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Internal Monsanto Documents Reveal the Company's Deceptive Disinformation Campaign against Critics
by OrganicEye | Aug 28, 2019 | News Posts
Chemical industry giant Monsanto used military-style surveillance and response tactics to target critics, newly released documents reveal. Disclosed as a result of ongoing court battles regarding the health impacts of the weed killer Roundup, internal communications from 2014-2017 highlight Monsanto's "intelligence fusion center" that monitored potential threats to the industry and spread retaliatory responses through third-party sources.
As reported by The Guardian, there were numerous, alarming findings in the documents released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For instance, a spreadsheet titled, "Project Spruce: Carey Gillam Book" detailed a range of strategic responses in the lead-up to the release of Carey Gillam's Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science. This included paying Google to promote an existing blog post when users searched, "Monsanto Glyphosate Carey Gillam." Additionally, the group wrote up "talking points" for third parties to critique the book and post negative reviews. Ms. Gillam noted in an op-ed, "Shortly after the book's publication, dozens of "reviewers" suddenly posted one-star reviews sharing suspiciously similar themes and language. The efforts were not very successful as Amazon removed many reviews it deemed fake or improper."
Internal emails exposed that Monsanto representatives would call editors of Ms. Gillam's then-employer, Reuters, to complain and mount pressure on the institution regarding her reporting on their products and the lawsuits against them. Monsanto media relations executive Sam Murphy wrote in an email, "We continue to push back on her editors very strongly every chance we get, and we all hope for the day she gets reassigned."
Ms.Gillam was not the only personality in the Monsanto spotlight – "Fusion Center" employees carefully observed and reported on singer Neil Young who produced a rebellious, environmentally-focused album called "The Monsanto Years." The group monitored his social media accounts and considered legal action in retaliation.
U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), a non-profit investigative research group focused on the food industry, was threatening enough to Monsanto that it merited weekly reports. Monsanto was particularly concerned about the release of information regarding financial relationships with scientists that could be used as evidence that the industry was "covering up unflattering research."
USRTK detailed the use of third-party sources Monsanto used to counteract the agency, noting:
Deliverables in a "Comprehensive USRTK FOIA Preparedness and Reactive Plan" dated May 15, 2016 included plans for a "Third Party Content Creation (Forbes post);" an agenda to discuss the plan refers to "Proactive Training for independent experts via GMOA [GMO Answers]" and "allergenicity materials" including an infographic and blog/op eds to be "organized by MON distributed by GMOA".
Action items for "industry alignment" in the 2019 plan included requesting "online positioning" from the Center for Food Integrity, International Food Information Council, CropLife America, CropLife International, Ketchum PR and the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (page 6).
The law group Baum Hedland published more new documents for the public to review on August 15, 2019. According to the attorneys, "These documents reveal Monsanto's efforts to defund IARC, their involvement with Reuter's reporter Kate Kelland, the creation of their 'Intelligence Fusion Center' targeting journalists and activists critical of Monsanto, and more about their manipulating science."
Ms. Gillam, now research director for USRTK, wrote in response to the industry attacks, "Truth and transparency are precious commodities, the foundations for the knowledge we all need and deserve about the world we live in. Without truth we cannot know what risks we face, what protections we must make for our families and our futures. When corporate power is so intensely brought to silence messengers, to manipulate the public record and public opinion, truth becomes stifled. And we should all be afraid."
Watch Ms. Gillam's talk, "Decades of Deceit," from the 36th National Pesticide Forum for more on Monsanto's practices to cover up—through fraud, intimidation, ghostwriting agency documents—the science showing that glyphosate kills humans as well as weeds.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.


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«Торонто Мейпл Лифс» () — канадский профессиональный хоккейный клуб из Торонто, Онтарио. Выступает в Атлантическом дивизионе Восточной конференции Национальной хоккейной лиги (НХЛ). Клуб основан в 1917 году и является клубом «Оригинальной шестёрки». В первом сезоне команда выступала под названием «Торонто» и стала первым чемпионом НХЛ, завоевав Кубок Стэнли. В следующем сезоне команда получила название «Торонто Аренас», а еще через год была переименована в «Торонто Сент-Патрикс» и называлась так вплоть до 1927 года, когда была снова переименована и  получила своё нынешнее название «Торонто Мейпл Лифс».

Пять тренеров «Торонто» были включены в Зал хоккейной славы как игроки: Дик Ирвин, Джо Примо, Кинг Клэнси, Ред Келли и Дик Дафф. Еще четверо — как хоккейные тренеры и функционеры: Конн Смайт, Хэп Дэй, Панч Имлак и Роджер Нилсон.

Список тренеров

Примечания

Ссылки

Тренеры «Торонто Мейпл Лифс»
Списки НХЛ
Списки хоккейных тренеров

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was indicted on federal corruption charges last week and immediately resigned his position. Cannon had replaced former Mayor Anthony Foxx, who was tapped in 2013 by the Obama administration to lead the Department of Transportation. News of Cannon's indictment got only passing mention in national news, along with a handful of other corruption charges for Democrats.
The AP did a round-up of "big-city" mayors caught up in corruption cases, which may be the single greatest example of Name That Party ever executed.
The New York Times buried the story as a one-paragraph Associated Press report on page A21, with the bland dog-bites-man headline, "California: State Senator Accused of Corruption." This even though Yee was suspended, along with two others, from the California state senate in light of the indictment.
CNN, home (also until last week) of Piers Morgan, whom Yee had praised for his anti-gun activism, didn't report the story at all. When prodded by viewers, the network snarked that it doesn't do state senators. Which is odd, because searching the name of my own state senator, Stacey Campfield, turns up a page of results, involving criticisms of him for saying something "extreme". Meanwhile, CNN found time to bash Wisconsin state senator and supporter of Gov. Scott Walker, Randy Hopper over marital problems.
But there's a difference. They're Republicans. When Republicans do things that embarrass their party, the national media are happy to take note, even if they're mere state senators. But when Democrats like Yee get busted for actual felonies, and pretty dramatic ones at that, the press suddenly isn't interested.
Cannon allegedly boasted to the undercover agents about an upcoming trip to Washington during a meeting in the mayor's office. He said he would use his clout to push for Charlotte streetcar funding.
A White House spokesman declined to comment Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation. But a White House official said they were unaware of the FBI investigation at the time of Cannon's visit to the White House in December 2013.
No comment. Movin' on. Nor has Foxx been questioned about his relationship with Cannon, who took over his seat, and with whom he served in city government for years. Curious, that.


TROY, Mich., (June 19, 2006) - Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of technology and services that strengthen client innovation and decision-making, and Open iT, Inc., a leading provider of IT asset management software, today announced that they have formed a partnership to integrate their grid software solutions to provide added value to the high-performance computing (HPC) community. The business arrangement will also open additional cross-selling opportunities to both companies in a wide range of industries.
"Open iT definitely sees a strong synergy between the two companies' offerings, with great potential in the marketplace", says Signe Marie Stenseth, vice president of Open iT. "A company with a large investment in high-end technology applications not only needs an intelligent workload management solution like Altair's PBS Professional. It also needs to know the usage pattern of these software applications to support the right decision when software is up for renewal, and to focus support and training were most needed. Open iT has the tools that cover software-, server- and storage management help uncover bottlenecks, boost efficiency and support chargeback of IT resources usage. Bundled together, Altair and Open iT provide superior customer value."
"This partnership with Open iT brings an added dimension to PBS Professional's strength in workload management," said Michael Humphrey, vice president of Altair's PBS GridWorks business unit. "Integrating Open iT's resource metering and usage optimization software with our advanced workload management technology will help customers save money and time in making intelligent resource decisions."
Open iT, Inc. is a leading provider of IT asset management software that empowers companies to optimize enterprise IT resources on Windows, UNIX and Linux. The software meters, analyzes and optimizes usage, and gives management an overview of which assets are being used, by whom, and for how long. Open iT delivers value by enabling management to align IT assets with business activity, to implement internal chargeback based on actual use and to identify true IT asset needs. Open iT has earned a reputation for quality and focused services to leading companies within energy, telecom, healthcare, automotives and electronics. Founded in 1992, Open iT has offices and partners around the world. For more information, visit www.openit.com .


text:
As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured— departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion for their homeland and for each other, they will face the toughest decisions of their lives. Spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
KES1,280.00 KES900.00
SKU: RGB005 Categories: FICTION, Romance, West Africa
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria. Her novel Half of a Yellow Sun won the Orange Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and her novel Purple Hibiscus won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and theHurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Thing Around Your Neck, her collection of stories, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in Africa.
The recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she was named one of the twenty most important fiction writers today under 40 years old by The New Yorker.
Amara Nicole Okoro
Imagine Africa 500
The Angel That Was Always There
Julius Bokoru
Patriots & Sinners
Nnena Ihebom

