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Northeast Asia
Ping An ups the digital stakes in China and beyond
The insurance firm has armed itself to the teeth with fintech, but can it really take on internet champions such as Alibaba and Tencent?
By Allen Cheng
With $1 billion at his fingertips, Jonathan Larsen has the exciting and enviable job of engineering a transformation at one of China's biggest financial groups.
Larsen, a former Citibanker who used to run the US firm's global retail banking operations, is chief innovation officer at Ping An Insurance (Group) Company and manager of the group's new $1 billion financial and health technology fund; his role is to invest in the kinds of technology and platforms that will equip Ping An to take on the big internet names in China, such as e-commerce firm Alibaba and social media group Tencent.
Ping An started off in 1988 as a property and casualty insurance company, later diversifying into life insurance, banking, asset management, brokerage services and private equity investing. But it is Ping An's embrace of technology, with an array of financial technology platforms and services for customers, that has made it a diversified financial conglomerate and turned heads in the financial and investing community.
Larsen says he is making good progress in helping Peter Ma Mingzhe, chairman and chief executive, to further strengthen Ping An on the innovation front. The group already has several successful offerings, including the largest online medical service platform in China and a leading online wealth management platform.
So far, Larsen has deployed about $100 million, or 10% of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund, in seven deals. These include participating in a £34 million fund-raising by London-based fintech firm 10X Future Technologies, which was founded by former Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins and which helps banks to revolutionize their back-office functions and how they interact with customers.
Ping An also took part in a $25 million fund-raising by TytoCare, an Israeli health technology firm that enables doctors to conduct medical examinations and diagnoses of patients remotely, either online, or via videoconference.
Even though Ping An is willing to take a view over five, 10 or 15 years, the technologies that Larsen has invested in so far can be put to use immediately in Ping An's existing subsidiaries or affiliates. For instance, Larsen says, Ping An Good Doctor, an online clinical healthcare platform that has 230 million users, has already begun applying TytoCare technologies.
Jonathan Larsen, Ping An
Since joining last year, Larsen has worked with Ma and other senior executives – among them more than a dozen foreigners – to help transform Shenzhen-based Ping An into a financial technology group that operates website platforms providing online wealth management and credit financing marketplaces, as well as online health insurance and medical services. Such platforms provide a virtual environment where consumers can interact with Ping An and other financial service providers.
The strategy already seems to be paying off. In the first half of 2018, Ping An reported record earnings as net profit rose 32% to Rmb64.8 billion ($9.5 billion) from a year ago. Last year was strong too: gross earnings jumped 26%, to a record high of Rmb974 billion, while net profit climbed 38% to Rmb99 billion.
"Ping An is creating vertically integrated online to offline offerings in the growing healthcare and fintech industries to sustain revenue growth," says Paul Schulte, founder of Schulte Research International.
The group is fixing legacy issues, Schulte adds, as top management is doubling down on fixing costs and excess headcount in slower-growth divisions such as Ping An's banking unit.
Much of the growth in the first half is thanks to the group's retail customer base (still heavily focused on insurance), which rose 25% to 179 million by June 30. Each customer held 2.4 contracts on average, up 4.8% from a year ago, according to the interim report, while operating profit per customer rose 2.5% to Rmb281. The number of retail customers holding multiple contracts with different Ping An subsidiaries rose 17% to top 55 million from the beginning of 2018, accounting for nearly 31% of total retail customers.
The group, which Ma founded with a dozen people in 1988 in Shenzhen – a city at the forefront of China's reform and opening up – has shot up the ranks of the top 10 global insurers in the last five years.
We are starting to build some pretty good momentum - Jonathan Larsen, Ping An
With assets of Rmb6.5 trillion in 2017, up 16% from the previous year, Ping An ranks behind only Allianz and Axa, according to Relbanks.com, a website that ranks top players across various financial industry sectors globally.
Much of Ping An's growth and expansion has been driven by its commitment to investing in technology, says Lee Yuansiong, Ping An's chief insurance officer and a deputy chief executive.
The group employs more than 25,000 software and hardware engineers, including dozens at a Silicon Valley research laboratory in Palo Alto, California, where experts are constantly developing new patents, helping the company to come up with new ways to reach and sign up new customers both online and offline.
One measure of its focus on innovation is the number of patent applications filed by Ping An's engineers – a total of 6,121, covering technologies such as artificial intelligence, cognitive AI, blockchain and cloud, as of the end of June. They have also developed facial recognition, voiceprint recognition and disease forecasting biometrics, applications that help the insurer to quickly process claims as well as to weed out potential fraud.
Lufax
Ma, now 63, has not always enjoyed success. A decade ago, Ping An made a disastrous foray into Europe. During a global acquisition spree, it acquired a 5% stake in Brussels-based financial conglomerate Fortis Group. Fortis collapsed during the global financial crisis and had to be bailed out and broken up by the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Various parts were sold off, and the Chinese insurer eventually had to write off $2.3 billion.
Since 2008, however, Ping An has bounced back with a strategy focused on onshore acquisitions and organic growth in its home markets.
The management diversified beyond life, property and casualty insurance with three deals that led to the creation of Ping An Bank, now the 12th largest in China by assets. They invested in securities, asset and wealth management, real estate, venture capital and private equity, and began to focus on technology 10 years ago.
Among Ping An's best-known technology incubation successes is the founding in 2011 of Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange Co.
Lufax, as it is known, runs the leading online marketplace for wealth management products and is the financial product equivalent of Alibaba, China's leading consumer products e-commerce market operator.
By the end of last year, Lufax had more than 33 million registered users, up 19% from the beginning of 2017. Its assets under management topped Rmb462 billion, up 5.3% since the start of 2017.
Lufax has become a core part of Ping An's new focus.
In consumer finance, Lufax provides a range of financing solutions to salary-earners and to the owners of micro and small businesses, helping many in China who normally cannot get access to bank financing.
Ma saw the strong trend emerging – he saw how AI will change how people interact with each other, and he took the decision to invest, to build up our technology so we can compete with these big tech companies - Lee Yuansiong, Ping An
Last year, a total of Rmb616 billion in loans were made via the Lufax platform, of which Rmb399 billion were unsecured and Rmb217 billion secured. Loans under management grew 97% from the beginning of 2017 to Rmb288 billion.
In institutional trading, according to Ping An, volume via the Lufax platform rose 28% to reach Rmb5.4 trillion last year. Lufax's sister company, Chongqing Financial Assets Exchange, is even branching into public sector finance, helping Chinese municipal governments to adopt the latest fintech applications for city-related transactions, including blockchain technology. For instance, last June, it launched a smart cloud platform for public asset and liability management for the government of Nanning in Guangxi province. By the end of 2017, according to executives, the platform had saved the Nanning government Rmb37 million in financial administration costs.
At the core of Ping An's success is the strategic application of technology across all business units to spur cross-selling. Lee points to continuous efforts to provide the group's 179 million insurance customers, both online and offline, with a range of applications and campaigns that in the end entice most customers to buy more than just one product.
Offline, the company has 1.8 million employees, including 1.4 million agents, spread across China's 23 provinces and four mega-cities. These agents sell only Ping An Insurance products. They also offer consultation services on funds, bonds and other interest-bearing certificates of deposit, or other investments issued by Ping An's affiliates, including banking, securities, asset management, trusts and various online platforms.
Online, Ping An conducts marketing campaigns via a database of more than 440 million registered users – including a large number of high net-worth individuals and many of China's young, middle-class consumers – on Lufax and other platforms.
Ping An also caters to the mass market via Ping An Puhui Investment Consulting, which operates an online lender for lower middle-class consumers.
Another successful technology investment, Lee says, is the group's online-to-offline Ping An Good Doctor website.
This is a WebMD-like service that directly employs 1,000 doctors and has 4,650 external doctors who work on contracts and offer simple online medical diagnoses before referring registered users to thousands of clinics accredited by Ping An.
More than 230 million Chinese – in other words, a number exceeding the entire population of Brazil – have signed up to Good Doctor; the unit was spun off and listed on the Hong Kong Exchange in May, raising $1.12 billion in an initial public offering priced at the top of its range.
Even before the IPO, Good Doctor had seven cornerstone investors, including sovereign wealth fund Government of Singapore Investment Corp, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the US asset manager BlackRock.
In July, the company that operates Good Doctor, Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company, announced that it was expanding beyond retail customers and into corporate healthcare management, signing up nearly 200 large companies, including real estate groups China Vanke, Evergrande Group and Greentown China Holdings, the Bank of China, telecom services group China Telecom Corp and China National Nuclear Power Co. It now provides services to a total of almost 1.5 million employees.
Good Doctor is also expanding offshore, with a first step into southeast Asia. Ping An Healthcare and Technology announced recently it was forming a joint venture company with a Singapore-based internet services company, Grab Holdings, to deliver online healthcare services in southeast Asia.
The joint venture will provide integrated medical services such as AI-assisted online medical consultations, medicine delivery and appointment bookings; it will use GrabPay, southeast Asia's leading digital wallet, to complete transactions from the first quarter of 2019, according to executives, who add that by 2030, southeast Asia is expected to become the world's fourth-largest regional economy with rapidly growing healthcare needs.
Paul Schulte, Schulte
Research International
To give an idea of the size of the shortfall in the region's healthcare, there is only one physician for every 5,000 people in Indonesia – lower than in high-income countries, where there are as many as four physicians for every 1,000 people, according to Good Doctor executives. Larsen says the recent investment in TytoCare gives Good Doctor physicians – not only in China, but across Asia – access to sophisticated technology, enabling them to diagnose and treat simple ailments, online or via video links. The service means that patients can get help quickly online without having to queue up or wait at a doctor's office, and can pick up medicines at the local pharmacy.
Ping An Good Doctor is an example of how Ping An is competing against Chinese tech firms such as search engine operator Baidu, Alibaba, or Tencent, says Schulte.
Those three rivals process up to 10 times more online data daily than Ping An has acquired in total, Schulte says, but the insurer is the leader in offline data, particularly in the health sector.
"Ping An has developed the Good Doctor platform in conjunction with their health cloud to gain additional value from their actuarial expertise," Schulte notes.
Ping An Good Doctor, like all of Ping An's businesses, has access to data cloud services that operate from servers located in technology centres in Shenzhen and Shanghai. The company's largest operation is the Shanghai Zhanjiang Houyuan Center, which occupies a 32-acre, tree-lined campus in Shanghai's Pudong district. There are 3,500 staff at Houyuan, including 1,700 in the facility's vast telemarketing and online marketing halls, which provide a 24/7 service responding to client queries.
Jessica Tan, Ping An's deputy chief executive and chief operating officer, helped the group to design and build the entire complex nine years ago when she was a partner at McKinsey & Co. Ma was so impressed with her work that he recruited the Singaporean national to join Ping An in 2013.
Tan isn't the only Singaporean in Ma's circle of confidantes at senior management level. Lee, another Singaporean, began his career as an official at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state's quasi-central bank, and was an executive with Prudential Life Insurance in Asia before he joined Ping An in 2004.
Ma saw as early as 10 years ago that disruption and disintermediation would come from new technology companies, Lee says.
"He saw the strong trend emerging – he saw how AI will change how people interact with each other, and he took the decision to invest, to build up our technology so we can compete with these big tech companies."
Ma convinced the board of directors to allow him to invest 1% of revenues annually into technology, says Lee, which meant Ping An invested Rmb10 billion (or $1.5 billion) last year in research and development and new financial innovation applications. So far, the board has not been disappointed: for the last decade, the company has delivered 30% compounded averaged growth rate of total assets and given investors a return on equity of 18% a year.
Technology ensures that Ping An is not just an insurance-centric financial conglomerate, says Lee, as the group's future lies in becoming a technology-enabling company that is also a specialist in finance across multiple product lines.
One example where this is happening is Ping An OneConnect, where Ping An's engineers help external financial industry clients – 441 banks, 38 insurers and nearly 2,200 non-banking financial institutions in China – set up blockchain technology platforms.
OneConnect has also begun expanding offshore. OneConnect engineers, for instance, are helping the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's central bank, to launch a blockchain-based trade finance platform, says Lee. The initiative is one of the first government-backed trade finance platforms, and involves 21 banks including HSBC and Standard Chartered, which will share joint ownership of the project.
HKMA's move follows HSBC's recent experiments in blockchain – the bank conducted the world's first commercially viable trade finance transaction with the blockchain in May.
Blockchain technology will reduce the time and complication involved in trade finance and supply-chain finance transactions by facilitating the verification process, according to Ping An's executives, adding that some transaction times could be cut from two weeks to just a single day.
OneConnect's technology is expected to improve the ability of small companies to access trade and supply-chain finance by reducing the cost of due diligence. The use of blockchain technology also brings the advantages of a decentralized ledger system to Hong Kong's new trade finance platform, which includes improved resistance to hacking or fraud.
Lee Yuansiong, Ping An
The HKMA initiative will also serve as a test ground for OneConnect's overseas ambitions, says Lee. The Ping An subsidiary opened an office in Singapore earlier this year and employs nearly 100 staff outside China. OneConnect is more than just a subsidiary, Lee adds, describing it as a unicorn with a $7.5 billion valuation.
One area of disappointment is that these various successes are not reflected in Ping An's valuation, Lee says. The company's shares are listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai; Ping An's share price peaked at HK$98.5 ($12.55) on January 22, but had lost nearly a quarter of that by early September. It has a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.55, well below the average P/E ratio of 16.05 for insurance industry peers, according to Reuters.
"We are a financial services and technology company – that is how we see ourselves in five years," Lee says. "Right now, the market is not giving us enough credit for our innovational financial and technology model, which is why I say we are undervalued."
Charles Zhou, a Hong Kong-based financial services sector analyst with Credit Suisse, agrees. In an analyst report dated August 22, a day after Ping An's interim results were released, he issued an 'outperform' rating on Ping An, estimating that the company share price has the potential to rise another 41% from the previous peak of HK$98.5.
Much will depend on the kind of deals that Larsen pulls off.
"We are starting to build some pretty good momentum," Larsen says. "We have made some good investments, and we have a good pipeline of deals and innovation that we are sourcing that will be good for Ping An, relevant innovation from outside of China, and innovation that can inspire and help Ping An accelerate its trajectory for years to come."
Northeast Asia FintechAsia PacificChinaCapital MarketsFeaturesAsiamoney


