Etsy have announced the end of standalone PayPal on Etsy Payments. As previously announced Etsy have implemented PayPal on Etsy Payments, via Adyen as the solution that powers Etsy Payments, PayPal will still be available as a payment method on Etsy but funds will go to Etsy to distribute to sellers rather than directly into individual seller's PayPal account.
Etsy will deposit all sales into your bank account in your local currency, no matter how buyers pay. You can get paid daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Request additional deposits anytime. All sales processed with Etsy Payments will also qualify for the Etsy Seller Protection Policy.
Sellers may see an increase in fees with sales coming in via Etsy Payments – typically between 3% and 4% plus a flat fee. The cost varies by country but for UK retailers is 4% + £0.20 per transaction. This means that one of the advantages of using your own PayPal account – lower fees – will end on the 15th of May. Additionally, many sellers quite like having money in their PayPal account as they routinely pay bills via PayPal, in the future the cash will end up in their bank account and they'll have to upload it to PayPal if that is their payment vehicle of choice.


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BOFH and The Mahariji
We have spiritual uplift
By Simon Travaglia 8 May 2000 at 11:24
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Episode 17 BOFH 2000: Episode 17
"You're
LOSING IT!
" The PFY cries, in a manner that could be construed only as unkind.
"I think you're..." I respond, defensively, being cut off mid sentence by the PFY's next outburst.
"YOU ARE! Look, you're even filling in Job Sheets! 'Reset user's password'. Helped a user with a Microsoft Office install'."
"Just noting work done to aid the service process."
"You HATE job forms - You used to steal them from the helpdesk just to prevent them getting work bonuses! You said it was Virtual Brownnosing."
"I said it was VIRTUALLY Brownnosing. Virtual Brownnosing's where you get one of those greeting card places to send your boss a birthday card every year. In any case, that's a very negative point of view."
The PFY's next diatribe is pre-empted by the rapid arrival of The Boss.
"Just wanted to thank you for the help with my home machine; it's running much faster now!"
"You helped THE BOSS, with a HOME machine!!? You HAVE lost it! It's not going to affect next week's Contract Renegotiation any!"
"Contract Renegotiation? I have transcended the need for wealth and power by donating my savings to the Mahariji's trust and don't feel the need to encourage favour with my superiors."
SUPERIOR!!! You've gone SOFT!" the PFY cries disgustedly. "I KNEW something was up when you let that Security Guy get the better of you. The OLD Bastard would never have let that happen!"
"The OLD Bastard was a relic. Not at all in tune with his aura."
"His Aura?"
"Yes, the mantra of his personal consciousness."
"Personal Consciousness?! It's that Engineer, isn't it! She's got you wrapped around her finger!"
"I have to admit that our relationship was sweet, but the Mahariji showed me that it was simply a manifestation of my own deep-seated needs. The relationship ended and I am a fuller person now because of it."
"You're a fuller Nutter now!"
"I'm sure the OLD Bastard would have responded to that statement with negativity - probably manufacturing some cataclysmic sequence of events for which you would be blamed... But I will not. The Mahariji has shown me that helping others is the only path to true aura maintenance."
Nutter!" the PFY repeats.
"The Mahariji says that namecalling is a manifestation of sadness. The Shiny Aura is rewarded by happiness."
"Fifty quid says I'll be the happier person at the end of the day."
"A wager? I do not need money!"
"One hundred quid!" he cries.
"I don't rea.."
"FIVE HUNDRED QUID!"
"Please stop!", I cry. "This is unseemly! I will take your wager on the condition that you pay my winnings - if it happens - to the Mahariji!"
"Done!"
The deal is struck once my assistant has added a side wager that the loser has to buy the entire IT department drinks on Friday night - AND listen to their complaints about service. Not something that even an enlightened individual would look forward to..
We've barely shaken on it when we're summoned to The Boss's office - no doubt to receive more thanks for problems solved...
"Ah... I've just had a complaint about some of the service the users have been receiving!" The Boss mutters sternly, looking in the PFY's direction.
The PFY, as expected, looks away with an expression of innocence...
"I must apologise for my assistant's youth," I interrupt. "He's young and impulsive and sometimes doesn't give the client the benefit of the doubt, but I'm sure that with a little..."
"Enough!" The Boss snaps. "Changing a user's password to a disgusting word repeated three times isn't what I'd call impulsive - it's a calculated act!"
"?" the PFY responds, before I can step in for his defence. "Probably some form of misunderstanding on my assistants part," I add. "He may have thought that the user had REQUESTED that password - some of them have a history of using fairly colourful language when a problem occurs. It may be that he thought that they were supplying that word as a password - it has happened."
"Oh yes? And what about telling a user that Microsoft Office installs faster if you hammer all the developer CDs into the drive at once?"
"I... I..," I murmur, looking at the PFY in horror.
Which, as it happens, is the same way he's looking at me. Of course he's thinking of my new credibility as opposed to his (should he claim it was me) and the 500 quid down the gurgler PLUS eight or so hours of people whining about how the systems used to run faster back when, and how they like one letter passwords... Not to mention his chances come Contract Renegotiation time...
"Leave it with me," I murmur to The Boss. "I'll have a little word with him..."
"You bastard!" the PFY shouts when we get back to Mission Control. "This Mahariji stuff's a load of crap! Well laugh again. The deal was 500 quid to the Mahariji, so the cheques going there."
"Excellent!" I cry. "Would you like me to send you one of our pamphlets as well - I've just finished one on the Divine Shiny Aura."
"You're the Mahariji?"
"You betcha! I bought up the office of this New Age fruit- eating commune after they had a bad batch of apples or something and closed down - and now have an iron-clad tax haven. For a couple of years anyway! Absolutely brilliant. So all I have to do is print a couple of pamphlets a year, advertise dull meditation courses in some well-known magazines, publish a massive yearly loss and I'm in the clear! Unless of course the Beatles reform.."
"So who should I make the cheque out to?" the PFY asks, sighing heavily.
"The Divine Aura of Tfosorcim Society."
"Tfosorcim? Microsoft spelt backwards?"
"Like it? - you know, like Inverse Evil."
"I hate you!"
"Now, now, that's not helping your Aura!!!"
BOFH is owned by Simon Travaglia. Don't mess with his copyright

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Adil Dyani is a long time Team Pain friend and professional skateboarder from Norway. Adil has placed many Guinness world records for skateboarding under his belt, constantly one uping himself. Adil has started a project called "the bucket list", trying to push the limits of what can be done on a skateboard. His bucket list started with the ramp you see above. Adil plans to hold the record for longest free fall on a skateboard into a ramp. Adil contacted Tim Payne to consult him about constructing his ramp. With a limited budget Adil was not able to have the Team Pain crew make the long trip to Norway to construct the monster of a ramp but had many conference calls and skype conversations about the angles and dimensions of the ramp for the project. We wish Adil the best of luck on his adventure! We will post a video as soon as Adil takes the big plunge.


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Wali Makhlouf
Mr. Makhlouf is a Principal in the Ares Finance and Accounting Department. Prior to joining Ares in 2012, Mr. Makhlouf was a Senior Performance Analyst at LaSalle Investment Management, where he focused on building attribution analysis and GIPS reporting for their REITs Focused Asset Management Group. Previously, Mr. Makhlouf was a Fund Accountant and a Performance Specialist at Western Asset Management, where he focused on managing the fund treasury function of WAMCO mutual funds and providing performance measurement solutions to different stakeholders at the firm. Mr. Makhlouf holds a B.Sc. from HEC School of Business of Tunis, in Finance and an M.Sc., with honors, from Golden Gate University in Finance. Mr. Makhlouf is a CFA® charterholder and a member of CFALA. He also holds the FRM designation.


THE moment Geordie Shore's Marnie Simpson and X Factor's Casey Johnson have their first kiss can be revealed by the Sun's Bizarre column - and they do it whilst skinny dipping.
Their brazen romantic onscreen hook-up will be shown on tonight's Single AF on MTV and sees them lock lips in a pool.
Marnie, 25, and Casey, 22, have since stuck together as boyfriend and girlfriend and have moved in with each other in Essex.
The first snog comes after Casey, formerly of Union J, gate-crashes Marnie's blind date in Mexico.
Casey: "You did look really good tonight though. Like, really good.
Marnie: "Did I? Did you fancy us?
And Marnie reveals: "You know what, Casey's fit, it's a hot night, I've had a s*** load of wine.
The pair then get naked and go skinny dipping in a pool together and Casey uses the moment to entice her into a smooch, telling her "come here".
It will be the first time fans have seen the love birds' first kiss.
She and Casey have since posted gushing messages and pictures on their social media including one of them kissing in Paris.
Marnie has already said she wants to marry Casey and have kids.
Single AF airs tonight at 10pm, only on MTV!


