Every time we turn around, Roger Waters, the outspoken musician and sometime member of the band Pink Floyd, keeps proving to be worse than we thought he was. On this site, we've written at length about his self-righteous efforts to shame other performers into canceling gigs in Israel. In an open letter to Bon Jovi, for instance, he accused the fellow rocker of standing shoulder to shoulder with baby-burners and child killers and, hence, of committing "the greatest crime of all." In another piece, Waters accused singer Robbie Williams of "showing a chilling indifference" to the welfare of Palestinian children, who, he claimed, are viewed by Israel as nothing more than "grass to be mowed." In yet another missive, he told chanteuse Dionne Warwick that she was ignorant of Israeli history.
"In Waters' world," commented Israeli writer Lilac Sigan, "there is no Hamas, and this terror organization doesn't live by its sword, doesn't swear to death and violence, and doesn't rule the Gaza strip with primitive Shariya law." As we've pointed out, this wasn't exactly true: Waters knows all about Hamas – and proudly stood up for them in a 2012 U.N. speech. His Jew-hatred is real. He's a chilling, reprehensible piece of work.
And here's a new wrinkle. During the last few years the media have covered the multiparty effort, fronted by a New York attorney, Steven Donziger, to extort billions of dollars from Chevron. This flimflam, in which several people invested substantial sums in hopes of making millions, has come to be known as the "Chevron Shakedown." The case is now closed; Donziger has been disbarred. But during the investigators' mop-up, the names of some of the people who invested in Dongizer's scheme came to light. One of them was Roger Waters.
Waters, as it happens, has publicly accused Chevron of "greed," just as he's charged Israel with child-killing. Consistently, as with his attacks on Israel, he acts as if he's the voice of morality, occupying the high moral ground. But when you publicly accuse a company of greed even as you privately invest in a sleazy shakedown scheme aimed at fleecing that same firm, there's nothing remotely high-minded about it. On the contrary, it's duplicitous and sleazy, period. But knowing what we already knew about Roger Waters, we shouldn't be surprised by his involvement in this sordid scam.
Time to revisit Roger Waters. In November 2015, we spent several days pondering the aging rocker and former Pink Floyd front man. We noted that in 2012, he defended Hamas terrorists, characterizing them as victims of Israeli "apartheid," "ethnic cleansing," and "occupation." In 2013, his concerts featured "a pig-shaped balloon adorned with Jewish symbols, including a Star of David." He also compared Israelis to Nazis. "The parallels with what went on in the 1930s in Germany are so crushingly obvious," he said of the supposed Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians.
In 2015, Salon ran an open letter by Waters to singer Robbie Williams, who was scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv. Waters informed Williams that Israelis view Palestinian children "as grass to be mowed" and instructed him that if he took the stage in Israel, he would be supporting "the deaths of over 500 Palestinian children last summer in Gaza…and condoning the arrest and abuse of hundreds of Palestinian children each year living under Israeli occupation." Later that year, Salon published an even more virulent rant addressed to the band Bon Jovi, whose members he accused of being complicit in the murder of babies.
We were so awed by Waters's bile that we named him one of the top ten stooges of 2015.
Blaming the Jews for their own misfortune…isn't a new trick. It's been a seminal feature of anti-Semitic rhetoric for millennia, and it served well squadrons of hissing haters who argued that if so many people want to exterminate the Jews, well, it must be for some good reason. But the modern incarnation of this ancient hatred is particularly grotesque: Speaking the hollowed-out language of the regressive left, Waters not only blames the Jews for their own troubles, but does so while claiming to be a champion of human rights. He's telling his fans that it's very important to take anti-Semitism seriously, and then adding that the only way to do it is to target the Jews.
On April 28, Salon ran a remarkable piece by Roger Waters, the musician and former member of Pink Floyd. In it, Waters addressed an upcoming Tel Aviv gig by British singer Robbie Williams. Noting that Williams was "UNICEF's UK ambassador and a declared supporter of its Children in Danger campaign," Waters charged him with "showing a chilling indifference" to the well-being of Palestinian children and called on him to cancel his appearance.
If you cannot see yourself in the eyes of a Palestinian father, you should do the decent thing and resign from UNICEF, or failing that, UNICEF should let you go.
Since Israeli fans no longer deserve your presence in the only democratic nation of the Middle East, I encourage you do a show in the heart of Gaza City. You could float one of your giant, pig balloons in the air with an Islamic Crescent moon and caricature of Muhammad on it. Then, you could utilize the freedom of speech that you currently use to voice your sophomoric (at best) understanding of the Middle East by telling Hamas that it's the real enemy of the Palestinian people. I think only then, as the crowd publicly stomps you into the ground and drags you half-alive through the streets of Gaza, will you understand the true nature of Israel's predicament.
What is presented to you as innocent victims struggling for freedom, is in reality uncompromising cultural intolerance at a level so antiquated that is difficult for many westerners to comprehend.
Not even this, however, stirred Waters out of his moral slumber. In fact – as we'll see tomorrow – he took his attacks on fellow performers to a new height.
Yesterday we saw how, in December 2013, musician Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, compared Israel to Nazi Germany – only to be taken to school, as it were, by Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, who in an epic takedown for the New York Observer spelled out to Waters the error of his ways.
In Waters' world there is no Hamas, and this terror organization doesn't live by its sword, doesn't swear to death and violence, and doesn't rule the Gaza strip with primitive Shariya law. In the imaginary world he presents there are no rockets, and Hamas hasn't fired thousands of them at Israel this summer, aiming at 75% of the Israeli population which was saved by the Iron Dome. In his world Hamas has not exploited Palestinian funds in order to purchase arms and build military tunnels with supplies that were intended to build Palestinian homes. In his world Hamas doesn't exploit the UN facilities for military purposes, and doesn't hold public street executions of Palestinians who dare to protest….
Sigan was, as it happens, wrong about one thing here: Hamas does exist in Waters's world; and as far as he's concerned, they're the good guys. In a 2012 speech at the UN, delivered in his capacity as a member of the now discredited Russell Tribunal, he stood up for Hamas, which he depicted not as terrorist thugs but as victims of Israeli "apartheid," "ethnic cleansing," and "occupation" who actions are merely responses to Israeli oppression and violence.
donors pledged 5.4 billion dollars to rebuild the destroyed parts of Gaza. But how much of this funding will go into rebuilding Hamas and lining its leaders' pockets instead of being used for the benefit of the Palestinians? How much of it will be used to redig the network of terror tunnels into Israel? And will forced child labor be used again in order to complete this project, in which at least 160 palestinian children tragically died the last time around? A mechanism had been agreed in Cairo with UN involvement, to ensure that international funding not be diverted to finance the rebuilding of Hamas's military capabilities. But sources in Gaza said there was no practical way to control how such money would be spent. If one truly cares for Palestinian children, all of these facts should be a huge concern….
Waters declared that Palestinians should enjoy the same freedoms that he enjoys. That's a very nice thought which no-one could disagree with, but one should remember that no Palestinian, whether child or adult, will enjoy any freedom at all as long as Hamas is in charge and doesn't change its ways.
But Sigan's piece didn't wake Waters up, either. On the contrary. Even as he's been presented over and over again with the plain facts about Israel's predicament and Hamas's ideology, he's clung more and more stubbornly to his black-and-white picture of the situation – and attacked, with increasing vitriol, those members of his profession who have dared to go against him by performing in Israel. We'll get to that tomorrow.
the Nazis were a genocidal regime that murdered 6 million Jews. That you would have the audacity to compare Jews to monsters who murdered them shows you have no decency, you have no heart, you have no soul. The Jews of Germany did nothing to invite the aggression against them. Indeed, they were loyal citizens of a country that many of them had fought for courageously just 20 years earlier in the First World War. They did not blow up buses for political purposes. They did not send terrorists into schools to murder children. They did not preach that killing German children would get them virgins in heaven. They lived lives of humanity and decency and were murdered for no other reason than the fact that they were Jews.
You have disgraced yourself by comparing the martyred 6 million, which included 1-and-a-half-million children who were gassed to death in cold blood, to Palestinian terror organizations like Hamas, whose stated intention it is to wipe Israel off the map.
channeled the billions they received as the world's largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid into rockets rather than hospitals, bombs rather than universities. And they intentionally launch their rockets from nurseries and schools rendering the innocent Palestinian population into human shields, not surprising for an organization that regularly murders Palestinian homosexuals under the false accusation of collaboration and engages in honor killings of young Palestinian women whose only crime is to have a boyfriend.
Yet – as we'll see tomorrow – it was all lost on Waters.


I went to the doctor on Friday to have another ultrasound and to get some blood work done. While I had 3-4 cysts in each ovary, they were all super small and apparently not active follicles. Because my blood work came back with an FSH level of 66 and estradiol of less than 20.
So I finally gave in and I'm starting the Hormone Replacement Therapy of 1 mg of estrogen every day. I've just been feeling so yucky lately, with the brain fog and the hot flashes.Today is day three of estrogen and I think it's already helping with the hot flashes. Not yet with the brain fog, but I'm hopeful.
I'm feeling so discouraged that my numbers were so terrible after all the lifestyle changes and supplements and acupuncture and the gluten-free diet. It's just kind of a reminder that this condition is really and truly out of my control. I might be able to make little nudges forward but for as much crap as I've already been putting myself through, this setback is hitting me hard.
I hope the hormones help. I think sometimes I fail to recognize just what an effect they have on our bodies. I mean, when you look at an estrogen or progesteron pill, doesn't it seem a tad ridiculous that it can really make that much of a difference???
I know! Such a tiny pill, so much power. After the past few days, I am now a believer that it can make a world of a difference... let's hope it helps with fertility in addition to mental clarity and reducing hot flashes!


