text:
Харченко Андрій Семенович (1 листопада 1908 — 17 травня 1985) — український картограф та геодезист, кандидат технічних наук, професор Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка.

Біографія
Народився 1 листопада 1908 року в місті Ананьїв, тепер Одеської області. Закінчив 1930 року відділення землевпорядкування Одеського сільськогосподарського інституту. У 1930—1933 роках працював начальником партії, головним інженером Держземтресту Каракалпацького Наркомзему (Турткуль, Узбекистан), з 1933 року інженер-проектувальник Московського обласного управління землевпорядкування, з 1934 року науковий співробітник Всесоюзного науково-дослідного інституту організації території. З 1938 року асистент кафедри складання і редагування карт Московського інституту інженерів геодезії, аерофотозйомки і картографії, з 1938 року навчався в аспірантурі інституту.

Під час Другої світової війни начальник картоскладального цеху картографічної фабрики в Тбілісі, Грузинська РСР. Водночас викладав картографію у топографічному технікумі та на курсах картографів Південного картографо-видавничого підприємства Гідрографічного управління Військово-морського флоту СРСР. У 1946—1951 роках доцент, очолював кафедру картографії Новосибірського інституту інженерів геодезії, аерофотозйомки і картографії. У Київському університеті в 1954—1980 роках завідувач кафедри геодезії та картографії, з 1969 року професор, у 1958—1960 роках декан географічного факультету. Кандидатська дисертація «Про деякі питання фізичної картографії» захищена у 1946 році. Досліджував загальні питання теорії картографії, класифікацію географічних карт; теорію та практику тематичного та комплексного атласного картографування; морську картографію; історію картографії. Засновник київської наукової школи тематичного та комплексного атласного картографування України. Один із засновників у 1964 році Сектору географії АН УРСР (з 1991 року — Інститут географії НАН України). Вчений секретар та віце-президент Географічного товариства УРСР (у 1964—1980 роках). Почесний член Географічного товариства СРСР з 1975 року. Організатор 4 наукових конференцій у 1963, 1965, 1968 та 1969 роках, присвячених створенню Національного атласу України. Був головою та членом редакційних рад журналів: «Геодезия, картография и аэрофотосъемка», «Вісник Київського університету. Серія Географія».

Нагороди і відзнаки

Нагороджений 3 бойовими та 3 ювілейними медалями; Почесними грамотами Президії Географічного товариства СРСР «За большие заслуги перед советской географией и Географическим обществом СССР» (у 1977 та 1978 роках). Відмінник геодезії та картографії 1943 року. Ім'я науковця вміщено у «Книгу Почета Киевского ордена Ленина государственного университета им. Т. Г. Шевченко» у 1982 році.

Наукові праці

Автор понад 100 наукових праць. Основні праці:
  Комплексное географическое картографирование Украинской ССР: Доклад по совокупности опубликованных научных работ, представленных на соискание ученой степени доктора географических наук. — К., 1965.
  Топография с основами геодезии: Учебник. — М., 1986 (у співавторстві).
 Географія Київської області: Атлас / За редакцією Харченка А. С. — К., 1962.
  Природные условия и естественные ресурсы Украинской ССР: Атлас / За редакцією Харченка А. С. — К., 1978.
 Атлас Київської області / За ред. Харченка А. С. — К., 1980, 1985.

Див. також

 Київська наукова школа тематичного та комплексного атласного картографування

Література
 Видатний український картограф. До 100-річчя від дня народження А. С. Харченка // Шевченко В. О., Палієнко Л. О., Любченко В. Є. — К., Вінниця, 2008.
 Географи Київського Університету: Довідник / Олійник Я. Б., Бортник С. Ю., Гродзинський М. Д., Гуцал В. О. та ін. — К., 2003.
 Географічна енциклопедія України. — К. 1989—1993. Том 3.
 Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка. Незабутні постаті. — К. 2005.
  Краснопольский А. В. Отечественные географы (1917—1992). Библиографический справочник. Том 2. — СПб. 1993—1995.
 Географічний факультет у персоналіях / Олійник Я. Б., Бортник С. Ю., Гродзинський М. Д., Дмитрук О. Ю. та інші. — К.: ВГЛ «Обрії», 2008.

Уродженці Ананьївського повіту
Українські геодезисти
Українські картографи

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
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Welcome to Myanmar City Star Travel blog. This is where you can share your travel stories in Myanmar as well as find stories of other travellers, travel tips, information, and news, or gain inspiration for your upcoming adventures. Whether you have travelled with us before or just want to share your travel stories through us, please send us an email.
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Little Tibet in Myanmar – On jungle trails to the Himalayan border of Myanmar
Text and Pictures by Christian Hainzl
The view was stunning: From the top of the peak at some 5150m (16895ft) above sea level there was a plethora of dozens of snowcapped peaks in all directions, glazing in the bright sunlight and against a deep blue sky. Looking towards North, there were the peaks of Hkakabo Razi, and Gamlang Razi, South East Asia's highest mountains, only a few kilometers air distance away and some 700m (2300ft) higher than our vantage point. Below us was a relatively broad high valley at estimated 4300m (14110ft) with a kilometer-long dark blue lake in the center. We could see a tiny snow trail leading from the pass below towards its shores and then going further on to Tibet, China. As we had heard there was a trading place 1-2 walking days away in the very high mountains. There, valuable medical roots and herbs of the Himalayas were exchanged for salt and tea and much desired consumer products. The TVs and pocket radios we had seen with the Tibetan villagers on the way had travelled from there.
The day before, we had arrived at our base camp at about (4500m/14770ft). It had taken us some 145km (90mi.) of arduous jungle walk to get here, following the course of the rivers, on rugged, small trails, crossing over hundreds of smaller and larger water streams and dozens of slippery, shaky bamboo bridges, some of them up to 80m (260ft) long and high above the green whitish rivers.
13 days ago our local guide had welcomed us at Putao airport in Northern Kachin State. From there we continued with a gang of young motorcycles riders who took pride in mastering the muddy trails and river crossings with the highest possible speed. They dropped us off one and a half days later at the small village of Gawle, our shoulders and butts aching from keeping the balance. Next day we crossed over a ridge (1790m/5875f) to the village of Pangnamdim (1025m/ 3360ft) at the Tamai river. The first day we were walking in pouring rain which made our shoes in the evening feel like rubber boots filled with water.
Our core group was composed of four. Two friends, Austrians, with a passion for the Himalayas, then U Ah Yin, a local Rawang, born in the area, who being in his early 70s amazed us with his walking speed, and a cook and his helper. As everything we would need for food, trekking and climbing in the next 3 weeks had to be carried with us having some local porters was essential. With the winter paddy fields ripe for harvest and the Myanmar National Elections only a few days ahead, to find the 8-10 porters we needed, turned out to be a problem that kept bothering us throughout half of the trek.
The footpath we followed from Pangnamdim is a small rugged trail notched to the Tamai river slopes, with the slippery path running at times close to the river but mostly high above, where slipping and falling would be extremely dangerous.
The thick jungle with its hundreds of greens is most of what you get to see for the first week. The walking, the sweating and the minding of your steps, embedded in the daily routine of packing and unpacking, stopping for the simple rice based breakfast, dinners and lunches, become one's simple and principal task, which challenges the mind to just be in the moment.
After eight days on the road and on Myanmar's National Election Day we stopped at the village of Gawai, being one of the most remote polling stations in the country and catering to 28 eligible voters. The voting station was properly set up in the rough building of the village school, where we also stayed for the night. In the evening we were sitting jam packed in the house of the village head, watching the election reports from all over the country on the only village television. Feeling the excitement in the room and being jointly moved to see the massive voter turn out that made this a historical election.
The next day we reached Dazungdam village, still at only 1700m (5580ft) altitude, from where travelers to the Hkakabo Razi basecamp need to follow the Adung river to the North-East while we were turned to North-West towards the Seinkhu valley. Here for the first time we managed to get the porter problem solved and had a mixed group of eight, cheerful boys and girls in their early 20s with us. Dressed in a fashionable way with up to date T-shirts, fancy baseball caps and listening to loud music from phones or small radio players. Over time our admiration for their speed and sure-footedness on the slippery path, being outfitted with the most basic equipment, and for their easy going and fun laughing attitude was constantly growing. We got used to fall asleep and wake up to their giggling and laughter, which only got tempered when temperatures dropped far below zero. The cook and his helper were at the core of the group. And our stamina heavily profited from their amazing skills to set up a kitchen wherever and with a single wok pan to speedily feed 13-15 people morning, lunch and evening.
In the evenings, sitting at the open fire, we spoke about the mountains, the people, the opportunities and concerns. "The worst would be if they build a road. Then all what you can see will be gone in few years. On the other side of the border already now nothing is left", U Ah Yin stated his worst fears. "We need to teach our people how to preserve."
Indeed preservation seems to be an issue. Apart from one mongoose which accidentally crossed our trail we did not see any wild animals. Being in the Hkakabo Razi National Park, which is considered a global biodiversity hotspot, we had hoped to see some larger animals as deer or takin, or at least some bigger birds. But even smaller birds were rare and the only animals we indeed made contact with were the leeches, sandflies and a few gigantic ticks. In a way this was not surprising as basically every porter or villager we met was carrying a slingshot or a crossbow used with poisoned arrows. Neither did we see a single snake the whole three weeks while without doubt these jungles are snake paradise. Acclaimed American herpetologist Joe Slowinski died in 2001 in the remote village of Rat Baw from the bite of the deadly multi banded krait, as movingly described in the "The Snake-charmer".
Dazungdam marked the last village mainly inhabited by the Rawang, an ethnic Kachin tribe of some 60-90000 people in total. The path then turned steep and much rougher than before, marking a different and more alpine zone. Over the next two days we climbed up every day for at least 1000m (3300ft). And finally, after 11 days of walking, we entered the world of the Myanmar Himalayas and with it the little Tibet of Myanmar.
Mading (2550m/ 8370ft) was the first Tibetan village which we reached after balancing over three lofty bamboo bridges and a number of climbs along ladders and ropes. The place reminded of villages and scenery I had seen in Bhutan and Tibet with the colorful prayer flags welcoming you on top of the hills and around the houses. The Tibetan homes, having to resist the rough high altitude climate, differ from the Bamboo build Rawang houses we had seen on the path before by use of massive wooden stems for the walls and roofs covered with large, wooden shingles. Villages looked simple but well in shape with the houses surrounded by corn and barley fields and draft cattle plowing the soils. We stopped in the house of the local lama and over butter tea, hot milk and roasted corn inquired about how best to reach Malikhu Razi (4907m/16100ft) which was the mountain we had planned to climb.
What we learned was heartening and discouraging at the same time: The villagers consider Malikhu Razi, which is the source of the Malikha River, a sacred mountain. A holy peak which is believed had been placed by Lord Buddha himself, a place nobody is allowed to go, and if comes too close, animal or human, will fall sick or die. At the same time, a place of refuge, where they would seek shelter with the community in times of danger and when the last days come. It was uplifting to discover that there is a kind of Mount Kailash of Myanmar. Thus we had to scout for other peaks further up the valley.
Two days later we set up a base camp (4500m/14770ft) at a soft plateau above the Seinkhu valley from where we continued for a few hours of slow walking in the high altitude to reach Lama La, the high pass at about 5050m (16570ft). There under the flittering Tibetan prayer flags and overseeing the whole area with dozens of peaks on the Indian, Myanmar and Chinese sides of the border, we realized that most of the unnamed peaks we had been eying on through Google Earth were out of reach for us. To scout them properly and to decide on a safe access route would have taken us at least another two or three days, which we could not afford against our planned schedule. Thus we opted the next day for a smaller peak adjacent to the pass with an ascent over a rocky stone field and a final, steep ridge climb. With a sense of gratitude we build the first stone-man on the summit, placed a flag under it with date and names, and claiming the peak half-seriously for us by naming it "Austriaco Razi".
From here the walk back to civilization started. In the absence of a round-trip option on the same trail for another long 145km (90mi.). Soon swallowed again by the tropical forest and bound to the daily repeating, up and down rhythm of the river trail the walking back was etiolating at times, while inside we felt happy and fortunate. How many places on earth are still there so remote to reach, so unspoiled and, some 66 years after Frank Kingdom-Ward's "Burma's Icy Mountains" first expedition report, still so unexplored? Lucky us to experience its isolation, distinctiveness and beauty.
In Tibetan Buddhism there is the belief that in the Himalayas there are a number of hidden, mystical and outstandingly beautiful places, so called Beyuls. Sacred places, which can only be reached through hardship and where life is said to remain even if the rest of the world would collapse. It is a nice thought that in the Himalayas of Myanmar such a hidden valley exists, adding another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of the many faces of Myanmar.
Acknowlegement: Myanmar City Star thanks Christian Hainzl for kindly permitted to post the above blog which is the extended article "The Little Tibet in Myanmar" published in the Myanmar Times, 26 February 2016.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Charles de Valois (* 28. April 1573 auf Schloss Le Fayet in Barraux; † 24. September 1650 in Paris) war Mitglied der Familie Valois, Herzog von Auvergne und Herzog von Angoulême.

