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THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN VIRTUAL WORK
By Leigh Kesser - HAF-UVA Intern
When I first started the internship for the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), I also had to take a UVA class to complement the internship experience. Our first assignment, Envisioning Your Learning Chart, stated, "it is almost guaranteed that your internship will not be what you expect it to be." There was no way I would have ever predicted my summer turning out the way it has, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Although I was and still am slightly sad that I was not able to physically go to Morocco, I am still so grateful to be able to learn as much as I can through a global, virtual internship. Even though I was hesitant about what a virtual internship would look like, I have been pleasantly surprised by how consistent we have been able to meet and talk, and I have enjoyed being able to get to know and work with my fellow interns. Working with the other interns and the HAF staff has made the virtual work feel more connected and meaningful.
When we were talking about the benefits and challenges of virtual work, I have somewhat struggled with keeping a consistent schedule. I tend to do my internship work at a variety of times throughout the day, and I would like to have a more regular schedule during the day. Maybe I'll try planning out my week more. With the move to virtual work, Morgan, a fellow intern, brought up an interesting point about work-life balance in view of the fact that many people are now available on a 24/7 basis. I have also wondered how much technology will continue to be implemented in our daily lives, because it seems as if the pandemic has only cemented the integral role technology plays in people's lives. It scares me how much society, including myself, relies on our phones, laptops, tablets etc., because I cannot imagine a world without these gadgets now. Especially with all the crazy events in the world recently, people rely on getting their news and social interactions through technology, which has its benefits. I hope the world will better learn how to use technology as a tool without it becoming a crutch we cannot live without. But, honestly, I think we have already passed that point.
AN ILLUMINATING FARMER-TO-FARMER STORY IN MOROCCO
By Yossef Ben-Meir - President
Bill served as a volunteer consultant to the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) through the Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) for two weeks in January 2020. Originally from New Mexico, now residing in Boston, Bill collaborated as an F2F volunteer with four of HAF's tree nursery cooperatives in southern Morocco. He was tasked with improving their productivity. One immediate benefit of his visits with Moroccan farmers at these sites is that he was able to share not only his technical and business skills but also to find ways for the four individual cooperatives within the same province to share their own specialized skills with one another.
Farmer-to-Farmer responds to the local needs of host-country farmers and organizations like HAF in developing and transitional countries. It leverages the expertise of volunteers from U.S. farms, universities, cooperatives, agribusinesses, and nonprofits. As an example, during Bill's visits, he offered guidance to sustainably maximize the quality and quantity of organic fruit trees. This directly coincided with the goals of HAF, the current F2F-implementer in Morocco, to develop project plans with donor partners that local communities determine and manage.
Bill's assignment was fortuitously timely, as it was during Morocco's planting season, when partners are driven to plant as much and as well as possible. Early in the season, cooperative members consider the number of seedlings to plant along with the expected returns from their plantings. In response to this need, Bill supported them in their cost-benefit analysis that, along with a reevaluation of tree pricing, informed the nurseries' operational budgets.
Bill's work on pricing trees was immediately utilized by the cooperatives in order for them to meet the rigorous project criteria of their donor organization, Ecosia (a German search engine that finances reforestation around the world). As a result, Ecosia now supports planting 150,000 seeds of almond, carob, olive, and walnut trees at the nurseries of the four cooperatives where Bill provided assessments: Tassa Ouirgane, Imdoukal Znaga, Akrich Village, and the Adrar Cooperative. At the latter, he also instigated a soil analysis for the nursery caretaker, who complained of substandard planting soil.
The groups he worked with acted upon Bill's observation and coordinated capacity-building workshops. For example, the members of the Women's Cooperative of Tassa Ouirgane, since Bill's work with HAF, have participated in monthly technical trainings facilitated by Hassan, a father of two in his thirties who is the caretaker of a nearby nursery cooperative. Bill had met Hassan when they identified a more efficient water delivery system for Imdoukal Znaga Nursery. That collaboration led to the identification of system material needs and related costs. The local F2F-HAF team communicated this information to FENELEC, a federation of Moroccan companies, who then funded the solar pumping components and training needed for the improved the water system.
These lasting outcomes are deeply relevant to worldwide F2F programming today. The current global pandemic makes it extremely difficult, even impossible, to field volunteers on F2F assignments. Until the pandemic lifts, needy host-country organizations will not receive assistance from foreign volunteers. It is profoundly helpful for the emerging agricultural cooperatives that in all thirty-five of the United States Agency for International Development's F2F-country programs we are currently able to, for example, enable local experts like Hassan to complete new F2F assignments. Bill's connection-making has benefited several cooperatives in this way, illuminating its necessity in our new global reality.
That F2F Volunteers excel in Morocco and around the world speaks to their being exceptional people. A testament to this is not only Bill's diverse and vast knowledge-base (technical, financial, and managerial), but also his wholehearted generosity. However, it must be said that volunteers also require a conducive context that enables the potential of their work to be achieved. Through essential participatory dialogue, cooperative members are able to attain consensus on their goals and are ready to act on the agricultural project plans that they have themselves created well before F2F volunteers arrive in country. By laying groundwork in advance, HAF can ensure that the volunteers' recommendations are directed toward what is most needed and wanted. In truth, cooperatives more often consider recommendations and accomplish their objectives with new partnerships that are contributive – in both directions – as was the case with Bill's successful assignment, assisting Moroccan people to advance transformative initiatives.
Since it began in 1985, the John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program of USAID has supported volunteers from all 50 states in their completion of over 15,000 assignments in more than 115 countries. It is an honor for the High Atlas Foundation to implement this program in Morocco, and this program is made even more meaningful as HAF was founded by former Peace Corps Volunteers. Bill's good effects are rippling onward. Upon their reflection we can see that the global positives of F2F – and of Peace Corps fielding more than 235,000 volunteers since 1962 – are incalculable.
Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is president of the High Atlas Foundation and a sociologist.
The High Atlas Foundation is a Moroccan association and a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2000 and committed to furthering sustainable development. HAF supports Moroccan communities to take action in implementing human development initiatives. HAF promotes organic agriculture, women's empowerment, youth development, education, and health. Since 2011, HAF has Consultancy Status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
RAISING AWARENESS AMONG MOROCCAN PUPILS
By Leo Guesne - HAF Intern
On February 14th, I went with three members of the High Atlas Foundation to a primary school near the town of El Gara in the Berrechid Province. During this day, two workshops were organized in order to raise awareness about climate change among the young generation. The first activity was aimed at having the students participate and gain knowledge about the environment, polluting practices, and the direct effects these have on their environment. The second activity consisted of planting a symbolic tree with the children in the school's playground before the other trees were to be planted the following day. Despite our unexpected arrival due to logistical reorganization, the teachers welcomed awareness activities dealing with climate change and the opportunity to get to know our association.
I wasn't expecting the pupils at this school to know a lot about climate change, but it appeared that they are familiar with many terms relating to global warming even though they were no more than 11 years old living and living in rural Morocco. The school has already been involved in sustainable projects such as the installation of a solar-powered well pump. That may explain how much the children are already aware of the variety of renewable energy sources.
Those rural pupils will be the first to be impacted by global warming. Indeed, due to the high temperatures that will cause drier summers and warmer winters, that rural population who relies on locally grown food, weakened water infrastructures, and food-deprived animals, will suffer far more difficulties than more affluent city-dwellers. The fact that they are the most endangered should be the reason for them to be the first informed. In practice, the best way to involve them is to have them participate in direct planning. Through these ongoing discussions, HAF aims to develop the pupils' sense of connection that will ultimately encourage them to protect their environment.
During the different activities, the students' eagerness was noteworthy: such a simple action as planting a tree becomes a day's event at the school. While this disrupts their daily routine, it allows them to discuss a subject that will become their reality during the next decades. As important as Math or English classes, this awareness must be part of the tools given to such rural populations. In addition to the issue of girls' education, the issue of global warming awareness is becoming nowadays an essential topic in Morocco's rural schools. Wherever they are from and whatever the gender, the children must be informed about these global realities and guided in discovering how they will address the problems as they grow. In turn, they will raise awareness among their parents and eventually their own offspring.
PRESERVING THE LANDSCAPES OF THE AZZADENE VALLEY
By Hajiba Boumasmar - HAF Intern
In recent years in Morocco, the succession of droughts, floods, unusual temperatures, negative changes of ecosystems and productive sectors, and fragile economic conditions are unlike previous decades. This necessitates redoubling development efforts involving economic, political, and civil society actors to counter these adverse effects of climate.
This is why the Moroccan government has launched projects aimed at respecting human and natural resources and taking preventive green measures to combat the effects of climate change, including renewable energy, sustainable recycling of solid and liquid waste, and the National Initiative for Human Development.
Civil society contributes significantly to overcoming environmental obstacles to achieve sustainable development especially for villagers because they are in constant contact with the natural environment and are aware of their own needs. The High Atlas Foundation builds proactive initiatives to serve the inhabitants of remote areas.
Since July 2017, the village of Tassa Ouirgane in the Marrakech region's Azzadene Valley is taking action against flooding and soil erosion through restoring agricultural terraces and fruit tree orchards. This project is funded by the United Nations Development Program.
