openClientSockets.add(socket);
                        serveConnection(socket);
                    }
                } while (!responseQueue.isEmpty());
            }
        }));
    }

    public void shutdown() throws IOException {
        if (serverSocket != null) {
            serverSocket.close(); // should cause acceptConnections() to break out
        }
    }

    private void serveConnection(final Socket raw) {
        String name = "MockWebServer-" + raw.getRemoteSocketAddress();
        executor.execute(namedRunnable(name, new Runnable() {
            int sequenceNumber = 0;

            public void run() {
                try {
                    processConnection();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    logger.log(Level.WARNING, "MockWebServer connection failed", e);
                }
            }

            public void processConnection() throws Exception {
                Socket socket;
                if (sslSocketFactory != null) {
                    if (tunnelProxy) {
                        createTunnel();
                    }
                    socket = sslSocketFactory.createSocket(
                            raw, raw.getInetAddress().getHostAddress(), raw.getPort(), true);
                    ((SSLSocket) socket).setUseClientMode(false);
                    openClientSockets.add(socket);
                    openClientSockets.remove(raw);
                } else {
                    socket = raw;
                }

                InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
                OutputStream out = new BufferedOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());

                while (!responseQueue.isEmpty() && processOneRequest(in, out, socket)) {}

                if (sequenceNumber == 0) {
                    logger.warning("MockWebServer connection didn't make a request");
                }

                in.close();
                out.close();
                socket.close();
                if (responseQueue.isEmpty()) {
                    shutdown();
                }
                openClientSockets.remove(socket);
            }

            /**
             * Respond to CONNECT requests until a SWITCH_TO_SSL_AT_END response
             * is dispatched.
             */
            private void createTunnel() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
                while (true) {
                    MockResponse connect = responseQueue.peek();
                    if (!processOneRequest(raw.getInputStream(), raw.getOutputStream(), raw)) {
                        throw new IllegalStateException("Tunnel without any CONNECT!");
                    }
                    if (connect.getSocketPolicy() == SocketPolicy.UPGRADE_TO_SSL_AT_END) {
                        return;
                    }
                }
            }

            /**
             * Reads a request and writes its response. Returns true if a request
             * was processed.
             */
            private boolean processOneRequest(InputStream in, OutputStream out, Socket socket)
                    throws IOException, InterruptedException {
                RecordedRequest request = readRequest(in, sequenceNumber);
                if (request == null) {
                    return false;
                }
                MockResponse response = dispatch(request);
                writeResponse(out, response);
                if (response.getSocketPolicy() == SocketPolicy.DISCONNECT_AT_END) {
                    in.close();
                    out.close();
                } else if (response.getSocketPolicy() == SocketPolicy.SHUTDOWN_INPUT_AT_END) {
                    socket.shutdownInput();
                } else if (response.getSocketPolicy() == SocketPolicy.SHUTDOWN_OUTPUT_AT_END) {
                    socket.shutdownOutput();
                }
                sequenceNumber++;
                return true;
            }
        }));
    }

    /**
     * @param sequenceNumber the index of this request on this connection.
     */
    private RecordedRequest readRequest(InputStream in, int sequenceNumber) throws IOException {
        String request;
        try {
            request = readAsciiUntilCrlf(in);
        } catch (IOException streamIsClosed) {
            return null; // no request because we closed the stream
        }
        if (request.isEmpty()) {
            return null; // no request because the stream is exhausted
        }

        List<String> headers = new ArrayList<String>();
        int contentLength = -1;
        boolean chunked = false;
        String header;
        while (!(header = readAsciiUntilCrlf(in)).isEmpty()) {
            headers.add(header);
            String lowercaseHeader = header.toLowerCase();
            if (contentLength == -1 && lowercaseHeader.startsWith("content-length:")) {
                contentLength = Integer.parseInt(header.substring(15).trim());
            }
            if (lowercaseHeader.startsWith("transfer-encoding:") &&
                    lowercaseHeader.substring(18).trim().equals("chunked")) {
                chunked = true;
            }
        }

        boolean hasBody = false;
        TruncatingOutputStream requestBody = new TruncatingOutputStream();
        List<Integer> chunkSizes = new ArrayList<Integer>();
        if (contentLength != -1) {
            hasBody = true;
            transfer(contentLength, in, requestBody);
        } else if (chunked) {
            hasBody = true;
            while (true) {
                int chunkSize = Integer.parseInt(readAsciiUntilCrlf(in).trim(), 16);
                if (chunkSize == 0) {
                    readEmptyLine(in);
                    break;
                }
                chunkSizes.add(chunkSize);
                transfer(chunkSize, in, requestBody);
                readEmptyLine(in);
            }
        }

        if (request.startsWith("OPTIONS ") || request.startsWith("GET ")
                || request.startsWith("HEAD ") || request.startsWith("DELETE ")
                || request .startsWith("TRACE ") || request.startsWith("CONNECT ")) {
            if (hasBody) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Request must not have a body: " + request);
            }
        } else if (request.startsWith("POST ") || request.startsWith("PUT ")) {
            if (!hasBody) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Request must have a body: " + request);
            }
        } else {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Unexpected method: " + request);
        }

        return new RecordedRequest(request, headers, chunkSizes,
                requestBody.numBytesReceived, requestBody.toByteArray(), sequenceNumber);
    }