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


For quite some time now, we've been telling employees, managers and leaders (and anyone else who will listen) that the individual should own their development – and so we shouldn't be surprised that a greater proportion of professional development is now happening outside of traditional L&D channels.
BYOL (Bring Your Own Learning) is a term being used to describe how people choose their own learning sources and (formally or informally) create a learning agenda based upon their needs, ambitions and interests. BYOL was described in a fascinating book of the same name and denotes that 'what matters is that students learn in the ways that make sense to them and their teachers'. Whether this is in the form of books, courses, videos, mentoring, online learning platforms, or short-form mobile content, there appears to be a growing trend of employees owning more of their professional development.
In a recent webinar, Todd Tauber described one of the catalysts for individuals owning their own development as being the race to remain professionally relevant when human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. Bersin by Deloitte reference a similar statistic with the half-life of many professional skills now being somewhere between just 2.5 and 5 years.
It appears that a great number of employees are owning their development and finding their own channels to grow their knowledge and know-how. So our job is done, right?
If around 70% of people will go to a search-engine as their first port-of-call, 42% seek out a course on their own and only 12% will bother HR, then where's the context?
If your organisation has (or aspires to have) competencies, capabilities, behaviours or other success criteria then you've already recognised that context is essential to professional success – and you're likely to have incorporated (or at least referenced) these in your development programmes.
So, how do things work in your organisation? How do people get on in your company? What are the appropriate means of influence?
BYOL helps people to develop and grow in ways that they've envisioned but how does that compare to what the organisation has envisioned?
The opportunity for L&D is twofold: To identify where context is critical to the organisation's (and individual's) success and to recognise the habits, preferences and motivations of employees who are developing themselves and capitalise on these internally. Why? Because through increased employee engagement in your organisation's learning you can develop your internal capability in the areas that your organisation demands.
This means going beyond BYOL and identifying the digital habits to capitalise on these for the benefit of organisational capability and performance.
In a recent study, Degreed found that 95% of the workforce use at least one personal device at work. If nearly three-quarters of employees will look outside of the organisation with a web-search for answers to help them with their job (and frighteningly that number increases to 81% for new starters), then how can you help to make your organisation's proprietary knowledge as easy to access?
If we go to our smartphones up 9 times an hour (a little over every 5 minutes) and nearly all smartphone users turn to their devices for ideas while completing a task. And with searches relating to "how to" on YouTube growing by 70% each year, then these are developed habits that we can capitalise on.
When people bring their devices into their workflow, they will use them in a way that will serve them well – and that already serves them well. If we (L&D) can learn what these ways are then our opportunity to engage employees is greater.
But how do we do this, I hear you ask?
The first step is to look at your own habits. What do you do when you need to know something, or when you need to know how-to-do something? Ask your colleagues and friends too – because it's likely to be strikingly similar.
I've been asking most people I speak with this very question. A former-colleague I asked very recently replied 'Oh, I'm not up with the modern way of doing things, I'd probably just Google it'.


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Photograph from Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh. Photograph by Adrien Dubuisson.
On April 17, 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea—also known as the Khmer Rouge—took control of Cambodia. The regime not only stripped Cambodians of their basic human rights but also tortured, raped, and killed millions until its fall in 1979. For this week's Poetry Tuesday, Monica Sok pays tribute to this painful history by looking at it straight in the face, lending her voice to those who suffered or passed, and exploring her role as a writer and a scion of trauma.
Today I can't look at the ocean.
bleach white & freshly chiseled.
It's looking at my face.
on this beach, nameless now.
to us about holding skulls?
I'm thinking of you, Bang.
Go on, Goan Srey, go on. Don't be afraid.
to you your own smile.
Ask my face for news of my heart.
Wolf spiders break through clouds.
Fire ants dig below the lava strip.
Bullets run in the rubber tree forest.
throw off your mosquito net!
so he becomes a mountain.
below a hundred moths, fluttering.
Until it ends, the mines avoid me.
Tell me time is a strangling fog.
But you are safe inside your mosquito net.
throw it off then! Throw it!
It doesn't matter what covers you when the sky sleeps.
In the light you are a dangerous place.
on the dresser looking at itself in the mirror.
Kasaul, is it your birthday tomorrow?
your toothless laugh was round.
Why did I ever carry you in my krama?
she wanted to keep you her own.
You lay in a hammock between palm trees.
I see you rock by yourself.
rub perfumed lotion on my hands.
to make you strong again.
You are the jasmine. I am the window.
The jasmine in the window. Sweet. Full.


