EducationQuest Foundation provides free online tools that will help you find the right college, figure out how to pay for college and complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Check them out.
SOCS has teamed up with Inceptia, a private, not-for-profit organization, to teach you personal finance basics in an engaging environment through Inceptia's online financial education program, Financial Avenue.
Financial Avenue offers a range of online courses to help you gain life-long knowledge about personal money management.
EducationQuest Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve access to higher education in Nebraska. Headquartered in Lincoln, EducationQuest provides free college planning services, need-based scholarships, grants that help high schools increase their college-going rate, and outreach services for community agencies statewide.
SOCS, Simplified Online Communication System, is provided by the Foundation for Educational Services, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our goal is to simplify life for those whom we serve nationwide with leading-edge online communication tools and efficient websites supported by world-class customer support. SOCS is the source for nonprofits' professional online image and tools for mission fulfillment.
Inceptia, a division of National Student Loan Program (NSLP), is dedicated to providing much-needed support to help schools effectively fulfill their new roles and responsibilities. Through comprehensive data analysis, financial education, default prevention and financial aid management, we are confident we can help all students, not just borrowers, become financially responsible adults. We are here to make it possible for more schools to launch brilliant futures.


The Stranglers play Woking, Central Halls, UK tonight.
Blondie's label Private Stock Records is busy filling orders for the new debut LP 'Blondie'. Cuts include 'X-Offender', 'In The Flesh', 'Rip Her To Shreds' and 'Attack of the Killer Ants' . Several in the New York music scene find it funny that this most unlikely band are beginning to succeed where so many have failed. But the others don't lead singer Debbie Harrys photogenic looks?


Biology's Etymology - Whether it is when watching, listening or reading that medical drama or a visit to the doctor or hospital, the terminology used can be baffling in the extreme. That they know what they are talking about is all we need to know, for that is not what this talk is about. Here we are looking at the terms used by the majority, those without a medical grounding. This talk examines the parts of the body through the names with which we are so familiar. Who first thought of the term 'head', 'foot', 'finger', 'muscle', 'bone'? Did the heart become known as such because it was seen as central to life, or did this develop the other way around? And what about ailments and diseases? Were chickens really the inspiration of 'chickenpox'? And who thought 'chillblanes' an apt description of the ailment? An explanation of where these terms originated, how they developed and why they remain commonplace today. Many of the answers are surprising and more than a few amusing. There is also the opportunity to ask specific examples, especially for those who need to know the origins of those parts not included in the talk.


Joe remembered a puzzle he solved years ago. In an alley, two ladders, each with their feet against the base of a wall, were leaning against the opposite wall. The distances (whole numbers of centimetres) above the ground where they touched the walls were given, and Joe had to calculate how high above the ground the ladders crossed. The answer was 105 centimetres. He also calculated that the ladders could have been 315 centimetres and 261 centimetres long. What was the width of the alley?
WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 5 September. The Editor's decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1709, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to enigma@newscientist.com (please include your postal address).
Climate change: The great civilisation destroyer?


Hatcher, P.J., Hulme, C., and Ellis, A.W. (1994). Ameliorating early reading failure by integrating the teaching of reading and phonological skills: The phonological linkage hypothesis. Child Development, 65, 41-57.
Goetz, K., Hulme, C., Brigstocke, S., Carroll, J.M., Nasir, L., and Snowling, M.J. (2008). Training reading and phoneme awareness skills in children with Down syndrome. Reading and Writing, 21, 395-412.


text:
Depending on the Melting Pot
To combat the state's disinvestment in higher education, UC Berkeley's financial model has shifted to become more dependent on out-of-state and international student tuition.
Michael Drummond/Senior Staff
David Marn, a freshman at UC Berkeley from Slovenia, studies in Doe Library. Efforts to counter shrinking state funding of higher education have led to an increased dependence on out-of-state and international student tuition.
To combat the state's disinvestment in higher education, UC Berkeley's financial model has shifted to become more dependent on out-of-state and international student tuition.
Regents discuss UC's financial outlook and implications on future tuition increases
The UC Board of Regents analyzed California's 2014-15 budget Wednesday, raising concerns among students, regents and others about the university's financial outlook, which could have major implications for student tuition and fees.
Service and patient-care workers union, UC negotiate through strike authorization vote
The university and its service and patient care worker union negotiated into the night Wednesday as the second day of the union's strike authorization vote came to an end.
Dear UC president: hear student voices
Janet Napolitano, In two days, you will visit UC Berkeley for your first official campus visit since becoming president, completing the final stop of your "listening and learning" tour of the UC system. As the democratically elected student representative for UC Berkeley's 35,000 students and as co-chair of the Council
Napolitano discusses tuition, aid for student groups in webcast with students Tuesday
UC President Janet Napolitano hosted a webchat with a variety of students Tuesday, fielding concerns about tuition, aid for student groups and the status of her announced plans for the university since taking office in late September.
Brown fills two vacancies on UC Board of Regents, reappoints two others
Gov. Jerry Brown announced the appointment of four individuals to the UC Board of Regents Jan. 17.
Napolitano to host live web chat with UC students
UC President Janet Napolitano will be holding a live web chat with UC students on Jan. 28 to outline her priorities as president and listen to concerns from the UC community.
Brown says UC on track for a 'gigantic tuition increase'
UC Regents unlikely to get extra $120 million in state funding, according to governor
Gov. Jerry Brown handed the UC Board of Regents what he called a "reality sandwich" Thursday, saying if the university doesn't change its long-term approach to financial planning, students will face a massive tuition hike in the near future.
UC breaks fundraising record with $1.64 billion this year
The UC garnered a record high $1.64 billion in donations, marking the 13th consecutive year that the university has drawn in over $1 billion from private sources.
Protesters at UC Regents meeting demand Napolitano's removal
The cries of protesters at the November meeting of the UC Regents escalated to screams Tuesday as students and activists demanded that Janet Napolitano step down from her position as UC president.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Photo Credit: Idris Elba - LUTHER
Winner of Inaugural Idris Elba/Lionsgate UK Screenwriting Contest Announced (Project Put Into Development)
Idris Elba – "Luther" / BBC America
In June, Idris Elba's Green Door Pictures production banner teamed up with Lionsgate UK to launch a screenwriting competition for UK residents who want to get into the TV drama series writing business.
Named the "Write to Green Light initiative," the contest aims to discover new voices for television in the UK, and will draw from a pool of UK resident writers with their own original material.
For the inaugural edition of the contest, 10 scripts were shortlisted from all entries received, from which three finalists scripts were selected for a live reading in London. The winning script, which was announced at an event last night, will see the winning writer receive a paid option with Elba's Green Door and Lionsgate UK to develop their script as a series for production.
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Elba, along with Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa, were members of a panel of industry experts who judge the entries.
The competition was/is open to both experienced writers with professional credits and writers with no professional credits at all.
Announced last night, Elba's company and Lionsgate UK will develop a drama series based on the winning script, "Sin of God" from writer Matthew Kirton, the up-and-comer who won the competition.
"Sin of God" tells the story of a man with a dark past who comes back from the dead. In addition to seeing his script developed as a series, and as part of his winnings, Kirton will ink a development deal with Elba's Green Door shingle.
Kirton was announced the winner at an event held at London's Savoy Hotel in which a section of his work, and that of the two other finalists, was recreated live for an industry audience.
"The caliber of talent on show this evening has been outstanding, and we are grateful that so many key decision makers and influential members of the television industry came and offered their support," Elba said last night. "In my opinion all three scripts are worthy of development and we can't wait to start working with Matthew on 'Sin of God.' We are excited to be partnering with Lionsgate UK on 'Write to Green Light' to search out and support new TV voices. We are proud to support new and diverse talent at Green Door Pictures and look forward to discovering fresh writing voices, through this competition, to add to the family."
The other two project finalists were "Cleo," described as an urban take on the story of Cleopatra, from writer Lauren Sequeira; and a mass murderer story "We are Your Children," from writer Ryan Brown.
No word on whether the other finalists will receive consolation prizes of any kind; also no ETA on "Sin of God" as a potential series.


