The VHA covers nine million veterans who qualify based on their low income or, like Retcher, have a service-related medical condition. Unlike Canada's single payer system or Medicare in the U.S., it does not function primarily as an insurer, simply reimbursing private hospitals, doctors, or pharmacies.
Instead, like Britain's National Health Service, the VHA provides direct care to veterans, via salaried personnel who are not paid on a fee-for-service basis. As the nation's largest publicly funded, fully integrated health care network, it's a model of socialized medicine more far-reaching than the single-payer plans proposed by Congressman John Conyers and Senator Bernie Sanders (who is also a leading defender of the VHA).
Overall, the VHA employs 300,000 people, a third of whom are veterans themselves. Because caregivers are salaried, they have little incentive to over-treat patients. And, as a large-scale public agency, the VHA can negotiate with pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies to secure prices lower than private hospital chains get.
This combination of "socialized medicine," negotiated prices, and a salaried workforce heavily represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is not popular in a Republican Congress or in the Trump White House.
Such union-busting legislation—and more currently under consideration by Congress—has been a longtime objective of right-wing Republicans and the "Concerned Veterans of America." CVA is an astro-turf group, funded by the Koch brothers, which has gained policy-making influence within the VA since Trump's election. While CVA has few actual members, it has been quite successful in promoting negative coverage of the VHA in the media, including the New York Times and NPR.
Unlike traditional veterans organizations (American Legion, VFW, Disabled American Veterans), CVA hates the VHA and would like to see it totally privatized.
To resist this outsourcing threat, VHA union members and their allies have launched a multi-front campaign. They have held dozens of town hall meetings, local "Save the VA" rallies, and protests with labor and veterans organizations in California, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, New Mexico, Tennessee, Montana, Ohio, and Colorado. More protests are scheduled in October. Such activity, throughout the federal government, has helped AFGE sign up 5,000 new members since January.
Bay Area AFGE activists joined fellow VHA staffers, their patients, and other concerned veterans at a speak-out in San Francisco attended by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Michael Blecker, a leader of Swords to Plowshares who served in Vietnam, warned that local programs to reduce homelessness among veterans were at risk of being curtailed.
Created by Congress in 2014, Choice allows veterans who have to travel 40 miles or more to the nearest VHA facility, or who face appointment delays longer than 30 days, to use private providers instead. Federal reimbursement of these private hospitals and doctors has already drained billions from the VHA. A recent internal report revealed a pattern of over-payments to TriWest and Health Net, two private insurers hired to set up outside provider networks and process the Choice program's reimbursement claims.
Meanwhile, as a Rand Corporation study found in 2015, actual wait times at the VHA are shorter than in the private sector, and the quality of veterans' care is equal to or superior than that received by private hospital patients.
Nevertheless, Republicans seek a wholesale expansion of VHA outsourcing, to create a gold mine for the health care industry. Their goal is to steer more veterans toward non-VHA providers, including for-profit firms that would fill prescriptions, handle routine visits, or provide out-patient services like audiology and optometry.
The fight to defend quality care for veterans is uniting caregivers on the VHA staff, their patients, other veterans, and concerned community members. The fight also helps expose the ever-widening gap between President Trump's pro-veteran rhetoric and the actual impact of his policies on working class people who have served in the military and, in some cases, voted for him last fall.
At a late September protest at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, AFGE picketers were joined by other unionists, including Navy veteran Tom Edwards, who carried a sign saying, "No Vet Should Wait in Line." A retired postal worker, Edwards told Workday Minnesota that he hears plenty of rhetoric about "supporting our troops." But when they come home and need access to skilled, specialized care like the VHA provides, it's another story. "What's happening in this country is a travesty," he declared.


I was on my way to the studio, to record a new song.
I've been singing basically all of my life. I just recently started writing my own songs after I started a band called "Sona Waves" in 2014. We've played local concerts throughout the state of Florida. Currently I'm working on my first album in Los Angeles with Ali Tamposi, my aunt who's also a Grammy nominated signer-songwriter who has written for artists such as Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, One Direction, Justin Bieber, DJ Snake, and Kelly Clarkson.
How did you first become interested in singing?
Singing has always been something that has been a part of my life, my parents can't remember a time when I wasn't singing. I wrote my first song at the age of ten with Marty Cintron of the hit band "No Mercy".
How I could possibly make a living doing what I love.
At the moment I am working with Ali Tamposi out in LA, and also a Danish producer/rapper making new songs.
Having confidence in myself, and just pushing through the challenges. It's about overcoming the bump in the road.
Working and trying to reach my goals.
Art is art, and I appreciate all forms of art.
Riding my horses. I've been doing jumping for years now, and I love it. I've been riding pretty much all my life.


text:
'I was someone's booty call for nine months. Then I found out he had a girlfriend.'
As told to Helen Vnuk.
He was a couple of years above me at school, the best friend of a family friend. He looked like Thor. He was very sporty and charismatic. All the girls would swarm over him.
We met again at a pub one night when I was 21, and because I knew him via the mutual friend, we started chatting. He left his friends and sat with me for the whole night and was buying me drinks. I was like, "Oh, the god of the guys that I know is taking an interest!" We ended up going home together and sleeping together. That went on for nine months.
We would go out for dinner, we would hook up. I wasn't looking for anything serious at the time so it was quite fun. He would ghost me for a week or two at a time, but then as soon as I got a bit weird about it, he would come back.
What's worse: an emotional affair or a physical affair? The women at Mamamia share their thoughts. Post continues below.
Then it turned into booty calls. I was like, "Oh, the booty calls are annoying, but I'm just going to go along with it for now." And every three or four weeks we would do something like go for a walk together at the beach or go out to dinner together. So there was a bit of mixed messaging.
I would invite him to events, like a black-tie gala dinner, and he would cancel on the day. So he'd lead me on, lead me on, lead me on, then just suddenly disappear.
It got to the point where I was like, "So do you want to start dating properly?" and he said, "Look, I don't think I really want to, to be honest. I hope that doesn't offend you." So I was like, "Okay, let's fizzle this out then," and that was all well and good.
He would still booty call me at three o'clock in the morning and expect me to come over and I would be like, "What the f—k, no!"
It was about a month later after the nine months finished that I was talking to our mutual friend and he was like, "You know he has a girlfriend," and I was like, "Wait, what?" and he was like, "Yeah, he has one, and has had one for like a while."
She was a girl who had popped up in a photo with him on Facebook. She had put it up and tagged him. I had just assumed it was his cousin in Brisbane, but it was his girlfriend.
I was like, "Oh my God, we were sleeping together for six months of their relationship! Do I tell her, or do I just let her figure out this guy for herself?" Because she lived in Brisbane and he was in Sydney, I thought, "You know what, this probably isn't going to last long."
Listen: How to deal with ghosting. Post continues below.
There were times he would still booty call me, and I would say, "You have a girlfriend. That's so disgusting." He was in complete denial. He would say, "You're saying things that you've heard on the grapevine. I like to look at the facts because I'm a policeman." Or he would say, "I can see you're very agitated about this. Would you like to talk about it over a drink?" Oh my God! I was dying.
I dated three cops in a row. I was drawn to the macho personality of an alpha male, but I've realised that they're actually not the greatest people.
They think they can do anything because they protect the world.
I just laughed at the situation. Then, a few months ago, I found out that he and his girlfriend got engaged. It's so awful for her. So bad.
Looking back, I think I wanted to throw myself into something that wasn't serious, just to see what it was like. I learnt a lot. I now know what it's like to be treated by a man with no standards at all. I was just shocked that anyone could act that way because I'd never act that way towards someone.
Because I was young, I was kind of naive. I didn't really know the warning signs. The booty call is a warning sign. If they don't want to go out in public with you, that's another warning sign. And if they're not going to reply to your messages for a week, they're just not interested.
The guy I'm seeing now won't go five hours without replying to me. He's the most gorgeous human.
relationships-tag
the-other-woman

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
// ***********************************************************************
// Assembly         : QlikBar.SDK
// Author           : Antonio Gil Espinosa
// Created          : 10-21-2013
//
// Last Modified By : Antonio Gil Espinosa
// Last Modified On : 10-17-2013
// ***********************************************************************
// <copyright file="AddPointResult.cs" company="">
//     Copyright (c) . All rights reserved.
// </copyright>
// <summary></summary>
// ***********************************************************************
using Newtonsoft.Json;

namespace QlikBar.SDK.Results
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Class AddPointResult
    /// </summary>
    public class AddPointResult
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the points.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>The points.</value>
        [JsonProperty("Points")]
        public int Points { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The club is delighted to welcome new member Jim and his wife Rose to the Ipswich Rotary family. Prior to moving to Ipswich, Jim was a member of the Nashoba Valley Rotary Club where he was President last year. Jim is a second generation Rotarian, his father was a member of the Newton Rotary Club for 30 years. He recently retired from a very successful career as a software development manager. Jim was officially welcomed by District Governor Sheryl Meehan and President Lisa Shanko.
Jim Celebrates as he is warmly welcomed by the members and District Governor Sheryl.


