San Francisco, CA; Nashville, TN — August 29, 2018 — Transport Pro, a Web-based TMS company, is excited to announce its partnership with a leading brokerage technology provider, Parade. The combination of Parade's innovative AI-powered carrier management system and Transport Pro's digital carrier sourcing platform gives brokers access to cutting-edge automation technology at an affordable price point.
Brokers have thousands of data points around capacity availability streaming into their email inbox each day, and a vast amount of underutilized historical data, location/ELD, and carrier interactions stored in their Transport Pro system. Often, it's hard for brokers to sort and understand all this data, which results in carrier reps turning to load boards and using their gut to source carriers. Parade's advanced capacity technology integrates key information from carrier emails, plus information from sources like location, historical load bookings, and historical carrier interactions, providing brokers with visibility into what freight carriers need and when. The Transport Pro carrier sourcing platform then matches that carrier capacity to available freight and sends an automatic email to the qualified in-network carriers. The ability to notify carriers of available freight within minutes helps brokers to strengthen the overall carrier experience, building relationships for the long haul.
Transport Pro users have the advantage of leveraging Parade's artificial intelligence technologies to tap often ignored available capacity. With all of the daily distractions that take place in an office, it's easy for load opportunities to go unnoticed. This automation saves time, increases efficiency and helps brokers remain competitive in the marketplace.
The Parade integration is currently available for Transport Pro customers.
Parade is a software company producing big data and artificial intelligence solutions for transportation companies. Parade extracts business intelligence from real-time email, location information and historical load data to optimize communication, decision-making, and freight opportunities.
According to a recent article in Transport Topics, acting administrator Andrew Wheeler has reversed a decision that would have allowed a proliferation of glider trucks until the end of 2019. Wheeler's decision came just days after 16 state attorneys general filed requests for review by the US State Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler has reversed a controversial decision made earlier this month that would have allowed the proliferation of glider kit trucks until the end of 2019.
Bodine's "no-action assurance" memo was dated only a day after then EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned amid a dozen ethics investigations. In November, the agency issued a proposed rule to repeal the Obama-era regulation, questioning the notion that the gliders were big polluters and whether EPA even had the authority to regulate the gliders.
Wheeler's action came July 26, only days after an environmental coalition and 16 state attorneys general filed separate requests for review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, claiming that not enforcing the glider provision in the 2016 Phase 2 Heavy Truck Greenhouse Gas rule would allow thousands of the "super polluting" glider trucks on U.S. roadways.
The court quickly issued a temporary stay of the EPA nonenforcement plan while it considers whether to approve or deny the emergency motions filed by environmentalists and the states, which said allowing the production and sale of more than 300 per-manufacturer gliders — "new heavy-duty trucks manufactured with highly polluting, refurbished engines that do not comply with modern emissions standards" — is unlawful.
Although there is a plethora of technology in today's global supply chain industry, many jobs still require human interaction. According to a recent article in Inbound Logistics, the problem is that too many people are making too many mistakes.
Most business is driven by an incentive to grow. The global supply chain follows a different narrative. Growth costs more than is affordable for the steamship line whose business it is to transport cargo, and there's no way for these carriers to differentiate from competitors. Instead, carriers cut their costs and increase their margins.
The supply chain is broken because there are too many people who are doing too many things wrong. The result is human suffering. Businesses are deprived of the goods they sell. Communities are deprived of the food imports upon which they depend and workers are exploited. These practices are part of the history of the shipping industry. While identifying their symptoms is easy, finding root causes is difficult when the problem behaviors are taken for granted.
The most visible symptom of the ineffectual structure of shipping is criminal corruption, the type that lands an executive in prison seemingly every year; for example, the conviction of an employee of shipping line NYK with price fixing. Lacking solid data to prove price fixing is rampant, trade is structured to make it a very tempting crime because transporting cargo is a uniquely low-margin business in which the cost of growth is linear.
Customers of shipping lines aren't encouraged to pay one particular carrier more for better offerings. Another option is for lines to improve customer experience, which could justify a carrier charging higher prices, but that means hiring workers. A carrier is likely to differentiate by lowering prices with lower interest rates on financing of new ships and loans that insure cargo.
Shipping lines will try to negotiate with banks for better interest rates, but this requires them to promise a certain volume of business to support the number of ships the bank is financing. Some lines are fortunate enough to be headquartered in countries that subsidize their business, giving them an edge over competitors. Lines that fail to secure good rates or subsidies have to consider other means to either increase margins. They can spend less on labor, which can easily lead to exploitation; an example of this is labor abuses in the Thai fishing industry.
Limited opportunity to differentiate and charge more is one reason margins are tight for shipping lines. Another is that adding a new line of business is expensive. In most industries, expansion becomes cost-effective over time, but not for carriers. Each new shipping line requires as many workers as established lines, so to start running a new ship between ports is as expensive as founding an entire new carrier company. This deters shipping lines from expanding and working with more customers, reinforcing their focus on increasing margins by lowering costs.
This problem of restricted expansion is where you understand that people are the problem. Too many workers are needed to keep things running because too much work is required for basic tasks. The average shipment with French carrier CMA CGM entails 22 booking changes before it's booked to be transported.
Instead of a customer filling out a form online that automatically transfers information to every electronic location where it needs to be, workers physically copy and paste addresses from incoming orders to outgoing directions for laborers handling the physical cargo. Invoice errors are inevitable in this process, leading to billing disputes. The typical shipper loses $50,000 to $150,000 a year from invoice mistakes by carriers, according to one auditor. The ramifications of an error can be even more costly. If a dispute means a grain import doesn't dock and unload, people aren't eating.
As much attention as we pay to exploitative labor practices in palm oil production and brick making, we rarely look at the expenses that might incentivize these tragic systems. We bemoan world hunger and the irony of food waste, but we rarely look at why more food isn't transported. The incentive and why is our broken global supply chain, and the problem is people. Automating shipping would lead to fewer errors and workers, which could lower transportation costs and allow for more cargo to be transported. Until shipping is automated, it will be glutted with people performing minute, redundant tasks, with a high propensity for error.
Click here to read the article in Inbound Logistics.
We know that technology continues to drive change in the transportation sector, but are companies more optimistic about it than we think? According to a recent article in Inbound Logistics, approximately 80 percent of executives at small and mid-sized enterprises, who were surveyed, say that they use online platforms for rate quotes and bookings.
Shipa Freight's global study of 800 SMEs from developed and emerging markets shows smaller companies are remarkably upbeat about their ability to expand through trade.
Eighty-nine percent of exporting SMEs surveyed say their export revenue will grow over the next three years; 71 percent say they are concentrating more on international markets than on their home markets. The Shipa Freight survey included exporters and importers from the United States, UK, Germany, Italy, China, India, Indonesia, and UAE.
Smaller companies account for an estimated 95 percent of all businesses and employ two-thirds of the world's workers. Critics of globalization have argued that decades of efforts aimed at easing the flow of goods, capital, and jobs across borders have come at the expense of SMEs and disproportionately benefitted multi-nationals and other large businesses.
Three-quarters of SME executives surveyed believe businesses that operate internationally are more resilient. Nearly 80 percent say they use online platforms for freight quotes and bookings.
SMEs that view the UK as one of their top export markets are looking elsewhere because of Brexit. Britain's vote to leave the European Union has prompted 73 percent of respondents to prioritize trade with other European countries. Sixty percent of UK SMEs that export and 52 percent of UK SMEs that import say leaving the EU Single Market would be "disastrous" for them.
Smaller companies clearly see technology as a way to close the gap with bigger competitors, cope with documentation requirements, and access competitive shipping options. Eighty-six percent say technology is leveling the playing field for SMEs to operate globally; 89 percent believe technology is transforming the logistics sector.
With all the new technology out there today, it's no too difficult to gather safety data that can measure key factors, such as hard braking, speeding, etc. A recent analysis by Verizon Connect assessed their customers' data and found that the most dangerous driving occurs in rural states.
Widespread use of telematics devices to monitor vehicle and driver performance gives fleet technology suppliers plenty of data to analyze and identify macro-level trends.
Recently, Verizon Connect analyzed driving data from its customers to identify states with the safest and most dangerous commercial drivers.
Its analysis accounted for harsh acceleration, harsh braking, harsh cornering, and speeding. Fatalities were thrown into the mix to calculate the safest and most unsafe states based on driving behaviors.
According to this infographic, the top three safest states are Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Nearly all 10 of the safest states are in the New England area where speeding opportunities may be limited due to traffic congestion. Perhaps not coincidentally, states with the fewest speeding events are Vermont, Virginia and Connecticut.
The most dangerous states all have large expanses of rural areas where speeding is likely to be more common. That seems to be the case for three states with the most speeding events — North and South Dakota and Montana.
On the other hand, Verizon's data show that North Dakota has the safest drivers, which would seem to repudiate the hypothesis that commercial drivers in rural areas are more dangerous. The states with the most dangerous drivers, starting with Utah at number one, all have more variables at play than speeding.
To read the article on CCJ and to view the referenced infographic, click here.
The economy is booming and unemployment rates are low at 3.8 percent, according to a recent article by Transport Topics. There are actually more trucking jobs than there are people looking for those jobs. There are currently 50,000 available full-time trucking jobs needed to support NAFTA. However, with the United States placing tariffs on other countries, including allies Mexico and Canada, it's unclear what effects these tariffs may have on the industry.
The economy and trucking are in good shape for the second half of this year despite issues including the driver shortage. But uncertain trade policy is having an impact on future expansion, according to three industry experts who spoke June 7 at American Trucking Associations' 2018 National Accounting & Finance Council annual conference in Raleigh, N.C.
The panel Economic Trends in Trucking Amidst Policy Changes featured Brad Delco, managing director of investment firm Stephens Inc., and Kenny Vieth, president of industry analyst ACT Research Co. It was moderated by ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.
Summer is here and the overall economy is strong with three important forces doing well simultaneously, reported Costello. First, the consumer is at work with an unemployment rate at 3.8%.
"We have more job openings than people looking for work. This year wages could go up 3.5%. There is fast growth and that brings spending," Costello said.
Then there's a busy construction industry and factory output possibly growing 3% this year, Costello said.
Specific to trucking, business is growing as "more firms are going to two-day delivery. Inventory is cycled through faster at warehouses, but at the same time they have to have inventory on hand to be delivered," Costello said.
Another positive is the sales and orders for trucks, Vieth said. "The technology in the new trucks is changing. Automated manual transmissions are huge, the safety technology is becoming a must have, the driver-assist technology such as lane departure, automatic braking, anti-rollover, all of this is wanted now," Vieth said.
So, Costello asked, what challenges face the industry?
"The only constraint on this industry is a lack of drivers," Delco said. And many carriers are addressing that by raising compensation to recruit and retain drivers.
The major problem at the moment is uncertainty on U.S. trade policy and the threat of tariffs, Vieth said. Tariffs typically lead to higher prices for steel and other commodities needed to build equipment.
Delco believes the economy will slow in 2019. He argues the long bull market in stocks appears to have hit its peak as trading whipsaws up and down. Meanwhile, policy announcements from the White House give investors pause.
"The stock cycle is long in the tooth, there's greater volatility, the uncertainty is greater and people may pull back capital," Delco said.
And it's not clear why the United States is placing tariffs on allies such as Canada and Mexico, especially since it has trade surpluses in key commodities with these countries, Costello said. The renegotiation of the NAFTA trade agreement has become contentious and any deal, if it happens, won't be signed until 2019.
In sum, trucks this summer have a full load and a relatively open road but be prepared next year for some congestion.
The NAFC conference was held in conjunction with ATA's Technology & Maintenance Council Fleet Data Management & Cybersecurity Conference at the Marriott City Center in Raleigh.
According to the following opinion piece published in Transport Topics, America was number one in infrastructure back in 2005. However, today, we are ranked number 9. The question now is: How are we going to bounce back?
For decades, America's roads and bridges were paid for by the users of transportation systems through modest fuel taxes. The system worked well for years, but as vehicles became more fuel efficient and cars that use little or no fuelat all became more prevalent, less revenue from this user fee flowed into the Highway Trust Fund.
Since 1993, the fuel tax rates of 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel and 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline have not increased, and have due to inflation lost a good deal of their purchasing power. Congress has declined to take any action to approve even a modest increase in these rates or even index them to inflation.
Unfortunately, inaction has severe consequences. Since the Highway Trust Fund has not kept up with our nation's growing needs, the result has been clear: Our roads are cratered with potholes, our bridges no longer handle growing traffic volume, and traffic congestion has grown to unbearable levels in many of our cities. And we are falling behind our global economic competitors. The World Economic Forum ranked our infrastructure No. 1 in the world in 2005, but after years of inaction we have fallen to No. 9 — a significant step back.
It's time to forge a new path forward. Competing in the 21st century requires 21st century infrastructure and a 21st century way to pay for it.
Congress should look no further than the states that have been testing the feasibility of replacing the system that charges drivers by how much fuel they consume with how many miles they drive. States like Oregon and California have been at the forefront of this testing, and Washington, Colorado, Utah and Minnesota have also been exploring this concept.
A road user charge would address the growing fuel efficiency of vehicles while at the same time ensure that hybrid and electric vehicles that currently pay little or nothing contribute their fair share. In addition to generating needed revenue, such a program could also be used to better manage traffic congestion by using variable pricing based on time of day and traffic volume. Variable pricing is already widely used on highways around the country. The 495 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia, the I-15 Express Lanes near San Diego and 95 Express in Miami are three examples.
Full-scale implementation of a national road user charge is several years away. In the interim, we must continue to rely on fuel taxes, but it is imperative that they be increased and indexed to inflation.
The Highway Trust Fund is projected to go bankrupt in 2020. If something isn't done to increase funding — be it an increase in fuel taxes, transfers from the general fund of the treasury or something else — it will have a $138 billion shortfall over the next 10 years. And if that shortfall is addressed with an increase and indexing of the gas tax, there would be no impact on the federal deficit. This would not be the case if money is transferred from the general fund.
We believe this proposal is the bridge to the 21st century that is needed to get America's infrastructure back to No. 1. It will require vision, courage and action from our policymakers.
With the close of the recent 6th annual Infrastructure Week, now is the time to act. The future won't wait. Neither can we. It's #TimeToBuild.
It's no secret that drones are making their way into various industries. With ever-evolving technology and the need to deliver goods to consumers more quickly and efficiently, drones are a driving force in this effort. Additionally, drones are being tested in other areas, such as farming.
A who's who of technology and aviation companies won U.S. approval to push the edge of the envelope in drone flights, from testing people's tolerance for delivery devices hovering over their rooftops to ensuring farmers' drones won't hit crop dusters.
In the most far-reaching test program to date for burgeoning drone commerce, the Department of Transportation announced the selection of 10 state, local and tribal governments — in partnership with companies that may include Alphabet Inc.'s Project Wing and Intel Corp. — as social and scientific test beds.
"The enthusiastic response to our request for applications demonstrated the many innovative technological and operational solutions already on the horizon," Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said.
The communities hosting the pilot projects include San Diego, Raleigh, N.C., Topeka, Kan., Reno, Nev., and Fairbanks, Alaska.
The program was pushed by President Donald Trump's White House as a way to speed approvals of more far-ranging unmanned flight operations.
The Integration Pilot Program, as it's called, has created palpable enthusiasm in the drone world, from startups including Flirtey Inc. and AirMap Inc. to established companies developing unmanned devices such as Amazon.com Inc., which wants to deliver packages to people's homes.
Flirtey, which has tested a variety of ways to deliver goods using small drones, is part of a test program operated by Reno that is one of the 10 winners, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said in a press release May 8.
Most trucking companies today have implemented technology in some facet. One thing that is and forever will be crucial to monitor is safety. There is technology today that many many companies have launched to monitor driver behavior and quickly detect and mitigate risk.
In October 2017, a top-performing driver for Oakley Transport crossed the centerline of a bridge at approximately 4 a.m.
A windshield-mounted Bendix AutoVue camera system detected the lane departure and instantaneously shared event data with an in-vehicle SmartRecorder device from SmartDrive.
The SmartRecorder captured and transmitted a 20-second video clip of the event to Oakley Transport for review using the SmartIQ web portal from SmartDrive.
"It was a scary moment to watch," recalls Craig Stevens, Oakley's vice president of operations and strategic initiatives. He saw the driver shaking himself to stay alert.
After the technology identified the fatigued driver, Oakley Transport's safety department intervened and provided treatment for what had been a previously undiagnosed sleep apnea.
Fatigue is one of many risky driving behaviors that can be detected using advanced technology. New developments are leading to a convergence of driver-assist technologies and safety data to identify more complex patterns of risk that traditionally have been hidden from view.
Breaking down the technical and competitive barriers of safety technology has made it possible for fleets to more effectively mitigate risks by having more comprehensive and real-time management of vehicle and driver performance.
One of the forces driving technology convergence is the prevalence of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). Eventually, ADAS technology will power autonomous trucks, but in the meantime they are expanding the possibilities to mitigate risks.
Today, fleets may be cobbling together data from multiple ADAS technologies and Internet of Things devices and sensors. For example, a telematics system may report speeding and sudden braking events while a separate video event recorder is used to identify more complex behaviors that triggered the events like fatigue and distraction.
SmartDrive's latest SR4 platform has expanded possibilities for data integration for reducing costs and giving fleets a "single source of truth" for driver and vehicle performance, says Steve Mitgang, SmartDrive's chief executive.
Oakley Transport, based in Lake Wales, Fla., is installing the SR4 in its 500-truck fleet.
Oakley Transport orders its Volvo trucks with Bendix AutoVue lane departure warning and Bendix Wingman Fusion systems installed at the factory. The Wingman Fusion system combines adaptive cruise control with active braking and collision mitigation technologies.
The Bendix ADAS systems integrate with the SmartDrive platform to trigger capture of video records based on lane departures and following distances.
Truck manufacturers are helping drive the integration of ADAS technology with telematics, video and other safety technologies with connected vehicle platforms.
In 2013, Navistar began using data from telematics systems that its fleet customers were already using to power its remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance service, OnCommand Connection.
In 2017, Navistar launched its own aftermarket telematics hardware and software platform under the same name, OnCommand Connection, with fleet management and ELD applications.
Starting this year, Navistar will be installing OnCommand Connection in all International Trucks at the factory. The technology will serve as an integration hub for ADAS and other connected vehicle technologies that its customers use.
"We have been successful for a long time pulling data from different trucks into one screen. Most fleets don't own one truck (brand) so we do not have any reason to not continue the same strategy," says Terry Kline, Navistar's senior vice president and chief information officer.
OnCommand Connection will be able to capture video and data from ADAS and camera systems on vehicles, he adds, and give users to event data and footage through an online portal.
"We view OnCommand Connection as the connection to the vehicle for those data points on safety, lane departure and collision avoidance," he says.
With an ever-increasing amount of information that is available on driver safety and performance, it has become difficult for a single vendor to supply everything through a single subscription package.
Some vendors have decided to instead focus on their core strengths, which may be to package information from a multitude of sources for fleet managers and drivers to modify behaviors.
Fleet mobility provider PeopleNet, for instance, continues adding more sources of information to its Onboard Event Recorder (OER) application. OER captures data from the vehicle and various ADAS sensors when critical events occur like speeding or sudden deceleration.
PeopleNet's Video Intelligence product adds video footage to OER events from cameras around the vehicle. The data it captures on driver safety also includes hours-of-service and driving habits and brings everything together into a net score. The scores are managed using an online Safety Analytics dashboard.
Samsara, an enterprise IoT systems company, offers what it describes as "a complete data platform" for transportation operations that combines real-time GPS tracking, wireless sensors, video, and mobile applications.
The platform flags harsh events as they take place for fleet managers to review the footage from those incidents. Samsara doesn't employ people to review the footage to make risk observations, which helps to keep costs down and gives fleets immediate access to data and video records, says Saleh ElHattab, product manager at Samsara.
Samsara is developing new machine vision technologies that will automatically identify risky behaviors, like distraction, that contribute to critical safety events, he says. Fleet safety scores are shown to drivers via the Samsara Driver App.
Mix Telematics is "always looking for different data streams to integrate with," says Pete Allen, chief client officer. The company offers an integrated camera for its telematics platform and has integrations with Mobileye's forward collision warning system and Seeing Machines' fatigue detection system.
Alerts from the Mobileye and Seeing Machines systems can be part of MiX Telematics' data stream, he says, to identify correlations with driver behaviors caught on camera such as distractions.
"Driver behaviors are precursors to other events happening," he says.
Teletrac Navman is in the process of deploying a forward-facing camera for its telematics system, Teletrac Navman Director. The system will record video footage when triggered by behaviors such as harsh driving and speeding, says Marco Encinas, marketing and product manager of global platforms.
The company is also working on next-generation cameras to incorporate a 360-degree view around the vehicle to detect risky driving behaviors and event records.
As a mobile workforce platform, Verizon Connect has not introduced a camera. Instead, the company integrates with a number of third-party camera systems.
Verizon Connect is focused on creating value for its customers through scorecards rather than adding more IoT devices. The platform comes with a built-in driver scorecard that can utilize event data, such as lane departures, from third-party systems.
Verizon Connect also offers a Coach mobile app that shows drivers how their performance compares to their peers, says Mark Wallin, vice president of product.
As motor carriers continue to adopt ADAS and other forms of safety technology, some companies are using artificial intelligence to detect new patterns of risky behaviors as the volume of data increases.
SmartDrive is using data it captures from OEM and third-party systems to continuously develop and refine driver-assist sensors and machine learning algorithms that detect risk patterns. The company will soon release sensors that can alert drivers, assess behaviors and trigger the capture of event data and video for lane departures, short following distances, forward collision warnings, posted speed detection, traffic signs and signal violations.
Lytx, whose DriveCam program is used by more 3,000 fleets with 500,000 vehicles, is using artificial intelligence to mine its large database and develop new machine vision technologies that will help its customers better understand and predict risk in driving and non-driving events.
Lytx is adding approximately 1 billion of driving miles to its database every two weeks. The scale of data makes it possible to automatically recognize more patterns in unique data sets, says Brandon Nixon, chief executive officer.
"As long as you have unique data sets, you can train (machine vision) to recognize almost anything," he says.


