text:
International agreement on how to evaluate prostate cancer MRI-scans "likely to change how we detect prostate cancer"
For Immediate Release, 1 October 2015
International radiological bodies* have agreed on a standard for how doctors evaluate MRI to confirm a diagnosis of prostate cancer. This promises to reduce the number of over diagnosis of insignificant cancers by to up to 89%. The new procedure also allows radiologists to identify up to 13% more life-threatening tumors than current procedures. The standards of how to acquire the MR-images and how to report them are published today** in the peer-reviewed journal, European Urology, the journal of the European Association of Urology.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with a European incidence rate of 214 cases per 1000 men and a mortality of over 70,000, outnumbering lung and colorectal cancer. Research shows that half of all men in Europe have a microscopic cancer at the age of 55 increasing to 80% at the age of 80.
The last few years have seen the introduction of new MRI scans into prostate cancer diagnosis, using an imagining technique called multiparametric prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging (mpMRI). MpMRI has been developed, tested, and refined by many radiologists around the world over the past few decades. However, acquiring good images is only half the battle in identifying prostate cancer. The draft global guidelines were first released online in December 2014 by the American College of Radiology (ACR), AdMeTech Foundation, and European Society of Urogenital Radiology based on their five-year joint project. The current version has been revised and updated for publication, making it the version which can be recommended to the clinical community.
In clinical trials, an early version of the Prostate Imaging and Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) system has been shown to facilitate improvements in the diagnosis of intermediate- to high-grade cancers. The second version, called PI-RADS version 2 updates, and simplifies the way that the mpMRI scans are acquired, interpreted, and reported, and it provides detailed instructions so that mpMRI can be standardized.
Lead authors on the document are Professor Jeffrey Weinreb (Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA) and Professor Jelle Barentsz (Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands),
Current procedures for confirming prostate cancer use ultrasound-guided transrectal biopsy, where 10 to 12 prostate samples are taken via an ultrasound-guided needle, with the samples then being checked to see if they are cancerous. Often they are not, and are simply caused by a non-cancerous swelling of the prostate or the types of cancers that are very unlikely to result in harm to the patient. Numerous studies have shown that mpMRI improves the recognition and exclusion of the most dangerous tumours so that fewer men may have to undergo a biopsy, and when they do have a biopsy it is more likely to identify clinically significant cancers. In a further refinement, mpMRI allows MRI-targeted biopsies, which yield improved results compared with current ultrasound guided biopsy protocols.
Professor Barentsz commented:
"Early results have shown that mpMRI is an enormous help in detecting significant cancers. But to allow more wide-spread use, standardisation of image acquisition and interpretation is needed. The new PIRADS protocols have the potential to bring real benefits to many patients, throughout the world".
Professor Barentsz continued:
"This work means we will see increasing use of good quality MRI scans in prostate diagnosis. These MRI-scanners are big expensive beasts, but in fact we have also found that, when you consider the savings made by reducing unnecessary treatment, that mpMRI is cost-effective. We don't suggest that mpMRI will completely replace the current ultrasound-biopsy method, but they are a powerful new diagnostic tool to the urologists in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. The next step is to take the system into the mainstream, which will mean an extensive training and educational programme".
Commenting for the European Association of Urology, Adjunct Secretary General responsible for Education, Professor Hendrik Van Poppel (University of Leuven, Belgium) said:
"PSA screening decreases prostate cancer mortality but exposes to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. mpMRI will not only simplify this screening, it will also play an important role in the follow-up of patients under active surveillance. It should be the first exam a patient at risk of significant prostate cancer should have. As for the costs of mpMRI, these should be weighed against the saving of costs of unnecessary biopsies, coping with complications and possible unnecessary treatments".
*The new standards are the culmination of a 5-year project by the European Society of Urogenital Radiology, American College of Radiology, and the AdMeTech Foundation.
Please mention European Urology in any story from this press release.
Professor Jelle Barentsz Этот адрес e-mail защищен от спам-ботов. Чтобы увидеть его, у Вас должен быть включен Java-Script
Professor Hendrik Van Poppel Этот адрес e-mail защищен от спам-ботов. Чтобы увидеть его, у Вас должен быть включен Java-Script
EAU Press Officer, Tom Parkhill Этот адрес e-mail защищен от спам-ботов. Чтобы увидеть его, у Вас должен быть включен Java-Script tel: +39 349 238 8191
**This article is in press in the journal European Urology
PI-RADS Prostate Imaging – Reporting and Data System: 2015, Version 2
Jeffrey C. Weinreb a,y,*, Jelle O. Barentsz b,y, Peter L. Choyke c, Francois Cornud d, Masoom A. Haider e, Katarzyna J. Macura f, Daniel Margolis g, Mitchell D. Schnall h, Faina Shtern i, Clare M. Tempany j, Harriet C. Thoeny k, Sadna Verma l a Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; b Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; c National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; d Rene´ Descartes University, Paris, France; e University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada; f Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; g University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; h University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; i AdMeTech Foundation, Boston, MA, USA; j Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; k University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; l University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
This article (doi:10.1016/j.eururo.2015.08.052) is freely available for a limited period at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0302283815008489
European Urology is the official journal of the European Association of Urology. With an impact factor of 13.938, European Urology is the top-ranked journal in Urology.
More than 12,000 visitors are expected to attend the 31st Annual EAU Congress (EAU16) in Munich 11-15 March 2016, http://uroweb.org/
For more information about American College of Radiology, visit www.acr.org.
For more information about the European Society of Urogenital Radiology, visit http://www.esur.org/
For more information about AdMeTech Foundation, visit www.admetech.org


I've been getting a massive amount of questions through email as well as search queries on the site regarding water dispenser maintenance, specifically Sunbeam Water Cooler Cleaning Instructions is needed. This sort of maintenance is incredibly important if you want your cooler to provide you with all the benefits of drinking water without having to constantly replace the unit.
The lack of solid information on this topic is astounding as I'd be sure there would be lots of websites and forums with detailed instructions. What I found instead was a scattered, thin selection of information on obsolete products, products that were manufactured by other companies, etc.
Anyway, here are the step by step instructions for cleaning both the water tank and the cooling compartment portions of the cooler.
The manual wasn't provided in a format that was easy to copy and paste from, so I went ahead and typed it all in manually. Hopefully, I didn't make any mistakes in copying the information into this post, but if you notice any mistakes don't hesitate to let me know through the contact form in the top menu of this site.
Do not switch the power switch quickly on and off. The resulting power surges may damage your water dispenser.
Always turn your water dispenser off when there is no water left in the bottle or when you are changing bottles. Turn it back on after the new bottle has been placed and the air has been purged from the dispensing buttons.
To clean the unit, first unplug the power cord. Wipe the outside of the water dispenser with a soft cloth dampened with dish washing soap. Use toothpaste to remove stains on the cabinet.
Twist the bottle-receptacle of the No-Spill system counterclockwise and pull it up (A).
Take apart the No-Spill system by unscrewing the base (piercing pin) (B). Then proceed to wash it with a dish washing fluid, rinse it and reassemble.
Empty both thanks (hot and cold) by removing the cap and rubber gasket located around the drain plug on the side of the unit.
Clean the inside of the water dispenser periodically with CLR solution (Calcium, Lime, Rust removal) available at most hardware stores. If not available, you can use vinegar or a 2% citric acid solution. This removes mineral scaling caused by the water. Rinse it well. Use the drain on the back in order to get the water out. Replace the drain plug after you have completed the rinsing. Put all of the parts back, securely replace the drain plug (C). IT IS IMPORTANT TO LET THE WATER DISPENSER DRY FOR TWO HOURS BEFORE PLUGGING IT BACK IN. Cover the bottle receptacle to prevent it from contamination.
The harder the water you use, the more often you should clean the interior of the unit. Recommended intervals are between one and three months depending on the mineral content of the water and the frequency of bottle changes.
To clean the unit, first unplug the power cord.
Allow the ice build-up to melt naturally. NOTE: Do not use sharp objects or knives to remove ice build-up. Do note use boiling water to remove ice.
The water will accumulate in the tray at the bottom of the compartment.
Remove the tray from the compartment and empty the water.
Wipe the compartment and the tray with a soft cloth dampened with liquid dish washing soap.
If you have any other questions or confusion about operating or maintaining your sunbeam water dispenser, check out the manual below. I looked far and wide for any Sunbeam water cooler instructions I could find, and I was shocked at how hard it was to find them. Sunbeam doesn't even acknowledge that they sell water dispensers on their website, so I had to get them elsewhere.


text:
Q: All reopen voted questions on profile are marked as deleted I just noticed all questions I have voted to reopen on are marked as deleted on my profile (https://stackoverflow.com/users/508666/peehaa?tab=votes&sort=reopen):

But they really aren't deleted.
Example question: Learning .prototype

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This was a very interesting presentation, with those involved with various aspects of funding women's organization, in particular women's organizations working on Peace and Security, and how they are affected by current counterterrorism financial regulation that is in fact counter productive.
Opening statement - Kingdom of the Netherlands, your partner with peace, justice and development.
Paradox, how to address the dilemma, counterterrorism, and human and individual rights.
Speaker 1, counterterrorism (CT) measures, task force antimoney laundry. FATF (Financial Action Task Force) Standards based on funding of terrorist organizations. Used as a pretext in some countries to affect civil society groups.
Banks averse, so groups carry money, or go underground. US very effective in controlling FATF, other countries must get involved.
Lawyer from University, Jayne Huckerby spoke of current efforts, countering CT. Counterterrorism financing, enabling men. Women as victims.
Emerging trends, transfer funds, but funds disappear. Told couldn't open bank account. Many groups being asked, realize because of counterterrorism regulations.
Working on Women Peace and Security agenda, variety of measures affect women's groups already working in hi threatening environment. Relations with foreign donors.
Banks don't have leverage, asking for detailed accounts. Women in the midst of the crises not able to access funds. Administration burden, and access to funding becoming more and more difficult. Solutions, low profile, carrying money, increasingly dangerous.
Raising awareness important. Breaking the silence. Need more research.
Speaker on funding women's organizations. Growing administrative burden. range of options.
Suggestion of networking with unions. Policy incoherence. Within the same government. Antiterrorism, anti money laundry. Need more evidence, documenting evidence. Need a Core set of principals. Charity and security network. Money going to big organizations, such as Amnesty, Red Cross, but it is the smaller groups that are doing the work, and keeping system going.
Recommendations, look at what is no longer funded, don't want gov't footprint on it.
Mapping what is happening with funding, have to report.


text:
Q: PowerMockito Static I am trying to mock Static methods using PowerMockito. It works fine when I try To mock only one Class. For instance Class1.staticMethod(). But my tested class uses other static method from other class Class2.staticMethod().
So my question is: How to mock two different static methods from different classes, in the same test using PowerMockito?
I can not use mockito-inline dependency, so it should be done only with PowerMockito.

