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Taylor Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in El Cajon, California, and is one of the largest manufacturers of acoustic guitars in the United States. They specialize in acoustic guitars and semi-hollow electric guitars. The company was founded in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug.

History
In 1972, at age 18, Bob Taylor began working at American Dream, a guitar-making shop owned by Sam Radding, where Kurt Listug was already an employee. When Radding decided to sell the business in 1974, Taylor, Listug, and a third employee, Steve Schemmer, bought American Dream and renamed it the Westland Music Company.

Needing a more compact logo suitable for the guitars' headstock, the founders decided to change the name to Taylor as it sounded more American than Listug. Kurt Listug said, "Bob was the real guitar-maker." Listug became the partnership's businessman while Taylor handled design and production. In 1976, the company decided to sell their guitars through retailers. In 1981, facing financial difficulties, Taylor Guitars took out a bank loan to purchase equipment.

As of 2012 Taylor Guitars had more than 700 employees in two factories: one in El Cajon, California, and the other in nearby Tecate, Mexico, where the company makes their lower-priced models and guitar cases. In early 2011, the company opened a Taylor distribution warehouse in the Netherlands to serve the European market. In January 2014, the U.S. State Department honored Taylor Guitars with an Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) citing Taylor's commitment to responsible practices in obtaining ebony for its instruments, which notably included purchasing their own sustainable ebony mill and increasing its usable timber from 10% to 100%.

As of January 1, 2021, the company became fully employee-owned. In May 2022, Andy Powers was named the new CEO, President, and Chief Guitar Designer of the company.

Innovations
In 1995, Bob Taylor was interested in finding out if the perception of using exotic tonewoods in quality guitars was more important than luthier techniques and good design. To that end, he recovered some oak from shipping pallets found at the factory for a dreadnought guitar's back and sides and used a nondescript 2x4 for its top, dubbing the result the Pallet Guitar. Its neck was also made from oak recovered from the pallet, and the fretboard's Formica-and-pearl inlay depicted a fork lift. In 2000, a limited edition of 25 Grand Auditorium-bodied Pallet Guitars were reproduced with aluminum inlay included to accentuate the original nail holes in the pallet wood. These have been sold to collectors, but the original Pallet Guitar remains on display at the Taylor Guitars factory in El Cajon, California.

In January 1999, Taylor began making guitars with a patented, bolt-on neck they called the NT (new technology) neck. It differs from other guitar necks by using one continuous piece of wood all the way to the 19th fret to support the fretboard. More common practice in guitar neck construction is to support the fretboard up to the fourteenth fret, and glue the unsupported portion to the soundboard. The NT neck fits into a pocket on the top of the guitar body, achieving the desired angle with small shims. Guitars sometimes require a neck angle realignment (neck reset). Taylor's system achieves this by changing the shims to adjust the neck angle. Prior to 1999, Taylor Guitars had a simpler bolt-on neck design. Those necks can also be adjusted without the more complex process of ungluing the neck joint.

Taylor uses their own pickup system, the "Expression System," which consists of a humbucking induction pickup mounted in the neck and a pair of dynamic soundboard transducers wired to an onboard preamplifier designed by Rupert Neve. The entry-level 100 and 200 series use an externally similar system known as ES-T, which uses a single under-saddle pickup and no soundboard transducers. The first-generation ES system was introduced in 2004.  It had two transducers: one mounted to the bridge, and one on the lower bout of the sound board, and a small single-coil neck pickup mounted in the neck joint, all wired to the onboard preamp, which had three knobs for volume, tone, and blend.  This early ES system was available on the higher-end 500 series and above as well as the 30th-anniversary limited-edition series starting in the fall of 2004.  It was a custom order for the 300 and 400 series, and could be retrofitted to some older Taylor guitars with the NT neck design.

Factory
Taylor's 145,000 square foot manufacturing facility is about 20 miles east of downtown San Diego in El Cajon, California. A free, guided tour of the Taylor Guitars factory is open to the public at 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday except some holidays. For those too far away to visit the factory, Premier Guitars published a four-part tour of the Taylor Factory, narrated by Bob Taylor in 2008.

Notable players

 William Ackerman
 Axel Bauer
 Jade Bird
 Zac Brown
 Lindsey Buckingham
 Dave Carroll
 Steven Curtis Chapman
 Tom Fletcher
 Jon Foreman
 Russ Freeman
 Andy Gullahorn
 Michael Hedges
 Sam Hui
 Alan Jackson
 David Gilmour
 Graham Russell
 Jewel
 Emily King
 Leo Kottke
 Dave Matthews
 Travis Meeks
 Jason Mraz
 Dolores O'Riordan
 John Petrucci
 Prince
 Gabriella Quevedo
 Steve Stevens
 Al Stewart
 George Strait
 Sam Beam
 Taylor Swift
 Snuffy Walden
 Billy Joe Walker

Further reading
 Taylor Guitars 30 Years of a New American Classic, Michael John Simmons
 PPV Medien; Hardcover edition (January 10, 2005)
Guitar Lessons: A Life's Journey Turning Passion into Business, Bob Taylor
  Wiley; Hardcover 1st edition (January 25, 2011)

References

External links

Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States
Electric bass guitars by manufacturer
Manufacturing companies based in California
Companies based in El Cajon, California
American companies established in 1974
Manufacturing companies established in 1974
1974 establishments in California
Privately held companies based in California
Employee-owned companies of the United States


