text:
\section{Introduction}

Social Networking Services (SNSs) are one of the most used services
on the World Wide Web \cite{greenwood_social_2016}.
Two typical elements of a SNS are the \emph{social profile}, containing information
about a user, for example her interests, and the \emph{social graph},
containing information about the connections between users.
In our previous {\tiny }work, we argued that the smartphone is the optimal social
networking device \cite{beierle_towards_2015}.
It typically has only one user and,
with recent developments in smartphone sensor technologies and available APIs,
more and more personal data -- like location traces, most frequently used apps,
etc.\ -- is available that could potentially extend existing social profiles.

One of the typical applications in SNSs are friend recommendations.
When recommending new connections in an SNS, typically, the
social graph is utilized \cite{yin_unified_2010}.
While
doing so
enables the
incorporation of graph-based
properties like the number of mutual friends,
there are also studies that
look into the similarity of attributes of neighboring nodes,
thus incorporating the social profile in the recommendation process
\cite{mohajireen_relational_2011}.
The basis for the cited studies about friend recommendations
is the insight that \emph{homophily}
-- the tendency for people to associate themselves with people
who are similar to them --
is structuring any type of network \cite{mcpherson_birds_2001}.
Looking further into the fields of psychology and social sciences,
\emph{psychometrics}, the academic field that deals with
measuring psychological personality traits,
seems like a promising research area providing results that could help
improve friend recommendations in SNSs.
Recently, the company \emph{Cambridge Analytica}
was in the media because of their alleged success
in utilizing psychometrics in targeted political campaign advertisements \cite{blakely_data_2016},
though their impact on the campaign remains somewhat unclear \cite{confessore_data_2017}.
Although the use case is different
-- targeted advertising instead of friend recommendation --
this shows the potential of applying psychology research results to other fields.
In this paper, we argue that combining
current smartphone technologies with findings from psychometrics
will enable meaningful friend recommendations based on
social profiles without requiring knowledge of the social graph.
Our main contributions of this short paper is
a thorough analysis of the theoretical background of psychometrics in relation
to SNSs and mobile devices, including a proposal of
how to integrate the insights into friend recommendations
in SNSs.

\section{Analysis and Concept}

In this section, we give a detailed analysis of relevant
work related to psychometrics, social networking, and smartphone usage.
In Section~\ref{sec:2:psych},
we give a literature review on how and why people actually connect
with each other in (offline) social networks.
We outline the concepts of homophily and personality
from psychology and social sciences.
In order to ensure that the same concepts hold true in
SNSs, we look into existing research on SNSs and personality
in Section~\ref{sec:2:socialnetworkpersonality}.
In Section~\ref{sec:2:smartphonepersonality},
we investigate the relationship between smartphone usage and personality.
As we will deal with attributes of users rather then
existing connections between users, we will look at existing
definitions and components of social profiles in
Section~\ref{sec:2:definition}.

\subsection{Psychology and Social Sciences}
\label{sec:2:psych}

In this section, we want to investigate two concepts from psychology
and social sciences: homophily and personality.
Those two concepts will help us conceptualize
the parameters we need in a system for
psychometrics-based friend recommendations.
Furthermore, it will
answer the questions
"When do people become friends?", i.e., "When do people create edges in a social graph?",
which are necessary to be asked in social networking.

Homophily is the concept that people tend to associate themselves with
other people that are similar to them.
According to McPherson et al., this principle structures network
ties of every type, including friendship, work, or partnership \cite{mcpherson_birds_2001}.
Some of the categories in which people have homophilic contacts are
ethnicity, age, education, and gender.

The social profile is representing a user.
The personality of a person influences
a multitude of aspects, e.g., job performance, satisfaction, or romantic success
\cite{golbeck_predicting_2011}
and is a "key determinant for the friendship formation process"
\cite{burgess_school_2011}.
One of the established ways to talk and research about personality is the so-called
Big Five or Five-Factor model \cite{tupes_recurrent_1992,mccrae_introduction_1992}.
The five personality factors spell the acronym OCEAN and are
\emph{openness to experience},
\emph{conscientiousness},
\emph{extraversion},
\emph{agreeableness}, and
\emph{neuroticism}.
In their study, Selfhout et al.\
show the importance of homophily for friendship networks \cite{selfhout_emerging_2010}.
For three of the five factors (openness to experience, extraversion, and agreeableness),
they conclude that people tend to select friends with similar levels of those traits.

Additionally to friendship, there are several studies finding correlations between
different aspects of everyday life and the five factors.
Especially interesting for social networking related questions
is the correlations between the five factors and preferences or interests.
\cite{rawlings_music_1997} and
\cite{rentfrow_re_2003}
are two of the studies that find correlations between
personality and the music the persons prefer to listen to.
As we will show in Section~\ref{sec:2:definition},
music preference
is a typical element for a social profile.
It is the most commonly filled attribute in publicly
accessible Facebook profiles after gender \cite{farahbakhsh_analysis_2013}.

\subsection{Social Networking Services and Personality}
\label{sec:2:socialnetworkpersonality}

Several studies suggest that
the findings about (offline) social networks
are also valid when dealing with SNSs.
Liu claims the social profile is a "performance" by the user
who expresses herself by crafting the profile \cite{liu_social_2007}.
While this might be true, various studies show that this does not
imply that this "performance" distorts the personality that is expressed
in the profile.
For example, Back et al.\ conclude in their study that "Facebook Profiles
Reflect Actual Personality, Not Self-Idealization," as the title of their paper
indicates \cite{back_facebook_2010}.
In their study, Goldbeck et al.\ show that
Facebook profiles can be used to predict personality \cite{golbeck_predicting_2011}.
Another study comes to the same conclusion and shows
"that Facebook-based personality impressions
show some consensus for all Big Five dimensions"~\cite{gosling_personality_2007}.

\subsection {Smartphone Usage and Personality}
\label{sec:2:smartphonepersonality}

Some studies on pre-smartphone-era cell phones found
correlations between personality traits and mobile phone usage.
For example, these are the results of a study done on the general
use of mobile phones (calls, text messages, changing ringtones and wallpapers)
\cite{butt_personality_2008},
as well as of a study about using
mobile phone games~\cite{phillips_personality_2006}.
While these studies were based on self reports by users,
Chittaranjan et al.\ conducted two user studies in which they collected usage
data on Nokia N95 phones \cite{chittaranjan_whos_2011,chittaranjan_mining_2013}.
In those studies, the authors were looking at
Bluetooth scan data, call logs, text messages,
calling profiles, and application usage.
At the time the study was conducted, apps were not as common as nowadays with Android and iOS.
The authors state that "features derived from the App Logs were sparse due to
the low frequency of usage of some of the applications" \cite{chittaranjan_mining_2013}.
It will be interesting to compare the results from their study to
a new study where the usage of apps is commonplace.
The results of the cited studies indicate that
"several aggregated features obtained from smartphone usage
data can be indicators of the Big-Five traits" \cite{chittaranjan_mining_2013}.

In a more recent study, Lane and Manner showed relations
between the usage of apps and the five personality dimensions
\cite{lane_influence_2012}.
Apps were categorized in different application types:
communication, games, multimedia, productivity, travel, and utilities.
Overall, the referenced studies indicate strong
correlations between smartphone usage behavior and personality traits.

\subsection{Social Profiles}
\label{sec:2:definition}

The social profile is one of the central elements of SNSs.
In Boyd and Ellison's definition of \emph{Social Network Sites},
the "public or semi-public profile within a bounded system" is the
first defining element, and the "backbone" of the SNS \cite{boyd_social_2007}.
Typical elements of a social profile are
"age, location, interests, and an 'about me' section," and a photo.
In \cite{richter_functions_2008}, the social profile is the first defining functionality
of an SNS. Here, the authors call the functionality "identity management,"
as the profile is a "representation of the own person."
In a survey paper about SNSs,
the social profile is described as the "core" of an Online
Social Network \cite{heidemann_online_2012}.
Another recent survey describes the
creation and maintenance of user profiles as the
"basic functionality" of SNSs \cite{paul_survey_2014}.
In \cite{gondor_sonic:_2015}, several SNSs from different categories,
like general (e.g. Facebook), business oriented (e.g. LinkedIn)
or special purpose (e.g. Twitter), were analyzed.
The social profile is an element that is present in all of those SNSs.
Rohani and Hock state that the type of information included in social profiles
differs between different SNSs \cite{rohani_social_2009}.
In their analysis of publicly disclosed Facebook profile information,
Farahbakhsh et al.\ distinguish between personal and
interest-based attributes \cite{farahbakhsh_analysis_2013}.
Personal attributes include a friend list,
current city, hometown, gender, birthday, employers, college, and high school.
Interest-based attributes are music, movie, book, television, games, teams, sports,
athletes, activities, interests, and inspirations.
Lampe et al.\ distinguish between three different types of
information:
referents, interests, and contact \cite{lampe_familiar_2007}.
Referents include verifiable attributes:
hometown, high school, residence, concentration.
Contact information are also verifiable, for example
website, email, address, or birthday.
As the authors indicate, interests are less verifiable.
Interests include an 'about me' section,
favorite music, movies, TV shows, books, quotes, and political views.
As the cited studies in Section~\ref{sec:2:smartphonepersonality}
and also social networking related studies (e.g., \cite{bao_recommendations_2015})
suggest, more detailed user data additional to the data typically available
in a social profile can help improve recommendations in SNSs.

