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Tjapko Antoon (Tjapko) van Bergen (Heiligerlee, 26 maart 1903 – Krakolje (oblast Leningrad, Sovjet-Unie), 2 februari 1944) was een Nederlands roeier. Hij nam eenmaal deel aan de Olympische Spelen, maar won bij die gelegenheid geen medaille.

Op de Olympische Spelen van 1928 in Amsterdam maakte hij op 25-jarige leeftijd zijn olympisch debuut bij het roeien op het onderdeel twee met stuurman. De roeiwedstrijden vonden plaats op de Ringvaart bij Sloten, omdat de Amstel was afgekeurd door de Internationale Roeibond FISA. De wedstrijdbaan van 2000 m was vrij smal en hierdoor was het olympische programma verlengd. In totaal was er 3000 m rechte baan beschikbaar, zodat ook extra oefenwater beschikbaar was. In de eerste ronde verloren ze van de Belgen. De boot sloeg om en ze waren hiermee direct uitgeschakeld.

In zijn actieve tijd was hij aangesloten bij RV Willem III in Amsterdam en later bij De Hunze in Groningen. Hij sneuvelde tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog als NSB'er en SS-Rottenführer aan het Oostfront aan de grens tussen de Estse en de Russische SFSR. Hij was mede-eigenaar van een klokkengieterij in Heiligerlee. Van Bergen liet een vrouw en een dochter achter.

Palmares

roeien (twee met stuurman)
 1928: series OS - DNF

Nederlands roeier
Nederlands olympisch deelnemer
NSB-lid
SS-lid

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Influencing Science: Creating Doubt About Scientific Evidence
Influencing Science: Creating Doubt About Scientific Evidence, Tobacco Tactics, updated 08 June 2020, accessed 16 January 2021.
A class action lawsuit against Canada's three largest tobacco companies in early 2012 brought new evidence of Imperial Tobacco Canada publicly denying the link between tobacco and cancer, and creating doubt about scientific evidence.
N.B. The three corporations brought to trial are Imperial Tobacco Canada, Rothmans Benson & Hedges and JTI McDonald Imperial. (Imperial Tobacco Canada is a wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of British American Tobacco). The class action is for people who have contracted cancer or emphysema as a result of smoking or are addicted to smoking. The case revolves around whether the tobacco companies met their duty to inform their customers about the dangers of smoking. As the documents quoted at the trial are not in the Tobacco Legacy Archives yet, this article is based on reports in The Montreal Gazette.
Michel Descôteaux was the first witness in the trial. He began working for Imperial Tobacco in 1963 and for the last 20 years was its only spokesperson. He retired in 2002.
In 1976, Michel Descôteaux was a young, ambitious public relations director for one of Canada's biggest tobacco companies – Imperial Tobacco Canada. The company asked the 29-year-old to come up with some ideas to help the industry that was increasingly under fire about the damage its products caused, so, as Descôteaux put it Wednesday in Quebec Superior Court, he rolled up his sleeves and pitched an idea. His memo to Imperial's vice-president at the time, Tony Kalhok, raises what might happen if tobacco adversaries started paying attention to the "addictiveness of smoking."
"This could be a very serious issue if someone attacked us on this front," he wrote in October 1976, four years into his job.1
Also see Influencing Science
Friendly First
Back in the 1980s, Alcan Aluminum Ltd supplied Imperial with its aluminum packaging. When Alcan became one of the first companies to institute a workplace ban on smoking in 1980, Imperial Tobacco launched a campaign to convince the manufacturer to reverse its ban, The Montreal Gazette reported.1
First the tobacco company tried the friendly way. Imperial Tobacco's president and chairman Paul Paré wrote a letter to the president of Alcan expressing his disapproval of the ban, complaining he had not been informed about it and suggesting it might have a negative impact on relations between the two companies. "I merely register my disappointment at seeing it in place and my difficulty of reconciling it with our long-standing corporate relationships," he wrote.
Creating Doubt
Still according to The Montreal Gazette, Imperial then marshalled the forces of its public affairs department to convince Alcan to retreat from its ban. Department director Michel Descôteaux met with a senior Alcan official and warned him that depriving workers of the right to smoke on the job could lead to increased stress in the workplace and a rise in the number of workplace accidents. He also sent Alcan officials research papers written by tobacco industry scientists that denied there was proof of a link between smoking and cancer.
The paper also wrote,
Until his retirement in 2002, Descôteaux was the chief spokesperson for Imperial and one of the architects of its policy to discredit the overwhelming scientific evidence that smoking is addictive and causes cancer and other diseases. In a memo dated Oct. 7, 1976, Descôteaux claimed the public will be "operating for a long time in a climate of doubt about the real effects of smoking on human health."
He worried that too many dead customers could stir up public opposition.
"People who smoke themselves to a premature death may be good customers in the short run but they certainly contribute to the scary statistics and provide wonderful ammunition for tobacco adversaries." He suggested the company "strive towards having more people smoke less rather than fewer people who would abuse of smoking."(emphasis added).
Denying Link Between Smoking and Health
In the same memo, he said that perhaps in 50 years it will be scientifically established to the industry's satisfaction that smoking is hazardous to human health. But in the meantime, "the position I suggest we adopt is that we are innocent until proven guilty."
Referring to scientific studies that show smoking may be hazardous to human health, he wrote that the company "should denounce these with vigor and try to discredit them as much as possible."
He also suggested the company develop products "that would provide the same satisfaction as today's cigarettes without 'enslaving' consumers." (emphasis added).
In another memo, Michel Descôteaux noted that more women are smoking probably because of the women's liberation movement. "Perhaps it will be more difficult to convince women that they should stop smoking, enough to make every one of us some of the most ardent feminists!"1
Refusing to Warn Pregnant Employees to Follow Medical Advice
In a memo he wrote in 1981, he recommended that the company not follow advice from Imperial's major stockholder, British American Tobacco, that employees follow doctors' advice not to smoke while pregnant.
Descôteaux wrote in the memo employees should be told that "in the absence of definitive answers to this question, many doctors advice (sic) their pregnant patients to modify their smoking habits during pregnancy as a sensible part of prenatal behaviour." He added that advising employees to follow the advice of their doctors "could open the door to claims for warnings on cigarette packages.2
↑abcWilliam Marsden, Imperial sought to discredit scientific evidence against tobacco, trial hears, The Montreal Gazette, 19 March 2012, accessed March 2012
↑William Marsden Tobacco suit: Imperial had no credibility with general public, ex-spokesman says, The Montreal Gazette, 14 March 2012, accessed March 2012
Influencing Science

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home Battleborn A graphics card overclocking program has more Steam users than Battleborn
Game Sales
A graphics card overclocking program has more Steam users than Battleborn
Battlebombed
When Battleborn launched a few weeks ago, the response was uh… muted, to say the least. At best it's an okay FPS-MOBA hybrid, at worst it's not much more than a wet fart in a lift. It's also leaking players like there's no tomorrow, despite the price being slashed by almost half so soon.
At the time of writing, Battleborn has 2,434 concurrent Steam players and is, according to Steam Charts, the 103rd most played game on the platform. Considering how recently the game launched, and how much pre-release hype Gearbox was trying to build for it, it's definitely not a good sign for its future.
It looks even worse when you consider what's in 102nd place. EVGA PrecisionX 16, a program that helps you overclock your graphics card that launched almost two whole years ago now, has 2,448 "players." It's a handy and free tool for Nvidia graphics cards owners, sure, but there're numerous alternatives to it out there that aren't on Steam. For a recent major release to be less active than it is pretty embarrassing.
Other things that are proving more popular than Battleborn are Worm.is: The Game at #91, Shakes and Fidget at #66, Youtubers Life at #54, andSpacewar at #39. Spacewar isn't even available through the Steam store, it's a sample game offered for Steamworks developers!
At this time, we must be sympathetic because I'm sure this is a tough time for the Battleborn fan base. All three of them must be heartbroken to see the game peter out so quickly.
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The Doctor's Franchise Is In
Professionals are getting franchises of their own.
Mike Besack
Ask any doctor or pharmacist, and he or she is bound to say the same thing: Over the past few years, medicine has become a business.
So it can't come as much of a surprise to see professionals in the medical industry branch out to the business world. While no one's suggesting that the multibillion-dollar fast-food industry or any other business clunked into the franchise mold is in danger of stiff competition from the medical field, the day may be coming when consumers can pull in for a quick physical across the street from the greasy spoon where they just pounded a triple cheeseburger.
Medical franchises are a trend, no question about it, says Don Boroian, chair and CEO of Francorp, a franchise development firm based in Olympia Fields, Illinois. Boroian says Francorp receives inquiries for franchises ranging from outpatient psychiatric centers to urgent care-oriented clinics. "The industry is cutting edge. We're doing a lot of work in that area."
"Medicine is no longer the science and profession it used to be," says Dr. Richard Anderson, a 44-year-old vascular surgeon and Veintec franchisee based in Dallas. "Everything's being scrutinized, from the medicine prescriptions you write out to how long someone's in the hospital. Franchising lets you practice your profession without all the constraints you have in your other practice."
Anderson and fellow vascular surgeon Andres Katz own and operate the Varicose Vein Clinic of Texas. Parent company Veintecis a business specializing in outpatient treatment for varicose and spider veins with additional franchises in Fort Worth and San Antonio.
The franchise, created 10 years ago in San Antonio by doctors David Mozersky and Alfred Laborde, allows for minor procedures to be performed in a comfortable setting under little or no local anesthesia. Although Anderson and Katz opened their franchise in August 2000 to a bit of a slow start, they've seen about a 50 percent increase in business since January. Anderson says he and Katz spend about 25 percent of their time at the clinic and 75 percent at their usual practice. If the business continues to grow, however, those numbers could flip-flop.
The moonlighting has its advantages: "We treated veins as a small part of our practice, and because we weren't really geared to treat them in a dedicated clinic, it made it more difficult and less satisfying to treat," Anderson says. "It got ignored. This has made it more satisfying to do."
The move into franchising makes sense when it's a field that interests executives and those with advanced degrees, says Jeff Allen, a franchising and strategic planning expert with Knowledge Development Centers in Tampa and Orlando, Florida. However, he adds that interest isn't always enough.
"You want to be successful, but at the same time you may not have a lot of business skills," Allen says. "It's definitely a transition. As an executive, you're used to having a very narrow specialty and working as a team with people who have various other specialties."
It's a transition that Charles Porter, R. Ph., mastered. Porter, who opened one of the first Medicap Pharmacies franchises in 1972, has seen the company blossom into a $291-million-a-year business with 177 franchises across the country. Now Medicap's corporate president and COO, Porter believes professionals ready to dive into the franchising world should be ready for life in the trenches, taking a hands-on approach to day-to-day operations. "A person with pharmacy skills but no business management skills," he warns, "may have problems."


