text:
On 'truthiness' and the 2016 election
"What is truth?" asked Pilate, and washed his hands. Sometimes I ask the same question, because it's not always as simple as people like to think it is. At least, not in politics. (As a Catholic, I accept that the One of whom Pilate asked the question did trade in actual Truth.)
I had the chance to explore that a bit over at WACH-Fox studios this morning. Cynthia Hardy asked me to participate in a discussion of truth, lies and the current presidential election for the weekly TV version of her OnPoint show. Catch the show on WACH Sunday morning at 8:30. (Hey, you can DVR it, can't you?)
At this point, I don't recall precisely what was said during the taped segments, because we were talking about all this before and after the taping, and during breaks. But here are some of the points I made at some time or other while I was there:
Someone raised the question of why, with so many of his statements being easily proved to be false, Donald Trump's followers still accept, and even cheer, them. I mentioned the point, made here so often before, that even though most of us once accepted Daniel Patrick Moynihan's dictum that "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts," people today believe they are entitled to the "facts" they prefer, and gravitate toward those who offer them such.
Continuing on that point, I said we should think in terms of the Stephen Colbert concept of "truthiness." Trump regularly says things that are wildly untrue, but his supporters eat it up because his claims strike them as "truthy." It's what they want to be true, and they appreciate him for saying it is, and never backing down on the point.
I tend to look askance at all these people who propose to do "fact-checking" in real time. First, even if one can determine incontrovertibly whether a statement is true or not, getting the job done frequently takes a lot of time. Not all facts can be instantly Googled. And sometimes — quite frequently — there is no pat answer. Some things are demonstrably untrue — for instance, we are spending tens of billions updating our nuclear arsenal, in direct contradiction of something Trump said in the debate Monday night. On the other hand, some assertions are more slippery, more matters of opinion. For instance, the NYT tried to "fact-check" Mrs. Clinton's assertion that the U.S. needs an "intelligence surge" to stop homegrown terrorists before they act. The Times said we already collect and share more intel than ever. Perhaps so, but if something happens because we didn't know something that might have enabled us to prevent it, how can one say we had enough intel? That said, there is the eternal debate over how much we need to protect people from snooping. Since Snowden, we've unfortunately erred in the wrong direction on that, but striking a balance will always be difficult. Bottom line, I can give you a pretty good answer to whether what she said was true if you give me 1,000 words or so to do it. Anything less and I'm shortchanging you. But be forewarned that the answer will contain a lot of my own opinion. Why? Because it's that kind of question.
Elaborating on that: People who think it's easy to separate fact from opinion should try editing editorial pages for a couple of months. The challenge is this: You're publishing a lot of stuff written by nonprofessionals with strong opinions — letters to the editor and their big brothers, guest columns. If you're me, you'll have a rule against letting people make assertions of fact that are false in the course of expressing their opinions. Frequently, in the proofreading process, one of the editors — some of the top, most experienced journalists in South Carolina, when I was doing it at The State — would cross out something in a letter or oped because it was false. But then a terrific argument would ensue as we editors disagreed over whether that point was a matter of fact, or of opinion. In the latter case, we'd allow the writer to say it. These matters were never easily settled, because if you're intellectually honest and doing your best to be fair to people and not dismissive of their views, it's complicated.
It's seldom black and white. Even lies have gradations. That's why The Washington Post's respected Fact Checker feature has levels. A "lie" can earn one, two, three or four "Pinocchios," with four denoting something that is completely false. Then there is the rare "Geppetto Checkmark" for things found to be completely true. And these judgments are subjective. I forget the "fact" in question, but a couple of months ago, they gave Donald Trump four Pinocchios for something that, having read their findings, I thought should only have earned him two or three. (Of course, even if they had amended that would, Trump would still be the all-time record-holder for four-Pinocchio statements.)
I could go on and on, but there's real work to be done. I'll check back in and see what y'all think…
Editing the Declaration of Independence
What I ended up saying to Rotary
My loss of innocence, in the bicentennial year
Yo, Sun-Times: Why not just get rid of your whole editorial board while you're at it?
Do what Cindi Scoppe says, or I'll tell her to gossip about you to The Guardian
McCain has a point comparing Palin, Reagan
Comment on election results HERE…
Where you can see and hear me in coming days
SC Democrats give sarcasm a try with new TV ad
Here's how 'our' candidates did
This entry was posted in 2016 Presidential, Elections, Marketplace of ideas, Media, Television, Truth, Working on September 29, 2016 by Brad Warthen.
← How can a man with no gray in his beard be interesting? Open Thread for Friday, September 30, 2016 →
49 thoughts on "On 'truthiness' and the 2016 election"
bud September 29, 2016 at 5:02 pm
Newsweek just published an article that indicates Trump was dealing with Cuba at a time when such dealings were in opposition to US law. It will be interesting to see how much truth there is to this damning story.
Brad Warthen Post author September 29, 2016 at 5:34 pm
It sounds truthy to me…
Mark Stewart September 30, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Trump admitted it straight up last night on the campaign trail.
Kathryn Fenner September 29, 2016 at 5:49 pm
When Trump denies saying something, say about China and climate change, and something he tweeted to that effect is immediately re-tweeted, what do his minions believe?
Burl Burlingame September 29, 2016 at 5:51 pm
I'm currently having a conversation on FB about Trumps "blue screen" statement during the debate — is it something he hallucinated, or something he picked up from some obscure source, or something he goofed up the description words for (I do that myself), or was it something that simply hadn't been revealed yet? No one knows, and I think that's how he likes it.
I did not get that at all. But then, my mind may still have been reeling from the 400-pound hacker remark, and wondering where THAT came from.
Didn't chroma key screens, which are now usually green, used to be blue? Could it have been a reference to that? I mean, it still wouldn't make sense, but since we're trying to guess what he was trying to say…
One of the more interesting phrases to enter common usage this year — entirely due to Trump — is "word salad." It really describes his speech pattern, or lack of a pattern. He just tosses together words (or almost-words like "bigly") without any effort to string them together into coherence…
If you parse the sentence, is it not possible he was speaking of the bed's weight?
and yes, they used to be blue….
and "word salad" was also extensively applied to the utterances of Sarah Palin. It is an actual medical thing that refers to the speech of a neurological or mental disorder.
You mean, like aphasia? I did not know that. I thought someone was just being clever and evocative. The first time I noticed it, I said, "that's perfect!"
And I've done a pretty good job of making myself forget the things Sarah Palin has said. I find it easier to remember things Tina Fey said lampooning her, possibly because the sentences were better constructed…
The Google reveals quite a bit, you know.
The clever variant I heard was that Trump spoke "word coleslaw"
Karen Pearson September 30, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Like scizophrenia.
I think there is "fact-checking" of the sort that is more "is this a good policy" and "fact-checking" that is more "did s/he actually say something to the contrary." The latter is quite easy to do, and yet strangely missing from earlier coverage.
I thought it was odd that the NYT didn't differentiate. They treated Trump's assertion that we're not updating our nuclear arsenal (when we are) on the same plane as Hillary saying we need more intel. As though they were both just as checkable.
Doug Ross September 29, 2016 at 9:20 pm
Which is worse? Hillary's scripted lies or Trump's off the cuff lies? Hillary was well prepared for the debate, right? So her lies were practiced.
What lies?
Harry Harris September 30, 2016 at 12:40 am
A lie oft repeated or oft tweeted or oft forwarded is false, but often believed because of repetition and the will of many to believe it. Trump repeated the truth-stretch that President Obama doubled the national debt. He increased it by 77 percent through FY 2014, with the 2015 deficit of 439 Billion not taking it beyond an 83% increase for the 8 years. It reminds me of the "trillion dollar stimulus package" phrase repeated so often by Obama's opponents. The package was passed at 787 billion and totaled 831B when spent out. Not a trillion. I wish Obama's deficits hadn't totaled that high, but they were what they were. He did inherit a 1.017 trillion budget deficit from President Bush 2 and the ongoing interest on a National debt of 10.024 Trillion of which over 8T was piled up under Republican Presidents – yes, 80%. Bush 2 added 76% to the debt in 8 years after inheriting a 17 billion deficit from Clinton with a projected surplus and no recession. Bush 1 only added 56% to the debt (in 4 years), much better than his predecessor Ronald Reagan who added 186% to the national debt (notice I didn't say he tripled it, though close). Bush 1 grew the annual budget deficit by 58%, besting Reagan's 210% growth and Bush 2's 5,579% deficit growth (Yes, over 5000%). Obama's deficit reduction from the previous President's last deficit was 52% Carter only reduced it by 6.95%, while Clinton reduced it by a respectable 95.52%. These are official Treasury figures calculated with Microsoft Excel. Read 'em and weep. But, of course, "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
