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What is Samsung thinking?
This is an interesting time for tablet computing fans, with the HP Slate (link) being announced today and a revised B&N Nook (link) supposedly being announced next week. Meanwhile, I'm still coming to the terms with the pricing Samsung announced this week for its upcoming Galaxy Tab.
I had a very strong negative reaction to the price, but I wanted to wait a couple of days to see how I'd feel after I had time to think about it. So now I've thought about it, and here's my reaction:
$600 for a seven-inch tablet?? Are you freaking kidding me? A whole netbook costs about $400. Why does it cost $200 extra just to remove the keyboard?
I don't understand Samsung's strategy. A $400 device is maybe an impulse buy for a rich person at Christmas. A $600 device is a carefully considered investment for most people, especially when all the most enthusiastic tablet buyers have already been siphoned off by Apple.
I got a chance to play with a Galaxy Tab at CTIA. The interface is very cool, but I kept asking myself what I'd actually use it for. What problems does it solve that you can't solve with a smartphone? Samsung appears to assume that Apple has created a market for generic tablets to do, you know, tablet stuff. But has it? Or has it created a market for iPads that seamlessly handle lots of content and unique applications?
And although the design of the Galaxy Tab looks nice, I think the ergonomics of it are questionable. Despite what Samsung's publicity photos show, the device is a bit too wide to hold comfortably even in my dinnerplate-sized hand. To hold it securely, I needed to put my thumb on the front of it. But the margins around the screen are so narrow, and the back case is so slippery, that I felt like I was going to drop it when I put my thumb alongside the screen. The weight of the device also put uncomfortable pressure on my thumb (it's a lever effect). My grip felt more secure and comfortable if I put my thumb on the screen, but then I would accidentally press icons and interfere with the interface.
Although Samsung likes to talk about itself as a leader, in practice it's usually a fast follower -- give it a device to copy and it'll turn out its version faster than just about anyone else on the planet. If the device sells, great. If it doesn't, Samsung just moves on to the next device. My guess is that's what it'll do with the Galaxy Tab.
I'm hoping for better from other new products, although I'm not encouraged by what I'm hearing about the HP device (for one thing, Friday is a terrible day to announce a product because your news coverage gets cut off by the weekend). But I'd like to get my hands on that one before I make up my mind about it.
(Note: This post was modified on 10/22 to correct the announcement date for the HP Slate.)
Labels: HP, ipad, tablet
Just a couple of weeks after Research in Motion turned in a good earnings report, the death watch over the company has resumed, with Business Week magazine running a long article that mocks co-CEO Jim Balsillie (even picking on his duck-emblazoned tie) and saying that RIM needs to learn how to market as well as Apple (link).
Business Week quoted Balsillie at a press briefing:
"There's tremendous turbulence in the ecosystem, of course, in mobility. And that's sort of an obvious thing, but also there is tremendous architectural contention at play. And I'm going to really frame our mobile architectural distinction. We've taken two fundamentally different approaches in their causalness. It's a causal difference, not just nuance. It's not just a causal direction that I'm going to really articulate here -- and feel free to go as deep as you want -- it's really as fundamental as causalness."
OK, he deserves to be mocked for that. But Business Week goes on to conclude that his quote captures the whole dilemma of the company -- technical sophistication coupled with incoherent marketing.
Business Week has joined a large and distinguished group of experts taking jabs at RIM. Morgan Stanley recently downgraded RIM's stock, saying it's going to lose share faster than previously expected (link). Gartner reported that Android had passed BlackBerry to become the most popular smartphone OS in the US (link). And CNET said RIM is about to be kicked out of the enterprise market (link).
I've been getting very tired of the criticisms of RIM, because most of them seem superficial and some are petty. Yes, Android is doing well, but neither RIM nor Apple is giving away its operating system, so it was close to inevitable that Android would eventually get the unit lead. It's the default choice for most smartphone companies, so of course it moves a lot of units in aggregate. But there is room in the market for several mobile platforms to succeed. The companies Android is hurting most are Microsoft, Access, and others that were hoping to sell mobile operating systems.
Yes, RIM's not good at sexy marketing, but it has always been that way. People have been predicting its imminent doom for as long as I can remember (do you recall when Microsoft Exchange was supposed to destroy it?). My guess is that the folks at RIM are shaking their heads at all of the bad press and assuming it will once again blow over in a quarter or two.
I think that would be a serious mistake. In my opinion, RIM is indeed in danger, probably a lot more danger than its executives realize. But I don't agree on the reasons most people are giving for why RIM is in trouble, and I think most of the solutions that are being proposed would make the situation worse, not better.
The fault lies not in our ties, but in our selves. In my opinion, RIM's real problems center around two big issues: its market is saturating, and it seems to have lost the ability to create great products. This is a classic problem that eventually faces most successful computer platforms. The danger is not that RIM is about to collapse, but that it'll drift into in a situation where it can't afford the investments needed to succeed in the future. It's very easy for a company to accidentally cross that line, and very hard to get back across it.
There's a lesson in RIM's situation for every tech company, so it's worthwhile to spend some time understanding what's happening.
How a computing platform dies
To explain RIM's challenges, I have to give you a little tech industry history. When I worked at Apple, I spent a lot of time studying failed computer platforms. I thought that if we understood the failures, we might be able to prevent the same thing from happening to us.
I looked at everything from videogame companies to the early PC pioneers (companies like Commodore and Atari), and I found an interesting pattern in their financial results. The early symptoms of decline in a computing platform were very subtle, and easy for a business executive to rationalize away. By the time the symptoms became obvious, it was usually too late to do anything about them.
The symptoms to watch closely are small declines in two metrics: the rate of growth of sales, and gross profit per unit sold (gross margins). Here's why:
Every computing platform has a natural pool of customers. Some people need or want the platform, and some people don't. Your product spreads through its pool of customers via the traditional "diffusion" process -- early enthusiasts first, late adopters at the end.
It's relatively easy to get good revenue from the early adopters. They seek out innovations like yours, and are willing to pay top dollar for it. As the market for a computer system matures, the early adopters get used up, and the company starts selling to middle adopters who are more price-sensitive. In response to this, the company cuts prices, which results in a big jump in sales. Total revenue goes up, and usually overall profits as well. Everybody in the company feels good.
Time passes, and that middle portion of the market gets consumed. Eventually demand growth starts to drop, and you make another price cut. Sales go up again, sometimes a lot. With revenue rising, you and your investors talk proudly about the benefits of reaching the "mainstream" market.
At Apple, when we hit this point we called our low-cost products the Macintosh Classic and Macintosh LC. At Palm, it was the M100.
What you don't realize at this point is that you're not "reaching the mainstream," you're actually consuming the late adopters. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to tell when you're selling to the late adopters. They don't wear signs. Companies tend to assume that because the adoption curve is drawn as a smooth-sided bell, your demand will tail off at the end as gradually as it built up in the beginning. But that isn't how it works. At the start, you are slowly building up momentum from a base of nothing. That takes years. But by the time you saturate the market you have built up huge sales momentum. You have a strong brand, you have advertising, you have a big distribution channel. You'll gulp through the late adopters really rapidly. The result is that sales continue to grow until they drop suddenly, like a sprinter running off the edge of a cliff.
The chart below illustrates how the process works:
Until you get close to the end, your revenue keeps rising, enabling you to tell yourself that the business is still in good shape. But eventually you reach the dregs of the market, and sales will flatten out, or maybe even start to drop. You cut prices again, but this time they don't increase demand because there are no latent customers left. All the cuts do is reduce further the revenue you get from selling upgrades to your installed base. The combination of price cuts and declining sales produces a surprisingly rapid drop in revenue and profits. If you want to make a profit (which your investors demand), your only choice is to make massive cuts in expenses. Those cuts usually end up eliminating the risky new product ideas that are your only hope of re-igniting demand.
At Apple I called this the platform "death spiral" because once you get into it, the expense cuts and sales declines reinforce each other. It's almost impossible to reverse the process, unless you're Steve Jobs and you get very lucky.
The best way to survive is to stay away from the cliff edge in the first place. But that means you need to be hyper-attentive to small changes in sales growth and gross margins. Which brings us back to RIM's situation.
Dissecting RIM's financials
At the top level, RIM's financials look utterly fantastic:
RIM Revenue and Profit
Fiscal years. Dollars in millions.
Since fiscal 2003 (when it turned profitable), RIM has grown from $500m revenue to over $15 billion. That's 30X growth in eight years. The BlackBerry subscriber base has grown from 500,000 people to about 50 million. Throughout that period, the company's net income has hovered at between 15% and 22% of revenue.
This is one of the most impressive business success stories of the last decade, and most CEOs in any industry would kill to have that sort of results. Considering how much turmoil there is in the smartphone market, RIM's senior managers must feel extremely proud of their success, and more than a bit bewildered that people keep criticizing them.
And that's exactly my point. Looking at the high-level financials can lull you into a false sense of security if you're managing a computing platform. You have to really dig to find the warning signs. That's especially hard to do in RIM's case because the company has several different sources of revenue: device sales, service revenue, and enterprise server revenue. The overall results they report are mashup of all three revenue streams. To understand what's really happening, you have to tease them apart. Here are some key data points.
First, let's look at the total number of BlackBerry subscribers:
Total BlackBerry Subscribers
RIM's fiscal quarters. Units in millions.
Pretty impressive growth. But remember, we're looking for subtle signs of saturation. Let's look at the number of subscribers added per quarter...
Net New Subscribers Per Quarter
This is where you get the first little twinge of discomfort. Until a year ago, the rate of growth of BlackBerry subscribers was itself increasing every quarter. In other words, RIM added more new subscribers each quarter than it had added in the previous quarter. But for the last four quarters, RIM's subscriber growth has plateaued at around 4.7 million net new subscribers a quarter. The company's still growing, but it looks like the rate of growth may be flattening. That might imply the beginning of saturation.
Next let's look at net new subscribers as a percent of total BlackBerry units sold.
New Subscribers Added Per Unit Sold
RIM's fiscal quarters.
This one's a little disquieting as well. Five years ago, RIM was getting .7 new subscribers for every BlackBerry sold. In other words, most of its sales were to new users. Today, RIM is getting .37 more subscribers per BlackBerry sold, and that figure is at an all-time low. To put it another way, RIM now has to sell more than two and a half devices to get one more subscriber. Either RIM is selling most of its units to its installed base, or it is having to bring in a lot of new customers to replace those who are leaving for other devices. My guess is it's a mix of both.
If you look closely at that chart, you'll notice a curious bump in the line at Q4 of 2009. The percentage of new subscribers went back up all of a sudden. What did RIM do to produce that growth? A look at device gross margins tells you.
Device Gross Margin Percentage
[Note: RIM does not report separately the gross margins it gets in the devices business, so I had to estimate this number using the company's hardware revenue and the total cost of goods sold across all of its businesses. Most of RIM's total COGS are hardware expenses, but they also include some server costs associated with providing e-mail service. That means my calculation understates RIM's device margins by a bit. But as the company grows, server costs should go down as a percent of overall costs (because you get better economies of scale). So apparent hardware margins should be going up over time. That makes the fact that they're declining all the more ominous.]
RIM increased new subscriptions by substantially cutting the profit it makes per device. What happened is that the BlackBerry Bold, Storm, and Curve all came to market with increased features, replacing older devices that were much cheaper to build. That should have produced only a one-time hit to margins, though -- they should have gone back up as component costs on the new phones declined. Instead, margins have stayed down ever since. Why? Let's look at the what RIM gets paid for each BlackBerry it sells:
RIM's Revenue Per BlackBerry Device Sold
RIM's fiscal quarters. Hardware revenue per unit sold.
This chart shows the average price the carriers pay to RIM per phone, prior to the discount they put on the phone when you sign up for a contract. The line looks pretty flat, and in fact through the middle of fiscal 2009 RIM's price per unit was very stable. Then in Q3, with the introduction of the new devices, RIM gets a temporary spike in revenue per unit. The new phones are selling at a premium. But that goes away in the next two quarters, and then about a year ago, RIM started cutting prices. Today the company gets about $50 less per unit than it usually did in the past.
When you assemble the big picture, it looks like this: To keep growing, RIM has been forced to reduce margins and prices. Despite the cuts, the rate of growth in subscribers appears to have flattened out. And more and more of the sales mix is going to existing users, or user replacement, rather than new users. RIM starts to look like a company that's working harder and harder just to stay in one place.
The picture gets more ominous when you look at some recent surveys of smartphone user satisfaction. In JD Power's 2010 smartphone satisfaction survey, BlackBerry finished near the bottom, with below average ratings in every category except battery life (link). Just three years earlier, as the iPhone was coming to market, BlackBerry had the highest satisfaction ratings in the industry (link). I don't love JD Power's methodology (for reasons that are too long to explain here), but no way should RIM's rating be declining like that.
The low satisfaction is starting to threaten RIM's future sales. In June of this year, Nielsen released some tidbits from a survey of the future purchasing plans of smartphone users (link):
OS Preferences of People Planning to Replace Their Smartphones
The chart shows US smartphone users who were thinking about buying a new device in Q1 of 2010. More than half of the BlackBerry users considering a new smartphone were leaning toward a different OS.
If I were working at RIM, that chart would scare the crap out of me.
The company is by no means dead, but the symptoms of a stalling platform are definitely there. If you work at RIM and are reading this, here's what I want you to understand: Your company's at risk. Your great financials mask that risk, and give you lots of logical-sounding reasons to avoid making the changes that need to be made. RIM is like a 53-year-old man who has high blood pressure and cholesterol but tells himself that he's OK because he can still run a half-marathon. You are indeed fine, right up until you have the heart attack. Then it's too late.
Here's what you need to do:
How to avoid the cliff
To keep a platform viable, you need to focus on two tasks: Keep the customer base loyal, and add adjacent product categories.
Keeping the base loyal. This is transcendently important to a platform company. As your market matures, more and more of your sales will come from replacement devices sold to the installed base. You'll also depend more and more on a base of developers who add value to your products. If you can keep these people happy, you'll have a steady stream of replacement sales that you can build on. It won't be enough to produce the growth that your investors want, but it'll be a great foundation.
On the other hand, if these customers and developers drift away, there's virtually no way you can grow something else fast enough to offset their loss. The trick here is that the supporter base for a computing platform is like a herd of cattle. They move as a group. When the herd is contented, it tends to stay in one place. But if the herd gets restless, even a small disturbance can cause a stampede in which they all run away at once.
For example, this is the factor that HP failed to consider when it bought Palm. The Pre's small base of users and developers was a classic group of restless cattle. When HP bought the company, the first priority should have been to calm those people by promising a renewed commitment to the Pre and follow-on products. Even if HP didn't see smartphones as its long-term future, it should have focused on keeping the developers and users loyal until it had something else for them to buy and develop for. Instead, HP CEO Mark Hurd more or less killed the product line a day after the purchase (link):
HP won't "spend billions of dollars trying to go into the smartphone business; that doesn't in any way make any sense....We didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn't seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP."
Ooookay, so if you're a Pre customer, do you buy again? Do you tell your friends to buy? If you're a WebOS developer, do you keep writing code while you wait for HP to decide what it'll do with that "IP" it bought?
The answer is, you run for the exit as fast as you can. HP bought a company for a billion dollars and then immediately trashed it.
Back to RIM. Your cattle are restless. If you don't believe me, go look at that Nielsen chart again. Your goal is to keep the cattle content, by feeding them a steady diet of delightful new products that deepen their commitment to the platform. RIM's record in this area is very mixed. There have been a lot of new BlackBerry products announced in the last few years, but most of them seem to be focused on copying things Apple has done rather than finding new ways to delight BlackBerry customers.
Some of the Apple imitation is probably necessary. Apple has turned a lot of features into checkoff items that are now expected from any smartphone -- a better browser, for example. If RIM didn't eventually add those features, the herd would at some point stampede away for sure.
But what I haven't seen from RIM is a vision for deepening the special features that made people bond with BlackBerry in the first place. The personal communication functionality of BlackBerry is about the same now as it was five years ago. Why in God's name was Apple the first North American smartphone company to really push video calling? As the communication beast, RIM should have led that years ago.
Instead, the latest BlackBerry devices feel a bit like an overbuilt ice cream sundae -- the original BlackBerry functionality is at the base more or less unchanged, and a bunch of gooey media toppings have been dumped on top of it. I see sprinkles, fudge, marshmallow, pineapple, whipped cream, a cherry, and a few gummy bears, but no significant improvement to the old, dried-out ice cream at the bottom of the bowl.
Inevitably, RIM can't implement those new media toppings as cleanly and elegantly as Apple did, because its platform wasn't designed for that. So what you get is a BlackBerry that endorses Apple's design direction but fails to fully deliver on it. Maybe that helps keep some BlackBerry users from leaving instantly, but it doesn't give them a positive reason to stay. Rather than playing to win, RIM is playing not to lose, and doing it poorly.
This is especially scary because RIM depends much more than Apple on mobile operators to help drive demand for its products (if you're in the US, ask yourself how many Verizon and AT&T ads you have seen for BlackBerry, versus how many ads you've seen from RIM itself). The operators follow customer interest, they don't create it. If they get the sense that BlackBerry users want to switch, they will be only too happy to facilitate that switch -- especially since they don't have to share service revenue with Android vendors the way they do with RIM.
What RIM should do. RIM need a product vision identifying a few new differentiators for BlackBerry that will resonate well with the busy knowledge workers who are at the core of its installed base. There should be no more than three of these features (because customers can't remember more than three), and they should not be copies of things that Apple is already implementing. RIM should focus on building them deeply into the product, so they are very well integrated with the rest of the device. My nominees are meeting planning, conferencing, and live document sharing.
Other smartphone companies will eventually copy these features, so RIM needs to create a pipeline of development in which it'll bring out another 2-3 new differentiators every 24 months.
Adding adjacent categories. Settling down the installed base is not enough. It's an enormous task, but all it'll do is stabilize the business. It won't produce the growth that investors expect. To get that, RIM needs to eventually add new types of product that expand its market.
Apple is a master at this process. When Steve Jobs came back, Apple had only the Macintosh. It refreshed that product line, securing the customer base. Then it added the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Each of them targeted Apple's core market of creative, entertainment-loving people, and each of them leveraged Apple's existing software and hardware. This overlap made the new products relatively inexpensive to develop and market -- they could be sold to the same sorts of people, through the same channels, and they reused a lot of technology. Each new product line also tended to drag a few more customers back to the earlier products, so they reinforced each other.
These new products enabled Apple to grow its revenue rapidly without putting pressure on the Macintosh to carry the whole load. Apple could invest enough in the Mac to keep it a stable and very profitable business, while the new products produced the topline growth.
To understand how wickedly efficient Apple's business model is, take a glance at the R&D budgets of RIM and Apple.
Quarterly R&D Spending of Apple and RIM
R&D spending in most recent four quarters. Dollars in millions.
Although Apple has about three times the revenue, RIM's R&D spending is about two-thirds of Apple's. With just a third more money, Apple produces the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, App Store, custom microprocessors, and a suite of mobile services. RIM is producing a bunch of minute variations on a family of phones, an e-mail server, a new OS, and a suite of mobile services that also has to be individually interfaced to each operator. RIM puts much of its effort into infrastructure that has little or no impact on features that users can see and value.
Now RIM wants to add more product lines. Its first effort will be the PlayBook tablet in 2011. This will be a decisive test of RIM's ability to grow in the future, and so far the signs are worrisome. Unlike Apple's first announcement of the iPhone, the PlayBook announcement didn't show much functionality that looked fundamentally new compared to the competition (in fact, the interface looked to me a lot like a warmed-over version of Palm's WebOS). The pitch was almost all about enabling technology rather than user benefits. When you find yourself talking up the dual-core processor and symmetric multiprocessing in a consumer product, it's a sign of a serious lack of differentiation.
I'd be more hopeful about the prospects for the PlayBook if RIM had done a better job of evolving its BlackBerry products recently. Unfortunately, RIM's latest innovation flagship is the BlackBerry Torch, an overproduced heap of half-integrated features that ranks as one of the most disappointing mobile devices I've seen from a major manufacturer in years.
Yeah, I know there are some people who like the Torch. But there were also people who thought MS-DOS was easy to use.
Burned by the Torch. I recently bought a BlackBerry Torch for my wife, who needed a smartphone to manage work e-mail. We both wanted her to have something simple to use, with a keyboard that made her comfortable. She liked the Torch in the store, so we bought it for her.
The device was a usage nightmare. Even after years of working with touch screen technology, RIM hasn't managed to evolve its user interface to the point where the touch pad and the touch screen work together smoothly. Some functions are easier to perform on touch screen, and others are easier on touch pad, and so the whole interface feels muddled. But by far the more disappointing problem was that the huge number of new applications just added to the phone do not work together properly. I can't even list all of the problems we both had figuring out how to use them, but one vivid example should suffice. My wife entered a lot of contacts directly into the device's contacts app, but didn't bother to include the area code in the phone numbers. The BlackBerry didn't warn her about this.
Then she went to the messaging app and tried to send a text message to our daughter. When she tried to send the message, the app reported that it could not send to a contact without an area code. So she went back to the contacts app and added area codes.
Then she went back to the messaging app and again tried to send a text message. The messaging app reported once again that it could not send a message without an area code. It had apparently made a copy of the data from the contacts app when it was first used, and would not update the copy. So my wife then edited the contact information from within the contacts app (it lets you do that). But when she tried to save the updated contact, the phone responded that it could not accept external changes to the contacts, and deleted the change.
Next, she tried to send a message by typing our daughter's phone number, including area code, directly into the To: portion of a new message. When she tried to send that message, the messaging application did a lookup on its contacts database, changed the phone number back to the version without an area code, and then reported that it could not send the message because the phone number lacked an area code.
Using the BlackBerry Torch is like being trapped in a real-life version of "Waiting for Godot."
I've seen this sort of incoherent design before. It happens when you have several teams working on parts of the device, and you haven't done proper planning up front to make sure the apps will work together well. It is a symptom of an out-of-control development process. The fact that this happened on RIM's flagship product is deeply disturbing. If the same incompetent processes are applied to the PlayBook -- a much more complex product with a lot of new functionality -- it is almost certain to fail.
By the way, we returned the phone.
What RIM should do. To fix this problem, RIM needs to create rigorous up-front planning processes in its software team, with someone who has dictatorial power placed in charge of overall software integration for a device or OS release. Also, the product manager needs to be empowered (actually required) to delay shipment of a product if it's not right. I'm sure someone at RIM knew about the problems in the Torch. The fact that the company went ahead and shipped it is almost as disturbing as the problems themselves.
Rescuing RIM
To sum up, RIM is at risk because its natural market is saturating and many of its customers are considering a switch to other platforms. The company may be able to bumble along in this situation for years before the problem comes to a head, but once a migration away from BlackBerry starts it would be almost impossible to stop. So if the company wants to ensure its survival, it needs to act now. Two steps are needed:
--The BlackBerry line needs to be given a several fundamental, visionary innovations that will give its core customers a reason to stay; and
--The company needs to change its development process to guarantee proper design and integration in all of its products.
Given the time needed to create a new product, these changes will take at least 18 months to bear fruit, probably more like two years. During that time RIM will remain at risk of a platform collapse. What's worse, the company's engineers already have their hands full copying iPhone features, customizing phones for a huge range of operators, and simultaneously creating a new operating system and developing a new version of the current one. The sort of changes I'm suggesting would disrupt that work, forcing the cancellation of some projects and slips in the schedule for others. They would make the problem worse before they make it better. In the meantime, the company would lose serious revenue, and might even miss earnings projections for a quarter or two. The stock's value would be trashed, and there would be calls for firing management.
As the founders of the company, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis could probably pull this off without losing their jobs. And I know they have the courage to make big changes. But I doubt they can see the need, or especially the urgency. Their current processes and business practices got them to $15 billion in revenue; why should they change now? It's much more prudent to focus on making the numbers for next quarter.
That's probably just what RIM will do. And if it does, that's why the company will probably eventually fail.
[Edit: Since this post is still getting a lot of traffic, I wanted to let you know that I've posted a look at RIM's Q3 FY 2011 financials, with updated charts and a deeper look at international sales. I think the situation is both better and worse than I originally believed (link). And you can see my take on their June 2011 layoff announcement here.]
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Labels: android, apple, blackberry, RIM, tablet
What's really wrong with BlackBerry (and what to d...


