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Life With Bipolar Disorder: What It's Like To Love In A World Of Fire And Ice
Most people suffering from bipolar disorder think we're fine — better than fine, super fine.
Most people don't know I'm bipolar. After years of loving kindness shown to me by my wife, therapy with a caring and skilling therapist, and medications to help keep me in balance, my illness is in remission. Even if you had known me when I was the most out-of-control and crazy you probably wouldn't have been aware that anything was wrong.
No one likes to be seen as "mentally ill". Even with our more enlightened understanding of mental illness, there is still a significant stigma attached to mental illness as opposed to physical illness. We talk more easily about heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. It isn't so easy to talk about depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety.
Let me take you back to March 1998, the year I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. If you had seen me in my community in Willits, you would have observed a 55-year-old man who seemed to be living the perfect life.
Carlin and I had been happily married for 18 years. Our children were grown and we were living in our dream home in the country. I had a successful psychotherapy practice and my fourth book, Male Menopause, was well on its way to becoming an international best-seller. I was involved in a men's group and was active in our community.
I was joyful and exuberant most of the time and got more work done than most people. I could talk up a storm and if there was any complaint about me, it was that at times I was a bit over the top emotionally, with new ideas for striking it rich and changing the world coming one on top of the other.
But Carlin lived with a more painful reality. In a letter she wrote to my doctor she said:
"Jed has rapid mood changes. He's angry, accusing, argumentative and blaming one moment. The next he's buying me flowers, cards, and love notes. He's smiling and enthusiastic. He's inconsistent in many areas of his life. He's very picky about some things and sloppy about others. He will spend time arranging scotch tape, scissors, etc. on the top of a shelf, marking each one's place carefully with a piece of tape so he can return it to it's designated place. At the same time, he can have papers around him ankle deep on the floor or piled on top of counters. It has become tiring arguing with him. Nothing seems to get resolved. He seems to thrive on the intensity of the argument."
For more than four years, Carlin tried to convince me that I needed help. I resisted. I avoided. I blamed her for not supporting and loving me the way I needed. She hung in, persisted. I finally agreed to see a doctor, mostly to get her off my back, not because I really thought I needed help.
Most people suffering from bipolar disorder think we're fine — better than fine, super fine. Others seem slower, less alive, less interesting. We're sure they are just trying to hold us back, close us down, change us into ordinary people, diminish the extraordinary beings we know we are.
The truth of my own bipolar disorder dawned on me slowly. Carlin's quiet insistence that I get help and her unconditional love and support began to sink into my defended psyche.
I also read a book by one of the most respected experts on bipolar disorders in the world, Kay Redfield Jamison. In her book, An Unquiet Mind: Memoir of Moods and Madness, she helped me see that even a professional, with a world-wide reputation in the mental health field, can suffer from mental illness and live to talk about it. In the book's prologue she offers this revealing portrait of her illness against the background of her professional life:
"Within a month of signing my appointment papers to become an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, I was well on my way to madness. Within three months I was manic beyond recognition and just beginning a long, costly personal war against a medication that I would, in a few years' time, be strongly encouraging others to take. My illness, and my struggles against the drug that ultimately saved my life and restored my sanity had been years in the making."
I knew this was a book I needed to read from a doctor I knew could help me. As I read more about her experiences I began to see myself. There was one description that ripped me apart. In the epilogue she sums up her experiences in a way that gave me the push I needed to get past my resistance to get the help I so desperately needed:
"Others imply that they know what it is like to be depressed because they have gone through a divorce, lost a job, or broken up with someone. But these experiences carry with them feelings. Depression, instead, is flat, hollow, and unendurable. It is also tiresome. People cannot abide being around you when you are depressed."
With the following words, she absolutely nailed what was going on inside me. She was speaking my truth in a way I had never been able to articulate or share:
"You're irritable and paranoid and humorless and lifeless and critical and demanding, and no reassurance is ever enough. You're frightened, and you're frightening, and 'you're not at all like yourself but will be soon,' but you know you won't."
All these words resonated with me. I was irritable, paranoid, humorless, lifeless, critical, and demanding. No matter what my wife, Carlin, did to show me she loved me, it was never enough. I knew I was frightened inside, but I had to admit I was frightening to the people who loved me the most.
I was prescribed a medication, Depakote, to deal with the out-of-control "ups" that would have me doing one project after another without needing to sleep. I was also prescribed an anti-depressant, Zoloft, to deal with the subsequent "downs" when things would eventually crash and I would become irritable, angry, and depressed.
Within three weeks my bipolar illness was beginning to come under control. It took more than seven years before my illness was fully in remission.
Like Dr. Jamison, at first, I fought staying on the medications. I was afraid I would lose my creative edge, that my feelings would be blunted, and I would be sentenced to a life without any real highs. I found that wasn't true.
On medications, I was just as emotional and creative and I actually got more done, wrote more books, and did more work. When you don't have to deal with the emotional crashes that follow the highs, life is much more enjoyable, stable, and fulfilling.
But it wasn't just the medications that saved my marriage and likely saved my life, though they certainly helped. The psychotherapy I did with my doctor allowed me to explore the roots of my problems and to track the day-to-day triggers that would set me off.
Ultimately, the greatest healing comes from learning to love more deeply and to be loved in return.
I learned that it's almost impossible to love a person who is in the throes of bipolar disorder. Our lives are too chaotic and our emotional edges can cut deeply and hurt those we love the most. It's also impossible to love ourselves.
There's a fragility to our lives that keeps us in constant terror that our world will collapse, even as we spend more and more energy putting on the mask of jovial well-being.
Healing from bipolar disorder takes 3 elements:
People who love you and give you the "tough love" necessary for you to get help.
A good doctor who can evaluate your need for medications.
A psychotherapist (I was lucky that my doctor also did therapy) who can help you understand the stresses that trigger your ups and downs and help heal the wounds from the past that feed your present illness.
It's not an easy journey for the person going through it, for the family and friends who want to support their loved ones, or for the professionals who work with us. But it can be done and lives are saved every day by those with the courage to deal with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.
Image via tumblr.com.
This article has been republished from Yourtango with full permission. You can view the original article here.
If you liked this story, read more like it on Yourtango.com:
5 Ways Being Bipolar Has Made Me STRONGER
3 Personality Traits People With Bipolar Disorder Are Way More Likely To Have
6 Ways To Keep Bipolar Disorder From Being A Dealbreaker
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People Are Sharing The Helpful Things They've Learned In Therapy
What Living With Borderline Personality Disorder Feels Like
My Depression Makes Me Feel Like A Stranger To My Own Needs
I Slept Under 20 Pounds Of Glass In An Effort To Cure My Anxiety
When You're A Mother Contemplating Suicide
What I Wish I Knew Before My First Panic Attack