text:
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The Mendocino County Republican Central Committee will meet Saturday, May 20th, at the Willits City Hall, 111 E Commercial St, Willits, CA 95490 . At 10:00 am Sharp we will have Tom Allman our Sheriff as a guest speaker on the PROs and Cons of the Sanctuary State and City, Tom will answer questions after the short talk. Our regular MCRCC meeting will begin around 10:30am. Our meet and greet will be at the Brickhouse 9:00 am before the meeting. To carpool, let us know.


text:
Q: Rails app displaying javascript response as text when in production but not when in development I am responding to a submission of one of my forms with a .js.erb response. When I am in development mode, the response is rendered perfectly - it either changes the user's window location if the operation was successful or displays the errors in a div if there were errors in the operation.
When I am in production mode, the text for the javascript is rendered in my browser, so instead of getting redirected, my browser will just display: "window.location.replace("/admin/seating_charts")"
Turbolinks is disabled, so that couldn't be the culprit. I have no clue what is going on with this.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In 1997, archaeologists Sharon Herbert and Andrea Berlin began an excavation project at Tel Kedesh, an enormous mound located in the rural interior of Israel's Upper Galilee region. More than a decade later, they have completed the first phase of their work and reflect on how the site brought them a story far different from the one they had gone looking for.
Northern Israel, a region with multiple border zones, has seen its share of modern conflict. But a picture of what life was like on this border in antiquity, especially during the period from Alexander the Great through the revolt against Rome (ca. 330 B.C.�A.D. 70), also years of political and religious unrest, remained undrawn. In the mid-1990s, as we were each finishing long-term projects in Israel, we realized that Tel Kedesh was the perfect place to investigate this question. Ancient sources repeatedly describe it as a border site—between Canaanites and Israelites in biblical times and between Phoenicians and Jews in the classical period. Today it lies along the Israeli-Lebanese border, a location that saw several dramatic battles during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Tel Kedesh is enormous—more than half a mile north to south. It is a double mound, with an upper tell occupied since the Early Bronze Age (3150�2300 B.C.) and a plateau-like lower tell likely constructed in the Middle Bronze Age (2300�1550 B.C.). Since our research interests focused on a relatively short period in the site's long history, we hoped to devise a strategy that would allow us to reach those levels rapidly. In 1997, we began by surveying the entirety of the lower tell along two broad north-south and east-west transects. Next we excavated two small test trenches to discover the site's uppermost geological profile, as well as the depth and preservation of Hellenistic remains. The nature of what we found—which we expected to be largely soil or a random array of rocks—would help determine which type of remote sensing technique would be most effective.
To our surprise, less than three feet below the surface, we found ourselves in a room with more than 20 intact vessels and household objects scattered on the floor. The pots dated to the second century B.C., the heart of the Hellenistic period. There must have been a particular reason why so many complete items had been abandoned, but based on the evidence available at the time, the remains in the room could not be related to a specific historical event.
The test trenches also revealed intact limestone walls of exactly the type that would show up best in a magnetometric survey, which we carried out on the lower tell in February 1998. The resulting map showed something wholly unexpected—an approximately 20,000-square-foot outline at the tell's southeastern corner, just to the east of the room we'd uncovered the year before. A single structure of this size ought to be palatial or administrative, but no ancient historical source mentions Kedesh as a place of such importance.
In 1999, knowing that we needed to explore that huge outline and determine if it were one building or groups of smaller structures, we began our first full excavation season. Digging in the opposing southeastern and northwestern corners revealed that it was one enormous complex. The room next to the northwestern corner had a plastered floor, several wine jars from the Greek island of Rhodes, and 14 huge jars, almost five feet tall each, leaning against the walls. With permission from the Israel Antiquities Authority, we took the broken bottoms of two jars back to the United States for residue analysis and discovered phytoliths—mineral secretions left by plants after they decay—of Triticum aestivum (bread wheat). It was clear that this building had been a storeroom for wine and grain—lots of grain. Each jar held almost 25 gallons, which, once ground into flour, would produce about 150 loaves of bread.
Additional surprises came to light around the corner where we found more than 40 amphoriskoi (small, two-handled flasks) and about 1,500 tiny stamped clay lumps, or bullae. The bullae carry images including those of Greek deities, Seleucid kings, and animals and symbols. They have string holes through the sides and the neat linear impressions of papyrus on the back, both indications that they originally sealed rolled-up papyrus documents. The quantity of bullae in the room indicated that it once housed a sizeable archive. While none of the documents survive, the bullae themselves provide clues about who sent the texts and who officially approved them.
Archaeologists joke that the most important discoveries occur on the last days of an excavation season, and that's exactly what happened: We found the bullae with less than a week to go in 1999. There was no time to clean them all or finish excavating the room in which they'd been found, so these were the top priorities when we returned the next summer. By the end of the season, the total number of excavated bullae was more than 2,000. We christened this the Hellenistic Administrative Building, on the basis of the granary and the archive, both administrative features.
The hundreds of useful objects that were left behind in the building, including more than 20 Rhodian wine jars, continued to confirm our first impression, from 1997, that it had been abandoned very quickly. The wine vessels have handles stamped with the names of officials, each of whose tenures can be dated with great accuracy. The latest jars date to 144 or 143 B.C. According to 1 Maccabees 11:63�73, at that time there was a battle in the valley below the Kedesh plateau between the Hasmonean leader Jonathan (the Hasmoneans were a family of high priests and kings who ruled the Jewish state of Judea between 167 and 37 B.C.) and the Seleucid king Demetrius. Jonathan's forces pursued the Seleucids to Kedesh, killed many, and camped there for several days before leaving for Jerusalem. It appears that the hastily abandoned remains found throughout the building are a result of that battle.
The Second Intifada, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence that began in September 2000 and ended in 2005, derailed excavation plans for 2001. In fact, we were unable to return to the site for five years. Beginning again in 2006, we had four productive excavation seasons that produced many incredible finds and advanced our understanding of the building. In 1999 and 2000, we had found broken column shafts from an earlier structure incorporated into the walls of the Hellenistic building. Further excavation almost 10 years later in the structure's eastern half uncovered two long foundations with circles lightly incised on the stones. These were, in effect,"setting marks" for placing the columns, allowing us to reconstruct a colonnaded entry court that belonged to that earlier building phase. Associated pottery and small finds date to the Achaemenid Persian period (ca. 540�332 B.C.). Thus we renamed the structure the Persian-Hellenistic Administrative Building and dated its initial construction to 500 B.C., when the Persian king Cyrus permitted exiled Judeans in Babylon to return to Jerusalem, as told in Ezra 1.
