text:
Nile El Wardani, MPH, PhD
Contributing towards greater social equality, human rights and justice.
Writing/Articles
Egypt's Indecision 2012
NPR Air Talk with Larry Mantle
Day one of polling has just closed in Egypt's presidential election, with another voting day
tomorrow.
This race is the first chance for Egyptians to elect a new president since the stunning fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime more than a year ago. City streets boast billboards of the thirteen candidates. It's expected none of them will secure more than 50 percent of the vote in this round, which will trigger a run-off election in mid-June.
What type of leader does Egypt need at this juncture? What should be his top priorities in leading the country out of its struggle? When will a constitution be finalized? Who did Egyptian-Americans vote for?
Dr. Nile El-Wardani, PhD works in public health and development in the Middle East and
Africa. She holds dual American and Egyptian citizenship.
Osama Shabaik, local Egyptian-American with family on Cairo, hold a double bachelors in
international studies and economics from UC Irvine.
Dr. Maher Hathout, M.D. senior advisor, Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Click to listen: Egypt's Indecision 2012, Nile El Wardani, PhD and Maher Hatout, MD guests on NPR's "Airtalk" with Larry Mantle
Poetry and Music of the Levant: Four women poets and Distinctive Arabic taqsim music
Host/Producer Nile El Wardani speaks with
Guest artists:
• Riad Abdel-Gawad (Violinist/Composer) Born in Cairo, Egypt, Riad is a graduate
of USC, the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Harvard University
where he received his PhD in music composition. Riad Abdel-Gawad is considered
amongst his peers to be one of the finest artists of his generation whose linage to a
remarkably distinct school of Arab music and a mastery of its improvisatory practice
was developed by Abdo Dagher, legendary violin accompanier to Egyptian singer
Oum Kalsoum. His site is http://www.riadabdelgawad.com
• Nathalie Handal, a Palestinian American, is an award-winning poet, playwright, and
writer. She is the author of several poetry books and anthologies, most notably,
The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology (Academy of American
Poets Bestseller; winner of the Pen Oakland/Josephine Miles Award); and co-
editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East,
Asia & Beyond (Norton, 2008). Her work has been translated into more than fifteen
languages. Her site is nathaliehandal.com.
• Sholeh Wolpé is an Iranian American poet and writer, author of The Scar Saloon,
Rooftops of Tehran and Sin: Selected Poems of Forough Farrokhzad. She is the
associate editor of Words Without Border (Norton, 2010), the editor of The Atlanta
Review—Iran Issue (2010), and her poems, translations, essays and reviews have
appeared in scores of literary journals, periodicals and anthologies worldwide, and
have been translated into several languages. Her site is sholehwolpé.com.
• Tina Demirdjian is an Armenian American poet with roots in Turkey whose first book,
Imprint, received a grant from the L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs. The winner of
numerous awards, she says she "writes about love. I write about being Armenian. I
write about my grandmother and about being a woman."
• Vanessa Hidary is a Syrian Jewish American hip hop poet, actress and playwright,
who goes by the moniker the Hebrew Mamita, due to her close association with
New York's Nuyorican poetry scene and her fluency in Spanish (from her Sephardic
roots). She is a core member of the troupe "Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad" and
performs the solo show "Culture Bandit." She has been featured in Def Poetry Jam
and was a Grand Slam Poetry Finalist at The Nuyorican Poets Café. Her site is
hebrewmamita.com.
Music and Poetry
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani speaks to four Arab women to commemorate International Women's Day giving an update on the status and state of women in Iraq, Palestine and Egypt.
El Wardani engages four distinguished Arab women from Gaza, Palestine, Egypt and
Iraq. Experts in the field of women's health, development, civil and human rights, they
are activists, journalists and academics. They have worked at the grass roots level with
the women of Gaza, Egypt and Iraq and are witness to their daily struggles.
• Amina Shafik (Egypt) is a journalist with Al Ahram, Cairo, Egypt She has served for 28
years as an elected Board member of the Egyptian Press Union and is a member of the National Council for Women
• Vivian Fouad Fahmy (Egypt) is the Coordinator of the National Program for
Combatting FGM & Violence Against Women/Girls within the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, Cairo, Egypt
• Mona Al Shawaah (Palestine) is the Director Women's Unit at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights
• Dr Nadje Al-Ali (Iraqi born) is a Reader in Gender Studies and Chair of the Centre
For Gender Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London
Click to listen: Women in Egypt and Iraq
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani addresses: The Gaza Bombardment and implications to its neighbors, with a focus on Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
• Precisely one year before the Egyptian Revolution was to take place El Wardani
tapped into the views of Ms. Asmaa Mahfouz who would become known throughout
the world as one of the youth leaders of the Revolution. Asmaa Mahfouz orchestrated
the first ever-nationwide strike in Egypt in May 2009 that mobilized over 70% of the
workers to strike.
• Dr. Richard Falk is the UN's special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories and
professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University.
• Dr. Naiem Sherbiny is a former World Bank economist and Senior Advisor of the
Egyptian Ibn Kaldoon Center for Democracy Studies.
• Lisa Adler is a Jewish American activist who chained herself to the steps of the Israeli
Embassy to protest Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
The Seize of Gaza
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani addresses the issue of Human Rights in Middle East with a focus on Egypt
• Heba Morayef is a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division of Human
Rights Watch. She investigates human rights abuses in Egypt and Libya. She
produces detailed reports, news releases and op-eds based on her findings and
conducts local and international advocacy.
• Asmaa Mahfouz has become known throughout the world as one of the youth leaders
of the Revolution. Asmaa Mahfouz orchestrated the first ever-nationwide strike in
Egypt in May 2009 that mobilized over 70% of the workers to strike.
• Omar Afifi is a former Egyptian ranking policeman of 20 years turned Human Rights
attorney where he practiced in Egypt. Always above the radar in his legal practice
the GOE left him alone until he wrote a book which spelled out the rights of ordinary
citizens in regard to police search and seizure, harassment, and abuse. Written in
simple street language Arabic, he wrote it to educate the common people of their legal
and constitutional rights. In just ten days over 50,000 copies were sold on the streets
of Cairo and the book was subsequently uploaded to over 10,000 websites and read
throughout the Middle East.
• Basem Fathi is a Bedouin from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. He has been a victim of
and has witnessed many human rights violations against his people, including death.
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani addresses EGYPT TODAY: Nearly two years before the Egypt revolution which began in January 2010 Nile El Wardani interviewed noted Egyptians asking them: Who's Will will prevail? The people or the government?
• Young Egyptian Blogger Wael Abbas winner of the 2007 Knight International
Journalism Award was honored in part because of his commitment to basing his
blog on solid, factual reporting, rather than unsupported opinion. Abbas has faced
numerous threats and a government "smear campaign" against him.
• Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim is a leading Egyptian pro-democracy activist and a world-
renowned political sociologist. Ibrahim is credited for playing a leading role in the
revival of Egypt's contemporary research-based civil society movement which led to
his arrest and imprisonment under Mubarak. A professor of sociology at the American
University in Cairo, he is the founder of both the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development
Studies in Cairo, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and the Arab Democracy
Fund.
• Dr. Mohamed Sayed El Said, Deputy Director of the Al Ahram Center for Strategic
Studies in Cairo Egypt and co-founding director of the Egyptian Movement for Change
more popularly known as the KIFAYA movement – which means in Arabic ENOUGH.
He has been a life long advocate in Egypt for Human Rights and Democracy.
Click to listen: Egypt Today
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani addresses Iraqi Refugees: A people with a broken country and few options for life.
The displacement of Iraqis is now the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world. As
of 2007 the UN estimated that over 4 million Iraqis have been displaced by violence
in their country, the vast majority of which have fled since 2003. Over 2 million have
vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, 1.5 million are now living in Syria, and
over 1 million refugees inhabit Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, and Turkey.
• Stephen Tomlin with International Medical Corp
• Sean Garcia with Refugees International
• Saif Al-Qassser (23 y.o.) Iraqi refugee in Amman, Jordan who was separated from his
family after his two brothers were kidnapped and held for ransom.
• Zaid Al-Qasser (24 y.o.) is now a refugee inside his country. The Al-Qasser family
has had numerous death treats and are now living as refugees within their own city of
Baghdad. The two brothers have been separated for more than four years due to their
refugee status and the Iraq War.
Click to listen: Iraqi Refugees
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani addresses the memory of the great Egyptian Novelist and Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz.
The recent death of Mahfouz has marked the end of an era, the slow death of the
values of Arab liberalism and egalitarianism that were so much a part of this writings.
Our purpose this hour is to celebrate the life and work of Mahfouz and glean what we
can from those that knew him well; four great Egyptian novelists.
• Somaya Ramadan's first two books were short story collections – Khashab wa Nohass
(Brass and Wood, 1995) and Manazel el-Kamar (Phases of the Moon, 1999). Her
first novel Awraq Al-Nargis (Leaves of Narcissus) was published to great acclaim in
2001 and won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal. Ramadan has also worked extensively as
a translator. Among her notable translations is Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
She is a founding member of the Women and Memory Forum and teaches English
and Translation at the National Academy of Arts in Cairo.
• Mohamed Salmawy – Has written numerous works including short stories, novels
and theatrical plays. He has received numerous honorary distinctions including
Commandeur of the Ordre of the Crown by King Albert II of Belgium in 2008, the
Order of Merit "Grande Officiale" by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in
2006 and was decorated as Chevalier (Knight) of the Arts and Letters by the French
Government in 1995. He is Editor in Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo newspaper, writer in Al-
Ahram daily and syndicated columnist in a number of other publications.
• Hala El Badri is both a journalist and novelist. She is deputy editor of an Egyptian
radio and television magazine. Muntaha, a novel published in 1995, is set in the
fictional village of Muntaha in the Nile Delta.[1] Imra'atun ma (A Certain Woman), Hala
El Badry's fourth book, was named best novel of 2001 at the Cairo International Book
• Yusuf Abu Rayya wrote over a dozen books including novels, children's books and
short story collections. His best known work is Wedding Night, published in 2002. This
novel won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal. Abu Rayya served on the governing board of
the Egyptian branch of PEN International.
Click to listen: Discussion of Naguib Mahfouz
Radio Host/Producer Nile El Wardani interviews four Arab political analysts from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt to discuss the 2006 Israeli Incursion of Lebanon and Gaza.
• Mohamed Sayed El Said is Deputy Director of the Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo Egypt and the co-founding director of the Egyptian Movement for Change more popularly known as the KIFAYA movement – which means in Arabic Enough. He has been a life long advocate in Egypt for Human Rights and Democracy.
• Osama Siblani is the Publisher/Editor in Chief of The Arab American News in Dearborn, Michigan.
• Mounzer Suleiman is the Bureau Chief of Mustqbal al Arabi in Damascus, Syria.
• Nidal Ibrahim is the Executive Director of The Arab American Institute in Washington DC.
Click to listen, part 1: Israeli Incursion of Lebanon and Gaza, part 1