    /**
     * Returns a response to satisfy {@code request}.
     */
    private MockResponse dispatch(RecordedRequest request) throws InterruptedException {
        if (responseQueue.isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Unexpected request: " + request);
        }

        // to permit interactive/browser testing, ignore requests for favicons
        if (request.getRequestLine().equals("GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1")) {
            System.out.println("served " + request.getRequestLine());
            return new MockResponse()
                        .setResponseCode(HttpURLConnection.HTTP_NOT_FOUND);
        }

        if (singleResponse) {
            return responseQueue.peek();
        } else {
            requestCount.incrementAndGet();
            requestQueue.add(request);
            return responseQueue.take();
        }
    }

    private void writeResponse(OutputStream out, MockResponse response) throws IOException {
        out.write((response.getStatus() + "\r\n").getBytes(ASCII));
        for (String header : response.getHeaders()) {
            out.write((header + "\r\n").getBytes(ASCII));
        }
        out.write(("\r\n").getBytes(ASCII));
        out.write(response.getBody());
        out.flush();
    }

    /**
     * Transfer bytes from {@code in} to {@code out} until either {@code length}
     * bytes have been transferred or {@code in} is exhausted.
     */
    private void transfer(int length, InputStream in, OutputStream out) throws IOException {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
        while (length > 0) {
            int count = in.read(buffer, 0, Math.min(buffer.length, length));
            if (count == -1) {
                return;
            }
            out.write(buffer, 0, count);
            length -= count;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Returns the text from {@code in} until the next "\r\n", or null if
     * {@code in} is exhausted.
     */
    private String readAsciiUntilCrlf(InputStream in) throws IOException {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        while (true) {
            int c = in.read();
            if (c == '\n' && builder.length() > 0 && builder.charAt(builder.length() - 1) == '\r') {
                builder.deleteCharAt(builder.length() - 1);
                return builder.toString();
            } else if (c == -1) {
                return builder.toString();
            } else {
                builder.append((char) c);
            }
        }
    }

    private void readEmptyLine(InputStream in) throws IOException {
        String line = readAsciiUntilCrlf(in);
        if (!line.isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Expected empty but was: " + line);
        }
    }

    /**
     * An output stream that drops data after bodyLimit bytes.
     */
    private class TruncatingOutputStream extends ByteArrayOutputStream {
        private int numBytesReceived = 0;
        @Override public void write(byte[] buffer, int offset, int len) {
            numBytesReceived += len;
            super.write(buffer, offset, Math.min(len, bodyLimit - count));
        }
        @Override public void write(int oneByte) {
            numBytesReceived++;
            if (count < bodyLimit) {
                super.write(oneByte);
            }
        }
    }

    private static Runnable namedRunnable(final String name, final Runnable runnable) {
        return new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                String originalName = Thread.currentThread().getName();
                Thread.currentThread().setName(name);
                try {
                    runnable.run();
                } finally {
                    Thread.currentThread().setName(originalName);
                }
            }
        };
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Nancy Hovious. Daughter of William HOVIOUS and Sarah HARDING. Born in Green Co., KY, abt 1802. Married about 1820 Elisha FISHER [1796?, VA.,- 16 Oct. 1838, Green Co.]. Nancy is mentioned in her maternal grandfather Stephen Harding's will, dated 25 February 1815; she, like her two sisters, was to inherit 1/18th of his estate.
Nancy Hovious Fisher died on 7 July 1855. For more about her and Elisha see below.
Stephen Harding Fisher. Born 23 Aug 1826. Died 8 Dec 1907. Lived in Adair Co, Ky. Married (1) on 16 Dec 1852 in Taylor Co., Susan Margaret RICE. Married (2)a widow, Mrs Susan Pike.
Elijah Fisher. Born about 1828 or 1829. Not listed as an heir in the estate settlement dated August 1854 in Taylor Co, Ky. Perhaps sold his portion or dead at this point without heirs.
Thomas D. Fisher. Born after March 14, 1829. Married Elizabeth Jane CHRISTIE, daughter of Rev. Norman R. Christie (of Christies' Chapel in Adair Co.), bond dated March 14, 1850 in Taylor Co. Bride & groom were both under 21. Eliza Jane Christie Fisher died 11 Jan 1923 and is buried in Elk Horn Methodist Cemetery, Taylor Co, Ky.
Elizabeth Fisher. Born 1835 Adair Co.(?) Poss. married John M. CAVE, 23 March 1849.
Sarah E. Fisher. Born abt. 1838, Adair Co.(?) Poss. married John BAILEY, 15 January 1850.
More about Elisha and Nancy: Elisha Fisher, the son of William H. & Sarah Fisher, was born before 1806 in Virgina. In 1798 his family was residing in King & Queen County, Virginia. William H. Fisher is supposed to have arrived in Green Co, Ky in 1808, but first appears on the Green Co, taxlists with 100 acres on Robinson Creek on April 29, 1809. The log house they lived in still stands on ground owned and farmed by their descendants.
There is no record of Nancy and Elisha's marriage in Adair, Green or Washington County, Kentucky. They may have gotten married in Lawrence Co., IN, on 24 April 1820, but this has yet to be confirmed. Nancy Hovious Fisher & her husband lived in Green County, Kentucky, in the northern portion which became Taylor County in 1848. Elisha Fisher first appears on the Green Co, Ky taxlists in 1827. His death occurred between the writing of his will (September 23, 1838) and the recording of his will on October 18th, 1838. His will was recorded in Green Co, Ky Will book #2 page 350-351. All of their children are named in the will.
Nancy Hovious Fisher died July 7th, 1855 in Taylor County, Kentucky, aged 55 years, making her birth date either 1799 or 1800.
Thanks to MARK PHILLIPS for contibuting a wealth of information about the Nancy Hovious Fisher family.