A: If you simply provide two static mocks you can control the behavior of each method.
I usually do something like this in Mockito:
protected static MockedStatic<Class1> CLASS1_MOCK= Mockito.mockStatic(Class1.class);
CLASS1_MOCK.when(Class1::staticMethod).thenReturn(testValue1);

protected static MockedStatic<Class2> CLASS2_MOCK = Mockito.mockStatic(Class2.class);
CLASS2_MOCK.when(Class2::staticMethod).thenReturn(testValue2);


IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR®, Experience It In IMAX®, An IMAX 3D Experience®, The IMAX Experience®, IMAX Is Believing® and IMAX nXos® are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information about the Company can be found at www.imax.com. You may also connect with IMAX on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/imax), Twitter ( www.twitter.com/imax) and YouTube ( www.youtube.com/imaxmovies).


LAB Rooms - Design Your Life!
World IA Day is a one-day conference aimed at bringing the Information Architecture community together.
LOOKING FOR PERSONAL COACHING, MASTER CLASSES AND IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF SERVICE DESIGN THINKING TOOLS AND METHODOLOGY?


Established in 1860, ALLWEILER has a long-standing tradition as a German manufacturer, producing high quality & reliable pumps. Today ALLWEILER is the market and technology leader in the areas of shipbuilding, power generation and special industrial applications.
Their product portfolio, which is unparalleled in this industry, includes centrifugal pumps, propeller pumps, screw pumps, macerators, peristaltic pumps, and progressive cavity pumps as well as complete pump systems.


Below are growing set of testimonial reviews by my Sandra Dee clients for whom I have provided great value lingerie for over 40 years.
These are all genuine reviews which I have kindly received over the years. However due to data protection laws I have anonymised them.
"Thank you for your message and for the very fast delivery. I am ever so pleased with all my purchases and hope to be able to visit your lovely shop asap.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."NN.
"Greetings from Tokyo airport where I am between flights. I checked your package on Friday night - correct and beautiful. Thank you." SD.
"My order was delivered this morning. I am delighted with your friendly service and will be back soon." SB.
"I live in the Middle East where large cups do not exist. However you have supplied me with 3 wonderful G cup bras from Prima Donna.
I will visit you on my next visit to the UK." JTE.
"A terrific find - super friendly staff with expert knowledge of fitting difficult figure shapes." PB.
"Wonderful shop- great stock and fantastic service and a fun shopping experience." GI.
I was so taken aback with the superb selection of swimwear and lingerie." JL.


Gaming mouse are desktop accessories with additional features that make them apt for computer games and high intensity programming. Gaming mice are equipped with certain features that allow the user to perform better, have a quick reaction time and more comfortable movements.
Nowadays there are a number of models available but it can be tough to choose the right one. Some of the important factors to look for when buying a gaming mouse are ergonomic design, laser technology, weight control, etc. Precision and accuracy are essential when it comes to computer games. So be sure to test gaming mouse for features such as accuracy and control before buying.


text:
You're in (a) good company
Author : Clement Weinberger
So how do you know that? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to answer that question. I mean – if you just think about the people you are talking or sitting with at the moment, or those you are working with right now, it's not so hard to decide if you are in "good company." After all, you probably know a lot about them. Now broaden that thought a bit. What about finding "a good company?" That takes a bit of research on your part - but as a PhD, you are good at research.
for our Partner Institutions
Check your degree or Postdoc affiliation:
- None - Albert Einstein College of Medicine Arizona State University - Tempe Baylor College of Medicine Boston University Brandeis Brown Caltech Cardiff University Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University Catholic University of Leuven Catholic University of Louvain Cedars Sinai Chalmers University of Technology City University of Hong Kong City of Hope Colorado State University Columbia Cornell Delft University of Technology Duke University Ecole Normale Superieure - Paris Emory Erasmus University Florida State University Georgetown Georgia Institute of Technology Ghent University Gladstone Institutes Harbin Institute of Technology Harvard University Howard Indian Institute of Science Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur Indiana University Bloomington Iowa State University Joseph Fourier University (Grenoble 1) Karolinska Institute King's College London Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Kyoto University Leiden University Lund University MD Anderson Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mayo Medical School McGill University McMaster University Medical College of Wisconsin Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Michigan State Moffitt Cancer Center Moscow State University Mount Sinai NCI NEI NGRI NHLBI NIA NIAAA NIAID NIAMS NIBIB NICHD NIDA NIDCR NIDDK NIEHS NIGMS NIMH NINDS NIST Nagoya University Nanyang Technological University National Chiao Tung University National Taiwan University National Tsing Hua University New York U North Carolina State University - Raleigh Northwestern Oregon State University Osaka University Pennsylvania State University - University Park Pierre and Marie Curie University - Paris Pohang University of Science and Technology Polytechnic University of Turin Princeton University Purdue University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rice University Rockefeller University Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick Sanford Burnham Institute Scripps Seoul National University Shanghai Jiao Tong University Stanford State University of New York at Buffalo Stockholm University Stony Brook University Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne Technical University Munich Technical University of Denmark Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Tel Aviv University Texas A&M University - College Station The Australian National University The Chinese University of Hong Kong The George Washington University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hong Kong Polytechnic University The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine The Johns Hopkins University The Ohio State University - Columbus The University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Edinburgh The University of Georgia The University of Glasgow The University of Manchester The University of Queensland The University of Sheffield The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio The University of Texas at Austin The University of Tokyo The University of Western Australia Thomas Jefferson University Tohoku University Tokyo Institute of Technology Tsinghua University Tufts University U Maryland Baltimore U Miami U Penn U Texas, Med Branch U. Washington UC Denver UCLA UCSD UCSF UNC Chapel Hill UT Southwestern University College London University of Aarhus University of Alberta University of Amsterdam University of Arizona University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences University of Barcelona University of Basel University of Birmingham University of Bonn University of Bristol University of British Columbia University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Riverside University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Cruz University of Cambridge University of Central Florida University of Chicago University of Cincinnati University of Colorado at Boulder University of Copenhagen University of Delaware University of Durham University of Florida University of Frankfurt University of Freiburg University of Geneva University of Goettingen University of Hawaii at Manoa University of Heidelberg University of Helsinki University of Houston University of Illinois at Chicago University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Iowa University of Kansas Medical Center University of Louisville University of Mainz University of Manitoba University of Maryland, College Park University of Massachusetts Amherst University of Massachusetts Medical School University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey University of Melbourne University of Michigan - Ann Arbor University of Milan University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of Montreal University of Munich University of Nebraska Medical Center University of New South Wales University of Nottingham University of Oxford University of Paris Descartes (Paris 5) University of Paris Diderot (Paris 7) University of Paris Sud (Paris 11) University of Pisa University of Pittsburgh University of Rochester University of Sao Paulo University of Science and Technology of China University of Southampton University of Southern California University of Southern University University of Strasbourg University of Sydney University of Tennessee - Knoxville University of Toronto University of Tuebingen University of Twente University of Utah University of Virginia University of Wageningen University of Waterloo University of Wisconsin - Madison University of Wuerzburg University of Zurich Uppsala University Utrecht University VU University Amsterdam Vanderbilt Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Wadsworth Wake Forest Washington University in St. Louis Weizmann Institute of Science Yale University Zhejiang University
Enter your Institution's name here if not found above:
Search over 1500+ listings for MS, PhD and MD holders
Discounted Career Tools customized for life science postgraduates
Attend Webinars to expose you to varieties of career paths, experts and peers
Be able to join the Bio Careers Blog, where you can ask your career questions and find bloggers going through the same job transitions
[email protected] 877 862 4656 x. 102
So how do you know that? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to answer that question. I mean – if you just think about the people you are talking or sitting with at the moment, or those you are working with right now, it's not so hard to decide if you are in "good company." After all, you probably know a lot about them. Now broaden that thought a bit. What about finding "a good company?" That takes a bit of research on your part – but as a PhD, you are good at research. Some people call it research, others call it "doing your homework," and I learned how important that is pretty much by accident.
Are you thinking about "making a change?" Most of us do that more than one time during their professional development – voluntarily or not. The first career change that I made came after doing a postdoc, a year of being an adjunct prof in a couple of places, and then being an assistant prof first in a non-tenure track position and then in one that was tenure track. However, from the beginning, it was pretty clear to me and my as yet non-tenured colleagues that the chances of tenure were only about one in five. As we all liked teaching and research as faculty members, we decided to "do our thing" and stick around for a while, but to keep our eyes open for other opportunities either in or out of academia. So, we were in "good company" even if not all of us thought of it as "a good company."
BLOG: New Webinars on Transitioning from Academia and others, Coming Soon!
The first development came when an MD friend of mine offered me a position as a research fellow in his hospital lab, but his grant was only big enough for a part time person. I took him up on his offer since my contact, office and mentoring hours at the university left room for a part time job – and I liked the research. Of course, I was quickly made aware that I lacked the "visibility" so important for getting tenure.
This was before widespread availability of the internet, so my job search – made a bit more urgent when my friend lost his grant support – was pretty much limited to ads in newspapers and scientific journals and the occasional job fair. The main differences between then and now are in the ease of doing the research to find "good companies," not the importance of doing it. I'm saying that because just before a job interview, someone gave me the company's annual report to shareholders to look at. It turned out that introducing some of the information in that report into the interview discussion was key in getting that job.
Looking back at various "changes made," it seems more and more to me to depend on developing some basic selling skills. Careful research on potential employers is part of the process of qualifying leads – seeing whether it might be "a good company" for you. Then you can decide – by taking stock of your own strengths and weaknesses – on how to approach them or respond to announcements of open positions. Come to any interview with a definite plan in mind to present yourself within the context of the open position. My advice? Try to keep the first minutes general. Build some rapport. Even if asked, before you say anything about the benefits you have to offer, ask them a few questions to confirm that you have understood just what it is that they are looking for – and listen very carefully before you actually begin to present yourself. Be flexible. Depending on what you hear, you may decide to adjust the plan that was based on your initial research.
BLOG: Coaching for Athletes--I Mean, Scientists
What finally happened with the others in the little company of academics? One of the five did get tenure, one who did not moved to a nearby university where he did get tenure and eventually became the department head. The others (including me) moved to various positions in industry. So there you have it. One person's view, based on a few experiences, on pursuing professional career changes. Until next time, good day and good luck.
Clement Weinberger, PhD
The Stylus Medical Communications
Other posts by
Clement Weinberger
Life after grad school?
Hello again (back after some time away from blogging)
Fifty ways to leave your lover
Copyright 2021 Bio Careers®