text:
Q: Telegram-бот на Python, который проверяет домашки Учусь в Яндексе, есть задание создать телеграм-бота, который будет посылать запрос на сервер и писать мне сообщение о статусе домашки. Либо принята ревьюером, либо не принята.
Никак не можем понять в чем дело и почему программа не работает. Помогите, пожалуйста, понять в чём проблема.
Сразу скажу - наставник написал, что с решением всё ок! Моя цель именно понять, почему вылезает ошибка и не запускается программа, а не изменить решение. Оно проходит все тесты. Не предлагайте, пожалуйста, иные варианты решения. Кое-кто писал даже, что на других компах запускается прога. Возможно, что то недоустановлено. requirements установлены. dotenv тоже загружен!
Содержимое файла .env - без пробелов и кавычек. Это текстовый файл обычный.
Скрин ошибки:

Код ошибки:
Traceback (most recent call last): File "homework.py", line 67, in <module>
main() File "homework.py", line 51, in main bot =
telegram.Bot(token=TELEGRAM_TOKEN) File
"C:\Users\irina\Desktop\Dev\api_sp1_bot\venv\lib\site-
packages\telegram\bot.py", line 133, in init self.token =
self._validate_token(token) File
"C:\Users\irina\Desktop\Dev\api_sp1_bot\venv\lib\site-
packages\telegram\bot.py", line 195, in _validate_token if any(x.isspace()
for x in token): TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable –

Код:
import os
import time
import requests

import requests
import telegram
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

PRAKTIKUM_TOKEN = os.getenv('PRAKTIKUM_TOKEN')
TELEGRAM_TOKEN = os.getenv('TELEGRAM_TOKEN')
CHAT_ID = os.getenv('CHAT_ID')
URL = 'https://praktikum.yandex.ru/api/user_api/homework_statuses/'

def parse_homework_status(homework):
    homework_name = homework.get('homework_name')
    status = homework.get('status')
    if homework_name is None or status is None:
        return 'Что-то пошло не так'
    elif status == 'rejected':
        verdict = 'К сожалению в работе нашлись ошибки.'
    elif status == 'approved':
        verdict = 'Ревьюеру всё понравилось, можно приступать к следующему уроку.'
    return f'У вас проверили работу "{homework_name}"!\n\n{verdict}'

def get_homework_statuses(current_timestamp):
    if current_timestamp is None:
        current_timestamp = int(time.time())
    headers = {'Authorization': f'OAuth {PRAKTIKUM_TOKEN}'}
    params = {'from_date': current_timestamp}
    try:
        homework_statuses = requests.get(
            url=URL,
            headers=headers,
            params=params
        )
        return homework_statuses.json()
    except Exception as e:
        print(f'Ошибка у бота {e}')
        return dict()

def send_message(message, bot_client):
    return bot_client.send_message(chat_id=CHAT_ID, text=message)

def main():
    bot = telegram.Bot(token=TELEGRAM_TOKEN)
    current_timestamp = int(time.time())
    while True:
        try:
            new_homework = get_homework_statuses(current_timestamp)
            if new_homework.get('homeworks'):
                send_message(parse_homework_status(new_homework.get('homeworks')[0]), bot)
            current_timestamp = new_homework.get('current_date', current_timestamp)
            time.sleep(300)

        except Exception as e:
            print(f'Ошибка у бота: {e}')
            time.sleep(5)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

A: Во первых в ошибке пишет что с пустотой нельзя ничего сделать - TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable
Во вторых - у Вас неправильное построение Telegram бота -

*

*Никогда не используйте вечный цикл в боте (while True)

*Запускайте бота не этой (if __name__ == '__main__':    main()) командой, а этой (bot.polling(none_stop=True)) командой (раньше было if __name__ == '__main__':    bot.polling(none_stop=True))

*Пример построения бота - Телеграмм бот не отвечает
Вы используете библиотеку telegram для построения ботов, но я Вам советую telebot (https://pypi.org/project/pyTelegramBotAPI/) и напишу Вам бота на telebot -
import telebot
bot = telebot.TeleBot('здесь токен бота, получить его можна в ботфазере')
current_timestamp = int(time.time())

@bot.message_handler(commands=['hw']) #Запускаем бота при написании `/hw` в чате
def start_command(message):
    new_homework = get_homework_statuses(current_timestamp)
    if new_homework.get('homeworks'):
        bot.send_message(message.chat.id, message)       #text=message
    current_timestamp = new_homework.get('current_date', current_timestamp)

bot.polling(none_stop=True)

А ещё у Вас два раза импортировано requests (но это мелочи (╹ڡ╹))
import time
import requests

import requests
import telegram
from dotenv import load_dotenv

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The staff of the hotel "President Hotel" congratulates Chinese partners on the Day of the People's Republic of China founding - the main public holiday in China.
We appreciate the outstanding achievements of the friendly Chinese people in all spheres of public life and cherish the close relationship of Russian-Chinese partnership. Was held in 2015 at the summit meeting of the SCO and BRICS have given significant impetus to the joint work of our countries. We sincerely hope to be as dynamic convergence between China and Russia.
Desired partner success, happiness, and blagopoluchiya¸ your beautiful country of peace and prosperity. We hope for further long-term cooperation.


One of Westerville's largest annual events returns this weekend, featuring a new wrinkle in celebration of a pair of anniversaries.
Musicians and artists from central Ohio and beyond will gather for the Westerville Area Chamber of Commerce's annual Westerville Music and Arts Festival. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 14, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 15, at Heritage Park, 60 N. Cleveland Ave.
Matt Lofy, who manages the festival for the chamber, said last year's event drew about 16,000 guests, and he's hoping for 18,000 this year, which would equal the highest attendance in the event's history.
He said in recent years he's seen the event mentioned among the major offerings throughout Ohio, cementing the Music and Arts Festival as a summer staple.
"I never knew we would be considered around a Comfest or a Red, White & Boom," he said. "I think, for a suburban festival, we're definitely getting up there as a strong one."
This year, the festival is taking it one step further with an after-hours concert that will bring alcohol onto city-owned land for the first time during an event.
At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, technically after the festival closes for the day, a special anniversary celebration will commemorate the 45th birthday of the festival and the 50th birthday of the chamber.
Beer taps from BrewDog and Temperance Row Brewing will be featured, along with the music of central Ohio band Shucking Bubba.
Organizers have been spreading the word about the event, and Lofy said he's been thrilled by the response.
"We've definitely gotten a lot more interaction with individuals at 4th Fridays and on social media," he said. "So many people are used to going to Dublin for a concert and a beer and now they're like, 'Oh my gosh, it's right in our backyard.' "
But the festival isn't just about music.
For artists like Paul Hartong, the festival provides one of the best venues to showcase their work.
Hartong runs Utility with his wife, Kayleigh. The pair turn salvaged or reclaimed wood into wall decorations, tables and other decor from their Sunbury residence, and have been displaying their work at the festival since 2013.
"It's a good environment for us," Hartong said. "We've tried putting things in consignment shops in Uptown and other places, but they take such a big cut that we'd rather do festivals."
The Hartongs also prefer the interaction that comes with the festival, and enjoy talking to people about their work, he said. The favorites at the festival are always the smaller decor pieces, many of which he described as "like a T-shirt on your wall."
"We've taken tables and big coffee tables and we've sold some of that, but the stuff that people want is the (wall art) type of thing," he said.
For Lofy and the chamber, balancing the art and music is key.
"The biggest thing we're trying to do is ensure that if we're a music and arts fest, we're incorporating music performances with the art," he said.
That mindset has resulted in a broad definition of what that art can be. Rather than only inviting woodworkers like the Hartongs and traditional mediums like paint and jewelry, this year's festival features yoga, poetry and storytelling as a way to expand on the art concept.
"We're trying to expand on the idea of 'what is art?' and that's how we got into the storytelling and the poetry readings," Lofy said.
As is tradition, entry to the festival is $1.
For more information, visit westervillechamber.com.


It's Mother's Day on May 9th. Have you figured out what to buy for your mom/grandma/mother figure?
Best of luck! What are your best and worst Mother's Day gift ideas?
This entry was posted in Ramblings and tagged afternoon tea, camera, gifts, Mother's Day, Tiffany's. Bookmark the permalink.
Oh that's got to be rough! I really enjoyed your article–full of thoughtful gifts that really show how much your mom means to you!
Glad my ideas helped. 🙂 Hope your mom likes the collage.
Very nice suggestions! My husband promised to take me and our son to a nearby park, so the three of us could spend some quality time together. I'm really looking forward to it, frankly it's not always about big or expensive gifts. The only thing that matters is that what you give is coming from your heart and showing that you put some thought into it.
So to all you other mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!


