The palace of a revered Arab sheikh is being demolished on the orders of the Iranian government as it continues its campaign of ethnic cleansing against Ahwazi Arabs.
The Hamidiya palace located in Hamidiya, 25km from Ahwaz City, was recorded as one of Iran's national historical buildings by the Cultural Heritage Department. After years of neglect under the regime, which renamed it 'Qajar palace', has decided to demolish the building, which belonged to the last Arab ruler of Arabistan, Sheikh Khazaal, before Reza Pahlavi became Shah in 1925. The palace was visited by thousands of tourists every year.
The destruction of the Hamidiya palace is part of the Iranian campaign to eradicate the region's rich Arab cultural heritage. Arab place names have been replaced with Perian substitutes and Ahwazi Arab children are forced to learn in Persian in an effort to suppress their identity.
A 12-point agreement on the historical palace's conservation in 2001 has largely been ignored by the Khuzestan Water and Power department, which owns the property. According to the agreement, the palace was to be restored and used as an office building, but has been left in a state of neglect.
The demolition of the Hamidiya palace comes after the Revolutionary Guard destroyed the Sheikh Khazaal's Feilieh Palace in November 2010. The Feilieh Palace was built in 1917 and was also listed as a cultural heritage site.
Sheikh Khazaal, the last sheikh of Mohammareh, ruled with de facto autonomy, granted by the Qajar rulers of Iran who granted him control of the region known at the time as Arabistan, a Persian name meaning 'land of the Arabs'. Khazaal oversaw the region's rapid development, including the opening of the Karoon river to trade and navigation and the creation of the first oil refinery in the Middle East, located in Abadan, constructed by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the former name of British Petroleum. The sheikh was widely respected for uniting Arab tribes as well as forging alliances with Bakhtiari khans.
In his rise to power, Reza Pahlavi sought to centralise political control and remove Khazaal from power, prompting the sheikh to petition the League of Nations for the same recognition as nearby Kuwait. The British abandoned Khazaal and supported the Pahlavi regime, regarding it as a bulwark against the potential spread of Bolshevism in the Middle East. Khazaal is revered by Ahwazi Arabs who see him as a figure of Arab identity.


Michael Poole riding the "Hermit Crab" towards the Spline warship, from the book "Timelike Infinity", part of the Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter. The Spline are basically giant intelligent whales that have modified themselves to become spaceships, and rent themselves out to the highest bidders, in this story, the Qax. All painted in 2d in Photoshop.


text:
Game, Set and Matcha: Canary Wharf serves ice cream winners this Wimbledon – 27.06.17
To celebrate the arrival of Wimbledon tennis on its Summer Screens, Canary Wharf has partnered with independent ice cream makers, Greedy Goat, to create a limited-edition range of on-point 'ace' cream flavours.
Inspired by ferocious forehands and dramatic drop shots, the four flavours are made from lactose-friendly, British goat's milk and encapsulate everything about the quintessentially British event. Exclusively available at Canary Wharf, the range of ice cream will be served up at the Summer Screens Wimbledon event, launching 3rd July and running until 16th July 2017. The 'ace' cream flavours include:
Game, Set and Matcha – A typically British Earl Grey flavoured ice cream covered in Matcha sauce, garnished with mini edible rackets and tennis balls, served in a green sprinkled waffle cone.
Murray's Mint – A mint and caramel mix in honour of Britain's #1 player, flecked with grass-green 100's and 1000's to represent the lush lawn of Centre Court.
The Champion's Cup – A tangy pineapple and raspberry ice cream swirl, coated in a glistening edible gold shimmer and topped with real pineapple, just like the trophy itself.
Strawberries and Cream – Homage to a Wimbledon classic, a strawberry and cream whip topped with a swirl of Chantilly and a fresh British strawberry.
Each ice cream will be adorned with edible Wimbledon themed accessories, and can be served up as a single scoop (an Ace), with two scoops (Deuce), or a combo (Mixed Doubles).
Greedy Goat's ice cream is ideal for those who don't do dairy, and thanks to a lower amount of lactose, the lower fat content also makes it healthier compared to normal ice cream and easier to digest. The team has spent years perfecting the perfect scoop and have built a winning reputation with their quirky, hipster flavours.
From court to cone, tennis fans will also be able take advantage of traditional ice cream flavours which will also feature on the menu.
Sian Astrop, Head of Arts and Events, Canary Wharf, says: "Our Summer Screens broadcasting Wimbledon have always been popular providing all the live action as it happens and a perfect patch at Canada Square Park to soak up the sporting atmosphere. What better way to celebrate the summer at Canary Wharf and the excitement of the tennis championships than by offering something for the taste buds too, making everything on offer at Canary Wharf an exceptional summer experience."
Josie Wells, Markets Tribe Manager at Greedy Goat says: "We had so much fun developing these unique flavours and working with Canary Wharf to bring the on-court drama to life in a single scoop. Through the combinations, we've tried to capture the essence of Wimbledon and British summertime and think they'll make the perfect refreshing accompaniment for people glued to the screens."
Adding to the Wimbledon line-up, visitors can also enjoy the transformed Canada Square Park which will feature white tennis court lines with stripes mowed into the lawn and free picnic mats. Nearby in Jubilee Place shopping mall, tennis fans can drop into the Wimbledon-themed pop-up bar for a refreshing drink.
The live action and highlights from previous days play will be broadcast from Cabot Square where pop-up vans serving strawberries and cream, ice cream and entertainment from roaming hedge people over the finals weekend will complete this homage to the most British of sporting events.
Court SW19 in style and make a racquet for your favourite player this summer with Canary Wharf's Summer Screens. Roger that.
For more information on the events at Canary Wharf, please visit: www.canarywharf.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Cybercriminals have begun peddling patches that install malware rather than fix the vulnerabilities recently discovered in computer chips. Learn how hackers are conning people into installing these fake patches so that you do not become the next victim.
Cybercriminals did not waste any time after the January 3, 2018, announcement that most of the computer chips in use today have two serious security vulnerabilities. Less than two weeks later, security analysts discovered that some hackers were trying to take advantage of the situation. They were not trying to exploit the chips' vulnerabilities, though. They were trying to exploit people's fears. The cybercriminals were offering to fix the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, but the patch they were peddling was actually a program that infected devices with malware known as Smoke Loader.
While this scam has been shut down, security experts are expecting more like it. By understanding how hackers carried out the scam, you will be better able to spot similar attacks.
To dupe people into installing the fake patch, the hackers used phishing emails and a spoofed website. Hackers initiated the scam by sending well-crafted phishing emails to German citizens. The emails appeared to come from Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the equivalent of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) agency in the United States. According to the real BSI, the emails had subject lines like "Critical vulnerability – important update". The body of the email, which included BSI's logo, warned about the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. The email recipients were urged to click a link that lead to a website supposedly run by BSI.
Although the website was being run by hackers, it looked like a legitimate BSI web page. It even had an HTTPS address and the padlock symbol to give victims a false sense of security. The fake BSI site urged people to download a ZIP archive (Intel-AMD-SecurityPatch-11-01bsi.zip), which contained a fake patch (Intel-AMD-SecurityPatch-10-1-v1.exe). Victims who downloaded and installed the fake patch had the Smoke Loader malware installed on their computers or smartphones.
Smoke Loader changes settings and installs files on infected devices. Hackers use this malicious program, which is designed to avoid detection, to install other malware (e.g., ransomware, banking trojans) on victims' devices.
Do not assume an email is authentic because it looks official. In the past, phishing emails were fairly easy to spot. They often looked crude and had spelling and grammatical errors. Nowadays, many cybercriminals take the time to make their emails look authentic. Besides crafting convincing messages that are free from spelling and grammatical errors, they often use visual elements, such as logos. It is easy for anyone to copy a logo from a legitimate website and then paste the logo into an email.
Do not assume a URL will take you where it says it will. Hackers often use deceptive URLs. A deceptive URL is one in which the actual URL does not match the displayed linked text or web address. For example, the displayed text might specify a legitimate organization's name (e.g., NIST) or web address (e.g., https://www.nist.gov), but the actual URL leads to a malicious website. You can check a link's actual URL by hovering your mouse pointer over it (without clicking it).
Do not assume a website is legitimate because it starts with "HTTPS". Research has shown that many people believe that sites which start with "HTTPS" and have the padlock symbol are legitimate and safe. However, this designation simply indicates a site is using the HTTP Secure (HTTPS) protocol, which means that any data being transmitted between web browsers and the site is encrypted. It does not signify that the site is legitimate or its contents are safe. Hackers like to use the HTTPS protocol on their malicious sites because it can give visitors a false sense of security. In fact, a quarter of all phishing websites are HTTPS sites, according to PhishLabs.
Be wary of emails that urge you to install any type of update. Vendors seldom contact customers via email about applying patches or other types of updates. Most vendors either automatically install them or send notifications through the operating system's or the device's update service (e.g., Windows Update, HP Support Assistant). If you receive an email about an update from a vendor, you should verify the email's authenticity.
It is important to patch newly discovered security vulnerabilities because hackers often exploit them to gain access to computers and other devices. However, if someone emails you about installing a patch to fix a vulnerability, you need to make sure the email is from the vendor and not a cybercriminal. If the need arises, we can verify whether the email is legitimate or a phishing scam.


