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Archive | June 13, 2020
Who Is Frank Hawkins? (UPDATED)
( I updated this post to include Frank Hawkins' eight dishonorable mentions who "JUST" missed the list. They are shown at the bottom of the post.)
This is good course material for a political science class, or for all Americans.
Frank Hawkins is a former US Army intelligence officer, Associated Press foreign correspondent, international businessman, senior newspaper company executive, founder and owner of several marketing companies and published novelist. He is currently retired in North Carolina.
The 10 Most Destructive Americans of My 8 Decades
WRITTEN BY: FRANK HAWKINS
America has undergone enormous change during the nearly eight decades of my life. Today, America is a bitterly divided, poorly educated and morally fragile society with so-called mainstream politicians pushing cynical identity politics, socialism and open borders. The president of the United States is threatened with impeachment because the other side doesn't like him. The once reasonably unbiased American media has evolved into a hysterical left wing mob. How could the stable and reasonably cohesive America of the 1950s have reached this point in just one lifetime? Who are the main culprits? Here's my list of the 10 most destructive Americans of the last 80 years.
10) Mark Felt – Deputy director of the FBI, aka "Deep Throat" during the Watergate scandal. This was the first public instance of a senior FBI officially directly interfering in America's political affairs. Forerunner of James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Andrew McCabe.
9) Bill Ayers– Represents the deep and ongoing leftist ideological damage to our education system. An unrepentant American terrorist who evaded punishment, he devoted his career to radicalizing American education and pushing leftist causes. Ghost wrote Obama's book, "Dreams of My Father."
8) Teddy Kennedy – Most folks remember Teddy as the guy who left Mary Joe Kopechne to die in his car at Chappaquiddick. The real damage came after he avoided punishment for her death and became a major Democrat force in the US Senate, pushing through transformative liberal policies in health care and education. The real damage was the 1965 Hart-Cellar immigration bill he pushed hard for that changed the quota system to increase the flow of third world people without skills into the US and essentially ended large-scale immigration from Europe.
7) Walter Cronkite – Cronkite was a much beloved network anchor who began the politicalization of America's news media with his infamous broadcast from Vietnam that described the Tet Offensive as a major victory for the Communists and significantly turned the gullible American public against the Vietnam War. In fact, the Tet offensive was a military disaster for the NVA and Viet Cong, later admitted by North Vietnamese military leaders. Decades later Cronkite admitted he got the story wrong. But it was too late. The damage was done.
6) Bill and Hillary Clinton—It's difficult to separate Team Clinton. Bill's presidency was largely benign as he was a relative fiscal conservative who rode the remaining benefits of the Reagan era. But his sexual exploits badly stained the Oval Office and negatively affected America's perception of the presidency. In exchange for financial support, he facilitated the transfer of sensitive military technology to the Chinese. Hillary, a Saul Alinsky acolyte, is one of the most vicious politicians of my lifetime, covering up Bill's sexual assaults by harassing and insulting the exploited women and peddling influence around the globe in exchange for funds for the corrupt Clinton Foundation. She signed off on the sale of 20% of the US uranium reserve to the Russians after Bill received a $500,000 speaking fee in Moscow and the foundation (which supported the Clinton's regal lifestyle) received hundreds of millions of dollars from those who benefited from the deal. Between them, they killed any honor that might have existed in the dark halls of DC.
5) Valerie Jarrett – The Rasputin of the Obama administration. A Red Diaper baby, her father, maternal grandfather and father-in-law (Vernon Jarrett who was a close friend and ally of Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis) were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government. She has been in Obama's ear for his entire political career pushing a strong anti-American, Islamist, anti-Israeli, socialist/communist, cling-to-power agenda.
4) Jimmy Carter – Carter ignited modern day radical Islam by abandoning the Shah and paving the way for Ayatollah Khomeini to take power in Tehran. Iran subsequently became the main state sponsor and promoter of international Islamic terrorism. When Islamists took over our embassy in Tehran, Carter was too weak to effectively respond thus strengthening the rule of the radical Islamic mullahs.
3) Lyndon Johnson – Johnson turned the Vietnam conflict into a major war for America. It could have ended early if he had listened to the generals instead of automaker Robert McNamara. The ultimate result was: 1) 58,000 American military deaths and collaterally tens of thousands of American lives damaged; and 2) a war that badly divided America and created left wing groups that evaded the draft and eventually gained control of our education system. Even worse, his so-called War on Poverty led to the destruction of American black families with a significant escalation of welfare and policies designed to keep poor families dependent on the government (and voting Democrat) for their well-being. He deliberately created a racial holocaust that is still burning today. A strong case could be made for putting him at the top of this list.
2) Barack Hussein Obama – Obama set up America for a final defeat and stealth conversion from a free market society to socialism/communism. As we get deeper into the Trump presidency, we learn more each day about how Obama politicized and compromised key government agencies, most prominently the FBI, the CIA and the IRS, thus thoroughly shaking the public's confidence in the federal government to be fair and unbiased in its activities. He significantly set back race and other relations between Americans by stoking black grievances and pushing radical identity politics. Obama's open support for the Iranian mullahs and his apologetic "lead from behind" foreign policy seriously weakened America abroad. His blatant attempt to interfere in Israel's election trying to unseat Netanyahu is one of the most shameful things ever done by an American president.
1) John Kerry – Some readers will likely say Kerry does not deserve to be number one on this list. I have him here because I regard him as the most despicable American who ever lived. After his three faked Purple Hearts during his cowardly service in Vietnam, he was able to leave the US Navy early. As a reserve naval officer and in clear violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he traveled to Paris and met privately with the NVA and the Viet Cong. He returned to the United States parroting the Soviet party line about the war and testified before Congress comparing American soldiers to the hordes of Genghis Khan. It was a clear case of treason, giving aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war. We got a second bite of the bitter Kerry apple when as Obama's secretary of state, he fell into bed with the Iranian ("Death to America") mullahs giving them the ultimate green light to develop nuclear weapons along with billions of dollars that further supported their terrorist activities. Only the heroic Swift Vets saved us from a Manchurian Candidate Kerry presidency. Ultimately we got Obama.
Dishonorable Mentions! (Just missed the list)
John Brennan – Obama's CIA director who once voted for Communist Gus Hall for president. A key member of the Deep State who severely politicized the CIA. Called President Trump treasonous for meeting with the president of Russia.
Jane Fonda – movie actress who made the infamous trip to Vietnam during the war in support of the Communists. She represents hard left Hollywood that has done so much damage to our culture.
Jimmy Hendrix and Janice Joplin – Both revered entertainers helped usher in the prevailing drug culture and personally suffered the consequences. Karma's a bitch.
Robert Johnson /BET – Helped popularize ho's, bitches and pimps while making millions on great hits such as "Jigga my Nigga", "Big Pimpin'", "Niggas in Paris" and "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." Many scholars within the African American community maintain that BET perpetuates and justifies racism by adopting the stereotypes held about African Americans, affecting the psyche of young viewers through the bombardment of negative images of African Americans. Who can disagree?
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr./The New York Times – Once the gold standard of American journalism, the paper always had a liberal tilt and occasionally made bad mistakes. As the years have gone along, the paper has slid further and further left and today is virtually the primary propaganda arm of the increasingly radical Democrat Party. Still retains influence in Washington and New York.
George Soros – Jewish former Nazi collaborator in his native Hungary who as a self-made billionaire has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into left wing groups and causes. The damage he has caused is difficult to measure, but it's certainly large. He has funded much of the effort to kill the Trump presidency.
Frank Marshall Davis – Anti-white, black Bolshevik, card-carrying Soviet agent. Probable birth father and admitted primary mentor of young Barak Hussein Obama.
John McCain – Rhino republican. Sold out the American public and should be noted a democrat!
This entry was posted on June 13, 2020, in Uncategorized.	9 Comments
A routine traffic stop
Yet, the FOOLS want to defund the police!
You never hear about these traffic stops.
Possibly two cops dead!
I say….give the cops a PAY INCREASE!
-Sheila Tolley-
This entry was posted on June 13, 2020, in Uncategorized.	Leave a comment
GOOD DOG!!
You may need to scroll down a little on this video….
Chinese Wuhan CV-19 Humor
I hope they give us two weeks notice before sending us back out into the real world. I think we'll all need the time to become ourselves again. And by "ourselves" I mean lose 10 pounds, cut our hair, and get used to not drinking at 9:00 a.m.
New monthly budget: Gas $0, Entertainment $0, Clothes $0, Groceries $2,799.
Breaking News: Wearing a mask inside your home is now highly recommended. Not so much to stop COVI D-19, but to stop eating.
When this quarantine is over, let's not tell some people.
I stepped on my scale this morning. It said: "Please practice social distancing. Only one person at a time on the scale."
It may take a village to raise a child, but I swear its going to take a vineyard to home school one.
You know those car commercials where there's only vehicle on the road? Doesn't seem so unrealistic these days.
They may open things up next month — I'm staying in until July to see what happens to you all first.
Day 56: The garbage man placed an AA flyer on my recycling bin.
Appropriate analogy: "The curve is flattening, so we can start lifting restrictions now. Or could it be….. "The parachute has slowed our rate of descent, so we can take it off now."
Never in a million years could I have imagined I would go up to a bank teller wearing a mask and ask for money.
I am home schooling. The first day I tried to get my kid transferred out of my class.
Putting a drink in each room of my house today and calling it a pub crawl.
Okay, so the schools are closed. Do we drop the kids off at the teacher's house?
I was in a long line at 7:45 am today at the grocery store that opened at 8:00 for seniors only. A young man came from the parking lot and tried to cut in at the front of the line, but an old lady beat him back into the parking lot with her cane.
He returned and tried to cut in again, but an old man punched him in the gut, then kicked him to the ground and rolled him away. As he approached the line for the 3rd time he said, "If you people don't let me unlock the door, none of you will ever get in to shop."
A REAL SHERIFF
"I know many people have not seen one of these lately, but this is how a REAL SHERIFF looks and sounds."
This entry was posted on June 13, 2020, in Uncategorized.	1 Comment
THE SPHINX—THEY SAID IT
Seattle's government, including the governor, reminds me of the rot in the Democratic Kavanaugh hearing and impeachment.
https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/gabbard-calls-clinton-personification-of-id614890659?chan=6g5ka85
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-judiciary-authorizes-subpoenas-for-obama-officials-amid-russia-probe-review
https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/06/10/heres-what-dem.-gov.-inslee-just-said-about-the-radical-leftists-taking-over-autonomous-zone-in-seattle-it-defies-belief/
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/06/11/nolte-gone-with-the-wind-holds-9-of-top-50-amazon-sales-slots/
https://www.breitbart.com/
Rhett Butler: Who said what, LL ?
Scarlett O'Hara Cat: HBO which is part of Warner, which is part of AT&T, banned Gone With The Wind. AT&T also owns CNN-SUX. They are going to bring it back with a disclaimer. They should put a disclaimer on CNN-SUX–You have to be dysfunctional sexually to host one of our shows.
https://www.redstate.com/beccalower/2020/06/11/dana-loesch-left-attempt-to-cancel-gone-with-the-wind/
This is what our viewers said about HBO's decision.
Scarlett went back to Tara, to start MAGA. Melanie is still alive. Trump might put her on the Supreme Court when RBG retires.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/07/02/olivia-de-havilland-birthday/
This is what Joe Biden said when his basement was raided for sniffing and gambling parties.
This is what the Democratic Radical Left said in Seattle when someone asked for their authority to take over part of the city.
https://www.insider.com/what-is-seattle-autonomous-zone-george-floyd-protest-2020-6
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-protests-armed-guards-local-businesses-extortion
https://thepostmillennial.com/washington-state-governor-inslee-unaware-that-downtown-seattle-is-occupied-by-blm-antifa
https://www.redstate.com/joesquire/2020/06/12/pretty-sure-the-seattle-protesters-who-took-over-part-of-the-city-will-starve-to-death/
Homeland Security should have so many drones flying over the occupied section of Seattle that they think they are at a nude beach. When they have everyone's photo turn off the power and water.
Use what they used in Iraq to get the terrorist to surrender. Play this, twenty-four ( 24 ) hours a day, at the decibels of a jet plane landing.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT—Antifa
From: Hank Ashmore
The Deplorable Infidel
The Antifa movement is a conglomeration of left-wing autonomous militant anti-fascist groups in the United States. The principle feature of antifa groups is their use of direct action, with conflicts occurring both online and in real life. They engage in varied protest tactics, which include digital activism, property damage, physical violence, and harassment against those whom they identify as fascist, racist, or on the far-right. Activist involved in the movement tend to be anti-capitalist and subscribe to a range of ideologies, typically on the left. They include anarchists, socialist, and communists along with some liberals and social democrats. Their stated focus is on fighting far-right and white supremacist ideologies directly, rather than through electoral means.
Although various antifascist movements have existed in the United States since the beginning of fascism in the 1930s, the word fascism, adopted from German usage, only came into prominence as an umbrella term in English in 2017. The Anti-Defamation League makes a point that the label "antifa" should be limited to "those who proactively seek physical confrontations with their perceived fascist adversaries," and not be misapplied to include all counter-protesters.
Many Americans first became aware of Antifa only in 2017, when some of its followers descended on Washington, D.C. to protest President Donald Trump's inauguration. They broke store windows, set fire to a limousine, and caused more than $100,000 in property damage. But Antifa is much older and broader than a mere reactionary movement opposed to President Trump's administration. It has grown in numbers and strength for decades, united only by its adherents' commitment to shutting down anyone they disagree with by any means. Purporting to fight fascism – hence the name Antifa, short for "anti-fascism – the group broadly labels anyone it disagrees with as a fascist. Justified by this zeal, Antifa unleashes the violence we've seen rock communities, including Berkeley, Calif., and Portland Ore. and now recently, cities all across the nation, with the senseless death of George Floyd. This behavior is an unacceptable way to express disagreement, and we should not tolerate it in our communities.
One of the biggest challenges to containing the cancer that is Antifa is its amorphous, disconnected nature. Antifa is not a traditional organization. Antifa doesn't stand for anything, only against whatever it decides to define as fascist. It does not have meetings, official members, or even leaders. It is made up of dozens, if not hundreds, of left-wing organizations, both at the local and national levels. Each group has its own goals and aspirations – some advocate for animal rights, environmental rights, and socialism. The groups come together behind a unifying black mask whenever there is a call to action, spread through word-of-mouth or social media. At that point, the groups abandon their ethos and become part of the mob-like collective that is Antifa. Antifa has two goals: Destroy political opposition, and silence dissenters in any way possible. Given their nebulous structure, curtailing Antifa is undoubtedly a challenge for authorities – but designating the group as a domestic terrorist organization, as President Trump has suggested, would be a good start that offers many benefits.
The name "Antifa" sounds good and the goal of "fighting fascism" is undoubtedly a draw to many well-intentioned, idealistic people, both young and old. However, it is an inherently anti-American movement and, as Americans, we cannot allow its fascist doctrine to continue to undermine our republic.
The Deplorable Infidel (Source: The Hill and Wikipedia)
WAKE UP AMERICA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
"If our country is to survive and prosper, we must summon the courage to condemn and reject the liberal agenda, and we had better do it soon."
-Walter Williams-
"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS S**T UP" Category
The anti-American fascist have taken over six blocks of Seattle and Mayor Moron of Seattle calls it a festival zone.
AN OPINION FROM THE DEPLORABLE INFIDEL
People are asking: "If they do away with the police, who would I call if someone broke into my house in the middle of the night?" In my case it would be the coroner.
A SIMPLE TRUTH FOR TODAY
"Every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."
George Orwell – '1984'
Rochester Covered Bridge
WGN – 37-10-04 Rochester Covered Bridge – Oregon- Built in 1933 in Douglas County spanning Calapooya River on Rochester Br. Rd., single span, 80 feet long, Howe trusses
PHOTOS BY: BILL BOWSER….FROM CINCINNATI, OHIO


