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News Links | November 12, 2020
November 12, 2020 by SBCTC Communications
System News | Opinion
LCC's new teacher degree using COVID-19 to turn out prepared graduates
Teachers have had to learn just as much about virtual school as students the past few months, adding an unexpected curriculum section to Lower Columbia College's new teacher certification degree. However, Bachelors of Applied Science in Teacher Education Program Director, instructor and advisor Ann Williamson said the students have taken it in stride, and the experience could actually make them more prepared teachers in the long run.
The Daily News, Nov. 11, 2020
Peninsula College offering accelerated one-year AA degree
Earn the same degree in half the time. Looking to help peninsula residents juggling careers, family and other commitments who see spending two or more years earning a degree as not a realistic option — and for those with time to spare during the COVID-19 pandemic — Peninsula College is offering an accelerated, fully online associate in arts degree option.
Sequim Gazette, Nov. 11, 2020
Labor unions, colleges promote apprenticeships this week
Colleges and labor unions are working to promote apprenticeships as a way to fill gaps in industries that have a shortage of qualified workers. The U.S. Department of Labor has designated this week as National Apprenticeship Week. Spokane Community College has one of the largest apprenticeship programs in Washington.
Spokane Public Radio, Nov. 11, 2020
Speculation over Biden's education secretary
... The choice to fill cabinet positions, though, can be unpredictable. "I never expected to get a phone call from the Obama transition team," said former commerce secretary Gary Locke in an interview Tuesday. Locke, who was then the Democratic governor of Washington State and is now interim president of Bellevue College, recalled, "I was the state co-chair of Hillary [Clinton]'s campaign."
Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 11, 2020
Kitsap needs more COVID-19 testing. Nursing students at Olympic College are joining the effort
Drive-thru testing has come to Olympic College, where test sites open this week staffed by the school's own nursing students is the latest effort to expand access to COVID-19 testing across the region. The community college has partnered with Kitsap Public Health to start two low-barrier test sites at its Bremerton and Poulsbo campuses, which will operate one day a week throughout November.
Kitsap Sun, Nov. 10, 2020
Edmonds College awards $1.4 million in CARES Act funding to students
Edmonds College has awarded $1.4 million in federal CARES Act funding to students who are experiencing COVID-19 related financial hardships and are in need of emergency assistance. The one-time, limited assistance is aimed at helping students with rent, food, bills, tuition, course materials, child care, and health care.
MLT News, Nov. 10, 2020
Edmonds College extending remote operations through at least March 19
Edmonds College announced Monday that it will extend its remote operations and continue to serve students and the community virtually through at least March 19, 2021 — with the exception of a few hands-on, on-campus classes. While the college has remained open during the COVID-10 pandemic, it has been offering most classes and services virtually online.
Lynnwood Today, Nov. 9, 2020
Trends | Horizons | Education
Big enrollment drops among all races
Sharp drops in fall enrollments among Native American, Black and Hispanic community college freshmen are near 30%, according to updated data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center. ... Community colleges still show the sharpest drop among freshmen (-18.9%), almost 19 times the pre-pandemic loss rate, according to the center. Public four-year institutions declined -10.5% and private nonprofit four-year institutions dropped -8.5%.
Community College Daily, Nov. 12, 2020
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 26 percent of people in the United States have a disability. That includes both visible disabilities, such as many mobility impairments, and hidden ones, such as psychosocial or emotional conditions. But some research shows college students with disabilities have lower graduation and retention rates than their peers without disabilities.
Politics | Local, State, National
The Biden presidency and international education
... President Donald Trump's defeat is likely to usher in a new era for international higher education after four years when those working in the field found themselves on the defensive. "The past four years have been one of the most challenging periods in the history of our field, during which international educators have shown unparalleled strength and resilience," Esther D. Brimmer, CEO and executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators said in a statement on the election results.
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writer and historian Daudi Abe will present "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Principal's Office?" on Wednesday as part of Spokane Community College's Hagan Center's Diversity Dialogue speaker series. ... Abe's presentation covers how people in many roles in society can help close the achievement gap. The Spokesman-Review (1)
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BOOK REVIEW: Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
A Northern White Rhino in Kenya that has 24-hour security.
Human beings have a strong tendency to fight problems where they are visible. This intuitive and usually well-intended response to visible cues often produces inefficiencies and can result in spreading greater harm. This is the curse of the "shiny object"—when the attention-grabbing aspect of a problem distracts from identifying and countering the core drivers.
The curse impacts many aspects of life. It can cause the U.S. Government (USG) and other organizations to overcommit resources to fight visible symptoms of security problems, while initiatives to counter the structural or systemic drivers of those problems are under-resourced if not entirely ignored. In the worst cases, initiatives to restore order have ended up spreading greater harm by targeting people or entire communities that are victims, not drivers, of the original security problem.
States and law enforcement agencies could have more impact if they focus on fighting the less visible drivers of disorder. While more complex, striking at core drivers of crime will ultimately have greater, longer-lasting impact, and cause less harm.
The purpose of this article is to describe a common and often harmful tendency in the way people approach problems, in particular social disorder. The article will describe the shiny object curse, and offer several examples where the curse has had grievous impacts on U.S. national security interests. I will show how a similar tendency in law enforcement practice—the so-called "broken windows" approach—has been misinterpreted in such a way that its utility has been lost. The article concludes with reflections on the ramifications of the shiny object curse for national and international security.
The curse of the shiny object can be found anywhere. Imagine a patient presents themselves to a doctor with skin lesions. If the doctor simply prescribes a topical cream to treat the lesions (the symptom), and fails to identify that the lesions are a result of an autoimmune deficiency disease (the cause), the doctor has fallen prey to the curse. In a far worse scenario, imagine a doctor treats a patient's crippling headaches with an addictive pain medicine, not diagnosing a malignant growth in the patient's temporal lobe. In time, the patient ends up addicted to narcotics and suffering from brain cancer. The patient now has more problems than before; harm has increased, and the problem remains unsolved.
The shiny object curse manifests itself in similar ways in the international security and law enforcement arena. Like the proverbial iceberg, visible only at its tip, society's most complex threats are far more profound than what we easily observe. Confronting these threats effectively requires a comprehensive response that understands and addresses the profound drivers, not just the visible symptoms. Strategies to restore order must be designed to diminish, not increase harm.
A second, related issue is that visual stimulation deeply impacts the mind. Recent studies have found that the brain's visual cortex, once thought to only process incoming information, also plays a powerful role in decisionmaking and shaping values.2 What we see around us has a tremendous impact on our perception of order, and how to restore it. Terrorist groups capitalize on this, spreading fear and disrupting order through dramatic attacks that have profound impacts on national psyches, economies, elections, defense spending, and policy. As recent elections in the United States and Europe have also demonstrated, some constituencies respond positively to candidates who promise visible approaches to impose order, such as building border walls or banning immigrants.
This relates to the third relevant aspect of the human psyche; the fact that humans are not the objective, rational creatures we believe ourselves to be. In fact, our subconscious routinely shapes our decisionmaking process, providing justifications when contradictory evidence conflicts with our existing beliefs or desires.3 The simultaneous presence of contradictory ideas or information is known as "cognitive dissonance." The rationalization process allowing individuals to justify foolish or immoral behavior, or to believe wrong information, is called "motivated reasoning." An example of this is, "I know smoking is bad for me, but it helps keep my weight down." In some cases it results in individuals doubling down on bad decisions or finding justification for bad ideas, strategies, and untruths.4 If a person has already decided the answer, he or she will not behave rationally, nor look at evidence objectively.
Disorder, particularly when highly visible or shocking, produces a demand for order to be restored.
States respond with interventions designed to restore order, often treating the visible symptoms of disorder rather than its core drivers.
Highly visible interventions may soothe some constituencies, while distressing others. These interventions will often provide political rewards for elected officials, who won't have to endure the costs.
In some cases, these interventions will make the problem worse.
Policymakers and members of the public may realize that the interven-	tions are having limited or even negative impact, but will find reasons to justify and perpetuate them none-	theless, even doubling down on clearly failing strategies.
The shiny object curse has struck U.S. counternarcotics policy on multiple occasions, in particular with regard to the eradication of narcotics crops in Colombia and Afghanistan. When coca and opium poppy fields blanketed the countryside in both countries, USG policymakers decided that the best way to reduce the flow of illicit narcotics was to destroy the fields. Despite being dangerous, complex, and costly, eradication has often been the dominant pillar of multi-pronged counternarcotics strategies in both countries, gobbling up the bulk of resources, sucking focus from other potential interventions, and complicating military and diplomatic efforts to stabilize war-torn rural areas.5 Eradication is complex because drug cultivation tends to occur in remote, rural areas where the state has limited control and resources, and where ground eradication forces are susceptible to corruption. Also, when eradication may bring political benefits to some elected officials, there will be longer-term costs that outweigh any short-term gains. Multiple studies have concluded that eradication programs have produced more harm than good, causing environmental degredation, economic upheaval, and a sharp decline in public support, as they sent impoverished rural communities, which often farmed coca and opium out of desperation, into the welcoming arms of insurgents.
Previously a transit country that mainly processed and trafficked cocaine, Colombia began increasing its coca output in the 1980s and by 2000 was growing 70 percent of the world's coca, having surpassed Bolivia and Peru to become the world's largest producer.6 At its height, Colombia's coca crop covered more than 160,000 hectares, and for decades, eradication through aerial spraying was the dominant response.7 From 2004–14, on average 218,000 hectares were sprayed annually.8 Multiple studies have concluded that this response did more harm than good.
Eradication programs may have convinced people in Bogota and the United States that action was being taken, but they also caused serious negative economic and political consequences in the impacted areas. The spraying killed all crops, meaning that some poor rural communities were driven into deeper poverty by eradication, whether or not they grew coca. Thus, such villages ended up planting more coca, or sought protection and/or financing from communist rebels, who in turn gained greater influence in the countryside and were themselves drawn into trafficking drugs to finance their insurgency.9 Overall eradication failed to dramatically impact the price of cocaine yet, when it did affect price, it merely encouraged farmers in other parts of Colombia to get into coca cultivation, thus ensuring that national output levels remained steady.
On top of that, processed cocaine represents a product of far greater value than coca leaves per kilo. The amount of money lost when a cocaine shipment was captured and destroyed was magnitudes greater than losses incurred when a coca field was destroyed. Moreover, it is magnitudes harder for crime syndicates to adapt and replace workers at the trafficking phase of the supply chain than at the farming phase.
For counternarcotics experts, shifting from Bogota to Kabul was like watching a bad movie all over again. With pink poppy fields carpeting the rural south, the 2001–08 USG drug strategies relied almost entirely on eradication, with comparatively miniscule resources applied to interdiction, public education, and demand reduction. This imbalance predictably produced the same results it had in Colombia; despite billions spent on eradication efforts, poppy output increased steadily from 2002–08. Rampant corruption and poor implementation led the eradication teams to mainly destroy the fields belonging to Afghanistan's poorest farmers, since rich, politically connected growers could escape eradication through bribery.21 Compared to the resources poured into eradication, efforts to impact other aspects of the heroin business were under-resourced. Until around 2008, traffickers based in Pakistan and Iran continued to smuggle heroin and import precursor chemicals with little fear of disruption from law enforcement. Hawaladars and other money service businesses could launder drug money with virtual impunity. In other words, the bulk of efforts to combat the Afghan heroin trade focused on the one, highly visible aspect of the drug supply chain, the point where the drugs were grown.
Another key problem with counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan centered around the reluctance of either Afghan authorities or their U.S. partners to confront prominent individuals, tribes, and constituencies involved in the opium trade out of concern for potential effects on other political outcomes or counterterrorism operations. Afghan officials argued to USG officials that counternarcotics strategy must be balanced "with the requirement to project central authority" across Afghanistan and should not target prominent tribes whose support was needed.22 This meant that counternarcotics efforts were not applied evenly, and actions that brought short-term political gains for a few elected officials or corrupt eradication teams, spread longer-term harm in rural areas by strengthening the Taliban insurgency, which itself profited from the opium trade.
As with Colombia, the solution in Afghanistan is not a heavy-handed approach. Rather it is a nuanced, holistic approach that generally improves security and confidence that the state—and foreign forces—can together provide order and are on the side of the community.
Africa's elephant population has plunged by a staggering 111,000 in the past decade, with multiple countries, including Tanzania and Mozambique, losing more than 50 percent of their herds to poaching. The global rhino population has plummeted by more than a quarter in a poaching surge that has grown 90-fold since 2007.27 Elephant ivory is sought after for jewelry and decorative objects, while rhino horn is prized as a palliative in traditional Chinese medicine. Unless something can be done to halt the current poaching crisis, both animals will become extinct within a decade.
Conservation groups, private foundations, and governments are pouring millions of dollars into fighting this scourge. The focus of most of these efforts, as well intentioned as they may be, is fighting the problem only where visible, and neglecting the less visible drivers of the problem.
On the African end of the crisis, many organizations are mounting Herculean efforts to protect the animals, a challenging prospect especially given that pachyderms live across vast, wild spaces, and can cover huge terrain during their daily travels. To keep them safe, parks, reserves, private ranches, and conservancies install costly, high-tech fences and surveillance systems that include hidden cameras, animal collars and even drones.29 Security teams and paramilitary forces patrol parks and conservancies, some of which have become bloody war zones. One rhino in Kenya even has his own 24-hour bodyguard unit.30 In interviews with people in the field, they acknowledge they are fighting a losing battle, but many continue to double down instead of modifying their strategy.
Projects like the rhino airlift are understandable in a region where corruption is rampant and political will to counter organized crime is low. The airlift also represents a highly visible response to the most emotional aspect of the crime: the iconic animals being slaughtered. It is hard to imagine a shinier object than a 3-ton pachyderm. It is noteworthy that, across Africa, there are far fewer efforts, all of them poorly resourced compared to anti-poaching and animal protection efforts, aiming to identify and interdict the traffickers moving ivory and rhino horn to Asia, or to counter the corrupt state actors who protect these illicit markets.