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Kathleen Marie Hobbs (born December 28, 1969) is an American politician and social worker serving as the 24th governor of Arizona since 2023. She previously served as the 21st secretary of state of Arizona from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Hobbs served in the Arizona Senate from 2013 to 2019 and in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013.

Born and raised in Arizona, Hobbs holds degrees in social work from Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University. She specialized in domestic violence and worked for one of the nation's largest domestic violence centers. Inspired to run for office by her involvement with Emerge Arizona, Hobbs was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2010 and to the Arizona Senate in 2012. She served as Senate minority leader from 2015 to 2019 and was elected secretary of state of Arizona in 2018.

Hobbs won the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, defeating Republican nominee Kari Lake. She became Arizona's fifth female governor on January 2, 2023.

Early life, education, and career
Hobbs was born in Tempe, Arizona. She has a twin sister, Becky. A first-generation Arizonan, Hobbs was raised in Tempe in a middle-class family that sometimes relied on food stamps. She comes from a Catholic family and volunteered at her church as a child. She went to Catholic schools throughout her childhood and graduated from Seton Catholic High School in 1988.

Hobbs attended Northern Arizona University, where she received a bachelor's degree in social work in 1992. She later attended Arizona State University, where she received a master's degree in social work in 1995. She paid for college through scholarships and work-study programs.

Social worker
Hobbs has been a social worker since 1992. She specializes in domestic violence, mental health, and homelessness.

Hobbs was the chief compliance officer for Sojourner Center, one of the nation's largest domestic violence centers. She is an adjunct faculty member of social work at Paradise Valley Community College and Arizona State University.

Hobbs is affiliated with the National Association of Social Workers professional organization.

Early political career
Before seeking elected office, Hobbs participated in political leadership programs in multiple organizations, including Valley Leadership, Emerge Arizona, and the Center for Progressive Leadership. She was a delegate for Hillary Clinton at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Hobbs served on the Phoenix Women's Commission and the Phoenix Human Services Commission.

Hobbs was the executive director of Emerge Arizona from 2013 to 2019.

Arizona House of Representatives

Hobbs was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2010. She represented the 15th legislative district alongside Lela Alston.

Hobbs credited her interest in politics to her involvement with Emerge Arizona and was inspired to run for office by the people she assisted as a social worker, believing they were not being heard by the government. She advocates ending domestic violence.

Hobbs served one term in the House of Representatives and ran for state senate in 2012.

Arizona Senate
Hobbs was elected to the Arizona Senate in 2012 and reelected in 2016. She represented the 24th legislative district. She originally did not want to run for state senate but did so due to redistricting. Hobbs became minority leader in 2015 and served two terms in that position.

In 2015, during her first term as minority leader, Senate staffer Talonya Adams, a Black woman, complained to Hobbs about her concerns about racial and gender-based discrimination and was later fired in part by Hobbs. In November 2021, Adams won a discrimination lawsuit related to her firing and was awarded a judgment of $2.75 million.

Hobbs resigned her seat in the State Senate on January 7, 2019, after being elected secretary of state. She was succeeded by Alston.

Secretary of State of Arizona

2018 election

On March 8, 2017, Hobbs announced her candidacy for Arizona secretary of state. In the 2018 election, she faced Republican nominee Steve Gaynor. On November 6, 2018, the Associated Press prematurely called the race for Gaynor. With the race as close as it was, neither Hobbs nor Gaynor initially claimed victory. In the days to come, Gaynor's lead narrowed as more and more ballots were counted. On November 16, Hobbs was officially declared the winner by a margin of 20,000 votes. She was the first Democrat to hold the post since Richard Mahoney left office in 1995.

Tenure
Hobbs was sworn in as secretary of state on January 7, 2019. Because Arizona has no lieutenant governor, Hobbs stood first in the line of succession to Governor Doug Ducey.

2020 Arizona election audit

In 2021, the Arizona Senate Republicans provided $150,000 to fund an audit aimed at contesting the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County. In a six-page letter, Hobbs wrote that the audit's chain of custody was lacking, calling it "a significant departure from standard best practices." She added that the audit procedures appeared "better suited for chasing conspiracy theories than as a part of a professional audit". In response, Hobbs received death threats, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety assigned personnel to guard her and her staff.

Hobbs's complaints were echoed in a letter to the State Senate president Karen Fann from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which had a 4-1 Republican majority. Fann, referring to one of Donald Trump's claims of election fraud, contended that the county had deleted an entire database. The board of supervisors responded in a letter calling the accusations "false, defamatory, and beneath the dignity of the Senate." It accused the Arizona Senate of "conspiracy theories that fuel the fundraising schemes of those pulling your strings." Fann responded that the audit would continue when the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum site was next available.

After consulting with the Department of Homeland Security and the Election Assistance Commission, Hobbs said she was told that it was impossible to know whether the voting machines the county turned over in response to the Senate subpoena had been compromised and that Dominion Voting Systems should re-certify them for future use. While the Arizona Senate's contractor was in possession of the machines that had been subpoenaed, the county spent over $20,000 to lease other machines in order to conduct two local elections, and the costs of re-certifying the surrendered machines after their return would be in the six-figure range; however, the Senate signed an agreement with the county that said the county is not liable for any damages to the equipment while in the Senate's custody, so it is unclear whether the county would be liable for the costs.

The audit was conducted by Florida-based company Cyber Ninjas, which had no previous experience in election audits and had not been certified by the federal government to conduct election audits. Cyber Ninjas' owner, Doug Logan, supported Trump and promoted Trump's claims of election fraud. The auditors released a report in September 2021, finding no proof of fraud and that their ballot recount increased Biden's margin of victory by 360 votes.

Governor of Arizona

2022 election

On June 2, 2021, Hobbs announced her candidacy for governor of Arizona in the 2022 election to replace term-limited Republican governor Doug Ducey.

Hobbs ran against former Customs and Border Protection chief of staff Marco Lopez and former state representative Aaron Lieberman in the Democratic primary. Despite declining to debate her opponents, she won the Democratic nomination with 72.3% of the vote.

Hobbs faced the Republican nominee, former KSAZ-TV news anchor Kari Lake, in the general election. Hobbs limited access to reporters, sometimes going out of her way to avoid them, and held small-scale campaign events. She declined to debate Lake, saying she wanted to deny Lake the opportunity to spread election denialism. Hobbs narrowly defeated Lake with 50.3% of the vote. After the election, Lake refused to concede, and was reported to be assembling a legal team to contest the election results.

Tenure
Hobbs was sworn in on January 2, 2023, in a private ceremony, with a public ceremony scheduled for January 5. Upon taking office, she became Arizona's fifth female governor, a record for U.S. states. She has pledged to remove the illegal border wall made of shipping containers that is being built in the Coronado National Forest without authorization from the United States Forest Service. In December 2022, she selected Allie Bones, the Arizona assistant secretary of state, as her chief of staff.

Personal life
Hobbs is married to Patrick Goodman, whom she met at church in 1992 and married in 1996. Goodman is a child therapist at Phoenix Children's Hospital. They have two children and live in Phoenix.

Hobbs is Catholic. She is a triathlete and has been an avid cyclist since high school.

References

External links

 Governor Katie Hobbs official government website
 Katie Hobbs for Governor campaign website

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1969 births
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians
Democratic Party Arizona state senators
ASU College of Public Service & Community Solutions alumni
Catholics from Arizona
Democratic Party governors of Arizona
Living people
Democratic Party members of the Arizona House of Representatives
Northern Arizona University alumni
People from Evanston, Illinois
Politicians from Phoenix, Arizona
Secretaries of State of Arizona
Women state constitutional officers of Arizona
Women state governors of the United States
Women state legislators in Arizona
Year of birth missing (living people)


CHICAGO (March 19, 2019) - Golden Apple, a leading Illinois nonprofit committed to recognizing exemplary educators and developing future educators, today surprised Erin Unander, a high school teacher at Lake View High School in Chicago, with the highly respected Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. The annual award, which recognizes and honors outstanding teachers for their role in building a stronger, better-educated society, was presented to Unander in front of students, family and school leadership.
"The historic opportunity to bring the recognition of the Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching to all of the schools and teachers in Illinois is thrilling and we are delighted to honor Erin Unander this year," said Alan Mather, President of Golden Apple.
In her teaching, Unander places great emphasis on access and equity in math education. With a student body that is culturally and socioeconomically diverse, Unander strives to create lessons that are culturally relevant and unbiased. Her goal is to take every student from where s/he is to where s/he should be -- and that path is different for each of her students. Lake View High School Principal Paul Karafiol credits Unander with successfully turning around the school's entire math department over the past three years. Math teachers and students are reaping the benefits of her hard work. For the first time in the school's recent history, students are showing expected year-to-year gains in mathematics. Unander's students say they love her enthusiasm, energy and the genuine interest that she has for what's happening in their lives. They say she believes in them and challenges them to be better, even when they are doing well.