DHI Group just announced the sale of its health job site, Heath eCareers via press release this morning. j2 Global is the new owner. According to the release, the purchase price was $15 million.
NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) ("DHI" or the "Company"), a leading online career resource and talent acquisition platform for technology professionals and other select professional communities, today announced that it has sold its Health eCareers business to Everyday Health Professional, a subsidiary of j2 Global, for approximately $15 million in cash. The transaction closed on December 4, 2017 and DHI will use the proceeds to reduce the balance on its revolving credit facility and support strategic initiatives.
DHI previously announced its intention to divest four of its non-tech businesses in May 2017 as part of a strategy to focus on tech and helping technology professionals manage their careers. Consistent with its strategy, DHI continues to pursue the divesture of its remaining non-tech businesses.
The news is surely a relief to DHI whose stock is currently under $2 a share. I read just last week that some stock analysts had upgraded the stock to a hold, no doubt the $15 million bucks will help with that new analysis.
Healthecareers is located in Colorado and has around 50 employees. The new owner, j2 Global is a publicly traded cloud services, unified communications, and digital media company offering a patented suite of tools to consumers and the Fortune 500. j2 also owns a host of popular digital media publications under its Ziff-Davis division.
The site itself has over 400k monthly visitors according to Similarweb. They also claim 6,000 employers as clients along with 2.6 million registered health professionals. Health eCareers was founded by Bryan Bassett in 1993.