Where: The pretty, landscaped campus, complete with landscaped grounds and quads and a full roster of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) undergraduate and graduate courses on a legitimate-looking website with photographs of happy students in classes, hanging out around campus. The website also advertised tuition–US$8,500 (Rs6 lakh) a year for undergrads and US$11,000 (Rs7.8 lakh) for graduate students. The school was supposed to be located in Southeast Michigan. In reality, it was run out of an office in a business park in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan. The "staff" at the "university" were all in fact undercover Homeland Security agents. The website has now been taken down. The ruse was set up in 2015 to expose instances of immigration fraud.
The University of Farmington website that was used to trap the "students".
The University of Farmington website post the sting operation.
Number of Indian students among arrested: 129 are from India. They were picked up from around the country, everywhere from Kentucky to Florida and Pennsylvania to Texas. Eight "recruiters" who are believed to have helped upwards of 600 students get student visas have also been arrested.
What the "students" are accused of: The Department of Homeland Security accuses foreign nationals of using such phoney universities as a pay-to-stay initiative. The Department alleges that these students knew full well that they were paying just so they could reside in the country legally. The international "students" had no intention of attending any classes. The goal was to live and work in the country, illegally, according to the Department.
What is happening right now: The Department of Homeland Security has filed a case on 15 January in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against the students and recruiters.
What happens to the "students": If found guilty of immigration fraud, the students could be imprisoned and/or deported back to their home country, India.
Entrapment or fair play? Ravi Mannam, an immigration lawyer based in Georgia, US thinks that the ploy has duped some legitimate students who had applied to the "university" thinking it to be a legitimate institution. Some were students at other universities in the States and had only applied to the University of Farmington when their courses had lost accreditation in their schools. They were hoping their university credits they had already earned would transfer to Farmington and they would be able to complete their degrees. Other students had already graduated from legitimate universities in the country and were waiting on their professional work visas. They had applied to Farmington as a stop-gap measure so they wouldn't have to return to India in the interim.
The Indian government's position: The Ministry of External Affairs has launched an official diplomatic complaint with the US embassy in New Delhi. India has demanded immediate consular access to the "students", arguing that some of them may have been duped by both recruiters and the Department of Homeland Security. The Indian embassy in Washington D.C. has set up a 24×7 hotline for parents of these "students" looking for news of their whereabouts. India is demanding the US share details and updates of the case and that the students are released from detention. It is also asking that students not be deported against their will.
How to avoid this happening to you: Only apply to schools listed on Homeland Security's website as legitimate institutions for international students. Although, the University of Farmington was also on this website until these arrests were made.


via Investor's Business Daily: Entrepreneurs start with a dream. Turning it into reality requires a series of concrete, carefully crafted goals.
To advance from an idea to a viable enterprise, you need a roadmap. A business plan provides that direction. It also offers a framework to follow through and a basis for measuring your progress.
Keep it simple. Fledgling entrepreneurs may assume a business plan should be a lengthy, data-laden document. But brevity and clarity can work to your advantage.
This succinct version starts with a vision statement and pinpoints the problem your business will solve, the potential market for your product or service, competitors and sales goals. Download a free template here.
Think like a customer. Among the key elements of your business plan is defining the problem that you'll solve. That's harder than it sounds. You not only need to identify a glaring issue that consumers face but also propose a creative, cost-effective way to address it.
He suggests talking to potential customers, heeding their input and easing into your market. Rather than act on your assumptions, determine if your gut instinct is correct. Contact a sampling of would-be buyers to validate your hunch.
Reduce uncertainties. Some parts of a business plan involve predicting the future. How will competitors react to your pricing strategy? How many people will buy what you sell? To what extent will the cost of equipment or raw materials vary in the coming years?
While it's impossible to answer these and other questions with certainty, you can build a plan around conservative calculations. Use recent data, demographic trends and purchasing patterns to refine your estimates.
Research what's next. Once your business is up and running, you'll begin to gain a clearer understanding of how to advance from startup to second-stage growth. At some point, you may want to draft a more detailed business plan that answers questions that potential investors and future employees will ask. Examples include fleshing out your target market, your sales and marketing strategy, and the evolving structure of your company.
"You'll want to have a management and operational plan," said Warren Daniel, regional director of the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center in Dover, N.H. "That changes with the economic cycles. In a growth period, it's harder to hire" so you'll need to think through how to recruit staffers in a tight labor market.
Keep updating. Treat your business plan as a work-in-progress. With each passing month, you'll want to review it and possibly rework it to reflect the myriad challenges that you'll confront.
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Of all the day-to-day hardships suffered by survivors of Japan's tsunami, the simple everyday ritual of a bath -- so important in the nation's culture -- is the thing many say they miss the most.
In a country where bathing is an elaborate and highly prized daily pleasure, the people of the washed-away city of Rikuzentakata now can only rinse their faces in cold water.
Life for many is now lived in a school hall, with the only water coming from a small military tanker parked outside the entrance.
"I haven't had a bath in a week," said Honami Suzuki. "That's one of the worst things about living in the shelter."
About 1,000 of the 9,500 people left homeless in Rikuzentakata are holed up in Daiichi middle school, where volunteer Tsutomu Nakai is co-ordinating their care.
"The lack of a bath is something that many of those staying here find difficult," said Nakai, whose own home was flattened.
"Japanese people really enjoy having a bath. We can't do anything about it at the moment, but people have been very good. They don't like it, but they aren't complaining."
Before the waves came on March 11, Rikuzentakata was a picturesque tourist spot on the coast of Iwate, an area dotted with "onsen" -- natural springs heated by the geologically unstable ground on which the country sits.
In normal times, many Japanese spend their weekends or holidays visiting these baths, which can range from a simple ceramic- or wood-lined deep tub to elaborate open-air pools created from volcanic rock.
Bathers must shower and scrub themselves scrupulously clean before climbing into the steaming pool, where they soak with friends or chat to fellow visitors.
At home, the ritual of cleaning is equally important, with a nightly shower and bath.
But for many of the estimated 380,000 people living in shelters, the once taken-for-granted soak is a pleasure they no longer have.
Rinzo Chikutsu has slept on a makeshift bed on the floor of Daiichi middle school since his house was crushed in the 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing tsunami.
The 74-year-old says he is grateful for having somewhere to stay, even if conditions at the school are a little basic.
"There is no hot water, so we can't get clean," he said. "I can wash my face, but only in cold water."
Even those whose homes were spared the destructive force of the wave have been left without the means to bathe because there is no electricity, gas or water.
"We have a small solar panel, which meant we could heat about half a bucket of water," said Shizue Oue, whose home still stands on a small hill overlooking the devastation wreaked by the tsunami in Rikuzentakata.
"We could rinse ourselves, but we could only do it once and it wasn't very easy because there wasn't much water at all."
But for some, it isn't the quiet pleasure of a warm bath that they miss, but the very real necessity of being clean.
Kumiko Takahashi and her 18-month-old daughter Akiha are among those sheltering in the school.
She has access to nappies and wipes, but is desperate to give her baby a bath.
"There is no way to keep her clean," she said. "There's no water to wash the baby. It's really hard."


During an interview with ABC, Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono refused to deny that the Democrats leaked Dr. Ford's letter.
Today, Senator Tom Cotton announced that Senator Dianne Feinstein would be investigated for the leak, as rumors swirl that one of her high-level staffers is responsible.
The Democrats want to play a game here, pretending that 1) Ford's sketchy allegations are credible and 2) this entire sham is not political.
They truly think the American people are stupid.
The post Sen. Hirono is Asked if Dems Leaked Ford's Letter – Her Answer Speaks VOLUMES appeared first on Truthfeed.


To contribute to the styling of multiple themed events at Brunel's Passenger Shed in Bristol, playing host to Christmas parties for 600 guests a night. Every year the same venue should have a new theme and a new feel to the environment.
In such a large space a fabric finish overhead and surrounding the walls provides for a semi-permanent (month-long) themed and stylised finish to bring the party themes to life. Themes have included Alice in Wonderland, Carnival, Circus, Gatsby, Narnia, the Nutcracker and a Dickensian Christmas.


