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Vujović reinforces reform agenda as Serbia's star rises
Following much needed but long delayed reforms, Serbia is turning its economy round and attracting foreign investment at an unprecedented rate. But can the Balkan country keep up the momentum? GlobalMarkets talks to Serbia's finance minister Dušan Vujović about the next challenges, including fiscal consolidation, trade blocs and EU accession
By Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker
GlobalMarkets/Elliott Lee
In his 3-1⁄2 years in office, Serbian finance minister Dušan Vujović has overseen a remarkable turnaround in the country's prospects.
When he took on the role in mid-2014, Serbia's economy was in freefall. After a shallow recovery in 2012, GDP was shrinking again. The fiscal deficit was tipped to reach 8.8% of GDP, the current account deficit was in double digits and the debt to GDP ratio was rising at the fastest rate in the recent history.
Three years on, the picture looks very different. GDP growth resumed in 2015 and reached 2.8% in 2016. The fiscal deficit was slashed to just 1.3% of GDP last year while the primary budget was in surplus for the first time in more than 10 years. As a result, debt to GDP peaked at 74% last year and is now down to less than 64%.
"I am very proud of the fiscal and the overall macroeconomic results achieved during the past three years of reforms, especially when viewed against the starting position," says Vujović.
Serbia's achievements have been recognised by international rating agencies. In December, Standard & Poor's upgraded the outlook on the country's sovereign rating to positive. Then in March, Moody's upgraded its rating to Ba3, bringing it into line with S&P and Fitch.
Both agencies cited Serbia's impressive fiscal consolidation and improved growth outlook as the main drivers for their actions.
Analysts at Euromoney Country Risk say further ratings upgrades may be imminent. An ECR survey of Serbia experts in July showed that all five of the economic risk indicators measured had been upgraded over the previous 15 months. Overall, Serbia rose eight places to 76th in ECR's country ranking during the period.
Serbia has also jumped in the World Bank's Doing Business rankings, moving up 16 places to 47th over the past two years thanks to a clutch of reforms designed to improve the operating environment.
A key component of this impressive recovery was the approval of a new €1.2bn three year credit facility by the IMF in February 2015. Vujović, one of the leading architects of the programme, says it was critical to the country's recent economic success.
"IMF support was essential not only in forging commitment to a specific set of detailed macro-stability and structural objectives but also in specifying and observing structural benchmarks and constraints — especially expenditure ceilings," he tells GlobalMarkets.
Life after the IMF
With the IMF programme expiring early next year, however, some analysts are questioning whether the recent pace of reform in Serbia will be maintained. Vujović says he is "reasonably confident" but cautions that sustainability issues often loom large in transition economies.
"Serbia is no exception given its late start of reforms and the perceived and real weak ownership of reforms," he says. "It is therefore critical to complete structural reforms in public administration, the financial sector and state-owned companies."
Under the leadership of Alexander Vu˘ci´c, who was elected president in May after three years as prime minister, Serbia's government has promised to accelerate progress on a raft of much needed institutional reforms.
These include moves to improve public and private sector governance, strengthen the rule of law — especially in relation to creditor rights and contract enforcement — and reduce persistently high non-performing loan (NPL) ratios. Policymakers are also backing initiatives to make the tax system more transparent and predictable.
Foreign direct investors are already convinced. Serbia attracted $2.3bn of inflows in each of the past two years and is a world leader in greenfield investment. In 2016, the number of new projects in the country reached 89, with manufacturing — mainly of electronic and automotive components — seeing the most interest from overseas firms.
Vujović warns that the level and efficiency of both public and private investment needs to increase further, however, if Serbia is to achieve higher sustained GDP dynamics and convergence in incomes and standards of living with the EU and its regional peers.
"More money for investment will not be enough if we do not continue to remove barriers to economic growth," he says.
Balkan trade bloc
He is also a proponent of regional integration. In March, the EU's neighbourhood policy and enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, floated the idea of a common market for the western Balkans. The proposed grouping would include Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania as well as Serbia and would have a combined GDP of $88bn.
"The countries of the western Balkans already trade a lot," he says. "Deepening this to a common market concept makes a lot of economic sense. It will expand trade flows to free movement of capital and people, foster technological and managerial synergies and enhance the competitiveness of the region in external markets."
He adds that the introduction of a common market would also lower or eliminate protection barriers. "It would thus better prepare the western Balkan states for eventual EU accession," he says.
Questions have been raised over whether Serbia will be able to achieve EU membership in the near future, given the dwindling appetite for enlargement in many member states and the reluctance of policymakers in Serbia to address the question of Kosovo's status.
Vujović insists that, if Serbia continues to open new policy chapters, the accession process could realistically be completed by 2022. He admits, however, that this may not be achievable. "This would be a straight engaging path to EU membership," he says. "In real life, burdened with politics and complex game plans, it is not always obvious that honest and straight strategies prevail."
He notes, however, that the EU accession process is valuable in itself. "I see it as a test of our ability to get our institutions and policies right," he says. "Although every country should do most of these improvements for their own benefit, EU membership as the final step in this process is important as a credible signal, a tangible target."
Opaque SOEs
One of the most intractable challenges facing reformers in recent years has been the restructuring of Serbia's state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Opaque and unprofitable, many of these have been a constant drain on the public finances but have been able to muster powerful backing to resist change.
Progress is now being made, however, thanks in part to the IMF, which made the sale of these firms a key plank of its programme for Serbia although the country has a mixed record on privatisation. Attempts to sell Telekom Srbija have twice been called off late in the process to the frustration of bankers and investors.
Policymakers insist, however, that this time promised disposals will go ahead. Vujović notes that a handful of large SOEs — mostly in the metals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors — are now approaching the final stages of privatisation and restructuring.
"Most of them will likely find strategic buyers and restore competitiveness in the domestic and export markets through management and production restructuring," he says. "If needed, we have adequate budget resources to cover severance payments and retraining programmes."
The deal that is likely to attract the most interest from Serbia watchers over the next six months, however, is the sale of Komercijalna Banka. The country's number two lender has been radically modernised and overhauled over the past 18 months by new CEO Alexander Picker in preparation for privatisation.
An agreement between the shareholders, which include the EBRD and IFC as well as the Serbian state, calls for the sale process to begin this year and be completed in 2018. According to Vujović, the formal privatisation process will likely be resumed this month (October).
Some M&A specialists have been sceptical of the likely extent of demand for Komercijalna, noting that Serbia is not seen as a strategic market by the big regional banking groups, most of which are in any case still in defensive mode. Interest has, however, reportedly been expressed by a number of private equity firms.
Vujović says Komercijalna has "obvious upside potential" both in the domestic market and the wider region. He notes that Serbia's relatively fragmented banking market — 30 lenders currently serve a population of just seven million — offers good opportunities for consolidation.
"Regionally, Komercijalna can potentially develop a much stronger footprint in most western Balkan countries and effectively compete for a significant portion of the trade finance currently supported by large EU banks," he adds.
China eyes Serbia as key Belt & Road link
For a small country, Serbia has proved remarkably adept at attracting capital from one of the world's economic superpowers. Since 2010, China has provided nearly $2bn of funding for infrastructure projects in Serbia, including motorways, a coal-fired power plant and a new bridge over the Danube.
An already close relationship between the two governments was deepened following the announcement by President Xi Jinping in late 2013 of plans to create a new Silk Road for trade between China and Europe.
As well as several overland routes, the Belt & Road Initiative is also due to include one that combines maritime and rail transport. The Land Sea Express Route will see cargo shipped to Greece by sea and then travel by train through the Balkans to Hungary and then on to western Europe. An initial shipment of Chinese furniture made the journey in January in a blaze of publicity.ON
Serbia's central position on this route combined with policymakers' early embrace of Belt & Road has enhanced the country's appeal for China. Last year, Chinese state-owned group Hesteel bought the Smederevo steel plant from the Serbian government, which had been forced to nationalise the loss-making facility in 2012.
In January, Bank of China opened its first Balkan branch in Belgrade. Then in May, at the Belt & Road Forum in Beijing, Serbian transport minister Zorana Mihajlovic signed contracts worth $3bn for a clutch of new road projects including a motorway that will link Belgrade to the port of Bar in Montenegro.
Whether Serbia's more important Belt & Road projects will come to fruition, however, is open to question. Work on a $2.9bn high-speed rail link between Belgrade and Budapest, which began in 2015, was halted this year following reports that the European Commission was investigating whether the Hungarian government had violated EU laws in awarding the contract to a Chinese firm.


