Finding live models to work with while practicing your art can be difficult. Our goal is to provide high quality photo images that can be used for practicing your sketching, painting, modeling and figure creation. We create ebooks for the tablet market. Books in the iBook format are available at the iBookstore within iTunes. AND now we are available on Google Play for the Android! Now you can take a model with you wherever you go.
We appreciate hearing from our artist base. Even more so when we get to see their artwork based on our galleries. I had a wonderful exchange of messages today from Miranda. She was happy to share a sample of her work with me and is allowing our sharing it here on the site.
Now, back to work on Volume 12!
Volume 11 has been published!
Now live on the Apple iTunes store and the Google Play store - is our latest edition - Volume 11!
This new edition is unique in that every photos is expandable, like the android books have been. No more inset photos. All easily expanded for more detail and review.
As mentioned in the last post, we have a few more we are working on, so stay close to us, so you don't miss out. Enjoy Volume 11!
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Volume 4 is nearly done!
Vol. 2 is almost here!
Volume 3 is coming soon!
Volume 8 is now live on iTunes and Google Play!
Both services are up and flying. Go check out Volume 8. And more are coming!!
A Model A Day is Available!
Volume 2 is now available!
Volume 3 - Available Now!


text:
Hamptons Employment Agency Serves Up The American Dream
by Millennium Magazine
By Lauren Clarke-Bennett
Aleksandra "Aleksa" Kisielewicz may be petite in stature but she is a powerhouse in her determination to build a business that takes care of her clients' staffing needs. From bartenders to domestic help to party planning, the Hamptons Employment Agency has serviced thousands of homes from Montauk to Manhattan and continues to receive rave reviews due to her dedication. "By listening to clients carefully, meeting their specific needs and working hard, one can build a successful business," Aleksa asserts.
Originally from Lezajsk, Poland, a small town in the southeast part of the country, Aleksa and her two brothers were mostly raised by her mother. "When I was seven-years-old, my father moved to the U.S. in order to support our family." For several years she didn't see her father and relied on her mother for advice. "My mother instilled in us many values that still guide me today," Aleksa recalls. "She taught me that no matter what, my brothers and I should always help each other and also help other people in our community." Her mother also taught her the importance of honesty, treating everyone with respect and doing your best at any job you have.
Her parents lived an exemplary life of entrepreneurism. At different points they worked in their own businesses. "They are very resourceful people and always dedicated to their endeavors, often putting in 12 to 14-hour days without time off," recalls Aleksa.
While she was achieving her bachelors degree from the the School of Management and Banking at the university in Cracow, Aleksa worked in recruitment for Avon and Zepter where she received her first taste of managing people. After graduating, she moved to the U.S. to be closer to her father and try her hand at the "American Dream." Brazen with little command of the English language and some support stateside, she set out to make her mark.
Aleksa first worked in the Hamptons as a nanny during her summer college breaks and went on to manage houses. "I used some of my earnings from those positions to pay for English courses at Suffolk Community College," said Aleksa. There, she earned the school's certificate of achievement for the ESL (English as a Second Language) program. This full tuition scholarship award, is given to the one person at Suffolk's three campuses who excels most at learning English. Later on, Aleksa earned a certificate in hotel and resort management at Suffolk.
Subsequently she went on to work as an assistant manager at GalleryB, an art gallery in Sag Harbor, where she helped run both the sales and administration aspects of the business. One of her primary responsibilities was hiring professional staff for openings and other art events. "I learned that networking is an important aspect for a business an by meeting numerous people at a wide range of functions," she said. "I developed not only personal relationships with certain individuals but a business one as well. I came to know many people in the Hamptons, and they frequently asked me if I knew a good nanny or a good housekeeper." At the same time she had come to know a wide range of people working in domestic positions. So, she started connecting employers with employees. "I was eager and happy to help whenever I could but friends said that I should make a fee for matching up people." The rest they say is history and Hamptons Employment Agency, Inc. was created.
Aleksa opened her office in Southampton three seasons ago, and with great focus & determination it has grown in leaps and bounds. It is moving into a much larger space in the same building at 149 Hampton Road. Just recently she opened a second office in Manhattan at 590 Madison Ave.
This new office will allow me to better serve my existing clients in the city and to be more effective in meeting the domestic staffing needs of prospective clients in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other nearby areas," said Aleksa.
The agency's top goal is to provide people with first-rate domestic professionals who meet each employer's unique needs and preferences. They discreetly serve a wide range of individuals and families, including some of the Hamptons' most well-known residents, celebrities, CEOs and government officials.
Due to the agency's professionalism and client-focus, it was proudly voted the 2012 Best Domestic Agency – Platinum #1 by the readers of Dan's Papers. "For the future, I envision Hamptons Employment Agency being the premier domestic staffing firm not only in The Hamptons and New York City, but also in other select markets," she affirms.
Aleksa also intends to continue helping the community. "Giving back is important to me," she states. "Immediately following super storm Sandy's devastation of Long Island, the agency held a collection drive to gather clothes, food, household supplies, toys and other goods for those affected by the storm." With community support, they collected items that completely filled a 22-foot box truck. More recently Aleksa became a member of the community minded Southampton Rotary Club where she helped setup and run its Firecracker 8K Run to benefit its scholarship fund.
On a personal note, Aleksa has recently gotten engaged and plans to raise a family on LI in their newly purchased area home. For the long term, she envisions the business as a leading firm in not only the greater New York City area, but also in areas such as West Palm Beach, San Francisco and Los Angeles. She is enormously excited about her future and remains dedicated to building her "American Dream."
Visit: www.hamptonsemployment.com
Owner Aleksandra Kisielewicz
Tags: Domestic Services, Hamptons Businesses, Hamptons Employment Agency, NYC Businesses
JAY Z: THE MOGUL, GENIUS & MAN OF THE MILLENNIUM
Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry Announces the Journey Series
Millennium Magazine August 26, 2013
SAGO HOTEL
Millennium Magazine July 20, 2016
Circo Stakes Its Claim In The Hamptons
MIXOLOGY: SEKEND SUN
Millennium Magazine May 24, 2015

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package org.apache.lens.cube.parse;

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.SemanticException;
import org.apache.lens.cube.metadata.Dimension;

/**
 * Dimension HQLContext.
 *
 * Contains all the dimensions queried and their candidate dim tables Update
 * where string with storage filters added dimensions queried.
 */
abstract class DimHQLContext extends SimpleHQLContext {

  public static Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(DimHQLContext.class.getName());

  private final Map<Dimension, CandidateDim> dimsToQuery;
  private final Set<Dimension> queriedDims;
  private String where;

  DimHQLContext(Map<Dimension, CandidateDim> dimsToQuery, Set<Dimension> queriedDims, String select, String where,
      String groupby, String orderby, String having, Integer limit) throws SemanticException {
    super(select, groupby, orderby, having, limit);
    this.dimsToQuery = dimsToQuery;
    this.where = where;
    this.queriedDims = queriedDims;
  }

  protected void setMissingExpressions() throws SemanticException {
    setWhere(genWhereClauseWithDimPartitions(where));
  }

  public Map<Dimension, CandidateDim> getDimsToQuery() {
    return dimsToQuery;
  }

  private String genWhereClauseWithDimPartitions(String originalWhere) {
    StringBuilder whereBuf;
    if (originalWhere != null) {
      whereBuf = new StringBuilder(originalWhere);
    } else {
      whereBuf = new StringBuilder();
    }

    // add where clause for all dimensions
    if (queriedDims != null) {
      boolean added = (originalWhere != null);
      for (Dimension dim : queriedDims) {
        CandidateDim cdim = dimsToQuery.get(dim);
        if (!cdim.isWhereClauseAdded()) {
          appendWhereClause(whereBuf, cdim.whereClause, added);
          added = true;
        }
      }
    }
    if (whereBuf.length() == 0) {
      return null;
    }
    return whereBuf.toString();
  }

  static void appendWhereClause(StringBuilder filterCondition, String whereClause, boolean hasMore) {
    // Make sure we add AND only when there are already some conditions in where
    // clause
    if (hasMore && !filterCondition.toString().isEmpty() && !StringUtils.isBlank(whereClause)) {
      filterCondition.append(" AND ");
    }

