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Dr. Joe Vitale
Dr. Joe VITALE is the author of far too many books to mention here. Here are just a few of them:
He wrote the bestseller, The Attractor Factor: 5 Easy Steps for Creating Wealth (or anything else) from the inside out. It became a #1 bestseller twice, even beating the latest Harry Potter book.
He also wrote Life's Missing Instruction Manual: The Guidebook You Should Have Been Given at Birth. It, too, became a #1 bestseller and was picked up by WalMart.
One of his most popular titles, Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More reflects an ancient Hawaiian practice, known as Ho'oponopono. A fan favorite, Joe has hosted multiple live events on the subject, nation-wide, and he has created quite a following on this title alone.
Joe also wrote the only book on P.T. Barnum's business secrets, There's a Customer Born Every Minute. He's also written many more books on marketing and business, to name a few, Hypnotic Writing and Buying Trances: A New Psychology of Sales and Marketing. His latest book releases are titled, The Awakened Millionaire, The Miracle: Six Steps to Enlightenment, Anything is Possible, and Mind Over Music.
Besides all of his books, Joe also recorded the #1 bestselling Nightingale-Conant audio program, The Power of Outrageous Marketing. Additionally, he's also recorded the following audio programs for Nightingale-Conant, to name a few, The Awakening Course, The Missing Secret, The Secret to Attracting Money, The Abundance Paradigm, The Ultimate Law of Attraction Library and his latest, The Zero Point.
His popular title, Attract Money Now, is taking the world by storm as he is giving it away for FREE! It includes his easy7-step formula proven to manifest wealth.
Joe's marketing methods have made people millionaires. He's been involved with every aspect of marketing, from traditional direct mail to publicity to infomercials. He is the president of Hypnotic Marketing, Inc. and is the world's first hypnotic writer. He created a home-study course called Hypnotic Selling Secrets — and made $450,000 in 3 days selling it online.
He's being called "The Buddha of the Internet" and after his huge weight loss, "The Charles Atlas of the Internet."
Known for his outrageous publicity stunts, Joe received local and national media attention from the likes of The New York Post for "The World's First Canine Concert" (http://www.canineconcert.com/) in order to promote his bestselling book: There's a Customer Born Every Minute – P.T. Barnum's Secrets to Business Success book.
Joe is also one of the stars in the hit movie The Secret. He was seen on Larry King Live on November 16, 2006 and March 8, 2007. On March 6, 2007 Joe was interviewed on ExtraTV to talk about "Hollywood's Latest Craze: The Secret."
He was also featured in Newsweek's March 5, 2007 issue, story titled: Decoding The Secret: http://www.newsweek.com/secret-does-self-help-book-really-help-95559
On November 19, 2007 he was a guest on CNBC's "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch: http://www.mrfire.com/n8gc
For access to his current radio interviews, such as CNN radio, go to his Podcast page at: http://www.mrfire.com/interviews/
He is a sought out speaker who travels the world to such countries as Russia, Poland, Peru, Canada and Kuwait to spread his message on the law of attraction, "The Missing Secret," ho'oponopono and much more. He was also a Keynote Speaker at the prestigious National Speakers Association Convention in San Diego, CA in July, 2007 and for Hay House "I Can Do It!" Conference in Austin, TX (2013).
In addition to The Secret, Dr. Vitale has been featured in a total of 15 movies so far. Some of them include: Try it on Everything, The Opus, Leap!, The Meta Secret and his latest film is titled The Abundance Factor.
Dr. Vitale discovered that there is a "missing secret" to success. He says many people do everything right but still don't get great results. Why not? He says there are counter-intentions you need to clear. He's created several ways to do just that, from his new Miracles Coaching® program (www.MiraclesCoaching.com), to the incredible method explained in his book, Zero Limits and the sequel, At Zero. He has also created a website where people can gather and direct their positive energies to create a positive impact on the world at: www.AttractMiracles.com.
As seen in Rolling Stone magazine, on January 6, 2012, he has added yet another mega milestone to his long list of accomplishments by completing his first self-help CD for a new genre of music that he calls "Healing Music." To date, Dr. Vitale's complete music catalog consists of 6 singer-songwriter CDs (Strut! The Healing Song, Sun Will Rise, Reflection, One More Day and Stretch) and 9 instrumental CDs (Blue Healer, At Zero, Aligning to Zero, 432 to Zero, Invoking Divinity, Afflatus, Higher Octaves, Espresso for Your Soul and Calling the Four Angels of Ho'oponopono) with more currently in the works!
Dr. Vitale's style is inspiring and informative. He doesn't speak so much as inspire. His mission is to help you achieve your dreams.
For thoughts, news, riffs and reviews by Dr. Joe Vitale ("Mr. Fire!") about marketing, publicity, selling, hypnosis, copywriting, books, fitness, metaphysics and anything else he cares to comment on, including healing, humor and the Internet, be sure to visit his blog at: http://blog.mrfire.com/.
You can visit his main website here.
DR. JOE VITALE'S ARTICLES POSTED ON THE TEEN MENTOR
Are Critics or Criticism Valuable?


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EC Warns of the Lack of Rule of Law in some Member States
Published: Saturday, 03 October 2020 13:08
Written by Zdravko Ljubas
The European Commission on Wednesday warned of growing corruption and attacks against the media and the judiciary in a report that assessed the rule of law situation in each member state.
European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, expressed concern about "Hungary's media landscape." (Photo: EU2016 NL (CC BY 2.0))The report covers national justice systems, anti-corruption frameworks, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues related to the checks and balances that are essential to an effective system of democratic governance, the European Commission said in a statement.
"The rule of law and our shared values are the foundation of our societies. They are part of our common identity as Europeans," Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, said, adding that the "rule of law protects people from the rule of the powerful."
The Commission expressed concerns with the situation in some EU states, like Hungary. The country's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán demanded earlier this week that the European Commission President fires the Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová.
Orbán wrote to von der Leyen, asking her to remove Jourová, after she gave an interview to German magazine Der Spiegel, criticizing the situation in the country and saying that the "condition of Hungary's media landscape is alarming," and that the majority of Hungarians have no room to express their free opinion.
Besides being worried about the country's judicial system, in which "new rules allow for appointment to the Supreme Court of members of the Constitutional Court, elected by Parliament, outside the normal procedure, and lower the eligibility criteria for the Supreme Court President," the report also warned that "the independence and effectiveness of the Media Council is at risk."
"Independent media outlets face systematic obstruction and intimidation, while a trend of economic take-over of such outlets raises additional concern," read the document.
"Each citizen deserves to have access to independent judges, to benefit from free and pluralistic media and to trust that their fundamental rights are respected. Only then, can we call ourselves a true Union of democracies," Jourová commented.
The report also criticised the situation in Poland, stressing that the country's justice reforms "since 2015 have been a major source of controversy, both domestically and at EU level, and have raised serious concerns, several of which persist."
"The reforms, impacting the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court, ordinary courts, the National Council for the Judiciary and the prosecution service, have increased the influence of the executive and legislative powers over the justice system and therefore weakened judicial independence," it said.
Poland's anti-graft program has been improved, but "structural weaknesses have been identified in areas such as the current asset declaration schemes and lobbying regulations," the assessment concluded.
hungary	viktor orban	media freedom	Corruption	European Commission	judiciary	poland	rule of law	ursula von der leyen	vera jourova

