text:
Europe is going to the Moon
A highly innovative and budget-priced mission to explore the moon has formally been approved by the European Space Agency. Meeting in Paris 9 and 10 November the Agency's Science Programme Committee has finalised all aspects of the SMART-1 project. This small lunar orbiter is the first in a new line of Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology to demonstrate new key technologies for future deep space missions.
Freelance service contracts for Communication Experts
The ESA Science Programme has been extending its outreach through anincreased effort in communication and provision of information about theProgramme and its missions.
The next steps for international lunar exploration
30 years after the Apollo lunar landing, the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) is enthusiastic about the future of lunar exploration and human expansion into the solar system. Bernard H. Foing, ILEWG president (1998-2000), announced today that the next ILEWG conference will take place in Europe at ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk near The Hague, on 10-14 July 2000, in exactly one year.
SMART-1 Mission and instruments presented at European Geophysical Society
A very successful "Open Session on Lunar Exploration" took place at The Hagueon 22 April, as part of 1999 Assembly of the European Geophysics Society . Itwas convened by B.H. Foing (ESA) and co-convened by H. Hoffmann (DLR, Berlin).
Key Recommendations for SMART-1
The period January-February has been a busy one for the SMART-1 project, with a succession of key science, technical and management meetings, culminating in a number of recommendations concerning the launcher, electric propulsion system and payload, presented to ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) on 17 February.
SMART-1 Science and Technology Working Team meeting
The SMART-1 Science and Technology Working Team (STWT) met at ESTEC, Noordwijk, on 24 and 25 November.Key items under discussion were recent recommendations on the SMART-1 baseline 6-month lunar orbit scenario, and a possible extension for a flyby of a near-Earth object (NEO).
SMART-1 mission baseline endorsed
At its meeting of 2-3 November, ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) endorsed the SMART-1 baseline lunar scenario.
Report from Moscow Lunar conference
The Third International conference on the Exploration and Utilization of the Moon(3ICEUM) took place at the President hall of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 10-14 October 1998.
Moscow Conf. Exploration and Utilization of the Moon
The Third International Conference on Exploration and Utilization of the Moon is being held in Moscow, from 10 to 14 October. It is organised by the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG).
24 proposals for SMART-1
A total of 24 proposals for technology experiments were received in response to the SMART-1 Announcement of Opportunity on the deadline of 5 June.
SMART-1 science payload endorsed
At its meeting of 28/29 May ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) unanimously endorsed the recommended scientific payload for the SMART-1 mission.
PR 09-1998: Taking Europe To The Moon
In 1994 the European Space Agency (ESA) developed a phased Lunar programme leading to the long-term goal of creating an infrastructure for utilising and developing the Moon whilst preserving Lunar assets.
Showing 41 - 52 of 52 results.


On November 30, 2016 T3 officially opens its doors.
Designed by Vancouver based Michael Green Architecture (MGA) in conjunction with Architect-of-Record DLR Group, the seven storey office building in Minneapolis' North Loop neighbourhood is the largest mass timber building in the United States.
When Hines approached MGA with this exciting project they envisioned T3 as a unique model of new-office building; an opportunity to offer a modern interpretation of the robust character of historic wood, brick, stone, and steel buildings with the additional benefits of state of the art amenities, environmental performance, and technical capability.
The project is an investment in both the past and future of Minneapolis and in the Warehouse District's rich history. The design objective for T3 was to build on the character of the past with a modern perspective. As businesses look to new competitive models for attracting staff, the goal for T3 was to provide a warm and inviting environment that would attract and retain employers and employees.
T3, which stands for 'Timber, Technology, Transit', offers 224,000 square feet of office and retail space. Over 3,600 cubic meters of exposed mass timber columns, beams, and floor slabs recall the heavy timber construction of the building's predecessors. T3's modern technological approach uses engineered wood components (chiefly glulam and nail laminated timber) for the roof, floors, columns and beams, and furniture. A significant amount of the lumber used to fabricate the NLT comes from trees killed by the mountain pine beetle. These modern materials bring the warmth and beauty of wood to the interior, and promote a healthy indoor environment for occupants.
As a result of its wood structure, T3 was erected at a speed exceeding conventional steel-framed or concrete buildings. In less than 10 weeks, 180,000 square feet of timber framing went up, averaging 30,000 square feet of floor area installed per week. It is also lighter than comparable steel or concrete structures, reducing the depth and extent of excavation and foundations. Additionally, the embodied carbon in the building's wood structural system is lower than that found in conventional buildings found throughout most of downtown Minneapolis and the North Loop.
The building's aesthetic success can also be attributed to the mass timber construction. Candice Nichol, MGA Associate and T3 Project Lead, says "the texture of the exposed NLT is quite beautiful. The small imperfections in the lumber and slight variation in color of the mountain pine beetle wood only add to the warmth and character of the new space." Extensive exterior glazing at every level as well as views into the ground level social workspace with wood furniture, booths, and a feature stair, allow the public to experience the building.
T3 is currently the largest completed mass timber building in the U.S. With changing building codes throughout North America, tall wood buildings will become more common. A pioneer in this building type, T3 has broken new ground and is perhaps a prototype for future commercial mass timber buildings.
MGA | Michael Green Architecture is a mid-sized architecture and interior design firm founded to pursue community, social, and sustainable projects that we feel passionate about. Our projects engage their community with elegance and simplicity with a singular purpose - to meet our clients' goals.
We see architecture as more than a building, we see it as an opportunity to tell a story. Each project has a unique story. We hope each captures the spirit of the client and community, and enhances the wonder of living. A beautiful building falls short if it doesn't also speak to us with meaning; if it doesn't connect with a story; and if it doesn't contribute to a positive experience.
MGA supports and advocates for the tall wood movement. Wood is a renewable, carbon sequestering product that is grown naturally. It provides a healthy indoor environment to work and live in that other building materials can't. It is a durable and enduring material that has exceptional life cycle benefits. As a designer, wood offers an evolving medium that is both complex and a new frontier for design. In many respects we are taking knowledge that disappeared a century ago and revitalizing the next century of building more sustainably. No two pieces of wood can ever be the same. Wood is nature's fingerprints in a building. People are naturally drawn to surround themselves with the feeling and qualities of nature.


