The MIT design overcomes the problem of corrosion in aluminum-air batteries by introducing an oil barrier between the aluminum electrode and the electrolyte—the fluid between the two battery electrodes that eats away at the aluminum when the battery is on standby. The oil is rapidly pumped away and replaced with electrolyte as soon as the battery is used. As a result, the energy loss is cut to just 0.02 percent a month—more than a thousandfold improvement.
The new battery system also takes advantage of a property of aluminum called "underwater oleophobicity"—that is, when aluminum is immersed in water, it repels oil from its surface. As a result, when the battery is reactivated and electrolyte is pumped back in, the electrolyte easily displaces the oil from the aluminum surface, which restores the power capabilities of the battery. Ironically, the MIT method of corrosion suppression exploits the same property of aluminum that promotes corrosion in conventional systems.
Hart explains that aluminum, besides being very inexpensive, is one of the "highest chemical energy-density storage materials we know of"—that is, it is able to store and deliver more energy per pound than almost anything else, with only bromines, which are expensive and hazardous, being comparable. He says many experts think aluminum-air batteries may be the only viable replacement for lithium-ion batteries and for gasoline in cars.


text:
2019 Staples Workplace Survey: Work-life balance is most important to U.S. workers
Posted on 12th Feb 2019 in Office Culture, Workplace Wellness
A recent termination case in Germany provides an interesting look into employer-mandated telecommuting versus employee-chosen telecommuting. The State Labor Court decided on a case in accordance with Section 106 Industrial Code.
An engineer was fired from his job after the plant he worked for shut down and he was ordered to work from home. But due to the nature of his work and equipment necessary to perform it, his home workspace was not set up for him to perform his duties. The Court said in its ruling that many workers do desire to work from home, but that does not give employers the right to order working from home, particularly in cases like this when the working from home would be very difficult if not impossible. The termination was ruled wrongful.
The 2019 Staples Workplace Survey, released on February 12, not only emphasized flexibility as the top priority of U.S. and Canadian workers, but also the desire to work from home part of the week.
Many office trends, such as motorized desks and plants, remain popular both for convenience and health reasons. But the open workspace trend - less walls and dividers with cubicles - is not among the favorites for office workers. The survey, conducted by KRC Research on behalf of Staples, questioned 1,001 U.S. and Canadian workers who spend at least 10% of their weeks in office settings.
More than half of workers (52%) said they disliked the open office layout because it creates too many distractions. Another 40% said their office was far too open and not conducive to productivity. Workers, however, did not directly advocate getting rid of the open office layout altogether. They simply desired more choice when it came to how and where work is performed.
A vast majority of those surveyed (90%) said more flexible work schedules and conditions would vastly increase office morale. A majority (67%) also threatened to leave their current positions if flexibility became more restricted due to changing company policies. Other key findings showed a deep divide when it comes to wellness. Three in four (78%) workers said employees have a direct responsibility related to their health and well-being. But only 42% said their employer has a formal wellness program.
Balance is the top priority
The labor force participation rate peaked at 67.2% in the year 2000, the highest number in the last 30 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number has steadily and consistently declined since that time, and sits at 63.2% for January 2019. As the world has become more digital, it has become more difficult for people to separate work from life. Whether its staying logged into Slack on your phone or checking your work email at midnight, it feels like there's never a true day off. This balance is what workers yearn in the 21st century.
Most workers (64%) said they telecommuted (worked remotely) part of the time in the past year. But most employers (67%) had neither a formal nor informal policy in place that addressed remote work. Researchers concluded that policies addressing work-life balance are not enough to make workers happy and productive. The traditional 8-to-5 Monday through Friday with a one-hour lunch setup is antiquated and does not address the reality of ever-changing worker needs. Companies that continue clinging to history will be left behind as the best talent is willing to sacrifice a little money for comfort at work.
Employers have also embraced the concept of mental health days, as 92% of workers said their supervisors supportd them when they used these days off. Employers are failing people with disabilities however, as only 66% said their office meets their physical needs.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Wisconsin Dept of Agriculture guide to organic food is here.
If you're making the switch to organic foods, first explore the foods you eat most often while considering your budget and lifestyle. Do you eat fresh fruit in the morning? Try in-season organic fruit for breakfast. Do you drink coffee? Try organic varieties. Eat a lot of salads for lunch? Give the organic lettuces and greens a go. We think that you'll taste the difference and realize how easy it is to make the switch. While prices of organic foods might seem a little higher to some shoppers, we support paying a premium price in the interest of giving organic farmers a fair return on their investment.
Organic certification is an expense to farmers that benefits consumers' right to know how their food was grown. We encourage shoppers to "go organic" in support of such ecologically minded farmers (and so that you can continue to enjoy the great flavor of organic foods).
All foods labeled and sold as "organic" must be certified by the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) accredited independent certifying agencies.
Three years with no application of prohibited materials (no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or GMOs) prior to certification.
No use of prohibited substances while certified; no sewage sludge; no irradiation.
Proactive soil building, conservation, manure management, and crop rotation systems.
Egg-laying chickens must have access to the outdoors, no cages, and a vegetarian diet.
Cattle must derive 30 percent of their feed from pasture.
No antibiotics or hormones used.
Organic management from birth or hatching.
No commingling or contamination of organic products during processing, and mandatory recordkeeping for all operations.


Licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, the organisation will provide a range of leases and loans under "flexible terms".
Cisco Capital has opened a local branch in Dubai in a move that promises to benefit the channel by making it easier for corporates to fund the purchase of networking equipment from the vendor.Cisco CapitalSM (Dubai) Ltd will arrange financing to enable commercial end-users to acquire its latest technology, serving as a regional hub for customers and partners across the entire Gulf region, North Africa, the Levant and parts of Central Africa.
The organisation, which is licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, plans to provide a range of leases and loans for its products and services under "flexible terms". It says the offers will complement the channel financing that is currently available across the region.
David Clark, senior executive officer at Cisco Capital Dubai, claims that by simplifying the acquisition of its products, the company is able to help organisations retain their competitiveness in the tough economic climate.
"With tailored financing solutions, enterprises can use Cisco Capital offerings to facilitate the purchase or lease of new equipment with the flexibility to adapt as new technology becomes available or as business requirements change, while conserving precious capital and improving profitability," he said.
Sam Alkharrat, managing director at Cisco Gulf and Pakistan, insists the availability of IT financing will help emerging markets to develop quicker: "It is critical that companies in this region of the world have access to competitive financing so that they can invest in the latest technology to grow and meet new opportunities as the global economy recovers."
Cisco claims it is the first major IT company to open a financing entity in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).


ACR have over 30 years of industry experience in food processing and manufacturing, both their heritage and technical knowledge grow from strength to strength each year.Their multidisciplinary company spans Mechanical, Electrical and Electronic Engineering – Mechatronics, and they're known as a 'one stop shop' for enhancing and optimising production lines within a range of sectors.
ACR's existing website wasn't up to date, and needed modernising and freshening up to attract new clients.
We created a new site for ACR which showcased in detail what they do, what benefits they provide to customers and while maintained their professional look and feel. ACR saw a significant increase of business directly related to the creation of their new site.


