text:
Keep up to date with the latest sports news!
Pant gets a pay increase from India for World Cup year Star batsman Rishabh Pant has officially been made one of India's best-paid cricketers after being promoted in the country's latest national contracts. The 21-year-old made his test debut in England last year has now joined A-grade players earning a guaranteed $715 000 (R10 371 039,25) a year for national team duty. He now ranks amongst the 11 players who sit just below leading stars, skipper Virat Kohli, senior batsman Rohit Sharma and paceman Jasprit Bumrah, who are guaranteed at least $1 million (R14 504 950,00) each in the A-plus category.
An uphill battle to keep Boks in SA with overseas scouting According to Bulls Director of Rugby Alan Zondagh, it might become increasingly difficult to keep Springbok players on the national team after the upcoming Rugby World Cup as some huge amounts are being offered to players at the moment to join clubs overseas. Zondagh believes that while franchises and SA Rugby will do everything they can to retain players it will be very difficult to argue against the financial incentives.
Real Madrid secure Militao from Porto Real Madrid have clinched a deal to sign the 21-year-old Brazilian defender Eder Militao from Portuguese champions FC Porto from next season. The centre-back is the Spanish giants' first signing since Zinedine Zidane returned to the club as coach for a second spell this week. Real said Militao would join on a four-year deal until 2025.
For more sporting news and to keep up to date with fixtures be sure to visit www.supersport.com
The Pixies head to SA with Rock on The Lawns
We quite excited about this - I mean the Pixies are heading to South Africa,…
Unlock the key to the city at Mall of the South
Hello Joburgers, Mall of the South in association with Gold Reef City "unlocked the love"…
School holiday activities to keep the kiddies occupied
Are you stuck for ideas on how to keep the kids entertained during the school…
Cricket, cricket news, entertainment, football, football news, hello joburg, Joburg, johannesburg, latest sports news, lifestyle, magazine, Rugby, rugby news, Sports, sports fixtures, sports news


text:
Q: Concatenating String Arrays in For Loops with String conditions I currently am running a for loop which reads a List object and then splits them into arrays. Here is the sample code:
List<String> lines = Arrays.asList("foo,foo,foo","bar,baz,foo","foo,baz,foo", "baz,baz,baz", "zab,baz,zab");
    for (String line : lines){
        String[] array = line.split(",");
        String[] arraySplit2 = array[0].split(",");
        System.out.print(Arrays.toString(arraySplit2));
    }

The output is:
[foo][bar][foo][baz][zab]

I wish to concatenate the array strings into a single one under the loop so that it displays:
[foo, bar, foo, baz, zab]

I'm having a bit of trouble because the conditions of the loop prevent me from doing the increase int i trick and using System.arraycopy(). I'm open to ideas such as changing the structure of the loop itself.

A: Not 100% sure on what you want, but I guess something like this:
List<String> outList = new ArrayList<String>();
for (String line : lines) {
    String[] array = line.split(",");
    outList.add(array[0]);
}
String[] outStr = outList.toArray(new String[0]);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(outStr));

A: You seem to be trying to create an array out of first items from each line.
First, So you need to create the result array first with the size of number of lines:
String[] result = new String[lines.size()];
int index = 0;

You do not need the second split, in the for loop populate the result array:
   result[index++] = array[0]

After the loop print your result array.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This simple to use worksheet has space for pupils to work.
A key with pictures of plants, that are good for pollinators and good for your new garden, prices and a worked example.
Extended your pupils by setting a budget.
Or using the plants for pollinators flash cards to research what plants you want and their prices – what can you buy for the garden?
Why not begin to consider what else you might want to purchase?
Tools – spades, forks, hand trowels and forks. Watering cans, hose pipes and water butts.
Raised bed material – wood (tanalised will last longer), screws and a drill – or do you want to recycle some pallets?
Check out these other exciting resources – great extension activities to support your planning.


text:
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News & Events News 2020 06-June Black Lives Matter at the Alamo Colleges District
Black Lives Matter at the Alamo Colleges District
Alamo Colleges District Family,
Tomorrow is Juneteenth; it is a day that commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. It's sometimes called Freedom Day because it celebrates the day, on June 19, 1865, when Union Soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas, and shared the news that slavery had ended – more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
It's disheartening that for two years African-Americans toiled and remained enslaved when their freedom had already been officially granted. But, what is more devastating, is that 155 years later our African-American community still isn't completely free. More than a century and a half after the end of slavery, black people are still being mistreated, discriminated against and unjustly killed. Black people in our country don't feel free to jog in their own neighborhoods for fear of ending up like Ahmaud Arbery, they don't feel the freedom of safety in their own homes for fear of ending up like Breonna Taylor and some individuals don't feel free to simply breath like Eric Garner and George Floyd. We have heard these feeling echoed within our community and within our Alamo Colleges District family.
As we approach Freedom Day, we want our African-American students, faculty and staff to feel free within our organization, but even more to feel valued. This means that, at the Alamo Colleges District, Black Lives Matter! Black lives matter to our Alamo Colleges family and to our community, as evidenced by the protests and dialogues that have been happening all around us over the last few weeks. And Black Lives Matter to our faculty, administrators and staff. But these need to be more than words. We must translate them into actions.
In keeping with our mission to "empower our diverse communities for success," and, in light of recent events and the weight of history, the board and the district leadership of the Alamo Colleges District and its colleges is rededicating itself as an advocate and champion for our communities of color—especially the African-American community.
In a separate email this week you will receive information on some of the actions we are already taking to address equity, diversity and inclusion gaps, and we are planning remote summits to discuss this critical issue and how we should respond to what is happening in our community and country today.
There is a great deal of work to be done, but I have faith that we have the skill, resolve and perspective from diverse experiences to meet this challenge head on, until Black Lives Matter to everyone.
In Service,
Marcelo Casillas, Chair of the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees
Dr. Mike Flores, Chancellor
Dr. Veronica Garcia, President of Northeast Lakeview College
Dr. Ric Neal Baser, President of Northwest Vista College
Dr. Robert Garza, President of Palo Alto College
Dr. Adena Williams Loston, President of St. Philip's College
Dr. Robert Vela, President of San Antonio College
06-June
Alamo Colleges District Statement On Diversity, Equity And Inclusion
ACD Stands With The Supreme Court On Preserving DACA
The Alamo Colleges District Stands With The Supreme Court On LGBTQ Rights
Alamo Colleges, SA Food Bank Hold Food Fairs
Alamo Colleges Host Virtual Youth Summer Camps
Alamo Colleges Gives Students $9.9 Million in CARES Act Emergency Aid
Alamo In Session - SPC Cooking Mexican Rice
2222 N. Alamo St.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Pressure on my bladder caused me to wake-up from a fitful sleep. It was raining buckets outside. I closed my eyes and hoped the feeling would go away; it was cold outside the confines of my warm covers.
But to no avail; the rain sounded like Niagara Falls, and my body responded. The pressure on my bladder increased.
I sighed, and tumbled out of bed; padded to the bathroom, turned on the light, and did the necessary without making a damp patch on the carpeted floor.
I kept the light on and returned to the bedroom, picked up a bottle of spring water, and drank. I glanced at the bedside clock. In the gloom, I could see it read 3:20.
Another three hours before light. I returned to the bathroom and switched the light off, then made my way gingerly back to my bed.
I was an early riser, but I also enjoyed my sleep. A while later I woke up. I glanced at the clock. The luminous hands showed 3:20. Puzzled, I stretched out and turned the bedroom lamp on. Then leaned back to check the clock.
Sleep didn't overtake me. I lay awake thinking. Trying to remember what I saw before. In my mind's eye I pictured a horizontal line from the 9 to the 3. Definitely, both hands were below that line the first time I awoke.
So, maybe I hadn't fallen asleep? Maybe I had dreamt it?
Now I was fully awake. I padded out to the kitchen and made myself some toast. Last slice in the packet. I searched through the fridge for the butter and jam. The jam pot was nearly empty. Then I smelt burning; the toaster didn't seem to work properly. I moved over and pressed the safety button. The toast popped out. I got a knife and scraped-off the burnt crumbs into the sink.
I finished the jam, and left the jar in the sink to soak. I left the empty bread packet on the work surface. In the morning I'd clear up.
Back to bed, and another draught of water to wash down the toast. I looked at the clock. 3:20. I sat there watching the second hand move up to the '12'. The minute hand jerked forward then back to 3:20. I sat there watching this endless process for several minutes.
I returned to the kitchen. The sink was a mess. I hadn't imagined it. I hadn't been dreaming.
Maybe I was hallucinating. I stayed up, thinking. What could I do at 3:20? It was dark, it was raining; couldn't mow the lawn, shops were closed, as was my local.
Not a bundle of laughs.
The TV seemed to be stuck on one channel; I watched the same wildebeest being attacked by a croc in the Limpopo river crossing, several times. One minute replays. My laptop was the same. Clock 3:20. No news updates; everything had come to a halt. My mobile didn't work; what was happening?
I took a couple of sleeping tablets and returned to bed to sleep it off. I lay there tossing and turning, afraid to look at the clock. Eventually, the tablets kicked-in and I drifted off for a while. When I woke it was still dark. And raining. I couldn't look at the clock.


text:
Q: Using time interval in table for select in another I am using a MySQL data base with 2 tables:
In one table I have BatchNum and Time_Stamp. In another I have ErrorCode and Time_Stamp.
My goal is to use timestamps in one table as the beginning and end of an interval within which I'd like to select in another table.  I would like to select the beginning and end of intervals within which the BatchNum is constant.
CREATE TABLE Batch (BatchNum INT, Time_Stamp DATETIME);
INSERT INTO Batch VALUES (1,'2020-12-17 07:29:36'), (1, '2020-12-17 08:31:56'), (1, '2020-12-17 08:41:56'), (2, '2020-12-17 09:31:13'), (2, '2020-12-17 10:00:00'), (2, '2020-12-17 10:00:57'), (2, '2020-12-17 10:01:57'), (3, '2020-12-17 10:47:59'), (3, '2020-12-17 10:48:59'), (3, '2020-12-17 10:50:59');