    if (!StringUtils.isBlank(whereClause)) {
      filterCondition.append("(");
      filterCondition.append(whereClause);
      filterCondition.append(")");
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Kaal Sarp Dosh Nivarana Pooja at Sri Kalahasti Temple near Tirupati. Pooja will be performed on all days from 6 am – 6 pm. Sri Kalahasti is famous for Rahu Ketu Kaal Sarp Dosh Nivarana Pooja.
Performing this pooja on Amavasya Days, During Solar and Lunar Eclipse times, Naga Panchami, Sunday and Tuesday are preferable days.
For good results, one should perform this Kaal Sarp Dosh Nivarana Pooja twice in a year. Once in Dakshinayanam period which is from 15th Jul to 15th Jan and One more time during Uttarayanam period i.e. from 15th Jan to 15th Jul.
Performing Rudrabhishekam after this pooja marks the pooja process complete.
Pooja samagri (materials) will be provided by the temple administration, no need to carry any pooja material from home. Ticket cost includes Pooja material as well.
Check with astrologer prior planning for this pooja on the best time for this pooja.
Do not prostrate in any Naga Devatha temple.
Not to perform this pooja in oiled hair.
Pregnant should not perform or participate in any dosha nivarana poojas.
Rs.750 ticket pooja will be performed in an a/c hall.
Rs.1500 ticket pooja will be performed inside the temple.
Rs.2500 ticket pooja will be performed inside the temple.
For any queries, please leave your comment below. We will get back to your queries at the earliest.
For the RS. 1500/- ticket, how many persons in a family will be allowed.
Only 2 adults are allowed for the pooja.
Is a male companion must for Kaal Sarpa Pooja or only female can perform.
Only female can perform the pooja.
What are the contact details to book a pooja and to know about available dates & time ?
You can perform daily from 6 am to 6 pm , for booking please contact 9393939150.
HOW CAN WE BOOK THE TICKET ONLINE FOR KAAL SARP DOSH POOJA TICKET. HOW MANY TICKETS WILL BE GIVEN EVERY DAY BOOKING BY PERSON. EXPECTING REPLY.
There is no limited tickets , you can get the tickets directly at the temple counter.


I wrote about the "buggyness" of the Windows Compressed Folders feature before. However today I found out an even more unbelievable bug.
I copied a ZIP file containing several thousand files onto a Windows 2003 Server machine (with SP1). Once it was there I connected via RDP and right-clicked the file in the Explorer, choosing "Extract All" from the context menu.
After clicking "Next" to get past the "Welcome to the Decompression Idio^H^H^H^HWizard" I chose the target directory and hit "Next" again. Immediately I was asked whether I wanted to overwrite a file already existing in the target location. As I had created a new folder to hold the archive contents I was somewhat suprised by this dialog; so I cancelled the operation and tried again.
Now is this embarrassing for MS or what?
Oh, and while we are at it: Be sure that have a good laugh while reading "Dear Sir Bill Gates: invoice enclosed" and the follow-up Stupid operating systems or stupid operators?.


text:
3 Ideas for Creating Nurturing Spaces for Seclusion in the Early Childhood Classroom
For Educators Classroom Management
Sometimes early childhood classrooms can be noisy and overstimulating to young children, leading to challenging behaviors, and decreased engagement and learning. Sandra Duncan—coauthor of Through a Child's Eyes: How Classroom Design Inspires Learning and Wonder—compares the early childhood classroom to Times Square and explains why young children need comforting, secluded spaces where they can refresh and regroup just like adults do! Here are her 3 ideas for creating nurturing spaces of seclusion in the early childhood classroom, away from the hubbub and the noise.
Have you ever been to Time Square? It's quite a busy place, isn't it? Especially on New Year's Eve! Even when it's not New Year's Eve, Time Square can be a real assault on your senses. It's filled with bright colors, loud noises, tires screeching, and horns blaring. It's got lots of interesting smells, blinking and neon lights all over the place, and of course, crowded sidewalks.
Hi there. I'm Dr. Sandra Duncan and I'm co-author of a Gryphon House book called Through a Child's Eyes: How Classroom Design Inspires Learning and Wonder. I'm all about designing inspiring environments for young children.
Think about your typical early childhood classroom. It's a lot like Times Square, isn't it? It's noisy. It's overcrowded. There's fluorescent lights glaring from above. There's bright colors. There's lots of conditions and the elements of an early childhood classroom that are very similar to Times Square.
There's one difference, however, between Times Square and a classroom. The difference is, as an adult, you can get away from Times Square. You can get away from the chaos, the noise, the smells, and everything that's happening on that crowded sidewalk. You can get away from it! All you have to do is step into a restaurant. Maybe if you're a tourist, you can go back to your hotel for a nap. You can step inside a department store. You can go to the city park. There's lots and lots of options that you can do as an adult to get away from the hustle and bustle of Times Square.
But a child on the other hand is unable to escape a classroom. A child is unable to escape the busyness and the noise—the overwhelming chaotic environment day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, and so on. You get the point. They are forced to stay within that chaotic environment. They have no other choice. Their responses to this chaotic environment are often increased challenging and negative behaviors, and decreased engagement, focus, and of course, learning.
Indeed, classroom environments are important because they send messages of emotional stability, emotional security, and safety. These messages have become especially important after COVID-19. One of the most basic emotional development needs of the human spirit is opportunity for seclusion—the chance to go back to your hotel room for a nap, getting out of the chaos of Time Square. Children need to have the opportunity just like adults to be alone for even a few precious seconds, to be able to take time away from the hubbub of the classroom.
Whether they know it or not, children at some point need a chance to rewind, refresh, and regroup, just like an adult. Yet the opportunity for seclusion in early childhood classrooms is pretty rare. It's one of the vastly overlooked elements of classroom design.
We have lots and lots of excuses for not providing seclusion in our classrooms. We might say, "Oh my gosh, we don't have enough room. We have limited space! I don't hardly have enough room to get all the required learning centers in and yet alone, a place for seclusion." We might not believe that there's enough space in our room to dedicate to a type of space like seclusion. Or we might feel, "Gee! I want to be able to see every child every second of the day! So therefore, I don't think this seclusion idea is a good idea." It also might be because of our lack of equipment. If you look in early childhood classroom catalogs with furniture, there's really not much out there in terms of furniture design for seclusion. But regardless of the reasons why we don't include seclusion areas in our classroom, it needs to be a very, very important element of our classroom design. So I've got three ideas for helping you create places of seclusion.
1. Rethink Your Space
The first idea is to rethink your space. Just critically look around at the size of each and every learning center that you have. Now think about the children's usage of that center. Based on the amount of furniture in the particular space and the number of children using that furniture, is there too much square footage that has been dedicated to that space? How about the idea of stealing a few square feet from a larger center and allocating that stolen space to a smaller destination of refuge?
2. Scrounge Your Space
Idea number two is to scrounge your space. Stand in the middle of your classroom and just look around. Are there any unoccupied spaces, like an empty wall? What could you do with this empty wall to make it a place of solitude? You might think, "Wow, I don't have the slightest idea what to do!" But could you find a sturdy laundry basket, add a small pillow in the basket, and add a flimsy piece of cloth so the child can get in the basket and throw the cloth over his head? This will just make him feel that he's in a place of solitude.
Or how about taking off the door of a closet and in the lower part of the closet, perhaps there's a space that you can create for a child to be alone. Add cozy elements for snuggling up. Even if it's in the bottom of a closet, it makes a perfect place. You can even add a battery powered light that the child can flip on as he goes into that small snugly space.
3. Reimagine Your Space
Idea number three is to reimagine your space. Try considering this idea of what I call "topsy-turvy furniture" as a way of reimagining your space. For example, could you turn a small table upside down and drape a flimsy piece of cloth over the four legs? This is instant refuge and instant seclusion!
Got an extra crib hanging out in the storage closet that you're never going to use in the infant room? What about sawing the four legs off from the crib, turning the crib on its side, adding some lounge-chair cushions, adding a few pillows, and of course, adding some books to make it a terrific place for solitude for one child? You could also drape some flimsy material over the top and on the sides of the crib for an extra sanctuary effect.
Reducing the chaotic effect of Times Square in your classroom can have a dramatic impact on children, especially the emotional impact of safety and of security and of emotional stability. Start now by creating at least one place where children can find solace. Thank you.
Rethinking the Classroom Landscape
Item number: e15525
Inspiring Spaces for Young Children
In Stock. Ships in 2–3 Days
Instant Download. Download After Purchase
Related Authors:
Sandra Duncan, EdD
Through a Child's Eyes
Enticing Environments for People Under Three
Reaching and Teaching Children Exposed to Trauma
Loose Parts Learning in K-3 Classrooms
Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership
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Local MP Tim Farron officially cut the ribbon to open the Summerhill Care Home Summer Fete on Saturday, which was organised to raise funds for Age UK.
Tim attended the event on Saturday afternoon and met with residents and their families, as well as staff and visitors.
Tim said: "It was great to go along to the Summerhill Care Home summer fete on Saturday, and to meet with people there of all ages! We were lucky with the weather and a great time was had by all who attended, while at the same time raising money for a worthy cause. I'd like to thank all the care home staff for their dedication, as well as everyone else who was involved in organising this event."


