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New York Securities Lawyers Blog
Published By Malecki Law
Articles Tagged with FINRA investigation
I Received a Subpoena from the SEC – What Will I have to Produce?
by Malecki Law Team
You just received a Subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). What will you have to produce? We regularly represent securities industry professionals and investors who have gotten these Subpoenas, and the reaction is usually the same: people are nervous and concerned. How will this affect your business, and how what will it take the comply?
Getting an SEC Subpoena is a serious matter, and it is imperative that you carefully comply in a timely manner. Subpoenas will typically require you to produce documents or testify, or both. Your goal should always to limit your involvement with the federal authorities, and this begins with your production of documents in response to the Subpoena.
The first step is to remember that just because you received a Subpoena does not mean you automatically did something wrong. You may not be the SEC's target, but may be someone the Commission believes has information related to another person or business. The SEC is not obligated to tell you whether they view you as a target or a witness, and you should not assume you are a target.
Posted in: Regulatory Audits & Investigations
Tagged: broker, broker-dealer, FINRA, FINRA investigation, investigation, investments, regulatory, SEC, securities and exchange commission and subpoena
BROKER REPORT: Former UBS Broker Jeffrey Howell Barred by FINRA
The investment and securities fraud attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints regarding former UBS financial adviser Jeffrey Howell.
Per reports, Mr. Howell has been barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA")for providing a customer with false weekly account statements for over six years. According to a settlement notice in connection with an investigation by FINRA , Mr. Howell sent these weekly statements with inflated values, at times overvaluing the account by close to $3 million.
Mr. Howell also allegedly used his own personal email account to distribute these reports, which compromised the accuracy of the firm's books and records. Per BrokerCheck, Mr. Howell has not been licensed in the securities industry since 2014.
Posted in: Featured Investigations
Tagged: $3 million, barred, broker, broker fraud, Broker Report, broker-dealer, BrokerCheck, elder fraud, elderly investors, financial fraud, FINRA, FINRA investigation, howell, investor protection, jeff, jeffrey and UBS
BROKER REPORT: Anthony Librizzi Suspended By FINRA
The investment and securities fraud attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints regarding L.O. Thomas & Co , Inc. financial advisor Anthony Librizzi.
According to his BrokerCheck report maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"), Mr. Librizzi was most recently with Wells Fargo Advisors LLC before resigning amid allegations.
FINRA records indicate that Mr. Librizzi resigned from Wells Fargo voluntarily in 2013 amid allegations that he "accepted $8,000 from a client."
Tagged: anthony, Broker Report, BrokerCheck, FINRA, FINRA investigation, librizzi, lo thomas & co and wells fargo
Updated: September 29, 2016 12:43 pm
BROKER REPORT: Financial Advisor Christopher B. Ariola
The securities fraud attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints against stockbroker Christopher B Ariola. Mr. Ariola was last employed and registered with Financial Telesis, Inc., an Aliso Viejo broker-dealer, from November 2012 to September 2014, according to his publicly available BrokerCheck, as maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He was previously registered with Bay Mutual Financial LLC from September 2004 to September 2012, according to BrokerCheck records.
FINRA filed Disciplinary Proceeding No. 2012034139101 against Mr. Ariola on August 25, 2016 alleging that he recommended that three elderly retiree investors invest a "substantial portion of their limited retirement assets in certain gold and energy stocks." The Complaint further alleged that these recommendations were unsuitable because they were not appropriate given each investor's respective financial circumstances, investment objectives and low risk tolerances, and because the recommendations resulted in each account becoming concentrated in gold and energy stocks. Gold is a commodity, which like energy stocks, can be traded. Both commodities and energy stocks tend tobe risky investments and can lead to large losses.
According to his BrokerCheck report, Mr. Ariola has been the subject of four customer complaints. The latest customer complaint led to a FINRA arbitration proceeding, according to BrokerCheck records. The BrokerCheck records reveal that the customer alleged churning and unsuitability. Churning is generally defined as excessive trading by the broker in the client's account to generate commissions. FINRA Rules require that recommendations made by the broker to the customer be suitable. This means that the broker must consider the investor's age, investment experience, age, tax status, other investments, as well as other factors when making a recommendation to buy or sell securities.
Tagged: bay mutual financial, Broker Report, broker-dealer, BrokerCheck, christopher ariola, churning, elderly investors, excessive trading, financial advisors, financial telesis, FINRA, FINRA investigation, investor fraud and suitability
Updated: May 24, 2018 11:23 am
FINRA Files Complaint Against Broker Craig Dima for Unauthorized Trades in a Senior Citizen's Securities Account
It was reported by Reuters on August 20, 2016 that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) filed a complaint against a broker alleging that they broker engaged in unauthorized trading in the account of a senior aged investor.
According to the Reuters Article, the investor was a 72 years old retiree, and the broker, Craig Dima allegedly charged $376,000 in fees and commissions after making repeated unauthorized trades of the investor's blue-chip Colgate-Palmolive Co. stock. The Reuters article further detailed that the inappropriate trading costed the client a further $127,000 in lost dividend payments, as well as a further $72,000 in losses when the broker sold the stock and then purchased it back later at a higher price. According to the Reuter's article, the trading in the client's account made up about 80% of Mr. Dima's annual commissions.
Mr. Dima is currently employed and registered with the brokerage firm K.C. Ward Financial, out of Ronkonkoma, New York, and has been registered there since September 2009, according to his publicly available BrokerCheck report. Prior to working at K.C. Ward Financial, he was registered with American Capital Partners, LLC from November 2008 to December 2009, Andrew Garrett, Inc. from November 2004 to November 2008 and L.H. Ross & Company, Inc. from May 2003 to December 2004, according to Mr. Dima's BrokerCheck records.
Tagged: account, american capital partners, broker, broker-dealer, churning, complaint, elderly investors, FINRA, FINRA investigation, investment fraud, kc ward financial, Meyers Pollock Robbins, securites, senior citizen, sterling financial investment group, suitability and unauthorized trading
FINRA Fines UBS Financial Services, Inc. $250,000 For Mutual Fund Supervisory Failures
Generally speaking, it's usually not a good thing when when a company is fined for similar conduct multiple times.
Just this month, UBS Financial Services, Inc. submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent No. 2013038351701 (AWC) that detailed a $250,000 fine for failures in supervision regarding sales of mutual fund shares to investors. According to the AWC, for a four year period, from approximately 2009 to 2013, UBS failed to provide sales charge waivers to customers entitled to waivers through rights of reimbursement. The AWC detailed that this conduct created a violation of FINRA Rule 2010 (Standards of Commercial Honor and Principles of Trade).
Mutual fund class A shares generally require the investor to pay an upfront sales charge, except where the mutual fund waives the charge, such as when the mutual fund is purchased with a right of reimbursement. The AWC detailed that investors sometimes purchase class A shares with right of reimbursement when they reinvest proceeds from earlier redemptions of Class A shares in the same fund or fund family within a specific time period.