text:
Sanctuary ReOpening plan
Task Force Update - January 2021
A Word About In-Person Indoor Worship Cancellation
What to expect when moving to indoor worship (PDF)
President's letter to congregation - 11/2/2020 (PDF)
Communion Questions - Part I
Re-opening Task Force
Read the phased re-opening plan message
Communion Questions - Part II
The Reopening Task Force was formed in July to find safe ways to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of the congregation, and to continue to track the COVID-19 trajectory and adjust ministries at St. Matthew to keep parishioners and the broader community safe. Specifically, the Task Force monitors the infection rates of the four towns in which the majority of our members live: Avon, Canton, Simsbury, and Farmington. When the infection rate reaches 15 or greater positive cases per 100,000 people per day (goes into the "red zone") in any one of these towns, the Task Force strongly recommends that we suspend in-person indoor worship until the red zone classification is removed by the State.
By November 27, 2020, all four towns had surpassed that infection rate. Pastor Julie notified the Church Council that in-person indoor worship would be canceled Sunday, November 29, as well as parishioners who had signed up to attend. Pastor Julie and the Reopening Task Force will continue to consult the town-by-town COVID data each week and determine whether in-person worship will happen, and will communicate the news on a weekly basis via the Friday Constant Contact email. In addition, up to date worship information, including cancelations, is available on the homepage of the website.
Planning for a phased re-opening
The Congregational Council met Tuesday, June 2nd, to discuss future plans for returning safely to the church building for ministry and worship, following the guidance of the ELCA and the state and federal government. We framed our discussion with Jesus' words about the Greatest Commandment, to love God and neighbor. For us, this means balancing dual needs: the need for safety in the community, especially among the most vulnerable, and the need for authentic worship, which for some, means being in the sanctuary.
The Council is proposing an incremental approach. The first step is to conduct a survey of the congregation in order to gauge readiness for returning to the building and to explore what practices would make congregants feel most comfortable. Members can expect the survey in their email inbox mid-month; people who receive the newsletter via USPS will receive a hard copy to return to the office. In addition, the Council will appoint a Re-Opening Task Force at its next meeting on July 7th.The task force will utilize the survey information and guidance from public health officials and the ELCA to plan for the safest ways to resume in-person ministry. If you are interested in serving on the task force, please contact one of the pastors or our council president, Jack Pietrick. The Council will offer updated communications as our process continues.
In the meantime, Pastor Brian and I will begin to offer some smaller-scale, in-person ministry options. We will resume home bound visitation for those who desire it, using best social distancing practices such as wearing face masks and meeting outdoors where possible. We will wait for now on sharing Holy Communion. For those unable to receive a visit safely at this time, we will continue offering spiritual support over the phone. We will also offer porch chats with parishioners who would like to meet in person for conversation and prayer. These visits will occur on the office door porch, with seating at least six feet apart. Pastors and parishioners will wear face masks; parishioners are welcome to bring their own folding chair if that is more comfortable.
Other opportunities for in-person, small group fellowship may arise, especially outdoors. If you have needs or ideas, please reach out to me, Pastor Brian, or to our Council President, Jack Pietrick at office@stmatthewavon.org. We will do what we can to meet your needs in this unusual time in a safe way.
We will continue to offer online opportunities during this period: Zoom worship at 9 AM on Sundays, with the video on our website for viewing later in the day; men's and women's fellowship groups, bible study and Tuesdays at 10 AM. Pastor Brian and I will continue our check in calls to parishioners; we also are available for phone or video conference upon request. We are grateful for our leaders on Council and Care Teams; Finance, Communications, and Property Committees; our staff; and all of you, the faithful people of God at St. Matthew, who hold our ministry in prayer.
Re-Opening Task Force Members
The following people were appointed at the July 7 Council Meeting to serve on the St. Matthew Reopening Task Force: Kathy Alsgaard, Ellen Ericson, Tom Leonard, John Pearson, Doug Peterson, and Jack Pietrick. Kathy Alsgaard and Doug Peterson have agreed to serve as co-chairs, and Pastor Julie is an ex-officio member. They are at work to recommend to the Council the safest practices for St Matthew while keeping in mind people's spiritual and relational needs. They plan to update the congregation on their work in the first two weeks of August. We give thanks to God for their ministry of wisdom, care, and leadership among us!
Click on a name below to view member's bio.
Kathy Alsgaard
I have a clinical background as a registered nurse, and have worked in critical care, community andpublic programs, behavioral health, program design, development, utilization, and measurement formajor health care companies. Although I am retired, I still serve on the Board of Trustees for McLean and their Quality andCompensation committees. I believe not only do we have to plan in phases, and slowly for the physicalgathering spaces, both indoors and outdoors, but also address the psychological impact on ourmembership as we move forward. As an older adult with a health condition, I'll be treading more slowlymyself as I become comfortable with the process. However, having said that, I do believe we need tomove ahead and get started.
Ellen Ericson
My interest in participating in the Reopening Task Force of St. Matthew Lutheran Church stems from the following:
I have been a member for 44 years.
I taught Sunday School for 10 years
I published The Voice for 15 years
I am a long-time member of the Altar Guild
I am a Communion Assistant
I serve in preparing meals for Grace Lutheran
Education: Attended Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC, Tunxis Community College, Assorted Software Seminars
Retired in 2011 after 7 years from Farmington Bank as Marketing Project Coordinator
Receptionist at Winding Trails Recreation Area - 3 years.
Co-owner/Operations - Country Club Cleaners & Tailors, Avon, CT, 5 years
Proprietor of Ellen Gregory Design, Graphic Design Services – 10 years (5 years concurrent withoperating Country Club Cleaners & Tailors)
Finlay Brothers Printing, Desktop Publisher/Typesetter – 1 year
Westledge Realtors – Advertising Coordinator/New Homes Div., 3 years
Avon Old Farms School – Deans' Office Assistant – 3 years
With 40+ years of experience in insurance, I hope to bring to the task force relevant informationsurrounding what changes will be coming to the industry and how it may affect coverages. Covid claims,potentially bodily injury claims and errors and omissions claims against our commercial liability policy, will likely be a new area of concern for institutions such as churches. I personally fall into the high-riskcategory and options for a safe re-opening are of utmost concern. By staying current on CDC and Stateof Connecticut guidelines, along with synod directives, we can tailor our plans and strategies to how bestto begin a return to church services, activities, and use of our building. With that being said, I trust thereare many in the St. Matthew community who will bring their expertise to the table to bring us safelyback to worship while keeping our pastors, staff, ushers and parishioners risk-free.
John Pearson is an engineer who owns his own company, Extorconsult LLC.He has been a member of Saint Matthews since 1991. John has been Involved in many ways; an ushersince 1995, served on the Church Council, member of the Worship and Music, Stewardship, andProperty Committees. In addition he is a lector and has served as an assisting minister.As part of his engineering practice he uses statistics and has been following with great interest theanalysis of the COVID19 virus trend and predictive statistics. Also in his experience with the automotiveindustry he participates in the management of risk with review of action plans.
Doug Peterson
I am currently:
Professor of Oral Medicine, School of Dental Medicine
Faculty member, Head & Neck Cancer/Oral Oncology Program
UConn Health
I teach medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy students regarding management of medically complex patients in an inter professional context. I conduct research directed to oral complications of cancer therapy.My service activities include:I am Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. This committee is responsible for creating and disseminating oncology guidelines to the ASCO community (approx. 45,000 oncology members representing 151 countries).I am lead writer for the NIH National Cancer Institute's website directed to oral complications of cancer therapies.I am a member of the School of Dental Medicine's Task Force on COVID-19 policy and procedure re:dental management of patients during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Jack Pietrick
Member of St. Matthew for 40 years
Member of the Church Council (Year 3).
Member of St. Matthew Sanctuary Choir.
In my capacity as a building principal (1999-2012), I was a member of the Regional SchoolDistrict #4 Administrative Team for 13 years – we worked closely with the Middlesex CountyHealth Department. During flu season, we met with Health Department Representatives on anongoing basis. Cases were monitored on a daily basis and results were reported to the HealthDepartment. Protocols were developed with the Health Department for cleaningregimentations and the overall risk to students and staff was discussed and monitoredthroughout the flu season each year. This included protocols for SARS and Swine Flu.
This period of quarantine has raised some interesting questions sur-rounding the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Before the quarantine began St. Matthew was starting a Care Teams ministry which would bring communion to our homebound members, providing another visit each month to homebound members in addition to the pastors' com-munion visits. Theologically speaking, lay people bringing communion to the homebound is an extension of the Table, a continuation of the Meal we share on Sundays. It does not involve reconsecrating the ele-ments. Rather, it is delivering the elements prepared in Sunday wor-ship to a person's home, like a communion assistant might bring the elements to someone's seat who is unable to physically walk up to the altar. Care Team ministry or "Eucharistic ministry" is common in many Lutheran churches and other Christian denominations.
During the pandemic some churches have considered the practice of "virtual communion." Pastor Julie and I led two sessions discussing the theology of Holy Communion two weeks in June. There are many pas-tors, bishops, and theologians weighing in on this issue, and there is a lot of diversity in perspectives. It is interesting to highlight theological arguments for and against such a practice, as well as explore the back-ground of the Lutheran understanding of communion. As we learned in our zoom meetings on this topic, Lutherans believe in the real presence of Christ in Holy Communion, meaning the body and blood of Christ is truly present in the bread and wine in a way beyond just metaphor. Luther rejected Roman Catholicism's metaphysical explanation of how this occurs (called "transubstantiation") and adopted a simple "real presence" understanding, while other reformers argued for a more sym-bolic meaning. The Sacrament of Holy Communion did not have an emergency provision like the Sacrament of Holy Baptism in the Roman Church, nor did Luther adopt one because he didn't believe not receiv-ing communion would jeopardize one's salvation. Luther also empha-sized the priesthood of all believers and understood clergy as those set aside by the community to lead for the sake of good order. But he re-jected the Roman idea of an ontological change in one's being at the time of ordination. He believed pastors were important because of the need to have educated leaders who were called to preach and preside for the community to have good order, but did not believe pastors had special powers necessary to consecrate the elements. Rather, it was always Jesus' promise to be present in communion which guaranteed His presence. In fact, Luther once suggested that if a group of Chris-tians were stranded on a desert island without a priest, they could nom-inate one from among them to preach the gospel, perform baptisms, and distribute communion. That is because the Holy Spirit calls people through the community, not from the top of the church hierarchy.
Even if we aren't on a desert island, this period of quarantine may feel like an emergency situation. Recognizing we are all among the priest-hood of all believers may sound like a green light to practice commun-ion at home. However, it is also important to understand that the Sac-rament of Holy Communion is about the community of believers being present together. It is not an individual practice, but one for the Gath-ered Assembly. Christians in Luther's time did not receive communion every week. There was actually a rule that Christians should commune at least once a year, so obviously people were not regular receivers in the medieval church.
Luther also warned against understanding Communion in an overly superstitious way, as well as it being understood in too casual a manner. Is virtual communion too superstitious? Is it too cas-ual? Or is it taking seriously our call as the priesthood of all believers? Is it in line with Luther's desert island scenario? Or is it dismissing the need for community of the Gathered Assembly? During this time of extended absence from the church building, the church is faced with these questions. We invite you to contemplate, wonder, and pray about them.


text:
Gyllenbrun sprötstjärt (Sylviorthorhynchus yanacensis) är en fågel i familjen ugnfåglar inom ordningen tättingar.

Utbredning och systematik
Fågeln förekommer lokalt i Anderna i norra Peru och västra Bolivia. Den behandlas som monotypisk, det vill säga att den inte delas in i några underarter.

Släktestillhörighet
Traditionellt placeras arten i släktet Leptasthenura. Genetiska studier visar dock att den är systerart till trådsprötstjärten (Sylviorthorhynchus desmurii) och förs allt oftare till det släktet istället.

Status
IUCN kategoriserar arten som livskraftig.

Noter

Externa länkar

Ugnfåglar
Fåglar i neotropiska regionen


"code that writes other code"
print "meow, I am definitely cat"
# "meow, I am definitely cat"
Other languages support metaprogramming, too. Lisps have macros, Java has reflection, etc.
However... metaprogrammed code is often harder to read. Behaviour can change from compile time to runtime.


text:
December 6, 2015 November 27, 2020 TMF
This Is The Reason Creating Another Criminal Provision For Marital Rape Will Be Dangerous For India
Indian Govt. is mulling the option of bringing a comprehensive law against marital rape by the husband. As the news reports say, that on 4th Dec Congress MP Shri Avinash Pande has brought a private bill "The Indian Penal Code (Amendment) bill". The bill sought to remove exception (2) under IPC 375 to criminalize Marital Rape. Govt. however has confirmed that it is waiting for a Law Commission report to deal with this sensitive matter in a comprehensive way and to bring a comprehensive law against it.
However, bringing a separate criminal provision against marital rape is thought to be another nail in the coffin of Indian marriages. What Mr. P J Kurien has said in the parliament ("…if you think rape by a husband is a crime, why should the govt wait for a report?….") is a dangerous thought in itself. This makes it clear that the amendment is going to be one-sided that will consider only men as rapists whereas women can be rapists too. Many activists are up against this notion of the parliament that refuses to accept women as criminals.
Clearly for men, when not accepting wife's proposal for having sex may lead to impotency charges against him, this new law will give his wife a chance to force her unwilling husband to have sex which otherwise should have been considered as rape if the amendment was gender neutral.
Journalist and ace writer Dr. Partha Chattopadhyay in his latest book Purush had already expressed his fear of women taking revenge against their husband if marital rape becomes a law. He has shown that libido is different for different individuals. So the sexual drive of a husband and a wife may not match and many times the intercourse may be termed as rape by a revengeful wife. He had also expressed his concern that when the woman has sexual overdrive and forces her husband to sex will not be accused of such crimes ever.
Mr. Radhikanath Mallik, pioneer of Bengal's Men's Rights Movement has expressed his concern over this proposed amendment as well. He said now men will not want to marry.
This law is nothing but an attempt to term all common Indian men as rapists and break more families. So far it was to make them dowry seeker, but as the stigma of 498a is gone now a new extortion tool called Marital Rape is brought.
Mr. Mallik expressed his concern and wanted to ask the lawmakers the following questions –
Do men need to install CCTV cameras in their bedrooms and film all sex tapes now?
Do they need to take consent to have sex with their wives in any format?
His concern echoed by other activists working on the same and everyone has said that when such a crime cannot be proved and when there will be no punishment for false and frivolous complaints how can the govt. think of such a provision? Clearly, the sole aim of this new amendment is to term every common man as 'rapists'.
Radhikanath Mallik says these kinds of laws don't affect lawyers and politicians. They get an easy exemption. Only the common middle-class men are affected badly.
However, so far none of the activists can think of another greater danger. The men accused under marital rape may be denied passport, other govt. schemes and also from getting jobs. Recently, a judgement stated that any person even accused in a criminal case cannot be taken into police forces. With increasing misuse of 498a and frivolous complaints under such acts against extended family members, taking away job opportunities from many men.
Men are still considered as the provider and protector of their family and with changes, they will fail in their roles and will be looked down upon. Many will commit suicide out of frustration to their lives. Not only men will increasingly be discouraged to have families of their own, even women will not find suitable life partners. Men not entering into certain job roles will increase job opportunities for women but then women will need to marry less qualified or even unemployed men. These changes will increase women's responsibilities.
Since feminists are also pressurizing the govt. to name and shame rapists, these persons accused in false marital rape cases on divorce may also be shamed and many of them may lose their existing jobs. Such complaints will also debar them from getting future jobs as companies may not be ready to employ rapists in their roles.
Today, job roles and expectations have changed so much that women can equally take up any corporate job and perform equally well. Since women cannot be charged in these complaints they will never get rapist tag and those criminals will infest our workforce. However, men not able to enter the workforce will reduce the number of available employable people and will lead many companies to leave India. For this reason, Modi's great India dream seems only to be a farce.
So far, in all national and international debates, Indian MRAs have already proved beyond doubt that existing provisions under different IPC sections are enough to tackle the crime called Marital Rape and there is no need to create another IPC section for that or to consider that as equal offense as under IPC 375. MRAs have also demanded any law be made gender neutral so that even women sexual predators can be brought to book, but our lawmakers have turned a deaf ear to these proposals. The reaction from our parliamentarians also does not seem to make this new law gender neutral in any manner and consider women as offenders too. This is sure to create a huge disturbance in Indian families and marriage and create a greater sense of frustration among our youth.
With increasingly unstable future, bleak job scenario, fear of being termed as criminals in every walks of life will cripple Indian society. Prostitution (both male and female) will increase as families break and India will soon to observe a situation like anarchy. If India is still not reacting to this danger – that proves beyond doubt that we are extremely tolerant, probably Indians now need to be really intolerant to show that they are concerned about their future.
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olivermaerk says:
http://freedompowerandwealth.com
These laws don't protect anyone they are nothing else but tools to limit the personal freedom of citizens. Only enemies of freedom can support them.
cjsledgehammer says:
The State should stay out of our marriages and out of our bedrooms. They have no business there!
A woman who marries a man, knows full-well that a sexual union with her is desired and expected, so it is up to her to make sure she does not neglect him. Why is it that a bride can decide to neglect her groom sexually, but he is not free to neglect her financially?
To give a wife the power to claim marital rape against her groom is akin to giving the husband the power to claim grand larceny against his bride. In this wayward world, however, only the bride gets to point the finger and only the husband is prosecuted.
Marital rape would never happen if brides were allowed to know, respect and cherish their husbands before they wed. Throwing two strangers together is a recipe for disaster. The sexual union should never occur without a loving commitment and strong rapport, which can only be attained through the passage of time.
QNgm305 says:
it has become very clear that feminists want to drastically reduce the job opportunities and resource-earning capacities of men, so that they can make women earn all the money, while making men poor and helpless. They also want their reputations to be destroyed, so that they will not get help from societies and governments, in case they even try to survive their lives.
Shameful. Pathetic. Just on being 'accused'? without proofs/evidences/etc? Oh, shit….
In America, more and more of our male heroes (from Hollywood) are now being replaced by females. Instead of Super Man (1950's – 80's) we now have Super Girl (2015), as one example. We also see popular and beloved movies such as "A New Hope" (1977), being essentially retold with the main character and much of the cast shifting toward the female sex.
In the same fashion, we see a dramatic shift in our work-force, where 53% of our labor-force is now comprised of women, while 52% of the voting public are females. At the same time, we still force young men to sign-up for the draft (forced combat), while it remains illegal for females to be drafted into military service…yet they still receive all the voting rights and civil rights that men enjoy.
Female empowerment is attacking on all fronts, and to them, nothing is sacred. One has to wonder, therefore, what the world is going to look like when they are finished…if that day ever comes. I suspect, that when they are finished, there will only be a couple dozen men left, but to hear their stories, one will have to visit them behind bars at the local zoo.
As has been said by feminists in America, "Men are only useful for fixing cars and yard-work". This mentality has become an indictment against women, as a whole, who are so easily led astray and so naturally ungrateful, that they can neither see, comprehend, nor respect the monumental contributions men have been making to their families, to their societies and to the world at large…since the dawn of time. Then again, it is easy to be critical towards and disrespectful to the productive sex, when the privileged sex has been granted the luxury of wallowing in ignorance and sitting in judgment.


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Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Walking with Giants CD/DVD
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TZ3006
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23-RPLH654044.2
Jethro Tull - A [The 40th Anniversary Edition] 3 x CDs + 3 x 5.1 / hi-res DVD-A (expanded / remixed / remastered) (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only) (Mega Blowout Sale)
"Jethro Tull - A (A La Mode) [The 40th Anniversary Edition] Collection Expands The Group's 1980 Album With Steven Wilson's Newly Remixed Version Of The Original, Plus Unreleased Studio And Live Recordings, And A Remixed Version Of The Slipstream Video Collection
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Jethro Tull - Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) 4 x CD / 2 x DVD box set (due to weight, this is for sale in the USA only)
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Jethro Tull - Live at AVO Session Basel DVD
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Jethro Tull - Live at Montreux 2003 DVD
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I just love early Tull, so it's a real thrill for me personally to be able to see this professionally filmed document of their concert in front of 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight 8/30/70. This contains performance footage, newly recorded interviews...
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Johnson, Eric - Live From Austin, TX, December 14, 1988 DVD
Very special price on this concert video from this great guitarist (who started his musical life in the cult fusion band "Electromagnets"). This is by his trio with Kyle Brock-bass and Tommy Taylor-drums. Includes a cover of "Are You Experienced"!
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Before you snicker too much, before all the TV scores, Quincy was an excellent bandleader and this is him at his peak. "An ongoing DVD series featuring full-length concerts and in-studio performances by the greatest legends of jazz, filmed all over the...


text:
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Music player not finding flac files?
Hey guys, I'm running 2.3.30 ICS on a Nexus S and I'm not seeing my .flac songs in the music player. With a file explorer I can see and play them when I have it open as audio but that's not very useful. Am I missing something? I assume I should be able to play the songs now that support was added. I cleared the music players cache and rebooted the phone but still nothing.
Same problem here. Actually, sometimes it does.. very random to me though.
Furthermore, music isn't found from my external SD card..
I've since updated to 2.4.6 and then 2.4.13 and I no longer see any music at all! I did a full wipe on going to 2.4.6 and have also tried various kernels (including the stock) and it doesn't find any music, mp3 or flac.


text:
Home GH News Headlines UG survey predicting victory for Akufo-Addo fake – ASEPA
UG survey predicting victory for Akufo-Addo fake – ASEPA
The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has slammed the University of Ghana's Political Science department for a recent survey which has predicted a one-touch victory for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to the University, 51.7% of Ghanaians say they will vote for Akufo-Addo.
It also stated that 40.4% of Ghanaians say they will vote for John Dramani Mahama whilst 1.4% say they will vote for Ghana Union Movement (GUM).
Out of over 11,000 across the country, 52% of respondents say they will retain their Members of Parliament.
The researchers say 80% of the respondents said they will vote based on the campaign message.
But ASEPA in its statement said the survey released is fake.
"Earlier this month, a Facebook post by one Edudzi Tamakloe suggesting that the Department has conducted some polls and was shelving it was brought to the attention of the department.
"The department agreed to issue a rebuttal or disclaimer which was drafted.
The disclaimer was given to the Head of Department to issue on behalf of the department. The Disclaimer stated categorically that the Department has NOT conducted any polls this year.
"The Head of Department failed to publish this rebuttal which had been agreed upon by the entire members of the Department and the letter drafted was on the 1st of November,2020.
"Only for the same head of department who had written and signed those rebuttals to on the 24th November issue an invitation to members of the department that a survey has been conducted on the 2020 elections and they are invited to participate in the dissemination of the information."
Read the full statement by ASEPA below.
READ ON: Inlaks is System Integrator of the Decade at GITTA 2020
Press Statement by ASEPA on the Fake University of Ghana Polls by the Political Science Department- ASEPA Calls for Disciplinary Action Against Lecturers Publishing Fake Polls in the Name of UG
ASEPA EXPOSES UNIVERSITY OF GHANA ON FAKE POLLS
We have called you here to demonstrate how some lecturers at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana have connived to launch fake polls clearly aimed at influencing the outcome of the 2020 Elections.
First of all, we want to State Categorically that the University of Ghana, Political Science Department has NOT conducted any polls on the 2020 elections.
The polls being launched today is sole handiwork of one Dr. Owusu Mensah who has been contracted to publish a fake polls to hoodwink the public.
READ ON: Legon Cities announce sacking of head coach Goran Barjaktarevic
This situation has seriously angered a lot of the lecturers of the department who feel the name of the University and for that matter, the department was being used for personal gains!
It is important to bring these issues currently happening at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana to the attention of the Media and for that matter the public because it borders on the integrity of the premier University of this country.
That individual members of the university can initiate research activity in a private capacity and want to hang the results in the name of the university.
Secondly, which serious academic institution would decide to publish a poll at this critical hour leading to a major election?
READ ON: Haruna Iddrisu lied on Agyapa documents claim - Majority Leader
We believe that these actions by Dr Owusu Mensah and the Head of Department of the Political Science Department cannot go unpunished for attempting to bring the name of the university into public ridicule.
We demand that the University Disciplinary Committee Commences immediate investigations into this matter and sanction lecturers who may be found complicit in this brute attempt to defraud the public.
We also preparing to petition the Criminal Investigations Department to launch criminal investigations into the matter since it is a classic case of Academic Fraud perpetuated by these lecturers.
Previous articleGhanaians lived, breathed dumsor, hardship under Mahama- Bawumia
Next articleBogus, cooked UG survey was sponsored by the NPP – Dr Apaak
Vote for me to sustain my husband's legacy – Murdered Mfantseman...
NSS Boss attacked, campaign vehicles vandalized


text:
<?php

namespace Google\Service\BackupforGKE\Resource;

use Google\Service\BackupforGKE\ListVolumeBackupsResponse;
use Google\Service\BackupforGKE\Policy;
use Google\Service\BackupforGKE\SetIamPolicyRequest;
use Google\Service\BackupforGKE\TestIamPermissionsRequest;
use Google\Service\BackupforGKE\TestIamPermissionsResponse;
use Google\Service\BackupforGKE\VolumeBackup;

/**
 * The "volumeBackups" collection of methods.
 * Typical usage is:
 *  <code>
 *   $gkebackupService = new Google\Service\BackupforGKE(...);
 *   $volumeBackups = $gkebackupService->volumeBackups;
 *  </code>
 */
class ProjectsLocationsBackupPlansBackupsVolumeBackups extends \Google\Service\Resource
{
  /**
   * Retrieve the details of a single VolumeBackup. (volumeBackups.get)
   *
   * @param string $name Required. Full name of the VolumeBackup resource. Format:
   * `projects/locations/backupPlans/backups/volumeBackups`
   * @param array $optParams Optional parameters.
   * @return VolumeBackup
   */
  public function get($name, $optParams = [])
  {
    $params = ['name' => $name];
    $params = array_merge($params, $optParams);
    return $this->call('get', [$params], VolumeBackup::class);
  }
  /**
   * Gets the access control policy for a resource. Returns an empty policy if the
   * resource exists and does not have a policy set. (volumeBackups.getIamPolicy)
   *
   * @param string $resource REQUIRED: The resource for which the policy is being
   * requested. See [Resource
   * names](https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/resource_names) for the
   * appropriate value for this field.
   * @param array $optParams Optional parameters.
   *
   * @opt_param int options.requestedPolicyVersion Optional. The maximum policy
   * version that will be used to format the policy. Valid values are 0, 1, and 3.
   * Requests specifying an invalid value will be rejected. Requests for policies
   * with any conditional role bindings must specify version 3. Policies with no
   * conditional role bindings may specify any valid value or leave the field
   * unset. The policy in the response might use the policy version that you
   * specified, or it might use a lower policy version. For example, if you
   * specify version 3, but the policy has no conditional role bindings, the
   * response uses version 1. To learn which resources support conditions in their
   * IAM policies, see the [IAM
   * documentation](https://cloud.google.com/iam/help/conditions/resource-
   * policies).
   * @return Policy
   */
  public function getIamPolicy($resource, $optParams = [])
  {
    $params = ['resource' => $resource];
    $params = array_merge($params, $optParams);
    return $this->call('getIamPolicy', [$params], Policy::class);
  }
  /**
   * Lists the VolumeBackups for a given Backup.
   * (volumeBackups.listProjectsLocationsBackupPlansBackupsVolumeBackups)
   *
   * @param string $parent Required. The Backup that contains the VolumeBackups to
   * list. Format: `projects/locations/backupPlans/backups`
   * @param array $optParams Optional parameters.
   *
   * @opt_param string filter Field match expression used to filter the results.
   * @opt_param string orderBy Field by which to sort the results.
   * @opt_param int pageSize The target number of results to return in a single
   * response. If not specified, a default value will be chosen by the service.
   * Note that the response may inclue a partial list and a caller should only
   * rely on the response's next_page_token to determine if there are more
   * instances left to be queried.
   * @opt_param string pageToken The value of next_page_token received from a
   * previous `ListVolumeBackups` call. Provide this to retrieve the subsequent
   * page in a multi-page list of results. When paginating, all other parameters
   * provided to `ListVolumeBackups` must match the call that provided the page
   * token.
   * @return ListVolumeBackupsResponse
   */
  public function listProjectsLocationsBackupPlansBackupsVolumeBackups($parent, $optParams = [])
  {
    $params = ['parent' => $parent];
    $params = array_merge($params, $optParams);
    return $this->call('list', [$params], ListVolumeBackupsResponse::class);
  }
  /**
   * Sets the access control policy on the specified resource. Replaces any
   * existing policy. Can return `NOT_FOUND`, `INVALID_ARGUMENT`, and
   * `PERMISSION_DENIED` errors. (volumeBackups.setIamPolicy)
   *
   * @param string $resource REQUIRED: The resource for which the policy is being
   * specified. See [Resource
   * names](https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/resource_names) for the
   * appropriate value for this field.
   * @param SetIamPolicyRequest $postBody
   * @param array $optParams Optional parameters.
   * @return Policy
   */
  public function setIamPolicy($resource, SetIamPolicyRequest $postBody, $optParams = [])
  {
    $params = ['resource' => $resource, 'postBody' => $postBody];
    $params = array_merge($params, $optParams);
    return $this->call('setIamPolicy', [$params], Policy::class);
  }
  /**
   * Returns permissions that a caller has on the specified resource. If the
   * resource does not exist, this will return an empty set of permissions, not a
   * `NOT_FOUND` error. Note: This operation is designed to be used for building
   * permission-aware UIs and command-line tools, not for authorization checking.
   * This operation may "fail open" without warning.
   * (volumeBackups.testIamPermissions)
   *
   * @param string $resource REQUIRED: The resource for which the policy detail is
   * being requested. See [Resource
   * names](https://cloud.google.com/apis/design/resource_names) for the
   * appropriate value for this field.
   * @param TestIamPermissionsRequest $postBody
   * @param array $optParams Optional parameters.
   * @return TestIamPermissionsResponse
   */
  public function testIamPermissions($resource, TestIamPermissionsRequest $postBody, $optParams = [])
  {
    $params = ['resource' => $resource, 'postBody' => $postBody];
    $params = array_merge($params, $optParams);
    return $this->call('testIamPermissions', [$params], TestIamPermissionsResponse::class);
  }
}

// Adding a class alias for backwards compatibility with the previous class name.
class_alias(ProjectsLocationsBackupPlansBackupsVolumeBackups::class, 'Google_Service_BackupforGKE_Resource_ProjectsLocationsBackupPlansBackupsVolumeBackups');


People often ask me what art supplies I use, so I have compiled a list here of some of my favorites materials with links to Amazon. Everything on this list is something I have personally bought, use, and highly recommend. If you have any favorite art supplies you think I might like, please get in touch and let me know! I love finding out about great products.
Borden & Riley BORDEN & RILEY #234 Paris Paper for Pens 9 in. x 12 in.
Not technically an art material, but too much fun not to share. A client I've worked with for years recommended it. If you like Scrabble and/or anagrams, you've got to check it out. My kids and I play every night before bed. So much fun!!


text:
Women's double trap shooting made its first appearance at the 1996 Summer Olympics, with Kim Rhode becoming the inaugural champion. Susanne Kiermayer defeated Deserie Huddleston in the silver medal shoot-off.