Remember when I ducked out of the 5 frugal things linky nearly a year ago now… wow time really passes quick doesn't it! I was really pleased with the consistency it gave me as far as creating content for my blog was concerned but it ended up mentally doing more harm than good so I decided to stop sharing weekly what I came across on my travels. You can read more about why I quit here.
But from today I've decided to start sharing with you some of my best frugal living tips. I'm not saying I'm going to be posting these every week, because I think that was part the problem with the 5 frugal things; or whether it's going to consist of 1, 3, 5 or even 10 tips per post… although I loved the consistency of the previous frugal series it made me feel like I NEEDED to create content and if I didn't have the content I NEEDED to go out to get it.
The first addition to my best frugal living tips series has to be the fact that this week we spent the least amount of money we have probably ever spent during the kids' school holidays… whoop whoop!
The fact that we don't have it helps massively mind(!) but that's never stopped us before. Our problem in the past has been just sticking it on the credit card and saying 'oh we'll have the money next month'.
It DOES get paid (most of the time!), sometimes a little bit late but that's it… no more… we barely use the credit card now and it's all about the cash!
The kids have had a fab week! It's helped that the weather has been amazing for February too but apart from spending £4 on sandwiches for lunch in town, £10 parking in York, £2 parking in Hull… we've done really REALLY well this week!
Check out my weekly vlog below….
What did you get up to during half term? Did you overspend or like me did well in spending very little?


text:
Q: Find needed tags and generating files via template I have many files in PHP. I need to create an script to find some tags(strings) and generate with them another files.
For example I have this file:
file1.php

          <title>**TAG nr 1**</title>

**Tag nr 2**

Script need to get strings from title, and p with class="description".
After this I will generate another file with this tags, i have a script for this. Thanks.

A: you can use the DOMDocument functions from php to get your results. but verify that the html input is valid and catch errors with try catch.
http://php.net/manual/en/class.domxpath.php
http://php.net/manual/en/class.domdocument.php
$html = '

                <title>**TAG nr 1**</title>

**Tag nr 2**

        ';

// prevent XXE injections
libxml_disable_entity_loader(true);

// create new DOMDocument + load html
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->loadHTML($html);

// create xpath
$xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);
$elements = $xpath->query("//p[contains(@class, 'description')]");

// list results
foreach ($elements as $node) {
    echo $node->nodeName . "\n";
    echo $node->textContent;
}

for the title just create another xpath $xpath->query("//title");


Seattle joined the Western Conference of Major League Soccer in 2007, establishing themselves quickly as a contender in the western conference. During their short time in the league, they've enjoyed quite a bit of success, earning a Supporters' Shield and four U.S. Open Cup championships. Ownership focused on attracting top management and player talent, resulting in Seattle Sounders betting odds from sportbooks which list them as favorites in most of their matchups.
The Seattle Sounders betting odds today will be listed here throughout the season, giving you updated numbers directly from reputable sportsbooks. Compare the moneylines for both teams with multiple betting services to make sure you're getting decent value for your wager.
As the Seattle Sounders grind through the MLS regular season, this part of the website reflects updated results after every matchday. The Seattle Sounders schedule widget includes past moneylines for both teams alongside the final score.
Seattle Sounders standings within the MLS regular season reflect their progress towards the playoffs and a potential Supporters' Shield. Compare the Sounders' location within the standings with any team in the MLS before the matchup begins.
Consult multiple moneylines when placing a wager on the Seattle Sounders. Before the game, sportsbooks will set different odds, with some sites offering a better payout than others for that specific game. If you don't already know, the lines will reveal which team is considered the favorite and the squad that's considered the underdog. These odds are also influenced by betting pools, which means that the opinions of people betting on the game play a part in setting the lines.
If the Sounders are listed at -275 when playing against the Whitecaps, and the Whitecaps have a line of +225, you can be sure that the Sounders are considered strong favorites to win. In fact, since they have a superior chance of winning, you'll need to put up $275 to win $100 on a Seattle bet. Since the Whitecaps are the underdog in this scenario, you only need to bet $100 to win $225.
The fact that regular season MLS matches can end in a draw throws a wrench in the prognostication process. If a tie is listed with a moneyline of +400, you'll win $400 on a $100 draw wager. Depending on how familiar you are with the MLS, you might decide to engage in prop betting, also called side betting, expanding the number of opportunities you have to benefit from your knowledge of the game. The types of prop bets that you can place include predicting a clean sheet, or the number of goals scored in the second leg of the conference finals.
If you're adventurous and feel you have insight on the upcoming match, you can even wager on which team will score first or the player who notches the winning strike.
Seattle has been a top franchise since joining the MLS in 2009, earning a playoff spot every year they've been in the league, appearing in the MLS Cup for the first time in 2016. Incredibly, the Sounders managed to win three of their four U.S. Open Cups in their first three years of MLS play.
Solid defense has been their key to success, keeping them on track as western conference contenders for nearly a decade. Betting on the Seattle Sounders tends to be a wise decision, especially when they're playing at CenturyLink, which is one of the most intimidating pitches for visitors in the MLS.


text:
414.332.6754 keeper@northpointlighthouse.org
North Point Lighthouse Friends
Activities and Events Calendar
Corporate and Nonprofit Rentals
Georgia Stebbins
A maritime treasure.
The North Point Lighthouse has a 74-foot tower and a Queen Anne-style Keeper's Quarters. It's located between two ravines in Lake Park on a two-acre semi-wooded parcel. Before its decommissioning in 1994, the Lighthouse contributed to Milwaukee's trade and economic growth. It's also one of the oldest structures that stands in the now-urban area.
Since 1855, the North Point Lighthouse stood tall, overlooking the water and beaming out its light to protect and guide ships and watercraft. Keepers and their families lived and worked at the North Point Light Station, ensuring that the bright light was broadcast through fair weather and foul. It symbolizes a time in our history when waterways were the highways between cities. Lighthouses facilitated water travel and commerce on Lake Michigan, throughout the Great Lakes and beyond.
Each year, visitors are drawn to the beauty and historical significance of Lake Park and Milwaukee's East Side vintage neighborhoods. The park itself is a remarkable jewel that was conceived and rendered in 1893 by Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted, the designer of New York's Central Park and the 1892 Chicago Exposition, was one of the 19th century's foremost American landscape architects.
The North Point Light House has been preserved and restored to its early 20th-century charm through the determined efforts of a group of committed volunteers, the North Point Lighthouse Friends, Inc., formed in 2002. Since completion of restoration in the fall of 2007, this historic site is open to the public for tours and visits.
Learn More About the History of the Lighthouse
DONATE TODAY BECOME A MEMBER
Public Hours
Saturday-Sunday, 1-4pm, throughout the year.
Thursday-Friday,
10am-2pm through Aug. 31
Upcoming Full Moon Tour: August 26, 2018
North Point Lighthouse
2650 N. Wahl Avenue in Lake Park
Thursdays & Fridays, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Extended summer hours through August 31.
Saturdays & Sundays, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Throughout the year.
BECOME A LIGHTHOUSE MEMBER for unlimited free admission, gift shop deals and more.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I was trying to see the times that labels were created during a particular day, so I ran a Report from the View Shipment area. The report had the time set as 12:00 for all labels. Is there a way to obtain the accurate time in the future?
Using SR with Endicia, through Quickbooks.
We investigated this under ZF Case 13254.
This is a problem in the released version, but looks to be resolved in ShipRush v5, due out in the weeks to come.
I had v5 beta installed today. Love some of the changes.
The issue of the date/time stamp does not seem to be have addressed. Are there still plans to add the proper time? It would be very useful information for us.
Based on your tickle here, it has been retested, and is indeed still open.
This has been pushed over to the engineers.


text:
You're Invited | MYPEG Happy Hour: Get a Job for the Environment!
Join the Minnesota Young Professionals Environmental Group (MYPEG) for their March Happy Hour and Speaker series. Join other young, environmentally-minded professionals to get together, network, and hear from Margaret Levin, State Director of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter, on the topic of getting jobs for the environment. RSVP for today's event on the MYPEG Facebook page, and "like" it while you're there!
Don't forget! The monthly MYPEG happy hour and speak series is happening this coming Wednesday, March 27th! Join us for cheap drinks and tasty food, and learn more about what it takes to turn your passion for the environment into a job.
Getting Jobs for the Environment
March 27th, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.
March Speaker Highlight
Margaret Levin, State Director, Sierra Club North Star Chapter
With her background, and current role as the State Director of the local Sierra Club chapter, Margaret is uniquely qualified to talk about preparing yourself for a job in an environmental organization - both from the perspective of an employer and as an activist.
Margaret is State Director of the North Star Chapter. Previously she was an organizer on the Sierra Communities campaign and electoral efforts for the Sierra Club, enjoying the opportunity to work with amazing volunteer leaders across the Twin Cities area. Originally from St. Louis, Margaret has a BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Missouri and is working on a degree in Nonprofit Administration. Before joining the Sierra Club in 2004 she worked as a grassroots organizer with the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group and the Minnesota Senior Federation.
RSVP Today!
What: MYPEG March Happy Hour & Speaker
When: March 27th, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.
Where: Common Roots, 2558 Lyndale Ave S, 55405
Save your spot by signing up on our Facebook event!
What is MYPEG? We're a group formed to provide opportunities for young, environmentally-minded professionals to get together, network, and have a good time.
Join us at our monthly events where environmentally-conscious and passionate people gather to discuss various environmental subjects and hear from colleagues and friends about their work. Together we work to further the issues we care about. We also aim to have a good time while doing it.
Copyright © 2013 Minnesota Young Professionals Environmental Group, All rights reserved.
Posted by Diane Tran at 7:00 AM
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text:
Кішакаджан () — село в Ірані, у дегестані Чіні-Джан, у Центральному бахші, шагрестані Рудсар остану Ґілян. За даними перепису 2006 року, його населення становило 772 особи, що проживали у складі 220 сімей.