Q. I would like to know about LASER Hair Removal and if I am the right candidate for it?
A. LASER Hair Removal is a procedure wherein hair is removed using a long pulsed machine. This machine emits light of a particular wavelength that is absorbed by the melanin pigment present in the hair. This light generates heat and disables follicles from producing hair. As the surrounding skin is lighter than the colour of the hair, the effect of LASER on one's skin is minimal, in some cases even absent, depending on the skin type. Because of the melanin, LASER has no effect on grey or blonde hair.
About the right candidacy, anyone can get this treatment done. LASER has gained popularity over the past few years because it is relatively painless, fast, and effective. We are noticing an increasing demand of this procedure by looks-conscious men as well. Best candidate is one with a pale skin and dark coarse hair, as light is absorbed more by dark colour due to melanin. Common areas of hair removal are face, upper limbs, underarms, lower limbs, pubic area, chest, abdomen and back.
I strongly dissuade expecting or breastfeeding mothers from getting LASER done.
Q. What are the most common LASERs used?
In addition, Intense Pulse Light (IPL) system is also used for hair removal.
For the Indian skin type, best machines are Nd:YAG and Diode LASER. Alexandrite machine works best for white skin.
Q. What are the number of sittings required for LASER Hair Removal treatment?
A. Since hair grows in cycles, we need multiple sittings for an effective result. Most patients need between 8-10 sittings at a gap of 4-6 weeks for best results. Face requires more frequent sittings compared to arms and legs. For best results, compliance from the patient is needed to maintain the required gap between sittings. I have had patients who do not honour the gaps between sittings and are disappointed when they need to undergo additional sittings or when they do not see desired results.
Q. Are there any side effects of the procedure?
A patient may notice a few, all or none of the above. These side effects depend on the individual's skin type.
Q. Is LASER Hair Removal permanent?
A. Well, this is the most interesting part. The name of the treatment can get slightly deceptive here. LASER treatment helps reduce hair growth. After all the sittings of LASER, we easily notice a permanent reduction in hair growth by 70-80%.
Q. What are the other things to keep in mind before opting for LASER Hair Removal?