Qualification round

OR Olympic record – Q Qualified for final

Final

OR Olympic record

References

Sources

Shooting at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Olymp
Shoo


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text:
Marc Guehi emergence shows defensive depth at Stamford Bridge
Sean Vranch
Many Chelsea fans wouldn't have known the name Addji Keaninkin Marc-Israel Guehi, at the start of season. If you follow the youth and academy set-up you will know he has bags of potential.
Last night was a disappointment for Blues fans. A 2-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester United ended a 7-match unbeaten streak that stretched back to the last round of the Carabao Cup, a 7-1 victory over League Two club Grimsby Town.
It was at the start of that run that Guehi made his debut. The 19-year-old gave an assured performance, but wasn't truly tested. Last night was different challenge as he came up against a strong Manchester United line-up. United opted to not make as many changes as Chelsea, but Guehi refused to be overrun by the challenge in front him.
Assured performance
The 19-year-old certainly can't be blamed for either of the goals, and gave a composed performance. Not afraid to get stuck in, the Ivorian-born defender battled away all evening winning many duels and tackles when required to frustrate the United attack.
Guehi has been at Chelsea since the age of nine. Like other youngsters making their mark, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori, Guehi is blue through and through.
At international level he has played for England at every level up to under-21. Captaining the under-17's to the European Championship final, he also scored in the World Cup final success for the same age group. He still remains eligible to play for his motherland, so a situation similar to that of Abraham and Tomori may yet be on the cards.
Defensive depth
From a defensively point of view, Chelsea looked well stacked going forward. Tomori emerged after a year away on loan at Derby. Ethan Ampadu, currently on loan at RB Leipzig, can play centre back as well. Andreas Christensen is still relatively young at 23-years of age.
The future is certainly bright as far a defenders are concerned. At fullback, the recent return of Reece James gives The Blues another option on the right. Also 17-year-old Dutch youngster Ian Maatsen saw his debut against Grimsby.
Overall Chelsea are going through somewhat of a transition right now. The trust in youth policy by Frank Lampard is causing a buzz around Stamford Bridge, long may it continue.
Frank Lampard confirms injury boost for key player after League Cup defeat
'Painful to watch', 'Get rid', some Chelsea fans blame one player after League Cup exit