The week that changed the world is the week of the first Easter. And it's also the title of a new Bible reading resource. In this 28 page booklet, 11 city workers reflect on 11 episodes from that week that culminated in Jesus' death and resurrection.
We hope you and your friends and colleagues profit from reading The week that changed the world. This page aims to give you some extra resources as you consider the week that changed the world.
Why is Easter so potent? Surely it is because Easter deals with the most spine-tingling topic possible: death, judgement, and the possibility of surviving them both.
"The great tragedy at the heart of Easter, the crucifixion of Jesus as a claimed king or messiah, is attested by Christian and non-Christian sources of the ancient world, and is considered as 'beyond reasonable doubt' by all reputable historians today."
See the box on the right for some pointers on how to read more of Luke's account of Jesus.
Can I take Luke's account seriously?
Dr John Dickson explains in this video why he finds the Easter story compelling.
What sort of literature is Luke writing?
Dr Craig S Keener suggests the gospels fit the genre of ancient biographies. See the video here.
Can we trust what we read in the Bible?
Professor Craig Blomberg answers a number of questions in this video: what do we know of the historical Jesus, can the Bible be trusted, and what about mistakes in the Bible.
Can we read Luke as both history and as a sacred text?
In this video, Professor Darrell Bock looks at whether treating the Bible as an historical document is incompatible with treating it as a sacred text.
What are the implications of Luke's message?
See the box on the right for a selection of podcasts that seek to draw out the impact of Luke's message in the 21st century.
The week that changed the world is now hot off the presses!
To get copies for you and your colleagues, contact your local state office. Cost is $2 per copy (plus postage).
For a sample – which includes 3 of the 11 readings – click here.
Has The week that changed the world given you an appetite to read more of Luke's account?
Click here for a PDF download of Luke's gospel. Alternately, you can read Luke online at Bible Gateway. It's available in a wide range of languages.
Or, if you like paper, you could ask the person who gave you The week for a copy of Luke.
The following podcasts seek to draw out the impact of Luke's message in the 21st century.


NEW YORK (AP) — This one year's Huge Bowl adverts are designed to entertain and jog down easy, as Stella Artois brings encourage Carrie Bradshaw and "The Dude" and the Backstreet Boys and Chance the Rapper remix the Nineties traditional "I Need It That Draw" for Doritos.
With adverts costing extra than $5 million for 30 seconds of media time, advertisers are playing that their spots will likely be among the few that stand out — with neutral a small of luck, now now not by drawing web scorn.
Many purpose for laughs, like Amazon's advert about broad title product testers. Others are taking one other route, including a heartfelt Microsoft place about an Xbox controller designed for avid gamers with disabilities.
Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker and other celebrities take a look at out rejected Amazon merchandise that characteristic its Alexa digital assistant, equivalent to a talking electric toothbrush and a canines collar.
The beer maker's effectively-known Clydesdale horses scoot thru a meadow dotted with wind generators to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' within the Wind," all to highlight how Bud will get brewed with renewable energy.
Actor Luke Wilson performs a "stop talker" (think encourage to "Seinfeld" for the reference ) as an example the advantages of toothpaste and mouthwash.
Disabled younger americans talk about excitedly about the enjoyable they fill got using an adaptive Xbox controller designed for avid gamers with mobility limitations.
This advert is staying below wraps except sport day, though we know the 2-minute place will kick off the league's one centesimal-season celebrations and would perchance neutral characteristic extra than 40 effectively-known soccer avid gamers from the past and demonstrate.
A alarm movie parody in which Sarah Michelle Gellar, threatened by a stalker in her house, can't unlock her phone with facial recognition — it looks on narrative of Olay merchandise fill improved her looks so great.
To tout its partnership with Water.org, which helps present orderly water to the creating world, the beer maker reveals two Nineties icons giving up their signature drinks for a philanthropy-supporting brew. "The Dude" — a Jeff Bridges persona from "The Colossal Lebowski" —forgoes his White Russian, whereas Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw from "*** and the City" eschews her cosmopolitan.
How is the automobile maker's original RAV4 Hybrid like Antoinette "Toni" Harris, a lady who performs soccer for a community faculty in California? Both bellow they fracture preconceptions.


text:
Venezuelan Navy Captain Who Allegedly Conspired Against Maduro Dies in Custody
Relatives of political prisoners demonstrate outside the headquarters of the United Nations Development Programme in Caracas on June 20, 2019 during the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Chilean Michelle Bachelet. (Photo by Cristian Hernandez/AFP/Getty Images)
VENEZUELA: A navy captain detained for allegedly conspiring against President Nicolás Maduro died in custody yesterday. Rafael Acosta had been arrested with five other military officials a week earlier. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó denounced the death, which comes alongside reports that the opposition and the government of Maduro may resume talks this week.
On Friday, the United States announced sanctions against 29-year-old Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, President Maduro's son, who will not have access to U.S. assets or firms. In Medellin, Colombia, the Organization of American States debated next steps for pressuring the Venezuelan government, though members were divided on the presence of a representative of Guaidó.
MEXICO: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) deployed a new National Guard yesterday to combat violence across the country. The guard, which was created seven months ago, will consist of members of the federal police, marines, soldiers and new recruits. After an initial deployment of 70,000 people, the National Guard will eventually grow to 150,000, according to AMLO. The focus of the National Guard will be to prevent and combat delinquency and preserve public security. Activists have expressed concern over the new guard, citing possible human rights abuses.
MEXICO: In response to the growing number of migrants waiting in Mexico for their asylum applications to be processed in the United States, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced a plan to provide factory jobs for 40,000 migrants in northern states. The deal is expected to be signed this week. Mexico has been overwhelmed with migrants as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for them to remain in Mexico. The jobs plan isn't the only solution AMLO has offered, however. Also over the weekend, Mexico deported 81 Haitian migrants in an attempt to stem the flow of migrants into the United States.
UNITED STATES: A Salvadoran man died in U.S. border custody after migrating with his daughter. The man, 43, was held at the Rio Grande Valley processing center in McAllen, Texas, for a week before he collapsed and later died at a hospital, officials said. The man's death adds to the growing number of migrant deaths in U.S. custody since President Donald Trump has been in office. The deaths have included at least seven children.
EL SALVADOR: The remains of a father and daughter who drowned at the Rio Grande last week were returned to El Salvador yesterday. The image of Oscar Alberto Martínez, 25, and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria sparked outrage and anguish around the world, with many blaming the intense migratory policing at the border. National authorities are expected to begin the repatriation process for the body of a 43-year-old Salvadoran man who died after collapsing at a border station in Texas.
PANAMA: On Friday, tourism authorities opened a new visitor center at the San Lorenzo Fort, a 16th Century military complex in the north of Panama. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980, the Fort is located on the Chagres River and was a strategic point along the gold trading routes from South America to Europe. Refurbishments also include the development of an educational program and an environmentally-conscious site agenda.
PUERTO RICO: The Financial Oversight and Management Board (JSF) filed a lawsuit that alleges several companies took fraudulent payments from the island's utility company (PREPA) for over a decade. The JSF says that Trafigura and Vitol, commodity-trading companies, supplied low-grade oil to PREPA. Three laboratories are also accused of falsifying test results meant analyze oil quality to secure the sale to the indebted power company.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: The intellectual author that wounded baseball star David Ortíz allegedly offered to pay $30,000 to kill the intended victim. Victor Hugo Gómez, a drug-dealer associated with the Gulf Cartel, has only paid $10,000 to the hitmen he hired to assassinate his cousin, Sixto David Fernández. Fourteen suspects have been arrested in the mistaken-identity ambush that occurred in Santo Domingo on June 9.
REGIONAL: The four South American countries making up the trade bloc Merosur reached a draft agreement with the European Union Friday, despite earlier warnings from French President Emmanuel Macron that he would not sign on if Brazil exited the Paris Climate Agreement. The EU's largest trade deal to date, the agreement will end billions of dollars in tariffs on a variety of agricultural and manufactured goods. Negotiations for the deal gained momentum after 2016, as talks between the United States and EU fell apart and political shifts moved South American governments toward an embrace of free markets. Mercosur has existed since the 1990s and includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The deal still needs to be finalized by both parties and approved in the European Parliament, where it is likely to meet resistance from environmental groups worried about deforestation.
CHILE: Facing criticism for the impacts of a new migration policy, the Chilean government is blocking the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) from inspecting embassies and consulates. INDH director Consuelo Contreras said the restriction will not affect the organization's work but called the government's attitude "worrisome and strange." Hundreds of migrants are stranded in the Peru-Chile border zone because they lack the documents necessary for the new "democratic responsibility visa." President Sebastián Piñera said from the G20 Summit in Japan that the new steps are necessary to protect the country's borders. Released last week, the visa allows Venezuelans to stay for one year, and it can be renewed for another 12 months.
Venezuela's Maduro to Fully Open Border With Colombia
Venezuela's Guaidó, Opposition Seek to Unite Under Big Tent
US to Ease a Few Economic Sanctions Against Venezuela


