text:
Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA*
Bechar University, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering,
B.P 417 BECHAR (08000) Algeria
E-mail(s): gasbaoui_2009@yahoo.com, elec_allaoua2bf@yahoo.fr
(*Corresponding Author)
This paper presents an efficient and reliable evolutionary-based approach to solve the optimal power flow (OPF) combinatorial problem. The proposed approach employs Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm for optimal settings of OPF combinatorial problem control variables. Incorporation of ACO as a derivative-free optimization technique in solving OPF problem significantly relieves the assumptions imposed on the optimized objective functions. The proposed approach has been examined and tested on the standard IEEE 57-bus test System with different objectives that reflect fuel cost minimization, voltage profile improvement, and voltage stability enhancement. The proposed approach results have been compared to those that reported in the literature recently. The results are promising and show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach.
Optimal Power Flow; Ant Colony Optimization; Combinatorial Optimization; Power Systems; Metaheuristic.
In the past two decades, the problem of optimal power flow (OPF) has received much attention. It is of current interest of many utilities and it has been marked as one of the most operational needs. The OPF problem solution aims to optimize a selected objective function such as fuel cost via optimal adjustment of the power System control variables, while at the same time satisfying various equality and inequality constraints. The equality constraints are the power flow equations, while the inequality constraints are the limits on control variables and the operating limits of power system dependent variables. The problem control variables include the generator real powers, the generator bus voltages, the transformer tap settings, and the reactive power of switchable VAR sources, while the problem dependent variables include the load bus voltages, the generator reactive powers, and the line flows. Generally, the OPF problem is a large-scale highly constrained nonlinear optimization problem.
Useful OPF is limited by the high dimensionality of power systems and the incomplete domain dependent knowledge of power system engineers. The first limitation is addressed by numerical optimization procedures based on successive linearization using the first and the second derivatives of objective functions and their constraints as the search directions or by linear programming solutions to imprecise models [1, 2]. The advantages of such methods are in their mathematical underpinnings, but disadvantages exist also in the sensitivity to problem formulation, algorithm selection and usually converge to local minima [3]. The second limitation, incomplete domain knowledge, precludes also the reliable use of expert systems where rule completeness is not possible. In the evolutionary and adaptive algorithms one of the most recent is the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) computational paradigm introduced by Marco Dorigo in his Ph.D. thesis in 1992 [4], and expanded it in his further work, as summarized in [5, 6, 7].
A new powerful approach of ACO is accessible to these optimization problems made possible by the increasing availability of high performance computers at relatively low costs. As the name suggests, these algorithms have been inspired in the real ant colonies behavior. When searching for food, ants initially explore the area surrounding their nest in a random manner. As soon as an ant finds a food source, it evaluates quantity and quality of the food and carries some of the found food to the nest. During the return trip, the ant deposits a chemical pheromone trail on the ground. The quantity of pheromone deposited, which may depend on the quantity and quality of the food, will guide other ants to the food source. The indirect communication between the ants via the pheromone trails allows them to find shortest paths between their nest and food sources. This functionality of real ant colonies is exploited in artificial ant colonies in order to solve global optimization searching problems when the closed-form optimization technique cannot be applied.
Characters of the ACO algorithms use the parameters, probabilistic model that is used to generate solutions to the problem under consideration. The probabilistic model is called the pheromone model. The pheromone model consists of a set of model parameters, which are called the pheromone trail parameters. The pheromone trail parameters have values, called pheromone values. At run-time, ACO algorithms try to update the pheromone values in such a way that the probability to generate high-quality solutions increases over time. The pheromone values are updated using previously generated solutions. The update aims to concentrate the search in regions of the search space containing high-quality solutions. In particular, the reinforcement of solution components depending on the solution quality is an important ingredient of ACO algorithms. It implicitly assumes that good solutions consist of good solution components. To learn which components contribute to good solutions can help to assemble them into better solutions.
ACO methods have been successfully applied to diverse combinatorial optimization problems including travelling salesman [8, 9], quadratic assignment [10, 11], vehicle routing [12, 13, 14], telecommunication networks [15], graph colouring [16], constraint satisfaction [17], Hamiltonian graphs [18], and scheduling [19, 20, 21].
This paper presents the application of the ant colony optimization algorithms in the Optimal Power Flow (OPF) combinatorial problem applied on IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network. The algorithm was developed MATLAB environment programming (R2008a, v7.6).
Optimal Power Flow is defined as the process of allocating generation levels to the thermal generating units in service within the power system, so that the system load is supplied entirely and most economically [30, 31]. The objective of the OPF problem is to calculate, for a single period of time, the output power of every generating unit so that all demands are satisfied at minimum cost, while satisfying different technical constraints of the network and the generators. The problem can be modeled by a system which consists of ng generating units connected to a single bus-bar serving an electrical load Pd. The input to each unit shown as Fi, represents the generation cost of the unit. The output of each unit Pgi is the electrical power generated by that particular unit. The total cost of the system is the sum of the costs of each of the individual units.
The essential constraint on the operation is that the sum of the output powers must equal the load demand. The standard OPF problem can be written in the following form:
where F(x) the objective function, h(x) represents the equality constraints, g(x) represents the inequality constraints and x is the vector of the control variables, that is those which can be varied by a control center operator (generated active and reactive powers, generation bus voltage magnitudes, transformers).
Objective Function
Generally, the OPF problem can be expressed as minimizing the cost of production of the real power which is given by objective function FT
The fuel cost function or input-output characteristic of the generator may be obtained from design calculations or from heat rate tests. Many different formats are used to represent this characteristic. The data obtained from heat rate tests or from the plant design engineers may be fitted by a polynomial curve. It is usual that, quadratic characteristic is fit to these data. A series of straight-line segments may also be used to represent the input-output characteristic [30]. The fuel cost function of a generator that usually used in power system operation and control problem is represented with a second-order polynomial.
Where ng is the number of generation including the slack bus. Pg is the generated active power at bus i. ai - bi and ci are the unit costs curve for ith generator.
The standard OPF problem can be described mathematically as an objective with two constraints as:
: Real power output of i-th generator (MW);
FT: Total Operating cost ($ /h);
: Operating cost of unit i ($ /h);
Pd: Total demand (MW);
PL: Transmission losses (MW);
: Operating power limits of unit i (MW);
ng: Total number of units in service.
Optimal Power Flow Using Ant Colony Optimization
Ant colony optimization method description
In the ant colony optimization (ACO), a colony of artificial ants cooperates in finding good solutions to difficult optimization problems. Cooperation is a key design component of ACO algorithms: The choice is to allocate the computational resources to a set of relatively simple agents (artificial ants) that communicate indirectly by stigmergy. Good solutions are an emergent property of the agent's cooperative interaction.
Artificial ants have a double nature. On the one hand, they are an abstraction of those behavioral traits of real ants which seemed to be at the heart of the shortest path finding behavior observed in real ant colonies. On the other hand, they have been enriched with some capabilities which do not find a natural counterpart. In fact, we want ant colony optimization to be an engineering approach to the design and implementation of software Systems for the solution of difficult optimization problems. It is therefore reasonable to give artificial ants some capabilities that, although not corresponding to any capacity of their real ant's counterparts, make them more effective and efficient.
Each ant generates a complete tour by choosing the cities according to a probabilistic state rule. Mathematically, the probability with which ant k in city r chooses to move to the city s is [22]:
where τ is the pheromone, η is the visibility which is the inverse of the distance δ(r,s), Jk(r) is the set of cities that remain to be visited by ant k positioned on city r , α and β are two coefficients which make the pheromone information or the visibility information more important with respect to one another and the parameter γ > 0 determines the relative influence of pheromone values corresponding to earlier decisions, preceding places in the permutation.
A value γ = l results in unweighted summation evaluation, every τir , i r is given the same influence. A value γ < 1 (γ > 1) gives pheromone values corresponding to earlier decisions less (respectively more) influence.
The best solutions found so far and in the current generation are used to update the pheromone information. However, before that, some portion of pheromone is evaporated according to:
Where ρ is the evaporation rate with 0 ρ < 1 and (1-ρ) is the trail persistence. The reason for this is that old pheromone should not have too strong an influence on the future.
Let τrs(t) be the intensity of trail on edge (r,s) at time t. Each ant at time t chooses the next city, where it will be at time t+1. Therefore, after each cycle, after each ant has determined a tour, the pheromone trail is updated using the founded solutions according to the following formula:
where is the contribution of the ant k to the pheromone trial between cities r and s. Usually,
where Q0 is a constant related to the amount of pheromone laid by ants and Lk is the tour length of the k-th ant.
The process is then iterated and the algorithm runs until some stopping criterion is met, a certain number of generations have been done or the average quality of the solution found by the ants of a generation has not changed for several generations.
ACO Applied on Optimal Power Flow
Our objective is to minimize the objective function of the OPF defined by (2), using into account the equality constraint (4), and the inequality constraint (5). The cost function implemented in ACO is defined as:
The search of the optimal parameters set is performed using into account a part of the equality constraints (4) which present the active power transmission losses (PL) to be deal with in feasible region.
The search of the optimal control vector is performed which present the system transmission losses (PL). These losses can be approximated in terms of B-coefficients as [23]:
These losses are represented as a penalty vector given by:
The transmission loss of a power System PL can be calculated by the B-Coefficients method [24] and given by:
where Pg is a ng-dimensional column vector of the generator power of the units, PgT is the associate matrix of Pg, B is an ng×ng coefficients matrix, B0 is an ng-dimensional coefficient column vector and B00 is a coefficient.
Our objective is to search (Pg) set in their admissible limits to achieve the optimization problem of OPF. At initialization phase, (Pg) is selected randomly between and .
The use of penalty functions in many OPF solutions techniques to handle inequality constraints can lead to convergence problem due to the distortion of the solution surface. In this method only the active power of generators are used in the cost function. And the inequality constraints are scheduled in the load flow process. Because the essence of this idea is that the constraints are partitioned in two types of constraints, active constraints are checked using the ACO-OPF procedure and the reactive constraints are updating using an efficient Newton-Raphson Load flow procedure.