text:
Role of SIRT6 in calcific aortic valve disease
Miller, J. D.
Aortic Valve Stenosis
The role of senescent cells in late-life tumorigenesis
Van Deursen, J., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Influence of Anti-Angiogenic Therapy on Drug Delivery to Brain Tumors
Elmquist, W., Sarkaria, J. N., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Microscale EEG interictal dynamics & transition into seizure in humans & animals
Stead, S. M.
Electrocorticography
IL-2 scintigraphy as a guide to cancer immunotherapy
Markovic, S. N., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
TREAT-Mayo
Malhi, H. M. & Shah, V.
Time lapse to cancer: defining transition from polyp to colorectal cancer (PQ14)
Boardman, L. A., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Drosophila model of oxalate nephrolithiasis
Julian Alexander, D., Romero, M. F., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Bmi-1, a potential therapeutic target in ovarian cancer
Bhattacharya, R. D.
Small Interfering RNA
The Impact of Patient Obesity on Patient-Centered Quality of Care
Phelan, S. M.
Sex-specific Risk for Vascular Dysfunction and Cognitive Decline
Miller, V. M.
Treatment of Diastolic Heart Failure via AAV-9 Mediated Gene Transfer
Redfield, M. M., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Role of PTEN in Chromosome Segregation and its Importance for Tumor Suppression
Mechanisms of Liver Inflammation
Malhi, H. M.
Objective decision support environment for clinical trials
Erickson, B. J.
Metabolic Reprogramming: Essential Role and Early Marker of MGUS Progression
Jelinek, D. F., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Anti-Tumor Immunity in Response to a Modified Vaccine Strain Measles Virus
Peikert, T. D.
Measles Virotherapy for Multiple Myeloma
Russell, S. J., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Onset and biomarkers for progression of monoclonal gammopathies
Risk Prediction and Mechanistic Evaluation of Postoperative Acute Lung Injury
Kor, D. J.
Novel Combination Therapy for Staphylococcus aureus Pneumonia
Rajagopalan, G. D.
Staphylococcal Pneumonia
Superantigens
Exotoxins
Mechanisms of Bortezomib-induced Peripheral Neuropathy
Staff, N. P.
Patient-oriented and effectiveness research in chronic liver disease
Kim, W. R.
Sleep Restriction and Augmented Vascular Risk in Prehypertension
Somers, V., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Interactions Between Obesity Risk and Insufficient Sleep
Risk of Herpes Zoster Among Adults with Asthma
Juhn, Y. J.
Herpes Zoster Vaccine
Cellular Immunity
New tools to study leukocyte infiltration into the CNS
Howe, C. L., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Immunoevasive Mucosal Vaccines Against HIV-1
Barry, M. A., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Identify and characterize genes involved in X-chromosome inactivation
Zhang, Z. H.
non-coding RNA
The role of a histone H4 phosphorylation in drug resistance
Histones
Proinflammatory T Regulatory Cells in Colon Cancer
Khazaie, K., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Plasma Osteoprotegerin and Adverse Outcomes in CHD Patients
Kullo, I. J., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Molecular Mechanisms of Liver Fibrosis
Shah, V.
Neuropilin-1
Fibronectins
Liver Cirrhosis
Introducing restriction factors into the genome of an AIDS virus host species
Poeschla, E. M.
transgenesis
Cellular Senescence and Aging
Lebrasseur, N., Deursen, J., Campisi, J., Mooney, S. D. & LeBrasseur, N. K.
Anticancer drug-induced BH3-only protein.Bak interactions
Differential Approach to the Postural Tachycardia Syndrome
Singer, W.
Bicarbonate Regulation of Aqueous Flow
Marmorstein, A. D., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Neurodevelopment of Children Exposed to Anesthesia: A Population-Based Assessment
Flick, R. P., Flick, R., Warner, D. O., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Validating the New Criteria for Preclinical Alzheimer's disease
Jack, C. R. J., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Pulmonary Rehabiltation before Lung Cancer Resection
Benzo, R. P. & Kinney, L.
Interdisciplinary Training in Lung Physiology and Biomedical Engineering
Sieck, G. C., Prakash, Y. S., Sieck, G. C., Kinney, L. & Sieck, G. C.
CD147 Biological Function and Role as a Biomarker of MGUS to Myeloma Progression
Jelinek, D. F. & Kinney, L.
Regulation of the Tumor Microenvironment in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Fernandez-Zapico, M. E., Fernandez-Zapico, M. E. & Roberts, L. R.
Autism Spectrum Disorder: Birth Cohort 1976-2000, Epidemiology and Adult Status
Katusic, S. K.
Mayo Heart Failure Regional Clinical Center
Endothelial dysfunction in the cerebral circulation
Katusic, Z. S.
Healthy Immigrant Families: Working Together To Move More and To Eat Well
Nigon, J., Wieland, M. L., Sia, I. G., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Intraocular pressure regulation via ATP-sensitive potassium channels
Fautsch, M. P., Romero, M. F., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.
Neurophysiologically Based Responsive Pharmacotherapy for Epilepsy
Leyde, K., Vite, C., Patterson, E., Worrell, G. A., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L., Kinney, L. & Kinney, L.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A recent breach at the Chipotle restaurant chain highlights the risk of swiping your debit card at restaurants and other businesses. Consumers often use debit cards instead of credit cards for smaller purchases, such as at fast food restaurants. However, debit cards expose consumers to greater fraud risks than credit cards. This is particularly true when the restaurant has not upgraded its payment terminals to utilize safer chip technology. Chipotle reportedly decided not to upgrade its terminals for fear of slowing down customer lines.
So why is using a debit card riskier than using a credit card? For starters, if your card information is used unlawfully, your bank is not obligated to restore the funds to your account for at least two weeks while it investigates the incident. During this time period, you may not have your funds available in your account to pay your mortgage, rent, loans, or other bills. Many people cannot afford to be without their money for that length of time. With a credit card, you do not have to pay for the fraudulent charges while your bank investigates.
In addition, debit cards don't carry the same legal protection as credit cards. Federal law limits your liability on a debit card to $50, but only if you notify your financial institution within two business days of discovery of the theft. If you wait longer than 60 days, you could lose all the money in your checking account, and any other accounts tied to the card. With a credit card, you have no liability at all as long as you have possession of your card.
If you enjoy the convenience of paying for your everyday purchases with a debit card, consider opening a no-annual-fee credit card account with a small line of credit for those purchases. Be sure to promptly pay off your bill in full each month to avoid any fees and finance charges. We recommend that you do not use any credit cards on which you carry a balance for this purpose, as that would increase your finance charges.
You can learn much more about the advantages and disadvantages of debit and credit cards, as well as other payment methods, by reading our Consumer Guide Privacy When You Pay: Debit, Credit, Cash and More.


text:
Nemecene (Paperback)
The Gadlin Conspiracy
By Kaz Lefave, Kaz Lefave (Drawings by)
Aguacene Publishing, 9781988814018, 384pp.
The city of Eadonberg rests at the edge of a precipice as a tide of vengeance rises from within. Amidst suspicions of Orwellian double-speak and doctored evidence, and driven by a knowing he cannot explain, Keeto leaves the cocoon of the archives to face the adventurer he aspires to be. If only his impatient twin sister, Elize, were able to slow the whispers in her mind from feeding the voices in her head, as their chatter tests her highland upbringing with each argumentative intrusion, time would surely bend in her favor. But the search continues ... and they are still looking. In this episode, the role of first narrator falls to Nepharisse, the soft-spoken sapphire-eyed redhead whose quiet dealings play to misguided expectations. No human can resist the sparkles that dance on the wings of her words, while she glides through time by the grace of her kind. The murders resurface. They spread to an unsettling new set of young victims, and, once again, the twins and their poke-happy dweeb-of-a-genius co-conspirator, Zafarian, are sleuthing. This time, however, they venture outside their bio-walled haven to uncover something much more personal. Nepharisse also has a few choice words about the shocking developments, as she gathers some facts of her own. Even as she questions her own value, she aspires to more than current constraints would impose upon her. But that is not her place. As new alliances are revealed, still others are suspected. A degenerative virus fuels distrust between cultures as the twins discover they aren't the only ones being hunted. While the government intensifies its secret campaign against the Gadlin underground with allegations of biological terrorism, Zafarian, the twins' half-Gadlin friend, questions his own loyalties. Could the Unification broadcasts be true? Humanity trades freedom for fear. Control passes to the very entities Keeto has vowed to hide Elize from, the ones who had caged their mother -- the Global Health Unit. What price would you pay for safety? A conspiracy is indeed growing, but by whom and towards whom may surprise you.
Kaz Lefave is a Toronto-based science fiction world builder who uses her multi-disciplinary design experience and overflowing imagination to craft compelling stories by connecting the dots between science, art, music, dance, fashion, words, spirit, nature, reason, humanity, darkness, humor, and a curious taste for the inexplicable. Kaz has a bachelor in Applied Science (engineering) from Queen's University, a fashion degree from the Richard Robinson Fashion Design Academy, certifications in personal training and hypnosis, a US Patent in user interface design, an IMBD credit as director of "White," facilitates for the Proctor Gallagher Institute Matrixx program, and has written extensively on environmental issues via WomanNotWaiting.com, LifeAsAHuman.com, and her philanthropy mission at Aguacene. She speaks English, French, Spanish, and has dabbled in German, Arabic, and Russian. Kaz also strives to be a recovering chocoholic, with limited success, and to look more and more like her standard poodle every day.