This is significant for three reasons. First, most poachers cannot afford to hunt without receiving financing from criminal bosses; most cannot even afford to buy the bullets they fire, which sell for more than $20 per round.34 Therefore, interdicting the criminal bosses will have a cascading effect down the supply chain, causing poachers to lose this critical financing. Second, when interdiction strategies focus on the trafficking stages where the greatest increase in value occurs, criminal profits decline far further than when policies are aimed at the early stages of procurement. Third, it is harder for crime syndicates to adapt and replace goods and people when they are lost to seizure or arrest at the trafficking phase. It is critical to understand these aspects of the supply chain in order to design a strategy that has the most disruptive impact.
In many parts of Africa, the local kingpins are more or less known; however, those fighting the problem struggle to build a solid body of evidence and put forward successful cases in often corrupt court systems. As in other crime sectors, there appears to be a limited number of syndicates moving the vast majority of endangered wildlife parts transnationally. A few targeted operations mounted alongside the existing physical efforts to protect the herds could have a profoundly disruptive impact in a relatively short period of time, buying more time for the animals at risk of extinction.
Lastly, there is the corruption problem, another invisible driver. Few groups across Africa have mounted anticorruption campaigns to support anti-poaching efforts. A handful of community-based projects have found success in protecting animal herds when coupling tactical protection efforts with projects focused on simultaneously interdicting poaching syndicates, while also collaborating with and protecting local communities, improving economic opportunities, and reducing graft at the local level.35 Zakouma National Park in Chad, which lost 90 percent of its elephants from 2002–10, today has a healthy and growing elephant population and also a stable environment for local communities.36 The nongovernmental organization Africa Parks was brought in to manage Zakouma in 2011, weeding out corruption among rangers in the Rhode Island-sized sanctuary, improving capacity, equipment, and discipline, and improving lives for local villages by building schools and health clinics.37 There is also cautious optimism about Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo where park managers are working to professionalize the rangers, fight corruption, and provide protection and jobs for communities in and around the park. Community buy-in and popular support are present in nearly all projects in Africa that have succeeded in reducing poaching.38 Poaching decreases in places where local communities have ownership or partial ownership of reserves or a share of the revenue from reserves, as well as jobs.39 Implementing these strategies may be more complex, but they are ultimately no more expensive than installing hi-tech surveillance systems or airlifting multi-ton animals to safer places. Moreover, they produce multiple positive outcomes for local communities, including greater general stability and increased confidence in the state.
In 1982, prominent criminologists George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson published a paper in The Atlantic arguing that, "at the community level, disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked, in a kind of developmental sequence."40 Their broken windows theory was based on a 1969 experiment, which parked a car without plates and its hood open in a run-down part of the Bronx. The vehicle was vandalized within 10 minutes of being parked, at first by affluent-looking white people, and virtually destroyed within 24 hours of being parked. Meanwhile, another car parked in affluent Palo Alto sat for a week untouched, until the researchers returned and smashed a window with a sledgehammer, after which, it was destroyed within a few hours, again by predominantly white people.41 In both neighborhoods, visible indicators that order was not being maintained appeared to lead to further vandalism and crime.
The idea that Kelling and Wilson wanted to impart was that, if police focused on countering disorder and less serious crime in communities, they could reduce public fear, increase confidence in the police, and deter more serious crime.44 When police operated in collaboration with the community, residents themselves helped take control of their neighborhoods and also prevented more serious crime from infiltrating.45 Unfortunately, this deceptively simple broken windows narrative was often misinterpreted.
In 1993, Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor of New York City on a campaign promise to reduce soaring crime and clean up the streets. Giuliani embraced the broken windows theory, and implemented a program in which disorder was aggressively policed and all violators were ticketed or arrested. The New York City Police Department cracked down on misdemeanors, arresting people for smoking marijuana in public, spraying graffiti, and selling loose cigarettes.46 Police also focused on cleaning up the New York City subway system, which at the time suffered 250,000 turnstile jumpers every day.47 Their aggressive response seemed to work. Almost instantly, crime began falling, and the murder rate plummeted. Giuliani called the strategy miraculous, and was reelected in 1997.
The final lesson was that disorder problems, and the responses to them, are highly contextualized to local conditions. Since each community and its problem are unique, so should be strategies to counter them.59 Furthermore, it is important to make a distinction between imposing order on the general public, and targeting highly violent syndicates, repeat offenders or gangs. An aggressive program focused on the disorderly behaviors of violent gang members, for example, could include focused deterrence tactics more rigorous than those used in a program to control the more general disorderly conduct of ordinary citizens.
The purpose of this article is to help communities, states, and organizations comprehend and address why they fall into the very understandable psychological trap of the shiny object curse. The most important takeaway should be that identifying root drivers of problems and engaging—not isolating—communities impacted by these threats must be the first order of business. Community members hold the keys to success, and in every occasion encountered here, they have felt as desperate for peace and security as the rest of us. Trust between the community and the state depends on whether policymakers fall victim to the curse.
Therfore, it is imperative that security forces and policymakers alike conduct thorough information gathering and analysis to understand how illicit networks operate, obtain financing, and solicit protection. Just as each community is unique, so must be interventions. Unless a fairly complete analysis is conducted prior to shaping and implementing policy, that policy may cause greater harm than it alleviates.
Community members often hold a great deal of intelligence about the drivers of disorder, and are be able to identify ringleaders. Moreover, they have an interest in improving levels of order in the place they live, and are vital partners in restoring and maintaining order. This idea can have relevance for policymakers trying to protect communities domestically, or trying to implement peace-building strategies or stability operations abroad.
1	Renee Klahr, Maggie Penman, Tara Boyle, Jennifer Schmidt, and Shankar Vendatam, "How A Theory Of Crime And Policing Was Born, And Went Terribly Wrong," National Public Radio, November 1, 2016, available at <http://www.npr.org/2016/11/01/500104506/broken-windows-policing-and-the-origins-of-stop-and-frisk-and-how-it-went-wrong>; Anthony Braga, Brandon Welsh, Cory Schnell, "Can Policing Disorder Reduce Crime? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 52, no. 4 (2015), 567–88.
2	Jan Brascamp, Andy Henion, "Surprise: Your Visual Cortex is Making Decisions," MSU Today, October 5, 2015, available at <http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2015/surprise-your-visual-cortex-is-making-decisions/>; Laura Smarandescu, "Want kids to eat healthier? Don't Tell Them, Show Them" Iowa State University News Service, July 18, 2013, available at <http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2013/07/18/digitaldisplays>.
3	Nelson S. Beckford, "Cognitive Dissonance, Crime and Commitment to Urban Life: Why Individuals with Means Choose to Live and Remain in Largely Low Income Neighborhoods," (Submitted for Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2013); Elliot Aronson, "Why It's Hard to Admit to Being Wrong" National Public Radio, July 20, 2007, available at <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12125926>.
4	Julie Beck, "This Article Won't Change Your Mind," The Atlantic, March 13, 2017, available at <https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/this-article-wont-change-your-mind/519093/>; David P. Redlawsk, "A Matter of Motivated 'Reasoning'," The New York Times, April 22, 2011, available at <https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/04/21/barack-obama-and-the-psychology-of-the-birther-myth/a-matter-of-motivated-reasoning?mcubz=1>.
5	Daniel Mejia, "Plan Colombia: An Analysis of Effectiveness and Costs," Foreign Policy at Brookings (2016); Christopher Blanchard, "Afghanistan: Narcotics and U.S. Policy," Congressional Research Service (2009), available at < https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32686.pdf>.
7	Jilmar David Robledo Caicedo, "Economic Analysis of Eradication and Alternative Crop Policies for Controlling Coca Supply in Colombia," Dissertations and Theses in Agricultural Economics, 26 (2015), available at <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=agecondiss>.
9	Jim Oldham and Rachel Massey, "Health and Environmental Effects of Herbicide Spray Campaigns in Colombia," Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies (2002), available at <http://isis.hampshire.edu/amazon/colombia/review.pdf>.
11	Jilmar David Robledo Caicedo, "Economic Analysis of Eradication and Alternative Crop Policies for Controlling Coca Supply in Colombia."; Anna Cederstav, Astrid Puentes, "Plan Colombia's Environmental Impacts, Report to U.S. Congress," EarthJustice.org, February 14, 2007, available at <http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2007/plan-colombia-s-environmental-impacts-report-to-u-s-congress>; Daniel Graham, "The Environmental Consequences of Plan Columbia," The Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, April 25, 2012, available at <http://www.ajelp.com/comments/the-environmental-consequences-of-plan-columbia/>.
19	Peter DeShazo, Phillip McLean, Johanna Mendelson Forman, "Colombia's Plan de Consolidacion Integral de la Macarena: An Assessment" CSIS Americas Program, June 2009, available at <https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/090602_DeShazo_PCIM_Web.pdf>.
21	John Lee Anderson "The Taliban's Opium War: the Difficulties and Dangers of the Eradication Program," The New Yorker, July 9, 2007, available at <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/07/09/the-talibans-opium-war>.
22	Christopher Blanchard, "Afghanistan: Narcotics and U.S. Policy," Congressional Research Service (2009), available at <https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32686.pdf>.
23	Wesley Morgan, "The outsize legacy of Sangin, one of the deadliest places in Afghanistan for U.S. and British troops," The Washington Post, January 4, 2016, available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/04/the-outsized-legacy-of-sangin-one-of-the-deadliest-places-in-afghanistan-for-u-s-and-british-troops/?utm_term=.7e983e39a4ef>.
24	Taimoor Shah and Alissa J. Rubin, "In Poppy War, Taliban Aim to Protect a Cash Crop," The New York Times, April 11, 2012, available at <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/world/asia/taliban-poppy-war-targets-tractors-and-police.html?mcubz=1>.
25	"Afghan poppy eradication operation cost lives—Deputy Minister," UNAMA: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, May 1, 2013, available at <https://unama.unmissions.org/afghan-poppy-eradication-operation-cost-lives-–-deputy-minister>.
26	Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "In Afghanistan's Garmser District, Praise for a U.S. Official's Tireless Work," The Washington Post, August 13, 2011, available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-afghanistans-garmser-district-praise-for-a-us-officials-tireless-work/2011/07/29/gIQA2Cc0DJ_story.html?utm_term=.cb8dc512cfe3>; Mike Day, "Are 'alternative livelihoods' projects effective?," International Institute for Environment and Development, February 4, 2014, available at <https://wsww.iied.org/are-alternative-livelihoods-projects-effective>.
27	Save the Rhino, "Poaching Statistics, available at <https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/poaching_statistics>.
28	Interviews with Sellar; Julian Rademeyer, author of Killing for Profit; Dr. Esmond Bradley-Martin and Lucy Vigne, experts with Save the Elephants. See also: ITW Fact Sheet, UNEP, available at <www.unep.org/documents/itw/ITW_fact_sheet.pdf>.
29	Jaymi Heimbuch, "7 High-Tech Tools to Make Poaching Extinct," Mother Nature Network, March 4, 2013, available at <http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/7-high-tech-tools-to-make-poaching-extinct>; Megan Treacy, "Drones Watch Out for Rhino Poachers in Kenya," Treehugger, January 30, 2013, available at <https://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/drones-watch-out-rhino-poachers.html>; Jessamy Calkin, "Rhinos Under 24-hour Armed Guard," The Telegraph, September 8, 2012, available at <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/9525512/Rhinos-under-24-hour-armed-guard.html>.
30	Meg Wagner, "World's Last Male Northern White Rhino Gets Armed Guards," The New York Daily News, April 15, 2015, available at <http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/world-male-northern-white-rhino-armed-body-guard-article-1.2186002>.
31	Susie Watts, "Failure to Prosecute and Mixed Messages: How South African Can Single-Handedly Lose the Second Rhino War," WildAid, available at <http://www.wildaid.org/sites/default/files/resources/WildAid%20Failure%20to%20Prosecute%20LR.pdf>.
32	Brian Clark Howard, "Largest Rhino Airlift Ever to Move 100 At-Risk Animals," National Geographic, March 30, 2015, available at <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150330-rhinos-without-borders-airlift-south-africa-botswana-conservation/>.
34	Multiple sources interviewed in Africa.
35	Peter Canby, "Shootout in Garamba," The New Yorker, May 4, 2016, available at <http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/shootout-in-garamba>; "Armed Poachers Killing Rangers who Defend Elephants in Congo Park," CBS News via the AP, May 24, 2016, available at <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fatal-firefights-plague-congo-park-where-poachers-hunt-elephants/>; "About Zakouma: Community Involvement," African-parks.org, 2016, available at <https://www.african-parks.org/the-parks/zakouma/overview/community-involvement>; Rachel Nuwer, "The Rare African Park Where Elephants Are Thriving," National Geographic, January 28, 2017, available at <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/wildlife-watch-chad-zakouma-elephants-poaching/>.
37	"About Zakouma: Community Involvement," African-parks.org, 2016, available at < https://www.african-parks.org/the-parks/zakouma/overview/community-involvement>.
38	Keith Somerville, "No longer at ease: clouds on the horizon for Botswana's conservation success story," African Arguments, July 23, 2015, available at <http://africanarguments.org/2015/07/23/no-longer-at-ease-clouds-on-the-horizon-for-botswanas-conservation-success-story-by-keith-somerville/>.
39	Masha Kalinina, "A Tale of Two Countries: Zimbabwe and Botswana, Neighbors with Opposing Attitudes toward Wildlife," National Geographic, November 8, 2016, available at <http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/08/a-tale-of-two-countries-zimbabwe-and-botswana-neighbors-with-opposing-attitudes-toward-wildlife/>; Claudia Sobrevila, "5 Things You May Not Know About Human–Wildlife Conflict in Botswana," The World Bank, March 3, 2016, available at <http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/03/03/5-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-human-wildlife-conflict-in-botswana>.
40	George Kelling, James Wilson, "Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety," The Atlantic, March 1982, available at <https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/>.
45	"Broken Windows Policing," Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, 2013, available at < http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/broken-windows-policing/>.
46	Renee Klahr, Maggie Penman, Tara Boyle, Jennifer Schmidt, and Shankar Vendatam, "How A Theory Of Crime And Policing Was Born, And Went Terribly Wrong," National Public Radio, November 1, 2016, available at <http://www.npr.org/2016/11/01/500104506/broken-windows-policing-and-the-origins-of-stop-and-frisk-and-how-it-went-wrong>.
49	Conor Friedersdorf, "Applying 'Broken Windows' to the Police," The Atlantic, December 8, 2014, available at <https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/applying-broken-windows-to-the-police/383490/>.
50	George Kelling, "Don't Blame My 'Broken Windows' TheoryfFor Poor Policing," Politico, August 11, 2015, available at <http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/broken-windows-theory-poor-policing-ferguson-kelling-121268>.
51	Anthony Braga, Brandon Welsh, Cory Schnell, "Can Policing Disorder Reduce Crime? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 52, no. 4 (2015), 567–88.
59	Anthony Braga, "Can Policing Disorder Reduce Crime?".
Ms. Gretchen Peters is President of the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime, and author of Seeds of Terror.


