Jane Willis has kept her card-counting a secret for years. But with Kate Bosworth portraying her in the new film '21,' she's ready to talk about her blackjack-playing exploits of the past.
Jane Willis was always a standout student. Her reputation as a math whiz was well known at Phillips Exeter and Harvard, where she graduated in 1991 with a lofty recommendation from Lawrence Summers.
But no one suspected how Willis was using those skills, and she wasn't about to tell. Even as a partner at a high-powered Boston law firm, she has kept her curious back story to herself.
"Sounds weird to say, but it just never came up," Willis says, sipping a draft beer in a hotel bar not far from her office at One International Place.
She might still be mum if not for "21," the new movie about MIT's celebrated blackjack team. Willis, it turns out, was a member of the card-counting cadre that beat the casinos and, later, inspired the best-selling book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions." In the film, which opens Friday, Kate Bosworth's character is based on Willis.
"Knowing Jane, I'm surprised she's talking," says Ben Mezrich, the author of "Bringing Down the House." "But, hey, Hollywood's making a big movie and you're played by Kate Bosworth. Why not?"
Hollywood hoopla aside, Willis consented to an interview, reluctantly, because her blackjack days are behind her. It's been a decade since she was a practicing card shark, and she's proud of her tenure on the team.
"We didn't do anything dishonest or fraudulent. We were good kids," she says. "It's totally legal to use your brain."
Willis, 38, who grew up in Mount Vernon, Ill., had never played blackjack when she joined the team in the early 1990s. Then a student at Harvard Law School, Willis and her boyfriend were both "math geeks." They were also friends with Jeff Ma, an MIT student who was one of the ringleaders of the school's clandestine blackjack club.
"Jeff would occasionally have an expensive bottle of wine or champagne, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Then he told us about Vegas," Willis says. "I think it dawned on him that we could play blackjack and also give the team, which was mostly Asian and male, a little diversity."
Like the book, the movie, which stars Jim Sturgess and Kevin Spacey, is a blend of fact and fiction. Willis, for example, attended Harvard, not MIT, and her role on the team was neither as prominent nor as profitable as the movie might suggest. But in one important respect, she says, "21" tells the truth: Beating the casino is a blast.
"Counting cards is a grind," Willis says. "But it's incredibly exhilarating to do. Walking into a Las Vegas casino and knowing that you're going to play a pit for 12 hours and you have an edge - that's a very exciting feeling."
Willis and her boyfriend, who later married and then divorced, began practicing with the team after-hours in a classroom at MIT. They quickly became proficient at counting cards, the act of tracking the ratio of high cards - 10s, face cards, and aces - to low cards in the deck. In blackjack, a deck with more high cards than low cards remaining improves a player's probability of winning.
In addition to being a skilled player, Willis had the advantage of being a woman. Security at Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand, and other Las Vegas casinos was always on the lookout for card counters but rarely suspected female patrons.
"I could almost count out loud and not get caught," she says.
Each member of the team had a role. Willis was the "spotter," which meant she counted cards until the deck was "hot," or loaded with high cards. She would then signal to Ma - the "guerrilla big player" - who'd sit down and start wagering.
"Jane was as smart, if not smarter, than anyone on the team," says Ma, who estimates he won more than $1 million playing blackjack. "But she only traveled [with the team] about once a month, and she was always very discreet."
Willis won't say how much money she made, but it wasn't a fortune. Spotters were paid a percentage of the team's take, and might return from a profitable weekend in Vegas with $3,000. Willis says she never missed the opening of a new casino, such as the Monte Carlo, or a marquee boxing match.
"That's when there was a lot action going around," says Willis, who saw countless celebrities at the blackjack tables. "After the Tyson-Holyfield fight, shots were fired and there was pandemonium in the casino. Security cameras caught [NBA star] Dominique Wilkins picking up chips off the floor."
Aside from a few close friends, Willis told almost no one about her involvement with the team. She worried that her parents might misunderstand and that her prospects to make partner at Ropes & Gray, where she specializes in antitrust law, might be damaged.
"When she told me years later, I was, like, 'Huh, that's fascinating,' " says Denise Casper, chief legal counsel for Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone and a friend of Willis's for 15 years. "Looking back, I had no idea."
It wasn't until 2004 - six years after she played her last hand - that Willis's parents found out.
Sandra and Alan Willis recall the moment vividly. They were having dinner with their daughter and a few friends at Turner Fisheries when one of Willis's former law school classmates made a crack about her card-counting past.
"I looked at Jane and said, 'Well, we'll have to hear more about that,' " says Sandra Willis, who admits she was stunned. "This is one aspect of Jane. It just happens to be an amusing and adventurous aspect."
It's made even more adventurous in the movie. For dramatic purposes, Hollywood has spiced up her story with a frantic chase, phony IDs and disguises, and a brief love scene between Ma and Willis, who were never a couple.
Mathematically at least, the movie is accurate. While visiting the set last year, Willis listened in as Sturgess and another actor read a pivotal classroom scene involving the "Monty Hall problem," a well-known probability puzzle named for the host of "Let's Make a Deal."
"[Sturgess] didn't understand it because the answer was wrong in the script," Willis says. "I got nervous because I knew if math people saw it, the movie would have no credibility. I wrote down what the answer should be, and Kate [Bosworth] said, 'Change it. Jane knows what she's doing.' "
Willis no longer counts cards, but she still loves Las Vegas and visits at least once a year. In 2005 she got remarried in a Catholic church that's located behind the Tropicana and across from Mandalay Bay. Her favorite performer is Danny Gans, and she's become a connoisseur of Sin City swimming pools.
"The Mirage has a lovely rainforest with lots of vegetation, the Mandalay pool has real sand, and the MGM has a lazy river," she says. "Las Vegas is a liberating place. Everybody's dollar is the same there. Yes, the casinos are taking your money, but they're doing it indiscriminately."
A few weeks ago, Willis and her husband, Rich Davey, attended the star-studded Las Vegas premiere of "21." They enjoyed the movie and afterward strolled through the casinos, occasionally pausing to play a little blackjack.
"I'd say there was a little rust on Jane's skills," says Davey. "She was more interested in craps, but unfortunately there's no way to count dice."


American Phil Textiles Limited was initially engaged in Men's / Ladies' underwear exporting to America & Europe since 1978. Today, we are running a global business with annual sales volume of US$ 100 million.
In the future, we are going to further develop the asian market. In order to support the expanding business, manufacturing plants have been set up in Hong Kong, China and Thailand respectively with an annual production capacity of over 5 million dozens. In the 21 century, the Group has also set up additional facility in North China – Qingdao for further business diversification.
Our aim is to provide high quality services and value-added products to our customers. In 1998, the flagship of our Group, American Phil Textiles Limited, was awarded the ISO 9002 Certificate. In 2003, we successfully upgraded to ISO 9001 Certificate. Furthermore, our production plant in Thailand has acquired the WRAP Certificate since 2006.


A diverse restaurant just like the city we serve philadelphia. Our offering of cuisine is very eclectic from Modern American, Caribbean, Soups and Salads to Wings and Spring rolls.We pride our self on the excellence and outstanding taste of our food with our superb quality of service. Starfusion brings the best food in a comfortable environment that's modern hip and fly. Sit back relax and enjoy some good food with live music.Stop by for an experience in fine dining you will never forget.
In life their are many pleasures and our food fits that standard. We inspire and fill with our food at the same time. Come and journey with us through the pleasure of your company and our food.Check our menu out and see what awaits your taste buds. You will not regret the taste of our recipes both modern and handed down through generation to generation.
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text:
Brekke Elementary School (K-5)
Cesar Chavez School (K-8)
Curren School (K-8)
Driffill Elementary School (K-8)
Elm Elementary School (K-5)
R.J. Frank Academy of Marine Science and Engineering (6-8)
Fremont Academy of Environmental Science & Innovative Design (6-8)
Harrington Elementary School (K-5)
Dr. Manuel M. Lopez Academy of Arts & Sciences
Kamala Elementary School (K-8)
Lemonwood Elementary School (K-8)
Marina West Elementary School (K-5)
Marshall School (K-8)
McAuliffe Elementary School (K-5)
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Ramona Elementary School (K-5)
Ritchen Elementary School (K-5)
Rose Avenue Elementary School (K-5)
San Miguel Preschool
Sierra Linda Elementary School (K-5)
Soria Elementary School (K-8)
Lemonwood Elementary School
Academy of Communications Through Arts and Technology
Anonymous Report
MobyMax
RazKids
Library Book Check out
Lemonwood School Counseling
Parent/Student Resources Recursos para Padres/Estudiantes
Parenting tips during this time of being at home/Consejos para padres durante estar en casa
Safety Practices during COVID19/Prácticas de seguridad durante COVID19
Club Live
2001 San Mateo Place, Oxnard, CA 93033
© Oxnard School District, 2017