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Ultimae Records – ISOLATED [Ultimae Records, 2022-07-04]
👆 24bit version, for the classic version, click here.
"What's your biggest weakness? – I am a perfectionist." … We all know this common answer, so often given in job interviews that you can't use it anymore (no, really, don't…). We also know Ultimae Records' unrivalled perfectionism, but this is another kind of beast: not the one that hides "in the detail", but rather "in the aesthetic". It's an "artistic daemon", visible in the label's ambitious ramifications, from its cutting-edge mastering studio to its chic record shop, and in the sound itself, often available at hi-res 24bit, designed with lots of care and illustrated by constant stunning artworks. The creature is ambient, almost by definition, and successful, but this is reductive to say: it's a hard worker, crafting immense contemplative journeys. Take the compilations for instance: the artists, top class always, are invited to follow specific topics to make the works sound like consistent albums. Less than half of the tracks are approved: only those which serve the overall journey, no best of. That's how Ultimae's resident DJ Samsara sculpted the present VA, and in a certain predictable way, it's "perfection".
UNKNOT – Body Of Water [Sublunar, 2022-06-08]
"Body Of Water", which we missed last month, is worth rehabilitation for being a superb piece of art, with its creative percussions and beautiful drones. Based in Florence, Sublunar evolves in the hypnotic experimental realm, somewhat recalling the school of Napoli (retina.it) but yet darker: at least, also deep, innovative, with an expertise on the broken beats. Behind UNKNOT is label owner Sciahri and electroacoustic musician Emanuele Porcinai, both known for their indisputable talent.
Sciahri & Desroi – Dilemma [Non Series, 2022-07-06]
DANCEFLOOR-ORIENTED
Didn't we just mention Sciahri in the previous release? Doing some research on the present EP is actually how we found "Body Of Water", but let's fake some magical time travel to announce that he's already back, now with Desroi. The latter is also a brilliant producer, who totally blew our mind in his memorable album "Floating In Empty" on Semantica back in 2019. Both artists bring their know-how to Psyk's imprint Non Series, by delivering a punchy EP with a complex sonic architecture; in one word: "dope".
Northallsen Records – Raices [Northallsen Records, 2022-07-04]
Reading the first name in this four-tracker compilation hits the face. The second name hits the face a second time, the third one a third time and the fourth one a fourth time. We would like to thank Aleja Sanchez for reshaping the listener's face with such great determination… It's in fact a pleasure to hear from her label Northallsen again, which has been pretty silent for more than one year. The last time we lived such a blast, it was precisely for the label's previous release, featuring also Mike Parker. Besides the music that can only be good, let's outline the spectacular artwork also, as well as the amazing mastering, by Gio AKA "Best sound engineer on the planet". Since RVO's entry into the label, and of course thanks to Sanchez's dedication, Northallsen became an unquestionable trademark of excellence.
Ryft – Sýn [Circular Limited, 2022-07-07]
In the USA, the schism between the underground and the mainstream cultures is not as pronounced as in Europe. In the country of freedom, people are totally at ease saying out loud that they love – say – Porter Robinson, as much as a local unknown artist. Meet Ryft, a fun personage from Salt Lake City, who used to display video games music and EDM in his Soundcloud and who produces music in various genres, from tech house to dub techno to industrial techno to drum'n'bass. He's what you call "an enthusiast explorer", who maybe needs to channel out a few of his energies: that's exactly what he just did with "Sýn", taking the very best out of his roots and merging them together to design a very original and subtle EP, while staying true to himself (the housey hi-hat in "Frumefni" for instance can be found in most of his past tracks).
Dosis Records – Reflections III [Dosis Records, 2022-07-07]
"Reflections III" is a wonderful representative of what we love the most in the underground electronic music culture: witnessing the high talent of unknown artists, as an important reminder that the quality of music and fame are not linked. We however hope for these artists to become big at one point, not to nourish any form of ego, but firstly because it would be a pity for techno lovers worldwide to miss the musical culture that our artists are building, and secondly because if they can live from their art, we could have more music from them (yes, we are very calculative^^). Chilean label Dosis Records can be proud of its discography: "this is underground at its greatest floor babe".
Motion Symmetry – Strobe Bloom [Crescent London, 2022-07-08]
Motion Symmetry is an artist that we follow closely, firstly because he's the owner of the interesting project NFEREE, and secondly because his extremely high technical skills make us see a high potential in him. His tracks are always rich and well-designed, following a classical yet updated hypnotic techno structure, repetitive and without break, that we highly appreciate. We sense that the Welsh artist delivered a particularly special work for Crescent London, something we are happy for, firstly because Crescent London is a fantastic, deserving label, and secondly because we feel that Motion Symmetry reached a new level in this EP, enriched by his "musical soul" and the creativity of the talented remixers.
Petit Astronaute – Moral Blinds [UNHEARD, 2022-07-10]
Since his last – massive – album on NFEREE, Georgian artists Petit Astronaute is developing a certain intensity in his music which contributes to growing his charisma. His new work, the present EP, "stays at home" this time, so to speak, as it is released on the Georgian label "UNHEARD". The EP is in line with what the owners, RTNH and S.V.R.A, have announced in their last VA: a more "aggressive orientation" for the label's sound signature. They also wrote that the authors of the VA would become important figures of the project: they meet their promise with this first release and we can also expect works from talented artists such as The Alchemical Theory and Doctrina Nature on the label in a near future.