Google recent sent out an e-mail to its Mobile Services partners indicating Hangouts will no longer be required to be bundled with hardware. Rather, video calling app Duo will take its place.
"Duo will replace Hangouts within the suite of core GMS apps, and Hangouts will become GMS Optional for telephony products," it reads. "This change will take effect on December 1, 2016."
What's also interesting is Google's text messaging app Allo isn't getting the nod alongside Duo; for whatever reason, the company is content to not push the text side of their new communication apps in this regard, at least for the time being.
In any case, Google will continue to support Hangouts; it simply won't be mandatory anymore on partner hardware.


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INDIA's NATIONAL MAGAZINE
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Sabyasachi Bhattacharya
C.P. Chandrasekhar
Afghan File
DNA of a civilisation
T. S. Subramanian
Published : May 13, 2015 12:30 IST
T+T-
burial from rakhigarhi mound no 7 (11) - Copy
burial from rakhigarhi mound no 7 (8)
Chennai, 02/01/2015: FOR FRONTLINE: A part of the 21 pots and the remains of a skeleton nearby, found in the burial pit in the late Harappan site of Chandayan, Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh, in December 2014. These pots including deep bowls, flasks and dishes might have contained cereals, milk, butter etc.. as part of some religious ceremony for the dead...Photo: ASI
Fig. 5 - Copy
PROF SHINDE (4)
My self 2015 (8)
Fig. 11 - Copy
fire pit from early harappan level at mound no 6_2
Early harrappan pottery from mound 6 (1) - Copy
UTTAR PRADESH: 26/11/2014 : (TOP) Bowl, miniature pot,sling ball and potsherdsfrom burial and (below) a broken copper crown with Carnelian and faince beads found at Chandayan village, Uttar Pradesh in August 2014. The ASI has started excavating from November 2014 at Chandayan which can trunout to be a late Harappan Site. Photo: ASI
Terracotta bone copper chert faience lapis lazuli toy tools beads bangle from rakhigarhi excavation
Seal and Sealing from rakhigarhi mound no 4
Skeletal remains excavated from Rakhigarhi in Haryana will prove useful in understanding the Harappans' features, lifestyle and culture.
WHAT did the Harappan man look like? Was he well built? How tall was he? What were his facial features? What was the colour of his skin, eyes and hair? What were the dietary habits of the Harappans?
The answers to these questions, which have been puzzling archaeologists for several decades, lie in the DNA test results of four skeletons excavated from Rakhigarhi, a Harappan site in Haryana. The results are expected in July. The tests are jointly conducted by archaeologists of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune and forensic scientists from Seoul National University, South Korea. Two of the skeletons, belonging to the Mature Harappan period (2600-1900 BCE), are of adult males, one is of an adult female, and the fourth is of a child.
The growth and development of the Harappan civilisation can be divided into Early Harappan (3000-2600 BCE), Mature Harappan (2600-1900 BCE) and Late Harappan (1900-1500 BCE) phases. "For the first time, we are going to show the world what the Harappan man looked like. It will be a breakthrough in Harappan studies," said Vasant Shinde, director of the excavation at Rakhigarhi and a specialist on Harappan civilisation. He is the Vice-Chancellor of Deccan College, a deemed university.
The excavation at Rakhigarhi, 25 kilometres from Jind town in Haryana's Hisar district, is conducted jointly by Deccan College and the Haryana Department of Archaeology. Twenty-one trenches, besides the four burials, were dug during the excavation which began on January 23 and ended in the third week of April.
"We excavated the burials scientifically at Rakhigarhi. If you want to study the DNA, you have to avoid contamination. So we took precautions. We wore suits, gloves and masks. All four skeletons were in good condition," said Shinde.
The facial bones of two skeletons are intact. Shinde said software developed by forensic scientists of Seoul National University to reconstruct facial features from skeletons would come in handy to reconstruct the Harappan man. "With the help of this software, we can analyse the height of the Harappan person, his facial and body features, and the colour of his skin, eyes and hair. The skeletal remains will be subjected to chemical tests to find the health status of the Harappan people and the diet they had," he said. It will give insights into whether they preferred a vegetarian diet or not and whether malnutrition was a cause of death among them.
The six months of excavation from November 2014 in Rakhigarhi, the 4MSR site in Rajasthan and Chandayan in Uttar Pradesh revealed a lot of burials with Harappan skeletons. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) excavated one skeleton at 4MSR in March ("Harappan surprise", Frontline , April 17). Its archaeologists, led by A.K. Pandey, found a copper crown on the skull of a skeleton at Chandayan in Baghpat district in November. This belongs to the Late Harappan period.
However, what was astounding was the discovery of a cemetery with 70 burials, most of them with skeletons, at the site at Farmana in Haryana. Spread over 3.5 hectares, it is the largest cemetery found in any of the Harappan sites in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Most of the skeletons in the 70 burials were found adjacent to one another. Some were found below others, signifying that they belonged to an earlier period. Archaeologists belonging to Deccan College, the Research Institute of Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan, and Maharshi Dayanad University, Rohtak, Haryana, discovered the Farmana cemetery in 2007-08 in their second field season of excavation.
The aim of the excavation at Rakhigarhi was not merely to understand the burial customs of the time, which earlier excavations at Farmana had revealed, but "to study the socio-economic conditions of the Harappans from the size of the burial pits, and the quality and quantity of the burial goods kept along with the dead body," said Shinde. "Secondly, and more importantly, we want to find out from the DNA testing of the skeletons who the Harappans were, how they looked, what their build was, and so on."
A lot of broken pottery and charred animal bones were found outside the burial pits at Rakhigarhi. This points to some rituals that had taken place before a body was placed inside the pit. The pots were perhaps broken after the body was placed inside it. Evidence of this kind of ritual was not available at other Harappan sites. Burial customs would have differed from one Harappan site to another.
There are about 2,000 Harappan sites in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, they are situated in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana. The civilisation's southern-most outpost was at Daimabad in Maharashtra. In Haryana alone, there are more than 100 Harappan sites. They include Adi-Badri, Balu, Banawali, Bhagwanpura, Daulatpur, Farmana, Girawad, Mirzapur, Rakhigarhi and Shamlo Kalan, all situated on the banks of the Ghaggar, which is the modern name for the Saraswati river.
Rakhigarhi is situated in the valley falling between the Ghaggar and Drishadvati rivers, a fertile region with large expanses of wheat fields. Excavation at Rakhigarhi is challenging because the ancient Harappan site lies buried under several hundred houses and lanes and alleys teeming with life.
However, there are seven mounds, numbered RGR-1 to RGR-7, that lend themselves to excavation. While the first six have hidden in their innards Harappan habitational sites, RGR-7 is a burial mound belonging to the Mature Harappan phase. R.S. Bisht, former Joint Director General of the ASI, had identified two mounds besides these seven in the late 1970s. They are locally called Arada mounds and are reportedly older than the Harappan civilisation.
The ASI began excavation at Rakhigarhi in 1998 and continued it in the next two years; Amarendra Nath was the director of excavations for all the three years. Teachers and students of Deccan College and the Haryana State Department of Archaeology came together to dig RGR-4 and RGR-6 and the burial site near Arada mounds from January to April this year. Nilesh P. Jadhav, Research Assistant at Deccan College, and Ranvir Shastry of the Haryana State Department of Archaeology, were the co-directors of the excavation. While A. Deshpande and Pankaj Goyal did specialised scientific studies of the artefacts and the animal bones found in the trenches, Satish Nayak investigated the botanical remains. Others who took part in the excavation were Deccan College's Yogesh Yadhav, Shalmali Mali, Malvika Chatterjee and Nagaraja Rao.
Mature Harappan deposits
RGR-4 is the biggest mound at Rakhigarhi. "The aim of our work here was to go down to the natural soil level from the top of the mound. We have gone to a depth of 18 metres. It is going deeper," said Shinde. The Mature Harappan deposits were found above 7.5 metres, which indicates a very long period of habitation at the same site. Typical Mature Harappan pottery of different kinds was found at the site. What surprised excavators was a large number of goblets of various varieties. An extension of the granary, which had been uncovered last year in RGR-4, was found this year.
Along with the Early Harappan pottery was found pottery used by local people, indicating "the assemblage or regional cultures".
Significantly, Harappan pottery found in the Ghaggar basin was not profusely painted. "But at Rakhigarhi," Shinde said, "we do get a large amount of profusely painted Harappan pottery. This indicates the status of the site in the Saraswati basin. Perhaps, important people were living there. This site obviously controlled small and medium-sized sites in the Saraswati basin. So Rakhigarhi can be called a type site in the entire basin. That is why we are getting so much of classical pottery of the Mature Harappan phase," he said.
Surprisingly, hundreds of perfectly turned-out idli-shaped terracotta cakes were found in the trenches at Rakhigarhi. (A similar cache of pottery was found during the excavation at 4MSR from January to April.) In comparison, not so many idli-shaped terracotta cakes were found at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, both in Pakistan now. It is surmised that these cakes could have gone from Rakhigarhi to Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.
An unfinished seal found in the current excavation features the carving of a tiger, but it has no Harappan script. A sealing has the impression of a unicorn. Hearths, furnaces, broken bangles and burnt bangles, all made of faience, found in the trenches at RGR-4 indicate the presence of an industrial unit there. Bangles made of shell point to the Harappans' trade contacts with the Saurashtra region in present-day Gujarat. The shells could have come only from Saurashtra. There were beads made of lapis lazuli, which came from Afghanistan.
A lot of terracotta animal figurines were found at the site, important among them being those of the wild boar. This is reportedly the only site where terracotta figurines of wild boar have been found. There were representations of the deer. Figurines of dogs with a belt around the neck show that the Harappans kept dogs.
RGR-6, with a four-metre-deep deposit, belonged to the Early Harappan period. "You don't find such a thick deposit in other Early Harappan sites. So we know that the excavation here will yield sufficient evidence to understand the gradual development from the Early Harappan to the Mature Harappan phase," Shinde said. In most of the sites, archaeologists stopped short of excavating the Early Harappan deposits as they were found below the Mature Harappan level.
However, as the Early Harappan (RGR-6) and Mature Harappan deposits were available in two different mounds at Rakhigarhi, it was possible to understand the lifestyle of the people who belonged to the Early Harappan period. Besides, it helped archaeologists understand the shift in the cultural phase from the Early Harappan to the Mature Harappan phase, that is, the changes that had occurred in the style of structures, pottery, bead-making, and so on.
"Rakhigarhi was the place to understand how these changes had taken place. So we excavated 16 trenches in mound six. It was a big excavation," Shinde said. (Rakhigarhi did not boast of a Late Harappan culture.)
Nilesh Jadhav said pottery typical of the Early Harappan period was found in the trenches at RGR-6. They included ceramics painted with peepal leaves; painted pottery resembling the Periano Gundai slipped ware from the Zhop valley in present-day Pakistan; ceramics with appliqué designs; chocolate ware; and bichrome ware. Also found were portable ovens, the types of which are still in use at Rakhigarhi; mud bricks in the ratio of 1:2:3; terracotta beads; steatite micro beads with a diameter of a couple of millimetres; copper objects such as fish hooks; a copper bangle; and so on. No terracotta animal figurines were available at the Early Harappan level.
Shinde said: "Since no evidence has been found so far of a Late Harappan phase having existed at Rakhigarhi, my hypothesis is that the rivers Saraswati and Drishadvati were not active as they were during the Early and Mature Harappan phases. The Saraswati could have gone dry around 2000 BCE and so the Late Harappan people moved away from the Saraswati river banks. So we have sites where the Early and the Mature Harappan phases flourished, mostly on the banks of the Saraswati and the Drishadvati. And there are other Late Harappan sites away from the riverbanks in this region and these sites include Bhagwanpura, Rupar and Barar."
(This story was published in the print edition of Frontline magazine dated May 29, 2015.)
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Friend of the show, Jordan Woods-Robinson joins us to talk about Season 8 of The Walking Dead, his role at Eric and what's new in his life as a professional actor on one of the most popular shows in television history. We get some inside info on what it's like on set and how some of your favorite "TWD" stars prepare for the big-time scenes prior to filming! Listen in!
Lean Green DAD® is proud to partner with Clean Machine® to sell Clean Green Protein?, the first product with the new plant Super Green Lentein. LENTEIN is an award-winning Non-GMO whole plant protein from the Lemna family that is one of the World's Most Complete Foods. A Super Protein, Super Green and Super Omega, All in One Plant! Simply one of the most important advances in plant-based nutrition EVER! To buy, visit www.leangreendad.com/shop and use code LEANGREEN20 for 20% off your order at checkout.


