New print issues of Black Static and Interzone, and new online issues of Apex, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Galaxy's Edge, GigaNotoSaurus, Lightspeed, Mythic Delirium, Nightmare, Shimmer, and Uncanny.
• This issue has fiction by Rachel Harrison, Cassandra Khaw, Bentley A. Reese, and T.A. Pratt.
• Nonfiction includes an interview with Rachel Harrison, a remembrance of Ursula K. Le Guin, an interview with Benedick Bana, and a review of Black Panther.
• Stories in this issue are by E. Catherine Tobler, Jack Westlake, David Martin, Kay Chronister, and Michael Wehunt.
• Note: there was no January/February issue, for reasons explained in this editorial by Andy Cox.
• This issue has fiction by Kij Johnson, Juliette Wade, Izzy Wasserstein, Xiu Xinyu, E. Lily Yu, Kage Baker, and Rich Larson.
• Nonfiction includes an interview with Jo Walton and essays by Carrie Sessarego and Cat Rambo.
• This issue has new stories by Hadeer Elsbai and Aliya Whiteley, and reprint stories by Ray Cluley and Mark Morris.
• New and reprinted stories in this issue are by Michael Haynes, Robert Jeschonek, Nancy Kress, Brennan Harvey, Regina Kanya Wang, Robert Silverberg, Larry Hodges, George Nikolopoulos, Robert J. Sawyer, Jon Lasser, Steven H Silver, and Orson Scott Card.
• There's also part five of a serialization of Joan Slonczewski's Daughter of Elysium.
• Nonfiction includes an interview with Greg Bear, columns by Gregory Benford and Robert J. Sawyer, and recommended books by Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye.
• This month's story is "Traces of Us" by Vanessa Fogg.
• This issue has fiction by James Sallis, Antony Johnston, Julie C. Day, Michael Reid, T.R. Napper, Alexandra Renwick, and Eliot Fintushel.
• Features include an editorial by Antony Johnston, columns by Jonathan McCalmont and Nina Allan, David Langford's "Ansible Link" news and obits, a book review section, and film reviews by Nick Lowe.
• This issue has SF stories by Bryan Camp, A. Merc Rustad, Ken Liu, and N.K. Jemisin, and fantasy stories by Jeremiah Tolbert, Beesan Odeh, Seanan McGuire, and Cassandra Khaw & A. Maus.
• Nonfiction includes an interview with Na'amen Gobert Tilahun, book reviews by Arley Sorg, and reviews of Black Panther by Joseph Allen Hill and Carrie Vaughn.
• Exclusive paid content includes a novella by Alec Nevala-Lee and a novel excerpt by Tessa Gratton.
• Featured in March is a story by Tiffany Trent, and poems by Christina Sng and Cassandra Rose Clark.
• Featured in February is a story by Jennifer R. Donohue, and poems by Beth Cato.
• Featured in January is a story by Jaymee Goh and poems by Cassandra Rose Clarke and Donald Raymond.
• This issue has fiction by A. Merc Rustad, M. Rickert, Lilliam Rivera, and Stephen Bacon.
• Nonfiction includes book reviews by Adam-Troy Castro, and an "H Word" column by Charles Payseur.
• Stories in this issue are by Sara Saab, Sara Beitia, Lora Gray, and Kathrin Köhler.
• This issue has original fiction by Sarah Pinsker, A.T. Greenblatt, Emma Törzs, Sarah Monette, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, and Brandon O'Brien, and reprint fiction by Nalo Hopkinson.
• Poetry is by Fran Wilde, Cassandra Khaw, Brandon O'Brien, Beth Cato, Sonya Taaffe, Hal Y. Zhang, and Andrea Tang.
• There are also interviews with A.T. Greenblatt and Vina Jie-Min Prasad, and nonfiction by R.F. Kuang, Neile Graham, Marissa Lingen, and Karlyn Ruth Meyer.


text:
Liu Yuxiang (), née le  à Hengyang, est une judokate chinoise.

Palmarès international en judo

Notes et références

Liens externes

Naissance en octobre 1975
Judokate chinoise
Judokate aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 2000
Judokate aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 2004
Naissance dans la province du Hunan
Médaillée de bronze olympique chinoise
Championne d'Asie de judo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I hear people puzzle over this question often. Oh, not so much about why I have cancer, but why cancer exists. In a world filled with bizarre, pre-enlightenment notions of "knowledge" that competes for our attention, it's easy to see why so many would be confused. Luckily, we know exactly why cancer exists. It's no mystery, and it certainly doesn't require mystical explanation (though I've been astonished at how many attribute it to non-material forces).
Cancer happens because change is the fundamental property of living things. That change can happen in populations, or it can happen in individuals. Somewhere along the way, probably in the early 2000′s, one of my b-cells—that important component of the immune system that generates those amazing chemicals called antibodies . . . well . . . got changed. The change was random. I do not use this word—random—in the unfortunate way so many are today, to mean improbable, which is the precise opposite of its actual meaning. The change certainly was improbable in that single cell, in my body; such changes, however, are highly probably across populations where cells are changing all the time. But when I say random, I mean that it was just as likely to occur in the cell that it occurred in as it was to occur in any b-cell, and the change's occurrence was without direction, without intention.
The details of the change in my b-cell are well known, and in my case they were demonstrated genetically in Manhattan at the time of my formal diagnosis with follicular lymphoma. Most say something went wrong; I don't see it that way. Oh, I'm not one of those infuriating bright-siders who say absurd things like they're glad they got cancer, or whatever other garbage they have to tell themselves so they can grapple with their mortality. I just know biology, and life is change. Populations of cells change just as populations of wasps change. One of my cells changed. That's it. Maybe, it could've been an advantageous change, but it wasn't, at least not for the whole of me (but from the reproductive perspective of the b-cell, it certainly was. . . more on that later).
The relevant behavioral change in that singe b-cell allowed it to reproduce without bound, and so it and its daughters have been busy clogging my body with their bodies—with too much of me.


text:
Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/ea4bba6c297b447db4eadf260fb43a01
Police investigate late-night stabbing in Whitman
WHITMAN, Mass. (AP) — Police in Massachusetts are investigating a stabbing that sent a 16-year-old boy to the hospital with what were described as life-threatening injuries.
The stabbing occurred at a home in Whitman at about 9 p.m. Sunday. The victim was located in the yard of the home and taken to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth.
Chief Scott Benton says another 16-year-old boy is facing charges including assault to murder in juvenile court. He has been released to the custody of his parents.
Benton says the stabbing was the result of a "disagreement" between two teens who know each other.
Police say a knife with about a 4-inch blade was found at the scene.
No names were released because the victim and suspect are juveniles.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


India, counted among the emerging economies of the world is scripting its growth story today. This article is designed as a quick review of some of the most common environmental violations observed in India and reasons for the same. This summary will help business leaders who are working in India to identify and resolve environmental compliance challenges.
Log in | 24 queries. 0.193 seconds.


I am a networking expert seeking the innovative, brilliant, go-getters and risk takers of the world. I have a true passion to connect with people, and to help others do the same. I thrive off building lasting relationships and exceeding customer expectations. I have a lot of drive and my goal is to bring exceptional service to everyone I am involved with. Best advice? Jump! No risk, no reward.
Laura is a results oriented person that is committed to her clients and to her peers. I have had the pleasure of working with Laura as a client. She is relentless in her pursuit to provide the service and/or personnel required for the task at hand. Laura is very professional in her dealings with people at all levels within an organization and she was very knowledgeable with the requirements of the areas that she served. She is definitely a person that I would want on my team.
I worked with Laura for a couple of years, several years ago. During that time, Laura worked as both a recruiter and account manager. She demonstrated a passion for providing exceptional work and delivering at the client's expectations. She is results driven and committed to both the client and her peers. She was always very professional in interactions with people at different levels inside and outside of the organization.
It was always a pleasure to work with Laura. A very professional Recruiter that was flexible and detail oriented. Laura took the time to understand the candidate qualities that we were looking for and helped us meet our timelines for filling the positions.
I would absolutely work with Laura again if the opportunity presented itself.
While working with Laura for more than two years, her skills and drive in the staffing industry were apparent. Always committed to meeting the clients needs, while ensuring a proper fit for the candidate! This is a skill that not everyone in the industry can claim to have.
I learned a lot from Laura, and I would definitely recommend taking the opportunity to work with her.


text:
package org.springframework.boot.actuate.endpoint.web;

import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;

import org.springframework.boot.actuate.endpoint.ExposableEndpoint;

/**
 * A resolver for {@link Link links} to web endpoints.
 *
 * @author Andy Wilkinson
 * @since 2.0.0
 */
public class EndpointLinksResolver {

	private static final Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(EndpointLinksResolver.class);

	private final Collection<? extends ExposableEndpoint<?>> endpoints;

	/**
	 * Creates a new {@code EndpointLinksResolver} that will resolve links to the given
	 * {@code endpoints}.
	 * @param endpoints the endpoints
	 */
	public EndpointLinksResolver(Collection<? extends ExposableEndpoint<?>> endpoints) {
		this.endpoints = endpoints;
	}

	/**
	 * Creates a new {@code EndpointLinksResolver} that will resolve links to the given
	 * {@code endpoints} that are exposed beneath the given {@code basePath}.
	 * @param endpoints the endpoints
	 * @param basePath the basePath
	 */
	public EndpointLinksResolver(Collection<? extends ExposableEndpoint<?>> endpoints, String basePath) {
		this.endpoints = endpoints;
		if (logger.isInfoEnabled()) {
			logger.info("Exposing " + endpoints.size() + " endpoint(s) beneath base path '" + basePath + "'");
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Resolves links to the known endpoints based on a request with the given
	 * {@code requestUrl}.
	 * @param requestUrl the url of the request for the endpoint links
	 * @return the links
	 */
	public Map<String, Link> resolveLinks(String requestUrl) {
		String normalizedUrl = normalizeRequestUrl(requestUrl);
		Map<String, Link> links = new LinkedHashMap<>();
		links.put("self", new Link(normalizedUrl));
		for (ExposableEndpoint<?> endpoint : this.endpoints) {
			if (endpoint instanceof ExposableWebEndpoint exposableWebEndpoint) {
				collectLinks(links, exposableWebEndpoint, normalizedUrl);
			}
			else if (endpoint instanceof PathMappedEndpoint pathMappedEndpoint) {
				String rootPath = pathMappedEndpoint.getRootPath();
				Link link = createLink(normalizedUrl, rootPath);
				links.put(endpoint.getEndpointId().toLowerCaseString(), link);
			}
		}
		return links;
	}

	private String normalizeRequestUrl(String requestUrl) {
		if (requestUrl.endsWith("/")) {
			return requestUrl.substring(0, requestUrl.length() - 1);
		}
		return requestUrl;
	}

	private void collectLinks(Map<String, Link> links, ExposableWebEndpoint endpoint, String normalizedUrl) {
		for (WebOperation operation : endpoint.getOperations()) {
			links.put(operation.getId(), createLink(normalizedUrl, operation));
		}
	}