text:
Jim Rohn
 Pascal Rohn
Patronyme anglais

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The Obama Administration Allows Religious Groups To Opt Out Of Contraception Coverage
Feb. 1, 2013, 12:04 PM
In a reversal of policy, the Obama administration plans to allow religious institutions the ability to opt out of providing employees insurance coverage for contraceptives.
CNN first reported, citing two sources in the administration, that the Obama administration will now allow religious institutions to opt out of coverage on moral grounds. White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed the changes on Friday but said they did not mean that the administration's initial rules were an overreach.
The new policy will still require most employers to cover contraception in their employees' healthcare plans. But the new rules would exempt institutions that fit a definition of a "religious institution."
Here are HHS' four criteria for meeting that definition:
opposes providing coverage for some or all of any contraceptive services required to be covered under Section 2713 of the PHS Act, on account of religious objections;
is organized and operates as a nonprofit entity;
holds itself out as a religious organization; and
self-certifies that it meets these criteria and specifies the contraceptive services for which it objects to providing coverage.
Employees at religious institutions could still receive contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies, without cost sharing or additional premiums.
The change comes about a year after the administration incurred a firestorm over the policy that mandated religious groups to cover contraceptives in their insurance plans as part of the Affordable Care Act. The Catholic Church took particular public exception to the rule, saying it violated their religious beliefs. In May, 43 Catholic organizations challenged the rules in federal court.
More: White House Barack Obama Catholic Church Obamacare

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Penrose interpretation is a speculation by Roger Penrose about the relationship between quantum mechanics  and general relativity. Penrose proposes that a quantum state remains in superposition until the difference of space-time curvature attains a significant level.

Overview
Penrose's idea is inspired by quantum gravity, because it uses both the physical constants  and . It is an alternative to the Copenhagen interpretation, which posits that superposition fails when an observation is made (but that it is non-objective in nature), and the many-worlds interpretation, which states that alternative outcomes of a superposition are equally "real", while their mutual decoherence precludes subsequent observable interactions.

Penrose's idea is a type of objective collapse theory. For these theories, the wavefunction is a physical wave, which experiences wave function collapse as a physical process, with observers not having any special role. Penrose theorises that the wave function cannot be sustained in superposition beyond a certain energy difference between the quantum states. He gives an approximate value for this difference: a Planck mass worth of matter, which he calls the "'one-graviton' level". He then hypothesizes that this energy difference causes the wave function to collapse to a single state, with a probability based on its amplitude in the original wave function, a procedure derived from standard quantum mechanics. Penrose's "'one-graviton' level" criterion forms the basis of his prediction, providing an objective criterion for wave function collapse. Despite the difficulties of specifying this in a rigorous way, he proposes that the basis states into which the collapse takes place are mathematically described by the stationary solutions of the Schrödinger–Newton equation.
Recent work indicates an increasingly deep inter-relation between quantum mechanics and gravitation.

Physical consequences
Accepting that wavefunctions are physically real, Penrose believes that matter can exist in more than one place at one time. In his opinion, a macroscopic system, like a human being, cannot exist in more than one place for a measurable time, as the corresponding energy difference is very large. A microscopic system, like an electron, can exist in more than one location significantly longer (thousands of years), until its space-time curvature separation reaches collapse threshold.

In Einstein's theory, any object that has mass causes a warp in the structure of space and time around it. This warping produces the effect we experience as gravity. Penrose points out that tiny objects, such as dust specks, atoms and electrons, produce space-time warps as well. Ignoring these warps is where most physicists go awry. If a dust speck is in two locations at the same time, each one should create its own distortions in space-time, yielding two superposed gravitational fields. According to Penrose's theory, it takes energy to sustain these dual fields. The stability of a system depends on the amount of energy involved: the higher the energy required to sustain a system, the less stable it is. Over time, an unstable system tends to settle back to its simplest, lowest-energy state: in this case, one object in one location producing one gravitational field. If Penrose is right, gravity yanks objects back into a single location, without any need to invoke observers or parallel universes.

Penrose speculates that the transition between macroscopic and quantum states begins at the scale of dust particles (the mass of which is close to a Planck mass). He has proposed an experiment to test this theory, called FELIX (free-orbit experiment with laser interferometry X-rays), in which an X-ray laser in space is directed toward a tiny mirror and fissioned by a beam splitter from tens of thousands of miles away, with which the photons are directed toward other mirrors and reflected back. One photon will strike the tiny mirror while moving to another mirror and move the tiny mirror back as it returns, and according to conventional quantum theories, the tiny mirror can exist in superposition for a significant period of time. This would prevent any photons from reaching the detector. If Penrose's hypothesis is correct, the mirror's superposition will collapse to one location in about a second, allowing half the photons to reach the detector.