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text:
Amazon-backed Capital Float betting big on co-lending partnerships
Amazon-backed Capital Float, a digital lender, is betting big on co-lending partnerships to capture the financial services opportunities in the country. The firm also seeks to reduce its dependency on external funds.
This strategy is helping the firm — founded by Gaurav Hinduja, scion of Gokaldas Exports, and Sashank Rishyasring, alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business —penetrate deeper into tier-II and -III cities.
After enlisting Japanese firm Credit Saison to deliver working capital financing to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across India, the Bengaluru-based firm has now forged a similar partnership with Poonawalla Finance, part of the $9.8-billion Cyrus Poonawalla Group.
The two entities will co-lend on Capital Float's co-origination model to deliver last-mile credit to MSMEs.
According to Rishyasringa, the MSMEs will be able to apply for loans online and receive in-principle approval within four hours — the quickest turnaround time in the industry. Poonawala Finance, which started in April 2019, claims to have crossed Rs 1,500 crore in AUM (assets under management), making it one of most well-capitalised NBFCs.
Both firms are targeting disbursement of over Rs 500 crore over the next 12 months, with a monthly run rate of Rs 50 crore.
"For us, (forming) partnerships is a clear strategy. We believe by partnering with large NBFCs such as Poonawalla and other banks, we can capture the (fintech) opportunity faster and scale up," said Rishyasringa of Capital Float.
"Poonawalla Finance believes in relationship-driven partnerships being integral to jointly achieving mutual objectives and growth in a tightly contested market. Through our collaboration with Capital Float, we will expand our reach beyond metropolitan cities to tier 2-3 towns of India," added Abhay Bhutada, CEO and MD of Poonawalla Finance.
Though limited to top metros and tier-I cities initially, digital lending has fast gained traction in smaller cities and towns, backed by robust digital infrastructure and internet connectivity in such places, over the last couple of years.
According to Capital Float, close to 50 per cent of its loan applications comes from smaller cities. The firm has recently crossed $1 billion in lifetime disbursals.
The overall transaction value in the Indian fintech market is estimated to jump from approximately $66.1 billion in 2019 to $137.8 billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 20.18 per cent, says a report by PwC and Assocham.
Emerging markets are leading the way, with both China and India at an 87 per cent fintech adoption rate in 2019, significantly higher than the global average of 64 per cent, according to EY's Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019.
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The entire playing career for Harold Ellis is displayed below. Clicking on a tab heading will display the specified set of statistics. All columns may be sorted by clicking the column name. Clicking on an indivdiual season will display the team's roster for that season.


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text:
Тавера има више значења:

 Тавера (Турикато), насеље у савезној држави Мичоакан у Мексику
 Тавера, Уерта лос Магејес (Уруапан), насеље у савезној држави Мичоакан у Мексику

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Azure Campbell, owner of Essential Beginnings and founder of the High Vibe Tribe, is a mother of 4, wife and Birth Doula. She has been working with Young Living Essential Oils personally and professionally for 5 years. Azure has a passion for helping mothers make small intentional changes managing their home and family giving them more time, less stress and stronger family relationships. Being confident in your role as a mom is key to your family thriving instead of just surviving.


text:
Modi seeks 'forgiveness' from India's poor over coronavirus lockdown
Mumbai (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the nation's poor for forgiveness on Sunday, as the economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning ahead of the decision.
Modi announced a three week-lockdown on Tuesday to curb the spread of coronavirus. But the decision has stung millions of India's poor, leaving many hungry and forcing jobless migrant labourers to flee cities and walk hundreds of kilometres to their native villages.
"I would firstly like to seek forgiveness from all my countrymen," Modi said in a nationwide radio address.
The poor "would definitely be thinking what kind of prime minister is this, who has put us into so much trouble," he said, urging people to understand there was no other option.
"Steps taken so far… will give India victory over corona," he added.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to 979 on Sunday, with 25 deaths.
The government announced a $22.6 billion economic stimulus plan on Thursday to provide direct cash transfers and food handouts to India's poor.
In an opinion piece published on Sunday, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo – two of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019 – said even more aid for the poor is needed.
"Without that, the demand crisis will snowball into an economic avalanche, and people will have no choice but to defy orders," they wrote in the Indian Express.
The lockdown is expected to exacerbate India's economic woes at a time when growth had already slumped to its lowest pace in six years.
There still appears to be broad support for strong measures to avoid a coronavirus catastrophe in India, a country of some 1.3 billion people where the public health system is poor.
But opposition leaders, analysts and some citizens are increasingly criticizing its implementation. In particular, they say the government appears to have been caught off guard by the mass movement of migrants following the announcement, which threatens to spread the disease into the hinterlands.
"The Gov't had no contingency plans in place for this exodus," tweeted opposition politician Rahul Gandhi as images of migrant labourers walking long distances to return home dominated local media.
#ModiMadeDisaster was a top trending topic in India on Sunday on social media site Twitter.
Police said four migrants were killed on Saturday when a truck ran into them in Maharashtra. Also on Saturday, a migrant collapsed and died in Uttar Pradesh, according to a police official.
"We will die of walking and starving before getting killed by corona," said migrant worker Madhav Raj, 28, as he walked by the road in Uttar Pradesh.
On Sunday, several hundred migrants in the town of Paippad, Kerala, gathered in a square demanding transport back to their hometowns.
The central government has called on states to provide marooned labourers with food and shelter, and Modi's supporters slammed state governments on Twitter for failing to properly implement the lockdown.
In India's cities, too, anger was rising.
"We have no food or drink. I am sat down thinking how to feed my family," said homemaker Amirbee Shaikh Yusuf, 50, in Mumbai's sprawling Dharavi slum.
"There is nothing good about this lockdown. People are angry, no one is caring for us."
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Sudan signs initial political and security deal with rebel group
Qatar makes formal request for F-35 jets – sources
October 7, 2020 October 8, 2020 Millichronicle
Iranian legislators scream "Death to America" in parliament


The New Guy is a person we all know. And regardless of age, gender, race or personality - spotting The New Guy and stepping onto their front porch is your duty as an existing member of any organization.
I bet you have not thought about it much, but there are many ways you can help your customers in their daily lives. If you have a customer who just got laid off from their job, tell them you will be glad to take a few of their resumes and put them in a file box and when Corporate Executives come into the store you will be sure to put a good word in for them.
Success in your career depends upon how well you manage your professional development. A prime source of this development comes from being a member of a professional association that relates to your career.
While surfing for traffic or browsing your safelist emails, you are sure to have noticed the very large number of networkers promoting similar, if not identical, programs. Empowerism and Profit Rally are everywhere, as are health related and telecom based MLM opportunities.
Wichita experts say small business has to sell itself to talent, stay educated and stay connected to stay ahead.
East Greensboro NOW, in collaboration with AJOY Consulting, LLC, host 8th AnnualGate City Minority Business Opportunity Fair April 25, 2019.
"It's a networking event with a little twist to tie in to the local nonprofits," the organizer said.
Aspiring entrepreneurs with big ideas still need business plans, startup funding and networking opportunities.


Document assessing information about Tom Pendergast, Inmate #55295, as relates to his potential parole. The document includes statements that the Pendergast family "has lived in luxury," that Pendergast has no financially dependent family members, and notes that his reputation is divided - friends are "fanatical in their devotion and enemies are equally fanatical in their prejudices." Pendergast, known for his powerful Kansas City political machine and ties to organized crime, was found guilty of income tax evasion in 1939 and sentenced to 15 months in the U.S.


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Solo efforts
14 December, 2013 00:00 IST
German coach Joachim Loew is blessed with a talented squad.-AP
The indications are that in certain rare cases, one man can indeed make a team, a salient example being Diego Maradona, without whom and his amazing solo goal against England and Belgium in Mexico City, Argentina could hardly have won the 1986 World Cup. By Brian Glanville.
"One man can't make a football team" is a very old adage but Portugal and their fans will trust that it is proved untrue: by Cristiano Ronaldo. His superlative performance against Sweden in Stockholm, brought him all three Portuguese goals and brought them their second play-off victory. Powerful, elusive, enormously fast with a ferocious right-footed shot and no small menace in the air, he over-shadowed even Sweden's giant acrobatic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who promptly and in vain announced after the Stockholm game that the ensuing World Cup simply would not be the same without him and he'd take no further interest in it.
The indications are that in certain rare cases, one man can indeed make a team, a salient example being Diego Maradona, without whom and his amazing solo goal against England and Belgium in Mexico City, Argentina could hardly have won the 1986 World Cup. Which they all but did again in Rome, four years later, when had not Maradona been virtually on one leg — but still gallantly getting them to the final — they could well have beaten Germany to retain the title.
Another Argentine, Alfredo Di Stefano, never played in the World Cup finals, but there is no denying he was the fulcrum and inspiration of the Real Madrid team which won all five of the first European Cup, a tireless dynamo who covered huge quantities of ground, but was always around the penalty box to score often spectacular goals with foot and head. I see him as the second finest footballer of all time, behind Pele.
Spain did take him, naturalised, to the 1962 World in Chile, but he wouldn't play for the equally domineering manager Helenio Herrera, though officially he was injured.
As for Ronaldo, the fact is that with all his talents, Portugal are yet to win a major tournament with him. Not even when the European finals were played in Portugal itself in 2004, when his team were lucky to scrape past on penalties against an England team whose star-turn, Wayne Rooney, was virtually kicked out of the game early on. Not in the last World Cup in South Africa, when Portugal were defeated 1-0 in the second round by their Iberian neighbours, Spain, having had their right back, Costa, sent-off.
Brazil, with home advantage, are clearly going to be very hard to beat, a team full of coruscating talents, not least the mercurial little Neymar, wonderfully elusive and able when he drifts out to the left wing to compensate in some measure for the fact that the Brazilians, who once produced the best wingers in world, have long sadly done without them, Julinho, Garrincha and Jairzinho now mere memories.
This is a Brazilian team which can also parade such attacking aces as Oscar, Ramires and Willian in the midfield and a muscular centre back in skipper Thiago Silva, who is cautiously optimistic about his team's World Cup chances and especially pleased that in last year's Confederations Cup, Brazil beat Spain. Who frankly, through the holders, don't, in the image of Barcelona, look as formidable as they were even a couple of years ago. And Messi, ever the fulcrum of Barcelona's attack, will, after all, be playing for a formidable Argentina team, always at home on South American soil. With Carlos Tevez and, above all, Sergio Aguero, in such penetrative form this season, it looks as if Messi, against his wishes, might be, denied the roving role he so formidably employs with Barca and play in the left wing.
Certainly on recent form Germany look the best of all the European teams with a plenty of excellent players; as they showed when their virtual B team strolled past England at Wembley. An England team far stronger at least on paper than the uncoordinated side which was humiliated 2-0 by Chile, four days earlier. An impressive Chilean team inspired by attacker Sanchez, superb as centre forward. Chile could well be quarter-finalists.
The Germans humiliated England without Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, the injured Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philip Lahm and Manuel Neuer in goal. The so called reserves showed an almost instinctive understanding, a calm mastery of ball and tactics, which showed the depths of the squad on which coach Joachim Loew can rely. At Wembley Sven Bender was paramount in midfield, Maximilian "Max" Kruse an elegant spearhead, Toni Kroos and Marco Reus insidious in support. The full team, days earlier, had overplayed Italy at San Siro, hit the woodwork three times and had to be content with a 1-1 draw.
There is so much talent in this German squad, with the likes of Mario Gotze and the rapid Sidney Sam available.
Italy? Much will depend on Mario Balotelli whom Marcello Lippi curiously and foolishly would not take to South Africa, while Giuseppe Rossi, once at Manchester United but now at Fiorentina, seems a valuable partner if the Azzurri continue to use two up.
Holland still have abundant strength but the memory of their inept failure in the last European championship finale remains. England? Dire against Chile with a scratch team, largely outplayed by the German but in Andres Townsend, at last they've found a right winger with the big match temperament though manager Roy Hodgson thinks he must improve his positioning and give more help to his defence. Joe Hart showed against Germany that his confidence and competence have returned in goal but the loss of John Terry, admitted by Hodgson, who, however, won't try to coax the 33-year-old out of retirement, has severely weakened central defence. If only Jack Wilshere can recover fitness and form.
Magazine Picks
Volume:45 Issue:01
Issue Date: 08 Jan 2022 12:00 IST
Issue Date: 25 Dec 2021 12:00 IST


