Dr. Paavo Airola, N.D., PhD: How to Keep Slim, Healthy and Young with Juice Fasting: The Age Old Way to a New You! (Health Plus Publishers, Oregon 1990). First published in 1971.
"Let me be your guide to a modern, scientific, health-restoring and rejuvenating miracle of juice fasting! Juice fasting not only accomplishes a physiological regeneration and revitalization of your body, but has a profound stimulating effect on your mind and mental facilities. It stimulates and sharpens mental and aesthetic perception and increases your spiritual awareness."
This is more of a summary and a collection of quotes from Dr. Paavo Airola's book, than a review. It is a concise, easy-to-read book full of useful information. Although the language comes across a little old, and perhaps some advise has been updated (e.g. juicing of raw potatoes is not recommended anymore!), this book is nevertheless a very useful and thorough guidebook on how to fast at home.
- "Rejuvenating, reducing and healing power of juices.
- What juices to use for specific conditions"
"Juice fasting" is a short book, 77 pages, but very inspiring and useful. The text comes across a little old-fashioned but on the other hand I sometimes like reading older books because often they seem a bit less corrupted by financial interests than some contemporary writing.
"Contrary to the popular notion, you don't get weakened or depleted by fasting; the opposite is true, particularly if you employ a juice fast. After juice fasting you will feel stronger and revitalized; your health condition will be markedly improved, your physical and mental working capacity will be increased. You not only will feel revitalized but also will look younger than before fasting. And this is not only because of lost pounds, but mostly because the fasting has such a profound rejuvenating effect on the functions of all the vital organs, including the functions of the all-important endocrine glands, which are so decidedly responsible for how young or how old you will feel and look."
Although the above seems life a lofty explanation of such a simple thing as a juice fast, I can say that from my own experience this is absolutely true. To put it in less abstract and religious terms, I felt much more happy, my heart was more at ease and I felt that my mind would come up with many inspiring thoughts when I took a moment to relax and hear my own thoughts. I also often (not all the time) noticed an 'enhanced' beauty of my surroundings.
I would like to comment here that following forums about fasting, I have noticed that some people experience prolonged and difficult detox symptoms as well as emotional problems, such as sadness and anger. Apart from possible emotional detox, which should, in my opinion, be fairly short-lived (not more than a day), I suspect that people who experienced these complications in their fasts were not taking enemas/ colonics and/ or perhaps included strong superfoods or supplements in the fast. I've heard of many who successfully include chlorella, spirulina and wheatgrass in their fasting juices but with many other superfoods I would recommend caution - and with all of them moderation. I know of at least two people who took superfoods while juice fasting... the first person started getting very angry, and the second became very sad. Both decided to quit the fast prematurely.
I do believe, however, that following Dr. Paavo Airola's advise it is possible for most people to feel good on a juice fast. Exceptions might be those with underlying illnesses and conditions, or those with allergies/ food sensitivities to some of the ingredients in the juices.
"1. During a prolonged fast (after the first three days), your body will live on its own substance. When it is deprived of the needed nutrition, particularly of the proteins and fats, your body will burn and digest its own tissues by the process of autolysis, or self-digestion. [...] ... your body will first decompose and burn those cells and tissues which are diseased, damaged, aged or dead. In fasting, your body feeds itself on the most impure and inferior materials, such as dead cells and morbid accumulations, tumors, abcesses, damaged tissues, fat deposits, etc."
"During the famous Swedish fast marches it was observed that the protein level of the blood (serum albumin reading) of fasting people remained constant and normal throughout the fasting period, in spite of the fact that no protein was consumed. The reason for this is that the proteins in your body are in a dynamic state; that is, they are changed from one state to another, being decomposed and resynthesized constantly and re-used for various needs within the body. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are not wasted, but are released from the decomposed cells and used again in the new-building of young, vital cells. (...) During fasting, the proteins needed for the new cell buildings are resynthesized from the decomposed cells."
"Dr. Karl-Otto Aly, M.D., one of the leading biologically-oriented doctors in Sweden, and one fo the participants of the fast marches, said: 'The march clearly showed that man can live for an extended period of time without food, even accomplish a hard physical effort while fasting... The general expressed feeling among participants was that they felt stronger and had more vigor and vitality after the fast than before it...'"
"If you fast according to the recommendations of this book on fresh fruit and vegetable juices and vegetable broth, plenty of exercise and daily enemas you are well protected from any real danger in this respect [in the respect of DDT, an insecticide, poisoning]."
Thank you Caribbean-guide.info for the image.
In addition to these, Dr. Paavo Airola's 'How to Keep Slim, Healthy and Young with Juice Fasting' contains, among other things, short instructions on how to prepare for fast, how to break a fast, how to take an enema, how to prepare potassium-rich vegetable broth, and recommended juices for specific conditions, e.g. carrot, tomato, celery and cabbage juice for stomach ulcers; and lemon, comfrey, garlic and horse radish juices for asthma.
"I have supervised both types of fasting and am thoroughly convinced of the superiority of juice fasting. Dr. Otto H. F. Buchinger, who has supervised more fasts than any other doctor (over 80,000 fasts), employs only juice fasting. He told me that, in his experience, fasting on the fresh raw juices of fruits and vegetables, plus vegetable broths and herb teas, results in much faster recovery from disease and more effective cleansing and rejuvenation of the tissues than does the traditional water fast."
"During fasting the body burns up and excretes huge amounts of accumulated wastes. We can help this cleansing process by drinking alkaline juices instead of water while fasting."
- Dr. Ragnar Berg, as quoted by Paavo Airola on page 40.
"The proponents of water fasting like to tell you that the juice fast is not a fast, it is a liquid diet. They misunderstand the therapeutic meaning of fasting. Any condition when your body is encouraged to initiate the process of autolysis, or self-digestion, is fasting. During juice fasting, when no solid foods, proteins or fats are consumed, your body will decompose and burn all the diseased and inferior protein and fat tissues, just as it does during a water fast. Juices are absorbed directly into the bloodstream without the usual process of digestion."
"I have studied various methods of fasting for several decades in several countries. My early teachers were two famous Swedish health pioneers Are Waerland and Ragnar Berg. I also studied fasting in Swedish clinics, especially those operated by Dr. Jern Hamberg and Dr. Lars-Eric Essen. Later, I visited famous fasting clinics in Germany and studied modern fasting methods with such giants of biological healing as Dr. H.F. Buchinger, Jr., Professor Werner Zabel, and many others. Dr. Otto H.F. Buchinger, Jr., M.D., is, perhaps, the greatest authority on fasting in the world."


text:
> YouTube is already big for kids, but it wants to be even bigger
YouTube is already big for kids, but it wants to be even bigger
YouTube has already emerged as an alternative to broadcast television for children, who are watching Minecraft tutorials, music videos and cartoons online in their tens of millions.
Now YouTube appears ready to take a bigger role in funding and curating children's shows on its service, recruiting a dedicated head of family entertainment and learning to work within its YouTube Originals division.
Ron Howard is the founder of Mercury Analytics, and an experienced entrepreneur, having been the founder, President and CEO of both private and public technology companies. He has a history of hands-on corporate leadership as employee # 1 at a number of new ventures to chief executive managing multi-hundred million dollar public and private companies.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Mirage 5.5 facilitates image management for enterprise organizations. It provides a variety of features that control layer updates, endpoint provisioning, and enable administrators to customize the Mirage system by using the Mirage API and Mirage PowerCLI.
You can delete Mirage layers by using the Mirage Web console even if the layers are assigned to active or archived CVDs.
Mirage preserves Static IP and DNS network configurations as part of OS migration, provisioning, or restore operations.
Microsoft Office layer conflict validations display the names of the conflicting components.
Mirage can manage endpoints protected by McAfee Data Loss Prevention Endpoint (DLP), for various operations, such as OS migration, provisioning, and restore and layer update.
Mirage uses MongoDB database for storing system data and small files. For recommended installation configurations see the VMware Mirage Installation Guide.
MongoDB database files are managed separately from Mirage volumes.
Administrators are notified when there is low disk space on the drive that MongoDB database is running on.
Drill down to view layer assignments for CVDs that are part of a collection or task.
Manage Mirage servers and Mirage Gateway servers.
When the first VSS scan fails, the branch reflector freezes on caching status.
When you upgrade the Horizon View agent with a Mirage base layer or app layers, the upgrade fails.
If the Mirage system is in the pending boot state and Windows updates installation begins, the layer verification phase does not start.
False validations for Microsoft Office architecture mixing blocks layer update or assignment procedures.
When a Mirage storage path contains non-ASCII characters, MongoDB restarts.
When User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, you cannot install a Mirage server or the Mirage Management console.
If you capture a base layer when the reference machine has pending Windows updates, Windows might fail.
When you perform a base layer procedure, the static IP address configured on the endpoint is not preserved.
When you try to delete a layer, you receive a warning that the layer is assigned to at least one CVD. The CVDs that have that layer assigned do not appear in the Layer Assignments view.
When you apply a download-only image assignment to a device while it is still downloading the assignment, the first download-only assignment appears as running although it is canceled.
When you perform a bare metal provisioning operation on a machine that is encrypted using BitLocker encryption, and use the default upload policy, the provisioning operation might fail.
When you move a CVD to another volume while the CVD is uploading, incremental upload temporary disk space is not removed from the volume.
The CVD Integrity Report fails when node content is "DATA".
The branch reflector experiences high memory consumption when downloading a base layer.
Frequent storage disconnects might cause MongoDB database to become corrupt.
Mirage service is locked by database deadlocks.
When you move a CVD to a different volume during an upload operation, the disk space that is consumed by a CVD is not cleared.
When you reinstall a Mirage Management server on a machine with a different name, MongoDB does not start.
You cannot run an SIS integrity scan on a system that has a single volume that contains system data.
Network providers are not correctly merged in layers.
Network filters are not set on the target machine as part of a layer update.
In rare cases, the Windows boot menu appears after an OS migration procedure or provisioning procedure completes.
Several columns are missing in the Layers tab in the Mirage management console.
The default domain join user account is not populated in the Endpoint Provisioning wizard for the Mirage Web console.
In rare cases, after completing an OS migration procedure, the Microsoft Word error Cannot create work file appears.
When restoring POSReady 2009 devices, missing driver validations appear.
The path C:\windows\temp contains multiple obsolete temporary files.
When you run the BuildMirageWinPE command with certain OS versions, the procedure fails.
When you run the BuildMirageWinPE command on the following operating system versions, the procedure fails.
Workaround: Do not use these operating systems to run the BuildMirageWinPE command.
New Safend Data Protection cannot be removed through a layer procedure.
New When the SQL server feature Always On is enabled, upgrading the Mirage Management server might fail.
New You cannot include applications with drivers in bare metal provisioning procedures.
You cannot deliver an app layer that has applications with drivers as part of bare metal endpoint provisioning.
New When using certain versions of Firefox, you cannot connect to the Mirage Web console.
New When you include a Horizon View client as part of an app layer, you cannot enable USB redirection.
New The Mirage Gateway server cannot bind with LDAP.
New SQL Server Reporting Services 2008R2 is not compatible with .NET 4.5.
New MongoDB database might cause Mirage Management servers to fail.
If the free disk space for the MongoDB database falls below 5%, the Mirage Management servers in the system might fail.
Workaround: See <insert link to KB article> for a solution.
New MongoDB database files might cause data integrity issues.
Workaround: Set the MongoDB database on a low latency, reliable storage path. VMware recommends setting the MongoDB database on a local drive or SAN.


MEEZA (M-VAULT 2) is located in the area Doha, Qatar (Dawlat Qa?ar), and the colocation data center is carrier neutral. The data center was last updated on 25-01-2017.
MEEZA M-VAULT 2 is the first MEGA data centre in Qatar, with Tier III certification, offering a guaranteed uptime of 99.98% built to comply with the most exacting international standards enabling businesses to benefit from greater efficiencies and reduce risks and it is the only LEED Platinum rated data centre in the MENA region, M-VALUT 2 offers the highest levels of sustainability and energy efficiency.


text:
Moraes Not Worried About Underdog Label, Vows To Beat DJ On TNT
Jay Furness
Adriano "Mikinho" Moraes is already one of the most successful World Champions to grace the ONE Championship Circle, but his next outing could cement his legacy in the world of mixed martial arts.
The Brazilian star will defend his ONE Flyweight World Title against Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson in the main event of "ONE on TNT I" on Wednesday, 7 April, and victory over the man many consider to be the greatest of all time would take "Mikinho" to new heights.
"For me, this is the best fight in the flyweight division in the world today," Moraes says.
"If you could have one flyweight in the world to fight against the legend — who can beat DJ in a good way — it's me. I believe that."
Johnson was the most dominant flyweight to ever fight in North America, earning 12 World Title bout victories during his time at the top. And he's gone 3-0 since his switch to ONE, claiming the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix Championship in the process.
But Moraes has won six World Title fights in The Home Of Martial Arts, ranking second behind only Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes in World Championship success on the global stage. Given all that experience, he's unfazed by his upcoming challenger's reputation.
"DJ is famous, but I don't care about that. I just try to focus on me, focus on my path, and do what I need to do to go there and have my hand raised," the 32-year-old Brazilian says.
"I was cheering for him to win the World Grand Prix [so I could] fight against him. You know his story — he was one of the best champions in one of the most famous organizations in the world.
"Of course, people are going to put me as the underdog, but I don't care. Everyone has their own story, and I just keep creating mine."
Eddie Alvarez Wants To Take Himself And ONE To New Heights
5 Reasons To Get Excited For The 'ONE On TNT' Event Series
Lito Adiwang, Janet Todd, Jarred Brooks Added To 'ONE On TNT II'
Moraes has followed "Mighty Mouse" for years and watched closely as he battled through the field to win the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix.
In doing so, he recognized the many incredible facets of the Washington native's game. But "Mikinho" also believes he has the right people around him at American Top Team to get him ready for this matchup.
"His transitions are really good, his grappling is awesome, his strength is good, his conditioning is high level, and he's smart — he does everything and it looks easy," Moraes says of Johnson.
"Because DJ is so good at fighting, you need to have a really good strategy. So, Katel Kubis is doing a lot of good strategy with me. Conan Silveira gave his thoughts, of course, and Mike Brown is one of the best coaches in the world.
"Plus, I have a bunch of other guys like Kyoji Horiguchi and Jussier Formiga, a lot of [the best] flyweight fighters in the world today. So, I think this fight is going to be amazing."
Along with good strategy and high-level training partners, Moraes also has his own attributes that he wants to display on TNT.
While Johnson suggested that the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt could be hesitant to pull the trigger, "Mikinho" disagrees. The Brazilian has shown his ability to get things done quickly with six submission wins in ONE — including against their only shared opponent so far.
"I don't think I'm the best in the world, but I think I'm different," he offers.
"I do the transitions really [well], and I'm faster too. I always try to do everything correctly. I train hard every single day I go to the gym.
"DJ has beaten tough guys, but when I fought Danny Kingad, I submitted him in the first round. DJ almost submitted him, but he couldn't."
More than anything, "Mikinho" is hungry.
The Brasilia native has already overcome long odds in his life, he's dedicated himself to success in martial arts, and he takes pride in representing ONE's flyweight division as its most successful fighter to date.
All of those factors only add to Moraes' motivation weeks ahead of the biggest flyweight match in mixed martial arts history.
"If I beat DJ, it is going to be really good for my career, for my team, and for my family. I think I'm ready for it," he says.
"I've been in ONE Championship for eight years, and I am going to defend the ONE Championship flag. DJ has everything already, and he's trying to cross my way. He's gonna pay, that's it."
Read more: Demetrious Johnson Plans To Push The Pace, 'Drown' Adriano Moraes
Home » News » Moraes Not Worried About Underdog Label, Vows To Beat DJ On TNT


This is the part of the assignment that I have some doubts about. Not so much because I don't know how to let the colour pop, but more because I have been wondering what to do with the white-balancing. From my teeth experiment I had noticed that in this image the little green speck pops out most. Here there's an aperture of f4 and shutterspeed of 1/320, making it underexposed. I took the image with a led light, with a yellowish glow, but did have the photo white-balanced.
Check out the little green spot!
As you can see, the yellow is much stronger in the second image than in the first one. I So that's that. Now, this is what the chair looks like when I white balance the image.
It's not the nice yellow that I like so much! Obviously the light has clearly influenced the colour of the chair a lot. Well, do I white balance or not? Yes, I will. Because the idea is to get the colour of the object as good as possible, not show the influence of the colour of the light source. So here are the same two images, this time white balanced.
The difference in colour intensity is still obvious. The only thing that I don't really like about the photos is that they are pretty boring. Fortunately my other photo that shows the colour of the light really well will make up for that.
I took this photo with the chair lit from the floor on the side with a reading light and a snoot, made from carton. I like the result, it has a nice spooky effect and shows the yellowish colour of the light really well.