text:
A History of Making: Interview with Maker Mark Hopkins
by Sharona Ginsberg | posted in: Blog | | 0
Our guest post this week comes from Will Hopkins, a graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Information.Through interviewing his father, Will gains insight into a life of making and what it is for an individual to be a maker. This post originally appeared on Will's blog, Makerspaces. Learn more about Will on his website.
For my maker interview, I decided to interview my dad, Mark Hopkins. As someone who taught me and participated in much of my early making, I wanted to learn about his perspective on our family making, as well as to investigate his process as a maker. Now retired, he is working on exciting new projects that put making center stage.
I also want to note I think this interview largely leaves out an important figure in our family making: my mom. Because such an omission isn't intentional, it's all the more important to call it out. She taught me baking and early sewing, did the physical and emotional labor of taking me to events, and made art a constant presence in our household. I think an interview with her would be equally interesting and illuminating, and I hope to do one for my own purposes after the semester.
One of my earliest memories is of seeing my dad's face on a billboard. I believe we were driving to the airport to fly to Spain, where we'd live for the next few months while he worked on setting up a new factory. As we drove up I-95, we saw his face staring down at us. At the airport, we saw him again, staring at us from an ad. Around the same time, a TV crew interviewed him at our house for a PBS special on inventors. To me, my dad has always been a bigshot inventor.
Equally early memories include riding in antique cars with him, shooting model rockets into the sky, and riding our bikes everywhere. Throughout my childhood, my dad helped me with Science Olympiad, where we built bridges and trebuchets, and taught me how to apply science to rocket-building. But his story of making goes farther back.
In the summer of 1963, dad learned to ride a bike. Not far from where my parents live now in Newark, DE, he started by coasting down a hill at the old farm with his cousins and uncle. Despite how fraught with disaster learning to ride a bike usually is, he doesn't remember falling over (though he admits he may simply have forgotten). Later, in 1970, he was living in Kitchner, Ontario and got his first ride on a ten-speed bike. "I remember the street lights and the wind in my hair," he says. That ride helped set the course of his life.
My dad has always been the quintessential maker, to me.
My dad doesn't know much about the maker movement, but it's still a label he's comfortable claiming for himself and he's interested in learning more about the larger movement. "I just started reading Free to Make, and I've heard the term, certainly. My initial impression is that it's about getting people to see themselves as people who can build things…There's something valuable in building – commercially, or because it's new, or just to practice something. My mom knitted, and she did it because she liked to. She was a maker."
My grandparents were major influences in my dad's childhood making. My grandmother spun yarn, knitted, sewed, and quilted. She was also an avid gardener who would have been fascinated by the possibilities of Arduino soil sensors. My grandfather actually assembled an entire antique car in his basement in Lansing, only to disassemble it, take it outside, and re-build it when the weather turned fair.
My grandfather often took my dad and uncle to model rocketry meets. My dad initially started building kits, but quickly got into competitions in which he had to design and build the rocket himself from scratch. The competitions would often have very specific competitions, such as carrying a payload, so the rockets would need to be purpose-built.
The rocketry meets were ideal for a child raised in the burgeoning space age. Many of the participants worked for NASA, and the meets were often held at NASA or military sites. My dad would never miss an actual NASA launch, either. He watched on TV or listened on the radio whenever possible.
Rocketry meets were major undertakings, but they were organized before the Internet (though some participants were likely using ARPANET, given the heavy NASA and military presence). Enthusiasts read rocketry magazines and joined local clubs, much like the science clubs of Onion's Innocent Experiments, through which they were connected to the larger rocketry community.
Shortly after he learned to ride a bike, my dad started making his own bike wheels. With the benefit of Richard's Bicycle Book and a class at a conference in Carlisle, PA, he began making and replacing his own spokes and rims as necessary. While studying engineering at the University of Delaware, he and a group of fellow cyclists decided to make a human powered vehicle to enter a land speed competition.
The team was sponsored by Campangolo, still a major bicycle parts manufacturer, and they learned the technical skills they needed from a local bicycle store called Two Wheeled Cycle. The vehicle reached 52 mph with three riders powering it. They competed against companies like General Dynamics, which actually hired professional riders to power the vehicle.
Later, as a young engineer in DuPont's field program, he joined the composites business. DuPont had bought Exxon's satellite parts division, and wanted to start making their own parts. After visiting a bicycling trade show in 1987, my dad convinced his manager that the bike industry was ripe for a new parts manufacturer. Specifically, he decided to try making a new bicycle wheel. He and his collaborators had some ideas for a more aerodynamic design that used three spokes and looked like an airplane propeller.
Initially, no one could understand how the wheel was supposed to work. They couldn't visualize how it would work, or how the force would be distributed. So one night, my dad and his collaborators sketched a design on his plywood workbench and cut it into what would become their prototype (he still has it). When I asked him how long it would have taken to produce a more traditional prototype, he reminded me that they didn't have the institutional support at that point to actually produce a prototype. They were able to fabricate one out of wood, when a full prototype would have taken weeks once it was approved.
The wooden prototype was key to the project's success. With the prototype, made by hand out of a table, my dad and his team could excite their managers about the project and bring it to fruition. The wheel is still in use today in time trials in the Tour de France and other major races.
Now, almost thirty years later, my dad is returning to making bicycles. He started working for a company called 3T about 18 months ago, and about 15 months ago started laying out a new plant for them to begin making bicycle frames and parts. In the intervening years, he's learned new skills, like supply chain optimization, and he's hoping to achieve something called slow manufacturing with this new plant. It reduces waste, has a smooth single-directional flow, and raw materials go in one end with finished parts coming out the other.
Beyond bikes, my dad also makes household items that he needs, like re-covering kitchen chairs, and parts for antique cars. The cars, originally built in 1914 by the Overland company, don't have parts you can pick up at a dealership. The wheels are wooden and the driver's seat cushion has to be lifted up to fill the gas tank beneath it. Actually driving the vehicles requires brute physical strength due to the lack of power brakes or steering. If something breaks, as often happens, it has to be repaired or fabricated with what's on hand.
I asked my dad specifically about the making that he taught me as a child. He said he never really thought of it that way. He was just playing with me, teaching me some of the things that he learned and enjoyed during his own childhood. My LEGO sets might be a little different (I still build Star Wars LEGO today) but at their core they are still the same imaginative construction sets my dad built with.
My dad has always been the quintessential maker, to me. I feel fortunate I'm able to interview him and interrogate our shared history of making.
The photo of Mark Hopkins in this blog post originally appeared in Will Hopkins's blog and has been shared under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.
"Ariane 6 model rocket" by ESA_Events is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0
"bicycle" by Noctam'bulle is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0
Follow Sharona Ginsberg:
Sharona Ginsberg
Sharona Ginsberg is the founder and coordinator of MakerBridge. Currently, she is employed as Learning Technologies Librarian at the State University of New York at Oswego.
Latest posts from Sharona Ginsberg
Book Review: Makers by Cory Doctorow - May 22, 2017
Mentorship in Making, Giant Sweet Potatoes, and Impulsivity: A Conversation with Allison Osberg - May 8, 2017
A History of Making: Interview with Maker Mark Hopkins - April 24, 2017
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Maker/Library Partnerships: An Interview with Terence O'Neill Happy birthday, MakerBridge blog! Review: The Maker Movement Manifesto Making Against Censorship: Banned Books Week Event
3D printing academic libraries arduino books children circuits community conferences crafts crochet diversity electronics events Fifth Monday guest post inclusivity interviews K-12 knitting LGBTQ libraries makerbridge maker culture maker events maker faires maker learning maker movement makers makerspaces Michigan Makers news online tool partnerships people of color photos projects resources review schools software tools video websites welcome women


text:
Q: "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'getAttribute' of undefined" from a referenced attribute of a getElementsByTagName Object I am getting this error:

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'getAttribute' of undefined

from this code (http://pastebin.com/Lrv8JfWK):