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Coronavirus in Germany: the latest
By Aaron Werner (updated 8 March 2020)
Coronavirus, or "COVID-19" is constantly spreading further. As of Sunday (8 March), the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Germany has hit 988 - up from 692 on Saturday – and with many more expected. 15 out of 16 of Germany's states have reported the virus, with the most cases reported in the most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Saxony Anhalt is the only German state without a reported case, however this could likely change as the virus continues to spread Currently, no deaths caused by the virus have been reported within Germany and 18 people are considered to have recovered since the first instances of recorded cases in January.
As in the UK and elsewhere, health authorities in Germany have urged people to avoid shaking hands and take other preventative measures. These include washing hands thoroughly, avoiding touching your face with unwashed hands, sneezing and coughing into the elbow instead of the hand, disposing of used tissues and the cleaning of surfaces with strong alcohol-based disinfectants. A more thorough list of information released by the government (in German) can be found here.
Jens Han, a key spokesperson for Germany's Federal Ministry of Health encouraged the cancellation of events with more than 1000 participants. Many events with a large number of participants are also being cancelled, such as the Leipzig Book Fair - further cancelations are likely.
Preparations for an influx of patients are already being made at hospitals within Germany, and the government announced that it is creating a new crisis team to "rigorously" contain the spread of COVID-19.
Some travel restrictions have already been put into place. Domestically, Health Minister Jens Spahn advises against travel to areas with high rates of infection, such as the entire state of North Rhine-Westphalia and particularly affected regions in Italy." Looking overseas, Israel announced on Thursday that there are now travel bans for travellers entering from Germany unless they are able to self-quarantine. Germany's Foreign Office states on its website "be aware of travel restrictions, expect health checks to be implemented at borders and be prepared for delays or changes to travel routes". The website also states that plane passengers travelling from China, Japan, South Korea, Iran or Italy must fill in a landing card and can expect to be subject to further controls. The German Health Ministry also advised that "travellers from all of China have been required to fill in landing cards, with information detailing their recent movements and location of where they are planning to stay".
Germany's airline industry has suffered as a result of the virus and people's hesitation to travel abroad. Lufthansa has grounded half of its flights as a result of a "drastic declines" in demand as well as cancelling all flights to mainland China until April and announced a freeze on hiring, in an attempt to slow down financial losses. Other key European airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair have also reported huge losses and flight cancellations. According to the International Air, the total impact on revenue in the Airline industry could exceed $100 billion.
Schools and nurseries within Germany currently remain open, with a few isolated exceptions. There is debate about whether this is the right decision, as widespread closure of schools (and other 'social isolation' measures) could help slow the spread of the virus significantly. Japan and Italy have already implemented nationwide school closures for the time being.
Public Response
Germans have been altogether slow to react to the scare of a pandemic, life is going on as usual for the most part, however the worries are increasingly showing through Hamsterkauf (panic buying) in German supermarkets - in particular for products such as face masks and hand sanitizers. It seems that overall Germany has been disappointingly inept with their preparations for what could according to some scientists be a "catastrophic epidemic".
As the situation is evolves, it is important to keep up to date with official information and advice.
Coronavirus stats by country https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/
Coronavirus Maps: http://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/corona-virus-karte-infektionen-deutschland-weltweit/?fbclid=IwAR04HlqzakGaNssQzbz4d8o8R3gz0C910U8tvfYlBT6P0lVJJvHfk9uS2rc
Germany extends national lockdown as it struggles to contain COVID-19
Germany reacts to UK-EU Brexit deal
Germany's daily coronavirus death toll hits new record as lockdown restrictions tighten