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Doctors' tricks to make the flu vaccine work better while the virus rages in the United States
Leave a Comment / Health / By bantintphcm
From getting vaccinated early to going to bed and avoiding painkillers — there are surprisingly easy tricks to making vaccines work better.
And with the United States battling its biggest flu outbreak in more than a decade, the timing couldn't be more important.
The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) says everyone six months of age and older should get the vaccine this year as a deadlier strain of the flu spreads through US hospitals.
Studies show that being vaccinated before 11 a.m. may increase your immune response because more T cells—immune cells that fight off infections in the long term—are present at that time.
Numerous research papers have shown that getting a good night's sleep before and after bed is also key to boosting your body's response, as lack of sleep may give you fewer virus-killing antibodies in the short term.
Abstaining from painkillers will also help, as they weaken the immune response that the vaccine targets.
But doctors emphasized that vaccination in less than ideal conditions is much better than not being vaccinated at all.
Research has suggested that getting a tingle in the morning is the best time. Sleeping at least six hours before and after vaccination is also important, as is abstaining from pain relievers
Confirmed RSV cases were 12,905 for the week ending October 29, while the positive test rate was 18.8% for the week ending November 5.
Confirmed cases of influenza reached 13,806 during the week ending November 5, a new high for the season and sharp growth from previous weeks.
A Kansas elementary school closes for three days to "disinfect the building" – with a third of teachers and pupils sick
A Kansas elementary school closed for three days this month after it was hit by a wave of respiratory illnesses among students and staff.
Christ the King Catholic School, a K-8 school with 250 students and 21 teachers in Kansas City, Kansas, closed its doors on Wednesday the 9th after more than 50 children and seven staff members reported illness.
Officials plan to disinfect the building during the holidays. It reopened last Monday.
It comes amid a nationwide surge of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that has hit young children the hardest.
Children's hospitals across the United States are reporting that they are at or near capacity as the explosive increase in the number of cases overwhelms emergency rooms.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 7,945 new RSV infections during the week ending November 5.
This is a massive upward shift from fewer than 2,000 cases reported at the start of September.
More than 1,300 flu cases were also reported nationwide that week — up from just a few hundred in August and the highest number for this flu season so far.
The surge has caused dozens of schools across the country to temporarily close due to staffing issues or to prevent the spread of the virus.
Experts have warned that this year's flu season will be harsher than in previous years, after lockdowns during the pandemic left many people's immune systems unprepared.
And the flu shutdowns mirror the destructive school policies put in place during the first months of the pandemic.
One study conducted last year from Sun Yat-sen University Hospital in China, on 63 people, showed that those who received a Covid vaccine between 9 am and 11 am had a stronger immune response than those who were vaccinated between 3 pm and 5 pm in the evening. afternoon.
Immune cell levels vary throughout the day, and Dr. Peter Chen Hong, an infectious disease physician at the University of California San Francisco, suggested to ABC News that people who are able to get vaccinated in the morning may fare better.
Research in mice has shown that in the morning, genes that produce T cells are activated, as well as producing more molecules used to recognize antigens.
During the night, genes create molecules that stop this response.
Something similar could happen in humans.
Several other studies have shown that sleep plays a vital role in vaccine effectiveness.
Researchers from the University of Lübeck in Germany found that sleeping after a hepatitis A shot doubled the amount of immune cells formed in response to the vaccine.
A 2012 study found that at least six hours is preferred.
Those who slept less than that after they got the hepatitis B vaccination were less likely to respond correctly to the shot, because they had fewer antibodies.
Another study found that how well you rested even days before a shot can affect how much protection it gives you.
Shorter periods of sleep two days before receiving a flu shot resulted in fewer antibodies being produced among 83 healthy adults, even months after vaccination.
Separate research from Jahrom University of Medical Sciences in Iran backs this up – they found that six out of eight studies selected found a positive relationship between sleep and immune response after vaccination.
"Sleep is critical to physical health and helps strengthen the immune system, and so some studies have suggested that vaccine efficacy could be negatively affected by sleep deprivation," Dr. Jane Morgan, executive director of health and community education at Piedmont Hospital, told DailyMail.com. ".
But she stressed that "vaccination under any circumstances is the most important thing."
While you may want to take a pain reliever to deal with the after effects of the vaccine, you should avoid taking it beforehand.
Research has indicated that taking medications such as paracetamol and NSAIDs can dampen the antibody response, although scientists aren't sure why.
That's because drugs like Advil can prevent inflammation and reduce the immune system's ability to respond to the injection, Dr. Chen Hong said.
"The concern about painkillers is that they may reduce the immune response that the vaccine targets," Dr. Morgan told DailyMail.com, but added that "more studies are needed."
Many children's hospitals are already at or near record levels of capacity for this time of year and flu rates are the highest since the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
Experts say the 'immune gap' that has emerged during lockdowns, work-from-home and mask mandates during the Covid outbreak has denied Americans important exposure to germs that strengthen their immune systems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 7.4 out of every 100,000 Americans 65 or older have been hospitalized for a respiratory illness so far—numbers that aren't usually seen until the depths of winter.
This number is ten times higher than it was before the pandemic. But the rate is dwindling as children are hospitalized, with 50.6 out of every 100,000 children 17 or younger admitted with a respiratory defect this season.
Leading the wave is RSV and influenza – which is back again this year after largely disappearing during the first two years of the Covid pandemic.
RSV usually causes a mild cold in more people, but the virus can be especially harmful to young children. The CDC reports about 500 pediatric deaths each year.
The CDC reported 7,945 new RSV infections during the week ending November 5, the most recent data available. Confirmed RSV cases peaked during the week ending October 29, with 12,905 infections, a massive upward shift from fewer than 2,000 cases reported at the start of September.
More than 1,300 flu cases were also reported nationwide that week — up from just a few hundred in August and the highest number for this flu season so far. Both figures are an underestimate because viruses are not tested on the same scale as Covid.
The southern states were hardest hit by the surge. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia have all reported "very high" levels of influenza activity according to the CDC.
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Global Alliance of Heart Patients' Organizations unveils new global cholesterol action plan to prioritize unhealthy cholesterol as a major public health issue

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Went to wekfest this weekend. A friend of mine signed me up with my email when I thought he was sending me PayPal after asking for my email.
The night before, Mayday Garage (local Houston group) hosts a premeet. It's always the best thing about wekfest or any other big car show.
This year's premeet was at a new location and the cops shut us down early due to the amount of people. They were starting to tow and issue tickets so I dip out.
Got to the show and staged for Mayday Garage. One of the members asked me to represent them in the show as their "top picks".
Drifting this weekend at Club Loose Texas so that will be nice to get better with the SR in the car.
The cops did what? HaHa!


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My car is 2006 coupe. I'm going to sell my car and I need to pass smog in order to sell it. I got it from bchalks 07/2017. I have roughly 15k miles on it.
I also have motordyne tdx2 shockwaves to trade + cash. I got it this from bchalks as well. Located on 91789. Pm me offers.
Post a verification pic as per the marketplace rules sticky.
They can be installed on the vehicle in the picture.
How much for just the motordyne exhaust?
Sorry but I'm looking to trade local only.
Would you trade the motordyne exhaust for a stock exhaust + cash?
Yes, pm me your offer.
Uploaded pictures. The passenger side has scratches because it's sitting lower than the driver side.
By the way, I just purchased used catalytic converter. I'm looking for cheap exhaust so I can remove my art pipes and tdx2 at the same time.
I'll probably just sell my art pipes and tdx2.
That's what I did. FWIW all the aftermarket exhausts sound like total ***, if you can find a stock exhaust locally go with that.
I've been seriously tempted to shop around for a Nismo exhaust and play around with test pipes/hfc +resonators to see what I can make work with no drone/rasp.
It's so hard to give up that beautiful stock coupe sound because it's absolute magic.
Agreed. Z tube did all I really needed. While I'd love to get a deeper note on the tone, I really don't want to mess it up by risking rasp/drone.
BTW, whatever happened to the guy that briefly showed up on the forum with the "exhaust vents"? Oliver Enterprises. Did you ever get a comp review set to try out like he said he'd send you?
Yes I did, sounded horrible on the G.
Some vehicles it sounds good, some it doesn't, depends on a lot of things including factory resonators and such. As for dumping exhaust under the car at the rear axle, there's nothing inherently wrong with that unless you have a big hole in the chassis that it can get drawn up into. The G35 doesn't have any holes unless it's rusted and the fresh air baffles in the trunk have a check-flap on them so nothing comes back into the trunk.
It turns out my old exhaust, Stillen catback exhaust, is in the storage of my parent's house. The only problem is it has a muffler leak. Nonetheless, I was able to install my old exhaust and cats this weekend. Right now, I might have a pending sale for my ART pipes.


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These very generous child reductions are available for almost all our chalets and hotels and will make some of our best ever savings for early booking families.
These are phone-in only offers and subject to availability. This offer may be withdrawn at any time and without notice.
*All discounts for 3-4 yr olds under this scheme are for sharing a parent's room on a put up bed. This will be an extra bed for that room and so space will be restricted. All other children 5+ will be on bunk beds, mezzanine beds, or single beds when they make up a triple, quad or family room. This discount is not for single adult beds in a twin/double room. If a child requires such a bed, standard prices and child discounts apply.
The free child places apply to the youngest child in that room and are limited to one per family (i.e. one place per two full paying passengers).
If you have two or more children in a different age bracket, each child will qualify for the first child's reduction. Therefore if you have a 4 yr old and an 8 yr old for Jan 6, the 4 yr old is Free and the 8 yr old is 50% off. The same bed restrictions apply as above. Reductions are off the basic holiday price, not including room, flight/airport supplements, insurance, childcare, ski-packs etc, which are payable in full.
Child discounts cannot be combined with Standard, Premium or Super Group Discounts. In the instance of a Group booking, you may choose the child discounts or the group discounts, (whichever the greater), but not both.
For Hotel Montana: Discounts for children age 3-10 yrs are for using the bunks in the 4-bed family suites.
All the above discounts are valid at the time of writing but are subject to change and withdrawal at any time.