text:
Life at Bayut
Best restaurants in Ibn Battuta Mall
Named after the medieval Muslim explorer, Ibn Battuta Mall is one among the largest themed shopping malls in Dubai. The mall is divided into six courts, each representing a geographical territory from Ibn Battuta's travels: Andalusia, Egypt, Persia, Tunisia, India and China. You will find much in the way of shopping, entertainment and of course, dining. Here, we shall look at some of the best Ibn Battuta Mall restaurants.
IBN BATTUTA RESTAURANTS THAT YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
It wouldn't be wrong to say that you can virtually eat your way around the world at the Ibn Battuta Mall restaurants and food courts! The two food courts are located in the Persia and Tunisia courts, and you can find many eateries in the China Court as well. With options ranging from popular American fast food to sumptuous Middle Eastern kebabs, you will be spoilt for choice when dining at the Ibn Battuta Mall restaurants.
Pizza Express Ibn Battuta is more than just a pizza place. The Italian culinary experience hailing from England includes an excellent menu, evocative music and aesthetically appealing decor. The passion for pizza first inspired by founder Peter Boizot back in 1965 can still be tasted in the fresh ingredients used to prepare each item on the menu.
Location: Ground floor – China Court
Timings: Saturday to Thursday 11:30 am to 11:30 pm | Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to 11:30 pm
Average Cost for Two: AED 235
Contact: +971-4-268-5134
Pizza Express shares your passion for pizza (Image credit Pizza Express)
Taking Mediterranean dining up a notch is the Verdura Restaurant Ibn Battuta in the aforementioned Persia Court at the mall. Offering a wide-ranging menu that draws inspiration from Greek, Italian and Levant cuisines, the restaurant also boasts a stunning appearance that is nothing short of a celebration of Mediterranean architecture. Truly one of the best Ibn Battuta restaurants in Dubai, Verdura also makes a mark with its superior customer service.
Location: Shop no. 86 B – Persia Court
Timings: Sunday to Thursday 08:00 am to 11:30 pm | Friday and Saturday 08:00 am to 12:00 am
Contact:+971-4-350-9350
Known for its world-famous PERi-PERi, Nando's Ibn Battuta infuses its Afro-Portuguese heritage with the interiors, artwork and overall ambience of the mall's China Court. You can now enjoy the trademark butterfly cut and flame-grilled chicken in a family-friendly atmosphere. Experience warm hospitality that is a mark of the restaurant's heritage.
Timings: Saturday to Wednesday 11:00 am to 11:00 pm | Thursday and Friday 11:00 am and 01:00 am
Contact: +971-4-566-7521, +971-4-566-7531
INDIA PALACE
Looking for Indian restaurants in Ibn Battuta? India Palace, Ibn Battuta has got you covered. A casual dining restaurant like no other, India Palace combines authentic Mughlai cuisine with interior decor and a service style that further augments the exotic gourmet experience. Not to mention, all the ingredients are sourced from the highest quality suppliers so that there's no compromise on taste or quality.
India Palace Offers Authentic Mughlai Cuisine with an authentic Indian atmosphere (Image credit India Palace)
Timings: 12:00 pm to 11:00 pm
ZAROOB
At Zaroob Ibn Battuta, you can experience Arabic cuisine in a whole new different way. The concept of the restaurant is inspired by Levant's traditional street food, which is why you can find live cooking stations and open kitchens here. There is also a juice bar at Zaroob to help you wash down the mouth-watering delicacies on the menu.
Timings: Saturday to Wednesday 08:00 am to 12:00 am | Thursday and Friday 08:00 am to 01:00 am
AL ARRAB
Here is another Arabic restaurant in Ibn Battuta Mall. Al Arrab restaurant, Ibn Battuta Mall, is home to authentic Lebanese cuisine. You will also be impressed by their personalised service.
Location: Persia court
Timings: 10:00 am to 12:00 am
RAZON'S
Fancy Filippino cuisine? Head to the Ibn Battuta Metrolink food court to find Razon's of Guagua, one of the newest additions to restaurants in Ibn Battuta Mall. Since it's launch, the eatery has proved quite popular, especially among Filippino shoppers at the mall who commend the taste of home-made cuisine. You should definitely try the lug lug at Razon's Ibn Battuta. The halo-halo, of course, is the perfect antidote to the warm climate in the emirate.
Location: Ground Floor, China Court
Average Cost for Two: AED 60
Timings: 10:00 am to 10:00 pm
SHAKESPEARE AND CO.
When it comes to our list of Ibn Battuta Mall restaurants Dubai, Shakespeare and Co. is one eatery that can't be overlooked. Offering the quintessential Shakespearean dining experience, this restaurant doesn't just bring great food and beverages to Ibn Battuta Mall. The antique theme is made alive with custom furniture and chandeliers, offering you a one-of-its-kind culinary experience among Ibn Battuta Mall restaurants. This 23rd branch of Shakespeare and Co has a beautiful terrace that opens during the winter, while in the summer, it is climate-controlled.
The attention to detail is evident in Shakespeare and Co.'s interiors (Image credit Shakespeare and Co.)
HATAM
This restaurant in Ibn Battuta is a ubiquitous feature across the major malls in Dubai, and also features in the list of best Ibn Battuta restaurants. The eatery was launched back in 1989 and since then has only grown in popularity. Hallmarks of Hatam, Ibn Battuta include warm hospitality and great food!
Timings: Saturday to Wednesday 12:00 pm to 11:00 pm | Thursday and Friday: 12:00 pm to 12:00 am
Speaking of traditional street food, here is an eatery that brings you the freshest Japenese cuisine. This excellent Japanese restaurant in Ibn Battuta Mall offers an extensive menu of a hundred Japanese dishes, which of course includes our favourite sushi. For those who love to experiment, YO! Sushi Ibn Battuta also serves fusion dishes.
YAKITATE
It was last year in April that Yakitate brought its signature Hello Kitty buns and Pikachu cheese tarts to Ibn Battuta Mall. Previously, customers had to visit Al Ghurair centre to get these Japenese delicacies, but now they have an outlet in the Andalusia Court. It's not all baked good and sweets though.
Yakitate, Ibn Battuta offers a menu that features savoury Japenese dishes like donburi and ramen. You'll also get a kick out of unconventional menu items like ramen burgers and sushi doughnuts.
Yakitate is more than a Japanese bakery (Image credit Yakitate)
Location: Near Emirates NBD, Andalusia Court
Concluding our list is a chinese restaurant in Ibn Battuta Mall. Suitably located in the China court, Soy restaurant Ibn Battuta Mall specialises in modern Asian dining at reasonable prices.
Location: China court
CAFES AT IBN BATTUTA MALL
Along with Ibn Battuta restaurants, you can find several cafes at the mall as well. These include:
LONDON DAIRY
Speciality: Natural icecream
Speciality: Italian Coffee, Mediterranean menu
Location: Egypt Court
Speciality: French cuisine, bread and sandwiches
There are several other coffee and dessert places in Ibn Battuta including two Baskin Robbin's, two Gloria Jean's, two Tim Horton's and three Starbucks.
IBN BATTUTA GATE HOTEL RESTAURANTS
Located right beside the mall is the Movenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel Dubai. The hotel features some of the best restaurants and bars, many of them located in the Grand Hall. Movenpick Ibn Battuta restaurants include:
Revo Cafe
Al Bahou
Moroc Lounge & Bar
Chor Bazaar
Mistral Shanghai Chic
As you can see, there are plenty of choices when it comes to Ibn Battuta Mall restaurants and Movenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel. You can explore the Ibn Battuta food courts and find other eateries as well as you take a break from shopping.
Food courts and restaurants are essential components of any mall, and this is especially true of malls in Dubai. You can further expand your dining options at the best cafes and restaurants on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Of course, there are many other things to do at Ibn Battuta Mall besides shopping and dining. Subscribe to MyBayut to know more about the perfect restaurants for any occasion.
SJ stumbled upon writing a decade ago, and now he can't think of doing anything else. When not writing (or sleeping), he spends his time devouring non-fiction books
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While implementing the above-menioned programmes, we support the development of local entrepreneurship by providing grants to citizens who wish to set up or develop their own economic activity, fishermen, non-governmental organisations and units of the territorial self-governments. The basis for the implementation of those programmes is the Local Development Strategy of Słowińska Fisheries Group. This is a document which specifies the main directions of the region's development which shall be supported in the form of providing grants. Cooperation with and support of fisheries sector is of a great importance to us.
Along with the implementation of provisions of the Local Development Strategy, we conduct other actions which activate local community. Currently, we implement a project called the Centre for Supporting Social Economy in Słupsk sub-region financed from the sources of the Regional Operational Programme of the Pomeranian Province for the years of 2014-2020. The aim of the project is developing and promoting subjects of social economy – including non-governmental organisations (foundations and associations), units of territorial self-government and reintegration subjects.
We are also a Partner in the project called Restoration of historical values of the Old Fishing Village through securing and exposition of St. Nicolaus Church ruins as well as granting the region the character of a tourist product – in which we conduct actions connected with preparation of information materials and, in addition, the implementation of the Old Fishing Village into Słowiński Fisheries Trail. Słowiński Fisheries Trail was created by Słowińska Fisheries Group in 2012. It is a tourist product which is based on the cooperation of 16 subjects supporting the development of local tourist services connected with fishery, water and natural potential of the region.
In addition, within the implementation of various other projects, we support the sector of non-governmental organisations and participate in numerous activities for the benefit of children.
Słowińska Fisheries Group has around 200 members belonging to the public, social and economic sectors. It covers the area of six communes: urban Ustka, rural Ustka, Słupsk, Kobylnica, Kępice and Smołdzino. The Group operates in an area famous for its natural diversity. The Baltic Sea is the greatest local asset but there are also lakes, marshes and dunes. Here you can also find rare flora and fauna species, especially birds. The area's strength is its complex history which has left traces mostly in the form of architectonic heritage. The stormy history of our area caused it to become the breeding place of many cultures: Slovincian, Kashubian and even that of Eastern borderlands.