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· plastic - plastic injection, extrusion, blown film, etc.
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Inside Ellen DeGeneres' $45 million home
Entertainment Hollywood
Talk show host has put her Montecity, Los Angeles, home on the market
Published: April 02, 2017 12:16 Neal J. Leitereg, Los Angeles Times
The Montecito estate sits behind 18th-century gates and includes a stone main house, a entertainer's pavilion, two swimming pools and a tennis court. The main house, designed by architect Wallace Frost in the 1930s, boasts thick stone walls, nine fireplaces and a central courtyard. Degeneres and de Rossi bought the home in 2012 and expanded the estate by purchasing two adjacent properties. The pool house/pavilion was built using stone quarried from the property. (Jim Bartsch) Image Credit: TNS
Daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, known for her love of renovating and selling homes, has put her latest offering in Montecito on the market for $45 million (Dh165.2 million).
DeGeneres and partner Portia de Rossi bought the property in 2013 for $26.5 million and spent the better part of four years restoring and updating what has been their weekend retreat. The couple are selling because they don't spend as much time at the property as they used to, according to listing agent Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby's International Realty.
Set among towering eucalyptus trees, the hilltop estate centres on an Italian villa-style home reached by a winding driveway. A cobblestone motor court, statuary and creeping vines contribute to the sleepy, romantic ambience of the stone-walled house, which was designed by Wallace Frost and built in the 1930s.
Beyond the decorative iron front door, living spaces boast exposed beams, broad wood floors, built-ins and nine fireplaces. The home's solid stone walls are softened by DeGeneres' collection of modern artwork. Contemporary fixtures, such as a wiry chandelier in the entry, provide a subtle contrast to the Old World interior.
The 975-square-metres of living space includes a media room, a grand living room, a formal dining room, six bedrooms and six bathrooms. A lofted office/creative space is accessed by a secret door in the chef's kitchen. An art studio used by De Rossi sits below the lofted space and has a kitchenette.
The grounds — often frequented by bobcats, owls and other native fauna — include an agave garden that overlooks a second-century column, lawns and Roman-style plunge pool. In another area, brass ornaments are suspended from olive trees, adding decoration and whimsy above an alfresco dining area.
An indoor-outdoor pool house was built using stone excavated from the property and has a sunroom, a wet bar, an outdoor kitchen and a lap pool. Called Jordan Hall, the secondary structure was designed after a pavilion DeGeneres and De Rossi had hoped to build on their former Thousand Oaks property.
A sunken tennis court, a badminton court and an ocean-view lookout complete the setting.
DeGeneres, 59, has won multiple Emmys for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which premiered in 2003. Last year she co-created and produced the show Little Big Shots with Steve Harvey.
De Rossi, 44, has television credits that include the legal drama Ally McBeal and the sitcom Arrested Development. She currently appears on the series Scandal.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Oregon racers eager for PWC's return to Portland
By World Challenge July 3, 2018 10:50 AM
By World Challenge | July 3, 2018 10:50 AM ET
For Oregon sports car racers Steve Streimer and Derek DeBoer, the 58th annual Rose Cup Races featuring the Pirelli World Challenge can't come fast enough.
After a 13-year absence from Portland International Raceway, the GT production-based road racing series comes back to the Rose City with a superb field of local, national and international racing professionals set to battle on July 13-15 at the 1.97-mile, 12-turn road circuit in Delta Park, north of downtown Portland.
The excitement has been building for the Pirelli World Challenge sports car series to return since the announcement last year around the 58th edition of the popular Rose Cup Races and Streimer and DeBoer have been waiting for the racing action to begin in their home state anxiously.
Cars like Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes, Audi, McLaren, Maserati, Camaro, Mustang plus wild machinery like Panoz, Ginetta, KTM and Sin Car make up one of the most exotic collection of racing sports cars in the world for the July 13-15 racing event. Plus, the entertaining Touring Car divisions will be at PIR too with TCR, TC and TCA categories.
"There has been an excitement in the sports car world in Oregon and, especially the Portland area, since the Pirelli World Challenge announced it was returning to PIR," said Streimer, a PWC Touring Car race winner already in 2018. "I think the racing fans around the state will see a great variety of cars and some outstanding racing too. I can't wait to hit the track next week."
Streimer, whose Streimer Sheet Metal Works is just three miles south of PIR, has been a regular at PIR since 2008 and has been winner in the annual Rose Cup weekend in the past. He drove a Porsche 997 to the 2014 victory and hopes to continue another winner's circle appearance in the PWC doubleheader weekend (races on Saturday and Sunday).
"We'll have our No. 23 TechSport Racing Nissan 370Z (pictured above) ready to go in the Touring Car class," he said. "We have a host of local sponsors — Johnson Air Products, Handel's Homemade Ice Cream, Impact Printing and Allen Webb Nissan plus my company – participating in the PWC Rose Cup Races as well as big group of family and fans. We won last year in the Trans-Am races there and I'd love to get to top of the podium again this year."
If anyone has local knowledge of the PIR road circuit, it is Streimer and he hopes it helps him.
"There are some fantastic drivers in the Pirelli World Challenge from all over the world," Streimer said. "I might have a little advantage early, but they will catch to me quickly with their experience on North America and international race tracks. The racing will be intense."
Derek and Brooke DeBoer
For DeBoer, a Pirelli World Challenge race winner in the past two years, the PIR weekend is big for himself, his team (TRG), sponsors and family. The Ashland, Ore., resident also brings his Fastlife TV reality show (available currently on Amazon) to PIR to show the 'behind-the-scenes" activities of the popular road racing competition.
"We are extremely excited to race at PIR in the Pirelli World Challenge series, in which we travel around North America on a regular basis," said DeBoer, who'll team with Sean Gibbons in the No. 66 TRG Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR sports car at PIR in the GTS SprintX category. "I have been driving an Aston Martin GTS car the past few years and now moving into the Porsche Cayman is a big change. Actually, the two cars are 'Polar Opposites' with the big, heavy, powerful Aston Martin and switching to the lighter, quicker Porsche. But we expect to be competitive at PIR."
Brooke DeBoer, Derek's wife, has developed an interesting video production – Fastlife.tv – available on Amazon Prime that chronicles the 'behind-the-scenes' life of a racing family striving to live their racing dreams.
"Derek moves really, really fast everywhere he goes," said Brooke. "Fastlife is an all-access pass into the world of competitive motorsports, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at Derek's life through my lens and all of the successes, challenges and roadblocks we face as we chase our dreams. It's an interesting view of our sport."
DeBoer, an Oregon State graduate who was a competitive wakeboarder before his racing career, has been successful in a variety of racing forms. He grew up with his father, Al, racing Top Alcohol dragsters at the PIR drag strip. Now Derek has concentrated on the road racing aspect.
"I traveled up and down the West Coast with my dad and his drag racing machines," said Derek. "I caught the racing fever and still continue it today. So, coming back to PIR to race at the Rose Cup weekend with PWC is a thrill. I can't wait to get to the track next week for the big weekend."
Another local father-son team from Portland will also be in the action as Rich and Trevor Baek compete in the GT SprintX doubleheader with the No. 87 Vital Speed Motorsports Ferrari 488 GT3.
Some 85 plus Pirelli World Challenge entries are set for eight different classes including GT SprintX, GTS SprintX and the Touring Car divisions when racing action begins Friday, July 13 at 8:50 a.m. PDT with all classes in practice rounds. Saturday, July 14 will feature four PWC main events beginning at 1:10 p.m. PDT with Sunday (July 15) also presenting four PWC races starting at 10:40 a.m. PDT.
Tickets for the 58th Rose Cup Races featuring the Pirelli World Challenge are available at https://rosecup.com and www.portlandraceway.com.
Pirelli World Challenge, Portland International Raceway, SRO America
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15 Movies That Got Bad Reviews But Are Actually Awesome
Why The Future of Spiderman Is Uncertain
Sometimes the critics are right about movies. For example, in recent memory, they were right about Wonder Woman being "thrilling," "beautifully directed," and "consistently entertaining." They were also right about Logan being "grown-up, ballsy, character-driven, and grounded." And conversely, on the other side of the coin, they were right about Baywatch being "shallow" and "even emptier than its source material," and Suicide Squad being "disappointing" and "ugly trash." However, sometimes they're wrong. The Shining, Caddyshack, Alien, and Halloween all received bad reviews upon release, and they're far from being bad films. See, critics can't tap into a common audience of average joes because they're not average joes – they're snobbish, well-paid high society types with film and/or English degrees. Now, this makes their opinion on the quality of movies pretty valid, but it's not ironclad. Here are fifteen occasions when film critics have slaughtered a movie that, by all logic and reason, is actually pretty good and succeeds on some level.
15. Get Hard
The Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus of 2015's Get Hard, in which working class Kevin Hart prepares rich, upper class Will Ferrell for his upcoming prison sentence after he's framed for a financial crime, reads: "A waste of two fine funnymen, Get Hard settles for tired and offensive gags instead of tapping into its premise's boundary-pushing potential." This is true, to a certain extent. This is not a comedy that is trying to criticize the U.S. prison system, or break down the race barriers, or even satirize them. It's a simple, offensive, R-rated movie in which Will Ferrell learns to conceal items in his rectum. However, "a waste of two fine funnymen" or not, it still features the fine funnymen. Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell are two fantastically talented comedic actors in their own right, and just like Ferrell has been in the past with John C. Reilly, Mark Wahlberg, Vince Vaughn, Jon Heder, Zach Galifianakis (and, in the upcoming The House, Amy Poehler), he has been given a terrific pairing with Hart. For some reason, Ferrell seems capable of creating a natural chemistry with anyone, and it's always a joy to watch – and Get Hard is no exception.
14. RV: Runaway Vacation
For some reason, critics have an aversion to good, wholesome family fun. They can't admit that they enjoy schmaltz or silly slapstick, or maybe they don't because their hearts are made of stone. Unlike audiences, they won't admit that Robin Williams being showered with an explosion of excrement or riding a bike out of a lake is funny. Variety criticized the film for "its blunt predictability and meager laughs." The Golden Raspberry Award "Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment" was created specifically for RV. That's a little harsh, though. It's not that bad. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a score of 23%, is that the movie is "unoriginal" and "only occasionally funny." They say that "not even the charisma of Robin Williams can save" it, but that's baloney! The charisma of Robin Williams can save anything. His performance in RV, as it is in everything, is hysterical!
13. I Spy
Let's ignore the fact that I Spy is based on a TV series that starred Bill Cosby and focus more on the fact that it's a lovably entertaining espionage romp filled with shocking twists and hilarious banter. Owen Wilson's sweet, nuanced, James Stewart-esque acting is paired excellently with the loud, obnoxious trademark style of Eddie Murphy. Murphy's clearly improvised barbs analyzing his own written dialogue elevate the movie from a crowd-pleasing action comedy to comic genius. So, why does Rotten Tomatoes report just a 15% approval rating? And why did the critics call it "insipid," "halfwit," and "mirthless?" Does every comedy have to be Annie Hall to get a good word from these pretentious losers?
12. The Great Outdoors
One critic called the '80s comedy The Great Outdoors "a crass, blah comedy about summer vacation perils," and added in his review that it was a surprise the movie had even been made at all, but that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Look at the names involved: the script was written by John Hughes, and the movie stars John Candy and Dan Aykroyd as feuding brothers-in-law. That should give some indication of how hilarious it is. There's a scene in which Candy sweats his way through a 96-ounce steak, another where he's dragged across a lake on one water-ski, and another where two grizzly bears climb on top of his car. It's a funny, enjoyable movie, and the critics who said otherwise were just being cynical and stuck-up in that way critics tend to be. Oh, and also, it's getting a remake starring Kevin Hart!
11. Rambo
Sylvester Stallone's fourth outing as the Vietnam vet turned fearless mercenary John Rambo was met with a sour reception from critics, probably because it's not a flashy action extravaganza like its predecessors. The explosions in First Blood Part II are big, orange balls of flame. In Rambo, they're gritty, dirty blasts filled with severed limbs and the blood of the slain. It's a harrowing, grisly portrayal of the real-world conflicts in the third world that western audiences choose to ignore. Rotten Tomatoes rates it as 37% "rotten," with a consensus that says the film's "excessive violence" is "more nauseating than entertaining." But that's what's going on in Burma right now. The film is still banned there. There are some real bad cookies oppressing the Burmese people, and what Stallone has masterfully done has taken a character who slaughters military units brainlessly and placed a military unit that really deserves it in his firing line. And mainstream critics who don't want to acknowledge what's happening outside of their cosy little world couldn't handle that.
10. Hot Tub Time Machine 2
Rotten Tomatoes assigns Hot Tub Time Machine 2 an abysmal score of 14%. The consensus reads: "A shallow dip overflowing with juvenile humor, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is a lukewarm sequel that's healthiest to avoid." True, the sequel is not as fine a film as its predecessor. The original Hot Tub Time Machine had a stronger thematic presence in its story with 1980s nostalgia and the concept of reflecting on adolescent ambition in middle age. Roger Ebert, movie critic laureate, wrote that the movie "succeeds beyond any expectations suggested by the title." But that doesn't mean the sequel is terrible; it's still a funny movie. Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott replaces John Cusack, and he's the funnier actor. The sequel acknowledges that Rob Corddry stole the show in the first film and they give him center stage in the sequel. Plus, there's a hilarious parody of Terminator with a smart car pursuing a vendetta against Lou.
9. A Million Ways to Die in the West
With a rating of just 33%, Seth MacFarlane's western comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West was described by Rotten Tomatoes' consensus as "overlong," "aimless," and "disappointingly scattershot." Other critics called it "lazy," "uninspired," and "surprisingly bland." None of these things are true. While it's no Blazing Saddles, A Million Ways to Die in the West is still a brilliantly absurdist comedy movie, hitting a broad spectrum of satirical targets, from prostitution to slavery. The celebrity appearances add to the comedy: for seemingly no reason other than he's a famous actor in Seth MacFarlane's phone book, Ryan Reynolds appears briefly and is then shot; Christopher Lloyd has a random cameo as Doc Brown, as does Jamie Foxx as Django; Liam Neeson plays an Irish cowboy who ends up with a daisy sticking out of his anus. A lot of the jokes are weird and don't really make any logical sense, like Gilbert Gottfried as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, but that adds to the laughter. MacFarlane's acting and directing makes jokes and scenes that would seem pointless and unfunny on paper, yet hysterical when translated onto the screen. For example, in one scene, a sheep urinates in MacFarlane's face. The way he plays it out with a subtly horrified facial expression and shot reverse shot editing is what makes it an act of genius.
8. Bad Boys II
Renowned movie critic Richard Roeper named Bad Boys II the worst movie of 2003. It wasn't. It wasn't the best, by any means, but it wasn't the worst. The 23% "rotten" consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads: "Two and a half hours of explosions and witless banter." Collin Levey of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the movie would probably "batter a few brain cells into a premature grave." But isn't that the point? Isn't that what it's all about? It's mindless entertainment. It's fun! The movie was also accused by critics of having misogynistic gender roles, violence that's too graphic, and excessive and nasty use of racial slurs, but don't read into that. This wasn't a conscious decision on the part of the filmmakers – the movie just isn't smart enough to have thought to avoid these things. It is dumb, and that's an accusation no one can deny, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's escapism and it's entertainment. It wants to massage your brain and pulls out all the stops to prevent you from using it to think in any capacity. Bad Boys II wants you to have a good time, and it succeeds. Try not to expect anything more.
7. Daddy's Home
Luckily, audiences had the good sense to ignore the reviews of Daddy's Home, the second team-up of perfectly matched co-stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg since the terrific (and well-reviewed) buddy cop spoof The Other Guys. The story of a mild-mannered stepdad being upstaged by his kids' biological father grossed $242 million at the box office, far more than enough to warrant a sequel, which is heading to theaters on November 10. To be honest, you're always guaranteed to laugh if Ferrell's involved. He's undoubtedly one of the funniest people on the planet, and he always brings hilarity to a role, even if the script isn't perfect. And Wahlberg is always great, too. No matter if it's comedy, drama, action – he always brings the same pathos and relatability to a role. Put them together in a movie, explore the ideas involved in the concept, and what you end up with is a terrific study of parenthood and the struggles of being a father (whether it's step or biological), and divorced from the mother (both sides are explored, and both sides are difficult but endearingly identifiable). Daddy's Home is not, as the critics who gave the film a 31% Rotten Tomatoes score say, "mindless," "generic," and "lazy." It's brilliant, because it's so real.
6. The Gallows
The Gallows is a found footage horror movie about some high school students who get trapped in the school one night with a noose-wielding ghost hell-bent on strangling them all to death in the pitch black. Found footage horror movies are a dime a dozen these days, but there's one thing that sets The Gallows apart – it's freaking terrifying! But the critics would have you think differently. Their reviews and their 16% Rotten Tomatoes score will try to convince you that the film is "a mess," but then so is real-life horror. If everything is neatly structured, you'll be able to predict what's going to happen and it won't be scary. With The Gallows, you're in constant fear of what's going to happen next. The kids are picked off one by one as they discover spooky things around the school, and then there's the final gut punch at the end of the movie: a harrowing twist that flips the whole thing on its head. It's a fantastic horror movie, far better than all that overrated garbage like The Omen and The Exorcist.
5. Sandy Wexler
Adam Sandler's movies generally never receive positive reviews, and generally, they don't deserve them. He's a funny, talented, and capable actor, and in his early career, he found a lot of success. But for every movie that Sandler commits to such as Happy Gilmore or Anger Management or The Waterboy, there's a million movies like Grown Ups, Jack and Jill, That's My Boy or Blended where he just phones it in. And the phoned-in performances have been worse than ever since Sandler signed a deal with Netflix to make a new Netflix-exclusive movie for them every year. When he realized he was the most popular draw for Netflix and they'd let him get away with murder, it seemed like Sandler stopped trying. His lazy, slapdash, barely present performance in The Ridiculous Six made the movie a bore, and The Do-Over was filled with twist upon twist upon twist because he simply didn't care about the audience who were following the inane plot. But then came this year's Sandy Wexler, third time lucky. Something about portraying a homage to his own long-time manager Sandy Wernick ignited a passion in Sandler that has been absent from his films for years, and it resulted in a wickedly funny and entertaining movie. While it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 28% and critics called it "an adoring ode to a lifelong man-baby who mistakes his half-assed excretions for art" and "the very definition of over indulgence," they're just being cynical. The film has some inspired comedy and Sandler's performance in the role of Sandy is endearing. The movie is filtered through scenes of Sandy leaning on the light-switch and then denying it or Sandy getting mad at the sound guy who forgot to hit record, but the heart of the story is a sweet, heartfelt rom-com and it's excellent.
4. Ted 2
A sequel to 2012's Ted was inevitable, after it grossed over $500 million worldwide and spent a summer being relentlessly quoted ("It's called Mind Rape, it's actually pretty mellow"), but when it was released in 2015, the critical response was less positive. While the first one was described by critics as a "very funny" movie that "doesn't run out of steam," the sequel was described as "crude," "hopelessly bizarre," and filled with "cringe-worthy misfires." The plotting of Ted 2 was an issue for a lot of reviewers, but this works in the movie's favour. One reviewer said they were "often bored by the plodding direction of the story," and another said that "the plot is the thinnest of narratives just to connect all the comedy bits." But those comedy bits are all classic Seth MacFarlane humor – a perfect example being a scene in which a paranoid Liam Neeson tries to buy a box of Trix – so it doesn't matter. Just like Family Guy, the problems with the plot and characterization don't matter because the humor is funny. Sure, the story meanders and never really finds a focus and most of the scenes are completely non-sequitur – but it's funny! So who cares?
3. The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect is a mind-bending psychological sci-fi thriller starring Ashton Kutcher that is based on the concept of chaos theory. This is ostensibly the idea that in one timeline, or one version of events, the flap of a butterfly's wings will cause a hurricane. But if the butterfly flaps its wings in the right place at the right time, the hurricane won't happen. This is the premise of the movie: Ashton Kutcher goes back in time to try to prevent hurricanes by changing when the butterfly flaps its wings, but ends up making the hurricanes much, much worse until he realizes the world sucks because he exists. So, he'll go back in time to stop a baby's death and come back to the present day with no limbs, or he kills his childhood bully and ends up getting turned out in prison. It's striking, existential, horrifying, and brilliant. It's such a fantastic premise that even with a bad script and bad direction and bad acting, it would still be an interesting movie. But it's great, because all of those aspects are actually pretty good. The critics described it as "overwrought," "tasteless," "silly," "a metaphysical mess," and "just plain sloppy". But they need to just embrace it because it's a really crazy, dark movie, and it's actually fantastic.
2. Without a Paddle
It's a familiar premise; Without a Paddle is a comedy in which three childhood friends played by Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, and Dax Shepard go out into the woods for a camping trip that goes horribly wrong. We've seen that movie a million times before, and this particular time, the critics didn't enjoy themselves. Only 14% of them gave it a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes, and that number is criminally low. One critic called it "a sloppy, lowest common denominator comedy," and it may be all those things, but it's still a comedy. For a comedy, as long as it's funny, nothing else matters. Another snarky critic wrote, "Maybe the filmmakers should have called the picture Without a Laugh," but no, they shouldn't have, because it has many laughs. Flitting from bear attack gags to white water rafting gags to cannabis gags, it's a wacky, zany, outrageous, and fantastic comedy movie.
1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Dark of the Moon has a 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with its consensus featuring words like "loud," "bloated," "thin," and "indifferent." However, this sour reception can be attributed to the critics going into each Transformers movie with their reviews already written. They hate Michael Bay, they hate Transformers, and so they're never open to the possibility that one of these movies could be any good. Famed critic Richard Roeper said of Dark of the Moon that "rarely has a movie had less of a soul and less interesting characters." But he's wrong! Dark of the Moon is the only Transformers movie that is a truly great movie in its own right. It's a rollicking good time: the opening scenes with Shia LaBeouf job-seeking and then working alongside Ken Jeong ("Deep Wang") are hilarious, and when it gets into the action sequences, they're genuinely exciting and mind-blowing. Plus, there's no confusing jumps to countries with lucrative emerging film markets or random, scattershot, out of place action. Sure, the entire third act of the movie is just the destruction of Chicago and an all-out war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, but what makes it engaging is that Michael Bay focuses in. He doesn't bring the camera out to show skyscraper-sized robots smashing buildings to pieces; he pulls it in to show the perspective of the humans in those buildings, and it's exhilarating.
Next Next: Inhumans City of Attilan Revealed!
Related Topics:action, adam sandler, bad boys, bad movies, butterfly effect, comedy, daddys home, eddie murphy, FUNNY, get hard, great movies, HORROR, hot tub time machine, michael bay, movies, netflix, rambo, reviews, robin williams, rv, sandy wexler, seth macfarlane, ted, the gallows, transformers, will ferrell, without a paddle
Inhumans City of Attilan Revealed!