text:
Of 457 cases, 206 from Muttrah alone: MoH
Oman will intensify all medical examinations and new procedures at the national level to combat COVID-19 outbreak in the sultanate.
Dr Saif al Abri, director general of Diseases Surveillance & Control at the Ministry of Health, has said that COVID-19 examinations will be intensified at the national level and new procedures will be launched within the next two weeks. "Oman's health institutions have the capacity to accommodate the growing number of COVID-19 cases," he said.
Dr Abri also emphasised that most of the cases are in the wilayats of Muscat, Bausher, Seeb and Muttrah. "The highest percentage of local transmission is in Muttrah. As of now, we have recorded 206 cases only in Muttrah, which includes 160 expatriates. Of the 38 cases recorded on Thursday, 31 are from Muttrah," he said.


text:
Q: Duplicate output when iterating over a set I'm having trouble understanding why I am receiving repeat output when I iterate over a set of letters and remove letters that are contained within another set.
Code
text = set(input("Please enter some text: ").lower())
vowels = {"a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "y", ' '}

for t in text:
    if t in vowels:
        new_text = (text-vowels)
        print(sorted(new_text))

example:
Please enter some text: camera
['c', 'm', 'r']
['c', 'm', 'r']

A: The print happens the same number of times as the number of non-vowels in text.
Correct approach
Make a copy of the set or create the set from text separately.
To make a copy of the set
new_set = old_set.copy() #and check the id() values for both here

To create a set from text separately
input_ = input("Please enter some text: ").lower()

text = set(input_)
vowels = {"a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "y", ' '}

#To remove the vowel one-by-one by iterating
new_text = set(input_)
for t in text:
    if t in vowels:
        new_text.discard(t) # or remove

To print the non-vowels at one-go
print(sorted(new_text))

Error in previous answer

*

*Removing elements while iterating over it.
Python: Removing list element while iterating over list.

*I was pointing both the text and new_text to the same set.
We can confirm this by 'is' operator.
text is new_text #Returns True
print(id(text)), print(id(new_text)) #have the same value, so changing
one changes the other
Previous Answer (Incorrect)
text = set(input("Please enter some text: ").lower())
vowels = {"a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "y", ' '}

#To remove the vowel one-by-one by iterating
new_text = text
for t in text:
    if t in vowels:
        new_text.discard(t) # or remove

#To print the non-vowels at one-go
print(sorted(new_text))

A: By altering the set, the output works as follows...

text = input("Please enter some text: ").lower()
vowels = {"a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "y", ' '}

new_text = set(text)
for t in text:
    if t in vowels:
        new_text.discard(t)

print(sorted(new_text))

output...

Please enter some text: camera
['c', 'm', 'r']

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Pingus was founded by Demark born Peter Sisseck. His fascination for wine began at home with his parents and at the age of 14 he was further inspired by visiting his uncle, the renowned winemaker Peter Vinding, in Bordeaux. This visit ignited what would become a life-long passion.
In 1995 the first Pingus was bottled. His aim was to produce "an unmistakably Spanish, terroir-driven wine...a garage wine." This was a huge success and for the first time a Spanish wine was lifted to the podium of the world's best wines, awarded with 98 points by the respected Wine Advocate.
"One of the greatest young red wines I ever tasted." Robert Parker Jr.
Pingus is the result of 2 complementary and exceptionally well-balanced old vine Tempranillo vineyards - 'Barroso' from the gravel-sandy Duero River and 'San Cristobal' sitting on west facing clay slopes.
What makes Pingus 2014 stand out and what makes the structure so unique? Do you feel the older vines are a big part in this?
The structure of Pingus 2014 of course has to do with the age of the vines, also from the fact that it suffered a strong hail storm. The 2014 is like a modern version of the 1995 vintage, the vintage we made one of the best wines we have produced ever. The first to share the same complex tannic structure, but in a modern version.
What was the greatest moment in the winery's history to you?
We have many great moments in mind, but it was maybe, the feeling we had when Robert Parker gave the Pingus 1995 (barrel sample) 96 to 100 points, a totally unknown wine, that have never been made before, still stands as ground breaking.


text:
Cinema
 Gangsters (The County Fair) – film del 1932 diretto da Louis King
 Gangsters – film del 1979 diretto da Mac Ahlberg
 Gangsters – film del 1992 diretto da Massimo Guglielmi
 Gangsters – film del 2002 diretto da Olivier Marchal

Musica
 I Gangsters – gruppo musicale spalla del cantante Riz Samaritano

Videogiochi
 Gangsters: Organized Crime – videogioco del 1998 prodotto da Eidos Interactive (1998)


text:
Q: Place CSS and Javascript outside EAR I have a web application deployed in IBM websphere. Each time I change my css or javascript file I have to redeploy EAR file. Is it possible to place these css/javascript files outside EAR/WAR file so that I can avoid redeploying EAR file.

A: For that pattern, I recommend placing those static files in a different location on your web server (or proxy server if you have one), then referencing them from your pages with a path Alias. For instance in Apache/IHS:
Alias /css /usr/IBM/HTTPServer/htdocs/css

And then in your HTML/JSP:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/styles.css" type="text/css" media="screen">

A: You can make an Utility Application as Dynamic Web Project and place all the css,images and script files inside it. you can create a seperate WAR outside EAR. your files inside EAR can refer to this WAR file for the resources, but you have to take care of the context-path.
Here you can avoid of complete building of EAR file but you need to build WAR file. Accessing the css/js/images outside WAR and EAR doesnt sound a correct way of implementation.

A: With JRebel you can map the resources that reside in an arbitrary location. So once you make any changes to the resources, these will be visible in the app instantly.

A: deploy your ear as an "Exploded Archive Directories"
see http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E15051_01/wls/docs103/deployment/deployunits.html
then you can just copy the static files and move on
websphere seems to support it to, at least for the war part
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/discover/v8r4/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.ii.product.ce.doc/configuring/iiyviigdepwebexpl.htm


Biomedical Science is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the fundamentals of human structure and function, as well as those of other animals. The first two years provide a background in human anatomy and psychology, in addition to more in-depth knowledge in basic sciences like biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and mathematics. At the end of second year, in addition to courses in biology and biochemistry, students can choose from an array of optional courses and obtain a minor in one of many programs offered, OR they can choose an option within the biomedical sciences (Neuroscience, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Bioanalytical Science, Medicinal Chemistry or Biostatistics). The Research Focus is an immersive research experience offered starting in third year for students who may be considering a career in research. Students in the Biomedical Sciences program are also eligible to participate in the Co-Operative Education Programs. On graduation, they will be ready for more advanced research training or for admission to a professional program in human health.
Admission to this program is competitive and higher averages are required.
Students doing an option should choose a course that is not mandatory for their selected option.
The following courses are considered as science courses: PHA 4107, PHS 3341, PHS 3342, PHS 4300, PHS 4336.
2000-level courses and above must be replaced with optional course units from either discipline at the same level or above.
Please note that all programs in the Faculty of Science require a minimum of 12 elective course units from the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Social Sciences or the Telfer School of Management. Once you have decided on the replacement courses, please inform the Office of Undergraduate Programs of the Faculty of Science by email at infosci@uOttawa.ca so that we may amend your Academic Advisement accordingly.