Senior outfielder JJ Hancock connects with the ball against Santa Clara University on April 22 at Bailey-Brayton Field.
WSU baseball will head into a three-game series as the underdogs against No. 3 Oregon State University. WSU Head Coach Lees will also face his old team as he coached at Oregon State for 11 years and won NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007.
The Cougars (14-23) return home after a 1-3 road trip in Seattle. They lost a one-run game to Seattle University on Wednesday and dropped two of three to University of Washington.
Lees said he felt his team played better than their record indicates.
"Really felt like we should have come back three and one instead of one and three," Lees said.
Oregon State (33-7) began the year winning 20 of their first 21 games before dropping two of three to Utah at the end of March. The Beavers also lost two in a row against University of Arizona in April. They enter the series having won nine of 10.
Lees said the margin for error against the Beavers is small.
Lees said he feels confident having two quality starters in senior left-handed pitcher Scotty Sunitsch and junior right-handed pitcher Parker McFadden. However, Lees said the team is still searching for a third starter.
Sunitsch threw a complete game no-hitter on April 8 against University of Oregon and holds a team leading 2.80 ERA.
McFadden threw five innings in a combined no-hitter against Santa Clara in his start and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of Sunday's 6-5 loss against UW.
With two more home runs last weekend junior infielder Justin Harrer moved up sixth in the conference with 10 home runs. Blake Clanton, who also homered twice, leads the team with a .336 batting average.
"It's going to be a challenge but one that we embrace and one that we look forward to," Lees said.
The Beavers lead the Pac-12 with a .310 batting average.
Friday and Saturday's games are scheduled for 5 p.m. at Bailey-Brayton Field. The series will wrap up Sunday at 1 p.m.


text:
← In the News: Minimum Wage
Corporate Welfare in Illinois →
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
Non-impeachment news involved a major court ruling on net neutrality, plus a new tariff. This year's Federal Register is on pace to surpass last year's after a nearly 2,000-page week. Rulemaking agencies published new regulations ranging from modern swine slaughter to order forms for illegal drugs.
On to the data:
Last week, 97 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 73 the previous week.
That's the equivalent of a new regulation every one hour and 44 minutes.
Federal agencies have issued 2,292 final regulations in 2019. At that pace, there will be 2,969 new final regulations. Last year's total was 3,367 regulations.
Last week, agencies published 501 notices, for a total of 16,699 in 2019. At that pace, there will be 21,631 new notices this year. Last year's total was 21,656.
Last week, 1,937 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 1,727 pages the previous week.
The 2019 Federal Register totals 53,302 pages. It is on pace for 69,045 pages. The 2018 total was 68,302 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (which subtracts skips, jumps, and blank pages) is 96,994, set in 2016.
Rules are called "economically significant" if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Four such rules have been published this year. Five such rules were published in 2018.
The running cost tally for 2019's economically significant regulations currently ranges from savings of $4.39 billion to $4.08 billion, mostly from estimated savings on federal spending. The 2018 total ranges from net costs of $220.1 million to $2.54 billion, depending on discount rates and other assumptions.
Agencies have published 57 final rules meeting the broader definition of "significant" so far this year. 2018's total was 108 significant final rules.
So far in 2019, 388 new rules affect small businesses; 20 of them are classified as significant. 2018's totals were 660 rules affecting small businesses, with 29 of them significant.
Highlights from last week's new final regulations:
A new economically significant Medicare rule will have an estimated $46.5 million in one-time costs and $214.9 million in annual costs.
New gas pipeline regulations will cost an estimated $32.7 million.
And an estimated $19.5 million to $24.1 million in annual costs for a hazardous materials pipeline regulation.
Readers may recall President Trump's recent public charge regulation for new immigrants. Here is a correction to that rule.
Odometer disclosure requirements.
The Patent and Trademark Office is now mandating electronic filing for many documents.
Seal hunting.
They are also eliminating some unnecessary regulations.
A distinct population segment of southern mountain caribou, though not the entire species, is being added to the endangered species list.
U.S. standards for grades of apples.
Modern swine slaughter.
The size of stamped mail.
Payday alternative loans from credit unions.
The number of mackerel you can catch in one trip.
Paperwork reduction: the Drug Enforcement Administration's order form for illegal drugs has been reduced to single-page format.
In a move that may or not have anything to do with car insurance, the Monito gecko has been removed from the endangered species list.
Underground storage tank program revisions.
For more data, see Ten Thousand Commandments and follow @10KC and @RegoftheDay on Twitter.
This entry was posted in regulation, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: SignalR connection request does not send cookies I am building a web application using ASP.NET Web API and SignalR. I have a pretty good understanding of HTTP but this problem is beyond me.
Currently, I am setting a cookie on all AJAX requests to this API. Subsequent AJAX requests to the API send the cookie without issue.
However, I would like this cookie to also be used in the SignalR requests that establish a connection, but according to Chrome, the cookie is not being sent in these requests. I have the cookie set as HTTPOnly. Currently, everything is running locally; all requests go to localhost:port. The domain on the cookie is being set to localhost as well.
My SignalR connections look like this:
var connection = $.connection("/updates");
/* set handlers here */
connection.start(function () {
    console.log("connection started!");
});

It seems as if Chrome thinks this is a CORS request and is withholding the cookies. The requests are on the same domain however, so this does not make much sense.