The Tassa Ouirgane community experiences a serious short fall of water during the summer. Heavy rain in the winter in the High Atlas' Azzadene Valley causes severe flooding, destroying many productive terraces and threatening livelihoods, and has even led to the tragic loss of human life. The impact is destabilizing for the local families, and this HAF-UNDP project includes several activities for village men, women, and youth.
The olive, almond, and walnut nursery of 24,100 trees comprises a 107.5m2 green house, the necessary equipment, and high-quality seeds adapted to the region. The project also includes conceptual and practical training for farmers on how to grow the trees and seed selection.
A basin is 3 x 5 meters with a capacity to carry 38 tons of water has been constructed, a water well 35 meters deep was built, and a solar-power pump was installed - for the benefit of the farmers of Tassa Ouirgane. Further, 960 meters of gabions have also been built to protect agricultural lands against floods caused by the river.
Ninety famers from as many households (including 600 people – 380 women and 220 men) in the region are now benefiting from the project, including capacity-building workshops about irrigation methods and how to improve the productivity of the nursery.
On October 9th and 10th, Amina Hajami, HAF's director of projects, visited Tassa Ouirgane to assess the development of the project.
Most of the members of the Tassa Ouirgane cooperative are very ambitious 15 girls between the ages of 14 and 20 years. The women of the village have received a series of seven capacity-building workshops. The first was Imagine empowerment activities that constituted 32 hours over four days to channel creative energies towards achieving specific goals and establish better familial and community relationships.
Malika is a divorced woman who has little daughter. She is now working at the cooperative and faces the people's traditional perspectives of divorced women. She totally changed her thinking with new income and confidence. Before, she was not comfortable leaving her parents' house to avoid the hurtful words of people, but now she goes out everyday for work and self-growth.
Zahra is able to manage the cooperative by delivering the tasks to members and monitoring their work hours by using a daily attendance list. She described her earlier desire to start a new cooperative that benefit community and women, based on cultivating and marketing medicinal and aromatic herbs and working on apple cider vinegar.The region is very rich in these kinds of plants. The spirit of cooperation and achievement did not leave them despite study and work in the cooperative on Saturdays and Sundays and often during leisure time.
I affirm that the village of Tassa Ouirgane is a typical model of a village in Morocco that has benefited from a comprehensive project by the civic organization, the High Atlas Foundation, which contributes to providing better living conditions for our communities.
Multi-stakeholder partnerships(MSP)as a Facilitating Tool for the Process of NDCs in The Arab Region
By Imane Akhezzane - Project Manager
As a part of a multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSP) project on renewable energy in Morocco, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) facilitated a conference of Climate Action Network - Arab World in Rabat on September 1st, under the topic: Current State of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) Review in the Arab Region Towards Enhancement of the NDC through a Shared Scheme: MSP as a Facilitating Tool for the Process.
The conference was opened with an overview of NDCs review During this first session four representatives from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Jordan gave a short overview about the NDCs of their countries.
Then, the president of HAF, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir facilitated the group's brainstorming about sustainable development in order to introduce the MSP approach. The participants interacted sharing different ideas based on their experience in the civil society engagement, notably:
Sustainable development should be economic, social, political, cultural, historic, geographic and financial, no longer just emphasizing the environment.
Sustainable development should protect the patrimony of the future generations.
One of the most important things in sustainable development is education and every part of the society should be looked upon a sustainable way.
Sustainable development has four pillars: social equity, citizen economy, protection of the environment and democracy.
What's your goal, mission and what partners do you need to have achieve your objectives?
Dr. Yossef continued generating interaction by asking the audience about their global purpose, their mission and their role in order to have peace currently and in the future?
Each one of the participants answered this question based on her or his background. Some participants have as a main goal the development of their community and the enhancement of the quality life of their regions, while the principal goal of the others is to put the climate policy in the corps of the public policy, to make sure the authorities can make something viable economically, environmentally, and socially speaking in the region. Their role as a network is to make sure that the global reflection will take into consideration the needs of community at regional level and try to see how to get the governments involved making these things happen.
Dr. Yossef asked the following questions: How do we affect policy in order to achieve quality of life and improve the environment for communities in regions? Is your purpose as an organization is to affect policy or to affect projects?
The majority of the participants target both policies and projects. They influence policies and build capacities of the other associations so they can implement projects.
''So we have two tracks, we move upon them both at the same time: we implement projects to enhance life and the environment and at the same time we promote policy reform and change.'' Dr. Yossef, said. He also clarified that, it's often the project and the subsequent articles about them in the media that allow us to affect policies.
One of the audiences pointed out that we need to affect policies by bearing in mind that we are fighting for survival.
Then the facilitator concluded that we have to remind ourselves there is urgency, and he asked the participants if it's only urgent in regards climate change or for another reason? Is sustainable development urgent in Morocco even if there is no climate change?
Moroccan participants stressed that sustainable development became urgent in Morocco even if there no climate change. In fact, Dr. Yossef explained that decision makers know that we cannot take stability as a guarantee anymore. They know that there is a social urgency.
During this session, different experiences were discussed; the first one was the Egyptian case. A participant from Egypt spoke about his experience with a group youth who worked on creating an intergovernmental platform in which to deliver their voice to the decision makers. Dr. Yossef suggested that platform is a Multi-Stakeholders Partnership, because this group of youth have engaged external partners to transmit their messages to the concerned stakeholder.
Afterward Dr. Yossef explained the case of Morocco. HAF has this twin objective of affecting policy to a practical initiative, and right now our steering committee is trying to find out where to do that clean energy project to affect national policy. Then he asked the audience if each of their organizations has this mission to both create a project also affecting policy?
A minority of participants has as a mission affecting projects and not policies. Thus, Dr. Yossef advised them to start thinking about policy, informed by their project experience.
In this sense a CANAW member intervened, giving the example of his experience in Palestine, he said: "If you want to guarantee sustainability you need to go to policy level, every project has a start date and end date while a policy continues." In Palestine, a group of youth worked on a project of nonviolence in school and they were sending proposals. The last time they got funding the donor asked them for a strong strategy that guaranteed sustainability and the only way to do it, was with the ministry which was difficult, but the outcome was that they were able to make a new policy built by the ministry for nonviolence in school. The negotiations with the ministry took four months.
Here, the facilitator asked the participants, what partners they need in order to affect both policy and project, what stakeholders do they have to invite and to talk with. He added that the organizations need to think about targeting specific stakeholders: agencies, ministries, municipalities ….etc. The next step is to target a person, for example in the municipality you can contact the mayor. The third step is to determine the channel, in other words, the way you contact your potential partner, should it be a letter, an e-mail or face to face. The last thing Dr. Yossef referred to is the steering committee that decides who the organization should contact.
At the end of the first day of the CANAW General Assembly, three groups were formed to discuss the three main pillars of climate change namely: water, agriculture and energy. Each group had to come up with a multi-stakeholder partnerships design using a participatory approach to achieve one or more goals in each area.
The three groups pointed out in their presentations the important role of governments in achieving the objectives set in each area. Moreover, they stressed that the responsibility for funding generally rests with the northern governments, hence the need to put pressure on States to implement projects.
Therefore, the facilitator reacted by putting forward two main ideas or thoughts as he called them.
First, there is not one REDD+ project in Morocco and in the Arabic countries.
REDD+ project is monitoring the ground cover of a region, monitoring its growth, and the social benefits by replanting. Monitoring vegetation, forests and the benefits that they generate is required. Trees growing can become transferable into credits and then significant revenue can be generated that returns directly to the concerned region. Provinces in the Tetouane-Tangier region in Morocco can generate the most revenue relative to other regions. And we can do the same thing in the other regions of the kingdom. He closed this idea with the following question: Is Jordan selling carbon credits based on REDD+? ''There is not'', the participants answered.
Dr. Yossef added: ''There is so much revenue potential here. It's fine to think about securing finance though development assistance programs from northern countries. But do you know how much new funding can be created and secured within our own countries? The problem is that the regions do not yet have the monitor systems in place to the level of detail necessary – while incorporating local communities into this process – for forests and natural ground cover. Please detach from thoughts of dependency and obtaining your revenue requirements from governments and other countries. Identify and achieve your own self-generating revenue sources, which is essential for transformative change."
Then, he went straight to the second thought which consists of taking our own responsibility. If government is not complying with our wish, we must also ask ourselves what is it about our presentation and strategy, in our behavior, that is creating that response. We cannot always look to government and blame it.
It's very hard to generate carbon credits, to create a REDD+ project, to generate your funds but we can't act in a dependent way. We have to think and act independently and in partnership.
In sum, the facilitation of HAF and the presentation of its president Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir about the MSP helped the participants to understand that each organization needs to know first the purpose of its existence, its goal and mission, and then it should start looking for partners who share the same vision and interest to achieve the assigned goals and objectives.
HAF would like to thank sincerely Germanwatch which supported its participation in CANAW conference.