Several special finds reflect the character of the culture that inhabited the region at the time. These include a beautifully carved green jasper scarab with a helmeted oriental head (right); two small conical glass stamp seals, both likely worn as amulets, each with a version of the Master of Animals motif long popular in the Near East; and, finally, a clay bulla that had been stamped by a seal whose Neo-Babylonian style and design appear on many seals in a late fifth-century B.C. commercial archive discovered in the Mesopotamian city of Nippur in 1893. Our current hypothesis is that the Persian-period building belonged to well-connected officials from Tyre and that it functioned as both an agricultural depot and an impressive marker of territory. The discovery of a substantial Phoenician foothold in inland Upper Galilee provides a rare opportunity to consider native life under imperial Persian rule. It also has implications for understanding the biblical authors of this era, especially the work of the Chronicler, a writer who lived in the fifth century B.C. In his retelling of the history of the Jewish people, the Chronicler also frequently reframed relationships, especially those between the kings of Judah and the kings of Phoenicia, always to the advantage of Judah. He may have been trying to imagine away the presence of this enormous, Phoenician-administered building deep within territory that earlier biblical texts identify as Israelite.
The Persian-Hellenistic Administrative Building seems to have been briefly abandoned in the late fourth century B.C., when Alexander the Great began his march down the Phoenician coast. But after a short period of time, perhaps no more than 10 or 15 years, it was reoccupied by officials of the newly empowered empire of Ptolemaic Egypt. From this point on, from approximately 300 B.C. until the battle between Jonathan and Demetrius in 144 or 143 B.C., the building was continuously occupied and often remodeled to suit its various inhabitants. By the end of our 2010 season, about 75 percent of these Hellenistic levels had been excavated and we were able to identify what went on in the building's various sectors. A large open-air courtyard dominates the western half. To the north and west lie the granary and archive complex. South of the courtyard are utility and cooking areas. Several rooms here contain plastered bins of various shapes and sizes, perhaps for collecting and measuring agricultural products. East and north of the courtyard, three rooms form an impressive reception and dining area. Two of these have monochromatic mosaic floors, the earliest firmly dated mosaic floors yet found in Israel. The floor of the third and largest room was removed in antiquity, but we think it, too, was probably mosaic. The rooms' walls have carefully molded and brightly colored painted plaster. We also found sets of red- and black-slipped dishes that petrographic and chemical analyses indicate were imports from the area around Antioch, the Seleucid capital far to the north.
When taken all together, the archive where the bullae were found, the granary, and the collection bins all suggest the presence of imperial officials with administrative responsibilities, such as tax collecting. Taxation was an ever-present fact of life under the Hellenistic monarchies, but it's rare to find the actual location where the officials worked and collection occurred. The building's traffic patterns, which we have been able to reconstruct, show limited access between working areas and the reception rooms. In the former we found mostly plain pottery for cooking, food preparation, and storage, while in the latter we uncovered beautiful dishes and decorated lamps to adorn dining tables. Visiting officials may have carried documents to Kedesh and then enjoyed a fine meal before going on their way.
After six years of excavation, we thought we knew the site completely, and yet, the last day of our last field season still had one incredible surprise in store. While we were preparing for aerial photography, a student spotted a large, perfectly round disk in some soil that had accumulated on the eastern wall of the granary. Although the disk was covered in dirt, a bright glint along one of its edges caught his eye. Upon picking up the artifact, he knew immediately from its heft that he was holding a solid gold coin. When he brought the coin to our attention, we were able to identify it as a mnaieion (a one-mina coin, equivalent to 100 silver drachmas, or a mina of silver) of the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy V, struck in the year 191�190 B.C. at the imperial mint of Kition on Cyprus. The mnaieion is the largest gold coin ever found in Israel and only the second example of this issue found anywhere.
The appearance of this coin at Kedesh is a reflection of the period's power politics. By the time of its issue, the Seleucid kings controlled this portion of the southern Levant, having won it after a series of wars against the Ptolemies, the Macedonian kings of Egypt who ruled from 305 to 30 B.C. Nonetheless, for approximately the first 20 years of their rule, the Seleucids maintained the region as a Ptolemaic monetary zone, probably as a kind of diplomatic courtesy. Their actions may also have been intended to maintain market confidence, communicating that despite the change in ruling regimes, the older currency would still be honored. The gold mnaieion was certainly not a coin used as regular currency—it was simply too large in value. It might have belonged to a high-ranking Ptolemaic official, who would have traveled to Kedesh to meet with one of his Seleucid counterparts and brought the coin as a diplomatic gift. The findspot within a wall of the granary suggests that it had been stolen and hidden, likely by somebody who worked in this part of the complex.
We originally came to Tel Kedesh to investigate life on the border more than 2,000 years ago. No ancient author recorded an official presence here and it occupied an area and a time outside the pages of history. Tel Kedesh, until 1997, remained unexcavated and the surrounding region largely unexplored. Our curiosity about this border area led to the discovery of a building of enormous size and complexity, and its expensive decoration and the variety and quantity of artifacts uncovered have revealed a dominating administrative presence in the Kedesh valley and the Upper Galilee lasting nearly 350 years. Now that the excavation phase of the project is at an end and we work through the thousands of objects we discovered, we are asking questions that only archaeological evidence can answer: How did provincial elites and the workers who catered to them live? What was the relationship between this official collection complex and nearby settlements? Did status items and the cosmopolitan culture they represent trickle out, or did local officials live in a kind of elite bubble, with their own supplies of specialty goods? And perhaps most interesting, how do the social, economic, and cultural conditions reflected in the architecture and artifacts relate to periods of political calm and turmoil? As we turn from the excitement of excavation to the necessity of final report writing, we must now shift our focus from looking for artifacts to looking for answers.
Andrea Berlin is a professor of archaeology at Boston University; at the time of the Tel Kedesh field seasons she was at the University of Minnesota. Sharon Herbert is a professor of archaeology at the University of Michigan.