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Michael Gilbert
Philosophic Dialogue on Dunayevskaya's May 12, 1953, Letter on Hegel's Absolutes and Gramsci's "organic party"
Unlike vanguard parties, our goal is not the incorporation of a cadre into a certain fixed structure that Lenin advocated for in 1902 and rejected in 1905, but the development of "organic intellectuals," thinkers and philosophers from the ranks of the Black masses as vanguard, women, youth, and workers.
read the rest!
Youth in Action, January-February 2015
From the January-February 2015 issue of News & Letters
by Michael Gilbert
Angry youth in Kashmir hit the streets in November, raising anti-India and pro-freedom slogans as they carried the bullet-ridden bodies of two youths in a procession to Nowgam Chowk. Protesters demanded punishment for soldiers who had opened fire without [=>]
Rage against lawless police murders
Participant reports from several Black Lives Matter protests in different cities.
Youth in Action, November-December 2014
Newark high school protests; Egypt bans student movements; students and teachers defy Colorado school board brainwashing; Yemen youths' political graffiti; Philadelphia high school students strike to support teachers.
Hundreds of thousands throng People's Climate March
Central Park in New York City was filled with hundreds of thousands at the People's Climate March on Sept. 21.
Readers' Views, November-December 2014, Part 2
From the November-December 2014 issue of News & Letters
Readers' Views, Part 2
PHILOSOPHY, ACTIVITY, ORGANIZATION AND SOCIALISM
I appreciate how Dunayevskaya relates Hegel's Absolutes with the concrete tasks of building a revolutionary organization. History is the process of becoming. Hegel said that Being and Nothing are abstractions, whereas [=>]
WOMEN FIGHT RAPE, HARASSMENT AND ABUSE
When I voted, many posters reminded folks that within 100 feet of the polling place you may not "interrupt" a person, nor "harass" nor even speak about your political views. [=>]
Youth In Action, September-October 2014
Salt Lake City students, faculty and supporters defend Multicultural Initiatives Department; Dreamers fight deportations; Texas students, faculty and staff oppose "shared services"; students protest REI sweatshops.
Workers paid weakly
From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
New York—It insults our intelligence to claim that the proposed increase in the minimum wage from the existing $7.25 an hour to $10.10 in 2016 is enough to keep a family above the poverty line. President Obama signed an executive order raising the minimum wage [=>]
NYC Police murder Eric Garner
New York, N.Y.–There are certain facts in the case of the police murder of Eric Garner which are not in question. The use of the chokehold by the NY Police Department (NYPD) has been illegal for over 20 years. Eric Garner was a 43-year-old father [=>]
New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, police show pattern of violence against Black people
Queens, New York–The first story was that Eric Garner had died of a heart attack in the ambulance as he was being taken to the hospital. Segments of the New York press were happy to report that the heart attack was probably caused by his obesity and diabetes, letting the cops off the hook. People [=>]
New York Police murder Eric Garner
New York, N.Y.–There are certain facts in the case of the police murder of Eric Garner which are not in question. The use of the chokehold by the New York Police Department (NYPD) has been illegal for over 20 years, since the death of Anthony Baez, and all police officers are taught that it is [=>]
Youth in action, July-August 2014
ISIPE; Ché Café; Lindsey Stocker; Australian students protest fee increases.
Fast food workers betrayed by so-called 'leaders'
New York—Last year, when thousands of fast food workers walked off their jobs defying their corporate bosses and marched and rallied for a $15 minimum wage and the right to organize a union, many people who have spent their lives fighting for justice in the workplace were excited.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Mental health and human rights: never waste a serious crisis
Harry Minas1
A serious health and human rights crisis is unfolding in Indonesia. Media reports in the Jakarta press have highlighted the high death rates in shelters for people with mental illness that are run by the Jakarta Social Affairs Agency. This crisis represents an opportunity to bring about systematic and substantial changes in the Indonesian mental health system. In order to realise this opportunity the necessary elements of an approach are presented and briefly discussed.
Never waste a serious crisis
In an interview with the New York Times soon after the US election [1] Barack Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, said: "Never let a serious crisis go to waste" asserting that crises are "opportunities to do big things." In an interview with the Wall Street Journal [2] he elaborated on the meaning of these statements as he set out a series of essential principles for the Obama administration's program of reform. Emanuel identified previous missed opportunities to deal with major problems, including health, energy, education, fiscal and tax policy, and regulatory reform. "Things we had postponed for too long that were long term are now immediate and must be dealt with ... The problems are big enough that they lend themselves to ideas from both parties for the solution."
Mentally ill patients dying in Jakarta shelters
During the weekend of 23/24 May 2009 the Jakarta newspapers were focusing on an unfolding crisis in mental health. The headlines in front page and page 2 news stories read: Mental illness patients die of diarrhea and malnutrition [3]Doctors to inspect overcrowded shelters where mentally ill patients are dying [4]Mentally ill enter shelters 'for life' [5]. The flurry of media interest was precipitated by a report from the Jakarta Social Agency that in the city's four 'shelters' for people with chronic mental illness residents are dying of from malnutrition, over-crowding and diarrhoea. "There was not much of an outcry about it; for six months three people every four days died from diarrhea and malnutrition at shelters for mentally ill people in the capital. No fuss was made until the city administration received a report from an agency about the staggering numbers. Recent data from the Jakarta social agency revealed that 181 people died between October 2008 and May 22, 2009, at four shelters in Daan Mogot and Cengkareng, both in West Jakarta, and Cipayung and Ceger, in East Jakarta." [3] A further 57 people who had been transferred from the shelters to the responsible mental hospital had died in the same period. The mortality rate is very high "Out of 644 patients, 53 people died in 2007, 98 died in 2008 and so far 140 people have died this year". [4]
This is not the first time that attention has been brought to the systematic abuse of the human rights of people with mental illness in Indonesia [6–8]. One of the shelters that features in the current news reports was the subject of a story [6] and graphic photoessay [9] in 2003. Abuse of patients in mental hospitals was documented in a report produced by the Department of Psychiatry, University of Indonesia, in 2006 [10]. The restraint and confinement of people with mental illness in the community is receiving overdue attention from researchers [8, 11] and governments.
The immediate response to the crisis in the Jakarta shelters is local and piecemeal and does not deal with any of the long-term determinants of the problem. Teams of doctors and paramedics are being dispatched to examine the residents and to provide necessary treatment. "'On Saturday, the team of doctors will go to some of the shelters to check the patients and to bring medicine so there will be no shortage,' said Effendy Anas, the city's assistant to the People's Welfare Office... Dien Emawati, head of Jakarta's Health Agency, said her agency would send on Saturday the team of doctors and officials to the Harapan Sentosa 1 shelter in Cengkareng and the Harapan Sentosa 2 shelter in Cipayung. She said the agency was prioritizing the two shelters but they would consider visiting the smaller shelters. 'The psychiatrists are from Duren Sawit Hospital and the general doctors are from the agency,' Dien said. 'We will also bring sanitary equipment and sanitary officials because it is important for the patients to have a clean environment.' Dien said officials and doctors from local community health centers would also join the team. They would bring medicine to treat mental illness as well as general medicines." [4]
The head of the Jakarta Health Agency has identified over-crowding and insufficient staff as central problems. "Dien said that in addition to the illnesses the patients suffered from, their conditions were worsened by overcrowding in the shelters. She said there were three times as many patients as there were available beds in the facilities. 'It's so crowded, the environment there is bad and has at times led to outbreaks of diarrhea,' she said, adding that her agency had sent essential medicine to the shelters to help treat the problem. Dien said that overcrowding had also forced staff to place aggressive patients in the same room with passive patients, resulting in frequent attacks. She said the malnutrition problem was caused by limited human resources as many mentally ill patients needed to be assisted when eating." [4] A further problem is insufficient funds to feed the shelter residents. The head of Harapan Sentosa 1 shelter in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, "said the current financial budget could not adequately meet patients' needs for better nutritious food. 'We are only given a Rp 15,000 [USD1.5] food budget per patient per day. With the current prices of staple food, it's hard for us to provide nutritious meals."'
Response to the crisis
The situation of people with mental illness in Indonesia (and elsewhere) is an issue of the kind referred to by Emanuel – "Things we had postponed for too long that were long term are now immediate and must be dealt with" [2]. In relation to the areas requiring major reform in the USA Emanuel makes a vitally important point about collaboration and consensus. "The problems are big enough that they lend themselves to ideas from both parties for the solution" [2].
In any effective response to the problems in the Indonesian mental health system, including the social support arrangements for people with severe and persistent mental illness, several elements are necessary.
Civil society groups must unambiguously assert that the life and dignity of a person with mental illness is worth not less than that of any other citizen.
The prevalent culture of silence in the face of flagrant and persistent abuse and neglect of the rights of people with mental illness is a major contributor to the current state of affairs and must be changed. Such silence results in a continuing failure to deal with a profound human rights problem and, on moral and legal grounds, cannot be tolerated. Mental health professionals must, wherever possible, prevent such abuses from occurring. When they become aware of such abuses they have a particular responsibility to insist that responsible authorities deal appropriately with them. The recently established Indonesian Mental Health Association (Perhimpunan Jiwa Sehat) can play a vitally imporant role in achieving elements 1 and 2.
A broad consensus must be crafted among all stakeholders around two fundamental propositions.
The Indonesian government must protect the human rights of people with mental illness, as it is obliged to do under the provisions of the Indonesian constitution [12–14] and the provisions of the international human rights instruments that Indonesia has ratified. Achieving such a consensus will require close collaboration between governments, mental health professional organisations and civil society organisations, particularly consumer and carer associations.
The events that have been highlighted by an alert media point to a fundamental problem – the insufficient investment by government in all aspects of the mental health system, including safe and dignified social arrangements for people with mental illness. Solutions to the major problems in the Indonesian mental health system cannot be found without substantial new investment in mental health. Such investment is essential for the provision of acceptable mental health services and social support arrangements.
The nature and scope of the human rights abuses being experienced by people with mental illness, and the factors that contribute to the occurrence of such abuses, must be investigated. The National Human Rights Commission should acknowledge that this is a major human rights issue in Indonesia and initiate a systematic and in-depth inquiry. Recommendations from such an inquiry will be vitally important in identifying causes and finding sustainable solutions to this systemic human rights problem.
As well as putting the problem of abuse of the human rights of people with mental illness on the national agenda for action recommendations for a coherent plan of action must be developed. This is a process in which the National Taskforce on Mental Health System Development in Indonesia is currently engaged. The Taskforce Working Groups are focused on the areas where mental health system reform is most needed: mental health legislation and policy and mental health system financing; workforce development; community mental health system development; and advocacy and human rights.
Currently the problems highlighted by the media are only a mental health problem. While they remain so very little of substance will happen and what does happen will be of the order of providing drugs for treatment of diarrhoea. The nature of the problem must be transformed, re-defined, from a mental health problem to a political problem. An important characteristic of political problems (as opposed to mental health or human rights problems) is that there is usually no problem in finding the money that is necessary to solve them. This is the most important task for mental health advocates, to transform what is now a mental health problem into a political problem.
What is happening in Indonesia is not unique to that country. It is, if anything, a characteristic and normal state of affairs in many low and middle-income countries across the world [15]. It is of course obvious that the circumstances identified in the Jakarta shelters are a particularly striking and lethal expression of a much deeper malaise and neglect in the Indonesian mental health system. The National Taskforce on Mental Health System Development in Indonesia is well placed to lead the national response to the emerging crisis that has been identified in the recent media reports. This is a serious crisis that should not be wasted.
Link to Economic Crisis Is Vital to Obama Agenda. [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/us/politics/04caucus.html]
Rahm Emanuel: Don't Waste A 'Serious Crisis'. [http://eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=e4qGQu6U4z]
Mental illness patients die of diarrhea and malnutrition. [http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/23/mental-illness-patients-die-diarrhea-and-malnutrition.html]
Setiawati I: Mentally ill enter shelters 'for life'. The Jakarta Post. 2009, 1-
Beech H: Hidden away. Time Asia. 2003, 10:
Minas H, Cohen A: Why focus on mental health systems?. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2007, 1: 1-10.1186/1752-4458-1-1.
Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence: WHO resource book on mental health, human rights and legislation. 2005, Geneva: World Health Organization
Centre for International Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, 3010,, Parkville,, Victoria, Australia
Harry Minas
Search for Harry Minas in:
Correspondence to Harry Minas.
Minas, H. Mental health and human rights: never waste a serious crisis. Int J Ment Health Syst 3, 12 (2009) doi:10.1186/1752-4458-3-12