Part of the greenway includes the green spaces shown below, including what are labelled Fields 1 & 2 (probably Perivale West Meadows) and separated from Perivale Park by a railway line.
I mentioned this project to a friend who volunteers at the Barnes Wetland Centre, and he in turn suggested a friend of his, Richard Bullock, who delights in surveying meadows for their botanical diversity. So it was on Sunday September 30th, 2018 that five of us (Richard, Dave and Maria Widdowson, Zé and myself) ventured into the Perivale meadows to inspect the plant (and bee and spider; can you spot them?) life. We spent about three hours there before ending at St Mary's church graveyard in search of a rare Rustyback fern, last reported in 1991 as part of a nature conservation survey conducted by the London Ecology unit.
The following is a list of the above, with DSC numbers if you want to contact us for the RAW files from the camera.
The breakdown into the individual areas is indicated below.
Field 1 was certainly more diverse than Field 2. I understand that this latter field might be converted into a wetlands; it is to be hoped that Field 1 at least might be preserved as a diverse meadow!
Finally, the Rustyback fern found on a tomb in the graveyard of St Mary's church. This one got Richard quite excited!
Please send us comments on any of the species above that you might have an interesting fact or story to tell us.
Previous PostPrevious Greenford to Gurnell Greenway Project.
Next PostNext Perivale Park: the orchard project starts!