Leben

Charles war ein außerehelich geborener Sohn Karls IX. und dessen Geliebter Marie Touchet. Er führte zunächst den Titel eines Grafen von Auvergne, wurde 1580 Großprior von Frankreich und 1586 Kommendatarabt der Abtei La Chaise-Dieu. Von 1588 (bis 1589) und ein zweites Mal 1618 (bis 1618) war er Colonel général der leichten Kavallerie.

Charles galt zwar als Anhänger Heinrichs IV., wurde aber 1601 wegen einer Verschwörung, in die er zusammen mit den Herzögen von Savoyen, Biron und Bouillon verwickelt war, für mehrere Monate gefangengesetzt. Ziel war es, den König mit Charles' Halbschwester Catherine Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues zu verheiraten.

Wegen Konspiration mit Philipp II. von Spanien gegen die Krone wurde er 1605 zum Tode verurteilt, zu lebenslanger Haft begnadigt und 1616 schließlich wieder freigelassen.

Unter Ludwig XIII. belagerte er 1617 Soissons, 1619 wurde er zum Herzog von Penthièvre und 1620 zum Herzog von Angoulême erhoben, ging 1620 als Gesandter zu Kaiser Ferdinand II., befehligte 1628 in La Rochelle und kämpfte mit Auszeichnung im Languedoc und in Deutschland und Flandern. 1635 wurde er General der französischen Armee, ein Jahr später Generalleutnant.

Nachkommen

Charles war in erster Ehe seit 1591 mit Charlotte de Montmorency (1572–1636), Gräfin von de Fleix, Tochter Henris I. de Montmorency (Stammliste der Montmorency) verheiratet, mit der er folgende Kinder hatte:
 Henri (1594–1668), Graf von Lauragais, enterbt 1609
 Louis-Emmanuel (1596–1653), Herzog von Angoulême, ⚭ 1629 Henriette de La Guiche
 François (1598–1622), Graf von Alais, ⚭ 1622 Louise Henriette de La Châtre, Tochter von Louis de La Châtre (Haus La Châtre)

In zweiter Ehe vermählte er sich 1644 mit Françoise de Nargonne (1622–1713). Er hinterließ des Weiteren zwei außerehelich geborene Töchter mit Isabelle de Crecy.

Werke

 Mémoires du duc d'Angoulême, beruhen nur teilweise auf seinen eigenen Mitteilungen.
 Harangues, 1620

Weblinks

Colonel général
Französischer Botschafter in Österreich
Herzog (Angoulême)
Graf (Auvergne)
Graf (Carcassonne)
Graf (Penthièvre)
Graf (Ponthieu)
Prinz (Frankreich)
Kommendatarabt
Außerehelicher Abkömmling (Frankreich)
Ritter des Ordens vom Heiligen Geist
Charles #Valois
Charles #Valois
Zum Tode verurteilte Person
Franzose
Geboren 1573
Gestorben 1650
Mann


text:
id: 60a3e3396c7b40068ad6998d
title: Step 36
challengeType: 0
dashedName: step-36
---

# --description--

Create a rule that targets both `.one` and `.two` and increase their `blur` effect by 1 pixel.

Here's an example of a rule that increases the `blur` of two elements:

```css
h1, p {
  filter: blur(3px);
}
```

# --hints--

You should have a `.one, .two` selector.

```js
const oneTwo = new __helpers.CSSHelp(document).getStyle('.one, .two');
assert(oneTwo);
```

You should set the `filter` property to `blur(1px)`.

```js
const hasFilter = new __helpers.CSSHelp(document).getCSSRules().some(x => x.style.filter === 'blur(1px)');
assert(hasFilter)
```

Your `.one` element should have a `filter` value of `blur(1px)`.

```js
const one = document.querySelector('.one');
const oneFilter = getComputedStyle(one).filter;
assert(oneFilter === 'blur(1px)');
```

Your `.two` element should have a filter value of `blur(1px)`.

```js
const two = document.querySelector('.two');
const twoFilter = getComputedStyle(two).filter;
assert(twoFilter === 'blur(1px)');
```

# --seed--

## --seed-contents--

```css
.canvas {
  width: 500px;
  height: 600px;
  background-color: #4d0f00;
  overflow: hidden;
  filter: blur(2px);
}

.frame {
  border: 50px solid black;
  width: 500px;
  padding: 50px;
  margin: 20px auto;
}

.one {
  width: 425px;
  height: 150px;
  background-color: #efb762;
  margin: 20px auto 20px;
}

.two {
  width: 475px;
  height: 200px;
  background-color: #8f0401;
  margin: 0 auto 20px;
}

--fcc-editable-region--

--fcc-editable-region--

.three {
  width: 91%;
  height: 28%;
  background-color: #b20403;
  margin: auto;
}
```

```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Rothko</title>
    <link href="./styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="frame">
      <div class="canvas">
        <div class="one"></div>
        <div class="two"></div>
        <div class="three"></div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>
```

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


As the owner of Envirotek, I grew up in the construction field. I worked in my father's waterproofing business beginning part time and summers at age 10 and full time for four years after graduating high school.
My wife and I started our own business in 1979. It evolved into a successful excavation business servicing primarily the residential and light commercial markets.
In the past 20 years, we have gravitated toward more specialized services in the sewer, water and drainage markets. We are excited about our most recent endeavor of developing our own proprietary line of sewage pump systems and controls. Our new product line is called Visi-Pump.
At Envirotek we strive to bring professionalism and integrity to our industry. Our work ethic reflects my belief that the Lord expects us to do our work as if unto him. It gives me great satisfaction to know that we have done the best job we can for our clients.
I have been blessed to have extensive experience in the multiple disciplines required to successfully deliver long lasting quality installation and repair services. I continue to convey my knowledge to our technicians and other personnel on a daily basis. I myself, also continue to learn something new everyday.
It is not uncommon for our customers to find the boss actually working on their job. My goal is to ensure that every installation or repair we perform is done well enough that it will never have to be redone again.
Rest assured at Envirotek Systems we believe in continuing education and are abreast of the latest technologies and methods available in our field. I guess you could say we deliver high tech services with old school values. It would be my pleasure to have the opportunity to serve you!