CREATE TABLE Errors (ErrorCode INT, Time_Stamp DATETIME);
INSERT INTO Errors VALUES (10, '2020-12-17 07:29:35'), (11, '2020-12-17 07:30:00'), (12, '2020-12-17 07:30:35'), (10, '2020-12-17 07:30:40'), (22, '2020-12-17 10:01:45'), (23, '2020-12-17 10:48:00');

In my example below, I would like something like SELECT BatchNum , ErrorCode, Errors.Time_Stamp WHERE Erorrs.Time_Stamp BETWEEN beginning_of_batch and end_of_batch:
    +----------+-----------+---------------------+
    | BatchNum | ErrorCode |  Errors.Time_Stamp  |
    +----------+-----------+---------------------+
    |        1 |        11 | 2020-12-17 07:30:00 |
    |        1 |        12 | 2020-12-17 07:30:35 |
    |        1 |        10 | 2020-12-17 07:30:40 |
    |        2 |        22 | 2020-12-17 10:01:45 |
    |        3 |        23 | 2020-12-17 10:48:00 |
    +----------+-----------+---------------------+

I am using an answer from a previous question:
Select on value change
to find BatchNum changes but I don't know how to include this in another select to get the ErrorCodes happening within the interval defined by BatchNum changes.

A: I think you want:
select b.*, e.error_code, e.time_stamp as error_timestamp
from (
    select b.*,
        lead(time_stamp) over(order by time_stamp) lead_time_stamp
    from batch b
) b
inner join errors e
    on  e.time_stamp >= b.time_stamp
    and (e.time_stamp < b.lead_time_stamp or b.lead_time_stamp is null)


Here's a lil bit about us!
In order to keep our inventory fresh, all Fun Bags products are handmade to order in Brooklyn, NYC . Due to the nature of handmade items and natural materials, products may vary slightly from images shown.
We focus heavily on reducing waste, and being environmentally conscious throughout our process. With this in mind we design our patterns that build the bag to tessallate, and we view scarring on the leather as character.
All materials are sourced within New York City's five boroughs.
Originally Named "Saint Catello" Fun Bags is a project by designer, Jill Cuticello. Initially starting her education at Pratt in Fashion, Jill moved toward Industrial Design broadening her view of design, and opening up opportunity to become knowledgeable of more materials and assembly.
Fun Bags New York, is the culmination of nearly 15 years observing NYC, Brooklyn, people, dogs and both educations, comes minimal, user friendly handbags.


While we didn't get a single shot of Venom (besides the cover), this issue was a turning point for a lot of characters! How do you feel about where things are going in this series?
I am also setting up a discussion board on the Reddit forums in an attempt to recruit new members to our monthly book club. Take a look and let me know which format you prefer. I'll run them parallel for awhile before deciding on one. Thanks!


text:
package com.jayantkrish.jklol.ccg.lexicon;

import java.util.List;

import com.google.common.base.Function;
import com.google.common.base.Joiner;
import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
import com.jayantkrish.jklol.ccg.CcgCategory;
import com.jayantkrish.jklol.ccg.chart.ChartEntry;
import com.jayantkrish.jklol.ccg.lambda2.Expression2;
import com.jayantkrish.jklol.models.VariableNumMap;
import com.jayantkrish.jklol.nlpannotation.AnnotatedSentence;

/**
 * CCG Lexicon that allows strings from the text to be
 * used as lexicon entries.
 *
 * @author jayant
 *
 */
public class StringLexicon extends AbstractCcgLexicon {
  private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

  public static enum CategorySpanConfig {
    ALL_SPANS, WHOLE_SENTENCE,
  };

  private final List<CcgCategory> categories;
  private final List<CategorySpanConfig> spanConfig;
  private final Function<List<String>, Expression2> detokenizer;

  /**
   *
   * @param terminalVar
   * @param categories
   * @param spanConfig controls which sentence spans each category
   * is instantiated for.
   * @param detokenizer function to use for detokenizing the sentence
   * into a string
   */
  public StringLexicon(VariableNumMap terminalVar, List<CcgCategory> categories,
      List<CategorySpanConfig> spanConfig, Function<List<String>, Expression2> detokenizer) {
    super(terminalVar);
    this.categories = ImmutableList.copyOf(categories);
    this.spanConfig = ImmutableList.copyOf(spanConfig);
    Preconditions.checkArgument(spanConfig.size() == categories.size());

    this.detokenizer = Preconditions.checkNotNull(detokenizer);
  }

  public static Function<List<String>, Expression2> getDefaultDetokenizer() {
    return new Function<List<String>, Expression2>() {
      @Override
      public Expression2 apply(List<String> tokens) {
        return Expression2.constant("\"" + Joiner.on(" ").join(tokens) + "\"");
      }
    };
  }

  @Override
  public void getLexiconEntries(int spanStart, int spanEnd, AnnotatedSentence sentence,
      ChartEntry[] alreadyGenerated, int numAlreadyGenerated, List<Object> triggerAccumulator,
      List<CcgCategory> accumulator, List<Double> probs) {
    List<String> sentenceWords = sentence.getWords();
    for (int i = 0; i < categories.size(); i++) {
      CcgCategory category = categories.get(i);
      CategorySpanConfig config = spanConfig.get(i);
      if (config == CategorySpanConfig.ALL_SPANS || (config == CategorySpanConfig.WHOLE_SENTENCE
          && spanStart == 0 && spanEnd == sentenceWords.size() - 1)) {
        List<String> triggerWords = sentenceWords.subList(spanStart, spanEnd + 1);
        Expression2 wordSequenceExpression = detokenizer.apply(triggerWords);
        Expression2 newLf = Expression2.nested(category.getLogicalForm(), wordSequenceExpression);
        CcgCategory newCategory = category.replaceLogicalForm(newLf);

        triggerAccumulator.add(triggerWords);
        accumulator.add(newCategory);
        probs.add(1.0);
      }
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Little Learners – Ages 1 – 2: In the Children's Room
An event every week that begins at 11:00 am on Wednesday, repeating until April 5, 2023
An event every week that begins at 11:00 am on Tuesday, repeating until December 26, 2023
February 1 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
via Zoom: Meaningful Intentions for the New Year – Special Meditation Series with Dani
via Zoom: 2023 Women & Money Series


We have a vacancy for a driven, enthusiastic vet surgeon, looking for a new challenge on the beautiful East Coast. All levels of experience will be considered. ? Our client can offer a friendly team environment with support and mentoring from experienced vets, and RVNs across each of their 3 branches. The position is for a 4 day working week with a shared weekend rota, along with access to the vet development programme, generous CPD allowance with paid CPD days, competitive salary, exclusive company discounts, reward schemes and career development in a rural setting with beautiful surroundings. If this role sounds of interest please email your CV through to steph@brightleaf.co.uk or give me a call on 01422 433900. Not all of our roles are on our website, so if you are looking to move jobs, please get in touch to discuss your options. If this vacancy isn't quite right for you, please visit www.brightleaf.co.uk to view a full list of our current vacancies. You can also sign up for email alerts to receive news of new vacancies the second they are posted. Bright Leaf Recruitment is a recruitment agency specialising in veterinary recruitment. We have been placing exceptional veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses in great roles around the United Kingdom, Dubai and Australia since 2010. Our team of expert recruiters have over two decades of experience in the veterinary recruitment industry.
Are you an experienced mixed vet looking for a friendly practice with a great relaxed environment? This lovely team situated in the beautiful countryside and coastal area of East Yorkshire, would love to talk to experienced candidates who would relish the challenge of joining a young team and help to shape and develop the vets within it. They are majority small animal but do have approximately 15% Equine and 15% large animal work too. With a great atmosphere the practice are keen to offer high standards of care but also provide a supportive and friendly environment with encouragement to develop your own career. There will be some OOH's and weekends, plus picnics and nights out! Good salary package and benefits alongside a generous CPD If you would like to apply then please contact Louise@brightleaf.co.uk or give me a call on 01422 433900 If this vacancy isn't quite right for you, please visit www.brightleaf.co.uk to view a full list of our current vacancies. You can also sign up for email alerts to receive news of new vacancies the second they are posted. Bright Leaf Recruitment is a recruitment agency specialising in veterinary recruitment. We have been placing exceptional veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses in great roles around the United Kingdom, Dubai and Australia since 2010. Our team of expert recruiters have over two decades of experience in the veterinary recruitment industry.
Our client in North Lincolnshire, which is easily commutabe from Hull and Humberside would like a 4th vet to join their team. This role benefits from an Out of Hours provider and Saturdays are on an alternate basis, mornings only with the following whole Friday off. The practice is well equipped with Digital X-Ray, referral level ultrasound and Rhinoscope. They are happy to support certificates in any subject matter and will also consider applications form confident new and recent graduates. This is a lovely independent practice who Bright Leaf Recruitment have been working with for many years. If you would like to apply for this position, then please contact richard@brightleaf.co.uk or give me a call on 01422 433900. If this vacancy isn't quite right for you, please visit www.brightleaf.co.uk to view a full list of our current vacancies. You can also sign up for email alerts to receive news of new vacancies the second they are posted. Bright Leaf Recruitment is a recruitment agency specialising in veterinary recruitment. We have been placing exceptional veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses in great roles around the United Kingdom, Dubai and Australia since 2010. Our team of expert recruiters have over two decades of experience in the veterinary recruitment industry.
Lovely team of 2 vets looking for another team member for their established single site independent practice based in the pleasant outskirts of Hull. With good facilities including digital X-ray, Ultrasound, endoscope, in house Lab, and separate dental suite. They can offer support for personal development and provide a 5 day allowance for CPD. One of the team is currently undertaking a Certificate and funding is considered for all appropriate CPD. Ideally, they are looking for a confident veterinary surgeon, but they will consider applications from confident newly graduated or developing vets alike, provided they have an interest in surgery, as they are seeking the right person to fit into the team. There would be a little sole charge in evening surgeries or an odd afternoon but there is a great support team around you. There are NO OOH's and weekends are 1:3 If you would like to apply for this position, then please contact richard@brightleaf.co.uk or give me a call on 01422 433900 If this vacancy isn't quite right for you, please visit www.brightleaf.co.uk to view a full list of our current vacancies. You can also sign up for email alerts to receive news of new vacancies the second they are posted. Bright Leaf Recruitment is a recruitment agency specialising in veterinary recruitment. We have been placing exceptional veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses in great roles around the United Kingdom, Dubai and Australia since 2010. Our team of expert recruiters have over two decades of experience in the veterinary recruitment industry.