text:
lang-8
Japan's HiNative Q&A app for language learning hits 3.4M registered users, raises $6M
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Lang-8, the company behind a Q&A app for language learning called HiNative, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised 650 million yen (around $5.8 million US) from YJ Capital, Daiwa Corporate Investment, and FFG Venture Business Partners, along with individual investor Kotaro Chiba. The payment was completed in August of this year. Other details, such as the investment ratios, were not released. As of August 2018 there are 3.41 million registered users on the HiNative app. This is nearly 17 times the amount related 2 years ago when we interviewed the company. According to Lang-8 CEO Yangyang Xi the current number of questions posed has reached 8.54 million and the number of responses totals 27,760,000. These numbers have also increased nearly tenfold compared to two years ago. See also: Japan's HiNative, Q&A app for language learning, secures $2M to boost user growth Much as Stack Overflow and Yahoo Answers, it is desirable for Q&A services that provide open answers to offer both the "flow experience" where responses can appear immediately and the "stock experience" where answers close to a users' query pop up on demand after searching. To elaborate on such services, when…
Lang-8 CEO Yangyang Xi at his new office in Ebisu, Tokyo
Image credit: Takeshi Hirano
Tokyo-based Lang-8, the company behind a Q&A app for language learning called HiNative, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised 650 million yen (around $5.8 million US) from YJ Capital, Daiwa Corporate Investment, and FFG Venture Business Partners, along with individual investor Kotaro Chiba. The payment was completed in August of this year. Other details, such as the investment ratios, were not released.
As of August 2018 there are 3.41 million registered users on the HiNative app. This is nearly 17 times the amount related 2 years ago when we interviewed the company. According to Lang-8 CEO Yangyang Xi the current number of questions posed has reached 8.54 million and the number of responses totals 27,760,000. These numbers have also increased nearly tenfold compared to two years ago.
Japan's HiNative, Q&A app for language learning, secures $2M to boost user growth
Much as Stack Overflow and Yahoo Answers, it is desirable for Q&A services that provide open answers to offer both the "flow experience" where responses can appear immediately and the "stock experience" where answers close to a users' query pop up on demand after searching.
To elaborate on such services, when I search for a phrase, in many cases it turns up owned content such as English speaking services on Skype. HiNative has reached a milestone because its search results are open, so the access to them will help the company to stand out in each country. Access to this web index is about 6 million unique users a month.
The company has a wide reach with 110 supported languages in 240 regions, and fast answers to questions posed via the flow experience appear in less than a few minutes. It has built up a community that is able to provide some form of an answer within an hour, and the knowhow garnered from Lang-8 is a big help here. The funds raised this time around will be used to further increase the overseas use rate, and to strengthen the management and development teams, which are currently consist of 10 employees, as well as to further strengthen the company's marketing activities.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda
HiNative: Giving language learners a handy way to ask native speakers
Meet the startups from Open Network Lab's latest Demo Day in Tokyo
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Lang-8, the company behind a Q&A app for language learning called HiNative, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 200 million yen (nearly $2 million US) in funding. The investors in this round include Kyoto University Innovation Capital, East Ventures, and DeNA, as well as individual investors notably Chiba Kotaro and Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron, in addition to multiple others. Details of the shareholding ratios and payment date have not been disclosed. Since its official launch back in November of 2014, HiNative has gradually assembled users, and as of the end of July 2016 it had reached around 200,000 registered users. "We can see a 500,000 users milestone within the year," CEO Yangyang Xi said in a previous interview back in July. In relation to the number of questions and responses, which is of special importance to the Q&A app, as of the end of September there have been 960,000 questions asked receiving 3.4 million answers. The app supports 120 languages and gains user access from almost every country in the world. The company plans to use the funds raised this time around to strengthen their development system, as well as promoting marketing…
Yangyang Xi, founder and CEO of Lang-8
Tokyo-based Lang-8, the company behind a Q&A app for language learning called HiNative, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 200 million yen (nearly $2 million US) in funding. The investors in this round include Kyoto University Innovation Capital, East Ventures, and DeNA, as well as individual investors notably Chiba Kotaro and Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron, in addition to multiple others. Details of the shareholding ratios and payment date have not been disclosed.
Since its official launch back in November of 2014, HiNative has gradually assembled users, and as of the end of July 2016 it had reached around 200,000 registered users. "We can see a 500,000 users milestone within the year," CEO Yangyang Xi said in a previous interview back in July.
HiNative's user growth
In relation to the number of questions and responses, which is of special importance to the Q&A app, as of the end of September there have been 960,000 questions asked receiving 3.4 million answers. The app supports 120 languages and gains user access from almost every country in the world. The company plans to use the funds raised this time around to strengthen their development system, as well as promoting marketing measures aimed at acquiring 2.5 million users by the end of 2017.
And so the story continues, with Xi having said in a previous interview, "Finally, we're on track and growing," to now, where he is set to advance to the next stage. He says that while they have to some degree seen verification of their growth, he'd like to improve the number of acquired users and at the same time qualities to retain them.
Xi explained:
As we thought, the more concurrent connections we have the better the numbers become, so first of all we'll do our best to win over new users. At the same time, what we want to do within 6 months is increase the response speed. If we can get to where answers come within an average of 5 minutes, user experience would also significantly improve, so we want to focus on that from here on out.
Additionally, since his debut in 2007 as a student entrepreneur, Xi has continuously operated his social network for language learning, but unable to make any breakthroughs, experienced his share of struggle. As such, this is his first chance to take a large sum of funding to strengthen the system.
Until now we have been working with 5 team members, but we would like that to become 10. In particular, we're looking for engineers, 1 iOS specialist and one Android, as well as a designer, so those are areas we'd especially like to strengthen. Also, I am still doing the web design, so of course I'd like someone who could take that over.
In terms of business development, they will look for measures to attract YouTuber marketing to their 'big hit', as well as for managerial support similar to COO for Xi.
To begin with, Xi seeks to complete his goal of breaking through the 2 million user mark. He also discussed hopes of opening up the language learning contents stored on HiNative for searching capabilities (like Stack Overflow).
Japan's language learning startup Polyglots secures series A funding from US investors
YangYang Xi
Seven years ago, Tokyo-based entrepreneur Yang Yang Xi launched the language-learning platform Lang-8. He came up with the idea while studying language at Kyoto University. See also: Lang-8: The language learning startup that's playing the long game His company, also called Lang-8, fundraised an undisclosed sum from Tokyo-based VC firm CyberAgent Ventures in January. Because startups usually fundraise to launch a new business or expand their current business so we've been interested in how they will take a next step from there. That's exactly what we want to tell you today. A new product from Lang8, HiNative gives users who are studying a language an easy way to connect to native speakers of that language. Typical language learners often have to refer to a dictionary or consult a foreign language teacher to learn appropriate expressions. However, a dictionary takes a grammatical and a formal approach, which does not work well for daily conversation, and a teacher is not always around to help. HiNative is just the app to overcome these problems. It allows users the choice of one of four question templates to query a native speaker on the platform (see below picture). Users are notified of their answers to…
Lang-8 co-founder and CEO YangYang Xi(喜洋洋)
Seven years ago, Tokyo-based entrepreneur Yang Yang Xi launched the language-learning platform Lang-8. He came up with the idea while studying language at Kyoto University.
Lang-8: The language learning startup that's playing the long game
His company, also called Lang-8, fundraised an undisclosed sum from Tokyo-based VC firm CyberAgent Ventures in January. Because startups usually fundraise to launch a new business or expand their current business so we've been interested in how they will take a next step from there. That's exactly what we want to tell you today.
A new product from Lang8, HiNative gives users who are studying a language an easy way to connect to native speakers of that language.
Typical language learners often have to refer to a dictionary or consult a foreign language teacher to learn appropriate expressions. However, a dictionary takes a grammatical and a formal approach, which does not work well for daily conversation, and a teacher is not always around to help.
HiNative is just the app to overcome these problems. It allows users the choice of one of four question templates to query a native speaker on the platform (see below picture). Users are notified of their answers to their questions via e-mail.
You will set your native language(s) and the language(s) you are interested in when signing up for the service, so you will be requested to answer when another user puts a question on your language. The app is developed based on a responsive web design so you can comfortably keep using it on a smartphone or tablet as well as on a desktop.
Xi explained what has triggered his team to start developing HiNative:
With the Lang-8 platform, we initially thought that blogging is a good way to learn foreign languages with communication. But to keep blogging requires users to sustain a high motivation. While many web services have been shifting to mobile, blogging or writing a long story using a mobile interface is pretty difficult. So we had to develop something beyond the Lang-8 platform.
If a native speaker were standing next to you, it would be easy for you to ask him or her for a proper native phrase. But it's not substantial. That's why we developed HiNative.
Xi and his team have developed HiNative leveraging all the experience they've learned from the Lang-8 platform both in good sides and bad sides. Despite the fact that they launched the HiNative app as early as several months ago, they are already confident for user acquisition but are more focusing on tactics to improve user retention rate. Xi elaborated:
For a better user engagement, I think what users experience during their first visit to our service is a key. That's why we've been running usability tests a bunch of times. Duolingo nicely marked 36 million downloads worldwide. But they are a content-based platform. We believe that a social network approach will be a main stream in the language learning platform. We aim to be the top platform in the social-based language learning category.
He added that the user active rate of the HiNative app is pretty better than that of the Lang-8 platform. In order to give users much better experience, they will launch an iOS app some day next month, as well as planning to start developing an Android version soon.
Adaptive learning startup Polyglots launches newsreader app for Japanese-language learners
Japanese language learning startup Lang-8 secures funding from CyberAgent Ventures
CyberAgent Capital
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Lang-8, which runs a language learning platform based on peer corrections, announced today that it has raised funding from CyberAgent Ventures. The exact details of the funding were not disclosed. Lang-8 has acquired over 730,000 users from 219 countries and regions around the world, with about 70% coming from outside Japan. According to the company's CEO Yangyang Xi, they plan to use these funds to develop a new service, and add three more engineers to their current three-person team. Xi initially launched the language learning platform when he was attending Kyoto University. Seven years have passed since then up until this funding. He notes that he has received much assistance from other entrepreneurs: Many people gave me advice for fundraising, including, Kensuke Furukawa (Nanapi), Ryusuke Matsumoto (Community Factory), Kiyo Kobayashi (serial entrepreneur, ex-CEO of Nobot), and Taku Harada (Peatix). But since I was running a service with a small team, I wanted to keep doing it ourselves without fundraising. But we started to explore funding opportunities back last July, and got a good response. When I met with Koichiro Yoshida (Crowdworks), he told me to meet with all available VC firms around…
Tokyo-based startup Lang-8, which runs a language learning platform based on peer corrections, announced today that it has raised funding from CyberAgent Ventures. The exact details of the funding were not disclosed.
Lang-8 has acquired over 730,000 users from 219 countries and regions around the world, with about 70% coming from outside Japan. According to the company's CEO Yangyang Xi, they plan to use these funds to develop a new service, and add three more engineers to their current three-person team.
Xi initially launched the language learning platform when he was attending Kyoto University. Seven years have passed since then up until this funding. He notes that he has received much assistance from other entrepreneurs:
Many people gave me advice for fundraising, including, Kensuke Furukawa (Nanapi), Ryusuke Matsumoto (Community Factory), Kiyo Kobayashi (serial entrepreneur, ex-CEO of Nobot), and Taku Harada (Peatix). But since I was running a service with a small team, I wanted to keep doing it ourselves without fundraising. But we started to explore funding opportunities back last July, and got a good response. When I met with Koichiro Yoshida (Crowdworks), he told me to meet with all available VC firms around him and try to raise funds.
Takanori Yokoi (Increments) also gave me sound advice. I've been sticking to metrics and logic, but he told me I should speak with more courage and not sweat the small stuff.
Every time I talked with Xi, he tended to be a little nervous about doing something new, despite the fact that his service has great potential. If he kept going in this way, I think he wouldn't be able to create a disruptive service. After this new fundraising, perhaps he will be more aggressive.