The leaders in the small crossover market are the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.
Both are both fuel-efficient—the Toyota even has a hybrid—and space-efficient.
We like both, especially the new turbocharged, small displacement Honda CR-V, which reach the top end of the fuel economy scale.
The Ford Escape is much improved with a new-ish engine that provides plenty of power; it still has some of the best handling moves in this niche.
The new Mazda CX-5 doesn't seem to offer much more than it did in last year's version, save for a more suave interior.
The mechanically related Chevy Equinox doesn't separate itself much from the Terrain, except that it doesn't offer a 9-speed auto on the base engine.


From the dark heart of Yorkshire, this is Snakerattlers' second album, and I admit that this is my first encounter with their music. The duo are husband and wife, Dan and Naomi Gott, guitar/vocals and drums/vocals, and, unlike some other duos, they have the tunes to ensure that they are no novelty act. Yes, there are elements of The Cramps here and there; 'Do The Rattle Rock' and 'Rattle Rock Stomp'. But, their approach has more in common with Dan Sartain; see 'I'll Destroy Your Soul'. 'She's Strange' sways, makes your hips shake. In fact, you could dance to the whole album, should you feel inclined.
They certainly have too much class to be tagged as psychobilly, in my opinion; a lazy description. 'Standing On My Own' is worthy of any Tarantino soundtrack, while 'Ooga Booga' does pretty much what it says. 'Wild' is a fitting end and makes me want to see them in a sweaty club sometime soon; their natural environment. But this is also a fine addition to your album collection. They know how to roll.


This lush, glossy green tropical plant is an excellent addition to any jungle-style garden. It has large, wide sheath-like leaves and huge 30cm-long (1ft) flowers in bright shades of orange and yellow. Despite their tropical appearance, ginger lilies are surprisingly hardy and can tolerate temperatures as low as -5oC (23oF) without any lasting damage. If a hard frost is forecast, wrap the base of the plant in horticultural fleece to protect it. These plants are simple to grow but do need well-prepared soil in order to thrive, so plant the rhizomes deeply and add as much well-rotted compost and organic matter as possible. These plants are perfect for patio containers where their fabulous, rich perfume can be enjoyed throughout July and August.


text:
Under-21-Year-Olds and Guns in Illinois:
Federal law makes it harder for 18-to-20-year-olds to get handguns, and some states prohibit it outright; yet nearly all states at least allow 18-to-20-year-olds to have long guns.
Except, it turns out, for Illinois, where state law bars 18-to-20-year-olds from possessing any gun -- including a stun gun -- unless they (1) have a parent or legal guardian's written consent, (2) haven't been convicted of any misdemeanor other than a traffic offense, and (3) the consenting parent or guardian isn't himself barred from owning a gun.
This means that if you're an 18-to-20-year-old and both your parents are dead, or if your living parent or parents have been convicted of felonies or certain misdemeanors, or if your living parent or parents have recently been mental patients, or if your living parent or parents are in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant alien visa, you can't possess any sort of gun in Illinois. If your parents are around and not disqualified, then your right to own a gun turns on your parents' permission -- something that to my knowledge doesn't happen as to anything else for adults.
Oddly, if your parents aren't nonimmigrant visitors to the U.S., but are instead foreigners who aren't in the U.S. in the first place, then they can indeed give you permission to buy a gun -- they can't just do it once they've been admitted to the U.S. under a nonimmigrant visa.
By the way, the Illinois Constitution provides, "Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The Illinois Supreme Court has held that, though handgun bans are allowed under the police power, "individual citizens" do have "a right to possess some form of weapon suitable for self-defense or recreation" (emphasis added) and "that a ban on all firearms that an individual citizen might use would not be permissible." Kalodimos v. Village of Morton Grove, 470 N.E.2d 266, 273 (Ill. 1984).
Queries: The age of majority in Illinois was 21 in 1970, when the right was enacted; it wasn't lowered to 18 until 1971. Does the right not fully apply to under-21-year-olds, the way some constitutional rights today don't fully apply to under-18-year-olds (consider the right to sexual autonomy, the right to marry, the right to abortion, which could be limited through certain kinds of parental consent laws, and likely the right to bear arms itself)? Or does the right apply to all adult citizens (unless otherwise disqualified by reason of felony conviction or the like) under today's age of majority, regardless of what the age of majority was at the time? Or has the right always extended to everyone 18 and above, regardless of the age of majority for other purposes?
Also, what would the answer be under a Second Amendment that's incorporated against the states, if such incorporation takes place? These questions would also have some importance in other states that allow long gun possession for 18-to-20-year-olds but ban handgun possession until age 21, and also as to the federal government, which makes handguns harder for under-21-year-olds to acquire.
Note also that when the age of majority was 21, presumably 18-to-20-year-olds could get a guardian if both parents were dead. Now that the age of majority is 18, I take it that it's impossible for them to get a guardian even if they wanted one in order to get the guardian's permission to own a gun.
Related Posts (on one page):
Under-21-Year-Olds Banned from Possessing Any Firearms in New York City?
[Eugene Volokh, April 14, 2009 at 7:46pm] Trackbacks
That seems to be so, under New York City Administrative Code § 10-303 (at least with some narrow exceptions), as interpreted by the New York Police Department. Does anyone whether there are other rules that might keep this from being the case?
Query: If the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states, can this be constitutional? As I noted with regard to a much less restrictive Illinois limit on 18-to-20-year-olds, the age of majority has indeed historically been 21 until the early 1970s, though now it's 18 virtually everywhere, including in New York.
Would the right to keep and bear arms not fully apply to under-21-year-olds, the way some constitutional rights today don't fully apply to under-18-year-olds (consider the right to sexual autonomy, the right to marry, the right to abortion, which could be limited through certain kinds of parental consent laws, and likely the right to bear arms itself)? Or does the right apply to all adult citizens — unless otherwise disqualified by reason of felony conviction or the like — under today's age of majority, regardless of what the age of majority was at the time? Or has the right always extended to everyone 18 and above, regardless of the age of majority for other purposes?
These questions would also have some importance in other states that allow long gun possession for 18-to-20-year-olds but ban handgun possession until age 21, and also as to the federal government, which makes handguns harder for under-21-year-olds to get.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I have never been able to make a cinnabun stick with a stick before ... don't know why and don't what I did different this time.
The bun is on top of my head instead of in the back, and I could therefore see where to insert the stick.
Also the hair was still damp.
Many of my buns falls out in a rather short time unless placed on top. This one has stayed in for nope than 6 hours. Think I have a personal record.
i just wanted to say that your crown braid in the signature picture is so amazingly beautiful, a real crown.
Yay for a working bun! It is always so nice when you get to the point that you can do updo's with just one stick type3 thing!


NES Tecmo Super Bowl (USA) in 11:05.02 by adelikat.
This movie doesn't aim to run up the score. Instead, it plays an entertaining game of American football by keeping the score close for drama and by utilizing a variety of wild plays with interceptions, fumbles, impossibly long passes, etc. Thus, the movie manipulates luck often.
In addition, the author exploits a number of bizarre bugs, such as CPU players tackling their own teammate, and a very unorthodox final play.
True tecmobowlers will enjoy the team choice and final score.