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
DIRECTV Blacks Out the Weather Channel Over Subscription Fees
By Chris Katje – Jan 22, 2014 at 1:53PM
What the blackout of The Weather Channel means for several cable companies.
In a bold move that could change cable television, DIRECTV (DTV.DL) has blacked out The Weather Channel to its subscribers. The blackout comes as the result of a carriage dispute over the amount paid per subscriber to The Weather Channel's owners Comcast (CMCSA -2.29%), Bain Capital, and Blackstone (BX). By cutting The Weather Channel out, DIRECTV may have started a war in cable content.
DIRECTV cutting costs for football
DIRECTV has taken one of the most available cable channels off of the air in favor of its newly created Weather Nation. Back in August 2013 , The Weather Channel was available in 99.9 million American homes, representing 88% of total homes. After the loss of DIRECTV subscribers, The Weather Channel will see less subscription revenue. SNL Kagan reports that The Weather Channel collects an average of $0.13 per monthly subscriber from cable providers. The rumors were that The Weather Channel owners wanted DIRECTV to pay more per month on a new contract.
The news brings up several good points concerning cable programming. DIRECT chief content officer said, "The Weather Channel does not have an exclusive on weather coverage-the weather belongs to everyone." DIRECT president David Clark also nixed a possible return of The Weather Channel to subscribers by saying the channel "is off permanently." An expert in the field, SNL Kagan analyst Derek Baine, also reminds investors this, "News, weather and financial information are so widely available online, it's very cannibalistic to these genres."
DIRECTV ended the most recent quarter with 20.2 million subscribers in the United States. The company added 139,000 subscribers during the quarter and more importantly saw the average revenue per user increase 6.2% to $102.37. The move to drop The Weather Channel may be in an effort to cut costs to free up money for a new deal with the National Football League. DIRECTV counts on its Sunday Ticket for additional subscribers and a higher price per subscriber from the premium content. With a deal ending soon, DIRECTV must decide if it is willing to pay $1.4 billion in 2015, an increase of 40% from the current amount paid. It's estimated that 2 million of DIRECTV's 20 million subscribers have Sunday Ticket and pay around $250 per season for the extra programming.
The Weather Channel owners could end up hurt
As a partial owner of The Weather Channel and other cable channels, Comcast might have a lot to lose in the future. The company's NBC Universal has a huge base of cable channels offered to customers including: CNBC, Syfy, E!, USA Network, Bravo, NBC Sports, and MSNBC. While Comcast shouldn't have too difficult of a time bundling channels like Syfy, E!, USA, and Bravo to cable providers, the news stations may see the same fate as The Weather Channel. We live in a world where consumers can get their news via social media and the Internet. Comcast may be forced to lower its fee per subscriber for its news stations to stay on cable.
Through the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Comcast has seen nice growth in its cable revenue and total revenue. Comcast operates its own cable network, which posted revenue of $31.2 billion, growth of 5.8% from the previous year. The company's NBC Universal business segment has posted revenue of $17.2 billion through the first nine months. This is a decline of 3.4%, due to the comparable impact of last year's Super Bowl and Summer Olympics. Broadcast revenue, which includes the NBC network, saw revenue fall 21.1%. Partially making up for that decline is cable networks, which saw 5.5% growth to $6.9 billion.
Comcast's NBC Universal division has posted operating cash flow of $3.4 billion in the first nine months of the fiscal year, an increase of 15.6%. The cable network is responsible for $2.6 billion of that total, representing the majority of the NBC Universal segment. Margins could be hurt if the company loses additional channels or sees smaller subscription fees from cable providers.
DIRECTV poised to be the winner in dispute
Overall, Comcast is seeing growth in cable subscribers and other business segments. However, with Comcast shares hitting 52-week highs, investors should be skeptical to get behind a company that could see lower margins and more channel losses ahead. DIRECTV offers the better investment in cable in my opinion, with possible catalysts coming from its margins after the loss of The Weather Channel, and a possible new NFL contract.
Chris Katje has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends DirecTV. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Oh how feminists are so pathetic. The usual hypocritical response.
One cannot admit that this is one of the most obvious forms of gender discrimination that exists and millions of women have absolutely no problem with it. Actually supporting such discrimination against one gender, because your fine with it.
Every single man in the USA has to sign the release form of selective service before being allowed many basic, human, rights. Like to have a drivers license. And feminists response is, the above.
Feminists should stand up for equal rights for ALL, not just what benefits you when you chose.
If a world war ever happens again and the draft is implemented it should be mandatory that only young women are used for it.
Feminists now a days are the epitome of self righteous, privileged, arrogance of society today.
Neither men, nor women, have been required to serve in the military for 45 years( in the U.S., In Canada, there has been no Draft for nearly 100 years).
Of course, if there ever is a draft it should apply to all equally regardless of gender, and most feminists would agree.
Since there hasn't been a draft for 45 years, we can only guess if it ever would be applied equally. Given that it's mainly male politicians and military who make that decision, you can hardly blame feminists for that.
You think it should only be mandatory for young women, which shows you are not in favor of equal treatment after all.
Below is an actual quote. law, from the USA regarding this issue. I have switched the gender words for you to understand. Please image just for one second what would happen within the first day, if this change was actually in place. Image the up roar, demonstrations, talk show *bleep*, all out war on it. In a day and time when everything is to be equal, meaning there should be at the very least no laws or inequalities on paper that treats any of the sexes different. But there is. And the only thing feminists can say back is, "well, there hasnt been a draft in years". So read away and try to find a rebuttal as why it would be allowed in this day ,if it were backwards.
Virtually all FEmale U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live, and FEmale immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, residing in the United States, who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service. The law says FEmales must register with Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday.
Enjoy your priviledge to what has to be the most obvious, documented, real, and only law that is in place that so blatantly discriminates against men in society.
Now watch how this women responds to the very same question about it. She is fine with how the system is right now, She needs to wonder if we need to go where this military officers are recommending.
I don't think you actually read my post at all, judging by your comment "Feminists should stand up for equal rights for ALL, not just what benefits you when you chose". because that's what I said. Feminists, or any males, can be in favor of equal rights, and still may or may not be keen on serving in the military. Many men try to wiggle out of military service, I am sure many women might do so also IF it was mandatory. Which it isn't.
The law (which incidentally was established by mostly MALE lawmakers and military) should be changed so that women can sign up to a registry too. Do you think women would be whining about signing a registry? A registry which does NOT force anyone to serve in the military? Boohoo. Men and women who actually sign up for the military are risking their lives to serve their country, and are proud to do it, while other men cry about signing a registry for a non-existent draft. ONly in America could it be considered horrible to sign a registry that has never forced anyone to serve in the military. (not to mention an imaginary bone spur can get you out of actual duty, if needed. Other provisions are made for conscientious objectors, sounds like you are one).
We brave Canadians, men and women, sign up for basic rights like health care, pensions, unemployment insurance, drivers' license etc. every day. Never hurt us one bit. because we are NOT signing up to serve in the military.
Or if you really really cannot stand to sign up for a non-existent draft,and don't have imaginary bone spurs, you could become a Canadian. I knew quite a few ex-americans who did that during the Vietnam war. But you will still have to sign up to get a driver's license, pensions, health care etc. And you still could hypothetically be drafted, whether you are male or female, if Canada declared war at some point in the future.
Women did not create this registry law and yet you seem to want to blame them for its existence.
Women would sign up just as happily as anyone one else, so what is the big problem?
No one, no one, has been forced into the Military,for 45 years in the U.s. and for a hundred years in Canada. You know the part where you actually have to serve and risk your life.
Men, or women, who don't support the Registry law should protest to their lawmakers. Have you written your representative? I have not heard of many public protests by men or women about this law. I personally cannot do anything about it, because I am Canadian, but I don't personally support a law that discriminates based on gender.
And there is a 75% chance applicants won't qualify to pass basic requirements for military anyway.
You really need to review your history,, use wikipedia. and you are wrong, when you say,"A registry which does NOT force anyone to serve in the military? It has.
But something more concerning is that you cannot answer someones basic question. If this law was reversed, and had always been that way, do you think it would still be in place? Do not try to shame, blame it on men and the law makers, etc.
Just give it an educated try without the tricks.
And yes, women would whine like crazy and just the talk about making this law mandatory for both sexes has continually been left only for men, because of the women whining. The power they hold and the protection they still have in society.
There is a law, speaking here about, that force 1 gender to different standards, conditions, expectations.
It doesn't matter one bit if the last time it was used was 45 years ago. Get it, its about discrimination, again obviously OK for millions and millions of women who enjoy the freedom of not being included in it. OK to teach men that they are expected to die for the others if needed.
The more I re-read the last post the more sickened I am.
I said I am in favor of laws which apply equally to both genders. Apparently that is not good enough.
Men made the laws, it's a fact, not blaming it on anyone in particular, except those who made the law and haven't changed it in the meantime.
Maybe Trump will be the guy who changes it, who knows. It would be one useful thing he might accomplish. There are gradually getting to be more feminists as representatives now, so there is hope things can change. Without a president who supports a particular change, it doesn't seem to happen with the current system, but I think Trump would be more likely than most to support it since he isn't very big on military service himself. Hey, some of my best friends were draft dodgers, so I have great sympathy for those who do. It was the only way at the time to avoid serving (other than imaginary bone spurs), so I am in favor of voluntary service, until the law changes, and thank goodness we (and the U.s) have that now. I don't think it kills anyone to sign up with the current non existent draft.
It's not like equal treatment in this registry has not been kicked around amongst lawmakers and the courts. But for some reason no decisive action has been taken.
"In July 2016, the National Organization for Women issued a statement calling the expansion of draft registration to women a step toward equality, and co-signed a letter to the House-Senate conference committee, along with the ACLU and other organizations, in support of extending the current Selective Service registration requirement to women in the name of "equality" rather than feminism. "The undersigned organizations urge you to retain the Senate language (Section 591) requiring women to register for the draft."
Hiliary Clinton aggreed with this position, but wasn't elected, so there goes that opportunity.
June 2016: "The Senate voted 85 to 13 on Tuesday to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, which included the provision requiring women between the ages of 18 and 25 to sign up to serve their country. As HuffPost's Jennifer Bendery noted, it was a rare demonstration of bipartisan support for such a culturally significant milestone."
So someone didn't support this, who? That's who you want to blame, not the feminists.
Some courts seem to support equal treatment under the law for Selective Service, so there ya go.
Many people believe it's only a matter of time before women and men are treated equally in this respect. It is simply a matter of old laws die hard. Change in attitudes is happening, you can't blame feminists that it isn't happening fast enough, blame those who oppose the change.
So there is no need for "men made the laws", Men control changing the laws, comments then.
It is men that have designed, built, imagined, invented almost every product, corporation etc on this globe as well so should this be stated every time the complaint is out there about, in equality of the sexes at a CEO level?
A men dreamed of, invented and built the Titanic, when it sunk, was it because this that women were first off and their lives we deemed more important? Obviously not. Its because of their protected status they have in this country. So blaming men for the reason women have never been drafted and kill by the millions, or need to sign up for selected service is pretty, stupid.
You strongly believe that all women should be forced under law to sign selective service, and if they refuse they should have all those same social privilege dis-allowed and fined with possible jail time. As is. That is a big step.
Clinton did not support it,then she did, she waffles on the subject every time she is asked. She did not support it when her own daughters were at that age. Watch above posted video again.
Now the big one, There is only 1 reason why this law, this absolute gender discrimination law, requirement, has not been changed. Its nothing more than the fact that in western society, women are still a protected gender. The groups that fall under this gender have far to much power for a politician of the day to be the one to change this law. Now that it is coming to light that your daughters might to be included in this discriminated law, to avoid it, the push is on to eliminate it. Easy out. Nothing about it until the time is near. They fear the outcome of such a move. It would probably mean the end of your career. Meaning, it is the power, control and privilege in western world that is keeping it from happening. Unless you have another reason? And please, do not blame men, the majority of us want full equality.
This is a sensible article on this, but it'll probably pass through here like a fart in a windstorm, as they usually do when the 'ideology possessed' takes on the role of the thread facilitator.
It seems certain select Republicans have blocked efforts to gain equality for women wrt the Registry for Selective Service, (or abolish it altogether). That could change now that democrats are getting more control.
Do Women Have to Register for the Draft? No. But Misinformation Spreads.
. . . However, the viral spread of a 10-month-old New York Times story has potentially given millions of internet users misleading impressions to the contrary. Following the web traffic and social media commentary around the article illustrates how a hot-button cultural issue can be taken out of context and amplified by hyperpartisan bubbles, inflaming passions and spreading misinformation.
In a way, the ideological confusion online channels the passion that brought the issue under congressional consideration in the first place.
Multiple studies have shown that most news consumers seldom read entire articles. For many, in this new and continuously expanding information landscape, a glance is enough to confirm existing biases and emotions.
We all know instinctively that men have been in charge of all the most important aspects and inventions of our civilization for centuries, right? Maybe not so much.
That would be the first known recipe - beer dates back a lot longer.
Yes 100% correct, most inventions, corporations, products were and have been, dreamed of, invented, developed by man. Most, not all, but you are correct, most.
Such as in medicine for instance, because women weren't doctors much until just recently right? they didn't have the education or the smarts according to popular theory.