However, because this experiment would be difficult to arrange, a table-top version that uses optical cavities to trap the photons long enough for achieving the desired delay has been proposed instead.

See also
 Diósi–Penrose model
 Interpretations of quantum mechanics
 Orchestrated objective reduction
 Gravitational decoherence
 Schrödinger–Newton equation
 Stochastic quantum mechanics

Relevant books by Roger Penrose
 The Emperor's New Mind
 The Road to Reality
 Shadows of the Mind

References

External links
 Molecules – Quantum Interpretations
 QM – the Penrose Interpretation (defunct?)
 Roger Penrose discusses his experiment on the BBC (25 minutes in)

Quantum measurement
Interpretations of quantum mechanics


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Behind North Korea Lurks Iran, China, Russia, and All Militant Islam
Larry Kelley August 9, 2017
Over the weekend, the United Nations Security Council, including Russia and China, voted unanimously to impose major economic sanctions on North Korea.
Our ambassador Nikki Haley, who headed up the effort to draft the resolution, stated that it was the single largest economic package ever leveled against North Korea.
But it's only a vote in the UN. Today our enemies are many and diverse, composed of Asian dictators and stateless Muslim terrorists. And they are unified in their long-sought goal of conquering the West. Has this suddenly changed?
The Quran, Surah 9, Verses 14-15, still reads: "Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people and remove the fury in the believers' hearts."
A recent study headed up by German Chancellor, Christian Pfeiffer, conducted in-depth interviews with 45,000 Muslim respondents, investigating how reading the Quran influenced people.
The interviews unmistakably revealed that Islam is the only religion that makes people more prone to violence the more pious they become.
Last week, the national daily German newspaper Die Welt reported a list of 173 ISIS assassins poised to strike in Europe was discovered in the terror group's now-liberated stronghold in Mosul, Iraq.
The document includes names, photos and country of origin of the jihadists.
In April, then-Homeland Security Secretary, John Kelly, said the FBI was facing its "highest terror threat in years," causing the FBI to launch investigations in all 50 states.
"The threat to our nation and our American way of life has not diminished," he said in a speech at George Washington University.
"In fact, the threat has metastasized and decentralized."
He went on to say that there have been 36 cases of homegrown terrorists in 18 states over the past year and characterized the radicalization of Americans "notoriously difficult to predict and control."
But what does all this have to do with the UN sanctions against North Korea? To quote the term used by Kelly, now Trump's Chief of Staff, the war with resurgent militant Islam is not being won; it has metastasized, spread to many other places and formed alliances with larger powers.
Although ISIS has been largely eradicated in Iraq, militant Islam, both Shiite and Sunni versions, have now become pillars of the "new Axis of Evil."
What Is the New Axis of Evil?
In my new book, Lessons from Fallen Civilizations, Vol II, I explain that the New Axis of Evil is composed of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
All four are rabidly anti-US, anti-Western dictatorships, with many interlocking alliances, and all support one or both branches of militant Islam, Sunni and Shiite.
For example, Iranian and North Korean scientists work closely together in their joint development and proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
When North Korea tests a new weapon, such as its new intercontinental ballistic missile now deemed capable of reaching the United States, teams of Iranian scientists are present to witness and study the launch.
China supports North Korea with massive favorable trade agreements and thereby props up the nuclearized rogue regime in its play to rid the Eastern Pacific of US presence and alliances.
This it does with a goal to gain hegemony over the region.
Russia sells advanced weaponry to Iran including anti-aircraft technologies designed to take out Israeli and American fighter planes, should they launch a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Shiite Iran and Russia are also supplying weapons, money, and troop support to Assad's pro-Shiite regime, in their bid to push the US and the West out of the Middle East, and in their quest gain dominance over that region.
Russia funds and otherwise supports the Sunni Taliban and elements of ISIS and al Qaeda in their proxy war to topple the US- backed, legitimate government of Afghanistan.
In my first book, Lessons from Fallen Civilizations, Vol I, I report on an Iranian defector, Hamid Reza Zakeri, on July 26, 2001, walked into our embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan and told the receptionist he wanted to speak to the CIA because he had some information related to the security of the United States.
(Excerpt) Zakeri had been a high-level security official at Iran's Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) headquarters where he observed "Arabs" training pilots and briefing on their appointed targets. He even described seeing models "in the meeting room of the World Trade Center, the White House and the Pentagon. He told the Station Chief, "Joan," that the Arab pilots had already left for America and that the date for the attacks was 9/11/01." Joan called for backup. Several days later, a senior CIA officer, "George," arrived from Headquarters to debrief the "Baku walk in." He immediately decided that Zakeri was peddling lies, paid him $200, and told him to get out.
Much of the massive intel obtained in the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, remains classified.
But among the small pieces of information that have leaked out are conclusive evidence that the Shiite theocrats running Iran have long supported, harbored, and plotted with the Sunni terrorists of Al Qaida and the Taliban.
They are known to be the world's leading sponsor of Islamic terrorism due to hard evidence.
North Korea Today, Iran Tomorrow
Last week North Korea successfully launched its first ballistic missile potentially capable of hitting America's East Coast. It was perhaps the official repudiation of twenty-five years of American appeasement aimed at North Korea. It proved that a small but dedicated rogue nation can pocket diplomatic bribes and weather periods of half-hearted economic sanctions and eventually emerge as a real threat to the world's super power.
It proved that a small but dedicated rogue nation can pocket diplomatic bribes and weather periods of half-hearted economic sanctions and eventually emerge as a real threat to the world's super power.
For Trump's national security team, especially those who still support the 2015 Iran deal, this should be a dose of reality. Iran's close and long cooperation with North Korea, its support from Russia and China and billions of now unfrozen assets associated the Iran deal make the Iranian threat as nearly imminent as North Korea's. Despite the vote at the United Nations, it seems highly doubtful that the goals and aspirations embraced by the Axis of Evil have changed.
Iran's close and long cooperation with North Korea, its support from Russia and China and billions of now unfrozen assets associated the Iran deal make the Iranian threat as nearly imminent as North Korea's. Despite the vote at the United Nations, it seems highly doubtful that the goals and aspirations embraced by the Axis of Evil have changed.
Despite the vote at the United Nations, it seems highly doubtful that the goals and aspirations embraced by the Axis of Evil have changed.
Article posted with permission from Larry Kelley
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Larry Kelley
With his unique historical perspective and laser-targeted focus on militant Islam and the dangers of western complacency, Larry Kelley ignites insightful and thought-provoking conversations for US citizens who are concerned about America's future. Larry is the author of Lessons from Fallen Civilizations.
Throughout his career as a political commentary writer, Larry Kelley's work has been featured on the cover of Townhall Magazine and has also been published in the Piedmont Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Human Events.
Larry Kelley regularly presents his political perspectives on various talk show radio programs, publishes his own political column titled, News From the Front and authored the book, Lessons From Fallen Civilizations.
Learn more about Larry Kelley at LarryKelley.com.