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About The Paper
Dickinsonian Archives
The Dickinsonian
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author Speaks about Oral Tradition in Storytelling
Cristian Tineo '22, Staff Writer
Dickinson and Carlisle community members danced in a circle to the beat of a drum at the behest of Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday, who gave a talk on campus about the importance of oral tradition.
Momaday's talk on Saturday, Oct. 6 explored themes of imagination and stories in the context of oral tradition. The event was co-sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society and University of East Anglia, and is part of a series of events for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School Centennial Commemoration, which marks the closure of the school in 1918.
Momaday told the crowd of about 290 students, faculty, staff and visitors, "I don't know how many Dickinson students know about Carlisle, but they ought to know about it."
During his talk, Momaday said oral tradition is "the matrix of Native American culture." He recounted how his father would tell him captivating stories, and admitted that though oral tradition can appear fragile, it has a vitality that writing does not.
Momaday discussed four contemporary principles of oral tradition: source, purpose, humility and imagination. He defines imagination as "that which enables us to see beyond reality." He expressed his hope of sharing the story of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School with as many people as he can.
Nomi Small '19, a sociology major, has taken a number of courses on Native American history.
"I really think that Momaday is very good at articulating a lot of the challenges that Indigenous peoples have been facing," said Small after the lecture. "He's really revolutionizing the way that we talk about things… American history isn't what we've been learning in textbooks."
After his talk, Professor of English and American Studies Sharon O'Brien commented on the fact that many students do not know the significance of Carlisle's history with Native Americans. She said, "In terms of our curriculum, in terms of what we teach, we do teach Native American studies, though on a very temporary basis, there's as yet no institutional commitment to Native American studies at Dickinson. So, we have not yet done what he called for."
Prior to Saturday night, Momaday met with students of Assistant Professor of English Sheela Jane Menon's 101 World Literature class. Menon said was inspired by Momaday's commitment to "talk in a really intimate and inspirational way to a group of twenty students…"
"This is really one of the highlights of my professional career, period," said Menon.
Momaday also attended a gathering with a group of students and faculty of the English and creative writing departments for lunch and he later met with Native American descendants for a feast and to share stories.
In addition to the Dickinson and Carlisle communities, some visitors came from New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska to attend the centennial commemoration. Momaday himself flew to Pennsylvania from New Mexico.
The Dickinsonian strives to provide a forum for lively and respectful discussion among members of the Dickinson College community. We reserve the right to remove any comments that we do not adhere to our community standards.
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Rebirth and Recovery of Rwanda Celebrated 25 Years Post-Genocide
National Fraternity Controversies Pose Similarities to Past Dickinson Incident
New Decade Generates Reflections of the 2010s
Film Presents Consumerism on Indigenous Peoples
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Snow Day Policy Change Delayed Following Faculty Dissent
Admissions Launches New Merit Scholarships
Italian Film Festival Received Well By Attendees
The student news site of Dickinson College.


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Simone Inzaghi could not allow himself to celebrate right away. The Rome derby was 12 minutes old when Felipe Caicedo rounded Robin Olsen and rolled home the opening goal at the Stadio Olimpico. While the forward hurdled the advertising hoardings and sprinted towards an adoring public, Lazio's manager turned towards the nearest official to double-check that this strike would stand.
NextPremier League stats: Has Pep Guardiola found his new left-back?


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WoodWing Releases Enterprise 9.2 Enabling WordPress Publishing
March 13 • 2 min read
WoodWing Software have released version 9.2 of its multi-channel publishing system Enterprise. Via a brand new connector, this release enables the centralized publication of content to WordPress sites.
WoodWing Software, founded in 2000, develops and markets a premier, cost-efficient multi-channel publishing system, Enterprise – including the editorial management application "Content Station" – coordinates and streamlines the process of creating, managing and publishing static, dynamic and interactive content for all media channels including print, Web, social, smartphones and tablets.
Along with WordPress publishing capabilities, Enterprise 9.2 also brings about a number of additional new features ensure even smoother and faster processes in multi-channel publishing environments.
WordPress Publishing & Smooth Multi-channel Content Production
Traditionally seen as more of a blogging tool, WordPress has been continuously expanding toward becoming a mature Web CMS. As a result, the distinction between traditional blogs and full-featured websites is becoming increasingly blurred. The system is rapidly gaining acceptance by media and brands, including Forbes, Time, Metro (UK) and many more.
In fact, according to WordPress, 409 million people view more than 13.1 billion WordPress pages each month.
Three Easy Steps to Publishing to WordPress
The new WordPress connector for Enterprise enables publishers and brands to transparently integrate WordPress as a new channel in their publishing and communication processes. Content Station, the editorial management application of Enterprise, follows the same easy three-step process as for any other digital channel when it's publishing to a WordPress site: Creation of a dossier, authoring of text and images, and the immediate publication of the article.
With Enterprise 9.2, WoodWing also further simplifies repurposing of content. Article components and other content published to WordPress sites can easily be reused in social media, mobile, other CMS systems, in print and on tablets – and vice versa.
Smooth Content Production for Online, Digital & Print
The latest version of Content Station now eases the editing of the properties of any number of files at one time, a huge time saver when facing production deadlines. For example, users can quickly update properties of multiple assets such as their status, next assigned worker in line, copyright information, and other metadata.
In print production and tablet publishing, Enterprise Server enables users of InDesign and InCopy to access all content through WoodWing´s Smart Connection panel directly from within both applications. They can conveniently search and browse, open layouts, place images, save versions, and route documents to others according to the pre-defined workflows.
The Smart Connection plug-in now allows the replacing of an image in the layout with a file in a different format – all while the version control features of Enterprise help keep track of the changes.
With Enterprise 9.2, WoodWing also officially released the support for Adobe InDesign CC and InCopy CC, which successfully passed an intensive public testing.
Dennis van Nooij, Vice President Product at WoodWing, had this to say:
"In order to help our customers to stay competitive, we always strive to further optimize existing processes based on customer feedback, while at the same time providing new features reflecting market trends and new opportunitie. The new version 9.2 of Enterprise and Content Station offers a well-balanced mix of both."
To find out more about Woodwing and their products, visit their official website.
Treehouse Launches New In-Browser Development Tool with Beginner Web Site Coding Course
Treehouse, an online education platform that teaches anyone how to code, today launched a completely revamped beginner course that teaches students how to create their
SiteSupra Review
Website builders are perfect for companies and individuals with limited coding skills who are looking to build professional websites – and SiteSupra is one such platform.