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Home England Wales Behind the scenes look at the Bierkeller Bar Complex
Behind the scenes look at the Bierkeller Bar Complex
Bierkeller Cardiff - Trevor Ellard, General Manager with Zoe Field, Business Development Manager. Pics (C) Huw John, Cardiff www.huwjohn.com
Some of the first images of the Bierkeller bar complex have been released giving a behind-the-scenes look at what to expect when the doors open in August.
The complex, situated on the ground floor of Stadium Plaza on Wood Street, has three bars, with a licensed capacity of 1,000: The Bierkeller; an original Bavarian-style bar, Shooters Sports Bar & Grill; and Around the World Bar; which offers the chance to sample beers from around the world.
Opening in time for the Wales v Ireland match on the 8th of August, The Bierkeller Entertainment Complex is already taking shape, with one of its main features, a 50 hectolitre copper beer tank being delivered next week.
Once complete, the 24,000 square foot space will be home to:
· 88 draught beer lines
· A 968 square foot cellar
· 53 55inch televisions
· One of a kind 5m x3m LED screen worth £49,000 – with more than eight million pixels.
The bars are still under construction and in total there has been:
· 20,000 square metres of flooring laid
· 4,500 plasterboards
· 3KM of AV cabling
· 243,360 man hours over 11 weeks
Visitors to the venue will be able to choose from 450 different drinks, handmade pizzas cooked in the two large pizza ovens, a selection of sharing platters, burgers and traditional German Bratwurst. To add to the bar's Bavarian style, there is table service available from staff in traditional dress and an Oompah band performing on the weekends.
Zoe Field, business development manager, said: "This has been one of our biggest projects we've worked on. We've recruited around 100 jobs in all aspects of the business and hired local managers.
"There are lots of micro-breweries popping up in Cardiff which are extremely popular and we've already started working with the local brewers, tasting some of the best Welsh beer with the aim to add them to our menus.
"Cardiff is such a vibrant city with so much going on. We're in a brilliant location, with the new BBC headquarters coming opposite us and with the Millennium Stadium right next door, the atmosphere on any match day will be epic.
"Launching on the first warm up game for Wales will be the icing on the cake and showcase what we're all about, great food, great beer and an amazing atmosphere. We're really looking forward to bringing the Bierkeller experience to Wales."
The venue will be open on 8th August 2015 ahead of the first warm up match against Ireland. For further information please visit thebierkeller.com or check out Cardiff Bierkeller on Facebook.
· The Bierkeller offers a number of party packages with a choice of cocktails, beers or spirits. Additionally, there are table top kegs (five gallons of beer for the table to share).
· Shooters Sports Bar & Grill will show all the latest sporting fixtures and offer an American style menu including nachos, chicken wings and burgers.
· In the Around The World Bar you will be able to choose from a selection of beer from across the globe stamping off your beer passport, without leaving your chair.
The Burning Night Group already has three other locations across the UK in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, with further plans to expand potentially in Nottingham.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: P-table not sorting numbers with dots (version numbers) properly I am using Angular 12 and I have a problem with p-table that I doesn't have an idea how to solve since in some examples it is working properly - in some it doesn't.
Working example with item list:
item1: V3
item2: V2.5
item3: V2.0
item4: V1.5
Example when it doesn't work:
item1: V1.5
item2: V1.3
item3: V1.0
So, from the examples, we can see that it is not working only in a situation where all items starts with same number V1.. but when there is a different starting value, it is working-sorting normally.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Want to learn more about Main Fl-33 Hazelton Ave (Bay And Yorkville)?
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From the pocket: Knocking the rust off
CHICAGO —** The first play could have gone better, but Trevor Siemian still appreciated it.
It's hard to like getting sacked, and it's certainly not something he wants to make a habit of, but Siemian welcomed the chance to feel some contact that he was protected from in offseason and training-camp practices.
"It was good to kind of knock the rust off, you know," Siemian said. "I was joking around in training camp: You forget you can get hit because we're wearing an off-color jersey and nobody can touch us."
Game-day snapshots: Broncos vs. Bears
Photos of the Broncos in action against the Bears at Soldier Field in the preseason opener. (photos by Gabriel Christus unless noted)
After that 7-yard sack to start the game, though, Siemian settled in, leading the first-team offense into Bears territory on two of his three drives under center. But those two possessions fizzled out. The first ended with a 38-yard Brandon McManus field goal, and on the second, the Broncos were forced to punt after a loss knocked them back out of Chicago's side of the field.
"Ideally, right, you want to score every time, but getting the ball that deep on your first drive and moving it down the field and kicking a field goal, on the road especially — if you look at the grand scheme of things — that's probably a pretty good first drive of the game," Siemian said. "And we only got a couple tries out of it with that first group, so I thought there were some really good things there."
After the third drive, Siemian's day was done. He finished with 51 yards on 6-of-7 passing.
At that point, Paxton Lynch entered the game. But the beginning of his night also had its own bumpy start due to penalties.
"Before we went into halftime, I think that we struggled a little bit moving the ball, missed some third downs that we should have converted on, but also had a lot of penalties that kind of set us back," Lynch said. "When we came out of the locker room at halftime, I thought we did a really good job moving the ball, but just like [Head] Coach [Vance] Joseph said, it was just too many penalties to keep us from moving the ball downfield into scoring position."
Thursday night's 24-17 win over the Bears also represented the first time the team could test the foundation of its new offensive scheme against another team. Though points were hard to come by early on, the two quarterbacks agreed that they and their teammates had a good grasp on Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy's offense.
"I think everybody is on top of it, but just like I said, the first preseason game, you don't really get to game-plan as much as you wish you could," Lynch said. "So it's just kind of our base stuff, going out there and executing that and playing fast, which I thought we did a good job of, but again the penalties hurt us from moving the ball down the field like I wish we could have."
Though the beginnings of their stints under center Thursday had their disappointments, Siemian and Lynch each felt their own performance had shining moments, and each thought their counterpart's did, too.
"I thought I did some good things, [and] I thought Paxton did some good things," Siemian said. "There's definitely some stuff I know we're going to watch and clean up. I can't really have a reaction right now without watching the tape and stuff like that, but I thought everybody did something good tonight."
While playing imperfect football, Case Keenum and the Broncos' starting offense found ways to score points
The ability to score points when things aren't going your way is a key to success in the NFL, Keenum said.
From the Pocket: Paxton Lynch focused on offseason work to become Broncos' quarterback of the future
Lynch has already turned his attention toward 2018.
From the Pocket: Osweiler frustrated by squandered first-half opportunities
Brock Osweiler was clearly frustrated after the Broncos' offensive struggles against Washington in Week 16.
From the Pocket: Brock Osweiler delivers moments in win over Colts
For the sixth-year quarterback, that was more than enough Thursday night.
From the Pocket: Trevor Siemian avoids turnovers and finds success
After his 200-yard, one-touchdown game in Sunday's win over the Jets, Trevor Siemian broke down how they finally got the turnover-free game they've been chasing.
From the Pocket: Trevor Siemian looks for answers after another game gets away
The Broncos' quarterback tried to explain what went wrong in the aftermath of a 35-9 loss to Miami.
From the Pocket: Lynch frustrated by injury, Siemian fills in admirably
After Paxton Lynch suffered an ankle injury, the Broncos turned to Trevor Siemian, who nearly sparked a comeback.
From the Pocket: Osweiler knows team isn't playing to the Denver standard
Following a 20-17 loss to the Bengals, Osweiler explains what he's seeing from the offense.
From the Pocket: The Broncos must be honest with themselves after loss to Patriots
After Sunday's loss to the Patriots, Brock Osweiler talked about how he'd like to see the team refocus during the week for next week's game against the Bengals.
From the Pocket: Brock Osweiler laments turnovers in Broncos' loss to Eagles
Though the Broncos moved the ball early, they failed to convert chances.
Siemian Says: Turnover woes continue in loss to Chiefs
As Trevor Siemian tried to spark the Broncos offense to cut into the Chiefs' lead, he also made costly errors.
Siemian Says: 'I need to be better' for offense to rebound
Quarterback Trevor Siemian knows the Broncos must be better if they want to win games — and he also knows that starts with him.