Unfortunately the stark repulsiveness of many of Trump's personal statements and the nature of his campaign against even his Republican challengers has gotten Democrats and media members into fact checking whether or not he called someone a "pig" instead of checking the falseness of his economic claims or the outrageousness of his calling for "taking the oil" from Iraq.
Bryan Caskey September 30, 2016 at 9:42 am
I like graphs for things like looking at the debt. Here's one from Pew:
Brad Warthen Post author September 30, 2016 at 11:53 am
When it comes to the national debt, here's my standard offer to my country:
Delegate balancing the federal budget to me — lending me some qualified staff to make sure I do my sums right — and I'll take care of it, for only a tenth of a percent of the amount of savings.
Of course, Congress and the president would just have to vote it up or down, no amendments…
Hold on… let me do some math…
Yeah, I'll do it for that. This year's deficit is $616 billion, so my fee would be at least $616 million.
Not bad for an hour's work, which is about what it took me when I balanced the budget before…
Douglas Ross September 30, 2016 at 1:41 pm
Your bonus is offset by 10% of the amount you increase taxes. That's the easiest way to balance a budget. We should start with cuts first THEN once we've got the government down to its core functions, we can talk about raising taxes.
I take a nonprejudiced, nonideological approach to balancing the budget. I have no prejudices about tax increases or decreases, or spending increases or decreases, as being inherently "good" or "bad." With me, it's whatever gets the job done.
As it happened, as as you can see, when I did it two-thirds of the balancing was done with spending cuts, the rest with tax increases….
Burl Burlingame September 30, 2016 at 1:29 am
It seems that many Trump supporters believe that Clinton doesn't actually appear at speeches, she's actually a kind of hologram projected on a blue screen behind the podium. Apparently that's where the blue screen reference came from.
Lynn Teague September 30, 2016 at 9:40 am
Well, that will go into my inventory of truly strange beliefs, along with the cargo cult and alien abduction.
I've never had the impression that cargo cults are entirely irrational. Believing that "the building of an airplane runway will manifest in the appearance of material wealth" could be sound. Build it, and maybe rich Westerners will land with more goods. And isn't that sort of why Western communities build airports?
The rest of it, I don't understand…
Norm Ivey September 30, 2016 at 12:27 pm
There are rumors of her wearing an earpiece as well (with EVIDENCE!!!). Though what a hologram needs an earpiece for is beyond me.
Wow, but she's also sending hand signals to Lester, or she's got an earpiece, or it was all scripted in advance and no one sent the Donald his pages….
Buy tinfoil futures, folks. The lining on a lot of these people's hats is wearing thin.
Mike September 30, 2016 at 10:03 am
It's a measure of how surreal this election has been that I read your comment and cannot decide if it's a tongue-in-cheek joke or truth.
Where's the NYT fact-checking squad when we need them?
meant this as a reply to Burl
Burl Burlingame September 30, 2016 at 12:31 pm
Alas, I was not kidding.
Burl, do you have a link? I'm having trouble finding an explanation anywhere of the "blue screen" thing…
Here's the tip of the iceberg:
http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-used-green-screen-to-make-a-fake-crowd-in-nevada/
Harry Harris October 2, 2016 at 8:08 pm
Right wing cartoonist Henry Payne (oft printed in the Sumter Item) cartoons that the fact-checkers are on Clinton's team. Who will be blamed next for the hole Trump continues to dig.
Bill September 30, 2016 at 10:42 am
Why do Trump supporters support Trump despite … all the stuff he says?
Because their hate for Hillary is greater than their love their country.
In their mind, Trump may stretch the truth, but Hillary is a liar by nature (just see Doug's comment above). Which is very odd given that the person who ghost-wrote The Art of the Deal and spent a year observing Trump off and on said lying is second nature to the Donald; he practices "situational truth" — whatever serves his interests at any moment in time is "true."
I don't know about that, Bill. I think despising Hillary is the excuse of Republicans, and possibly some independents, who don't much like Trump, or actively DISlike him, but have hated Hillary for so long that they'll vote for him anyway.
The true Trump believers, I suspect, go along with the "Crooked Hillary" stuff because their man says it, and she's the one running against him. They are people who would exhibit the same hostility to Joe Biden, or for that matter Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, especially if Trump gave them the cue to do that.
I'm intuiting here, but I think what I just said applies to quite a few of them, especially those who haven't been particularly interested in politics in the past…
Bill September 30, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Well, my comment was based on actually talking and listening to a few Trump supporters. They simply cannot stand the idea of Clinton being elected. That's what they mention first and foremost.
Well, if you're gonna go back and use actual legwork to obtain information, then I'm afraid I can't help you.
Imagine, polluting the extrapolative process by actually talking to people. I'm reeling here…
Douglas Ross September 30, 2016 at 12:01 pm
Yes, I believe Hillary is a liar by nature. Nearly every statement she has made about her email server has been proven to be false. Even their biggest excuse "Colin Powell did it" was proved to be a lie and Powell's email showed he told them not to do it.
I don't want Hillary or Trump as President. I don't care if one is less bad than the other. Both of them will be terrible Presidents.
Harry Harris September 30, 2016 at 12:48 pm
We.re all probably liars by nature – lying when we think we have to or it's expedient. I'm a sinner, but not everything I do is sinful. One's set perception usually kicks in when evaluating the "truth" of a statement unless one makes effort to use judgement rather than prejudice. The "truth" we believe is most often the one than we want to be true. Your statement about both being terrible Presidents is nothing more than prejudicial speculation. In my view, they could both be vying for a job leading a nation that is terrible to lead. I happen to believe the directions and policies each would pull toward matter very much.
Of course I'm prejudicial – my prejudices are based on experience and observation. Hillary isn't some new entity that we have to learn about. She is what she is — going back to her days as the First Lady. She has a track record that can be assessed. And my assessment of her performance is that it was not very good. Experience doesn't matter as much as the results. How she handled Monica Lewinsky, Benghazi, and the email server alone bring into question her demeanor and capability. Throw in the fact that she's past retirement age and doesn't appear to be physically fit and it's enough to allow me to form a judgment of her ability to be a good President. It's an opinion just like yours.
Mark Stewart September 30, 2016 at 4:30 pm
I don't think Hillary handled Monica. It's an odd statement. (Also, I don't think I get what exactly Clinton as Sec of State did wrong about Benghazi. Maybe that's just me; but that's another point anyway.)
I do think it unbelievable that she gets hit with diatribes because Hillary obviously wanted her marriage to remain intact regardless of Bill's actions. It kind of makes me incredulous, actually. The Clinton's are still together… so their marriage works for them. Probably a heck of a lot better than most people's.
Now, if you want to continue to unload on Bill about the Monica malfeasance – go ahead, rip away to your heart's content.
ad exactly how does Hillary not appear to be physically fit? She's wearing pants suits. You can't judge anything under a pants suit. I just saw Bryan Caskey, who was wearing business casual–a sport coat, and I would not have been able to determine that he could do a number of lunges with 145 extra pounds atop him, by looking at him.
You can't judge fitness by size, dude.
Doug Ross October 2, 2016 at 1:34 pm
I didn't judge her fitness by her size, dudette. I judge it by how she moves, how she holds onto things for support, how she has frequent coughing fits and a history of blood clots. She is about average or worse for a 70 year old. She's not going to magically get in better shape in the next four years.
Do you think she could walk a mile today in under 15 minutes? Do not reference Trump in your answer.
Hillary has attacked the messenger in every case of Bill's infidelities. She could have asked him to resign. She never did anything related to his horrendous behavior that would impact his or her political ambitions. She's an enabler. He raped a woman and she took his side. She's a cold, calculating person. Unfit for office.
If you read these comments, someone is starting to sound a little unhinged.
Brad Warthen Post author October 3, 2016 at 11:43 am
Dang. My wife had wanted to see the TV discussion I taped the other day, and I forgot to record it Monday morning.
One of several things I did not get done over the weekend.
However, I DID manage to add more than 60 people to my family tree Saturday, bringing me to a total of 1,824. I don't think I've ever before added that many in one day So there's that.
This, by the way, is NOT an accomplishment that impresses my wife. She said the "family tree" that fell in our backyard recently is still waiting to be cut up and carted off.
But you know, once I get on a roll with discovering people for my genealogy hobby online, it's hard to stop…