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Q: ClearContents and Shift Data Below up without deleting rows/cells I automating a spreadsheet cleaning tools that removes data from the spreadsheet if certain values are in a particular column.  Originally, it deleted entire rows of data if the specific value is found.  However, this is causing numerous reference errors by deleting the rows.  Sample of the original code below.
Set rData = .Range("L5:L" & last & ",AX5:AX" & last)
    For i = rData.Row To rData.Row + rData.Rows.Count - 1
        If .Range("AX" & i) = "DONE" Or .Range("AX" & i) = "CANCEL" Then
            .Range("A" & i, "AX" & i).Copy

            bottom = activewkb.Worksheets("OrderStatus").Range("I" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1
            activewkb.Worksheets("OrderStatus").Range("A" & bottom).PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues
            If i > 0 Then
                .Range("D" & i & ":CA" & i).ClearContents
            End If
        End If
    Next i

The easiest way to get rid of the reference errors is to clear the contents from column D through DD if the requirements are satisfied then shift all of the data below it up for column D to DD up one row.  The new code is below.  I am getting an error on the .Range("D" & i).Offset(1,0).Value line.
Set rData = .Range("L5:L" & last & ",AX5:AX" & last)
    For i = rData.Row To rData.Row + rData.Rows.Count - 1
        If .Range("AX" & i) = "DONE" Or .Range("AX" & i) = "CANCEL" Then
            .Range("A" & i, "AX" & i).Copy

            bottom = activewkb.Worksheets("OrderStatus").Range("I" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1
            activewkb.Worksheets("OrderStatus").Range("A" & bottom).PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues
            If i > 0 Then
                .Range("D" & i & ":CA" & i).ClearContents
                .Range("D" & i).Offset(1, 0).Value
                .Offset(1, 0).Select
            End If
        End If
    Next i

Any suggestions are appreciated!  Thanks in advance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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The Latest: Nadal, Djokovic 7-7 in 5th set
LONDON (AP) – The Latest from Wimbledon (all times local):
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are level at 7-7 in the fifth set of their Wimbledon semifinal.
The match – which began on Friday evening – resumed with Djokovic leading 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9). Nadal was more efficient with his break point chances Saturday and took the fourth set 6-3.
At 4 hours, 46 minutes, the match is now the second longest semifinal in Wimbledon history, trailing only Kevin Anderson's victory over John Isner on Friday.
Rafael Nadal has forced a fifth set against Novak Djokovic in their Wimbledon semifinal.
Nadal resumed the match – which began on Friday evening – trailing 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9). The two-time champion gave up a 3-0 lead before breaking Djokovic again to take the fourth set 6-3.
The winner will face Kevin Anderson in Sunday's final.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have resumed their Wimbledon semifinal.
Three-time champion Djokovic was leading two-time champion Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9) when play was stopped by Wimbledon's 11 p.m. curfew on Friday evening.
The start of the match had bee
The start of the match had been delayed by the other men's semifinal, in which Kevin Anderson defeated John Isner in the second longest match in Wimbledon history.
The match is being played with the Centre Court roof closed – the same conditions that the first three sets were played under.
At the conclusion of the men's match, Serena Williams will attempt to win an eighth Wimbledon title as she faces Angelique Kerber in a repeat of the 2016 final.
About 10 months after having a baby, Serena Williams plays in the Wimbledon final against Angelique Kerber.
Williams is bidding for her eighth championship at the All England Club and 24th Grand Slam title in all, which would equal Margaret Court's all-time record.
Saturday's matchup is a rematch of the 2016 Wimbledon final, when Williams beat Kerber. Williams missed the tournament last year while pregnant.
Kerber is a former No. 1 who has won two major trophies.
Before the women's final, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will take to Centre Court to resume their semifinal that was suspended Friday night after the third set. Djokovic leads 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9).
The winner will face Kevin Anderson in Sunday's final. Anderson edged John Isner 26-24 in the fifth set of their semifinal Friday, which lasted more than 6 1/2 hours and delayed the start of Nadal vs. Djokovic.
More AP tennis coverage: https://www.apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis
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Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a ball to Rafael Nadal of Spain during the men's singles semifinal match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, Saturday July 14, 2018. (Nic Bothma, Pool via AP) - The Associated Press
Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates winning a point during the men's singles semifinals match against Serbia's Novak Djokovic at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, Saturday July 14, 2018.(AP Photo/Ben Curtis) - The Associated Press
Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Rafael Nadal of Spain during their men's singles semifinals match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, Friday July 13, 2018.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) - The Associated Press
Serena Williams of the US returns a ball to Julia Goerges of Germany during their women's semifinal match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Thursday July 12, 2018. (Neil Hall/Pool via AP) - The Associated Press
Germany's Angelique Kerber celebrates defeating Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko during their women's singles semifinals match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, Thursday July 12, 2018.(AP Photo/Tim Ireland) - The Associated Press
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The Latest: Wimbledon close Centre Court roof in evening
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Berggruen
Geopolitics & Globalization
Future of Capitalism
Technology & the Human
Future of Democracy
Read Noema In Print
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Shaken Nation Needs To Renovate Democracy
How to mend the breach of distrust between the public and institutions of self-government.
A pro-Trump rioter inside the Senate chamber on Jan. 6. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
By Nathan Gardels January 8, 2021
Nathan Gardels is the editor-in-chief of Noema Magazine.
The surreal insurrection in Washington this week brought two thoughts immediately to mind. First, President Donald Trump's incitement of the sharpest edge of his base to assault the constitutional handover of power taking place in the halls of the U.S. Capitol reminded me of Mao Zedong exhorting another mass delusionary movement, the young Red Guards, to "bombard the headquarters" as he instigated the Cultural Revolution in China.
Second, it occurred to me that this could be the beginning of the end of the republic so feared by the American founding fathers. It would no doubt surprise many among the commentariat bleating on about the defense of "our sacred constitution" that the word "democracy" does not appear there, nor in the Bill of Rights nor in the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, the founders associated democracy with the very kind of demagoguery and mob rule we saw this week.
James Madison, a key author of the Federalist Papers, famously declared that "Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention … and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." John Adams, the second American president, wrote in 1814: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that yet did not commit suicide."
For the founders, the key to a stable and enduring system rooted in the consent of the governed was the establishment of filtering institutions of deliberation that would enlarge the view of narrow self-interested constituencies, dispel delusions and dissipate the raw emotions of popular sentiment in order to reach a governing consensus.
It has been the erosion of these mediating institutions in modern democracies that has led to the all-out partisanship and stark polarization that today puts republics at risk just as the founders rightly worried.
When the dust settles in the wake of the Trump turmoil, what remains in America is a deeply divided body politic. The next steps toward repair must go beyond "putting our partisans back in power" or the lame attachment to forms of government that have become dysfunctional. Neither answer the pressing question of how to govern open societies in the 21st century.
For all the focus on the sacredness of elections in these heady days, much of what makes democracy work is elsewhere. We have to think outside the ballot box to restore the political culture and practices of deliberation that enable effective and inclusive governance. Deeper citizen engagement is the only alternative to the temptations of authoritarian rule at a time when representative government is in crisis as its legitimacy wanes.
America today, in particular, is mired in a cultural and political civil war. On the one hand, we are beset by populist demagoguery, on the other by cancel culture, both fueled by the participatory power of social media. As we saw in the November presidential elections and their dismal aftermath, when partisans vie for power by any means necessary, divisions are only deepened.
One path out of such polarization is to invite the broad civil society between the partisan extremes into governance through new institutional arrangements that enable and encourage negotiation and compromise to reach consensus.
Since social networks have drawn more players into the political fray than ever before, never has the need been greater for new institutions and practices that can sort out the cacophony of voices, the welter of conflicting interests and the deluge of contested information.
Mending the breach of distrust between the institutions of self-government and the public in this way can be called "participation without populism." That means integrating social networks and more direct democracy into the political system through new deliberative institutions that complement representative government.
Deliberative democracy is where a random sampling of citizens indicative of the public as a whole gathers in a neutral, non-partisan environment to hear experts present validated facts and deliberate policy choices that inform the decisions of government, parliaments and public referenda. To borrow some lingo from the COVID battle, deliberative democracy is an anti-inflammatory therapeutic for the body politic.
This approach of deepening democracy through the direct engagement of the average citizenry circumvents the inexorable tendency of organized special interests, who have the time and resources not available to the unorganized public, to dominate representative government and set the agenda. In many ways, the fetish of elections as the hallowed pillar of democracy can lead to the aristocracy of an insider establishment that perpetuates itself.
This updated way of deliberation in modern mass society has been proven in practice. The best examples of late have been the Irish Citizen's Assembly on abortion, which came to a consensus on removing an anti-abortion clause from the constitution, and the French Citizens' Climate Convention, which was assembled in the wake of the "gilets jaunes" protests over fuel taxes to curb climate change. Over six weeks, the assembly deliberated and proposed policies that took into account the concerns of the average citizens invited into the process. Their recommendations are now being implemented by the government. At the end of that process, President Emmanuel Macron said "You have shown that it is possible on even the most difficult, flammable subject to create consensus."
As urgent and necessary as restoring the norms and bolstering the institutional checks and balances of governance the Trumpists sought to demolish may be, it is not enough to heal America's wounded republic going forward. If nothing else, this week's insurrection should be a wake-up call that it is way past time to renovate democracy and not simply return to the complacency of the status quo.
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©2022 Noema Magazine


A meeting of the Clare GAA County Board on Wednesday night voted overwhelmingly to support the framework document, which should result in the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) operating under the wing of the GAA.
ELEVEN members of the outgoing executive of Clare GAA will hold the same posts for the coming year. When nominations closed last week, they were the only nominees for the positions.
Saddle Source NEWMARKET-on-Fergus trainer John Brassil tasted success at last Saturday's Dromahane, County Cork point-to-point fixture where his Carrigerry (3/1-4/1) ran out an impressive winner of the first division of the concluding six-year-old and upwards mares' maiden.
There were gold and silver medals for Clare athletes last weekend at the Munster Masters and juvenile B U-9 to U-19 Cross Country Championships that took place at Moyglass, Fethard in Tipperary.
THE Ennis Swimming Club Grade B squad competed in a Munster graded gala at St Enda's Sports Complex in Limerick. The club had a very successful meet winning a total of 26 medals. The haul comprised 11 gold, 10 silver and five bronze.
THE Ennis-Clarecastle coursing fixture takes place next weekend and club members and supporters are keeping their fingers crossed that the inclement weather conditions of late will not be a setback to plans to maintain very high standards associated with the Manus venue.


The Illustration degree is something which needs to be narrowed down, as the field of illustration is very broad. A student is encouraged to consider all possible contexts, subjects and styles until they find a suitable style that suits them. The degree is based on this selection and then the curriculum is designed such that the student can get the most out of it with the help of professional faculties.
The course offers a number of skills which engage the student and also keeps him professionally aware of the improvements. It also helps to solve problems, improve creativity and also creative writing. It helps gain an in-depth understanding of the field and industry. There are also trips offered to place of art and also internship programs with renowned artists so that you can gain experience in the field. This is highly useful when one is after work and this experience can help them in real situations and problems*.
Stage 1: A varied number of styles and techniques are taught to the student and he or she learns the broad range trying to understanding the basics of illustration. This means that the student gains a strong foundation of knowledge.
Stage 2: The faculty help the students in such a way that they begin to form a basic understanding of their personal style. The student understands the path and the process and tries to bridge a career path with what he learns.
Stage 3: Once the student is confident about the individual style and technique they start producing samples of work and preparing a portfolio which helps them to get internship jobs at varied places. The student's work during this time may ensure jobs later after the completion of the degree.
For bachelor's degree, a good high school mark sheet with recommendations may be enough. And for a master's degree standardized test scores along with strong recommendations and a quality portfolio is needed to get the admission. Besides all these a student must have the eye for art and beauty and must be able to be creative in his work.
Works in Advertising, animation, publishing, television.
There are a number of illustrator jobs for the graduates and it mostly involves specialization chosen during the time of obtaining an Illustration degree.


Automatic fund transfer is a banking arrangement that allows a customer to transfer funds from his account to another account. The account or accounts receiving the transfer of funds can be owned by the same customer or by another customer or a company.
An example use automatic transfer of funds is for transferring funds from a customer's savings account to his son's savings account for savings or for allowance purposes. Another common use of automatic transfer of funds is for transferring from a checking account to a third party account that is owned by a company or service provider as the customer's payment to that particular company for a service.
Corporations with many subsidiaries also use automatic transfer of funds with sweep instructions whereby all funds from an account are swept into another account.
Automatic transfer of funds can also be used for overdraft protection. In this case, funds are transferred from a higher-interest earning account to cover payments due in another account.
In order to setup an automatic transfer of funds, the bank customer must fill up an enrollment form authorizing the bank to automatically transfer funds to another account. This transaction is commonly done offline in the banking premise. However, in some banks with an advanced online banking system, automatic fund transfers can be setup online. Customers who are registered to the bank's online system can setup automatic transfer of funds online and then activate enrollments through the bank's automated teller machines.