Posted in: Problems at Broker Dealers
Tagged: broker-dealer, Class A, financial advisors, financial industry regulatory authority, FINRA, FINRA investigation, fraud, investments, investors, mutual fund, shares, ubs financial services and unsuitability
FINRA Announces Complaint Filed Against Hank Mark Werner Alleging Churning of Elderly and Blind Client's Account
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today a complaint filed against Hank Marker Werner for allegations including securities fraud for churning the account of a senior-aged blind widow customer and for making excessive and unsuitable trading recommendations in a News Release.
According to his publicly available BrokerCheck report records maintained by FINRA, Mr. Werner was employed and licensed by Legend Securities, Inc. from December 2012 to March 2016. Prior to working at Legend Securities, Inc., he was employed by Liberty Partners Financial Services, LLC from July to December 2012, Brookstone Securities, Inc. from March 2011 to June 2012, and Alexander Capital, LP from November 2009 to March 2011, per Mr. Werner's BrokerCheck report.
FINRA's News Release detailed that Mr. Werner allegedly engaged in a deceptive and fraudulent scheme by churning the elderly client's over the course of three years "to maximize his compensation by charging more than $243,000 in commissions, while causing the customer approximately $184,000 in net losses." The News Release also stated:
Posted in: elder fraud and Investment Fraud
Tagged: alexander capital, blind, broker, broker-dealer, brookstone securities, churning, elder fraud, elderly, excessive trading, financial advisors, FINRA, FINRA investigation, hank mark werner, investment fraud, legend securities, liberty partners financial services, news release, over trading, unsuitable and unsuitable investments
BROKER REPORT: Joseph Amalfitano of Raymond James
The investment fraud attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints regarding Raymond James Financial Services broker Joseph Amalfitano of Malvern, PA. According to his BrokerCheck report maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"), Mr. Amalfitano moved to Raymond James after stints at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Amalfitano was recently the subject of two customer complaints since 2008, per FINRA records.
According to his BrokerCheck, in 2012, Mr. Amalfitano was alleged to have "maintained an unsuitable concentration of Bank of America stock" in customers' accounts. Overconcentration can be dangerous since it has the potential to create higher risk and volatility of an account when compared to a more balanced, diversified portfolio. FINRA records indicate this case was settled.
Tagged: amalfitano, broker fraud, broker malpractice, Broker Report, BrokerCheck, concentration, FINRA, FINRA investigation, investment fraud, investor fraud, overconcentration, raymond james, securities fraud, unauthorized trading, unsuitability and unsuitable investments
Product Spotlight: AR GLOBAL REITs
Malecki Law's team of investment attorneys are interested in speaking with those who invested in AR Global REITs. Industry analysts and consultants believe that investors in a number of AR Global-sponsored real estate investment trusts (REITs) are in danger of having their distributions cut, per InvestmentNews.
Specifically, investors in American Realty Capital Global Trust II, American Realty Capital New York City REIT, American Finance Trust, American Realty Capital Hospitality Trust, American Realty Capital Retail Centers of America, Healthcare Trust, and Realty Finance Trust may be at risk, according to the report.
The problem is said to stem from the MFFO (modified funds from operations a/k/a cash flow) at seven of AR Global's REITs. The MFFO of these seven funds reportedly failed to match or exceed their distributions. In simple terms, this would mean that the funds failed to take in as much as they were distributing. Such a situation has the potential to mean big trouble for investors including distribution cuts and rapid decline in asset value – i.e., less income and large losses to the principal.
Posted in: Featured Investigations, Investment Fraud and Problems at Broker Dealers
Tagged: American Finance Trust, American Realty Capital Global Trust II, American Realty Capital Hospitality Trust, American Realty Capital New York City REIT, American Realty Capital Retail Centers of America, AR GLobal, broker malpractice, fiduciary duty, financial advisors, FINRA, FINRA investigation, Healthcare Trust, investment fraud, investments, investor fraud, real estate investment trust, Realty Finance Trust, reit, securities fraud, Securities law, seniors, suitability, unsuitability, unsuitable and unsuitable investments
BROKER REPORT: FINRA Files Case Against Financial Advisor Richard William Martin for Recommending Non-Traditional ETFs
The securities fraud attorneys at Malecki Law are interested in hearing from investors who have complaints against stockbroker Richard William Martin. Mr. Martin was most recently employed and registered from July 2009 to July 2015 with G.F. Investment Services, LLC from an office in Penang, Malaysia, according to his publicly available BrokerCheck, as maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). According to BrokerCheck records, Mr. Martin was permitted to resign amid allegations concerning FINRA's Case No. 20150445876 which "appears to be centered around ETF trades."
According to the FINRA Complaint, Mr. Martin violated FINRA Rules 2310 and 2111 related to suitability of recommendations by "not having a reasonable basis to recommend, for long-term holding, non-traditional exchange traded funds ('Non-traditional ETFs')." The FINRA Complaint details that Mr. Martin believed the world economy was "on the precipice of catastrophe and his customers should invest and hold Non-traditional ETFs to hedge against the impending catastrophe."
The FINRA Complaint detailed that ETF shares generally represent an interest in a portfolio of securities that tracks an underlying benchmark or index, such as the S&P 500. Non-traditional ETFs differ in that they are more complex investment products that rely on strategies, such as interest rate swap agreements, futures contract, and other derivative instruments, to attempt to return a multiple and/or inverse of an underlying benchmark. This would generally make non-traditional ETFs subject to more risk, and therefore may not be suitable for certain investors.
Posted in: Securities Fraud & Unsuitable Investments
Tagged: broker, Broker Report, broker violation, broker-dealer, etfs, FINRA, FINRA investigation, g.f. investment services, investment fraud, investments, non-traditional etfs, richard william martin, rule 2111, rule 2310, suitability and unsuitability
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(-) 108th Congress (2003-2004) (19)
(-) 550 - Health (19)
House Committee on Natural Resources (2)
(-) Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (7)
(-) Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (3)
(-) Senate Committee on the Judiciary (1)
S. 556, Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2004
Cost Estimate November 30, 2004
Cost estimate for the bill as reported by the Senate Committe on Indian Affairs on November 16, 2004
S. 1217, Keeping Seniors Safe from Falls Act of 2004
Cost Estimate October 8, 2004
Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
H.R. 2699, National Uniformity for Food Act of 2004
S. 518, Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2004
Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on September 22, 2004
S. 2526, Children's Hospital Education Equity and Research Act
S. 2283, State High Risk Pool Funding Extension Act of 2004
H.R. 918, Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act of 2004
H.R. 3858, Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2004
H.R. 3015, A bill to provide for the establishment of a controlled substance monitoring program in each state
S. 2815, Asthmatic Schoolchildren's Treatment and Health Management Act of 2004