text:
On July 12th, Join The 'Battle For The Net': An Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality
On July 12, 2017, NCAC, several other websites and organizations, Internet users, and online communities are coming together to sound the alarm about the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) attack on net neutrality. It's shaping up to be one of the largest internet mobilizations of all time.
Learn how you can join the protest and spread the word at https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12/.
If you're reading this, chances are you're somehow plugged into the open web. This is the principle of net neutrality: the idea, in essence, that all web traffic is equal, so no organization or corporation should be able to pay extra for faster connection speeds to their sites or services. Ending net neutrality would allow powerful internet service providers (ISPs), such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, to cripple competition from smaller competitors by making their services virtually unusable due to their slower connection speeds. In a worst-case scenario, it would also enable ISPs to curtail access to websites containing inconvenient information about themselves or their practices. NCAC has previously hypothesized that this amounts to a shutting down of free speech on the web.
It is for these reasons that NCAC, along with a range of public interest groups, plus major websites like Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, and Reddit, is partaking in the July 12 Day of Action to save net neutrality. Also known as the "Battle For The Net," it has been prompted by former Verizon lawyer-turned FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to attack the open web.
The FCC's proposal curbs what it considers "heavy handed" regulation. While purporting to 'Restore Internet Freedom,' Pai suggests a "light-touch regulatory framework" that could easily lead to discrimination against some of your favorite websites. By removing the current regulations and restoring "market-based policies," it is easy to imagine how ISPs would give preferential treatment to content that maximizes their own profits and serves the interests of their stockholders. This unchecked control means that private companies would dictate our options for what we can choose to do online.
As a far-reaching platform spanning across countries and cultures, the internet has been pivotal to free expression since its inception. Fundamentally, it is an approachable space where people can interact with content and applications on a level playing field. Without meddling from Big Cable, Internet users have been able to engage in unbounded exchanges of ideas, a central tenet of the First Amendment.
Netizens, we ask you to stand together with NCAC and dozens of other organizations as proponents of an equal internet. Look out for a widget on our website and many others on July 12th that will enable you to contact the FCC and Congress to show your support of net neutrality.
By Victoria Tang|2017-07-10T18:10:35-04:00July 10th, 2017|Blog|