text:
Modules for graphics programming
================================

## Basic modules

### Set up

* Input handling, ticking: [`game-shell`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/game-shell#api)
* WebGL set up: [`gl-now`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/gl-now#api)

### Memory and multidimensional arrays

* Pooling: [`typedarray-pool`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/typedarray-pool#api)
* Data structure: [`ndarray`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/ndarray#api)
* Component-wise operations: [`cwise`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/cwise/#requirecwiseuser_args), [`ndarray-ops`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/ndarray-ops#conventions)
* Initialization: [`ndarray-fill`](https://npmjs.org/package/ndarray-fill), [`zeros`](https://npmjs.org/package/zeros)
* Interoperability: [`ndarray-pack`](https://npmjs.org/package/ndarray-pack), [`ndarray-unpack`](https://npmjs.org/package/ndarray-unpack)

### WebGL wrappers

* Shaders: [`gl-shader`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/gl-shader#api)
* Buffers: [`gl-buffer`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/gl-buffer#api)
* Textures: [`gl-texture2d`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/gl-texture2d#api)
* Framebuffers: [`gl-fbo`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/gl-fbo#api)
* Vertex arrays: [`gl-vao`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/gl-vao#api)

### Arithmetic

* Linear algebra: [`gl-matrix`](https://github.com/toji/gl-matrix)
* Bit twiddling: [`bit-twiddle`](https://npmjs.org/package/bit-twiddle)
* Bit interleave: [`bit-interleave`](https://npmjs.org/package/bit-interleave)

## Data

### File formats

* Images: [`get-pixels`](https://github.com/mikolalysenko/get-pixels), [`save-pixels`](https://npmjs.org/package/save-pixels)
* Volume graphics: [`nrrd-js`](https://npmjs.org/package/nrrd-js), [`ndarray-to-binvox`](https://npmjs.org/package/ndarray-to-binvox), [`minecraft-mca`](https://npmjs.org/package/minecraft-mca)
* Meshes: [`parse-ply`](https://npmjs.org/package/parse-ply), [`write-ply`](https://npmjs.org/package/write-ply), [`write-vrml`](https://npmjs.org/package/write-vrml), [`parse-obj`](https://npmjs.org/package/parse-obj)

### Test data

* Meshes: [`bunny`](https://npmjs.org/package/bunny), [`teapot`](https://npmjs.org/package/teapot)
* Images: [`lena`](https://npmjs.org/package/lena), [`isabella-texture-pack`](https://npmjs.org/package/isabella-texture-pack)


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text:
Q: Send email with attachments with Mailgun I'm integrating Mailgun into my iOS app, and am trying to send an email with an attachment. The email gets sent, however the attachment appears to be ignored. Any ideas? The code is below. I'm using AFNetworking 2, and I don't use the the native Mailgun Objective-C SDK, since it doesn't appear to be maintained.
NSString *path = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"https://api:%@@api.mailgun.net/v3/%@/messages", kTIXMailgunAPIKey, kTIXMailgunDomain];

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
manager.responseSerializer.acceptableContentTypes = [NSSet setWithArray:@[ @"text/plain", @"text/html", @"application/json" ] ];

NSData *attachment = [attachments firstObject];

NSDictionary *parameters = @{
                             @"from"            : fromAddress,
                             @"to"              : toAddress,
                             @"subject"         : @"Inline",
                             @"text"            : @"Email body",
                             @"content-type"    : @"multipart/form-data",
                             @"attachment"      : attachment,
                             };
[manager POST:path
   parameters:parameters
      success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject)
 {
     NSLog(@"Success sending message. Response: %@", responseObject);
 } failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error)
 {
     NSLog(@"Error sending message: %@", error);
 }];

I am able to send attachments using curl, e.g.:
curl -s "https://api:key-
[redacted]@api.mailgun.net/v3/sandbox[redacted].mailgun.org/messages" \
-F from=[redacted]@gmail.com \
-F to=[redacted]@gmail.com \
-F subject='Check this out!' \
-F text='LOL' \
-F attachment=@"lolcat.png"

A: It is now possible to send attachments from within your iOS application using mail gun:
Mailgun *mailgun = [Mailgun clientWithDomain:@"yourdomain.com" apiKey:@"key"];

MGMessage *message = [MGMessage messageFrom:@"Someone <your.address@yourdomain.com>"
                                         to:@"Someone else <someone@else.com>"
                                    subject:@"Hello"
                                       body:@"This is a test email."];

[message addAttachment:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:@"filePath"] withName:@"fileName" type:@"fileType"];

[mailgun sendMessage:message success:^(NSString *messageId) {
    NSLog(@"Message %@ sent successfully!", messageId);
} failure:^(NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error sending message. The error was: %@", [error userInfo]);
}];

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Equal strings give -1 as a comparison result i am comparing two strings,
one from database and other entered in comparison itself.
but when i try to compare identical strings, it gives false result.
currently my code is :
SqlConnection conchk = new SqlConnection();
conchk.ConnectionString = "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=eVoting;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False";
conchk.Open();
SqlCommand cmdchk = new SqlCommand("select voted from voter where FirstName ='" + N + "'", conchk);
SqlDataReader readerchk = cmdchk.ExecuteReader();
readerchk.Read();
String vchk = readerchk[0].ToString();
String chk = "N";
MessageBox.Show(vchk);
int cas = chk.CompareTo(vchk);
MessageBox.Show("comp res :" + cas);
if (cas == 0)
{
    MessageBox.Show("In if");
}
else
{
    MessageBox.Show("In else");
}

A: you need to trim the values before comparing:
Replace this:
int cas = chk.CompareTo(vchk);

With following:
int cas = chk.Trim().CompareTo(vchk.Trim());

A: Use this method to compare two strings
bool isEqual= string.Equals(vchk, chk);

CompareTo performs a case-sensitive comparison using ordinal sort rules.
         String vchk = "n";
         String chk = "N";

        int sac = chk.CompareTo(vchk);// result will be 1 .
        int cas = chk.ToUpper().CompareTo(vchk.ToUpper());  // result will be 0 .
        bool isEqual = string.Equals(vchk, chk);  // false

Please check your code or try to trim your string and use ToUpper().


text:
4 Vital Details About Christianity's Steady Decline
There has been much discussion lately over a recent study published by the Pew Research Center reporting a rise of people of no faith ("the unaffiliated") and the demise of Christianity in the U.S.
The numbers are humbling. The percentage of "unaffiliated" people rose to more than 22 percent from 16 percent in the last seven years, while the percentage of people who affiliate with Christianity has steadily decreased.
Catholic and mainline congregations have seen the sharpest declines with more than 3 percent losses.
A growing number of articles have arisen to flesh out the implications of this movement in America.
Some say the decline is a result of the lack of institutional loyalty, while others blame a loss of "traditional values" in the public sector.
Many are quick to point out that these trends are regional, and the statistics should be taken with a grain of salt: Christianity represents the largest religion in the world, and it is actually growing in continents located in the southern hemisphere of our planet.
In other words, Christianity is flourishing, just not the way we Westerners are accustomed.
Diagnosticians like Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, can't help but see it otherwise.
He contends that Christianity is not dying, but "jettisoning" a type of faith too liberal to be called as such, one that promotes atheism in disguise.
"We do not have more atheists in America. We have more honest atheists in America," Moore said.
The percentage of evangelical Christians who tend to be more conservative are stable if not in decline. The number of evangelicals only decreased by less than 1 percent, which seems to support Moore's assessment.
The devil, as they say, is in the details.
For one, evangelicals have remained steady not because of growth – decline is decline whether it is 1 percent or 3 percent.
This trend is because evangelicals retain more children than other Christian subcultures.
The more children, the more folks can be counted among the religiously fervent.
Second, the growing level of immigrant and minority populations, who err on the side of conservatism, helps fill out the losses that evangelical churches would otherwise experience.
Third, an increasing number of mainline churches now consider themselves "evangelical," as denominations fracture over liberal and conservative fault lines.
Fourth, studies show that growing churches tend to be evangelical mega-churches with founding pastors.
Saying that the decline of mainline churches is theological is actually besides the point because all small churches, evangelical and mainline alike, are declining rapidly.
Furthermore, people in evangelical churches are no more theologically minded than their liberal brothers and sisters in smaller, established mainline congregations.
It's just that small congregations don't have the programming and resources needed to combat the tidal wave of a consumerist culture that values large-scale programs.
No matter who is providing an assessment on the Pew Research results, the truth is somewhere in the middle of the conclusions.
I agree with Moore that Christians who are, in his words, "almost-Christian," have rarely helped Christ's cause in our nation. But I disagree with Moore's caricature of mainline churches as the reason for decline.
Christian liberalism did not add to the faith's decline. Rather, it failed to bring out the best of what Christianity has to offer in the last century of our nation's history.
In early Christianity, the church grew from a few hundred people to millions of people by the fourth century (as many as half the population of the Roman Empire by some estimates) not because Christians were more traditional or conservative, but because they readily adapted to a culture that needed a type of hospitality only Christ's Church provided.
According to Roman pagan philosophers at the time, Christianity's hospitality was too liberal to take seriously: Christianity was egalitarian in its outreach and leadership. It did not enjoy prestige or privilege, and so was not a religion of honor.
And the religion included people normally marginalized in the ancient world – a liberal value if there ever was one.
Early Christians did not refuse to provide pizzas to people; rather, Christians opened their doors to all people.
The wave of Christian decline shouldn't cause Christians of different theologies to turn on each other.
A large percentage of Americans view all Christians, no matter the denomination, as hostile, exclusive, prejudiced and out of touch with the rest of the world. This is the reason for decline.
All Christians have a choice to make.
We can circle the wagons and blame each other for our faith's decline. We can blame it on the rise of secularism. Or we can take a look at our own failures and develop a fuller outreach program that is surprisingly inclusive, vibrant, creative and grace-filled in a culture that still longs for the type of joy and belonging that only churches can provide.
Joe LaGuardia is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Conyers, Georgia. His writings also appear on the blog, Baptist Spirituality.
Church Trends Joe LaGuardia Pew Research Center
When Will U.S. Christianity Heed Its Wakeup Call?
By Jerry A. Hudson
What Would Ethical Biopsies of Christianity, U.S. Reveal?
By Michael Ruffin
Bivocational Leaders Are Vital in China's Sichuan Province
By Bill and Michelle Cayard