The "devil" is a fictional character made up (and perpetuated) by insecure humans who want to control other insecure humans. There's a lot of power in fear, isn't there? There shouldn't be, because, really, what fear is, is power-less.
If you understood Source, as we do, you would never fashion such fiction because there is only Well-Being that flows from that which is your Source.


text:
Q: redirect http under port 8081 to https in apache2 i have a service that is running over docker under port 8081 ( on ubuntu 20 ) and i can access it under http:
my-domain.local:8081/myservice
i have installed apache2 as a reverse proxy in front of it and it works also fine and i can access the service under https (443) and my ssl certificates:
https://my-domain.local/myservice   --- works fine
but its still accessible under http also and i dont want it. I want that it will be accessible only under https:
http://my-domain.local:8081/myservice   ----> https://my-domain.local/myservice
it is maybe a very simple situation but i am new to apache. Thanks for your help
That is what i have tried:
<VirtualHost *:8081>
        ServerName my-domain.local
        Redirect "/" "https://my-domain.local/myservice"
</VirtualHost>

i have also tried something with the use of RewriteRule in the .htacces like below:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

but none of the works.
i expect, if someone calls the url under http in browser it will be redirected to https:
http://my-domain.local:8081/myservice   ----> https://my-domain.local/myservice

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Citation: International Journal of Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications. Volumen 5, pp. 243-251 .
Abstract: In the current educational context there has been a significant increase in learning object repositories (LOR), which are found in large databases available on the hidden web. All these information is described in any metadata labeling standard (LOM, Dublin Core, etc). It is necessary to work and develop solutions that provide efficiency in searching for heterogeneous content and finding distributed context. Distributed information retrieval, or federated search, attempts to respond to the problem of information retrieval in the hidden Web. Multi-agent systems are known for their ability to adapt quickly and effectively to changes in their environment. This study presents a model for the development of digital content retrieval based on the paradigm of virtual organizations of agents using a Service Oriented Architecture. The model allows the development of an open and flexible architecture that supports the services necessary to dynamically search for distributed digital content. A major challenge in searching and retrieving digital content is also to efficiently find the most suitable content for the users. This model proposes a new approach to filtering the educational content retrieved based on Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). It is based on the model AIREH (Architecture for Intelligent Recovery of Educational content in Heterogeneous Environments), a multi-agent architecture that can search and integrate heterogeneous educational content through a recovery model that uses a federated search. The model and the technologies presented in this research exemplify the potential for developing personalized recovery systems for digital content based on the paradigm of virtual organizations of agents. The advantages of the proposed architecture, as outlined in this article, are its flexibility, customization, integrative solution and efficiency.


text:
Fall Break – St. Louis
Last week the kids had a week off from school for fall break. We didn't have any big plans at first but then we decided on a few days in St. Louis. I figured I might be ready to get out of the house by Thursday!
We left Memphis Thursday morning and made it to St. Louis for lunch. Then we went to the City Museum. This museum made me wish I could be a kid again. I don't think I could have imagined a playground better than this. I can't even come up with the words to describe it but it was a really fun combination of tunnels, slides, hidden passageways, and ladders. We stayed until closing time and the kids weren't anywhere near bored. We almost missed a whole section of the museum (with a 10 story slide!) that was in a cave like area that we hadn't explored yet. When we left, Casey said it was the most awesome place she had been.
View of city from top of City Museum
On Friday, we explored downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. We couldn't go up in the Arch because it was shutdown with the government but it's pretty amazing to just look at it from within the beautiful park surroundings. You could also walk right down to the edge of Mississippi River which turned out to be pretty fun for the kids. They were pretty happy to throw sticks in the river and play in the random bits of sand. Even I was excited to actually put my hand in the mighty Mississippi.
At the base of the Arch
Touching the Mississippi River
Getting ready to build a raft a la Tom Sawyer
Had to find a bigger stick than Jack's
Red fountains near stadium
Next we toured Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. I wouldn't say this was the kids' favorite part, but it was fun to check out the dugout and all the posh places people with the good tickets can hang out. We learned quite a bit of team history and St. Louis has a lot of pride in their baseball past.
We originally wanted to go to St. Louis in the summer and catch a Cardinals game while we were there. (Pat generally likes to plan our trips around sports events.) Since it was post season, we didn't think we were going to catch a game this trip. But…turns out the Cards made it to the NLCS and the first game was in St. Louis on Friday night. After our stadium tour, we could see fans starting to stream into the city with their red shirts. And also after our stadium tour, Pat wanted to see this game more than ever. There were scalpers on every corner but Pat was able to get two pretty good tickets for him and Jack through the Cardinals ticket site on game day.
We headed to the St. Louis Zoo in the afternoon but the kids were tired so it was a quick trip. They seemed to have plenty of energy for the pool after though.
Baby elephant bum in the middle
I promised Casey that she and I would go on a date and go shopping if Pat & Jack went to the game. She had fallen in love with a cute little Cardinals shirt and skirt in the team store so I told her we'd find an outfit on our date. Even when it was possible that Pat could get four tickets, Casey wanted to go on our date instead. We went to Trader Joe's, World Market and then Target. Casey loved looking at all the clothes and I loved some of the bargains we found.
Fashionista!
Pat and Jack ended up at the longest League Championship Series game ever! They didn't get back to the hotel until 1am…but they had a blast. Pat said there was an 11 year old boy beside them and he and Jack became fast friends and helped each other stay up so late. It was an awesome experience for both Pat and Jack. Jack wanted to know if we could fly to Los Angeles to watch Game 3.
When we left town on Saturday morning, Casey was crying she was so sad to leave. Our hotel turned out to be great – the Drury Inn Union Station. It had free breakfast and dinner, was only a mile from downtown and was right beside the beautiful Union Station. We could see the old train tracks out our window. (Also, I was impressed that our room had windows on 2 sides…we had a great corner room.)
On our way out of town, we stopped at Grant's Farm and saw some Clydesdale horses, fed some camels and enjoyed the tram ride around the park.
October 15, 2013 eliasont


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I start off with foundation and am currently using Rimmel Match Perfection in Ivory. This foundation is fab and my go to base as it gives great coverage but is not overly thick looking. I am a pale person (Caspar the ghost pale) so I always want to be careful that I don't get a line on my jaw with any foundation. I have a couple of these foundations so that I don't run out anytime soon and will continue to use this one in the future.
I then use a dab of Rimmel Stay Matte Mousse Foundation in Ivory again as a touch up to conceal any imperfections that have snuck their way through the base foundation. This has been a go to product of mine for a couple of years now and i can't see myself giving it up anytime soon.
Next I have been using Soap & glory Thick & fast mascara on my lashes everyday. It is lovely and light and the brush doesn't give me a clumpy look like spiders legs which i cannot stand. it looks lovely and natural and i absolutely love the effect it has.
Lastly I try to use a bit of bronzer to highlight my cheeks and the occasional light shade of eyeshadow on my lids. I don't use much, just a mere smattering of colour to give some warmth to my face and look less pasty and ghostlike. Currently I am using a palette that's from Next and I absolutely love all the metallic eyeshadow shades and the lovely bronzer shades in it.
I don't mix up my makeup a great deal as once I find a good product, I tend to stick to it. For a night out I would use a different mascara maybe and darker eye shadow shades but my base doesn't change at all really.
Have you shared your everyday face makeup recently? and can you recommend any products to me?
Hi Ellie – Merry Christmas and Happy new year to you too! Yes I'm not quite sure why we ended up with so much pork but I'm not complaining 😉 hehe it was delicious!Hi Steph – Thanks! I still have heaps of gingerbread sitting in a box waiting to be eaten! Suffering from gingerbread overload I think =P Hi Helen – Well I know that food bloggers' recipes are tried and true 😉 Hi Belle – Thank you! Hope you had a great Christmas and happy new year!


