I recently finished reading the revised edition of A is for Admission, written by the ubiquitous Michele Hernandez. This is not a review of that work. If you'd like to keep up with my reading (much of which is frivolous and some of which is relevant to my profession), feel free to follow me on Goodreads. I mention the book because the whole idea is prefaced on secret-sharing. Hernandez was an assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth for four years in the 90s, and this book was her attempt to unlock the secrets of Ivy-league admissions.
As I reflect on the commercial success of this book and of Hernandez herself (who is charging $16,000 for her 4-day "Application Boot Camp" this summer), I'm reminded that my work is not about sharing secrets. It's about understanding individual students and unique colleges, finding good matches between them, and creating a smooth path through the college application landscape, which hopefully will have some moments of self-discovery for students. Yes, of course, I know many things about the college application path that my clients don't know. That's a given. But that store of knowledge is not what I'm selling.
On average, IECA members completed 19 evaluative college campus visits last year.
2/3 of IECs say that business has increased over the last two years.
The average comprehensive package fee for IECs with fewer than 3 years of experience was about $4,000.
The average IEC works 36 hours per week (the same as a school-based counselor).
About half of all clients are from professional or upper-middle class families, and about a quarter of clients are working class, lower-middle class, or impoverished families.
Other than the fact that I'm a numbers person, why am I throwing out these statistics? To point out that exorbitantly priced secrets for the privileged and wealthy are not what IECs, on the whole, are about. And to give families a frame of reference when looking for help with the college application process from an IEC. We are a growing community of professionals, as our services are needed more and more with average counselor-to-student ratios in public high schools flirting with 1:500.
One thing I've heard repeatedly over the past year as a member of IECA: a good IEC never stops learning. Any so-called "secret" learned one year could be obsolete the next year. Colleges are changing, tests are changing, applications are changing, and students are always unique. That's why I keep learning!


Patients who have positive responses to a brief screening questionnaire will potentially benefit from a clinical examination. A brief clinical examination,8 with the aid of an assistant, should only take a few minutes to complete. The examination and specifications below have been adapted from reliability and validity studies of TMD examinations and diagnostic criteria7 and provide the key information to identify the patient's clinical diagnoses. This examination collects information about the patient's pain history, opening and excursive ranges of motion, joint sounds and pain on palpation of the masticatory muscles and TMJs.
Table 3. TMD Clinical Examination Form.
Mandibular openings: use a millimeter (endodontic) ruler to measure from the incisal edge of the maxillary to mandibular central incisors, and adjust (add for incisal vertical overlap).
Unassisted opening without pain: ask the patient to open as wide as possible without any (additional) pain.
Unassisted opening with pain: ask the patient to open as wide as possible in spite of causing pain.
Maximum assisted opening: ask the patient to open as wide as possible and apply a moderate amount of pressure to assist the patient to open wider.
Muscle Palpations: palpate the central portion of the temporalis and masseter muscles. Ask the patient to let you know when tenderness is felt; start with light pressure and increase up to 2-3 pounds. Stop as soon as tenderness is felt or 2-3 pounds is reached. If unable to reproduce the patient's pain, then palpate the entire muscle.
TMJ Palpations: ask the patient to open about 1-1.5 inches and palpate the lateral pole up to 1 pound, in a similar manner as the muscles were palpated. Then palpate in a circle around the lateral pole with up to 2-3 pounds in a similar manner as the muscle palpations.
TMJ sounds: place a finger over the TMJ as the patient opens, closes, and moves laterally. It can take up to three movements in each direction before a joint sound may be detected. To best detect joint sounds the patient should open fully, completely close and move in each direction as far as possible, even if pain is present.
The TMD evaluation is primarily based upon history and clinical evaluation, TMJ imaging is only performed if there is a reasonable expectation that the obtained additional information will influence the patient's treatment.3 In some cases definitive imaging is needed. To determine the actual position of the articular disc, an MRI provides the best diagnostic information. The status of osseous structures such as the condyle, are best viewed with Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) or Computed Tomography (CT) scans. A review and report by a radiologist, such as an oral and maxillofacial radiologist, is recommended.
There are other potential assessments that can be used, however, the choice of adjunctive diagnostic procedures should be based upon published, peer-reviewed data showing diagnostic efficacy and safety.9 Additionally, they should only be performed if there is a reasonable expectation that the obtained additional information will influence the patient's treatment.
Occasionally, but rarely, aggressive local pathology can present with signs and symptoms similar to TMD and all patients who are being evaluated for TMD should receive a careful and comprehensive head and neck assessment.


1. How will projects be approved for eSTEeM funding?
Project plans should be submitted using a project plan submission form. The eSTEeM Coordination Group will review and scrutinse the plans to ensure that they meet eSTEeM's criteria. Proposers will be informed as to whether their plan has been accepted and may also be invited to have a further discussion with the directors to develop or refine their plan where necessary. Projects will then be signed off by the eSTEeM directors.
2. What funding is available?
Funding is limited but will be sufficient for most purposes. We will not be able to fund staffing beyond short term consultancies.
3. Will I be given help in evaluation, e.g. analysing questionnaires?
eSTEeM will encourage you to take ownership of your own project evaluation; however, you will be supported in developing an effective evaluation strategy and advised about how to obtain the necessary permissions and carry out any necessary surveys. We will help you to develop skills in qualitative/quantitative analysis and will be on hand to assist with interpretation.
4. I work outside the STEM Faculty however my work seems to fit the aims and remit of eSTEeM; am I eligible to apply and get involved?
Each faculty at The Open University now has its own scholarship and innovation centre. Therefore, in the first instance we would advise you to contact your relevant centre to discuss your scholarship proposal. Where possible, we welcome cross-faculty projects that will accelerate and increase the impact of the University's excellence in scholarship applied across all discplines for the benefit of OU students.
5. Can Associate Lecturers submit project proposals?
Yes! In Februray 2019, eSTEeM announced its first call for scholarship projects exclusively for STEM Associate Lecturers. Funding is limited and we anticipate funding up to a maximum of 5 proposals in this first round but we hope to have further calls in the future so keep an eye on our website for details.
Many eSTEeM projects require assistance with the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Therefore, if you do not wish to lead a project but would be interested in being involved with a project, then please complete the skills register which can be found under the 'Resources' tab and return it to us at esteem@open.ac.uk. We will keep your details on file and when an opportunity arises we will try to match ALs according to their skills, experience and research area interest.
6. I'm thinking of submitting a project for external funding, what will be the relationship with eSTEeM?
Our long term aim is to be self-supporting or profit generating so we encourage all project leaders to consider external funding opportunities. eSTEeM can add value to projects seeking external funding through our well established processes so please come and talk to us. Many eSTEeM projects will provide pilot data that could underpin external bids.
7. I would like to get involved with eSTEeM but cannot fit it in at this time; will there be other opportunities to get involved at a later stage?