Come join us on the first backcountry project of the season! Experience quintessential 'Rocky Mountain Front' landscape. Where the views are dramatic and the wildflowers off the hook. After meeting Frank and his mules at the trailhead, volunteers will shoulder there packs and hike along the the base of Mount Frazier and into the South Fork of Dupuyer creek where you will make camp in a grove of aspens along the creek. There will be 3 days of trail maintenance along trails #153 and #112. Crews will use crosscuts and hand saws to clear downed trees, and picks, shovels, and pulaskis to help with some general maintenance. This trail is popular with locals who are after a quiet and beautiful backpack or day hike. Your help will insure folks can access this beautiful landscape.
Meet your crew leader in Bynum MT at the Dinosaur and then caravan/car pool to trailhead.


You will be asked to leave a message and an experienced member-parent will return your call. This parent will answer your questions and give you information about meeting locations.
Taking that first step for help can be difficult, and scary, but most first-night parents leave with a new feeling of hope. New parents meet together in a small group on their first night. An experienced member-parent explains the program structure and gives you a chance to talk a bit about your situation and ask questions. You will have an opportunity to watch other parents in small groups and get an idea of how the meetings work. At the end of the evening you will meet a parent who will call you during the week to help you with your issues at home and answer any lingering questions.
*Changes meetings are for parents, please do not bring your teen/young adult with you.


text:
Medical Writings |4 April 2000
Grave Words: Notifying Survivors about Sudden, Unexpected Deaths
Frederic W. Platt, MD
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado. (Platt)
Structured abstracts of information on newly published books, computer programs, selected Web sites, and other material are provided in this portion of Medical Writings. Not all items submitted by publishers are abstracted, but a listing of almost all material received can be found in the advertising pages of each issue. "Order phone" numbers can be used to place orders directly with publishers.
Iserson KV. 342 pages. Tucson, AZ: Galen Pr; 1999. $38.95. ISBN 1883620023. Order phone 800-442-5369.
Field of medicine: Patient care.
Format: Paperback book.
Audience: Clinicians who are called on to tell family or friends of the unexpected death of a loved person, as well as nonclinicians whose professions may place them in a similar position (for example, military, police, and airline personnel).
Purpose: Few physicians have been trained in the requisite skills for notification of unexpected death, and few have an organized approach to it. This book provides a thorough understanding of the problem, protocols for the clinical task, and suggestions for words to use.
Content: Iserson cites many stories in which the news of a death was given in the worst possible way. He then offers useful protocols, helpful phrases and sentences, and dangerous and antitherapeutic communication that should be avoided. He includes such protocols as that used by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons for notifying next of kin of a prisoner's death, by the military for notification of death in the line of duty, and by United Airlines for emergency responses.
Highlights: Iserson offers brilliant...
Platt FW. Grave Words: Notifying Survivors about Sudden, Unexpected Deaths. Ann Intern Med. 2000;132:604. doi: https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-132-7-200004040-00034
Published: Ann Intern Med. 2000;132(7):604.


After my last visit to Maggie Joan's Dining & Bar at Amoy Street last year, I am back again to the underground dining place, where the main entrance is located in the back alley to check out their expanded lunch menu of contemporary Mediterranean dishes. Chef Oliver has put together an assortment of starters, mains and sides using the freshest produce by incorporating familiar flavours of the Mediterranean to the dishes.
I hate the fact that the restaurant serves the complimentary Homemade Sourdough and Smoked Beef Fat Butter. This is too good to just stop at one. Unknowingly I probably have eaten a bit too much and already feeling a bit full after it.
This is not your ordinary Cheese Arancini ($9). The risotto ball come with four different types of cheeses. There are gorgonzola, epoisse, langres and ricotta. Cheese lover will adore this. The tomato chutney sitting on the bottom of the plate, provided the extra lift and dimension to the dish.
If you feel like eating clean, then the Cured Salmon Tartare ($17) is the ideal choice. The clean and sharp taste of the cured salmon is further topped with dill, pickled cucumber, sourdough crouton and yoghurt. One of my favourite dishes on the new menu, allowing me to enjoy the freshness to the fullest.
The Gypsy Style Baked Egg, Chickpea Stew & Chorizo ($16) is served together with some milk bread. The Spanish inspired spiced chickpea stew comes with layers of textures and flavours. The more you dig into it, the different play of flavours tend to come through, coming together as one.
Not to be missed is the Homemade Pappardelle ($26). The freshly made pasta sheet is tossed with chilli paste and paired with 12 hours roasted lamb shoulder. It is then topped with parmigiano reggiano. The highlight has to be the flat and broad pasta sheet which comes with a delightful bite. Not to forget the flavourful and tender lamb ragu which rounded off the whole experience. This is a dish I will definitely go back for.
The Fried Chicken Sandwich ($18) is dressed with green harissa, coleslaw and pecornio cheese. It is actually quite fresh to have the combination for a chicken sandwich. The condiments did not steal the limelight of the tender and juicy fried chicken, but instead complement it. The focaccia texture like bread is another excellent choice for the sandwich.
The instant the Hand Cut Chips ($9) is served, I could smell the beautiful aroma of the rosemary. The hand cut Sebago potato Chips are steamed and blanced in oil at 140 degrees and then deep fried at 220 degrees. Lastly seasoned with rosemary, sherry vinegar and Maldon salt. Dip it into the creamy ricotta sauce for an elevated enjoyment.
If you still have space, you can wrap up your lunch with the Dessert of the Day ($10). Ours happened to be the Dark Chocolate Tart which consists of 65% dark chocolate ganache and lined with salted peanut paste. A simple but yet elegant dessert to wrap up a wonderful lunch.
I am glad that I have told time to check out Maggie Joan's new expanded lunch menu. The standard and quality of their food are still consistent and good. I would highly recommend the Cured Salmon Tartare, Fried Chicken Sandwich and Homemade Pappardelle if you plan to drop by the restaurant for lunch.