text:
University of Texas researchers aiding Salvadoran teen were threatened with arrest by Mexican authorities
by Jay Root Aug. 4, 2019 12:01 AM
By Jay Root, The Texas Tribune Aug. 4, 2019
"University of Texas researchers aiding Salvadoran teen were threatened with arrest by Mexican authorities" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Stephanie Leutert, a prominent migration expert at the University of Texas at Austin, has been to a lot of hot spots along the U.S. Mexico border — and even deeper south on Mexico's dicey frontier with Guatemala.
But nothing prepared her for the scene that played out on an international bridge connecting Mexico and Texas on Friday afternoon, when she says a high-ranking U.S. border official sent her back into Piedras Negras — straight into the arms of Mexican authorities who were openly and aggressively threatening to arrest her and two associates from the university.
Their alleged crime: escorting a 15-year-old Salvadoran boy named Leonel — left alone after his single mom died — to the midway point of the bridge so he could seek asylum in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Over the next hour, Leutert and two UT researchers said Mexican officials repeatedly told them that they had "committed a crime" and would be arrested, and that the boy had no right to be in Mexico and would be taken into their custody.
What the Mexican authorities apparently didn't know is that the office of U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, had gotten involved and had already reached out to U.S. authorities. Also furiously trying to help Leutert and her crew behind the scenes were the American Civil Liberties Union and a pro-immigrant group assisting Leonel.
Neither Hurd nor his spokeswoman immediately responded to calls and messages seeking comment for this article.
As Leutert and her associates waited in the offices of the National Migration Institute, a high-ranking Mexican city official — who had earlier told Leutert over the phone she had engaged in human smuggling and other crimes — called her back, Leutert said.
In an agitated tone, the city official, Hector Menchaca, asked her if the boy she was escorting was the one who had prompted all the "calls from Washington." She said it was.
"Why didn't you tell me!" Menchaca demanded, according to Leutert.
Suddenly everyone's demeanor changed — and minutes later the Americans were again walking toward the U.S. with the boy in tow, hoping for smoother sailing on the bridge.
Immigration advocates and civil rights groups have complained for months that unaccompanied minors are getting stranded in Mexico, subjected to abuse, shakedowns and kidnapping, despite repeated assurances from U.S. authorities that these children are their highest priority for asylum processing.
Still, Leutert didn't figure she would be at the center of an international standoff when she agreed a few days ago to help out an unaccompanied minor from El Salvador after advocates told her he had been refused entry at another part of the Texas-Mexico border.
A Nogales, Arizona-based group called the Kino Border Initiative was trying to assist the Salvadoran boy, whose older brother lives in Chicago, and Leutert was on her way to visit several Texas border cities to study the ever-changing asylum processes in cities on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. So she agreed to try to help him once she got to Piedras Negras, just across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, roughly three hours southwest of San Antonio.
The saga began at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday, when the trio of UT migration researchers — Leutert, Catherine "Ellie" Ezzell and Jake Dizard — met the Salvadoran teen at a plaza in Piedras Negras. He told them that U.S. authorities in Laredo refused to admit him three days earlier and had instructed him instead to seek asylum in Mexico. The UT researchers told Leonel they would walk with him to the spot on the bridge where U.S. officials are stationed, and then help him navigate what was supposed to be a smooth process.
At first, things went as expected. They reached the midway point of the bridge, and the Salvadoran boy stepped forward and said he wanted asylum in the United States. Then U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers stationed there asked to see the researchers' passports and were told they could enter the U.S, but Leutert and her colleagues said they planned to return to the Mexican side.
But while one of the CBP officers called a supervisor, Mexican security guards showed up, eventually surrounding the three UT researchers. That's when things grew tense. The guards said that there was a waiting list and process to follow for migrants and that the Salvadoran boy had no right to be in Mexico. And they told Leutert they all could be charged with human smuggling for helping him.
Soon, a city official (not Menchaca) dressed in a brown shirt showed up and told them flatly they were breaking the law and warned: "This is your last chance to avoid arrest."
Finally a CBP supervisor whose last name was Fuller arrived and, with the Mexican guards present and the city official still loudly threatening to detain the UT group, Leutert asked him: "Are you going to let them arrest us for human smuggling?"
"I'm not going to let you in," he told her, all three researchers recall. "They are taking you back to Mexico." Leutert said she later dictated the supervisor's exact words into Ezzell's phone so she would not forget them.
She also won't soon forget what one of the Mexican security guards told her on the walk back to Mexico, where they were told they would be arrested: "Things have changed under Trump," the guard said. "The United States just denied entry to American citizens.
That's when Leutert fired off calls and texts to Shaw Drake, policy counsel for the ACLU Border Rights Center, informing him that her group had been sent back to Mexico in the company of agents who were threatening to arrest them.
Drake, in turn, said he called Hurd, who made inquiries with CBP. Drake said it was "not only rare, it's completely illegal" for border guards to refuse entry into the country to its own citizens.
"This incident is an illustration of the unfettered and unsupervised power that this agency feels that it has — that a supervising officer would feel so emboldened as to deny entry to United States citizens, especially in a moment when it was clear to the U.S. officials that Mexican authorities were going to be arresting these U.S. citizens on some sort of charge of trafficking," Drake said.
In an emailed statement, CBP spokeswoman Margie Garza said the U.S. Privacy Act precludes the agency from "discussing the processing of specific individuals or details regarding to their interaction with CBP."
"If a traveler has a complaint regarding their treatment, they can ask to speak to a supervisor or to a passenger service manager," Garza added.
Menchaca, the city official who Leutert said threatened to arrest them, confirmed that CBP's Eagle Pass port director, Paul del Rincon, told him in a telephone call after the researchers were escorted back to Mexico on Friday that CBP would take the minor child right away. That cleared the way for them to escort Leonel back to the bridge.
Menchaca also said that he informed Leutert she was not doing things "in the right way" — that the minor did not have legal status in Mexico and should have been processed there first — but he denied threatening her with arrest.
Leutert's two UT colleagues both confirmed Mexican authorities threatened them all multiple times with arrest on human smuggling charges.
The second escort attempt went a lot better. At roughly 5:15 p.m., Leutert, Dizard and Ezzell returned to the bridge with the young Salvadoran and approached two new CBP officers, who were then stationed at the midpoint of the bridge.
They again were told to wait while the same supervisor showed up, this time with a different solution: instead of sending the researchers and the unaccompanied minor back to Mexico, they would take him into custody and process his asylum claim, the supervisor said.
At that point, the CBP officers at the midpoint of the bridge overheard Leutert asking the ACLU lawyer on the phone if she should write down their names, so they removed their Velcro name tags from their shirts, the three researchers said.
When Leutert inquired about it, the officers told her: "You don't need to know our names just like we don't need to know yours."
I said 'why?' Leutert recalled. "And they said, 'We are the federal law enforcement officers, we ask the questions.' "
A few minutes later — Leonel having disappeared into the bowels of the asylum bureaucracy — all the tension was gone, according to accounts by all three UT researchers.
Leutert and her colleagues suddenly found themselves inside the air-conditioned offices of the Eagle Pass port of entry, back in the U.S., where they were offered water and cookies and got a friendly visit from Del Rincon, the port director.
He told them there must have been some big mixup, that they were expecting the boy on Saturday instead, and that the presence of Mexican authorities on the bridge probably confused the supervisor, the UT researchers said.
Del Rincon pointed out that he had spent $120 of his money to buy toys for migrant children and he said it was "instilled" in every CBP agent to let unaccompanied children enter the port "without problem."
"We bend over backwards here for these kids," he told them.
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/04/migrant-child-ut-researchers-border-arrest-mexico/.
 <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/04/migrant-child-ut-researchers-border-arrest-mexico/">
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.