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Henri Delaborde was een Frans schermer. Delaborde nam deel aan twee edities van Olympische Zomerspelen, maar behaalde geen enkele medaille. Tijdens de eerste editie van 1896 eindigde hij samen met Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis in het scherm-onderdeel floret op de vijfde plaats.

Externe links

Frans schermer
Frans olympisch deelnemer

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text:
Root Nation Tag Nintendo Switch
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Bone spurs can develop almost anywhere on the foot. They are often a reaction to pressure or a result of an arthritic change near a joint. The term "bone spur" is often used to describe multiple types of foot problems. The term "calcium deposit" is sometimes used to describe a bone spur.
A heel spur is a horizontal projection of bone growth, extending forward from the bottom of the calcaneus or heel bone. It can be quite painful, and is often associated with plantar fasciitis. They can exist on one or both heels, and take many years to develop. Even though this type of spur can be present for a long time, it may not be painful until it reaches a certain size. The diagnosis is made from a lateral view x-ray of the foot.
Bone spurs around the toes are often present around the bunion joint (1st metatarsophanageal joint) or within the toes themselves. In the front part (the forefoot) spurs are often associated with a corn or callous. The medical terminology for a corn or callous is a hyperkeratosis. These types of spurs can often be felt through the skin, and are also visible on x-ray. Toe bone spurs can be painful with shoe pressure. Treatment choices range from conservative to more aggressive surgical options. Initially, trimming the corn or callous on the skin can be effective. However, since the skin problem is actually caused by the underlying spur, bony smoothing of the spur usually cures this type of problem.
An irritation can develop on the top of the foot in the area of the arch. This area becomes painful when the shoe laces are tied or with pressure from a slip-on shoe. Examination of this area often shows redness of the skin and hardness beneath the skin. This is associated with a spur or overgrowth of bone in the midfoot area. The most common location is at the joint between the first metatarsal and the first cuneiform bones. The spur development is associated with arthritis in the area. The treatment of this problem often requires surgery. The excessive build-up of bone needs to be removed by smoothing or filing the enlargement.
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shutupandreadthis
if nothing changes, we're all going to die
I Love A Racist Country
August 15, 2018 August 25, 2018 / realdeancool
An Australian Senator invoked the language of the Nazi Party to demand a plebiscite on the White Australia policy, 50 years after it was dismantled by Harold Holt, Gough Whitlam, and Malcolm Fraser.
Former One Nation, now Katter Party Senator Fraser Anning used his maiden speech in the Senate to praise the White Australia policy, call for a "Final Solution to the immigration problem", and claim all terrorists are Muslims.
And he says he was taken out of context.
Speeches, especially first speeches, are written down, prepared days, even weeks, in advance so that the message and agenda being set down is clear. Senator Anning knew exactly what he was saying, the historical context, and how it would be interpreted. He deserves nothing but condemnation and repudiation. As many others have said, the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
No one should accept Fraser Anning's use of "The Final Solution" as meaning anything less than an attempt to ape the attitudes that led to millions of Jewish, black, Romany, LGBTIQA, and disabled people being murdered and experimented on, along with countless others.
Following the speech, Senator Anning shook hands with Coalition and Centre Alliance senators including Leader of the Government in the Senate Mathias Cormann, as well as Cory Bernardi, David Leyonhjelm, Tim Storer, and Derryn Hinch.
What the fuck is wrong with this country?
Hinch (to his… credit?) has attempted to walk back his initial endorsement of Anning's speech, retweeting criticism of Anning, going on ABC radio to condemn Anning, and claiming he cringed when he heard Anning say "the final solution".
I mean, Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson walked out of the speech; Labor Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Penny Wong condemned the speech in no uncertain terms immediately; and shortly after the speech was made, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship Tony Burke made a rebuttal speech in the House of Representatives, calling out the racism and bigotry in both Anning's speech and more broadly across the political spectrum, drawing a line in the sand. But sure, Derryn Hinch decided it may have been a bad thing to say publicly – unlike, say, his endless talk of the African Gangs in Melbourne.
I know everyone wants to imagine that Australia is better than Fraser Anning's first speech, but the reality is, One Nation got four Senators elected in 2016, and they, along with their subsequent replacements, have been just as foul as Hanson was 20 years ago.
And while we're at it, can everyone stop with the bullshit "19 votes" rhetoric about Fraser Anning? Especially when it's coming from those who actually know how Senate elections work.
Pretending his ideas have no support does nothing to address the virulent racism in this country. Any Australian of colour can tell you how racist this country can be. If you're shocked by what Anning said, then you're just as ignorant as he is.
Australia has always been a racist country, our proudest achievements are things like basic human rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And since then, any time Indigenous Australians try to as for more, like, considering the fact that this country was invaded, has 60,000 years of black history, that sovereignty was never ceded and Australia is the only Commonwealth nation without a Treaty. One only has to look at the Turnbull government's outright rejection of the Uluru Statement from the Heart to see how basic our approach to racism can be.
This trend of denying the ubiquity of the racism that exists in Australia was demonstrated during the furore around the Sky News interview of neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell by former NT Chief Minister Adam Giles – a man best remembered for his handling of the abuse in the Don Dale detention centre. This don't-call-the-Nazi-a-Nazi denialism is an attempt to obfuscate and talk around the creeping fascism that has been a resurgent force worldwide for the last few years. The alt-Reich cheer when attempts at balance see journalists, politicians and the generally educated talk out both sides of their mouths, claiming that there are no Nazis, only dickheads and fuckwits.
No, there are Nazis, white supremacists and nationalists, and powerfully outspoken racists being given incredible platforms to spew their horrendous ideologies, without challenge or rebuke.
Fraser Anning was elected by more than just 19 votes, he was elected by a country that absolutely believes in the need to ban non-white immigration, even if it won't admit it. I have no doubt an anonymous poll on White Australia would return double digit support.
Hanson and her ilk have broad support, it's why the Turnbull government has been trying to court them for the last few years.
And for the most part, the response from the Turnbull government has been as spineless and ineffectual as Turnbull himself. Alan Tudge, Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, tip-toed around the issue, tweeting that Fraser Anning's views do not reflect those of the Government, promising that there will be no changes to immigration policy. This led to an online circle jerk, as Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull, amongst others, retweeted Tudge and commenting, "Well said Alan." Turnbull added, "We reject and condemn racism in any form."
To react, only now, with shock and disgust, because a Senator invoked the language of the Nazi Party, is disingenuous and hypocritical. Never mind the fact that Turnbull, Tudge and Morrison have spent months pushing the rhetoric of the Victorian Liberal Party's 'African Gangs' problem, even though this is easily disproved, simply by looking at the crime statistics. Just last year, Turnbull lackey, NSW Senator, and ICAC amnesiac Arthur Sinodinos declared that One Nation had evolved and was a lot more sophisticated than the party of yesteryear, despite zero evidence to support such claims. And Lest We Forget Manus or Nauru, and the demonisation of immigrants and refugees by Morrison, Dutton, and Turnbull.
They support the dogwhistle, but not the bullhorn approach to racism. If racism helps keep them in power, well, that's just political expediency.
And look, to be brutally honest, Fraser Anning didn't say anything new. His denigration of all people of colour; his ugly attacks and accusations against our Muslim brothers and sisters; and the hatred he espoused for his fellow Australians as he called for a return to the White Australia policy, we've seen it all before. This is Hanson, Katter, Palmer, Christensen, Turnbull, Dutton, Abbott, Howard, this is the punter on the street, the drunk uncle, and the racist lady on the bus. The reaction here was something else.
Frasier Anning invoked the Holocaust. He borrowed the language of the alt-Right, neo Nazis, and white supremacists to demand brutal Gestapo-like tactics in the treatment of immigrants. One can imagine Anning celebrating the suicides and murders of those on Manus and Nauru, and this is exactly the point. He revealed the monster at the heart of Australia's special brand of realpolitik, that great multi-headed racist.
And because of the global regard held for the victims of the Holocaust, anything that could be construed as anti-Semitic, critical of Jewish suffering, or dismissive of the horrors had to be condemned in the extreme. There can be no backstepping in the shadow of goosestepping. This is why Jeremy Corbyn is denounced as anti-Semitic, and Bernie Sanders is called "self-hating Jew" for wanting Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine to end. That special status means that Anning HAD to be denounced this time, no matter how we have reacted in the past. He finally went too far.
This is like the US Republicans who have walked away from Trump countless times, only to return as soon as the dust settles. It's pathetic, and if voters can't see through it, then this country is truly lost.
Australia, Federal, Media, Politics, shutupandreadthis, Social Commentary
Australia, discrimination, dogwhistle, Final Solution, Fraser Anning, Holocaust, hypocrisy, Indigenous, Katter, Labor, Liberal Party, lnp, One Nation, Pauline Hanson, race baiting, racism, racist, senate, Senator, White Australia
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Bill Harrison
...Our blood continues to run orange.
- Alumni
The pursuit of accounting took Bill Harrison from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Harvard Business School and back again. Harrison grew up as the son of an accountant in Kingsport and his father's business was a family affair.
"My dad had a small CPA firm," Harrison says. "My mom worked for him, and I did bookkeeping and small tax jobs for him when I was in high school and college."
Harrison spent the first two years of his bachelor's degree in accounting at King College in Bristol. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1978 and went on to Harvard for his MBA.
Harrison stayed in Boston for the early portion of his career but his Southern blood soon drew him back to Tennessee. After earning his CPA with Touche Rosse, Harrison moved to Memphis to join SSM Partners, a private equity and family business advisory group. In 2009 he became chief financial officer of E. Ritter & Company in Joneseboro, Arkansas.
Ritter is a fifth generation, family-owned company that operates in the agriculture and telecommunications industries. Harrison's role includes strategic planning with business unit managers, managing the balance sheets of the parent company and subsidiaries, and reporting the progress of the business to the company's board and shareholders.
In 2016, Harrison was named the Arkansas Business Large Company CFO of the Year.
Harrison and his wife, Vikki, have two grown sons who live in New York and Philadelphia. The couple met at UT, and Vickie followed Bill to Boston where they began their family.
"While our blood continues to run orange, we also support the Arkansas State Red Wolves, a hometown team that has made being a local fan a really fun endeavor," Harrison says.
He also serves on the board of the Royal Furniture Company in Memphis, a growing residential furniture dealer with stores in Memphis, Nashville and Birmingham. The Harrisons love to travel, collect bourbon and wine, and visit their kids and granddaughter.