LIBREVILLE, Gabon - Adm. James G. Foggo III, commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Italy, made concluding remarks at the closing ceremony of Obangame Express 2018 (OE 18), March 29.
Foggo participated in the Senior Leader Symposium held March 25-27 in Libreville, Gabon and conducted meetings aboard the Mount Whitney. The ship participated in the exercise by supporting West African nations to counter illegal activities at sea while expanding training opportunities and cooperation among regional maritime forces.
Nearly 100 people attended the closing ceremony in Libreville, Gabon, while the Mount Whitney anchored off the coast several miles from shore. In attendance were senior Naval officers from the 31 participating nations in OE 18 and senior personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Gabon.
Foggo also stated that supporting vital institutions in West Africa through the exercise ultimately promotes economic opportunity throughout the Gulf of Guinea region. This includes supporting the rule of law and building the capacity of local law enforcement with maritime forces.
The closing ceremony capped off the successful eight-day exercise held March 21-29. OE 18 is the largest regional maritime exercise in West Africa, sponsored by U.S. Africa Command. The exercise focused on countering the trafficking of illegal arms and drugs, human trafficking, illegal migration, piracy, and illegal fishing. Additionally, maritime interdiction operations and search and rescue training were incorporated as part of the exercise.
The 31 nations participating in OE 2018 include Angola, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Togo, Turkey and the United States, as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).


Fresh Peach Muffins ,Originally shared on this site, in my newspaper column and Earth Eats, in 2011.
So I have had quite a dilemma this summer in the varying times both of my children wake up. My oldest wakes up bright and early 3 days a week when he has swimming but on his off days I am lucky if he is up by 10 a.m. My youngest is always, without fail, awake by 7:30. He is my little alarm clock and always has been. That's great during the school year but in the summer feeding them breakfast at 2 different times can be a real drag. I have not graduated to the level of the mother that lets her kids forage for their own meals yet. I don't know if I will ever get there.
What I have decided is that I need to have something on hand for each of them to grab and eat at their chosen breakfast time. That way I don't feel like I am in the kitchen so much. Some mornings I feel like I no sooner get breakfast cleaned up that one asks about lunch! I know that some of you who are home with your kids right now know what I mean.
So to combat their early morning cravings I keep a few dishes on hand and at the ready. Of course baked oatmeal is a family favorite as well as fruit salads and granola. We eat a lot of this during the school year so I like to shake it up a bit and try new things. This is where the peach comes in.
I have a base muffin recipe that I use and I add in what is in season or what I have on hand. Right now I have a bounty of peaches so I used those. This is a hearty morning muffin that is healthy and not one you would have to worry has fillers and artificial flavors. I do not add sugar to the batter but if you want it to have a sweeter taste you can add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. It all depends on how ripe your peaches are. The more ripe the better here.
Whether you eat this with a little yogurt or as a snack in the morning, this muffins is filling, healthy and has a little bit of summer in every bite.
So next time you are at the farmers market grab something new. Maybe a basket of peaches will be calling to you like they always do to me. Grill them, saute, add to a fruit salad or on a pizza. The fresh taste of summer can be yours!
To a muffin pan add liners or spray with a non-stick spray.
In a separate bowl add the peaches and honey.
Mash both them add the milk,brown sugar, oil and egg. When incorporated add to the well in the bowl of dry mix.
In a large bowl combine flours, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Add the peach mixture. Lightly stir until moistened (batter will be lumpy).
Spoon batter in to muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden.
Thanks, you all! I liked these without the addition of sugar but my panel of judges stated that it needs a little. Be your own judge, I say!
Looks good and healthy too. Maybe try then this week I have a few days free.
These muffins look wonderful! And I'm so jealous your kids sleep that late. Both of mine are up before 6 a.m. on most days.