\section{Concept and Prototype}
\label{sec:2:concept}

Research in psychology and social sciences indicates that homophily
in age, education, etc., as well as in personality traits, is a strong
indicator for friendship, i.e., for the creation of an edge in a social graph.
Several of the aforementioned studies conclude with findings about correlations
between smartphone usage and personality traits.
Combining those insights, in order to
make meaningful recommendations for new connections in an SNS,
we can recommend users that show a similar behavioral pattern
with their smarthphones.
As the existing studies suggest, this will indicate the similarity
of their personality traits.
Doing this, we do not necessarily need to know which
behavior indicates which personality trait.

Such a mechanism for friend recommendations can have several benefits:
(1) By logging information about the smartphone usage behavior
(a lot of which can be done unobtrusively, see \cite{beierle_privacy-aware_2016}),
we could automatically set up or update an existing social profile in an SNS,
eliminating or reducing the tedious task to keep such a profile up to date
\cite{lampe_familiar_2007}.
(2) When fully relying on social profile data for friend recommendations,
the social graph is not needed in the recommendation process.
This will enable the development of highly
distributed SNSs, for example in device-to-device scenarios
where two randomly meeting people could determine
-- without contacting some centralized server --
how similar they are and thus are recommended to be friends.
(3) By collecting highly personalized user data, further studies
in the fields of psychometrics could be possible.

We are implementing an Android prototype.
With the \emph{Google Awareness API}, Google offers
to get the user's current
time, location, nearby places, nearby beacons, headphone state, activity,
and weather.\footnote{\url{https://developers.google.com/awareness/}}
Android also enables developers to
retrieve a list of the most frequently used apps.
Most music players broadcast what the user is listening to,
so other apps can retrieve this information.
The available APIs and mechanisms allow for an unobtrusive collection
of user data on Android smartphones.
After collecting the mentioned data,
in order to estimate their similarity,
two users can share their data in a device-to-device manner
by utilizing appropriate data structures
and technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, or Wi-Fi Aware.

\section{Related Work}

In this section,
we review related work on smartphone sensor data collection
(Section \ref{sec:relwork:smartphonedata})
and on link prediction in SNSs
(Section \ref{sec:relwork:linkprediction}).

\subsection{Smartphone Data Collection}
\label{sec:relwork:smartphonedata}

In \cite{pejovic_anticipatory_2015}, the authors survey
the state of the art of "Anticipatory Mobile Computing,"
describing how the advances in mobile technology will
enable predicting future contexts and acting on it.
This field has some similarities to our work,
especially with respect to collecting and using sensor data,
but it does not focus on social networking.

In \cite{hashemi_user_2016}, the authors present a framework called "BaranC"
for monitoring and analyzing digital interaction of users with their smartphones.
The architecture uses cloud technologies to analyze data and thus
raises privacy concerns.
The goal of BaranC is not social networking but offering personalized services.
In another work by the same authors, an application utilizing their framework
is presented \cite{hashemi_next_2016},
predicting the next application a user will use.

Wang et al.\ present a system that collects a multitude of sensor data from
mobile devices and queries the users with questionnaires.
The collected data is then used to accurately predict the GPA of the
undergraduate students who participated \cite{wang_smartgpa:_2015}.
Xiong et al.\ present a system for social sciences studies
that collects sensor data and enables researchers to create surveys for study
participants \cite{xiong_sensus:_2016}.
Again, in both those cases, the developed concepts did not
focus on social networking.

\subsection{Link Prediction}
\label{sec:relwork:linkprediction}

One of the common ways to research about links in social networks is \emph{link prediction}.
The key difference to our work is that here, the social graph is used to
calculate the prediction or recommendation,
while our approach is also feasible in device-to-device mobile SNS scenarios
where the social graph is not known.
Yin et al.\ analyzed links in social networks based on "intuition-based" aspects:
homophily (shared attributes), rarity (matching uncommon attributes), social influence (more likely to link to person that shares attributes with existing friends), common friendship (mutual friends), social closeness (being close to each other in the social graph), preferential attachment (more likely to link to a popular person) \cite{yin_unified_2010}.
Most aspects focus on the social graph or global knowledge about
attribute distribution (in the case of rarity).
In the work by Mohajureen et al., the authors
use the attributes of neighboring nodes in the
friend recommendation process \cite{mohajireen_relational_2011}.
For this algorithm to work, the social graph as well as the features of
each user have to be available.

A somewhat special case of link prediction or friend recommendation is
described in \emph{WhozThat?} \cite{beach_whozthat?_2008}.
Here, the idea is to retrieve information about another person you just met.
Via Bluetooth, user handles from an SNS are exchanged and data about the other person
can be retrieved from that SNS.
As described in Section~\ref{sec:2:concept},
by following our concept,
the same scenario can be realized
in a distributed manner
without contacting existing centralized SNS.

\section{Conclusion and Future Work}

In this paper, we proposed the extension of
social profiles with smartphone sensor data.
We showed that research results from the field of psychometrics
suggest that we then can calculate relevant friend recommendations
based on those profiles, without utilizing the social graph.
This will enable recommendations in highly distributed SNSs.

Future work includes conducting a user study with our prototype
to confirm our conclusions.
Furthermore, in the device-to-device SNS scenario, the
issue of privacy-awareness will be further investigated
so that similarity estimations between users are possible
without sharing all the collected sensitive sensor data.

\section*{Acknowledgment}
This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020
research and innovation program under grant agreement No 645342, project reTHINK
and from project DYNAMIC\footnote{\url{http://www.dynamic-project.de}} (grant No 01IS12056), which is funded
as part of the Software Campus initiative by the German
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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LONDON (Reuters) - British construction activity slowed slightly for the second month in a row in March, as businesses continued to postpone major building projects due to Brexit uncertainty, an industry survey showed on Tuesday.
Housebuilding continued to record moderate growth, but civil engineering fell and commercial projects — such as new shops, factories or warehouses — dropped off at the fastest rate since September 2017.
Max Jones, a commercial banker at Lloyds Bank, said firms in the construction industry were focusing more on cashflow and avoiding low-margin work due to concern about future headwinds.
"We're starting to see smaller firms addressing their balance sheets by paying closer attention to late payers, which is applying pressure onto larger contractors who are watching cashflow carefully too," he said.
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The survey had previously shown delays to building supplies in February, when the construction industry blamed a lack of transport capacity due to increased pre-Brexit stockpiling by manufacturers who relied on imports from the EU.
Britain had been due to leave the EU on March 29 but Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to ask for a delay after parliament refused to back the exit plan she had negotiated with Brussels.
Brexit is now due to take place at 2200 GMT on April 12 unless May comes up with another option.


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She represents BusinessNZ at the Global Federation of Competitiveness Council.
Catherine co-founded a design and manufacturing business that won national design awards for children's furniture.


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text:
Who Is My Neighbor? Teacher Manual
Learning Spanish as Church Hospitality
By M.T.S. Joyce Carrasco, Ruth Cassel Hoffman PH.D., Ngoc-Diep Nguyen PH.D.
Who Is My Neighbor? Teacher Manual - eBook [ePub]
Learning Spanish as church hospitality.
Who Is My Neighbor? is a field-tested resource through which
English speakers of any church and congregation can learn basic
Spanish-speaking skills to be able to communicate and provide a
welcoming atmosphere to the Hispanic communities surrounding them.
six-session resource developed by the Northern Illinois Conference
covers basic conversational Spanish, and simple and easy to follow
Spanish-language worship material. The program encourages openness
toward Spanish-speaking neighbors, understanding of different cultures,
and compassion for those who struggle to learn English.
This resource is easily implemented by congregations of any size,
and it results in a program of hospitality that will help include
Hispanic communities in your church congregation.
M.T.S. Joyce Carrasco
Joyce Carrasco, is a retired teacher from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools where she served for over two decades as a lower school teacher, curriculum writer, director of the Lab Summer Program, and chair of Faculty II. She holds a BA from LaGrange College and a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University s Candler School of Theology. She is an American Montessori certified 3-6 teacher and a certified Director of Christian Education. As a young college graduate, Joyce served with the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church as a Latin America 3 missionary in Chile. Joyce is married to Rev. Oscar Carrasco, a District Superintendent of the Northern Illinois Conference of the UMC.
Joyce lives in Elgin, Illinois with her husband, and they have four children and eight grandchildren.
Ruth Cassel Hoffman PH.D.
Ruth Cassel Hoffman, PhD, has been a lover of languages since childhood. She first experienced the power of speaking another s language as hospitality on a UMC youth mission trip to Vieques, PR. She earned her doctorate in Romance Languages from the University of Chicago and taught French at St. Mary s College in Notre Dame, IN. Ruth founded Language Resources Ltd. in 1983, providing corporate foreign language training, translation, and interpretation, and has developed active curricula in French and Spanish for students from preschoolers to adults. She is an active member and a former Lay Leader of Kingswood United Methodist Church in Buffalo Grove, IL.
She lives in Lake Zurich, Illinois with her husband Miles and their dog Isabella.
Ngoc-Diep Nguyen PH.D.
Ngoc-Diep Nguyen, PhD, is a professor of education at Northeastern Illinois University, specializing in bilingual education. She has been a Spanish and French High School teacher, a teacher trainer and a school administrator. Ngoc-Diep is a member of Our Redeemer United Methodist Church, Schaumburg, IL. Together, these three women designed the curriculum, taught it, and trained instructors in how to use it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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In an interview to the Courrier de Russie, Igor Samborski delivers some of his impressions on the success of the e-cigarette in his country. Igor who has contributed to the development of vaping in Russia, explains that part of this success is explained by a very high smoking prevalence of about 39%. Another part of the success is due to a large popularity of hookahs, a pretty similar product, according to the businessman.