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This special Limited Edition "Live" variant of the best-selling, award-winning Bass Collection Jive sports a traditional roller bridge, "Jaco-style" scratchplate-free, solar flare finish with a custom, road-worn look that owes more than a nod to long-standing BC mate, Brit Bass Master and Woodstock survivor, Leo Lyons.
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October 27, 2018 – Finding Common Ground
Nuns on the Bus – Mar-a-Lago bound
Whosoever You Love: Rabbah Rona Matlow
More in Common
A Word From Welton: Bombs and Ballots
We are heartbroken this weekend to once again witness an act of murderous hate targeting members of a religious group in their place of worship. State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance's weekly radio show and podcast, was recorded prior to the deadly attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, and so our focus is on the pipe bombs sent to prominent Democratic leaders across the country as well as on reports that the administration is hell-bent on erasing any federal acknowledgement of the very existence of Transgender Americans. We also highlight the latest Nuns on the Bus Tour for Tax Justice, scheduled to arrive at Mar-a-Lago in Florida just before the midterm elections on November 6th.
Right now, there are people traveling thousands of miles across lands unknown to them, in a desperate search for a better life. With no Moses to guide them, they are being called a "caravan" – just another of an endless list of dehumanizing rhetorical attempts to leverage misery into a threat, and a threat into electoral advantage. The Honduran refugees are not likely to reach our borders until many weeks from now, if at all. Meanwhile, a bus full of nuns is heading in the other direction, on a cross-country tour aiming for Florida. Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice is the original Nun on the Bus, and she's back on State of Belief this week to tell host Rev. Welton Gaddy about the "Tax Justice Truth Tour."
Transgender Americans are a frequent target of the Trump administration, including an abrupt presidential Tweet announcing an imminent ban on Transgender servicemembers in our military. This week, a leaked memo from the Department of Health and Human Services outlined a proposed plan to re-define gender as "a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth," essentially erasing transgender people from federal law. Welton will welcome Rabbah Rona Matlow, who is America's only transgender, nuclear-qualified, Navy veteran rabbi, back to the show to discuss this development, and also to explore what all of us need to know about the Transgender experience in this complicated age. It's part of Whosoever You Love, our semi-monthly series affirming the worth and full value of LGBTQ persons within and beyond religion. Whosoever You Love is supported by the Arcus Foundation, dedicated to the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world. Learn more about Arcus and its partners at ArcusFoundation.org.
"People these days are more divided than ever." It's a sentiment that few will argue with. But the research group More in Common has been asking if the news media is complicit in obsessing on and possibly exacerbating this divide. Stephen Hawkins is research director and senior associate at More in Common, USA, an organization which seeks to celebrate "What we all have in common rather than what divides us." Welton and Stephen will discuss the newly released Hidden Tribes report and what it tells us about the exhausted majority.
And finally, we end with a Word from Welton on this moment in our history, as we are forced to deal with bombs… And morally compelled to do so with ballots.


Improved sport performance. Identification of strong mental skills and areas for development. Increased concentration and self-confidence. Handling high-pressure situations and emotions.
Enhanced team performance. Revealing team dynamics and mindsets about opponents. Effective communication. Increased team work and motivation.
Personal and coach development. Effective leadership. Conflict management. Feedback. Motivation. Communication with athletes and parents. Mental preparation of athletes.
Raising a sportsman. How to react to win or lose. Creat an optimal environmnent for your sporting child. How to help your child to handle the stress and an enormous training load. Feedback.
Unique diagnostics system which reveales sources of motivation and stress, strong mental skills, handling stressful situations and more.
Systematic work. Individual plan. Professional approach. Athletes from 8 years old.
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How should the concentration of a professional athlete look? That's what you can find out in this article.


Labyrinth Dream Symbol – The Labyrinth is representative of the great maze of life. In most of its manifestations, the labyrinth is not solved inside your dream. This is simply an expression of your uncertainty of where life is taking you. If you have a strong need for control over your life, dreaming about the labyrinth can be a very emotional experience that fills you with panic and fear.
However, the labyrinth is meant to get lost in. Yes, there are unnamable dangers and countless ways to lose yourself. However, this is a representation of life itself, where the dangers are no less real. The message of the labyrinth is to simply enjoy life while you are in it and not worry too much about figuring anything out.
When you dream of a labyrinth it can represent the turmoil and confusion surrounding your waking life. This is a sign you need to look deeper within to get a greater understanding of yourself. This is a time for patience and also a time that can be right for finding solutions to long-time problems.
A labyrinth can symbolize a secret crush on someone. Someone who has no idea of your infatuation. Maybe it is time to move on and let go, or to let them know how you feel. Do you fear rejection? This can also warn that you have a tendency to take on too much at times and end up feeling overwhelmed. It is a time to face your fear. Stand tall in your truth to help you move your life forward.
Making your way through a labyrinth is a sign you have the courage to face up to what you fear. Dreaming of finding your way through to the other side of a labyrinth means you will make it through these tough times. It can also mean there has been a period of drama and problems that have just ended. Leaving a labyrinth is a sign that soon something secret will find its way into the world. Will it be you who reveals someone's secrets?
Dreaming of having a labyrinth in the garden warns there will soon be problems with financial matters. You need to be prepared. Try to put some extra aside for times when you may need it. A man dreaming of a beautiful woman in a labyrinth signifies prosperity and abundance will soon cross your path. Seeing a small labyrinth can mean there will be complaints, errors made, and a general series of annoying things that happen to you. Do you feel that no matter what you do there is someone there judging you in a negative light?
A dream of a labyrinth can mean someone close is out to cheat you in some way. Also, something from your path will come back to haunt you that you will have to deal with again. This can be a tough time full of hurt and fiery emotions. Having difficulty finding your way out of a maze before you awaken means there is something in your waking life that needs your urgent attention. If you do not make it out of the labyrinth before you wake up, it can mean you will have a long period of time where things are tough.
I had a dream I was in a labyrinth but to rescue others. I made it to them and we had been on way out but it took us to an old mansion can you tell me what that means please and thank you.
I kept having a dream where I was in a labyrinth. I always had either a dog or some friends or family with me. I couldn't remember the parts where I tried to get through accept the last part where I did get to the end (though it wasn't really the end) but it was a narrow path with proven glass and floorboards with water at the bottom. There a chimney type thing going up and in one dream down but there's a green (?) bucket with a pulley as if it was a well but whenever I had to get up I had to leave somebody behind (as far as I remember) but when I got up through the chimney well part it was normal like I got to see my friends and go to a place or two. But when I got done with it I had to do the same exact thing over and over. It changed each time. A couple times I was being chased by a dog like creature and I could hear it. But sometimes I wasn't. But every time the labyrinth would end I would always some into this dirty wet room and see the hall and go through. This time (that I almost just woke up from) I saw somebody I know let's call him N with either another person ,T,or my dog (or both) were down there and I could see them and they got up but T came out later or not at all yet. N acted like me like it was fine because the dream isn't scary it's like the human interpretation of beetlejuice's outfit and hair and talking garbage bags and just pitch black. I could see them while they were down there. I would have yelled for em but it was either a sleep paralysis thing or the thing where I push air out of my lungs and start almost whispering or wheezing then I wake up and need a LOT of air. I don't know what seeing other people in MY dream means. Maybe he's having the same dream? Same experience with the labyrinth? I'll ask around but if anyone knows and would like to try to help I would appreciate it.
I keep having labyrinth dreams. For awhile they were always related to a previous job and company I worked for. I would leave my desk to go do something – and the next thing you know I was spending hours trying to get back to my desk because I took a wrong turn somewhere. The first set of these I found myself lost in a giant casino/game room/pool hall like setting. I got to where I could almost recognize the way out, then the dreams stopped. They started again, only I was at a new job – not one I could identify too. This labyrinth is different. It is like an indoor flea market of foods and packaged delicacies. Not as much panic as the first set of dreams – but same scenario.


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Q: When was the word 'curry' first used? English is a living and growing language, with new words / phrases being added regularly and some from foreign languages.
The Britishers started trading with Mughal India from early 1600's before becoming the rulers in mid 1700's. Many words from Urdu and Hindustani find common usage in English today.
The word "Curry" to refer to the spicy food dish came into use also probably from India.
When did this word 'Curry' start being used in the language?
How and when did the phrase "Currying favour" and the like come into common usage?

A: Curry meaning sauce is from Tamil, while curry favor is from Old French; the two expressions, despite the spelling, are unrelated:
Curry:

kind of sauce or relish much used in Indian cookery, from the leaves of a southwest Asian plant related to the lemon, 1680s, from Tamil (Dravidian) kari "sauce, relish for rice," also "a bite, bit, morsel."
As "meat or vegetable stew flavored with curry powder," 1747 in British English.

To curry favor:

To curry favor "flatter, seek favor by officious show of courtesy or kindness" is an early 16c. folk-etymology alteration of curry favel (c. 1400) from Old French correier fauvel "to be false, hypocritical," literally "to curry the chestnut horse," chestnut horses in medieval French allegories being symbols of cunning and deceit. Compare German den falben (hengst) streichen "to flatter, cajole," literally "to stroke the dun-colored horse."