text:
Ryan backs 'concept' of online sales tax
By Brendan Sasso - 05/01/13 09:57 PM EDT
Rep. Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanRevising the pardon power — let the Speaker and Congress have voices Paul Ryan will attend Biden's inauguration COVID-19 relief bill: A promising first act for immigration reform MORE (R-Wis.) supports the principle that online retailers should have to pay state sales taxes.
"I think the concept is right," Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said at a town hall meeting earlier this week, according to the Wisconsin Reporter.
In an emailed statement to The Hill, Ryan clarified that he does not support the Senate's legislation on the issue.
"It's got to be done the right way. I think the legitimate concern is can it be used to do other forms of taxation or retroactive taxation? You have got to make sure it doesn't do that. I don't think the Senate bill is written in a tight enough way to do that," Ryan said.
He added that it's unfair for a local brick-and-mortar retailer to have to collect sales taxes when online competitors are exempt.
"So I'd like to think there's a way to address this inequity without giving the government power to expand taxing authority beyond that intent. You've got to do it the right way," Ryan said.
Under current law, states can only collect sales taxes from retailers that have a physical presence in their state. People who order items online from another state are supposed to declare the purchases on their tax forms, but few do.
The Senate's bill, the Marketplace Fairness Act, would empower states to tax out-of-state online retailers, but would exempt small businesses that earn less than $1 million annually. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week.
The proposal has the support of retail lobbying groups and a host of governors, including Republicans Chris Christie of New Jersey, Rick Snyder of Michigan and Bob McDonnell of Virginia. Passage of the bill could bring billions of dollars in new revenue to state governments.
But anti-tax groups such as Heritage Action, Americans for Prosperity and Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform are rallying opposition to the measure, saying it would be complicated to enforce and would stifle online commerce.
The Senate is expected to approve the sales tax bill next week.
Tags Paul Ryan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Run siege tests on Laravel 5 So I have a laravel 5 project, and I'd like to benchmark the test server I'm using with the siege tool.
Unfortunately, I've realized you can't log in because the CSRF is normally received from the submission form. There is no form in siege, so this token can't be sent.
I can see this being tackled in a few ways, but I'm looking for something that can be left in source control and not negatively affect security. What is a good way to get siege to work with Laravel without a bunch of maintenance or just being lazy and disabling CSRF?