Investigation findings The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Toledo Area Office cited Columbus-based roofing contractor Julio Galindo for one willful and seven repeated safety violations. The company has also been placed in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program.
OSHA investigators found the company failed to protect workers from fall hazards on a job site in Toledo on July 8 and in Holland on July 21. The company has been cited for failing to provide fall protection at seven locations in Ohio since 2010.
Train workers to avoid unsafe conditions.
Quote: "It is unacceptable that Julio Galindo continues to endanger the safety of its workers by refusing to ensure that adequate fall protection is used on job sites. A worker can be severely injured or killed in mere seconds in a preventable fall," said Kim Nelson, OSHA's Area Director in Toledo. "Employers have a responsibility to train and protect their workers on job sites."
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Toledo Area Office at 410-259-7542.


Assoc. Prof. Hariz Halilovich's research focuses on the stories of missing people in Bosnia and Herzegovina after genocide. As an Anthropologist, Hariz goes into the field to create relationships with the families of these people in order to tell their stories. This is called the ethnographic method.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina war took place between 1992 and 1995. It resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people. A further 2.5 million were displaced in the violent ethnic cleansing and efforts were made to erase all evidence of those who were ethnically cleansed ever existed. This included wide spread destruction of libraries, archives and official records at local and state government institutions.
Hariz's work focuses on how everyday people have survived the war and been able to re-construct their identities both in the real world and in real-time in cyberspace.
One of his ethnographies or stories tells of Fatima, who was forced to "marry" her dead husband who never came "out of the woods". She had to do this in order to claim a war widow's pension in the United States where she relocated with her two surviving children. None of her husband or sons remains were found so the only records they have are Fatima's stories which were then used by the International Commission on Missing Persons to create post-war records of her family and allow her migration to the United States.
Another facet of Hariz's research focuses on how some of the places destroyed in the war now only exist in cyberspace. These are called "cyber villages" and they're flourishing. In particular, Hariz focuses on a village called Zepa which no longer exists in Bosnia but did, at least until recently, exist online at zepa-online.com and still exists as a Facebook page.
The website offered a walk through Zepa in remaining pictures, a history of the village and a lively discussion forum that gave off the impression of it being a beautiful and lively place to visit, if only in cyberspace. This creation of space outside of the place Zepa actually existed in is called translocalism. It is the recognition of the breakdown of nationality or nation-states when it comes to refugees or migrants and the need for another term that encompasses this home and identity building in often faraway places.
This powerful re-telling of stories allows for the creation of community, identity and history in ways that allow the people and the families they leave behind to live beyond space and time. Most importantly, it creates a space for healing. And a place to call home.
Listen to Hariz talk about the impact of missing persons, memory and the creation of identities beyond war torn nation-states on ABC's Big Ideas.
The Social and Global Studies Centre is proud to be the site of innovative and ground breaking social research.
Image-based abuse, deepfakes and harassment online.


We are delighted to welcome Fr. Lanier, his wife, Heather, and their daughter, Fiona, to St. Peter's!
Fr. Justin comes to us from Lebanon, Ohio, where he spent two years as Diocesan Resident at St. Patrick's Church. He told me he would like to share a little about his family before delving into his own history.
He told me that Heather is a writer of poetry and non-fiction. Her book, Teaching in the Terrordome, which is about her time with Teach for America in Baltimore City, is coming out in the fall and her recent book of poetry, The Story You Tell Yourself, came out this past winter. She was most recently a Visiting Professor of English at Miami University and before that she taught at the University of California, Berkeley.
Fr. Justin holds a Masters of Divinity, 2010, from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (the Episcopal Seminary of the West), Berkeley, California. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Delaware studying Philosophy as a Major, focusing on Christian Theology and Mahyana Buddhism, as well as minoring in Religious and East Asian Studies with Language (Japanese). He spent his early years in Delaware and was ordained to the priesthood in June, 2011.
He spent time at a Neo Monastic Community as a contemplative missionary in the San Francisco Bay area. He also helped co-found the Community of the Reconciliation, aka COR, a contemplative intentional community of young men and women. Of interest was the time spent in monastic formation in St. Benedict's Trappist Monastery in Colorado studying under the direction of Fr. Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. He also spent time at the Tofukuji Zen Buddhist Monastery under Keido Fukushima Roshi in Kyoto, Japan.
Fr. Justin notes that the Eucharist is, and will be the center of our spiritual life together. He writes, "…the more deeply we enter into the mystery of the Eucharist, the more open we become to the transforming grace of God".
He is particularly interested in building community to "experience the ecclesial mystery, the community aspect of being the body of Christ".
Father Lanier has experienced and worked in a wide variety of liturgical settings – "high and low church", far east and far west settings and ecumenical or interfaith worship experiences. His training includes work in integration of contemplative practice with the sacramental and liturgical life of Christians. He is open to liturgical innovation and experimentation and looks forward to bringing these new approaches to worship to St. Peter's.
When meeting with Father Justin, in two separate settings, I found him to be a good listener and he appears to have honed this skill in response to a variety of questions posed to him. I was also struck by his sense of presence in our conversations. His calm spiritual answers and listening skills are complimented by his wonderful and endearing sense of humor.
BUT, all this is MY reflection and is only a prelude to YOUR sense of our new spiritual leader. You will only know this if you come and see at Sunday worship and other venues as planned!