Trucks with trucks on them, in today's post.
One was scuttling through the Carridor, or Northern Blvd. as the rest of the world calls it, recently. Nearby the thoroughfare's intersection with Newtown Road, this semi appeared, and it was a truck carrying a series of other trucks.
I was reminded of some nature documentary I had once seen that showed a Momma turtle allowing her babies to hang onto her carapace as she moved through the water, with the offspring forming a conga line behind her.
The world is puzzling to me, and I really don't understand many of the things I see.
May 31, 2015 – Newtown Creek Boat Tour, with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.


Heather Wagenhals has empowered others for 20 years with her special blend of personal finance and wealth building techniques through books, articles, speeches, radio, and television. As a nationally recognized personal finance and certified identity theft risk management specialist, Heather Wagenhals hosts the nationally syndicated radio programs Unlock Your Wealth Radio© and the Keys to Riches radio©. Heather is an adjunct professor, a lifetime member of the Society of Professional Journalists and featured in AOL Money and Finance, Realtor® magazine, First for Women, Beverly Hills magazine, Bottom Line Personal, and more. Heather's two decades of experience in financial services and brain and behavior research led her to develop the Keys to Riches Financial Philosophy© and Keys to Riches Financial Wellness Series©, which teach people how to identify and overcome their challenges around money with specific techniques to create unlimited wealth and happiness. Visit UnlockYourWealthRadio.com for more information and resources.