text:
From Burma to Myanmar: Land of rising expectations
CNN.com | 3 January 2013
Call it a case for evolution instead of revolution. While the Arab world continues in the throes of violence and uncertainty, Myanmar is undergoing incremental change -- and almost everyone seems to want it that way.
The government is lightening up: holding elections, freeing political prisoners, abolishing censorship, legalizing protests, opening to investment and tourists and welcoming back exiles. But the people still tread lightly, careful not to overstep or demand too much. Still, the consensus is clear: Change in Myanmar is "irreversible."
As the British Raj's jungle frontier, Burma was a key Asian battleground resisting the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II. As with many post-colonial countries, the euphoria of independence and democracy in 1948 gave way in just over a decade to the 1962 coup in which General Ne Win nationalized the economy and abolished most institutions except the army.
Non-alignment gave way to isolationism. Like Syria or Uzbekistan, Myanmar became an ancient Silk Road passageway that almost voluntarily choked itself off, choosing the unique path of a Buddhist state conducting genocide, slavery, and human trafficking. The military junta began its increasingly cozy rapproachment with Deng Xiaoping's China in the 1970s, just as China was opening to the world, and used cash from its Golden Triangle drug-running operations to pay for Chinese weapons.
Mass protests, crackdowns and another coup in 1988 led to a rebranding of the junta as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and the country's official renaming as the Union of Myanmar. The 1990 elections, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a majority of the seats, were annulled by the SLORC, which continued to rule until 2011 when it was formally disbanded. Most international sanctions on Myanmar have now been lifted.
In just the past few years, Myanmar has survived a succession of natural and man-made ravages, from the brutal crackdown on the Saffron Revolution of 2007 (led by Buddhist monks but more widely supported in protest against rising fuel prices and economic mismanagement), to Cyclone Nargis (which killed an estimated 200,000 people in 2008) to civil wars between the government's army and ethnic groups such as the Kachin in the north and Shan and Karen in the east, and communal violence between the Muslim Rohingya (ethnic Bengalis) and Buddhist Rakhine in the west.
There are still approximately 150,000 Karen refugees in Thailand (and over 300,000 total refugees on the Thai-Burmese border) and more than 100,000 displaced Rohinya living in camps in Sittwe. So difficult is holding Myanmar together that even Aung San Suu Kyi, who helps lead the national reconciliation process, ironically advocated the use of the army (which kept her under house arrest for almost two decades) to pacify the rebellions.
Though sectarian conflict between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine underscores the Myanmar's tenuous search for national unity, the genuine efforts at religious pluralism are reminiscent of neighboring India: Every religion is officially recognized, and days are given off for observance. Surrounding Yangon's downtown City Hall is not only the giant Sule Pagoda but also a mosque, synagogue, church and Jain temple. The roundabout is therefore a symbol of the country's diversity -- but also the place where protesters flock when the government doesn't live up to promises.
Scarred from decades of oppressive and ideological rule and still beset by conflict, it is therefore against all odds that Myanmar would become the most talked about frontier market of the moment, a top Christmas holiday destination and a case study in democratic transitions. Myanmar's political scene is now a vibrant but cacophonous discourse involving the still-powerful army; upstart parliament; repatriated civilian advisers; flourishing civil society, including human rights groups, ambitious business community, the Buddhist religious community, and a feisty media (especially online). The parliament is pushing for accountability in telecom and energy contracts, and its speaker, Shwe Mann, is already maneuvering to challenge the chairman of his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) -- current president Thein Sein -- in the 2015 elections.
In the meantime, however, the establishment in Yangon and the new capital of Napyidaw need to focus much more on building capacity. Thein Sein, who traded in his uniform for indigenous attire in 2011, has reshuffled the Cabinet to make room for functional experts in the energy and economic portfolios. He's even spearheaded an anti-corruption drive, admitting recently that Myanmar's "governance falls well below international standards." By many accounts he is also very open to advice on investment and other reforms.
He will need it, as Myanmar faces crucial tests of its international credibility in the coming years. In 2013, Myanmar will play host to the World Economic Forum (WEF) as well as the Southeast Asian Games. In 2014 it will chair the ASEAN regional group, and in 2015 it is expected to enter a new ASEAN Free Trade Area.
The military's power is still pervasive, placing it somewhere on the spectrum between Indonesia, where military influence has been rolled back, and Pakistan, where the military still dominates. On the streets, it's often difficult to know who is in charge. One numerological fetish led to the driving side being unilaterally changed, making Myanmar the rare place where the steering wheel is (mostly) on the right, and cars drive (mostly) on the right. At least a dozen official and private newspapers (though private daily papers are not allowed yet) are on offer from meandering street hawkers, while you inch through Yangon's increasingly dense daily traffic jams.
At this time of year, visitors to Burma enjoy crisp, smoky morning air and dry, starry nights. Yangon is undergoing a construction boom, with faded colonial embassies turned into bustling banks, the national independence column being refurbished and redesigned with a park, and tycoons building columned mansions near downtown -- and seeking Buddhist blessings by pledging lavish donations for the construction of even more monasteries and pagodas. By 2020, the population of Yangon could easily double from the current 5 million, at which point it may look like a mix of Calcutta and Kuala Lumpur.
Thant Myint-U, the grandson of former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant and noted historian of modern Burma, now wears several hats related to ethnic reconciliation, foreign donor trust funds and urban conservation. He says that as foreign aid flows grow from trickles into a flood, they have to be systematically focused on sustainable employment creation and infrastructure. USAID has pledged to spend more than $150 million in Myanmar in the next three years.
Outside of Yangon, the pace of Burmese society slows to a timeless pace -- as do Internet connections. On village roads, cycle rickshaws and monks with parasols amble by fruit vendors and car part stalls. Whether at the Dhammayazika Pagoda in Bagan or Mandalay Hill in that city, locals enjoy watching sunrises and sunsets as much as tourists.
Traveling around Myanmar, one observes the paradox of a country that has massive potential yet still needs just about everything. Yangon's vegetable market is a maze of tented alleys overflowing with cabbage, pineapples, eggplant and flowers, but they are still transported by wheelbarrows and bicycles. Ox-drawn ploughs still power farming in much of the country, meaning agricultural output of rice, beans and other staples could grow immensely through mechanization.
Similarly, the British-era light-rail loop circling Yangon takes about three hours to ride once around, with no linking bus services into downtown. But with cars already clogging the city, a major transport overhaul is essential. The communications sector actually needs to be re-invented. At present, the country's Internet and mobile phone penetration are only just growing; both are still governed by India's 1886 Telegraph Act. Mobile penetration is only 3 million but could easily grow to 30 million (half the population) within the next couple of years, as the price of SIM cards come down (so far from $2,000 to about $200), and foreign telecoms are allowed in to provide data coverage.
With sanctions lifted, foreign investment is now pouring in from Western nations, in addition to the players who have been making inroads for years such as China, Thailand and Singapore. The paradox, however, is that Myanmar lacks the infrastructure (physical and institutional) to absorb all the investor interest.
Major nations have thus focused on special economic zones that they themselves effectively run. The way Japan has moved into Myanmar, one would think that its World War II imperialism has been forgotten. After their major bet on the Thilawa special economic zone south of Yangon, Japanese contractors have plans to deepen the Yangon River's estuary so that cargo ships can sail directly up to the city's shores and offload more containers of cars that are already being briskly snapped up at busy dealerships.
Besides natural gas and agriculture, everyone agrees that tourism will comprise an ever-larger share of the country's GDP. Especially with much of the country off-limits to foreigners due to security restrictions and the military's economic operations, tourists already clog all existing suitable hotels in Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay, meaning a massive upgrade is needed in the hospitality sector. Annual tourist visits are climbing 25% annually to an estimated 400,000 for 2012. Daily flights arrive packed from around the region, with longer-haul routes beginning from as far afield as Istanbul and Doha.
Still, Myanmar is a traveler's dream come true. In Bagan, you can walk or take a sunrise jog around countless pagodas that feel like they haven't been touched in 800 years -- some actually haven't. There is also the sacred and enchanting Golden Rock; the pristine beaches of Ngwe Saung, which rival the best of Thailand and the Philippines; the temperate climate of Inle Lake; the Himalayan foothills near Putao in far northern Kachin state where one can trek; the rich dynastic history of Mandalay; and the languorous Irrawaddy River cruises that harken to George Orwell's "Burmese Days."
Yangon has a pleasant charm and gentle energy, with vast gardens and riverside walks, the grandeur of centuries-old monuments such as the Shwedegon Pagoda, a fast-growing cultural scene of art galleries and music performances, and a melting pot population of all Myanmar's tribes as well as industrious overseas Indians and Chinese, who make up 5% of the nation's population.
Mandalay in particular is where one feels the depth of China's demographic penetration into Myanmar, owing not only to recent decades of commercial expansion from gems trading to real estate but also centuries of seasonal migrations across the rugged natural border with Yunnan province. Some have begun to call the Shan region "Yunnan South."
The combination of the Saffron Revolution, civil strife, sanctions, its economic lag behind the rest of ASEAN, and the status of becoming a captive resource supplier to China all played crucial roles in Myanmar's opening. China has traditionally been a kingmaker in isolated and sanctioned countries and well-placed to capitalize on the infrastructural and extractive needs of emerging economies as well.
For China, Myanmar represents a crucial artery to evade the "Malacca trap" represented by its dependence on shipping transit through the Straits of Malacca. In 2011 China was still far and away the largest foreign investor in Myanmar, bringing in $5 billion (of a total of $9 billion) across their 2,000-kilometer (1250-mile)-long border. The massive ongoing investments include 63 hydropower projects, a 2,400-kilometer (1500-mile) Sittwe-to-Kunming oil pipeline from the Bay of Bengal and a proposed gas pipeline to China's Yunnan beginning at Myanmar's Ramree Island -- not to mention an entire military outfitted with Chinese tanks, helicopters, boats and planes.
Myanmar's opening, however, is strongly motivated by an anti-Chinese sentiment that is part of a much wider global blowback against its commercial and strategic encroachment. Even well-kept generals are fundamentally Burmese nationalists and awoke to the predicament of total economic and strategic dependence on China. The government has taken major steps to correct this excessive tilt, suspending a major hydroelectric dam project at Myitsone and re-evaluating Wanbao Mining company's giant copper mine concession near Monywa.
Myanmar is now deftly playing the same multi-alignment game mastered by countries such as Kazakhstan in trying to escape the Soviet-Russian sphere of influence: courting all sides and gaining whatever one can from multiple great powers and neighbors while giving up as little autonomy as possible.
India sees Myanmar as the crucial gateway for its "Look East" policy and is offering substantial investments in oil and gas as well as port construction and information technology; Europe has become a larger investor, especially Great Britain; Russia is being courted as a new arms supplier; Japan is viewing Myanmar as its new Thailand for automobile production; and of course, U.S. President Barack Obama visited in December, paving the way not only for greater U.S. investment but even for Myanmar to potentially participate in the Cobra Gold military exercises held annually with America's regional allies.
Obama was not only the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar but also the first to call it by that name, conceding ground in a long-running dispute. The administration hopes that North Korea, Asia's still frozen outcast, will learn the lessons from Myanmar's steady but determined opening.
But countries that are playing multi-alignment don't have to thaw domestically -- witness Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. Myanmar is simultaneously undergoing political liberalization and international rehabilitation -- a tricky and laudable feat for sure but not one North Korea is likely to emulate entirely. What the two do have in common, however, is the growing realization that having China as a neighbor is both a blessing and a curse.
During my visit to the "Genius Language School," where university students go for professional English tutoring, I asked the assembled round table whether they were happy that Obama came to visit and whether they considered America a friend. All giggled and chanted: "Yes."
Then I asked, "Are you afraid of China?" And the answer came in immediate, resounding unison: "Yes!"


