Any updates from you insiders? Should we look for White Lightening or Oz this weekend?
Looks like WL is getting blasted this morning and at least one gun going on the bridge to OZ. Thanks!
I think White Ligthning will be open this weekend. Oz run is a bit of a different situation. I'd be surprised if they opened it this weekend.
I'll be out there Saturday with the homies.
Lower White Lightning from Star Cut opened today. Look for all of White Lightning to open after the warm up. Looks like next weekend depending on the cold air. Oz is pretty far out, especially if the next cold shot isn't sustained.
White Lightning will not open this year unless they get a big snow. I was told this weekend by someone that is friends with the owner that they cannot get snow to stick for a long time due to the lack of grass on the slope. White Lightning was mostly all dirt due to the lift construction and the snow melts too fast. They are hiring a company to cover the slope this summer with grass and this help preserve snow better.
I was up Thurs-Sun. Great conditions the entire time on opened runs. Lower WL opened but I don't see upper opening this season. Many rocks and small boulders up there sticking up a good 2-3 feet and no snow on it as of Sunday.
None of that is correct. Upper White Lightning hasn't opened because they haven't made snow on it. The most heavily damaged area from lift construction is the bottom around the lifts, especially Freestyle. All of those areas have been open and held snow very well despite multiple thaws. One week of cold weather immediately followed by a week or so of warm air and rain isn't really conducive to pushing for more open terrain. Every cold front has been spent recovering from 60 degrees and rain.
Then why could Sugar recover and add terrain and not Beech? Beech has significantly less area to make snow than Sugar. With Beech's guns they can also recover quickly. There is more to it than just the weather as the reason they did not open Upper White Lightning. Whatever it may be, I hope they get their plans figured out and get terrain open faster next year. The new lifts are nice, the choice to use SMI to make their snow was good as snow quality is much better this year. They just need to get the terrain open faster.
I noticed the huge boulders too. Even if opened the rocks will begin to stick out eventually. and I do think that due to its location WL is more susceptible to having wind blow the snow off.
They choose not to make snow as much during operational hours.


Even the best-preserved and displayed specimens are of little or no scientific value without associated data such as location, date of capture, and habitat. Such information should be uniquely associated with the specimen. Although this can be achieved by a unique numbering or lettering system associated with a notebook or computer file, it is essential that it appears also on a permanently printed label associated with the specimen. The following is the minimal information that should be recorded, preferably into a field notebook at the time of capture rather than from memory later.
Location — usually in descending order from country and state (your material may be of more than local interest), township, or distance from map-named location. Include map-derived names for habitats such as lakes, ponds, marshes, streams, rivers, forests, etc.
Co-ordinates — preferably using a Geographic Position System (GPS) and citing latitude and longitude rather than non-universal metrics. Increasingly, these locations are used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and climate-derived models that depend upon accurate ground positioning.
Elevation — derived from map or GPS as elevational accuracy has increased.
Date — usually in sequence of day in Arabic numerals, month preferably in abbreviated letters or in Roman numerals (to avoid the ambiguity of, say, 9.11.2001 — which is 9th November in many countries but 11th September in others), and year, from which the century might be omitted. Thus, 2.iv.1999, 2.iv.99, and 2 Apr. 99 are all acceptable.
Collector's identity, brief project identification, and any codes that refer to notebook.
Collection method, any host association or rearing record, and any microhabitat information.
On another label, record details of the identity of the specimen including the name of the person who made the identification and the date on which it was made. It is important that subsequent examiners of the specimen know the history and timing of previous study, notably in relation to changes in taxonomic concepts in the intervening period. If the specimen is used in taxonomic description, such information should also be appended to pre-existing labels or additional label(s). It is important never to discard previous labels — transcription may lose useful evidence from handwriting and, at most, vital information on status, location, etc. Assume that all specimens valuable enough to conserve and label have potential scientific significance into the future, and thus print labels on high-quality acid-free paper using permanent ink — which can be provided now by high-quality laser printers.
Collections start to deteriorate rapidly unless precautions are taken against pests, mold, and vagaries of temperature and humidity. Rapid alteration in temperature and humidity should be avoided, and collections should be kept in as dark a place as possible because light causes fading. Application of some insecticides may be necessary to kill pests such as Anthrenus ("museum beetles") but use of all dangerous chemicals should conform to local regulations. Deep freezing (below —20°C for 48 h) also can be used to kill any pest infestation. Vials of ethanol should be securely capped, with a triple-ring nylon stopper if available, and preferably stored in larger containers of ethanol. Larger ethanol collections must be maintained in separate, ventilated, fireproof areas. Collections of glass slides preferably are stored horizontally, but with major taxonomic collections of groups preserved on slides, some vertical storage of well-dried slides may be required on grounds of costs and space-saving.
Other than small personal ("hobby") collections of insects, it is good scientific practice to arrange for the eventual deposition of collections into major local or national institutions such as museums. This guarantees the security of valuable specimens, and enters them into the broader scientific arena by facilitating the sharing of data, and the provision of loans to colleagues and fellow scientists.


Speaking highly of the just-concluded eighth China-CEEC leaders' meeting, Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) express the hope that cooperation between the two sides can be lifted to a broader and higher level.
The meeting, themed "Building new bridges through openness, innovation and partnership," was held on April 12 in the southern Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, with the participation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and leaders of 16 CEECs.
Delo, a national daily in Slovenia, has paid close attention to the meeting. It said on April 12 in an editorial that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to join hands with regions including Europe in creating a better life and shows Europe the prospects of future win-win cooperation with Asia.
Li delivered a speech at the ninth China-CEEC Business Forum on April 12, during which he said China will continue to create conditions to import more honey, fruit, dairy and meat products and other farm produce from CEECs to meet the diverse needs of Chinese consumers.


text:
Voters to consider plastic bag ban this fall
Posted by Katherine Rose | Aug 2, 2019
A section of Libby Stortz' multimedia piece "Drowning in Plastic" in the "Ugly Side of Plastic" art show, on display at AC Lakeside this month (KCAW/Rose)
Voters in Sitka will see a plastic bag ban on the municipal ballot this fall. If passed, the measure would ban single-use plastic bags at local retailers and require businesses charge a fee for paper bags.
"I take it as a woman holding the world up but drowning in plastic or trying to keep her head above water as she tries not to drown in plastic," says Pat Kehoe, standing in the lobby at AC Lakeside. She points to a painting by Libby Stortz, as she installs several pieces for the "Ugly Side of Plastic" art show. It's been traveling from store to store for the past couple of months, raising awareness about the amount of single use plastic humans introduce into the environment each year.
Works of poetry and photography hang on the walls alongside several collages and paintings. Kehoe points to a sculpture by Pamela Ash of a bird skeleton. Two brown dirt clods with blue and white plastic bits woven throughout sit next to it.
"They're actual bird pellets with plastic in them," Kehoe says. "It's really horrid."
Kehoe is part of a citizen action group called "Bags for Change." Former Sitka Assembly member Michelle Putz leads the group. Her husband, Perry, also serves on the KCAW board.
"Since 2016, there's been a group of us working towards using less plastic in general and encouraging some sort of change," says Putz. "Moving people towards using reusable bags. Essentially putting a whole lot of carrots out there and also having a stick, potentially."
Putz's "stick" has gone through a couple of iterations. Organizers last year brought a plastic bag fee to the Sitka Assembly but it fizzled on second reading when some Sitkans pushed back. So Putz and friends went back to the drawing board and drafted a ballot proposition. Now a plastic bag ban will go before voters this October.
"We've never wanted to be political," Putz says. "We've always wanted to be educational and just share the problems that are associated with plastics getting into the ocean, getting into the air, getting into our bodies."
There are three components to the ballot proposition: First an all-out ban on single-use plastic bags. Second, a requirement that retailers charge a fee for paper bag use. And third, a fine to retailers who fail to follow the policy.
Single-use plastic bags rose in popularity in the 1980s. But in just a few decades, we've used a lot of them. In 2018, National Geographic Magazine reported that American shoppers use one bag a day on average. Putz says her group worked with local grocers, showing them the drafts of their petition before they began collecting signatures.
"They estimate that between the two of them we give away over two million plastic bags a year in Sitka," she says. "And that's just at the two grocery stores. So add in all the other stores, I have to guess it's around 3 million."
Greg Dahl, the branch manager at AC Lakeside, says that number is right.
"We go through 500 cases a year," he says. Dahl confirms Putz's numbers are spot on. And the bags cost the grocery store just over $29,000 a year.
Even though he recognizes the intention is good — cutting down on waste in Sitka — Dahl says that it's hard for Lakeside to take an official position, since they stand to benefit financially if the ban passes.
"I don't think it's fair for us to have an official stance to sway any voters either way," he says. "It's completely up to them."
And some Sitkans may not be swayed. Although no one has stood in the roundabout with a pro-plastic sign, threads and polls on social media have generated considerable debate. Putz says she doesn't fully understand the opposition.
"It's hard for me to say why there are such strong feelings about plastic, plastic bags and other things in general," she says. "A lot of it is that, people think that there's larger problems out there to fix."
Putz says the group recognizes all the plastic out there: the plastic water bottles, the plastic packaging. "We want to get rid of that too," she says. "But we're just starting with one at a time."
But overall, it seems people's attitudes are changing. Bags for Change polled 250 grocery shoppers last year and found the majority would support a ban or fee. A similar poll on the Facebook group Sitka Chatters saw around half in favor and half opposed. Putz says some local business owners report more customers refusing single use bags, bringing their own reusable alternatives or carry things out in their arms.
Putz says that's the trick — changing one little behavior at a time.
"It is one tiny behavior that can change a lot in our community," she says. "If I didn't see plastic bags lining the ditches in the spring, boy would I love that."
Back at AC Lakeside, Kehoe shows me the piece she painted.
"This is a plastic world, but there's a little mushroom that the mycelium actually break down plastic," she says. "So my thought is that even though we're littered with plastic, there is hope."
And the group is hopeful, too, that Sitkans won't depend on mushrooms to clean things up. Rather, they hope Sitkans will clean up at the polls this fall.
Pat Kehoe installs the piece she painted for the "Ugly Side of Plastic" art show, on display at AC Lakeside this month (KCAW/Rose)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Closter, NJ (2/6/07) � Ericom® Software, a leading provider of enterprise-wide application access solutions, today announced it has attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program. Ericom achieved Gold Certified Partner status by demonstrating proven expertise in Microsoft technologies and providing excellent customer support. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Ericom will be able to leverage a rich set of benefits provided by Microsoft, further enhancing Ericom's offerings for the Microsoft platform.
Ericom's enhanced Server Based Computing solution, PowerTerm® WebConnect, provides secure access to Windows Terminal Server and legacy host systems � anytime, anywhere. As an enterprise-class business solution, PowerTerm WebConnect enables organizations to address everyday business challenges such as remote access, reducing the cost of managing desktops, privacy of information and business continuity.
"Ericom has a long history of bringing solid value to customers by building solutions. They extend the Terminal Services platform to deliver enterprise solutions," said Joshua Schnoll, Senior Product Manager for Terminal Services at Microsoft. "Microsoft is excited to bring our relationship to a new level with Ericom's Gold Certified Partner status."
Ericom Founder and CEO, Eran Heyman commented, "Achieving Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status further validates Ericom's ability to deliver a first-class solution with premium customer support. This accomplishment exemplifies Ericom's commitment to providing reliable and innovative solutions, to meet our customers' dynamic application access and IT needs."