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The famed US anime convention; Anime Expo began it's 2016 edition on July 1 with over 100,000 fans in attendance. On the Expo's third day (July 3rd), the first two episodes of new TV anime Mob Psycho 100 were shown. The 2nd episode of the anime, which is based on a manga by One Punch Man author One, was shown as a world premiere event before it's airing in Japan. It was screened at the JW Marriott Platinum Ballroom and Producer Masahiko Minami from production studio Bones was in attendance as well.
Thanks to the headline show, there was a cheering, over-capacity crowd of 1,500 eager fans at the premiere in the room which normally holds 800.
After Mr. Minami made his greetings on stage, he showed off his special psychic spoon bending powers as seen in the anime. The audience got a huge laugh out of his saying "watch the show and you'll be able to bend spoons too!" After that, they went right into the episode screening.
Appearances of protagonist Mob were met with cheers from highly anticipating fans. More cheers and laughs were heard as the first episode's story unfolded. After the episode ended, the entire crowd gave a standing ovation.
The announcer had only mentioned episode 1 would be screened before the screening, so it was a huge surprise to everyone when he said "Mr. Minami says that he's tired from being up on stage since morning and doesn't feel like saying much else, so where gonna go ahead and show Episode 2 as a treat." This was met with roaring cheers and foot stomps from the crowd.
With the second premiere, the audience reacted with even more joy and laughs than the opening episode. Producer Minami just smiled and watched as he took in the favorable reaction.
After Episode 2, a Q and A session with the producer was held. Questions included "What did original manga artist ONE think of the anime" and "How did they decide on the theme song?" along with asking how Bones became in charge of production. There were also questions about the anime's story itself along with how many episodes it might be. Attention had built quite a bit for the show, based on the questions asked. While saying he couldn't go into detail, Minami remarked with an ambitious smile, "As long as the fans support us, we can make as many eps as we'd like". Minami thought the mix between Psychic power and a sweet and charming High School life was appealing from the start when he first picked up the manga. He recalled, "I remember being all surprised and thinking, Bones was gonna be the production studio? But I was really looking forward to working on the show and I hope everyone looks forward to the official broadcast. After those final words, the curtain fell on Mob Psycho's World Premiere.
The Mob Psycho 100 Screening Event ended to great fanfare and the show is finally to set make its Japanese TV debut July 11 on Tokyo MX and other stations.


35 BBSRC PhD students from across the UK enjoyed a four-day intensive Skills School earlier this month. The BBSRC-funded Grand Challenges for Technologies and Methods for Drug Discovery Skills School took place at the Cosener's House in Abingdon and ended with students pitching to a panel 'Dragon's Den' style.
This event was organised by the SWBio DTP in collaboration with the Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP and the GSK CTP. Dr Anne Miller (Enterprising Oxford) and Maria Zubeldia (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford) played a prominent role in facilitating the 4 days with their wealth of experience from running a similar Plant Pathology Skills School led by Prof Gail Preston (Co-Director, Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP).
The Skills School involved teams of students aiming to solve problems around challenges currently limiting drug discovery, focusing on possible technological and method-based solutions. The Grand Challengers included Dr Mike Hann and Dr Steve Hood (GSK), Dr Tom Crabbe (UCB), Dr Sara Imarisio and Dr Diane Swallow (Alzheimer's Research UK), Dr Alastair Parkes (Evotec), and Dr John-Paul Jukes and Dr Jay Bertrand (Vertex).
As well as hearing from speakers on methods and technologies used for drug discovery, the students took part in a site visit to Evotec at Milton Park, Abingdon. They toured the facilities and were given advice on how to succeed in getting a job with industry following their PhD by Evotec's HR manager, Kathryn Wilkes. They heard from a panel of industry post docs over lunch, where they discussed the differences of working in industry and academia. The afternoon gave the teams the chance to get back together to consult different stakeholders and then reflect on how their opinions and perspectives would influence their final pitches. The stakeholders included a member of a patient advocacy group, a non-profit funder organisation, a medical professional and an entrepreneur.
After lots of hard work on their pitches on the final day, the teams presented their ideas to the panel, which consisted of Dr Peter Weber (Immunocore) alongside Anne Miller and Maria Zubeldia. In the end, the panel could not decide on one winner, and instead they chose two winning teams: the Alzheimer's Research UK team who worked to solve 'How can technology and pharmacology effectively and economically reduce the global incidence of dementia?', and UCB team who took on the 'Technology platforms to increase the reach of antibody drugs' challenge.


text:
Citrus mealybug
Planococcus citri
The citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri) has a world-wide distribution and many and diverse host plants. In temperate regions of the world this mealybug poses a problem in greenhouse horticulture, and in the tropics and sub-tropics on outdoor crops. The insect causes damage especially in fruit trees and ornamental crops, particularly in pot plants such as ficus, palms, schefflera, croton and kalanchoë, but also in roses and gerbera. Additionally, the citrus mealybug (Planococcus citri) can also appear in cucumber, melon and aubergine.
View more videos on Youtube
Adult females of Planococcus citri are 2.5 - 4 mm long and 2 - 3 mm in breadth. Seen dorsally, they have an oval form; they are soft and covered with a fine waxy material. They move very little. They can be distinguished from other mealy bugs by their possession of 18 pairs of relatively short wax rods round the edge of the body, and two slightly longer 'tail filaments' . The tail filaments are always shorter than 20% of body length. They produce little wax, so that the light yellow to pink body is visible through its waxy covering. There is often a darker longitudinal stripe running over the body.
The adult males are short lived and can be hard to spot. They are smaller than the females, have two pairs of wings and two long tail filaments. Their sole task is to fertilize the females and as soon as a male emerges from its cocoon, it goes in search of a female. A fertilized female lays several hundreds of eggs in an elongated cottony egg sac composed of white waxy threads. Once the eggs are laid, the female shrivels up and dies. The first instar nymph develops from the egg. These first instar nymphs are known as 'crawlers'. They are highly active in their search for a new feeding place and are capable of moving a reasonable distance over the plant. The male nymph attaches itself to the plant, whereas the females remain mobile throughout their entire development. After the second instar, a male nymph forms a dark brown 'prepupa' from which a pupa rapidly develops, inside a white cottony cocoon. Females undergo little changes in form, passing through a second and third instar after which they become sexually mature. Soon after becoming an adult the females start to release a sex pheromone to attract males. Males generally fly only in the early morning.
Although most species of mealybug feed on the aerial parts of the plant, some species extract their nourishment from roots, whilst others are gall-formers. A few species can also transmit harmful viruses.
How to get rid of Citrus mealybug


