They say that the Bible starts in a garden but ends in a city and Harvey Cox lauded The Secular City.
City is divided into eight sections – Arrival, History, Customs, Where To Stay, Getting Around, Money, Time Out, and Beyond the City. Each section contains between three and five essays. In Customs, for example, you will find essays on writing, street language, graffiti, demonstrations and carnivals. Each of these also contains a mini essay exploring one aspect in more detail, such as the momentous events in Tahrir Square, which is part of the essay on demonstrations.
After each section there is a longer essay on a more concrete feature of the urban landscape, typically a structure or space common to most, if not all, cities. They explore the Central Station, the City Wall, the House of God, the Hotel, the Skyscraper, the Department Store, the Park, and the Ruins. All the essays are illustrated.
Many details will linger with the reader: that oysters were a cheap and popular street snack in 16th century London, or that a million dwellers of Mumbai's slums are crammed onto an area less than one square mile, with a dozen family members sharing in a single room the size of an American parking space.
A chilling thought at the end – cities rely on so much infrastructure that disasters like nuclear war or global warming could erase them in a few years, leaving foliage and little else – he quotes the Book of Lamentations to great effect.
I had to look up epergnes = an ornamental centrepiece for a dining table, typically used for holding fruit or flowers.
you can read the story of a city in the names of its districts and streets. Though street names, like the façades of shops, occasionally change with the times. In the Middle Ages, many English cities had a "Gropecunt Lane," which was the local red-light district. Sadly they have now been renamed to reflect current tastes and sensibilities. I suppose in this sense our streets are also a palimpsest, with old maps holding the key to their history.
But the idea of detecting layers of history in the names and spaces of a city is deeply evocative for me. Of course, the ground beneath old cities really is like an archaeological layer cake. The tells, or ruin heaps, that now litter the arid landscape of Iraq contain as many as eighteen layers of buildings, one on top of another. The earliest date back some seven thousand years.
Many of our modern cities are built on top of earlier ones. Roman London lies about six metres below today's street level. While I was researching my book City, I visited the twelfth-century basilica of San Clemente in Rome, near the Colosseum. In the gift shop is a staircase that takes you back through time, down through the rich strata of Roman history.
Beneath the medieval church is an earlier one dating from AD 385, still full of beautiful frescos. But there's another staircase which takes you even further down, until you reach the streets of first-century Rome. Here, the noise of the cars above is gone and all you can hear is the sound of an underground river rushing past, as if it were time itself. In the subterranean darkness stands a pagan shrine—a temple to Mithras, the ancient god of wisdom and light. Its smooth stone benches are now empty, waiting for worshippers who have been dead more than two thousand years.
It's a remarkable place, one where the layers of urban history suddenly came alive for me. The proto-Situationist Ivan Chtcheglov said, "All cities are geological and three steps cannot be taken without encountering ghosts." He's right. The ghosts of the past are all around us in cities. And yes, I agree with you, that the best way to experience the city is through a form of "walking archaeology." For me, understanding the city is a cumulative process, like turning the pages of a book (a paper book!). And that means through the soles of my feet—by walking.
While we're on the subject of walking (one that's close to my heart), Paul Auster described New York as a "labyrinth of endless steps." I've often thought that the idea of the city as a labyrinth, as a maze of streets and alleys in which you can lose yourself—or perhaps even discover yourself—is a powerful one. Do you agree?
The idea of the city as a labyrinth brings to mind one of the crucial conditions, in my view, for a city to remain a living rather than an inert thing: the ability to get lost. I don't completely subscribe to Situationist rhetoric but they had a real point with the dérive idea; of breaking out of deadening routines and plans and rediscovering the city through chance. One of the lessons I've learned with cities is not to get too familiar with the ones you love. As a child, I visited Edinburgh and was completely transfixed. I had no idea that such a place, this Gothic "mad god's dream" as Hugh MacDiarmid put it, could exist outside the pages of a book. Eventually I moved there and spent many years exploring its wynds, courtyards, graveyards, and pubs. And very gradually, the magic I had felt diminished with experience. What I had taken as eerie and otherworldly, for all the city's undoubted strengths, was actually austere and Calvinist. And the territory I was interested in, once I'd walked seemingly every street, shrank to the pristine wildness of the river that runs through the city, the water of Leith. That area retained something of the initial wonder and mystery. It remained poetry and the rest of the city, through routine, work, politics, and religion, fossilised into prose. I'm always conscious now of retaining my love for many cities I'm interested in by explicitly not living in them. I see little shame in admitting to being a tourist and, given I've lived the past few years in the woods by the North Sea, I'm a tourist everywhere I travel now. Given we're guests on the planet for an absurdly finite period of time, perhaps we all are.
I think this reflects a much larger problem for cities. I don't discredit urban planning by any means (it's a multitude of things) but there is always a danger of planning away the poetry of existence, often through commercial concerns but sometimes by trying for a well-meaning "human" environment. Some of the worst examples of liminal spaces in cities I've seen have come through the best intentions but they've lost any of the intriguing accidents, idiosyncrasies, and varieties that people can attach memories to and build personal mythologies around. I see many dangers in the unquestioned advance of Smart Cities (as there are with planned cities), one of which is the side effect of removing inefficiencies—when we very often live and thrive within these blind spots. There has been a backlash against this process; you see it in rewilding, in urban exploration, even in the reminders of the rooftop world in parkour, but I think it's vital to think in much more everyday terms. We could be more conscious of how difficult it will be to have any kind of resonance to place or narrative in your life, a crucial component of mental health and fulfilment, when we're all living in shopping mall-type junkspace.
Can cities slip from being living, breathing places to being what we might call living-dead, however exquisite the corpse is? Alongside climatic changes or catastrophes, do you think there's a danger of cities being perfected out of existence? And in contrast, what do you think makes the heart of living cities tick?
…. getting lost in a city and the value of aimless, touristic wandering. But yes, "planning away the poetry"— what a great phrase—is an important subject. In Calvino's Invisible Cities, Marco Polo says that cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears." Humankind has been dreaming of the perfect city for millennia. For some four thousand years, right up until the twentieth century, China built its imperial cities as a celebration and reflection of the sublime perfection of the celestial realm. Their deeply symbolic cities were designed by the courtly geomancers to create an ideal equilibrium between nature, the state, and the cosmos. What an incredible idea!
Ideal cities are pure blue-sky thinking. They are urban fantasies, like Tommaso Campanella's City of the Sun from the early seventeenth century—a Babel-like megastructure that was designed to shape the minds of its inhabitants throughout the course of their lives, guiding them to intellectual and ethical enlightenment. The idea of living in a city designed for such a purpose appals me. It would be the dream capital of a dictator but a nightmare for his or her subjects.
The road to hell is, of course, paved with good intentions. The dreams that inspire today's planned cities, such as Masdar City or Songdo City, are admirable. They want to be sustainable, smart, and safe. But do they work for people—for everyone, not just an affluent elite? To quote Shakespeare: what is the city but the people? It's city dwellers themselves who determine whether a city is a success. And if it isn't then people will just rewrite the plans. People show immense creativity in hacking, subverting, and re-engineering spaces to create environments where they want to live, play, fall in love, and eventually grow old and die in—spaces where they can have dreams of their own, not ones predetermined by utopian theorists like Campanella.
So yes, the danger of over-planning a city is always there. But my answer to your question lies with people, with the citizens – they are the beating heart of any great city. For if a city's streets are a riddle in search of a solution, then that solution is its inhabitants. From Tenochtitlán, the great Aztec capital, to the Walled City of Kowloon—that anarchic community that grew up in Hong Kong thanks to a legal loophole in the 1898 convention with Britain—people make a city great. And great cities are always complex, edgy, disorderly—qualities that are not part of most urban plans. And yet they should be at the very heart of them.
One thing that struck me while writing City was the continuity running through urban history. The idea that cities are expressions of timeless human needs—to trade, to socialise, to be creative—reflected in spaces like marketplaces and stores, restaurants and theatres that are present in all urban communities.
But what does the future hold for cities and urban life? Will we live in streetless vertical cities? Or will climate change force us into defensive structures: underground bunkers or floating cities? Will the future cause us to radically rethink what a city is?
It seems to me our visions of the future tell us more about the present than they do the future. The clean open marble piazzas of Renaissance Ideal Cities were dreamt up amidst narrow alleyways and unhygienic squalor. Bruno Taut was dreaming up visions of crystal palaces on top of the Alps, dedicated to universal brotherhood, at the time when millions were living like troglodytes and killing each other in the trenches of the First World War. The age of optimistic futuristic Googie architecture was also the age of "Duck and Cover" and imminent nuclear holocaust. I believe the futurists of today keep producing dazzling visions despite or because subconsciously they know how screwed we actually are. When times are threatening, we dream of utopia. When times are stable, we can indulge ourselves with apocalyptic visions.
Our visions of the future seem to me to be still determined by imperial dominance and cultural hegemonies. So, in this part of the world at least, when asked to think of a future city, our default tends to be to think of future New York or Tokyo or London. These are fine, fascinating cities but they overshadow others. The future will be nothing if not a plurality. Reading Kevin Barry's vision of a future Ireland in City of Bohane or listening to Sun Ra's Afrofuturism or looking at Simon Stalenhag's paintings of future Sweden, I'm increasingly fascinated by what the future will resemble in the overlooked regions of the world, and indeed, their pasts and presents. Are there particular cities that interest you? If you could travel in a time machine forwards or backwards in time, what cities would you visit?
Nothing dates more quickly than our visions of the future—something I realised when writing my book Doomsday Men. Thankfully, the future often turns out to be more mundane than our dreams and nightmares. Of course there will be technological revolutions, but it will probably be the ones that are most unexpected that cause the most changes to urban life. Those cities affected by rising temperatures and sea levels will certainly be forced to make dramatic changes. City dwellers are tenacious, though: they will cling to the places they know. Storm walls will be built around affluent coastal cities, as they once were to keep out bandits. Urbanites will become extremophiles, adapting their lives to withstand heat and storms. Their cities will become life-support systems shielding them from an increasingly hostile environment.
Not all cities will be able to afford high-tech defences. But people won't just sit there and wait for the tide to rise. They'll move. The current mass migrations are just the beginning. Advances in technology, such as 3D printing coupled with downloadable house plans, may well mean temporary, even nomadic, cities will grow up within the span of a few weeks. New geopolitical realities will create new cities in unexpected places. And they will not be the gleaming steel and glass towers imagined by today's Smart City planners. They'll look more like the first, densely packed urban communities than the futuristic cities touted by architectural studios. They'll grow and evolve like biological structures, driven by basic and timeless human needs.
But back to your question—with the benefit of your technological largesse, I'd love to go back in time too. I've always been fascinated by Berlin in the interwar years. It was an extraordinarily dynamic city, torn politically between the Nazis and the Communists fighting for dominance on the streets, but also attracting artists, writers, and scientists to its creative heart. Physicists like Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard, the remarkable Hungarian émigré who would eventually dream up the nightmare of the atomic bomb. In Berlin's cafés and cabarets you might also bump into poets like Stephen Spender and WH Auden, the playwright Bertolt Brecht, or Alfred Döblin, whose novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) brilliantly captures the sights and sounds of this incredible city, from the rhythmic thud of the steam pile-driver in front of Aschinger's bar on Rosenthaler Strasse ("rumm, rumm") to the squeals of dying animals in Berlin's new slaughterhouse.
This chaotic, vibrant 'Babylon of the world' (Stefan Zweig) was also Fritz Lang's city. His film Metropolis came out in 1927 and it set the standard for all subsequent celluloid visions of the urban future. Lang imagined the metropolis of the future as a dystopia. He wasn't alone, of course. Artists, writers and film-makers in the twentieth century were nearly all pessimists when it came to how we would live in tomorrow's cities: HG Wells's The Sleeper Awakes, Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, JG Ballard's "The Concentration City", Ridley Scott's Blade Runner… the list is endless. And they are in stark contrast to the optimistic visions of architects and planners. Why do you think that is?
When City was published, I was struck that one subject kept coming up in interviews: what will the cities of the future look like? Of course, a part of the book deals with future trends, but for me the book was always about the city as an idea running like a red thread through human life and culture, an idea stretching back several thousand years. But I suppose at the heart of our restless creativity as a species is an insatiable, Faustian desire to know what will be the next twist in the human narrative.
So yes—the future of cities! As we've both already said, climate change is going to be one of the key factors that will shape tomorrow's cities. For coastal cities that means rising sea levels; for others it will be rising temperatures. It also means new diseases—like the Zika virus spread by mosquitoes—and mass movements of people displaced by new weather patterns or water shortages. The current wave of isolationism in Europe and the US is the first sign of the political instability that challenges like this are going to stir up. But just as city mayors have joined forces to tackle climate change by promoting greener cities, perhaps they can also challenge the rise of nationalism. I certainly hope so. Because even the most perfect city is a hollow achievement if we lose our humanity—that's the whole point of Zamyatin's and Wells's fictional dystopias.
The future world will not be a global village but a global city. Our wired, connected planet is becoming smaller by the day. Rapid flows of people and ideas will increasingly make borders irrelevant. One of the downsides to this is the increasing homogenization of cities. Regardless of the local political brand, neoliberalism is the global economic religion everyone kowtows to. In every downtown, the same starchitect-designed glass and steel boxes are soaring skywards, built by the rich for the rich. Globalization is leveling out the differences between cities. Soon every shopping street or mall will be identical. Even the street food will taste the same. If that happens then we've lost something incredibly precious. The difference between cities is like biodiversity in nature. The world needs a variety of urban cultures, not a corporate monoculture. Think of Beijing bulldozing its traditional hutong neighbourhoods to make way for generic malls and high-rises. Terrible! There has to be a way of modernizing without destroying what makes a city unique.
Predicting the technologies that will change cities is a fun game, but one that is about as accurate as a sci-fi novel. But for what it's worth, I think autonomous transport will really change the way we use cities—hopefully for the better. A city-wide system of self-driving vehicles, summoned by smartphone, could transform the urban environment. It would be safer, cleaner, and quieter. It might mean the end of the "parasitical existence of personal cars," as Guy Debord put it. People will be able to reclaim the streets.
Cars have changed our cities for the worse. For thousands of years, cities were designed for pedestrians. Then in the last century cars became the city's most important inhabitants. But Motopia became a dystopia for cyclists and pedestrians. In 2004 there were 1.2 million deaths on the roads. Sao Paulo needs an area larger than Manhattan just to park all its cars. So it would be truly revolutionary if we could move towards a transport system that made owning a car redundant, as has already happened in Vauban in south-western Germany, where 70% of families don't own a car. I think in the future people will be astonished that we tolerated the infernal combustion engine in our cities for so long.
But as you say, our views of future cities reflect today's problems. So let's shift the discussion back to the here and now—what trends in today's cities do you find most exciting or alarming?
What we do now dictates so much of what will follow. We're creating the future as we speak. "For whom?" is the question.
Today, for the first time in history more than half the population of the planet live in cities. Two hundred years ago, just three per cent were city dwellers, but by 2050, 75 per cent will be urbanites. My new book City is a guidebook to our urban age, taking the reader on a journey through the past, present and future of the world's cities.
`Train journeys are about possibilities,' says Ram, the Mumbai `Slumdog Millionaire' of Vikras Swarup's novel. 'They denote a change in state. When you arrive, you are no longer the same person who departed.' There is no better way to arrive in a city than by train. As soon as the door of the train opens, you step out into the heart of the metropolis and become part of the urban crowd.
The coming of the railways in the first half of the nineteenth century allowed people from all over the country to visit the city with relative ease. In 1850, The Times claimed: 'Thirty years ago not one countryman in one hundred had seen the metropolis. There is now scarcely one in the same number who has not spent the day there.' Railway termini became the modern gateways into the city, echoing the ancient gates of the earliest cities. Euston, built 1835-9, was the first inter-city station in London. An inter-city line had run from Liverpool to Manchester since 1830 but it was mainly used for freight. Architect Philip Hardwick worked with Robert Stephenson to build Euston Station. Unlike previous stations, it had platforms for both arrivals and departures. As if to express the idea of the station as city gate, in front of Euston they erected an imposing propylaeum a seventy-two-foot high monumental gateway like Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate. Inspired by the ancient entrance to the Acropolis in Athens…. stations also have a shadowy underclass, a shifting pop-those at the fringes of society, beggars as well as 'dossers, drifters, drug addicts, the homeless and the friendless'. A underworld preys on these vulnerable people, as do pick-on the unsuspecting travellers. In the impoverished years folthe First World War, Fritz Haarmann picked up teenage boys around Hanover Station. He would sexually abuse and then them. He sold their clothes and it is rumoured he even sold flesh to butchers unable to obtain meat. Haarmann was caught and confessed to at least twenty-four murders. Fritz Lang's about a serial killer, M (1931), starring Peter Lorre, was inspired by Haarmann's crimes. The film Christiane F.: We Children the Zoo Station (Wir Kinder von Bahnhof Zoo, 1981), based on actual experiences of Christiane Felscherinow, a fourteen-year-old drug addict, vividly depicted this dark underside to the life of city railway station. With a soundtrack by David Bowie, the film ked audiences with its bleak depiction of the lives of the teen-prostitutes and addicts at West Berlin's largest station, the Berlin logical Garden Station, known locally as Bahnhof Zoo. The film is a stark reminder that, for some, the city's central station can indeed become a terminal station.
Eridu was part of an urban revolution that swept across what was then the fertile land of southern Mesopotamia, through which flowed the ancient rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates. The first cities were built by a people we now know as the Sumerians. Their language was unique and their origins remain shrouded in mystery. According to archaeologist Charles Gates, 'the Sumerians stand alone in human history. Their language has no known relatives and their architecture and artifacts do not indicate ethnic ties with cultures of other regions.' The name Sumer comes from the ancient Akkadian name for this region: `Shumer'. They described themselves as 'the black-headed ones'. Nobody knows where these people came from, but they and their gods created the world's first urban civilisation.
At the heart of their distinctive civilisation were independent, self-governing cities, beginning with the first city: Eridu. The Sumerians believed that each city had been built by a god or goddess as their own dwelling. The temple was therefore at the centre of city life, a focus of ritual and economic activity. The god entrusted each city to the care of a king, or lugar in Sumerian. For Sumerians, civilised life was city life. They did not pine for some lost idyllic Garden of Eden, a perfect realm from which (according to the Judaeo-Christian tradition) mankind was expelled by a wrathful God. Instead the Sumerians believed their gods had given them the city — a place of plentiful food and water, a place of society, of family and friendship, and a centre of civilisation. They were at home in the city. It was where they believed all their dreams would be realised.
Plato's `Kallipolis' (in Greek, beautiful or noble city) is rigidly hierarchical state governed by philosopher-kings, the Rulers. e population was strictly policed and controlled. There was censorship: writers and artists were only allowed to portray noble characters, and there was no place for poets in the ideal city. Doctors practised eugenics and euthanasia, removing from society those judged not to be of sound mind or body. In this communistic state, private property and even families were banned. Admittedly Plato had a noble aim in devising this authoritarian state, namely to eliminate greed and self-interest. But the cure was worse than the disease and Plato's city seems far from ideal today. What is valuable, however, in this urban thought experiment is the realisation that cities bring together a wide range of different people, who have diverse needs and desires, and that for everyone to live in harmony a framework of law and traditions is essential.
Walls create the spaces in which we live, separating the public from the private, protecting us from the elements and other people. The walls of buildings guide our route — sometimes straight, sometimes meandering — through the city, shaping the pattern of our urban lives…..As we pass through cities we are travelling between the walls of other people's lives. Between four walls you can be whatever you want to be: your apartment becomes the theatre of your dreams. From Beijing to Berlin, in our seven-thousand-year love affair with cities, walls have at different times and different places — imprisoned people and helped set them free.
Whether they are made of glass, brick or concrete, walls are the defining structures in cities. The wall is, probably, the greatest of all inventions,' says the narrator of Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We (1924). `Man ceased to be a wild animal only when he had built his first wall.' For D-5o3 (numbers have replaced names in Zamyatin's future society), the crystalline Green Wall that surrounds his city is the guarantor of civilisation. Like butterflies under a bell jar, he and his fellow Numbers live in an artificial bubble of rationality and mathematical order protected from the chaos of nature by the Green Wall. But, like all inventions, walls can be used for good or evil. Their beloved wall, the bulwark of D-5o3's utopia, cuts people off from the world and from reality. Ultimately, the Green Wall does not protect Zamyatin's ideal city from a hostile world, but traps people in a ruthless authoritarian state.
More than any other structure, the fortified city wall has shaped urban communities around the world. `Polis the ancient Greek word for city, originally meant a citadel, such as the crown of a hill surrounded by a ring wall. From the earliest times up until the eighteenth century, the defensive wall was the city's most prominent and visible feature. The first city dwellers felt the presence of their defensive wall even when they could not see it. It became a wall in th mind. Subtly and gradually, the city wall changed the way people sa the world. Although it protected populations against real or imagine threats from outside, it also united the enclosed community, binding them with a common sense of identity and shared purpose. The wall made people into citizens.
Graffiti embraces a wide range of mostly urban markings — lovers' names cut into brick or wood, symbols chalked on walls by hoboes or tramps for one another indicating whether a town was safe or dangerous, the names of gangs marking the bounds of their territory, slogans (Brahms not Bombs), obscene or obscure words scrawled drunkenly on walls overnight, 'Kilroy was here' (a graffito that probably originated in the chalk marks of an American shipyard inspector named James J. Kilroy during the Second World War), the names of the famous, such as Lord Byron, who carved his mark into a pillar at Château de Chillon on Lake Geneva, and cryptic tags (a graffiti writer's signature), as well as the dynamic designs of wildstyle graffiti and street art.
In 2003, the French prime minister angrily dismissed public protest, asserting confidently, 'the street does not rule'. History reveals a somewhat different story, particularly in France, where the rue has long played a role in toppling regimes. Indeed, if any city can claim to be the capital of protest, it is Paris. Over the centuries, the blood of Parisians has regularly been spilt on its streets. From at least the Sixteenth Century, French kings lived in fear of the rebellious their worst fears were realised as the city was con-revolution. In that year, aristocrats and politicians -wondered if their cities would be next to be engulfed fervour. On 5 October 1789, three months after the hated Bastille fortress and prison in the city (the event the beginning of the Revolution), working women from of Les Halles marched through Paris to the palace at a protest about the shortage of bread.
[…] it is striking that throughout the twentieth century the idealism of architects and planners about the urban future has been – and, indeed, continues to be – opposed by the deep pessimism of most writers and filmmakers. Time and again, architects offer seductive glimpses of glittering skyscrapers full of hothouse vegetation or sentient cities that satisfy every whim of their inhabitants, while novels and films conjure up visions of alienating cities in which people are reduced to cogs in a dehumanising urban machine.
By 1890 (when lines were being electrified), nearly eight hundred companies operated more than 32,000 streetcars on six thousand miles of tracks. They carried some two billion passengers, twice as many as in the rest of the world combined. Unsurprisingly, the streetcars were all overcrowded. 'People are packed into them like sardines in a box, with perspiration for oil,' complained one commuter in 1864.
New Yorkers spent more than two hours each day commuting. The streets were jammed with traffic and if the sidewalks hadn't been equally packed it would have been quicker to walk.
Downtown's loss was suburbia's gain. For this was the beginning of America's love affair with suburbia, the dream of a semi-rural bourgeois utopia. For the middle classes this meant a single-family home surrounded by trees and a white picket fence.
A seventeenth-century guidebook claimed that 'filth in the streets and traffic have made it impossible to go about in Paris except in coach.' The streets of Paris were, indeed, famously filthy and the mud that coated every street was notorious. Known as 'la boue de Paris', one visitor described it as 'a black unctuous Oil'. The truth was that Parisian streets were effectively open sewers and if you wanted to keep your fine gown or shoes clean, you needed to be physically carried from door to door.
In São Paolo, where there are nearly seven million registered cars, traffic jams can stretch for 100 miles (160 kilometres) at rush hour. In China – the country that holds the record for road deaths (110,000 a year) – a traffic jam in Beijing took police three days and two nights to unblock.
Thanks to the policies of mayors Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa, who ran the city from 1995 to 2003, the number of deaths from traffic accidents in Bogotá has been almost halved, falling from 914 fatalities in 1998 to 553 in 2006. Mayor Mockus even employed mime artists to draw attention to bad driving. The sight of mime artists pretending to pull vehicles that were dangerously parked became common on Bogotá's streets.
in 1980 Shanghai had 121 buildings of more than eight storeys. By 2005 that had risen to 4,000 of 20 storeys or more.
"Today's mega cities are the largest artificial structures ever built. They are awe-inspiring examples of humankind's ability to control and transform its habitat.