text:
Clackamas County unemployment rate stays about unchanged
Carol Rosen
State unemployment hits record low at 4.1 percent, about the same as the federal rate
Unemployment for both Canby and Molalla jumped a bit from the previous month. The reason appears to be that 71 people entered the work force in Canby and 79 people became unemployed. In Molalla 25 people entered the work force and 29 left their jobs.
Canby's unemployment in June reached 4.0 percent, up from 3.2 percent in May. Molalla's percentage also rose to 3.8, up from 3.2 percent a month ago. Canby's unemployment this year is only slightly higher at 4.0 percent a year ago at 3.9 percent. Molalla, on the other hand is significantly lower than a last year when it was 4.4 percent, said Lynn Wallis, Clackamas County economist.
These percentages are early rates. Final rates are expected in mid-to late August, according to the state's economists.
Clackamas County's June unemployment rate was 4.0 percent, the lowest since 1976 when comparable records began, that too is higher than May's rate, which was 3.5 percent, but still lower than state and federal rates, said Nick Beleicks, state employment economist.
The May rate was about the same as April, and was at 3.6 percent the same time a year ago. It compares with the federal rate of 4.1 percent. Oregon's May unemployment was 4.1 percent, according to an Employment Department release.
The state's non-farm payroll added 1,900 jobs, lower than the revised gain of 3,200 job gains in May. The highest total additions were in leisure and hospitality at 1,800 jobs followed by private educational services at 1,000. Health care and social assistance added 700 jobs, manufacturing hired about 600 and construction added 500 people, the release said.
However several industries reduced workers including retail losing 1,000 jobs, information shedding 800 people, financial activities down 600 and transportation, warehousing and utilities lost 500 jobs.
Although the state's payroll employment continues to expand, its growth rate has moderated. Job gains averaged 1,500 a month over the past three months. In the past year the state added 31,400 jobs for a growth rate of 1.6 percent through June. From 2013 through 2017 job gains grew faster averaging 2.8 percent per year to reach a peak growth rate of 3.7 percent in the middle of 2015, according to the release.
That slowing growth rate could be due to rare tight labor market. It's becoming harder to find and hire workers. For example, the number of part time workers is at the lowest since 2002 when comparable record taking began, the release stated.
The broadest measure of labor underuse dropped to 7.8 percent in June, the lowest reading since 2001. Oregon's unemployed workers, out of work for 27 weeks or more, dropped under 7,000 again, the lowest since 2001 and substantially under the 100,000 long-term unemployed in 2010, during the recession. The number of people entering the labor market without a job hit its lowest level since 2000, when comparable records began.


Environmental justice is the watchword of the day. The world is warming, and communities across the globe are organizing to address widespread environmental damage. The convergence of politics, economic power and racism means that pollution disproportionately affects the world's most vulnerable communities. Environmental justice efforts target the root causes of the damage and its disparate impact, while charting paths to restoration.
Here in North Carolina, environmental justice issues suffused the international Citizen Science Association Conference held March 13-17 in Raleigh. They will also be the major focus of Clean Air Carolina's upcoming NC BREATHE conference, where participants will address the promise and the challenges of environmental justice work.
North Carolinians have played key roles in advocating for environmental justice, starting back in 1982. That September, protesters captured national attention when they laid down on a rural Warren County roadway, blocking the entrance to a toxic waste dump that had recently been built in a former soybean field.
Warren County residents, who had plenty of experience with racial and economic oppression, had no confidence in the state's assurances that the facility would safely contain the PCB-laden dirt that filled the dump trucks whose path they were blocking.
In addition, they argued that it was no coincidence that North Carolina officials had chosen to place the highly controversial facility in a low-income, predominately African American county.
Years of community protest – and subsequent revelations that U.S. toxic waste dumps were far more likely to be located near black and brown communities than white ones – helped spark a movement that now links thousands of grassroots community efforts around the world.
As the Citizen Science Association conference showed, the push for environmental justice has dovetailed with a growing interest in "citizen science" – projects in which people not employed as professional scientists collect data for scientific endeavors. Because communities that suffer environmental damage so often have their concerns challenged or dismissed, many have embarked on their own data-collection efforts, often working with universities or nonprofit advocacy groups.
A sampling of the broad range of citizen science efforts inspired by environmental justice work was on display at the conference. Highlighted projects included a collaboration between Alabama organizations to engage young people in watershed research and restoration; a global consortium that monitors and eliminates mosquito "hot spots;" work to measure the often-overlooked phenomenon of noise pollution; and studies of air and water quality in places such as Oakland, California, Flint, Michigan, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Here in North Carolina, multiple groups are working on projects that address harm to the environment and human health that arises from activities such as coal ash storage, heavy construction, and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Many of them share ideas and support through the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network.
Clean Air Carolina's AirKeepers project, started in 2016, has been our first effort to partner with communities in this actionable, contributory way. We started by working with residents in Charlotte's Historic West End, a historically African American community that is surrounded by major highways and home to many industrial facilities. Working with a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, we organized air quality monitoring events, offered hands-on STEM education, installed particle pollution sensors in several Historic West End neighborhoods, and paid residents to monitor the sensor data.
After three years of collecting air quality data, Historic West End residents are now gearing up to work with local officials to establish a Clean Air Corridor that will help reduce pollution in the area. They began with a series of advocacy training workshops designed to help them effectively advance their goals. Community members led the meetings, decided the priorities, and had the final say on the resulting plans and actions.
Monitor installation with REACH organization in Duplin County.
Clean Air Carolina has also begun to expand these efforts by placing particle pollution monitors throughout the state. The monitors can be used to expand the network and capacity of citizen science in the state to areas that lack regulatory monitors or easy access to large, well funded research institutions.
North Carolina currently contains only 23 official Federal Equivalent Method particle pollution monitors, and cuts in state funding mean the number has actually been decreasing.
We are working to provide at least one monitor in each of the state's 100 counties. These monitors will provide a free, robust, peer-reviewed, open sourced, representative, scientifically significant, and publicly accessible platform of data that can be used equally by public, private, academic, and local communities.
The combination of citizen science and environmental justice can be profoundly empowering – helping residents to access more information about their communities, inform their neighbors, and effectively advocate for change where they live.
But the work can also involve conflict and tension, because citizen science often exposes an uneven balance of power between communities and institution-based scientists. These challenges became a key focus of attention at the Citizen Science Association conference, starting with the powerful keynote address and continuing through discussions of concerns about the way resources are distributed, where the direction and power of decision-making lies, and the often one-directional nature of collaboration between institutions and communities.
Too often, community participants noted, the conventional structure of scientific inquiry benefits researchers and institutions but produces no real improvements in the lives of affected individuals and communities. Researchers do not always respect the local knowledge of community members, and sometimes leave people feeling like guinea pigs rather than active participants.
Furthermore, the incentives of researchers, partners, and vendors who might provide tools, services, data, or devices are not necessarily aligned with the goals of community participants, a mismatch that can lead to unwanted outcomes, unrepresentative conclusions, and unshared products and data.
Several sessions focused specifically on efforts to address these challenges. One especially compelling presentation, put on by #Power30icbos, introduced the results of a three-year study that involved more than 30 community-based organizations across the country, Presenters used music, dance, video and audience participation to explore ways that community organizations and scientific institutions can address power, privilege and institutional racism.
Two of the project's just-released workbooks – one for community members and one for researchers – offer strategies for exploring and addressing problematic ideas and common experiences such as Trickle-Down Engagement, Walking on Eggshells, the Robin Hood Approach, and the Savior Syndrome.
Dealing with these deep-seated power disparities is an ongoing process that requires constant awareness, engagement and determination. Participating in the Citizen Science Association conference and preparing for our NC BREATHE event has prompted us here at Clean Air Carolina to reassess our own environmental justice work and to start putting together a more formal expression of the principles that we seek to follow. We'll be posting more about that in the next few weeks.


Andy is a licensed psychologist and available for office visits as a sole practitioner on Bend's westside. He has maintained a private practice in Bend since 1999, while raising two children and enjoying our natural recreation opportunities. Andy's practice is divided among different activities, reflecting his skills and interests. As an embedded psychologist for the local police and fire departments, he provides our first responders with support, training and crisis intervention services. Andy conducts psychological evaluations in criminal matters offering psychological information to the legal process. Andy also maintains a private therapy office serving older adolescents and adults. In this domain, Andy brings a passion for helping people find their unique path through life-stress, depression, and anxiety to experiencing more personal awareness, peace, and confidence. In his free time, Andy enjoys mountain biking, trail-runs, fishing and any other activities leading to trails or waterways. While roots are now deep in this area as home, Andy enjoys the adventure of traveling by car, plane, or motorcycle. There is always something to see, experience, and taste around the next twist of the trail, bend in the road, or over the next horizon.