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NASA: Sun's Magnetic Field About to Flip
The sun's magnetic field flips every 11 years, and it's about to do it again. As reported on Unknowncountry.com it last flipped on February 15, 2001, as the previous solar max reached its height. The complete field reversal is 3 to 4 months away. The shift will mark the midpoint of Solar Max 24, which has been one of the quietest on record. However, quiet solar maximums tend to produce fewer but more intense solar storms, as happened a few weeks ago when a huge coronal mass ejection was sent into space.read more
Current Solar Max Quietest in Century: What Does This Mean for Our Weather?
Back in 2011, the sun was so quiet that researchers were speculating that it might be entering a long term period of lowered output. Now that the current solar max has reached its climactic months and is proving to be the quietest in a century, that speculation is being renewed. If this is happening, global warming models could be derailed as Earth ends up facing another mini ice age similar to the one that began in the 1350s and did not end until the 1890s. This would have a profound effect on Earth's weather and could indeed save us from runaway global warming.read more
As NASA Expert Warns, Huge Hole Opens in Sun's Corona
On: June 7, 2013
A direct hit from an ejection of charged particles from the sun could be among the most serious of natural disasters, NASA head Charles Bolden warned Tuesday. Bolden spoke before scientists and industry members at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum, which was held at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Auditorium and Science Center in Silver Spring, Md. A few days later, a huge hole opened up in the sun's corona, raising the possibility that major solar storms could take place in the next few days.
Sun's Magnetic Field Flips
The sun's magnetic field shifted today, indicating that the solar maximum will be at its most intense over the next few months. A shift in the sun's polarity is not an unexpected event during a solar maximum, which has occurred every eleven years since the sunspot cycle was discovered.
The sun's magnetic north pole is now in its southern hemisphere. It was in the northern hemisphere just a few weeks ago.
The poles will remain in their current position until 2012, when they will reverse again.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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What can we expect from Gael against Goffin?
Gael Monfils is ramping up his play after losing a close match against American Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open. Fresh off a semifinal loss in the Sofia Open against Daniil Medvedev, Gael hopes that he can pull himself together mentally to face one of his toughest opponents, David Goffin.
Steady baseliners have given Gael trouble late in tournaments as physical fitness becomes a major factor. In every instance lately (as in the 2018 US Open) he has fallen victim to David knowing that a tough road of long rallies and big momentum shifts were headed his way.
Gael will benefit from a high first serve percentage and his ability to go power against a smaller opponent, but with the quickness of David, Gael must also be willing to stay in the points a few strokes longer than usual. Transition to the net is also a plus for Gael if he can take advantage of any short neutral balls that may come his way.
In reference to Gael's service game recently at the Sofia Open, Gael stated,
"I think I improved it a little bit. I had a better percentage. I found my rhythm better. I didn't make so many double faults. I am doing a lot of double faults because it is indoors. I feel confident with my serve. So I try to use my second serve. Definitely, I want it to be even better at the quarter-final because I can serve a bit better. And when I say better I mean with more consistency. Maybe not doing so many aces, but more consistent."
Mentally Gael is very vulnerable to big momentum shifts in a match. Staying focus on strategy is a major challenge for Gael especially if the score drifts in either direction. Gael is the better athlete and overall player, but the game within the game seems to have prevented Gael from moving past the gritty Goffin.
On Tuesday February 12th Gael will be able to test his new training methods and coaching against the well prepared and confident David Goffin at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. Fans hope for a complete match from Gael where he is able to give 100% effort while playing to win the match.
Tsonga returns to form in Montpellier
2021 Calabasas Championships
Battle of the ages: Venus vs. CoCo
Getty Images / BTM Group
In addition to becoming the youngest player to enter the main draw of Wimbledon via qualifying, Cori "CoCo" Gauff has earned a prim-time match-up against one of the greatest grass court players of all time in the first round of play.
This match is not only a first, but also a sharp contrast of current generation talent versus veteran grand slam champion. Venus just turned 39 this month and must now face the 15 year old dynamo that goes by CoCo making this a true battle of the ages. Ironically, as in a Hollywood movie, these two are respectively the oldest and youngest players in the tournament.
Venus can sure respect Cori's hustle in advancing her career at the ripe age of 15. Venus shares a similar start, but was able to win 5 Wimbledon titles with the last win in 2008.
Coming off of a great 2017 season, Venus (unseeded this year) has struggled lately with injuries and fatigue late in matches. This year has not rolled out favorably for Venus after several on-off coaching relationships and hitting partners. Taking on a more independent role of seasoned veteran, Venus is going at it alone on tour. She has a strong management team in place, but they appear to be more assistants than highly experienced coaches giving her instruction.
In contrast, Cori has a tight-knit team around her not to mention her father as head coach. There have been several assistants offering advice, but Corey remains the largest influence on Cori's progress.
Progress is exactly what they have made – and in short record time. Just last year Cori was making her way toward the Roehamption Championship title as the world's number one ranked junior. It seems as if Cori has a trusting relationship with her Dad and is able to take constructive criticism in stride. Hard work has been Cori's mantra since the beginning of her junior career, and that hard work and preparation has landed her here at Wimbledon with a main draw match against Venus Williams.
The odds heavily favor Venus, but nothing is out of the question for Cori. Given the fact that she has played each qualifying round with a "nothing to lose" attitude, it can only be assumed that she will continue to do the same in her first round match.
The big stage is also a factor as Cori has not played on such a large WTA Tour center court yet in her career. This will definitely be a learning experience for Cori. It may be a little ambitious to expect Cori to figure out the atmosphere and surroundings all within a 2 out of 3 match. Cori is undefeated at Roehamption (ITF Juniors and WTA Qualifying), but it remains to be seen if she can muster a win against a declining, but a still very capable Venus Williams on her favorite surface.
Dustin Brown vs Felix Auger Aliassime Highlights STUTTGART 2019


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Developing a Software Library for Graph Analytics
February 9, 2015 • SEI Blog
Scott McMillan
This blog post was co-authored by Eric Werner.
Graph algorithms are in wide use in Department of Defense (DoD) software applications, including intelligence analysis, autonomous systems, cyber intelligence and security, and logistics optimizations. In late 2013, several luminaries from the graph analytics community released a position paper calling for an open effort, now referred to as GraphBLAS, to define a standard for graph algorithms in terms of linear algebraic operations. BLAS stands for Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms and is a common library specification used in scientific computation. The authors of the position paper propose extending the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Sparse Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (spBLAS) library to perform graph computations. The position paper served as the latest catalyst for the ongoing research by the SEI's Emerging Technology Center in the field of graph algorithms and heterogeneous high-performance computing (HHPC). This blog post, the second in our series, describes our efforts to create a software library of graph algorithms for heterogeneous architectures that will be released via open source.
The Opposite of an Embarrassingly Parallel Problem
In computer science, the term embarrassingly parallel problem describes a situation where the same operation or set of operations can be executed on different data simultaneously, thereby allowing the distribution of data across many computing elements without the need for communication (and/or synchronization) between the elements. The problems are relatively easy to implement on high-performance systems and can achieve excellent computing performance. High-performance computing (HPC) is now central to the federal government and many industry projects, as evidenced by the shift from single-core and multi-core (homogenous) central processing units (CPUs) to many-core and heterogeneous systems, including graphics processing units (GPUs) that are adept at solving embarrassingly parallel problems.
Unfortunately, many important problems are not embarrassingly parallel including graph algorithms. Fundamentally, graphs are data structures with neighboring nodes connected by edges. The computation to be performed on graphs often involves finding and ranking important nodes or edges, finding anomalous connection patterns, identifying tightly knit communities of nodes, etc. The irregular structure of the graphs makes the communication to computation ratio high for these algorithms--the opposite of the ratio found in embarrassingly parallel problems--and thus extremely hard to develop implementations that achieve good performance on HPC systems.