(Etymonline)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Investment News:
AI-Native Technology
Self-Learning Engines
ASAPP Research
Customer Experience Today
AI + Human
R&D Innovations
The Consumer is the Ultimate Winner in the Race for Accuracy in Speech Recognition.
By Kyu Han, PhD
Director of Speech Modeling, ASAPP
There is a lot of interest in automatic speech recognition (ASR) for many uses. Thanks to the recent development of efficient training mechanisms and the availability of more computing power, deep neural networks have enabled ASR systems to perform astoundingly well in a number of application domains.
At ASAPP, our focus is in augmenting human performance with AI. Today we do that in large consumer contact centers, where our customers serve consumers over both voice and digital channels. ASR is the backbone that enables us to augment agents in real-time throughout each customer interaction. We build the highest performing ASR system in the world based on industry standard benchmarks. We do this not only by leveraging the technological advancement in deep learning, but also by applying our own innovation to analyze problems at different levels of detail.
At ASAPP we continuously push the limits of what's possible by not only leveraging technological advances in deep learning, but by also innovating. We are always looking for new ways to analyze problems and explore practical solutions at different levels of detail.
Kyu Han, PhD
LibriSpeech, a speech corpus of 1,000 hours of transcribed audiobooks, has been adopted since its introduction in 2015 as the most used benchmark dataset for ASR research in both academia and industry. Using this dataset, many prestigious research groups around the world including ASAPP, Google Brain, and Facebook AI Research have been testing their new ideas. Never have there been more rapid advances than in the past year for the race to achieve better results on the LibriSpeech testset.
In early 2019, Google's ASR system with a novel data augmentation method outperformed all previously existing ASR systems by a big margin, boasting a word error rate (WER) of 2.5% on the LibriSpeech test-clean set (shown in the below figure). A word error rate is the percentage of words an ASR system gets wrong, measured against a reference transcript of the given audio. Later the same year, ASAPP joined the race and gained immediate attention with a WER of 2.2%, beating the best performing system at that time by Facebook. The lead, however, didn't last long as Google in 2020 announced a couple of new systems to reclaim the driver seat in the race, reaching a sub-2.0% WER for the first time. One week after Google's announcement, ASAPP published a new paper highlighting a 1.75% WER (98.25% accuracy!) to regain the lead. ASAPP remains at the top of the leaderboard (as of September in 2020).
The race will continue, and so will our innovation to make the ultimate winner in this race our customers. Accurate transcriptions feed directly into business benefit for our customer companies, as it enables the ASAPP platform to augment agents – providing real-time predictions of what to say and do to address consumers needs, drafting call summary notes, and automating numerous micro-processes. Plus, having insights from full and accurate transcriptions gives these companies a true voice of the customer perspective to inform a range of business decisions.
At ASAPP, innovation is based on our competent research capability that enabled the aforementioned milestones. But our strength is not only in research but also in an agile engineering culture that makes rapid productization of research innovations possible. This is well exemplified by our recent launch of a multistream convolutional neural network (CNN) model to our production ASR systems.
Multistream CNN – where an input audio is processed with different resolutions for better robustness to noisy audio – is one of the main contributing factors to the successful research outcomes from the LibriSpeech race. Its structure consists of multiple streams of convolution layers, each of which is configured with a unique filter resolution for convolutions. The downside to this kind of model is the extra processing time that causes higher latency due to many future speech frames being processed during ASR decoding. Rather than leaving it as a high-performing, but not feasible-in-production research prototype, we invented a multistream CNN model suitable for real-time ASR processing by dynamically assigning compute resources during decoding, while maintaining the same accuracy level as the slower research-lab prototype. Our current production ASR systems take advantage of this optimized model, offering more reliable transcriptions even for noisy audio signals in the agent-customer conversations of contact centers.
As illustrated in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 movie 2001: Space Odyssey, human aspiration of creating AI able to understand the way we communicate has led to significant technological advancements in many areas. Deep learning has brought recent revolutionary changes to AI research including ASR, which has taken major leaps in the last decade more so than it did in the last 30 years. The radical improvement of ASR accuracy that would make consumers embrace voice recognition products more comfortably than at any time in history are expected to open up a $30 billion market for ASR technology in the next few years.
As we're entering an era where our own Odyssey to human-level ASR systems might reach the aspired destination soon, ASAPP as a market leader will continue to invest in rapid innovation for AI technology through balancing cutting-edge research and fine-tuned productization to enhance customer experience in meaningful ways.
Our research work in this area was presented at the Ai4 conference.
Kyu Han, PhD is Director of Speech Modeling at ASAPP, leading innovations in deep learning technologies for speech applications. Dr. Han received his PhD from USC in 2009 and held research positions at IBM Watson, Ford Research, Capio (acquired by Twilio) and JD AI Research. He serves as reviewers for IEEE, ISCA and ACL journals/conferences, and is a Speech and Language Technical Committee member in the IEEE SPS since 2019 and part of the Organizing Committee for IEEE SLT 2021. In 2018, he won the ISCA Award for the Best Paper Published in Computer Speech & Language 2013-2017.
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© ASAPP, INC.