After the search goal is achieved, or an allowable generation is attained by the ACO algorithm. It is required to performing a load flow solution in order to make fine adjustments on the optimum values obtained from the ACO-OPF procedure. This will provide updated voltages, angles and transformer taps and points out generators having exceeded reactive limits. To determining ail reactive power of ail generators and to determine active power that it should be given by the slack generator using into account the deferent reactive constraints. Examples of reactive constraints are the min and the max reactive rate of the generators buses and the min and max of the voltage levels of all buses. All these require a fast and robust load flow program with best convergence properties. The developed load flow process is based upon the full Newton-Raphson algorithm using the optimal multiplier technique [25, 26].
There are few parameters that to be set for the ant algorithm; these parameters are: ρ the evaporation rate, m the numbers of ants in the colony, α and β two coefficients. In the OPF case these values were obtained by a preliminary optimization phase, in which we found that the experimental optimal values of the parameters were largely independent of the problem. The initial pheromone τ0 is given by τ0 = (ng·L)-1 where L is the tour length produced by the nearest neighbor heuristic. The number of ants used is m=20. Regarding their initial positioning, ants are placed randomly, with at most one ant in each generator unit.
A local improvement method suggested by Johnson & McGeoch [27] called the restricted 3-opt method has been adapted for use in the ACO. It involves successive arc-exchanges in an attempt to improve a candidate solution. But we choose a limited number of exchanges in order to avoid over-long computation times. The local search is applied once the solution is built and the results of this phase are used to update the pheromone trails.
The Ant Colony Algorithm
Step1 Initialize:
Set t=0 {t is the time counter};
For every path (i,j) set an initial value τij (t) and set Δτij (t,t+n)= 0;
Place bi(t) ants on every bus i {bi(t) is the number of ants on bus i at time t}.
Set s=1 {s is the tabu list index};
For i=1 to n do;
For k=1 to bi(t) do;
tabuk (s)= i {starting bus is the first element of the tabu list of the k-th ant}.
Step2 Repeat until tabu list is full {this step will be repeated (n-1) times}
Set s=s+1;
For i=1 to n do {for every bus};
For k=1 to bi(t) do {for every k-th ant on bus i still not moved};
Choose the bus j to move to, with probability pij (t)
Move the k-th ant to j {this instruction creates the new values bj (t+1)}
Insert bus j in tabu k (s).
Step3 For k=1 to m do {for every ant}
Compute Lk {it results from the tabu list}
For s=1 to n-1 do {scan the tabu list of the k-th ant}
Set (h,l)=(tabuk (s),tabuk (s+1))
{[h, l] is the edge connecting bus s and s+1 in the tabu list of ant k}
LK: represent the length crossed by the K-th ant.
Q: represent the amount of pheromone laid by the K-th ant.
Step4 For every edge (i,j) compute τij(t+n)
Set t=t+n
For every path (i,j) set Δτij(t,t+n)=0.
Step5 Memorize the shortest path found up to now
If (NC < NCMAX ) or (not all the ants choose the same tour) {NC is the number of algorithm cycles in NC cycles are tested NCm tours} then;
Empty all tabu lists
Set s=1
For i=1 to n do
For k=1 to bi(t) do
tabuk (s)=i {after a tour the k-th ant is again in the initial position}
Goto step 2
Print shortest tour and Stop.
Application Study, Results and Discussion
The ACO-OPF is coded in MATLAB environment version7.6 (R2008a), and run using an Intel Pentium 4, core duo 1.87 GHz PC with 2 Go DDRAM-II- and 2 Mo cache memory. All computations use real float point precision without rounding or truncating values. More than 6 small-sized test cases were used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Consistently acceptable results were observed.
The ACO-OPF method has been applied on the network test IEEE 57 buses that represent a portion of the American electric power system (the Midwestern, USA) for December 1961. This electric network is constituted of 57 buses and 7 generators (at the buses Nº: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 12) injecting their powers for a system nourishing 42 loads through 80 lines of transportation (Show in Fig 1). The base voltage for every bus is of 135 kV. Table 1 show the coefficients of the quadratic functions of cost and the limits min and max of the actives powers, the technical and economic parameters of the seven generators of the IEEE 57-bus electrical network.
Table 1: Generators parameters of the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network
[MW]
a [$/hr]
b [$/MWhr]
[$/MW2hr]
Figure 1. Topology of the IEEE 57-bus
Does have end to prove that the set of the three parameters of the colony of ants β, ρ and q0 is extensively independent of the problem of optimization to solve, we applied ACO-OPF on the network IEEE test 57 buses while using the 10 better combinations of the three parameters β, ρ and q0 and that give the best results for commercial traveler problem for the case of 30 cities [28]. The (Table 2) shows the values of actives powers, the losses of powers and the cost of fuel for the 10 ensemble wholes of parameters. We observe that all results are very near of the optimum. The average value of the cost for the 10 cases is the order of 3173.3126 $/h. The value min of the cost is 3172.202 $/h corresponds a (β = 10, ρ = 0.6 and q0 = 0.3) with losses of powers 17.04 MWS. Therefore we remark that even the most distant cost value is acceptable since it is on the one hand moves away of the value min with only 0.056% and on the other hand the value of the losses corresponds has this value that is 17.04 MWS is better than the one corresponds at the value min with a report of 5.399%.
Table 2: Results of the ACO-OPF for the 10 ensemble wholes of parameters β, ρ and q0 for the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network
β = 10
ρ = 0.6
q0= 0.0
β = 9.5
Pg1 [MW]
Pg12 [MW]
Power Loss [MW]
Generation cost [$/hr]
β =9
= 0.4
β = 6
Results deliberate by ACO-OPF that corresponds at ensemble (β = 10, ρ = 0.6 and q0 = 0.3) are compare with those find by the QN method using the formula Update of BFGS and iterated with load flow of Newton Raphson (NR). The QN method uses a vector of penalty associates with the vector of controls Pgi. The values of the penalty coefficients are based on the formula of the B-coefficients losses. The use of the penalty functions that serves has keep the reactive powers of PV-bus in their admissible limits can produce problems of convergence that are practically has the distortion of the solution surface.
The constraints of security are also verified for the angles and the amplitudes of tensions, the levels of voltage (Per Unit) for the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network are drawn in the Fig. 2. In ACO-OPF, we not make recourse for functions of penalty being given that only the actives powers of the generators are used in the selective function and the reactive powers are planned in the process of load flow. The essential of this idea is that the constraints are shared in two types: the active constraints that are verified by the procedure of ACO whereas the reactive constraints are update while using a procedure efficient of load flow by Newton-Raphson.
The results gotten including the generated cost and the losses of powers are compare with those acquired by the QN approved method and present on the Table 3.
Table 3: Comparison of the results gotten by ACO-OPF and QN-OPF on the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network
Min limit
QN-OPF
ACO-OPF
3175. 506
Figure 2. The levels of voltage (Per Unit) for the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network
The ACO-OPF method is also compared with the evolutionary methods of the references [29]. The publication Younes M., Rahli M. and Koridak L.A. [29] present the optimal power flow based on hybrid genetic algorithm. A comparison between the generate active powers calculated by the ACO and the evolutionary methods as well as the costs, the losses of active power and the time of convergence has been illustrated in the Table 4.
Table 4: Comparison of the ACO-OPF with different evolutionary methods of optimization viewpoint cost, losses and times of convergence
Max limit
GA-OPF
Time [Sec]
It is important to note that the gotten results are similar those given by the evolutionary programming. Since the difference between the cost values resulting from the ACO-OPF only defers of the GA-OPF by a rate of 0.08% and of the EP-OPF by a rate of 0.013%. The value of the losses found by ACO-OPF that is of 17.96 MWS is lower than the one found with GA-OPF by a rate of 1.85% and higher of the one of the EP-OPF by a rate of 2.449%. We add that the ACO-OPF is important to underline that the computer time for our method is better than the two other evolutionary methods.
In this paper, a novel ant colony optimization based approach to OPF problem has been presented. The proposed approach utilizes the global and local exploration capabilities of ACO to search for the optimal settings of the control variables. Different objective functions have been considered to minimize the fuel cost, to improve the voltage profile, and to enhance voltage stability. The proposed approach has been tested and examined with different objectives to demonstrate its effectiveness and robustness. The results using the proposed approach were compared to those reported in the literature. The results confirm the potential of the proposed approach and show its effectiveness and superiority over the classical techniques and genetic algorithms.
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Pennsylvania Eric Lee Jones M 2009-05 Registration Fraud Eric Lee Jones was accused of filing 30 fraudulent applications while working for ACORN. He was reportedly charged with forgery, solicitation, unsworn falsification, obstruction and interference. http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/2009/05/07/ACORN-workers-charged-with-forgi...
Mississippi Johnny Whitsett M 2012-03 According to Public Integrity Division Case View PI-12-00028, a complaint was filed against Johnny Whitsett on 3/12/12 and the matter was referred to the FBI. http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/370944-mississippi-2nd-cases.html
Mississippi Election Contest: Ray Rosamond v. Rodriquez Brown 2013-05 Canton Democratic primary D 2013-05 Election Contest Ineligible district voting Voter intimidation The 2013 election for Ward 1 alderman in Canton was sent back to the voters after a Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that illegal voting and voter intimidation occurred in the May Democratic primary. Judge Forrest Johnson Jr. of Natchez said the will of the voters could not be determined through the May 7 ballot box. He ordered the election results for Ward 1 alderman be tossed and a new election called while allowing Rodriquez Brown, who won the June 4 election, to remain in office. "Whether one agrees or disagrees, the evidence I heard is disturbing to say the least," said Johnson, who was appointed to hear the case by the Mississippi Supreme Court. "For poll workers to endure what I've heard is not right." The five members of the Madison County Election Commission, who were requested to sit in on the hearing at Johnson's request as technical advisers on elections, agreed with the judge's ruling. Ray Rosamond filed the court challenge after losing to Brown by four votes in the Democratic primary. Johnson ruled that Kimberly Readus, a member of the Canton Democratic Municipal Executive Committee, used "profanity and bullying tactics to create a breach of the peace, intimidate voters and poll workers to disrupt the election process." After listening to testimony from poll workers and poll watchers in the Ward 1 precinct, Johnson also found that Readus wrongly allowed voters, who should have voted by a paper affidavit ballot — which could have been challenged later — to use the electronic voting machines. In one instance, he said, "contrary to law" Readus also tore up an affidavit ballot. Johnson said that four or more of affidavit ballots — the votes of those whose names are not on the poll book — were undocumented and should not have been counted. "The court finds it clearly appears that Kimberly Readus willfully and corruptly violated election law," Johnson said. While the judge declined to issue an arrest warrant from the bench for Readus, who no longer is a member of the municipal committee, Johnson directed the offices of the Madison County district attorney and the state attorney general to present charges against her to the next grand jury. Election consultant Pete Perry, the chairman of the Hinds County Republican Party, testified that he saw Brown campaigning inside the boundaries required by state law, challenges to absentee or affidavit votes not being accepted, and tabulations not equaling the number of votes cast. New election ordered http://hottytoddy.com/2013/08/21/big-wins-of-integrity-of-the-vote/ http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2013/07/judge-doesnt-monkey-around-orders.html http://thevotingnews.com/judge-tosses-results-orders-new-election-for-canton-ald...
Georgia Richard Powell M Petition Fraud Richard Powell was accused of not signing an affidavit of petition circulator in the presence of a notary. https://web.archive.org/web/20161216002204/http://www.documentcloud.org/document...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I have an attorney using letter head from my county trying to collect my 12 yr old credit card debt. There is no seal on this letter. Is it fake?
Seal??? Is this a debt from outside the US from a foreign attorney?
I won't even bother about it. The debt has crossed the SOL period. Twelve years have passed. the attorney can't do anything. No judgments. No wage garnishments. Nothing. Nothing at all. Don't acknowledge the debt. Okay.