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Sonchiriya Movie Download 480p
Welcome to Jio Torrent and to article Sonchiriya Movie Download 480p
Sonchiriya revolves around Chambal dacoits and is set in the 1970s.
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A hip-hop mogul must choose a successor among his three sons who are battling for control over his multi-million dollar company, while his ex-wife schemes to reclaim what is hers.
A practicing Sikh is banned by the boxing commission for refusing to back down from his religious beliefs. Through racial profiling and stereotypical threats, he does what any strong American would do, fight back.
A woman is released from prison and reunites with her sister. She soon discovers that her sister is in an online relationship with a man who may not be what he seems.
A mysterious young woman named Hester Shaw joins forces with Anna Fang, a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head, and Tom Natsworthy, an outcast from London, to lead a rebellion against a giant predator city on wheels.
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The cases of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's Washington, D.C. Major Case Response Team, led by Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Talia forces Nolan to confront his personal moral instincts in order to be a good cop after he encounters a kidnapping victim. Meanwhile, Lucy is temporarily placed with a new training officer who tests her patience, and Jackson must confront his failures head-on if he wants to be an officer.
In order to track down Diaz from inside prison, Oliver realizes that will require aligning with an old enemy. Meanwhile, in Star City, Felicity's attempts to root out Diaz are thwarted by Diggle, whose allegiance to ARGUS now requires him to keep civilians like her on the outs. Realizing that she can no longer rely on her old team or old methods, a clear-eyed Felicity resolves to find a new way to go after Diaz.
Categorized as Movies, Movies Torrents Tagged Action, Crime, Drama
Sonchiriya Full Movie Download
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Look back on the origin of Investment Banks and you will find people with real money coming together to pool their capital and gamble on commercial opportunities. When the bets were in the black, the partners would share in the gains, and when there were bad investments, the partners would share in the loss.
Fast forward to the time when we began to see a transformation of Investment Banks from private partnerships into publicly held companies.
Most would agree that the beginning of this metamorphosis was the public offering of Merrill Lynch in 1971. That was followed by four other entities which became infamous in the 2008 credit apocalypse: Morgan Stanley (1986), Bear Stearns (1985), Lehman Bros. (1994), and Goldman Sachs (1999) (aka, "the Gang of Five").
These former partnerships converted to public ownership ostensibly so they could better compete with international banking giants which were encroaching on their core business of underwriting stock offerings and advising firms.
New capital from new shareholders allowed them to increase their involvement in riskier, capital-intensive businesses like proprietary trading.
"In order to have a capital base that would support the funding they needed, they had to be public," said Roy Smith, a former Goldman Sachs partner and a professor of finance at New York University.
Going public allowed the former Investment Bank Partnerships to become more powerful, with much deeper equity cushions, giving them the gravitas to actively influence significant regulatory change to support their agendas. One clear example of this is the 2004 rule change at the Securities and Exchange Commission which allowed investment banks to increase the amount of debt they could take on their books—a move made at the request of the Gang of Five's CEOs.
Before Lehman crashed, it had amassed more than $600 Billion in debt. No partnership or private corporation could have achieved that milestone!
The shift to public ownership also replaced the accountability of partnerships—when there are no profits, there are no partner bonuses—with the apparent lemming-like behavior of public boards which some would say are selected for their willingness to rubber stamp recommendations from the COO.
When Lehman failed, $45 Billion in shareholder value disappeared forever. Bear Stearns was rescued from a similar fate when JPMorgan bought it at what some have claimed was a fire-sale price with the help of the Federal Reserve. Morgan Stanley and Goldman managed to remain independent and solvent, apparently because huge subsidies were made available to them.
In the final analysis, shareholders suffered, but employees and executives didn't. In true Investment Banking partnerships, compensation was contentious: major debates would take place at the end of each year as partners worked to resolve the equitable distribution of bonuses. These debates took place in private, and involved rich people taking money out of one another's pockets.
Today, it seems to have evolved into a zero-sum game, where the protagonists in the drama have no real skin in the game, yet they are eligible to take Billions from shareholders.
It would seem that the public — as aggrieved owners, taxpayers, and savers — has every right to question the Investment Banks' methods and practices. If they don't want the public digging into their businesses, these publicly traded Investment Banks could shrink their balance sheets, replace government-subsidized debt with market-rate debt, stop relying on the Federal Reserve for funding, and get out of index funds that bet against our domestic economy.
Filed in Economy, Tax Policy ·Tags: Banks, Economy, Wall Street