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Advising in Small Wars
A Small Wars Journal and Military Writers Guild Writing Contest Finalist Article
Zachary Griffiths
On July 31st 2013, the Taliban killed thirteen of my Afghan police partners. The New York Times described the "charred remains of vehicles smoldering on the road" left behind by retreating Afghan forces.[i] The Secretary of Defense read my situation report. How should an advisor best support his partner when 10% of their force is killed? While neither General Anthony Zinni or Dr. David Kilcullen discuss what it means to be a good advisor in detail, General Zinni does note the importance of restoring key institutions as early as possible.
In three sections, this paper explores how my Special Forces detachment restored the Nangarhar Provincial Response Company (PRC), a special operations element of the Afghan police, by fusing General Zinni's considerations and Dr. Kilcullen's fundamentals of small wars.[ii] The first section describes effects of a catastrophic loss on both the force and province. The second section explains how my detachment forced Afghan and coalition forces to recognize the PRC's losses, reconstituted the PRC with internally- and externally-focused efforts, and finally restored their confidence with progressively tougher combat operations. In the third and final section, I reflect on two regrets from this experience and offer some concluding remarks.
Good advisors rebuilt the PRC with trust earned through shared sweat and combat. Neither the small war fundamentals nor considerations explain how to be a good advisor. The Institute for National Strategic Studies codified the strategic lessons of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in Lessons Encountered: Learning from the Long War. Though Lessons Encountered takes a high-level view of those conflicts, Colonel Hammes strikes center-of-mass in his chapter Raising and Mentoring Security Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan when he describes local security forces as "our ticket home."[iii] Small wars are tough and human; advisors need committed relationships with their partners if we are to succeed.
Unlike most Special Forces in Afghanistan that partnered detachments directly with their Afghan partners, my detachment was part of the allied special operations task force. My task force partnered American Special Forces detachments with allied special operations detachments with the goal of developing interoperable special operations forces. Task Unit Nangarhar, which I commanded from June 2013 to February 2014, was composed of American and Hungarian soldiers who trained, advised, and assisted the Nangarhar PRC to build enduring tactical, operational, and institutional capacity.[iv] Neither Task Unit Nangarhar nor the PRC had any mission other than to improve the PRC's tactical and institutional capabilities, and combat the insurgency. Our goal was an independent PRC that weakened the insurgency through deliberate operations based on Afghan intelligence and targeting.
When we arrived in June 2013 the situation was bleak. A suicide attack against the PRC base the previous March had left the unit operationally ineffective. No one was killed, but the attack caused coalition leaders to move the Task Unit advisors to Jalalabad Airfield – a more secure base – while their Afghan counterparts remained stationed amongst the wreckage of their headquarters.
The Nangarhar PRC should have been the keystone of provincial security. By Afghan doctrine, they are the Provincial Chief of Police's most elite force. They exist to target and arrest insurgents and criminals too tough or in places too rough for the regular police.[v] The paramilitary PRC conduct high-risk SWAT-style arrests and quick reaction operations to support checkpoints under attack. Demoralized from the attack and advisor abandonment, the PRC chased bicycle thieves and protected mid-level officials. After a month of training however, the PRC found their footing. Participation in a large cordon and search operation restored their morale and built trust with us, their new advisors. Then, tragedy struck.
Field Manual 3-90-1 defines defeat as a "task that occurs when an enemy force has temporarily or permanently lost the physical means or the will to fight."[vi] The Taliban defeated the PRC on 31 July when they killed 13 patrolmen during a high-risk operation in the foothills of the infamous Tora Bora mountains. Though as an organization the PRC still had ninety men and eleven trucks, two days of isolation under Taliban fire destroyed their morale.
Worse, during the intense fighting with mounting casualties their supposed partners – my Task Unit – had not come to their aid. Despite phone calls, emails, and radio chatter, higher only provided permission for us to move forward 43 kilometers to the Khugyani district center where a police relief force was rallying. There, the deputy chief of police begged us to escort them 10 to 15 kilometers forward to relieve the isolated PRC. Unfortunately, no one knew their exact location. With higher fearing ambush, we were again denied permission to help. The next day, the Afghan Army rescued the broken remnants of the PRC platoon.
Figure 1. Still Image of an Ambushed PRC Ranger Truck From a Taliban Video[vii]
When we finally met the rescued PRC patrolmen, I saw our rapport burned along with their Ranger trucks (Figure 1). "Green-on-blue" hung in the air as we met them and my medic checked over the wounded. In the weeks following the attack, the broken PRC collapsed. Their commander visited our camp several times with disheartening reports: nearly half the force had deserted. Morale was destroyed.
Start or Restore Key Institutions as Early as Possible
General Zinni situates start or restore key institutions about halfway through his list of small war fundamentals just below "culture's importance" and above "losing momentum." Based on our cultural awareness, we developed a plan to avoid lost momentum with three phases: recognition of the problem, reconstitution, and restoration of confidence. With the ultimate goal of an independent and capable PRC, each requirement leaned on the proceeding requirement. The PRC's mission required them to strike against the insurgency. Those operations required trained manpower and equipment. Restored manpower and equipment required both Afghans and the coalition to recognize the problem.
From our thorough mission analysis and aggressive schedule of introductions, we knew where to fire our red star clusters. Before we returned to our base, we let the world know how bad the situation was. Repeating "10% of the force killed, 50% desertion, and total loss of rapport with detachment" in daily reports and phone calls focused everyone's attention. The effects of the reporting were immediate and from the very top of our organization. The American SOF commander in Afghanistan made an exception-to-policy authorizing American-funded martyr payments for the PRC's fallen. Our task force's partnership officers pushed the Afghan logistics and personnel systems to prioritize deployment of new patrolmen, new vehicles, and new weapons to the PRC. While this was progress, a few hundred bucks and a pat on the back from the partners who abandoned you do not buy back trust.
To restore the morale of force, we helped the PRC organize a memorial ceremony. High-level Afghan recognition from the Deputy Governor, the Provincial Imam, and the Provincial Chief of Police heartened the remaining patrolmen and repaired lost rapport. Martyr payments were distributed before the memorial ceremony, ensuring family members would be present. The ceremony closed with groundbreaking on a permanent memorial to remember the fallen patrolmen. The ceremony was successful. Replacement patrolmen and equipment began to flow in. Deserters returned to the force.
We undertook a dual-pronged internal/external effort to reconstitute the PRC knowing we would need both if the PRC were coming back. Internally, detachment members trained the PRC and examined their internal capabilities. Externally, we built relationships. We also organized for interagency operations finding that interagency operations are to counter-insurgency as combined arms are to maneuver warfare – the best way to win. This approach incorporated at least five small wars fundamentals and considerations, outlined below.
Be Careful Whom You Empower
Drill sergeants, jumpmasters, and Green Berets exude confidence because they are masters of their craft. A new Sergeant Major fresh from the Crisis Response Unit – the most elite force of Afghan police – led our effort to build mastery in the PRC's internal trainers. The PRC's recovery period gave us an uninterrupted opportunity to develop non-commissioned PRC trainers because they could focus without breaking to prepare for operations. With the commander's blessing, the detachment trained him and his trainers on tactics and their special equipment – radios, night vision, maps, counter-improvised explosives training, and GPS systems. This training capacity proliferated advanced skills throughout the force, boosting confidence and morale.
Local Forces Should Mirror the Enemy, Not Ourselves
Despite success building an internal training system, we were unsuccessful in making our PRC more like the insurgents. Based on detachment experience from Iraq, we handpicked and trained seven patrolmen in plainclothes reconnaissance. They cased qalats, preparing detailed sketches highlighting access points, wall heights, and daily patterns of life. They learned the fundamentals of long-range surveillance with binoculars and cameras. Finally, they practiced blending into isolated communities.
Unfortunately, I did not communicate the intent of the training well enough to their commander. During their final evaluation, the reconnaissance team briefed their plan to reconnoiter a notional objective in plainclothes. The commander immediately rejected the small team plan as too dangerous and plainclothes operations as possibly illegal. In our drive to organize for intelligence, I failed to understand the personal and cultural roadblocks that would prevent adoption of these reconnaissance techniques.
Organize for Intelligence
The detachment also invested in Afghan intelligence production by tightening its relationship with the American former police investigators who trained and mentored the PRC's investigative arm. Rapid advisor turnover and minimal intelligence production had sidelined the investigators. However, more engaged advisors, detachment pressure, and Afghan interest restored their morale and increased output. Intelligence development is a long-term process, but restarting intelligence early led to three successful Afghan operations that captured insurgent weapons and ammunition.
Fortuitously, a new Hungarian detachment also arrived during the reconstitution period bringing a signals intelligence system. We had met this detachment during pre-mission training in Germany and were excited to have this experienced and competent force join us. Unlike the other systems in use before their arrival, the Hungarian system provided detailed signals intelligence analysis exclusively for our Task Unit. No longer forced to compete for scarce American signals intelligence resources, we increased our intelligence production to develop appropriate confidence operations for phase three of our restoration efforts.
Coordinate Everything With Everybody
As General Zinni advises in his ninth consideration, we coordinated everything with everybody. Though we'd already met with the battle space integrator we redoubled our rapport-building efforts. I participated in his weekly meetings, sent my intelligence sergeant to their intelligence meetings, and started attending the Brigade Commander's "SOF Shura" to disseminate our message across eastern Afghanistan. We also pressed the broader SOF community for support. Another Special Forces Company lent intelligence and some assault ladders, while also promising coordination on future Afghan operations. Meetings with other government agencies provided valuable intelligence and material support.
Outside of the Army, detachment engineer and weapons sergeants built a symbiotic relationship with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Teams (FAST). The DEA FAST partnered with Afghan national counter-narcotics police who had national authorities and independent intelligence collection. What the FAST did not have was permission to conduct operations unilaterally. National counter narcotics police warrants and intelligence would provide the basis for the PRC's first confidence building operations.
Organize for Interagency Operations
We also pushed the PRC to "coordinate everything with everybody" and reorganized them for Afghan interagency operations. During the PRC's reconstitution period, the national special police headquarters sent each PRC a Colonel to raise unit stature. COL Mohmad Gul was new to Nangarhar and not interested in staying at the base and licking his wounds. Instead, he became the interagency face of the PRC.
Careful invitation of Afghan officers to the PRC memorial ceremony across the security forces opened the door to Afghan interagency coordination. As the PRC recovered and retrained, Colonel Gul pressed the flesh with everyone. Our meeting with the Afghan 2/4/203 Infantry yielded the promise of an Army support platoon on any operation in their area of operations. The Afghan Local Police in Shinwar, a prominent district in the province, secured roads for PRC searches. The provincial prosecutor dispatched prosecutors to assist PRC operations to protect the chain of custody and ensure operations were conducted legally. The national counter narcotics police provided intelligence and warrants for arrest operations.
Restore Confidence
Start easy and seek early victories
Only six weeks after losing 13 patrolmen to the Taliban, the PRC arrested a narcotics and insurgency financier on a pre-dawn raid that validated the interagency task organization and PRC's new tactics. The PRC infiltrated under the cover of darkness, led by a source of the Afghan counter narcotics police. Afghan Army soldiers secured the outer cordon and egress route. With the target secure, the "cordon and knock" yielded the target without a shot fired. The provincial prosecutor ensured the operation was conducted legally. This operation revitalized the PRC; morale was restored. This blueprint – nighttime infiltration with door knock at dawn – provided the template for subsequent operations, both partnered and increasingly unilateral.
Figure 2. High Risk Award Badge
We cemented victory on confidence operations by awarding "high risk arrest" badges. Like Napoleon, my detachment knew "a soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." These badges celebrated the mettle of the patrolmen brave enough to face a midnight raid. The detachment wore them too; together we fought and earned the patches.
Engage the women
On target, we bumped into this fundamental from Dr. Kilcullen. Though our task force brought together the diverse resources and skills of eight allied nations, it did not bring the highly-trained women of the Cultural Support Teams. Ever resourceful, my detachment identified two military policewomen from the California National Guard who wanted to help. These women sought a break from setting speed traps for ATVs travelling faster than fifteen miles per hour around the base's one-mile perimeter. They came on target, searched female quarters, and talked to local women.
We were content with our innovation, but then the PRC one-upped us. Our military police women had encouraged innovation and nontraditional responses in the PRC. They brought out policewomen from the Nangarhar Police Headquarters and we were shocked. These women defied cultural stereotypes and were the best police in Afghanistan. They did not kick around clothes; they searched. They did not flip through books; they examined. Most importantly, they did not let local women get away with things – and they did not put up with shit from the male police either. Dr. Kilcullen says local forces should mirror the enemy, but here our mentorship pushed the PRC to be better than the enemy.
Confidence operations restored morale and combat rebuilt trust, but only vengeance would cement the PRC's confidence in themselves and us, their advisors. We took them back to Sherzad to face the men who killed their comrades. Afghan helicopters inserted us – the detachment, PRC, and counter-narcotics police – and awoke insurgents deep in their safe zone. Explosive destruction of two opium factories stirred the rest. Occasional insurgent popshots transitioned to steady rifle fire and then thudding machinegun rounds. The Taliban answered our helicopter mini-gun fire with their own heavy machineguns. AC-130 cannon fire ended the battle. We gave as good as we got. The PRC celebrated their victory and returned renewed.
Two Regrets
Despite our success in reconstituting PRC Nangarhar, I have two regrets: one related to information operations, and the other to Afghan combined after action reviews. Both General Zinni and Dr. Killcullen emphasize the importance of information in counterinsurgency using terms like dialogue, image, information management, psychological operations, and narrative. Our efforts to influence the Afghan and coalition leaders and bureaucrats succeeded: the PRC received necessary material and personnel. Important Afghan leaders came to their base and spoke of their sacrifice. However, the only Afghan media to cover their cause came from the Chief of Police who understood and used media. Building this capacity in the PRC Commander may have been impossible for cultural reasons, but I should have tried. The "good news story" of the PRC's reconstitution could have been followed across Nangarhar, improving the image and standing of the organization.
My second regret is that I did not conduct effective after action reviews with the PRC. Surprisingly, neither General Zinni's considerations nor Dr. Killcullen's fundamentals emphasize how we should teach our partners to learn. Training Circular 25-20 specifies that after action reviews are "conducted during or immediately after each event" and repeatedly emphasizes the immediacy of successful reviews.[viii] If local forces are the long-term solution to security, we have a duty to help them reflect and learn. Thirteen kilometers separated the PRC from Jalalabad Airfield where my detachment lived. After twenty-four or forty-eight hours of continuous operations, we never took the time to stop in with our partners after an operation. Instead, we would meet with leaders the next day or days later to discuss successes and failures. Did our comments get down to the right rifleman? I doubt it. I knew this was wrong at the time, but my exhaustion overcame my desire to teach at those moments. Dig deep.
Setback is a dangerous way to think about challenges in insurgency. General Anthony Zinni and Dr. David Killcullen offer valuable insights into how we conduct insurgency at the tactical level – at least 20% of them fit the case I described. However, they neglect the human connection necessary to build and advise partners. The death of thirteen of my partners and desertion of their force was not a setback to be managed, but a leadership challenge for my detachment and myself to overcome. Advisors in counter-insurgency need to be invested in growing partner capabilities so they can stand on their own. They also need to know when to take the reins.
When the PRC suffered their catastrophic losses, we got them back on track by recognizing their losses, reconstituting the force, and restoring their confidence. My detachment ensured everyone knew what the PRC needed to recover and made sure it was delivered. Reconstituting the force had internal and external components. Internally, my detachment retrained the PRC and reorganized them to conduct interagency operations. Though we reached outside the PRC initially to bolster their combat power, the lasting interagency orientation made PRC Nangarhar especially adept at counter-insurgency operations because they could leverage the strengths of their partners. Finally, we leaned on the one thing can restore confidence in security forces after a setback: tactical operations. We provided those operations in spades – but carefully tailored each mission to ensure it built on the previous operation. Another big loss might have broken them for good.
The night in January I said goodbye to my footlockers and welcomed my replacement, the PRC captured insurgent weapons on a unilateral dawn raid based on intelligence from their own investigators. A prosecutor served a warrant and supervised the operation. The Police Chief issued a congratulatory message. The next night, the PRC did it again. The PRC, the wounded comrade we had been helping along, was now running on their own, our mission accomplished.
Ahmed, Azam, and Sharifullah Sahak. "Scores Killed in 2 Days of Clashes Between Afghan Police and Taliban Fighters." The New York Times, August 2, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/world/asia/clashes-leave-scores-of-afghan-police-and-taliban-dead.html.
Douglas A. Livermore. "Green Berets Receive Awards for Valor at Battalion Ball." United States Army Special Operations Command, April 25, 2014. http://www.soc.mil/UNS/Releases/2014/April/140425-04/140425-04.html.
Hooker Jr, Richard D., and Joseph J. Collins. "Lessons Encountered: Learning from the Long War." DTIC Document, 2015. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA621797.
ISAF Public diplomacy division. "Media Backgrounder: Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)," October 2013. http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2013_10/20131018_131022-MediaBackgrounder_ANSF_en.pdf.
"LiveLeak.com - Mujahidin Taking over Control of Sherzad District - Nangarhar 6 Aug.2013." Accessed January 4, 2017. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fbf_1375796599.
"Sharpen Those Pencils - 15 January Getting Danger Close | Small Wars Journal." Accessed January 10, 2017. http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/sharpen-those-pencils-15-january-getting-danger-close.
US Department of the Army. FM 3-90-1: Offense and Defense. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Washington, DC: US Department of the Army, 2013.
US Department of the Army. "TC 25-20: After-Action Reviews," September 30, 1993. http://www.verasage.com/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/TC25-20AARs.pdf.
[i] Ahmed and Sahak, "Scores Killed in 2 Days of Clashes Between Afghan Police and Taliban Fighters."
[ii] "Sharpen Those Pencils - 15 January Getting Danger Close | Small Wars Journal."
[iii] Hooker Jr and Collins, "Lessons Encountered," 277.
[iv] Douglas A. Livermore, "Green Berets Receive Awards for Valor at Battalion Ball."
[v] ISAF Public diplomacy division, "Media Backgrounder: Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)."
[vi] US Department of the Army, FM 3-90-1: Offense and Defense, 1:1–26.
[vii] "LiveLeak.com - Mujahidin Taking over Control of Sherzad District - Nangarhar 6 Aug.2013."
[viii] US Department of the Army, "TC 25-20: After-Action Reviews," 2.
Categories: Small Wars Journal and Military Writers Guild Writing Contest
Captain Zachary Griffiths is a Special Forces officer and American Politics Instructor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. He studies how insurgent groups relate to the water. He holds a Master's of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy.
Interesting first-hand account in a difficult place and position. Especially the role of Afghan women police officers and the Hungarian SIGINT contribution direct to the PRC.