text:
import json
from urllib.parse import urlparse
import urllib
import requests
import config

#!/usr/bin/env python3
#!python3

def get_key():
    return config.get_value('google_key')

def get_current_traffic(origin,destination):
#    return '14km', '32min'
    o = origin.replace(' ','+')
    d = destination.replace(' ','+')
    key = get_key()

    pairs = { 'origins' : o, 'destinations' : d, 'departure_time' : 'now', 'traffic_model' : 'pessimistic', 'key' : key}
    result = requests.get('https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json', params = pairs)
    #print('result')
    #print(result.json())
    dist = result.json()['rows'][0]['elements'][0]['distance']['text']
    dura = result.json()['rows'][0]['elements'][0]['duration_in_traffic']['text']
    return dist, dura

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Add a tag to a Build when creating a release using deployment projects We are using Bamboo Global Build Expiry to clean up old builds and releases, but we use a special tag release-build to keep builds that are used as releases in deployment projects. Otherwise the build and artifacts will be deleted and we are left with a release where no artifacts exists.
My question now is, if I can add a tag to a build, when I create a new release in a deployment project. The fear is to forget to add the tag afterwards, so that Bamboo clean it up.

A: Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be possible using the basic Bamboo functionality in the UI as of Bamboo 5.12. See this answer for more details: https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/24648788/how-to-automatically-add-label-for-deployed-prod-build
However, as mentioned there, you could create your own plugin to do this if you really wanted needed to. Alternatively, you might try to add it via a REST call triggered in a deployment project or at the completion of a successful release candidate: https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/11991582/how-to-add-label-to-build-or-plan-using-bamboo-rest-api
Here's another resource that might be closer to what you're looking for using the REST API: https://confluence.atlassian.com/bamkb/labelling-a-build-from-a-deployment-plan-800715643.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Nodum adds a Reddot award to its list of achievements in 2020
It is an honour for JG & Ovicuo Design to announce that Nodum has received the RED DOT Design Award in the Office Furniture category in its 2020 edition.
The Red Dot Design Award is one of the highest design recognitions worldwide, comparable to the "Oscars" in the world of Design and Branding. The aim of this award is to recognise quality and innovation by designers and manufacturers in the creation of new domestic and professional products in the most prestigious international design competition, for product and packaging, as well as for visual communication campaigns. Without a doubt, the "Red Dot" award has consolidated itself as one of the most sought-after quality seals on an international level due to its good design.
The Red Dot tradition covers more than 60 years. On 30 July 1954, the association "Verein Industrieform", was founded based on an initiative by Dr Carl Hundhausen, chief of the Advertising and Public Relations department of Krupp. The objective of this association was to help create a more attractive environment, modernise German consumer goods and make them suitable for export so as to form part of the transformation of Krupp's image due to World War II.
In 1955, the first annual design competition was created, and on 5 October of that same year the permanent exhibition of industrial products with an attractive design was inaugurated in the city of Hügel, Essen. This innovative exhibition of consumer goods was considered as a model for industry as well as for consumers and it received worldwide acknowledgement. In 1961, the product exhibition moved to the Old Synagogue in Essen, until in 1979 a short circuit caused a fire that destroyed most of the works. In 1981 a small space was opened to exhibit the works in the Amerikahaus in Essen, with a decline in importance. In 1988 it was moved to the old Essen city library (Stadtbibliothek), marking the beginning of extensive restructuring which placed design in the heart of the corporate success of companies. In 1990, the association "Verein Industrieform" became the "Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen (DZNRW), with the change of name and the corporate design by Otl Aicher. The following year, professor Dr Peter Zec took on the position of Managing Partner of DZNRW, changed the logo to a red dot, which was awarded for the first time in 1992, and developed what until then had been a national competition, transforming it into an international platform for the evaluation of design, expanding the brand on a global level.
The Red Dot museums
The Red Dot Design Museum in Essen, Germany, contains more than 2.000 products, housing the world's largest exhibition of contemporary design.
The Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore has several galleries and displays an exhibit of over 345 award-winning futuristic concepts.
And the third Red Dot Design Museum is found in the city of Xiamen, China, made up of a common workspace, with a design school and a design library. What is most extraordinary about this museum is that it brings together award-winning designs from the three Red Dot Award competitions: Product design, Design concept and Design of brands and communication.
Museo Essen
Museo Singapur
Museo Xiamen
The Red Dot Awards
The Red Dot award is divided into 3 categories:
Product design: This is the oldest category, the one that became known as Design Innovation as of the year 2000. The competition is open to different professional and domestic areas, such as furniture, home accessories, automobiles, etc. The best design group of the year is also honoured. Some winners of this category have been Apple, BMW and Bose Corporation.
Design of communications: As of 2003, the Red Dot Award is also given to exceptional events and campaigns in the field of corporate design, advertising, interactive media and sound.
Design concept: Since 2005 the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore recognises the best product or idea design concepts that are not yet on the market.
The jury of the Red Dot Awards is made up of 24 international experts who offer the utmost rigour in the selection of the winners. So as to avoid any conflict of interests, the members of the jury commit themselves to complying with an "Honour Code" by which they are not allowed to present their own works or projects in which they have participated directly or indirectly.
Some of the winners are designers such as: Philippe Patrick Starck, the French industrial designer recognised worldwide for the functionality and aesthetics of his designs, among which are the "Paláis de l'Elysée" or the Hugo Boss Boutique in Paris, winner of 11 Red Dot Awards and 3 German Design Awards; and Giorgetto Giugiaro cofounder of the design studio italdesign, famous for the design of immensely popular vehicles sold all across the world, among which are: the Fiat 850 Spider (1965), the DeLorean DMC-12 (1981) or the Ford Mustang Giugiaro (2006), winner of the Red Dot Awards in 2006 with the company LG Electronics.