text:
Previous Films
An Interview with Darren Aronofsky
Interview conducted by Ruby Rich from Inview.Kqed.Org concerning Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream" and "Pi".
B. Ruby Rich (Ruby): I think you really put people into the space of, well, of somebody with a migraine headache. You know, how do you get there? Do you get migraines?
Darren Aronofsky (DA): No, a friend of mine who was a really talented actress, her career was basically devastated by her migraines, and I never realized they were so debilitating and I started talking to her and she, I started seeing artwork that came from, that migraine sufferers drew of their migraine attacks and it was exactly the type of things we were talking about, like the hand of god reaching down and pulling out a chunk of brain.
DA: What I really like about subjective filmmaking, and "Pi", and why I was attracted to this is when you're walking down the street, you're not just walking down the street. You're thinking about the conversation you had with your mom two hours ago or you're thinking about the vacation you're going to go on in two weeks with your friends. Your mind is all over the place and I love -- the great thing about filmmaking is that as filmmakers, we can show where a person's mind goes, as opposed to theater, which is more to sit back and watch it.
Ruby: You know, a lot of filmmakers seem to be either very literary-based or else very movie-based who just watch movies. You seem to really be developing this new visual style that suits each story. You know, how did you find this third road?
DA: It's probably because I'm Godless. And so I've had to make my God, and my God is narrative filmmaking, which is -- ultimately what my God becomes, which is what my mantra becomes, is the theme.
Ruby: So it didn't just come from growing up on Coney island?
DA: If anything, it came from eight hours of TV a day. I was a TV junkie as a kid. I am the Sesame Street generation. 1969, I was born the year Sesame Street was launched and that was the year my mom plopped me in front of the TV and said, don't cry anymore. And I think 17, 18 years later, after eight hours of TV a day, I think that's the culture I come from.
Ruby: I know that you studied animation early on and I was really struck with how the character's inner thoughts and feelings really changed their physical surroundings in a very material way.
DA: You know, it's subjective filmmaking. It's coming out of subjectivity, but definitely animation was a big influence. I mean, my business partner right now and also my college roommate, Dan Shreker who got me into filmmaking, is an amazing animator and they have to live life 24 times as long as we do because, you know, they basically have to -- every 24 frames of a second. They're basically painting or drawing and being meticulous.
Ruby: You've pioneered a lot of ingenious special effects, some of them low-budget, different kinds of camera work, way beyond a steady cam. What's a vibra cam? What's a snorry cam?
DA: Those are just, you know, marketing teams trying to add a little, you know, terms to our stuff. But vibra cam was a camera, you know, it was just a technique, a film technique we started in "Pi," which is whenever Max Coen had his headaches, the frame would shake. And how we did it back then, we just literally put the camera on a long lens and just shook it, because that was about what we could afford. And in "Requiem" we got to sort of master it. Snorry cam is basically a rig that attaches the camera to the actor's body. I call it the utmost in subjective filmmaking because the character is frozen in the sense of the frame while the background is moving.
Ruby: You rely a lot on special effects in your films. And yet I think what saves the films from being a sort of MTV razzle dazzle experience are these moments of quiet intensity, of emotional connection between the characters.
DA: Well, whenever there's not intensity, emotional intensity, I just light up the fireworks. You know, because I think that's what it's about. I think the biggest crime is to bore an audience. Really, I can't stand being bored. If anyone sleeps in my film, I'll kill ya because I just don't -- I just want to get people their money's worth.
Ruby: To what extent do you anticipate audience's reactions from the material?
DA: It's hard to really know where an audience is at. You just -- you know, it's one of those gut things; when you're watching it happen, you're hoping it's working. And then, if it's not working, you hope you can save it in editing.
And if you can't save it in editing, you hope that Ellen Burstyn is in the scene, and it will be okay, because whenever Ellen's on the screen, it works.
Ruby: Ellen Burstyn is brilliant in this film.
DA: Thank you, well, actually I shouldn't be thanking you because I had nothing to do with it. It was purely was Ellen. Here's a 67-year-old actress that lets the camera one millimeter from her face.
I've dealt with 19-year-old actors, male actors, like, well, -- she was wearing makeup, no makeup and sometimes makeup that made her worse -- you know, look worse. And, you know, just complete no vanity, complete surrender to the world, complete surrender to the material. And that's what it's about.
You know, I think it's a modern horror film. We always saw this as a monster movie except that the monster was invisible. The creature was invisible. It was addiction, living in the character's head and the only other difference is that the creature wins.
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I woke up to Niina's cheerful call.
I usually would be more relaxed and did the legendary 5 more minutes thing… but I couldn't today, since today would be my eighth birthday!
My seventh birthday ended without anything out of the ordinary except for a little uneasiness and anxiety I felt upon meeting my old acquaintances… That didn't last long since my conversation with them was so brief anyway. That heavy feeling didn't last for so long, much to my relief.
However, that didn't mean I could finally let my guard down. I had no clairvoyant ability, so I wouldn't know what might happen… I'd better be cautious, still!
So, needless to say… I couldn't really sleep well last night (it usually happened before any big events anyway), and that was why my legendary 5 more minutes didn't appear.
That made me realize… As their child, I'd have to follow such a high example!!
This year, I'm turning eight. Time flew by so fast. Before long, I'd have to say goodbye to my childhood again, and becoming an adult for real.
I'm an adult inside for most of the time, but here, I'm talking about how I'll officially be acknowledged as an adult, robbing me of any benefits I can reap for being a child.
When I think about it, birthdays are no longer fun, but what else can be done?
I learned that the present was the most important thing, so let's focus on the present!
As I was preparing for the party, I suddenly recalled one thing.
Right, there's one more thing I need to pay attention to!
Ein just turned six several months ago—he might actually attend my birthday party this time!!
As soon as I finished my opening speech, I was welcomed with the nobles' comments. …Somehow, it was different from how I was complimented in the past? In the past, I heard the word "elegant" and "noble" and "calm" the most… They praised me for being so sensible.
Still, being praised for my "cuteness" was something that felt nice!
My face as Reinst was nothing that could really be described with cute… people would describe it as… pretty? Did I remember being called as a cold beauty as well? …Well, different genes, different facial features!
Today, the dress I was wearing also screamed the word "cute". I was afraid it wouldn't suit me—but I forgot that I wasn't Reinst anymore, who wasn't that suited wearing cute things. The dress suited me perfectly, even I was so surprised upon seeing myself in the mirror.
There were frills here and there, and the accessories picked were also cute!
My hair was twintailed as usual—but this time, it was a low twintail style. My hair was also styled so that it looked a bit wavy, which made me look like… a little bunny(?). I was glad I decided to let my hair grow longer, since I won't be able to be styled like this if I kept it short. Still, it could only be categorized as medium-length.
…In short, I quite liked being seen as a cute girl.
"Thank you…," I shyly answered.
"No, she's still 8, and I don't plan on engaging her that fast," Dad quickly dispelled the thought of my engagement.
I'm happy though, since this family of mine never really urged me to be engaged to this one or that one, or be the queen in the future. Took such a heavy load off my shoulders.
A familiar voice. A familiar face.
"Thank you, Domi-san!" I smiled back at him.
I'm 8 years old now, which means he should be 19 years old.
I wonder if Domi's engaged? Will he get married soon?
…but I don't know how I can ask him that… It's too weird… or is it not?
Seeing how Father and Mother were not around Domi and how Mom and Dad were also not standing close to me, also judging from where they were at, they won't be able to hear us… I decided to ask.
…Nothing suspicious, right? Hehe, it's perfect!
……Okay, I admit, I'm still quite nervous asking him this out of the blue.
Look, Domi flashed a hint of surprise for a moment on his face! And yep, I'm quite observant, huh?
Still, he gave a precise answer, without any extra words or superfluous ones.
Oh, most likely, his fiancee was someone younger, so he had to wait for her… or that there were other matters to think of…?
Regardless, I know I'm in no position to ask about things like that.
…Wait, wait, this seems awkward!
"I-I want to see a wedding ceremony!" I quickly added.
"Your family will definitely get an invitation, alright?" Domi answered as he slightly smiled.
Before I got to ask more questions, Father and Mother had already arrived near us, apparently ready to congratulate me. When I took a quick glance, I saw Kania-san being with… uh, Ein. No wonder, I guess? She was near Father and Mother at the beginning of the party, though.
Have you ever met your fiancee before? Did you like her or is it a pure political engagement? Who is your fiancee? What kind of girl is she?
…Yep, totally out of the line.
Shouldn't ask those questions. I know.
"Congratulations on turning eight. May you bring honor to your family name," Father congratulated me with words that… totally sounded like him.
"Thank you, I hope I can uphold to the expectations," I politely replied.
As I did, I took a glance at Father.
Come to think of it, my relationship with Father wasn't that close. It was so different than my current relationship with Dad. However, it was true that I respected Father a lot. Even when he was a cold person, he always managed to resolve matters calmly and raise the Grabberton family's fame, upholding the family's honor. His swordsmanship was great, too.
…Father, I wonder what he really thought about me? …About Reinst, I mean.
Suddenly, I also began to ponder about it. Most of my interactions with him were done by exchanging swords. He directly mentored me and was so discipline and strict, even when I was his own daughter. Thanks to his training, my swordsmanship could improve as well.
…Though I was mostly learning under the private tutor Father hired for me, but my training with him was so valuable.
Both of them are dukes and are fathers, but they are so different.
Inside my heart, I silently thanked him.
…Even an iota… Did you love me, simply for the fact that I was your daughter? Did you feel glad simply because I was born as your daughter?
After a very brief conversation with Father, it was Mother's turn. She occasionally joined in my brief conversation with Father, but this time, she was my main partner of conversation.
"Congratulations on turning eight. It seems that… you've grown up quite a lot," Mother said while slightly moving her fan.
Eh? What might it be?
"In the past, when I heard the rumor about how you displayed an excellent etiquette and mannerism at such a young age, and that people started to compare you to my late daughter, I was surprised," Mother started narrating.
Before I even managed to finish saying my thanks, Mother quickly added. I looked at her with a face of confusion.
Aah, it's been a long time since I last heard Mother's advice like this. Her wording never really changed, huh?
Back when I was too happy to get praises and wasn't as diligent as before, Mother also advised me like that.
I became less refined than before…? N-not that I did any training, so was it to be expected?
Oh right, I also feel like my feelings are more visible on my face than before… I used to be able to conceal my feelings so well, too.
–Wait, do I need to do what I had been doing as Reinst in this life as well?
When I tried to picture my current self acting 100% like my past self… yep, it wouldn't match. My past behavior totally matched my past self with how I gave off the vibe of someone cold and elegant. But with how my current self looked… it seemed odd, I guess?
Still, I don't think there's any need for me… except for how I should try to hide my feelings from being so visible on my face—it can be detrimental in some situations. I need to get my composure back!
My heart literally skipped a bit when you mentioned about me right in front of me!!
T-that didn't show on my face, right?
…Yep, because Mother didn't seem to react.
And that marked the end of our conversation.
I still feel weird how she gave me advice like this. Never have I imagined that I'd hear her advice again.
Although I don't really have to follow her words, this time. …Yes, she is no longer my "mother".
…But her words still made me feel a bit dejected, as it used to be in the past, okay?
At the same time, I was also reminded on how different my life as Lyra was.
In this party, I also met with some familiar faces. Fumitsuna Yuzuru, for example—she seemed to have grown up more. The air of arrogance that I felt from her didn't change, but don't get me wrong, it wasn't a negative type of arrogance—it felt more like a confident-type of arrogance. In other words, she could be categorized as a prideful type?
…Aah, my anxiety was shown so visibly? I was afraid she would think badly of me for trying to compete with what should be her family's specialty… But really, it's different!
And now that she mentioned it, I think I have spent more time on my magic training, indeed…? The fact that magic is something new to me also contributes, and the swordsmanship training I have done so far was to establish my "balanced" style, trying to think of ways to implement magic in it.
Even if the Hartmann family is known to specialize in magic, I still love swordsmanship, and nobody really objects me to practice it… so it should be okay, right?
…Fine, I'll also try to focus more on magic, since I also don't want to let the saying of [The Hartmann family, a magician family] end with me!
At least, I've been so diligent in practicing the Hartmann family's art of illusion and transformation!! …though I haven't had much chance to use it.
After greeting most of the nobles, I should go and find my friends!
Yup, that's right~ I also invited Iris, Carbuncle, and Harvey. Harvey never really participated in noble parties, but since he was introduced to my parents, they insisted Harvey join as well. Clavis had already been participating as Alt-nii's aide, so they thought it'd be bad for Harvey to be left out all alone just because he was a commoner.
There was no restriction to inviting a commoner, anyway. Not many nobles did that, though, as most of the nobles were friends with fellow nobles.
My friends knew I'd have to greet the nobles as the star of the party, so they must be waiting for me to come looking for them. Luca and Kiri were on different matter, though, as they'd surely be sought by the other noble children as well.
A new boss has entered the battle field!
Two other bosses that accompanied the main boss identified!—Nicole and Clyde.
…Wait, there seemed to be one more person… ah, Kania-san, Clyde's mother.
That's right. Apart from Father, Mother, and Domi, there are still Kania, Clyde, Nicole, …and now, Ein as well!
Let's be cautious and win this boss battle!
Victory objective: To not show anything to cause the bosses to be suspicious of my past identity!
JP Translator and Original Author; Hope you will enjoy all my works and don't hesitate to comment!; Support can be given through Patreon (patreon.com/ConvallariasLibrary) or Ko-Fi (ko-fi.com/A1864CG3)~!
Lyra is just so cute 😆 She's so scared that people will connect her to Reinst. Honestly, if people do say she (Reinst) is possessing Lyra's body and performs and exorcism of some sort, it's not like she'll be expelled out of the body.
Once again, thank you for the chapter!


Miami Criminal Mischief Attorney Lawyer | Erick Cruz, P.A.
A person commits the offense of criminal mischief if he or she willfully and maliciously injures or damages by any means any real or personal property belonging to another including but not limited to the placement of graffiti thereon or other acts of vandalism thereto. Therefore, the offense of criminal mischief does not apply to someone damaging his or her own property.
The degree of the crime is dependent upon the amount of monetary damages sustained by the property. Any person who is guilty of criminal mischief may, in addition to any other criminal penalty, be required to pay for the damages caused. In addition to any other penalty provided by law, a minor who is found to have placed graffiti on any public or private property may have eligibility for a driver's license revoked or withheld for up to one year or if the minor has a license that has been suspended, the suspension may be extended for up to one year.
Typically, the crime of criminal mischief is charged along with burglary and theft. Another common scenario involves a domestic violence dispute where property is damaged in the altercation. If the damage to the property is in excess of $1,000 then the crime is elevated to a third degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Otherwise, the offense is a misdemeanor in varying degrees.
Erick has successfully defended clients accused of criminal mischief. Oftentimes, Erick can identify issues related to the value of the damaged property that results in reducing the charges or dismissing the case altogether.


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Not so long ago, in a great land, there was a leader who did much good. And he had a wife who came from a noble family. But the leader took it upon himself to lay down with his maidservant, and begat a child, and in so doing split the family apart.
That was when Abraham (Ibrahim) took as his second wife the slave handmaiden Hagar (Hajra). Hagar gave birth to a son Ishmael (Ismail). Some 13 years later, Abraham's first wife Sarah (Sara) also gave birth to a son, Isaac (Esack). Conflict between the wives resulted in Abraham setting Hagar and Ishmael free. They wandered into the desert and settled in what is today Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The children of Ishmael and the children of Isaac subsequently each laid claim to the heritage of the patriarch Abraham, and have been at war ever since. Over various periods in history, each has taken possession of Abraham's ancestral land. Today, they are known to most of the world as Israelis and Palestinians.
From where I sit as an outsider and infidel (kafir), this is a tragic family feud – brother fighting brother, for generation upon generation, each visiting untold pain upon the other. It's a conflict that could have ended decades ago had the world's powers seen fit to put humanity ahead of political expediency.
Last week, US President Barack Obama did exactly that.
"For decades," he said, "the conflict between Israelis and Arabs has cast a shadow over the region. For Israelis, it has meant living with the fear that their children could be blown up on a bus or by rockets fired at their homes, as well as the pain of knowing that other children in the region are taught to hate them. For Palestinians, it has meant suffering the humiliation of occupation, and never living in a nation of their own.
It took an extraordinary act of moral courage to utter those words, given that this is a president facing re-election with full knowledge that he would alienate a significant part of his electorate. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu was almost dripping contempt as he stood next to Obama and rejected his overtures.
Obama responded by going directly to Netanyahu's power base, the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and repeating exactly what he said to Netanyahu. "This is not idealism; it is not naïveté. It is a hard-headed recognition that a genuine peace is the only path that will ultimately provide for a peaceful Palestine as the homeland of the Palestinian people and a Jewish state of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people." He received tumultuous applause.
The Israeli prime minister is no doubt trying to work out exactly what happened to shift sentiment in Obama's favour. I can explain.
There's a 40 year old proverb which says "Only Nixon could go to China". It was sparked by then US President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, which began the normalisation of relations between the two countries. Today, the proverb refers to the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.
And ironically, it was Obama's decisiveness in violating international law to assassinate Bin Laden that has given him the moral high ground to challenge Netanyahu on his home turf, and thereby present the first real opportunity for peace in the Holy Land since the time of Abraham.
‹ Previous "Underpaid, at a few billion a year"
Next › "Our ancestors had fewer choices"


