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SANITY AND URBANITY BLOG
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World Happiness Report 2017: Opportunities for designing 'social' into the environment
By Erin Sharp Newton, Assoc. AIA, M. Arch., USA
April will be Happy Birthday to the World Happiness Report. Fresh off the press on March 20th (The International Day of Happiness), this year's report marks the 5 year anniversary of the first edition. First published in April 2012 by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network in support of the UN High Level Meeting on Happiness, The 2017 World Happiness Report spans across 155 countries, and the data is used world-wide in informing policy makers in their decision processes.
For the researcher, the scientist, the evidence based practitioner, and for any persons in society focused on wellness in the world, this 188 page report provides data-focused, tangible summaries to help gauge well-being of people where they live.
Summary of the report's methods
The report provides global and regional charts showing the distribution of answers, from roughly 3000 respondents in each of more than 150 countries, asking them to evaluate their current lives on a scale where 0 represents the worst possible life and 10 the best possible.
The global population is split into ten geographic regions.
A difference of four points in average life evaluations, on a scale that runs from 0 to 10, separates the ten happiest countries from the ten unhappiest countries.
Happy 10 - The top 10 happiest countries are the same as last year (though in different positions)
Norway 7.54
Denmark 7.52
Iceland 7.5
Switzerland 7.49
Finland 7.47
Netherlands 7.38
Canada 7.32
New Zealand 7.32
Australia 7.28
Sweden 7.28
Un-Happy 10 - The top ten unhappiest countries (from bottom up)
Central African Republic 2.69
Burundi 2.91
Tanzania 3.35
Syria 3.46
Rwanda 3.47
Togo 3.49
Guinea 3.51
Liberia 3.53
South Sudan 3.59
Yemen 3.59
The key factors that the top ten 'happiest' countries have in common are:
more healthy years of life expectancy
trust (perceived absence of corruption in government & business)
perceived freedom to make life decisions
Of particular interest in this year's World Happiness Report is that it reveals the important role of social factors in supporting happiness. The calculations show that elevating the social foundations from low levels up to the world average levels would have greater positive affect than that of living longer, and making more money, combined.
This graph from the World Happiness Report 2017 demonstrates the impact of social support (mustard colour) on a country's overall happiness rating, using 2014-16 data. (54-155 are at the end of the article).
In Norway the oil prices fell, yet they moved into the number one position in the World Happiness Report. The idea that the successful output of goods and services does not denote a country's wellbeing, is shown in the fact that China's Gross National Product (GDP) multiplied 5 times over a hundred years, while its subjective wellbeing (SWB) spent 15 years in decline, before starting to improve. Stress and anxiety in the labor market are attributed to this decline of SWB from 1990-2005, whereas changes in unemployment and in the social safety net are ascribed to their substantial recovery. Meanwhile, the Report attributes lower levels of happiness in many African countries to the slowness of change, even as democracy improves. Meeting basic needs in infrastructure and youth development still have not been sufficiently achieved, though the report suggests that African people's exceptional optimism may be their saving grace.
In Western countries mental health seems to affect happiness more than income. "In rich countries the biggest single cause of misery is mental illness," said Professor Richard Layard, director of the Wellbeing Programme at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance on this year's Day of Happiness. The United States, Australia, Britain and Indonesia hold economic variables, social factors and health as their key determinants of happiness, while the emergence of mental illness is reportedly more important to all three Western Societies than income, employment or physical illness.
The 2017 World Happiness Report adds investigation of how work affects happiness, and shows that while income may not buy happiness, work matters. Across the world, those with jobs gauged their lives more satisfactorily than the unemployed, and demonstrate that rising unemployment rates affect everyone negatively. The report goes further into condition and types of work as also having an effect on predicting happiness levels.
The United States happiness rating has declined this year, now ranking at 14th, with a score of 6.99. While income and life-expectancy improved, the following four social variables declined:
Less social support
Less sense of personal freedom,
Lower donations (less generosity),
More perceived corruption of government and business
Based on the calculation system, these declines in social variables could explain the significant drop in overall ranking for the US, emphasising that meeting social needs is crucial to happiness scores.
The 2017 World Happiness Report serves as a tool for many purposes. It helps to understand who is doing well, who isn't, as well as why or why not in terms of national 'happiness'. Furthermore this report provides a clarification for areas of need – such as the need for the increased social support that is present where we see a greater level of measured happiness.
What this all culminates in is a viable agenda for implementation. The 2017 World Happiness Report demonstrates how social factors affect wellbeing and happiness positively, or conversely where there is lack, negatively. These aspects can be addressed through our development of policies and solutions, as planners, architects, designers and citizens active in our communities. We can target our efforts to support or create opportunities for social interaction, community support, and personal freedom. Through these efforts we can play a role in improving happiness across the board.
For UD/MH practical measures for solutions see:
The remainder of the 2014-16 rankings.
Erin Newton is a UD/MH Fellow and part of NK Architects Healthcare Group in Morristown, New Jersey, USA. She holds a Master's Degree in Architecture from UCLA and a Master's in Design from Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. She is an Associate Member of the American Institute of Architects, a Board Member of the Hunterdon Drug Awareness Program, and is on two Health & Human Services Local Advisory Committees. Erin believes that integrity and creativity are fundamental to the success of the multi-faceted world of design and living.
@ESharpNewton
UD/MH is now on Instagram - and we want your pictures
We are often contacted by journalists, urban designers, planners and policymakers, asking the same simple question: can you give us some examples of urban design that promotes good mental health in cities around the world? We want to be able to give them a range of interesting examples from cities all over the world, but our eyes can't be everywhere.
Fortunately, yours can, through the power of social media. We have just launched the UD/MH Instagram Page. This will hopefully prove to be a critical tool for promoting the opportunities for leveraging urban design to promote good mental health. It will also become an accessible discussion platform for us to share ideas with a greater audience.
The aim of our Instagram page is to present good (and bad!) examples of urban design for good mental health from all over the world. These could take any form, such as; parks, open spaces, public buildings, housing, etc - and any scale, city-wide or nuanced (as long as it fits into a photograph). The pictures should demonstrate the use of any of the urban design factors that affect mental health. These snapshots will weave together to create a patchwork of inspiration, and points of discussion – as well as feeding into the growing discourse of conscious urban design for the benefit of public health. The pictures may also be shared on our website or in publications to demonstrate challenges and possibilities.
It would be great to see this page grow and attract and connect new audiences around the world, alongside the other social media channels used by UD/MH. Moreover, it is a great way for all of us to show off our favourite cities, and our projects.
How can you get involved?
If you are active users of Instagram, please visit the page @urbandesignmentalhealth – follow, check out, share and comment on current posts.
Think of great images you have (or go out and take some photographs) that show urban design that promotes good mental health (or that does not).
Ensure that the images are your own, or that we have permission to post them, potentially over multiple platforms such as our blog, etc. Include appropriate attributions that we should use.
Include a short description about the location, context, and relevant features.
Submit the images to us directly through Instagram or by email.
Enjoy the images being shared on Instagram and on other platforms.
If you submit a lot, we can discuss the possibility of you doing a photo essay for UD/MH.
We look forward to seeing and sharing your pictures.
Charlotte Collins is a UD/MH Associate. She is responsible for managing the UD/MH Instagram account.
Charlotte is studying BA Geography at UCL, and is currently on an exchange year at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her main interests are in the architecture and regeneration of urban housing estates and its link to wellbeing, which she is currently researching for her undergraduate dissertation.
Well design: creating and managing pro-social, psychologically benign places
by Rhiannon Corcoran and Graham Marshall, The Prosocial Place Programme, UK
To support the collective social wellbeing set out in the Marmot Review, Fair Society Healthy Lives (2010), we need to foster a culture that regards and manages places as essential infrastructure. We have entered a critical era where greater thought leadership in our place-making culture is essential.
Dubbed "Toxic Assets" by CABE, Britain's poorly performing urban places and communities continue to absorb much of our GDP, where land, places and people are exploited and treated like commodities.
In his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, Jarred Diamond discusses the dangers of continued exploitation and the outcomes for societies that could not change their behaviour patterns: certain extinction.
With expenditure outstripping income, we have entered a long period of economic depression with high levels of 'welfare' costs signifying a nation under stress. Whilst the government's economic austerity measures may rebalance the budget on paper, their short-term nature does not address the fundamental health and wellbeing issues that impact individuals, communities and the wider stability of the nation.
The Marmot Review emphasises the impact of urban quality on matters of equity, health and wellbeing giving urban designers an important role to play, but not through the technocratic fixes that they are typically trained to deliver. So, where do we start when thinking about the relationship between place-making, health and wellbeing?
THE URBAN PENALTY
Probably the most fundamental principle is embodied in the Government's "No Health Without Mental Health" policy. Social scientists have consistently found urban areas to have higher prevalence's of both diagnosed mental health conditions and a lowered level of wellbeing known as "languishing". Public health research identifies this failure as the 'urban penalty', or the 'urbanicity effect', arguing that it results from poor social integration, social isolation, discrimination and deprivation – things we intuitively grasp as urban designers.
However, if we explore these issues through the lens of Life History Theory developed by evolutionary psychologists, we can begin to see things a little differently and to understand better the adaptive nature of human behaviour in context. Research has found that where resources are stable, reliable and predictable, people can plan their futures, enabling greater resilience and the capacity to adapt in response to inevitable life stresses, to change and to cooperate with similarly future oriented people they encounter in their communities. It should be no surprise that public spending is lowest in places where people are prosperous, well-educated and healthy.
When we study low resource environments through this same lens, we find that people live their lives and forage in a different adaptive way. This can be difficult for design professionals to understand and, furthermore, the outcomes of this way of being are typically disapproved of by society. The insecurity of resources promotes an adaptive strategy, termed 'future-discounting' in those who live in these harsh environments. In other words, in these environments immediate gratification of wellbeing needs is an ingrained, sensible strategy to pursue.
In general people who live in harsh environments will tend to thrill seek, shun long term educational goals, have children younger, act impulsively etc. However, together, harsh environments and the behaviours they prime have significantly negative impacts on sustainable individual and community wellbeing. Harsh environments also tend to get harsher as people make only defensive, short-term investments in them. This includes the managerial actions that public authorities imposed upon these places.
And when we talk about resources we mean more than money – we refer to the whole resource of our human habitat and relationships. A gated, well healed estate is just as capable of promoting low levels of wellbeing as public housing can.
WHAT IS WELL-DESIGNED?
In short, Life History Theory shows how the qualities of an environment directly determine our life strategies and our wellbeing. In so doing, it emphasises the utmost importance of urban design, but when government policies demand places are 'well designed', what do they expect from this nebulous phrase? In 2012, Dr Steven Marshall published a paper interrogating urban design theory and found it "based on assumption and consensus, open to wide and personal interpretation by all players in the built environment and pseudo-scientific at best" – assuming built environment practitioners apply any principles at all.
The time to address the weaknesses in our urban design practices and prejudices is overdue. We need to widen our knowledge base and work with social scientists to understand our intrinsic human ecology and the predictability of its 'pattern language'. Whilst many secure professionals can successfully 'forage' in the ecological niche that is the 'built environment' or 'regeneration' industry, we embrace higher concerns that will advance thought leadership in place-making.
We need to design, manage and maintain 'psychologically benign' environments that reduce feelings of 'threat' to optimise opportunities for people to interact and cooperate. This is prosociality; co-operative social behaviour towards a common goal that benefits other people or society as a whole, such as helping, sharing, donating, and volunteering. Prosocial communities are central to sustained wellbeing and themselves encourage future focussed perspectives in the individuals who live in them.
AN EXEMPLAR
The BBC documentary series The Secret History of Our Streets provides a good illustration of the issues we face today. Silo thinking, unaccountable planning (eg highways), starchitecture (remote), all create harsh environments that are barriers to our intrinsic preference for cooperation and interaction.
In the episode on Duke Street in Glasgow (2 of series 2), we can watch an unfolding story of a place that developed from nothing during the Industrial Revolution, suffered social policy failures and then was dismantled bit-by-bit by planning and design policy failures. The scenes near the end of the programme show a townscape that has been 'un-placed'. An uplifting aspect of the programme is the positive response from the community against this threat, demonstrating the powerful force of prosociality where it prevails.
A WELL-DESIGN PLACE
It is important to note the fore-sighting that tells us that at least 80% of the buildings that we will inhabit in 2050 have already been built. Moreover, many of the new buildings erected between now and then will be constructed within existing fabrics and infrastructures, and so be quickly assimilated to become 'existing' too and subject to the same management regimes. We therefore need to:
Stop 'UN-PLACING' townscapes
Remove barriers to 'PROSOCIALITY' caused by short-sighted renewal and management programmes.
Embrace the social sciences to focus 'CO-DESIGN' leadership on urgently regenerating existing places within an 'accountable people-focussed agenda'.
Create 'OUTCOME' oriented policies to deliver objective, evidence-based place-making principles that embed community wellbeing.
Together we might instigate a 'WELL-DESIGN' process for place making rather than an indefinable 'well designed' output.
Instead of being distracted by Utopian ('no–place') dreams on green fields, we need to pursue the 'Eutopian' (well-place) dream that is achievable through inter-disciplinary thinking, knowledge mobilisation and sensitive management of our existing townscapes.
Read more about pro-social design by the authors here.
Rhiannon Corcoran is a professor of psychology and Graham Marshall is an award winning urban designer and a visiting senior research fellow; both at the University of Liverpool Institute of Psychology, Health and Society. They co-direct the Prosocial Place Programme that aims to understand and address the pernicious impacts of low-resource urban environments on health and wellbeing and to develop an evidence-based approach to urban design. Contact Rhiannon @rhiannoncor and Graham @prosocialplace
The original version of this blog was posted at What Works Wellbeing
Sanity and Urbanity:
a UD/MH blog
Reading, seeing, thinking and doing urban design to improve mental health.