Gorgeous, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom, end unit condo in highly sought after Chic's Beach. This is one of the rare units that has large yard/common area in the backyard to play in and entertain. Just blocks from the beach, bay, shopping, popular restaurants and breweries. Includes, open floor plan, hardwood and tile floors, large bedrooms, 2 master suites, balconies, and garage. Enjoy maintenance free living at its finest.


text:
Der Scharfenstein ist ein  hoher Bergsporn des Eichberg-Süd () im Harz nahe Wernigerode im Landkreis Harz in Sachsen-Anhalt.

Geographische Lage
Der Scharfenstein liegt im Naturpark Harz/Sachsen-Anhalt am Ostrand des Oberharzes. Er befindet sich etwa 1,5 km südsüdwestlich von Nöschenrode, einem südöstlichen Stadtteil von Wernigerode. Nach Norden leitet eine Scharte zum Eichberg-Süd über und östlich befindet sich der Astberg (). In Richtung Westen und Südwesten fällt der Sporn in das Kalte Tal und nach Süden und Südosten in jenes des Zillierbachs ab.

Am und auf dem Berg befindet sich die Scharfensteinklippe.

Wandern
Zum Scharfenstein verläuft aus Richtung Norden vom Eichberg-Süd kommend ein Pfad. Von dessen Südende führt eine schmale Steintreppe auf den Sporngipfel. Vom dortigen Aussichtspunkt fällt der Blick im Harz unter anderem zum Brocken. Denselben Pfad wandert man auch zurück, weil das Sporngelände mit Ausnahme von Richtung Norden zu allen Seiten steil abfällt. Der Berg ist als Nr. 34 in das System der Stempelstellen der Harzer Wandernadel einbezogen.

Einzelnachweise

Berg im Harz
Geographie (Wernigerode)


text:
District seeks to boost SAT participation, paying $430k for juniors to take tests
Allison Ross
The Palm Beach County School District is footing the bill to have its class of 2014 take the SAT during the school day, a move it says will "build a college-going culture" in its high schools.
The district will be offering the SAT to all of this year's juniors at a cost to the district of $430,865.
By offering the test at the district's expense, it "builds aspirations among those students who may not have thought they were college or career ready," said Keith Oswald, assistant superintendent of curriculum and learning support.
Oswald said studies have shown that when an SAT is offered during the weekend, fewer students take it for a variety of reasons — including cost, ability to get transportation to the school, or other commitments such as work or taking care of siblings.
"Also, some of them don't believe they are college-going material," so won't bother trying to take the test, Oswald said.
The district offered the SAT during the school day during the 2010 school year, as well, for its graduating Class of 2011. That made it the first district in the nation to offer the SAT during the school day, the district claims.
That year, 89 percent of the county's 2011 class took the SAT, compared with 62 percent statewide and 50 percent across the U.S. It was also a jump from the 53 percent participation rate from the district's Class of 2010. In addition, a higher percentage of minorities took the test that year than in previous years.
However, because of the growth in number and diversity of test-takers, the average score on the college placement test fell.
Oswald said he wasn't sure why the district did not pay to have all its juniors take the SAT this past school year, but said he believed it had to do with the district's tight budget.
Offering the SAT to all juniors will also help schools and the district measure whether students are college and career ready, Oswald said.
The SAT, which is a product of The College Board, costs $50 per student, if bought individually. The district is getting it for a discounted rate of $33.52 for its approximately 12,850 students this year.
In addition, county students who participate in the testing will get free access to the Official SAT Online Course, which normally would cost each student about $70.
"If we want a college- and career-ready environment in all those schools, it shouldn't be an environment where some kids have access to that test and others don't," said Marc Baron, the district's chief of performance accountability.


From my Mysterious Musings Blog. An Interview with Cozy Author Susan Boles. Feel free to share.
I am excited to have Author Susan Boles as my guest today. Susan is the author of the award-winning Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Series. And out soon, her book, Death On The Beach is part of a part of the boxed set, Summer Snoops and Cozy Crimes, 12 Mysteries of the Dog Days of Summer. All proceeds from this boxed set will go to support to Non-Kill Animal Shelters.


How is it that a nation should lose its collective sanity and elect a lying braggart like Trump as its president? I could go on, but Yorkie, Roger and Steve put it much better than I can.
We were chatting with Ms P via the wonder of FaceTime™ and got onto the subject of national stereotypes for the places we've visited. Not in a nasty, xenophobic way I hasten to add, but rather the cultural differences and idiosyncrasies that are fond and abiding memories.
I watched the Scotland and England rugby match on Saturday for no other reason than it happened to be on the BBC. Rugby union about too stop start for my tastes and the rules get more arcane every season – I much prefer rugby league.
About the only time I catch onto something that has gone viral is when I catch a dose of the flu, unless I happen to be alerted to it by by one of the blogs I read, and so it was in the case of the rude waitress.
When we were applying for visas to visit the US a few years ago, I was left scratching my head over whether I was guilty of the sin of 'moral turpitude'. I was pretty sure I wasn't, but looked it up just to be sure.
It's been over nine years since the Innovations catalogue bit the dust, but I still miss it and all the things it sold that I never knew I needed.
It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't complete the story of Prudence the Duck. For those who missed my original post, she arrived in pool of our friend's home in Las Vegas one breezy day and stayed for a couple of hours.
I knew there was something else I meant to post about on our Las Vegas trip – the little place we've invested in as a holiday home.


I have been in Melbourne for five days now, landing in the home of the two Margarets who are most assuredly my fairy godmothers. The trip from California was a time travel though the seasons and, as everyone has been telling me, the most intensely disorienting jet lag on the planet. I was glad to have three days before the Dream Quest to get my bearings, visit a local labyrinth and a sanctuary for native animals. I met with my new friends here to see a performance by Bangarra, a dance troupe fusing Aboriginal and modern dance forms, In my appropriately foggy state, I whiffed the fragrance of the Dreaming and the consciousness that has known the land here for the past 40-60 thousand years. In entering this culture, one layer was laid down like one does with the filo dough when making spanakopita. I know that there are many , many more to come.
The Dream Quest yesterday was one of the most joyful in my experience. 30 open, loving, and deeply felt women enjoyed the songs, meditations and rhythms we have been offering for 28 years. As I have found before, it is deeply meaningful to invite women to the Circle, now spanning the globe.
I learned another layer from these women who all shared a profound appreciation of the indigenous culture of their land. The Dreamtime, they said cannot be understood from the the concepts of Western spirituality or even mysticism. It comes from a unitive conscious that grows from the land. It is important to slowly encounter this place and open to a new way of knowing.
I am off to the desert to present a 4 day retreat with beginners mind and heart .May the stars teach, and the land.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on September 5, 2015 by Judith.