Примітки

Населені пункти шагрестану Рудсар

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
by Kevin Kelly
Crash Bandicoot Then and Now!
The creators of both the Original 500 polygon Crash and the creators of the newly refurbished Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy came to San Diego Comic-Con to talk about the inspiration, struggles and favorite moments working on this iconic game. Even Crash Bandicoot himself crashed in!
Before we get into the writeup of the Crash Bandicoot Then and Now panel at San Diego Comic-Con, we would like to extend a massive thank you to all of the Crash Bandicoot fans out there. Because of you, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was the number one physical video game console title around the world for the month of June*! And that's a Crash-sized accomplishment since the game was released on June 30, 2017.
That would not have been possible at all without the dedicated Bandicoot fans around the world, and we wanted to thank you from the bottom of marsupial hearts. Just don't tell Crash, because his head will get even bigger. Now, let's take a look at how the team at Vicarious Visions put their heart and soul into reviving the classic games created by Naughty Dog many moons ago.
By Will Pasquin, Guest Writer
San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing and in true marsupial style the Crash Bandicoot Then and Now panel was full of surprises, behind-the-scenes looks and insider tidbits. The panel consisted of Charlotte Francis (Texture Artist, Naughty Dog), Justin Monast (IT/Lighting, Naughty Dog), Taylor Kurosaki (Game Design, formerly of Naughty Dog), Dan Tanguay (Game Director, Vicarious Visions), John Paul Rhinemiller (Cinematics, Vicarious Visions), and Ian Tucker (Editor, Dark Horse), and Geoff Keighley served as the moderator.
Panelists Charlotte Francis, Justin Monast and Taylor Kurosaki, all from the original Naughty Dog team that worked on Crash Bandicoot, began by explaining how the first Crash game came into being. Did you know Crash wasn't even his original name? He was originally known as Willy the Wombat. His name changed to Crash when the team realized a Willy the Wombat already existed, and that Willy had a slightly different connotation in Europe.
Heavily inspired by Looney Toons characters and Roger Rabbit, with the book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life open at all times, Naughty Dog aimed to imbue their character with more personality than they had seen from other games of that time. The wacky facial expressions and cartoony movements were the results of their efforts, and over a dozen games later, those same features are still an important part of Crash's essence. That Crash essence even found itself into the final name the team picked out. According to Taylor Kurosaki, the way they came up Crash was to "Take a verb, and incorporate it into a proper name." They put Dash and Bash into the possible mix as well, but Crash won out unanimously.
The team at Vicarious Visions, being fans of the series themselves, knew it was important to keep the characters true to the originals, tapping heavily into the nostalgic feels of fans everywhere. Talking about the angular design of the OG Crash, John Paul Rhinemiller said, "We wanted to make sure we kept that, but in an updated fashion." Dan Tanguay added that they would test out during development,
While the Naughty Dog team had to make magic with limited resources, Justin Monast remembered that that they faced difficult time constraints, and that "Sometimes it would take two to three hours just to load a level!" But that cinematics were relatively easier, taking "only two to three weekends to complete." Charlotte Francis provided more insight, explaining that "One of the reasons the cinematics were one of the easiest things to do is because it's the only time in the game when we control exactly what's being seen at any given time… we could orchestrate exactly what we wanted."
Vicarious Visions had access to vastly improved tech, but as it turns out, these benefits were actually more of a challenge. Having better technology at their disposal presented a temptation to stray from the classic and explore territory that wouldn't really be true to the series. Rhinemiller added, "We didn't have limits, we really had to restrain ourselves. We had vastly more resources, but we learned restraint to keep him on model."
Perhaps most exciting of all, while the panel was in the middle of discussing everyone favorite levels, Crash Bandicoot himself busted into the room and started complaining that his own favorite level, Stormy Ascent, was only a secret known to hardcore fans. Well, it's never a good idea to piss off the star of your game, so the developers announced that as of noon on July 20, the remastered and finally released level will be downloadable on the PlayStation Store, free for 30 days.
Tanguay also announced that July 2017 would bring an exclusive Crash Bandicoot item to fans through LootCrate Gaming, with a special N. Sanity Beach t-shirt. Also shown were images of the amazing 9" PVC Crash Bandicoot painted statue from First 4 Figures, which is now available to pre-order from Best Buy. We've seen these in person, and they are seriously impressive. The statue will be available first at Best Buy stores beginning in September.
Also, Dark Horse editor Ian Tucker revealed that they are "Doing something that's a little bit different..." and explained that they will release The Crash Bandicoot Files: How Willy the Wombat Sparked Marsupial Mania in March 2018. This 150-page, hardcover book is a beautifully crafted reproduction of the developer's bible itself, and is a must-have for every Crash fan's bookshelf.
For more information about Crash Bandicoot, follow us @Activision on Twitter, like Crash Bandicoot on Facebook, and bookmark the Crash Bandicoot website.
Selected region: Australia


Dive into building a simple Vue, Vuex, Vue-Router application with Role Based Authorization by integrating vue-kindergarten. In computer systems security, role-based access control is an approach to restricting system access to authorized users. Vue-kindergarten is a plugin for Vue.js and Nuxt.js applications that simplifies an implementation of role based authorization. It is basically an integration of kindergarten library into Vue ecosystem.
Perimeter is a module that represents a business domain in your application. Perimeter can define the method that should be exposed and some rules that must be followed.
Modules (perimeters) are plugged into the sandbox and all exposed methods will be accessible through it. Sandbox is governed by a governess and she is the one who makes sure that all rules are followed in order to prevent any kind of troubles.
The governess is guarding your sandbox. She makes sure that child doesn't do any unauthorized activities and she can deal with troubles your way! Governess defines the behavior of your application when a user is doing illegal stuff.
Child in vue-kindergarten represents the current user of your application.
vue-kindergarten is a plugin for Vue 2.0 that integrates kindergarten into your Vue applications. It helps you to authorize your components, routes and the rest of your application in a modular way.
Read the Article about Role Based Authorization using vue-kindergarten & Kindergarten, by Jiří Chára.