A: Turns out I don't understand cookies well enough. Browsers seem to have trouble handling TLDs like localhost as the cookie domain. Therefore, I left the domain undefined, so that the cookie will default to the domain of the request.
However, the path parameter needed to be set to / in order to make sure the cookie is sent in all requests.
Once I made these changes, everything worked as expected, and my cookies were plainly visible in SignalR.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: I would like to 410 an entire directory - I deleted my blog I had a folder called blog on my site.
I deleted it all permanently.
I would like to 410 it.
How do i 410 an entire folder?
e.g. my site looked like this
example.com/blog/mycoolpost1/
example.com/blog/mycoolpost2/
example.com/blog/mycoolpost3/
example.com/blog/mycoolpost4/

now posts 1,2,3,4, are dead.
so how do i specify that everything after blog, is permanently deleted. (as well as the folder 'blog' itself)
I need a htaccess line something like this...?
redirect 410 /blog/?(.*)

A: The following .htaccess would be useful when, for example, you move from a hosting to another and you reorder or delete parts of your web.
As Apache allows human syntax codes I have used permanent instead of 301 code, and gone instead of 410. You can check http protocol codes here Status Code Definitions
I placed the file on my root mynewblogaddress.com folder:
.htaccess
Redirect permanent /wordpress http://www.mynewblogaddress.com/blog/
Redirect gone /gallery2
Redirect permanent /directory2 http://directory2.mynewblogaddress.com

A: The Redirect directive is the proper way to do this. You should put the following in your virtual host configuration:
Redirect 410 /blog

If you don't have access to the virtual host configuration, you can put it in the .htaccess file in your document root, or I believe you can put the following in the .htaccess file in the blog subdirectory:
Redirect 410 /

(I might be off about that, I'm not sure how exactly Redirect interacts with path resolution in .htaccess files)

A: I don't think Redirect is the right tool for this, as it only matches the path specified. Just use:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^blog/ - [G]

A: You can set a rewrite rule in .htaccess to redirect all URLs containing the dead folder "blog" to a custom "Does not exist" error page or whatever. If you want the actual code then I would recommend reading guide-url-rewriting to help you figure this out.

A: For those who are using IIS (7 or above) and stumble across this post as i did, this is how I wound up doing it using the global.asax:
void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    HttpApplication app = sender as HttpApplication;

    if (app.Request.Url.PathAndQuery.IndexOf("/mydirectory") > -1)
    {
        Response.StatusCode = 410; Response.End();
    }
}

I happened to be looking for all pages in a directory, but I could have done something similar like targeting all html pages (assuming 410'ing ALL html pages were to be "gone")


Home Biographies Official Profile And Biography Of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, New Wife, Children, Christ Embassy etc.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome – founder of Believers' Love World Incorporated, Christ Embassy.
Renowned Nigerian televangelist, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, born on December 7, 1963 and the son of Tim E. Oyakhilome, is the founder and president of Believers' Love World Incorporated, also known as Christ Embassy, Based in Lagos, Nigeria.
So, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome (D.Sc., D.D.), is the President of LoveWorld Inc. and of Christ Embassy. Being a Man sent from God and a unique minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his Spirit-filled and anointed leadership continues to propel a dynamic, multifaceted and global ministry.
Hence, he was honoured with a doctorate degree by his alma mater, Ambrose Alli University, AAU, Ekpoma, Edo state.
But, as a pastor, teacher, healing minister, television host and best-selling author, Pastor Chris daily exudes an insatiable passion to reach the peoples of the world with God's manifested presence; a divine commission he has diligently focused on fulfilling for more than 30 years.
Driven by a passion to see men and women all over the world come to the knowledge of the divine life made available in Christ Jesus, Pastor Chris has helped millions experience a victorious and purposeful life in God's word.
Presiding over an ever-widening network of Christ Embassy Churches and LoveWorld Campus fellowships spanning all continents, his teaching ministry is building faith in the hearts of many in the body of Christ, providing each one with divine insight into Christian virtues and realities.
Episodes of "Pastor Chris Teaching" with excerpts from teaching meetings with Pastor Chris, air DAILY on 'LoveWorld' Networks in USA, UK, South Africa and Nigeria and on major terrestrial television networks and radio stations around the world.
The world renowned Healing School of Christ Embassy is the healing ministry of Pastor Chris, committed to taking healing to the nations and manifesting the healing works of Jesus Christ in our world today.
The healing ministry of Pastor Chris has helped many receive healings through the diverse operation of the gifts of the Spirit, making them well and restoring them to a state of complete soundness.
Pastor Chris is a prolific writer, and the best-selling author of the masterpiece "Rhapsody of Realities.
"This book is the world's Number 1 Daily Devotional, distributed monthly around the world in over 1,000 languages and with over One billion copies distributed so far, worldwide.
Pastor Chris in the year 2003, pioneered the first 24-hour Christian Satellite Network, beaming from Africa to the rest of the world.
This has over time, given rise to five satellite stations, the LoveWorldTV in the UK, LoveWorldSAT in South-Africa, LoveWorld PLUS in Nigeria, LoveWorld Canada in Canada, LoveWorld USA in the United States and still counting.
Through the proficient television ministry of Pastor Chris, millions of people have been reached with the beautiful message of salvation and many lives have been transformed through this medium.
Even more,On these Satellite TV stations, which are currently available on various mobile platforms, Pastor Chris also hosts the flagship program "Atmosphere for Miracles", a special programme showcasing the miraculous, also airing on major television networks in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Asia, Europe and around the world.
This unique program daily brings God's divine presence right into the homes of millions, enabling them to believe for and receive their miracles.
Finally, Chris Oyakhilome's ex wife, Rev. Anita, remarries, changes maiden name.
Anita met Pastor Oyakhilome as an undergraduate of English Language at Ambrose Alli University, formerly known as Edo State University, Ekpoma in Edo State.
This was where she became a born-again Christian.
After giving her life to Christ, she started helping Oyakhilome, who was a pastor in the late 1980s.
Tags: Biographical sketchBiographiesBiographies & ProfilesBiographyDoes Pastor Chris Oyakhilome have a son?How old is Pastor Chris?Official BiographyOfficial ProfileOfficial Profile And BiographyPastor Chris Oyakhilomepastor chris oyakhilome biographypastor chris oyakhilome daughter weddingpastor chris oyakhilome housepastor chris oyakhilome new wifepastor chris oyakhilome youtubeProfile & BiographyProfiles & BiographiesPublic FigureWhat does Sinach mean?When did Pastor Chris get married?When was Pastor Chris Oyakhilome born?Where is Pastor Chris?Who is Anita oyakhilome married to?Who is Pastor Chris Oyakhilome mentor?Who is Pastor Chris Oyakhilome wife?Who is the father of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome?