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About Our Mission National Presence Meet Our Leadership Our Vision Our History
Fine Tune US
Managed costs. Measurable savings.
Since 2002, the industry experts at Fine Tune have been partnering with companies to source, negotiate, manage and audit certain "nuisance" expense programs. Today, with companies stretched thin and fewer people taking on greater workloads, aligning with Fine Tune is even more essential.
We start with effective sourcing and line-by-line contract negotiation. Then we dedicate the necessary time and resources to perform regular audits and provide ongoing management. This time commitment is critical to flesh out the "unknown unknowns," ensuring that hidden costs are found, and negotiated savings are realized. Our proprietary auditing software monitors our clients' invoices to make sure every last charge incurred is in adherence with the implemented agreements.
To add lasting value for our clients by deploying our world-class expertise with honesty, dedication, and vigilance.
"Partnering with Fine Tune was a no-brainer for me. My uniform and trash program costs have been cut by close to 40% and I hardly lifted a finger."
Adam FullerExpress Oil Change
See Client Testimonials
No up-front costs. No additional fees. No kidding.
At Fine Tune, we are compensated only via shared hard-dollar savings after the savings have been realized. It's that simple: no additional fees, no creative definitions of savings, and no risk. Partnering with Fine Tune means you are aligning your business with industry experts with the incentive to reduce your costs.
Realize the benefits of an affiliation with Fine Tune and provide your firm with a unique advantage. Our industry knowledge, dedicated program management, and proprietary auditing technology all combine to form the ideal solution for managing "nuisance" expenses.
National Presence
Fine Tune works for clients across the United States and Canada.
We manage some of the largest uniform and waste disposal accounts in the country.
Rich Ham
In early 2002, Rich resigned a position with an industry leading uniform supplier and founded Fine Tune in a basement in Bloomington, IN. He oversees all areas of the business, with a particular focus on the firm's overall strategic direction. Rich dedicates his time to building and developing our team of "Tuners" and engaging with our major and national clientele.
In 2001, Matt was Rich's first call with his vision for a new business. That initial discussion led to a successful collaboration which helped Rich get the business started and thus Fine Tune was born on February 1, 2002. Matt has had over 20 years of extensive executive experience outside of Fine Tune, as CFO of Soteria Imaging Services and EVP of indiGO Auto Group. During those 20 years, Matt was instrumental in helping both companies grow from promising startups culminating in successful sales of both companies. After the most recent sale of indiGO Auto Group, Matt has now joined the Fine Tune team full-time as Executive Vice President and CFO.
Brian Gamble
Among the nation's foremost experts in the uniform and industrial laundering industry, Brian completed his service in the Army and started his career at Aramark Uniform Services in 1993 – loading pallets by day while completing his college degree by night. Twenty years later, after serving as a Route Driver, Route Manager, Branch Manager, Sales Manager, General Manager and Group Manager over a large group of plants and branches, he resigned a position as a Regional Vice President in 2012 to join the Fine Tune team. Today, Brian oversees all aspects of Fine Tune's offering within the uniform space, and leads the implementation process for our key uniform accounts.
Ben is a long-time executive "Tuner," having joined the Fine Tune team in 2005 with a background in information technology. He has deployed this background in leading the oversight and development of Fine Tune's proprietary auditing, reporting and billing software. Today, his focus is on the role that software plays within Fine Tune's operational structure. Through the years, though, Ben has brought an entrepreneurial spirit to the Fine Tune team, wearing many hats—from successful Sales Executive to Account Manager for a host of Fine Tune's major and national accounts.
Lindsay Call
Vice President of Operations & GM
Lindsay started at Fine Tune as an intern at Indiana University in early 2005. Upon her graduation, she moved to Fine Tune's Chicago headquarters in an entry-level position and has advanced to become an invaluable executive by adding value in nearly all areas of the business during her extended tenure as a "Tuner." Specifically, Lindsay manages all operations at Fine Tune's Chicago HQ, develops best practices to ensure our clients experience outstanding service, and plays an integral role in the development of Fine Tune's proprietary software.
Rich has over 20 years of experience in the marketing and communications field, building high-performing teams and working across organizational functions to ultimately grow the top-line. Prior to joining Fine Tune in 2019, Rich served in several marketing leadership roles at companies such as Student Transportation of America (STA), Ricoh USA and eGROUP. At Fine Tune, Rich oversees Fine Tune's marketing and communications department in an effort to increase brand awareness and generate client demand.
Angie Claeys
Vice President of Uniform Services
After completing an internship with Aramark Uniform Services in 2004 and upon graduation from Purdue University in 2005, Angie began her career with Aramark. Over the next 13 years, she progressed in predominantly two markets, Atlanta, GA and in South Bend, IN which is one of the nation's largest uniform facilities. She served as a Route Sales Representative, District Manager, Account Executive, Assistant General Manager, General Manager and ultimately resigned her most recent position as a Vice President of Operations to join Fine Tune in 2018. Today, she leads the implementation processes for our major and national uniform accounts.
Curtis Hill
Vice President of Waste Services
Curtis joined the Fine Tune team in 2011 after a decorated 20-year career in the waste disposal industry. During that time, Curtis had reached the uppermost echelons of that arena, spending 13 years as a Vice President at Waste Management. In that capacity, Curtis held responsibility for all operations and all waste streams, including hazardous waste, in a large Midwestern region, and also ran what was at the time the nation's largest Material Recovery Facility in Minneapolis. Today, Curtis oversees all aspects of Fine Tune's waste disposal offering.
Vice President of Pest Control Services
Keith joined Fine Tune in 2019 after spending nearly 30 years in the pest control industry. Most recently, Keith served as VP of operations, training, quality assurance and food safety at ABC Home & Commercial Services. In that role, Keith led all commercial pest management operations in north Texas, east Texas and Oklahoma. A Board Certified Entomologist, he developed and rolled out food safety programs for national chain accounts across the United States. Today, Keith oversees Fine Tune's pest control services offering nationwide.
Alissa Heiland
Director of Uniform Services
Alissa worked several years for G&K Services in the National Account department, prior to their acquisition by Cintas. At G&K, Alissa was responsible for a variety of tasks related to the management of their National Account customers, resigning her position as a Senior Strategic Account Specialist at the end of 2016 to join Fine Tune. With her industry experience, strong background in customer service, and impeccable attention to detail, Alissa is a critical asset to the Fine Tune uniform implementation team.
Chad Roeder
Director of Waste & Recycling Services
Chad joined the Fine Tune team in 2013 after spending several years in the recycling industry. In 2007 he started a niche recycling service in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, which offered innovative solutions for the transportation of materials in a dense urban setting and provided new opportunities in South Central Indiana for getting a wide range of recyclables back to the marketplace. This business model eventually led to the establishment of a public recycling facility, operated under a public-private partnership with the local municipality that would go on to become the most efficient and cost-effective recycling service in the city's history. Chad eventually turned his full attention to Fine Tune where he serves as Director of Waste and Recycling Services, helping clients achieve cost savings and solutions for problematic waste streams.
Jason Marchant
Director of Account Management
After serving in the US Marine Corps and the US Army Reserves, including a year in Afghanistan, Jason began a successful career in the uniform industry, serving as a Branch Manager and Sales Manager with UniFirst Corporation. Jason resigned his position with UniFirst to join the Fine Tune team in 2013 as the leader of Fine Tune's sales apparatus. In this capacity, Jason played a critical role in building and managing Fine Tune's team of regional sales executives. In 2018 Jason transitioned to be the Director of Account Management to lead our team of account managers as well as manage a handful of Fine Tune's highest priority accounts.
The vision behind Fine Tune revolves around the notion that certain expenses, when optimally managed, are best taken off of your peoples' plates – and placed in the hands of industry experts. These expenses – which we call "nuisance" expenses – do not typically represent a high monetary priority, but they divert valuable resources from mission-critical areas and gobble up profits while they go unmanaged or mismanaged.
Fine Tune represents a strategy proven not only to produce substantial cost savings for our clients, but also enhance the effectiveness of their people by enabling them to focus their time and efforts on more important matters.
At Fine Tune, we employ our industry expertise to execute more cost-effective programs through effective assessment, sourcing, implementation and management strategies. And perhaps the biggest advantage of all, we're a truly dedicated solution. This dedicated focus is essential to effective management of the categories we target. We take the time to do it right, enabling our clients to focus on their main priorities.
We started our firm on February 1, 2002. Like so many American businesses, Fine Tune's beginnings were humble. Our founder, Rich Ham, "opened the doors" working out of a basement with a payroll of two. But within months, it became clear that Fine Tune's offering – management of uniform and facility services programs – was addressing a real need. Fine Tune steadily added small and mid-sized clients through the early years.
In 2008, responding to demand from its growing client base, Fine Tune launched a secondary service offering – targeting the waste disposal industry with the same dedicated approach and shared savings model it had always utilized. With this two-pronged offering targeting a pair of notorious "nuisance" expenses, Fine Tune's growth accelerated rapidly.
By 2010, Fine Tune had reached full national coverage–with clients in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico. A growing roster of Fortune 1000 accounts continued to spur the firm's growth, and by 2011-2012, industry-leading senior executives—like current VP of Uniform Services, Brian Gamble, and VP of Waste Services, Curtis Hill—were leaving behind their industry positions for the opportunity to join the Fine Tune team.
Still active in the community where the business was founded, Fine Tune has become the largest employer of interns from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and a lead sponsor for the school's Global Sales Workshop. In Bloomington, Fine Tune is an active supporter of the Riley Children's Hospital's IU Dance Marathon, the Downtown Bloomington Recycling Center, Eco-Heroes, and the Lotus World Music Festival.
1811 W. North Avenue