text:
Home Business Damac to contest against Egyptian conviction
Damac to contest against Egyptian conviction
S Raja
Damac properties, one of the leading developers in Dubai, said the company would dispute against the conviction of their chairman Hussain Sajwani.? Mr Hussain Sajwani was convicted of conniving with the former tourism minister Zuhair Garranah in the 3000 hectares of land deal in Gamsha Bay near Red Seanear in the year 2006. The case was filled with spurious charges and filed in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) court.
Damac stated that they will move an arbitration claim in ICSID, which is affiliated to World Bank. ICSID is an autonomous body set up to resolve investment related international disputes.
Along with Mr Sajwani and Mr Garranah, another businessman named Hisham al Hazeq was also convicted by the Egyptian court on Monday. Mr Sajwani was sentenced for five years, fined 242 million Egyptian pounds (Dh149.5m), and ordered to return the land to the government.
According to the company spokesperson, the entire procedure and the conviction was improper and that it was politically motivated against businessmen who had business dealings with the former government. They argue that it is against the bilateral agreement between the Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Moreover, the verdict was passed in absentia of Mr Sajwani.
The trial was in the wake of popular protests that began in January and the subsequent resignation of the president, Mr Hosni Mubarak. Several charges of corruption have been filed against businessmen and politicians.
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text:
Toby Haynes Taking Over Directing Duties on Cassian Andor Star Wars Series
Jordan Maison
As COVID complications prevent Tony Gilroy from getting to the set, Toby Haynes is stepping in to direct the first several episodes of the upcoming Star Wars live-action series.
Just as Rogue One seemed to have a number of issues behind the scenes before making it to theaters, it's upcoming Prequel series, focused on Cassian Andor, is following suit. This time, however, are due to COVID complications. Deadline is reporting that Tony Gilroy, who was set to helm the first three episodes of the Star Wars series, won't be doing so any more.
Due to travel restrictions related to the ongoing pandemic, Gilroy has made the decision to not fly out to the UK where filming on Cassian will take place (supposedly kicking off next month). Instead, he's trusting Toby Haynes to take over. Haynes, who's directed episodes of Black Mirror, Doctor Who, and Sherlock, was apparently already on the list to direct later episodes of the series, so the transition is sure to be a smooth one.
Gilroy will still remain highly involved in the production, acting as Executive Producer and Showrunner. Now, with filming set to begin very soon, hopefully we can get a few more details on the show along with more cast members (beyond Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Genevieve O'Reilly, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kyle Soller).
The Cassian series was set to release on Disney Plus in 2021, but no word yet on if that timeframe will hold considering the unexpected delays. Are you looking forward to this series?
Star Wars TV
TOBY HAYNES
Tony Gilroy
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New Game of Thrones Spin-Off Will Focus on Dunk & Egg's Adventures
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MONTREAL (CP) - Retired judge Alan B. Gold, known for his skills as a mediator in high-profile cases involving former prime minister Brian Mulroney and David Milgaard, has died. He was 87. In 1990, Gold also mediated between Mohawks and the Quebec government in the Oka crisis, helping bring the lengthy land claims standoff to an end.
He served as chief justice of Quebec Superior Court from 1983 until 1992 when he retired from the bench.
Gold joined the Montreal law firm of Davies, Ward, Phillips and Vineberg in 1993 where he was beloved and respected, senior partner Peter Mendell said Monday.
"We all called him, 'Judge'," Mendell said, adding that even former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard, who works at the same firm, called Gold by his nickname.
Mendell added that Gold was instrumental in bringing Bouchard to the firm after the Parti Quebecois premier stepped down in 2001.
He said Gold, who died on Sunday, was a private man who wouldn't have wanted the nature of his illness disclosed.
Gold was a successful mediator because he had an attentive ear, Mendell said.
"He was able very well to marry his career as a lawyer and his career as a judge by being an incredibly good listener. He was very respectful of the views of others."
Gold represented the Saskatchewan government in the late 1990s in negotiations for a $10-million financial settlement for Milgaard, who spent 22 years in prison wrongly convicted of murder.
He also reviewed the out-of-court settlement reached in former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney's lawsuit against the federal government. Mulroney was awarded $2 million for being wrongly accused of receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks in Air Canada's 1988 purchase of Airbus jets as well as from two other contracts.
Gold was a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and returned to his hometown to study law at the University of Montreal. He was called to the bar in 1942 but did Second World War service with the Royal Canadian Artillery for the next four years.
Gold was named as chief judge of provincial court, now renamed Quebec court, in 1970.
He first attracted national attention in 1968 when he was the chief arbitrator who headed off a longshoremen's strike at the Port of Montreal.
Five years later, he mediated a strike by 56,000 rail workers. He also helped settle two national postal strikes - in 1981 and 1991.
Gold's funeral was to be held in Montreal on Tuesday.
His death was noted by Quebec Superior Court Justice John Gomery, presiding over the sponsorship inquiry.
Gomery announced he will take an extra long lunch break Tuesday so he can attend the funeral.
"I heard some sad news at the break," Gomery said.
"Apparently somebody for whom I have great esteem has passed on, the Hon. Alan B. Gold. The funeral will be tomorrow at 11:30 and personally I must attend that funeral. He was my chief justice for many years, and a friend."
Mendell also said Gold was known for his love of the arts, especially classical music.
Gold is survived by his wife Lynn, and three children.
MONTREAL - Retired judge Alan B. Gold, who helped steer the country out of several crises including the Oka standoff and two national postal strikes, has died.
Gold, who passed away on Sunday at age 87, also represented the Government of Saskatchewan in negotiations to reach a settlement with David Milgaard for wrongful conviction.
He served as chief justice of Quebec's Superior Court from 1983 until 1992, when he retired from the bench.
Justice John Gomery, who is currently presiding over the federal sponsorship inquiry, expressed sadness at word of Gold's death, calling him a friend whom he held in great esteem.
Gold is credited with having helped make the legal system more accessible, rapid, efficient and equitable.
Five years later, he mediated a strike by 56,000 rail workers and helped settle two national postal strikes, in 1981 and 1991.
He was chief arbitrator between the Government of Quebec and its public employees for 17 years and served as mediator and arbitrator in disputes concerning the ports, railways, airlines, Royal Mint, foreign service and many businesses.
In 1990, Gold mediated between Mohawks and the Quebec government in the Oka crisis.
He also represented the Saskatchewan government in the late 1990s in negotiations for a financial settlement for David Milgaard, who spent 22 years in prison wrongly convicted of murder.
In 1995, Gold became a member of the Order of Canada.
Right into his last years, Gold managed a full work schedule.
The $600,000 Alan B. Gold scholarship fund, for the faculty of law at the University of Montreal, is described as a tribute to the brilliant career of a remarkable man.


This is the book about Kari Martin and her snake of a fiance. She ends up calling off the wedding after finding him screwing a stranger in a bar. She then decides she needs a change of pace and plans to move out of New York.
Her best friends are moving to Bar Harbor, Maine. She thinks it best to get a change of pace and scenery. Her fiance is always calling her and figures she will give in and get back together with him. Kari has had enough and gives notice to her job.
Right from the start she is attracted to Jake, the hometown hero. She meets him her first night in town at the supermarket. He helps her choose wine for dinner.
Jake used to live in Texas. He was hurt in the past by a woman he had loved his whole life. He is completely attracted to Kari - but afraid to try. He knows he could get close to Kari, he already feels something for her.
They keep "bumping into one another" all over town. It is a small town, and their paths seem to cross a lot. She has to interview him as part of her first assignment for her new job.
Kari is all that Jake could ever want. He is crazy attracted to her. His past keeps getting in the way and he is not sure what to do. Can he take a chance? Dare he? He is starting to feel something for her. The sparks fly and the air sizzles when they are in the same room.
This is a story of love, fate and dealing with the hurt of the past. I liked the character development. I felt the story was an honest progression for these two and I loved it!
This is the story of heartbreak and fate. It is a very nice tale of romance. The author writes about each character very carefully and thought out out. Kari and her friends are hilarious but it shows their friendship is truly strong. Kari goes through a lot but eventually gets her HEA. Jake has had a very rough past and finds it hard to open up. Once he allows himself to the devil come knocking.
This book was worth the read, can't wait to read the next installment.


There can be few people in the world who have not at some time in their lives heard the "Voice of Racing" calling home the horses in The Derby or Grand National.
It was a voice that not only communicated the thrills and excitement of racing, but which also told the listener that here was a man who cared passionately for the Sport.
Behind the scenes however, few outside of racing's hierarchy knew of Sir Peter's charitable work in general and for animal welfare in particular.
His retirement allowed him to devote more time to this important work, always making himself available to the various charities involved, and tirelessly working to better the lot of the retired, injured, or ill-treated animal, forgotten by an uncaring or unconcerned former owner.
With his retirement came the opportunity for the public to show their affection for Sir Peter and with it an idea for an annual fund-raising event.
The event would not only allow Sir Peter to put back into racing some of the pleasure the sport had given him over the years, but also to raise funds for the animal and racing welfare charities that so desperately need year on year support. The event - The Sir Peter O'Sullevan Annual Award Lunch, an event which will continue despite Sir Peter's sad passing in July 2015.


text:
local class = require("riritools.lua.class")
local gui_component = require("riritools.lua.gui_component")
local rt_inputs = require("riritools.lua.riritools_inputs")
local gui_clickable_mixin = require("riritools.lua.gui_clickable_mixin")
local wh = require("riritools.lua.window_helper")
local chronometer = require("riritools.lua.chronometer")

local min = math.min
local max = math.max

local get_size = gui.get_size
local set_size = gui.set_size
local get_position = gui.get_position
local set_position = gui.set_position

local gui_container = class("rt.gui_container", gui_component)

function gui_container:__initialize(name, _, parent)
	gui_component.__initialize(self, name, parent)
	self.delay = 5
	self.touch_press_time = 0.15
	self.drag_power = 0.5
	self.__max_content_pos = vmath.vector3()
	self.__drag = vmath.vector3()
	self.__is_a_container = true
	self.__delay_count = 0
	self.__drag_pos = nil
	self.__touch_counter = 0
	self.__drag_chronometer = chronometer:new()
	self.__is_moving = false
end

function gui_container:setup(options)
	options = options or {}
	self.window = self.__base_node
	self:__setup_node("__windowskin", "windowskin")
	self:__setup_node("__content", "content")
	self:__setup_node("__stencil", "stencil")
	self:__setup_node("__scrollbar_x", "scrollbar_x")
	self:__setup_node("__scrollbar_y", "scrollbar_y")

	local window_size = get_size(self.window)
	self.__window_size = vmath.vector3(window_size)
	self.__windowskin_slice9 = gui.get_slice9(self.__windowskin)

	if (not options.is_open) then
		window_size.x = 0
		window_size.y = 0
		gui.set_size(self.window, window_size)
	end

	self:refresh_windowskin()
end

function gui_container:open(time)
	time = time or 0.25
	gui.animate(self.window, "size.x", self.__window_size.x, gui.EASING_LINEAR, time)
	gui.animate(self.window, "size.y", self.__window_size.y, gui.EASING_LINEAR, time)
end

function gui_container:close(time)
	time = time or 0.25
	gui.animate(self.window, "size.x", 0, gui.EASING_LINEAR, time)
	gui.animate(self.window, "size.y", 0, gui.EASING_LINEAR, time)
end