Previous message: [Goanet]Why connect IFFI to everything?
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>BJP probably won in Margao due to the popularity wave of Digamber Kamat.
>A BJP Politician of Margao who kept to his word on a lot of promises.
>dwellers since she is an activist.


Beautiful views from Vinegar Hill.
Vinegar Hill is Open Access land, where anyone is allowed to wander, covering part of the escarpment and footslopes below Haresfield Beacon. Another location from which Javelin Park is visible.


Before my breast cancer diagnosis, I had a brief conversation with my OB/GYN physician regarding my potentially increased breast cancer risk. I was coming up on my 35th birthday, and thought it might be responsible to schedule a baseline mammogram. I don't recall anything remarkable about that conversation with my doctor. She provided me with literature to read, mostly studies and statistical information -- not really "plain speak." She suggested I share the information with my mom and discuss the possibility of her getting tested for the BRCA gene mutation.
With information in hand, that's what I did. However, the conversation did not go very well. My mom has faced many physical challenges during her adult life, having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her mid-20s and then breast cancer later. In hindsight, I'm not sure if she fully understood what I was saying, or how it would affect me as well as her future self. My mom said nothing. I turned to my dad for help. He responded, "Eve...what are you gonna do if you learn that Mom is a carrier? Are you going to have your breasts removed?" Me: "I don't know, but knowledge is power, and I think I should know." The conversation was dropped, and we never discussed it again.
Less than a year later, I felt a lump in my breast while I was in the shower. I'd be lying if I said my mind hadn't gone back to that conversation with my parents. During an initial consultation with a medical oncologist, I had my blood drawn for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing to find out if my cancer was hereditary. I'm of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, my mom was diagnosed when she was less than 40 years old, and I was 35 when I was diagnosed. I understood these were risk factors that warranted the test, and the results would factor into my surgical decisions. It took 9 long days and sleepless nights until I received the results. The report came back: POSITIVE FOR A DELETERIOUS MUTATION. This was important information to have for both me and my mom who subsequently also tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation. Now the question was "What would we do with this powerful information"?
Learning I was positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation complicated matters, but simplified my chosen surgical plan. It was in my best interest to have a bilateral mastectomy to help prevent future breast cancer, followed by chemotherapy for treatment and reconstruction.
Several years later, through the advice of one of my oncologists and prodding from my father, my mom chose to have a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (both ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed). Due to complications during surgery, she ended up having a complete hysterectomy. Nevertheless, by having this preventive surgery, she significantly reduced her risk of ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, she developed a second cancer in her breast two years ago; after 27 years of living cancer-free, it spread to her lungs. Had my mom had the information about hereditary cancer during her initial diagnosis in the late 1980s, it is very likely that her chosen surgical plan would have been a bilateral mastectomy vs. lumpectomy, thus reducing her future risk of a second breast cancer.
As for me, I actively screened for ovarian cancer until early this year when I had my ovaries removed. In my case, a preventive oophorectomy reduced my risk of ovarian cancer and provides a significant and substantial long-term survival advantage. However, that comes at a cost -- there are risks and some adverse effects of this procedure, including surgical menopause and infertility. I don't have children and I kind of always thought I would, but it just didn't work out that way. As the Yiddish proverb goes, 'Man plans and God laughs'.


