text:
Meeting with Pope was prepared in secret because of too many opponents - Patriarch Kirill
San Paulo, February 24, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has told about the secrecy that surrounded preparations for his meeting with the Pope, and explained why such measures were taken.
"No one was talking me out of it [from meeting with the Pope] because no one knew. Five people knew about this meeting - I am not going to tell their name them. Why was that? Because it is impossible to prepare such a meeting openly: too many opponents," the patriarch told Russian journalists at the Brazilian city of San Paulo at the end of his Latin America tour.
The problem was not even the Orthodox people who think "there is some danger in the meeting per se," he said.
"There are powerful forces that did not really want it, so we needed to prepare it calmly and quietly, which we did," the primate said.
The declaration that the two church leaders signed is the fruit of collective work, he said. "We finished writing the declaration a few hours before the meeting, which is proved by the text being not very well printed. We kept editing the text until the very last moment, together. This is a product of creative work by the two Churches," the patriarch said.
"We have a high level of consensus in assessing what is happening today to the human family, in the world of politics. There is shared understanding of what a Christian's position must be in the face of all these menacing challenges," he said.
It was quite expected that his meeting with Pope Francis raised some fears among the devout as to "whether this is going to deform the doctrine somehow, whether there will be some changes in liturgical life, in pastoral approaches," the patriarch said, adding that at the meeting they did not discuss a single theological issue, and so there is "nothing to be afraid of."
The division between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, which has existed since the eleventh century, cannot be overcome with agreements between their leaders and hierarchs, the Christians separated "in response to our sinfulness" and "it will be a God's miracle if we ever live to see this happen [the reunification of the Churches]," Patriarch Kirill said.


You start out with 10 Credits, if you run out, simply hit the "BACK" button on your device and start again.
It has 2 BONUS Games, a Hi Lo Game, and a FREE Prize BONUS!
Get any 2 and win a credit.
Get any 2, 3 times in a row and get into 1 of the bonus games.
Get any 3 and win the amount of Credits for those 3 fruits.
Get any 3, 2 times in a row and get into 1 of the bonus games.
Get 3 Spotted Ghosts logos, win 100 Credits and get into the FREE Prize Bonus Game.
Don't forget to Hold or Nudge if you can, but only if you need too!
Look at the number between the HI and Lo buttons, choose whether the next number will be higher or lower than that number. If you choose high and the new number is higher then you win a credit, if you choose lower and the new number is lower then you win a credit.
Stop the flashing Credits by hitting the STOP button, which ever Credit you land you, you win!
Play against your phone or Tablet in 1 Player mode.
Play against your friends (on the same device) in 2 Player mode.
Starring the creator of Spotted Ghosts, you need to help him jump over the ghosts before they get him!
This is Spotted Ghosts 3rd game, Pop A Pumpkin.
Can you Pop the Pumpkins before you run out of time?
Each level gets quicker and faster!
Can you complete the game and score 100?
This is Spotted Ghosts 2nd game, Whack A Ghost.
Hit the Ghosts before you run out of time?
Turn off the lights, make sure it's dark and prepare to be scared!!
Our Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting Scare App WILL Scare you!
We take no responsibility to you or anyone that uses this app.
Don't forget to record on other devices at the same time to get the true GHOST HUNTING SCARE experience!
Do NOT use this if you are pregnant, or a weak heart, or scare easily (or any other form of disposition).
Again, we accept NO responsibility to anyone that uses this app.


Dupont Tyvek TY210S frocks provide body-length jacket design with five front snap closures for easy donning and doffing. Tyvek garments are composed of flash spun high density polyethylene which creates a unique, nonwoven material available only from DuPont. Tyvek fabric offers an inherent barrier against particles and protection is built into the fabric itself - there are no films or laminates to abrade or wear away.
Body-length jacket design with five front snap closures.
Ideal for applications that do not require the full body coverage of a coverall.


Garfield :: Isn't this great, Garfield? We have a whole day of fishing ahead of us! Hotcha. HEY! WHERE's THE BAIT? Bait? GARFIELD! I thought it was sushi.
Isn't this great, Garfield? We have a whole day of fishing ahead of us! Hotcha. HEY! WHERE's THE BAIT? Bait? GARFIELD! I thought it was sushi.


text:
Betting Guide Casino Guide Pokies Games Live Casino Guide Bingo Guide Poker Guide Lottery Country Overviews Laws Licenses
Gambling.com » Country Overviews » Online Gambling in Monaco
Online Gambling in Monaco
The second smallest country in the world, Monaco is a kind of gambling Mecca - up there in most people's minds with Las Vegas and Macau. The Monte Carlo Casino complex is one of the most luxurious and famous in the world, known for its stunning fountains out front and, of course, James Bond's numerous escapades at the venue.
On paper, the principality is the picture of glitz and glamour, with its million-pound yachts perfectly placed in the harbour and the winding streets providing an ideal setting for Formula One's best-known Grand Prix race. In real life, however, Monaco is striving to keep gambling as its national business, rather than its pastime, leading to some strict and surprising laws.
The Legal Landscape
So to start, Monaco's citizens aren't actually allowed to gamble in their famous casinos. In fact, they're not even allowed inside - although this law is relaxed for casino employees, as lawmakers wisely agreed it help to be able to get into the building you work at. However, foreign nationals are free to gamble in the casinos and given that they make up 80% of the 36,000 population, that's most of the country anyway.
The history of the gambling ban itself is a large part of why Monaco has the identity it does today. Charles III, Prince of Monaco in the late 1800s, created the restriction during a fiscal crisis. With the country on its knees financially, Charles took to studying the economics of neighbouring countries and hatched a plan to create a gaming industry targeting, amongst others, the English upper class. To allow his own citizens to gamble would've been counter productive to his aim of bringing money into the country, so he banned them. His idea worked so well that Monaco paid off its current debts and had such sustainability from their gambling industry that they were in a position to abolish taxes.
The secret to Monte Carlo's success was the French entrepreneur François Blanc, a.k.a. The Magician of Monte Carlo, who invented single-zero roulette - a game that remained exclusive to Monte Carlo until 1933. Monaco's royal family, the House of Grimaldi, still reigns today and is the longest running monarchy in the world, having ruled since 1419. They are a major shareholder in SBM, the company that owns Monte Carlo casinos and most of the general tourism industry in Monaco. SBM is split almost exactly in three in terms of ownership, with the Government of Monaco and the public owning the other two thirds.
The five casinos themselves are largely self-regulated and operate under loose and somewhat informal rules, while the online laws are equally indeterminate. There were initial plans to ban citizens gambling on foreign websites to monopolise the market in Monaco, but since these were rejected, residents remain free to gamble online as they wish.
Monaco hosts a number of sports events, but with wealthy foreigners making up a large portion of the population, it lacks a real sense of patriotic sporting identity. The Monaco Grand Prix is popular, but generally attended by the rich nationals and wealthy tourists rather than locals. Monaco Football Club presides in the French Ligue 1, but despite significant investment to buy in some of the world's top talent, the small home crowds suggest that Monacans don't quite share in most European countries' passion for the game.
The current Prince of Monaco, Albert II, is an avid athlete, competing at five Winter Olympics from 1988-2002 in bobsleighing, although he failed to win any medals. He's also a member of the International Olympic Committee and has attempted to popularise sports such as judo, fencing and tennis in Monaco.
The Monte Carlo casino has hosted all but one of the nine annual European Poker Tour Grand Finals, despite the fact that nationals are not allowed to play. Although they could potentially participate in online tournaments, no notably successful poker players have emerged from the principality yet.
The Future of online Gambling in Monaco
There are whispers that France may extend their jurisdiction into Monaco, introducing strict licences for online betting companies and banning casino games altogether. Citizens at the moment are allowed to bet with international companies, but if France enforced their policies, any foreign website would have to adhere to strict rules in order to gain a licence. Even then only sports betting, poker and slots would be allowed, with games such as roulette, blackjack and craps all restricted to physical casinos only. Another good reason to visit in person - but potentially disastrous for local fans of online gambling.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A pilgrim was on a journey from Rome to Jerusalem. He was imprisoned in Athens, suffered a brutal attack in Macedonia, and wasted time in Constantinople. But, he gathered himself on these occasions and arrived in the Holy City.
We all seek salvation. If we are to achieve it, we must go in the right direction. Too often people either stay put in their walk of faith after baptism or confirmation, or they walk in a way contrary to holiness as if that moment of belief is enough to get them to the place God has for them. No, there is a way that leads to eternal life.
Jesus Christ taught us that the way is narrow and hard. Needless to say, we all suffer persecution from those outside of ourselves who misunderstand and dismiss us. We also suffer in our struggle against the sins that plague our flesh. It is easy to give into these forces. No, we must repent and press on to receive the prize he has for us.
Salvation is not a moment of eternal bliss. It is a direction of how we live on earth fortified with the diligence to stay on the right path. May you journey well.
Hello! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to give it a look. I'm definitely enjoying the information. I'm bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Outstanding blog and superb style and design.


http://www.can.bosch.com/content/A_CAN.html Bosch A_CAN?; The A_CAN? is a CAN module that can be integrated as stand-alone device or as part of an ASIC. It is described in VHDL on RTL level, prepared for synthesis. 3 message buffers.
The Bosch C_CAN is a CAN module that can be integrated as stand-alone device or as part of an ASIC. It is described in VHDL on RTL level, prepared for synthesis. 32 message buffers. Read more here.
D_CAN The PDF User Manual.
Bosch CC770 Datasheets Stand-Alone CAN-Controller CC770 (comaptible to AN82527); 15 message objects of 8-byte data length; Flexible CPU interface: 1 x SPI, 4 x parallel bus, 2 x 8 bit IO.


oredoo Maldives hosts NIRU Accelerator's First DEMO Day and announces Seed Funding for 3 Startups.
· Ideanize,which creates customised conversation agents for businesses helping them to digitalise and streamline operations.
· Kumbu, a centralised sea-transfer management system to locate vessels, book tickets or hire an excursion vessel without any hassle.
NIRU Accelerator's Demo Day was attended byMinister of Communication, Science and Technology,Mr. Mohamed Maleeh Jamal; Chief Executive of Communication Authority of Maldives, Mr. Ilyas Ahmed; Managing Director ofFenaka Corporation, Mr. Ahmed Saeed Mohamed; Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Maldives, Mr. Najib Khan; as well as key stakeholders from the entrepreneurship community of the Maldives.
"Today, we are both proud and nostalgic as NIRU Accelerator reaches another historic milestone. It's been a great journey so far, and we are honoured to have kick-started this program with highly innovative and dedicated teams. NIRU Accelerator Program aims to develop the start-up ecosystem in the Maldives and unlock the untapped potential of young entrepreneurs across the nation. Our first wave only strengthened our belief in the vast potential of local entrepreneurs, and we will continue to develop the NIRU platform to best suit the needs of our participants and the entrepreneurship eco-system as a whole." said Najib Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Maldives.
NIRU Accelerator is a learning based business accelerator program in the Maldives, started by Ooredoo Maldives last year for innovative start-ups companies that are passionately working towards social change. Teams gained entry to the accelerator program through a Hackathon held in partnership with Ideamart by Dialog Axiata PLC, and receivedaccess to a 12-week long intensive mentor based learning program, co-working space, digital tools for building their business and the essential technical support from experts. This also included access to the Ideamart platform which allows developers and content providers to use the Ooredoo network based features via shared APIs, and monetize their efforts. At the end of the program, start-ups also received the chance to pitch for further investments including government officials, angel investors, local businessmen and more.
NIRU aims to connect participants to lifelong partnerships and opportunities even after the end of the accelerator program, as part of a vibrant community working towards a better world. Ooredoo Maldives will continue to work closely with the start-ups that received seed funding, as a close adviser and enabler of further opportunities.


Beautifully soft this 100% Linen shirt is another stunning example from Robert Old's smart, casual shirt collection.
Either dressed with tailored pieces or a denim, this shirt gives an easy, sophisticated style to your casual attire.
With long sleeves, left chest pocket and complemented by horn buttons, this shirt is the perfect, versatile new addition to your wardrobe.


The Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowships in Public Policy Board call for applications for 2017 Fellowships.
Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellowships in Public Policy are for outstanding mid-career American professionals to research and gain firsthand experience of public policy in New Zealand. Two to four Fellowships valued at up to NZ$58,500 are granted each year, towards seven months of research.
Successful candidates will be based at a New Zealand government host organisation in Wellington. Fulbright New Zealand will work with the host organisation and the Fellow to finalise a suitable host agency mentor. The Fellow should utilise their US contacts and the assistance of their host organisation to source appropriate US and New Zealand academic mentors.
At the conclusion of their fellowships, before returning to the United States, Fellows will be required to submit a policy report for publication by the Fellowships Office and to deliver a seminar on their findings to an invited audience and interested members of the public. The reports of previous Fellows are available here.
Applications for these awards close at 5:00pm on 1 April 2016.


After developing its first total knee replacement in 1968, Zimmer has since had several successful models. Zimmer began in 1927 in the state of Indiana, manufacturing aluminum splints. Today Zimmer is the world's top producer of knee replacement implants with an estimated $7.2 billion in revenues directly related to knee replacement devices. In late June 2015, Zimmer merged with Biomet, making the company an even greater contender in the areas of artificial joints, surgical products and trauma and spinal devices. Unfortunately, along with its successes, the company has also had to deal with some artificial knee implant problems—some of them quite serious.
In March 2015, the Zimmer Persona Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate was recalled, after less than three years on the market. The reason for the recall, according to Zimmer, was an increased risk of the implant loosening, as well as radiolucent lines. The Persona Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate is a cementless (in other blogs, cementless is one word) component. Recipients of the Zimmer Persona Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate may develop radiolucent lines, which are dark areas on x-rays, signifying spaces between the device and the bone tissue. The Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate is a component which fits over the shin bone, providing a "platform" for the rest of the knee implant. The radiolucent lines seen in an x-ray indicate poor "seating" of the plate, indicating it is not where is should be, and is coming loose.
· Complete failure of the implant.
The Zimmer Persona Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate gained FDA approval through the controversial 510(k) fast-track program. When manufacturers apply for 510(k) approval, they are not required to conduct clinical trials which would (or would not) show the device is both effective and safe. Under the 510(k) program, the manufacturer must only show the device is "substantially similar" to a product which is already on the market. While the goal of this FDA process is to limit the "red tape" involved in getting much-needed medical devices on the market, it can sometimes lead to unsafe devices being implanted in patients.
Zimmer reported receiving approximately six complaints per 1,000 implants—significantly more than the number of complaints for similar devices. More than a third of these complaints involved revision surgery due to the premature loosening or other issues associated with radiolucent lines. The Zimmer Persona Trabecular Metal Tibial Plates were distributed across the United States, including at least a dozen VA hospitals. These recalled Persona components were also sold in Europe, Australia and other countries. It is not clear whether patients implanted with a recalled Zimmer Persona knee device have been notified of the recall or provided instructions regarding the necessity for further medical monitoring. It is expected that individuals who suffered injury from a Zimmer Persona Trabecular Metal Tibial Plate may pursue a lawsuit against Zimmer . This reference to Biomet is confusing and not really needed.


text:
Why Koalas Are Suddenly Drinking Extra Water
Kimberly Burnham
DIGEST: Australian Koala Foundation, National Geographic, AnnBot, WWF, Virology, Catchment]
Australian koalas are in danger due to dehydration, loss of habitat and disease, much of which is being attributed to climate change. The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are less than 100,000 koalas left in the wild, possibly as few as 43,000.
The next 20-30 years look bleak for the iconic marsupial due to a lack of food and water.
Climate change is expected to lead to the death of thousands of koalas and magnify the impact of other threats. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, an endangered species monitoring agency, expects a population decrease of as much as 29 percent over three generations–roughly 24 years. If we were talking about humans the equivalent population loss would mean a 75-year-old man would see a world population decrease of more than two billion people over his lifetime.
Living primarily in Eastern Australia, where eucalyptus trees are plentiful, koalas typically spend 18 hours a day sleeping and resting in these fragrant hardwoods. Now facing reduced water stores, koalas have begun to climb down and drink from artificial water stations provided by University of Sydney researchers. The koalas of Gunnedah, a town in southeastern Australia often referred to as the "Koala Capital of the World," come down from their trees both day and night to drink from the stations for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Credit: Source
Koalas can eat up to two and a half pounds of leaves per day, which historically have provided koalas all of their hydration needs. But the leaves are drying out, and researchers attribute the koalas' newfound thirst to these dry conditions. A National Geographic report highlights prior research suggesting that koalas reject leaves with water contents less than 55 to 65 percent.
In addition to reduced water content, in dry conditions, the eucalyptus trees grow smaller leaves and decrease the amount of photosynthesis. This means one tree can feed fewer koalas.
The World Wildlife Fund describes a bleak future for the eucalyptus tree in Eastern Australia. Despite a recent reduction in forest loss, the WWF projected weakening of key legislation in the frontline states of Queensland and New South Wales. This threatens a resurgence in deforestation, mainly to create pasture for livestock. Key species affected include koalas, possums, gliders and tree-dependent birds.
Koalas stressed by dehydration and loss of habitat are more vulnerable to disease. A study in the Journal of Virology noted koala populations are in serious decline across many areas of mainland Australia. A koala retrovirus is thought to be a significant contributor to koala disease and population decline.
On a positive note, November 2016, the Australia government ratified the Paris Agreement and the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol reinforcing their commitment to action on climate change. The largest contracted project to date under the Emissions Reduction Fund, the Catchment Conservation Alliance is a collaboration between the GreenCollar Group, the Queensland Government and Queensland Natural Resource Management groups. Covering 500,000 hectares and approximately 50 properties, the project will re-establish native forest in the Great Barrier Reef catchment, which contain a large percentage of the koala population. In addition to storing carbon, the project will assist with biodiversity conservation, water quality and sustainable agricultural practices to build resilience and improve productivity.
The Queensland government also encourages residents to landscape homes and buildings so as to provide food, shelter and movement opportunities for koalas.
The poet Ada Cambridge describes the sensations of the Australian landscape: "Down those green aisles where golden wattles bloom / Over the fragrant grass / And smell the eucalyptus in a gloom / That is as clear as glass / The dew-fresh scents of bracken and of broom."
Australia climate change environment Koalas Queensland Water


text:
Q: C++ vector resize elements re-ordered? If my vector starts out with some information in it such as:
vector<int> ordered_set;
ordered_set.resize(5);
for (int counter=0; counter<5; counter++){
ordered_set[counter]=counter+1;
}

Then I later resize it as:
ordered_set.resize(10,0);

will the 1 through 5 still be guaranteed as the first five elements through the pointer arithmetic ordered_set[0,1,2..4]? or does the standard enable the contents to permute if contiguous memory is not found for the resize and a reallocation is required? In other words will ordered_set[0,1,2..4] potentially encounter a 0?

A: A std::vector is defined as a contiguous container of elements. If the vector's allocator cannot provide enough memory when resizing, the vector won't "fracture". It cannot maintain its invariant so the operation simply won't finish, on account of an exception being thrown.
As for pointer arithmetic, you can be sure that traversing the vector after resizing will produce the same integer values you previously placed there. But be sure to not use any pointers or iterators you obtained prior to resizing, as those would have become invalid.

A: See the description of vector::resize at
https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector/resize
It states: 'additional ... elements are appended'.
This, to my understanding of the verb 'to append', implies that permutations or positional moves of existing elements are not allowed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Constructing a field with exactly $81$ elements I was thinking $\frac{\mathbb{Z_3}[x]}{(x^3+x+1)} \times \frac{\mathbb{Z_3}[x]}{(x^3+x+1)}$.
$(x^3+x+1)$ is irreducible in $\mathbb{Z_3[x]}$ so the quotient will be a field, and a field cross a field looks like it should be a field to me!
How would I do this if working over $\mathbb{Z_9}$ and $\mathbb{Z_2}$? in $\mathbb{Z_9}$ i would have to find an irreducible quadratic, and then quotient out by that, correct? Thanks in advance!!

A: No you can't do $F \times F$ because $(a,0) \times (0,b) = (0,0)$ would break the field axioms.
You need to give an irreducible polynomial $P$ of degree $4$ over $\mathbb{Z}_3$ so you can give representatives of $\mathbb{Z}_3[x]/(P)$ by polynomials of degree $\leq 3$. The coefficients of $1$, $x$ $x^2$ and $x^3$ are free to choose so there are a total of $3^4$ elements of the field as desired.
Getting $P$ is more complicated. If you have a guess for an irreducible polynomial check it with Rabin's test

A: A field with $81$ elements must be the splitting field of $x^{81}-x$. It is also an extension of $\mathbb F_3$ of degree $4$. Therefore, take any irreducible quartic factor of $x^{81}-x$, for instance, $x^4+x+2$. WA tells you all of them.

A: Let's see.  What are the irreducible quadratics:  $x^2+x+2\,,x^2+2x+2\,,x^2+1$.
I count $3$ (thanks @Lubin).
So, there are ${3\choose 2}+3=6$ combinations to check.
These are the $6$ quartics I get:  $x^4+1\,,x^4+x^3+x+1\,,x^4+2x^3+2x+2 \,,x^4+2x^3+x^2+x+1\,,x^4+x^3+x^2+2x+1\,,x^4+2x^2+1$.
But there are $2\cdot 3^4=162$ quartics to choose from... $81$ of them monic.
So, if I choose a quartic that doesn't have a root and isn't among the $6$ products, it will be irreducible.
So, how about $x^4+2x^3+2$?
Finally, $\mathbb F_{3^4}\cong\frac{\mathbb Z_3[X]}{x^4+2x^3+2}$.

A: If you don't want to mess around with finding an irreducible quartic, you could construct $\mathbb{F}_{81}$ as the quotient of $\mathbb{F}_9[x]$ with a quadratic irreducible in $\mathbb{F}_9$. $\mathbb{F}_9$ can be constructed as the quotient of $\mathbb{F}_3[y]$ with a quadratic irreducible in $\mathbb{F}_3$, so you just have to find two different irreducible quadratics, which is easy since you just have to verify the quadratic has no roots in the field.
Expressing $\mathbb{F}_9\cong\mathbb{F}_3[y]/(y^2+1)$, one can check that $x^2+(y+1)$ has no roots in $\mathbb{F}_9$, so $\mathbb{F}_{81}\cong\mathbb{F}_9[x]/(x^2+y+1)$.


February 14/19: Phalanx for Queen Elizabeth Ahead of its first operational mission, Britain's HMS Queen Elizabeth was bolstered with the Phalanx 1B Weapon System. The Phalanx is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided gun that is able to defeat anti-ship missiles and other close-in threats on land and at sea.The 1B variant's configuration augments the Phalanx system's proven anti-air warfare capability by adding a forward-looking infrared sensor. It allows the system to be used against helicopters and high-speed surface craft at sea while the land-based version helps identify and confirm incoming dangers. Because of the Phalanx's distinctive barrel-shaped radome and its automated nature, it is sometimes known by the nickname R2-D2 – based on the Star Wars character. HMS Queen Elizabeth will boast three Phalanx 1B computer-controlled guns, which can empty a 1,550-round magazine at 4,500 rounds-per-minute.
Get to our trove of Phalanx materials by becoming a subscriber now. You will immediately gain access to our up-to-date close-in weapons system coverage, as well as all the deep reference materials we offer on all other defense programs.
You can get instant access to these materials ñ and all of our Defense Industry Insider content ñ by subscribing here.


therafateers.com Page 437 - 40 Best Of Paver Fire Pit Kit Ideas. 40 Beautiful Inground Fire Pit Kit Sets. 40 New Woodland Fire Pit Sets. diy paver fire pit area. paver gas fire pit kit. paver patio for fire pit.
Tags : paver fire pit cover. circular paver fire pit. paver base for fire pit. lowes paver fire pit. paver fire pit area. holland paver fire pit.
Tags : ground fire sprinkler. in ground fire pit surrounded by gravel. in ground fire pit ideas. in ground fire pit with seating. ground fire travel. ground fire cabinet.
Tags : woodland fire california. wildland fire jobs. woodland direct fire pit reviews. woodland park fire ban. woodland garage fire. woodland fire el dorado county.
Tags : propane fire water feature. propane fireplace used. propane fired kiln. propane fire table lowes. propane fire safety.
Tags : fire pit lowes. fire pit pans ontario. fire pit and grill. fire pit. fire pit natural gas burners canada. fire pit montreal. fire pit law in ponoka alberta.
Tags : metal fireplace handles. metal fires. metal fire extinguisher bracket. metal fire rings. metal fire starter. metal fire escapes hamilton. metal fire pit covers canada.
Tags : fire rating of concrete floor. fire ring ontario. fire in langley. fire in york region. fire in moncton. fire rating mckellar ontario.


text:
Ultra Thin Nappies
Classic Nappies
Learn more about our efforts to protect the environment.
At Premier Nappies, we are passionate about protecting the environment and we work hard to make our products as eco-friendly as possible.
Our ultra-thin nappies are fluffless, meaning they don't include any of the wood-based cellulose fibres used in standard nappies. This helps us to save millions of trees every year.
Premier Ultra-thin are manufactured using less chemicals, and the modern production method results in less waste and uses less power.
Because our ultra-thin nappies are half as thick as normal nappies, we can pack even more of them into each delivery, reducing our transport carbon footprint.
In addition the majority of Premier Nappies packaging is fully biodegradable thanks to Enzyme Technology. Naturally occurring plant enzymes are added to the PE film, making the plastic break down once in soil at ambient temperatures.
Ultra-thin Update
The Premier Nappies team has been making rapid progress towards…
http://premier-nappies.com/wp-content/uploads/pnNewsPic02.png 450 700 AboveaDmin http://premier-nappies.com.gridhosted.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LOGO4.png AboveaDmin2015-11-17 11:22:132015-11-17 17:12:43Ultra-thin Update
Five reasons why thinner is better
Our new ultra-thin nappies are less than half as thick as traditional…
http://premier-nappies.com/wp-content/uploads/pnNewsPic01.png 450 700 AboveaDmin http://premier-nappies.com.gridhosted.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LOGO4.png AboveaDmin2015-11-17 11:20:062015-11-17 17:12:54Five reasons why thinner is better
Copyright Premier-Nappies | Site by Above Digital


text:
Blacksburg Business Lawyers
Blacksburg Entertainment Law Attorneys
Find the right Entertainment attorney in Blacksburg, VA
Entertainment law is the package of services, containing contracts and copyrights, that is intended for pieces of entertainment like books, movies and visual arts. In the entertainment industry, safeguarding your work from being exploited or plagiarized by others is an imminent concern. To safeguard the intellectual property rights of artists, copyright and trademark laws are available to those working in Virginia.
A party holding a copyright can exclusively produce a given form of entertainment, requiring any others who want to use it to get consent first. When a copyright holder gives consent for others to use the protected material, it is called a license. A copyright holder in Virginia also has the exclusive privilege of selling all licenses for the price it chooses. Entertainment law controls whether you can get a copyright, how to apply for one, and how long it lasts once issued. A copyright will allow you to profit from licensing your material to others, or it may simply protect your rights in the piece of entertainment for the future.
How Can a Virginia Attorney Help?
Many lawyers in Blacksburg practice in entertainment law. They can give you particularized advice about whether you need a copyright or trademark, and they will also guide you in the process of securing these rights in Virginia.
Life in Blacksburg
Blacksburg is a town located in the county of Montgomery in Virginia. It is best known for being the home to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, or simply, "Virginia Tech". Due to the presence of the university, Blacksburg is an ideal site for high tech industry development.
Another feature of Blacksburg is the Virginia Tech Corporate Research center, which houses many companies including Honeywell and the National Weather Service. Radford University is also located nearby. Blacksburg's population is estimated to be about 41,000, which reflects the suburbanization of the area.
Noteworthy points of interest in the town of Blacksburg include Lyric Theatre, Armory Art Gallery, Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Hahn Horticulture Garden. The town hosts several festivals and parades throughout the year. Some of the more popular events include The International Street Fair Parade held every spring, and "Steppin' Out", which is a summer street festival showcasing local food, fun, talent and crafts.
Blacksburg lawyers are usually accommodated by the Montgomery General District Court. Lawyers in Blacksburg, Virginia with more advanced claims can file their cases at the Montgomery County Circuit Court. Montgomery County also has an extensive public library system, with a branch conveniently located in Blacksburg.
Blacksburg Breach of Contract Attorneys
Blacksburg Business Dispute Lawyers
Blacksburg Business Law Attorneys
Blacksburg Contract Review Lawyers
Blacksburg LLC Attorneys
Blacksburg Business Law Lawyer
Blacksburg Buying a Business Attorney
Blacksburg Contract Drafting Lawyer
Blacksburg Incorporation Attorneys
Blacksburg Selling a Business Lawyers
Entertainment Lawyers in Front Royal
Entertainment Lawyers in Farmville
Entertainment Lawyers in Luray
Entertainment Lawyers in South Boston
Entertainment Lawyers in Manassas
Entertainment Lawyers in Bluefield
Entertainment Lawyers in Warrenton
Entertainment Lawyers in Manassas Park


A mass deportation of White Sox fans from Wrigleyville is set to begin after Cubs owner Tom Ricketts signed an executive order to send them back to the South Side of Chicago.
"Sure, it may set me back a few hundred dollars, but as a true White Sox fan, no amount of money is too much to show my disdain for the Cubs," said Johnson.
The online world is preparing itself for a slew of uninspired and unoriginal jokes and memes to coincide with the beginning of this year's Crosstown Classic.
For the first time in years, baseball is the most relevant sport in Chicago on May 1. The Blackhawks have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, ending their season. This has led to some startling revelations for Hawks fans.
"Obviously we can't discus the status of a player who is currently under contract with another team." Theo Epstein said regarding Chris Sale's free agency in two seasons. "But there are obvious reasons why we would sign a 14-year-old and it wasn't to sign his .207 hitting father."
"Nothing but love and respect for you North Siders up there," commented one White Sox fan on a Cubs post filled with positivity and well-wishes for each other's respective teams. "You guys have a bright future loaded with young talent and state of the art plumbing facilities."


text:
Q: Product vs Series function of sine. I am trying to compare the accuracy of a finite series and product version of the $\sin(x)$ function.
I have $$\sin() =  \prod_{=1}^n \left[1 − \left(\frac{}{\pi}\right)^2\right]$$ for the product function. And, $$\sin() = \sum_{k=0}^n \frac{(−1)^\cdot ^{2+1}}{(2+1)!} $$
for the series function, where $n$ in both cases is a finite value.
I put these two functions in code and compared them to a calculators sine function. It seems like the series functions requires way less terms in order to reach simple accuracy to the calculators version. While the product, took many or close to infinite terms to reach an accuracy that satisfied close to the sine function.
My question is, why is this the case? Why is the product version of sine not as accurate in comparison to the series version. Or did I make a mistake, possibly in code?

A: For simplicity, Let $\,z=1\,$, and define:
$$
\begin{align}
&\, f_{\small p}(n) =\prod_{=1}^{n}\left(1−\frac{1}{\pi^2\,^2}\right) \quad\&\quad f_{\small s}(n) =\sum_{k=0}^n\frac{(−1)^}{(2+1)!} \\[2mm]
&\, \color{blue}{\Delta\,f_{\small p}(n)}=|f_{\small p}(n)-f_{\small p}(n-1)|=\frac{1}{\pi^2\,n^2}\,\prod_{=1}^{n-1}\left(1−\frac{1}{\pi^2\,^2}\right) \approx\color{blue}{\frac{1}{(\pi\,n)^2}} \\[2mm]
&\, \color{red}{\Delta\,f_{\small s}(n)}=|f_{\small s}(n)-f_{\small s}(n-1)|=\frac{1}{(2n+1)!} \approx\color{red}{\frac{1}{(2\,n)!}}
\end{align}
$$
If $\,n=10\,$, Then:
$$
\Delta\,f_{\small p}(10)=\frac{1}{(\pi\times10)^2}\approx\frac{1}{10^{3}} \quad\&\quad \Delta\,f_{\small s}(10)=\frac{1}{20!}\approx\frac{1}{10^{18}}
$$
Generally, the convergent speed of the sin product formula is of order $\,\mathcal{O}\left(1/N^{2}\right)\,$, which is away slower than the convergent speed of summation formula with order $\,\mathcal{O}\left(1/(2N)!\right)\,$.
$$
\begin{align}
\sin(1)\qquad &=\,0.8414709848078965 \qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad \\[2mm] \prod_{=1}^{10}\left(1−\frac{1}{\pi^2\,^2}\right) &=\,0.84\color{red}{9}6252504108276 \\ \sum_{k=0}^{10}\frac{(−1)^}{(2+1)!}\quad &= \, 0.841470984807896\color{red}{6}
\end{align}
$$


I am building a role for a controlling key-user who wants to be able to start many transactions in the SAP Easy Access menu (S000) as an alternate to using his role menu. So, in a seperate role I import the nodes on the menu tab via the import button "From SAP-Menu" into a "SAP Menu" folder and then deactivate all objects except for S_TCODE before generating it. This gives him the menu and the tcodes, but all the rest runs on his "real" job role.
... however we do not have any of these set and I can't see how they could influence this anyway.
2) The customer had made some own changes to S000 in SE43 (Area Menu Builder) some time ago. This is always suspect as a source of interference but I cannot see anywhere that reading the SAP-Menu considers this.
Has anyone seen this before and know a way to refresh the SAP-Menu in PFCG's "import from" screen?
An example is Accounting --> Project System --> Information System --> Financials . Everything from Financials onwards is not shown and cannot be selected.
The redundancy compression would cause symptoms which might look like the same issue for the end user, but in this case it is not because the node could already not be selected in PFCG by the admin, and not just in the session_manager.
A SPRO-project would not help here either, because the S000 area menü is not in SPRO... but otherwise, yes, building SPRO-roles from customizing projects is a similar approach to what I am doing here "manually" for the SAP Easy Access menu (S000).


Gene Sandoval is a Design Partner whose philosophy is based on fresh, holistic and socially responsible ideas that also respect aggressive budgets and schedules. For the last two decades at ZGF, he has been responsible for the design and design team leadership on architectural, urban design and interiors projects, ranging from academic buildings and corporate headquarters to regional transportation systems. He led the design of the Port of Portland Headquarters Office Building, the Twelve | West Mixed Use Building, which is home to ZGF's Portland office, and the University of Oregon John E. Jaqua Academic Center in Eugene. His other recent experience includes the University of Oregon Athletic Medicine Center in Eugene, the Eliot housing project in Portland, the Portland Transit Mall Revitalization, and stations for the Sound Transit Light Rail system in Seattle. Gene was honored as one of Portland's top "40 Under 40" business leaders by Oregon Business Magazine. He has a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon.


text:
Q: I want to show a empty message if one of my list fragment goes empty The empty text is showing even if the list is available .
I am tired finding the solution every where but nothing work for me
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<com.cervo.222.view.ViewSwitcher xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/container"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" >

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/item_container"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" >
    <TextView android:id="@android:id/empty"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="No Details found" />
</FrameLayout>
<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/view_container"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" />

</com.cervo.222.view.ViewSwitcher>

A: Try something like this.
Create 2 views. First view is a TextView with the empty list message . Keep this TextView hidden initially (Visibility GONE). Second view is your Listview. Keep it visible. IN your onCreate or any appropriate method is activity or Fragment when you find that there is  no data for List then make your ListView hidden and TextView visible.


text:
Q: How To change array structure to vector? the goal in the driver program is to Change the data structure that stores the membershipTypes from an array to a vector.
and to also declare an iterator i to index this array.
what i did so far i think is correct but when i try to cout the information i get no operator << matches this operand how do i fix my code?
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include "personType.h"
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    vector <membershipType> members; // vector of membershipTypes
    vector <membershipType>::iterator i; // iterator for the members vector
    string x, i1, i2;
    ifstream myfile;
    myfile.open("infile.txt");
    for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
    {
        myfile >> members[i].lastName >> members[i].firstName >> members[i].personNum >>
            members[i].personID >> members[i].address.streetAddressNum >>
            members[i].address.streetName >> members[i].address.streetType >> members[i].address.city >> members[i].address.stateInitials >> members[i].address.zipCode >> members[i].gender;
        myfile >> i1 >> i2;
        myfile >> members[i].membership_status;
        myfile >> members[i].membership_type;
        members[i].setInterest1(i1);
        members[i].setInterest2(i2);
        members[i].print_membership_type();
    }
    myfile.close();
    system("pause");

    return 0;

    for (vector<membershipType>::iterator i = members.begin(); i != members.end(); ++i)
    { cout << *i << endl; }
}


text:
221 North LaSalle Street Suite 1325 Chicago, IL 60601
info@wcapra.com
McAfee Pro Services
The Capra Difference
CAPRAplus
PAYMENTS+
RETAILSYSTEMS+
PETRO+
LOYALTY+
Conexxus: Solve Forward Takeaways
05/30/2019 by wcapra No comment(s)
The following has been re-posted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here.
It's not that you had to be there, but you should have been there. The 2019 Conexxus Annual Conference, held April 28 to May 2 in Nashville, Tenn., was compelling, action-oriented, and a step forward for the convenience store industry.
Gray Taylor, executive director of Conexxus, opened the conference with topics and themes that would be repeated, reinforcing their importance, throughout other presentations and the many discussions retailers were having. He outlined the future technology landscape saying it will empower "the fickle consumer," drive businesses to be in the "data business," make "innovation easier" with an API (Application Program Interfaces) architecture and create a new culture of thinking.
"Getting solution providers and retailers on the same page, through Conexxus, will allow the industry to move faster to deliver improved experiences for our customers and employees," said Jim Wenner, vice president, IT at Sheetz. There was record attendance, with over 200 attendees, at this year's conference.
But notably absent were consumer packaged goods companies who could have rounded out many discussions and provided support to the work being done on initiatives such as digital offers, which retailers are ready to implement, "but we need them," Taylor said.
Consumers Lead the Way
Lowes Supermarkets President, Tim Lowe, showed us how using what he calls "small data" to supplement big data led them to many non-technology based customer experiences that are making a big difference in reinventing Lowes. Rotisserie chicken sales increased significantly, some of it attributed to the social media experience they've had from their employees doing the chicken dance when the chicken comes out of the oven on YouTube. Small experiential data, such as looking into customer's pantries, helped them "rediscover how to stay relevant" and to find out how to meet consumers' unknown and unmet needs.
The importance of the consumer also came through during the IT Leaders Panel. Sorin Hilgen, chief technology officer at Cumberland Farms discussed how as teams work on innovation projects as simple as loading a coin dispenser to improvements in their well-established SmartPay app, "guests" and their "higher expectations" are always kept in mind. Circle K's vice president of IT for North America, Ed Dzadovsky, shared a lesson learned from his time at McDonald's where the customer had been forgotten and now as he looks to bring about digital transformation to Circle K the customer is front and center.
Time to Move Forward
The retailer message could not have been clearer — it's time for change and to move the industry forward using the Conexxus standards as a strong foundation for the opportunities that an API ecosystem will bring about. Blain Lefort, senior director – enterprise systems and acquisition at Circle K, led a panel discussion where innovative vendors outlined how the use of API's should, according to Gunter Pfau of Stuzo, allow solution providers to "rapidly deliver unique and effective commerce programs." Some of the opportunities that an API ecosystem will bring about include access to supplier programs, such as sales-based rebates; data enrichment from sources like the U.S. Census Bureau; and automated, intelligent outcomes in areas including inventory, labor and personalization.
Donna Perkins, pricebook manager at Calloway Oil, said that Conexxus standards provided Calloway Oil, as a small retailer, a level playing field and was assured by the panelists that no barriers are intended as API's are introduced.
David Ezell, director of new initiatives at Conexxus, outlined for the attendees the work with API's that has been completed and is planned including joint work with the IFSF (International Forecourt Standards Forum) and several retailers including Wenner of Sheetz who commented, "API's will show up in our enterprise within the year, and will be a key component of our strategy for the next 5-10 years."
Learning While Working
The value that retailers received from attending the conference rang clear when repeatedly, in separate conversations, I heard that both the high-level insight sessions along with the "in the weeds" work of the committees were educational and kept them engaged.
New business discussed in committees included development of standards for an intelligent cash drawer, digital transmission of site asset data from Underground Storage Tanks (UST), and an appropriate data model for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Each technical committee has also been tasked as part of the API initiative to review what it will take to convert existing NAXML standards.
The Data Security Committee held six education sessions throughout the week and discussed the upcoming release of White Paper and many upcoming webinars. The Retail Financial Transactions (RFT) Committee has kicked off work to prepare case studies of actual point-to-point encryption implementations.
During the Tech Research Committee meeting we learned, from Taylor, of an upcoming pilot test that is planned on digital offers as a result of new work Conexxus members have been doing and heard how a data-driven culture has got to be top of mind, "else you will experience failure." With significant progress on mobile payment standards the RFT – Mobile group asked themselves what other 'mobile' they need to be considering and came up with areas such as foodservice, self-checkout and electronic vehicle (EV) charging stations. The POS Back Office Committee asked for new members to join them as they look to expand the most often used standards into the foodservice area.
There was even more as Conexxus lived up to its "solve forward" tagline and really why you should have been there.
Ed Collupy is an executive consultant at W. Capra Consulting Group. Reach him at ecollupy@wcapra.com. Collupy has IT leadership and business team experience providing strategic, operational and project leadership to retailers, emerging businesses and technology companies.
Data Privacy and the Consumer Relationship
Friction in the Frictionless Journey
About the wcapra
W. Capra Consulting Group © 2022.


I am interested in 1650 S Fishcreek Point, Crystal River, FL 34429.
Commercially zoned 17+/ acres including boat ramp with 30+ parking spots provides direct gulf access! Marina building with sea wall, partial island, and additional land create high income potential for this property. A walking bridge connects the mainland to the island providing access to amazing fishing and existing concrete pads from past development. Main building has repair/workshop on east side and restaurant/bar/gift shop on west side. The land was originally being developed as an rv park complete with electrical/plumbing stub outs and commercial septic mound. Just a few minutes from scallop grounds and world class fishing including tarpon! County has authorized land for multiple uses. Please see attached document for complete list. Priced to sell. Call today for showing.


text:
Trending NowLindsey Graham NYC Coronavirus DC Inauguration Joe Biden 2020 Hannity Mike Pence CNN AOC Media
KENNEDY: GOP Trying to Understand Pelosi's $3T Bill But Can't 'Get Our Heads That Far Up Our Rear Ends'
Senator John Kennedy ripped the Democrats' $3 trillion spending wish list on Fox News this week; saying Republicans have tried to see it from Speaker Pelosi's "point of view" but they "can't get their heads that far up their rear ends."
"It's $3 trillion. It's not going to pass the Senate, nor should it. My fellow Republicans in the Senate have tried to see things from the Speaker's point of view, but we can't get our heads that far up our rear ends," said Kennedy.
"I think any fair-minded American would agree once they read the bill," he added.
Watch the Senator's comments above.
HANNITY: Democrats Have No Shame, Sheltering in 'Mansions' While Crafting $3 Trillion in More Spending
Speaking during his opening monologue on 'Hannity' Tuesday night, Sean ripped Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest spending package; saying the top Democrat has "no shame" during the country's fight against Coronavirus.
"Speaker Pelosi represents everything that's wrong with the Washington Swamp… Sheltering in multi-million-dollar mansions and gated communities. It turns out they were creating a 347,000 word wish list filled with $3 trillion in more spending," said Hannity.
"Despite calling it a CoVID relief bill, most of it has zero to do with the pandemic… Nancy Pelosi has no shame," he added.
Watch Hannity's opening monologue above.
KENNEDY on HANNITY: Pelosi's $3 TRILLION Bill is 'Dead as Fried Chicken in the Senate'
Senator John Kennedy stopped-by 'Hannity' Tuesday night to weigh-in on Speaker Pelosi's latest stimulus package; calling the $3 trillion proposal "dead as fried chicken" when it reaches the Senate.
"Senator, I don't want anyone else to die. I don't want anyone else to get sick. But we did learn from workers that didn't get sick, they wore masks and gloves," said Hannity.
"None of us want anyone to die. I don't think any of us want to see permanent damage done to our economy," said Sen. Kennedy. "That's why I'm so disappointed in Speaker Pelosi's bill… It's not a serious effort to legislate. It's dead as fried chicken in the Senate."
Watch Kennedy on 'Hannity' above.
GYM SAYS 'ENOUGH': NJ Gym Defies Governor's Order, Opens for Business, Says 'We Will Not Stand Down'
HANNITY: Democrats' Snap Impeachment Detrimental to the Presidency and Our Country
UK CLOSES: Britain to Close 'ALL TRAVEL CORRIDORS' into Country to Stop CoVID Strain
NEWSWEEK: Study Shows 'CoVID Lockdowns Have No Clear Benefit' Compared to 'Voluntary Measures'
BIDEN: I'm 'Asking Everyone to Pay Their Fair Share at the Top' So We Can 'Rebuild America'
WATCH: Ami Horowitz Hits the Streets of NYC to See if Democrats Are 'Really Ready to Compromise'


text:
Tag: identity
Why I Don't Buy the Arguments to Vote for Kavanaugh
On October 6, 2018 October 7, 2018 By BrettIn identity, Media, Politics, Pop culture, Psychology, rhetoric, societyLeave a comment
This afternoon, the Senate–after weeks of rancor and the bathetic hem-hawing of folks like Flake–will vote in Kavanaugh as the Ninth Justice of the current Supreme Court. I should technically say that they "likely" or "all-but-certainly" will, but precision devalues the sheer force pushing confirmation. So, unless God himself smites the Capitol Monty-Python style, hello Chief Justice Kavanaugh.
I haven't written here in a while, though I have been meaning to, and perhaps those now-unfinished posts may make their way up here. But like many, the Kavanaugh confirmation, long-since troublesome, has consumed my thinking the past two weeks after Ford's accusations and subsequent testimony. Considered a referendum on the #MeToo movement, the debate over Kavanaugh certainly represents a crucible-rupturing focus on gender politics in an already fraught era. It has also brought up issues of judicial impartiality and temperment, the institutional credibility of the court, and the stability of centrist and liberal provisions eked out over the past decades.
All of these are important conversations, as are the testimonies of Ford and Kavanaugh, the political background of Kavanaugh, the procedural issues of the confirmation, the veracity of his two other accusers, and many more issues. However, I mainly want to focus on the arguments of those in favor of the Kavanaugh vote, as I see them.
I want to take these at face value, though I suspect like so much in this era, they lack the sincerity of their delivery. I do this knowing that it makes no difference. Having called public servants, donated to causes, talked with friends, and gone to protests–done all in my current power, in other words–I feel that it may at-best be an intellectual exercise. Nevertheless, as a teacher and student of rhetoric, I think it's important to look at the arguments that govern major political and policy decisions and define our country for our lifetimes and beyond.
As such, I see three main arguments, summarized and addressed below. And, yes, I am biased. I do not want Kavanaugh, but being biased does not preclude academic fairness. And frankly, I don't think these arguments deserve that fairness, but many Americans (cough, Republicans) support him, so here we go.
Continue reading "Why I Don't Buy the Arguments to Vote for Kavanaugh" →
CCR 633: Transformers 2016, Rise of the Algorithms
On December 1, 2016 February 2, 2017 By BrettIn digital humanities, identity, rhetoric, Rhetoric of Technology, social media research2 Comments
Walking to my car today, I was thinking of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, particularly his idea of the "thing-in-itself." Trying to reconcile the rationalism of Leibniz and Descartes with the empiricism of David Hume, Kant cut a line between the phenomena of our experience and noumena of the thing-in-itself, of what reality is outside of our experience.
For Kant, we cannot gain empirical knowledge without our own cognitive filters. We can never actually experience reality in-itself, so we cannot actually "know" the world, except through self-evident a priori analytic judgements.
I've never left that dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity, between our experience and what "is" outside our a priori glasses. And as time went on, the layers of separation added up. Our senses. Our cognitive biases. Mediators, like my own glasses. Language. Culture and normative hubris. Geography. People around me. Prior readings and the general assemblage that constitutes "me," or the signifiers and self I identify as. All filters. All filter bubbles.
As Daniel Estrada writes, "in a very deep sense, you are your bubble. The process of constructing a social identity is identical to the process of deciding how to act, which is identical again to the process of filtering and interpreting your world." While I would argue that identity is more than "the process of deciding how to act," a point that I reckon Estrada would likely recognize, I think it definitely plays a central role. Sartre put it best: "We are our choices." Our choices have echoes, and sometimes those echoes etch our being–or how others view our being, which Sartre also argues.
But what I like about Estrada, is that the key is not the act itself, but the "deciding," the cognitive pathways and heuristics–conscious or unconscious, affective or analytic, cultural and idiosyncratic–that form our actions. And at some level this deciding reflects our worldview, or prejudices, and the information we use to understand and then act in the world.
And here, things get interesting–at least for me. As Estrada goes on, "Thus, any constraints imposed on your filter are also constraints on your possibilities for action, constraints on the freedom of your decisions and the construction of your world. If you are your bubble, then any attempt to control or manipulate your bubble is likewise an attempt to control you." While for Kant, the self is largely insular, cognitive, sensory, and self-contained. Expressing such a view of self, Emerson, a foundation to our own American sense of self (and "self-relience") describes it bluntly: "the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, NATURE."
But, as thinkers continue to argue, from a Buddhist metaphysics of emptiness and many Native American epistomologies (and axiologies), to Diane Davis in Inessential Solidarity and Thomas Rickert in Ambient Rhetoric, the self is more osmotic or relational. It is permeable and messy, bundled and blurry, oozy and diffuse, yet localized by language and materiality.
And here come the algorithms. These too, if you want to go this way, are part of us, and so is the digital pathways they "co-author" from our metadata (to draw from Jessica Reyman). To use Kant's term, this digital world informs–or possibly is–our phenomenological experience and the self that this experience informs. And as both Reyman and Estrada point to, we don't really own, or fully understand, these algorithms. As Eusong Kim has argued about trending, "We don't know why something trends. The algorithm is a locked secret, a "black box" (to the point where MIT professors have built algorithms attempting to predict trending tags). The Fineprint: Trending is visibility granted by a closed, private corporation and their proprietary algorithms."
And, to make matters worse, as Brock and Shepherd argue, these algorithms are persuasive, constituting "procedural enthymemes," drawing from Aristotle's enthymeme, a syllogistic argument finished by the audience. It requires audience participation, as Bogost argues in Persuasive Gaming and Richard Colby argues in his work in composition, saying it creates a "rhetorical situation." But the procedure still influences, as these scholars point out, both in games and other digital and non-digital systems. There is this odd hybrid between human and nonhuman, what Tom Friedman in his view of digital games (extended by Alexander Galloway) calls "cyborg consciousness," in which the player learns to think with the algorithm. But here, the player may not be aware how the algorithm is influencing their thinking.
And I think this leads me to three key points, which I end on. First, I would argue that these filters and filter bubbles are rarely a one-shot argument; they exhibit ontological rhetoric–or at least heftily influence what we see as "reality" or how we work through "reality." To use Burk's terms, they inform our identification and terministic screens. Second, it's not just algorithms, but people, mainstream media, interactions, upbringing, etc.,–our filter bubble online and offline–that we co-create with other actants, with varying level of control and agency. Believing we were somehow less permeable before social media feels wrong to me; though we didn't have the same procedural influences.
And finally, I really don't think we can improve without heavily challenging this propensity to think phenomenological experience is the noumenal world–and that this phenomonlogical experience is based on individual, non-relational agency. Or at the very least, we need to challenge the idea that one must impose one's phenomena on others.
In particular, I think this cuts two ways. On the one hand, this involves people trying to force people into certain ways of being, regardless of their own agency–what Lévinas termed "totalizing." And here we have the destructive role of identity politics, which Trump's rhetoric and neoconservative policy (I think) have capitalized on: enacting an ideology and identity so much that you feel need to threaten the identity of others at a material, ontological level.
It also cuts the other way. Here, I move back to Kant and his "Miscarriage of all Philosophical Trials in Theodicy," in which he argues that once you abandon certain modes of verifying knowledge and regulating discussion (rules of discourse and epistemology), such a discussion becomes pointless. It's like playing a game. If I play by the rules and you do not, we can't play. And as Bakhtin argues, dialogue cuts both ways. If we are in different realities, phenomenologically speaking, we can't do anything.
As Burke argues in "The Rhetoric of Hitler's Battle," when a religious rhetoric gets corrupted, it is one of the most damaging, as people lack a certain self-reflexivity. They believe on faith or on belief. And even more dangerously they may think that belief is universal–and needs enforcing. And, maybe somewhat paradoxically or provocatively, algorithms have the most blind faith of any rhetorical actant: their programming.
[Featured image: Robot! by Crystal, via Creative Commons]
CCR 633: Multimodality, Part 2
On November 16, 2016 By BrettIn composition, fanfiction, Rhetoric of TechnologyLeave a comment
Chapter three begins with the "prosumer," an idea that Alexander and Rhodes borrow from Daniel Anderson. The "prosumer," they describe, is "a convergence of the consumer and the professional in terms of new media tools" (106). Many new media tools allow consumers, formerly just receivers, to produce products, thereby acting as professionals. This, in turn, allows a more critical focus on production, as it is no longer black-boxed behind the usual channels, but in the hands of the consumer.
This similar idea–that of consumer as professional or producer–also connects with the Situationalist notion of "détournement," a form of "pillaging or appropriation," as Frances Stracey describes (qtd. in Alexander and Rhodes 112). The Situationalists argued that capitalism had the constant need to project a "spectacle" of needs that inspire consumers to thirst after products, so people should critically produce to counter this.
Alexander and Rhodes connect these ideas to current DIY movements, but emphasize the "critical" dimension of this production. In other words, it's not simply enough to be critical, in a humanities sense, or to produce; one must use production in a critical way, engaging in multimodal production through new media tools. They provide the example of images that grew in "excess" from their work that argue their work or ethos as "queer rhetoric" scholars in different ways.
Continue reading "CCR 633: Multimodality, Part 2" →
ENG 730: The Game and Immersive Narrative
On October 16, 2016 By BrettIn game studiesLeave a comment
Watching The Game, I kept thinking of Kafka. In many of his stories, Kafka presents this looming network that always recedes as the protagonist gets closer to solving it. I think A Messenger from the Emperor puts it best:
"he is still forcing his way through the chambers of the innermost palace; never will he overcome them; and were he to succeed at this, nothing would be gained: he would have to fight his way down the steps; and were he to succeed at this, nothing would be gained: he would have to cross the courtyard and, after the courtyard, the second enclosing outer palace, and again stairways and courtyards, and again a palace, and so on through thousands of years. . .
In The Game, Nicholas, much like many of Kafka's characters, must navigate the ever-withdrawing, seemingly omnipotent CRS. Things escalate as he goes forward, almost to an absurd degree. And at the end, instead of closure of catharsis, we get this bizarre party. As John notes, no one seems to recognize the emotional turmoil that Nicholas endured, revisiting the suicide of his father, shooting and thinking he killed his brother, and attempting suicide himself, only to stumble into a room of friends and strangers who only moments ago–he thought–were trying to kill him.
I guess my frustration stemmed from the notion of immersion and boarders that Murray discusses. As Murray writes, "Part of the early work in any medium is the exploration of border between the representational world and the actual world" (103). When immersed, much like the Holodeck example from the beginning of the book, one is caught up in a procedural, participatory medium, as Murray describes. But as she also notes, this participation is "a visit," and we must often "actively create belief" (110). There is a border, in other words, between the illusion and the larger world in which that illusion sits. This larger world may have its own hyperreal characteristics, but it is nonetheless distinct–or seems to be.
But the blurring of that border is what seems to make The Game and The Grasshopper examples so haunting. As John notes, Nicholas ends up no longer really playing in a way, as he thinks that he is actively fighting a real entity. For example, toward the end, the ontology of the gun is ambiguous: in the actual world, it's a prop; in the representational world, it's a gun. But for Nicholas, the representational world has become the actual world. The game, and all of its trappings, has become his new reality, including the gun. And, as many others have noted, the "voluntary" element of Nicholas' participation feels murky, making this "game" all the more problematic.
Connecting it back to Kafka, I think the reason why The Trial is so haunting is that the legal system has left its boundaries. To draw from Huizinga, the court has flooded outside its magic circle and has become an existential way of life. K is guilty without his consent, and forced to solve the maze of "state sanctioned violence" as Murray calls it (131), as himself, not a player version of himself.
In a similar note, The Game shows this haunting Grasshopper-like dystopia where the representational aspect of play has permeated and supplanted actual life. But, the game ends, and this is the strangest part. As Murray points out, digital mediums have a more ambiguous ending, often created by their interactive aspect. They often end through exhaustion and not a linear progression. The same could be said for the movie.
The doctor/actor jokes at the end, for example, that if Nicholas didn't jump, he'd have to throw him. This raises the question on how prescriptive the game was. Jordan points out that the game maybe was not that interactive, and indeed, it's hard to see how the game wasn't pulling all the strings, giving CRS an almost deterministic quality that feels godlike, all driving toward this "ending." Were there alternative endings? What if, for example, Nicholas didn't drink the tea? What if he didn't get the gun from his house? What other rhizomes could he follow, and would those rhizomes still lead to that party in that way?
Much like K's demise in The Trial, the ending in The Game feels inevitable, and I wonder–since they lied to him before, including about him not being picked to enter the game in the first place–whether the game is really over. Once you turn life into a game, it doesn't feel easy to get out, and maybe Nick's blithe acceptance at the end is a sort of absurdist, nihilistic acceptance of the Grasshopper's wisdom. Worst birthday gift ever.
CCR 633: Handwriting and Withdrawal
On October 11, 2016 By BrettIn composition, disability rhetoric, disability studies, Rhetoric of TechnologyLeave a comment
One of the tensions in the reading, particular in Thorton, was the role that handwriting has between self, discipline, and social role. Early on, Thorton writes, "Faithful imitation of penmanship models-what teachers would call good handwriting-thereby signals conformity and ordinariness, while breaking all the penmanship rules, even to the point of illegibility, is a mark of individuality" (x). This immediately connects with some of the disciplining that Trithemius discusses in relation to scribe work. In both, a certain rigor and repetition, a discipline of the body and the "hand" takes place.
I think, then of writing's broader potential to discipline, like what McCruer discusses in composition's ability to "compose bodies" in "De-Composition" (2008) or even in formal rubrics, genre conventions, curricula, the Harvard rhetoric requirement, and pre-set forms, like the five paragraph theme. This capacity that rhetoric and writing has to conform and prescribe has along history, as Thorton points out.
But, in slightly different sense, writing also created or highlighted larger social identity, and in this way it also polices or defines. For example, as Thorton points out, business, itself a core catalyst to writing instruction (p. 6), prescribed more clerk-like ways of writing, rejecting the flourishes of more gentlemanly backgrounds. Writing was also gendered, with many "feminine" scripts designed to take longer and exhibit "fair" qualities. As Thorton writes, "mercantile advice books urged men of commerce to shun penmanship refinements appropriate for gentlemen in favor of a straightforward 'Clerk-like Manner of Writing.' And where men might be urged to cultivate a 'good' or 'fine' hand, Women were urged to cultivate 'fair' one" (37).
And through this quality, handwriting, seemed to exhibit a sort of self-expressive quality, growing from social identities. As Thorton writes, "As each human being performs a socially differentiated part, so is each given a different 'script.' Conversely, by reading that script for its social information one could learn all there was to know about the writer. Here at last was a sincere medium of selfhood" (37). Hand writing analysis and associations with different scripts connected the self (albeit a socialized self) to the script, presenting a certain window of expression.
But once again, the movement to "automatic handwriting" and related systems of standardization, like the Palmer method, disciplines expression, but through a certain systematized erasure. By making writing more standardized and less idiosyncratic–whether justified through "science" or a sort of "lore"–one is essentially erasing the body, or trying to. This erasure or withdrawing is particularly bad for embodied backgrounds that do not fit the standard, like lefties, people with disabilities, or those with less training and resources. It is a sort of gate-keeping, but one that erects its gates by assuming writing a certain way is a type of present-for-hand skill and not a complicated, socialized, embodied action.
With this, I often think of a quote by Nirma Erevelles about special education that has been following–or rather haunting–since last semester: "Haunting these policy discourses is the existence of an absent presence. There are no bodies recognized here. Just test statistics. Research-based outcomes. . . In the stolid precision of statistical measurement and evidence-based research, the introduction of bodies to the discussion is a dangerous and messy act. Bodies have history. Bodies transform in context. Bodies are mobile. Bodies are unpredictable." (Disability and Difference). In other words, as the body withdraws from systematization, quantification, and abstraction–as it often does–what bodies and what people get left behind?
And though handwriting is still "a thing" as they say, something that we discuss and learn and use, I am curious about the same disciplining, social-signifying, and withdrawal (in a Heideggarian sense) that takes place in today's context through digital print or new media.
ENG 730: Player Experience, Identification, and Identity
On September 25, 2016 By BrettIn game studies, rhetoricLeave a comment
I feel that Roger Caillois, in some ways, offers a helpful rejoinder to some questions (or critiques) to Huizinga from last class through his focus on "games." While Huizinga seemed more concerned with a broader concept of play, Caillois seemed to take a more more grounded approach. As Caillois says early on, "[Huizinga's] work is not a study of games, but an inquiry into the creative quality of the play principle in the domain of culture" (4).
In particular, I thought Caillois taxonomy of games proved helpful, particularly as it further acknowledged the hybrid mixes that could take place within the terms. As he lays them out: "I am proposing a division into four main rubrics, depending upon whether, in the games under consideration, the role of competition, chance, simulation, or vertigo is dominant. I call these agon, alea, mimicry, and ilinx, respectively" (12). To this "rubric" he adds a further axis between the more open play of paidia (a tem Huizinga also takes up in tension with agôn) and the more structured ludus.
Continue reading "ENG 730: Player Experience, Identification, and Identity" →
CCR 711: Bodies, Subjectivities, and Being
On April 5, 2016 By BrettIn disability rhetoric, disability studiesLeave a comment
As Nirmala Erevelles writes in her article, "it is the 'ideology of disability' which has been used to justify the sexual division of labor that constructed gender as a political and economic concept, the production of class/caste differences. . . the production of racial categories. . . and the upholding of compulsory heterosexuality" (104).
In other words, at different historical times and spaces, different bodies have been disabled. During colonialism, slavery disabled African bodies, for example And more broadly, disability connects to the surplus of labor inherent to the system, as such subjects lack the ability to "produce" or labor in the capitalist economy. This excludes them from the role of producer and consumer, erased into surplus and further marked as disabled.
This sort of historical materialist grounding helped guide more post-structuralist and post-human theories in Erevelles' account, I thought, the section on cyborgs being particularly clear. Initially, the promises of hybrid and human, technological and flesh, and the different assemblage-based bodies afforded in this paradigm seems ideal for people with disability. But such a paradigm still has divisions among social classes, with many of these bodies out of reach for most. Moreover, the production and technology needed for these cyborg bodies often arises from capitalist labor and the hierarchies that follow with that, a material reality often missed by theorists.
Thus. as Erevelles writes, "By locating their emancipatory practices within the space of the social imaginary, as opposed to the actual materiality of of economic conditions, poststructuralists continue to uphold a utopic vision of emancipation" (98-99).
Continue reading "CCR 711: Bodies, Subjectivities, and Being" →
CCR 611: Discussing Remedial Writing
On April 4, 2016 By BrettIn compositionLeave a comment
I'm not sure what to take away from the readings. Perhaps that's the byproduct of my own frazzled ontology as of late, but I also think part of the difficulty arises from the complex, fraught nature of the debate.
Kynard, I think, presents the most dynamic critique. By redrawing the history, she presents a completely new insight, approach, perspective, tear in the curtain. As she says:
"When I stopped looking for black folk in basic writing scholarship and in the history of open admissions and instead placed basic writing scholarship and open admissions into the already existing history of African American education and literacy, lo and behold, I got a whole different kind of story" (189).
And indeed, that story was different. Protest, tension, ransacked offices, Jim Crow and bodily danger at the heart of literacy. The voice of student. The bodies of student. The structures–both physical and conceptual–making walls and red lines. The pilling up of de jure and de facto discrimination. The hard-fought challenges. And Kynard goes on to vocalize an approach:
"The issue here then is not to insert black teachers into the basic writing paradigm, but to deliberately see black compositionists' practices, research, politics, and discourses inside of the much longer standing protest tradition of black teaching" (189).
In other words, this "whole different kind of story" needs to keep going, not just in the way composition constructs or tells history, but in how it in enacts it. In how it makes history. How it orients itself.
In other words, composition has a lot to think about.
Continue reading "CCR 611: Discussing Remedial Writing" →
CCR 711: Bodies and Webbed Worlds
On February 23, 2016 By BrettIn disability rhetoric, disability studies, embodied rhetoric, identityLeave a comment
Reading Kristen Lindgren's "Bodies in Trouble," I kept coming back to Heidegger's distinction between "present-at-hand" and "ready-for-hand." In Being and Time, Heidegger argues that people tend to encounter objects as ready-for-hand, meaning that we encounter them based on what they do or how we use them. He uses the example of the hammer. We encounter and look at hammers as a tool to "hammer," not as an abstract object in itself.
Moreover, he argues, this object-defining function is grounded in a "world" of interrelations and definitions that help constitute "being-in-the-world." For example, one couldn't hammer without nails and boards, and one couldn't build a house without the concept of "house," and one may not need to make a house without nature's capacity to storm. A world of relation webs out from this hammer, contextualizing its being.
But when ready-to-hand, the world of these interrelations and the hammer as an object recedes into the background and one sets to work.
This all changes once the hammer breaks. Suddenly it can no longer "hammer," and it becomes an alien object in our hands, forcing us to reflect on what it "is." This approaches Heidegger's present-at-hand, when we look at an object in a more abstract, property-oriented way, like a scientist or theorist. In particular, Heidegger wants to critique the Cartesian tradition of looking at objects in abstract ways, outside of their more fundamental being as objects in the world, closely involved with our being.
But I've always been stuck on the breaking of the hammer.
Continue reading "CCR 711: Bodies and Webbed Worlds" →
On February 16, 2016 By BrettIn disability rhetoricLeave a comment
Dolmage's recognition of the hidden body in rhetoric (and philosophy) proves a powerful starting point of critique, particularly considering his point that many ancient texts were quite obsessed with the body. For example, Socrates and Plato actively attacked the lustful qualities of the body. Continuing this, Augustine marked the potent marriage between the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus with Judeo-Christian dogma, giving a particularly powerful foundation to embodiment in the Western tradition.
Here, I think Nietzsche is particularly helpful, as he is incessantly asking one to return to the body. He also critiques the potential disembodied "view from nowhere" (as Nagel calls it) that this distance from body and experience may create. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, for example, Nietzsche critiques objectivism's quest for "immaculate perception," mocking science's goal of passively lying before objects "as a mirror with a hundred facets."
In pursuit of this immaculate perception and its rhetorical extension of immaculate communication, any unusual, distracting, or problematic body would be unwanted. So starting from the opposite end, as Dolmage does, in grounding rhetoric in the body, one must look at rhetoric in a more embodied, complex enterprise.
Continue reading "Metis" →


text:
Q: phoneFieldChanged' is inaccessible due to 'internal' protection level 'phoneFieldChanged' is inaccessible due to 'internal' protection level

A: The error message is surprisingly descriptive here. Take a look at PhoneVerificationController definition. Most probably phoneNumberField property is specified with internal access level, which means it is accessible only within module where it is defined and most probably this is a 3rd party dependency since it's not accessible in your source code.
To solve this error you can:

*

*Change access level to public

*Take a closer look at documentation of PhoneVerificationController and find out which public API it has to address your specific use-case


GPS tracking info would be helpful. When we get an emergency call we try to see which tech is the closest to the site.
Add Direct Draft as a Payment Option!
We use Auth.net for one time or subscription ACH payments. Auth.net ACH transaction fee is half if not a third of processing a CC.
1. Would be nice to have time worked by technician versus time logged into tickets.
2. We do not compare tech performance based on invoiced time or products sold since most of our clients are on monthly recurring contracts. We do want to make sure that techs are not taking a long time to address the tickets.
3. Would like to see average ticket time per tech, average time before closing ticket, average tickets closed per day. I want this info on the tech "dashboard" so they see where they are at compared to last week or last month.
We have field techs that can go out of town for installations. This would make it easier for them to clock in and out.
Would be nice if the FreePBX integration would link to customer contacts. At the moment the FreePBX only links Customer phone numbers.
Integrate google maps route planning.
Our current system allows us to map all work orders so we can group them more efficiently. The system doesn't suggest a route, but at least allows us to see all service calls in an area and we can divide it up the best way possible.
Techs were just asking about this feature. They can punch in from their workstation, but they can't punch out if they are out in the field and are taking a lunch.
I just sen an email about this. We carry inventory on each service vehicle. It would be nice if the techs takes inventory from their service vehicle to add it to a ticket they are working on the vehicle inventory would reflect that. We can transfer inventory from office to each vehicle. We usually replenish the vehicles inventory on a weekly bases. Would be nice to have a report we can print out that would show what inventory needs to be replenished. We would also like to do a quick stock take once a month or so and look for any inventory discrepancies.
We would like to record inventory levels for each service vehicle separate form the main office warehouse.
This would also help our company. Our service vehicles carry inventory which we take on a weekly bases. I would be very helpful if we would know if the van heading to a site has part XYZ for a non-related service call in the same area.
3. Assets - since we have assets, it would be AWESOME if they were somehow linked to an existing unattended access in screen connect. And even better... Poll screen connect for the sessions, and create assets in repairshopr with whatever screenconnect already knows. Then, when you assign an asset to a ticket, the screenconnect button would just connect you to the computer.
1. Have SC linked to an asset.
2. Have RepairShopr query SC for session stats to add into ticket.


text:
6341 S Carpenter Street
Chi - Englewood
Courtesy of: @properties Christie's International Real Estate
Incredible cash flowing all brick investment property to add to your portfolio. This is a 2-Flat plus a garden and all units are currently rented for a total of $3211/month. See MLS details for breakdown of rents. Garden unit features 1 bedroom and 1 bath, first and 2nd floor both have 3 bedrooms and 1 bath each. Property has been well maintained with over $65k in improvements all completed in 2022 including an all new rear porch, front porch, updated bathroom in garden unit, new furnaces for units 1 & 2, and coin operated washer/dryer. Photos shown include unit 2 and garden unit only. Unit 1 not shown. Perfect for out of state investors! Don't miss out on this awesome turn key rental opportunity!!!
Address: 6341 S Carpenter Street
Neighborhood: Chi - Englewood
Courtesy of: @properties Christie's International Real Estate Based on information submitted to the MRED as of date and time shown below. All data is obtained from various sources and has not been, and will not be, verified by broker or MRED. MRED supplied Open House information is subject to change without notice. All information should be independently reviewed and verified for accuracy. Properties may or may not be listed by the office/agent presenting the information. © 2022. http://www.mredllc.com/comms/resources/DMCA_Notice.pdf Updated: 28th January, 2023 3:23 AM (UTC)


The CS4361 is a 6-channel, audio digital/analog converter (DAC) that includes interpolation, on-chip digital de-emphasis, multi-bit D/A conversion and output analog filtering. The CS4361 supports all major data interface formats, operates from a single +3.3 V or +5 V power supply with a separate built-in level shifter for the digital interface to reduce support circuitry. Based on a fourth order multi-bit Delta Sigma modulator, the CS4361 features a linear analog low-pass filter, auto speed mode detection using both sample rate and master clock ratio as a method of auto-selecting sampling rates between 2 kHz and 200 kHz.


Speaking with journalists can be a powerful way to increase visibility both for you and for your institution. Learn about what reporters want when they're looking for an expert source; how to prepare for and respond to a reporter's questions; and what to expect when a media outlet publishes a story. We will also discuss how the college works with the university's media relations staff when opportunities for media coverage arise.
WHEN: Feb. 8 from 1-2 p.m.


A Prospective Study Guvenir H, Dibek Misirlioglu E, Civelek E. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2018;6(6):2043-2050.
Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) can cause hypersensitivity reactions during childhood. Studies report a wide clinical spectrum of reactions with AED use, ranging from a mild rash to severe cutaneous reactions.
To determine the prevalence and clinical features of AED hypersensitivity reactions during childhood.
Patients in our pediatric neurology clinic who were prescribed an AED for the first time between November 2015 and November 2016 were monitored and those who developed skin rash during this period were evaluated.
A total of 570 patients were evaluated. The median age of the patients was 8.86 (interquartile range, 4.2-13.7) years, and 55.8% (318) of patients were male. The most frequently used AEDs were valproic acid (42%, n = 285) and carbamazepine (20.4%, n = 116). Hypersensitivity reactions to AEDs developed in 5.4% of patients. Of these patients, 71% (29) had cutaneous drug reactions and 29% (9) had severe cutaneous drug reactions; 61.3% (19) were using aromatic AEDs, and the leading suspected AED was carbamazepine (45.2%). Comparison of patients who did and did not develop AED hypersensitivity showed that hypersensitivity was more frequent among patients who were younger than 12 years, who used aromatic AEDs, or who used multiple AEDs. In addition, according to regression analysis results, aromatic AED use significantly increased the risk of AED hypersensitivity ( P < .001).
Although allergic reactions to AEDs are rare, they are of significance because they can cause life-threatening severe cutaneous drug reactions. Therefore, patients receiving AEDs, especially aromatic AEDs, must be monitored closely.
An Analysis of the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System Borrelli EP, Lee EY, Descoteaux AM, Kogut SJ, Caffrey AR. Epilepsia. 2018;59(12):2318-2324.
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are rare and potentially fatal adverse skin reactions that are most commonly triggered by certain medications. One class of medications that has been highly associated with SJS/TEN reactions is antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). We sought to quantify the risk of SJS/TEN associated with AEDs as a class, as well as individual AEDs, in the United States.
An analysis was performed of the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System from July 2014 through December 2017. Rates of SJS/TEN were calculated for each AED compared with all other non-AEDs. Reporting odds ratios (RORs), proportional reporting ratios (PRRs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using OpenEpi.
With 198 reports, AEDs had more reports of SJS/TEN than any other medication class. The AEDs as a class had an ROR of 8.7 (95% CI, 7.5-10.2) and a PRR of 8.7 (95% CI, 7.5-10.2) compared with all other non-AEDs. The AEDs with the highest risk estimates were zonisamide (ROR, 70.2; 95% CI, 33.1-148.7; PRR, 68.7; 95% CI, 32.9-143.5), rufinamide (ROR, 60.0; 95% CI, 8.3-433.5; PRR, 58.9; 95% CI, 8.4-411.5), clorazepate (ROR, 56.0; 95% CI, 7.8-404.1; PRR, 55.1; 95% CI, 7.8-385.0), lamotrigine (ROR, 53.0; 95% CI, 43.2-64.9; PRR, 52.2; 95% CI, 42.7-63.7), phenytoin (ROR, 26.3; 95% CI, 15.5-44.7; PRR, 26.1; 95% CI, 15.4-44.2), and carbamazepine (ROR, 24.5; 95% CI, 16.0-37.5; PRR, 24.3; 95% CI, 16.0-37.1).
Although AEDs as a class were associated with 9 times the risk of SJS/TEN compared with non-AEDs, there were 6 AEDs with risk estimates greater than 20. Increased awareness of this risk among both prescribers and patients, particularly variations in risk among different AEDs, along with education on early recognition of SJS/TEN signs/symptoms, may help mitigate the number and severity of these adverse events.


text:
Here's the real 'mistake' Biden made in Afghanistan |
Here's the real 'mistake' Biden made in Afghanistan
President Joe Biden walks through the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, June 23, 2021, to the Oval Office.
(Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
Judd Legum is the editor of Popular Information, a publication focused on accountability in politics and business. He and two others posted a piece today in which they quote an unnamed "veteran communications professional who has been trying to place prominent voices supportive of the withdrawal on television and in print. The source said that it has been next to impossible."
I've been in political media for over two decades, and I have never experienced something like this. Not only can I not get people booked on shows, but I can't get TV bookers who frequently book my guests to give me a call back … In so many ways this feels like Iraq and 2003 all over again. The media has coalesced around a narrative, and any threat to that narrative needs to be shut out.
It may feel like 2003 again but it's not for obvious reasons. I do, however, think Legum's source underscores a point I have tried making this week about the press corps. It's not so much fact-gathering. We understand what happened during the fiasco at the Kabul airport during which desperate Afghans did desperate, deadly things. Instead, it's acting collectively like the spokesman for America's political elite.
Legum and the others go on to suggest that the reason "anti-war voices" are being boxed out of press coverage is because those with the most interest in perpetuating the American occupation of Afghanistan are unhappy that the war in ending and are using the president's "mistake" as proxy for criticizing his decision to end it.
That might be true, but I'm doubtful. I think it's more fundamental. Political elites knew the end was coming. They knew it was coming before Joe Biden was president. I'm confident they could have found some excuse for criticizing his plan to finish what the disgraced former president started. So I don't think ending the war is why "anti-war voices" are being boxed out of coverage of Afghanistan. I think this is more about the legitimacy and credibility of the political elites.
They failed. They failed badly. And they kept on failing badly for 20 years. Critics of the war said we should have gotten out after toppling the Taliban two decades ago. Others, like me, stopped paying attention to Afghanistan after the US assassinated the man responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those who really knew Afghanistan, however, also knew it was ungovernable. I was struck this week by something Noah Feldman said his dad told him in 2001. Feldman said "that even Afghans had never really run their country from the center. When my parents had been there in 1969, the king was effectively little more than the mayor of Kabul. My father remembered him driving around the putative capital city at the wheel of a Volkswagen Beetle.
On the road to Herat, my parents had encountered tribesmen who, my father recalled, were so unaware of the affairs of the country as a whole that they expressed no interest in the word "Afghanistan" — or maybe they had never heard the word at all.
"They expressed no interest in the word 'Afghanistan' — or maybe they had never heard the word at all." What does that tell you? Well, that a nation that doesn't think of itself as a nation is never going to behave as another nation, America, which thinks of itself as a nation, wants it to behave. It's just not going to happen. Perhaps the only way it would happen is if the US did to Afghanistan what it did to Japan, which is rebuilding it from the ground up after totally annihilating Japanese society. Then again, Imperial Japan had thought of itself as a nation.
I'm not telling you anything new. This was all debated at the time the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. It was pretty much forgotten about two years later. But while the rest of us were paying attention to the invasion of and growing quagmire in Iraq, elites who believed the US could do for Afghanistan what it did for Japan kept arguing, as Feldman articulated it, that we "had a fundamental interest, indeed a moral obligation, to succeed where others had failed." He added: "Instead of conceding to the return of warlords and dictators and the oppression of women, as we had traditionally done throughout the Muslim world, the time had come to embrace and enable democratic rule."
That's noble, but it assumes you can teach people to think of themselves as a nation in order to form a nation that would over time "embrace and enable democratic rule." You can't. Those people have to come to that conclusion on their own in their own way. That was unthinkable to political elites who rarely in their own personal lives encountered anything that could not be moved by money, force or will. That the American project failed and kept failing wasn't occasion to rethink it. It was occasion for pouring more on. After all, what was at stake was more than the US honoring its "fundamental interest, indeed a moral obligation, to succeed where others had failed." What was at stake was the credibility and legitimacy of America's political elite.
I think America's political elite — which, let's not forget, includes the Washington press corps, especially its military affairs correspondents — could have tolerated Biden's decision to end the war if the war's end had come quietly. It didn't, though, and there's the real problem.
Biden's "mistake" wasn't about when to evacuate, how many and where to? His "mistake" was "allowing" a situation to unfold that drew the attention of normal Americans to the fact that America's political elites failed and that 20 years of profound failure discredits them almost totally. The process of discrediting political elites started around the same time the occupation of Afghanistan began, that is, with the United States Supreme Court ruling in the case of Bush v Gore. What happened over the weekend put the face of human suffering on it.
I'll end by underscoring the president's other "mistake." He took the side of the American people. When it comes to war, the elites are not used to presidents doing that. A huge majority believes the disaster in Kabul is evidence for why we should leave, not evidence for why we should stay. There's no reversing that, however much influence the Washington press corps has on popular opinion. This isn't 2003. War isn't coming. It's going (for now). I think Biden understands the reputational anxieties of the elites. After all, he's one of them. But he's also saying, without saying obviously: Look, it's done. Get over it.
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan slams Pompeo for trying to 'rewrite history ... ›
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan blasts Bush administration for its 'many ... ›
The Bush administration made a catastrophic mistake in Afghanistan ... ›
Biden responds to the deadly bombing at the Kabul airport: 'We will not forgive. We will not forget.' - Alternet.org ›
Opinion | Abandoning Afghanistan Is a Historic Mistake - The New ... ›
What the Biden administration's narrative on Afghanistan gets wrong ›
Opinion | Afghanistan isn't Biden's first epic mistake - The ... ›
This article was paid for by AlterNet subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.
Conspiracism isn't a disease. It's a feature of America
'I certainly didn't report that': ABC host busts House Republican for inventing a story about Joe Biden
These MAGA 'antagonists' have major plans for the House Rules Committee: report