1. the act or power of sensing with the eyes; sight.
2. the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be: prophetic vision; the vision of an entrepreneur.
3. an experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present, often under the influence of a divine or other agency: a heavenly messenger appearing in a vision. Compare hallucination ( def 1 ) .
4. something seen or otherwise perceived during such an experience: The vision revealed its message.
5. a vivid, imaginative conception or anticipation: visions of wealth and glory.


I learned how to make these from my friend Lindsey a few years ago. I've seen a couple things on Pinterest for Mint Truffles, but I didn't really read into those recipes much. It seemed easier to just substitute in mint cookies instead of using food coloring, mint flavoring, etc. These are for some family events so I made the recipe x 3. Normal recipe can make 2-3 dozen.
Add the cream cheese and mix it all together (should be creamy).
Roll little balls of the mixture, place on wax paper, and put in fridge or freezer to cool.
Melt the candy coating and roll some of the chilled oreo balls in the coating.
Sprinkle some of the leftover cookies on top and pop it back in the fridge.
I love these! I'm so glad you posted this because I want to make them!
I still have some frozen ones in the freezer that I am too lazy to melt the chocolate from... but they are soooo good!


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Dillon Gabriel Will Make an Impact at Oklahoma
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo
By Michael Daly January 3, 2022 8:55 pm
By Michael Daly | January 3, 2022 8:55 pm ET
Former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel announced that he will flip his commitment as a transfer from UCLA to Oklahoma. Gabriel will make an immediate impact with the Sooners as an experienced quarterback.
This news came hours after Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams announced his entrance into the transfer portal. Williams kept the door open for a return to Oklahoma, but the news of Gabriel heading to Norman, Okla., will likely drive Williams away from the Sooners.
The transfer from UCF to Oklahoma means that Gabriel will reunite with one of his former offensive coordinators at UCF, Jeff Lebby. For the 2022 season, Lebby was hired by head coach Brent Venables as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator.
Gabriel initially transferred to UCLA in December and was scheduled to begin classes on Monday at UCLA. Instead, he will be attending school in Norman and playing in the Big 12. Gabriel is coming off a tough 2021 season where he was injured early in the season against Louisville and he did not return for the remainder of the season. He played in a total of three games and passed for 818 yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions.
This was Gabriel's first season playing with new head coach Gus Malzahn, who was hired after the 2020 season. In his first two seasons at UCF, he saw a lot of success under head coach Josh Heupel. As a freshman, he threw for 3,653 yards in 2019 and 3,570 in his sophomore season.
With Oklahoma, he will have an opportunity to stake his claim as the team's primary quarterback for 2022. Oklahoma is not unfamiliar with bringing in transfer quarterbacks and allowing them to flourish in a new system. Most recently, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hurts transferred to Oklahoma and finished their college careers with the Sooners. All three were either Heisman Trophy winners or candidates. Gabriel will hope to have similar success playing for the Oklahoma Sooners as a transfer quarterback.
featured, NCAA, NCAA Football, new, NCAA
Mixing Shane Beamer and Spencer Rattler Together is a Good Thing for South Carolina
Zach Calzada Could Be the Missing Piece for Auburn