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Schöner Schein ist ein deutscher Fernsehfilm von Sigi Rothemund aus dem Jahr 2012, der auf dem gleichnamigen Roman von Donna Leon basiert. Es handelt sich um die achtzehnte Episode der ARD-Kriminalfilmreihe Donna Leon mit Uwe Kockisch als Commissario Guido Brunetti in der Hauptrolle.

Handlung
Commissario Guido Brunetti ist mit seiner Frau Paola unterwegs zu seinem adligen Schwiegervater, dem Conte Falier. Er beschwert sich bei seiner Frau über die langweiligen gesellschaftlichen Abendessen, zu denen die beiden von dem Conte immer wieder eingeladen werden. Doch diesmal weckt eine geheimnisvolle Schöne sein Interesse. Es ist Franca Cataldo, die mit ihrem Ehemann Maurizio an dem Abendessen teilnimmt. Ihr Gesicht wirkt durch diverse Schönheitsoperationen eher starr, aber dennoch anziehend auf Brunetti. Sie kann Brunetti durch ihre Belesenheit für sich einnehmen und in ein Gespräch über Literatur verwickeln. Während des Gesprächs erhält ihr Mann einen Telefonanruf, in dem es um Transporte geht, Brunetti bekommt davon jedoch nichts mit.

Am nächsten Tag wird Brunetti zu einem neuen Tatort gerufen. Der Spediteur Ranzato wurde tot in seiner Wohnung aufgefunden. Es fehlen nur ein paar Scheckkarten und die Armbanduhr des Opfers. Die Polizei nimmt rasch an, dass der dilettantische Einbruch nur vorgetäuscht war, um einen Mord zu vertuschen. Es werden keine Fingerabdrücke gefunden. Einzige Zeugin ist eine Frau, die den Täter beim Verlassen des Hauses gesehen hatte, als sie mit ihrem Hund auf der Straße unterwegs war. Vor dem Tatort beobachtet auch Maurizio Cataldo die Ermittlungen. Als Brunetti vor dem Haus auftaucht, verschwindet er jedoch in der Menge.

Im Zuge der Ermittlungen besucht Brunetti die Spedition Ranzatos, trifft dort aber nur einen mürrischen Arbeiter, der den Chef oft vertritt, wenn dieser nicht anwesend ist. Lastautos findet er nicht in der Spedition.

In Brunettis Dienststelle, der Questura, steht der 59. Geburtstag von Vice-Questore Patta bevor. Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass Patta seinen 59. Geburtstag feiert, denn er fürchtet sich vor dem 60. und seine bevorstehende Pensionierung. Prompt trifft auch ein Schreiben des Innenministeriums ein, das sich mit der Pensionierung des Vice-Questore befasst. Es ist jedoch noch nicht unterschrieben. Traurig schleicht Patta durch seine Dienststelle und beobachtet die Beamten. Er würde sich gerne nochmals aktiv an der Aufklärung eines Falls, der anscheinend sein letzter sein soll, beteiligen. Doch Brunetti rät ihm davon ab, denn der vorliegende Mordfall scheint gefährlich zu werden.

Beim Essen mit seiner Frau und den Kindern kommt das Gespräch auf die Mafia. Brunettis Tochter, Chiara, kommt auf die Verflechtungen zwischen der Politik und der Mafia zu sprechen, die sich ja auch auf die Polizeiarbeit auswirken könnte.

Maurizio Cataldo berichtet seiner Frau, dass die Polizei die Ermittlungen im Mordfall Ranzato aufgenommen hat. Diese macht sich gerade bereit, um alleine auszugehen. Vor dem Haus erwartet sie ein Mann, der sie mit dem Motorboot ins Casino bringt. Dort küssen sich die beiden leidenschaftlich. Auch Commissario Brunetti denkt an die schöne Franca Cataldo, als er vor seinem Bücherregal steht und beschließt, nochmals die Werke Dante Alighieris zu lesen, über die er mit der belesenen Franca gesprochen hat. Brunettis Frau jedoch bevorzugt die Bücher von Henry James.

Während Franca Cataldo im Casino ist, verschafft sich ein Einbrecher Zutritt zu ihrer Wohnung. Er scheint aber keine Wertgegenstände mitnehmen zu wollen, sondern montiert ein Abhörgerät an einem Möbelstück. Plötzlich hört er, dass Franca nach Hause kommt. Sie geht ins Badezimmer um sich abzuschminken, doch da hört sie ein Geräusch und sieht nach. Es ist aber nur Maurizio, der sie in die Arme nimmt. Der Einbrecher ist unerkannt entkommen.

In der Questura durchleuchtet Brunetti mit Signorina Elettra die Auftragsbücher der Spedition des ermordeten Stefano Ranzato. Er hatte kaum Aufträge und anscheinend nur ein wenig Obst transportiert. Der Verbleib von fünf Lastwagen aus dem Fuhrpark Ranzatos bleibt ungeklärt. Franca Cataldo unterbricht die Recherchen und will Commissario Brunetti sprechen. Sie sieht die Fahndungsbilder, die auf Brunettis Tisch liegen, behauptet aber, den gesuchten Täter nicht zu kennen. Sie hat Brunetti ein Büchlein aus ihrer Bibliothek mitgebracht, die Fasti des römischen Dichters Ovid. Da wird Brunetti von seinem Schwiegervater, dem Conte unterbrochen, der ihn wie geplant abholt, um mit ihm ein Bild in einer Galerie zu besichtigen und eventuell zu kaufen. Das Bild zeigt einen Edelmann, der ein faltenloses Gesicht präsentiert. Doch seine meisterlich gemalten Augen verraten, dass er zur Zeit der Entstehung des Bildes wohl schon wesentlich älter ist als es die Darstellung glauben machen will. Das Gespräch kommt auf Franca Cataldo und ihre Schönheitsoperationen. Brunettis Schwiegervater vermutet einen Unfall oder andere Entstellungen als Grund für Francas Gesichtschirurgie. Die beiden Männer transportieren das Bild zum Wohnhaus des Conte. Auf der Fahrt mit dem Motorboot zur Wohnstätte des Conte diskutieren sie die Müllabfuhr Venedigs. Brunettis Schwiegervater scheint sich mit dem Müllgeschäft gut auszukennen. Er berichtet Brunetti, wie der Müll aus ganz Europa über Neapel nach China verschifft wird, wo er entsorgt wird. Maurizio Cataldo ist in diesem lukrativen Geschäft tätig und hat dem Conte eine Geschäftspartnerschaft angeboten. Wieder zu Hause berichtet Brunetti seiner Frau Paola von dem Gespräch und fragt sie, warum der Schwiegervater nicht langsam seine Geschäftstätigkeiten aufgibt, um in der Pension sein Leben zu genießen. Doch Paola macht ihm deutlich, dass genau diese Tätigkeiten das Leben ihres Vaters ausmachen und ihn aktiv erhalten. Brunetti bringen diese familiären Verwicklungen jedoch in einen beruflichen Interessenskonflikt.

Die Obsthändler, für die Ranzatos Laster gefahren sind, existieren nur auf dem Papier. Wie Elettra herausfindet, landen alle Zahlungen für Transporte einzig und allein auf dem Konto des Spediteurs Franco Barbaro. Brunetti beschließt, zusammen mit seinem Kollegen Sergente Vianello Franco Barbaro in seiner Obsthandlung aufzusuchen. Dieser ist ein Trinker und bedroht die Polizei mit einer Waffe. Er will keine Fragen gestellt bekommen. Sein Laden ist angeblich schon seit fünf Jahren geschlossen und alle Obsttransporte wurden über die Spedition Ranzatos durchgeführt. Doch ein paar neue Obstkisten und Reste einer Banane sprechen eine andere Sprache. Brunetti findet auf dem Betriebsgelände eine Halle, wo noch ein paar Kisten mit frischem Obst lagern. Hinter der Halle befindet sich eine Anlegestelle, an der gerade ein Motorboot anlegt. Es gehört Antonio Barbaro, dem Neffen des Spediteurs Franco Barbaro. Antonio vertreibt die beiden Polizisten von dem Gelände, für das sie keinen Durchsuchungsbefehl vorweisen können.

Im Büro durchleuchten Brunetti und Elettra die Identität Antonios. Um schneller vorwärts zu kommen, hackt Elettra die Datenbank des Innenministeriums, zu der sie ein Passwort herausgefunden hat. Antonio Barbaro wurde in Neapel bereits zweimal wegen Mordes angeklagt, musste aber jedes Mal freigesprochen werden, da Zeugen nicht aussagten.

Vice-Questore Patta sieht den Obsthändler Franco Barbaro als Schlüsselfigur in dem Mordfall. Er will eine Razzia in dessen Lagerräumen durchführen. Brunetti will ihn davon abhalten, kann sich aber gegenüber seinem Chef nicht durchsetzen. Mit einer größeren Polizeitruppe umstellen sie Barbaros Lagerhalle. Dort geht gerade der Einbrecher, der auch die Cataldos heimgesucht hat, zu Werke. Er montiert in der Halle eine Kamera, die ihre Bilder über Funksignale übertragen kann. Da stürmen die Polizisten die Lagerhalle. Der Einbrecher kann sich durch die Hintertür absetzen, doch auch dort sind Polizisten platziert. Es kommt zu einer Verfolgungsjagd an der auch Brunetti per Boot teilnimmt. Doch der Einbrecher entkommt durch einen Hinterhof. Der Vice-Questore kann mit dem Tempo der Verfolgung nicht mithalten. Ganz außer Atem muss er in einem Café um ein Glas Wasser bitten. Als er dort Platz genommen hat, beobachtet er den Einbrecher, der gerade über eine Mauer geklettert ist und dem Vice-Questore direkt in die Arme läuft. Mit vorgehaltener Pistole nimmt Patta ihn fest. Er bringt ihn in die Questura, wo ihn der Polizist Alvise direkt ins Verhörzimmer führt. Der Vice-Questore ist stolz auf seinen Erfolg und als Brunetti eintrifft, darf dieser den gefassten Einbrecher sofort vernehmen.