Larry's book on Berkshire Beyond Buffett is due in a month, and we'll be reading it on the Glom. Here's a taste, prepared by Larry, and if you follow the link, you can see a full chapter of the book.
Berkshire corporate policy strikes a balance between autonomy and authority. Buffett issues written instructions every two years that reflect the balance. The missive states the mandates Berkshire places on subsidiary CEOs: (1) guard Berkshire's reputation; (2) report bad news early; (3) confer about post-retirement benefit changes and large capital expenditures (including acquisitions, which are encouraged); (4) adopt a fifty-year time horizon; (5) refer any opportunities for a Berkshire acquisition to Omaha; and (6) submit written successor recommendations. Otherwise, Berkshire stresses that managers were chosen because of their excellence and are urged to act on that excellence.
Berkshire defers as much as possible to subsidiary chief executives on operational matters with scarcely any central supervision. All quotidian decisions would qualify: GEICO's advertising budget and underwriting standards; loan terms at Clayton Homes and environmental quality of Benjamin Moore paints; the product mix and pricing at Johns Manville, the furniture stores and jewelry shops. The same applies to decisions about hiring, merchandising, inventory, and receivables management, whether Acme Brick, Garan, or The Pampered Chef. Berkshire's deference extends to subsidiary decisions on succession to senior positions, including chief executive officer, as seen in such cases as Dairy Queen and Justin Brands.
Munger has said Berkshire's oversight is just short of abdication. In a wild example, Lou Vincenti, the chief executive at Berkshire's Wesco Financial subsidiary since its acquisition in 1973, ran the company for several years while suffering from Alzheimer's disease—without Buffett or Munger aware of the condition. "We loved him so much," Munger said, "that even after we found out, we kept him in his job until the week that he went off to the Alzheimer's home. He liked coming in, and he wasn't doing us any harm." The two lightened a grim situation, quipping that they wished to have more subsidiaries so earnest and reputable that they could be managed by people with such debilitating medical conditions.
There are obvious exceptions to Berkshire's tenet of autonomy. Large capital expenditures—or the chance of that—lead reinsurance executives to run outsize policies and risks by headquarters. Berkshire intervenes in extraordinary circumstances, for example, the costly deterioration in underwriting standards at Gen Re and threatened repudiation of a Berkshire commitment to distributors at Benjamin Moore. Mandatory or not, Berkshire was involved in R. C. Willey's expansion outside of Utah and rightly asserts itself in costly capital allocation decisions like those concerning purchasing aviation simulators at FlightSafety or increasing the size of the core fleet at NetJets.
Ironically, gains from Berkshire's hands-off management are highlighted by an occasion when Buffett made an exception. Buffett persuaded GEICO managers to launch a credit card business for its policyholders. Buffett hatched the idea after puzzling for years to imagine an additional product to offer its millions of loyal car insurance customers. GEICO's management warned Buffett against the move, expressing concern that the likely result would be to get a high volume of business from its least creditworthy customers and little from its most reliable ones. By 2009, GEICO had lost more than $6 million in the credit card business and took another $44 million hit when it sold the portfolio of receivables at a discount to face value. The costly venture would not have been pursued had Berkshire stuck to its autonomy principle.
We tend to let our many subsidiaries operate on their own, without our supervising and monitoring them to any degree. That means we are sometimes late in spotting management problems and that [disagreeable] operating and capital decisions are occasionally made. . . . Most of our managers, however, use the independence we grant them magnificently, rewarding our confidence by maintaining an owner-oriented attitude that is invaluable and too seldom found in huge organizations. We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly—or not at all—because of a stifling bureaucracy.
Berkshire's approach is so unusual that the occasional crises that result provoke public debate about which is better in corporate culture: Berkshire's model of autonomy-and-trust or the more common approach of command-and-control. Few episodes have been more wrenching and instructive for Berkshire culture than when David L. Sokol, an esteemed senior executive with his hand in many Berkshire subsidiaries, was suspected of insider trading in an acquisition candidate's stock.
The ugly Donald Sterling episode seems to be moving to resolution with a pending sale of the L.A. Clippers to Steve Ballmer. The sordid story makes for a great case study in a Contracts course, not least because of the wealth of material that is publicly available, particularly one of the central contacts – the NBA "Constitution and Bylaws." Often the key contracts in the most notorious disputes are kept confidential, with only snippets of the agreements available even via court dockets.
Under the terms of the Constitution and Bylaws, the NBA Commissioner position that Sterling could be forced to sell his team was strong but not (pardon the pun) a slam dunk (see Michael McCann's early analysis here and an analysis of Sterling's response here).
The Commissioner and Sterling each were aiming to persuade a motley group of NBA owners, who may have been concerned with, among other things, the outrage of players and fans towards Sterling, the damage to their league of having Sterling continue as owner, and the precedent of forcing an owner to sell.
Layered on top of this were the family law and tax considerations of Sterling transferring ownership whether to his estranged wife or to a buyer.
In the end, economics pushed Sterling to sell. He was faced with a stark choice of trying to hang on to an asset that was damaged goods just by remaining in his hands versus over a billion dollar profit from selling.
In teaching this episode, students should be cautioned against jumping immediately to the "of course he will sell" conclusion. The hard work of analyzing the contracts helps explain the negotiating positions of the NBA commissioner, the various NBA owners, Sterling, and his wife as they bargained in the shadow of the law. The contractual language also will help prepare for any post-sale litigation;Sterling has already initiated one suit and threatened more . Sterling's wife apparently agreed to indemnify the NBA against legal challenges by her husband, which adds yet another teaching wrinkle. One puzzle for students: what was the strategy behind declaring Sterling incompetent?
Too bad I am not teaching Contracts in the fall.


text:
Biografia
Entra nel 1932 a Firenze nello staff creativo della casa editrice Nerbini e vi resterà fino al 1940; per il settimanale Topolino esordito a fine 1932, l'editore non si era assicurato correttamente i diritti e, in attesa di acquisirli correttamente, la testata venne provvisoriamente modifica dal n. 3 in "Il Giornale di Topo Lino" e il personaggio di Topolino venne sostituito da "Topo Lino", un personaggio ideato da lui ideato insieme a Giove Toppi; acquisiti correttamente i diritti dal King Features Syndicate, dal n. 5 venne ripristinata la testata originale ma continuarono a essere presenti in prima pagina la serie di Topo Lino di Toppi e Vitelli fino al n. 6. Nerbini si assicurò quindi i diritti di pubblicazione della serie a fumetti realizzata da Floyd Gottfredson e, a integrazione di queste, a Nerbini venne concesso dal licenziatario di pubblicarne altre realizzate in Italia; queste storie verranno realizzate da Antonio Burattini e da Vitelli che saranno quindi, insieme a Giove Toppi, i primi autori italiani della Disney. Vitelli quindi realizzò un paio di storie da una pagina con "Topolino" e altre con altri personaggi non Disney nel periodo dal 1933 al 1935. Topo Lino ricomparirà solo in seguito rinominato Sorcettino, sempre realizzate da Toppi e Vitelli. Per lo stesso editore realizzò storie anche per L'Avventuroso. Per Il Giornale di Cino e Franco invece disegna "Tony il Saltimbanco" (1936), "Le perle nere" (1937) e "Il segreto dei giganti" (1937-1938) e, inoltre, la serie "Scintillino e il fantasma" pubblicata nel 1938 su Pinocchio, "Gli scorridori del mar dei Caraibi" su Giungla (1938) e "Il Palombaro Italiano" su Pisellino (1940).

Per la casa editrice E.R.O.L.A. scrive e disegna nel 1948 la serie Albi del Trio dell'Astuzia con una serie di storie a fumetti con Pinocchio, Furbolino e un Topolino graficamente molto diverso dalla versione disneyana, e la breve serie Album di Avventure con alcune storie con Gordon; probabilmente con lo pseudonimo di Aulis collabora anche alla collana di libri illustrati Collezione per i Più Piccini, dedicati a noti personaggi come Pinocchio, Biancaneve, Charlot, Fortunello e 11 con Topolino apocrifo.

Durante gli anni trenta collaborò anche con Il Vittorioso e con il Cartoccino dei Piccoli

Note

Nerbini

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Unsure should you be spamming? Here are some common kinds of spam techniques that you ought to avoid. Doorway Pages – Optimising just one webpage to perform exceptionally well in search engine ranks for a group of keyword phrases (keyword stuffing on the webpage). When a user clicks on the link, they will be automatically redirected to a very different website.
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Last weekend I found myself attending a youth baseball tournament in Superior Wisconsin. Like any good photographer would, I had a camera in tow. This day it was the Mamiya 6 that I had bought maybe a month earlier.
One of my friends who at the tournament took notice that I had a camera on me that she had never seen before, and started asking some questions about the Mamiya.
One of the questions asked was how much it cost me. I gave the dollar amount, and also commented that it was the second most I've ever spent on a camera.
A few questions later and she asks "Oh yeah. Is that a Hasselblad?"
If you are unfamiliar with the Is That A Hasselblad?" [ITAH] saying, it is a question that every photographer shooting with a film camera gets asked at some point in their life by a stranger. Scientists haven't discovered why this happens yet, but it does. All the time.
Her asking me if my Mamiya 6 was a Hasselblad was with knowledge of this phenomenon and was a complete joke.
However, when the ITAH was unleashed, an elderly woman sitting in front of us unveiled her eavesdropping as she turned to me and said: "I'm sorry, but I just have to see this."
In a quick moment, I thought to myself "Oh neat. An old photographer who probably used a Hasselblad in her day."
I held out the Mamiya 6 to let her take a good look at it. Her enthusiasm quickly deflated, and she said to me "Oh. I thought you two were talking about a ring."
There you have it. I once had a Leica confused for a Luger, and now I have a Mamiya confused with matrimony.
Now here is a photo from that day taken with the ring.


Let the Fenty beauty party commence.
Remember last year when Riri began plotting the growth of her Fenty beauty and apparel empire?
Well, we know that last year Rihanna filed for over a dozen trademarks including her surname, Fenty. Since then Rihanna became PUMA's global brand ambassador for women's training and serves as a PUMA Women's Creative Director.
Well, today, Rihanna tweeted a picture of a collage that reminded me of her Fenty trademark filings.
Rihanna expects to soon develop Fenty Beauty.
A quick search revealed that during a recent Refinery 29 interview, Rihanna confirmed plans for a beauty line.