text:
Cultivating Imagination
By Kevin Tankersley
Carlos Colón discusses music, education, peace and harmony
Carlos Colón likes many things about Waco: Cameron Park, the food industry and especially the Waco Downtown Farmers Market because that's where he met his wife, Susan. She was selling bread.
"She bakes bread in the old European style," Colón said.
They were married on December 31, 2015. He had been a widower for the previous three-and-a-half years. Colón is also the father to 15-year-old twins, Elise and Mónica, who are freshmen at Live Oak Classical School.
His title is coordinator of worship initiatives in Baylor University's Department of Spiritual Life. He wears several hats in that role, which he explained to Wacoan writer Kevin Tankersley when they met in Colón's office on a quiet Tuesday afternoon during spring break. Colón, a native of El Salvador, mentioned two projects he's involved in: a music education program in his home country as well as a documentary film, for which he composed the music, about the deaths of immigrants along the Texas-Mexico border. He also discussed how the Beatles helped him learn English.
Colón: I have been at Baylor at this job for over three years. Before that I had been doing several projects with Baylor since I moved back to Waco. I've been doing projects for about eight years. I was organizing some concerts for Armstrong-Browning Library. I also had an affiliation with the [Baylor] Institute for Studies of Religion.
WACOAN: Were you at Baylor previously?
Colón: Yes. I went to Baylor in the '90s and got my master's [in music, piano pedagogy].
WACOAN: Where did you go then?
Colón: I lived in Florida for about eight years. I worked as a music teacher and as a church musician. A few years in Orlando and a few years in Tallahassee.
WACOAN: And what do you do now at Baylor?
Colón: I work here in the [Department] of Spiritual Life as coordinator of worship initiatives. I help both the chaplain and the director of Chapel, Burt Burleson, and Ryan Richardson. I also help the chaplain with liturgical support for most of the services that happen at Baylor outside of Chapel.
And the third thing, I am now coordinating the alternative Chapel services at some of the residential communities and colleges on campus. Students can go and attend shorter daily services instead of going to the Waco Hall Chapel.
WACOAN: How old were you when you moved to the United States from El Salvador?
Colón: I left El Salvador when I was 14 years old. I left during the war. I left as a refugee of war to Guatemala City, [Guatemala,] where my mother sent me to some friends and relatives. I went there thinking I was going to stay for a couple of weeks, and I stayed for five years. It was then that I kind of turned to music intensively and as a vocation.
When I was 19, I came to college in the United States. I went first to Belmont [University] in Nashville, Tennessee. They have a very good music program. A lot of the professors there at the time, and I think it's still the case, were Baylor grads. They steered me in that direction.
WACOAN: Before you got into music after you moved to Guatemala City, how involved in music were you?
Colón: Not much. My music education started on my 15th birthday. That's when I had my first piano lesson at a music conservatory in Guatemala City. Prior to that I had been very interested in playing music, but I lived in a small, little town. The time when I went to elementary school, we didn't have much music. My principal would come and play her violin and teach us songs. Then I didn't have any music at all during middle school. Around age 12, I started hanging out with the Baptists. They had choirs. They had pianos, organs. There were more instruments. I started just mostly just playing [piano] by ear and learning songs in church.
WACOAN: Before you started hanging around the Baptists, what was your faith background?
Colón: I was born in a Roman Catholic family. I was born and grew up in a time of upheaval in my country. There was a lot of discontent that was going around with the establishment and was also connected with the church. At this time, maybe in the late '70s, a lot of conversions started to the evangelical faith.
To give you an example, when I became a Baptist at age 12, Protestants in my country were about 3 percent. We are now 50 percent. El Salvador has an unusual high number of Protestants. But at the same time, I feel that the Catholic Church is also very strong now that it's gotten past the upheaval of politics during that time.
WACOAN: How did your music education proceed after that first piano lesson?
Colón: It so happened that the first year I was in Guatemala City, I couldn't go to a regular school. We left [El Salvador] in a hurry. We left in the middle of a battle. There was a truce, and we were allowed to leave. I didn't have my transcripts with me, so the only thing I could study that year at the public music school was music.
It started very intensively with taking lots of classes. They had a music library, so I would listen to a lot of music. I was from a small village, so I distinctly remember one day I checked out some LP recordings. One of them was Bela Bartok, and the other one was Johann Sebastian Bach, the genius of the baroque and the genius of the modern. Somewhere during that week I decided I wanted to write music, even though I didn't know how to yet.
It was incredibly impacting for me to start listening to music. I had hardly heard any instruments past the violin I mentioned or the piano at my church, maybe a little organ. Then the conservatory where I took lessons in Guatemala was one of the places where the national symphony practiced. So here I was now listening to orchestra music. It was a time where the first year I would practice five hours a day. I made a lot of progress, then I was able to go to a Christian school for my high school. I only had to go to school in the mornings, so I continued my conservatory education for a few more years, going in the afternoons to the conservatory.
WACOAN: How long did it take from you saying you wanted to write music to get to the point where you were actually writing music?
Colón: In my case I remember I was writing piano pieces within a year. And maybe within three years I was beginning to write some choral music. In my case it was music for church choirs. Most of my writing is for church choirs. In more recent years I've been writing also for concert choirs in combination with orchestra or for choir and orchestra.
WACOAN: It fascinates me that one person can write a piece of music that the woodwinds and the strings and the brass and percussion can all play, and it sounds beautiful. How do you go about doing that?
Colón: It's like anything else. It can be done with proper training.
When a young person, for example, starts playing the piano, generally they have the advantage that the piano has a very large register of music. Almost every instrument that you hear in the orchestra is kind of contained in the range of the piano. As you go to college and graduate school, you take classes where they teach you what every instrument can do best. When you go to a concert, you can hear an instrument like the flute imitate birds. The bassoon can sometimes sound humorous. The strings can sound lush and romantic or just sustain very soft sounds. During school and also by listening to a lot of music, you cultivate your imagination in your ears. You begin to understand what every instrument does best.
WACOAN: You said you left El Salvador during a battle. How close were you to the actual fighting?
Colón: This was guerilla warfare, so at the time that I left it was in the middle of an offensive where they were attacking key cities. How far? It was outside my door. They were fighting in the streets, with bullets flying over our heads, over our roofs.
Days before we left the army broke into our house because they thought we were harboring guerillas there. We were held at gunpoint while they searched our house. I remember praying very intensely to God during that time guns were being pointed at us and asking if he [would let me survive], to let me live a life with purpose and meaning. I consider myself very blessed because I also learned that [sometimes] they would just kill the civilians if they were in doubt. They would kill the civilians and ask questions later. The irony was under immediate attack and very intense fire I count my blessings that they didn't just decide to throw bombs in our direction, where they said they were being shot at from. Which is what they said, that there was shooting from the second floor.
WACOAN: Did you have brothers and sisters with you in Guatemala City?
Colón: Yes. I grew up with several siblings. They all had left before [me]. I joined them. Because I was the oldest, my mom was afraid I could be recruited by the guerillas or the army. She left me behind in Guatemala. She went back to El Salvador. Things had calmed down a little.
In the middle of another emergency my mother and my stepfather and my younger brothers left and came to the United States. That was another reason I wanted to come [to the U.S.] and study. But we were separated from age 14 to about age 19. That was one of the reasons why I couldn't go back to El Salvador because my family had left. I tried to come when I was around 15, but I was denied a visa, so I couldn't join my family until five years later.
WACOAN: Forgive my ignorance, but are things settled in El Salvador now?
Colón: That's a good question. Peace treaties were signed in 1992 between the guerillas and the U.S.-backed government. We have more of a representative democracy now, but since the war, there has been deterioration and violence, so instead of having a civil war we have serious problems with gangs and gang violence. Unfortunately, postwar El Salvador has developed a reputation for some of the most notorious and violent gangs in the world.
WACOAN: Do you go back to El Salvador?
Colón: Yes. My mother retired about 10 years ago and is back in El Salvador. I go to see her very often, two or three times a year. I also have some projects there that I support, so I go and check on these projects. Sometimes I take Baylor students and faculty with me. I also take people from Waco and from my church.
WACOAN: What projects do you have going on in El Salvador? I know you're trying to take music to children there.
Colón: The connection is a friend of mine from my hometown has a project in Aguilares, about 40 minutes sort of north of San Salvador. He has a church-based music academy. For about six or seven years we have been teaching music education and instrumental education to a group of children and youth. They go to a Baptist church in Aguilares, but a lot of these kids are in areas that are at risk of violence. We keep a group from about 12 to 20 [kids]. There are about eight or nine who have been with us from the beginning, but we have worked with 25 or 30 total. But none of them have joined any gangs. All of them from high school are heading to college. Obviously, it's not because of something I'm doing or even my friend, but this church community has rallied behind these kids to encourage them, not only to excel well in the music, but also in the development of intellects and abilities too so they can be of help to the community.
WACOAN: What do you and your friend teach them from a music standpoint?
Colón: Almost everyone takes piano lessons. It's easier to for us to teach everything else if they know piano. Then we teach theory. In addition, the instruments that we have developed are violin, clarinet and guitar.
My church here in Waco [DaySpring Baptist Church] has been very committed to helping, partnering with this church in Aguilares. Almost every year I take a group of people from DaySpring, and we also do an intensive, almost week-long music camp. We go to encourage development, but also to get updates on how they're doing. We view it as a project and ministry of the church in Aguilares. We go there, and they invite us to go and help in their work. It's something I remind everybody of very often: 'This is not our project. This is the project of the local church there, and we go and partner with them as they need us.'
WACOAN: With all your duties at Baylor — Chapel and worship services and alternative Chapel — along with all the other things going on in your life in Waco, what keeps you involved with this music program?
Colón: I think that that you could attach the word 'calling' that connects with all the things that you mentioned already. Also, demands from us when we see a need and we have the means to meet that need, we step in. In this case we step in faith and try to help.
There are really serious, big problems in El Salvador, and there have been for years. Our church here, DaySpring, and several people here at Baylor, like Baylor Missions here in Spiritual Life, have supported this project. We believe educating people in music is also an extension of educating people in peace, to live in peace and harmony.
And it is also a way to make a difference by giving the tools of education. And with music comes a set of skills. They have to learn how to work in teams. They have to learn how to solve problems because music is constantly full of challenges. They have to measure success and progress by starting something from nothing, an instrument from scratch. Then they can apply that. It's a way of education that makes a difference, makes an impact in the community so that kids can choose peace and not the violence around them.
And the other reason is that these kids are leading worship at their churches. Not only this church in Aguilares, but other churches have benefitted from this program. We are raising a new generation of musicians that are helping making the worship of God more alive and a better quality in the congregation by the virtue of helping the music.
WACOAN: A couple of weeks ago I heard Emmett Price speak. He's an ethnomusicologist who's an expert on rap and hip-hop and gospel and culture and how all those things converge. He talked about how during World War II, soldiers on both sides would fight during the day then put down their weapons and come together at night to play jazz in clubs in Europe. That kind of sounds like what you're hoping for in El Salvador.
Colón: I hear stories like that and think it would be nice if they would just keep holding on to their instruments and not retake the weapons during the day.
And our children in Aguilares have also participated in programs sponsored by European countries to play in orchestras or play in other music education programs. And some of the European teachers, the volunteers, have remarked that our kids are doing really, really well. I think one of the reasons that we do this in a church-based community is because there is something about the discipline and the values of music education that are very compatible with the values in the way of discipleship.
WACOAN: I read that you did the music for a documentary that was about the deaths of immigrants along the border. How did you get involved in that project?
Colón: The documentary is called 'Lamento Con Alas.' The translation is A Lament With Wings. This is a line that comes from a Salvadorian poem about a bird that is associated with the dead. Anytime the peasants in El Salvador would see this bird and hear its song, they would say that it is the song of a soul that is still in penance. The poet described the song of this bird as a lament with wings. And birds migrate from place to place.
So as we were having this migration from Central America, particularly these last two years, there was this mass number of unaccompanied minors. And we started hearing more stories of deaths along the Texas-Mexico border, people who tried to often cross in groups or small groups and cannot make it, especially during the summer months with the brutal weather.
That coincided with the fact that I knew that Dr. Lori Baker, a forensic anthropologist and professor here at Baylor, had been identifying the remains of people dying at the border for many years. We wanted to highlight the plea of the dying immigrants, but also feature Dr. Lori Baker's work and this project that she has where she tries to collect DNA from remains of people who have died at the border and connect these remains with the family, the relatives, back in Mexico and Central America. This documentary was produced with support from the Office of Spiritual Life, so we showed it at Baylor Chapel. We also had another event where we showed it here at Baylor. Last summer Scientific American magazine did a feature on [Baker] and other anthropologists who are doing work identifying remains.
I think the big thing about the documentary is that I am hoping that people, regardless of their political stripes, can see it so that they can see [the people crossing the border are] real human beings, like you and I, dying these very lonely deaths in the middle of the desert, with the hopes that not only laws can be passed to help people who want to work legally in this country, but also for people to keep developing a vision to do development work in these countries that would discourage and prevent people from making this dangerous and perilous journey north.
WACOAN: You want there to be reasons for them to stay in their home countries instead of having to come to the United States to provide for their families.
Colón: Yes, precisely.
From that point of view, you can go back now to little programs like our music project that give people tools to develop an education, flourish as human beings where they are. That's just a little project. There are lots of people doing projects, like teaching people crafts, organizing them. All of that is admirable, but we need much, much more at a scale that, unfortunately, only governments can develop. We need more development, more opportunities, on a large, large scale.
WACOAN: How do you go about convincing a government that development like that is needed? Is that even possible?
Colón: In a sense, yes. There are some precedents for that. For example, right now I know that the U.S. under the leadership of, I believe, Vice President [Joe] Biden, has been trying to develop a plan for the northern triangle of Central America — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — to do a program that is modeled after something that was done in Colombia.
If you remember, Colombia in the '80s and '90s was in similar turmoil with gangs and drugs and all kinds of crime-associated problems. Apparently, there was a concerted effort of several countries and the Colombian government that has helped them emerge from that situation. Colombia is much more prosperous and stable than it was 20 years ago. Vice President Biden has a program that has been modeled after the Colombia experience. They're trying to apply some of this to El Salvador. That program included dealing with the crime and the corruption and the administration. It was a very comprehensive plan. But also projects like the one we're doing [and] large development projects.
And incidentally, I will tell you this. I'm in a roundtable with several people from several disciplines here at Baylor who are trying to find a way to be involved in this triangle in Central America so we can maybe encourage and partner with different organizations so Baylor University maybe can be involved in the future, helping with some of these solutions.
WACOAN: What do you like about Waco?
Colón: I love Waco because it's just a very rich and interesting place to live. The first thing I like about Waco is the people. Sometimes in my travels, when I go up north, sometimes people say to me their mental caricatures they have of Texas. Some of them are true. Some of them are not. I realized that when I tried to clarify what we do, what we believe, who we are here in a place like Waco, that it's difficult to explain and difficult to explain why we like it and why we keep coming back.
But I would say that it's a very diverse town. It's a town that has a strong desire to keep emerging as a place where good education, good culture happens. It's also a place where there are strong family values. You meet people who deeply care about their children, about their families.
I discovered Cameron Park about five years ago. I started three or four years ago mountain biking, and I realized how huge the park is. Now I walk the trails there.
I remarried on December 31, and my wife and I walk a lot along the river and in the park. We see a vibrant downtown. And the food industry is a live and fascinating experiment, just to watch. We have many more types of food here now than we did just a few years ago, thanks to the food truck phenomenon. And new restaurants are sprouting all over the place.
WACOAN: How big was your hometown?
Colón: When I grew up, it was a town of about 8,000 people. Now, it has about 25,000.
WACOAN: What's the name of your hometown?
Colón: Chalchuapa. Incidentally, archeologists from El Salvador say that it's the oldest continuously populated settlement in the Western Hemisphere. There have been people living there for 3,500 years. I grew up in this little town, and we would dig in our courtyard and find artifacts, little faces of Mayan gods from 500 years or 1,000 years ago.
Chalchuapa means 'river of jade,' so there is a lot of jade stones there. A lot of the Indian artifacts, the Colombian artifacts, that you find, are made of jade.
I grew up in an interesting little town. It had a little lake, rivers. You would step into a little eatery, and everybody would know everybody. I get the feeling that Waco is like that.
WACOAN: When you're in your car, what kind of music do you listen to? Or do you listen to something besides music?
Colón: I listen to the news. Mostly, I listen to NPR.
On the way here today, I was listening to the Beatles. The Beatles helped me learn English.
WACOAN: How did that happen?
Colón: I just learned a lot of songs. I would get recordings and the lyrics and memorize them. I got the dictionary when I didn't know [a word]. I was taking English classes, but I just memorized a lot.
My music listening is very eclectic. I try to listen to the great classical works. My daughters introduce me to their music. But that's kind of dangerous territory. It might change, and if you start liking it, there's the danger that you might spoil it for them. Because we share the same cloud, I guess, when I was looking for something to listen to today, I found Coldplay. Aside from that, I have been listening to Gershwin lately. I listen to some jazz. I don't know if this is a singer that people know much about, but there is this woman called Aoife O'Donovan. She's a solo artist, and she sings kind of like new bluegrass. For years she was lead singer in a band called Crooked Still. Like I said, very eclectic.
WACOAN: What kind of jazz do you like?
Colón: I gravitate toward the old jazz musicians: Chick Corea, [Dave] Brubeck, Miles Davis. Here and there on the public radio jazz shows, I listen to interesting new things. But it doesn't captivate me like the old jazz players.
I also listen to a lot of choral music. Several people are writing very interesting choral music today, people like Eric Whitacre. He's a famous composer right now.
WACOAN: Did Eric Whitacre do an online choir?
Colón: He did a choir with people from all over the world.
WACOAN: That's good stuff.
Colón: What do you listen to?
WACOAN: I like jazz, blues, old country, like Willie Nelson. My Pandora playlist is pretty random. Old school hip-hop when I go running.
Colón: Now that you say that, I catch my girls listening to 'Les Miz' on Pandora.
WACOAN: You said that when the battles were going on outside your house, you prayed that if you survived, you would like a life with purpose and meaning. Do you think that's been accomplished?
Colón: I think that will always be an ongoing prayer. At the end I think that it's hard to measure by yourself, but I hope that one day, all of us can measure it not because of individual accomplishments, but because maybe on the way, what I did touched others.
A short answer would be that I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have been given, knowing that many of my generation did not make it. It's a mixed answer I can give you.
Somebody asked me something similar, but I am grateful for the things that I have done, but I also knew a lot of people who are a lot more talented than me that didn't make it, whose lives were cut short because of hate and other people's decisions.
WACOAN: Are you reading anything good right now?
Colón: I am reading a book called 'Father Elijah: An Apocalypse' by Michael O'Brien. It's a very fascinating book. I'm reading a collection of speeches by Gabriel García Márquez. Do you know who he was?
WACOAN: He wrote 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.'
Colón: He has a book that collects his speeches, including his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. He said something very interesting, and I can leave you with this. He said [that] people say, 'Why does the imagination flourish so much in Latin America? Why does Latin America have some of the best novelists and novel writers in the 20th century?' He said [that] we have to use our imaginations because if we told you our real story, you would not believe us.
WACOAN: Is there anything else I need to know?
Colón: I was hoping we would have a good conversation, and now you know more than I tell anyone.
Tags: Baylor | Central America | Education | Music
Following the Call
Living in the Land of Opportunity