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Komplexitetsteori är en vetenskapsgren som behandlar system med följande egenskaper: de är komplexa (många oberoende enheter interagerar, till exempel ett mänskligt samhälle eller den levande cellen); interaktionen inom systemet medför spontan självorganisering (till exempel fåglar som anpassar sig till andra fåglar och därmed skapar en flock); de självorganiserande systemen är adaptiva (de försöker att vända händelser i dess omgivning till fördelar, till exempel en art utvecklas i riktning mot bättre anpassning till omgivningen eller företag som lär av erfarenheter). Sådana komplexa, självorganiserande och adaptiva system har en dynamik som gör att de skiljer sig från statiska objekt som till exempel datorer, som endast är komplicerade till skillnad från komplexa. Komplexa system är mer spontana, mer oordnade och mer levande - de befinner sig på randen till kaos, där systemen har tillräcklig stabilitet för att vara uthålliga, men samtidigt kan omvandlas. Randen till kaos är där komplexa system kan vara spontana, adaptiva, och levande.

Komplexitetsteori har sitt ursprung inom fysik, biologi, kemi och ekonomi och har nära kopplingar till kaosteori. Komplexitetsteori tillämpas inom forskning på vitt skilda områden, från organisation och kommunikation till datavetenskap och matematik.

Inom datavetenskapen handlar komplexitetsteori om att klassificera beräkningsproblem enligt hur väl algoritmer för att lösa dem kan prestera. Man talar bland annat om hur lång tid beräkningen kommer att ta, tidskomplexitet och hur mycket minne som kommer att behövas, minneskomplexitet, alternativt rumskomplexitet.

Se även
 Sociologi
Emergens
 Komplexitet

Dynamiska system
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Bruce Franklin of legendary Chicago doomsters TROUBLE will guest on this Monday's (November 22) edition of original and former TROUBLE drummer Jeff "Oly" Olson's new Internet radio show, "Heady Metal With Jeff Olson". This rare chat will entail both Olson and Franklin discussing the roots of heavy metal, favorite metal bands (then and now), and what TROUBLE is up to at the moment.
"Heady Metal With Jeff Olson" has moved to a weekly program (previously bi-weekly). The show will continue to air on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. EST. The encore, however, will now run on Saturdays from 8 to 10 a.m. (previously on Fridays).


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Israel's Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank
Aug 12, 2022 Ben White
With the Israeli occupation of the West Bank now entering its 56th year, numerous international and nongovernmental organizations have recently called for renewed attention to Israel's continued violations of Palestinians' rights, with many openly accusing Israel of the crime of apartheid. One of Israel's most appalling violations is its ongoing efforts to remove Palestinians from areas of the occupied West Bank, which constitute a clear-cut policy of ethnic cleansing. These efforts are focused on different locations within Area C of the West Bank, an area where, as stipulated by the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has no security or civil control. Not coincidentally, Area C is also where the majority of Israel's settlement and colonization activity is located.
While specific cases of threatened communities receive attention from diplomats, journalists, and local and international NGOs, there is often a lack of clarity with respect to the full understanding of what is taking place. These actors' narratives tend to emphasize the humanitarian challenges vulnerable Palestinians are facing, or to frame each community's struggle to remain in place as an isolated land dispute with Israeli authorities. Meanwhile, those who offer a more critical framework or tougher criticism usually highlight illegal settlement expansion, or the threat that Israeli policies of expulsion pose to a future "two-state solution."
What is often lacking in such narratives and analyses is a focus on the true goal that both Israeli authorities and Israel-aligned NGOs are pursuing: the purposeful reduction, or even the wholesale elimination, of the Palestinian presence in various parts of Area C.
What is often lacking in such narratives and analyses is a focus on the true goal that both Israeli authorities and Israel-aligned NGOs are pursuing: the purposeful reduction, or even the wholesale elimination, of the Palestinian presence in various parts of Area C. The realization that this is indeed Israel's ultimate goal provides much-needed clarity, which can help inform policy decisions made by both the Palestinians and the international community.
A Concerted Effort to Remove Palestinians
The Oslo Accords, which consisted of a series of agreements signed in the 1990s by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, divided the territory of the West Bank into three distinct areas of control (without altering the entire West Bank's status as under military occupation): Areas A and B, which the PA controls in terms of civil matters, and Area C, which is fully under Israeli control. Israel, meanwhile, exercises different degrees of security control over areas A and B. None of the three areas forms a single, contiguous territory; rather, the West Bank as a whole resembles a patchwork of hundreds of different fragments. Area C, which is the largest of the three areas, constituting almost two-thirds of the West Bank, is where almost all Israeli colonies are located, both Israeli-authorized settlements and what are officially unauthorized outposts that in practice operate with the government's blessing and protection. Area C is also where a considerable amount of additional colonization activity and military presence is concentrated, whether in the form of infrastructure, tourism activities, or military firing ranges.
The removal of Palestinians—entire communities as well as individuals and families—is conducted in four main ways: Denial of permits, demolition of homes, destruction of livelihoods and infrastructure, and attacks on civil society organizations (CSOs) that support vulnerable communities and increase their resilience.
Denial of permits: A planning scheme for Palestinian communities that has been approved by Israeli occupation authorities covers less than one percent of Area C. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this Israeli plan leaves "little opportunity for community development…placing the structures outside the planned areas at risk of demolition." Meanwhile, OCHA data shows that local outline plans for Israeli settlements that are approved by Israeli occupation authorities cover at least 8.5 percent of Area C—more than eight times the area approved for Palestinians. The outcome of this discriminatory system is that Israeli occupation authorities consistently deny nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits.
According to Israeli NGO Peace Now, out of 4,422 Palestinian requests for construction permits made between 2009 and 2018, just 98 were issued—a paltry 2.2 percent. And from 2019 to 2020, as reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, an even lower 0.65 percent of requests were approved.
In February 2022, Deputy Defense Minister Alon Schuster told the Israeli Knesset that his ministry had issued just 33 building permits for Palestinians between 2017 and 2021. This was not so much a "confession" as it was a defense of the department's record of preventing Palestinian development, since officials often come under pressure from right-wing nationalist parliamentarians to increase the demolition of Palestinian structures rather than grant permits for new construction. According to Israeli NGO Peace Now, out of 4,422 Palestinian requests for construction permits made between 2009 and 2018, just 98 were issued—a paltry 2.2 percent. And from 2019 to 2020, as reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, an even lower 0.65 percent of requests were approved.
Demolitions: According to OCHA data, between January 2009 and early August 2022, Israeli occupation forces demolished 8,663 structures in the entire West Bank, including East Jerusalem, directly displacing 13,000 Palestinians and affecting some 151,666 people in total. In 2020 alone, 854 structures were demolished, and in 2021 that number rose to 911. The figure for 2022 up to August 10 was 498 structures.
Area C represents the bulk of Israeli demolitions—a total of 6,802 structures between 2009 and 2022, or 79 percent of total demolitions during this period. When one zooms in closer, however, the data shows that two governorates recorded the highest numbers of demolitions: Tubas in the northeastern part of the West Bank and Hebron in the south, which respectively saw 1,508 and 1,334 structures demolished.
Of the total number of demolished structures in Area C from 2009 to 2022, 1,710 were inhabited residential units while another 513 were uninhabited residential units (i.e., units under construction). This demolition of more than 2,000 homes constitutes the most direct form of violent displacement carried out against Palestinians in the West Bank, displacement that, in many cases, occurs repeatedly.
Targeting livelihoods and infrastructure: An additional method of undermining and ultimately removing the Palestinian presence in a given area is the destruction of infrastructure and livelihoods. OCHA data shows that 2,295 of the structures demolished by the Israeli authorities between 2009 and 2022 were classified as agricultural, while a further 906 were recorded as being related to livelihood, 687 to hygiene and sanitation, and 166 were labeled as "other infrastructure."
When an occupying military force such as the Israeli army destroys a community's means of survival—whether they be economic resources such as herding infrastructure and animal shelters or basic requirements such as water pipes and cisterns—the impact is devastating.
When an occupying military force such as the Israeli army destroys a community's means of survival—whether they be economic resources such as herding infrastructure and animal shelters or basic requirements such as water pipes and cisterns—the impact is devastating. More importantly, when one realizes that Israel's goal is to cleanse the West Bank of its Palestinian residents, the logic of such tactics becomes chillingly obvious: they make Palestinians' continued presence in the area a nearly impossible prospect.
By way of illustration, in early July 2022, a total of 19 Palestinian households comprising about 100 people left their community of Ras al-Tin in Area C, relocating instead to Area B. According to an OCHA report, the community's "living conditions had become intolerable" due to "occupation-related coercive measures imposed on them by the Israeli authorities and by Israeli settlers." This is clearly ethnic cleansing in action.
Sabotaging Palestinian civil society: In addition to direct attacks on Palestinian homes and structures, Israel also targets CSOs that help support Palestinian communities in Area C, thereby undermining Palestinian resilience and increasing populations' vulnerability. Israel is supported in its efforts by various organizations that cooperate and coordinate with Israeli occupation authorities and settlers. This includes groups that lobby European governments to cease funding for relevant Palestinian CSOs. One group involved in such efforts is the disinformation organization NGO Monitor, which has attacked multiple targets, including the Dutch government's funding for CSOs working to increase Palestinian food security. Another player is UK Lawyers for Israel, which in 2019 sent two of its representatives to the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council—a body run by and for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank—to discuss [i] how to prevent European Union funds from supporting what the settlers' council calls the Palestinian "takeover" of land in Area C.
A major target of both Israeli authorities and right-wing pressure groups has been the Union of Agricultural Working Committees (UAWC), which helps Palestinian farmers and rural communities, especially those in Area C who continue to face Israeli policies designed to seize their land, demolish their homes, and forcibly displace them. In 2018, right-wing settler group Regavim published a report titled "Roots of Evil," in which it attacked UAWC as the "key actor" in so-called "land-grab projects" and urged authorities to curtail the union's activities. The same group went on to push additional disinformation regarding the union in a Knesset meeting that same year. And in October 2021, UAWC was one of six Palestinian CSOs banned by Israeli authorities, part of a blatant effort on the part of Israel to stop these organizations from performing their work in support of Palestinian society and Palestinians' rights.
Intentionality: The Smoking Gun
The knowledge that Israeli authorities are actively pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Area C of the West Bank does not just rest on the targeting of Palestinian communities and CSOs. Evidence is also found in the openly-expressed intentions and racialized discourse of both Israeli officials and Israeli settler groups. In July and August 2020, the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held meetings on "the Palestinian takeover of Area C." In the discussions, Palestinian communities were compared to a "virus" and a "cancer"—exactly the kind of dehumanizing language one would expect in the context of a campaign of forced displacement and colonization.
In Knesset discussions, Palestinian communities were compared to a "virus" and a "cancer"—exactly the kind of dehumanizing language one would expect in the context of a campaign of forced displacement and colonization.
Meanwhile, the Israeli settler group Regavim, which, as noted above, plays a role in advocating for the demolition of Palestinian structures and has indeed cooperated with Israeli authorities to that end, has described Palestinian communities as "spreading tentacles." And Regavim is not the only non-state body working with the government to target Palestinian construction; in October 2021, the Israeli government's Settlement Affairs Ministry gave 20 million shekels to 14 settlement authorities so that they could purchase drones and pay patrolmen to monitor the West Bank for instances of Palestinian construction occurring without what are in essence impossible-to-obtain permits. And in 2020 Israeli occupation authorities set up a hotline for anyone to report illegal construction in Area C.
In 2021, Israel's Intelligence Ministry produced a report on the "Palestinian campaign for Area C," which was declassified and published the following year, becoming the subject of a Knesset committee debate. Again, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on how Palestinians' efforts to simply live their lives and develop their own land are spoken of by the State of Israel and by settler groups as acts of aggression or warfare, as a "campaign" or a "takeover." It is also worth noting how truly disturbing the implications of such a paradigm are for how a civilian population and their means of existence are treated by this occupying power. As one Israeli activist noted in a Twitter thread on the report, the Intelligence Ministry's recommendations provide "insight into Israel's work plan and the methods to achieve its national goal," which is to concentrate Palestinians into 166 "isolated enclaves" rather than a contiguous territory. Of course in order to do that, Israel must ethnically cleanse the West Bank by forcibly removing or driving out the Palestinians who live there.
No Doubt, It Is Ethnic Cleansing
Israeli authorities' policies and efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians in Area C have been noted on numerous occasions over the last decade by international actors, and above all by Palestinian human rights organizations. However, international actors are often hesitant to accuse Israel of intentionally driving Palestinians out of the West Bank. This situation has improved in recent years, which have seen a growing acknowledgement that Israel's policies amount to apartheid, which involves the understanding that specific discriminatory policies and crimes are not just isolated occurrences but are rather an intentional part of a broader racist regime. However, there is still a long way to go before we begin to see broader acceptance of the extent to which apartheid itself is both rooted in and an expression of settler colonialism.
There is still a long way to go before we begin to see broader acceptance of the extent to which apartheid itself is both rooted in and an expression of settler colonialism.
Understanding Israeli policies in Area C as ethnic cleansing is an important corrective to narratives that foreground humanitarian needs or diplomatic concerns. The ethnic cleansing of Area C is a policy that is pursued by Israeli state authorities regardless of what coalition government is in power. This shows that Israel's goals—to free up land for Israeli settlement expansion and the exploitation of natural resources, to confine Palestinians to tiny Bantustans, and to destroy any possibility for Palestinian sovereignty—are deeper strategic goals, and not just part of the fluctuations of coalition politics. With Israeli policies shaped by the dual goals of colonization and expulsion, and with Israel's program of ethnic cleansing intensifying by the day, the international community must adjust its language and its approach to match the reality of what is happening in Palestine.
[i] Source is in Hebrew.
Writer and Executive Director
Britain Palestine Media Center
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External Readings | December 30, 2022
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Israel's New Government and the Rapid Acceleration of Apartheid
Netanyahu, the godfather of modern Israeli fascism