text:
IFSA - National University of Ireland Galway (Outgoing Program)
Apartment (shared), Self-arranged
National University of Ireland, Galway
Soak up the bohemian atmosphere of Galway as you study in the coastal town known as the cultural heart of the country. From classes in Irish language, history and culture to science and engineering, NUI-Galway has something for you. In Ireland's "most Irish" city, you will surely feel welcome.
Courses that focus on Irish history, arts, commerce, engineering or sciences
An active Student Union that sponsors more than 50 social and cultural clubs and societies
Visit our website for more information about our National University of Ireland Galway program.


text:
El Serrat de la Sarga és un serrat del terme municipal de Tremp que antigament feia de termenal dels antics termes municipals de Fígols de Tremp, al Pallars Jussà i Sapeira, de l'Alta Ribagorça, però agregat administrativament al Pallars Jussà des de la seva annexió a Tremp, el 1970.

Separa dues profundes valls de la zona: al nord, la del barranc d'Espills, i al sud, la del barranc dels Masets i el seu origen, el barranc de Russirera. Pel costat de llevant, el Serrat de la Sarga va a entroncar amb la carena de la Roca de la Mola, i pel de ponent va baixant cap a la zona del poble de Tercui i la Noguera Ribagorçana.

Sarga
Sarga

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


You can download the current version of DotNetNuke from this link. I became familiar with DotNetNuke when it first was developed from the IbuySpy portal. The early versions gave you a quick way to setup a portal on your web using the new .NET Framework 1.0. The benefits were a quick way to setup your web site, with the ability to register users baked in; no programming was necessary. Also, there were announcements and the ability to allow end users to edit content, again without programming.
Developers could modify the source code of DotNetNuke to customize it how they wanted. While it is programmed in VB.NET, C# modules can be created. Developers could create custom modules containing the look and feel of the portal. Changing that look and feel was not an easy change but it could be done site wide. The main power of the original DotNetNuke, I believe was the ability to create separate portals within one DotNetNuke application with different content. The original IBuySpy would not easily let you do this without modifications to the code.
Originally, DNN supported SQL Server as the backend. As new versions have been created, DNN has created more ways to connect with other data stores. Later versions also make customizing the look and feel of a portal an easier task.
The current DotNetNuke has taken these concepts much further, and in a slicker package. Besides more modules to choose from in the default package, the design in DNN has progressed also. For developers, they are using a Provider Pattern for data access. If you need details on that feel free to look at their documentation found here.