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Here is a ZENIT translation of the Pope's address today before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peters' Square.
Every day, unfortunately, the newspapers report bad news: homicides, accidents, catastrophes… in the passage from today's Gospel, Jesus refers to two tragic happenings of his day which had caused a stir: a cruel suppression carried out by Roman soldiers in the temple, and the collapse of the tower of Siloam in Jerusalem, which had resulted in 18 deaths (cf Luke 13:1-5).
Jesus is aware of the superstitious mentality of his listeners and he knows that they erroneously interpreted these types of event. In fact, they thought that, if those people had died in such a way, cruelly, it was a sign that God had punished them for some grave sin they had committed, as if saying "they deserved it." And on the other hand, the fact of being saved from such a disgrace made them feel "good about themselves." They deserved it; I'm fine.
Jesus clearly rejects this outlook, because God does not permit tragedies in order to punish sins, and he affirms that those poor victims were not worse than others. Instead, he invites his listeners to draw from these sad events a teaching that applies to everyone, because we are all sinners; in fact, he said to those who had questioned him, "If you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" (v 3).
Today too, seeing certain disgraces and sorrowful happenings, we can have the temptation to "unload" the responsibility on the victims, or even on God himself. But the Gospel invites us to reflect: What idea of God do we have? Are we truly convinced that God is like that, or isn't that just our projection, a God made to "our image and likeness"?
Jesus, in contrast, invites us to change the heart, to make a radical switch on the path of our lives, abandoning compromises with evil — and that's something we all do, eh? compromises with evil, hypocrisy … I think that nearly everyone has a bit of hypocrisy — to decidedly take up again the path of the Gospel. But again there is the temptation to justify ourselves. What should we convert from? Aren't we basically good people? — How many times we have thought this: "But I'm basically good, I'm a good person" … and it's not like that, eh? "Am I not a believer and even quite practicing?" And we think that that's how we are justified.
Unfortunately, each of us very much resembles the tree that, over many years, has repeatedly shown that it's sterile. But, fortunately for us, Jesus is like a farmer who, with limitless patience, still obtains a concession for the fruitless vine. "Sir, leave it for this year also … it may bear fruit in the future" (v 9).
A "year" of grace: the time of the ministry of Christ, the time of the Church before his glorious return, the time of our life, marked by a certain number of Lents, which are offered to us as occasions of repentance and salvation. A time of a Jubilee Year of Mercy. The invincible patience of Jesus. Have you thought about the patience of God? Have you thought as well of his limitless concern for sinners? How it should lead us to impatience with ourselves! It's never too late to convert. Never. Until the last moment, God's patience awaits us.
Remember that little story from St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, when she prayed for that man who was condemned to death, a criminal, who did not want to receive the consolation of the Church. He rejected the priest, he didn't want [forgiveness], he wanted to die like that. And she prayed, in the convent, and when that man was there, at the moment of being killed, he turned to the priest, took the crucifix and kissed it. The patience of God! He does the same with us, with all of us. How many times, we don't know — we'll know in heaven — but how many times we are there, there, and there, the Lord saves us. He saves us because he has great patience with us. And this is his mercy. It's never too late to convert, but it's urgent. It's now! Let us begin today.
The Virgin Mary sustains us, so that we can open our hearts to the grace of God, to his mercy; and she helps us to never judge others, but rather to allow ourselves to be struck by daily misfortunes and to make a serious examination of our consciences and to repent.
My prayer, and undoubtedly yours as well, always includes the dramatic situation of refugees who flee from wars and other inhuman situations. In particular, Greece and other countries that are on the front line, are generously helping them, which requires the cooperation of all nations. A harmonized response can be effective and equally distribute the weight. For this, it's necessary to join the negotiations decisively and unreservedly. At the same time, I have received with hope the news of the ceasing of hostilities in Syria, and I invite everyone to pray that this crack might bring relief to the suffering population and open the path to dialogue and the peace that is so desired.
I also wish to assure my closeness to the peoples of the Fiji Islands, harshly lashed by a devastating cyclone. I pray for the victims and for those who are committed to the relief operations.
I offer a cordial greeting to all of the pilgrims from Rome, from Italy and from other countries.
I greet the faithful of Gdansk, the indigenous of Biafra, students from Zaragoza, Huelva, Cordoba and Zafra, the youth of Formentera and the faithful of Jaen.
I greet the groups of Polish residents of Italy, the faithful of Cascia, Desenzano del Garda, Vicenza, Castiglione d'Adda and Rocca di Neto, as well as the many youth from the San Gabriele dell'Addolorata camp, accompanied by the Passionist Fathers, the children from the Oratories of Rho, Cornaredo and Pero and those of Buccinasco, and the School of the Daughters of Maria Inmaculada de Padua.
I greet the group that has come to mark the "Day of Rare Diseases" with a special prayer and my encouragement for your associations of mutual assistance.
I wish you all a good Sunday. Don't forget, please, to pray for me. Have a good lunch and until soon!


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The first-person camera horror film or "found footage" movie has become all the rage with genre filmmakers over the last few years, and I enjoy the form very much.
When handled well (Cloverfield ) or exquisitely-well ([REC] ) the first-person subjective horror movie boasts an incredible amount of immediacy and urgency.
Contrarily, when this type of film is not done so well (Diary of the Dead ), examples of the genre can come across as artless and even amateurish; like a bad reality show on basic cable.
While not nearly as strong or as powerful as [REC], The Last Exorcism nonetheless utilizes the form of the "found footage" mock-documentary horror film to good effect.
Specifically, director Daniel Stamm's effort focuses a great deal on character, much more so than most films of this type, which often tend to focus on one location, or on one emergency situation.
In this instance, the character at the heart of the drama is the colorful Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He's a glib but good-hearted "performer" who chooses the Christian Church as his stage. Cotton followed his proud father into the Church and now sees to it that the Sunday morning sermons are never boring. He does card tricks for his flock; he uses props and special effects whenever he can to spice things up. He doesn't think he's playing with people's lives; he just thinks he is putting on an entertaining show.
Marcus may (or may not...) be a genuine man of faith, but he is abundantly cynical about the nature of man. In particular, he is troubled that some men can so easily manipulate the gullible or the ignorant, especially in terms of faith and religious belief.
To wit, Cotton has for years conducted exorcisms (with taped demon noises and other special effects as background noise...) that are shams; but which nonetheless give the suffering souls some belief and sense of comfort that they have been healed. At first, Cotton believed that his involvement was a public service of sorts, and participated happily.
On news, however, that a girl has died during an especially violent exorcism (as was also the case in The Exorcism of Emily Rose ), Rev. Marcus experiences a change of heart. In a moment of self reflection, he decides that "doing God's work" in this instance means going against the Church and exposing exorcisms (and demon possession...) as frauds.
To that end, Cotton invites a documentary crew to follow him on his "last exorcism" in Ivanwood, Louisiana. There, an innocent teenage girl named Nell (Ashley Bell) is allegedly possessed by a demon and murdering her father's livestock on a nightly basis. The camera crew will observe as Cotton guides Nell and her family through the possession, revealing for the documentarians all the tricks of his trade.
And then, of course, Cotton will collect his cash and leave for home.
...But of course, that's not at all how things end up. Not at all.
The early portions of The Last Exorcism do a stellar job of introducing Reverend Marcus, inter cutting ably between talking-head interviews with Marcus and his wife and B-roll footage of his father's "demon book," which contains all the names of the demons that might possess the living.
These early passages are highly engaging, and more importantly than that, are just about the best "faked" moments you've probably seen in a found footage horror film lately. The chronicle of Cotton's life in the Church -- and his reasons for turning his back on the barbaric practice of exorcism -- seem very, very authentic. There's no hint of fakery or of "acting" in these moments. You accept the character and his choices as real.
These moments also lay out the beginning of Cotton's intriguing character arc. I won't reveal the parameters or trajectory of that arc, but suffice it to say that the glib-but-good-hearted showman is landed into a harrowing situation wherein his beliefs and faith are called into question. His very words are held to account.
He must finally decide: Man of God or Show Business Charlatan?
As The Last Exorcism settles down into the heart of Nell's case, in an isolated, rural farmhouse, the movie grows increasingly creepy and disturbing.
There's a constant tension present in the screenplay and its presentation between opposing philosophies. Is Nell mentally disturbed? Extremely susceptible to fundamentalist indoctrination and the suggestion that she's possessed by a devil? Or is she actually harboring a demon?
Who, precisely, is conning whom?
Is Cotton playing the family? Or is the family playing Cotton? And if the latter is true, what is the reason behind that act? Is Cotton actually up against a diabolical showman with many more "special effects" in his quiver?
Commendably, The Last Exorcism also innovates some with its by-now-familiar first-person subjective P.O.V. form. In one unexpected moment, Nell -- apparently possessed by the demon -- picks up the video camera and goes on a murderous bender (with the family cat as victim...). That's something these first-person movies don't show often: the killer literally "possessing" our eye on the narrative events.
I also enjoyed the film's setting, in rural Louisiana. The region has existed under "six different flags" over its long history, and the place is what Cotton calls a melting pots of different beliefs "rubbing up against each other." In other words, the perfect setting for a supernatural horror film.
I'm not entirely thrilled, let alone satisfied with The Last Exorcism's denouement. The film's last shot is an unnecessary swipe from The Blair Witch Project (1999), and the resolution of the ambiguity -- of the film's central mystery -- is confusing. Cotton's actions during the last act are wholly understandable: he must select a side and fight for it. But I do have questions about the motives of some of the other supporting characters involved in the climax, especially as it pertains to earlier behavior in the film.
Despite this, I still recommend The Last Exorcism for fans of the found footage horror sub-type, and also for horror movie enthusisasts in general. Patrick Fabian has created a memorable character in Reverend Cotton Marcus, and I enjoy how the movie frequently weighs the moral pitfalls of his character. Cotton is responsible for his words...even if he doesn't mean them or even entirely believe in them, and The Last Exorcism hammers that point home effectively.
If Cotton -- in his capacity as an expert -- tells Nell's father that "death is the only salvation" for a person possessed by a demon, then he's at least partially responsible when the farmer picks up a shotgun and aims it at his daughter, point-blank range, in an effort to save her soul.
Cotton slowly becomes aware of his responsibility, and that's what keeps him from extricating himself from the growing horror..and stuck in that farmhouse. He realizes that his words and his choices have played a critical part in what is happening. And in a weird, unsettling way, this aspect of The Last Exorcism is actually a reflection of our current national discussion. When do words go too far? When should "showmanship" for entertainment's sake cease? When do entertaining words become a call to unfortunate action?
I don't want to belabor that point, because we all see this matter differently, but The Last Exorcism is an interesting meditation on personal responsibility, and an excellent character study of a "showman" who makes questionable choices.
I keep hearing about how the ending for this film really messes up a good movie. I have it in my Netflix queue. Thanks, John.
I found the ending refreshingly daring. It forces an evolution in the character. The handheld camera works well here, mostly because the acting plays naturally to it. A little gem, it handles its subject matter intelligently.
Thank you both for writing such great comments on The Last Exorcism.
Le0pard13: I think you will appreciate the film. It's a good horror movie, and I'll be curious to hear your take on the last scene.
jmcozzoli: I'm not at all sure you are wrong in that assertion, vis-a-vis the ending. It struck me as off-tone and surprising while I watched, but I'm not always right about such things. In a horror movie, surprise is good...and I was certainly surprised!
As far as character arc, you are absolutely correct there too: the last scene does force the evolution of the character.
I also agree with your conclusion that the movie is intlligent and a "little gem." I give the film overall high marks, but I'm still ambivalent about the ending. There's something about it that feels rushed; and I'm not sure how Nell's brother fits in regarding the whole plot line either.
I am another one who really enjoyed the film until the ending, and I usually like quirky or downbeat endings. Great review!
I am not just a fan of FF horror, I'm driving the freaking bus!!I have yet to see a film of this sub-genre that does not guarantee the viewer at least 2 or 3 genuinely scary moments. The lone exception being the putrid 'Amityville Haunting' (omg that film was bad!) Though....even that had one very good scene, I must admit.
I digress... 'The Last Exorcism' is better than most FF films, certainly not on the par with BWP or Rec, but if you like possession films and/or FF films, you gotta see this.