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BREAKING: Packers Defensive Coach Close to Deal with New Team
Home»Sports»Brewers»Brewers and Cubs: A Rivalry Story
Brewers and Cubs: A Rivalry Story
By Wendi Hansen April 5, 2021 Updated: November 3, 2021 No Comments6 Mins Read
Ahhhh, rivalries.
You gotta love them.
Whether it's because of geographical proximity, a history of battled competition or the strong and often heated opinions of the fans, great rivalries develop over time. You can't create a rivalry by simply writing that it is one. It has to be felt, proven, and solidified over years and years of heartbreaking losses, close calls, bad calls, heckling, and season-defining moments that can and will absolutely wreck you.
I'm not not talking from personal experience here. Definitely not not.
Growing up in Wisconsin, I quickly learned who I cheered for and who I didn't. But that's how most sports teams' fandoms begin, right? They're often a product of our environment, influenced by our hometowns, our family, and our friends. But that eventually blossoms into a deep source of pride and personal love.
At least that's what happened to me.
Wisconsin sports were like a second religion for my family. Our "Sunday best" consisted of Packers green and gold and every Brewers Opening Day was considered a holiday. Just like learning my ABCs and arithmetic, I was taught from a very young age that when it comes to sports, Wisconsin and Illinois specifically, are on opposite sides of the coin. "Da Bears still suck," the Chicago Bulls should always "Fear the Deer," and when it comes to baseball, Brewers fans will happily look for any excuse to flying that "L" flag when playing Chicago.
"Putting the L in Rivals." Brewers fans celebrate after Milwaukee beats the Cubs 11-1 on Sept. 4, 2018 (image courtesy of Brewers Twitter).
*The Chicago Cubs have now entered the conversation*
While the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs aren't the most well-known or oldest rivalry in professional sports, they are quickly becoming the fastest.
Milwaukee and Chicago are pretty close (that's why it's known as the I-94 series) so it's common to see fans travel to support their team and get into it with rival fans. I lived in Milwaukee for just over five years and would take the train down to Wrigley to catch rivalry games as much as I could. Unfortunately, Cubs fans often do the same, filling our stadium with blue and white, and drinking all of our beer.
I still get triggered anytime Cubs fans refer to AmFam Field as 'Wrigley North.'
Get outta here with that.
But how did this now infamous rivalry start? And why? To find the answers to these questions, we're going back, back, wayyyyyyy back.
History of the Cubs and Brewers Rivalry
Two franchises battling for first place in their division. Two lakefront cities down the coast from each other with a built-in hatred based on a decades-old football rivalry between Chicago's Bears and Wisconsin's Packers. It's the stuff that great rivalries are made of.
Fans of the Brewers and Cubs have had a friendly rivalry for years. The Brewers and Cubs have met just 377 times, but the rivalry has been extremely close.
These two teams had been playing each other during Spring Training for many years before their first-ever MLB game. On June 13, 1997, the Milwaukee Brewers came into Wrigley Field and won their first game over the Chicago Cubs. Major League Baseball moved the Brewers to the National League Central Division one year later, and the rivalry began to grow.
This rivalry really took off during the 2007 and 2008 seasons however as the Cubs and Brewers were in a tight battle for the National League Central Division crown. Milwaukee and Chicago finished in a first-place tie during the regular season, and the Brewers won game 163 to win the division and advance to the playoffs.
But it didn't stop there.
During the 2018 regular season, the Brewers and Cubs played each other 20 times, including a one-game playoff for the Central Division title. The Cubs dominated the Brewers in the early part of that season, but the Brewers came roaring back in a big way. Chicago won eight of the first nine games against Milwaukee, while the Brewers countered by winning eight of the final 11 games between the rivals.
In 2018, Lorenzo Cain and Ryan Braun lead Milwaukee to a 3-1 victory and a division title for the first time since 2011 (image courtesy of The Athletic).
For the season, the Cubs won 11 games and the Brewers won nine. Milwaukee was victorious in the most important game of the 2018 season, though, beating the Cubs at Wrigley Field by a score of 3-1 to win the Central Division. To this day, that game is one that will forever live rent-free in my mind.
Epic. Just…epic.
Rivalry Incidentals
Despite everything that has happened on the field, there is also something that happened off of it that people believe help contribute to the rivalry.
Back in 2012, Brewers legend and Hall of Famer Robin Yount was quail hunting with friend and former Brewer and Cubs manager Dale Sveum when he accidentally shot him in the right ear.
An 'Ope!" moment if I ever did see one.
Sveum was okay and laughed it off as a freak accident. But that didn't stop fans of both the Brewers and Cubs to elevate their already large disdain for one another.
Predictions for the First Matchup of the Season
Our Milwaukee Brewers will take on the Chicago Cubs for their first matchup of the season with a three-game series beginning tonight, Monday, April 5th.
The Cubs definitely had the better opening series of the season between the two clubs, but they also went up against what might be the worst team in the MLB with the Pirates.
The Milwaukee Brewers on the other hand had a much more challenging time with the Minnesota Twins, who are expected to contend for an AL Central division title. The Brewers will need to get their bats going, and they have a good chance at stringing together base runners against Williams, who had a 6.18 ERA in a shortened 2020 and a 5.38 ERA in 2019. He also led the league in home runs allowed last season, so Milwaukee should be ready to swing and swing hard.
If we play our cards right, we'll be able to significantly pad our W column beginning tonight, made all the sweeter that it will be done against one of our biggest rivals.
Or as Brewers manager, Craig Counsell put it so eloquently: "Rivalry? Whatever, man. Put me in the building and let me enjoy the game. Let's have some fun and get some wins along the way."
That sounds like a fabulous plan, sir.
Wendi Hansen
'An average guy having a good season'… how many MLBers have accomplished this?
This Day in Brewers History – January 27
Brewers: Updated 2023 Spring Training NRI List
RHP Robert Stock Signs Contract With Milwaukee Brewers


The Salafi movement or Salafist movement is an ultra-conservative reform movement within Sunni Islam that references the doctrine known as Salafism. The doctrine can be summed up as taking "a fundamentalist approach to Islam, emulating the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers—al-salaf al-salih, the 'pious forefathers'...They reject religious innovation, or bida, and support the implementation of sharia (Islamic law)." The movement is often divided into three categories: the largest group are the purists (or quietists), who avoid politics; the second largest group are the activists, who get involved in politics; the smallest group are the jihadists, who form a small (yet infamous) minority.
The Salafi movement is often described as being synonymous with Wahhabism, but Salafists consider the term "Wahhabi" derogatory. At other times, Salafism has been described as a hybrid of Wahhabism and other post-1960s movements. Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam and – particularly in the West – with the Salafi jihadists, who espouse offensive jihad as a legitimate expression of Islam against those they deem to be enemies of Islam.


Are you looking for a special way to tell your spouse, significant other or kids that you love them? Andy's Frozen Custard is making that decision a little easier on the pocketbook.
On Valentine's Day, stop by Andy's Frozen Custard in the evening from 6 to 11 p.m. for Andy's Buy One Get One Free frozen custard offer.


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    this.name = null;
};
Sy.Storage.Dbal.Localstorage.prototype = Object.create(Sy.Storage.Dbal.DriverInterface.prototype, {

    /**
     * Set the database name
     *
     * @param {String} name
     *
     * @return {Sy.Storage.Dbal.Localstorage} self
     */

    setName: {
        value: function (name) {
            this.name = name;

            return this;
        }
    },

    /**
     * Set the storage connection
     *
     * @param {Storage} storage
     *
     * @return {Sy.Storage.Dbal.Localstorage} self
     */

    setConnection: {
        value: function (storage) {
            if (!(storage instanceof Storage)) {
                throw new TypeError('Invalid storage');
            }

            this.storage = storage;

            return this;
        }
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    /**
     * Set a new store
     *
     * @param {String} alias
     * @param {String} name
     * @param {String} identifier
     *
     * @return {Sy.Storage.Dbal.Localstorage} self
     */

    setStore: {
        value: function (alias, name, identifier) {
            this.stores[alias] = {
                path: name,
                key: identifier
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            return this;
        }
    },