This is July 31st, the last lecture of July, our regular Monday night class. I am going to speak about Helping Others. This was spurred by an e-mail that I receive, and in terms of how one from the Buddhist perspective helps others, I thought it was a good topic and useful. In terms of helping others, I'm referring more to people who have problems, and how do you help people when they have problems? People have different kinds of problems: whether it's with drug dependency, alcohol dependency, anger problems, ego problems, financial problems, emotional problems, separation problems, you name it; there's a lot of problems.
So how do you help people when they have problems? Sometimes the problems are extremely big where you're really really in trouble, or the person that you're trying to help is very very much in trouble. It could have been that they have done something very bad, or they've become incarcerated, or they're found in the gutter. You pretty much know why they're in the gutter because they have a drug or alcohol dependency. How do you help people like this that have these serious problems, or even bereavement when people have lost their love one?
We have to use our compassion to help the people. In helping people, we don't distinguish between somebody who is new to you, or somebody who is your dear friend but you treat them the same and you try to help them. If somebody is asking you for help, you help them. Or if you think that you can be of benefit to a person, you help them but you're very careful of how you help people.
When we first start with our practice, all we're dealing with is just our ego ourselves, our own suffering. But our practice changes in the way in which all of a sudden, instead of having this kind of an approach to it, what we have is this idea of an interest in the suffering of others. This comes from the Abhidharma and the term of Metta. Metta is a term of loving kindness. That term has turned into such a syrupy term that I almost cringe sometimes when I see the word in its application. But Metta is a word of incredible softness and love towards all beings and love towards non-sentient beings as well. It is a different kind of the term. It is not one that is simply directed towards another person. It is a term that's directed towards all and is reflected in the present moment towards who you're dealing with. That's how deep Metta is. We always use it like as if, as I've mentioned before, some kind of a Chippendale politeness to "Oh, after you!" you know. "No, you go first!" through the door; that kind of a simplistic way but it's much deeper than that.
And when we begin to tap Metta, it really helps us a lot where we get to the term of Karuna. This term Karuna is the interest in the suffering of others. Karuna is most properly reflected by Avalokitesvara or Kuanyin Bodhisattva and this interest in others is produced by wisdom. This wisdom that we use shows us that maybe we've gotten over our problems but there are still problems out there.
I remember talking to master Sheng Yen. I caught him in the hallway before a retreat and I said "Shifu, I understand how this works. It's like as if you're riding a bicycle and then you stick a stick into the spokes and the bike just suddenly stops and falls over." (In another word saying that this is how the world works. When you stop it, you see clearly what is happening).
So his guidance, again and it was many times when he used that kind of guidance to steer me away from just being an Arhat and traveling on the Bodhisattva path.
This is something that with our vows, we make a great vow to help all sentient beings, it doesn't necessarily mean that we just gather people around and say "Okay, I want to talk to you about Buddha" and talk to them in this way. It isn't in this way. What we do is we use expedient means to help people in our examples. After a while, people will listen to what you're saying and go "Hmm, maybe this person can help me and help me sort out a problem." It's not bad! This is what you do. So when you run into a problem, you all of a sudden start helping people around you: your co-workers, your friends, your family, you want help all sorts of people, even the cashier at the market and then start to get further along. When we practice our vow to deliver innumerable sentient beings, this is all part of it because it generates an energy, an interest, and power to utilize that to help sentient beings. Not just simply to deliver them and give them a ticket to the deliverance, what we're doing is we are clearly interested in their suffering moment-to-moment.
I have a friend that recently started doing prostrations. She was doing the prostrations and transferring merits. So she said "I transferred merit to you, I transferred merit to all my friends, I transferred merit to these sentient beings, and I ended up transferring merits to all sentient beings." It was a natural progression that one works in this way because the Bodhisattva heart looks at it and goes "why should this person get it and not this one?" This is an incredible display of this generation of compassion and when we see it, it may be very simple and mundane but that's where we work. We work in the simple and mundane, we work in whatever is here in terms of the difficulties that people have. It's exemplified by the Lotus flower that has its roots in the murk, and the mud, and dirty water, but rises above it and it radiates, but it's not separate from the murk and the muddy water as well.
How do we help others? As I mentioned, wisdom must be present and it has to be present to temper compassion. If we only have compassion, it's not enough because our compassion will not be a great compassion. It will be a compassion of "I really feel bad to see this person suffering" but it's not the compassion of an interest in their suffering to deliver that person or to help him. The obvious example of [let's say] compassion but no wisdom, could be somebody that runs up to you on the street, or it could be one of your family members who ask you for money to buy alcohol, or for some trumped up reasons, to borrow money from them so they can buy drugs. There's no compassion there if you say "Yeah, I'll give you the money!" And there's so many people that do that. It's very incredible and what do they call them, anybody know? An "enabler!" You have somebody that's an enabler. You have somebody that is [what I call] a "Baby Huey" that's stuck in the house and you enable them.
I had a client who was like that and my clients were trying to take control over the mom. The mom says "No, I want so-and-so to take care of me! I really want her or him to take care of me!" He was an alcoholic. He left her in such a condition of body sores and filth, and they dropped the mom off at the hospital and they didn't even stick around because they knew that they are going to get arrested. Hazmat unit had to go in the house in full equipment gear to clean the place up. We're talking hazmat unit. But for her in her mind, she thought she was helping him. This is not the compassion that we need and that type of compassion, foolish compassion, look what that brought on? So it's very very different than the compassion that we use when we have wisdom.
It was very interesting because towards that way yesterday, I was at a retreat. I was tired and so I just got myself some food and sat down and turned on the TV for some kind of electronic accompaniment and there was this movie on called Lake Placid. Has anyone seen the movie?
Student: Yes, it's about a 30-foot crocodile.
Gilbert: Yeah, but what happens is that in the movie, this lady… what do you call those things that you give away the ending?
Gilbert: Yeah, the spoiler. So this is a spoiler alert. Essentially this old lady there saw this little baby crocodile and so she started feeding it, and feeding it, and feeding it. And it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. The police were talking to her and went "Well, what happened your husband?" And she just kind of smirked and "Well you know, he was hungry." So the crocodile ate her husband and then they saw her feeding the entire cow to this crocodile.
And you would ask "What does this have to do with anything?" It's because have any of you seen any land sharks like that, people that go through and essentially devour others and they take everything from them?
So what should we do, how do we help people? First, we don't proselytize and we don't try to teach people something that they're not ready for at that moment because they will not understand it and they won't get it. But if you show them some kind of loving kindness, then it will work. But if you just try to tell them "Well, Buddha loves you!" Or "Jesus loves you, let sit down and pray," it is very difficult to get people to do that. You know, they will pray with you then afterwards they'll say "Now can I have a drink?" I'm sure you've probably heard that a lot with the mission that you're at (Gilbert looking at Stan and Stan nodding). So the thing is that we have to go to the problem that people have and you use your wisdom to understand what the problem is with the person. Sometimes it can be just plain mental illness and they're not going to come out of that. Sometimes it's deep-routed from even childhood, or could be [even] from the previous lifetime. But it's important to try to assess where this problem comes from and when it began to manifest, and you understand the relationship between you and that person.
So if it's a relative, you have to understand that there's a relationship there beyond just you as a counselor and the person and it's very difficult sometimes for us to be able to do that. We need to [kind of] step back and let somebody else do it. But if the people are institutionalized, it's very difficult because everybody's put in the same cookie-cutter and they all stand in line and get whatever "pill du jour" that can put them to sleep. But we want to be able to try to help people if we can and improve their lot in life even if it's incremental, to try to make them feel all a little bit better to try to work out the problem.
One of the things as you begin to talk to people is "Misery Loves Company" so people will talk to you about how crummy their life is. I remember even in this class, I have somebody before the class tell me all of things that had happened to him in that week. And I told him "I assure you that everything that you said, I've had five-full of that happen to me" and you're seeking guidance from me as to how to handle it. It was an interesting thing because sometimes we just want somebody to listen to our problems, where Master Sheng Yen used to say "People will come and dump all their garbage on him." They don't want help, they just want a release and so they want to bring you into that.
I once had a family member call me at 3 AM. She was going through a divorce so she was distraught, obviously at 3 in the morning. But I said to her "I will help you! I promise I will help you. I will go through this with you and I will be by your side. But, this is what we have to make a promise on, is that I will talk to you about how to solve the problem but I will not listen to your suffering." And it worked; it worked. She understood "Okay I'm calling him up at 3 AM and the last thing he needed is to have somebody just crying." But it's a matter of listening to the person and finding the solution. Sometimes the solution is just listening. Sometimes we have to start with that.
I had a cousin whose son was killed, murdered, and she was in a really bad way. And being in a bad way, finally the family told me that this particular person was not very good. She was not handling this and this is up to a substantial amount of time. But when I called her to talk to her, she was crying, and probably crying the same way she cried on the day that her son was buried, but this was much much later on.
And when you talk to the people in this way, it changes their attitude because somebody is listening. A lot of times we start with that. Again we have to use productive listening and we have to use a listening where it says "I will listen to you. Now you will listen to me." And as you're listening to them, you're seeing what the new root cause of the problem is and you're formulating a way to communicate with them [you know] so that you can forge a bond with them to be able to help them. You don't say after they're finished "Is that it? That's all? You just lost a son and he died months ago? Forget it? Get over it? It's impermanent?" That's not very helpful. But if you listen to people and you listen to what the problem is, they will tell you. And they will tell you their fears, and their concerns about things, and we all have fears and concerns. Sometimes we have concerns without fears, if we can really practice well. But we have to be sincere about what we're doing.
In any case, we use our own experiences, our own life experiences to help others. Now the good thing about this is we have a lot of life experiences. You know we've had a lot of ups and downs. Maybe not you (speaking to a younger student); you're still like just started shaving. Sorry but I look around here and even Niessa you know, you see the people and there are ups and downs and ups and downs of different kinds you know. But the good thing is that you're sitting in here… (I'm speaking to a young one relative to me and relative to Stan for sure) (Laughs…) but in any case, we've been there. We've done it and we have our practice. We have the practice of Chan to help us and that makes a big difference. We all have the same amount of problems but the only difference is we deal with it with from the Chan perspective so we can handle it. We can understand it, we can examine it, and we can understand why we were suffering at that time period. That's wisdom! That wisdom is incredibly valuable to help others. We know that whatever we attach to causes us suffering.
It does it mean that we don't attach to things, we just know that it is going to cause us suffering. But we know that when people have a problem, we can help them. We try to help them the best we can. But if we're an enabler, we're going to mess it all up and if we're too close to it, we can mess it all up. We have to listen to what the people are saying because a lot of times, they becomes so good at transferring their guilt of the problem to others and putting it on other people.
You stop the people from that kind of a negative and non-productive type of discussion. And depending on the person who you're talking to, sometimes you have to be a little bit more stricter with them to get them to listen. And if they don't listen, you're not the person to solve their problem. You do your best with what you've got but with causes and conditions, maybe you're not the person. Sometimes a parent may not be the person to help solve a problem because they're too close to the situation and the person is going to try to manipulate them into something or another. My sister is still concerned about him and worried and she came down to visit and all of a sudden, he shows up. So who invited him, right? And you see that she's not the person to help her son because she's too much in there.
But if you have the ability to stand back and use wisdom, you can help the person. You have to use every single bit of your Chan wisdom to do that and the ways of seeing things, but you don't preach it. You just present it and say "This is your life. This is where you're at and what are you doing here? Look around, do you want to still be here? Don't you wonder what it's like outside?" That could be somebody that's stuck in their room or that they're incarcerated; it's the same thing and the path in which they're traveling. Normally it doesn't happen instantly but sometimes it can with the right conditions.
There's a woman that was part of the Dharma Drum group and she had a meeting at her house. She had heard of me before and this was kind of early on where I was getting this kind of an interest from people.
She was one of those like a Goth, like dressed in black like Beetlejuice. They're dressed like that and she would stay up in her room for hours on end. Then she'd bring her boyfriend in and they'd stay in the room for hours on end, and the mom was afraid to knock on the door.
And I am going "What am I going to tell a Goth teenager that's going to help them?
So I knocked on the door and she is actually very nice and she invited me in. I sat on her bed and I'm looking around her room and there's all these posters and… put it this way, 90% of the posters were black. Whatever figures elsewhere in there were not something that you'd want to meet in an alley. I just looked at the room and she could see me looking at the room. And I remember what I said to her.
I just kept talking to her about that and I just went and talked to her for quite a while. And there was no resolution there. There was nothing. I just talked to her and kind of served as a mirror. After I left, the next day the mom was calling me up thanking me profusely that her daughter had taken down all the pictures on the wall. After that, I was regularly called by her and she ended up going to college. She'd call me about this and call me about that, and then she finally stopped calling me after she'd finished her residency in medical school.
And you have to be careful also when you're helping people because sometimes the people will become very angry at you. I don't know if that ever happened to you Stan when you're helping alcoholics.
Gilbert: They get so angry! They just transfer all this anger and it's just like some demon spitting it out on you "Blech!!!" It's like their alcoholics self-defense mechanism; that you are something bad and alcohol is something good. You can replace alcohol with whatever desire or vexation, it doesn't matter! It will be there and you have to deal with it and so you use your wisdom again to see that, expecting that's going to happen.
There are times when there's actually somebody that is being influenced by a spirit or some kind of a demon. Most of the time they're not of the caliber of the Exorcist. It's just some minor thing that there but creates such discomfort that anybody who comes near them, it triggers them to speak. Generally, they are really a pain in the tail so you don't want to be around the person that has it because all that thing comes out. We don't know when that is or when it isn't. At least most people do not know that so these are not things that you dwell in, or you try to throw holy water on them, or you don't have them swallow some kind of a Buddhist ornament or whatever [you know]. You leave that to people that have experience with that if you ever run into anybody that has those kinds of symptoms that looks like that.
Sometimes you see those people. I saw one as I was coming here today. He was shouting to himself [you know]. The other day I saw somebody who was having a full conversation and I went [you know] "It's really annoying that he has a cell phone" you know until I realize he didn't have a cell phone. It's interesting but those things aren't necessarily easy ones to fix. And unless you put a lot of time in, it's very rare to have positive results with those.
As I was talking in terms of this when we're talk to the people, we don't shout out the demon off them, or whatever the problem they have, or slap them around. Normally that doesn't work very well. You can use a firm voice but you want to be gentler with them. They have a lot of people that just kind of sized them up and go "You're a loser!" [you know] and so they don't trust people. So you come around and you try to sort out whatever the problem that's there but you're careful in how you talk to them. You let them talk first and then you can talk. It gives them a sense that they can talk because in their whole life they started talking and people will shut them up, and most times it's because they're talking nonsense. But the thing is that you let them talk and then later on you say "I don't think that this makes any sense what you're saying." You go through that and try to gain the confidence and gain their interest.
Now how does faith fit in to all of this? It fits in in a very positive way because you have to have faith that you can help them. You have to have faith that one, as a Buddhist, that you deliver them in another lifetime; that you're starting your project now, that you have this interest in wanting to help the person, and then you really try use using your mind to benefit them - you using your mind can help them. Even a group can help another person. They can heal a person in the right circumstances. Not always but sometimes but you don't generally do this. I don't know about group intervention, do they work?
Student: Works better than individual intervention.
Gilbert: Really! I would think that the people might get too scared.
Student: Because they have people who are in the same situation confronting other people with the same like situation.
Gilbert: I know you have much more experience than I do in this, but wouldn't that be like… where I see, group intervention is not people sitting around and talking. It is like somebody coming back from getting groceries and then there's like 50 people in the house pointing at him.
Student: That scares off a lot of people initially but if you keep showing love and wisdom you could get through that barrier.
Gilbert: Okay, because to me I think I would really really be startled by that. I understand that where you have of group, what they call a group therapy, people can do that and I think that's beneficial. But dragging somebody who's [let's say] a raging Meth user, it's really hard to reason with somebody like that.
Student: Generally you have somebody with a lot of anger and that anger will usually dissipate, if you keep at it, in about four weeks. That's a long time to keep at it.
Gilbert: Yes, that's a long time but I thank you for that. I appreciate your input.
Another part in terms of helping people is that you want to sincerely help them; that you're not just doing this. And probably the worst one will be somebody who is a paid staff that would do something to try help you but have no interest in really helping them. I think the VA comes into mind on something like that where there might be some people there. That's from experience with some people I know that came through that and the people aren't really that helpful. But we really want to develop the sincerity to really help the person. If you're there and you don't feel comfortable and you're not into it, you're not the person to help that. You can guide them or you could find somebody but you're not the one that they're going to benefit from.
Another one of the things, in terms of helping people, is it's a matter of having them understand about this change that they're going to make is going to take time and they're going to encounter a lot of resistance from people they've met who have harmed them in the past and they're not about to call them brother at that time. Even Shakyamuni Buddha had a follower that had killed 999 people and he was planning to kill Shakyamuni Buddha as the capstone. If you killed 999 people, you're pretty callous. I mean you're not really thinking about what life you took but you're thinking about how creative you can be of your next life. So for Shakyamuni Buddha to talk him out of this was quite a bit but he was able to have him see his shame and the person changed. Now the problem was is that when they would go to the villages, they go "You look familiar!" to the guy that was with him and then they would chase him out of town because causes and conditions were still there. But he understood that. He understood that he had to take responsibility for that.
And people that have problems, they created the problems sometimes from their anger, or letting people down, or whatever. Other people aren't really going to be sold to accept them back in the fold, or to let bygones be bygones. So one has to become careful about that but let them know that this journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And they can do it and it would bring them into the present moment. And in the present moment, you can bring them to this moment and you can change - this moment you choose, this moment you choose, this moment you choose, and you do it in this way.
I remember I've been court-appointed to represent these children and the mom was a drug user. I really wanted her to be reunited with her kids but I had to advise the court [you know] of her status and stuff. So I told her, "Every time you think that you want to take whatever you're taking (She was taking some chemical drug, very serious drug), picture your children next to it and say 'Which one do you choose in this moment? Which one do you choose? Do you choose your children or the drug?'" And changed her. It changed her but it was a long process. It was about three and half years but she eventually regained custody of her kids. I told her what she needed to do, I told her how to do it, and for some reason she listened to me and she was able to get off drugs and get back with her kids.
She actually, one time she got back with the kids and she was smart enough to say "I'm giving them back to the grandparents because I'm not ready. I can't handle three kids [you know] that are young kids all wanted to get dressed the same time for school or whatever." But eventually she regained that ability so there's that whole that we give them. But we have to see the changes; that the changes can be immediate in the moment. They may be incremental but there are nevertheless some immediate, and little by little the people have some kind of faith to help them.
What I talked about here and what we're doing is the same. I talk about Chan and people who are suffering and coming into Chan, it's the same thing. The changes is something that takes time to do. Sometimes do we get big events that move us forward in our practice but we nevertheless understand that we're just taking these steps and we can help. When we do that, we realize we can help other people. That's the lecture for tonight.