Doch der Einbrecher bleibt cool und behauptet, er werde keinen Anwalt brauchen. Er gibt Brunetti eine Telefonnummer. Der vorsichtige Commissario ruft dort aber nicht an, sondern beauftragt Elletra herauszufinden, wer sich hinter dieser Nummer verbirgt. Elletra stößt dabei auf eine Spezialeinheit der Polizei, die in Neapel die Machenschaften der Mafia durchleuchtet. Der vermeintliche Einbrecher ist der Undercover-Agent Filippo Guarino, ein Mafiajäger. Brunetti will von Guarino mehr Informationen bekommen, da er ahnt, dass dessen Tätigkeit mit den Transporten Barbaros zusammenhängt. Widerwillig eröffnet ihm Guarini, dass er hinter den Müllgeschäften der Mafia her ist. Mit den Lastwagen des ermordeten Stefano Ranzato wird Giftmüll nach Neapel geschafft und dort im Meer versenkt. Die wahren Hintermänner der Aktion bleiben jedoch im Dunkel. Der Spezialagent beschuldigt Brunetti über seine Frau und deren Vater in die Müllgeschäfte verwickelt zu sein. Brunetti lässt ihn gehen. Sergente Vianello, der alles gehört hat, versichert Brunetti seiner Loyalität. Der einzige, der sich in dieser Situation wohlfühlt, ist der Vice-Questore, der die Aufklärung seines letzten Falles in greifbare Nähe gerückt sieht.

Als Brunetti erfährt, dass eines der letzten Telefongespräche Stefano Ranzatos Maurizio Cataldo gegolten hat, sucht er diesen in seiner Wohnung auf. Cataldo gibt zu, früher mit Ranzato befreundet gewesen zu sein, als dieser noch bei ihm arbeitete. Er habe aber den Kontakt zu ihm verloren, nachdem Ranzato seine eigene Firma gegründet hatte. Das entspricht nicht der Wahrheit. Brunetti sagt ihm das auf den Kopf zu. Er will Cataldo unter Druck setzen und erzählt ihm, dass er über einen Spezialagenten von den Müllgeschäften weiß. Das alles hört auch Franca Cataldo. Sie bittet den Commissario, ihren Mann in Ruhe zu lassen. Er habe mit der Sache nichts zu tun. Über Franca erfährt auch Antonio Barbaro von dem Mafiajäger, der auf die Müllgeschäfte angesetzt wurde.

Brunetti ist beunruhigt, weil auch sein Schwiegervater in die Geschäfte Cataldos mit der Mafia verwickelt sein könnte. Seine Frau Paola kann sich das jedoch nicht vorstellen. Brunetti geht einer Spur nach, die ihn nach Jesolo führt. Dort wurde vor einiger Zeit ein Zahnarzt mit einer Patrone getötet, die aus dem Lauf jener Pistole stammen könnte, mit der auch Stefano Ranzato ermordet wurde. Der Vice-Questore möchte sich der Fahrt zu den Carabinieri nach Jesolo anschließen, Brunetti hält ihn jedoch davon ab und fährt mit Sergente Vianello. Der ermordete Zahnarzt hatte viele Feinde, er behandelte Hunderte von Patienten, hatte aber in Wirklichkeit nie ein Studium der Zahnmedizin abgeschlossen. Viele Patienten wurden von ihm übel zugerichtet, darunter eine schöne Frau, die sich danach mehreren Schönheitsoperationen stellen musste, um ihr Gesicht wiederherzustellen. Es stellt sich heraus, dass es sich dabei um Franca Cataldo handelte. Sie und ihr Mann wurden zu dem Mord einvernommen, hatten aber ein Alibi und gaben an, zur Tatzeit bei Geschäftsfreunden gewesen zu sein. Diese Geschäftsfreunde waren Antonio Barbaro und Stefano Ranzato. Brunetti kehrt nach Venedig zurück. Sofort sucht er das Ehepaar Cataldo auf, trifft die beiden jedoch nicht an.

Der Mafiajäger Filippo Guarino ist den LKWs der Spedition Ranzato auf der Spur. Er bricht in eine Lagerhalle ein und findet dort die voll beladenen Lastwagen. Hinter dem Gemüse, das diese anscheinend geladen haben, finden sich Fässer mit Giftmüll. Doch Guarino wird ein der Lagerhalle überrascht und von hinten in den Kopf geschossen. Seine Leiche wird an einem anderen Ort abgelegt. Brunetti fährt mit der Spurensicherung dorthin. Ihm ist klar, dass er selbst zur Ermordung des Agenten beigetragen hat, indem er im Hause Cataldo die Zusammenarbeit mit ihm erwähnt hat. Nochmals begibt er sich zu den Cataldos. Auch diesmal geben die beiden an, bei einem Arbeitstreffen gewesen zu sein. Brunetti vermutet Barbaro hinter dem geschäftlichen Treffen in der vergangenen Nacht. Doch im Nebenzimmer sitzt sein Schwiegervater, der Conte Falier, der bezeugt,  dass alle bei ihm bei diesem Arbeitstreffen waren. Gut gelaunt erzählt er seinem Schwiegersohn, dass er bald ein Geschäftspartner von Maurizio Cataldo sein werde.

Enttäuscht kehrt Brunetti in seine Wohnung zurück. Am nächsten Tag erscheint er nicht in der Questura. Der Vice-Questore Patta sucht Brunetti zu Hause auf und bringt ihn auf den neuesten Stand. Auch die Patrone, mit der Guarini ermordet wurde, stammt aus derselben Waffe, die schon im Fall Ranzato benutzt worden ist. Darüber hinaus wurden an der Leiche große Mengen an Quecksilber, Kadmium, Radium und Arsen gefunden. Für Brunetti wird klar, dass Filippo Guarino die Lastwagen mit dem Giftmüll gefunden hatte, bevor er getötet wurde. Brunetti bittet den Vice-Questore, ihn von dem Fall abzuziehen. Er gesteht seinem Chef, dass er unvorsichtig Cataldo von dem Agenten aus Neapel erzählt hat und dass sein eigener Schwiegervater ein Geschäftspartner von Cataldo sei. Doch der Vice-Questore will davon nichts hören. Er hält Brunetti für den besten Commissario, den er je hatte und meint, dass er auf ihn bei der Aufklärung seines letzten Falls nicht verzichten könne.

Brunetti nimmt den Fall wieder auf und findet im Hafengebiet die vermissten LKWs mit der Giftfracht. Wieder trifft er Franca Cataldo und konfrontiert sie direkt mit seinem Wissen über Antonio Barbaro. Dieser ist nun der einzige, der für die Morde in Frage kommt, doch es gibt gegen ihn kaum Beweise. Brunetti erzählt Franca, dass er auf der Suche nach den Lastwagen sei. Als er ihr verspricht, sie für eine Aussage gegen Barbaro vor einer Mitverurteilung bewahren zu wollen, steht sie wortlos auf und geht. Ganz in der Nähe wartet Antonio Barbaro mit seinem Motorboot auf sie. Brunetti weiß, dass Franca Antonio alle Informationen über die Lastwagen weitergeben wird.

Als Franca und Antonio in der Wohnung der Cataldos ankommen, muss sie feststellen, dass Antonio ihren Mann an einen Stuhl gefesselt und geschlagen hat. Er will sich dafür rächen, dass Maurizio auch mit Brunettis Schwiegervater als Geschäftspartner verhandelt hat. Franca will ihren Mann schützen und bedroht Antonio mit ihrer Pistole. Doch Antonio macht ihr klar, dass er sich vor ihrer Waffe nicht fürhctet. Sollte sie sie benutzen, käme sie lange Zeit ins Gefängnis und ihr Mann wäre allein. Er entwaffnet Franca und schlägt sie anschließend. Dann will er wissen, was sie mit Brunetti besprochen hat. Sie erklärt ihm, dass Brunetti auf der Suche nach den Lastwagen sei, die ein Beweis für Antonios Machenschaften seien. Antonio sieht sich gezwungen, die Lastwagen rechtzeitig anderswo zu verstecken.

Brunetti hat damit gerechnet und wartet mit einigen Polizisten vor der Lagerhalle, in der die Lastwagen stehen. Auch der Vice-Questore führt einen Trupp von Polizisten an. Da treffen Männer ein und Brunetti sieht sofort, dass Antonio Barbaro nicht unter ihnen ist. Es sind die Männer aus der Spedition des ermordeten Ranzato, die die Lastwagen wegfahren sollen. Brunetti will den Zugriff abblasen und eine bessere Gelegenheit abwarten, um Antonio zu überführen. Doch es gibt Missverständnisse an den Funkgeräten und der Vice-Questore befiehlt den Zugriff. Die Falschen werden verhaftet. Abends in der Bar entschuldigt sich der Vice-Questore bei Brunetti für seinen voreiligen Befehl. Da bekommt der Commissario einen Anruf von Franca. Diese ist mit Antonio im Casino und will, dass Brunetti dorthin kommt und ihn verhaftet. Dann will sie gegen ihn wegen Mordes aussagen. Der Vice-Questore gibt Brunetti den Befehl, Antonio zu schnappen. Das sei vermutlich sein letzter Befehl. Er selbst will sich an der Verhaftung diesmal nicht beteiligen.

Als Brunetti im Casino angekommen ist und Franca ihn bemerkt hat, überredet sie Antonio zu gehen. Sie verlassen das Casino, während Brunetti ihnen folgt. Mit gezückter Pistole zwingt er das Paar, stehen zu bleiben. Er will Antonio verhaften. Doch dieser findet Brunettis Vorgehen lächerlich, da es keine Beweise gäbe. Er will selbst mit Franca zur Polizei gehen, doch als diese sich ihm nähert, zückt er eine Pistole und nimmt sie als Geisel. Brunetti ist gezwungen, aufzugeben, da er nicht das Leben seiner Zeugin gefährden will. Er legt seine Pistole auf den Boden und schiebt sie in Richtung des Angreifers. Antonio lässt Franca los und wirft sie zu Boden. Nun bedroht er Brunetti und erzählt, dass er vor nichteinmal 48 Stunden einem anderen Polizisten gegenübergestanden hat, nämlich Filippo Guarino, der ebenfalls völlig allein seine Ermittlungen geführt habe. Plötzlich erschallt ein Stimme und erklärt, dass Brunetti nicht alleine gekommen sei. Der Vice-Questore Patta ist Brunetti schließlich doch gefolgt und greift mit seiner Pistole im Anschlag ein. Doch Antonio konfrontiert sich mit dem alten Polizisten und die beiden Männer stehen sich mit gezückten Waffen gegenüber. Plötzlich fällt ein Schuss. Von weiteren Schüssen getroffen sinkt Antonio zu Boden. Es war aber nicht der Vice-Questore, der abgedrückt hat, sondern es war Franca, die Brunettis Pistole an sich genommen und ihren Peiniger erschossen hat.

Auf seiner Dienststelle ist Brunetti allein mit Franca Cataldo. Sie gibt an, in Notwehr auf Antonio geschossen zu haben. Aber Franca hat nicht nur in der Situation nach dem Casinobesuch durch den Tod ihres Erpressers enorm profitiert. Nach der Ermordung des Spediteurs Ranzato ist nun auch Antonio Barbaro tot. Beide hatten für das Alibi des Ehepaars Cataldo für die Nacht gebürgt, in der jener Zahnarzt ermordet worden war, der Franca einst verunstaltet hatte. Danach hatten sie das Ehepaar in der Hand. Das ist nun vorbei. Brunetti aber wird klar, dass Francas Annäherung an ihn und ihr späteres Vorgehen von Anfang an geplant gewesen sein könnte, um Antonio auf irgendeine Weise loszuwerden, ohne dass ihre und ihres Mannes Beteiligung am Tod des falschen Zahnarztes auffliegen würde.