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There is still a lot to be done on the European Artificial Intelligence Regulation
As you may have already read in reports over the last few weeks, the European Commission has released its proposed regulation on artificial intelligence or "Artificial Intelligence Act" (AIA).
Briefly summarised, the paper aims to create a European legislative framework to regulate AI. It does so through a risk-based approach, defining four levels into which all artificial intelligence systems should fall:
Unacceptable risk: total ban for a limited group of particularly harmful uses of AI that contravene EU values as they would violate fundamental rights, e.g. social scoring as implemented in China, exploitation of children's vulnerabilities, use of subliminal techniques and – with several exceptions – remote and real-time biometric identification systems (including facial recognition) for law enforcement in publicly accessible areas.
High risk: a limited number of AI systems, listed in Annex III of the proposal, which have a potentially negative impact on the security of individuals or their fundamental rights. I foresee that Annex III, given the constraints, mandatory requirements and procedures related to the deployment of such systems, will become a battleground between regulators and companies in the coming months, with the latter seeking to have some of their listed technologies removed or exceptions created.
Among the stringent requirements are the obligation to use high-quality datasets, the creation of adequate technical documentation, record-keeping, transparency and provision of information to users, human supervision, as well as robustness, accuracy and cybersecurity. In the event of an incident, national authorities will be granted access to the information needed to investigate whether the use of the AI system has been carried out in accordance with the law. This means, in simple terms, that if an EU country finds a violation in an artificial intelligence system from the United States, China or Russia, to give some examples, the authorities of that country ought to be able to examine all the technical documentation, including the datasets used, as the first paragraph of Article 64 clearly indicates. Datasets that are sometimes (and rightly so) considered by companies as trade secrets. And don't think that a company can easily evade such controls: the proposed regulation provides for fines of up to 6% of annual worldwide turnover for those who break the rules.
(We anticipate that nobody will want their AI systems to end up on the "high-risk" list)
Low risk: AI systems for which specific transparency requirements are mandated, e.g. when there is a clear risk of manipulation (think of the use of chatbots). In those cases, transparency requires that users are aware that they are interacting with a machine.
Minimal risk: all other AI systems can be developed and used in compliance with existing legislation without further legal obligations. According to the paper, the vast majority of artificial intelligence systems currently used in the EU fall into this category. Providers of such systems can choose, on a voluntary basis, to apply the requirements for reliable AI and adhere to voluntary codes of conduct.
The great emphasis on risks, on the priority of human beings and on the ethics of artificial intelligence only perpetuates the strategic positioning of the European Union. A positioning aimed at differentiating Europe from the other large AI 'clusters', such as the United States, China, Russia and – let's not forget – the United Kingdom.
The first three powers make no secret of the fact that they are striving for an AI that is resolute, bold, and a key driver in shaping civil society, in line with the wishes of those who govern their respective countries: rich and cutting-edge for the Americans; tight and disciplined for the Chinese; subservient and obedient for the Russians. Moreover, the world powers are betting decisively on the military factor of AI (for example, the Russians have just created the first armed unit with assault robots, while a mixed private-government US team has recommended that the Pentagon continue research into autonomous weapons), something that makes many European observers shudder.
As for the United Kingdom, the jury is still out. The UK has not yet officially published its strategy (it will do so this year) but in the meantime, its "AI Council" released a roadmap with principles and programmes which in some passages we liked a lot ("ensure that every child leaves school with a basic sense of how AI works" should be hung on every office of any Ministry of Education until it enters everyone's head), while others are still rather nebulous.
The European Union, therefore, finds itself somewhat alone in picking up the moral sceptre of ethical and human-centric AI. In the midst of major players and superpowers who will not hesitate to develop artificial intelligence that is friendly with friends and less so with enemies – depending, of course, on each point of view – Europe wants an AI that does not harm anyone or as little as possible, and to do so it is adopting the only method it knows: creating regulatory quicksand here and there.
Which is not all that surprising. Let us not forget that what we have in our hands, although presented with all the fanfare it deserves, is still a proposal. It will first have to go through the EU Parliament and EU Council, it will necessarily have to be harmonised with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the proposed Data Governance Act and the revised Machinery Directive (the process can be followed here), and it will be subject to interpretation by the individual Member States, depending on which authority they'll choose to monitor the whole framework. Those who drafted it were well aware that the ball would then pass to others, who would be in charge of correcting, integrating, cutting, moving commas according to the waves the document would make.
The relentless battle of some associations, the concerns of many citizens and the open letter of 116 members of the European Parliament against facial recognition technologies must also have played a role in pushing the authors of the text to "read the air" – as the Japanese say – and put spokes in the wheel of any artificial intelligence application that might be seen as controversial.
The broadly cautious approach was thus determined by a mix of factors: 1) the clear European stance that puts human beings first and foremost, 2) firm pressure from civil society that does not want citizens to suffer the harmful effects of new technologies, 3) equally firm political pressure that follows closely on the heels of civil society, 4) geopolitical issues that lead the EU to differentiate itself from the positions of other world powers, and – last but not least – 5) the awareness that the process still awaiting the proposed regulation is long and full of potential changes.
However, the fact that some of the authors (or perhaps other people close to the drafting of the document) had doubts about the contents of the text can be guessed from the fact that it was leaked a week before the official publication. It doesn't take a Philadelphia lawyer to understand why the regulation was given a 'test drive' before its official release: uncertainties about certain passages were easy to spot.
The press leak actually resulted in several corrections in the final document, which compared to the unofficially filtered draft dropped, for example, the section that included among high-risk AI systems those that could manipulate people to "behave, form an opinion or take a decision to their detriment that they would not have taken otherwise". This is too broad a wording, which as we see it would outlaw half of the advertising messages, and which in the final text was removed in favour of a note referring to existing regulations.
If we analyse the reactions to the proposed regulation, we can divide the comments into two clusters: 'too much regulation will kill AI' and 'the direction is good, but there are still many loopholes to close'.
The first are those who deal with research and the application of artificial intelligence and fear the arrival of too many limitations (as well as a mountain of extra paperwork to prepare), and some foreign commentators who see the European Union shooting itself in the foot. The voice of the businesses can be summed up by Benjamin Mueller, of the Centre of Data Innovation lobby, supported by Amazon and Apple among others, who stated that the regulation will "limit the areas in which AI can realistically be used". Among the non-EU commentators, we could mention Jeremy Warner of The Telegraph, who observes that the European Union is regulating itself "into AI oblivion", thus urging the UK to take advantage of it by giving itself a "growth-friendly" AI, which does not ban technologies a priori but solves problems as they arise.
On the other hand, many of those associations who consider that the rules are still too lax, whether because of possible oversights or ambiguous approaches and terms, are pushing for even stricter regulation. One example is offered by Article 5.1.d (Article 5 regulates all AI systems that are considered 'prohibited'), which lists a number of permitted exceptions to remote and real-time facial recognition. The second of three exceptions indicates that facial recognition would be permitted in the case of "prevention of a specific, substantial and imminent threat to the life or physical safety of natural persons or of a terrorist attack".
EC AI regulation proposal, art 5.1.d
Algorithm Watch, in its analysis of the document, believes that this wording leaves 'a wide discretionary power to the authorities'. This is puzzling, as we would not know how to makes less discretionary a situation where there is a threat to people's safety that is at the same time 1) specific, 2) substantial and 3) imminent. Or a terrorist attack. We may be being old-fashioned, but for us, in these very specific situations the police can turn on as many cameras as they deem necessary. Not to mention that point 5.3 indicates that such activities must first be expressly and previously authorised by a judge.
But not even the European Data Protection Supervisor is satisfied with the text, which he says is too permissive. In a statement, Wojciech Wiewiórowski complains about the fact that Europe hasn't opted to prohibit tout-court biometric recognition (among which facial recognition obviously stands out) in places with public access, preferring instead to allow it even if with very strict rules. According to the EDPS, a moratorium would have been preferable, given that the technology presents extremely high risks of deep and undemocratic intrusion into individuals' private lives.
In fact, an apparent quirk of the regulation prohibits remote biometric recognition 'in real time' (apart from the exceptions we have seen), but allows 'post facto' recognition. At first look, this seems absurd: if we set up cameras to record a flow of people, then examine the recordings the next day trying to identify the faces of all passers-by, privacy risks do not miraculously disappear just because the recognition did not take place in real-time. The apparent loophole was noticed by many observers, but some remarks by Lucilla Sioli, Director for Digital Industry at the European Commission, clarify the rationale behind this decision: real-time facial recognition by law enforcement authorities can lead to wrongful detainment, which is something the regulation tries to avoid.
It seems however to be a clear oversight to ban biometric recognition used by the police, while forgetting to ban biometric recognition used by other sectors of government and private companies, as many associations have pointed out, including the organisers of the 'reclaim your face' initiative, who point out the incredible oversight in a comment on the proposed regulation.
But there are not only criticisms and protests. One potentially beneficial effect of the simple act of regulating such a complex matter, as some commentators on Wired point out, is that the European Union has broken through a membrane that seemed impenetrable, making its voice heard in an extremely complicated and highly dynamic area of technology. By resolutely entering this field, it has made life easier for legislators in other countries, even outside the continent, who will now be able to take inspiration, adapt, and regulate the potentially harmful activities of artificial intelligence.
Or they can let European rules 'conquer the world' as the GDPR has already done. Many have pointed out, not least the Economist, that since the European regulation will also apply to companies not resident in the EU, but producing or distributing AI systems used by EU citizens, this will result in many companies needing to adapt their procedures or stop serving Europe. The GDPR teaches that the latter path is generally taken by few, and obtorto collo compliance with European regulations creates de facto regulation even in those countries where it was hitherto non-existent. However, as Lawfare points out, this is unlikely to apply to countries with an advanced AI sector such as the US, which may collaborate with Europe on certain areas of AI governance, but will certainly not be colonised by its rules.


Bullying is more common than perhaps we realise. It can happen at home, at school, at work, in our intimate relationships. It affects people right across all the socio-economic groups and all age groups. Bullying is abuse – it isn't always recognised as abuse because it may be disguised as 'banter or teasing.' Bullies are very clever at isolating their victims – waiting until no-one else is around before launching an attack. Sometimes it is an obvious attack and sometimes it is subtle. This can lead to victims not being sure of what is happening and 'not wanting to make a fuss.' Sometimes they think that they have done something to cause the bullying and therefore it is their fault. Trying to anticipate what the bully might do next is very anxiety provoking. Bullying could be emotional, physical or sexual. Anything which demeans another person and overpowers them so that their wishes are ignored causes great distress to those who are being bullied. Threats are also commonplace when bullying is occurring – the victim is warned to be quiet and not tell anyone because something worse will happen. Bullying humiliates other people leading them to feel vulnerable, rejected and excluded.
Being bullied can also lead to self-harm or substance abuse in an attempt to soothe the pain. People have even been driven to suicide if they feel that no-one is listening and that they are unable to find the help that they need.
Shame is another aspect of being bullied – a sense of 'what's wrong with me.' It is important to say that it is never the fault of the person who is being bullied or abused in any way.
When I work with people who have been bullied I encourage them to be self-compassionate as this helps build healthy self-esteem. It also lays a foundation for learning how to be assertive and establish healthy boundaries.
If you are experiencing the effects of bullying whether this is from the past or in the present and would like to talk to someone who will listen with respect please get in touch with me.