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Access Bank 2022 Entry-level Graduate Program for Young Nigerian Graduates
Udacity/Access Bank 2021-2022 Advance Africa Scholarship Program
Udacity is collaborating with Access Bank, a multinational commercial bank, to empower people in Africa who are interested in learning tech-forward skills to kick-start careers in the banking industry in 2021-2022.
They are proud to provide hands-on learning opportunities in fields such as Business Analytics, Programming, Data Science, Product Management and Digital Marketing. Scholarship recipients will complete a portfolio of real-world projects that demonstrate mastery of highly sought-after tech skills.
Udacity and Access Bank are committed to closing the divide between the number of tech jobs available and the number of Africans working in tech by providing opportunities to those who would not otherwise have them. That starts with ensuring a robust pipeline of trained, talented tech professionals. Together, they are offering:
2,000 Nanodegree program scholarships for Africans to build practical, in-demand, cutting-edge tech skills.
Engagement with classmates in a robust, actively managed, student community.
Subject matter experts and on-demand tutors.
The scholarship will create upskilling opportunities for individuals and give them the skills needed in the digital world. In fact, the tech industry comprises some of the highest growth, most in-demand careers today.
About Access Bank PLC
Udacity/Access Bank Advance Africa Scholarship Program
Aim and Benefits of Udacity/Access Bank Advance Africa Scholarship Program
Requirements for Udacity/Access Bank Advance Africa Scholarship Program Qualification
Interview date, Process and Venue for Udacity/Access Bank Advance Africa Scholarship Program
Access Bank Plc is a financial institution with presence in 9 countries in Africa and the United Kingdom and in all major cities in Nigeria. Also referred to as the Africa's Bank of Best Practise, Access Bank operates on a platform of strong ethics, governance and professionalism.
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Application Deadline December 29, 2021
The program is completely free to all scholarship recipients. Access Bank covers the costs.
Anyone 20 years of age and above is encouraged to apply.
Scholarship recipients should be prepared to invest about 5–10 hours per week during the Nanodegree programs.
STEM graduate or demonstrated evidence of strong interest in pursuing IT and Digital career.
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Must give pre-consent during application for Udacity to share data with the bank.
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Applications Accepted: December 1, 2021 - December 29, 2021
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Interested and qualified? Go to Access Bank PLC on emc.udacity.com to apply
For more details,visit Udacity/Access Bank website
Advance Africa Scholarship Program scholarships
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The guy, who looked like the mashed version of the British bulldog,
was pursued by the Politically Correct government of British Columbia
for his supposedly Nazi-like thoughts about Jews.
FREEDOM FIGHTER DIES
He felt Schindler's List should be called Swindler's List.
Truth seekers and freedom fighters of the world lost someone from their ranks just recently. Doug Collins may not have been well-known other than in some parts of Canada, but to thousands of people he was a giant of a man. The best comment I heard said about him, after his death on Sunday, September 30th, 2001 was:
"He was a man of real courage in a nation of wimps."
Since he died last month I've been looking to read a decent obituary but the mainstream press (to whom he was well known) glossed over his death and if they said anything at all it was derisive.
But finally today I read a moving and emotional obituary in Canada's version of TIME magazine and attach it here for others to read.
The world becomes a lonelier place when great and courageous people leave us. In my opinion Mr Doug Collins was such a person. ~ Jackie Jura
DEATH OF A TRUE RADICAL
by Alan Fotheringham, MacLean's, Oct 15, 2001:
What's the old rule -- never speak ill of the dead? Surprising it is how people think that an outmoded treatise, something they are proud to defy, and the quicker the better. Doug Collins, the toughest man I ever met, died last week in Vancouver at 81. Before his body could even be moved to the grave, the Vancouver Sun -- his old paper he once adorned with fiery passion -- had a smug, sanctimonious editorial dumping on the corpse that was still warm: "Even when Mr. Collins was right, he was wrong, because all he did with his bellicose approach was stoke the unconstructive anger of his supporters." That is a most admirable logical leap, even for an editorial writer. Black is white. Right is actually wrong. Orwell would love it. It was a constant theme -- even Conrad Black admitted it didn't make sense in regard to Collins -- among the Politically Correct who decorated the final days of a complex guy whose whole life was about fighting for the freedom to say something that other people thought was wrong.
That Collins was a complex character would be an underestimate. I once, having hired him while he was in a bad patch, did not speak to him for 10 years. Until I figured the bullies, the new Politically Correct who now ruled the roost, were the most intolerant of all, those who could not abide a true radical who listened only to his own inner drum and didn't give a damn for those who disagreed. He had been through a mill that his opponents could never imagine. The guy, who looked like the mashed version of the British bulldog, is remembered in all the obits for being pursued by the Politically Correctness NDP (late) government of British Columbia for his supposedly Nazi-like thoughts about Jews. At his death, he was still hoping to overturn a $2,000 penalty handed him by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
The background? First, in May of 1940, the "miracle of Dunkirk," somehow, with the help of English tiny boats, getting more than 300,000 troops off that beach in France and saving the base of the British army that would invade Normandy four years later. Among those left behind on the beach was the teenage Doug Collins of the Second Gloucesters. As a prisoner of war, he was shipped off to a concentration camp in Poland, where he was instructed he would remain until the end of the war. Four months later, he escaped, headed for Russia. Caught, he was stripped naked to stand for 24 hours facing a wall, beaten by enraged guards. It was his 20th birthday. He was sent to work in a Silesian coal mine. He escaped, was sent to two different stalags, escaped and passed by a camp later known as Auschwitz. In all, he escaped from 10 Nazi PoW camps, well recorded in his memoir published in 1968. At the end of the war, he was in prison in Romania, as American B-24s rained bombs on him, actually aiming at the Ploesti oilfields.
After the war, being awarded a military medal, he spent time with the De-Nazification branch of the British Control Commission. This is a guy who sides with Nazis against Jews? Arriving at the Vancouver Sun, he was a ferocious left-wing British Labourite, standing up to editors with a panache that indicated they had never seen anyone with his guts. In a fight over principle, as usual, he left to become a ferocious host-interviewer with the CBC in Ottawa. The usual dispute arose there, he asked my help in rescuing "a broken-down hack" and I convinced the publisher of the Sun to rehire him. Alas, the experience with CBC bureaucracy had turned the passionate lefty into an even more passionate perceived "right-winger" who defended anyone who wanted to say anything. Having been there, he thought the Holocaust figure of "six million dead" an exaggeration. Thus, he felt Schindler's List should be called Swindler's List -- the same defiant tone of one who once stood on a German prison train screaming insults at passing Nazi troops, a crazy guy perhaps, but always defiant. The Western Jewish Bulletin backed his right to say what he thought -- even though they felt it "rubbish." The North Shore News, a thrice-weekly Vancouver suburban paper, ran Collins's increasingly controversial column for 14 years after he left the Sun -- and before firing him. Canadian Association for Free Expression director Paul Fromm asked Conrad Black, who once owned the paper, why his company was not supporting Collins's court appeal. Replied Black: "We considered the [human rights tribunal] ruling a suppression of speech. However, Collins is a rather disreputable person. It's a moral puzzle." It is indeed. Right is wrong. Black is white. That's why he was sacked. ~ Alan Fotheringham
HOLOCAUST DENIER DEPORTED ('Canada is a country where dissidents can be imprisoned for years without ever knowing why, just like in Stalin's days'). Canada East, Feb 28, 2005
GOLDSTEIN'S CONSPIRACY IN 1984 and ZIONISM IN AMERICA and TERROR BILL IS TERROR
27.Goodthink and 20.Thought Police and 7.Systems of Thought
Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~
email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
website: www.orwelltoday.com