Der Comissario muss Franca gehen lassen. Vice-Questore Patta hat seine Sachen gepackt, um sich an seinem Geburtstag in die Pension zu verabschieden. Immerhin hat er zusammen mit Brunetti seinen letzten Fall abgeschlossen. Da kommt Elettra und übergibt Patta ein Schreiben. Darin gratuliert das Ministerium zu seinem 59. Geburtstag. Elettra hat wohl mit ihrem illegalen Zugang zum Netz des Ministeriums die Daten des Vice-Questores hinter seinem Rücken manipuliert, sodass er ein weiteres Mal seinen 59. Geburtstag feiern und noch ein Jahr im Amt bleiben kann. Voller Elan packt er die Reiseprospekte, die er sich für den Ruhestand besorgt hat, wieder aus und wirft sie weg. Brunetti aber geht nach Hause und spricht mit seiner Frau. Ihr Vater hat sich nun endlich dazu entschlossen, seine Geschäfte ruhen zu lassen. Brunetti will aber weiterhin ein Auge auf die Aktivitäten des Conte werfen. Dazu wird sich schon bald eine Gelegenheit bieten. Conte Falier hat das Paar wieder einmal zu einem seiner gesellschaftlichen Essen eingeladen.

Hintergrund
Schöner Schein wurde vom 21. April 2010 bis zum 25. Juni 2010 in Venedig und Umgebung gedreht. Die Erstausstrahlung auf Das Erste erfolgte am 14. April 2012 zur Hauptsendezeit.

Kritik
Die Kritiker der Fernsehzeitschrift TV Spielfilm vergaben dem Film eine mittlere Wertung, sie zeigten mit dem Daumen zur Seite. Sie konstatierten: "Bietet so viel Tiefgang wie eine Gondelfahrt".

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Schoner Schein
Deutscher Film
Filmtitel 2012
Fernsehfilm
Kriminalfilm

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text:
Accounts and Corporate Compliance
Tax Advice & Compliance
Relevant Contract Tax
Accountancy For Startups
Over 300,000 have yet to claim new tax credit for renters
ONLY a fraction of the number of people who are eligible for the new rent credit have claimed. Just 78,000 renters have so far claimed the credit that was announced in the last Budget.
The Government has estimated that some 400,000 people are eligible to claim it.
It is worth up to €500 per individual renter, or €1,000 a year for a couple.
It has been introduced to help ease the pressure of record highs in the cost of accommodation.
But a survey released by Taxback.com earlier this month revealed widespread lack of awareness among the public around the tax break.
Now Revenue says the big change from last September's Budget was the introduction of the rent tax credit in the Budget.
"Unlike usual Budget tax credit changes which apply for the following year, this credit applies retrospectively for 2022 and can be claimed on an income tax return for the tax year 2022."
Revenue said the value of the credit is up to €500 per year for individual taxpayers and up to €1,000 per year for jointly assessed married persons or civil partners.
"Of the 2022 tax returns received to date, approximately 78,400 claims have been made in respect of rent tax credit."
It added that from the middle of next month it expects that taxpayers will be able to claim the rent tax credit for this year in real-time through the 'Manage Your Tax' option in myAccount.
The Taxback.com survey found that almost seven in 10 people are not aware of the rent credit that was introduced late last year to help these tenants, the survey found.
This is despite soaring rents and a chronic shortage of housing financially crippling tenants throughout the country.
Recent Daft.ie data found that rents shot up across the State by 14pc last year, its higher rate of rise since 2006.
Taxback.com consumer tax manager Marian Ryan said Irish taxpayers are historically "below par" when it comes to claiming what's owed from Revenue.
In an update on tax returns filed by PAYE workers, Revenue said more 370,000 tax returns have been processed in respect of PAYE taxpayers who have already filed their return for 2022.
This is up over 30pc on the same period last year.
Approximately 275,000 of these returns resulted in an overpayment of tax and €193m has already been refunded to individuals' bank accounts as a result, the tax authority said.
Revenue's national PAYE manager Aisling Ní Mhaoileoin said all PAYE taxpayers now have access to their preliminary end of year statement for 2022 in myAccount.
She said the statement will give them certainty about their pay, tax credits and overall tax position for the year.
This allows taxpayers to correct or add to information in their record for the year with Revenue. "The statement is easy to access and readily understandable, and employees are encouraged to review the information contained therein for completeness and accuracy at the earliest opportunity."
She said the Revenue has found that 62pc of employees appear to have paid the correct amount of income tax and USC for 2022.
And she added that around 82pc of workers have a preliminary end of year position that is either balanced, underpaid or overpaid by less than €200 before they submit their return.
Article Source – Over 300,000 have yet to claim new tax credit for renters
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ONLY a fraction of the number of people who are eligible for the new rent credit have claimed. Just 78,000 renters have so far claimed
Revenue update for PAYE Taxpayers – 370,000 2022 returns processed
Yesterday (23/01/2023), Revenue published a range of statistics on PAYE for 2022. In addition to publishing information on 2022 Income Tax returns which have already
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Thom Rutledge – Confronting the "inner Gremlin voice" and learning how to disobey it. | Life. Unrestricted. Boost your body image and recover from food & exercise madness.
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1 Comment on LU 027: Thom Rutledge – Confronting the "inner Gremlin voice" and learning how to disobey it.
What a treat to hear this interview with Thom! Fabulous insights and examples. Thank you!


"One crime. 38 witnesses. No way back."
Alpha Dog in 2006 is a crime film with plenty of drama put into the story. The movie has Justin Timberlake in the film which easily helped bring up sales in the box office. The story of this film is very professional and crafted to the point that that script was nicely made as well. The movie is not for those who are young and don't need to know about adult related situations that take place in life. Alpha Dog is a good film with a lot of crime which takes place.
The story of Alpha Dog begins with a guy named Johnny Truelove who is very known for being a popular drug dealer in his area and the song of an underworld figure. He is very rough, scary, and definitely a strong man who will do anything to get what he wants and needs. He is not afraid to try and do things out of the ordinary to make another pay him back for what he had done.
Johnny lended a friend named Jake Mazursky money. Jake ends up struggling to pay him back, and Johnny sends him threats of all kinds that make Jake worried and oftentimes scared, but he does not back down at any given moment. However, things don't go Jake's way when Johnny's little gang group decides to kidnap Jake's 15 year old brother in exchange for receiving Jake's money that is owed. Johnny does not let Jake's brother go and he doesn't plan on letting him go until Jake pays his debts.
Jake's brother, however, doesn't feel baffled or nervous at all about the situation since he knows that his brother can take care of the problem and pay his debts on time before they even try to kill him. The movie progresses will all sorts of drama taking place, causing everybody to struggle trying to please Johnny. Several subplots take place in the film as well.
Alpha Dog is not a movie for the young at heart or for those who are truly young. The movie is scary, life threatening, and involves death during nervewracking moments. The film goes through the film rather quickly since the scenes are very in-depth and doesn't make you lose focus of the entire story. The movie is very well made and definitely takes on a lot of great actors that deliver the film well. If you want to watch an action packed movie with drama ad crime brought into it as well, Alpha Dog may be a good movie to watch.
Alpha Dog is currently available to watch and stream, download, buy on demand at Showtime, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube VOD online.


text:
Q: Remove border lines on geom_smooth confidence interval using ggplotly I'm building a pretty intensive plot, but I am having a basic problem with geom_smooth that I can't seem to find any answers for. Here's how the plot looks now with geom_smooth(method = "lm") :

When I build the geom_smooth() portion of my plot, I'd like to change the line color. When I do this, it draws new lines bordering my confidence interval,
Calling geom_smooth(method = "lm", color = "black") returns this:

Is there a simple way to get rid of the border lines, but keep the main line black?
EDIT: I can't provide full code with data, but have provided circumstances that will reproduce the error here. You will need no more than this to answer the question. Per the comments below, its likely an interaction with plotly (ggplotly).
library(ggplot2)
library(plotly)
df <- data.frame(
    Demographic = rnorm(1:100),
    Proficiency = rnorm(1:100),
    N.Tested = rnorm(1:100)
)

a <- ggplot(data = df,
        aes(x = Demographic,
            y = Proficiency)
)
b <- a + geom_point(aes(
    text = "to be replaced",
    color = N.Tested,
    size = N.Tested
),
show.legend = FALSE)
c <- b + scale_color_gradient2(low = "firebrick4", high = "gold", mid = "orange", midpoint=300)
d <- c + geom_smooth(method = "lm", color="black")

ggplotly(d)

A: You could add just the regression line via geom_smooth and add the ribbon via geom_ribbon using stat = "smooth".  It adds an extra step but separating the layers allows you to color the line without messing up the confidence ribbon.
d <- c + geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = FALSE, color = "black")
e <- d + geom_ribbon(stat = "smooth", method = "lm", alpha = .15)
ggplotly(e)

A: ggplotly frequently gives unexpected results. If the end product you want is a plotly graph, then it's usually best to go straight to the plotly API. Using the plotly API also gives access to a much wider range of options than ggplotly.
Unfortunately, however, plotly does not come with the convenient built in calculation of statistics that geom_smooth provides. So we begin by calculating our fit and error range using lm() and predict.lm()
lm1 = lm(Proficiency~Demographic, data=df)
lm.df = data.frame(Demographic = sort(df$Demographic),
                   Proficiency = predict(lm1)[order(df$Demographic)],
                   se = predict(lm1, se.fit = T)$se.fit[order(df$Demographic)])
lm.df$ymax = lm.df$Proficiency + lm.df$se
lm.df$ymin = lm.df$Proficiency - lm.df$se

Now we are ready to plot, using the plotly API directly
plot_ly() %>%
  add_trace(data=df, x=~Demographic, y=~Proficiency, type="scatter", mode="markers",
            size=~N.Tested, color=~N.Tested, colors = c("#8B1A1A", "#FFA500"), showlegend=F) %>%
  add_ribbons(data=lm.df, x=~Demographic, ymin = ~ymin, ymax = ~ymax,
              line = list(color="transparent"), showlegend=F,
              fillcolor = "#77777777") %>%
  add_trace(data=lm.df, x=~Demographic, y=~Proficiency,
          type="scatter", mode="lines", line=list(color="black"), showlegend=F)