text:
Home > English > Website archives > Rainbow of Crisis > An Iranian offer that America must heed
An Iranian offer that America must heed
Friday 19 May 2006, by Siddharth VARADARAJAN
The Ahmadinejad letter is as much an invitation to dialogue as a reminder to the world of the dangers posed by the Bush administration's policies.
Siddharth Varadarajan
12 May 2006, The Hindu
WITH THE exception of one highly regrettable sentence implicitly questioning the historicity of the Nazi holocaust against the Jews and another hinting at the complicity of U.S. intelligence agencies in 9/11, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 18-page letter to his American counterpart, George W. Bush, is a tour de force of the kind the world of diplomacy has not seen for a long time.
This extraordinary document — cleverly drafted in the religious idiom that Mr. Bush and his neoconservative advisers allegedly believe in, complete with a reference to Judgment Day — is the first official communication from the head of the Iranian government to an American President since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah. It is also a masterpiece of political clarity and philosophical opaqueness, which will frustrate and provoke Washington. The world sees the well-timed letter as a diplomatic opening — which it most certainly is — but the Bush administration is not interested in diplomacy. Nor does it look kindly upon those who seek to suggest that the recent crescendo of allegations against Iran resembles the lies Washington told about weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to its disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The experience of Iraq is the single most important argument the Iranian President marshals to make the point that the Bush administration's policy towards Iran is misconceived and dangerous. And he urges the American President to change course lest he be judged harshly by three separate courts: of God, of history and of his own people.
Because of the possibility of the existence of WMDs in Iraq, Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter notes, the country was occupied, "around one hundred thousand people killed, its water sources, agriculture and industry destroyed, close to 180,000 foreign troops put on the ground, sanctity of private homes of citizens broken, and the country pushed back perhaps fifty years ... Lies were told in the Iraqi matter. What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture, and you do not like to be lied to."
The letter is formally addressed to Mr. Bush but its arguments are all aimed at a wider audience, particularly in Europe, West Asia, and the U.S. To the people of the United States, Mr. Ahmadinejad offers a reminder of the high price they are paying thanks to the Bush administration's lies in Iraq: "Hundreds of billions of dollars spent from the treasury of one country and certain other countries and tens of thousands of young men and women — as occupation troops — put in harm's way, taken away from family and loved ones, their hands stained with the blood of others, subjected to so much psychological pressure that everyday some commit suicide and those returning home suffer depression, become sickly and grapple with all sorts of ailments; while some are killed and their bodies handed to their families."
Post-9/11, Mr. Ahmadinejad writes, the American people have been made to feel less secure thanks to their government's policies. And the U.S. administration has thrown all principles of human rights out of the window by incarcerating people indefinitely without trial and maintaining secret prisons. In a direct reference to Mr. Bush's much-publicised religious beliefs, the Iranian President asks how all of this can be reconciled with someone being "a follower of Jesus Christ, the great Messenger of God."
But there is more to the letter than mere rhetoric. In directly addressing the U.S. President, Mr. Ahmadinejad is reprising a tradition as familiar to Iranian statecraft as its experience with `regime change.'
Under pressure from the same Anglo-American powers ranged against Teheran today, Mohammed Mossadegh, who was Prime Minister of Iran until being forcibly overthrown in 1953, wrote a number of letters to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mossadegh had asserted Iran's independence against the British by nationalising its oil and was being subjected to punitive action by Britain and the U.S. "Although it was hoped that during Your Excellency's administration attention of a more sympathetic character would be devoted to the Iranian situation," Mossadegh wrote to Eisenhower on May 28, 1953, "unfortunately no change seems thus far to have taken place in the position of the American Government." He also complained that Iran had made numerous proposals for the amicable settlement of its dispute with the Anglo-American oil companies but these had not been responded to.
Unlike President Bush, who got Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reject Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter, Eisenhower gave Mossadegh the courtesy of a reply. But he was also dishonest and misleading. The plot hatched by the Dulles brothers for Mossadegh's overthrow was already under way. On August 19, 1953, Iran was brought back kicking and screaming into the Free World.
As a former teacher, Mr. Ahmadinejad knows Iran's history well. He also knows Mossadegh erred in not correctly reading the intentions of the U.S. and in being reactive. Elected to the presidency last year, Mr. Ahmadinejad quickly — and correctly — concluded that there was no way the Bush administration would give up its goal of `regime change' in Iran. After all, the opening to Washington attempted by his more liberal predecessor, Mohammed Khatami, had not only been summarily rejected but rewarded by Iran's inclusion in the `axis of evil.' Mr. Ahmadinejad was equally certain that no matter what concessions Teheran made to provide its European interlocutors "objective guarantees" of its peaceful nuclear intentions, Washington would never accept the development or retention of safeguarded fuel cycle activities by Iran.
Calculated escalation
Sitting in his Teheran office in August 2005, Mr. Ahmadinejad could be forgiven for believing in the inevitability of American sanctions and eventual use of force. The hopes in liberal Iranian circles that France, Germany, and Britain would come up with a credible formula for the resolution of the nuclear question were dashed when the E-3 produced their limp proposal of August 5. Rather than sitting back and allowing Washington to calibrate the pace and extent of crisis escalation, President Ahmadinejad probably surmised that Iran's best chance of avoiding the fate that befell Iraq lay in escalating the crisis on its own terms.
The rhetoric against Israel last fall, the resumption of enrichment experiments in January this year, and the declaration that Iran has mastered the technology and is now a "nuclear nation" would have made no sense to a Mossadegh. But to a leader convinced about the inevitability of an American military attack, it was a high-risk gamble that appears to have paid off. By bringing the crisis to a boil at a time when Washington has neither the military nor diplomatic capability to launch an attack — let alone persuade the world to impose sanctions — President Ahmadinejad has, paradoxically, increased his country's room for manoeuvre. His letter to Mr. Bush is part of the same strategy, except that it comes as a soothing unguent to the high octane grandstanding of the past few months. Certainly, the international oil bourses have taken it that way.
What should the Bush administration do? It should heed the advice of its friends and allies and grasp the diplomatic nettle that Mr. Ahmadinejad has thrust into its unwilling hands. Contrary to Washington's deafening propaganda, Iran has not crossed the nuclear weapons rubicon and it is not at all clear that it even wishes to do so. In any case, if the Iranian leadership decides to build nuclear weapons, there is absolutely nothing the U.S. or the world can do to force it not to do so. The key, then, lies in making sure Mr. Ahmadinejad and his colleagues — and the wider Iranian clerical-corporate establishment of which they are a part — continue to have no incentive to go down that path. Imposing sanctions and threatening military action are not disincentives; if anything, they will strengthen the hands of those in Teheran who argue nuclear weapons are needed as the ultimate deterrent against `regime change.' Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter has raised issues about American policies that are shared by countries in the region and the wider world. These are also issues that are being keenly debated inside the U.S. itself. President Bush should do himself and the world a favour and enter into a dialogue with Iran on these.
As far as the nuclear issue is concerned, Iran has said it will provide time-bound answers to all outstanding questions raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provided its dossier is transferred back from the U.N. Security Council to the IAEA. This proposal should be accepted. There can also then be a speedy resumption of Iran's Additional Protocol obligations, including surprise complementary accesses to sites international inspectors wish to visit. Technical fixes like inspections are necessary to assure the world about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme. But they have to be supplemented by a political approach that addresses Iran's security concerns. Mr. Ahmadinejad has provided a rational and cogent outline of what these concerns are. Nowhere in the letter does he call for the destruction of Israel or any other state. Peace in the region requires a change of course by Washington. It is up to the rest of the world to push for such a change.


"Just as I am" | When I Survey . . .
"Our iniquities you have set before you, and our secret sins in the light of your countenance." —Psalm 90: 8.
Having the light of God's countenance shine on us sounds like a good thing, but today's passage has the unsettling implication that we have no secrets from God.
Who among us can feel entirely comfortable with that kind of scrutiny? Is God really like a Santa Claus character who "sees you when you're sleeping" or a prying parent who stalks your Facebook page?
But the good news is that God doesn't love just our idealized selves, the dog's view of us, or our well-crafted on-line persona. God loves us just as we are, and loves us too much to let us stay that way.
Prayer: You have searched me and known me, O God. Let your unconditional love change me into the person you want me to be.
This entry was posted in Christian faith, Christian theology, Faith, Grace, Lent, United Church of Christ and tagged Christian faith, devotional, faith, God, Lent, UCC Lent Devotionals, unconditional love. Bookmark the permalink.
I choose "Just As I Am" as one of the hymns of my ordination almost 45 years ago, never realizing how often it bring me to my knees again. Praise be to God for never leaving me there.
Thanks, Bill, for your comment. I also always find that hymn very moving.


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text:
GameStop's future is grim as its stock price crumbles
Jeff Grubb@jeffgrubb	 June 5, 2019 3:51 PM
A sign is seen outside a GameStop store in Niles, Illinois, U.S. May 23, 2016.
Image Credit: REUTERS/Jim Young
GameStop is falling, and many analysts and industry observers are skeptical it can recover. The retailer reported earnings yesterday for Q1 of its fiscal 2020 yesterday where it missed its revenue target. Now, the company's stock price has crumbled to $5, which is the lowest this has been since 2013.
For Q1, GameStop generated $1.55 billion in revenues. That was significantly short of Wall Street's expected $1.64 billion. The company did cut costs to improve its earnings per share, but that's not something it can do every quarter. And GameStop's outlook is dire in part because its core business — selling hardware and used games — is starting to dry up.
Used game revenues dropped 20% year-over-year last quarter. And hardware revenues dropped 35 percent in the same comparison. And while the company has diversified into collectibles with its ThinkGeek brand, that growth wasn't enough to offset other declines.
On top of all that, GameStop also eliminated its dividend program. Now that this stock no longer pays out earnings to shareholders, that could encourage more people to sell. In turn, that could create some volatility in the price.
So it's a lot of bad news, and no major analyst expects that to change for the rest of this year.
"The combination of the transformation initiatives, ongoing consumer shift to digital gaming, and current console cycle being in the very late stages are likely to make 2019 a very challenging year," Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman said.
Why is GameStop doing so poorly?
Analysts are primarily focused on the near term. They live one quarterly earnings report at a time. But if you look at what they say about why GameStop's performance is so weak, you can see that it's not necessarily doomed.
"Pre-owned revenues declined 20% year-on-year in Q1 2019, driven by continued traffic headwinds from a tougher year-on-year software release slate," Baird analyst Colin Sebastian wrote in a note to investors. "While new hardware sales declined 35% year-on-year, as Switch growth was more than offset by declines in Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sales. Reflecting a console cycle now long in the tooth."
Sebastian is completely right about why GameStop is struggling today. Games like God of War, Far Cry 5, and Monster Hunter: World launched in the first half of 2018. And 2019's releases haven't quite matched those hits. That means fewer people are going into GameStop stores to trade in old games.
And then you have the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which are both finally on the way out. Anyone who wants to purchase one of those consoles likely already has. And while Nintendo Switch is doing better than ever, it's not enough to make up the difference.
The rest of 2019 probably won't change that momentum. The second half of the year isn't going to have anything to match Red Dead Redemption 2, for example.
So what is GameStop doing about all of this? Well, its management is planning to try some new programs. It wants to make stores friendlier and more of a destination for gaming fans. The good news for chief executive George Sherman, who took over the role in April, is that GameStop should get at least one last shot to prove its value to gamers.
While 2019 may not have blockbusters to match 2018's release schedule, big games are on the way. But more importantly, new hardware is coming soon. Sony has confirmed that it's working on the next PlayStation, and Microsoft is likely going to talk about its system soon.
And that's crucial for GameStop because it's still the place that people go to buy new hardware. When the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched in November 2013, GameStop was responsible for over half of all their hardware sales. That lasted for months. Amazon is more ubiquitous than ever, so maybe GameStop won't capture over half of PS5 and the next Xbox sales, but it could still play a big part in that.
So GameStop just needs to survive until the start of the next generation. And, in the meantime, it needs to figure out how to change its stores to convince people coming in for a PS5 that they should return regularly. It's just not clear that the company knows how to do that.
How to get Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition for free if you own the PC version


text:
Chinese love affair with Sydney properties continue
By Juwai, 13 February 2015
Chinese real estate investment Down Under surged to an all-time high last year, especially in Sydney.
While many have expressed concered over a weakening property market in Australia, Juwai.com Co-CEO Simon Henry begs to differ – Juwai data foresees a 15% to 20% increase in 2015 for Chinese real estate investments in Australia.
Even as we head into 2015, the last two months of 2014 saw a sudden flurry of investment activity in Sydney from China, predominantly driven by Chinese developer giants.1
Sunshine Insurance – Sheraton on the Park Hotel for US$375 million1
Dalian Wanda – Gold Fields House, Circular Quay, Sydney for US$344 million1
Shimao Property Holdings – Downtown Sydney office tower for over US$324 million1
Vision Investment Group – 233 Castlereagh Street office block for US$102 million1
Poly Real Estate Group – Cambridge Office Park for US$89 million1
Most recently, Fosun acquired a Sydney office block for US$93 million.2 Clearly, Australia is winning the hearts of China's wealthy, and Chinese property investment in Australia remains as popular as ever, if not more.
Favoured destination for emigration
In terms of residential investments by wealthy Chinese, part of Australia's allure lies in its brand-new fast track Premium Investor Visa (PIV) – a 1-year accelerated channel for foreign investors to acquire permanent residency, particularly Chinese HNWIs (high net worth individuals).
Other factors include its fantastic lifestyle, weather, quality education, proximity to China, and its existing Chinese community, which is sizable and well established.5, 6 Many have a sprawling network of family and business connections in Australia.6
All these combine to make Australia the perfect place to migrate to for an enriched lifestyle, and it was clearly evident in 2014, in which Sydney and Gold Coast marked record growth from Chinese investment.
"As the credibility of the Australian property market continues to strengthen in China, the level of investment will undoubtedly increase," says Brian White, Chairman of Ray White7 – a Juwai partner and one of Australia's leading real estate group.
Sydney in 2015
According to data from CPM Group and the BIS Shrapnel and CommSec forecast, Sydney housing prices are expected to rise between 5% and 7% – slower than its 12.4% increase in 2014.3
However, housing prices will fall slightly after the first half of 2015 before flattening, and finally stabilising as housing supply and demand slowly balance out.
Investor focus will fall on areas with improved infrastructures and amenities, such as South-west and North-west Sydney, as well as the suburbs at the outskirts of Sydney, which are fast gaining popularity.4
For those targeting Chinese buyers keen to invest with rental ROI in mind, here are three up-and-coming suburbs to watch in 20154:
Affordable housing prices here has long made Liverpool the #1 choice for first homebuyers in New South Wales. Demand is expected to increase, though, due to major increase in infrastructure currently still in the works.
Median price: A$ 560,000
Construction of the South West Rail Link here has led to increased demand and population growth. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), an estimated 100,000 houses will be built here over the next 20 years.
Median price: A$482,000
Increasingly improved infrastructure have caused this area to boom, particularly with buyers unable to afford inner-city properties. Demand is growing, and so is profits from early sellers.
Sources: 1. Mingtiandi.com; 2. Mingtiandi.com; 3. CPM Group & BIS Shrapnel and CommSec forecast; 4. Sohu.com; 5. Juwai data; 6. The Sydney Morning Herald; 7. Business Spectator
Tags: residential, australia, sydney, commercial, juwai, new south wales, property, real estate, chinese buyers, chinese investors, chinese investments, emigration, premium investor visa, immigrant investor programmes


During Kids' Free Days, AMITA Health will be sponsoring a variety of family-friendly activities from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the zoo's Pavilions and throughout the park. Youngsters can explore the inside of an ambulance, and parents will be able to search for a doctor in their area and schedule appointments with assistance from representatives of the AMITA Health Medical Group. Fun health-related games will engage and educate guests of all ages. In addition, kids can enjoy a performance by Emerald City Theatre, participate in engaging activities led by GoNoodle, and meet a few of Brookfield Zoo's animal ambassadors. A healthy snack and a take-home memento to commemorate the day's events will also be available.
There is still time to visit the zoo's Butterflies! habitat to see beautiful winged wonders in a landscape of colorful annuals and perennials. Additionally, the zoo's temporary summer exhibit, Dinos & Dragons, presented by Meijer, goes extinct on September 17. Before it does, guests can venture along a pathway to see 17 animatronic creatures while discovering interesting facts about dinosaur history and learning about dragon legends through culture and literature. The exhibit also features an amazing collection of large and small modern "dragons," including Komodo, frilled, and bearded dragons; a European legless lizard; a spiny-tailed lizard; iguanas; a plumed basilisk; and several species of monitor lizards, such as the crocodile lizard (one of the longest lizards in the world).
On Kids' Free Days, Brookfield Zoo is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission for adults is $19.85 and $14.50 for seniors 65 and over. Parking is $12. For further information, visit CZS.org.
The mission of the Chicago Zoological Society is to inspire conservation leadership by connecting people with wildlife and nature. The Chicago Zoological Society is a private nonprofit organization that operates Brookfield Zoo on land owned by the Forest Preserves of Cook County. The Society is known throughout the world for its international role in animal population management and wildlife conservation. Its Center for the Science of Animal Care and Welfare is at the forefront of animal care that strives to discover and implement innovative approaches to zoo animal management. Brookfield Zoo is the first zoo in the world to be awarded the Humane Certified™ certification mark for the care and welfare of its animals, meeting American Humane Association's rigorous certification standards. Open every day of the year, the zoo is located off First Avenue between the Stevenson (I-55) and Eisenhower (I-290) expressways and is also accessible via the Tri-State Tollway (I-294), Metra commuter line, CTA, and PACE bus service. For further information, visitCZS.org.


The IPS Team listen carefully to your aspirations to ensure that we design and fit out your offices encompassing your specific needs.
Flexibility for the future of your modern office environment, together with ease of collaboration, will form part of the planning.
We understand that you will have specific requirements that need to be integrated into your new fit-out and we will space plan accordingly.
Your design will work for you, because we listen carefully to your input and ask the right questions!
Great communication is the key to constructing for your future and we will keep you informed every step of the way.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Die Nampo-Klasse, auch als Tuman-Klasse bezeichnet, ist eine Klasse von Korvetten der Marine der Koreanischen Volksarmee.

Allgemeines
Der Ausbau der U-Bootkapazitäten der südkoreanischen Marine in den frühen 1990er Jahren und das Scheitern der Entwicklung der Soho-Klasse stellten die nordkoreanische Marine angesichts ihrer abnehmenden Fähigkeiten zur U-Boot-Bekämpfung vor ernsthafte Probleme. Des Weiteren war sie aufgrund wirtschaftlicher Schwierigkeiten nicht in der Lage, die Herausforderung sofort in Angriff zu nehmen. Ende der 1990er Jahre wurde ein Programm zur Modernisierung der vorhandenen und zum Bau eines kleinen Patrouillenbootes in Katamaranbauweise (Nongo-Klasse) begonnen. Dieses Programm beinhaltete ebenfalls eine neue Klasse von Korvetten mit Hubschrauberlandedeck, deren Bau vermutlich in den Jahren 2006 und 2007 mit der Entscheidung, die Fregatte Soho abzubrechen, begonnen wurde.

2013 wurde auf Satellitenaufnahmen von Werften in Namp'o (Gelbes Meer) und Rasŏn (Japanisches Meer) je ein im Bau befindliches Schiff festgestellt. Ansonsten ist über die Nampo-Klasse wenig bekannt, sie hat aber Ähnlichkeiten mit der UMS Tabinshweht, einer modernen Korvette der Marine Myanmars.

Siehe auch
 Jiangdao-Klasse (Volksrepublik China)
 Braunschweig-Klasse (Deutschland)
 Stereguschtschi-Klasse (Russland)

Weblinks
 Nampo-Klasse auf GlobalSecurity.org (englisch)
 Nampo-Klasse auf Navypedia (englisch)

Einzelnachweise

Militärschiffsklasse (Nordkorea)
Korvettenklasse

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The full story is even more traumatic.
Wow, this episode was a tough one. Honestly, I'm sure all of The Act will punch you right in the gut. But there's something particularly traumatic about this chapter of the Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard story.
From there, Dee Dee decides to have all of Gypsy's teeth removed after dentists find one rotting away in her mouth. Gypsy is devastated, but the real, full story of how this happened is even worse.
We already know Dee Dee forces Gypsy to eat through an unnecessary, painful feeding tube. We know she gave her daughter medicine to make her even more sick. What is harder to gauge is how much Gypsy knew.
As for her teeth, they did rot and were subsequently removed, likely due to the removal of Gypsy's salivary glands. According to Gypsy, her mother used a numbing agent to numb her gums, causing her to drool, which helped convince doctors to remove the glands.
ABC News reviewed medical records that point to about 150 different doctors treating Gypsy through the years. One hundred and fifty.


SalonQP (in it's third year) will be held in November 2011. It will be held for the first time at the Saatchi Gallery in London's Chelsea. It will be bigger and better than ever before.
A History of Watchmaking exhibition curated by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.
A display of the finalist and winning entries of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers Picturing Time student design competition.
John C. Taylor's spectacular Chronophage.
A series of lectures and debates by QP contributors, watchmakers, designers and auction experts including a round-table design talk.
Bulgari's Kaleidoscope, which offers a unique view of the intricate internal mechanics of a complicated watch movement; a new version is being created exclusively for SalonQP.
An expert services and repairs stand will give visitors the opportunity to have their own watches serviced by some of the best watchmakers.


text:
About Karate
Junzen Shotokan karate
TRADITIONAL JAPANESE BUDO
the SSKA
Karate is a Japanese martial art mainly focusing on defensive distance fighting techniques including blocks and strikes. Shotokan is one of the predominant styles of karate practiced around the world. Junzen Shotokan Karate literally translated means, absolute or pure Shotokan karate. Our club is affiliated to the SSKA (Southern Shotokan Karate Association), a non-political association established in 1987 which is also one of the largest in southern UK.
Why Karate?
Karate is a highly efficient and deadly martial art. If practiced regularly it can help to improve your chances of successful self defence.
Its a great way to keep physically healthy as you will train your all round fitness including core strength, aerobic fitness, stamina, coordination and flexibility. At its core, traditional karate centres around the Japanese principles of respect. Respect for your fellow students, the instructor, the dojo and this respect should also extend to what you encounter in your everyday life outside the dojo. Traditional karate differs from other sports focused martial arts that may prioritise 'winning' and spectatorship before spiritual humility.
Terry Furuzawa is a 3rd Dan black belt SSKA certified instructor of second generation Japanese heritage. Terry first pursued an interest in Shorin-ryu Karate whilst at university before an academic move took him to Kyokushin Karate. After an extended hiatus, his return to karate was with the local Shotokan club in Sunbury-on-Thames where he has been training for the past 10 years.
"Karate can be very rewarding with the continual challenge to progress this practical life skill. The more effort you put in, the greater the benefit to your fitness, health and the enjoyment you get from training."
All SSKA instructors are DBS checked.
We are a family friendly club training adults and children from 7 years old. Parents can train along with their children and in fact such participation is great for their mutual progression and development.
Lessons start with a thorough warm-up and stretching. Then there will be varying focus on the three aspects of karate. "Kihon" basics, the practice of techniques which form the basis of karate. "Kata", a formal pre-determined sequence of techniques. "Kumite", sparring exercises.
Depending on your chosen method of payment and any applicable concessions, you will pay between £6.00 to £8.00 per class. See the Shop for further details and online purchase options.
In training with the club, if you wish to progress your ranking level you will need to apply for membership to the SSKA association. This entails a one-time fee of £50 which includes provision of a karate suit embroidered with the SSKA badge and a white belt. Discounts are available for 2 or 3 family members joining together.
An annual fee of £30 is payable to the SSKA that will arrange insurance cover together with a licence and grading book to register for grading examinations.
FANCY A CHALLENGE?
Join a free class >
The Magna Carta School
St Paul's Rd, Staines-upon-Thames, TW18 3HJ, England
St Hilda's Church Hall, Stanwell Rd, Ashford, TW153QL, England
sensei@junzenkarate.com
© 2021 Junzen Shotokan Karate


Use email for event or catering inquiries only! NO Solicitation Please.
The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, The Ultimate Icelandic-North American Directory.
A quarterly journal devoted to Swedish American biography, genealogy,and personal history.Founded in 1981. Subscription $28 per calendar year Subscribers are invited to a genealogical workshop in Salt Lake City each October.
Scandia World Travel can offer so much more than just your airplane tickets. We are Scandinavians and it's our home turf. Our travel counselors specialize in both individual and group travel planning to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, plus Finland, Iceland & Russia. We can customize your itinerary whether it's for budget travel, family travel or private deluxe tours.


text:
Social Distancing and the Contact Tracing Solution
August 13, 2020 by Giandri Machado
Social Distancing is a public health procedure or a group of procedures oriented by health authorities (WHO, CDC, ACL, HHS and more) to prevent the spread of contagious diseases that can be transmitted by contact or air. Sometimes also recognized as Physical Distancing Intervention, it states the distance two individuals should be from one another during this social distancing period. In one-on-one proximity, this is an easy regulation to follow. Nonetheless, each time we bring a new individual to this same space, this preventative procedure becomes more complicated, and depending on the metric recommended for this distance, sometimes it is not possible to have more than a certain number of people in a defined area. Further, it takes into account the unknown history of an individual's behavior and the previous route of that individual who may become a risk to another one.
However, it is different within a household, where all individuals may track each other's routes and behavior; after a certain period, this trace may becomes unique for all individuals in the household. Another factor that may impact social distancing is the protection gears, called personal protective equipment (PPE), where specified protection suites are required according to how contagious the disease is. Due to this isolation, these individuals become null as points of interest within the social distancing model.
A Mathematical Model
Yes, all of the above is configured by a mathematical distancing (and proximity) model that, like any mathematical model, will work properly when knowing the universe considered, such as a stadium, a mall, a hospital, a supermarket, a sidewalk, a public service facility, an airport, a manufacturing plant, an open construction site, or an office building with a narrow hall and corridors. Since those areas are not independent, all studies need to correlate them. Each universe or community has its natural and/or deployed barriers of mobility and will impact, directly and intensively, this mathematical model.
Figure 1: 6-feet distancing and tracing illustration
Social distancing became a real concern amidst the arrival of COVID-19, wherein a few days, people from all over the world received orders that they needed to stay home or six feet away from any individual they did not know. Further, our doctors needed to use PPE, almost with full-body sealing. The average citizen, on the other hands, was tasked with wearing face masks when in a public domain area. As a heated point of discussion, our mathematical model also has a polarizing variable to be considered, since it was speculated that by using masks, an individual would be less likely to either contact or transmit the disease.
More and More Factors
If you wash your hands for twenty seconds, this risk of contamination is likely eliminated; if you use sanitizer, you will also probably eliminate risk. Now, the model is getting complex. The worst context: depending on the individual's health condition, unknown factors can make contracting COVID-19 fatal, so these individuals should receive even more elaborate social distancing protection. Meanwhile, some individuals who transmit the disease are not even aware that they have it. Thus, some actions could suppress and weaken the probabilities of contracting COVID-19 while others could strengthen it.
Professional Social Distancing. Companies Need to Come Back to Work…
Amidst the pandemic wave(s) of COVID-19, companies became eager to bring back the flow of business. Yet, social distancing demanded authorities to issue a lockdown, or a "stay-home order." In a few hours, busy offices became empty and the home office became a family shelter while simultaneously functioning as a professional office. Through modern virtual and cloud technologies, many home offices were a suitable replacement for the regular office. However, after this abrupt halt, entities like manufacturing plants with production lines needed to establish a fade-in production program through certain hygienic individual protections (masks, sanitizers, etc.) and team procedures (distancing). The fade-in program may respect physical and/or time distancing to avoid risks, promoting a controlled personnel distribution and health control.
Fig. 2: An office manager may define partial personnel back-to-office based on priorities of scopes, and can even define mobility protocols to avoid agglomerations
Figure 3. Worksites can establish shifts timely synchronized to bring back the production at a certain production rate, keeping the health conditions
All of these procedures could not avoid the fact that certain production plants started looking into tracing individuals (in indoor and outdoor work sites) within the production line, in the warehouse, or even across the logistic chain in order to avoid contamination and also serve as a guide for best practices and performance.
Feasibility: The Search for Technologies
These inquiries from several companies had one single answer. We have been excellently tracking and tracing our fleet, our pallets, our products, and all of our mobility assets. We could even be aware of where our professionals were through their smartphones. What about distributing those wearable tracking devices to all employees? This way we could analyze positions, distances, and even routes and be alerted, in real-time, to bad behavior or risky routes. We could also analyze the history of this mobility model and see if it could be recalculated or optimized to avoid the risk of contagion.
It is believed that most organizations already have complete or partial assets management with inventory control, pallet placement tracking, shipment verification, and even personnel access control. The point now is social distancing and tracing.
But COVID-19 social distancing says to stay six feet apart. At this point, another question appears, asking about the positional accuracy that those devices are able to report on, including behaviors, routes, and all mobility variables needed for a correct analysis of a real-time alert or guidance, or an in-batch informed decision-making process, based on all factors and considerations brought up previously.
Existing Technologies
Figure 4. Technologies for Social Distancing Tracing
By doing some market research, wireless technologies were found and appraised concerning how they can be used for people tracking, tracing, and orientation.
The old friends GPS , RFID , Wi-Fi , Bluetooth , and UWB are the most prevalent. Each one brings different factors of feasibility, mobility, route track and tracing, and obviously, pricing. Naturally, wired technologies are the basement of several communication architectures, but cannot be considered for people tracking.
Figure 5. Communication Range of most Common Technologies available for Social Distancing Tracing solution
Besides the GPS, all lined technologies are radio frequency-based and will track the required distance between the transmitter and receiver as a key parameter, which will be called range.
GPS: GPS is comprised of a satellite-based system that is related to each receiver. With GPS, a group of people can only be analyzed outdoors, but faces restrictions in certain areas since some urban or natural barriers could impact the accuracy of the mathematical model. Additionally, the accuracy of the light GPS receivers embedded in our smartphone, for example, is from 19 to 65 feet (roughly three to six meters, or ten meters for old phones still on the market), which would not conform to the accuracy requirements demanded by social distancing parameters. An accurate GPS receiver is substantially bigger, too impractical to wear, and very expensive, thus making it infeasible for most applications. The smartphone-like GPS can be part of the full solution, but it is not the right one for social distancing.
RFID: As a local receiver-based system, RFID can be used outdoors and indoors. It has been widely used to track the mobility of assets, such as packages, pallets, products, and even people (through our badges, for example). The tracking accuracy can be from one inch to three feet, depending on the model (active/passive), the architecture of the readers, and procedures of usage. RFID should remain as one of the main possibilities, with the awareness that the range is short. Hence, RFID is a considerable technology for the measurement of social distancing, but would demand a massive, dense, deployment of devices within the desired area. As such, it is not a likely technology that can be used on scale and in real-time.
WiFi: Widely used for the internet network, the WiFi concept and its employed technology bring back the problem of accuracy, where the best measurement offered for a position is approximately the same as the GPS, from 14 to 65 feet ( roughly 4 to 20 meters). As such, WiFi is not a winning solution when it comes to individual tracking and tracking.
Bluetooth: This technology is widely used due to the relation between accuracy and range. It has the most potential as it has been on the market for a while, embedded in our smartphone, earphones, wearables and several other devices in our home and our offices. As anticipated, the accuracy submits to the 6 feet program requirements of the COVID-19 distancing order, and when scaled within its range, brings forth a sustainable solution that can be used for distancing and mobility measurements. When making a quick decision about employing the right technology, bluetooth is the best seller today, even more so when considering its new generations where the range has been improved.
UWB: Considered the youngest of the group, although its regulation was established around 20 years ago, UWB's first market appearance occurred in 2013. Only last year did it become a promising solution for mobile applications since it can scan a long range with the highest accuracy (inches|roughly 10 centimeters) and with sustainable scalability, fighting directly with bluetooth inside the same environment employment. As a result, it is definitively the most promising one. In fact, Apple® and Samsung® have announced their new devices are already bringing UWB technology on board.
Several other parameters not mentioned in the above summaries can be seen in the following table and should be considered during the design of the adequate architecture.
Figure 6. Stefanini's Ongoing Research for Social Distancing Technologies
Power Consumption and Data Flow
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and UWB are wireless technologies that were born and oriented to digital data transmission. The related power consumption challenge in the design of a social distancing tracing solution may also be related to in-scale, timely energy consumption. The following chart provides a vision of the energy usage for a flow of 10GBytes of data, and their frequency spectrum, where considering the individual autonomy based on the replaceable battery, it is recognized that UWB is a good choice for wearables and other tags that are distributed within the mobile part of the solution.
Additionally, due to the nature of the technologies, its spectrum, and emitted power signal, UWB may allow for a more reliable connection even in a noisy environment.
As in any production environment, one main point is raised during the design of a distancing solution, where all pieces (people, vehicles, machines, cargo, etc.) of the puzzle need to be monitored: This main point is the worker's individuality and privacy, which are key factors of employability. Thus, the design of this full tracking system needs to consider the regulations and ethics components that promote health comfortability to employees, the company's principles and performance, and respect the employees' privacy.
The Social Distancing Solution
Reading all of the above, we can recognize that the solution needs to follow a mathematical model that will demand the most traditional computing capabilities and layers existing today. Those layers can be selected as a simple analytic model understanding real-time positions, alerting, guiding personnel and assets mobilization, and promoting a certain level of the informed decision process. The designed solution can also demand a higher level of computing layers like deep analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
The complexity of the selected layers will impact the complexity of the deployment, promoting a high level of confidence in the decision-making process. Independently, those selections need to be made based on the critical level of the operation, the complex priorities of the real-world environment, and the number of individuals playing different roles in that environment. Different work scopes may receive priorities over others in a mobility model.
When it comes to selecting the tracking and tracing devices (wearable or handled), we can assert that there is no silver bullet. Combining all of them can fill out the completeness demanded by an operation that may have indoor and outdoor sites, including different contexts, distribution of assets, and personnel.
The right solution is not a set of technologies that will be disregarded after the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine. The employment of a mobility solution is also about performance studies and informed decision-making, where it can forecast a company's preparedness for any future context that requires personnel distribution management, efficiency gains, cost reduction, and performance triggering, bringing to the production lines a high-level of management intelligence.
[1] GPS: The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally NAVSTAR GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. Obstacles such as mountains and buildings block the relatively weak GPS signals. The GPS does not require the user to transmit any data, and it operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. The GPS provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.
[1] Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID tag consists of a tiny radio transponder; a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromagnetic interrogation pulse from a nearby RFID reader device, the tag transmits digital data, usually an identifying inventory number, back to the reader. This number can be used to inventory goods. There are two types. Passive tags are powered by energy from the RFID reader's interrogating radio waves. Active tags are powered by a battery and thus can be read at a greater range from the RFID reader; up to hundreds of meters. Unlike a barcode, the tag doesn't need to be within the line of sight of the reader, so it may be embedded in the tracked object. RFID is one method of automatic identification and data capture (AIDC). RFID tags are used in many industries. For example, an RFID tag attached to an automobile during production can be used to track its progress through the assembly line; RFID-tagged pharmaceuticals can be tracked through warehouses; and implanting RFID microchips in livestock and pets enables positive identification of animals.
[1] Wi-Fi, a shortened form of "Wireless Fidelity", is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access. Wi‑Fi is a trademark of the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, which restricts the use of the term Wi-Fi Certified to products that successfully complete interoperability certification testing. As of 2010, the Wi-Fi Alliance consisted of more than 375 companies from around the world. As of 2009, Wi-Fi-integrated circuit chips shipped approximately 580 million units yearly.[6][needs update] Devices that can use Wi-Fi technologies include desktops and laptops, smartphones and tablets, smart TVs, printers, digital audio players, digital cameras, cars, and drones. Wi-Fi uses multiple parts of the IEEE 802 protocol family and is designed to interwork seamlessly with its wired sibling Ethernet. Compatible devices can network through wireless access points to each other as well as to wired devices and the Internet. The different versions of Wi-Fi are specified by various IEEE 802.11 protocol standards, with the different radio technologies determining radio bands, and the maximum ranges, and speeds that may be achieved. Wi-Fi most commonly uses the 2.4 gigahertz (120 mm) UHF and 5 gigahertz (60 mm) SHF ISM radio bands; these bands are subdivided into multiple channels. Channels can be shared between networks but only one transmitter can locally transmit on a channel at any moment in time.
[1] Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the industrial, scientific and medical radio bands, from 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz, and building personal area networks (PANs). It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which has more than 35,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics. The IEEE standardized Bluetooth as IEEE 802.15.1, but no longer maintains the standard. The Bluetooth SIG oversees development of the specification, manages the qualification program, and protects the trademarks. A manufacturer must meet Bluetooth SIG standards to market it as a Bluetooth device. A network of patents apply to the technology, which are licensed to individual qualifying devices. As of 2009, Bluetooth integrated circuit chips ship approximately 920 million units annually.
The Bluetooth versions:
[1] Ultra-wideband (also known as UWB, ultra wideband, ultra-wide band and ultraband) is a radio technology that can use a very low energy level for short-range, high-bandwidth communications over a large portion of the radio spectrum. UWB has traditional applications in non-cooperative radar imaging. Most recent applications target sensor data collection, precision locating and tracking applications.As of September 2019, UWB support has started to appear in high-end smartphones. Ultra-wideband is a technology for transmitting information spread over a large bandwidth (>500 MHz); this should, in theory and under the right circumstances, be able to share spectrum with other users. Regulatory settings by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States intend to provide an efficient use of radio bandwidth while enabling high-data-rate personal area network (PAN) wireless connectivity; longer-range, low-data-rate applications; and radar and imaging systems.
Technical Review: George Millard; Mozaiko CEO
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I don't know about you, but I'm ready to say goodbye to 2017. During the past year, it felt like everything went wrong, but as the year comes to an end, I'm feeling optimistic about 2018. Everything seems to be coming together now, and I plan on taking that momentum into the new year, starting with the relaunch of the newly branded Banger books, which go live tomorrow, New Year's Day.
The Banger Books
The Banger books and I have had quite a ride since I wrote them in 2016. The first book came out in October of that year. The last Banger book was published in April of 2017. A boxed set released in July. For reasons too numerous to list, these books just never took off. From the use of a new pen name (Dick Hertz), to marketing them for Kindle Unlimited, to Amazon declaring the original titles as too "adult content" to list in their store, to the cover itself, and so much more, these books never resonated with readers.
Readers who did read the Banger books LOVED them! One book blogger/reviewer has even declared the Banger Series as one of her top reads of 2017. And, despite low sales, the books received a total of 56 reviews for an average 4.9 out of 5 rating on Amazon.
Readers' positive reaction to Banger tells me there is nothing wrong with the actual story. The problem was with the branding. That's on me. Totally on me.
In this new age of publishing, indie authors like me often experiment with new ideas and ways of doing things. Sometimes these ideas work out great. Other times, they bomb. My original branding of Banger bombed.
So, without making a lot of excuses, I decided to completely rebrand them. I took a step back, carefully considered the story, consulted with a few of my regular readers who never bought the books, and spent a lot of time studying what drew erotic romance readers to a new book visually. What I learned is that readers didn't like the original 7-book format, the original cover was too "in your face" with the man abs, and my alternate pen name, while funny, failed to connect readers to me, Donya Lynne, who they've come to rely on for a certain type of story.
To correct the problem, I first ditched the Dick Hertz pen name. Then I took the books from seven to three for a tight and manageable trilogy. I also created new titles that reflected each of the three phases of the story. Finally, I worked with my cover artist, Reese Dante, to create a dramatic and sensually appealing visual representation of each book. I think you'll agree she hit it out of the park. These are my favorite covers in my entire backlist. I can't be more in love with them.
The series is still called the Banger Series, but each book now has a unique title to differentiate it from the rest (the original 7-book series, didn't). Choose me is book 1, Covet Me is book 2, and Cherish Me is book 3.
This series has it all:
Crazy-hot sex
Cheating exes
Unexpected twists.
My original goal with Banger was to write a spoofy, semi-humorous, semi-serious anti-romance that turned the "big dick" trope on its back. You know what I'm talking about. A lot of romance books have a hero who is hung like horse. And he ends up falling for a virginal maiden who has never seen a penis, let alone had one inside her. But despite this biologically disastrous match made in the depths of sadistic irony, the virginal maiden is able to take the hero's ginormous super penis with very little effort and find unending pleasure as he pounds into her.
My lady bits are quivering in mortification just thinking about that.
In reality, even the most experienced streetwalker would take one look at a super shlong the size of a Genoa salami on steroids and issue a refund, throwing the money back at her john while sprinting away in the opposite direction and shouting, "No habla big penis!"
That's the approach I wanted to take with Banger. I wanted that massive penis to be the curse that it is in real life. I also wanted to explore how having a King Kong dong (or "porn cock," as one female in the story described it) would effect my hero. The result is both comical and dramatic, as well as incredibly erotic (because I believe there's someone made for everyone, and in Banger, there is most definitely a woman who was made to be the perfect fit for my hero, and oh, how hot the fire grows once he finds her and can finally let himself go!).
So, if you haven't given Banger a chance yet, maybe now you will. If you like erotic romance stuffed with lots of conflict, drama, twists, and turns, this is the story for you! See the listings for each book under my book list for blurbs and links.
Year of Focus and a Fresh Start
Not only will the Banger books get a new beginning in 2018, but so will I. I was sick for most of 2017, severely broke my big toe on my left foot, then severely sprained by left ankle a few months after my big toe healed. I'm no longer sick, and my ankle is on the mend, but I'm ready to put the year behind me and get a new beginning in the new year.
I plan on focusing most of my energy on writing this year. My goal to write 500,000 words and at least six new books. I'm also planning some kind of promotion or giveaway every month, so make sure you're following me on Facebook, Twitter, BookBub, and subscribe to my newsletter.
And with that, have a happy and healthy 2018! And I promise to do a better job of keeping my website updated in the new year.
Donya
« 2016 and Beyond
On Being an Empathic Author »


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Пётр Ива́нович Переве́рза (; 10 июля 1994 года) — украинский футболист, нападающий.

Игровая карьера
Воспитанник УФК (Харьков). После завершения обучения играл в любительской команде «Дунай» (Богатое, Одесская область). В феврале 2014 года стал футболистом одесского «Черноморца». Играл в молодёжной команде «моряков».

25 апреля 2015 года Переверза провёл первый поединок в украинской Премьер-лиге, выйдя вместо Артёма Филимонова во втором тайме матча против донецкого «Металлурга». Это была единственная игра футболиста в сезоне 2014/15 в составе первой команды одесситов. 29 июля 2016 года было объявлено, что Пётр Переверза передан на один год в аренду одесской «Жемчужине». Однако 21 августа 2016 года было объявлено, что игрок вернулся в состав одесской команды.

Примечания

Ссылки

 Статистика на сайте Украинской Премьер-лиги

Футболисты Украины
Игроки ФК «Черноморец» Одесса
Игроки ФК «Жемчужина» Одесса
Игроки ФК «Сумы» (2008)


Man, has been trying to record who he is and what he has done on everything from cave walls to clay tablets for over 5000 years. But not until the romans started trying different forms of writing was the development of pens, or some sort of writing instrument invented.
The Egyptians, known for some of the most beautifully detailed hieroglyphics in the world, were the first to come up with something similar to paper. It was named papyrus, and it was soft so it couldn't be scratched with the metal stylus type instruments that were floating around at the time to use for writing. The reeds/bamboo that grew among the marsh lands were used as writing instruments for the soft papyrus.
Then came the Europeans that realized you could use bird feathers to write text and create beautiful artwork on pieces of parchment. Calligraphers still utilize this art form down to this day.
Goose feathers were the main instrument when man started using quills (feather pens) to write.
Crow feathers however, made the best fine lines and were the best used by writers.
Other birds were used for their feathers but these three were preferred for their feathers structure.
These quills first appeared in man's writing history in Seville Spain around 600 A.D. and were used till about 1800. There was no record of who exactly decided that it was a great idea to put a feather into ink and write with it, but quills were used to write such great works as the Magna Carter and the American Declaration of Independence.
It's interesting to know that the feathers used were usually from the left wings of the birds so that right handed folks could have them flow to the right out of their sight-line.
Disadvantages of using the quills was that they only lasted a week, and then had to be replaced. This was time consuming and if it was the type of quill that did not have a ink-well type connection to it, it was harder to use because it flowed sloppily onto the paper.
The use of lead for pencils was used in France and Australia around the same time quills were being used.
Although there are several inventors that developed nubs (the end points for quills) to form the first fountain pens, they did not commercialize them or patent them. The first known patent for the fountain pen was documented by the Romanians in 1827. The inventor was Petrache Poenaru. His fountain pen included a large swan quill that held ink that flowed into the nib.
Most people think that Lewis Waterman, the guy who founded the Watermen pens, was the creator of the fountain pen, but he was only an inventor that improved on an already existing idea.
Earlier ideas that were built did not get the ink flowing smoothly and drip free, but Waterman had the idea that the ink would flow better with the combined use of gravity and air, and he was right.
Man didn't stop there and thank goodness he didn't. Although I have had my share of exploding ink pens in my pockets or bags, I must say that today's gel pens, smooth ink pens, rubber barrel pens, and now the pen that you do not even hold with 3 fingers has really changed the way we put words down on paper.
Schools are getting very open to students bringing their laptops to school to take notes, but many students will tell you, there is nothing like taking notes with pen and paper.
The relationship between a student or an employee and how they feel about their pens can get testy. How many times have you put your name on your pen to keep others from taking it? How many times have you said, "wow this pen really writes good".
Pens are used as swag at social events to advertise. Businesses love to have their names splashed across pens.
The next time you are in a bank, look at the pen. The next time you check into a hotel, look at the pen.
Pens also cause us to be a little forgetful when they are not ours. How many times have you seen them chained to something so you don't walk away with it? Yeah, they are tools that are with us more than we care to think about, until we need one.


b) essential electrical systems for health care facilities.
This Standard is not intended to apply to veterinary facilities, although its electrical safety principles could prove useful in the design, construction, and operation of such facilities.
Uninterruptible power systems, which may be used for specific critical applications are not covered by this Standard.
Provisions of this Standard are supplementary to the installation requirements specified in Sections 24 and 52 of the Canadian Electrical Code, Part I and require compliance with Canadian Electrical Code, Part II standards.
b) areas outside health care facilities that are intended for patient diagnosis, treatment, or care involving intentional electrical contact of any kind between patients and medical electrical equipment.
d) the use and management of the equipment and installations in patient care areas.
The electrical equipment described in Items a) to c) can be portable or permanently connected.
The minimum number and general arrangement of receptacles in patient care areas should be as specified in Table 6. Additional receptacles and circuits shall be provided for equipment placed in a patient care environment more or less permanently (e.g., patient monitors and bedside computer terminals). When a non-medical computer communications outlet and power receptacle are provided in a patient care area, the receptacle shall be located outside the patient care environment and carefully positioned and identified so that it cannot be inadvertently used for equipment that will be connected to the patient. If the outlet and receptacle use isolated power, the receptacle shall not be connected to the patient care isolated power distribution system.
Note: Receptacles, other electronics and electrical services, and medical gas outlets are often provided using a medical supply unit (also known as a patient service module). See CAN/CSA-Z305.8 for requirements relating to medical supply units.
(b) essential electrical systems for health care facilities.
Note: See Clause 3 for the definition of "health care facility".
Uninterruptible power supplies, which can be essential for specific critical applications (e.g., critical care equipment and computer equipment), are not covered by this Standard.
Provisions of this Standard are supplementary to the installation requirements specified in Sections 24 and 52 of the Canadian Electrical Code, Part I.
(b) areas outside health care facilities that are intended for patient diagnosis, treatment, or care involving intentional electrical contact of any kind between patients and medical electrical equipment.
(d) the use and management of the equipment and installations in patient care areas. The electrical equipment described in Items (a) to (c) can be portable or permanently connected.
This Standard deals principally with safety from the hazards of electric shock (see Annex A). Other aspects of electrical safety, such as fires and interference with proper operation, are also addressed.
Note: The Canadian Electrical Code, Part I, specifies the minimum requirements for a safe building electrical installation for supplying utilization equipment in patient care areas, but does not specify requirements for the number, arrangement, and circuit loading of branch circuits and receptacles required for the procedures to be performed. Neither does it state requirements for the use and maintenance of such installations. This Standard builds on the requirements of the Canadian Electrical Code, Part I, and provides this additional information.
The medical purposes, risks, or benefits of procedures or equipment are the professional responsibility of health care practitioners and therefore are beyond the scope of this Standard, which provides general guidelines to ensure the safe use of electrically operated equipment.
This Standard applies to electrical installations in patient care areas of health care facilities.
Clause 6 applies to the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of the normal and emergency supply required to provide electrical power to those portions of a health care facility's electrical system in which the interruption of the normal supply can jeopardize effective and safe patient care, the safety of health care facility staff, and public safety. Aspects of emergency electrical power supply systems not covered by Clause 6 are covered by CSA C282.
Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the table or figure and may be written as requirements. Legends to equations and figures are considered requirements.


Successful community development requires strong locally-based organizations who can plan for and implement effective development. Recognizing this, LISC works closely with local partner organizations to help them expand their capacity to advance development projects, engage their local community and sustain their development for the long-term.
LISC provides this assistance locally and leverages the expertise of National LISC programs as needed.


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Tag: Katie Turner
WBB: Bonnies fall to Davidson in first round of A-10 tournament
photo courtesy of gobonnies.sbu.edu
By Dustyn Green
RICHMOND, VA — One month ago, the St. Bonaventure women's basketball game beat Davidson on back-to-back nights.
The Wildcats came ready to get revenge on Wednesday, however, winning by a score of 69-61 in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
Davidson was led by Cassidy Gould's 25 points, 19 of which came in the first half.
"Gould is a really good player," Bona head coach Jesse Fleming said. "Her teammates did a really good job of finding her today, especially in the first half."
Davidson head coach Gayle Folks also had strong things to say about Gould's performance.
"She does not care about a single statistic, just the win or loss," Folks said. "She is probably the most selfless player I have ever been around."
Gould's teammate, sophomore Adelaide Fuller, followed up her effort with 17 points. Davidson senior guard Katie Turner, who scored 11 points, said that intensity was a key difference between this matchup and the teams' first two contests.
"We went in with even additional intensity, and wanted revenge," Turner said. "I hate losing, and I know the rest of these girls do too."
St. Bonaventure was led by 18 points from Asianae Johnson and 17 points by Tori Harris. Johnson went to work late in the first half after a slow start.
"I was trying to give our team a kick start, since we were not ready," she said.
Fleming took much of the blame for the loss during his postgame press conference.
"I need to do a better job preparing us for the zone," Fleming said. "(Davidson) saw we did not hand the zone well. (They) changed a lot of things; maybe we should have rotated help on Gould."
SBU was out-rebounded 45-35 in the game. SBU ends its season with a 6-14 record in a season shortened by COVID-19.
"Practices were fun because of the competitive nature of the team," Fleming said. "I am really excited, and I really like our core."
Fleming said that he's not yet prepared to look forward to next season.
"I just want to sit back and appreciate these kids," he said. "They are really hard workers, and they are really hurting today."
Posted on March 10, 2021 March 10, 2021 by intrepidsbuPosted in SportsTagged asianae johnson, Davidson Wildcats, Davidson women's basketball, Gayle Folks, Jesse Fleming, Katie Turner, st. bonaventure women's basketball, Tori Harris. Leave a comment


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What Are The Facts
Written by Judith Johnson / Performed by Bella Hamblin / Directed by Nigel Townsend
Mandy has diabetes. She is Ollie's neighbour he's encouraging her to face her fears about catching COVID-19. Mandy wants to be able to hug her children without fear of catching COVID. She needs to be brave and consider taking part in a vaccine trial.
Do you know anyone like Mandy?
How could you help them confront their vaccine hesitancy?
Tags: Vaccine Hesitancy, Covid 19, Bubble, vaccine trial, hugs, Obesity, social distancing, mental well being , Bella Hamblin, Judith Johnson
Socially distancing my own offspring
My baby, I say baby, she's 21, she came in the other night, fresh from the outdoor pub, she said 'I luv you Mother, you daft old cow,' launched herself into me arms, then burst into tears. She was having a bit of trouble in her love life. She didn't notice me leaning to the side and turning me head away, she didn't see me trying not to breathe. Socially distancing me own offspring, that's what I'm doing.
My Boy said he would take the vaccine
My boy, he said he would participate in a vaccine trial it, but he also said actually Mum, it's people like you they need most, people who wouldn't normally do a trial. 'People like me.' He meant terrified middle-aged women with diabetes and a 20 a day habit.
I told Ollie
I told Ollie about not wanting to hug the kids. He said, I'm not a big one for hugs meself Mandy, but if you did this trial, if the vaccine worked, you could hug your kids all you like couldn't you? Because you'd be immune.
Playwright Judith Johnson talks about Hugs
These digital drama's are fictional pieces commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and produced in collaboration with Leeds university. The content of each film is an artistic interpretation based on authentic patient voices and therefore, the views expressed are not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care or the collaborating organisations.
© 2021 Theatre of Debate


Harghita County Council, in cooperation with the European Commission, European Parliament and the European Committee of the Regions organized on 9th of October, within the European Week of Regions and Cities a workshop entitled Brain Drain: a one way ticket? – workshop on youth and workforce migration. The European week is one of the biggest event-series on EU level.
The workshop was opened by Iuliu Winkler, Member of the European Parliament. He highlighted that some measures should be formulated on European and on member states' level regarding the brain drain theme. Moreover this is highly important on local level as well. Also, if the local community is stronger and more attractive, less people will emigrate to other countries. These communities will be able to determinate their own priorities and for this reason the educational, public administration and the entrepreneur sphere on local level must strongly cooperate.
Borboly Csaba, president of Harghita County Council and rapporteur on youth and higher education themes, raised the attention on the importance of the urgent debate on the subject. The president of the county council has been also appointed as political coordinator within the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC) of the European Committee of the Regions. As presented, the theme starts to be urgent, since currently debates are taking place regarding the elaboration of the youth strategy after 2020. In this matter, member states, especially Eastern European countries must take a stand in this issue because the basis of the economic and social development is a well-defined youth policy and concrete measures are necessary in these countries for the reduction of the emigration among youth. In this area, local and regional authorities have important roles and responsabilities.
– The rate of higher education and vocational qualifications in the EU has not been fully recovered after the 2008 financial crisis. There are huge differences on economic and social level not only between member states, but between regions as well. EU politics must put a greater focus on these differences, especially on the less developed regions, during the elaboration of educational strategies – highlighted Csaba Borboly, who has been elected by the European People's Party, as political coordinator within the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC) of the CoR. He consideres that the limitation of educational rights on economic, ethnic, linguistic and on any other basis must be stoped. – We all know that there are some measures, that limit the minority students to access education in their mother tongue and it would be a great mistake not to think that this fact doesn't influence the increasing rate of youth emigration. Those initiatives, such as the Minority Safepack, are very important in the preservation of national identity and cultural diversity.
José Ignacio Ceniceros González, president of the Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC) of the CoR said that there are other problems for issuing countries than for host countries, because some regions are more interesting and attractive for the youth. Rural regions, the less developed regions are less interesting from this point of view and these are usually the issuing parts. Talent hunting and searching for them forces these regions to take action to stop or reverse the brain drain.
Navracsics Tibor, Commissioner of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport said that it is important to make local and regional communities more attractive. By creating jobs, improving the quality of education, cultural life and sports, local circumstances must be created so that young people, even if they go abroad, return to their hometown, to their region. Basically, regional and structural funds can help to strengthen the retention capacity of the given region. At the same time, the Commissioner said that mobility is most likely to pose a threat to peripheral regions, as youth migrate from the eastern European regions to the west, with education and culture playing an important role in Europe's competitiveness.
Forró Gyöngyvér was also invited speaker of Harghita County Council to the workshop, who presented her own experiences by working at the European Parliament.
Important contributions were brought to the conference by further speakers, such as Mr. Tadeus Truskolaski, president of the Interregional Group of Less Developed Regions of the CoR, Mr. Radimir Čačić, president of the Commission for culture, education and youth of the Assembly of European Regions, as well as Mr. Raymond Xerri, president of the ETTW – Europeans Throughout the World.
More information about Mr. Borboly Csaba's activity within the European Committee of the Regions can be found on the https://www.borbolycsaba.ro/en/committe-of-the-regions/ webpage.
Seklerland's local values were once again presented during the European Week of Regions and Cities. On the opening ceremony of the week, on 8th of October, a long queue was formed at the stand of Harghita County Council to taste gastronomic products with Sekler Product trademark. – We consider important that our quality products to be known on European level. Our objective is to raise the attention to our local producers and local products – said Borboly Csaba.
The photos of the Brain Drain conference can be accessed here, as well as on the EWRC Flickr account, and the livestream can be rewatched here.
Miercurea Ciuc, 9th of October 2018.