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Q: Would a Unit Test add any value to this example of a DAL provider beyond an Integration Test? public List<int> GetPortfolioList()
{
    using (var connection = new SqlConnection("<connectionString>"))
    using (var command = new SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM Portfolio", connection))
    {
        connection.Open();
        var portfolioTable = SqlHelper.GetDataTable(command);
        var portfolios = from DataRow row
                            in portfolioTable.Rows
                            select int.Parse(row["Portfolio"].ToString());

        return portfolios.ToList();
    }
}

Take this method in a SQL DAL provider to retrieve a list of portfolios, as the name (and code) suggests. Because the database table for integration testing contains a fairly static set of data we can Assert against several expectations. e.g. The list of portfolios will:
- not be empty
- contain certain known values
- contain no duplicates
Following a peer review, someone insisted that this code isn't being properly tested (in isolation) because it relies on database access. In the case that most of the value is found in ensuring that this method returns data from a database whose state is guaranteed, I've been unable to see the value in mocking away the database call in order to write a unit test for this method. Am I missing something?

A: I'll take the contrary view because I just finished writing a fake db (using in memory lists) to make linq to sql (or linq to anything) unit testable.
This is one question I used to pick a suitable way to fake/mock the database. (from reading your code though, the embedded "SELECT * FROM" means you are leaning on SQL more than linq, which will make it harder to factor your code into stuff that has to be executed by SQL Server and stuff that linq is capable of dealing with.
How are people unit testing code that uses Linq to SQL
I can now run unit tests that will succeed or fail depending on the suitability of my linq query even if the database is unplugged from the wall.
For example, how is your code to react if row["Portfolio"].ToString() is null, how does the code react when this doesn't return any rows, or returns 2?
And even if you are only doing integration tests, nunit is not a bad way to integration tests, just be careful not to call them unit tests, lest a purist get upset about it.

A: The method uses Linq to project some values from the DB into a list of integers - you may want to test that it does that correctly.
I would split the code into two - the data retrieval and the projection (Linq query) - you could then test the linq query with mock data, without needing to mock the database.
I would also say there is little value in unit testing data access code.

A: As a testing purist, I believe that I cannot "unit test" a DAL because I cannot do it in isolation. This means that a portion of my code, the one interacting with the database, goes without unit testing. The code above looks fine; just make sure that it exists as part of a larger contract that you can test in other objects.
I do perform integration testing, though, by building a database, seeding it, and ensuring that my DAL works.

A: I would agree with you, the only value here will be integration testing,  there's really nothing to unit test without being pedantic.
The unit test code for any callers of this method should mock this method away, of course.
e: The exception cases MathewMartin mentions above would be the only things I would consider worth unit testing in this scenario.