Owning a pet is not an easy task. Monitoring the well-being of your dog is a big part of keeping your pal active and healthy. TailTale's product can do a combination of monitoring your dog's health, tracking its location, and even mounting a camera on him/her.
TailTale calls its product "a new multi-functional wearable tech product for dogs". It works as a normal harness with a few additional units mounted on it, including a GPS unit to track the location of the dog, an accelerometer to track your dog's activity level, a laser thermometer tracking the body temperature, and a heart rate sensor.
You can also mount a camera that will let you stream your dog's point of view on your phone.
The device itself has a sim card slot, so it connects to your smartphone via both WIFI and mobile networks. You can set an alarm if your dog moves outside of your designated area.
Upon testing the whole setup, the harness itself isn't restricting. The interior has a soft texture, but it could be difficult for dogs with shorter hair if the dog has to wear it for a long time.
TailTale designed the harness from size S and up, and they recommend to use the device for dogs over 22 pounds.
The device might also need a separate leash. There is a metal ring on the right side, but we don't recommend you put your leash in a position that would give an off-balanced feedback to your dog.
The trackers might be our favorite part of this product. The GPS track will allow you to set perimeter, and alert you if any unexpected activity occurs. The laser thermometer could be tremendously helpful for keeping your dog healthy. It will let you know your dog's body temperature is too high, so you can keep your dog hydrated and avoid heat strokes.
The accelerometer, on the other hand, could come up with data that are difficult to interpret. It tracks your dog's day to day activities, including the calories the dog burns and monitor the heart rate. So you can react when irregularity happens, and seek treatment for your dog in time.
However, there are a few variables that might affect how the owner should understand the data. If the dog doesn't wear the harness all the time, he or she could react to the product as a symbol of playing time, leading to a higher heart rate. The best data should be gathered when the dog is in a neutral state, but that would require the dog to wear the harness for an extended period of time.
While you won't get GoPro quality footage from the camera, but it is still nice to be able to take pictures and short videos, and watch your dog's action live on your phone.
The Tailtale also comes with an app. You can keep all the data on your phone, and even interact with other owners with its own app "PetConnect".
Overall, we can see, this is a helpful and fun tool to have. We feel like we've learned so much about our pet at the end of the day, including what excites him, and how active he is. But at the end of the day, your pal's well being is still always decided by the owners.
Motorcycle accident happens, and when it happens it usually carries severe casualties. It is crucial for the rider to have the safeguard of a helmet, and CrossHelmet did more than that.
Waste treatment plants, action sports, two things we never thought make sense in one sentence. For residents of Copenhagen, Denmark, however, this is exactly what is on their minds.


Replacing several high interest loans or credit cards with one consolidation loan can not only lower your monthly payments, but also save you money due to the lower interest rate on the new loan. Look at the rates you are paying on your unsecured debts, i. credit cards with a rate of between about 13% and over 35%. These are obvious replacement loan candidates. Auto loans and store credit cards are other loans that should be paid off.
If you can get a second mortgage or refinance your current first mortgage, use these funds to pay off these unsecured loans. You should be able to currently save several thousand dollars in interest payments alone. I am assuming a total loan amount above the home debt to be about $20,000. The other advantage to this plan is to reduce your monthly payments by a substantial amount. This also should allow you to gain a payment schedule that you can easily meet and even reduce quicker over time.
Make sure you can pay off this new loan with extra payments with no penalty. It is a good place to put some of that extra money you have each month. This idea also takes some solid research on your part. All banks and mortgage companies do not operate the same way. Also you want to find the best rate you can get for your debt structure. Look to these sources for your consolidation loan: Local banks, local mortgage brokers, and the newest provider for these loans, the internet loan providers. There are many companies fighting each other to make these loans to folks like you. Take advantage of your popularity. Sometimes, debt consolidation companies can discount the amount of the loan. The debt consolidator will buy the loan at a discount, usually when in danger of bankruptcy.
The wise debtor can easily shop around for consolidators who will pass along some of the savings. Consolidation usually affects the ability of the debtor to discharge debts in bankruptcy. It's prudent to weigh this decision rationally. Take your future in your own hands and make this happen for your financial health. Saving money and paying off your debts faster will open your life to a freedom you have not enjoyed for a long time. A family with minimum debts has eliminated a potential family problem and replaced it with freedom. Do your self a favor and become debt free.