text:
Q: How to improve my coding style for assigning a new value? Is there a better way to write the third line of following code ?
from datetime import date
d = date.today()
d = d.replace(day=1)

A: How about
d = date.today().replace(day=1)

A: you did it right.
another suggestion:
current_date=date.today()
fixed_date=date(current_date.year, current_date.month, 1)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This is a placeholder page for Robert Fleishman, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find Robert Fleishman.
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Lok Sabha Elections 2019 is around the corner and political parties have released their manifestos. What's in it for women? Do we need more women-centric policies? Are there enough women representatives in Parliament? Isn't women perspective imperative in policy making? Aabha Bakaya discusses all this and more with top women leaders. Watch!


The breathtaking fjord landscapes in the Senja region are some of the finest Norway can offer. The National Tourist Route on Northern Senja is an incredible road to travel. Long white sand beaches, steep mountains crashing into the ocean and small dwindling roads create a perfect scenery. We will drive the route to the beach on Ersfjorden and make stops on some of the most beautiful and interesting stops along the way.


"1) Windows 7 still has all the security of a drunken teenager in a sports car. From Windows for Workgroups and NT 3 until today, Windows is a security joke. It used to be that running Windows just put your head into the noose. Now, millions of lazy Windows users are the reason why the Internet is a mess. If you already do all the right things to keep XP running safely, you're not going to get any safer by buying Windows 7.
"2) Windows 7, no matter how buy it, is expensive. Does your budget have the extra cash to buy a new and improved taskbar!?"


text:
Q: Custom Post Type Events Archive Grouped By Month I'm currently trying to get my events listing code to print out headers by Month. So basically this:
October

*

*event

*event

September

*

*event

*event

etc...
Right now it just keeps echoing January. I think it might have something to do with the $currentMonth or the strtotime() but I'm not sure what. Any suggestions? I've been looking at this post to try and figure it out.
Thanks!
<?php
    $args = array(
    'post_type' => 'events',
    'orderby' => 'meta_value',
    'meta_key' => 'tf_events_startdate',
    'order' => 'DESC'
    );

    $my_query = new WP_Query($args);

    if ($my_query->have_posts()) : while ($my_query->have_posts()) :
    $my_query->the_post();

    $custom = get_post_custom(get_the_ID());

    // dates
    $sd = $custom["tf_events_startdate"][0];
    $ed = $custom["tf_events_enddate"][0];

    // - local time format -
    $time_format = get_option('time_format');
    $stime = date($time_format, $sd);
    $etime = date($time_format, $ed);

    // set headers

    if(!isset($currentMonth) || $currentMonth != date("m", strtotime($sd))){
        $currentMonth = date("m", strtotime($sd));

     echo '
'.date("F", strtotime($sd)).'
';

    }?>

        <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>"><?php the_title();?>

        <?php // - determine if it's a new day -
        $longdate = date("l, M j, Y", $sd);
        if ($daycheck == null) { echo $longdate; }
        if ($daycheck != $longdate && $daycheck != null) { echo $longdate; } ?>

        <?php echo $stime;?>

    <?php endwhile; else: ?>

<?php _e('No Events Yet .'); ?>

    <?php endif; ?>

A: One thing I noticed: Are $daycheck and $currentMonth defined or initiated previously? Also when you created your custom post type did you make sure 'has_archive' => true, was included? I would go through and echo out all of your variables and see why January keeps coming up. My guess is that it has something to do with $custom["tf_events_startdate"][0] As [0] might be January, [1] February etc.


text:
Home News Team USA Concludes R...
Team USA Concludes Rio 2016 Paralympic Games With 115 Medals, 40 Golds
By Beth Bourgeois | Sept. 18, 2016, 8:27 p.m. (ET)
(L-R) Amanda McGrory, Tatyana McFadden and Chelsea McClammer swept the podium twice during Team USA's 115-medal haul at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Team USA wrapped up the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games on September 19, having completed its most successful performances at the Games in recent history. The team of 289 athletes won a total of 115 medals, and finished fourth in the overall medal count.
Below are some of the highlights of the outstanding U.S. athlete and team performances in Rio.
Team USA's haul of 115 medals marks the most won by the U.S. team since the 1996 Games in Atlanta (158).
The U.S. women won more than half of Team USA's medals, with 70 medals, including 24 gold, 24 silver and 21 bronze.
Most decorated athletes: For the U.S. women, Tatyana McFadden, track & field, and Jessica Long, swimming, both won six medals a piece. McFadden won four gold and two silver medals and Jessica Long won three silver medals, two bronze and a gold. In men's competition, Brad Snyder, swimming, won the most U.S. medals with three gold and a silver.
Team USA swept the podium three times – in two different sports. The track & field trio of Tatyana McFadden, Chelsea McClammer and Amanda McGrory claimed the top three spots in the T54 1,500 and 5,000-meter finals. In the debut of paratriathlon, Allysa Seely, Hailey Danisewicz and Melissa Stockwell swept the medals in the women's PT2 classification.
Grace Norman won gold in paratriathlon and bronze in track and field, with her two medal winning races coming less than 36 hours apart.
U.S. athletes set a total of eight world records in Rio, six in the pool, with three of them made by Rebecca Meyers. The other two WRs were in track & field by athletes David Blair and Rachael Morrison.
The U.S. Paralympic Cycling Team won the most ever medals at a Games, with a total of 18 podium finishes.
Firsts in Rio
First time since 2004 that the men's and women's teams both reached the podium in goalball; the U.S. men won silver, while the women's team brought home the bronze. Incidentally, both teams finished in the same spots on the podium back in 2004.
It was the first time since 1996 that both the men's and women's teams reached the podium in basketball – both winning gold.
The men's win in basketball marked the first time since 1988 – or 28 years - that the U.S. men's wheelchair basketball team won a gold medal.
Military veteran athletes also made their presence known in Rio. The following military veterans, including one active duty service member, had performances in Rio that resulted in a total of 16 medals:
Army Sergeant Elizabeth Marks, swimming - gold, 100m breaststroke SB7; bronze, 4x100m medley relay – 34 pts.
Army veteran Kari Miller, women's sitting volleyball – gold
Army veteran Shawn Morelli, cycling – gold, 3000m individual pursuit C4; gold, time trial C4
Army veteran Scot Severn, track & field – silver, F53 shot put
Army veteran Melissa Stockwell, paratriathlon – bronze, women's PT2
Marine Corps veteran Oz Sanchez, cycling – silver, mixed team relay H2; bronze, time trial H5
Navy veteran Will Groulx, cycling – gold, road race H2; silver, time trial H2; and silver, mixed team relay H2
Navy veteran Brad Snyder, swimming –gold, 50 free S11; gold, 100m free S11; gold, 100m free S11; and silver, 100m back S11
Navy veteran Andre Shelby, archery – gold, men's individual compound open
U.S. Paralympics Announces Paralympic Finalists For Team USA Awards Presented By Dow, Best Of The Games
Vote On Team USA's Top Athletes From The Rio Paralympic Games
Three-Time Marathon Grand Slam Winner Tatyana McFadden Wins First Paralympic Marathon Medal
Team USA Takes Wheelchair Rugby Paralympic Silver In Intense Battle Against Australia
Team USA Wins Its First Women's Sitting Volleyball Paralympic Title