Has this car's time finally come? Probably not quite yet, but the improvements Nissan has made will open up a much larger market for it. In developing this second generation model, the Japanese maker has clearly listened to customer feedback. The biggest issue of course was driving range, but as well as enhancing that, the brand has also added a package of technology that will make buyers feel that they're at the cutting edge of automotive technology. Of course, some of the previous issues still remain. The car is still quite expensive to buy, the looks will divide opinion and you won't even be able to consider it unless you have off-street overnight parking. Little by little though, all-electric motoring is widening its customer reach. And, as it's always been, the LEAF remains right at the forefront of that change.


From Bucks Fizz to Daz Sampson, the UK has offered its neighbours in Europe some interesting delicacies across the 61-year history of the Eurovision song contest.
Ahead of Saturday night's finale, we take a look at the UK's most successful and most tragic attempts at wooing the continent in the competition.
After several second-placed finishes, the UK scored its first winner in 1967 as psychotherapist-turned-singer Sandie Shaw scored big with Puppet On A String.
Sir Cliff Richard (then known simply as Cliff) has represented Britain twice in the contest, finishing a respectable second and third with Congratulations in 1968 and later, Power To All Our Friends in 1973. Upon losing out to Spanish entry Massiel, and her song La La La La in '68, an emotional Cliff described having to lock the doors of the green room toilets to avoid TV cameras filming him crying.
Britain's prolific success continued as LuLu's Boom Bang-A-Bang shared the prize with France, Netherlands and Spain with 18 points apiece. The Scottish singer famously went on to record the self-titled soundtrack to The Man with the Golden Gun.
Another UK victory came in 1976 with Brotherhood Of Man's Save Your Kisses For Me. The band's manager Tony Hiller put the song's success down to their TV appearances across France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland the year before the contest.
The quartet's entry, Making Your Mind Up, won the contest in 1981. The band were formed specifically to enter the contest and their stage act, where the two male members ripped off the skirts of Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston, has gone down in Eurovision history.
Katrina And The Waves were the last British act to take the title, with their entry Love Shine a Light in 1997. It may have been the heyday of Britpop back home, but this gentle clap-along ballad was lapped up by the European public in a way that no British entry has managed since.
Years of disappointment have followed since the UK's last victory 20 years ago. However by far the most disheartening year was the infamous "nul points" for Jemini which left Britons weeping into their snack bowls. The duo's Cry Baby failed to get a single point for the first time in the UK's history, finishing last in the 26-nation competition held in Latvia. To add insult to injury, the band's dressing room was vandalised as they gave interviews following their defeat.
Oh, Britain. Daz Sampson and his tragically-named Sampsonites (young women dressed as schoolgirls) was perhaps one of the worst songs inflicted on the rest of Europe. But the UK's biggest sin was not allowing Sampson to perform his feign-rap in front of our continental neighbours. In fact the real damage had already been done after Teenage Life became a top ten hit in the UK singles chart.
A decade after Katrina And The Waves swept to victory, the UK sent its most kitsch entrant yet with Steps-lite act Scooch. The camp quartet and their air steward outfits came a lowly 22nd with their entry, Flying the Flag (For You). They received only 19 points, which included a maximum 12 points from Malta, who later revealed it was a protest against block voting.
Veteran crooner Engelbert Humperdinck fared no better in 2012, when his entry, Love Will Set You Free, only narrowly avoided finishing rock-bottom. "The Hump" scored a grand total of 12 points, with only Belgium, Estonia, Latvia and Ireland voting for him, leaving him just one position above bottom-placed Norway in Baku, Azerbaijan.


A certain little Prince has had his First Birthday! I can hardly believe it. We will party down when the whole family can be here in December but Mimi couldn't let the day go by unmarked. That is the good thing with a one year old, they can't read a calendar! Nor can his older sister. They will be none the wiser.
To mark the occasion I made a little romper. This is nothing like I originally planned. The fabric changed, the plate changed, the pattern changed. You get the picture. This was the final result.
The pattern I used was Daniel by Primrose Lane. I have used it before here. Again I am leaning towards inserts that aren't 4 and 5 inches high. On a little person that doesn't walk yet, that deep of an insert seems to bunch up into their faces while they are sitting. I had originally planned to use Beach Baby from AS&E but the only knit I had was white but not the same white as the insert fabric. So powder blue poly/cotton it was.
It is piped with Susie's Ready to Smock purchased piping. You may have noticed in the first picture that the sleeve cuffs aren't piped. I ran out of piping in the package. I had two packages marked with the same color but they are definitely from different dye lots.
The plate used was Ellen McCarn's "Tiny Rocking Horses." A plate I have had for yeeeears but never used. I didn't smock an obvious birthday plate because there was something waiting for him in the Mimi closet.
This is Bobby's Tabard Suit from Beacoup. It is out of print but I found it listed here on etsy. My pattern is MIA. The plate I used is Ellen McCarn's Birthday Bear.
I made it for another sweet boy's first birthday 21 years ago. I included this sweet romper in the Prince's birthday box along with other birthday goodies.
I hope you are planning a wonderful holiday either large or small. We are headed to the newlywed's house for the holiday. No one told her she didn't really want to host both sides of the family for the first holiday, eight weeks out of the gate. She has taken the plunge. We are headed her way to feast with most of the family. We will sorely miss those not with us but be thankful for AT&T.
Happy Thanksgiving to you faithful reader. Please remember those who are suffering around the globe at this time. We have so much to be thankful for.
Love the romper, the blue fabic is perfect with the insert.
The romper is so sweet,Martha. Have a lovely holiday with your family.
Perfect for the birthday boy! One will become a cherished heirloom, and the other one already is. I love that Hank will now be able to wear it.