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Effective treatment for:
Memory Issues
What is Neurofeedback?
Brain training is becoming increasingly feasible using a technique called neurofeedback, which allows individuals to change the way their brains function by responding to personalized feedback about how their own brains work naturally. Neurofeedback is a reward-based training system for your brain. Neurofeedback is a specialized treatment that uses advanced computer technology for balancing and optimizing your brain. It is a fun, interactive, and engaging treatment that helps you strengthen and retrain your brain to a healthier, more focused state.
Neurofeedback (NFB), also called Neurotherapy or neurofeedback, is a type of biofeedback that uses real-time displays of brain activity in an attempt to teach self-regulation of brain function. Neurofeedback, also known as EEG (electroencephalogram) biofeedback is a therapy that provides immediate feedback from a computer-based program that assesses your brainwave activity. The program then uses visual signals or sound to reorganize or retrain these brain signals. Neurofeedback is a non-invasive treatment that works toward improving the source of your unwanted symptoms. The brain needs healthy fast- and slow-moving brainwave activity to function at its best.
What does Neurofeedback do and how does it work?
Sensors are placed on the scalp to measure electrical activity, with measurements displayed using video displays or sound. Neurofeedback is a way to train your brain to work more efficiently using a reward system. The process starts with an assessment. The assessment involves wearing a cap that has sensors attached to it. These sensors are able to pick up frequencies or waves that are naturally occurring inside your brain.
These waves give insight into how your brain is functioning and indicates how you may be feeling. For example, if you have too many fast-moving waves, you might be anxious or have racing thoughts. Another example is when you have too many slow-moving waves which affect how alert you are during the day. The relationship between brain waves and behavior is complex and unique for every individual, yet they give the clinician a good representation of the state of your brain and how to improve it.
Neurofeedback uses brain training sessions. During these sessions, you wear a headband with special electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors that monitor your brainwaves, and a computer to send feedback back to you. There are different ways to receive this feedback. It can involve playing games, listening to music, or watching a video. The stimuli (games, music, or video) only operate smoothly when your brainwaves are functioning within an optimal range. This acts as a reward for your brain. When your brainwaves fire at a rate that's not optimal, you'll receive negative feedback (your movie pauses, the music stops, etc.). This tells your brain that something is out of balance and causes it to "figure out" how to return to a seamless movie, music, or games.
Over the course of a neurofeedback training program, your brain learns from this feedback. This can promote lasting structural changes within your brain. The brain then consistently operates within a more optimal range outside of your training sessions, alleviating your symptoms by teaching your brain to work more efficiently.
What does Neurofeedback treat?
Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of neurofeedback to improve many conditions including:
Scientific Evidence for Neurofeedback
Research over the last several decades indicates that our brains are, in fact, malleable, therefore trainable. Neurofeedback has been applied to a wide variety of psychiatric illnesses, as well as to treat subclinical symptoms, and even to enhance performance in healthy populations. Research shows positive changes in physiological, neuropsychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and societal functioning following neurofeedback. studies suggest neurofeedback's bright future for brain training treatment.
"I have been on antidepressants for 25 years. Living in New England, I have suffered from SAD for 6 months out of every year. Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Buspar have all been tried. While these meds took the "edge" off, I always felt that I was fighting a losing battle. This technology has changed that. I always felt that something wasn't right, and this device helped my brain "rewire". It was worth every penny. My life has changed so much for the better. I am so glad I took the chance with it."
"I suffered from insomnia for 30 years until using the Fisher Wallace Stimulator before bed. Almost immediately, I had less anxiety, racing thoughts, and transitioned from the devices' finishing to sleep. I used it nightly to start with but now years later if insomnia returns, a simple session or two returns my brain to the relaxed state I seek!"
"I had a bone marrow biopsy in 2015 and apparently they damaged a nerve because it was extremely painful during the biopsy and the pain continued afterward. This pain continued for over a year. I purchased the Fisher Wallace stimulator and used it as prescribed, red on the back of the neck, black directly over the location of the biopsy. The pain was gone within a week and has not returned!"
"Suffered a bad stroke at work and was fired from my job while still undergoing brain surgery in the ICU. Deep depression, memory loss, inability to focus, no concentration, PBA, financial destruction, etc. This device is nothing short of miraculous. Now all I want to do is stand on the cliff and shout out to the world what this FW cranial stimulator has done for me. I am no longer merely existing, I am living! Please, for those who are sad and hopeless for whatever reason, get an FW device!"
Sarah Nedeau
Neurofeedback Research
In-School Neurofeedback Training for ADHD: Sustained Improvements From a Randomized Control Trial.
Naomi J. Steiner, Elizabeth C. Frenette, Kirsten M. Rene, Robert T. Brennan, Ellen C. Perrin. Pediatrics Mar 2014, 133 (3) 483-492; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2013-2059
Conclusion: Neurofeedback participants made more prompt and greater improvements in ADHD symptoms, which were sustained at the 6-month follow-up, than did CT participants or those in the control group. This finding suggests that neurofeedback is a promising attention training treatment for children with ADHD.
Sustained effects of neurofeedback in ADHD: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Sustained effects of neurofeedback in ADHD: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Van Doren, Jessica & Arns, Martijn & Heinrich, Hartmut & Vollebregt, Madelon & Strehl, Ute & Loo, Sandra. (2018). 28. 10.1007/s00787-018-1121-4.
Conclusion: Our meta-analytic results of NF treatment follow-up sug-gest that there are sustained symptom reductions over time in comparison with non-active control conditions. The improvements seen here are comparable to active treatments (including methylphenidate) at a short-term FU of 2–12months. As such, NF can be considered a non-pharmacological treatment option for ADHD with evidence of treatment effects that are sustained when treatment is completed and withdrawn.
EEG neurofeedback treatments in children with ADHD: an updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Micoulaud-Franchi, J. A., Geoffroy, P. A., Fond, G., Lopez, R., Bioulac, S., & Philip, P. (2014). EEG neurofeedback treatments in children with ADHD: an updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 906. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00906
Conclusion: This meta-analysis of EEG-NF in children with ADHD highlights improvement in the inattention dimension of ADHD symptoms. Future investigations should pay greater attention to adequately blinded studies and EEG-NF protocols that carefully control the implementation and embedding of training.
Neurofeedback Treatment of Depression and Anxiety.
Hammond, D.C. J Adult Dev (2005) 12: 131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-005-7029-5
Conclusion: Since the completion of the successful cases reported in this paper, I have personally treated approximately 15 additional patients suffering from depression, but sometimes without post-treatment testing and lengthy follow-up. It is my impression from both this case series and from my subsequent clinical experience that the use of this neurofeedback protocol results in significant, enduring improvements approximately 80% of the time. Most patients perceive a difference after between three to six 30-min sessions, feel a very significant improvement after 10–12 sessions, and usually complete treatment within 20–22 sessions. It has been impressive to me that this treatment not only improves depression that has commonly been medication-resistant, but it also commonly reduces anxiety and rumination, increases ego-strength, and as one would expect from activating an approach motivation area of the brain, decreases withdrawal and introversion. However, this report and the other literature just re-viewed on neurofeedback with depression only rep-resent uncontrolled case series reports. Thus, though encouraging, these preliminary results now require controlled trials. Similarly, the preliminary reports on the neurofeedback treatment of OCD are intriguing and encouraging but likewise require controlled research. The research that we have reviewed on the neurofeedback treatment of generalized and phobic anxiety, as well as PTSD, is more rigorous, warranting at least the status of being considered a probably efficacious treatment.
Alpha suppression and symmetry training for generalized anxiety symptoms.
Kerson, C., Sherman, R. A., & Kozlowski, G. P. (2009). Alpha suppression and symmetry training for generalized anxiety symptoms. Journal of Neurotherapy, 13(3), 146–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/10874200903107405
Conclusion: Participants also completed a daily shortened version of the STAI, which indicated that anxiety improved after neurofeedback but not after ETB.
Frontal alpha asymmetry neurofeedback for the reduction of negative affect and anxiety.
Mennella, Rocco & Patron, Elisabetta & Palomba, Daniela. (2017). Frontal alpha asymmetry neurofeedback for the reduction of negative affect and anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 92. 10.1016/j.brat.2017.02.002.
Conclusion: Above all, the data from this study have shown that strength-based PPIs can effectively improve young adults' subjective well-being and mitigate the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Crucially, the process of adaptive emotion regulation might be the potential mechanisms by which PPIs brought benefits. Our findings may have clinical implications for providing potential biomarkers for the early prevention of mental disorders. Furthermore, beyond psychological interventions related to well-being, the neurofeedback training of subjective well-being can be developed to improve levels of health.
Effects of an EEG Biofeedback Protocol on a Mixed Substance Abusing Population.
William C. Scott, David Kaiser, Siegfried Othmer & Stephen I. Sideroff (2005) Effects of an EEG Biofeedback Protocol on a Mixed Substance Abusing Population, The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 31:3, 455-469, DOI: 10.1081/ADA-200056807
Conclusion: This protocol enhanced treatment retention, variables of attention, and abstinence rates one year following treatment.
Alpha-theta brainwave neurofeedback training: an effective treatment for male and female alcoholics with depressive symptoms.
Saxby, E., & Peniston, E. G. (1995). Alpha-theta brainwave neurofeedback training: An effective treatment for male and female alcoholics with depressive symptoms. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51(5), 685–693. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(199509)51:5<685::AID-JCLP2270510514>3.0.CO;2-K
Conclusion: To improve the efficacy of neurofeedback training, more well-controlled studies need to be conducted for the three training protocols, particularly QEEG-guided neurofeedback training. Additionally, more research needs to be conducted on using neurofeedback training with substance use disorders that are comorbid with other disorders and looking at comorbid ADHD, conduct disorder (CD), and oppositional
defiant disorder (ODD) in adolescents. It is believed that comorbid ADHD, CD, and ODD in adolescents is a risk factor for substance use disorders, and treating these can prevent substance use disorders in adulthood.
The Treatment of Addictive Disorders by Brain Wave Biofeedback: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research.
Trudeau, David. (2000). The Treatment of Addictive Disorders by Brain Wave Biofeedback: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research. Clinical EEG (electroencephalography). 31. 13-22. 10.1177/155005940003100107.
Conclusion: Studies need to be done that compare the efficacy of both alpha-theta training and other forms of brainwave biofeedback in subjects both with and without significant comorbidities that may influence clinical response to a particular biofeedback protocol. For instance, as previously discussed TBI, ADHD, and stimulant-related neurotoxicity all seem to be important and common comorbidities of PSUD that could conceivably alter the outcome of brain wave biofeedback. It is even possible that alpha-theta training may be contraindicated as a first line of approach for subjects such as chronic cannabis abusers, chronic stimulant abusers, or comorbid ADHD subjects who already may have excess frontal alpha or theta.
Neurofeedback training of EEG alpha rhythm enhances episodic and working memory.
Hsueh, J., Chen, T., Chen, J.J., & Shaw, F. (2016). Neurofeedback training of EEG alpha rhythm enhances episodic and working memory. Human brain mapping, 37 7, 2662-75.
Conclusion: Not public
The relation between memory improvement and QEEG changes in three clinical groups as a result of EEG biofeedback treatment.
Thornton, Kirtley & Carmody, Dennis. (2012). The Relation Between Memory Improvement and QEEG Changes in Three Clinical Groups as a Result of EEG Biofeedback Treatment. Journal of Neurotherapy: Investigations in Neuromodulation, Neurofeedback and Applied Neuroscience. 17. 116-131. 10.1080/10874208.2013.785183.
EEG neurofeedback: A brief overview and an example of peak alpha frequency training for cognitive enhancement in the elderly.
Efthymios Angelakis, Stamatina Stathopoulou, Jennifer L. Frymiare, Deborah L. Green, Joel F. Lubar & John Kounios (2007) EEG Neurofeedback: A Brief Overview and an Example of Peak Alpha Frequency Training for Cognitive Enhancement in the Elderly, The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 21:1, 110-129, DOI: 10.1080/13854040600744839