It is impossible to stress how important it is for you to backup your files on a regular basis. if you choose not to back up your own files, you risk losing important data.Backups are one of the basic necessity in any organisation but seldom done the right way. The thought of setting up backups might create a mental barrier for many. For those who want to make the task of backing up easy, you can make us of this article. Backups are needed and not limited to the below reasons.
There are numerous way to implement backup strategy. It all depends upon your requirement. Consider we are a small company where our production application runs on a single cloud VPS. Let us assume we are running a LAMP stack in the VPS. Since we have only one server running, we need to find a reliable and cost efficient solution to backup our data in case of aforesaid scenarios. We will use the backup data only when needed and not frequently.
One way of meeting the above requirement is by using Duplicity and AWS S3. Duplicity is a python based shell application that creates incremental, encrypted backups. "Incremental" means that each backup only stores data that has changed since the last backup run. This saves a lot of storage space. "AWS S3" is the storage service provided by Amazon.
Duplicity supports connecting to various backends like ftp,rsync, scp,ssh,Google Cloud Storage, AWS S3, Openstack Swift etc. It is not mandatory to use S3 as a backend. You can choose any of the supported Duplicity backends based upon your requirement.
You can compare various cloud storage providers and select one of your choice. But in this article we will be implementing storage option using S3.
So we have decided the tool with which we will perform the backup and the storage option. Let's get our hands dirty and see how we can implement this.
Following steps are for Ubuntu distribution. You can modify the installation commands as per the distribution you are using.
If you want to install duplicity from source, then follow the below steps.
'0.7.06' is the latest tarball version available as of I'm writing this article.
We can complete the actual installation with the following command.
We will be using a wrapper script to work with duplicity. The wrapper script makes uses of s3cmd. So lets install that as well.
In simple terms, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform. The services include EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute), S3 ( Simple Storage Service), RDS (Relational Database Service) and many more. You can refer to AWS website on the various services that they offer.
It is not recommended to use your root account for managing your services in AWS. In fact it is recommended to delete the API credentials of the root account. You can instead create a new user and then assign admin privileges to that user for managing the services instead of using the root account.
In our example, let us create an IAM user, named "backup-user" using IAM ( Identity and Access Management). We need to generate API keys for this id, which we will use in duplicity to connect to the S3 bucket through API call. The API key consist of Access and Secret Key. You can view the Secret Keys only at the time of creating it.You will not have access to the secret access keys again. You can follow the steps provided in create IAM user to complete the things said above.
Let us create S3 bucket now. You can follow the steps provided in create s3 bucket for creating a bucket. Let us consider the name of the bucket to be 'backup-bucket'.
We have created an IAM user 'backup-user'. But we are yet to define what action that user can perform. This can be done by attaching a policy to that user . There are various predefined policies that are available in the policy list. For eg AdministratorAccess, AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess, AmazonS3FullAccess etc. But our scenario is such that the 'backup-user' will be used only by duplicity to store the backup data. So we do not need full access to Amazon S3. In fact it is enough if we provide access only to 'backup-bucket' for just to put,get and delete objects. In order to achieve this, we need to create a custom policy. We will be using the following policy.
After creating the policy, you need to attach this policy to 'backup-user'. Only then the user will be able to access the bucket as that user.
Duplicity supports asymmetric public-key encryption, or symmetric password-only encryption.. This means using a simple password which is fine in most cases. But we will be using GPG asymmetric public-key for extra security and encryption.
The commands will store our keys in a hidden directory at /root/.gnupg if you are running as root user.
Press enter to accept the default "RSA and RSA" keys. Press enter twice again to accept the default keysize and no expiration date.
Next, you will be setting up a passphrase to use with GPG. Make note of the passphrase.
This means your server does not have enough randomness to create the keys. In such case you can run some command in a new terminal which generates lot of activity.
For eg, you can run the below command.
Important: Remember to backup your GPG key pair somewhere safe and off the current machine. Without this key pair your backups are totally useless to you, so if you lose it and need to restore a backup then you will not be able to do it. Follow the steps provided in Backing up GPG Key in order to backup your keys.
The above command will export the public and private key. You can email these files by using utility like mutt, swaks etc.
If you ever have to import the keys in a different server, then you can follow the below steps.
It is not enough if you just import the key files in a different server. You need to trust the key file. Follow the below command to trust a gpg key.
Replace 'backup' with the name of your key. Above command will get you to gpg prompt. Type 'trust' and press enter. Then type '5' to trust ultimately and press enter. You can refer the below snippet.
So we have installed duplicity and its prerequisites, we have created S3 bucket and provided access to the bucket and we have created GPG Keys required for encrypting our backup data.
Though we have all the things ready for our backup setup, we need to analyse our requirement and implement duplicity settings based on that.
We will not be accessing the backed up data frequently. The Infrequent Access (IA) storage option provided by Amazon S3 offers low pricing for storage and more for retrieving the data compared to Standard storage class. The IA was specifically introduced for storing infrequently accessed data. This satisfies our requirement and we will be using IA as the storage class.
Since we have different life cycle policy for DB and other miscellaneous data (/var/www, /var/log) we will create two folder's underneath backup-bucket which we created earlier. Let us name the folder as 'DB-backup' for storing DB backup data and 'Misc-backup' for storing other miscellaneous backup data.
Notice, I did not zip the database dump files locally. This is needed because, duplicity will not be able to take an incremental backup if the files are zipped. If you zip the dump files, then you'll see a reverse effect of duplicity taking a new copy of the dump files instead of incremental backup every time your run it.
If you have git installed in your server, you can clone the repository by running.
Or you can download the zip file directly and then copy it to the server.
Once you clone/unzip the repo in your server, you can see a list of files inside the directory name duplicity-backup.
We will be creating two separate configuration file for DB and Misc backup. This is because we have to specify different lifecycle policy for each backup. We will be configuring few parameter inside duplicity-backup.conf. Create two copies of duplicity-backup.conf.example and name it 'db-duplicity-backup.conf' and 'misc-duplicity-backup.conf'.
Consider we are configuring the option for 'misc-duplicity-backup.conf'. Below is the list of options that we are interested in.
The INCLIST indicate what are the directories that should be backed up. In the case of db-duplicity-backup.conf it should be "/var/backup/mysql_backup" since that is where db_dump.sh will dump the files.
The value "–full-if-older-than 15D –s3-use-new-style" indicates that it'll generate full backup every 15 days. The "remove-all-but-n-full" value indicates how many full backups should be kept at any point of time. The value of 2 indicates that it'll keep 2 full backup's and remove the full and corresponding incremental backups older than the last 2 full backups. In this way we maintain 15 days of backup at any point in time for Misc backup.
By keeping the value of CLEAN_UP_VARIABLE as 6, we are able to retain 60 days of backup.
You need to note that, the incremental backup will be of no use if the corresponding full backup is deleted. This is because the incremental backup is chained to its corresponding full backup.
Note: The "–s3-use-ia" value works only in duplicity version 0.7.06 which is the latest and greatest as of now.
We have placed all our scripts and configuration files under /root/duplicity. Below command will backup our Miscellaneous data to S3.
The -c flag denotes the configuration file to be used. -b flag indicates that we are taking incremental backup. For the very first time -b option will be taking a full backup since there is no prior data. From the second run, it will start to take only incremental backup.
If you get any error, you can refer the logs under '/var/log/duplicity' which is the value given for LOGDIR in the configuration file.
You can see the usage of duplicity-backup.sh script by just running the script without any flags.
Note: During test run, just add a sample test directory in the INCLIST instead of the original directories to backup in order to save time and money.
By default the script will upload data in parts if the size exceeds 25 MB. Hence you'll see naming like vol1, vol2 etc for the difftar files.
Let us create a single script to combine the steps of mysqldump and duplicity backup for DB. Under /root/duplicity, create a script mysql-duplicity-backup.sh with the below content.
The script will run the duplicity script only if the mysql dump completes without any error. Else it'll send a mail with the error report on the mysql dump failure and exit the script. This way we can be sure that the DB backup is uploaded only during successful execution of the dump.
If the cron job executes successfully, you'll be receiving two mails. One for DB and the other for Misc Backup.
We have successfully completed implementing our backup plan. Next, let us see how we can restore the backed up data.
The restoration process is fairly simple in duplicity. We make it even easier using our wrapper script. If you are restoring it in a different server, then you need to have the GPG keys which you used for encrypting the data.
# You can also provide a restore folder on the command line.
We have successfully implemented our backup and restore solution using Duplicity and Amazon S3.


Wyse Electrics are delighted to be at the cutting edge of this new technology in Ireland. We have been involved in both 'Stand-Alone Solar Powered Systems' and 'Grid Connected Systems'. Indeed the Company were the first to connect PV solar power to the national grid on an import/export tariff basis.
The basic principle behind this technology is that solar modules mounted outside, generate electricity from the Sun, they convert radiant energy into an electrical current. This can then be used to charge batteries, as in 'stand-alone systems' or by connecting a number of solar modules as an array into a piece of equipment called an inverter, this can then be directly connected into the mains supply of the property.


text:
#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/scoped_array.hpp>
#include "NPObjectAPI.h"
#include "NPJavascriptObject.h"
#include "NpapiBrowserHost.h"
#include "logging.h"
#include <cassert>
#include "precompiled_headers.h" // On windows, everything above this line in PCH

using namespace FB::Npapi;
using boost::static_pointer_cast;

NPObjectAPI::NPObjectAPI(NPObject *o, const NpapiBrowserHostPtr& h)
    : JSObject(h), m_browser(h), obj(o), is_JSAPI(false)
{
    assert(!m_browser.expired());
    if (o != NULL) {
        getHost()->RetainObject(obj);
    }
    FB::JSAPIPtr ptr(getJSAPI());
    if (ptr) {
        // This is a JSAPI object wrapped in an IDispatch object; we'll call it
        // directly(ish)
        is_JSAPI = true;
        inner = ptr;
    }
}