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


These notes are only intended to assist in the general concept of how various competitions are played.
They must be read in conjunction with the Rules of Golf.
Players need to allocate full handicap strokes to each hole, as explained for Individual Stableford competition. Once players mentally determine their own par for each hole, the Individual Par competition challenges them to beat their own par. If players do exceed their par, they score a '+' (plus) for the hole. If players equal their own par, they are said to have halved or squared the hole which is scored with an 'O'. If par is not achieved, a '-' (minus) sign is recorded. At the end of the round the plus and minus signs are added and the net result written in as so many 'up', 'down' or 'all square'.


TCL Electronics stepped into Indian television market in 2016. But within a short span of about two years, TCL has achieved a strong foothold in television market by providing trending TV technologies at highly competitive price. This budget-friendly strategy has helped TCL record 120% growth in India in terms of sales volume. It is now giving a good challenge to competing brands for budget-friendly Smart Televisions.
TCL is a Chinese TV manufacturer. It boasts of being a global top-three television brand and a leading consumer electronics company having a a physical presence in more than 80 countries. As per the information I received, TCL products are available in over 160 international markets. Achieving a year-on-year growth of 37.2%, TCL's global LCD TV sales volume in H1 2018 crossed 13.17 million.
In India, TCL has achieved 120% growth in terms of sales volumes. Its big screen and 4K televisions especially are doing very well in India. TCL televisions are available online at Amazon and Flipkart, as well as at offline retail chains like Croma, Reliance Digital etc.
On 8th October, at an event held in Delhi, TCL Electronics launched two new televisions in India. Both of these are Smart Televisions. These are TCL 65X4 (65 inches display) and the S6500 Series. S6500 is available in various screen sizes. So, let's take a closer look at these TCL Smart TVs.
TCL 65X4 is a Google certified Android TV with 65 4K QLED display (3,840 x 2,160 pixels). Simply speaking, it is a big screen Smart Television with exceptional display. The 4K UHD display of this smart television also has HDR and Micro Dimming technology for better colours and better contrast. While TCL claims that the television's Quantum Dot QLED technology delivers more true-to-life colours and its MEMC (120 Hz) and TCL's proprietary algorithm add clarity to fast-moving and action-packed content.
To complement the brilliant picture quality of a 4K QLED display with a fitting sound quality, 65X4 is equipped with Harman Kardon speakers. The sound quality is further enhanced by Dolby's advanced DTS post-processing technology.
As for other vital specifications, this smart televisions has 64-bit Quad-core CPU and Dual-core GPU. It has 2.5 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. It runs on Android N. Its features include voice controls and a built-in Chromecast for casting mobile content on the television's screen. Apps like Jio Cinema, Netflix, YouTube, Hotstar, Voot, YuppTV, Eros Now etc. come pre-installed on it. As it is an Android TV, users can also install other apps from Google Play Store.
TCL 65X4 will become available at amazon.in on October 25. It's MRP is INR 1,49,990. As an introductory offer, it will be available for INR 1,09,990 on Amazon during the festive season. Soon after, 65X4 will also be made available at various partner retail outlets across India.
The TCL S6500 is a series of television available in screen sizes of 32, 40, 43, and 49 inches. The televisions of this range have the smartness of Artificial Intelligence and Google Assistant. The S6500 series of smart televisions run on Google Certified Android 8.0 Oreo. The display delivers an Ultra High Definition picture quality with HDR 10 support and Micro Dimming technology. It has Dolby Surround Sound.
S6500 televisions are equipped with IPQ engine and have 1.5 GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. Features include Google Chromecast, and white LED HD backlight.
S6500 series of Android TVs will be available in 32"/40"/43"/49" variants at various online and offline channel partners from 15th October. S6500 series is priced as INR 16990 for 32 inch, INR 24990 for 40 inch, INR 27990 for 43 inch, and INR 31990 for 43 inch televisions.
These recently launched TCL smart televisions boast of possessing various powerful technologies, specifications, and innovative features. But talking simply, the best thing about them is their highly competitive pricing. It's their cost that makes them an attractive option for consumers interested in good-quality, yet budget-friendly smart televisions.
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Q: opengl draw in 2D coordinates instead of vertex coordinate system how can i draw in 2D coordinates instead of vertex coordinate system, as this =>
drawPoint(50 , 100 ,  0.01f);

this is my code , a background texture and a point
static void Draw(void)
{
    glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
    double w = glutGet( GLUT_WINDOW_WIDTH ) / 300.0;
    double h = glutGet( GLUT_WINDOW_HEIGHT ) / 300.0;
    glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
    glLoadIdentity();
    glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
    glLoadIdentity();

    glOrtho( -1 * w/2, 1 * w/2, -1 * h/2, 1 * h/2, w/2, -h/2);
    glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
    glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-w/2.f, -h/2.f,  0.0f);
    glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( w/2.f, -h/2.f,  0.0f);
    glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( w/2.f,  h/2.f,  0.0f);
    glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-w/2.f,  h/2.f,  0.0f);
    glEnd();

  drawPoint(50 , 100 ,  0.01f);
  glutSwapBuffers();
}

the function DrawPoint => draws circles
void drawPoint(GLfloat x, GLfloat y, GLfloat radius){
    glDisable(GL_LIGHTING);
    glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
    int i;
    int triangleAmount = 20; //# of triangles used to draw circle

    //GLfloat radius = 0.8f; //radius
    GLfloat twicePi = 2.0f * 3.1415;

    glBegin(GL_TRIANGLE_FAN);
    glColor3f(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
        glVertex2f(x, y); // center of circle
        for(i = 0; i <= triangleAmount;i++) {
            glVertex2f(
                    x + (radius * cos(i *  twicePi / triangleAmount)),
                y + (radius * sin(i * twicePi / triangleAmount))
            );
        }
    glEnd();
    glEnable(GL_LIGHTING);
    glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
}

So I don't know if I have to change the DrawPoint function.
UPDATE : this is my main source
 glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGB);
    glutInit(&argc, argv);
    glutInitWindowSize(widthX, heightY);
    glutCreateWindow("prg");
    glutReshapeFunc(resize);
    glutDisplayFunc(Draw);
    glutKeyboardFunc(keyPressed);
    glutKeyboardUpFunc(keyUp);
    texture[0] = SOIL_load_OGL_texture
    (
        "img.jpg",
        SOIL_LOAD_AUTO,
        SOIL_CREATE_NEW_ID,
        SOIL_FLAG_INVERT_Y | SOIL_FLAG_NTSC_SAFE_RGB | SOIL_FLAG_COMPRESS_TO_DXT
    );
    glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture[0]);
    glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D);
    glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.5f);
    glEnable(GL_POINT_SMOOTH);
    glHint(GL_POINT_SMOOTH_HINT, GL_NICEST);
    glHint(GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL_NICEST);
    glutMainLoop();

UPDATE 2 :
if in this way is impossible, is there a method that transform an x and y into a vector ?, so for example :
DrawPoint(VectConvert(50),VectConvert(100),0.01f);

A: I am not sure if this is right answer. I edited your code, try this:
static void Draw(void)
{
    glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);

    // You divided your window width and height by 300 which seems to be wrong
    double w = glutGet( GLUT_WINDOW_WIDTH );
    double h = glutGet( GLUT_WINDOW_HEIGHT );

    glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
    glLoadIdentity();
    glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
    glLoadIdentity();

    // Create ortho 2d
    // The last two parameters are near and far planes
    // Since you are using only 2D you should keep them at 0.0 and 1.0
    glOrtho( -1 * w/2.0, 1 * w/2.0, -1 * h/2.0, 1 * h/2.0, 0.0f, 1.0f);
    // Mirror Y axis
    glScalef(1, -1, 1);
    // Now your coordinate system starts at center of your window
    // You need to move it to the left top corner
    glTranslatef(-(w/2.0f), -(h/2.0f), 0.0f);

    texture[0] = SOIL_load_OGL_texture // load an image file directly as a new OpenGL texture
    (
        "img.jpg",
        SOIL_LOAD_AUTO,
        SOIL_CREATE_NEW_ID,
        SOIL_FLAG_INVERT_Y | SOIL_FLAG_NTSC_SAFE_RGB | SOIL_FLAG_COMPRESS_TO_DXT
    );

    glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, texture[0]);
    glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
    // You need also to mirror your Y coordinates for texture
    glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(0.0f , 0.0f, 0.0f);
    glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(w    , 0.0f, 0.0f);
    glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(w    , h   , 0.0f);
    glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(0.0f , h   , 0.0f);
    glEnd();
    drawPoint(50 , 100 ,  0.01f);
    glutSwapBuffers();
}

Also, do not load your texture from file every frame. It is overkill for your GPU.

A: Just set an ortogonal projection as you need it:
 glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
 glLoadIdentity();
 glOrtho( 0, w, h, 0, -1, 1);
 glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
 glLoadIdentity();

Please note a few things here:

*

*This assumes that w and h are actually the width and height of your viewport.

*I put this into the GL_PROJECTION matrix. That is where this stuff belongs. (Although it might not be critical in your use case).

*I set the near and far planes to -1 and 1 respectively. I don't know what you actually will need, but your values didn't make any sense.

*That will set up a coordinate system where the pixel centers are actually exactly between two integer values, and integer values denote the middle between two adjacent pixels, so (0,0) will be the top left corner of the top left pixel, and (w,h) the bottom right corner of the bottom left pixel.