text:
Panel Discussion with AbbVie Leaders
Learn more about AbbVie, its focus areas for drug discovery and development, its partnering interests, and its commitment to the west coast innovation ecosystem.
Scott Brun, MD, is AbbVie's Vice President, Chief Strategy Office and Head of AbbVie Ventures, where he works closely with the Chief Strategy Officer and executive management team to identify and execute on strategic venture investments that are closely aligned with AbbVie's overall R&D and corporate strategy. Scott also serves as AbbVie's Vice President, Scientific Affairs. Prior to this role, Scott led Pharmaceutical Development at AbbVie and was responsible for advancing a broad pipeline across several therapeutic areas. In his 20+ year career at Abbott/AbbVie, he held roles of increasing responsibility across the research and development organization. Scott earned his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed ophthalmology training at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School.
Steve Davidsen, PhD, is Vice President, Discovery Oncology in AbbVie's R&D organization, where he is responsible for discovery and research efforts of AbbVie's Oncology programs. Prior to AbbVie's separation from Abbott, Dr. Davidsen served as Divisional Vice President, Cancer Research. He joined the company in 1986 as a research scientist and has held various positions of increasing responsibility in the Discovery organization. He steered the expansion of AbbVie's efforts in oncology biologics and translational biology and has more than 70 scientific publications across a diverse range of topics including metalloproteinase inhibitors, kinase inhibitors and the discovery of PAF antagonists. Dr. Davidsen is a member of AbbVie's Global Pharmaceutical R&D Senior Discovery Leadership Team and Global Pharmaceutical R&D Portfolio Leadership Team. He earned his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin.
Niels Emmerich, PhD, is Vice President, Global Head of Search and Evaluation. Niels joined Abbvie in 2011 and has held several prior positions including Global Commercial Leader for a late-stage oncology program, Director and Head of Commercial Business Development for Oncology, and Senior Director and Head of Search and Evaluation, Oncology. Transactions that Niels was involved in through his current and previous role include acquisitions (Pharmacyclics, Stemcentrx), R&D collaborations and license agreements (ArgenX, CytomX, Dong-A-ST, Harpoon, M2Gen, MD Anderson PureMHC, Turnstone, X-Chem,) and multiple venture investments. Prior to joining AbbVie Niels was CEO of BioPheresis, co-founder and COO of immatics biotechnologies GmbH, and a strategic management consultant for McKinsey & Company. Niels attended University of Tuebingen in Germany and received a Master's in Biology and a PhD in Immunology.
James Summers, PhD, currently serves as Vice President, Neuroscience Research in AbbVie's Global Pharmaceutical Discovery organization. In this capacity, he leads a research organization of ~200 scientists located in Ludwigshafen Germany, Lake County, IL and Cambridge, MA. The organization is focused on the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, along with other neurodegenerative disorders. Under his leadership more than twenty drug candidates have entered clinical trials. Summers began his career with Abbott Laboratories within the immunologic disease and cancer research areas. He participated in or led programs that resulted in several drug development candidates, including the anti-asthma drug Zyflo. He also served as divisional vice president, Advanced Technology with Abbott where he was responsible for a broad range of technologies and core services that have enabled and accelerated drug discovery research across all of Abbott's therapeutic areas and sites. Summers earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Denison University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard University.
Alberto Zacarias is Site Head of AbbVie Redwood City (ABR), a state-of-the-art AbbVie R&D center focused on discovery and early development of novel oncology therapies. Key responsibilities include defining and advancing the strategy, mission, and culture of ABR. As site leader for all business and operations functions based at ABR, Alberto is also responsible for resolving any management and operational issues at the site. Prior to joining AbbVie in 2013, Alberto was the founder and president of the Zantos Group, LLC, a management consulting firm that provided strategic marketing, business development and portfolio-management advice to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the Bay Area. Before founding the Zantos Group, Alberto worked for Nektar Therapeutics as Senior Director of New Products and Strategic Planning and as Senior Director of Strategic Marketing and Portfolio Management. In addition, he also worked for Johnson & Johnson/ALZA Pharmaceuticals as Director of New Products and as Director of Global Strategic Marketing, as well as for Searle Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer) as Management Development Associate. Alberto holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago and an MS and BS in Engineering from Boston University.
Nitrome Biosciences: Discovery of a new class of enzyme(s), initially for treatment of Parkinson's disease
Discovery of Non-opioid Therapeutics for Pain from human Genetics and Natural Products
MBC Biolabs in San Francisco
953 Indiana Street
San Francisco, 94107 United States + Google Map