If you're looking for beauty tips to save you time, money, and hassle, check out this FABULOUS collection of 74 beauty hacks every girl should know! These tutorials are filled with great ideas and the makeup tricks have made a HUGE difference in helping me look and feel my best without sacrificing precious time (that, let's be honest: I don't have)!
Here's to a fabulous and beautiful year ahead!
The Milk of Magnesia trick in this beauty hacks video is AWESOME! Wayne is such a fantastic makeup artist and really knows his stuff. He has some great ideas for makeup that work IRL (not just in photos and online).
For undereye circles, he suggests using a color corrector, rather than concealer. The peach and purple tones counteract dark purple and blue. Try Physician's Formula Mineral Wear Color Corrector if you're looking for an inexpensive option to try this hack.
These tricks for fixing broken lipsticks, getting bobby pins to stay in your hair, and getting your perfume to last all day are brilliant! Nicole is so hilarious, and I love how she really tries all of the hacks to make sure they work.
Her lipbalm hack is a really great double-duty use and so is the BB cream idea. I love that she's a Vaseline fan. It's such a great beauty hack basic that EVERY girl needs to have in her kit!
I especially love the trick for contouring and getting the perfect cat eye! Plus, these Buzzfeed videos are seriously funny (and realistic).
The face wipe hack is a total timesaver. Definitely keep some on hand for days when you don't have time (or just feel too lazy). Dry shampoo is another must-have. If you haven't tried it yet, it will change your life.
The Q-Tip and scotch tape hacks in this video are fantastic!
She has great tips on layering cream and powder eyeshadow for longer wear. If you haven't tried this before, it REALLY works and will have your eyes looking great ALL day long. Use a shadow stick if you're new to cream eyeshadow, for easier application. Your eyes will look amazing with these eye makeup hacks!
These beauty hacks for getting lipstick to stop smudging and to stop frizzing are awesome. And the dry shampoo trick? ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!
I really like the hair-twist for split ends hack as well. One of my favorite ideas in this video is the hack to get the last little bit out of makeup tubes. Rather than having a bunch of messy tubes sitting around, get a few travel-sized jars to keep things neat and tidy. No more wasted makeup!
This video is full of great beauty hacks and ways to use everyday items in your beauty routine. Johnson's Baby Shampoo is a must have for the makeup brush hack!
Beauty Blenders are universally loved by literally every makeup expert out there. If you haven't tried them yet, you might wonder what all the fuss is about. Once you use them you'll see–there's no better way to get an even, natural-looking makeup application. They are a serious must-have beauty hack secret.
These beauty hacks are great for every makeup user from newbies to pros. The best part? They use regular everyday items (hello, Scotch Tape and Vaseline) that you already have on hand. Hack your makeup routine like MacGyver and get out the door quickly with these awesome beauty and makeup tips!
If you found these beauty hacks every girl should know helpful, please share them on Pinterest!
And if you're looking for more beauty-related tips and tricks, please follow our Beauty board where we share all kinds of great ideas to save you time!