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Q: How many times android, read to string.xml when a string is obtained? If I have this variable activity.getString(R.string.urlService);
in my strings.xml in android, and I use this variable 3 times in my code. How many times android read string.xml file?
When the android application start the content is upload to memory and is set in the context, and is read once?

A: activity.getString(R.string.urlService);

This will get the string 3 times. When i say get the string, i mean a reference to the string that is defined in strings.xml. There is no efficiency benefits here. Infact doing
String myString = activity.getString(R.string.urlService);

and using myString is more efficient than calling activity.getString 3 times. But this is very very negligible! And the benefits of using strings.xml far outweigh the cons.
Then why use strings.xml?
The beauty of strings.xml is that it makes your life extremely easy when it comes to Localization. Let's say you want your app translated to 10 other languages. All you need to do, is give your strings.xml file to the translator (which google provides by the way for a price), and the translator will give you 10 strings.xml in 10 different languages. You place the english strings.xml in values-en/, the Spanish ones in values-es/ and so on.


A juicy watermelon flavored vape, great on a warm summer day.............who am I kidding? Watermelon is great on any day!!
I got a 5ml bottle, 0mg nic, 70/30 blend, planning on getting atleast a 30ml next time. The watermelon flavor is close to some what of a lesser watermelon gum, so you get the watermelon flavor without it being too overpowering. Using a Chemisis with a Crown Atomizer from Flip Minds Project, 3/32" dual coil 8 wraps.