So, last Sunday. A celebration (rather than a 'launch', as it's already been out for a while, and there were very few copies for sale on the day) of Roddy Lumsden's new collection, So Glad I'm Me. I will be writing more about this book in due course, as it's shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, but for now, let's celebrate the celebration.
First, the book we were celebrating. Roddy's tenth collection, and incidentally the only poetry collection I've ever seen with a picture of Sandy Denny on the cover. I love this cover in about ten different ways, probably. (There was a sweet moment when the music suddenly got switched on rather loudly behind the bar, by accident, and Roddy just looked up mildly and said, 'Oh, is that Sandy Denny? Can we have the music off for now?') I am still waiting for my copy, so haven't actually seen inside it yet, but as I say, it will be covered in due course.
Guest readers Fran Lock, Becky Varley-Winter, Angela Kirby, Barbara Barnes, Samuel Prince, Mark Waldron, and Sarah Howe all read a poem each by Roddy as well as some of their own. They were followed by Roddy, who gave a brilliant reading, and disappeared into the night shortly afterwards. This photographic account is thin; my phone had run dead due to a charger malfunction at home, and had to be charged behind the bar so I could do the filming at the crucial moment. But I did film him, in two goes, which are at the bottom of this post. Here's the audience, with Mr Lumsden in the foreground watching the readings.
Sarah Howe reading, with Roddy and Fran Lock watching.