Drug and Organised Crime Squad Detectives have charged three people and seized 100 kilograms of kava in Coconut Grove.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Malogorski said Police executed a search warrant at a storage shed in Coconut Grove yesterday as part of an ongoing investigation into the supply of kava in the Northern Territory.
"As a result of the search Police located a commercial quantity of kava separated into several large bags and divided into smaller deal bags. Police also seized a set of digital scales and 5000 clip seal bags.
"If sold in a remote community Police estimate the kava could have fetched around $100,000.
The 31-year-old man was remanded in custody and will appear in Darwin Magistrates Court on 27 July.
The 51-year-old man and 21-year-old woman will appear in Darwin Magistrates Court on 4 August.
"Operation Abtei has been running for six weeks and in that time Northern Territory Police have seized 510 kilograms of kava. If sold in a remote community Police estimate the kava could have fetch around $510,000," Detective Senior Sergeant Malogorski said.
"This is a potentially significant amount of money coming out of remote communities and directly into the pockets of the criminals supplying this product. Police will continue to target kava runners across the Northern Territory because of the devastating effect it has on our communities.


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Jeffrey Ullman
Jeff Ullman is the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Engineering (Emeritus) in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford, and is the CEO of Gradiance Corp. He received a B.S. degree from Columbia University in 1963 and a PhD from Princeton in 1966. Prior to his appointment at Stanford in 1979, he was a member of the technical staff of Bell Laboratories from 1966-1969, and on the faculty of Princeton University between 1969 and 1979. From 1990-1994, he was chair of the Stanford Computer Science Department. Ullman was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1989, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012, and has held Guggenheim and Einstein Fellowships. He has received the Sigmod Contributions Award (1996), the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award (1998), the Knuth Prize (2000), the Sigmod E. F. Codd Innovations award (2006), the IEEE von Neumann medal (2010), and the NEW C&C Foundation Prize (2017). He is the author of 16 books, including books on database systems, compilers, automata theory, and algorithms.
Radhika Shah
Radhika is an Angel & Impact investor from Silicon Valley, and CoPresident at Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs; a community of over 1100 entrepreneurial Stanford students, faculty members and alumni. She has been an advisor, mentor, co-convener & judge at Innovation Accelerators Startx & Skydeck Labs, US SBA and UN Solutions Summit. She is a founding volunteer of the mentoring group RajeevCircle.org and is a speaker/panelist at Stanford and Berkeley classes, seminars, and events, such as the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, SDG Media Zone at United Nations HQ, and The National Academy of Sciences.
Radhika is passionate about leveraging technology for social good and has been active in civic engagement & social causes since her early childhood, having grown up under the influence of the Gandhi Ashram and Gandhian thought-leader grandfather. She is an advisor to the Sustainable Development Goals Philanthropy Platform, co-founded the former Ashoka SV chapter, sits on the SVLeadership Council for Action for India, and is an advisor to Impact Experiences and Illumen Capital a Fund of Impact Funds.
She sits on the International Advisory Network for the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) and is also a founding member of the Tech Advisory group for BHRRC. Radhika holds a M.S. Computer Science from Stanford and an M.B.A from Berkeley.
Ashit Patel
Ashit is an experienced software industry practitioner with experience leading engineering teams at startups and large companies. He is currently Director of Software Development at Salesforce.com. Prior to Salesforce, Ashit was VP Engineering at Kaviza, an innovative startup in desktop virtualisation that was acquired by Citrix. In the past, he has held senior technical and management positions at Sun Microsystems and other startups. Ashit has an MBA from UC Berkeley, MS CS from the University of Iowa, and BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He has mentored entrepreneurs at Stanford StartX, Berkeley Skydeck startup accelerators, as well as social entrepreneurs from Ashoka.org.
Chris Worman
Christopher (Chris) Worman has been working with and for civil society since 1999. Leading fundraising and communications with American NGOs in the arts, health and human services, Chris built online giving platforms and communities before tools like facebook made it easy. In 2005, Chris joined Peace Corps and landed in Romania where he built several rural, sustainable social enterprises, launched Romania's first Community Foundation, www.szka.org and helped build a national framework that has supported the development of more than a dozen more.
In 2009, Chris opened TechSoup's Romania program and, subsequently, TechSoup's digital democracy work. Through a series of community-driven design challenges more than 1.2 million Romanians engaged in defining and building anti-corruption solutions. Communities like FunkyCitizens.ro who met through the program have been successfully holding their government to account ever since. Based on initial successes, Chris helped grow the program with TechSoup into www.TransparenCEE.org which has worked with citizens and civil society to solve problems with tech across 14 countries in the region.
Since 2011, Chris has held roles leading TechSoup's program design and communications groups. Now that TechSoup is completely global, he is focused on leveraging what TechSoup has built over the years into deeper and more supportive relations with the 1 million+ NGOs currently served by the organization; exploring the intersection of technology and civil society in the face of the Fourth Wave of the Industrial Revolution, challenges to democracy, immigration, and other major challenges of our times. In his spare time, Chris teaches masters-level NGO communications classes at the University of Vienna School of Economics and has consulted for organizations ranging from Microsoft and the C.S. Mott Foundation to Coca Cola and the Aspen Institute.
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Q: CMake unexpectedly prepending last filename to executable in foreach I'm attempting to create a CMakeLists.txt for a library project I'm working on. It's a fairly simple structure, and I've been able to recreate a simple example of the issue I'm running into with the following setup:
project
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── include
│   ├── doctest.hpp
│   └── foo.hpp
└── src
    ├── foo.cpp
    ├── bar.cpp
    └── test-main.cpp

with the example code available in this gist (_ substituted for / for gists). The C++ sources and headers don't actually affect the problem, so I'm not including their contents, but my CMakeLists.txt is effectively this:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)
project(foo VERSION 0.0.1)

set(source_files
        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/foo.cpp
        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/bar.cpp
)

set(header_files
        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include/foo.hpp
)

set(DOCTEST_INCLUDE_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include)
add_library(Doctest IMPORTED INTERFACE)
target_include_directories(Doctest INTERFACE ${DOCTEST_INCLUDE_DIR})

add_library(test-main OBJECT ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/test-main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(test-main Doctest)

foreach(src ${source_files})
        # Strip off leading path and extension, leaving only filename without extension to be ${testName}
        string(REGEX MATCH "^.*/src/(.*)\\.[^.]*$" "" ${src})
        set(testName ${CMAKE_MATCH_1})
        message(STATUS ${testName})

        add_executable("${testName}" "${src}" $<TARGET_OBJECTS:test-main>)
        target_include_directories(${testName} PRIVATE ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include)
        add_test(NAME ${testName} COMMAND ${testName})
endforeach()

The issue is that although cmake . runs fine, as does make, instead of the output executable being src/[filenameWithoutExtensionHere] as I would expect it to be (from line 24 in CMakeLists) it ends up as
src/bar.cppfoo and src/bar.cppbar, apparently prepending the final filename in the sources list to the executable.
Is this caused by something I'm not aware of in my usage of foreach or in my calling of add_executable? The message(STATUS ${testName}) call prints what I would expect, just the filename without path or extension. I've also tried various combinations of quoting/not quoting ${testName} in the add_executable as well as removing NAME and COMMAND from add_test but I don't think that is a part of this. This is my first project using CMake and I'm kinda lost as to why this is happening.
What is causing the prepending of the final source filename and how can I avoid it?

A: This is triggered by the line
string(REGEX MATCH "^.*/src/(.*)\\.[^.]*$" "" ${src})

By specifying "" for the <output variable>, you seem to be trying to ignore it, because you only care about the capture group... but this seems to have some very strange and unfortunate side effects. You can get the same effect with this minimal CMakeLists.txt:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.13)
add_executable(foo ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/foo.cpp)
set("" some_prefix_)

I guess this creates a variable whose name is the empty string, but why this would affect the name of the resulting binary is anyone's guess.
Just put dummy or match_output or whatever, and the problem goes away:
string(REGEX MATCH "^.*/src/(.*)\\.[^.]*$" match_output ${src})

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text:
Posted inAroostook, News
How Maine's little-known war changed America forever
by Seth Koenig March 10, 2020 March 3, 2020
Webster's Reply to Hayne by George P.A. Healy Credit: Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons
Editor's note: This story originally ran on June 23, 2015. We are republishing this story as part of our ongoing bicentennial coverage. These stories tell us about key moments in Maine's history that shaped the world around us today.
On July 4, 1827, less than a decade into Maine's life as an official state, outspoken sawmill owner John Baker raised a homemade American flag on the western side of the junction between Baker Brook and the St. John River.
It was a bold statement on what was still disputed territory as the dust slowly settled from two previous wars against the British. Baker, the so-called "Washington of the Republic of Madawaska," was arrested by New Brunswick authorities and held until he could pay a 25-pound fine — an amount estimated to be worth tens of thousands of U.S. dollars in today's money.
The incident contributed to growing pressure on the U.S. and Great Britain to determine once and for all where the northeasternmost borders between the two countries' North American territories should be placed.
Many Mainers have at least heard of the resultant Aroostook War, otherwise known as the "Pork and Beans War." But what largely became a footnote in U.S. military history changed America forever, in ways few people may recognize.
Credit: Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons
At the time of Baker's unofficial annexation, the borderlands were starting to become increasingly contentious.
In 1830, many people living in the area Baker had placed the flag sought to be included in the U.S. census. Those residents were rounded up and arrested or forced to flee by local New Brunswick militia loyal to the British crown.
The two countries sought an independent opinion from King William I of the Netherlands on where the boundaries should be drawn, but the royal arbitrator couldn't make sense of the previous treaties reached by the fledgling U.S. and Great Britain, and came up with what he considered a compromise option in 1831.
The British accepted it, but Maine leaders and the U.S. Senate rejected it. That began years of negotiations over where Maine should end and Canada should begin, a period of time during which thousands of militia men were gathered on both sides of the dispute, ready to settle the issue with military action.
The disputed territory represented prized timberland, and the two sides took turns arresting lumberjacks and land agents from the other. The feud simmered for years while politicians tried to work out a deal that would avoid any serious armed conflict.
Ultimately, in 1842, famed attorney and then-U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster reached an agreement with British diplomat Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, to draw the line between Canada and Maine, as well as the borders between the British-controlled northern country and the states of New Hampshire, Michigan and Minnesota.
The compromise prevented any blood from being spilled in battle — although a few deaths were recorded by accident and disease during the dispute — and the Aroostook War was ended before it could escalate into a third significant war between the U.S. and Great Britain.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty gave the U.S. 7,015 square miles of the territory, while turning over 5,012 square miles to the British. Maine was reimbursed by the U.S. federal government for the loss of what state leaders considered their rightful territory, as well as for the costs incurred by Maine's armed civil patrol of the area.
The British retained what they considered a crucial northern region, providing a direct overland connection between Quebec and Nova Scotia.
But while few people outside of the affected regions are aware of the Aroostook War, the conflict altered the American landscape forever, and its effects can still be felt today. Here's how:
The United States and Great Britain are key international allies
The Aroostook War remains the last serious confrontation between the U.S. and its Revolutionary rival, the United Kingdom. The peaceful resolution to the dispute set the stage for what would become an enduring international partnership, as Americans and British have never again lined up on opposite sides of a war.
This relationship was perhaps tested most strenuously less than two decades after the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, when America fell into its Civil War. While a number of complicated factors motivated Great Britain to remain neutral in the affair, many in the British elite were sympathetic to the Confederate cause.
Foreign intervention on the side of the Confederates could have tipped the scales in their favor.
Had the Aroostook War ended differently — had it escalated into a recent armed conflict between the British and the northern U.S. fighters, for instance — it could have changed the political equation significantly for the United Kingdom.
States can't attack other countries any more
Frustrated by what they considered a lack of progress on the part of the federal government, Maine leaders pulled together their own militia and prepared to fight with the British.
U.S. Rep. Francis Ormond Jonathan Smith of Maine was among those who would declare that the state would defend its territory on its own if the feds failed to intervene.
Recognizing the potential danger in allowing any individual state to enter into a war with a foreign nation, Congress authorized the deployment of 50,000 troops to Maine in the event that Great Britain invaded, and sent Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott to urge the state to recall its militia.
Moving forward, the federal government would assume total control over international military actions, leaving the states latitude only to use militias for internal conflicts or natural disaster relief.
Maine — and America — shrank…
Over the years, different U.S. and British leaders drew the Maine border in different places. Perhaps most notably, Webster discovered a map drawn decades earlier by founding father Benjamin Franklin indicating that America originally agreed to turn nearly all of what's today Aroostook County over to Great Britain as part of Canada.
From that perspective, the state of Maine grew by several thousand square miles as a result of the Aroostook War.
But the compromise line proposed by King William I of the Netherlands, which the British agreed to, actually gave the U.S. 7,908 square miles of the disputed territory and Great Britain about 4,119 square miles.
Had Maine accepted that offer, the conflict would have ended 12 years earlier and the state today would be more than 800 square miles larger, with the northwestern border stretching that much farther into Canada. Quebec towns such as Saint-Pamphile and Lac-Frontiere would have been entirely in Maine.
… but New Hampshire grew
The King William compromise gave more acreage to Maine, but also took a bite out of the northern border of New Hampshire — although New Hampshire stood to lose much less land than Maine stood to gain in the proposal.
By holding out for a better deal, Maine and the U.S. Senate would give up hundreds of square miles to Maine's northwest, but would get back a small slice of New Hampshire approximately west of Chartierville, Quebec, according to a map published in the 1980 book "Minnesota's boundary with Canada: Its evolution since 1783" by William E. Lass.
Foreign trains travel across U.S. soil
As part of the treaty that resolved the Aroostook War, the British secured a right-of-way for their commercial interests to cross Maine to and from southern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
That right-of-way became the train route used by the Canadian Pacific Railway and, more recently, a subsidiary of the New Brunswick Railway Co.
America ultimately settled its presidential line of succession
The ripple effect of the Aroostook War continued far and wide. President Martin Van Buren was criticized for not getting the situation under control, and it was one of many controversies that contributed to his defeat at the polls after just one term in office.
William Henry Harrison, 68, took advantage of Van Buren's vulnerability to claim the 1840 elections, but died shortly after taking office, forcing the U.S. to determine once and for all that the vice president — John Tyler at the time — would become the president, not just the "acting president," as was debated at the time.
Tagged: local news, maine bicentennial
Seth Koenig
Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.	More by Seth Koenig
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text:
THE EASY GUIDE TO REPERTORY GRIDS
by Devi Jankowicz
London: Wiley, 2004, Paperback, 308 pages, £22.99
reviewed by Diane Allen (Coventry, UK)
The Easy Guide to Repertory Grids provides a very good link between taught grid elicitation and the development of personal understanding. The style of the book is welcoming and inviting. The Introduction provides a very clear account of what the book is intended to provide and where the confident student can go for further development of their understanding. It also provides a comprehensive guide to the best use of the book material. I have been particularly impressed by the technician and theorist perspectives which thread throughout the book and offer different levels of analysis for the student. The reader is encouraged by the technician perspective to attempt the practical exercises and then review them in more depth by engaging with the theorist. In this way the reader is encouraged to experiment and, rather than becoming anxious at exposure to fresh theoretical ideas, has their existing constructs about research rendered more permeable and open to adaptation.
The second chapter of the book offers a user-friendly, clear and simple description of the basic ideas behind the repertory grid and its potential uses. It takes a while to warm to the two perspectives (the technician and the theorist) but reading the chapter twice, through the technician's account first, followed by the inclusion of the theorist, leads to a sense of satisfaction at having laid down the groundwork for the subsequent journey through grid elicitation in chapter three.
Professor Jankowicz cleverly addresses the needs of the naïve grid user throughout the body of the book. He seems to have taken into account the range of questions posed by his students and used them to create a dialogue between the reader, the technician and the theorist. The fourth chapter begins with responses to basic concerns about procedures in working with grids and leads the reader into greater depth of material so they become conversant with the processes behind classic PCP techniques such as the self-characterisation sketch, laddering and pyramiding without being overwhelmed.
Chapters five to seven cover a range of ways in which repertory grids can be analysed without the use of a computer. Chapter five explores descriptive analysis of grid content; chapter six looks at analysing the numerical relationships between elements and constructs in a single grid and chapter seven describes how to analyse more than one grid with supplied constructs and, more in keeping with the central theme of Personal Construct Psychology, individually generated constructs. Professor Jankowicz describes how content analysis can be used to analyse more than one grid with personal constructs derived from supplied common elements.
Chapter eight focuses on the exploration of personal values, including an account of how to ladder up with constructs. The script suggested in this chapter is easy to follow and the explanation enables students to recognise the powerful impact of the technique and how it relates to the repertory grid. The chapter then uses the further exploration of personal values to introduce a resistance to change technique.
The final chapter examines personal change and differences between people, using repertory grids. He tackles how to examine simple change using the same elements and constructs and how to research messy change where new constructs or elements need to be introduced. Differences between people are explored through "partnering" grids to see different ways people construe a similar topic. A further technique, the Exchange Grid requires two participants to complete grids from the perspective of the other person, using the other person's constructs.
Overall, the book gives a clear account of the technical and theoretical aspects of the repertory grid technique, grid analysis and interpretation. It covers a range of variations on this theme in a creative and accessible way. I have used the easy guide to teach Clinical Psychology trainees and PCP Foundation Course students. I have found that students respond well to the book's sensible approach and want to experiment with the technique rather than discard it as too hard. Professor Jankowicz has obviously taken students' construction processes into account when writing this book and laid the groundwork for them to move towards using repertory grids as a feasible and pleasurable part of their repertoire of research methods.
Allen, D. (2005). Review of: Jankowicz, D. (2004). The easy guide to repertory grids. Chichester: Wiley. Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 2, 15.
(Retrieved from http://www.pcp-net.org/journal/pctp05/allen-jankowicz05.html)
Contact: diane.allen@coventrypct.nhs.uk
Diane Allen, Coventry Psychological Services, Gulson Hospital, Coventry, UK
Received: 7 Nov 2005 - Accepted: 17 Nov 2005 - Published: 8 Nov 2005
Last update 1 November 2005