President Trump will visit Biloxi to campaign for embattled US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on November 26th. Trump and Hyde-Smith will be at the Tupelo Regional Airport at 5 pm and the Mississippi Coast Colosseum at 8pm in Biloxi. Expect city wide protest events in Tupelo and Biloxi.


text:
Facebook deletes hundreds of 'inauthentic' pages linked to Iran
On April 7, 2010, Public Services Librarian Donna Mazziotti presented a workshop on "Sharing with Surety: Facebook Privacy Settings for the Casual Facebook User" at University of Scranton as part of the Library/CTLE Technology on Your Own Terms series. (University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library/Flickr)
February 01, 2019 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Facebook says it has removed almost 800 "coordinated, inauthentic" pages, groups, and accounts directed from Iran that were part of a manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries.
The world's biggest social network said on January 31 that it coordinated closely with Twitter to discover the accounts, which exhibited "malicious-looking indicators."
The pages, 783 in total, were part of a campaign to promote Iranian interests abroad by creating fake identities as residents of the countries in question, Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, said in a statement.
"We are constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don't want our services to be used to manipulate people," Gleicher said.
"We're taking down these pages, groups and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they post. In this case, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action," he added.
Facebook has been publishing results of such account purges in recent months, including ones linked to groups in Burma, Bangladesh and Russia.
Its threat intelligence team has also stepped up activities to demonstrate its commitment to preventing interference in events such as elections after Russia reportedly used Facebook and other social media sites to create turmoil in the 2016 U.S. presidential vote.
In the operation, about 2 million accounts followed at least one of the pages taken down, Facebook said, while about 1,600 accounts joined at least one of these groups, and more than 254,000 accounts followed at least one of the Instagram accounts involved.
The operators of the deleted accounts referred to in the January 31 announcement "typically represented themselves as locals, often using fake accounts, and posted news stories on current events," including "commentary that repurposed Iranian state media's reporting on topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen," Gleicher said.
"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our manual review linked these accounts to Iran," he added.
Facebook said the fake accounts were part of an influence campaign that operated in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United States, and Yemen.
House Armed Services chairman: Another 3,500 troops heading to the U.S.-Mexico border
US Navy veteran must surrender to ICE, could face deportation over criminal past