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Q: control may reach end non void function Мне нужно обратиться к cellForRowAtIndexPath через switch, но выбивает ошибку:

control may reach end non void function

Такая ошибка выбивает, когда я забуду поставить return, потому я думаю, что надо что-то возвратить, но я не знаю что. return [indexPath.section] не подходит
- (UITableViewCell* )tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{

switch (indexPath.section) {
    case 0:
        if (indexPath.row == 2) {
            NSArray *nib = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"SettingSwitchCell" owner:self options:nil];
            SettingSwitchCell* cell = (SettingSwitchCell* ) [nib objectAtIndex:0];
            cell.switchLabel.text = [_array1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];

            return cell;
        }
        if (indexPath.row < 2) {
            NSArray *nib = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"SettingLabelCell" owner:self options:nil];
            SettingLabelCell* cell = (SettingLabelCell* ) [nib objectAtIndex:0];
            cell.settingLabel.text = [_array1 objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];

            return cell;
        }
        break;

    default:
        break;
}

}

A: Проще всего будет вернуть пустой указатель в конце метода
return nil;

Если хотите больше подробностей о том, что происходит: Xcode пытается быть полезным и указывает на то, что существует возможность дойти до конца этого метода и ничего не вернуть, хотя в нем обязательно должно присутствовать возвращаемое значение. Произойти такое может, если, например, в таблице есть секция 1 и так далее.
Если вы точно знаете, что в таблице может быть только одна секция - уберите switch совсем, он не нужен. Если в таблице может быть больше одной секции, но по какой то причине вы не хотите их заполнять, можно создать ячейки с текстом, объясняющий почему эта ячейка пустая.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


For a long time Kenya has been troubled by tribal conflicts and hostilities. We have had many campaigns to try to solve this problem. Even after regrets of the 2007 election violence and being brought together in solidarity after several terrorist attacks we still find that it only takes a few careless words to awaken the tribal beasts in us. The beast that sleeps with weapons tucked under its pillow.
All is well when the night is calm but the slightest of noise and it draws out its guns and goes to investigate the noise fully armed and ready for battle, whether the noise was made by a burglar or just the wind blowing through the bush outside. But I came, after seeking knowledge, to understand that we have not been able to eradicate this ailment because we have been treating the wrong disease. Kenya does not really suffer from tribalism but a psychological condition known as cognitive dissonance.
I will use the example of the Kikuyu & Luo since theirs is probably the most significant case. As my name has betrayed me I am indeed a Luo, but do I say? Last year I spent my Christmas and New Years in Murang'a, Central. Everyone there is a Kikuyu just like everyone in my village is a Luo.
Then I thought of the geographical position of both Luo Land and Kikuyu Land and for the first time I realized something.
These people live so far from each other, they never meet. For friction to happen between two surfaces they have to be close together. So it's understandable for neighbouring communities to have conflict but Kikuyus and Luos live too far from each other to have enough contact to disagree on anything.
The Kikuyus have never crossed the Rift Valley to inspect Luo penises to know that they are 'uncircumcised fools'. For a Luo to get robbed by a Kikuyu he would also have to cross the Rift Valley to find one. All the village idiots and poverty stricken beggars in Kikuyu Land are Kikuyus, and likewise all the thugs and prostitutes in Luo Land are Luos. So how do people who don't know each other come to hate one another?
IT IS THEIR FATHERS' FAULT!
Remember when you were young? You always used to play with your cousins until your father had a disagreement with Uncle so and so? One day your father just comes home and you're told that you are no longer allowed to visit or interact with your cousins.
He doesn't justify it but you are supposed to obey because he is your father. Your uncle goes and tells the same to his children, with either not divulging the details of why they are passing this decree. Your father tells you bad things about your uncle's family and your uncle tells his kids bad things about your family.
You used to love playing with your cousins and had no problem with each other but now you grow to hate one another. You never did anything wrong to one another but now you have thousands of accusations against each other.
You were forbidden from interacting then you grow up to be adults. One day you meet in a club or family gathering, someone says one wrong statement and cousins break out into violent fights. "My father was right about you! I pray he forgives me from the grave for even attempting to think that you can be anything better than the rubbish you are," The accusations start. But honestly your cousin was 7yrs old at the time. What unforgivable thing could he/she possibly have done at this age that your father was right about. People hate each other but both families can't answer the golden question; What did this person do to you that you hate them so much? The best they will do is tell you what kind of a person they imagine the other to be but never the crime they did. He's stupid, he's a thief, he's arrogant, she's evil etc. These unjustified accusations are passed down generations and turn into beliefs. And that is where cognitive dissonance comes in.
Cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. You we're made to believe all your life someone has more money than you because he/she is thief and when you come to find out that the reality is that they are actually hardworking and have more superior business practices than yours, you then have a problem accepting that you have believed a lie your whole life.
When you're made to believe someone is stupid all your life only for you to find out that they are actually very intelligent and one of the most brilliant people, your mind finds it uncomfortable to accept this hence the dissonance. Normally people will try to resolve this conflict and achieve consonance by reconciling their beliefs with reality in two primary ways.
The first is to change their beliefs such that it is consistent with reality eg. I no longer believe that Kamau is a thief. I now believe that Kamau is Hardworking. The second way of achieving consonance is to ignore or deny any information that conflicts with existing beliefs such that you force your beliefs to be reality.
"Professor Otieno is truly a genius. He has engineered so many innovations that are moving our country ahead… what do you think?" And Njoroge says, "It doesn't matter, Professor Otieno still has his foreskin and is therefore an idiot." Not only does he say this but also continually looks for reasons, no matter how small, to justify his beliefs that Otieno is an idiot.
Unfortunately the latter is the path that our country has chosen to deal with its cognitive dissonance. Rather than change the beliefs forced upon us by our fathers we decide to force them into reality either by looking for any small reasons to justify them or when we lack reason, to ignore or deny truth. Rather than be saddened by the Waiguru scandal we are happy because our beliefs that Kikuyus are thieves have been justified, it doesn't matter how many other Kikuyus have done good.
It doesn't matter the positive things that Raila managed to accomplish in his struggles for democracy, we can never be led by a Luo. I am not saying Waiguru Or Raila are either good or bad, just that we don't make objective judgements. This piece is not about who the suitable leader is. It's about how to end tribalism in our country. There is no real tribal conflict. If there is any conflict I can assure you it has nothing to do with tribe.


BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday (Oct 18) spoke about forming a new thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, in a closely watched address at the start of the 19th Communist Party Congress (CCP).
This encompasses several areas, from having the Chinese Communist Party in leadership role for all work, putting people at the centre, deepening reforms to rule of law, and party discipline.
"This is the compass for the party and people with which to strive for and realise the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," he said.
He was delivering the CCP political report at the national congress, where both his predecessors, Mr Jiang Zemin and Mr Hu Jintao, were seated to his left and right respectively.
Mr Xi has been expected to propound on his political thinking as it is expected to be written into the party Constitution at this congress.
This was the case in the 17th congress when then president Hu spoke about his Scientific Outlook on Development ahead of its being written into the Constitution.
Since late last year after Mr Xi, the CCP's general secretary, had been designated the core of the party's leadership, there had been anticipation that his status would be enhance further by having his thoughts on governance written into the party charter.
In having his thoughts written into the party's guiding ideology, it would also ensure smooth implementation of Mr Xi's policy decisions by raising the political stakes of those who oppose him, analysts have said.
After last Saturday's communique of the Central Committee's seventh plenum announced that an amendment of the party charter was passed by the committee, analysts said that Mr Xi's political thoughts would be written into the charter.
And not only that, this would likely bear his name, unlike those of his two predecessors, Mr Jiang and Mr Hu.
However, the formulation of his thoughts was up in the air.
The communique had stressed the importance of "implementing general secretary Xi's series of important speeches, and new ideas and new strategies for governance".
But this is a mouthful compared with those of his predecessors - the Mao Zedong Thought, the Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Three Represents and Scientific Outlook on Development.
To have a long string of words for his political thought rather than have proper names like those of his predecessors would mean that it will not have the same weight as the others, analysts have said.
It was anticipated that it would not be as lofty or all-encompassing as the Mao Zedong Thought and that it would have a narrower and less elevated formulation.
Mr Xi's speech has given a strong indication of what the formulation might be although it is not fully certain yet whether it will bear his name.
Mr Xi Jinping listed a 14-point basic policy that underpins the endeavours to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
1. Ensuring Party leadership over all work.
2. Committing to a people-centred approach.
3. Continuing to comprehensively deepen reform.
4. Adopting a new vision for development.
5. Seeing that the people run the country.
6. Ensuring every dimension of governance is law-based.
7. Upholding core socialist values.
8. Ensuring and improving living standards through development.
9. Ensuring harmony between human and nature.
10. Pursuing a holistic approach to national security.
11. Upholding absolute Party leadership over the people's forces.
12. Upholding the principle of "one country, two systems" and promoting national reunification.
13. Promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
14. Exercising full and rigorous governance over the Party.


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Tag: Norse mythology
The SFFaudio Podcast #337 – READALONG: The Lord Of The Rings (Book 5 of 6) by J.R.R. Tolkien
The SFFaudio Podcast #337 – Jesse, Julie Davis, Seth, and Maissa talk about The Lord of the Rings Book V ("The War Of The Ring") by J.R.R. Tolkien (aka the first half of The Return Of The King).
Talked about on today's show:
Published 60 years ago; research is Jesse's "security blanket"; The Black Stone by Robert E. Howard; stone of Erech has parallels to the Kaaba in Mecca; Moses's ill-fated water-rock in Old Testament; the Stone of Scone; palantíri; War? What is it good for? We aren't fans of all the battles; Éomer's poetic "all is lost" moment; The Last Samurai and heroic fatalism; World War I; Faramir's dislike of war; the movies' over-reliance on spectacle; the power of words; the Lord of the Nazgûl; Éowyn's badassery; Houses of Lamentation vs. Houses of Healing; the strength of the weakest; parallels between Merry and Pippin; the flaws of film versions of Éowyn–and Faramir; great deeds vs. duty; Éowyn as Old Norse valkyrie archetype; the twisting of the Nazgûl; debating the corporeality of Sauron; Sauron and Denethor use others for their dirty work; Ghân-buri-Ghân and other marginalized figures; woodwoses; no authorized Lord of the Rings fan fiction; Jesse wants public domain story following Gimil and Legolas on postwar adventures; Fifty Shades of Grey as Twilight fanfiction; Tolkien's scholarly inside jokes; we don't know our Greek numbers; on foils, parallels, and the integrity of Tolkien's work; Théoden and Denethor; Gandalf's healing power, "see the light"; Denethor's false wisdom; Denethor passages have quality of a Greek tragedy; modern society, like Denethor, can't see the whole picture; film portrayal of Gandalf whacking Denethor is not canon; Christ parallels and the resurrection of hope; the layering of symbolism; barrow wights and Théoden's barrow; Korean harvest festival Chuseok; the aggression of the Tolkien estate; the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings animated movies of yore; "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer"; athelas (kings foil) to the rescue!; the king's power to call the wounded back from the dead; the title of lore master; the last big distraction and self-sacrifice at the Black Gate; on the division of Lord of the Rings into books and volumes; on the pleasures of slow reading; more discourse on Denethor; Pippin and Merry are interchangeable (!?); even Sauron is just one evil power, parallels cyclical historical events in our world (cf. resurgence of Russia under Putin); no spoilers for Maissa!; the Mouth of Sauron's terms, and what if Gandalf had surrendered?; Hitler, appeasement, and Alexander the Great; envisioning flamethrower guitarist from Mad Max: Fury Road at the Battle of the Black Gate;
The SFFaudio Podcast #319 – Jesse, Julie Davis, Seth, and Maissa continue their journey through The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien with a discussion of Book III "The Treason of Isengard" (aka the first half of The Two Towers).
Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes instead of six volumes due to paper shortages; surprise, Jesse prefers shorter volumes; Ayn Rand's thick books, and thin books like Anthem; pocket editions of The Hobbit; small books make us feel like giant Alice in Wonder characters; The Two Towers is the shortest volume, though Return of the King is bulked up by appendices; as a first-time reader, Maissa appreciated the quick pacing; Anthony Boucher's review claims the volume makes "inordinate demands" on readers; overwhelming back history; the difference of reading review and reading for pleasure; reading at Shadowfax speed!; "hope is in speed"; the poetry of Tolkien's prose; Anglo-Saxon influence on alliteration in Rohan speech; the beauty of Tolkien's descriptions; Gimli's descriptions of the caves; the illegitimate heirs of Tolkien can't compete with Tolkien's command of language; the Orcs as comic relief; three factions of Orcs set against the three races of runners; Legolas and Gimli working through their differences; evil by definition does not make alliances; Saruman's cloak of many colors as a symbol of evil; the Orcs' lack of coöperation; who is the wandering old man in the hat?; the contrast between the Orc draught and Ent draught, similar to Gandalf's flask of Miruvor in Book II; the persistent symbolism of waters and drinking in this volume; similarities between Rohan and Anglo Saxon culture; linguistic parallels between the speech of the Rohirrim and Old English; "sister-daughter" and different familial relations in Rohan; the emerging importance of Éowyn; the underpopulation of Middle Earth; parallels between the Third Age of Middle Earth and Europe after the "fall" of Rome; Gondor = Rome to some Tolkien scholars; Dan Carlin's Blueprint for Armageddon on World War I; the influence of World War I on Tolkien's writing; flood and trench imagery of Orthanc recalls the devastation of World War I; Middle Earth (and the modern world) is in a time of transition; conversation with Éomer about the persistence of legends; "not we, but those who come after, will make the legends of our time"; people tend not to recognize they're in a time of transition; Jesse deftly defines "Flotsam and Jetsam" for us and ties them into the book's backward-looking and forward-looking symbolism; Tolkien's love of etymology; action like the Ents' storming of Isengard happens off-stage; Agatha Christie style foreshadowing with Longbottom Leaf; we don't really care about Helm's Deep; "Aragorn joined Éomer in the van"; horrible tree puns; Old Forest as the Fangorn of the West; we're pretty sure the Entwives are hanging out there; the Elves are less interesting than Ents because the Elves are too perfect; the Elves talked the Ents into wakefulness; Shadowfax's race of horses can understand the speech of men; the pre-speech age of human beings and Koko the gorilla; the Rangers are the detectives of Middle Earth; Voltaire's Zadie and Poe's C. Auguste Dupin from The Murders in the Rue Morgue; debate about existence of evidence for the Entwines–stay tuned to the next volume!; finding the Entwives = Mission Impossible (cue theme); the growth (in many ways) of Merry and Pippin; Gandalf's foresight in allowing them to join the Fellowship; "they are the pebbles that began the avalanche of the Ents' rising"; the three runners sped 220 kilometers in four days; it proved fortuitous that Pippin found the Palantir; the Palantir is FaceTime with Sauron; Merry and Pippin were key to Boromir's redemption; return of the black swans–and the eagle!; Ariel in The Tempest by Shakespeare does all the work for Prospero, just like the eagles; Gandalf actually performs magic in "The Voice of Saruman" chapter; the voice in Dune; Gandalf takes over the council of wizards; the blue wizards aren't present because they're too "swear-y"; the recurring importance of choice; Tolkien is always on the side of free will; Aragorn's decision not to follow Frodo; Palantir are the "seven stones" of Gondor's flag; the Palantir is neither good nor evil; Palantir symbolizes communication of superpowers between the world wars, and the iconic red phone; The Victorian Internet by Tom Standee: the telegraph is the best thing since sliced bread; the lazy visual shortcuts that the movie takes with the Palantir and with Saruman's influence on Théoden; The Man Who Never Was; meanwhile, Sam and Frodo are slogging through; the inevitable breaking of the Fellowship; the four elements in Gandalf's death and resurrection; more Lovecraftian weirdness in the bowels of Middle Earth; Gandalf has changed; Norse worm gnawing at the roots of the World Tree; Treebeard as shepherd of the trees; "boom, boom, dahrar!; Net names tell the whole story of things; Freebeard's bed isn't for sleeping; Shakespeare's disappointment at Shakespeare's sleight-of-hand with the trees of Birnam Wood not actually coming to life in Macbeth; "fear not, till Birnam wood do come to Dunsinane" almost perfectly echoed in The Two Towers; nobody does Elves better than Tolkien; the joy Tolkien must have had writing about trees.
"Aragorn and Legolas went now with Eomer in the van."
By Seth Wilson
Review of Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 Scott D. 1 Comment
Odd and the Frost Giants
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
Audible Download – Approx. 1 Hour 46 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Children's Audio
Provider: Audible.com
Themes: / Fantasy / giants / Scandinavia / Norse mythology / winter /
Odd (a Scandinavian name meaning tip of the blade) is a boy living in long ago Scandinavia. After his father dies, he is accidentally crippled, his mother remarries a bully, and winter extends into the months of spring, Odd's life doesn't seem as if it can get worse. Odd decides to go live in his father's cabin in the woods. An otherworldly adventure begins when a fox fetches him to rescue a bear whose paw is stuck in a tree.
This charming, simple story takes us into the world of Norse mythology, acting almost as a primer on the characters of Thor, Loki, Odin, and Freya. And, of course, we learn about the Frost Giants. Written for younger children, it is nevertheless a fresh, well paced story that held my interest quite well. It could well interest readers enough to explore the Nordic myths for themselves. Above all, it is the story of a gentle, kind, intelligent boy who has had terrible events in his life but who does not let those events define how his attitude toward life.
The audiobook was read by author Neil Gaiman who, as always, does his story full justice. He has a particular talent with using accents to define character that is a joy to hear. There is also something wonderful in hearing an author read his work so that listeners know just how he imagined it.
Neil Gaiman is a master story teller and this tale, no matter what the intended age, is enchanting. Recommended for younger readers and the young at heart.
Posted by Julie D.
The SFFaudio Podcast #087 – READALONG: Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The SFFaudio Podcast #087 – Jesse talks with Gregg Margarite and Mark Douglas Nelson (two terrific LibriVox and iambik audiobook narrators) about the Brilliance Audio (Audible Frontiers) audiobook Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
SciPodBooks.com (Mark Douglas Nelson's audiobooks), Mark's double understanding of Hyperion, "make it internally consistent", Jurassic Park, living in forward and backward time, "The Scholar's Tale", setting reality aside, "why can't stories be written in less than 600 (or 1100) pages", "the nomenclature was great", Hyperion made Gregg sad (it reminded him of Walmart), The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, was Hyperion a near miss?, "The Priest's Tale", Robert Sheckley, if they were self contained stories would it have worked better?, The Fall Of Hyperion, comparing the Hyperion Cantos to Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, "The Diplomat's Tale", the stories get worse as you go along, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse Five |READ OUR REVIEW|, "The Soldier's Tale", making a link between sex and violence, Starship Troopers, Colonel Fedmahn Kassad is a good character, "The Poet's Tale", Martin Silenus (the Satyr) and Sad King Billy (William XXIII of the Kingdom of Windsor-in-Exile), "The Detective's Tale" (the long goodbye), cybrids are very cool, John Keats, Ezra Pound, combining a hardboiled/noir detective story with William Gibson's Neuromancer, talking to dolphins, narrator duties, you don't fall in love with the client!, "when a detective's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it". The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, "The Scholar's Tale", Sol Weintraub, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Merlin sickness (Merlin's disease), David Hume's explanation of miracles: a miracle would be "a transgression of a law of nature", if speculative fiction exists this is what they were talking about, time debt, if anything can happen then I don't care what happens, the story of Abraham and Isaac (the binding of Isaac), is Hyperion a religious book?, Abraham's ethics were childish compared to Sol, The river Lethe (was one of the rivers in Hades – it was river of unmindfulness, The Green Odyssey |READ OUR REVIEW|, why was the windwagon late?, Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express and Ten Little Indians, what happened to the Templar?, We're Off To See The Wizard, The Wizard Of Oz, the confrontation with the Shrike, it's a grab bag of everything, Simmons must have been inspired by all sorts of sources, the half-hour blender metaphor, Gregg is upset we all came to the same (and correct) conclusion, Simmons set himself a Titanic task with Hyperion, where was the editor?, listening to a multi-voiced audiobook, Full Cast Audio, Hyperion's narrators (Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, Jay Snyder, Victor Bevine), having to fend off the legions of audiobook groupies, Gregg gets emails about the pronunciation of "prestidigitation", the generic American sitcom accent, Norse mythology, Yggdrasil (the world tree), Stephen King's the Dark Tower series and Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns series, Kevin J. Anderson's writing secret (he goes hiking with a voice recorder), Frank Herbert's Dune, David Lynch's Dune, Dune Messiah is a let-down but it has the Golah!, Gregg wants a copy of The Orange-Catholic Bible, "would you be a Bene Gesserit or a Mentat?", Gregg would be a Morlock, look elsewhere for a cannibal podcast, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Oath Of Fealty, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Julie Davis of Forgotten Classics, Gregg says Julie is really a horse!