text:
Financial crisis panel subpoenas Goldman
June 7, 2010, 3:41 PM UTC / Source: The Associated Press
By Daniel Wagner
A panel probing the causes of the financial meltdown has issued a subpoena for documents from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., accusing the firm of stonewalling an investigation.
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission said Monday it had sent Goldman numerous requests for information, documents and interviews.
Goldman didn't respond to some questions, said panel chairman Phil Angelides. With others, it provided billions of pages of documents — far more than the commission staff can process.
"This has been a very deliberate effort over time to run out the clock," FCIC co-chair Bill Thomas said in a call with reporters. He said Goldman is "about mischief-making" and called the banks actions "unacceptable".
"We did not ask them to pull a dump truck to our offices and dump a bunch of rubbish," Thomas said.
At least other six investment banks answered similar requests from the commission without incident, Thomas said.
The subpoena includes requests for interviews with top Goldman executives including CEO Lloyd Blankfein and chief financial officer David Viniar. The panel chiefs said Goldman offered to schedule the interviews after receiving the subpoena Friday.
A spokesman for Goldman said the bank has cooperated.
"We have been and continue to be committed to providing the FCIC with the information they have requested," Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael Duvally said. He declined to comment further.
Goldman, a Wall Street powerhouse, profited from its bets against the housing market before the crisis. It continued to make huge profits after accepting bailout money and other government subsidies.
The bank's success and lavish executive pay have drawn attention at a time when the nation is dealing with near-double-digit unemployment.
The firm's mortgage speculation also has drawn civil fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a criminal probe by the Justice Department.
Goldman is one of eight banks being investigated by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on charges that they misled credit rating agencies.
The panel will release additional information about the Goldman subpoena later Monday. It will issue a final report on its findings by Dec. 15.
Bank stocks gave up early gains after the subpoena was announced. Goldman shares were down $2.45, to $139.80, in afternoon trading.
Congress created the bipartisan panel to investigate the credit crisis that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. It already subpoenaed credit rating agency Moody's and billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
AP Business Writer Stevenson Jacobs in New York contributed to this report.
Daniel Wagner