text:
Alpha joins the lineup of coal miners in bankruptcy
August 3, 2015 / 4:55 PM / AP
NEW YORK - Alpha Natural Resources (ANRZ), one of the country's biggest coal producers, became the latest in a string of coal companies to seek bankruptcy protection amid an historic shift in the electric power sector brought on by cheap natural gas and stricter pollution regulations.
Alpha operates about 60 coal mines, many in parts of Appalachia that have seen the sharpest declines in coal demand and coal prices as electric power customers have switched to natural gas. It is the fourth U.S. coal company to seek bankruptcy protection in the last 15 months.
The bond rating agency Fitch expects coal companies to struggle in the future. "The sector default rate is likely to increase further in the near term," its analysts wrote in a note to investors on Monday.
The boom in natural gas production in the U.S. brought on by improved drilling techniques and hydraulic fracturing has ushered in a period of sharply lower natural gas prices. At the same time, clean air regulations are dimming the future for coal-fired power because coal emits about twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas, and far more pollutants such as soot and mercury.
The average price of coal used for electricity from Central Appalachia is 20 percent lower than last year, according to Platts. In June, the price hit an eight-year low.
President Barack Obama on Monday announced the first ever set of rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, a move that will likely reduce demand for coal even further.
Alpha, like many of its peers, is also struggling with a large debt load. Many coal producers borrowed money to fuel growth on the expectation that demand would soar around the world, especially in China, as hundreds of millions of people gained access to electricity.
Alpha took on debt, for example, to fund its $7.1 billion acquisition of Massey Energy in 2011. The company had approximately $3.14 billion in long-term debt for the quarter ended March 31, according to a regulatory filing.
But clean-air concerns are pushing countries around the globe to look for alternatives to coal, and coal production in developing countries has also increased, reducing the need for U.S. coal. Also, a slow-down in construction growth in China has depressed prices for coal used to make steel.
Alpha, based in Bristol, Virginia, was founded in 2002 and went public three years later. It grew into one of the biggest companies in the sector through acquisitions that have left it with mines throughout Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Wyoming. The company has approximately 8,800 employees, according to its website, though it has announced the elimination of more than 800 jobs this year.
Coal jobs are being lost nationwide. Through the end of June, U.S. coal industry employment was down 24 percent since late 2011, according to the Labor Department, a decline of 21,000 jobs.
Back in August 2008, a share of Alpha Natural Resources sold for $104. On Monday, a share was worth under 4 cents. The company's bankruptcy case is being closely watched by local officials in areas where the company has mining operations.
"I guess we will have to wait and see how it does affect us," said Donald Baker, mayor and town manager of Clintwood, Virginia. "The coal business has not been good for a long time. These EPA rules just about killed coal."
"It's a tough time for anybody in the coal industry, not just Alpha."
Alpha rivals Patriot Coal (PATQ), Walter Energy (WLTGQ) and James River Coal (JRCCQ), have also sought bankruptcy protection since the start of 2014.
In Logan County, West Virginia, coal will continue to have an important role in the county's economy. But efforts are underway to diversify, including increasing tourism and using previously mined land for agriculture, Logan County Commission President Danny Godby said.
Alpha made its bankruptcy filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond. The company said it's seeking protection from creditors to allow its normal business operations to continue uninterrupted.
In a letter to employees posted on Alpha's website on Monday, Chairman and CEO Kevin Crutchfield said the restructuring process will likely last more than a year.
The company's current management team is expected to stay in place through the process. It has secured a debtor-in-possession financing package of up to about $692 million that will help it reorganize.
Last month Alpha said its shares were going to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. The company will no longer report its second-quarter financial results as scheduled on Wednesday.
PG&E says its equipment likely sparked California's Camp Fire
10 companies working to save the planet
First published on August 3, 2015 / 4:55 PM
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text:
Big Wife Health and Diet Blog
Health and Diet Blog
Hundreds of girls aged 14 or under are having "designer vagina" surgery on the NHS
Posted bykrky November 25, 2012
Hundreds of girls aged 14 or under are having 'designer vagina' surgery on the NHS343 operations performed on under 14s in six yearsResearchers want an age limit for the surgery

UPDATED:
11:48 GMT, 22 November 2012

Trend: Hundreds of girls are having 'designer vagina' surgery on the NHS, say researchers

Hundreds of young girls are having ‘designer vagina’ surgery on the NHS, say researchers.

Figures show 343 operations were performed on girls aged 14 or under in the last six years, possibly for cosmetic reasons.

The procedures involve reshaping female genitalia and requests may be granted on the grounds that the problem is psychologically damaging.

Researchers from University College Hospital, London, led by Dr Sarah Creighton, claim it is ‘disturbing’ that there is no minimum age limit for the surgery.

They say demand may be growing for such procedures because of poor and inaccurate information available on the internet, usually from private clinics.

Websites of companies that provide female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) make ‘unsubstantiated claims’ about the benefits of the procedures.

They also use confusing terminology and do not highlight surgical risks, according to the research published in BMJ Open.

A survey of 10 websites found little information was given on short-term or long-term surgical risks either from individual clinics and their surgeons or from the medical literature.

‘'Unsubstantiated claims of physical, psychological and sexual benefits were present on every website’ said consultant gynaecologist Dr Creighton.

'The absence of a lower age limit for any of the FGCS procedures is most disturbing of all’ she said.

Labiaplasties, which are operations to reshape the labia, the inner lips of the vagina, have become increasingly common, often because women are dissatisfied with their appearance.

Dr Creighton said her research cannot confirm whether some girls are having medically unnecessary surgery.

Worried: Researchers from University College Hospital, London, led by Dr Sarah Creighton, claim it is 'disturbing' that there is not a lower age limit for the surgery

She said ‘In the past six years, 343 labiaplasties were performed in the UK NHS on girls aged 14 or under.

'The indications for surgery in this group of children are unknown, but labial anomalies requiring surgical interventions are extremely rare.

‘In a recent observational study of referral patterns, girls as young as nine years with normal labia had presented for labiaplasty.

‘The labia minora change as part of normal pubertal growth, with development completed as the individual approaches adulthood.

 ‘Given the fact that anatomy continues to change throughout the lifespan, the younger a girl begins her FGCS journey the higher the number of lifetime operations and the greater and more multiple the risks’ she said.

Dr Creighton added ‘The NHS collects information about the number of these procedures and the age range but there is no requirement to record the reasons for them.

‘We do not know what they have been done for, we can only speculate and more information is needed.’

Dr Creighton said it would be impossible to ban such operations on girls under 14 on the NHS because of the possibility that they were medically necessary.

‘But we should have great caution about offering any genital surgery to girls under the age of 18’ she added.

Surgery: A study last year revealed more than 2,000 women a year are receiving labial reduction or reshaping operations on the NHS (file pic)

Dr Creighton says it is difficult for doctors to refuse to operate if the patient argues they perceive the problem as being psychologically damaging although her clinic rejects such cases and operates only to correct medical or congenital abnormalities.

A study last year revealed more than 2,000 women a year are receiving labial reduction or reshaping operations on the NHS, with thousands more performed in the private sector at costs running into thousands of pounds.

Some experts say the demand is driven by the pornography industry and explicit reality TV shows where all female performers have perfectly symmetrical body parts.

Lih-Mei Liao, a clinical psychologist at University College Hospital, and a co-researcher on the BMJ survey, has carried out studies into the growing phenomenon.

‘She reviewed 33 women, with an average age of 23, who were referred to the hospital for NHS labial reduction surgery between 2007 and 2010.

‘They were turned away by gynaecologists who said they did not need an operation, with the result that a number said they would pay to have it done privately.

‘Dr Liao said at the time that the study showed a disturbing trend.
‘She said ‘It is nothing to do with a recognisable disease or condition.

‘‘There is something cultural going on about what women think about the way their genitals appear to themselves or their partners.’

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: ‘There is no such thing as a designer vagina on the NHS.

‘Of course there is cosmetic surgery carried out on the NHS, but this is only for patients who have a clinical need for it – absolutely not for those who would simply like to have it done.’

As obesity soars, girls of 11 given breast reduction surgery on NHS
Girls aged 13 "should be given the contraceptive Pill from pharmacies without a prescription"
Thousands could lose their sight as NHS cuts cataract surgery by a quarter
Plastic surgery really CAN make you look 10 years younger, reveal scientists
More than half of 14 and 15 year old girls are unhappy with their figures despite being healthy or underweight
Posted bykrky November 25, 2012 Posted inHealthTags: claims, cosmetic, health, hospital, london, november, private, surgery, university, unsubstantiated, vagina
Does eating chocolate make you clever? New research suggests it may help you win a Nobel prize, at least…
Feed your family on 50 a week: Top cook Prue Leith shows how – and you won"t just be eating baked beans
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Originally published on SBWire, April 25, 2013.
In its review of the Online Trading Academy, ForexMinute describes it a 'unique' and 'one of the most reliable trading courses providers.' The forex news portal praises the Online Trading Academy for both its efficient Self Study section and outstanding user friendly features.
However, ForexMinute complains about the Online Trading Academy's customer support services and opines, "We were let down by the fact that there is no live chat." Not to say that ForexMinute has tried to put an optimistic review by praising the academy for their friendly and helpful support.
ForexMinute is the world's leading forex news website, providing investors all the required tools to become a top class forex trader. The ForexMinute.com team offers global investors an array of resources, including financial news by the minute, fundamental analysis, technical analysis, forex tools and much more. The aim of ForexMinute is to provide investors the leading forex education tools helps you to know that how to trade Forex? So they can visit their leading forex portal whenever it suits them.