text:
Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)
The market is segmented by Condition (Breast and Ovarian Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type – 2, Haemochromatosis), and Geography.
Home Industry Reports Healthcare Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, ...
The market for predictive and presymptomatic testing is expected to grow due to factors such as the increasing prevalence of genetic disorders, and increasing demand for genetic counseling.
According to the WHO, genetic counseling is the process of sharing knowledge about genetic aspects of illnesses by trained professionals to those who are at a risk, or to those having a genetic disorder. Additionally, genetic counseling can be done for increasing the overall awareness level of the public regarding the genetic basis of genetic and inherited disorders.
The Heredity Clinic was the first genetic counseling service center established in 1940, at the University of Michigan, the United States. Since then, many such centers have been opened around the world. Currently, genetic counselors work in many capacities besides the traditional setting of the hospital. They work in the fields of education, administration, policy-making, as well as for biotechnology companies as representatives.
Resource and technological advancements have enabled genetic counseling, to play a major role in the health care of many developed countries. Presently, its potential is being realized in less developed countries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS-US), the median pay for genetic counselors in 2017 was USD 77,480. Additionally, the job outlook for genetic counselors for the period 2016-2026 has been estimated to increase at a staggering growth rate of 29% by the BLS.
The increasing demand for genetic counseling is therefore expected to thrust the market for predictive and presymptomatic testing, as more people realize the importance of genetics in disease etiology. Therefore, the demand for genetic testing, in general, is expected to increase.
The predictive and presymptomatic test is a type of genetic test, which is used for detection of gene mutations for disorders that appear in later stages of life. Predictive and presymptomatic testing finds immense potential among people, who have a family member with a genetic disorder. This test is particularly effective when no features of the disorder are visible at the time of testing.
Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2
Haemochromatosis
Breast and Ovarian Cancer to Witness Highest CAGR in the Forecast Period
Cancer is not usually a genetic disorder, but some types of cancers, including breast, ovarian, colorectal, and prostate cancer, are strongly influenced by genes, thus passed on to the next generation. Presymptomatic DNA testing for autosomal dominant hereditary breast/ovarian cancer (HBOC) begun after the identification of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, in 1994-1995.
Healthy female mutation carriers of BRCA genes have a high lifetime risk for breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The carriers often opt for intensive breast and ovary surveillance or prophylactic surgery. BRCA genes are not the only cancer risk genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer. Researchers have identified more than 100 new gene variants associated with an increased risk of breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer. Individually, these new gene variants only slightly increase the risk of cancer, but a combination could translate to high overall risk.
Increasing prevalence of breast and ovarian cancer, globally, is a major driver for the use of predictive and presymptomatic tests for these cancers, as a conventional cancer treatment is non-effective in such cases and a pre-emptive mastectomy is the only available treatment for BRCA mediated breast and ovarian cancer. Over the forecast period, the market for predictive and presymptomatic testing of breast and ovarian cancer is expected to increase with a high growth.
North America Dominates the Market
In the United States, two federal agencies have the primary authority to regulate genetic tests: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
In the past, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also played a role in regulating genetic testing companies, which advertised false and misleading claims about their products, but this agency currently plays a more minor role in this space. According to breastcancer.org, as of 2019, the United States had a 12% prevalence rate among women for breast cancer. Additionally, according to the American Cancer Society, in 2019, about 22,530 women are expected to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Similarly, increasing prevalence can be observed in the United States for colorectal cancer. The increasing prevalence of multiple types of cancer is driving the predictive testing market in the United States.
Other diseases, like Alzheimer's and Haemochromatosis, have been shown to have a genetic basis of inheritance and the awareness among the US citizens regarding these discoveries is steadily increasing. Consequently, there is an overall increment in demand for predictive and presymptomatic testing in the region, which is expected to increase even further, during the forecast period.
The predictive and presymptomatic testing market is moderately competitive and is majorly comprised of the local players in different countries. Some of the global players such as 23andMe, Abbott Laboratories, Myriad Genetics hold a major share in the market. With the growing focus on genetic testing, it is expected that few small to mid-sized companies will penetrate the market in the near future.
Quest Diagnostics Inc.
Myriad Genetics
Positive Bioscience
1.1 Study Deliverables
4.2.1 Increasing Prevalence of Genetic Disorders
4.2.2 Increasing Demand for Genetic Counselling
4.3.1 High Cost of Tests
4.3.2 Ethical Issues in Predictive Testing
5.1 By Condition
5.1.1 Breast and Ovarian Cancer
5.1.2 Colorectal Cancer
5.1.3 Alzheimer's Disease
5.1.4 Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2
5.1.5 Haemochromatosis
5.2.2.5 Spain
5.2.3 Asia Pacific
5.2.3.4 Australia
5.2.4 Middle East and Africa
5.2.4.1 GCC
5.2.4.3 Rest of Middle East and Africa
6.1.1 23andMe
6.1.2 Abbott Laboratories Inc.
6.1.3 Quest Diagnostics Inc.
6.1.4 Positive Bioscience
6.1.5 Color Genomics
6.1.6 Gene by Gene
6.1.7 Mapmygenome
6.1.8 Myriad Genetics
**Competitive Landscape covers- Business Overview, Financials, Products and Strategies, and Recent Developments
The Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market market is studied from 2018 - 2026.
What is the growth rate of Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market?
The Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market is growing at a CAGR of 8.4% over the next 5 years.
Which region has highest growth rate in Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market?
Which region has largest share in Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market?
Who are the key players in Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market?
23andMe, Abbott Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Inc., Myriad Genetics, Positive Bioscience are the major companies operating in Predictive and Presymptomatic Testing Market.
Asia-Pacific Genetic Testing Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)
Europe Genetic Testing Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)
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North-America Genetic Testing Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)
Tissue Diagnostics Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)