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
InterviewsBolivarian Project
Building Socialism from Below: The Role of the Communes in Venezuela
An interview with Antenea Jimenez, who is working with a national network of activists who are trying to strengthen Venezuela's communes. She discusses the important advances in the process, as well as the significant challenges that remain in the struggle to build a new form of popular power from below.
By Antenea Jimenez, Jeffery R. Webber, Susan Spronk
Jun 14th 2010 at 11.17pm
WomenParticipatory DemocracyCommunes
We met with Antenea Jimenez, a former militant with the student movement who is now working with a national network of activists who are trying to build and strengthen the comunas. The comunas are community organizations promoted since 2006 by the Chávez government as a way to consolidate a new form of state based upon production at the local level. She told us about the important advances in the process, as well as the significant challenges that remain in the struggle to build a new form of popular power from below.
Can you tell us about the barrio where you live and the comuna?
I live in a barrio in the north part of Caracas and work in a national network that is building comunas. Currently we operate in seven states; the majority of the comunas are situated outside Caracas.
We are working with the comunas to construct a political space in a participatory way. It is a new experience in Venezuela. Above all, the comuna is a political space, not like the state or a parish; it is created by the people for the people.
Currently there are many comunas in construction in the rural areas, where they are the strongest. Every comuna has its own reality depending on political culture and the form of production in the specific locale. For example, on the coastal zone the community is dedicated to fishing, while in a rural zone the production is based on the land.
We are working to discover which elements and principles unite these different experiences, which elements are the same despite the fact that the methods of production and cultures may be different. We organize national meetings where the comunas from north, south, east and west can share their experiences and learn from each other—the errors as well as the successes.
What is the main aim of the comunas?
The aims of the comunas are diverse, and take different forms. Before the comuna existed there were all kinds of community organizations where people would participate looking for solutions to their problems; their neighborhood association, the municipal government, etc. The goal of the comunas is to build on these processes and consolidate them by organizing on the basis of territory where people live.
For us the comuna is a territorial space, but also a political space where the aim is to build socialism on a permanent basis, where the people take charge of their own education and political formation. We teach about "convivencia" (living together well) and elaborate a plan for a particular territory. What is new about the process is that the people are also elaborating their own plan of formation.
The people are very creative; the most advanced work with the other neighbors in this process to create a permanent space of formation. Civil servants, working for the state, who went to these spaces, quickly learned that the people were elaborating their own plan by and for themselves.
Obviously some comunas are more advanced than other ones. It is much more difficult to build a comuna in urban areas, for example, because they have no experience with [different forms] of production; for example, they have no experience with [non-capitalist] social relations with the land. There is a dynamic in the city that is very capitalist. But in the rural areas they have conserved many elements of what is "ours", from our ancestors, the indigenous communities, the afro-Venezuelan communities. These values are still there. For this reason it is easier in the rural areas than in the urban areas. While there are fewer people in the countryside, the quality of the compañeros is very high. Sometimes there is not one person who did not vote for Chávez; this is less common in the urban areas.
Can you describe your personal political formation? How did you get involved in the comunas?
I was a student activist in University. I was active in political movements before Chávez, but there was no relationship between the social movements and political parties. In 1992, when Chávez was released from prison, things began to change. We have always been involved in the grassroots of the popular movement; there were few political spaces to participate in before [Chávez's release] so you would get involved instead in your neighborhood, in your popular organization, in your cultural group.
But since Chávez was released [and began to build a political movement for the 1998 elections] things changed. I got involved; it was our responsibility to help build the process and the movement in Caracas. I was involved in the Popular Coordinator of Caracas, and afterwards the initiative to create the comunas. Now we are a group that works on the comunas.
There are a lot of different ideas about the communas, for example, between our network of activists and what Chávez has suggested. There are various ideas. We are building it from the people, not the government. We have had extraordinary advances; but the strongest advances have come when when the people have been convinced that this is the path, when they have become active in their own neighborhood.
How do the comunas work?
Historically there were diverse organizations that came together to resolve the problems of the neighborhoods. Our idea was to bring these organizations together to start to participate with concrete issues. We organize workshops. Let's say that a community does not have water. We will organize a meeting about water. The people say, "Ah see! We can solve our own problems."
We look for a socialist solution to the problem. Not just to hire a private company to fix something, but to work with the government and the people to fix the problem. Working first from the basic needs of the people will inspire them to participate. We also work with them to think more about the future, how we can improve things over the long term.
Step by step we work together towards solving simple things, like living together. Things that just require norms, a little bit of effort that helps us live together better. The community might decide that "We can't drink in the streets," for example. Other people see these small changes and then join the struggle when they see the results. They see that collective organization is possible.
There is a network of promoters of the comunas that coordinates, but the participation of the people is fundamental. There are people of all kinds that participate in the comuna: people from the left, people from the right, people that don't care about anything. The people get involved with a problem that touches their family, the school for example because it involves their children.
Not everyone is socialist. Actually, a minority of participants in the comunas are socialists. We have to attend to the issues that matter to them. This can only be done through practice, and this is the way people get involved.
What are some of the main problems that you face trying to build socialism from the neighborhoods up to higher levels?
There is one factor that impedes our work which is the electoral dynamic, which is very exhausting. Constantly being in campaigns does not permit us to consolidate the organic process at the neighborhood level. It is difficult to deal with the problems in the community when we have to focus on issues like the constituent assembly, then the referendum, general elections, then presidential elections, then elections for governor, etc. Currently we are in elections for municipal councilors. This constant electoral dynamic weakens the organic process at the local level because it distracts us from confronting the daily issues that people confront in their neighborhoods.
What are the main demands in the north zone of Caracas where you live?
The main problem in this area is unplanned urbanization. Most of the land is in the hands of a very small bourgeoisie and so the common people have had to build their houses on the hillsides near the canyon, areas that were originally left vacant [because of the precarious conditions]. There are 29 rivers in the area of Caracas, and every time it rains heavily the people who live in these areas are at great risk. Their houses get washed away. Many people die. For example in 1999 there was a disaster in which many people were killed. People want a resolution of this problem.
The other theme is physical security or insecurity. It is difficult to find a place to meet because people are afraid. It is a real problem. But the right-wing opposition and the media has exaggerated the issue, and made it the problem in the barrios. I think that there are more serious problems. Security is the issue of the opposition, the press covers it, so there is debate about this problem.
How has the quality of people's lives changed since the beginning of the Bolivarian revolution?
One of the main changes is in the area of education with the missions, Mission Sucre, for example. Now anyone who wants to go to university can go. Before only 7% of the students in the UCV were poor people like me. And perhaps only 2% of the students in Simón Bolívar were poor. Now everybody is studying at night. In fact, sometimes it is difficult to find a time to meet because everybody is studying! We can only hold meetings during the weekends.
Another fundamental thing that has changed is that before 1998, there was no political debate in the barrios. I was part of a small vanguard that was resisting this, trying to raise political debate in the university. In the 1980s, it was only the students who would mobilize, come out on the streets. But now people are talking about politics everywhere, on the bus and in the bars. It is rare that two people having beers are not talking about politics.
Another important success is that people talk about socialism. Maybe they do not talk about socialism in a "scientific" way, like about what Marx or Lenin said. But they talk about socialism with familiarity. There is still some fear, but way less than before. For example, once we showed a film about socialism in a barrio in the 1980s or 1990s. People just repeated what they heard from the press, that the socialists will torture you and that all socialists are dictators. Now people associate socialism with democracy. Indeed, the very concept of democracy has changed. If Chávez was assassinated, which is a real possibility because there have been many plans to assassinate him, there would be a civil war.
But no matter what happens, the advance of participatory democracy is irreversible. We cannot go back to representative democracy. There could be another kind of left, but now the people always have to participate; participatory democracy is a fundamental part of this revolution. The people understand the importance of it, demand it, and want to do it.
And they notice the difference in how politics works. Before the political reality was centered on what happened in "Miraflores" (the presidential palace). Now there is a lot of political activity, there are important social movements. There is possibility, there is hope. Now people do more than just wait every five years to participate in elections. We have 7 million people who are militants in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). There are millions of people participating in the communal councils.
This does not mean that everybody has a developed political consciousness or political experience; it is still a process in transition. There can be no revolutionary party without revolutionary militants. And the commitment to forming revolutionaries remains underdeveloped.
There are still problems in the Bolivarian process. There have been important economic improvements, for example, less unemployment, higher minimum salary, better pensions, but there is still a low level of political consciousness. People have to be able to handle political and economic theories if we are to advance further, like in Cuba, where the average person on the street has an analysis of what is going on in the country, in the world. In Cuba there is a high level of political consciousness. This level of [revolutionary] consciousness is still lacking in Venezuela. It is dangerous for the revolution. We have come a long way but we can still do more.
What does participatory democracy mean in the comunas?
There is a saying here that suggests that participatory democracy is not about what we are doing but about how we are going to do it. It means that we all build together that which we want to do, we decide what we want to contribute, our projects for improving our lives.
Participation has to be for everyone whether they are with the government, against the government, from the left, from the right. The only one who has authority is the assembly of citizens. It is the assembly, not an elected group… no, it is the assembly that decides on the development plan in each comuna.