    /**
     * Open the storage and load the data
     *
     * @return {Sy.Storage.Dbal.Localstorage} self
     */

    open: {
        value: function () {
            var data = this.storage.getItem(this.name);

            if (!data) {
                this.createStorage();
            } else {
                this.data = JSON.parse(data);
            }

            return this;
        }
    },

    /**
     * Initialize the database structure
     *
     * @private
     */

    createStorage: {
        value: function () {
            this.data = {};

            for (var store in this.stores) {
                if (this.stores.hasOwnProperty(store)) {
                    this.data[this.stores[store].path] = {};
                }
            }

            this.commit();

            return this;
        }
    },

    /**
     * Write the data to the database
     *
     * @private
     */

    commit: {
        value: function () {
            this.storage.setItem(this.name, JSON.stringify(this.data));
        }
    },

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */

    read: {
        value: function (storeName, id) {
            return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
                if (!this.stores.hasOwnProperty(storeName)) {
                    reject(new ReferenceError('Unknown store "' + storeName + '"'));
                    return;
                }

                var store = this.stores[storeName];

                if (this.data[store.path].hasOwnProperty(id)) {
                    resolve(this.data[store.path][id]);
                }
            }.bind(this));
        }
    },

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */

    create: {
        value: function (storeName, object) {
            return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
                if (!this.stores.hasOwnProperty(storeName)) {
                    reject(new ReferenceError('Unknown store "' + storeName + '"'));
                    return;
                }

                var store = this.stores[storeName];

                this.data[store.path][object[store.key]] = object;
                this.commit();

                resolve(object[store.key]);
            }.bind(this));
        }
    },

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */

    update: {
        value: function (storeName, id, object) {
            return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
                if (!this.stores.hasOwnProperty(storeName)) {
                    reject(new ReferenceError('Unknown store "' + storeName + '"'));
                    return;
                }

                var store = this.stores[storeName];

                this.data[store.path][id] = object;
                this.commit();

                resolve(object);
            }.bind(this));
        }
    },

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */

    remove: {
        value: function (storeName, id) {
            return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
                if (!this.stores.hasOwnProperty(storeName)) {
                    reject(new ReferenceError('Unknown store "' + storeName + '"'));
                    return;
                }

                var store = this.stores[storeName];

                delete this.data[store.path][id];
                this.commit();

                resolve();
            }.bind(this));
        }
    },

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */

    find: {
        value: function (storeName, index, value, limit) {
            return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
                if (!this.stores.hasOwnProperty(storeName)) {
                    reject(new ReferenceError('Unknown store "' + storeName + '"'));
                }

                var store = this.stores[storeName],
                    data = [],
                    d;

                for (var key in this.data[store.path]) {
                    if (this.data[store.path].hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                        d = this.data[store.path][key];

                        if (value instanceof Array) {
                            if (
                                (
                                    value[0] === undefined &&
                                    d[index] <= value[1]
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                                (
                                    value[1] === undefined &&
                                    d[index] >= value[0]
                                ) ||
                                (
                                    d[index] >= value[0] &&
                                    d[index] <= value[1]
                                )
                            ) {
                                data.push(d);
                            }

                        } else if (d[index] === value) {
                            data.push(d);
                        }
                    }
                }

                if (limit !== undefined) {
                    data = data.slice(0, limit);
                }

                resolve(data);
            }.bind(this));
        }
    },

    /**
     * @inheritDoc
     */

    findAll: {
        value: function (storeName) {
            return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
                if (!this.stores.hasOwnProperty(storeName)) {
                    reject(new ReferenceError('Unknown store "' + storeName + '"'));
                    return;
                }

                var store = this.stores[storeName],
                    data = [];

                for (var key in this.data[store.path]) {
                    if (this.data[store.path].hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                        data.push(this.data[store.path][key]);
                    }
                }

                resolve(data);
            }.bind(this));
        }
    }

});


Professional courses contain education or knowledge which is taught in a professional course. A professional course is taught for one term and would consist of many tests and exams to challenge learners on the subject they seek certification in. There are different types of professional courses available for study around the world.
Short-Term Professional Courses - courses which are taught over a few days are called short-term courses.
Mid-Term Professional Courses - courses which are taught over a few weeks are called mid-term courses.
Long-Term Professional Courses - courses which are taught over a few months are called long-term courses.
A picture of a professional course.
Professional courses are taught at a professional institute.
Professional courses are taught for a few months to a year of the life of a learner.
Professional courses are based on syllabi specified by reputed professional organizations or companies.
Professional courses follow a profession-specific education system.
Professional courses impart profession-specific skills and provide specialized subjects to learn.
Professional courses teach the skills and talents needed to develop professionals toward the subject of the professional course.
Professional courses would only focus on one profession of specialization.
The institute, where professional courses are taught, does not provide employment opportunities to learners.
Professional courses provide a huge amount of resources to learners, so what to learn often becomes a problem.
Professional institutes provide any course which accepts the learners you want to educate. Professional courses can be learned at any location of a learners choosing by selecting a professional institute to learn from. Professional courses have a very high fee per exam or course. Have you heard of professional courses this year?
College education refers to education or knowledge which is taught at college. Educators provide learners with educational discourses through practical experiments and lectures which they would experience at college. Many colleges around the world aim to create professionals out of learners to help them strive forward in the world of today.
Full-Time College Education - college education which is imparted throughout the day is called full-time college education.
Part-Time College Education - college education which is imparted partly during the day is called part-time college education.
Vocational College Education - college education which is imparted by vocational streams of practical experiments is called vocational college education.
Accredited College Education - colleges which impart any of the above education types and are recognized by educational organizations are said to provide accredited college education.
Distance-Based College Education - college education which is imparted beyond borders is called distance-based college education.
A picture of college education.
College education is taught at college.
College education is taught for 3 to 5 years of the life of a learner.
College education is based on syllabi specified by reputed education organizations.
College education is a subject-specific education system.
College education is where advanced lessons on a subject are taught.
In college education, the skills and talents of learners are developed with regard to the main subject.
In college education, very little notes are provided to learners.
The resources involved in teaching may be inadequate, while imparting education at college.
In college education, the way of teaching may be very different to what learners know of.
College education can be learned from any college which accepts the learners whom you want to educate. Colleges are normally located far outside city limits because they have large campuses for their educational systems. College education requires a slightly high fee per term or semester, than school education. Which college did you go to?
School education is contained in the knowledge which is taught at school. Schools are organized systems which are used to impart education to human children till adulthood, and also adults. There are many levels or types of school education offered in the world of today. Let us look at the types of school education.
A picture of school education.
Nursery or Kindergarten School Education - education which is taught during the first few years of the education of a child at school.
Primary or Lower School Education - education which is taught during the next six years of the education of a child at school.
Secondary or Middle School Education - education which is taught during the next four years of the education of a child at school.
Tertiary or Upper School or High School or Higher Secondary School Education - education which is taught during the next two years of the education of a child at school.
School education is mostly taught at school.
School education is taught for over 12 years of the life of a learner.
School education is based on the syllabi specified by reputed education organizations.
School education presents a uniform education system.
In school education, all subjects are given equal priority.
The skills and talents of learners are developed in schools.
In school education, the way of teaching may be inefficient.
School educators may have unwanted mannerisms in teaching.
School education may not be able to provide individual attention to learners.
School education can be obtained from any school which accepts the learners whom you want to educate. Schools are often located in, or near the city. Most schools ask learners for a reasonable fee per term or semester. What types of school did you go to?