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Color information hex 370cc9: RGB percentage, decimal and hexa, CMYK, HSL proportion, color gradient, tints, shades, tons, palettes color and other inspirations!
The color hexa 370cc9 is equivalent in RGB decimal 55, 12, 201 is 55 of red, 12 of green and 201 of blue. It can also be represented by the HSL (hue, saturation and lightness) parameters, which are 0.705 of hue (70), 0.887 of saturation (88) and 0.418 of lightness (41).


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linux.conf.au 2010 supports Life Flight Trust
Wednesday, 20 January 2010, 12:18 pm
Press Release: LCA2010
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Monday 18 December 2009 – linux.conf.au 2010 supports Life Flight Trust as Nominated Charity.
LCA2010 delegates are invited to to make donations to the Life Flight Trust and be in to win an exclusive once-in-a-lifetime experience on Saturday 23rd January 2010. The highest donor/s will win the grand prize - a trip for four people as honorary crew-members on a helicopter winch training mission!
Delegates can donate as an individual and elect three friends of your choice to come along on this ride, OR enter as four people donating under one group name.
The Ultimate Prize:
Four people will be flown from the Life Flight Trust base in Wellington airport to a coastal training site where they will be winched from the chopper to the ground and up again all on an 8mm steel cable. A unique adrenaline-packed experience that money cannot *usually* buy.
The prize will also include
- A cooked breakfast by the crew at Life Flight's Air
Rescue Centre at Wellington International Airport at 8:00am
- A safety briefing from the crew
- Photo opportunity with crew and Westpac Rescue
- Return flights on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter
from base to training ground
- Participating on the winch training exercise
How do I make a donation and be in to win?
Donate with your credit card at http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/LCA2010/. All donations are made directly to The Life Flight Trust. Keep a look out around the venue screens for progress on donations. Remember you can donate individually or collaborate with others, and it will take place on Saturday 23 January (***see exceptions).
The winner of this unique opportunity will be the highest donation received by 5pm FRIDAY 22 JANUARY 2010, and the winner will be announced at the Penguin Dinner on Friday night, so make sure you include your contact details (including mobile phone number) when you bid so we can arrange your flight. Allow 2 hours for this experience.
LCA2010 team would like to thank those in advance for supporting Life Flight's critical emergency services, and encourage those who could not make LCA2010 this year to donate to them as the LCA2010 nominated charity.
Life Flight is an emergency service. Emergency missions will take priority over the training mission. Due to safety requirements the training mission is also weather dependent, and may need to be postponed if the weather is not suitable or an emergency mission takes priority.
About linux.conf.au
linux.conf.au is one of the world's best conferences for free and open source software! The coming linux.conf.au, LCA2010, will be held at the Wellington Convention Centre in Wellington, New Zealand from Monday 18th January to Saturday 23rd January 2010. LCA2010 is fun, informal and seriously technical, bringing together Free and Open Source developers, users and community champions from around the world. LCA2010 is the second time linux.conf.au has been held in New Zealand, with the first being Dunedin in 2006.
For more information see: http://www.lca2010.org.nz/
About Linux Australia
Linux Australia (http://www.linux.org.au/) is the peak body for Linux User Groups (LUGs) around Australia, and as such represents approximately 5000 Australian Linux users and developers. Linux Australia facilitates the organisation of this international Free Software conference in a different Australasian city each year.
For more information see: http://www.linux.org.au/
Emperor Penguin Sponsors
LCA2010 is proud to acknowledge the support of our Emperor Penguin Sponsors, InternetNZ and Google.
For more information about InternetNZ, see: http://www.internetnz.org.nz/
For more information about Google, see: http://www.google.com
For more information about HP, see: http://www.hp.com/
For more information about IBM, see: http://www.ibm.com/
Find more from LCA2010 on InfoPages.
Yoga Mats Market Report With Statistics, Growth, Opportunities, Sales, Trends Se... 6:55 AM
Underwater LED Lights Market Key Trends, Manufacturers In Globe, Benefits, Oppor... 6:52 AM


text:
Lady Mechatronic and the Steampunked Pirates (e-short story) by Arabella Wyatt
Lady Mechatronic and the Steampunked Pirates is a mix of historical adventure and science fiction. I suppose I should call it steampunk, but that doesn't quite seem to fit - to me, characters developing new abilities via science fiction-y methods does not necessarily equal steampunk. Anyway, the story is 18,442 words long, which came out to 44 pages on my Nook. It's published by Devine Destinies.
I suppose I should give a spoiler warning, except even the publisher's description spoils the whole story.
When Admiral Johnson announces his plan to start his own slave trade in the Caribbean, Captain Hartwell and the more loyal members of Hartwell's crew try to stand against him. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered, and so their best option becomes escape. After a fireball misses the ship and hits the ocean, Hartwell and his crew see an opportunity to escape. When they notice what appears to be a person floating in the ocean, Hartwell rushes to rescue them. The person turns out to be a silver skeleton, which Hartwell somehow instantly recognizes as belonging to a beautiful woman. Her flesh and organs reform before everyone's eyes, leaving Hartwell with a naked silver woman in his arms.
Hartwell's sister, Susanna, helps the woman, who calls herself Mechatronic, find clothes. It is quickly apparent that Mechatronic has amazing abilities, but Hartwell has other things to worry about. His new crew is too small, and his new ship is ancient and falling apart. He hopes to at least pick up more crew members at an abandoned pirate town. Unfortunately, several of Admiral Johnson's men catch up to them there. It's at that point that Hartwell and several of his crew learn that, in the process of rescuing Mechatronic, they were changed on a fundamental level and now have strange new abilities.
This story and I did not start off on the best footing, although I tried not to let that affect my opinion of it. When I first purchased it, All Romance Ebooks listed its word count as 184,420. Although I had never read anything by Wyatt before and had no experience with Devine Destinies, the book's description made it sound like a fun, fast-paced adventure, and $3.99 seemed like a nice price to pay for something of that length. You can imagine my shock when I opened up the file on my Nook and saw that it was only 44 pages. I contacted ARe, which tried and failed to get in touch with Devine Destinies and finally just corrected the word count on their product page using the info from the Devine Destinies site.
Although the description had seemed fine for a 184,420 word book, it seemed too busy for something that was only 18,442 words long. Sadly, my concern turned out to be justified. This could have been a much better work had every last bit of it been fleshed out more. Most of the characters were little more than a name, a job title, and a "good" or "bad" designation. You could tell the "bad" characters by their willingness to profit from slavery and their tendency to threaten to rape anything female. The "good" characters were, of course, anti-slavery and loyal to Hartwell, whose one vice was his absinthe addiction.
The shallow characterization was part of what allowed the story to move at such a brisk pace. Unfortunately, that brisk pace did not translate into "fun" and "exciting." Even the action scenes were weak and unexciting. It didn't help that I realized pretty quickly that the publisher's description had basically told me the whole story. There were no surprises, other than the specific abilities Hartwell and his crew members gained. The story's structure left me feeling like I'd just read either an in-depth outline or the introduction to a longer work.
There were so many problems with this story.
The insta-love between Hartwell and Mechatronic was eye roll-worthy, particularly when you consider that, for Hartwell, it began when he was holding Mechatronic's skeleton. That's not horrifying at all, no siree.
When Hartwell's sister was first mentioned, I wondered what kind of idiot would bring his sister with him to hunt pirates. Then I realized that Susanna was basically only there so that she could prove the Bad Guys' badness by giving them someone to threaten with rape.
All the villains are cartoon bad guys. All of them.
There's a bit of head-hopping, particularly in the beginning of the story.
The attempts at humor left me cold. Readers were expected to laugh as Hartwell's new crew members introduced themselves. Those crew members were: a stone-deaf sailor; a little person who listed his experience as gunnery crew and who therefore had difficulties with every aspect of his job; a huge, scary-looking cook who had a squeaky voice and no fighting ability; a girl pretending to be a boy, badly; and Lucky Pete, who was considered lucky because the cannibals didn't get a chance to cut off his penis, although they got just about everything else. Wyatt seemed to be going for an over-the-top, Janet Evanovich-style humor, and it fell completely flat for me. Part of the problem was that I felt uncomfortable about being expected to laugh at incredibly unfortunate individuals. Another part of the problem was that the attempt at wacky humor didn't seem to fit with what the story had been like up to that point.
At one point, Ruby, a drunken serving woman who throws herself at Hartwell so that readers can laugh at her and Mechatronic has an opportunity to feel jealous, is held hostage. Except it's almost like she's not in the scene. She's barely mentioned as the two sides talk, no one seems concerned about her safety, and it's easy to forget she's even there.
This story maybe had potential, but it needed a lot more work before publication. I don't know what Devine Destinies does for their authors, but clearly editing isn't part of the package. While I don't remember seeing any typos, every other aspect of the story needed improvement. Even the formatting was shoddy.
Lady Mechatronic and the Steampunked Pirates appears to be the first story in a series of at least four works. I have absolutely no plans to read the rest of the series and will do my best to avoid any other works published by Devine Destinies.
Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:
The Iron Duke (book) by Meljean Brook - For those looking for a fast-paced steampunk adventure that is actually good, give this book a try. I have written about it.
Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) by Hiromu Arakawa; Fullmetal Alchemist (anime TV series) - The changes that occurred in Hartwell and his crew made me think of things that happen to some of the alchemists in this series. Although I've rarely heard it referred to as steampunk, that's basically what this series is, so give it a try if you'd like an action-packed steampunk story. The manga and original TV series are drastically different after a certain point, but both are good. I've written about volume 16 of the manga and part of the original anime series.
Sea Change (book) by Darlene Marshall - This isn't steampunk, but rather straight historical romance. Those who'd just like a good pirate story might want to give this one a try. I haven't written about it, but I've read and enjoyed it. The hero is a privateer, while the heroine is pretending to be a man so that she can practice medicine. She's much, much better at her charade than the character in Wyatt's story.
Posted by A Library Girl at 10:57 AM
Tags: e-books, novellas/short stories, Wyatt (Arabella)
Locks of Love: A Modern Gay Fairy Tale (e-short st...
Strobe Edge (manga, vol. 1) story & art by Io Saki...
The Cadaver Client (e-novella) by Frank Tuttle
Lady Mechatronic and the Steampunked Pirates (e-sh...
Midnight Riot (book) by Ben Aaronovitch
The Vor Game (e-book) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Miss Minoes (live action movie), via Netflix
Un-Go (anime TV series), via Crunchyroll


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INTERVIEW: Cappadonna
March 11, 2013 August 18, 2016 Terri
Cappadonna of Wu-Tang Clan came to Another Hole In The Wall in Steger, Illinois on 2-28-13 promoting his latest release "Eyrth, Wynd, and Fyre". The album is a double disc that came out just two days before the show through RBC Records. Cappadonna holds nothing back on the album and it provides a breath of fresh air for hip hop fans that are tired of the repetition present within the genre these days. Once Cappadonna took to the stage this evening every patron in the venue could not help but bob their heads to the smooth flowing rhymes. Cappadonna performed both old and new tracks while even throwing in some Wu-Tang Clan rhymes as well, and even throwing in his own improv freestyles in between songs. The crowd went wild for Cappadonna's infectious rhymes as they echoed throughout the building. The hip hop veteran showed how a true emcee takes control of the stage and puts on a show.
Prior to the show Cappadonna was gracious enough to sit down and give some insight into his music, life, and much more. For a man to literally walk away from everything he had to reinvent himself, Cappadonna has opened the eyes and minds of a variety of hip hop fans over the years with his approach to life. In the end he has proven himself to be a humble, straightforward, and truly talented emcee that has been in the game for decades and shows no signs of slowing down. Cappadonna is a truly down to earth individual and his interview definitely gives some insight as to what the road has been like so far and some big things in the works for the future. Continue reading to gain a deeper knowledge about the man, the myth, and the legend that is Cappadonna.
How has the tour been going for you so far?
Cappadonna: The tours been going well man, you know what I'm saying. I'm a week and a half in. I've been smashing out all of Ohio, Kentucky, and other places. I've just been running around, doing it, sticking it to them, and poppin it off the way I'm supposed to. Eyrth, Wynd, and Fyre album just dropped a couple days ago. I'm getting good reviews and I'm not getting nothing bad. It's a double cd so I feel good about it and I'm real happy with it.
You just released Eyrth, Wynd, and Fyre earlier this week, what inspired you to make it a double disc?
Cappadonna: What inspired me the most is that I have so much to give, and it's like I don't feel that there was a need for me to hold anything back because I still have so much more to give. I know it's better to give than it is to receive. That double cd should really kick things forward until I drop this Pillage 2 album coming soon, maybe this September.
Did you ever expect Wu-Tang Clan to become as successful as it has and grow into the worldwide entity that it has become?
Cappadonna: No, not at all. I didn't expect for anything to manifest to this level and quality that we adhere to right now. This was just a hobby, just something we did as kids. I never looked for this kind of stardom or whatever the case may be. I'm definitely grateful and happy. We owe it all to the fans for making it a possibility for us to be able to do this. The one thing that's amazing is that when I was younger I used to always say like yo I wonder what's going to be the next hip hop. Who's going to be doing it? It was us and for the last 20 years it's been a remarkable experience.
Who were some of your biggest musical inspirations back when you were first got into hip hop?
Cappadonna: Back from that long it was Sugarhill Gang, LL Cool J, Run DMC, all the greatest. A lot of guys also from around my way like The Foursome Diesel with the Foursome C's at that time, I always shout em out Phase 3 Party Doctors, Fitting Machine, The Brook Brothers, and all that. New York is the epitome of hip hop so I didn't have to really listen to the radios, it was all around me.
What does an average day in the life of Cappadonna consist of?
Cappadonna: It's pretty much average. It consists of a lot of planning, meditating, and strategizing the things I want to do that I think might help me and my career. Different ideas I think about for my music. Most of all I just think about how I can be a better father to my kids and be a better provider. How I can unify the people and keep a good balance to what I'm doing, not too negative and not too positive. Life is not always positive or negative. We go through various ups and downs and travels through the days, and I just want to stay grounded in that so that my day to day is focusing on how to make things better for my life, career, and family.
Is it true that you're already working on 'The Pillage 2' with a potential release this fall?
Cappadonna: Yes, I'm definitely looking forward to dropping it. It's going to for sure come out. I'm doing some phenomenal music right now. I'm not holding anything back on this one. I'm not trying to be religious with this one. I'm not trying to preach to you, I'm just trying to reach you with it.
Did you audition for a role in RZA's movie 'The Man With The Iron Fists'?
Cappadonna: (laughter) Nah, I didn't do any auditions. I think RZA already had a determined menu of who he wanted to be in his program. Maybe on the next go around, if he has more power and say, he'll get us all in a movie. A Wu-Tang Clan movie, I think that's something everybody has been waiting for. Not a documentary, but a movie.
Do you have anyone you would like to acknowledge, thank or any last words for your fans?
Cappadonna: For my fans I love all of you, I thank you for your support, and thanks for keeping it real hip hop with me. Remember no black on black crime out there. No crime in general. Lets just all come together and start building a better hip hop environment for our culture.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cappadonna
https://twitter.com/REALCAPPADONNA
Interviews Cappadonna, Eyrth Wynd and Fyre, Wu-Tang Clan permalink
PHOTO GALLERY: Cappadonna 2/28/13
Brooklyn, NY's RESOLUTION15 and GuitarWorld.com Unveil Exclusive 7-String Metal Violin Tutorial Video


From N Central Expressway and Walnut Hill Lane, Dallas, Texas, drive east on Walnut Hill Lane toward Golf Lakes Trail. Make a right turn onto Abrams Road. Turn slightly to the right onto Skillman Street. Take the E Northwest Hwy W ramp. Merge onto Texas-12 Loop W/E Northwest Hwy. Cambridge Apartments will be on the right.
Living is easy at Cambridge Court. The newly remodeled apartments located off Highway 75 and Northwest Highway offer convenient access to downtown, major streets, and shopping malls. Additionally, it is only a few minutes away from Southern Methodist University (SMU), making it an ideal spot for students who attend the university.
Cambridge offers uptown living in clean, quiet, well-kept homes. Features include meticulously manicured grounds, convenient elevators, gated entry, two pools, a fitness center, a spa, covered parking, and trash chutes on each floor.
Comfortable and functional efficiency, one, and two bedroom homes reflect peaceful living and include a breakfast bar, dishwasher, disposal, double sink, large closets, linen closets and pantry. Washer and dryer connections, private balcony or patio and fireplaces are available in some units.