The Problem: This study was designed to evaluate a summer reading program to determine if it had impact on preventing summer reading loss for students entering second grade. Procedure: The methodological approach for this proposed study was a descriptive study using Basic Reading Inventory (BRI) test score data and percentages to compare spring and fall test results. Results from the fall BRI testing for reading fluency rate, accuracy, and comprehension were measured for those students who attended the 2009 and 2010 summer school sessions and for those students who did not attend. In addition, fluency rate, accuracy, and comprehension for gender, ethnicity, and economic status were examined. At the conclusion of first grade, all students attending a Title I elementary school in the Ottumwa School District took the spring BRI for first grade. This data provided the baseline data for the study. The same group of students took the spring BRI for first grade when they entered second grade in September for comparison. Four hundred twenty-eight students were tested during the two year study identifying 280 as eligible. There were 124 eligible students who participated in summer school and 156 eligible students who did not participate in summer school. Findings: The results of the study support the district summer school initiative and belief that by shortening the summer break and providing skilled reading instruction, summer reading regression can be minimized. The percent of participating students who increased or maintained fluency rate, accuracy, and comprehension ranged from 70%-77% compared to 46%-67% for non-participating students. The data analysis of all participating students showed minimal differences of success in maintaining or increasing reading skills between gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. However, the study did find discrepancy in maintaining or increasing fluency rate success between Caucasian and non-Caucasian students, following the summer reading intervention. Eighty percent of Caucasian students maintained or increased fluency rates as compared to 59% of non-Caucasian students.


Out estate offers a restaurant premise with first and second floor, within the historic estate house. Furthermore you will find an additional two rooms in our panorama pavilion.
On the outside you will find lots of space on our sun deck with an incredible view. Another highlight, the wedding-meadow, is located in between the cherry orchard.


Recycling Progress in the U.S.
Recycling in the United States has made considerable progress. In 2012, the U.S. generated approximately 251 million tons of waste while 87 million tons (34.5 percent) of that was recycled. Back in 1980, Americans recycled only 15 million tons of waste. The amount of waste recycled in 2012 prevented the release of about 168 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to taking some 33 million cars off the road for a year. In 2012, an average American produced 4.38 pounds of waste and recycled 1.51 pounds.
So, it can be said that the U.S. recycling industry has seen a considerable growth over the last few decades, however, there is still a lot of opportunity for improvement. It should be noted there is no national lawmaking recycling of any kind of material mandatory, leaving states and local governments to enact an array of different recycling requirements and laws.
Major Recycling Laws in the U.S.
Over the years, the U.S. government has relied on local and state governments to oversee recycling and waste management laws. State and local government regulations fall into two major categories: recycling goals and landfill bans. Landfill bans make disposing enumerated materials such as oil, yard waste and other easily collectible materials illegal. Currently, North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have landfill bans.
Other states such as California and Illinois focus on recycling goals. Some states simply encourage recycling of certain materials such as plastic bottles by passing a bill. To date, 25 states have passed laws making state-wide electronic waste recycling mandatory. These 25 states cover 65 percent of the population of the USA. Back in 2003, California was the first to enact the first e-waste recycling law and in 2011, Utah was last in this list.
Early History of Recycling in the U.S.
In terms of the historical timeline for recycling in the U.S.,1972 marked the first recycling mill in the country, built in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. In the early 1970s, the first city to mandate recycling was Woodbury, New Jersey. Curbside recycling first began in 1973, and by 2006 there were more than 8,000 curbside recycling programs throughout the country, a number which continues to expand.
Every year, America Recycles Day (ARD) is celebrated on November 15, an event which started in 1997 to encourage Americans to recycle more and use recycled products. On that day, across the country, events on recycling education such as the environmental, social and economic benefits of recycling are arranged.
The USA has a number of recycling national and local recycling industry associations. The National Recycling Coalition (NRC) is the national recycling association which consists of over 6000 recycling businesses from all across the U.S. Here is a list of local industry associations.
Major recycling businesses are also members of international recycling industry associations such as Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) and Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI).
In 2012, total yearly waste recovery in the U.S. was 87 million tons. Of that amount, 51 percent consisted paper and paperboard, 22 percent yard trimmings, 9 percent metal, 4 percent food waste, 4 percent glass, 3 percent plastic, and wood and 6 percent other materials. EPA data shows that 70 percent of paper and paperboard and 58 percent of yard trimmings were recovered for recycling in 2012.
One of the major challenges for recycling gains by tonnage is that packaging is becoming increasingly lightweight, so improved recycling habits do not readily appear obvious in terms of additional weight of material recycled. One of the most promising areas for improved recycling is in the area of organic waste recovery, as more communities are moving to divert it from landfills. Who recycles more, old people or young people?


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Two Sons of China: a novel of WWII and America's forgotten war in China
December 7th is America's National Pearl Harbour Remembrance Day, commemorating the attack of 1941, which merged the Second Sino-Japanese War with World War II.
To mark the anniversary, Bondfire Books is releasing Two Sons of China, a richly detailed historical saga set against the backdrop of Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of north eastern China, and the struggles of the Chinese, both Communist and Nationalist, to overthrow them.
Two Sons of China pivots on an unlikely friendship between Lieutenant David Parker, an American soldier, and Lin Yuen, a Chinese Communist guerilla fighter. Parker was brought up in China, where his father was a missionary, and he speaks fluent Mandarin. Despite their deeply held, clashing convictions, Parker and Lin form a brotherhood in battle.
The author, Andrew Lam, now based in Massachusetts, is a 3rd generation Chinese American, which means his grandparents immigrated to the United States. His family's story was directly impacted by the war in China. When the Japanese invaded in 1937, his paternal grandfather, Wing Ching Lam, left China for America. His maternal grandfather, Chung Tam, was the only son of a prosperous family in southern China. Chung became a civil servant in the Nationalist government in Chungking (Chongqing). When the Communists took over in 1949, he fled with his family to Hong Kong, leaving all his possessions and property behind. His family left China for the U.S. in 1968.
Lam has a history degree from Yale, but he did not pursue a career as an historian. Instead, he became a retinal surgeon. His first book, Saving Sight, profiles medical innovators whose inventions were ridiculed but ultimately saved the sight of millions around the world. Now, with his debut novel, he has returned to his first love, history. He says: "I wanted to write a sweeping, romantic novel of the Second World War, and to set it in a place that would surprise many American readers: China."
The novel was inspired by the little-known, true story of the Dixie Mission of 1944, in which American soldiers ventured to Mao Zedong's northern stronghold of Yenan (Yan'an) to investigate reports that the Chinese Communists were effectively fighting the Japanese, and to consider arming Mao's troops with U.S. weapons.
The Americans became involved in the Sino-Japanese conflict because they wanted to prevent the Japanese soldiers tied up in China from being freed for deployment in the Pacific. Thousands of American soldiers served in China. Yet Lam feels this has been overlooked, or even forgotten, by many: "Too few people are aware of America's role in China during World War II. I wanted to correct that, and to do it in an entertaining way. I hope Two Sons of China succeeds in both aims - entertaining and informing. It is an action-packed, romantic war novel that shines a light on unsung American heroes who served with honor in a distant, difficult land."
Readers in Asia are less likely to think of China as distant, difficult land than are those in Cincinnati, but I think it fair to say the Dixie Mission is as little known in much of Asia as it is in the West - I for one knew nothing about it until I came upon Two Sons of China.
William Martin, New York Times best-selling author of The Lincoln Letter, and other novels of historical suspense, is enthusiastic about Lam's novel. He writes: "Prepare to be captivated. Two Sons of China takes you to WWII China, introduces you to a fascinating cast of characters, and spins a terrific tale of adventure and romance. If you love historical fiction, or any fiction, don't miss it."
Two Sons of China will soon be available as a print version. It is currently available as an ebook here at Amzon.com, and here at iTunes. If you have trouble purchasing from these sites with an Asian credit card, you can also try buying direct from www.TwoSonsofChina.com
Lam is already at work on his next novel, Repentance. It is a story about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Japanese-American soldiers who fought in Europe during WWII while many of their families were incarcerated in internment camps at home. Says Lam: "Many are not aware that the 442nd became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history and I hope this book helps spread their story far and wide."
Posted by Rosie Milne at 19:04
Season's Readings
500 Words From Barbara Ismail
Curtain of Rain / Tew Bunnag
Two Sons of China: a novel of WWII and America's f...
Book Club: Response From Dawn Farnham
Book Club: A Crowd Of Twisted Things and December'...


The Center for Family Engagement and Global Family Research Project recently released 5 Ways Families, Teachers, Schools and Communities Can Work Together to Support Children's Learning and School Success. We've added onto this resource to help you discover how you can implement these "SUPER" 5 ways with ParentSquare.
Hosting parent-teacher conferences and Back-to-School nights are a great starting point for parent engagement. However, in order to truly foster a thriving and involved community, you must consciously promote a culture of parent engagement and put strategies and systems in place to safeguard it. School community is about establishing two-way connection between schools and parents. It's about building trusted relationships, giving parents a sense of belonging to the school, and cultivating the feeling that the school and all its stakeholders are one big family.