text:
CES 2015 | Acer's 15-inch Chromebook is now official
Acer officially unveiled the world's first 15-inch Chromebook. In the United States, the Acer Chromebook 15 will be priced starting at $249.99.
by Mihai Andrici, 2015/01/05
Chromebook Laptop
As previously rumored, the Acer Chromebook family just grew a little larger with the addition of a particularly large model. The Taiwanese manufacturer is the first to announce a 15.6-inch notebook based on Google Chrome OS, the appropriately named Acer Chromebook 15. The basic model comes with an HD (1280 by 720 pixels) TN display, but customers can also opt for a high-quality FullHD (1920 by 1080 pixels) IPS display.
But the Acer Chromebook 15 comes with more than pure size. One version of the notebook comes with an Intel Core Broadwell i3-5005U CPU, a pretty potent option. Alternatively, the less-powerful Celeron 3205U CPU is offered at a lower price. Internal storage is done on an integrated SSD to ensure rapid access to local data.
The housing of the Acer Chromebook 15 is made entirely of plastic and will be available in either white or black. A grippy texture is layered on both of the outer sides. The Acer Chromebook 15 is 24 millimeters thick and has a weight of 2.2 kg.
In terms of connectivity, Acer has fitted in an 802.11ac module, as well as USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports (one of each), an HDMI port, and an SD card reader. Acer claims that the Chromebook 15 comes with a battery life of up to 8 hours.
Pricing varies by region and specifications. In the US, the basic model with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of SSD storage space, and an HD display will be priced at $249.99. Acer has yet to announce the exact pricing for the model with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a fullHD display. The first devices are scheduled to hit the market this February.
Acer Chromebook 15 Specifications
Operating system: Google Chrome OS
Display: 15.6-inch TN HD / FHD IPS
Processor: Intel Core of Broadwell generation i3-5005U or Celeron 3205U
RAM: Up to 4 GB
HDD: SSD up to 32 GB
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.0 Connections: 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, HDMI, Card Reader
Acer (Press Release)
IFA 2017 | Acer's Chromebook 15 is a fanless, multimedia-focused, premium Chromebook News @ 08/30/2017
Asus C201 Chromebook now up for pre-order News @ 04/24/2015
Acer unveils fastest Chromebook in the industry News @ 03/19/2015
Compal and RGS unveil education-oriented Chromebooks News @ 03/18/2015
Google updates Chromebook Pixel News @ 03/11/2015
Acer CXI: first Chromebox with 4K monitor support News @ 03/08/2015
HP Chromebook 14 goes on sale for $439.99 News @ 12/23/2014
Acer 15.6-inch C910 Chromebook rumored for 2015 News @ 12/12/2014
Samsung Chromebook 2 now with Intel processor News @ 10/19/2014
Adobe Photoshop for Chromebooks coming soon News @ 09/29/2014
Fanless Broadwell-powered Chromebooks could launch this year News @ 08/30/2014
HP Chromebook 11 now has a Bay Trail processor News @ 08/14/2014
Acer Chromebook 13 is now official News @ 08/11/2014
> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2015 01 > Acer's 15-inch Chromebook is now official
Mihai Andrici, 2015-01- 5 (Update: 2015-01- 5)


text:
from __future__ import unicode_literals

from django.db import migrations, models

class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('redditpoller', '0023_auto_20170314_1112'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.AlterField(
            model_name='watchedsubredditthread',
            name='title',
            field=models.CharField(max_length=500),
        ),
        migrations.AlterField(
            model_name='watchedsubredditthread',
            name='url',
            field=models.CharField(max_length=500),
        ),
    ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


CrypticImagesLatest Donald Trump Jr Wife news and image galleries.
The Latest: Donald Trump Jr.'s wife thanks first responders. 17, 2007 file photo, Donald Trump Jr.
Trump Jr.'s wife in hospital after opening envelope with white powder.
Donald Trump Jr. and wife welcome baby boy - NY Daily News. Donald Trump Jr. and wife Vanessa welcomed their third child on Sunday.
Donald Trump, Jr., wife Vanessa Haydon and four-month old daughter .... Donald Trump, Jr., wife Vanessa Haydon and four-month old daughter, Kai Madison, pose for photographers outside Nello's after lunch today.
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Who Is Donald Trump Jr.'s Wife? Vanessa Haydon Was A Model.
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Donald Trump: Ivanka, Eric, Donald Jr. Are Top Advisors | Fortune.
An unusual first family - Washington Post.
Donald Trump Jr: from childhood struggles to global notoriety | US .... Donald Trump Jr and his wife, Vanessa Trump.
Donald Trump Jr., wife Vanessa expecting fifth child - NY Daily News. Donald Trump Jr. (left) and wife Vanessa announced they are expecting their fifth child together, due this summer.


text:
Valerie Harper, fighting cancer, joins 'Dancing With the Stars': report
by TV News Headlines - Yahoo! News | August 29, 2013 at 1:18 am
By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Valerie Harper, who earlier this year announced that she'd been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, has signed on for the upcoming season of "Dancing With the Stars," TMZ reports. The former "Rhoda" star, 74, revealed her diagnosis in March, saying doctors had given her as little as three months to live. That period has passed, and Harper signed on in late July to star in the television film "The Town That Came A-Courtin" opposite Lauren Holly. That project will air on the cable network UP in January. …
2018 Gift Guide 2018: Bes...
'Boardwalk Empire&#...
Lisa Kudrow signs on for ...
Heroes of Science action ...
The Most Adorable Photos ...


text:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../../../scineplex.css">
<title></title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../../../Active.css" type="text/css" />
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<link rev="made" href="mailto:" />

NAME

AFFILIATION

DESCRIPTION

CONFIGURATION

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT

NAME

Perl::Critic::Policy::BuiltinFunctions::ProhibitStringyEval - Write eval { my $foo; bar($foo) }
 instead of eval "my $foo; bar($foo);"
.

AFFILIATION

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

DESCRIPTION

The string form of eval is recompiled every time it is executed, whereas the block form is only compiled once. Also, the string form doesn't give compile-time warnings.

    eval "print $foo";        # not ok
    eval {print $foo};        # ok

CONFIGURATION

There is an allow_includes boolean option for this Policy. If set, then strings that look like they only include a single "use" or "require" statement (with the possible following statement that consists of a single number) are allowed. With this option set, the following are flagged as indicated:

    eval 'use Foo';             # ok
    eval 'require Foo';         # ok
    eval "use $thingy;";        # ok
    eval "require $thingy;";    # ok
    eval "use $thingy; 1;";     # ok
    eval "require $thingy; 1;"; # ok

    eval 'use Foo; blah;';      # still not ok
    eval 'require Foo; 2; 1;';  # still not ok
    eval 'use $thingy;';        # still not ok
    eval 'no Foo';              # still not ok

If you don't understand why the number is allowed, see Perl::Critic::Policy::ErrorHandling::RequireCheckingReturnValueOfEval.

This option inspired by Ricardo SIGNES' Perl::Critic::Policy::Lax::ProhibitStringyEval::ExceptForRequire.