text:
Niger Delta elders meet Osinbajo — 72 hours after issuing ultimatum
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday hosted stakeholders from the Niger Delta region at the presidential villa in Abuja.
The meeting took place exactly three days after the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), a coalition of elders and leaders from the region, threatened to abandon peace negotiation with the federal government.
Among those in attendance were Edwin Clark, Ijaw leader; Alfred Diete-Spiff, a monarch; Victor Attah, a former governor; Timi Alaibe, former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, a former senator and Godknows Igali, former permanent secretary of the ministry of power.
On Monday, Clark had said government had until November to meet the 16-point agenda presented by the group.
He accused the government of not showing sincerity.
Among the demands of the group are the relocation of oil companies to the region, resource control and the establishment of Maritime University.
But a group known as the Niger Delta Peoples Congress (NDPC) had described the ultimatum given to the government as selfish and unpatriotic, "considering the right steps taken so far by the federal government".
The threat to peace in the region may disrupt oil production which has relatively peaked.
Edwin Clarkniger deltaPANDEFYemi Osinbajo.


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text:
Do you have kids under age 12? You should enter our giveaway!
This week is special for HCAN and our blog, Keiki First. We are giving away two free books by the Mayo Clinic: A Guide to Your Baby's First Years and A Guide to Raising a Healthy Child. If you haven't entered for your chance to win, click here to enter now! Both these books offer expert guidance and information for parents that is broken down into easy-to-read sections.
How systemic biases make the pandemic worse for women of color
The pandemic has affected every individual in some way or form, but women of color have been particularly hit hard by its negative consequences. Prior to this fatal virus, women of color were already disproportionally affected by the systems that exist in the United States. Now they are faced with even more burdens with no end in sight.
Why Hawai'i isn't really 99.9% complete for the Census
By Jackalyn Carione
The 2020 Census data collection is currently set to end on October 31st, which means there are just a few weeks to make sure we count all our keiki in Hawaiʻi. The Census is essential to our community because it helps determine how much federal funding the state of Hawaiʻi will receive in the next decade, which is especially important for programs that support our children and families.
What you need to know about voting by mail in Hawaiʻi's general election
The general election is coming up and this year, voting is a little different. To keep our families and kūpuna safe from COVID-19, Hawaiʻi will be voting by mail.
Child Abuse and Neglect During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Reports of child abuse and neglect have gone down nationwide since the beginning of the pandemic. Yet experts say this is not an accurate portrayal of what is happening — and there's a greater chance that child abuse has actually increased.
For Labor Day, Let's Really Honor Our Child Care Providers
By Heather Lavoie
Essential workers have been working throughout the pandemic. On Monday, we will celebrate Labor Day, a day dedicated to workers. While the holiday is a nice sentiment, it raises the question: Are we honoring workers the other 364 days of the year?
Remembering Dr. Calvin Sia
This week, we remember Dr. Calvin Sia, a pediatrician and lifelong advocate for children in Hawai'i and across the world, who passed away on August 19, 2020 at the age of 93. Dr. Sia was one of the founders of Good Beginnings Alliance — which later became HCAN — and changed the lives of countless children through his tireless advocacy.
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With the surge of COVID-19 cases in Hawaiʻi, we need to protect our keiki and families. An easy way to do that is understanding how the virus spreads and how to reduce risks when possible. As the United States enters the new school year, every state is making different decisions in regards to reopening. This week, most public school students in Hawaiʻi began distance learning instead of attending in-person classes. However, with the state hoping to resume in-person classes again in September, it is important to prepare.
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Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network is proud to announce our new board members: Lingie Chiu, MD MBA FAAP, Ryan Gomes, Camille Hampton, Ed.D, and Dana Senaha, Ed.D. HCAN's Board of Directors is instrumental in guiding the organization to significant achievements in pursuit of our mission: To build a unified voice educating and advocating for Hawaii's children, and our vision: All children in Hawaii are safe, healthy and ready to learn.
Amid Pandemic, Historic Legislative Session Comes to a Close
This year's legislative session is one for the history books. Even before COVID-19, nonprofits, legislators, and community members could agree that too many families in Hawai'i were holding their breath — one disaster away from financial ruin.
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text:
require_relative '../spec_helper'

module Selenium
  module WebDriver
    module Firefox
      describe Profile, only: {browser: %i[ff_esr firefox]} do
        let(:profile) { Profile.new }

        def read_generated_prefs(from = nil)
          prof = from || profile
          dir = prof.layout_on_disk

          File.read(File.join(dir, 'user.js'))
        end

        def profile_opts
          if GlobalTestEnv.driver == :remote
            opt = {desired_capabilities: GlobalTestEnv.remote_capabilities.dup}
            opt[:desired_capabilities][:firefox_profile] = profile
            opt[:url] = GlobalTestEnv.remote_server.webdriver_url if GlobalTestEnv.remote_server?
            opt
          else
            options = Options.new
            options.profile = profile

            {options: options}
          end
        end

        it 'should set additional preferences' do
          profile['foo.number'] = 123
          profile['foo.boolean'] = true
          profile['foo.string'] = 'bar'

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("foo.number", 123)')
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("foo.boolean", true)')
          expect(string).to include(%{user_pref("foo.string", "bar")})
        end

        it 'should be serializable to JSON' do
          profile['foo.boolean'] = true

          new_profile = Profile.from_json(profile.to_json)
          string = read_generated_prefs(new_profile)
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("foo.boolean", true)')
        end

        it 'should not let user override defaults' do
          profile['app.update.enabled'] = true

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("app.update.enabled", false)')
        end

        it 'should properly handle escaped characters' do
          profile['foo'] = 'C:\\r\\n'

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("foo", "C:\\\\r\\\\n");')
        end

        it 'should let the user override some specific prefs' do
          profile['browser.startup.page'] = 'http://example.com'

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include(%{user_pref("browser.startup.page", "http://example.com")})
        end

        it 'should raise an error if the value given is not a string, number or boolean' do
          expect { profile['foo.bar'] = [] }.to raise_error(TypeError)
        end

        it 'should raise an error if the value is already stringified' do
          expect { profile['foo.bar'] = '"stringified"' }.to raise_error(ArgumentError)
        end

        it 'should enable secure SSL' do
          profile.secure_ssl = true

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("webdriver_accept_untrusted_certs", false)')
        end

        it 'should disable secure SSL' do
          profile.secure_ssl = false

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("webdriver_accept_untrusted_certs", true)')
        end

        it 'should change the setting for untrusted certificate issuer' do
          profile.assume_untrusted_certificate_issuer = false

          string = read_generated_prefs
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("webdriver_assume_untrusted_issuer", false)')
        end

        it 'can configure a manual proxy' do
          proxy = Proxy.new(
            http: 'foo:123',
            ftp: 'bar:234',
            ssl: 'baz:345',
            no_proxy: 'localhost'
          )

          profile.proxy = proxy
          string = read_generated_prefs

          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.http", "foo")')
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.http_port", 123)')

          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.ftp", "bar")')
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.ftp_port", 234)')

          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.ssl", "baz")')
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.ssl_port", 345)')

          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.no_proxies_on", "localhost")')
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.type", 1)')
        end

        it 'can configure a PAC proxy' do
          profile.proxy = Proxy.new(pac: 'http://foo/bar.pac')
          string = read_generated_prefs