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Home » News » Four Arrested In Protest, But Feds Continue With Plan To Sell The Gulf To Oil Interests
Four Arrested In Protest, But Feds Continue With Plan To Sell The Gulf To Oil Interests
Another 138,000 acres off Louisiana's coasts will be explored for oil.
Activists deliver flood debris to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in New Orleans on Tuesday, the day before the agency leased more Gulf waters for oil extraction. CREDIT: COURTESY 350.ORG
Four people were arrested for trespassing at the New Orleans office of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday, after they delivered a petition with nearly 200,000 signatures calling for President Obama to cancel plans to lease off parts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas development.
"We tied the recent flooding to the effects of climate change and the ongoing drilling in the Gulf," said one of the arrested activists, retired teacher Renate Heurich, 61.
BOEM auctioned more than 138,000 acres of the Gulf to oil developers Wednesday. In total, in this one auction, the federal government put 23 million acres of the Gulf up for sale.
"It's a huge amount of carbon that is in the Gulf," Heurich told ThinkProgress. "It's a big carbon bomb — and if we have any chance to adhere to what was signed in the Paris climate treaty, than we have to leave the vast majority of the known reserves in the ground."
Louisiana, while being an oil and gas producer, is also at the front lines of climate change. The low-lying and sensitive coastal areas are at risk from rising sea levels and increasingly intense storm systems. The recent storm that flooded Baton Rouge was at the scale of what has previously been known as a 500-year storm — but was the United States' eighth 500-year flood in the past 12 months. Thirteen people died, 60,000 homes were damaged, and thousands were evacuated in this most recent tragedy.
The people of Louisiana are beginning to fight back.
The protesters asked President Obama, who was in Louisiana on Tuesday to address the Baton Rouge flooding, to cancel the sale. Obama did not respond to the petition, nor did he mention climate change in his public remarks.
Originally, the agency planned to hold the auction at the Superdome, which famously served as a refugee center for New Orleans residents displaced from Hurricane Katrina devastation 11 years ago.
BOEM instead opted to conduct an online auction for the leases.
"They are not having a public auction anymore. That was their response," Heurich said. "They are live-streaming the auction now because they don't want the circus at the Superdome."
BOEM officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Heurich and three others were arrested Tuesday for "trespassing," she said, after police and BOEM officials said that the agency was located on private property and the owner wanted them to leave. (According to public records, the BOEM office property is owned by Elman New Orleans Associates, a real estate leasing company based in New York.)
Heurich said the police officers were "courteous" and that she and her two New Orleans-based companions were released with a summons about 20 minutes after being taken to the local jail. The fourth protester, a California resident, was released later in the afternoon.
Anne Rolfes, a community organizer with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade who helped organize this week's activities, said that the public plays a key role in stopping continued oil and gas extraction.
The Gulf of Mexico contains one of the largest oil reserves in the United States, and 17 percent of the country's oil extraction comes from federally leased offshore areas, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
BOEM has approved hundreds of exploration and drilling permits in the Gulf, even since the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster drew the nation's attention to the risks oil extraction. This, all while the country pledges to move away from fossil fuel development.
During Obama's tenure, BOEM proposed and then removed Atlantic drilling from the agency's five-year plan. Environmental advocates credit a widespread public outcry along the Atlantic coast for encouraging the administration to give up those plans. In South Carolina, for instance, every shoreline community passed a resolution against drilling, seismic testing (a disruptive pre-extraction activity), or both.
Previously, there has been no such resistance to the oil industry in Louisiana. Behind the scenes, Rolfes said, officials will "say very candidly that the reason we as a country drill in the Gulf of Mexico and not in the Atlantic and not on the West Coast is because there is no resistance here. And so we're changing that."
Prior to delivering the signed petition, the groups deposited a pick-up truck worth of debris from the Baton Rouge flooding to BOEM's doorstep.
"This flood is really on them," Rolfes said. "You continue to permit drilling, this is what is going to happen."
Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute (API) touts the economic benefits of oil and gas drilling in the Gulf.
"The jobs piece — that's always their response to us," Rolfes said. "If they cared so much about jobs, they would put people to work fixing the 26,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf of Mexico."
According to the Gulf Restoration Network, there are near-constant oil spills in the Gulf. "Almost every time that we fly over the coast and the Gulf we see leaks and spills occurring, mostly related to oil and gas infrastructure," campaign director Raleigh Hoke told ThinkProgress last month.
In addition, the oil and gas industry is responsible for between a third and nine-tenths of Louisiana's coastal land loss. Dredging accounts for much of this loss.
The industry is fighting efforts by local and state government to hold it accountable for environmental damage along the coast.
"Talking Weather and Climate"
Crude Oil Production
rising sea levels


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Q: $x_1$ , $x_2$ are roots of $x=5-x^2$. Find the equation with roots $\frac1{(x_1+1)^3}$ and $\frac1{(x_2+1)^3}$.
Suppose $x_1$ , $x_2$ are the roots of the equation $x=5-x^2$.Then
$\dfrac1{(x_1+1)^3}$ and $\dfrac1{(x_2+1)^3}$ are roots of which
equation?
$1)125x^2+16x=1$
$2)125x^2=16x+1$
$3)125x^2=12x+1$
$4)125x^2+12x=1$

I solved this problem with the following approache,
I've denoted the roots of the original equation by $\alpha$ and $\beta$ rather than $x_1$, $x_2$ ,
$S=\alpha+\beta=-1$ and $P=\alpha\beta=-5$. We find $S'$ and $P'$ of the new equation,
$$P'=\dfrac1{[(\alpha+1)(\beta+1)]^3}=\dfrac1{(S+P+1)^3}=-\frac1{125}$$
$$S'=\dfrac{(\beta+1)^3+(\alpha+1)^3}{[(\alpha+1)(\beta+1)]^3}=-\frac1{125}\times\left((\alpha^3+\beta^3)+3(\alpha^2+\beta^2)+3(\alpha+\beta)+2\right)$$
$$=-\dfrac{(S^3-3PS)+3(S^2-2P)+3S+2}{125}=-\dfrac{-16+33-3+2}{125}=-\frac{16}{125}$$
Hence the new equation is $125x^2+16x-1=0$. And the answer is first choice.
This was a problem from a timed exam. So can you solve it with other approaches (preferably quicker one) ?

A: Using that :

*

*$x^2=-x+5$

*$x^3=x\cdot x^2=-x^2+5x=x-5+5x=6x-5$
Then:
$$
\require{cancel}
y = \frac{1}{(x+1)^3}=\frac{1}{x^3+3x^2+3x+1}=\frac{1}{(6x-5)+3(-x+5)+3x+1} = \frac{1}{6x+11}
\\ \iff\;\;\;\; 6x = \frac{1}{y}-11
$$
Substituting the latter in $36x^2 + 36x - 180 = 0$ and multiplying by $y^2$ gives:
$$
(1-11y)^2 + 6y(1-11y) - 180y^2 = 0 \;\;\;\;\iff\;\;\;\; 125 y^2 + 16 y - 1 = 0
$$

A: As you can see the roots given for the new equation are of the format $\frac{1}{(x+1)^3}$ hence you can use root transformation, either you directly transform $$x \rightarrow \frac{1}{(x+1)^3}$$ or you can do $$x\rightarrow \frac{1}{1+x}$$ and then calculate a bit, I'm going to do using the second method as it reduces the problems and calculations involving irrationalities. Say $$y=\frac{1}{1+x}\implies x=\frac{1-y}{y}$$ Now putting $\bf x$ on the original equation
I get,$$\frac{1-y}{y}=5-\left(\frac{1-y}{y}\right)^2$$ $$\implies5y^2+y-1=0$$
Now, you can observe that the roots of this equation are $\frac{1}{1+x_1},\frac{1}{1+x_2}$ .We see that the roots we want are just these roots raised to the power $3$ Hence, sum of the roots we need is$-(\frac{1}{5})^3+\frac{3}{5}\times\frac {-1}{5}=\frac{-16}{125}$ similarly you can count the product of roots which will be $\frac{-1}{5}$ hence the equation we need is $$\bf 125x^2+16x-1=0$$
$\blacksquare$

A: I don't know if this is faster for you, but here's how I did it.
The first thing you need to notice is that higher powers of roots of the equation can be reduced to linear terms only. If $x_i$ is a root of $x = 5 - x^2$, then:
$$\begin{align*}x_i^2 & = 5 - x_i \\ x_i^3 & = 5x_i - x_i^2 \\ & = 6x_i - 5\end{align*}$$
So we can simplify:
$$\begin{eqnarray*}(x_i + 1)^3 & = & x_i^2 + 3 x_i^2 + 3 x_i + 1 \\
& = & (6x_i - 5) + 3 ( 5 - x_i ) + 3 x_i + 1 \\
& = & 6x_i + 11
\end{eqnarray*}$$
And therefore:
$$\begin{eqnarray*}& & \left((x_1 + 1)^3 x - 1\right) \left((x_2 + 1)^3 x - 1\right) \\
& = & \left( (6x_1 + 11) x - 1 \right) \left( (6x_2 + 11) x - 1 \right) \\
& = & \left(36 x_1 x_2 + 66(x_1 + x_2) + 121\right) x^2 - \left(6 (x_1 + x_2) + 22\right) x + 1 \\
& = & -125 x^2 - 16 x + 1\end{eqnarray*}$$