A: Two things:

*

*You CAN set siege up to log into your site. See this ServerFault post for more info, but this would only test your login form.

*You CAN, using the same method, send the _token parameter with any request

Apparently, the documentation for this is found in the comments in the code, not in the official manual.
The question you're left with is what value to pass with the _token variable. Obviously, a fake value is exactly the kind of thing that CSRF is supposed to protect against. I think the easiest way to do this is going to be to modify app/Http/Middleware/VerifyCsrfToken.php to add a special condition that will "match" against a pre-set value.
First thing I would do is to create a variable in my .env file that contains my face CSRF token, e.g.
FAKE_CSRF_TOKEN=dd0dda7d4b5e92fafd9e5bebfabd7709

And then in App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken (i.e. the file I referred to above), you would override the tokensMatch($request) function. You might do something like:
protected function tokensMatch($request)
{
    $parent = parent::tokensMatch($request);
    $token = $request->input('_token');
    return $parent || $token == env('FAKE_CSRF_TOKEN');
}

Then in your tests, just always pass your fake CSRF token value as _token. Of course,

This code should never be run on a production server!

If it was me, I might create a special .env.siege file and set APP_ENV=siege on my testing or staging server. Then I would re-write the above tokensMatch() function to do something like this:
protected function tokensMatch($request)
{
    $parent = parent::tokensMatch($request);
    if ('siege' === env('APP_ENV')) {
        $token = $request->input('_token');
        return $parent || $token == env('FAKE_CSRF_TOKEN');
    }
    return $parent;
}

That way, even if this altered middleware somehow made it onto your production server, you'd have some extra protection against a fake CSRF attack. The end result is that you'll be able to stress test your server almost exactly as if it were in a production environment, without disabling CSRF.
All this being said, I don't know how resource-intensive CSRF checks actually are in practice. It might just be simpler to turn CSRF off for your stress test, rather than making the changes I suggest here.

A: So the above answer is almost there, but it has the following flaws:

*

*It requires its own config type. No go; we just want production to be immune. Anything else should be stress-testable in place.

*It doesn't cover FAKE_CSRF_TOKEN being not defined by a sloppy dev

*It must be able to be committed to the primary tree! Git is a common deployment mechanism, and as little as possible should be outside VCS

So I defined the function as such:
protected function tokensMatch($request)
{
    $parent = parent::tokensMatch($request);

    //if it isn't an actual token match, and we aren't on production
    if (! $parent && 'production' !== env('APP_ENV')) {
        //then get the token
        $token = $request->input('_token');
        $fake = env('FAKE_CSRF_TOKEN');

        //and test it versus our fake
        //it must actually be defined to work (no blanks)
        //generate an actual random string for security!
        if(strlen($fake) && $token === $fake)
            return true;
    }

    //otherwise, just return what we normally would
    return $parent;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Trace elements in the sediments of Carmo River before and after the deposition of the tailings mud. Sequential extraction was used to investigate the distribution of As and metals. High concentration of trace elements associated with easily mobilized fractions.
One of the main causes of global warming is the use of fossil and biomass fuels. Products and by-products generated by burning result in increased greenhouse gases. These fuels are also used for cooking, so it also has its share of contribution to global warming.
This work showed the influence of the dopants concentration on the spectroscopic properties of the europium III ion and the crystallite size, when incorporated in the yttrium vanadate matrix obtained by non-hydrolytic sol-gel route.
The stabilizers currently used in compositions of the nitrocellulose based propellants are toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic. Besides they also represent a serious risk to the environment and to workers who deals with this kind of chemicals.
The topological index of a molecular structure correlate certain physicochemical properties such as boiling point, enthalpy and entropy and stability of that molecular structures. In this article we have computed topological indices for Copper (I) oxide and Copper (II) oxide.
New lignan, luclaricin, isolated from the aereal parts of Phyllanthus acuminatus.
Aporphine, oxoaporphine and tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids were isolated from the leaves of Guatteria pogonopus. The NMR data for most of the described alkaloids were reviewed herein. In addition, the cytotoxicity of these alkaloids was evaluated.
The silica prepared in the absence and presence of the protic ionic liquid was used in a packed bed reactor for the characterization of the reactor by the residence time distribution and the mass transfer effect.
The use of chelating agents in the impregnation step induces the formation of nanoparticles of CeO2 between 5 and 6.8 nm as it is shown by XRD.
A homemade and commercial immobilized lipases were used to geranyl butanoate production by esterification of geraniol and butanoic acid with production optimization and kinetic evaluation.
Bambus[n]uril cavitands have a low electron density (blue) at the center of the cycle and binds anions with high affinity and selectivity.
Light dosimetry effectively absorbed (Dabs) by methylene blue in photosensitization processes employing polychromatic light sources.
The immobilization of cyclodextrin onto the surface of gold nanoparticles at the time of their formation. Cyclodextrin acts as a reductant and a stabilizer.
De onde vêm os nomes das vidrarias de laboratório?
Presentation of the origin of the names and the historical background of development of glassware used in Chemistry experimental classes can make learning more meaningful.
This article discusses the epistemological obstacles related to the Pedagogical Knowledge of Chemistry Content that influence the formative process of future professors of chemistry.
The Euler's relation, as a mathematical consequence of the exact differential equations, allows an easy and didactic differentiation of the thermodynamic variables in state functions and process variables.