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Agelaius assimilis е вид птица от семейство Трупиалови. Видът е незастрашен от изчезване.

Разпространение
Разпространен е в Куба.

Източници

Agelaius

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The star I'm talking about is the best ever I found. It had a spark in its smile for which I fell. It has the power of goodwill. It is compassionate. It was like Polaris (ಧ್ರುವ ತಾರೆ) star for me, the guiding brightest of all.
This star appeared in my Life when all other real stars were at star wars. It ignited hope. It gave me courage. It made me feel what love is with its warmth. Others loved me when I was the best version of myself. Whereas it loved me at my worst.
Pain reminds you of the joy you felt was real. Now that Star has found its moon. I'm happy about it. If your Love is unconditional, the happiness of your Love becomes important than your own.
Time had its effect. The star won't guide me now. It won't encourage me anymore.
Somewhere it still kindles the things within me. Maybe I'm still good because of it.
But, All I can do is look up and smile.


For the contract glitch, start and arena and supposedly the correct contract will show up then. You can quit and start the right one then.
Don't have time to check if I did the right one today, but thanks for the tip. Will pay attention to it tomorrow morning and see if it changes.
Missed yesterday's dailies. Guess I'll be a day late on the achievement.
But wanted to say, seems like they re-added those destroy-the-ark-crystal arkfalls. I don't know if it was just Xbox that was missing them though, or all platforms.
They don't work. At least none of the ones I tried. The only way I've seen them disappear is via the timer. The crystal dies but monsters just keep spawning.
I don't think there is a critical kill glitch. We tried in Kent last night and the score stayed about the same with or without the starting critical. We got 450 points away from gold. Gotta try it again but trouble finding a 4th.
Get a critical kill with something like a sniper rifle, swap to an explosive weapon (detonators or rocket launchers, grenades and some EGO powers apply). All kills with explosive weapons are now critical kills UNLESS you die, restart the map, melee, or shoot a bullet, and this only applies to the player who got the critical kill. Anyone who does the same can obviously take advantage.
If you need more advice beyond that, lemme know. But that should work.
Edit: Actually, gonna send you a PM too.
Hm. Content update today. It's small, but it's interesting that they actually had Thanksgiving stuff on deck. Even in that developer letter, they only talked about the Christmas update. Three new prototypes and a new pursuit.
There's a 100% XP boost, 100% rep boost, and a 25% skill boost on right now. Lasts for, from the time of writing this, 5 days and about 23 hours.
I just did Kent solo, and my final score is 60,800. Every rescue of each person was 2,000 points. Kills were also doubled. So, double everything. IF YOU NEED A SCORE ON ANYTHING, DO IT RIGHT NOW.
Oh, wow. That's impressive. I might do the rest of the Arena Golds just because then.
Also, if there's a Rep booster, I'm glad I waited on the Weekly. I was actually 10 days off from finishing on time for the Defiant II due to score, so this'll close that gap.
HAH! I though we finally did something right and my bubble go busted :p With support being slowed down a bit with the transition, I've not looked much on the forums in a few days.
Back on track now for December 7th.
Got on and got gold on Dekuso first try just to have it done. Today will put me at 33 dailies for Defiant Few.
I just did it and got bronze. I've been doing the quests and haven't been able to get gold on a single one, even with the score boost. What am I missing?
Well, he had a group of four for Dekuso, that's a big one.
I personally managed to do Ridgecrest, 101 keys, and Observatory solo. But I was using the critical kill glitch (get critical kill, swap to explosive weapon, explosive kills count as critical kills) and Assault class (sprint and close combat, when active, grant the "power kill" bonus, which stacks with critical kills).
And now I have the Poultromancer, so it'd probably be even easier. Doubt I'll get Dekuso unless I find some people though. Seems unlikely with only 18 hours left.
Dekuso requires a full group. Kill enough trash mobs and a tanker will spawn. It was pretty close compared to the other arenas where we knocked gold out of the park.
I'm going to do the weekly for DF tonight for a 2nd week of 150% rep and should put me at rank 8. still need 2 weeks of dailies though.
Dekuso requires a full group unless you happen to have a boost on, at any rate. In which case, as I've found, two people will suffice. Still might have been possible solo but I didn't feel like spending that much time trying it over and over.
I see a diamond already. Maybe dailies already updated somewhere, or maybe my count was off by 1.
Either way, seems unlockable. Won't have it myself until tomorrow though.
5 days left for me!
Be curious to see if the December patch has them or if they get put off to the next next update.


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What does "it fell to the Boor" mean?
Ran into this:
He came to a desk. On it lay a metal paper knife with an ornate handle. Would it be sharp enough? He reached for it and knocked over a small brass jar. Stamps spilled out of it and it fell to the Boor with a clatter. "Hey," Mrs. Barrows yelled from the kitchen, "are you tearing up the pea patch?" Mr. Martin gave a strange laugh. Picking up the knife, he tried its point against his left wrist. It was blunt. It wouldn't do. Source
It is obvious the man has knocked over the jar so made it fall off the desk, the stamps spilled out and the contact between the metal jar and the floor made a clatter, noise. However, What does it fell to the Boor with a clatter mean exactly? I checked the meaning of Boor but apparently here it has another sense other than the normal ones. Is it an idiom or something?
meaning-in-context sentence-meaning
JuyaJuya
Is there ANY way that it's a typo of "floor"? – JMB Mar 3 '14 at 21:50
Other than that, I'm struggling. The fact that it's capitalised is indicative of a product name, or similar. At first, I thought it referred back to Mr. Martin himself, but the capitalisation didn't ring true for that explanation. – JMB Mar 3 '14 at 21:52
@JMB A pal just made the puzzle. It is originally the floor and happened due to an optical character recognition (OCR) error. – Juya Mar 3 '14 at 21:59
I believe that's an optical character recognition (OCR) error.
The intended word is "floor" which would look very much like "Boor" on a blurry scan, or if the original text used a ligature between the "f" and "l".
In this case, it is saying that when the object fell to the ground (floor), there was a noise (clatter).
ToddTodd
+1 Certainly correct. Google Books returns 8 hits on "fell to the Boor", every one of which is an OCR error. – StoneyB on hiatus Mar 3 '14 at 21:54
Wow! you are quite right. I checked it in my printed version of the story. Now should I delete this question? And would you kindly say what it wouldn't do at the end mean? Does it refer to the sharpness of the knife alone? – Juya Mar 3 '14 at 21:58
It refers to the sharpness of the knife, but it's "do" meaning "suffice". The knife was not good enough/wouldn't suffice for the job at hand. – JMB Mar 3 '14 at 22:09
"It wouldn't do" implies that the knife needs to be sharp to accomplish whatever Mr. Martin requires it for. We can leave it up to the mods on deletion - it might be helpful to someone else as it sounds like this is a common OCR error. – Todd Mar 3 '14 at 22:15
I wouldn't delete the question. These OCR errors pop up every now and again, and it's good for people to be made aware of them. No need to feel bad about it. As the OCR scanner says: Sh! It happens... – J.R.♦ Mar 3 '14 at 22:29
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Indian planning VVT Thunderstroke?
Posted on 11th May, 2019 by Mark Hinchliffe
Indian Motorcycle is not only building a new engine, but also seems to be updating its current Thunderstroke 111 with variable valve timing or VVT.
Last month, images surfaced of a heavily disguised Indian tourer, possibly called the Raptor, with a fixed fairing and a different engine, believed to be quad-valved and water-cooled.
Is this the upcoming Indian Raptor? (Image from a leaked brochure)
It is thought the engine was originally developed as the Victory Freedom V2 engine before Polaris axed the brand.
So what's happening with the current air/oil-cooled Thunderstroke in the Chief, Roadmaster and Springfield models?
According to the latest patent filings in the US, the Thunderstroke will be updated with variable valve timing, most likely to meet stringent Euro 5 emissions targets being introduced from January 2020.
Indian VVT engine patent drawings
VVT spreads
Variable valve timing has been around for ages in cars and is known as VVT-i and VVTL-i in Toyota, MIVEC in Mitsubishi, VVL in Nissan and VANOS by Ford, BMW, Ferrari and Lamborghini.
Honda was the first to introduce it to motorcycles and it is now being progressively introduced to other Japanese and European motorcycles such as BMW, Ducati, Suzuki and Yamaha.
BMW's 1250cc Shiftcam Boxer engine with variable valve timing
We expect many others to follow suit to try to meet the tough Euro 5 emissions regulations.
Already many of our popular motorcycle models have been axed because they can't meet the Euro 4 requirements and more are likely to be axed next year under Euro 5.
One of the solutions to the tighter emissions laws could be variable valve timing which makes the engine more flexible in different conditions, resulting in increased fuel economy, lower emissions and improved performance, particularly torque.
If Indian is planning on VVT, we can also expect compatriot Harley-Davidson to be developing something similar.
Indian rental
Meanwhile, Indian Motorcycle has launched Indian Motorcycle Rentals at select dealers around the USA.
Rental can be as short as four hours to as long as several weeks.
Indian Motorcycle Australia has no plans yet for anything similar.
Indian Springfield Dark Horse got Jack!
Indian trademarks Challenger name
Indian to challenge Harley's Road Glide?
Indian to launch FTR 1200 Apollo models
Indian riders attempt parade record
Indian Scout marks 100th with NOS racer
Honda patents variable riding position
Posted in By manufacturer, Indian Motorcycle, MotorbikesTagged indian motorcycle, patent, Thunderstroke, variable valve timing, VVT
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Geepers says:
12th May, 2019 at 9:52 am
When I look at those cutaways of a modern internal combustion engine I think three things:
1. Man, they're complex
2. Man, they're beautiful, highly evolved engineering
3. Man, it's sad that they're soon to be a relic of history
When you think of what the internal combustion engine was a century ago compared to what it is now it's sad / ironic / disconcerting that all that hundred years of development is about to be consigned to the bin as the electric revolution come in. MotoGP (bikes) and F1 (cars) have taken the technological to an incredible level, engines that can rev to 15,000 rpm and not destroy themselves – well not immediately anyway! It's really quite astonishing what 100 years of brilliant engineers and designers have been able to achieve only to see it all swept away in the blink of an eye. Increasingly countries are mandating that you won't be able to buy internal combustion engines after 2030 or whatever. That's just extraordinary when you think of the lifetimes /generations of blood, sweat and tears that have gone into their development to this incredibly high level. That's what technology can do: reduce existing "state of the art" something or other to ashes in the blink of an eye. The electric motor is about to do just that. Master Mechanics and peeps of that ilk will be suddenly unemployed. The whole game is about to change overnight. It's the way of the world now: rapid change. They say IT technology doubles in capability every five years. That makes the improvements logarithmic – ie all the really massive changes come in a flood towards the end. That's what we're on the cusp of right now. Artificial Intelligence being the REALLY big one. I don't think we can even really imagine what THAT sucker is going to do to our world. Exciting, if somewhat nervous, times 🙂