A: Method-1
Given equation is $x^2+x-5=0$. It's root is $x_1$, hence $x_1^2+x_1-5=0$ $-(1)$
Also note that the equation we have to form has symmetric roots
Therefore think of an expression of type $p(x)=f(x)^2+f(x)-5$ such that $p(\frac{1}{(x_1+1)^3})=x_1^2+x_1+5=0$ which makes $\frac{1}{(x_1+1)^3}$ a root of $p(x)$
Such expression should have $f(\frac{1}{(x_1+1)^3})=x_1$
Clearly $\displaystyle f(x)=\frac{1}{(x)^{\frac{1}{3}}}-1$
Substituting $f(x)$ we get
$p(x)=5(x)^{\frac{2}{3}}+x^{\frac{1}{3}}-1$
And therefore our equation is
$5(x)^{\frac{2}{3}}+x^{\frac{1}{3}}=1$ whch is further simplified to $125x^2+16x=1$

A: I guess I actually "went there" by looking at the roots themselves:  for $ \ x^2 +  x - 5 \ = \ 0 \ \ , $ we have $ \ x_{1,2} \ = \ -\frac12 \ \pm \ \frac{\sqrt{21}}{2} \ \ . $  For the equation choices, all of them are of the form $ \ 125·x^2 \ \pm \ \begin{array}{c} 12 \\ 16 \end{array}·x \ - \ 1 \ = \ 0 \ \ ,  $ so the middle term is chiefly what we are going to want to distinguish.  We will concentrate on the monic polynomial $ \  x^2 \ \pm \   \frac{12? \   16?}{125}  ·x \ - \ \frac{1}{125} \ \ $ and see what the transformed zeroes prove to be.
For numbers of the form  $ \ x_{1,2} \ = \ -\frac12 \ \pm \ \frac{\sqrt{D}}{2} \ \ , $ we find
$$ x_{1,2} + 1 \ \ = \ \ +\frac12 \ \pm \ \frac{\sqrt{D}}{2} \ \ \Rightarrow \ \ \frac{1}{x_{1,2} + 1} \ \ = \ \ \frac{2}{1 \ \pm \ \sqrt{D}} \ \ = \ \   \frac{2·(1 \ \mp \ \sqrt{D})}{1 \ - \ D} $$
$$ \Rightarrow \ \ x'_{1,2} \ \ = \ \ \left( \frac{1}{x_{1,2} + 1} \right)^3 \ \ =  \ \   \frac{8·(1 \ \mp \ \sqrt{D})^3}{(1 \ - \ D)^3} \ \ . $$
We pretty definitely don't want to have to multiply these expressions out, but that won't be necessary.  The middle coefficient of the new monic polynomial is $ \ -(x'_1 \ + \ x'_2) \ = \ \frac{8}{(1 \ - \ D)^3} \ · \ [ \ (1 \ + \ \sqrt{D})^3 \ + \ (1 \ - \ \sqrt{D})^3 \ ] \ \ . $  We don't even really need to carry out the binomial expansions of the terms in brackets, since it is clear that the terms with odd powers of $ \ \sqrt{D} \ $ will "cancel" in the sum (we do need to know the binomial coefficients). The middle coefficient of the monic polynomial is therefore
$$   -(x'_1 \ + \ x'_2) \ \ = \ \ \frac{8}{(1 \ - \ D)^3} \ · \ 2 · (1 \ + \ 3D )  \ \ ; $$
with $  \ D \ =  \ 21 \ \ $ for our problem, we find
$$   -(x'_1 \ + \ x'_2) \ \ = \ \ \frac{8 \ · \ 2 \ · \ (1 \ + \ 3·21 )}{(1 \ - \ 21)^3}  \ \ = \ \ \frac{16 \ · \ 64}{ - 20^3} \ \ = \ \ -\frac{4^2 \ · \ 4^3}{ 4^3 · 5^3} \ \ = \ \ -\frac{16}{125} \ \ . $$
[With just a bit more -- but unrequired -- effort, we can confirm that
$$    x'_1 \ · \ x'_2  \ \ = \ \ \frac{8^2 \ · \ [ \ (1 \ + \ \sqrt{D})  \ · \ (1 \ + \ \sqrt{D}) \ ]^3}{(1 \ - \ D)^6}  \ \   = \ \ \frac{4^3 \ · \  \ (1 \ - \ D)^3}{(1 \ - \ D)^6}\ \  = \ \ \frac{4^3 }{(1 \ - \ D)^3} $$ $$ = \ \ \frac{ 4^3}{ - 4^3 · 5^3} \ \ = \ \ -\frac{1}{125} \ \ . \ ] $$
Hence, the transformed quadratic equation is $ \ 125·\left(x^2 \ + \ \frac{16}{125}·x \ - \ \frac{1}{125} \right) \ = \ 0 \ \ , $ which is choice $ \ \mathbf{(1)} \ \ . $

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text:
Does the diversity of TV ads reflect modern British society?
How can a brand signal its acceptance of diversity?
One of the most obvious ways is the one that goes straight to the consumer – advertising.
Don't get me wrong, diversity in advertising certainly does exist, but research has shown that representation of different societal groups in TV adverts saw a slight downward shift in the first six months of 2022.
ISBA, the body representing leading advertisers in the UK, together with the research agency Opinium and funded by Direct Line Group, run a twice-yearly tracker of the UK public's attitudes towards representation in TV ads.
The latest wave of the research, which took place in August 2022, showed a decline of those saying TV adverts reflect modern British society.
The research has shown that UK adults still tend to overestimate the amount of representation in ads, compared to diverse groups.
For instance, 71% said that Black people are well represented in ads, while only 56% of those who identify as Black felt that way. The same was true for the South Asian community, with only 29% feeling well-represented, while a much higher 53% of UK adults said this group was well represented in TV ads. What this shows is that presence and visibility are not enough.
Having diverse people in advertising does not necessarily mean an ad is inclusive or that it represents a group with authenticity.
Take Volkswagen, for example.
Back in May 2020, VW had to apologise for its new car ad that showed a pair of giant white hands flicking a Black man into a café called "Petit Colon" – French for 'little colonist'. It only realised its 'mistake' when it was pointed out to them by outraged consumers.
An internal investigation within VW revealed that while there was no 'racist intent', there was a lack of 'intercultural sensitivity' and diversity within its marketing department, hence why the racist connotations were not detected before the video aired. So, while you could say the ad had 'presence' of diversity as it included a Black man, the brand totally and absolutely got it wrong.
We see a lack of true representation despite continued conversations around diversity.
Back in February 2022, footballer Troy Deeney was praised for writing an open letter to the government about racism education, while in March thousands marched through UK cities on the UN's Anti-Racism Day.
Comments from respondents agree that representation is often tokenistic or stereotypical, and that there is a lack of recognition of intersectionality (i.e. people who belong to more than one diverse group).
"One person of colour in each ad or one family here and there isn't enough. There's a whole <..> community never seen" – Female, 30, mixed White & Asian ethnicity
However, the LGBTQ+ community were seen to be much more positive about representation in TV adverts, and there are brands out there that are already doing diversity well.
"In recent years they tend to include a more varied and realistic representation of different ethnicities and people of different sexual orientations" – Male, 47, gay
For instance, Virgin Media's recent ad 'Skatergirl', which showcases how the power of connectivity can bring people together, not only delivered a positive message, but also includes actors from diverse ethnic background. What is more, the ad defies gender and racial stereotypes by choosing a young Muslim girl as the lead of a skateboarding-focused narrative.
The increased openness and representation is also echoed in public conversations and events.
In May 2022, Jake Daniels became the first UK male footballer to come out as gay since 1990, while in July, over 1 million people attended London Pride, 50 years since the first Pride event.
Positively, there is also a clear improvement in the efforts that aspirational categories such as automotive and finance to become more inclusive are exhibiting, getting closer to traditionally more inclusive categories such as food and drink. What is more, data shows the industries that were typically more likely to be inclusive, such as the food and drink or beauty categories, are growing their representation even further.
A recent example includes Pantene's hair product ad featuring blind broadcaster and disability activist Lucy Edwards. Viewers showered the ad with praise for choosing such a great role model to take part in its campaign. The ad included some mentions of the activist's disability while at the same time not making it too much of a central focus.
On the whole, with seven in ten UK adults saying it's important for different groups in society to be well represented in TV advertising, the call to action is clear: representation is the way forward.
So how can brands ensure their ads represent diversity?
A big part of it is self-awareness and accepting that we don't know everything.
Take a leaf out of Google's book: in 2018, Google carried out an independent review of the quantity and quality of diversity in its marketing campaigns. What it discovered was lots of racial diversity – but not gender representation. Google's chief marketer Lorraine Twohill said: "My team brought me a new campaign to review. Dad was cooking in the kitchen. Great! I was proud that they had flipped a stereotype. But the next image showed he was there because mom was in the hospital having a baby. Sorry, dad, but we had to reshoot. Mom was away because she was on a business trip." Following the review, Google launched a training course to tackle diversity in its campaigns, and by June 2018, 90% of the company and 200 of its agency partners had completed the course.
But even Google can take a step further.
Taking a course is great, but true diversity in advertising can only come from diverse creative teams.
Empathy goes a long way, but no white, straight or non-disabled person can ever truly appreciate what it's like to be an ethnic minority, a member of the LGBTQ+ community or a person with a disability.
At the end of the day, diversity in advertising is something we can achieve. With a bit of awareness, empathy and courage, it's a goal that's within reach. To make it easier, we call on advertising agencies to hire more diverse people – if your team is truly inclusive, your advertising is bound to be as well.
Published on: 13th December 2022
Ande Gilmartin
Opinium
Read Ande Gilmartin's bio and content