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
King Krule Reveals New Album 'Man Alive!'
He's shared a video for "(Don't Let the Dragon) Draag On"
King Krule has announced a new album titled Man Alive!, which is due out on February 20 via True Panther/Matador.
The record by the artist born Archy Marshall follows a handful of new tracks that were released last year as part of a short film called Hey World!, and the album marks the official follow-up to 2017's The OOZ.
All four of the songs that appeared on Hey World! reappear on Man Alive!, and you can see the full tracklisting for the album down below. That's the cover art above.
The album was recorded primarily with The OOZ producer Dilip Harris and features Marshall playing majority of the instruments (except the saxophone, which was helmed by Ignacio Salvadores).
Thematically, Man Alive! hears Marshall processing and preparing for becoming a father for the first time — though he was still adding songs up to the point when his daughter was six months old.
"More and more, I've been put off by the intention of speaking about what's going on in society as a black-and-white thing, or trying to get to the bottom of why we're in this position," he said in a statement. "So the album is mostly made up of snapshots and observations. There are a lot of real-time-and-place moments, songs talking about walking through the park just over there and getting a head injury, then there are other tracks which are just simplicity, looking at one particular situation and reflecting on it as somehow being super-profound."
Marshall has also unveiled a self-directed video for "(Don't Let the Dragon) Draag On." Watch that video below.
You can also see King Krule's upcoming world tour dates, which include some stops in Canada.
Man Alive!:
1. Cellular
3. Stoned Again
4. Comet Face
5. The Dream
6. Perfecto Miserable
7. Alone Omen
8. Slinsky
9. Airport Anenatal Airplane
10. (Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On
11. Theme For The Cross
12. Underclass
13. Energy Fleets
14. Please Complete Thee
More King Krule
Apr 17 @ 7:00PM - King Krule Toronto @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre (Exhibition Place)
Apr 18 @ 8:00PM - King Krule Montreal @ MTelus (formerly Metropolis)
King Krule Reveals New Songs in Short Film, Plots World Tour
King Krule has shared new music along with a short film and mapped out a 2020 world tour. The short film is titled Hey World! and featur...
King Krule Heads to "Biscuit Town" in New Video
King Krule is throwing some more weight behind his Mercury Prize-nominated album The OOZ. This time, it's via a new video for the LP's openi...
Mercury Prize Reveals 2018 Nominees
The Mercury Prize will once again be awarded to the best British album of the year, and the 2018 shortlist of nominees has just been announc...
King Krule 'Live on the Moon' (short film)
Before kicking off a tour of North America next month, King Krule has left our planet to perform "Live on the Moon." The 30-minute clip f...
Mount Kimbie Plot North American Tour, Share New Track with King Krule
After delivering their Love What Survives LP late last year, Mount Kimbie have announced plans to take the record on the road throughout Nor...