text:
Taiwan Facts
66 Interesting Facts about Taiwan
If the population of Taiwan was just 100 people, 84 would be Taiwanese, 14 would be mainland Chinese, and 2 would be indigenous, or Formosan.[3]
Taiwan boasts the largest collection of Chinese art in the world.[3]
The name "Taiwan" is thought to mean "terraced bay," for the active terrace building that has taken place on the island.[1]
Before the Portuguese discovered Taiwan in 1590, the Chinese referred to the island as "a mudball across the sea, not worthy of China."[9]
Taiwan is located in the Ring of Fire, which makes the tiny island one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world. Taiwan experiences over 1,000 perceivable earthquakes a year and over 17,000 non-perceivable quakes.[9]
In Taiwan, garbage trucks play music (similar to an American ice cream truck)
In Taiwan, people carry their own garbage out to the curb and throw it in the truck. The garbage trucks play Beethoven's Fur Elise to announce their arrival.[2]
Settled in 1590, T'ai-nan is the oldest city in Taiwan.[3]
One of the most popular activities in Taiwan is karaoke, or, as they call it, Karaoke Television (KTV). Karaoke clubs offer private rooms, music videos,and many families have their own karaoke system in their own homes.[3]
Taiwan has been dubbed the "face mask capital of Asia" because the Taiwanese often wear surgical face masks. They wear masks to protect from illness or announce an illness, to protect their skin from the sun, or to filter out pollutants. Even newscasters will wear face masks while they are on the air.[6]
The Taiwanese consider it rude to say "no." Instead they may say, "eh, maybe."[3]
Not only does Taiwan have more 7-Eleven stores per person than any other country in the world, but the 7-Elevens also offer much more than junk food, including dry-cleaning, a place to pay college tuition, and a place to print documents.[4]
In Taiwan, the number 4 (like the number 13 in America) is considered unlucky. Buildings such as hospitals and hotels don't have a 4th floor.[12]
In August (or the seventh month of the Taiwanese lunar calendar), Taiwan celebrates the Hungry Ghost Festival. According to tradition, the gates of hell open, releasing hordes of hungry ghosts that feed on money, food, etc. It is considered unlucky to get married, start a business, or travel during the entire month.[7]
Toilets cannot handle toilet paper in Taiwan. Signs next to the potty instruct people to place used tissue in the trash can instead.[7]
It rains almost every afternoon during the summer in Taiwan.[11]
The L.A. weather is a lot like Taiwan's, where you don't observe four seasons, so the years can pass and you don't feel a thing.
- Ang Lee
In recorded history, the deadliest typhoon to hit Taiwan was Typhoon Morakot (Kiko), which decimated the island in 2009. The storm killed 673 people, left 26 missing, and caused $3.3 billion in damages.[1]
During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895–1945), in some disgruntled communities, a person who died was carried under a black umbrella to the graveyard so that the deceased person would not be buried under a Japanese sun.[1]
It takes about eight hours to drive around the entire island of Taiwan.[9]
Countries that wish to have diplomatic relations with China must sever their formal ties with Taiwan. China considers Taiwan its own renegade province. For this reason, Taiwan was kicked out of the UN in 1971.[1]
The World Happiness Report ranks Taiwan the 35th happiest country (out of 156) in the world. It ranks considerably higher than Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and China.[11]
In Taiwan, women make up 50.46% of the labor force and 33% of the legislature, a rate higher than Japan, South Korea, and the United States.[11]
Completed in 1882, the Eluanbi Lighthouse is one of the most well-known attractions in Taiwan. Dubbed the "Light of East Asia," the lighthouse is the only military lighthouse in the world and the brightest lighthouse in Taiwan.[11]
During the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, scientists speculate that Taiwan was connected to mainland China by a land bridge.[11]
The Portuguese "discovered" Taiwan in 1590 and named it "Ilha Formosa" or "Beautiful Island."[1]
Early Portuguese sailors named Taiwan Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island"
The highest mountain in Taiwan is Yu Shan (or Jade Mountain) in Yu Shan National Park.[11]
Pirates once used the natural harbors of Taiwan's Penghu Islands as hideout spots while attacking China. Today the islands are one of the world's major sources of coral.[11]
The political, cultural, and economic center of Taiwan, and its largest city, is Taipei, which means "north Taiwan" in Mandarin.[11]
One of the most important and tragic events in Taiwanese history is the "February 28 Incident." On this date in 1947, the KMT-led Republic of China government killed 10,000 civilians during an anti-government uprising. The incident sparked the Taiwan independence movement.[11]
The Formosan black bear is the largest land animal in Taiwan and is a symbol of the country. It is also the only type of bear in Taiwan.[11]
Taiwan has some of the worst air pollution in all of Asia, most likely because it is a small, densely occupied island.[11]
Despite losing its UN seat to China in 1971, and being unable to participate in the UN efforts to combat climate change, Taiwan attempts to combat the problem on its own. Although their CO2 levels fluctuate, Taiwan's overall levels are declining.[11]
Throughout Taiwan, images of plum blossoms appear on currency and company logos
The Prunus mei, or plum blossom, is Taiwan's national flower. Because it flowers in the winter, it symbolizes Taiwanese perseverance and courage.[3]
Taiwan has about half a million aborigines or yuan zhu min (YOO-an Ju min), meaning original people. Their ancestors are Austronesian, meaning they arrived from Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand. Consisting of about 2% of the population, they tend to have darker skin, bigger eyes, and sharper noses.[11]
In Taiwan, white (instead of black) symbolizes death and is used at funerals. At weddings, red is a popular color because it symbolizes good luck.[11]
The single most important element in Taiwanese values and beliefs is Confucianism. Based on the teachings of Chinese teacher and philosopher, Confucius (551–479 BC), it focuses on maintaining harmony in the world.[11]
In Taiwan, the family is the most important unit of society. Children are taught that they must respect their parents and that their primary duty is to their family. Extended families often live together, so a single household may have as many as ten to fifty members.[11]
Taiwanese emphasize a unique cultural characteristic called ren qing wie, which, loosely translated, means "the flavor of human feeling." Friendliness and generosity to strangers, duty, and correct behavior are part of what it means to "smell or have the flavor of being human." To not have ren qing wie is to be inhuman or immoral.[11]
In Taiwan, it is traditional for an astrologer to determine whether a match between couples is a good one. The astrologer also chooses a favorable date and time for the wedding.[11]
In 1995, Taiwan launched the National Health Insurance program (NHI), which provides universal health care to all its citizens, in both Chinese and Western-style medicine. It is considered one of the best universal health care systems in the world.[11]
The most popular sports in Taiwan are baseball, basketball, and table tennis. Other traditional sports include jump rope, shuttlecock, and diabolo spinning (which is similar to the Western yo-yo).[11]
Instant noodles and bubble tea were invented in Taiwan.[3]
Instant noodle inventor Momofuku Ando was born in Taiwan
There is a "Flying Fish" festival in Taiwan in which a group of people, the Yami, commemorate the legend about talking fish that taught their tribe how to fish. The Yami men decorate their canoes and go fishing in ceremonial dress, silver caps, and jewelry.[11]
In Taiwan, the Saisiyat people celebrate the "Festival of the Little People." According to legend, the Saisiyat learned how to farm from a group of pygmies. After the Saisiyat killed all the pygmies during a fight, they held a festival to appease and exorcise the pygmy spirits.[11]
A traditional Taiwanese snack is oyster omelet and dried watermelon seeds.[11]
The official name of Taiwan is the "Republic of China," although the commonly used name is Taiwan.[11]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a futuristic and popular "UFO" village in the Wanli district of Taiwan. Most of the flying saucer houses have been abandoned, creating an eerie UFO graveyard.[14]
In Taiwan, those who were born between 1980 and 1991 are called the "Strawberry Generation," which is a disparaging way to describe them as soft, lazy, and "easily bruised."[5]
"Snake Alley" is a market in Taipei, Taiwan, that serves unique delicacies, such as snake blood, deer penis wine, and turtle blood and meat.[7]
The twelve rays of the white sun represent the twelve months of the year and the twelve Chinese hours
The current flag of Taiwan was adopted on December 17, 1928, after the unification of China. Its colors—blue, white, and red—represent the Three Principals of the People of Taiwan: nationalism, democracy, and social well-being.[11]
Taiwan is also known as the "butterfly kingdom," because the tiny island is home to nearly 400 species of butterflies. While the country traditionally exported millions of its butterflies, now it focuses on conservation.[12]
The official language of Taiwan is Mandarin, but most people prefer to speak Taiwanese or Hakka.[3]
Taiwan is home to "The Modern Toilet" restaurant. All the food, utensils, dishes, and furniture are toilet themed.[8]
Taiwan was one of the first countries in the world to offer free Wi-Fi on a mass scale to its citizens. It also offers free Wi-Fi to foreign visitors.[10]
Taiwan was the first Asian democratic republic.[1]
Nearly half of Taiwan is mountainous.[11]
Puppetry is immensely popular in Taiwan, and puppets even play an important role in religious worship and folk festivals.[11]
Taiwan is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations.[11]
The term "Taiwan Miracle" refers to the island's transformation into one of the world's richest countries; a transformation that happened in less than 50 years.[3]
Taiwan's national sport is baseball, and it holds the most Little League World Series titles.[13]
At 216th place, Taiwan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea are even lower.[13]
In Taiwan, 7-Eleven is taken very seriously
In Taiwan, 7-Eleven has its own mascot named Open-Chan, a cartoon dog with a rainbow on its head. He is a national celebrity with his own music album and theme park.[11]
Taiwan has only one Nobel Prize winner, Yuan T. Lee. He won the prize for chemistry in 1986.[13]
The most internationally well-known Taiwanese celebrity is Oscar-winning director Ang Lee.[13]
The most popular surname in Taiwan is Chen, at around 12% of the population.[13]
Taiwanese are fond of chewing the betel nut. Unfortunately, because it is carcinogenic, Taiwan has one of the highest rates of mouth and throat cancer in Asia.[13]
With over 150 hot springs, Taiwan has the world's second-highest concentration of hot springs, after Japan.[13]
Top Ten Taiwan Facts INFOGRAPHIC
#Amazing #Chilling #Educational #FactOfTheDay #Fun #Historical #Important #Interesting #LittleKnown #MindBlowing #Random #Sad #Serious #Shocking #KidFriendly #SchoolProject #Infographic #PhotoVideo #Pinterest #YouTube #CountryFacts #Geography #World #NationalDayinTaiwan #October10 #Taiwan #China #Food #CountryFlags #CountryTraditions #Index
1Bisson, Michelle. Taiwan (Cultures of the World). Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2006.
2Chen, Kathy. "Taiwan: The World's Geniuses of Garbage Disposal." Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2016. Accessed: October 29, 2017.
3Chen, Piera, and Dinah Gardner. Taiwan (Lonely Planet). Singapore: Lonely Planet Global Limited, 2017.
4Dou, Eva, and Jenny W. Hsu. "How Convenient: In Taiwan, the 24/7 Store Does It All." Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2014. Accessed: October 29, 2017.
5Hu, Elise. "Taiwan's 'Strawberry Generation' Reaches Out To The Young And Trendy." NPR: Parallels. December 8, 2015. Accessed: October 30, 2017.
6Jennings, Ralph. "Asia's Face Mask Capital." Forbes, September 13, 2011. Accessed: October 29, 2017.
7"Keelung Events: Keelung Ghost Festival." Lonely Planet. Accessed: October 29, 2017.
8Mitchell, Simone. "Holy Crap, There's a Toilet Themed Restaurant." News.com.au. September 22, 2016. Accessed: October 30, 2017.
9Salter, Christopher, and Charles F. Gritzner. Taiwan. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004.
10Skift, Rafat Ali. "Taiwan Offers Free Wi-Fi to all Foreign Tourists." CNN: Travel. June 13, 2013. Accessed: October 30, 2017.
11Taiwan (Cultures of the World). New York, NY: Cavendish Square Publishing, Inc., 2017.
12"Taiwanese Superstitions." Geotraveler's Adventures. November 7, 2009. Accessed: October 29, 2017.
13The Rough Guide to Taiwan.
14Williams, Sophie. "Taiwan's Ghost 'UFO Village': Eerie Pictures Show the Surreal Community Where People Lived in Spaceship-Like Pods Before it was Abandoned in the 1970s." Daily Mail. August 9, 2017. Accessed: October 30, 2017.
75 Enchanting China Facts
Diverse in geography, food, lifestyle, and culture, China is a land of enchantment. Explore these interesting Chinese facts to satisfy your wanderlust.
61 Interesting North Korea Facts
North Korea is one of the most secretive and isolated countries in the world. Peer behind the curtain with this list of interesting North Korea facts.
61 Interesting Thailand Facts
Escape into our interesting Thailand facts to explore the country's quintessential crystal blue beaches, dramatic karst islands, rich history, and more.
64 Interesting India Facts
Ignite your curiosity and satisfy your wanderlust with our interesting India facts. Learn about its abundant diversity, colorful history, and much more.


The Barlow dairy farm and farmhouse was formerly located on what is now the south side of I-90 going up the hill westbound toward Eastgate in Bellevue. This photograph most likely dates before 1920, as the paved Newport Way, which is now in the area behind the former farmhouse, is not there. Construction of U.S. 10 in the late 1930's cut the farm property in half. A hand-piled hay stack is located in the right corner of the photo next to the split rail fence.