Finding great seafood can be more difficult than the actual cooking itself. If you live far from the ocean or in a small town, your choices can be very limited. Luckily, with modern shipping and online shopping, high-quality seafood is available to everyone.
One word of caution with buying seafood online, check shipping costs. Overnight shipping can be very expensive, especially when half your package is ice. But if you're looking for some great seafood, here are some recommended companies.
Vital Choice has an amazing selection of frozen and canned seafood from Alaska and the Northwest Pacific. Don't be fooled by the generic looking labels on their products. You will find some of the best seafood money can buy, and they have an outstanding mail order system.
The owners and executive staff have decades of experience as professional fishermen. A very enticing fact about their products is that the selection of seafood is sustainable and most of their fisheries used are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or the State of Alaska. Vital Choice seafood is flash frozen at sea and shipped on dry ice to your home. The quality is most excellent and the prices are fair.
This family-owned California company has been operating from Morro Bay for over 25 years. They have over 1,000 varieties of seafood including crab and lobster, caviar, sashimi grade tunas, over 12 varieties of live oysters, tons of fish, and lots more. The seafood is shipped overnight within 24 hours of being ordered online.
iGourmet has a nice selection of premium fresh fish, including ahi tuna, lobster tails, catfish, salmon, mahi-mahi, snapper, soft shell crabs, and more. They also have a great selection of canned seafood, smoked seafood, and caviar. Great customer service, too!
This Maryland company has been providing fresh seafood to its mail-order customers since 1997. Greg and Matt Cain sell fresh Maryland seafood caught daily by local watermen.
Their unique packing and delivery process keeps their crabs fresh, and their customers satisfied. In season, you can find a fantastic assortment of live Maryland crab (hard or soft). In the off-season, order them steamed or frozen. Other treats include Alaskan king crab, Maine lobster, Louisiana crawfish, oysters, and an assortment of prepared foods like crab cakes, breaded shrimp and clams, calamari, soups, and sauces.
This great company sells premium seafood (including 14 species of sashimi grade fish) to some of the best restaurants in the country. You can purchase their products online through Allen Brothers.
Specialties include Hawaiian Ahi, Tasmanian King Salmon, Hawaiian Swordfish, Hawaiian Escolar, Hawaiian Pink Snapper, Hawaiian Sea Bass, Hawaiian King Prawns.
This South Carolina seafood store carries over 30 kinds of fish as well as shrimp, lobster, oysters, clams, mussels, crawfish, calamari, and more.
Everything is processed, packaged, and shipped from a central Charleston location under strict HAACP guidelines. Unlike most companies, Charleston Seafood offers 2-day air shipping, which costs a lot less than overnight. Your order is carefully packaged to ensure it will maintain the best quality.
Alaskan Harvest is an Oregon company that provides excellent seafood from the waters of Alaska, including Alaska black cod, King and Dungeness crab, Pacific oysters, razor clams, wild salmon (Chinook, coho, and sockeye), Maine and Australian lobster, sea scallops, Alaskan shrimp, swordfish, yellowfin tuna, halibut, halibut cheeks, mahi-mahi and more. They offer reasonable shipping costs and ships 2nd- day air.


text:
FE&S delivers relevant news of the day to the foodservice equipment and supplies marketplace.
FE&S to Honor Boelter as Dealer of the Year 2018
The Editors January 24, 2018
Boelter is the 2018 recipient of Foodservice Equipment and Supplies' prestigious Dealer of the Year award.
Representatives from the Wisconsin-based foodservice equipment and supplies dealership will accept this honor during FE&S' 2018 Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala, which will take place Sat., May 19 at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.
During the past 6 years, Boelter has grown its business to more than $355 million in annual revenues from $186 million, making it the 5th largest foodservice equipment and supplies dealer in the country, according to FE&S' Distribution Giants Study. "Due to its honesty and integrity, Boelter has a well-honed reputation with operators throughout the foodservice industry," said Maureen Slocum, FE&S' publisher. "Across its many locations, the company remains true to its culture as its management team continues to provide the dealer's frontline personnel the necessary tools to support their operator customers, regardless of whether they are a chain, independent or institutional operator. This unified approach allows Boelter to provide value on the customers' terms and make it a desired trading partner for the many factories the company works with."
"Everything is changing. Our business has to evolve and to do that successfully requires some heavy lifting. Receiving the Dealer of the Year Award is validation of everyone's efforts and a great honor," said Eric Boelter, president of the Boelter. "What does not change, though, the core values that brought us here. Our associates and customers still come first."
FE&S previously presented Boelter with its Dealer of the Year Award in 2005 and 1990.
FE&S is able to present its 2018 Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala thanks to the generous support of its three platinum sponsors: True Refrigeration, Unified Brands and Welbilt.
FE&S' Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala recognizes the foodservice community's brightest stars by presenting them with some of the industry's most time-honored awards. Held each year on the Saturday of the National Restaurant Association's trade show in Chicago, this event brings together the best of the best to celebrate the ongoing success of the foodservice industry. Other awards to be presented the evening of May 19 include: FE&S' Hall of Fame Award, FE&S' Top Achievers, Facility Design Project of the Year and DSR of the Year.
Anyone interested in learning more about the 2018 Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala should contact Maureen Slocum at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by calling (630) 715-1553.
Platinum sponsors of FE&S' 2018 Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala:


text:
Snow White Puts Up A Fight In 'Mirror Mirror'
Lily Collins tells MTV News her Snow is a 'young woman who found out that she can save a prince as much as a prince can save her.'
archive-Kara-Warner 03/29/2012
If you're looking for a fun, fantastical, family-friendly movie to see this weekend, Tarsem's "Mirror Mirror" has you covered. The visually appealing and star-studded film is a new spin on an old classic, featuring an exuberant "man child" of a prince played by Armie Hammer, Oscar winner Julia Roberts as an unhealthily vain Evil Queen and Lily Collins as a more independent and self-assured Snow White.
When MTV News caught up with Roberts and Collins recently, we asked them to explain how their characters differ from the familiar fairy-tale mold.
"I think she's deeply misunderstood," Roberts said of her Evil Queen. "And I think she is correct in her ambition and drive and desire and focus to annihilate Snow White. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. She's clear," she joked. "She's exacting."
Collins explained that her Snow White is not your typical damsel in distress. "She really becomes a fighter, emotionally and physically, and turns into this young woman who found out that she can save a prince as much as a prince can save her," she said. "She really becomes this fighter, and I got to swordfight and fence and wrestle and do all these cool things that you don't normally associate with a princess."
Speaking of fighters and swordfights, we couldn't help but ask for the castmembers' opinions on the fact that another Snow White-centric film, "Snow White and the Huntsman," will be hot on the heels of "Mirror Mirror" when it opens June 1 and how it might fare against their film.
"I'm interested to see what they did," Hammer admitted. "I think what we did is make a movie that's family-friendly. The parents are going to go to it and enjoy it almost as much as the kids are. Plus our movie kicks that movie's ass, let's be honest," he added with a grin. "Yeah. And we're out first. And we're gonna kick their ass!" he joked, clearly not concerned with competing against "Huntsman." "We're gonna make so much more money than they are! Our Rotten Tomatoes score is gonna be so much higher."
Check out everything we've got on "Mirror Mirror."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.