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Data.Entity;

namespace DataBase
{
    public class DataBaseContext : DbContext
    {
        public DataBaseContext() : base("BankingSystem")
        {
            Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
        }

        public DbSet<DataModels.Person> People { get; set; }
        public DbSet<DataModels.PersonCommunication> PersonCommunications { get; set; }
        public DbSet<DataModels.PersonOperation> PersonOperations { get; set; }
        public DbSet<DataModels.PhoneType> PhoneTypes { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Energy: Oil & Gas – Turkey – Trends & Development
The World Energy Council's 23rd World Energy Congress was held in Istanbul between 9 and 13 October 2016. The signing of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation concerning the TurkStream Gas Pipeline Project was the headliner of this international event.
The TurkStream IGA envisages the construction, commissioning and operation of a new gas pipeline system to trans- port natural gas from the vast reserves at the disposal of the Russian Federation to Turkey and south-eastern Europe. The project has a maximum technical design capacity of 31.5 billion cu m per annum, approximately half of it to be delivered to Turkey's natural gas transmission network operator, BOTAŞ (Boru Hatları ile Petrol Taşıma Anonim Şirketi), after an on-shore crossing of 900 km through the Black Sea and landing onshore to reach the receiving terminal in the Kırklareli province of Turkey on the Black Sea coast, before moving the natural gas further west to European markets. The IGA envisions commissioning of the full capacity of the entire pipeline system before 30 December 2019.
For full copy of the article, please click here.
First published by Chambers and Partners, Global Practice Guides, Energy: Oil & Gas, Turkey – Trends & Developments 2017.
www.chambersandpartners.com


text:
Lone Pine Stampede - History & Programs
The History of the
LONE PINE STAMPEDE
Years ago, local citizen's made plans to stage spectacular days of the old west and bring visitors and champion cowboys from the far ends of the country to their unique little town for a chance to relive the Wild West in a gala weekend celebration. Possibly a forerunner to the Stampede were the Jubilee Celebrations of the early 30's, the fourth annual such event was held on Labor Day weekend in 1935.
Another such big celebration was the Wedding of the Waters (see Video Below) in late October of 1937 when the Death Valley-Mt. Whitney highway program saw many honored notables present, including Governor Merriam. This pageant was unique in California and was highlighted by water brought from Tulainyo lake and carried to Death Valley in a spectacular observance, culminated with a fireball by beacon fires from Mt. Whitney signaling the completion of the fete and opening of the highway. Although not rodeos these were fine community performances, and drew many visitors to the locale.
Then in April of 1941, through the efforts and community spirit of a few local citizens, the first big show of rodeo fame was instigated. Wilfred Cline, stockman, and one of the leading rodeo stockmen in both California and Nevada and the late Russell Spainhower, Southern Inyo rancher and cattleman, started the ball rolling for what became a traditional spring event to celebrate Southern Inyo's cowboy and ranching heritage. Stock for the rodeo was provided by Cline and by a unanimous vote, at a meeting called for organization, Spainhower was elected Stampede president, a position he held for nine consecutive years. Directors included Ben Baker, Howard Miller, Fred Reynolds, Otto "Slim" Honerlah, Ted Cook and Wesley Logan. Walter Jones was elected secretary-treasurer, a post he filled continuously for 21 years. Announcer for the first rodeo was Jack Hopkins.
In the beginning the rodeos were held on what was known as the town ball park and as they continued to gain momentum (and became an "RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association) approved rodeo plans materialized for a formal Rodeo grounds. The new location (behind where the Lone Pine Film History Museum currently stands) was considered one of the best. Hundreds of persons were able to be seated on the fine grandstands and monies from the annual shows provided necessary funds for maintenance and continued improvement of the grounds to maintain the highest standards.
Rodeo events included: calf roping, bareback bronc riding, team roping, saddle-bronc riding, steer-stopping (a privilege of Inyo-Mono registered brand owners only), and bulldogging. Later years included presentations by the Bishopettes (a women's western riding club based in Bishop), a water ski act, (Diaz Lake) steer wrestling, a girl's barrel race, and bull riding. One local resident recalls Slim Pickens was the rodeo clown for numerous Stampedes. Sponsors included the local Lloyd's Shoe Store, Joseph's BiRite Market, J.C. Penney Co, Wrangler Jeans, and numerous others.
As the Stampede continued to grow and become more widely known amongst the professionals, such top-notch names in the rodeo world as Casey Tibbs, Rex Connley, Bill Linderman, Ross Dollarhide, Chuck Shepard, Don Adams, Lawson Fore, Bill Hogue, Enoch Walker, famed Canadian cowboy, appeared on the rodeo program. Among other notables who have added much to the local shows with their stellar performances have been Joaquin Sanchez, Fes Reynolds and Wes Curtis.
Let us not forget that along with these professionals, our local businessmen have contributed much in making these shows the pride of the community. Following the nine year term of Russell Spainhower as president, by-laws were amended to read a one year term for each president and beginning in 1951. Directors included the following citizens as leaders of the Stampede Inc.: Jack Hopkins (announcer for the first rodeo), Ben Baker, Fred Reynolds, Tom Noland, Norvil Aigner, Henry Olivas, Lefty Edmonston, C. M. Richards, Bob Rutherford, Gwen Gardner, Bud Slater and Joe Bonham. Other names, to mention a few, who have played major roles in the successful celebrations are Otto "Slim" Honerlah, Frank Chrysler, Ted Cook, John Morris, Howard Miller and Wesley Logan. Walter Jones was elected secretary-treasurer, a post he filled continuously for 21 years.
By 1955, the Stampede program included Lone Pine versus Independence baseball, a parade, the stampede dance, and the coronation of a Stampede Queen. Community women coveted the crown for the "Stampede Queen" and young belles vied for the honor. Jean Noland served as one of the first queens, and the tradition spanned the duration of the Stampede. The 1973 program includes winners for Stampede Princess and "Little Miss Rodeo" contests.
Many years of celebrations listed scores of activities in conjunction with the rodeo: First class parade competitions for prizes with as many as seven bands performing and trophies in up to 19 categories; whiskerino contests with intense rivalry, sponsored by the Lions Club; and outstanding pet parades for the kiddies. "Carnivals too came in for a share in the excitement; a businessmen's burro race for several years was a stimulating part of the annual weekend; barbecues of highest quality were staged by local organizations and drew hundreds of guests."
The 1964 program announced the passing of Slim Honerlah, "…a man who lived his life out with honor, dignity, and truth. His help to the Lone Pine Stampede was an inspiration that kept the show alive throughout the years." The continued support of Spainhower and Cline, and the contributions of countless others resulted in the Stampede becoming the pride of the community. After Spainhower's nine-year term as president, by-laws were amended to limit presidential terms to one year.
In 1963 the Stampede show was changed to a non-professional type show due to the increasing cost of procuring stock and professional participation. The 1964 show followed the same pattern with some new innovations including… participation of the newly locally formed - Lone Pine Stampede Roping club. The organizers in 1964 indicated to the community that "plans are under way to stage other events throughout the year including a quarter horse show in the fall." After approximately 30 years of being a community institution, the Lone Pine Stampede eventually stopped. Staff at The Lone Pine Film History Museum, with community encouragement and support, hope to reinstate this beloved event.
As stated in the 1964 Silver Anniversary program, "What more picturesque setting could any arena boast than the spectacular snow clad peaks of Mt. Whitney fronted by the pictorial Alabamas for a contrasting background? Where in these United States could this be equaled?"
We are working to scan all the Programs we have available. Click Below
Lone Pine Stampede Program 1944
In 1937, an amazing three-day event took place to celebrate the opening of a new road from Lone Pine to Death Valley. A gourd was filled with water from the highest lake in the U.S. on the side of Mt. Whitney. A trip commenced using all modes of important California transportation--Native American runner, Pony Express, miner and burro, 20-mule team, stagecoach, train, car and plane. With many famous participants, the water finally arrived at the lowest lake in the U.S, Bad Water Death Valley, and was poured in, thus consummating the Wedding of the Waters. Join Huell and Luis 60 years later as they recreate this historic event with a few people who were there the first time, many descendants of the original participants and tons of vintage photos and films on this incredible piece of "California's Gold."
Wedding of the Waters-California's Gold (110) California's Gold In 1937 an amazing 3 day event took place to celebrate the opening of a new road from Lone Pine to Death Valley. Starting with a gourd full of water taken from the highest lake in the U.S. on the side of Mt. Whitney, the gourd is taken to the lowest lake in the US – Bad Water in Death Valley. Using all modes of important California transportation (Indian runner, Pony Express, miner & burro, 20 mule team, stagecoach, train, car, and plane) with many famous participants, the water is finally poured in, thus consummating the wedding. Join Huell and Luis 60 years later as they recreate this amazing event, with many descendants, a few people who were there the 1st time, tons of vintage photos and films on this incredible piece of California's Gold.


text:
Q: Getting a value from a child WPF window that has a seperate viewmodel using the MVVM pattern I have made quite a bit of progress on my first MVVM WPF application, the issue I am now having is I have a Window that has a viewmodel.  This window has a button which opens another window that has another viewmodel.
Imagine a textbox on the first window.  Once the second is opened the user will select a value and click save, this window will close and update the first window with its value.
When pushing save I have an ICommand on the childwindows Viewmodel that calls the SaveMethod.  I have the selected value stored in a property on the Child windows viewmodel.  But how do I update the Main Windows textbox with this value?  I imagine I bind a property on the main windows view model, but unsure on how to continue.
Please advise, I can provide code examples if needed, but I think I may have explained it well enough, oh and thanks to everyone at StackOverflow for the help on my questions I have learnt a lot.

A: This is pretty straightforward using the MVVM Light framework. For the purposes of demonstration I'm going to use a string as the value you're passing, but it's easy to construct a different message type for whatever you need to pass.
In the constructor of your first Window's ViewModel you register to receive NotificationMessages. NotificationMessages are used to send string messages:
public MyFirstViewModel()
{
    Messenger.Default.Register<NotificationMessage>(this, NotificationMessageReceived);
}

In the SaveMethod in your second Window's ViewModel you send a message with the value you want to pass. I'm using MyStringValue as the name of the property that stores the value chosen by the user in your second Window:
private void SaveMethod()
{
    MessengerInstance.Send(new NotificationMessage(MyStringValue));
}

When that message is received by the ViewModel of the first Window the NoitificationMessageReceived method is called. I'm going to put that value in a string property on the first ViewModel called MySavedValue:
private void NotificationMessageReceived(NotificationMessage msg)
{
    MySavedValue = msg.Notification;
}

In your View for the first Window you have a TextBox with its Text property bound to MySavedValue. This updates whenever MySavedValue is updated.