When there are debates we try to reach a consensus, and if we don't, we keep debating. When there is no agreement we break the issue down bit by bit to reach agreement on smaller parts. Participation for us is in the formulation of politics; we also participate in the execution of the project. For example, a community wants an aqueduct. The state says, "Ok. Here is the money. Now build it, execute the funds."
But we do not participate in the formulation of national policy, not directly. The policy of the ministers is not decided by a participatory process. We have said, "But we should participate!" We participate at the local level, but socialism is not something that happens only at the local level. We need to weave together a web that brings together the local spaces, the territories, and the comunas, because the national and international levels have an impact on what's happening at the local level. We can't just be a socialist comuna, a little island in a sea of capitalism. After all, who are we going to exchange with?
There is a Ministry of Popular Power for the Comunas and Social Protection but there are no participatory mechanisms to set its policy. Right now this is happening with the indigenous communities. There is a Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and the communities are participating, they decide. They have a national council that makes policy. We have put forward a proposal to have more control over the Ministry for the Comunas, but it has not yet been approved. There is a lot of resistance.
You have to understand one thing. The comunas are a space of power. There are comunas that have executed more resources than some municipal governments. So, the comunas are constituted spaces of power; a majority of the comunas are formally part of the PSUV, but often Chavista officials at the local levels do not really want to share power. Instead, there is a confrontation between the comunas and the Chavista mayors and governors. Although we all stand with our arms together in the photo with Chávez, in practice there is a real confrontation. The governors do not understand this dynamic because the governors do not want to lose power.
The governors and mayors think that they are going to build socialism from their municipality, from their leadership. But we say, if a communal state is not born, socialism will not be possible. At the moment there is no perfect socialist comuna, where everything is debated, where there is an alternative, socialist, economic plan, where the teachers are also from the comuna, giving classes to the youth. This might be possible one day, but not now when there is another level of government that is deciding the overall budget. The project is to connect all these comunas at the national level; at the moment this is not viable because in most places we do not even participate in deciding the budget of the municipality. We participate in small projects, and the local government continues independently as if we were not in a socialist transition.
I only know of two isolated cases where this [participatory budgeting with the involvement of the comuna] takes place in reality: in the city of Torres in the state of Lara, and in Bolívar city in the state of Falcón. This is the case because in these municipalities the comrades [the mayors] are really from the left. The majority of the governors are not from the left. In most cases, the state is a bourgeois state and taking apart this state is the focus of continual conflict. This is taking a lot of political energy. The president is aware of these contradictions but I don't think that he has found a way to overcome the problem. It is not simple. On the one hand you have people who are organized and making proposals and on the other hand people from the same party who are consolidating the bourgeois state.
What is the role of women in the comunas?
The majority of the people who participate in the comunas are women. I think that when we are talking about the advances of the process, this is a very important one. Right now there is a lot of participation by women and the grassroots level. But it ends there. When it is time to hold elections for positions with more responsibility, then it is men who are the candidates.
The president has put forward a number of initiatives to counter this tendency, and there have been many advances. In the party, for example, 50% of the candidates must be women. And when you go to the communities, the majority of those who are participating are women, and the majority of people who are studying in the missions are women. Historically in Venezuela and in Latin America, the societies have been very sexist and it has often been difficult for women to even leave the house. Before Chávez came to office, women's participation was really rare. Women from the Left—from the vanguard—have always participated in social and political life. But now it is more widespread. I think that in the higher levels of the process, there are a number of valuable women doing incredible things.
There are some things that still need to change. Like the laws. For example, if I get pregnant I have six months of rest but my husband does not even get a day. One of the things that we have asked for is equality on this issue. I think that we will win on this issue.
Another limitation is that women are responsible for the children in Venezuela. It is difficult for women to participate, in the communal council, for example, because they have to leave their kids somewhere. This influences women's decisions not to take political positions with more responsibility, especially if the position involves travel. This is a real barrier, although the level of participation in the communities is really high.
What is the long term vision for promoting participatory democracy from below through the comunas?
Here I have a different vision from the government. The vision of the government is that I show up in a community, starting from zero, and within half a week give workshops on politics. As I mentioned above, the level of political consciousness in Venezuela is still weak.
The process of building political consciousness, formation, can not be instantaneous. It is not like you can go to a school for a week and get a certificate. It has to be permanent. If you have a team constituted by the same people from the communal council raising the consciousness of people in their community, this is the way to create facilitators. It is a long process to learn about all of the different categories: anarchism, socialism and its various currents. It takes at least fifteen years. It is not just theory; it is also learned in practice. You learn in practice, but also through reading and reflecting. It takes a long time to figure out that certain social and political practices belong to socialism, while other ones are capitalist.
Some communal councils have higher levels of political formation than others. These organizations understand that the communal council is not just a space to receive resources. They understand that the council is a new "civil association." It is a political space and a political exercise. Honestly, the majority of the councils do not understand it this way. We are still working with the councils to work on the idea that "hey, we can solve this problem in a capitalist way or a socialist way." We want to solve the problems, but do so in a new way. But it is difficult when the companies that provide the services, for example, produce the materials for a house, are still capitalist. Housing is a good example because the problem of housing continues to be serious. Maybe we are making the blocks, but we have to buy the cement from a capitalist company. And then hiring the person to lay the blocks… It is not just solving the problem, but how we solve the problem… to build socialism rather than strengthen capitalism. We have 500 years of colonialism and exploitation, so this is a big challenge, to rebuild all of the socio-economic system. Building a new state is a big challenge.
For example, in some cases we have increased agricultural production. But the rice has been sent to a company that processes and packages the rice and sells it back at ten times the price. It makes me laugh, it doesn't make sense. We have to take over the plants, take over the companies. But it is not easy to do. And the communal councils are not necessarily ready to take on all these tasks.
We find ourselves in a bit of a vicious circle. The only way to overcome this is to create relations between the communal councils, public institutions and the state. The councils are in the process of becoming stronger but it will take a lot to move to the next step.
What is the idea over the long term? Will the comunas continue to exist alongside the bourgeois state, or will they eventually replace it with new forms of self-governance?
This question makes me think because the revolutionary process has taken place through many kinds of organizations that got stuck on the path. The president mentioned once that the nucleos of endogenous development did not function well. The people often ask, "What kind of organization do we need, which is the adequate tool to help bring us what we want… a comuna, a cooperative?" And I explain what a cooperative is, a company of social property. The comuna is something else. We are doing everything to try to make sure that the comuna becomes the main instrument of social change because we are Marxists… it is the only way to build socialism, from below. In addition, in Venezuela there are historical experiences with comunas. This is our original form of organization. It is not strange for us. Of course, because of colonialism all of this changed. But the original form in "Our America" was this one. This is the political form through which people collectively governed their lives.
We have also seen other forms of socialism that were constructed by the state, like the Soviet Union. When that state collapsed, everything was destroyed. So, something happened there. Did the people really feel like they were a part of this process? There were some successes but people did not really feel part of it. The experience of all the revolutions of the past, in Russia, in Cuba, in the other countries of the South, show that if the people do not really participate, the bourgeois state simply continues. Such a conception of socialism is not viable, because the bourgeois state is not of the people. We are working now to build alternative systems, of solidarity exchange and barter. The idea is that the comuna also starts to run the community radio stations, the TV stations.
We are discussing how the comunas will be structured. What will be the relations of forces, which powers will the comunas be in charge of—judicial, executive, etc. All that exists now is the assembly for debate. But authentically socialist comuna does not yet exist; we are still constructing the comunas. We are in comuna when we govern ourselves, when we do not need a judge to tell us, "This house is not yours." Or let's say you live in a neighborhood and you need a letter that proves your place of residence. You have to go to an institution that says this. The comuna could do this. Your neighbor can verify where you live.
Capitalism created a layer of people who are the owners of peoples' lives. If you do not have a residence card, there are many things that you can't do. Why do we need resident cards? The bourgeois state has created this class of administrators that we do not need, who pretend they know things. The popular layers of community at the bottom have to wait until they solve the problems. But the comuna can do all of these things, decide all of these things. Before the Spanish came, this is how we lived. But it is a long process to raise the consciousness of the people so that they can take charge of their lives. It is also not an "anarchist thing" where anyone can do whatever they want. There are norms of living together that one has to respect. There are norms that regulate working life that also have to be respected. People have to respect these laws out of consciousness rather than because there is a law that represses them.
Ultimately, whether President Chávez is here or not, the process depends on the people. At the moment, the process as a whole is too dependent on the president. He is seen as the guarantee that this process will go forward, and for this reason the reactionaries want to get rid of him.
If another government replaces Chávez it may no longer be possible to meet politically in the streets. With the right-wing governments of the past, you only had to have a single book by Marx, Che Guevara, or Fidel Castro, to be persecuted.
Susan Spronk teaches in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is a research associate with Municipal Services Project and has published several articles on class formation and water politics in Bolivia.
Jeffery R. Webber teaches politics at the University of Regina. He is the author of Red October: Left-Indigenous Struggles in Modern Bolivia (Brill, 2010), and Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia: Class Struggle, Indigenous Liberation and the Politics of Evo Morales (Haymarket, 2011).
Source: Socialist Project
The Communes Are Still Being Constructed
It has already been well said by the president of the republic, Hugo Chavez; "We are going to put our heart and soul into creating these communes and giving...


It's the latest in a wave of existential changes for public schools in Boston: BPS will seek to relocate the Jackson/Mann K-8 School and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf before the 2021-22 school year, for fear that their shared building is deteriorating.
The news came in letters (PDF) sent to both school communities Tuesday from BPS Superintendent Laura Perille.
Perille cited "significant building challenges that could prevent the long-term operability of the site" beyond the summer of 2021. She assured parents and teachers that there is no "imminent danger" at the site, and that it will undergo significant repairs in the months ahead to carry it through the next two years.
There are currently 610 students enrolled at the Jackson/Mann, and 88 at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf.
The district will share an independent review of the building at the school committee meeting Wednesday night. But Perille cited issues with the roofing, windows and "air handler units" as factors supporting the move.
In 1975, the Horace Mann School for the Deaf — the city's only such school — relocated to the Jackson/Mann site, brand new at the time. And the building is home to a city-run community center, which would also have to move.
Neither Perille nor John Hanlon, BPS's director of operations, could be reached for comment in advance of Wednesday night's meeting.
In her letters, Perille doesn't suggest that the district plans to break up the two school communities that are housed in the building. She promises a "community process" over the next two years to weigh possible alternate locations for the schools. It's not entirely clear if the relocation would be permanent or temporary.
If the schools were to stay together through a move, it would set this announcement apart from the three outright school closures that have arisen in the past year: of the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester and of the two high schools in the West Roxbury Educational Complex (WREC).
Both are home to specialized programs for autistic students in BPS.
Both school buildings opened for students in the mid-1970s: the Jackson/Mann in 1975, the WREC (then West Roxbury High School) in 1976.
Both buildings are far removed from Boston's densest population centers: the Jackson/Mann in Allston, and the WREC at the outer reaches of West Roxbury.
A 2017 facilities review commissioned by the district scored both buildings as in "good" condition and requiring only mild to moderate repairs.
All of these changes are part of "BuildBPS," a 10-year, $1 billion master plan for the district's physical footprint announced by Mayor Marty Walsh more than two years ago.


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Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring
UK: Termination Rights In The Event Of Insolvency: Where Are We Now With Ipso Facto Clauses; Are They Still A Potent Weapon In A Creditor's Armoury
by Nigel Cooper
Quadrant Chambers
Long term contracts frequently contain clauses which either terminate the contract automatically or entitle a party to terminate the contract in the event of the other party becoming insolvent; so-called 'ipso facto' clauses. The use of such clauses is controversial and in many jurisdictions such clauses are unenforceable because they are seen as allowing one creditor to take priority over other creditors in relation to property that should otherwise form part of the bankruptcy estate. English law did not share this approach but viewed the operation of such clauses as being essentially a matter of contractual construction. That position has now changed with the coming into force of amendments to the Insolvency Act 1986 ('IA 1986') introduced by the Corporate Insolvency & Governance Act 2020 ('CIGA 2020'), which make ipso facto clauses in contracts for the supply of goods and services unenforceable against an insolvent party. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the issues which arise in relation to the construction of ipso facto clauses and to explain the effect of the amendments to the IA 1986.
Ipso facto clauses are generally considered valid under English law. They do not, without more, offend against the public policy that prevents a party contracting out of the pari passu distribution of an insolvent's assets. Nor do they offend against the anti-deprivation rule, which prevents a party from withdrawing assets on bankruptcy, liquidation or administration so as to reduce the value of the insolvent estate to the detriment of creditors. As to the last, the Supreme Court held in Belmont Park Investments Pty Ltd v BNY Corporate Trustee Services Ltd [2012] 1 AC 383 that the rule would not invalidate clauses which did not amount to an illegitimate intent to evade bankruptcy or insolvency law and had a legitimate commercial basis.
Construction of the contract
The starting point for considering the applicability and effectiveness of an ipso facto clause will therefore be, as is so often the case, the construction of the contract. In this regard, clauses inevitably vary in their complexity, whether it be in the definition of what constitutes a triggering event or as to the procedures, such as the giving of notice, which have to be followed in order for termination to be valid. There are no special rules of construction applicable to ipso facto clauses. The general principles laid down in cases such as Arnold v Britton [2015] AC 1619 and Wood v Capita [2017] AC 1173 apply. In summary, one is looking to ascertain the objective meaning of the language used by the parties to express their agreement. This means looking at the contract as a whole and, depending on the nature, formality and quality of the drafting, giving more or less weight to the wider context of the agreement. However, the consequences of triggering an ipso facto provision are inevitably severe. In addition, the courts have emphasised in a series of recent judgments that the principles which apply to the construction of exclusion clauses and indemnity provisions do not represent special rules applicable only to certain types of clauses but represent principles of construction which are to be used alongside the general principles of construction for the purposes of determining the intention of the parties; cf. Fujitsu Services Ltd. v IBM United Kingdom Ltd [2014] EWHC 752 (TCC) at [24] – [26] and CNM Estates v VeCref I Sarl [2020] EWHC 1605 (Comm) at [14] – [18]. As such, when questions arise as to the construction of an ipso facto clause, a court should be guided by the principle that clear words are necessary to define the circumstances in which the parties intended that the right of termination would accrue.
The first question with any ipso facto clause is whether there has been a triggering event, which gives rise to the right to terminate. Clauses may define when a party is deemed to be insolvent by reference to specific insolvency events and may include a proviso that insolvency events include any similar or equivalent event under any applicable law. But even in the absence of such proviso, the question arises as to which law determines the nature of the event said to constitute insolvency.
Conflicts of law
If the relevant insolvency proceedings take place in the same jurisdiction as the applicable law of the contract, there is no difficulty in answering the question, it is the applicable law of the contract. But in many contracts subject to English law, it is equally possible that the relevant insolvency proceedings will take place in another jurisdiction. Is it still then only the governing law of the contract which determines the nature of the proceedings or should one also look to the law of the country where the event in question is taking place?
The better view must be that the construction of the contract is a matter for English law and, therefore, whether or not the attributes of a foreign proceeding bring it within the scope of the clause is a matter of English law. However determining the nature of the proceeding and whether or not the proceeding is an insolvency proceeding within the foreign jurisdiction is a question for the law governing the proceeding. So, for example, the contract clause may allow a right of termination in the event of 'winding up'. One party is the subject of proceedings in a foreign jurisdiction, which as a matter of translation, are considered to be winding-up proceedings. However, the proceedings in question are in fact used to enable solvent companies to re-structure and it is only in the event that such a restructuring is not possible that the party may then be put into liquidation. The law of the jurisdiction where the proceeding are taking place does not consider the 'winding-up' to be an insolvency proceeding. In these circumstances, even though winding up might otherwise be considered under English law to be an insolvency proceeding, the foreign proceedings should not be sufficient to trigger the right to terminate under an ipso facto clause. By way of analogy, it is noteworthy that in In re Sturgeon Central Asia Balanced Fund Ltd [2020] EWHC 123, the court overturned a recognition order granted ex parte in respect of a Bermudan liquidation because the liquidation in question did not constitute 'foreign proceedings' for the purposes of the CBIR. The essential reason for the court's decision not to recognise the liquidation under the CBIR was that the regulations only applied to the resolution of a debtor's insolvency or financial distress. They did not apply to allow recognition of foreign proceedings for the winding up of a solvent company, which was not in financial distress.
Preventing the operation of an ipso facto clause
If the triggering event has occurred, the next question is whether any conditions precedent to termination, for example in relation to the giving of notice, have been complied with. However, unless the contract provides otherwise, no particular formality will be required as long as there is substantive compliance with the terms of the contractual provisions. So, for example, any notice of termination needs to be in sufficiently clear terms to communicate the decision to terminate; see Newland Shipping & Forwarding Ltd v Toba Trading FZC [2014] EWHC 661 (Comm). The contrast is unilateral contracts, such as options, where strict compliance with the express requirements of any termination clause will be required; see Siemens Hearing Instruments Ltd v Friends Life Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 382.
If the conditions for termination are met, can the exercise of a termination clause be prevented? On the face of it, if the requirements of the termination clause have been met, then should be enough to bring the contract to an end. But what if the party alleged to be insolvent claims that it is only in such a situation because of the actions of the terminating party or that the terminating party has engineered a situation, which has allowed insolvency proceedings to be commenced notwithstanding that there is no genuine insolvency.
English law does not (at least at present) recognise a general duty of good faith but there are a number of possible principles, which may assist the party alleged to be insolvent.
One line of argument, which has been put forward in connection with other forms of termination clauses is that there is an implied term that the right of termination should not be exercised in an arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable way adopting the reasoning in Braganza v BP Shipping Ltd [2015] 1 WLR 1661. However, a series of cases has found that where one party is given an unqualified right of termination, there is no place to imply a term along Braganza lines; see TAQA Bratani Ltd v Rockrose [2020] EWHC 58 (Comm), Monk v Largo [2016] EWHC 1837 and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd v Lufthansa Technik AG [2020] EWHC 1789 (Ch).
While arguments based on good faith are unlikely to succeed, there are alternatives that given the right combination of facts may succeed. First simply as a matter of construction, it may be possible to argue that notwithstanding the existence of an insolvency proceeding, there is no genuine insolvency and on the proper construction of the relevant clause there are therefore no sufficient proceedings to trigger a right to terminate. Alternatively, if the events said to trigger the operation of the termination clause have arisen because of interference by the party relying on the clause in the performance of the contract, it may be possible to make good an argument that there has been a breach of one or more of the following implied terms: an implied term that both parties will perform the contract honestly; an implied term that neither party will frustrate the purpose of the contract or an implied term that both parties would cooperate in the performance of the contract and would not seek to prevent the other party's performance of the contract. Whether such terms will be implied depends of course on matters such as whether such terms would be consistent with the express terms of the contract and whether or not the nature and circumstances of the contract are such that the general test for the implication of terms, namely one of necessity, is met; see Attorney General of Belize v Belize Telecom Ltd [2009] 1 WLR 1988 and the discussion in Lewison on The Interpretation of Contracts, 6th ed at §6.05.
In the context of implied terms that one party will not prevent the other from performing the contract, the more general test has been refined further to require: first that the implied term must not be illegal, contrary to public policy or ultra vires the contracting party; second that the term is limited to active prevention of performance (and probably does not extend to passivity in the face of the action of some third party) and third that the act complained of is wrongful either as being a breach of the express or implied terms of the contract or wrongful independently of the contract. These principles were recently re-stated in Jiangsu Guoxin Corporation Ltd v Precious Shipping Public Co. Ltd [2020] EWHC 1030 (Comm) at [20]. It is unlikely that there will often be an issue with the first of these requirements. The issue is more likely to be whether the party opposing termination can satisfy the second and third requirements. Nevertheless, if the circumstances are such that one party had deliberately delayed or refused to make payments under a contract for the purposes of putting the other party in a position where it can no longer resist insolvency proceedings and therefore termination of the contract, the prevention principle or one of the other implied terms mentioned above may provide redress. Again, it will be a question of the particular facts whether that claim for redress sounds in damages (combined with a claim for renunciatory breach) or in the form of injunctive relief to restrain termination of the contract.
Statutory control
The discussion above reflects the contractual means by which a party may challenge the application of an ipso facto clause. However, in certain jurisdictions, such as the United States, legislative controls either limit or exclude the enforcement of a such a clause against an insolvent party. The need for such controls under English law was under discussion prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the dire financial consequences of that outbreak have pushed through the introduction of those controls. The relevant provisions are to be found at sections 14 and 15 and Schedule 12 of the Corporate Insolvency & Governance Act 2020 which amend the Insolvency Act 1986 by introducing section 233B and Schedule 4ZZA. In summary the affect of these provisions is to prevent a supplier relying on an ipso facto clause in a contract for the supply of goods and services once a company has entered into an insolvency procedure as defined in s.233B. The statutory restriction prevents the supplier terminating the contract or exercising any other right which accrues in the event of the debtor company becoming subject to a relevant insolvency procedure.
There are exclusions from the scope of s.233(B) for contracts with certain types of person or certain types of contracts. The exclusions include, for example, contracts with insurers and banks (subject to the qualifications in the Schedule) and contracts including financial services such as commodities contracts. The Schedule also provides an exclusion to ensure that the United Kingdom does not infringe its international obligations in the aviation sector under the Cape Town Convention. Those obligations are set out in the International Interests in Aircraft Equipment (Cape Town Convention) Regulations 2015 and provide, among other things, for debtors and creditors under relevant agreements to be able to agree in writing the events which constitute default and the remedies for default (see in particular regulations 18 and 21).
Section 15, of CIGA 2020 provides a temporary exemption for small company suppliers, which originally ended on 30 September 2020 but has now been extended until 30 March 2021. A small supplier is defined as being a company which meets two of the following conditions: (1) it has a turnover of no more than £10.2 million, (2) its balance sheet total was not more than £5.1 million and (3) the number of the supplier's employees was not more than 50. In addition a supplier can enforce its ipso facto clause with the consent of the office holder or of the company or the permission of the court.
It should be emphasised that the restrictions on ipso facto clauses introduced by CIGA 2020 are not just temporary measures. They are intended to have long-term effect. They are also likely to give rise to a number of difficult disputes as to the meaning of the provisions. There is, for example, no definition of what is a contract for the supply of goods and services. It may well be difficult in a complex web of project contracts with interlinking rights and obligations to determine whether a contract is a contract for the supply of goods and services or not. What is meant by termination is not defined. Does the restriction apply if the debtor company is otherwise in renunciatory or repudiatory breach of contract? One would anticipate that the answer to this question should be 'no' but that answer is not certain. What is the meaning of 'any other thing'? Does the restriction prevent a supplier enforcing an associated guarantee or relying on a clause which accelerates the payment of all sums due under a contract if one payment instalment is missed? There are certainly at least two major uncertainties.
First, how the provisions of s.233B will operate in the event of foreign insolvency proceedings? Will those proceedings still engage the restrictions on ipso facto clauses imposed by s.233B? Where the foreign insolvency proceedings have been recognised under English law, for example under the Cross Border Insolvency Regulations, the answer would seem likely to be 'yes'. In other situations, the position is far more uncertain bearing in mind the very specific provisions of s.233B(2) defining the types of insolvency procedures which engage the section's protection.
Second, s.233B(4) prevents a party relying on events occurring prior to the start of the insolvency period as a ground for termination once the insolvency period starts. However, the language of the clause suggests that this restriction is only temporary so that if debtor comes out of the insolvency procedure in a state of solvency, the supplier can rely on the prior events to terminate the contract. What is not clear from the language of s.233B is whether the same result is intended to apply to a right of termination in the event of insolvency. If s.233B is suspensory only, then in theory once the relevant insolvency procedure is over, the supplier could terminate the contract based on the prior insolvency. Alternatively, if the ipso facto clause provides for termination on an event of insolvency, there might be an argument that the contract terminates automatically once s.233B ceases to have effect. Such a result would seem to undermine the initial purpose of s.233B especially if the debtor company has come out of the insolvency in a solvent position. It could also be said to be inconsistent with the language of s.233B(2), which speaks of relevant clauses ceasing to have effect once a company becomes subject to a qualifying insolvency procedure. Nevertheless, the position is uncertain and there is certainly scope for argument that the effect of s.233B is suspensory only.
Overall well-drafted ipso facto clauses remain a valuable contractual asset and are likely to become potentially more valuable in times of financial uncertainty. The case law makes clear that if the provisions of the clause are complied with, it will be difficult to say the least to prevent their operation. However, the position under English law has moved on and statutory controls which initialled looked to be some way off, have now been brought in. There are uncertainties in the legislation which will need to be resolved. The tension that exists between the use of such clauses to protect the interests of individual creditors over the interests of the insolvency estate as a whole remains.
Nigel Cooper
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text:
CLOUD Act highlights need to modernize cross-border data framework
*This post was co-authored by Charles Duan, Associate Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at R Street.
On Wednesday, Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Christopher Coons, D-Del.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., introduced the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act, which deals with law enforcement's access to communications information stored in the cloud. We think the CLOUD Act is an important first step to dealing with the difficult problem of cloud data stored overseas and encourage policymakers to use the bill as a key component in reforming the legal procedures for law-enforcement access to online communications.
This bill arises in the context of United States v. Microsoft, currently pending at the Supreme Court. That case will consider whether U.S. law enforcement can legally obtain emails stored on Microsoft's cloud email service when those emails are physically stored on servers in a foreign country. The underlying issues are complex yet important to every American who uses cloud services. R Street filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court to emphasize these complexities.
The depth and difficulty of the issue also highlights the need for a legislative solution. Indeed, as global demands for cross-border data increase, frustrations with the status quo will continue to worsen. If left unaddressed, these frustrations will push nations toward undesirable policy alternatives, including data-localization and stricter controls on the internet. Allowing the Supreme Court to be the final arbiter on cloud data-access would force a choice between two extremes, neither of which is desirable. It is incumbent on Congress to think prospectively and craft a path forward that accounts for the myriad technological and international legal ramifications of cloud data storage.
If enacted, the CLOUD Act would establish a framework for U.S. law enforcement to obtain emails stored on foreign cloud servers, as in the Microsoft case. The government is expected to withdraw the case if the bill is enacted. The framework largely mirrors the International Communications Privacy Act (ICPA), which R Street previously supported.
At the same time, the larger framework for law enforcement's access to electronic communications is decades old and widely considered outdated. The CLOUD Act currently is limited to the extraterritoriality issues discussed above, and it neglects to address whether warrants or other showings of cause ought to be required as part of the procedure for accessing cloud-stored data.
R Street has been supportive of reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) – the law governing this larger communications framework – to extend the warrant requirement to all content data, not just those less than 180 days old. There is widespread support for such reform, with the Email Privacy Act having passed the House last year by voice vote. The right way forward, in our view, is to use the CLOUD Act not as a complete solution, but rather as a component of these broader efforts to bring electronic communications law into the 21st century.
Lars Trautman
Senior Fellow, Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties


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text:
Q: Plotly R: save an image as svg or tiff I would like to save my plot as .svg or .tiff but as much as I have tried to save it checking several questions, I have not succeeded. The plot is a 3D surface and here is the code.
EjeX <- Table$Col1
EjeY <- Table$Col2
EjeZ <- as.matrix(Conc)
Fig1 <- plot_ly(
  x = EjeY,
  y = EjeX,
  z = EjeZ
  ) %>% add_surface(
  contours = list(
    z = list(
      show=TRUE,
      usecolormap=TRUE,
      highlightcolor="#ff0000",
      project=list(z=TRUE)
    )
  )
)
Fig1
layout(
  Fig1, scene = list(
    xaxis = list(
      title = "x",
      range = c(5,15)
      ),
    yaxis = list(
      title = "y",
      range = c(100,160)
      ),
    zaxis = list(
      title = "z",
      range = c(0,14)
      )
    )
  )

Thank you so much in advance!


text:
Step into climate-changed S'pore in 2100 with ST's new VR project
Visitors to The Straits Times' booth at the Singapore Eco-Film Festival can try out ST's VR project, which shows how climate change will affect Singapore, as they take a four-minute journey in 2100, from a river cruise at Boat Quay, to the Merlion Park and the Marina Bay Sands Skypark. ST PHOTO: TOH TING WEI
Toh Ting Wei
Transport Correspondent
https://str.sg/o7gP
If you've ever wondered what Singapore will be like in the next century, amid all the warnings about a world drastically altered by climate change, The Straits Times' virtual reality (VR) project, Singapore 2100: Climate changed, will give you some idea.
Viewers get a four-minute journey through Singapore in 2100, from a river cruise at Boat Quay, to the Merlion Park and the Marina Bay Sands Skypark. Highlights include a scene in which water levels rise right in front of the user's eyes.
The project will be at ST's booth at the Singapore Eco-Film Festival, which is taking place now till tomorrow at the ArtScience Museum.
The festival brings together eco organisations and storytellers in Singapore, looking at solutions for the environment.
ST interactive graphics journalist Rebecca Pazos, 31, who helped conceptualise and research for Singapore 2100, said: "Sometimes in Singapore, we seem to think that climate change will affect other countries around us, and not us."
The project zooms in on food security and extreme weather - two climate change-related issues that could hit Singapore the hardest.
HOW WE ARE AFFECTED'
Sometimes in Singapore, we seem to think that climate change will affect other countries around us and not us.
MS REBECCA PAZOS, ST interactive graphics journalist who helped conceptualise and research for Singapore 2100.
The Earth Observatory of Singapore also provided information for the project.
Singapore 2100 has been in the works since July last year, after ST published its first VR project, Singapore Underwater, which looked at the possible long-term impact of climate change and rising sea levels on the Republic.
Web developer Chee Wei Xian, 23, who also worked on the earlier project, said Singapore 2100 gives users an improved experience through increased interactivity and a wider variety of scenes. It can be viewed through the Google Daydream View VR headset, or the Lenovo Mirage Solo headset, both of which are made available to ST under the Google News Initiative.
Singapore Underwater: Travel through time and experience rising seas with ST's VR project
Climate of Change: Special reports by ST correspondents
Those who are unable to attend the event can try out the immersive storytelling experience at home, by using a Daydream-compatible mobile phone. All they have to do is download the Singapore 2100 app and the Google Daydream app from the Google Play store, and view it with their own VR headset.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 03, 2018, with the headline Step into climate-changed S'pore in 2100 with ST's new VR project. Subscribe


Today:-It has been three years that Pakistan banned YouTube. YouTube was immediately banned in September 2012, when YouTube didn't remove anti-Islam film made in the US, which mocks Mohammad.
Pakistan people seem furious for not uplifting the YouTube ban. Today an Editorial with a heading "YouTube pointless ban" was published in Pakistan daily Dawn, which shows that people have moved on and are ready to welcome YouTube.
Daily said ""Back then, it was promised that some way of filtering content, or getting YouTube's parent company, Google, to do this, would be found," it said.
The National assembly unanimously adopted a resolution to lift the YouTube ban last year and just two days back, The Senate standing Committee on Information Technology also paved the way to unblock YouTube.
YouTube will make a comeback in Pakistan, only time will tell, but freedom of YouTube will be scrutinized that is for sure.


text:
Q: how to create a pipe model in vtk with repeatability I created a pipe model by rotating a bunch of cylinders but I donno how to filter common part and ,I am running a for loop to create cylinders and rotating them on a circle.This has a problem that I need to set the position in loop ,I want to attach all cylinders to one polydata object and then use it
This is my code
import vtk
import math
import wx
# create a rendering window and renderer
ren = vtk.vtkRenderer()
renWin = vtk.vtkRenderWindow()
renWin.AddRenderer(ren)

# create a renderwindowinteractor
iren = vtk.vtkRenderWindowInteractor()
iren.SetRenderWindow(renWin)
i=0
sourc=[]
mapper=[]
actor=[]

for i in range(0,360):
    sourc.append(vtk.vtkCylinderSource())
    sourc[i].SetRadius(0.3)
    sourc[i].SetHeight(6)

    sourc[i].SetCenter(2*math.cos(i),0,2*math.sin(i))
    sourc[i].SetResolution(100.0)
    sourc[i].Update()

    mapper.append(vtk.vtkPolyDataMapper())
    mapper[i].SetInput(sourc[i].GetOutput())

    actor.append(vtk.vtkActor())
    actor[i].SetMapper(mapper[i])
        #actor[i].SetPosition(0,2*math.cos(j),2*math.sin(j))
        #actor[i].RotateZ(j)
    actor[i].GetProperty().SetOpacity(1)

        #actor[i].SetPosition(2*cos(i),2*sin(i),0)
    ren.AddActor(actor[i])

    i=i+1
# create source
#
transform = vtk.vtkTransform()
transform.Translate(0.0, 0.0,0)

axes = vtk.vtkAxesActor()
#  The axes are positioned with a user transform
axes.SetUserTransform(transform)

ren.AddActor(axes)

# enable user interface interactor
iren.Initialize()
renWin.Render()
iren.Start()

A: To add several PolyData objects into one use the vtkAppendPolyDataobject:
import vtk

append = vtk.vtkAppendPolyData()

for i in range(0, 360):
    (...)
    append.SetInputData(sourc[i].GetOutput())

append.Update()

then you can add the actor and render outside of your loop.


Rinke Khanna was born on July 27th 1977 to Dimple Kapadia and Rajesh Khanna,as well as sister to 'Twinkle Khanna' (qv and sister-in-law of Akshay Kumar. She entered films in Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi (1999) and followed it up with _Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai (2001)_ and the successful Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain (2000).
This got her recognition from the Tamil industry, where she starred in the successful 'Majnu' and now is planning to do more work with the just released 'Yeh Hai Jalwa', soon releasing 'Pran Jaaye Par Shaan Na Jaaye', 'Mango Souffle','Shafak', three Tamil films directed by Ravichandran and an untitled Pritish Nandy film. Later in 2002, she will be a maasi (aunt) when her sister Twinkle gives birth to her child! Her popular songs that she has danced in are 'Musu Musu' and 'Kem Chhe', from PMKK and JDMGRH respectively.


3/16/2004 – From March 20 to April 1st the famous Amber tournament will be staged for the thirteenth time, in the spectacular Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo. The event features world class players like Anand, Kramnik, Svidler, Shirov and Leko. They play two games per day: one rapid and one blindfold. Here are details of the participants and schedule.
The thirteenth edition of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament will take place at the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel in Monaco from March 20 till April 1, 2004. Maecenas Mr. J.J. van Oosterom is the exclusive sponsor of the tournament.
The venue is the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel, 12 Avenue Des Spelugues, Monte Carlo. Admission is free. The games start every day at 1.30 p.m. and finish around 8.00 p.m. In each round the participants play one rapid chess game and one blindfold game. The speed of play is one hour of all the moves of a game.
The blindfold games they play on a computer. For the players only an empty chess board is visible on the screen. With the mouse or the keyboard they can make a move, which will then appear on the screens of both players. After they have confirmed their move, the players see the move disappear and the clock of the opponent starts running. Various monitors in the playing room show the course of the game, which is perfectly visible for the arbiter and the audience, but not for the grandmasters.
The technical part of the event is being managed by the Dutch company Alldata. During the tournament you will find the results, information about the games and live transmission of the games on the official web site.