          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.autoconfig_url", "http://foo/bar.pac")')
          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.type", 2)')
        end

        it 'can configure an auto-detected proxy' do
          profile.proxy = Proxy.new(auto_detect: true)
          string = read_generated_prefs

          expect(string).to include('user_pref("network.proxy.type", 4)')
        end

        it 'can install extension' do
          firebug = File.expand_path('../../../../../../third_party/firebug/firebug-1.5.0-fx.xpi', __dir__)
          profile.add_extension(firebug)
          extension_directory = File.expand_path('extensions/firebug@software.joehewitt.com', profile.layout_on_disk)
          expect(Dir.exist?(extension_directory)).to eq(true)
        end

        it 'can install web extension' do
          mooltipass = File.expand_path('../../../../../../third_party/firebug/mooltipass-1.1.87.xpi', __dir__)
          profile.add_extension(mooltipass)
          extension_directory = File.expand_path('extensions/MooltipassExtension@1.1.87', profile.layout_on_disk)
          expect(Dir.exist?(extension_directory)).to eq(true)
        end

        describe 'with browser', except: {driver: :ff_esr} do
          before(:each) do
            profile['browser.startup.homepage'] = url_for('simpleTest.html')
            profile['browser.startup.page'] = 1
          end

          it 'should instantiate the browser with the correct profile' do
            create_driver!(profile_opts) do |driver|
              expect { wait(5).until { driver.find_element(id: 'oneline') } }.to_not raise_error
            end
          end

          it 'should be able to use the same profile more than once' do
            create_driver!(profile_opts) do |driver1|
              expect { wait(5).until { driver1.find_element(id: 'oneline') } }.to_not raise_error
              create_driver!(profile_opts) do |driver2|
                expect { wait(5).until { driver2.find_element(id: 'oneline') } }.to_not raise_error
              end
            end
          end
        end
      end
    end # Firefox
  end # WebDriver
end # Selenium