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/Hard-Fi announce...
Hard-Fi announce first live show in 8 years
Hard-Fi have announced their first live show in eight years.
The 'Hard to Beat' hitmakers' original line-up – comprising Richard Archer, Steve Kemp, Kai Stephens and Ross Phillips – will reunite to play the O2 Forum Kentish Town in London on October 1.
The indie rockers last performed together in 2014, when they released the 'Hard-Fi: Best Of 2004-2014' greatest hits LP.
What's more, the band hinted new music is on the way.
Frontman Richard, 45, said: "It's fair to say it's been a while since we've all played together so we're all really excited to be getting on stage again and seeing some of our incredible fans.
"It's a Saturday night so hopefully we can recapture the spirit of those gigs back in the day. We may even throw out one or two new numbers into the mix. The Forum is one the classic venues to play, so it's going to be a special night for everyone."
Support will come from Roots Manuva and Deemas i collaborator, Wrong Tom, set to hit the decks.
Hard-Fi will also put on a livestream concert on Facebook on Thursday evening (28.04.22).
The lead singer told fans on Facebook Live: "Any of you who have tuned in to any of our previous livestream attempts will know they've always been a slight, complete balls-up, but generally fairly entertaining hopefully.
"So next Thursday we're gonna do a full band from our Cherry Lips studio, livestream it, 9pm.
"We're gonna play three or four numbers, maybe. Hopefully we can remember all the chords, hopefully I can remember all the words."
Richard performed a solo livestream charity gig in lockdown and sparked speculation the group could get back together when he performed their acclaimed LP 'Stars Of CCTV' in full.
Hard-Fi formed in 2003 and had hits with 'Hard to Beat', 'Living for the Weekend' and 'Cash Machine'.
Their 2005 debut album, 'Stars Of CCTV', was nominated for the Mercury Prize.
The record did not reach No1 on the UK Albums Chart until six months later, in January 2006.
The band's second album, 'Once Upon a Time in the West', shot straight to No1 in the first week of its release.
Tickets for the standalone show will go on general sale this Friday (29.04.22) at 10am via myticket.co.uk/artists/hard-fi.


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Honeywell Adapts Satellite Technology for Portable Water Monitoring Tool
For Honeywell, when it comes to spectrometer sensor technology, space is not the final frontier. In the past, its aerospace division engineered sophisticated instruments for scientists to measure the reflected sunlight of a planet, and determine the concentrations and flow of carbon dioxide and methane gas pollution in the earth's atmosphere. The company's space programs have also spun off into other applications, such as exactEarth – a satellite data service that tracks maritime vessels globally for the purposes of traffic management, safety, pollution, and security.
In recent years, the company has begun utilizing the technology for conservation efforts. As Dr. Ian D'Souza, a scientist working in R&D at Honeywell's Cambridge, Ontario site explains, "Honeywell is investigating how its space sensor instrumentation can be adapted to help in the effort to save critical environmental resources here on Earth."
Where the satellite instruments have enabled the company to study the earth's atmosphere, track forest fires, measure the magnetic field due to currents in the earth's ionosphere, and even transmit broadcasts to the NASA Casinni spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, the SOWC's Advancing Water Technologies (AWT) program will support Honeywell's extensive pilot development to adapt its Raman laser spectroscopy hardware for water pollution monitoring.
The AWT program connects businesses in Ontario with academic experts to develop and demonstrate water technologies for successful introduction to the market. For this project, SOWC paired Honeywell with Dr. Elodie Passeport, an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Toronto. The $100,000 in AWT funding will allow Passeport to support a research postdoctoral student, lab consumables, as well as specialized equipment toward overseeing pilot testing of the modified spectrometer.
Using space technology that incorporates miniaturized optical waveguide technology to develop a light and portable handheld device, Honeywell reduced the overall size of the sensor. "A typical spectrometer is ubiquitous on satellites and Mars rover vehicles for activities such as studying rocks and minerals," D'Souza says. "But large format spectrometers are ill-suited for the type of field work activities related to on-site water monitoring that might require portability."
Another water-specific modification is the technology's laser functionality. "Since water does not emit light, you must fire a laser at it and analyze the resulting emitted light spectrum," D'Souza says. "The wavelengths vary depending on chemical composition."
The instrument's sensor has exceptional sensitivity. "Honeywell's technology is sensitive from the visible to ultraviolet wavelength range, which is a major advantage," Passeport says. "Our pilot testing will initially screen for nitrate and phosphate – nutrients that in particular contribute to eutrophication, which can generate the development of harmful algal blooms in rivers and lakes."
For Passeport, a secondary benefit of the added laser is that it overcomes the need to immerse the sensor in water. "Current sensors need submersion to work, which requires frequent cleaning," she says. "Contact with bacteria in the water causes viscous film buildup to appear over time, which can negatively affect the sensor's accuracy."
As well, for wastewater treatment plants and environmental operators, one of the more enticing aspects of the tool will be its capacity for continuous monitoring.
"Typically, a user must bring back water samples to a lab for analysis," D'Souza says. "However, this method is impractical because it incurs massive gaps in data analysis, which is especially detrimental in the context of an inclement event such as a rainstorm where chemical composition can change swiftly."
The glass plate in the centre of this image is a new innovative high resolution Raman micro-spectrometer under test at Honeywell. Copyright: Honeywell
The AWT-funded pilot testing of these features is still in the early stages. The first phase will be to establish a clear signal for nitrate and phosphate since the sensor will also capture background pollutants and other variables. "The laser excites everything in the water, so you have to decompose the spectrum to determine the sum of each variable being shown in the feedback," D'Souza says.
"The first step is to test the sensor in a controlled lab setting testing for seawater, wastewater, wetland water scenarios, and other types of water," Passeport says. "Once the sensor has been tested and validated, the next stage of the pilot is to test it out in the field at the Ashbridges Bay wastewater treatment plant in Toronto."
If detection for simple chemical compounds such as nitrate and phosphate proves successful, the trials will be used as a baseline for other types of contaminants.
"The laser functionality of the spectrometer has the potential to detect chemicals such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products," Passeport says. "These emerging contaminants can disrupt the endocrine production of hormones, and therefore pose a notable risk to human and ecosystem health."
D'Souza says that he is thrilled with the collaboration so far and grateful for SOWC's involvement.
"Honeywell (previously COM DEV Ltd.) has had a longstanding relationship with SOWC, who has helped introduce us to key groups in the Canadian water community and allowed us to gain sector traction," he says. "As well, the AWT program is an excellent way to bring together academia and industry. Everyone benefits: the company gets to leverage lab expertise toward developing an end product; the university gets to hire a postdoctoral fellow to carry out research."
Passeport shares Honeywell's sentiment on SOWC's matchmaking. "Our team expressed interest in applying to the AWT program more than a year ago, so when Honeywell was in search of an academic partner, SOWC identified a right fit between the University of Toronto lab and the monitoring prototype being developed," she says.
"Personally, this AWT project gave me the opportunity to work with a new industry partner that I may not have had access to otherwise," Passeport says. "Plus, this project is taking my research in new directions: While I have worked with passive samplers for collecting water, this is the first time my lab will be working with on-site continuous monitoring sensors, which my team and I are very excited about."
Beyond the scope of current funding, a future pilot may test whether the spectrometer can detect plastic such as microbeads in water samples. D'Souza says that the goal is to figure out global applications and projects beyond Canadian borders.
Robert Nyman2019-05-28T18:03:34+00:00June 23rd, 2017|Features|