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Geplaatst op 15 juni 2016 23 juni 2017
Calliope Tsoupaki makes music that has a mood of timelessness. Her objective is expressing the essence as simply and clearly as possible. In her compositions she uses elements of early and contemporary music as well as the music of Greece and the Middle East. Combing these aspects, she skillfully creates a completely personal style.
Calliope Tsoupaki was born on May 27, 1963, in Piraeus (Greece). She has been living in the Netherlands since 1988 and teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
Calliope Tsoupaki makes music that has a mood of timelessness. Her objective is expressing the essence as simply and clearly as possible. In her compositions she uses elements of early and contemporary music as well as the music of Greece and the Middle East. Combining these aspects, she skillfully creates a completely personal style. Her music is praised for its melodic character, warm sound and emotional quality. To date her oeuvre consists of more than 100 works for diverse instrumentation and instruments from different cultures (qaunun, ney, kemençe, hurdy gurdy, vielle, viola da gamba), from solo to orchestral works, choral music, dance, theatre, opera and multisensory projects.
She has developed into one of the defining composers of Dutch musical life, collaborating with, among others, Pierre Audi, Paul Koek, Jordi Savall, Kees Boeke, Frances-Marie Uitti and ensembles including the Netherlands Bach Society, Ensemble Tetraktys, Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, Ergon Ensemble and Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Overwhelming successes include her opera 'Mariken in the Garden of Delights' (nomination Matthijs Vermeulen Prize 2017), 'St. Luke Passion', song cycle 'Face of Love' for singer Nena Venetsanou, oratorio 'Oidipous' (nomination Matthijs Vermeulen Prize 2014), 'Narcissus' (a play for music and scent), 'Maria' for the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the chamber operas 'Dark' (about Joan of Arc, libretto Edzard Mik), 'Vita Nova' (based on Dante's book of the same title) and the string quartet 'Triptychon' for the DoelenKwartet.
Calliope Tsoupaki's music is published by DONEMUS and is performed at contemporary music festivals (Holland Festival, Focus Festival NY, November Music, Gaudeamus), in major concert halls including Carnegie Hall and the Alice Tully Hall in New York, Megaron in Athens, Muziekgebouw aan het IJ, Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam and is available on CD.
Her opera 'Fortress Europe' (Opera Trionfo, Asko|Schönberg Ensemble & Nederlands Student Chamber Choir) is about one of the most important issues of our time: the refugee crisis. With an unprecedented number of scheduled performances, this work received rave reviews. The world premiere took place on March 20, 2017 during the Opera Forward Festival 2017 in Amsterdam.
In 2015, her opera 'Mariken in the Garden of Delights' (OPERA2DAY & Asko|Schönberg Ensemble) based on a late medieval Dutch text, also had numerous performances in the Netherlands and immediately met great acclaim.
– Commissions for the Holland Festival, 2015, 2014, 2010, 2008
– Member of the jury International Gaudeamus Music Week, 2015, 2006
– Composer in residence Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam, 2001
– Composer in residence IEMA Centre Contemporary Music Athens, 1998
– Nomination NPS Cultural Prize, 1997
– Sappho's tears nomination International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO), 1996.
Compositions Personal website Facebook Composer flyer
Commission this composer through