First things first: YOU NEED AN EMERGENCY FUND!!!
Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about what an emergency fund is and is not.
When people suggest an amount for an emergency fund, it is often couched in terms of 3 to 6 months of expenses. This leads to the idea that its primary purpose is for loss of income. This could not be further from the truth. While job loss is the worst case emergency for which your fund could be used, it is not the most likely, especially for a someone with a solid job. Your emergency fund is most likely to be used for an unexpected repair or an emergency trip. I recently had a slew of emergencies (hence the impetus for this post) and they included AC repair (which looked like it might be a replacement) a broken dishwasher and a near dead dryer. I also either need a new car, or have some impending repairs due on the old one.
All of the above is no sweat because I have an emergency fund. Not only that, I have a budget line item that feeds into the emergency fund so I don't have to refigure my budget to refill the fund for the money I just took out.
Knowing how much you need, and how to get the money in there is hard. That's why people simplify with the 3 to 6 months expenses trope. It will generally overfund it, as well as covering the worst case, which is often an extended job loss (it's just not the likely one). What follows is a mix of what I do, and advice for people just starting out.
I set my emergency fund at six months of MANDATORY expenses: rent/mortgage, basic (or locked in by contract) utilities, basic food, and miscellaneous NEEDS (no BS wants disguised as needs). This was easy since I have a budget (you do have a budget, right?) I then set a budget line item that filled the budget in 12 months (this is overkill - 24 months is plenty - 30 months the longest you should go). If my emergency fund gets over-filled, I buy myself something I want, but wouldn't ordinarily be willing to budget for (like a trip or fancy electronics). Make sure this amount will cover a major car repair or a trip to your furthest relative's home.
Doing it this way ensures you will eventually be prepared for almost every emergency likely to occur. But what happens if an emergency happens while filling the fund? The honest answer is you might be screwed. To avoid that, use a tax refund, other savings, or a bonus to fill the fund up as quickly as possible.
Bottom line, you need an emergency fund. The added bonus of having one is that our old buddy Murphy tends to cause emergencies for people who aren't prepared. Having an emergency fund is, paradoxically, one of the best ways to avoid needing one.