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text:
While Rory revisited his past and Eitan made himself acquainted with the floor of the tram, and Jagati and John got to know the Al Karim family, Galileo Kane stood in the middle of John Pitte's cabin.
If the man's room was anything to go by, the Errant's captain was an orderly, efficient, and unutterably dull individual.
The most interesting object in his quarters was the pocket-watch Galileo found sitting in a little wooden bowl atop the desk. The bowl, along with the writing box and its contents, were now on the deck, half-buried in mattress batting.
Pitte's logbook and ledgers had ended up on the far side of the bed, after Galileo threw them into the bulkhead.
Clothes he'd torn from the closet lay scattered wherever they'd fallen, and the few books Pitte kept in his room now lay in shreds, victims of Galileo's rage.
Now he stood in the midst of the disarray, running his thumb over the watch's brass cover, on which a celestial map was etched.
Possibly Pitte held on to the object for its artistic value, as the timepiece itself didn't run.
"Not completely efficient, then," he said aloud, letting his dark eyes wander the small space. "Nor particularly orderly anymore," he added, looking at the wreckage which spilled into the cabin's bathroom.
With a twitch of the lip Eitan would have recognized as a sneer, he tossed the pocket-watch onto the floor, taking a small sliver of pleasure from the muffled crack of the crystal breaking.
A small compensation for Pitte's duplicity with Mary, who'd already radioed with the news of the disaster at the house on Donne Street.
Nowhere near enough compensation for what Galileo had endured during his next radio conversation to his backer, the one who'd not only paid for the research and development of the calculator, but for Mary and Colin's services in the retrieving of it.
He had been disappointed in Galileo's efforts thus far, and Galileo was not accustomed to being considered a disappointment. Or failing.
Nor would he now, for he would find his calculator and be back in his patron's good graces by the suns rise, and everything would be crystal and comb.
Bolstered by his own determination, he stepped into the corridor and moved aft, towards the last cabin.
He'd already been through two of the Errant's six decks since he'd broken in, cursing his way through the bact-tanks and plumbing works in the lower bilges before tearing through the fifth deck's mostly empty cargo bay and crammed-to-bursting machinist's room.
In addition to a souk's worth of tools, spare parts, and salvage, the machinist's room held in abundance the odor of graphite and allusteel, which he recalled smelling on Rory back in the alley.
What it didn't hold, however, was his calculator, so now he was on the fourth deck, combing through the crew quarters, still burning with the anger first kindled on discovering he'd been conned by Eitan and his skinny friend, for the pack he'd taken from Rory held nothing but a dysfunctional pressure gauge.
His jaw tightened as, again, he recalled the mechanic lying to him, both face to face and mind to mind.
And Eitan… Leo's breath hitched as he recalled his old lover's touch, and the ease with which he'd, once upon a time, been able to know every thought.
Not so tonight. Not even after Leo shoved him—physically and psychically—into the gutter. The Eitan who came upon him in the alley possessed walls which he'd not possessed during their time together.
Then again, almost ten years had passed since their days at Chandrasekhar University. A man, as he'd told Eitan in the alley, could change.
And as he entered Eitan's cabin, saved for last, he saw just how much the other man had changed.
The Eitan of his youth would never have lived so lean.
The rich fabrics and adornments which once drew eyes throughout Samsung were gone, replaced by rough, nondescript clothes in various shades of brown. The boldly colored art and furnishings of his flat had given way to bare walls and utilitarian bedding of a non-color somewhere between gray and beige.
The only aspects of the cabin that resonated with the young man Leo recalled were the sword hanging from the bulkhead, the bottle of wine on the shelf, and the books, dozens of them, stacked upon the desk, on the shelf, and under the bed.
Turning back to the desk, he was briefly confounded by a short strip of leather left sitting on top of a pamphlet on crystal veins. It looked like an old belt, stitched over itself, and felt as if it were filled with metal shavings.
Leo had used similar items back in the day as a cosh. But Eitan hadn't come up on the streets, so Leo doubted he'd ever have used such a weapon, and even if he had, this was too light to be of use.
Continuing to scan the room, however, he spied another such strip lying on top of an open book left on the bed. A tool, then, weighted to hold open pages for the one-handed Eitan, and still thin enough to function as a bookmark.
Clever, he thought, hefting the weighted book holder. He'd little doubt it was the clever-minded Rory who'd created the device, which he let fall back to the desk with a slithering thud before continuing to search the room in earnest.
Out of remembered affection he refrained from the vindictive destruction visited on the prior two cabins, but admittedly, there was little in the room to destroy.
The mattress was, necessarily, sacrificed to the cause, but rather than his own utilitarian knife he made use of Eitan's sword to cut through the canvas cover. The lightly curved blade was heavier than it looked, but it was also much more effective at slicing through canvas and batting, and Leo found wielding it quite gratifying.
The wine he left untouched, for the present.
He didn't find his calculator, but by the time he stepped back into the corridor, he'd found a level of satisfaction in seeing Eitan Fehr had fallen as far as he, Galileo Kane, had risen.
Galileo Kane had been born with looks, intelligence, and a Sensitivity of unusual depth and scope.
None of which mattered because he'd also been born in the lower combs of Harp, a city considered Avon's afterthought in the best of times.
And Galileo had not been born in the best of times.
Which meant he'd learned, and learned early, a lad couldn't dine on his pretty face, and being smart only meant being able to calculate how many bites of bread he might take one day, and still have some left for the next.
And as to the Sensitivity?
If asked, he'd have said there was little comfort to be found in knowing his mum's thoughts as she tried to stretch two days' worth of food into a week.
Certainly he'd never wished to share his twin sister's last moments before the Midasian Fever took her from him forever.
He'd been only thirteen the morning of her death, but by the time her gray eyes closed forever, he'd aged a dozen years.
Or so his mum said.
Galileo didn't disagree, nor could he find it in himself to care.
The boy he'd been before Syl died had a pretty face and brains to back them up, but he'd lacked ambition to be more, do more…have more.
In the literal stop of a heartbeat Galileo determined he'd not only have more.
He would have it all.
For having stepped to the edge with his sister, Galileo came back determined to use his gifts to the fullest—all his gifts—and no law, no morals, no Keeper-prescribed codes were going to stop him.
He began small, taking to the streets and learning the dodgers' trade, not from any fagin, but by Sensing those in the shadow trade, lifting knowledge as another lad might lift a purse, and then commenced lifting purses himself.
Once he started bringing in enough to keep himself and his mum fed, he began to cultivate his native intelligence, both through the Keeper-run primary school and the occasional visit to one of Harp's few bookshops.
Sometimes he even paid for the books.
He was in such a shop, contemplating the relative merits of The Crystal Economy and The Geophysical History of Fortune (i.e., which would best fit inside his coat's hidden pocket), when he caught the eye of Miyal Cardano, a professor of maths who was passing through on his way to Lovelace College up in Ferrari.
Miyal was thirty-two, Galileo a lusty seventeen.
The next day he said farewell to his mum and hopped the mag-train to Ferrari where, for two years he and Miyal shared a bed and Galileo, with Miyal's patronship, enrolled in the college, where he delved fully into the study of mathematics and technical sciences.
It was also through Miyal that Galileo discovered the technocrist movement, an underground faction founded on the belief the citizens of Fortune should not be denied advanced technologies. And while Galileo had no political motivation for such beliefs, he did hold to the ideal that whoever had the most advanced tech would most assuredly have the most wealth.
So close did he hold this ideal that, when the relationship with Miyal had taken him as far as it could, he applied for a place at Chandrasekhar University in Fuji and, upon his acceptance (with only a whisper of telepathic cheating), gave an appropriately heartfelt farewell to his patron who, over time, had become not only dull but clingy with it.
On arriving in the Fujian city of Samsung, Galileo—who'd thought Ferrari impressive after a childhood in Harp's gutters—discovered how shallow his ambitions had been.
From the first salt-touched breath of the ocean as he stepped off the airship, to his first viewing of the white-walled garden of the university itself, Samsung opened its arms to him as a mother to her long-lost child.
That sensation of welcome lasted up until he set foot in the dormitories reserved for the scholarship students such as himself and, once again made acquaintance with the odor of garbage, dank plaster, and the feces of whatever vermin policed the building for leavings.
The stench, the very fust of the air, was so like the hovel of his youth that he came near to turning on his heel and leaving, education be damned. But his inner voice, the one born the day Syl died, held him in place, reminding him this was but a stepping stone, that at least here he'd a room of his own and more privacy than he'd ever seen in Miyal's flat.
So he closed his eyes to the squalor, and he stayed.
He made what passed for friends, both in school and in the local technocrist cell.
He also, soon after arriving, met Eitan Fehr, a young intellect from a ristocratic family who dazzled in the debates and sparring ring alike. Most intriguingly, Eitan was a sensitive as well, though not as adept as himself.
But he was handsome, and clever, and passionate. So passionate that, with Eitan, Galileo thought he might let himself love, as he'd not since losing his sister.
And then Eitan left, and Galileo learned what it was to be spurned.
It was not a lesson he learned gladly, but he learned it well, and since Eitan no other had come so close to his heart.
Stepping from Eitan's cabin, Galileo considered his next move.
There were yet four more cabins, all untenanted, to search. But there were also three more decks and the envelope, all possible hiding places for the calculator. Too much, he knew, for one man to cover, but even as he thought this, the scrape of a boot on metal had him spinning towards the aft ladder.
He slipped back into Eitan's quarters, drawing his gun and his knife. He'd no urge to kill anyone, but if one of the Errant's crew were returning, he'd be happy to shed as much blood as needed to get the calculator back.
"—makes you so sure 'e'll be here?"
At the sound of the deep street Nikean accent, he lowered the gun.
"He'll be here," a velvety female voice replied, "because there's no possibility Pitte would have trusted anyone else with that box, which means the box is here, which means the boss will be here as well," Mary said as Galileo stepped out to see her appear at the top of the companionway, just behind Colin. "And look," she said, "here he is." She smiled. "Hello, boss."
"You've a sanguine turn of mind for someone who failed in their mission," he observed, uninterested in her all-too-obvious charms.
"Have you never heard the term 'Failure is but opportunity turned sideways'?" Mary asked with a practiced pout. She moved forward into the corridor, holding a russet coat closed over the thin sari she wore.
"No," Galileo replied. "Possibly because it's untrue."
"Pessimist," Mary sighed. "True, we did not get your cargo, but we didn't come entirely empty-handed."
As she spoke, she shifted to the left while Colin moved to the right, allowing a third individual, one unknown to Galileo, to step out of the ladderwell. "We hired a new hand," Colin said.
Ysabel met Galileo's eye. "I understand yours is a growth industry."
He studied the tall woman and found her imposing enough.
Despite having pushed his talents to the brink during the confrontation in the Tempest Park alley, he risked a quick Sensing, and found Mary's decision well-founded. "How fast can you search an airship for contraband?" he asked over the first warning twinges of a headache.
Ysabel smiled.