In Blackademics, playwright Idris Goodwin serves up a meal of searing wit, pop-culture humor, and psychological menace in an absurdist take on "post-racial America." Pictured Safiya Fredericks (foreground) and Lauren Spencer (background).
Listen to Lisa Marie Rollins interview director Mina Morita & actor Safiya Fredericks on KPFA Radio. Air date April 6, 2015.
Safiya Fredericks (right) and Lauren Spencer (center) portray two ravenous African-American scholars who have arrived for their coveted dinner reservation at a very special café in the Midwest. Georgia, the utmost hostess, (played by Michele Leavy) offers them a deceptive snack to hold them over.
Ann (Safiya Fredericks) is overjoyed to celebrate her new tenure status with an elite dining experience. Her friend Rachelle (Lauren Spencer) is less enthusiastic about Ann's news and their service.
A celebration quickly takes a raucous turn in Idris Goodwin's Blackademics. Banter turns to debate, and debate into battle as Rachelle (Lauren Spencer) and Ann (Safiya Fredericks) figuratively and literally vie for a seat at the only table in an unusual café.


text:
« King's College, London Will Require All Humanities Faculty to "Re-apply" for Their Current Positions | Main | Honneth from Frankfurt to Columbia »
It's official: Bernard-Henri Levy is the Charlatan and Poseur You Always Suspected
No serious scholar or philosopher--as opposed to a self-promoting poseur (not pensuer) like Levy--would have made this mistake:
When France's most dashing philosopher took aim at Immanuel Kant in his latest book, calling him "raving mad" and a "fake", his observations were greeted with the usual adulation. To support his attack, Bernard-Henri Lévy — a showman-penseur known simply by his initials, BHL — cited the little-known 20th-century thinker Jean-Baptiste Botul.
There was one problem: Botul was invented by a journalist in 1999 as an elaborate joke, and BHL has become the laughing stock of the Left Bank.
There were clues. One supposed work by Botul — from which BHL quoted — was entitled The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant. The philosopher's school is known as Botulism and subscribes to his theory of "La Metaphysique du Mou" — the Metaphysics of the Flabby. Botul even has a Wikipedia entry that explains that he is a "fictional French philosopher".
But Mr Lévy, a leader among the nouveaux philosophes school of the 1970s, was unaware. In On War in Philosophy, he writes that Botul had proved once and for all "just after the Second World War, in his series of lectures to the neo-Kantians of Paraguay, that their hero was an abstract fake, a pure spirit of pure appearance".
His credulity was spotted by Aude Lancelin, a journalist with the Le Nouvel Observateur, the left-leaning weekly that is de rigueur for the thinking classes. The Botul quotes were "a nuclear gaffe that raises questions on the Lévy method", she wrote.
Mr Lévy admitted last night that he had been fooled by Botul, the creation of a literary journalist, Frédéric Pages, but he was not exactly contrite....
Ms Lancelin told The Times she was surprised that none of the journalists who had been giving Mr Lévy the celebrity treatment had noted that he spent two pages using a non-existent philosopher to prove his argument. "I came across the quotes from Botul and burst out laughing," she said.
(Thanks to Richard Mullender for the pointer.)
Posted by Brian Leiter on February 09, 2010 at 11:23 AM in "The less they know, the less they know it", Philosophy in the News | Permalink


One of the area's allures, for locals and outsiders alike, is the quaint Larchmont Village commercial strip. It's an urban melting pot with a diverse array of quintessential shops; bookstores, clothes boutiques, eateries, and coffee shops etc. Larchmont Village's European Style Farmer's Market is a stand out and treat for all senses in every sense. Casablanca lilies, bonsai trees, organic Asian vegetables and homemade apple pies are among the treats for sale and your Sunday mornings will never be quite the same. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays, farmers, craft-people, bakers and dozens of other vendors fill the city parking lot on Larchmont Blvd. between Beverly and First streets. It's a Sunday morning must. A city buzzing with health-conscious patrons, the town offers many options for food and drinks. Hancock Park is known for its 18-Hole Regulation Length Golf Course at Wilshire Country Club. This pristine and private country club is a historical landmark and is for members only, so in that case you'll definitely need to join the club! What Ivan loves best is the history of Hancock Park. With the knowledge of what makes this community so special, he and his team are able to communicate the desires to their clients.


text:
Q: Reading data that doesn't fit in to memory with Dask I have a big file (25GB) that doesn't fit in to memory. I want to do some operations on this with Dask. I have tried two approaches, but both fail on memory errors.
Approach 1
>>> import dask.dataframe as dd
>>> df = dd.read_json('myfile.jsonl', lines=True)
MemoryError:

Approach 2
>>> # split file in 12 pieces with the unix split command
>>> # all of which by themselves fit in memory
>>> import dask.dataframe as dd
>>> df = dd.read_json('myfile_split.*', lines=True)
ValueError: Could not reserve memory block

What am I doing wrong here?

A: I recommend using the blocksize= keyword argument
df = dd.read_json(..., lines=True, blocksize="32 MiB")


Land O' Lakes Town Board – Wednesday, April 10, 6 p.m., Land O' Lakes Town Hall. Agenda: Bid award for Big Lake boat landing project, road construction and maintenance for 2019, and mailbox/sign replacement policy.
Vilas County Board of Supervisors Aging and Disability Resource Center Committee – Monday, April 15, 9 a.m., courthouse. Agenda: Introduce Sherry Schuelke, regional Aging and Disability Resource Center quality specialist, ORDC, and transit charter revisions.
Vilas County Board of Supervisors Paramedic/Emergency Medical Services Ad Hoc Committee – Tuesday, April 16, 10:30 a.m., courthouse. Agenda: Results of March 20 meeting with town fire/emergency medical services departments, and possibility of Vilas County financing and staffing additional ambulances.


text:
State of the Media: Audio Today 2014
Media	 02-06-2014
No matter where you are in America, the radio is always on. The original mass medium, radio today reaches more than 90 percent of everyone in the U.S. on a weekly basis. This enormous reach stretches across demographics, ethnicities and geographies as listeners engage every day with stations in their local markets on matters important to them.
Audio is available on multiple platforms, in real time, wherever consumers want to listen on more than 16,000 stations across the country covering 50 different formats. Radio is also a hyper-local medium serving every unique community from one coast to the other.
Audio consumers are listening for more than 2.5 hours every day, and one of radio's best-kept secrets is its ability to reach a highly qualified audience right before they arrive to shop. And audio consumers have money to spend because more than two-thirds of the weekly audience works full-time, tuning in during the working day, away from home.
242 Million People Listen to the Radio Each Week
To access the full report, please provide the following info:
state-of-the-media-audio-today-feb-2014.pdf
https://www.nielsen.com/lb/en/insights/report/2014/state-of-the-media-audio-today-2014/
A Record-Setting February, and Not Just for Snowfall
Across the continental U.S., Spring has started to make its annual appearance, likely a welcome change for many—especially those in parts of the Northeast—after one of the coldest and snowiest winters in the history books. But weather wasn't the only record-breaker this winter. Records fell...
Morning Growth Is Driving Hispanic Radio Listening Gains
The Hispanic radio audience is growing across the U.S., increasing by more than half a million listeners over the past year based on Nielsen's March 2014 RADAR report. As a result, Hispanics have the highest propensity to listen to the radio of any ethnic group. According to the latest Nielsen...
Tuning in to Radio Listening Habits
Radio listeners come in all varieties, and so do their listening preferences. We know that listeners tune in at different times during the day, but we also know they tune in for different reasons. So a big part of radio programming involves determining how to cater to the broader audience while...