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Olivia blinked. Someone is bothering to talk to me?
"Olivia?" the woman's voice repeated.
Of course I can. "I answered, didn't I?" I did, right? I'm not going crazy, am I?
"Um, why?" Olivia looked around the room again. Where should I be looking? I'd rather not talk to an empty room. I'm not going crazy. I hope.
"Can I say no?" asked Olivia.
"If you want to just keep pacing, yes," responded the speaker.
"No." Everything actually tasted pretty good.
"Um, donuts?" Olivia asked, perking up. Been a while since I've had any of those.
"Donuts?" asked the woman over the speaker.
This isn't how I imagined prison would be. Why would they shoot me a bunch, then ask what I want? "I was… well… I was reading the Calvin and Hobbes books before. And clothes, can they not have 'Prisoner' stamped on them?" Or fall apart. Some of the things Miya and Amanda got for me fell apart when I cut the wing slits on them.
Olivia might have heard papers rustling over the speaker, she wasn't quite certain. Then, a different, deeper voice said, "Do not mistake this for complacency. You've tried to open the front door, you know full well security here is tight. These are privileges which can be revoked." I've decided I don't like where this is headed.
Olivia kept her head still this time. I really don't like this, so we can just sit in silence until you get bored.
"Very well. Now, there are close to sixty deaths attributed to you. Would you deny any of them?" There it is.
She hung her head. "No," she whispered. I was stupid. I was stupid and lost control and other people died and I tried to ignore and forget about it. Stupid. "I didn't… I didn't know." I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know enough to stay away from a power that caused riots.
"I… three?" I can only think of two. No. No, no, no. I didn't forget something like that, did I? No, I didn't forget. I'm not going to forget.
"The third of June, two bodies found with claw injuries at the construction site for the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital. Overlooked at the time due to the Watch's activities at the same time. One week later, a large mantis feral of unknown origins found torn to pieces on the streets near where PETA busted an animal smuggling operation. And two days ago, four people killed when their houses were destroyed." One, two, three. I remember all of those. Good. I remember all of those.
"The first one, um…" she trailed off. How much should I tell them? Not a lot, but how much of not a lot? "We were, me and my friends, were helping the Watch. Kind of." That one was me. They were shooting me, I don't really have any bad feelings about that.
"The feral, the other feral, was trying to kill a friend." Other feral, I know.
Olivia stayed quiet for a moment. "Yeah," she answered.
"Um, a friend of mine already did that, I think." Thank you, Miya.
Wait a minute, you people shot me a whole bunch. Why do you care about my well-being now? "Why?" asked Olivia.
"I… I don't know." Well, Miya and the others were concerned about… health stuff. I don't know what exactly. And Miya keeps saying she's only good with bones, so I guess this wouldn't hurt.
"Think it over. We will respect your decision either way. Now, we'll talk again tomorrow." The speaker went dead, leaving the room silent once more.
The next day started much the same as the last. Olivia woke up, ate the meat and donuts provided, paced, and waited for something interesting happened. They held up the donut promise. That's a good sign, right? This time, however, the speaker didn't crackle to life like last time.
She felt subtle vibrations through the floor. A loud humming noise filled the whole room in response. The wall opposite the cell door began to slide to the side, revealing a thick glass wall. Olivia whirled around and uncurled her fingers.
Five people stood behind the glass. Two armed guards stood to the rear, one with a thick grey mustache on his upper lip, the other a young guy toting what appeared to be a grenade launcher. The three people in the forefront, near what appeared to be counter with its top obscured from Olivia's view, looked more like civilians.
The bald man, off to Olivia's left, stood with arms folded and the beginnings of a scowl on his face. In the center sat an impassive woman at the counter. The woman to Olivia's right, in contrast, leaned forward eagerly, a small smile on her face. Both looked about forty years old. Not a lab coat in sight. Those movies didn't have it all right.
The woman in the middle grabbed something unseen on the counter, then said, "Hello, Olivia. I am Dr. Dabrowski. This is Dr. Sullivan." She pointed to the woman next to her. "And this is Dr. McCormick." She pointed to the man.
"Um, hi?" What am I supposed to say?
"I… um… two months." I know, I'm weird.
"You… you can figure out who I was?" I… I can find out who my family was? What my real name is? The various scowls and smiles disappeared, replaced by looks of focus and consideration. Olivia ducked her head down.
Olivia's mouth opened, then closed. Open. Close. I really hope I don't regret this somewhere down the line. "I… um… I… sure." I really, really, really hope I don't regret this somewhere down the line.
Olivia nodded. If I see a way out, I'm taking it. If not, then maybe this won't be so bad. I hope.
The other two scientists headed towards the door as the wall slid back over the window. Behind Olivia, the door opened. She whirled around, and stared at the open doorway. No one appeared. Someone smells close by. Several someones. She approached. Can I just go through?
She went through the doorway, and found herself in another, smaller concrete room, this time with a large metal door in front of her. Three thick bolts in the door retracted, and the door opened. The guard who'd opened the door stood off to the side.
Oh, OK. She went through the next doorway, and came face to face with a very large gun pointed directly at her. She blinked. The four guards flanking her, two to each side, also carried the same grenade launcher looking things the guard with the scientists had carried. Them, and the two guards manning the gun, stared at her without expression. They are not messing around.
"This way," said a guard to her right, motioning down the hallway.
She followed his lead. Like the time she'd been caught by the MHU, the four guards formed a box around her, two in front, two behind. They stayed well out of arm's reach. The concrete of this hallways was a darker grey, though that might have been the dimmer lighting. What is it with all the concrete?
Her group passed two more set ups similar to her cell's; a heavy gun aimed at a fortified metal door. Both were also manned. The sign above the first had "Steve" emblazoned in large black letters. The second had "Frogger" in the same style, with a bright yellow sign with a skull and crossbones next to it.
Steve? What's wrong with Steve? I guess the same could be said about my name, but still. Wait, how did they know my name? And Frogger? I don't see frogs as being particularly dangerous.
They came to a low, narrow door. One of the guards opened it. Olivia had grown used to having to duck under most doorways, but the hallway that extended beyond was exactly the same height. That was, about six inches lower than what her wings cleared. Olivia stopped, and looked at the guard who seemed to be in charge.
He noticed her look and shrugged. "One of the real big ones gets loose, they can't get to anyone in here too easy." He motioned for her to go through.
She sighed. Fine, whatever. Beats getting shot with grenades at any rate. Wait a minute, they'd get caught up in the explosion too. What do they shoot, then? Not that I want to find out firsthand, of course. She ducked down and hunched over. Thankfully, this didn't go on for too long, and they came to an opened door.
"Doctor, she's here," called the lead guard.
"Ah, yes, thank you," came a slightly accented voice from within. The guards stood off to the side to let Olivia in.
"We'll be out here if you need anything," called the guard, watching Olivia. Yeah, yeah. Dangerous feral. Got it.
She finally got to the office, and smiled when she found she could stand fully upright in the clean, well lit room. A man in the first white lab coat she'd seen in person typed away at a computer at the desk in the far end of the room, next to a wall of various instruments.
Olivia sat on the edge of the bed as the doctor muttered to himself, too indistinct for her battered ears to make out. After a moment, he stopped typing, grabbed a clipboard with a thick stack of paper in it, and propelled himself backwards towards her, spinning in the chair as it rolled towards her. He came to a stop about a foot from her and stood, adjusting his glasses.
Olivia nodded. Um… you're doctor? I mean, I see the lab coat, but really?
"Physical?" They're treating it like a thing, rather than a description, so I'm not quite sure what they're talking about.
The doctor scribbled something else, then flipped the page. He stared at the next page on the clipboard for a moment, then sighed. Olivia's brow furrowed as he plopped back into his chair and scribbled furiously.
"Sorry, this will just take a moment," he said, not looking up.
After what Olivia felt to be an intensely awkward minute, she spoke up. "Um, excuse me?" she asked. You're not going to get mad at questions, are you?
"Yes," he said, taking the question in stride.
"Ah, you met the researchers. Well, no, they have doctorates in other things. Dr. Dabrowski's specialty is in xenobiology." He flipped the page, then continued his mad scribbling.
"No, they are the ones assigned to you. Each feral has about three to five scientists assigned to them." He stopped, sighed again, then got up to check on something on the computer across the room.
"Well, I'm the medical doctor here. Mr. and Mrs. Zheng are the resident zookeepers, but I don't think you'll see too much of them. Everyone else is either a guard, scientist, or just a blue collar worker of some kind." He wrote one final thing on his clipboard, held it up to the screen to double check, then returned to Olivia. I can read all of that stuff on his screen and clipboard, it just makes zero sense.
"Um, blue collar?" What does the collar have to do with anything?
He nodded and wrote something down real quick. "OK. We're already… operating under, what were their words? 'Assume human until something isn't.' Not knowing age won't hurt too much." Assume human. That's positive. Right?
He followed with a battery of questions, only half of which she understood. Why is everyone so concerned with what I eat? The doctor simply nodded whenever she told him that, so she couldn't really get mad at him. Then he had her stand on a scale, and pulled up a metal thing attached to the back.
"Six foot ten, two hundred and eighty seven pounds," he murmured to himself.
Back at the bed, he pulled out a small flat wooden stick. "Open wide, stick out your tongue." Olivia eyed the stick. "It's a tongue depressor, let's me see," he clarified. She complied after a moment. "Hrm. Split tongue, serrated teeth. Everything else seems human, nothing is swollen or off color. Good," muttered the doctor. This is weird, isn't it?
After disposing the stick (call it something fancy all you like, it's a wooden stick), Dr. Ruskov walked over to some cabinets over by the door. He grabbed a small box of latex gloves and some syringes and placed them on the counter, then left them there. Um, I don't think I like that. He then walked over to the other side of the room and grabbed something metal with black plastic on the end.
"You have good eyesight, yes?" he asked, clicking on some application on his computer.
In response, a projector hummed to life, and the lights went dim. A series of letters appeared on the blank patch of wall in front of her. After reading progressively smaller and small letters, until the projector reduced them to indistinct blurs even she couldn't read, he turned the lights back on.
"I want to try something." He stood directly in front of her and held out a finger. "Keep your eyes on my finger. Keep your head still." Um, OK?
She tracked his finger as he slowly swept it left, then right. I think I was moving my head. Oops.
She tracked his finger as far as she could, about five inches to her right until he stopped.
"OK, keep your eyes on it," he said. He moved his hand about two more inches out. Her head jerked to keep track, brushing his hand out of the way. What the… What am I doing?
He moved his finger to her left. Same response. He repeated the process, Olivia getting more and more confused in the meantime. He nodded, then returned to the counter to his clipboard. He flipped another page and began writing again.
I think I missed something. "Um, excuse me," she said.
"Yes?" he replied, not looking up.
How have I never noticed this before? This seems like something I'd have noticed. "I… um… really?" she asked.
"Yes. Why would I lie? I don't… foresee this being a problem, but I thought you should know." He sat back on his chair and resumed his clipboard scribbling. Oh, great. Weirder eyes along with everything else. This is just wonderful.
"Yeah. I heal fast, I think," replied Olivia. Roughed up? Is that what you call it?
"I see," he responded. After some more quality clipboard time, he had her walk over to the blood pressure cuff. He then took her wrist and checked her pulse.
"No! What? No," she stammered, twisting around and getting a faceful of wing for her trouble. Now what?
She held still, though every urge she had told her to brush him aside. "Hm. Tell me if you feel this." That's not a good sign.
"I… it's not like I check my back for spikes every morning. Or at all. Whatever." She crashed on the hospital bed again. No. No. This is stupid. The world can't be this stupid. I can't just grow new stuff. What next? Antenna? Another pair of wings? What? How?
"Sure." Please get on with it.
Olivia hung her head. Spikes along my back? Because of dragon puberty? This is stupid. This is so stupid.
"Do you need a moment?" asked the doctor.
I'd rather not have to deal with this while complete strangers are waiting on me. But I also have wings and a tail sticking out of my back, spikes aren't too weird, right? Or am I just deluding myself?
"Um… was there anything… you know… weird? Weirder." I know, I'm weird.
"Why?" Why am I weird? Dumb question.
"Well, sharks are fish, crocodiles are reptiles. We figured crocodiles would be closest to you, biology wise, but evolution always throws us… curve balls like this." Why does almost every answer of yours start with 'well'?
Olivia nodded. I guess that could have been worse.
"Aren't those concerns for everyone?" asked Olivia. Ask about the bacteria later.
"Bad?" Certainly doesn't sound good, from what I've picked up.
"Alright. We just need a blood sample and we will be done here. Dr. Dabrowski may have questions for you, but the majority of those will probably wait until after it gets through the bloodworks." He walked over to the counter.
"Bloodworks?" I'm not being stupid, am I?
"Hrm? Oh, that's just the big analytical machine we use for getting almost anything you could want from a single sample of blood. Some crazy… techie contraption, very expensive, but it's damn accurate," he said as he put on some blue latex gloves and prepped a syringe.
He held up the empty syringe, then stopped. "This little thing isn't going to work, is it?" he asked. Olivia shook her head. He scratched his head. "I… don't know what will." There's iron, but that's going to stay my little secret for as long as possible.
This just keeps getting better and better. Olivia sighed. "What?" she asked. He'll fill in the blanks, I'm sure.
"Those idiot police just taped a needle in a bullet hole," he said, anger creeping into his voice. "I don't care how advanced their techie was, that's…" he muttered to himself, his speech descending into a different language.
"Um, thank you. For… um… telling me." Well, they did promise answers I might not have liked.
This entry was posted in Down South, Stone Burners and tagged Clone, Dabrowski, Olivia, Ortega, Ruskov, Sullivan, Walker. Bookmark the permalink.
So there you have it! A bunch of people with doctorates, who would rather not get cloven in twain.
Im liking where this is going. The only thing that is a bit odd is the the doctor is a bit… calm sounding. Not only is Olivia a feral, but has a history of going berserk and killing 60 people. Prodding her, even as part of a medical checkup, could logically set her off.
Id be nervous as all hell.
To be fair, I assume he deals with this kind of thing on a regular basis. He does mention that she's a lot more complacent than the others he's had to examine.
His calmness would make sense if he knew her feral violence only switched on when she was angry. I don't know how he would know that, though.
Alternatively, he just doesn't care.
He is Russian, after all.
Um, I'm going to assume he's wearing leather or something under the labcoat. It's one thing to look professional, but if you're in the presence of a Feral that might Go Crazy (even if it can talk!), and Has Claws, I'd want at least bare minimal defenses.
After all, Olivia may not be a prone-to-snapping at shots dog, but… why take the risk?
Say whatever you want doctor, that iv drip in the bullet hole was rather intelligent.
Leveling banks to collect and hoard a princely sum.
Dying her scales black, piercings, cranking up the skryllix.
As a teen girl, is she a one-direction fan? What music does she listen to? There must have been a radio somewhere in their secret base.
I really, really enjoyed this chapter. IV in bullet holes, hyper carnivores, and security guys being pissy because the more human she acts the less they're allowed to do their jobs.
Dragons. Dragons are the coolest.
I like this doctor so far. I hope he doesn't turn out to be evil.
If not, then I'm guessing the dramas going to unfold when her friends come to rescue her, when someone makes her mad and she snaps, or when what's-his-name who likes to dissect stuff hears about her and comes to kidnap her for experiments.
I mean seriously, I think if he hears about her being half dragon then that alone will be enough to make him interested. But if he hears that she is still sane, has increased healing abilities, can fly, or that she has magic? I am certain that he will stop at nothing to get her.
Hmm maybe extract the blood from the tongue? Hope she does not get rescued before we get an in deep medical analysis of her.
If all is at it seems than that does not bode well on the common sense of Olivias team, I mean there questionable morals in regards to human life are one thing but I always felt they acted quite irresponsibilty in regards to Olivias anger issue.
I would have atleast given her something like a remotely activated calmative, in a armlet with an iron needle or as an implant.
D. Being fixed right now.
When in doubt, pick C.