NPObjectAPI::~NPObjectAPI(void)
{
    // Schedule the NPObject for release on the main thread
    if (!m_browser.expired())
        getHost()->deferred_release(obj);
    obj = NULL;
}

void NPObjectAPI::getMemberNames(std::vector<std::string> &nameVector) const
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        typedef void (FB::JSAPI::*getMemberNamesType)(std::vector<std::string> *nameVector) const;
        browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((getMemberNamesType)&FB::JSAPI::getMemberNames, this, &nameVector));
        return;
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            tmp->getMemberNames(nameVector);
        return;
    }
    NPIdentifier *idArray(NULL);
    uint32_t count;

    browser->Enumerate(obj, &idArray, &count);
    for (uint32_t i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        nameVector.push_back(browser->StringFromIdentifier(idArray[i]));
    }
    browser->MemFree(idArray);
}

size_t NPObjectAPI::getMemberCount() const
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return 0;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind(&NPObjectAPI::getMemberCount, this));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->getMemberCount();
        else
            return 0;
    }
    NPIdentifier *idArray(NULL);
    uint32_t count;
    browser->Enumerate(obj, &idArray, &count);
    browser->MemFree(idArray);
    return (size_t)count;
}

bool NPObjectAPI::HasMethod(const std::string& methodName) const
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return false;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        typedef bool (NPObjectAPI::*curtype)(const std::string&) const;
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((curtype)&NPObjectAPI::HasMethod, this, methodName));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->HasMethod(methodName);
        else
            return false;
    }
    return browser->HasMethod(obj, browser->GetStringIdentifier(methodName.c_str()));
}

bool NPObjectAPI::HasProperty(const std::string& propertyName) const
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return false;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        typedef bool (NPObjectAPI::*curtype)(const std::string&) const;
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((curtype)&NPObjectAPI::HasProperty, this, propertyName));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->HasProperty(propertyName);
        else
            return false;
    }
    return browser->HasProperty(obj, browser->GetStringIdentifier(propertyName.c_str()));
}

bool NPObjectAPI::HasProperty(int idx) const
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return false;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->HasProperty(idx);
        else
            return false;
    }
    return browser->HasProperty(obj, browser->GetIntIdentifier(idx));
}

// Methods to manage properties on the API
FB::variant NPObjectAPI::GetProperty(const std::string& propertyName)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return FB::FBVoid();

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((FB::GetPropertyType)&JSAPI::GetProperty, this, propertyName));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->GetProperty(propertyName);
        else
            return false;
    }
    NPVariant retVal;
    if (!browser->GetProperty(obj, browser->GetStringIdentifier(propertyName.c_str()), &retVal)) {
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);
        throw script_error(propertyName.c_str());
    } else {
        FB::variant ret = browser->getVariant(&retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);
        return ret;
    }
}

void NPObjectAPI::SetProperty(const std::string& propertyName, const FB::variant& value)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((FB::SetPropertyType)&JSAPI::SetProperty, this, propertyName, value));
        return;
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            tmp->SetProperty(propertyName, value);
        return;
    }
    NPVariant val;
    browser->getNPVariant(&val, value);
    bool res = browser->SetProperty(obj, browser->GetStringIdentifier(propertyName.c_str()), &val);
    browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&val);
    if (!res) {
        throw script_error(propertyName.c_str());
    }
}

void NPObjectAPI::RemoveProperty(const std::string& propertyName)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((FB::RemovePropertyType)&JSAPI::RemoveProperty, this, propertyName));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->RemoveProperty(propertyName);
        else
            return /*false*/;
    }
    if (!browser->RemoveProperty(obj, browser->GetStringIdentifier(propertyName.c_str()))) {
        throw script_error(propertyName.c_str());
    }
}

FB::variant NPObjectAPI::GetProperty(int idx)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return FB::FBVoid();

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    std::string strIdx(boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(idx));
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->GetProperty(idx);
    }
    return GetProperty(strIdx);
}

void NPObjectAPI::SetProperty(int idx, const FB::variant& value)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    std::string strIdx(boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(idx));
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            SetProperty(idx, value);
    }
    SetProperty(strIdx, value);
}

void NPObjectAPI::RemoveProperty(int idx)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    std::string strIdx(boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(idx));
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->RemoveProperty(idx);
    }
    return RemoveProperty(strIdx);
}

// Methods to manage methods on the API
FB::variant NPObjectAPI::Invoke(const std::string& methodName, const std::vector<FB::variant>& args)
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return false;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((FB::InvokeType)&NPObjectAPI::Invoke, this, methodName, args));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->Invoke(methodName, args);
        else
            return false;
    }
    NPVariant retVal;

    // Convert the arguments to NPVariants
    boost::scoped_array<NPVariant> npargs(new NPVariant[args.size()]);
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < args.size(); i++) {
        browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[i], args[i]);
    }

    bool res = false;
    // Invoke the method ("" means invoke default method)
    if (methodName.size() > 0) {
        res = browser->Invoke(obj, browser->GetStringIdentifier(methodName.c_str()), npargs.get(), args.size(), &retVal);
    } else {
        res = browser->InvokeDefault(obj, npargs.get(), args.size(), &retVal);
    }

    // Free the NPVariants that we earlier allocated
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < args.size(); i++) {
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&npargs[i]);
    }

    if (!res) { // If the method call failed, throw an exception
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);  // Always release the return value!
        throw script_error(methodName.c_str());
    } else {
        FB::variant ret = browser->getVariant(&retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);  // Always release the return value!
        return ret;
    }
}

void FB::Npapi::NPObjectAPI::callMultipleFunctions( const std::string& name, const FB::VariantList& args, const std::vector<JSObjectPtr>& direct, const std::vector<JSObjectPtr>& ifaces )
{
    if (!isValid())
        throw FB::script_error("Error calling handlers");

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        return browser->ScheduleOnMainThread(shared_from_this(), boost::bind(&NPObjectAPI::callMultipleFunctions, this, name, args, direct, ifaces));
    }
    NPVariant retVal;

    // We make these calls through a delegate javascript function that is injected into
    // the page on startup.  The reason we do this is to prevent some weird reentrance bugs
    // particularly in FF4.

    NPObjectAPIPtr d = static_pointer_cast<NPObjectAPI>(browser->getDelayedInvokeDelegate());
    if (!d) {
        throw FB::script_error("Error calling handlers (delegate disappeared)");
    }
    NPObject* delegate(d->getNPObject());

    // Allocate the arguments
    boost::scoped_array<NPVariant> npargs(new NPVariant[4]);
    browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[0], 0);
    browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[2], args);
    browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[3], name);

    bool res = false;
    std::vector<JSObjectPtr>::const_iterator it(direct.begin());
    std::vector<JSObjectPtr>::const_iterator end(direct.end());
    for (; it != end; ++it) {
        NPObjectAPIPtr ptr(boost::static_pointer_cast<NPObjectAPI>(*it));
        if (ptr->is_JSAPI) {
            FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = ptr->inner.lock();
            if (tmp) {
                tmp->Invoke("", args);
                continue;
            }
        }
        browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[1], ptr);
        res = browser->InvokeDefault(delegate, npargs.get(), 3, &retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&npargs[1]);
    }

    it = ifaces.begin();
    end = ifaces.end();
    for (; it != end; ++it) {
        NPObjectAPIPtr ptr(boost::static_pointer_cast<NPObjectAPI>(*it));
        if (ptr->is_JSAPI) {
            FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = ptr->inner.lock();
            if (tmp) {
                tmp->Invoke("", args);
                continue;
            }
        }
        browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[1], ptr);
        res = browser->InvokeDefault(delegate, npargs.get(), 4, &retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&npargs[1]);
    }
    browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&npargs[2]);
    browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&npargs[3]);
}

FB::variant NPObjectAPI::Construct( const FB::VariantList& args )
{
    if (m_browser.expired())
        return false;

    NpapiBrowserHostPtr browser(getHost());
    if (!browser->isMainThread()) {
        return browser->CallOnMainThread(boost::bind((FB::ConstructType)&NPObjectAPI::Construct, this, args));
    }
    if (is_JSAPI) {
        FB::JSAPIPtr tmp = inner.lock();
        if (tmp)
            return tmp->Construct(args);
        else
            return false;
    }
    NPVariant retVal;

    // Convert the arguments to NPVariants
    boost::scoped_array<NPVariant> npargs(new NPVariant[args.size()]);
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < args.size(); i++) {
        browser->getNPVariant(&npargs[i], args[i]);
    }

    bool res = false;
    // construct
    res = browser->Construct(obj, npargs.get(), args.size(), &retVal);

    // Free the NPVariants that we earlier allocated
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < args.size(); i++) {
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&npargs[i]);
    }

    if (!res) { // If the method call failed, throw an exception
        throw script_error("constructor");
    } else {
        FB::variant ret = browser->getVariant(&retVal);
        browser->ReleaseVariantValue(&retVal);  // Always release the return value!
        return ret;
    }
}

FB::JSAPIPtr NPObjectAPI::getJSAPI() const
{
    if (!obj) {
        return JSAPIPtr();
    }

    if (!NPJavascriptObject::isNPJavaScriptObject(obj)) {
        return JSAPIPtr();
    }

    return static_cast<NPJavascriptObject*>(obj)->getAPI();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The HP StoreEver 1/8 G2 Tape Autoloader provides cost-effective, easy-to-install, unattended automated tape storage ideal for archiving and for entry-level or remote office automated data backup. The autoloader combines incredible storage density and tape library features into a compact 1U form factor. Capable of up to 50 TB of compressed capacity in only a 1U form factor, the autoloader is well equipped to offer room for uncertain data growth. Web-based remote management offers the capability to quickly and easily access, configure, monitor, and troubleshoot the autoloader that will reduce dependencies on local IT staff while allowing multiple sites to be supported centrally. Protect confidential business information with native encryption, ensuring that if a tape is lost or stolen your data is protected from unauthorized access. Proactively monitor utilization, operational performance, as well as life and health information for both the drive and media with HP TapeAssure.
• Up to 50 TB of compressed capacity in only a 1U form factor using an LTO-6 Ultrium 6250 tape drive, which is more than double the capacity of LTO-5 tape autoloaders.