We are targeting GPUs for our research not only because of their prevalence in current HPC installations (e.g., for simulating three-dimensional physics), but also because of their potential for providing an energy-efficient approach to the computations. We are investigating different approaches, including the linear algebra approach offered by the GraphBLAS effort, to enable the efficient use of GPUs and pave the way for easier development of high-performance graph algorithms.
As detailed in our technical note, Patterns and Practices of Future Architectures, the first milestone in our research was to implement the most basic graph algorithm on GPUs: the breadth-first search (BFS), which also serves as the first algorithm included in the Graph 500, an international benchmark specifically tailored to graph algorithms that measures the rate at which computer systems traverse a graph. The benchmark for this algorithm is divided into two kernels:
graph construction (Kernel 1)
breadth-first search traversal (Kernel 2)
The Graph 500 also provides the specification and a reference implementation for generating graphs with the desired scale-free properties (using a Kronecker generator); a parallel pseudorandom number generator (PRNG); guidelines for how the kernels are invoked, timed, and validated; and procedures for collecting and reporting performance results from Kernel 2, which is used to rank the systems on the Graph 500 list.
An early accomplishment of our work was to decouple those kernels from the benchmark's reference implementation. The resulting code is not part of either kernel and is invariant with respect to the specific BFS algorithms implemented and forms a software framework within which we develop and evaluate our BFS algorithms. The resulting framework, written in C++, allows us to directly compare different implementations, knowing that the graph properties and measurements were consistent (for a more detailed explanation of our implementation, please see our technical note).
Next, we concentrated our efforts on evaluating a number of different data structures for representing graphs. Due to the low computation-to-communication ratio, a graph's representation in memory can significantly impact the corresponding algorithm's performance. The following data structures and computer architectures were evaluated using systems from the ETC cluster containing up to 128 CPU cores, and dual NVIDIA GPUs:
Single CPU, List. The baseline single CPU implementation is a single-threaded, sequential traversal based on Version 2.1.4 of the Graph500 reference implementation. This baseline is the simplest implementation of BFS and results in poor performance as a result of the unpredictable memory accesses.
Single CPU, Compressed Sparse Row. Much research has already been performed and published to address the memory bottleneck in graph algorithms. One popular alternative to the list structure on CPU architectures is called the compressed sparse row (CSR), which uses memory more efficiently to represent the graph adjacencies by allowing more sequential accesses during the traversals. Using this data structure resulted in improved performance and allowed larger graphs to be manipulated.
Single GPU (CSR). The baseline GPU implementation is an in-memory CSR-based approach described in papers by Harish and Narayanan. The wavefront-based approach in this algorithm is very similar to the behavior in single CPU implementations, except the parallelism requires the graph to synchronize between each ply of the traversal to ensure the breadth-first requirement is upheld.
Multi-CPU, Combinatorial BLAS (CombBLAS). This approach is the precursor to the GraphBLAS effort mentioned in the introduction and is detailed in a research paper by Aydin Buluc and John R. Gilbert, which is an "extensive distributed-memory parallel graph library offering a small but powerful set of linear algebra primitives specifically targeting graph analytics." CombBLAS is a multi-CPU, parallel approach that we use to compare to the parallel GPU approach.
Our results for these implementations are shown in Figure 1 below. The complexity of programming these architectures is a primary concern, so the performance of the BFS traversal (Kernel 2) is plotted against the relative amounts of code required both to build the efficient data structures (Kernel 1) and implement the traversal (Kernel 2).
Figure 1. Performance BFS traversal (Kernel 2) relative to source lines of code (SLOC), a proxy for implementation complexity.
The results from the two single CPU implementations confirmed that the data structures used to represent the graph can significantly affect performance. Moreover, the CSR representation leads to an order of magnitude improvement in performance as measured in traversed edges per second (TEPS). Using the CSR data structure in the development of a single GPU traversal achieves another order of magnitude performance improvement.
Note that, as performance of these implementations increases, so does the amount of code required to achieve that performance (about 30 percent more for CSR, 60 percent more for CSR on GPU). Advanced data structures for graph analytics is an active area of research in its own right. Add to that the increasing complexity of emerging architectures like GPUs and the challenges are multiplied. To achieve high performance in graph algorithms on these architectures requires developers to be an expert in both. The focus of our work is therefore to find the separation of concerns between the algorithms and the underlying architectures, as shown by the dashed line in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. The architecture of the graph algorithms library that captures the separation of concerns between graph algorithms and the complexities of the underlying hardware architecture. It is similar to the architectures of computation-heavy scientific applications that depend on highly tuned implementations of the BLAS specification.
The graph algorithm library we are developing for GPUs is aimed at achieving this goal. If we are successful, our library will hide the underlying architecture complexities in a set of highly tuned graph primitives (data structures and basic operations), allow for easier development of graph analytics code, and maximize the power of GPUs. Part of the benefit of our approach is that the graph analytics community will be able to take advantage of it once it is complete.
Enter BLAS
There is a robust effort already underway in the academic research community focused on data structures and patterns. One approach to address this challenge has been suggested by the graph analytics community. Called GraphBLAS, this effort proposes to build on various existing technologies used commonly in the high-performance scientific computing community. GraphBLAS proposes to build upon the ideas behind sparse BLAS (spBLAS) to represent graphs and a parallel framework like Message Passing Interface (MPI) to scale out to multiple CPUs. A proof-of-concept implementation of this approach, called CombBLAS, was recently released by Aydin Buluc and John R. Gilbert. We also implemented this approach on our 128-CPU system and showed (in Figure 1) that we could scale to multiple CPUs and achieve more than 30X performance improvements over the "Single CPU, CSR" approach.
We also achieved a 2X performance improvement over our GPU implementation. Just as importantly, however, we achieved this improvement with 15 percent less code by leveraging existing libraries. There exist similar technologies for GPUs and our goal is to develop a library that hides the underlying complexity of these approaches, and implements a number of key graph algorithms. We presented our work to the community at a GraphBLAS birds of a father session at the 2014 IEEE High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC).
Collaborations and Future Work
Our research bridges the gap between the academic focus on fundamental graph algorithms and our focus on architecture and hardware issues. In this first phase of our work, we are collaborating with researchers at Indiana University's Center for Research in Extreme Scale Technologies (CREST), which developed the Parallel Boost Graph Library (PBGL). In particular we are working with Dr. Andrew Lumsdaine who serves on the Graph 500 Executive Committee and is considered a world leader in graph analytics. Researchers in this lab worked with us to implement and benchmark data structures, communication mechanisms and algorithms on GPU hardware.
Dr. Lumsdaine's team has experience in high-level languages for expressing computations on GPUs. The team created a new language, Harlan, for expressing computations of GPUs that is available via open-source. Researchers at CREST have used Harlan as a springboard to implement graph algorithms on GPUs and further explore programmability issues with these architectures. This work provided insight into graph algorithms, but also additional insights into Harlan and where it language can be extended.
We are also collaborating with Dr. Franz Franchetti, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Franchetti is also involved in the GraphBLAS community, and is performing research in the programmability of graph algorithms on multi-CPU systems. Through our collaboration, we are hoping that multi-core CPU programming can translate to GPU programming (GPUs can be thought of as many small CPUs on a single core).
This year, we will also be collaborating with the CERT Division's Network Situational Awareness Group (NetSA). Working with their network data, we will compare the performance of our approaches on commodity GPU hardware with results they have achieve using a supercomputer specially designed to perform graph computations at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
Many supercomputers have multiple compute nodes (CPUs) with accelerators, like GPUs, connected. For many applications, the accelerators are vastly under-utilized, often due to the complexity of the code needed to run efficiently on them. Our long-term goal is therefore to release a library that will allow our customers and the broader HPC community to more easily and more efficiently utilize them in the growing field of graph analytics.
We welcome your feedback on our research in the comments section below.
To read the SEI technical note, Patterns and Practices for Future Architectures, please visit http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/asset-view.cfm?assetid=300618.
Incorporating Verified Design by Contract into PSP
A Five-Year Technical Strategic Plan for the SEI