Cardiff by the Sea Roofing, Inc.
California Music Studios works with highly qualified music teachers and pairs each student with the teacher that will help them expand skills and reach personal goals.
An local non-profit organization focused on enhancing the well-being of Cardiff-by- the-Sea community and sustain it as a desirable place to live, work, shop and play.
The mission of Coastal Community Foundation is to enhance the quality of life in North Coastal San Diego are by directing philanthropic funds toward community needs.
Charlie's Foreign Car Service offers award-winning service in all phases of auto repair. Our family owned and operated shop has been proudly servicing customers in downtown Encinitas since 1978.
LOTS of tender loving care and attention !!! Servicing Coastal North County San Diego, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Encinitas, Leucadia, Olivenhain, La Costa & South Carlsbad.
Our Community Resource Center has thrived thanks to your support and because of our reputation for quality food, shelter, and self-sufficiency programs.


text:
How Jake Diekman improves a shaky Athletics…
How Jake Diekman improves a shaky Athletics bullpen
The Athletics acquired Diekman in a trade with the Kansas City Royals
(Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
Jake Diekman, who was traded to the Oakland A's, throws a pitch in Detroit.
By Shayna Rubin |
PUBLISHED: July 27, 2019 at 6:04 pm | UPDATED: July 28, 2019 at 7:46 am
In theory, a bullpen featuring Blake Treinen, Lou Trivino and Liam Hendriks (the current iteration) is one of the best in baseball.
Add Jake Diekman — which the Oakland A's did Saturday morning in a trade with the Kansas City Royals — and that bullpen transforms into a behemoth.
Right now, this untouchable bullpen is just a barely tangible concept. Off his injury Treinen is still struggling with his command and Trivino is just finding his footing as the stable late-inning force he was not long ago.
The A's bullpens' vulnerabilities have been exposed of late — particularly when Hendriks was used for a five-out save amid a three-appearance sequence in Minnesota that culminated in his first blown save.
A more forceful playoff push would require another arm capable of missing bats, a quality the A's found in Diekman.
"Watching left-handers around the league and talking to some of our guys too, it's certainly not a comfortable at-bat, so this makes us a lot better," manager Bob Melvin said. "He's a guy we've been targeting for a bit and finally got done and glad to have him."
The A's went after Diekman in free agency this offseason, but the left-hander went to the Royals on a one-year, $2.7 million contract with a mutual option for 2020.
The 32-year-old left-hander has a 4.75 ERA in 41.2 innings this season, but his 63 strikeouts and 95 mph average fastball velocity — which ranks seventh among all left-handed relievers, per Statcast — are the numbers to tuck away. Plus, he has a 95 mph sinker, 90 mph changeup and 85 mph slider. He is the powerful left-handed arm this bullpen needs.
"I think it complements the guys in our pen right now," general manager David Forst said. "Obviously Lou and Blake from the right side, Liam closes, and up to 100 (mph). When you talk about seventh, eighth inning and giving Bob some options to mix and match — I think when you can bring in velocity from both sides — it gives him some really good choices."
Vegas has spoken: Oakland A's win total projection jumps slightly
A's acquire versatile lefty-hitting utility player from Cubs
What the Houston Astros' firings mean for the Oakland Athletics' division chances
Ed Sprague Sr., original Oakland A's player, dies at 74
What Marcus Semien's $13 million contract tells us about his future in Oakland
The A's have struggled mightily against left-handed hitters this season, allowing a .734 OPS. Against lefties, Diekman has a .213 opponents average, .211 against right-handers. Even with a high ERA, the A's will gamble on that fastball and the missed-bat potential. Until now, Wei-Chung Wang and Ryan Buchter were the only left-handed options out of the bullpen, neither with sustainable results.
In theory, Diekman's arrival completes a dominant back-end bullpen. If Treinen and Trivino return to form — if a recovering A.J. Puk proves he can pitch on one day's rest and out of the bullpen upon a potential call-up — this bullpen could be a force as the postseason joust intensifies. (Puk pitched one shutout inning with a strikeout with Las Vegas on Friday night.)
Of course, Forst hasn't put the phone down yet. The trade deadline is four days away, and Forst "can't guarantee anything by Wednesday, but we'll continue to try."
The A's gave up minor league right-handed pitcher Ismael Aquino and minor league outfielder Dairon Blanco to the Royals for Diekman. Aquino had a 4.58 ERA in 10 games with the A's Gold club in the Arizona Rookie League. Blanco was hitting .276 with seven home runs and 44 RBI with Double-A Midland.
Shayna Rubin
More in Oakland Athletics
After back-to-back 97-win seasons, Vegas draws its win line.
The Oakland Athletics trade for versatile infielder, outfielder Tony Kemp to bolster left-handed options.
The investigation and following suspensions and firings cracked a strong Houston Astros foundation, paving more path for the Oakland Athletics' to claim the AL West crown.
Sprague made the first relief appearance in the 50-year history of the Oakland A's.


A fly-tipping incident on Climping beach has sparked anger on social media.
A tweet from @Yapton_News reads: "Absolutely no regard for the local area, wildlife and people who love and enjoy Climping. If this is still here early next week, does anybody fancy mucking in to help clear it away? Work commitments mean I can't this weekend."
@ClimpingCottage responded saying: "What's the matter with these people? We'll take a look at the cameras, clear it up and drop it back on their doorstep! Council, can you help with the clear up?"


The Western Conifer Seed Bug, or Leptoglossus occidentalis, is fairly common in Sutton in the summertime. These sap-drinking bugs are completely harmless, and they are quite beautiful! Western Conifer Seed Bugs like to hang out in pine trees. They are part of the Coreidae family of bugs, which is the "leaffooted bug" family. You can see at the base of their legs, the leafy protrusion there.
The Western Conifer Seed Bug is long, about 1 1/2 inches long, with very long antennae as well. The antennae are almost the length of their bodies! They have six legs and are a rich, dark brown in color. The back of their wings overlap, forming a nice light brown - dark brown pattern. Along both sides of their bodies are an alternating band of tan-brown spots. A key feature to look for is that leafy protrusion area on their back lower legs.


Hey guys, I had a question about alpha helices and wanted to know if anyone knew an answer? Which has an alpha helix in their structure: Starch or Glycogen. Also why does it (starch or glycogen) form an alpha helix? Thank you!


Windows 10 Starter Edition - Any Limitations?
Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by 6forLiving, Mar 18, 2019.
I was looking at the products.ini keys for all recent Insider Builds (including latest 18358.1).
Noticed there is a "Starter" SKU.
This edition first showed up back in build 15025 and had no visible limitations if compared to the regular ones.
But what does it look like today? Are there any limitations? Curious.
How do you expect an answer for that? do you think we have it stashed somewhere?
Ok. But I'm still curious.. Might try to use the dism set-edition trick to install this on a VM at some point. With a more recent build.


text:
Who are the Mulligan Brothers
The Mulligan Brothers Co. started in the crawl space of the Mulligan home. Three brothers Jordan, Luke & William Mulligan started with a dream of inspiring a billion people.
Working less than minimum wage labouring jobs the three brothers saved every pay check to purchase their first computer to start editing motivational videos. Originally videos were created for the brothers to workout to but an audience quickly grew using the videos for motivation and inspiration.
Growing up the Mulligan Brothers would often be found with a home video camera filming stunt videos, comedies & short films. Growing up in a working class neighbourhood quickly directed us away from the film industry but the passion for it remained.
After their initial success on YouTube with Mulligan Brothers Motivation the brothers believed that success in the film industry might be possible now. With the dream of making inspiring documentaries they started a production company and studio house and started producing mini documentaries.
With the goal of inspiring a billion people they needed to produce content in different and unique ways. Documentaries are one of the most powerful inspirational tools and with that knowledge a new goal was born. Mulligan Brothers now target the film industry to create real change all around the world.
At Mulligan Brothers we believe the most impact we could have on the world is through inspiring documentaries and content. Some of the greatest minds in the world were inspired by someone before them.
Mulligan Brothers is now a well established YouTube network housing 5 Motivational and inspirational YouTube channels, delivering Inspiration in different ways, like education , motivation and documentaries. The network has reached well over half way to the billion people inspired.
Mulligan Brothers is now the parent company to its very own Film Studio. In 2018 the three brothers put down the cameras to pick up their tools one last time to build the Mulligan Brothers Studio in their hometown of Nottingham England. It is currently in production of its first project to break into the film industry in 2022. This film studio will aid in our goal to Inspire Change for good in the world.
Inspire change.
© 2023, Mulligan Brothers Powered by Shopify


Which holiday song makes you want to stick sharp objects in your ears the most?
What's your favorite Party song?
Which song would you like me to perform at the next Method Coffee open mic night?
Which band do you want to play at Fin Fest?
I want an Albus Dumbledore quote tattoo. STFU. Here are the ones I like the most. Which do you like best?