text:
Upper Valley Music Center
Location, Directions & Parking
About UVMC
Statement on Equity & Inclusion
Board & Administration
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Group Classes, Ensemble & Summer
Tuition, Fees & Discounts
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Play, Sing, Learn
New to UVMC
Workshops & Master Classes
Online-Hybrid
Children/Teens
Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion
Folk/Traditional
Community Chorus
Music Together
Suzuki Program
Upper Valley Chamber Orchestra
Theory/History
Faculty Concerts
Sing & Play Festival
Organizational Resources
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All Events List View Calendar View
Faculty Performance
UVCO
Viola Day
« Chamber Music Sight Reading Party – Adults
Fiddle Tune Fridays »
UVMC welcomes guest artist Rachel Fabulich for a viola workshops. More details TBA.
Rachel Fabulich is a registered Suzuki Viola, Violin and Suzuki Early Childhood Education teacher. She is the director of Suzuki MetroWest, and teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School, in Boston, MA. She was born and raised in a small farming community in northern Illinois, where she was fortunate to be able to start playing viola and violin at a young age. As a performer she has played on stages across North America, Europe, and Japan. An avid Suzuki teacher, Ms. Fabulich has been a clinician at programs, institutes, and workshops around the country. She was a viola coordinator for the Suzuki Association of the Americas 2014 and 2016 Conferences and has served on the board of directors for the Suzuki Music Association of California, Los Angeles. She has additionally been on the faculties of the the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and Westridge School in Pasadena, CA, and the Music Institute of Chicago.
Ms. Fabulich has a Bachelor of Music degree in viola performance with a concentration in Music in Education from the New England Conservatory of Music. She earned a double Master of Music degree from Northwestern University School of Music in viola performance and string pedagogy. Rachel's primary teachers have been Roland Vamos, Marcus Thompson, Lewis Rosove, and Ann Montzka-Smelser.
Rachel currently resides in Framingham, Massachusetts, with her husband and their three children.
Classical, Master Class, Suzuki
NH United States
Benjamin Kulp, cello, and William Ogmundson, piano
Sunday, February 12,
3:00 pm to 4:30 pm EST
Chamber Music Sight Reading Party – Adults
Friday, February 17,
An event every month that begins at 5:30 pm on day First of the month, repeating until Saturday, June 4, 2022
One event on Friday, September 16, 2022 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, October 21, 2022 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, November 11, 2022 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, December 9, 2022 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, January 13, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, February 17, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, March 17, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, April 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, May 12, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Chamber Music Sight Reading Parties – Students
Friday, March 3,
An event every month that begins at 5:30 pm on day Third of the month, repeating until Friday, May 27, 2022
One event on Friday, November 4, 2022 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, January 6, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, March 3, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, April 7, 2023 at 5:30 pm
One event on Friday, May 5, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Music challenges the brain, feeds the heart, and nourishes the soul.
See the Impact of Music Education
info@uvmusic.org
Location and Directions »
8 South Park Street
Lebanon, NH 03766
Find Your Class
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Thank you to the organizations that support music education at UVMC!
Stay up to date on concerts and events, and important updates from UVMC.
© 2023 Upper Valley Music Center
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text:
Q: TSQL Select query that generates output similar to the ms access multiple value fields I have tables in SQL Server 2008 such as:
TopicTable
 TopicID: nvarchar  (Primary Key)
 ProgID: nvarchar
 topic1: bit
 topic2: bit
 topic3: bit
 topic4: bit

The topic table looks something like the following:
 TopicID      ProgID        topic1        topic2       topic3        topic4

 topic001     prog001         1             1             0             0
 topic002     prog002         1             0             1             1
 topic003     prog003         1             0             0             0
 topic004     prog004         1             1             1             1

Program table:
 ProgID: nvarchar  (Primary Key)
 ProgramName: nvarchar

The Program table looks like this:
 ProgID         ProgramName

 prog001        programA
 prog002        programB
 prog003        programC
 prog004        programD

I want to create a view to get the output like:
   ProgID         ProgramName          Topic

   prog001        programA             topic1,topic2
   prog002        programB             topic1,topic3,topic4
   prog003        programB             topic1
   prog004        programD             topic1,topic2,topic3,topic4

Please can someone help me how to get this.
Thank You.