function gui_container:is_open()
	local window_size = gui.get_size(self.window)
	return (window_size.x <= self.__windowskin_slice9.x or window_size.y <= self.__windowskin_slice9.y)
end

function gui_container:refresh_windowskin()
	local window_size = get_size(self.__base_node)
	set_size(self.__windowskin, window_size)

	window_size.x = max(window_size.x - self.__windowskin_slice9.x * 2, 0)
	window_size.y = max(window_size.y - self.__windowskin_slice9.y * 2, 0)
	set_size(self.__stencil, window_size)

	local size = get_size(self.__content)
	local pos = get_position(self.__content)
	local max_x = (size.x - window_size.x)
	local max_y = (size.y - window_size.y)
	local overmax = false
	if (pos.y > max_y) then
		pos.y = 0
		overmax = true
	end
	if (pos.x > max_x) then
		pos.x = 0
		overmax = true
	end
	if (overmax) then
		set_position(self.__content, pos)
	end

	self.__max_content_pos = (get_size(self.__content) - window_size)
	self.__delay_count = 0

	size = get_size(self.__scrollbar_x)
	local ratio = window_size.x  / gui.get_size(self.__content).x
	size.x = ratio * window_size.x
	set_size(self.__scrollbar_x, size)

	local color = gui.get_color(self.__scrollbar_x)
	color.w = (ratio >= 1) and 0 or 1
	gui.set_color(self.__scrollbar_x, color)

	pos = get_size(self.__scrollbar_x)
	pos.y = -window_size.y + pos.y
	pos.x = -min(get_position(self.__content).x / self.__max_content_pos.x, 1) * (window_size.x - size.x)
	set_position(self.__scrollbar_x,  pos)

	size = get_size(self.__scrollbar_y)
	ratio = (window_size.y  / get_size(self.__content).y)
	size.y = ratio * window_size.y
	set_size(self.__scrollbar_y, size)

	color = gui.get_color(self.__scrollbar_y)
	color.w = (ratio >= 1) and 0 or 1
	gui.set_color(self.__scrollbar_y, color)

	pos = get_size(self.__scrollbar_y)
	pos.x = window_size.x - pos.x
	pos.y = -min(get_position(self.__content).y / self.__max_content_pos.y, 1) * (window_size.y - size.y)
	set_position(self.__scrollbar_y,  pos)
end

function gui_container:update(dt)
	self.__drag_chronometer:update(dt)
	self.__delay_count = self.__delay_count + 1
	if (self.__delay_count >= self.delay) then
		self:refresh_windowskin()
	end
end

function gui_container:can_pass_input()
	return (self.__drag.x == 0 and self.__drag.y == 0)
end

function gui_container:on_non_moving_input()
end

function gui_container:__reset_input_data()
	self.__is_moving = false
	self.__drag_chronometer:stop()
	self.__drag_pos = nil
	self.__drag = vmath.vector3()
	self.__touch_counter = 0
end

function gui_container:on_input(action_id, action)
	if (self.__is_active and self.__is_enabled) then
		local input = self.use_touch and rt_inputs.TOUCH or self.mouse_binding

		local mouse_or_touch = (action_id == input) and not action.pressed
		local mouse_wheel = (action_id == rt_inputs.MOUSE_WHEEL_UP or action_id == rt_inputs.MOUSE_WHEEL_DOWN)
							and action.pressed

		if (not self.__drag_pos) then
			if (action.pressed and self:__has_clicked_ok_on_component(action_id, action, self.__stencil)) then
				self.__drag_chronometer:restart()
			elseif (mouse_wheel and self:__is_inside_component_check(action.screen_x, action.screen_y, self.__stencil)) then
				self.__drag_pos = get_position(self.__content)
			end
		end

		if (mouse_wheel or self.__drag_chronometer:as_seconds() > self.touch_press_time) then
			self.__is_moving = true
			self.__drag_pos = get_position(self.__content)
			self.__drag_chronometer:stop()
		end

		if ((mouse_or_touch or mouse_wheel) and self.__drag_pos) then
			local wheel_multiplier = mouse_wheel and (action_id == rt_inputs.MOUSE_WHEEL_UP and -0.1 or 0.1) or 0
			self.__drag.y = mouse_wheel and (self.__drag.y + wheel_multiplier * wh.height)
							or self.__drag.y + (action.screen_dy * self.drag_power)
			self.__drag.x = mouse_wheel and 0 or self.__drag.x + (action.screen_dx * self.drag_power)
			local position = self.__drag_pos + self.__drag
			position.x = min(max(position.x, -self.__max_content_pos.x), 0)
			position.y = max(min(position.y, self.__max_content_pos.y), 0)
			set_position(self.__content, position)
			self.__is_moving = true
		end

		if (not self.__is_moving) then
			self:on_non_moving_input(action_id, action)
		end

		if ((action.released and action_id == input) or mouse_wheel) then
			self:__reset_input_data()
		end
	end
end

gui_container:include(gui_clickable_mixin)

