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Film Review: 13 Assassins (2011)
The plot of most samurai films, like most kung fu films, is largely irrelevant. We're not watching samurai films to get a keener understanding of clan rivalries in feudal Japan. Nor are most samurai film fans obsessed with bushido, the samurai code of honour; we're just glad it existed so that samurai would have a handy excuse for slicing each other up. We watch samurai films for the swordplay, and 13 Assassins delivers mayhem in industrial quantities. The plot, for those who care, pits 12 samurai and one agile, deadly peasant against Lord Naritsugu and his 200 soldiers. Naritsugu must be killed because, well, he's so evil. How evil? If Hitler had an even more evil twin brother he wouldn't be as evil as this guy.
13 Assassins would be unremarkable if it was all about the body count. The Lone Wolf and Cub series of samurai films made in the 1970s were just as bloody, but they were short on artistry. Takeshi Miike, the director of 13 Assassins, shows a fine appreciation for the formal pleasures of the best samurai films. In the first half of the film characters are introduced and the plot is developed. Most of these scenes take place inside minimally furnished noble houses. For a director and cinematographer these are demanding scenes because all you're filming are people kneeling and talking in nearly bare rooms. There's very little to engage the eye. Miike makes the scenes come alive with beautifully lit and composed shots that are a pleasure all by themselves. And when the action moves outdoors, Miike and his cameraman are equally adept at framing figures and groups of soldiers against classic Japanese landscapes.
And the swordplay? Top notch, and there's lots of it. Some scenes in the final battle are a little over the top, and the warrior-peasant makes a remarkable recovery from a major injury, but all in all this film has to belong in the Premier League of samurai films.
Posted by Cary Watson at 10:34 PM No comments:
Labels: 13 Assassins, bushido, Lone Wolf and Cub, samurai, Takeshi Miike
Book Review: Butcher's Moon (1974) By Richard Stark
In 1962 Donald E. Westlake, writing as Richard Stark, introduced the character of Parker, a professional thief who is as remorseless as he is efficient. This first novel was The Hunter (filmed as Point Blank with Lee Marvin) and it probably marks the beginning of the modern American crime novel. Prior to The Hunter crime novels were largely about detectives and detection, and stories about criminals usually ended with the crooks caught or killed. Stark changed all that. Parker always lives to steal another day, and he usually leaves a high body count in his wake. And Parker's no Robin Hood; he steals for himself, and if his accomplices are caught or killed that's their bad luck. Parker isn't just hardboiled, he's frozen in carbonite.
One of the chief pleasures of the Parker novels is the plotting. The stories begin at a dead run and then rarely pause for a breath. Parker and his confederates always plan their heists to the last detail, but then something usually goes awry, and Parker ends up avoiding pursuers or doing some pursuing himself. Sometimes he's doing both at the same time. Despite the breathlessness of the plotting, Stark takes care to add some depth and shading to even minor characters, and he can also add humour here and there; in Butcher's Moon, in the middle of a casino heist, two thieves and the casino operator they're robbing suddenly have a ridiculously passionate discussion about health food and fitness.
It's easy to see the influence Stark had on Elmore Leonard, who began his crime writing career just as Stark was winding down the Parker series. Leonard's plots are also about criminal plots that go off the rails, his heroes are often Parker-like, and Leonard's novels always feature humorous, parenthetical moments. And Leonard in turn has influenced a host of other writers and filmmakers (step forward Mr Tarantino). The character of Parker has also been reborn in Lee Child's Jack Reacher thrillers. The Reacher character is definitely on the right side of the law, but his ruthlessness, his skill, his matter-of-fact approach to danger is pure Parker.
In Butcher's Moon, Parker and his frequent partner Alan Grofield travel to a small city in Ohio to reclaim a stash of money they'd hidden there years before. The money is missing and the finger of blame points towards the head of the local crime syndicate. Parker wants his money and applies pressure to the crime boss, but that ends with Grofield being wounded and captured. Parker then assembles a gang of thieves he's worked with in previous novels and they begin an all-out assault on the syndicate's men and businesses. Things get very exciting and very bloody.
Butcher's Moon, written in 1974, marks the end of "old" Parker. In 1999 Stark resumed writing Parker novels and these very definitely gave us a "new" Parker. New Parker is even better than old Parker. Old Parker novels occasionally suffer from stilted tough-guy dialogue, and the depiction of women can be summed up by the fact that they're usually referred to as "broads" or "dames." Also, the plots of some of the old Parkers sometimes bordered on the farfetched, straying out of the crime genre and into action/adventure. Butcher's Moon suffers a bit from this last problem, but in other respects it's a bridge to new Parker. The dialogue is free of cliche and there's no blatant sexism.
New Parker began with the aptly-titled Comeback, and in all respects Stark's writing is better. The plots are more unpredictable and believable, the dialogue is leaner and devoid of cliches, and Parker is made more human, but no less implacable and lethal, by the addition of a steady girlfriend. The best of the new Parkers is Breakout, which features both a prison escape and a heist. I suspect Stark brought back Parker because he felt a bit miffed that Leonard, Child, and others were getting rich in a genre that was largely his creation.
Check out the trailer for Point Blank below, but be warned that while it's superb, it makes significant departures from the book.
Posted by Cary Watson at 9:27 PM No comments:
Labels: Breakout, Butcher's Moon, Comeback, Donald E. Westlake, Jack Reacher, Lee Child, Lee Marvin, Parker, Point Blank, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Stark, The Hunter
Film Review: Hanna (2011)
An angry Saorise Ronan learns this isn't a Hannah Montana reboot.
"It's Grimm's Fairy Tales meets The Bourne Identity!"
I'm sure at some point in this film's development those words were spoken by a producer pitching a studio for money or a distribution deal. Or maybe the director said it to a producer. Or maybe a scriptwriter said it to the director. That pitch line represented the creative peak for this film; the writing, the casting, the filming, it was all downhill after that.
Look past the fanciful visual patina of cuckoo clock houses marooned in snowy forests, the coy references to witches, and you end up with the dollar-store version of a Bourne film. The title character is a 15 year-old girl who is seeking revenge against a CIA operative who killed her mother. The spook is played by Cate Blanchett, who uses an annoyingly twangy American accent and hams up her part without being entertaining. It seems Hanna was the product of some CIA gene therapy project to create superhumans, blah, blah, blah, plan cancelled, children and mothers killed, yadda, yadda, yadda, and Eric Bana, playing Hanna's surrogate father, saved Hanna and raised her to be a teen Jason Bourne.
The plot is quite irrelevant in a film like this. Hanna is all about set design and locations, so the story traipses around Europe from snow-covered forests to arid deserts to an abandoned amusement park. And it's all so hollow and tedious. The action sequences are third-rate, handicapped by the fact that Saorise Ronan, playing Hanna, doesn't move with any athleticism or fluidity. And the fairy tale elements peter out about ten minutes into the film and then make a contrived reappearance at the end. By the end of the film you're left wondering how someone convinced a studio that there was any entertainment value in this script. It doesn't satisfy action fans, and it's just not smart enough for the arthouse crowd.
Labels: Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hanna, Jason Bourne, Saorise Ronan
Film Review: Drive (2011)
It looks good, it sounds good, and if it came in Smell-O-Rama it would be musky yet pleasant, but like so many of the Detroit products its lead character drives, Drive has problems under the hood.
First the good. The director, Nicholas Winding Refn, has an eye for color and composition that makes most of his L.A locations come alive. He even manages to make a drive along one of L.A.'s over-photographed drainage canals seem original. The score is another plus. Refn avoids obvious musical themes and cues and goes for bombastically romantic pop songs that are a nice counterpoint to the violence and the very subdued romance between the male and female leads, played by Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan.
The acting is very good. Gosling can't have more than three pages of dialogue in the whole film, but he manages to speak volumes with his eyes; he even manages to put meaning into the angle of the toothpick his character (known only as the Driver) always has in the corner of his mouth. Carey Mulligan, as Irene, is good, but the script doesn't ask her to do much more than produce winsome smiles. It's Albert Brooks' performance that really holds this film together. As a deceptively ordinary-looking middle-aged mobster he's scary, amusing, and very believable. He also gets all the best lines.
Where this film has problems is in the mechanics of the plot. The story is pretty basic film noir: a problematic romance becomes entangled with a criminal enterprise and nobody goes home happy. The romance portion of the plot just didn't work for me. The main problem is that the Driver almost never opens his mouth around Irene and yet she falls for him. Yes, the Driver is nice to her son, but that's one of the oldest romantic cliches in the book; almost as old as the romantic montage sequence that ends with the Driver, Irene and her son skipping stones in a creek. Skipping stones! Even Nicholas Sparks would laugh at that. And doesn't it bother Irene that the Driver is only a few syllables away from being a mute?
The final act of the film falls apart at the seams. Up until then the Driver's been acting with ruthless logic, but then his common sense seems to go out the window; he dons a needless disguise before offing one opponent, and yet continues to wear a highly individual white silk jacket that's covered in blood. He even walks into a crowded restaurant wearing the jacket and no one seems to notice it. And in a final meeting with the Albert Brooks character the Driver takes no precautions whatsoever and disaster ensues.
At times you get the feeling that Refn is presenting the Driver as more of a guardian/avenging angel than an actual person, similar to Clint Eastwood's character in Sergio Leone's films. This is an OK concept, but then The Man With No Name never attempted a romantic relationship. That kind of thing doesn't work with symbolic characters. In the end, the plot problems turn Drive into nothing more than an exercise in style. All-style films are fine with me, but just don't annoy me with a shambolic and distracting plot.
Posted by Cary Watson at 1:33 AM No comments:
Labels: Albert Brooks, Carey Mulligan, Drive, Nicholas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling
Book Review: The Coming of the Third Reich (2003) by Richard J. Evans
This is the first in a three volume history of the Third Reich, covering the period from 1919-33. And while the author can't offer any new information about this era, he certainly does an admirable job of analyzing and laying out the reasons for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Evans does a particularly good job of pointing out that the Nazis were not voted into power by the German electorate. It's a popular misconception that Hitler gained power democratically, when in fact the most support the Nazis ever got in a free election was 37% of the vote. The left wing vote was only marginally lower, but it was split between two parties, the Communists and the Social Democrats. The appointment of Hitler as Reich Chancellor in place of Hindenburg in 1933 is what allowed to Nazis to fully grab the reins of power, especially after the Reichstag fire (which wasn't an act of Nazi sabotage) gave Hitler an excuse to declare a state of emergency.
The idea that Germans followed Hitler blindly and unhesitatingly also takes a bit of a drubbing in Evans' analysis. Once Hitler became Reich Chancellor in January 1933, the Nazis, via their SA and SS goon squads, began a reign of terror against anyone and everyone they regarded as a real or possible opponent. Hundreds were killed, thousands beaten up, and tens of thousands were arrested and held in the first concentration camps. Although the terror wasn't on a Stalinist scale, a clear message was sent to the German people that dissent from the Nazi party worldview was a guarantee of harsh persecution. The hundreds of thousands of Germans who joined the Nazi party at this time were, it would seem, motivated by fear more than ideology.
The author also does a good job of placing the Nazis' anti-Semitism in a historical context. Prior to WW I Germans were probably not Europe's most noted anti-Semites. That title could have been given to the French or Russians. Germany's military failure in WW I and its subsequent economic collapse had many Germans looking for a suitable scapegoat and Jews were, of course, the historically-preferred choice for that role. Beyond that, it would seem that it was Hitler's own pathological, visceral loathing of Jews that motivated the Nazi party to move from harassment to persecution to genocide.
There's an interesting parallel that can be drawn between the Nazi party and contemporary right-wing movements such as the Tea Party. The Nazis never had a rational political platform or philosophy. Their "politics" consisted solely of railing against the corruption and ineptitude of the Weimar Republic and appealing to aggressive fantasies about race and nationalism. Likewise, the Tea Party screams that the federal government is incompetent and pernicious, wraps itself in the flag at all times, sees America as preordained to rule the world, and has a thinly disguised dislike of Americans who aren't white and Christian. In both cases, the real or perceived failure of central government provides the impetus for a kind of blind, unreasoning anger that finds expression in a political party built around slogans and imagery rather than coherent policy.
Posted by Cary Watson at 12:11 AM No comments:
Labels: anti-semitism, Communists, germany, Hindenburg, Hitler, Nazi Party, Nazis, Reichstag, Richard J. Evans, Social Democrats, Tea Party, The Coming of the Third Reich, Third Reich, Weimar Republic
Film Review: The Night of the Generals (1967)
Despite what the cover art on the DVD box might indicate, this is not an action movie about WW II. This is a murder mystery set in Warsaw and Paris about a Nazi general with a fondness for butchering prostitutes. The film begins with the discovery of a dead prostitute in Warsaw, and the investigation is handled by Grau, a major in German intelligence. He learns from an eyewitness that the man seen leaving the dead woman's flat was wearing the uniform of a German general. Grau, played by Omar Sharif, learns that there were only three generals in Warsaw that night who do not have an alibi: Generals Kahlenberg, Gabler and Tanz. The generals are played by, respectively, Donald Pleasance, Charles Gray and Peter O'Toole.
Grau attempts to question the generals but is rebuffed, and then finds himself transferred to Paris. The story picks up two years later with the Allies about to enter the city and the three generals all, once again, in the same city. In truth, the film doesn't offer much of a murder mystery. It's patently obvious from the beginning that the Peter O'Toole character is the killer, and Grau does little of what could be called investigative work.
What makes this film entertaining is the cast, which, with the exception of Sharif, is all-British. This seems to have produced a healthy spirit of competition amongst them because they don't stint on trying to upstage each other. Pleasance does a fine job of combining acerbic wit and humanity, and Charles Gray, who made a career out of playing upper-class weasels, gives us a weasel with knobs on and oak leaf clusters. But the star attraction here is O'Toole, who goes over the top and around the bend as a Nazi madman. Tanz isn't just a serial killer, he's also a kleptomaniac, an alcoholic, and obsessive-compulsive. The highlight of the film, from a thespian point of view, is when Tanz stands before one of Van Gogh's more disturbed self-portraits. O'Toole/Tanz goes through a brief, but epic, nervous breakdown that the director must have enjoyed so much he has Tanz revisit the portrait the next day to have another freakout. As a demented killer, O'Toole's Tanz is right up there with Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter; both performances are hammy, but in both cases it's Grade A artisanal ham.
The script might not offer us much of a mystery, but it is intelligently written and there is lots of crisp, witty dialogue for the Brits to tuck into. The novel the film was based on is by H.H. Kirst, and I definitely want to check him out.
Labels: Anthony Hopkins, Charles Gray, Donald Pleasance, H.H. Kirst, Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, The Night of the Generals, Van Gogh
Book Review: Serious Men (2010) by Manu Joseph
One of the more common motifs from folktales is that of the clever servant or peasant who gets the better of the rich and powerful. Manu Joseph brings this motif to contemporary Mumbai with his darkly comic story of a clerk named Ayyan who works at the Institure of Theory and Research. The Institute is filled with India's best and brightest eggheads, led by Arivind Acharya, a physicist of international renown. Ayyan is Acharya's personal clerk.
Ayyan is not only clever, he's also mischievous, rather like one of the lesser gods from various mythologies who enjoy causing disorder. As the story begins Ayyan is constructing an elaborate ruse to make his peers believe that Adi, his 11 year-old son, is a genius. Through some simple tricks, and with Adi's willing participation, even the Press starts taking notice of Adi. At the Institure, meanwhile, the arrival of a beautiful female scientist throws the all-male facility into a subdued uproar. Oparna, the female scientist, also has a gift for disorder, but her aims are more malicious. You could almost call her a manifestation of Kali. She initiates an affair with Acharya that has disastrous consequences for both of them.
Joseph's aim with this novel is to show the great gulf that exists in modern India between the educated Brahmin elites and the hundreds of millions of others who live in squalid apartment blocks and raise their children with no expectation that they will see a better future. And this goes double for the Dalits (or Untouchables), India's despised underclass. Ayyan is a Dalit, and his mischief-making is explicitly a reaction to the disdain and prejudice he receives from the Brahmin world. All this sounds dreary and depressing, but Joseph has a light touch and Ayyan's scheming is done as much to raise his son's spirits as it is for his own pleasure.
One of the more elegant jokes in the novel revolves around the fact that while the boffins are caught up in an acrimonious battle over the best way to search for extraterrestrial life, they are woefully ignorant about the lives of ordinary Indians, who are as alien to them as anything outside Earth's atmosphere. And for all their intelligence and modernity, the scientists traditional dislike of Dalits almost proves their undoing.
Serious Men comes close to being a flawless novel, but what holds it back is the character of Oparna. I suppose at one level she's supposed to represent India's other underclass, it's women, but she's more of a plot device than a character. Her affair with Acharya causes several kinds of chaos, but her attraction to him is inexplicable. He's a lot older, he's unattractive, and he barely talks to her. It's also unclear why she takes a cruel revenge on Acharya after he ends the brief affair. All in all, she's not much more than a one-dimensional femme fatale.
Despite the problems with Oparna, Serious Men is an excellent novel that's a pleasure to read even if your knowledge of Indian society and culture is limited to Indian restaurants.
Labels: Brahmin, Dalit, Manu Joseph, Serious Men, Untouchables
Film Review: Cell 211 (2011)
I so looked forward to this film. It's high concept from the word go: a new prison guard named Juan, still in civvies, gets caught up in a prison riot in the wing housing the worst of the worst. Once the prisoners take control of the wing Juan has to convince the prisoners that he's a newly arrived convict. To add to his problems his pregnant wife on the outside is trying to contact him and the prisoners have a corrupt guard who's leaking them information.
With a story idea this good it's no surprise Hollywood grabbed the remake rights in record time. I have a sneaky feeling they might do a better job than the Spanish original. Cell 211 is good, but it just doesn't live up to its clever premise. The first problem is that Juan becomes the right hand man of Malmadre, the prison's daddy, in no time flat. Although this bond allows for some plot complications and keeps Juan at the centre of the action, it just defies belief. Malmadre is supposed to be tougher than beef jerky left out in the sun, and yet he bonds with weedy, middle-class Juan in what seems like a matter of minutes.
With equal rapidity Juan begins to sympathize with the prisoners, who face brutal conditions and, on occasion, brutal guards. This Stockholm syndrome part of the story is an OK idea but it's handled in a pretty obvious way and it's questionable how much sympathy we feel for these prisoners. The final act of the film is especially disappointing. A death that takes place outside the prison removes Juan's motivation for hiding his identity, and Malmadre faces an attack on his top dog position in the prison that isn't setup at all well. These two plot holes left me applauding the film for its original concept, but wondering why they couldn't do a better job with the execution. So much of the film's tension ends up being frittered away because the plot simply asks us to suspend our disbelief too often.
Labels: Cell 211
Film Review: Strigoi (2009)
At this point in time it would seem that there's nowhere left for film vampires to go. From Billy the Kid vs. Dracula to Dracula: Dead and Loving It to Let the Right One In all possible film genres have taken a crack at bloodsuckers. Maybe it's time for vampire stories to move on to ballet or Damien Hirst-style installation art. But wait! Here's something new: a vampire film actually filmed in Romania, the country that invented the damn things. And just to add to the novelty factor the film is set in the here and now and features Romanian actors working in English from a script written by an Englishwoman, Faye Jackson, who also directed the film.
Another variation is that the undead in this film are called Strigoi, which is evidently a kind of downmarket vampire. The Strigoi, it seems, simply refuse to remain dead due to grievances they have with the living. And although they do take blood, they also seem to be content to gorge on whatever food is handy. The story has Vlad (of course), a medical student, returning to his ancestral village after a failed attempt to make a life for himself in Italy. He's arrived shortly after a local couple, the Tirescus, have been killed by the villagers. The Tirescus were local tyrants first under the Communists as well as after the fall of Ceausescu. Even after death Constantin and Elena Tirescu haunt the village. Constantin still strives to buy up all the land, and Elena is content to eat everyone out of house and home. Vlad tries to be rational about what's going on around him, but in the end he has to do some vampire hunting.
The political message in Strigoi is obvious but interesting; communists, and now capialists, continue to plague the Romanian people with their insatiable thirst for power and wealth and...blood. The political aspect to the film isn't overplayed, and neither is it a splatterfest. The film's tone is droll, observational, and quite laidback. The actors have to be commended for doing an excellent job in their second language, and despite the low budget the film has a very polished look. It would be a better film if it was shorter and if the humour was not so understated, but it's definitely an interesting addition to the vampire genre.
Labels: Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, Ceausescu, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Faye Jackson, Romania, Strigoi, vampires. Let the Right One In
Book Review: The Coming of the Third Reich (2003) ...