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Earl Rogers age 88 of Loudon, passed away Monday, October 15, 2018 at Loudon Medical Center. He was a native of McMinn County and a resident of Loudon County for the past 50 years, and the son of the late Charles and Eliza Ward Rogers. He was a Mason at the Philadelphis Masonic Lodge, he loved welding, plumbing and gardening. He was very creative and loved to build. He taught sunday school at First Baptist church of Philadelphia for over 50 years. He also loved to care for his family and spent some time fishing. He was in the Korean War having served in the United States Navy and was preceded in death by wife Mary Edith Isbill Rogers, one son Terry Earl Rogers; nine brothers and sisters, Vancie Edgemond, Arvil Rogers, Agnes Edgemond, J.D. Rogers, Bennett Rogers, Alvin Rogers, Grover Rogers, George Rogers, Betty Kennedy.
Nate Rogers and Daniel Rogers, Tessa Greene, Penelope Johnson.
Funeral Services will be 7:00 pm Wednesday, October 17, 2018 in the chapel of Laycock-Hobbs Funeral Home with Pastor Gene Russell officiating. The graveside will be 11am Thursday, October 18, 2018 at at Idlewild Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5-7pm Wednesday before the service at the funeral home. Those unable to attend may send condolences to www.laycockhobbs,com/notices/ Earl-Rogers Laycock-Hobbs funeral Home will be in chargeof the arrangements.


Business Insurance encompasses a wide array of available safety nets. FTIC can help you with insurance relating to you or your personnel.
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The ideal insurance plan for you will consist of a combination of these policies, depending on the nature of your business. Contact us today to receive a free personalized plan!


For many families, their largest investment is their home, however, home buying is especially complicated for military families who tend to move frequently and often with little notice. At the same time, servicemembers have access to special mortgage programs and tax breaks to help them afford a home. Be sure you make the most of these special benefits and protect your real estate investment with the help of a financial professional.
Special tax rules are designed to help military families who decide to rent out their homes when they are transferred to their next duty station. Should you buy or rent? Members of the military receive a tax-free housing allowance to cover all or part of their monthly rent or mortgage payment. And if you own a home, you can deduct 100% of your mortgage interest, even if you're paying it with tax-free money. Nonetheless, it can still be tough to decide whether to rent or buy a house when you may only be stationed in an area for a few years.
When home prices were rising quickly, many servicemembers bought homes even if they only expected to live in an area for a relatively short period of time, with the hope that they could sell for a profit or rent it out for more than their monthly payments when they were transferred. Unfortunately, you cannot count on either outcome in this economy.
The Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is a U.S. based allowance prescribed by geographic duty location, pay grade, and dependency status. It provides uniformed servicemembers equitable housing compensation based on housing costs in local civilian housing markets within the United States when government quarters are not provided (there are other benefit programs for overseas housing).
Each person's Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) will vary depending on the cost of living in your location; if you move to a new area, your housing allowance may be more or less than you're currently receiving. To check on the allowance for your rank and zip code, use the calculator at the Department of Defense Web site.
When deciding how much house you can afford, be particularly careful if you'll be leaving the military soon. After you leave, you may not be eligible for the tax-free housing allowance anymore, you may have to pay state income taxes for the first time, and your income may not be as stable (a potential layoff or periods of unemployment become much more of a concern when you move into civilian employment). Keep these realities in mind when calculating your expenses, and build up a bigger emergency fund to help you pay the mortgage and bills for at least a few months if you or your spouse become unemployed.
The Department of Veterans Affairs offers help to active duty servicemembers, Veterans, and eligible surviving spouses to become homeowners. The department provides a home loan guaranty benefit and other housing-related programs to help servicemembers buy, build, repair, retain, or adapt a home for your own personal occupancy. These VA Home Loans are provided by private lenders, such as banks and mortgage companies, however, the VA guarantees a portion of the loan, enabling the lender to provide you with more favorable terms – interest rates will vary by lender. For more information about VA loan eligibility and rules, visit the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Should you take advantage of special mortgage options? Active-duty military personnel, as well as certain veterans, reservists and National Guard members, are eligible for Veterans Administration loans, which generally allows them to borrow up to $417,000 with no down payment or private mortgage insurance (the cap is higher in certain high-cost counties; go to www.homeloans.va.gov for a full list of the current limits). Deciding whether to take the VA loan or a standard loan also depends on your family's circumstances and other potential uses for your cash.
If you have a good credit rating and enough money to make a down payment, however, you might get a better deal on a standard mortgage. To improve your chances of getting a good rate, check your credit report for errors. You can get one free copy of your credit report each year from each of the three credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
A trusted financial advisor, who specializes in helping military families, can help you navigate the process of renting and buying homes through military benefit programs such as the BAH and VA Home Loans. Most advisors will recommend renting for at least a few months when you move to a new area, so you can learn about the neighborhoods and can pick the best place to live. If you plan to live in the area for at least three years, then you may be ready to purchase a home.
Most advisors and real estate agents recommend limiting housing costs to no more than 30% of your take-home pay, so you or your family will not have to struggle with monthly expenses. Don't forget to include the cost of homeowners insurance, property taxes, utilities and regular maintenance when adding up the true cost of home buying.