We all are different, our liver is as unique as our hair and eye colour. Hence just because one of us is okay to eat something doesn't mean that we all will be okay. Basically Diet Therapy works to focus on what your body needs needs to needs, to help optimize your health.We need to work out what your body needs in terms of nutrition or recovery from a disease. and the best way we do can do it by complete assessment with a our specialist who would examine your symptoms and asses, what diet plan and exercise your body needs at that moment.
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A lorry driver hanged himself in his home in Oxfordshire after his girlfriend Kate Reeves ended their 25-year relationship.
Gary Tustain, 45, took his own life but did not leave a suicide note, an inquest heard. The Spurs fan had no history of depression or anxiety and was 'normally happy'.
The HGV driver was found hanged in the loft of his home in Tarragon Walk, Banbury, Oxfordshire, last October, the coroner was told.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter said that although no note was found, there was enough evidence to show Mr Tustain intended to take his own life.
'Sadly Mr Tustain hanged himself. Did he intend to take his own life? I think on the evidence he did so,' he said.
His obituary described him as a 'much loved son of Norma, stepson to the late Derrick. Loving brother to Lindsey, Sandra and Pauline. Best friend and partner to Kate. Devoted uncle to Kirsten and Kayla'.
Since his death, friends and family have posted tributes on social media.


text:
#include "boost/spirit/include/qi_action.hpp"
#include "boost/spirit/include/qi_operator.hpp"

#include "boost/spirit/include/qi_parse.hpp"
#include "boost/spirit/include/qi_real.hpp"
#include "boost/spirit/include/qi_eps.hpp"
#include "boost/spirit/include/qi_char.hpp"

#include <cstddef>
#include <cmath>

bool parse_csv(const char * first, std::size_t sz, float * optr)
{
    using namespace boost::spirit;

    const char * last = first + sz;

    bool ok = qi::phrase_parse(
         first, last,
         (
             qi::double_[([&optr](float x){ *optr++ = x; })]
             | qi::eps[([&optr](){ *optr++ = NAN; })]
         ) % ',',
         qi::ascii::space
     );

    return ok;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Montt (geslacht)
 Manuel Montt Torres - president van Chili

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The latest statistics from the Yangtze River Administration under the Ministry of Transport show that container throughput in Taicang, Jiangsu province, reached 1.41m TEU by the end of April, up almost 32 per cent year-on-year. During the same period, throughput of general cargo increased by 21.6 per cent to 37.19m tons, of which 13.5m tons was foreign trade related, up nearly 25 per cent.
Taicang terminal, upstream of Shanghai and part of Suzhou port, is one of the most important container hubs on the Yangtze.


Mamaev Sr. also said that he had told his son to spend less time with Alexander Kokorin a number of times.
The father of football player Pavel Mamaev told reporters why his son had been seen at so many outrageous events. He said his son's tight schedule is the first reason, and the bad influence of his friend, Alexander Kokorin, is the other.
Mamaev Sr. believes that all football players have to "party hard" since they have lived between home, practice and the game since they were five or six years old. So whenever they have a chance to break away from the routine, they go for it and sometimes they just cross the line.
"That's how I see it: whenever they have a day off, they party hard. They don't have time to grow up," Gazeta.ru quotes Mamaev as saying.
In addition, the athlete's father said that the player Alexander Kokorin had a bad influence on Pavel, and Mamaev Sr. has told his son a number of times that he should not spend so much time with his friend.
Earlier, Mamaev's father and agent apologized for the October 8 fights involving the athlete.
Alexander Kokorin, his brother Kirill and friend Pavel Mamaev are in custody charged with hooliganism after the players had celebrated their 10-year friendship anniversary by beating the driver of a Channel One host in a parking lot in the heart of Moscow, and then coming to a café and attacking Denis Pak, an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.


text:
The tight end position is a very tumultuous position, as there are mixed opinions on tight end draft strategy. You have a very segregated, yet uneven, tier system within the standard rankings. Rob Gronkowski is in a tier of his own with 169 projected standard points (see Ben Howell's coverage here: To Gronk or not to Gronk?). The next closest tight ends are Greg Olsen with 134 standard projected points, and Jordan Reed with 126. After that, there is a whopping nine tight ends projected to score between 114 and 100 standard points this year. It's not that projections are everything, but they're a piece of the puzzle. This article will highlight some of the later round TEs that can surpass their average draft positions. ADP data was found using www.fantasypros.com
Zach Ertz (ADP – TE#10, Overall #96)
There's a lot of excitement surrounding Zach Ertz this year. In 2015, under the leadership pf Chip Kelly, Ertz produced a stat line of 75 receptions for 853 yards and 2TDs. While the lack of touchdowns is concerning, there have been a few changes in Philadelphia since the 2015 system which may increase his touchdown totals
Doug Pederson is now the coach for the Eagles. He traditionally runs a system that favors the tight end position. Sam Bradford is back as the presumed starting quarterback. One of his strengths has always been short, accurate throws, which plays into Ertz's game quite well. Furthermore, Ertz is projected to be the second read on many plays, as Jordan Matthews is his primary competition for targets. Ertz finished the 2015 season strong, amassing 450 yards on 37 receptions over the final 4 games.
Zach Ertz has as much upside as anyone could hope for, and if the aforementioned scenarios come to fruition, he could easily surpass his draft position.
Julius Thomas (ADP – TE#11, Overall #97)
Julius Thomas clearly possesses TE1 level talent. The issue is that he rarely stays on the field, as he's suffered various injuries over the past few seasons. His peak was during the 2014 season, where he played 14 games for the Denver Broncos catching 12 TDs from Peyton Manning.
Thomas was set to have a strong 2015 season with the Jaguars, but ultimately missed the first month of the season after breaking his hand in the second preseason game. However, despite missing four games, he managed to secure 46 receptions for 455 yards and 5 TDs.
Standing at 6'5" 260 lbs., Thomas is a natural red zone target for Blake Bortles. Thomas should have no problem replacing Allen Hurns as the second preferred red zone aerial target, as Allen Hurns is best suited in the deep threat role. While Allen Robinson should get the majority of red zone targets, Thomas will get his fair share of touchdown opportunities this year. Draft Thomas with a strong backup plan in case of another injury, but reap the rewards while he's healthy.
Dwayne Allen (ADP – TE#18, Overall #123)
With fellow tight end Coby Fleener joining the New Orleans Saints, Dwayne Allen is the starting TE for the Indianapolis colts. When the Colts had both tight ends, Fleener and Allen were in a dreaded "tight-end by committee", with neither being able to become a primary focus in the offense. However, now the Colts are expected to run plenty of three wide receiver/one TE sets, as they are primarily an aerial attack team.
Dwayne Allen represents a big body for Andrew Luck in the red zone, as the other Colts WR are not particularly large in stature. While relying on touchdown opportunities is unreliable, we know that the Colts' will accumulate fantasy points as long as a healthy Andrew Luck is leading the team. Expect Allen to emerge as a legitimate TE1 with plenty of upside, especially should an injury occur to any of the starting three wide receivers in Indianapolis. Typically drafted as the 18th tight end off the board, Allen has a great opportunity to return some high touchdown value.
Eric Ebron (ADP – TE#17, Overall #136)
It's been a very odd training camp for Eric Ebron. On August 6th, Ebron reportedly suffered a torn Achilles tendon, and had to be carted off the field. Early projections were that he was going to miss the entire 2016 season. Days later, Ebron appears to have avoided any serious injury, and has been seen attending practice without a walking boot, cast, or any mobility aids. While his health should be monitored going forward into drafts, it appears that he has a minor ankle injury that should be healed by the start of the season.
With the departure of Calvin Johnson and his 149 targets from 2015, the Detroit Lions have been figuring out their new wide receiver corps, adding both Marvin Jones and Anquan Boldin this offseason. However, Ebron stands to benefit greatly from Johnson's retirement, despite the wide receiver signings. A physically gifted athlete, the weakness in Ebron's game has always been his lack of concentration and propensity to drop easy catches.
Entering his third year, Ebron had an outstanding training camp, and the opportunity is clearly present. Just like Dwayne Allen, the Detroit wide receiver group is a smaller group, which may lead to Ebron becoming a favorite red zone target for Matthew Stafford. If he can avoid the injury bug and keep his concentration, Ebron can make the leap in his third year in the league, and show everyone why the Lions spent a first round pick on him in 2014.
Vance McDonald (ADP – TE#29, Overall #192)
This is a deep sleeper. Entering his third year in the league, Vance McDonald showed some great rapport with Blaine Gabbert towards the end of the 2015 season. With Gabbert starting in week 9, McDonald compiled a total of 23 catches/281 yards/3 TDs in 7 games. While those aren't jaw dropping stats, the key is that McDonald has increased opportunity in San Francisco.
Chip Kelly utilizes his tight end position frequently as an offensive weapon (see: Zach Ertz 2015 season). Furthermore, the other TEs on the roster with him are Garrett Celek and Bruce Miller, who are both expected to be utilized with blocking roles. An able blocker who ran a 4.69 second 40-yard dash at the 2013 combine, McDonald also possesses soft hands who seemed to have a developing rapport with Gabbert. The San Francisco quarterback competition is far from decided, but Gabbert appears to be the early favorite and is having a strong training camp. If Gabbert wins the competition, look to McDonald to have a viable TE2 season.
Related TopicsADPDetroit LionsDraftDwayne AllenEric EbronFantasy FootballIndianapolis ColtsJacksonville JaguarsJulius ThomasNFLPhiladelphia EaglesSan Francisco 49ersTight EndTight EndsVance McDonaldZach Ertz
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The Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection Division will be repairing manholes throughout the city starting at 7:30 am on December 11. It is anticipated that work will be complete at the end of the day on December 14. This work will occur in the intersection of North Main and West Reed; near the intersection of Ridge and Thurstin; in the intersection of Frazee and Summit; in the intersection of Leroy and North Enterprise. Lane closures will be temporary with traffic being impacted while workers are present at each location.