text:
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Where do the Los Angeles Lakers play basketball?
Staples Center, officially stylized as STAPLES Center, is a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Los Angeles and is the home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999. Staples Center is also host to over 250 events and nearly 4 million guests each year. It is the only arena in the NBA shared by two teams, as well as one of only two North American professional sports venues to host two teams from the same league; MetLife Stadium, the home of the National Football League's New York Giants and New York Jets, is the other. Staples Center is the venue of the Grammy Awards ceremony and will host the basketball competition during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
NBA Arenas
Finding out where the Los Angeles Lakers play basketball is important when planning your sports trip. Depending on the time of the year and what other Los Angeles sports teams are in town, you might be able to see multiple sports events when planning your vacation. Elite Sports Tours can not only help you figure out where the Los Angeles Lakers play basketball, but where the other teams in Los Angeles play also.
Los Angeles Travel Packages
Although it has long been associated with the film industry, Los Angeles is home to some of the most storied franchises in professional sports history. This makes visiting Los Angeles a must for any sports fan!
Los Angeles is home to at least one team in all four major North American sports leagues - the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL), the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Los Angeles Lakers Travel Packages
Plan your basketball road trip to Los Angeles today. Elite Sports Tours has hotel partners close to STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. Our team can help you plan the perfect basketball trip to Los Angeles to see the Los Angeles Lakers play live. Our team will help provide all the best recommendations on where to stay in Los Angeles for a basketball game, where to sit at STAPLES Center and some local restaurants worth checking out. Explore Los Angeles and cross STAPLES Center off the bucket list.
Work with our sports travel experts for the best Los Angeles Lakers Vacation Packages.
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Los Angeles Lakers FAQ
Staples Center, officially stylized as STAPLES Center, is a multi-purpose arena in Downtown Los Angeles and is the home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL).
What is the capacity of the STAPLES Center?
STAPLES Center has a capacity for basketball of 18,104 people.
Where to stay for an Los Angeles Lakers Game?
Elite Sports Tours has hotel packages with game tickets to see the Los Angeles Lakers at home or away. Los Angeles Lakers Travel Packages with hotel accommodations close to the arena.
When did the STAPLES Center Open?
The STAPLES Center opened on October 17, 1999. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street.
When did the Los Angeles Lakers join the NBA?
The Los Angeles Lakers were originally founded in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League (NBL).
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text:
Wordbound
Child writers break into print.
By Ann Hulbert
J.K. Rowling has been credited with getting a generation of kids (even boys!) to become more enthusiastic readers, but has anyone remarked on her other feat? The catalyst of a fantasy renaissance, she's the unmistakable force behind a boomlet in precociously youthful (and successful) writers. This year a teenage word-wizard has overtaken Harry Potter on the New York Times children's books best-seller list: Christopher Paolini's epic-fantasy Eragon, written when he was 15, is now in the top spot. Meanwhile, Flavia Bujor's The Prophecy of the Stones—a best-seller in France and Germany in 2002, the year she turned 14—has been sold to 20 publishers; one of them is Miramax, which printed 65,000 copies in April. Last month, the national media covered the death at 13 of one of America's best-selling poets—an invalid named Mattie Stepanek, who broke into print at 11 with fanciful meditations on his dead brother, angel-wings, hope, peace, and other "special things," work he'd been composing since he was three. His five Heartsongs volumes have sold more than half a million copies, and his funeral was packed.
In the realm of child prodigies, young writers have historically been a source of special curiosity. That's not just because they're a rarity in the ranks of recognized child marvels, though they are; they're easily outnumbered by whizzes in the more formally structured fields of music, math, chess, and now computers, where clear levels of expertise and standards of excellence prevail (and life experience isn't crucial). It's also because, compared to their wonkier counterparts, they're harder to pigeonhole as awe-inspiring cases of pre-wired wunderkinder. How much of the literary impulse is innate, and how much is imitative? What's naive insight, and what counts as real wisdom, and who's judging? In prompting questions like these, creative-writing prodigies force us to focus not just on the mysteries of natural genius, but also on the cultural genesis and uses (and abuses) of precocity. These days you don't need to have, or be, a bona fide prodigy to find that topic unusually relevant. Rearing children in the shadow of the current "superkid" ideal is enough to stir up confusions in the whole family: Are kids flowering thanks to all the intensive enrichment (Baby Einstein videos are only the start), or is childhood disappearing under the pressure of fast-track expectations?
An earlier vogue in young literary virtuosos made headlines back in the edgy 1920s, amid generational and cultural ferment. Curiosity about the underage authors quickly turned into controversy. The Young Visiters (subtitled Or, Mr. Salteena's Plan), a novel originally written in 1890 by a 9-year-old named Daisy Ashford, had been unearthed and published with fanfare in England in 1919. It soon appeared in the United States, and a flurry of poetic precocity followed. Most notable were several collections of poems by a Brooklyn girl named Nathalia Crane, who made her debut, Janitor's Boy and Other Poems, in 1924 at 10. What was uncanny about Crane's poetry, as about Ashford's novel, was how unchildlike much of it was.
Both Nathalia and Daisy, whose Mr. Salteena plots to become a gentleman, lit on topics that were considered way over the heads of children (certainly in those days)—not least, social class and sex. They treated them with a satiric edge that seemed unwittingly keen, coming from two girl writers still in pinafores. (The teenage Jane Austen's work showed how comically caustic about romance and social rank she could be, but she was older.) Their work sparked debates not just about literary quality, but about authenticity. In the legendary tradition of Thomas Chatterton, the 18th-century child poet accused of forgery, Ashford's book was ascribed by some to J.M. Barrie, who wrote an introduction to it; there were charges that Crane's work was a hoax. And, predictably, their lives came under scrutiny. Ashford had grown up to become a mere secretary, and Crane's father was her big booster, which served as fodder for classic fears about a dark side to child prodigies: overbearing families and bleak futures.
It's not hard to detect underlying jitters about jaded children and unscrupulous adults in the reception of precocious literary talent three-quarters of a century ago—jitters that have only intensified today. But you won't find anyone giving the current crop of child writers a rough time. Quite the contrary: They've been welcomed with open arms, just the kind of junior wonders to soothe our fears about the "hurried child." Soaring to the top of the charts (and in the case of Stepanek, marketed more to adults), they and their quest fantasies send a reassuring message that childhood hasn't been eroded after all. Instead, it's enjoying wholesome crossover appeal.
Other whiz kids can't match them for cozy allure. Math talents tend to be viewed as weird (in this country, at any rate, Steve Olson notes in his recent book Count Down, a fascinating portrait of the U.S. team of high-schoolers at the 2001 International Mathematical Olympiad). Sports phenoms—like Freddy Adu or LeBron James—have a worldly taint, thanks to too much money, publicity, and the ruthless Svengalis behind their careers. But young fantasy writers are bookish word-lovers—no small feat in a plugged-in generation and one their elders can not only appreciate but imaginatively abet. (Rowling readers, after all, come in all ages and sizes.)
These publishing sensations haven't been cast as disconcerting upstarts, either eerily pure or inexplicably astute, mystifying to adults. Instead, they fit a more domesticated profile of industrious protégés—by their own accounts, not just their publicists' portrayals. It's not every day that you get a child's-eye view of precocious giftedness (no doubt partly because prodigies tend to clump in nonverbal domains). But the main theme of the young literary lights of the Rowling era is, what else, the maturation of youths who are more than ordinary Muggles—in other words, the prodigy's story of coming to terms with unusual powers and expectations. What's striking is their emphasis on the crucial assistance of grownups in the process: Sui generis child genius, effortlessly emerging, isn't part of the message. Remember your parents "who sacrificed themselves for you," the heroines of Flavia Bujor's fantasy are exhorted. Mattie Stepanek, miraculously brave in the face of a rare form of muscular dystrophy, dwells on his debt to the mentor/mediators (not least his mother) without whom his words would not have spread.
Such a tamed-down notion of child talent can encourage sentimentality—and indeed, Bujor's tale of three girls equipped with magic jewels reads a little like Harry Potter meets Hello Kitty, and chicken-soup-style uplift echoes in Stepanek's lines. Still, the time is ripe for a dose of demystification. The truth is that youthful talent rarely flowers without adult tutoring. Behind almost every young miracle there's a mentor, guiding but also sometimes goading, given how much hard work it takes to realize even (or especially) great gifts.
Christopher Paolini's Eragon, which is riveting, gets it right. The deeply rewarding bond between his hero Eragon and the aging wise man Brom (who believes in practice, practice, practice) is fraught with frustration—for both of them. It's tempting to suspect that the Montana homeschooler whose epic became a family project (Paolini's parents first published and helped market it) is writing from experience. That's not to imply some dark story behind the media portrait of bucolic solidarity on the Paolini home front; it's only to inject a note of reality and to suggest a good augury for Part 2 of now 19-year-old Paolini's trilogy. Prodigies thrive on studiously tailored solicitude, but the record suggests that perfect family harmony isn't generally the secret to mature creativity.