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Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/2d763c73799e44c18d8c4e6241b5bc10
Five Ex-stars Added to Lowell's List of Legends
The Lowell SunNovember 18, 2018
TWO OLD COACHES: Lowell High coaching legends Phil Maia (left) and Walter Nelson get together at Maia's Hall of Fame induction. COURTESY PHOTO/ANNA MAZUR Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.
LOWELL -- The Lowell High School Athletic Hall of Fame added five new members on Thursday night, bringing the number of honorees in the Hall to 170.
Those inducted were Phil Maia, Class of 1978; John Morris, Class of 1995; Christin Donahue Monaghan, Class of 1997; Paul McNeil, Class of 2003; and Brendan Akashian, Class of 2004.
Maia was a highly-decorated track and cross-country coach for 34 years and compiled an overall record of 402-104-2. Maia's teams captured some 26 MVC titles as well as a number of sectional and state crowns.
He was an All-Star runner at Lowell High and ran for ULowell as well.
Morris was a baseball and swimming star for Lowell High.
In the pool, he put his name on two school records, while on the diamond he was a standout pitcher.
In his senior year, Morris went 10-1 with a 1.83 ERA. He also led the team in home runs and helped Lowell make a deep run in the state tournament.
He went on to pitch at UConn and UMass Lowell.
McNeil was a football and wrestling standout at LHS.
In football he was an MVC All-Conference defensive back and won several awards from the school.
On the wrestling mat, McNeil won the Division 1 North and State championships as a 119-pound sophomore, and after missing a year due to a broken femur, he came back as a senior and repeated as North and D1 State champ and was second at the All-States.
Donahue Monaghan was an outstanding swimmer for Lowell High and returned later as head coach.
In the pool, she was a versatile swimmer who made the Sun All-Star team all for years and a three-time MVC All-Conference selection. She was a consistent qualifier for the Sectional and State meets and then swam for the University of New Hampshire for four years.
As a coach, she was named MVC Coach of the Year in 2005 and helped turn the LHS program around.
Akashian was hockey star at Lowell, where he played four years on the varsity but really blossomed as a junior, when he scored 28 goals and 27 assists to lead the MVC/DCL in scoring as Lowell went 19-2-1 and made it to the D3 North semis.
As a senior the captain scored 50 points and was the league's leading scorer again as well as Sun Player of the Year and MIAA All-Academic Team member.
Akashian was also baseball All-Star and was a superb catcher for Holy Cross, winning league laurels and signing a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.


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Road safety tragedy hits home for B.C. tow truck firm
Family member killed in Castlegar responding to accident scene
Barry Gerding
Darlene Moretto has always understood the dangers tow truck drivers face at accident scenes.
When she and her husband started Mario's Towing more than 30 years ago in Kelowna, the dangers of being hit by a speeding vehicle while trying to clear a vehicle or debris on the road after an accident has occurred is something never out of mind for their drivers on a daily basis.
So the tragedy hit home that much more when she learned this week her brother-in-law, Wayne Kernachan, was killed when stuck by a vehicle while assisting a driver on Saturday, Nov 17.
Her family loss was a painful reminder that tow truck drivers are an endangered species and more needs to be done to ensure their safety.
RELATED: Changing driver behaviour will change driver attitude
"He was a father of three, a husband and someone I spoke with almost on a daily basis," said Moretto of her brother-in-law, who used to work for Mario's Towing before moving to Castlegar to start his own towing business with his son.
While the accident is still under police investigation, Moretto said Kernachan stopped on his way home from work to assist someone who disabled their vehicle after hitting a deer.
Kernachan activated his tow truck beacon lights, put on his high visibility apparel and began to remove some of the vehicle debris from the road when he was hit by a truck speeding past the accident scene.
RELATED: Convoy to honour tow truck driver
What happened to Kernachan is not a rare occurrence in B.C., says Ken McCormack, president and CEO of the Automotive Retailers Association of B.C., which advocates on behalf of tow truck operators for road safety measures.
McCormack said two deaths and 15 other serious injuries have been inflicted on tow truck drivers in B.C. over the past decade.
"It is not a small issue and not an isolated issue. In North America, a tow truck driver is killed on the road every week," McCormack said.
"We recently had one day in Surrey where two tow truck drivers were hit in the same day. One of them was thrown 50 feet after being hit by a truck and somehow survived fortunately. It is insane out there some days."
He said his association has for the past five years lobbied the provincial government for tow trucks to be equipped with blue and white flashing lights in addition to amber lights to better attract driver's attention to show caution and slow down when passing an accident scene.
He said Saskatchewan has adopted similar regulations and Alberta is in the process of legislating these changes, but B.C. has so far been reticent to make the change.
"We've talked to all the folks in Victoria about this, first with the Liberal government and now the NDP, but some emergency responders such as police have been reluctant to support the move because the lights are a unique identifier for their people," McCormack said.
"But we know this has made a positive impact in other jurisdictions across Canada and the U.S. and not had a negative impact on other emergency responders."
RELATED: Crackdown on distracted driving infractions
He said the province has previously adopted the slow down and move over campaign to encourage drivers to slow down when passing an accident scene, especially one where a tow truck driver is first on the scene and police and paramedics have not yet arrived, but the message doesn't appear to be sinking in.
"It's a pretty sad commentary about us as drivers," McCormack acknowledged. "We need to do more to get that message across and we feel the blue and white flashing lights would help reduce the safety risk for tow truck drivers."
For Moretto, who traveled with her family from Kelowna to the Kootenays commuity last weekend for Kernachan's funeral, she hopes the loss of her brother-in-law will add some resonance to the need for additional safety measures to protect her industry.
"He was simply on his way home after a long day and did everything he could have done to protect himself," she said.
"Close calls are a daily occurrence for tow truck drivers. The first thing that comes to mind is safety when you are at an accident scene. At the end of the day we all want to go home, we all want to be safe doing our jobs."
barry.gerding@blackpress.ca
Chocolate lab missing along Coquihalla
VIDEO: Canada Post back-to-work bill passed in late-night Commons sitting


The young woman had noticed symptoms for several months before she finally went to the doctor. At first it was just fatigue and headaches, which she attributed to studying for final exams. She had frequent colds and bouts of fever, chills, and sweats that she thought were just minor infections. When she developed several bruises and bone pain and noticed that her blood did not clot very quickly after cuts and scrapes, she consulted her physician, who examined her and took a blood sample. One glance at a blood smear under a microscope alarmed the doctor—there were far too few red blood cells and platelets and too many white blood cells. She sent the sample to a laboratory to diagnose the type of leukemia, or cancer of the white blood cells, that was causing her patient's symptoms.
The young woman had myeloid leukemia. Her red bone marrow was producing too many granulocytes, but they were immature cells, unable to fight infection (fig. 14A). This explained the frequent illnesses. The leukemic cells were crowding out red blood cells and their precursors in the red marrow, causing her anemia and resulting fatigue. Platelet deficiency (thrombocytopenia) led to increased tendency to bleed. Finally, spread of the cancer cells outside the marrow painfully weakened the surrounding bone. Eventually, if she wasn't treated, the cancer cells would spread outside the circulatory system, causing other tissues that would normally not produce white blood cells to do so.
A second type of leukemia, distinguished by the source of the cancer cells, is lymphoid leukemia. These cancer cells are lymphocytes, produced in lymph nodes. Many of the symptoms are similar to those of myeloid leukemia. Sometimes a person has no leukemia symptoms at all, and a routine blood test detects the condition.
Leukemia is also classified as acute or chronic. An acute condition appears suddenly, symptoms progress rapidly, and death occurs in a few months without treatment. Chronic forms begin more slowly and may remain undetected for months or even years or, in rare cases, decades. Without treatment, life expectancy after symptoms develop is about three years. With treatment, 50% to 80% of patients enter remission, a period of stability that may become a cure. Chemotherapy may be necessary for a year or two to increase the chances of long remission.
(a) Normal blood cells (400x micrograph enlarged to 800x). (b) Blood cells from a person with granulocytic leukemia (400x micrograph enlarged to 800x). Note the increased number of leukocytes.


Congratulations to Nancy L. Fineman for making the 2014 Top 50 Women Northern California Super Lawyers list. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.