As Deputy Director, Vicki Weiner oversees Pratt Center's sustainability and economic development programs as well as its general administration. Her responsibilities include providing supervision and guidance to the Center's program staff; developing new projects and initiatives that meet the Center's mission to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable New York City; monitoring the implementation of the Center's many ongoing planning and policy projects and initiatives; and working closely with the Center's Director on all aspects of organizational management.
Vicki first came to the Center in 2004 to lead projects that explore the connection between preserving culturally important places and creating more equitable communities. She has conducted community planning and preservation studies in such places as Fulton Street Mall in downtown Brooklyn, Manhattan's East Village, and the Cypress Hills/East New York communities of Brooklyn. In 2007 she joined the Center's management team and took on the coordination of all of its community planning projects. She was promoted to Deputy Director in 2011.
Vicki has twenty years of professional experience in community preservation and planning. Previous to coming to Pratt Center she directed two non-profit historic preservation organizations in New York City, where she designed and implemented historical research, community outreach, and preservation policy projects. She has also served as a consultant to numerous community organizations and government agencies.
Currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, she has been teaching graduate courses in historic preservation research methods, policy analysis, and community planning since 2001. She holds a B.A. degree from Drew University in New Jersey, and an M.S. degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.


DANIEL Lukakis starred on Love Island back in 2016 alongside the likes of Kady McDermott and Olivia Attwood.
Love Island series two aired in 2016, as stars such as Nathan Massey, Zara Holland and Alex Bowen entered the famous villa.
Daniel Lukakis was among the contestants, a model who was famously discovered by male model David Gandy.
David struggled to find love while on the reality show, even though he showed interest in Olivia Buckland, Zara Holland and Kady McDermott.
Daniel was evicted from the island with Rachel Fenton several weeks into the show.
So, where is the hunky model these days?
Daniel has since moved on in his personal life and his career.
Daniel is still a model, but has also launched his own clothing company BAA Clothing, a fitness brand for men and women.
It appears the star also found love after Love Island, having settled down with girlfriend Jessica McDonald Woods, a DJ and stylist.
On April 2, the pair celebrated a year together with a holiday to Crete.
Daniel appears to still be on good terms with a lot of the Love Island stars.


Greyhound racing or dogs racing is one of the most popular sports to bet on Betfair. There are many betting systems specializing in greyhounds. So what are features of greyhound racing?
Greyhound races are common in UK, so most of Betfair listed races are UK based. Unlike horse racing these markets don't go inplay, but results are available quickly, usually in few minutes. All races have six number of runners. There are WIN and PLACE markets like in horse racing. Two dogs to be placed. All bets are being placed on trap numbers, not names of dogs. Each races has a class, showing the level of runners. It grades from A9 (lowest) to A1 (highest).
I have to mention one another detail. Taking into account that there are so many daily races on Betfair and usually with intervals less than 10 minutes, money comes in the market only around 2-3 minutes before the start. Even 2 minutes before the start there is no much liquidity (not like in horse races) so it's worth to wait till 15-20 seconds before the off to place your bet.
Everything I know about Betfair odds.
1. Betfair displays odds in decimal format, i.e. 2.00, 4.20, 10.5.
2. Betfair odds can be anything between 1.01 and 1000.
3. Winnings for BACK bet are equal to Stake * (Odds – 1).
4. Your bet will be matched at best available odds. For example, if you place BACK bet at 1.80 and there is money at 2.00, your bet will be matched at 2.00 instead 1.80.
5. Odds are often called "prices" on Betfair betting exchange.
6. On Betfair there are specific odds ranges with own minimum increments. These minimum increments usually called "ticks".
From 1.01 to 2.00 one tick is equal to 0.01.
From 2.02 to 3.00 one tick is equal to 0.02.
From 3.05 to 4.00 one tick is equal to 0.05.
From 4.1 to 6.0 one tick is equal to 0.1.
From 6.2 to 10.0 one tick is equal to 0.2.
From 10.5 to 20.0 one tick is equal to 0.5.
From 21 to 30 one tick is equal to 1.
From 32 to 50 one tick is equal to 2.
From 55 to 100 one tick is equal to 5.
From 110 to 1000 one tick is equal to 10.
So there are no 2.21 odds on Betfair, instead there are 2.20 and 2.22 odds. Odds like 4.15, 6.7, 22.5, 57, 995 are all invalid on Betfair. If you try to place a bet at these odds it will be rejected.
Only customers logged into an active funded account will be able to view the latest Betfair prices. We do this to discourage extreme usage of Betfair website data by software programs that don't use Betfair to bet. Your account becomes an 'active funded account' the first time you make a deposit.
In this post I will be collecting all formulas that may be useful in Betfair trading.
How to calculate BACK stake for equal greening up. Assuming that you have a lay bet at LayOdds and want to trade out at higher BackOdds to make a situation with equal profit for win and lose results.
How to calculate LAY stake for equal greening up. Assuming that you have a back bet at BackOdds and want to trade out at lower LayOdds to make a situation with equal profit for win and lose results.
Today the online sports betting is most promising. No need to go out to place your wager. You can bet sitting at home, thanks to online exchange services like Betfair. Moreover you can trade, just like on a stoke market. Betfair allows you to make a "Back" bet to win and "Lay" bet to lose. This means that if your selection loses you actually make money. So placing, for example, two opposite bets (Back and Lay) on the same selection, but at different odds you are making guaranteed profit which is as big as the difference in odds between Back and Lay bets. This is very similar to normal stock markets, that's why many traders in online sports betting are saying "price" instead "odds". And sports events are usually called "markets".
If it's your first time at Betfair, you may need to click "Exchange" link on the top (next to "Live Video", "Radio" and "Tote"). Also make sure you have ticked "Back & Lay" and "Market Depth" boxes. Without this your market will look like an ordinary race form.
So, on the above image you see three Back and three Lay boxes for each runner with available odds (prices) and amount of money available at this odds. As long as Betfair is betting exchange where people bet one against another, the amount that can be matched at BACK odds is limited by amount that other people are offering to trade at this odds. In our example if you would have placed a BACK bet of $200 at 4.8, $197 would have been matched and $3 have remained unmatched until someone would place a LAY bet at this odds.
From trading point of view you can think about BACK betting as "selling" and LAY as "buying". So to make profit you should "buy" at low price and sell at high price (the order doesn't matter really, you can first sell and then buy). Sports betting markets on Betfair are volatile, prices usually change up and down in matters of minutes. When a race goes in-play prices can dramatically change even in fractions of second. In Betfair trading it's matter of good analysis and timely decision to be successful.
Betfair displays all odds in decimal format.
Well, this is very basic of Betfair trading. Good luck, and happy trading!


E-Audio: Sell your audio books is completed app template in native source code for Android app, which helps you build a great platform to sell your audio books: MP3, MP4, Embeded HTML, Direct URL, Text, Photo. Buyers subscribe then browse audio books, make payment via PayPal . Admin can manage audio books and orders from web-based backend.