A: It would look like this:
;WITH cteTopics AS (
SELECT T.ProgID
  ,STUFF((
    SELECT T1.TopicID + ','
    FROM TopicTable T1
    WHERE T1.ProgID = T.ProgID
    FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE).value('(./text())[1]','VARCHAR (MAX)')
    ,1,0,'') [Topics]
FROM TopicTable T
GROUP BY T.ProgID)

SELECT P.ProgID, P.ProgramName, T.Topics
FROM Program P
LEFT JOIN cteTopics T ON T.ProgID = P.ProgID

http://sqlfiddle.com/#!3/b9e4a/4

A: You will have some extra commas here but you can tweak the code a little bit more to eliminate the extra commas . this is what I have got for you so far
CREATE Table Topic (Topic NVARCHAR(20), Programe NVARCHAR(20), Topic1 bit, Topic2 bit,Topic3 bit,Topic4 bit)
GO
INSERT INTO Topic
 VALUES
 ('topic001','prog001',1,1,0,0),
 ('topic002','prog002',1,0,1,1),
 ('topic003','prog003',1,0,0,0),
 ('topic004','prog004',1,1,1,1)
 GO

CREATE TABLE Programe (P_ID NVARCHAR(20) , Name NVARCHAR(20))
GO
INSERT INTO Programe VALUES
 ('prog001','programA'),
 ('prog002','programB'),
 ('prog003','programC'),
 ('prog004','programD')
 GO

View Definition
CREATE VIEW vw_ViewName
AS
 SELECT P_ID, Name, ISNULL(STUFF(L1.Topic1L, 1, 1 , '') + ', ', '') + ISNULL(STUFF(L2.Topic2L, 1, 1, '') + ', ', '')
                                    +  ISNULL( STUFF(L3.Topic3L, 1, 1, '')+ ', ', '') + ISNULL(STUFF(L4.Topic4L, 1, 1, '')+ ', ', '')  AS Topics
 FROM Programe P CROSS APPLY (
                            SELECT ' ' + CASE WHEN Topic1 = 1 THEN 'Topic1' ELSE NULL END [text()]
                            FROM Topic
                            WHERE Programe = P.P_ID
                            FOR XML PATH('')
                            )L1(Topic1L)
                CROSS APPLY (
                            SELECT ', ' + CASE WHEN Topic2 = 1 THEN 'Topic2' ELSE NULL END [text()]
                            FROM Topic
                            WHERE Programe = P.P_ID
                            FOR XML PATH('')
                            )L2(Topic2L)
               CROSS APPLY (
                            SELECT ', ' + CASE WHEN Topic3 = 1 THEN 'Topic3' ELSE NULL END [text()]
                            FROM Topic
                            WHERE Programe = P.P_ID
                            FOR XML PATH('')
                            )L3(Topic3L)
               CROSS APPLY (
                            SELECT ', ' + CASE WHEN Topic4= 1 THEN 'Topic4' ELSE NULL END [text()]
                            FROM Topic
                            WHERE Programe = P.P_ID
                            FOR XML PATH('')
                            )L4(Topic4L)

RESULT SET
P_ID    Name        Topics
prog001 programA    Topic1,  Topic2,
prog002 programB    Topic1,  Topic3,  Topic4,
prog003 programC    Topic1,
prog004 programD    Topic1,  Topic2,  Topic3,  Topic4,

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A Two Hour Lecture Presented From One Piece of Note Paper!
Several years ago I knew a trainer who went into large corporations to train employees in new management and corporate culture development skills. His presentation lasted almost two hours and was so interesting that afterwards many attendees requested his lecture notes. Guess what he handed them: A one-sided piece of note paper with his entire presentation as a mind map!
Back then, mind mapping wasn't even on the radar. Few had never heard of it let alone seen one and yet, here was a highly paid trainer presenting break-through self-development concepts in hundreds of corporations around the world using only one piece of paper!
Experts in the field of learning and psychology tell us that the brain thinks by imagination and association. When transferring our thoughts or what we experience onto paper, traditional note-taking in lists and lines don't work as well as mind mapping. This is because note-taking is missing the associations component that mind mapping includes. I find it helps considerably to associate one thought to another when trying to remember something. For example, when I misplace my car keys, the first thing I do is think back to when I last used them. Then, I imagine what I did next, and next, and so forth until I reach present time. That's when I usually get my "Eureka!" and remember where I left those keys that grew legs and walked away.
That's how mind mapping works: Every concept or thought is illustrated on paper in a way that links everything together either directly or indirectly. Pretty neat idea!
1. Start in the middle of a large blank piece of paper. If the subject is about a book you're required to read and it's a several-word title, figure out one "keyword" for that book. For example, if the book title is, "The History of Spartan Society," make the center keyword, "Spartans" or "Spartan Society".
2. When you discover a main topic, draw a large curved trunk (like a tree) from the center keyword/picture. Write only ONE word for that main topic. As you discover other main topics related to the main subject, make other large trunks.
3. Branch off with smaller curvy branches for sub-topics relating to the main topic.
4. Important! Use only one word per branch in the entire mind map. If you need to write two words for one topic or sub-topic, draw another small curvy branch off the end of the other.
5. Only make branches as long as the word itself, not a long branch with a small word. (See image above for a visual).
6. Get messy! It's okay to scribble out stuff and cross things out. That's part of the creative process. When you refined your mind mapping the way you want, you can redraw the final if you want on a clean piece of paper. Redrawing is also recommended to help further anchor the information in your mind.
7. Use lots of pictures! As the saying goes, "A picture's worth a thousand words." Remember, you don't have to be an artist!
8. Also, use lots of colors!
9. Leave as much white space as possible around your words and concepts.
10. Search the internet for samples of mind mapping for ideas how to draw yours.< 11. Get crazy with your imagination and most of all, have fun!


text:
My Chemical Romance returns
Chloe Floros, Staff Reporter|November 18, 2019
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
My Chemical Romance (MCR) is a rock band that originated in Newark, New Jersey around 2001. The members include lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Lero, and bassist Mikey Way.
On March 22, 2013, after twelve years of playing together, MCR announced they were breaking up. This devastated their fan group (known as the Killjoys), but everyone still held on to some hope that the band might reunite one day in the future. This hope led to conspiracy theories about the band and outright rumors that were proven false by the band members themselves.
Just when people were starting to give up hope of the band getting back together, on October 31, 2019, the band announced that they were going to be getting together to play a show in LA, California on December 20, 2019. When the tickets went on sale, they sold out in around three hours, and it was safe to say everyone was extremely excited about MCR getting back together.
Even though everyone seemed to be happy about MCR finally getting back together, some people worried that they were only getting back together for one more show to celebrate the fifteenth year anniversary of their album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", but soon after the announcement of their reunion in California, MCR announced they were doing four more shows in Australia (Melbourne and Sydney), Auckland (New Zealand) and in Tokyo (Japan). In addition to all these new tour dates, MCR even released new merch on their website.
Frank Lero hinted to their reunion on his Instagram account by captioning one of his pictures, "it's reported that it's going to rain in new jersey tomorrow, washing out all halloween festivities… guess we're gonna have to find something else to do."
Chloe Floros, Staff Reporter
I am green. I am a frog. Yes I am kermit the frog.
Need to contact me? Email me @[email protected]
Please be aware of the RB Clarion commenting policy. You can view this policy by clicking on the "About" link for our web site.
AP Art adapts to a pandemic lifestyle
What Fall Guys and Among Us tell about the future of online games
How to do self care when in remote learning
Predator: Hunting Grounds Game Review
Invisible Man (2020) Movie Review
Take the Time: My Experience At My First Dream Theater Show
Tom Petty: In Memoriam
The Shift in Country Music
RBHS suggested playlist
Rainbow: is it worth the listen?


text:
Major Earthquakes of M8.6 and M8.2 Strike Off Northern Sumatra
Home / Major Earthquakes of M8.6 and M8.2 Strike Off Northern Sumatra
Location of the April 2012 Sumatra earthquake: Image courtesy of USGS
An earthquake of magnitude 8.6 (M8.6) struck off the northern coast of Sumatra in the early hours of April 11, 2012, triggering a tsunami warning across the Indian Ocean: the NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center alerted agencies to the fact that 'earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean basin.'
The 'quake is the largest to have occurred in 2012, and is significant even in Indonesia, which is prone to damaging major earthquakes. Preliminary information from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) indicates that it occurred at a depth of around 20 miles, with an epicentre approximately 260 miles from the town of Banda Aceh, which was devastated by the Boxing Day earthquake of 2004. It was followed by a number of aftershocks which included a second massive tremor which was initially reported as M8.2.
Major Earthquakes in Sumatra
Indonesia is rarely out of the news as far as earthquakes go, and is regularly struck by some of the world's largest and most damaging tremors. Most notably, the M9.1 Boxing Day earthquake of 2004 cost almost a quarter of a million lives. April 2012's event is the fourth to occur with a magnitude of over M8 since the beginning of the 21st century.
As well as these earthquakes, there have been swarms of others which, though not on the scale of largest seen, are nevertheless significant and are capable of causing extensive damage and loss of life. USGS earthquake lists show that the country has experienced over 20 earthquakes of M7.0-M7.9 between 2000 and the present day.
Major Changes to Windows 8 User Interface
Major Earthquakes in the Western Pacific and Nicaragua: 11-17 April 2014


Driver for AK-Modul-Bus CompuLAB USB?
Thread: Driver for AK-Modul-Bus CompuLAB USB?
Has anybody tried something like this before?
I was able to compile the module with against the 2.4.20 mips Kernel with the broadcom toolchain, but at the moment i dont know how to get the module into image, and i dont have such a box to try if it will work.
So, i would like to here if this could work and I dont loose my money if i will buy one.


text:
Push Push è un album strumentale di Herbie Mann, uscito nel 1971.