SEE ALSO

Perl::Critic::Policy::ControlStrucutres::RequireBlockGrep

Perl::Critic::Policy::ControlStrucutres::RequireBlockMap

AUTHOR

Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <jeff@imaginative-software.com>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005-2011 Imaginative Software Systems. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.


text:
Car crashes into Frankford building
(Photo courtest of CBS3)
Police and L&I officials are investigating a car crash that compromised a Frankford building.
A car crashed into a home on the 1700-block of Meadow Street last night, causing significant damage, and forcing residents to evacuate. There is no word yet on how the accident happened. L&I will need to determine if the house is in danger of collapsing.
Frankford Y's new owner promises he won't bring opioid recovery center to historic mansion
Ostroff said that while he doesn't know how he will repurpose the former community center, he hopes to use it as a school or a daycare.
SEPTA proposes new buses for University City, Roosevelt Blvd.
Venturi House, Frankford's Penn Fruit, and Northern Liberties row designated historic


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9th Circuit Denies En Banc Review for Juliana v. United States; Youth Plaintiffs Will Take Their Case to Supreme Court
by Our Children's Trust February 10, 2021 February 10, 2021
EUGENE, Ore. February 10, 2021 – Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by 21 youth plaintiffs for the full court to rehear their landmark constitutional climate lawsuit, Juliana v. United States. The youth plaintiffs say it is now up to the U.S. Supreme Court to correct the legal errors made in the 9th Circuit's January 2020 ruling and to protect the ability of federal courts to interpret the constitution and resolve controversies through a declaration of law.
The youth are also requesting that the Biden-Harris administration defendants and Department of Justice come to the settlement table.
The en banc petition was filed in March 2020 to address several legal errors in the 9th Circuit's January 2020 majority opinion, including its unprecedented holding that declaratory relief is unavailable to resolve a legal controversy in a case involving fundamental rights and that federal courts lack power to remedy constitutional violations.
"The Ninth Circuit failed to correct the legal errors in the panel decision," said plaintiffs' attorney Julia Olson. "A central component of our democracy since Marbury v. Madison is the ability of our courts to declare what the law is, and resolve the real controversies brought to them by the people. The Ninth Circuit has deprived people in that Circuit the ability to seek a resolution of a real controversy with their government, and hear a controversy about harm to the health and safety of children. It goes against Supreme Court precedent and the precedent of every other Circuit. That travesty cannot stand."
Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed the en banc petition on March 2, 2020, asking that 11 judges review their ability to bring constitutional claims that the federal government has harmed them by being a substantial cause of the climate crisis. A judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc, but the majority of judges declined to rehear the case. Plaintiffs say that by its actions — including creating and maintaining a national energy system powered by fossil fuels long after knowing that it causes climate change — the government has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property; the public trust; and equal protection of the laws.
Plaintiff Nathan B. said, "To quote Judge Staton from January 2020: 'If Plaintiffs' fears, backed by the government's own studies, prove true, history will not judge us kindly.' Contrary to what some may believe, it does not provide solace to have a new administration at the reins without the judicially enforceable remedy we seek. Political pressure does not recognize the fundamental rights of young people. Political pressures does not give us the due process and equal protection we require. The court does that. Today's decision will rightfully feel like the court has abandoned its role as the necessary constitutional balance for children, a voteless population. We are now left flailing in the rough seas of political expediency."
Plaintiff Sahara V. said, "I hope and need the Biden administration to hear what the youth are saying, and to recognize how we are disproportionately affected by climate change and we will face the consequences of this administration's actions and all the past administration's actions. I hope that President Joe Biden will understand the crisis we're in, stop fighting our claims and our rights, and will decide to come to the settlement table in our case."
Plaintiff Nick V. said, "I feel a deep sense of sadness that the Court has decided to neglect our rights and the rights of future generations to experience a livable climate."
In the January 2020 divided ruling, the 9th Circuit's majority opinion held that the evidence showed a) climate change was occurring at an increasingly rapid pace, b) the unprecedented rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels stemmed from fossil fuel combustion will wreak havoc on the Earth's climate if unchecked, c) the federal government has long understood the risks of fossil fuel use and increasing carbon dioxide emissions, and d) the government's contribution to climate change was not simply a result of inaction, but of affirmative actions. They also recognized that the youth plaintiffs had suffered concrete and particularized injuries from the government's conduct that causes climate change.
The youth plaintiffs are now between the ages of 13 and 24.
Our Children's Trust is a nonprofit public interest law firm that provides strategic, campaignbased legal services to youth from diverse backgrounds to secure their legal rights to a safe climate. We work to protect the Earth's climate system for present and future generations by representing young people in global legal efforts to secure their binding and enforceable legal rights to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate, based on the best available science. We support our youth clients and amplify their voices before the third branch of government in a highly strategic legal campaign that includes targeted media, education, and public engagement work to support the youths' legal actions. Our legal work – guided by constitutional, public trust, human rights laws and the laws of nature – aims to ensure systemic and science-based climate recovery planning and remedies at federal, state, and global levels. www.ourchildrenstrust.org/
Earth Guardians is a Colorado-based nonprofit organization with youth chapters on five continents, and multiple groups in the United States with thousands of members working together to protect the Earth, the water, the air, and the atmosphere, creating healthy sustainable communities globally. We inspire and empower young leaders, families, schools, organizations, cities, and government officials to make positive change locally, nationally, and globally to address the critical state of the Earth. www.earthguardians.org
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The university on Tuesday named the two additional candidates being considered for the chancellor position at the university's largest campus.
Rodney Scott Hanley, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., and Carlo Montemagno, a professor in engineering, chemical and materials engineering at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, are now two of four people being considered for the spot.
Carl Pinkert, vice president for research and economic development at the University of Alabama, withdrew from consideration, the university said Tuesday.
Hanley and Montemagno will be brought to campus in the coming weeks to interview with university officials and representatives of constituency groups, SIU President Randy Dunn has said. His office is scheduling one-day campus visits for the two candidates, which the university said will include an open forum and meetings "that reflect the itineraries of the first-round finalists." After the on-campus interviews, the four remaining candidates will interview with the SIU Board of Trustees.
During a board meeting Wednesday in Edwardsville, the trustees were expected to announce a permanent chancellor for the Carbondale campus, but instead voted to table the appointment and added Hanley and Montemagno to the list of finalists. University officials declined to name the two after the meeting.
The finalists who interviewed on campus in April include Pinkert; SIUC interim Chancellor Brad Colwell; George Hynd, president of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan; and Jeff Elwell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Elwell dropped out of the running in April after being offered the president position at Eastern New Mexico University.
Before starting at Fisk University, a historically black university, in 2014, Hanley worked for three years as provost and vice president at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. He was acting vice president of research, economic development and innovation for about a year there before.
At Lakehead, Hanley led a "major international recruiting effort," according to his curriculum vitae, in which the university saw an increase of 501 students, or 268 percent, enrolled from other countries in three years. That increased the university's gross revenue by more than $7 million.
From 2008 to 2011, Hanley worked as the dean of science at the University of Winnipeg in Canada. He was the chairman of the department of earth system science and policy at the University of North Dakota for three years before. From 2004 to 2008, Hanley worked as the director of graduate studies at the same department in North Dakota.
Hanley earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in environmental biology from Eastern Illinois University in 1991 and 1993, respectively. He received his doctor of philosophy in biology in 2001 from the University of Kansas and his master of studies in sustainability leadership in 2016 from the University of Cambridge.
A native of Decatur, Hanley has "significant experience in strategic and academic planning, budget development, fundraising, union and government relations," according to an online biography. He has experience in sustainability, social justice and diversity in higher education, among other things, according to that biography.
Hanley has also made outreach and recruitment of minorities a priority. During his time at Fisk, the "number of self-described Aboriginal or indigenous students enrolled" increased from 9 to 14 percent, according to the university.
Hanley served in the Persian Gulf War in the U.S. Army and the Illinois Army National Guard, according to his Fisk biography. He and his spouse have two adopted sons, one of whom was born in Ethiopia and the other in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Before starting at the University of Alberta, Montemagno founded the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati, where he worked as its dean for about two years.
He served as dean of the university's College of Applied Science for a year and from 2006 to 2010, worked as dean of its College of Engineering. He was as a professor of bioengineering from 2006 to 2012.
Montemagno is the founder and chief technical officer of Ingenuity Lab Carbon Solutions, which aims to transform flue gas carbon into specialty chemicals. He is also the founder of the Ensovi, LLC, which focuses on producing low-cost bioenergy and high-value products from sunlight, and Applied Biomimetics, which aims to develop high efficiency water purification systems. Both processes use bionanotechnology.
For several months in 2005 and 2006, he worked as the founder and chief technical officer at Bio/Solar Energias, LLC, which developed "spray-on, biosolar electricity-generating coatings using bionanotechnology," according to his curriculum vitae.
Funding for his commercial start-ups total $45 million.
From 2001 to 2006, Montemagno worked in various roles at the University of California. There, he founded and served as chairman of its Department of Bioengineering.
Before that, he was as an associate professor in biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University.
Montemagno earned his bachelor's degree in agricultural and biological engineering in 1980 from Cornell University and his master's in petroleum and natural gas engineering in 1990 from Pennsylvania State University. He received his doctorate degree from the department of civil engineering and geological sciences from the University of Notre Dame.