text:
Joe DeAndrea October 9, 2020 • 10:00 am
What better way to kick off a weekend than with new music? Fridays are always chock full of the latest songs and albums ready to be the soundtrack to everyone's antics, and here you'll find some of the week's standout releases. Whether you're ready to spin an anticipated song from a favorite artist or just taking a look at what's out there, there's a whole lot of tunes to dive right into. Who knows—maybe you'll find your next obsession.
Linkin Park's groundbreaking, genre-defining debut Hybrid Theory gets a re-issue to celebrate 20 years since its arrival. "Re-issue" might be an understatement—six CDs and 80 songs makes it an all out behemoth. Along with the initial record, the bottomless pit of extras include demos, b-sides, and more—it's the absolute complete package for anyone who has listened to the record even once. For those who haven't before, buckle up.
The earworm melodies alongside Yungblud's UK-as-heck vocals are the strangest combination and you can't help but want more of it. "Cotton Candy" continues his chokehold on pop music by delivering another palatable single, ripe with hooks and a chorus you couldn't shake even if you tried.
Producer John Feldmann adds to his productive year by releasing his best work of 2020—a track with his own band Goldfinger. His legendary ska-punk act has been quiet since the release of The Knife in 2017, so "Wallflower" is a nice surprise that hopefully results in more to come.
"My Kind of Present"
Christmas music in October is a tiny bit strange, but literally who even cares this year. You didn't even realize it was October until just now. Maybe the holidays are what we all need at the moment—shout out to Meghan Trainor for her holly jolly ditty, an original cut titled "My Kind of Present". Off her upcoming Christmas album, Trainor brings out the jingle bells for her brand of doo-wopy pop. Original holiday songs tend to be hit or miss but this one definitely….sleighs.
"Baby, I'm Jealous" (feat. Doja Cat)
Out of the limelight for most of 2020, Bebe Rexha returns with a heavy hitter who's had a breakout year. "Baby, I'm Jealous" featuring Doja Cat bleeds confidence as the two complement each other effortlessly—a dreamy beat is carried by Rexha's smokey vocals and rounded out by Doja Cat's tenacious flow.
Billie Joe Armstrong
Fun fact: Green Day released an album this year. While that Father of All… record was mostly forgettable, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's work ethic remained intact, producing a number of covers in lockdown, that will all come together on a solo LP next month. Among the collection is "War Stories", a cover from the 1970s act The Starjets. Perhaps one of the lesser known songs he's covered, his rendition is faithful to the original, matching the guitar-heavy nature of the track and doing its guitar solo justice.
Joohoney
Monsta X rapper Joohoney dishes out a musical melting pot with his fourth mixtape, Psyche. When not showcasing his aggressive flow on tracks like "Intro" and "Psyche", he flips the switch with a softer pop-rock vibe on lead single "Smoky". Regardless of style, Joohoney makes a statement with this tape that overflows with talent throughout.
"Franchise" (Remix)
Travis Scott's massive single somehow just got bigger. "Franchise", which recently hit number one on the Billboard charts, certainly didn't need any extra firepower. But Future comes along for a remix that'll cement its spot at the top for a while. His addition isn't wasted either; instead of being tacked on at the end, he kicks the track off and fills in the gap in an intro that sounds like it was meant for him all along.
"Not a Pop Song"
Little Mix's "Not a Pop Song" is most certainly a pop song—but the group hammers it home that they're tired of living life that's formulaic. Besides the inspiring message, the track ultimately shines with the layered vocals and group chants in the chorus. Each member has their moment, sure, but it's just pop magic when they align as one.
Other new releases:
Daya – "First Time"
AC/DC – "Shot in the Dark"
Stevie Nicks – "Show Them The Way"
Labrinth – "No Ordinary"
Greta Van Fleet – "My Way, Soon"
Kiiara – lil kiiwi / "So Sick (feat. blackbear)"
Cheat Codes – "Stay"
Mokita – "Ready Yet"
VÉRITÉ – new limbs (vol. 1)
KONGOS – "Terrified"
Chase Atlantic – "MOLLY"
Sonny Fodera, Ella Eyre – "Wired"
Stephen Puth – "Whose Arms (feat. Sofia Reyes)"
Anderson .Paak – "JEWELZ"
Elton John – Jewel Box
The Smashing Pumpkins – Anno Santana
Cheat Codes, Bryce Vine – "Stay"
Quiet Child, Tinashe – "Ride Da Wav"
Bea Miller – "wisdom teeth"
ROLE MODEL – "going out"
Trey Songz – Back Home / "Rain (feat. Swae Lee)"
SAINt JHN – "Gorgeous"
THEY. – "Losing Focus (with Wale)"
Maggie Lindemann – "Scissorhands"
Victoria Monet, Kehlani – "Touch Me – Remix"
Omarion – "Involved"
Jhene Aiko – "Vote (as featured on ABC's black-ish)"
Michael Kaminsky, Point North, Stand Atlantic, Concrete Castles and Madeleine Mayi
Feast Of The Ass
Jasmin Savoy Brown & Charles Michael Davis


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Dorothy Brown on racism in the tax code
By Elisha Brown
June 11, 2021 - The Emory law professor and author of "The Whiteness of Wealth" calls for returning to a progressive income taxation system and establishing a tax credit as compensation for systemic racism. She also argues that simply publishing tax data by race could make the public angry enough to want to change the federal tax system.
INSTITUTE INDEX: Meet the Trump megadonor behind Postal Service delays
By Sue Sturgis
August 6, 2020 - After North Carolina businessman and major GOP donor Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in May, he announced an "operational pivot" to control costs that's caused delivery delays. Critics worry that DeJoy — who grew wealthy on USPS contracts and remains invested in USPS competitors — is a political partisan who's operationalizing President Trump's hostility to mail-in voting.
New 'Opportunity Zone' program risks gentrifying distressed communities
March 9, 2018 - Conceived by a group of high-tech moguls and investors and championed by Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a new program that offers capital gains tax breaks for investing in poor neighborhoods could end up displacing long-term residents.
The IRS moves to limit dark money -- but enforcement still a question
By ProPublica
December 2, 2013 - The IRS is taking comments on proposed rules clarifying the definition of political activities for social welfare nonprofits that dumped more than $254 million of anonymous money into the 2012 elections.
Watchdogs dig up troubling questions about federal loan guarantees for Southern Co. nuclear reactors
January 31, 2013 - The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy fought the Obama administration in court to get it to disclose details about the $8.3 billion in loan guarantees it offered private companies to build two nuclear reactors at Georgia Power's Plant Vogtle. Though heavily redacted, the documents they got suggest there may be trouble for taxpayers if the deal is finalized as now structured.
First Havana-Miami cargo service marks sea change for Cuba past and future
By New America Media
July 20, 2012 - The "Peace Boat" exposes the barriers between affluent white Cuba and its largely non-white and impoverished population -- but also between generations of Cuban Americans.


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With approximately 5,000 employees serving customers in more than 100 countries around the world, Albemarle Corporation is an emerging juggernaut in the global specialty-chemicals industry. Navigating the choppy waters of this highly competitive sector is challenging enough without making transformative changes to reshape and grow, but that's exactly what Albemarle has been doing for the past several years, all the while claiming market-leading positions for its three global business units: lithium and advanced materials, bromine, and refining catalysts. These are just the types of challenges that Terry Hammons, with skills and insights accrued over the course of 18 years as a business and corporate finance attorney, is particularly well-suited to take on.
As vice president and deputy general counsel, Hammons wears many hats for Albemarle. He oversees legal support for corporate strategy, corporate governance, finance, tax, and treasury. He's also the company's chief regional counsel, responsible for managing corporate and commercial legal support for the company's global regions, and he's the counsel for the lithium resources group. In-house, he leads a team of six attorneys and several paralegals on four continents, and with their assistance and those of his colleagues in other regions, he's working to ensure that Albemarle can continue to operate and grow to meet its business objectives. No less important, he and his colleagues also develop processes, practices, and policies that foster compliance through the implementation of sound business practices and safe, sustainable operations across the entire organization.
Business and law are inextricably intertwined, according to Hammons, so perhaps the most valuable talent he brings to Albemarle is his skill in understanding how to turn business objectives and strategies into action plans that fit within legal frameworks and mitigate the risks inherent in their execution. The company's current focus on growing its lithium business means it must identify all the potential enhancement opportunities and then perform the necessary due diligence to determine which ones will truly be the right fit. Hammons then leads the development and execution of the acquisition strategy, taking into consideration the risks involved in every aspect of the transaction. "To chart the right path to deal success, you have to be able to think like a business person and really understand their endgame," he says.
• He and his wife, Tara, are active with the Freedom School Partners, a nonprofit providing summer literacy and educational programs for low-income children. Studies have shown that low-income children are susceptible to falling two to three years behind higher-income peers in reading due to lack of access to quality summer learning programs. Freedom School Partners promotes the success of these children by igniting passion for reading and learning.
• Hammons also supports the Albemarle Foundation, the company's primary source and mechanism for philanthropy. Since its launch in 2007, it's poured nearly $30 million into the local communities in and around its sites. Through the foundation, Albemarle employees have volunteered time and finances to earthquake relief in Ecuador; the Baton Rouge, LA, Children's Charter School; and the Tulip Project, which provides housing for families with ill children in Pasadena, TX.
• Additionally, he contributes to the Albemarle Care Fund, a separate philanthropic arm that provides direct financial support to employees affected by disaster, including the seventy who were displaced by Hurricane Harvey.


Attlee House, 21 COMMERCIAL STREET, London, E1 6WT.
The Attlee Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to a worthwhile cause. The Attlee Foundation is based in Commercial Street, 21 COMMERCIAL STREET - see map for location of Commercial Street.
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The Attlee Foundation is in Commercial Street, 21 COMMERCIAL STREET. You can view a list of neighbouring businesses by going to the Commercial Street page.
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Note: the pin is positioned at the postcode centre, and may not correspond with the precise location of Attlee House, 21 COMMERCIAL STREET.