text:
import numpy as np

def extract_parametric_features(appearance_model, warped_image,
                                rergession_features):
    r"""
    Extracts a particular parametric feature given an appearance model and
    a warped image.

    Parameters
    ----------
    appearance_model : :map:`PCAModel`
        The appearance model based on which the parametric features will be
        computed.
    warped_image : :map:`MaskedImage`
        The warped image.
    rergession_features : callable
        Defines the function from which the parametric features will be
        extracted.

        Non-default regression feature options and new experimental features
        can be used by defining a callable. In this case, the callable must
        define a constructor that receives as an input an appearance model and
        a warped masked image and on calling returns a particular parametric
        feature representation.

    Returns
    -------
    features : `ndarray`
        The resulting parametric features.
    """
    if rergession_features is None:
        features = weights(appearance_model, warped_image)
    elif hasattr(rergession_features, '__call__'):
        features = rergession_features(appearance_model, warped_image)
    else:
        raise ValueError("regression_features can only be: (1) None "
                         "or (2) a callable defining a non-standard "
                         "feature computation (see `menpo.fit.regression."
                         "parametricfeatures`")
    return features

def weights(appearance_model, warped_image):
    r"""
    Returns the resulting weights after projecting the warped image to the
    appearance PCA model.

    Parameters
    ----------
    appearance_model : :map:`PCAModel`
        The appearance model based on which the parametric features will be
        computed.
    warped_image : :map:`MaskedImage`
        The warped image.
    """
    return appearance_model.project(warped_image)

def whitened_weights(appearance_model, warped_image):
    r"""
    Returns the sheared weights after projecting the warped image to the
    appearance PCA model.

    Parameters
    ----------
    appearance_model : :map:`PCAModel`
        The appearance model based on which the parametric features will be
        computed.
    warped_image : :map:`MaskedImage`
        The warped image.
    """
    return appearance_model.project_whitened(warped_image)

def appearance(appearance_model, warped_image):
    r"""
    Projects the warped image onto the appearance model and rebuilds from the
    weights found.

    Parameters
    ----------
    appearance_model : :map:`PCAModel`
        The appearance model based on which the parametric features will be
        computed.
    warped_image : :map:`MaskedImage`
        The warped image.
    """
    return appearance_model.reconstruct(warped_image).as_vector()

def difference(appearance_model, warped_image):
    r"""
    Returns the difference between the warped image and the image constructed
    by projecting the warped image onto the appearance model and rebuilding it
    from the weights found.

    Parameters
    ----------
    appearance_model : :map:`PCAModel`
        The appearance model based on which the parametric features will be
        computed.
    warped_image : :map:`MaskedImage`
        The warped image.
    """
    return (warped_image.as_vector() -
            appearance(appearance_model, warped_image))

def project_out(appearance_model, warped_image):
    r"""
    Returns a version of the whitened warped image where all the basis of the
    model have been projected out and which has been scaled by the inverse of
    the appearance model's noise_variance.

    Parameters
    ----------
    appearance_model: :class:`menpo.model.pca`
        The appearance model based on which the parametric features will be
        computed.
    warped_image: :class:`menpo.image.masked`
        The warped image.
    """
    diff = warped_image.as_vector() - appearance_model.mean().as_vector()
    return appearance_model.distance_to_subspace_vector(diff).ravel()

class nonparametric_regression_features(object):

    def __init__(self, patch_shape, feature_patch_length, regression_features):
        self.patch_shape = patch_shape
        self.feature_patch_length = feature_patch_length
        self.regression_features = regression_features

    def __call__(self, image, shape):
        # extract patches
        patches = image.extract_patches(shape, patch_size=self.patch_shape)

        features = np.zeros((shape.n_points, self.feature_patch_length))
        for j, patch in enumerate(patches):
            # compute features
            features[j, ...] = self.regression_features(patch).as_vector()

        return np.hstack((features.ravel(), 1))

class parametric_regression_features(object):

    def __init__(self, transform, template, appearance_model,
                 regression_features):
        self.transform = transform
        self.template = template
        self.appearance_model = appearance_model
        self.regression_features = regression_features

    def __call__(self, image, shape):
        self.transform.set_target(shape)
        # TODO should the template be a mask or a shape? warp_to_shape here
        warped_image = image.warp_to_mask(self.template.mask, self.transform,
                                          warp_landmarks=False)
        features = extract_parametric_features(
            self.appearance_model, warped_image, self.regression_features)
        return np.hstack((features, 1))

class semiparametric_classifier_regression_features(object):

    def __init__(self, patch_shape, classifiers):
        self.patch_shape = patch_shape
        self.classifiers = classifiers

    def __call__(self, image, shape):
        patches = image.extract_patches(shape, patch_size=self.patch_shape)
        features = [clf(patch.as_vector(keep_channels=True))
                    for (clf, patch) in zip(self.classifiers, patches)]
        return np.hstack((np.asarray(features).ravel(), 1))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Troops launch cordon and search operation in Shopian village
By Press Desk on January 9, 2019
Shopian,Jan 9: Government forces on Wednesday launched a cordon-and-search operation (CASO) in Heff area of south Kashmir's Shopian district.
A police official said a joint team of army, Central Reserve Police Force and SOG men ring-fenced Heff village of the district and began a door to door search operation.
The operation, according to the official, was launched after the forces received inputs about the presence of militants in the area.
The operation was underway when this report was being filed.


It is wonderful to have good friends for many reasons but mine never cease to surprise and inspire me.
If you are like me and like pizza as an occasional treat, then Pizza Express's new collaboration will offer your taste buds something new.
There is a new Russian guest in London but I think this one will be very welcome to stay….
Galina Atchkassova-Portianoi packs a stylish outfit and a pair of flip flops to tackle the Finnish island archipelago for the christening, sauna and eating Finnish style.