I actually tried reading this last year, after hearing so many rave reviews about it, and I hated it. I thought at the time that I would give it another chance, but… meh.
This is… a self-published adult romance set in a post-zompocalypse world? I'm not sure why this is here, actually.
A mystery/thriller about a couple who witnessed a crime, and I guess some sort of "nightmare" ensues. As I was skimming the reviews, I was spoiled for the big twist ending, and it immediately made me have no interest in reading this.
I literally don't think I've ever heard a negative review of this book, so it's actually on my "must read" list for this year.
I actually had no clue this had been on my TBR so long, because I didn't think I had even heard of Mira/Seanan McGuire until early 2017. A horror series with queer women, and mermaids, though? Pleeeeease!
You'd be amazed by how many psychological thrillers end up on my TBR, and how few of them I actually end up reading. I've come to realize that I think I enjoy non-horror thrillers more than I actually do enjoy them.
While this has a decent average rating for a horror story, the top reviews are almost exclusively saying it's terrible. On top of that, I used to be super into stories about Aokigahara and didn't care who wrote them, but now that I've learned a bit more about how harmful poorly-done rep can be, I've become a little leery of portrayals of what is honestly an incredibly tragic place.
This is one of her two most recent releases, both of which I pre-ordered and then allowed to collect dust on my shelf ever since. It's on my "must read" list for the year, too.
I've always heard that Francesca writes amazing mental illness rep, and this one sounds spectacular, so it's on my wishlist.
I was really excited for this book when I bought it, but after reading a different book of Jasmine's a few months ago, I don't think I'm a huge fan of her writing. This book is actually on my shelf, but after rereading the synopsis, I think it's time to unhaul it.
I've almost come to terms with the fact that I don't think Neil's adult books are my cup of tea, but I'm determined to try one more time.
Another horror anthology, but this one is about post-apocalyptic societies, which sounds terrifying in that existentialist-crisis sort of way.
I really like Becky as a person, and I thought Simon vs. was a pretty solid contemporary, so I'm actually surprised I haven't read this one already!
I really love supporting diverse books, especially when they're own-voice, and I've heard that Shaun writes really great own-voice gay stories, but the plot of this book just honestly doesn't interest me at all. I think I'll pass, and try a different book of his at a later date.
I'm glad you kept Rolling in the Deep, it's fantastic!
Wow that was a lot of removals! Congrats.
I didn't know there was a Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant. Into the Deep –the actual first book, came out last year, so it is surprising to see there is a novella for it which was published years before. It is pretty cool when authors decide to continue on series which started as just a novella idea.
Thank you! Yeah, I love that she was able to continue onto the novella. She said on Twitter recently that, if enough copies of Into the Deep sells, she has plans for another full-length book in the series!
Completely agree with your decision to remove the Jasmine Warga book. I read that one last year and I was actually looking forward to it, but it was pretty mediocre.
Thank you for this! I feel better, lol. I really just don't think her writing is my cup of tea.
oh wow, I hope you love Into the Drowning Deep! just a PSA – Rolling in the Deep is the short prequel, it's the full-length book that has the queer girls. but honestly? knowing how much you love horror, I can't imagine you wouldn't love that one. it was even one of my faves of the year!
and if you're looking for another Shaun David Hutchinson book to check out – his next release Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza is about virgin birth and choices and the lead is a bi girl. and I loved it so much.
Thanks! Yeah, Rolling in the Deep is the one that's been on my TBR longer. 🙂 I was just referring to the series in general, since Seanan has said she's planning on expanding on Into the Deep with at least one more book. It's so exciting. I really can't wait to read it!
Oooooh, that actually sounds REALLY interesting. Thank you for the heads-up! I'll have to go check it out.
I figured you'd be intrigued 😊 I personally liked it more than We Are the Ants anyway. and that's good to hear!
NOOOOO!!! you need to read "we are the ants". it's amazing!!!!
YAY SAINT ANYTHING i'm glad you're keeping it! and My Heart and Other Black Holes was the definition of eh so good call.
Made You Up is a very unique book. I read it last year and was pretty impressed.
Oooh, awesome! I've heard it's special and that Zappia really manages to write some authentic-feeling MI rep.


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The Community Investment Programme is the London Borough of Camden's ambitious 15-year plan to invest over £1 billion in schools, homes and community facilities in Camden. In total, we're building 3,050 new homes, including, 1,100 council homes, 300 genuinely affordable homes to rent, investing in 53 schools and children's centres and providing 9,000m2 of improved community facilities, the equivalent of 35 tennis courts. CIP will also help renovate thousands of existing council homes, as part of the Council's Better Homes Programme.
The primary purpose of this post is the management and implementation of one or more development projects falling under the Community Investment Programme (CIP)/Estate Regeneration Programme ensuring innovation, cost control, best practice & best value in commissioning and delivery. The post-holder will liaise with internal and external departments and agencies to ensure appropriate procurement, development and implementation of projects.
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Our sustainable communities' agenda is about building homes that build from an existing community; strengthening the surrounding area and building upon our existing community. You will be required to liaise with other Council departments to ensure wider corporate objectives are incorporated into development briefs and also develop innovative ways of delivering on the 'Sustainable Communities' agenda.
You will work in conjunction with various teams internally in the council including property services to maximise the physical and financial benefits accruing to the council from the redevelopment of its property as well supervising and guiding consultants with residents on large scale estate regeneration schemes. Furthermore, you will monitor and report on progress toward project milestones and physical and financial targets to Senior Managers and elected members and manage, monitor and report upon consultant performance as required.
strong knowledge of one or more of the following areas: town planning practice, development finance, quantity surveying, social/intermediate and private residential development, land acquisition practice and housing development standards is essential.
You will have excellent project management skills with the ability to deliver technically complex construction projects which closely impact upon our residents and other stakeholders. Furthermore, you will bring procurement skills to deliver infrastructure and refurbishment projects and will need to apply your knowledge of development and new build.
An excellent communicator; you will be experienced in negotiation and relationship management as you will work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders with matters relating to tenancy, planning and development legislation and land law and project management.
You will have the ability to work flexibly including from various locations and various work patterns as you will be required to work with members, residents and the public in consultation meetings and workshop and exhibition events.