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Discrimination against LGBTIQ Community in Hungary
by Rebeka Papp and Republikon Instituteon July 1, 2021 July 1, 2021
In recent years, the LGBTIQ community in Hungary has suffered a great deal of discrimination as a result of governmental policies.
Until recently the peak of this discriminatory wave against the above-mentioned minority group could be considered to be the law passed in December 2020 that ensures that only married couples are allowed to adopt children, apart from well-based exceptions[i]. This legislation is inseparable from the constitutional amendment passed on the same week.
However, with the newest law passed by the Hungarian parliament, which compares homosexual people to pedophiles, the harassment of the LGBTIQ community by the government has reached an unprecedented level. These discriminatory measures directly and indirectly violate human rights. Hence, the question of why it is the priority of the government to curtail the human rights of these communities rises.
The Fidesz government, who have been exercising power since 2010 in Hungary, have claimed themselves to be representing conservatism and "European Christian culture"[ii], and therefore, stand against liberal values such as the acceptance of the LGBTIQ community. The Fidesz government, in contrast to the previous years' Eurocentric governance, brought a new wave of nationalism that excludes various minorities and civil rights groups who have been blamed for all of the country's problems and accused of being "Western agents"[iii].
One of the reasons why the LGBTIQ community is constantly targeted by the government can be explained by the voter base of Fidesz. They prefer more conservative policies to European liberal values with which they have been dissatisfied in the 2000s due to the financial crisis and the absence of a rapid improvement in the standard of life. To make it clear that the Fidesz government would govern along conservative values, the parliament adopted a new constitution in 2011 that includes that "Hungary protects the institution of marriage as the union of a woman and a man" and "the basis of family is marriage"[iv].
Another reason that could explain why the LGBTIQ community is constantly under fire by the government can be found in the fact that Hungary has approached Eastern states like Russia and PM Viktor Orbán uses it as an example on the way towards a more authoritarian regime. To build a state similar to the Russian Federation, the alienation from European values and the EU itself are required.
By doing so, the government has mimicked Russian policies when it comes to the harassment of liberal values. They have also built a higher level of national independence, where any kind of foreign interference or values are not welcome and national sovereignty and interests are propagated in contrast to European or "Western" values.
NGOs that advocate civil and human rights and liberal democracy are viewed as one of the main watchdogs over the government and hence, an obstacle to create a more authoritarian regime. As the government curtails the rights these organisations are fighting for, most NGOs in Hungary generally contradict governmental policies. Therefore, these organisations are depicted as "Western and liberal agents" who are "harmful to the country and Christian values"[v] in the communication of the government.
Moreover, in 2017 the parliament adopted a law, known as "Lex-NGO" that stated that NGOs that receive more than €20,000 annually, must be registered as "foreign-funded organisations". Even though this law has been ruled to be illegal by the EU Court, and hence the Hungarian government has to amend it, it has still caused the stigmatisation of NGOs in Hungary[vi].
These measures carry great importance for several reasons. Firstly, they curtail civil rights and therefore decrease rule of law making it easier for the government to govern without transparency. Secondly, it serves as a great opportunity to get legitimacy from the public by depicting liberal individuals and organisations as the "enemy" against whom they have to protect the nation. Thirdly, it is important to note that LGBTIQ rights are immensely included in the civil rights organisations' work and hence, they compose another factor against which the government "has to protect the children and families".
In this regard the publication of the first inclusive storybook in September 2020 needs to be mentioned. The storybook is unique because it includes characters from various social backgrounds who are usually left out from traditional children's book. The book generated heated debates, PM Viktor Orbán said in an interview that "they (referring to homosexuals) should leave our children alone"[vii].
Moreover, the Hungarian Consumer Protection Authority ruled that the creators of the book should have warned the readers that they include "patterns of behaviour deviating from traditional gender roles"[viii]. This case strengthens Fidesz's role as a protector of "traditional European values" and children against the "deviants" and "malicious foreign interference".
Attacks against the LGBTIQ community do not only come in indirect forms and polite warnings. Several media outlets close to the government have raised their voices against the community, sometimes claiming that the children raised by same-sex couples are in ideological danger by their genderless upbringing or directly linking homosexuality to pedophilia. The latter was also claimed by the Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly who thinks it is normal that "homosexuals do not consider themselves equal to heterosexual members of the society"[ix].
Furthermore, in 2012 a bill was proposed by an MP of the Jobbik party that included the motion to imprison people with "deviant behaviour"[x]. Although the bill failed to pass the Hungarian Parliament at the time, a similar situation emerged when the government recently included the concept of gender transition and genderless upbringing in a bill proposed to punish pedophilia harsher.
This kind of communication by various government individuals and agencies has instigated the public to fear liberal values and grew further distrust towards them. This feeling has led to the fact that the majority of the public became misled of what LGBTIQ means in reality and the members of the community are seen as outsiders, even "deviants" who harm traditional values and children and NGOs are seen as their protectors.
Moreover, December 2020 brought the 9th amendment of the current constitution. The constitution now includes that "the mother is a woman; the father is a man"[xi]. This amendment constitutionally rules out the possibility of legally creating a family for same-sex couples. In addition, the same period produced a law that de-facto alienates these couples to adopt children by stating that only married couples can carry out adoption. In some cases exceptions can be made if the Minister for Family Affairs personally gives her permission to adoption[xii].
However, Háttér Society with other civil rights groups, including the Coalition on the Rights of the Child of UNICEF, protested against the law claiming that it not only discriminates against the LGBTIQ community, but also hurts the interests of children in foster homes. Based on the findings of the ombudsman, this law leads to the fact that children will be subjected to mental and physical abuse for longer time in the foster homes instead of living in a caring family. This claim by Háttér Society shows the contradiction of the policy that claims to target "deviant behaviour" and "protect children".
While it stops LGBTIQ people from leading the life they wish, which is already a violation of human rights as far as the UDHR is concerned, it also indirectly targets children in foster care. Moreover, several studies have been carried out which disprove the belief that being brought up by same-sex couple harms the children's mental health and influences their sexuality[xiii]. A recent study, for example, carried out by Republikon Institute has proved that 69-85% of the EU's population had discovered their LGBTIQ identity before they turned 18 years old which shows that LGBTIQ identity does not develop as a result of external influence of NGOs, parents or TV shows[xiv].
Studying the issue of human rights in certain countries also brings the question of how the issue could be faced and what the international community can do to protect the people whose rights have been violated.
When NGOs and human rights organisations accuse the government of violation of LGBTIQ rights, they usually refer to an international human rights treaty or convention. One of the most prominent one is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which is a UN Resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. The Declaration is the basis of further human rights treaties which are legally binding and of which most have been ratified by Hungary over the years[xv].
It is important to note that when this document was written, in 1948, LGBTIQ rights were practically non-existent, hence there are no paragraphs that specifically protect their rights. This loophole is evident in Article 16 where they refer to "men and women" as the founders of family[xvi]. Even in the most liberal member states of the UN, being homosexual was socially unacceptable, and often illegal at that time.
Despite this problem, when we talk about LGBTIQ rights, or the rights of any minority group, we usually refer to the UDHR because it is the foundation of every treaty and document that protects human rights. By examining the document, we can find several points that are violated by the Hungarian government with the discriminatory measures against the LGBTIQ community.
Articles 1, 2 and 3 state that "everyone is born equal in dignity and rights" and "has the right to liberty" "without distinction of any kind, such as sex". In this case, the LGBTIQ rights have been violated for example when transgender people have to explain to the authorities why their appearance do not match their photo on their identity card, cannot form a family or even when the Speaker of the Parliament talks about homosexuals in a degrading way.
Article 7 states that everyone is "entitled to equal protection against any discrimination" of the UDHR which means that the LGBTIQ community should be protected against the discrimination of the Hungarian government. As far as the adoption law and new constitution amendment are concerned, Article 12 states that "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family (…) nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation". Moreover, Article 22 clearly states that everyone has the right of "free development of his personality" which can be argued in favour of pursuing every right of the LGBTIQ community[xvii].
In addition, in 2016, Hungary applied for a seat in the Human Rights Council for the period 2017-2019. In the application, the representative of Hungary assured the General Assembly of Hungary's commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights. Also in the application Hungary voluntarily pledged to support civil rights organisations that advocate human rights and democracy, to protect human dignity, including those groups that are more vulnerable and belong to minority[xviii]. These voluntary pledges go against the existing domestic situation of various minority groups, such as refugees or the LGBTIQ community as well as most actors of the civil society, who have been harassed since the current government came to power in 2010.
The European Convention on Human Rights is one of the many international documents that are based on the UDHR and therefore it largely correlates with the UDHR. It also includes Articles about the "right to respect for private and family life" "prohibition of discrimination".
However, it is crucial to highlight the fact that this Convention was written in 1950, only 2 years after the UDHR, and thus, LGBTIQ rights are again excluded. The Article about "right to marriage" explicitly mentions "men and women" and "according to the national laws" that provides the Hungarian government a safety net[xix].
In order to serve as a more efficient tool of fighting against human rights violations, these international documents should be revised to resonate more with contemporary issues, new articles should be added, while others should be explained more accurately.
To achieve the annulment of the discriminatory policies, Háttér Society has turned to the Hungarian Constitutional Court several times. Although sometimes they win smaller battles, for instance when they achieved that it is against the Constitution to prohibit gender recognition retroactively[xx], they cannot stop the discrimination from the government.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International Hungary, Budapest Pride and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, among numerous human rights NGOs, have also raised concerns about the LGBTIQ situation in Hungary. They have published reports, campaigned, written letters to high-ranking officials and agencies of the EU, turned to Court to protect human rights in Hungary. Similarly to Háttér Society, they indeed have won smaller battles but the laws are still in place discriminating against hundreds of people in Hungary and curtailing human rights.
Overall, today's discrimination is the result discriminatory policies over the years and has led to the de-facto prohibition of same-sex couples to adopt children and thus have been denied their human right of becoming a "family". Moreover, the bill proposed by the government that links homosexuality to paedophilia spreads serious misinformation and "attacks their reputation" is also violation of basic human right according to the UDHR.
NGOs have been constantly fighting against the harassment, but the government's discriminatory measures and the lack of clarity in international human rights treaties as well as the protection of state sovereignty are still determining forces. It is important to bear in mind that the constant attacks on the LGBTIQ community are part of a larger battle which targets civil and human rights organisations and liberal values.
[i] Euronews, AFP. (2020, December 15). Hungarian parliament adopts anti-Lgbt laws including de facto ban on adoption by same-sex couples. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/15/hungarian-parliament-adopts-anti-lgbt-laws-including-de-facto-ban-on-adoption-by-same-sex-.
[ii] Hungarian Government, Magyarország Alaptörvénye (2011). https://njt.hu/jogszabaly/2011-4301-02-00.
[iii] Nuñez-Mietz, F. G. (2019). Resisting human rights through securitization: Russia and Hungary against LGBT rights. Journal of Human Rights, 18(5), 543–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2019.1647100
[iv] Hungarian Government, Magyarország Alaptörvénye (2011). https://njt.hu/jogszabaly/2011-4301-02-00.
[v] Nuñez-Mietz, F. G. (2019). Resisting human rights through securitization: Russia and Hungary against LGBT rights. Journal of Human Rights, 18(5), 543–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2019.1647100
[vi] Gall, L. (2021, April 23). Hungary's Scrapping of NGO Law Insufficient to Protect Civil Society. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/23/hungarys-scrapping-ngo-law-insufficient-protect-civil-society.
[vii] Orbán Viktor: Hagyják békén a gyerekeinket! mandiner.hu. (2020, September 4). https://mandiner.hu/cikk/20201004.
[viii] Hungarian Consumer Protection Authority slams book with LGBTQI characters. Háttér Society. (2021, February 9). https://en.hatter.hu/news/hungarian-consumer-protection-authority-slams-book-with-lgbtqi-characters.
[ix] Fekete Lyuk. (2019, May 16). Kövér László elmondta, szerinte milyen "a normális homoszexuális". Magyar Narancs. https://magyarnarancs.hu/feketelyuk/kover-laszlo-elmondta-szerinte-milyen-a-normalis-homoszexualis-119769.
[x] Nuñez-Mietz, F. G. (2019). Resisting human rights through securitization: Russia and Hungary against LGBT rights. Journal of Human Rights, 18(5), 543–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2019.1647100
[xi] Hungarian Government, Magyarország Alaptörvénye (2011). https://njt.hu/jogszabaly/2011-4301-02-00.
[xii] Euronews, AFP. (2020, December 15). Hungarian parliament adopts anti-Lgbt laws including de facto ban on adoption by same-sex couples. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/15/hungarian-parliament-adopts-anti-lgbt-laws-including-de-facto-ban-on-adoption-by-same-sex-.
[xiii] Még hatályba sem lépett az új törvény, máris kitolnak a meleg örökbefogadókkal. Háttér Társaság. (2021, February 24). https://hatter.hu/hirek/meg-hatalyba-sem-lepett-az-uj-torveny-maris-kitolnak-a-meleg-orokbefogadokkal.
[xiv] Republikon Institute. (2021, June 14). LMBTI emberek az Európai Unióban. Republikon Intézet. http://republikon.hu/elemzesek,-kutatasok/21-06-14-lmbti.aspx.
[xv] UN Treaty Body Database. (n.d.). https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?CountryID=77&Lang=EN.
[xvi] United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
[xvii] United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
[xviii] United Nations. (2016, June 24). Letter dated 23 June 2016 from the Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations addressed to the President of the General Assembly. United Nations Official Documents. https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A%2F71%2F113.
[xix] European Convention on Human Rights. (1950). https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf .
[xx] Hungarian Consumer Protection Authority slams book with LGBTQI characters. Háttér Society. (2021, February 9). https://en.hatter.hu/news/hungarian-consumer-protection-authority-slams-book-with-lgbtqi-characters.
Continue exploring:
New Legislation in Hungary Bans LGBT+ Related Content in Schools and TV
"We Will Not Tolerate Dismantling of Rule of Law and Oppression of LGBTIQ Community in Hungary"
This entry was posted in Society and tagged European Union, Fidesz, human rights, Hungary, inequality, LGBTIQ, NGOs. Bookmark the permalink.
About Rebeka Papp
An intern at Republikon Institute. She is studying political science, sociology and Eastern-Europe studies at UCL. Her main interest is the EU-Russian relations
About Republikon Institute
Republikon Institute is a liberal think tank organisation based in Budapest, focusing on analysing Hungarian and international politics, formulating policy recommendations and initiating projects that contribute to a more open, democratic and free society. The goal of the Institute is to promote discussion and implementation of liberal ideas, approaches and policies.
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text:
Animal Crossing New Horizons Officially Licensed Nintendo Switch Accessories Revealed
New Horizons of fashion.
bySeth G. Macy
We're getting closer to Animal Crossing: New Horizons' 2020 release date every day, and HORI has revealed its line-up of Animal Crossing-themed Nintendo Switch accessories. Better still, they're available for preorder right now, although you have to order them from Amazon Japan.
Check out the slideshow below to see all the Animal Crossing: New Horizon gear being offered by HORI:
There's an adorable Animal Crossing sling to keep your Switch on your back, a Switch Lite clutch, Animal Crossing tote bag, a Switch stand for tabletop mode, Switch Lite hard case, and a bag to haul an entire Nintendo Switch set-up (with room for the console, dock, AC adapter, controllers and cords). All of the items are officially licensed by Nintendo and all feature an Animal Crossing minimalist motif. It's almost like a Louis Vitton or MCM print, but in Animal Crossing form.
As of right now, these items are only available in Japan, but Amazon Japan is surprisingly great when it comes to shipping internationally. You can easily order one or more (or all) of the items and have them shipped to your house. They're all available for preorder with a March 31 release date.
You can preorder Animal Crossing New Horizons in the US from most major retailers, but unlike the UK, there are no bonuses at the time being.
Publisher: Viz
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The Billy side table has 3 sturdy iron legs and leather padded feet to protect the floor. The round black top is stained a dramatic black. This table will look great next to a couch but also makes a great pedestal for art or your favorite tall plant. We only made a few of these as prototypes. Be the first and perhaps one of the only ones to have one.


The Derby Worx Pro Super Stock Xtreme (SSX) Wheels are the same Pro Super Stock (SS) wheels except that these are perforated to reduce their weight even further. These give you a super fast start and amazing straightaway speeds. The SSX are precision-machined wheels that are extremely light weight and gives you a wicked fast car with stock-size wheels and axles. These wheels are completely machined from raw material not molded. This creates excellent balanced and symmetry.