text:
University of Baltimore Law Review
Issues to Watch, Online Articles, and Series
Plan vs. Action: How Special Education Law Is Evolving in the Wake of Endrew
November 1, 2019 By University of Baltimore Law Review Staff	No Comments
Kelsey Lear*
Today, a higher number of special education students are benefiting from the dedicated service of the United States education system than ever before. See Joel McFarland et al., The Condition of Education 2019, Nat'l Ctr. for Educ. Stat., 60 (May 22, 2019), https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019144.pdf. Students who qualify "are those identified by a team of professionals as having a disability that adversely affects academic performance and as being in need of special education and related services." Id. During the 2017–2018 school year, 7.0 million students between the ages of three and twenty-one received special education services, which accounted for 13.7% of all public-school students in the country. Id. This was an increase from the 6.4 million students who received special education services during the 2011–2012 school year. Id. The United States Legislature has sought to protect these students through the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). See generally 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (2012). (more…)
A Republic, If You Can Tweak It: The Supreme Court Absolves Itself of Gerrymandering Duties
October 25, 2019 October 25, 2019 By University of Baltimore Law Review Staff	No Comments
Andrew Will*
On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court failed to purge one of the nation's most persistent political plagues. See Rucho v. Common Cause, 139 S. Ct. 2484 (2019). In the consolidated opinion of Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek, penned by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court held that partisan gerrymandering presents a nonjusticiable political question in federal courts. Id. at 2506–07 (citing Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 217 (1962)). The Court's holding, supported by a 5–4 conservative majority, rendered federal courts powerless to reconcile the political practice of district manipulation. Id. (more…)
'Just Do It': Allyson Felix, Nike, and the Path Towards Ending Pregnancy Discrimination in Professional Athletic Contracts
October 18, 2019 By University of Baltimore Law Review Staff	No Comments
Cassandra Brumback*
Allyson Felix (Felix) was once one of Nike's most marketed athletes. Allyson Felix, Allyson Felix: My Own Nike Pregnancy Story, N.Y. Times (May 22, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/opinion/allyson-felix-pregnancy-nike.html. She holds nine Olympic medals and is the United States' most decorated female runner of all time. Id. However, when Felix told Nike she was pregnant in 2018, Nike proposed a 70% pay reduction. Id. This did not sit well with Felix, who fought for a contractual guarantee that she would not be penalized for her pregnancy. Id. Nike refused, causing Felix to break from the company and secure a more beneficial contract with the women-focused apparel brand Athleta in July 2019. Chris Chavez, Allyson Felix Signs Athleta Sponsorship After Nike Dispute for Maternity Policy Change, Sports Illustrated (July 31, 2019), https://www.si.com/olympics/2019/07/31/allyson-felix-athleta-sponsorship-nike-maternity-leave-policy. (more…)
Post-Decriminalization Era: Maryland Court of Appeals Holds that the Mere Odor of Marijuana is Not Enough for a Probable Cause Search of a Person
October 11, 2019 By University of Baltimore Law Review	No Comments
Madison Buchness*
In 2014, the Maryland General Assembly decriminalized the possession of less than ten grams of marijuana. See Robinson v. State, 152 A.3d 661, 673 (Md. 2017). Possession of less than ten grams of marijuana is now a "civil offense" under Maryland law and results in the issuance of a civil citation and a fine. Id. The decriminalization of marijuana in Maryland has brought to light the issue of an illegal search and seizure solely based on the odor of marijuana. See id. The Fourth Amendment protects the people's right against unreasonable searches and seizures. State v. Johnson, 183 A.3d 119, 128 (Md. 2018). In 2019, the Maryland Court of Appeals began its opinion with the title of Bob Dylan's song "The Times They Are a–Changin'[,]" subsequently holding that the mere odor of marijuana is not enough to give police officers probable cause to search and arrest a person. Pacheco v. State, 214 A.3d 505, 508, 518 (Md. 2019).
Trade War Tweets: Is a Mandate by the President to Order American Companies to Find Alternatives to Chinese Companies a Valid Presidential Power Under the Emergency Economic Powers Act?
October 4, 2019 By University of Baltimore Law Review Staff	No Comments
Jenna McGreevy*
President Donald Trump started a Twitter storm on the morning of Friday, August 23, 2019, that continued into the late evening as a new attempt to address the ongoing trade war with China. See Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Aug. 23, 2019, 10:59 AM), https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164914960046133249. This series of tweets, a common form of communication used by the current President with the American people, caught the attention of many as it issued a new set of "orders" to all American businesses. See id. Specifically, President Trump "hereby ordered [American companies] to immediately start looking for an alternative to China." Id. (more…)
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text:
package edu.cmu.hcii.whyline.analysis;

import java.util.*;

import edu.cmu.hcii.whyline.bytecode.*;
import edu.cmu.hcii.whyline.trace.Trace;

/**
 * @author Andrew J. Ko
 *
 */
public class BlackBoxDependencies {

	private final Set<Use> dependencies;
	private final Set<Instruction> visited;
	private final Invoke invoke;
	private final Trace trace;

	private BlackBoxDependencies(Trace trace, Invoke invoke) {

		this.trace = trace;
		this.invoke = invoke;
		this.dependencies = new HashSet<Use>();
		this.visited = new HashSet<Instruction>();

		analyze();

	}

	/**
	 * Given an invocation of some method, returns a set of instructions that represent
	 * argument values that affect the invocations return value. If there are no known
	 * methods that this invocation could resolve to, returns an empty set.
	 */
	public static Set<Use> get(Trace trace, Invoke invoke) { return (new BlackBoxDependencies(trace, invoke)).dependencies; }

	private void analyze() {

		// Do we have code for any of the methods that this invocation might resolve to?
		MethodInfo[] methods = trace.getMethodsFromReference(invoke);

		for(MethodInfo method : methods)
			process(method);

	}

	private void process(MethodInfo method) {

		for(AbstractReturn ret : method.getReturns())
			process(ret);

	}

	private void process(Instruction producer) {

		if(visited.contains(producer)) return;
		visited.add(producer);

		if(producer instanceof GETSTATIC) {

			dependencies.add((GETSTATIC)producer);

		}
		else if(producer instanceof GetLocal) {

			int localID = ((GetLocal)producer).getLocalID();
			int arg = producer.getMethod().getArgumentNumberOfLocalID(localID);
			// Base case.
			if(arg < producer.getMethod().getNumberOfArguments())
				dependencies.add((GetLocal)producer);
			else
				for(SetLocal set : producer.getCode().getLocalDependencies().getPotentialDefinitionsOfLocalIDBefore(producer, localID))
					process(set);

		}
		else if(producer instanceof GETFIELD) {

			FieldInfo field = producer.getClassfile().getFieldByName(((GETFIELD)producer).getFieldref().getName());
			for(Definition def : field.getDefinitions())
				process(def);

		}
		// Just iterate through potential dependencies.
		else {

			for(int arg = 0; arg < producer.getNumberOfArgumentProducers(); arg++) {
				StackDependencies.Producers producers = producer.getProducersOfArgument(arg);
				for(Instruction p : producers.getProducers())
					process(p);
			}

		}

	}

}


As a quick aside, while they're not technically new, this version seems to be triggering the Suggested Actions and an About screen, both of which began appearing in v4.1. At the time, only for some users saw either of these, and they both may have disappeared after initially going live. Suggested Actions is probably still be a Fi-only feature, but I expect the About screen should be visible to everybody with this update.
It didn't seem like something that would happen, but after a teardown of v4.0 revealed text that was unusually non-specific about attachment types, the possibility of sending basically any file type came into question. As it turns out, Google took the plunge and the Messages app now supports sending of generic files.
The action for generic attachments is buried all the way at the bottom of the share sheet. Just hit the button and you'll be taken to the standard file browser where you can pick from the standard folders or file providers like Google Drive or Dropbox. Like any other attachment, you'll see the file added to an outgoing message, but you'll have to hit the button to send it.
The description is very clear that this feature will contact Google to determine if senders have been verified. This is definitely not congruent with the implementation of SHAKEN/STIR, which performs the authentication by contacting the carrier where the call or text originated. Unfortunately, this possibly means Pixel users won't be getting the spam prevention technology for a little longer than expected. And on a personal note, sorry for getting everybodies' hopes up. Sometimes optimism obscures reality.
We've already talked about Assistant integration in Messages, and this version brings a tiny bit more. It looks like there may be some kind of confirmation step for messages sent with Assistant that are supposed to pass through Messages.
I'm not sure this entirely makes sense given that Assistant already has a confirmation step that can be controlled either through voice or touchscreen. Perhaps there's another workflow that will pop up in the future where this makes more sense.


Lawyers Serving Northern VA & Richmond - Experience - Expertise - Personal Attention- Responsive. Cost Effective Solutions.
Posted on December 15, 2013. Brought to you by getfave.
Posted on April 02, 2015. Brought to you by showmelocal.


Topic: How do I add a custom organization?
How do I add a custom organization?
We have an organization unique to our ward and I'd like to create its own category. I see an "Add Organization" button under "Organizations" and "Other Callings". However, I am unable to click on it. I have all clerk administrative rights, so what am I missing?
I need to add our new bishopric counselors, whose records will not reside in my ward, as users but MLS tells me there are too many "out-of-unit administrators". When I try to delete old ones we get a message that says it can't be done because they are referenced in database records. Help!!!!
Topic: MLS thinks today is the wrong date! help!
Topic: Priesthood ordinations not recorded. What now?
If no witnesses can be tracked down, and no record exists in church headquarters, then do we simply redo the ordinations?
Priesthood ordinations not recorded. What now?
One of our members insists he received both the Aaronic Priesthood and Melchizedek Priesthood in the Summer of 2006 but it doesn't show in his membership records. My question is simple: How do I proceed?
Topic: How do I determine how many endowed members have a current recommend?
I am also not able to see "Current Recommend Holders" and I believe I have full administrative rights. So I counted how many endowed people did not have a recommend as suggested by Lajackson. But if MLS already has this information, why is it not automatically entered in the quarterly report?
How do I determine how many endowed members have a current recommend?
I am doing the quarterly report for the first time and am not sure how to determine how many endowed adults have a current temple recommend. Any ideas?
Does MLS store the locations to where members' records are transferred when they leave the ward? I know that when the records have been successfully transferred out, you have the option of printing this information following a "send/receive". But what if this printout is lost or destroyed?