And while I can't disclose too much at this time, he actually is preparing to launch a new service. We'll take a further look at it when the time comes.
Language Cloud gets investment boost from CyberAgent Ventures
Japan's code learning startup TribeUniv raises $400,000 from CyberAgent Ventures
Compath.me
Open Network Lab
papelook
Voyagin
Tokyo startup accelerator Open Network Lab, led by MIT Media Lab's director Joi Ito, held its demo day event today. We had a chance to check out a wide range of startups, not only from this latest batch, but also from the program's previous five batches. Here's a quick overview below. From the sixth batch 1. Zenclerk ¶ Website: zenclerk.com We can't disclose much about their business because they're in stealth mode, expected to launch next month. But you can infer what they're working on from their website, as well as this short introductory video (in Japanese). They did not pitch at the event. 2. Papelook / Pape.mu girls ¶ Website: papelook.co.jp Pitched by: Ichiro Ozawa As some of our readers may remember that we previously featured Papelook, a photo collage/cropping app that allows users to share your fashion snapshots with others. It has now passed 5 million downloads since its initial launch back in March of 2012, growing at the impressive rate of 500,000 downloads a month. Almost 50% of all Japanese female smartphone users aged from 15 to 29 are using the app. In terms of differentiation from competing photo apps like Decopic and Snapeee, Papelook makes it…
Tokyo startup accelerator Open Network Lab, led by MIT Media Lab's director Joi Ito, held its demo day event today. We had a chance to check out a wide range of startups, not only from this latest batch, but also from the program's previous five batches. Here's a quick overview below.
From the sixth batch
1. Zenclerk ¶
Website: zenclerk.com
We can't disclose much about their business because they're in stealth mode, expected to launch next month. But you can infer what they're working on from their website, as well as this short introductory video (in Japanese). They did not pitch at the event.
2. Papelook / Pape.mu girls ¶
Website: papelook.co.jp
Pitched by: Ichiro Ozawa
As some of our readers may remember that we previously featured Papelook, a photo collage/cropping app that allows users to share your fashion snapshots with others. It has now passed 5 million downloads since its initial launch back in March of 2012, growing at the impressive rate of 500,000 downloads a month. Almost 50% of all Japanese female smartphone users aged from 15 to 29 are using the app.
In terms of differentiation from competing photo apps like Decopic and Snapeee, Papelook makes it easier to sort good pictures from bad ones, which should keep your camera roll from being filled with unnecessary pictures.
Papelook alone does not make much money, but it transfers users to Pape.mu girls, their cash cow. Pape.mu girls is a fashion app that presents a variety of pictures and updates curated from models' blogs or fashion brands. The app has 250,000 downloads so far, with 500,000 active users generating six million page views a month. What's most impressive is the retention time of their users, logging an astounding 50 minutes per visit on average.
In this way, the photo collage app brings users on board, which then creates opportunities for brands to promote products with the fashion app. The startup has already managed to partner with Fashionwalker.com, one of Japan's largest fashion e-commerce sites. The company is planning business expansion to the US and Mainland China soon.
3. Lang-8 ¶
Website: lang-8.com
Pitched by: Yangyang Xi
Some of our readers may remember we featured Yangyang Xi, the founder and CEO of language learning platform Lang-8 in an exclusive interview back in February. The startup launched back in 2007 but since then has been operated by the founder on his own.
Mr. Xi was allowed to participate in the last batch of the acceleration program, hiring a CTO who previously worked at recipe sharing site Cookpad, as well as a designer.
With these fresh faces, Lang-8 has been seeing improvements in its access metrics. The growth rate of paid users is twice what it was a year ago, and revenue has almost doubled compared to a year ago. Business is finally in the black, and they can now begin developing a mobile app.
There's no CGM-based language learning service using a mobile app, so that they expect to be on top of this space soon.
From previous batches
1. Kiddy ¶
Website: kiddy-photo.com
Pitched by: Hiromichi Ando, Compath.me
Back in December of 2011, Companth.me's co-founder/CEO Hiromichi Ando explained his first app to me in an interview. They've been developing a number of apps since then, and the newest one is Kiddy.
Parents typically want to record the growth of their children with pictures, but most would prefer not to share all those snapshots with people on social network platforms who they might not be very close to. To address this problem, Kiddy is a photo sharing app that lets parents to share snapshots of their kids within a family group.
The app was launched last January, and more than 1,000 households have signed up for it so far. Comparing to other photo sharing apps, the Kiddy app is showing good user retention, and the ratio of weekly active users among its entire user base is between 40% to 50%, meaning that about one in every two users makes use of the app at least once a week.
With the potential to generate a great lifetime value, the startup expects to enhance the app as a platform for sharing pictures among family members. They have several monetization ideas including photo printing, or new e-commerce services that propose that you buy something that fits the specific occasion/time of your photo.
2. Voyagin ¶
Website: govoyagin.com
Pitched by: Masashi Takahashi, Entertainment Kick
This service initially set out to create a travel experience marketplace for tourists visiting Japan. But subsequently they enhanced their ideas to cover five Asian countries: Japan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. They are focusing on the Asian market because there are about 42 million travelers that hit region each year, with the market estimated to be worth over $4.2 billion.
Voyagin is planning to move its headquarters to Singapore by the end of this year.
3. SpathSchool ¶
Website: spath.jp
Picthed by: Koichiro Sumi
This service is being operated a pair of developer co-founders. They are often asked by other developers to create smartphone apps, and were wondering why developers outsource development work to other developers. Finally they reached a conclusion. System developers in their 20s are familiar with programming languages like Objective-C or Ruby on Rails, but those in their 30s are better versed in conventional technologies like MySQL or Java.
With this insight the startup identified a sort of technology generation gap in the developer community. And it's a gap that they aim to fill.
They've established set up a 20 to 60 hour lecture program for less experienced developers to learn about app development, and a range of related topics. They are also planning to providing some new courses for IT companies to train their employees.
After all the presentations were made, Kaoru Hayashi, the CEO of the accelerator's parent company Digital Garage, announced that the top prize at the Demo Day event was awarded to the aforementioned Papelook.
The Open Network Lab accelerator is now accepting applications for the next batch of its acceleration program. The deadline is May 31st at noon.
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buusuu
Lang–8, launched in 2007, is a language-learning platform in which users from different language backgrounds can socially correct each other's writings. The CEO YangYang Xi started the service when he was 23 years old while studying at Kyoto University. Xi, born in China and raised in Japan, got the idea of the language-learning platform from keeping a diary, in which he asked friends to correct his own writings (in Chinese) when he was studying in Shanghai. Six years, half a million users later ¶ Skip to the present day in 2013, and Lang–8's user base is about to reach 510,000, with the current active user rate at about 10%. The service is used by people in 190 countries, 70% of them from outside Japan. The primary users are business professionals. While the 500,000 user milestone is an impressive one, the company took more than a little while to get there. When asked about this six-year journey, Xi says he didn't experience real growth until about a year ago, and that it took a lot of preparation to reach this point. Having started his career as a student entrepreneur, the first order of business was research and development. The service needed…
Lang–8, launched in 2007, is a language-learning platform in which users from different language backgrounds can socially correct each other's writings.
The CEO YangYang Xi started the service when he was 23 years old while studying at Kyoto University. Xi, born in China and raised in Japan, got the idea of the language-learning platform from keeping a diary, in which he asked friends to correct his own writings (in Chinese) when he was studying in Shanghai.
Six years, half a million users later ¶
Skip to the present day in 2013, and Lang–8's user base is about to reach 510,000, with the current active user rate at about 10%. The service is used by people in 190 countries, 70% of them from outside Japan. The primary users are business professionals.
While the 500,000 user milestone is an impressive one, the company took more than a little while to get there. When asked about this six-year journey, Xi says he didn't experience real growth until about a year ago, and that it took a lot of preparation to reach this point.
Having started his career as a student entrepreneur, the first order of business was research and development. The service needed to expand enough to be profitable. Initially Lang–8's staff spent the majority of their time on site development and other technical elements. But two years after launch, Xi had a bit of a falling out with his engineer. Abandoned and left alone to nervously face 15 servers on his own, he decided that he couldn't entrust his work to other people. That moment prompted him to make an effort to learn programming, and in the following two years, he learned development skills by interning at a friend's company.
Interestingly, this period of personal growth for Xi coincided with strong user growth on the site as well – likely not a coincidence.
In 2009, Lang–8 received an angel investment of about 10 million yen from four private investors, including Nishikawa Kiyoshi of NetAge. In order to raise more funds, he will have to prove that Lang–8 has real growth potential. And that means addressing one key problem: smartphone support. Lang–8′s competitor busuuu experienced sudden growth as an iPhone application, reaching 1,9000,000 users. And while Lang–8′s userbase is not as large, its position as a social network is unique. If solid smartphone support is added, Xi believes it could become a serious competitor.
The other crucial point is monetization. Xi explained several of his ideas for controlling the corrections which play a central role in the service. For example, whether an entry receives corrections can be an issue. About 60% of English entries get corrected, as compared to 80% of entries in other languages. But a paid service could ensure that all entries are corrected. The jump from free to paid is never easy, but if that's what users are looking for, it may possible.
Belief in an idea ¶
Xi's six-year journey from a struggling student startup to a community of 500,000 has certainly not been a glamorous one – although his persistence is certainly admirable. But compared to the explosive growth of social gaming and chat services in recent years, Lang–8′s growth rate might not grab the attention of investors.
Even with the recent improvement in user growth, there must have moments when Xi considered throwing in the towel. But he asserts, "I feel it has potential, and that's why I can continue." There are several entrepreneuers who are currently supporting him as mentors, and hopefully this can help with his plans to grow and expand his staff in the future.
That kind of unshakable belief in an idea is what has carried him this far. And with any luck, it'll continue to drive him as he takes Lang8 to the next level.
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Download: iOS 11.4 Final Update Released With AirPlay 2, Messages In iCloud, More Features
By Paul Morris | May 29th, 2018
It's download and update time once again for 64-bit iPhone and iPad owners. Apple has finally released iOS 11.4 to the general public, which is available to download and consume right now as an over-the-air download, or as an installable IPSW for those who prefer a fresh manual install.
This immediate availability of iOS 11.4 once again shows that Apple is committed to continually updating and refreshing the iOS platform, which is immediately evident when you take into consideration just how far iOS 11 has progressed since its original launch in September 2017.
The release also means that compatible 64-bit devices in Apple's iPhone and iPad range are instantly going to benefit from an array of improvements and enhancements, all of which are being introduced in a timely fashion prior to iOS 12 being unveiled during next month's WWDC.
The release of iOS 11.4 is somewhat like the follow-up to the company's earlier release of iOS 11.3, which, as we know, brought a ton of new features and improvements with it. While iOS 11.4 does bring new some new inclusions, it also looks to focus on stability and sets the ground for what we imagine will be a plethora of stability announcements relating to iOS 12 at the company's aforementioned annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Stability aside, those installing iOS 11.4 will also be thankful for the fact that it does expose some new functionality, as we've previously mentioned in multiple pre-release seeding posts.
Installing iOS 11.4 will finally give access to Messages in iCloud, which is a feature that Apple has teased multiple times in the past without actually releasing to the public. This will allow all messages to be stored in Apple's iCloud platform and instantly synced across multiple compatible devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Macs running the latest macOS. Apple has also used iOS 11.4 to introduce AirPlay 2 functionality, which immediately sees Apple TV put back into the Home app and which will allow audio content to be played in multiple rooms on AirPlay 2 compatible devices. Also, as an additional treat, for those who have purchased the (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 8/8 Plus, there are a couple of new unique wallpapers.
If you happen to own a compatible 64-bit iPhone or iPad then you can grab the latest over-the-air update right now from Settings > General > Software Update section of your device.
Alternatively, if you prefer a fresh installation using the IPSW and iTunes, then you can grab the download right here.
iOS 11.4 Download IPSW Direct Links:
iPhone 6s, iPhone 6
iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6 Plus
iPhone SE, iPhone 5s GSM, iPhone 5s CDMA
iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (1st generation | 2nd generation)
iPad 5 (9.7-inch – 2017)
iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 3
iPad Pro (9.7‑inch)
iPad Air 1, iPad mini 2
iPhone10,4 (iPhone 8)
iPhone10,5 (iPhone 8 Plus)
Full changelog of iOS 11.4 can be found here: iOS 11.4 Release Notes, Changes, Security Content: Here's The Final Changelog Of What's New.
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