*You also could set up a mapping that maps the integers to the pixel centers, like glOrtho(-0.5, w-0.5, h-0.5, -0.5, -1, 1). Now (0,0) is the center of the top left pixel, and (w,h) is outside the screen, (w-1,h-1) is the center of the bottom right pixel.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Armistice Day Event
ByHeart of England School
Students at Heart of England School commemorated the anniversary of Armistice Day on Monday.
The event involved live singing from a school choir, a two-minute silence and the Last Post which was broadcast live to the whole school from our radio studio and heard in every classroom and on every computer. Teachers were able to connect to the sound systems in each room so everyone could hear it.
At a few minutes to 11 o'clock, the choir of about forty students began to perform Remember accompanied on the piano by student Rosie. Immediately afterwards there was an observation of two minutes of silence. The event was concluded by Year 11 student Becky playing the Last Post beautifully on the cornet. Becky has just earned a place with a scholarship at Chetham's School of Music where she wants to study orchestral music.
The choir sang with lots of feeling and with very subtle changes in tone; a flawless rendition of the remembrance song which was totally appropriate to the event, bringing out the meaning of the words.
Armistice day commemorates the end of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I and is commemorated on 11 November every year which this year fell on a Sunday. Many countries around the world observe this day as a Day of Remembrance of those who died in this conflict and other conflicts since the first World War. The 11 November 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which came into effect at 11am and was the official end of the first World War.
Afterward, the principal Miss Hughes-Williams came to the studio to tell the students how moving the event was. "You could hear a pin drop!" she said about the silence and focus of everyone listening. "The piece you sang was everywhere throughout the whole school. I couldn't be more proud of your contribution."


Expertly designed for those who passionate remote adventure, jungle trekking, camping especially well proposed to travelers who want to experience local culture, learn more about endangered wildlife, bird watching as well as love the friendly nature. The private tour also includes marvelous Angkor complex and the great lake of Tonle Sap.
We continue to an active pagoda where you have an overnight in the camp. Dinner is arranged by the locals near our camp.
Breakfast is arranged by the locals. We venture on a motorbike along the pilgrim path to reveal the hidden Sra Damrei (The Elephant Pond) in the thick jungle, constructed during Angkor time and was the part of lost city. Next, amazingly trek through the jungle trail to explore the friendly nature, the surroundings, hear birds singing and feel the tranquility. The trekking takes approximately 3.5 hours before we reach our waiting car then drive to Koh Ker area where you will have an overnight in the camp. Dinner is arranged by the locals near our camp.
Breakfast is arranged by the locals. We set off to visit the remnants of the Khmer Empire's capital, the Pre-Angkorian temple "Koh Ker", constructed in the late 9th century. Unlock the amazing pyramid architecture unparalleled is the seven‑tiered and 36-metre high, a double sanctuary (Prasat Thom), follows a linear plan and not a concentric one like most of the temples of the Khmer kings. Continue driving to explore Beng Mealea jungle temple it's where we enjoy walking within the lush jungle to discover this lost temple. Since the temple was constructed during the reign of king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century until then it's never been restored again. It provides wonderful adventure, interesting history and is beautifully considered as the best less touristy spot for those who want to feel the tranquility and capture picturesque photos. Have lunch at a local restaurant then transfers back to the hotel in Siem Reap.for refreshment and have a short break before we leave for an hour of full body massage.
Breakfast is at hotel. At 7.30am, we're journeying out of the hassle city, passing beautiful countryside, rice paddies with some birds, vegetable farms, stilt houses, see animals, cattle and other interesting rural activities. Once we arrived at Boeung Pearaing, we process to embark a local boat to explore some species of rare endangered water-birds including Comb Duck, Purple Swamphen, Cormorant, Darter, Purple and Grey Heron, Adjutant, Lesser Whistling Duck, Black Headed Ibis etc.
Note: You won't see all those birds above but depends on time of the year and weather condition.
This is a great opportunity to learn more about conservative bird area, nesting, breeding and migration. The boat tour is about 1½ hour or less depending how you're interested in tour. On the way back, we stop to visit Chreav Market with interesting of local trades before returning we return hotel and have free time.


text:
Q: Sending a `create` RPC message to SurrealDB returns a "There was a problem with the database: The table does not exist" error I'm debugging some tests for the .NET SurrealDB library. I can open connections to the database just fine but when I send a create RPC message to the db (docker container) it returns an error that reads "There was a problem with the database: The table does not exist"
TRACE tungstenite::protocol Received message {"id":"02B70C1AFE5D","async":true,"method":"create","params":["users",{"username":"john","password":"test123"}]}
...
16 13:46:45] DEBUG surrealdb::dbs Executing: CREATE $what CONTENT $data RETURN AFTER

surreal_1  | [2022-09-16 13:46:45] TRACE surrealdb::dbs Iterating: CREATE $what CONTENT $data RETURN AFTER

code: -32000, message: "There was a problem with the database: The table does not exist"
Any idea why that would happen? The table, of course, doesn't exist since I'm trying to create it. Would there be another reason in the Surreal code that such an error would be returned?

A: The error message was a red herring. The actual issue was that the client had an error that didn't allow it to sign in correctly so it wasn't authorized to make changes to the database.
Offending code:
            // The table doesn't exist
            Err(Error::TbNotFound) => match opt.auth.check(Level::Db) {
                // We can create the table automatically
                true => {
                    run.add_and_cache_ns(opt.ns(), opt.strict).await?;
                    run.add_and_cache_db(opt.ns(), opt.db(), opt.strict).await?;
                    run.add_and_cache_tb(opt.ns(), opt.db(), &rid.tb, opt.strict).await
                }
                // We can't create the table so error
                false => Err(Error::TbNotFound), // Wrong Error Message
            },

This has since been fixed and should now return a query permission error if the client is unauthorized.


A little while back I wrote about my Python xchat script to play sound alerts.
But one thing that's been annoying me about it -- it was a problem with the old perl alert script too -- is the repeated sounds. If lots of twitter updates come in on the Bitlbee channel, or if someone pastes numerous lines into a channel, I hear POPPOPPOPPOPPOPPOP or repetitions of whatever the alert sound is for that type of message. It's annoying to me, but even more so to anyone else in the same room.
It would be so much nicer if I could have it play just one repetition of any given alert, even if there are eight lines all coming in at the same time. So I decided to write a Python class to handle that.
But of course, it would be better to do it all from Python without requiring an external process like aplay. So I looked into that first.
Sadly, it turns out Python audio support is a mess. The built-in libraries are fairly limited in functionality and formats, and the external libraries that handle sound are mostly unmaintained, unless you want to pull in a larger library like pygame. After a little web searching I decided that maybe an aplay subprocess wasn't so bad after all.
Okay, so how should I handle the subprocesses? I decided the best way was to keep track of what sound was currently playing. If another alert fires for the same sound while that sound is already playing, just ignore it. If an alert comes in for a different sound, then wait() for the current sound to finish, then start the new sound.
# Current process hasn't finished yet. Is this the same sound?
# A repeat of the currently playing sound.
# Don't play it more than once.
# Trying to play a different sound.
# Wait on the current sound then play the new one.
Finally, it's a good idea when exiting the program to check whether any aplay process is running, and wait() for it. Otherwise, you might end up with a zombie aplay process.
I don't know if xchat actually closes down Python objects gracefully, so I don't know whether the __del__ destructor will actually be called. But at least I tried. It's possible that a context manager might be more reliable.
The full scripts are on github at pyplay.py for the basic SoundPlayer class, and chatsounds.py for the xchat script that includes SoundPlayer.
Bug fixes? Why would we bother to ship bug fixes?
I've been running on Ubuntu's latest, "Gutsy gibbon", for maybe a month now. Like any release, it has its problems that I've needed to work around. Like many distros, these problems won't be fixed before the next release. But unlike other distros, it's not just lack of developer time; it turns out Ubuntu's developers point to an official policy as a reason not to fix bugs.
Take the case of the aumix bug. Aumix just plain doesn't work in gutsy. It prints, "aumix: SOUND_MIXER_READ_DEVMASK" and exits.
This turns out to be some error in the way it was compiled. If you apt-get the official ubuntu sources, build the package and install it yourself, it works fine. So somehow they got a glitch during the process of building it, and produced a bad binary.
It's an easy fix, right? Just rebuild the binary from the source in the repository, and push it to the servers.
This bug was nominated for Gutsy but does currently not qualify for a 7.10 stable release update (SRU) and the nomination is therefore declined. According the the SRU policy, the fix should already be deployed and tested in the current development version before an update to the stable releases will be considered. [ ... ] See: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates.
Users of the official release, in contrast, expect a high degree of stability. They use their Ubuntu system for their day-to-day work, and problems they experience with it can be extremely disruptive. Many of them are less experienced with Ubuntu and with Linux, and expect a reliable system which does not require their intervention.
Clearly aumix isn't a security vulnerability or a loss of user data. But I could make a good argument that a package that doesn't work ... ever ... for anyone ... constitutes a severe regression from the previous version of that package.
Ubuntu apparently thinks that users get used to packages not working, and grow to like it. I guess that if you actually fixed packages that you broke, that would be disruptive to users of the stable release.
I'm trying to picture these Ubuntu target users, who embrace regressions and get upset when something that doesn't work at all gets fixed so that it works as it did in past releases. I can't say I've ever actually met a user like that myself. But evidently the Ubuntu Updates Team knows better.
Update: I just have to pass along Dave's comment: "When an organization gets to the point where it spends more energy on institutional processes for justifying not fixing something than on just fixing it -- it's over."
Update: Carla Schroder has also written about this.
Today someone pointed me toward a Gentoo wiki page that led me to Fancy Beeper Daemon. This is a small kernel module that adds a device, /dev/beep, which outputs a byte every time there's a beep. You can write a very simple daemon (several samples in Python are included with the module) which reads /dev/beep and plays the sound of your choice.
among the includes at the beginning of beep.c. After that, it compiled and installed just fine. Since it's a kernel module, it works in consoles as well as under X.
Finally, based on the nice samples that came with the module, I wrote my own very simple Python daemon, playbeepd, that uses aplay.
Lots of fun! I don't know how much I'll use it, but it's good to have the option of custom beep sounds.
Cool -- moray on #debian-women worked with me a little on midi, and I finally have timidity working!
(or wherever you unpack the tarball, as long as it contains "instruments") then voila, timidity starts working.
So I played with denemo a little (found out how to enter a chord) in brief spurts, between long interludes in the house because it's TOO HOT out here in the office.


Val & Kar rent a car company offers you cars (manual and automatic transmission), vans, 4x4, passengers transfers in Kardjali and surrounding areas 24/7/365. We can support you with the vehicle you need depending on your needs and requirements starting with a small town car, moving further with economical rental cars, vans and coaches for all sorts of transfers, business cars, SUVs etc, protected with fully comprehensive insurance . The safety of our trip is guaranteed by our mechanics, who take everyday care for the vehicles.
The place had been a settlement as early as 6 000 years ago. Prehistoric remains of human life as well as ample examples of the presence of Thracian, Roman and Byzantine culture have been found plus medieval Bulgarian and late – Ottoman remains. The first historical finds have been found to come from the days of the Thracian tribe "koelaleti", subdued by the Romans during the 1 st century. Then came the Slavic tribe of the "smoleni" and during the Middle ages frequently shifted under Bulgarian or Byzantine rule. The town locality is a heir to the medieval Bulgarian town "Manyak" that demonstrated an architectural style, similar to that of Preslav, Messemvria and Velico Tarnovo. During the middle of the 17 th century, the town was ruled by Kardjali Alla – a noted war chieftain – and it is accepted, that the town was named after him. The first mosque was raised here in 1750. During the 18 th century the town was roamed by the bloodthirsty "Kardjali" gangs, which ruined not one and two prospering Bulgarian villages. In January 1878, the Don Cossacks of General Chernobouzov freed the town. On 8 th October 1912, the soldiers of colonel Delov's regiment freed the town for the second and last time. Gradually, Kardjali became the "tobacco warehouse of the eastern Rhodopes and later a center for the development of Bulgarian nonferrous metallurgy.


text:
Ancognatha — род пластинчатоусых жуков из подсемейства Dynastinae. Неотропика. 22 вида от США до Аргентины.

Описание
Среднего размера жуки (около 2 см, некоторые крупные, например,  A. matilei Dechambre из Колумбии имеет длину до 36 мм). Основная окраска коричневато-чёрная. Встречаются в предгорных и горных лесах (в Южной Америке до 4000 м, Перу и Чили). От близких родов отличается следующими признаками: ментум на вершине выемчатый (выемка достигает уровня прикрепления нижнегубных щупиков), галеа максилл без крупных зубцов (или они очень мелкие). Самцы отличаются увеличенными передними ногами и крупными коготками.

Виды

 Ancognatha atacazo (Kirsch, 1885)
 Ancognatha aymara Mondaca, 2016
 Ancognatha castanea Erichson , 1847
 Ancognatha corcuerai Figueroa & Ratcliffe, 2016
 Ancognatha erythrodera (Blanchard, 1846)
 Ancognatha falsa Arrow, 1911
 Ancognatha gracilis Endrödi, 1966
 Ancognatha horrida Endrödi, 1967
 Ancognatha humeralis (Burmeister, 1847)
 Ancognatha hyltonscottae Martínez, 1965
 Ancognatha jamesoni Murray, 1857
 Ancognatha lutea Erichson , 1847
 Ancognatha manca (LeConte, 1866)
 Ancognatha matilei Dechambre, 2000
 Ancognatha quadripunctata Bates, 1887
 Ancognatha rugulosa Endrödi, 1971
 Ancognatha scarabaeoides Erichson , 1847
 Ancognatha sellata Arrow, 1911
 Ancognatha ustulata (Burmeister, 1847)
 Ancognatha veliae Pardo-Locarno et al., 2006
 Ancognatha vexans Ratcliffe, 1992
 Ancognatha vulgaris Arrow, 1911

Примечания

Литература

Ссылки
 Ratcliffe B.C. (1985). Key to the New World Genera of Adult Cyclocephalini.
 BioLib Taxon profile — Cyclocephalini Laporte de Castelnau, 1840

Дупляки

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Capitalism: it naturally devolves towards ruthless monopolistic unaccountable forms. Ugh! But short of Smashing The System, there is at least one good corporate model—the co-op. Now for some terrible news on that front.
True Value is a chain of more than 4,000 hardware stores around the world. It is a cooperative, meaning simply that it is collectively owned by the individual retail store owners, rather than being owned by, for example, a faceless outside investment firm who cares about nothing but the bottom line. This does not mean that True Value hardware is the vanguard of the socialist revolution, but it does go to show that a thoroughly middle American company can operate at large scale, for many decades, under a decentralized cooperative ownership model. It is simply a living demonstration of the fact that capitalism need not operate in its most rapacious and inhuman form; it can, instead, with collective agreement, be operated in a somewhat less horrible way, in which individual small business owners are empowered.
Ah... cancel that. True Value has been sold to a private equity firm.
Yes... it is true that a co-op model of investment requires cooperative investment. Now that True Value has sold control of the company to Acon Investments, it will finally, after 70 long years, be exactly like every other motherfucking company.
As we were saying, capitalism tends to devolve to ruthless monopolistic unaccountable forms.


text:
Home»Culture»RZA Rewrites History With New Ice Cream Truck Song
RZA Rewrites History With New Ice Cream Truck Song
Changing the racist popular ice cream jingle is its own protest
Rhett Butler August 15, 2020
Image Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Wu-Tang Clan member, Raekwon recently celebrated the 25 year anniversary of his classic album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…
On the project was the catchy ode to femininity in the guise of gelato appropriately entitled, Ice Cream. Now the producer of that track and founder of Wu-Tang, the RZA, has elevated his impact on the frozen confection.
We're dropping a different kind of track: a new ice cream truck jingle. Sound UP to hear why I collabed with @GoodHumor.
Check out the full track here: https://t.co/KTXx2Dd9xT #GoodHumorPartner pic.twitter.com/9SXxvuTGCu
— RZA! (@RZA) August 13, 2020
The Abbott is restoring the "good" in Good Humor by partnering with the ice cream brand for a new jingle as a free alternative to the well-known and problematic tune "Turkey in the Straw" aka "N****r Love A Watermelon."
The rapper-producer unveiled the catchy new song last Thursday in a video acknowledging the racist history of the original song, which has long been associated with minstrel shows and racist imagery.
"Remember that ice cream jingle?" RZA says in a promo video introducing his tune. "Of course — we all know it. I'm not gonna play it right now, though, because we come to find out that it has racist roots.
"But check this out — Good Humor, they called me up and they was like, 'We gotta do something about this, Riz. We can change the dynamics. We can make a new ice cream jingle for a new era.'"
"Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!" merits the distinction of the most racist song title in America. Released in March 1916 by Columbia Records, it was written by actor Harry C. Browne and played on the familiar depiction of black people as mindless beasts of burden greedily devouring slices of watermelon.
Browne simply used the well-known melody of the early 19th century song "Turkey in the Straw," which dates to the even older and traditional British song "The (Old) Rose Tree." The tune was brought to America's colonies by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled along the Appalachian Trail and added lyrics that mirrored their new lifestyle.
However, the song itself was first performed (and gained popularity) in American minstrel shows in the 1800s. Some songs using its same melody contained highly offensive, racist lyrics," Good Humor explains on its website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=broo2NZmiDE
Good Humor is also "calling on ALL drivers to STOP playing 'Turkey in the Straw' immediately." The company wants drivers to use RZA's jingle, which Good Humor has released for free.
In addition, it has been added "to industry standard ice cream truck music boxes" starting this month.
Good Humor has laid out a commitment to racial equality and racial justice. They recognize that ending systemic racism and social injustice is a challenge that requires multiple interventions.
"Racial issues are human rights issues and everyone has a critical role to play in creating systemic change", Good Humor said via statement. "We know that changing a song alone will not solve racism, but it is one immediate and simple step we can take.
"We are proud to be part of Unilever and its family of brands who have pledged more than $8 million in 2020 to organizations and activists working for social justice and racial equality including Black Lives Matter, National Urban League, National Bail Fund Network and The Bail Project."
"We wanted to make a melody that includes all communities — that's good for every driver, every kid," RZA continues. "And I'm proud to say, for the first time in a long time, a new ice cream truck jingle will be made available to trucks all across the country in perpetuity. That means forever, you know what I mean? Like Wu-Tang is forever. And I will assure you that this one is made with love."
RZA always said that Wu-Tang was for the children. Now he proved it.
Good Humor RZA Turkey In The Straw
Michael Rappaport's Privilege Bled All Over Kevin Durant's Brand


text:
Q: CURRENT_RPC_CONTEXT.get() must not be null Written the Integration test case for testing Corda Flows through API class as:
val api=ProjectApi(mockNode1.rpcOps)
val message = "some input message"
val resp: Response=api.publishSSI(message)
assertEquals(resp.status, 201,"Failed to publish SSI")

But getting CURRENT_RPC_CONTEXT.get() must not be null exception while starting corda flow inside api.publishSSI() method.
what could be the cause?

A: You can't test the API by manually constructing it in this way. When the API is set up, some additional context is passed in, which is lacking here.

A: You need to use the RPC client API to connect to the node. You can find more details here: https://docs.corda.net/tutorial-clientrpc-api.html


text:
Written by Anthony Day
Welcome to the second weekly interview from the Sustainable Futures Report. We're talking about the search engine that plants trees.
My guest this time is Christian Kroll, who is the CEO of Ecosia. It's a sustainable search engine because it plants trees. A search engine which plants trees, tell me more.
Yeah. So it basically works like any other search engine does so you type in your search queries, and when you hit the search button then we show you search results. The big difference though is that we use the profits that we're generating from the searches to finance tree planting projects around the world. So whilst other search engines basically pay money to their shareholders, we pay money to Mother Earth, and this is how you can, by searching with us instead of other search engines, basically contribute to reforesting our planet. And we have a lot of users who are doing that so that's how we already managed 10 of millions of trees.
Right, okay. So did you set up Ecosia as a way of supporting tree planting and regenerating nature, or did you set up a search engine and then think let's find a way of offsetting your carbon footprint? Because even search engines have carbon footprints, don't they?
Yeah, for me when I started the company, it was actually, after I finished university and I wanted to do something meaningful with my life but I didn't really know what to do. And I did a longer trip around the world where I spent almost one and a half years. Most of the time living in developing countries, I observed how unfair our world is and also how much we're destroying our planet, and how much climate change will be a problem. So that was in 2006 2007, it was not so such a big topic back then, as it is today, but for me that was kind of the revelation that this is what I need to dedicate my life to, and before that I was doing a little bit of online, build a few online websites so I had a little bit of exposure to to search technology so I knew a little bit about that that market. And I realised I can use that knowledge to actually have a very very meaningful impact on people's lives on our biodiversity and also on climate change. So the motivation came really from that I wanted to do as much good as possible. And I realised that search engines are a great way of doing that. And so what I sometimes like to say is that we're not planting trees to make money but we're making money to plant trees so we need the other way around. And the one decision that I did three years ago was actually to turn, because I want to give basically all of the shares that I'm owning and also my partner's owning of because they give that to foundation to make sure that, because it can never be sold and it's also impossible to extract any profits from the company. So by that we make sure that the purpose of the company to reforest our planet is always that that's the key mission, and of course we have to be a profitable business to do so. But it's not about profit maximisation that was, that is very important to me.
Okay. We've got to the stage now where people don't even bother to say Let's search the internet they say let's Google something. How big are you in relation to Google as a search engine? Obviously Google's got much wider interests but where do you figure?
Yeah so I sometimes like to say that we're Europe's biggest search engine. For which sounds really impressive but actually that means we only have around 1% market share in our most important markets, Germany, France, the UK for example. It's roughly 1% and 97% usually is Google's market share, so really tiny compared to Google. And that's a problem. So I think that's very unfortunate. I would like to have more competitors to be honest. And also, that's, I think, not only a problem for us but I think a problem for society. So if you have not saying that Google is an evil company but it's extremely powerful, and a lot of people are basing their decisions on web searches, and if you have basically just one source of information, and then that's a problem and that power can be abused in some areas, it is already abused in there, kind of thing. The bigger problem is that there are always those kinds of micro changes in rankings that people don't even notice so it can be very subtle. And I think we just need more diversity in the search market especially because search engines are also evolving into personal assistants that are just taking a lot of decisions for you without you actually noticing it. I think it's dangerous if you just have one player so even if it goes you wouldn't plant trees, and I would still say rather use us and Google. And also there's a privacy gain that you get with using an alternative search engine so as a Google for example we don't store your personalised searches we don't create a search profile or profile of you when you're using us at that I think also has a lot of a lot of advantages while Google is able to kind of pull together all the information that they're getting from all the services they're providing. And sometimes Google knows more about you than your own mother know right.
Okay. Well, Looking at it from a practical point of view, I do a tremendous amount of research for the podcast, and I have to say it's Google all the time, well actually it isn't actually as I've installed Ecosia, but am I getting the same results from Ecosia as I would from Google?
So you don't get exactly the same results. Much of the algorithms that we're using are based on Bing, Microsoft's search engine, so there's where this is kind of what you probably wouldn't compare it to in terms of result quality. That means sometimes you get exactly the same results. Sometimes they're slightly different. I personally would say I'm happy with 95% of my searches, but they're 5% of searches where I'm going to Google. I think they're also searches for like five to 10% of the searches were like, oh now I actually got a better result than comparing that to Google so that also happens. And I think you just need to take into account that we don't know as much about you as Google does, which means you don't get kind of the results that are perfectly tailored to you, which is maybe nice from a usability perspective but also kind of scary when you look at it from just information not relative perspective. So it's a different experience but I think for most of the users who use it it's completely like it's people often can't tell the difference that there is a difference.
Alright, let's look at the carbon footprint, there's a lot of controversy over what the carbon footprint of Google searches. A lot of people, a lot of academics and so on set between seven and 10 grams of co2 per search, Google says it's far far far smaller than that. Do you have a feel for the carbon footprint of your own operations? Do you think it's a sensible statistic?
Yeah so I think we don't know, I mean we don't know Google's numbers. I personally when I saw we did some rough calculations I think it's probably insurance rather than less than six to seven grams. So Google I think said that it's 0.2 grams per search. I think maybe that's a little bit too low, but I think somewhere in between that, if you look at Ecosia's footprint, there are two important things that are right there. First of all, we're for all the servers that we're using, so the entire infrastructure, we're using, we're using renewable energy, and the big difference there is to our big tech companies that we're not only using 100% renewable energy but we're actually investing far far more than that is renewable energy. So we're actually using, I think 300% renewable energy which might sound a little bit strange but we're putting more dirty energy out of the grid than we're actually using. So even if you just look at the energy consumption perspective, we would actually have a positive climate impact. But even if that would not be the case, even if we would not have our own renewable energy power plants. Then, we will still have a message on the positive impact of food or tree planting. So we estimate that search with Ecosia absorbs around one kilogramme of co2. Of course it depends on all of your clicking on advertisements and so on but the kind of positive effect is much much much higher than the potentially negative effects so you're comparing, even if the numbers are true the seven grams that people are saying I think it's actually rather one gram of emissions. In our case, You have one kilogramme of reduction. And that is, yes, very, very significant if you do the math. I'm personally searching dozens of times every day that means 1000s of times every year and that means actually, a few tonnes of co2, reduced from the atmosphere just because of internet searches, and the average German, I think has a footprint of 12 tonnes of co2 per year. And if you're just by searching you're changing your search engine, you can have such a positive reduction there, then you should do that it's one of the easiest things that you can do to actually have a positive impact on the climate and not saying that this is all you should do you should also fly less eat less meat, and consume less things that you don't need or have kind of a more climate friendly consumers approach I would say, but it's still one of the easiest things that you can do really
But of course it depends on your advertising, I mean, if I click a search that doesn't have any direct effect, but if more, you get more users, you get more advertisers, you get more advertising revenue and then you can have more money to invest in trees but talking about trees. Are you confident that trees are as effective as people would like to believe because as far as offsetting by using trees is concerned? A tree will take decades to actually absorb useful amounts of co2, or carbon in fact, and therefore you've got to be confident that those trees will still be there for decades and there have been cases where people have sold trees and they sell the same trees again and then they've put trees in and they've cut them down after only 20 years. So, are you confident going down the tree route, and maybe that's not the only way you're going down but are you confident that it's actually doing what it says?
Yeah, a very good point. I think there's that say in the tree planting industry there, there's a wide spectrum of how good or not good this is being done. I think we're on the positive kind of positive side of the spectrum. And also I think it needs to be highlighted that tree planting alone warns of climate change, I think that presumption is very very dangerous, it's one of the most effective things that we can do to solve climate change, of course, we also need to protect forests that are already standing that is that is a very big element. Then, if you're adding trees on top of that then kind of forest as a whole can have a very very positive impact on not only taking co2 from the atmosphere but also mitigating the effects of climate change kind of creating microclimates that are actually then livable again and helping the water cycle and so on so that is trees can be. I think actually one of our most powerful, or probably one of the three most powerful categories when it comes to solving climate change so trees are one of them, agriculture in general are how we produce food and consume food is the second one and the third one in my opinion is how we create energy and how we use energy. So, that's kind of, and then of course a lot of smaller things but if you look at the numbers, there's an initiative that I like very much, called Project Drawdown and they're highlighting the kind of 100, the 100 most impactful initiatives and trees are among many of those. Among them, I think, among the top 20 You have 12 of them, either related to food, or trees, so it's really, really significant.
But, how close are you to the tree planting? I mean do you just send money to companies which plant the trees for you or how do you do it?
Yeah, so exactly that is what you pointed out earlier, tree planting needs to be done the right way, that is what I consider our role so we're not planting the trees ourselves but we're setting the criteria. So that means that, I mean there's kind of standard criteria no child labour or no monoculture is no pesticides and so on. But then also we are helping, or we're developing together with the tree planting organisations and I think we have 16 different partners, already 16 different tree planting partners were developing the goals that they have for the projects, and also the projects themselves. And the idea is that we need to make sure that not only the trees get planted but actually that the trees survive in the long term. And that is the tricky part I would say tree planting alone is easy, but making sure that the trees actually stay standing, that's, that's the tricky part. And the way you can guarantee that is not by building a fence around them or potentially buying land or something like that, that won't work especially, we're often working in developing countries where you can't like the, the conditions are very, very different from what you would imagine when you're living in Germany so many of the things that you think you could do to protect the forest, don't apply there anyhow. What you need to do is you need to design a project in a way that it actually serves the needs of the local communities. And if you do that, then people will not cut down the trees, if they're benefiting from the trees, they will not cut down the trees. So if they, if they're benefiting from fruits or nuts that they can harvest from the trees, they will not. People will not cut down the trees, or if they know that they have, let's say, reforested a little hill right next to their village. And because of that now the kind of stream of water coming down, filling up again and they can do agriculture thanks to that, and they know that this is because they have reforested that. Then they also want to cut down the trees so you need to take that into account and take into account all needs that people have often in developing countries, people also just need firewood, you can't ignore that. So, you need to plan that into your tree planting project and need to allow people to cut down either branches or potentially even entire trees as long as they're replanting them, that's also okay. So I think you need to have this holistic approach, and if tree planting is done right and holistically. It can have really really positive impacts on the climate but also on a lot of other important, let's say, sustainable Development Goals, and it can be kind of a super superpower that that really creates a positive future and reinforcing loop, but it can also just be completely meaningless, and actually have negative impacts that's why I think there's a big spectrum and you actually need to look where on that spectrum are you, and a lot of tree planting, that's being advertised is actually not right.
Well, thank you for that, this will be very interesting. You won't be surprised as we move forward towards November, I'm asking all my interviewees, what about cop26 I'm sure you've got a view on that, what are your hopes and expectations for cop26 The upcoming climate conference.
Yeah so I think my hope is just that, overall, as humans, we agree on more ambitious climate targets that we have set up, or what's happening at the moment is just not enough. And that needs to happen in various and in various areas so of course, energy, Agriculture, but also when it comes to protecting existing forests and planting new forests, we also need to be more ambitious. And I hope that our world leaders agree on that. We also play quite an active role actually highlighting how good tree planting can be done, highlighting the importance of tree planting when it comes to solving climate change and mitigating the effects of climate change. So we actually participate in quite a lot in common and also even in the planning. What I personally hope is that also we change the mindset of, I think people and companies as well we're still in a mindset where a lot of people talk about reusing their footprints or kind of getting to carbon neutrality. I think it's too late for that. I personally think that we already need to start thinking about how we can have a maximum positive impact on the climate. And that is, so it doesn't end if you at some point carbon neutrality because that is already too late like we're already beyond the point where it's. So being sustainable is enough. So we, everybody needs to think like what is the maximum positive thing that I can do, and our world leaders need to think like that, I think big corporations need to think like that because many, if you look at Google for example, of course, Google isn't a horrible company when it when it comes to co2 emissions. They invest a bit of money into renewable energy that the minimum I would say, but they're doing a few things. But if you look at the more than 100 billion euros that they have lying around in their bank accounts, they could do a lot of good with that money, they could finance a big part of the energy transition or the agricultural transition that we need. And that would even be profitable. So I think we need to start judging people by what they could be doing and not find that people just say okay I'm, I'm offsetting my fights, I'm fine. I think that's not enough, it's really we need to be much, much more ambitious, and I think especially people from rich countries need to take more responsibility and I hope that this is going to happen. And we, because we want to be a role model for that because we're basically giving away all our money to solving, not only climate change but also other pressing, pressing problems.
Thank you very much for that, that's been very interesting. So thank you for talking to the sustainable futures report. That's Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia.
Thank you very much for having me.
Many thanks to Christian Kroll. Find Ecosia at ecosia.org
I just want to make it clear that these interviews are not advertorial. The Sustainable Futures Report accepts no advertising, sponsorship or subsidies and I have total editorial control. Of course I am always grateful for the support of my patrons who pay a small monthly contribution to help me cover my costs. If you would like to join their number you're more than welcome. Find the details at patreon.com/sfr
I'm Anthony Day.
That was the Sustainable Futures Report's weekly interview. Next Wednesday you'll hear about using AI for saving water, but before that, on Friday, listen to your regular episode.
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After hibernating for what seems like most of the year I really am looking forward to donning my brightly coloured florals over the coming months (rain, hail or snow) and in preparation of this I am kick-starting my healthy eating and fitness regime… TODAY!!
If you're one of the lucky ones who got to register for the Operation Transformation annual 5km run you've probably thought about what gear you're going to wear. But have you thought about what you're going to eat and drink?


Understanding several aspects of the global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market, Persistence Market Research has presented a well-structured analysis on several trends, challenges, opportunities, restraints and drivers impacting the growth of the global market in its recent publication "Bluetooth Beacon and iBeacon Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025)". These aspects are studied across key regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa to get a realistic picture of the entire market. The exhaustive research study on global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market also covers detailed competitive scenario which can be used to gain insights to achieve competitive edge. An in-depth market segmentation helps to assess the value and volume projections of all segments for a period of eight years from 2017 to 2025.
The global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market is influenced by several aspects such as implementation of beacons in retail stores to engage customers, consistent growth in smartphone technology, emergence of smart home automation, growing adoption of RTLS, increasing use of beacons in the hospitality sector, rising use of beacons in the industrial sector to enhance security measures, development of virtual beacons, growing penetration of internet, contactless payments and mobile marketing and increasing use of beacons in fleet management. These aspects have pushed the growth pace of the Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market to a large extent. There are certain factors that can pose a challenge to the growth of the global market. Aspects such as problems associated with Bluetooth and less awareness are posing hindrances to the growth of the global market.
The global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market is projected to grow at an enormous rate to reflect a CAGR of 91.4% throughout the forecast period to reach an estimation of more than US$ 37 Bn by the end of the assessment year (2025) from a valuation of about US$ 200 Mn in 2017.
The global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market is segmented by technology (iBeacon, eddystone and others), by end user (retail and non-retail) and by region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa).
The global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market research report has covered in-depth analysis on key players operating in the market. Key strategies, developments and innovations, product portfolio, mergers and acquisitions, geographical spread and key financials of major players in the Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market such as Texas Instruments Inc., Nordic Semiconductor ASA, Silicon Laboratories Inc., Onyx Beacon LTD, Estimote, Inc., Kontakt Micro-Location Sp. Z.o.o., BlueCats Australia Pty Limited, Gimbal, Inc., Blue Sense Networks Ltd., Accent Advanced Systems, SLU, Glimworm Beacons, Aruba Networks, Sensorberg Gmbh and Radius Networks, Inc., have been systematically crafted in this research report.


It is important to treat your jock itch as early as possible, that way you can help prevent it spreading to other parts of your body or to friends or family.
You can easily treat your jock Itch with an anti-fungal cream or with a combined anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory treatment to attack the cause of the infection.
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Canesten offers you a variety of products with different active ingredients and formulations (cream and spray) which will efficiently treat your jock itch. Click here to learn more.
Even if your jock itch seems like it's clearing up, you must complete the full course of treatment to ensure the infection is treated.


Question: What is the population of Blankenfelde-Mahlow? Answer: Blankenfelde-Mahlow, Germany (Administrative unit: Brandenburg) - last known population is ≈ 25 700 (year 2013). This was 0.032% of total Germany population. If population growth rate would be same as in period 2011-2013 (+0.32%/year), Blankenfelde-Mahlow population in 2019 would be: 26 153*.
Local time in Blankenfelde-Mahlow: 14:09 Monday GMT+2.


Celebrate the start of Summer with Gardens2you. | Monty's Potting Shed - Gardening tips and more for Gardening lovers.
Celebrate the start of Summer with Gardens2you.
So summer has officially begun (apparently) and we're celebrating with our Summer Solstice Giveaway. Your chance to WIN a garden Clock & a Sunbathing Frog Ornament.
Our cheery looking Frog Ornaments are more than happy to chill out in your garden, hopefully basking in the glorious British sunshine. We've got Two Designs available, but the guy laying on his front is the one you'll receive if you're lucky enough to win our competition.
Our range of Garden Clocks are always a favourite with customers, so we thought we'd include one in our Summer Giveaway. Made from recycled vending machine coffee cups, this wall clock not only looks great, it is also environmentally friendly. A success all round!


Don't Buy a Netgear GS105!!!
I'm talking about the Netgear ProSafe Gigabit Switch. The thing is an utter piece of garbage and has caused me no end of grief.
I bought one with the intent of using it to connect my workstation to my new OpenSolaris file server I've built. It certainly looked like an attractive package. Tiny footprint, low power, just enough ports for my small office, and Gigabit connectivity. Great, right?
That is, until I tried to use the damn thing. I've spent the last week trying numerous network adapters, OS's, drivers, on my desktop. I've tried several different Intel gigabit network adapters, and the onboard Realtek adapter on my desktop. The Realtek connects at 100 mbps, while the Intel adapters can only muster a measly 10 mbps. It's like being back in the early 90's. What the heck? My OpenSolaris machine, which has another Realtek adapter, is able to connect at a full 1000 mbps, but only after negotiating away for a while with the switch. If I connect my machines directly together, they negotiate a 1000 mbps connection in under a second. Connecting them to the switch leads to 30 or 40 seconds of trying to figure some crap out.
And before someone suggests it, yes I've checked the cabling. I've tried something like 5 or 6 different ethernet cables, all CAT 5E, all of them tested with other equipment at the office. No dice.
Funny thing is, I borrowed a Netgear GS608, a similar product but in a shinier looking case, and it had the same fricking problem!
My recommendation is to avoid these products at all costs if you value your sanity.


If you want to talk about 'one tough kitty cat', you would be talking about Bart, a one and half year old cat from Tampa, Florida. Bart was hit by a car earlier this month and the owner couldn't bring herself to bury Bart so she asked a neighbor.
The neighbor dug a shallow grave and buried Bart, but the 'cat wasn't dead'. Five days later Bart was able to claw his way out of the grave, went to the neighbor's house and was meowing for food. The neighbor who buried the cat said he was blown away because he knew 'that cat' was dead.
Bart had a broken jaw, ruptured eye and torn-up face. He was dehydrated and hungry, but alive. Bart went to the vet for surgery to have his jaw wired shut and eye removed but he should make a full recovery and be home in about six weeks.
That is one tough cat.


A wide variety of 1.2344 special steel options are available to you, such as aisi, astm. You can also choose from mold steel, free cutting steel, and valve steels. As well as from is alloy, non-alloy. And whether 1.2344 special steel is free samples, or paid samples. There are 433 1.2344 special steel suppliers, mainly located in Asia.
Mould steel. DIN 1.2344 Mould Steel. Principal Design Features This alloy is one of the Hot Work, Chromium type Tool steels. It also contains molybdenum and vanadium as strengthening agents.
West Yorkshire Steel are suppliers of this tool steel grade in diameters, plate and sawn block, cut to your requirements. As a hot work tool steel 1.2344 is suitable for a wide variety of applications. 1.2344 Tool Steel - Special steel china supplier-OTAI ... 1.2344 tool steel, we can supply the round bar, flat bar, plate and square block.
China Die Steel DIN 1.2344 Special Steel Alloy Steel, Find details about China Tool Steel, Die Steel from Die Steel DIN 1.2344 Special Steel Alloy Steel - Guangdong Changwei Metal Products Co., Ltd.
H13/1.2344/SKD61 Hot Work Special Steel Round Bar 1 Introduction AISI h13 modified form toughness high strength high quality hot working die steel, H13 is a hot work die steel, which is a steel grade formed by adding alloying elements to carbon steel.