SL's Matthew Bieker catches up with the creator of the NPR podcast YosemiteLand.
I read that you grew up on a peach farm south of Fresno. Did that have any bearing on your current career path?
My first full-time job was at Valley Public Radio in Fresno as a general assignment reporter. But because of my interest in the environment, because I was a geography minor, and I had a farming background, they asked me about six months in if I would cover environment and agriculture. It just came easy because I knew about tractors essentially. So, yeah, it sort of shaped why I'm doing what I'm doing today.
Why did you decide you wanted to work in radio?
I worked for the Fresno Bee for a year as a police reporter in college, three nights a week, and then I just wanted to try out everything. So I tried radio—I interned at the public radio station in Fresno, I did a video internship, I worked at the school paper, and then my last semester I got an internship with Al Jazeera in D.C., because I wanted (to do) TV and something international. (After college) I got a print job, and about three months into (it), my editor said, 'My husband could help you make a better career choice for yourself if you'd like,' and I was like, 'Well, who is he?' 'Oh, he's in charge of diversity for NPR.' So he said, 'These stations are hiring and you should apply.' And one of them was the station I interned at in college, Fresno, and it just happened to be a regional station that covered six counties, two national parks and three national forests. And I thought, 'That's a good idea, I don't have to go back to East Coast journalism with suits and ties, I can go to California and wear polos.' I never had a dream or ambition to be in public radio—I actually grew up in a very conservative, Christian, far-right family, so I didn't know about public radio until I was in college. But then the job opened up and I ended up liking it. I just wanted to tell stories in an interesting way that are character-driven, you get to go to fun places, you get to actually embody whatever the work is about— whatever the topic is about—and I feel public radio does that.
Were there any issues that were unique to California and the Sierra you felt you wanted to direct your attention toward?
At that time, the drought was beginning. And I felt like this area was underreported. Say, on the East Coast, in New York or Boston, there are all these journalists, and here on the West Coast there just aren't many, so any story is yours. Like, if you found it, you report it and you're the guy behind it. When the drought happened about six months into my job, it was like, 'Yeah, this is perfect. This is something that's interesting, this is happening, it's a big deal, it's harming a lot of people. It's affecting the ecosystem in the area, everything from ground water to dying trees, the animals, to people's lives, to drinking water.' I wanted to tell those kinds of stories of people in need and how the environment is folded into that.
That leads me into the impetus for your YosemiteLand podcast for Capital Public Radio. It sounds like you've had a connection to Yosemite for a long time, but why did you start the podcast?
I'd just started at CapRadio (in Sacramento) and they wanted me to do a podcast, and I had done a series at my (Fresno) station on housing affordability in the Yosemite region, the towns and cities in and outside of Yosemite, how the Airbnb economy was affecting people who lived there. I'd (also) covered Yosemite for about five and a half years. I had all this experience camping there as a kid, and then in my adult life, spending a lot of time there hiking and hanging out with friends who have worked in the park, (so) I had a personal connection with the park, and then I also had all this reporting I had done there, so we thought it could be something interesting. Everyone loves Yosemite, 4 to 5 million people visit there every year, so like, let's do this podcast.
Photo courtesy of Ezra David Romero.
I got a lot from your podcast in terms of the major changes that Yosemite is facing in the near future: overpopulation, natural disasters like fire, and climate change. In your opinion, where does the greatest threat to Yosemite's continued existence come from?
From the reporting, I think a lot of the sources we spoke with would say humanity is one of the largest threats to the natural world. Natural climate change is amplified by humanity, right? (Also) when it comes to fire suppression, when a big fire takes off, it's amplified because there's all this fuel on the ground, because we haven't let fires burn. So I would say, in a lot of ways, the human world has put the natural world at risk.
I believe it. I visited Yosemite over the summer and I thought equally as stunning as the beauty was the sheer amount of people being funneled in and out of the valley.
Yosemite's such a beautiful place right? At some point in the podcast, I said something to the (effect) of: 'I've made all these claims about how busy Yosemite is, and I don't want to come here anymore because of how busy it is. But at the same time, it's so beautiful here that I want to come back, and it's still worth it to manage all those people because of the great place it is.' And it is still worth it to go. And the park service works really hard to mitigate all that traffic. They're working on pilot projects about parking and congestion, and have moved parking away from Merced River to help preserve (it). So it is a feat, an ongoing journey to them. But I think the park is totally worth visiting, and you can (always) just change when you go.
Is there anything that people should know about visiting Yosemite in the off-season? And is there anything people can do personally to help protect the park or minimize their impact?
Winter is one of the best times to visit Yosemite. There are less people, it's beautiful, there's snow on the ground, you get some of the best pictures. You can't scale some of the mountains like you can in the summer and late-spring when conditions are great for hiking, but it's a different experience. The valley changes and it becomes white and there's ice—it's just gorgeous. So I'd say visit in the winter. And to your other question, for people to have a smaller impact on Yosemite, they just need to think about how they're experiencing it. Maybe instead of parking in Yosemite, they take a YART bus in—that's a service that can take you from places like Merced to Yosemite National Park. And then don't litter. Just be kind, don't take things from Yosemite, leave the natural world as it is. Experience it and just take photos home with you.
Throughout the course of the podcast, one of the aspects I found most interesting was about the tribes that were native to the Yosemite Valley, and how they are starting to reclaim their identity and even physical space in the valley. Do you have a favorite episode or issue that you felt was especially important to cover?
Two, and for two different reasons. I think the most important one was the Native American episode, and I wanted to do it in a way that wasn't tokenizing them. The Awahnichi people are made up of seven to eight tribes, and they just recently got access to a village they can develop themselves. I wanted to capture what they wanted, the experiences they've gone through, and just have their voices shine really loud—versus something that would just stereotype them. I just hung out with them for a really long time and I even had some little spiritual experiences with them. Second, I really loved our rock climbing episode. I met with everyone from Alex Honnold, who free-solo'd El Capitan and Half Dome, to young rock climbers who were inspired by Alex and documentaries on Netflix about rock climbing, to guys like Ken Yager who's been climbing for 45 years in Yosemite. It was just cool to meet all those generations of rock climbers, and hear how they've gone from gnarly dirt-bag kind of guys to celebrities, and how rock climbing has gone mainstream. There are Patagonia commercials about rock climbing in magazines and TV. That was just one episode I felt connected to.
I'm sure. And, personally, it sounds like a lot of fun as well.
Totally. As a reporter, you write about things that you're interested in, or maybe that you're not. But to me, it's kind of a bonus if there's fun involved, right? Like, not everything has to be boring or laborsome.
Absolutely. Thanks for your time, Ezra, I really appreciated speaking with you.


For the second year in a row, we are going to host our annual baseball picnic before the third Georgia-Georgia Tech baseball game, at the Braves stadium. Last year, we closed out Turner Field. And this year, we'll open up SunTrust Park.
Join us for some Clean Old Fashioned Hate. And hotdogs and hamburgers. With a side of hate.
Where: SunTrust Park parking lot – Lot 29!
All prices will be $10 if you pay at the picnic.
Ticket sales are now closed. We will take walk-ups for picnics and for any remaining tickets that we might have.