North of the bridge is expensive, so cut that all out now! - unless you go two hours North, and forget the beaches, Really forget them.
Rentals in the South west around East Hills or in the Rockdale area go from around au $400 to au $800 a week. (Still not cheap).
Parramatta to Penrith to the West has some really cheap places.
If you go past Pendle hill its even cheaper, but you get what you pay for. It becomes rougher.
Blacktown rentals for three bedroom houses are $300-$400 per week.
Places Like Kensington, Kingsford, Randwick and Maroubra are inexpensive and safe-ish. These are also close to a university These are about 20 minutes bus ride to Sydney central and for a bonus they arere close to the beach! Rooms go for $150 per week and three bedroom places$450.
Generally, sticking close to the universities and getting student places is cheapish.
some houses for $200,000. Rentals for flats $120 and houses about $150. The commute is longer to Sydney - about 40 minutes by train.
Bankstown, Cabramatta and Redfern are all harder cheaper suburbs. Redfern is cheaper due to some crime. Even cheaper is further to Croyden and Burwood.
Later people - if you can lower your standards for a bit you will be able to survive your move to Sydney - especially if you are on a tight budget!!
Hi, Immigrating to Australia?, why not use our community forum - all about living, working, playing, moving and studying in Australia.


Updated home in sought after heard's estates neighborhood!! This home features New Roof, & New windows throughout as well as new heat pump in last few years. The hardwood floor entrance into the kitchen is absolutely stunning! The New cabinets, granite counter tops and all new stainless steel appliances fit right in with the fresh paint and flooring throughout! This sizable home truly boast's everything you need! Master suite and 2 sizable bedrooms upstairs, great entertainment space on the main floor and tons of storage // future usage space in the unfinished basement. Great flat lot and french doors off the kitchen showcase the yard! The oversize one stall garage is perfect for your storage needs.
I am interested in 22059 Caravel Court, Great Mills, MD 20634.


Pink Cami Suspender with padded underwire cups, elastic waistband for definition and white Lace center overlay panel. 2-Piece includes adjustable shoulder straps, removable garter straps and matching thong.
Pink Cami Suspender with padded underwire cups, elastic waistband for definition and white Lace center overlay panel.
2-Piece includes adjustable shoulder straps, removable garter straps and matching thong. (BW599 Thigh Highs Sold Separately).


Whatever else you take on holiday, be sure to pack your Kindle with its exciting range of e-bshop's publications. Whatever your taste in reading, you'll find many works of fiction to enjoy.
Where are we going? I've asked this question of writers, publishers and editors. It seems there's a very pessimistic view of the future of reading and book production. When ebooks came to the fore, we all said that this is the future of book production. I still believe that's right but it's having long term teething problems.
How do electronic books compare with paper or hard backed books? This is a subject of much discussion and often violent disagreement. It depends on how much is read and what the reader wants out of a book. Here are a few thoughts.


Should we agree on what citizen science is?
ZSI hosted a Train the Trainer Workshop facilitating exchange of good practices.
Von "Open Access" zu "Plan S"
Become A Part of the SySTEM 2020 Map!
You are a non-formal science learning activity? Become a part of the SySTEM 2020 map and make yourself visible!
DanubeChance2.0 will deliver innovative policy designs and create create the first "Second-chance Entrepreneurship Strategy for the Danube region"


Heavy metal glue: metallophilic attraction and the metal⋯base interactions reinforce stability of HgII–nucleic acid.
The lipid distribution in a mixed supported lipid monolayer was directly measured with high lateral resolution in the first full-spectral image on phase separated lipid domains.
Using a combination of optical trapping, fluorescence microscopy and microfluidics allows studying individual proteins binding to DNA with a localization accuracy of better than 10 nm.
Conformational isomerization occurs during supersonic expansion with solvents.
Descriptions of protein folding as diffusion along low-dimensional reaction coordinates capture the observed simulation dynamics and help interpret single-molecule experiments.
Two-dimensional infrared spectra of N3 vibrations of 2′-azido-2′-deoxyuridine establish its vibrational frequency–frequency correlation function in water and THF, and its improved sensitivity compared with nitriles.
Dock-and-coalesce is the unifying mechanism for the binding of intrinsically disordered proteins, and allows for calculation of binding rate constants.
Structure and organisation of detergent clusters using ion mobility mass spectrometry. Mechanism of gas-phase detergent release from membrane protein complexes.
Recent developments in the theory of charge effects in biological DNA-related systems are discussed.
The combination of the single-molecule and the ensemble-averaged spectroscopy is necessary to provide convincing and comprehensive assignments of protein kinetics.
Confocal microscopy and single-molecule spectroscopy reveal the working action and principles of antifading agents (ROXS and commercially available compounds such as Vectashield and Ibidi-MM) used for fluorescence-based biological imaging and general fluorescence applications.
Time bunching effect, implying that conformational motion times tend to bunch in a finite time window, is identified to be associated with substrate-enzyme complex formation in T4 lysozyme conformational dynamics under enzymatic reactions.
Optical imaging of single molecules using azimuthally and radially polarized laser modes gives a new insight into excited-state tautomerization.
A 2-hydroxyazobenzene platform is used to reversibly photo-generate up to one unit pH drops in pure water under UV illumination.
The energy landscape of the p53-Mdm2 complex is derived from the Jarzynski identity by analyzing the unbinding and stretching data.
The physical chemistry of lipids in lipid membranes is entering a new era.
Current state-of-the-art in X-ray crystallography, quantum chemistry and molecular simulation studies of the nucleic acids backbone is reviewed.
A critical review of theoretical approaches to explain protein search for targets on DNA is presented.
A systematic comparison of the AMBER, GROMOS and OPLS force fields on small Aβ16–22 oligomers.
Supported lipid bilayers at different surface charge and composition as nanoplatforms for the electrostatically-driven immobilization of ferritin.
Oligonucleotide building blocks with tailored properties for controlled self-assembly complex structural motifs.
Time-resolved physicochemical properties of phospholipid bilayers are influenced by the presence of D2O: molecular dynamics simulations are verified by fluorescence measurements.
A new self-consistent procedure to construct temperature-dependent multidimensional conformation space networks from single molecule time series.
The fluorescence of single 20 nm diameter gold nanoparticles is increased several orders of magnitude upon a controlled moderate local heating by a laser beam.
We present a novel method for single molecule tracking which results in reliable trajectories even for blinking molecules of low intensity.
Single-molecule enzyme studies are discussed in the context of complementary ensemble averaged experimental techniques.
Microsecond protein folding experiments and computation combine to provide validated atomistic pictures of folding for small proteins.
We performed theoretical calculations to investigate the stability of the guanine–cytosine base pair under the influence of electric fields. Our results demonstrate that the base pair geometry might be tuned by modulating the intensity of the field, which in turn governs the promotion of selective mutations of DNA.
This article discusses the non-specific binding problem in developing cellular imaging nanoprobes and the role of coating chemistry to solve it.
Small synthetic fluorophores termed 'molecular rotors' were used for quantitative measurements and imaging of microviscosity in live biological cells.
Selective encapsulation and transport of amino acid from solution to the gas phase.
The main contributions to interactions of enzymes with typical ionic liquids are electrostatic interactions with anions and van der Waals interactions with cations.
Tracking individual molecules in cells reveals subdiffusion with apparently random amplitudes—we here analyse time averages and discuss data analysis methods.
Mitochondria, considered the "powerhouse" of the living cell, can do bioelectrocatalysis of pyruvate, fatty acids, and amino acids at electrode surfaces for biofuel cell applications.
Rugged RNA folding landscapes give rise to multiple native states that may impart adaptive advantages on an evolving RNA quasispecies.
Power law blinking of single TDI molecules can be suppressed by red excitation, increasing the photostability by two orders of magnitude.
Atomistic simulations and new theoretical concepts help to rationalize the surprising charge transfer pathway in a blue light receptor protein.
The parameters governing the rate, yield, and mechanism of DNA-mediated charge transport are explored in a variety of experimental systems.
We would like to share with you some great articles recently published in the fields of biophysics and biophysical chemistry in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP).


Raffle has ended 3 days ago and you have to state the thing you would like.
Amelia won't be back till July 20th... Its in big fat red text in the post above your post... Thread is on hold and not sure if the raffle winner collected his/her prize. Giveaway for normal items is still open but you will have to pick it up when Amelia comes back.
Other than that please read the first post for rules... You don't meet the requirements for the giveaway or raffles.
The winner did not pick up the prize and I will occasionally be online to give away normal items but for the next 2 weeks I wont be online at all, Sorry.


"Hard choices" exist about the philosophical approach to dealing with climate change, from solutions that are costly, big and centralized to "more decentralized, dispersed actions," such as water conservation and rainwater harvesting, Groves said.
Re-operating reservoirs "is con- troversial because usually when you change something some will benefi t and some may not benefi t," Groves said.
Snowpack loss "will be ongoing over the long-term," resulting in a "big change between what we have now and what we will have by the end of the century," Jones said. While there is a "fairly long lead time to prepare," it will nonetheless be a paradigm shift considering the way existing infrastruc- ture such as dams in Sierra Nevada were designed.
water managers will have to rely on adaptation to see their agencies through the coming changes, uncertain though they may be.


SISE is an integral system for managing the different areas of insurance companies, designed to support operative and administrative areas, agile and flexible creation of new products for individual and massive sales.
The use of next-generation technologies and its service-oriented architecture (SOA) permits an easy integration with business partners or other systems like CRM, ECM, BI, IC, telematics, among others. It offers insurance companies the possibility of accessing to new functionalities or updating core base systems supported by its multi-layer architecture.
Flexibility and readiness in the generation of customized products.
Expansion of traditional and digital sale channels network, for individual and massive distribution.


The personal and the political collide in this powerful and timely drama—already a hit in New York and London—from one of the country's most exciting playwrights ("[she] knows the code for getting under our skins" raves The New York Times). A tough, independent woman in Brooklyn is visited by her father, a former revolutionary in the Black liberation movement who seeks to mend their broken relationship. As father and daughter circle one another, old wounds are revealed, generational differences exposed, and blazing truths laid bare. Morisseau's smart, entertaining and moving story about family, survival and the nature of liberation is "not only dynamic, it's dynamite" (The New York Times).
Join us for post-show discussions and other events featuring special guests close to the story and themes explored in Sunset Baby.
Explore with us! Learn about the show's characters, context and complexities through TimeLine's wide-ranging resources.
SUNDAY SCHOLARS PANEL DISCUSSION featuring guest speakers with expertise and experience related to the themes of Sunset Baby.
Nina (AnJi White, left) and her boyfriend Damon (Kelvin Roston Jr.) talk about their dreams for the future in TimeLine Theatre's Chicago premiere of SUNSET BABY.
Nina (AnJi White, right) is overwhelmed by the photos her father Kenyatta (Phillip Edward Van Lear) brings to her in TimeLine Theatre's Chicago premiere of SUNSET BABY.
Nina (AnJi White, left) wants her boyfriend Damon (Kelvin Roston Jr.) to understand her dreams for the future in TimeLine Theatre's Chicago premiere of SUNSET BABY.
Nina (AnJi White, left) isn't sure she and her boyfriend Damon (Kelvin Roston Jr.) have the same goals in TimeLine Theatre's Chicago premiere of SUNSET BABY.


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I read this article and found it very interesting, thought it might be something for you. The article is called A Heartbreaking Vote: The Implications of #Brexit For Equality and Social Justice and is located at https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/what-have-we-done-what-brexit-means-to-social-justice-movements/.
A Heartbreaking Vote: The Implications of #Brexit For Equality and Social Justice
December 13, 2019 by Gillian Brown Leave a Comment
Editor's note: In light of the December 2019 Conservative electoral landslide in the UK and its impact on the future of Britain, Brexit, and the EU, we are re-publishing this article — originally written July 3, 2016 — to provide important context about what Brexit means today.
Thursday 72% of the adult population of the UK voted in what has been dubbed one of the most important referendums in modern times. The topic of consideration: Should Britain leave the European Union? In this age of Twitter-hashtag-ready abbreviations, the referendum has been called "Brexit" (a blending of "Britain" and "exit").
Early in the morning of the 24th June 2016, I dragged my tired, mornings-aren't-my-thing self onto a bus, opened Facebook on my phone, read a couple of statuses, and felt my heart sink to somewhere in my stomach region. One quick look at the BBC News website later and my fears were confirmed: Brexit had won. The UK had voted to leave the EU.
I had believed that the side against Brexit (the "Bremain" side, as it has become known) would win by a comfortable margin. Surely, I thought, most people would look at the pros and cons of it all and come to the conclusion that the EU is an overall positive influence on Britain.
It seems that I was wrong.
Brexit's win was only marginal (52% of the vote), but it was a win nonetheless. While this referendum is not legally binding, and it would be perfectly within the government's authority to completely ignore the views of the public on this matter and keep Britain in the EU anyway, it is not currently looking like that will happen.
a photo of a sidewalk filled with people. The focus is on a person with short brown hair and tan hoodie carrying on their back a toddler with blond hair. The toddler is carrying a union jack balloon. Source: Tomek Nacho
Prime Minister David Cameron (who is pro-EU) resigned within hours of the results coming through, and the major money is on Michael Gove (who is anti-EU) to take his place. Unless some attempt is made by the Bremainers to appeal Brexit, there is a good chance that the UK will be leaving the EU within the next two years.
The results of this referendum have upset a lot of people, not the least of whom include the thousands upon thousands of EU citizens living in the UK. Whether the bodies who set up the EU intended for it to happen or not, the EU has undoubtedly been a driving force for social justice in the UK over the last 40-odd years. Now that Britain is most probably going to leave, it seems that the social justice that has been established is already starting to unravel, and that is heartbreaking to witness.
The EU and Social Justice
The EU was originally created as a treaty for peace and cooperation between its members. At a time when Europe had until very recently been at war, and massive clean-ups were still happening all over the place, the need for countries that had been fighting each other to work together to rebuild was paramount. Thus, the predecessor to the EU, known as the European Coal and Steel Community, was born.
As time went on and more countries joined, the EU evolved and started creating legislation that covered areas other than just coal and steel. Among the most prevalent of these was the allowance of tariff-free trade between member countries. As well as making the trading of goods easier and more lucrative for all parties involved, this also paved the way for the free movement of people.
More Radical Reads: 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Being an Immigrant
For a part of the world that had previously strongly protected its borders from foreign invasion, this free movement was a fantastic opportunity for people to travel, study, work, and live in countries vastly different from their own. This ability to become immersed in other cultures and learn that there are different countries and ideas and people out there is a powerful tool against prejudice and racism.
The Shattering of the Dream
By leaving the EU, Britain is rejecting this tool and thereby creating an environment where racism and prejudice are considered more acceptable. Most unfortunately, evidence of increasing hate crimes and racism have already been occurring.
The EU has also facilitated significant progression in egalitarianism and human rights. Because of EU law, for example, men and women enjoy equal pay, four weeks' annual leave per year, and up to a years' maternity/paternity leave in Britain. Workplace safety laws are also very carefully maintained. These relatively basic allowances are unheard of in most other countries, including the most well-developed and egalitarian places.
In other words, the EU cares about the people within it in a way that the more right-wing governments of Britain have not yet demonstrated. Leaving the EU will mean that Britain will no longer be held accountable to EU humanitarian law.
While this does not necessarily mean that Britain will become a less egalitarian place to live, signs such as serious talks about privatising health care and limiting benefits to the disabled and unemployed indicate that Brexit indeed means bad things for egalitarianism in Britain.
More Radical Reads: The Social Safety Net and Fear: Be Very Afraid
Lastly, the EU brings with it a certain "all for one and one for all" philosophy, with an understanding that all members of the EU will help each other out. Some of the EU's previously poorer countries, such as Ireland and Portugal, were helped out by the EU while they were struggling financially. When France suffered a terrorist attack in late 2015, the EU was immediately called upon to provide support (which it provided, of course). Britain has also benefited from this mentality in the past, with poorer areas of the country receiving refurbishments on EU funds.
By leaving the EU, Britain will no longer be part of a greater movement to help out these other countries. From a social justice perspective, this means that Britain now has more opportunity to act selfishly and put its own wants above the needs of other places, including areas within the country itself.
To date, no country who has been admitted into the EU has since left. If Brexit goes ahead, Britain will be the first, and social justice within Britain will suffer as a result. British people will have less opportunity to visit other countries and learn about different cultures, while more licence could well be given for racism and bigotry towards immigrants and people of color living within the country. The rights of women, the poor, and other minorities will fall under the mercy of a political party that has historically proven itself to not consider the rights of the people it governs as a particularly high priority. And Britain will no longer be required to provide assistance and aid to other countries as a member of the EU, making for a society that inadvertently encourages its residents to look after its own desires before considering the needs of the less fortunate.
There is no doubt that Brexit is already having, and will continue to have, a terrible effect on social justice in Britain. What we advocates must do is continue to work towards a future of social justice for everybody, whether we are part of the EU or not.
[Feature Image: Photo of a crowd of people in cloudy cold weather. They are wearing coats and jackets, some of them also in hats, and are facing away from the camera to look out over the River Thames in London, England. The person closest to the camera is wearing a beanie on their head with the design of the Union Jack flag. In the distance are ornate buildings and trees on the other side of the river. Source: Skitterphoto for Pexels]
Filed Under: Global, zPosts Tagged With: brexit, culture, election, england, eu, europe, Global, great britain, immigrants, immigration, politics, racism, social justice, uk, united kingdom, vote, voting, xenophobia
About Gillian Brown


Baum-Kuchen: 03:19:12 [89/365] - let the Kyoto adventure begin!
03:19:12 [89/365] - let the Kyoto adventure begin!
Our first day of adventure in Kyoto... was a mixed batch. We had a small Roo meltdown in the morning in the city... then we brought her home, regrouped by helping her with the nap... then ventured out in the afternoon for a very beautiful plum viewing at a temple.
So... yeah. Traveling with a little one requires flexibility, patience and a good teamwork.
Nonetheless, we enjoyed the day and are happy that we saw so many beautiful and inspiring thing.
Wish us luck with tomorrow's outing!