return gui_container


text:
The Eurotas valley with the site of Sparta by Sir William Gell, pen and ink wash, c1810. Courtesy the British Museum
Uncovering Sparta
Mythological home of Helen, war-making polis of Leonidas and now a modest municipality: the city is a palimpsest
by Daphne D. Martin + BIO
Daphne D. Martin
is a PhD candidate and Mellon Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her writing includes the chapter 'The Colour of Cult: Artemis Brauronia and the Krokotos' in Textiles in Ancient Mediterranean Iconography (2021), edited by Susanna Harris, Cecilie Brøns and Marta Zuchowska.
Edited bySam Dresser
3,300 wordsSave
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'You take delight not in a city's seven or 70 wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.'
– from Invisible Cities (1972) by Italo Calvino
Unlike other great cities of ancient fame such as Rome, Athens or Jerusalem, Sparta seems to have disappeared off the map. What remains of the legendary town? A name? An archaeological site? A historical memory? That memory, if it exists at all, is often of a city-state with a mania for martial valour and athleticism, a distrust of foreigners, and extreme austerity. It's popularly captured today in the phrase 'This – is – Sparta!' as shouted by Gerard Butler, playing King Leonidas in the film 300 (2006) when he kicks the Persian messenger into a well.
It is not only in modern times but since antiquity that the perception of Sparta has been, in quite a radical sense, skewed. The book Le mirage spartiate (1933) by François Ollier traces the history of these misconceptions of a city with an elite male class of Spartiates dedicated solely to war, and women supposedly throwing weak newborns off the cliffs around Mount Taygetus. Such fires were fuelled by authors such as Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle and Plutarch, all of whom were non-Spartan and some of whom were explicitly hostile to Sparta.
View from the Byzantine ruins of Mystras towards modern Sparta, August 2020. Photo by Athanasios Gioumpasis/Getty
In order to understand this shadowy town, we need to move beyond the idea of a warfare-oriented polis and consider instead her many invisible cities. There is no single Sparta. Indeed, Sparta, like many cities, is akin to the Ship of Theseus, a philosophical paradox posed by Plutarch (46-119 CE). A ship is preserved by the Athenians, who replace the old planks with new planks as they decay. The paradox is whether, by replacing the decaying planks, the ship can still be considered the Ship of Theseus or whether (and when) it becomes something else entirely.
Italo Calvino has a different approach in his novel Invisible Cities. The character of Marco Polo in his text describes 54 cities with female names, which in the end are all one: Venice. At Sparta, where we impose the ideal of one particular history, there is a palimpsest of other cities to be explored. The view from the stoas of the dynasty of the Euryclids, Sparta's Greek governors during the Roman period, would be very different indeed from the ruin-studded landscape traversed by 18th-century travellers hoping to commune with antiquity, and different again from the grand feasts held at the legendary palace of King Menelaus and beautiful Helen. By peeling back, one by one, these layers of time, Sparta's story can be scrutinised against our preconceptions, and written anew.
Long before King Leonidas, Sparta was famed as the home of the most beautiful woman in Greece, Helen, and her husband Menelaus. Homer himself describes their glittering palace, which Telemachus, Odysseus's son, visits in search of news of his father.
In awe at the splendour of the palace, Telemachus whispers to his friend:
Dear friend, do you see how
these echoing halls are shining bright with bronze,
and silver, gold and ivory and amber?
It is as full of riches as the palace
of Zeus on Mount Olympus!
– from the 2017 translation of the Odyssey by Emily Wilson
In addition to the royal household, Lakonia – the land where Sparta is found, in the south of the Peloponnese – is described with the epithets 'hollow', referring to the Eurotas valley in which the town sprawls into existence, and 'filled with ravines', as modern rock climbers in the area will know. From earliest times, we see, then, how Sparta was an important and famous site in the Greek world, and made legendary by Homer even long before the Persian Wars.
Recent archaeological excavations bring the words of Homer to life. South of Sparta, situated on a hill known as Ayios Vasileios, near the village of Xirokambi, the remains of an enormous Mycenaean palace complex, rich in finds, were discovered in 2008. The site is exceptional, for it is the only Mycaenean palace complex to have been uncovered in Lakonia to this date. Archaeological research has revealed that the site functioned as a palace complex from the 17th century BCE, continuing to grow in size and importance until its fiery demise at the beginning of the 13th century BCE.
The power of the kingdoms crystalised into myths, later preserved in the Homeric epics
Its destruction is precisely the reason for the preservation of one of the most fascinating finds, an archive of clay tablets in Linear B (a syllabic script used for writing Mycenaean Greek, and the earliest attested form of the Greek language), which were fired during the palace's demolition. Most of the tablets seem to be of a bureaucratic function, used by the palace administration to keep track of property and goods. The discovery of a cache of 20 bronze swords speaks to the military prowess and dominance of the palace's elite, who likely had control of much of the surrounding fertile land. Other finds that reveal the flourishing wealth and influence of Lakonia's Mycenaean palace include vibrantly coloured fragments of wall paintings, Egyptian scarabs, and a decorated bull's head rhyton, which could have been used for making offerings to the gods.
The material evidence paints a picture of the Eurotas valley as the home of Mycenaean kings, lording over a fertile valley. The power of the kingdoms crystalised into myths, later preserved in the Homeric epics: the first iteration of Sparta.
From 700 BCE onwards, exquisite carved ivories, enormous bronze tripods and painted temple sculptures appear at Sparta's sanctuary sites. Scarabs of Egyptian faience and masks of Phoenician influence now gave Sparta a cosmopolitan flavour. Famous artists, such as the bronzeworker Gitiadas, purportedly of Spartan origin, and Bathykles, coming all the way from Magnesia in Asia Minor, were commissioned to adorn these very same sites with their works. During this time, Spartan pottery had a Mediterranean market, appearing in North Africa in Cyrene, as well as all over Magna Graecia (southern Italy). Material culture speaks to a society engaged in trade and invested in images – of myth and of themselves.
Our scant literary evidence from the 7th century BCE comes from two Spartan poets, Alkman and Tyrtaios, primarily in the form of songs, and intended to be performed in front of the community at religious festivals and drinking parties. In an excerpt from Alkman's most complete fragment, known as the 'first partheneion', and thought to have been performed by young Spartan girls on the cusp of adulthood, the emphasis is on beauty, both of the girls and the objects which adorn them (a snake-bracelet, a headdress, eye make-up):
But whoever is second to Agido in beauty,
let her be a Scythian horse running against a Lydian one.
It is true: all the royal purple
in the world cannot resist.
No fancy snake-bracelet,
made of pure gold, no headdress
from Lydia, the kind that girls
with tinted eyelids wear to make themselves fetching.
As Alkman demonstrates, 'luxurious' and 'cosmopolitan' are appropriate words to describe Sparta during the Archaic period – an importer of art and artists from the Near East, and an exporter of their own works across the eastern Mediterranean. Sparta was a culture that fits into the broader picture we have of the region, of kingdoms and city-states competing with each other, trading with each other, becoming aware of their own idiosyncrasies and their relationships to others. There's no place for austerity here, the second iteration. Although warfare was a part of life, as the subjugation of the neighbouring population of Messene suggests, song, dance and beautiful objects were equally important.
But what about the classic image of Sparta, then, where luxury is eschewed, state secrecy is prized, and the sole focus of the male populace is training for battle? Now it's time to consider what we know about Sparta in the period she is most known for. Does representation hold up to reality? It's a question that stays open for the intrepid (or, perhaps, the delusional) to take a stab at.
The problem with painting a 'true' picture of classical Sparta is our sources. Nearly all our literary sources are non-Spartan. There is either explicit hostility towards the polis, or else idealisation. At the same time, archaeological evidence from the period is notably scant – a fact exacerbated by the building of the modern town of Sparta over the ancient. The absence of historical fact invites room for imagination.
The Acropolis is a major tourist destination but few are aware that Sparta still exists as a modern town
There is, however, one quotation from the ancient historian Thucydides, remarkable for its seemingly prophetic nature. In the passage, Thucydides undertakes a thought experiment that describes exactly the situation with which both present-day reality and classical scholarship agree:
Suppose, for example, that the city of Sparta were to become deserted and that only the temples and foundations of buildings remained, I think that future generations would, as time passed, find it very difficult to believe that the place had really been as powerful as it was represented to be. Yet the Spartans occupy two-fifths of the Peloponnese and stand at the head not only of the whole Peloponnese itself but also of numerous allies beyond its frontiers. Since, however, the city is not regularly planned and contains no temples or monuments of great magnificence, but is simply a collection of villages, in the ancient Hellenic way, its appearance would not come up to expectation. If, on the other hand, the same thing were to happen to Athens, one would conjecture from what met the eye that the city had been twice as powerful as in fact it is.
Thucydides imagines an abandoned Sparta, suffering under the ravages of time. He foresees that its material remnants, today's archaeological remains, would be unimpressive to future generations. It's uncanny that this is precisely what has come about, with the Athenian Acropolis as a major tourist destination, while few are aware that Sparta still exists as a modern town, much less as anything worth seeing.
His statement that the city 'contains no temples or monuments of great magnificence', however, deserves to be interrogated further, especially in light of the literary evidence from the travel writer Pausanias, who, in the 2nd century CE, describes some magnificent structures indeed. Even in the case of Thucydides, the so-called father of history, it's worth questioning the motives that lead him to present Sparta as he does. As an Athenian himself, Thucydides might purposefully wish to emphasise the distinction between urbane and ostentatious Athens and simple, quasi-rural Sparta, the two main powers of the greatest war Hellas had ever seen. In this context, it behoves the historian to underscore not possible similarities, but differences. When we take such statements as objective fact, instead of understanding that the historian is himself aware of his power in shaping history, many sides of the story can get lost.
I'm not denying that Sparta was different, and even exceptional, in comparison with other Greek poleis, or that the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE) was not a determining event in world history; or even that the role Sparta played was not as important as our sources suggest. Rather, my point is that what we know of life in Sparta during the classical period is a reflection of what others, often in much later periods, thought, and so does not necessarily align with reality or how the Spartans conceived of themselves.
After the painful period following Philip II of Macedon's takeover of Sparta in 338-337 BCE, the Roman era (31 BCE-396 CE) demonstrates an obsession with recapturing and reperforming the glory of Sparta's mythical classical past. It was fetishised and mythologised, with no apologies. In an attempt to recreate the 'Lycurgan' agoge, or system of education, ritual flogging ceremonies were re-enacted in the sanctuary of Artemis Ortheia, by the river Eurotas, now with the addition of an amphitheatre for Roman viewers. Classical Sparta's perceived civil and military values were promoted as moral standards for Romans to follow. Pausanias describes a city thick with religious monuments, sites of hero-cult, and statues to generals and lawmakers. His meticulous narrative of his travels around Lakonia, taking up most of his third book of The Description of Greece, leaves us with a sense of how thickly layered time, memory and landscape were, and how this sense of a mythic past was cultivated in Roman Sparta.
Much of the reason for Sparta's flourishing can be attributed to her inhabitants' reckless but lucky decision to support Octavian, soon to become Emperor Augustus, in the Battle of Actium (31 BCE). This led to their currying unique favour with Rome after his victory. We also have evidence of other famous Spartaphiles, such as the orator Cicero, spending time in the city. The positive relationship between Sparta and the Roman Empire drew many wealthy Romans to Lakonia. This is further attested by the archaeological evidence, which consists of increasingly luxurious houses and baths, as well as a new theatre, one of the largest in the Peloponnese. More than 137 Roman and Late Antique mosaics have been excavated; they would have decorated the atriums and dining rooms of the splendid Roman mansions. The most famous among the mosaics, today on display for visitors to the modern town, depict Orpheus singing to the animals and the abduction of Europa by Zeus in bull form (still to be seen on the back of the Greek €2 coin).
The view from wealthy Roman villas in Sparta is a retrospective one, constantly caught up in fashioning the present relative to the past. In this sense, it sets a precedent for what's to come.
The Eurotas valley is the perfect blank canvas upon which educated Europeans could project their fantasies
The next iteration of Sparta adds a layer of medieval Western history to a landscape littered with the memory of an ancient past. Nearly a millennium after Sparta's days of Roman glory, in the 13th century CE, the settlement is moved from the Eurotas valley to one of the peaks that make up the foothills of the Taygetus mountains, named Mystras (or Myzithras). This is at the behest of its Frankish conqueror, William de Villehardouin, looking for a more fortified spot, which Mystras, perched like an eagle's nest upon its craggy peak, absolutely was.
Yet this did not keep the Frankish stronghold, with its bird's-eye view of the Vale of Sparta, safe from the Byzantines, who captured the castle in 1262. Mystras under Byzantine rule transformed into a cultural capital, built up with stunning churches and monasteries overlooking the valley, towards the sunrise over the Parnon mountains in the east. It was the home of Princess Isabella of Villehardouin, whose life later became the inspiration for the Greek writer Angelos Terzakis's novel Princess Isabeau (1945), as well as intellectuals and philosophers such as Gemistus Plethon, widely hailed as the 'second Plato'. In the last two centuries before Mystras fell to the Ottomans in 1460, the Byzantine dynasty known as the Palaeologi ruled, their interests in the arts and culture strengthening Mystras's vibrant community, which was also a thriving centre of silk production and trade, as well as the cultivation of olives, grapes and mulberries.
As the art historian Sharon Gerstel writes in her introduction to Viewing the Morea: Land and People in the Late Medieval Peloponnese (2013): 'To revisit Mystras as it was, one needs to hear the swish of silk clothing and listen for the chatter of its intellectuals, who once populated the city's libraries and court.' The Pantanassa Monastery (founded in 1428), filled with exquisite wall-paintings and adorned with a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic elements, might be considered the artistic chef-d'oeuvre of the period, its dizzying view over the Eurotas valley today as unparalleled as it was then.
Fast-forward four centuries, and Lakonia is a land of wilderness and ruin under Ottoman rule. The Eurotas valley is the perfect blank canvas upon which educated Europeans, driven by a desire to put themselves in contact with the mythic past, could project their fantasies. In this period, landscape becomes a locus for the generation of new mythologies about Sparta, steeped in Romantic nostalgia and facilitated by the fact that the ruined remains of the city did not live up to its legendary reputation. The stories of European travellers revel in the absence of a past that is so desperately sought.
In 1754, Julien-David Le Roy, a French architect and archaeologist, undertook the perilous journey to Greece, then still a province of the Ottoman Empire, to document 'the ruins of the most beautiful monuments in Greece'. He wrote: 'Sparta – so celebrated for the laws established by Lycurgus and for the courage of its inhabitants – is now so ruinous, with so few buildings left there, that we feel no necessity to write the history of its former state.' He captured the sentiment of most who came to Sparta: simultaneously overcome by the beauty of the natural environment and woefully disappointed at the state of its ruins. In the end, it was the Taygetus mountains, the Eurotas river, and the fertile valley of olive and orange trees that became the focus of their descriptive ecstasy.
In Rambles and Studies in Greece (1876), the Irish classicist J P Mahaffy praises the valley of Sparta as 'the richest and most fertile in Peloponnesus', its 'undulating hills and slopes, all now covered with vineyards, orange and lemon orchards, and comfortable homesteads or villages'. He extols the 'brilliant serrated crest of Taygetus, glittering with its snow in the sunshine' and describes in vivid detail how:
Straight before me, so close that it almost seemed within reach of voice, the giant Taygetus, which rises straight from the plain, stood up into the sky, its black and purple gradually brightening into crimson, and the cold blue-white of its snow warming into rose. There was a great feeling of peace and silence, and yet a vast diffusion of sound.
Mahaffy's reverence for the mountain, the unfurling of the day through the shifting of colours on its facade, the moment of stillness that it evokes, verges on the religious. This close attention to natural beauty, and intimate description of the effect of Sparta's nature, is captured also by the French traveller Edmond About (1828-85), who focuses on the pastoral and idyllic aspects of the valley:
Thick matted grass formed everywhere carpets at the feet of the oaks and wild olive-trees; golden broom and tall heather, as high as shrubs, entwined themselves in confusion with lentisks and arbutus – a thousand strong perfumes, escaped from the soil, or exhaled from the foliage, or brought from afar by the breeze, combined to intoxicate us.
Modern Sparta did not exist until 1834, when a decree of the king of Greece, Otto von Wittelsbach, refounded a new town on the site of the ancient city. The rebuilding of Sparta aligned with the wishes of those populating the nearby village of Mystras. They wanted to connect the newborn town with its legendary past, a particularly important endeavour in the aftermath of Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the modern Greek state. This was the first time since the 13th century CE that the city of Sparta proper was inhabited.
Today, Sparta remains a modest but bustling town of Lakonia. Nestled in a lush green valley of orange and olive trees, Sparta is forever flanked by the transcendent Taygetus mountains to the west and the silver stream of the Eurotas to the east. Stroll through its streets, as I have done so many times, and you will see ancient monuments among new apartment buildings. The main street, Konstantinos Palaiologos, named after the Palaeologi of Mystra, leads to the public stadium where the town's residents gather in the evenings to enjoy the fresh air. In front of the stadium stands a larger-than-life bronze statue of King Leonidas, perfectly positioned for touristic photo-ops. Archaeologically inclined visitors might catch, from the corner of their eye, the faded sign that points in the direction of ancient Sparta. And, in the central square, dominated by the neoclassical demarcheion, or mayor's office, the next generations of Spartans drink their coffees, exchange news, smile, laugh, and carry on, while below their feet the palimpsest of Sparta rests.
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Disney World Just Announced Its First-ever Mary Poppins Attraction (Video)
Carlye Wisel
Carlye Wisel is one of the nation's leading theme park journalists. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Time, Travel + Leisure, and dozens of other publications.
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Epcot is opening Disney World's very first Mary Poppins attraction, and it's going to be supercalifragi— you get the idea.
Dick Van Dyke himself took the stage at Disney's D23 Expo fan convention over the weekend to reveal the news, which came as an utter surprise to theme park fans. Epcot will also expand upon the beloved film's charming setting as Epcot's United Kingdom pavilion opens its own version of Cherry Tree Lane, allowing guests to walk its iconic cobblestone street like Jane and Michael Banks.
No details were provided as to what the first Mary Poppins attraction will entail — and whether it will be a show or a ride — but we can only assume it will be practically perfect in every way.
Courtesy of Disney Parks
Epcot is undergoing a massive transformation that will see a retheming of the entire park beyond World Showcase, and the addition of Mary Poppins marks the move toward adding a cinematic tie-in to each of the 11 featured countries.
Similar to how Epcot's Norway pavilion embraced "Frozen" theming with experiences including a shop, princess-meet-and-greet, and Frozen Ever After ride, the United Kingdom pavilion, which currently hosts a Mary Poppins meet-and-greet, is likely to retain its historical nods while embracing storylines and characters from the films.
The France pavilion will honor "Beauty and the Beast" in a new sing-along show debuting in January, as well as "Ratatouille" with a ride opening summer 2020. Meanwhile, a live puppet show, interactive exhibit, and marketplace stalls honor Pixar's "Coco" in Mexico, showing how Epcot is incorporating box office hits more and more within its attractions.
A "Moana" warrior princess and "Guardians of the Galaxy" superhero squad will be part of the park's future as well, but the addition of Mary Poppins is nothing short of historic. This newly announced attraction will be the very first permanent ode to the Julie Andrews film which debuted in 1964 and saw a resurgence with last year's Emily Blunt-helmed "Mary Poppins Returns."
A stunning new poster featuring the whimsical nanny floating above Cherry Tree Lane and the London skyline also debuted at Disney's D23 Expo fan convention over the weekend.
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Travel + Leisure Wine
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Windara Orchard is situated at 15 Spring Hill Rd, Sidmouth on the corner of West Tamar Highway. We are on the Tamar Valley wine route.
We operate a roadside stall selling top quality apples and pears. We have 20 varieties of apples including some of the older types such as Cox, Gravenstien, Jonathon, Abba, Alexander, as well as more recent varieties.
We also sell stone fruit in season.