According to Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, the Denver Nuggets are one of nine teams that have inquired about a trade for San Antonio Spurs star, Kawhi Leonard.
The other eight teams listed are the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, Portland Trailblazers, Los Angeles Clippers, and the Washington Wizards.
A Leonard trade to the Nuggets would almost have to include one of Denver's core players — Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Nikola Jokic — which could be tough to stomach considering that Leonard could be nothing more than a one-year rental. For a look at what a deal would look like for the Nuggets to acquire Leonard, take a look into what other teams teams are not offering for Leonard's services.
Portland has yet to include the likes of CJ McCollum or Damian Lillard.
The 76ers have yet to include Markelle Fultz, Joel Embiid, or Ben Simmons in any trade talks.
The Celtics have made Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, and Kyrie Irving all off limits in trade talks with the Spurs.
Using those teams as examples, you can fill in the dots that the Nuggets would be hesitant to include any of these guys in trades: Murray, Harris, Jokic, or Michael Porter Jr.
Teams have been very cautious in trade talks for Leonard, and rightfully so, as he's an unrestricted free agent in 2019. Trading the farm to acquire Leonard for just one season isn't all that appealing to some teams, but whoever does acquire Leonard is getting a phenomenal player.
After sitting out almost all last season with a right quad injury, any team that acquires Leonard certainly has to be comfortable with his health moving forward. When Leonard is healthy, he is one of the best players in the NBA with his dynamic skill set on both ends of the floor. As a two-time defensive player of the year, Leonard would instantly become the best defender on whatever teams he's traded to. Defense is just the start of it, though — Leonard is also a dynamic scorer, averaging 25.5 points per game in the 2016-17 season.
There's no question the Nuggets would have to give up a lot to get Leonard, but would it be worth it to get one of the best two-way players in the NBA? That's the question Tim Connelly and his staff have to ask themselves as the 2018 offseason progresses.


We're all busy. Even the retirees in our Tribe are constantly on the go. With full days and restless nights, it's easy to feel like there just isn't enough time to slow down and care for ourselves. Fast food is one of the easiest shortcuts to take, but it also has abundant consequences in the body.
The person you follow on Instagram with a "perfect life" has exactly the same amount of time that you do.
The fact is, the person you follow on Instagram who has a seemingly perfect life has exactly the same amount of time that you do. Certainly everyone has different situations and stressors, but the reality is, you have time to make health happen! Health is a constantly unfolding journey; as different stressors and seasons enter our lives, we must adjust routines and strategies in response to keep ourselves on the correct path.
Every evening, wash apples*, blueberries, blackberries, cherries*, clementines, cumquats, figs, grapes, nectarines*, peaches*, pears*, plums, raspberries, strawberries*, or sapote for on-the-go snacks. Bananas and dates of course require little or no preparation!
Buy nuts, seeds, and healthy fats in bulk from retailers such as Farmer's Markets and Nuts.com in their most raw, organic, forms to ensure purity at budget-friendly prices. Avoid pre-roasted, salted, and seasoned nuts and seeds, which may contain hidden chemical additives.
Slice and bake several days ahead: acorn squash, broccoli, butternut, cauliflower, eggplant, parsnips, plantain, pumpkin, sweet potato, spaghetti squash, summer squash, turnips, winter squash, yams, yucca and zucchini for rich, healthy carbohydrates which help you stay full.
I like to prepare squashes as round discs which may be spread with avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, or raw honey and often will make large batches and freeze in individual-portion containers.
Packaged snacks should have as few ingredients as possible, and avoid chemical preservatives such as MSG and propylene glycol.
When facing overwhelm, remember that nutritious food is fuel that will power your days and give you the boost you need to get things done! Reverse "garbage in, garbage out" and watch your life transform before your eyes.
Better FOOD=Better FUEL =Better YOU!
Questions? Send me an email at drchelsea@atlantanaturalhealth.com.
*should buy organic based on EWG's 2018 Dirty Dozen list. Organic is always better, but if you have to compromise with your budget, EWG's Dirty Dozen list can help you prioritize which foods you absolutely must buy organic and which have lower toxicity levels. 2018's top 5 with the highest pesticide counts are strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, and grapes.
Disclaimer: Information presented on this page is for informational purposes only and is in no way intended as medical advice, as a substitute for medical counseling or treatment, or cure for any medical conditions nor should it be considered as such. You should always consult a licensed healthcare provider before making any changes to your diet, vitamins, prescription drugs, or exercise levels. The viewer assumes all risks of the use, non-use or misuse of this information. Chelsea Drda, Atlanta Natural Health Clinic and its doctors and staff are not responsible for misuse of this information, even if this disclaimer is not read or if content is shared with other users and platforms who misuse it.


text:
Q: MongoDB java connection in Mongodb java driver 3.12.1 I have mongodb 4.0 install in my Ubuntu 18.04.
I am using java-mongo-driver 3.12.1
I am uploading my code you can see that i have check different type of connections but it's not working.

How to solve this problem?

A: Give this a try, let me know what you think...
package test;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        com.mongodb.client.MongoClient client = connectToStandAlone();
        com.mongodb.client.MongoDatabase db = client.getDatabase("javatest");
        QueryData(db);
    }

    private static com.mongodb.client.MongoClient connectToStandAlone() {
        // STANDALONE STILL REQUIRES HOSTS LIST WITH ONE ELEMENT...

        java.util.ArrayList<com.mongodb.ServerAddress> hosts = new java.util.ArrayList<com.mongodb.ServerAddress>();
        hosts.add(new com.mongodb.ServerAddress("127.0.0.1", 27017));

        com.mongodb.MongoCredential mongoCredential = com.mongodb.MongoCredential.createScramSha1Credential("testuser", "admin", "mysecret".toCharArray());

        com.mongodb.MongoClientSettings mongoClientSettings = com.mongodb.MongoClientSettings.builder()
                .applyToClusterSettings(clusterSettingsBuilder -> clusterSettingsBuilder.hosts(hosts))
                .credential(mongoCredential)
                .writeConcern(com.mongodb.WriteConcern.W1)
                .readConcern(com.mongodb.ReadConcern.MAJORITY)
                .readPreference(com.mongodb.ReadPreference.nearest())
                .retryWrites(true)
                .build();

        com.mongodb.client.MongoClient client = com.mongodb.client.MongoClients.create(mongoClientSettings);

        return client;
    }

    private static void QueryData(com.mongodb.client.MongoDatabase db) {
        // DRIVER DOES NOT HAVE collection.findOne().