	private Link createLink(String requestUrl, WebOperation operation) {
		return createLink(requestUrl, operation.getRequestPredicate().getPath());
	}

	private Link createLink(String requestUrl, String path) {
		return new Link(requestUrl + (path.startsWith("/") ? path : "/" + path));
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Some of the most fascinating pottery ever made in Japan dates back to the Jomon period (10,000 BC to 300 BC). The open-pit fired large vessels had the most amazing decorative features and continue to inspire potters today, most notably the late Okabe Mineo, Mashiko's Shimaoka Tatsuzo, and Bizen's "kiln god" Mori Togaku.
In 1990, the Shigaraki Ceramic Park Museum hosted an exhibition entitled Primitivism in Contemporary Ceramics highlighting many Jomon works and how they relate to what's happening now. The grand flowing traditions of Japanese ceramic art thrive today due to the living presence and inspiration that past works impart. There is no now without the past and there is no future without the now.
Some of the most intriguing works from the Jomon period are clay figurines called dogu (pronounced dough-goo). There are many theories on what they were used for with the main agreement being they were a talisman for good health or safe childbirth. As many were excavated in fragments, it's believed that after the wish was fulfilled, or not, the dogu was broken and thrown on the trash heap; that's where many were discovered. Another theory is that these were goddesses to whom Jomon people prayed to for food and health. Other explanations are toys for children, funerary offerings, or objects used in some unknown ritual. And, of course, there are those who believe they were aliens from outer space. Yet, if you look at similar primitive artifacts from around the world (the Valdivia culture of Ecuador, for example) there is a certain resemblance that can't be explained in logical terms. It might have been part of the collective consciousness of the times though, or did earth in fact have space-suited visitors from a distant galaxy? This dogu sure seems to fit the match!
Dogu were found all over Japan with northern Japan, the Tohoku region, yielding the most variety. Dogu first appeared in early Jomon but began to flourish in Middle Jomon through Late Jomon. (For a timeline outlining the development of Japanese pottery, please click here.) Many of them have the distinctive Jomon rope-cord patterns while others have been intricately carved with arabesque-like designs. Some in outer-space garb are known as the "goggles type" and no explanation is needed for that naming. Whatever the markings, they are all eerily moving and can't help but spark one's imagination in wondering about life so many thousand of years ago, and the miracle it is today.
As Joseph Campbell once wrote: "Take, for example, a pencil, ashtray, anything, and holding it before you in both hands (in this case looking at dogu), regard it for awhile. Forgetting its name and use, yet continuing to regard it, ask yourself seriously, What is it? Its dimension of wonder opens, for the mystery of the being of that thing is identical with the mystery of the being of the universe, and yourself."


The PicoScope 2105 is a portable handheld oscilloscope that is ideally suited for use by hobbyists, students, technicians, and anyone looking for an easy-to-use, affordable, single-channel PC oscilloscope.
The small size of PicoScope handheld oscilloscopes makes them ideal for portable use, while still including the powerful features normally found in larger oscilloscopes. The PicoScope 2105 has a 100 megasample per second real-time sampling rate. For repetitive signals the sampling rate can be increased to 2 gigasamples per second using digital equivalent-time sampling. These high sampling rates combined with a 24,000 sample buffer memory and 25 MHz analogue bandwidth make the PicoScope 2104 suitable for a wide range of trouble-shooting tasks on both analogue and digital circuits.


text:
=====================
### jquery.validator.js - plugin for [Alberto Cerqueira](https://github.com/albertocerqueira "Alberto Cerqueira")

Class together with methods that perform common functions for data validations often re-used. [see more](https://github.com/g6tech/web-plugins-js/tree/master/plugins/validator/1.0.0/jquery.validator.js "see more")


text:
Mindaugas is a Lithuanian masculine given name and may refer to the following individuals:
Mindaugas (ca. 1203–1263), Lithuanian medieval Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Lithuania
Mindaugas II (1864–1928), German prince who was elected King of Lithuania in 1918 but never reigned
Mindaugas Girdžiūnas (born 1989), Lithuanian basketball player
Mindaugas Grigalevičius (born 1981), Lithuanian football striker
Mindaugas Griškonis (born 1986), Lithuanian rower and Olympic competitor
Mindaugas Kalonas (born 1984), Lithuanian football midfielder
Mindaugas Katelynas (born 1983) Lithuanian  basketball power forward
Mindaugas Lukauskis (born 1979), Lithuanian basketball shooting forward and small forward
Mindaugas Malinauskas (born 1983), Lithuanian footballer goalkeeper
Mindaugas Mizgaitis (born 1979), Lithuanian wrestler and Olympic medalist
Mindaugas Murza (born 1973), Lithuanian nationalist politician
Mindaugas Panka (born 1984), Lithuanian football midfielder and defender
Mindaugas Piečaitis (born 1969), Lithuanian composer and conductor
Mindaugas Rojus (born 1981), Lithuanian opera baritone
Mindaugas Sadauskas (born 1990), Lithuanian swimmer and Olympic competitor
Mindaugas Timinskas (born 1974), Lithuanian basketball small forward and Olympic competitor
Mindaugas Žukauskas (born 1975), Lithuanian basketball small forward, captain and manager

Other
Mindaugas Bridge, a bridge that crosses Neris River and connects Žirmūnai elderate with the Old Town of Vilnius, Lithuania

Lithuanian masculine given names


text:
Home » Scalloper Sold at Auction
Scalloper Sold at Auction
Posted on October 21, 2004 Author Latti & Anderson LLPCategories Articles, Firm News, Verdicts and Settlements
By Becky W. Evans The Standard-Times October 21, 2004
FAIRHAVEN – Fishermen gathered around the rusty-sided Georgie J yesterday at the Fairhaven Shipyard & Marina to cast bids during an auction for the 38-year-old scalloping boat.
Bidding, which began at $1 million, escalated quickly as four men fought for ownership of the 80-foot, steel-hulled vessel.
"I have $1.7 million," said the U.S. marshal, who doubled as auctioneer. "Do I hear more?"
Carlos Rafael, who placed the $1.7 million bid, leaned casually against a dock piling and puffed on a cigarette.
"Going once."
The other stone-faced bidders stared straight ahead.
"Going twice."
The crowd of fishermen leaned into the wind listening for another bid.
"Third and final call."
"Sold," the auctioneer said as Mr. Rafael stepped forward to hand him a $100,000 deposit check, already written to the United States Marshals Service.
Mr. Rafael, who owns four scallopers and 11 draggers, said he had hoped to pay only $1.5 million for the boat.
"But it's good," he said. "It sets the stage for the other scallopers in the fleet."
Staring at the rusty dredges on the Georgie J, Mr. Rafael said the vessel's fishing permits were more valuable than the boat itself.
The scalloper, which was seized by the U.S. Marshals Service on May 5, has an estimated 30 days-at-sea fishing permits to catch scallops before the season ends in March.
The boat was seized from former owner George Jones after a fishing accident paralyzed 30-year-old crewman Victor Capaldi last November.
The Georgie J was hauling back its dredges when a 30-pound steel block fell 20 feet from the rigging and hit Mr. Capaldi in the head, according to his attorney, Carolyn M. Latti.
"It scalped him and rendered him a quadriplegic," said Ms. Latti of the Boston-based Latti & Anderson LLP.
The insurance policy, which valued the Georgie J at approximately $1 million, was too little to cover Mr. Capaldi's future medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering, which total "millions of dollars," Ms. Latti said.
Following maritime law, Ms. Latti placed a lien on the boat and filed a motion with the court to seize the Georgie J.
In September, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro ordered the sale of the Georgie J by auction, Ms. Latti said.
Proceeds of the sale will be held by the court until a non-jury trial is held this spring, she said.
If Ms. Latti can prove that the Georgie J was not seaworthy at the time of the accident, Mr. Capaldi will receive the $1.7 million raised during yesterday's auction, she said.
"We're thrilled with the price," Ms. Latti said after the auction.
"It's great. It provides proceeds that will help Victor Capaldi survive and pay for medical care."
After spending three months at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, Mr. Capaldi now lives with his mother in Rochester, where he receives around-the-clock care, Ms. Latti said.
"His life has been turned upside down," Ms. Capadli said. "The money is not going to bring his (ability to move) back, but it will help him survive."
Mr. Rafael referred to the accident as "very sad," but blamed the owner for not buying a big enough insurance policy for the boat.
"I always have a big policy. From three to five million," he said. "I like to sleep nights."
On Nov. 15, Mr. Rafael will attend a confirmation hearing at the U.S. District Court in Boston. During the hearing, the title and permits for the Georgie J will be transferred to his name.
Mr. Rafael plans to repaint the royal blue boat and christen it with a new name.
But he said he won't know until new scallop regulations are announced later this month whether he made a good purchase.
"It's a game of Russian roulette," he said. "The boat is in good shape. But the industry could be in bad shape."
Previous Men Perish on Boat Rare Suffering Damages
Next Worker Scalped by 20 Ton Block on Scallop Boat


text:
When you have absolutely nothing to build on
By Becky McCray / August 18, 2016 July 29, 2022
Sometimes, when someone is telling me about their town, they'll say it.
"We have nothing here! Nothing!"
It bothers me. Surely you have something good to work with?
Des Walsh is a friend of mine from Australia who has strong rural ties. He told me about a village that said they had nothing.
"Many years ago I visited the Jogjakarta region, on Java in Indonesia. My Indonesian host took me on a local tour, including to a small village which was very poor, and this at a time when Indonesia had a great deal more poverty than it has now.
"I was told that through a government program to help villages recover traditional crafts, a notable local artist, the now late Saptohoedojo, had visited the village and helped them redevelop their local skill with pottery. Nothing very dramatic, pots, plates, large platters, and clay elephants. They were so poor they could not even afford a kiln. Everything was laid out to be fired by the sun. I bought this elephant and carried it across Java and back to Australia, and on various moves since, very carefully, as it is only sun-baked."
That village was described to Des as having nothing, but they had the dirt under their feet and the sun in the sky. They applied their own creativity, and revived their craft. It couldn't solve all their problems, but it was a small step they could use to build on.
No matter how little you feel you have, you have people and assets to build on. That is one of the beliefs I start with.
From now on, when small town people tell me they have nothing, I'm going to tell them about that village in the Jogjakarta region, about starting with nothing but the dirt under your feet and the sun in the sky.
Keep shaping the future of your town,
PS – Understanding what is small business marketing and what is branding is sometimes difficult. Glenn Muske did a terrific job of explaining it here: Understanding Marketing vs. Branding


text:
Q: How to collect question's viewcount on SOF? I am new to SQL. I am writing SQL to calculate the questions' view under one tag. For example, to calculate all questions' views under Javascript. I am using this to test if it works.
This is what I wrote:
SELECT questions.Id, questions.ViewCount;

FROM Posts questions;

WHERE Tag varchar(250) = ##Tag:string## AND questions.posttypeid = 1;

order by questions.viewcount DESC;

But in the WHERE line, there is a mistake: Line 2: Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'FROM'.
Update:
Thanks to @Sergey and @a_horse_with_no_name, I removed ";" and revised my codes like this:
SELECT questions.Id, questions.ViewCount

FROM Posts questions

WHERE Tags = ##Tag:string## AND questions.posttypeid = 1

order by questions.viewcount DESC

But the result is nothing. Am I missing something?

A: I finished it. It can be used on: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/new
SELECT posts.Id, posts.ViewCount

FROM Posts, PostTags, Tags

WHERE Tags.id = PostTags.TagId AND posts.Id = PostTags.PostId
  AND Tags.TagName = ##TagName:string##

order by posts.viewcount DESC

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


With so many different moisturizers available today, it can be quite overwhelming choosing the right one. It is not advisable to experiment with loads of moisturizers in the hope of finding one suitable for your skin as this can leave your skin damaged in the process.
The best advice is to stick to as natural and pure a product as possible when it comes to skin care and you cannot get more so than with natural oils!
Oils have been used for centuries to maintain silky soft skin, as well as make skin younger looking.
You'll probably be surprised to know that with a majority of the best-selling skin care creams on the market, the key ingredient is often oil based and thus, it makes perfect sense to use these in your pursuit of perfect skin.
For instance, instead of using a product that contains argan oil – which is known for its antioxidant (anti-ageing) properties – using organic, pure argan oil solely on your skin can be so much more beneficial than buying a product that only contains a small percentage of the stuff, right?
Here, I'll give you a run-down of my top five oils that, when used regularly, will leave you with younger looking, beautiful skin that will have you converted and throwing away all of your chemically processed moisturizers… for good!
Almond oil – specifically sweet almond oil – really is an all-round miracle oil for older skins, containing high levels of vitamin E, K and retinol, all of which are known for their excellent antioxidant properties that can help to reverse the signs of ageing by reducing fine lines and wrinkles, as well as reduce dark circles and under eye puffiness.
Regular use of almond oil can leave you with brighter, radiant and younger looking skin.
Originally from Africa, argan oil has long been known for its benefits when applied directly on the skin.
Argan oil is full of hydrating and skin softening properties. Comprising of approximately 80% fatty acids, it also includes high levels of the anti-ageing antioxidants vitamins A and E, as well as omega-6 fatty acids, all of which assist in diminishing fine lines and wrinkles, making argan oil one of the best natural oils to use for a more youthful appearance.
With a high concentration of healthy oleic acid, potassium, lecithin and vitamins A, D and E, avocado oil is an excellent skin moisturizer for the skin. It is also a popular facial oil due to its rapid absorption and penetration.
As well as its anti-ageing properties, avocado oil is known for its skin healing properties and thus, can be great for reducing the appearance of age spots and scars.
Avocado oil can also be used to treat for skin problems such as acne and blackheads, as well as psoriasis and eczema.
Rich in anti-ageing vitamins B and E, as well as minerals copper, zinc and iodine, jojoba is actually a liquid wax that has been used for centuries and by the Native Americans to treat the skin.
Being very similar to sebum (the skin's natural oil), jojoba oil is an ideal humectant and perfect for those with sensitive skin.
Jojoba oil is considered as an effective skin cleanser and make up remover, making it a natural alternative to chemical full, shop bought cleansers which can strip and dry out the skin.
Jojoba oil can also be used to treat skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and acne.
A personal favourite, vitamin E oil is THE oil to use to combat ageing.
A natural vitamin found in all of the previously mentioned oils, vitamin E oil (also known as a-tocopherol) is an anti-aging fat soluble antioxidant that help to block free radicals, a major cause of ageing.
Vitamin E oil also promotes the production of collagen which increases the skin's elasticity.
Five natural oils all known to produce younger looking skin!
Choose an oil to use on its own or combine two oils together and use twice daily after cleansing for optimum results that will have you thoroughly converted, throwing out all of your previously shop bought moisturizers and never looking back!


1982 'Peace in Galilee' Israelis 1 5 I.D.F. soldiers on patrol during the 1982 operation 'Peace in Galilee'.
1982 'Peace in Galilee' Israelis 2 Five x I.D.F. soldiers in action during the 1982 operation 'Peace in Galilee'. Three are armed with the Galil assault rifle (One of whom also carries an RPG-7), whilst the remaining two figures in the pack are armed with an AK-47 and M16A2 respectively.
1982 'Peace in Galilee' Israelis 3 Five x I.D.F. soldiers in action during the 1982 operation 'Peace in Galilee'. One figure wears a floppy hat, has his helmet strapped onto his webbing and carries a scoped M14, for use in the sniper/marksman role. He is posed peering round a corner. The other four figures in this pack are armed with Galil assault rifles. One of them has a UGL attached to his weapon and also carries a radio, whilst another has a suppressor attached to the barrel of his rifle. The final two Galil armed figures also carry the M72 LAW. One of these figures is posed kneeling/firing his weapon, the second is posed moving at speed carrying 3 LAWs in a pack on his back.
1982 'Peace in Galilee' Israelis 4 This is a three man M47 Dragon ATGM team operating in support of their infantry comrades in the IDF as they advance north through the Lebanon during 1982's operation 'Peace in Galilee'. The post commander has his right hand on the gunner's left shoulder and points with his left hand in a ''See that tank ? Shoot that tank !" way. The gunner sits and is operating the M47 Dragon is on standby with a missile reload. All are armed with Galil assault rifles and wear standing IDF uniform items for that time period.
1982 'Peace in Galilee' Syrians 1 Five x Syrian Arab Army soldiers defending the Bekaa Valley and the road to Damascus during operation 'Peace in Galilee'. Figures are armed with a mix of weapons and are all posed in firing positions. Three are armed with AK47 assault rifles, a fourth is standing 'firing an RPD light machine gun, whilst the fifth figure is kneeling firing an RPG-7. They wear a mix of ChiCom and Warpac webbing and all wear helmets.
1982 'Peace in Galilee' Syrians 2 Five x Syrian Arab Army soldiers defending the Bekaa Valley and the road to Damascus during operation 'Peace in Galilee'. Figures are armed with a mix of weapons with three moving, one firing and another en garde. Three are armed with AK47 assault rifles, a fourth is patrolling with an RPD light machine gun and the fifth figure is walking with an RPG-7 positioned on his shoulder. They wear a mix of ChiCom and Warpac webbing and all wear helmets.
1982 'Peace in Galilee' Syrians 3 This is a command pack for the Syrian Arab Army packs above. There is an officer in beret, patrolling with an AK. Also present is a radio operator. This figure walks with a AK in one hand and is speaking into a handset held in the other. Not to be left out are two NCO's, the backbone of any army. They wear 'Ridgeway' hats of the type made famous by Castro and are armed with AKs. Finally, there is a marksman armed with an SVD rifle. This figure is posed standing/firing.
2003 - 2009 British 1 4 British infantry wearing older mark helmets and body armor. 2 are armed with SA80A2's, 1 with SA80A2/UGL combo, the last with a Minimi.
2003 - 2009 British 2 2 man .50 cal machine gun team.
2003 - 2009 British 3 3 British out on patrol. All are armed with SA80A2's. One has a bayonet fitted, another has a UGL mounted on his rifle.
2003 - 2009 British 4 3 man special forces support pack. One S.A.S. trooper is firing a sniper rifle, another is firing an ATGM. The 3rd figure in this pack is standing/on watch & is equipped with a DeMarco assault rifle/UGL combo.
2003 - 2009 British 5 5 figures. Contains 3 S.A.S. & 1 Australian S.A.S. troopers & an Afghan civilian being questioned.
2010 Helmand British 1 4 modern British infantry out on patrol. They are armed with the following weapons, SA80A2/UGL combo, SA80A2, GPMG & 7.62mm 'Marksman' rifle.
2010 Helmand British 10 4 man fighting pack. 1 x figure is standing/firing a GPMG, another stands & fires an LASM, with a Marksman rifle slung. 3rd figure advances at speed, whilst the 4th is kneeling/firing his SA80A2/UGL combo.
2010 Helmand British 11 4 figure patrol pack. 2 figures are down on one knee scanning their arcs. One is armed with an SA80A2, the other a Minimi. The Minimi gunner has a Vallon mine detector stowed. The 3rd figure has a Minimi & is posed as though walking through a field & the 4th figure is prone, providing cover with a GPMG.
2010 Helmand British 12 House Clearance. 4 figure house clearance pack. 2 figures are assaulting in with Minimi's, another with an SA80A2/UGL, whilst the fourth figure covers the upper floors with an SA80A2.
2010 Helmand British 2 4 modern British infantry in active poses. 2 figures are fast walking and armed with LSW & SA80A2 respectively. A medic figure runs, whilst crouched & carries an SA80A2. The final figure is walking with SA80A2 in one hand and rucksack in the other.
2010 Helmand British 3 4 modern British infantry in fighting poses. One figure kneels & fires a 7.62mm 'Marksman' rifle. Another stands & fires a SA80A2/UGL combo, whilst the third figure in the pack is standing/firing a SA80A2. The final figure is kneeling/firing a sniper rifle.
2010 Helmand British 4 3 man SF GPMG team. It was designed for use in 'Defend the Base' style games & the clothing the figures wear reflect this. The team commander wears a t-shirt under his body armor & is standing pointing out a target. The gunner is sculpted sitting on a sandbag, whilst the loader is feeding an ammunition belt into the tripod mounted GPMG.
2010 Helmand British 5 4 more figures in fighting poses. One figure kneels/fires his SA80A2, which has a night sight attached. Another is on standby to blow a door off its hinges using a combat shotgun. The third figure in this pack is prone firing an SA80A2, whilst the final figure is standing/firing a Minimi.
2010 Helmand British 6 4 figure engineering pack. 1 figure is using a Vallon mine detector, another carries an assault ladder, a 3rd is using a 'hooly' bar to create a loophole in a wall, whilst the 4th figure in the pack is kneeling/firing an XM25 grenade launcher.
2010 Helmand British 7 4 figure command pack containing 2 radio operators, armed with Minimi & SA80A2 respectively, a light mortarman and senior NCO/Officer figure.
2010 Helmand British 8 A support weapons pack. This pack contains a medium mortar and 2 crew, plus a Javelin ATGM gunner in seated/firing mode.
2010 Helmand British 9 4 figure command pack. Includes 1 x platoon commander/SNCO checking his notes/map, a sniper walking with his rifle cradled in the crook of his right arm, a JTAC kneeling using his radio to call in support & an engineer probing for mines by hand.
A.N.A. 1 This pack is a four man fire team from the Afghan National Army. It contains a Fire Team leader & a rifleman. Both of whom are armed with M16A2s. A Grenadier, armed with an MA16A2 & M203 UGL. Finally, there is a gunner, patrolling with a Minimi.
A.N.A. 2 This pack contains four figures representing troops from the Afghan National Army. Two are posed firing M16A2s. A third fires an RPG-7, whilst the fourth is standing/firing a PKM machine gun.
Chechen 1 - Tank Hunters This pack is themed around the tank hunter teams that Chechen nationalists used to such deadly effect in the urban battles fought in Grozny, the capital city of Chechnya. There are four figures in this pack, wearing mixed civilian/military clothing and armed for their role. The lead figure in the pack is standing/firing an RPG-7 & has an AK74 slung at his side. Another figure is posed patrolling with a PKM machine gun, whilst the final two figures in the pack have ak74's (one with a BG15 UGL) and slung disposable RPG's.
Chechen 2 - S.A.M. / H.Q. team. This pack is themed to represent an HQ, or SAM team. All figures are wearing a mix of civilian/military clothing and are very heavily armed. The lead figure is posed standing/firing a SAM-7 & has an AK74 slung at his side. Another figure is standing/firing his AK74/BG-15 UGL combo, whilst another stands guard with a PKM machine gun. Finally the commander figure observes proceedings through his binoculars, whilst carrying a radio & slung AK74/BG-15 UGL.
Chechen 3 - ATGM team This pack represents a two man Chechen ATGM team deployed using an AT-5 Kornet (NATO designation), or Spriggan (Russian designation). Both are also armed with AK74's.
Chechen 4 - Leader + light support This pack contains 4 figures. It contains a leader figure, armed with an AK74 with BG-15 UGL attached & equipped with a radio, beckoning his troops on & 2 figures armed with RPKs. One RPK has a drum magazine, the other a curved magazine. The final figure is a female marksman/sniper firing an SVD rifle. This figure was inspired by persistent rumours in the Russian camp that women from the Ukraine, or Baltic states, trained to Olympic standards of marksmanship, had hired themselves out to the Chechens as snipers. Their existence has never been proven & should probably be treated as an urban myth.
Chechen 5 - Riflemen This pack contains 4 figures, all armed with AK74s (1 also has a BG-15 UGL attached) & in a variety of poses. 2 figures are posed standing/firing their weapons. The other 2 figures represent younger Chechen rebels. 1 is posed running, the other standing/firing a disposable LAW.
Chechen 6 - SPG-9 team This pack represents a 2 man SPG-9 Recoilless Rifle team. Both are armed with AK74s.
Chechen 7 - AGS-17 team This pack represents a 2 man AGS-17 30mm Automatic Grenade Launcher team. Both are armed with AK74s.
Rhodesian Family 1 A four figure pack detailing a farm, or ranch, owners family defending their property. There are three family figures (Mother, Father, teenage son), plus a European farm hand and they are armed with a SLR, UZI, SLR and shotgun respectively. Defending their property from the main farm house, they, along with armed staff, would have to hold our long enough for the alarm to be raised and Police, or Army units to arrive and drive off the insurgents.
Militia 1 - RPG This is a four figure pack of generic militia. All are armed with Soviet era/Russian weapons. The pack contains 2 figures (one kneeling) firing AK74's. Both wear t-shirts. Another figure advances with its AK7 at the ready & carries a slung RPG-7, whilst the final figure in the pack runs, crouched, carrying an AK74/UGL combo in one hand & a disposable RPG in the other.
Militia 2 - PKM/RPK This is a four figure pack of generic militia. All are armed with Soviet era/Russian weapons. One figure stands & fires an AK74, whilst another stands guard, wears a balaclava & is also armed with an AK74. Two figures patrol with PKM & RPK machine guns respectively, the PKM figure carries a small radio on his belt kit.
Rhodesian Farm Guard A four figure pack detailing a group of Farm Guards. Along with the farm, or ranch, owners family they would often be the first line of defense against any insurgent attack. In this pack, they have been uniformed with surplus police fatigues. The trousers are blue and the shirts white. They are armed with bolt action Lee Enfields and a shotgun, whilst their leader has a G3 assault rifle.
Mod Rus 1 3 figure vignette. A regular Russian army soldier agressively questions a hapless civilian, whilst a second soldier checks paperwork. Both soldiers have body armour & are armed with AK74's.
Mod Rus 2 3 figure pack. Consists of 3 regular Russian Army soldiers. One soldier, wearing body armour advances to contact and is armed with an AK74. The other two soldiers are armed with an RPK w/drum magazine and a PKM MG respectively.
Mod Rus 3 3 figures representing regulars in the Russian Army. They are all armed with AK47's. Two have BG-15 UGL's fitted.
Mod Rus 4 3 figure pack. Represented are three Russian Army regulars. Two of them are prone, using a radio & firing an AK47 respevtively, whilst the third is standing/firing an SVD sniper rifle.
Mod Rus 5 5 figure pack representing members of the Russian Armys special forces units. All are wearing Sphera helmets and Gorka suits. One figure is standing/firing an RPG-7, another advances aggresively carrying a PKM MG. The remaining 3 have AK 74's, one of whom also has a BG-15 UGL. One figure has a full faceplate.
Mod Rus 6 3 figure pack. It contains 3 Russian Army special forces soldiers who are on patrol, or at rest. They all wear Sphera helmets & Gorka suits and are armed with AK74's. One soldier also has a BG-15 UGL fitted to his weapon.
Mod Rus 7 2-man mortar team and an ATGM post manned by one crewman. The ATGM is a Kornet (NATO designation), or Spriggan (Russian designation).
Mod Rus 9 3 figure pack. It contains a dismounted tanker, kneeling, pointing into the distance and 2 tank/vehicle riders. One rider is regular army, in body armour, armed with an AK47. The other is a special forces soldier, carrying an RPG-7.
Mod Rus 10 Russian Armed Forces 'Bumblebee' tactical UAV. Perfect for use as a marker to represent your UAV, or Recce assets in a game.
Rhodesian P.A.T.U A four figure pack detailing a Police Anti Terrorist Unit stick. Quite often in the Rhodesian Bush War, due to equipment shortages, many second line units had to make do with and use older, or obsolete, weapons and webbing. This pack reflects this. All figures are sculpted with pattern 58 webbing and are armed with SLR's and a Bren, whilst the stick commander has an UZI, plus the radio. Police, or P.A.T.U. units would quite often be the first reinforcements send to relive besieged farmsteads, once the alarm had been raised.
Rhodesian African Rifles 1: The Stick. A 4 man 'stick' of Rhodesian African Rifles infantry. Three are armed with FN-FALs, the fourth with an FN-MAG.
Rhodesian African Rifles 2: Command. This is a four figure command pack. There is a European officer, SNCO & scout, all armed with FN-FALs & an Askari gunner standing/firing with an FN-MAG.
Rhodesian African Rifles 3: Scout. This is a four figure scouting pack. There are two scouts & a rifleman, all armed with FN-FALs & a gunner, patrolling with an FN-MAG.
Rhodesian African Rifles 4: Engage! This is a four figure fighting pack. A European officer kneels & directs fire, whilst two FN-FAL armed riflemen & FN-MAG gunner engage the enemy.
Rhodesian African Rifles 5: RPG-7 Team. This pack represents a late war tank hunter stick. One figure kneels to fire an RGG-7, whilst his three comrades, all armed with FN-FALs provide him with cover.
Rhodesian African Rifles 6: Commando Mortar. This is a four figure light mortar pack. Two figures are armed with FN-FALs, a third a FN-FAL and radio, whilst the fourth is kneeling/firing a 60mm commando mortar. Also present is a separate FN-FAL & light mortar accoutrements.
Rhodesian Grey's Scouts 1: Stationary A two figure mounted pack of Grey's Scouts. Both horses are stationary. One figure is an Officer/NCO, with his rifle (An FN-FAL) is perched over his horses neck. He is pointing out something in the distance. The other figure is equipped with an FN-FAL(Heavy Barrel).
Rhodesian Grey's Scouts 2: Walking. Two Greys' Scouts troopers patrolling. One is armed with a Shotgun, the other an FN-FAL.
Rhodesian Grey's Scouts 3: Active Two Grey's Scouts troopers in active positions on trotting/cantering horses. Both are armed with FN-FALs.
Rhodesian Grey's Scouts 4: At Speed! Two Grey's troopers at the gallop. One is armed with an FN-FAL, the other with an FN-FAL (Heavy Barrel).
R.L.I. 1 6 Rhodesian Light Infantry in fighting poses. They are all armed with FN FAL's.
R.L.I. 2 5 Rhodesian Light Infantry. 2 are armed with FN MAG machine guns, another an RPK with drum magazine, the rest with FN FAL's.
Selous Scouts 1 4 x Selous Scout troopers armed with AK47's and uniformed for out of area operations.
Selous Scouts 2 4 x Selous Scouts trooper out on patrol. They are all armed with FN FAL's.
South African Defence Force 1 Four SADF infanteers out on patrol, wearing pattern 83 webbing & Kevlar helmets. Three are armed with R4 assault rifles, whilst the fourth carries a GPMG. The figure to the far left of the photo also carries a radio, with the handset clipped onto the left hand side of his webbing.
South African Defense Force 2 Four SADF infanteers in fighting poses, wearing pattern 83 webbing & Kevlar helmets. Two stand and fire an R4 assault rifle and M79 grenade launcher, whilst two are kneeling and firing an R4 and RPG-7 respectively.
South African Defense Force 3 Four SADF infanteers in running poses, wearing pattern 83 webbing & Kevlar helmets. All are armed with R4 Assault rifles.
Spanish Civil War: British Battalion 1 A 5 man (Chauchat) LMG team, for the British Battalion of the International Brigade who fought for the Republicans in the '36 to '39 Spanish Civil War. This pack contains a team leader who stands and points out targets, a two man team prone/firing and another two man team moving at speed.
Taliban 1 Six Taliban insurgents. 1 is armed with an RPK, another with a SAM. The rest have an assortment of AK74's, or RPG-7. There is also an oil barrel with a fire in it.
Taliban 3 Four Taliban insurgents. One is armed with an AK47 & BG-15 under barrel grenade launcher. Two are armed with AK47s. Whilst a fourth is armed with a PKM machine gun.
Vietnam 1 2 Vietnam era special forces soldiers. 1 is a SEAL & is firing a Colt Commando assault rifle(carbine version), the other is a Green Beret trooper patrolling with a Swedish K SMG.
Vietnam 2 5 Vietnam ere U.S. infantry. 2 figures are prone, firing M16 & M60 respectively. The other figures are senior NCO, unarmed medic & infanteer, standing/firing M16.
Vietnam 3 6 Vietnamese civilians & an NVA soldier waving a banner (Pole & banner not supplied).
WW2 Germans 1: Road to Stalingrad: Ambush! A three man motorcycle team has been ambushed! One man fires blindly with an SMG, another loads a flare pistol to summon help with, whilst a third observes the ground in front of him cautiously. This pack is part of the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build.
WW2 Germans 2: Road to Stalingrad: Half Trupp This pack contains five infantry figures from the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build. The five figures in the pack are infantry and are armed with rifles, or SMG's.
WW2 Germans 3: Road to Stalingrad: Halt! Polizei! Halt! Poliezi! A sailor get his collar felt & papers checked, whilst other field police & their dog go about their business. This pack is part of the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build.
WW2 Germans 4: Road to Stalingrad: Pltn Hq A platoon HQ pack. 5 x figures. Consists of an officer, medic, linesman, soldat with bicycle & lounging panzer crewman. This pack is part of the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build.
WW2 Germans 5: Greatcoated MG34 half Trupp An LMG Trupp : 5 x greatcoated figures. Contains a trupp commander with SMG, gunner with MG-34 & 3 x riflemen carrying boxes of ammunition.
WW2 Germans 6: Greatcoated rifle half Trupp A Rifle Trupp : 6 x greatcoated figures. Pack contains a trupp commander with SMG & 5 x riflemen.
WW2 Germans 7: Greatcoated platoon HQ This is a platoon HQ pack : 4 x figures, all of whom wear greatcoats. Contains 2 x officers armed with pistols, an NCO firing a flare pistol & a bandsman carrying a beacon.
WW2 Germans 8: Greatcoated MG-08 team This is a 6 man early war German MMG team : 6 figures, all of whom wear greatcoats. Contains 1 x team leader, gunner with MG-08, loader and 3 assistants.
WW2 Germans 1: Road to Stalingrad: Ambush! A three man motorcycle team has been ambushed ! One man fires blindly with an SMG, another loads a flare pistol to summon help with, whilst a third observes the ground in front of him cautiously. This pack is part of the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build.
WW2 Germans 2: Road to Stalingrad: Half Trupp. This pack contains five infantry figures from the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build. The five figures in the pack are infantry and are armed with rifles, or SMG's.
WW2 Germans 3: Road to Stalingrad: Halt! Polizei! Halt ! Poliezi ! A sailor get his collar felt & papers checked, whilst other field police & their dog go about their business. This pack is part of the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build.
WW2 Germans 4: Road to Stalingrad: Pltn Hq. A platoon HQ pack. 5 x figures. Consists of an officer, medic, linesman, soldat with bicycle & lounging panzer crewman. This pack is part of the 'Road to Stalingrad' group build.
WW2 Germans 5: Greatcoated MG34 half Trupp. An LMG Trupp: 5 x greatcoated figures. Contains a trupp commander with SMG, gunner with MG-34 & 3 x riflemen carrying boxes of ammunition.
WW2 Germans 6: Greatcoated rifle half Trupp. A Rifle Trupp: 6 x greatcoated figures. Pack contains a trupp commander with SMG & 5 x riflemen.
WW2 Germans 7: Greatcoated platoon HQ. This is a platoon HQ pack: 4 x figures, all of whom wear greatcoats. Contains 2 x officers armed with pistols, an NCO firing a flare pistol & a bandsman carrying a beacon.
WW2 Germans 8: Greatcoated MG-08 team. This is a 6 man early war German MMG team: 6 figures, all of whom wear greatcoats. Contains 1 x team leader, gunner with MG-08, loader and 3 assistants.
WW2 Italian Infantry 1 5 figures representing Italian Infantry. Three are posed with rifles, the fourth is firing an SMG, whilst the fifth is throwing a grenade.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 1 4 soldiers from the Westerplatte garrison, circa 1939. This pack contains 4 soldiers advancing to contact & includes an officer, Army NCO & a 2 man BAR team.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 2 4 soldiers from the Westerplatte garrison, circa 1939. This pack contains 4 soldiers advancing to contact & includes 3 riflemen & a Naval NCO.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 3 6 soldiers from the Westerplatte garrison, circa 1939. This pack contains 5 prone/firing figures & a Naval NCO, who is kneeling.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 4 4 soldiers from the Westerplatte garrison, circa 1939. This pack contains 4 soldiers standing/firing/observing. There are 2 riflemen, a BAR gunner & an officer observing through binoculars.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 5 6 figure mortar team, manning a medium mortar. Figures are posed aiming, loading, assisting, receiving, or shouting orders as appropriate.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 6 Command team for the Westerplatte Garrison range of figures. It contains Major H. Sucharski (standing with hands behind his back), Captain F Dabrowski (leaning on table, talking into phone), Lt S Grodecki (observing through binoculars), WO Szewczuk (with briefcase under right arm), a clerk, gate guard & station master Najsarek, who has options for carrying a rifle in his right hand, or leaving it empty.
WW2 Poles (Westerplatte) 7 5 figure bunker team, hence their lighter equipment load. One figure (an NCO) observes with binoculars, two (BAR Gnr & rifleman) are firing their weapons, whilst two more riflemen are reloadind and standing by, as appropriate.
WW2 Russians 1 4 WW II Russians in a variety of classic poses. There is an officer running, waving his men forward with his pistol, an SMG gunner armed with PPsH running & gesturing, a female sniper & a Anti Tank Rifle gunner, taking aim, using a wall section for cover & support.
WW2 Russians 2 4 figures representing Russian soldiers at rest. Three are relaxing & eating, whilst a fourth stands guard with a DP Lmg.
WW2 Russians 3 4 Russian scouts out on patrol. All are armed with PPsH Smgs.
WW2 Russians 4 2 man team, manpacking a Maxim MMG to the front line.
ZANLA 1: RPD This is a four figure pack of ZANLA Terr's/Freedom Fighters. One is armed with an RPD light machine gun, the other three are armed with AK47's.
ZANLA 2: RPG This is a four figure pack of ZANLA Terr's/Freedom Fighters. One is armed with an RPG-2, the other three are armed with AK47's.
ZANLA 3: Early war weapons This is a four figure pack of ZANLA Terr's/Freedom Fighters, armed with obsolete weapons. Two are armed with SKS semi automatic rifles, a third with a PPsH & a fourth with a DP light machine gun.


text:
More on Unemployment Insurance for the 21st Century
By Marshall Auerback	 On May 7, 2011
Unemployment insurance for 21st century in the form of a jobs program could end the malinvestment and predations of politicians and foster a strong economy. We need jobs but we must be mindful of predator state capitalism. My proposal below addresses both of those concerns.
Yesterday, on the anniversary of the inauguration of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), it was striking to compare the unemployment record of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and that of his modern day successor, Barack Obama. FDR's achievements in putting Americans back to work are among the most impressive of his tenure; he took the rate from 25% to 9.6% by 1936. But so far, Obama's policies have failed to "jump-start" unemployment in a significant way, even as Wall Street has continued a recovery utterly and totally divorced from Main Street.
It's easy to see why: The debt loads remain too high while income and employment continue to fall. Meanwhile, delinquencies and foreclosures continue to rise. Even at current depressed prices, assets are overvalued. Many financial institutions (probably including most of the big ones) are hopelessly insolvent, holding mountains of toxic waste that will never be worth anything. By the same token, almost 14 million active job seekers remain unemployed. Another 6.4 million people who are not actively looking for work (and therefore are not counted as unemployed) say they want jobs. Among workers who are lucky enough to have jobs, 8.3 million are employed part-time but want full-time jobs. Taken together, there are well over 28 million people in the United States for whom the economy has not performed its most important function — providing enough jobs to go around.
The pace of recovery from the recession has been distressingly slow. It took only 18 months for the nation's unemployment rate to climb from 5.0 percent to its peak of 10.1 percent in October 2009. In the 16 months since then, the rate has made up less than a quarter of that loss. True, we did dodge another Great Depression. That fact is attributable to the federal government's forceful macroeconomic intervention in late 2008 and early 2009. Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi (one a former Clinton appointee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the other a former economic adviser to Senator John McCain) have estimated that the nation's unemployment rate would have reached 16 percent rather than its actual 10.1 percent in the absence of this intervention.
And yet, in spite of the historic successes of programs such as the WPA, the current government cannot seem to even begin to replicate it. The very fiscal stimulus that helped to avert an even greater economic calamity is now viewed as an excuse against further action to mitigate the scourge of unemployment. We continue to be plagued by misguided notions that our government faces imminent insolvency (imagine the fate of the US had the Roosevelt Administration embraced this idea!).
Part of the aversion toward embracing WPA-style programs today is the false idea that they did little to reduce unemployment, which some claim was only "solved" by the war. Most statistical studies understate the effect of the New Deal job creation measures because they don't show how much of the decline in official employment was attributable to the multiplier effect of spending on direct job creation. Additionally, the "work relief" category does not include employment on public works funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), nor the multiplier effect of PWA spending. The figures tell the story indirectly, however, in the path official unemployment followed — steeply declining in periods when work relief spending was high and either declining more slowly or increasing in periods when work relief spending was cut back*.
Estimates for the years prior to 1940 are intended to measure the number of persons who are totally unemployed, having no work at all. For the 1930s this concept, however, does include one large group of persons who had both work and income from work — those on emergency work. In the United States we are concerned with measuring lack of regular work and do not minimize the total by excluding persons with made work or emergency jobs. This contrasts sharply, for example, with the German practice during the 1930s when persons in the labor-force camps were classed as employed, and Soviet practice which includes employment in labor camps, if it includes it at all, as employment. Counting the WPA programs, FDR's record on unemployment, notably in his first time of office, was formidable, as he took the rate down from 25% to 9.6% by 1936.
True, an economy can boom for a time, with what may appear to be inadequate levels of net government spending without rising unemployment. In these situations, as is evidenced in countries like the US during the Clinton Administration, GDP growth can be driven by an expansion in private debt. The problem with this strategy is that when the debt service levels reach some threshold percentage of income, the private sector will "run out of borrowing capacity" as incomes limit debt service. This tends to restructure their balance sheets to make them less precarious and as a consequence the aggregate demand from debt expansion slows and the economy falters. In this case, any fiscal drag (inadequate levels of net spending) begins to manifest as unemployment.
The Obama Administration remains fixated by deficit reduction at the expense of reducing unemployment. This is not helpful to recovery: In addition to inflicting lasting damage on an individual's labor market prospects, unemployment is associated with increased rates of physical and mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse, child and spouse abuse, failed relationships and family dissolution, suicide and attempted suicide, and a host of other personal and social ills. All sectors of the unemployed suffer an increased risk of experiencing these problems, but since unemployment itself is distributed unequally among population groups, with disadvantaged workers bearing more than their fair share of its immediate burdens, so too are they destined to bear more than their fair share of its painful, longer-term consequences.
The existence of our current job shortage also makes it harder for us to dig our way out of the recession. Long term unemployment prevents the housing market from rebounding and the housing industry from recovering. It forces the consumer sector to wait anxiously for customers. It keeps capital goods producers waiting for a plausible customer.
A more effective way to restart the economic process on solid ground is to deal with the underlying cause of the problem: We have a credit-based economy, rather than an incomes-based economy. The whole boom of the 2000s (and more broadly the growth process that emerged at the in the early 1980s) was based on household borrowing and the continuation of negative saving trends (that is, household deficit spending). A good place to start recovery efforts, therefore, would be to change this method of economic growth by fostering more, not fewer WPA-type programs.
In my view, a universal Job Guarantee program would be the best way forward and truest to the spirit of the WPA. The jobs would pay basic wages and benefits with a goal to provide a living wage. The program would take all comers — anyone ready and willing to work, regardless of education, training, or experience. We could adapt the jobs to the workers. As the late Hyman Minsky put it, we could "take the workers as they are", work them up to their ability, and then enhance their skills through on- the-job-training. Additionally, the guaranteed public service job would be a counter- cyclical influence, automatically increasing government employment and spending as jobs were lost in the private sector, and decreasing government jobs and spending as the private sector expanded. Such a program would remain a permanent feature of our economy, acting as a buffer stock to put a floor under unemployment, while maintaining price stability whereby government offers a fixed wage which does not "outbid" the private sector, but simply creates a stabilizing floor and thereby prevents deflation.
Given the nature of today's "predator state" (to use Jamie Galbraith's felicitous phrase), politicians have a proclivity to reward those who "pay to play". They tend toward wasteful spending and give goodies to campaign contributors. But we could take this power away from sock puppet politicians through a mechanism that automatically adjusts to insure the private sector can actually realize its desired net nominal savings position. This would help to free the system from political parasites while increasing the freedom of the private sector to achieve its savings goals. What better way to celebrate the anniversary of the WPA's inauguration?
A version of this article first appeared at New Deal 2.0.
*The original source of this finding was Michael R. Darby (1976) "Three-and-a-Half Million U.S. Employees Have Been Mislaid: Or, an Explanation of Unemployment, 1934-1941″, Journal of Political Economy, 84(1), 1-16). Darby had studied the writings of Stanley Lebergott (1964) Manpower in Economic Growth: The American Record since 1800, New York, McGraw-Hill. He had constructed early data from the Great Depression. See also Weir, D.R. (1992) "A Century of U.S. Unemployment, 1890-1990: Revised Estimates and Evidence for Stabilization", Research in Economic History, 14, 301-346. The hint that Darby picked up was in the original book by Stanley Lebergott on pages 184-5.
Barack Obamacapital investmentfinancial historygovernmentGreat DepressionJobsmalinvestmentUnemployment
Marshall Auerback 137 posts 10 comments
Marshall Auerback has over 30 years experience in the investment management business and as an economic consultant. He is a Research Associate at the Levy Institute.
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Brief thoughts on the jobs report
DavidLazarusUK says 8 years ago
Unless there is a jobs program the US will have a decade or two of stagnant growth while people try and pay down their debts. That will drain the economy of any growth. The problem is that a jobs program will allow more people to clear that debt faster without the banks taking further losses. The US will continue its bounce along the bottom until that reality takes root in Washington. The working and middle classes will be tossed away while Washington is engrossed in frivilous issues like presidential birth certificates and austerity.
Anonymous says 8 years ago
How Trump can thank his presidency to the lack of…
America's Rival Oligarchs' Fight Over the Debt…


Mega Bank Ltd has started operating 'Mega Remit' remittance service from Australia as well.
The bank started this service in partnership with Aziz Forex and Finance Company, Australia.
Mega Bank Ltd has said money can be transferred to and from Australia immediately through Mega Bank and its more than 2,300 agents across the country with the start of the service.


text:
Q: RxKotlin with Socket.io in Android What I trying to do is listen to socket data and convert into an observable string that my UI can Subscribe this event and do Change on UI
So far I created a class SocketConnection maintain in dagger connection happen properly and received data and able to do with interface correctly, but want to apply with rxkotlin.
Using Socket.io,kotlin
SocketConnection class
 class SocketConnection : SocketStreamListener {

    private var socket: Socket? = null

   var responseSocket :ResponseHandler?= null
    companion object {
        var instance = SocketConnection()

    }

    override fun createSocket(socketQuery: SocketQuery): Socket? {
        try {
            val okHttpClient = UnsafeOkHttpClient.getUnsafeOkHttpClient()
            IO.setDefaultOkHttpWebSocketFactory(okHttpClient)
            IO.setDefaultOkHttpCallFactory(okHttpClient)
            val opts = IO.Options()
            opts.reconnection = false
            opts.callFactory = okHttpClient
            opts.webSocketFactory = okHttpClient
            opts.query = "userID=" + socketQuery.userID + "&token=" + socketQuery.token
            socket = IO.socket(CommonContents.BASE_API_LAYER, opts)
            L.d("Socket object created")
        } catch (e: URISyntaxException) {
            L.e("Error creating socket", e)
        }
        return socket
    }

    override fun createSocketListener(socket: Socket) {
        L.d("inside the socket Listner")
        socket.connect()?.on(Socket.EVENT_CONNECT, {
            L.d("connected")
            listenSocketEvents()
            //socketDataListener()
            createMessageListener()

        })?.on(Socket.EVENT_DISCONNECT,
                {
                    L.d("disconnected")
                    return@on
                })

    }

    /**
     * function used to listen a socket chanel data
     */
    private fun listenSocketEvents() {

       /* socket?.on("1502", { args ->
      // This Will Work
             L.d("Socket market depth event successfully")
            val socketData = args[0] as String
            L.d(socketData)
         //   instance.data = Observable.just(socketData)
            //data!!.doOnNext({ socketData })

            *//*
            data = args[0] as String
             for (i in 0 until arr.size) {
                 arr[i].socketStreamingData(data)
             }*//*

        })*/

    }

// This Will Not Work
    fun socketDataListener(): Observable<String>{
      return Observable.create({
          subscibe ->
         // L.d("Socket market depth event successfully")
            socket?.on("1502", { args ->
                L.d("Socket market depth event successfully")
                val socketData = args[0] as String
                subscibe.onNext(socketData)
            })

        })
    }

  }

Repository
fun getSocketData(): Observable<String> {
   // L.e("" + SocketConnection.instance.socketDataListener())
    return SocketConnection.instance.createMessageListener()
}

ViewModel
fun getSocketData(): Observable<String>{
    return groupRepository.getSocketData()
}

OnFragement (UI)
private fun getSocketUpdate(){
    subscribe(watchlistViewModel.getSocketData()
            .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
            .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
            .subscribe({
                L.d("SocketData :  " + it.count())

            }, {
                L.e("Error")
            }))
}

In this UI using disposable subscribe method into base class.
Please let me know what i doing wrong thanx in advance

A: Instead of creating an Observable every time a message is sent, I suggest using a Subject for that, since it has a similar "nature" as the Socket connection.
   val subject = PublishSubject.create<String>()
   ...

    fun listenSocketEvents() {
      socket?.on("1502") { args ->
        val socketData = args[0] as String
        subject.onNext(socketData)
      }
    }

    fun observable(): Observable<String>{
        return subject
    }

You can then listen to the changes on the subject via (repository layer etc not included, you'd have to do that yourself)
private fun getSocketUpdate() {
    disposable = socketConnection.observable()
            .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
            .observeOn(...)
            .subscribe({...}, {...})
}

As a side note, your singleton instance is not how you'd do that in kotlin.
Instead of having an instance field in a companion object, you should make the declare the class as object SocketConnection.
This will automatically give you all singleton features. (I do not know whether it is smart to use a singleton with socket.io, but I assume that you know what you're doing :-) )


text:
Google Launches 'Multi-Year' Ad Campaign to Promote Mobile
Google is launching a massive ad campaign for mobile Thursday night that will include a joint venture with The New York Times for banner ads based on breaking news stories.
The campaign will be "multi-year" according to Advertising Age.
See also: Report: Amazon Preparing to Tackle Google AdWords
The ad above, "Dream," will break during the NFL's opening game on NBC. The 30-second spot features a montage of people saying "OK," and then ends with a kid asking Google if dogs can dream. (Spoiler: they do.) In addition to TV, print and out-of-home, the campaign of course has a large digital component.
Notably, the search giant will run banners riffing off headlines on The New York Times's homepage. Copy in the banner ads will go "to the next level on any particular topics that are trending for The New York Times, Google's VP-branding Jeff Whipps told Ad Age told Ad Age.
Image: New York Times
Whipps declined to say how much Google was spending on the campaign, but said it "ranks up there with our most significant investments you've seen historically along the lines of Chrome and Play and others," according to the report. When asked about the timing of the campaign, a Google rep told Mashable that "There's a wide range of things Google can do for you to be helpful, but they aren't necessarily obvious, so we wanted to be pretty detailed in showing people some of these capabilities, to show them how to do it in an easy and natural way, and to have some fun doing it."
BONUS: 5 Surprising Facts About Google
Topics: Advertising, Business, Google, The New York Times
Video: YouTube, Google


text:
namespace mediapipe {
namespace tool {

void TagMap::InitializeNames(
    const std::map<std::string, std::vector<std::string>>& tag_to_names) {
  names_.reserve(num_entries_);
  for (const auto& item : tag_to_names) {
    names_.insert(names_.end(), item.second.begin(), item.second.end());
  }
}

absl::Status TagMap::Initialize(
    const proto_ns::RepeatedPtrField<ProtoString>& tag_index_names) {
  std::map<std::string, std::vector<std::string>> tag_to_names;
  for (const auto& tag_index_name : tag_index_names) {
    std::string tag;
    int index;
    std::string name;
    MP_RETURN_IF_ERROR(ParseTagIndexName(tag_index_name, &tag, &index, &name));

    // Get a reference to the tag data (possibly creating it).
    TagData& tag_data = mapping_[tag];

    // If index == -1, then we get the index from the number of times
    // the tag has been used (this is only used for tag "").
    if (index == -1) {
      index = tag_data.count;
    }
    ++tag_data.count;

    // Add to the per tag names, being careful about allowing indexes
    // to be out of order.
    std::vector<std::string>& names = tag_to_names[tag];
    if (names.size() <= index) {
      names.resize(index + 1);
    }
    if (!names[index].empty()) {
      return mediapipe::FailedPreconditionErrorBuilder(MEDIAPIPE_LOC)
             << "tag \"" << tag << "\" index " << index
             << " already had a name \"" << names[index]
             << "\" but is being reassigned a name \"" << name << "\"";
    }
    names[index] = name;
  }

  // Set all the initial indexes to an index in the data vector.
  int current_index = 0;
  for (auto& item : mapping_) {
    TagData& tag_data = item.second;
    // Ensure that a name was assigned for each index of the tag.
    // If the number of indexes used matches the size of names array
    // (and an index couldn't have been reused due to the check in the
    // loop above), this means that all indexes were used exactly once.
    const std::vector<std::string>& names = tag_to_names[item.first];
    if (tag_data.count != names.size()) {
      auto builder = mediapipe::FailedPreconditionErrorBuilder(MEDIAPIPE_LOC)
                     << "Not all indexes were assigned names.  Tag \""
                     << item.first << "\" has the following:\n";
      // Note, names.size() will always be larger than tag_data.count.
      for (int index = 0; index < names.size(); ++index) {
        if (!names[index].empty()) {
          builder << "index " << index << " name \"" << names[index] << "\"\n";
        } else {
          builder << "index " << index << " name <missing>\n";
        }
      }
      return std::move(builder);
    }
    tag_data.id = CollectionItemId(current_index);
    current_index += tag_data.count;
  }
  num_entries_ = current_index;

  InitializeNames(tag_to_names);
  return absl::OkStatus();
}

absl::Status TagMap::Initialize(const TagAndNameInfo& info) {
  if (info.tags.empty()) {
    if (!info.names.empty()) {
      mapping_.emplace(
          std::piecewise_construct, std::forward_as_tuple(""),
          std::forward_as_tuple(CollectionItemId(0), info.names.size()));
      names_ = info.names;
    }
    num_entries_ = info.names.size();
  } else {
    std::map<std::string, std::vector<std::string>> tag_to_names;
    if (info.tags.size() != info.names.size()) {
      return absl::FailedPreconditionError(
          "Expected info.tags.size() == info.names.size()");
    }

    // Add the tags (unsorted).
    for (int i = 0; i < info.tags.size(); ++i) {
      auto item = mapping_.emplace(std::piecewise_construct,
                                   std::forward_as_tuple(info.tags[i]),
                                   std::forward_as_tuple());
      RET_CHECK(item.second) << "Tag was used twice.";
      tag_to_names[info.tags[i]].emplace_back(info.names[i]);
    }
    // Assign descriptor values (sorted).
    int current_index = 0;
    for (auto& item : mapping_) {
      item.second.id = CollectionItemId(current_index);
      item.second.count = 1;
      ++current_index;
    }
    num_entries_ = current_index;

    // Now create the names_ array in the correctly sorted order.
    InitializeNames(tag_to_names);
  }
  return absl::OkStatus();
}

proto_ns::RepeatedPtrField<ProtoString> TagMap::CanonicalEntries() const {
  proto_ns::RepeatedPtrField<ProtoString> fields;
  for (const auto& item : mapping_) {
    const std::string& tag = item.first;
    const TagData& tag_data = item.second;
    if (tag.empty()) {
      // "no_tag1", "no_tag2".
      for (int i = 0; i < tag_data.count; ++i) {
        *fields.Add() = names_[tag_data.id.value() + i];
      }
    } else if (tag_data.count <= 1) {
      // "ONLY_ONE_INDEX:name"
      *fields.Add() = absl::StrCat(tag, ":", names_[tag_data.id.value()]);
    } else {
      // "TAG:0:name0", "TAG:1:name1"
      for (int i = 0; i < tag_data.count; ++i) {
        *fields.Add() =
            absl::StrCat(tag, ":", i, ":", names_[tag_data.id.value() + i]);
      }
    }
  }
  return fields;
}

// Examples:
//   BLAH:0:blah1
//   BLAH:1:blah2
//
//   A:a
//   B:b
//
//   A:0:a0
//   A:1:a1
//   A:2:a2
//   B:0:b0
//   B:1:b1
//   C:c0
std::string TagMap::DebugString() const {
  if (num_entries_ == 0) {
    return "empty";
  }
  return absl::StrJoin(CanonicalEntries(), "\n");
}

// Note, this is also currently used internally to check for equivalence.
//
// Examples:
//   {"BLAH", 2}
//
//   {"A", 1}, {"B", 1}
//
//   {"A", 3}, {"B", 2}, {"C", 1}
//
//   {"", 4}, {"A", 3}, {"B", 2}, {"C", 1}
std::string TagMap::ShortDebugString() const {
  if (num_entries_ == 0) {
    return "empty";
  }
  std::string output;
  for (const auto& item : mapping_) {
    if (!output.empty()) {
      absl::StrAppend(&output, ", ");
    }
    if (item.second.count == 0) {
      absl::StrAppend(&output, "\"", item.first, "\"");
    } else {
      absl::StrAppend(&output, "{\"", item.first, "\", ", item.second.count,
                      "}");
    }
  }
  return output;
}

bool TagMap::HasTag(const absl::string_view tag) const {
  return mapping_.contains(tag);
}

int TagMap::NumEntries(const absl::string_view tag) const {
  const auto it = mapping_.find(tag);
  return it != mapping_.end() ? it->second.count : 0;
}

CollectionItemId TagMap::GetId(const absl::string_view tag, int index) const {
  const auto it = mapping_.find(tag);
  if (it == mapping_.end()) {
    return CollectionItemId::GetInvalid();
  }
  if (index < 0 || index >= it->second.count) {
    return CollectionItemId::GetInvalid();
  }
  return it->second.id + index;
}

std::pair<std::string, int> TagMap::TagAndIndexFromId(
    CollectionItemId id) const {
  for (const auto& item : mapping_) {
    if (id >= item.second.id && id < item.second.id + item.second.count) {
      return std::make_pair(item.first, (id - item.second.id).value());
    }
  }
  return {"", -1};
}

CollectionItemId TagMap::BeginId(const absl::string_view tag) const {
  return GetId(tag, 0);
}

CollectionItemId TagMap::EndId(const absl::string_view tag) const {
  const auto it = mapping_.find(tag);
  if (it == mapping_.end()) {
    return CollectionItemId::GetInvalid();
  }
  return it->second.id + it->second.count;
}

std::set<std::string> TagMap::GetTags() const {
  std::set<std::string> tag_names;
  for (const auto& item : mapping_) {
    tag_names.insert(item.first);
  }
  return tag_names;
}

bool TagMap::SameAs(const TagMap& other) const {
  return &other == this || ShortDebugString() == other.ShortDebugString();
}

}  // namespace tool
}  // namespace mediapipe


text:
exports.padRect = function (rect, padding) {
    return {
        x: rect.x - padding,
        y: rect.y - padding,
        width: rect.width + 2 * padding,
        height: rect.height + 2 * padding
    }
};


text:
Q: Saving a collection to a database I have a database table called UserCommission which i have made an eloquent model for below:
namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class UserCommission extends Model
{
    protected $connection = 'sqlsrv';
    protected $table = 'UserCommission';
}

Now in my controller I have an alot of information I want to add to that table. I first made it into a collection like below:
        $returnData = new Collection();

        foreach ($datePeriod as $key => $date)
        {
            foreach ($consultants as $consultant)
            {
                $year  = (int) $date->format('Y');
                $month = (int) $date->format('n');

                $commission = new UserCommission();

                $commission->userId = $consultant['UserId'];
                $commission->year   = $year;
                $commission->month  = $month;
                $commission->commissionPercentage = Self::getCommissionPercentage($consultant['UserId'], $consultant['CreatedOn'], $consultant['RoleId'], $date);

                $returnData->push($commission);
            }
        }

So when I print out return data, it prints out a collection filled with the correct items with their properties to match up with the table fields. I cant find how I would save this to the table though.
I have tried
$returnData->save();

But thats not a collection function.

A: If you want to avoid having multiple inserts done one after another (hence avoiding database performance issues due to consecutive queries), you can also insert them in one go using Model::insert()
See https://implode.io/inf5OO for an example.
as per the comments below, take note that his approach won't fire eloquent events for the inserted records...

A: You need to do
$user_commission = new UserCommission;
#Do Stuff
$user_commission->save();

https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/eloquent#inserts

A: If you want to insert them all at once, you can bypass the Collection and do this instead:
$commissions = [];

foreach ($datePeriod as $key => $date)
{
    foreach ($consultants as $consultant)
    {
        $year  = (int) $date->format('Y');
        $month = (int) $date->format('n');

        $commissions[] = [
            'userId' => $consultant['UserId'];
            'year' => $year,
            'month' => $month
            'commissionPercentage' => Self::getCommissionPercentage($consultant['UserId'], $consultant['CreatedOn'], $consultant['RoleId'], $date);
        ];
    }
}

Since, insert() can accept an array of data you want to insert, the following would be now possible:
UserCommission::insert($commissions);


If you are looking for a lot of square footage and a lot of options, you will need to look at this home. This home is in the middle of a renovation but all the hard work has been done. It is basically down to the light fixtures and the flooring in the main house to be ready to move in. There are 4 bedrooms, 1 full bath and 2-3/4 bathrooms in the main house and a half bath in the addition. There is a formal dining area, sun room, large family room and kitchen, then you have another addition that has a transition area with a loft , a large common area, a utility room, a weight/exercise room, a billiard room with a wet bar, a large office, and an over sized two car garage. Alder wood trim and recent windows and new interior doors. There is 2 large barns and 24.5 acres in this property, 15 or so having the possibility of being irrigated with the side roll sprinkler. Currently doesn't have a pump in the well but there is water there. Call your Realtor for an appointment.


text:
Senior softball team in Pasco aiming to win 4th tournament this year
by: Gabrielle Shirley
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (WFLA) – At a park in Pasco County, a batting bunch is swinging for fences. And the ball reaches the fences fairly frequently.
"I figured I would come out here and get a few swings in and run around a little bit," said 74-year-old Randy Ruzicka.
W.H. Jack Mitchell, Jr., Park in New Port Richey hosts pickup softball games every Tuesday and Saturday throughout the year. The youngest players on the diamond are 50 years old. The oldest player is 84 years old.
"I want to play until I am 80 or 85," 73-year-old Miguel Rodriguez told 8 On Your Side's Gabrielle Shirley. "I see people play until they are 80 and I want to do that too."
The ballplayers are living proof that age is only a number.
"I loved it since I was a little boy," said Rodriguez. "I was always playing baseball."
Rodriguez skips onto the softball field about four times every week. He started playing the sport in 1963, and he is still known for his speed.
"He runs like the wind," said Ruzicka. "Probably one of the better outfielders at our age. And he is one of the pieces that make our team good."
Ruzicka is referring to the Chadwell Supply team, a group of about 15 men in their mid-to-late 70s. They have won three major tournaments this year.
"We play together like a team. That is the main thing," Rodriguez said of the team's success.
"Everybody knows what everybody else does pretty much so everybody knows what their strong points and their weak points are," added Ruzicka.
The weak points for Ruzicka are his knees, so he mainly sticks to the positions in the infield.
"I catch sometimes, I play third sometimes, I play middle infielder and different spots," said Ruzicka.
Despite the aches and the pains, the cheering is constant across the board.
"If you stick around here and listen to what goes on here, it is funny," said Ruzicka. "You do something silly batting – you know, that is it. Do you want to sell your bat for ten bucks or something like that, that is the kind of stuff you get."
That element of fun mixed with a dash of friendly competition is truly the name of the game for this enthusiastic group.
What else could they need in the midst of a game? Ruzicka told us they need fans.
"That's it! Come out and watch the games! It doesn't cost you anything and you will get a big laugh out of it if nothing else," said Ruzicka with a chuckle.
The next tournament for Chadwell Supply is the Florida State Senior Tournament on Aug. 3 in Leesburg, Florida.
News Channel 8 wishes the team well. We would also like to thank Sam Ferguson for sharing this story with us. Sadly, he was in the hospital when Gabrielle Shirley went to the field, but he is anxious to play in the upcoming tournament.
Military couple gets free wedding after Rays game day proposal
by Rod Carter / Jul 18, 2019
DOVER, Fla. (WFLA) - - Kevin took a chance she would say yes.
So in front of a crowd at a Tampa Bay Rays – New York Yankees game on the 4th of July the Air Force airman popped the question to his girlfriend Shay, also in the Air Force.
by Gabrielle Shirley / Jul 17, 2019
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Her ties to the Sunshine State are strong but they have not kept her from dancing after her dream.
8 On Your Side's Gabrielle Shirley would like to introduce you to a ballet student who will perform in the Next Generation Ballet Intensive Showcase at the Straz Center this week.
Tampa Bay Lightning to host first-ever 'Bolts Beach Bash'
CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) - Break out the hockey sticks for this beach party!
The Tampa Bay Lightning will be hosting their first-ever Bolts Beach Bash on Saturday, July 27 at Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach.
Florida / 51 mins ago


text:
T&C All Access
T&C Exclusives
Money & Power
Men's Dept.
The Etiquette of Losing Well
The Etiquette of Defeat: What Donald Trump Can Learn From History's Biggest Losers
From ancient Macedonia to recent Emmy Awards, history offers good and bad examples of how to handle not winning.
By Daniel Mendelsohn Published: Nov 17, 2020
"I concede nothing."
With those three words, tweeted out nearly two weeks after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which handed him a decisive electoral and popular defeat, Donald Trump took his place in one of the longest and most distinguished traditions that history offers: the sore loser. Nobody, of course, likes to lose, and the temptation to cry foul—or, in this case, "rigged"—when we lose can be irresistible. (Or just to cry anything. On losing to his friend Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800, John Adams yelled, "You have put me out!") Just as irresistible is the impulse to dismiss the legitimacy of any competition in which our personal favorites fail to win. How seriously can you take the Oscars, really, when you find out that Hitchcock never won Best Director?
But if history and literature have anything to tell us, it's that the figures who have earned the greatest admiration are often not the ones who won the battle or the election or the girl/boy, or whatever, but those who knew how to lose gracefully. In our everyday lives, after all, most of us are at least as familiar with defeat as with victory. Virtually every person alive knows what it feels like to miss out on something we yearn for, whether it's a raise, a promotion, or the cutie at the other end of the bar. For this reason, it's the stories of perseverance or bravado in adversity or outright defeat that touch us most—that somehow strike us as more movingly human than tales of the greatest triumphs.
More From Town & Country
This sense that defeat is somehow more revealing of our innermost selves—more, as today's students like to put it, relatable—is a tradition that goes back nearly 3,000 years, to Homer's Iliad, in which by far the most sympathetic character isn't the glittering, half-divine Greek warrior Achilles but the noble, doomed, and all-too-human Trojan leader, Hector, prince of a city that is fated from the start for destruction.
Hector bids farewell to his wife, Andromache, before his final battle.
Christophel Fine Art//Getty Images
The taste on the part of artists and writers for noble losers has made itself felt ever since, from Shakespeare's Cleopatra, who at the moment of her fatal defeat dons her royal robes to meet death ("Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have immortal longings in me") to the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier, the middle-aged woman who, bowing to the inevitable, freely gives up her boyish lover to a younger woman.
And if the fictional characters we love best are those who yield to life's harshness while preserving an inner, inviolable aplomb, so too with history's characters. Even the most ardent revolutionary was likely to be touched by the last moments of Marie Antoinette, who apologized to the executioner who was about to cut her head off after she accidentally stepped on his toe on her way to the guillotine: "Pardon me, sir, I meant not to do it." (Then again, the French Revolution inspired an unusually high number of classy adieux. "I see you have made three spelling mistakes," one aristocrat disdainfully noted as he read his death warrant.)
Marie Antoinette offered an apology to her executioner.
Heritage Images//Getty Images
Another way of saying this is that while victory is a showcase for talent, defeat is a showcase for character. As anyone who had to sit through that middle school gym class lecture about ice skaters knows, one way to deal with disaster is to get back on your feet and keep going. In U.S. politics there's an honorable tradition of electoral losers who have picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and found ways to make themselves useful. Before the 2000 Bush-Gore contest, perhaps the most hotly contested presidential election in our country's history was the 1828 race between John Quincy Adams—who, as the son of the second president, was the ultimate political royalty and Washington insider—and Andrew Jackson, who was viewed as an arriviste vulgarian. When the latter prevailed, Adams swallowed his pride and ran again—for Congress: the only ex-president to be elected as a representative, he served for nearly 20 years, until his death in 1848. (Among his other accomplishments, he successfully argued on behalf of enslaved Africans in the Amistad case.) A century and a half later, Al Gore—who owed his defeat to fewer than 1,000 ballots, despite a clear win in the popular vote—did the skater thing too. You could argue that his electoral defeat may have paved the way for other, possibly loftier victories: both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize recognizing his work as a climate activist.
After losing a Presidential election to Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams ran for, and won, a seat in Congress, which he held for 20 years.
GraphicaArtis//Getty Images
If raw determination is one way to deal with defeat, so is humor. For those of us baby boomers who grew up watching Bob Newhart—the mild-mannered standup comedian and, later, TV genius who alchemized Midwestern affability into comedic gold (his 1960 album The Buttoned-Down Mind of Bob Newhart remains one of the best-selling albums of all time)—it's shocking to learn that his long-running sitcom failed more than 25 times to win an Emmy: a record. How did he respond? During one Emmy ceremony, Newhart allowed himself to be locked in a box with precisely three hours' worth of air.
The humorous implication was that the notoriously long-winded affair could be fatal, but the gag also reminded viewers that the Emmys had, indeed, hurt Newhart in the past. Having the last laugh, as we know, is one of the most satisfying kinds of victory. (In politics, too: Adlai Stevenson, who was as famous for his quick wit as for the three times he didn't make it to the U.S. presidency, once quipped that he would "make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, I will stop telling the truth about them.")
Bob Newhart was nominated for an Emmy Award—and lost—21 times.
Jason Merritt/TERM//Getty Images
Politics and show biz come together in my personal favorite among stories of people who knew how to bow out graciously. In his Lives of the Famous Greeks and Romans, the historian Plutarch tells the story of the Greek conqueror Demetrius "Poliorcetes," a leader who, during the period of political upheaval and power-grabbing that followed the death of Alexander the Great, distinguished himself for his persistence in bringing down enemy cities (his nickname means "the besieger") and, even more, for his grandiose ambitions and lavish tastes.
But eventually his pretensions and penchant for luxury exhausted even his own soldiers, who went over to the side of his rival, Pyrrhus. (The latter was the general whose name became synonymous with the worst kind of victory, one in which you win the battle but lose so many of your men that you might as well have lost: a "Pyrrhic victory.") Acknowledging the inevitable, Demetrius changed out of his royal getup, put on street clothes, and sneaked out of his tent. Describing Demetrius's greatest moment, Plutarch can't resist a theatrical metaphor: "Not like a king, but like an actor," he mused, "he exchanged his showy robe of state for a dark cloak, and in secret stole away."
Demetrius (Poliorcete), ruler of Macedonia, bowed out less than gracefully.
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Two millennia later, that scene inspired a poem by the Alexandrian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy—a connoisseur, you might say, of history's greatest losers. Perhaps because he lived in Alexandria, Egypt (a city that itself knew a thing or two about defeat—the greatest cultural center of the Mediterranean world in ancient times, it had become a provincial backwater by the time Cavafy was born there in 1863), Cavafy, a student of both classical and medieval Greek history, based many of his poems on the stories of men and women who made their defeats into vehicles for scoring moral triumphs. One was the Byzantine emperor John Cantacuzene, whose treasury was so depleted by his rapacious predecessor that he had to wear fake jewels to his own coronation—a humiliation that the poet finds impressive rather than "abject." Another was Marc Antony, the love-besotted Roman general who lost half the Western world when he bet his political and military fortunes on an alliance with the aforementioned Cleopatra; Cavafy urges Marc Antony not to "uselessly mourn" his defeat but to celebrate it with "a final entertainment." These and so many other great losers in history are reimagined as winners, in the end.
But to be that kind of winner—the winner in the very long run, the kind of person who excites the imaginations of great artists and the admiration of ordinary people, too—you have to be a good loser first. Will some poet be writing admiring verses about the 45th president one day? Something tells me we won't have to wait for the year 4020 to find out.
Daniel Mendelsohn
Daniel Mendelsohn is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Town and Country. His books include the international best seller The Lost, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and many other honors; a memoir, The Elusive Embrace, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; a translation, with commentary, of the complete poems of C. P. Cavafy; and two collections of essays. His new memoir, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic, will be published in September. He lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.
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As part of our Newcastle United Foundation Club Partnership agreement our hugely successful Fun Club is now delivered by the foundation coaches.
All players can simply turn up and pay on the day, however they must register (sign in) before taking part.
Players are in age appropriate groups with the emphasis on having fun and learning in a safe environment.
Where the weather conditions dictate we shall use the grassed areas, however in wet conditions we may move to the all weather astro courts next to the car park.
When is the East End Fun Club?
We advise parents to ensure their child arrives with a soft drink (not fizzy), football boots, shin pads and suitable clothing for the weather conditions. Parents must also ensure their child is dropped off and collected on time please.
Our Club Twitter account will be used to notify people should the session be cancelled for any reason.


On Wednesday, July 18th, you can pick up the first collected trade paperback JUGHEAD: THE HUNGER Vol. 1 from Archie Comics.
JUGHEAD: THE HUNGER is an ongoing horror series featuring a werewolf Jughead and monster-fighter Betty, by writer Frank Tieri with artists Pat & Tim Kennedy, Joe Eisma, Bob Smith, and Matt Herms.
Collects JUGHEAD: THE HUNGER ONE-SHOT and issues #1-3.


MTV Networks announces 345 Games, a new studio which will develop games based on existing Comedy Central and Spike TV properties.
MTV Networks has announced the formation of a new studio called 345 Games, which will be tasked with developing games based on intellectual properties from both Comedy Central and Spike TV.
The studio's first two planned titles, Deadliest Warrior: Legends and Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon, will both be offered as downloadables on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network for $10 each.
As one would expect, Deadliest Warrior: Legends, based on Spike TV's hit series, is a sequel (of sorts) to the multi-platform downloadable Deadliest Warrior: The Game. It will feature "new heroic warriors, new fighting options, a more precise projectile system, more arenas and a new campaign mode."
Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon, based on Comedy Central's animated series Ugly Americans (see top-image), is a side-scrolling, cooperative shooter for up to for players. The game's original script is being crafted by the show's writers and creators, and the show's actors are contributing their vocal talents - though a new character will be introduced, as well. According to the announcement, "players will hit the streets to clean up the chaos and prevent the impending apocalypse by resolving case files and fighting otherworldly citizens."
Neither game has a release date, at this time.
Comment on MTV Networks launches 345 Games studio, by Jeff Mattas.
I thought this was Three Hundread and Fourty Five different studios.
Behold , their newest entry to the gaming industry , these people will see the wrath of the gaming community , and we're not sheep here, to listen to this religious and mind control crap. It's obvious what these games are going to be about , and it's obvious that they will be cheap games targeted for mass public.
ladies and gentlemen, a front page poster.