text:
/*************************************************************************/
/*  thread.h                                                             */
/*************************************************************************/
/*                       This file is part of:                           */
/*                           GODOT ENGINE                                */
/*                      https://godotengine.org                          */
/*************************************************************************/
/* Copyright (c) 2007-2021 Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur.                 */
/* Copyright (c) 2014-2021 Godot Engine contributors (cf. AUTHORS.md).   */
/*                                                                       */
/* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining */
/* a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the       */
/* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including   */
/* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,   */
/* distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to    */
/* permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to */
/* the following conditions:                                             */
/*                                                                       */
/* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be        */
/* included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.       */
/*                                                                       */
/* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,       */
/* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF    */
/* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.*/
/* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY  */
/* CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,  */
/* TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE     */
/* SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                */
/*************************************************************************/

#ifndef THREAD_H
#define THREAD_H

#include "core/typedefs.h"

#if !defined(NO_THREADS)
#include "core/templates/safe_refcount.h"
#include <thread>
#endif

class String;

class Thread {
public:
	typedef void (*Callback)(void *p_userdata);

	typedef uint64_t ID;

	enum Priority {
		PRIORITY_LOW,
		PRIORITY_NORMAL,
		PRIORITY_HIGH
	};

	struct Settings {
		Priority priority;
		Settings() { priority = PRIORITY_NORMAL; }
	};

private:
#if !defined(NO_THREADS)
	friend class Main;

	static ID main_thread_id;

	static uint64_t _thread_id_hash(const std::thread::id &p_t);

	ID id = _thread_id_hash(std::thread::id());
	static thread_local ID caller_id;
	std::thread thread;

	static void callback(Thread *p_self, const Settings &p_settings, Thread::Callback p_callback, void *p_userdata);

	static Error (*set_name_func)(const String &);
	static void (*set_priority_func)(Thread::Priority);
	static void (*init_func)();
	static void (*term_func)();
#endif

public:
	static void _set_platform_funcs(
			Error (*p_set_name_func)(const String &),
			void (*p_set_priority_func)(Thread::Priority),
			void (*p_init_func)() = nullptr,
			void (*p_term_func)() = nullptr);

#if !defined(NO_THREADS)
	_FORCE_INLINE_ ID get_id() const { return id; }
	// get the ID of the caller thread
	_FORCE_INLINE_ static ID get_caller_id() { return caller_id; }
	// get the ID of the main thread
	_FORCE_INLINE_ static ID get_main_id() { return main_thread_id; }

	static Error set_name(const String &p_name);

	void start(Thread::Callback p_callback, void *p_user, const Settings &p_settings = Settings());
	bool is_started() const;
	///< waits until thread is finished, and deallocates it.
	void wait_to_finish();

	Thread();
	~Thread();
#else
	_FORCE_INLINE_ ID get_id() const { return 0; }
	// get the ID of the caller thread
	_FORCE_INLINE_ static ID get_caller_id() { return 0; }
	// get the ID of the main thread
	_FORCE_INLINE_ static ID get_main_id() { return 0; }

	static Error set_name(const String &p_name) { return ERR_UNAVAILABLE; }

	void start(Thread::Callback p_callback, void *p_user, const Settings &p_settings = Settings()) {}
	bool is_started() const { return false; }
	void wait_to_finish() {}
#endif
};

#endif // THREAD_H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


All texts, illustrations, design, data, information, and other works are copyrighted by Impact Foundation. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized redistribution or reproduction in any form of any materials herein is strictly prohibited.


text:
AI War 2 is out now in Early Access! Get it on Steam today!
Arcen Games »
AI War II »
AI War 2 coverage thread
Author Topic: AI War 2 coverage thread (Read 1147 times)
cupogoodness
Arcen Games business development/Jack of all trades
Arcen Staff
Early days yet on this front (a little under 36 hours from our announcement time), but here are the coverage results thus far:
Sheepdog Gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnMg_jyAoR8
MasterofRoflness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z5DoZNvMm8
Niche Gamer: https://nichegamer.com/2018/10/05/ai-war-2-launches-on-early-access-october-18/
IndieGameNews: https://www.indiegamenews.com/2018/10/ai-war-2-is-coming.html
Gaming Cypher: https://www.gamingcypher.com/ai-war-2-grand-strategy-rts-hybrid-launching-on-steam-early-access-oct-18/
WorthPlaying: https://worthplaying.com/article/2018/10/5/news/111161/
SavingContent.com: https://www.savingcontent.com/2018/10/04/ai-war-2-warps-onto-steam-early-access-on-october-18th/
Dad's Gaming Addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZLxaQ2tUjY
Reddit /r/games: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/9lipow/a_new_ai_war_2_trailer/
TweakTown: https://www.tweaktown.com/pressrelease/11617/grand-strategy-rts-hybrid-ai-war-launches-early-access-october-18th-2018-steam/index.html
Frags of War: https://fragsofwar.com/blog/ai-war-2-drops-into-steam-early-access-on-october-18th-2018
DT Gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnEXpwVlDzg
GameTrailers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq5oYngOpX0
NicheGamer.com: https://nichegamer.com/2018/10/05/ai-war-2-launches-on-early-access-october-18/
HGunified: https://www.hgunified.com/gaming/ai-war-2-launches-in-early-access.html
LinuxGameNews: http://linuxgamenews.com/post/178768184666/ai-war-2-rts-announces-early-access-date
I'll do my best to update periodically through Early Access release.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2018, 11:17:49 AM by cupogoodness »
etheric42
Re: AI War 2 coverage thread
I think the IndieGameNews link is for the wrong game.
Full Member Mark II
It might make sense at this very early stage to have simple factual statements of where people stumbled with the game, or tutorial to get the first wave of concerns dealt with.
Is this a good place for that kind of stuff, or prefer it elsewhere?
Dominus Arbitrationis
Arcen Games Contractor
Sr. Member Mark III
Quote from: etheric42 on October 05, 2018, 11:24:42 PM
Come help out at the Wiki!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of Arcen's games or any part of the site? Use Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games and site better!
I took one of the youtuber's (Sheepdog) play through the tutorial and turned it into a Mantis issue for Badger. I intend to do more, but it's pretty time consuming and if anyone else wants to chip in, the more the merrier.
th_Pion 's playthrough of the Tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPhkA2CfP_s
Published today, probably played before the latest patch.
th_Pion regularly plays puzzle games, and has dipped into the Programmer-puzzle genre a few times (e.g. Screeps). In other words, he's certainly capable of paying attention to detail. Nevertheless, I think there was a lot of things that kept him from following the tutorial:
- he liked that some tutorial segments "reversed" back to the previous segment if he got to the wrong spot
- WASD controls very slow (probably helped by latest patch)
- some tutorial segments advanced before he finished reading them, leading to confusion as he followed the steps WHILE reading, rather than reading the entire pane THEN following the steps
** this seems a common problem from other play throughs
- was confused whether he needed to take down shield posts on the second planet -- mentioned it takes a VERY long time, wondered if he didn't need to do that part???
- couldn't find the wormhole (text says "swirly green on right side of gravity well" - we don't define what a gravity well is; wormholes aren't green.
- didn't rally his starship to group-1 because the tutorial doesn't make it clear that EACH dock / starship dock has its own rally / group / pause buttons
- can't send colony ship through to third wormhole because tutorial obscures it -- he can't zoom out any more ( )
- confused while building during pause -- took him a few seconds to notice that he was paused and thats why nothing was building (maybe make a prominent -- paused -- somewhere top-middle of screen. Make it obvious, but not obscuring too much the "work area" of a screen (center)
- decided at the end that the "best" way to play was permanent 10x speed with pausing, as taking down shield outposts take too much time otherwise
- Confused at end of tutorial because he missed the text "tutorial will end when third planet defeated" text; spent some time messing about because the tutorial just stops advancing at the end.
"I guess this completes the Tutorial Maybe? It's not a great tutorial .... it doesn't sell the game well in my opinion. Not challenging, very slow if you don't speed up time"
Chris Park, Arcen Games Founder and Lead Designer
Zenith Council Member Mark III
Thank you! I'm going to go through the tutorial today and make a lot of improvements, and also based on the things that Sizzle pulled out from the th_Pion playthrough.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Radial JDV MK5 (VERY) Active Direct Box
Peter Janis
I have been a distant fan of Radial for years. I've never used any of their gear, but seeing it, reading about it and holding the occasional piece in my hands left me with one impression - very solid stuff.
I saw the JDV MK5, read the cut sheet and asked Peter Janis if he'd forward one for this review. Peter was my "go to" guy when he was working with Gefell Microphones. I had heard that there was something special about the nickle-membraned Gefell M294, M295 and M296 condenser mics. Indeed there was. If you want to read that review, you can download it here.
Vintage imp-2
There are hundreds of them out there, ranging from my vintage Whirlwind imp-2 passive direct box, from the early 1970s, which consists of a couple of 1/4" jacks on one end, an XLR on the other and a small transformer inside. Direct boxes are used to convert a high impedance, unbalanced guitar or other instrument into a a low impedance, balanced mic signal. A transformer is used to correct the impedance mismatch. It also balances the line and sends it out as a three conductor connection; either on XLR or TRS. A balanced, low impedance mic level signal can run over longer lengths* (see notes at the end of this review). For the high impedance output of a guitar or keyboard, best practices says cables shouldn't be longer than twenty feet.
You still might run into problems even if you do stay within twenty feet. There are small mixers that say you can plug a high impedance instrument right into them. Yes, in some cases, but in other cases, the circuits are very unforgiving and the gain structure is wonky and you end up with "TCS", total crap sound!
Radial JDV Mk 5 front and back panels
Radial JDV MK5
At $449, the Radial JDV MK5 is not passive nor is it your average active direct box. The 14-gauge steel used in the chassis and outer shell let you know this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The JDV MK5 has two channels, each with discrete, single-ended, Class A input circuitry, for electric or acoustic instruments. It is decidedly not a stomp box unless you get the JR-2 footswitch.
Seen below, the two switches are for MUTE on the left and A/B select on the right. The JR-2 ($99) connects to the device using a standard balanced audio cable with choice of ¼" TRS or XLR connections. The JR-2 is unique in that it derives its power from the device being controlled which in turn illuminates the on-board LED indicators to show the remote.
Radial JR-2 Remote Control
According to Paul Blake, in the support department at Radial, these switches allow you to switch an instrument plugged into input one to either input A or input B, should you want to change the sound of your instrument for different parts of a song. The JDV MK5 would sit on an amp or somewhere nearby; close enough to plug in your instrument(s). You would not normally need to adjust anything on it during a performance.
The front/back image of the JDV MK5 above indicates that this is a busy box. There are two separate 1/4" TS unbalanced jacks, one for each input. Each input has its own input level control. Each channel also has a variable high-pass filter. The PHAZER knob and switch on the right allow you to time-align the two inputs. This would be for situations in which you had two pickups on the same instrument or a pickup and a strapped-on mic on the same instrument. The small switch below the knob lets you choose 0 to 180 degrees or 180 to 360 degrees. You then use the knob to align the two signals before the mono balanced XLR and other outputs. The other front panel adjustments are for compensating for different kinds of pickups.
JDV MK5 Front Panel
Input A has a switch that changes the input impedance from 10 M Ohm for piezo systems to continuously variable DRAG for magnetic pickups. The continuously variable resistive DRAG control allows you to compensate for the load from 22K Ohm to 500K Ohm for passive pickups. Input B can be switched from 10 M Ohms for piezos to 220 Ohms, typically for magnetic pickups.
I have a K&K Pure Western Mini (now called a Pure Mini) piezoelectric passive pickup installed in my D28S Martin, thanks to the gentle and intelligent hands of John Thurston before he abandoned Baltimore for an obviously better way of life at Guitar Tex, in San Antonio, TX. This is a great pickup choice for that guitar, especially for finger-style playing, because there's little if any quack.
The Pure Mini is three electronically paralleled piezo pickups mounted inside on the bridge plate. According to K&K, it wants to be plugged into a 1 Meg Ohm or higher input. Straight into my Fishman SoloAmp, it sounds better than I thought it would. I was curious about the Fishman SoloAmp 1/4" instrument input so I reached out to Derek Alves in the support department at Fishman. Alves confirmed that the input impedance of the 1/4" input is 5 Meg Ohm, so good to go for plugging straight in, but what about through the JDV MK5 and out its XLR to the Fishman SoloAmp?
I plugged the Martin into input A of the JDV MK5 and began to turn the drag control which requires a screw diver. The thought being that once you get it set, you don't want to accidentally change it. The D28S isn't as boomy as a regular D28, but it's still quite full. I found a position fully clockwise with the DRAG control - so, 500K Ohm, and about mid-point in the rotation with the high-pass filter that tucked in the bass a bit and the sound was more "finished", with a broader, flatter frequency response. At this point I was coming out of the JDV MK5's XLR out and into the SoloAmp XLR input. Nice!
I expected more of a difference with tonality when adjusting the DRAG and other impedance switches. With my guitars the effects were very subtle. Regardless, the difference was mostly about gain. Full clockwise (500K Ohms) on the DRAG control was best; YMMV with different pickups. Turns out, if you have piezo pickups, you should stick with the 10 M Ohm input positions on the JDV MK5. The DRAG control was designed more for magnetic pickups.
The effect of the high-pass filters were more noticeable. None of my guitars, the Martin D28s, Fender Thinline with humbuckers or Martin Grand J28-LSE Baritone with active electronics ever got close to exceeding the input level and I had any guitar and JDV MK5 gains turned all the way up; so plenty of head room.
JDV MK5 Back Panel
AROUND BACK
The back of the JDV MK5 is no less busy. There's a four pin locking XLR to bring power to the unit from the external power supply.
The next connection is a balanced 3-pin XLR fed from a Jensen JT-11-YMPC transformer, designed to feed a live sound board or recorder.
The next four controls grouped together under the Radial logo offer some savvy help. The first one flips the polarity 180 degrees. The second one lifts the ground on pin 1 of the XLR output. The third one inserts a Jensen JT-11-YMPC transformer to isolate the XLR output signal path. These two may help you deal with your good friends Hum and Buzz. The fourth bumps the JDV MK5 output up to +20 line level.
Continuing across the back panel are the jack for the footswitch that allows muting and switching between the two channels and an always-on 1/4" unbalanced, high-impedance out that can feed a tuner, amp or other device. There are two 1/4" unbalanced instrument inputs, one for each of the two inputs. There's a separate 1/4" unbalanced THRU output normally used to feed a stage amp and a separate 1/4" balanced TRS jack for microphone inputs.
The 1/4" TRS microphone input jack is only routed through the input A. It has 48 V Phantom Power. According to Blake at Radial, "With phantom power, the two 6.8K ohm resistors limit the current to phantom powered devices to 10mA." That's more than enough for the hungriest condenser mic.
An LED under the DRAG control on the front panel lights when Phantom Power is active. As a safety precaution, the Phantom Power turns off when the JDV MK5 is powered down and has to be re-engaged by the small push switch in the side panel upon power up.
Both my Neumann TLM 103 (23 mV/Pa) and Audio-Technica AE5400 (10.0 mV/Pa) condenser mics overpowered the mic input when worked any closer than a foot, lighting the O/D lights on the front panel. Engaging the 10 dB pad on the AE5400 dropped the signal below clipping. I really like the Audio-Technica AE5400 for live vocals. I reviewed it back in 2003 when it came out. It uses one half the capsule of an AT4050 and has a 10 dB pad and high-pass filter. I'd put it up there with a Neumann KMS 104 and KMS 105. If all you have is high-sensitivity condensers with no on-board pads, I guess you could add a pad to the mic cable. My Shure SM86 (3.15 mV/Pa) hand-held condenser worked just fine with no pad, requiring the input trim to be about halfway up at 12 o'clock. My vintage dynamic Sennheiser MD421 (2.0 mV/Pa) also did well, also at about 12 o'clock.
I was easily able to plug a mic into input A and my guitar into input B, control the levels with input trim and alter the frequency response with the separate high-pass filters. Everything sounded just fine at mic level going into my Fishman 220 SoloAmp. I could have also chosen the +20 output on the side of the JDV MK5 and gone line level for recording or to a FOH console.
Drilling down a bit more into the guts of this beast. It's very common to use negative feedback in a circuit to improve fidelity. Negative feedback is not the only way to go, but it's a very common way. The Radial JDV MK5 does not use negative feedback and achieves its performance with single-ended Class A circuitry. Class A circuits are usually less efficient, generate more heat and exhibit better high frequency performance and fewer higher-order harmonic problems. Here's a great rabbit hole about amplifier modes.
Radial bought Jensen in mid 2014, so they now own one of the best makers of audio transformers in the business. Bill Whitlock, the former President, said Radial was their biggest client and in as much as he was turning 70, he wanted to ensure that Jensen's good name would continue. Quality transformers may not seem to be that essential, but they are a very big deal. A little bit of finely-crafted iron can really smooth the edges of your audio.
John Hardy makes high-quality mic preamps, including one of my all time favorites, the Jensen Twin Servo, and knows quite a bit about Jensen transformers and circuit design. "Most traditional audio transformers use core material that is 97% iron. Most of the Jensen transformers use core material that is 80% nickel. I know that "iron" is a commonly used term when referring to transformers generically, but I like to make the distinction that the best transformers use the 80% nickel core material. Nickel is much more expensive than iron, but it performs better." (and there we are, back at the magical properties of nickel. More about nickel here)
Being able to consistently and accurately turn out great transformers is very important. Hardy says. "Early Jensen transformers were wound by Reichenbach engineering. They were good, but Jensen is now winding in-house with more precise winders, so the piece to piece consistency is even better."
I found the JDV MK5 to be a very well-made and versatile piece of gear. It does a lot of different things and could be expected to become the hub of a performing musician's cluster of gear. The solo performer could use it to simply control one vocal and a mono instrument to one mono output, or other more complex configurations. Please continue to scroll below the specs for more information.
2/20/16: Just before I returned the JDV MK5, I noticed a strange little noise on the ring out of notes on input B. I sent word and an audio file to Ryan Juchnowski, Custom Shop Manager / Trade Show / Radial Technical Support. He said this was unusual and would get back to me. Keep an eye on this space for an update!
3/1/2016: This is what they had to say; "We had engineering test a few of the units off the shelf and found that sometimes, when the signal LED begins to dim/discharge, that the strange noise becomes present. Luckily this is an easy fix and we have changed the resistor values in all new units so that this intermittent problem has been eliminated. Should users find that this issue is present in units which they already own, all they need to do is contact customerservice@radialeng.com and in typical Radial fashion, they will be taken care of immediately."
JDV MK5 SPECIFICATIONS
Hold on a minute! There is documented evidence that even running long mic level signals back to FOH mixers also results in signal degradation. Fortunately, the JDV MK5 can also run +20 line level.
Years ago, I spoke with John Hardy for a review in MIX magazine. He recounted events at which Randy Ezratty's Effanel remote recording rig was used to record major concerts. They found that they got a better signal in the truck if racks of mic preamps were put on stage. Makes sense, right? Shorter mic to preamp runs sounded better than long mic runs. (Yes, they had to have an extra tech stage-side to oversee the mic pre levels.) The take away lesson was that if you're running long lines, it's better to have them at line level than mic level.
Even if you do this in live sound, your mixer and speakers may not be good enough to let you hear the difference. I walked into a singer-songwriter event here in Baltimore one night and noticed an AKG C1000S set up for acoustic guitar. I thought the sound would surely suck, but to my great surprise it didn't!
I'm guessing that the PA company owner hadn't had his C1000S modified. It must have been the compromises of the PA system that scraped the edge off of the C1000S. If you have one, try it in the studio and for live PA and see for yourself. If you have an AKG C1000S and are in search of a mod, try Mark Fouxman at Samar Audio. Last time I checked, he was charging $169 USD for the mod.
Hey, please subscribe to this blog. There are links up top on the right side for that. If you have questions......ASK!
Technique, Inc. © Copyright 2016
Reach Ty Ford at www.tyford.com
Labels: active direct box, direct box, Radial Engineering


text:
Q: Python - Parse a string with custom price units What is fastest way to parse a string to int in Python? The string may include custom units, such as "k" (kilo), "m" (million), or "b" (billion).
For example:
100  -> 100
100k -> 100000
100m -> 100000000
100b -> 100000000000

Thanks.

A: def convert(val):
    lookup = {'k': 1000, 'm': 1000000, 'b': 1000000000}
    unit = val[-1]
    try:
        number = int(val[:-1])
    except ValueError:
        # do something
    if unit in lookup:
        return lookup[unit] * number
    return int(val)

>>> print convert("100m")
>>> 100000000

Create a lookup table and then split the number into the number portion and the unit. If the unit portion exists, look to our table and use it to create the final number. Otherwise, return the number.

A: def numerize(s):
    multipliers = {'k': 10**3, 'm': 10**6, 'b': 10**9}

    if s[-1] in multipliers:
        return int(s[:-1]) * multipliers[s[-1]]
    else:
        return int(s)

A: EDIT: better exemplification, possible-error fix
>>> def get_unit(ustr):
...     if ustr == '': return 'u'
...     return ustr.lower()
...
>>> import re
>>> r=re.compile('([1-9][0-9]*)([kKmMbBgG]?)')

>>> units={'k':1000,'m':1000000,'g':1000000000,'b':1000000000,'u':1}
>>> result=r.match('120k')
>>> int(result.group(1))*units[get_unit(result.group(2))]
120000
>>> result=r.match('44')
>>> int(result.group(1))*units[get_unit(result.group(2))]
44
>>> result=r.match('44M')
>>> int(result.group(1))*units[get_unit(result.group(2))]
44000000
>>>

A: You can define a dictionary that maps numbers to themselves and units to zeros:
units = {"0":"0", "1":"1", #etc.
         "k":"000",
         "m":"000000"} # etc.

Then you convert a string to an int like this
int_value = int("".join(map(units.get, string_value)))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Remember the Ka'bah Impressionist Paintings that my students did? (See here to jog your memory.) This was a continuation of a lesson on Impressionism.
Previously, we had a lesson on Monet's landscape paintings. The idea came from this lesson 'Monet with Kindergarten'.


For the last few nights I stayed up really late working on a drag-and-drop Delphi component that can make pretty much any Delphi application self-installing and self-upgrading, just like AmSchedule Express (AMSE). Of course, it's actually based on the code from AMSE, so you'd think it wouldn't be that much work.
The real work, however, was in generalizing the code to minimize dependencies elsewhere in the program; you can write an install program for any program, but it's harder to write an install program for every program. But at last, (and after some very, very scary things involving locks held during thread termination; don't ask), it seems I've been successful.
As a bonus, I also took anti-Avery's advice and made it download in the background before annoying you about it. It also now verifies the downloaded file's SHA-1 hash, and avoids re-downloading in case you exit the program and run it again.
The bad news: all of this does you no good. We're not releasing this component, at least for now, so only we get to use it in our own apps.


text:
Good News from Gaston County Schools, September
Good News, September 2022
Employees from six schools in the Dallas area – North Gaston, W.C. Friday, Carr, Costner, Highland, and Woodhill – were treated to a back-to-school breakfast on August 16 at Rankin Lake Baptist Church. The breakfast served as the church's "thank you" to teachers and other school employees for their hard work and commitment to ensuring student success. Board of Education members Dot Cherry, Lee Dedmon, Dot Guthrie, Steve Hall, and Robbie Lovelace as well as Superintendent of Schools W. Jeffrey Booker attended the event. In addition to the opportunity to win one of 60 door prizes, each attendee received a treat bag.
The following students were selected as a College Board National Recognition Program award winner: Zahria Cannon, Stuart W. Cramer; Ainsley VanderMeer, Stuart W. Cramer; Isabel Suarez, East Gaston High School; Abigail Armstrong, Forestview; Andrew Boohene, Forestview; Nana Segua Eshun, Forestview; Rennie Liu, Forestview; Brianna Maga, Forestview; Yash Patel, Forestview; Emma Taylor, Forestview; Ariana Tsehaie, Forestview; Mary Whatley, Forestview; Jerome Butler, Highland School of Technology; Kennedy McGruder, Highland School of Technology; Adalberto Rodriguez-Cruz, Highland School of Technology; Gabriela Ruiz, Highland School of Technology; Angelo Sherrill, Highland School of Technology; Malasia Friday-Scales, Hunter Huss High School; Dawson Bice, North Gaston High School; Ajah Harris, North Gaston High School; Jenna Mason, North Gaston High School; Nia Ulli, South Point High School; and Kierra Wilcox, South Point High School. The students earned recognition because of their academic achievements in school and outstanding performance on the PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and/or Advanced Placement (AP) exams.
The following high schools were recognized by Jostens as a National Yearbook Program of Excellence award winner: Forestview High School, Bronze; Highland School of Technology, Silver; and South Point High School; Silver.
Bessemer City Primary received several boxes of school supplies from the Bessemer City Church of God.
Carr Elementary received school supply donations from Dixon Quick Coupling.
Classroom Central provided a free mobile store for teachers in Gaston County Schools on August 22. The mobile store was set up at Carr Elementary and teachers were able to stop by to pick up supplies for their classroom.
The Charlotte Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi donated 120 book bags filled with school supplies to students in need at Chapel Grove Elementary. In addition, the school received school supply donations from Crowders Creek ARP Church and Southside Baptist Church.
East Gaston High School student Zoe Gambino represented Mount Holly in the Miss North Carolina's Outstanding Teen competition, which was held in June in High Point.
East Gaston High School seniors Gracelyn Gaddy, Ashlyn Lewis, Taylor Wright, and Emily Cerilli completed the Certified Nurse Aide I state exam. Now, as a licensed CNA, the students have a professional advantage as they work toward a career in the medical field. In addition to the four students who have completed the state exam, three more students are scheduled to take the state test. The students are enrolled in the Health Sciences Academy at East Gaston, which is presented by CaroMont Health.
The Forestview High School boys soccer team won the Gaston Cup championship. The Gaston Cup was a three-day tournament held at Ashbrook High School and Stuart W. Cramer High School.
The following Forestview High School students in the Class of 2022 earned the Advanced Placement (AP) Capstone Diploma: William Barnes, Susan Christy, Margaret Lu, and Jessica Normile. To earn the AP Capstone Diploma, students must earn scores of three or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research and on four additional AP exams.
Forestview High School freshman Matthew Heilig will travel to Argentina in October to compete in the World Roller Games Championships. He qualified for the USA Junior World Team during the U.S. Artistic Roller Skating Nationals competition in Nebraska this summer. Matthew is the first figure skater to represent Team Kate's of Lowell at the international championship event.
W.C. Friday Middle School teacher Jennifer Bumgarner received a $15,000 grant to create an outdoor classroom/learning space. In addition, she was named a 2022-2023 North Carolina Center for Advanced Teaching (NCCAT) Honored Educator Scholarship recipient.
The following Gardner Park Elementary teachers received a $500 grant from Tindol Subaru to support classroom activities: Rachael Stoller, Kennedy Devine, Briana Currence, Myla Hoey, Amy Hurley, and Carly Edge.
Gardner Park Elementary student Carmen Martell painted artwork that helped spruce up the storm drain covers along the Lineberger Park Greenway. Keep Gastonia Beautiful organized the program.
As part of exposing students to a variety of colleges and career opportunities, eleventh graders at the Gaston Early College of Medical Sciences participated in an admissions information session at Appalachian State University and got an opportunity to tour the campus.
Hawks Nest STEAM Academy fifth grade teacher Allie Kleinheinz was selected as the 2021-2022 North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCCTM) Outstanding Elementary School Mathematics Teacher of the Year for Gaston County Schools.
In an effort to show support and appreciation, the Hawks Nest STEAM Academy PTO surprised the school's teachers by giving them a vacuum cleaner and an electric pencil sharpener.
Lingerfeldt Elementary received a generous donation of notebooks from First ARP Church of Gastonia. The notebooks were distributed to students in grades 2-5 to use for standards-based grading.
Lingerfeldt Elementary started the Wildcat Lifelong Learner program with a group of 12 families. Each month, the group meets at least three times to learn English as a Second Language. In addition to learning English, the parents have an opportunity to discuss educational topics and skills to help their children at home.
WCNC meteorologist Larry Sprinkle spoke to McAdenville Elementary students about his work as a TV weatherman and shared information about what to do in the event of a weather emergency.
In an effort to bring attention to Mental Health Awareness, schools conducted a variety of walking activities for students and staff during the 2021-2022 year. Collectively, participants walked a total of 12,880 miles. New Hope Elementary School led the way with 4,126 miles.
Park Street United Methodist Church donated school supplies to students and teachers at Page Primary.
Sherwood Elementary received a donation of school supplies from Myers Memorial United Methodist Church.
Members of the South Point High School football team and cheerleading squad took time to greet students as they arrived at Belmont Central Elementary one morning.
South Point High School senior Preston Howell was one of 12 athletes to represent Team USA at the 2022 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Men's Under 23 World Championship.
South Point High School hosted a practice and performance session for the North Carolina A&T State University marching band on September 3. The band played in front of more than 100 spectators. South Point graduate Garvin Collins is a drum major for the band.
South Point High School started a peer tutoring club to give students a chance to be leaders outside the classroom and support students who need a little extra help with their schoolwork.
As part of an Eagle Scout project, Tucker Ballard, a former Stanley Middle School student and current student at East Gaston High School, built an outdoor classroom and seating area at Stanley Middle School.
Webb Street School received school supplies from the Christian Fellowship Assembly.
York Chester Middle School received school supply donations from First United Methodist Church in Gastonia and Loray Mills.


Telugu star Nithiin was born on 30 March 1983 in Telangana. His birth name is Nithin Kumar Reddy. He attended Ratna college,in Narayanguda. He made his film debut with blockbuster hit Jayam alongside Sadha and Gopichand in 2002 and won Filmfare Debut Award for his performance in the film. Due to its popularity the film was remade in Tamil with the same title starring Jayam Ravi, there also film impressed the box office. His subsequent blockbusters are Dil co-starring Neha and Prakash Raj, Sye co-starring Genelia D'Souza, Shashank and Pradeep Rawat in 2004, Ishq in 2012 alongside Nithya Menen and Ajay, Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde in 2013 with Nithya Menen, Jwala Gutta and Isha Talwar, Heart Attack in 2014 with Adah Sharma and Prakash Raj. He is also a very good singer and made his singing debut with film Ishq in 2012, he also wrote lyrics for the song Lachhamma in Ishq movie.
His father N. Sudhakar Reddy is a film distributor. His mother Vidhya Reddy is a house wife.


Yesterday saw a major new edition to the UK Triathlon calendar, with the first edition of the Cardiff Triathlon (www.cardiff-tri.com) from Always Aim High Events. As well as a major new City centre location, the event also featured live streaming coverage on Tri247, thanks to the great work of Dream Team Television.
The headline winners were British Elite triathlete David Bishop - preparing for his first Senior Elite representation at the European Championships in two weeks - and Cardiff local Eloise Crowley. We also have separate post-race interviews with David and Eloise HERE.
(You can still (re)watch the live coverage stream HERE).
Cardiff Triathlon report -thousands flood into Cardiff for inaugural triathlon.
On Sunday 28th June, Cardiff, the sports mad capital city of Wales hosted its first ever triathlon. Over 1,200 triathletes swam the legendary waters of Cardiff Bay (for the first time ever!), cycled beautiful closed roads around Cardiff and ran on a picturesque route out to the Cardiff Bay Barrage! All of which was broadcast live to an audience around the globe via the Tri247.com live stream.
Over 4,000 spectators and local community members packed into Cardiff Bay to support the event. They were treated to loads of live entertainment; including climbing walls, bouncy castles and promising local bands and solo artists playing live music.
After 1500m of swimming, 40km on the bike and a 10km run, it was GB triathlete David Bishop who emerged victorious as he blitzed his competitors with an incredible time of 1:50:44. Bishop beat Chris Silver who finished in second place and David Hynes, who finished third.
Emerging out of the water and exiting T1 in first position, Bishop became the hot favourite to win the race. However, as the athletes returned into the Roald Dahl Plass following the challenging 40km bike leg, David Hynes had cut Bishop's lead to just 18 seconds.
Not wanting to be beaten, Bishop put on the burners during the 10km run, recording an astonishing time of 31:11. This eventually saw him run out as the clear winner finishing two minutes ahead of his nearest challenger.
In the female race it was Eloise Crowley who was first home with an unbelievable time of 2:07:52. This saw her crowned the first ever Cardiff Triathlon women's champion. Crowley loved the whole Cardiff Triathlon experience calling it "brilliant" and "very well organised".
The female race was a mirror image of the male race as local athlete Crowley led from start to finish. The Cardiff born athlete went on to win by 33 seconds ahead of nearest challenger, Caroline Higgins.
The Cardiff Triathlon Sprint race saw Tomos Nesham and Hollie Elliott emerge as individual winners of the male and female races. Both stormed around the course in fantastic times of 58:26 and 1:05:39 respectively.
Nesham, the 15-year-old from Pontypridd was ecstatic at the finish line and is certainly one to watch for the future. Halliwell proved just too strong for her competitors eventually finishing over 10 seconds ahead of her nearest challenger.
"What a fantastic day! To be able to put on such a great triathlon in our capital city is a huge honour. Most, if not all of the major cities around the UK have a well renowned triathlon, and now Cardiff does too! It's incredible to see that the triathlon has attracted over 1,200 athletes in it's first year, but we know it won't stop there - this event will get bigger and better!
It was brilliant to see so many supporters and people from the local community come out to support the event. We are a Welsh based event company and we are so happy to organise a race that the people of Cardiff and Wales can be proud of.
We are very grateful to our partners at Visit Wales, Chain Reaction Cycles, Kinetica, Velindre, Cardiff City Council, Cardiff Millennium Centre, Pedal Cover, Aqua Sphere, Superfeet, Pentraeth Group, Future Inns, Amphibia, Kon-X, Jones o Gymru, Nevis Triathlon, Salomon, Morrisons, Tritopia, The Victoria Park Clinic and of course, Welsh Triathlon.
If the 2015 race has got you inspired you can pre-register for the 2016 Cardiff Triathlon HERE.
All other information about the Cardiff Triathlon can be found HERE.


We are creating, BRAVE NEW EUROPE the first trans-European blog challenging the predominant neo-liberal discourse. BRAVE NEW EUROPE will present articles and podcasts by distinguished experts with a radical attitude about politics and economics.
"When money talks, everybody else is condemned to listen". Not if we can help it!
We are creating the first trans-European blog, BRAVE NEW EUROPE, to publish analyses and opinions with a radical face and attitude concerning European politics and economics. Among our contributors will be many distinguished European experts challenging the predominant political and media discourse. The blog will emphasize a democratic exchange of ideas supporting the creation of an egalitarian, just and social option to neo-liberal Europe.
Involving authors from throughout the continent, BRAVE NEW EUROPE will for the first time connect Europeans in a common forum, exploring, yet not over-simplifying, the complex reality in which we live and focussing on pivotal current issues. BRAVE NEW EUROPE will additionally serve as an interface between experts and activists, connecting theory and practical politics. The exchange of ideas will not be limited to the contributors, but will include comments by readers, aiming to build a community of participants and a forum in which European public issues can be debated.
We shall daily provide original content, including our own podcasts, cross postings, as well as investigative reports. We believe deeply in providing innovative, critical journalism that everyone can access, whatever their income level. Thus we are asking you with your donations to help others to be able to use BRAVE NEW EUROPE free of charge and permit us to be answerable to our readers, not to advertisers.


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The U.S. Women's Soccer World Cup Win Was a Victory for Title IX & the Fight for Equal Pay
Published: 5 days ago
Thousands gathered in Manhattan Wednesday to celebrate the U.S. women's national soccer team's fourth World Cup championship at a ticker tape parade that stretched up Broadway and past Wall Street. Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle and their teammates rode floats through New York City's Canyon of Heroes, ending their celebrations at a ceremony at City Hall. Supporters chanted "U.S.A.!" and "Equal pay!" The U.S women's World Cup victory came just months after members of the 2015 women's team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation over gender discrimination. Their high-profile fight for pay equity is focusing the spotlight on the pay gap for all women, not just soccer players. We speak with Julie Suk, professor of sociology at the Graduate Center at CUNY.
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Home Entertainment Uee vs Nana: Who's More Popular in After School?
Uee vs Nana: Who's More Popular in After School?
koreaboo.com
After School's Top Two Visuals Battle It Out!
After School is a girl-group that debuted in 2009, and who promoted under Pledis Entertainment. The group originally debuted with five members but subsequently added in several new members, with their biggest lineup reaching eight members. Two of the most well-known members from After School are Nana and Uee, both of whom have successfully established their careers outside the group while still promoting as part of it. Whether they're acting, modeling or making variety show appearances, the two seem to always be around and about.
Uee, the older of the two, was part of After School's first wave of new members after their debut. She was added during the second promotions and served as the youngest member for a little while. She always had a very bright and charming vibe, something most people call girl next door charm.
Nana, on the other hand, was added later on in the group's career. She is younger than Uee, but was known mostly for her cold, city-girl charm. She is endlessly alluring with her fox eyes and blonde hair, attracting both international and domestic fans. So which of the two is the most popular? Let's take a look at several aspects of their careers so far to determine which one rises above the other!
Uee vs Nana: Visual Battle
As we all know, Nana and Uee are both very gorgeous girls who happen to also possess the height of the average model. It is to no ones surprise that they have both been asked to be models in some magazine photoshoots throughout their career. Let's check out some of their photoshoots below!
Uee's Photoshoot
Below are some of the photoshoots Uee has done for the magazine, Singles. The two photoshoots below are definitely more on the commercial side, highlighting her girl-next-door charm and her sweet looks. She pulls off a lot of very simple items, such as a simple patterned dress, a white shirt, and a t-shirt and jeans combo. You can definitely fall for her comfortable and stylish looks.
Nana's Photoshoot
As opposed to Uee, who rocks the girl next door looks, Nana's photoshoots lean more towards the high-fashion and editorial spreads. As seen below, she has done some solo photoshoots for the magazine Singles, rocking silver-white hair. The looks she rocks are also mostly monochrome, with interesting cuts and patterns, highlighting the edginess that she possesses. Other than that, she has also been featured in a hairstyle magazine alongside Lee Jong-suk, highlighting their similar features.
Uee vs Nana: Singing Skill
Even if After School's mostly known to use Raina as their main vocal, that's not to say that the other members can't sing. Let's take a look at Uee and Nana's singing abilities!
Uee's Singing
One of Uee's singing gigs was in 2012, when she had a special stage with her then-co-MC, and now co-star, Jang Woo. The two sang a rearranged version of Black Eyed Peas' Time of My Life. The performance not only highlighted Uee's singing, but also her cool dance moves. Check out the performance, above!
Nana's Singing
When Orange Caramel guested on Weekly Idol, Doni and Coni made all the members sing and show off their talents. This led to Nana singing Monday Kiz's Footsteps, showing off her light and airy tones. In another corner, she also revealed her love for trot music. She revealed that even during her audition at Pledis, she auditioned with a trot song and sang a little for the MCs.
Uee vs Nana: Acting Career
This is where it really goes down between the two, as both Uee and Nana have now both transitioned to a career in acting. So let's take a brief look at the roles that made them the breakout stars that they are today!
Uee's Drama
Uee has starred in various dramas in the time that she's been promoting, but nonetheless her breakout could be pinpointed to her starring in the drama Hogu's Love. She plays the character Do Do-hee, a national athlete who is the star of Kang Ho-goo's dreams and former school classmate. They found their way back together during a school reunion, while she hid the fact that she was pregnant. The drama was quite well received for the fact that the themes brought up were very new and fresh, although as time goes by, Uee has been criticized quite a bit for her acting.
Nana's Drama
Nana isn't known to have been in a lot of dramas, but she has previously expressed her interest in acting, and after she had done promotions with Orange Caramel, she was finally able to take part in her breakout role on the drama, The Good Wife. In The Good Wife, Nana takes on the role of Kim Dan, an MJ Law Firm researcher who holds many secrets and works alongside the main character, Kim Hye-kyung. Portrayed by Nana, the character's presence and charisma certainly does not pale, even in the scenes where she had to face actress Jeon Do Yeon head-on.
Uee vs Nana: Fashion
As with their personalities and charms, their personal style is quite different from one another, so let's take a look at Uee and Nana's personal fashion looks.
Uee's Fashion
Playing off of her fresh and innocent charm, Uee's style is very simple and laid-back, with her love for jumpers and t-shirt/jeans combos. It definitely reflects her personality and it's the comfortably stylish look she is most known for.
mhnew.com
mnetamerica.com
Nana's Fashion
Nana, on the other hand, dresses simply, but in a very chic and edgy manner. She rocks a t-shirt/jeans combo with a fur jacket on top, a chic dark blue coat over a white button-down and a knit-leather jacket that throws people off their expectations. Her fashion is playful and charming, and all of her personality wrapped into one.
kultscene.com
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Banking News Consumer Spending Fears As Retail Sales Fall 18471286
Consumer spending fears as retail sales fall
17 September 2010 / by Unknown
Fears that consumer spending has begun a steady decrease, ahead of public sector budget cuts, have been prompted by lower retail sales in August.
It had been predicted that consumer spending was unlikely to continue its recent contribution to growth, with the latest Office for National Statistics figures reporting a 0.5 per cent drop in the value of sales compared to July.
Retail sales rose 1.9 per cent compared to August last year, but the exchange trader Caxton FX said the decrease on July, halting consistent growth in sales since January, led to a sell-off in sterling.
Duncan Higgins of Caxton FX said the data confirmed fears that the gross domestic product (GDP) figure for the third quarter of 2010 would be disappointing.
"Food, fuel, clothing, and household goods sales all made moderate declines in August as consumers tighten their pockets ahead of what is set to be a tough end to the year," Higgins added.
Challenging concerns that consumers were being more cautious, Barclays said spending on credit and debit cards increased by 9.2 per cent in August compared to the same time last year.
The increase in card spending recorded by the Barclaycard Spending Index, which tracks card spending based on around 30 per cent of the UK market, represents the fourth month in a row that annual growth has been over 9 per cent.
The index did record a decrease of 1.9 per cent in spending compared to July, in line with the general retail sales numbers, but this was attributed, in part, to an early start to summer sales in July.
Stuart Neal, head of Barclaycard UK Payment Acceptance, said: "While there is some cause for viewing the near future with a certain amount of trepidation, recent indicators are good. Confidence remains relatively high, but it will be important to see how spending fares when public spending cutbacks begin to hit people's pockets and not just the headlines."
© Fair Investment Company Ltd


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Spin (magazine)
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: article lacks focus and neutral point of view Please help improve this if you can. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Kurt Cobain, his wife Courtney Love, and their daughter Frances on Spin, December 1992
1985; 36 years ago (1985)
September/October 2012 (print); 8 years ago
Next Management Partners
New York City, New York, U.S.
spin.com
Spin (often stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. The magazine stopped running in print in 2012 and currently runs as a webzine,[1] owned by NEXT Management.
1.1 Later years
2 Spin Alternative Record Guide
4 Year-end lists
4.1 Single of the Year
4.2 Album of the Year
6.1 Footnotes
6.2 Bibliography
Spin was established in 1985.[2] In its early years, the magazine was known for its narrow music coverage with an emphasis on college rock, grunge, indie rock, and the ongoing emergence of hip-hop, while virtually ignoring other genres, such as country, and metal. It pointedly provided a national alternative to Rolling Stone's more establishment-oriented style. Spin prominently placed newer artists such as R.E.M., Prince, Run-D.M.C., Eurythmics, Beastie Boys, and Talking Heads on its covers and did lengthy features on established figures such as Duran Duran, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Miles Davis, Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and John Lee Hooker[3]—Bart Bull's article on Hooker won the magazine its first major award.[citation needed]
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
On a cultural level, the magazine devoted significant coverage to punk, alternative country, electronica, reggae and world music, experimental rock, jazz of the most adventurous sort, burgeoning underground music scenes, and a variety of fringe styles. Artists such as the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, X, Black Flag, and the former members of the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the early punk and New Wave movements were heavily featured in Spin's editorial mix. Spin's extensive coverage of hip-hop music and culture, especially that of contributing editor John Leland, was notable at the time.[citation needed]
Editorial contributions by musical and cultural figures included Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, David Lee Roth and Dwight Yoakam. The magazine also reported on cities such as Austin, Texas, or Glasgow, Scotland, as cultural incubators in the independent music scene. A 1990 article on the contemporary country blues scene brought R. L. Burnside to national attention for the first time.[citation needed] Coverage of American cartoonists, Japanese manga, monster trucks, the AIDS crisis, outsider artists, Twin Peaks, and other non-mainstream cultural phenomena distinguished the magazine's dynamic early years.[citation needed]
In late 1987, publisher Bob Guccione Jr.'s father, Bob Guccione Sr., abruptly shut the magazine down despite the fact that the two-year-old magazine was widely considered a success, with a newsstand circulation of 150,000.[citation needed] Guccione Jr. was able to rally much of his staff, partner with former MTV president and David H. Horowitz, locate additional new investors and offices and after missing a month's publication, returned with a combined November–December issue. During this time, it was published by Camouflage Associates. In 1997, Guccione sold Spin to Miller Publishing.[citation needed]
In 1994, two journalists working for the magazine were killed by a landmine while reporting on the Bosnian War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A third, William T. Vollmann, was injured.
In February 2006, Miller Publishing sold the magazine to a San Francisco-based company called the McEvoy Group LLC, which was also the owner of Chronicle Books.[4] That company formed Spin Media LLC as a holding company. The new owners replaced editor-in-chief (since 2002) Sia Michel with Andy Pemberton, a former editor at Blender. The first issue to be published under his brief command was the July 2006 issue—sent to the printer in May 2006—which featured Beyoncé on the cover. Pemberton and Spin parted ways the next month, in June 2006. The following editor, Doug Brod, was executive editor during Michel's tenure.[citation needed]
For Spin's 20th anniversary, it published a book chronicling the prior two decades in music. The book has essays on grunge, Britpop, and emo, among other genres of music, as well as pieces on musical acts including Marilyn Manson, Tupac Shakur, R.E.M., Nirvana, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, Limp Bizkit, and the Smashing Pumpkins. In February 2012, Spin relaunched the magazine in a larger, bi-monthly format and expanded its online presence, which covered reviews, extended editorials, interviews, and features on up-and-coming talent.[citation needed]
In 2011, Caryn Ganz became editor. In July 2012, Spin was sold to Buzzmedia, which eventually renamed itself SpinMedia.[5] The September/October 2012 issue of Spin was the magazine's last print edition.[6]
In 2013, Jem Aswad was named editor. Craig Marks became editor in 2014.
In December 2016, Eldridge Industries acquired SpinMedia via the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group for an undisclosed amount.[7]
In 2016, Puja Patel became editor. In 2018, Matt Medved became editor. In 2020, the publication was sold to the private equity group NEXT Management Partners.
Spin Alternative Record Guide
Main article: Spin Alternative Record Guide
In 1995, Spin produced its first book, entitled Spin Alternative Record Guide.[8] It compiled writings by 64 music critics on recording artists and bands relevant to the alternative music movement, with each artist's entry featuring their discography and albums reviewed and rated a score between one and ten.[9] According to Pitchfork Media's Matthew Perpetua, the book featured "the best and brightest writers of the 80s and 90s, many of whom started off in zines but have since become major figures in music criticism," including Rob Sheffield, Byron Coley, Ann Powers, Simon Reynolds, and Alex Ross. Although the book was not a sales success, "it inspired a disproportionate number of young readers to pursue music criticism."[10] After the book was published, its entry on 1960s folk artist John Fahey, written by Byron Coley, helped renew interest in Fahey's music, leading to interest from record labels and the alternative music scene.[11]
Contributors to Spin have included:
Brad Auerbach
Barry Michael Cooper
Chuck Klosterman
Byron Coley
Kim France
Tad Friend
Andy Greenwald
Will Hermes
Dave Itzkoff
John Leland
Bart Bull
Glenn O'Brien
R. Meltzer
Snorri Bros
Jonathan Ames
Strawberry Saroyan
Paul Beahan (founder of Manimal Vinyl)
Michael O'Donoghue
Bönz Malone
Marc Spitz
Brandon McCulloch
Year-end lists
SPIN began compiling year-end lists in 1990.
Single of the Year
1994 Beck "Loser" United States [1]
1995 Moby "Feeling So Real" United States [2]
1996 Fugees "Ready or Not" United States [3]
1997 The Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize" United States [4]
1998 Fatboy Slim "The Rockafeller Skank" England [5]
1999 TLC "No Scrubs" United States [6]
2000 Eminem "The Real Slim Shady" United States [7]
2001 Missy Elliott "Get Ur Freak On" United States [8]
2002 Eminem "Cleanin' Out My Closet" United States [9]
2003 50 Cent "In da Club" United States [10]
2004 Green Day "American Idiot" United States [11]
2005 Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc." England [12]
2006 Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" United States [13]
2007 Kanye West "Stronger" United States [14]
2008 M.I.A. "Paper Planes" England [15]
2009 Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Zero" United States [16]
2010 CeeLo Green "Fuck You" United States [17]
2011 Adele "Rolling in the Deep" England [18]
2012 GOOD Music "Mercy" United States [19]
2013 Daft Punk "Get Lucky" France [20]
2014 Future Islands "Seasons (Waiting on You)" United States [21]
2015 Justin Bieber "What Do You Mean?" Canada [22]
2016 Rae Sremmurd "Black Beatles" United States [23]
2017 Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, and Migos "Slide" Scotland [24]
2018 Valee and Jeremih "Womp Womp" United States [25]
2019 Big Thief "Orange" United States [26]
1990 Ice Cube AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted United States [27]
1991 Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque Scotland [28]
1992 Pavement Slanted and Enchanted United States [29]
1993 Liz Phair Exile in Guyville United States [30]
1994 Hole Live Through This United States [31]
1995 Moby Everything is Wrong United States [32]
1996 Beck Odelay United States [33]
1997 Cornershop When I Was Born for the 7th Time England [34]
1998 Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill United States [35]
1999 Nine Inch Nails The Fragile United States [36]
2000 Radiohead Kid A England [12]
2001 System of a Down Toxicity United States [13]
2002 The White Stripes White Blood Cells United States [37]
2003 Elephant [38]
2004 Kanye West The College Dropout United States [39]
2005 Late Registration [40]
2006 TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain United States [41]
2007 Against Me! New Wave United States [42]
2008 TV on the Radio Dear Science United States [43]
2009 Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion United States [44]
2010 Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy United States [45]
2011 Fucked Up David Comes to Life Canada [46]
2012 Frank Ocean Channel Orange United States [47]
2013 Kanye West Yeezus United States [48]
2014 The War on Drugs Lost in the Dream United States [49]
2015 Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly United States [46]
2016 Solange Knowles A Seat at the Table United States [50]
2017 Kendrick Lamar Damn. United States [51]
2018 The 1975 A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships England [52]
2019 Big Thief Two Hands United States [53]
Note: The 2000 album of the year was awarded to "your hard drive", acknowledging the impact that filesharing had on the music listening experience in 2000.[12] Kid A was listed as number 2, the highest ranking given to an actual album.
1994 roadside attack on Spin magazine journalists
^ Chris Welch (December 10, 2012). "Publishers bring 195 new magazines to print in 2012 despite ongoing digital push". The Verge. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
^ Christopher Zara (December 22, 2012). "In Memoriam: Magazines We Lost In 2012". International Business Times. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
^ Bull, Bart (April 2006). "Messin' with the Hook". Spin. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
^ George Raine (March 1, 2006). "S.F. group buys 20-year-old rock music magazine Spin". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
^ "Spin Magazine Is Sold to Buzzmedia, With Plans to Expand Online Reach By Ben Sisario July 10, 2012 7:43 am".
^ "The Daily Swarm". Retrieved May 7, 2016.
^ "Billboard Buys Spin and Vibe in a Quest to 'Own the Topic of Music Online'". Adweek. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
^ Johnston 2007.
^ Anon. 2012, p. 313; Mazmanian 1995, p. 70
^ Perpetua 2011.
^ Ratliff 1997.
^ a b Spin, January 2001.
^ spencerkaufman (September 4, 2011). "10 Things You Didn't Know About 'Toxicity'". Loudwire. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
Anon. (2012). "Bibliography". In Ray, Michael (ed.). Alternative, Country, Hip-Hop, Rap, and More: Music from the 1980s to Today. Britannica Educational Publishing. ISBN 1615309101.
Mazmanian, Adam (1995). "Library Journal". In White, William (ed.). Buyer's Guide. Bowker.
Johnston, Maura (2007). "Never Mind The Anglophilia, Here's The Queens Brothers". Idolator. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
Perpetua, Matthew (2011). "The SPIN Alternative Record Guide". Pitchfork Media. in "Staff Lists: Words and Music: Our 60 Favorite Music Books". Retrieved July 29, 2015.
Ratliff, Ben (1997). "A 60's Original With a New Life on the Fringe". The New York Times (January 19). Retrieved July 29, 2015.
Spin, for full view on Google Books


text:
This Portfolio (laurengm)
It Can Be Pondered
Frightmare Contest Entry
Kickin' Back on the Ice Floe
Are you a penguin? Do you like penguins? Come on in!
A list of do's and don'ts of query letter writing along with examples.
Anxiety is keeping me from being happy...
A Gathering for all my poetry, of all types
Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1026084-The-Pink-Umbrella
The Pink Umbrella
by Lauren Gale
Rated: E · Fiction · Animal · #1026084
Horses tell a little girl a secret
Created: October 25th, 2005 at 9:17pm
Modified: November 7th, 2005 at 12:07am
Location: Children's
Genres: Animal, Children's, Contest
In the city where I grew up there was a big park, three blocks long. It had playgrounds, picnic areas, and ball fields. On the weekends carnival booths opened and a carousel ran.
The horses on the carousel got along about as well as the members of any big family. They had their good days and their bad days. Sometimes they fought, but usually they got along and chatted together to make the time pass while they worked.
How in the world they were able to hear each other over the sound of the calliope is a genuine mystery. Real horses would never have been able to carry on a conversation and make themselves heard with such noise going on. Maybe it was the type of wood that they were carved out of, or maybe it was because they were born on the carousel so they had developed a special skill, like wild animals who adapt to their environment.
Their favorite pastime was making predictions about the children and parents who would climb aboard. They had gotten very good at knowing when trouble was coming.
"Uh, oh. Look over there. See that kid? I only hope that when he gets on, he chooses Picket, because I don't think I can take another rascal today," moaned Grouch.
This had not always been his name, but the horses on this carousel had never known him by any other. He was far older than any of them. He'd been freshly painted so he looked new and young, but he'd been around for many, many years. He'd felt thousands of bottoms on his back, from the tiny ones that he could barely tell were there, to the big ones that left him aching.
Sadly for Grouch, the boy did climb up on him, settling into the slick blue saddle where his mother strapped him in snugly. He kicked the sides of the horse with every beat of the calliope.
"If I didn't have such a stiff neck, I'd reach around and bite his foot," Grouch told Thunder, who was contentedly moving UP and DOWN with a little girl who hummed quietly.
Thunder knew this was not an entirely empty threat. None of them would ever forget the day when Grouch had reached his limit. It was at the end of a long, hard day for the carousel. A teenage boy mounted the exhausted Grouch and kicked and turned backwards and laid sideways and stood up and bounced. The thing that occurred next happened so fast no one except the other horses actually saw it, but the teenager found himself suddenly on the floor of the carousel, dazed.
Even Giant gave Grouch his space when he was feeling edgy.
Giant was the largest and most popular horse of all. His mane and tail were carved into perfect waves; his saddle and blanket were painted with the most beautiful metallic colors. He took pride in the fact that he was on the Outside and loved to tease Pinky, who was stuck on the Inside.
"Hey, Pinky, look at that man in the hat over there." He knew this would rile her because she loved more than anything to watch the people who stood around the carousel waving and taking pictures. But she only got to see them when she was UP and he was DOWN. In this case, the man with the hat was on the side where Giant was always UP.
"Well, if your big head wasn't in the way all the time, I could look." Pinky sulked, which is what she always did when something interesting was out there and she missed it.
While Pinky struggled to catch a glimpse of the man with the hat, another man sat on a bench watching his daughter play on the playground. He sketched his four year old child as she swung and bounced on the springy frog. She got off the frog and climbed aboard the playground gym while he continued working on the finishing touches of his drawings. He was concentrating on his work so he didn't see when she got bumped off the steps by a bigger boy, but he was made aware of the event by her cries. She came to him with tears in her eyes, so he put away his pad and pencil and took her up onto his lap.
"Would you like to go on the carousel?" He asked. She nodded.
He stood by her as she rode Pinky and watched her pay close attention to the horses, moving her eyes from one to the other and back again. He was glad that she was happy and had forgotten the earlier insult.
He prepared himself for the usual request, "Daddy, can I go again?"
What she said was, "Daddy, take me somewhere."
"Where do you want to go, honey?"
"Pick me up and I'll show you."
This was a very unusual request, but he did what she wanted, curious about what she intended. She directed him though the crowd and down the length of the park to a deserted parking lot in the far corner.
"Why did you want to come here?" he asked his youngster.
"That's why!" She pointed to a large van that was pulling up into the lot.
The driver parked the van and within a few minutes had unloaded an elephant.
"How did you know this was going to be here?"
"The horses told me."
Her father laughed, wanting to play along with her game of make believe.
"This is Sadie," the driver, who was also her trainer, told them.
"Hello, little girl," Sadie said. "I'll bet the horses told you to meet me here, didn't they?"
"Would you like to see my umbrella?" Sadie used her trunk to nudge an umbrella that was among props which had been unloaded from the van. The trainer opened the umbrella and handed it to Sadie, who took it gingerly in her trunk.
"I really love this umbrella, isn't it a beautiful pink?"
The child nodded.
"Of course I can only shade one eye at a time, as you can see, but the way the sun looks as it shines through the pink makes me feel happy. Don't you think I look stunning?"
More nods.
"Would you like to have my umbrella?"
She nodded vigorously.
Sadie stretched out her trunk and offered the umbrella to the little girl.
"Well, I'll be," said the trainer. "I've never seen the like. An elephant giving away her umbrella. I guess since Sadie is making the offer you can keep it, if you want."
The little girl took the umbrella. "Thank you, sir. Thank you, Sadie." Sadie waved her trunk.
That pink umbrella is wrapped in tissue and lies on a shelf in my closet. I take it down several times a year, whenever my grandchildren ask to hear the story of the talking horses and the elephant with an umbrella.
© Copyright 2005 Lauren Gale (laurengm at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.


StarDust offers a collection of special order flower girl dresses that are sure to make any little girl feel like princess. She will shine in timeless silhouettes, fine fabrications and delicate details from New York's top designers. Our flower girl dresses range from $150-$350. Please allow 12-18 weeks to order.


These 3 Caballeros inspired Magic Mouse Ears are perfect for the Disney lover in anyone. They are made with a satin and cotton material, with ribbon, and glittery foam. The hat is handpainted on glittery foam.


Putin claimed that any exchange involving the Ukrainians whom Russia is holding captive must be "of equal value". The Minsk Agreement to which Russia is a signatory agrees the release of all "hostages and illegally held persons". It has been repeatedly stated by, among others, EU, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] and US representatives that Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov and others held in Russia fall under the agreement and must be released.
"In the context of your repeated assertions that there are no Russian military personnel in Donbas, I'd like to pass on greetings from Captain Yerofeyev and Sergeant Aleksandrov, from the Third Brigade in Tolyatti (Russia). Will you be exchanging them for Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov, Gennady Afanasyev, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Stanislav Klykh… (and that is anything but a full list)?
Putin began his response, "on the subject of exchanges", by claiming that Russia had never said that they did not have people in Donbas engaged in various activities, including in the military sphere. But there are no regular forces, he asserted, and asked the audience to "feel the difference".
There is also considerable evidence that regular forces have been and probably are being deployed in Ukraine (e.g. Russia challenged over major increase in 'unexplained' soldiers' deaths).
Putin's acknowledgement that military forces are involved in Donbas was a first, and therefore widely reported. The rest of his answer was also important and just as telling. He pointed out that Tsymbalyuk had mentioned 'only' two men "whom you offer me, and then a long list of people whom you want to exchange them for. Firstly, an exchange must be equal". After that beginning, more appropriate for an abducting negotiating a ransom, than a President, he suggested that they would need to "sit down quietly and discuss this", and even choked out the words "with the President of Ukraine". He then recalled the Minsk Agreement, pointing out quite correctly that it entails an all for all exchange. He claimed that it was the Ukrainian side that was violating this by bringing criminal charges against Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov. He ducked the rest of the question, and the subject of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia altogether.
He thus ignored the following not unimportant details.
Two Russian military intelligence officers were caught during a military operation provoked by the Russian / Kremlin-backed militant side in which one Ukrainian soldier was killed and others injured. Russia has not declared war on Ukraine and has up till now denied any military involvement. It is hardly surprising that Ukraine would initiate criminal proceedings.
All the Ukrainians whom Tsymbalyuk mentioned and many others are civilians held illegally and tried on trumped up charges in Russia.
The only person even remotely similar to the two Russian GRU officers would be Nadiya Savchenko, a former Ukrainian military pilot. She was, however, captured by militants in Ukraine and taken by force to Russia, where a shocking travesty of a court trial is currently underway. Savchenko has been declared a political prisoner by the Memorial Human Rights Centre, and her release has been repeatedly demanded as falling under the Minsk Agreement.
Savchenko is reported by her lawyers to have declared hunger strike again, until the end of the trial. This news came after a Russian court extended her detention again, until April 16, 2016 – 22 months after she was illegally abducted to Russia.
It also followed the latest court hearing on Dec 16 where the 'judges' refused to add material provided by Ukraine to the case. The material in question proves Savchenko's innocence of the preposterous charges laid, and the judges' rejection of it was not the first demonstration of close cooperation between the prosecution and the court and of serious irregularities in the 'trial' (see: No Swift End to Russia's 'Trial' of Nadiya Savchenko).
The other Ukrainians held prisoner in Russia are all civilians, and there are very serious concerns over how they came to be in Russian detention or prisons, the methods (torture or unlawful pressure) used in some cases to extract 'confessions' and their trials.
Memorial has declared Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko and Gennady Afanasyev political prisoners. Sentsov and Kolchenko have already been moved to a transfer remand prison in Rostov and are likely to be sent to serve politically motivated 20- and 10-year sentences in Russian prisons (more details of this internationally condemned case here).
The above is also not a full list, but it is quite sufficient to understand that Putin was right about one thing. This is no equal exchange. Ukraine is not holding innocent civilians hostage nor subjecting them to grotesque 'trials' on trumped up charges.
All are illegally held and all must be released. Failure to do so is surely cause for the West to extend sanctions, rather than suggesting that they could be removed.


text:
'The Voice': Why This Show May Not Last Much Longer
Nicole Weaver
The singing competition show is currently on Season 14, so it has been down a long road. Along the way there have been success stories to come out of The Voice, with musicians having a career after the show. There have also been multiple contestants who reached No. 1 on the iTunes charts. Although The Voice has had some wins, there are signs that it might be reaching its end. How so?
The show has seen decreasing ratings in recent seasons. Here is why The Voice may not last much longer.
Contestants will realize it's not a star maker
Sawyer Fredericks on The Voice | NBC
At least when a contestant tried out for American Idol, they had inspirations like Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, and Adam Lambert to look up to. These people have won Oscars, Grammys, and have appeared on television shows and in movies. They have achieved true success and notoriety since the show, and some of them didn't even win! This shortcoming of The Voice is no secret.
"The Voice is very successful," coach Adam Levine told Rolling Stone "but it's got a ways to go if it wants to have as profound an impact as Idol. I'm not going to lie to you: I think there are problems … Millions of people watch the show every week and fall in love with a singer, then you don't hear much from them."
Josh Kaufman on The Voice | NBC
It's only a matter of time before potential contestants start dwindling because they see that the gains might not outweigh the time and effort they have to put into the show. The Voice doesn't pay their contestants for being on the show. So it's either win, or get sent home with possibly new followers on social media but nothing else. The singers who do win get a contract with a record label, but it often results in more tension than music.
Perhaps this isn't totally The Voice's fault. American Idol was about singing, but it was also about star power. After all, William Hung came out with music after his notoriously terrible "She Bangs" audition. The Voice is about talent, which is great for the show, but sadly a great voice isn't the end-all, be-all when it comes to the music business. The industry will try to turn the talented contestants into products and that don't vibe well with the show that was supposed to help launch them.
The quality of their coaches is questionable
The Voice stage | NBC
The show has typically been very good at trying to get diverse coaches with different types of voices and genres to come on the show. But nothing about this aspect of The Voice is stable besides Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. These coaches have been there from day one and they do have talent. But let's face it, Levine and Shelton are there just as much for the chemistry and fans who love watching them bickering on the show.
Now, coaches should definitely be entertaining. Before the show starts, the only information we typically have is who the coaches are and that announcement might determine whether people will tune in. But it's very important to balance entertainment with true experience.
Miley Cyrus on The Voice | NBC
The show added Alicia Keys to their roster, which is great, given her Grammys, songwriting and singing talent, and piano skills. She is also the type of musician who obviously loves music and will truly vibe with any other artist who loves it as well. She makes perfect sense for the show.
But then they also added Miley Cyrus, who seems like a strange fit. She is the youngest coach to date and will be younger than the contestants who might need to turn to her for advice. Many assume her placement on the show is more of a move to draw in a younger audience than to find someone who can pass along great advice. This matters because it's very important to keep this aspect of the show true to its mission. Without this, then it might as well be any other singing competition show that has come before it, and will come after it.
The show is lacking a Simon Cowell
Pharrell on The Voice | NBC
It's also important to note this show has never had its Simon Cowell and probably should. Cowell has judged on American Idol, The X Factor, and America's Got Talent. A big part of these shows' successes are due to him. He has an entertainment company and ended up signing many people from these shows and made them stars, like with the case of One Direction. Everyone knows that Cowell knows music and will give it to you straight. They also know that if he likes what he hears, then he will support you whether you win the competition or not.
None of the coaches on the show have any power to sign any of the people they see. They can only give them feedback based on their own personal experience, where someone like Cowell has experience with numerous artists who are all different. It may not seem as sexy to hire a music producer to be a coach because that person might not be able to perform on stage themselves, but contestants need someone they believe will truly fight in their corner instead of making money off of them.
Follow Nicole Weaver on Twitter @nikkibernice
Check out Entertainment Cheat Sheet on Facebook!


You'll start off in a station getting ready to hop on your fighter ship, and fly to fight in a thrilling war in a dog fighting experience against challenging opponents. DarkfieldVR has a big focus on co-op play, and in the finished game you'll be able to work together with a wingman to complete a variety of space based missions.
It's still early in development, and the controls could do with a little work, but already the graphics, ship models, visual and sound effects are all excellent. DarkfieldVR looks set to be an impressive and fully immersive co-op space opera – Multiplayer X-Wing with Rift support.


How to install HandBreak Linux - After more than 13 years of development, finally this free source video transcoder is delighted to present HandBrake 1.0.0 brings many new features, improvements to audio / video sync engine, and many miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements!
HandBrake is a free tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs that available for major operating system including Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.
More than free, it's open source, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)! This application can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.
You can take videos you already have and makes new ones that work on your mobile phone, tablet, TV media player, game console, computer, or web browser-nearly anything that supports modern video formats.
It support for various subtitle streams, including SSA, SRT, VobSub and Closed Captions CEA-608, as well as support for video filters, such as deinterlacing, cropping, decomb, scaling, detelecine, grayscale and deblock.
What's New in HandBrake 1.0.0?
Official presets from HandBrake 0.10.x are still available under "Legacy"
HandBrake latest version can be installed on Ubuntu Linux including 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus, Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak, and its derivatives e.g Elementary OS and Linux Mint via its official PPA repository.
Upgrade Notice! Before updating, please make sure there are no pending encodes in the Queue. If you are currently using HandBrake older than version 1.0.0, please also make note of any custom Presets you have created, as they may not be compatible with newer versions.
Now you should be able to launch it via Unity dash or other Ubuntu app launcher.
These were all the step by step tutorial to install latest HandBreak v1.0.0 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint / Elementary OS. If you need, you can get the source code.


The latest instalment of Prospecting Idaho from Smith Optics sees Kimmy Fasani and Iris Lazzareschi rock up to the old log cabin to find, 15 cars, 15 snowmobiles and 20 dudes inside with beer everywhere. Welcome to your new reality Ladies.
Check out of previous episodes of Prospecting Idaho.


ArtDeco is one of my favourite affordable makeup brands. They often have amazing releases, just like the two upcoming ones.
The first one is called Marrakesh Sunset and it's a summer 2012 makeup collection which I personally really love and will definitely check out when it's out. First of all I absolutely love the design for the compact and also the shades, of course. I actually love the whole collection. You can see the details at Pink Melon.
The second one is the collaboration with Dita Von Teese. There is not much information out. But Dita shared the photo of some products which you can see below.
I wonder what else will be in the collection.


text:
Q: "Login information disallowed" error from google script I have been trying to use the UrlFetchApp from apps script to fetch the inventory information from an inventory system API called Salesbinders, for some reason I kept getting login information disallowed error, I have tried different ways I found online but none of them is working, I have also tried to put it on postman and it worked so I am assuming the details I provided should be correct.
Here is the salesbindner API documentation: https://www.salesbinder.com/api/
and here is my code
function fetching() {

  var USERNAME ='{API KEY}'
  var PASSWORD = '{x}'

  var url ='https://{API KEY}:x@{subdomain}.salesbinder.com/api/2.0/items.json'

  var headers = {
    "Authorization" : "Basic " + Utilities.base64Encode(USERNAME+ ':' + PASSWORD)
  };

let response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url,headers)
  .then(response => response.text())
  .then(result => console.log(result))
  .catch(error => console.log('error', error));

Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

would appreciate it a lot if anyone can help, I have been stuck with this all weekend

A: In your script, headers is not included in the request as the header. If your URL, USERNAME andPASSWORD are correct, I think that this might be the reason for your issue.
And also, at UrlFetchApp, then is not used. When these points are reflected in your script, it becomes as follows.
Modified script:
function fetching() {
  var USERNAME = '{API KEY}';
  var PASSWORD = '{x}';
  var url = 'https://{API KEY}:x@{subdomain}.salesbinder.com/api/2.0/items.json';
  var headers = {
    "Authorization": "Basic " + Utilities.base64Encode(USERNAME + ':' + PASSWORD)
  };
  let response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, { headers });
  Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

Note:

*

*This modification supposes that your URL, USERNAME andPASSWORD are correct. If an error occurs, please confirm them again.

Reference:

*

*fetch(url, params)


Mr. Bower was wearing faded jeans, a leather jacket and lots of jewelry. Rings adorned the fingers showing through his gray fingerless gloves (with black nail polish on a couple of the nails) and he had on multiple necklaces (including a silver skull and bones, which he said was his ode to Mr. Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean) that he played with throughout the meal. His blond hair is long and tousled—part glam rocker, part someone who's recently spent a lot of time with Tim Burton—and surrounds a beautiful, almost too pretty face with sparkling kitten-shaped eyes (boasting just a hint of eyeliner) and pillowy lips. But his personality is all giddy schoolboy and sweetness, full of wild hand gestures and facial expressions. He's at that delicate moment in his career where he's completed a big (big) movie without any of the rewards or baggage that come with stardom. So, he's able to speak rather freely about things, from his lack of money ("People don't get it, they think I'm rich. I'm not! I have no money") to Paramount helping him fly out his girlfriend, Zoe, who was waiting upstairs in the hotel room ("The first time I came here I was so lonely").
Although one can't be too sure… Minutes later, while exiting the hotel, a paparazzo jumped out, camera in hand, and yelled Mr. Bower's name. After politely pausing for a click or two, the young actor's face flushed scarlet. "That's two," he said softly.


text:
import os
import csv

# what started as a dictionary, has become a dictionary :(
class Person(object):
    name = ""
    photo = ""
    photo_url = ""
    slack = ""
    twitter = ""
    github = ""

    def __str__(self):
        sb = []
        for key in self.__dict__:
            sb.append("{key}='{value}'".format(key=key, value=self.__dict__[key]))
        return ', '.join(sb)

    def __repr__(self):
        return self.__str__()

    def __init__(self, *initial_data, **kwargs):
        for dictionary in initial_data:
            for key in dictionary:
                setattr(self, key, dictionary[key])
        for key in kwargs:
            setattr(self, key, kwargs[key])


text:
Q: How can I extend shopping cart lifetime without modifying session expiration? I'm trying to extend the lifetime of WooCommerce shopping cart for users with accounts. The suggested solutions that I've found (and tried) involve extending the session expiration.
Woocommerce Set Cart Expiration Interval
However, this is not what I'm after. I would like the session expiration to stay the same, but the next time the user logs in I would like their cart to remain for up to six months.
Can someone point me in the right direction?

A: The session expiration and the cart expiration are linked: they both use the same internal variable (a protected property of class WC_Session_Handler, $_session_expiration).
You can't change one and not the other.
Removing the cart from the database is done by WC_Session_Handler->cleanup_sessions(). This is invoked by the function wc_cleanup_session_data() which is triggered by the woocommerce_cleanup_sessions action .
You might try to remove the default action and provide your own.
remove_action( 'woocommerce_cleanup_sessions', 'wc_cleanup_session_data' );

function my_cleanup_sessions()
{
    global $wpdb;

    $wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare( "DELETE FROM $this->_table WHERE session_expiry < %d", time() + 180 * 24 * 60 * 60 ) );

    if ( class_exists( 'WC_Cache_Helper' ) ) {
        WC_Cache_Helper::incr_cache_prefix( WC_SESSION_CACHE_GROUP );
    }
}
add_action( 'woocommerce_cleanup_sessions', 'my_cleanup_sessions' );

I have not tested this. It might not work and there might be side effects.


text:
Romanian Diaspora in the UK: Post-Brexit Challenges, Opportunities and Next Steps (Demo)
By Douglas Williams Embassy News Featured News February 27, 2018
The British Embassy Bucharest, the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) and the Romanian Embassy in the UK held a community outreach event at the Romanian Cultural Centre in London to provide information to Romanian citizens living in the UK about their rights after the UK's exit from the EU.
Minister Suella Fernandes from the Department for Exiting the EU, Romanian Ambassador Dan Mihalache, British Ambassador to Romania Paul Brummell and officials from DExEU, the Home Office, Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions provided updates on the negotiations and the new settled status scheme that will be put in place for EU citizens living in the UK.
The minister said that Romanian citizens in the UK are highly valued members of the community who we want to stay. Officials outlined the plans for the settled status scheme and reassured Romanian citizens that the process will be simple, cheap and streamlined.
DExEU Minister Suella Fernandes said:
"Everyone in this room, and members of the Romanian community across the whole of the UK, make a contribution to British society and culture. You help save lives, you teach children, you help build bridges and homes and you help to make Britain the inclusive and diverse society it is. So I want to stress that you are an important part of our community. We want to make sure that everyone here continues to feel welcome – and that you're able to carry on living your lives as before, in the country you have chosen to make your home."
British Ambassador Paul Brummell said:
"The UK has made it a priority to provide certainty to EU citizens living and working in the UK and UK citizens living across the EU, including Romania, as regards their future rights. We're delighted that an agreement was reached with the European Commission, endorsed at the December European Council, which provides this certainty. It will allow members of the Romanian community in the UK to stay here after we leave the EU on 29 March 2019, and to continue to access public funds and services."
The event is the first of its kind in a series of town hall style meetings with the Romanians living in the UK and the British citizens living in Romania. The second event will be held in Manchester on 28 February.
Brexit (Demo)Department for Exiting the EU (Demo)Paul Brummell (Demo)Suella Fernandes (Demo)United Kingdom (Demo)
Douglas Williams / About Author
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SafeSip is the revolutionary invention of Dorset entrepreneur, Melissa Edmunds. The brightly-coloured, silicone drinks cover stretches over virtually any glass, mug, cup or can to prevent drink spillages.
CuCo were originally approached to kickstart SafeSip's brand development, where we created strong brand positioning within the mass market. As a result, interest quickly began to materialise for the product. The SafeSip team soon found juggling of sales fulfilment alongside marketing to be a handful. They responded by seeking CuCo's expertise to drive greater sales, enabling them to focus on the daily activities of the business.
SafeSip had dabbled in Facebook advertising upon launch achieving varying levels of success. Using data collated from Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, CuCo were able to recognise great potential to develop their social media advertising and target the right audiences with relevant messages to drive engagement. Ultimately, this would increase sales.
Through careful project planning, an ongoing monthly strategy was put in place with CuCo creating all content for SafeSip's social channels. Alongside this, we would review all data on a regular basis to ensure adjustments would be made if and when required to ensure strong sales activity.
To keep the online marketing advertising fresh and of interest, CuCo are responsible for the art direction of numerous photoshoots, leaving us with a healthy bank of imagery to advertise SafeSip with.
When CuCo started working on SafeSip's online sales strategy, shop conversion rates were averaging 2% and achieving a ratio of 1 in 45 sales. With only a 26% increase in budget spend, we achieved an average conversion rate of over 7% with a new ratio of 1 in 15 sales. This in turn saw a revenue increase of 400% in just 8 weeks. Facebook would see Page Likes shoot up from 1,304 to over 60,000 as well as see a rapid increase in post reach, averaging in excess of 630,000 per week. A great marketing success!