text:
Former Duluth athlete reflects on heart condition
When Tom Wheeler heard about Jackson Pfister, a 15-year-old Esko football player who died last week due to congenital heart disease, he said it hit home for him.
Written By: Adelle Whitefoot | Oct 16th 2019 - 7pm.
Tom Wheeler
In 1963, Tom Wheeler was 17 years old and the quarterback for Duluth East High School's football team. That season he missed a few games due to being sick and a doctor heard something that didn't sound right with Wheeler's heart.
The doctor told Wheeler to visit Mayo Clinic after the football season, and that's when he was diagnosed with a heart murmur. Wheeler said at first he was told to refrain from sports.
"I was just crushed," he said. "We had a very good (hockey) team and I was looking forward to the season, and this was just dropped on me like a bomb."
Wheeler said the doctors didn't know if it was a congenital heart defect, but faced with the possibility, they initially put restrictions on his sports activities. But after a couple of weeks of additional discussion and testing, Wheeler was given the go-ahead to resume playing sports.
He continued to play football, hockey and tennis throughout high school until he graduated from East in 1964. After that, he played hockey for another four years at Hamilton College in New York, which wasn't his first choice.
"I was a good student. I had wanted to go to Harvard or Dartmouth for college, but the thinking was that if I could play college hockey, which would have been up to the college, it was to go to a smaller school where the competition was less intense," Wheeler said. "The irony was when I got there, the doctor gave me a green light to play, but we didn't have three lines until my senior year."
After college, Wheeler went on to play four years of hockey in Europe and didn't have any symptoms until his last year there.
"I had shortness of breath, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeats," Wheeler said. "So I essentially retired."
Wheeler, 73, had his first open-heart surgery at the age of 61, and that was the first time he was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, which is any abnormality of the heart that has been present since birth. Wheeler has had his aortic valve replaced three times and now has a pacemaker. Since age 17, he's had annual checkups.
When Wheeler read the News Tribune article about Jackson Pfister, a 15-year-old Esko football player who died last week due to congenital heart disease, he said it hit home for him.
"When you're 17, sports are sort of your life," he said. "My sense is Jackson died doing what he loved, and being loved as he was he will live on in his family's memories and so on."
DULUTH EAST
News Oct 16th 2019 - 10pm
Esko rallies behind Jackson Pfister
Esko football player died of congenital heart disease


for example: HK AUDIO LINEAR and DB AUDIO.
I HAVE ALSO OTHER EQUIPMENT WHICH IS NOT LISTEN AND WHAT IS MORE - ALL THE TIME SOMETHING NEW APPEARS IN MY TECHNICAL BASE. I HAVE ALSO POSSIBILITY TO RENT ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT FOR YOU LIKE TENTS, SCENES AND BIG CONCERT SOUND SYSTEMS.


text:
package org.apache.beam.runners.spark.translation;

import static org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.translation.PipelineTranslatorUtils.createOutputMap;
import static org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.translation.PipelineTranslatorUtils.getExecutableStageIntermediateId;
import static org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.translation.PipelineTranslatorUtils.getInputId;
import static org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.translation.PipelineTranslatorUtils.getOutputId;
import static org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.translation.PipelineTranslatorUtils.getWindowedValueCoder;
import static org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.translation.PipelineTranslatorUtils.getWindowingStrategy;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Queue;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
import org.apache.beam.model.pipeline.v1.RunnerApi;
import org.apache.beam.runners.core.construction.PTransformTranslation;
import org.apache.beam.runners.core.construction.graph.ExecutableStage;
import org.apache.beam.runners.core.construction.graph.PipelineNode;
import org.apache.beam.runners.core.construction.graph.PipelineNode.PTransformNode;
import org.apache.beam.runners.core.construction.graph.QueryablePipeline;
import org.apache.beam.runners.fnexecution.provisioning.JobInfo;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.SparkPipelineOptions;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.coders.CoderHelpers;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.metrics.MetricsAccumulator;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.stateful.SparkGroupAlsoByWindowViaWindowSet;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.translation.streaming.UnboundedDataset;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.util.GlobalWatermarkHolder;
import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.util.SparkCompat;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.coders.ByteArrayCoder;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.coders.Coder;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.coders.KvCoder;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.join.RawUnionValue;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.windowing.BoundedWindow;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.windowing.GlobalWindow;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.windowing.PaneInfo;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.transforms.windowing.WindowFn;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.util.WindowedValue;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.values.KV;
import org.apache.beam.sdk.values.WindowingStrategy;
import org.apache.beam.vendor.guava.v26_0_jre.com.google.common.collect.BiMap;
import org.apache.beam.vendor.guava.v26_0_jre.com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaRDD;
import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
import org.apache.spark.broadcast.Broadcast;
import org.apache.spark.storage.StorageLevel;
import org.apache.spark.streaming.api.java.JavaDStream;
import org.apache.spark.streaming.api.java.JavaInputDStream;
import scala.Tuple2;

/** Translates an unbounded portable pipeline into a Spark job. */
@SuppressWarnings({
  "rawtypes", // TODO(https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-10556)
  "nullness" // TODO(https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEAM-10402)
})
public class SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator
    implements SparkPortablePipelineTranslator<SparkStreamingTranslationContext> {

  private final ImmutableMap<String, PTransformTranslator> urnToTransformTranslator;

  interface PTransformTranslator {

    /** Translates transformNode from Beam into the Spark context. */
    void translate(
        PTransformNode transformNode,
        RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
        SparkStreamingTranslationContext context);
  }

  @Override
  public Set<String> knownUrns() {
    return urnToTransformTranslator.keySet();
  }

  public SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator() {
    ImmutableMap.Builder<String, PTransformTranslator> translatorMap = ImmutableMap.builder();
    translatorMap.put(
        PTransformTranslation.IMPULSE_TRANSFORM_URN,
        SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator::translateImpulse);
    translatorMap.put(
        PTransformTranslation.GROUP_BY_KEY_TRANSFORM_URN,
        SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator::translateGroupByKey);
    translatorMap.put(
        ExecutableStage.URN, SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator::translateExecutableStage);
    translatorMap.put(
        PTransformTranslation.FLATTEN_TRANSFORM_URN,
        SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator::translateFlatten);
    translatorMap.put(
        PTransformTranslation.RESHUFFLE_URN,
        SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator::translateReshuffle);
    this.urnToTransformTranslator = translatorMap.build();
  }