text:
162001–162100

|-
| 162001 Vulpius ||  || Melchior Vulpius (c. 1570–1615), a German singer and composer of church music ||
|-id=002
| 162002 Spalatin ||  || George Spalatin (1484–1545) was a German theologian, humanist and historian. In 1502 he went to the University of Wittenberg and had good relations with Martin Luther and to the Reformation. Spalatin was painted by Lukas Cranach, father and son. He died at Altenburg and was buried in the St. Batholomew church. ||
|-id=011
| 162011 Konnohmaru ||  || Konnohmaru is a legendary warrior of the Heiji Rebellion (1159) ||
|-id=035
| 162035 Jirotakahashi ||  || Jiro Takahashi (born 1949), professor of science education at Ehime University ||
|}

162101–162200

|-id=158
| 162158 Merrillhess ||  || Merrill Hess (born 1955), an amateur astronomer and has been President and Vice-President of the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society many times. ||
|-id=166
| 162166 Mantsch ||  || Paul Mantsch (born 1941), American particle and astro-particle physicist with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ||
|-id=173
| 162173 Ryugu ||  || Ryūgū-jō (Ryugu), the undersea palace of the dragon deity Ryūjin in Japanese mythology, from where a Japanese fisherman brought back a box with a secret. The naming alludes to the Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission. ||
|}

162201–162300

|-bgcolor=#f2f2f2
| colspan=4 align=center |
|}

162301–162400

|-bgcolor=#f2f2f2
| colspan=4 align=center |
|}

162401–162500

|-id=466
| 162466 Margon ||  || Bruce Margon (born 1948), American astronomer and a contributor to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ||
|}

162501–162600

|-bgcolor=#f2f2f2
| colspan=4 align=center |
|}

162601–162700

|-bgcolor=#f2f2f2
| colspan=4 align=center |
|}

162701–162800

|-id=755
| 162755 Spacesora ||  || "Space Sora", the non-profit organization who has contributed to the popularization of science, especially astronomy, among children in Ehime prefecture, Japan, since 2008 ||
|}

162801–162900

|-bgcolor=#f2f2f2
| colspan=4 align=center |
|}

162901–163000

|-id=937
| 162937 Prêtre ||  || René Prêtre (born 1957), a Swiss heart surgeon who treats children in both Switzerland and Mozambique. He was voted Swiss of the Year in 2009. ||
|-id=978
| 162978 Helenhart ||  || Helen M. Hart (born 1954), a mission operations analyst at the Applied Physics Laboratory, worked as a Mission Sequencer for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. ||
|}

References

162001-163000


A big Thank You to everyone for supporting the 2018 Macmillan Coffee Morning which was held in Rathmell Reading Room on Saturday 29th September. All the donations, homemade cakes and raffle prizes were very much appreciated.
It was a busy morning and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. This year we had a 'Guess the Teddy' competition, which was won by Sheila Garnett who chose the name 'Cuddles'.


Shunlongwei Inspected every AON7401L before Ship, All AON7401L with 6 months warranty.
Q: How To Order AON7401L?
Q: How To Pay for AON7401L?
Q: How Long Can I Get The AON7401L?
A: Yes, The product Engineer will help you on the AON7401L setup, Application, Replacement, Repaire.


How a professional image can change in a very short time and yet it will take longer for City Bankers to be regarded as credible in the eyes of the general public. It is typically the 80:20 theory, only a small percentage of City Bankers have caused this problem, now the best way forward is for the banking industry to change the perception of who they are to the public. Each person's individual personal image can make a difference.
In the current economic climate being brash, arrogant and flaunting your success is not a good personal image. I can think of one particular person who shines as an example to the world. Sadly last week Paul Newman died, one of the greatest stars in films over the last century. He knew how to behave, was a true gentleman, kind and thoughtful who gave no end to charity. He is an excellent example of how to behave as an gentleman, who didn't abuse his good looks and charm, but instead was considerate to others less fortunate and yet enjoyed life to the full in a very positive and constructive way. Plus a happy and loving husband for over 50 years, a rarity in the movie world. Who said classic men are out of date?


Obey Outsider's Paradise T-shirt in white. Discover the new SP19 collection from Obey. Obey is inspired by the graffiti art from Shepard Fairy's. Also this Tee makes part of that. The shirt has a green and blue graphics. A truly skull island with a palmtree. On the chest and enlarged on the back. 100% cotton.


9 of our boxers competing at CBS 2: GAME ON. Happening at Tampines SAFRA, this Saturday, 13 May 2017. First bout starts at 2pm sharp. Tickets at the door will be $35. Come on down and show your support for our warriors! Gym will be closed at 1pm this Saturday 13th May, so last class will be the 12pm boxing class. See you at SAFRA Tampines!
Newer Post Striking Seminar By ONE Championship Fighter Zebaztian "The Bandit" Kadestam	Older Post We Are Moving!