FFmpeg 3.1.3 the latest release, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. FFmpeg provides the ffmpeg tool for converting multimedia files, the ffserver streaming tool, the ffplay media player based on SDL and ffmpeg libraries and the ffprobe multimedia stream analyzer. FFmpeg 3.1.3 changelog avcodec/exr: Check tile positions avcodec/aacenc: Tighter input checks avformat/wtvdec: Check pointer before use libavcodec/wmalosslessdec: Check the remaining bits avcodec/adpcm: Fix adpcm_ima_wav padding avcodec/svq3: fix slice size check avcodec/diracdec: Check numx/y avcodec/h2645_parse: fix nal size avcodec/h2645_parse: Use get_nalsize() in ff_h2645_packet_split() h2645_parse: only read avc length code at the correct position h2645_parse: don't overread AnnexB NALs within an avc stream avcodec/h264_parser: Factor get_avc_nalsize() out avcodec/cfhd: Increase minimum band dimension to 3 avcodec/indeo2: check ctab avformat/swfdec: Fix inflate() error code check avcodec/rawdec: Fix bits_per_coded_sample checks vcodec/h2645_parse: Clear buffer padding avcodec/h2645: Fix NAL unit padding avfilter/drawutils: Fix single plane with alpha cmdutils: check for SetDllDirectory() availability It includes the following library versions: libavutil 55.
FFmpeg 3.0.2 recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. FFmpeg provides the ffmpeg tool for converting multimedia files, the ffserver streaming tool, the ffplay media player based on SDL and ffmpeg libraries and the ffprobe multimedia stream analyzer. FFmpeg 3.0.2 changelog DXVA2-accelerated HEVC Main10 decoding fieldhint filter loop video filter and aloop audio filter Bob Weaver deinterlacing filter firequalizer filter datascope filter bench and abench filters ciescope filter protocol blacklisting API MediaCodec H264 decoding VC-2 HQ RTP payload format (draft v1) depacketizer AudioToolbox audio decoders AudioToolbox audio encoders coreimage filter (GPU based image filtering on OSX) libdcadec removed bitstream filter for extracting DTS core ADPCM IMA DAT4 decoder musx demuxer aix demuxer remap filter hash and framehash muxers colorspace filter hdcd filter readvitc filter VAAPI-accelerated format conversion and scaling libnpp/CUDA-accelerated format conversion and scaling Duck TrueMotion 2.
FFmpeg 2.8.5 recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. FFmpeg provides the ffmpeg tool for converting multimedia files, the ffserver streaming tool, the ffplay media player based on SDL and ffmpeg libraries and the ffprobe multimedia stream analyzer. FFmpeg 2.8.5 changelog avformat/hls: Even stricter URL checks avformat/hls: More strict url checks avcodec/pngenc: Fix mixed up linesizes avcodec/pngenc: Replace memcpy by av_image_copy() swscale/vscale: Check that 2 tap filters are bilinear before using bilinear code swscale: Move VScalerContext into vscale.
FFmpeg 2.8.4 "Feynman" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. FFmpeg 2.8.4 changelog rawdec: only exempt BIT0 with need_copy from buffer sanity check mlvdec: check that index_entries exist avcodec/mpeg4videodec: also for empty partitioned slices avcodec/h264_refs: Fix long_idx check avcodec/h264_mc_template: prefetch list1 only if it is used in the MB avcodec/h264_slice: Simplify ref2frm indexing avfilter/vf_mpdecimate: Add missing emms_c() sonic: make sure num_taps * channels is not larger than frame_size opus_silk: fix typo causing overflow in silk_stabilize_lsf ffm: reject invalid codec_id and codec_type golomb: always check for invalid UE golomb codes in get_ue_golomb sbr_qmf_analysis: sanitize input for 32-bit imdct sbrdsp_fixed: assert that input values are in the valid range aacsbr: ensure strictly monotone time borders aacenc: update max_sfb when num_swb changes aaccoder: prevent crash of anmr coder ffmdec: reject zero-sized chunks swscale/x86/rgb2rgb_template: Do not crash on misaligend stride avformat/mxfenc: Do not crash if there is no packet in the first stream lavf/tee: fix side data double free.
FFmpeg 2.8.2 "Feynman" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. This release includes all changes from ffmpeg-mt, libav master of 2015-08-28, libav 11 as of 2015-08-28. FFmpeg 2.8.2 changelog See changelog for full details Install FFmpeg 2.8.2 on Ubuntu OS sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/trusty-media sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ffmpeg-real sudo ln -sf /opt/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg /usr/bin/ffmpeg Remove FFmpeg 2.
FFmpeg 2.7.1 "Nash" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. This release includes all changes from ffmpeg-mt, libav master of 2015-06-10, libav 11 as of 2015-06-11. FFmpeg 2.7.1 changelog configure: make makeinfo_html check more robust postproc: fix unaligned access ffmpeg: Free last_frame instead of just unref configure: only disable VSX for !
FFmpeg 2.7 "Nash" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. FFmpeg 2.7 includes NVENC HEVC encoder for use with NVIDIA's binary driver, has support for Secure Transport, a multi-part JPEG demuxer was added and a TDSC decoder has been implemented, among others. FFmpeg 2.7 changelog mkv: Correctly report the latest packet had been flushed mpjpegdec: don't try to alloc an AVIOContext when probe avcodec/jpeg2000dec: Fix some 5⁄3 bitexactness issues doc/muxers: document new break_non_keyframes option avcodec/jpeg2000: Disable special case for JPEG2000_QSTY_SI avcodec/jpeg2000dec: Add placeholder for PLT parsing lavf/webm_chunk: Remove AVFMT_ALLOW_FLUSH avcodec/jpeg2000dec: Fix gain regression with gray16 fate: Force jpeg2000 decoder for dcinema avcodec/hq_hqa: Fix signness of tag mov: Check memory allocation jack: Check memory allocation atrac3plus: give the phase_shift flag a better name.
FFmpeg 2.6.3 "Grothendieck" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. A notable addition to this release is the support for NVENC — the Nvidia Video Encoder interface for H.264 encoding. FFmpeg 2.6.3 changelog diracdec: prevent overflow in data_unit_size check ffmpeg: remove incorrect network deinit avformat/avidec: add mp2 to the list of exceptions… n2.
FFmpeg 2.6.2 "Grothendieck" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream,filter and play any audio or video files. A notable addition to this release is the support for NVENC — the Nvidia Video Encoder interface for H.264 encoding. FFmpeg 2.6.1 update doc: add aarch64 cpuflags to fftools documentation doc: add missing arm cpuflags to fftools documentation doc: add missing x86 cpuflags to fftools documentation avcodec/h264: Do not fail with randomly truncated VUIs avcodec/h264_ps: Move truncation check from VUI to SPS avcodec/h264: Be more tolerant to changing pps id betwe… avcodec/aacdec: Fix storing state before PCE decode avcodec/h264: reset the counts in the correct context avcodec/h264_slice: Dont reset mb_aff_frame per slice avcodec/h264: finish previous slices before switching… avcodec/h264: Fix race between slices where one overwri… avformat/utils: avoid discarded streams in av_find_defa… ffmpeg: Fix extradata allocation avcodec/h264_refs: Do not set reference to things which… avcodec/h264: Fail for invalid mixed IDR / non IDR… Revert "avcodec/exr: fix memset first arg in reverse_lut()" h264: avoid unnecessary calls to get_format avutil/pca: Check for av_malloc* failures avutil/cpu: add missing check for mmxext to av_force_cp… lavc/dnxhd: Fix pix_fmt change.
FFmpeg 2.6.1 "Grothendieck" recently released, is the leading multimedia framework, cross-platform solution that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play any audio or video files. A notable addition to this release is the support for NVENC — the Nvidia Video Encoder interface for H.264 encoding. FFmpeg 2.6.1 update People in the broadcasting industry might also be interested in the first steps of closed captions support with the introduction of a decoder Regarding filters love, improvement had been made including support for 10-bit in spp Addition of colorlevels (yet another color handling filter), tblend (allowing you to for example run a diff between successive frames of a video stream), or the dcshift audio filter There are also two important filters landing in libavfilter: palettegen and paletteuse.
FFmpeg 2.2.4 is a complete cross-platform solution, video decoding and encoding system on Linux (and in computing in general) that enables users to easily ncode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play audio and video contents. The ffmpeg tool is a command line program that can be used to encode from one of many dozen codecs/formats into a similar number of other formats. The libraries from the project are available for developers to use in their own programs to provide video codecs, formats, devices, filters, scaling, and post-processing.
WinFF is a graphical user interface for video converter, FFmpeg. It will convert almost any video file that FFmpeg will convert. WinFF does multiple files in multiple formats at one time. You can, for example, convert mpeg's, flv's, and mov's into avi's (or DVD/VCD format or MPEG or 3gp etc.) all at once. This package provides a variety of preset conversion settings for common formats and devices. These presets are intended to hit the "sweet spot" for each individual codec.


To enable the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) RSS feed, simply drag this link into your RSS reader.
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text:
A style of typeface that means without feet. Usual sans serif typefaces include Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde and Verdana.
Stands for Zone Information Protocol: This is a way of compressing files into a smaller size, so they can be transferred with more ease over the internet or any other means.
Most design software lets you zoom in or out an image to get a closer or farther away look. Zooming in is especially useful when photo retouching or working on tiny details
What You See Is What You Get. This an approximate screen representation of what the final printed image will look like
Word Processing Program
A software application package that assists in creating, editing, and printing
A design or program is said to scale if it is relevantly efficient and reasonable when applied to larger situations
RGB is the color model used to project color on a
Selection refers to an area of an image that is isolated so it can be edited while the rest of the image is protected
Offering the use of various communications, such as, text, sound, still or moving images.
Neon Glow
A type of glow on a graphic image that gives the appearance of neon lighting.
A table on a map, chart, etc., listing the specific illustrations and how to use.
To make a line of type a certain length by spacing out the words and numbers
Modifying the horizontal space between letters.
visual presentations that feature printed messages more clear or appealing.
Lightest part of a photograph or halftone, as opposed to mid tones and shadows.
A complete combination of characters created in a specific type of one style and size. The set of characters in a font entail the letter set, the number set, and all of the special characters and marks you get when pressing the shift key or other command keys on your keyboard.
A filter is a pre-created effect that can be applied to images to acquire a certain look.
A tool used to fill selected parts of an image with a selected color.
A series of bits is a structure that represents a graphic image. The color of each pixel is individually defined
Copy refers to editorial text supplied for incorporation into a design or website.
A small animation based on continuous GIF images, giving the impression of movement or action.
The decorative design or edge of a surface or line or area that forms it's outer boundary.
A product developed by Adobe systems to create PDF (portable document Format) files. Acrobat is an independent means of creating, viewing and printing documents.
An ornament used in typesetting to add space around an image or a symbol.
Is a two-dimensional format made up of a set of horizontal and vertical axis used to structure content
A function in graphic software that permits the user to fill an object or image with a smoothetransition of colors
A single sheet of paper handed out or posted on a wall to advertise or announce something.
Canvas size
Allows you to change the complete size of the document without adjusting the contents of the document
A tool that removes portions of an image. It is usually used on digital photographs.
Is a visual effect added to an image to give the impression the image is raised above the images behind by duplicating the shadow
A tool used in graphic design software that makes the edges of an image appear softer
Magic wand tool
A tool in graphic software that permits the user to select fractions of an image, such as, areas with the same color.
Stands for Portable Document Format. Developed by Adobe Systems in its software program Adobe Acrobat as a universal browser. Files can be downloaded over the Web and viewed page by page, provided the user's computer has installed the important plug-in which can be downloaded from Adobe's own Web site
the smallest picture content that can be individually assigned a color.
A color is made lighter by adding white, this is called a tint.
A thumbnail is a reduced-size version of the original image.
The range of a stroke's width. Also knows as Demibold, light, and bold. Some typeface families have many weights like ultra-bold and extra-light. Associated to the heaviness of the stroke for a specific font, such as Light, Regular, Book, Demi, Heavy, Black, and Extra Bold.
The degree of a tonal value. The opacity of an image or object can range from transparent (0% opacity) to opaque (100% opacity). The ability to edit the opacity of specific objects allows the designer to create images that seem to flow into and through one another
Graphic Design Terms
Graphic Design Vocabulary
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ICTII Graphic Design
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Arctic Winter Games
* Featured * Canada Countries Featured • Zone 2 General Society Society (Canada)
Jamie Malbeuf, CBC News
Posted: Friday, January 27, 2023 at 11:47
Games are set to start on Sunday The 2023 Arctic Winter Games are just a few days away and businesses
Canada RCI Society Society (Canada)
Arctic Winter Games: 'We will sell everything as best we can,' say organizers after cancellation
Posted: Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 14:12
It's like cleaning up after a party — but without the lingering buzz of a good time. "We're doing it two
Business Business (Canada) Canada RCI
The Arctic Winter Games are off, but the economic hit in Canada is not
Posted: Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 12:20
Yukon businesses will take a big hit from the cancellation of the 2020 Arctic Winter Games, says the territory's economic
'Shocked and disappointed': Arctic Winter Games cancelled due to coronavirus concerns
Steve Silva, Danielle d'Entremont, CBC News
Posted: Monday, March 9, 2020 at 10:44
The Whitehorse 2020 Arctic Winter Games have been cancelled due to concerns about the novel coronavirus. "There was no scenario under
'First time ever' reconciliation part of action plan for Arctic Winter Games
Mike Rudyk, CBC News
Posted: Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 11:22
The 2020 Arctic Winter Games host society wants to mark the 50th anniversary of the event by demonstrating reconciliation as a
Arctic Winter Games 'in good shape' with COVID-19 precautions
Posted: Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 10:56
Officials with the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) say the risk is low, but they're taking all necessary precautions to avoid
Canada General Society Society (Canada)
No Alaska dog mushers at next Arctic Winter Games without 'true competition'
Posted: Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 10:24
The future of dog mushing at the Arctic Winter Games is in doubt again, as Team Alaska considers forgoing the
Canada General News Society Society (Canada)
Canada: 2022 Arctic Winter Games to be hosted in northern Alberta
Posted: Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 15:53
The 2022 Arctic Winter Games will be hosted by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, in northern Alberta (Canadian Prairies).
Issues with 2018 Arctic Winter Games in Northern Canada include lack of board, arena delays, says report
Posted: Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 15:53
A report from the Arctic Winter Games Host Society says that their 2018 games in the Northwest Territories' South Slave
Canada Society Society (Canada)
Arctic Winter Games a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Inuit kids
Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic @arctic_eq
Posted: Friday, March 14, 2014 at 17:27
By Gilda Salomone, Radio Canada International Sixty-four young athletes from Nunavik, Que. are travelling to Fairbanks, Alaska this weekend to