Symbol for respectable wealth, strength - and the 'fullness of the Lebens'.
to themselves see climb one or sitting under him: one will still have to take some hurdle, until one attains a secure retirement.
see without fruits: Difficulties, obstacles and worries open before, - also: one the obstacles do not master.
climb this or under him sit: one will still have to take some hurdle, until one can enjoy the secure retirement.


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Find the best Back to School deals to start the year off right.Shop Target for great back to school deals on everything you need to learn in style.School Supplies Deals Comparing Prices across Colorado stores and 4 tips to save on school supplies.You Want Something Special About school supplies pencil box,laundry baskets online store. Comparing Prices across Colorado stores and 4 tips to save on school supplies.
Check out the Target Cartwheel mobile app and the King Soopers app before you shop for extra school supply discounts.Here is one place you can let your kids help out in choosing colors for folders, etc. and imagine their faces when all their supplies show up in a nice packaged box next week.Use the free uGrocery app to compare prices and create a shopping list for each store before you go to the stores.Online Shopping Made Easy from Your Go-To School, Classroom and Educational.
Buy the latest supplies school GearBest.com offers the best supplies school products online shopping.
Shop the best deals on school supplies this week at stores around town.
If you are pressed for time or if want to avoid the crazy back to school section of the big box stores, you can always place your order online.Shop at Discount School Supply and earn Cash Back from BeFrugal.School supplies including peg boards, hooks, rubber bands, Petri dishes, glass jars, metal clamps, clear plastic trays, battery chargers, utility funnels, pipettes, etc.She is the co-founder of the free grocery price comparison app.
I personally got 98% of my kids school supplies at King Soopers, one box of 12 red Ticonderoga pencils that my 1st grader had to have at Amazon and plastic Mead folders at Target.
Type to Search. 15 Places to Score Major Back-to-School Deals.Find great deals on eBay for school supplies and school supplies lot. Plan to spend 45 minutes to one hour just getting the supplies.
While King Soopers was the cheapest for this particular list, they do have a slightly smaller selection of school supplies than the big box stores, (but surprisingly vast) so if you are looking for a large variety of items, you can always split your list and pick up the majority of items at King Soopers and the rest elsewhere. With King Soopers ClickList, you can add all the school supplies to your grocery order and pick them up with your groceries, making for a one-stop shop.Find great back-to-school deals on supplies like crayons, pencils, notebooks, pens, folders and more with these shopping tips. How to Find Cheap School Supplies.Find the latest promo codes, coupons, sales and shipping offers.
Back-to-School Shopping Made Easy Back to School is over for 2017, but we are already getting ready for 2018.
You can always let the younger kids pick out a backback or lunchbox so they feel like they went back to school shopping.Use Discount School Supply coupon codes for November 2017 and save up to 50%.While it may seem like a good idea to let Joey pick out his own folders and notebooks, it makes for a longer and more expensive process in the end.
Prepackaged School Supply Packs custom packed by your grade level lists, delivered on time.You can price match advertised sales at Target, Walmart, and Staples.Shop the hottest school supplies sales from. be sure to check out the best back to school deals on Coupons.com to stay.


an English artist and children's book illustrator.
Ann Taylor (1783 –1866) was a poet and literary critic. Born in England to a successful and well-educated family, she and her sister Jane, who is best known for the classic children's verse, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," wrote a number of children's books. Ann also wrote a number of hymns. A devoted advocate of animal welfare, Ann also took an active interest in social issues. Widowed in her late sixties, she wrote prolifically and traveled extensively until her death.
The illustrations fit exactly with the diction of the day. Even though the language is old-fashioned, to me, the sentiment is true, sometihing I don't often find in older poems.
Yes, perfect for today, especially with the illustrations.
thank-you Jayne! this is so perfect for today!
I miss you, Mom. Can you hear me read this poem to you? Thank you, Jayne.
Thank you, Jayne, for interspersing the pictures so beautifully.


Located in Burton, Michigan, St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is a community that shares the love of Christ through worship, outreach, learning, and fellowship.
Your first visit to an Orthodox church?
Welcome to our family in Christ!


text:
EPC may refer to:

Government and politics
 Eastern Provincial Council, in Sri Lanka
 European Policy Centre, a Belgian think tank
 European Political Community (1952), a former political organization proposed in 1952
 European Political Community (2022), a new initiative pioneered by Emmanuel Macron
 European Political Cooperation, a form of European Union foreign policy coordination

Law
 Equal Protection Clause, of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
 European Patent Convention, a multilateral treaty based on which European patents are granted

Science and technology
 Asus Eee PC, a line of netbook computers
 Early Prostate Cancer programme, a clinical programme of bicalutamide monotherapy for prostate cancer
Electronic Parts Catalogue
 Electronic Product Code
 Endothelial progenitor cell
 Energy Performance Certificate
 × Epicattleya, an orchid genus
 Evolved Packet Core, part of the System Architecture Evolution, in telecommunications
 Extra-pair copulation

Other uses
 EPC (EP), by Battles
 Edgewell Personal Care, an American manufacturing company
 Electronic Poetry Center, an online resource for digital poetry
 Engineering, procurement, and construction
 EPC Group, a German engineering and construction company
 EPC Groupe, a French explosives company
 European Paralympic Committee
 European Payments Council, a banking organization
 Evangelical Presbyterian Church (disambiguation)
 Event-driven process chain, a type of flow chart for business process modeling
 Export Promotion Council, a Kenyan trade group
 Class designation for Reading electric multiple units
 Execution Phase Contracts, see Front-end engineering