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Composing video game music for Virtual Reality: The role of music in VR
Posted by Winifred Phillips on April 15, 2018
Hey everybody! I'm video game composer Winifred Phillips. At this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, I was pleased to give a presentation entitled Music in Virtual Reality (I've included the official description of my talk at the end of this article). While I've enjoyed discussing the role of music in virtual reality in previous articles that I've posted here, the talk I gave at GDC gave me the opportunity to pull a lot of those ideas together and present a more concentrated exploration of the practice of music composition for VR games. It occurred to me that such a focused discussion might be interesting to share in this forum as well. So, with that in mind, I'm excited to begin a four-part article series based on my GDC 2018 presentation!
Virtual Reality is one of the newest platforms for gaming, and it's an exciting time to be a video game composer. We're entering a brand new phase in the history of game development. For the audio side of the equation, it can seem like the most alien frontier we've yet encountered, with lots of unique challenges. Since VR first burst onto the commercial scene with the Oculus Rift in 2016, I've had the pleasure of composing the music for a bunch of awesome VR games. When working in VR, I've noticed that there are some important issues for video game music composers to address. During my GDC talk, I concentrated on three of these top questions:
During my GDC talk I presented the best examples from some of my recent VR projects. These are four very different VR games, including the Bebylon: Battle Royale arena combat game from Kite & Lightning, the Dragon Front strategy game from High Voltage Software, the Fail Factory comedy game from Armature Studio, and the Scraper: First Strike shooter/RPG game from Labrodex Inc. During my presentation, I shared video excerpts from these games in order to demonstrate concepts related to the role of music in VR. In these articles, I'll be embedding those same video clips so that we can further discuss concrete executions of some fairly abstract concepts.
But first, let's pause so we can ask ourselves an important question. What does Virtual Reality mean for us game audio folks? How is it different from traditional game audio, and how is it the same?
Virtual Reality is all about presence, about making players feel as if they exist inside the VR space. Everything in VR works in tandem to enhance that feeling of presence, including the audio content. Let's first take a look at one practical example of how music functions in a VR game, and then we'll step back and look at the bigger picture.
One of my projects over this past year was the music for Scraper, a first-person VR shooter with RPG elements set inside colossal skyscrapers in a futuristic city. While playing Scraper, when we're not shooting at enemies, we're exploring the massive buildings. Ambient music sets the tone for this, but how to introduce it so that it feels natural in VR? After all, if virtual reality is all about presence, about making players feel as if they exist in a real place — where is the music coming from? Does it also exist in the VR world, and if it doesn't, how do we introduce it so that it doesn't disconcert the player and interfere with the realism of the VR experience?
At the beginning of music production for Scraper, I had a long meeting with the project director, and we were particularly concerned about this issue in connection with the ambient score. So we decided that the ambient music would come and go in subtle, gradual ways. This works really well in VR, because it shifts the player's focus away from the music when it first begins playing. Hopefully, by the time that players notice music, it will already have been playing long enough to integrate itself into the environment in an unobtrusive way. To that end, I composed the ambient tracks in Scraper so that they gently float into existence and then build steadily. Here's an example of what it was like when ambient music began playing during exploration gameplay in Scraper:
And here's another video clip in which some time has elapsed, and the ambient music is now gently fading away during continued exploration in the Scraper VR game:
So we've taken a brief look at a simple example of music implementation in VR, but the issues surrounding audio content in Virtual Reality become increasingly complex as we further consider how audio differs in a VR space.
Generally speaking, in order for audio to behave in convincing ways within VR, all sounds should emanate faithfully from their positional sources in the fully 3-dimensional VR world. Music can also be spatialized as well, although decisions about music spatialization are more complicated. We'll be exploring that question in more detail later in this article series, but for now let's pause to think about what 3D sound means for us in VR. While it might seem like audio spatialization in VR presents an exceptional challenge, it's actually a discipline with a long history in game development – including some controversies. Since it's useful to understand how we got to this point, let's quickly review a bit of that history.
The whole discipline of positional audio began in the 1930s with English engineer and inventor Alan Blumlein's invention of the famous stereo audio format. We can thank Blumlein (pictured right) for those two very familiar sound channels; left and right. But for the purposes of our discussion, it's more interesting to consider what Alan Blumlein initially called his newly invented technology – because he didn't name it 'stereo.' He called it 'binaural sound.'
We now understand the concept of binaural sound as a two-channel recording technique that's much more complex and immersive than Blumlein's simple stereo technology, but for a long time, the two terms (binaural and stereo) were used interchangeably.
Meanwhile, the late 1960s brought another big leap forward in sound spatialization. We understand that Blumlein's stereo format allows us to localize audio content across a horizontal axis from left to right – but what about vertical positioning? The ambisonic format makes that possible. Using specialized multi-channel microphones capturing audio from all directions, an ambisonic recording can be decoded into lots of 'virtual' audio channels that can be spread out and localized. Unfortunately, the ambisonic format failed to become popular with consumers, so it languished in obscurity for decades.
Meanwhile, Blumlein's two-channel audio format was getting a big upgrade. Remember, Blumlein's stereo gives us two audio channels that correspond with our two ears… but to localize sound, we need more than just a pair of ears. We also need… a head. So AT&T provided one, as a part of a very successful exhibit at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. Author Cheryl R. Ganz described the exhibit in her book about the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
"In AT&T's most popular attraction, Oscar, a mechanical man with microphone ears, sat in a glass room surrounded by visitors wearing head receivers. Amazed, they heard exactly what Oscar heard. Flies buzzing, footsteps, or whispers all seemed to surround each listener." Due to this amazing auditory phenomenon, the 'Oscar' display was "by far the most popular attraction in the exhibit."
'Oscar' (pictured right) was, in fact, a crude precursor to the dummy head binaural microphone that would later emerge. Even though it astounded visitors to the AT&T exhibit at the World's Fair, the basic idea behind 'Oscar' didn't really take off until 1975. That's when the Neumann microphone manufacturer released their fully-realized version of the famous dummy head binaural microphone.
The principle of the dummy head binaural microphone is simple. Sound reaches the head. It interacts with the shape of the head, the shape of the ear lobes and ear canals, until it finally reaches the two microphones inside. The binaural dummy head does a great job of replicating how human beings perceive sound in real life. As sound transfers from the built-in resonators and mufflers embodied by our heads, all this bouncing around provides loads of data to our brains. It's how we get both horizontal and vertical info about where sounds are coming from. The whole process is called Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF). The Verge multimedia magazine produced a video that does a great job of demonstrating the principles behind HRTF – let's take a look at that:
So, if we've had binaural audio since the 70s, why aren't we listening to everything in binaural format now? Because binaural sound requires headphones to work – it won't translate to a speaker system. Ambisonics will work with a speaker system… but consumers didn't warm up to the format. So, the two technologies remained obscure, while everybody embraced surround sound for 3D audio.
Lots of speakers means great positional audio, right? Except surround sound doesn't account for the vertical axis. No height. It's not a sphere of sound – it's more like a hula hoop.
As we all know, video games have included all of these positional audio technologies… and yet only surround sound gained any long-term traction. Which is weird. Gamers like wearing headphones, so binaural audio should have been a perfect fit. And actually, it was… in the 1990s. And then it dropped off a cliff. Let's take a look at why that happened:
Aureal Semiconductor blew everybody's minds in the nineties by releasing the A3D sound middleware for their Vortex PC sound card chipsets. The A3D middleware enabled Head Related Transfer Functions for game audio, which essentially delivered a form of simulated binaural sound. Maximum PC Magazine called it one of the greatest 100 PC innovations of all time. But then in 1998, Creative Labs slapped Aureal Semiconductor with a patent infringement lawsuit. The legal fees bankrupted Aureal, Creative Labs bought the company in September 2000, then quietly buried the A3D technology… and the years went by.
So now we come to the thing that changed everything: Virtual Reality! VR is all about presence. The VR world has to surround us in a genuine, believable way – so positional audio becomes hugely important. Both the binaural and ambisonic formats are enjoying a renaissance right now, as game audio experts deploy these formats to spatialize their sound content for VR. We all understand the importance of good positional audio for the sound design content of the game… but what about the music?
Over my next three articles, I'll be exploring the role of music in VR through the examination of three important questions for VR game music composers:
The next article will focus on the difference between 3D and 2D audio strategies for music implementation in VR games. In the meantime, please feel free to leave your comments in the space below!
Music in Virtual Reality (GDC 2018 Session)
This lecture presented ideas for creating a musical score that complements an immersive VR experience. Composer Winifred Phillips shared tips from several of her VR projects. Beginning with a historical overview of positional audio technologies, Phillips addressed several important problems facing composers in VR.
Topics included 3D versus 2D music implementation, and the role of spatialized audio in a musical score for VR. The use of diegetic and non-diegetic music were explored, including methods that blur the distinction between the two categories.
The discussion also included an examination of the VIMS phenomenon (Visually Induced Motion Sickness), and the role of music in alleviating its symptoms. Phillips' talk offered techniques for composers and audio directors looking to utilize music in the most advantageous way within a VR project.
Through examples from several VR games, Phillips provided an analysis of music composition strategies that help music integrate successfully in a VR environment. The talk included concrete examples and practical advice that audience members can apply to their own games.
This session provided composers and audio directors with strategies for designing music for VR. It included an overview of the history of positional sound and the VIMS problem (useful knowledge for designers.)
The talk was intended to be approachable for all levels (advanced composers may better appreciate the specific composition techniques discussed).
Winifred Phillips is an award-winning video game music composer whose most recent projects are the triple-A first person shooter Homefront: The Revolution and the Dragon Front VR game for Oculus Rift. Her credits include games in five of the most famous and popular franchises in gaming: Assassin's Creed, LittleBigPlanet, Total War, God of War, and The Sims. She is the author of the award-winning bestseller A COMPOSER'S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC, published by the MIT Press. As a VR game music expert, she writes frequently on the future of music in virtual reality games. Follow her on Twitter @winphillips.
This entry was posted in Conferences, Game Audio, Game Music, Music Composition, Scholarship, Virtual Reality and tagged 3D Audio, A3D, Alan Blumlein, ambisonics, Binaural Audio, diegetic, dummy head microphone, Game Composer, game developers conference, GDC, Head Related Transfer Function, HRTF, non-diegetic, surround sound, video game composer, video game music, VIMS, virtual reality, VR. Bookmark the permalink.
Video Game Composers: The Tech of Music in Virtual Reality (GDC 2018)
Composing video game music for Virtual Reality: 3D versus 2D
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Immigration detention in the United Kingdom is the practice of detaining foreign nationals for the purpose of immigration control. Unlike some other countries, UK provisions to detain are not outlined in a codified constitution. Instead, immigration enforcement holds individuals under Powers granted in the Immigration Act 1971 and by the Home Office Detention Centre Rules (2001). The expressed purpose of immigration detention is to "effect removal; initially to establish a person's identity or basis of claim; or [implement] where there is reason to believe that the person will fail to comply with any conditions attached to a grant of immigration bail." Detention can only lawfully be exercised under these provisions where there is a "realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable period".