text:
Academics Without Borders project teams up McMaster faculty with Ugandan researchersOctober 21, 2021
Kim Arnott
McMaster Engineering faculty members discuss providing research mentorship to Ugandan researchers as part of an initiative led by Academics Without Borders.
Initiating a successful research project is never easy. For inexperienced faculty working in a low-income country, the challenges are even greater.
A project by Academics Without Borders (AWB) is supporting engineering researchers at two Ugandan universities with mentorship from international experts, including McMaster engineering professors Sarah Dickson-Anderson and Thomas Marlin.
"We all empathize with the challenges faced by inexperienced faculty when initiating a research career and would like to help the next generation," explains Marlin, professor emeritus in the department of chemical engineering.
He notes that limited funding and institutional support add to the difficulties for new researchers in places like Uganda.
"These faculty deserve as much assistance as possible from the developing world. AWB provides the bridge between the deserving new faculty and the willing volunteers," he adds.
The AWB initiative to strengthen engineering education and research at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda began last January.
In the first phase of the program, experts from Canada, Australia, Nigeria, the United States and Uganda delivered a series of instructional workshops on research topics.
David Wilkinson, a Distinguished University Professor in McMaster's department of materials science and engineering, worked with Marlin and other participants to develop the 10-week curriculum for the online program.
The second phase of the program saw the Ugandan researchers teamed up with mentors to develop research proposals. Seven projects have been selected by AWB for funding over the next year.
Dickson-Anderson, a professor in the department of civil engineering, is mentoring a research project seeking to develop light-weight hollow concrete blocks from plastic waste for use in construction.
Marlin is mentoring two projects. The first seeks to improve the reliability of oxygen supply to hospital patients by adding a storage capability to an oxygen generator. The second addresses professional skills in engineering education by developing a short course to prepare students just prior to an industrial internship.
"Mentors provide advice throughout the project from initial concept, through refinements, proposal preparation and project execution. The role is less of a supervisor and more of a supporter who has struggled with research and can provide guidance on how to avoid pitfalls and maximize the potential of the participants."
An Ethiopian university will be next to offer the AWB program, but Wilkinson says the potential demand is huge if enough volunteers can be found.
"There are hundreds of universities that would be in the position to be good receptors for this kind of training," he says.
"AWB is looking for people who want to get involved, either teaching the courses or mentoring the research projects, so they can expand it into different universities in different parts of the world."
While the effort required of volunteers is modest, the impact of the work can be significant, says Wilkinson.
And some of those benefits accrue to the volunteer, adds Dickson-Anderson.
"For me it's about the people, I learn as much from working with them as they learn from working with me, so it's definitely a two-way relationship."
Engineering graduate students explore how to redefine innovation
McMaster Engineering celebrates two students awarded prestigious Vanier Scholarship in 2021
McMaster Civil Engineering Graduate Student and Professors receive Best Conference Paper Award at the Canadian Transportation Research Forum


text:
Historic Walking Tours
Discover the history of Morgan County at the area's many historic locations!
A Walking Tour of Historic Decatur
The Old Decatur and New Albany Historic Districts, located near downtown off the southern bank of the Tennessee River, boasts the largest concentration of Victorian-era cottages and bungalows in Alabama.
Civil War Walking Tour
The Civil War Walking Tour is located in the Old Decatur and New Albany Historic Districts, just off the southern bank of the Tennessee River near downtown Decatur.
Scottsboro Boys Trial
The Scottsboro Boys trials of the 1930's, most of which took place in Decatur, Alabama, rank among the most significant cases in American legal history.
Tommy Lee Hines Trial
Tommy Lee Hines, a 25 year old black man with an IQ of 35 and the mental capacity of a six year old was arrested for loitering. Within minutes, he was accused of raping three white women and robbing one of them. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a Civil Rights organization sent representatives to Decatur, Alabama.
Trail of Tears Walking Tour
The Trail of Tears Walking Tour Brochure takes visitors on a walking tour of the forced removal of Native American tribes from tribal lands as they passed through Decatur, Alabama.
Around Morgan County