A: In the parent viewmodel, you'll need a reference to the child viewmodel.  When the child window is closed, you'll want to get the value of the secondviewmodel's property and set it to a appropriate property of the first parent viewmodel.

A: One of the posible (and simple) solutions is to keep one ViewModel for both windows
<Grid>
    <StackPanel>
        <TextBox Text="{Binding TheText}" />
        <Button Command="{Binding ShowOptionsCommand}" Content="..."/>
    </StackPanel>
    <Popup IsOpen="{Binding IsShowingOptions}">
        <StackPanel>
            <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Options}"
                    SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedOption,Mode=TwoWay}"/>
            <Button Command="{Binding SaveOption}">Save</Button>
        </StackPanel>
    </Popup>
</Grid>

//ShowOptionsCommand handler
void ShowOptions()
{
    IsShowingOptions = true;
}
//SaveOptionCommand handler
void SaveOption()
{
    TheText = SelectedOption;
    IsShowingOptions = false;
}

I'm using the Popup to simplify the example.

A: Personally I'd go with the mvvm light framework already mentioned, but another option is to leverage IOC, also included with the above framework.
With this pattern view models have interfaces and are bound as properties from a view model locator data source. Within that, the child view model can be injected to the parent view model. Because IOC can create singleton instances of objects, the same instance gets given to the parent as is bound to the child window. That way you get a reference to the view model but through an interface thus preserving the separation.
Just offering this as an alternative technical solution beyond those already offered.


The thing is, through his appearance, he makes us believe that anyone can achieve a huge success like him. In reality, it's not. No matter how casual and down-to-earth you look, you may not be able to be like him. The odds are too slim. You'd need to be at the right time, the right place, and with the right people. Above all, you'd need his super brilliance.
Do you know that at 12, he already invented something like AOL's Instant Messenger named ZuckNet that was used in his father's dental office? As a senior in Phillips Exeter, Zuckerberg wrote software for music similar to Pandora named Synapse Media Player and he turned down Microsoft and AOL's offers to acquire it for millions of dollars. Super impressive for a high schooler.
Mark Zuckerber's net worth as of May 11, 2016 is $51.6 billion. It's such a tiny odd for you and me to have such a net worth. According to Forbes, there are merely 1,810 billionaires in the world. With the current world population of 7.125 billion, your odd in becoming a billionaire is tinier than a speck of dust in the solar system: 1 to 3.9 million or almost 1/4,000,000th.
His look has been deceiving us by making us forget that it requires a lot of resources and energy to make FaceBook a $190 billion company that it is today.
Good thing is, we can still emulate Mark in our everyday lives and apply his principles in our minuscule activities. After all, he would agree that every idea is worth fighting for, since every seed can grow into something worthy. Just like his FaceBook, which he started in Harvard dormitory.
You'd never know whether you'd be that special one in four million individuals who rises to the top as a billionaire. Whatever your odd is, you'd never know what your potentials true are if you've never tried it. Here are several habits, strategies and principles that Zuckerberg shared on living his fullest business and personal lives.
First, what you sow is what you reap.
Whatever you spend your time in, you'd reap the results. It goes without saying and may sound cliche, but Mark attests that it's a principle so important that he remembers it every single day. Mark has been coding all his life and he's harvesting what he has planted years ago.
Second, surround yourself with people better than you.
In his own words, "Only hire people who are so good that you want to work for them." And great people can be quite challenging to find, but they're not impossible to find, if you dedicate yourself. In the end, it's people who run things.
Third, believe in the power of the crowd.
Decisions made by a group of people are better than made individually. He spends at least 3 hours per day with his core team and at least 25 percent of his time in hiring great people. And since his hires are as smart as or smarter than him, we can expect to see great decisions made by this distinguished group.
Fourth, to err is humane, to learn is divine.
Ready to make mistakes, learn from them, and get back up immediately. Stanford Psychology Professor Carol Dweck called it "growth mindset." You can only grow if you acknowledge mistakes as learning opportunities and truly learn from them.
Give more than an extra mile. Give ten extra miles. Focus on superlative customer experiences by optimizing or, even, maximizing them. Turn every customer complaint into a positive experience.
Sixth, social bonding is key.
This shines through in FaceBook. After all, it was developed as a social networking site for making friends and finding dates among university students. FaceBook is a reflection of Mark's belief that social bonding is critical to one's success, despite what the movie Social Network depicted him.
In conclusion, Mark Zuckerberg's gray T-shirt and denim pants may be a "fooling factor." And we may not become a billionaire like him. However, we can still learn from him and apply his principles and strategies in our everyday lives. Eventually, we'd emerge as a better person in business and personal lives. Just like this casual billionaire.Opinions expressed here are the opinions of the author. Influencive does not endrose or review brands mentioned.


The Merced River is a 145-mile tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada to the central valley of California. The most famous section of the river is where it travels through the renowned Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park. The Merced drops over the Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls and passes into the valley, where it flows in the pine forests that fill the valley floor. Visitors to Yosemite Valley can go almost anywhere along the Merced's banks and see the famous granite cliffs and formations. One of my favorite spots along the Merced is Cathedral Beach. Here, one of the most famous rock formations in Yosemite is often reflected in it's waters, El Capitan. It was early morning and the soft light was bathing the formation and the opposite bank. It's no wonder that the Yosemite Valley is one of the most visited national parks in the US.


Go to https://register.pearsoncmg.com/forgotlogin/fl_enter_data.jsp to request your login or password information.
This information will be emailed to the address you entered when you redeemed your access code card and created your Pearson Education subscription.
Go to https://register.pearsoncmg.com/userprofile to update your subscription information.
After logging in, you can update the email address you have on file, change your login name or password, or review the expiration dates of your subscriptions.


Posted October 19th, 2016 in Recent News.
Suzy Reingold, a longtime New York commercial real estate executive and lawyer, has joined the board of Avenues for Justice (AFJ), one of the most successful and cost-effective youth crime prevention programs in the U.S.
Reingold was a co-recipient of AFJ's prestigious Community Service Award in 2014, in recognition of her special contribution to the youth of New York City.
Reingold is a commercial real estate consultant in private practice. She provides business, legal and training services to commercial real estate brokerage firms, and serves as a real estate recruiting advisor. Her consultancy extends to providing expert witness, arbitration and mediation services to parties involved in real estate disputes.
For nearly a decade before launching her consultancy, Reingold was chief operating officer for the New York tri-state region for a leading global commercial real estate company headquartered in Chicago, managing operations for some 350 brokerage professionals.
Before that, she was Senior Managing Director, New York Tri-State Region and U.S. Brokerage, with CB Richard Ellis. Reingold began her real estate career at The Mendik Company, now part of Vornado, where she was Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing. She also served as Executive Vice President, Director of Leasing and Public Relations for The Related Companies, where she oversaw the leasing of many major commercial properties in NYC.


text:
Q: Benefit of creating puppets? Some nations (Germany in particular) have national focuses that give you the choice between annexing a whole nation, annexing part of it and puppeting the rest, or puppeting the whole nation.
Putting aside World Tension, is there a benefit to creating a puppet instead of annexing it outright?

A: Puppeting vs Annexation is essentially a question of army size vs security+production.
When you annex a country, you will gain full access to its resources and factories, but the population counts as non-core pop, you can only ever recruit 0.1% of your non-core pop into the army, so the manpower gain from annexation is minimal.
A puppet does not provide its resoruces immediately, but will do so for free, you only have to spend the convoys, however you won't be able to use their factories or build in their territory, you may use air and naval bases though.
A puppet has it's population as core pop, meaning, it will provide a lot more manpower and thus the puppet is able to recruit many more divisions than you would be by annexing, the puppet will also frequently grant a significant portion of its army to your control as an expeditionary force. While you won't be able to control what divisions you get, your army size will be much larger by puppeting. For comparison, in my game I got about 50 divisions total from Vichy France, with a total pop of perhaps 20M, my entire non-core pop that game was 500M, which is only worth 500k manpower, or about 50 divisions as well.
The second issue is security. What happens, when an enemy captures an annexed state? Well, it's occupied and usable by him, that's it. What happens, when he captures a puppet? The puppet may surrender, if the enemy gets enough victory points. This causes all army divisions of the puppet to immediately disband, including those in your own army, which can prove fatal if it happens at the wrong time. On the other hand a puppet will be able to handle occupation resistance better than you.
So, in summary: if you need production or the location is risky go for annexation. If you need more troops, go for puppet.