text:
/content/basf/www/fi/en.html
/content/basf/www/fi/en/media.html
/content/basf/www/fi/en/media/news-releases.html
/content/basf/www/fi/en/media/news-releases/2017/12/p-17-389.html
Science Around Us
Bay, Laguna, Philippines – December 5, 2017 – BASF inaugurated a new Rice Knowledge Center at its Agricultural Research Station in Bay, Laguna, Philippines. The new facility centralizes BASF's global expertise in rice cultivation, and supports the delivery of enhanced agronomic and technical support to farmers seeking to increase productivity more sustainably.
New BASF Rice Knowledge Center to help farmers in Asia boost yields and reduce emissions
Technical knowledge hub, based in Philippines, to collect and share best practices in rice from around the globe
Research partnerships with IRRI to accelerate adoption of new technologies, such as herbicide-tolerant hybrid rice for direct seeding
Direct seeding rice requires less water and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions
"Rice is the staple food of more than half the world's population, and farmers have an extraordinary challenge to meet growing demand for rice, while minimizing the impact to the environment," said Gustavo Palerosi Carneiro, Senior Vice President, Crop Protection, Asia Pacific, BASF. "The new BASF Rice Knowledge Center will enable us to share the latest technologies and best practices with growers, so that we can drive further innovation in rice production."
BASF's global network of crop protection experts and technical representatives will be able to leverage the Rice Knowledge Center when providing training, advice and support to growers. Demonstration plots and field trials at the new center will also complement the work of BASF research sites around the region.
"The opening of the new center supports BASF's recent introduction of new solutions for rice growers in Asia Pacific, such as Seltima™, a highly effective fungicide that is safe for the aquatic environment of rice paddies, and Xemco®, an innovative insecticide for many common rice pests," said Dr. Edson Begliomini, BASF's regional head for Research & Development. "Through this centralized platform, we can foster deeper relationships and collaboration with the rice industry, local government, and academia. Together, we will address common challenges facing today's rice growers around the region."
Ninety percent of rice worldwide is grown and consumed in Asia. In the near future, BASF will introduce the Clearfield™ and Provisia™ production systems for direct seeded rice in major rice growing countries across the region. These solutions combine conventionally-bred herbicide-tolerant hybrid seeds with a purpose-designed herbicide. Compared to traditional transplanted rice farming, direct seeding rice requires less water and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The Clearfield system is already in use by rice farmers in over 10 countries around the world, including Malaysia.
To help speed the adoption of these technologies, BASF has entered into several cooperation agreements with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to introduce herbicide-tolerant rice seeds to more farmers in Asia. BASF will also become a founding member of a new multi-party research consortium led by IRRI on the mechanized and precise direct seeding of rice. This and future partnerships will be coordinated by the new Rice Knowledge Center.
About BASF's Crop Protection Division
With a rapidly growing population, the world is increasingly dependent on our ability to develop and maintain sustainable agriculture and healthy environments. BASF's Crop Protection division works with farmers, agricultural professionals, pest management experts and others to help make this possible. With their cooperation, BASF is able to sustain an active R&D pipeline, an innovative portfolio of products and services, and teams of experts in the lab and in the field to support customers in making their businesses succeed. In 2016, BASF's Crop Protection division generated sales of €5.6 billion. For more information, please visit us at agriculture.basf.com or on any of our social media channels.
About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 114,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of about €58 billion in 2016. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.
P-17-389
P389/17e
PDF ( 237.0 kB )
New BASF Rice Knowledge Center to help farmers in Asia boost yie
JPG ( 1.9 MB )
Last Update 05 December 2017


Contains many of the statistics specified by the NPSA Safety Alert, which typcially locations are required to provide as part of their audit.
We exclude any treatments which are flagged as 'induction' and we also exclude any treatments within the first 2 weeks of a patient's start date.
We did a study to see what the difference in total TTR would be if we excluded treatments from the first 1, 2, 4 and 6 weeks and there was actually very little so we currently stick to 2 weeks. The new NICE guidelines in AF suggest excluding the first 6 weeks so we will be rewriting the TTR reports to take this into account soon – but there will be very little difference in the outcomes(The TTR results will be slightly higher).
We currently include all patients in TTR calculations but the new NICE AF guidelines suggest only including patients who have at least 6 months of results. This will also tend to push the TTR figures up.


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Athens Benaki Museum
Athens' Benaki Museum is one of the city's top museums with an outstanding collection, especially of Greek and Egyptian artefacts, in a beautiful mansion.
The Benaki Museum in Athens
Photo by Dimboukas
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
The Benaki Museum in Athens is housed in a neo-classical mansion built in 1867, but extended and refurbished several times over the years. It contains a remarkable collection of Greek and Egyptian items. The exhibits, and the house in which they are displayed, belonged to an Alexandrian Greek cotton trader, Antonis Benakis (1873–1954).
Gold Bracelet Showing the Owl of Athens
Over a period of 35 years he amassed a splendid selection of artefacts, which he eventually gave to the Greek state for display in a museum. He continued to help curate the collection, and to ensure the museum's financial security, until he died.
The mansion was thoroughly renovated in the late 1990s to create a fine backdrop for the collection. Thirty thousand pieces illustrate the daily life in Greece from ancient times to the 20th century.
El Greco's Adoration of the Magi
On Display in Athens' Benaki Museum
The collection incorporates paintings (including two by El Greco), jewellery from Mycenae, ceramics, icons, clothing and Greek folk art, such as bridal cushions, traditional clothing and decorative items.
Lord Byron's writing desk is one of the many items from the War of Independence, along with other historical objects.
The Death of Markos Botsaris in the Greek War of Independence
The Egyptian collection is also fascinating. Early Coptic textiles and jewellery give an impression of the wealth of artistic talent found within this still-thriving community. A major attraction is a highly unusual piece: a complete Egyptian reception room from a palace of the 17th century.
Another showcase item from Egypt, where Benakis grew up in Alexandria and made his great fortune, is a wonderfully sensitive portrait of a man, painted on linen in the 3rd century AD.
Don't miss the café-restaurant at the top, with a terrace that offers fine views and the perfect place to take a break after the time you will no doubt spend walking round this wonderful collection.
Visit the excellent Benaki Museum website.
Some other Athens pages
Athens Olympic Stadium
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to the original Athens Olympic Stadium, built for the 1896 Olympic Games and open to the public for jogging and photography.
Athens Museum of Cycladic Art
The Athens Museum of Cycladic Art houses a remarkable collection of Cycladic figurines and other items and is one of the best museums in Athens.
Best Cocktail Bars in Athens
Two of the best cocktail bars in Athens, MoMix Kerameikos and The Clumsies, are making creative cocktails using that most Greek of Greek spirits, Metaxa.
Athens Walking Tours and Other Experiences
Athens walking tours and other experiences like cookery lessons, ceramics workshops, dining with a family, and street art are available from Alternative Athens
Athens Airport Hotels
Athens Airport hotels include the luxury Sofitel at the terminals, Holiday Inn near the airport, and others close by like the Hotel Pantheon.
Athens to Santorini
There are lots of flights from Athens to Santorini as well as a ferry service from Piraeus, with flights to Santorini leaving from Athens International Airport.
Easter in Athens
Easter in Athens is, like everywhere in Greece, the biggest religious celebration of the year and this page tells you what to expect over the Easter weekend.
A History of Athens
A History of Athens from the first people to live on the Acropolis through the Golden Age of Pericles and Alexander the Great to the military junta.
Entertainment in Athens
There's all kinds of entertainment in Athens whether you're interested in theatre, dance, classical music, jazz, Greek music, rock music, disco, opera or movies.
Artistic Athens
This extract of Artistic Athens in the Lonely Planet book Culture Trails takes visitors on a journey through the artistic side of Athens..
The Athens Acropolis has the city's most iconic building, the Parthenon, along with other historic buildings and is where the Elgin Marbles were taken from.
Piraeus is the port of Athens from where many ferries to the Greek islands depart, and it also has an Archaeological Museum and the Hellenic Maritime Museum.