Refinancing strategy #1: Qualify for a lower mortgage rate, but make the same monthly payments.
Have you made your monthly house payments on time? Is your credit score better than it was when you first bought your house? Or did you buy your home when rates were higher than they are now? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, you'll likely qualify for a better rate.
The life hack portion of this is that once your monthly payments go down, you can continue to make the same payments you did with your original mortgage rate. Just be sure to direct the extra funds towards principal. Doing so reduces the amount of payments you would have to make over the life of the loan. Meaning, you would be out of debt sooner.
Strategy #2: Refinance to remove private mortgage insurance (PMI) payments.
If you used an FHA loan to buy your house and put 3.5% down, you're likely making monthly PMI payments.
PMI stands for private mortgage insurance, and it's there to protect the lender. It can range from 0.5% to 1% of the loan amount charged annually, and is part of your monthly payment. So say you have a loan amount of 200,000. In that case your PMI payments could be as high as $166.66 a month.
Contrary to what many people believe, FHA loans do not currently drop PMI payments once you have paid the loan to value of your mortgage to 78% or less. (Meaning you have 22% or more equity in your house.) PMI stays for the life of the loan unless you do something about it.
You used to be able to drop PMI payments on FHA loans, but you had to buy your house between December 31st, 2000 and July 3rd, 2013 and put more than 10% down at closing to qualify. If you bought your house either before or after or didn't put more than 10% down, your monthly PMI payments aren't going anywhere— no matter how much equity you have in your home.
Luckily, you can refinance to a conventional loan. Do this once your LTV (loan-to-value) reaches 80% or less, and you won't have to make PMI payments any longer.
The idea is to take your previous PMI payment and throw it back on top of your monthly mortgage payments. The 'extra' money can be used to cut away at your principal each month. So while you'll be paying the same amount each month as before, your house will get paid off faster.
How do you know if you have enough equity to remove PMI?
If you've been working to pay off your mortgage early, you may have already reduced your loan balance enough.
But regardless of how much you've paid toward your loan balance, you may have already reached 20% in equity. This is because your home may have risen in value since you bought it.
To quickly gauge whether you have enough equity or not, what did your last tax assessment say your house was worth? It won't qualify as an official appraisal, but will give you an idea. Once you have that number, take how much you have left to pay off your loan, then divide it by the tax assessment value. Finally, multiply the result by 100 to get the loan to value percentage.
Strategy #3: Refinance to shorten your loan term.
If you bought when interest rates were high and your credit score was low, it's possible you could cut your interest in half if your score has since improved. By doing this, if you were to stick with the same monthly payments, you could conceivably shave your loan term in half by going from a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage to a 15 year-fixed rate mortgage.
It's not out of the question. In 2008, many people received interest rates of 8% or higher. Currently, rates are around 4%. It's been 11 years since then, but if you were to refinance now, you could shave off four years of mortgage payments. That's a lot of money you would save!
Keep in mind that the Fed recently announced that it has no intention of raising rates in 2019. So this could be a good year for you to refinance.
Strategy #4: Refinance to pay off your monthly debts.
Refinancing is also a strategy some people use to pay off debt, which, overall, could help you pay off your mortgage.
When my wife and I bought our first house, we were living on only my teacher's salary. It was my first year teaching, and we were about to have our first child. We wanted to get out of the city and get closer to where I was working. We couldn't afford much, but wanted to make a sound financial decision.
So we bought a foreclosure. It assessed very well, but needed thousands of dollars of work. Luckily, we got it for a fraction of what it was listed at, but it took us four years to update and remodel it. It was the classic sweat equity scenario.
When we refinanced, we did a cash out refinance. In our case, we cashed out on a portion of our equity and used that money to pay off our student loan debts. Though our monthly mortgage payment went up a little bit, when we factored in all of our monthly debt, we saved $400 a month by refinancing. Though we sold shortly afterward, we could have put that $400 towards the principal each month to shorten our loan term.
Is refinancing a mortgage for you?
To see if refinancing might help you, call up a lender and do the math.
You do have to pay closing costs when you refinance, just as you would with a new mortgage, so make sure you consider those costs when weighing how much money you would save.
When all is said and done, would you save more overall each month? If so, then it may be time to refinance.
Here's a quick breakdown of how to refinance your mortgage.
Go to Realtor.com or Zillow and look up recently sold homes near you that are comparable to your house. This isn't exact science, but you want to get an idea for how your home will appraise. (Note: You can also use your home's most recent tax assessment as a starting point.) Find the house that is most like yours in your area and use that to get an idea of your home's current value. Usually lenders like to see 20% equity, but this isn't a must. If your credit score has gone up a lot, lenders may allow you to refinance.
Everyone has three credit scores— one from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. All of them should be relatively close to one another, so it's not necessary to worry about learning what each is. You just need an idea here of how good your credit is. However, know that your lender will use the middle score as your credit score, and they will pull your scores themselves.
Shop different lenders to find the best refinance deal for your scenario. Do this within a short time period (say, 14 days or less) to help reduce the impact on your credit. There are multiple ways to structure a refinance deal, which often depends on your overall goals. Also compare costs: upfront, monthly, and overall. Refinances do come with closing costs, which either need to be paid upfront or rolled into the new mortgage. Each one has a different impact on your finances.
You'll basically be asked for all of the same paperwork as you were for your first mortgage. This means taxes, pay stubs, assets, etc. If you don't have a scanner, smart phones work just as well these days. The lender will also schedule an appraisal to confirm the value of your home. You typically must pay this fee out of pocket before the appraiser arrives.
Pay whatever fees you need to pay, and enjoy your newly refinanced mortgage. If you're using the refinance to pay off your mortgage faster, make sure you specify that any amounts above the regular monthly payment go to principal.
Patrick Ward blogs at www.hipsterrealestate.net to help demystify debt, mortgages, and down payment assistance programs for first time homebuyers and current homeowners. He has a BA from the University of Virginia. Patrick currently lives in the New River Valley of Virginia with his beautiful wife and three wonderful children.


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