Hi guys! I am David and I find this forum really interesting and at the same time useful, so I am glad I found it. If you have any questions, feel absolutely free to ask me. See you later.... in the threads.
Welcome to the forums, hopefully you'll learn some valuable information here, I personally have! Do you own a business? If so, what type of business do you own?


Thousands of years ago, Plato knew that learning has deep roots in emotion. Neuroscientists have proved him right through scientific research. Thanks to advancements in technology, we can now actually watch parts of the brain light up when we are learning. The key players in the brain that help us retain new knowledge and skills are the hippocampus and the amygdala.
The hippocampus works like a data drive. It's like a drive that takes in learning and retains it until it out to the rest of the brain, which then goes into memory. And when the hippocampus lights up, our ability to focus on learning activities becomes stronger and more consistent.
The amygdala is a small subcortical structure that lies deep within the temporal region of the brain that sits just in front of the hippocampus. It is understood to be a centre for emotional memory. It not only calculates the emotional value of any situation but also interprets these sensory experiences. It's often called the flight-or-fight centre of the brain. When faced with a negative situation, the amygdala decides whether you will dodge it or fight it. For learning designers, it is the boss. It determines whether the learner will remember the course with crystal detail or doze off midway.
So, we know that emotions, both positive and negative, have a profound and long-lasting impact on our memories however not to equal degrees. Dr Shlomo Wagner of the University of Haifa says that if the emotions are positive, you learn well. If you experience negative emotions, the learning may not be that effective.
As learning designers, we need to understand how emotions will influence learning, so we can give learners the best chance of changing their behaviour. If you are interested in reading more, Paul Ekman's book "Emotions Revealed" is a terrific resource.
When you design a course, it should not challenge or stress out a learner to the extent that he/she wants to run. It should create an environment where learners do not feel overwhelmed. For example, do not restrict navigation.
How do you put emotions into learning?
"What do you want your learners to feel"? Further studies in neuroscience and positive psychology show that curiosity, delight and humour really light up the brain. Think about ways you can structure your content to get people's attention and then consider ways to fire up academic emotions. To tap into this, you could include a fun game or an easy quiz that's not too stressful to complete.
Another way to evoke emotions in learning is through colour. Yes, you heard it right. Every shade of colour has an effect on learners. Warm colours like red and yellow evoke happiness and optimism. But, it may also denote anger and danger. Blue has a calming effect. You need to be aware of colour psychology to be able to use it for your benefit. Take a look at this useful colour guide to understand the significance of each colour and how it evokes emotions.
Music and videos are powerful emotional triggers. They can create the right mood, add drama, and provide an emotional cue. You just need to use it at the appropriate juncture.


Für sehbehinderte Menschen ist das Erlernen von Sprachen entscheidend um effektiv kommunizieren zu können und fördert dadurch soziale Integration und Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten.
Leider haben führende Verlagshäuser kaum oder kein Lehrmaterial für Blinde und sehbehinderte Lerner/innen. Da papier- und textbasierte Bücher per se nicht barrierefrei sein können, bietet computerbasiertes Lehrmaterial, das speziell für diese Lerngruppe konzipiert wurde, reale Chancen für das Lernen im Allgemeinen und auch für das Erlernen von Fremdsprachen.
In diesem Zusammenhang können mobile Geräte wie Smartphones und Tablet-Computer neue Wege anbieten. Diese Geräte sind attraktiv, besonders für jüngere Menschen und bieten darüber hinaus Barrierefreiheit für Menschen mit Sehbehinderungen. Bestehende Apps für Sprachkurse sind jedoch nicht barrierefrei konzipiert und machen keinen Gebrauch vom kommunikativen Potenzial dieser Medien.
Das Projekt MoLLVIS hat daher das Ziel, die deutsche Sprache per Tablet PC und Smartphone erlernbar zu machen und dafür LernApps für Windows-, Apple - und Android-Geräte zu erstellen. Dieses Projekt beruht auf den Ergebnissen der europäischen Projekte ALLVIP (http://www.allvip.org), ELLVIS (http://www.ellvis.allvip.org) und VET4VIP (http://www.vet4vip.org), in denen computerbasierte Sprachkurse für blinde und sehbehinderte Schüler/innen erstellt wurden.
Da die zu entwickelnden Benutzerschnittstellen so konzipiert sind, dass sie für sehende Schüler gleichermaßen attraktiv sein werden, geht die Wirkung über die engere Zielgruppe hinaus.
The Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, founded 1920 in Florence, has more than 100 local branches in all Italian provinces. The UICI is member of the European Union of the Blind as well as of the World Blind Union. Our mission is to facilitate social integration of the visually impaired (VI) persons and to promote a more realistic aptitude of Public Authorities.
The Machiavelli School was founded in 1978. Among the many teaching methods available, the Machiavelli Centre chose the "communicative approach". One of our principal objectives is to promote the interaction between students and real daily life in Florence and in Italy, by providing linguistic and cultural tools and creating opportunity for exchanges.
The BFW Würzburg gGmbH is a nationwide social service provider for vocational rehabilitation and training of adult people who are blind or visually impaired. The primary aim of the BFW is the reintegration of blind and visually impaired people for for their professional and social life.
TANDEM Hamburg is a well-established adult training institute in Hamburg. Tandem is known for modern language training, for a high-quality, efficient and personalised training in (vocational) education.
The Bremen company GedonSoft (GS) was founded in 2002 by Hans Riepe-Gedon in order to develop innovative and professional software solutions. GedonSoft provides state-of-the-art individual programming services in a variety of programming languages to the requirements of their customers.
Established on April 1st, 1961 as a branch of the Romanian Association of the Blind, the Brásov Association of the Blind is a non-governmental organisation of public utility, with socio-cultural, educational, sportive and humanitarian profiles, based mainly on volunteering. The Brasov Association of the Blind acts for the integration of visually impaired people in the economic, social-professional, cultural-artistic and sportive life of the county.
Our mission is to impart the German language and culture and to sustain dialogue and European values. The German Cultural Centre aims at encouraging Romanian – German partnerships and providing a current picture of the German culture. The language department offers language courses for German as a foreign language, for adults or for children.
The Moray House School of Education (UEDIN ) is a school within the College of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. Moray House School of Education has a well-established international reputation for research and teaching. One unit of the Moray House School of Education, the Scottish Sensory Centre promotes and supports new developments and effective practices in the education of people with sensory impairments, that is; visual impairment, deaf and deafblind.
Bartiméus Onderwijs (BO) is an organization which provides services for the partially sighted and blind. Bartiméus supports partially sighted and blind children, young people, adults and the elderly so that they can live, study and work as independently as possible.
Corporate Quilt is the new name for the B.V. (since 2002) which was previously called Capital Language Services (CLS) (since 1996). After selling the language training activities and the trade name, a new name and identity was developed, which is Corporate Quilt. We focus on corporate communication consultancy and select high quality service providers to provide professional communication services aimed at specific (international) companies, target groups, objectives and activities.
Agens, founded in 1998, is a non-profit organisation offering social services for employment, training and job placement. Currently, agens has 50 permanent employees, 316 employees in job creation measures, and offers its services to approximately 500 further participants. Within this context, agens provides services for and with people with special needs. Accessibility issues are a major focus of agens' work and approach.


We're not sure which group this is from, but find elements of Rade weaving: the single twined end, and complex warp patterning. Unlike the other skirtcloths on this page, it is a single piece, and does not comprise multiple bands sewn together. The complexity of the weaving indicates that this was probably made for ceremonial wear. The uneven coloring on the black areas suggests that perhaps these threads were dyed with natural color, tho the red and green threads are commercial. This piece has overall, even fading, probably from washing, and is in quite good condition. We see few of these.
Size: 52 in. x 24 in.


text:
The Black Death starts in China and reaches England in 1848.
The disease reached South Warwickshire in the spring of 1349 and swept through the county in the next few months. In September 1350 in Alveston there were 27 holdings "in the lord's hands" (i.e. vacant) out of a total of about 83 (33%); the number of tenants who had died was probably in excess of a third, but in the year that had elapsed after the plague some vacant holdings had been filled. The epidemic had a long-term effect because it caused a high mortality among young people and children. At Alveston it was stated that in the case of a third of the vacant holdings there were no heirs, suggesting that whole families had been wiped out, or that young men had died before they could father children.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Atlanta Surgical Arts proudly provides top tier services to a diverse patient population in the greater Atlanta area and abroad. Our core mission is helping men and women to realize their goals of personal and professional success through putting their best face forward.
Our office is located inside the Glenridge Medical Center building, with easy access about 30 minutes north of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. We have a private in-office surgical suite for easy and convenient surgery scheduling. Our facility is equipped with the most advanced technology and we hold patient safety to the highest standards.


World of Tanks || OUTNUMBERED!
PS: Circon you've played world of tanks for 5 years and still challenge the stalin laser guided missiles that the kv-2 fires to a peeking contest? :v whut r u casul?
Yeah AufklärungsPanhter Mit 105cm Derp Gun!!!!! Me: JES JES JEEEEES.
That was pure joy. Loved every meme.
Legs gone numb in the toilet watching this. WERF.
1:37 that mission name is WoT community motto.
Editing on point in this one!!!!
YES! Finally some more highlights!
NOOOOO! I WANT MORE HIGHLIGHTS!!!
broke my daughter and mine ears.
Man, this video really shows how much RNG rules this game.
Arty players or K-Pop fans, which is worse?
In this showcase. RNG. Confusing spotting mechanics. Lines of sight. Polish tin foil ammo racks. Circon.
I had a barrel of laughs watching that one! Thank you for suffering for us so we dont have to!
WHY DID IT END!?! WHY?!?
That arty rant on the hill by the windmill with all the craters everywhere was legit! I can't play heavy tanks in this game anymore and I'm loosing my will to even turn the game on these days because of the sky cancer and it's worse now because of the second set of personal missions.
I also enjoyed the quick verbal recap of the stream at the end, sums up the WoT experience nicely.


Mrs. Maffei has taught all grade levels from Kindergarten through eighth grade. She has a passion for integral curriculum and is excited to weave language arts, reading, history and geography together in her humanities classes. Mrs. Maffei's classes are filled with task-based learning and problem solving activities.
"I love to see the light bulb turn on when children discover things on their own! When they realize that they are in control of their learning, children do amazing things," she says.
Before coming to BASIS Independent McLean, Mrs. Maffei taught in private schools in Northern Virginia and most recently in Southeast D.C. She has three children, two who have graduated from college and one who is at the US Naval Academy.
When she is not reading, Ms. Maffei enjoys hiking and playing board games.
Prior to joining BASIS Independent McLean, Dr. Noble was employed as a math teacher at Esperanza Academy Charter School in Philadelphia, PA, and he also held a variety of teaching and research positions within the Physics department at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Dr. Noble's dissertation was titled: Approximation Methods in Relativistic Eigenvalue Perturbation Theory.
Dr. Noble is excited to be at BASIS Independent McLean because of the obvious passion of the faculty and staff, as well as the incredible students who attend the school.
Dr. Noble also brings to the school many international experiences, having spent the first 14 years of his life living overseas in Honduras, Pakistan, Botswana, and the Republic of Georgia. In all, he has visited over 25 nations.
The George Washington University, M.Phil.
Ms. Vander Wall has been teaching composition, literature, and English Language Arts courses for more than a dozen years. She has experience teaching elementary-, middle school-, and university-age/level students. Additionally, she has extensive experience teaching writing and composition to English language learners. Prior to joining BASIS Independent McLean, Ms. Vander Wall was an instructor at the Art of Problem Solving Academy and graduate assistant and lecture at The George Washington University.
Born in Shenyang, China, she came to the U.S. after earning her bachelor's degree. Since earning her master's she has taught different types of Chinese classes for different grades. Ms. Wang joined BASIS DC as a Mandarin Subject Teacher in April 2017 and taught grades 7, 10, and 12. She is excited to join the BASIS Independent McLean family and to work together with the students on the journey of learning Chinese.


"The court's decision will speak volumes about the discrimination that religious minorities face daily in the Gulf States, and about the religious double standards the [UAE's] legal system enforces to ensure that money Christians earn in Dubai stays in Dubai," Moore wrote.
"One does not need to be a Christian to see that depriving a man's daughters and his wife of 41 years their rightful inheritance because they are not Muslims is not just under any standard."
"[T]here is one issue the Pope must not neglect to take up with his hosts: A Christian family is being denied justice" in the UAE's sharia courts, Moore wrote. "Pope Francis must demand true justice" for this family on his trip.
According to Moore's column, Franz Lenz, an American citizen who had worked and owned property in the UAE, died in 2014 at his home in McLean, Va. His widow Nicole and their two daughters met resistance when they claimed their inheritance in a sharia court, which has jurisdiction over inheritance issues involving property owned in Dubai, Moore wrote.
Dubai is the name of both the UAE's largest city with a population of about 3 million people and of one of its seven emirates.
Meshaal Khalaf Mohammed al-Amri, a Saudi living in the UAE, opposed the Zenzs' inheritance claims, contending Franz Zenz married her and converted from Christianity to Islam while living in the UAE, Moore wrote. Al-Amri told the court she and her family are Zenz's heirs under sharia law.
Al-Amri, however, has been charged in Saudi Arabia with forgery, counterfeiting and illegal flight from the country on a false passport, according to the column. Courts in both Saudi Arabia and Dubai ruled that the documents she provided to support her claims of marriage to Zenz and his conversion to Islam were forgeries. The Dubai trial court ruled in favor of Zenz's widow and daughters.
The appeals court awarded Lenz's total estate to Al-Amri.
Islam is the UAE's official religion, according to its constitution, but freedom of worship is protected if it does not conflict with morals or public policy, the U.S. State Department said in its most recent International Religious Freedom Report in 2017. The UAE bars proselytizing by non-Muslims, conversion from Islam and blasphemy.
Immigrants comprise nearly 90 percent of the UAE's population of more than 9 million people, according to the United Nations. Most migrated to the UAE for economic reasons.
Moore's column is available at https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/franz-zenz-case-sharia-court-anti-christian-discrimination/.


text:
Amid tax-bill euphoria, one big part of the stock market is getting left behind: Tech
December 3, 2017 December 3, 2017 / Coffee Times News
Tech is the one sector that may not make out better with corporate tax reform, and it has been lagging the market this week as tax legislation seems to be making progress
Foreign operations of U.S. companies have been hoarding cash overseas so as not to pay U.S. taxes, but congressional tax plans would encourage companies to repatriate that cash with a low one-time tax break as they move to a new territorial tax system
Goldman Sachs analysts cut their weighting on the S&P tech sector to neutral recently, noting it faces headwinds from tax legislation
There's a reason tech has been the worst performing sector this week as the tax bill makes its way through Congress — it's the sector that benefits the least.
The prospects for a 20 percent tax cut turbocharged the stock market Thursday as the Senate moved closer to a vote, but tech lagged behind the industrials, a group viewed as a big beneficiary. Goldman Sachs strategists say the proposed tax bills could boost aggregate S&P 500 earnings by 5 percentage points next year, but for tech, it could be a 3 percent decline.
"Many of the accounting tricks multinational companies have used will be disallowed under the proposed tax regime. A move to a territorial tax system will increase taxes on earnings booked abroad. The technology sector will be most negatively affected, in my view," says Oppenheimer CIO Krishna Memani.
The market has been focused on the potential that the repatriation of the billions of dollars technology companies have kept stashed overseas will bring a new round of stock buybacks and dividends. But the proposed changes in tax structure to a new territorial-based version ends loopholes used widely by tech and health-care companies to protect profits from the current high U.S. tax rate of 35 percent.
Goldman analysts recently put tech at "neutral weight" from overweight just because its tax bill will not see a big reduction, as some other industries will. Under the proposed plan, health care and tech will see the least gains.
"Tech has the lowest effective tax rate of any sector [24 percent] and would benefit least under the various proposals. The tax proposals target multinationals by trying to restrict "earnings stripping" and introducing a minimum tax on overseas revenues. Although Tech has the highest expected sales growth and profit margins, it also has the highest risk from tax reform, valuation, and government regulation," wrote Goldman analysts.
Goldman says the median S&P company pays an effective tax rate of 27 percent, compared with statutory rates of 39 percent, when including 4 percent for state and local taxes. S&P 500 companies repatriate less than 30 percent of their foreign income and pay only foreign taxes, which are lower than U.S. taxes on about 70 percent of their foreign profits.
For tech companies, 59 percent of their sales are overseas.
"As the dispersion of effective tax rates narrows, we estimate that tax reform will result in an effective tax rate slightly below 24 percent for the S&P 500, including federal, state, and local taxes," the Goldman analysts wrote. In a scenario where all sectors paid an effective 24 percent tax rate, "Info Tech EPS would decline by 3 percent compared with a 5 percent increase for the aggregate S&P 500."
The top 10 hoarders of overseas cash account for $675 billion, or about 75 percent of the S&P 500 companies' total foreign cash stash. The tech sector holds $633 billion of it. That cash would be repatriated at a lower one-time rate.
JPMorgan's quant strategists fired off a warning this week that growth and momentum names could be hit by a continued rotation on passage of tax reform or even just speculation about it.
"We think the market is underestimating the probability of tax reform passage; the potential performance risk to active managers with high exposure to growth/momentum could be significant in the near term. For managers overweight growth/momentum, taking a defensive approach to tax reform appears prudent," they said in a note.
They said shareholders should use protective strategies for stocks that have high hedge fund ownership such as Facebook, Micron, Adobe and Netflix, among others.
Goldman is overweighting financials and industrials, two sectors that could benefit from tax reform, but it's still positive on tech even though it views it as a neutral weight.
It said the technology sector should see revenue growth of 12 percent, compared with 7 percent for the S&P 500, and its 20 percent profit margins are twice those of the S&P as a whole. Goldman analysts note that the FAAMG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google [Alphabet] — are trading at their historical average relative valuation, and tech as a whole is at a premium to the market on all metrics.
"In addition, momentum and growth — both currently captured within the Technology sector — are typically the best-performing factors in a late-cycle environment. A potential boost to buybacks from repatriated overseas earnings should also support sector returns," they wrote.
Memani sees the hit to tech shares as temporary. "Once we get through this period into the new year, they can continue to deliver," he said.
The S&P technology sector was down about 2 percent for the week but is still up 36 percent for the year.
Source CNBC International
News, stock market, tax, tech, world news
← China's Tencent is quietly surrounding US tech giants with Trojan horse investments
Apple's Tim Cook says developers have earned $17 billion from China App Store →


Great response Felix! It left poor Iusta flustered at the implication of what she said. She will keep him busy!
Yes Felix, you're unkempt. You need a shave and a new tunic and perhaps a toga as well.
I wonder what Felix told the dove so that it could reach the gods.
A pert servant, Master Samwise. It's always good to have somebody keeping an eye on your public image. Yes Felix: a shave, a new tunic, and a dove/pigeon message for the gods.
Irenaeus is not the sort of servant who's going to put up with trailing around behind a scruffy-looking nerfherder of a master.
Don't forget the toga. Any self respecting Roman would use a toga.
He's in the Big City now, and he's not a tradesman, common labourer, or foreigner–if he wants to look respectable, he'll wrap himself in all that uncomfortable, hot, sweaty, confining, clumsy fabric.
Not much different than today. If a man wants to look respectable must wear a woolen suit plus tie. One of the main reasons why women freeze to death in offices with air conditioning.
I've always perceived that even if I'm wearing a suit, scarf, and tights offices are kept too cold for about half the people in them. (Then I have to add gloves and a woolly scarf and a space heater and maybe one of those hats with the fox ears and ear flaps with a couple of fuzzy pompons.) We should all have office togas to wrap in. We should start a fad.
I used to joke that all the trash cans were plastic so we couldn't light fires to keep warm in summer.
The office got more and more casual as the division circled the drain faster and faster, but I still kept a wool shirt and a heavy sportcoat in my cube. Shorts were allowed on Fridays in summer, but that would have been like beachwear in a meat locker for me.
There was that one who wouldn't unwrap her strophium at the brothel who Vibius made sure to call for when the town was evacuating. And several almost-wives (where the sons came from). The one from the brothel may be the only one who got safely away, or at least the only one whose whereabouts Felix currently knows.
Meanhwile, Damon is getting in trouble.
And that's was what was so great; in a single detail in a part of one panel you managed to convey all that plus Iusta's growing understanding that such a relationship can be a pretty big, scary, wonderful, complicated thing.


The always frustrating tight ends are now up when it comes to our first look at the 2018 fantasy football player rankings and once again this is a very top-heavy group that has high sticker prices among that range.
-Give the Carolina Panthers' Greg Olsen a mulligan for 2017 as he was as durable a player as you could get in all of fantasy football prior last year's injury frustration. Yes he is getting a bit long in the tooth but no one is trusted more by QB Cam Newton in the Panthers passing offense.
-Kelce gets the nod over Gronk simply due to the latter's inability to stay on the field. Plus, count on K.C. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes looking for his security blanket in Kelce often throughout the season as most young passers do.
-While Jimmy Graham is a notch or two below athletically what he once was with the New Orleans Saints, he should be a lock for double-digit scores after signing on with the Green Bay Packers and QB Aaron Rodgers this past winter.
-If you choose to wait on drafting a tight end, old reliable but somewhat boring veterans Walker and Rudolph are excellent options.
-The hype is getting out of hand with the Chicago Bears' Trey Burton and it is to the point that he may not be worth the cost.


More than 1,700 postcards have been sent calling for the A47 to be fully dualled. Pic: Norfolk County Council.
More than 1,700 people have done their bit to boost the campaign to get the A47 fully dualled - by sending postcards of support which will be used to put pressure on the government.
Less than half of the road is dualled and last month saw the launch of the 'Just Dual It!' campaign, spearheaded by the Eastern Daily Press, Norfolk County Council and Norfolk Chamber of Commerce.
And the postcards will play a vital part in demonstrating the strength of public opinion, as the government ponders which road projects should get funding beyond 2020.
A batch of postcards were included in the EDP and are available for collection in other locations around Norfolk.
Some 1,700 people have filled them in, stating why the dualling of the road is so important, and have sent them off to Norfolk County Council.
The idea is that, in the summer, the postcards will be taken to Westminster to demonstrate the strength of feeling for the need for a fully dualled road.
People wanting to add their support to the A47 dualling campaign can still send back the Just Dual It! postcards given away with the Eastern Daily Press last month.
You can also get them from our offices in Rouen Road; County Hall in Martineau Lane; Norfolk Chamber of Commerce in Whiting Road, Norwich; Great Yarmouth Borough Council's Town Hall or West Norfolk Council's offices in King's Lynn.
However, unlike the ones given away with the paper, those postcards are not Freepost, so you would need to put a stamp on it, or fill it in and hand it back where you pick it up.
be transferred onto a postcard.


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text:
package com.msdpe.storagedemo;

import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.util.Log;
import android.util.Pair;

import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.mobileservices.MobileServiceClient;
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.mobileservices.MobileServiceJsonTable;
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.mobileservices.ServiceFilterResponse;
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.mobileservices.TableDeleteCallback;
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.mobileservices.TableJsonOperationCallback;
import com.microsoft.windowsazure.mobileservices.TableJsonQueryCallback;

public class StorageService {
	private MobileServiceClient mClient;
	private MobileServiceJsonTable mTableTables;
	private MobileServiceJsonTable mTableTableRows;
	private MobileServiceJsonTable mTableContainers;
	private MobileServiceJsonTable mTableBlobs;
	private Context mContext;
	private final String TAG = "StorageService";
	private List<Map<String, String>> mTables;
	private ArrayList<JsonElement> mTableRows;
	private List<Map<String, String>> mContainers;
	private List<Map<String, String>> mBlobNames;
	private ArrayList<JsonElement> mBlobObjects;
	private JsonObject mLoadedBlob;

	/***
	 * Initialize our service
	 * @param context
	 */
	public StorageService(Context context) {
		mContext = context;
		try {
			mClient = new MobileServiceClient("https://mobileserviceurl.azure-mobile.net/", "applicationkey", mContext);
			mTableTables = mClient.getTable("Tables");
			mTableTableRows = mClient.getTable("TableRows");
			mTableContainers = mClient.getTable("BlobContainers");
			mTableBlobs = mClient.getTable("BlobBlobs");
		} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
			Log.e(TAG, "There was an error creating the Mobile Service. Verify the URL");
		}
	}

	public List<Map<String, String>> getLoadedTables() {
		return this.mTables;
	}

	public JsonElement[] getLoadedTableRows() {
		return this.mTableRows.toArray(new JsonElement[this.mTableRows.size()]);
	}

	public List<Map<String, String>> getLoadedContainers() {
		return this.mContainers;
	}

	public List<Map<String, String>> getLoadedBlobNames() {
		return this.mBlobNames;
	}

	public JsonElement[] getLoadedBlobObjects() {
		return this.mBlobObjects.toArray(new JsonElement[this.mBlobObjects.size()]);
	}

	public JsonObject getLoadedBlob() {
		return this.mLoadedBlob;
	}

	/***
	 * Fetches all of the tables from storage
	 */
	public void getTables() {
		mTableTables.where().execute(new TableJsonQueryCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonElement result, int count, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				JsonArray results = result.getAsJsonArray();

				mTables = new ArrayList<Map<String, String>>();
				//Loop through the results and get the name of each table
				for (int i = 0; i < results.size(); i ++) {
					JsonElement item = results.get(i);
					Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
					map.put("TableName", item.getAsJsonObject().getAsJsonPrimitive("TableName").getAsString());
					mTables.add(map);
				}
				//Broadcast that tables have been loaded
				Intent broadcast = new Intent();
				broadcast.setAction("tables.loaded");
				mContext.sendBroadcast(broadcast);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Adds a new table
	 * @param tableName
	 */
	public void addTable(String tableName) {
		JsonObject newTable = new JsonObject();
		newTable.addProperty("tableName", tableName);
		mTableTables.insert(newTable, new TableJsonOperationCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonObject jsonObject, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the tables from the server
				getTables();
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Handles deleting a table from storage
	 * @param tableName
	 */
	public void deleteTable(String tableName) {
		//Create the json Object we'll send over and fill it with the required
		//id property - otherwise we'll get kicked back
		JsonObject table = new JsonObject();
		table.addProperty("id", 0);
		//Create parameters to pass in the table name.  We do this with params
		//because it would be stripped out if we put it on the table object
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("tableName", tableName));
		mTableTables.delete(table, parameters, new TableDeleteCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(Exception exception, ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the tables from the server
				getTables();
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Gets all of the rows for a specific table
	 * @param tableName
	 */
	public void getTableRows(String tableName) {
		//Executes a read request with parameters
		//We have to do it in this way to ensure it shows up correctly on the server
		mTableTableRows.execute(mTableTableRows.parameter("table", tableName), new TableJsonQueryCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonElement result, int count, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Loop through the results and add them to our local collection
				JsonArray results = result.getAsJsonArray();
				mTableRows = new ArrayList<JsonElement>();
				for (int i = 0; i < results.size(); i ++) {
					JsonElement item = results.get(i);
					mTableRows.add(item);
				}
				//Broadcast that table rows have been loaded
				Intent broadcast = new Intent();
				broadcast.setAction("tablerows.loaded");
				mContext.sendBroadcast(broadcast);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Delets an individual table row
	 * @param tableName
	 * @param partitionKey
	 * @param rowKey
	 */
	public void deleteTableRow(final String tableName, String partitionKey, String rowKey) {
		//Create the json Object we'll send over and fill it with the required
		//id property - otherwise we'll get kicked back
		JsonObject row = new JsonObject();
		row.addProperty("id", 0);
		//Create parameters to pass in the table row details.  We do this with params
		//because it would be stripped out if we put it on the row object
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("tableName", tableName));
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("rowKey", rowKey));
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("partitionKey", partitionKey));
		mTableTableRows.delete(row, parameters, new TableDeleteCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(Exception exception, ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the table rows for the table
				getTableRows(tableName);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Adds a new row to a table
	 * @param tableName
	 * @param tableRowData
	 */
	public void addTableRow(final String tableName, List<Pair<String,String>> tableRowData) {
		//Create a new json object with the key value pairs
		JsonObject newRow = new JsonObject();
		for (Pair<String,String> pair : tableRowData) {
			newRow.addProperty(pair.first, pair.second);
		}
		//Pass the table name over in parameters
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("table", tableName));
		mTableTableRows.insert(newRow, parameters, new TableJsonOperationCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonObject jsonObject, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the table rows from the server
				getTableRows(tableName);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Updates an existing table row
	 * @param tableName
	 * @param tableRowData
	 */
	public void updateTableRow(final String tableName, List<Pair<String,String>> tableRowData) {
		//Create a new json object with the key value pairs
		JsonObject newRow = new JsonObject();
		for (Pair<String,String> pair : tableRowData) {
			newRow.addProperty(pair.first, pair.second);
		}
		//Add ID Parameter since it's required on the server side
		newRow.addProperty("id", 1);
		//Pass the table name over in parameters
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("table", tableName));
		mTableTableRows.update(newRow, parameters, new TableJsonOperationCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonObject jsonObject, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the table rows
				getTableRows(tableName);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Gets all of the containers from storage
	 */
	public void getContainers() {
		mTableContainers.where().execute(new TableJsonQueryCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonElement result, int count, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Loop through and build an array of container names
				JsonArray results = result.getAsJsonArray();
				mContainers = new ArrayList<Map<String, String>>();
				for (int i = 0; i < results.size(); i ++) {
					JsonElement item = results.get(i);
					Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
					map.put("ContainerName", item.getAsJsonObject().getAsJsonPrimitive("name").getAsString());
					mContainers.add(map);
				}
				//Broadcast that the containers have been loaded
				Intent broadcast = new Intent();
				broadcast.setAction("containers.loaded");
				mContext.sendBroadcast(broadcast);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Adds a new container
	 * @param containerName
	 * @param isPublic - specifies ithe container should be public or not
	 */
	public void addContainer(String containerName, boolean isPublic) {
		//Creating a json object with the container name
		JsonObject newContainer = new JsonObject();
		newContainer.addProperty("containerName", containerName);
		//Passing over the public flag as a parameter
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("isPublic", isPublic ? "1" : "0"));
		mTableContainers.insert(newContainer, parameters, new TableJsonOperationCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonObject jsonObject, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the containers from the server
				getContainers();
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Deletes a container
	 * @param containerName
	 */
	public void deleteContainer(String containerName) {
		//Create the json Object we'll send over and fill it with the required
		//id property - otherwise we'll get kicked back
		JsonObject container = new JsonObject();
		container.addProperty("id", 0);
		//Create parameters to pass in the container details.  We do this with params
		//because it would be stripped out if we put it on the container object
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("containerName", containerName));
		mTableContainers.delete(container, parameters, new TableDeleteCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(Exception exception, ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch containers from the server
				getContainers();
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Get all of the blobs for a container
	 * @param containerName
	 */
	public void getBlobsForContainer(String containerName) {
		//Pass the container name as a parameter
		//We have to do it in this way for it to show up properly on the server
		mTableBlobs.execute(mTableBlobs.parameter("container", containerName), new TableJsonQueryCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonElement result, int count, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				JsonArray results = result.getAsJsonArray();
				//Store a local array of both the JsonElements and the blob names
				mBlobNames = new ArrayList<Map<String, String>>();
				mBlobObjects = new ArrayList<JsonElement>();
				for (int i = 0; i < results.size(); i ++) {
					JsonElement item = results.get(i);
					mBlobObjects.add(item);
					Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
					map.put("BlobName", item.getAsJsonObject().getAsJsonPrimitive("name").getAsString());
					mBlobNames.add(map);
				}
				//Broadcast that blobs are loaded
				Intent broadcast = new Intent();
				broadcast.setAction("blobs.loaded");
				mContext.sendBroadcast(broadcast);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Handles deleting a blob
	 * @param containerName
	 * @param blobName
	 */
	public void deleteBlob(final String containerName, String blobName) {
		//Create the json Object we'll send over and fill it with the required
		//id property - otherwise we'll get kicked back
		JsonObject blob = new JsonObject();
		blob.addProperty("id", 0);
		//Create parameters to pass in the blob details.  We do this with params
		//because it would be stripped out if we put it on the blob object
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("containerName", containerName));
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("blobName", blobName));
		mTableBlobs.delete(blob, parameters, new TableDeleteCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(Exception exception, ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Refetch the blobs from the server
				getBlobsForContainer(containerName);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Gets a SAS URL for an existing blob
	 * @param containerName
	 * @param blobName
	 * NOTE THIS IS DONE AS A SEPARATE METHOD FROM getSasForNewBlob BECAUSE IT
	 * BROADCASTS A DIFFERENT ACTION
	 */
	public void getBlobSas(String containerName, String blobName) {
		//Create the json Object we'll send over and fill it with the required
		//id property - otherwise we'll get kicked back
		JsonObject blob = new JsonObject();
		blob.addProperty("id", 0);
		//Create parameters to pass in the blob details.  We do this with params
		//because it would be stripped out if we put it on the blob object
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("containerName", containerName));
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("blobName", blobName));
		mTableBlobs.insert(blob, parameters, new TableJsonOperationCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonObject jsonObject, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Set the loaded blob
				mLoadedBlob = jsonObject;
				//Broadcast that the blob is loaded
				Intent broadcast = new Intent();
				broadcast.setAction("blob.loaded");
				mContext.sendBroadcast(broadcast);
			}
		});
	}

	/***
	 * Gets a SAS URL for a new blob so we can upload it to the server
	 * @param containerName
	 * @param blobName
	 * NOTE THIS IS DONE AS A SEPARATE METHOD FROM getSasForNewBlob BECAUSE IT
	 * BROADCASTS A DIFFERENT ACTION
	 */
	public void getSasForNewBlob(String containerName, String blobName) {
		//Create the json Object we'll send over and fill it with the required
		//id property - otherwise we'll get kicked back
		JsonObject blob = new JsonObject();
		blob.addProperty("id", 0);
		//Create parameters to pass in the blob details.  We do this with params
		//because it would be stripped out if we put it on the blob object
		List<Pair<String,String>> parameters = new ArrayList<Pair<String, String>>();
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("containerName", containerName));
		parameters.add(new Pair<String, String>("blobName", blobName));
		mTableBlobs.insert(blob, parameters, new TableJsonOperationCallback() {
			@Override
			public void onCompleted(JsonObject jsonObject, Exception exception,
					ServiceFilterResponse response) {
				if (exception != null) {
					Log.e(TAG, exception.getCause().getMessage());
					return;
				}
				//Set the loaded blob
				mLoadedBlob = jsonObject;
				//Broadcast that we are ready to upload the blob data
				Intent broadcast = new Intent();
				broadcast.setAction("blob.created");
				mContext.sendBroadcast(broadcast);
			}
		});
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Why (not) having an intercept term can change the sign of some coefficient in glmnet Sorry my dataset is pretty big so that I can not post it here.
I have a simple glmnet model in R
coef(glmnet(Y ~ A + B+ C, data = test_data, family = "binomial", intercept = F), s=0)
shows if intercept = F, A will get a negative coefficient while if intercept is T or omitted as T is the default, A will get a positive coefficient. I thought intercept determines where the odd ratio is when all predictors are zero. However, the direction of a predictor should not be changed by intercept... How come? Can someone help to explain?

A: Glmnet uses a version of Maximum Likelihood Estimation, and for that to work you have to assume the distribution of your data. Notice that in the case of the Logit model:
Let $X = (X_1, \dots , X_k)$, $\alpha = intercept$ and $\beta = (\beta_1, \dots , \beta_k)$:
Without intercept, your error term's distribution would be:
$$G(X \beta) \sim \Lambda(X \beta) = \frac{e^{X \beta}}{1+e^{X \beta}}$$
And your estimators would be:
$$\hat{\beta}_{MLE} = argmax \frac{1}{N} \sum (y_i log(\Lambda(X \beta) + (1-y_i)log(1- \Lambda(X \beta))$$
With intercept, it would be:
$$G(X \beta + \beta_0 \alpha) \sim \Lambda(X \beta + \beta_0 \alpha) = \frac{e^{X \beta + \beta_0 \alpha}}{1+e^{X \beta + \beta_0 \alpha}}$$
And your estimators would be:
$$\hat{\beta^*}_{MLE} = argmax \frac{1}{N} \sum (y_i log(\Lambda(X \beta + \beta_0 \alpha) + (1-y_i)log(1- \Lambda(X \beta + \beta_0 \alpha))$$
Notice that the FOCs will be nonlinear and the presence or absence of $\alpha$ will change the value of the estimated $\beta$ even for $\beta_i \neq \beta_0$.
So, there is no reason to believe that the direction would be the same.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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