  /** Translates pipeline from Beam into the Spark context. */
  @Override
  public void translate(
      final RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline, SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {
    QueryablePipeline p =
        QueryablePipeline.forTransforms(
            pipeline.getRootTransformIdsList(), pipeline.getComponents());
    for (PipelineNode.PTransformNode transformNode : p.getTopologicallyOrderedTransforms()) {
      urnToTransformTranslator
          .getOrDefault(
              transformNode.getTransform().getSpec().getUrn(),
              SparkStreamingPortablePipelineTranslator::urnNotFound)
          .translate(transformNode, pipeline, context);
    }
  }

  private static void urnNotFound(
      PTransformNode transformNode,
      RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
      SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        String.format(
            "Transform %s has unknown URN %s",
            transformNode.getId(), transformNode.getTransform().getSpec().getUrn()));
  }

  private static void translateImpulse(
      PTransformNode transformNode,
      RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
      SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {

    Iterable<WindowedValue<byte[]>> windowedValues =
        Collections.singletonList(
            WindowedValue.of(
                new byte[0],
                BoundedWindow.TIMESTAMP_MIN_VALUE,
                GlobalWindow.INSTANCE,
                PaneInfo.NO_FIRING));

    WindowedValue.FullWindowedValueCoder<byte[]> windowCoder =
        WindowedValue.FullWindowedValueCoder.of(ByteArrayCoder.of(), GlobalWindow.Coder.INSTANCE);
    JavaRDD<WindowedValue<byte[]>> emptyByteArrayRDD =
        context
            .getSparkContext()
            .parallelize(CoderHelpers.toByteArrays(windowedValues, windowCoder))
            .map(CoderHelpers.fromByteFunction(windowCoder));

    Queue<JavaRDD<WindowedValue<byte[]>>> rddQueue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
    rddQueue.offer(emptyByteArrayRDD);
    JavaInputDStream<WindowedValue<byte[]>> emptyByteArrayStream =
        context.getStreamingContext().queueStream(rddQueue, true /* oneAtATime */);

    UnboundedDataset<byte[]> output =
        new UnboundedDataset<>(
            emptyByteArrayStream,
            Collections.singletonList(emptyByteArrayStream.inputDStream().id()));

    // Add watermark to holder and advance to infinity to ensure future watermarks can be updated
    GlobalWatermarkHolder.SparkWatermarks sparkWatermark =
        new GlobalWatermarkHolder.SparkWatermarks(
            GlobalWindow.INSTANCE.maxTimestamp(),
            BoundedWindow.TIMESTAMP_MAX_VALUE,
            context.getFirstTimestamp());
    GlobalWatermarkHolder.add(output.getStreamSources().get(0), sparkWatermark);

    context.pushDataset(getOutputId(transformNode), output);
  }

  private static <K, V> void translateGroupByKey(
      PTransformNode transformNode,
      RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
      SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {
    RunnerApi.Components components = pipeline.getComponents();
    String inputId = getInputId(transformNode);
    UnboundedDataset<KV<K, V>> inputDataset =
        (UnboundedDataset<KV<K, V>>) context.popDataset(inputId);
    List<Integer> streamSources = inputDataset.getStreamSources();
    WindowedValue.WindowedValueCoder<KV<K, V>> inputCoder =
        getWindowedValueCoder(inputId, components);
    KvCoder<K, V> inputKvCoder = (KvCoder<K, V>) inputCoder.getValueCoder();
    WindowingStrategy windowingStrategy = getWindowingStrategy(inputId, components);
    WindowFn<Object, BoundedWindow> windowFn = windowingStrategy.getWindowFn();
    WindowedValue.WindowedValueCoder<V> wvCoder =
        WindowedValue.FullWindowedValueCoder.of(
            inputKvCoder.getValueCoder(), windowFn.windowCoder());

    JavaDStream<WindowedValue<KV<K, Iterable<V>>>> outStream =
        SparkGroupAlsoByWindowViaWindowSet.groupByKeyAndWindow(
            inputDataset.getDStream(),
            inputKvCoder.getKeyCoder(),
            wvCoder,
            windowingStrategy,
            context.getSerializableOptions(),
            streamSources,
            transformNode.getId());

    context.pushDataset(
        getOutputId(transformNode), new UnboundedDataset<>(outStream, streamSources));
  }

  private static <InputT, OutputT, SideInputT> void translateExecutableStage(
      PTransformNode transformNode,
      RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
      SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {
    RunnerApi.ExecutableStagePayload stagePayload;
    try {
      stagePayload =
          RunnerApi.ExecutableStagePayload.parseFrom(
              transformNode.getTransform().getSpec().getPayload());
    } catch (IOException e) {
      throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }

    String inputPCollectionId = stagePayload.getInput();
    UnboundedDataset<InputT> inputDataset =
        (UnboundedDataset<InputT>) context.popDataset(inputPCollectionId);
    List<Integer> streamSources = inputDataset.getStreamSources();
    JavaDStream<WindowedValue<InputT>> inputDStream = inputDataset.getDStream();
    Map<String, String> outputs = transformNode.getTransform().getOutputsMap();
    BiMap<String, Integer> outputMap = createOutputMap(outputs.values());

    RunnerApi.Components components = pipeline.getComponents();
    Coder windowCoder =
        getWindowingStrategy(inputPCollectionId, components).getWindowFn().windowCoder();

    // TODO (BEAM-10712): handle side inputs.
    if (stagePayload.getSideInputsCount() > 0) {
      throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
          "Side inputs to executable stage are currently unsupported.");
    }
    ImmutableMap<
            String, Tuple2<Broadcast<List<byte[]>>, WindowedValue.WindowedValueCoder<SideInputT>>>
        broadcastVariables = ImmutableMap.copyOf(new HashMap<>());

    SparkExecutableStageFunction<InputT, SideInputT> function =
        new SparkExecutableStageFunction<>(
            context.getSerializableOptions(),
            stagePayload,
            context.jobInfo,
            outputMap,
            SparkExecutableStageContextFactory.getInstance(),
            broadcastVariables,
            MetricsAccumulator.getInstance(),
            windowCoder);
    JavaDStream<RawUnionValue> staged = inputDStream.mapPartitions(function);

    String intermediateId = getExecutableStageIntermediateId(transformNode);
    context.pushDataset(
        intermediateId,
        new Dataset() {
          @Override
          public void cache(String storageLevel, Coder<?> coder) {
            StorageLevel level = StorageLevel.fromString(storageLevel);
            staged.persist(level);
          }

          @Override
          public void action() {
            // Empty function to force computation of RDD.
            staged.foreachRDD(TranslationUtils.emptyVoidFunction());
          }

          @Override
          public void setName(String name) {
            // ignore
          }
        });
    // Pop dataset to mark DStream as used
    context.popDataset(intermediateId);

    for (String outputId : outputs.values()) {
      JavaDStream<WindowedValue<OutputT>> outStream =
          staged.flatMap(new SparkExecutableStageExtractionFunction<>(outputMap.get(outputId)));
      context.pushDataset(outputId, new UnboundedDataset<>(outStream, streamSources));
    }

    // Add sink to ensure stage is executed
    if (outputs.isEmpty()) {
      JavaDStream<WindowedValue<OutputT>> outStream =
          staged.flatMap((rawUnionValue) -> Collections.emptyIterator());
      context.pushDataset(
          String.format("EmptyOutputSink_%d", context.nextSinkId()),
          new UnboundedDataset<>(outStream, streamSources));
    }
  }

  private static <T> void translateFlatten(
      PTransformNode transformNode,
      RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
      SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {
    Map<String, String> inputsMap = transformNode.getTransform().getInputsMap();
    JavaDStream<WindowedValue<T>> unifiedStreams;
    List<Integer> streamSources = new ArrayList<>();

    if (inputsMap.isEmpty()) {
      Queue<JavaRDD<WindowedValue<T>>> q = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
      q.offer(context.getSparkContext().emptyRDD());
      unifiedStreams = context.getStreamingContext().queueStream(q);
    } else {
      List<JavaDStream<WindowedValue<T>>> dStreams = new ArrayList<>();
      for (String inputId : inputsMap.values()) {
        Dataset dataset = context.popDataset(inputId);
        if (dataset instanceof UnboundedDataset) {
          UnboundedDataset<T> unboundedDataset = (UnboundedDataset<T>) dataset;
          streamSources.addAll(unboundedDataset.getStreamSources());
          dStreams.add(unboundedDataset.getDStream());
        } else {
          // create a single RDD stream.
          Queue<JavaRDD<WindowedValue<T>>> q = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
          q.offer(((BoundedDataset) dataset).getRDD());
          // TODO (BEAM-10789): this is not recoverable from checkpoint!
          JavaDStream<WindowedValue<T>> dStream = context.getStreamingContext().queueStream(q);
          dStreams.add(dStream);
        }
      }
      // Unify streams into a single stream.
      unifiedStreams = SparkCompat.joinStreams(context.getStreamingContext(), dStreams);
    }

    context.pushDataset(
        getOutputId(transformNode), new UnboundedDataset<>(unifiedStreams, streamSources));
  }

  private static <T> void translateReshuffle(
      PTransformNode transformNode,
      RunnerApi.Pipeline pipeline,
      SparkStreamingTranslationContext context) {
    String inputId = getInputId(transformNode);
    UnboundedDataset<T> inputDataset = (UnboundedDataset<T>) context.popDataset(inputId);
    List<Integer> streamSources = inputDataset.getStreamSources();
    JavaDStream<WindowedValue<T>> dStream = inputDataset.getDStream();
    WindowedValue.WindowedValueCoder<T> coder =
        getWindowedValueCoder(inputId, pipeline.getComponents());

    JavaDStream<WindowedValue<T>> reshuffledStream =
        dStream.transform(rdd -> GroupCombineFunctions.reshuffle(rdd, coder));

    context.pushDataset(
        getOutputId(transformNode), new UnboundedDataset<>(reshuffledStream, streamSources));
  }

  @Override
  public SparkStreamingTranslationContext createTranslationContext(
      JavaSparkContext jsc, SparkPipelineOptions options, JobInfo jobInfo) {
    return new SparkStreamingTranslationContext(jsc, options, jobInfo);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Baku doesn't observe daylight saving time but Budapest does. DST in Budapest started on 31 March 2019 and will end on 27 October 2019. Once DST ends in Budapest the time difference between Budapest and Baku will be 3:0 hours.