text:
TRANSFORMING THE EQUINE WORLD WITH AI, IOT AND BLOCKCHAIN
With the help of technology, it provides many data points for fans to analyse their favourite horses. This gives the fans a sense of belonging, they feel that they know the horses more and are part of their lives. This is how the equine industry should be like and this is how the industry can grow bigger and stronger with the help of technology.
The equine industry is a growing segment. The market in USA is around $120 billion and is employing more than 1.5 million of people, generating about 80 million in salaries, wages and benefits. Given the huge market size, the industry is adopting technology to play a vital role in its transformation especially on health related issues.
source from: https://horsefund.org/horse-racing-ground-matters-part5.php
Horses injure themselves on a frequent basis and is it rather common to see abrasion, leg injuries and cuts. If the injury is manageable, the farm staff will usually handle it but when they detect changes in the horse's behaviour or eating habits that will indicate the start of a problem Veterinary will administer if more advanced treatment is required. The usage of technology will aid this process a lot more.
The usage of artificial intelligence (AI) can be implemented to track how horses move. AI makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to perform human-like tasks. Computers can be trained to accomplish specific tasks by processing large amounts of data and recognizing patterns in the data. In this instance, this will can track the horses' movement to understand their health. This is what the horse owners want. They cannot just depend on the trainers or the CT machines. AI tracks and records every movement. Any movement that is deviated from the original set of data is worth of the owner's attention.
Wearable technology has evolved the way people interact with their environment. This works the same for horses as well. IOT wearable devices that are attached to the horses can also provide another level of data to track the horses' condition. It can better track their speed, constant reading of their body temperature and heart rate. Horse owners can get these data as their convenience, anywhere, everywhere. The combination of AI and IOT data will help the trainers and owners find out how their horses are doing and when are they at the maximum performance.
Next, blockchain technology. This is an undeniably ingenious invention. Blockchain is based on a distributed, peer-to-peer topology where data can be stored globally on thousands of servers – and anyone on the network can see everyone else's entries in real-time – it's virtually impossible for one entity to gain control of or game the network. It plays an important role to ensure data security and integrity. Horses medical records and information should be on the chain. This will aid in the breeding process, ensuring the horses' heritage and bloodline.
The tokenised economics behind blockchain is also something interesting. Horse syndicates can use platform to allow members to co-own a purebred racehorse, Jocky Clubs can use the tokens to regulate Horse Racing and Equine Lovers can use tokens to get news, insights and even tips. Platforms like RacingLand.com looks at the overall equine industry and hopes to use tokens as a form of utility. This will open up a new market, allowing more people to know about horses and even own a horse together with people from another part of the world.
"We want to bring new blood into the equine industry. We want to bring in more horse lovers together using the blockchain technology. At RacingLand, we create a brand-new horse racing eco system, making the participants feel more at ease and engaged," Mr Wally Pyrah, Committee Member of RacingLand and Senior Racing Advisor to the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) said.
Horse owners and fans want their horse to do well in races. With the help of technology, it provides many data points for fans to analyse their favourite horses. This gives the fans a sense of belonging, they feel that they know the horses more and are part of their lives. This is how the equine industry should be like and this is how the industry can grow bigger and stronger with the help of technology.
For any enquiry or their recent activities, please contact RacingLand Team at [email protected].
Company Name: Blockcast.cc
Contact Person: Joann Park
Website: https://www.blockcast.cc