text:
J.P. Morgan chief Jamie Dimon praised the strength of the consumer after the largest U.S. bank posted strong second-quarter quarterly earnings release on Tuesday.
Trump, RNC turn to titans of industry to help raise over $100...
President Donald Trump and the RNC are picking up key supporters in the business community who did not back him as a candidate in 2016.
2020 Electionsread more
Goldman earnings blow past Wall Street on strong investment...
Goldman Sachs reported second-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations Tuesday.
Peter Thiel: Elizabeth Warren is the most 'dangerous' Democrat...
Early Facebook investor and Trump supporter Peter Thiel weighed in on the Democrats taking on the president in 2020, saying he was "most scared' by Elizabeth Warren.
Japan-South Korea dispute is 'disturbing and unhelpful' for the...
Tensions between Japan and South Korea come as the U.S. and its trading partners are embroiled in a global trade war.
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Hollywood's iconic sign becomes 'Hollyweed' after vandal strikes
Published Sun, Jan 1 2017 1:00 PM EST Updated Sun, Jan 1 2017 1:33 PM EST
Javier E. David@TeflonGeek
Rich Polk | Getty Images
Someone in the 213 just turned one of California's most recognizable landmarks into a big endorsement for 420.
Los Angeles residents awoke on New Year's Day after a night of revelry to the sight of the iconic "Hollywood" sign mysteriously transformed into "Hollyweed," the work of an apparent prankster. Social media users quickly noticed the howler, and took to Twitter to express their surprise and bemusement.
A representative for the Los Angeles Police Department's security services division told CNBC that an unknown perpetrator climbed up the sign and used a tarp to create an effect turning both 'O's in the sign to 'E's. He added that the incident was being investigated as an act of trespassing.
For nearly 100 years, the sign has been both a fixture in Hollywood Hills and a touchstone of Tinseltown's popular culture power. Ironically, the "Hollywood" sign, which has been a prime target of mischief-makers over the years, was once defaced in 1976 for a similar purpose.
According to History.com, a group of students at that time also used tarp to turn the 'Os' into 'Es', in order to celebrate a new law that decriminalized possession of small amounts of weed.
In November, the nation's most populous state voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, instantly becoming the largest market for pot-based products in the country.
Still, not everyone found humor in the defacement. Veteran television personality Montel Williams ripped the act of mischief on Twitter, saying that he hoped the perpetrators were arrested and charged.
Wells Fargo tops earnings estimates on strong consumer checking and lending business


Youth will be represented on the School Board, either as appointed members or with voting rights by January 2019 to ensure that youth have a say in creating policies that protect them from sexual harassment, among other key issues.
Sexual harassment and assault reporting protocols will be updated.
Sexual assault and harassment prevention education for both students and staff will be added to the curriculum in all four years of high school.
A staff position will be created exclusively for handling reports of of sexual harassment and to support anyone affected.


