text:
Law School Policy Review
Clear. Current.
19 Aug 2018 6 Jul 2019
Unbundling State Effectiveness: Current Perspectives
Sanjeev S. Ahluwalia
Decentralisation, with all its limitations, is the way to go for India to make the state effective in fulfillment of its sovereign functions.
Context is everything. No one model exists of an effective State. Hugely diverse countries like India can benefit from a modular approach enabling sub-national jurisdictions to shape their State architecture taking into account their context, the available resources and their dreams. The last is important. "Dreams", as opposed to short-term ambitions, are a mix of inherited drivers for action. They determine who we want to be, which is a long-term goal. Consider that in the long term – any period after 20 years – every factor of production that appears fixed today – technology, natural resource use, and human capital – can be changed.
Core sovereign functions
A large part of the modern sovereigns effort relates to overcoming negative "externalities" (war, insecurity, crime, environmental degradation) or enhancing positive "externalities" (sanitation, public health, basic education, transport, energy and communication networks). An externality is a cost which cannot be allocated to any one entity or a benefit which is not enjoyed by just one individual. This results in the need for "collective action" to finance and execute plans to deal with externalities.
Dealing with the problem of "collective action"
Using State executive agencies to deal with externalities was the pervasive form of "collective action" till the 1970s. Experience shows that those State interventions, which work "along the grain" and align with public sentiment are effective. Consider the baffling, continuing insecurity in Kashmir despite a massive deployment of security forces. A wider domestic and diplomatic engagement with the root causes of Kashmiri disaffection could help. Note that in sharp contrast, China deals with Uighur resentment in its Xinjiang province with a heavy, repressive hand. If the Economist is to be believed, it keeps 1 million Uighurs – more than 10 per cent of this Muslim minority group – in detention camps for "re-education".
Hybrid options for "collective action"
Hybrid options for "collective action" have emerged over the last four decades. These unbundle the core sovereign functions from those which can be undertaken by private entities. Private contractors perform even routine security functions; lease out, maintain and even operate equipment for government agencies. The government can get things done by others rather than do them itself. But using this model extensively requires government agencies to change its skill set from project implementation to project design, contracts, finance and monitoring. There is insufficient evidence that the government is making that transition. Public-Private Participation (PPP), with the private sector putting in capital and bearing the implementation risk, has died in India. The government was unable to make the functional transition to design and manage contracts effectively for mutual gains. Private investors used the mechanism as a way of earning riskless returns using bank loans. The term "Public" in PPP gave banks carte blanche to extend loans to "lemons"- projects with dodgy financials.
Bridging information asymmetry
Managing information asymmetry is also a key sovereign function to reduce the transaction costs to efficient levels and allow the market to grow. Legislating standards like "weights and measures" makes trade more efficient; making rules for disclosures on operational and financial results by business, makes stock markets more efficient; regulations for public disclosure of product contents, as in medicines and food, protect public health. These are "in situ" measures to bridge the information gap between buyers and sellers within a given market structure.
Making markets competitive
Non -competitive markets induce inefficiency and impede growth. On the supply side, the government's job is to avoid cartelisation by existing suppliers and regulate the level of market dominance of individual suppliers. The Competition Commission of India, backed by appropriate legislation is the vehicle for doing this.
Aggregating demand is the flip side option to keep markets competitive. User's cooperatives are one traditional option. Government-owned demand aggregators, like the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), are another option. EESL reduced the retail sale price of energy efficient LED bulbs by 75 per cent over 2012 to 2015 just by buying and distributing at scale. Private demand and supply aggregators like Amazon and Flipkart are newer options which operate like mini-markets reducing transaction costs for both sellers and buyers.
Markets – building blocks of the future
Global ideological polarisation around the usefulness of markets for reducing transaction cost and spurring competition via innovation came when China, under Deng Xiaoping adopted, in 1979, what later came to be known as "capitalism with Chinese characteristics". The collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, signalled the end of Soviet Union style socialism and the ensuing ideological polarisation around markets.
Bumbling liberal democracy versus totalitarian efficiency
Political Science became simpler post-1990 as nations clustered around two major clusters. The larger chunk consists of nations which align with, or aspire to, the western model of governance – democracy, multi-party elections, citizen rights and public sector governance reform to minimize the direct intervention of the government in the economy. India fits squarely into this set.
A smaller set of nations, with China in the lead, subscribe to the supremacy of the Party as the mediator between the State and the people. State control remains pervasive via public investment and Party cadres in key positions in the private sector. The "national interest" dominates citizen interest. Controls on family size (till recently), continuing controls on domestic migration and a weak judiciary are the downsides.
The "middle kingdom" shines
The spectacular economic success of China over the last four decades, including in reducing poverty below 3 per cent, provides powerful evidence that the State can function as effectively as the private sector. This model produces results but also future tensions in an artificial short-term, trade-off between citizen rights and economic progress. If development empowers people, how will a system based on the sacrifices of the many for a few, shake-off the bonds of political subservience it engenders?
Listening to discordant voices or ignoring "noise"
China has the managerial freedom to implement decisions without catering to the "noise" from political opponents or muted public opinion. Curiously, this is not too different from what Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla wants. By taking Tesla private he can avoid the relentless scrutiny of shareholders and the discipline of market expectations. In India, the need for consensus is a brake distorting efficient solutions. Consider the case of the Goods and Services Tax. The GST, an efficient tax reform, languished for over a decade. In 2016 the Union government conceded managerial ground to the GST Council. It agreed to make implementation "revenue neutral" for state governments. A backstop Union government guarantee protects against a shortfall in tax revenues. The potential risk of "moral hazard" is the risk. Multiple tax rates, knowingly sacrifice the efficiency gains from a single rate of tax. But the architecture now exists; systems are stabilizing, the rates can be adjusted based on experience. Listening to the people via the state governments has paid off.
Living with the "nuisance" of judicial review
China has no patience for judicial review of its decisions. This makes the government and the Party supreme. India is a liberal democracy, even though we chose to call it "socialist" in 1976 via an amendment to the constitution. The power of "public interest litigation" effectively restricts the ability of the government to undertake significant change, except via constitutionally aligned legislation.
The initiative of the Vajpayee government to privatise State Owned Entities in 2000 quickly ground to a halt. It became impossible to implement the legislative changes required to change the public ownership of state-owned enterprises like ONGC, what have statutory status since 1956 or banks, which were nationalised by legislation in 1969 and select private industries nationalised in the 1970s. "Reform by stealth" – the Indian approach, truly has its limitations.
India, stolidly elephantine
It is instructive that one and a half decades after electricity reforms were initiated in 2003 there are privatised electricity distribution utilities in the national capital of New Delhi but a State Electricity Board, created under the Electricity Supply Act 1948, continues to function in the state of Kerala – the last bastion of the Left. India assimilates multiple ideological regimes, per the local context.
Local governments bring innovation and accountability
Successive Finance Commissions have devolved more resources and responsibilities to local bodies. But Panchayati Raj, the third level of government, embedded in the Constitution in 1992, remains sparingly implemented. One-third of the annual growth in the pool of Union tax revenue must be incrementally, directly devolved to local government, as shared benefits. This will enhance local ownership of the growth process and facilitate empowered grassroots leaders to grow into future national leaders.
A nation of itinerants
Decentralisation brings to the fore, multiple potential threats – the problem of equitable allocation of funds; ideological permissiveness and political dismemberment. These are real threats. But India has stabilizers built into the constitution– free migration and the rule of law. So long as our laws promote non-discrimination and equality, the market for work and liveability will make a person vote for national integration with her feet and move to a place, where she feels secure and productive.
One-fourth of Indians do not live in the place where they were born. This is why the Aadhar unique digital identity, with appropriate safeguards for private information, is vital to secure seamless access to public services anywhere in this country of itinerants.
There is a curious dichotomy today. The world looks at India as a major determinant of its future. But we, within India, are still staring at our navel awaiting enlightenment from without. It is time we claim our place in the Sun by making our actions speak for us.
Sanjeev S. Ahluwalia is Advisor, Observer Research Foundation. Formerly, he has been associated with the World Bank, having served as a Senior Specialist at the Africa Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the bank, on deputation to East Africa. He has also been associated with the Government of India, in the capacity of Secretary to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and Joint-Secretary of Privatisation. He also served the Government of Uttar Pradesh as its Finance Secretary.
Image Source: SANJHI.GOV.IN
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I love watching the web series, Between Two Ferns. I wish Mr. Galifianakis would do more of these. He is so awesomely awkward. Check 'em out for a giggle or two.
I believe in a great love. It's something I long to have. It's something I must have. I know it will walk into my life when it's supposed to. When I least expect it. When I stop looking for it.
1. Student teaching I spent yesterday with my classroom of little kiddos. We read books, put together puzzles, and learned how to share. They call me Miss Brianna and give me big, bear hugs.
We continued our hiking adventures today. Jenn, Charlie, and I headed to Squaw Peak for a little change of scenery and to get away from the loudness of life's silly mishaps, of the city, of all the hustle and bustle. It was a perfect day for it too.
This little girl is my idol.
1. Musical pals I was so happy to be reunited with my talented pals this past weekend. They put on a great show at The Clubhouse. Now they're off touring, but we definitely gave them one heck of a farewell.


Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensation Arrangements of Certain Officers.
Effective December 1, 2009, First Solar, Inc. (the "Company") and John T. Gaffney, Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the Company, mutually agreed to end Mr. Gaffney's employment with the Company. Mr. Gaffney will receive certain compensation and benefits in accordance with the terms of his employment agreement, as well as an annual bonus for 2009, with the amount of such bonus to be determined consistent with the Company's bonus program currently in effect for all employees. Mr. Gaffney entered into a non-competition and non-solicitation agreement and a confidentiality and intellectual property agreement upon his employment, both of which shall continue to apply in accordance with their terms. The aforementioned severance arrangements (which were not reflected in the guidance given on the Company's October 28, 2009 earnings call) will impact net income by approximately $6.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.


text:
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Nasdaq: VLDR, VLDRW) today commended...
BOULDER, Colo.- ProStar Holdings ("ProStar" or the "Company") (TSXV:MAPS)...
Amersfoort, The Netherlands – The World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC)...
DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 Imaging Satellite Pioneers Global Sensing
With the WorldView-3 satellite launch today, it joins the extensive and capable set of DigitalGlobe satellites, greatly expanding commercial satellite imaging capacity as well as the domains where this imagery can be applied. In so many ways, this satellite is a pioneering effort that is highly calibrated and tuned to deliver unprecedented resolution, sensing capabilities,
DigitalGlobe Announces Satellite Development Plans
DigitalGlobe, Inc. (NYSE: DGI) ("DigitalGlobe") today announced that its previously planned satellite construction program related to its third WorldView-class satellite remains on track. DigitalGlobe can now confirm that it plans to complete WorldView-3 on its original schedule to be ready for launch in mid-2014 in order to meet the requirements of its EnhancedView contract with the U.S. government.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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← Yes, Mars
Down the Wormhole →
Phone App Passively Tracks Your Health
At Cornell University in Ithaca, there's a group of researchers who are working to teach electronic devices what makes people tick. The group, called People-Aware Computer, is headed by Tanzeem Choudhury, a professor of information science at Cornell. Lately, Choudhury's electronic device of choice is the mobile phone. As well as a gadget for calling and checking email, a smartphone is a collection of sensors that sits at most people's side for most of the day. Currently, though, a large portion of a phone's sensor data is ignored.
But what if phone sensors were programmed to pay better attention to us? We are currently slaves to our phones, constantly checking for updates. But what if our phones constantly checked for updates on us? One of Choudhury's latest projects, an Android app called BeWell, is trying to answer these questions.
A watchful phone might sound scary to some. After all, even consumer-favorite Apple experienced a vocal backlash last year when people learned location data collected by their iPhones could easily be exposed. But Choudhury believes that there are privacy-sensitive ways that phones can act as windows into people's habits, health, and happiness. Her software specifically lets people control who has access to this information.
BeWell is designed to passively collect data about a person's overall health. The app infers the state of a person's health by looking at three different measures: social interaction, physical activity, and hours of sleep. Impressively, it does all this without any input from the user. As long as the phone is in your pocket, purse, or resting nearby (and picked up when you move), it's able to get a read for these three dimensions.
I caught up with Choudhury to talk about her goals with the BeWell, how it works and why designing an app like this such a challenge. An edited version of our conversation follows.
Kate Greene: Why is now a good time for an Android phone app that passively tracks your health like this?
Tanzeem Choudhury: There have already been similar consumer apps with some traction. People are familiar with apps like Runkeeper and also with external devices like the Fitbit [pedometer]. But a lot of these apps are focusing on one dimension or requiring the user to engage in terms of entering their information. Pretty much none of them look at health as a multidimensional problem and try to actively push behavior change. We're interested in giving people the right cues to make changes in a positive direction.
KG: But in order for this to work, you have to assume something about the way people use their phones. How can you be sure you're picking up the right information about social interaction, activity, and sleep?
TC: The most extensive testing we've done is with people carrying phones in their pockets. But I don't often carry my phone in my pocket; a lot of the time it's in my purse. In that case, there's a lot more noise. Noise is a reason we limit our analysis to coarse measurements. If you keep things coarse, you don't need perfect data.
KG: Why are you focusing on social interactions, physical activity and sleep?
TC: We chose three dimensions because we wanted to go beyond physical wellbeing and physical fitness. One area that I've been interested in is mental health. It tends to remain hidden for a long time. The three things that came up in our discussions with doctors was physical activity, social interaction, and changes in sleep patterns. They're all indicative of mental health. We felt like we could measure these things, and they would be key to understanding mental wellbeing.
KG: How does the phone measure physical activity?
TC: We are looking at physical activity purely using the phone's accelerometer. We have three categories: sedentary, walking, or running. Walking includes jogging. It's mostly about how quickly a person takes steps, and that's different for different people. It's not as fine grained or accurate if we had the device positioned in a specific location [on the body]. But it does allow us to classify the data into these three categories, which correspond to a metabolic equivalent used to estimate the total energy spent.
KG: And for social measurements?
TC: For social, we're looking at face-to-face social interactions as well as activity on the phone. We're looking at whether you're having conversations with people. We're just looking at the total amount of interactions you have, but at this point we're not looking at the nature of those interactions, if they're stressful or positive or negative.
KG: So the phone's microphone is an important sensor for social measurements. How do you ensure privacy?
TC: We're not looking directly at the audio content: all of the processing is done on the phone. Anything that leaves the phone can't be used to reconstruct words. We're looking for a certain energy profile in a human voice. Over time you can determine that it's bimodal, which tells you it's a conversation between two people. We also look at texting, but we're not looking at content, just how much time you spend texting and the number of messages.
Privacy overall is important. BeWell is in two versions. There's BeWell on the phone and BeWell Plus that lets you see your data online. But the data never has to leave your phone. If people just want to see how they're doing, data stays on the phone. But if they want to see trends, compare to others, and get more accurate measurements of their own health, then they can send it off their phone. [If people choose to send their data off their phone to a server, then software analyzes it to classify a person into a group of people with similar profiles. These profiles are used to refine individual measurements and suggested lifestyle changes. Medical students, for example, have different profiles than nursing home residents, and this knowledge helps the system's accuracy.] Also, we're not doing anything with location data.
KG: How do you monitor sleep without input from a person?
TC: You're probably familiar with the sleep cycle alarm clock. You put your phone on your bed and it measures how much you move. When we started, we found a lot of people didn't want to put their phone on their bed. So what we do is called best-effort sleep sensing. It's not the most accurate. In our testing we saw that we got it to one hour. So it's coarse, but we don't require the user to do something specific.
Essentially, we combine sound and the person's interaction with the phone. We assume that you charge your phone overnight when you're sleeping. We assume you don't interact with your phone when you're sleeping. Also, a lot of people interact with their phone just before sleep and right when they wake up, but not everyone does. So we look at whether your phone is being charged, if it's in an environment that's quiet, and the time of day.
Even though it's not the most accurate, having people use it in daily lives so they can see trends over time will be very important. You can see a change that indicate's a decline. That's our overall philosophy. Ultimately it's the change that's going to be more important than the absolute measures. And if we can make it easy for people then we'll still be able to provide a lot of interesting feedback.
KG: Tell me about the feedback.
TC: One type of BeWell feedback is active wallpaper. It comes from Ubifit, a project from Sunny Consolvo at Intel. She designed a flower garden as a representation for physical activity level. Different types of flowers for different activity. It's a great example of taking advantage of opportune moments [such as people looking at their phone] rather than actively prodding people [such as a phone alert].
Since we are monitoring three dimensions, we decided to use a school of fish for activity and social interaction and light in water to represent sleep. Click on the fish and you get your scores and suggestions.
KG: What makes creating an app like that a challenge?
TC: BeWell is robust enough that we feel we can put it out there. But there are fragmentation issues with some of the Android phones. We've experimented with the Samsung Galaxy and with those we get about 16 to 17 hours of battery life, but then there are other phones where we get pop-up messages that the battery will die in about 6 or 7 hours. That's a problem that we'll fix in updated versions of the app. We also want to get more data for how to improve the app overall, something that will come from more users.
Battery drain is why people uninstall apps on phones. But if we purely optimize on battery power, then the scores are meaningless, so there's a tradeoff. A lot of time you don't actually need to have the sensors on. Silence is an example, or when someone's sedentary. That's what we do now. We're not doing continuous sensing. The other thing we do is coarser and coarser sensing based on battery power. But there's a lot more we can do. Once we know a person's lifestyle, we can adapt sampling based on the person.
KG: Any plans for an iPhone version of BeWell?
TC: One of the great things about iPhones is that they have the best sensors. The accelerometer on Android phones varies by platform, and then so does the sampling rate, which matters even if you're going to do a simple estimation of walking. Whereas with iPhone, you never have that problem. You don't have the fragmentation issue.
We use Android because we can do the continuous monitoring that we need to do: record microphone data and process data during a phone call, for instance. It's important to have a computer be an open book, but with the iPhone, you only have access to certain things. From an academic perspective, you don't want to spend too much time reverse engineering, which we did in the beginning. You want to spend time in actual research.
Apple doesn't really engage with academics in research. It's hard to know if they'll open up. If they did, they'd be an excellent platform in terms of building stable apps that you know will work in the same way on all phones.
Here's a video that explains the basics of BeWell:
This entry was posted in science, technology and tagged accelerometer, android, bewell, cornell, health, mental health, microphone, phone, privacy, quantified self, sensors, sleep tracking, tanzeem choudhury. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Q: How to find the repeat customers in the list? I Have Purchase Table Containing 5 Columns
Columns Names Are