Today is just wanted to share a few pictures of some of the spring inspired arrangements and bouquets i have been working on lately. Helps remind us that Spring is not far away!
Posted on March 4, 2013 by Rouge&Co..	This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged arrangement, flowers. centerpiece, nature, spring. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
RSIEC Partners Stakeholders For Hitch-Free Elections
The Chairman, Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), Justice Chinenye Uriri has reiterated the readiness of the commission in partnering stockholders to ensure hitch-free local government elections.
Uriri made the position if the commission known when various groups visited him in his office in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who was represented by the commission's Public Affairs Commissioner, Innocent Karibo, said the commission would do all it could to ensure that all relevant groups, individuals and organisaitons were adequately enlightened on the activities of the commission.
He urged them to preach peace in the forthcoming Local Government Elections and assured that the commission would always give necessary support to any group committed to assist the commission achieve its core mandate.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has appealed to the State Independent Electoral commission to partner the group in sensitising students on their roles on the forthcoming local government elections.
Deputy Coordinator of National Association of Nigerian Students Zone B, David Barierika stated this when the group paid a courtesy visit to the commission.
He said the proposed one day Town Hall meeting was aimed at educating students on the dangers of becoming political thug and disrupting the electoral process.
In a related development, some physically-challenged persons in the state have appealed to RSIEC for their inclusion in the commission's electoral process in the forthcoming Local government election.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Physically-challenged matters, Mr Tekena Altraide, who led some physically-challened people on a visit to the RSIEC urged the commission to create a conducive atmosphere for the physically-challenged to contribute meaningfully to the commission's realisation of its core mandate.
Motorists Lament State Of PH- Oyigbo Road
Topba Tasks Ogoni Leaders On Rural Dev.
Monarch Hails Wike Over Landing Jetty Project Award
The Amanyanabo and Traditional Ruler of ancient Ele Kingdom in Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area of Rivers State, King Felix Tamunoseipiriala Okuru Apina VII, has stated the gratefulness of his people to the State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
He said the people of Ele community will continue to be grateful to the governor for graciously supporting their "illustrious" son, Barr Vincent Nemieboka, to become the chairman of the local government area, and approving the construction of a landing jetty in the area.
King Apina vii in a statement from the palace said the people of Ele kingdom have been given a sense of belonging by these gestures, because "it is first of its kind from any governor of the state".
The monarch noted that for the governor to remember the community in his development plans, "the people are most grateful", assuring him that they are fully mobilised and ready to exercise their franchise in the forthcoming elections for candidates that will have the interest of the community at heart.
On behalf of the Ele Divisional Council of Chiefs and the people of Ele Kingdom, he pledged their loyalty and support, stressing that construction of the landing jetty will in no small measure alleviate the untold suffering experienced during low tide.
He also noted that the jetty will encourage business boom in the area and further assured that all necessary co-operation will be given to the contractor when the project commences.
The first citizen of the community also lauded the Chairman of the Local Government Council, Barr Vincent Nemieboka, for the construction of a Health Centre and provision of a portable drinking water for the people.
This, he said, has given the people a sense of belonging, noting that Ele Community as one of the ancient nine clans of Okrika ethnic nationality, is in dire need of other developmental projects.
Tai LGA Flags Off Construction Of Corpers' Lodge
The Tai local Government Area has flagged off the construction of an eighth bedroom corpers lodge at Botem Community in Tai local Government Area.
The lodge, according to the council Engineer, is made up of four rooms for male and four for female.
Flagging off the project on behalf of the council, Rivers State Commissioner for Transport, Dr.Jacobson Nbina, said the project, which was in line with the desires of the people, will help to improve education in the area.
Nbina, who is Chairman of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council, said the project has further increased the chances of the party's victory in the forthcoming election in the area.
He urged the people to reciprocate the gesture by maintaining the facility when it is completed.
Meanwhile, the Senator representimg Rivers South East in the National Assembly, Senator Barinada Mpigi, has rated the Tai Local Government Council high in the execution of projects.
Speaking during a ward-to-ward and unit-to-unit campaign at Ward 8, Sime Tai, Mpigi said the Mbakpone administration has embarked on people-oriented projects across the LGAs.
He said the projects, which range from markets, water, roads, security, and others, have improved the living conditions of the people.
The Senator particularly commended the Chairman for the corpers' lodge, stressing that it will help to boost education, not only in Botem, but that communities around the area will also benefit from the gesture.
Also speaking, Chairman of Tai Local Government Council, Hon.Mbakpone Okpe, said the project was in fulfilment of his electioneering promises to the community.
He said he told them to nominate a project and they nominated a corpers lodge.
Okpe said the project will be completed and commissioned within the next three months.
On the ward-to-ward and unit-to-unit campaigns, the council boss said so far four Wards have been visited in the area.
He said the campaign was to explain to the people the importance of voting for candidates of the PDP during the forthcoming elections.
The Tai Council boss also thanked the people for their massive turned out for the campaign.
Also speaking, the Member representing Tai in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon Matthew Dike, said the people of Tai are happy with the administration of Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike.
He said the people will reciprocate it by voting massively for candidates of the PDP during the election.
The campaign train visited wards one and eight.
By: John Bibor
'Naira Redesign, Ill-Timed'
The Rivers State Chapter of the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) has described as ill-timed the Naira redesign policy of the Federal Government.
The society also called for the establishment of a Ministry of Science And Technology in Rivers State.
Chairman of the Society, Dr. Legborsi Emmanuel, said this at the quarterly general meeting of the branch in Port Harcourt.
Emmanuel said the Naira redesign program is coming at a time when Nigerians are batlling with the fuel price hike.
"NCS supports cashless policy, but increasing the sufferings of the Nigerian masses at a time we are battling with fuel price hike by taking out the old notes when we do not have enough of the new notes in the commercial banks have ended up putting pressure on the good people of Nigeria", he said.
According to him, the programm has further contributed towards the destruction of the falling economy that needed to be well protected by the Federal Government.
He said the situation will provide opportunity for all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to integrate all their data and operate seamlessly in the state.
He described the theme of the meeting, which is, "The use of ICT As A tool For Social Re-Engineering And Economic Transformation of Nigeria", and the lecture, as a call to duty.
Speaking on the topic, "The use of ICT As A tool for social Re-Engineering and Economic Transformation of Nigeria", from Canada, through zoom, Mr. Oraye Franklin said the present administration in Rivers State should be commended for it's information communications and Technology (ICT) policy.
He expressed the hope that incoming administrations will built upon it to further improve the sector.
Franklin said the deployment of ICT can be used to solve the multifaceted problems of Nigerians.
According to him, ICT can be used to address socio-economic problems of Nigerians, ranging from the health sector to a general improvement in the conditions of lives of the people.
He specifically said ICT has helped to check the spread of dieseas, thereby enhancing access to quality health care services.
He said the situation has allowed for greater transperancy In governance , improved productivity in public sector, and help farmers boost productivity.
He also stressed the need for both State and Federal Governments to support and encourage the development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with the view to expanding the economy.
The event also featured the presentation of the society's 2023 budget.
By; John Bibor
Edo Supplies 780,000 Litres Of Petrol
We'll Not Disappoint Rivers People -Fubara
The Dead Body At Onne Junction