More details to come. In the meantime, follow me on Instagram @districtofchic!
Love your shots!! Turquoise & caicos is one of my favorite essie polishes.
Oooh I love that navy couch!
Very cute snapshots. Loved the collage.
oo will follow you on instagram!
I like your mani/pedi combo. Unexpected and fun!
Lovely nap shot. I really like the top view down shoes.
oh my, those pigs are too cute! haha.
cool pictures, enjoy looking at them!
I love that blue couch with those frilly pillows. If my room was big enough, I'd want it in there.
great images…Instagram is changing my life. =) I'm an addict!
aw the sofa looks so cozy! and I love the nail polish, so cute!
your pics are super! love them!


Robert "Rocky" Balboa, Sr. is an Italian-American retired legendary boxer, famous for his indomitable spirit, his extreme tenacity, ferocious body attack, and above all, for fighting with his heart.
Rocky got his big break when heavyweight champion Apollo Creed decided to give some local Philadelphia talent a chance to fight for his title after his scheduled opponent, Mack Lee Green, suffered a hand injury and was unable to fight. Apollo selected Rocky mainly because of his nickname, "The Italian Stallion." Rocky initially refused, saying that a fight between the heavyweight champion and a simple club fighter like himself would not be a very good match-up, but Jergens, the fight's promoter, convinced him that an opportunity like this was one in a million, and he shouldn't pass it by. Rocky then accepted.
On New Year's Day 1976, Rocky Balboa faced Apollo Creed in the Philadelphia Spectrum for the heavyweight title. Rocky pulled off a miracle by becoming the only fighter to go the distance with the champion. However, Apollo was awarded the split-decision victory.
After that first fight, Rocky intended to retire from boxing and settle into a normal life with his wife Adrian. Apollo, however, was bitter over the fight's subsequent fallout. He may have won by decision, but he felt he didn't take the fight as seriously as he should have, and that Rocky just got lucky. He was heavily criticized in the media and by boxing fans, being accused of having the fight fixed and being called a "disgrace to the sport."
Apollo felt that the only way to redeem himself was by challenging Rocky to a rematch. The big rematch, dubbed Superfight II, was again held at the Spectrum on Thanksgiving Day 1976. The fight was a particularly brutal one, with both fighters falling to the ground exhausted toward the end of the final round. Racing against the referee's ten-count and each other, Rocky and Apollo wearily climbed the ropes to be the first on his feet. Rocky was the first to get up, and was declared the new heavyweight champion of the world.
After his 10th title defense, Rocky was challenged by a young newcomer named Clubber Lang, a Chicago-based fighter who quickly climbed the ranks to become the number one contender for Rocky's title. Rocky agreed, but Mickey wanted no part of it. He felt that Rocky had gone soft since winning his title and wouldn't stand a chance against a "wrecking machine" like Lang. Rocky, however, dismissed the challenger as just another fighter, and finally convinced Mickey to train him for one last fight.
On the night of August 15, 1981, Rocky and Lang met at the Spectrum for the title fight. During a pre-fight melee, Lang shoved Mickey to the ground, inadverdantly causing him to suffer a heart attack. Unable to concentrate on the fight, Rocky suffered a humiliating defeat when Lang knocked him out in the second round and was crowned the new heavyweight champion. In the locker room after the fight, Rocky had one last conversation with Mickey before he passed away.
Rocky was devastated by the loss of his mentor and friend. Alone in Mickey's Gym one night, Rocky received a surprise visit from the former champ Apollo Creed, who offered to help Rocky win the title back. After some apprehension, Rocky agreed to Apollo's proposal. Apollo then took Rocky to the Watts section of Los Angeles, where he trained him in the same way that Apollo himself was trained. With Apollo now in his corner, Rocky was prepared to take on Clubber Lang in the much-anticipated rematch held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Rocky was able to defeat Lang in the third round and regain his title. Rocky and Apollo remained good friends for several years. They even made a tradition of having friendly "rematches" at Mickey's Gym.
In early 1985, a Soviet amateur boxer named Ivan Drago arrived in America. His trainer boasted to the press about Drago's incredible strength, and that they would like to set up an exhibition bout with Rocky. Apollo, however, caught wind of this and was immediately turned off by what he saw as arrogance on the part of the Russian trainers.
In a grand spectacle held at the MGM Grand Hotel, Apollo and Drago faced off in what was supposed to be a friendly charity exhibition match. Instead, Drago unleashed all his strength on the former champion, finally delivering a fatal blow in the second round. Devastated at having lost another close friend, Rocky decided that he had to face Drago himself.
Accompanied by Paulie and Tony "Duke" Evers, Apollo's former trainer, Rocky left for Russia. On Christmas Day 1985, the two fighters met in Moscow for the globally-broadcast event. Everybody in the audience and, by extent, the entire Soviet Union was cheering for Ivan Drago, but this did not budge Rocky in the least. It was a bloody battle, with Rocky receiving the full brunt of Drago's strength, but he managed to hold his own.
In the beginning of the fight, it seemed that Rocky's fight would go the same way as Apollo's did, with Drago brutally maiming or killing Rocky, but the tables began to turn soon when Rocky landed a haymaker and cut the Siberian Bull near the eye. Drago also began to gain a certain measure of respect for Balboa. Rocky's determination eventually began to win over the initially-hostile Russian crowd, and, in the last few seconds of the fight, Rocky knocked Drago to the canvas, defeating him.
In the locker room immediately after the fight, Rocky started feeling nauseous and his hands began shaking uncontrollably. He had never experienced such sensations after a fight before, and it worried him. All he wanted at that moment was to have Adrian by his side, and he sent Duke to get her. Adrian became frightened by what Rocky was telling her, and insisted that he needed to see a doctor right away. Rocky, however, just wanted to return home.
That evening, Rocky overheard an argument between Adrian and Paulie. It turned out that during their stay in Russia, Paulie had inadvertently given power of attorney to the Balboas' shady accountant, who then disappeared with their fortune. There was no choice but to auction off their home and possessions. To add insult to injury, a visit to the doctor's office confirmed that Rocky was suffering from Cavum septum pellucidum, a condition common to boxers who take too many hard hits to the head. This effectively ended his fighting career. The announcement of Rocky's official retirement made headlines.
In 1995, opened a small Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. He named it Adrian's, after his beloved wife. The walls of the place were adorned with several family photos as well as magazine covers and pictures from throughout Rocky's fighting career. The patrons loved it when Rocky would visit their table and tell them stories about his past fights.
Rocky's world came crashing down in 2002 when Adrian succumbed to ovarian cancer.
By early 2005, Rocky was pushing 60 and living out his days mainly focusing on his restaurant, his financial troubles long behind him. No longer the huge celebrity he once was, he was content with the modest life he'd been living for the past fifteen years, although he continued to be recognized on the streets and receive friendly greetings from fellow Philadelphians.
After catching the ESPN-broadcast virtual reality contest Then and Now between Rocky Balboa in his prime and the current heavyweight champ Mason "The Line" Dixon, in which Rocky was proclaimed the winner, he felt a desire to get back into the ring once more. Ever since losing Adrian, Rocky had felt like a beast was eating away at him inside, and he felt a few small local fights would pull him back out of his lonely state.
His decision to return to boxing was ridiculed by nearly everyone, including Paulie and Robert. He was even initially turned down by the boxing commission when he applied for a boxing license. They eventually granted it when they discovered, through more advanced medial equipment, that Rocky's brain damage was not as severe as was originally thought years ago.
After some thinking over and speaking with Robert, Paulie and Marie, Rocky accepted a non-title bout with then heavyweight champion Mason 'The Line' Dixon.
In a thrilling battle, Rocky knocks down Dixon in Round 2 but fails to get the knockout. After going the distance with Dixon, the fight ended and with Dixon winning a split-decision. However, Rocky already began walking out before this was even declared. The beast he felt that was eating him from the inside disappeard after the fight ended, and Rocky found peace in himself.
After the fight, Rocky visited Adrian's grave, claiming that he never would've done anything without her. Before kissing her grave, he spoke his last words in the franchise, "Yo Adrian, we did it. We did it." He then walked away, waving at Adrian, and the viewers, before fading away.
Ed 'Too Tall' Jones: Why did NFL great launch boxing career?


If you are a designated 501 (c) 3 organization, and are NOT associated with a political, religious or children's organization* your organization may qualify!
Organizations have from Oct. 1, 2018 – Oct. 31, 2018 to apply.
Applications will not be accepted after 11:59pm on Oct. 31, 2018.
20 organizations will be randomly chosen in November.
All other organizations get $600 for participating!
Clearwater Casino will provide a red wagon to build your float on.
Your float can be 6′ high x 6′ long x 2.5′ wide (but it doesn't have to be, that is just the maximum).
You will have from November (when you receive your wagon) until February 19, 2019 to create and submit your float.
If you're a chosen organization, you will get a set of rules when picking up your wagon.


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Find New Tires in Minutes
Who said shopping for replacement tires has to be hard? At Roxbury Tire Center, we make the process as easy as possible.
Our inventory is available online for your browsing pleasure. Use the online tire catalog to narrow your search by tire brand, tire size, or vehicle make and model. It's the easy way to find the best tires for where you drive, how you drive, and what you drive.
Your Johnstown Tire Shop
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If you need help with your search, contact us online or visit us today! Our staff is happy to assist with all your tire sale and service needs.
MICHELIN® was founded under the Michelin Rubber Factory in 1888 by Édouard and André Michelin in Paris, France. The original Rubber Company has since grown into the biggest tire manufacturer...
Learn More | Shop For Tires
BFGoodrich® Tires became the first rubber company in the United States when it was founded in 1870 by Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich in the rubber capital of the world, Akron, Ohio...
In 1892, Uniroyal® was founded in Naugatuck, Connecticut as the United States Rubber Company, which later became Uniroyal® Inc. in 1961. That same year, the Uniroyal® adopted a mascot...
Bridgestone was founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi in Japan. Japan started slowly producing automobiles in the 1930s, and Bridgestone became the first tire manufacturing company to offer tires nationwide...
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Capitol Tire is not only known for the quality tires they manufacture, but also for delivering dependable performance at a price that's easy on the wallet...
Continental has been a leading automotive industry supplier for over 100 years. Continental was founded in 1871 in Hanover, Germany, but merged with other major companies in the German rubber industry in 1928...
Cooper Tires was started in 1914 in Akron, Ohio by two brothers-in-law, John F. Schaefer and Claude E. Hart. The in-laws began by founding a business called the M&M Manufacturing Company...
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1900 by Harvey Firestone in the rubber capital of the world—Akron, Ohio. Harvey Firestone recognized the overwhelming potential for automobile tires...
Fuzion was born for performance drivers and vehicles as a subdivision of Bridgestone, which is one of the largest tire producers in the world. Fuzion has several types of tires...
The General Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1915 by William O'Neil and Winfred E. Fouse in Akron, Ohio, the rubber capital of the world. General Tire entered a booming market...
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling in Akron, Ohio. That year, the company had only thirteen employees, and began producing bicycle and carriage tires...
Hankook Tire was founded in 1941 under the name "the Chosun Tire Company" in South Korea. The Chosun Tire Company changed its name to Hankook Tire in 1968...
Established in 1894, Kelly Tires is the oldest American-made tire brand. Kelly Tires was founded in Springfield, Ohio as a solid-rubber carriage and buggy tire producer...
Kumho Tire Co. Ltd., formerly known as The Samyang Tire Co., Ltd., was founded in South Korea in 1960. Samyang Tire produced its first tire in 1961, and settled technological ties with...
MasterCraft is a subsidiary of Cooper Tire & Rubber and was founded in 1909 as a tire company that offers premium products to tire dealers across North America. MasterCraft tires are...
Mickey Thompson Performance Tires invents, develops, and produces a broad selection of specialty performance tires. The company was founded in 1963 by Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson and Gene McMannis...
As a branch of the Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., Nitto Tire was founded in 1949 in Japan. In 1966, Toyo Tire became the first Japanese tire manufacturer to...


The rates include: apartment hire, private car park, air-conditioning, Internet TV, Wi-Fi, washing machine, outside barbecue, towels, linens and cleaning.
1 July - 25 Aug.
20 May. - 30 Yune.
26 Aug. - 29 Sept.
1 Jan. - 19 May.
30 Sept. - 31 Dec.
Prices shown in Euros are marginal.
Sojourn tax included in the price.


Alan Lewis, Ph.D., spoke at the Scientific Writer's Seminar, a workshop presented on September 17, 2008 at CIRM headquarters in San Francisco. At the time of this presentation Alan Lewis was president and CEO of Novocell (now ViaCyte), a La Jolla-based company that has been developing a potential therapy for diabetes. Viacyte Inc. has four CIRM grants to help get a stem cell based therapy for diabetes to the FDA for clinical trials.


Sometimes life's circumstances become too hard to handle. Sometimes weekly counseling sessions don't gain traction.
in 3-day intensive counseling retreats.
and carefully tailored to each individual situation.


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Feardana Ua Cárthaigh (? - 1131) fue un poeta de Connacht.

En los Anales de los cuatro maestros sub anno 1131, se indica que «Feardana Ua Carthaigh, poeta en jefe de Connaught» fue asesinado en la batalla de Loch Semhdighdhe en Mide.

La familia Ua Cárthaigh (anglificado Carthy) estuvo asentada en Ui Maine, aunque aparentemente sin miembros de la dinastía.

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Annals of the Four Masters .

Poetas de Irlanda del siglo XII

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It is Enterprise Week at Dreamland International School and Mrs Hope has asked the children to make things to sell to raise money to buy books for the school library. Wuraola, Nneka and Azeezah are inspired by the statue in Lagos of Madam Tinubu who was a successful businesswoman and became the first Queen of Abeokuta. Read the story to find out what they make and whether they were successful.


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Updated December 5, 2018
South Portland assistant principal wins state recognition
Kimberlee Bennett has been named the 2019 Assistant Principal of the Year for grades 9-12 by the Maine Principals' Association.
By Kelley BouchardStaff Writer
SOUTH PORTLAND — Kimberlee Bennett, an assistant principal at South Portland High School, has been named the 2019 Assistant Principal of the Year for grades 9 through 12 by the Maine Principals' Association.
The award was presented to Bennett during a school assembly Wednesday morning. She also will be honored at the association's annual spring conference at the Samoset Resort in Rockport in April.
Kimberlee Bennett, an assistant principal at South Portland High School, has been named the 2019 Assistant Principal of the Year among Maine secondary schools for her "authentic, student-centered leadership." Photo courtesy South Portland School Department
During her seven years as an assistant principal, Bennett has demonstrated "authentic, student-centered leadership (that addresses) school issues in a positive, proactive manner (and ensures) that all students feel as though they belong at her school," said Richard Durost, MPA executive director.
Bennett has a bachelor's degree in special education from the University of Maine at Farmington and master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Southern Maine. She started her career as a special education teacher in Fryeburg for two years, then taught at Gorham Middle School for 12 years before taking the assistant principal position in South Portland.
The award recognizes Bennett as a member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
Twitter: KelleyBouchard
Browse more in News


Brisbane's favourite psychologist will help you move forward.
Ruane Lipkie, is one of the most experienced psychologists in Brisbane. Based in Chapel Hill, her practice focuses on psychological root analysis to help you gain clarity and perspective.
We are registered for Medicare and private health care rebates.
Are you feeling overwhelmed? The modern world can be unforgiving to those going through challenging life events. Based in Brisbane, A Life Logic is dedicated to helping people overcome their personal and emotional challenges.
We can assist across a range of areas including individuals, couples, families, adults, adolescents, and children. With an experienced and long-serving Brisbane psychologist, Ruane J Lipkie.


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Howard Earle Petch,  (12 May 1925 – 26 November 2018) was a Canadian academic administrator. Petch was the President of the University of Waterloo and the University of Victoria.

He received a Bachelor of Science, honours in physics and chemistry from McMaster University in 1949. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of British Columbia in 1952. He joined the department of physics at McMaster University in 1954. From 1958 to 1961 he was the chairman of the department of metallurgical engineering and was the Director of Research from 1961 to 1963.  From 1963 to 1967, he was the Principal of Hamilton College.

In 1967, he became the Vice-President (academic) and a Professor of physics at the University of Waterloo. From 1969 to 1970, he was the President pro tem of the University of Waterloo. In 1975, he became President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Victoria. He also was a Professor of physics. He retired in 1990.

In 1990, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

The Petch building at the University of Victoria, which houses the department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was named in his honour.

See also
 List of University of Waterloo people

References

1925 births
2018 deaths
Canadian university and college vice-presidents
Canadian physicists
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Members of the Order of British Columbia
Presidents of the University of Waterloo
McMaster University alumni
University of British Columbia alumni
Presidents of the Canadian Association of Physicists


Howell bicycle began in 1964 as a Schwinn dealer, and gained a reputation fast for being a large dealer with top notch bikes, large inventory and reliable service. This tradition has continued on through the years and is what sets us apart from other dealers. We are still in the original 14,000 sq. ft. building and carry on average of 500-700 bikes. As Schwinn went out of business in the 90's we needed a brand that was top notch again, we found that marriage with Cannondale and later on Felt and giant bicycles.
Here at Howell Bicycle you will get the most bike for the money, we buy in extremely large volume on the bikes we love the most and fit the market the best, with the large volume comes large discount that we pass on to our customers. This applied principles continue into the accessories, apparel and service as well.
1. We offer different bicycle lines to meet your needs. We carry Cannondale, Masi, & Haro, bicycles. We will size you up and put you into the correct bike. We can also get Surly, All City and GT!