text:
The Strange Tale of How the FBI's Anti-Trump Bias Helped Elect Trump
By David French
About David French
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FBI Director Christopher Wray points to a questioner during a news conference on the Justice Department's inspector general's report regarding the FBI and the 2016 U.S. presidential election, June 14, 2018. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
The decision to prioritize the Russia investigation ended up harming Hillary Clinton's campaign.
If you wade through the entire inspector general's report, consider the content and tone of the FBI correspondence quoted within it, and ponder the timeline, you will finally get an answer to the key question I, and millions of Americans, have asked: If key members of the FBI were actually biased against Donald Trump, why did the FBI so dramatically damage Hillary Clinton's campaign in the last days before the election? Why did it draft a letter to Congress announcing that it was reopening its email investigation a month after it found Anthony Weiner's laptop, a letter that detonated like a bomb in the campaign and had a measurable effect on Hillary's polling?
Now we know. The decisions leading up to that moment were influenced by a toxic stew of anti-Trump bias and institutional self-interest. The combination of those two factors sent an FBI torpedo straight at the SS Hillary, blasting another hole in a ship that was already taking on water.
The vast majority of the report simply reaffirms and amplifies previous reporting. It provides an interesting window into the shock and concern inside the FBI when Barack Obama appeared to prejudge the case and exonerate Hillary. It details how the FBI focused on Hillary's alleged intent, even though one of the relevant statutes imposes criminal penalties for mere "gross negligence," when it declined to recommend Espionage Act charges against her. And it provides a blow-by-blow account of James Comey's defiant decision to depart from DOJ policy and practice and make an independent announcement of the FBI's recommendation.
But then, when the story moves into the fall, things change. The report has new details and a new narrative that provide the last, strange twist on the strangest election cycle of my lifetime. It goes something like this: As the Hillary investigation ("Midyear Exam") wound down, the Trump investigation ("Crossfire Hurricane") spun up. Key members of the Midyear team — including employees who expressed deep loathing of Trump — transferred their efforts to the Crossfire investigation. When investigators found hundreds of thousands of potentially relevant emails (including emails between Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton) on Anthony Weiner's computer, the Crossfire investigators were reluctant to dive back into Midyear, and they let the computer languish — for weeks — until prodded by investigators in New York.
Then, confronted with the reality that his agents hadn't started to examine the emails, Comey's institutional protective instincts kicked in, and he felt that he had to inform Congress of the new development — to preserve the FBI's nonpartisan image during the presumed Hillary presidency. Little did he know (little did most people know), the Hillary campaign was a tottering, fragile mess, and this last FBI action may well have pushed her past the tipping point.
Don't believe me? Let's go to the IG report. Here's the top-line conclusion of the role of bias in these last, fateful days.
In assessing the decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the Midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop, we were particularly concerned about text messages sent by [Peter] Strzok and [Lisa] Page that potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions they made were impacted by bias or improper considerations. Most of the text messages raising such questions pertained to the Russia investigation, and the implication in some of these text messages, particularly Strzok's August 8 text message ("we'll stop" candidate Trump from being elected), was that Strzok might be willing to take official action to impact a presidential candidate's electoral prospects. Under these circumstances, we did not have confidence that Strzok's decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the Midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias. [Emphasis added.]
Of course Strzok wasn't the only relevant actor, and the IG noted that other officials were involved in the investigation (including Strzok's superiors) who hadn't demonstrated similar bias, but even then the IG "did not identify a consistent or persuasive explanation for the FBI's failure to act for almost a month after learning of potential Midyear-related emails on the Weiner laptop."
Indeed, reading the report, one is left with the impression that if investigators in New York hadn't prodded the Midyear team, the Weiner laptop would have remained unexamined until after the election.
This impression is amplified by the dramatic contrast between the flurry of calls and meetings in late September and early October (just after the emails were discovered) and the total absence of activity in the weeks that followed. As the IG stated, "After October 4, we found no evidence that anyone associated with the Midyear investigation, including the entire leadership team at FBI Headquarters, took any action on the Weiner laptop issue until the week of October 24, and then did so only after SDNY raised concerns about the lack of action."
When asked to justify the lack of action, multiple key witnesses refer to the priority on the Russia investigation. Here's FBI assistant director Bill Priestap:
If you're wondering, you know, hey, this is a really big deal, and why aren't you asking about it every, every minute of every day type thing, whatever, it was the, we went from this thing to the Russia thing. And the Russia thing took them as much as my time as this thing before. And I don't want to say distracted, but yeah.
And here's Strzok:
We were consumed by these ever-increasing allegations of [Russian] contacts and coordination and trying to get operations up, and following people. . . . Doing a lot of stuff that was extraordinarily consuming and concerning. So this pops up, and it's like . . . another thing to worry about. And it's important, and we need to do it. Okay, get it handled. Come back to us, and then back to this, you know, is the government of Russia trying to get somebody elected here in the United States?
FBI lawyer Lisa Page said that "she and other members of the Midyear team" were "super-focused" on the Russia investigation. Then there's this, from Comey:
It was Russia, Russia, Russia all the time. . . . Well not just Russia, Russia, Russia. [It was also] Midyear Congress, Midyear Congress — because they had, somebody had to review the documents that were going up to Congress and there was a constant demand for documents and briefings on Midyear and Russia at the same time.
Keep in mind that two of the four people above had also engaged in their now-infamous affair and had expressed extraordinary venom against Trump. Strzok had vowed in a text message to Page to "stop" Trump.
This is not to argue that the FBI shouldn't also have diligently pursued leads in the Russia investigation. It has the resources to do both. It has the manpower to do both. But lest you think that only armchair-pundit quarterbacks find the FBI's inaction on the Weiner laptop concerning, here's the case agent, describing his growing alarm:
The crickets I was hearing was really making me uncomfortable because something was going to come crashing down. . . . And my understanding, which is uninformed because . . . I didn't work the Hillary Clinton matter. My understanding at the time was I am telling you people I have private Hillary Clinton emails, number one, and BlackBerry messages, number two. I'm telling you that we have potentially 10 times the volume that Director Comey said we had on the record. Why isn't anybody here? Like, if I'm the supervisor of any CI squad in Seattle and I hear about this, I'm getting on with headquarters and saying, hey, some agent working child porn here may have [Hillary Clinton] emails. Get your ass on the phone, call [the case agent], and get a copy of that drive, because that's how you should be. And that nobody reached out to me within, like, that night, I still to this day I don't understand what the hell went wrong.
On October 21, a prosecutor identified only as "Prosecutor 1" reached out to Strzok. The resulting text exchange with Page is interesting:
6:49 p.m., Strzok: "Also, work-wise, [Prosecutor 1] called b/c Toscas now aware NY has hrc-huma emails via weiner invest. Told he [sic] we knew. Wanted to know our thoughts on getting it. George [Toscas] wanted to ensure info got to Andy [McCabe]. I told Bill [Priestap]."
6:55 p.m., Page: "I'm sure Andy is aware, but whatever."
"But whatever" indeed. It wasn't until days later — on October 25 — that the FBI senior leadership and the Midyear team re-engaged on the laptop. By that time Comey was in a bind. He believed the email review wouldn't be completed by the election, he had already informed the world that the email investigation was over, and he also believed that Hillary was going to win.
Stay silent, and it looks like the FBI was concealing material facts from Congress and the public. Speak, and he departs from longstanding policy and procedures — and he does so selectively. As the IG notes, "We found unpersuasive Comey's explanation as to why transparency was more important than Department policy and practice with regard to the reactivated Midyear investigation while, by contrast, Department policy and practice was more important to follow with regard to the Clinton Foundation and Russia investigations."
The rest, of course, is history. In an election this close, the outcome is affected by countless factors. The FBI didn't stop Hillary from campaigning in key states. It's the fault of the Democratic party and Democratic primary voters that they foisted a dishonest candidate on the American public, a person whose conduct not only merited an FBI investigation, it merited indictment. There was, of course, Russian interference that had an unknown impact. But no one can credibly argue that Comey's late October announcement didn't matter. Nate Silver has marshalled the evidence, including this interesting chart:
The IG's report is not the last word on FBI conduct during (and after) the election. And while there were many, many troubling facts in the IG's narrative, it was also plain that multiple agents and attorneys played it straight. They did their professional best to investigate and evaluate Hillary Clinton without partisan bias. And it is certainly possible for even partisans to do their jobs professionally. It happens every day at every level of government.
But some partisans betray their bias in their words and their actions. It is deeply disturbing and disappointing to see the presence of partisans such as Strzok and Page in key investigations affecting both 2016 candidates. And this isn't just my judgment. The IG expressed similar concerns:
We were surprised to learn that FBI leadership decided to assign many of the key members of the Midyear team, immediately after determining that no charges should be brought against then candidate Clinton, to the Russia investigation, which touched upon the campaign of then candidate Trump. This is particularly so given the questions being raised by candidate Trump and his supporters regarding the declination decision in the Midyear investigation. While we recognize that staffing decisions are for management to make, we question the judgment of assigning agents who had just determined that one candidate running in an election should not be prosecuted to an investigation that relates to the campaign of the other candidate in the election. The appearance problems created by such a staffing decision were exacerbated here due to the text messages expressing political opinions that we discuss later in this report. Surely, the FBI's Counterintelligence Division had talented agents who were not involved in the Midyear investigation who could have fully staffed the Russia investigation.
The IG report is complicated, telling a convoluted story of bad-faith bias, good-faith mistakes, and cascading challenges as each new error creates ever-larger dilemmas. But while the story is complex, the lesson is simple. There are reasons why agents and attorneys should go "by the book." Apply the law to the facts, follow policies and procedures, and let the chips fall where they may. If you put your thumb on the scales, you'll often unleash forces you can't control. Just ask Strzok and Page. They aimed at Trump, but they hit Clinton.
NOW WATCH: Trump Says Watchdog Report Wrong In Claiming No Bias
David French is a senior editor of The Dispatch. @DavidAFrench


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text:
Thomsdorf ist ein Ortsname:

 in Deutschland:
 Thomsdorf (Boitzenburger Land), Wohnplatz in der Gemeinde Boitzenburger Land, Landkreis Uckermark, Brandenburg
 Thomsdorf (Riepsdorf), Ortsteil der Gemeinde Riepsdorf, Kreis Ostholstein, Schleswig-Holstein
 in Polen:
 Thomsdorf, Kreis Allenstein, Ostpreußen: Tomaszkowo, Gmina Stawiguda, Powiat Olsztyński, Woiwodschaft Ermland-Masuren
 in Russland:
 Thomsdorf, Kreis Heiligenbeil, Ostpreußen: im Stadtkreis Mamonowo, Oblast Kaliningrad [nicht mehr existent]
 Thomsdorf, Kreis Preußisch Eylau, Ostpreußen: Solnetschnoje (Kaliningrad, Bagrationowsk) im Rajon Bagrationowsk, Oblast Kaliningrad

Siehe auch
 Thomsdorf (Adelsgeschlecht)
 Thomasdorf

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The warmest welcome – at an inn.
William Shenstone, 1714–1763, was a prolific poet, comfortably born into the inheritance of a small estate in Shropshire. He became increasingly involved with its development through landscape gardening and the construction of an "ornamental farm". The garden planning, partly a labour of love, seems also to have been a compensatory bid for the fame that had eluded him as a poet. His efforts left him impoverished at his death.
Originally entitled Written at an INN on a Particular Occasion, this week's poem, dated 1735, seems to celebrate the delights of travelling hopefully rather than arrival. The Henley inn in question, the White Swan, was a well-known staging post on the route from Lichfield to London. In those days, of course, such an inn offered comforts beyond those of today's local, including hospitality and accommodation for travellers racked by miles of jolting and swaying in an overcrowded stagecoach.
So Shenstone is probably writing from life, which is not to say that he and his speaker in the poem are one. The poet's worldly resources clearly reached beyond the "low cot". His opening stanza might indicate dissatisfaction, hypocritical or otherwise, with a relatively lofty status and private income. But the emphasis is on freedom, which is located not in rural life but in that temporary staging post, the inn. The capitalised "Freedom" recurs like a joyous shout in each of the first four stanzas.
The protagonist's large gestures, his boasting and exaggeration, are not disagreeable. On the contrary, the manner matches the environment. He's clearly a man who buys his round, and soon the drink begins to taste like champagne even if it isn't. He rejoices in informality, the kind of freedom celebrated in the third stanza. Shenstone's ease of versification adds mimetic pleasure: we can relax in the cosy-armchair stanzas, and imagine firelight, friendliness and something warming to sip. The metre is regular but not plodding, the alliteration pleasingly judged ("To thee, fair Freedom! I retire, / From flattery, cards, and dice, and din.") The poem is the right length for the refrain to keep the element of ironic surprise at finding such perfections "at an Inn".
When Shenstone is seriously considered as a poet, which is perhaps too seldom, he is regarded a precursor of the Romantics. The tendency towards Romantic idealisation is perhaps signalled here in the opening apostrophe, and the moral vocabulary or implications in the diction: honesty, fellowship, the value of trust. A deeper complexity comes in when the speaker cries, "Here, waiter! take my sordid ore." This strikes an almost confessional note. Without money, there's no room at the inn, after all, no lodgings, fellowship, or liquid refreshment, and no freedom. But the admission is lightly, urbanely handled. An early Romantic may still be a realist.
Samuel Johnson, who might also have had occasion to lodge at the White Swan, was cool in his final appraisal of Shenstone: "Had his mind been better stored with knowledge, whether he could have been great I know not; he could certainly have been agreeable".
And Donald Davie, in his anthology The Late Augustans, describes him as "undoubtedly very small beer as a poet", while exonerating, to some degree, the Spenserian stanzas of The School-Mistress (also "pleasing" to Johnson), and some of his Elegies.
"Small beer" seems an appropriate designation for this week's poem, but I would like to argue that it's not all froth. The praise of conviviality and its pleasures reaches a certain depth within the limits of conventional morality, and even finds a trace of ambiguity at the bottom of the tankard.


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This page will host supporting information for the Resource Capacity Planner Excel Template which can be used to plan resource capacity, compare versus demand and identify over-utilization and under-utilization.
To know the features of this template, please visit the product page.
The latest version (v2) was published in July 2018.
Step by step user guide to Resource Capacity Planner Excel template.
Learn how to enter input data on capacity and demand.
Find how to use the Capacity planning Dashboard and Calendar to identify over-utilization and under-utilization.
I have a question. Is there any template available where 'resource planning', 'gantt chart' and 'pipeline tracker' are combined in 1 template so that I don't have to enter the same data 3 times?
Hi, I would need a version of the file which can accommodate 1000 resources in the tab CAPACITY (v. 3).
The maximum resources supported is 300. Please email support@indzara.com your order number if you would like to receive that file. We will email you.
Do we have the flexibility to make changes to the sheet like adding additional dashboard or changing the colors of the charts to suite my organisation color?
You can customize the colors. Please use "indzara" to unlock the sheets.
We are not accepting any customized projects now, hence Additional dashboards cannot t added as per your requirements.
1) Since I'm assigning a Resource, Skill Group, and Project in the Capacity worksheet, it seems redundant to have to manually complete the Resource cell for every Demand Task. How could I get the Resource to auto-complete based on something like a VLOOKUP on the Capacity sheet using the Resource, Skill Group, and Project as keys?
2) All of my Projects follow the same set of Demand Tasks, including Hours duration (and thus relative Date), Detail (task name), and Skill Group. If I define a Demand Template in another worksheet, shouldn't I be able to automatically add all the appropriate Tasks in the Demand worksheet as a Project is defined in the Settings worksheet and the Project Resources are defined in the Capacity worksheet?
These two items would drastically reduce the required data entry which would improve ease of use while also reducing the chances of data errors.
Thanks for purchasing. Glad to hear your feedback.
1. Please clarify how Resource can be automatically assigned in the Demand sheet. Once resource is entered, we can possibly lookup project and skill assuming there is one to one mapping.
2. Please email your standard demand entries sheet to support@indzara.com. I can review and get back to you.
Making demand entry less time consuming is on my list of things to do. I was planning to do that as a separate template that works well with this one, for those customers who need.
Additionally the calendar dashboard is not reflecting the correct hours. It is showing a variance of 9 hours. Also the Vacation overtime tab i updated first time and it reflected in the calendar dashboard then I removed the overtime entry to check and it is not reflecting back the hours even after refresh all.
Hello, i faced same error also. It is not counting friday values. It should be 45 hours for me as 9 hours in every weekday. When i start to add new rows to capacity tab, it reverts back to 36. I have already contacted support mail address for this issue. It is a very useful template but i cant get over this problem.
Thanks for confirming that this does not happen for you in PC/Windows and it happens only in Mac. Thanks for also sending the video recording. I will review and get back to you.
You have to share your order number as well.
I am really looking to buy this template. I have about 250 resources and about 100 of them have more than 2 skills. Can this be accommodated in the template.
This template can handle this scenario. Please contact once you have purchased the file and we will share the steps to increase the capacity.
Is it possible to add more than one skill (potentially 3 or 4) to any one resource?
Settings tab; the weekend selection is set to SAT & SUN.
Capacity tab; it is set 8 hours Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri and is set to 0 hours for Sun, Sat for one resource.
Dashboard tab; Hours capacity shows 48 hours.
It should be 40 hours.
When I modify in the Setting tab the weekend selection to SUN & MON, the Hours capacity shows 40 hours.
I recently purchased the capacity planner but will likely need 300-400 "resources" to be allocated, how can I revise the form to account for this?
Also – How can I enter Demand/Tasks for a week instead of individual day?
It supports by default 100 resources. We have an additional file that supports 200 resources and 500 entries of Resource-Skill-Project.
I have replied to your email as well.


text:
HomeCultureMashinky receives new update with new features and 7 new trees
Mashinky receives new update with new features and 7 new trees
15/06/2019 DRSC Pro Culture, Culture-English, DRSC Pro
Mashinky
A new update to Mashinky has brought some fixes, as well as new trees for the environment.
Mashinky, a strategy transport game currently available in Early Access on Steam, has just received a new update, bringing some requested changes by the community, bug fixes, as well as new vegetation items. One of these requested changes by the community is UI scaling, which is extremely important for players using 4K displays, as without the proper settings, the UI will be too small to use and read. The developer, Jan Zelený, comments that this change forced him to re-do all the icons and UI graphics in general, "doing kind of HD-Remaster to the game", which makes sense, as in 4K, these icons and UI graphics will look pixelated.
Next, Mashinky now allows players to start in any Era wished, the only requirement being having unlocked it previously through gameplay. This is good for those who've already managed to unlock all the current Eras and would like to start at a specific age, without having to replay the beginning of the game.
Last, and most importantly, the developer has added 7 new trees, and removed one, the Acacia, which is terrible news, but oh well. Now, let's have a look at these new trees. Some might think this is a joke, and it is indeed a joke, between us and the developer. For the trees, we are not sure which ones were added in this update, so we've screenshotted all the trees that can be manually added, with their look in both Autumn and Spring:
On these two screenshots, it is possible to see all the vegetation that can be placed on the map:
Finally, and because it is hard to deny it is weird to just post images of trees, we've decided to share some screenshots from various buildings that can be unlocked at a later stage in the game, such as the coal power plant, oil pumps or refineries:
The full patch notes are available here, while the game can be purchased on Steam for 22.99€. As usual, it is important we mention DRSC Publishers, the owner of DRSC Media, are in charge of the French translation of the game via DRSC Translators.
More on this subject:
Mashinky's 5th Era will be out on May 9th, adding new locomotives, industries, quests and many more (6/05/2019)
Mashinky's 4th Era will be out on October 6th (25/09/2019)
Mashinky receives new update: map editor added (16/05/2018)
Broadcom shares fall by 6%, following cut in expected earnings, due to Huawei ban
Sabaton releases new single, "The Red Baron"
Huawei Nova 3i/P Smart+ receives update: November 2019 security patch
Huawei's Nova 3i, sold in Europe as the P Smart+ (2018), has just received November's security patch. […]
Huawei HiSuite gets new update with multiple fixes and improvements
Huawei's PC tool, HiSuite, has just received a new update with multiple fixes and improvements. […]
Huawei Mate Xs receives update: April 2021 security patch
Huawei's Mate Xs has just received April's 2021 security patch. […]


text:
Home » Panera expands leadership team
Panera expands leadership team
Karen Kelley (left), new senior vice-president and chief restaurant operations officer, and Anita Vanderveer, new chief people officer for Panera Bread
Source: Sweetgreen, Sonic Corp.
By Rebekah Schouten
ST. LOUIS — Panera Bread, a subsidiary of JAB Holding Co., is adding two industry veterans to its senior management team. Karen Kelley has joined the company as senior vice-president and chief restaurant operations officer, and Anita Vanderveer has been named chief people officer.
Ms. Kelley was most recently president of Tatte Bakery & Café and before that was president and chief operating officer for Sweetgreen. Prior to joining Sweetgreen, Ms. Kelley was president and c.o.o. of Drybar, senior vice-president of domestic and international operations at Pinkberry Ventures, Inc. and senior vice-president of operations at Jamba Juice. Earlier in her career, she was vice-president of operations at Boston Market and spent 12 years at Taco Bell.
Ms. Vanderveer joins Panera from Sonic Corp., where she was the senior vice-president of people for the company's national headquarters since April 2011. Ms. Vanderveer began her career with Yum! Brands, Inc. as national director of brand training and franchise, a role she held for 25 years.
"I am thrilled to welcome Karen and Anita to team Panera," said Blaine E. Hurst, president and chief operating officer of Panera. "Their experience and leadership in the restaurant industry is truly unparalleled. I'm looking forward to working alongside them to strengthen and grow both the guest experience and the associate experience."
Food Service People Panera Bread
Pinnacle Foods expands leadership team
Sara Lee Frozen Bakery expands leadership team
Specialty snack maker expands leadership team


Crime At Christmas: A Seasonal Box Of Murderous Delights. Crime At Christmas: A Seasonal Box Of Murderous Delights.
Crime At Christmas: A Seasonal Box Of Murderous Delights.
Title: Crime At Christmas: A Seasonal Box Of Murderous Delights.
Publisher: Equation: Wellingborough, Northants.: 1988.
Grading: Just a little browning along page edges, else a fine copy in a fine dustjacket (as new).


Matias Vecino derby performance has not gone unnoticed, according to Tuttosport.
Tottenham aim to reinforce the midfield ahead of next season. The Uruguayan midfielder is being targeted by Spurs, who in summer will have to face the monstrous offers for the Danish midfielder Eriksen.
The London club also likes Amadou Diawara of Napoli, but at the moment the first choice is the former Fiorentina player, who scored the winner when the two sides met in this season's Champions League at San Siro.


My paper with Derek Dreyer, Internalizing Relational Parametricity in the Extensional Calculus of Constructions, has been accepted to CSL 2013!
I've never been to Torino before, nor published at CSL. I especially like the fact that the CSL proceedings are Creative Commons-licensed.
All three of the papers my coauthors and I submitted this year were accepted!
I'll add links, once we've revised the papers to take into account the comments and suggestions the reviewers made.


Some days ago I had another spike of desire to organize things. Which is typically fruitless attempt to use some todo (fails because of rigid rules) or mind map (fails because of mess) solution. todo.txt is staple name for a reason – plain text file, organized by you and to your taste, is about only thing that doesn't drive you crazy. Or at least not too fast.
But I just might have found something better for myself, because WorkFlowy web app manages to deliver all of plain text experience and more, without typical blunders.
It is a little hard to come up with precise description for WorkFlowy. It brands itself as "organize your brain" tool, but seems to be mostly referred to as "todo list" type. Truth is – it's neither mindmap or specialized todo list. I'd define it as list editor.
The interface is single-screen and sheet of paper lookalike, while content itself is organized into giant nested list. You can focus on specific list branches (and quickly jump out via breadcrumb navigation) and fold/unfold them. You start with empty list, so it is completely up to you how to build and shape it. Any list item is effectively list root itself and you can add notes if you need it to keep additional text.
words starting with # (tags) and @ (people) are turned into quick search links.
The user interface experience is not just polished. It is probably one of the most convenient and snappy web apps I had ever tried. Even with minimalistic approach there are quite a few interface concepts, yet they become natural in seconds.
Speed is strong focus, both for WorkFlowy itself and how you use it. There is extensive set of hotkeys and you can enable in setting optional on-screen cheat sheet for them.
Any section of list can be shared for viewing or editing. You just get unique URL to send people and they can see or contribute to that specific part of list. They don't need to register with WorkFlowy for either and changes they make are synced to you very fast.
I encountered quite a few times annoying bug with last character in lines disappearing. Can't reproduce it reliably and according to email reply from developers Opera is not officially supported (but works quite fine in practice).
There is mobile version and I tried it for the sake of complete review. It kinda works, but isn't as smooth as desktop web browser experience. My phone is probably closer to low-end of current Android standards, so your mileage may vary.
At start I had constant "needs more features" thoughts, but really mindlessly stuffing it with features is more likely to spoil experience, than improve it.
One aspect I am kinda concerned about is backup. I started with small list just-to-try and in couple of days WorkFlowy sucked inside all of my work and most of my life. It is very easy to get plain text copy of your list with export feature, but that is manual operation and I strongly believe that automation is essential for proper backup. Something like "email me my list every day/week" would be great to have.
I don't think WorkFlowy is quite whole-brain organizing thing, but it is exceptionally good way to organize things, that make sense as a list. It quickly becomes essential tool and being still in underknown/development phase… I really look forward to its future.
There are number of reasons why I can't seem to grasp who would ever use such unintuitive application such as Workflowy.
I have made a list of things that can be added in order to make it useful, because at this point I see no reason for it.
I use it and find it perfectly intuitive. There is nothing wrong with disliking some app, but don't turn it into sweeping generalization.
Good review of a great app, thanks!
You are welcome. :) It's a great find and easily becomes default thing for most notes and tasks.
@Rarst – do you think a standard will emerge for todo.txt markup?
I notice workflowy has an export format and there is a similar one from Gina Trapani's Android app – todo.txt.
We are building a todo.txt markup plugin for our team meeting actions app http://www.pailz.com but I'm not entirely sure which markup format will be become the standard and thus best to support. Or both? Any thoughts?
Strictly speaking WorkFlowy is not marked up plain text. It exposes markup on export and has it internally, but for user it is rich text (that is just damn close to the plain text).
Markdown works great for plain text markup… But markdown is really wrapper on top of HTML and describes how text looks, rather than adds structure and meaning for it.
I don't think there is such thing as generic todo.txt markup right now and I doubt it's large enough segment of text editing to have own widely accepted format.
Ok cool, thanks for the response!


text:
Sophomore Tim Bensch serves during practice at Quincy High School.
Miles King/Post-Register
Junior Samahara Aguilar returns a serve during practice on March 5.
Jacks tennis cultivates competitive nature
By Miles King
Miles King
For the Jacks boys and girls tennis teams, if you want a varsity position, you have to earn it.
At least that's how boys Head Coach Matt See runs the first week of practice. Along with practicing fundamentals, See and girls Head Coach Mike Mills run a singles double-elimination tournament for the boys and girls throughout the week.
"This is just kind of the way that makes it fair," See said. "You want to be one of the top kids, well, win this."
The winners of the tournaments aren't locked into singles play for the season, See said. If they prefer, they may choose to play doubles with a partner. For varsity matches, each team only carries two singles players and six doubles players, for a total of five matches. After the singles tournament wraps up, See starts a doubles tournament as well.
About 21 boys turned out for the team this season and 30 girls, both are similar turnouts as last season, Mills and See said.
Senior Efrem Roseburg is returning as a state qualifier from last season, while the girls are starting somewhat fresh. A few of the girls varsity players are back, but the team lost a large group of seniors from last year, Mills said
For both teams, the goal is to compete and win the league title, and of course, beat Ephrata. See expects that a few boys will qualify for the regional or state tournament this season.
"State's kind of become a normal for us… a few kids are going. I hope we can continue that," See said.
Regardless of where the team ends up or who qualifies, the coaches are focused on attitude, focus and effort, more than anything, See said.
"In a tennis match, you can control those things, it doesn't matter who you're playing," he said. "I want them to win, but if they lose, the main thing is they come off and they know they had a good attitude, they had good sportsmanship, they had good effort and they had good focus."
Follow Miles King


Over the past several days Meteorologists are reporting an increased likelihood of tornadoes developing in the Mississippi River Delta area and Lower Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. These are (perhaps coincidentally) the "Red" states that turned out heavily to elect Donald Trump the 45th US President in 2016. The states include areas of Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama.
A significant severe weather outbreak is forecast to intensify Monday night with potential for very large tornadoes EF-2 or greater possible.
A significant severe weather outbreak is forecast to intensify Monday night with potential for very large tornadoes EF-2 or greater possible. Remember to have more than one way to get warnings, and have a plan for how to manage taking action during nocturnal storms.
An enhanced risk continues for Monday. Damaging winds, tornadoes, and large hail are possible for portions of the Lower Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. Please check @NWSSPC or http://spc.noaa.gov for forecast updates.
On the evening of November 5 tornadoes were cited in Louisiana.
The potential extreme weather is reminiscent of the "Super Tuesday" tornado outbreak on Feb. 5 and 6, 2008, a swathe of destruction that left 57 people dead on a day when voters in 24 states were heading to the polls in caucuses and primaries for the presidential election.
"This has really been the third or fourth day in a row that we are seeing conditions set up for an extreme weather event in the Deep South on Tuesday," NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said on Friday (emphases added).


The Blot is seriously bummed about missing out on the inaugural Five Points Festival this weekend and the exclusive Gold Edition Soul Collector 8" vinyl figure Huck Gee is releasing there. Thankfully, Mighty Jaxx is looking out for all of us Huck Gee fans unable to attend FPF by dropping the standard colorway of the epic Soul Collector 8" Gold Life vinyl figure today online!
As Mighty Jaxx explained, "Some might think that bigger isn't always better but in this case, it absolutely is! Huck Gee's Soul Collector from our popular Gold Life series returns bigger, taller and definitely much better. Even his deadly chopper has been upsized so watch out for him as he comes for every person when darkness falls!" Collectors can purchase one now at the Mighty Jaxx online store for $100.


I'm just a girl with a camera and some ideas, trying to realize my wildest dreams. I try to capture the beauty I see in everyday things in an effort to remind others that it does in fact exist. su·per·no·va/ˈso͞opərˌnōvə/ Noun: A star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass. ie. a collective of things so bright and beautiful, and attempt to save them before they burn out.


Fall is a great time for visiting the Midwest. With the humid summer over, a gentle cool breeze whips through the air. My day out exploring the beer scene of Grand Rapids started with clouded skies, but luckily these cleared by lunchtime, and the bright sun took the chill off – just as well given that I didn't have a warm jacket.
Grand Rapids is the second largest city in the state of Michigan. The metro area seemed sprawling but the downtown area felt quite small and walkable. So what made Grand Rapids earn the title Beer City USA?
Arguably, it all started with Founders in 1997. In the last couple of decades, Founders has become one of the best known breweries in the country, and their tasty beers have reached further shores; Byron burger restaurants in the UK have been serving up bottles of the crowd-pleasing All Day IPA for several years now. The Founders taproom was majestic. A lengthy beer list, speedy service and a killer food menu, all with a great view of the shiny brewery through floor to ceiling windows.
Recent years have seen aggressive expansion of the brewing scene in GR. The city was first recognised as 'Beer City' when it had fewer than 20 breweries, and as of now the city's Ale Trail boasts 80+ breweries. So, it's easy to see how 40,000 beer tourists flock here every year.
We finished the afternoon in town at Grand Rapids Beer Company. Sat at the counter, I enjoyed a lovely Hefeweizen. Then it was time to head home to sample some rich bottled stouts. My favorite was The Poet from New Holland Brewing; beautiful creamy mouthfeel and rich roasted flavours. Richer still was the slightly higher ABV Dragon's Milk, which is aged in oak barrels for 120 days.
Any lover of great beer of all varieties would enjoy a weekend in Grand Rapids. And, although it's not quite a GR brew, I highly recommend getting hold of the Two Hearted Ale, brewed at Bells in Kalamazoo, MI. It's one of the cleanest and most well-rounded IPAs I've ever had.


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Tag Archives: Human Rights
Cameroon's Hidden Crisis
Reuben Moses
For two years in a row, Cameroon, beset by a civil armed conflict in the West and Boko Haram insurgency in the North, has topped the Norwegian Refugee Council's (NRC) list of the "most neglected displacement crises in the world." The NRC based its determination on three factors: the lack of political will among the fighting parties and international actors to find peaceful solutions to conflict, lack of media attention, and lack of international monetary aid. Indeed, in the shadows of more prominent international events, Cameroon has largely escaped attention. The sporadic news story decrying of one of Cameroon's more horrific moments occasionally surfaces—for instance, the world took notice when government forces entered Ngarbuh in the Northwest Region and massacred 22 civilians in mid-February. Largely, however, the international response to Cameroon's repeated human rights abuses and superficial solutions has leaned on statements or calls for action backed by few practical efforts. International actors, particularly those with significant economic or cultural ties to Cameroon, must substantively involve themselves in Cameroon's most pressing crises and exert their influence to stop the bleeding.
Garima Tiwari
Human Rights, International Law, United Nations
COVID-19: A primer on Human Rights and International Health Regulations
Dr. Garima Tiwari
Picture Credits: Ontario Human Rights Commission
The outbreak of coronavirus ( COVID-19) first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China has created a worldwide scare and has highlighted the global vulnerability to all nations alike. It has been declared as a " public health emergency of international concern". With the propensity of the disease to spread rapidly, ad-hoc emergency measures are being taken and laws and policies are being implemented relating to health measures, isolations, and travel bans. This pandemic clearly raises concerns regarding the viability of the international legal instruments in place to cater to such situations. Human rights concerns like the right to health, liberty, privacy, and freedom of movement all have come to test. Continue reading →
Genocide, Human Rights
Saving the Rohingya
Author: Regina Paulose
Burma has been involved in the lengthy process of democratization since 2011. Some argue that Burmese reforms are not genuine while others argue that the process is genuine but democratization remains complicated by a myriad of political and cultural issues.[1] Although Burmese President Thein Sein is a remnant of the former dictatorship, there has been progress in freedom of expression and freedom of the press.[2] Yet, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar recently stated that there were "worrying signs of backtracking" and that the patterns witnessed "impose a climate of fear intimidation to the society at large."[3] Continue reading →
Human Rights, International Law
LGBT Rights: Colonisation and International Human Rights Standards
Written by Garima Tiwari
While 18 countries, home to more than 10 percent of the world's population, now recognize same-sex marriage, 77 countries still outlaw sodomy.[i] In seven of these countries, same-sex acts are punishable by death! Just recently, the Supreme Court of India reinstated a sodomy law recriminalizing same-sex relationships in a country home to 1.2 billion people. [ii] Max Fisher says that, "That's more than the combined populations of the next 20 most-populous countries where same-sex acts are criminalized. If we assume that rates of homosexuality are consistent worldwide, then the number of gay men and women who can be jailed for their sexuality may well have just doubled."[iii] Continue reading →
Human Rights, Sentencing
Undertrials :Sentenced without Conviction
"The laxity with which we throw citizens into prison reflects our lack of appreciation for the tribulation of incarceration; the callousness with which we leave them there reflects our lack of deference for humanity."[i] -Supreme Court of India (2013)
The Supreme Court in the above case granted bail to Thana Singh who had been languishing in an Indian prison for more than 12 years, awaiting the commencement of his trial for an offence under the narcotics law.
An undertrial, or a pre-trial detainee denotes an un-convicted prisoner i.e. one who has been detained in prison during the period of investigation, inquiry or trial for the offence she/he is accused to have committed. He is an accused who is assumed to be innocent till proven guilty. He is in custody only to ensure that he appears at court as required or is available to answer questions during investigations. There is no other reason for him to be in prison Undertrials constitute 64.7% of the total prison population in India. There are over 2.41 lakh undertrial prisoners in India.[ii] An extensive investigation across the country has exposed a dark sub-culture thriving in jails across the country, not very different from the murky underworld of organised gangs and criminals. In the absence of proper legal aid, the poor and the vulnerable, especially women and youngsters, unwittingly become part of the sordid system.[iii]
Many prisoners are constrained to languish in prisons because the police do not finish investigation and file the charge-sheet in time. This is a very serious matter because such people remain in prisons without any inkling of a police case against them. Many prisoners remain in prisons for long period because of the delay in trial.
The grant of bail[iv] is one important remedy available to reduce pre-trial detention. [v] Indian courts have reiterated that the grant of bail should be the rule rather than the exception. Because they are considered to be less likely to abscond or interfere with the investigation, bail provisions in non-bailable offences are more liberal if the accused is under sixteen, a woman, sick or infirm.[vi] Despite sounding fair, the bail provisions and their implementation are highly discriminatory. But the prisoners are unable to serve surety and as has been mentioned in the Legal Aid Committee appointed by the Government of Gujarat noted[vii]:
The bail system causes discrimination against the poor since the poor would not be able to furnish bail on account of their poverty while the wealthier persons otherwise similarly situated would be able to secure their freedom because they can afford to furnish bail.
As the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) noted, pretrial detention can therefore negatively impact the presumption of innocence,[viii] and should be used only as a "last resort."[ix] States should only detain individuals pending trial where it is absolutely necessary. International and regional human rights instruments are explicit as to the limited circumstances under which pretrial detention is permissible. The UNHRC has stated that,
"bail should be granted, except in situations where the likelihood exists that the accused would abscond or destroy evidence, influence witnesses or flee from the jurisdiction of the state party."[x]
In criminal proceedings, following the first appearance before a judicial officer, European Court of Human Rights Article 5(1) only permits detention when it is reasonably necessary to prevent further offenses or flight.[xi] Thus, international standards strongly encourage the imposition of noncustodial measures during investigation and trial and at sentencing, and hold that deprivation of liberty should be imposed only when non-custodial measures would not suffice.
Most of those in the Indian prisons are poor, indigent, illiterate or semi-literate. They do not know that they are entitled to free legal aid or that they can be released on personal bond. They therefore, continue to be in jail for long periods. Lack of adequate legal aid and a general lack of awareness about rights of arrestees are principal reasons for the continued detention of individuals accused of bailable offences, where bail is a matter of right and where an order of detention is supposed to be an aberration. [xii]
The overuse of detention is often a symptom of a dysfunctional criminal justice system that may lack protection for the rights of criminal defendants and the institutional capacity to impose, implement, and monitor non-custodial measures and sanctions. It is also often a cause of human rights violations and societal problems associated with an overtaxed detention system. One of the fundamental elements of human rights law which importance grew over time is the concept of "Fair Trial". Taking this into account, the question rises how far the application of the fair trial rights stretches into the pre trial stage of investigation. Answering this question is far from easy and as Safferling points out correctly, it is by no means obvious what the fair trial concept really encompasses and what the singular rights within this concept really stand for.[xiii]
In India, apart from the Prisoners Act, 1984, there is a Model Prison Manual in place and the various judicial pronouncements have made it clear that prisoners are entitled to human rights, the most important of which is presumption of innocence till proven guilty.
In 1982-83, the All India Jail Reforms Committee under Justice A.N. Mulla came out with suggestions for prison reform. Yet to be implemented, the committee had recommended that undertrial prisoners should be lodged in separate facilities, away from convicted prisoners. It had also called for quick trials, simplification of bail procedures and suggested that bail should be granted to the accused as a matter of right unless the prosecution could prove that releasing the accused on bail endangered the security of society.[xiv] Another suggestions is that it should be made mandatory for the jail authorities to educate them about their rights and provide them legal aid. The plight of the wrongfully confined prisoners is compounded when jail authorities refuse to release information about them in public domain. One very relevant solution is Section 436A of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code states that the maximum period for which an undertrial prisoner can be detained without being released is not more than 50% of the maximum imprisonment specified for the charge he/she is booked for, except if the offence attracts death as the maximum punishment. According to the law, such prisoners can be released on personal bond if they cannot furnish bail. This provision is hardly used by authorities. Public-spirited citizens and lawyers could also take up these matters. The prison authorities should display the updated information every month on their website and also display hard copies of the information in every prison in a place where prisoners have access.
As Justice P.N Bhagwati, "It is high time that the public conscience is awakened and the government as well as the judiciary begins to realise that in the dark cells of our prisons there are a large number of men and women who are waiting patiently, impatiently perhaps, but in vain, for justice – a commodity which is tragically beyond their reach and grasp."[xv]
[i] Thana Singh v. Narcotics Bureau of Narcotics (23 January, 201)
[ii] National Crime Recorts Bureau Data 2012 (India)
[iii]http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/right-to-justice-bill-jails-turn-into-nightmares-for-undertrials/1/142622.html
[iv] The Indian Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 does not define the term "bail" although offences are classified as bailable and non-bailable.
[v] The main bail and bonds provisions are provided in Chapter XXXIII of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code.
[vi] Handbook of Human Rights and Criminal Justice in India, by South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2007, p. 62.
[vii]Report of the Legal Aid Committee appointed by the Government of Gujarat, 1971 (headed by Justice P.N. Bhagwati) (p. 185)
[viii] Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations: Argentina, CCPR/CO/70/ARG (2000), para. 10.
[ix] United Nations Minimum Rules of Non-Custodial Measures, Principle 6.1
[x] Hill v. Spain, Communication No. 526/1993, para. 12.3.
[xi] Council of Europe, Recommendation (2006)13 on the Use of Remand in Custody, the Conditions in which it takes place and the Provision of Safeguards against Abuse, para. 6.
[xii] Undertrials in Jail, The Idea Of Justice, 2013, http://newindianexpress.com/opinion/Undertrials-in-jails-The-idea-of-injustice/2013/04/28/article1564581.ece
[xiii] SAFFERLING,CHRISTOPH J. Towards an International Criminal Procedure, Oxford 2001 p.26
[xiv] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/right-to-justice-bill-jails-turn-into-nightmares-for-undertrials/1/142622.html
[xv] Hussainara Khatoon and Others v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar AIR 1979 SC 1360.