text:
Research integrity University Affairs
Irina Stancheva was investigated in Edinburgh for fraud at least twice, in 2009 and 2017, yet retraction and correction decisions were not implemented. Apparently to protect the reputation of Nobel Prize candidate Sir Adrian Bird and his male mentees, primarily Richard Meehan. One wonders: how much of Bird research in past two decades was actually fabricated by Stancheva?
A Brexit cautionary tale the like of which Nigel Farage could be telling on BBC. Bulgarian women sneak into the UK in order to ensnare Edinburgh men and make them publish fraudulent research!
This is the story of Bulgarian geneticist and data fabricator Irina Stancheva, and the innocent British lads who fell for her evil Photoshop charms are none other than the almost-Nobelist and genetics professor Sir Adrian Bird and his mentees, first and foremost the professor of Human Genetics Richard Meehan. Later these two gentlemen, mesmerized by Stancheva's seductive Photoshoppery, installed her as a senior lecturer in Edinburgh. The immigrant succubus was expelled 2 years ago, boys' academic careers and research grants protected, as their University of Edinburgh did its best to prevent unsightly retractions. But my reporting seems to have spoiled things a bit.
Or you can see this as a story of institutional nepotism, racism, with a whiff of sexism, where the University of Edinburgh first knowingly protected a research fraudster for years to get thieir hands on more dishonestly acquired grant money (first Stancheva investigation took place in 2009/2010, at least one retraction was decided upon, yet nothing happened although 10 years passed). When I started to stick my nose in, Edinburgh quietly sacked the female Bulgarian perpetrator, removed all online traces of her, gagged the national media and re-distributed her funds among loyal colleagues. All that after having orchestrated another biased misconduct investigation where Meehan and other lads acentrally responsible for publishing fabricated data served merely as "witnesses", clueless and hapless victims of abuse perpetrated upon them by a conniving Bulgarian woman. Not even a reprimand they got, instead numerous instances of blatant data fakery were dismissed outright in order to protect Meehan and others. The university even went as far as to lie under the Freedom of Information (FOI) law. Are they really doing all that for the hope of Nobel for Sir Adrian? Or is there more hidden?
The FOI case is closed now, as I received on 29.03.2019 the final decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner and, on 9.05.2019 right before the imposed deadline expired, from the University of Edinburgh a censored list of papers to be retracted or corrected. The rest of my Freedom of Information (FOI) request was rejected outright by the Information Commissioner, because Edinburgh's Stancheva shame must be given its privacy and because whether Meehan was investigated or not, is only his personal business, it suffices to know he was found an innocent witness anyway. It took me over 1.5 years since October 2017 to get this sad and censored bit of information from Edinburgh:
It is basically the same list I received from the University of Edinburgh already a year ago (see this article), only that back then the university official lied under FOI, by omitting one more article set for retraction: the following paper in EMBO Journal. The lie will have no consequences whatsoever for the university officials, as the Edinburgh data protection officer Rena Gertz proudly declared to me by producing this letter from Information Commissioner, which confirmed the file closed. The letter was dated 13.05.2019, meaning it was sent by Information Commissioner after I lodged my protest about having been lied to by Edinburgh. Gertz also wrote to me:
"I will enter into no further correspondence with you in this matter. "
Now, this is the paper Edinburgh forgot they decided to retract already 10 years ago:
Matthew J Lyst, Xinsheng Nan, Irina Stancheva
Regulation of MBD1-mediated transcriptional repression by SUMO and PIAS proteins
EMBO Journal (2006) doi: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601404
That paper is being officially retracted not for data manipulations flagged on PubPeer, but because of the non-specific antibody.
The first author Matthew Lyst is namely postdoc in the lab of Adrian Bird, likely groomed to become a PI soon, and another one of these innocent British males bewitched by Stancheva's evil Eastern European sorcery. Last thing poor lad and Sir Adrian needed was another retraction for fraud. Hence, instead of the usual sacrificial PhD student, an inanimate antibody is being thrown under the bus. How many other papers by Meehan, Bird and Stancheva used that faulty reagent? Who cares.
About that forgotten paper, we learn this from the Information Commissioner's decision letter:
"The University provided Dr Schneider with a list of the affected journal articles during the Commissioner's investigation, but this list was incomplete. The Commissioner asked the University why it had omitted details of one of the discredited articles from the list provided to Dr Schneider. In response, the University explained that this particular publication was previously investigated in 2009/10; although it fell outside the remit of the investigation panel it had been taken into account during the misconduct investigation.
The University could offer no satisfactory explanation as to why it had not taken action to retract this article at the time of the original investigation (2009/10). It acknowledged that it was unfortunate that, having identified the original lack of action, it has yet to be addressed. The University stated that it would ensure that the intent to retract this article was disclosed to Dr Schneider as soon as it completed the initial engagement with the authors and the journal editor."
There is more, this is really too funny how Edinburgh tried to save that paper from a retraction they actually initially intended to pull through, but then changed their minds:
" However, with regard to page 10 of the report (which contained details of the single journal article that was not previously provided to Dr Schneider), the University submitted that disclosure would be contrary to section 38(1)(b) of FOISA, as amended. The University noted that discussions with the Journal Editor of that specific publication had been initiated but they had not yet been concluded; it stated that it was chasing a response from the publication. The University submitted that it intends to provide the information to Dr Schneider as soon as it is able to confirm to the non-implicated authors the agreed approach to retraction."
EMBO press is actually still "wrapping up a careful due diligence process" about that paper, as well as about another Stancheva publication, as Editor-in-Chief Bernd Pulverer told me. The second paper was namely supposed to be fixed by "partial retraction", basically a correction where fraudulent data is purged without further trouble for the authors.
Irina Stancheva, Carmel Hensey, Richard R. Meehan
Loss of the maintenance methyltransferase, xDnmt1, induces apoptosis in Xenopus embryos
EMBO Journal (2001) doi: 10.1093/emboj/20.8.1963
The above are just some examples from PubPeer, and the only corresponding author on this Photoshop masterpiece is Meehan. But he is not responsible for anything naughty he ever published, as the investigation decreed in total secrecy. he was not even whitewashed: Meehan was officially merely an innocent witness on the investigation into his own papers as the corresponding author. You can't make such rotten stuff up:
"The University submitted that the withheld information concerns allegations into research misconduct by a named member of staff, and whether they were founded or unfounded. It argued that the investigation report contains not only the personal data of the person under investigation, but also those of witnesses. The University submitted that disclosing the investigation report would disclose information 'relating to' and 'obviously about' the named member of staff as well as the witnesses. It concluded that all of the information contained in the report is the personal data of the named member of staff: they and their actions are at the heart of the report."
Congratulations to @royalsociety 2018 Buchanan Medal winner, Professor Adrian Bird, for his discovery that the protein MeCP2 can reverse the autism spectrum disorder Rett Syndrome https://t.co/63Avi3BfK8 #RSMedals pic.twitter.com/6us4dKLUC6
— Biology at Edinburgh (@SBSatEd) July 19, 2018
The Decision letter by Information Commissioner contains more hints that the University of Edinburgh was trying everything to avoid any retractions or corrections, but my activities spoiled that (to a degree):
"The University suggested that it could not disclose information about the retracted journal articles until it had contacted all relevant parties. The University contacted the affected journals on 27 October 2017, more than three months before the date when Dr Schneider submitted his requirement for review. By the date of the review, the journals had not yet published retractions of the affected articles (and, indeed, had not done so by May 2018)."
And some pages further on:
"During the Commissioner's investigation, the University explained that it did not begin the process for retracting the affected journal articles until the disciplinary process was completely concluded.
The Commissioner notes that Dr Schneider made his information request on 13 October 2017 and his request for review was made on 5 February 2018. At the time of Dr Schneider's request for review, some four months had passed since the conclusion of the disciplinary process. The Commissioner considers that this was sufficient time for the University to have initiated retraction proceedings (indeed the University confirmed that it contacted all but one of the affected journals on 27 October 2017)"
Stancheva came to Edinburgh in 1997 as a postdoc and was sacked as a senior lecturer in the summer of 2017, in utter secrecy. Nobody knew of that, except faculty colleagues, who were informed by the Head of Department David Gray (I received his leaked email on 11.10.2017). Apparently, my previous inquiries set off another investigative process in motion, as I learned it was supported by an external data integrity expert analysis commissioned by the University of Edinburgh. Only evidence already posted on Pubpeer was investigated, 5 papers found problematic, further concerns were all dismissed by the university:
"Other papers investigated were not found to have any image manipulation."
If you look at those overruled concerns like in Burrage et al J Cell Science 2012, you do wonder how come all that was decided to be NOT image manipulation. Maybe this is what nepotism and academic incest inside a faculty do to one's thinking.
As soon as I was alerted to the sacking, I contacted the University and saw quasi in real time how all Stancheva-related information was wiped out from the university website and even social media. I published the information on my site on 13.10.2017, and 2 weeks later, the university claims to have approached the journals with requests for retractions and corrections. In June 2018, the University of Edinburgh gave me the list of papers (two retractions, 3 corrections, the Lyst et al 2006 paper omitted), which prompted me to publish my next story on 18.06.2018. An article in Times Higher Education inspired by my reporting appeared in July 2018, it was then quoted as the original source by The Scientist.
Unlike the Information Commissioner was made to believe, meanwhile two papers slotted for retraction were retracted, already on 7 March 2019, both in Molecular Cell. Both these papers were very, very fraudulent. However, would these two retractions have happened without my reporting?
Shireen A. Sarraf, Irina Stancheva
Methyl-CpG Binding Protein MBD1 Couples Histone H3 Methylation at Lysine 9 by SETDB1 to DNA Replication and Chromatin Assembly
Molecular Cell (2004) doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2004.06.043
This retraction notice appeared on 7.03.2019:
"Molecular Cell is retracting this paper following an investigation by the University of Edinburgh into the work of Dr. Irina Stancheva. The investigation found multiple examples of inappropriate image manipulation in Figures 1A, 3A–3C, 4C–4F, 5C, 5D, 6A, and 6B. Given these issues, the figures do not accurately represent the data as obtained, so we are retracting the paper. Dr. Sarraf agrees to the retraction."
Shireen Sarraf used to be Stancheva's PhD student and now postdoc with Harvard and NIH. The second retracted paper had Meehan as the corresponding author:
Irina Stancheva, Anne L Collins, Ingatia B Van Den Veyver, Huda Zoghbi, Richard R Meehan
A mutant form of MeCP2 protein associated with human Rett syndrome cannot be displaced from methylated DNA by notch in Xenopus embryos
Molecular Cell (2003), doi: 10.1016/S1097-2765(03)00276-4 .
This was the retraction notice:
"Molecular Cell is retracting this paper following an investigation by the University of Edinburgh into the work of Dr. Irina Stancheva. The investigation found several examples of image manipulation involving duplicated and spliced images, including images that had been compressed, stretched, or flipped. The figures affected are Figures 1A, 3B, 3C, 4F, 4G, 4H, and 4I. Given these issues, the figures do not accurately represent the data as obtained, so we are retracting the paper. Dr. Zoghbi, Dr. Collins, and Dr. Van den Veyver agree to the retraction."
Note who didn't agree: Meehan. Like a child crying when a toy he stole at the playground is being taken away from him. On the plus side, it seems to have been the deal that one particularly fraudulent paper Meehan published as the corresponding author gets retracted, and he gets to keep all other dishonest papers he published. Grandpa Bird solved the case beautifully and protected all his lads. For example, this Genes & Development paper is still pristine, untouched by corrections or anything. So what if gel bands are duplicated or as here, three gels show same DNA weight marker spliced on:
Irina Stancheva, Richard R Meehan
Transient depletion of xDnmt1 leads to premature gene activation in Xenopus embryos
Genes & Development (2000) doi: 10.1101/gad.14.3.313
Or how about this other Molecular Cell paper which was saved beyond expectations: editors decided to do diddly-squat when asked by Edinburgh to decide about appropriate action. Not the first time Molecular Cell actively covers up fraud. Also, note who is the last and corresponding author here:
Robert J. Klose, Shireen A. Sarraf, Lars Schmiedeberg, Suzanne M. McDermott, Irina Stancheva, Adrian P. Bird
DNA binding selectivity of MeCP2 due to a requirement for A/T sequences adjacent to methyl-CpG
Shown above are just some examples from that problematic paper, and yet: not even a measly correction, nothing. The first author, the Canadian Rob Klose is Bird's former PhD student and now a professor in Oxford, funded by ERC, EMBO and Wellcome Trust. He even has a nicely curated Wikipedia page, this is how important he is. Stancheva is never mentioned there, why indeed would Professor Klose need a retraction? Perish the thought.
BREAKING NEWS @RobKlose is back doing experiments in the lab. The whole lab is watching…. pic.twitter.com/XRb4Pek848
— Nadya Fursova (@EcoRInya) November 13, 2018
There are more Bird students who won't have to worry about inconvenient retractions to their CVs. Thomas Clouaire (now tenured INSERM researcher back in France) chose not to get involved with Stancheva into a dispute about his paper Clouaire et al NAR 2010, while Kevin Myant published in Myant & Stancheva Molecular Cell Biology 2007 this photoshopped Figure 6:
This Bird student is namely now Cancer Research UK-funded group leader in Edinburgh and ERC awardee since 2017 (GBP 1.3 mn). Myant is also a coauthor on the above discussed Burrage et al J Cell Science 2012, one more reason to have declared this paper as scientifically pure and unassailable.
#WorldCancerDay: 9.6 million people die each year from cancer. Today we will highlight stories showing how @EdinCRC and @CR_UK are delivering outstanding cancer research & improving patient care every day. Find out more: https://t.co/KmF8JlRO8Z pic.twitter.com/HCugNt8jPf
— The University of Edinburgh (@EdinburghUni) February 4, 2019
Sir Adrian apparently permanently suffered from the corrupting influence of the Photoshop fraudster Stancheva. Here he is, embracing Laurence Zitvogel and her partner Guido Kroemer, two celebrity Photoshop artists from Paris. Poor man, who is producing all that research in his lab these days, now that Irina Stancheva is gone?
Tagscell biology • data manipulation • developmental biology • featured • genetics • Irina Stancheva • misconduct • Nobel Prize • transparency • United Kingdom
3 comments on "Edinburgh saves Bird men from clutches of Bulgarian Jezebel"
Zebedee
Silvia Bulfone-Paus tried to blame a Bugarian for her 13 retractions, even though the Bulgarian was not on some of the retractions. The DFG did not buy that argument.
https://retractionwatch.com/2012/12/13/funding-agency-sanctions-bulfone-paus-and-former-postdoc/
https://pubpeer.com/search?q=bulfone-paus
The British believed the excuse.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/manchester-pronounces-husband-and-wife-innocent-of-misconduct/416741.article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvia_Bulfone-Paus
https://theconversation.com/profiles/richard-meehan-110437
"An enjoyable highlight was work initiated by Irina Stancheva showing that xMeCP2 in Xenopus laevis is required for primary neurogenesis partly through interaction with the SMRT complex, which regulates the activity of xHairy2a, an anti-neurogenic gene."
2019 Retraction notice.
Winston Smith has not been doing his job properly and has failed to rewrite the reference to an "unperson". The University requires consistency between the past and the future, so the news (the past) sometimes must be altered to reflect the present.
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WASHINGTON (CBS19 NEWS) -- Congressional appropriators are being encouraged to provide full funding for the timely implementation of the Ashanti Alert Act.
The law was inspired by the 2017 abduction and murder of Ashanti Billie, who was kidnapped in Norfolk and found dead days later in a neighboring state.
Virginia created its state-level Ashanti Alert system and then Virginia's congressional delegation pushed for a national level system, which passed Congress and was signed into law in December.
"This law was borne out of the tragic death of Ashanti Billie, a 19-year-old who was abducted in Norfolk, Virginia and whose body was discovered 11 days after she was first reported missing," wrote Senator Mark Warner and Senator Richard Blumenthal in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Because Ashanti was too old for an Amber Alert to be issued and no similar network for adults existed at the time, her parents, families and friends struggled to get word out of her disappearance in a timely fashion. Full funding and timely implementation of the Ashanti Alert ACt is necessary to ensure the safety of Americans."
The Ashanti Alert Act requires for the U.S. Department of Justice to create a national communications network to assist in regional and local search efforts for endangered missing adults between the ages of 18 and 64.
Such people are too old to be covered by Amber Alerts and too young for Silver Alerts.