For over 15 years I've worked as a producer and for over 10 of those years I've also worked as an actor. Seeing the audition and casting process from both in front and behind the camera has been eye opening and often startling.
The fact is, regardless of your experience or level, commercials are our bread and butter. We all know that the acting skill required for commercials often comes down to your ability to keep your energy levels up after 12 hours on set, in the cold, repeating the same thing over and over… Don't get me wrong, there are some that require great skill and creativity, but generally these are few and far in between. Commercials are not Shakespeare. But, they have their place and should not be sniffed at. Why? Money, I hear you shout! Yes and very important, but also exposure and more importantly, connections and relationships. Many huge casting professionals and TV/Film directors start in commercials – many even continue to do commercials throughout their career.
The reason why my experience has been eye opening and often startling, is because so many take commercials for granted and approach them with little care or respect.
So here's a little reminder, along with 3 key insights on how to be get and maintain success in your commercial casting.
Even if there's no script to learn, read all the info that is available to you beforehand (your agent should be sending you the spotlight breakdown to read). Quite often casting directors will write notes, sometimes just words, that can give you an indication of what they're expecting and looking for. Often they'll include notes from the director too. These are crucial.
Once you've read all the info think about how you can approach the scene and character. Even if it's 5 minutes – often that might be all that's needed. Have you experienced that scenario before and what can you use and bring to the character/scene? Is there anything you don't understand or that is unusual that you need to do a bit of research into or think about in more detail? Is there something different that you can bring? Should your delivery be subtle or dramatised?
If you wing it and wait to be instructed once in the room, you might only get one take and blow your opportunity. Give yourself the best possible chance.
It fascinating as an actor to watch actors come into the audition room and go through the process. Watching the tapes back is pretty enlightening too i can tell you! One of the things that constantly baffles me is the amount of actors that come in either with no energy and enthusiasm, or an energy that is negative or way off what the brand / scene / character is.
You can lose the job literally in that moment that you say your name and agent to camera.
Your energy is a huge part of how you communicate. Be mindful of your energy levels. Make sure you're focused, alert and engaged with the situation and people. Say your name and agent confidently, positively, and clearly down the lens. Please.
I do wonder if this often due to nerves, because they can close you down and make you numb. Think about how you're coming across and ensure this is not effecting you and how you're being perceived. You are being chosen to represent a product.
Usually the people making the final decision for commercials will be the client, so marketing professionals at the company (because they're paying), and they're looking at you in a different way to a director or producer. They're not usually experts in acting… their primary concern is, is this the right person to represent our product. So your energy, how you look and how you come across are vital… sometimes above your acting skills! Commercials are very different to TV, film and theatre.
Remember this – you've been selected out of probably hundreds of people to be there. Someone is paying for the casting space to see you perform. That casting director is getting job after job and they've chosen you for this one – what might they choose you for next? Each one is an opportunity. Keep the bigger picture in mind.
Regardless of what's going on around you at the time, have that reality check with yourself whenever you need to. Ensure that you keep a professional, respectful and positive attitude. Don't let it slip.
Non of us are perfect. We all have our off days. I've made some cringe worthy blunders and probably still will! Just do the best that you can, don't give yourself a hard time when you have an off day, and think PEA (Preparation, Energy, Attitude)!
Lastly and perhaps most importantly, make sure that you're enjoying the process. What's the point otherwise? Do what you love.
Do it for you and do it your way.
beliefs – what's holding you back?


The latest entry into Philly's bustling coworking market is 30,000 square feet in Northern Liberties. It's the first of three planned WeWork locations in the city.
A Rocky mural in WeWork's 30,000-square-foot NoLibs space.
Looks like WeWork stayed on schedule. Today the coworking giant opened its first Philly location, in Northern Liberties.
Inside the restored Schmidt's brewery building, raised in 1920, WeWork now has a 30,000 square feet of coworking space. The company, which has 90 locations in 28 cities across the U.S. and Europe, has already secured 50 percent occupancy, it reports, housing 40 companies from Philadelphia.
The Piazza-based space comes with all the perks we've come to expect from a coworking space: free bike storage and parking, a pet-friendly environment and locally sourced beer and coffee. Offices are available in sizes that range from one to 16 desks.
There are outdoor and indoor event spaces, with plans to open them up to the neighboring NoLibs community to increase civic engagement.
Although WeWork's Creator magazine recently put Philly in the debatable category of "little-known city," the company's play for Philly's already bustling coworking market isn't subtle. This fall, WeWork be cutting the ribbon at two Center City locations: one at 1430 Walnut and one at 1601 Market.
But how does WeWork plan to avoid being seen as an outsider swooping in on a city with an active startup scene? As she gave Technical.ly a preview of the facility, Kelly Burgart — WeWork's City Lead for Philadelphia — said its approach entails much more than putting up a mural of Rocky.
"It starts with hiring the right people that can find their way with the local community," she said of the mostly local personnel, which is projected to reach 20 people by year's end.
Burgart, a Boston College grad, points to the design of the building, which has maintained many original elements like fixtures and wall textures, as a way to highlight Philly.
"We also brew La Colombe Coffee across all our U.S. locations and will locally source the beer as well," she said.
Joining a crowded coworking scene means a dual challenge for WeWork: having to blend in, but also fighting to stand out. The recent arrival of WeWork in Brooklyn was a contributing factor to one old-school coworking space's recent closure.
One competitive edge, Burgart said, is the network's global presence. "We're treading lightly on what already exists here, but we can also help people in Philly grow within our space and give them access to build their companies in other locations," she said.
WeWork resident companies will have credit toward access to coworking spaces within the network through an in-house app. "It's sort of like LinkedIn meets Facebook," said Burgart.
The tech community, a staple of Philly's coworking spaces, has already marked its presence at the NoLibs location.
One of the building's inaugural tenants is New Hope-based social network MeetMe, which will set up a 14-person office at WeWork. The company's engineering staff will be the first to join the office, followed by more hires over the coming months.
In a move to specifically reach out to the Philly tech scene, WeWork plans to bring in movers and shakers from the area in order to "establish a dialogue" over the coming months. The long-term goal: bringing as much of the tech community as possible into WeWork's space.
"Hopefully the tech community will be within our walls," Burgart said.


About the West Highland White Terrier "Westie"
The West Highland White Terrier, also known as the "Westie" is a small but mighty breed. The Westie can be described as a big dog in a little dogs body who thinks highly of itself. You will always find the breed in the thick of things, but very friendly dog. A Westie enjoys life with a passion.
The Westie is an alert, gay, well-balanced and strongly built Terrier. It should be deep in the chest and back ribs with a straight back and powerful hindquarters on muscular legs. The coat should be about 2 inches long, white in color and hard with plenty of undercoat. Its tail should be short and when standing erect should not extend above the top of the skull. The tail should be shaped like a carrot, flat on the back, with no feathering and should be as straight as possible. It is never docked. The hair around the head should be shaped some what like a chrysanthemum to show off the typical whimsical expression and its black eyes. Preferred skin pigmentation is dark.
With a hard, white and double coat, a Westie does not require frequent baths. Its coat will repel dirt. A light dusting with corn starch and brushing can quickly clean the coat. Brushing about once a day will also keep the coat tangle free as well as clean. When you bathe, it is highly recommended that you use an oatmeal based shampoo which is soothing to the skin. A blue shampoo is also good for keeping the coat nice and white. Westies do not shed but still need a daily brushing.
breed, approximately every 6-8 weeks.
Westies adapt well to apartments, condos and townhouses but do require a good walk each day and/or a place to run to exercise. As puppies, westies can be big chewers. It is very important that they have plenty of toys, especially chew toys. Supervision is very important at this stage so they learn what they can or can not chew on. If you do not have the time to work through this stage then this is not the dog for you. A good fenced-in yard is a must if you live in a house.
Westies are earthdogs, meaning they love to dig. You must be prepared for this.
With its spunky attitude and energy, a Westie can very easily be a man's dog but its small size and sweetness can please the lady of the house as well. When brought up with children, the Westie makes an excellent companion and playmate. They enjoy a good game of ball. Westies have a long life span, living 12-17 years of age. Some have been known to live longer.
breed or obedience club to see if any classes are offered. You will find it well worth the money spent.
Brief History Where the Westie came from is still debated to this very day. One of the most accepted theory is that the Westie is a cross of the Scottish and Cairn Terrier, with a few other breeds tossed in. In the early 1800's if a white Cairn was born it was considered an impure dog and was put down. It is said that one day, Colonel Malcom of Poltallock was out hunting for small game and accidentially shot one of his favorite brown terriers. After this hunting accident, he limited his breeding to lighter colored dogs. They were easier seen and not the same color as the game he was hunting. It took him many years of breeding and experimentation to eliminate any color in his dogs. This breed was later known as the Poltallock Terriers.
Another gentleman by the name of Dr. Flaxman was also known to breed a strain of white Scottish Terriers, lighter in color than the well-known Scotties. Also, the Duke of Argylle bred dogs with soft, white coats.
The Westie was originally bred to roam the highlands of Scotland. With the rugged land and craggy countryside, they were used for hunting game such as fox, otter, badger and other small wild animals. They had to be able to follow these animals through rocks, between crevices and into the lairs/nests of their prey. Ribs needed to be small and flat so they could squeeze into these area. Westies love to run in packs and had to prove themselves before they were allowed to do so. It was important for the Westie to be intelligent so they could outsmart the game they were hunting. The short tail came in very handy for pulling them out of some of these predicaments that they got into.
The Westie today besides being a friend and companion can also be seen competing in numerous different dog sports. Everything from breed, obedience, flyball, tracking, agility to earthdog. They all have their favorite and seem to do well at it.


In this section you can find out how to get about in Aylesbury Vale.
Please note that AVDC is not responsible for the roads, footpaths and street lights in the Vale. Please report any matters concerning road potholes, footpath defects or street lights to Transport for Bucks.


Following their new album Love You to Death, Tegan and Sara contributed a new song to the film The Intervention. The track, "Fade Out," was previously teased in the film's trailer, and today, the full song has been revealed. The song's music video features outtakes from the film. Check it out below via Rolling Stone.


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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is Full of Hot Garbage
The University of Texas and University of Oklahoma made it official on Tuesday applying to become members of the SEC. If you told me one week ago today that would be the case, I would've called you absolutely crazy. But here we are.
As a result, the entire college sports landscape is facing uncertainty.
But don't blame SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who released one of the most ridiculous statements in recent history saying in part, "While the SEC has not proactively sought new members, we will pursue significant change when there is a clear consensus among our members that such actions will further enrich the experiences of our student-athletes and lead to greater academic and athletic achievement across our campuses. The Presidents and Chancellors of the SEC, in their capacity as the conference's Chief Executive Officers, will consider these requests in the near future. Per the Bylaws of the SEC, a vote of at least three-fourths of the SEC's 14 members is required to extend an invitation for membership."
NEWS | Statement from @SEC Commissioner @GregSankey: pic.twitter.com/6K9xW2sJ2o
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) July 27, 2021
Does anyone for a second believe Greg Sankey when he says, the "SEC has not proactively sought new members"? If you buy that, I've got some great beachfront property to sell you in Salina, Kansas. That's BS. Sankey knows it, but it's called "CYA".
The SEC nearly helped destroy the Big 12 Conference a decade ago, and if they have their druthers, they will kill it off for good this time around. That's not to take away most of the blame from Oklahoma and Texas, they're still responsible. But the SEC clearly was a willing accomplice in this move.
Now there are eight teams left wondering what's next for them, their programs and their fan bases. But don't worry, Greg Sankey wants you to believe his head was buried in the sand this entire time and magically OU and Texas showed up and pitch themselves to the conference. It's amazing how that works.
But then again, lying while playing fast and loose with the rules is very on-brand for the SEC. So why stop now?
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