text:
Genk vs Liverpool: Reds seek first away group win in four against Belgian Champions
Liverpool haven't won an away group game since 2017 but will fancy their chances of ending that run against Genk on Wednesday night.
23rd October 2019 | Liverpool, Champions League Matthew Crist
Jurgen Klopp's side travel to Belgium looking to end a run of four successive away defeats in the Champions League group stages, with their last victory on the road coming back in 2017 with a 7-0 win over Maribor.
The Champions League winners are currently second in Group E while Genk, who Liverpool have never met in European competition, prop up the table with no wins and one draw from their opening two games.
Having suffered a defeat to Napoli in their opening group game and something of a scare at home to Red Bull Salzburg on matchday two, the 2019 winners will be hoping for an easier ride this time around.
The Reds appeared to be cruising after scoring three goals in the opening 36 minutes against the Austrians, only for the visitors to restore parity on the hour mark as Liverpool's usually steadfast defence appeared to go to sleep with Mo Salah's winner 20 minutes from time eventually securing all three-points.
On paper, Klopp's men should have nothing to fear from their trip to Belgium but having battled-it-out with bitter rivals on Sunday and with Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester City are to come in three of their next five outings, it will be interesting to see how he rotates his squad.
MANE TO SCORE FIRST AND LIVERPOOL TO WIN WAS 4.25 NOW 5.00*
However, they won't want to take this one lightly as, with their two main Group E rivals facing off in the other game on Wednesday night, they will be aware that a win here could see them top Group H after three games.
The Belgian champions are currently sixth in their domestic league with 12 points fewer than at the same stage of last season following Saturday's defeat to rivals Standard Liege while their Champions League form is mixed at best.
They were hammered 6-2 by Salzburg on matchday one before earning spirited goalless draw against Napoli in their second group fixture and look far more dangerous at home than on the road.
In fact, including qualifiers, they have gone six Champions League games without defeat on home soil and have lost only one of their last 17 home European fixtures across all competitions.
Even so, anything other than victory for Liverpool would raise a few eyebrows, with the Belgians having played 14 matches without ever winning in the Champions League proper – which is a tournament record – so no surprise that they are 10.00* to end that run against the current holders.
Liverpool: 'Mo Salah is the best player in the world… give him what he wants.'
Liverpool: 'Lack of depth may come back to harm us.'
Liverpool: 'Others are writing us off, but we can be champions again'
Damage is Done: Liverpool fans react to Super League response


This will ensure all financial support to help increase our community numbers in the New Year.
We are enclosing Flyers wish a request that you send soft copies to your mailing list as well as print in colour and put than up at Agiaries, Anjumans and Baugh Notice Boards.
These have been uploaded on our websites and will be also circulated on Social Media. A WhatsApp attachment is being sent in this mail so that the Navroz Gift to the community information goes viral.
Please download this onto your Anjuman Groups and circulate widely. Since the Health of the Community Component calls for a great deal of monitoring and liaison with the community. the Jiyo Mobed component will be handled now by the Athornan Mandal of the priesthood with the WZO Trust Funds Mobed Scheme. However, Jiyo Parsi will continue to share information with the priests about the new Schema under Jiyo Parsi- 2 at these Workshops.
Please note that as the three new components are a Pilot Scheme, it will he for a limited number of 100 applicants each and on a first come first serve basis. Therefore kindly urge your community members to apply as soon as possible.