For everyone of you that is courageously dealing with your own personal challenges from a lack of of wholeness within. It's not easy to face long-suppressed and ignored aspects of our little selves. In whichever way, shape or form this manifest for you causing suffering, pain, limitation or discomfort. The dichotomy is that we largely continue to misidentify with our real Selves, our God Selves. When we are not in God/Love, we are automatically living in fear (false evidence appearing real). And why this month's newsletter from Lisa Renee is particularly profound to me. And maybe some others of you out there...?
those of you who are already living your Oneness with God; who have risen.
As well as for those of us who's aspiration of same is yet to be.
There is no OTHER. Yet still you compartmentalise our Oneness. I have used the word 'unit' before that you might feel the singular, the unity of who we are, as One being.
It is not easy, it seems, for you to NOT identify with your mind and its limitations. Yet this is what must be done for you to see yourself/us as who we truly are.
When you submit to your mind's version of what you think and believe we are, you will automatically interpret in and through separation, ie, fragmentation, categorisation and compartmentalisation. It is the way the machine mind works. However, it (the mind) is not to be suppressed. Rather, it is for you to firmly disengage from any and all of its tricks – designed to keep you in IT, rather than in your heart, which is the location of Me.
Most of your day is spent being held hostage by the mind, its tricks, fears and needs for the upper hand. It is time to change this that you may know your Truth, the sovereignty of standing in your I AM.
Not just for some of the time as fleeting feelings and sensations that quickly seem to pass you by, but as a permanent experience. This is to be your new reference point; the new basis upon and from which your life, your real and True life, that is, will stem.
In this state all things are possible. It is in this state that your cup runneth over and that by doing nothing other than be-ing, you serve the world. For in this state you are in and living your Oneness with Me.
It is this changing of your reference point about yourselves that is priority now. It is this which is the necessary next step in your expansion/return to yourselves. However, this requires a good measure of awareness of your thoughts and feelings and the discipline to shift away from the mental chatter and subsequent emotional responses, and into the heart.
For those of you who still primarily live on autopilot, there is work to be done. This is not just for some, but for all those choosing the path of service to humanity. For how else can you serve if you stand not in your own Truth and power?
Yes, it is extremely difficult whilst you have habitually been interacting with yourselves, life and others for so long in auto-response fashion. Though the help now is all around thee, but for the asking. Reach out, extend yourselves and make daily effort and thus will ye receive the required help in your respective challenges.
Keep moving yourselves back to the heart with each challenging feeling or thought. Whether fear, anxiety, stress, feeling powerlessness, vulnerability, anger or any other such emotion and associated thoughts, take yourself instantly back to the heart. Then feel the Love, reassurance, support and comfort immediately overwhelm all those low-frequency feelings and thoughts that previously overwhelmed you.
It will take a little getting used to. But keep at it, daily and hourly if possible, and success will be yours before you know it. Make this your Number One priority, give it consistent attention and you will begin to know a different Life. The one you were destined to live.


One day excursion by bus with tour leader. Arriving to 1900 mt Etna's station. Visit of the Silvestri's Craters. Time for trekking. Optional ascent to the area of the main crater with cable car and jeep. Lunch on request.
Children (2-12 years): € 17,50.


text:
Child Protective Services: Money Made Stealing Children from Vulnerable Mothers
Growing up in the US, we are told that if you are not able to have children you can simply adopt a baby, but rarely do we really consider the ethical implications behind infant adoption and how these babies came to be within the privatized adoption system. According to the US adoption network, 140,000 child…
By Rosie November 2021 Issue
By: J. Ellis- During the first week of classes, the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation UO chapter took to social media to amplify the concerns of its members about the university's lack of effective COVID-19 precautions. A series of Twitter threads posted by @GTFF_3544 contain screenshots with anonymous tips and confessions of graduate employees submitted via…
By October 2021 Issue
Spike Lee's "NYC Epicenters 9/11→2021½" Review
By David Patrick Schranck, Jr.- Between late August and mid-September of this year, HBO released Spike Lee's four-part documentary series, NYC Epicenters 9/11→2021½, that connects the 20th anniversary of 9/11, inarguably one of the most pivotal events of the 21st century so far, with the current COVID-19 pandemic and New York City's role as an…
By: Rosie– We all know that one of the most controversial topics on everyone's minds right now is vaccines. At the University of Oregon, we have begun in person classes again at full capacity, and many people are under the impression that the COVID-19 vaccine will be required for all on campus students. However, the…
Drop Out, Stay Educated
Al Lehto (they/them/theirs) I live near the university. The day I write this, all I can hear outside my windows are students returning to campus. This year, I will not be one of them.I'm taking a break from college for many reasons; A traumatic 2020 dorm experience, fear of in-person classes when the pandemic still…
Breach Collective is the new Environmental Org in town making noise across the environmental and climate justice spectrum. Only officially a non-profit for less than a year, the collective appears to draw from several environmental disciplines and various activist orgs. Notably the founders are former members of Our Children's Trust staff, which organized around the…
By Insurgent April 2021 Issue
Post fire Logging and The Safety Swindle Timber Raids
Our forests evolved with active fire management by Indigenous peoples over thousands of years. However, over the past 200 years, the US government has managed these forests to suppress fire and maximize timber harvests, leaving our forests unhealthy. We need intentional fire to regain forest health so that they can become resilient to climate change…
By Milkman and Dr. Dirty April 2021 Issue
An Exploration of the Temporary Autonomous Zone: AZ I
"Are we who live in the present, doomed never to experience autonomy, never to stand for one moment on a bit of land ruled only by freedom? Are we reduced either to nostalgia for the past or nostalgia for the future? Must we wait until the entire world is freed of political control before even…
By J. Ellis April 2021 Issue
write.as/black-sparrow/
Social media once had promise. Technology is supposed to open doors, to level the playing field. Yet, its potential has been nabbed up from our average hands, and funneled through the sticky web of corporations and governments. Once again, you can pick your favorite color. You can pledge your allegiance to Apple or Google. Or…
By black-sparrow April 2021 Issue
Dear Friends and Comrades of Reclaim UO, As we're sure you are aware, 2020 was a rough year for everyone and Reclaim UO was not left unscathed. When Reclaim UO launched at the beginning of 2020, we had a lot of involvement with our meetings and our organizing efforts. We had started to gain some…
By Reclaim UO April 2021 Issue