Trogotronic - m15 Higher Power 10 Amp System / 9U Patch cord power pundits of the past told us it couldn't be done. Some retro "rack-ontuers" even say SHOULDN'T. With m/15 Higher Power system: triple-voltage is STANDARD. Worldwide compatibility—STANDARD. Overload protection—STANDARD. 10 or more amps—STANDARD. Super-quiet operation—STANDARD. Expansion up to 40 Amps— NEW STANDARDS ALL AROUND.


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ELTON JOHN NEWS ARCHIVE: March 2016
Israeli promoter and Interior Ministry battle over Elton
Famous producer Shuki Weiss alleged that Elton was required to sign a declaration of loyalty; the Interior Ministry called this a 'first-class lie' and are considering suing for defamation.
Shuki Weiss announced on March 27, 2016, "The Ministry of the Interior required that Elton John sign a declaration of loyalty as a condition of his receiving a work visa." The international promoter and producer was speaking at a panel in the anti-BDS conference held by Yedioth Ahronoth.
Weiss continued, "The requirement was officially presented to us two weeks ago. Of course, this absurd idea was dropped." He stated that Sir Elton, who will appear in Israel on May 26, 2016, refused, like other artists.
The Israeli producer also addressed the BDS movement's calls for a cultural boycott of Israel, sharing, "I can verify that many artists are not aware of the politics in the Middle East, and they're mostly influenced by BDS, which has been operating undisturbed for many years."
He accused the state of inaction, claiming that his requests to the state for assistance in combating BDS over the past decade were all answered too late, after performances by international artists had already been cancelled. Weiss said that, in his opinion, "The state does not place any importance on artists' visits because it's not an existential requirement." I heard lots of replies (from government officials) along the lines of 'Let 'em not come then; who needs them anyway?'"
Refuting Weiss's allegation that a declaration of loyalty be signed, the Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Authority stated, "This is first-class lie intended to procure headlines for a promoter at the expense of a government ministry. No artist has ever been requested to sign such a declaration, and the idea of it is surreal and a figment of Weiss's imagination. We are considering filing a defamation suit."
Sources in the Tel Aviv office of the Authority, with which Weiss works regularly, revealed that the promoter has not contacted them in many months, and that no requests at all have been submitted on the subject of Elton John. Weiss responded to the Authority's statement, "The example was given as one of many examples that illustrate the lack of coordination and support from the government in hosting international cultural events in Israel."
UPDATE: Elton sued by former bodyguard
Elton forced himself on a former security guard, grabbing the man's genitals on multiple occasions ... at least that's the claim in a lawsuit just filed against Elton.
Jeffrey Wenninger says three alleged incidents went down in 2014. In the suit, Wenninger says he and Elton were in a car together when Elton put his hands in Wenninger's pants. He says Elton attempted to grab his genitals and put his fingers between Wenninger's butt cheeks. According to the suit, Elton then told him to "Get your todger out" and "say hello to Uncle Elton."
Wenninger says he attempted to verbally and physically resist, but it never deterred the singer. Wenninger says another time, also in a car, Elton twisted his nipples and said ... "You gorgeous thing, you." Wenninger says there were several other incidents during his employment. He says he stopped working with Elton in September 2014.
He's suing for sexual harassment and battery. Meanwhile, Elton has hit out at Wenniger saying claims that he twisted his nipples and attempted to grab his genitals are 'baseless' and 'patently untrue.' Elton's record company Rocket Entertainment Group, issued a statement, where they strenuously denied the claims. Orin Snyder, a US attorney for the company: "This baseless lawsuit is brought by a disgruntled former security officer seeking to extract an undeserved payment. These claims are patently untrue and contradicted by numerous previous statements made by this plaintiff. We will not give into his latest abuse of the legal system."
Meeting between Putin and Elton possible
A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Elton may take place if time can be found in the president's busy schedule during the musician's upcoming trip to Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
In September 2015, Elton thanked Putin "for reaching out and speaking via telephone" in a message on his Instagram account. The following day, two Russian pranksters confessed that they had telephoned the musician, posing as the Russian president.
After the prank call, the Russian leader called Elton and suggested a meeting, urging him not to be offended by the call. "Indeed, when they had a phone conversation a few months ago, they agreed to meet during Elton's visit to Moscow if their schedules coincide. That's why, once the timeframe of his [Elton's] stay [in Russia] is specified and if president's schedule permits it, such a meeting cannot be ruled out," Peskov said in answer to a question on the matter.
Elton is expected to give a concert in the Russian capital Moscow on May 30, 2016.
Elton about meeting Putin to discuss human rights
Putin tells Elton by phone he is ready to meet with him
Saturday, November 7 2015 at 15:14:51
Putin calls Elton ... for real this time
Elton reacts to "Putin" prank call
Putin-posing pranksters give exclusive interview to RT
He's the hoax behind the thrill
Wednesday, September 16 2015 at 18:24:34
Did Putin call Elton to discuss gay rights in Russia?
Vladimir Putin actually calls Elton to talk about gay rights
Tuesday, September 15 2015 at 09:21:25
Elton John: I want to meet Putin over gay rights
Sunday, September 13 2015 at 20:04:40
Putin refuses Elton John
Thursday, July 3 2014 at 07:56:04
Putin: Elton is 'an extraordinary person'
Monday, January 20 2014 at 04:42:34
Happy birthday, Elton!
Elton will turn 69 on March 25, 2016 while taking a short break from touring before returning to Las Vegas for more "The Million Dollar Piano" shows.
We are sure he will have a "wonderful crazy birthday" amongst his family and friends.
On behalf of the Hercules team and all the fans around the world, we would like to wish him all the best and a happy birthday!
Elton John and band performed in Youngstown on March 22, 2016
Following is the complete set list of the Youngstown show on March 22, 2016.
All the Young Girls Love Alice
A Good Heart
I Guess That�s Why They Call It the Blues
Have Mercy On the Criminal
Mona Lisas and Madhatters
Blue Wonderful
Don�t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
I�m Still Standing
Your Sister Can�t Twist (But she can Rock�n�Roll)
Saturday Night�s Alright for Fighting
Elton and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are to team up
Elton and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are collaborating on new music. The unlikely team-up comes after the Chilis covered Elt�s hit Tiny Dancer back in 1998.
Elton has been branching out �musically since the release of his last album in February 2016, working with British classical-influenced pop group Clean Bandit, as well as writing with Lady Gaga for her upcoming album. The Chili Peppers� frontman Anthony Kiedis , 53, got the veteran singer on board when he was in LA.
A source said: �Anthony got in touch when he heard Elton was in town at the start of the year, and asked him to come down to the studio where they were recording. They were delighted when he said yes. The track they�ve done together is really great. The Chilis have always been huge fans of Elton � and it�s been five years since their last album, so they were really excited about coming back with a bang. Elton has been really up for working with different artists so it all coincided really well.�
There are reports Elton is also working with rapper Young Thug on a remake of "Rocket Man".
Young Thug allegedly has a collaboration with Elton in the works
Wednesday, March 9 2016 at 00:47:17
Elton talks Miley Cyrus, Young Thug & penning misery songs
Sunday, December 6 2015 at 06:04:42
Josh Homme talks Elton's 'glorious' Eagles of Death Metal cover
Elton John has released his cover of Eagles of Death Metal's "I Love You All the Time".
Where the original was a three-minute Gerry Rafferty-inspired boogie-rock tune, Elton transformed it into a powerful, dramatic, nearly five-minute piano ballad. It's part of the band's Play It Forward campaign to raise money for victims of the terrorist attack on their Paris show in November 2015.
"The Elton John cover is like ... wow," Josh Homme, who drums for the band and organized the campaign, tells Rolling Stone. "He tuned it into this, like, this glorious animal, this beast. I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, is that our song?' I felt part of his version instead of him doing a version of ours."
Eagles of Death Metal launched their Play It Forward campaign in November 2015, a few weeks after the attack. They asked their peers and fans to record versions of the song and promised to donate their royalties to the Sweet Stuff Foundation, which would in turn give 99 percent of money raised to victim relief. The initial round of Play It Forward covers included versions of the song by Florence and the Machine, Imagine Dragons, Savages and others. A second go included renditions by Halestorm, Nada Surf and Chelsea Wolf. Elton's version arrives with versions by Beck with members of the Strokes, Faster Pussycat and others.
The band collected links to all the covers on their own Play It Forward website. From their, users can stream or purchase the tunes via iTunes, Amazon, Spotify or the unique Play It Forward store.
Homme says Elton's version of "I Love You All the Time" helped him realize something unique about the project. "The idea was, 'Take only what you need to make whatever you want,'" he says. "And so I think, in that way, the covers are an exhibition of peoples' talents, and their willingness to say, 'If I'm going to do this song, I need to make it mine, so I'm going to do this.' And that is a wonderful thing, taking ownership of it and going, 'Mine goes like this.'"
Elton John and band performed in Charlottesville on March 19, 2016
Following is the complete set list of the Charlottesville show on March 19, 2016.
.A Good Heart
Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock'n'Roll)
Elton John and band performed in Roanoke on March 18, 2016
Following is the complete set list of the Roanoke show on March 18, 2016.
Elton John and band performed in Columbus on March 16, 2016
Following is the complete set list of the Columbus show on March 16, 2016.
Elton John and band performed in Mobile on March 15, 2016
Following is the complete set list of the Mobile show on March 15, 2016.
Elton to sell company HQ amid business worries
The Sun reports exclusively that Elton is flogging offices to property developers in bid to stave off �cash-flow problems�.
According to the newspaper he plans to sell his company HQ to property developers amid concerns over the business empire he runs with husband David Furnish. They have had plans approved to turn their offices in Kensington, West London, into flats.
The change comes after a dip in the performance of their companies � in which David has taken a bigger role � and slow sales of Sir Elton�s album "Wonderful Crazy Night." A source said: �This does suggest they are planning to scale down and that they may have cash-flow problems.�
Elton and David run 30 companies and two charities at the Kensington HQ. Elton said recently of David: �My businesses have been badly run, he�s come in, pruned a few people, made it a leaner, meaner machine.�
Elton's pride after Arsenal FA Cup win
Elton has hailed a �magnificent day for the supporters and the town� after Watford reached the FA Cup semi-finals following their 2-1 victory at Arsenal.
The former chairman famously shed tears when the Hornets got all the way to the final in 1984 against Everton and he believes they have a �great chance� to emulate that achievement.
In a post on his Instagram account, Elton said: �So proud of my team, the manager and the Pozzo family. A magnificent day for the supporters and the town. We have a great chance now to get to the final. I love my club! SOOO excited! @watfordfcofficial"
Elton John and band performed in Chattanooga on March 12, 2016
Fan report by Tony.
On Saturday, March 12, 2016 I attended my 35th Elton John concert at UTC MacKenzie Arena in Chattanooga. Chattanooga has become a regular tour stop in 1999, 2010, 2013 and 2016. For some reason a nearby larger city Knoxville has waited for a return visit since 1997. Elton obviously enjoys Chattanooga and probably the short trip home to Atlanta after the show.
Before the show, Kim Bullard was walking around the stage area and occasionally signing autographs for the fans who knew who he was.
The show was totally sold out and began at 8:05 p.m. with the fog and familiar sound of �Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding�. I was in Section 205 in a five row section directly behind Elton and his piano. I have learned through the years these $37 seats are just as close as some $152 seats in the middle of the floor. Apparently, I was not the only smart fans in this section as the two ladies behind me spoke German and the U.K. fans in the front row tied their flag to the railing.