text:
Since 2002 we've been continually building a team of world-renowned researchers, giving Alberta companies first access to the brightest minds and the latest advancements. Our primary researchers lead the world in a diversity of subfields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and our expert advisors forge transformative collaborations with Alberta-based businesses.
Cam Linke
Cam Linke is a longtime leader in Edmonton's tech and startup communities. Over the years, he has worked as a CEO, community builder, product manager, software entrepreneur and developer. A co-founder of Startup Edmonton in 2009, he also formed DemoCamp in 2008, served as CEO of Touch Metric, and was the Product Manager at Nexopia.com.
Michael Bowling
Amii Fellow, Professor at University of Alberta
Michael is fascinated by the problem of how computers can learn to play games through experience. He uses a variety of games, from poker to curling to Atari 2600, as a test-bed for new ideas and technologies, seeking to understand and predict how multiple actors learn and act in order to achieve their goals in an ambiguous or changing environment. Michael's work can enhance understanding of competitive & cooperative environments in order to predict outcomes or optimize processes. Areas of expertise: algorithmic game theory & opponent modeling, artificial intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning, robotics.
Alona Fyshe
Amii Fellow, Assistant Professor at University of Alberta
Alona is cross-appointed between the Departments of Computing Science and Psychology at the University of Alberta. She applies her expertise in machine learning to brain imaging data, with the purpose of understanding how humans create meaning and use that meaning to make inferences about the world around them. Areas of expertise: artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, psychology.
Randy Goebel
Randy is interested in the logic of machine learning. He employs non-deductive reasoning techniques, which use specific examples to discover general principles, to build theoretical models that accurately describe and predict the world. For Randy, understanding and explaining a computational process is as important as the process itself. Randy's research can be applied for performance improvement, data visualization and information extraction. Areas of expertise: algorithms & theory, artificial intelligence, data mining & analysis, information extraction & visualization, machine learning, natural language processing.
Russ Greiner
Russ builds algorithms that use historical data in order to predict outcomes and better perform tasks. His research focuses on applications of machine learning in medicine (with translatability to other domains), providing solutions for specific real-world problems as well as producing more robust and effective machine learning systems. Russ' work can allow computers to use large amounts of historical data to classify new data, to predict outcomes and to improve accuracy and reliability in existing software systems. Areas of expertise: algorithms & theory, artificial intelligence, bio-/medical informatics, information extraction & visualization, medical imaging, machine learning.
Robert Holte
Robert enhances methodologies in single-agent heuristic search & planning, applying search to games and idealized versions of real-world problems. He is a leading expert on bidirectional search, which can perform faster than the standard, unidirectional search. Using heuristic functions and other techniques, Robert's algorithms reduce the amount of search required to solve a given problem. Robert works to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in search as well as the ability of a system to automatically create its heuristic functions. Areas of expertise: algorithmic game theory & opponent modeling, artificial intelligence, algorithms & theory, machine learning.
Rupam Mahmood
Rupam's research objective is to develop a computational and scientific understanding of general-purpose mind-like systems for robots. Through his research, he develops reinforcement learning algorithms, policy and representation learning methods for real-time learning systems that control physical robots. Areas of expertise: artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, representation learning, robotics.
Amii Fellow, DeepMind Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Professor at University of Alberta
Martin's research aims to develop new theoretical and practical approaches which advance the performance of heuristic search techniques. He is working on game tree search, domain-independent planning, and algorithms for combinatorial games. His research group has developed a series of planning systems based on macro learning and on Monte Carlo random walks, and many competitive game-playing systems. Areas of expertise: artificial intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning, heuristic search, computer games, automated planning, knowledge engineering, combinatorial game theory, computer Go.
Lili Mou
Amii Fellow, and AltaML Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing at the University of Alberta
Lili's research mission is to build an intelligent system that can understand and interact with humans via natural language, involving both text understanding and generation. His work focuses on fundamental problems in machine learning (especially deep learning) methods applied to natural language processing (NLP), including feature extraction in the discrete input space, weakly supervised learning in the discrete latent space, and sentence synthesis in the discrete output space. He has made contributions to various NLP applications, including information extraction, semantic parsing, dialogue systems, paraphrase generation, and many others. Areas of expertise: natural language processing, deep learning, machine learning.
Patrick M. Pilarski
Amii Fellow, Canada Research Chair in Machine Intelligence for Rehabilitation, Associate Professor at University of Alberta
Patrick leads Amii's Adaptive Prosthetics Program, an interdisciplinary initiative that develops intelligent artificial limbs. He strives to enhance human-machine interaction and the ability of a machine to make decisions in its environment, working mainly in healthcare and exploring techniques to manage and interpret large streams of real-time data. Patrick produces adaptive rehabilitation technologies, designs new procedures for biomedical pattern analysis and develops intelligent systems and interfaces. Areas of expertise: artificial intelligence, bio-/medical informatics, human-machine interaction, machine learning, rehabilitation medicine, reinforcement learning, robotics.
Dale Schuurmans
Dale is interested in developing systems that learn predictive models from massive sources of data, especially when the required models are complex (as in perception or language). He works on challenges involving the representation of knowledge for learning and the navigation of complex model spaces. Dale's research can be applied in the areas of machine perception, language interpretation, information extraction and robot learning. Areas of expertise: algorithms & theory, artificial intelligence, bio-medical informatics, data mining & analysis, deep learning, information extraction & visualization, natural language processing, machine learning, reinforcement learning.
Richard S. Sutton
Richard Sutton is world-renown as one of the pioneers of reinforcement learning, an area of machine learning inspired by behavioural psychology and focused on making predictions not through historical data or explicit examples but through experience and reward. His work focuses on augmenting our understanding of what it means to be intelligent through computational models of learning. He seeks to identify the general computing principles that underlie intelligence and goal-directed behaviour in order to improve the performance and reliability of learning systems. Richard explores ways of representing human knowledge in terms of experience, seeking to reduce the dependence on manually-encoded knowledge. Areas of expertise: algorithms & theory, artificial intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning, robotics.
Csaba Szepesvári
In working to make the most efficient use of data, Csaba develops smarter, more effective learning algorithms. He is particularly interested in enabling machines to make autonomous decisions in sequence while continuously interacting with, and learning from, their environments. Csaba's research produces improvements to fundamental algorithms, which can be applied to a variety of computer systems to meet a number of challenges. Areas of expertise: algorithms & theory, artificial intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning.
Adam's research focuses on the problem of Artificial Intelligence, specifically how to replicate or simulate human-level intelligence in physical and simulated agents. His research explores how the problem of intelligence can be modelled as a reinforcement learning agent interacting with some unknown environment, learning from a scalar reward signal rather than explicit feedback. His contributions include new algorithms for reinforcement learning and large-scale demonstrations of learning on mobile robots. Areas of expertise: reinforcement learning, robotics, knowledge representation, intrinsic motivation.
Martha's primary research goal is to develop techniques for adaptive autonomous systems that learn on streams of data with an applied focus on computational sustainability. She focuses on reinforcement learning and representation learning to achieve this goal. In particular, Martha cares about efficient, practical algorithms that enable learning from large amounts of data. Areas of expertise: algorithms & theory, artificial intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning.
James' research centres around constructing data-driven models to improve the effectiveness of real systems by accurately predicting human decision making. Areas of expertise: artificial intelligence, game theory, deep learning, machine learning, reinforcement learning.
Yutaka Yasui
Yutaka works on applications of machine learning in biology and biomedicine in order to enhance methodologies in the field of health. For Yutaka, machine learning is a useful tool for biostatistical analysis, giving researchers the ability to detect patterns and associations and to predict outcomes. His research seeks to develop and apply biostatistical and epidemiological methods at the intersection of biology/genetics and clinical sciences. Areas of expertise: bio-/medical informatics, data mining & analysis, epidemiology, genetics, machine learning, pediatric oncology.
Osmar Zaïane
Osmar focuses on pattern discovery and information extraction from large databases, also known as data mining. Through the application of machine learning and methods of knowledge discovery, he devises ways to personalize applications, automate processes and improve upon current data science practices. Osmar's research can be applied to various data-driven applications from relational analyses in networked data to outlier detection and data visualization. Areas of expertise: artificial intelligence, bio-/medical informatics, data mining & analysis, information extraction & visualization, machine learning, social network analysis.
Angel Xuan Chang
Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii, Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University
Angel develops ways of using language to help computers understand and interact with our everyday world. Her work – at the intersection of natural language understanding, computer graphics and AI – explores the representation and acquisition of common sense knowledge and how the semantics of shapes and scenes can be used to connect language to visual and 3D representations of the world.
Kevin Leyton-Brown
Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii, Professor at University of British Columbia
Kevin's research stands at the intersection of computer science and microeconomics. Favouring collaboration, Kevin conducts research in two distinct areas: the design and analysis of markets ("algorithmic game theory") and the automated construction of algorithms. His current research focuses on using machine learning to customize algorithms for different practical settings.
Mark Schmidt
Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii, Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia
Mark explores the challenges that come with learning complicated models from large datasets. His work is mainly focused on mathematical explainability and on accelerating and verifying fundamental machine learning algorithms.
Board of
Bruce Johnson, Chair
Executive Chair/Co-CEO, Visio Media Inc.
Bruce is the co-founder of the personal income tax software company WinTax (later Intuit Canada). He provides support and mentorship to many companies in the Edmonton tech startup community with his expertise and insight.
Warren Bergen
President - AVAC Ltd.
Warren is passionate about entrepreneurship, having participated in a number of early-stage ventures and raised growth capital from a variety of sources. He is also the author of Swagger & Sweat: A Start-up Capital Boot Camp.
Marlene McNaughton
Senior Vice President, Client Services & Business Development - HeadCount Corporation
Marlene is an award-winning marketer who brings over 30 years of experience in brand management and marketing in retail, business-to-business and the corporate world. Her previous experience includes senior roles in public affairs, as well as international marketing and technology commercialization for a major multimedia/software company.
Patrick Pilarski
Fellow – Amii
Patrick is an Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine. In addition to his roles as Principal Researcher at Amii and the Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence (RLAI) Laboratory, Patrick conducts research with the BLINC Lab (Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control), which specializes in advanced prosthetic systems.
UAlberta Site
Gerri Sinclair
Managing Director - Kensington Capital
Dr. Gerri Sinclair bings over 25 years of cross-domain experience to Amii, largely in the fields of Internet, mobile and digital media technologies, entrepreneurial business, and government policy. Among her many notable achievements, she was the founder and CEO of NCompass Labs, the Internet digital content management company acquired by Microsoft in 2001.