text:
HomeNewsAirline newsAED – The life saving equipment your airline may not need to carry
AED – The life saving equipment your airline may not need to carry
RELATED TOPICS:travel
17/09/2018 Airline news, Aviation safety news, Features, Travel 5 minute read
Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) save lives, especially in rural or remote locations where professional help will take longer to arrive. This isn't theory, its fact and its the reason why you are starting to see AEDs in more and more places such as villages and public spaces.
An AED, as the name suggests, is an device that can be used by anyone to give life saving help to someone who suffers a sudden Cardiac Arrest and in doing so, increases their chances of survival from 40% (conventional CPR) to 63%.
Not only can the device automatically detect cardiac rhythm and deliver electrical pulses as required, it also offers advice on CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) even if defibrillation is not required.
Given the increased chance of survival in remote locations where help would take longer to arrive, that would be the reason why airlines must carry AEDs on board their aircraft right?
Wrong, currently in the UK and Europe there is no mandatory requirement to carry an AED on a commercial flight. In fact, under Regulation (EU) No 965/2012, EASA only suggests airlines should carry an AED if the airline determines it is appropriate to do so as, according to its research, "only a very small number of passengers are likely to benefit from the carriage of automated external defibrillators (AED) on aeroplanes".
Before we go any further, there is no requirement for airlines to report statistics on cardiac arrests on board aircraft so we don't know how often it happens but research has suggested that medical emergencies happen as often as 1 in every 10,000 to 40,000 passengers. To put that into context, around 700,000 to 800,000 people fly in and out of the UK every day.
If someone suffers a cardiac arrest mid-flight it can often be over an hour before an emergency landing can be carried out. Without immediate medical help the chances of survival are very low but success rates with AED's are as high as 55%. In the absence of regulations the Resuscitation Council said "We strongly advocate voluntary action in the public interest by all airlines to equip commercial passenger flights with an AED and train their cabin crews in recognition of cardiac arrest and delivery of immediate attempted resuscitation."
In 2001 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made it mandatory for all US airlines to carry AEDs on board their aircraft. In doing so they said "An estimated 350,000 Americans are struck by cardiac arrest each year. Cardiac arrest stops effective pumping of blood to the heart. An abnormal heart rhythm called "ventricular fibrillation" is the most common form of treatable cardiac arrest. Chances of survival can be as high as 90 percent if defibrillation — electrical shocks that stimulate the heart to resume normal beating — is provided during the first minutes following collapse." but as we saw earlier, their European counterparts stopped short of making it law and instead gave airlines the choice whether to carry them or not.
Which UK airlines carry Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs)
AED onboard?
British Airways Yes
Eastern Airways No
Easyjet Yes
Flybe No Plans to in future
FlyBMI (BMI Regional) No
Jet2 Yes
Loganair Yes
Ryanair Yes
Thomas Cook Yes
tui" 11841 rel="nofollow" target="_self">TUI Airways UK Yes
Virgin Atlantic Yes
What the airlines said.
We asked all UK airlines which operate flights with at least one flight attendant and, of those that replied, the results were largely positive.
Virgin Atlantic does carry AEDs and thinks that AEDs should be required by law on all commercial aircraft. Head of Medical Services at Virgin Atlantic, Linda Porter said "Virgin Atlantic puts the health, safety and well-being of our customers as a top priority and has and continues to be industry leading in inflight medical care with top down support of such a critical service.
"This includes bespoke state of the art medical equipment including integrated tele-medical systems, extended medical kits and specialist medical training of its cabin crew and pilots. All is managed by a robust SMS and underpinned by an evidenced aerospace medical best practice model. Virgin Atlantic was the first airline in the world to have a full inflight defibrillator programme which was implemented in 1990 including the training of our Cabin Crew, at the time conducted by a Consultant Cardiologist and a Senior Cardiac Nurse. The training was then brought in-house and remains so. Every aircraft has had an AED onboard since 1990 giving our customers the best chance of survival via immediate CPR and rapid defibrillation in the event of a SCA (Sudden Cardiac Arrest).
"With the evidenced exponential decline in survivability with each minute of defibrillation delay it is our opinion that AEDs should be mandated on all commercial aircraft (as per the FAA)."
tui" 11841 rel="nofollow" target="_self">TUI Airways UK told us: "all TUI Airways planes carry defibrillators and have done so for more than 13 years".
Regional airline Flybe doesnt currently carry AED's on all its aircraft but a spokesperson for the airline said: "The safety of our passengers and crew is Flybe's number one priority and defibrillators will shortly be available on board all our own operated aircraft." while regional competitor FlyBMI (BMI Regional) told us "at present as EASA regulations do not make it a mandatory requirement, the airline does not carry AEDs." adding "Due to the size of flybmi's aircraft and that they operate single crew cabins, it can be difficult for cabin crew members to operate an AED and attend to other safety procedures that may occur. With this and the fact that the route network means that aircraft are never more than 20 mins from a diversion airfield should an emergency arise as meant that for now the airline has opted not to carry them. Furthermore all cabin crew are trained in CPR. "
Low-cost carrier Ryanair said: "Automatic External Defibrillators have been fitted on all of Ryanair's Boeing 737-800 series aircraft. The safety of our passengers remains our No. 1 priority".
Jet2 also confirmed that all its aircraft carry AEDs
Should it be left to airline choice though? If the FAA felt the need make it mandatory on all US aircraft, why does EASA allow airlines to effectively choose whether to offer you life saving equipment?
An AED costs less than £1000 and its weight is negligible. It is proven to increase chances of survival massively for cardiac arrest patients and surely, even if it only saves 1 life, its worth it?
It is worth noting that the regulations regarding on board medical equipment are due for review so perhaps EASA, or the CAA post-brexit, will make it mandatory in the future and give everyone a fighting chance, regardless of the airline.
About Nick Harding 1734 Articles
Nick is the senior reporter and editor at UK Aviation News as well as working freelance elsewhere. He has his finger firmly on the pulse on Aviation, not only in the UK but worldwide. Nick has been asked to speak in a professional capacity on LBC, Heart and other broadcast networks.
Ryanair launches new mentored pilot programme
Leeds Bradford plans "state-of-the-art" terminal extension
Primera Air – An alarm bell to low cost flight only passengers
02/10/2018 Features, News, Travel 5 minute read
Primera Air, the Danish based low-cost carrier that operated from Birmingham and London Stansted, ceased trading yesterday leaving thousands of passengers either stranded abroad or having to cancel travel plans and its collapse comes as a warning to all flight only passengers, there is likely to be no rescue. Primera [read more]
Italian strike set to cause travel chaos tomorrow
07/05/2018 News, Travel 2 minute read
National strike action in Italy will affect airports across Italy as Air Traffic Control and Airport Staff walk out on Tuesday 8th May. Airlines have already started to cancel flights ahead of the Action including Flybe flights from Cardiff to Venice & Rome and from Birmingham & Manchester to Milan. The [read more]
Major disruption as snow and ice hits UK airports
27/02/2018 Airline news, News, Travel 3 minute read
British Airways and other airlines are running a reduced operation at London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL) today due to the what is being called 'The Beast from the East'. Freezing temperatures and snow have meant that Heathrow's biggest operator has had to cancel a number of flights to maintain a safe and [read more]


The AIA Leadership Centre is a state-of-the-art learning space designed to advance the knowledge and skills of AIA's top talent – employees and agents, as well as senior executives from our key partners.
The AIA Leadership Centre provides AIA with a powerful new capability to develop leaders who deliver on our strategic goals and empower our people to meet our commitments to our customers and the communities in which we operate.
As a space where leaders and talents, best-in-class academic institutions and external speakers come together in world-class, customised programmes and events, the AIA Leadership Centre stimulates and inspires invention, learning and the creation of ideas that are directly applicable to our business … and through this contributes to our sustainable growth as we help people live healthier, longer, better lives.
Covering an area of more than of 3,100 square metres, the AIA Leadership Centre is one of the largest leadership training and meeting facilities in Asia.
Faculty members combine strong business acumen and a deep understanding of the financial services industry and AIA, averaging over 20 years' experience in training and leadership development.
Executive and Technical Leadership Programmes co-developed with world renowned institutions such as INSEAD, IMD and other leading academic institutions.
Distribution Leadership Programmes developed in partnership with associations such as LIMRA and GAMA.
Tim Beaumont, Chief Executive Officer of 'The Beaumont Partnership', whose team designed the AIA Leadership Centre, discusses the underlying principles behind the Leadership Centre's bold design.
Watch in a 1-minute time lapse video the Leadership Centre's stunning lobby being built.
3/F and 4/F, 11/1 AIA Sathorn Tower, South-Sathorn Road, Bangkok 10120, THAILAND.


The prices are only approximate, for the exact prices directly for your holiday please call or send an e-mail.
Reservations be made after paying irreversible 30 % from the whole cost of the stay (minimal lenght of the stay is 2 nights).
Childern under 3 years go free.
Book your room for your stay in the mountains right now.
The garage is situated under the object – it is a spacious hall for 15 cars.
Please contact us for the actual prices and booking.


text:
In the early years of my childhood, my sense of holidaymaking or tourism was visiting relatives for at least three months a year in Bubi district, about 40 miles northeast of Bulawayo, the second-largest city of Zimbabwe. I participated in social and economic rural activities like cattle herding, firewood collecting and hunting. By age 10, I already knew that our survival in the villages was at odds with the law.
Collecting firewood, occasionally hunting small animals like rabbits and gazelles or birds for food anywhere and grazing livestock on certain farms was illegal, despite the fact that our lives depended on it. One day, I was arrested by the farm security police after being found in possession of firewood and amacimbi (edible mopane worms). My crime was poaching and trespassing on private property. These experiences taught me that being a poor person, living in the rural areas along the margins of commercial farms and wildlife sanctuaries, meant that you enjoyed less protection than animals. In fact, there was more provision for the survival of animals than there was for people.
There was provision for legal, orderly hunting. It was done during hunting seasons and by those with hunting licenses. Only rich, white tourists and hunters could afford this trophy-hunting business. Their legal hunting was for sport, while our illegal hunting was for food. What they killed, they took pictures of and collected horns and went away to brag. Perfectly legal. What we killed, we ate. Very criminal. I also learned that tourism was largely white and that hunting was white and male. We — the poor, black, rural people — did not enjoy the safety of off-road canopy vehicles while taking pictures of beautiful wild animals.
Our encounters with wildlife like gazelles, rabbits, lions and hyenas were usually tragic combats for survival. Gazelles or rabbits got killed because they were food. Lions got killed because they were deadly. Usually, people were allowed to kill a lion or a hyena when it had either killed a person or someone's livestock. Is it any wonder that this district — where people were restricted to toiling on farms for meager wages and were prevented from hunting — had the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Zimbabwe in 1998? It is possible that many HIV and AIDS deaths were preventable — that poverty made the situation severe.
It is also possible that many died while serving poaching sentences due to poor prison conditions. Their names are not known. These people are not like people like "Cecil the lion" or "Jericho" (Cecil's cousin) or his cubs. No. They are not a tourist attraction. Their lives and safety are not tracked by renowned research institutions. Their fights for survival with the likes of Cecil and crew will not be recorded as heroic acts of survival. They are the dirty little secrets that the postcard image of Zimbabwe driving the multimillion-dollar tourism and trophy-hunting industries cannot afford to show. They will not be known, even by their collective name as humans — deserving human dignity.
I am sure they also want the luxury of having cordial encounters with wild animals. They want to be able to take pictures and wish their grandchildren will be able to do the same. But, no — they have no such choice. They cannot afford choices. How do you think about future generations when you are struggling to survive? You live on instinct to survive. Even if it means clutching at a serpent, you just do it.
So we ask the world to pardon our callousness, as you may define it — our lack of concern. Forgive us if we find it not so outrageous that a lion with a name and hero status was murdered by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer. We have more pressing matters of life and death — matters of human dignity and survival.
Thabani Nyoni is a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an alumnus of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.