The first part of the show was spectacular as the long Goodbye Yellow Brick Road set was perfect to establish the upbeat mood. �All The Girls Love Alice� was well placed as part of it. �Levon� featured the usual long outro but had a different arrangement which made it interesting. After �Tiny Dancer�, the new songs started to appear. �Looking Up� was perfunctory but one of my two favorites �A Good Heart� was next and performed with passion as if a personal Elton favorite. A funny moment occurred during these two songs as one of the fans near the front of the stage held up a sign that said �We don�t go to the toilet during new songs�. Neither do I!
Some songs you could tell Elton was less interested in like �I Guess That�s Why They Call It The Blues� performed much too fast.
�Have Mercy On The Criminal� was a nice addition with some great Nigel drum work. �Burn Down The Mission� was good, too, for a change.
�Daniel� and �Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word� were welcome deletions for a couple of new songs. My other favorite �Guilty Pleasure� came next. Since I purposely avoided looking at the setlist from Estero before the show, I later found out this replaced �Wonderful Crazy Night�. I was happy for the change but surprised the title track was omitted.
After the band introductions, Elton went all upbeat the rest of the way. A great way to end the show. I stood from �I�m Still Standing� onwards. �Your Sister Can�t Twist (But She Can Rock And Roll)� sounded better than previous tours and �Saturday Night�s Alright For Fighting� had a nice long outro for a change.
A change from previous tours was Elton not signing autographs before the encore or giving a long goodbye. Instead it was straight into �Crocodile Rock� and that was it as the trip back to Atlanta was waiting and the show ended at 10:36 p.m. But, another great one and with the stress on more upbeat songs another one to remember.
Following is the complete set list of the Chattanooga show on March 12, 2016:
Elton John and band performed in Estero on March 9, 2016
Following is the complete set list of the Estero show on March 9, 2016.
Wonderful Crazy Night
Elton pays tribute to 'brilliant, delightful' George Martin
Elton paid tribute to George Martin with a touching Instagram post on March 9, 2016 morning. The late record producer had helmed Elton's Grammy-winning re-recording of "Candle in the Wind" in 1997.
"So sad to hear about Sir George," he wrote. "It is the end of a wonderful era. I had the privilege to have known him as a friend and work with him as an artist. He was a delightful, brilliant man. We won't see his like again. My deepest condolences to the wonderful Judy and his family."
Elton and Martin collaborated a few times in the Nineties. The singer contributed two songs, "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Love Is Here to Stay," to the Martin-produced George Gershwin tribute compilation, "The Glory of Gershwin," in 1994. The next year, Martin arranged and conducted a strings and French horn accompaniment to Elton's "Made in England" track "Latitude."
Most famously, Martin produced Elton's tribute to Princess Diana, "Candle in the Wind 1997." The original version of the song, in 1973, honored Marilyn Monroe. The new recording stayed at the top of the Billboard chart for 14 weeks and has been certified 11 times platinum. It won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance.
Ringo Starr announced Martin's death with a tweet March 8, 2016. "God bless George Martin," he wrote. "Peace and love � George will be missed." In another post, Starr wrote, "Thank you for all your love and kindness" accompanied by a photo of Martin with the Beatles.
Sir George Martin dies aged 90
Elton�s photo collection to feature in Tate exhibition
Images from Elton's vast collection of 20th-century photography are going on display at Britain's Tate Modern.
The gallery announced March 9, 2016 that the exhibition, "The Radical Eye," will feature more than 150 images by modernist masters of photography including Man Ray, Alexander Rodchenko, Andre Kertesz, Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange.
Tate Modern says Elton owns "one of the world's greatest private collections of photography" � some 7,000 images � and the show includes portraits of some of the century's great cultural figures, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Cocteau. Elton said "each of these photographs serves as an inspiration for me in my life."
Tate says the exhibition, which opens November 10, 2016, is the start of a long-term relationship between Elton and the London gallery.
Wednesday, March 9 2016
Sir George Martin, the record producer known as the 'Fifth Beatle', has died aged 90.
Sir George helped the Beatles achieve global success as the head of the Parlophone record label after hearing their demo tape in 1962. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, 75, announced the news on Twitter, writing: "God bless George Martin peace and love to Judy and his family love Ringo and Barbara George will be missed."
He captioned a picture of the Fab Four and Sir George with the phrase: "Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love." Sir George Martin's family have since released a statement thanking 'everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support'. Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John Lennon, tweeted: "R.I.P. George Martin. I'm so gutted I don't have many words."
In a career spanning five decades, Sir George, who celebrated his 90th birthday in January, signed the Beatles and produced more than 700 records. Sir George, often called 'the Fifth Beatle', gave the Beatles their first recording contract and produced virtually all of their music.
In 1997, Martin rerecorded Elton�s �Candle in the Wind,� originally written by Elton and Bernie Taupin about Marilyn Monroe but retooled as a tribute to Princess Diana. The song became the second best-selling single in history, and Martin called it �probably my last single. It�s not a bad one to go out on.�
Watch Elton live on YouTube
Elton and the band will be back on stage at the Germain Arena in Estero, FL on March 9, 2016.
You can watch the concert live on YouTube. The live stream will start at 8:00 pm EST/5:00 pm PST / 1:00 am GMT (on March 10, 2016).
Young Thug can now count Elton John as more than just a fan. The two might now consider each other collaborators, a well placed source has told The FADER.
Lyor Cohen, co-founder of Thug's label, 300 Entertainment, and the hero who got him up on that horse, recently arranged for the two iconoclasts to speak over FaceTime. Shortly thereafter, Elton sent through the instrumental for "Rocket Man" � his 1972 hit about an astronaut's struggle�and Thug went in.
"It's all the instrumental, the guitar, piano; and Thug is not rapping, he's singing," The FADER's source reports. "It's really ambient and amazing."
In December 2015 in an interview with Noisey, Elton declared himself a fan of Thug's music, style, and attitude. "I love that record," he said, without specifying which record exactly he loved. It has also beennoted that Elton has on occasion played a little Thugger during his Beats1 show, Rocket Hour.
A representative for 300 declined to comment.
Elton fights for gender equality worldwide
Monday, March 7 2016
Elton John and Jessie J are among more than 70 celebrities who have urged world leaders to tackle poverty by addressing gender inequality.
The pop stars joined U2 singer Bono, boxer Muhammad Ali and actress Charlize Theron in adding their voices to the call by the ONE Campaign ahead of International Women�s Day. In an open letter to government, the campaigners said �poverty is sexist� and some 155 countries have laws which discriminate against women.
The letter said: �Nowhere on earth do women have as many opportunities as men. Nowhere. While the debate around this truth rages everywhere, girls and women living in extreme poverty, those often hardest hit by the injustice of gender inequality, have been left out of the conversation. This must change. The fight for gender equity is global.�
The ONE Campaign is co-founded by Bono.
Elton at Hillary Clinton fundraiser
Thursday, March 3 2016
The stars aligned for Hillary Clinton in New York City on March 2, 2016 at a fundraising concert, where she celebrated her strong Super Tuesday performance with some of her famous friends and with her family, former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.
The campaign was able to secure supporters Katy Perry and Elton John, who performed to a sold-out crowd at Radio City Music Hall for the �I�m With Her" concert. Elton John did an 8-song set, garnering a standing ovation after each classic. The crowd sang along to �Tiny Dancer� and �Your Song." He dedicated his final song of the night, �Still Standing,� to Hillary Clinton, who was in the audience.
Following is the complete set list of Elton's solo set:
Katy Perry concluded the three-hour affair and made her own dedication to the Democratic presidential candidate as she sang �Unconditional." �I sing this next song for her because I do believe this woman shows unconditional love,� said Perry.
Singer-songwriter Andra Day sang her hit song �Rise Up� and dedicated Sam Cooke�s iconic �Change is Gonna Come� to Clinton. �This next song I want to dedicate to her and to her future,� said Day. Academy Award winners Jamie Foxx and Julianne Moore were some of the night�s presenters. Before introducing Chelsea Clinton, Moore told the crowd, �Hillary has always fought for us and now it�s our turn to fight for her.�
Chelsea Clinton also sang her mother�s praises and a hoarse President Bill Clinton, who has aggressively been campaigning for his wife, spoke fondly of meeting his wife 45 years ago this month. �I want you to stay with her. Nominate her! Thank you!� exclaimed the president as he was joined on stage by Hillary Clinton. Although her comments were brief, Clinton declared tonight �Super Wednesday,� and added "I�m running for president because I want to break down barriers."
The concert benefited the Hillary Victory Fund. There were 11 sponsors of this fundraiser who gave more than $100,000. The campaign is expected to raise millions of dollars and organizers said most attendees were first-time campaign donors. Tickets ranged from $125 to $2,700.
Elton doesn't want his children to inherit the entirety of his substantial fortune.
Elton and David have revealed that their two boys, Zachary and Elijah, must stand on their own two feet as they get older. Despite Elton being worth an estimated �200 million, the couple are determined to teach their children the value of money.
Elton said: �Having children changed everything about my life. I�ve learned that the simplest things in life � like having a minute with them � are worth more than any painting, any photograph, any house or any hit record. Before we had the children we just had our lives, and would spend money because we didn�t have anything else to focus on. We have really toned things down because we have enough stuff. There is nothing else we need.�
Elton's decision will see him following in the footsteps of David and Victoria Beckham, who forced their teenage son Brooklyn to work in a coffee shop so he could learn the value of a hard-earned wage. The star went on to suggest that he would "ruin" the lives of his children if he allowed them to inherit every penny.
Elton said: �Of course I want to leave my boys in a very sound financial state. But it�s terrible to give kids a silver spoon. It ruins their life." He added: �Listen, the boys live the most incredible lives, they�re not normal kids, and I�m not pretending they are. But you have to have some semblance of normality, some respect for money, some respect for work.�
The couple, who are currently drafting out their wills, claim that Zachary and Elijah will only be left with enough money to cover the basics. �Anything beyond the basic, they have to go out and earn it themselves. If they want a Picasso, they have to go out and earn it. I think there�s real sensibility in that."
Meanwhile, Elton admitted this week that he won't be having any more kids with David because he has had a vasectomy.
Elton's 2016 Oscars Party
Tuesday, March 1 2016
"We love Elton. He's amazing. And his commitment to charity is incredible,� said Mariah Carey, as she made her way inside the 24th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscar viewing party.
The legendary songstress wasn�t the only one eager to see the host in action. Sponsored by Bulgari, the viewing party has become the spot where the hottest stars in music, TV, and film gather under the roof of an enormous tent in West Hollywood Park, to not just view the 88th Academy Awards and support the cause but to also enjoy the epic musical performances.
Throughout the four-hour broadcast, guests like Sheryl Crow, Hilary Swank, and Lana Del Rey enjoyed a decadent five-course dinner by Chef Gordon Ramsay while toasting the day�s victories with a glass of Hatt et S�ner champagne. �I love this party because we get a little wild in here,� said Dita von Teese in a red dress by Zac Posen, who was also her date for the night. �It's kind of the misfits that aren't at the Oscars [who are here]. We drink, we yell things at the screen, and it's fun!�
Once the more formal portion of the night was over, the lights were dimmed and the real party got started. As the host himself took the stage for a 10-song set, former Dancing with the Starspartners Kym Johnson and Carson Kressley boogied to �Looking Up� while new couple Ed Weeks and Bellamy Young shared a kiss (or two) to �Tiny Dancer.� By the time Elton got to �Rocket Man,� Dave Grohl had made it from the Oscars, where he performed the In Memoriam segment, to the party.
�This is a wonderful crazy night," gushed Elton as he closed the show with party favorite �Saturday Night�s Alright.� Let's just say the party was such a rousing success, the entire crowd was on its feet. And it wasn't just fun that was had: The event raised $6.2 million for the cause, up $400,000 from last year. Even after Elton and his husband David Furnish made their way to the Vanity Fair after-party, his guests lingered, making it one late, late night.