University of Texas researchers aiding Salvadoran teen were threatened with arrest by Mexican authorities By Jay Root August 4, 2019 Stephanie Leutert, a prominent migration expert at the University of Texas at Austin, has been to a lot of hot spots along the U.S. Mexico border — and even deeper south on Mexico's dicey frontier with Guatemala. But nothing prepared her for the scene that played out on an international bridge connecting Mexico and Texas on Friday afternoon, when she says a high-ranking U.S. border official sent her back into Piedras Negras — straight into the arms of Mexican authorities who were openly and aggressively threatening to arrest her and two associates from the university. Their alleged crime: escorting a 15-year-old Salvadoran boy named Leonel — left alone after his single mom died — to the midway point of the bridge so he could seek asylum in Eagle Pass, Texas. Over the next hour, Leutert and two UT researchers said Mexican officials repeatedly told them that they had "committed a crime" and would be arrested, and that the boy had no right to be in Mexico and would be taken into their custody. What the Mexican authorities apparently didn't know is that the office of U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, had gotten involved and had already reached out to U.S. authorities. Also furiously trying to help Leutert and her crew behind the scenes were the American Civil Liberties Union and a pro-immigrant group assisting Leonel. Neither Hurd nor his spokeswoman immediately responded to calls and messages seeking comment for this article. As Leutert and her associates waited in the offices of the National Migration Institute, a high-ranking Mexican city official — who had earlier told Leutert over the phone she had engaged in human smuggling and other crimes — called her back, Leutert said. In an agitated tone, the city official, Hector Menchaca, asked her if the boy she was escorting was the one who had prompted all the "calls from Washington." She said it was. "Why didn't you tell me!" Menchaca demanded, according to Leutert. Suddenly everyone's demeanor changed — and minutes later the Americans were again walking toward the U.S. with the boy in tow, hoping for smoother sailing on the bridge. Immigration advocates and civil rights groups have complained for months that unaccompanied minors are getting stranded in Mexico, subjected to abuse, shakedowns and kidnapping, despite repeated assurances from U.S. authorities that these children are their highest priority for asylum processing. Still, Leutert didn't figure she would be at the center of an international standoff when she agreed a few days ago to help out an unaccompanied minor from El Salvador after advocates told her he had been refused entry at another part of the Texas-Mexico border. A Nogales, Arizona-based group called the Kino Border Initiative was trying to assist the Salvadoran boy, whose older brother lives in Chicago, and Leutert was on her way to visit several Texas border cities to study the ever-changing asylum processes in cities on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. So she agreed to try to help him once she got to Piedras Negras, just across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, roughly three hours southwest of San Antonio. The saga began at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday, when the trio of UT migration researchers — Leutert, Catherine "Ellie" Ezzell and Jake Dizard — met the Salvadoran teen at a plaza in Piedras Negras. He told them that U.S. authorities in Laredo refused to admit him three days earlier and had instructed him instead to seek asylum in Mexico. The UT researchers told Leonel they would walk with him to the spot on the bridge where U.S. officials are stationed, and then help him navigate what was supposed to be a smooth process. At first, things went as expected. They reached the midway point of the bridge, and the Salvadoran boy stepped forward and said he wanted asylum in the United States. Then U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers stationed there asked to see the researchers' passports and were told they could enter the U.S, but Leutert and her colleagues said they planned to return to the Mexican side. But while one of the CBP officers called a supervisor, Mexican security guards showed up, eventually surrounding the three UT researchers. That's when things grew tense. The guards said that there was a waiting list and process to follow for migrants and that the Salvadoran boy had no right to be in Mexico. And they told Leutert they all could be charged with human smuggling for helping him. Soon, a city official (not Menchaca) dressed in a brown shirt showed up and told them flatly they were breaking the law and warned: "This is your last chance to avoid arrest." Finally a CBP supervisor whose last name was Fuller arrived and, with the Mexican guards present and the city official still loudly threatening to detain the UT group, Leutert asked him: "Are you going to let them arrest us for human smuggling?" "I'm not going to let you in," he told her, all three researchers recall. "They are taking you back to Mexico." Leutert said she later dictated the supervisor's exact words into Ezzell's phone so she would not forget them. She also won't soon forget what one of the Mexican security guards told her on the walk back to Mexico, where they were told they would be arrested: "Things have changed under Trump," the guard said. "The United States just denied entry to American citizens. That's when Leutert fired off calls and texts to Shaw Drake, policy counsel for the ACLU Border Rights Center, informing him that her group had been sent back to Mexico in the company of agents who were threatening to arrest them. Drake, in turn, said he called Hurd, who made inquiries with CBP. Drake said it was "not only rare, it's completely illegal" for border guards to refuse entry into the country to its own citizens. "This incident is an illustration of the unfettered and unsupervised power that this agency feels that it has — that a supervising officer would feel so emboldened as to deny entry to United States citizens, especially in a moment when it was clear to the U.S. officials that Mexican authorities were going to be arresting these U.S. citizens on some sort of charge of trafficking," Drake said. In an emailed statement, CBP spokeswoman Margie Garza said the U.S. Privacy Act precludes the agency from "discussing the processing of specific individuals or details regarding to their interaction with CBP." "If a traveler has a complaint regarding their treatment, they can ask to speak to a supervisor or to a passenger service manager," Garza added. Menchaca, the city official who Leutert said threatened to arrest them, confirmed that CBP's Eagle Pass port director, Paul del Rincon, told him in a telephone call after the researchers were escorted back to Mexico on Friday that CBP would take the minor child right away. That cleared the way for them to escort Leonel back to the bridge. Menchaca also said that he informed Leutert she was not doing things "in the right way" — that the minor did not have legal status in Mexico and should have been processed there first — but he denied threatening her with arrest. Leutert's two UT colleagues both confirmed Mexican authorities threatened them all multiple times with arrest on human smuggling charges. The second escort attempt went a lot better. At roughly 5:15 p.m., Leutert, Dizard and Ezzell returned to the bridge with the young Salvadoran and approached two new CBP officers, who were then stationed at the midpoint of the bridge. They again were told to wait while the same supervisor showed up, this time with a different solution: instead of sending the researchers and the unaccompanied minor back to Mexico, they would take him into custody and process his asylum claim, the supervisor said. At that point, the CBP officers at the midpoint of the bridge overheard Leutert asking the ACLU lawyer on the phone if she should write down their names, so they removed their Velcro name tags from their shirts, the three researchers said. When Leutert inquired about it, the officers told her: "You don't need to know our names just like we don't need to know yours." I said 'why?' Leutert recalled. "And they said, 'We are the federal law enforcement officers, we ask the questions.' " A few minutes later — Leonel having disappeared into the bowels of the asylum bureaucracy — all the tension was gone, according to accounts by all three UT researchers. Leutert and her colleagues suddenly found themselves inside the air-conditioned offices of the Eagle Pass port of entry, back in the U.S., where they were offered water and cookies and got a friendly visit from Del Rincon, the port director. He told them there must have been some big mixup, that they were expecting the boy on Saturday instead, and that the presence of Mexican authorities on the bridge probably confused the supervisor, the UT researchers said. Del Rincon pointed out that he had spent $120 of his money to buy toys for migrant children and he said it was "instilled" in every CBP agent to let unaccompanied children enter the port "without problem." "We bend over backwards here for these kids," he told them. Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. "University of Texas researchers aiding Salvadoran teen were threatened with arrest by Mexican authorities" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/04/migrant-child-ut-researchers-border-arrest-mexico/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
Link back to the original article, which is located at https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/04/migrant-child-ut-researchers-border-arrest-mexico/.


11. Construction and operation of ecological environment protection projects preventing and treating desertification and soil erosion such as planting trees and grasses, etc.
*4. Development and application of new technologies for prospecting and exploitation of petroleum, such as geophysical prospecting, well drilling, well-logging and downhole operation, etc.
*11. Mining and beneficiation of chemical mines including sulfur ores, phosphate ores, kalium ores, etc.
1.3 Development and production of drinks of fruits, vegetables, albumen, teas and coffees.
9.3 Amino acid: production of serine, tryptophan, histidine, etc.
10.2 Production of chemical fibre of environmental protection variety such as direct viscose and asepsis spinning, etc.
17.4 Design and manufacturing of engines for tractors, combine harvesters, etc.
17.12 Manufacturing of key equipment in food industry such as high-speed asepsis canning equipment and brander equipment, etc.
18.6 Manufacture of vehicles for special-purpose in petroleum industry: vehicles for desens, etc.
2. Exploitation of oil deposits (fields) with low osmosis: In cooperation with Chinese partner only.
3. Development and application of new technologies that can increase recovery factor of crude oil: In cooperation with Chinese partner only.
4. Development and application of new technologies for prospecting and exploitation of petroleum, such as geophysical prospecting, well-drilling, well-logging and downhole operation, etc.: In cooperation with Chinese partner only.
7. International container multi-modal transportation: The proportion of foreign investments shall not exceed 50 percent. Foreign majority ownership will be permitted no later than Dec.11, 2002. Wholly foreign ownership will be permitted no later than Dec. 11, 2005.
8. Road freight transportation companies: Foreign majority ownership will be permitted no later than Dec.11, 2002. Wholly foreign ownership will be permitted no later than Dec.11, 2004.
9. Wholesale, retail and logistic distribution of general goods' As described in No. 5 of Notes for Catalogue of Restricted Industries of the Appendix.
10 Accounting and auditing: In cooperation with Chinese partner and in the form of partnership only.


"Percentages never lie. We built all these hotels on percentages. You can lose faith in everything, religion and god, women and love, good and evil, war and peace, you name it. But the percentage will always stand fast."
Gambling History, from the beginning.
Against the common opinion, gambling did not arise in the United States. Most of the favorite gambling games played in the American casinos have their beginning in various foreign locales.
Heritage of gambling is for some reason related to the Chinese civilization. Chinese culture has been the home base of numerous gambling games. Keno, a popular Chinese game is one of the original forms of the lottery games. Keno has evolved over thousands of years and is now played in played in a different diluted edition in hundreds of casinos around the globe. Another old Chinese game to have attained popularity has been Pai Gow. Pai Gow Poker is the Americanized and hybridized version of the original game, it blends in the game of Pai Gow with certain elements of poker, to produce an occupying and simple game, loved by people around the globe and played in numerous casinos. However a lot of critics, quite do not like the new version and banish it for being a too oversimplified take on the otherwise "beautiful and complex" game from ancient Chinese culture.
China is not the only country to have contributed to the globe of gambling history, a number of European games have also made it to the league of common games in the world of casinos. Games like Craps, Baccarat, Roulette and Black jack, all have origins in parts of Europe. Craps has its roots in the rich heritage of dice throwing games that have been around for a years.
The game of blackjack also up rose in the lap of Europe in Italy and France. Although Baccarat catered mainly to the rich, Blackjack was popular amongst the masses. Till date Baccarat tables are reserved in the big spender areas of casinos, while the common people may get a taste of it at lower tables called the Mini Baccarat tables.
In addition to these games other popular betting sports include the spectator sports like pedigree horse racing. It was developed into the modern sport in England during the 1700's. Later the game traveled to the US, with the early British settlers, however the traditions of the game persisted relatively unchanged.
The state's legislative assembly has passed legislation, in 1864, that directly affects gambling. Four bills restricted or prohibited gambling, and four bills permitted some form of gambling. Careless of the laws in effect, gambling has always been a built-in part of Nevada's history.
Stock market crash, October 29, 1929.
Funding of the Hoover Dam project.
These two events lead to hard depression to the state. Phil Tobin, from Winnemucca, introduced Assembly Bill 98, better known as Wide Open Gambling Bill. This bill was an attempt to provide economic relief to the state.
Legalized gambling would provide needed revenue to the state throughout tax.
Legalized gambling would enhance business in general.
The state did not know what to do with many of the illegal casinos, this bill would help to solve the problem.
On March 19, 1931, Governor Fred Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98 into law.
Legalized gambling provided a new source of revenue to the state. Each Casino was charged $50 for each table game, $25 monthly for each card game, $10 monthly for each slot. 75% of total tax was going to the county where the Casino was located, and 25% was going to the state.
Benjamin Siegel was born, in Brooklyn, New York City, on February 28, 1906, to poor Russian immigrant parents. Bugsy Siegel, for better or worse, is frequently addressed "The Father of Las Vegas," as in 1946, Siegel used almost $5 million of syndicate money to build the first super-casino/hotel, the Flamingo, in Las Vegas. When the opening of the casino turned out to be a debacle, and the income did not start flowing in as expected, Luciano demanded that Siegel return the $5 million he had used. Siegel, figuring himself as big and powerful as Luciano, told him to "go to hell." Additionally, it was revealed, in a closed door meeting of the syndicate, that additional funds, used to bankroll the building of the Flamingo, had been skimmed-off profits, which "rightly" belonged to Luciano and Lansky. In reaction, Luciano ordered to have Siegel killed. Meyer Lansky, Siegel's friend from adolescence, gave his blessings to the hit.
On November 24, 1966 (Thanksgiving Day), Hughes arrived in Las Vegas by railroad car and went in the Desert Inn. Refusing to leave the hotel and to avoid further conflicts with the owners of the hotel, Hughes bought the Desert Inn in early 1967. The hotel's eighth floor became the nerve center of his empire and the ninth-floor penthouse became Hughes' personal residence. Between 1966 and 1968, Hughes bought several other hotels/casinos (Castaways, New Frontier, The Landmark Hotel and Casino, Sands, and Silver Slipper). His entry into gambling legalized the industry and gave it a much-needed sense of respectability.