        com.mongodb.client.MongoCollection<org.bson.Document> collection = db.getCollection("people");
        com.mongodb.client.MongoCursor<org.bson.Document> cursor = collection.find(com.mongodb.client.model.Filters.eq("testfield", true))
            .sort(new org.bson.Document("review_date", -1))
            .skip(5)
            .limit(20)
            .iterator();

        while(cursor.hasNext()) {
            org.bson.Document document = cursor.next();
            String json = document.toJson();
            System.out.println(json);

            boolean testfieldValue = document.getBoolean("testfield");
            String ssnValue = document.getString("ssn");
        }
    }
}

A: I found simple solution.
I have added more jar files,in total we need (bson-3.12.1.jar, mongodb-driver-core-3.12.1.jar, mongodb-driver-sync-3.12.1.jar, mongodb-driver-sync-3.12.1-javadoc.jar). These are available in enter link description here
Now my code is working fine
import com.mongodb.client.MongoClients;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoClient;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoCollection;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoDatabase;

import org.bson.Document;
import java.util.Arrays;

public class MongoConnection {

 public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        // Create Connection
        MongoClient mongoClient = MongoClients.create("mongodb://localhost:27017");
        System.out.println("MongoDB connected successfully");

        //Accessing the database
        MongoDatabase database = mongoClient.getDatabase("java");
        System.out.println("MongoDB database connection ");

        //Creating a collection
        database.createCollection("first");
        System.out.println("Collection created successfully");

        //Accessing collection
        MongoCollection<Document> collection = database.getCollection("first");

        Document document = new Document("name", "Café Con Leche")
                   .append("contact", new Document("phone", "228-555-0149")
                                           .append("email", "cafeconleche@example.com")
                                           .append("location",Arrays.asList(-73.92502, 40.8279556)))
                   .append("stars", 3)
                   .append("categories", Arrays.asList("Bakery", "Coffee", "Pastries"));

        collection.insertOne(document);

    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
 }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The future of the fintech will require security, not just innovation
By Jesper Frederiksen 2018-10-16T10:30:34Z
To stand a chance of remaining successful in the future banking market, financial services companies must ensure IAM policies are thorough, while guaranteeing API security. Any lapses here will cost a company dearly.
(Image credit: Flickr / CafeCredit.com)
The UK's fintech sector is booming. Despite Brexit related uncertainty, it hasn't stopped investors ploughing $16bn into the UK fintech market in the first half of 2018 alone. These investments in the UK surpassed those made by both of the world's financial power houses, the US and China. It remains Europe's main hub for financial technology start-ups, providing over 60,000 jobs and contributing around $7 billion annually to the economy.
As the jewel in the UK economy, investors recognise the need to capitalise on their relentless push to innovate, disrupt and democratise away from old, entrenched ways of doing business. With the arrival of the open banking regulation, banks and fintechs are also under pressure to innovate at pace and provide customers with personalised on-demand services. From blockchain to AI, crypto-currency to peer-to-peer lending, the sheer range of new ideas originating in the banking industry is exciting. But the continued success of the UK fintech market, will rely on the investment organisations place on security.
Championing the cloud
In an ultra-competitive market, traditional high-street banks are scrambling to pursue digital transformation projects to become more agile in the face of aggressive time-to-market, fierce competition for customers and changing business models shifting from product-centric to customer-centric. But whether it's an old banking giant or a new challenger bank, it is cloud computing that provides the foundation of the modern era of banking.
For IT leaders the cloud is crucial as it supports the rapid, continuous development of application-based services, enabling firms to react quickly to market demand with innovative new offerings. The scalability and elasticity supports a more agile business and empowers fintech firms to be more efficient, doing more with less.
Initial hesitancy with adopting more cloud-based solutions, owing to concerns over the leakage of financial sensitive data, is now seeing a decisive shift towards the cloud, owing to the rise of challenger banks such as Monzo, Revoult and Sterling. Recently, the Royal Bank of Scotland trialled two standalone digital banks under its NatWest brand, to launch online only offerings to compete with challenger banks. Again, it is the cloud's ability to support users anytime, anywhere, on any device that is vital for a mobile, app-driven world.
From a regulatory perspective, cloud technology has helped banks and fintechs achieve compliance in the era of GDPR. The new regulations enable customers to contact organisations to access their personal data and have this removed if required. The traditional server infrastructure in banking is often cumbersome, making it far more difficult to access customer data. By using the cloud, banks can quickly locate and address some the data breaches and questionable handling of customer data that has been seen in recent times.
API security is key
But this innovation must not come at the expense of security. The evolving technology and regulatory landscape have meant that cloud technologies must have security baked at its core.
Financial services must also not overlook the security risk associated with the creation of banking apps in the open banking environment – in particular, API security. As developers within banks and fintech companies use APIs to connect technologies (most commonly apps, but also platforms and systems), they create new digital banking innovations and remove barriers to allow more efficient, simpler ways to kickstart innovative programs.
But while the value of inter-connected applications is undeniable, there are also significant risks. APIs provide open connections between platforms, a failure to protect these connections will provide hackers with the opportunity to attack API services with both stolen or invalid credentials. It is essential that developers and security teams within these organisations pay close attention to securing APIs.
To illustrate this, if you visualise opening a door, you want to make sure only the right people (or in this case, apps) have the correct keys. You can do this by specifying the conditions under which actions are taken, giving you precise and confident control over your APIs. Additionally, integrating and identifying contextual factors such as IP addresses, geolocation, and device identification can increase security and reduce credential-based attacks.
Be vigilant to internal threats
With the boom in online banking and mobile apps, identity access management (IAM) becomes essential for securing financial services. External threats such as hackers are most commonly associated with identity theft and fraud, but too often internal threats are neglected. Banks and fintechs must realise the cybersecurity risk associated with their employees. Both human error and malicious intent could lead to damaging data loss/theft. Mistakes made by staff accounted for 62 per cent of all breach incidents reported to UK the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), according to research from 2016.
Staff could be tricked into clicking on convincing-looking phishing links designed to harvest their credentials. Malicious insiders are even harder to spot as they will do their best to cover their tracks. Some may even take data with them to a competitor when they leave. The 2018 Insider Threat Report estimates that 90 per cent of global organisations feel vulnerable to insider-related risk. The main contributing factors highlighted by IT leaders are too many employees with excessive access privileges (37 per cent), and an increasing number of devices with access to sensitive data (36 per cent). For financial services companies, these problems are particularly acute.
The answer lies in changing the way companies regulate IAM so employees only have access to systems, apps and platforms they need, and that access is granted in a secure manner. A vital starting point is moving away from relying on passwords alone and use risk-based multi-factor authentication on all of infrastructure. Adopt stronger authentication policies that ensure employees have access to only the information they need to do their work.
Security and innovation breed success
In the battle to dominate the market share in the modern era of banking, players in the financial services industry realise they must be agile, collaborative and scalable. They are under pressure to innovate at pace to appeal to a customer base that no longer cares for blind banking loyalty. But banks and fintechs cannot neglect cybersecurity risks at the expense of innovation.
The rise of digital banking means consumers are placing more personal data and information in the hands of these companies. Cybersecurity, in particular internal access management, becomes a key driver in attracting and retaining customers new and old. To stand a chance of remaining successful in the future banking market, financial services companies must ensure IAM policies are thorough, while guaranteeing API security. Any lapses here will cost a company dearly.
Jesper Frederiksen, GM EMEA, Okta
Flickr / CafeCredit.com
financial service company


text:
Pennsylvania's Burning Ghost Town: Centralia's Eerie Remains
What a World
Michael Brennan/Getty
The coal mines that were the key to Centralia's success also fueled the small Pennsylvania town's smoky demise in a massive 1962 fire that is still burning to this day.
Nina Strochlic
Updated Oct. 24, 2019 1:13PM ET / Published Aug. 23, 2015 12:01AM ET
Centralia started burning half a century ago and hasn't stopped.
The small central Pennsylvania town once literally had a ground full of potential, but it was destroyed by the substance that made it prosper: its coal veins.
Centralia was founded in 1866 as a coal mining town, booming with saloons, hotels, and miners getting rich through the area's burgeoning industry.