text:
Canadian Customers! Don't miss out on the latest Pro AV News, Promos, and Product availability. Connect with Exertis Pro AV Canada by May 16 for a chance to Win! 1 Grand Prize winner of $250 gift card. 3 Runner Up winners will each receive a $50 gift card. ENTER...
Bose Professional Expands Distribution Partnership with Stampede to Latin America and Caribbean
AMHERST, NEW YORK, December 19, 2017 — Building upon a distribution partnership that began in May, Stampede, the global leader in value added distribution, today announced it has been appointed by Bose Professional to represent its professional product line throughout...
Disney brings characters to life through drones and AV
Disney has lodged a patent to couple a projection system with drone technology. The specific system would project a still image or video on to a reflector positioned between a drone and an attached projector. The move backs up the stance of Stampede, a US distributor...
Stampede helps Carrie Kemeling land job after handing out resumes on the street
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Stampede's Second Generation Drone Technology (DVS) Ready to Take Flight as FAA Loosens Grip on Commercial Drone Regulations
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Stampede Introduces xFold Ultra-Professional sUAV Aircraft
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After popping Aleve, Jared Hunt helps Delta to sectional title
Dakota Crawford
dcrawford@muncie.gannett.com
MUNCIE, Ind. — Just before jumping in and automatically making state with a 21.36 in the 50 freestyle, Jared Hunt was popping Aleve.
He's been fighting off a head cold for about a month. He wouldn't even take his temperature Saturday morning for fear that he might still have a fever. But he shook it off and helped Delta rack up 419 points in its third consecutive win at the Jay County Sectional.
"The congestion kind of works itself out and drains during warm-ups," Hunt grossly described with his still raspy voice. As for the Aleve? "Yeah, it seemed to work out."
Added Delta coach Laura Siebold-Caudill: "Could he have swam faster if he wasn't sick? I don't know. When people tell me they're sick, I tell them, 'World records were broken when people were sick!' ...
"But Jared's got that, so if he can recover he'll be even better at state."
The Eagles, who don't have any divers, won six of 11 swimming events Saturday. Andrew Torres set a a sectional record with his 20.72 in the 50 free. That's right. Even though Hunt started his day with a bang in that race by making the state cut, he was second to Torres, who will be a strong competitor in that event at state.
Torres also set a sectional record in the 100 free with his 46.24. Chandler Tucker won the 500 free with a 4:57.03 and Hunt won the 100 breast with a 1:02.34. Their 200 (1:27.22) and 400 (3:14.72) free relay teams also took first place
"Just look how many people we're taking to state," Siebold-Caudill said. "This group of guys, what they've done, it's just great."
Second-place Bluffton had just 290 points on the day. After that, Central was third with 251, Burris seventh with 200 and Jay County 9th with 165.
The Bearcats won four individual events as Alec Hale took first in the 200 free with his 1:46.38, Lukas Bradford won the 200 IM (2:03.42) along with the 100 fly (53.23) and Griffin Hill won diving with 362 points.
But this was Delta's day, as it has been the last three years. It was Hunt's day, too, as he overcame that congestion and perhaps a fever. We'll never know, of course, if his temperature was actually higher than 98.6 degrees.
Though his mom, Linda, was there to see it, dad wasn't. He was in Salt Lake City at a volleyball tournament with younger sister Molly, a rising star at Delta.
He's got one week left to cement his legacy with the Eagles, sick or not. Even if it doesn't last long in his family.
"I've accepted the fact," Jared laughed, "that I'll eventually be known as 'Molly Hunt's brother.'"
Find Ball State reporter Dakota Crawford on Twitter: @DakotaCrawford_.


text:
Vancouver Island Brewing Pod Pack
The orca is an iconic mammal of Vancouver Island. But since 1995, the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) had declined by over 20%, totally only 73 orcas—a 30-year low. So, Vancouver Island Brewing did something about it.
To improve perceptions of the brand and further establish them as "the" brewery of the island, the Pod Pack was created. Proceeds from this 4-pack of special edition beers supported The Pacific Salmon Foundation to help preserve the orca population.
The Pod Pack was a coastal collaboration with four other local island breweries, making it a true representation of Vancouver Island. Each of the beers was named after a different whale in the pod and designed to mimic that specific orca's unique eye and saddle patches. The box even had a dorsal fin that popped up as a handle.
To launch the beers and further raise awareness for the SRKW, we brought their statistics to life. A physical graph showed the drastic decline of the orca population, represented by sinking dorsal fins on the street.
With no advertising budget or media spend, the Pod Pack garnered 6 million earned media impressions—making up 60% of Vancouver Island Brewing's total earned impressions for the entire year.Best of all, the Pod Pack sold out in half the projected time and raised $15k to help preserve the wild BC salmon stocks, a vital food source for the SRKW.