text:
Lithuanian president appoints Pranckevicius as ambassador to EU
VILNIUS – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has appointed Arnoldas Pranckevicius as the country's ambassador to the European Union.
The president signed a respective decree on Monday.
Pranckevicius will assume the ambassadorial position on March 1.
He has served as a vice minister of foreign affairs since the incumbent government came into power in December, 2020, having led the European Commission Representation in Lithuania for four years before that.
Earlier, he served as an adviser to ex-Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, as well as a diplomatic adviser to former EP President Jerzy Buzek and Martin Schulz.
The position of Lithuania's EU ambassador has been vacant since August, 2020 when Jovita Neliupsiene's term expired.
With the president and the government long-locked in a dispute on a candidature, the embassy has thus far been led by acting permanent representative Simonas Satunas but he has recently announced his plans to start heading European Commisioner Virginijus Sinkevicius' office in March.
In December, the president's chief foreign policy adviser Asta Skaisgiryte said the president was awaiting the government's decision on the appointment of ex-National Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis to lead Lithuania's embassy in Brussels.
In Lithuania, ambassadors are appointed by the president upon the government's nomination and approval of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs.
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Butlleti oficial parliament catalonia spain
The Honourable. He left the PSC in due to its opposition to Catalan independence and founded the pro-independence New Catalan Left which later merged with others to form the Left Movement. Daily Herald. Only 15 percent thought it had improved since then. Spain's prime minister tried, and failed, to strong-arm Catalonia. There are ways out of this impasse for both sides, but neither is prepared to back down. The Herald. On 1 October an independence referendum was held in Catalonia despite the Constitutional Court ruling that it breached the Spanish constitution.
An Independent Catalonia Is Further Away Than Ever – Foreign Policy
The Board of the Parliament of Catalonia (Catalan: Mesa del Parlament) is the body . the Eighth legislature was published in the Butlletí Oficial del Parlament de Catalunya on 17 November. El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). The 12th Parliament of Catalonia is the current Parliament of Catalonia, with the membership . Barcelona, Spain: Parliament of Catalonia. Retrieved 3 July Butlletí Oficial del Parlament de Catalunya (in Catalan).
XII no. under Article of the Spanish Constitution (Constitución Española, hereinafter November ), disseminated at the time by the Parliament of Catalonia on its [Official State Gazette], in the Butlletí Oficial del Parlament de Catalunya.
Chicago, U.
The crisis in Catalonia tore the country apart.
Barcelona" in Spanish. Jeffrey Lewis. Sign up for free access to 1 article per month and weekly email updates from expert policy analysts Sign Up. On 1 October an independence referendum was held in Catalonia despite the Constitutional Court ruling that it breached the Spanish constitution. Holding just 84 seats in the seat congress, the Socialists are heavily reliant on other parties.
Butlleti oficial parliament catalonia spain Republicans and Democrats alike should remember why Spanish unity is a boon for America.
Maragall contested the regional election as a Republican Left of Catalonia—Catalonia Yes electoral alliance candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected. La Vanguardia in Spanish. The Daily Telegraph. Forn resigned from Parliament in January but remains in prison.
Abu Dhabi, U.
Resolution 5/X of the Catalan Parliament (published in the Butlletí Oficial del All the translations of Catalan and Spanish legal texts are from the authors. The Public Audit Office may also be delegated by the Spanish Court of Audit published in the Official Gazette of the Catalan Parliament (Butlletí Oficial del.
On 23 Januarythe Catalan Parliament adopted the Spanish Parliament rejected the right of the Catalan Parliament to make such a declaration. of Catalonia, /10 and /10, DSPC-P 4, Butlletí Oficial del Parlament.
This article uses Catalan naming customs : the first or paternal family name is Maragall and the second or maternal family name is Mira.
Republican Left of Catalonia. La Vanguardia in Spanish. Barcelona, Spain. Miquel Buch Direct rule until 2 June Want unlimited access? Retrieved 31 December
TWO STROKE DIRT BIKE MAINTENANCE MASSACHUSETTS Spain's prime minister tried, and failed, to strong-arm Catalonia.
Retrieved 17 January El Nacional in Spanish.
Video: Butlleti oficial parliament catalonia spain Catalan parliament declares independence
The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia augmented the already considerable powers of self-governance handed to the region in The new Spanish prime minister will need to fend off rivals and manage alliances to stay in power long enough to heal the wounds.
The National.
After university Forn started working in a law firm.
Spanish case can be regarded, from a dogmatic point of view, as one of progressive evolution. Basque Parliament, the Catalan Govenment of Generalitat, the Catalan Parliament and fifty . 20 Butlletí Oficial del Parlament de Catalunya, n. 4 days ago Constitutional Court rules Catalan parliament cannot censure the King .
by Spain's Official State Gazette, and who is the victim of an attempt. On the 29th January the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution that defined the BUTLLETÍ OFFICIAL – Proposta de resolució sobre les associacions de The flourishing of fundamental rights in the debate on drugs in Spain.
Spain's prime minister tried, and failed, to strong-arm Catalonia. El Confidencial in Spanish. Associated Press.
Forn and Puigdemont, along with others, fled to Belgiumbut on 31 October Forn returned to Spain. Barcelona" in Spanish. On 30 October charges of rebellionsedition and misuse of public funds were brought against Forn and other members of the Catalan government. In other projects Wikimedia Commons.
Butlleti oficial parliament catalonia spain Only 15 percent thought it had improved since then.
Views Read Edit View history. Sign up for free access to 1 article per month and weekly email updates from expert policy analysts. In June President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont announced that a referendum on Catalan independence would be held on 1 October Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joaquim Forn i Chiariello.
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Sometimes seeing a live performance, especially one you need to drive an hour-plus to, can feel like visiting family or an old friend. Seeing the legendary CCM veteran Steven Curtis Chapman in concert is always a treat and with his Live In This Moment Tour, fans are treated also to the pop/rock sounds of Sanctus Real and pop/acoustic soloist Bethany Dillon.
We arrived at Calvary Church in Lancaster, PA early to spend a little two-on-one time interviewing Steven for JFH before the 7:30pm show time. The doors opened an hour before, and those who came early to the general admission show had plenty of time to browse the merch tables for the artists as well as learn about the Chapman's involvement in the support of adopting young orphans. Ohioan Bethany Dillon kicked off the evening, complete with a full band made up of members of Chapmans' entourage and Sanctus Real - specifically the latter's bassist Dan Gartley and guitarist Pete Provost, and the former's son, William Franklin Chapman on drums. This surely wasn't Dillon's usual acoustic show, but it allowed her to present her songs in a new light, opening with the upbeat fan favorite "All I Need," and continuing with "Let Your Light Shine." Dillon candidly introduced the romantic "When You Love Someone" by mentioning her recent engagement and how the early stages of her relationship with fellow artist Shane Barnard (of Shane & Shane) inspired the song. Another fan favorite, "Beautiful," was the final offering from Dillon and her trio of performers, as the stage cleared soon after to leave the teenager standing alone with her acoustic. In Bethany Dillon's classic minimalistic fashion, she closed her set with a newer offering, the gorgeous, emotionally charged ballad "On Our Side."
A remarkably quick set change made way for Dillon's fellow Ohioans Sanctus Real to assume center stage for their night's offering. "Everything About You," from their sophomore effort, Fight The Tide, kicked things off for a worshipful feel, before the brutally honest and catchy "I'm Not Alright" followed. As a standout track from their current release, The Face Of Love, "I'm Not Alright" began a string of cuts from that album, with the anthem for perseverance through trials in love, "Don't Give Up" falling next in line. The beautiful and painful ballad born out of simultaneous loss and gain, "Benjamin," was a fantastic set surprise, while the worshpful vibe of "The Face Of Love" served as a compliment to succeed it. Sanmctus Real was a good choice for the tour, serving as a great way to slowly warm up for SCC's grand performance. The evening's musical lineup had a nice flow, without any act sounding too much alike or too drastic in difference either. To close their surprisingly short set, Sanctus debuted a new song - the title track from the February release, We Need Each Other. The perfect ending to a strong six-song setlist, "We Need Each Other" received an emphatic audience reception, which ended with a standing ovation from much of the crowd.
Steven Curtis Chapman emerged immediately after Sanctus' set to talk about adoption and supporting families trying to adopt, also informing his audience that a ticker in the corner of a large screen spread behind the artists performing was showing the concert-goers how many children had become orphans around the world in the time that had gone by. With the statistic that a child becomes an orphan every 18 seconds, by the end of the night, the count had climbed to an overwhelming 620 orphans. Chapman encouraged the audience to give to the Show Hope movement which would give sponsor money to a family in the Calvary Church's community that are trying to adopt a child. Steven told of the large buckets that were for collecting people's spare change and cash as "Change For Orphans" to help support, and departed from the stage for a fifteen minute intermission.
Before too long, the lights dimmed one last time and the sweet, sweet sound of possibly Steven's most recognizable song of all time, "The Great Adventure," sounded throughout the church sanctuary. Chapman's setup filled the stage, showcasing a giant screen between large burgundy curtains (which may or may not have been part of the church -- whether or not they were, they worked wonderfully into the show backdrop). Four sets of street lamps that would illuminate at key moments throughout the set, were spread out across the width of the stage, while the screen would switch between design patterns, lyrics, and even poignant footage from song to song. "Children Of God," from Steven's brand new release This Moment appropriately followed, even featuring a guest vocal spot from oldest son, Caleb Chapman. Before the end of the song, Steven invited fans who had made signs bearing lyrics from the song to join him on stage to aid him in the crowd participation. Then the Paducah, Kentucky native kept the audience's enthusiasm ignited as he resurrected an old fan favorite with "Let Us Pray," before slowing things just a bit for "Fingerprints Of God." When the infectiously catchy "Something Crazy" followed, an animated video created by one of his sons shown behind the band as they played. Steven then took a break to share the story behind the inspiration for his new album's first single and anthem, "Miracle Of The Moment."
Steven Curtis' concerts are always given a personal touch when he pauses to share family stories. In the past, fans would hear stories about his oldest daughter Emily and sons Caleb and Will Franklin, but with those children almost all grown up (and even now on tour with him), his young children stories now come from his three adopted Asian daughters. Chapman openly shared a specific instance where he rushed through bathtime with his two youngest girls to get them in bed so he could go get work on the new record done, later feeling convicted by God for rushing through moments that he misses spending with his oldest daughter. This all became inspiration for a new song that would be end up being the night's most heart-wrenching moment as he performed the moving ballad, "Cinderella." And as the band performed, a video displayed behind them of a silhouette of Steven dancing with a little girl as she grows up over time and moves on. The sentimental song left plenty of audience members wiping their eyes or with a lump in their throat.
With having twenty years of music to his name, Steven has oftentimes worked some of his fans' favorites into a medley, and the latest mix was one of his best to date. As he sat perched on a stool with just Will Franklin on percussion and a bass and keyboard to accompany him as well, an acoustic mix followed. Beginning with "More To This Life," it was evident that much of the audience was more than familiar with his catalog of music, as each successive song got a warmer, more excited reception. "More To This Life" lead into "I Will Be Here," and on into "For The Sake Of The Call," "King Of The Jungle," "Free," "Not Home Yet," "Change," and ending beautifully with the delectable sound of "The Walk." The band cleared out and Steven shared once again about adoption and the inspiration for "When Love Takes You In," which he performed alone with merely a piano and the concept video playing behind him for the song with real-life families' adoption moment footage mixed in. When he finished, his band returned to the stage, and the energy picked up again with the catchy and worshipful "Magnificent Obsession" from his album, Declaration. To continue the worshipful atmosphere, Chapman introduced "My Redeemer" from his 1987 debut album First Hand, and played that before the always memorable "Speechless." "Speechless" blended right into a few refrains of Delirious' "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," and then on into the final new cut from This Moment for the night, the upbeat "You Are Being Loved." The evening went out with a bang as Steven Curtis and band moved into two final hits, "Live Out Loud" and "Dive," which he prefaced with an official band introduction. At the close of the set, SCC and his entourage took a bow and his team exited, leaving Chapman alone on stage once again. At this point, Steven drew attention to the orphan counter on the screen and its total number of over 620, and announced the financial support amount that had been raised with the "Change For Orphans" campaign earlier in the night. Chapman presented a check of $2,200 to the local family who had just adopted a child, and it brought a wonderful ending to a fantastic evening of music and worship.
Few artists have truly left an impression on Christian music like Steven Curtis Chapman. Even after twenty years, Chapman still puts on an incredible show and he always surrounds himself with fantastic musicians and standout opening acts. Whether you can catch The Live In This Moment Tour this Fall or perhaps an upcoming performance on a different tour, make sure you experience his live show soon. It's not one to miss.


Your goal is to have your clients see you the same way. When they have an ache or pain related to your type of product, they should immediately think of calling you. That's because they'll be confident you have the right prescription for their ills.
To earn this level of respect and trust, you need to start every relationship with the right skills. These skills include a caring manner, a confident air, and your diagnostic tools.
The tools you use in diagnosing the needs of your clients may be as simple as a pad of paper, measuring tape or calculator. They may include your past client experiences, personal experiences or memories. Diagnosing clients' needs can require a computer, specialized software or even involve engineering or customized schematics.
The most powerful diagnostic tools used by all people in sales are questions. Like a doctor, your use of questions begins with general areas of need. Then, based on the answers you are given, you narrow your questions down to where you can readily determine the right cure or solution for the clients' needs.
Average salespeople have this fantasy in which they think they should be able to simply present the wonderful features of their product and the customer, seeing the value, pulls out their checkbook or credit card and says, "I'll take it." If customers made buying decisions based on features alone that might work, but it's a rare occasion when it does.
The reality of it is that most buying decisions are based on past experiences, the experiences of others the client trusts, advertising, gut feelings and hundreds of other factors that you can't do much about.
So, you have to start with questions to get them talking about their needs, wants and perceptions of your product or service. These answers will help you put yourself in their shoes. Once you're there, you'll see what steps you need to help them take to make a good buying decision.
Be sure to ask "what past experience do you have with our type of service?" It could be that they're very well-versed on the service, even used it in the past, and are seeking a new supplier. If they know little or nothing about your service, you'll have to invest a bit more time in educating them as to what your offer entails and what they can expect.
Ask very specifically what they hope to accomplish with an investment in your services. It could be that one of your key benefits is sought after by most clients. However, that feature does nothing for this client. You won't want to turn them off by talking about something that doesn't matter to them.
I like to use the analogy of a torpedo when talking about this subject. A torpedo leaves a ship in the general direction of its intended target. It bounces a signal off in the target direction. If the signal doesn't come back, it corrects its direction to get back on course.
That's what questioning does for you. You take off in a certain direction with your questions. The answers you receive either tell you that you're on target or that you need to take another tack. Rarely will you take a direct course from initial contact to the sale. More often than not, you'll find yourself zig-zagging but all the while heading in the general direction of the sale until you find just the right answer for each and every client.
Take a moment to think about all the tools you use with clients and evaluate how fluent you are with them. If you are weak with any of them, commit time in your day planner or calendar to improve.