This site was founded around 600 AD and the current church was built on the site around the middle of the 12th century . But its not just the church that makes this place a must see on the Kerry coast is the variety of stone carvings on the site.
In the first picture is an Ogram stone stands in front of the church, these stones have a simple form of writing started in the 4th century, this writing was used to write the Irish Language.
A view from the side with an old carved Cross.
The front of the Stone Cross.
Another view of the Ogram stone.
In front of these stands a sundial, this is the back of the sundial.
Inside the church there is a Latin Alphabet stone.
Front door from the inside.
A view along the internal walls.
The view through the windows.
A closer look at the front gables.
The old graveyard where the small weathered stones mark forgotten graves.


Dear Friends, Separations I attended a rally in Chicago where 60,000 gathered calling for keeping families together. I think of what if my Andy and Emily were forced to be separated from their children of 3years, 1 year, and 11 months old. Is there any law that would be right for that to happen? Dear Friends, Separations I attended a rally in Chicago where 60,000 gathered calling for keeping families together. I think of what if my Andy and Emily were forced to be separated from their children of 3years, 1 year, and 11 months old. Is there any law that would be right for that to happen?


text:
Quantifying Racial Bias in Policing with Imperfect Data
Dean Knox
Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 - 12:30 pm
For decades, policing in America has been characterized by massive racial disparities and high-profile incidents of excessive force against minorities. These factors have fueled allegations of racial bias and demands for change. Yet researchers have made surprisingly little progress in quantifying the sources and severity of racial bias, let alone in identifying concrete avenues for reform. I show how these issues stem from a combination of inconsistent record keeping, incomplete datasets, and incompatible analytic approaches resting on implausible or unstated assumptions. As a consequence, research on policing has produced contradictory or outright misleading results, slowing knowledge accumulation. Drawing on formal statistical frameworks for causal inference, I show the importance of measuring and accounting for the underlying causal process—the long chain of events from officer deployment to contact, detainment, and violence—to avoid underestimating bias and draw reliable conclusions. To address these issues in a generalizable way, I present new work on automated sharp causal bounding that allows researchers to draw rigorous conclusions that are robust to essentially any obstacle that can arise in observational or experimental analyses with discrete data. The technique is illustrated with numerous examples including unobserved confounding, selection, measurement error, and missing data.


Cellulitis is a common skin infection caused by bacteria.
Normal skin has many types of bacteria living on it. When there is a break in the skin, these bacteria can cause a skin infection. Skin in the infected area will become red, hot, irritated, swollen, and painful.
You will likely be prescribed antibiotics to be taken by mouth. You may be given pain medicine as well.
At home, raise the infected area higher than your heart to reduce swelling. Rest until your symptoms improve.
Seek medical attention right away if the cellulitis is on your face.
Clean the break carefully with soap and water. Apply an antibiotic cream or ointment every day.
Cover with a bandage and change it every day until a scab forms.
Watch for redness, pain, drainage, or other signs of infection.


You might want to be quiet and removed, but someone will try to draw you out of your shell. You'll want to handle a problem directly, so you will need to rethink how to use your energy most effectively. Express your emotions.
Tonight: Dinner at a favorite place.


text:
Q: docker image error using docker container in scala I'm getting the following error
[2017-03-07 15:46:00 UTC][environment:dev-b-6a8b4ad] No Docker image specified in either Dockerfile or Dockerrun.aws.json. Abort deployment.
/var/lib/gems/2.3.0/gems/eb_deployer-0.6.6/lib/eb_deployer/eb_environment.rb:135:in `block in with_polling_events': Elasticbeanstalk instance provision failed (maybe a problem with your .ebextension files). The original message: [Instance: i-0b1228876f73ca7a9,i-0e959009aaaa54638,i-07aff1e0aca24a51f] Command failed on instance. Return code: 1 Output: No Docker image specified in either Dockerfile or Dockerrun.aws.json. Abort deployment.  (RuntimeError)

my build.sbt
...
dockerBaseImage := "java:8"

dockerExposedPorts := Seq(5000)

lazy val packageDocker = taskKey[Unit]("Create Docker zip fileAdd packageDocker ")
packageDocker <<= packageDocker.dependsOn(stage in config("docker"))
packageDocker := {
  val targetDirectory = (baseDirectory in Compile).value / "target" / "aws"
  val inputs = Path.allSubpaths((stage in config("docker")).value) ++
    Seq((baseDirectory in Compile).value / "config" / "Dockerrun.aws.json" -> "Dockerrun.aws.json",
      (baseDirectory in Compile).value / "config" / "ebextensions" / "autoscale.config" -> ".ebextensions/autoscale.config",
      (baseDirectory in Compile).value / "config" / "ebextensions" / "nginx.config" -> ".ebextensions/nginx.config")
  val zipName = name.value
  val output: File = targetDirectory / (zipName + ".zip")
  ZipHelper.zip(inputs, output)
  println("Built docker zip: " + "'" + output.toPath + "'")
}

my Dockerrun.aws.json
{
  "AWSEBDockerrunVersion": "1",
  "Logging": "/opt/docker/logs"
}

A: I had the same error when trying to deploy my EB application through the eb cli:
ERROR: [Instance: i-0eafcb4a345s9cc4a43] Command failed on instance. Return code: 1 Output: No Docker image specified in either Dockerfile or Dockerrun.aws.json. Abort deployment.

I had forgotten to specify an artifact since I wanted to deploy a ZIP file instead of the project folder.  I fixed this by adding the artifact to my config.yml file in the .elasticbeanstalk folder:
    branch-defaults:
      default:
        environment: <env_name>
    deploy:
      artifact: <zip_name>.zip
    global:
      application_name: <app_name>
      default_ec2_keyname: <ec2_key_name>
      default_platform: Docker 1.12.6
      default_region: us-east-1
      profile: null
      sc: null

More information here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/eb-cli3-configuration.html#eb-cli3-artifact
I hope you are encountering the same issue and this fixes it!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Powerbook w/ Jaguar Issues with redrawing?
Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by hob, Apr 21, 2004.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about and/or how to fix it?
Sounds like you're browsing a page that doesn't meet the Safari (version 1.0) compatibility test. Kinda reminds me of early versions of Mozilla (1.0, 1.1) that had this same type of problem with flash files, in which some of the flash file would be "glued" onto the window as I scrolled past it. But since then, Mozilla's flash compatibility has improved greatly.
So try another browser on those same pages in which the text problem occured.
I have this problem too! I fix it by highlighting. It doesn't bother me anymore.
I even get it in macrumors. Usually it's associated with scrolling.