text:
John Phillip Eckerd
John P. Eckerd, 85 of Windsor Locks, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at St. Francis Hospital. John was born on July 21, 1932 in Tarrytown, NY to the late Edgar and Matilda Eckerd. He was predeceased by his wife, Ruth E. Eckerd in August, 2017. Anyone who knew John knew he was a kind, gentle, honorable man. He served in the Armed Forces for eight years. On June of 1953 he completed a course of Electrician at the Sixth Armored Division, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Private First Class John P. Eckerd served overseas in Korea and was honorably discharged October 31, 1960. For thirty five years, John devoted his skills as an electrician to the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Group in East Hartford where he raised his family. John could fix anything. He loved to cook, garden and he loved animals. He was an active member of the First Congregational Church in East Hartford for years. John is survived by a daughter, Rae Eiklor and her husband Michael of Burbank, CA, his stepson, Bruce Brettschneider and his wife Sharon of Steuben, Maine, a daughter and her husband, Vicki and Tad Chamberlain of Granby, CT, and his cherished grandchildren, Ryan Eiklor, and Neil Eiklor, Elizabeth Brettschneider (husband Mark Uhlemann), Nathan Brettschneider, and Jason Chamberlain. A graveside burial will be held in Rose Hill Memorial Park, 580 Elm Street, Rocky Hill on Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. for friends and family. Donations in John's name may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, PO Box 758517, Topeka, KS. 66675. For online guestbook, please visit www.rosehillfuneralhomes.com.
John P. Eckerd, 85 of Windsor Locks, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at St. Francis Hospital. John was born on July 21, 1932 in Tarrytown, NY to the late Edgar and Matilda Eckerd. He was predeceased by his wife, Ruth E.... View Obituary & Service Information
The family of John Phillip Eckerd created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories.
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On the surface of things, it would appear that Americans have never had it better. After all, things like food preparation, transportation, disease control and communication have never been more efficient. Yet as it turns out, Americans are generally more stressed out in the 21st century than they were decades ago, with women, young adults and low-income individuals experiencing the worst of it. Ultimately, however, there is no particular class, gender, group or ethnicity that doesn't experience at least some form of significant stress in their lifetime.
The truth is, between everything from personal struggles to political events outside of our control, there are no shortage of reasons to stress out these days. It's therefore no wonder that anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million Americans over the age of 18 every year, or that 8.3 million Americans suffer from severe psychological stress. One might even go as far as to say the very things that are supposed to liberate us—like technology or broader access to information—can instead have a negative mental effect, creating moments of stress that might not have otherwise existed.
But what stresses us out the most? For the answer, Stacker consulted a Statista survey from February of 2017, which ranked the biggest sources of stress for today's adults. Each respondent was provided with a list of 23 options (21 specific stress-inducing aspects of life as well as "Other" and "None of the Above"), and asked to highlight all the options that applied to him or her. If the respondent didn't identify with any of the stress-inducing options, he or she would respond with "None of the Above". The "biggest" sources of stress are those with which the greatest percentage of respondents identified. All 22 sources of stress (plus "None of the Above") were then ranked from #23 to #1, with #1 being the most common instigator. Read the list at will, and don't let it stress you out.
In today's fast-paced and overstimulated world, the list of potential stress triggers is essentially endless. Social media, for instance, is just one among many potential sources of stress that wasn't mentioned in the survey. If only 2% of the respondents put "other", it's because the other 98% weren't thinking hard enough.
Not to be confused with travelling for work, travelling to work entails leaving the home every morning to arrive at one's job in a timely fashion. Naturally, there are plenty of potential things to stress one out along the way, such as rushing out the door on time, catching the train or fighting traffic, finding parking, and getting to work on time.
Whether it's a difference in personalities or a dispute over job performances, no one wants to be on the bad side of a colleague or superior. Naturally, these conflicts are a relatable source of stress among today's working adults. In fact, that's practically why human resources departments exist in the first place. If anything, 8% seems quite low.
According to a 2012 CDC study, about 1 in every 2 adults suffers from one or more chronic health conditions. Therefore, the odds of someone close to you getting a severe illness remain quite high. As one might expect, dealing with that illness can take a serious toll on an individual's own physical and mental health.
One of technology's foremost benefits is that it connects us to one another with rapid precision at any and all hours of the day. Some people, however, consider that a hindrance, not a benefit, especially as it pertains to work. To help combat constant availability in New York, a new bill was recently proposed making it illegal to contact employees when those employees are off duty. However, the stress of constant availability isn't just a work-related phenomenon--occasionally people just want time to themselves. Go figure.
In this crazy age of widespread automation and consolidation, it would seem that American jobs are constantly under siege. The good news is that the unemployment rate is currently quite low, meaning if someone loses his or her job, there's probably an opportunity lying in wait. The bad news is that the social or economic climate can change on a daily basis, making fear of job loss a completely justifiable source of stress.
One potential reason why low-income individuals experience higher levels of stress might very well be that they can't afford to hire an extra hand when they need one. Such a disadvantage can become particularly nerve-wracking when there's a family member in constant need of care. Of course, tending to a debilitated love one is a cause for stress regardless of socioeconomic status, not to mention a perennial source of emotional struggle.
Just the word "deadline" is enough to make some people cringe with anxiety. It's therefore no surprise that 11% of the respondents felt that time pressure at work was a significant source of stress. After all, there is usually a ton of work to be done, and only so many hours in the workday.
People are moving to cities in droves, and while local infrastructure does its best to keep up, a subsequent boost in traffic density is more or less inevitable. As a result, dealing with gridlocked traffic becomes a significant and unhealthy source of stress. Nobody likes feeling boxed in or stagnant when they're literally on the move.
As it turns out, 11% of the survey respondents are living care-free lives, unable to think of a single thing that increases their stress levels (there is that "Other" category to choose from after all). To which the rest of the world might ask: what's your secret? Some will say it's a daily exercise regiment. Others might say it's quitting Facebook or disconnecting from the Internet for extended periods of time. The truth is, however, that those stress-free folks can say whatever they want, because no one really believes them anyway.
A benefit of modern society is that it presents a constant slew of leisure activities like going out to eat, getting together with friends, watching movies, and traveling. A pitfall of modern society is that people are often so busy that they never get around to those leisure activities. As one might imagine, the paradox can be quite stressful.
Acclaimed author Harper Lee once wrote in "To Kill A Mockingbird": "You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family". Yet we love our families anyway, occasionally to a fault. More to the point, family drama is a seemingly bottomless pit from which no topic or event can escape, and thereby a significant source of distress.
One would imagine that caring for children would stress out a massive number of people in this era of overly cautious parenting, and yet only 14% of respondents identified with the option. Perhaps that's because love ultimately overpowers any sense of dread or anxiety when it comes to tending to our offspring, a tradition that's as old as mankind itself. Plus, so many people are getting help these days, and in so many different ways.
Part of being an adult is coming to terms with responsibilities and obligations, many of which center around family. It's a fact of life and a major source of stress alike. On the bright side, the same family members who you look out for are usually the ones looking out for you.
In an ideal world, the love between two human beings would so natural and permanent that no stress would ever result from it. Yet as anyone who's been in a relationship is likely to know, this is not an ideal world. Specifically, relationships are hard, they require work, and they can induce all kinds of stress. And while there are plenty of experts who can help reduce stress as it pertains to relationships, the fact remains that long-term love is no easy or sure thing.
According to at least one 2010-11 study, doing chores around the house is more stressful than actually going to work, not to mention bad for one's heart. Meanwhile, a separate 2011 study determined that performing household chores prevents the body from reducing a stress-related hormone called cortisol, making it harder to relax even after one's chores are completed. In summary: 2010-11 was not a good time for household chores.
In the view of psychologists, every human being comes equipped with a range of particular desires, many of which go unfulfilled throughout his or or her life. One reason for that is because other people--even friends and loved ones--have their own, occasionally incompatible, particular desires. Hence, conflict is inevitable, and frequently stressful to say the least.
In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, health concerns are a major source of stress, however stress is a frequent source of health problems.That means the very health concerns causing a person stress might have been triggered by stress over health concerns. Brain-teasers aside, most human beings want to live long and fruitful lives, so it's no wonder that so many people are stressed out over personal health issues.
If someone alive 200 years ago were told about the advancements of modern society, he or she might suspect we'd be living in a utopia. Unfortunately, that's not the case, as the hectic pace of everyday life prohibits numerous Americans from stopping to smell the convenience. In other words, along with this new form of society, there came a proportional number of new problems, many of which cause significant amounts of stress.
Some folks would argue that a successful balance between family life and work life is fundamental to happiness, but what about when there's an imbalance? Indeed, it's common for the demands of one arena to compromise the other, creating a stressful atmosphere that pulls at the individual from both directions.
In America, the pressure to achieve great things kicks in long before adulthood. Sadly, that pressure never really goes away, whereas capitalism often leads to a perpetual sense that one can always be doing more. A high expectation of one's self will naturally follow, as will copious amounts of stress, some of it self-induced, and some of it invoked by society at large.
In Spain, they take naps (i.e. siestas) every day starting around 2PM. Europe in general has the most paid vacation days in the world. In America, if you're caught napping during the week you'll probably wake up unemployed. Likewise, a significant number of employees don't utilize their vacation days out of fear. Fear of falling behind. Fear of being disconnected. Fear of looking like something less than a dedicated employee. Is it any wonder that a whopping 39% of Americans view their professional life as a primary source of stress?
Whether or not money is the root of all evil might be up for debate, but there's no debating its role as a major trigger of stress among Americans. Just how major? Try 41% of respondents claiming they feel stressed out due to financial worries. And in a country where a broad number of citizens are living paycheck to paycheck, that percentage isn't likely to change any time soon.