As part of our code cleanup exercise we have discovered that there were menu items pointing to objects which no longer exists in our environments, ie. legacy reports which were upgraded to SSRS but their menu items were never removed.
The following job could be used to identify such missing objects for any of your menu items. I would also recommend to double-check the xRef references to find connected objects, like security privileges/roles, to completely remove whatever you do not need.


text:
Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/f5950f53c21d46e98ec58fe03078af3d
Raul Castro confirms he will stay Cuba's president to April
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ and MICHAEL WEISSENSTEINDecember 22, 2017
Cuba President Raul Castro, front left, speaks with his first vice-president Miguel Diaz-Canel during a session of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Dec. 21 2017. Cuba's National Assembly has extended its term by two months, until April 2018, a signal that Castro will remain in the presidency longer than expected. (Irene Perez/Cubadebate via AP)
HAVANA (AP) — Raul Castro confirmed Thursday that he will continue as Cuba's president into April, two months longer than expected, as parliament extended the political cycle citing delays made necessary by a damaging hurricane.
"I wish to ratify what has already been expressed ... about limiting to two terms of five years the exercise of the principal offices of the nation," Castro told lawmakers, in comments broadcast on state television.
"When the (new) National Assembly is constituted next April 19, my second and last term will have concluded at the head of the state and the government and Cuba will have a new president," he added.
Castro, 86, had previously said he would step down in February at the end of a months-long political cycle in which voters and government officials pick the members of local, provincial and national assemblies and the members of the powerful council of state.
But earlier Thursday, the National Assembly announced that its current term would run through April 19 instead of ending in February because the impact of Hurricane Irma in September had delayed the start of the cycle. The current council of state is also remaining until then.
Many Cubans and outside observers expect Castro to be replaced as president by First Vice President Miguel Diaz Canel, 57, who has promised to continue Castro's policies.
Those include allowing the slow and limited introduction of private enterprise into Cuba's centrally planned economy, while maintaining a single-party system and tight government control of virtually all aspects of life on the island.
Vice President Marino Murillo, who is also the government's economy czar, announced new controls and regulations for the non-state sector that come on the heels of earlier restrictions around the middle of this year.
Murillo said there will be no new approvals for the time being for non-agricultural cooperatives, while their maximum and minimum earnings will be limited to avoid the existence of de-facto private businesses.
Some private-sector license categories will be merged, as in the case of manicurists, barbers and hair dressers all falling under a "beauty" designation. Bars currently operating under restaurant licenses will fall now under a separate regulatory category.
Castro is expected to retain his position as head of the Communist Party, which sets the parameters of government policy and overall direction of the country.
Castro took over from his older brother Fidel after the revolutionary leader and founder of the current Cuban system fell ill in 2006.
The younger Castro began a series of domestic reforms that included the spread of internet and cellphone access, freedom to travel for most Cubans and the ability to buy and sell cars and houses. He also oversaw the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States, a detente that was shaken by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last year.
Trump re-imposed restrictions on Americans' ability to travel to Cuba, cutting into a tourism boom that had helped buffer the island's economy against a decline in trade with socialist ally Venezuela.
"We have been witness to a serious and irrational deterioration in relations," Castro said.
The Cuban government said Thursday that after a recession in 2016, the economy grew 1.6 percent this year, a better performance than expected due largely to a 4.4 rise in income from tourism, along with smaller increases in transport, communications, agriculture and construction.


At the core of the concert is the idea of 'night music' bringing to mind nocturnal enchantments, romantic stirrings and wondorous landscapes. We are happy to welcome soprano Laura Bohn, soloist with the LA Philharmonic, international touring artist with over 40 shows in Europe and pianist Melody Fader, a Centaur Records artist concertizing in over 10 countries including Belgium, and France. We will enjoy Casta Diva from Bellini Norma, Musetta's Waltz from Puccini La Boheme, and two Barber selections, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Sure on this Shining Night. The concert includes two Chopin pieces exploring the idea of 'bel canto' for the piano: Ballade no. 2 and Nocturne op. 27 no. 2. Acclaimed Seattle painter Michael Ferguson is the featured artist throughout the month of May. This exhibit showcases his unique view of ordinary life ranging from light-hearted to serious and is executed with a bright, colorful, textural palette. Reception with wine and appetizers follows!


text:
« The BFG (2016) + Pete's Dragon (2016) - Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD | Main | In America (2003) + Big Fish (2003)|Big Fish ["Fairy Tale for a Grown-Up" Edition] - DVD »
Seabiscuit (2003) [Widescreen] - DVD
*/**** Image A+ Sound A Extras B-
starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks
screenplay by Gary Ross, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand
directed by Gary Ross
by Walter Chaw In a summer redolent with superhero melodramas, Seabiscuit, a Golden Age bodice-twister about a plucky boy and his intrepid horse populated with a cast of good-looking cut-outs to fill out the good-looking backgrounds, isn't even the most interesting. All of it feels a little airless--a carefully-manipulated arrangement composed entirely of meticulously-preserved flowers that give the illusion of vitality when in truth, they're taken out of time and well past their prime. Seabiscuit could have been made in the 1940s--and it was, really, as My Friend Flicka: two untamed spirits tamed by one another while various authority figures wisely cheer them on. Like that film, writer-director Gary Ross's adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's excellent non-fiction washes out as something creepily nostalgic, weightless, and unintentionally disturbing. There's something poetic about a scene in the middle of Seabiscuit when Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges, always good) leaves in the middle of a bloody bullfight when taken with a line later in the film when plucky boy jockey Red (Tobey Maguire) warns his replacement not to beat Seabiscuit on his left flank because "that's where he was beaten when he was young." Beat him on the right side, is the implication, and decades of conditioning from other films (particularly Disney's anthropomorphic films) have made driving animals to the brink of exhaustion and death at the end of whip a little hard to take with a blithe indifference.
ASPECT RATIO(S)
2.35:1 (16x9-enhanced)
English DD 5.1
French Dolby Surround
But Seabiscuit is altogether too innocuous to inspire much deep thought, so drunk on its own sense of self-importance that it manages the fantastic feat of both stripping the source material down to its bare bones and dangerously bloating it. The idea that the fate of this little racehorse that could (and ultimately, even the idea that the horse is an underdog is a bit of a cheat, since Seabiscuit's lineage was sterling--less "underdog" than "underachiever") galvanized a nation reeling under the Great Depression is the only idea that remains in the film, seized by Ross as an opportunity to insert archive stills of the period--complete with voice-over from historian David McCullough--to lend his horse opera the sort of gravitas he's not able to provide through narrative. (That a match between Seabiscuit and goliath Triple-Crown champion War Admiral on November 1, 1938 was heard by a ridiculous 40 million people seems to support the contention that there was something significant about this story; it's a great shame that none of that really comes through in Ross's hurdy-gurdy telling of it.)
The story in brief concerns grieving car magnate Howard purchasing rundown racehorse Seabiscuit for a song, then taking in rundown jockey Red as his ward, then hiring fruit loop Tom (Chris Cooper, arguably the best thing about the film) to be the horse/brat whisperer. Lo and behold, Howard's modest investment (and brat/horse sense) scores him the racehorse sensation of the Great Depression as it gallops into America's collective heart and helps her pull through our darkest hour. As closing narration informs: "People think we found a broken down horse and fixed him, but he fixed us, every one of us, and I guess we kinda fixed each other, too." Uh huh.
Everything is so pre-chewed about the film, from its characters to its symbolism, that it curiously democratizes every single event into nearly identical two-minute rises and falls in conflict and resolution--the end result of which is not only disastrous to rhythm and perspective, but also lends a similar levelling of importance levied to every event. Howard meeting his new wife (Parker Posey-look-alike Elizabeth Banks, her character ornamental to the degree that she should have been listed as "Reaction Shot" in the credits) carries the same weight as Howard losing his insipid little boy to a car crash (it occurs that Howard shouldn't answer the phone--each of the two two-minute vignettes in which he does informs him of a crash: stock market and otherwise), which also carries the same weight as Red losing his vision in a two-minute boxing match and, later, as Seabiscuit blowing out a wheel (after Red has also blown out a wheel). When everything matters the same, nothing matters at all.
That the events in the film are taken from history is not really a point made with much weight or currency. When Ross goes to such pains to draw a line between Red and Seabiscuit, history becomes as devalued as the English 101 crutches upon which the filmmaker leans. There's no disputing that both Red and Seabiscuit are injured and enjoy unlikely recoveries, but is it possible that both of their lives are spent in identically framed, much-commented-upon dialectical symmetry with one another? There's no counting the number of puns, visual or otherwise, that Ross uses in Seabiscuit to painstakingly, in a mentally-challenged sort of way, illustrate the connection between this boy and his colt. In case the long pans between Seabiscuit struggling between four handlers and Red struggling between four bullies (who are they? Why are they after Seabiscuit/Red? Who cares if it serves the almighty analogy? The problem crops up again when Red asks Howard for a loan--Howard, you see, has adopted Red as a surrogate for his dead boy; it's kind of humiliating to even have to tell you this, which calls into question how aware Ross is of his own condescension)--in case all of that is insufficient for the gaffed audience to draw its own conclusions, Ross provides a couple of two-minute expository sequences in which a character will plainly state the connection: "Whom are you talking about? Red or the horse?"
Seabiscuit is ponderous mainstream pap of the "suspended mote" school of controversy-free nostalgia, blazed a late-summer ago by the similarly piffle Road to Perdition. It tries to dazzle with its imported weight and its stuffy, storyboarded tableaux, and all the while its emptiness sleight-of-hands its way around with big talk, a little like Randy Newman's light-fingered and embarrassed Americana score. (I want to think the music is a big caustic joke on us, knowing Newman's early work as I do, but I fear it might be an indication that the narcotizing lie Newman used to warn us about might have been more powerful than he suspected.) Seabiscuit ranks low among this year's films not because it's as bad as most, but because it at once believes itself to be more important than it is--and believes its audience to be more gullible than it is. What it mistakes for stupidity in fact may be the fatigue that made the summer of 2003 a financial boondoggle: a nation of moviegoers desperate for something that isn't a collection of explosions (though the film is edited with a hacksaw), isn't based on a comic book (though it might as well be), and isn't some sort of appalling moral cess (though it does indulge in the same sort of low-angle fetishistic monumentalizing as, say, Michael Bay). Seabiscuit, in other words, preys on our heart-sickness. Taken with movies that are just cheerfully abhorrent, that feels somehow worse. Originally published: July 25, 2003.
THE DVD
by Bill Chambers Universal releases Seabiscuit on DVD in competing widescreen and fullscreen editions; concern yourself only with the former (which we received for review), for if there's one thing you never want to do, it's watch a film shot by John Schwartzman that's been "reformatted to fit your screen."* (I caught ten minutes of The Rookie in pan-and-scan on an airplane and found myself reaching for the courtesy barf-bag.) The 2.35:1 anamorphic image is razor-sharp yet creamy smooth, so velvety you want to caress it--I do believe this is the finest-looking DVD from the studio to date, down to every last point on the checklist: contrast, shadow detail, saturation, colour rendering, etc. Less conspicuous is the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which kicks up a lot of subwoofer dust (courtesy Seabiscuit and his heavy-hoofed rivals) but offers a limited number of rear-channel cues. With its top-drawer video and modest soundtrack, the presentation is very much in keeping with the DVD experience of director Gary Ross's previous film, Pleasantville.
Although he had nothing to do with Seabiscuit, the prolific Steven Soderbergh joins Ross for a feature-length commentary. Alas, the results are not nearly as magical as some of the filmmaker's past yakkers, suggesting he's burnt-out on the whole trend. Soderbergh asks perfunctory questions and offers lazy analyses, though Ross is alert and responsive, if difficult to engage in a cineaste dialogue: When Soderbergh mentions Jeff Bridges's "New Wave" period of '69-'76, Ross cites 1981's Cutter's Way in concurrence, and you can practically hear the other man gritting his teeth. Conversation, too, tends to be maddeningly circuitous, with points made about the picture's Luddite slant and made again for good measure and made a third time because both men have evidently arrived at the same unspoken conclusion: that Seabiscuit is no enigma.
The disc is otherwise light on extras to the benefit of picture quality. Laurent Bouzereau's "Bringing the Legend to Life: The Making of Seabiscuit" (15 mins.) is mildly intriguing for how Laura Hillenbrand assesses her book's screenplay adaptation therein--and mildly amusing, perhaps unintentionally, for producer Frank Marshall's explanation that ten horses were on call to double for the title character, always guaranteeing "fresh Seabiscuits." The even better "Anatomy of a Movie Moment" (5 mins.) finds Ross reading from his prose storyboard for the sequence in which Howard's son dies. As I've never seen the preparation of a shot list approached in such a novelistic fashion, I overlooked the naïveté of Ross's justifications for each camera angle.
In Herzog Productions' "Seabiscuit: Racing Through History" (15 mins.), Hillenbrand and Ross recapitulate the story of the film. The piece is flavoured by the expertise of folks like BLOODHORSE MAGAZINE's editor-in-chief Ray Pollick, who astutely observes that Seabiscuit's race against War Admiral epitomized a minor civil war that broke out between the East and the West at the height of the Great Depression. "Photo Finish: Jeff Bridges' On-the-Set Photographs" (5 mins.) is an animated compilation of select behind-the-scenes stills taken with Bridges's notorious Widelux camera, complete with annotations by the actor. Cast/filmmaker bios/filmos, production notes, and ROM-enabled weblinks round out the platter. Prepare to encounter a forced trailer for the upcoming DVD release of Schindler's List upon inserting the disc. Originally published: December 9, 2003.
Posted in 2000s, Authors: Bill Chambers, Authors: Walter Chaw, Docudrama, Drama, DVD, Sports | Permalink


For sale is a Vintage 1966 Mattel Major Matt Mason. Comes to you as pictured in nice condition. Most of the wires actually feel broken except for the shoulders.
Figure will stand on it's own with some patience. What looks like a melt mark on left hand, please see pictures. The item "ORIGINAL VINTAGE 1966 MATTEL Major Matt Mason Silver Cuffs EARLY WHITE RUBBER" is in sale since Tuesday, September 25, 2018. This item is in the category "Toys & Hobbies\Robots, Monsters & Space Toys\Space Toys\Pre-1970".


Is it game over for pharma flop Indivior after 75% crash?
Shares in FTSE 250 pharmaceutical firm Indivior (LSE: INDV) fell by more than 75% on Wednesday morning. The stock's collapse was triggered by news that the company has been charged with fraud offences by the US Department of Justice.
The company warned that while it disputes the allegations, a verdict against it could have "a material adverse effect on the Company and its financial position".
Here I'm taking a fresh look at this firm, which specialises in treatment for opioid addiction. Would I buy, sell or hold the stock after today's news?
The Department of Justice has charged Indivior with 28 felony counts, most of which are mail or wire fraud. These are broad charges, but according to the company, the DoJ is making two main claims.
The first claim is that Indivior encouraged doctors to prescribe Suboxone "to too many people or in too high doses" in order to boost sales.
The second claim is that the firm "misled doctors and patients" when it claimed its Suboxone Film product was safer than tablets and less likely to be abused or taken accidentally by children.
The US authorities are suggesting that the real motive for the introduction of Suboxone Film in 2007 was to use patent laws to prevent generic alternatives becoming available — something that has been a major focus for Indivior in recent years.
Indivior believes that "the allegations are unsupported by the facts and the law". Most of the events involved are said to date from before the firm was spun out of Reckitt Benckiser in 2014.
However, the company says it has co-operated with the DoJ "for several years" and "made numerous attempts to reach a settlement".
As the DoJ has now gone ahead and charged Indivior, I assume that a settlement is unlikely, if not impossible.
The firm has long looked speculative to me. For years, it's been clear that profits were dependent on its ability to prevent generic rivals coming to market.
In February, management appeared ready to admit defeat, when the firm launched its own generic version of Suboxone Film. I covered this story here and suggested that revenue could fall by as much as 80% in 2019.
At that time, I didn't know about the DoJ allegations. Even so, my verdict was that "buying the shares at current levels is little more than a gamble".
Indivior shares have fallen even further since then, so is the stock worth a punt?
Press reports I've seen today suggest the DoJ may be hoping for a fine of about $3bn. In my view, that would probably put Indivior out of business, leaving shareholders with nothing.
Even if the company manages to clear its name in court or secures a more affordable fine, the future looks highly uncertain to me.
I don't see any way that outside investors can work out a meaningful valuation for this business. Nor can I see any way of predicting what's likely to happen next.
In my view, this is a stock to avoid at all costs. If I was a shareholder, I'd accept defeat and sell, so that I could be sure of recovering some cash.


Seeking the best china dresses for ball with good quality and affordable prices from DHgate NZ site. We provide a variety of cheap tea ball dress supplied by reliable sellers around the world. Helping you on your way to finding masquerade ball dresses for quinceanera online of satisfaction is what we aim for. Enjoy exploring diverse arrays of ball dresses for babies kids sale and shop ideal boho ball dresses from nz.dhgate.com with free delivery to New Zealand.


text:
NFL Announces 2017 Pro Bowl Rosters For Game At Camping World Stadium In Late January
By NFL // January 25, 2017
week-long celebration in Orlando
ABOVE: Space Coast Daily's Alan Zlotorzynski talks with fans during a practice session at the Pro Bowl festivities in Orlando.
(NFL) – The NFL announced the AFC and NFC All-Stars for the 2017 Pro Bowl, which will be played on Sunday, January 29 and simulcast live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes at 8:00 PM ET from Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
The 2017 Pro Bowl will feature a return to the traditional AFC vs. NFC format following three years using a revised, "unconferenced" structure.
The Pro Bowl players were determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group's vote counted one-third toward determining the 86 Pro Bowl selections announced today.
Two additional "need" players will be chosen by each head coach and must be long snappers. The NFL is the only sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players to determine its all-star teams. In 1995, the NFL became the first professional sports league to offer online all-star voting.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF THIS STORY
Related Story:
VIDEO: Tiger Woods Plays Golf With Donald Trump On President-Elect's Course In West Palm Beach
CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD SPORTS NEWS