Dramatically improve the mobility and efficiency of commercial workers with a Segway® Personal Transporter (PT). You can even start your own tourism business with a fleet of Segway i2 SE or x2 SE PTs.
In today's world, lifestyle is everything. Our line of personal mobility products allows you to travel conveniently, quickly, greenly and most importantly – fashionably.
Officers will have an easier time connecting with the communities they serve while riding a Segway Patroller, a force multiplier that allows officers to be visible, approachable and convey a positive presence.
We leverage new technology to drive innovation of robotic solutions, from personal robotics applications to personal transportation and unmanned vehicles used by the military to keep soldiers safe.


text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{S:1}

Due to the power that social networks have for promoting political mobilization and participation, politicians are using these tools to communicate their ideas and change ``political consumerism'' \cite{Stolle2005}. Political consumerism consists in turning the market into a site for politics and ethics, as consumer choices reflect personal attitudes and purchases are informed by ethical or political assessment of business and government practice \cite{Micheletti2003}. An example of this occurred when the French government opposed the approval of a UN Security Council resolution that allowed the use of military force against Iraq in 2003. By that time, sales of French wines dropped in a portion of US restaurants and in some shops, sales of French cheeses were eliminated while in some food-outlets ``French fries" were rechristened as ``Freedom fries"; a trend that shows how Americans opposed  the French position, not by taking the streets to express their views, but by using their purchasing power for spoiling French exports \cite{Stolle2005}. Political consumerism is also related with the so-called ``ideological consumerism'' roughly defined as the study of the interacting psycho-socio-cultural processes when an individual or group prefers, fosters and spreads their beliefs and quotidian practices that mediate commercial exchange \cite{Arias2009}. Our aim in this work is to offer a novel analysis of Colombian elections based on the natural language use of Politicians in Twitter.

\section{Studying Ideological Consumerism About Electoral Processes in Social Networks}

The ideological consumerism about electoral processes can also be analyzed from public opinion propagated in social networks like Facebook or Twitter. For instance, in analyzing the 2010 USA congressional elections, it was observed that right-leaning Twitter users exhibited greater levels of political activity, a more tightly interconnected social structure, and a communication network topology that facilitated the rapid and broad dissemination of political information \cite{Conover2012}. Likewise, in a randomized controlled trial of political mobilization messages delivered to 61 million Facebook users during the 2010 USA congressional elections it was observed that the messages directly influenced political self-expression, information seeking and real-world voting behavior because these messages not only influenced the users who received them but also the users' friends, and friends of friends; revealing that the effect of social transmission on real-world voting was greater than the direct effect of the messages themselves, and nearly all the transmission occurred between close friends who were more likely to have a face-to-face relationship, showing that strong ties are instrumental for spreading both online and real-world behavior in social networks \cite{Bond2012}.

Political polarization also relates with ideological consumerism. For instance, during the 2011 Canadian Federal Election, it was observed that Twitter users tended to cluster around shared political views even though they eventually interacted with other users of opposing ideologies \cite{Gruzd2014}. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the online social structure of a political party was strongly related to its ideology, and the degree of connectivity across two parties grew when they were close in the ideological space of a multi-party system like the Swiss one \cite{Garcia2015}.  Needless to say that political participation in social networks also relates with voters' feelings and attitudes. \cite{Maruyama2014} observed that participants' average feeling and recall toward political candidates did not depend on Twitter activity which, in contrast, proved to be important for vote choice, in such a way that people who actively tweeted changed their voting choice to reflect the prevailing sentiment on Twitter. According to \cite{Park2013} these results might be partially explained by the role that a Twitter opinion leader has on individuals' involvement in political processes, since political leaders can persuade their followers directly on substantive attitudes regarding policy issues, attributions regarding the leader's qualities, and the subsequent voting behavior \cite{Minozzi2015}.
These findings also support recent results of the 2013 elections of the Italian parliament \cite{caldarelli2014}, since the activity on Twitter in terms of volume (total tweets) and change in time provided a very good proxy of the final electoral results. Summing up, voting behavior is influenced by the political messages that are spread in social networks. Yet, given the fact that such messages reflect divergent ideologies, it might be relevant knowing if there are some similarities among their contents, and if so, which of them captures more votes and why. Here, lies the importance of analyzing  natural language use in social networks when politicians are in democratic campaign and its influence on voting behavior.

\section{Analyzing the Ideology and the Natural Language Use of Politicians in Twitter}
\label{sec2}

A convenient way to analyze the natural language use of  politicians in Twitter can be done through the so-called \textit{word count strategies} \cite{Michalke2014, Turney2010}. This process begins with the identification of tweets whose content is related with political campaigns in the preceding weeks of the elections. All these tweets have to be merged in a single document that will be decomposed in their staple linguistic components known as ``corpus'' \cite{Pak2010}. According to \cite{Sudhof2012} a corpus  vocabulary of size $n$ can represent a ``bag of words'' of document $i$ as an n-dimensional vector $v_{i}$ where each component represents one word in the document. The value of dimension $j$ of document vector $v_{i}$ depends on the importance of the word $j$ in document $i$, being the importance quantified by contrasting the term-frequency with the inverse document frequency which formalizes the idea that a rare term or word has higher information content than expected terms like prepositions, articles and pronouns. Formally, a document vector is expressed as follows,

\begin{equation}
x_{i}=(x_{1,i},x_{2,i},x_{3,i},\ldots,x_{t,i}),\label{eq_1}
\end{equation}

and
\begin{equation}
x_{t,i}=tf_{t}\cdot log\frac{\left|D\right|}{\left|\left\{ t\in i\right\} \right|},\label{eq_2}
\end{equation}

Where $tf_{t}$ is the term frequency of the word $t$ in the document $i$, $|D|$ is the number of documents in the collection, and $log|D|/|\left\{ t\in i\right\} |$ is the inverse frequency of the documents that contain $t$. At the end of this process the so-called ``term-document matrix'' is built. This matrix returns the words that occur at least one time in any of the documents that constitute the collection of tweets of each politician. Representing the collection of tweets as a vector in the Euclidean space allows the evaluation of its linguistic similarity with a second collection of tweets, both reflecting the ideology of each politician \cite{Turney2010}. This linguistic similarity is then estimated by the Euclidean distance between document vectors \cite{Sudhof2012}. Although this procedure does not take into account the subtleties of language (like sarcasm or irony) that are commonly used in politics \cite{Bosco2013}, it offers a suitable quantitative metric for evaluating the similarity between two politicians representing different political ideologies \cite{Henry2013}. Since Colombian ideological parties have witnessed a complex series of reforms that have promoted the creation of new parties \cite{Batlle2013}, the standard approach to differentiating them consists in using the ``left-right'' spectrum with the ``Conservative Party'' and the ``Liberal Party'' at the center stage \cite{Botero2014}. We propose another classification; that of traditional parties (e.g., ``\textit{Partido Conservador Colombiano}''), independent parties (e.g., ``\textit{Movimiento Alternativo Indígena y Social}'') or alliances between them (e.g., ``\textit{Alianza entre Partido Conservador y Partido de la U}''). If political ideology plays an important role in influencing voting behavior, as it has been previously showed in other countries \cite{Palfrey1987,Chirumbolo2010,Garcia2015,Gruzd2014}, we might expect that in the case of Colombian regional elections the linguistic similarities between politicians of the same ideological affiliation should be higher than the similarities they share with politicians of other ideologies. Alternatively, given the fact that politicians can exert their influence by increasing their Twitter activity in terms of the number of followers, the number of tweets and re-tweeted messages \cite{Cha2010,Tumasjan2010,Jungherr2012}, we also might expect a statistical significant association between these metrics and their electoral results.

\section{Methodology}
\label{sec3}

Two data sets were built for the analysis. The first was composed by the official electoral results of the last democratic elections in Colombia, held in October 25, 2015. In these elections 32 new governors had to be elected across the country (one in each Colombian department). Ad hoc queries were designed and used with the  software "Import.io"  \url{https://import.io/} for retrieving the official results from the elections web page \url{http://www.colombia.com/elecciones/2015/regionales/}. In querying these results we obtained a list containing the names of political contenders, their declared political affiliation as well as the amount of received votes in their  departments. Political abstention was 39.69\%, a little bit lower than previous ones \cite{Forero2014}. The second data set was built with the ``twitteR'' package which was developed to mining short messages in this social network through the R environment \cite{Gentry2015}. This data set was composed by the tweets spread by Colombian politicians during the preceding three weeks of the elections (between October 1, 2015 and October 24, 2015). A total of 140 candidates participated in the elections and 52 of them showed an active Twitter use for promoting their own political campaign. Thus, our sample represents 37.14\% of Colombian politicians who participated in the elections for new governors. Tweets of each politician were structured as a corpus in a single text document. We then obtained 52 corpora (one for each politician) containing all the tweets that were communicated through this social network. All of these tweets were written in Spanish and given the fact that these tweets can include special characters such as HTML tags, punctuation marks, mentions (Twitter usernames preceded by the ``@'') and hashtags (thematic words preceded by the ``\#''), we removed these characters, and preserved word accents because of their relevance in Spanish language. We followed a two-step procedure for text-cleaning purposes. In the first step we applied the so-called ``stemming'' procedure, consisting in reducing inflected words to their root word. For example, the Spanish words ``\textit{gobernación}'', ``$governaciones$'', ``$gobernador$'' and ``$gobernadores$'' were reduced to the stem word ``$gobern$''. The second step consisted in removing the so-called ``stop words'' by using the stop words list included in the ``koRpus'' package \cite{Michalke2014}. These words were removed in the because of their their high frequency in natural language use \cite{Piantadosi2014} and its resulting little contribution in the linguistic representation of a text document. A total of 69,202 tweets were processed following equations \ref{eq_1} and \ref{eq_2}. Each corpus was also accompanied by the politician's username in Twitter, the amount of Twitter followers for each tweet, and the number of retweets received by each politician's tweet. The political ideology of each text document was manually assigned according to the affiliation of the politician and its membership to one of the three categories proposed at the final part of section \ref{sec2}. The linguistic similarity between pairs of Colombian political ideologies was calculated through the Euclidean distance between document vectors.

\section{Results}
\label{sec4}
Figure \ref{A} depicts the statistical distribution of linguistic similarity between pairs of texts (tweets-collection) representing  Colombian political ideologies; namely, the similarity between candidates both belonging to either traditional parties (PP), independent parties (II), alliances between parties (AA) or any other combination between them. The comparison reveals non-significant statistical differences (F = 1.231; df = 5; p = 0.292), since their representative candidates tend to use the same set of words for promoting theiw own electoral campaign in the preceding three weeks of the Colombian regional elections (see Table \ref{tab:table1}).

\begin{figure}[h!]
  \centering
 \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{Figure1.png}
\caption{Statistical distributions of linguistic similarity between pairs of Colombian political ideologies}
\label{A}
\end{figure}

\begin{table}[h!]
  \centering
  \caption{The 30 most frequent words (roots) found in the election corpus}
  \begin{tabular}{ccc}
    \toprule
    Word & Freq.\\
    \midrule
    gobern & 50\\
    apoy & 49\\
    vot & 49\\
    octubr & 48\\
    campa & 47\\
    graci & 45\\
    part & 45\\
    gobiern & 45\\
    comun & 44\\
    dia & 44\\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \begin{tabular}{ccc}
    \toprule
    Word & Freq.\\
    \midrule
    candidat & 43\\
    mejor & 43\\
    hoy & 43\\
    repald & 42\\
    invit & 42\\
    hac & 42\\
    municipi & 42\\
    segu & 41\\
    departament & 41\\
    salud & 41\\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \begin{tabular}{ccc}
    \toprule
    Word & Freq.\\
    \midrule
    gran & 41\\
    asi & 41\\
    propuest & 41\\
    buen & 41\\
    trabaj & 41\\
    polit & 40\\
    recib & 40\\
    gent & 40\\
    tod & 40\\
    acompa & 39\\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\label{tab:table1}
\end{table}

\newpage
Review of the Shapiro-Wilks test for normality suggests that neither the received votes (SW = 0.808; df = 52; p $<$ 0.001), nor the number of Twitter followers (SW = 0.679; df = 52; p $<$ 0.001), nor the number of tweets (SW = 0.921; df = 52; p = 0.002), nor the number of retweets (SW = 0.714; df = 52; p $<$ 0.001) showed a normal symmetric distribution. Thus, we evaluate the statistical non-parametric association between these metrics through the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (see Figure \ref{B}).
\begin{figure}[h!]
  \centering
 \includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{Figure2.png}
\caption{Scatterplots of received votes and Twitter metrics by political ideology in the 2015 Colombian regional elections}
    \label{B}
\end{figure}

For political alliances none of the Twitter metrics, except the one between Retweets and Twitter followers ($\rho$ = 0.682; p = 0.021), showed a significant association. In contrast, all of these metrics showed significant correlations ($\rho \geq$ 0.627; p $\leq$ 0.05) for independent parties, while for traditional parties all of these indicators proved to be statistically associated ($\rho \geq$ 0.458; p $\leq$ 0.05) except those between the number of tweets with received votes and the number of tweets with retweets. In order to clarify which of these factor exerted a major role in deciding electoral results (quantified by the received votes for each candidate) we finally test their multivariate association with a Kernel regression model \cite{Hayfield2008}. The results show an acceptable goodness of fit ($R^{2}$ = 0.787; p $\leq$ 0.001) revealing that the received votes proved to be more associated with the number of retweets (Bandwidth = 4.29; p $\leq$ 0.01)  and tweets (Bandwidth = 633.06; p = 0.09). Neither the similarity of ideological content (Bandwidth =  161148.3; p = 0.08) nor the number of followers in Twitter (Bandwidth = 49419488164; p =   0.37) proved to be important factors in relation with the received votes.

\section{Discussion}

Our aim in this paper was to offer a different analysis of Colombian elections. We provided a convenient way to quantify the linguistic similarity of Colombian politician's tweets and use this metric for evaluating its association with received votes in the last regional elections. In addition, we employed the available metrics of Twitter activity (i.e., number of Twitter followers, tweets and retweets) to observe their association with electoral results. We showed that, at least in the Twitter sphere, Colombian politicians tend to use the same set of words, conveying a rather homogeneous message that prevents their differentiation from contenders of other ideologies. To our knowledge, this conclusion has not been found in previous studies of Colombian electoral studies \cite{Ulloa2003,Pachon2010,Moreno2011,Batlle2013,Botero2014}. Finally, but  not least, we showed that the electoral results were more associated with the  amount of retweets and tweets than with the ideological content similarity or Twitter followers. This is a contrasting result in regard to what is known about influence in Twitter \cite{Cha2010}. The number of retweets reflects the ability of a Twitter user to generate content with pass-along value. Yet, given the fact that Colombian politicians employed a quite homogeneous set of words for promoting their own political campaign, it is rather paradoxical the fact that some politicians obtain more retweets than others when they all convey a standard message in political campaign. In disentangling this paradoxical fact, future research might evaluate if the probability of retweeting a tweet has to do with the simplicity of the message instead the ideological content itself.

\section*{Acknowledgment}
We are truly indebted to Diana Onofre for her support in identifying Twitter user accounts. We also thank Professors Silvana Dakduk, Diana E. Forero and Gustavo García for comments and advice.

\bibliographystyle{ieeetr}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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For this release 04.01.01, we have done 72 (!) issues compared to the current released 04.00.02 version. And these issues are not only bug fixes, but also a lot of enhancements and improvements.
You can find more detail in my posting in the Events forum, click on this link.


Not sure which area florist actually prepared this arrangement but, it exceeded my expectations. Went with the Deluxe option. Ordered @ 10pm the night before and it was at the church the next day well before the 2pm funeral service. Very pleased with this purchase.


An ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel) & IFC (International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group) in partnership with GEF (Global Environment Facility) project.
A two part-part documentary reflecting on the Philippines' efforts to advocate sustainable energy. By looking into successful ventures in energy efficiency and renewable energy, this film shows how Filipinos in varying strata contribute to the reduction of climate change.
Celebrate 17 years of LGBT Pride in the Philippines!


text:
set -e
HOMEDIR="/etc/transmogrify"
CONF="$HOMEDIR/conf/gunicorn_conf.py"
NAME=transmogrify
cd $HOMEDIR
source virtualenv/bin/activate
exec $HOMEDIR/virtualenv/bin/python gunicorn --config $CONF transmogrify.wsgi:app

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Is there anything Zack CAN'T do?!
Chill vibes & that classic Americana look!
Fun never looked so good!
Happy Independence Day from CG&A!
A new shoot for CMT.
Zach Anderson rustled up these incredible images on his trip to Miles City, Montana.
On location at Stockholm's City Industrial Port, Zach Anderson captured a unique urban European vibe.
Zach Anderson attended his ninth Sasquatch with talent and stylist in tow.
We are now working with the incomparable Zach Anderson!


Out-of-the-ordinairy details make these kitchens head-turners.
Dark paneling, oil paintings, and a sofa might make you think you've stumbled upon a library in this Charlotte, North Carolina, room, but it's actually a functional kitchen. "What I love about this room is that it's almost a non-kitchen. It's a beautiful space that happens to function as a kitchen for a family with three young kids, not a bachelor or an empty nester," says architect Ken Pursley.
This Dallas kitchen has a little something extra on the walls. "It's old reclaimed tile from France that was probably on the floor of some château," says designer Shannon Bowers. "I wanted the feeling of an old-world kitchen. It was kind of a gutsy direction for me, to do such a bold backsplash. My palette is usually more subdued. But when I saw that tile — the colors, the simplicity, the realness of it — I knew I had to have it for this kitchen."
The owner of this Napa Valley house is very involved with the arts, according to designer Erin Martin. In the kitchen, architecture and applied ornament conspire to make the the room lighthearted and a touch theatrical. Artist Michael Duté's blue and white design brings walls and even the barrel-vaulted ceiling to life. A farmhouse sink and marble counters keep to the rural, primitive quality of the building. A Sub-Zero drawer refrigerator means the only obvious appliance is the stove. Casement windows and doors fling open, usher in breezes and light.
"Our clients — a couple in their forties with two little girls — wanted something zippy and up-to-date, but that still cast an admiring eye on the past," designer William Diamond says of this Manhattan abode. The custom-made island is topped with a two-inch-thick slab of statuary marble. All faucets by Dornbracht. The circa-1960 Italian lamps played right into Diamond and Anthony Baratta's color scheme.
Designer Janet Metson Urman spiced up this Los Angeles kitchen with a rainbow of colored tiles. "We already knew the materials for the counters, stainless steel, and the cabinets, Douglas fir, so we pulled colors that would work well with those," she said. "In the end we chose thirteen different colors from the Lake Garda collection through Ann Sacks: ochre, chrome green, sandalwood, palazzo gray, lemonade, crocus, olive, bay leaf, papaya, amber, passion fruit, chamois, and twilight rose."


Too many Texas schools are failing, yet our elected officials would rather discuss who's using which toilet.
Two court rulings and a debate over a debate add up to a couple of headaches for Abbott.
It is all but certain that Attorney General Greg Abbott will appeal Judge Dietz's school finance ruling. It's classic Abbott. He has to win, even if he realizes that he is going to lose.But the Legislature's treatment of the schools during the 2011 session all but guarantees a loss for Abbott.
A visiting judge has ruled that John Dietz can continue to preside over the school finance case.
Remember the School Finance Case?
In February, Judge John Dietz ruled that the state's current school finance system was unconstitutional. However, the legislature's restoration of some of last session's deep cuts to schools during the 83rd legislative session could be a game changer for the lawsuit.
After the 2011 budget cuts, the Lege has some room for reform on public education.
Once again a judge rules that the state's school finance system in unconstitutional.
The fallout from the state legislature's record $5.4 billion cut to school finance continues.


text:
Bosiqi Mask
Brazil Protests Highlight Growing Rebellion Against Latin America's … – The Epoch Times
January 11, 2023 by Financial independence No Comments
It's been called the "new pink tide" in Latin America—a widespread rise to power of leftist leaders that has swept the region since 2018.
Like conservative dominoes falling in quick succession, it began with Mexico, and then Argentina followed suit. As did Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil.
But now a right-wing fire of rebellion is spreading.
The explosive protests and takeover of key government offices in Brazil's capital on Jan. 8 by supporters of former President Jair Bolonaro put the world on edge.
Security forces arrest supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro after retaking control of Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2023. ( Ton Molina/AFP via Getty Images)
Hundreds of demonstrators stormed the Supreme Court, Congress, and the presidential palace as local police scrambled to intervene.
The protest was highly organized, including transportation from across the country, and was planned in advance through chat groups on social media Telegram.
Bolsonaro supporters—many of whom wore the nation's flag as a cape during the Jan. 8 event—collectively refuse to accept the narrow election loss to leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known locally as "Lula."
The occupation of the country's landmark government offices happened within days of Lula's Jan. 1 inauguration.
However, Brazil's unprecedented demonstrations on Jan. 8 are a link in a much larger chain of recent anti-government demonstrations in South America.
A month earlier, across Brazil's western border, Peru's Congress ousted former socialist President Pedro Castillo on Dec. 7 after he attempted to dissolve parliament and enforce a national curfew to curb protests against his regime.
In neighboring Bolivia, opposition forces in Santa Cruz kicked off a five-week protest in October against leftist president Luis Arce over a contested national census date. It brought the nation to an economic standstill and cost the ruling regime more than $1 billion dollars.
Subsequently, police arrested the governor of Santa Cruz department and key opposition leader—Luis Fernando Camacho—on Dec. 28.
Camacho was put in "preventative detention" in a maximum security prison on charges of terrorism. The historic arrest sparked a new wave of protests and roadblocks against Arce's administration, which are ongoing.
In Argentina, demonstrations against the Peronist regime of Alberto Angel Fernandez turned violent last September when a gunman attempted to assassinate the country's vice president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, amidst crippling high inflation and economic turmoil.
And the common thread that connects all these events? Some say it's questionable voting systems, unfair taxation, and "welfare" laws that punish the region's working middle class.
Just The Beginning?
"There's a general feeling among the population of these countries that their nations' voting systems are not reliable. That vote-rigging is widespread," regional analyst and author Dr. Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat told The Epoch Times.
Certain political parties and groups monopolize institutions, especially at the local and provincial levels, making election interference a concern for many. Boronat says Cuba is the benchmark for "single party" elections, a concept regional residents fear could happen within their own borders.
"So, they see protests as the only genuine expression of democracy," he said, adding, "Latin American citizens have seen how leftist dictatorships on the continent have been almost impossible to dismantle, even after decades."
When it comes to election outcomes, Bolsonaro's supporters in Brazil have escalated the game. For better or worse, they've set a precedent for those who challenge the official results in their own countries.
Moreover, some insiders believe it's just the beginning of the resistance against Lula's administration.
"I don't think this will be the end of it with Bolsonaro's supporters," Renata Castro told The Epoch Times.
Castro is an immigration attorney and the founder of Castro Legal Group in Florida. As a Rio de Janeiro native who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, she has a keen understanding of Brazil's political theater.
"The current government isn't prepared to handle any organized [protest] action in Brazil … The country has the resources, but I don't think they're prepared for what could happen," she said.
When asked if she thought Bolsonaro's supporters truly suspected election fraud, or just didn't want Lula in office, Castro thinks it's probably both.
A survey from October 2022 outside a polling station in Rio de Janeiro showed that, even after decades of electronic ballots, not everyone in Brazil trusts the voting process.
Castro said, "The consequences of what's going on will go far beyond just these protests."
In Brazil, local reports of a stun gun, ammunition, and other security equipment stolen during the Jan. 8 protests marked a distinct departure from peaceful demonstrations against the government.
"It shows just how fragile it all is," she asserted.
Mobilized Middle Class
Nowhere in the Americas has the over-taxation of the working middle class backfired harder than in Argentina.
The country went through four high-level cabinet members in less than 30 days last year while massive protests pressured Fernandez's administration to counter soaring inflation.
Black markets for the U.S. dollar were on every street corner in Buenos Aires as officials scrambled to stem an economic hemorrhage and a free-falling currency.
The national poverty levels in Argentina are at 40 percent, and only 43 percent of adults are employed.
In a last-ditch maneuver, the government attempted to raise taxes on the working class yet again in 2022. It was met with explosive backlash and an attempt on Kirchner's life.
Boronat says this is like a calling card of socialist regimes in the region. High taxes are imposed on businesses and the people who work.
"Another reason for recent protests is the middle class in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina, and self-employed Cubans, believe that leftist governments consistently enact laws against their interests," he said.
Aerial view of members of social and trade union organizations protesting on July 20, 2022, in Buenos Aires. (Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images)
"To either keep their wealth in check or to maintain massive welfare systems that trap unemployed and poorer citizens in patron–client relationships."
In the meantime, Bolivia's emerging middle class is fighting tooth and nail against unfair taxation.
Protesters in Santa Cruz are pushing back with an acute awareness of the link between financial independence and freedom from the state.
A small business owner who preferred to be identified as "Juan" for fear of reprisals, told The Epoch Times protesting is more than an act of political defiance. It's an act of preservation.
"What would you do if you had 200 years of systematic assaults and politics abusing an entire region?" he asked rhetorically.
Juan says the tradition of rich, colonial-era families from La Paz exploiting Santa Cruz's vast resources is the same approach used by Arce and his Movement for Socialism party today.
More than 70 percent of Bolivia's food and mineral resources come from Santa Cruz, but the department receives a disproportionately small return from tax revenue.
"Santa Cruz carries the [economic] force of the rest of the country," Juan said.
However, he identified a key difference between the colonial-era rulers and Arce's administration.
Juan maintains, "There's definitely a lot of directive being made from Cuba and Venezuela … our leaders are pawns, not kings or queens."
Boronat supports this claim, saying, "There's enough evidence of Cuba's presence and participation in destabilizing activities and taking on adviser roles to leftist leaders."
Washington officials have also made their position clear on Cuba and Venezuela's regimes, which have endured a strained relationship with the United States for decades.
During the June 2022 Summit of the Americas conference, the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela were not invited.
Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called the governments of both nations "dictators and despots" during a statement targeting the request of Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to include Cuba and Venezuela in the conference.
Though Obrador's defense of Cuba and Venezuela aside, the two nations serve as a cautionary tale throughout the region. The aforementioned regimes are the subject of a common fear that echoes across borders, in every language: No one wants to end up like Cuba or Venezuela. Politically or economically.
Yet friendly relations between Caracas, Havana, and the region's ambitious leftist governments—particularly in Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia—have prompted locals to keep a wary eye on their elected leaders.
In Brazil, Lula's new administration hopes to restore diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which Bolsonaro suspended in 2020.
Back in Bolivia, Juan says the people in Santa Cruz will do whatever it takes to ensure the right to peace and prosperity. It's something the department prides itself on: the opportunity for anyone to prosper, regardless of nationality, race, or political affiliation.
And they're just getting started, according to Juan.
"We're less afraid than they think," he said.
Autumn is a South America-based reporter covering primarily Latin American issues for The Epoch Times.
Dividend Income Update: December 2022 – Seeking Alpha
As Interest Rates Push Housing Prices Higher, Even Earning Passive Income from Rentals Becomes Risky – Yahoo Finance
A 1981-level mortgage rate shock has the housing market in a correction—these 7 leading research firms predict what's next for rates – Fortune
Stock market news live updates: Stock futures rise with focus on CPI later this week – Yahoo Finance
Cooking advice
Home brewery


Critics of the U.S. public-school system must feel vindicated, in a sickening way, to see so many American politicians and younger citizens advocating socialism. After all, the critics have warned us for years that the schools don't adequately teach history, economics, or political affairs.
It would be hard to name a political ideology so thoroughly debunked as socialism. It would be difficult to find an idea whose implementation has proved so horrific.
Socialism comes in two economic forms. In the first, the state owns all, or at least the most valuable, economic enterprises. Factories, medical clinics, schools, travel agencies, newspapers—the government owns them all. The prototype was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR); surviving examples are Cuba and North Korea.
In the other economic form of socialism, the state doesn't own as much—but it controls almost everything. It controls by parceling out benefits to favored groups. It controls by central regulation, by state monopolies (where the government is the sole provider of a product or service), and by government monopsony (where government is the sole buyer). A prototype for this form was Adolph Hitler's National Socialism. Communist China was originally in the first category and now is in the second.
The second form is the one now promoted by American "progressives." Central to their platform is massive redistribution, detailed regulation of private economic decisions, some government ownership, expansion of the role of government schools, and a health care monopsony ("single payer").
In addition to socialism's two economic forms, it has two political forms: authoritarian and (purportedly) democratic. Both Soviet communism and German Nazism were authoritarian. So are Cuba and North Korea today. Britain and Scandinavian countries traditionally have been considered examples of democratic socialism, although they have become far more capitalist in recent years.
Actually, socialism can never be truly democratic. The state and its officials are too powerful. They control people's choices, pensions, and jobs. Most major political decisions are either (1) pre-determined from above, or (2) confined to a narrow range of choices. For example, in a country with government health care, people can't vote to privatize it. The option is practically impossible because citizens rely so heavily on the government for health care.
Yet, "democratic" socialism has proved unstable over time. It tends to become either more autocratic or less socialistic. Venezuela is a good illustration of socialism starting democratically and veering toward autocracy. Britain, Canada, and the Scandinavian countries are examples of democratic socialist countries that have become much less socialist and more free.
Repeated experiments in many countries over the past century prove one fact beyond doubt: As an economic system, socialism doesn't work.
While free markets convert even places with few resources into fountains of economic well-being (e.g., Hong Kong), socialism consigns countries with fabulous resource wealth to poverty (e.g., the USSR). Moreover, an injection of the socialist virus can transform a healthy economy into a wasteland within a very short time (e.g., Venezuela and Cuba).
One reason socialism doesn't work is that it distorts people's incentives. People become dispirited and they are encouraged, or forced, to make bad decisions.
Another reason socialism doesn't work is that the central planners don't have the information necessary to run an economy: Only individuals and private organizations have that. A third reason is that socialism gives too much power to government officials. Power corrupts.
Those implementing or promoting socialist economics usually don't want to admit failure. Hence, they seek scapegoats. The scapegoats may be economic groups (such as the "bourgeoisie" and "kulaks" in the USSR), or ethnic or religious groups (such as the Jews and Slavs in Nazi Germany), or political opponents. When socialists are able to, they ruin or kill the scapegoats.
This is why socialist governments have been responsible for so many deaths: Communist China (40–80 million), Soviet Russia (30–40 million), Nazi Germany (perhaps 11 million non-combatants). The list goes on from there.
Some claim that mass murder and other forms of oppression are the products only of the authoritarian brand of socialism. But they are wrong.
Oppression is inherent even in "democratic" socialism, because the government restricts people's right to live as they wish. During the 20th century, when "democratic" socialism was at its height in Western Europe, several million people from Western Europe fled to America. Many no doubt thought in terms of better opportunity, but that is really to say that they were fleeing socialist constraint. Venezuelans are now doing the same.
Like their avowedly authoritarian cousins, "democratic" socialists use scapegoats. Among American socialists, the scapegoats are "the 1 percent," "Wall Street," "the hydrocarbon industries," "corporations," "the gun lobby," "deplorables," and "white males." These economic, social, and ethnic categories closely resemble those used by authoritarian socialists.
Now, British socialism as promoted by Shaw and his fellow "Fabians" was perhaps the gentlest form of socialism on the planet. Yet this passage reads as if it were composed by Hitler.
Socialists often accuse capitalists of social Darwinism—of advocating a struggle of all against all, with death to the hindmost. This is a lie. Modern capitalist societies are the most philanthropic in history. Successful capitalists have given more to charitable causes than any group of people, other than religious societies.
But read again the words of Shaw: We must reject the "unfittest" for "[t]he majority of men at present in Europe have no business to be alive." We must act "scientifically" to "breed a race of men." This is social Darwinism with a vengeance.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is correct: Socialism is a fraud. But it's more than that, and worse: It is dysfunctional and evil. Americans knew that when the Soviet Union fell. It's time for us to re-learn it.
Rob Natelson, the nation's most published active constitutional amendment scholar, served as a law professor for 25 years. He is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, director of the Institute's Article V Information Center, and recently became a senior adviser to the Convention of States project.