In 2019, a majority of immigration detainees were individuals who were seeking, or had claimed, asylum (58%). Other individuals liable for detention include those held while awaiting determination of their right to enter the UK, people who have been refused permission to enter and are awaiting removal, people who have overstayed the expiry of their visas or have not complied with their visa terms, and people lacking the required documentation to live in the UK.

The British Home Office currently operates one Pre-Departure Accommodation, three residential Short Term Holding Facilities (STHFs), seven Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) and 13 In-Use Short-Term Holding Facilities which can be used to detain individuals under Immigration Act Powers. HM Prisons are also used as settings of detention under Immigration Powers, usually if the detainee was serving a prison sentence which expired.

The management of a majority of IRCs is outsourced to private companies including Mitie, GEO Group, G4S and Serco.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 formally changed the name of "detention centres" to "removal centres".

Removal centres
The UK removal centres are:

 Brook House Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport, which is run by G4S Group
 Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport which is run by Mitie
 Dungavel in Lanarkshire run by GEO Group
 Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre also near Heathrow Airport which is run by Mitie
 Larne House Immigration Reception Centre, Larne, Antrim which is run by Tascor, a subsidiary of Capita
 Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre, near Newark on Trent which is run by the Her Majesty's Prison Service
 Pennine House Immigration Reception Centre, at Manchester Airport which is run by Tascor, a subsidiary of Capita
 Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport which is run by G4S
 Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire run by Serco

Policies

The British government has been given powers to detain asylum seekers and migrants at any stage of the asylum process. The use of asylum has increased with the introduction of the process of "fast track", or the procedure by which the Immigration Service assess asylum claims which are capable of being decided quickly. Fast-tracking takes place in Oakington Reception Centre, Harmondsworth and Yarl's Wood.

There are three situations in which it is lawful to detain an asylum seeker or migrant.
 To fast track their claim
 If the government has reasonable grounds to believe that the asylum seeker or migrant will abscond or not abide by the conditions of entry.
 If the asylum seeker or migrant is about to be deported.

Figures published for January – March 2008 by the Home Office revealed the following:
 2305 people were detained in "removal centres" in the UK under Immigration Act powers (this figure excludes those held in prisons)
 1980 immigration detainees were male
 35 children under 18 were detained
 1640 detainees had claimed asylum at some stage

Once detained it is possible to apply for bail. It is preferable but not necessary to provide a surety and conditions will be provided, usually reporting, if bail is granted. There is legal aid for representation at bail hearings and the organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees provides help and assistance for those subject to detention to represent themselves.

Since summer 2005 there has been an increase in the detention of foreign nationals since the Charles Clarke scandal which revealed that there were a number of foreign nationals who had committed crimes and had not been deported at the end of their sentence.

Criticism of immigration detention focuses on comparisons with prison conditions in which persons are kept though they have never been convicted of a crime, the lack of judicial oversight, and on the lengthy bureaucratic delays that often prevent a person from being released, particularly when there is no evidence that the detainee will present a harm or a burden to society if allowed to remain at large while their situation is examined.

Recently, the conditions of detention centres have been criticised, by the United Kingdom Inspector of Prisons.

The Tinsley Model
In 1996 Immigration Detention Centre Tinsley House was commissioned. It was the first purpose-built immigration detention facility in the United Kingdom and was initially managed by the British subsidiary of the American Wackenhut Corporation.

The original senior management of Tinsley House, specifically the centre director and its operations manager, pioneered an adapted version of Wackenhut's philosophy of "Dynamic Security" that promoted a regime of caring custody, emphasising positive relations between staff and detainees and encouraging the respectful and sensitive handling of all detainee related issues.

This concerned approach towards detainee management was quickly embraced by the centre's chaplain, who reinforced the existing commitment to caring custody through the creation of specialised training programmes for the centre's staff and by increasing the size and diversity of the centre's chaplaincy team.

With the active support of the centre's senior management, the Tinsley House chaplaincy set about the task of addressing in detail the dietary, cultural, religious and social needs of the centre's population inviting a variety of religious ministers and representatives of cultural groups to attend the centre to provide pastoral support. Tinsley House became the first detention centre in the United Kingdom to operate a comprehensive regime of religious and cultural observance and to operate a diversity of permanent religious facilities.

The attention to religious and cultural needs combined with an overt commitment on the part of the detention centre staff towards treating those in their custody with care and sensitivity began to impact the environment and operations at Tinsley House. Detainees would write messages of appreciation to members of staff noting their efforts of assistance and staff would regularly form respectful friendships with those in their charge.

The product of this regime, which became known as the "Tinsley Model" was to result in an environment which, during its first decade of operations, incurred no incidence of death, riot or disturbance; a performance which remains unmatched in the history of the UK Immigration Service.

The "Tinsley Model" attracted the attention of the Prince of Wales as well as numerous religious and political leaders and was cited as being a graphic example of the effectiveness of "caring custody".

In December 2001 the senior chaplain of Tinsley House authored a report to the Home Secretary detailing the essence of the Tinsley Model, recording its positive effects and outlining how this regime might be exported throughout the Immigration estate. The report was signed by sixteen bishops, four leading Muslim clerics, representatives of the Sikh and Hindu communities, four members of the House of Lords and the Member of Parliament for Crawley.

The Home Office response to this proposal was to pass it to the Immigration Minister who forwarded it to the head of the Immigration Service who in turn requested that it be actioned by the director responsible for Detention Operations. The Detention Operations department of the Immigration Service did not accept the findings of the report and expressed their displeasure at the centre's operating company (now Group 4) "interfering" in government policy issues and which resulted in the suspension of the centre's senior chaplain.

A month after this report was published; the newest facility in the Immigration estate, the £40 million Yarl's Wood detention centre near Bedford was largely destroyed by fire as a result of altercations between staff and detainees.

With a lack of support from the Immigration Service, the introduction of Group 4's management style (with its largely prison based philosophies) and the departure of the centre's original management team, the "Tinsley Model" became increasingly difficult to maintain resulting in a decline in the centre's previously caring regime.

In 2009 an unannounced inspection of Tinsley House by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons reported that "conditions had generally deteriorated and the arrangements for children and single women were now wholly
unacceptable" and that "staff talked openly about an increased prison culture encroaching on Tinsley House's previously relaxed atmosphere". The gradual erosion of the centre's initial regime of "Caring Custody" effectively marked the end of the "Tinsley Model" and with it the dynamic of the chaplaincy's intensive pastoral care which had been a fundamental feature of the model.

Deaths in immigration custody

The Government does not routinely publish the number of detainees who die in custody, but data mapping by INQUEST suggests that a further three individuals died while being held under Immgiration Act Powers during 2016, nine in 2017, three in 2018 and one in 2019. In 2018, the Government announced that it would begin publishing data on deaths in IRCs for the first time. However, the definitive annual number of deaths in detention remain unknown, as quarterly Home Office statistics do not differentiate between deaths and detainees leaving detention for "other" reasons.

In total, there have been at least 40 deaths in immigration custody since 1989, including:
 Siho Iyiguveni – 8 October 1989 -  Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Kimpua Nsimba – 15 June 1990 -  Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Robertus Grabys – Suicide by hanging, aged 49 24 January 2000 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Michael Bodnarchuk - Suicide by hanging, aged 42, 31 January 2003 - Haslar Detention Centre
 Olga Blaskevica – Murdered by husband, aged 29, 7 May 2003 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Kabeya Dimuka-Bijoux - Collapsed while running, aged 34, 1 May 2004 - Haslar Detention Centre
 Sergey Barnuyck – Suicide by hanging, aged 31, 19 July 2004 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Tran Quang Tung – Suicide by hanging, aged 24, 23 July 2004 - Dungavel Detention Centre
 Kenny Peter – Suicide by hanging, aged 24, 7 November 2004 - Colnbrook Detention Centre
 Unknown male – AIDS, aged 33, 14 March 2005 - Oakington Detention Centre
 Ramazan Kumluca – Suicide by hanging, aged 18, 27 June 2005 - Campsfield Detention Centre
 Manuel Bravo – Suicide by hanging, aged 35, 15 September 2005 - Yarl's Wood Detention Centre
 Bereket Yohannes – Suicide by hanging, aged 26, 19 January 2006 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Oleksiy Baronovsky – Self harm (cutting), aged 34, 10 June 2006 - HMP Rye Hill
 Unknown male – Tuberculosis, aged 32,  1 September 2008 - Colnbrook Detention Centre
 Richard Abeson – Liver cancer, aged 69, 23 October 2009 - HMP Wandsworth
 Eliud Nguli Nyenze – Heart attack, aged 40, 15 April 2010 - Oakington Detention Centre
 Reza Ramazani – Coronory condition, aged 56, 23 March 2010 - HMP Nottingham
 Jimmy Mubenga – Unlawful killing, aged 46, 12 October 2010 - Aircraft, discharged from Brook House Detention Centre
 Riluwanu Balogan – Suicide by hanging, aged 21, 16 May 2011 - HM Glen Parva
 Muhammed Shuket, Heart attack, aged 47, 2 July 2011 - Colnbrook Detention Centre
 Brian Dalrymple – Schizophrenia, hypertension, aged 35, 31 July 2011 - Colnbrook Detention Centre
 Ianos Dragutan – Suicide by hanging, aged 31, 2 August 2011 - Campsfield Detention Centre
 Gonzales Jorite - Tuberculosis, aged 40, 6 December 2011 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Kwabena Fosu - Sudden adult death syndrome, aged 31, 30 October 2012 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Unknown male – Rheumatic valve disease, aged 43, 17 November 2012 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Alois Dvorzac – Heart attack in dementia, aged 84, 10 February 2013 - Harmondsworth Detention Centre
 Khalid Shahzad – Suspected heart attack, aged 52, 30 March 2013 - Pennine House Immigration Reception Centre
 Tahir Mehmood – Heart attack, aged 43, 26 July 2013 - Pennine House Immigration Reception Centre
 Rene Frings – Heart disease, aged 44, 23 November 2011 - HMP Wormwood Scrubs
 Mohamoud Ali – Sudden death in epilepsy, aged 36, 1 February 2014 - HMP Parc
 Christine Case – Pulmonary embolism, aged 40, 30 March 2014 - Yarls Wood
 Bruno dos Santos – Neurosarcoidosis, aged 26, 4 June 2014 - HMP The Verne
 Rubel Ahmed – Suicide by hanging, aged 26, 5 September 2014 - IRC Morton Hall Lincoln
 Pinakinbhai Patel – Heart attack, aged 33, 20 April 2015 - Yarls Wood
 Thomas Kirung – Suicide by hanging, aged 30, 6 August 2015 - HMP The Verne
 Amir Siman-Tov – Suicide by overdose, aged 41, 17 February 2016 - Colnbrook Detention Centre
 Unknown – 1 December 2016 - Colnbrook Detention Centre
 Unknown male – Murdered, aged 49, 30 November 2016 - IRC Morton Hall Lincoln
 Tarek Chowdhury - Murdered, aged 34, 30 December 2016 - IRC Morton Hall Lincoln
 Carlington Spencer – Stroke, aged 27, 3 October 2017 - IRC Morton Hall Lincoln

References

Illegal immigration to the United Kingdom

Deportation from the United Kingdom

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I might paint my front door pink.
Yes, I've lamented for months now that our house is mauve.
And yes, I've previously stated that perhaps a muted plum door would tone down the pinkness of the siding on our house while still looking sophisticated and coordinated.
And yes, I've even mentioned (several times) how much I'd really really like to repaint our old mauve house and be rid of the pink altogether.
See those geraniums slyly photobombing this pic of my front door (and my beloved new house numbers?) They're coral. And they're pretty. And see how nice they look against my (much despised) mauve siding?
So I might paint my front door a corally-pink. It's absolutely mind boggling, I know.
So yes. This is my new plan. A coral door for my mauve house. Who would have thunk it, eh?
Yep. If I have this baby tomorrow (which, mind you, I hope I don't!) (just a sec – knocking on wood…) he or she now, officially, has somewhere to sleep.
Nothing is set up yet, of course. My parents are coming down to paint the nursery later this week (thanks mom and dad!), and then, once the walls are all prettied up, the furniture will be assembled. I'm ridiculously excited to see this little room transform into the nursery that'll belong to this wiggly little one who is currently doing pirouettes in my ever expanding belly.
We still need blinds and curtains for the windows, an area rug for the floor, some sort of dirty diaper collection method (be that a wetbag or an ubbi or a simple diaper pail liner plus ikea garbage pail (like this one here) or whichever system we decide upon), and a bookshelf of some sort (since we plan on doing a lot of reading to Baby.) A footstool or ottoman (for mamma to put her feet up while nursing) would be pretty super swell too.
But, we have the basics now, at least.
Only eight more short weeks (until my official due date) to go!
Curb appeal is coming slowly (very slowly) to the old mauve house. I have to keep looking back at the before pictures, particularly from the rather disasterous day we moved in (while the previous owners, who apparently didn't fully understand how the whole Closing Day concept – ie: moving out so that new owners can move in – really works, rather obliviously took their time packing things up and were still picking up their belongings FOUR DAYS after we gained possession of the house) (true story) to fully appreciate that our house HAS come a long way in seven months. Especially considering that we were buried under several feet of snow and darkness and cold for five of those seven months.
The newest addition to our create curb appeal campaign? Pretty new house numbers.
Brassy and rusted and old. Gross eh?
I never imagined that a set of sticky little house number decals affixed to a plain black mailbox could make me so unbelievably happy.
Yep. We bought THAT house. We're rather brave (or foolish?) peeps, Sweetie and me.


The Supreme Court has recently ruled that in calculating damages for the repudiation of a charterparty, shipowners were not obliged to give credit to charterers for sale proceeds made by a sale in opportune market conditions. Reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal, the highest court held that damages owed by charterers for the repudiation of the charterparty should be calculated without taking into account that benefit.
i-law.com studies this key judgment, with commentary put together by our expert writers and contributors. Our varied publications, including Lloyd's Law Reports, Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly and Shipping & Trade Law, provide breadth of discussion and analysis.
Charterparty (Time) – Repudiation - Damages – Time-charterers redelivering vessel early – Owners selling vessel upon repudiation for a greater sum than the value of the vessel at contractual date for redelivery – Whether owners bound to give credit for difference in capital values.
David McLauchlan, Professor of Law, Victoria University of Wellington; Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne; Honorary Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland.
Paul Todd, Professor of Commercial and Maritime Law, University of Southampton.


text:
One Sky Center
Presentations/Publications
Indian Country Meth Initiative
Evidence-Based Practices and Best Practices
Native-to-Native Network
Native Programs Directory
Left to Right: Susan Halada, Michelle J. Singer, BS (Navajo), Patricia Silk Walker, PhD (Cherokee) Douglas Bigelow PhD, R. Dale Walker, MD (Cherokee).
The staff of the One Sky Center includes professionals in psychiatry, substance abuse prevention and treatment, adolescent mental health, health systems and administration, education, and Native American studies. Please click on the links below for more information on our staff.
R. Dale Walker, MD, – Director
Dr. Dale Walker is professor of Psychiatry and Public Health and Preventive Medicine and Director of the Center for American Indian Health, Education and Research at Oregon Health and Science University. His current work draws attention to best practices for the prevention and treatment of addiction disorders with American Indian populations.
Douglas Bigelow, PhD, – Deputy Director
Over the last four decades, Dr. Bigelow has provided direct service in psychiatric hospitals and directed research, alcohol and drug treatment, strategic planning, human resource planning, and health policy in community, state, and provincial agencies. He has expertise in service systems research, performance measurement, outcome measurement, program evaluation, community mental health programming, alcohol and drug programming, American Indian issues, and, brain imaging.
Patricia Silk Walker, PhD
Dr. Silk Walker is a child psychiatric clinical specialist with a focus on community mental health and American Indians. Her research includes prospective, longitudinal assessment of risk and protective factors associated with alcohol, drug and other mental health problems.
Michelle J Singer- Communications Coordinator
Michelle, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, will provide communications, public relations, and intergovernmental support to the One Sky Center. Prior to coming to the Center, she spent seven years in the U.S. Senate as a policy advisor to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell ( R-CO), and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Michelle's professional and personal background is strongly rooted in Indian education, Indian health, and Indian affairs.


The Sales Associate is the most important role in the sales floor as they are on the front line and the direct link between the product and the Vietnamese customer.
They deliver a seamless customer experience as exceptional people delivering an exceptional product, building customer loyalty and relationships with Vietnamese and other nationalities while delivering sales and productivity targets.
* Assist mainly Vietnamese customers as well as other nationalities in selecting, purchasing, refunding merchandise while demonstrating good communication skills and excellence in customer service at all times.
* Treat all goods, regardless of value, with care and present to the customer with highest level of respect.
* Complete customer transactions in a professional, timely manner.
* Inform customer necessary information they need to know if applicable.
* Maintain a smart and well-groomed appearance when in uniform to convey a professional image of self-confidence and competence.
* Apply the principles of Apprentice so as to achieve superior customer service.
* Respond to customer queries and complaints in a polite and courteous manner – refer to the manager or Manager on Duty if appropriate.
* Demonstrate product features and special product information.
* Ensure floor presentation meets or exceeds brand and DFS requirements.
* Maintains stock levels of all merchandise in the department.
* Be familiar with store layout and direct customers to merchandise, services and facilities as appropriate.
* To assist the Management team in the coordination and execution of all team merchandising activities, including inventory management, presentation quantities, promotional activities and merchandise stock flow.
* Work cooperatively with co-workers to accomplish sales and service goals.
* Assist other sales staff in periods of peak demand to ensure that customers in all areas are attended to promptly and efficiently, with waiting time reduced to a minimum.
* Take action to problem solve or effectively communicate to manager for assistance.
* Provide manager with customer's feedback.
* Treat all management and fellow team-members with respect to support a healthy and positive team environment.
* Plan, participate and help monitor physical inventories as scheduled which includes inventory preparation.
* Maintain light housekeeping. Ensure retail areas and store rooms are neat, clean, hazard free and dust-free.
* Adhere to established health and safety policy and other DFS company policies, procedures, and regulations.
* Attend meetings, trainings and store briefings when required, to gain greater knowledge of the business and products.
* High energy level and positive approach to job and group responsibilities.
If you are interested, please forward your resumes to talent_singapore@dfs.com.


The process for becoming a certified pharmacy technician is a fairly long one, but you will find that if you follow the advice below and do everything that is mentioned in this article, you will be a certified pharmacy technician in no time.
Before you can even consider enrolling in a certified pharmacy technician course you will have to determine whether or not you are even eligible to apply. There are a number of steps you can go through in order to determine your eligibility. There are a number of requirements that you will have to meet in order to be eligible to study for a certified pharmacy technician program. You will need, for example, to have a high school diploma, or an equivalent thereof in the form of a GED. If you do not have either of these it is suggested that you work for your high school equivalent before applying to enrol in a certified pharmacy technician program.
Another requirement is that you have a crystal clear criminal record. If you have any felonies to your name when you apply for a certified pharmacy technician then you will find that you will not be allowed to enrol. This is a fact of life, so if you have a criminal record you should possibly consider another line of work unless you can justify the record adequately to the school you would like to do your certified pharmacy technician program at. In some cases your felonies will not be taken into account, depending on what they are. However if you have drug-related felonies on your record you will most likely be turned down. This is because a certified pharmacy technician has to work with drugs every day and therefore has to prove that they can be trustworthy with those drugs. The best way to find out what particular requirements there are in your state is to go to your state's board of pharmacy website and see what the requirements are. There can be huge differences between states, so make sure you know what t do for your particular state.
The next thing that you may want to do is to find a certified pharmacy assistant program. This program, as has already been mentioned, absolutely must be accredited by either the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) or the Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians (ICPT). When you look for a pharmacy technician school you will be able to choose between online classes and face-to-face classes at an institute. There are a number of advantages to each type of program. An online national pharmacy technician certification program is a lot more convenient and allows you to easily study at your own pace and in your own time. If you require to work while you study then this type of certification will make it possible for you to both work and study at the same time. However not everyone is able to handle the stress and self-motivation required for working on your own. Many need the classroom structure. Also an online certified pharmacy technician will not prepare you for the practical side of your career as a pharmacy technician. On the other hand you will receive a lot of hands-on experience in a classroom situation, as well as plenty of guidance and help and the ability to interact easily with other students as well as with your lecturers. Many people need this kind of structure if they are to do well in their certified pharmacy technician qualification. However these pharmacy technician programs are far less flexible and may not allow you to continue your career while you study.
Note: In most states you are not in fact required to attend an actual institute before writing the examination and qualifying as a certified pharmacy technician. However it is suggested that you do this as it will help you a lot in finding a job and leading a successful career.


This week, Ira spoke with Laura Lee O'Connell and Lori Legacy. To listen to the interview click below.
Laura Lee O'Connell and Lori Legacy are cast members of "Menopause The Musical" inside The Improv at Harrah's Las Vegas. It is the longest running scripted show in Las Vegas.
O'Connell is known for her award-winning original plays, one woman shows and memorable characters. For more than 20 years, her performances have been featured at art festivals, colleges, in playhouses and theatres. Her original play about literacy was featured on PBS and airs nationally. She was also named a Kentucky cultural treasure. Laura Lee has been recognized with a major grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, the National Endowment of the Arts, and the National Endowment of the Humanities for her original plays. She toured with "Menopause the Musical" in several cities for long show engagements. O'Connell has been in the Las Vegas cast of "Menopause the Musical" since the beginning.
Legacy has performed in "Menopause the Musical" for the last 9 years. Prior to that, she was performing in "Honky Tonk Angels" in Las Vegas, where she portrayed such artists as Barbara Mandrel, Tammy Wynett and of course, her favorite, Dolly Parton. Ms. Legacy traveled for 7 years with "Legends in Concert," paying tribute to Parton in Hawaii, Australia, Canada and other venues. Lori has entertained audiences since the age of 10, when she started out as a ventriloquist.
This week, Ira spoke with Randal Keith and Kerry O'Malley. To listen to the interview click below.
Randal Keith and Kerry O'Malley both star in Steve Wynn's ShowStoppers, with performances Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with an additional show on Friday at 10 p.m. at Wynn Las Vegas.
Randal Keith starred as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables on Broadway and the national tours in the U.S., Canada, China and South Korea. Keith is also one of the few performers to have played every male role in "The Phantom of the Opera" on the first national tour and in Las Vegas' "Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular." He has also starred as King Arthur in "Spamalot" at Wynn Las Vegas.
This week, Ira spoke with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.. To listen to the interview click below.
Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., appearing at the Orleans Casino, February 14-15, have enjoyed tremendous success through the years as recording artists, performers and authors. They have received 7 Grammy Awards and earned 15 gold and 3 platinum records, and enjoyed starring roles on television and stage. They have performed to sold-out concerts around the world. They are currently celebrating more than 40 years in the entertainment business with a musical tribute to the hits and productions that have made up their multi-faceted careers.
This week, Ira spoke with Ron Kenney. To listen to the interview click below.
Comedian Ron Kenney is performing at the Riviera Comedy Club with Shayma Tash through February 8th.
Kenney has been performing professionally for more than 20 years in almost every venue imaginable, including corporate shows, colleges, cruise ships and comedy clubs in between.
He has appeared on A&E's "Evening at the Improv," VH-1's "Comedy on the Road," MTV, and Comedy Central. Kenney has opened for Lou Rawls, Neil Sedaka, Melissa Manchester, and Andrew Dice Clay, among others.


text:
The Time Required To Start A Business in Malta Is Insanely Long
By CharlesMercieca
It takes Maltese entrepreneurs no fewer than 26 days to complete all the needed legal steps required to start a business, data aggregated by the University of Oxford developed Our World in Data shows. This places Malta just one place before last in the whole of EU, with ony Poland doing worse, at 37 days required to start a business.
The average for the whole EU in contrast is 10.36 days, with most Western European countries having times in the single digits. It takes just 3 days to start a business in Denmark, 3 and a half in France, 4 in Belgium and the Netherlands, 4 and a half in the United Kingdom and less than a week in Italy.
Malta also trails most countries on a global level, with the world average being 20.92 days. Two of the four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong and Singapore, lead the scale, with people taking one a half and two and a half days respectively to start a business there.
Gulf states too make a strong showing, with businesses in the UAE taking just 8.2 days to get started and those in Saudi Arabia 16.2 days.
The worst performer, at more than half a year (230 days), is Venezuela.
The "less red tape" pledge – did Labour do it?
Back in 2012, Joseph Muscat had promised the electorate that his government would work to reduce bureaucratic 'red tape' should he be elected. Since Our World in Data's numbers go back until since 2011, we can quantify this pledge objectively.
Plotting the data, it becomes apparent that some reduction in the time required to start a business has taken place, with the process requiring 38.5 days in 2011 – a full 12.5 more than now.
Despite the improvement however, the local situation is still tricky. Earlier this year, redditor bezzleford visualised the World Bank Group's 2017 "ease of doing business" index: a scale based on 10 subscales that include ease to getting aspects like credit, property and electricity, and legal aspects such as procedures for insolvency and contracts.
Malta, along with Greece and Macedonia, were the EU's worst performers.
Established businesses however appear to be doing well, with Malta's GDP growth rate in the third quarter of 2017 standing at 7.7%, well above the EU28's 2.6% average.
What do you make of these findings? Let us know in the comments below.
READ NEXT: Malta's Economy Set A New Record Yesterday
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Two Kittens Dumped 'Soaking And Starving' Into Skip To Be Taken To Maltese Cat Sanctuary