Mallory Powell earned her Doctor of Audiology degree in 2016 from West Virginia University. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in speech pathology and audiology with minors in child development and family studies as well as disabilities. She is board certified by the American Board of Audiology and a fellow of both the American Academy of Audiology and the Academy of Doctors of Audiology. In addition, she is a past president and past fundraising chair of the West Virginia University chapter of the Student Academy of Audiology.
Dr. Powell joined Allegany Hearing & Balance Center in 2015 for her residency and specializes in comprehensive adult and pediatric evaluations, hearing systems and rehabilitation, auditory processing disorders, and cochlear implants. She lives in Fairmont, West Virginia, with her husband Derick, an electrical engineer, two children, Garrett and Emilia, and their two dogs, Chloe and Abi. When not in the office, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and crafting.


text:
Zoey Earns a Level
Most people that know me and Stephen know we play a lot of video games, many in which you "level up" characters. This is accomplished by learning and mastering skills and gaining experience points that add up to a new level. This is the analogy I'm going for with the title "Zoey earns a level."
Zoey riding her horsey
Over the past week it seems like Zoey has learned a whole new set of skills:
We set up Zoey in her big girl bed a week ago and she is doing fabulous with it! I'm so proud of her. Every night she goes to bed in approximately the same time as she did while in her crib. And she sleeps IN her bed the WHOLE night! I think that is awesome! I was prepared to find her in some corner of the room for several days, but she hasn't at all. She actually sleeps in her bed.
Tonight was the best bedtime yet. We watched Mickey this evening and Zoey knows when Mickey is over it is time for bed. When the Hot Dog Dance song came on tonight she danced during it and as soon as it was over she put her head down and headed toward her room. I couldn't believe it. She climbed into her bed and waited for me and Stephen to come tuck her in and kiss her goodnight. She cuddled up with her Tigger and Mickey and was already turning over to go to sleep. Stephen and I looked at each other and was like, Awesome!
Zoey can now say "one, two, three" consistently. She will even sing it. She counts anything, most of the time items in a row, but sometimes she counts nothing, just because she can. It's so cool to hear her counting to herself. She will even do it when asked, most of the time at least.
She is also starting to sing randomly. She sings "one, two, three," but other random words she knows too. Like in the tub the other day she was singing "daddy, daddy, daddy..." over and over with different pitches, octaves, and even inflection in her voice. I think she is so cute when she sings and she looks happy too.
Yesterday evening we were watching Tangled. (Awesome movie by the way.) Zoey watched it for a while, but eventually got bored and simply walked over to her tub of blocks, poured them all out and started building towers. She comes over to us after several minutes and pulls my hand. She gestures to her tower creation. I was impressed. I mean it was a REAL tower, like almost as tall as she is. It was awesome that she wanted to show us. The best part is she just started playing with the blocks to occupy her with no encouragement from us.
The towers she made were pretty good. One section of it was even alternating colors of the same block stacked. Then she knocked that tower down and started building another one. She made several. They kept getting more creative and outrageous. One even had this skinny arm which immediately fell off because it was top heavy. However, she didn't get upset, she just picked it up, studied it, changed it a little, and then put it back on. This time it stayed. With the freedom to play with the blocks and us not fixing it for her all the time so it stays up, she has learned how to make some cool creations.
Also, she can now throw things in the trash on her own accord. She understands when we are in the kitchen fixing dinner to bring her cup from the other room so we can fill it for dinner. She has many new words, her favorite being eat. When she is hungry she will go to the fridge and get either yogurt or an apple (or some type of fruit). She will get out plates and forks (they are her plates, but she usually gets one out for each of us) while we are fixing dinner, especially if she is really ready to eat.
Zoey playing dress up jewelry
So I am realizing I have written a small novel, but these are some of the awesome things Zoey has been doing recently. I am often impressed with the new things Zoey does. She is really becoming a person and growing constantly in her own personality. I am very proud of my Zoey and I just hope we can continue to keep her challenged so she doesn't get bored. It's amazing how it seem like over the course of just a few days she seems like she can do so much more than before. And now you can see why I say Zoey has definitely leveled up.
Posted by Amanda McCusker at 9:07 PM
Labels: Zoey
Shannon April 3, 2011 at 12:42 AM
And then puberty sets in... and we're all doomed! ;P
It's so cool that she's learning all these awesome things! I know I don't actually see her that often, but it seems like only yesterday she was just a little baby laughing at me laughing at her.
It's really exciting to see all the new thing's she's learning to do. It's awesome that you get to watch her grow into a little person. :)
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Our visitors are amazed at the quality of our carvings.
These exquisite carvings are usually carved in teakwood by highly skilled craftsmen and require a long time to produce. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information or to arrange a viewing.
The quality of Thai woodcarving is really amongst the very best in the world and we hope you enjoy these wonderful artworks. We have terrific statues and sculptures as well as wall panels.


Commonly found in wheat, rye, oats, and barley,gluten is a special protein. It helps to make the bread elastic, providing it with that chewy texture it has when eaten. For this reason, flour that has had it's gluten removed, provides a sticky dough that feels like chewing gum.
Gluten also has additional benefits to bread. It keeps the gases that are released during fermentation in the dough so that the bread is able to rise before it is baked. When it is fully cooked, gluten firms up the bread, helping to ensure, with the help of starch, that it keeps it's proper shape.
Gluten is made up of several defining characteristics. For example, gluten has insolubility to water meaning it will not dissolve when placed in some water. It also has an absorbent quality, which is why bread is capable of soaking up broth. Because of this feature, it is often used by vegetarians as an imitation meat. On the downside, gluten is believed to be partially responsible for causing bread to become stale.
The protein found in gluten is known as prolamins. These prolamins are what causes problems for people who can't tolerate gluten in their diets. If you mix wheat flour with warm water the result is a sort of stretchy paste. This gluten in the flours is what makes the paste elastic and binds it together. Infact the strong flours sold for making bread has extra gluten added for fluffier, lighter effects.
Is gluten needed in our diets?
No it is not needed. Essentially Asian countries and other Eastern countries where rice is the primary grain, there are people who may not eat any gluten throughout their entire lives.
How does gluten cause damage to our bodies?
Eating foods containing gluten can cause damage to the small intestine if an allergy or intolerance is present. Some people can tolerate the excess of zonulin, the protein produced by the body when wheat is eaten. If you have celiac disease the zonulin causes the gaps between the cells in the small intestine to open too wide and allow toxins and gluten fragments into the bloodstream.
These particles are seen as invaders by the body and are attacked. This disease or intolerance attacks the body itself, causing inflammation and damage to the inside of the small intestine. The normal state of the small intestine features small hair like projections along it's length known as villi. The villi increase the surface area of the small intestine and therefore assist in the absorption of the nutrients that the body needs to stay healthy. Living a gluten free lifestyle will allow these villi to repair themselves and restore your body back to it's healthy state.
So you ask yourself what is gluten?
Now is the time to use this information I have provided to discover the benefits of living gluten free. The key to this lifestyle is information, information, information. It is critical for you to find out as much as possible about this allergy so you to can start to feel the best you can to live a more energized lifestyle.
What Is Wheat And Gluten Intolerance?


text:
Debates of June 14th, 2017
House of Commons Hansard #194 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was senate.
Quebec National Holiday
Philippine Independence Day
Charity Work in Thailand
National Blood Donor Week
Persecution of Roma
Summer in Brampton North
Municipal Libraries
Marc-Aurèle-Fortin's Youth
Anne Michelle Curtis
Retirement Congratulations
U.S. House Majority Whip
Physician-Assisted Dying
Families, Children and Social Development
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
National Maternity Assistance Program Strategy Act
Business of Supply
Government Response to Petitions
Navigation Protection Act
Questions Passed as Orders for Return
Motions for Papers
Main Estimates, 2017-18
Transportation Modernization Act
Concurrence in vote 1—Privy Council
Concurrence in Vote 1—Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Supplementary Estimates (A)
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Canada Revenue Agency
Official LanguagesAdjournment Proceedings
June 14th, 2017 / 11:35 p.m.
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House, even though it is late, because it is never too late to do our jobs as MPs properly. We are here to represent the people of our ridings. My constituents in Drummond expect me to work hard to represent them. That is why I am here at almost midnight. I will continue to ask questions regarding the Liberal government's obligation to comply with the Official Languages Act.
Today, we had the opportunity to hear from the Minister of Immigration when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Official Languages for the first time. Unfortunately, I did not have time to ask him whether anything has been done to follow up on the matter of language testing, which is not as accessible in French as it is in English. Of course, I am talking about the language proficiency assessment associated with applications for permanent residency in Canada.
As part of their application for permanent residency, people need to submit an assessment of their language proficiency, which is fine. However, the French tests are not very accessible and sometimes cost up to twice as much as the English tests. Some people noticed that and asked about it. For example, people in Toronto hoping to pass a language test to become permanent residents noticed that they would have to wait a lot longer to get the results of the French test than the English one, and that taking the French test would cost twice as much, so they decided to take the test in English.
It is obvious that people do not have equal access to this test in both languages. Some people complained, and I brought those complaints to the attention of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, which found that they were justified and decided to accept them. An evaluation was then conducted and the commissioner asked that improvements be made.
The result is that, right now, people applying for permanent residency are getting no assistance. An evaluation has been conducted, but no real action has been taken to remedy the situation.
To summarize, I will read some excerpts from a letter that I wrote to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. It reads:
My complaint was about how the French test costs more and is less accessible than the English test, which means that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is not complying with some of its obligations under parts IV and VII of the Official Languages Act.
Further on, I added:
The [Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages] wrote that "IRCC has not taken any measures to offset these obstacles, which could have negative consequences for the intake of francophone immigrants in [official language minority communities], and ultimately for the vitality of those communities."
This is very serious. We are not currently meeting the francophone immigration target in official language minority communities, which is 4%. In fact, we are way off. The most reliable data put us at about 1.4%, whereas the target is 4%.
If we do not meet that target, the proportion of francophone minority communities will decline compared to anglophone communities. That will be bad for their vitality and their access to services. It is a vicious circle turning in the wrong direction. I would like some answers about this.
Acadie—Bathurst New Brunswick
Serge Cormier LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Drummond for his very important question today. I also thank him for his work on committee.
I can assure the hon. member that our government is firmly committed to meeting its obligations under the Official Languages Act. I am a francophone like he is. I am Acadian. This file is important to me so I thank him once again for the question.
I will talk about the tests that he mentioned at the beginning of his question and I will also address some points regarding francophone immigration.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada involves the Official Languages Secretariat, which is tasked with ensuring that every aspect of our work complies with the Official Languages Act. The directorate also includes a team from official languages that works with every unit in the department in order to support our efforts to meet our target for francophone immigration.
The language tests my colleague mentioned are used when individuals apply for certain permanent residence programs as economic immigrants.
We are aware of the discrepancy that exists in the average price of the tests in French compared to the English. Organizations that offer these tests set their own fees based on their business models, taking into account several factors, including demand. Those organizations offer the same language tests to a wide range of clients. As soon as they receive the results of their test, clients can use them for many purposes, such as to apply to immigrate to Canada or to another country, or to apply for jobs.
As I said earlier, the organizations themselves set their fees, which can vary from one location to the next. The Government of Canada ensures that these language tests provide consistent, accurate, and fair assessments. They also represent the only proof of language proficiency accepted by the department for our economic immigration programs. At present, there are two organizations that administer the English tests and one that administers the French tests.
With regard to francophone immigration, I know that the member talked about the target of 4.4% that we want to meet. I can assure the member that, since we took office, our government has worked hard to promote francophone immigration. The minister and I spearheaded this effort, and I have met with many francophone groups since I was appointed as the department's parliamentary secretary. In March, we had a productive meeting in Moncton with Canada's provincial and territorial immigration ministers and the ministers responsible for the francophonie.
We agreed to continue to hold these meetings every year rather than every second year. We are also going to set up a committee of representatives who will soon address the issue of how we can improve francophone immigration to Canada. We are determined to make francophone immigration a priority for our government.
We do not just want to meet the target of 4.4%; we want to exceed it. All of the groups that I have met with have the same goal, to increase francophone immigration to Canada.
In that regard, we made changes to the express entry program recently by giving more points to people who are fluent in French. This will give an added advantage to people who speak French and who want to immigrate to Canada. It is a very good program.
That is what the groups asked us to do, and the associations that these people deal with told us very clearly that this is a program they can count and that it will certainly help boost francophone immigration.
New data recently revealed that the rate of francophone immigration has indeed increased. We are very proud of the progress we are making on this, and we intend to stay the course.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, the parliamentary secretary, for his comments.
We welcome the Liberal government's decision to bring back the francophone significant benefit program. I congratulate it on doing what all communities were hoping it would do.
However, the parliamentary secretary was in committee today when we heard from the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, who refused to budge on something everyone is asking for. All members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, including the Liberals, and people in official language communities want a person responsible for francophone immigration for official language communities.
Unfortunately, the minister refused, saying that he would be the one taking care of it. Someone joked that he would be taking on a lot of work. It is a lot of work to take care of francophone immigration as a whole, and the minister already has a lot of work.
Why is the parliamentary secretary refusing to grant this request that was made by all members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, not just me and the NDP?
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite.
I can assure the member once again that francophone immigration is a very important issue within the department, as it is for the minister, myself, and all members of the House, I hope.
As we know, Canada's francophonie is vibrant, which is why we need to ensure that the rights of francophones are respected. I can assure the member that we are currently working on many options thanks to the meetings I have had with all the groups I have managed to consult. We are working in partnership with those groups, and they are helping us come up with many possible solutions. I can assure the member opposite that we are working to that end. I would be pleased to work with him on this matter, because I know how much he cares about it, just as I do. I would be very pleased to sit down with him and with other groups in order to come up with ways to increase our targets for francophone immigration.
Immigration, Refugees and CitizenshipAdjournment Proceedings
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Mr. Speaker, I rise in debate tonight to follow up with a question that I raised some months ago with regard to ongoing and sustained support around refugees coming to Canada, and the government's plan to be transparent about that.
Today, given that it is Pride Month, I think it is very timely that we talk about the fact that the government has yet to commit to extending or making a program regular that was implemented under our former Conservative government and would see ongoing and sustained support for groups that are seeking to protect some of the world's most vulnerable people, and that is LGBTQ refugees, or people who are persecuted from that community from different parts around the world.
We certainly know that there are countries in which state-sanctioned violence and persecution of members of this community occur. Iran, for example, is a regime where there is actually state-sponsored and state-sanctioned persecution of members of these communities.
Right now in Chechnya we understand that there are gay men who have been rounded up and put in concentration camps simply because of who they choose to love. This is wrong. This is abhorrent. While we certainly have a lot of work to do at home here in Canada when we talk about protecting the rights of members of this community in our country, we also have a moral obligation, an imperative to use Canada's position as a human rights leader to protect those in situations such as this.
I would like to see the report on the study we had in the parliamentary committee become accelerated and hopefully tabled in this place before we rise. To date that has not yet happened. There is no report tabled in the House and that is of great concern to me, given specifically the situation that has unfolded in Chechnya and the fact that we are seeing escalations of violence against members of these communities in countries such as Iran.
It is one thing for the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, or any member of the government committee to stand for a photo op with the pride flag, as was done today. It is a very different thing to move forward an agenda that would protect members of these communities who are some of the most vulnerable in the world, and we have not seen that.
Prior to the House rising for the summer, government members on the Standing Committee on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugees have the opportunity to table a report, which hopefully has cross-party support, with recommendations which would see regular and sustained funding for the pilot program that assisted members of this community coming to Canada. We heard from civil society groups that this is something that is very much supported. This program has been absolutely successful, yet we have not heard anything from the government and I think it is shameful.
Therefore, when will the government commit to ensuring that there is regular, ongoing funding for the pilot program started under our former Conservative government to accelerate and protect the needs of LGBTQ refugees from around the world?
Mr. Speaker, yet again this evening, during adjournment proceedings, the member for Calgary Nose Hill raises a question that has nothing to do with the matter she was supposed to address. I think this is the second or third time she has done this. The question was supposed to be about settlement and integration services for refugees, and that is the question she will get an answer to, as that is what I will be talking about.
When refugees come to Canada from a country ravaged by a devastating civil war, especially those who have limited language skills or education, it is important to give them some time to become fully contributing members of our society and the labour market and a chance to succeed.
In addition to adapting to their new life in Canada, resettled refugees must frequently deal with significant trauma. It is important to remember that our resettlement program is first and foremost about saving lives and bringing people to safety. It is not expected that all refugees will be able to fully support themselves after just one year in Canada. As I have said before, we need to give them a bit of time to adapt to their new life.
That being said, this government is committed to ensuring that these new permanent residents are provided with the tools they need to set themselves up for success.
This fiscal year, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada will invest more than $690 million to support the settlement needs of newcomers outside of Quebec, including over $93 million in supplementary funding for the Syrian refugee effort.
Preliminary findings from a survey indicate that more than half of privately-sponsored Syrian refugees are currently employed. There have been many challenges in fully addressing language training needs, but we have added classes and, where waitlists exist, our service providers establish an order of priority among the clients.
Over the past year, the department added almost 7,000 new spots in language courses across Canada, or outside Quebec, to meet the needs of a growing number of Syrian refugees.
When federal income support ends, it is normal for some refugees in need to transition to provincial or territorial social assistance support. As this support falls under provincial or territorial jurisdiction, it would inappropriate for me to comment on the exact cost.
Generally speaking, the amount of income support provided by the federal government under the resettlement assistance program is aligned with provincial and territorial social assistance rates. Each case varies depending on individual circumstances.
Eligible refugee families also receive the new and enhanced tax-free Canada child benefit, which has been available since July 2016.
The federal government is working closely with IRCC-funded service provider organizations to ensure that refugees who may require financial support beyond their first year are connected with appropriate provincial resources and are informed of the process to apply for social assistance.
We encourage all refugees to access as many resettlement support services as they need to help them succeed. These services are available at no cost to refugees, and indeed to all permanent residents, until they become Canadian citizens.
We are determined to help these people, and we will continue to do so. Our government will ensure that these people can adapt to our society.
Mr. Speaker, for those listening, I would like to remind people that my colleague opposite holds a government appointment. He is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. He should be able to answer this very simple question, which I put to him earlier: after the government spent the day raising the Pride flag on Parliament Hill, will it commit to either tabling the report on LGBTQ refugees and what the government is going to do to support it or, very simply, tonight commit to extending and regularizing the pilot program funding that was introduced under our government to support the most vulnerable people in the world, LGBTQ refugees, in coming to Canada?
Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of Canadians tuning in at home, I will read the exact question the member submitted to the House for this evening's adjournment debate.
Mr. Speaker, we know that the resettlement funds many Syrian refugees have been receiving run out this month. We also know that fewer than half of them have found jobs.
Does the government know how much the provinces will have to pay out in social assistance because the Liberals did not come up with a plan to help these refugees fully integrate into the Canadian economy?
I answered the question the member asked me.
Canada Revenue AgencyAdjournment Proceedings
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Mr. Speaker, here we are moments from midnight on June 14, and I am moved to rise in the House because, on March 8, I questioned the Prime Minister about penalty-free amnesty deals and tax treaties with countries that are known tax havens. The purpose of my question was to find out when the government would take action to end these unacceptable practices.
I applaud the fact that the Liberal government invested about $500 million in the Canada Revenue Agency to fight tax evasion, but it is going about this all wrong by failing to tackle the root of the problem. What is the point of fighting these tricky tax manoeuvres when our own laws make them possible?
We must take action on the legislative front. We need to tighten our tax laws and punish the immoral act of tax avoidance to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes. We could use those revenues to invest in infrastructure, tackle poverty, and create good jobs. We need to restore tax fairness, tighten the rules on shell companies, and revise the treaties that allow large multinationals to repatriate profits from tax havens to Canada tax-free. It is unfair that it is often the wealthiest in our society who get out of paying their fair share, when they also use roads, hospitals, and schools paid for by everyone.
Every year we are losing billions of dollars that could be invested in our communities, whether in education, health, or our social programs. Organizations in my riding and across the country need those large sums of money for our communities. This situation is unacceptable. The government needs to reform the tax laws and regulations in order to crack down on those who use tax avoidance schemes that, although not fully illegal, are definitely immoral.
In 2015, wealthy Canadians invested $185.5 billion in tax havens, or 25% of all foreign investments for that year. That is more than was invested in China or Europe, but these tax havens are very small, sparsely populated states. We suspect that these investments are in no means meant to finance any real activities, but instead seek to free a handful of people from paying their taxes, people who think they are above the law. That money must stay in Canada so that it can be invested in our infrastructure and our public services. Unfortunately, because of the government's inaction, billions of dollars continue to disappear in the sun.
This past January and February, I held public consultations that drew hundreds of people. The people of my riding are concerned about tax evasion; it is an issue they raise with me often.
Like my NDP colleagues, I receive hundreds of email on the subject. The NDP moved a motion in the House calling on the government to immediately address the issue of tax havens and end the practice of offering penalty-free amnesty deals for tax cheats.
Today, I want to focus on the treaties that our country has signed with tax havens. Some taxpayers are using our lenient tax laws and morally questionable schemes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes in Canada. The wealthiest members of our society are able to use some of these tax treaties to fund tax schemes and pay accounting experts to help them get away with paying as little tax as possible. They are playing with fire and when they get a little too close to the flame and get caught, they have the means to pay tax lawyers to defend them. In the end, they always win. Meanwhile, middle-class Canadians are penalized for the slightest error on their income tax return. We have a two-tiered tax system, which is unfair. It is truly appalling.
Will the Canadian government continue to bestow favours on the very wealthy?
Brampton West Ontario
Kamal Khera LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for raising this extremely important question, and I welcome the opportunity to speak about the actions that the government and the Canada Revenue Agency have taken to crack down on offshore tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.
Court records show that it is through the efforts of the agency that the KPMG offshore tax avoidance scheme was discovered and that many of its participants have already been identified. On November 29, 2016, the Federal Court dismissed with cost a KPMG motion challenging the judicial order allowing theMinister of National Revenue to request client information from KPMG. It remains the government's position that all participants in this tax avoidance scheme must be identified and brought into full compliance with their tax obligations.
The confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act prevent the CRA from discussing the details of specific cases related to a particular individual or group of individuals beyond what is already on public record, but what I can tell the member is that the litigation uses significant financial and judicial resources with no guarantee of achieving a desired outcome. The CRA takes all steps available to meet its obligations to recover all taxes owed to the crown and to resolve issues before the court in a timely manner. In addition, it is well known that audits and investigations can take months or years to complete, depending on factors such as the complexity of the cases, the number of taxpayers involved, the availability of information and evidence, co-operation from taxpayers, and the various legal tools necessary to establish a case.
Make no mistake: our government continues to ramp up its actions to crack down on offshore tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. Our government has committed close to $1 billion to cracking down on tax evasion and combatting tax avoidance. By focusing resources in the areas of highest risk both domestically and internationally, and with increased information-gathering capabilities, the CRA now has access to more information than ever before.
Using intelligence gathered through these tools and using experienced audit and investigation teams, the CRA has a robust system in place to tackle tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance on many fronts.
That is what Canadians expect of their government, and that is exactly what we will continue to deliver for them.
June 15th, Midnight
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary said that they are going to continue.
Unfortunately, last week, we learned that the Liberals are continuing to sign new treaties. They signed a new treaty with another tax haven, Cook Islands. It will now be possible to bring tax-free profits back to Canada. This new tax treaty is much too flexible and mostly favours the wealthy. It will create more tax evasion than we have already. The government is not cracking down on existing tax evasion. It is creating more. Even if the government recovers money by investing in the fight against tax evasion, it is losing even more by signing a new tax treaty. It makes no sense at all. How can the government claim to be taking action against tax evasion while doing the opposite? Why is it using all its resources to track tax criminals while giving them the tools they need to carry out their schemes by signing this sort of treaty? I am thinking of the poor employees at the CRA who have more work to do and whose jobs become even more complicated every time a new agreement is signed.
When will the government actually get to the root of the problem and revise the tax treaties signed with tax havens?
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
Mr. Speaker, as I said, the CRA is currently reviewing its policies around making a voluntary disclosure. People applying to use the program who have used it before may find that the door is now permanently closed to them. Tax cheats are running out of options, and it will only become harder for them going forward.
I want to close by informing this House that settlement agreements are not the soft landing that many believe them to be, and they are in no way an amnesty. When the CRA enters a settlement agreement, it will assess tax retroactively, going back as many years as possible, which is often a decade or more. Taxpayers who have reached a settlement agreement must accept CRA's calculation of the tax and compounded interest on all taxes owed, and they waive their right to appeal or object to this calculation.
Our government continues to go after every dollar that is owed by high-wealth individuals, and it has more resources now than ever before. Once again, I believe that this is what Canadians expect of their government, and that is exactly what we will continue to deliver for them.
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until later this day at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).
(The House adjourned at 12:04 a.m.)


text:
Q: How to use methods define in http://www.rubydoc.info/ site I have open rails console and want to use pluralize method but i am getting error as NoMethodError: undefined methodpluralize' for main:Object`
pluralize(1, 'person')
i can see the documentation for this method here http://www.rubydoc.info/docs/rails/4.1.7/ActionView/Helpers/TextHelper#pluralize-instance_method but i don't know how to use this documentation. i have tried below code but it didn't work
ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper.new.puralize(1, 'person')
ActionView::Helpers.new.pluralize(1 , 'person')

Please help
Thanks,

A: Use:
include ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper

Not:
ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper.new.puralize(1, 'person')

or

ActionView::Helpers.new.pluralize(1 , 'person')

A: Instead of calling using new:
ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper.new.puralize(1, 'person')
ActionView::Helpers.new.pluralize(1 , 'person')

You should call it using include include ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper. Like below.
include ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper

pluralize(1, 'person')
# => 1 person

pluralize(2, 'person')
# => 2 people

pluralize(3, 'person', 'users')
# => 3 users

pluralize(0, 'person')
# => 0 people

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How to swap between languages in Dialogflow? I have a multilanguage agent which is integrated with Hangouts chat and Google Cloud Platform. Do you know any easy way to switch languages during conversation? Fe. at the beginning of talk, you can choose your default language for this session? Or maybe you have any other ideas how to do that?
Thank you!


text:
from gateways import *
from lib import *

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We often get mesmerized by the suggestion that we need a grand vision. That is why I always find it fascinating to hear that so many high achievers had no grand vision, or at least they did not have the grand vision of the particular success they achieved.
Tom Brady was the latest person I heard to suggest such a thing. In the pregame segment he taped with Terry Bradshaw, Brady told Bradshaw, "I never imagined myself in this situation," meaning playing in his 7th Super Bowl with a chance to win 5.
We often hear that we need to imagine it before we achieve it, but in reality, being excellent always rests with doing one's best in the present moment, after all, it's the only moment we ever live in. Now, to be sure, some of that excellence in the present is direct toward planning, but it always strikes me unusual, and quite wonderful actually, when someone exclaims that their life exceeded their wildest dreams.
I am not suggesting that imagery, planning, and/or goal setting are bad. That's not at all my point. Planning has a purpose, but even though planning is about the future, it's an act that must be done – like all others – in the moment. Thus, even planning must be performed excellently in the moment.
If one is to do rather than just dream, the planning must turn to action, and when taking action, so much big excellence is in the tiny details. Sometimes the grandest way to imagine something is to see the ordinary with extraordinary detail, focus, and care. Grand visions without action never materialize, but actions without a grand vision can still build a masterpiece one little detail at a time.
I think this is why Brady was so composed when Super Bowl LI started so poorly for the Patriots. He realizes that his vision of what he wants need not prevent him from dealing effectively with what is. He understands that he has built a masterpiece one little detail at a time, so that is how he took to dismantling the large deficit. Like with his entire career, perhaps in focusing on the tiny details he could influence, he exceeded what he could have accomplished had he tried to take in the entire bigger picture.
There is nothing wrong with a grand vision, but there is also nothing wrong with a limited or seemingly small vision with extraordinary focus on the little things that make the big things possible. As Emerson wrote, "The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common." Sometimes this wisdom leads us to places beyond our wildest dreams.
Posted on February 7, 2017 February 6, 2017 by woodjaredPosted in Expectations, Goals, UncategorizedTagged dreams, Imagery, Jared Wood, Michigan, miraculous, New England Patriots, Oakland County, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, sport psychologist, Sport Psychology, Sports Psychology, Super Bowl LI, the little things, tiny details, Tom Brady, vision, wisdom.


Sunday morning is our primary experience as a community. Children begin with us in worship, for they are full participants. Worship follows a regular, familiar pattern that allows for variety and new experiences. Our time together might be based on scripture readings, world events, interesting themes, special music. We balance joyful noise and quiet reflection, with opportunities for both reflection and participation.
Worship at First Parish can range from a "traditional" worship service with a bible-study-sermon to a Hymn Sing, Poetry Slam, Quaker Meeting, or Healing Service. Most services include two readings, one from the bible and one from another source such as the newspaper, literature, poetry, etc. Special guests bring insight and inspiration to our Sunday mornings, and regular lay participation enriches our time together. The Meetinghouse frequently rings with laughter, and tissues in the pews help deal with occasional tears. It is always the goal of worship to relate to our whole lives, providing stimulation and support for the joys and concerns of life.
Special Worship services at First Parish include Christmas Eve worship at 4 p.m. crafted especially for children, and Lessons and Carols at 11 p.m. that culminate on the stroke of midnight.
In the spring, Easter special worship includes the solemn and moving Maundy Thursday service the Thursday before Easter, and sunrise worship on Westford Common on Easter morning.
A unique FPCU worship tradition is Leaf Raking Sunday. Following a brief worship service in the Meetinghouse, the congregation goes out to rake the leaves of Westford residents in need of this assistance. Our work is our worship!
Other special worship services include Solstice celebrations, outdoor worship, evening Communion, and Longest Night / Blue Christmas services.
Nursery care is available downstairs in the Meetinghouse for the entire worship service.
Children pre-k through grade 8 begin in worship and leave for Religious Education after the Word for All Ages.


Contact Us Today for San Diego Shutters, Blinds, and Shades!
As every business owner and employee knows, eventually, something is going to go wrong. That's true for all areas in life, but when it comes to business, the stress can easily become amplified. After all, a successful business means a good reputation and a successful track record when it comes to providing your products and services.
We recently had a client order some of our San Diego shades. Unfortunately, the manufacturer had designed them incorrectly. So, we contacted the client, made an apology, and had the shades remade at no extra charge. We also gave them a discount for their inconvenience. The client was very appreciative, so much so that they gave us a fantastic review on Yelp despite the mix-up.
Mistakes happen in the workplace all the time, and it's up to every business owner to try and mitigate these occurrences as much as possible. What helps is the understanding that negative experiences can actually be transformed quite easily into positive ones. If a customer sees you go out of your way to rectify a problem, it can actually give the same impression of a job done flawlessly.
Many times, businesses only see just how dissatisfied certain customers are when reading online reviews. For many people, voicing the full extent of their frustration is difficult in person, as this puts them in a confrontational place with others. On the other hand, writing something out online allows them to voice their frustrations in private – that's when they really speak their mind.
Throughout the course of your profession, whether you're selling blinds and shutters in San Diego or hot dogs somewhere on the East Coast, it's important to understand how to respond to negative online reviews. Large and small businesses alike are affected by the internet, which seems to permeate virtually every aspect of our lives.
Don't take it personally. We know, this is easier said than done. However, it's important that you approach this situation in a calm and collected mood.
Take some time before you respond. This helps your emotions to settle down and gives you time to think about ways you can solve the problem.
Respond to the review. Many businesses ignore bad reviews, but the thing to remember is, no response is a response in itself. It's also a bad response. Even if there's simply nothing you can do to solve the problem, and their mind's been made up, people like to see that you're taking an interest in all feedback, positive or negative. Often, a dissatisfied customer simply wants to be heard. All you need to do is communicate that you understand their frustration and would like to offer a solution.
Apologize, and then offer the solution right away. It's important to offer fast solutions to dissatisfied customers. Even if you feel this situation wasn't your fault, it's good to apologize anyway. Immediately after you've acknowledged their complaint, suggest what you believe to be the most appropriate solution.
If the reply was written out correctly and the customer responds, he or she will likely be happy at your offer to solve the problem. Not only that, they'll probably even be a bit apologetic themselves. Most people don't expect businesses to acknowledge reviews at all. They see the review section as simply a place to vent. When they see their review has actually been read and is being taken seriously by the business, their frustration is likely to diminish.
Positively responding to negative reviews has a good track record for converting unhappy customers to future customers. However, even if they don't reply, and your offer is left hanging, this has still accomplished something important: It has shown those who read your business reviews that you care about what your customers think, and that you're willing to go above and beyond to solve any problems.
As a company that prides itself on its quality San Diego shutters, blinds, and shades, we try our best to give our customers exactly what they want. When mix-ups happen, it's important for all businesses to do what it takes to make their customers happy.


POLICE are jubilant after a traffic stop netted drugs and cash in a car.
The PSNI say that last Friday, response officers arrested a driver on suspicion of driving whilst unfit after a routine traffic stop in north Belfast.
"A search was carried out of the vehicle and a quantity of suspected Class C and a suspected Class A drugs were seized," said a spokesman.
"The crew also seized a quantity of cash from the suspect.


Make a statement. This bag is all about the wild beauty of the alligator's complex scale pattern. The tote is designed to hold most everything in your life from an iPad to your passport. Sturdy shoulder straps, two interior slot pockets for cell phone and keys, one zipper pocket for valuables, lots of open space for a cloth napkin, a bottle of bubbly and a pastrami sandwich for the plane.
Ten inches tall, 12 inches across, 5 inches deep. Leather lined. Custom colors, 6 to 8 weeks.


text:
India's Modi Opens 2 Expressways Around Delhi to Reduce Pollution
28/05/2018 PoscienНаука
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday he expected around a 30 percent drop in the number of vehicles entering Delhi, as he opened two new expressways around the capital aimed at decongesting its streets and reducing deadly pollution.
A damning report by the World Health Organization this month said India was home to the world's 14 most polluted cities, with Delhi ranked sixth most polluted. Air quality has worsened over recent winters, prompting Modi's office to directly monitor measures to clean up the capital's air.
"The expressways will greatly benefit the people of Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) by reducing pollution and will bring down traffic jams," Modi said.
The NCR is a rapidly urbanizing and polluted area around New Delhi that is one-third the size of New York state, but houses 2.5 times more people.
Illegal crop burning in farm states surrounding New Delhi, vehicle exhausts and swirling construction dust have contributed to what has become an annual crisis.
The 135-kilometer (84-mile), six-lane Eastern Peripheral Expressway was built in 17 months at a total cost of around 110 billion rupees ($1.62 billion), the government said.
More than 50,000 vehicles that transit the capital city on their way to other destinations would no longer need to enter New Delhi, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters on Saturday.
It offers signal-free connectivity and is the first green highway fully lit by solar power, has drip pumps for watering plants alongside the highway and has rain water harvesting. Modi also opened an initial stretch of an 82 km Delhi-Meerut highway, which is India's first 14-lane.
Modi's administration is marking its fourth year in office this weekend and has vowed to speed up infrastructure development as it heads into a national election in 2019.
П'ятий рік каденції. Що виконає п'ятий президент Порошенко? – Ранковий ефір Радіо Свобода
Українка Козлова вибила з Roland Garros чинну чемпіонку


text:
Abortion pressure target of bill
Bruinooge hoping to end intimidation
By: Adam Wazny
Posted: 04/15/2010 1:00 AM	| Comments:
This article was published 14/4/2010 (3568 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge introduced a new bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday, aimed at protecting pregnant women against abortion intimidation.
'Roxanne's Law,' named in memory of a pregnant Winnipeg woman who was murdered by her partner after she refused to have an abortion, is a private member's bill that would make it a criminal offence for anyone to coerce a woman to terminate her pregnancy.
Working as the chair of the multi-party parliamentary pro-life caucus, Bruinooge, a staunch supporter of the pro-life position, said he has heard of several cases of intimidation of young pregnant women to have an abortion, and hopes making it a crime will curb those instances.
"It's not just as simple as feeling pressured to get an abortion; there is a lot of discussion of sex-selection abortion these days, as well," Bruinooge said, referring to the scenario where a woman is pressured to abort once the sex of the fetus is determined. "It's part of the overall topic of intimidation that goes towards a pregnant woman."
News of the bill was not met with open arms from pro-choice advocates. Joyce Arthur, coordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, called the proposed law "a basic fear tactic" and wonders if the proposed amendment is being considered to get around existing Canadian abortion laws.
"They're trying to intimidate and scare abortion providers," she said. "Providers could find themselves facing prosecution for coercing abortion."
Arthur maintains the bill steps on the toes of a successful system that's already in place and undermines the good work pregnancy support groups do. Counsellors at clinics are on the front-lines educating people on the rights of the woman, outlining the choices they have and how the decision to see the pregnancy to term is theirs and theirs alone.
"It's a solution looking for a problem that doesn't really exist," Arthur said. "Typically, women who are coerced into having an abortion are already caught at the counselling stage."
Bruinooge said 'Roxanne's Law' would not limit a woman's access to abortion in Canada, and that providers should not feel exposed by the law.
"Abortion will continue to be legal in Canada," he said. "Anyone providing information in a non-threatening way is entirely legitimate. Someone shouldn't feel threatened towards a decision, though."
adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca


text:
New study claims that six-foot social distancing rule indoors is ineffective in preventing coronavirus transmission
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 by: Ramon Tomey
Tags: badhealth, badscience, coronavirus transmission, covid-19 pandemic, enclosed spaces, indoor transmission, John Bush, Martin Bazant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respiratory droplets, six-foot rule, social distancing, Wuhan coronavirus
(Natural News) Two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have argued that the "six-foot rule" of social distancing indoors is devoid of any scientific basis. Professors Martin Bazant and John Bush said that the risk of Wuhan coronavirus exposure indoors is the same regardless of distance – even if people wear masks. This is because respiratory droplets in the air tend to rise, travel and descend somewhere in an enclosed space.
For their study published April 27 in PNAS, Bazant and Bush developed a model to calculate indoor exposure risk. They included a number of factors such as duration of stay inside an enclosed space, use of masks, air filtration and circulation and respiratory activity. The two researchers explained that whether people situate themselves six feet or 60 feet apart, they still face the same risk of contracting the pathogen.
During an interview with CNBC, Bazant argued that "there really isn't much of a benefit to the six-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks." He explained: "The air a person is breathing while wearing a mask tends to rise and [come] down elsewhere in the room. [You're] more exposed to the average background than you are to a person at a distance."
However, well-ventilated spaces significantly diminish this risk. The MIT researchers' findings suggest that an enclosed space can "be safely operated even at full capacity" as long as it has proper ventilation. Bazant elaborated: "Oftentimes – the space is large enough, the ventilation is good enough, [and] the amount of time [people] spend together is such that those spaces can be safely operated even at full capacity."
The MIT professor added that he and his colleague found that the duration people spend in an enclosed space – not social distancing – plays a key factor in people's safety. The less time people stay in such a space, the lower their risk is of contracting the Wuhan coronavirus.
Bazant remarked that the scientific support for limiting the capacity of indoor spaces "is really not very good." He continued: "What our analysis continues to show is that many spaces that have been shut down in fact don't need to be. I think if you run the numbers, even right now for many types of spaces – you'd find that there is not a need for occupancy restrictions."
Researchers argue that distance does not matter when it comes to droplet transmission indoors
According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people should maintain a minimum distance of six feet from each other. This is because the pathogen responsible for COVID-19 travels by respiratory droplets exhaled by an infected person. However, the MIT researchers argued that the so-called "six-foot rule" is ineffective in enclosed spaces.
Bazant and Bush noted in their study that human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 occurs via three routes – all involving aerosol droplets. Activities such as breathing, talking and coughing release these respiratory droplets, which are usually microscopic in size. These can rise and travel throughout an entire room as they are warm from a person's body heat.
Contact transmission happens when a person touches infected droplets on a surface – with the hand or finger subsequently coming into contact with the eyes, nose or mouth. Large-drop transmission happens when large droplets from an infected person's mouth enter the eyes or mouth of a non-infected person. Airborne transmission meanwhile happens when non-infected people inhale virus-laden small droplets expelled by an infected person or those lingering in the air.
Bazant and Bush remarked in their study that the six-foot rule can "substantially reduce the risk" of large-drop transmission. However, airborne droplets can travel distances beyond six feet. The researchers also noted that the difference between large-drop and airborne transmission is somewhat vague due to the varying sizes of expelled droplets.
The MIT researchers may have found a supporter in former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. In March 2021, he dubbed the six-foot social distancing mandate as "the single costliest mitigation tactic" against COVID-19. The former FDA head also admitted that the rule "wasn't based on clear science."
Gottlieb remarked during an appearance in the CNBC program Closing Bell: "The six-foot distancing requirement has probably been the single costliest mitigation tactic we've employed in response to [COVID-19.] And it really wasn't based on clear science." He admitted that he and other health authorities "should have re-adjudicated [the issue] much earlier."
According to the former FDA commissioner, health authorities initially assumed that the Wuhan coronavirus spread in the similar manner as influenza. "I think the fact that we've probably over-relied on a flu-based model caused us to under-appreciate the role of aerosol transmission. [It also] probably caused us to overestimate contaminated surfaces as a source of spread," Gottlieb commented.
Visit Pandemic.news to read more articles about the six-foot rule and other measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
PNAS.org
TheBlaze.com
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https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-05-18-study-distancing-indoors-ineffective-preventing-coronavirus-transmission.html
New study claims that six-foot social distancing rule indoors is ineffective in preventing coronavirus transmission


text:
Chinese clothing maker seeks cheaper labour overseas
Vancl, one of China's best-known fashion brands, has started shifting production overseas in an effort to cut labour rates and beat the country's rapidly rising production costs.
The company, China's largest independent online clothing retailer by sales, has started sourcing a small part of its production from Bangladesh on a trial basis, and plans to increase the proportion made outside China.
A Vancl official said the company is contacting manufacturers in Indonesia, Cambodia and other southeast Asian countries as part of the outsourcing effort.
Vancl said the main incentive for the move was cheaper labour costs. "One Bangladesh worker's monthly salary would be Rmb500 to Rmb600 ($80 to $95), while one Chinese worker now costs at least Rmb2,000 per month," it said, noting that even after paying higher transport and other costs Vancl could save five to 10 per cent of total costs by outsourcing.
According to a report released Tuesday by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, China's average monthly pay for migrant workers under the age of 35 was Rmb2,513 last year, up almost 30 per cent since 2009.
Difficulty recruiting workers was another reason, Vancl said, noting that the "new generation" of Chinese workers did not like factory jobs. Manufacturers across China in labour-intensive industries say younger migrants �C many of whom have grown up in cities �C aspire to service or white-collar jobs rather than assembly-line labour.
Vancl has not yet decided how significant a proportion of its production it will source overseas. "The production cycle can be as long as four to six months [in Bangladesh]," a company official said, while domestic suppliers are required to deliver in 30 to 45 days. Vancl said it also felt "proud of its traditional 'made in China' label."
"Vancl only sells to the China market," said Shaun Rein of China Market Research in Shanghai. "One of the reasons they win is they can introduce new products, tailored specifically for China, very quickly." Sourcing from Bangladesh could jeopardize that, he said.
Still, more and more Chinese brands will outsource in this way, as domestic labour costs continue to soar, said Shao Ligang, of Beijing-based Jiupai Yixian apparel consultancy.
Torsten Stocker, head of the Asian consumer goods practice at Monitor Group, said: "But this is far from the end of textile manufacturing in China.
"A host of other factors influence sourcing decisions: labour productivity … training-skill level, degree of automation, degree of worker loyalty … and speed-to-market," he said. "China will still have a significant role to play."


Quotes are always meant to encourage and inspire people. Teamwork quotes will motivate employees and maximize the performance of the firm.
That the value of teamwork and the contribution a team makes the success of an organization is well-known. Teamwork has become the definition of success in today's corporate world. A team driven by passion and commitment to excellence scales the firm to new heights of success. And let's not limit teamwork to just the business world, teamwork has become a common objective in every sphere of life. Right says the proverb, 'United we stand, divided we fall'.
The quotes mentioned above can be used in offices and workplaces to highlight the importance of teamwork. Inspirational and thought provoking, these quotes are the mantra of success in today's life. No firm can survive the tough competitions in today's world without teamwork. In the words of Helen Keller, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."


Matt finally gets his own episode!
One of Matt's missions is to teach and educate the people in Wisconsin (and now the world on AToTH!) on the benefits of fluoride. Evidence-based methods are used to show city councils and local government officials the truth about fluoride. We talk about the anti-fluoride groups and what their biggest claims are and how to discuss (or not to sometimes) the issues in a civilized manner.
Matt encourages people not to debate – just show them the facts!
Come see us at RDH UNDER ONE ROOF in August!
I'm so glad I listened all he way to the end! Great idea Andrew...to describe cleanings as sometimes therapeutic and sometimes preventative! Perfect.
I enjoyed listening to Matt too - he's my Wisconsin buddy. A bonafide expert. Well done.