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Your submission of personal information through the store is governed by a policy of general privacy. We will not share or distribute your information for any reason. We maintain student and member records on an as needed basis and at any time, we may chose, to remove them or not longer keep them following the termination of a membership. Online sales records are maintained through WooCommerce. Being that WooCommerce is a separate entity, we can not guarantee that records will be maintained. We will provide due diligence to maintain those records once orders or sales are placed but will not be held liable for their loss. If records are not able to be identified, the buyer is required to provide any and all records that they have to the seller in order to complete the purchase. This might include, but is not limited to, bank or credit statements showing the charge, emails confirming the purchase, screen shots taken on any device, and or any correspondence regarding the specific transaction.
In no case shall Black Belt USA Battleground MMA, our directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents, contractors, interns, suppliers, coaches, service providers or licensors be liable for any injury, loss, claim, or any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special, or consequential damages of any kind, including, without limitation lost profits, lost revenue, lost savings, loss of data, replacement costs, or any similar damages, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or otherwise, arising from your use of any of the service or any products procured using the service, or for any other claim related in any way to your use of the service or any product, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the service or any content (or product) posted, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the service, even if advised of their possibility. Because some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or the limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such states or jurisdictions, our liability shall be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.
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If you are planning a divorce, talk to an adviser about how changes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will affect your taxable income.
Under the new law, for divorce agreements executed after Dec. 31, 2018, payers no longer receive a deduction for alimony payments and recipients no longer have to include them in taxable income.
Arguably, if you will be making sizable alimony payments, you have an incentive to finalize your agreement before the end of the year in order to get the tax benefits. If you stand to receive alimony, you may want to delay in order to receive payments tax-free.
Assuming the payer is in a higher tax bracket and the recipient is in a lower tax bracket, there are tax savings to be generated by passing the tax burden to the person in the lower bracket — assuming you file by year-end 2018.
Reportedly, the House Ways and Means Committee described the alimony deduction as a "divorce subsidy" because a divorced couple might pay less in their combined taxes than a married couple might. Repealing the deduction will add about $7 billion in new tax revenues over 10 years.
The tax implications of an alimony payment should be factored into calculations and negotiations. Talk to your attorneys about each partner's tax bracket and the net tax impact.
Some lawyers suggest that eliminating the tax deduction limits their ability to help clients find common ground by maximizing each party's post-divorce financial situation.
Filing before year-end may provide you and your partner more options in settlement negotiations. Consult a financial professional with experience in divorce tax issues to understand your personal implications.