text:
QBE awarded for customer-focused learning program
QBE Insurance and consulting group Be Learning have been awarded 'Best Learning Organisation' at the 2017 AITD Excellence Awards.
The Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) is a not-for-profit association that fosters individual and organisational learning for its members across Australia, and celebrates best practice at their annual National Training Excellence Awards.
The award recognises QBE's CARE Program (Customers Are Really Everything), which was developed in conjunction with Be Learning and rolled out to 800 customer-facing staff from the beginning of the year.
The program incorporates face-to-face programs, ongoing support and on-the-job embedded activities for staff. It aims to build the capability, confidence and people skills for staff and leaders, and is part of a wider, customer-led transformation journey that is taking place across the business.
QBE Australia and New Zealand Operations (ANZO) Chief HR Officer, Sally Kincaid, said the CARE Program helps bring people, customers and operational excellence together to enable better customer outcomes.
"The program raises the bar on delivering exceptional customer experiences, and improves consistency of experience when we make contact with customers," Ms Kincaid said.
"The program helps our people to develop resilience, think on their feet, problem solve and ensure we place the customer at the heart of everything we do."
Following the success of the initial rollout, the Property and Motor Claims teams in New Zealand will begin the CARE Program before the end of the year, with the Australian Claims teams to follow in 2018.
The program's success has also prompted other areas of the business to approach the CARE Program team with interest to implement similar programs.
Erica Tarlington
External Communications Specialist - QBE Corporate Communications
Email: erica.tarlington@qbe.com


text:
Q: JSON Newtonsoft C# Good Practice for Serialize/ Deserialize Lists of Objects I've readed others posts here about this question
Serializing a list of Object using Json.NET
Serializing a list to JSON
Merge two objects during serialization using json.net?
All very useful. Certain, I can serialize in one json two lists, but I cant deserialize it.
I´m working with Json Newtonsoft, C#, MVC5, framework 4.5. This is the scenario:
C# CODE
public class User
{
    public int id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
}

public class Request
{
    public int id { get; set; }
    public int idUSer{ get; set; }
}

List<User> UserList = new List<User>();
List<Request> RequestList = new List<Request>();
string json=  JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { UserList, RequestList });

JSON RESULT
{
"UserList":[
  {
     "id":1,
     "name":"User 1"
  },
  {
     "id":2,
     "name":"User 2"
  },
  {
     "id":3,
     "name":"User 3"
  }
 ],
"RequestList":[
  {
     "id":1,
     "idUSer":1
  },
  {
     "id":2,
     "idUSer":1
  },
  {
     "id":3,
     "idUSer":1
  },
  {
     "id":4,
     "idUSer":2
  }
  ]
  }

C# DESERIALIZE
I dont Know how configure the settings of Json.Deserialize< ?, Settings>(json) for indicate what types of objects are being deserialized.
Change of approach
So that,  change of approach, I've created a new class "Cover" in order to put the lists together and serialize one object
 public class Cover
 {
    private List<User> user = new List<User>();
    private List<Request> request = new List<Request>();

    public List<User> User
    {
        get { return user;}
        set { User = value;}
    }

    public List<Request> Request
    {
        get {return request;}
        set {Request = value;}
    }
  }

SERIALIZE
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(cover);

JSON The json result is the same.
DESERIALIZE
 Cover  result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Cover>(json, new
 JsonSerializerSettings { TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Auto });

It's work fine. My situation is resolved but I have doubts about concepts, in my mind something is not clear:
MY QUESTIONS ARE:
For the first aproach:
Do you think that there is a way to deserialize a json with different lists of objects? Is not a good practice?
Second aproach: Why jsons are equals for first situation?

A: In JSON.NET you need to specify the type you're about to deserialize, by supplying its name as a type argument to DeserializeObject.
However, in this line:
string json=  JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { UserList, RequestList });

you create anonymous object and then serialize it - new { UserList, RequestList }. So there is the catch - you cannot use anonymous type as type arguments.
To handle such situations, JSON.NET provides DeserializeAnonymousType<>. It doesn't require you to supply the type argument; actually you can't as you going to deserialize anonymous type. Instead it is inferred from the type of the second argument, passed to the method. So you just create a dummy, anonymous object, without data and pass it to this method.
// jsonData contains previously serialized List<User> and List<Request>
void DeserializeUserAndRequest(string jsonData)
{
    var deserializedLists = new {
        UserList = new List<User>(),
        RequestList = new List<Request>()
    };
    deserializedLists = JsonConvert.DeserializeAnonymousType(jsonData, deserializedLists);

    // Do your stuff here by accessing
    //  deserializedLists.UserList and deserializedLists.RequestLists
}

Of course this all works fine, but this approach suggests that you already know the structure of the serialized data. If this structure doesn't match the structure of the initialized by you anonymous type you'll get nothing after the DeserializeAnonymousType method. And this is valid not just for the type of the properties of the anonymous type, but for their names too.

A: To your first question:
I would consider the option with the Cover class the 'best practice' as you are using the same model for serialization and deserialization and it's all up to Json.NET to figure out how to do the (de)serialization magic.
If for some reason you don't want to use this approach, there are two other options:

*

*Anonymous types: http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DeserializeAnonymousType.htm

*Deserializing into a dictionary: http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DeserializeDictionary.htm
To your second question - Are you sure the generated JSON is absolutely the same with both approaches? (You can use a tool like www.diffchecker .com to verify)
With your second approach the top-level names should be different - it should be 'Users' instead of 'UserList' and 'Requests' instead of 'RequestList'


text:
Get lost and enjoy life
NORTH (from PORTO)
€ 105 pp
Old, new and undiscovered
Full day (8h)
Minimum 3 pax
From Lisbon
From Porto
Guimarães & Braga
Birthplace of Portugal
Visit the Castle in Guimarães
Wander around the city and imagine yourself to be in a mediaeval setting (UNESCO World Heritage)
Visit Bom Jesus Sanctuary in Braga
Visit the oldest Cathedral in the country
Have a walk to the city center
OVERVIEW AND EXPECTATIONS
Start with Guimarães, which is considered the birthplace of Portugal because Afonso Henriques, who went on to be the first king of Portugal, was born here. The city still has a harmonious, well-preserved heritage that is evident in the graceful iron balconies, mansions, arches connecting the narrow streets, paving slabs smoothed by time, towers and cloisters.
Continue towards Braga, a lively city, one of the oldest in the country, and is teeming with young people who study at its universities. Braga's Cathedral is also the oldest in the country and was built in the 12th century.
Departure between 8h30 and 9h00 (Duration: 8h)
Comfortable shoes recommended
Not wheelchair accessible (but it can be adapted)
Tour available in PT, EN, NL, DE
Fuel and Tolls
Wi-Fi in the car
WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED
CUSTOMISE YOUR DAY
It is possible to customise your own day to include other activities. Accommodation can be arranged upon request.
For cancellations 7 days in advance of the scheduled departure, there is no cancellation fee. Between 3 and 6 days in advance of the scheduled departure, there is a 50 percent fee. For cancellations within 2 days, there is a 100 percent fee.
M.: (+351) 939 762 358
info@portugal360around.com
www.makeawish.pt
For every booking you are contributing
to Make-A-Wish Portugal
© 2019 Portugal 360
RNAAT nº 584/2017
RNAVT nº 7818


text:
Q: Break line after Icon in Menu Item Android Simple question that I don't find an answer for.
Is it possible to break line after the icon in a menu item making them not inline anymore? (The menu slides in from left by using NavigationView in Android support library)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

<group android:checkableBehavior="single">

    <item
        android:id="@+id/cards"
        android:checked="false"
        android:icon="@drawable/card_icon"
        android:title="Cards" />

    ...
    ...
    ...

</group>

This is how I want it to look like.

But instead they are aligned inline.
Update after answer:
Using a modified android.R.layout.activity_list_item (changed to vertical aligned left):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:paddingTop="1dip"
    android:paddingBottom="1dip"
    android:paddingStart="8dip"
    android:paddingEnd="8dip"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView android:id="@android:id/text1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="left|center_horizontal"
        android:paddingStart="?android:attr/listPreferredItemPaddingStart" />

    <ImageView android:id="@+id/icon"
        android:layout_width="24dip"
        android:layout_height="24dip"
        android:layout_gravity="left" />

</LinearLayout>

And I added an actionLayout to the menu items:
<item
    android:id="@+id/cards"
    android:checked="false"
    android:icon="@drawable/cards_icon"
    android:actionLayout="@layout/vertical_menu_item"
    android:title="Cards" />

But nothing happens. They are still inline. I also tried using app:showAsAction="always" and app:actionLayout="@layout/vertical_menu_item".

A: I suggest you to create a custom view (eg: vertical layout with ImageView and TextView), and in onCreateOptionsMenu() you can use setActionView() method of the MenuItem to use this custom view as Item view.

Or from menu xml:
android:actionLayout="@[package:]layout/layout_resource_name"


NEW YORK – Police officials say they conducted a middle-of-the-night terror drill at a closed New York City shopping mall in response to the deadly attack earlier this year in Kenya.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Tuesday that the exercise tested the NYPD's ability to thwart a rampaging gunman.
Kelly's remarks came following a briefing for corporate security officials at police headquarters.
An NYPD commander who studied the Nairobi mall attack told the audience that the police response there was plagued by delays and poor coordination.
The attack in September left more than 60 people dead.


text:
Q: Chrome extension: Problem with OAuth Verification Request I have a problem with the Video oauth Verification Request, i sent the video for the verification and they answered me with this email.
Unfortunately, we found that your YouTube demo video isn't detailed enough. The video doesn't show  the client id (please see the attached screen shot)

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.metadata.readonly
View metadata for files in your Google Drive
Reply to this email and provide a YouTube link to a new demo video that shows, in detail:

How to log into your project.
Make sure that the URL bar with the client ID is clearly visible.
How to request an OAuth token on the OAuth Consent Screen/Permissions Page.
How your project uses the scope listed above.
Read the OAuth 2.0 Scopes page for information on scopes.
Thank you for patience.