We currently support flash and Spine and have written code to merge the Spine files with flash into our own proprietary file format. Spine is great for creating quick animations with very small footprints which is exactly what we need but there are some features that are not in yet that would make our lives way easier.
My question for you guys is is there a plugin API for spine? If not would it be possible for us to help develop these features for you and you in exchange we get the functionality we need and you guys get the updated code base?
2) Doesn't make sense. You want audio data in the Spine JSON and/or binary formats? I think it makes sense for it to be separate, just like images.
3) You can import data into Spine using the Spine JSON and binary formats.
There currently isn't a plugin API. I appreciate the offer, but I think it makes most sense to either provide the functionality for you or otherwise provide a way for you to get the functionality you want. Spine could render audio via OpenAL relatively easily, but the rest of the UI functionality needed would take more effort. We have a pipeline of important features, so we won't get to audio in the short term.
Possibly the fastest way to get what you need would be for Spine to open a TCP socket to report and receive events. Eg, it could send playback start at frame 2, playback stop, etc. For audio, instead of wall time the animation needs to use the audio clock, so it would need to receive events. Eg, frame 2, frame 2.6, frame 3.2, etc. The API would need to be kept very simple.
1) Start Spine with --server 4567 where 4567 is the port Spine will listen on. You'll need Spine 3.0.11+ and you'll have to download a new Spine launcher for this.
2) Open a localhost socket and connect to that port.
3) When connected, you will receive events. There are currently 2 events. play 123\n is sent when playback starts, where 123 is the time playback started. stop\n is sent when playback stops.
4) When connected, animation playback in Spine will not use the wall time. Instead it will use the last time sent via the socket. Time is sent like time 123\n where 123 is the time in seconds.
It would not be too hard to allow a sound file to be chosen in Spine (libgdx supports OpenAL, MP3, OGG, WAV) and of course that would be a more proper way to do this, but getting distracted from our current plans is all too easy and I'd rather take the time to make sure the feature is properly thought through and integrated with the rest of the app.
#2 If you drag multiple audio clips into spine you would be able to export one combined audio track in .wav or what ever.
I will play with the import data some more, it looked like you needed a whole character data structure to import the event data and seeing we will be exporting the data from another program we would have to write something that looked at the character and merged that event data in. Am I in the ball park on this? If I just wanted to import something like this how would I go about it?
As for the audio I think the socket will work.... just some way to hear the audio while still in the package where the editing happens is a big win.
For #2, I think it'd be best to keep audio manipulation in purpose-built programs. What is the use case? Is your audio a number of sound effects rather than music?
For import, you can important a whole skeleton or an animation. For the whole skeleton, export the skeleton to JSON, manipulate the data, import it back. For an animation, export an empty skeleton with 1 animation to see the structure, output data in that structure, import that animation to your existing skeleton.
Finally got around to playing with the events in spine.
with Python I create a blank scene with keys and events that correspond to midi triggers (beats).
In this scene it's just a root bone and skeleton with events.
Merge that into a rigged character project.
Copy those events over to the character I need to animate.
This is where is goes wrong. It looks like you can only add events to an already animated character (otherwise even track doesn't show up) Also the events don't paste from character to character. Am I doing something wrong or is this a limitation?
This is awesome, though I was wondering if you could give a quick walk thru of step one for Mac.
Sorry, I didn't see the request for how to run the audio server.
1) Start Spine from the command line with --server 4567.
You will need to have Java installed.
Bumping this to note that we uploaded a slightly improved play.jar file. Same link as above. Also in 3.6.11-beta we've made improvements to synching playback, the audio loops with playback, etc.
It may be helpful to create a shortcut that launches Spine with the --server 4567 argument.
Now you can just drag and drop any WAV file on to play.bat (Spine should already be running with --server) and it will connect to Spine and synch playback with the Spine timeline.


Sharpsburg is located in eastern Coweta County at 33°20′22″N 84°39′1″W (33.339337, -84.650155). The town of Turin is immediately to the southeast. Georgia State Route 16 runs through the southern part of Sharpsburg, leading west 10 miles to Newnan, the county seat, and southeast 7 miles to Senoia. GA 54 leads northeast 5 miles to Peachtree City. As of the census of 2010, there were 341 people, 143 households in the town.


The non-negotiable factor, as the ANC races to the 8 May finishing line, is to cross it before the ANC's 60% pre-poll ratings run dry. For the rest, variable sets of rules apply.
First, there are the rules of being the virtuous new ANC, persuading the electorate that the transformed party deserves another round of electoral endorsements.
The second set is about getting the electorate to believe that voting for a candidate list that includes many tainted Zumaist figures (or new guard names with soiled records nevertheless) will produce the new ANC. The ANC integrity committee is about to take another look at the list, but is it water-treading to get the party across the finish line without having changed it?
Third, the ANC is playing the rule of assuring the electorate that the corrupt guard is really a bunch of good people who look bad only because of enemy propaganda. Part of this rule is to tell the electorate that a book (a.k.a. Gangster State) that comes with 28 pages of notes and sources is "false news", and that judicial commissions of inquiry, with detailed, first-hand statements delivered under oath, are just opinions.
At times this game suggests that a period akin to the times of #ZumaMustFall is upon us. In that stint, citizen mobilisation converged with enclaves of intra-ANC consciousness to end (that phase of) state abuse at the hands of Zumaists, and others. Then there were flashes of Ramaphoria, muted subsequently by the realities of the "zebra" factional alliance, thanks to the ANC's Nasrec Unity Accord. Cyril Ramaphosa became the owner of a highly circumscribed, factional victory. The decay of Ramaphoria advanced, while in the minds of many of those who fight for ANC electoral survival it is still present; the first set of rules still works for them. The ANC's possible May election victory depends on it. War-room troops work to slow down contagion. They have to counter the worst of the immediate problems – the ANC's contaminated candidate list, and the string of "killer" allusions that threaten to push the ANC below 50%, especially those implicating ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule.
The ANC elders have emerged with a critique of the electoral list, imploring the ANC to do better. Alliance partners called for the tainted ones to recuse themselves from the list. The South African Council of Churches added its voice. The ANC National Executive Committee has intervened with low-velocity action, suggesting that the NEC is only up to "low-intensity warfare". They try to build popular trust that the ANC is a responsive, accountable, democratic organisation, which listens to the people (the first rule set) – rather than one that manipulates and manages people into giving porous electoral mandates (sets two and three).
The task of rescuing Ramaphoria was complicated vastly with the launch of Pieter-Louis Myburgh's Gangster State, at the most sensitive of moments in the election campaign. Swathes of new material confirm the continuous dark side of the ANC. The manuscript bears reminders of how much of the abuse of public position and resources is still under cover. The book hints at stories that make grotesque Gupta capture appear like the tea party edition of how not to govern. The manuscript warns, in effect, against believing that the Gupta variant was the pinnacle of what can go wrong.
The 300 pages condense, among others, the ongoing mystery of the murder of Free State government official and clean governance figure, Noby Ngombane; give further graphic details of the construction of the Gupta power networks; and details of the gunning down of Igo Mpambani, linked to the Free State government's shady deals. The common denominator, somewhere in the plots, is Free State mogul and ANC kingpin, Ace Magashule. Magashule, as ANC Secretary-General, is probably the most important counterfoil to Ramaphosa in the post-Nasrec ANC. As a full-time ANC employee, he is not on the candidate list, but many of his associates are. Judged by the Maharani plot, September 2018, this is a player who would not hesitate to lift Ramaphosa from power should the opportunity arise.
Susan Booysen is Director of Research at Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (Mistra) and Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand.


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Homeland Security asks for ideas on how to prevent future family separations at border
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is asking Americans for ideas on how to prevent the future separation of migrant families at the southern border. This controversial practice of the Trump administration ripped thousands of immigrant children from their parents…
Lost amid other news: Number of migrants being held in U.S. detention centers has decreased
The number of migrants being held in U.S. civil immigration detention centers has stabilized after many weeks of growth and remains well below pre-pandemic and Trump administration levels, according to researchers at Syracuse University. "The most recent numbers show that…
Is there a crisis at the Southern border? Follow the numbers
The official Twitter account of the Arizona Republican Party tweeted on Aug. 9, "The border is wide open, and our towns are being overrun by migrants." U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn tweeted on Aug. 4, "The Democrats have abandoned our border…
AnalysisAndy Brookshire
In Congress, we support the New Partnerships Initiative because it addresses migration at the source of the problem
In June, Texas announced a $250 million state-funded down payment to continue the construction of the southern border wall without federal support. Since the announcement from Gov. Greg Abbott, thousands of dollars have been raised in private donations from other…
OpinionAlbert L. Reyes
Another reminder why Christians must become advocates for vulnerable children
Caring for the well-being of the most vulnerable children among us should be an easy decision for people of faith. The church already knows the importance of its sacred calling to care for children, taking seriously the stark biblical warning…
OpinionKathy Manis Findley
Biden administration begins next push to reunite children separated from families by Trump
Immigrant rights groups and faith leaders applauded the announcement that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week will begin a new phase of reunification for families separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration. Alejandro…
Climate change is heating up the terrorist conflict in Africa's Sahel region
In Africa's Sahel region — the current hotbed of terrorist violence — climate change has become a leading cause of worsening conditions. Although Nigeria is not new to security challenges, some commentators in the country recently have linked the worrying…
As unaccompanied children surge across the border again, Baptist ministries retool
A massive facility for immigrant children run by a Baptist-affiliated nonprofit has been reopened after sitting dormant for 20 months. The Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, is operated by BCFS, formerly known as Baptist Child and…
In border migrant camps, it's a cold and lonely Christmas — but there is hope for the new year
The little girl playing in a migrant camp in Mexico broke into a big smile when asked what she wants for Christmas. "A pair of skates," 9-year-old Jennifer of El Salvador said through an interpreter during a Zoom call on…


Also check out neighboring communities of Egnach where ImmoMapper has analyzed the real estate market such as Arbon and Amriswil .
Rents in Egnach are on average higher than rents in Canton of Thurgau where the median is Fr. 1,540. They are lower than the Swiss median which is Fr. 1,660.
The median rent price in Egnach is Fr. 1,565 per month and rose 3% from 12 months ago when it was Fr. 1,513.


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FIFA May Re-vote on World Cup Location Following Qatar Bribe Investigation
Following an investigation by the newspaper The Sunday Times, which alleged that FIFA officials accepted millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the organization may revote on a location. The choice of Qatar has been under scrutiny since it was first announced—for everything from intense summer temperatures (that may force the tournament to be rescheduled) and a tourist dress code, to terrible human rights violations against migrant workers building facilities. Though the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee released a statement denying the allegations, FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce told the BBC that if the evidence of corruption can be confirmed, "I certainly as a member of the executive committee would have absolutely no problem whatsoever if the recommendation was for a re-vote" …
RELEVANT June 2, 2014
Season Three of 'Sherlock' Is Now on Netflix
North Korea Has Sentenced a Christian Missionary to Life in a Labor Camp


Imagine you're a recently minted travel agent in 1996. You love your profession, you love helping people, and you think you'll be putting them in spacious hotel rooms and cramped plane seats forever. But within five years, travel sites like Orbitz and Expedia have taken away your job and transformed your industry.