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Aussie Broadband Blog
Get the latest phone, internet & telecommunications news, articles & insights
Aussie BroadbandBlogMedia ReleaseAussie Broadband offers every student on pre-employment course a job
Aussie Broadband offers every student on pre-employment course a job
November 14th, 2019.
Aussie Broadband surprised students from a pre-employment course in Lynbrook today by offering every one of them a job.
Kickstart Your Career in Call Centre Operations is a four-week pre-employment course run by Hallam Community Learning Centre with employer partner Aussie Broadband.
Jordan Mizzi, from Narre Warren, who has severe tendonitis and ADHD, said he was shocked and delighted at the news.
"I'm just thrilled to be offered a job. I wasn't expecting such a quick response.
"For a long time, I didn't have anything to do. So I found myself staying up late and getting into bad habits. This course has helped me develop essential life skills," he said.
"Over the past few weeks I've noticed that I have a much better routine. This is very important for me, especially with my ADHD. I'm now able to focus better."
Students learn a range of different skills related to the call centre industry, including telephone etiquette and IT skills such as touch typing.
Amanda Wright, Hallam Community Centre Trainer, said it's been amazing watching the students grow during the course.
"They've been working really hard and it's been lovely to see how passionate they are about learning new skills. I'm so proud of them."
Catherine White, People and Culture Officer at Aussie Broadband, said the company was impressed by the quality and input of the students.
"Everyone has worked really hard and the feedback from the trainers has been really positive," she said.
"As a result, we decided to offer employment to all seven trainees who completed the course."
"Since January, we've already hired twelve people through the program, all of whom are still employees."
Clive Waters, 64, who lives in Mulgrave, had previously worked as a security person, servicing ATMs.
He said this has been a fantastic course and he wished more companies would do something similar.
"This is brilliant news. I really enjoyed this course. Everyone has got a nice attitude when dealing with customers. You can tell the customers appreciate that.
"I've been on the road for 30 years, and I'm looking forward to spending the last part of my working years being part of a team, in an office environment," he said.
The course was originally developed by Gippsland Employment Skills Training (GEST) and Aussie Broadband to open up work opportunities for unemployed people in the Latrobe Valley.
It's been so successful that it's now been expanded to Aussie Broadband's new call centre based in the outer South East of Melbourne at Lynbrook.
Scott Mitchell, GEST Trainer, said the standard of students was very high with this intake.
"It's been a real pleasure to teach this group. It was surprising to see that everyone was offered a role with Aussie Broadband. That's the first time this has happened. But it really does prove that hard work pays off."
More information about Aussie Broadband can be found here.
MEDIA PLEASE NOTE: For enquiries please contact Katrina Salhioui on 0448 110 962.
If you are interested in receiving Media Releases from Aussie Broadband, please fill out the form below to get in contact with Katrina Salhioui.
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Don Carlos, a dramatic poem by Friedrich Schiller, describes the political events of the time of Philip II. The struggle of the Dutch provinces for freedom and the human intrigues and intrigues at court are strikingly timeless.
Sloboda, Freiheit, Freedom, Liberté, свобода appears to us in two forms: as freedom from something, in the sense of demanding the absence of coercion and oppression, or as freedom for something, in the sense of taking responsibility for an individual or social project.
This division makes the change for which almost all the characters in the play fight in their own way seem almost impossible - both personally and geopolitically. Is it possible to fight for the freedom of others when we ourselves live enslaved?
Lukas Haas
Jens Ole Schmieder
Saskia Klar
Katharina Rose
Judith Richter
Horst Schily
Luka Vlatkovic
Directing: Dávid Paška
Stage: Leon Julius Seiler
Costumes: Maria Lena Poindl
Light: Lukas Kaltenbäck
Dramaturgy: Marie-Therese Handle-Pfeiffer
1. March 2023 (19:00)*
Thu 2.3. (19:00); Su 5.3. (15:00);
Fr 10.3. (19:00);
Fr 17.3. (19:00)*; Su 19.3. (15:00);
Thu 23.3. (19:00)*; Sa 25.3. (19:00);
Fr 31.3. (19:00); Su 2.4. (15:00)
Kasematten Wiener Neustadt
Bahngasse 27


Dai Kyoung Chemical Co., Ltd.
Yixing City Huafeng Plastic Co.,Ltd.
Haining Huali Industy Co., Ltd.
Hubei Zonya Printing&Packaging Co., Ltd.
Normal clear PVC film1. Material: PVC2. Thickness: 0.06mm-0.5mm 3. Width: Max to 2150mm 4. PHR(hand feel): 38HR-68PHR 5.


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Lindsay Lohan Transforms Into Disney Princesses For 'Paper Magazine' Spread
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Kelly Butler
Lindsay Lohan got in touch with her inner Disney Princess in a recent spread for Paper Magazine's "Break the Internet" series. The actress, ahead of her new reality show, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club, opened up to Paper about what it means for her to be in the press these days — all while donning dazzling, Disney inspired garb. The actress transformed into Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Ariel — the latter of which the actress told Paper she identified with the most.
While famous for her breakout roles in The Parent Trap and Mean Girls, Lohan is most notably recognized these days for her very public mishaps. At 32, and with a number of films under her belt, the actress made waves after a couple of stints in rehab — and for her 2007 arrest for DUI. Her drug problems would follow her for years, as would her frequent trips to court.
Most recently, Lohan — who is currently residing in Dubai — tailed what she believed to be a refugee family, all while videotaping them with her cell phone and offering them shelter. After the public altercation — which went viral — almost turned violent, Lohan was accused of trying to kidnap the children of the displaced family. The family did not want her assistance.
"I would love to know why I get constantly clobbered in the press. I could do 99 things right and one thing wrong, but it's that one thing that will be focused on. Behind the scenes, I do what I can to be the best version of me, which never gets mentioned. I am also human. I make mistakes. That's all that seems to get reported," Lohan told Paper.
See @lindsaylohan as your favorite princesses for our digital #breaktheinternet cover. Royalty recognize royalty. #linkinbio
A post shared by Paper Magazine (@papermagazine) on Dec 3, 2018 at 2:58pm PST
While she hasn't lived stateside for some time, Lohan has enjoyed the success of her Mykonos beach club — which will be the center of her reality show airing on MTV in January. She plans to open a second location, in Rhodes, sometime next year. She told Paper that the series is an unscripted drama, but also that it will focus more on the business aspect. She hopes the show will paint Lohan as the "big boss" amongst the young, attractive folks she's employed to run her resort. People tuning in to see old-school Lohan antics might be disappointed, however. The Freaky Friday star confessed that these days, she's pretty boring.
"I am who I am. I'm a good person. I take care of myself. I'm healthy. I like to have fun, but that doesn't mean I need to go out and drink and be crazy. I have a good relationship with that. It's funnier to watch other people party," Lohan added.


text:
The GOP controls the Senate: Now what?
Early in 2015 Republicans in the House and Senate will drive a national debate and actual votes in the House and Senate on the following big five issues�??and many more.
Grover Norquist
The Republicans won control of the Senate.
For the past four years the tea party wave of new congressmen who won and kept their majority in the U.S. House knew that almost every good idea they passed through the House would die on the rocks of Harry Reid�??s Senate. Usually without a vote. If something did get past the Scylla of the Senate it would be vetoed by the Charybdis of Obama�??s veto pen.
But now, legislation passed by the House will, at a minimum, be voted up or down by the Senate. With only 46 Democrat Senators, Harry Reid can no longer stop his fellow Democrats senators from being forced to publicly vote on legislation. Reid can filibuster Republican initiatives but even that will force his Democrat Senators to cast visible and painful votes.
1. Building the Keystone Pipeline. This is a jobs bill. Obama has hidden behind his own skirts claiming his own State Department needs to make a decision. The Democrats in the Senate feared to vote against it until after the 2014 elections because they had been bought in the most corrupt sense of the word by Democrat mega-donor Tom Steyer. The final count was one vote short of the 60 needed to defeat the Reid Filibuster. Soon there will be nine new Republicans in the Senate. We will revisit Keystone.
2. Dramatically reforming the Tax code. Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan and Finance Chair Orrin Hatch will put forward a pro-growth tax reform package that will follow the tradition of Reagan�??s 1986 tax reform. It will lower tax rates on individuals and businesses to a top rate of 20 or 25%, allow full business expensing and include robust �??territoriality�?� so we no longer double tax American earnings overseas. Democrats will likely filibuster, but in doing so they tell all Americans where they stand on taxes. This vote will make tax reform front and center of the 2016 election.
3. Abolishing Obamacare and Replacing it with patient and consumer driven reforms that will protect your relationship with your doctor and the insurance company of your choice. The House has voted four times to end Obamacare. To date, the Senate has foiled efforts to repeal Obamacare, or even vote on it. Now every Democrat will have the opportunity to stand in the open and declare their support or opposition to the increasingly unpopular Obamacare.
4. Reforming the IRS and ending once and for all its abuse of taxpayers by rifling through their tax returns, denying tax status to conservative or tea party groups and their release of confidential donor information to left wing groups. The administration continues to stonewall efforts to investigate the IRS scandal. Now every Democrat congressman and Senator will be able to vote to ally themselves with the American people or with Obama�??s politicized IRS. Then they face the voters
5. Ending the war on Coal and energy by reining in the EPA and its runaway regulatory costs that are killing thousands of good paying jobs in the energy industry. Every year more states become energy states as fracking and natural gas extend the number of Americans working in energy exploration and production.
During this session of congress the House of Representatives has passed 46 bills that would create jobs and opportunity that were not given a vote in the Harry Reid Senate.
Now all the legislation that Reid worked so hard to keep of the floor of the Senate– so that his vulnerable Democrats in Red and Purple states would not have to cast a visible and rateable vote –will now appear before the Senate. Again and again and again.
Democrats up for election in 2016, 2018, and 2020 will �??earn�?� voting records on popular issues that their left-wing donor base hate with a passion. Think energy, jobs and freedom of religion. The political graves of Democrats in 2016, 2018, and 2020 will be dug by the votes they have to cast in 2015 and 2016.
All this will have to be done by Republican majorities in the House and Senate that must operate with bifocal vision. They must articulate the long term goal. Abolishing Obamacare, for instance. And then at the same time, not trip as they patiently maneuver day by day to weaken it, build the public case for repeal and replacement and demonstrate to voters that they are making real progress on a number of fronts. There is a great deal of �??three yards and cloud of dust�?� before one runs the final touchdown play.
Hostage crisis in Sydney
How the Grinch picks our pockets
Written By Grover Norquist
Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, and his Twitter handle is @GroverNorquist.


text:
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Q&A: Belay Investment Group discusses mentoring program for emerging managers
by Andrea Zander
Belay Investment Group, along with its affiliate, AVP Advisors, LLC (AVP), is a real estate investment management firm that for more than 13 years has pursued value-added real estate strategies designed to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns to institutional investors.
Below is a Q&A with Barry Chase, a founding member and CEO of Belay, and Suzanne West, who recently transitioned to an external advisory role but who was also a founding member, along with Amy Ko and Eliza Bailey, to discuss how Belay's mentoring program for emerging managers leads to exclusive access to differentiated deal flow while ensuring optimal execution of value-added strategies.
1. What makes Belay Investment Group unique?
Chase: Let me start by summarizing Belay's value-added strategy, which is to invest in commercial real estate assets — equity or structured debt — in specific U.S. markets positioned to benefit from long-term economic and demographic trends driving tenant demand. We are generally targeting properties in the less competitive $10 million to $50 million range, across all major and select niche property sectors.
Belay currently invests exclusively on behalf of the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), which shares the conviction that combining an experienced and fiduciary-minded investment firm, such as Belay, with local operating partners and sector specialists through properly structured partnerships, provides greater access to opportunities, improved risk management, and the potential to enhance investment returns through successful execution of business plans.
Drawing from our collective experiences as investors and fiduciaries, we source the most talented local operating partners and form strategic partnerships to gain access to differentiated and compelling deal flow.
What makes us unique is twofold:
1.) How we execute our strategy, deploying capital exclusively through nondiscretionary programmatic joint ventures (PJV) that provide for exclusive access to the deal flow, talent and resources of our partners, resulting in a well-capitalized, locally entrenched partnership able to identify opportunities and transact efficiently ahead of market forces, capitalizing on first mover advantages and providing an edge that is imperative in today's highly competitive market.
2.) The highly collaborative nature of our relationships designed to support the growth and development of our partners as fiduciaries. We are more than a simple capital provider, as mentoring these firms through the adoption of institutional best practices in areas of corporate governance, accounting and reporting serves the dual purpose of strengthening Belay's investment performance and providing the management teams with a path to growth and the establishment of direct relationships with institutional investors such as CalSTRS.
West: A key element to Belay's risk management is the enhanced control rights and transparency into firmwide operations not customary in one-off joint ventures of allocator funds and separate accounts. This positions Belay to more effectively monitor the platform risk of our partners and to identify and address potential management issues before performance of the assets is negatively impacted.
What sets Belay's unique approach apart from the conventional allocator model is the conviction that generating value for Belay's investors extends beyond intensive investment and asset management to making stronger investment partners, resulting in a win-win for all parties, including the industry overall.
2. How do you execute your strategy?
Chase: We start by identifying target markets and property sectors that are consistent with employment and population growth as well as, evolving live/work/play trends. Then, we proactively source talented firms or teams successfully operating below the institutional radar. We look for high-caliber firms that are locally entrenched and well positioned to capitalize on market shifts early where others may lose out. The local market participation and insights at a micro-market level are important in evaluating the risks as well as the opportunities associated with shifting market dynamics.
We believe that underwriting investment partners is as important as underwriting property investments because operating platform risk has historically been underestimated. As a result, all operating partners under consideration for a PJV investment mandate are subject to a rigorous underwriting and approval process. To the extent that deficiencies in corporate governance, organizational staffing and/or accounting and reporting infrastructure are identified, a mentoring program to enhance an operating partner's ability to achieve their investment objectives for the property investments and the venture is established and agreed to by both parties.
Belay's capital commitment for each PJV is the result of its significant due diligence process and is generally structured to allow for a two-year investment period; with the commitment size based on the particular market, property sector and related strategy as well as the firm's bandwidth and expected ability to generate deal flow consistent with the agreed upon strategy. Thus, PJV commitments may range from $25 million to $100 million-plus.
Belay maintains full discretion over its PJV commitments, including investment and major management decisions affecting every property investment, and retains the exclusive right to terminate the PJV commitment as warranted for performance-related issues or even in the event that the strategy is no longer viable. The ability to remain nimble and effectively "turn off the spigot" to reallocate the capital in response to shifting market opportunities is important.
Belay's disciplined investment approach adds value through each phase of the investment and management cycle, starting with an acquisition process that focuses on basis risk and appropriately pricing risks and opportunities as our investment team works in tandem with our partners to evaluate individual property investments.
West: Many firms have demonstrated a willingness to forego existing allocator relationships, ascribing significant value to Belay's PJV capital, as sellers have proven reluctant to take on risk of buyers relying on deal syndication to source equity capital.
3. How did you create this mentor program to help build this link between emerging managers and institutional investors?
Chase: Prior to joining in the launch of AVP, I was the president of the western division of a large development company. We had six regional offices run by local partners, each of which reported up to me. What I learned through my job overseeing the development company was that I was working with a lot of very skilled development partners that were very good at finding deals and executing the business plans. However, they were not particularly good at risk management, nor were they very disciplined in their approach to underwriting investments or in understanding other institutional best practices. So I thought, "What is the best way to basically capture the talent of these operating partners and to help them become more institutional?"
4. Why is it hard for operators, emerging managers to gain access to institutional capital?
West: If you look at the fundraising environment, the trend really favors larger funds and more established firms with longer track records. So, it is hard for new or younger firms to gain access to institutional investor capital. The trend is going against them, which is ironic because investors see value in gaining direct access to the talent, to the deal sourcing and the enhanced control position. Unfortunately, efficiency drives these investors to take a different approach. For example, they want fewer managers with the ability to make larger commitments. Belay offers a bridge for smaller firms with talented management teams to access the institutional investor community.
Chase: With our current venture, we have made commitments to three firms, none of which had an institutional track record or experience managing discretionary capital for institutional investors. Even though they each had a strong management team, it would have been difficult for them to raise an institutional fund or get the support of the consulting community. The benefit of our underwriting process is that we can really dig deep through our proprietary forensic analysis and essentially build a track record from scratch if warranted since it is difficult for these firms to attract institutional capital without having an under-writable track record, so to speak.
5. What is Belay's culture?
Chase: Highly collaborative, both amongst our team and with our partners. Paramount to meeting the long-term objective of our program as supported by CalSTRS is managing the risks of investing with firms who may be in transition, either culturally in adopting a fiduciary mindset or as they enter a new stage of growth. Therefore, the relationship must be solid and rooted in mutual respect to survive the inevitable friction when we disagree with the merits of a deal or turn down an investment recommendation. Because none of us are bigger than real estate market cycles, we need to select our partners carefully and create a spirit of partnership so we can work together closely to make the best decisions on behalf of the real estate.
West: With success, Belay will ultimately be disintermediated by certain PJV partners who evolve and on their own merits are able to establish direct relationships with institutional investors, whether as a comingled fund sponsor or through other PJVs. Thus, Belay must be constantly sourcing great talent and differentiated deal flow, competing with other capital providers along the way.
6. What does the portfolio look like today?
Chase: Belay has invested roughly $120 million with three PJV partners and acquired assets ranging in size from $6 million to a projected all-in capitalized cost of $37 million, including multifamily, workforce housing, and urban infill retail, office and mixed-use properties. Each asset is located within a Belay "target market" and within predominantly urban or close-in transit-oriented suburban markets appealing to millennials and/or the growing ethnic diversity across the U.S. demographic spectrum.
Risks are mitigated with capital invested across the value-added spectrum of operating properties from those requiring minor renovations to a couple of major redevelopments, and all are fully "in-line" with the Belay's investment thesis and strategy:
High-caliber operators and sector specialists, each possessing specialized experience in the fund's target markets and sectors
Diversity of ownership, as each partner is a minority or majority woman-owned firm and reflective of the communities they represent
The three PJV relationships include:
Arc Capital Partners to pursue adaptive re-use and/or value-added repositioning of urban infill, middle market retail, multifamily and creative office mixed-use properties driven primarily by millennials demand drivers in select transit-oriented Southern California and Texas cities.
Eagle Property Capital to capitalize on the need for quality workforce housing in high-growth markets, catering to middle-income renters and capturing the significant growth of the middle-income segment of the Hispanic population, which is projected to account for more than half of the growth in renter households through 2023.
L&L Investment Partners to pursue urban or infill value-added and/or opportunistic development projects narrowly focused on the Portland, Oregon, market which is experiencing strong employment and population growth around a high-caliber workforce dominated by millennials driving demand for creative office, multifamily and mixed-use properties with optionality to cater to tenants and residents seeking live-work-play neighborhoods accessible to amenities.
West: Strategic guidance and mentoring is adding value and mitigating risks across each PJV as Belay works collaboratively with each of the partners addressing both opportunities and challenges driving property-level performance, resulting in real-time modifications to redevelopment plans as well as staffing and allocations of resources.
The relationships are strong and productive and CalSTRS is pleased with the performance of each individual asset as well as how well our PJV partners are performing. As a matter of fact, CalSTRS has met with several of our partners and is supporting our decision to make a follow-on commitment to Arc Capital Partners.
7. What's next?
Chase: CalSTRS is moving forward on an additional $100 million equity commitment, which brings its total commitment to Belay to $300 million and allows Belay to focus on generating investment opportunities exclusively for them.
West: Launching Belay alongside Barry, Amy and Eliza was an exciting opportunity for me that drew upon my many years of industry experience including buy- and sell-side investment activities through senior roles at various investment management firms and the State of Connecticut Trust Funds, along with my experience as a co-founder in building Park Madison Partners.
The significant commitment by CalSTRS serves as a resounding endorsement of the Belay platform, its team and strategy. With Belay's shift away from capital raising, I will continue to provide my support to the firm as an external adviser and am very excited at the opportunities that lie ahead for both Belay and myself.
I have launched Epic Advisory to provide strategic advisory and capital raising–related services to real estate operators and investment management firms, both established and emerging.
Suzanne West recently launched Epic Advisory and will be speaking at the 2018 Inaugural iREOC Annual Meeting on May 8. For more event information, click here.
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text:
using namespace std;

//returned when Performance can not be calculated
#define DEFAULT_PERFORMANCE 1

//Couldn't get bots or multiplayer to work properly, so change how score is calculated
#define SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE true

ConVar mod_player_performance_debug("mod_player_performance_debug", "0", 0, "Displays modPlayerPerformance status on screen");

ConVar mod_player_performance_force_value("mod_player_performance_force_value", "0", 0, "Permantently sets modPlayerPerformance, overriding the calculated value.");

ConVar mod_player_performance_threshold_high("mod_player_performance_threshold_high", "80", 0, "Player performance neccessary to achieve a performance ranking of '3' (high).");
ConVar mod_player_performance_threshold_medium("mod_player_performance_threshold_medium", "60", 0, "Player performance neccessary to achieve a performance ranking of '2' (medium).");

ConVar mod_player_performance_starting_value("mod_player_performance_starting_value", "79", 0, "The player performance at the beginning of a level.");

CMOD_Player_Performance* CMOD_Player_Performance::g_PlayerPerformanceSingleton = 0;

CMOD_Player_Performance* CMOD_Player_Performance::PlayerPerformance()
{
	if (!g_PlayerPerformanceSingleton)
	{
		g_PlayerPerformanceSingleton = new CMOD_Player_Performance();
	}

	return g_PlayerPerformanceSingleton;
}

CMOD_Player_Performance::CMOD_Player_Performance( void ) : CAutoGameSystemPerFrame( "CMOD_Player_Performance" )
{
	m_previousRating = 0;
	m_lastLevelWeightedRating = 0;

	g_calculators = new vector<CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator*>();
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_Health(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_Accuracy(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_DirectorStress(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_PlayTime(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_AlienLifeTime(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_EnemyKillBonus(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_FastReload(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_DodgeRanger(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_MeleeKills(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_BoomerKillEarly(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_RestartPenalty(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
	g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_NewLevelModifier(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));

	if (!SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE)
		g_calculators->push_back(new CMOD_Player_Performance_Calculator_FriendlyFire(SINGLE_PLAYER_MODE));
}

CMOD_Player_Performance::~CMOD_Player_Performance()
{
	if (g_calculators)
		delete g_calculators;
}

//Couldn't figure out how to nativally hook into this event,
//so asw_director.cpp calls
void CMOD_Player_Performance::OnMissionStarted(){

	int retries = 1;

	//Game will crash if we call GetRetries()
	//and we're not in a campaign.
	if (ASWGameResource()->IsCampaignGame())
		retries = ASWGameResource()->GetCampaignSave()->GetRetries();

	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < g_calculators->size(); i++)
	{
		//Msg("Telling calculator [%i] MissionStarted\n", i);
		g_calculators->at(i)->OnMissionStarted(m_lastLevelWeightedRating,
			retries);
	}
}

//Couldn't figure out how to nativally hook into this event,
//so asw_director.cpp calls
void CMOD_Player_Performance::FrameUpdatePostEntityThink()
{
	int rating = CalculatePerformanceButDoNotUpdateHUD(false);

	//if (rating != m_previousRating) - WriteToHUD was firing before HUD was ready to receive, so HUD would
	//be out of date on level start.
		WriteToHUD("MODPlayerPerformance", rating);

	m_previousRating = rating;

	if ( mod_player_performance_debug.GetInt() > 0 )
	{
		PrintDebug();
	}
}

void CMOD_Player_Performance::Event_AlienKilled( CBaseEntity *pAlien, const CTakeDamageInfo &info )
{
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < g_calculators->size(); i++)
	{
		g_calculators->at(i)->Event_AlienKilled(pAlien, info);
	}
}

int CMOD_Player_Performance::CalculatePerformance(bool isEndOfLevel)
{
	WriteToHUD("MODPlayerPerformanceDynamicContent", -1);
	float rating = CalculatePerformanceButDoNotUpdateHUD(isEndOfLevel);

	if (isEndOfLevel)
		m_lastLevelWeightedRating = rating;

	return rating;
}

int CMOD_Player_Performance::CalculatePerformanceButDoNotUpdateHUD(bool isEndOfLevel)
{
	//if (mod_player_performance_force_value.GetInt() > 0)
	//{
		//Don't return here, go ahead and calculate the value in case debug is on.
	//}

	CASW_Game_Resource *pGameResource = ASWGameResource();

	if (!pGameResource)
	{
		Msg("Failed to calculate performance: Couldn't get ASWGameResource");
		return DEFAULT_PERFORMANCE;
	}

	m_totalRating = mod_player_performance_starting_value.GetInt();
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < g_calculators->size(); i++)
	{
		g_calculators->at(i)->UpdatePerformance(&m_totalRating, isEndOfLevel, pGameResource);
	}

	if (m_totalRating >= mod_player_performance_threshold_high.GetInt())
		m_weightedRating = 3;
	else if (m_totalRating > mod_player_performance_threshold_medium.GetInt())
		m_weightedRating = 2;
	else
		m_weightedRating = 1;

	if (mod_player_performance_force_value.GetInt() > 0)
	{
		return mod_player_performance_force_value.GetInt();
	}
	else
	{
		return m_weightedRating;
	}
}

void CMOD_Player_Performance::PrintDebug()
{
	int screenOffset = 0;

	engine->Con_NPrintf(screenOffset++,"Players Performance: %d", m_weightedRating);
	engine->Con_NPrintf(screenOffset++,"Players Total Rating: %0.02f", m_totalRating);
	screenOffset++;
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < g_calculators->size(); i++)
	{
		g_calculators->at(i)->PrintDebugString( screenOffset++ );
	}
	screenOffset++;
	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < g_calculators->size(); i++)
	{
		if (g_calculators->at(i)->HasExtraDebugInfo())
		{
			g_calculators->at(i)->PrintExtraDebugInfo(screenOffset++);
		}
	}

	if (mod_player_performance_force_value.GetInt() > 0)
	{
		engine->Con_NPrintf(screenOffset++,"Player Forced Rating: ON [%d]", mod_player_performance_force_value.GetInt());
	}
	else
	{
		engine->Con_NPrintf(screenOffset++,"Player Forced Rating: OFF");
	}
}

void CMOD_Player_Performance::WriteToHUD(const char* messagename, int rating)
{
#if 0
	for ( int i=0;i<ASWGameResource()->GetMaxMarineResources();i++ )
	{
		CASW_Marine_Resource *pMR = ASWGameResource()->GetMarineResource(i);
		if ( !pMR )
			continue;

		CASW_Player *pPlayer = pMR->GetCommander();

		if ( pPlayer && pPlayer->GetMarine() )
		{
			CSingleUserRecipientFilter user( pPlayer );
			UserMessageBegin( user, messagename );
			WRITE_SHORT( rating );
			MessageEnd();
		}
	}
#endif
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Like you, I have my own list of Bible heroes, those great men and women of God that were used mightily to change history, save nations, and lived courageously. We could all name off a list of them like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Esther, Peter, Paul and Mary (not the folk singers of the '60s) just to mention a few. Among these giants of the faith, I'm particularly impressed with a married couple named Aquila (the husband) and his wife, Priscilla. I love this description of them and the challenge they present to every Christian couple that elevates God's purpose in marriage.
If you're married, have you considered what God may want to do through you as a couple? What a challenge! If you're single and seeking a mate, have you considered what it is that God may want to do through your marriage with the partner you are seeking? When we are introduced to Aquila and his wife in Acts 18, we find a couple who are available to God in the midst of transition. Tentmakers by trade, they've just been deported from Rome and were trying to settle in a new city called Corinth when they meet a missionary who needed a place to stay. That missionary was Paul, the apostle! Their lives would never be the same! What a difference their simple availability and willingness to be used made in their marriage and in the Kingdom of God! Later we see them used of God in mentoring another rising star among the apostles by the name of Apollos and finally planting a church in their home when they moved back to Rome. Paul described them like this, "They once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches." (Romans 16:4 NLT) They were partners together in ministry! What a vision for marriage!