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Q: How to disable logging sql to particular query in rails This is what I have found out from another SO Answer Disable Rails SQL logging in console
ActiveRecord::Base.logger.silence do
  User.where(auth_token: request.headers['X-AUTH']).first
end

But the method seems to be deprecated. Is there any latest way to silence the logs for queries in a block?

A: The warning you're seeing here states:

Method deprecated or moved

This looks like a case of "or moved" :)
Within the warning block it mentions the locations of similar methods, including LoggerSilence#silence.
That module contains a silence method and is now included in the ActiveSupport::Logger class, which will handle it as you need.
Hope that helps here!

A: In Rails 6 I use the following to prevent a query log of a token:
def authenticate_user
  Rails.logger.info "Authenticating user..."
  Rails.logger.silence do
    @current_user ||= User.find_by(token: token)
  end
end

I couple this with adding the token to:
config/initializers/filter_parameter_logging.rb


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Tchouameni shuts down Benzema discord speculation as France seal World Cup progress
Aurelien Tchouameni has rubbished suggestions the France squad is a more harmonious place without Karim Benzema after reaching the World Cup knockout rounds.
Didier Deschamps' side are into the last 16 at Qatar 2022 after victory over Denmark in Group D, with Kylian Mbappe's double firing Les Bleus to a 2-1 win on Saturday.
The attacker has delivered for his side so far in the absence of Benzema, with the Ballon d'Or winner ruled out on the eve of the tournament with a thigh injury.
Some reports have suggested there has been a better atmosphere in the absence of the Real Madrid star, who was not involved at Russia 2018, but Tchouameni has now sought to dispel those rumours.
"I want to come back to something we saw concerning the departure of Karim," Tchouameni stated about his club and international team-mate.
"[Somewhere said] we have felt better since he was no longer here.
"It's totally false. Even when he was there, it was already going well. We have been hurt by these reports.
"What I can tell you is that since we arrived in Qatar, things have been going really well."
Here's how things look in Group D after two games played!#FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022
With two games under his belt, Tchouameni is fast becoming an integral member for Deschamps in his side's title defence, with France boosted too by the return of defender Raphael Varane.
The Manchester United centre-back has been nursing a problem since late October, but made his return to action with a start against Denmark.
Reflecting on his injury, Varane added: "I've come a long way. It's been a lot of work, a lot of effort to come back.
"I feel good. It's always special to play at this exceptional event. I'll take advantage of every moment. We will do everything to go as far as possible."
France will conclude their Group D campaign against Tunisia on November 30, and will discover their last-16 opponents later that day when Group C concludes.
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