A video has surfaced showing five clothing shop employees beating up a 49 year old woman after accusing her of stealing a packet of underwear. The 49 year old woman is seen in the video pleading with the men to stop beating her since they may kill her. All her cries fell in deaf ears since these men could not stop assaulting her, they even used a rubber hammer to beat her up. At that point I thought there were just about to kill her. This is just too cruel !!!!


Buy Hard Reset Redux and get the games download now!
In the only remaining human city of Bezoar, Major Fletcher, an Army Combat Veteran and soldier of the CLN, is dragged into a conflict between two of mankind's greatest enemies. He is to discover that nothing is what it seems to be. The acclaimed First-Person Shooter returns fully upgraded, and more beautifully challenging than ever. Hard Reset Redux is a brand new version of the cyberpunk classic that includes all the content of previous editions, and adds new improved gameplay, enhanced visuals and additional content to make this the Definitive Edition of Hard Reset.


text:
Q: Node / Angular won't load when in-app API calls don't connect So, I am using a yo-angular generated node / angular application.
When running the application locally, everything runs as expected, until my application tries to asynchronously load API calls from an outside API endpoint, through my proxy route in express. If those API calls are rejected (perhaps if the endpoint is down, or the endpoint doesn't exist), the overall application stops loading its content.
What would you need to look at to begin identifying this problem?
Here's my proxy code that API calls are passed through:
exports.request = function(req, res) {
    var url = req.params[0];
    var _url = req.url;

    var options = {
        host    : 'api.appserver.site.com',
        port    : '8080',
        path    : req.url,
        method  : req.method,
        headers : {
          'Content-Type': 'application/vnd.rhcm.app-v1.0'
        }
    };

    var api_request = http.request(options, function(api_response)
    {
        var api_data = "";
        api_response.on('error', function(e) {
          res.status(500).send('Unable to connect to the web service.');
        });
        api_response.on('data', function(chunk) {
            api_data += chunk;
        });
        api_response.on('end', function() {
            try {
                var parsedResponse = JSON.parse(api_data);
                res.json(parsedResponse);
            } catch (e) {
                res.status(500).send('Proxied result returned bad data.');
            }
        });
    });
    api_request.end();
};

And when the API is unable to be reached, I get this error:
events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND

And, if enough bad calls are made to that disabled API, the whole application will stop being served.
However, the page can load just fine if I remove the following portion of that code block: -->
var api_request = http.request(options, function(api_response)
{
    ...
});
api_request.end();

Edit: I've just found this comment thread on nodejs's repo about a possible memory buildup / failure problem when too many connections happen. It may be the same problem. https://github.com/joyent/node/issues/5545
So, what can I do to ensure that no matter how many API requests are rejected, the actual application itself can still load?

A: You may want to listen on http events as to catch DNS errors:
api_request.on('error', function(err, ...
api_request.end()

Better yet, try the request module (https://github.com/request/request) which would handle this and many other issues for you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The end of point of the Lincoln Highway at N.Y.C's Times Square was to say the least a bit disappointing, just a small brown sign on a lamp post so high that no one would even see it, let alone know what is was, nevertheless I did and was happy to reach it.
Times square. Far too busy for my liking....get me out of here quick !! Just to prove I did pass through N.Y.C., a rare selfie!
Fire-escape stairs manufactures must be lucrative business!!
On my ride out intended to ride through the Bronx due to it's big - if not main - influence on my early music years Hip Hop!
On the ride out of N.Y.C I'd planned to ride across three of the main bridges; Brooklyn Bridge (Left), Manhattan Bridge (centre) then Williamsburg Bridge (Right).
My route meant crossing East River three times but was well worth it, the bridges are a work of (engineering) art! Dedicated cycle lanes make it easy to ride around with applicable cycle rules to adhere to.
Lastly Williamsburg Bridge, this has a great cycle lane with one side for bicycles and t'other for pedestrians whilst vehicular traffic is on the main bridge section.
New York City must surely be the graffiti capital of the world, from underground trains, delivery trucks, dust carts and high building artists 'tags' are seen everywhere, some surely only accessible via rope access.
Massachusetts' Boston was a nice city, not as manic as N.Y.C., there for just one night I stayed aboard a warmshowers.org hosts sail boat in the marina that proved quite cool. I met several other host's that helped me along the way. After asking one family in Rowley (Massachusetts) of a place to camp I was offered the use of their garden and given a tasty dinner and breakfast - thanks John + Chris!! In Portland (Maine) I had a great time with Warmshowers host Nancy, she also connected me with friends Brendon + Sandie (and Waldo!) further along in Hope (Maine).
The first few days out of N.Y.C. the '1' road had been horrendously busy and I longed for some quiet and as I continued along it, slowly slowly it became quieter and eventually Maine's countryside started opening up, hopefully representing what Canada would have on offer. My initial plan was to enter Canada via a brief ferry across Passamaquoddy bay, departing the U.S. from its most easterly town of Lubec.
Meeting another cyclist - Dave - from New York state, also heading in the same direction we join forces and depart the '1' together along the dead-end '189' to Lubec.
At the end of the road (literally!!) we're unfortunately informed by the U.S. customs officer that the ferry had been out of service for a while - awaiting a replacement vessel! Okay plan 2; to avoid back-tracking the 15 miles to the '1' again we take a 20 minute ferry to Moose Island and eventually lead back to Route 1 at Perry, from there we head to Calais, camping that night on the grass of a school field and the next day enter Canada! Heading in different directions we bid farewell. Soon my plans change and find myself also heading east.
As the day's first late afternoon approaches a heavy mist sets in! Yes mist on a July afternoon!! Still around the following day I find myself wearing my bottom-of-the-panniers wooly hat & gloves...in July!! By mid-morning it had disappeared and with an excess of traffic now heading to Saint Johns decide myself against going there and now instead start my northerly route along the Saint Johns River and what a great route!! little / no traffic and plenty of water so free-camping would be a doddle, that night I pitch next to the clear river with a fresh spring coming straight out the mountain, everything a cycle tourist needed!! The following day the route hugged the river, twisting and winding gently up and down through greenery galore passing occasional farms and houses here n there...still with no traffic...Canada was proving to be awesome!!
Hi-lighted with a green line on my tourist information map this route was certainly ticking all the boxes of any cycle tourer. The next main town would be Fredericton there I had pre-arranged another host. Canada was starting off just perfect although heading up and around to Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto expected the quiet roads to soon change.
On Friday 20th July I reach Ottawa - Canada's capital and meet up with a Canadian friend that used to live in Deanshanger, Scott. Travelling around the world on business he'd accumulated excess hotel points so booked me in for three nights at a Holiday Express Inn. We had food at his house the first night, a barbecue the second night at his son's and beers on the third...perfect. Showing me around the old town was great as was so many old building rubbing shoulders with the newer high-rise towers. It was great to see him again and his old buddy Ingo, thanks for the weekend dudes!!
Five day's later I roll into Toronto and meet a friend I was at infant and juniors school with! Claire Isaacs (was Dytham). Luckily she'd just started a 10 day vacation so was free to show me around. Her and her husband John drove me down to see Niagra Falls, an hour's journey south-west. It was impressive to see the thousands of gallons pouring over the edge every second, although a shame it attracts the thousands of visitors...says he!
Copying someone who'd done a 'normal' selfie pose...think I'm out of practice?
The falls...and to think people have gone over it in a barrel!
Having now joined the official Transcanadianne Route highway '17' it was late afternoon and had started to look for a place to camp, being a relatively busy road I tried a few of the roads that led off of it, one had a crystal clear-water stream running under it so I stopped to wash & fill my bottles. Soon a white pick-up comes along and stops to ask if things were okay, informing the driver I was just getting water and now looking for a suitable place to free-camp for the night. Explaining my tours start & intended end point to Steve he kindly offers me a place to camp at his lakeside cottage. Following him, and his brother Richard to through gates to the property I'm soon introduced to their wife's and children, and amazing dog Myla. After setting up my tent I'm invited to a ride on their boat across the lake!
A little choppy we first take his sons Hunter & Griffin to a spot where they jump off of a high rock edge, plummeting at high speed into the 40 ft depths, one son can be seen in the water, the other plummeting fast!
. . . then on the way back I'm given a go at wakeboarding!
On my third attempt I just manage to get the board up slightly before falling off..splash!!
...worn and exhausted from the day's ride I was fully depleted of any energy so clamber back into the boat.
That evening after some tasty dinner I'm invited to sleep within the cottage on a spare bed as opposed to my tent. The following morning I'm treated to a big fry-up then Invited for a go at rapelling (abseiling). Steve works within the Canadian police force and was part of his training. . .he's even descended down the lift shaft of Toronto's CN tower!!. . .this looked at tad easier for a total novice like me and after a run-down on the do's & don'ts I'm soon walking at 45' down the rock face .
It was such a great time I had with Steve and his family, all stemming from a polite 'are things okay?' Thanks guys!!
laying on the floor he actually resembled a brown bear!
Now out on the open road I'm really seeing the Canada I'd expected, small villages and towns, clear-water rivers, lakes galore..lake Superior holds 1/10th of the world's fresh water and has a circumference of 1400 km!! Camping around these parts is easy as there's no shortage of water..although I need to be cautious of the brown bears.
Time for a swim (lake Superior).
Not that I've followed Route 17 from the start it was good to see this sign.
With all this water who needs a campsite?!
This is the next few thousand kilometres!!
Although there's actually a fire-ban at the moment I dampened the earthy/rocky ground around the [tiny] fire to be sure...I wanted some smoke to keep the damn mozzies away whilst eating dinner.
Many times I've been asked by people of all the countries I've traveled through which is my favorite and i Usually answer Austria - snowboarding in the winter and excellent cycling scenery in the summer...but it's now certainly got a close contender!!


Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman and Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris and Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman in "Body of Lies."
Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman in "Body of Lies."
Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman and Leonardo DeCaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Leonardo DeCaprio as Roger Ferris and Golshifteh Farahani as Aisha in "Body of Lies."
Leonardo DeCaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Leonardo DeCaprio as Roger Ferris and Mark Strong as Hani in "Body of Lies."
Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott on the set of "Body of Lies."
Director Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio on location for "Body of Lies."
Director Ridley Scott and producer Donald De Line on location for "Body of Lies."
Director Ridley Scott on the set of "Body of Lies."
Director Ridley Scott on location for "Body of Lies."
Mark Strong as Hani and Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Golshifteh Farahani as Aisha and Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Mark Strong as Hani in "Body of Lies."
Vince Colosimo as Skip and Leonardo Dicaprio as Roger Ferris in "Body of Lies."
Leonardo Dicaprio as Roger Ferris and Golshifteh Farahani as Aisha in "Body of Lies."
Golshifteh Farahani as Aisha in "Body of Lies."
Poster art for "Body of Lies."


This is a pack of three optional Align 121 Tooth Slant Thread Main Drive Gears, and are intended for use with the Align T-REX 450 series of helicopters equipped with the optional Align 12 Tooth Helical Motor Pinion Gear (AGNH45157). This updated high strength 121 tooth main gear features Mod 0.6 gears perfect for 450 helicopters. The increased gear pitch can withstand higher powers while at the same time minimizing operational noise. This gear is a great upgrade to withstand modern high power systems.
As usually, I don't like Align prices.
For example Tarot gears would be 1/2 price or less if bought in right place, but the quality here is convincing.
gear is very straight if you need it desperately.
I know that a slight throw on main gear is no issue as long as it stays in ~1mm range, probably you get a vibration, but functionality is still there.
So here you should expect perfect shape.
Also I have a feeling that these gears are more rigid and somewhat substantial than Tarot for example.
If you agree with price, then you will not regret the purchase.
Slant gears with corresponding pinion will change the way your Heli sounds very much !!! This alone is worth to switch to this setup.
Handy to have a spare set when learning to fly. Very well made.


Charles Henry Miller, 90, of Quinebaug, CT, died, Monday, August 25, 2008 at Lanessa Extended Care in Webster.
He was born in Amarillo, Texas on March 4, 1918 to Lee Jacobus Miller and Sarah Mabel (Barnes) Miller. His mother died when he was 9 and his father died when he was 13. His Aunt Lucille Gross was appointed as his guardian and he moved to San Francisco with her.
He graduated from Galileo High School in San Francisco in 1935 and enlisted in the Navy at age 17. His first duties were on the U.S.S. Soley DD707 and the U.S.S. Cincinnati. In 1937 he was stationed on the new U.S.S. Yorktown CV5. In 1942 the Yorktown was in the Battle of the Coral Sea and was sent to Pearl Harbor for repairs after a torpedo hit. After 72 hours of repairs it left for Midway rendezvous. His ship sank and he was fortunate to be picked up by a passing American ship. The Navy was his life and he served 20 years. He was stationed in Sassabo, Japan and was in charge of an oil tender for several years. His other duty stations were Long Beach, CA, Kawadje Islands and Honolulu, Hawaii. He was also a personal driver for Admiral Inglis for several years in San Diego, CA.
After his 20 year retirement as a Chief Petty Officer he went to a Technical School and upon graduation went to work for Civil Services in the Radiac Instrument Repair Facility where he later was appointed Director of the facility in charge of calibrating the instruments for navy ships and working 20 years for them in San Diego, CA. After that retirement he worked for Admiral Baker Navy Golf Course in the Pro Shop at San Diego for 5 years.
Being widowed for some time, he married the former Verna (Gard) Hammond April 23, 1980 in Las Vegas, Nevada and they lived in San Diego, CA for 9 years. They moved to Ocala, FL and lived there for 18 years and finally moved to Quinebaug Park, Quinebaug, CT.
Besides his loving wife he leaves his step daughter Pamela S. Bouchard of S. Woodstock, CT who he dearly loved as a daughter and friend. He was also very fond of his son-in-law, John Bouchard, who was especially good to him. He also leaves 2 cousins, Dr. Richard Gross of Medina, Ohio and Shirley Pittman of Dallas, Texas, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Robert and Carol Dergan in San Diego, CA and their families, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Frank and Louise Gard in Charlton, MA and their families.
He was a wonderful husband and a special person who always saw some good in everyone. When you met him you liked him immediately and he will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.
His funeral service will be held on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 7:00 PM at the Daniel T. Morrill Funeral Home, 130 Hamilton St., Southbridge. Calling hours will be held on Wednesday from 5:00-7:00 PM, prior to the service. A graveside service with military honors will take place on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 1:30 PM at Northside Cemetery, Cemetery Road, Charlton. Flowers are acceptable or donations may be made to the charity of one�s choice.