Our vision for Alliance students is for them to begin to truly grasp their identity as God's beloved child, connected in the family of God called Church. Our services, events, small groups, and student gatherings will be aimed at bridging the gap of feeling alone and inspire students to form relationships connected through the Holy Spirit's working in their lives. In short, our vision is for our middle school students to form an alliance with one another rooted in their relationship with the Lord and their Church family.
Our vision for Alliance families is to see parents and children come together to build lasting supportive and encouraging relationships through our services and events. We long to see parents connecting in service and support the ministry, in small groups, and in prayer for their students to continue in connection with Christ, the Church, and their calling.
Alliance Student Ministry (6th-8th grade) exists to connect students and their families to God, others, growth, and action. We do this through embracing, empowering, equipping, and embarking with families in God's love and for God's glory.
Click HERE to read issues of the Alliance weekly newsletter!


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Posted on December 24, 2017 by bmatarazzo
New Britain man charged by feds with lying about brother's ties to ISIS
NEW BRITAIN — A 31-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan who was living in New Britain was arrested on Friday on immigration offenses stemming for lying about trips to Turkey and his brother, a member of a military group with ties to ISIS.
Sidikjon Mamadjonov was ordered detained following appearance on Friday in federal court in New Haven.
The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges that Mamadjonov in 2014 and 2016, he lied to the FBI about the whereabouts of his brother, Saidjon, who in died in May or June of 2013 while fighting in Syria with the Nursa group, which was affiliated with ISIS.
In interviews with the FBI, Mamadjonov claimed his brother was alive, he did not know his whereabouts and he did not overhear any discussions of Uzbeks in the United States going over to Syria to fight, according to federal prosecutors.
Further, prosecutors allege Mamadjonov lied on his application for naturalization with he wrote "no" in response to the question of "Have you ever been a member of, or in any way associated (either directly or indirectly) with: C. A terrorist organization?" and later lied to a Immigration Services officer regarding his application and later swore an oath under penalty of perjury.
Mamadjonov immigrated to the U.S. in February 2009, became a lawful permanent resident in September 2010 and submitted his application for naturalization four years later.
Mamadjonov is charged with unlawful procurement of naturalization and making a false oath or declaration under penalty of perjury, offenses that carry a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. The complaint also charges he made false statements on a naturalization application, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.
CategoriesLocal News, News TagsImmigration, ISIS, Police, Syria, Terrorism
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This Curved Shower Bath Screen is ideal for use with P-shaped and corner baths.
Question from Sue: Asked on 02/07/2018 Hi i bought a curved shower screen like the one in your picture i need the bracket that attached to the wall for the screen to attach to how do i get this item or do i need to purchase the whole thing.
we only sell this as a spare part for our own stock so if its purchased from elsewhere we cant guarantee it will fit sorry.
Sorry I couldn't help you further.
Question from Andy Crowhurst: Asked on 28/10/2017 How do I get replacement plastic strips for the bottom of this?
Question from Joanna: Asked on 05/08/2017 Will this fit the Misa p shaped bath purchased from Wickes?
Question from Craig McMillan: Asked on 03/01/2017 Do you sell replacement seals for the bottom of this screen where it seals against the bath?
It would be the aftersales department that you would require for this. if you contact them on 01925 544 861 they will be able to assist you with this.
Question from Ian Millar: Asked on 18/09/2016 Do you have details of the radius of the screen so I can check against my corner bath?
The radius at the furthest point is 115 mm approximately, hope this answers your question.
Question from Dan: Asked on 08/09/2016 I need to replace the rubber seal at the bottom of the shower screen as it has split and causing water leakage. It has only been 1 year. Where can I get this from or what is the part number?
If you contact our aftersales team on 01925 544 861 they will be able to assist you with this.
Yes this screen would be perfect for this bath.
If you would like to place the order just contact me direct on 0161 667 6560 and ask for Simon and I will be happy to help.
Question from Sarah Mir : Asked on 10/06/2016 Hi, would this screen be suitable for the Barcelona corner air spa? Thank you.
We would personally recommend the Napoli Bath Screen, although neither of these screens perfectly match the curvature of the bath the Napoli screen has a closer fit.
In regards to the item itself, due to us running our 15 years of discounted prices promotion we are currently running low on stock. To secure the yours and the other items your looking at purchasing today, please feel free to give me a call on 0161 667 6560 - Ben, and we will get it sorted for you.
Question from Sadia : Asked on 13/09/2015 Hi pls can you confirm if this shower screen is suitable for a 1500 by 1000 oslo corner bath ?
As the Oslo Corner bath is not one we supply I would not recommend that you would purchase this shower screen.
Now the only reason I say this is because it would be impossible for me to know the exact curviture of the oslo bath, therefore I would not be able to match dimensions with our screen therefore could not advise.
Question from O Mance: Asked on 24/06/2015 Can I get a replacement handle for this shower screen or find out the manufacturer? I've had one for a while but the plastic caps on the back are broken.
Answer from Peter Hi, if you contact after sales directly on 01925 544 861 or use the live chat function on the website then they will be able to assist you with this.
Question from George: Asked on 01/04/2015 I am trying to find a replacement wall mounted channel for this type of bath screen. Do you sell that separately or could you direct me to where I could buy one.
Yes we do have it separately, you would have to do this with our customer support team. The customer support teams number is 01925 544 861.
Question from Brian Wood: Asked on 14/11/2014 Hello, I have a similar screen but need to replace the towel rail - are you able to provide this without the screen?
The one we have would not be sold separately.
If you need any further assistance please call us on 0844 484 7678 (Option 1).
We do keep the rubber seals in stock. If you call our customer support line on 01925 544 861 they will be able to raise the order for you.
Question from Rosie: Asked on 20/08/2014 Waiting on its arrival and just want to confirm that this product code is the hinged version?
Yes this is a hinged screen.
Question from Eoin: Asked on 26/07/2014 Hi, will this be ok on a corner bath with a r1020 radius..
I would not be able to confirm the fit for you I am afraid. Delivery cost is £98.95.
Please can you advise how the bath screen fits to the bath. The instructions are not specific and do not explain how far in to set the brackets from the bath edge for the bath screen to fit into place. Can you let me know who far in the screen brackets should be drilled to the wall for the screen to fit correctly from the edge of the bath.
I would recommend calling us on 0844 484 7678 option 1 and asking to speak to the technical team and they will be able to help you with this.
Question from robert williams: Asked on 17/06/2014 hi, could you possibly send me a new rubber seal for the curved screen please?
Please contact our Customer Care Team on 0844 484 7678 option 2 for any spare part prices and requests and they will be able to help with this query.
Question from Lynette Kirby: Asked on 12/06/2014 I need to know the depth of the curve v. the width of the screen so that I can check if it will fit my bath are you able to supply?
Thanks for your question. The depth of the curve is 6 inches out at the widest point.
Question from Sue: Asked on 10/06/2014 Does this work on any of your corner baths? What is the length of the curve please?
The curved screen will fit on the P-shaped bath and the Vienna corner bath, the length of the screen is 725mm.
I hope this information help but if you have any further question please call the sales team on 0844 484 7678 option 1.
Question from Robert Williams: Asked on 08/06/2014 hi, I bought this screen from you couple of years ago but now I need a new bottom seal for it. I was hoping you could send me one please and advise on how much they are? Thanks, Robert.
We don't sell the seals seperately i'm afraid. You can pick up a generic seal from somewhere like B&Q or wickes.
Question from Bobbie Rendle: Asked on 04/06/2014 Please could you let me know if this is the correct shower screen - I have the fitting instructions for our last screen P-905 bought from you 2 years ago (which has shattered). I want to make sure it will fit our shower bath before purchasing. thank you.


After the flying shrimp incident the Great Blue Heron decided it was time to move on. Usually the herons will bend their knees just before lifting off giving the photographer a hint of imminent action and this turned out to be the case.
One strong beat of his wings and he was on his way.
He disappeared down the canal with a big squawk, staying close to the water.


Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders fanned out across the country on Tuesday to hardsell the Narendra Modi government's achievements in its first year in office, oldest ally Shiv Sena remained silent on the performance of the NDA regime.
Though there was no official word from the Sena leadership, the party apparently feels the anniversary celebrations are a BJP affair.
A Sena MP, speaking on condition of anonymity, said BJP has never consulted his party on crucial issues like the Jaitapur nuclear power project, land bill, GST Bill and other important matters.
"It has all been about the BJP in the last one year. They have followed a dictatorial attitude and they expect their allies to blindly follow the decisions," the Sena MP told PTI.
Though a long-time ally of the BJP and partner in Maharashtra government led by Devendra Fadnavis as well as at the Centre, Sena has often been critical of the policies of both the state and the Union Government.
Their partnership has been marked by severe strain after the two saffron parties parted ways and fought each other in last year's assembly polls in Maharashtra although political compulsions soon made Sena to join the ministry.
According to political observers, Sena and BJP entered into a 'marriage of convienence' as both the parties had been out of power for 15 years in Maharashtra and could not risk losing control over cash-rich the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), whose annual budget is about Rs 35,000 crore.
However, despite sharing power, they have often been at loggerheads, especially Sena's mouthpiece Saamana coming out with stinging editorials targetting BJP, sparing not even Modi.
The strains in the relationship were visible right from the start with Sena failing to get the portfolios of its choice as BJP asserted its supremacy.
Since then, Sena has been openly critcising the BJP-led dispensation over a host of issues ranging from farmers' suicide to Jaitapur nuclear power plant.
While Fadnavis stood firm on going ahead with the Jaitapur project, the Sena has vehemently kept up its resistance, contending that the plant would pose a grave threat to the people living in the ecologically fragile region.
Known for its agressive posturing, Sena appears to have made it a habit to mock its ally whenever it ran into adverse situations like the humilating defeat in the Delhi assembly polls.


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Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence
A program initiated by the Max Planck Society to support scientific excellence in Central and Eastern Europe
Dioscuri aims to establish internationally competitive research groups at Central and Eastern European scientific institutions with the support of partners from Germany. The person-centered program was initiated by the Max Planck Society and is funded by the German Federal government as well as the government of the respective host country.
Dioscuri was initiated by the Max Planck Society to support the development of centres of scientific excellence in Central and Eastern Europe. The program seeks to support outstanding scientists who would like to establish and lead a highly visible research group in this region. Dioscuri Centres are established at research institutions that are capable of providing adequate infrastructure and that offer an environment for cutting-edge research. Centres are supported by experienced partners from Germany. Each Centre is funded with up to € 300,000 per annum for an initial five years and can be extended for a further five years after successful evaluation by external experts. Funding is provided equally by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the government of the respective country.
The Dioscuri Programme aims to strengthen international standards of scientific excellence in the region and to support the on-going transformation processes in the EU-13 countries. By helping to overcome the existing performance gap between Western and Eastern European science, MPG contributes to the overall strengthening of the European Research Area.
Kick-off in Poland
Fom left to right: Prof. Zbigniew Błocki (Director of the National Science Centre Poland); Prof. Agnieszka Dobrzyń (Director of the Nencki Institute); Jarosław Gowin (Minister of Science and Higher Education, Poland); Anja Karliczek (Minister of Education and Science, Germany); Prof. Martin Stratmann (President of the Max Planck Society) on Sep 17th, 2019 at the opening ceremony of the first Dioscuri Centres at the Nencki Institute for Experimental Biology in Warsaw
© Agnieszka Ziobrio
Dioscuri is being implemented as a first step in Poland, where the program is jointly managed by the Max Planck Society (MPG) and the National Science Centre (NCN). Starting in 2017, MPG and NCN have published several calls for Dioscuri Centres (DCs) in all scientific disciplines. The calls resonated with applicants from all over the world, also some that had no prior connection to Poland. What makes Dioscuri attractive beyond the region is the solid financial support of the centres, generous funding from the host institutions and additional support from experienced partners from Germany, as well as the proven scientific quality of the program.
The first Dioscuri Centres opened in Warsaw in 2019. Up to ten centres of excellence will be established in Poland in the coming years. The funding for the Polish DCs is shared equally between the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Polish Ministry of Education and Science.
Dr. Steffi Heinecke
Division for International Relations, Dioscuri Centres of Excellence Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society, München +49 89 2108-1176 steffi.heinecke@gv.mpg.de
Michael Müller, Mayor of Berlin, visited newly opened Dioscuri Centre in Warsaw on 6 October 2021.
Dioscuri goes Czech Republic
Up to five Dioscuri Centres to be established in the next few years
Overview of Dioscuri Centres
Scientific Members of the Dioscuri Committee
The Dioscuri Committee is responsible for the overall evaluation and selection process for the establishment of Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence.
Links to funding providers and partners
Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany
National Science Centre, Poland
Polish Ministry of Education and Science (MEiN)
Other Interesting Articles
Dioscuri: Fourth call for Dioscuri Centres now open
Up to three centres of scientific excellence in Poland will be funded
A boost for artificial intelligence
Research Policy Robotics
Chancellor Merkel gives go-ahead for "AI Breakthrough Hub" – which will be funded by the federal and state governments as well as the Hector Foundation
Top radio telescope in South Africa
Astronomy Astrophysics Research Policy
The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft contributes € 20 million to the extension of the MeerKAT radio telescope in the Karoo semi-desert region
"Astronomy became big here"
Astronomy International
Both partners, Germany and South Africa, benefit from the MeerKAT collaboration
"The cable robot opens up a whole new dimension"
Cognitive Research Robotics
Max Planck director Heinrich Bülthoff on perception research with motion simulators
The toolbox of life
A ceremony on 16 April in Berlin marked the official start of the MaxSynBio research programme
Synthetic Biology: Life, Remixed
The goal of synthetic biology is to produce novel living systems with desirable properties.
"My goal is a quantum Internet"
Interview with Gerhard Rempe about the fascination of and prospects for quantum information technology


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Omobono Tucenghi (Cremona, onbekend - 13 november 1197),  beter bekend als de Heilige Homobonus (Italiaans: Sant'Omobono, Duits: Sankt Gutmann). Homo bonus (latijn voor goede mens) was net zoals zijn vader een welgestelde lakenhandelaar. Zijn huwelijk was kinderloos. In Cremona stond hij bekend als een zeer vrome, en vooral een eerlijke lakenhandelaar. Veel van zijn winsten spendeerde hij aan liefdadigheid. Hij stierf tijdens een eucharistieviering in 1197. Na zijn overlijden verspreidde het gerucht, dat Omobono wonderen verrichtte. Zijn graf werd daarna door vele pelgrims bezocht. Op 21 januari 1199, nog geen twee jaar na zijn dood, werd hij daarom door paus Innocentius III heilig verklaard.

In 1643 werd Homobonus uitgeroepen tot beschermheer van de stad Cremona, en patroonheilige voor kooplieden, kleermakers en schoenmakers.
Hij wordt afgebeeld in burgerkleding, en zijn attributen zijn een geldbuidel of afgebeeld met munststuk, die hij geeft aan een behoeftige. Verdere attributen zijn kleermakersgereedschap, zoals een schaar of een ellemaat.
Zijn naamdag is 13 november.

Trivia
 Er bestond in Nederland een midden-standscoöperatie 'St. Homobonus', deze werd in 1913 te Rotterdam opgericht.

Italiaans heilige of zalige
Heilige in het christendom
Persoon in de 12e eeuw

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Posted March 26th, 2012 by Philip Kirkpatrick & filed under Uncategorized.
Everyone is talking about the fact that the Charity Commission has had to withdraw its guidance on public benefit. It is getting knocked by people who, like me, have said for a long time its guidance was wrong.
Is payment by results compatible with the big society?
Posted December 21st, 2011 by Philip Kirkpatrick & filed under Uncategorized.


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Did you know that you can watch almost 600 videos of competition performances on our website? Not only from recent years, but also from the early years of the TV recordings made by the RTBF and the VRT. Thanks to various digitisation projects, we now and then receive new gems that we can share with you !
Some context
From the very beginning, the Queen Elisabeth Competition has had a special appeal to the public thanks to its live radio broadcasts. Media coverage received an extra boost from television, whose interest in the Competition dates from
1959. Technical limitations, however, and suspicion of the new medium meant that things got off to a slow start.
Initially, the gala aspect, such as the awarding of the prizes by Queen Elisabeth, received more attention than the music. Neither the original audience at the Centre for Fine Arts (Palais des Beaux-Arts) nor the management of the Competition were prepared to put up with the cumbersome set-up and harsh lighting required by the cameras of the time.
Full live broadcasting as from 1978
From 1964 on, however, television filmed the rehearsals in the Palais des Beaux-Arts as an item for the evening news programme. Starting in 1967, a fixed camera made it possible to immortalise a selection of moments from the semifinals and finals; these were supplemented by a great many reports and interviews. Live broadcasting started in 1972 with partial coverage, which became total in 1978.
New videos to discover
Relive some of the most memorable moments in the Queen Elisabeth Competition history, by watching these recordings of performances from 1978 to 2009, carefully digitalized by RTBF for the TV programme 'Tempo' :
Abdel Rahman El Bacha (piano, 1978),
Yuzuko Horigome (violin, 1980),
Pierre-Alain Volondat (piano, 1983),
Vadim Repin (violin, 1989),
Thierry Felix (voice, 1992),
Markus Groh (piano, 1995),
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (voice, 2000),
Baiba Skride (violin, 2001),
Sergey Khachatryan (violin, 2005),
Ray Chen (violin, 2009).
Watch the videosCurious for some more history of the Queen Elisabeth Competition


text:
What James Likes Best
Amy Schwartz, Amy Schwartz (Illustrator)
Other Editions of This Title:
Hardcover (4/1/2003)
James is a lucky boy.
He has Mommy
and Daddy
and Grandma
and Auntie who all love him.
He has a best friend, Angela.
James lives in the city,
near enough to a fairground
to ride there in a yellow car.
He's near a bus line, too.
An express!
And what's more,
he already has four stories
written about him
in one book,
pictured in charming detail,
and just right for participation
by other boys and girls
of James's lucky age.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 9781481425360, 32pp.
Amy Schwartz has written and illustrated many classic books for children, including Bea and Mr. Jones, a Reading Rainbow featured title; What James Likes Best, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award; A Teeny Tiny Baby; Tiny & Hercules; Starring Miss Darlene; A Beautiful Girl; and I Can't Wait. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, children's book historian Leonard S. Marcus, and their son, Jacob.
Not Currently Available for Direct Purchase