I honestly don't know what to do, I saw a video on youtube where the user logs in with his gmail account and you see the url address with the client id but in my case not. When I try to log in a pop-up without url address opens.


text:
Iran General NewsBerlusconi denies saying Obama "weak" on Iran
Berlusconi denies saying Obama "weak" on Iran
Reuters: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied on Saturday an Israeli newspaper report that he had described U.S. President Barack Obama as being "weak" on Iran during a meeting with Israel's prime minister in Rome.
By Stephen Brown
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied on Saturday an Israeli newspaper report that he had described U.S. President Barack Obama as being "weak" on Iran during a meeting with Israel's prime minister in Rome.
The Hebrew-language Maariv reported in an opinion piece that when Berlusconi met Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday, Netanyahu said Obama would "find it difficult to hold dialogue" with Iran after protest erupted over Iran's disputed election result.
The paper said Berlusconi replied: "Obama is weak. He is in a difficult situation. I talk to people in America and they tell me there has been criticism of his weak response."
Maariv's online edition quoted Berlusconi saying Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini had talked to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "and she has a firmer stance on Iran."
Italy's cabinet office had already denied the Maariv story, saying it "in no way reflected the spirit of the conversation."
But Berlusconi, who hosts Obama at a G8 summit next month, elaborated, saying: "I simply said the American administration was thinking about how to respond to Iran and someone in the Democratic Party insisted on Obama taking a stronger stance."
Before protests against Iran's disputed election result that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, Obama had signaled that America was open to dialogue with Iran.
The U.S. president has since warned that any attempt at dialogue or diplomacy could be affected by what he terms the "outrageous" violence of Iran's crackdown on the protesters.
Netanyahu, visiting Israel's firm ally Berlusconi at the start of his first European visit since taking office in March, thanked the Italian leader for speaking out firmly against the possibility of Iran making nuclear weapons.
But media reports say Netanyahu also asked Berlusconi to try to reduce Italy's substantial business dealings with Iran.
Berlusconi has already risked offending the Obama White House by repeatedly referring to Obama's "suntan" and, last year, openly backing Republican candidate John McCain, saying that they were both the same age, born a month apart in 1936.
But Berlusconi, who visited Obama on June 15, said on Saturday he had "always had a good opinion of Obama, especially lately after having dealings with Mrs Clinton and him and his team."
Berlusconi was close to Obama's predecessor George W. Bush and opposition newspapers in Italy had reported that Obama only reluctantly received Berlusconi in the White House this month.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Previous articleAhmadinejad blasts Obama's stance on Iran unrest
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A member of the honeysuckle family, the common elderberry (Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis), also known as American elder, wild elder, sweet elder, dwarf elder, hairy blue elderflower, European elder or Tree of Music, is a dense, woody shrub.
It grows wild across the northern reaches of the United States and in the southern provinces of Canada. Although elderberry does not lend itself well to commercial cultivation, it is commonly grown in homestead gardens.
Homesteaders, practicing conservation and agroforestry land management methods, establish elderberry plants as buffers and windbreaks. Elderberry plants are also established to create a small, intensive planting of elderberries as a cash crop for a profitable harvest to sell at local farmers markets.
Elderberry is also useful for property improvement purposes. Dependent on the variety, the hardy shrub typically grows to a mature height of 12 to 18 feet with a graceful, arching form, and produces clusters of deep-purple or burgundy-red fruit with prominent seeds.
Hummingbirds love the sweet nectar of the sweetly fragrant flowers. The dense, white clusters, vibrant green leaves, and deep purple fruit clusters make elderberry an attractive ornamental as well as a fruit-bearing shrub.
Providing energy and protein, elderberry, especially red elderberry, provides excellent cover and food for birds as well as small and large mammals. A versatile plant, elderberry is also used to make insecticide and dye.
Elderberries are seldom consumed fresh due to their extremely tart taste. Both cultivated and wild elderberries can be processed, either alone or in combination with other fresh fruit and berries.
If you have not tasted elderberry fritters, you are in for a tasty treat. The entire flower is dipped in an egg batter, fried, drained and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The delicate flavor of elderberry flowers provides an aromatic flavor boost to pancakes, waffles and cakes. Elderberry is also used as a food colorant in natural food products.
Popular for its use in jams, jellies and juices, the purple-black fruit of the elderberry shrub is also used in wine and a diverse array of medicinal applications. An excellent source of vitamin C, elder, or elderberry, is considered one of the most useful medicinal plants in Mother Nature's medicine chest.
Practitioners of alternative medicine recommend elderberry supplements for colds and to relieve symptoms of the flu. Both the flowers, commonly called elderflower, and the dried berries, or elderberries, are used in tinctures and teas.
Elderberry thrives in moist, well-drained, nutrient-rich soils, but is tolerant of most soil conditions. However, elderberry plants do best when grown in soil with a pH of 5.5-6.5.
Experienced elderberry growers suggest taking a soil sample to your local county extension for testing and amending as recommended to reach the ideal soil pH. Elderberry plants are available for purchase online or from local home and garden centers.
Experienced growers suggest an open, sunny location away from woodlands and with free air movement, to reduce the problem of disease, insect infection and bird damage. All varieties of elder can be cultivated in United States Plant Hardiness Zones 3 through 8.
Keep in mind, some types of elderberry do best in cold climates, so be sure to determine if the variety you wish to establish in the homestead garden is the right choice for your climate conditions.
Select a sunny spot with excellent drainage. While elderberries love lots of moisture, they don't do well in areas that tend to accumulate standing water. To prepare the planting area, cultivate the soil, removing rocks, weeds and debris.
Because elderberries are a perennial crop, proper soil preparation is required. Take a soil sample to your local county extension office for testing to determine existing pH and nutrient levels. Amend as recommended.
Soil with low fertility will benefit from a generous application of aged herbivore manure (cow, sheep, horse, goat, llama). Work the manure into the soil and water well.
Elderberry plants can be purchased online from a reputable plant nursery of from local home and garden centers. Look for healthy plants without leaf or root damage. Be sure to keep roots moist before planting.
Elderberry does best when planted in the spring. Although all cultivars of elderberry are partially self-fruited, cross-pollination promotes a more abundant harvest. So, plant several cultivars nearby.
Keep in mind that elderberry is a broad, arching shrub. It requires room to grow and plenty of air circulation. Plant 18-24 feet apart. Homesteaders that are planting elderberry as a cash crop or for a windbreak or sound buffer suggest planting in staggered rows in a checkerboard pattern.
Establish elderberry plants by planting to the same depth at which they grew in the nursery. The planting hole should be broad and deep enough to allow roots to spread out. Add water as you add soil around the roots to prevent air pockets. After planting water well.
Suppress weed germination and increase soil moisture retention by mulching around the base of elderberry plants with a heavy layer of well-aged garden compost, pine straw, leaves, hay, straw or dried grass clippings.
Elderberries require water, at least 1 to 2 inches per week from the time the blooms first appear to the end of the harvest season. During periods of drought, supplemental irrigation should be provided for optimum fruit production.
Avoid pruning during the first two years of growth. This is a time for the plants to grow vigorously and establish themselves in their environment. After the second year's harvest, prune any dead or broken branches.
Pruning should be done in the spring. Be sure to remember to sterilize your pruning tools prior to and after use to not transfer disease. Removing older canes will help encourage fruit production and new cane growth.
Elderberry typically fruits in late summer or early autumn. The ripe clusters are easy to harvest.
Refrigerate fruit after picking, as heat reduces quality and generates spoilage. A well-managed elderberry plant will produce up to 15 pounds of fruit each season by the time the plant is 3 to 4 years old.
Elderberries can be dehydrated or canned as syrup, jam or jelly. At the holidays, I enjoy sharing gifts from produce grown in my homestead gardens. Cordials, crafted from the fruits of autumn, are perfect for gift-giving.
Native to Africa and Asia, the elder tree, including the flowers, fruit, leaves, bark and roots, hold a prominent place in European history.
Elderberries are closely associated with Celtic myths. Elder Mother, a kindly spirit said to inhabit the elder tree is believed to induce vivid dreams, provide protection and remove negative influences and evil spells.
Elderberry oil was traditionally used in blessing ceremonies, and the branches and leaves of the tree hung in doorways and windows to protect those that lived within. Planted near a kitchen doorway, elder was believed to ward off disease.
Traditionally used to ward off winter maladies, elderberry tonics and tinctures are a rich source of antioxidants, bioflavonoids, iron, potassium, and vitamins A, B6 and C.
History notes that within Christian traditions, the elderberry shrub was symbolic of dark times: sadness and death. The cross on which Jesus was crucified is believed to be made from the wood of the elder tree.
Elder also played a role in a diverse array of Christian burial rituals. Native Americans utilized the wood from dead elderberry canes to craft combs, spoons and baskets. A dye made from the fruit was used to color animal hides and to embellish feather ornamentations.
Clean elderberries by rinsing the berry clump in cool water.
Strip the berries from the stems with a dinner fork. Rinse, removing any stem pieces or bits of elder leaf: pit and chop plums.
Grate citrus peel. Peel and mince ginger.
Add fresh berries, rosehips, plums, honey, citrus zest, ginger and spices to a sterilized gallon, glass jar.
Add brandy to fill the jar, covering with a lid. Label the jar with the date and contents.
Place the jar in a cool, dark place for 6 months before decanting.
To decant, slowly pour the liquid from the jar through multiple layers of cheesecloth over a large mixing bowl. After all the liquid has dripped through the cheesecloth, squeeze the cloth to obtain the last of the juice.
Using a funnel, pour the liquid into decorative glass decanters for storage or gift-giving.
I'm a big fan of growing elderberries but, if I don't cover the bushes with netting, greedy birds eat the berries before they can even ripen. First time growers should be aware of this possibility.
thanks so much for your article on elderberries, I love the jelly but very hard to find. I am afraid to pick what I think are elderberries out here in the country to do my own jam/jelly but I do so love the taste. I did order some plants 3 years ago and now I know why they aren't doing very well. Thanks again for the great article!
I know we have some elderberries, but the birds and bear usually get them before we can. I thought there were some others as well, but the berries turn pink before they turn dark purple or black. I read that they may be a wild raisin? Any ideas?