Disney produced this lavish animated fairy tale, the most expensive cartoon ever made up to its release with a budget of $6 million. When the young princess Aurora is cursed at birth by the evil fairy Maleficent, the baby is kidnapped by a trio of good fairies who raise the girl themselves, hoping to avoid the spell's fulfillment. Nevertheless, at the age of 16, the beautiful Aurora falls into a deep sleep that can only be awakened by a kiss from her betrothed, Prince Phillip. Knowing that Phillip intends to save Aurora, Maleficent takes him prisoner. When the good fairies launch a rescue attempt, Maleficent transforms herself into a spectacular fire-breathing dragon, forcing Phillip to defeat her in mortal combat. Sleeping Beauty (1959) was Oscar nominated for its musical score, which featured adaptations of Tchaikovsky compositions.
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Tag: todd hemingson
2015 Honesty Agenda on Transportation: What is honesty?
Made With Notepad because paying for wifi for an hour of personal use seemed unwise. So here we go.
Refer back to Part 1 of the Honesty Agenda on Austin transportation for the introduction.
What do I mean when I say honesty?
Honesty is more than simply "technically telling the truth". A good place to start, but just to start, is the oath people take when testifying in court. So let's at least look at those three parts:
Don't say something which is obviously false. This is the easiest thing in the world to do, yet Capital Metro has gotten this wrong in the past (ref Todd Hemingson's claim about the projection he made and then tried to claim he didn't make, about first year Red Line ridership). The simplest attention by the media ought to catch our transit agency and city in this one, yet they rarely do (KUT being one very rare exception here).
Don't say something which, while true, leads people to think they now know what's going on, when you've actually kept a portion of the 'whole truth' behind so that they come to the conclusion you want them to. For instance, Capital Metro claims we're going to have a new, exciting, frequent transit network (buses arriving at least every 15 minutes). If Capital Metro knows we used to have that, at least on the #1 route, and they don't say so, they haven't told the whole truth. Or, let's say, if Capital Metro says ridership on MetroRapid is growing! (comparing 801 ridership six months ago to 801 ridership today), but overall ridership on the corridor is significantly below what it was before MetroRapid launched and staying stagnant since the initial drop, have they told the whole truth? Put another way:
Would "the 801 is doing better" be enough information without "but the overall 1/801 ridership is going nowhere and significantly below the old 1/101Â ridership" for our elected leaders to make smart decisions?
Those aren't even the most important examples though. During transit planning, this is far more critical. When the 801 was proposed, Capital Metro talked about how much faster it was going to be than the 1, while hiding the fact that it wasn't going to be much, if any, faster than the existing limited-stop 101. It's technically true that the 801 is faster than the 1. But it's not the whole truth. It's not useful in making decisions; the far more useful fact is the difference compared to the 101's speed when it ran (and it turns out, there's no difference except for that attributable to the downtown transit lane, which made the 1 faster and would have made the 101 faster too).
Don't add things that might (misleadingly) shade people away from the truth. Don't talk about highway subsidies to try to mislead people away from a serious discussion on transit operating subsidies (the subsidy on a given highway might be higher than the Red Line, but it is irrelevant to a discussion of whether we can afford the Red Line subsidy as it currently exists).
A Higher Standard
But that's not enough for me. Public agencies, funded by tax dollars, should meet a higher standard even than the above (which, after all, is just the oath people take when in an often adversarial relationship in court, to which the punishment for noncompliance is charges of perjury). Public agencies should educate taxpayers – in a way which does not lead taxpayers to a given conclusion, but allows them to make their own educated judgements. By this I do NOT mean the opinion pieces often approving cited, referenced, or retweeted by Capital Metro employees which are actually in direct conflict with their own actions without ever noting the problem. That's fundamentally DIShonest.
Don't Obfuscate
I also don't mean Project Connect's "data theater" exercises. "Showing your work" via PDF files, with 'zones' chosen and then changed, arbitrarily, by the people running the project in ways transparently obviously designed to make some projects rise to the top and others, uh, not; is not honest. Project Connect should have functioned as an open data source by which decision-makers (and the public) could make educated choices, but none of us who participated in that effort would describe it as anything except the exact opposite. In most other cities, Project Connect would have been a straight-up comparison between a few corridors (not this 'subcorridors which are really zones which were purposefully drawn to make the route they knew they had to compete against look bad' nonsense). Then, once a corridor was chosen, phase 2 would have been a straight-up comparison of ROUTES.
Don't Be Disingenuous
This is a big one. It happens all the time. Most of the time you know your audience and you know what they know, so don't pretend they're talking about something they really aren't (don't oversimplify or misrepresent their argument).
For instance: "There are winners and losers with any change" is not an honest answer to a detailed explanation that points out that the frequency of the combined 1/801 is no higher than the frequency of the 1/101 was – which if honestly addressed, leads to the conclusion that every single local bus rider on the MetroRapid corridor is much worse off now that the new service came along, and the old express riders are for all intents and purposes paying a little more for a little more frequency, the same speed, and the same reliability (i.e. best case = no better off). The person making that statement about 'winners and losers' knows it's not honest; but they know it's technically true also – it's just that the 'winners' were Capital Metro themselves, and the losers were, uh, all the riders. The public who pays your salary deserves better than being purposefully misled. Likewise, when Project Connect published 'data' from a ridiculous model that was essentially predicting almost three million daily transit riders in East Riverside alone and then tried to pretend it didn't matter because it was just sort of a starting point, that's disingenuous. If it didn't really matter, throw that model out of the equation completely and use something that everybody agrees on (common basis). Because when it was left in, it provided significant confirmation for the theory among participants in the process that the data were being cherry-picked and/or made up to support a predetermined plan.
Offer All Sorts Of Data Without Prejudicial Conclusions
Why doesn't Capital Metro publish their ridership numbers – and on the rare occasions when they do, why never in a form that can be processed by the public? The MTA in New York does.
Why don't they publish their operating subsidies by mode (or even by line)? They haven't done this at all since September of 2013, and if you think it's because the Red Line subsidy figures would have damaged the public case for Proposition 1, you're probably right! Yes, there's arguments over methodology that would come into play in either case – but those arguments could be had in the open light of day. Instead, we assume that Capital Metro hides behind the firewall of freedom-of-information requests because they have something to hide (in many cases they do – for instance, recent word on the fare recovery ratio of MetroRapid is pretty awful). While I appreciate Ben Wear's efforts in seeking this information (most media outlets don't even try), it should be published every month on Capital Metro's website so guys like me can analyze it. No excuses. If the data tells a bad story, then have a conversation about it with people who understand how transit works instead of hiding behind meaningless platitudes that prevent any transit project from ever being declared 'bad'.
In future chapters I will explain in more detail, with many more specific examples, where we have fallen short on these metrics; and then what an honest Project Connect would have looked like. What an honest Capital Metro would look like. And what an honest City of Austin would look like. Because if we're ever going to see real progress, that's what we all need.
Yes, Austin, You Can Trust M1EK
Statesman, over the weekend:
Capital Metro's long-anticipated, $47.6 million rapid bus project, designed to carry more passengers faster than existing bus lines along two busy north-south corridors, might not be as rapid as planned.
Despite an agency goal of offering time savings of 10 percent, in hopes of attracting more people to buses, the two lines would mostly offer minimal time savings, according to a Capital Metro presentation on the MetroRapid bus system, now scheduled to start operating in 2014.
In one case, a MetroRapid bus running from Howard Lane in North Austin to downtown would make the trip in 47 minutes — the same as an existing limited-stop bus that runs the same route. Trips between South Austin and downtown on that same line would offer time savings of just two to three minutes.
Capital Metro, which has an aging bus fleet, would have had to buy new buses – or even more buses, as Hemingson argues – at roughly the same time even if MetroRapid were not happening.
Yours truly, several times in the past few years, bold added for emphasis:
http://m1ek.dahmus.org/?p=629
Y'all may have fooled the Feds into buying you new rolling stock under the guise of BRT, but some of us aren't buying it. The signal-holding device won't be worth anything in the afternoon congestion on Guadalupe (it's not the light in front of the bus holding it up; it's the light six blocks down and the cars in front).
Rapid Bus is just a way for Cap Metro to get the Feds to pay for new rolling stock – it provides practically zero time savings over existing limited-stop #101 service. It's not rapid; it's not anything like what light rail would have been. The cars of all the people stuck from the next light up will still be in your way even if you can hold the light directly in front of the bus green a bit longer.
Rapid Bus continues to be a complete waste of time and money – our council members were right to put the kibosh on it the last time through. Investing this much money on a half-baked solution for the most important transit corridor in Austin is stupid, especially since this particular solution won't actually work here (too many times the traffic backup goes far beyond the light immediately in front of the bus in question).
In other cities, and in a smarter Austin, we'd be seeing packed light rail trains run down Lamar and Guadalupe by now. There is no way rapid bus can provide enough mobility benefits here to be worth a tenth the investment you're going to dump into this dead-end technology; and I hope our council members cut this program off again.
It's time to demand that the residents of Austin, who provide almost all of Capital Metro's funds, get some rail transit rather than spending our money providing train service to suburbs like Cedar Park that don't even pay Capital Metro taxes. Rapid bus is an insult to the taxpayers of Austin, and it's not going to be rapid.
Allow me to suggest to anybody with an interest in real governance rather than government-by-consultant that at this point Capital Metro's paid spin people (including their de-facto PR people at the Alliance for Public Transportation) have no credibility on either Rapid Bus or the Red Line, and perhaps the media and city council should be listening to those of us who were right all along rather than those who were wrong but had the time to glad-hand about it.
All posts about Rapid Bus can be found in this category archive: Rapid Bus Ain't Rapid
Posted on February 2, 2011 April 17, 2018
Red Line Phase One Wrap-Up
Lots of people, including some of my favorite people at Capital Metro, are claiming that the Red Line is now "meeting projections". Hmm. Let's analyze this claim by looking at the archives, shall we?
1. The Red Line was opened up in 2009 – projecting 1700-2000 boardings/day, from Day One, with the following schedule:
This is the last monthly data we get before Big Changes make for a big discontinuity in the graphs. December is, as Capital Metro wants to make sure you know, low ridership month. As usual, click for larger versions. Analysis follows the pictures.
Continue reading "Red Line Phase One Wrap-Up"