CustomerID, BillID, ProductID, unatity, Payment_Type

Columns Values Are

CID00001, BID00001, PID001, 1, Card

Total Customers Count - 37156
DISTINCT Customers Count - 26053
How to Find the repeat Customers? (37156 - 26053 = 11103)

A: Aggregation is one way:
SELECT COUNT(*) AS num_repeat
FROM
(
    SELECT CustomerID
    FROM purchases
    GROUP BY CustomerID
    HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
) t;

A: To get the list of repeat customers,
SELECT CustomerID, COUNT(*) AS PurchaseCount
FROM purchases
GROUP BY CustomerID
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1

A: You can use this :
SELECT * FROM Purchase
WHERE CustomerID
IN(
    SELECT CustomerID FROM Purchase
    GROUP BY CustomerID HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
    )

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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ScienceInnovation
By NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
China's Tiangong-1 space lab falls to Earth, into the South Pacific
Innovation, Science
China's Tiangong-1 space lab fell to Earth Monday, landing in the Southern Pacific Ocean, following weeks of speculation over where and exactly when the craft would re-enter the atmosphere. The lab broke apart on entering the atmosphere, according to CNN. While the crash was expected, the European Space Agency had assured the public that the craft would likely break up above water, which covers the majority of the Earth's surface, and that the likelihood of being hit by debris was "10 million times smaller than the yearly chance of being hit by lightning."
"This is a big thing the size of a school bus. Most of the stuff in it will just burn up in the atmosphere," said American Museum of Natural History astrophysics curator Mordecai-Mark Mac Low.
Only ten percent of the craft was expected to survive through reentry.
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics:
"It did exactly what it was expected to do; the predictions, at least the past 24 hours' ones, were spot on; and as expected it fell somewhere empty and did no damage."
A total of thirteen space agencies were monitoring the space lab's trajectory around the word, using radar and optical observation.
China told the United Nations in 2017 that the lab had "ceased functioning," while providing little explanation as to why. It was launched in 2011, as a stepping stone toward China's long-term goal of launching a permanent space station by 2022. The lab was last occupied by astronauts in 2013. China launched a second space lab, the Tiangong-2, in 2016.
The nation has also developed a heavy-lift rocket, called the Long March 5, for launching the core-module of a permanent station into orbit.
Normally, a craft such as the Tiangong module would have undergone a more controlled re-entry process, with thrusters positioning the object above a remote area of the Southern Ocean. In this case, command links had apparently been lost, preventing a more controlled re-entry process. However, uncontrolled re-entries are not unprecedented, and the 10 meter (32 foot) long space lab is far from the largest craft to undergo such a re-entry.
At 74 tons, the first US space station, the Skylab, underwent an uncontrolled re-entry in 1979. It reentered the atmosphere safely, with debris scattering over western Australia. Nothing was damaged and no one was harmed, but Australia fined the US $400 for littering.
According to McDowell, Tiangong may be the 50th largest craft to undergo uncontrolled re-entry.
ChinaChina in spaceChina National Space Administrationspace station
Under Armour says a February data breach affected 150 million fitness app users
New study encourages regular, temporary breaks from social media
China begins operation of record breaking telescope
Changyuraptor yangi – The biggest Dinosaur Capable Of Flight Had Four Wings
Ally Stackhouse


text:
Q: How to fix the max value of a stack bar chart's using matplotlib? I'm trying to create a stack bar chart from 2 lists:
counts_start = [tensor(0.),
 tensor(0.),
 tensor(0.0050),
 tensor(0.0100),
 tensor(0.2833),
 tensor(0.8250),
 tensor(0.8917),
 tensor(1.),
 tensor(1.),
 tensor(1.)]

counts_end = [tensor(0.1350),
 tensor(0.1467),
 tensor(0.1517),
 tensor(0.2233),
 tensor(0.2350),
 tensor(0.2417),
 tensor(0.4100),
 tensor(0.4200),
 tensor(0.4483),
 tensor(0.4600)]

Following this I learned that I need the bottom of each list to be the sum of all the lists that came before, so I got this code:
counts_start = [torch.tensor(0.),
    torch.tensor(0.),
    torch.tensor(0.0050),
    torch.tensor(0.0100),
    torch.tensor(0.2833),
    torch.tensor(0.8250),
    torch.tensor(0.8917),
    torch.tensor(1.),
    torch.tensor(1.),
    torch.tensor(1.)]
plt.bar(indices_end,counts_end, color='r')

counts_end = [torch.tensor(0.1350),
    torch.tensor(0.1467),
    torch.tensor(0.1517),
    torch.tensor(0.2233),
    torch.tensor(0.2350),
    torch.tensor(0.2417),
    torch.tensor(0.4100),
    torch.tensor(0.4200),
    torch.tensor(0.4483),
     torch.tensor(0.4600)]

indices_start = range(len(counts_start))
plt.bar(indices_start,counts_start, bottom=counts_end)
plt.show()

Which outputs

Each list has a probability value and hence the max is 1 and min is 0 which is where I need the bars to start and end but can't get it to work. Also note that the third and fourth columns have the blue color on top which makes it look like blue is of higher value (which is not).
I also tried replacing the second plt.bar line with plt.bar(indices_start,[a_i - b_i for a_i, b_i in zip(counts_start, counts_end)], bottom=counts_end) which outputs

Which is almost correct (the max is at 1), except that the first few columns have the wrong color (I think it's because of the negative value).
To clarify, I want the highest value for each column between the 2 lists to be the max value for the column. If there's a higher value in counts_start list the blue color should be on top with it's value (e.g 0.8917), and the smaller value should be with a max of it's value (e.g 0.4100). So it will look like a column with 0-0.4100 red, and 0.4100-0.8917 blue. However, if there's a higher value in the counts_end list (e.g 0.1517), the top part of that column should be red with the top of the column at 0.1517, and the blue color should be at it's corresponding value (e.g 0.0050). Which will look like a column with 0-0.0050 blue, and 0.0050-0.1517 red.

A: If I understood correctly, you want to normalize your list values so that counts_start[i] + counts_end[i] == 1.
This can be done by something like:
start = [0, 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.2833, 0.825, 0.8917, 1, 1, 1]
end = [0.135, 0.1467, 0.1517, 0.2233, 0.235, 0.2417, 0.41, 0.42, 0.4483, 0.46]

new_start, new_end = [], []
for x, y in zip(start, end):
    t = x + y
    new_start.append(x / t)
    new_end.append(y / t)

n = len(start)

plt.bar(range(n), new_end, color="r")
plt.bar(range(n), new_start, bottom=new_end)
plt.show()

Which produces the following plot:

EDIT: Ok, for that I believe you're going to need to keep track of 4 lists, like so:
start = [0, 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.2833, 0.825, 0.8917, 1, 1, 1]
end = [0.135, 0.1467, 0.1517, 0.2233, 0.235, 0.2417, 0.41, 0.42, 0.4483, 0.46]

lo_start, hi_start, lo_end, hi_end = [], [], [], []
for x, y in zip(start, end):
    if x > y:
        a, b, c, d = 0, x - y, y, 0
    else:
        a, b, c, d = x, 0, 0, y - x

    lo_start.append(a)
    hi_start.append(b)
    lo_end.append(c)
    hi_end.append(d)

n = len(start)
offset = [max(x, y) for x, y in zip(lo_start, lo_end)]

plt.bar(range(n), lo_start, color="tab:blue")
plt.bar(range(n), lo_end, color="tab:red")
plt.bar(range(n), hi_start, bottom=offset, color="tab:blue")
plt.bar(range(n), hi_end, bottom=offset, color="tab:red")
plt.show()

Which produces:


text:
Century of Science Genetics
How gene therapy overcame high-profile failures
A dark period didn't derail scientists determined to help patients
During a dark period in gene therapy, Maria Grazia Roncarolo (shown in 2007) and her team were able to enroll just one patient at a time in their trial for an inherited autoimmune disorder known as SCID.
Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
By Megan Scudellari
Gene therapy pioneer Richard Jude Samulski remembers when he avoided the words "gene therapy." In the mid-2000s, he told people he worked on "biological nanoparticles," even attempting to trademark the term. "We felt that was the disguise we were going to have to wear to go forward," recalls Samulski, a professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The death of a teenager in a gene therapy clinical trial in 1999 and cases of leukemia in a trial soon after almost extinguished the field, which seeks to treat diseases at their roots by replacing or counteracting a malfunctioning gene. There were federal investigations, funding cuts and a lot of negative media attention. Yet a handful of researchers never stopped working, sometimes out of doggedness and sometimes because they couldn't say no to desperate parents. "Everybody adapted to do what it took to keep going," Samulski says.
To celebrate our 100th anniversary, we're highlighting some of the biggest advances in science over the last century. To see more from the series, visit Century of Science.
The gene therapy story has a happy ending. Today, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine lists nine available gene therapies worldwide that have been approved by internationally recognized regulatory agencies, as well as more than 200 in advanced clinical trials. The field attracts billions of dollars in funding each year. But its tumultuous past reminds us that the course of medical innovation rarely runs smooth.
It all began more than half a century ago, with the discovery of molecular knives and a virus lurking in monkey cells.
Vectors and setbacks
In the 1960s, researchers identified proteins in bacteria that work like chemical knives to cut DNA into fragments. These "restriction enzymes" raised the amazing possibility that scientists could take DNA apart and put it back together. Then, in the 1970s, a virus called SV40, isolated from monkeys' kidney cells, proved to be able to deliver genetic material into target cells.
Together, the discoveries suggested that it was possible to use a viral vector like a molecular FedEx truck to deliver new DNA into cells to counteract or replace malfunctioning DNA. Unfortunately, SV40 proved to be too unreliable and risky for medical applications. It tended to insert chunks of DNA in places that could cause cells to become cancerous. So began the multi-decade hunt for new, better vectors.
In the 1970s, scientists discovered that a virus called SV40 (shown) could deliver genetic material into target cells.Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo
Two initial gene therapy trials conducted in the United States in 1989 and 1990 used modified retroviruses, a type of virus able to change its RNA-encoded genes into DNA once inside a cell. Both treatments — one for melanoma, another for an inherited autoimmune disease called severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID — had no ill effects, but only limited success. Despite this, dozens more clinical trials were conducted throughout the 1990s with retroviruses and other vectors, including adenovirus, a cause of the common cold. After selecting a virus based on how well it could transfer genes into cells, scientists would remove any viral genes that might cause disease and then tack on the "healthy" genes slated for delivery.
Over the next 10 years, almost 4,000 patients were treated in 500 trials, but with virtually no success.
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Meanwhile, Samulski had been searching for other vector options. In a virology book, he spotted adeno-associated virus, or AAV, listed as a virus that doesn't cause disease in humans. "It was a eureka moment," he recalls. "Wow, why aren't we using something like this as a delivery system?"
By 1994, Samulski and his first graduate student, Xiao Xiao, showed that in addition to being less likely to cause disease, AAV vectors had a key, desirable feature for gene therapy: When AAVs delivered a gene into a cell, that gene was expressed for the lifetime of the animal.
At first, however, no one believed them. How could their viral vector persist, while others lasted only weeks before being destroyed by the immune system? "We were getting so much pushback," says Samulski. When the work was finally published in 1996, many labs began calling and asking for the vectors.
Initial results using the vectors got everyone excited. At the University of Pennsylvania, Katherine High and colleagues developed an AAV-based gene therapy for hemophilia, an inherited bleeding disorder that had long been an attractive target for gene therapy because it is caused by a single malfunctioning gene. The therapy worked in a mouse model, then in a dog model. It was time to test it in people.
Then, in 1999, Jesse Gelsinger died.
Gelsinger was a teenager enrolled in a phase 1 safety trial at the University of Pennsylvania for a gene therapy to treat an inherited metabolic disorder. His disorder was under control with diet and medication, yet he opted to participate to help others with the condition. Gelsinger died from an inflammatory response to the adenovirus vector. News that an experimental treatment had killed an otherwise healthy volunteer made national headlines and initiated a Food and Drug Administration investigation into that trial and others.
The death in 1999 of Jesse Gelsinger, a teenager enrolled in a gene therapy trial, and other high-profile failures pushed many research teams away from gene therapy.Wikimedia Commons
Then, from 2002 to 2004, five of the 20 children in a SCID gene therapy trial in Europe developed leukemia. The viral vector had integrated in their genomes next to a cancer-causing gene. One died.
"The whole field entered a five-to-10-year dark age," says Guangping Gao, director of gene therapy at the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Mass. Gao was studying AAV vectors at UPenn at the time but was not involved in the clinical trial. "It went from a place of hype to no hope at all."
With so many high-profile failures, some labs closed, others pivoted away. Samulski, High and Gao were among the few who carried on. "We never stopped our research," says Gao. "I'm a very bullheaded person, so stubborn. So if I decide something, it's hard for me to give up."
In Europe, a team testing a different SCID gene therapy was allowed to enroll just one patient at a time. "It took us eight years to do the first 14 patients because of that," says Maria Grazia Roncarolo, who led the trial while at San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan. She is now a professor of pediatrics and medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.
And there was one pivotal group that did not abandon the field: the parents of sick children. With no other treatment options, parents appeared in researchers' offices, often with their kids in tow, asking, "Can you save my child?"
From a trickle to a roar
Parents funded foundations, and those foundations funded scientists. "They kept labs alive that were either going to close or go where money was being made," says Samulski.
By 2010, Gao, gene therapy researcher James Wilson and colleagues had identified new AAV vectors, scientists knew more about how and where viral vectors work in cells, and labs recorded success in animal models. "At some point, you couldn't keep saying, 'It's not going to work,'" says Samulski, who in 2001 cofounded AskBio, a North Carolina–based gene therapy company.
Based on that promising preclinical work, human trials restarted. Many employed AAV vectors, although other vectors were also used. In 2009, Roncarolo's team published their successful effort for treating SCID using a retroviral vector without causing leukemia. "This trial proved that it could be safe, but more importantly proved it could cure the patients," she says.
Dozens of biotech companies joined the field, and large pharmaceutical companies funded clinical trials. In 2013, High and colleagues founded Spark Therapeutics in Philadelphia, and led a team with Jean Bennett and Albert Maguire at Penn Medicine that obtained the first FDA approval of an AAV gene therapy, Luxturna, in December 2017. Also in 2017, the FDA approved two gene therapies that use a patient's genetically altered immune cells, called CAR-T cells, to fight rare types of cancer. A year earlier, Roncarolo's SCID therapy, Strimvelis, was approved by the European Commission.
In late 2021, there were 46 gene therapies in the final, phase 3 stage of clinical trials, including High's therapy for hemophilia, an early version of which was first tested in humans 20 years ago. In the same year, over 1,220 gene therapy clinical trials were aiming to enroll 90,000 patients worldwide. The FDA and the European Medicines Agency predict they will each approve 10 to 20 gene and cell therapies — therapies that transplant cells, whether genetically modified or not, into a patient's body as a treatment — per year by 2025.
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Each achievement in the field has been like climbing to the pinnacle of a mountain only to realize it's another base camp, says Samulski. Current mountains include trying to prevent a toxic immune response that can occur in reaction to large doses of a gene therapy, ramping up manufacturing of vectors, and continuing the never-ending hunt for more effective gene delivery systems.
High, now President of Therapeutics at AskBio, is excited about new approaches to gene therapy, including CAR-T cell therapies and gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9. But she hopes researchers can learn from the past: It takes time and perseverance to develop a new class of therapeutics. "My excitement is always tempered by my hard-won knowledge," she says.
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There will be no more of that holding your hand up to stop bullets BS in PUBG. They are lining up their test servers to have full limb penetration. system, voice chat in main menu and vehicle and limb penetration system.


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Drag queens — more than fancy costumes and shows
In June 1969, a small group of social misfits, outcasts and pariahs had had enough.
The watering hole in which they were socializing among themselves, not hurting anyone, was being raided by the police — yet again. Out of frustration and anger, some of these people fought back. The watering hole was New York's Stonewall Inn, and the resultant altercation escalated into a three-day riot that sparked the modern gay-rights movement.
And who was in the forefront of the Stonewall Riots, manning the barricades, fighting tear gas with mockery and chorus lines, standing up to police in riot gear?
Drag queens.
Alive and politicking: Dynamic duo launches new podcast
Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying at the scary, dysfunctional and outright stupid state of American politics these days. Luckily for us, a new podcast is trying to find the humor in the maelstrom.
"Let's Get Civical," hosted by New York City-based comedian Lizzie Stewart and gay political strategist Arden Walentowski, is equal parts civics class and comedy show. The duo is making it its mission to break down all the political action into easily understandable morsels.
Local productions to star in this year's film fest
Philadelphia's LGBTQ film festival will screen more than 100 features, documentaries and shorts during its weeklong run March 25-31. Among this year's qFLIX offerings are several local-interest titles, as well as appearances by filmmakers.
One of the opening films is the world premiere of Philly-set-and-shot romance "From Zero to I Love You." This glossy drama, written and directed by Doug Spearman, has the married-with-kids Jack Dickinson (Scott Bailey) unexpectedly falling for Pete Logsdon (Darryl Stephens). Their relationship, which includes sex on the down low, comes to an expected head when Pete wants Jack to leave his wife, Karla (Keili Lefkovitz).
Ambitious production puts abortion debate to music
Creators of a musical to be staged in Philadelphia later this month took the contemporary abortion debate, with its economic and socio-political weight and its issues of misogyny and hypocrisy, and made it sing.
For at least three years, the Philly performance company Lightning Rod Special (LRS) has operated on the premise that the abortion debate and a woman's right to control her own body could be put to music and a dark, satirical script. "The Appointment" is the result of that premise, and will premiere at the FringeArts High Pressure Fire Service Festival on March 20.
A community's grief takes center stage
Eric Ulloa didn't set out to stage the aftermath of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
"All I knew was I was growing tired of complacency and frustrated by what was happening in the world and in our country," the out playwright said.


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Grand National – Early Picks
It's that time of the year again when punters start to ask the question: Who will be the winner of the Grand National? The 2018 Randox Health Grand National features some of the best horses in the world and some stiff tough competition is expected. Some of the Grand National tips that have occurred time and again are that horses aged 8 to 10 have come out winners in recent years and those with 10+ chase starts, have dominated. We also saw that that the average weight for the winner in the last 30 years is 11st 3Ib. With these tips in mind along with some stats, trends and form guides, we bring you our list of the early Grand National picks!
Vicente will start the 2018 Grand National as one of the favourites. Though he hasn't won any race thus far, there are many factors in his favour. Firstly, drawing from our tips, Vicente is nine years old, which is the perfect age of previous Grand National winners. He has extensive experience in chase races and weighs a little below 11st 3Ib as at 26 December 2017. However, Vicente's biggest advantage is that he has Paul Nicholls as his trainer. In addition to training countless horses that have won many great races, Paul Nicholls has also trained a Grand National winner - Neptune Colognes. This will come in handy for Vicente as he strives to beat his previous best, a second place finish in 2017.
Definitely Red
Definitely Red returns to the Grand National this year hoping for a different and better performance from the one he put out in 2017. Going into the 2017 Grand National, Definitely Red was one of the clear favourites with 1/10 odds. His odds were boosted by his impressive performance in the Grimthorpe Chase that season, but he failed to replicate it. Definitely Red put the disappointment of the Grand National aside for the rest of the season and for the start of this season, recorded six wins in 13 starts. Definitely Red is at the prime age of nine and though we do not know who the jockey will be, he will certainly be one to look out for in this year's Grand National.
Blaklion
Blaklion is one of those horses that despite putting in impressive performances week in week out sadly do not attract huge followers. Blaklion goes into the Grand National with trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, who helped him finish fourth in the same race last year. The two will be hoping to go one-step further and finish among the top three. Twiston-Davies and the team behind Blaklion have taken a tough decision to exclude Blaklion from the Cheltenham Gold Cup in order to adequately prepare for the Grand National. Blaklion's last race before the Grand National will be the Grand National Trial at Haydock to be held later this year. Blaklion will therefore be one of the fresher horses at the start of the Grand National and will be hoping to use that to his advantage.
Cause of Causes
Cause of Causes seems to savour the huge occasions as he performs superbly during the big races in comparison to the 'smaller' ones. He goes into the Grand National on the back of remarkable wins at the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase where he jumped Aintree style fences, the 4 mile Cheltenham Novice Chase and the Kim Muir. In his last Grand National appearance in 2015, Cause of Causes finished eighth. However, his two Cheltenham wins thereafter along with his improved performances, makes him one of this year's Grand National top picks.
Labels: Blaklion, Cause Of Causes, Defenitely Red, Grand National 2018. Grand National, Vicente
Location: Ormskirk Rd, Liverpool L9 5AS, UK


It's New Year's weekend or as I call it "The Mother Of All Parties"! And have I got the beats to make your bash bang! I'm bringing you the hottest jams of 2017 in exclusive HK remix style!
2017 was a killer year for music. With Portugal The Man, Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber, Adele, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez, Twenty One Pilots, Maroon 5, The Chainsmokers, Shawn Mendes, Imagine Dragons, Zedd, Alessia Cara and so many more artists turning out the money hits. This weekend, thanks to your help, I'm spinning the tracks YOU selected as your fave of 2017! I've been getting' busy in the lab mixing up a party potion of the BIGGEST HITS of the year for your New Year's weekend celebration! So put on your party hat, pull out those noisemakers, turn up the volume and whatever you do, do not miss this show!


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CodeGear To Release Eclipse Plug-Ins
By John K. Waters
CodeGear, the development-tools arm of Borland Software Corp., is set to release a group of specialized plug-ins for the Eclipse open source development platform next month. Collectively called JGear, the plug-ins are designed to address pain points faced by Java developers using Eclipse-based tools.
Specifically, the JGear plug-ins address four problem areas for Java developers: application performance tuning, coding and configuring Java servers and frameworks, development-team collaboration, and code visualization.
The JGear plug-ins are designed to augment the capabilities of Eclipse integrated development environments (IDEs) that have been developed in-house. The plug-ins also work with commercially available tools, such as MyEclipse, IBM Rational Application Developer, BEA Workshop and Borland's own Turbo JBuilder, said Michael Swindell, CodeGear's vice president of products and strategy.
"We've talked to a lot of organizations that are in the process of standardizing on internally configured Eclipse platforms and/or commercial solutions," Swindell said. "These plug-ins fill the gaps we see today in those environments."
The new JGear product line includes four plug-ins:
JGear Performance for Eclipse. This plug-in provides performance and tuning features, including: memory and CPU profiling and debugging; automatic detection of potential memory leaks; and real-time monitoring of programs' use of virtual machine memory.
JGear LiveSource for Eclipse. This plug-in provides the following tools: a graphical Enterprise JavaBeans workbench and Web services designer to "ease rapid application development for both novice and experienced J2EE developers"; Unified Modeling Language visualization of code artifacts and design for analyzing an application's design and implementation; CodeGear's LiveSource technology, which simultaneously replicates changes to models in the code and vice versa to aid alignment between software architects and developers; and easy creation of Enterprise JavaBeans and model relationships.
JGear Team Client. This plug-in is based on TeamInsight, a collaboration foundation designed to provide individual developers with a unified, real-time view of their project responsibilities, which also allows them to spot bugs, change requests, code notes and do tasks. The Team Client plug-in also includes team collaboration extensions to the Eclipse open source Mylyn project (formerly called Mylar), which is a task-focused user interface. (CodeGear actively supports Mylyn and has recently contributed new requirements for management capabilities to the project.)
JGear Team Server. This plug-in is a team development server stack based on best-of-breed open source components such as Subversion, Bugzilla, Continuum and XPlanner. It also includes CodeGear's ProjectAssist, the JGear Team administrator client for single-click server installation and configuration, team project creation, user administration and setup.
All of these capabilities are currently part of CodeGear's Eclipse-based IDE, JBuilder 2007, which evolved from Borland's venerable JBuilder Java IDE line.
"Our Eclipse strategy is about embracing open source technologies, not replacing them," Swindell said. "Our approach is to enhance those technologies and tie them together for higher productivity, better quality and better team collaboration. That hasn't changed. We're just delivering those features in two ways."
CodeGear unveiled its new JGear line last week at the New York Real-World Java Seminar. The first group of plug-ins for Eclipse 3.2 is expected sometime in September. CodeGear is currently working on a version for Eclipse 3.3, Swindell said.
John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS. He can be reached at [email protected].


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New multi-million pound 'youth hub' aimed at helping young people into work is being launched
The Leicester City Council project will offer 'tailored support and opportunities' for the city's youth
Dave Owen
The new youth employment hub will offer "tailored support and opportunities" for the city's youth (Image: Getty Images)
A new multi-million pound "youth hub" is being launched to help young people in Leicester find work.
The Leicester City Council project will offer "tailored support and opportunities" for the city's youth by offering specialised and targeted training.
It's aim is to get youngsters into jobs, education and training, with the help of local training and enterprise partners with expertise in working with young people and adults.
The youth employment hub is being launched thanks to a successful city council bid for £2 million from the European Social Fund, with the rest of the money coming from the local authority itself (£1.1 million), and its partners.
Benefits, debt, employment and housing are the biggest woes in Leicestershire during pandemic
Search continues for missing boy, 16, who may have travelled more than 70 miles from Leicester
A council spokeswoman said: "The project will offer tailored support and opportunities to young people in Leicester who are not in education, employment or training (NEET)."
Its home will be in the former Visit Leicester tourist information centre, in Gallowtree Gate.
"It will be transformed into a youth employment hub which people will be able to visit to find out more about jobs, apprenticeships, training schemes and college courses," added the spokeswoman.
Councillor Elly Cutkelvin, who is the assistant city mayor for education, said the council appreciates just how difficult the coronavirus crisis has been for many young people.
"We know that young people have been hit hard by the pandemic," she said. "We're determined to prioritise young people for support and help them to achieve their ambitions – especially those who are not already in work, education or training."
Council leaders say the project will make a "real and long-lasting difference to the lives of young people" in Leicester (Image: Getty Images)
She added: "We were absolutely delighted to get this very significant amount of funding for the youth hub project. It will help us to make a real and long-lasting difference to the lives of young people."
Her colleague, Councillor Danny Myers, assistant city mayor for jobs and skills, said the move was indicative of the council's determination to help improve the lot of the city's youth.
"Setting up a youth employment hub in a prominent city centre location signals our long-term commitment to providing opportunities for young people," he said.
"This will form an important part of our wider Leicester Employment Hub, which already works directly with employers and jobseekers of all ages and has a proven track record, having helped nearly 300 people into employment or apprenticeships."
The city council said it realises how difficult the coronavirus pandemic has been for many people in the city (Image: Getty Images)
Coun Myers added: "In line with our Economic Action Plan, we want to encourage investment into the city and drive demand for a skilled workforce, so that local opportunities of all kinds are available for young people.
"This will help Leicester to make a strong recovery from the huge economic impact of the pandemic."
The project will be overseen by the city council's Connexions service, which provides careers advice and support for 16 to 25 year olds.
Three local training providers will also work on the project. They are Futures, which specialises in employability for 18 to 25 year-olds; the Youth Education Project, and Transform.
All three have provided match-funding to be a part of the project, and will be able to provide more specialist training places and support for young people as a result of the ESF funding.
Support will include help with developing traditional skills such as interview techniques and CV writing, but the young people involved can get "extra support if they need it".
The council spokeswoman said: "This could include help with online applications, someone to accompany them to a job interview, confidence-building techniques and help to break down any barriers to work that they might be facing."
The three-year programme plans to help more than 1,000 young people into employment, education or training - and will be open to all young people not in work, training or education.
It will particularly target groups such as "young people leaving care, those with special educational needs and disabilities, or those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds".
According to the council's figures, the coronavirus pandemic has led to more young people becoming NEET.
In February 2020, the number of young people aged 16 to 19 years of age who were not in education, employment or training was 515, that's 5.7 per cent of all local young people in that age bracket.
By February, this year, the figure had risen to 659, or 7.2 per cent.
The youth hub is scheduled to open in mid-May, social distancing and lockdown restrictions permitting.
To find out more about employment and training opportunities available, visit the website by clicking here.
Leicester City Council
Leicester City Centre


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Q: Excel Lookup Username I'm using Excel 2010.  I have the below two functions in a module to retrieve the current user login name and full name:
Function GetUserFullName() As String
    Set WSHnet = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
    UserName = WSHnet.UserName
    UserDomain = WSHnet.UserDomain
    Set objUser = GetObject("WinNT://" & UserDomain & "/" & UserName & ",user")
    GetUserFullName = objUser.FullName
End Function

Function ADUserName()
    ADUserName = Environ$("UserName")
End Function

On my worksheet I call them by using the below in two different cells:
=ADUsername()

=GetUserFullName()

Works fine and retrieves my details.  As soon as someone else on their PC opens it, its still showing my details - why is this?  I cannot get it to refresh.


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WSYB 1380 AM
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By Tim Philbin
The events over the last few weeks were strangely reminiscent of a time long ago but not so very far away.
In 1962 the United States and the former Soviet Union were involved in a dangerous geopolitical game of chicken. Under Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev medium range ballistic nuclear missals were placed on the island of Cuba, a soviet puppet state.
Spy planes spotted the weapons and so began the Cuban Missile Crisis.
At the time President John Kennedy realized the threat these offensive weapons meant to the United States and took actions that brought the world to the brink of all out nuclear war.
As A child living in New York at the time I had no understanding or appreciation of the serious nature of the events unfolding. What child or adult in their right mind could?
It was not until one evening in late October did the reality of that threat reach our home.
My dad had walked in the door somber faced. Mom was preparing dinner and ready to serve her six children already seated at the table. He embraced my mom and whispered something in her ear that changed her expression immediately. To this day I do not know what exactly he said but whatever it was brought her to tears as they continued to embrace each other.
She stoically carried on with her duties as my father announced that we were all going to camp out in our basement that night.
Both of these members of the greatest generation understood the shocking reality of war and the inherent death and destruction associated with it. But this time it was different because death and destruction might just come to their front door and consume their children.
As fate would have it that crisis was averted. The world pulled itself back from the brink of destruction.
In the weeks, months and years that would follow efforts were made to avoid such events from ever happening again. There were countless summits, agreements, discussions and diplomatic efforts used to diminish the threat of an all out nuclear catastrophe.
But that old news may be new again.
This time a portly dictator whose grasp on reality must be questioned by all reasonable people threatened to lunch a nuclear attack on the United States or it's allies.
Not having the capabilities to take on the United States by himself, the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un none the less was looking for a fight. His only hope was for the backing and military support from allies in Russia or China, making this an all too realistic threat.
Was history repeating itself?
With new weapons, new alliances, better and more advance technology and intelligence gathering capabilities and more importantly a new leadership team in Washington D.C the world is a different place today.
But the threat, the reality of war reaching our shores and our homes brought me back to a time I had almost forgotten about. I was now the dad wondering if my children would one day have to sleep in their basements because of the madness in the world.
Rutland, VT, USA
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'Modern Family' Continues To Shock Fans During Season 10 — First With A Death, Now With A Pregnancy
Nov 8, 2018 10:19 am
By Ed Gross
Do the producers of ABC's Modern Family know something that we don't? Okay, that's a ridiculous question, since they obviously know everything about what's coming up on the show and we know nothing, but it feels like they've been told to pull out all the stops to try and garner viewer interest or something. For starters, just a couple of episodes ago we had the death of Shelley Long's Dede Pritchett and in the most recent episode came the revelation that one of the characters is pregnant.
Now's your chance to turn away in case you haven't seen it. Don't say we didn't warn you.
The pregnant one is Sarah Hyland's Haley Dunphy. Naturally the revelation came about from a typically comedic and convoluted way as Haley and Dylan (played by Reid Ewing) decide to drive bumper cars at a local carnival. Needless to say, at one point Haley is applying lipstick while driving, which is the exact moment that Dylan bumps into her. The result? Her hand slips and the lipstick actually goes up her nose. Worried, the two of them head off to the hospital to make sure she's okay, and it's while there that the announcement comes that she's pregnant (a fact the actress has sort of teased via social media).
Buckle up for tonight's brand new episode of @abcmodernfam guys. It's gonna be a BUMPY ride! #modernfamily @abcnetwork 9/8c pm
A post shared by Sarah Hyland (@sarahhyland) on Nov 7, 2018 at 11:21am PST
No doubt a good portion of the rest of the season will be determining who the father is. Dylan is obviously one candidate, although we can't rule out Haley's ex-Brit boyfriend, Dr. Arvin Fennerman (played by Chris Geere). For the last several episodes there has been a love triangle between Haley, Arvin, and Dylan, which had seemingly been resolved with Arvin moving out of the picture. But now, with her pregnancy, one could easily see him coming back and romantic conflict erupting in this particular triangle.
There had been rumors that this will be Modern Family's final season, though ABC hasn't ruled out the idea of it returning yet again for Season 11.
More from Closer Weekly
'Modern Family' Loses A Cast Member And Now We Know Why (Beware Spoilers Ahead!)
'Modern Family' Creators Share Their Plan Is to End the Show After Season 10
Meghan Markle's Modern Family Is Very Different From the British Royal Family (and Tha...
A Full List of the 2019 Emmy Nominations
Whatever Happened to the Cast From Miami Vice? See What Don Johnson and His Costars Ar...
Katherine Heigl Says Returning to 'Grey's Anatomy' After Nearly 10 Years Away Would Ju...
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Tesla is closing in on its all-time high on Monday, trading up 1.88% at $364.59 a share after a pair of Wall Street analysts raised their price targets for the stock.
One of those Wall Street upgrades was from Baird Research's Ben Kallo, who is the fifth best-rated Tesla analyst, according to Bloomberg.
In a research note sent out to clients on Monday, Kallo said he was lifting his price target from $368 to $411 a share as the firm remains "positive on TSLA's long-term prospects, and think the vehicle's introduction to the market will take several months and coincide with positive catalysts, such as vehicle reviews, production updates, and progress toward >20% gross margins."
Kallo believes the Model 3, Tesla's vehicle priced for the masses, will see a similar reception on Wall Street as the launch of the Model S luxury sedan. After trading lower for a handful of months following the Model S launch in June 2012, Tesla shares were up nearly 200% a year after the vehicle's launch.
"Importantly, we expect performance following the introduction of the Model 3 will more closely mirror the Model S than the Model X; TSLA now has experience ramping production of vehicles (which should mitigate the risk of production delays, as seen with the X), designed the Model 3 for manufacturability, and has a production schedule which could limit costs and delays," Kallo wrote.
Interestingly, the comments from Kallo are not that different from what Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been saying about the future growth potential of his company's stock. "Tesla stock is obviously high based on past & present, but low if you believe in Tesla's future," he wrote in a tweet on July 17.
That was a follow-up to comments made by Musk just two days earlier, when he told Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval at the National Governors Association summer meeting, "I've gone on record several times saying our stock price is higher than we have any right to deserve."
"I find it quite tough when there are very high expectations," Musk said. "I try to tamp down those expectations ... The stock reflects a lot of optimism about where Tesla will be in the future."
Those tweets were fired out two weeks before the launch of the Model 3.Since then, Tesla shares are up about 8% amid heavy demand for the vehicle.Tesla is set to raise $1.8 billion through a bond sale as it ramps up production of the vehicle. That's $300 million more than the company originally sought because of overwhelming demand, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters unit.
Tesla's stock is up 70% in 2017.
Check out Tesla's stock price live here.


Toni Wisne Sabina foundation | To provide assistance for those who are in need.
To provide financial support for organizations who supply food, better health and educational services, veteran needs and to assist animal rights programs in Southeast Michigan.
We were founded by Toni Ann Wisne Sabina in 2006. Toni grew up in Dearborn with her parents, Hazel and Anthony Wisne, and her three brothers, Larry, Alan and Joseph Wisne. Anthony Wisne founded the well-known automotive supplier of assembly equipment company in Southfield, Michigan called Progressive Tool & Industries Co. PICO eventually would be acquired by Comau Productivity Systems Inc.
Toni Ann had a vision for what she wanted to accomplish in life. Her desire to feed the hungry and serve her community in Michigan drove her to build successful restaurants in different cities. Too Chez, Forte, and Tribute were all local restaurants with a well known reputation. Knot Just a Bar and Latitude in Bay Harbor, Michigan, Knot Just a Bar in Omena, Michigan were also opened and greatly successful as well. A catering company called Epoch catering was also one of her well known developments and served Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi amongst other main banquet venues. From her success, she knew she wanted to create a foundation that would eventually give back to schools, food banks, foster homes, and animal shelters in the surrounding areas in Detroit among other worthy causes that serve the community. Her passion lives through the TWS Foundation today.


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Jürgen Penker (* 17. Oktober 1982 in Bregenz) ist ein ehemaliger österreichischer Eishockeytorwart, der seit 2015 als Torhütertrainer des EHC Linz tätig ist. Zudem ist er auch Torwarttrainer der österreichischen U20-Auswahl.

Karriere
Jürgen Penker begann seine Karriere in den diversen Nachwuchsmannschaften des EHC Lustenau und gelangte in der Saison 1999/00 zu ersten Einsätzen in der Kampfmannschaft, die zu dieser Zeit noch in der höchsten Spielklasse aktiv war. Nach einer Saison beim Lokalrivalen VEU Feldkirch wechselte er 2004 zum EC Red Bull Salzburg, der nach dem Gewinn der Nationalliga-Meisterschaft vor seiner ersten Bundesliga-Saison stand. Dort erbrachte allerdings Rob Tallas nicht die erhofften Leistungen und wurde vorzeitig entlassen, sodass Penker die Position des ersten Torhüters übernahm. In der folgenden Saison wurde er von den Vienna Capitals unter Vertrag genommen. Abermals konnte der erste Torhüter, Jeff Maund, nicht überzeugen, diesmal konnte Penker jedoch nicht dessen Position übernehmen, da Walter Bartholomäus mit sehr guten Leistungen überzeugen konnte.

Im Sommer 2006 wechselte er zum EHC Linz, wo man mit ihm und Patrick Machreich eine österreichische Lösung für das Tor gesucht hatte. Nachdem er in der ersten Saison noch Backup von Machreich gewesen war, übernahm er in der Saison 2007/08 mit herausragenden Leistungen Machreichs Position. In der Saison 2008/09 wurde Penker dennoch von Alex Westlund ersetzt, den die Mannschaft bereits zu einem Zeitpunkt verpflichtet hatte, als Penkers Leistungen noch nicht absehbar waren. Penker wechselte daraufhin erstmals in seiner Karriere ins Ausland und unterzeichnete einen Vertrag beim dänischen Erstligisten Totempo HvIK, wo er gute Leistungen zeigte und daraufhin während der Saison vom schwedischen Team Rögle BK verpflichtet wurde. Die Saison 2010/11 verbrachte er bei seinem Ex-Klub Vienna Capitals. Zur Saison 2011/12 wurde er vom HK Nitra aus der slowakischen Extraliga verpflichtet, ging aber bereits im November 2011 nach Norwegen zum Lørenskog IK. Dort erreichte er 2012 die beste Fangquote der GET-ligaen. Aus familiären Gründen wechselte Penker im Dezember 2013 wieder zu den Vienna Capitals.

Im Februar 2015 wurde er von den Rapperswil-Jona Lakers verpflichtet, ehe er seine Karriere im Juni 2015 offiziell beendete.

International
Im Juniorenbereich spielte Jürgen Penker für Österreich zunächst bei den U18-B-Weltmeisterschaften 1999 und 2000. Mit der U20-Auswahl nahm er an den Weltmeisterschaften der Division I 2001 und 2002 teil.

Am 9. November 2002 gab Penker bei der 3:5-Niederlage im Freundschaftsspiel gegen Norwegen in Asker sein Debüt in der österreichischen Nationalmannschaft. Er vertrat sein Heimatland bei den Weltmeisterschaften 2005, 2009 und 2011 in der Top-Division sowie bei der Weltmeisterschaft der Division I 2008, als der Wiederaufstieg in die Top-Division gelang. Außerdem gehörte er zum österreichischen Kader bei den Qualifikationsturnieren zu den Olympischen Winterspielen in Turin 2006, als er nicht zum Einsatz kam, und in Vancouver 2010, als er beim 5:2-Erfolg gegen Japan spielte.

Trainerkarriere
Nach dem Ende seiner aktiven Laufbahn heuerte Penker beim EHC Linz als Torwarttrainer an. Bei der U20-Weltmeisterschaft 2018 war erstmals auch Torwarttrainer der österreichischen Junioren, die in der Division I spielen.

Auszeichnungen und Erfolge
 2008 Aufstieg in die Top-Division bei der Weltmeisterschaft der Division I, Gruppe A
 2012 Beste Fangquote der GET-ligaen

Karrierestatistik

Hauptrunde

Playoffs

International

Weblinks

Eishockeynationaltorwart (Österreich)
Eishockeytorwart (VEU Feldkirch)
Eishockeytorwart (EHC Linz)
Eishockeytorwart (Hvidovre IK)
Eishockeytorwart (HK Nitra)
Eishockeytorwart (Lørenskog IK)
Eishockeytorwart (EHC Lustenau)
Eishockeytorwart (Rögle BK)
Eishockeytorwart (EC Red Bull Salzburg)
Eishockeytorwart (Vienna Capitals)
Eishockeytorwart (SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers)
Eishockeytrainer (Österreich)
Eishockey-Torwarttrainer (Österreich)
Österreicher
Geboren 1982
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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