On a week-day morning last fall I welcomed a group of well-dressed adults into my ninth grade classroom. It was Grandparents Day at the school where I teach English, and the development office had asked me to offer a mini-course on a topic of my choosing. I announced that we would be addressing a question that occupies my students for the entire school year: whether spoken word poetry, with its emphasis on vocal expressiveness, body language, and even the poet's appearance, enhances or diminishes the value of its words. I attribute the ninth graders' enthusiasm for videotaped spoken word performances in part to these extra-literary effects. What fourteen-year-old accustomed to traditional poetry anthologies wouldn't prefer to watch a poet, often close to his or her own age, declaiming in colloquial language while dressed in a way that conveys street credibility? I was eager to try out this art form on an older generation, one that presumably associated poetry with printed words, and poetry out loud with authors reading those words from lecterns in university auditoriums.
I had begun planning for the mini-course over summer vacation, a time that I usually spend screening dozens of spoken word videos for possible use in class. Of these, a handful joins a group of existing favorites to comprise the twenty that I will show during the school year. Poems get rejected for several reasons—some on the grounds of profanity, inappropriate subject matter, or poor video or audio quality, others for consisting of strung-together clichés, treating familiar subjects such as racism, politics, or love in trite ways, or for being performed with such over-the-top theatrically that my students would mock them. A few combine all of these flaws and sound like Saturday Night Live parodies of hipster poetry happenings, providing easy ammunition for the genre's detractors. Spoken word tends to polarize audiences—YouTube comments on the videos range from ecstatic approval ("I felt this with every ounce of my heart!") to caustic put-downs ("Third grade level crap about hookers, crackheads and welfare checks").
In the discussion that followed the videos, my audience of grandparents weighed the effect of each poet's appearance and performance on his words. One woman who introduced herself as a retired English teacher appreciated the performance aspects, which she felt complemented the poems' earnest, personal messages. Another viewer complained that Bennett's emotion made him speak too fast, rendering his words partly unintelligible, while a third found the close-up of Koyczan's fleshy face off-putting. Still others defended these imperfections as humanizing. The only full dissent came from a grandfather who claimed to be distracted by Bennett's formal attire and Koyczan's corpulence, and by both poets' overwrought deliveries. He said he would have preferred to read both poems on the page, though even then the writing struck him as superficial.
Hearing this last comment, I realized how much my view of spoken word has changed over the years thanks to the number of performances I have watched and to hearing my students' reactions. Like that disapproving grandfather, I used to cringe at the poets' emotings and knew that no spoken word poem approached the musicality or subtlety of a lyric by Yeats or Elizabeth Bishop. I haven't exactly overcome this attitude, but no longer consider these to be conclusive criticisms. I wanted to tell the man that if he could set his print-centric definition of poetry aside and approach the poems on their own terms—an open-mindedness that comes naturally to my students—he might find unexpected rewards. My own epiphany came when I stopped trying to hold this poetry to the standards of the literature I had studied as an English major in college. Listening to it now, I keep in mind its debt to respected rhetorical forms such as oratory, preaching, rap, and even traditional poetry readings as practiced by Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, Billy Collins and other charismatic declaimers.
The first spoken word poem I used in class was Taylor Mali's "What Teachers Make," which has since gone viral on YouTube through word-of-mouth and e-mail forwardings (though often without credit to Mali). I had been teaching contemporary poetry to my middle and high school English classes, scouring anthologies for poems that would excite them as much as their favorite rock and rap songs. A friend mentioned "Def Poetry Jam," a new program on HBO in which poets perform before an audience in a New York City theater. I recorded Mali's segment on my VCR and showed it to my ninth graders. In contrast to their polite but tentative responses to printed poems, their discussion of "What Teachers Make" overflowed the class period, touching on Mali's vocal embellishments and whether he looked like the former seventh grade teacher that his poem identified him as. A few years later, I showed the poem to an equally appreciative group of colleagues on Professional Development day. I was as surprised by their comfort in discussing performed poetry as I had been by the students' enthusiasm for a poem that glorified teachers.
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
I followed up my initial success with the Mali poem by showing several others from that first season of Def Poetry, including Rives's "Sign Language," about his work teaching poetry to deaf students, Georgia Me's "Full-Figure Potential," Steve Colman's "I Wanna Hear a Poem," and Black Ice's poem about single parenthood, "Lone Soldier." (It would be a few years before videos proliferated to the point where I had to do the kind of mass screening that now occupies my summers.) Ten years later, I continue to teach these poems, and have augmented my repertoire with clips from shows such as "Brave New Voices" (also on HBO), and the movies "Louder Than a Bomb" and "To Be Heard," all of which follow teams of high school students through state and national poetry slam competitions. I no longer teach many traditional poems in my ninth grade class—fortunately, my colleagues in eighth and tenth grade do a thorough job of grounding students in that canon, and love doing so as much as I love teaching spoken word.
Anticipating criticism from parents who think that their children should be exposed to the works of Dickinson, Whitman, Tennyson, Yeats, and Auden rather than those of Black Ice and Georgia Me, I'm always ready to argue that spoken word whets my students' interest in poetry in general, leading them to seek out more traditional poems in print. But I actually haven't seen much evidence that this is true. My former students are more likely to report that they have continued to enjoy spoken word poems, both on video and in person at poetry slams (as spoken word competitions are called), and confirm this by sending me YouTube links to aid my summer research.
The New York Times recently said of slam poetry that "it combines aspects of a live reading, a rap battle and stand-up comedy, as performers try to win over the audience with wit, braggadocio and, occasionally, nuance." For my purposes in the classroom, the primary appeal of these poems is their straightforwardness. None of my students has ever complained that a spoken word poem is too obscure—there are no John Ashberys in this genre. Granted, this leaves the form open to the charge of superficiality. Unlike the work of Yeats, Stevens, or Bishop, spoken word poems rarely yield new layers of meaning with each encounter—what you see and hear is what you get, at least when it comes to the words. Which brings me to the second virtue of these poems as teaching tools: the availability of the poet's looks, voice, and body language as provocative fodder for discussion. A literary purist would no doubt scoff to hear of a poem or English class influenced by these factors. Could a poet's dreadlocks possibly matter to his writing? My students would say yes.
Over the years I have taught the novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn, with their racial subjects and language, and the memoirs Manchild in the Promised Land and Warriors Don't Cry, about a 1950s Harlem childhood and the school integration battle in Little Rock, Arkansas, respectively. None of these books ever provoked discussions on race as blunt as those involving spoken word poetry, a genre conspicuous in its racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. My students love debating whether a poet needs to be of a certain race to write authentically about a certain landscape or experience. "They have to be black," both black and white students have insisted about the identical twins who perform "Dreams Are Illegal in the Ghetto," to which other black and white students in the class have responded "Why?" No one disputes that Oscar Brown Jr. has to be black to pull off his scathing poem "I Apologize," but students do disagree about whether his age (seventy-seven at the time of the performance) should affect one's reception of it.
Inevitably, lines like these lead to some intense exchanges among my (predominantly white) students, but so far the spoken word classes have produced more healthy debate than acrimony.
Spoken word poems don't have to be written expressly for the stage in order for a performance to succeed. I first appreciated Sekou Sundiata's "A Dream for Amman, My Grandson," in print, but its rhythm makes it pleasing to hear aloud in the poet's mellifluous voice on a Def Poetry recording, and one can easily follow it without a script.
walking unfettered in the space of slumber.
Audiences that flock to conventional poetry readings might disagree, but I find many print-based contemporary poems too oblique to enjoy in a single hearing, especially when the poet reads from a book with little—or worse, exaggerated—inflection. During my twenties I worked in a university poetry library, hosting several readings a month. I can think of few of those occasions when I wasn't distracted from the poems by my own intrusive thoughts. In those days before spoken word, I needed to read poems in order to appreciate them, though performed plays and monologues held my attention. This suggests that both the writing style and performance aspect of spoken word poetry distinguish it from printed poetry, making it unproductive to compare the two. Some overlap exists—the artful informality of Billy Collins's poems works equally well on the page and on stage, and my students praise the words of "What Teachers Make" with or without the video.
Writing for an audience demands a different approach than writing for a reader, and some spoken word poets use this difference as an excuse for self-indulgence. They scorn revision (even Kerouac, who espoused the Beat mantra of "First Thought Best Thought," was revealed to have been a meticulous reviser) or boast about having written their poems moments before walking onstage. Fancying themselves heirs to poetry's oral tradition, they come across instead as dilettantes. Because most of the YouTube videos come unaccompanied by written lyrics, I transcribe these for my students. The line breaks that I include are arbitrary, which reminds me that this defining aspect of poetic craft doesn't matter in this genre. (Many spoken word poets indicate enjambed line breaks with their voices, which sounds ridiculous.) In short, there's plenty to disrespect about spoken word poetry. So why do I, who aspire to write poems in the tradition of Yeats and Bishop, find this hybrid genre so effective?
Remember how no one ever really died in the wars we fought?
it was all just pretend.
Koyczan's writing reflects his awareness that people will hear this poem rather than read it. The repeated colloquial words "'cause" and "like" give it a diction and headlong momentum characteristic of speech; the rhymes and half rhymes—forgot/fought/did not; friend/land/pretend strongmen/then—make it easy to follow and enjoyable to listen to; the refrain "Remember how…" creates the kind of verse/chorus/verse structure familiar from popular songs; and the image-by-image rather than line-by-line form suits the ear more than the eye. Each image below creates a natural pause in the poet's recital, in contrast to printed poems with their visual cues of line breaks and stanza lengths.
In contrast to the many shrill spoken word performers, Koyczan speaks in a soft, measured voice, abruptly amplifying certain lines like "I TOTALLY GOT YOU," or building to a crescendo of exhortation or indignation as in his poem "This is My Voice." Accompanied by a violinist in "Remember How We Forgot," he synchronizes his voice to her bowing. This musical component would probably annoy the grandfather who disparaged "This is My Voice," but I find nothing pretentious about it—the violin doesn't mask any shortcoming in Koyczan's words or delivery, and it complements the poem's musicality. Thirty years ago I heard Stanley Kunitz read his poems accompanied by a cello and wondered why more print-based poets didn't enlist this resource.
Beneath this neckbeard is a layer of subcutaneous fat that takes the word unflattering to its maximum potential. If you wanted to experience true nastiness and savage cruelty we need go no further than the nearest barber. I'll happily take neckbeard over the host of other things I've been called in my life without it.
If I had read "To This Day" in print before seeing its author perform it, I would have imagined him looking a lot like Shane Koyczan.
The boy who could levitate lives down the street from me.
He's got an older brother named "Why are you hitting yourself?
Why are you hitting yourself? Why do you keep hitting yourself?
With his boyish physique and supple facial expressions, Rives makes himself alternately look like the neighbor, the boy, the counselor, and the brother, reminding me of Richard Pryor turning himself into his repertoire of characters by simply furrowing his brow, lowering his head, or darting his eyes back and forth.
The more I describe Rives's physical and Koyczan's vocal expressiveness, the more it sounds as if performance takes precedence over poetry in this genre. In his New York Times review of "Def Poetry Jam on Broadway," which ran for six months in 2002-2003, Ben Brantley wrote, "This is poetry for the stage, not the page, and it exists completely only in the moment it is being performed." But my students insist on the primacy of the words. Their perennial favorite video is an outtake from the Brave New Voices series in which Joshua Bennett rehearses his poem "Carbon Copy" (about his similarities to his father) in front of his family in their living room. Dressed in an untucked shirt and jeans, Bennett reads from a notebook, stumbling over his words and choking up when he gets to emotional parts.
the people we care about most.
There's nothing practiced about the performance, which my students find more moving than the polished rendition of "Tamara's Opus" that Bennett recorded at the White House a year later. On the same day that they see "Carbon Copy," I also show Def Poetry appearances by Kanye West and Alicia Keys. As much as the students like the novelty of watching these celebrities recite without musical accompaniment, they prefer "Carbon Copy," proving that there is more to spoken word than visual appeal.
Whenever I'm bored at a conventional poetry reading where the author reads aloud from a book or manuscript, I know not to let that feeling determine my opinion of the poems; I can't imagine being inspired by my first hearing of any literature presented in this way. Unless I already know the work well—a rarity given that most poets feature their newer poems at readings—I have to concentrate on following along rather than on subtleties of language. Perhaps if more print poets shared Koyczan's and Rives's willingness to craft their performances, memorizing their poems and pacing and modulating their voices, their writing would prove as immediately engaging as "The Boy Who Could Levitate." Poets who write for the page might even do well to keep the stage in mind as they compose.
This isn't as heretical as it sounds. I first encountered W.D. Snodgrass's poetry on a recording in the library archive, and attribute my instant attentiveness to Snodgrass's delivery. Between poems, he explained that he had studied public speaking in order to improve his readings, and mentions in an interview that he writes for a listening as well as a reading audience.
What affected me about the Beats was that it was all oral, out loud, and that made a great big difference. I found that I wanted to let that influence occur. I wanted to make poems to read out loud.
My favorite Snodgrass poems—those in his first two books, Heart's Needle and After Experience—are composed of syllabic lines in intricate stanzas, meaning that much of his literary craft is invisible to a listening audience. When I think of those poems, it's in their printed forms, but my pleasure is enhanced by my memory of having heard Snodgrass say them, and of being introduced to them in his speaking voice. This makes me wonder how many of the poems I have daydreamed through in auditoriums or hurried through in books might have caught my attention if spoken effectively.
Some print poets' speaking voices suit their writing so well that I hear them even when re-reading the poems on the page. The voice "brands" the poetry with a tone or inflection that becomes impossible to separate from the language. Philip Larkin's and Wallace Stevens's lugubrious basses on recordings of "Dockery and Son" and "The Auroras of Autumn," respectively; T.S. Eliot's reedy timbre reciting "The Waste Land"; Robert Lowell's Southern-tinged voice adding spookiness to a 1946 studio reading of "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket." In these cases, the writing and the saying are as complementary as on any spoken word video, which makes me think that rather than adding an extraneous effect, the performance aspect of spoken word deepens the poems' literary personality. Encouraging someone to watch Koyczan perform "Remember What We Forgot" doesn't slight the words any more than acknowledging the importance of Eliot's vocal interpretation to an understanding of The Waste Land.
because they speak half-English and half-God.
for the girl who loves somebody else.
This is for the someone who stood up today and said, "No!".
For Edward R. Murrow who shut down McCarthy.
you, me, this city, this country.
We will always have a choice.
"This is my voice. There are many like it, but this one is mine".
At its weakest, spoken word poetry deserves the criticism that it attracts. On the Amazon website, most reviews of the Def Poetry DVDs are positive, but some deplore the poets' stridency ("This is just angry people venting with vulgarity"), their lack of linguistic refinement ("poetry that feels like it got a B- in Freshman Poetry Analysis"), and the poems' narrow racial and socio-economic range ("a few well-worn ideas, most of them delivered in the same high-key and indistinctly enraged tone"). As early as 1972, at the height of Gil Scott Heron's influence, Richard Wilbur complained, "I can't adjust to the kind of black poetry that simply cusses and hollers artlessly." I understand these objections, but the compliments ring true to me, too, as when Brantley praises "the incandescent mix of exuberance, arrogance and exhibitionism with which each performer is invested." Held to the standards of print poetry, spoken word will always seem less crafted, less decorous, less literary. Conversely, the poems published by Taylor Mali in journals strike me as less compelling than his work on YouTube. It's not that Mali is ungifted at writing for print, but that his greatest gifts are for performing and writing for performance, a point supported by the nearly five million hits that the original video of "What Teachers Make" has received so far.
It's the sound of youth expressing itself, at its most intense and anxious and self-conscious and self-delighted. Older folks may find it all a little intimidating and even irritating. But how nice to smell springtime in the land of mothballs.
Would I watch these videos if I wasn't teaching them? It's hard to say—I wouldn't have discovered spoken word and mined it so eagerly if I hadn't been on the lookout for ways to enliven my classes, and I can't see and hear the poems without anticipating the ninth graders' reactions. But just as these fourteen-year-olds are capable of pointing out new facets of novels and memoirs that I thought I knew intimately, so do I find myself moved by poems that I originally selected to appeal to their teenage tastes and sensibilities. I don't mind if part of my enjoyment is vicarious. As any schoolteacher who has hit upon a popular vein of curriculum will understand, the thrill of finding poems that my students love, not just the occasional poem, but poem after poem year after year, is equaled only by the experience of reading or writing a transformative poem myself.