Adding real-time/live captions to your meetings, social media videos or streams is easy with CaptionSync. In this article, we describe the most common options for streaming live captions, and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
StreamText is a platform that delivers real-time/live captions, and can be accessed by users as a single web page. Streaming the real-time captions this way has the advantage of not requiring any embedding or encoding of the feed into the platform where the video is playing. The real-time captioning text will be displayed on the page as it is transcribed by the captioner, and can be opened in any web browser. The live feed page allows the users to customize the display options, like background color, font type, color and size. More information on how to use the StreamText caption player as a standalone web page is available in our Using StreamText with Live Captioning article.
Another advantage of using StreamText to view live captions is that the feed is often much closer to real-time than when viewing captions via many live video streaming platforms. This is because StreamText delivers the captions from the caption writer almost character-for-character (sometimes you'll even see the cursor back up while the writer makes a correction), while video streaming platforms often have a delay, due to various technical reasons. Some scenarios that cause a lag or delay are mentioned below.
Note that using StreamText is an option with all of our real-time captioning services, and is provided on request at no extra charge.
Most webcasting and live video streaming platforms provide a method for streaming a real-time captioning feed within the platform's user interface. Since these captions can be toggled on or off by individual users, they are referred to as closed captions. The advantage of this method is that users do not need to go outside of the video platform to turn on or view captions, and no secondary browser is required. There are some additional potential advantages, and disadvantages that vary by platform. A few examples are provided here.
As with StreamText caption feeds, there is very little delay in delivery of the captions.
The font color and size used for the captions is configurable.
If you record a Collaborate session where you have a real-time captioner, the captions are saved in the MP4 video file and are also downloadable as a WebVTT file after the session.
Attendees who have downloaded one of the Zoom applications to their computer or tablet can adjust the font size of the captions.
A transcript of the captions can be downloaded as a text file by attendees or hosts at the end of the session. Note that this is a transcript only; caption timing is not included.
Caption font size cannot be adjusted in the browser version of Zoom (i.e., attendees need to download the Zoom application before the meeting to use the caption features).
There is often a significant lag in the caption feed when viewed through Zoom, when compared with a StreamText feed.
The caption window cannot be moved or repositioned on the screen; it always appears in the lower middle part of the screen.
If a Zoom session is recorded, the captions are not saved with the recording.
During WebEx meetings, a participant can be designated as the captioner to type in real-time what is spoken by the presenter. Also, most WebEx products can accommodate a media viewer window for streaming text live from a URL, like from the StreamText platform. Captions can be resized and adjusted to preference.
Viewers can use the familiar CC button and caption configuration options in the browser-based YouTube player.
Everything needed by the caption writer can be set up in advance; there is no need to promote the writer after login, and do last-minute setup.
Since there is a delay in YouTube Live video feeds (15-30 seconds) we need to configure a similar delay for the caption writer's feed, otherwise the captions would appear much earlier than the spoken dialog (remember that the caption writer should be listening to the live audio of the event). This requires doing a test a few days before the event to determine the correct delay setting.
StreamText provides a lightweight application that can be installed on the computer(s) that will be delivering the video (or sharing a screen). This application receives the caption feed in real-time, and can be positioned anywhere on the video frame.
As the video is delivered, the captions appear via the StreamText application. In this scenario all viewers will see the captions, thus they are considered open captions.
The disadvantages of this approach are common to any use of open captions; captions can't be toggled on/off, and the fonts cannot be changed by individual users. However, for platforms that have not implemented captioning options, this is the only option available.
Which method is best will depend on the video platform that you plan to use and on your viewer audience. Frequent users of captions typically prefer the StreamText URL delivery, for the reasons mentioned above: the fonts can be configured, the delivery is close to real-time, and the position of captions on your screen can be adjusted. On the other hand, infrequent users of captions, or those who are very familiar with your chosen video platform and all of its controls and settings, may appreciate the convenience of having the CC controls all in one user interface.
Remember also that we can provide both a StreamText URL and deliver the captions through the video platform. For platforms like Zoom, which provide a native captioning option that is less than perfect, this is probably your best option. Just let us know when you schedule your session that you want both StreamText and native captions, and we'll take care of the rest.


The Iraqi government's two-pronged approach of concessions and crackdown is unlikely to address the source of recent unrest. What Basra needs now is increased local autonomy.
On 8 July 2018 a small band of some 20-40 Iraqis gathered in the southern city of Basra. They blamed the central government in Baghdad for some 15 years of inept and corrupt governance, which has led to mass unemployment, undrinkable water and sporadic electricity.
When the Iraqi Security Forces opened fire on the protestors, killing one and wounding eight, they triggered something much larger. The violent suppression of a small local demonstration in Basra led to the eruption of weeks of mass protests against the Iraqi government across the Shi'i majority towns and cities of southern Iraq, as well as in Baghdad itself.
Predictably, the Iraqi government reacted with a two-pronged strategy: modest political and economic concessions in which Prime Minister Abadi has pledged to invest in employment and infrastructure across the south; and an oppressive crackdown in which the internet has frequently been cut off and at least 14 protestors have been killed, 745 people injured and 800 arrested.
However, while such a strategy may lead to a temporary reprieve, it is unlikely to permanently staunch the movement driving the protests because it fails to address the sequence of deep-seated and systemic challenges facing Basra and the rest of southern Iraq.
The people of Basra have in fact been calling for a better deal from the central government in Baghdad since the toppling of the Baathist regime in 2003. Basra's long struggle for increased autonomy from the central government is one of the most frequently overlooked issues driving the unrest in the south.
Key to understanding the recent protests is an appreciation of Basra's significance to Iraq. Inhabited by an estimated 4.5 million Iraqis, Basra has long been the cornerstone of Iraq's economy: it not only produces the vast majority of Iraq's oil wealth, but it is also home to Iraq's crucial trading ports, used to export the commodity to the world.
However, Basra's prosperous past has been eroded by decades of war, sanctions and Baghdad's chronically inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. Basra has become poverty-stricken and dilapidated, while the elites in Baghdad have grown rich by siphoning from the state coffers.
This has not passed unnoticed in Basra. It has fuelled a growing movement across the governorate calling for a fairer distribution of Iraq's oil wealth and increased autonomy from Baghdad. It has gathered significant momentum in recent years and is in part fuelling the current unrest.
The movement dates back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq that saw the US-led coalition, including Australia, impose a democratic model following the toppling of the Baathist regime.
This presented a unique opportunity for many factions within Iraq (including the Kurds and some Shi'i movements from Basra) that thought the antidote to Saddam's highly-centralised Iraq was to devolve political power.
Throughout 2003 and 2004, several prominent Basran politicians called for more independence from Baghdad and argued for a fairer distribution of Iraq's oil wealth.
Similar voices emerged during the debates surrounding the drafting of Iraq's constitution in 2005. One Shi'i political movement, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, went as far as lobbying for the creation of a nine-province 'Shi'istan' across the Shia-majority south of Iraq with Basra as its capital.
In a great victory for such movements, Iraq's constitution permitted regional autonomy within a federal structure. However, in order to become an autonomous region, provinces must hold a referendum in which their citizens vote to remain under Baghdad's complete control, or gain some form of independence.
Since being enshrined in the constitution, a number of different Iraqi provinces have lobbied for increased independence from Baghdad.
None have been more prominent, vociferous and determined as that of Basra; and none have been more actively suppressed or routinely ignored by the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
For example, in late 2008 Basra submitted a petition for autonomy to Baghdad, premised on the need for greater investment in the region given its significant contribution to the Iraqi economy. However, the movement was quashed when former Prime Minister Maliki vocalised his disdain for regional autonomy, using intimidation and threats against anyone he thought was supportive of the movement.
Two years later in 2010, Basra exercised its constitutional right by calling on Baghdad to hold a referendum on the region's autonomy. Revealing his complete disregard for the Constitution, Maliki dismissed the request, stating that he would not allow the establishment of regions in Iraq because it would tear the country apart.
Throughout 2013 and 2014, Basra continued to pressure Baghdad on the issue of decentralisation. Several Basran politicians even went as far as threatening to seize control of state-owned oil fields in Basra because of Baghdad's failure to release funds to the governorate.
Following the Islamic State onslaught across western and central Iraq in mid-2014 and the nomination of Abadi as Iraq's new prime minister, the push for Basran autonomy continued. Grassroots youth organisations launched a social media campaign under the title "I am for [the] Basra Region" that went viral. They also designed a new Basran flag that was hung at the airport and unfurled by football fans during a match at the Al-Mina'a stadium.
Finally, in mid-2015, Basra submitted a formal request for regional autonomy. According to the guidelines set out in the Iraqi constitution, the request was accompanied by a petition signed by thousands of locals. The onus then fell on Baghdad to make the necessary arrangements to hold a governorate-wide referendum. Three years later, the referendum has yet to occur.
Following weeks of unrest in late July 2018, Basra's Provincial Council signed an official demand for Baghdad to finally implement the promised referendum.
However, following 15 years of broken promises and abject failures, the people of Basra are no doubt frustrated and cynical when it comes to Baghdad's genuine commitment to decentralisation.
If Baghdad's political elite genuinely want to move beyond the violence and unrest that has plagued Iraq over the last decade and a half, sincere progress towards decentralisation would be one way to appease the legitimate grievances of their citizens.
Indeed, the fact that Basra's campaigners have pursued their goal of decentralisation in a mostly peaceful manner and within Iraq's constitutional and legal framework is among few positive signs for Iraqi politics. The peaceful decentralisation of southern Iraq may in fact serve as an antidote to Iraq's ongoing conflicts and herald a move towards a more stable, democratic and peaceful future.
Benjamin Isakhan is Associate Professor of Politics and Policy Studies and Founding Director of Polis, a research network for Politics and International Relations in the Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Australia. He is also Adjunct Senior Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Peter E. Mulherin is a research fellow and doctoral candidate in the Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Australia.