text:
10 years in, the Climate Change Act is about to face its first real test
As the Climate Change Act turns 10, James Murray offers an end-of-term report
The Climate Change Act is about to go to Big School. Horizons are about to broaden and fresh opportunities are poised to present themselves. At the same time the challenges - both official and extracurricular - are about to get significantly more demanding. The tests will get harder, the implications of failure will get more severe, the bullies will get nastier. There's no denying it's going to be a critically important and unremittingly tough decade, defined by growing pains, pangs of insecurity, and multiple competing tensions. The difficult teenage years are fast approaching and it is natural to feel daunted.
The good news is the Climate Change Act and the decarbonisation process it has driven starts its second decade in remarkably good health, as a top of the class pupil with huge potential to go further and faster.
The past few days have seen the inevitable flurry of articles in climate sceptic titles lamenting the Act as a costly failure, but the argument they present is truly laughable in both its paucity and hypocrisy. Virtually everything opponents of the Act predicted has proven to be either completely false or grossly exaggerated. There has been no collapse in UK competitiveness, no mass emigration of UK industry, no power blackouts, no end to economic growth (at least not one caused by climate policy), and no runaway increase in energy bills and fuel poverty, serious as the issue remains.
Meanwhile, the way in which many of the fiercest critics of the Climate Change Act have morphed into the most vocal cheerleaders for the hardest of Brexits only serves to highlight their era-defining absence of self-awareness. How can they claim to champion the handful of businesses concerned about the costs associated with the Climate Change Act (the vast majority of whom have notably failed to relocate over the past decade) and then proudly declare we should "fuck business" when corporates actually start to redirect investment in response to Brexit? How can they declare themselves the champions of the least well off when campaigning against high energy bills, only to dismiss Brexit-related food price inflation, the plummeting pound, and the threat of medicine shortages as 'Project Fear'?
The answer, of course, is their Kevlar-clad belief that in the longest of long runs Brexit will deliver net benefits. In the ultimate of ironies, this is precisely the same as the argument in support of the Climate Change Act. The key difference is the Climate Change Act has a decade-long track record of demonstrating how decarbonisation is compatible with economic growth, cleaner air, job creation, and environmental improvements. In contrast, the argument for an eye-wateringly Hard Brexit is so shot through with magical thinking and gear-crunching contradictions that the government is willing to actually tear itself apart in trying to avoid it at all costs.
The Climate Change Act's achievements are familiar to anyone who works in the green economy, but they are worth repeating.
Greenhouse gas emissions are down around 40 per cent on 1990 levels - more than any other G7 nation. Renewables have gone from around five per cent of the power mix to over 25 per cent. Low carbon power has soared from around a fifth of the mix to over half. Coal has been forced off the grid for days at a time, for the first time since the Industrial Revolution. Energy efficiency has continued to improve year-on-year. Average vehicle emissions have fallen. And all of this has been achieved while near full employment has been maintained and economic growth has been sustained (any sluggishness in our performance has a lot more to do with risk-addicted bankers and austerity loving politicians, than climate policy tinkering). Energy prices may have ticked upwards, but thanks to efficiency measures and compensation packages for energy intensive industries the disastrous energy bill inflation that critics of the Act predicted simply has not come to pass. Perhaps most important, the cross party political consensus in support of the Act that saw just five MPs vote against it has been nurtured - just about.
Inevitably there have been plenty of missteps and imperfections. The decisions to cut energy efficiency funding, axe the zero carbon home standard, and hamper the development of onshore wind and solar farms may have won David Cameron some positive headlines in Paul Dacre's Daily Mail, but now both Cameron and Dacre have gone and the decisions have actively pushed up energy bills and led to higher emissions. It remains true the government (and hence billpayers) paid over the odds for the first wave of renewables projects. The ditching of a flagship CCS project means R&D on crucial industrial decarbonisation is not as advanced as it should be. The system of green levies remains regressive and the failure to move faster to protect energy-intensive industries from rising costs only served to politicise the issue, even as Ministers were working on a solution. Worst of all, nothing has yet managed to halt the government's love affair with high carbon projects. From Heathrow to the North Sea via the freeze on fuel duty and the fracking obsession, Ministers have failed to internalise what deep decarbonisation actually means.
But on balance the Climate Change Act and its unrelenting requirement to set and deliver on carbon budgets has provided the framework under which many of the big policy decisions have broken in the right direction. The Electricity Market Reform process started under Ed Miliband and carried forward by Chris Huhne, Ed Davey, Amber Rudd, and now Claire Perry may have triggered plenty of criticism (much of it justified), but it also sparked an historic surge in green energy investment. George Osborne's carbon price floor was critical in driving the closure of a raft of dirty coal-fired power plants. A combination of technology innovation and EU efficiency standards have led to a steady reduction in energy use and a fall in average vehicle emissions.
This progress has added up to deliver a multi-billion pound green economy that employs hundreds of thousands of people and is growing around four times faster than the underlying economy. It has also provided a template for the world to follow with the Act's system of budgets and official Committee on Climate Change oversight providing the inspiration for not just numerous other national climate laws, but even the Paris Agreement itself. It is tempting to reflect on how much further and faster the UK's decarbonisation could have gone without the many political compromises that have been made, but on balance the glass is half full.
The big question is can it remain so? The celebrations that have marked the 10th anniversary of the Climate Change Act have been notable for their muted nature. There are too many ghosts at the feast.
Chief amongst them is the fact the UK is no longer on track to meet its medium term carbon budgets. Even in the areas where decarbonisation should be relatively easy there are problems. Progress on clean power is still being hampered by those politically motivated cuts to energy efficiency funding and barriers to onshore renewables. The hopes of deep decarbonisation now seem to rest on the twin gamble that new nuclear projects will be delivered on time and on budget and offshore wind costs will keep plummeting.
In the areas where emissions cuts have been harder to come by the problems are even more acute. The nascent electric vehicle sector is hugely exciting, but it comes with major infrastructure challenges. The same is true of the even more embryonic green heat technologies, highlighted by the Committee on Climate Change last week. The harsh reality is the plans to decarbonise heavy industry and agriculture amount to warm words and some extremely modest R&D funding.
Some ministers promise that a positive step change is in the pipeline, but at the same time some of their colleagues dog whistle that amidst the Brexit chaos ambitious environmental policy should be one of the first things for the chopping block. The Prime Minister and Chancellor maintain a studied silence on it all.
There had been rumours Number 10 was planning a major set piece speech to mark the Climate Change Act's 10th anniversary. The manner in which it has been completely superseded by the latest round of Brexit dramas tells you all you need to know about the narrowness of Theresa May's current ambitions and where the biggest long term existential threat the UK faces is placed in the government's list of priorities. Her goal appears to be nothing more than day-to-day survival, but survival to achieve what exactly?
The government is yet to sketch it out something coherent enough to call it a doctrine, but its plan to deliver the next phase of the Climate Change Act can be best summed up by four words: 'technology will save us'. The hope is that effectively allocated R&D can bring down the cost of low carbon technologies so drastically that market forces will do all the heavy lifting of mass scale deployment. That explains the early withdrawal of subsidies for renewables, the curbing of energy efficiency funding, the reluctance to crank up polluter pays taxes, the relaxed approach to eco-design standards, and a lot more besides.
It might just work: the government has pumped a lot of money into broadly the right areas and stepped up investment in enabling infrastructure. Meanwhile, clean tech is poised to make dramatic progress on multiple fronts from the early 2020s onwards. It is possible to envisage a scenario where renewables undercut fossil fuels, EVs undercut conventional cars, and green businesses push their dirty rivals to the margins of public life. The Climate Change Act's second decade could prove hugely exciting.
But equally when you consider the very real likelihood the end goal will soon shift from 80 per cent emissions cuts to net zero emissions, the short time available to deliver deep decarbonisation, the disruption of Brexit, and the intransigence of the market failures that have led to climate change in the first place - well, the focus on a patchwork of relatively light touch interventions delivered alongside continued high carbon investment feels like the ultimate high stakes gamble.
The Climate Change Act should be delighted at its progress over the past decade. But as it approaches the difficult teenage years it does so knowing that the parents are distracted, too many people are still prepared to dismiss it as a pesky kid who'll never come to much, and the path ahead is littered with obstacles. A decade in, the journey has barely begun.
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EU plots policy package to 'make Europe the home of clean tech and industrial innovation'
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen touts Green Deal Industrial plan to reform permitting, boost skills, improve raw materials sourcing, and attract green investment
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Environmental and business groups urge government to ditch plans for bonfire of retained EU law ahead of Commons debate today
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Campaign group has formally filed its application in the High Court to challenge the government's decision to grant planning permission for a new coal mine in Cumbria


A wide range of techniques and scientists are involved, often also alongside experimental efforts to both verify theories by designed experiments and verify experiments by specific computations and theories. Figures 1 and 2 outline schematically the wide range of scientific endeavours taken by the TOP.
Figure 1: Methods used by the researchers of the TOP with typical size and time-scales and the relevant information accessible.
Figure 2: The TOP objectives as a function of a battery cell layout.
We work both at the atomistic level, using ab initio / DFT / MD methods to calculate atomic and electronic structure, mobility, reaction mechanisms, etc, as well as at a more meso/macro-scopic level, using continuum / phenomenological methods to determine electrode porosity, particle size, interphase contacting, surface films, ageing effects, etc.
To provide the best possible connection with other Groups/Platforms we jointly attack specific battery materials and usage problems and phenomena directly. The areas of expertise and the PIs involved are outlined in Table 1.
The TOP itself serves as a creative mass of theoreticians and computational chemists/physicists and can perform truly cross-cutting theory projects with the battery in focus.