Descrizione
Alla fine degli anni Sessanta, Mann crea la Embryo Records. Push Push è il primo lavoro del flautista sotto questa nuova etichetta. Si tratta di un disco prevalentemente jazz, contaminato da note rock e rhythm and blues. L'album è composto da alcune cover strumentali e da brani inediti. Annovera la partecipazione straordinaria di Duane Allman, chitarrista degli Allman Brothers.

Tracce
 "Push Push" (Herbie Mann) — 9:55
 "What's Going On" (Renaldo Benson, Alfred Cleveland, Marvin Gaye) — 4:12
 "Spirit in the Dark" (Aretha Franklin) — 9:25
 "Man's Hope"  — 6:54
 "If" (David Gates) — 4:29
 "Never Can Say Goodbye" (Clifton Davis) — 3:32
 "What'd I Say" (Ray Charles) — 4:55

Formazione
 Herbie Mann: flauto
 Duane Allman: chitarra elettrica
 Cornell Dupree: chitarra elettrica
 Richard Tee: piano
 Donald Dunn: basso elettrico
 Al Jackson Jr: batteria

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Source: BA.2 Variant Feb 22, 2022 11 months ago
A new study by researchers from Statens Serum Institut-Denmark along with scientists from the University of Copenhagen-Denmark, University of Denmark and Deakin University-Australia have found that previous Omicron BA.1 infection offers no protection against BA.2 variant!
The new Omicron lineage carries numerous mutations in key regions and is associated with increased transmissibility and immune escape. The variant has recently been divided into four subvariants with substantial genomic differences, in particular between Omicron BA.1 and BA.2.
With the surge of Omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.2, a large number of reinfections from earlier cases has been observed, raising the question of whether BA.2 specifically can escape the natural immunity acquired shortly after a BA.1 infection.
In order to investigate this, the study team selected a subset of samples from more than 1,8 million cases of infections in the period from November 22, 2021, until February 11, 2022. Here, individuals with two positive samples, more than 20 and less than 60 days apart, were selected.
From a total of 187 reinfection cases, the study team identified 47 instances of BA.2 reinfections shortly after a BA.1 infection, mostly in young unvaccinated individuals with mild disease not resulting in hospitalization or death.
The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.19.22271112v1
However, despite the study findings, many local Danish physicians and medical experts are claiming that the study findings were manipulated as there were many cases of those getting re-infected with the BA.2 variant either developing disease severity and also a number of cases of individuals dying upon BA.2 infection despite having previous BA.1 infection.
Furthermore, in the study, it was found that study team only focused on individuals who were younger and with no existing comorbidities.
It should also be noted that the Statens Serum Institut-Denmark has a reputation of manipulating and also concealing data and for dissemination misinformation to accommodate the vaccine narratives!
Despite the study findings showing that BA.2 still is able to infect those previously infected with the Omicron BA.1 strain and almost all were still symptomatic, more detailed studies are needed especially focusing on the more vulnerable sub-sets in the population.
However, the key findings show that previous Omicron BA.1 infections offers no protection against the BA.2 variant.
Already a French scientist had predicted about this January 2022. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-scientist-warns-that-new-omicron-sublineage-ba-2-will-cause-new-surge-and-reinfections-globally-as-previous-omicron-infection-may-offer-no-pr
For the latest research about the BA.2 variant, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
FROM MEDICAL SCHOLARSHIPS / GRANTS
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Can a Felon Get a Nevada Gaming License?
While there are many employers who will hire felons, a lot of positions remain unavailable to felons even though felons make good employees. Those with experience or interest in gaming may consider getting a gaming license if they live in the state of Nevada.
This blog post will address the question of whether or not a felon can get a Nevada gaming license.
What is a Nevada Gaming License?
The first level is for employees who are required to register. The licensing process is typically simple, involving a brief application, a fingerprint card, and a fee. The focus is on the person's criminal history.
The second level is for employees and others in the gaming industry who must register and undergo a more extensive review because of their positions.
The third level is a restricted gaming licensing for specific locations. These are for locations with fewer than 15 slot machines that are not essential to the business. An applicant must complete an involved application. At this level, there will be a thorough criminal background investigation for all applicants.
A non-restricted gaming license is required for owners of casinos and other places with more than 15 slot machines. This is true for any owner who holds at least 10% of the company. Officers of the company including the president, CEO, accounting officer, and secretary must also be licensed.
The reason for the background investigation is to provide the gaming commission the necessary information to determine if a candidate is suitable for a gaming license.
The application is then passed on to the Nevada Gaming Control Board that investigates the provided information. This team of investigators includes background and financial agents. An applicant will be required to meet with the agents who will review the application for correctness and completeness.
The background investigation will review civil lawsuits and criminal charges for at least the last 10 years. The background information investigation will check the applicant's police record. In addition, the applicant's business and personal assets and business methods will be reviewed.
Schools and universities are contacted to verify education. Military information is also verified along with marital status.
Investigation of financial records allows investigators to look at the applicant's resources and sources for any business funding sources.
Following the investigation, a final interview is typically held with the applicant. This is to obtain answers to any remaining questions, inform the applicant of any areas of concern, and to provide the applicant and his or her legal counsel the application status.
It's important to be honest when applying for a Nevada gaming license. If a felony isn't disclosed but is found on a background check, this constitutes fraud and is punishable. It is a crime to falsify any application, which could result in being sent back to prison.
Having their record expunged can give them the chance needed to begin with a clean record and to succeed in getting a gaming license. Expunging a criminal record allows anyone to honestly state on an application that he or she has not been convicted of a crime.
It's a significant challenge, but it might be worth it for a felon that wants to get a Nevada gaming license. Having his or her record expunged and also documenting any training programs, rehabilitation, or additional education could make the essential difference in a felon succeeding in obtaining a gaming license.
Another aid is having support from family, friends, or previous employers. A felon doesn't have to be defined by his or her crime. What defines us is not our mistakes but how we recover from them. Beginning again and living an honest life no matter how difficult it might seem can be accomplished.
What do you think about this blog post? Have you or someone you know been in the situation of trying to get a Nevada gaming license with a felony? What was that like for him or her, and how did he or she achieve success? Please tell us in the comments below.


A full instruction to introduce and adjust Pricing Table for items and service at Wix site. Implementation of the manual doesn't need expertise in code and will take not more than 1 minutes.
Show features and prices for the content or services to find more customers right now with tremendous Wix Pricing Table by Elfsight.
Apply our layouts or edit each element manually, our app will perfectly suit design of any page.
Execute the listed further stages to have the widget for Wix site. To create an application for your site it is necessary step by step to follow below-mentioned stages.
If within carrying out you will see problems, write to the Support Center.
Insert your personal e-mail address mail box and insert a password. If you already got aquainted to the service, you should simply log on.
In the appeared list select Instagram Social Review and press it to pass to web page of the plugin.
Select the preferred style or create your plugin the way you need. A detailed description of all characteristics can be seen on the plugin website.
Your requirements select preferable tariff offer from the given. There are free plans, as well as premium subscription.
Finalize this step by copying the code that you wish to show on your site.
If you have several websites, choose the one you need and press «Manage Site».
Click «Edit Site» and go to editing the pages.
Select the page from the upper menu and move it to the left-hand elements panel.
Press the "+" icon then switch to «More» tab to find the «HTML Code» element. Paste it to the required menu and set the size.
Fill in the «HTML Code» element by clicking «Enter Code». Paste the Pricing Table plugin code you've got at Elfsight App to the popup window that comes up. Save the changes by pressing «Publish».
How to alter the settings of the app after setup?
After setup the app to the site, all settings you can implement on your own profile at Elfsight Apps.
Introduce changes to the intuitive editor and save them, all alterations will be implemented automatically and do not claim code changing at your Wix site.
This service of a cloud type gives possibilities to improve your web platform through the use of strong tools such as plugins and widgets.
Open up endless potential of your web resource using combination with social networks to attract more clients.
Display the Wix Pricing Table right now!
Build your app with an original design for your own website.


The area covered by these listings includes the northwest DC neighborhoods primarily of Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, North Columbia Heights, Petworth & Park View; WeSt. End, Dupont, Scott, Thomas & Logan Circles; Dupont East, U St., Shaw, Le Droit Park, Bloomingdale & Mt. Vernon Square.
© 2019 InTowner Publishing Corp. and The New Washington Land Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, including for commercial purposes, without permission is prohibited.


Each year set includes the five state quarters and the Sacajawea gold dollar (except 1999), the Kennedy half dollar, the Roosevelt dime, the Jefferson nickel and the Lincoln cent. THE 2007 and 2008 set comes with the four presidential dollars. The 2007 set does not have the white sleeve. The 2004 and 2005 sets include two Jefferson nickels from the Westward Journey series.
Total proof coins - 109. Comes with the Silver Proof Set Storage box pictured.
Raw coins are not grade coins or guarantee grades. The item "US SILVER PROOF SET 1999-2008 ORIGINAL PACKAGING and CERTIFICATE SEALED" is in sale since Monday, January 14, 2019. This item is in the category "Coins & Paper Money\Coins\ US\Proof Sets".
The seller is "dcz34" and is located in Penfield, New York. This item can be shipped to United States.


text:
Home > Theses > THESES1 > 1499
University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+
Exploring the Dissemination of Situational Information on Twitter during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Jiang Ke, University of Wollongong
Master of Research
School of Computing and Information Technology
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused severe global morbidity and mortality. As of early March 2022, more than 48 billion cases of COVID-19 and over 5.96 million deaths have been confirmed across 110 countries. During the pandemic, social media such as Twitter have become popular platforms for the public to acquire information, communicate and share opinions. News agencies and public health authorities also use Twitter to publish health-related news and policies. These have led to a continuously increasing number of tweets. Twitter has become an important data source for public health authorities to study and monitor the topics and discussions published by news agencies and public health authorities on Twitter so that they can adjust their communication strategies and respond to public concerns.
This research selected tweets data from four news agencies and four public health authorities from the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic covering 21 weeks from January 1 to May 21 2020. The aims of this study are: (1) to understand and uncover the main topics these news agencies and public health authorities published at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) to investigate how these topics changed in these news agencies and public health authorities tweets during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, (3) to identify differences in topics between news agencies and the health authorities published on Twitter.
Ke, Jiang, Exploring the Dissemination of Situational Information on Twitter during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Master of Research thesis, School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wollongong, 2022. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/1499
FoR codes (2020)
461204 Programming languages, 460502 Data mining and knowledge discovery, 460208 Natural language processing, 460102 Applications in health
Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.
Digital Theses @ UOW


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Athletes from Kenya have won more Olympic medals in middle and long distances than any other country…how do they do it?…no coaches are necessary…they thrive on teamwork and competition…genetic theories of dominance are rubbish…you can't find any other place in the world like this…you have to be here to feel it…the mind is as important as physical talent…so what makes Kenyans the best? Perhaps it is the magic of these mountains.
And I suppose if I tried to follow this regimen, I'd have to give up chocolate? I'd have to give that serious consideration.
Hahaha!! I don't even watch that show and I think I still know who you're talking about. Maybe she's my sister, you never know. Better watch it. And, you know, I didn't EVEN see a Hershey's unsweetened baking chocolate bar on those dinner plates.
Yep. You are like a Dog on a Bone with my chocolate addiction. Oh, the joys of posting your life and bad habits on the internet.
Lots of mountains here…but not too sure if I want to compete with the Grizzlies (2 have been spotted by Nancy Greene). Enjoy your run!
Maybe the simplicity of their lives, plus their dedication and commitment. Funny how those in developed countries are going to Kenya to find out their secret.
Yes, back to the basics….
Of course the roads are so d**m bad that even if you own a vehicle you can't actually drive anywhere … running is the best option.
And I'm sure there's a lot of truth in the bit about the ugali but I sincerely hope I NEVER have to eat it again. Like EVER.
Laughing. And here's the unvarnished "other opinion"… Ugali does look thick and sticky.
And it just SITS for hours in the stomach. I'm certain I couldn't run after eating it.


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By Jessica Frazier Articles, Criticism and Philosophy, Hermeneutics
Beautiful Structures: Gadamer on Beauty, Love, Faith, and the Nature of Value
When Gadamer directed his attention to the topic of beauty in his celebrated 1977 essay The Relevance of the Beautiful, he was turning back his attention from issues of language and meaning, to the question of artistic experience that had been so crucial for working out his philosophy. Approximately a third of Truth and Method dealt with aesthetics, and it played playing an important role in his hermeneutics: it was the 'truth' of aesthetic taste that provided a foil to the over-emphasised 'truth' of scientific fact, and in Gadamer's readings of Plato, it was the forms of the Good and of Beauty that provided a mutable and relative foil to the supposedly fixed and determinate forms of number. But the nature of art was a key to understanding wider ontological and ethical issues. For Gadamer, art illuminated the nature of all beings – their constitution, development, and well-being. And his idea of beauty also holds the key to a Gadamerian answer to one of the most insoluble problems of philosophy: the fact-value distinction. In the proportions of good music, of thriving nature, of the healthy organism, there lies a way of identifying the principle that leads each person to value a given thing through the experiences of beauty, love, or faith.
The starting point is Gadamer's redefinition of ideas, artworks, persons and situations as aspects of a broader 'medial' structure that is always in dynamic transformation – like a game in which players constantly bring the game into existence, giving it its own specific variant at each moment. A conversation, a reading or viewing, a meeting or relationship – all incorporate us into an event of interaction that is constantly transforming all involved, moment by moment. Gadamer sees this 'play' as a structural phenomenon, the "occurrence of the movement as such" as in "the play of light, the play of the waves, the play of gears and machinery, the interplay of limbs, the play of forces, the play of gnats, even a play on words".[1] Here we see the importance of the structural change of the self as part of art and meaningful encounters; the artwork changes us, alters our structure of experience, association, memory, attention, intention, etc. A powerful work leaves us significantly altered, it fuses itself into us in some way. It is for this reason that Gadamer argued that the experience of art is best understood not as a subjective experience, but rather as a structural relation into which we are assimilated:
When we speak of play in reference to the experience of art, this means neither the orientation nor even the state of mind of the creator or of those enjoying the work of art, nor the freedom of a subjectivity engaged in play, but the mode of being of the work of art itself…[2]
This shifting of the explanation of aesthetic experiences away from subjectivism and towards the over-arching structure of 'play' is the first step in his theory of value. The implication is that all things, persons and objects can be seen as temporally extended structures within the broader structure of the encounter – like themes in a symphony or a visual pattern, dynamically changing through time and relation to their environment and the plurality of themes and elements within themselves.
Gadamer holds that the ability of art or other things to transform us in unexpected ways into something fresh and different – is what furnishes much of their appeal. Gadamer uses the analogy of games that are capricious and unpredictable, involving the risk of being overwhelmed. In a game:
…there always has to be… something else with which the player moves and which automatically responds to his move with a countermove. Thus the cat at play chooses the ball of wool because it responds to play, and ball games will be with us forever because the ball is freely mobile in every direction, appearing to do surprising things of its own accord.[3]
Embedded within this passage is the seed of a Gadamerian philosophy of Otherness as the possibility and source of newness and radical change in the self. For the present purposes it means that one element of the value of any work or encounter is this ability to change us in potentially radical ways.
This structural changefulness, as we have seen, is something that Gadamer believes Plato and Aristotle, each in their own way, to have considered fundamental to Being. Aristotle in particular notes that 'self movement' is "the most fundamental characteristic of living beings,"[4] constituting an essential part of their vitality. Lives, like artworks, like organisms are structures that are open to an 'excess' of future possibilities. Here we have a striking contrast to of the tradition-oriented, past-facing, continuity-prioritising image of Gadamer that was promoted by Jurgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, John Caputo and other continental thinkers. Music improvisation best demonstrates the changeful complexity and relative continuity of beings; it provides a form of continuity-in-transformation that Gadamer calls "hermeneutic identity".[5] So too each game (we now can read game/artwork/theme/person/object/idea/situation/relationship) "has its own proper spirit" which is determined by the way it is "patterned in various ways", differing in each case.[6] This intrinsic and changing structure of development is likened to a tempo, a sense of rhythm, or an "autonomous time" that applies to events, artworks, and people (and as he notes, festivals).[7]
This autonomy manifests in what he calls an "organic unity,"[8] a kind of "center within itself"[9] to each artwork or being, according to which a development is experienced as 'good' or 'bad'.
So what constitutes a 'good' development, and what a bad one? Why do we love one person or idea, and not another? Gadamer's reading of Plato suggest that developments bestow more or less 'value' on the existing structure in its own character, insofar as their transformation is in 'proportion' ('symmetria' or 'metrion') with the existing structure. This means less that it repeats what was there before, than that it creates something new that 'fulfils' the dispositions of the structure. This idea is illuminated in the late writings on 'health' as requiring "a harmonious relationship"[10] and is also found in Plato's The Statesman (a dialogue Foucault also uses to explore governmental approaches to legislating for the care of individual subjects). But a 'harmony' in the technical sense of the word is not necessarily 'harmonious' in the conventional sense of being 'pleasant' or easy; Plato's account of Eros as a need for what we are not/have not, in the Symposium, reminds us that this harmony require radical change as well as sameness.
Further, what produces a 'harmony' for each of us is often unknowable in advance, due to the fact that it is not merely a part of us, a few 'key' elements that are altered through encounters, but the whole structure, including the marginal, hidden, subtle, elements; undercurrents, forgotten memories, and subconscious impressions, recent and long-term goals, desires, fears, hopes, and the influence of new events, circumstances, and interventions. To use the analogy of music, the structure of a piece of music may benefit from counterpoint, dissonance, interruption, inversion as well as repetition and expansion. So too in painting, spontaneity is essential in a Jackson Pollock painting because without it his work would not have the subtlety and rich personal interpretability that defines it. Disruption of pattern is part of a John Cage composition without which it would not be able to engage the audience in themes of openness and attentiveness.
This immense complexity of our structure explains why we cannot simply choose what to find beautiful, who to love, or what to believe. The harmonies of the self as often deal with the hidden order, as the visible one. It is partly this that makes beauty, love and all our sense of 'the good' so mysterious to us ourselves and to any observer.[11] Further, to have continuing value the new structure that is created by our relation with something must continue to produce new proportional developments of our structure as we naturally develop over time in connection with our whole environment and inner growth. Love-relationships, then, require a creative development of the combined structure that is created by the union. Belief must also be made anew in our own experience and activity: for value to exist, the symphonic composition of Being must continue its ever-new creation of themes and harmonies.
Further still, there is not only one possible harmony; all structures possess various possibilities of proportional development with different kinds and degrees of value. Some artworks illustrate this diversity of structures, of beauties: the Brothers Karamazov can be seen as an exercise in relative values, and Wuthering Heights illustrates two contrapuntal developments of a single theme. Two couples face similar obstacles: Catherine and Heathcliff tragically fail to reconcile their external differences, focusing only on their inner consonance to the point of mutual annihilation, while Catherine and Hareton happily work to slowly reconcile their outer differences by patiently spending time together and educating each other. There is no 'right' answer; both stories have their beauty in proportion to broader structures of meaning in the world. One is a powerful tragedy that resonates with the frustrations of compromise, and the urgency of our deepest desires – there may even be a 'value' for the protagonists in the way the cessation of structure (in the failure of their relationship and their eventual deaths), preserves the pure experience of early love unaltered. But the second story also has a beauty that speaks to the tender patience required to struggle with reality and win out. Such examples give a taste of the multiple harmonies that are possible for every structure. So too in love, a person who strengthens us and creates calm will inspire love in certain contexts, while someone who challenges us and calls us to follow new plans or ideals will do so at another. The same principle of structure-specific relativity applies in ethics: different persons, communities, and cultures will be struck by different values.
But while value here is relative (in that it takes a different form in every structurally unique context), it is objective in that its necessary quality of proportionality is universal: we have no power over it without changing ourselves – which incidentally explains why heartbreak is not just a painful experience, but an injury to one's structure – we have lost a part of ourself and cannot recovered until we have become differently structured again, something that only new development can achieve. And so too we cannot decide to believe or disbelieve – we can only seek encounter and discover the pattern of our own changes, proportions and hidden harmonies.
[1] Truth and Method, Joel Weinsheimer and Donald Marshall trans. and ed., (Great Britain: Continuum, 2004), p.104.
[2] Truth and Method, p.102-3.
[3] Truth and Method, p.106.
[4] "The Relevance of the Beautiful" in The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays, Robert Bernasconi ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p.23.
[5] "The Relevance of the Beautiful" p.25.
[8] "The Relevance of the Beautiful" p.42-3.
[10] "Treatment and Dialogue" in The Enigma of Health: The Art of Healing in a Scientific Age, Jason Gaiger and Nicholas Walker trans. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p.132
[11] "On the Enigmatic Character of Health" in The Enigma of Health, p.115.
Article by Jessica Frazier
Jessica Frazier
Dr Jessica Frazier's work explores alternative worldviews, both Continental and Asian, to those that currently dominate modern Western philosophy and religion. She is a Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent. Her publications include Reality, Religion and Passion: Truth and Ethics in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Rupa Gosvami (Lexington Books), The Bloomsbury Companion to Hindu Studies (Bloomsbury), the forthcoming Gadamer on Religion (Routledge 'Key Thinkers in the Study of Religion' series) and Hindu Worldviews: Theories of Self, Ritual and Divinity (Bloomsbury), as well as various chapters on philosophy of religion in comparative perspective. She is the editor of The Concept of Categories in Indian Philosophy: Thinking Inside the Box (Ashgate), and Managing Editor of the Journal of Hindu Studies (Oxford Journals), as well as a frequent contributor to BBC programmes in the areas of religion and Asian thought.
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I grew up in a church that had only traditional worship—and I loved it. As I got older, I remained loyal to Newton, Watts,…


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BOYS BASKETBALL: Northwestern hits their mark against Gilbert, defeating them at home
Peter Wallace
1of2Robert Skinner (23) of Gilbert goes to the hoop as Michael Jeffko of Northwestern attempts to block. Marianne Killackey/Special to Register Citizen. Show MoreShow Less
2of2Arthur Lefevre takes a jump shot in the Highlanders' 78-65 win against Gilbert. Marianne Killackey/Special to Register Citizen. Show MoreShow Less
WINSTED >> Last month, Northwestern's boys basketball team ran away with a game against Gilbert in the second quarter at The Gilbert School. Tuesday night, in a rematch of the top two teams in the Berkshire League, the Yellowjackets led by a point at the start of the fourth quarter.
Last time the Highlanders won it with speed. This time, the Highlanders won it by almost the same margin, 78-65, with poise down the stretch.
"They are a veteran team," said Gilbert coach Mark Douglass. "They didn't panic. Last year, we made the same kind of runs we did tonight, and we beat them."
"We've seen it before," said Northwestern guard Arthur Lefevre, who, along with his senior teammates, endured three Gilbert wins over the Highlanders last year, despite Northwestern's regular season championship.
"They're a good team," Lefevre said. "We knew they were going to make a huge run. We had to make a run back."
The Highlanders (16-0) played the fourth quarter like they'd seen it before. The Yellowjackets, with fewer veterans than last year, didn't.
"Last year, we had veterans who could steady the ship," said Coach Douglass. "We're younger this year. We just need to know how to protect at the end of the game."
Give the Yellowjackets (11-4 overall; 11-3 Berkshire League) credit.
Some fans might have written them off in the first four minutes of the game. Northwestern guards Conner Guiheen (21 points, 23 steals, 7 rebounds) and John Stevens (game-high 22 points, 9 rebound, 7 assists, 5 steals) started the game on fire with a 10-2 run.
Gilbert's Yoharky Sarmiento (19 points), Robert Skinner (16 points) and Luis Cordova (16 points) brought the Jackets back within range, 20-15, at the end of the period.
By the middle of the second period, Northwestern led 28-19. Then Cordova, Sarmiento and Skinner launched a 10-0 run, capturing Gilbert's first lead of the game, 29-28.
A month ago, the game was over in the second period. This time, it was just heating up by the half.
Northwestern led 38-37 at the break, on one of Stevens' patented turn-around miracles. Still, nobody was calling a winner.
The Yellowjackets were too fast for their own control at Gilbert. Part of their secret Tuesday night was half-court sets -- playing under control.
"This is a bigger court. They had more space," said Highlander coach Doug Sebach.
In the third quarter, Gilbert went ahead by three on a Cordova 3-pointer two minutes in, then held the lead on a Collins put-back.
Skinner hit from outside at the end of the third quarter. The Yellowjackets led 53-52.
The Jackets made their run.
This year, the Highlanders pushed back. Stevens led back-to-back fast breaks to start the quarter. Guiheen laid in an inbounds pass after Skinner was called on a charge at Gilbert's end. Stevens drove. Guiheen hit two foul shots.
Suddenly, with 4:14 left to play, the Highlanders were back in control, 62-53.
Gilbert's Sarmiento made one more drive. Then the clock was the problem.
Northwestern led 66-58, 1:53 left to play.
The Jackets played the fouling game to stop the clock.
Lefevre hit two free throws
Skinner made a 3-pointer, 1:33 left, 68-61.
Lefevre went to the line two more times, 6-for-6 in all.
Collins and Brunoli got two more layups for Gilbert, but poise down the stretch effectively ended this one with Lefevre's final foul shot, 72-63, just 1:14 left in the game.


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