CHICAGO, Aug. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Aon Benfield Securities, the investment banking division of global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor Aon Benfield, today launches its annual report on the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, which reviews the key trends witnessed during the 12-month period to June 30, 2013.
The report, entitled 'Capital Revolution – ILS Market Expands to New Heights', reveals that annual catastrophe bond issuance reached USD6.7 billion as of June 30, 2013 and the total capacity of all catastrophe bonds currently active in the market – also known as "on-risk" – had reached a record USD17.5 billion, surpassing the previous record of USD16.2 billion at June 30, 2008.
A total of 27 transactions – including three deals from the life and health sector – closed during the 12-month period under review, with indemnity-based transactions accounting for over half the property catastrophe bonds issued. The ILS market continues to provide enhanced coverage relative to prior years, including coverage for hard-to-model perils and longer risk periods.
Meanwhile Aon Benfield's ILS Indices, calculated by Thomson Reuters, all posted gains during the 12-month period, with the All Bond and BB-rated Bond Indices posted returns of 12.14 percent and 8.16 percent, respectively; and the U.S. Hurricane and U.S. Earthquake Bond Indices returning 13.19 percent and 6.89 percent, respectively.
Each bond index benefitted from strong mark-to-market gains, especially throughout the first half of 2013 as investor demand drove spreads to historically low levels.
On an annual basis, each Aon Benfield ILS Index outperformed comparable fixed income benchmarks.
Paul Schultz, Chief Executive Officer of Aon Benfield Securities, said: "In the 12 months under review, the insurance-linked securities sector witnessed large capital inflows from both existing and new investors. Since the beginning of 2013, as estimated USD3 billion in new capital has flowed into the ILS market. Sponsors launched new issuances to satisfy this investor demand, which resulted in decreased spreads and brought the pricing of ILS into the realm of the traditional reinsurance market. Given the current strong demand for ILS products, we believe that the 2013 calendar year could prove to be an inflexion point for the sector, with momentum for new issuances continuing to build as investors and sponsors seek to leverage the favorable market conditions."
Aon Benfield Securities forecasts a full year 2013 ILS issuance of between USD7-8 billion.
Aon Benfield Securities, Inc. and Aon Benfield Securities Limited (collectively, "Aon Benfield Securities") provide insurance and reinsurance clients with a full suite of insurance-linked securities products, including catastrophe bonds, contingent capital, collateralized reinsurance, industry loss warranties, sidecars and derivative products. As a recognized leader in this investment banking market, Aon Benfield Securities is helping to redefine capital by offering underwriting and placement of new issues, financial advisory services, as well as securities trading in the secondary market. Aon Benfield Securities' integration with Aon Benfield Inc.'s reinsurance operation expands its capability to provide analytics, modeling, rating agency, and other consultative services. Aon Benfield Inc., Aon Benfield Securities, Inc. and Aon Benfield Securities Limited are all wholly-owned subsidiaries of Aon plc. Securities advice, products and services are offered solely though Aon Benfield Securities, Inc. and/or Aon Benfield Securities Limited.
Aon Benfield, a division of Aon plc, is the world's leading reinsurance intermediary and full-service capital advisor. We empower our clients to better understand, manage and transfer risk through innovative solutions and personalized access to all forms of global reinsurance capital across treaty, facultative and capital markets. As a trusted advocate, we deliver local reach to the world's markets, an unparalleled investment in innovative analytics, including catastrophe management, actuarial and rating agency advisory. Through our professionals' expertise and experience, we advise clients in making optimal capital choices that will empower results and improve operational effectiveness for their business. With more than 80 offices in 50 countries, our worldwide client base has access to the broadest portfolio of integrated capital solutions and services. To learn how Aon Benfield helps empower results, please visit aonbenfield.com.


We'll clean your heat exchanger, combustion chamber, burners, jets, pilot light, blower motor, fan, and filter. We'll check the evaporator coil (A-coil) for proper air flow, check the contacts and wiring, check the blower motor for proper functioning, check the igniter and flame sensor for wear, check the condensation drain coil line for clogs, and look for any filter bypass issues.
Furnace not working? Though there is some minor overlap between cleaning and repair, if your furnace is not working, the diagnosis should come from a licensed HVAC repair company. The main aim of furnace cleaning is maintenance and indoor air quality.
Although the air entering passes through a filter, the filter cannot possibly remove everything, and over time its tiny holes become choked with dirt. Additionally, the internal parts of the furnace (blower, motor, fan, etc.) become dirty themselves, and this dirt gets caught up in the system and blown back into your home.
An improperly cleaned and maintained furnace can also be dangerous. Carbon monoxide is a natural product of combustion and is found in combustion fumes, such as those produced by oil or gas furnaces. These fumes are normally exhausted from your home through the furnace's venting. A clean, well-maintained, and efficiently burning furnace will produce less carbon monoxide than a dirty one.
For further reading, visit our blog post: The Importance of Furnace Flue Cleaning.
Clean the blower and fan compartment, removing all dust and debris from the fan blades, which helps prevent the blower motor from burning out.
Ensure the blower motor is functioning as it should, and that the evaporator coil (A-coil) is allowing proper air flow.
Check the contacts and wiring, and the ignitor and flame sensor for wear.
Examine the condensation drain coil line to make sure it's free from clogs (which, if present, could cause water to leak down into your furnace).
Look for a common problem referred to as "filter bypass," which allows dust and contaminants to sneak around your furnace filter and into your home. This often happens when an ill-fitting or cheap furnace filter is used, or, in some cases, improper installation of the filter rack. If this condition is present, the technician can offer some suggestions for alleviating filter bypass.
For further reading, visit our blog post: 5 Situations That Call For a Furnace Cleaning.
Many people are unsure whether their home is heated by a furnace or a boiler. This is an important piece of information, as the two work in completely different ways and are often serviced by different technicians. The most fundamental difference is that a furnace uses heated air to provide warmth to your home, and a boiler uses heated water. The distribution system for a furnace is comprised of ductwork and vents, and the distribution system for a boiler is a network of pipes, through which heated water is pumped to either radiators, baseboard heaters, or radiant flooring. Do you have air vents from which hot air blows? You have a furnace. Does your home have radiators? You have a boiler.
Need a boiler cleaning? Visit our Services page.