Live Rugby match update for : UE Santboiana Alcobendas Division de Honor Live Rugby online telecast on 16-Apr.
This Division de Honor Rugby fixture featuring UE Santboiana is scheduled to start at Division de Honor.
You can watch this Rugby game inbetween UE Santboiana and Alcobendas Over Here.
In fact you can follow the UE Santboiana Alcobendas vs UE Santboiana Rugby match and all other sports (including worldwide popular TV sports and entertainment channels) when you Register NOW.
Live online broadcast for this Alcobendas UE Santboiana game will be available fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time - 12:30 GMT, 16-Apr, relaying live feeds from the tournament's - Rugby Union - designated venue. UE Santboiana has the odds in his favor for this match, however Alcobendas is always up and ready for any challenge.
Click any of the above links above to watch this Rugby Union patented event : Division de Honor.


Ha, cute trick but totally impractical.
That's why I don't wear a watch.
Well, that and I'm lazy.
Of those who still wear watches, who wears it on their primary hand? I've always seem watches on the off hand, the one that won't be keying in the PIN.
The article specifically describes how it's not, in fact, impractical.
I used to wear one all the time...then it broke and I've just never gotten around to buying another one. I understand that cell phones/smart phones have done real damage to the watch industry; hate to think I've inadvertently been a part of that.
Also not aware of anyone doing it. As noted above and in the comments no one wears watch on that hand. Anyway if someone had my PIN wtf would they do with it? Who really cares?


text:
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Rob's Recommendation Roundup: Volume 8 →
Soen – "Lotus"
Posted on January 27, 2019 by Rob
Soen has become one of my favorite bands. Despite all the member turn over, drummer Martin Lopez and vocalist Joel Ekelöf have always managed to get the right people in the band. Now with their fourth album "Lotus," they actually have the same lineup as their last album which is a first for them. While I really like "Lykaia" a lot, I've made no secret that I thought it was brickwalled. The reissue/remastered version of the album did help though.
Fortunately, the band seemed to have learned from that mistake as "Lotus" does not have that issue. In fact, it's their best SOUNDING album to date. Additionally, this batch of songs is also the best they have written. I think they clearly have benefited from having the same lineup as the last record. The songs are all unique and full of hooks.
First, I'll mention the only moment on the album that I have a minor issue with. The last section of the final track "Lunacy" has an extended ambient-ish moment that could be shortened a bit for my taste. But it's a minor quibble! When you've already experienced perfection up to that point, I suppose I have to complain about something. The album has two of the most powerful (mellower) tracks that Soen have done in the title track and "River." Both are phenomenal and rank for me with "The Words" which was my favorite Soen song til now. Oh that title track is now!
The band rock otherwise and the songs have the strongest hooks they've written. The secret weapon on "Lotus" is keyboardist Lars Åhlund who adds color and depth to every single song. He really stands out and, in the process, Soen has their own sound. Enough comparisons to former bands and Tool. "Lotus" is better than anything Tool has done anyway. Yeah I fucking said it.
"Lotus" is an album that as each song hits you, you keep saying "wow that was really good." By the end, you just want to hear it over again. There's no question that this is Soen's masterpiece and one of the best albums of 2019 and any year for that matter. Everything has aligned for Soen and I am very happy for them…and for me because I get to listen to this album again and again!
Rating: 10/10 (yes even with my little quibble)
1. Opponent
2. Lascivious
3. Martyrs
4. Lotus
5. Covenant
6. Penance
8. Rival
9. Lunacy
Release Date: 1 February 2019
Label: Silver Lining Music
Website: http://www.soenmusic.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SoenMusic
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