Hong Kong's future development depends greatly on whether it can make full use of its advantages and potential to participate in the mega projects being undertaken in the region. In the era of connectivity, there is every reason to believe Hong Kong is competent to play the role of a "super-connector" in the region. The new trade corridor proposed by China and Singapore last month could provide the SAR with another great opportunity to play such a role.
China and Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding last month to develop the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor under the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstrative Initiative on Strategic Connectivity. This new trade corridor will link western China with Singapore. Hong Kong should seek to proactively participate and leverage its strengths in this new project. But before getting into the game, we need to determine first our positioning — as this is the key to success in joining a connectivity project. To find an answer to this crucial question, the One Country Two Systems Research Institute has examined possible opportunities for Hong Kong as well as its strength in the corridor project. It came up with the idea of a "Southern Economic Corridor" (SEC), which expands the original transport and logistics scheme into a regional economic development project.
The study result suggests the SEC will provide enormous opportunities for Hong Kong. One of the most significant strategies for Hong Kong is to expand its economic hinterland to western China. As Hong Kong's shipping industry faces increasing challenges, the rapid trade growth in the Southwest China will result in increasingly greater southbound cargos through the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. With the development of the SEC, Hong Kong can make use of the Qinzhou Port in Guangxi as one of her feeder ports and thus expand its economic hinterland into the central west of China. The SAR government should position Hong Kong in the new corridor in the following three ways.
Firstly, Hong Kong should act as the regional supply-chain management hub in the corridor. With well-established international connectivity, the SAR should offer more value-added supply-chain management services to companies operating in the region and attract foreign companies to establish headquarters in Hong Kong, thereby enhancing Hong Kong's role as the regional supply-chain management hub. Furthermore, the city can provide expertise in transportation systems operation and construction management. With increasing infrastructure projects to be built or upgraded in western China, Hong Kong could offer its international-standard expertise in transportation systems operation and construction management.
Secondly, Hong Kong can be a facilitator in the import and export trade of the mainland. Hong Kong could leverage its strengths in the global trading network, such as its experience in the European market and her trade and cultural links with Southeast Asia nations; it can also facilitate imports and exports from the mainland. In particular, with vast domestic consumption demand to be unleashed on the mainland, Hong Kong business people can exploit this situation and develop import and distribution businesses, cultivating new consumer habits and boosting consumption in the mainland market.
Thirdly, Hong Kong can play a crucial role as a professional service provider in the development of the corridor. As an international financial center, Hong Kong could be the most accessible financing platform for SEC companies. This could include activities such as public listings in Hong Kong and using the city's diversified financial services to meet their many needs. The city can also leverage its international reputation to facilitate the mainland's investments in the Belt and Road countries — by assisting mainland companies to adapt to the local business environment and improve their skills in managing their businesses in Belt and Road markets. To promote the development of professional services, the SAR government should seek policy support from the central government to allow the backflow of offshore RMB and encourage the use of RMB in international trade settlement.
What is more, the government can encourage Hong Kong banks to open branches in the major cities in the SEC region, exporting Hong Kong's financial services. For Hong Kong securities firms doing business in the mainland market, the restrictions should be further relaxed to promote greater financial and economic collaboration between the two sides. The pilot implementation under the CEPA arrangement should possibly be expanded to the SEC region, allowing greater market access for Hong Kong's professional services and thus helping SEC companies improve their brand value and management.
Phil Jackson, the head coach of the NBA champion Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998 made this excellent point: "The strength of the team is each member. The strength of each member is the team." Pondering Jackson's astute comments we can easily realize that the central government's support and team work are crucial factors to Hong Kong successfully securing a significant role in the SEC project. Hong Kong should join the national team and play as a "key man" in the team.


Ross W. Tieken is Senior Manager of Acquisitions and Asset Management for Everest Healthcare Properties. He reports to Eric Henrickson, EVP of Acquisitions & Underwriting. His responsibilities include deal flow generation, initial underwriting of properties to place 1st round bids, detailed due diligence analysis while in-contract, and various asset management functions.
Mr. Tieken holds two Bachelor's degrees, both from Arizona State University, W. P. Carey School of Business, in Finance and in Accountancy. Additionally, he holds a Master's degree, from The University of Arizona, Eller College of Management, in Finance. Ross is pursuing his CFA designation, currently testing at level II.
Following his graduation from Arizona State University in May of 2010, he joined Ernst & Young's Transaction Real Estate team in the Phoenix office. He has held other notable positions at Thomson Reuters as a Property Tax Consultant, at Cole Real Estate Investments as a Senior Analyst in Investment Strategy and Research and in Portfolio Management, and at Healthcare Trust of America as a Senior Associate in Asset Management.
His interests outside of work include spending time with his family, reading, cooking, physical fitness, the outdoors and hunting, attending sporting events and community involvement.


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text:
import snapshotDiff from '../__helpers__/snapshotDiff'
import reducer, { SET_PROVIDER, SET_LOCAL_PATH, SET_RESTORE_MODE } from 'reducers/backup'

describe('reducers', () => {
  describe('backupReducer', () => {
    it('should handle initial state', () => {
      expect(reducer(undefined, {})).toMatchSnapshot()
    })

    it('should handle SET_PROVIDER', () => {
      const action = {
        type: SET_PROVIDER,
        provider: 'some-provider',
      }
      expect(snapshotDiff(reducer(undefined, {}), reducer(undefined, action))).toMatchSnapshot()
    })

    it('should handle SET_LOCAL_PATH', () => {
      const action = {
        type: SET_LOCAL_PATH,
        localPath: '/some/path',
      }
      expect(snapshotDiff(reducer(undefined, {}), reducer(undefined, action))).toMatchSnapshot()
    })

    it('should handle SET_RESTORE_MODE', () => {
      const action = {
        type: SET_RESTORE_MODE,
        isRestoreMode: true,
      }
      expect(snapshotDiff(reducer(undefined, {}), reducer(undefined, action))).toMatchSnapshot()
    })
  })
})

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


May 15, 2018, 6:19 a.m.
Growing up in Namibia there were several careers to choose from we were told. Study hard, become a doctor, lawyer, accountant, nurse or architect. Perhaps even an engineer if you were that way inclined. However, no one ever stimulated you to be an entrepreneur.
Someone who sees an opportunity and grasp it with both hands and runs with it. I, for one chose the path of an education and studied to become an electrical engineer. Even worked in that field for some time and followed the beaten path, there was however always a fire in my belly a spark in my eye. A yearning to create and develop something of my own. The idea of being my own boss, growing my own business, helping develop Namibia was what I was born to do…I just knew it.
With the rapid developments in technology and the sheer level of innovation around the world my dreams became bigger, brighter and seemingly ever more within reach. But, being in Namibia and being a Namibian, they were always just beyond my grasp. That was until last year when I finally eschewed the beaten path and decided to strike out on my own and launch the LEFA Transportation services, a ride-hailing app for Windhoek and in future for the whole of Namibia.
With a stable, fast internet now available almost everywhere in Windhoek, smartphones becoming the norm it seemed the perfect time to introduce a ride-hailing app. Almost every other country had its transportation status quo disrupted by a ride hailing application, there was no reason why Windhoek should not follow suit.
With a dream, a small team and sadly a shoestring budget we set to work to creating this app for the people and bringing online services to Namibians. The embracing and development of technology is unstoppable and rightly so. Development and innovation creates new opportunities, new jobs and enhances Namibia's reputation as a knowledge-based society and fits in perfectly with its ambitious Development Plans. It became very clear very quickly that although the people, the market were ready for an app such as LEFA, the support network to help develop the business and assist entrepreneurs still had huge gaps in in it.
Each person knows the stories of how Silicon Valley started out with young whizz kids developing technology in their garages, but that was a long time ago. Silicon Valley now fully embraces start-ups, helps develop the ideas and applications that young entrepreneurs have and nurtures this talent. There are organisations in Namibia that do this, but they are also constrained by budgets and market parameters. This of course doesn't and won't deter real entrepreneurs and innovators. It does make the journey a little more challenging though.
My hope is that we as Namibians and especially the young and people dreaming of a career realise we don't all need to be doctors. It is no longer just a pipedream to think that the next Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs can come from the African continent, even from Namibia. All we need is access to technology, innovation a great idea or concept and hopefully support and funding and we can truly transform the Namibian economy into an innovative and technology driven country. Where technology makes our lives easier and better. Investors and venture capitalists and banks have reaped the rewards of backing start-ups.
I for one will be championing this at every step and every turn, developing our own app further, but engaging and motivating others right here in Namibia to do the same. Let's take the positives that technology can bring and use it as a force for good and develop ourselves, our economy and our nation. We can build a Silicon Valley right here in Namibia…could even call it Silicon Sub-Sahara.