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Actress Gemma Arterton says her mother Sally-Anne is the biggest inspiration in her life and taught her lessons that have served her well in adulthood.
The 27-year-old British actress insists her mother, who brought her up alone after divorcing Gemma's father when she was five, says she learnt about hard work and the importance of being yourself from her mother, reported Daily Mirror.
"I have to thank my mother for giving me confidence. She brought up me and my sister on her own and never talked about any problems. I really appreciate how one woman could work hard and be a great mum at the same time," Arterton said.
"My mum Sally worked at two jobs, as a cleaner and seamstress … I am no campaigning feminist, but just seeing her set an example makes me convinced that women can do anything so long as they have belief in themselves … Her ability to look after and protect my sister and myself made us always feel optimistic about life. It allowed me to make decisions, both good and bad, and not feel restricted," she said.
Next Stacy Keibler will not return to the wrestling world!


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Author: Joel
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Fantasy Basketball: James Harden – Fantasy MVP
March 31, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	| 5 Comments
by: Joel
Not only was James Harden the only player to stay healthy for the entirety of the fantasy basketball playoffs, but he has also been putting up insane lines. Last night he went 7-50-11-10-0-0-3 on 13-of-31 shooting and 17-of-18 FTs. You must feel like a fool if you didn't draft this man number one overall. He's the clear cut top fantasy player, and he didn't take any rest days in the crucial games of the fantasy season, unlike pretty much every other relevant player in the league. For most of us, today is the last day of the fantasy basketball season, and we are sad. Many of us have mentally moved on to fantasy baseball, but for one last day let's reflect on the fantasy season that was, and enjoy one last day of fantasy basketball before the inevitability of the Warriors championship run commences. Here's what went down last night in the NBA:
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Fantasy Basketball: Bam Kicks it Up a Notch
March 24, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	|
It's crunch time fantasy ballers! These are the games that make or break your season. A lot of guys who have been reliable stat-stuffers all season disappear or are rested down the stretch and waiver pickups come up with career performances. Bam Adebayo has been fairly reliable for a while, but came up huge last night going 16-11-8-0-4-5 on 6-of-11 shooting and 4-for-4 from the line. Hassan Whiteside is in Eric Spoelstra's doghouse for one reason or another, which has opened the door for Bam to flourish. It's all about the adds and drops at this point, so I'm not gonna get into all the big-name superstars. So let's dive on into the daily notes, and the game-changing performances in the fantasy basketball playoffs. BAM!
Fantasy Basketball: Maxi Pads His Stats and Brunson Turns on the Burners
Alright! Who's still rockin' in the playoffs? Some of us got screwed over by late-season injuries and will forever curse the names of the players who hurt themselves and cost us hundreds of dollars and bragging rights amongst our friends. With the season winding down and fantasy playoffs in full swing, there are many players who are suddenly becoming fantasy-relevant down the stretch. The Mavericks have fallen out of playoff contention, but fantasy owners are monitoring them closely because they have some juicy pickups. Maxi Kleber went 3-18-12-1-0-1-0 on 5-of-11 shooting and 5-for-5 FTs and Jalen Brunson went 4-22-4-2-0-0-0 on 8-of-18 shooting and 2-for-2 FTs. Both of these guys have suddenly become viable options, especially with the Mavericks playing four games next week. Brunson has been ballin' over his last five averaging 21.2 points and 5.6 assists with really nice peripherals. I would definitely add him if he's somehow available and would strongly consider adding Kleber if you have something to lose. There's only two weeks left for most of us, so if a guy's not producing, or you're like me and lost Malcolm Brogdon, it's time to cut bait and make a pickup.Here's what else went down in the NBA last night:
Fantasy Basketball: Towns Down
For some of us fantasy basketball players, this week doesn't matter much. We've locked up our playoff spots and are just waiting for them to begin. For others, these last few games are critical to seeding. If you own Karl-Anthony Towns, you've most likely locked up a playoff spot by now, because he's been a beast all year. If that's your situation, you probably just wanted the game last night between the T-Wolves and the Wizards to come to an end, but it went into OT and KAT hurt his knee in the waning moments of the game. Although it doesn't seem to be serious, he is still headed for an MRI and the Wolves could play it safe with him given their place in the standings. This is obviously bad news if your playoffs start next week and you don't have a first-round bye. Towns played exceptionally well prior to the injury going 4-40-16-2-2-1-1 on 15-of-25 shooting and 6-for-6 from the line. More will be known in the coming days regarding his knee, but this would be the worst possible timing, as he's been cruising all year.
On a lighter note, here's what else went down last night in the NBA:
Fantasy Basketball: Favors Tutti Frutties on Rudy
March 3, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	| 2 Comments
It must be hard to be the second fiddle night in and night out. Constantly being ignored and written off while your teammate garners all the praise. I think the most obvious dynamic duo of this kind in the NBA is Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. A slightly less obvious one is the front court duo of Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert. Gobert almost always has a better fantasy line and puts up the gaudier defensive numbers and Favors' stats would easily benefit if Rudy were to go down with an injury or if he was on another team. Well, for one glorious night, Robin saved Batman and got the villain. Favors went off for the line of 23-18-0-1-3-2 on 10-of-12 shooting and 3-of-4 from the line and led the Jazz to a victory over the Bucks. Derrick Favors is a man who has enjoyed a solid, if unspectacular NBA career. He's one of the few remaining players who have played for the New Jersey Nets, a team I remember fondly. He's actually been with Utah for nine years and has been a staple in the starting lineup for pretty much all of that time. He's shooting a career best 57.8% FGs and is having his best blocks season since 2016. So today, take a second to think about the sous-chef, the vice president, the Derrick Favors' of the world and how important they really are.
Fantasy Basketball: Russell and Flow
February 24, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	|
I've got to admit. I was a D'Angelo Russell hater before he came to the Nets. The incident where he exposed Nick Young as a cheater by filming him, talking about it, and posting it on social media made me think he was kind of a bonehead and a snitch. I also thought he was a guy who would never meet the expectations of being the number two overall draft pick. I also, was not a fan of his game from a fantasy perspective. He turned it over too much and he had poor shooting percentages, both from the field and the line, while contributing almost nothing in the way of D stats. However, since being traded to the Nets I have changed my tune on him, especially this season. He made a huge improvement in his FTs, going from 74% last season to 81.8% this season. He also upped his assists by 1.5 while not adding too many turnovers, and upped his scoring by nearly 5 points. He has also shown the ability to absolutely take over games and last night was one of those nights. D-Loading went 6-40-1-7-2-1-4 on 14-of-31 shooting and 6-for-6 from the line. It was also his 23rd birthday, so as a Nets fan I felt compelled to give him the lede. It's hard to believe he's already a four-year veteran, but that's what happens with these one-and-done guys. They also can take some time to fully download.
There was a huge slate of games last night so let's dive on in to the daily notes!
Fantasy Basketball: Here's to You, Mitchell Robinson
February 10, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	| 4 Comments
Koo-koo-ka-choo, Mitchell Robinson, Fizdale loves you more than you will know. Last night he went 15-7-0-0-3-0 on 7-of-9 shooting and made his lone FT. Played 22 minutes off the bench against the Raptors, and the Knicks almost pulled off the improbable victory. The infusion of new talent has given them a boost and for their sakes, I hope they don't win too many games and miss out on Zion Williamson. That being said, there should be plenty of opportunities for the young guns to get playing time to show they're worthy of a roster spot next year. One Knick, who's part of the future plans is Robison. He's averaging two blocks on the season in under 18 minutes per game. He's also "shooting" nearly 70% on the year. His one caveat is the 51.7% FTs. He's really in the DeAndre Jordan ilk, which makes the addition of Jordan seem like a smart move by the Knickerbockers. Hopefully, he can mentor the rook and show him how to become a great NBA center. If he listens to his free throw shooting advice, he'll be shooting 67.7% by his 11th season. Not too shabby! Anyway, here's what else went down in the NBA last night:
Fantasy Basketball: Beasley Scores a Measly 22, but Morris Brings the Full Monte
February 3, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	| 8 Comments
Malik Beasley has been outstanding for about a month now and he continued his hot streak last night going 4-22-2-0-2-0-1 on 9-of-14 shooting. Over the last six games, he's averaged 21.7 points on a 60.5% shooting clip with 3.3 3's per game. Meanwhile, Monte Morris has been playing great right along with him and went 1-17-7-10-1-0-1 on 7-of-13 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line. Over his last three game he's averaged 18.3 points and 8.3 assists in 39.3 minutes per game. Once Jamal Murray and Gary Harris return, their roles are sure to be reduced, but it might be wise of the Nuggets if they move some of their players at the trade deadline to bring in some bigger names. So, it may be worth holding these guys until after Thursday to see what transpires, and they may even hold a bit of value once Nuggets get fully healthy, if that ever happens…
It was a huge slate in the NBA last night so let's get into it. Here's what went down last night:
Fantasy Basketball: Lillard Out, Blazers Still Rout
January 27, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	|
Damian Lillard got the night off in Portland to get some well deserved rest, and the rest of the Blazers all got a decided boost; none more than CJ McCollum, who went 2-28-10-10-1-0-3 on 10-of-23 shooting and 6-for-7 from the line. This was CJ's first career triple-double and just shows he's more of a complete player than people thought. He still didn't give you much in the way of defensive stats, but this will probably go down as one of his best stat-lines of the season. Just keep in mind if Lillard misses any other games, CJ and the rest of his Blazer Buddies become viable DFS options. It was a pretty short schedule for a Saturday night with only five games. I guess with no real NFL games in the week before the Super Bowl, they wanted to stack Sunday, with no competition from football. Anyway, there is still a lot to get into so without further ado, here's what else went down last night:
Fantasy Basketball: Not Another Harden Article
January 20, 2019	| 2018 Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Basketball Daily Notes	| 3 Comments
If your fantasy team had the misfortune of facing James Harden this week, my condolences. Thoughts and prayers go out to you and you family. You ran into the buzzsaw. I would know, I was one of them. Last night Harden went 8-48-8-6-4-1-6 on 14-of-30 shooting and 12-of-15 from the line in his worst scoring performance of the week. In three games this past week, he went 19-163-27-14-7-3-15. To be fair, there were two overtime games so his numbers got a slight boost, but this is probably the greatest three-game scoring performance in recent memory. RIP to my fantasy team. On a lighter note, here's what else went down in the NBA last night:
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Welcome to the new look MRyan Photography website!
This new website will allow me to tell you the story of my photography adventures, taking you behind the scenes and giving you a more in-depth view into my shoots.
There is a new addition that allows you to comment and leave me feedback on my blog posts. Please feel free to do so! Feel free to browse through my Gallery and be sure to follow me on the social media links on the right.
City2Surf with the Heart Foundation.


The country's economy plays a vital factor on the prices of various commodities including property prices. When the economy is at its peak, real estate owners can get a good deal on their property as people can afford it or is able to get finance from various funding companies. The rise of income results to a higher percentage of profits which can be earned. The economy affects every aspect of financial doings in a place. This would also be a driving force on the rates of property.
Another reason for the rise in property is also the fact that financial companies or mortgage companies are always eager to provide finance and order to generate more revenue for their company. They have now become comparatively lenient towards the qualifying criteria's for people to obtain mortgage loans. They come up with various schemes for people who are looking out for mortgage loans. These schemes make can be very helpful for people. One of the most common schemes that are offered is low interest rates in comparison to the market.
The geographic location of the property also plays a vital role in the price of the property. When a property is located is a location that is at a peak in terms of popularity or crowd, the rates of properties in that location can touch the sky. Similarly, if a property is present in a location that is growing, then that can also be the reason for why property prices may rise. There are also some people who prefer a location that is away from the crowd, then they would want to opt for a property that is located a little outskirts from the city or even way inside. It totally depends on the person's choice as to where they would want to buy a property.
Now-a-days, there are different facilities which are provided when a person goes to buy a property. Be it in the form of a club house with all the latest gym equipments, gaming areas like tennis, badminton, squash courts etc., to even up to date security gadgets which enhance the safety of the people living in the vicinity. They all contribute towards the overall cost of the price that would be set for each property that is going to be sold.
Another important player that plays a role is the nearby access to different facilities. This would include shopping malls, medical care centers, educational facilities, parks and gardens, cinema theatres etc. Apart from this, the ability to find public transport also plays an essential role. When you live in a place where these things are easily accessible, it makes life very easy and simple for a person to live. The locality also depends on the kind of crowd you would want to live in. For example, if you are a family man, then you would want to shift in a place where your children and family would be more comfortable to live at.Apart from the above mentioned five reasons for Rising property prices in India, there are also various other contributing factors which influence the prices of property. These five reasons are the main driving force what determines the overall price of any property be it big or small.
Written By: Ruchika Khanna | Author Bio: The writer of the article is an expert in analyzing the contributing factors that influence the real estate market. In this article, the writer has provided a brief insight on some of the factors that influence the overall cost of a property.


(As I have held the Cabinet Portfolio for Adult Social Care in the previous two OCC Administrations I am very aware just how important this investment and increase will be. We are all living longer and many of us with complex health needs).
(This investment is needed and with pressures being experienced not only in Adult Social Care but equally in Children, Education and Families I am pleased that due to wise financial management we are able to do this – unlike other local authorities which you will have read about and heard about both in the local media and nationally).
Twenty-nine organisations have been recommended to receive grants from the county council's adult social care Sustainability Fund. The fund was established last year as part of measures designed to enable the ongoing delivery of daytime support services in Oxfordshire. A grant pot of £250,000 was approved for 2019/20 and community and voluntary organisations were invited to apply for the fund between September 12 and November 2. To allocate the funding to as many organisations as possible, a panel of county councillors and people representing daytime services recommended that a maximum level of 70 per cent of the amount awarded in 2018/19 should be made where applicable. Among those services recommended for funding are Day Break Oxford (£50,000), Age UK (£27,500), October Club (£14,000) and Aspire (£12,500) and last but, by no means least the Faringdon Bromsgrove Day Centre will receive a grant of £5,000. Applications totalling £244,847 went before Cabinet on December 18.
SPECIFIC REPORT FOR THE FARINGDON DIVISION I have attended the two Faringdon Community College Presentation Evenings in December. I presented two prizes on 12th December – a personal prize from myself the "Judith Gillett – Personal Endeavour prize" and the prize for the best student performance at GCSE level from the Faringdon Education Activities Trust (FEAT). The second event on 19th December was the Presentation Evening for the 6th Form, and here I presented the FEAT prize for the best performance at A-level. I thoroughly enjoy attending these evenings – meeting the young people and hearing about their ambitions. We should be very proud of Faringdon Community College.
This last month there has been a raised level of unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller encampments in the City of Oxford and the County of Oxfordshire's Park & Ride facilities. These have created significant and demanding amounts of work for our Gypsy and Traveller Team based in Bicester. The G&T Team sit within my Cabinet Portfolio and I met, just before the Christmas holiday, Thames Valley Police representatives, G&T officers and officers responsible for the Park & Ride facilities (from both the City and County) together with legal representation from both authorities to discuss and put in place a strategy going forward.
On 4th and 5th December I was in Carterton as the Cabinet Member for Community Safety to attend on the Tuesday evening, the first drill night and then on the Wednesday morning the official opening of Oxfordshire's 25th fire station; part of the county council's commitment to residents' safety – the first new fire station in the county this century. The previous opened as a replacement in Eynsham in 1985. The new facility complements fire stations in Burford, Bampton and Witney, giving Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service greater call-out flexibility.
I have Chaired the Faringdon Area Traffic Advisory Committee meeting on 7th December – this group meets quarterly. On the agenda there is a slot for public speaking and folk to attend to speak on their concerns. The next meeting is on 1st March in the Faringdon Community Centre/Pump House and opens at 0930.
My next surgery in the Faringdon Library at 1000-1130 is on Saturday 2nd February if you wish to attend. I can also be reached by telephone on 01367 241468 or by email on Judith.heathcoat@oxfordshire.gov.uk.
Councillor Roger Cox Faringdon ward Vale of the White Horse January 2019 → ← Coring works are programmed in for Wednesday the 30th of January, off peak on Gravel Walk.


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Distance Hugs: My Self-Reg Stumbling Block
School's over. And with distance learning for the past three months, and "school" operating through a computer or tablet screen since the end of March, these words seem to take on a very different meaning. My teaching partner, Paula, and I only entered the school building a couple of times since March 13th. We found out last week, that we had some days available to go into the classroom, pack up belongings, and organize the classroom for whatever school environment next year might bring. On Monday, while we were there, a mom came by with her children to drop off a present. Think porch drop-off but in a kindergarten pen instead.
Paula and I were initially nervous heading outside to see the family. How could we avoid a hug goodbye? How could our child? It was amazing to see what happened though. After mom put down the presents, she told her kids to step back so that we could get them, and they did. Then they suggested "air hugs." Our amazing SK child, showed how to wrap his arms together in the air to pass a big hug off to both of us. I had a Care Bear moment. It's almost like we're beaming hugs across the sky to the people standing 6 feet away.
This experience had me thinking, as I wonder a lot about the future of hugs. As a kindergarten educator, hugs are often a big part of our day.
Kids use hugs to connect with others.
They greet us in the morning with a hug.
They look for a hug when they're sad, scared, angry, tired, or hurt.
Hugs comfort many of our students, especially in that first month of school, when leaving home is one of the hardest things that they have to do.
Some of our children are three-years-old when they start kindergarten. Still toddlers. Competent and capable three-year-olds indeed, but ones that often crave that physical connection. For other children, it will have been over 5 months since they've last left home. Entered a school building. Looked to an educator or friend for support instead of to a parent. How do we comfort from a distance, and for some of our young learners, will an "air hug" hold as much value as an in-person hug? I learned from Stuart Shanker and Susan Hopkins about the value in that physical touch for some individuals. In the time of COVID, what might the absence of this connection mean from a Self-Reg perspective? What could be a possible "hug replacement?" Over the summer, I'm sure to be doing a lot of thinking about next year.
What might classrooms look like?
What might learning look like?
What changes might we need to consider?
How do we make the impossible, possible, and what's needed to make this happen?
But on a small, but really important, scale, I'm also going to be thinking about hugs. A September without them in a room full of kindergarteners seems like our first big hurdle to overcome. Many things can be modified to exist six feet apart or on a screen, but is a hug one of them?
Previously our Portal Plus Moderator and now our Co-Reg Community Facilitator, Aviva Dunsiger has been an active Self-Reg blogger for a number of years. She has taught everything from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and enjoys blogging about her teaching and learning experiences. She blogs professionally on her blog, Living Avivaloca.
Stress and The Evolving Teenaged Brain: A Study in Contrasts
by John Hoffman | Jan 15, 2021 | Self-Reg Blog
In the last 20 years or so people have really latched on to the idea that teenaged brains are not fully developed. Good thing to talk about. But...
We're Online. Now What? Self-Reg Realities In Our Physical And Virtual Classrooms.
by Aviva Dunsiger | Jan 11, 2021 | Self-Reg Blog
In Southern Ontario, elementary school students are about to enter their second week of remote learning. Last Sunday, Aaron Puley, a vice principal...
A Grinchmas Christmas … Or My Self-Reg Conundrum
by Aviva Dunsiger | Dec 21, 2020 | Self-Reg Blog
Every Who down in Whoville liked "special days" a lot, Except for their teachers, Crockett and Dunsiger, Who often did not. These days seem so...
Self-Reg Foundations Certificate Program
Our flagship Self-Reg Foundations Certificate Program has been a game-changer for thousands of learners, bringing them to an entirely new understanding of what makes people tick. Join Stuart Shanker and Susan Hopkins as they take you deep into the science of self-regulation and stress, including the brain/body stress system, how stress affects children's behaviour and the importance of relationships in self-regulation and learning.
Our next cohort starts March 4!