This is another blog post based on a comment in a Facebook group (I seem to be getting into a habit, don't I?). This was a conversation about editing.
One author commented that there are several changes she'd like to make to her debut novel, a historical romance published in 2017. Apparently, her research for her next novel has highlighted some inaccuracies in that first novel.
It should come as no surprise for you to know I've read the novel in question. It probably also won't come as any great surprise to know that I found several inaccuracies in the setting.
The overall editing and proofreading in this novel was as good as I expect from a major Christian publisher.
The problem was with an element of editing that falls somewhere between developmental and line editing (both of which I addressed in a recent post).
Using anachronisms, words which are too modern for the time setting of the novel.
Getting physical or geographical details wrong.
Getting cultural details wrong e.g. a British character using an American English term in a time setting where s/he would have been unlikely to have known the American term (or vice versa).
Danish pastries were developed in Denmark in the 1850s. They spread to the United States during World War One, but it's not clear when they were first introduced to England. My experience is that while the modern commuter might eat a Danish pastry for breakfast (or a pain au chocolate), breakfast at home in the 1880's was more likely to be some form of cooked protein (bacon, eggs, kippers).
The entree is the main meal in modern USA, but the entree is the a small dish served before the main meal in England (and other Commonwealth countries). It took me a while to work out why the characters kept eating entrees, but never got to the main meal.
In Victorian England, marketing was the daily activity of going to the market to buy fresh produce to eat, not an activity undertaken by companies to sell products.
Schelp is an American English word derived from Middle High German via Yiddish. It dates from the early twentieth century, so an English woman in the 1880's is unlikely to use the word.
A unit of measure in British English, not a term used to refer to part of a property (the English have gardens, not yards).
None of them affected the believability of the plot (although I have read books where the factual errors did ruin the plot for me).
Also, using the correct English term (e.g. entree) may confuse American readers where the term has a different meaning in the USA. It is a balancing act.
But mistakes such as marketing and schlep brought me out of Victorian England and took me to twenty-first century America. And anything that draws the reader out of the story is a bad thing. We read to be drawn into the fictive dream, not thrown out of it.
This was brought home again by the story I was reading this evening, set in England in 1940. It's a setting many of us know through such classics CS Lewis's Narnia stories. So why did the English characters hide in a closet? We've all heard of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. So why did the American author feel the need to change "wardrobe" to "closet"?
How can authors stop this happening?
The best way to stop these kinds of errors is to be an expert in the time and place you are writing about. But that's not always possible—we can't all dedicate years to studying a specific period in history. And readers don't want endless contemporary women's fiction offerings about the challenge of balancing home, work, and family, and still trying to find room for hobbies and faith in the modern world.
Which means writers have to write more than what they know.
The research is rarely the problem. Authors research, and find out so many fabulous details that the challenge becomes what to leave out, not what to put in.
The real problem comes when the author adds information they haven't researched. It's an old problem: we don't know what we don't know. So we use a word that's wrong for the time setting or location without realising it.
How do we avoid errors in our setting?
With the novel that prompted this post, the answer would have been to find a beta reader or freelance editor who knows British English (perhaps someone who is English or has lived in England), and who knows something of the geography and history. I've read novels where the main character saw Oxford while traveling from London Heathrow to Bath. Nope. Not unless your driver is taking you for a ride, literally and figuratively.
Different novels will require beta readers or editors with different backgrounds and different knowledge. For example, an author writing about Native Americans or people of colour would benefit from finding an early reader with the appropriate racial or cultural background.
An author writing for a traditional publisher might think they don't need to hire an editor or find beta readers with specialist knowledge. Won't their publisher do that for them? First, obvious errors will affect your chances of gaining a publishing contract.
Even if you do get a contract, an increasing number of traditional publishers are outsourcing their editing. This means authors may or may not be assigned an editor with knowledge of the time, place, or culture of their novel. And many editors don't undertake fact checking—research is the author's job.
It's your job as the author to get your facts right.
Authors, what steps do you take to prevent factual errors in your novels?
If you are trade published, whether through a major or small publisher, the publisher will be responsible for distribution. They will ensure your book is listed with the main distributors so bookshops can order it on a low-risk sale-or-return basis. They will ensure Kindle and epub versions are available with the major online retailers (including Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble).
It is their job to negotiate with book sellers (whether independent bookshops, book chains or general merchandise stores) to stock your book. They will work with the big online retailers (Apple, Barnes & Noble) to promote your book. This is the huge benefit of a traditional publishing contract with a major publisher: they will have established relationships with the major chains, which means your book is more likely to be made available in stores or be given prime positioning online.
Note that vanity publishers will tell you they distribute through Ingram, so any bookstore in the US can order your book. That's true. But just because they can doesn't mean they will. It usually means a shop will order your book if a customer specifically requests it, but only then, because the vanity publishers don't necessarily offer books on a sale-or-return basis (as the major publishers do. This is one reason retailers are happy to purchase books from those publishers: because there is no financial risk).
If you are self-published, you will be responsible for all distribution, include deciding where you would like your book will be sold, negotiating with retailers, and setting up accounts with online retailers.
If you've used a print-on-demand service such as CreateSpace, Lightning Source or Lulu, your POD printer will send the book to whoever ordered it. If you chose the cheaper per unit method of offset printing, then you will have upwards of 1,000 books sitting in your garage (or lounge!), and you will be responsible for fulfilling all orders.
If you also have an ebook (as you should) version, you will also need to arrange conversion of your book into the required formats. The general advice for self-publishers is to publish directly to Amazon, and to use Smashwords to distribute to other retailers (such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Sony, Google and Diesel, although you may want to submit to Apple separately). Of these, Amazon is probably the most important.
Amazon royalties are as high as (or higher than) any other ebook distributor and they are paid on a regular basis (although you do have to earn a minimum of $100 in royalties to be paid).
Amazon is easier to browse and easier to search as a customer, which means customers spend more time there and buy more. The other online retailers have an inferior interface, and Kobo is particularly bad, even if you are searching for a specific author. When I used to shop at Kobo (in the days before you could buy a Kindle in New Zealand), I'd still using Amazon for searching, then would search on title and author for the book at Kobo. Even then, I'd only find it around half the time—which represents a lot of lost sales.
Amazon has an affiliate marketing programme that pays for referrals on paid books, including ebooks. This encourages book bloggers and websites to include Amazon affiliate links in their posts, to drive web traffic (and sales) to Amazon.
The Amazon site and recommendations are designed to show the customer the books they are most likely to buy, regardless of publisher or price. Other sites (such as Barnes & Noble) are designed to show the books they want to sell—which are usually higher priced traditionally published books.
For a self-published author, this means Amazon is the one site that will promote your books for you, if you can show (through sales) that your book is something a segment of people will want to buy. Other sites will promote the books the publishers pay them to promote, or the books chosen by their merchandising teams (which are almost certainly trade-published titles).


Director of Clinical Skills at the University of Edinburgh.
Janet is a local East Lothian lass who has never actually managed to leave. She graduated from Edinburgh in 1994 and trained in SE Scotland becoming a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh in 2007. During her SpR training she developed an interest in medical education and had some time out of programme to do a Masters and a research fellowship.
Half of her current post is as Director of Clinical Skills at the University of Edinburgh, leading and co-ordinating undergraduate clinical skills and acute care teaching. This means that she frequently gets the blame for every 'failing' of junior doctors from other consultants! She is responsible, with the rest of the clinical skills team, for running the clinical skills and simulation centre in Chancellor's Building.
She is also the module organiser for the year 5 Emergency Medicine medical student attachment and is particularly interested in trying to ensure that students have a positive learning experience in ED, rather than leaving feeling like 'cannulation monkeys'.
Janet has 1PA for work with NHS Education Scotland through their Clinical Skills Managed Educational Network that co-ordinates clinical skills teaching across Scotland, including managing a mobile skills unit that delivers teaching to remote and rural areas. She was the abdominal modules section editor for the CEM ENLIGHTENme project.
Most importantly, she is proud mum to two 'kittens'…..Molly and Daisy.


Bah! Humbug! Susan Stone is definitely what you'd call a modern-day scrooge. She is a young, jaded book editor who is consumed with self-doubt and has lost the passion and drive that defined her childhood persona. On the verge of losing her job and being completely on the "outs" with her family, Susan has nearly given up on happiness. Out of nowhere, a cheerful, carefree seven-year-old girl named Suzie awaits Susan back at her apartment. It turns out that little Suzie is the embodiment of Susan's inner child, she is Susan as she once was years ago. Suzie has come to help the adult Susan rediscover and recapture the love of life that she's lost.If You Believe featuring Ally Walker and Tom Amandes is streaming with subscription on Prime Video, free on Tubi TV, available for rent or purchase on iTunes, and 4 others. It's a drama movie with an average IMDb audience rating of 6.1 (522 votes).
If You Believe has an average IMDb audience rating of 6.1 (522 votes). The movie is not at all popular with Reelgood users lately.


text:
Q: Github api v3 commit blob I am trying to commit to github through the api. I am able to add a blob but then while trying to then add a tree using the blob as a path I get a Server Error.
I am sending the following json string:
{
    "tree":
    {
        "type":"blob",
        "path":"30387681ee9e06c8abd1a76536f3db000ed45a11",
        "sha":"30387681ee9e06c8abd1a76536f3db000ed45a11",
        "mode":100644
    }
}

The docs state that the path should be the sha of the blob added.

A: The path should not be the SHA-1 of the blob added, it should be relative path of that blob in the repository.
The docs shows the following tree creation example input:
{
  "tree": [
    {
      "path": "file.rb",
      "mode": "100644",
      "type": "blob",
      "sha": "44b4fc6d56897b048c772eb4087f854f46256132"
    }
  ]
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange