The Warshaw-DiabetesHealth Thing – Invitation to Discuss.
The whacko suggestion by Hope Warshaw on DiabetesHealth that people with diabetes should increase their carbohydrate intake — I don't know whether she was serious or just trying to infuriate — obviously generated a rather large response, especially on the DiabetesHealth website itself. I was writing my own post on the issue when the editor Nadia Al-Samarrie published a piece which seems to have added to the discord. I decided to bypass the argument and I posted the following letter to her suggesting a way to introduce more information and fewer bad vibes.
The details of such a meeting could be worked out but as a starting point, I would suggest something along the lines of the following.
There would be two panels, one who maintains that a low-carbohydrate diet (definitions to be agreed upon in advance) is the default diet, that is, the one to try first, for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The other would conform to the very restricted view on such diets (only for weight loss, concerns about heart disease or kidney disease or whatever).
There would be, say, four representatives on each panel endorsed, again, by the ADA and USDA, DiabetesHealth and by the Nutrition and Metabolism Society.
Because of the voluminous literature, each side would specify ten papers in the literature, popular writings or book sections (max 30 pages each). Discussion would be restricted to these sources.
Variations might include a second day in which both panels took questions from the public or press.
I feel sure that such a meeting would go a long way towards reducing the palpable bad feelings and I am sure you agree that the enemy is diabetes and related diseases and not people with other opinions. I would be glad to discuss, on the phone, how we can get started.
"…no superior long-term metabolic benefit of a high-protein diet over a high-carbohydrate …." A slightly more positive conclusion might have been that "a high-protein diet is as good as a high carbohydrate diet." After all, equal is equal. The article is, according to the authors, about "high-protein, low-carbohydrate" so rather than describing a comparison of apples and pears, the conclusion should emphasize low carbohydrate vs high carbohydrate. It is carbohydrate, not protein, that is the key question in diabetes but clarity was probably not the idea. The paper by Larsen, et al.  represents a kind of classic example of the numerous studies in the literature whose goal is to discourage people with diabetes from trying a diet based on carbohydrate restriction, despite its intuitive sense (diabetes is a disease of carbohydrate intolerance) and despite its established efficacy and foundations in basic biochemistry. The paper is characterized by blatant bias, poor experimental design and mind-numbing statistics rather than clear graphic presentation of the data. I usually try to take a collegial approach in these things but this article does have a unique and surprising feature, a "smoking gun" that suggests that the authors were actually aware of the correct way to perform the experiment or at least to report the data.
Right off, the title tells you that we are in trouble. "The effect of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets in the treatment…" implying that all such diets are the same even though there are several different versions, some of which (by virtue of better design) will turn out to have had much better performance than the diet studied here and, almost all of which are not "high protein." Protein is one of the more stable features of most diets — the controls in this experiment, for example, did not substantially lower their protein even though advised to do so –and most low-carbohydrate diets advise only carbohydrate restriction. While low-carbohydrate diets do not counsel against increased protein, they do not necessarily recommend it. In practice, most carbohydrate-restricted diets are hypocaloric and the actual behavior of dieters shows that they generally do not add back either protein or fat, an observation first made by LaRosa in 1980.
Atkins-bashing is not as easy as it used to be when there was less data and one could run on "concerns." As low-fat diets continue to fail at both long-term and short-term trials — think Women's Health Initiative  — and carbohydrate restriction continues to show success and continues to bear out the predictions from the basic biochemistry of the insulin-glucose axis , it becomes harder to find fault. One strategy is to take advantage of the lack of formal definitions of low-carbohydrate diets to set up a straw man. The trick is to test a moderately high carbohydrate diet and show that, on average, as here, there is no difference in hemoglobin A1c, triglycerides and total cholesterol, etc. when compared to a higher carbohydrate diet as control — the implication is that in a draw, the higher carbohydrate diet wins. So, Larsen's low carbohydrate diet contains 40 % of energy as carbohydrate. Now, none of the researchers who have demonstrated the potential of carbohydrate restriction would consider 40 % carbohydrate, as used in this study, to be a low-carbohydrate diet. In fact, 40 % is close to what the American population consumed before the epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Were we all on a low carbohydrate diet before Ancel Keys?
The reason that this is all more than technical statistical detail, is that the actual reported data show great variability (technically, the 95 % confidence intervals are large). To most people, a diet experiment is supposed to give a prospective dieter information about outcome. Most patients would like to know: if I stay on this diet, how will I do. It is not hard to understand that if you don't stay on the diet, you can't expect good results. Nobody knows what 81 % staying on the diet could mean. In the same way, nobody loses an average amount of weight. If you look at the spread in performance and in what was consumed by individuals on this diet, you can see that there is big individual variation Also, being "on a diet", or being "assigned to a diet" is very different than actually carrying out dieting behavior, that is, eating a particular collection of food. When there is wide variation, a person in the low-carb group may be eating more carbs than some person in the high-carb group. It may be worth testing the effect of having the doctor tell you to eat fewer carbs, but if you are trying to lose weight, you want them to test the effect of actually eating fewer carbs.
When I review papers like this for a journal I insist that the authors present individual data in graphic form. The question in low-carbohydrate diets is the effect of amount of carbohydrate consumed on the outcomes. Making a good case to the reader involves showing individual data. As a reviewer, I would have had the authors plot each individual's consumption of carbohydrate vs for example, individual changes in triglyceride and especially HbA1c. Both of these are expected to be dependent on carbohydrate consumption. In fact, this is the single most common criticism I make as reviewer or that I made when I was co-editor-in chief at Nutrition and Metabolism.
What? This is exactly what I would have told them to do. (I'm trying to think back. I don't think I reviewed this paper). The authors actually must have plotted the true independent variable, dietary intake — carbohydrate, calories, etc. — against the outcomes, leaving out the people who dropped out of the study. So what's the answer?
So somebody — presumably a reviewer — told them what to do but they buried the results. My experience as an editor was, in fact, that there are people in nutrition who think that they are beyond peer review and I had had many fights with authors. In this case, it looks like the actual outcome of the experiment may have actually been the opposite of what they say in the paper. How can we find out? Like most countries, Australia has what are called "sunshine laws," that require government agencies to explain their actions. There is a Australian Federal Freedom of Information Act (1992) and one for the the state of Victoria (1982). One of the authors is supported by NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) Fellowship so it may be they are obligated to share this marginal information with us. Somebody should drop the government a line.
1. Larsen RN, Mann NJ, Maclean E, Shaw JE: The effect of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a 12 month randomised controlled trial. Diabetologia 2011, 54(4):731-740.
2. Tinker LF, Bonds DE, Margolis KL, Manson JE, Howard BV, Larson J, Perri MG, Beresford SA, Robinson JG, Rodriguez B et al: Low-fat dietary pattern and risk of treated diabetes mellitus in postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled dietary modification trial. Arch Intern Med 2008, 168(14):1500-1511.
3. Volek JS, Phinney SD, Forsythe CE, Quann EE, Wood RJ, Puglisi MJ, Kraemer WJ, Bibus DM, Fernandez ML, Feinman RD: Carbohydrate Restriction has a More Favorable Impact on the Metabolic Syndrome than a Low Fat Diet. Lipids 2009, 44(4):297-309.
Evidence Based Medicine and Admissibility. IV. The Oslo Diet-Heart Study.
–John Cleese, Norway, Home of Giants.
With the 3-foot bookshelf of popular attacks on the low-fat-diet-heart idea it is pretty remarkable that there is only one defense. Daniel Steinberg's Cholesterol Wars. The Skeptics vs. The Preponderance of Evidence is probably more accurately called a witness for the prosecution since low-fat, in some way or other is still the law of the land.
The WHI, adopted a "win a few, lose a few" attitude, comparing its results to the literature, where some studies showed an effect of reducing dietary fat and some did not — this made me wonder: if the case is so clear, whey are there any failures. Anyway, it cited the Oslo Diet-Heart Study as one of the winners and attributed the outcome to the substantial lowering of plasma cholesterol.
The results look good although, since all the numbers are considered fairly high, and since the range of values is not shown, it is hard to tell just how impressive the results really are. But we will stipulate that you can lower cholesterol on a low-fat diet. But what about the payoff? What about the outcomes?
"… 32 of the 206 in the diet (16%)…" which does sound pretty good.
In the end, though, it's really the total deaths from cardiac disease. The second blue-highlighted line in Table 5 shows the two final outcome. How should we compare these.
1. The odds ratio or relative risk is just the ratio of the two outcomes (since there are the same number of subjects) = CHD mortality (diet)/ CHD mortality control) = 94/79 = 1.19. This seems strikingly close to 1.0, that is, flip of a coin. These days the media, or the report itself, would report that there was a 19 % reduction in total CHD mortality.
2, If you look at the absolute values, however, the mortality in the controls is 94/206 = 45.6 % but the diet group had reduced this to 79/206 = 38.3 % so the change in absolute risk is 45.6 % – 38.3 % or only 7.3 % which is less impressive but still not too bad.
1. The absolute difference in risk is (119-54)/206 = 31.6 % which sounds like a meaningful number.
In fact, in some sense, the Oslo Diet-Heart Study provides smoking-CHD risk as an example of a meaningful association that one can take seriously. If only such a significant change had actually been found for the diet effect.
So what do the authors make of this? Their conclusion is that "When combining data from both groups, a three-fold greater CHD mortality rate is demonstrable among the hypercholesterolemic, hypertensive smokers than among those in whom these factors were low or absent." Clever but sneaky. The "hypercholesterolemic, hypertensive" part is irrelevant since you combined the groups. In other words, what started out as a diet study has become a "lifestyle study." They might has well have said "When combining data from fish and birds a significant number of wings were evident." Members of the jury are shaking their heads.
Logistic regression. What is it? Can it help?
So they have mixed up smoking and diet. Isn't there a way to tell which was more important? Well, of course, there are several ways. By coincidence, while I was writing this post, April Smith posted on facebook, the following challenge "The first person to explain logistic regression to me wins admission to SUNY Downstate Medical School!" I won although I am already at Downstate. Logistic regression is, in fact, a statistical method that asks what the relative contribution of different inputs would have to be to fit the outcome and this could have been done but in this case, I would use my favorite statistical method, the Eyeball Test. Looking at the data in Tables 5 and 10 for CHD deaths, you can see immediately what's going on. Smoking is a bigger risk than diet.
If you really want a number, we calculated relative risk above. Again, we found for mortality, CHD (diet)/ CHD (control) = 94/79 = 1.19. But what happens if you took up smoking: Figure 10 shows that your chance of dying of heart disease would be increased by 119/54 = 2.2 or more than twice the risk. Bottom line: you decided to add saturated fat to your diet, your risk would be 1.19 what it was before which might be a chance you could take faced with authentic Foie Gras.
Well, it did. This is not the first critique. Uffe Ravnskov described how the confusion of smoking and diet led to a new Oslo Trial which reductions in both were specifically recommended and, again, outcomes made diet look bad . Ravnskov gave it the attention it deserved. But what about researchers writing in the scientific literature. Why do they not give the study the attention it deserves. Why do they not point out its status as a classic case of a saturated fat risk study with no null hypothesis. It certainly deserves attention for its devious style. Of course, putting that in print would guarantee that your grant is never funded and your papers will be hard to publish. So, why do researchers not give the Oslo-Diet-Heart study the attention it deserves? Good question, Dan.
1. Steinberg D: The cholesterol wars : the skeptics vs. the preponderance of evidence, 1st edn. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press; 2007.
2. Leren P: The Oslo diet-heart study. Eleven-year report. Circulation 1970, 42(5):935-942.
3. Howard BV, Van Horn L, Hsia J, Manson JE, Stefanick ML, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Kuller LH, LaCroix AZ, Langer RD, Lasser NL et al: Low-fat dietary pattern and risk of cardiovascular disease: the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial. JAMA 2006, 295(6):655-666.
4. Ravnskov U: The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Cause Heart Disease. Washington, DC: NewTrends Publishing, Inc.; 2000.
Evidence Based Medicine and Admissibility. III. Steinberg for the Prosecution.
In 1985 an NIH Consensus Conference was able to "establish beyond any reasonable doubt the close relationship between elevated blood cholesterol levels (as measured in serum or plasma) and coronary heart disease" (JAMA 1985, 253:2080-2086).
A major strategy in the indictment of saturated fat has been guilt by association. The American Heart Association (AHA), which had long recommended margarine (the major source of trans-fats), has gone all out in condemning saturated fatty acids by linking them with trans-fats. The AHA website has a truly deranged cartoon film of the evil brothers: "They're a charming pair, Sat and Trans. But that doesn't mean they make good friends. Read on to learn how they clog arteries and break hearts — and how to limit your time with them by avoiding the foods they're in.". While the risk of trans-fats is probably exaggerated — they are a small part of the diet — they have no benefit and nobody wants to defend them; dietary saturated fat, however, is a normal part of the diet, is made in your body and is less important in providing saturated fatty acids in the blood, than dietary carbohydrate. Guilt by association is a tricky business in courts of law — just having a roommate who sells marijuana can get you into a good deal of trouble — but it takes more than somebody saying that you and the perpetrator make a charming pair.
The failure of the diet-cholesterol-heart hypothesis in clinical trials as been documented by numerous scientific articles and especially in popular books that document the original scientific sources. It is unknown what the reaction of the public is to these books. However, amazingly, there is only one book I know of that takes the side of the lipophobes and that is Daniel Steinberg's Cholesterol Wars. The Skeptics vs. the Preponderance of Evidence. A serious book with careful if slightly biased documentation and an uncommon willingness to answer the critics, it is worth reading. I will try to discuss it in detail in this and future posts. First, the title indicates a step down from criminal prosecution. "Preponderance of the evidence" is the standard for conviction in a civil court and is obviously a far weaker criterion. One has to wonder why it is that the skeptics have the preponderance of the popular publications — if the scientific evidence is there and health agencies are so determined that the public know about this, why are there so few — maybe only this one — rebutting the critics.
In any case, what is Steinberg's case? The indictment on page 1 is somewhat different than one would have thought.
In a future post, I will describe Paul Leren's classic five-year study which, by 1970, had a follow-up to eleven years and the results will turn out not to be as compelling as described by Steinberg. For the moment, it is worth considering that, given the strong message, from the AHA, from the American Diabetes Association, from the NIH Guidelines for Americans, the criterion really should be beyond a reasonable doubt. There shouldn't be even a single failure like the Framingham Study or the Women's Health Initiative. In fact, the preponderance of the evidence when you add them all up, isn't there.
Evidence-based Medicine. Who decides Admissibility. II. Mozart and the Levels of Evidence.
Among the things that we found in our critique of the USDA dietary guidelines Report  was that the cited evidence did not meet their own standards. They were critical of low-carbohydrate diets on the basis of studies that their own analysis gave a "neutral" quality rating, even those that took dietary assessment at baseline and then assessed cardiovascular mortality up to 12 years later.
But it is really the idea that there is some set of systematic definitions of science that everybody agrees on. My last post mentioned, by analogy with courts of law, the Frye standard which accepts as evidence, opinions supported by "general acceptance' in the scientific community. While still accepted in some state courts, the federal courts have tried to go beyond trust in such narrow descriptions of science. In 1975, Congress established Federal Rules of Evidence. The rules are quite general and the major impact is to broaden the range of evidence that could be considered. Rule 401, defined relevance as "evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence," in other words, whatever works. In a future post, I will discuss Daubert v. Merrell Dow, Inc. (pr. Dow-burt as in English), an outgrowth of the Rules of Evidence and generally considered the key judgment in the modern interaction of science and the law. In the real world of jurisprudence, ideas on what constitutes scientific evidence have become problematical and Daubert may have had the paradoxical effect of restricting admissible data but, in the analogy with evidence in medicine, the Federal Rules of Evidence and Daubert have better captured the real quality of science in recognizing the need for flexibility. The kinds of absolute criteria — association does not imply causality, random controlled trials are a "gold standard," etc. are at least different from the spirit of Daubert.
So where do these arbitrary guidelines in EBM come from? They were set up by the medical community, a community that is stereotyped as being untrained in science. I hate stereotypes, especially medical stereotypes since I think of myself as coming from a medical family (my father and oldest daughter are physicians) but stereotypes come from someplace and, of course, it is well known that physicians never study nutrition. In the end, it makes me think of the undoubtedly apocryphal story about Mozart.
1. Tobin MJ: Counterpoint: evidence-based medicine lacks a sound scientific base. Chest 2008, 133(5):1071-1074; discussion 1074-1077.
2. Hite AH, Feinman RD, Guzman GE, Satin M, Schoenfeld PA, Wood RJ: In the face of contradictory evidence: report of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee. Nutrition 2010, 26(10):915-924.
3. Weinberg S: Dreams of a final theory, 1st edn. New York: Pantheon Books; 1992.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the principle of "evidence-based medicine (EBM)," arose in the 1990s . It is widely invoked in the medical literature as a kind of certification that the conclusions of the author are not mere opinions but are backed up by compelling information in biomedical science. It sounds good. Or does it? It is certainly self-serving and a little bit suspicious, somewhat like Nixon assuring us that he was not a crook. Evidence based medicine? What were we doing before? How was Pasteur able to function in the absence of such an idea? One thing to think about is that evidence is what is introduced into courts of law. But not all evidence is admissible. A judge decides what is admissible and there are many precedents, in particular, on what constitutes scientific evidence in a legal proceeding.
EBM relies on a hierarchy of levels of evidence (e.g. Table 1) with the random controlled trial (RCT) as the highest and expert opinion as the lowest. Recommendations from health agencies and awarding of research grants are frequently justified on conformity to EBM or at least on their placing primary importance on RCTs.
RDF: You know, the report is not particularly balanced. I'm not sure how you write a balanced review of an unbalanced report.
MM: You can make the critique as strong as you like as long as you carefully document everything. But what's your main problem with the Report?
RDF: Well, it makes very strong recommendations in the face of contradictory evidence.
MM: Make that the title of your article.
For sure, both the Report and the final Guidelines were the proverbial camel-like production of a committee, tedious, repetitive and stylistic dreadful. But what about the NEL? What about the evidence? Style aside, wasn't this evidence based medicine?
Where do these guidelines come from? The assumption is that evidence follows its etymologic roots, stuff that is visible, stuff that comes from the sensible and true avouch of our own eyes. In fact, it is most often applied, as in the case of the DGAC, to the most controversial and contentious subjects. Calling something evidence is not enough. So what happens in courts of law? In a court of law, a judge decides on whether the jury can hear the evidence. Who decides admissibility of the evidence in EBM?
Science is a human activity. Conflict, controversy and a resistance to new ideas are well known even in the so-called hard, that is, more mathematical, sciences, and even where there are no outside forces as there was in the case of Galileo. In the twentieth century, conflicts do not generally impede progress for long. Especially in the physical sciences, there is usually agreement on basic assumptions and on the rules of logic, allowing ultimate acceptance of strong evidence. Competing theories may coexist and supporters of both are likely to admit that they are awaiting reconciliation.
What happens when the spontaneous process of conflict resolution in science breaks down? What happens in conditions where scientific disagreement is strong and a majority position becomes so dominant that it controls the funding and publication of scientific work and can ignore or repress contradictory evidence and repress exposition of alternative theories. In essence, how do we deal with a recapitulation of the case of Galileo?
There is no system to decide on the admissibility in the cases considered by EBM. I am not the first person to point out that EBM is largely the position of experts on one side of a scientific conflict , the lowest level of evidence on traditional EBM scales (e.g. "Level III: Opinions of respected authorities… of the US Preventive Services Task Force Systems," Table 1). EBM is sustained by those who want to use its particular criteria but these have never been subjected to outside affirmation.
In this situation, where science cannot police itself, we have to look for some outside guidance. What do the courts do? As one would expect there, is a long and extensive history of the legal system's attempt to deal with what constitutes scientific evidence. On the chance that the legal perspective may help, I will discuss some of the issues.
Frye and the need for rules.
A key decision in the history of science in the courts is Frye v. United States. In 1923, a Federal Appeals court ruled that the opinions of experts have to be supported by a scientific community. Frye had been convicted of second-degree murder but appealed on the grounds that he had successfully passed a lie-detector test. At that time the device was a simple blood pressure machine and an expert witness testified as to the results. The court ruled that the lie-detector test "has not yet gained such standing and scientific recognition among physiological and psychological authorities as would justify the courts in admitting expert testimony'" affirming the judgment of the lower court.
Most, but not all. A small but not insignificant minority hold otherwise and whereas they agree that dietary saturated fat may raise blood cholesterol, they can provide overwhelming evidence that it is not associated with cardiovascular disease. This has been demonstrated in almost every large trial.
But isn't this exactly what has happened in nutrition and maybe, in general, in the medical community? The "experts" control editorial boards, granting agencies and academic departments and are as powerful as the Catholic Church in repressing dissent. They have prestige and, in many cases, undisputed accomplishments, but does science run on general acceptance? Does majority (of experts) rule?
One of the problems with Frye that lawyers have addressed is a question of identifying the field of academic or scientific field in which the general acceptance is to be considered. Different disciplines hold to different standards. In the case at hand, many ideas in nutrition would be dismissed out of hand by biochemists. Many methodologies would be considered absurd by physical scientists: Intention-to-treat is perhaps the most absurd. It has been pointed out that the question of who is an expert might have applied to the techniques in the original Frye case, at least as it might be implemented today: "If polygraph examiners are selected as the relevant field, polygraph results would be admissible." (http://law.jrank.org/pages/2006/Scientific-Evidence-Frye-v-United-States.html).
The epidemic of obesity and diabetes stands as a testament to the failure of the experts. A small library can be assembled of books attacking establishment medical nutrition. Uffe Ravnskov's classic Cholesterol Myths is updated in Ignore the Awkward. Gary Taubes's recent Good Calories, Bad Calories is the most compelling and James Le Fanu's Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, the most succinct but just sitting at my desk now I can see a dozen others on the book shelf. Surprisingly, there has been only one rebuttal, Steinberg's Cholesterol Wars, the subject of the next post .
Table 1. Examples of Levels of Evidence from Various Sources.
Level II-3: Evidence obtained from multiple time series with or without the intervention. Dramatic results in uncontrolled trials might also be regarded as this type of evidence.
1. Torpy JM, Lynm C, Glass RM: JAMA patient page. Evidence-based medicine. JAMA 2009, 301(8):900.
3. US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services: Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the dietary guidelines for Americans, 2010. June 15, 2010. In.; 2010.
4. Hite AH, Feinman RD, Guzman GE, Satin M, Schoenfeld PA, Wood RJ: In the face of contradictory evidence: report of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee. Nutrition 2010, 26(10):915-924.
5. Marantz P, Bird E, Alderman M: A Call for Higher Standards of Evidence for Dietary Guidelines. Am J Prev Med 2008, 34(3):234-239.
6. Harvey R, Ferrier D: Biochemistry, 5th edn. Baltimore and Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2011.
7. Angell M: Science on Trial. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.; 1996.


text:
And while you're at it,
go congratulate Jawa for his part in getting a bin Laden buttmonkey thrown out of the country.
Don't you just love how this stuff works? I started at
Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, which led to Mean Mr. Mustard which led to Relapsed Catholic which led to this place from which I found the Mark Steyn piece that started it all. Damn, by the time the year's out I should be back in fine fettle as a tracker.
Basically, Steyn points out that feminism should be very damn interested in the war on terror as it has freed a hell of a lot of women to do something other than either wear a tent and be escorted to go to the market or be easy prey to be dragged to a rape room. Doing so with his usual humor causes Murney to have a bad case case of the vapors; it seems that Steyn made mock of holy Feminism and was downright racist to boot. As someone once said(or should have) "If this be misogynism and racism, kick it up a notch, boy!"
Said vapors leading to statements such as "It is obvious that Steyn is a misogynist, and hates feminism, which means he opposes gender equality. How barbaric.", and, referring to the 'torrent of hate' directed at feminists, "That hate will climax when the United States Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, which will likely be in the not too distant future."
Never mind that if Roe vs. Wade is thrown out, that will not outlaw abortion; it will put the issue back in the individual states. That's not putting a matter into the hands of the state's voters, it's 'hatred for feminists'. To quote the Catholic, "This man actually publicizes the fact that he's a Women's Studies minor at the University of Regina (insert Beevis "heh") and has something called a Certificate of Administration in Continuing Education Development.
Meet the future of Canada, folks.
And the kicker: He calls himself a Libertarian. Kids, you can have 'im. Kate, I insist that you distance yourself from this Saskatchewan libertarian!"
No more need be said.
Carnival of Cordite #44
Up over at Gullyborg.
The bin Laden tape
Assuming it's him and not dummied up(I'm still wondering why, if he's still in operation, no video?), lets see... You're not hurting us, we're gonna get you, we're winning but we'll offer a truce to rebuild Iraq.
Translation: "We're getting stomped, every time we come out to play you kill us, we haven't been able to pull off a real operation in America in years, so please accept our 'truce' offer and stop killing us. Don't you know you unbelievers are supposed to LOSE?"
I know it's an estimated time, but damn!
FedEx was supposed to be delivering a package today. Checked the tracking data last night, showed estimated time of delivery 10:30. Ok, great, I'll be home then.
I get home from work at 9:15 to find the "you weren't here" note on the door; they'd been here at 8:10.
I understand 'estimated time', but dammit...
Oh, the wonders of the ACLU
You know, that wonderful organization that defends civil rights? As long as they're approved of civil rights and/or plaintiffs, of course. Well, they've filed suit against the U.S.G. to stop the wiretapping of al Queda-related phone calls. Aside from the bullshit about 'widespread bugging of American's phones', there's some problems with the people in the ACLU doing this. Found this at Debbie Schlussel's blog:
"I'm not referring to the famous Plaintiffs about whom you've heard: For example, Christopher Hitchens, the well-known Vanity Fair writer who is tight with convicted felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff's money launderer Grover Norquist. (Norquist's receipt of thousands from Saudi charities raided by Customs for billions in Al-Qaeda money laundering is well-known, and Hitchens wrote glowingly of Norquist's efforts on behalf of radical Islam)." and goes from there:
"I'm referring to ACLU lawyers Noel Saleh, Mohammed Abdrabboh, and Nabih Ayad, the ACLU Plaintiffs named in the yesterday's Complaint, attorney William Swor, a member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Nazih Hassan--all named in the lawsuit. They are exactly the kind of people whom the federal government SHOULD be watching, but probably isn't. One of these men admitted to funding Hezbollah, one was accused of tampering with a witness, and a third signed a document contradicting statements he made in the lawsuit. Not to mention, one of these men engaged in exactly the same "spying" (on me) that he now opposes when done by the NSA."
Yeah, some people in some branches of the ACLU have done some good things; and many people in many branches have done bad things. If the ACLU actually cared about justice and honesty, they'd throw these clowns out of the organization.
Further, check this out at Stop The ACLU for more information.
I need to put this up at work
Rendezvous!
Not the black-powder kind this time. Well, mostly not. Mr. Completely is putting together a meet in Reno NV in November, details here.
Damn, I'd love to go, but this far out I have no idea if I can get the days off. Hoping, hoping...
Did I mention pain hurts?
My back is easing off, but not fast enough. I'm beginning to feel like a dis dyks dyslexic pirate; every time I bend over or stand up I go "URRRRRR".
Ah, the wonders of 'gun control' laws
Or, as Jeff Cooper refers to them, 'personal disarmament laws'.
Got a notice from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership(JPFO) about this article from San Francisco. Short version: abused woman thinks her husband may have found her, so under a CA law that "waives the permit requirement for anyone who "reasonably believes that he or she is in grave danger because of circumstances forming the basis of a current restraining order.'', she starts carrying a gun. Accidentally leaves purse at store, gun found & police called; she went to jail because it turns out the restraining order which she thought was permanent had expired two months before.
She understands leaving her purse, especially with the piece inside, was bad; she now, because of the conviction, cannot even have a firearm in the house or pick one up for self-defense.
Joan Ryan, the writer, doesn't like guns. Here's the last paragraph:
"The law against carrying concealed guns makes good sense. But so many women every year are killed by their abusive boyfriends and husbands. Restraining orders, as we know, can't stop them. The police often can't stop them. I don't know what the solution is. But something's wrong when, in trying to keep herself alive, the terrorized woman becomes the criminal."
As I said in the e-mail I sent her, Joan, you can't have it both ways. If someone has the right to self-defense, they also have the right to the means with which to defend themselves, and for most people that's a gun. Firearms are not magic wands, you can't wave one and make troubles go away; they are damned effective tools for repelling boarders who come through the window at night, or attack you in a parking lot. But it doesn't matter how skilled you are or how great your need for it, if you don't have it with you when you need it, you're screwed. And the law you think makes such good sense has now prevented this woman from even owning this means of defense, ever again.
Meanwhile, at Smallest Minorty...
I wrote a few days back about when the personal disarmament people really got my attention. Kevin read it and asked the question, and got a lot of comments.
You ought to go read them.
Don't you just love how this stuff works? I start...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Download this Financial Services Best Practices Guide to Isolation to learn how to best eliminate phishing attacks and web malware.


Chaitra Navratri is a festival of venerating and extolling Goddess Durga which is commemorated in several parts of the Indian subcontinent. The fourth day of Navratri falls on 31st of March 2017. On this day, Goddess Kushmanda the fourth manifestation of Goddess Durga is worshipped. It is believed that if Goddess Kushmanda is not reverenced with the required rituals and in the auspicious time then the devotees do not receive the fruitful results of their worship. So, we at MyKundali have come up with all the relevant information regarding the importance of 4th day of Chaitra Navratri festival and the Puja Muhurat.
Note: The above timing of the Muhurat is according to New Delhi.
Get to know the Muhurat and Puja Vidhi according to your city.
Out of all the nine manifestations of Goddess Durga, Goddess Kushmanda is the fourth manifestation. She is also believed to be a form of Goddess Parvati. If we ponder over the literal meaning of the name of Goddess Kushmanda, then it can be inferred that 'Ku' means small, 'Ushma' means energy and 'Anda' means oval. So, it is surmised that Goddess Durga gave the genesis of the universe to be oval shaped and this is the reason she is known by the name Goddess Kushmanda.
How you can seek the blessings of Goddess Kushmanda?
According to the Vedic Astrology, Goddess Kushmanda ushers Lord Sun. Hence, worshiping Goddess Kushmanda helps in removing the Surya Dosha from the Kundali.
We, at AstroSage wish that Goddess Kushmanda showers blessings upon you and brings prosperity in your life this Chaitra Navratri 2017.


Give the perfect gift for any occasion from Vintage Hotels, E-Gift Cards are redeemable all year at any Vintage Hotels' properties or Food Niagara locations for delicious dining, relaxing spa treatments or much deserved getaways.
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Emily Berry, Stranger, Baby (Faber & Faber, £10.99).
My mother is dead – it's classic.
but that's no excuse for bad manners.
This is thrown casually into a conversation with a doctor, and by now we are so used to hearing other guises and voices that we are immune to the farfetched claims of the poems and take every comment with a pinch of salt.
My fringe lifted to the wind in a long salute and I pushed it back.
This 'I' is not merely a voice but a physical body with 'sleeves' and 'shoulders' and a 'fringe' and the muscles used to 'push it back'. This poem sets up a book in which its author comes out from behind the costumes and props and takes control of her own story.
This is not an easy thing to do well. It is the kind of writing which acts as if it is giving everything away, even though it is the most embarrassing and painful thing in the world to do. It is the kind of writing 'biographer[s]' live for.
By manipulating the information given using different formal techniques, Berry demonstrates her complete control over her subject. The later poem 'Freud's Beautiful Things' includes a direct quote from Freud that: 'What makes all autobiographies worthless is, after all, their mendacity.' Here, Berry uses a specific photograph as evidence of the real-ness of her mother, despite the fact that this photograph is 'veiled' from the reader and could easily be another dream or invented memory.
The image of crying in front of a mirror is paired with that of language 'crawling' like an insect 'all over me' as a metaphor for the attempt to translate the reality of grief into words using artificial devices. Just as what you see in the mirror isn't really you, grief put into words isn't really grief, which like 'the language of trees, […] can't be transcribed' ('Canopy').
Raw, murky and fluorescent, you couldn't take it.


The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces has said its strategy of hot pursuit of the Lord's Resistance Army in far flung areas like the Central African Republic is meant to deny the rebels respite to regroup and return the war theater to Uganda."There is no barrier, nothing between [our borders] and the LRA so if we do not pursue them who will stop [Joseph] Kony from abducting? It's either now or never.
If we do not end it Kony could be at our doorstep" said Army and Defence Spokesman Col. Felix Kulaigye yesterday. The comments come in the wake of grim assessments of local and international efforts to limit the ability of militias in the region from killing, maiming and displacing civilians and undermining state authority.
This week Allan Doss, a UN Special envoy to DR Congo said the support given by UN peace keepers there to the Congolese national army which is fighting the Hutu rebel group FDLR had worsened the situation for civilians. He later reportedly told the UN Security Council, of which Uganda is a non-permanent member, which pressure should be kept on the FDLR, which like the LRA has been classified as a "negative force" by regional countries.
"Reducing the pressure now would give the FDLR (Hutu rebels) time to regroup and rearm," Doss told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Congo. Still the UN seems to flip flop on just whether or not keeping pressure should mean allowing its 17,000 strong army to directly engage in the dirty work of fighting rebels. Similarly at the close of the 3-month Operation Lightning Thunder [OLT] which brought together, at least by agreement, the armies of Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan- humanitarian organizations said while it may have inflicted harm of LRA's military capabilities- its success was undermined by the cost in human lives. LRA have continued, despite OLT and by extension the current hunt by UPDF, to kill, maim and abduct, seemingly without much resistance in either Congo, South Sudan or Central African Republic military sources say the bulk of their force is located since August.
At the center of the problem on [how international or regional efforts are able to balance civilian protection vis a vis fighting known enemies like the LRA and FDLR] is the question of capacity. Army sources say continued UPDF operations in Congo and CAR are a huge strain on military budgets. The sources also say that one of the setbacks in the fight against LRA has been "unreliable partners" in the Congolese and Sudanese militaries which were never an integral part of what was meant to be a tripartite operational plan. Since the end of OLT there has not been little movement in joint operations against the LRA even if the Uganda government has said it has sought permission to expand its operations to CAR.
Moreover little is known about the success or not of the current operations or if the extent to which the army is receiving cooperation from regional or international partners which have so far been critical. Seen from the expanse of LRA operations in the Congo, CAR and South Sudan and the rate of abductions and civilian deaths attributed to the rebel group- it appears clear that the rebel threat is on ascendancy despite UPDF efforts to contain it.
What is also clear is that the Ugandan army's strategy of pushing the rebels far from the national border and maintain pressure on them is working. "The military leadership is committed to pursuing the rebels wherever they are" said Kulaigye yesterday. While good for Ugandan civilians, since the war theater is far from national borders, as long as LRA has capacity to cause harm elsewhere- the rebel threat is still serious.


There was a time not too long ago when startups regularly burned many millions of dollars in years of stealth mode, building massive projects that anticipated the use cases for all of their future customers. Back then,the concept of releasing anything that wasn't robust was heresy. Ries's ideas crystallized a combination of responses to these companies spectacularly imploding. Investors wanted companies to achieve validation faster, and the embrace of accepting failure while chanting the mantra "fail fast," made the pendulum swing the other way. The result: an explosion of MVPs.
The most common criticism of MVP is that too often it is actually Mvp, where minimal is emphasized and viable is highly subjective, but leans towards not really viable. It's not that MVP is a bad concept, it's simply difficult in practice. As a result, others have looked to redefine MVP – Jason Cohen proposed the SLC (Simple, Lovable and Complete), and Laurence McCahill proposed the MLP (Minimum Loveable Product), both emphasizing the importance of delighting customers to being "viable", and reducing the opportunity to simply ship a broken experience to customers using "learning" as an excuse.


What's more seasonal than pumpkins? Here's one DIY you can make in minutes as the memorable centerpiece of your Halloween party this year.
This time of year, it seems like everyone's got a thing for pumpkins. But even if neither pumpkin pie nor pumpkin-spiced lattés are on the menu for your Halloween bash, you can still find a place at the table for fall's most famous gourd. Introducing the pumpkin keg.
Christina Stiehl, editor at Celebrations.com, first tipped us off to this genius little hack (and for that, we're forever grateful.) Christina, it should be said, loves pumpkins—cooking them, decorating them, and yes, drinking out of them.
Roasted pumpkin seeds: the perfect snack to serve next to the DIY pumpkin keg you create for your guests!
First, draw a ring around the top of your pumpkin. This will be your guide to carve the lid. Try to keep this pretty close to the top of the pumpkin, so you optimize the hollowed-out space that will hold the liquid.
Once that's done, carve it! If you're without a carving kit, you can use a serrated knife. Whatever your tool of choice, poke it in at an angle and work your way around the ring.
Once you've gone all the way around, pop the lid off and clean out your pumpkin. Make sure you get all the seeds out and most of the pulp, but don't worry if some gets left behind, as it adds a little flavor to the drink.
Now find the spot where you want to place your spigot. Using your pencil or marker. Cutting the hole here will require a pretty fine serrated knife, so the carving kit proves really worthwhile at this point.
Once your spigot is secured, pour in your drink of choice. (Christine recommends Sam Adam's Octoberfest, but you can try cider or other seasonal drinks.) Finally, pop the lid back on your pumpkin. You're ready to go!
And that's it! Be sure to check out the how to video at Celebrations.com, where you can also find seasonal craft and recipe ideas.


text:
Cold Feet's Fay Ripley teases aftermath of Jenny's breast cancer: 'She doesn't know what life holds'
Abigail GillibrandWednesday 8 Jan 2020 7:58 pm
Sorry, this video isn't available any more.
The brand new series of Cold Feet is just days away and Fay Ripley has found herself teasing what's to come in the next installment of the comedy.
Her character Jenny went on a terrifying journey in season eight, seeing her battle breast cancer on her own, before she told her family about the heartbreaking news.
And now, instead of jumping forward one year, the series will delve back in from where they left off, and look at the aftermath of Jenny's treatment.
Talking about the upcoming plot on The One Show, the 53-year-old actress said: 'I mean we tackled breast cancer, it's a big story it's in so many people's lives, it is a very important thing to get right.
'And it was why… The show normally had like in a year's time jump, but they didn't – they wanted to come back to her story.'
Cold Feet's Fay Ripley teases aftermath of Jenny's breast cancer (Picture: Rex)
Describing what's to come, she continued: 'Jenny's story is about post-treatment, it's a rather untalked about thing.
'She has been through the treatment and is in this limbo phase where she doesn't know what life holds.'
The star added: 'It's so personal, if the statistics are one in two for cancer, in general that means we all are affected in some way by cancer, so it would be strange if Cold Feet didn't approach it.'
When asked what the hardest part of portraying the storyline was, Fay confessed: 'I didn't want to let anyone down.'
She didn't want to let anyone down with the storyline (Picture: Rex)
Fay previously spoke about the storyline and how she wanted the team working on the show to make sure it was as accurate as possible.
She explained: 'They asked me how I'd feel about it and I said I wanted it dealt with properly because of the weight of that responsibility, and because so many people I know are affected by breast cancer and cancer in general. That's life at the moment.'
'We have seen this story with shows but I wanted it to be real,' she added.
'Sometimes it's going to be funny, sometimes it's going to be scary. I just wanted it to be honest.'
More: Cold Feet
Cold Feet fans praise Fay Ripley for 'heartbreaking' cancer scene
Cold Feet 'could be axed' after next series according to show star: 'It's not my decision'
Cold Feet series 9 date revealed - and we don't have long to wait
Just last month, ITV confirmed that the Big Talk series would be returning in 2020 and if that's not enough to please all Cold Feet fans, they can also expect a few guest roles thrown in for good measure.
Series 9 of Cold Feet airs on Monday 13 January at 9pm.
Got a showbiz story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you.
MORE: Modern Family finale date confirmed as David Beckham guest stars in show return
MORE: Justin Bieber to reveal 'battle with Lyme Disease' for first time in new documentary
GBBO's Noel Fielding 'feels like Tom without Jerry' as he breaks silence on co-host Sandi Toksvig quitting
Ex Dancing on Ice judge Jason Gardiner attacks Holly Willoughby's appearance in stand-up show
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to feature in revealing documentary exposing royal secrets
What time is The Masked Singer on ITV tonight and who is performing?
The Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco warns fans not to compare new role to Penny
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text:
package core.db.users

import core.entities.{CredentialSet, UserID, UserSecret}
import scalikejdbc._

trait UserCredentialsDao {

  def findUserCredentials(userId: UserID)(implicit session: DBSession = AutoSession): Option[CredentialSet]

  def createUserCredentials(userId: UserID, password: UserSecret)(implicit session: DBSession = AutoSession): Unit

  def updateUserCredentials(userId: UserID, password: UserSecret)(implicit session: DBSession = AutoSession): Unit
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Ра̀бош (; ; ; ;  – "бреза") е древен "разплащателен документ" упоменаван още от Плиний живял 23 – 79 г.

Ра̀бошът е гладка издялана пръчка или малка дъсчица, върху която се отбелязват последователно делничните и празничните дни през годината чрез врязване на чертички, пробиване на дупки или други знаци. Календарната година при рабоша най-често започва на 1 септември.

Използва се и за отбелязване на различни сметки при занаятчийски или животновъдни дейности. Състои се от две части – едната част остава у собственика, а другата при овчаря, като по този начин се извършва контрол на продукцията. Рабошите се използват до началото на XX век, като след това постепенно изчезват.

Бирка, от швед. björk (бреза), съвпада с името на града Бирка, крайния пункт по търговския път между Скандинавия и Арабския халифат.

Източници

Българска етнография

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Why did East Asians, theatre practitioners, academics and friends protest against Yellowface casting in Howard Barker's play, In the Depths of Dead Love, at the Print Room, 19th January 2017?
Thursday 19th January saw a peaceful protest of Chinese, East Asians, theatre practitioners, academics and friends at the Print Room in London where Howard Barker's play, In the Depths of Dead Love, was performed by white actors in yellowface casting.
Despite being set in "ancient China", all the Chinese-named characters are played by white actors, rendering us invisible, dehumanised and vulnerable at a time when anti-Chinese feeling is being whipped up by forces who want war with China. In a world rapidly lurching to the right. Barker does the work of the state in denying us our value as human beings.
The Print Room, a hedge-fund-financed theatre in Notting Hill (Iraq War co-ordinating bank J P Morgan's Bill Winters is the artistic director's husband who helped fund the theatre), denied that the play was about China, spouting pseudo-intellectual drivel about it only being a metaphor, and that it's actually an English play about English people; the not-so-sub-text being that no-one who looks like me can possibly be English even if born and raised here, absorbing the culture from birth and participating from first word, first picture, first dance, first song.
So now I am a mere metaphor: an unreal person from an unreal place. Window dressing for an unutterably dull and pompous exercise in bourgeois angst. His characters lead such drab and tedious lives that perhaps the only way they have to render themselves interesting to themselves, each other and the audience is to get togged up in chinoiserie drag. This would be the only acceptable explanation but somehow we doubt it. Instead, the paucity of Barker's imagination has him reaching into strangers' lives and ripping the guts out of us.
Howard Barker, our 'greatest living playwright' (according to some), made his reputation as a leftist, so his capitulation to reactionary racist practice is even more shocking. He professes contempt for "messages in plays" in a supine press when his message is very clear: black is white; to be English is to be white.
Greater self-love hath no man than this: that he throws what are commonly perceived as the weakest minorities under a bus for his career. If he has any character left I hope that in the wee small hours when there's only him and his conscience, he will think hard and deep about perpetuating yellowface practice and let us know what he's come up with.
It is not only intellectual sleight of hand concerning race and purported artistic freedom that we need to check. There is a bigger argument to be had regarding the role of art and politics. The revelation that the Print Room is founded in part on JP Morgan's Iraq War money raises more questions about who art serves — and be sure about this: it always serves someone. This author would not cross the threshold of an establishment with such a strong whiff of sulphur and hopes that others feel as strongly. For me, Anda and Bill Winters might as well have built the Print Room on an ancient native American burial ground.
There has been a flurry of activity and writing from people who care about our culture and our world, who see the arts as more than privileged rich whites raiding the ethnic dressing-up box for a bit of entertainment. From Facebook and Twitter to blogs and academics and the press, it's not only East Asians who are horrified by this backwards step.
Here follows a chronology of the battle which some are calling The Orphan of Zhao II: This Time It's Personal.
… It is no more acceptable today asking a Caucasian actor to play an East Asian role than asking another actor to play Othello by handing him a tin of boot polish. Simply put, it's morally reprehensible. I ask you as Artistic Director to consider meeting with the creative team of In The Depths Of Dead Love immediately and ask them to reconsider this disgusting and bigoted casting or that you pull the production from your programme until they are able to satisfy its casting requirements without detriment to East Asian actors in London.
… With the release of a statement on Monday attempting to explain their process, the leadership of the Print Room hasn't defended themselves by protesting that they had indeed attempted to cast the role with Asian actors. Rather, they denied that race and ethnicity mattered at all in casting. In doing so, the theatre showed that it does not comprehend what yellowface and racial erasure mean, and have made no effort to show any empathy to the community they have affronted. … In the Depths of Dead Love is by a British playwright born in 1946 and writing in the 21st century, not the creator of stories written centuries ago at a time when knowledge of Asian culture was steeped in ignorance and caricature. Barker cannot claim to be WS Gilbert writing about England in The Mikado, despite its faux Japanese setting. Indeed, he is a historically and socially aware playwright. Saying the work is a fable is not a license to be culturally clueless. … The Print Room would do well to consult with Asian artists and indeed many BAME artists if they wish to remedy this situation, rather than forging forward with abstract, disingenuous excuses that fool no one who actually understands what diversity and inclusion genuinely mean.
The Stage 13.01.17: Print Room "artistic" director describes our protestations as a "social media attack" proving Mrs Hedge Fund couldn't give a flying one.
… This is a difficult issue for us and we will take any responsibility for mistakes we make – we always have more to learn. But I'm basically saying, we didn't make any, so ha.
Wealth brings power, the power to open a theatre in London's Notting Hill, the power to define human beings as worthy or not of inclusion, of defining whether or not we are English. Rich white women in need of a hobby get to do that to us because they are married to bankers, specifically, senior bankers in JP Morgan during the Iraq War era of wealth extraction and paying Tony Blair £2-3 million pa.
… Remember this is meant to be an apology. Instead, you seem to be suggesting that it is OK because the 'Chinese'-ness is not real. It is just a theatrical device. Yes, this is a common technique, but it is essentially racist. It is the use of other races and cultures to signify the 'other', to conjure up an exoticism of the unknown. It is cultural appropriation and stereotyping. Our advice? When you are in a hole, stop digging. This is the 21st century.
… Admittedly, there are some interesting concepts and a few moments that engage the audience, but there is no doubt that the most memorable and relevant aspect of the play is the controversy it caused rather than its content or delivery.
"The 'Chinese' nature of the play is within the setting, which is entirely artificial, and the naming of the characters. It's entirely European in its sensibilities. I've only very rarely ever set a play in my own culture – there's always a distancing effect," he said. And added: "You have to understand metaphors. The theatre isn't a place for literalness. We have to accept that anyone from any place or culture can play any role," he said in an interview in which he went on to claim he had "contempt" for plays that have messages. "Look, the reason I'm a writer is that I don't involved myself in political and ideological issues. I'm the opposite of writers who enter the theatre to persuade people of their attitudes. It's not what I do," he said. In the interview, Barker also criticised Arts Council England, labelling it "preposterous" and something that belongs "in the Soviet era". "It's not really interested in art, it's interested in sociological benefits," he added….
James Waygood's protest report at Grumpy Gay Critic 23.01.17: I joined 200 people on Thursday 19 January for #StopYellowFace: a protest against the racist casting of In the Depths of Dead Love at the Print Room.
… So, in other words, Chinese people are not "English" whilst white people evidently are and white actors get to be "universal" as well. The Print Room compounded this even further, as social media protest built, with another calamitously tone-deaf statement in which they actually told people they shouldn't get offended and further elaborated on their concept that China is somehow not a real place. … The final straw was an email they sent to their "supporters", leaked to us, when they complained of a "social media attack" by a "small number" of "members of the public….without consulting us". The amount of blatant untruths in such a brief flow of words here is extraordinary but I'll stick to the fact that myself, theatre director Andrew Keates and the actors' union Equity had all attempted to contact them but to no avail. … Disagree all you like but at least do it from a place of engagement and knowledge not just because your posh white friends have told you to. The days of the subaltern model minority Asian surely have to be over. This is our country, our taxes, our spaces. We have just as much right to be there as any white person. Our love is not dead or in the depths. Our love is real #StopYellowface.
Papergang Theatre's PHOTO ALBUM of the Print Room Protest. Photographer Alexander Newton.


Proposed mixed-use project on Figueroa Street will move forward as two towers.
Developer Shenzhen Hazens has retooled its plan for a high-rise hotel and residential development in Downtown Los Angeles, according to its final environmental impact report.
The mixed-use project, slated for an L-shaped property across the street from the L.A. Live complex, will move forward with two towers featuring 435 condominiums, 80,000 square feet of commercial space and a 300-key W Hotel. An earlier iteration of the development had called for an additional 215 condominiums and a third tower fronting Flower Street, which Hazens has since dropped from its plan.
In addition to the removal of one tower, architecture firm Gensler's latest design for the 1020 Figueroa Street has imagined a less imposing street wall on all sides of the property. The podium which wraps the project site has been reduced from 75 feet to 55 feet in height, and a proposed public plaza along Figueroa has been enlarged by more than 50 percent. Additionally, setbacks from an adjacent historic building have been increased, and the ground level has been redesigned to better comply with the Downtown Design Guide.
Other elements of the project remain unchanged. The proposed towers - one at corner of Olympic Boulevard and the other at the corner of 11th Street - would rise to maximum heights of 540 feet and 430 feet respectively. A podium-top amenity deck is also planned between the towers, but has been expanded towards Flower Street. The proposed parking garage remains fully underground, but has been reduced in size to reflect the smaller scale of the revised plan.
A new timeline for the 1020 Figueroa development is unclear. The property is currently improved with a Luxe Hotel, which would need to be demolished prior to a start of construction.
The project is one of a slew of large tower developments from Chinese real estate firms, joining Metropolis, Oceanwide Plaza and Olympia.
Two-tower project would create condos and a new W Hotel.
$700-million development would replace the Luxe City Center hotel.
Proposed Gensler-designed towers would feature slanting rooflines.


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Home / People / Rodriguez, Cecilia
Rodriguez, Cecilia
By Terry Tamari
Cecilia Rodriguez
Cecilia Rodríguez Ingold is a Ph.D. student in Public Policy with research interests in the economics of education. She is particularly interested in the role of both personality and mental health in shaping educational outcomes.
She holds a bachelor's degree in International Economics and Development from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, and a master's degree in Economics from UNC-Chapel Hill. Before graduate school, Cecilia worked for several years as a high school teacher, and then as a research assistant at Universidad de la República in Uruguay, where her work focused on educational policies and intergenerational mobility in Uruguay.


ESOF, (EuroScience Open Forum), Toulouse, 9-14 July 2018.
The session, titled "Citizens and science advice – challenges and opportunities of participatory science advice" explored ways of engaging citizens at different stages during the development of science advice, in particular on questions which are of direct concern to civil society (such as climate change, health and environment-related issues, digital rights and cyber security).
The session was presented by different structures delivering science advice to governments, including the European Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (SAM), science advice bodies from European Member States, the European Academy Networks and national Academies.
Horizon, the EU research & innovation magazine detailed the opinions expressed by the speakers, all remarking the importance to involve civic society into science advice mechanisms and all acribable to this statement: "The scientific community needs to listen more to people outside academia if it wants to continue to help politicians create good evidence-based policies that will benefit the public".


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package com.samhg.authentication.validation;

import java.util.stream.LongStream;

public interface WindowStrategy {

    LongStream window(int windowSize);

}


Altaria (Japanese: チルタリス Tyltalis) is a Colorless-type Stage 1 Pokémon card. It is part of the Crimson Invasion expansion.
Flip a coin. If heads, search your deck for a Pokémon and put it onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.
Cotton Guard is a move in the Pokémon games that Altaria can learn. This card's Pokédex entry comes from Pokémon X.
This page was last edited on 20 July 2018, at 22:25.


Savings Vouchers – What Could be Promo Codes And What They Do For People?
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Q: Batch file to search and copy file names to new TXT file I want to search *.cpp files in current directory and want to save the file name in *.TXT file. I did this by using the Batch command
dir |find ".cpp" > Listfile.txt

But there I am getting file name with entire paramenters like created date and size.
My need is I want only file name
Current output
06/25/2010  06:17 PM               950 4mLinuxMachine.cpp
06/28/2010  03:41 PM             4,236 Linux11.cpp

Need Output
4mLinuxMachine.cpp
Linux11.cpp

Please help
Thanks

A: Try:
dir /b | find ".cpp" > Listfile.txt

or better still:
dir /b *.cpp > Listfile.txt

A: Use bare format: dir /B
dir /B |find ".cpp" > Listfile.txt

Othe options you can find using:
dir /?

A: If you don't mind installing or using cygwin tools, this task can be done like so:
find . -type f -name '*.cpp' -print > Listfile.txt

A: Search from the file explorer and use this shell extension to copy from the context menu:
http://grebulon.com/software/copylocation.php
"This shell extension adds the ability to copy file and folder names from the Windows Explorer window to the clipboard.
Simply select the file(s) whose name you want to copy, right-click and select "Copy File Path" or "Copy File Name" from the context menu. Then paste to any editor.
Copy File Path - copies the entire path to the file.
Copy File Name - copies only the file name without the folder."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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this faculty
School of Engineering Sciences
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Postgraduates
Institutes and Chairs
Units and Centres
Services and IT
Fakultätswerkstatt
EuI-Info
TU Dresden has joined the Quantum Internet Alliance and is researching quantum technology in new communication networks.
© Scixel for QuTech
Quantum internet for Europe
The European Commission has identified quantum internet as a strategic area for future investment. In this context, TU Dresden joined the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA) in October. The QIA's objective is to create a quantum internet that enables quantum communication between any two points on earth, independent of the usual network load.
© Jörg Simanowski
Prof. Frank H. P. Fitzek
Prof. Frank H. P. Fitzek and Asst. Prof. Riccardo Bassoli from the Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks are representing TUD in the joint project. Together with 40 partners from science and industry, they are researching a prototype for an innovative European quantum internet. Both researchers are primarily interested in how quantum technology can be used to improve telecommunication networks in the future. Quantum internet connects quantum computers to each other. These computers don't use zero and ones, they work with qubits that can assume many states simultaneously and connect with physical matter or light particles. Quantum systems can carry more information than classical systems because they encode information between components rather than within them. Researchers have been trying to work out how to stabilize fragile qubits and how to connect more of them to each other for many years.
Secure communication via the quantum internet
© CeTI/ TU Dresden
Asst. Prof. Riccardo Bassoli
Something that can be achieved sooner rather than later with quantum bits is the transmission of secure information that cannot be tapped by third parties. With quantum physics, it's possible to reliably detect any third party intercepting the line. The phenomenon of quantum entanglement makes this possible: Two qubits are inseparably linked, even if they are located many kilometers away from each other. Just like teleportation, one can deliver information to the other. The state of the first light particle also appears in the second photon despite the distance between them. The entanglement of two qubits cannot be broken, creating a private connection. Quantum cryptography takes advantage of this principle to encrypt information, so that it can be transmitted securely and privately.
Quantum internet as the pioneer of European digital sovereignty
Quantum cryptography systems are already used today to transmit encryption codes from banks and governments, for example. Currently, this is possible for distances of up to around 70 to 80 kilometers. Quantum internet should broaden the potential distances that quantum-encrypted information can travel, enabling the construction of a quantum network. China is at the forefront of creating a network of this kind, which is why the EU wants to close the gap and has begun investing in this technology. The seven-year QIA project was launched in October 2022 to create a quantum internet network in Europe. The alliance is a part of the Quantum Flagship Project, a multi-billion-euro research project funded by the European Commission to support Europe's researchers and companies in creating a digitally independent Europe. QIA has spent the last few years laying the groundwork for the realization of its prototype. This includes the first in-lab multiprocessor quantum network, the first quantum software and network stack, and a state-of-the-art quantum repeater system that will enable long-distance quantum communications in the future.
The role of TU Dresden in the Quantum Internet Alliance
Prof. Frank H. P. Fitzek and Asst. Prof. Riccardo Bassoli focus on the definition and characterization of specific applications for the quantum internet. Identifying applications for a technology that, strictly speaking, doesn't exist yet is a true challenge. It could be compared with developing applications such as email or online banking before the birth of the internet we are familiar with in the late 1960s. In addition, they are working on identifying the performance metrics required by quantum communication technologies to support 5G and future 6G use cases. The focus is on seamless integration between future 6G networks and quantum communication technologies.
The Quantum Internet Alliance
Founded in 2017 by the European market leaders QuTech, ICFO, the University of Innsbruck and the Paris Centre for Quantum Computing, the Quantum Internet Alliance is a team of academic institutions, telecommunication operators, system integrators and quantum tech start-ups from all over Europe. QIA receives funding from the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. In its first project phase covering a period of 3.5 years, QIA has been awarded a total budget of 24 million euros.
Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks
Web: http://quantum-internet.team
Last modified: Nov 09, 2022
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Nicholas Denmon, Contributor
A novelist based in Tampa, FL. he is the author of two novels, For Nothing and Buffalo Soldiers. He also has two more novels out this year.
Life After Death? There Is Hope
Life and death often compel us to ask the most poignant of questions. With life, we wonder what it is all about. With death, we wonder what happens to us after. Perhaps we should consider these mysteries more intently during times of normalcy, but often we ponder them after tragic events.
The questions are usually as vague as our answers and almost always they're a variation of either--do you believe in something greater, a divine plan for our being? Or do you believe in something after death such as Heaven, Hell, ghosts?
Some believe there is nothing. They believe our existence is luck and it's random, and I am not here to dissuade them. I admit I've gone through bouts where I'd have stood should to shoulder with them and decried the concepts that hover around faith and religion and, more specifically, the very human interpretations and flawed guides that serve as teachers, guardians, and enforcers of those interpretations. But this article isn't a hit piece on religion. A bit of a lost sheep at times, I've wandered the different and divergent and, often intersecting paths of deifying. You don't do that unless you see the shiny side of that coin or at least hope to see it. Unless you are resigned that there is nothing, then you have a common thread.
You hope for something.
I'd even wager that many among those that believe in only the here and now, down deep they hope that there's something infinite about our finite time on this planet.
I've had two conversations in the last week alone that circled around the topic of life, death, and life after death. One was with a writer pal of mine. The conversation was spiritual in nature. His dog died and he was understandably very upset about it. It prompted a conversation where he felt that his deceased dog was likely to visit him, as it had happened to him in the past.
"That would be creepy," I said.
"Not really, I think it would be cool" he replied. "It's nice to think of him coming back to let me know he is okay and misses me."
And that is the crux of it. The idea of something after death gives us all a bit more hope. When the dog did indeed come back to visit, letting loose a random bark, pushing open a door, playing invisibly with the other dog left in the house, we are predisposed to ask whether or not it was real.
The real question though should be, does it matter?
When the possible truths are one of following: it actually happened, it didn't happen, or something happened that he misinterpreted as the return of the dog's spirit, and we go immediately to the latter two, we are embracing our inner cynic.
And to what end? To strip someone of a moment of comfort so that we can smugly insulate our own sense of reality?
I pondered, for a moment, the truth of the story. I blame having a very heavy logical influence in my family thanks to a softball team's worth of lawyers in my familial ranks. While there is no hard evidence to support the story, the witness is of impeccably sound mind. Couple that with a variety of stories that I have heard over the years from equally sane people, and I can't dismiss the possibility that, perhaps, it's true. And that makes me smile, because it gives me hope.
The second conversation I had was more on philosophical terms. A scientist that I know, a virologist with a passion for gene therapy, asked me if I believed in "ghosts, vampires, boogeymen, honorable politicians?"
I replied that I believe in energy and, once released, it has to go somewhere. If you stack that idea with dimensions, and degrees of consciousness, you have a wet paper bag of science and philosophy from which I will never escape.
When pressed, I elaborated that I often think of the universe and how precise things had to be for her and I to be having that conversation in that exact place. But then, when I really thought about it, in an infinite vastness, no matter how improbable in a closed set, the improbable in an open set finds its way into a much higher probability. Then also, if there is an infinite vastness and dimensions stacked on top of that with their own infinities, then it becomes probable that if we think it, it exists. Instead of 'I think, therefore I am', 'I think it and therefore it is'.
I made myself nauseous trying to circle within my own thoughts of life, death, and the after. But at least she took pity on me and gave me the compliment of "spoken like a true scientist," which, for a student of the written word, is laughable, but much appreciated.
Several hours and two very distinct conversations later, I realized I'd not made much progress towards an answer and maybe that's the point. It truly is unknown and maybe that's why it's so fascinating. All of our science intersects with religion, superstition, and the irrational. Some of us try and ignore one for the other, and others try to mix them together.
All we get for that effort is a clearer understanding of the fact that we really don't understand much at all. But each, in its own way, provides us with some measure of optimism.
We hold hands in the darkness of our communal unknown, we leap, and we hope.
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