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text:
NewsIn-Depth
In-Depth: Why COVID-related medical bills are going up
Expiring waivers will raise out-of-pocket costs
Health insurance changes could put people on the hook for thousands of dollars following a COVID hospitalization.
By: Derek Staahl
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- For months, most Americans who got sick with COVID-19 had their medical costs covered, with treatment at no charge.
Now, people who get hospitalized with the coronavirus could be on the hook for thousands of dollars. In San Diego County, 98.8 percent of those hospitalized with COVID since Jan. 1 have been unvaccinated.
The federal government requires providers to make medically necessary COVID testing and vaccines available to the public for free. But there is no federal requirement that health insurers cover the out-of-pocket costs associated with COVID-related treatment.
Still, the vast majority of insurance companies elected to cover these costs anway in the early part of the pandemic. According to an August 2020 analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 88 percent of people with full health insurance had a plan that would waive all costs for a COVID hospitalization.
But in the months since, that's changed, said KFF health policy expert Krutika Amin.
"With these cost-sharing waivers expiring, more and more people who are hospitalized are going to face significant medical bills that could lead to additional financial instability," she said.
KFF recently surveyed the two largest health plans in each state and the District of Columbia. By the end of this month, the group estimates 78 percent of these large plans will have ended waivers and implemented normal billing for COVID treatment.
That means patients who get hospitalized with COVID now will be subject to their standard deductibles and copays, which can add up rapidly.
A study from researchers at the University of Michigan estimated the average out-of-pocket cost for a privately insured person who gets hospitalized with COVID is $3,840. That's just the average. Intensive interventions or emergency transportation can send the bill much higher.
"Some plans have deductibles that can exceed over $8,000," Amin said. "For people who have not met their out-of-pocket maximum, they could be charged a significant amount."
The cost of COVID testing is also beginning to change. Tests ordered by a doctor remain free, but insurers can charge for routine screening tests that are becoming more common at workplaces and schools.
Some companies that have implemented mandatory weekly testing of unvaccinated workers have picked up the costs of these tests, but others have not. Some people have been charged up to $200 for screening tests, according to the New York Times.
While testing may affect many Americans, the largest bills will likely be generated by lengthy hospital stays. Six states and the District of Columbia have mandates or agreements with insurers to cover these out-of-pocket costs, but not California.
Amin said a mix of moral and financial obligations may have motivated insurers to temporarily cover these expenses last year.
Despite the surge of COVID patients at hospitals, overall health spending dropped during the pandemic as people socially distanced and patients delayed elective procedures, Amin said. Insurance payouts remain below expected levels in 2021.
That left insurance companies with extra cash they legally couldn't pocket. There's a provision in the Affordable Care Act that controls how much money insurers can make. The provision, known as the Medical Loss Ratio, says insurers must give their customers rebates if profits exceed a certain percentage of health spending.
Instead of offering rebates, insurers used the extra revenue to temporarily waive out-of-pocket treatment costs for COVID. But the arrival of vaccines changed the equation, Amin said.
"The overwhelming majority of the COVID hospitalizations are avoidable," she said.
Under federal law, insurers cannot charge people different rates based on their vaccination status. (Employers, however, can add surcharges through wellness programs that effectively raise rates on the unvaccinated.)
With overall health spending below projected levels, insurance companies have already indicated they will not raise premiums in 2022 on everyone next year due to COVID, Amin said.
But companies can -- and have -- begun to start charging again for COVID hospital stays in general. That places the bulk of those costs on the unvaccinated, who account for the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations.
"People can avoid these costs by getting vaccinated, which are free," Amin said.
In June and July, KFF estimated that hospitalizations of the unvaccinated cost the U.S. health system $2.3 billion. Now more of those patients will have to pick up a bigger part of the tab.


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National President Mary Jane Johnson receives the Key to the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from the mayor during the 2000 National Convention.
Mary Jane Johnson Receiving Key to the City at Convention Photograph 1, July 7-10, 2000