We are about to reprint your copies of 'Protect Your IRA' and we'd like to offer you the opportunity to order additional copies without having to pay for shipping. If you were considering ordering, now is a great time to do so.
Copies cost just $3.95 plus any applicable tax.
Simply complete the form below and we'll be in touch with the details.
Please note: When completing the form, indicate the number of additional copies you require. Don't count the 100 books included as part of your package.


Leo Vegas is already a huge player in the online casino market. And the best mobile casino online today.
Now they have made it even better by giving players even more games to choose from.
Leo Vegas has now also added IGT as a software provider. You can play over 20 different IGT slots, famous ones like Kitty Glitter, Diamond Queen and Siberian Storm. Both on the desktop version as on the mobile version.
IGT is famous for its land-based casino slots, which you can find all over the world. And lately more and more online casinos are adding IGT slots to their games.
Leo Vegas already offers games from NetEnt, Microgaming, Play'n Go, Yggdrasil Gaming and now also IGT. And I know that they are working on adding Williams Interactive slots in the near future.
Leo Vegas is one of the best online casinos at the moment with great games, fast withdrawals and the best mobile casino you can find. New players even get a €700,- welcome package deal including a massive 200 free spins on Starburst.


What is Information Gathering ?
Information gathering is the process of collecting as much information as possible about a target network, for identifying varioius ways to intrude a network or system. Information gathering is the first step of any attack on information systems. Here are the Top 10 powerfull information gathering tools available for multi platforms(Windows / Linux / Mac OS X).
Disclaimer : All articles on our website are only for Educational/Informational purposes only. The author is not responsile for any illegal activity. TheHackerStuff does not promote any malicious activites.
Nmap, the Network mapper, is a free, open-source tool for vulnerability scanning and network discovery. The tool uses raw ip packets in novel ways that to see what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are providing, what operative systems (and OS versions) they're running, what kind of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of different characteristics. it was designed to quickly scan massive networks, however works fine against single hosts.
Network administrators use Nmap to identify what devices are running on their systems, discovering hosts that are obtainable and the services they provide, finding open ports and detecting security risks. Nmap is accessible for Linux, Windows, and mac OS X.
Th3inspector is an powerfull open source information gathering tool available on Github through which you can easily find much information about the target such as server details, whois lookup, target IP location, phone number, email address, sub-domains etc. The tool has many options to enumerate website information.
Download the tool from the download link.
Red Hawk is another open source information gathering tool available on github. It supports many scans & features like basic scan, web server detection, cms detection, whois lookup, geo-ip lookup, grab banners, dns lookup, subnet calculatorsub-domain scanner, reverse ip lookup & CMS detection. RedHawk also supports Vulnerability scanning and crawling.
RedHawk – A must have tool for all penetration testers.
Raccoon is a widespread tool created for reconnaissance and information gathering with an emphasis on simplicity. it will do everything from gathering DNS records, retrieving WHOIS info, getting TLS information, sleuthing WAF presence and up to threaded dir busting and subdomain enumeration. each scan outputs to a corresponding file.
As most of Raccoon's scans are independent and do not rely on every other's results, it utilizes Python's asyncio to run most scans asynchronously. Raccoon supports Tor/proxy for anonymous routing.
BadKarma is a python3 GTK+ toolkit that aims to help penetration testers throughout all the network infrastructure penetration testing activity phases. It permits testers to save lots of time by having point-and-click access to their toolkits, launch them against single or multiple targets and interact with them through simplified GUIs or Terminals.
Every task's output is logged beneath a session file in order to assist throughout reporting phase or in a possible incident response scenario. it is additionally accessible a proxychains switch that permit everything go through proxies, and last but not least, each command may be adjusted before the execution by disabling the "auto-execute" checkbox.
multiple scans at just once.
SPARTA is graphical user interface application developed with python and inbuild Network Penetration Testing Kali Linux tool. It simplifies scanning and enumeration phase with quicker results. It permits the tester to save lots of time by having point-and-click access to his toolkit and by displaying all tool output in an exceedingly convenient manner. If very little time is spent setting up commands and tools, more time may be spent focusing on analysing results. Despite the automation capabilities, the commands and tools used are totally customizable as every tester has his own strategies, habits and preferences.
Retrieve attainable uptime information, system and server information.
SubDomain search on a target host.
E-Mail address search on a target host.
tcp Portscan on the host target.
A standard program permitting user specified modules.
Devploit is a simple python script to Information Gathering. Features of devploit are DNS lookup, Whois lookup, Geo-IP lookup, subnet lookup, Port scanner, Extract links, Zone transfer, HTTP header, Host finder, IP-locator, Traceroute, host DNS finder, reverse IP lookup, Subdomain finder.
Zenmap is the official GUI version of Nmap scanner. It is a multi-platform free and open source application which aims to make Nmap easy for beginners to use while providing advanced features for experienced Nmap users.


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Maritime IKD
International Karate Daigaku
Tatamagouche
Mount Stewart
Karate Info
Shotokan Karate
Shotokan Kata
Dojo Kun & Niju Kun
Karate Apps
Black Belt Club
Shihan David Pyke
David Pyke, 8th Dan, began training in 1980 at Mount Allison University. In 1981 he was one of the original members of the Amherst Dojo, which he eventually took over as Chief Instructor and still leads to this day.
He has been the Regional Director for the New Brunswick region for over 20 years and since the creation of IKD in 2011, is the Chief Instructor of the Maritime IKD.
In 2006, Sensei David was promoted to 6th Dan at IKSF Master Camp. He has attended many National and International Tournaments and Master Camps, including as a competitor at the World Shoto Cup in Japan (1992) and Philadelphia (1994). Since then he has been a senior referee/arbitrator at many national and international competitions including Barbados in 1999 and Toronto in 2008 and 2012.
In 2007, Sensei Pyke relocated his Dojo from the YMCA to its permanent home at 100 Spring Street in Amherst, Nova Scotia. The move to this former church also accompanied a name change to Amherst Shotokan Karate Academy. He has received additional training in self-defense pressure point techniques.
In 2011, Sensei Pyke resigned from the ISKF to join the International Karate Daigaku. In February, he was promoted to 7th Dan and earned his Class A Instructor, Examiner and Judge qualifications. During the 2011 IKD Shoto Camp, Shihan David was elected to the IKD Shihan-kai.
Throughout his distinguished karate career, he has trained with many legendary Japanese karate masters. His fondest memory is dojo sparring with the legendary Master Tanaka.
Amherst Shotokan Karate Academy
IKD Shihan Kai
IKD Shihan Kai Senate
IKD Board of Directors
Director of Maritime IKD
IKD International Master Instructor (A Level)
IKD International Master Examiner (A Level)
IKD International Referee (A Level)
The International Karate Daigaku is dedicated to the further development of Shotokan Karate. Lead by Shihan Frank Woon-A-Tai, 10th Dan. The Maritime IKD was one of the first regions to join the IKD in 2011. Click the logo above for more information on the IKD.
Karate Demo
https://youtu.be/CGEP1aLcPqc
With dojos in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the Maritime IKD covers a large area of the three maritime provinces.
Lead by Shihan David Pyke, 8th Dan and Shihan Janice Pyke, 7th Dan, both are greatly respected Masters in the IKD.
Copyright 2021 - Maritime IKD | Theme: SpicePress by SpiceThemes


Who can benefit from Physical or Rehabilitative Therapy?
The people who will benefit the most from receiving physical therapy are those individuals who need to build strength, increase mobility and flexibility, and those who are repairing and restoring injured parts of the body. Posture issues are also addressed as poor posture can lead to damaging musculoskeletal conditions. Physical therapists will also work with patients who have just undergone surgery. These patients will often need therapy to help them regain optimal physical functionality.


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Home » Car Reviews » Finalrentals Launches in Romania
Finalrentals Launches in Romania
In 2021, the operator added 18 new countries to its growing global network.
Photo: Finalrentals
Finalrentals has announced a new Romanian partnership, which has been secured by car rental entrepreneur and industry expert Alex Dragomir.
"We have been observing the growth of Finalrentals in the last couple of years from the sidelines, and after meeting their higher management at WTM London, it was very clear to me that Finalrentals is going to be our partner in Romania," said Alex Dragomir, owner of Finalrentals in Romania. "We will bring the brand to our country, and we are excited to take this step and look forward to welcoming the Finalrentals consumers to Romania."
The partnership will operate in full swing and will serve across the nation, including the important city of Bucharest, and including services to all major airports as well as city locations. Other cities include Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu.
"Finalrentals is a great example of entrepreneurial excellence and vision, and when I met Alex from Pricecarz, I totally felt the entrepreneurial flare," said Ammar Akhtar, founder and CEO of Finalrentals. "At that very moment I knew we have found our partner in Romania. We are proud and really excited to add Romania as a place in our network for our users around the world."
Romania is a southeastern European country known for its beautiful forest areas, preserved medieval towns, fortified churches, and castles.
Finalrentals is a fast-growing car rental partnership program, headquartered in Wales, United Kingdom. In the last year alone, it has added 18 new countries into its global network.
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