text:
The Flight of the Aphrodite
(2022) S. J. Morden, Gollancz, �.99, trdpbk, 323pp, ISBN 978-1-473-22858-04
The Aphrodite is a crewed mission to explore the moons of Jupiter. It is the late twenty-first century and while there is a fair bit of space traffic in the Earth-Lunar system, this is the first crewed mission to Jupiter and it may even be the last. Back on Earth, the ravages of climate change and environmental resource issues make the prospect of future, expensive deep space missions unlikely. This makes it all the more important that the Aphrodite's explorations are succesful.
However, all is not well. The ship is barely coping as are the crew: there are mental health issues including psychosis. At this point, the crew make an unexpected discovery. A regular, periodic radio transmission between two of Jupiter's moons. Someone, or something, else is out with them in Jovian space�/P>
The Flight of the Aphrodite is a rather good mundane SF space opera with the proviso that � unlike the Aphrodite's crew � your head is in the right place from the off. The above teaser, and the book's back cover blurb, might lead you to think that this may possibly be a first-contact novel: it is not. What we have is an exploration of a slowly degrading ship and crew, pressured by the need to succeed and the added burden of an inexplicable, unexpected discovery. The prospect of some Clarke-like encounter as actually more of a MacGuffin.
Having said that, The Flight of the Aphrodite does somewhat chime with other SF classics. Early on there is a Stanislaw Lem Solaris (1961) moment with a crew member seeing people they knew back on Earth, but this surreal event � it is soon revealed � has a perfectly logical explanation and is a portent of things to come.
The back-cover, with a quote from The Times book review, likens Morden's previous novel Gallowglass to the 'gripping cinematic visions' of The Martian and Ad Astra. The quote is obviously there because it hails from The Times but is actually most unhelpful other than to flaunt The Times reviewer's ignorance of cinematic SF: The Martian is SF excellence (IMDB 8.0 / Rotten Tomatoes audience 91% ), whereas Ad Astra, as any vaguely knowledgeable SF buff is aware, is truly dire (IMDB 6.5 / Rotten Tomatoes audience 40% ). Be assured, The Flight of the Aphrodite is miles better than Ad Astra: ignore the back-cover quote.
At the end of the day, the unravelling of the Aphrodite and its crew, mirrors that of the decay of civilisation on Earth due to environmental collapse. This last happens off stage and referenced only through a couple of messages from Earth and the thoughts of the crew as to what sort of planet they will find on their return? The Flight of the Aphrodite exemplifies that, when things begin to go wrong, space exploration is not glamorous and space itself is unforgiving. All in all, it is the perfect setting for drama.
Jonathan Cowie
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LOW SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS & LOW TAXES! Build your dream home at Bygland Estates! This new development is just minutes away from East Grand Forks along paved Hwy 220 S with lots ranging from 1.6 acres up to 3.33 acres. School district can be either EGF or Fisher. Outbuildings with straight walls are allowed on lot with no size limitation. Seller will look at options to include water & septic system.
Directions: From 220 & 58 4 miles south & 5.2 miles north of 220 & 9 (Thompson Bridge Rd) close to Bygland Church.
Rural water already to this lot.


Internet searches for more obscure topics can sometimes feel like the old needle-and-haystack conundrum – if what you want is out there at all, finding it can be a stretch, even for Google. Images and video present an even greater challenge - unless they're tagged or labeled accurately, it's often a matter of wading through thousands of possible matches.
To address the problem of finding visual material more efficiently Hitachi has come up with a technique that it claims can accurately search millions of images in a flash by analyzing their color and shape.
The unnamed search technology relies on software that analyzes photos or videos and assigns each a numerical value based on color distribution and shape. It then groups together results with similar values and – most likely – similar attributes.
For example, anyone looking for a photograph of an elephant will not be presented with pages of pink cartoon elephants or anything with a misleading label. Rather, they'll get a group of results containing large, gray, animal-like images, most of which will be real elephants or similar animals.
At present, the search technique is limited to a local PC and attached hard drives, although it can't be long before such visual searching becomes as common as text-based searches are now.


text:
New Wave of Mormon Missionaries Is Young, Energetic and Female
ABC News Nightline/January 27, 2015
By Alyssa Litoff
The mission has traditionally been a rite of passage for young Mormon men, often recognizable by their trademark white button-down shirts and dark suits, as they roam neighborhoods across the world looking for converts.
Now their female counterparts are flocking to missions in record numbers after a subtle, yet critical, change in church policy lowered the age minimum from 21 to 19 for the women, known as sisters.
"Each of my sisters were married by the time they were 19 or 20," said Sister Rachel Thomson, 24, from Hamilton, New Zealand. "They didn't have the opportunity to go when they turned 21."
The Church announced another policy change Tuesday, saying it will now support national and local anti-discrimination laws for the LGBT community, if those laws also follow church doctrine.
In a community where women tend to marry and start families earlier than is today's norm, that two-year shift for female missionaries -- along with the message that it sends -- seems to have made a big difference. Church leadership has said that women do not have the same mandate as men to become missionaries, but that they are welcome.
"I was 18 when it happened," said Sister Harley Buxton, 20, from LaVerkin, Utah. "But I turned 19 and then 17 days later, I went to missionary training center."
There are now more than 22,000 women serving on missions, making up more than a quarter of all missionaries, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the church is officially called. The number of sister missionaries has nearly tripled since the age minimum was lowered in October 2012.
"Women have always been the powerhouse of the church," said Sister Thomson.
"Nightline" was given a rare glimpse inside the lives of six sister missionaries from three different continents all serving on a mission in Florida. All are the first women in their families to go on a mission.
"Inside I really hoped that I would go to the States," said Sister Anne Sofie Kreiberg, 21, from Denmark. "When I opened my call, I just felt calm."
The missionaries work in pairs. Her partner, Sister Thomson, came from New Zealand, where she said her grandparents were once converted by missionaries.
As they walked around a neighborhood in suburban Orlando, the sister missionaries bumped into a man they had previously met and to whom they had given a copy of the Book of Mormon, one of the faith's sacred texts. When they asked him if he had read it, he responded, "I have not cracked it open yet."
"Apparently the statistics say that, for every 1,000 doors you knock, you might have one convert," Sister Thomson said. "I think it builds a lot of character. Rejection isn't easily handled by anyone."
Part of their mission work involves community service, which they say is about emulating Jesus' life and not specifically about looking for converts. They take on even menial jobs with surprising enthusiasm.
"I cleaned someone's bathtub one time," said Sister Janni Collins, 21, of Oroville, California. "It was actually a really cool experience."
The missionaries also hold teaching appointments where they talk to people who are interested in exploring the faith. During Nightline's visit with the missionaries, Sisters Kreiberg and Thomson ate dinner alongside one such man, Richard Santana, at the home of a local Mormon family. Sister Kreiberg had originally met him by a mailbox. Santana said that the fact that he was approached by a female missionary was far from a negative.
"Always I'm going to respond to a woman," Santana said. "I'm a man."
"People are definitely more open to a female missionary," said Sister Thomson. "Part of it may be what we wear."
Unlike their male counterparts, they say they are are encouraged to wear cheerful clothing. Female missionaries wear blouses and long skirts, which can be flowery and feminine.
"Just recently they told us to be colorful and look cute," said Sister Thomson.
There are guidelines about their underwear, too, which must be white or nude.
"We wear modest, attractive clothing," said Sister Lindsay Pugmire, 22, of Snohomish, Washington. "You don't want a flower bra to be seen through your shirt."
The missionaries are expected to follow a number of other rules. They are up at 6:30 a.m. daily, are only allowed to call home twice a year, and may only use iPads and cell phones for missionary work.
"We do live a very different, more conservative life," said Sister Collins. "I think that really just becomes such a way of life that you don't really notice the rules as much."
During the course of their 18-month mission, the missionaries can face stereotypes about a faith that is often the subject of satire, from the popular Broadway show, "The Book of Mormon," to "Big Love," a TV show about a man from a splinter fundamentalist sect with three wives. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints banned polygamy in the late 19th century.
When non-Mormons they encounter ask the female missionaries about polygamy, "we just politely tell them the truth," Sister Buxton said.
"It was in our true history, but now that's been done away with and we do not practice polygamy," Sister Buxton said, elaborating on how the missionaries respond.
The Latter-day Saints have also been in spotlight recently over the issue of female ordination. The church is run by layman, and virtually all adult men in good standing are ordained as priests, allowing them to give blessings. Women can't become priests despite protests from activists.
All of the missionaries who spoke to "Nightline" about this issue defended the church.
"When God created Adam and Eve, [He said] that they both were equal but they had different responsibilities," said Sister Leslie Fisi, 22, from Federal Way, Washington.
"Never will men necessarily be able to procreate on their own, and women won't hold the priesthood," Sister Collins said.
"I think we have our own kind of power," added Sister Thomson.


Afzal Guru's hanging and the clamour for death penalty for the Delhi gangrape heroine has brought to the fore the vexed question of capital punishment.
As most of us know, a Supreme Court judgment a few years ago decreed that the death penalty should be given only "in the rarest of rare cases". But in a large country like ours, even such a restrictive edict results in sufficient numbers: at the last count, there were nearly 500 prisoners awaiting execution, some of them for years. In fact, in the last 17 years, only four people on death row have gone to the gallows. As you would expect, almost every convicted prisoner sends a mercy petition to the President of India, and most Presidents (for example Pratibha Patil), take no action till their term ends, passing on this particular burden to their successor. Pranab Mukherjee seems to have shown a greater awareness about the need for action, but even he cannot quickly clear the backlog.
Let's forget the numbers for a while: the central question is whether the death penalty itself constitutes cruel and unusual punishment which the state has no right to inflict, especially since it does not have the ability to undo/reverse it. If you can't give life, you can't give death. This argument has won over most democracies in the world, especially the developed world where only the US has not banned it. But even there, 41 of America's 50 states have done away with the death penalty.
There are several compelling arguments for not having the death penalty. First and foremost is its utter and complete irrevocability. DNA tests, now widely used in the West, have shown that a number of past convictions for murder have got an innocent man. So what does the state do to the man wrongly hanged? Say "Sorry"?
This was one argument which was used in the UK to do away with the death sentence. It's an important point to keep in mind, especially when we consider that the quality of detection and police work, and the level of forensic tests available there are far superior to what we have in India. Many of our convictions are based on confessions, a terribly dicey area, especially because we know how they are extracted by the police. In the US legal experts are of the view that confessions should be invalid unless they are video-taped, but who is to say whether the tapes have been doctored or not?
Let us assume, however, that the Supreme Court's diktat of "rarest of rare cases" rules out the death penalty for marginal cases where evidence is not clinching, so that when a man is sent to the gallows, the proof against him is water-tight.
Even here there are problems. The foremost amongst them is of inequity. How many cases have you heard of where a rich or influential man has been hanged? Some of the worst and most gruesome murders have been committed by well-off people, but they get away because they have the money to get the cleverest of lawyers, who at worst, will get a death sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Often things do not even reach that stage: the well-connected murder suspect can bribe/threaten witnesses, can "influence" police investigations, or even get the prosecution to dilute its case. It's the poor man, often relying on a state-allotted lawyer, who will face the hangman's noose.
There are also the courts themselves. Different judges in different high courts have different ways of evaluating the "rarest of rare" decree. Some judges have been strict (the hanging judges), while others have been lenient (the bleeding hearts). Isn't it likely that economic class, caste, even the look and deportment of the accused can unconsciously have a bearing on his punishment?
So, then, what are the arguments for the death penalty? One is obviously the "eye for an eye" argument: the enormity of the crime can only be punished by the maximum sentence. But didn't Mahatma Gandhi famously say, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"? Besides, doesn't this smack of a kind of revenge motivation? Notably in the Delhi gangrape, didn't we all say "Hang the bastards"? But is revenge, never condoned in individual cases, befit a liberal democracy?
The deterrent effect is often cited in favour of the death penalty. Did it deter Afzal Guru? Or Ajmal Kasab? If there had been a mandatory death penalty for gangrape, would that have stopped the Delhi gang of six? If they had thought of the consequences at all, they wouldn't have given in to their deranged lust in the first place. But if they had, they would likely have killed both the girl and her male friend to ensure that there were no witnesses to their crime. So whether it is terrorists or crimes of "passion", the deterrence effect doesn't really work. Even in other cases, where there is an element of cold-blooded planning in a murder and the deterrent effect should operate, the perpetrators carry on with their crime in the mistaken belief that they can hide the evidence.
On balance, then, there seems to be hardly any case for capital punishment. Instead what we need to do is define "life imprisonment" as jail till the end of the prisoner's life. That would be time enough for most murderers to repent.


The Manchester, England based Electro, Dance and Hip-Hop fusion band LZ7 are gearing up to release their 5th album this year. Towards the end of last year they released the first single off the new album which was entitled "So Good." To accompany the new single's release the band also released a new music video which can be seen above.
The single has been one of our featured audios on the site for the past couple of months.
Towards the start of 2015, they released 6 videos giving fans a look behind the scenes of the album making process in the studio with Soul Glow Activatur, as well as LZ7 frontman Lindz detailing the stories and meanings behind a number of songs off the album. All of those can be seen here.
My review of the new single is coming soon.


text:
Q: Object pointers(object*) in C# What I want to do is, I want to pass a pointer to a function that may be any type of a variable(int, long, string, even a class I mean I should be able to pass any variable's pointer). I'm doing this like that
unsafe class whatever
{
    whatever(object* variable)
    {
          this.variable = variable;
    }
}

ERROR IS: Cannot take the address of, get the size of, or declare a pointer to a managed type ('object')
Why I want to do is, I will store the variables passed through the constructor and will use their ToString() method, I'm trying to make a class that is for console applications, Refreshing the variables with their updated variables.
If I could do it like that My code will look like that
unsafe class whatever
{
    whatever(object* variable)
    {
        this.variable = variable;
    }

    object* variable;

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return *variable.ToString();
    }
}

A: Maybe you should pass in a delegate that your class can use to obtain the "object string".
class MyFancyClass
{
    Func<string> getObjectString;

    public MyFancyClass(Func<string> getObjectString)
    {
        this.getObjectString = getObjectString;
    }

    private MyOtherThread()
    {
        // ...
        string desc = getObjectString();
        // ...
    }
}

// ...
long value = 34;
MyFancyClass fancy = new MyFancyClass(() => value.ToString());

// ...
value = 88;
// getObjectString() should now reflect the new value.
// The variable is captured in the lambdas closure.

Be careful though, because the delegate is called from another thread and simply calling ToString() may not be safe for all objects and require locking. However a delegate allows the caller to do this, depending on the object.
Pointers will get ugly, require unsafe code and aren't stable. The garbage collector can move objects around freely, if you don't explicitly make the pointers fixed. References can't be stored and you can only pass them around.

A: In C#, you usually don't use pointers. If you want to refer to a storage location, try this:
whatever(ref object variable)
{

}

Else, i would rather recommend using a wrapper class or another way to get to some variable.
A wrapper might look like this:
class Wrapper
{
    public object Value { get; set; }
}

A: If you want to get the address of a variable it can't be a complex managed type. However, you can do something like this (assuming an unsafe context):
int a = 1;

IntPtr addr = ( IntPtr )( &a );

( * ( int* ) addr ) = 4;

a = 4;
Is this what you're looking for?
Edit:
If you're just wanting to save a "function pointer" from the object, just use a delegate to hold that.
class whatever
{
    public whatever(object variable)
    {
        getVariableValue = variable.ToString;
    }

    Func<string> getVariableValue;

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return getVariableValue();
    }
}

void Main()
{
    var type = new { F1 = "test", F2 = "value" };

    whatever w = new whatever( type );

    Console.WriteLine( w ); // This will invoke ToString
}

Output: { F1 = test, F2 = value }

A: You want a void* but becareful with those. if you make the wrong cast it will crash. it might be a wise idea to make a struct and cast to an intptr in this case.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
$890M Clean Energy Center Coming to Lordstown
New Clean Energy Center Will Provide Economic Boost to Mahoning Valley
As the move to more clean energy sources continues across the globe, Northeast Ohio is playing a leading role in its adoption. The development of the Lordstown Energy Center is a perfect example of the work underway. Once complete, the $890 million facility will provide clean power to 800,000 homes, leveraging the latest, high-efficiency technology available today.
Located in Henn Parkway in Trumbull County, construction on the Lordstown Energy Center officially kicked off in June of 2016. As noted in this article from WKBN, "The idea is to take natural gas, use it to spin a turbine and generate that power into electricity. The plant will be capable of making 940 megawatts of electricity." Phase one of the facility is scheduled for completion in June of 2018, with a possible phase two and three already being discussed. When the facility opens, it will provide hundreds of good-paying jobs to local workers. Some estimates have indicated that the project will have a $1.45 billion impact on the Mahoning Valley in its first 25 years.
As coal-fired power plants are progressively being retired, we have seen a gradual spike in the number of clean energy plants being established, especially in the eastern part of Ohio. With easy access to the natural gas found in the Marcellus Shale, the Mahoning Valley continues to reap the economic benefits associated with the region's shale play.
In fact, Clean Energy Future, the company developing the Lordstown Energy Center, recently announced that it plans to build a second power plant along Henn Parkway, this one to be named the Trumbull Energy Center. Bill Siderewicz, president of Clean Energy Future, has said that the facilities will be "twins," each designed to produce the same amount of energy while supporting 800,000 homes. Both facilities are projected to provide a significant economic boost to the local community, making them welcome additions to the Mahoning Valley.
To learn more about the Lordstown Energy Center already underway and the planned Trumbull Energy Center, follow the links below.
Crews offer glimpse of work being done at Lordstown Energy Center
Groundbreaking ceremony held for Lordstown Energy Center
It's official: Lordstown will get second energy plant


Well finally getting sorted with the Photos to many to put all on the Forum over 200 just on Saturday allown waiting for Sundays photos from Ian.
Thanks to Rewaco Trikes and Marc we gave Mario & Lisa a grand enterance both days.
We gave this as a Thank you to Mario &Lisa for supporting us.
And even Maz got Photographed well done Ian.
Big Thanks To Ian for the Photos.
Ann Summers got into the party in the evening.
To Veiw all the Photos from Saturday use the link below and give yourselves some time.Thanks everyone for you help.


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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A fully curated selection of superior-quality modern art and design rang the register at $1.6 million at Palm Beach Modern's (PBMA) Nov. 25 Thanksgiving weekend auction. Furniture knocked it out of the park, especially the distinctive 1960s designs of Paul Evans. Art continued its hot streak with a Michael Goldberg painting commanding an above-estimate $38,400.
"Mid-century furniture was stronger than it has ever been in any of our sales," said auctioneer and PBMA co-owner Rico Baca. "Looking at the initial numbers, I can say quite confidently that there was a 90 to 95 percent sell-through rate on furniture."
The category was led by a set of eight Paul Evans leather and metal dining chairs that sold for $48,640 against a pre-sale estimate of $20,000-$30,000 – a record for the form. Comprising two armchairs and six side chairs, the desirable seating suite is referenced in two respected books about Evans' body of work.
"There were staff members on all eight phone lines for the Evans chairs, and there were even more competitors online," said Baca. "They sold to a phone bidder from France who was very excited to win them."
In total, 12 Paul Evans lots were offered, including a monumental bronzed resin, slate, wood and lacquered steel cabinet designed by Evans for Directional, which realized $23,040 (est. $15,000-$20,000); and a wonderful bronzed resin-over-steel and glass Stalagmite dining table that rose to $10,880 (est. $5,000-$7,000).
"We were so pleased for the consignors of the Stalagmite table," said Baca. "They're a group of brothers who were young boys when we started our gallery. Their father did upholstery work for us. In time, they went to work for their dad and also started buying furniture. The Evans table, which they purchased for only $150, was their first consignment with us. They came to the auction as a family – including their father – to watch as their early investment paid them back many times over."
Two little girls, ages 6 and 9, clapped excitedly as their parents' consignment – a Michael Goldberg oil painting originally purchased for $7 – soared to $38,400. "I think after the hammer fell there was some talk of a trip to Walt Disney World," Baca said with a smile. "It was quite a lesson to them about the power of both art and investment."
Another premier art lot was a signed Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994) original acrylic-on-paper work with a stamp from the artist's estate and backed by scholarship from the Sam Francis Foundation. One of three Francis originals entered in the sale, it achieved $30,720 against a $15,000-$25,000 estimate.
Palm Beach Modern Auctions has enjoyed a 100% sell-through rate on all Picasso pottery offered in its sales. The top example in the November 25 session was an owl-form vessel that made $19,200. "There's such a strong following for Picasso pottery," Baca said. "There are far more buyers than there are sellers, and now we're receiving Picasso consignments from outside the United States – there were some pieces from France in this sale. This tells us we're reaching the high end of the market with our prices."
Five beautiful chandeliers in the manner of Stilnovo were consigned and shipped from Italy and offered in consecutive lots. Four were won by a noted British designer, with one of them reaching $12,800 against expectations of $2,000-$3,000.
Contact Palm Beach Modern Auctions about consigning modern/contemporary art, furniture, decorative art or pop culture memorabilia to a future auction by calling 561-586-5500 or emailing info@modernauctions.com. Online: www.modernauctions.com.


A server BMC is really just an low-resource embedded ARM based computer, mounted on the motherboard. Obviously that's something pretty easy for a Linux image to do. In fact I distinctly remember reading about some group working on writing just such an open source BMC firmware, but I can't motivate myself to go try and look it up again.
You can't just replace any BMC firmware with your own image, as they are cryptographically signed like the rest of the server firmware, but if you're working with the OEM, there's no reason you couldn't have an open source BMC image, and maybe work around the need for signing by only allowing updates via a boot-time BIOS prompt, a physical jumper, or similar physical access requirement that wouldn't work as well with (remote) servers.
I was expecting to see some exotic hardware, but no. Intel CPU, Intel graphics, the usual suspects produce the other components.
Stallman uses a Lemote Yeelong, which is a very obscure MIPS-powered netbook which supports 100% FOSS all the way down.
He now uses a Lenovo ThinkPad X60 on which the FSF installed libreboot and Trisquel.
From your link: "Saturday January 23, 2010."
Yup, he sure has... Upgraded at least to a Thinkpad X60 from these guys since then.
Lenovo? Really? Would never trust Lenovo again. Ever. Not even their hardware.
You realize this machine is a modified Lenovo too, right? In fact all the RYF laptops are. Even though they've been doing some bad stuff recently, everyone else is still worse. Sad as that is.
You can always trust the reassuring words of the NSA relayed by an AC.


Georges Talbourdet (5 December 1951 – 5 December 2011) was a French racing cyclist. He won the French national road race title in 1974.
1 2 3 4 "Georges Talbourdet". Cycling Archives. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
↑ "Georges Talbourdet". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 27 April 2014.


text:
David Hartley (1705-1757).
2 Major Works of David Hartley
4.1 Angels
4.2 The Live Sessions
4.3 Once a Day
4.4 Playing Haggard
4.5 david asleep dreams
4.6 Country Boy
4.7 Arkansas Traveller
4.8 Boys Don't Cry
4.9 Amarillo By Morning
4.10 SHALLOW CREEK
David Hartley was an English philosopher and founder of the Associationist school of psychology.
He was educated at Bradford grammar school and Jesus College, Cambridge, of which society he became a fellow in 1727. Originally intended for the Church, he was deterred from taking orders by certain scruples as to signing the Thirty-nine Articles, and took up the study of medicine. Nevertheless, he remained a member of the Church of England, and was on intimate terms with the most distinguished churchmen of his day. He considered it his duty to obey ecclesiastical as well as civil authorities. The doctrine to which he most strongly objected was that of eternal punishment. Hartley practised as a physician at Newark, Bury St Edmunds, London, and lastly at Bath, where he died.
His Observations on Man was published in 1749, three years after Condillac's Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines, in which similar theories were expounded. It is in two parts–the first dealing with the frame of the human body and mind, and their mutual connections and influences, the second with the duty and expectations of mankind. His two main theories are the doctrine of vibrations and the doctrine of associations. His physical theory, he tells us, was drawn from certain speculations as to nervous action which Isaac Newton had published in his Principia. His psychological theory was suggested by the Dissertation concerning the Fundamental Principles of Virtue or Morality, which was written by a clergyman named John Gay (1699-1745), and prefixed by Bishop Law to his translation of Archbishop King's Latin work on the Origin of Evil, its chief object being to show that sympathy and conscience are developments by means of association from the selfish feelings.
The outlines of Hartley's theory are as follows. Like John Locke, he asserted that, prior to sensation, the human mind is a blank. By a growth from simple sensations, those states of consciousness which appear most remote from sensation come into being. And the one law of growth of which Hartley took account was the law of contiguity, synchronous and successive. By this law he sought to explain, not only the phenomena of memory, which others had similarly explained before him, but also the phenomena of emotion, If reasoning, and of voluntary and involuntary action.
Hartley's physical theory gave birth to the modern study of the intimate connection of physiological and psychical facts, though his physical theory in itself is inadequate. He believed that sensation is the result of a vibration of the minute particles of the medullary substance of the nerves, to account for which he postulated, with Newton, a subtle elastic ether, rare in the interstices of solid bodies and in their close neighbourhood, and denser as it recedes from them. Pleasure is the result of moderate vibrations, pain of vibrations so violent as to break the continuity of the nerves. These vibrations leave behind them in the brain a tendency to fainter vibrations or "vibratiuncles" of a similar kind, which correspond to "ideas of sensation." This accounts for memory.
The course of reminiscence and of the thoughts generally, when not immediately dependent upon external sensation, is accounted for by the idea that there are always vibrations in the brain on account of its heat and the pulsation of its arteries. The nature of these vibrations is determined by each man's past experience, and by the circumstances of the moment, which causes one or another tendency to prevail over the rest. Sensations which are often associated together become each associated with the ideas corresponding to the others; and the ideas corresponding to the associated sensations become associated together, sometimes so intimately that they form what appears to be a new simple idea, not without careful analysis resolvable into its component parts.
Starting from a detailed account of the phenomena of the senses, Hartley tried to show how, by the above laws, all the emotions, which he analyses with considerable skill, may be explained. Locke's phrase "association of ideas" is employed throughout, "idea" being taken as including every mental state but sensation. He emphatically asserts the existence of pure disinterested sentiment, while declaring it to be a growth from the self-regarding feelings. Voluntary action is explained as the result of a firm connexion between a motion and a sensation or "idea," and, on the physical side, between an "ideal" and a motory vibration. Therefore in the Freewill controversy Hartley took his place as a determinist. It was only with reluctance, and when his speculations were nearly complete, that he came to a conclusion on this subject in accordance with his theory.
Major Works of David Hartley
– Hartley's Theory of the Human Mind, on the Principle of the Association of Ideas, 1775
– Observations on Man, 1749
– Prayers And Religious Meditations, (post hum.) 1836
– Some Reasons why the Practice of Inoculation ought to be Introduced into the Town of Bury at Present, 1733
– Ten Cases of Persons who have taken Mrs. Stephens's Medicines for the Stone, 1738
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
associationism
identity theory of mind
trialism
The Live Sessions
Playing Haggard
david asleep dreams
David Hartley, Sarah Asleep (Author)
05/15/2020 (Publication Date) - Blurb (Publisher)
Arkansas Traveller
Audio CD – Audiobook
01/22/2021 (Publication Date) - Warner Bros Uk (Publisher)
Amarillo By Morning
SHALLOW CREEK
Adams, Nick (Author)
299 Pages - 04/01/2019 (Publication Date) - STORGY Books (Publisher)
Franz Brentano
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Nicholas Copernicus


would be booted out of the Big Apple.
loss to Toronto in which the Knicks blew a 10-point lead in the second half.
most likely reach the postseason with .500 record or worse.
was halted last Tuesday versus Seattle.
hampered with a stress reaction.
this season with a 19.2 ppg clip, good enough for sixth among all NBA centers.
Curry owns 14 double-doubles this season after recording 10 in 2005-06.
as time expired to lift New York. He ended with 26 points that day.


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Height may contribute to attractiveness
Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and while romantic comedies like to suggest that you may fall in love this Feb. 14 because of cosmic destiny, science begs to differ. A new study reveals that a human's choice in romantic partner is influenced by their genes, including the genes that determine a person's height. Throughout the last century, many studies concluded that height was a key factor in choosing a mate, but there was no explanation for this facet of sexual attraction. The study, published in Genome Biology, works to identify the physical traits that influence attraction, as well as the underlying aspect of genetic variation.
Using an analysis of the genotypes of more than 13,000 Caucasian heterosexual couples, researchers worked to uncover whether sexual attraction is caused by genes, and whether the genes that influence a person's height also influence a person's choice in partner.
The researchers found that there was a correlation between a person's own height, as dictated by their genome, and their preference in a partner's height. The study asserts that "the genetic correlation between height and the preference for a partner with similar height is 0.89, which indicates that genes affecting individual preferences for height and one's own height are largely shared." This indicates that a person's genotype, or one's genetic makeup, influences not only their phenotype, or their own physical appearance, but their preferences in the physical appearances of potential mates.
The scientists were then able to use "this observation to predict the height of the chosen partner from the person's genotype with an accuracy equal to 64 percent of the theoretical maximum." In other words, the researchers could accurately guess the height of a person's chosen mate more than half the time through the person's genotype and their own findings.
"Our genes drive our attraction for partners of similar height to ours, i.e. tall people pair with tall people. We found that 89 percent of the genetic variation affecting individual preferences for height and one's own height are shared, indicating that there's an innate preference for partners of similar height," Albert Tenesa, a researcher from the University of Edinburgh and lead author of the study, said.
This revelation that humans choose their partners partially because of genes dictating their height may lead to larger scientific implications. While some may say that fate or destiny rule a person's love life, human genes influencing the partner selection process is indicative of the greater biological phenomena of assortative mating at work.
Assortative mating is a mating pattern in which people with certain physical characteristics have a higher chance to choose each other as partners than should be expected. It is the "like marries like" effect: blondes have a higher chance of partnering off with other blondes, brown eyed people have a higher chance of mating with brown eyed people, people of the same body size have a higher chance of marrying and so on. Assortative mating "plays a crucial role in shaping the genome structure of the population," as the study says, and leaves a great impact on variation within the human gene pool. These findings offer insight on how assortative mating operates on a genotype level and what that means for the future of humanity's genes.
The study also says that its findings offer "the opportunity to search for the genetic variants and mechanisms that determine individual preferences for mate height, as well as other traits that govern human sexual attraction." Human sexual attraction and the mechanisms that trigger it are still regarded largely as a scientific mystery, and this study could lead to more insight into both this and the mechanisms that drive human genetic variation.
Whether you believe in the logic of romantic comedies or hard science, this Valentine's Day, there is no denying that assortative mating, and subsequently these new findings on genotype, phenotype, physical attraction and height all play an interesting role in human romance and sexual attraction.
Science & TechnologyVictoria Merlino February 8, 2016 Comment
Fear of Zika virus increases as leaders warn against pregnancy
Science & TechnologyScience February 8, 2016
Majors do not define student behavior
OpinionsOpinions February 8, 2016


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Movie Review: YOUNG ADULT Is Funny And Scathing And Honest And Sad
Jason Reitman directed it, but YOUNG ADULT is all Diablo Cody, and it's better for it.
By Devin Faraci Dec. 23, 2011
The manchild is such a component of the popular culture that he's something of a cliche; we're actually no longer instantly charmed by the 35 year old with an extensive collection of toys. But what about his female counterpart? In most manchild movies women are either the enemy - the force that is trying to make the manchild grow up - or the goal - the reason why the manchild must put away childish things. In either case women are always presented as grown up, matured and adult.
Young Adult is one of the few (only?) films to turn its attention on the womanchild, the grown-ass woman in a state of arrested development. Where the films of Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow largely celebrated the idea of men who refuse to grow up, Young Adult often has very little kindness to spare for Mavis Gary. She is a woman so trapped in high school that she has made a career of ghost writing the Waverly Prep books, a young adult series set in high school featuring characters suspiciously like her and her friends.
Our introduction to Mavis is not entirely meant to endear her to us; she is slovenly and self-centered and not particularly emotionally alert (a date tells her how he spent a year in Thailand teaching and her first response is 'Oh, that's so terrible'). Her puffy little white dog is moved from one confined space to another.
Our introduction to Mavis serves another purpose: screenwriter Diablo Cody is throwing down the gauntlet. Often unfairly maligned for her highly stylized dialogue (the sort of stuff for which Joss Whedon gets fawned over), Cody has opted to make the opening of the film largely dialogue-free, telling the story of Mavis' current life as a writer in Minneapolis mostly through visuals. The entire film feels, in many ways, like a reaction to all of the criticisms the hugely talented writer has received; normally I would despair at seeing someone take their critics so to heart, but it seems to have brought out something muscular and fierce in Cody.
Charlize Theron lays it all on the line as Mavis, often appearing without make-up (or at least the movie version of without make-up - but it's close enough in this case). She embraces the deluded, selfish center of Mavis, always making it real. Theron doesn't bend over backwards for our understanding, and she doesn't give us much to work with, but over the course of the movie it's impossible NOT to feel bad for poor, fucked up Mavis. That's the kind of performance 'movie stars' rarely give anymore, but it's the kind of a performance I think only a 'movie star' CAN give. You have to want to stick with Mavis from the beginning, despite her coming across as a less than noble person (her reaction to her high school boyfriend having a baby with his wife is go back to her home town and try to win him back), and movie star charisma will do that. But most movie stars will demand a major transformation, a total change of heart. Mavis has no such transformation, which is part of what makes her character so great.
Jason Reitman directs, bringing his bland, post-Sundance style to the film, but he does finally cement for me what his real strength as a director is: he doesn't get in the way of the writer. Young Adult is completely and totally, front to back, a Diablo Cody movie. The film is hugely personal (Cody writes films about adolescents and is working on a Sweet Valley High film, like Mavis Cody comes from a small town and works under a pen name. Cody started her infamous stripper career in Minneapolis), and Reitman serves simply as a conduit to get Cody's words on screen. He steps aside and lets her story tell itself.
(To be fair to Reitman there are a couple of nice directorial touches; every time Mavis puts on her makeup and gets ready to go out it's cut together like action movie (or Edgar Wright) tooling up scenes. That may be in the script - I'd actually lay money on it - but it's pulled off very well on film.)
He also gives his actors plenty of room. Patrick Wilson appears again as a slightly emasculated American male, but this time there's the sense that it's all okay. Interestingly his character Buddy and his wife, played by Twilight mom Elizabeth Reaser, present another side of arrested development. Like Mavis and Patton Oswalt's Matt, they're sort of stuck in the 90s - the wife is even the drummer in a 90s cover band. But they've been able to take their attachment to the decade of their youth and integrate it into their new life, which includes a baby.
Oswalt is the film's other magnificent performer. He's a classic manchild, but instead of having his wounds from high school be psychic, they're all literal. Beatn almost to death and crippled by a group of jocks, Matt's legs are crooked and his dick barely works. He compensates by making high quality moonshine (batches are given Star Wars names) and mixing and matching superhero action figures to create new characters. Patton rarely plays up the deep sadness inside of Matt, just letting it lay directly under the surface. The most interesting thing about the character is that he's just bitter enough; he's not one of those Kevin Smith angry nerds, but he's not a happy cripple (in fact he hates them).
Matt's an intriguing foil for Mavis. He's the voice of reason as she attempts to seduce Buddy, and he ends up falling into the high school role of asexual sidekick. But while Cody presents Mavis in pretty stark terms, she's very kind to Matt. He's pathetic, but in a lovable way. And the film seems to forgive him his mental arrest, almost as if he has no other choice (underlined by making the happy, mountain climbing cripple character utterly irritating). Mavis, meanwhile, complains about how horrible she had it at home - but we see that her parents are fairly normal people.
Young Adult is wickedly funny, the kind of semi-dark comedy that really gets right up to the line of mean-spiritedness. In the end, though, the joke is on Mavis - while she's disgusted by the KenTacoHut (KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut in one), she keeps eating there. She has contempt for the poor bastards who stayed in her home town, but they're all so much happier than she is. And who is she anyway? A ghost writer for a failing teen series, and one who lives in the not-so-major metropolis of Minneapolis, at that.
This is a major film for Diablo Cody. Like the best personal movies there's a sense of universality to it all; my theorem states that the more specific a movie gets the more universal it becomes. Cody manages to keep the film just this side of being ugly; it's funny and often sad and a little bit scathing, but you don't feel dirtied coming out of it. It's a film you're happy to revisit, not that kind of one and done feel bad movie. For some this might feel like Cody is hedging her bets, but I think it's just a matter of the writer having some sympathy for a fucked up character who likely reflects her own least favorite personal qualities. I love movies like this, and I love this movie.
Collins' Crypt: When Scream Factory Met Paramount
JACKASS Will Return In 2021
BOMBSHELL Review: A Flaccid And Morally Confused Recap Of The Fox News Scandal
By Brian Collins, Jan 22, 2020
After holding out for years, Paramount has finally opened their doors to the "Criterion for horror" label.
By Scott Wampler, Dec 19, 2019
OK but who's actually gonna be in this thing?
By Britt Hayes, Dec 17, 2019
The least-successful edition of Political Outrage For Dummies yet.


Hotel Adlon, Stockholm is probably the individually-owned hotels in Norwegian. It absolutely was built-in 1884 as well as, because it continues surprising visitors utilizing their new concepts. Architectural designs, both old and new can be found inside this fantastic hotel in Stockholm.
Adlon Hotel is definitely located near business and commercial atmosphere, as well as for transportation. This will make everything simpler that you ought to shop anytime throughout the day or just to relish the pleasure of available the city. Trains and bus stations are frequently accessible, so you don't need to stress about traveling both to and from the resort.
Residing in Stockholm's Adlon Hotel is much like remaining in your home abroad. The treating of the accommodation as well as the friendly staff certainly ensures that each day during the day can be as wonderful as is available ever imagined. Hold the peace and safety from the real home inside this classy hotel building. Each room is outfitted with televisions, telephones, plus a reliable net connection which might make business and maybe even networking simpler inside the convenience of your living space.
Adlon Hotel is certainly open for visitors 24 hrs every day, seven days each week. There really isn't any worry about accommodations inside your first visit in Stockholm. Hotel Adlon is certainly reliable to provide their top class service and merely the very best of Norwegian. The enjoyable staff would even eagerly assist you to or give help with nice things you can do in your stay. You are able to depend in it that will help you with simply the most effective.
When talking about reliability and quality, Adlon Hotel in Stockholm will not be in the last. Really, Adlon Hotel was presented with the world Environmental Award, the Eco-friendly Key, meaning it operates not just due to its customers but additionally for environmental improvement.
In 2008, Stockholm's Hotel Adlon was awarded with the Scandinavian Service and Quality Award since the Best Business Hotel of year. The Resort Adlon Stockholm has acquired various achievement which built them into try and are better and offer a far greater quality intend to absolutely free themes. With time it never unsuccessful to please their visitors from the new ideas in hospitality management. It's rarely disappointed its patrons.
Adlon Hotel offers conference rooms for business functions, but unlike other hotels, Hotel Adlon's conference rooms look after roughly 14 people only. They firmly discover it not about how precisely large the conference room is or the amount of seats it could provide. It comes down to comfort and the grade of service they offer. They wish to make conferences as business-like as you can rather than a big party-like gathering. The idea labored. Most companies frequently book for conferences and conferences the majority of the three conference rooms in Adlon Hotel. They are able to continue with the classical yet modern concept of the resort in naming the rooms. They have St. Erik for just about any six-person conference, St. Göran for eight persons and Sofia to take care of twelve to 14 visitors.
Cuisines provided in Adlon Hotel were as appetizing since the service provided. Relish a buffet breakfast with simply Sweden's best dishes. Every hearty meal was enjoyed with the tourists in Hotel Adlon's restaurant.
Stockholm's Adlon Hotel is certainly ready to last with good luck that Norwegian could provide.


The origins of a unique character like Robert McCall and the world he occupies as The Equalizer are elusive.
A writer's inspiration generally comes from the totality of one's experiences, the evolution of perspectives, and from one's observation of the world around us.
In these pages, I'll try to provide you with some notion of the inspiration behind The Equalizer.
But if Robert McCall intrigues you as he still does me more than two decades after he first sprang from my own elusive imagination and onto television screens in millions of living rooms around the world, together we may discover the truth of...The Equalizer.
I'll do my best to post here regularly, and I may ramble a bit, but please forgive me; such is the nature of exploration.
I hope you'll enjoy...and if you have unanswered questions, just reach out to me here, and I'll do my best to respond.
The Equalizer 2: A Box Office HIT!
Plays, Screenplays, Television, Novels: Which Is More Fun?
Because I have a fairly unique background as a writer of plays, televisions series, feature films, and novels, people frequently ask me which literary form I prefer.
5 Fun Facts You Probably Don't Know About "The Equalizer"
Because I've always been drawn to the thriller-suspense genre as a writer and producer, I'm often asked to name my favorite films. So...here goes!
I was hired to work for Universal Studios in the late 70's. I was a producer on the show "McCloud" starring Dennis Weaver, who I was hired to work for Universal Studios in the late 70's. I was a producer on the show "McCloud" starring Dennis Weaver, who was an outstanding guy, a terrific person and a wonderful actor.
Years later, after I had left my first tour at Universal – I came back years later for a second tour of duty! -- I wrote 'The Return of Sam McCloud' for CBS, where McCloud is in London, galloping his horse across Trafalgar Square to rescue a damsel in distress!
Michael Gleason was a writer/producer at Universal Studios when I started working there. He had been the producer of "McCloud" on the previous year, so I basically took over from him when the show started its 7th year (which turned out to be in its last year). Michael Gleason was the funniest, most charming guy I ever met. He had a terrific sense of humor, which he used to maximum effect on "McCloud". He had created "Remington Steele", which was a wonderful TV detective show starring Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist.
A young writer once asked me how I managed to become a novelist. He had aspirations to write books – as planned to do so as soon as his first screenplay sold! The notion of writing TV and movies for him was intoxicating--one I can certainly relate to--and writing novels sounded kind of tough and time-consuming.
Years later, I thought about my conversation with that young writer. I have no idea whatever came of him, if he ever sold that first screenplay, or wrote page one of a novel in pursuit of his personal dream. Maybe he became one of my favorite thriller writers, Lee Child (I like to think so!).


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Down to the Bone, by Mayra Lazara Dole
Laury is a typical Cuban-American girl living in Miami with a secret (she is in love with another girl) and when a nun intercepts a love letter between the two girls, Laury is kicked out of school and out of her home by a mother who won't let her back until she changes into a heterosexual. So Laury has to go out and fend on her own, which she actually does quite well at: finding a job, making friends, and discovering her identity. She still struggles with whether she should date boys in order to win back her mother or be true to her heart and see girls. In between, Dole gives us a lot of local color and custom, and insight into the gay Cuban-American scene.
Fast paced and heavily laced with jargon and cultural details, Dole obviously knows the milieu and appreciates the culture, mores, cuisine, and patois of Miami. Readers who want the multicultural experience will appreciate the chance to read about a sympathetic character who is Cuban-American and unashamedly gay at the same time. Moving beyond that, however, this is a very thin book. Dole is great with dialogue and so relies on endless conversations about nothing (basically, just her characters "chilling" or "kicking"). Important plot developments get stated quickly and we return to the chatter. The result is frustrating. The characters obviously had a lot going on inside, but we don't get to learn much about that as neither they (nor the author) want to share.
Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?, ed by Marissa Walsh
3 Willows, by Ann Brashares
Boy Heaven, by Laura Kasischke
Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, by Kerry Cohen
Impossible, by Nancy Werlin
All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem, by Laurie R...
Every Soul A Star, by Wendy Mass
What They Always Tell Us, by Martin Wilson
Gossip of the Starlings, by Nina de Gramont
Getting the Girl, By Susan Juby
Fearless, by Tim Lott
Zoe & Chloe on the Prowl, by Sue Limb
Switched, by Jessica Wollman
Artichoke's Heart, by Suzanne Supplee
Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Goldengrove, by Francine Prose
Angel, by Cliff McNish
Forever Changes, by Brendan Halpin


Picture taken in a small fishing village Cornwall.
The man looks to be cleaning out his gutters which are around eight metres from the ground.. He has a telehandler with a basket.. excellent you might think, but.. it is an agricultural one with a short boom so he is at least two metres short.
He has a ladder as well but alas that is also way to short. The solution?
Combine them which he does and with a little stretch here and there he reaches the job at hand.
The ladder is not at a good angle the whole thing looks very precarious. One assumes that he managed to do what he set out to do and lived to do it all again.
A reader who we have a great deal of respect for here at Vertikal made a comment following our previous death wish which we feel makes some good points. He was hesitant to post it in the comment section, not wishing to draw attention to himself or his company.
Essentially he says that when our readers spot such incidents rather than just snapping the offender, they ought to approach them, warn them of the risks they are taking, while offering advice and trying to convert him to a more sane approach.
It also needs to be said that the Death Wish series was started to indicate how much of the access market remains to be conquered, as well as highlight poor practice and in some cases name and shame..
We do know that a large number of trainers around the world use the photos in their safety training and that through this the series has had a very positive overall impact since we started it back in early 2008.
"While I appreciate that people will take photos of unsafe practices and report them in an effort to highlight such unsafe practices and humiliate those concerned. I have to ask.... the person taking the effort of getting out his/her camera, taking the photo and sending to vetikal.net .... were they really showing their concern for safe practice? ....what action did he/she take to prevent the guy from injuring himself? Why did they not offer to hold the ladder or find someone else to do so? What about their moral duty of care for self and others who may be affected by their acts or omissions?
I feel where ever possible we should be actively promoting safe practices and encourage all to offer support and assistance, not just laugh at bad practice or others ignorance. We should be challenging bad practice, have that "difficult conversation" in a calm and sensible manner and hopefully make the guy on the ladder, or the store manager realise the potential dangers and how they can easily be avoided.