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Why nginx is WordPress Hosting's Best Friend
In my previous article I explored why PHP7 is the way to go for WordPress and in today's article it's the webserver's turn.
A big part of a good hosting experience is how the webserver stack is configured. Having a fast stack is paramount to good WordPress performance & a great user experience. I've already discussed why PHP7 is such a good way to automatically improve WordPress performance but what about the actual webserver?
Today I'm going to explain: what is a webserver, what are the most popular ones and why nginx is so damn good!
The Webserver
One of the most important aspects of hosting is the actual webserver. The webserver is responsible for providing static content such as HTML and sending it to the client (which means, right into your browser). So the webserver will also be responsible for processing all the information that comes via the PHP processor and converting it to bits that travel through the network into your browser. The webserver stack works with the client / server model where the webserver is acting as a server (provider of content) and the client (you) the one that request it.
The most common webservers are Apache, IIS from Microsoft and of course nginx.
The webserver is able to handle both static & dynamic content that is sent to the client with some slightly differences. The server part loads into memory in what is called a worker process and it's responsible of providing the content requested. Both Apache & nginx handle static and dynamic content. While Apache is able to handle both inside the same worker process, nginx does not as it needs an external processor to do it.
Why are Apache and nginx so popular? The simple answer is because they are Open Source and free. Together they make up almost 50% of all the traffic in the world, not an easy feat!
What is Apache?
The Apache HTTP server was created by Robert McCool in 1995 and it's still under development under The Apache Software Foundation. This webserver has been the most popular choice since 1996. It's very modular in design, has tons of documentation and it's so popular that it's the basis for all the major Web Hosting Control Panels. It's even included in cPanel, the most used control panel in the world.
Of course it's flexible, that's the excuse that the vast majority of people using it will come up with when asked and generally, that's true. It is also very extensible and since it can load modules dynamically (something nginx is still working on) it can be configured with ease.
Apache is able to handle static and dynamic content all by itself in the same worker so it's perfect for it's flexibility but (and there is always a but) it does so at the expense of performance.
Apache has been known for being somewhat slow but nothing came close to exposing this truth as when nginx became popular. The performance difference between them is something that cannot be overlooked. For this matter alone, most major companies are switching over to nginx. Even though Apache is still popular, things will surely change in the future as technology catches up and more and more software that were previously working only on apache start to include nginx.
What About Nginx?
Nginx comes from mother Russia. In 2002 a programmer named Igor Sysoev began working on nginx as he was profoundly concerned about the C10K problem. The what? To put it simply, optimizing network sockets to handle a large number of clients at the same time which was Apache's main drawback and a real challenge for the modern web. The initial nginx release was made public in 2004 based on an events-driven architecture.
Not even Sysoev himself could see how much success nginx would have. The tremendous benefits of speed under nginx and the low resource utilization became evident as time passed. Nginx has a magnificent way of providing with static content but cannot handle dynamic content. This also proved to be a benefit because the dynamic content wasn't bound to the same worker and thus, could work much faster.
Nginx excels at providing faster content to a much higher volume of connections than Apache and is currently the choice for hosting services that want to offer the best performance possible. It's event-driven architecture and it's asynchronous nature are the main points for it's performance.
Initially nginx had one main drawback, it's documentation. It had a rough start due to the programmer being Russian and the way he documented it's functions. But as time has passed and more and more people use nginx the documentation has improved immensely.
The other drawback of nginx it's in it's lack of modular design which means it cannot process rules in realtime like Apache does with it's .htaccess file and cannot load modules in realtime either. This is something that nginx is already working on but will still need time to match Apache's flexibility.
The drawbacks nevertheless are quickly overshadow by the superb performance. This in itself has allowed nginx to become the popular choice for performance oriented hosting and it's the basis for service as widely used as Steam, proving time and time again that it can consistently score higher than Apache in every way.
Why is Nginx the Preferred Choice for WordPress Hosting?
There are several points in which nginx is far better than Apache for hosting WordPress sites. I'll try to summarize this into the following list.
Nginx is a complete package, it requires very few external modules to work and the vast majority of the time, it only takes one line in linux to enable it.
yum install nginx
It's all it takes for nginx to be active as a service. The rest is in the configuration.
Can work as a proxy for Apache or any other webserver
Nginx can provide an instant performance increase to any Apache webserver configuration by running as a proxy without affecting the functionality of the server in any way.
Can work directly with a microcache or even fastcgi cache
Nginx is great thanks to it's built in microcache and can even work with an fastcgi cache to speed up performance by a factor of 10. Nginx can also provide a tremendous increase in performance when working with a fastcgi cache and won't even need an external caching mechanism such as memcache.
It's incredibly fast for serving content
Nginx is lighting fast when dealing with static content and it's very easy to configure for such purposes. A single line of code can enable access the most common files such as static content and improve it's performance. Plus, if you know how to configure HttpProxyModule you can even achieve the same level of performance for Dynamic content without affecting the functionality of the webserver.
Almost 4 times more concurrent connections than Apache
If you're considering hosting a very high demand website with tons of thousands of visits per day it would be good for you to know that nginx can process as much as four times the amount of concurrent connections as Apache, which means 2 things:
Your website will be faster overall
You will need fewer resources than Apache to do it.
This is due to the event-driven nature of nginx and it's reponsible for the next benefit.
Nginx is so well crafted that it's incredible lightweight on resources. This means it will use less CPU time to process each connection request and will do so using a lot less memory. This will allow you to host bigger sites using the same server that were previously unable to do so in Apache.
The secret of it's success is in the engine itself. Nginx works as an event triggered webserver which means it will listen "events" on the worker and will respond only when needed. The ondemand argument inside nginx allows the service to spawn and remove listeners on demand. This helps reduce memory usage and increase efficiency. Apache tried to include an event mode in the mpm-event worker but it failed miserably in matching nginx speed because Apache wasn't constructed as an event-driven webserver.
It can do Load Balance
Nginx can be configured for load balance, hence, increasing it's rate of concurrent connections even more by spreading the load between several servers making it ideal for projects that have a very high load of concurrent connections.
It means that nginx is ideal for WordPress in almost every way. It means that you will reap the benefits of using it almost immediately after implementation. If you are a system administrator, installing nginx is a no-brainier. If on the contrary you want to design a project or host your website and want to host it elsewhere, chances are really high that if your hosting use nginx, it will work faster.
High quality hosting companies such as WP Engine and Flywheel already run on nginx. But if you're going to go with a different hosting company, do your research or ask a support tech if the webserver stack includes nginx. I can guarantee you that if the service is a quality one it will have nginx included in some part of the stack.
Article by Alex Vojacek WPExplorer.com author
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Excellent article. Thanks for sharing with us. I have learned something new from your article. There are different web hosts in the market. A good host can lead your site to the next level. So a perfect host is the must.
ThomasDK81
So… nginx or nginx+apache?
nginx+redis cache+php7 will be a good combo for a wp site. 🙂
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Digital Devices for Luddites
By FARHAD MANJOO, The New York Times /
NOBODY loves computers. I say this as someone who has led a life steeped in technology, and who considers the many computers I deal with every day to be truly revolutionary devices.
And yet: I can't love these complicated, all-too-dumb machines, and I often wish that they weren't as necessary as they are. When I'm dealing with a particularly thorny computer-related problem -- Why does that error message pop up every time I start up? Why did my desktop PC suddenly stop printing? -- I sometimes wonder about people who haven't spent their lives noodling with these things. What do you do when something goes wrong and you have absolutely no idea how to fix it?
As great as they are, many PCs and other related gadgets are, for large swaths of the population, simply too difficult to set up and to use. Over the last few weeks, I've been testing several devices that promise to make life easier for nontechies. These gadgets aim to ease people into the digital era -- many are designed for use by older adults. But in their simplicity, they could be helpful to people of all ages who aren't obsessed with machines.
Take, for instance, the Snapfon, which is marketed as "the cellphone for seniors." Over the past few years, I've gotten a chance to test many phones aimed at older consumers, including the popular Samsung Jitterbug, but I found the Snapfon by far the easiest to use. This is mainly because of its design: The Snapfon, about the size of a deck of cards, is dominated by a nine-digit number pad. The numbers are huge, and they're printed in high-contrast white ink against a dark gray background.
"The vast majority of our users are between the ages of 70 and 90," said Phil Sieg, the president of SeniorTech, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company that makes the Snapfon. The large numbers are easy on these users' eyes; even more helpful is the phone's "speaking keypad," which recites each number in a robotic voice when you press a button. (You can turn this feature off if you'd like.)
If you've ever used a telephone, you can use the Snapfon. Just dial your number and press the green O.K. button. That's it. There is no need to navigate any menus and no need to click any icons. True, the Snapfon isn't going to win any points for sex appeal, and its features are limited -- it can't display photos, there are no apps for it and it won't give you directions to the nearest mall. On the other hand, the Snapfon does have a big, easy-to-find button for emergencies. Press the S O S key on the back, and the phone will play a loud siren and call and text up to four emergency contacts. The Snapfon also allows you to send and receive texts and play FM and AM radio stations, and it has a small flashlight that makes it useful in the dark.
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