text:
HomeNews2023: Ex-SGF, Anyim denies knowledge of Presidential campaign poster
2023: Ex-SGF, Anyim denies knowledge of Presidential campaign poster
The former secretary to the government of the federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim on Thursday denied being the mastermind of the 2023 presidential campaign poster bearing his picture and currently in wide circulation in the social media.
Anyim, who was a former President of the Senate, disassociated himself from the campaign poster, stressing that such campaign poster is capable of distracting President Mohammadu Buhari who had just spent only one year and seven months in his second tenure.
READ Ex-Accord Party Rep candidate, Adegoke joins APC
Anyim made the assertions in a press statement signed and forwarded to newsmen in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State.
He said the posters which have been circulating on social media should be disregarded.
According to him: " My attention has just been drawn to posters and stories circulating on social media One of them has the inscription " progress 2023 Anyim Pius Anyim for President… with my picture on it. I want to state very emphatically that I do not have a hand in those posters and campaigns and did not authorize any such publications".
READ President Buhari approves two new appointments
"As a law-abiding citizen, I am fully aware that it is not the time for the campaign for 2023 elections".
"The Government at the Federal level has spent only a year and seven months out of a four-year term, grappling with the issues of governance and so should not be distracted".
READ FG approves N8.1bn for rehabilitation of roads
"I join the general public to disregard any such posters and or Publications as they are not from me" he stated.
Abuja: AEDC allegedly fixes new meter with N120,000 debt
COVID-19: Why we will not lock down Adamawa again – Gov Fintiri


text:
Make a One Time Monthly Yearly
donation of
to Where needed most Food bank Zakaat Fidya Sadaqah ASPIRE
Muslim Food Bank Vancouver
Muslim Food Bank Surrey
Muslim Food Bank Toronto
Muslim Food Bank Winnipeg
Muslim Food Bank Regina
ASPIRE Community Services
ASPIRE Counselling
Refugee Support
Gearing up for Ramadan Fundraising Dinner
Community Case Management Training
Serving Humanity Across the Globe
Yemen is one of the world's largest humanitarian crises with more than 31 million people in need of assistance according to United Nations. Children account for more than 12 million of those needing assistance.
Regrettably, there hasn't been any extensive coverage of this crisis. Many Yemenis are experiencing food insecurity and millions are at risk of famine. The people of Yemen are subject to the turbulent conditions in the region. Internal conflict and military actions have created a state of disorder and chaos. The Yemeni people suffer from a lack of basic items and necessary medical supplies. This has been going on for years and unfortunately, there is no end in sight.
It is estimated that over 35% of Fiji's population is below the national poverty line. With the income of households drastically declining, thousands of families do not have the proper resources to thrive.
Fiji children are also heavily impacted, further contributing to the increased rate of hunger in Fiji. It has been recently estimated that over 40% of Fiji's children are malnourished. A majority of children in Fiji suffer from "protein-energy malnutrition", meaning that they do not consume enough vital and nutritious foods for their bodies. (Ref: The Borgen Project)
Muslim Food Bank & Community Services recognizes the challenges that people face in supporting themselves and helps them overcome these challenges by focusing on six core areas: Food Insecurity, Water Scarcity, Education, Skills Development, Employment, Physical and Mental Health Support. Our vision is to live in a world where humanity is driven by compassion and love, when people help each other to become self-reliant so that they can in turn help others in their challenges.
Partners and Teams
We work closely with partners who have teams on the ground to support the needy in Yemen, Fiji and other countries through our sister organization, ASPIRE for Hope Society. With your help, those teams will provide needy people facing food insecurity and other challenges assistance with food baskets, medications, school supplies and other necessities.
In Fiji, we started a food bank in July that is based on best practices from our ASPIRE model in Canada.
100% of the Zakat funds collected will go towards the operations.
This is an urgent plea to contribute towards effectively supporting the people of Yemen, Fiji and other countries and help give relief where it is needed the most.
Your help is a big part of making a big change in the world.
Please donate generously!
Muslim Food Bank &
104-12941 115 Ave
Surrey BC V3R0E2
coordinator@muslimfoodbank.com
CRA Registered Charity Number
80072 0864 RR0001
US Federal Tax ID
Copyright © 2022 Muslim Food Bank & Community Services. All Rights Reserved.


Featured products section will be available if you have Featured Products free osCommerce contribution installed. This contribution can be found here. Otherwise your osCommerce Featured Products Page icon will be "greyed out", it means that the page is not available. Also this page is not available if you're using Embedded database.
Featured Status. Product will be displayed at your osCommerce store as Featured only when Featured Status checkbox is checked. You can select which products from the list you'd like to make featured at this moment by a check mark in Featured Status Column or using [Check Selection]/[Uncheck Selection] icons.
Date status change - automatically shows time when Featured status was changed (you can see it current meaning in the box right under Date Status Change option). Please note that even if you manually set this date, it won't change product status.
1. Add featured products. When you click on add featured icon , standard search product form appears. If you type a few letters of product's name or model in "Text to Search" field, the manager will show you a list of products that match your request.
2. Refresh data button forces featured products' list update. It is useful when you're changing connection or have any doubts e.g. whether the latest data were displayed.
3. By clicking on delete button you'll remove selected product only from the featured list, not from the database.


text:
MGSV: Ground Zeroes Deja Vu and Jamais Vu missions going multiplatform, free of charge
April 24, 2014 | News | 46 Comments
The Deja Vu and Jamais Vu missions, which were exclusive content for the PlayStation and Xbox versions of MGSV Ground Zeroes respectively, will be made available for the other systems as well. This has been announced during Episode 6 of the Japanese Kojima Station.
The release date for the missions is May 1st. What's better is that the missions will be free of charge:
DEJA VU & JAMAIS VU will be available to download on May 1st (JPT) for FREE!!! Hooray! #コジステ
— Ayako (Touchy!) (@Kaizerkunkun) April 24, 2014
Source: Kojima Station Episode 6


SampleSynthesis (beta version) is a SoundFont based on waveforms sampled from various sound sources. I made it to recreate electronic toys and more. (Specifically retro sounds).
Features velocity layers in some presets, and it is monophonic. I recommend use this SoundFont without sync interpolation because it ruins loop points in the samples.
Note: It is Not compatible with General MIDI. Opinions and suggestions are welcome.
If you have a toy keyboard with a headphone jack, you could sample it using a PC with line input, and I could add it to this SoundFont!
Keep in mind that I will not be constantly updating this SoundFont.


text:
Zenoch's View
Stories – 25 Days of Christmas
Mormon stuff
Who Will Take the Son
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
One day the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while saving another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only child.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood there with a large package in his hands. He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you and your love of art." The young man held out his package. "I know this isn't much. I'm not a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. The father stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the pictures. "Oh, no, sir. I could never repay what your son did for me. It is a gift."
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home, he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the man's son. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?" There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip that one." But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100. $200?"
Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goughs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids." But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! Who will take the son?"
Finally, a voice came from the back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I'll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. "We have $10, who will bid $20?"
"Give it to him for $10! Let's see the masters." But the auctioneer continued. "$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?" The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more "worthy" investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"
A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now let's get on with the collection!" But the auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I'm sorry, the auction is over."
"What about the paintings?"
"I am sorry. When I was called to conduct the auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything."
God gave his son over 2000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is, "The Son, the Son, who will take the Son?" Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything!"
3 thoughts on "Who Will Take the Son"
I am in tears of humility. This story is absolutely beautiful and is a vivid representation of how Heavenly Father must treasure His Son, Jesus Christ. I am humbled because of my own inadequacy, and have so little to offer the Savior in return for his gift to me.
Thanks for sharing your lovely stories.
Thank You Shirley. I feel the same
As an artist, the story was very powerful. More often than not it is the simple, unassuming that are of greater value.
25 Christmas Stories for the 25 Days of Christmas
LDS - Mormon Funeral Talk - Spiritual - Template
The Littlest Angel
Advice for Early Morning Seminary Teachers
A Brother Like That
The Cobbler and His Guest
Pattern of Love
Symbols of Christmas
Emma's Christmas Wish
Advice Christmas Stories Cool Stuff Economic Humor Inspirational Jesus Christ Misc Mormon My-Favorites Political Sports Stories Technology
Zenoch's View Blog at WordPress.com.


text:
Saif Ali Khan launches ethnic brand 'House of Pataudi' on Myntra
This comes as the company continues to push its in-house brands, which form one-fourth of the company's revenues.
Varsha Bansal
ET Bureau
October 22, 2018, 09:56 IST
In a bid to tap into the largely unorganised ethnic wear market, online fashion platform Myntra has launched an ethnic brand with actor Saif Ali Khan. Known as 'House of Pataudi', Myntra co-owns majority of the brand along with Khan and Exceed Entertainment.
This comes as the company continues to push its inhouse brands, which form one-fourth of the company's revenues. "We have seen a lot of searches for ethnic wear on Myntra and decided to launch a brand for both men and women for all occasions," said Ananth Narayanan, CEO of Myntra-Jabong.
"We expect it to become the number one ethnic wear brand on Myntra in the next three years with a potential to have its own brand stores, but for now it's only online."
In the meantime, Myntra already has plans to launch stores for some of its other private labels. The Flipkartowned company aims to launch 100 stores in the next two years, of which 50 will be Roadster stores, followed by HRX. While Roadster is the company's fastest growing outdoor lifestyle brand, HRX is actor Hrithik Roshan's athleisure brand, whose majority stake is owned by Myntra.
Narayanan believes that ethnic wear in India is a Rs 70,000-crore market, with majority of it being disorganised, making it a great opportunity for the fashion etailer.
According to some analysts tracking the space, HRX is one of the top five brands selling on Myntra with over Rs 100 crore of annual sales and expect House of Pataudi to have good potential because of not only what Khan represents, but also due to a lack of ethnic wear brands in the country.
Myntra-Jabong
HRX
house of pataudi
Ananth Narayanan


SILVER SEAS is a thoughtful creation based on the needs and desires of an experienced yachtsman.
SILVER SEAS provides all that is necessary for a party of eight to cruise inland and coastal waters or venture to offshore islands in great comfort, safety and style. Her hull form and range of 3000 miles includes therefore, transoceanic passages of which she is eminently capable. Featured along with all necessary offshore safety equipment are up to date systems, good speed, moderate draft and a traditional profile with a comfortable, elegant interior. Mechanically and cosmetically SILVER SEAS shows like new and has the range and interior volume of a much larger yacht and aptly demonstrates Burger quality throughout.
One of Burger's best designs beautifully maintained by long time yacht owners. Four staterooms plus separate crew quarters with three cabins; Country Kitchen on main deck; Formal dining; 24' beam with full walkaround side decks; 10,000 gallon fuel capacity.
Total exterior repainted including bottom and superstructure in 2012. Running gear, rudders, stabilizers, and bow thruster rebuilt. Interior refurbished including new entertainment systems with I-pad controls throughout; all new soft goods, linens, mattresses, carpet. Interior woodwork refinished. New navigational components including 5 Green Marine multi-function monitors, 72 mile radars (2), closed circuit cameras including infrared night vision, sat compass autopilot system, Furuno NavNet 3D. Main engines, generators, air conditioning and power management (Atlas) systems updated.
SILVER SEAS is the epitome of "Made in America" by the renowned Burger Boat Company. Call John Todd, Central Agent, for complete details.
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MAIN DECK: Open Aft Deck; Main Salon; Dining; Day Head; Pilothouse; Galley/Dining Lounge; Foredeck.
UPPER DECK: Boat Deck; Lounge area; Flying Bridge.


No, we do not entirely understand the local, regional and global dynamics of climate change. No, we can rarely, if ever, attribute individual weather events to climate change because, well, that isn't how statistics works. Because the driving force of science is doubt, fighting the dogma of 'skeptics' — that word implies rational, rather than purely emotional or commercial objections to the science, and could be considered misleading — is nearly impossible. But while the debate rages on in high places, on the ground the truth is plain to see.
Climate change is not theory or a policy area to debate, nor is it just about absolutes measured in degrees Celsius, it is a grim dynamic equation of uncertainty and risk that is playing out right now.
It is people already on the frontiers — socially, economically or geographically — who are least able to absorb the risks or the impacts. People striving to escape the poverty and inequality of their circumstances are thrown back into insecurity and dependence. Populations move, and in the friction of their exodus drive conflicts.
Livelihoods collapse, people die, vital ecosystems are lost forever and, cynically, money is wasted. The decades of progress made by aid and development assistance — flawed though it may have been — are being undone. Those with cash may need to constantly subsidise those on the fringes just to keep them clinging to the edge of the abyss.


Lung recipient Justin Wall: I can't wait to go again!
Congratulations Kelly and Samantha on completing Rottnest Channel Swim!
We are on the look out for people to be guest contributors on our website. Share your story, your achievements and your goals. Let us know what is going on in your world!
We are building a platform for our members to contribute to our community and we would love to hear from you.
You don't have to be an amazing writer or have experience in writing, you just need to have something to share. If you're interested email your details to [email protected] and we will contact you.


text:
Q: Thread pool with bounded queue I have seen the thread pool executor implementation and the rejected execution policies that it provides. However, I have a custom requirement - I want to have a call back mechanism where in I get notifications when the queue size limit is reached and say when the queue size reduces to say 80 % of the max allowed queue size.
public interface ISaturatedPoolObserver {
 void onSaturated(); // called when the blocking queue reaches the size limit
 void onUnsaturated(); // called when blocking queues size goes below the threshold.
}

I feel that this can be implemented by subclassing thread pool executor, but is there an already implemented version? I would be happy to add more details and my work so far as and when needed to provide clarity.

A:
I want to have a call back mechanism where in I get notifications when the queue size limit is reached...

I wouldn't subclass the executor but I would subclass the BlockingQueue that is used by the executor. Something like the following should work.  There are race conditions in the code around the checkUnsaturated() if you remove an entry and someone puts one back in.  You might have to synchronize on the queue if these need to be perfect.  Also, I have no idea what methods the executor implementations use so you might not need to override some of these.
public class ObservableBlockingQueue<E> extends LinkedBlockingQueue<E> {
     private ISaturatedPoolObserver observer;
     private int capacity;
     public ObservableBlockingQueue(ISaturatedPoolObserver observer,
         int capacity) {
         super(capacity);
         this.observer = observer;
         this.capacity = capacity;
    }
    @Override
    public boolean offer(E o) {
        boolean offered = super.offer(o);
        if (!offered) {
            observer.onSaturated();
        }
        return offered;
    }
    @Override
    public boolean offer(E o, long timeout, TimeUnit unit) throws InterruptedException {
        boolean offered = super.offer(o, timeout, unit);
        if (!offered) {
            observer.onSaturated();
        }
        return offered;
    }
    @Override
    public E poll() {
        E e = super.poll();
        if (e != null) {
             checkUnsaturated();
        }
        return e;
    }
    @Override
    public E poll(long timeout, TimeUnit unit) throws InterruptedException {
        E e = super.poll(timeout, unit);
        if (e != null) {
             checkUnsaturated();
        }
        return e;
    }
    @Override
    public E take() throws InterruptedException {
        E e = super.take();
        checkUnsaturated();
        return e;
    }
    @Override
    public boolean remove(E e) throws InterruptedException {
        boolean removed = super.remove(e);
        if (removed) {
            checkUnsaturated();
        }
        return removed;
    }
    private void checkUnsaturated() {
        if (super.size() * 100 / capacity < UNSATURATED_PERCENTAGE) {
            observer.onUnsaturated();
        }
    }
}

A: So here is the code that I have based on the answer above. The call to saturated and unSaturated needs to be invoked during sustained load on the worker queue of the thread pool and I believe the implementation achieves it by making use of non blocking algorithm.
Also, this implementation can be used for any implementation of blocking queue (also the original queue could be bounded or unbounded).
I am using guava's ForwardingBlockingQueue to write my decorator. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;

import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ForwardingBlockingQueue;

/**
 * @version $Id$
 * @param <E> the type of elements held in this blocking queue.
 */
public class BoundObservableBlockingQueue<E> extends ForwardingBlockingQueue<E> {

    /** observer to receive callbacks. */
    private final ISaturatedQueueObserver queueBoundObserver;

    /** original blocking queue being decorated. */
    private final BlockingQueue<E> queueDelegate;

    /** user specified blocking queue bound capacity. */
    private final int boundCapacity;

    /** user specified blocking queue bound capacity. */
    private final int boundThreshold;

    /** flag to represent the saturated state of the queue. */
    private final AtomicBoolean isSaturated = new AtomicBoolean(false);

/**
     *
     * @param pQueue {@link BlockingQueue
     * @param pQueueBoundObserver {@link ISaturatedQueueObserver}
     * @param pBoundCapacity saturation capacity for the bound queue.
     */
    public BoundObservableBlockingQueue(final BlockingQueue<E> pQueue,
            final ISaturatedQueueObserver pQueueBoundObserver, final int pBoundCapacity) {
        queueDelegate = pQueue;
        queueBoundObserver = pQueueBoundObserver;
        boundCapacity = pBoundCapacity;
        boundThreshold = (int) 0.8 * pBoundCapacity;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final boolean offer(final E e) {
        boolean isOffered = delegate().offer(e);
        checkSaturated();
        return isOffered;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final boolean offer(final E e, final long timeout, final TimeUnit unit) throws InterruptedException {
        boolean isOffered = delegate().offer(e, timeout, unit);
        checkSaturated();
        return isOffered;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final E remove() {
        E element = delegate().remove();
        checkUnsaturated();
        return element;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final E poll() {
        E element = delegate().poll();
        checkUnsaturated();
        return element;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final E poll(final long timeout, final TimeUnit unit) throws InterruptedException {
        E element = delegate().poll(timeout, unit);
        checkUnsaturated();
        return element;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final E take() throws InterruptedException {
        E element = delegate().take();
        checkUnsaturated();
        return element;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final boolean remove(final Object o) {
        boolean isRemoved = delegate().remove(o);
        checkUnsaturated();
        return isRemoved;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    protected final BlockingQueue<E> delegate() {
        return queueDelegate;
    }

    // thread pool uses this only during invocation of shutdown; in which cases call to unSaturated isn't needed because
    // the queue is no longer ready to accept any more records.
    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public final int drainTo(final Collection<? super E> c) {
        return delegate().drainTo(c);
    }

    private void checkUnsaturated() {
        if (delegate().size() < boundThreshold && isSaturated.get()) {
            if (isSaturated.compareAndSet(true, false)) {
                queueBoundObserver.onUnsaturated();
            }
        }
    }

    private void checkSaturated() {
        if ((delegate().size() >= boundCapacity) && !isSaturated.get()) {
            if (isSaturated.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
                queueBoundObserver.onSaturated();
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


★★★★★ Average rating of 4.2 stars by 10 users.
The Vivo Y53 is a smartphone launched in March 15, 2016. It features a 5.0-inch screen, quad core processor and Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.
The official price of the Vivo Y53 in the Philippines is ₱6,990.00.
Buy Online Vivo Y53 on Lazada!


text:
Growing pains with CPD e-learning
'Patience is a virtue. Virtue is a grace' … estate agents will need grace for their regulating body as it continues to work on IT problems with last year's CPD roll out.
As last year's nationwide lockdown was extended from the initial three weeks to two months, all tertiary training institutions had to make quick adaptations to allow for online tutoring. Unfortunately for estate agents, their regulatory body, the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), was not able to make similar adaptations to e-learning as swiftly. It was only in December that the online training courses were made available for 2020's mandatory Continuous Professional Development (CPD). This delay was unrelated to Covid-19 or the lockdown as the courses should have been available by Feb/March.
However, the troubles were not over. The EAAB did announce last year that CPD fees for 2020 are waived and agents who paid already will be accredited for this year's CPD programme. However, when agents try to log on to do the e-learning course on the EAAB website now, they face numerous problems, e.g., payment is required when no payment is due etc.
According to numerous complaints by estate agents the EAAB don't respond to their complaints about this via email either. Rebosa has also written to the board to obtain answers and was told they are working on the online system. Property Professional this week received a similar reply from the EAAB stating that a service provider was recently appointed to overhaul the IT framework and that this will also involve the CPD configuration. The EAAB says 'a lasting solution that will allow affected estate agents to access e-Learning' is on its' way.
EAAB won't suspend CPD e-learning
According to Le Roux what he fails to understand is why this had to happen in the first place? He says Rebosa suggested last year already to the EAAB that the entire programme for CPD training in 2020 be suspended until the IT system was updated and working efficiently. Since no payment was required from agents this would have been an ideal solution and the EAAB could have started 2021 with courses ready early in the year as it should be. Now 2021 courses will be made available later, undoubtedly late yet again. This is "like getting yourself into a hole and keeping on digging," says Le Roux.
Nonetheless, the EAAB, in their comments this week affirmed that the CPD programme will not be suspended as the solution is being worked on with the IT service provider.
"I am amazed that the EAAB prefers thousands of agents logging on, getting stuck and logging queries instead of suspending the endeavour until problems are solved and advising agents accordingly ", continues Le Roux.
At least the EAAB says that estate agents will receive an extension for completion of CPD 2020 points until 30 June 2021.
Growing pains with CPD e-learning2021-01-282021-02-04https://propertyprofessional.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/pp-menu-logo-new.pngProperty Professionalhttps://propertyprofessional.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/growing-pains-with-cpd-e-learning.jpg200px200px
Showing 15 comments
Harry January 28, 2021
Exactly what we are experiencing, paid CPD 2020 in Feb last year. Tried to complete 2020 e-learning and its says I must first pay.
Logged queries resend proof of payments and still no word from The EAAB other than we have escalated the matter.
Thats if someone actually answers the phone. 🙁
Sonja Wolmarans January 28, 2021
I actually did pay mine for 2021 and they still respond that I should pay, will this payment be allocated then to 2022.
Maurice January 28, 2021
Think they should outsource their call centre as that also doesn't exist.
If they planned to have the 2020 courses ready by Feb & March 2020, then why they blaming Covid, lockdown only took place 28th March 2020. So it should have already been ready.
Don't understand that this EAAB fails to preform in all their departments.
Jan January 28, 2021
Never mind the fact that they want to charge 2 years penalty even if you were out of the country. So NOT trading illegally but no you must pay anyway. The EAAB is a blood sucking joke!!
Gerbre Hill January 28, 2021
I had no problem doing my online CPD in December.
Lizette January 28, 2021
Any question one tries to ask via the telephone, one is advised to log a query… that then is a dead-end, proforma reply and then nothing. I wonder if EAAB will ever function again after COVID or if that was the death knoll?
Karl Buschow January 28, 2021
The EAAB with all respect has never actually functioned.
Gert Wepener January 28, 2021
I agree with Karl Buschow
Paid 3rd of February 2020, logged numerous online queries, and still not solved
You dont have access to E-Learning , please pay first
🙁 🙁
What a joke!!!!
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) E-LEARNING FOR THE 2020 CALENDAR YEAR NOW OPEN
The CPD portal is open for all principals and non-principal estate agents to commence with their E-Learning for the CPD 2020 calendar year. The E-Learning video clips have been uploaded and are available on the MyCPD online agents' portal available on http://www.eaab.org.za
Please note that as per the instructions from the Minister early this year, CPD fees have been waived for the 2020 financial year.
Estate agents are encouraged to start with their CPD 2020 to earn their individual CPD points and an extension period of 6 months has been provided in which to complete and obtain your CPD points for the 2020 calendar year.
Date of Issue: 03 December 2020
Monica January 28, 2021
I have logged on, 5 Jan 2021, and did the first CPD questionnaire and when trying to SUBMIT it just shows LOADING, LOADING, LOADING, just not going anywhere. Lodged query, but only received automatic reply, nobody contacted me and no feedback.
Jaycee Hanekom January 28, 2021
Pathetic…!
les January 29, 2021
EAAB is now worse than CSOS!
I didn't know that I still have to do 2020 CPD – I was trying to get in to start my 2021 CPD.
Sent many emails with my proof of payment – two email replies both asking another employee to look into the matter?
It will most probably be June when they release their videos …
A sorry mess of an organisation that is our "controlling body"
Now they want me to do a self-assessment – when will they do a self-assessment?
James Otter February 6, 2021
I didn't do 2020 e-learning because of the COVID. So I paid and did it last month. I find it quite useful in picking up trends, as I am an assessor and moderator for SAQA levels 4 and 5 (in need of some editing and updating).
I paid again for 2021. It won't let me do e-learning. It tells me I haven't paid. So I phoned the EAAB and spoke to a helpful lady who advised accounts. 2 weeks gone now and still no joy. I wonder whether there is any material available for 2021.
James Otter February 11, 2021
I discovered that the 2021 e-learning programme would be available in March after talking to the EAAB. The message that I haven't paid is their way of telling me that the e-learning programme is not yet available. By the way, the 2020 plan was informative.


Power strips or extension cords are the most common hiding place for interception and recording devices. Checking the usual signal detector may not be reliable, as some of those devices could be placed in so called standby mode. The best way of testing is via physical examination, nonetheless this process can become very lengthy at times. This is why we have introduced this physical Extension cord Detector.
NOTE: In order for the detector to work, the extension cord has to be without anything plugged inside, and there can be no USB chargers or any other chargers inside. Detector works on bases of detecting any circuit that is present.
This Extention Cord Detector has EU design and can be used for various plugs or extension cords. Its powered by very quick and small microprocessors.


The default implementation automatically filters the collection specified. If there is no filter yet, it will filter the top 10 occurrences from the collection. When a filter is available, it will do the same but with the filter applied.


text:
Produced by Roma Baran & Laurie Anderson
Album United States Live (Part 4)
Stiff Neck Lyrics
A while ago, I had this stiff neck. I couldn't get it out of this one position. I went to a doctor and he said: I'm afraid this is no stiff neck--I think we're going to have to operate right away. I couldn't believe it so I went to a few specialists and they all said the same thing--we'll have to operate immediately. So I finally decided to have the operation and right before, the doctor said: Oh, by the way, what kind of insurance do you have? And I said: I don't have any insurance. And he said:
Well, maybe we can wait on this
By this time I was convinced I really needed to have the operation so I went to one last guy--and the first thing I said when I walked into his office was: Look. I have no money and no insurance. And he said: Show me where it hurts. And I said: Well, it sort of starts in my neck here, and runs down my arm, and kind of crumples up the fingers on this hand. And he said:
Exactly what is it that you do for a living?
"Stiff Neck" Track Info
Written By Laurie Anderson
Recorded At Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City, USA
United States Live (Part 4) Laurie Anderson
1. Cello Solo
2. It Tango
3. Blue Lagoon
4. Hothead (La Langue D'Amour)
5. Stiff Neck
6. Telephone Song
7. Sweaters
8. We've Got Four Big Clocks (and They're All Ticking)
9. Song for Two Jims
10. Over the River
11. Mach 20
12. Rising Sun
13. The Visitors
14. The Stranger
15. Classified
16. Going Somewhere?
17. Fireworks
18. Dog Show
19. Lighting Out for the Territories