text:
By Zara Murray September 27, 2020
Queer Manifestos
I was late at night, I was bored, and a stack of unread books was calling me. Among these was Breanne Fahs' Burn It Down!: Feminist Manifestos for the Revolution. As a queer woman, I immediately flipped to Fahs' carefully curated section on queer manifestos. Instead of the more modern manifestos, I was drawn to those from the 80s and 90s. The queer rights movement has made considerable progress since these were published, but they spoke to a common queer experience. There was something fresh and uncensored about them, something that is bitterly missing from the activism of today. With greater scrutiny on activism, and the propulsion of queer rights into mainstream media, we have swapped some of our defining energy for palatability. Our movement started with a riot; where has that riotous personality gone now?
There's something blissfully liberating in the way that these manifestos bite and condemn, how they roar and scream.
'I hate straight people!' yells one.
They don't hold back. The manifestos rattle on, announcing war with the patriarchy, straight people, politicians, and even other members of the queer community. As antagonistic as their words are – and perhaps unfairly so, in some cases – they're nonetheless moving and primal. In a contrast to the rainbow aesthetic-centric Instagram activism of today, there's an urgency that shakes out any sense of complacency.
There's no better example of this anger and passion than Queer Nation's Queers Read This. The birth of Queer Nation in 90s New York was direct response to increasing attacks on gay people, and its founders were determined to fight back with (verbal) violence of their own. Alongside organised protests and the unfurling of graphic banners on billboards, the publication of Queers Read This was intended to publicly unite queer people.
Years earlier, The Woman Identified Woman, published by the Radicalesbians in the 70s, attempted a different but just as worthy goal – finding a place for queer women within the second-wave feminist movement. Distributed during the Lavender Menace protests at the Second Congress to Unite Women in 1970, its writers argued (in similar terms to what we hear today) that lesbians are a minority within a minority. Both manifestos speak to common goals that we still have today – unification and raising the profile of queer activism – but they differ radically to what we see on social media or from modern activists.
The difference comes from the sheer emotion and lack of restraint conveyed in both manifestos. In contrast to overly doctored media campaigns or self-censored blog posts, they're raw and matter-of-fact. Inspired by AIDS organisation ACT UP and their slogan of 'silence=death', Queers Read This was scathing about the need for activism. It declared 'You should by all rights be dead. Don't be fooled, straight people own the world, and the only reason you have been spared is you're smart, lucky or a fighter.' Acting as a rallying cry, it spurred its queer audience into joining them, at a time when straight politicians were blatantly ignoring the AIDS crisis. It's hard to imagine anything this blunt or openly critical of straight people being included in any modern activism. Likewise, The Woman Identified Woman is openly confrontational, accusing sex roles of crippling 'men by demanding that they be alienated from their own bodies and emotions', while pointing out that lesbians are uniquely at the crossroads of homophobia and sexism. The same sentiments exist today, but they're just not spoken about in such raw terms.
This is because these manifestos make only the bare minimum attempts to be palatable – especially Queers Read This, which (as the title suggests), was almost entirely directed at other gay people. There was no need to appeal to a heterosexual audience, because odds were it wouldn't reach them. When the gay community existed as a semi-hidden subculture, based on who you knew and the places you frequented, it was easier to broadcast only to other queer people. In the hyper-connected world of today (and as the queer community has hidden itself less), it's harder to create things for queer eyes only.
While The Woman Identified Woman purposefully tried to present itself to a straight audience, it still managed to not concede too much of its raw emotion. It unashamedly declares "Lesbian is a label invented by the Man to throw at any woman who dares to be his equal," making no attempts to be palatable. This directness worked – the next conference of the National Organisation of Women declared the plight of lesbians as a legitimate concern, and the manifesto has been described as seminal to second-wave
feminism.
We could learn something from both manifestos. The energy and rawness of their messages connects with the reader in a way that modern texts don't. Unlike with these manifestos, modern queer feminism tries too hard to be palatable for a mainstream audience. Out of a fear of losing straight support by not being 'nice' enough to remain acceptable, we're afraid to take risks or show too much emotion. It increasingly appears that we now sway towards pandering rather than authentically connecting, and our messages and aims suffer for it. Research as part of the British Social Attitudes survey indicates that tolerance for homosexuality is reaching a plateau, with 66% saying that same-sex relationships 'were not wrong at all' – a drop from 68% the previous year. It's hard to imagine this plateau ever being breached without deep emotional connections. This simply cannot be achieved without being blunt and honest with our feelings.
In today's world, there is less scope for the underground and the anonymous. Even nameless social media can be traced. For all the wonders of accountability, has it damaged our ability to communicate our real feelings? The messy, the complicated, the scandalous. In contrast to Queers Read This, it is hard to imagine any modern activist yelling today 'I hate straight people!', even if it does convey an inherent frustration that most queer people have felt across time, like any minority group. By censoring too much of our experiences, we become absorbed into a world that is not our own and sacrifice any agency we have to change it for the better. We have to be honest to communicate our experiences and create meaningful connection.
It's rare to see this honesty today. Activists self-censor themselves on social media, and queer media often attempts to package itself as suitable for heterosexual and cisgender audiences. Although some try to fight past this, one does not need to look further than Ellen DeGeneres's transformation to see that the riotous core of the queer movement is ignored. Ellen showed considerable bravery in coming out in the 90s, and has done genuine work for the queer community since, such as donating $25,000 to survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and raising awareness for LGBTQ teen suicides on her show. However, her image has become based on her 'relatability' to straight audiences. She presents herself as friendly and harmless, desexualised and socially acceptable. It's telling that as one of the most visible queer activists in the world, her appeal and message is overwhelmingly one of assimilation into a straight world, rather than making your own. While Ellen occupies the spotlight, small queer organisations or grassroots activists are rarely featured. There's an implicit message that they're too controversial or too risky, and trans organisations are especially at risk of this. While it is a sign of progress that Ellen, a lesbian, has been accepted into the mainstream, we perhaps pay too much attention to palatable celebrities at the expense of others.
At the expense of being palatable we lose some of the core spirit that unites queer people. There's a reason why I felt more while reading these manifestos than I ever do while scrolling through titbits of social media. The same, heterosexually 'safe' messages get repeated, consumed, and spat out again, just in slightly different branding each time. Elements of mainstream queer activism get turned into nothing more than oversaturated 'hashtag' feminism, with Instagram turning into an endless stream of rainbows every summer as people uploaded 'aesthetic' snaps from Pride. The commercialisation of Pride helps perpetuate this cycle, with large companies releasing rainbow products every summer, and promising to donate an obscenely tiny fraction of their profits to queer charities. I do not care that Skittles are being produced in white, rainbow-less variants as an ode to Pride; I care about real progress, not pointless and self-congratulatory circles. Within the upper echelons of 'activism', we seem to have lost the authentic queer voice.
It's not surprising that looking back at these raw, unfiltered manifestos sparks strong emotions in comparison to the diluted messages of today. Some of the more delicate passages in these manifestos seem timelessly resonant to queer experience. It's a beautiful thing to look at words written decades ago and have them strike you with such resonance that you feel as if they were living in your head, unwritten, all along. There's a tenderness in the way they describe queer solidarity which is sorely missing now. Others, such as calls for anti-discrimination laws in the UK and an equal age of consent (now thankfully achieved) bring feelings of pride, while drawing attention to the temporal distance
between us and these writings.
Looking back at these literary call-to-arms, it becomes apparent that at our core, our feelings are the same. It is just the means of delivery that has been buffeted and warped to become more palatable to a straight, cisgender audience as the queer movement has emerged into the light of the mainstream world. By striving to care less about the heterosexual perspective, and more about fighting for what we want, we can regain some of the common spirit that has been muted. Instead of finding ourselves assimilated to the extent that our feelings are erased, we should strive for an integrated society. Trans or non-binary issues have been often ignored in favour of making queer people – often incorrectly synonymous for 'the gays' – more acceptable to the rest of the world. It is their fight that we concede when we bend over backwards to make ourselves more acceptable. Revisiting these manifestos and their energies is eye-opening for how far we have come, but also for what we have lost in the name of palatability.
"There is the one certainty in the politics of power: those left out of it beg for inclusion, while the insiders claim that they already are." – ACT UP, Queer Nation Manifesto: Queers Read This (1990)
Words by Zara Murray, art by Sasha LaCômbe


But before going to the details of these perspectives we need operational definitions for many of the terms that we will be using to describe them.
We begin with instinct. All animals have instincts. An instinct involves not only the impulse to do something, but also certain specific instructions to do it. In animals these instructions are coded genetically. The human genetic code does not contain specific instructions to behave in a particular way. What is meant here is that we do not have a particular way in which we build our houses, like birds do. Given a particular species of bird, when they mature they start to build nests in a particular way, which is an identifying mark of that species. Compare this with the humans, we do not have a particular way to build our homes, we improvise on the materials and the style of the houses. The building of houses is not hardwired, we have to learn from either experience, or innovations. This is true for adults as well as infants.
We as an infant when we come to this society, we have certain instincts [will be taken on another article] like hunger and perception which help us to survive. The human infants I think are one of the most unequipped infants of the animal world. The typical period for which the infants have to be taken care of, is also I guess the largest [What is the typical age?]. We humans grow in a society, and are en-cultured in it. The culture of a society is an ensemble of the language, ideas, habits; it is the way of life of a particular society. Another unalienable aspect of culture is that it has to be shared and transmitted across generations. If an idea is not shared and transmitted, what is the use of such an idea. It is the only way a culture can sustain, since the human life span is limited, to carry forward "our way of life" we must present it to the generation that will follow us. Only in this way we can ensure that the ideas we cherish so much will be sustained. Significance of culture is that it enables us to invent ad learn ways of adapting to our environments and changing situations. Culture and society are interwoven, and neither can exist without the other – although cultural artifacts may outlast the society that created them.
Why did India loose out on the progress in science and technology, when in the past it was so advanced as compared with the western society?
So without a culture, so society is not possible. The culture defines accepted ways of behavior for the members of particular society. Socialization is the process by which the individual learns to be a part of the society. The primary socialization which takes place in the childhood is one of the most important steps in the course of human development. It is during the primary socialization that humans become humans. Without socialization an individual would bear little resemblance to any human being as defined by the normal standards of the society.
What one has to understand is that social life is based on rules. It is a game in which you have to follow certain set of guidelines. These guidelines can be explicit or can be implicit.
Every culture has a large number of guidelines which directs conduct in a particular situation. Such guidelines are the norms. Thus a norm is a specific guide to action which defines an acceptable and appropriate behavior in particular situations. Norms are enforced [By whom?] by positive and negative sanctions, these sanctions can be explicit or implicit. It is the threat of negative sanctions that is sufficient to enforce a normative behavior for most of the members of the society. The idea that if you do a particular thing, then people won't like you is very crucial and acts as a deterrent for non-normative behavior. Certain norms are formalized into laws, which are enforced by official sanctions.
Norms provide us with guidelines for special conditions, values on the other hand provide us with more general guidelines on different aspects. Values are like general accepted principles in a particular culture, on which the way of life of that culture is based. A value is a belief that a particular thing is good and desirable. So people who have particular values in them are seen by the society as good and the person becomes desirable [What are the values that a superhero has?]. So the values defines what is important, worthwhile and what should be a person strive for. Many of the norms are reflections or rather expressions of some value which is regarded highly in a culture [Why do females in many cultures are not supposed to be seen by outside men?]. Since as we have said that humans do not have any hardwired [How and when did this metaphor come into being?] instincts, the instincts are softwired, by the means of norms. Thus human behavior is regulated by norms.
This entry was posted in functionalism, interactionism, marxism, norms, sociology, values. Bookmark the permalink.