NEW YORK, NY – December 1, 2017 – Aspen Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASPU) ("Aspen Group"), a post-secondary education company, today announced it has completed the acquisition of United States University, a regionally accredited for-profit university based in San Diego, California. The acquisition is in accordance with the terms set out in the agreement announced by the company on May 18, 2017.
"The acquisition of United States University will allow Aspen Group to achieve its vision of making college affordable again on a much broader scale. I can't thank Linden Education Partners and Ms. Oksana Malysheva, PhD enough for selling United States University to Aspen Group and for allowing us to consult with them over the past six months. This will allow us to grow the university at a much faster pace given the great teamwork that's been taking place. We intend to appoint Ms. Malysheva to Aspen Group, Inc.'s Board of Directors later this month and look forward to her sharing her unique industry insights and experience in the coming years as a Director," said Chairman & CEO, Michael Mathews.
"We at Linden Education have long held a vision that high quality education should be both affordable and accessible. Michael and the Aspen team are the leaders in this movement, and we are pleased to be joining forces with their team in this important endeavor," said Oksana Malysheva, Managing Partner of Linden Education Partners.
Aspen Group, Inc. will be drawing $2.5 million under its $10 million senior secured term loan with Runway Growth Credit Fund to complete the cash payment of this acquisition and for working capital purposes.
Stifel acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Aspen Group, Inc. on this transaction.
Aspen University's mission is to offer any motivated college-worthy student the opportunity to receive a high quality, responsibly priced distance-learning education for the purpose of achieving sustainable economic and social benefits for themselves and their families. Aspen University is dedicated to providing the highest quality education experiences taught by top-tier faculty – 54% of Aspen University's faculty hold doctoral degrees. To learn more about Aspen University, visit www.aspen.edu.
United States University began its institutional history in 1997 as InterAmerican College in National City, CA. Its initial focus was the provision of affordable educational opportunities to working adults, Latinos, and educated immigrants to increase bilingual capacity in education and healthcare in Southern California. In 2010, the school was renamed to United States University and recently moved its campus into the heart of San Diego. United States University is regionally accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, offering bachelor and master level degree programs in nursing, education, health science, and business & management. To learn more about United States University, visit www.usuniversity.edu.
The USU website & social team brings you all the latest news and events both on-campus and off.


By happy chance, it was on a three-day break near Christchurch when time became available to be immersed in this highy readable, well researched and beautifully illustrated book.
And by further coincidence the re-opened Christchurch Art Gallery had exhibitions which incuded works by some of the name players – Rita Angus, Evelyn Page, Louise Henderson and Doris Lusk among them – whose marvellous work peppers these pages.
Former Christchurch student and academic Peter Simpson (head of English at Auckland Universty for many years), knows the physical and intellectual territory of the city and the period he focuses on here: He has previously written on many of the key figures, notably Allen Curnow and a terrific, revelatory book on artist Leo Bensemann.
But here he turns his focus on that larger question of just why there was such a flowering of the arts in this globally remote and very small city between the wars and into the early Fifites.
He perhaps draws a long bow when styling the fluid interactions of these forward-thinking, frequently Left-leaning and often sexually progessive artists through work, relationships and feuds with that of Britain's Bloomsbury group.
Yet there was an undeniable thread of social idealism as they embraced – defining it for themselves in innovative and often daring work – the idea of "the new". And more importantly – and this separates them from Britain's Bloomsbury – what it meant to be a New Zealand artist and to respond with a "positive provincialism" says Simpson, further noting that with the emergence of European facism many were rightly wary of the idea of "nationaism".
When, in '46, James K Baxter insisted a "poet or an artist must choose here and now whether he is a transplanted Engishman or a New Zealander" he was articulating a position which was echoed by many others.
But even those not tied to dogma were enthusiastic about making a post-Depression break with the stifling past and conservative present.
That is the vigour of youth, and in the tight mileu of Christchurch's small arts scene they found like-minded peers, and mentors such as the poet and the champion of many, Ursula Bethell who was some three decades the senior of most.
Simpson notes she served "as a kind of literary midwife to [essayist Monty] Holcroft and [Eric] McCormick, two of the most searching and influential critics of the era".
Interestingly however, Simpson also quotes Charles Brasch in a letter to Bethell on Holcroft's ideas about New Zealand literature which shows how critical thinking ran in advance of the emerging work: "It is very strange this examination of the themes or the background to the themes of a possible NZ imaginative literature before the literature has been created; but it is itself creative, I think, & may be more important than anything else that has been written on or about NZ".
That was in '43 and although an identifiable New Zealand vernacular would subsequently emerge with greater clarity, Caxton Press had already weighed in with work by Fairburn, Glover and others, and was also providing a forum for illustrators.
The Australian-born academic Winston Rhodes was also provocative on this subject when reviewing Caxton's '34 collection New Poems selected by Ian Milner and Gover, he noted that – using A.R.D. Fairburn as his touchstone – "moden New Zealand verse is learning to swear, developing its dogmas, and sooner or later should be able to practce the art of quarrelling . . . . I cannot help noticing that the voices of the writers are uncertain and strident".
(Although as recently as this past month a review of recent New Zealand poetry collections made not disssimiar observtions . . . and quarrelling has certainly been a facet of that small and frequently insular world).
Curnow fired back in the preface to Poetry and Launguage for Tomorrow in '35, "I have written for those 'literary' people – professors of English, graduates, editors of newspaper literary columns and their satellites – who have not yet passed the elementary stages of a reasoned understanding of the art of poetry".
This is emblematic of the incestuously small world these character inhabited. Cresswell – who had advised Bethell on what poems to include in her '36 collection Time and Place -- reviewed it favourably; it was also favourably reviewed by painter Toss Woollaston whom she had championed and supported . . .
If the literary arts were dominated by men, the visual arts at the time were largely the domain of women: Rata Lovell-Smith, Ngaio March whose theatre work is given excellent coverage (right, photographed by Clifton Firth, 1941), Evelyn Page, Olivia Spencer Bower, Louise Henderson and Rita Angus are all effortlesly examined by Simpson, although of course Woollaston, Bensemann and many other males rightly appear in these pages.
As opposed to the literary world however, there were fewer dogmatic statements or an interest in imposing an over-arching ideology in the visual arts. Landscape art and portraiture allowed for utterly individual visions by definition, albeit framed by the artist's own style and technique. Colin McCahon not of the temprament to be constrained by anything other than his own ideas.
Simpson traverses all this territory in considerable and telling detail, and offers insightful focus on the work.
So what happened to this exciting scene and its practitioners?
There were deaths of course . . . and departures: Frederick Page and his artist wife Eva as early as '46 to Victoria University in Wellington; Lilburn the following year at Page's invitation; Curnow overseas in '49 then to Auckland in '57; Angus in '53; McCahon to Auckland in '53 . . . .
There were also the inevitable divisions (some bitterly personal) and new pubishers such as Pelorus and Pegasus challenging Caxton's monopoly of poetry and culture, the emergnce of other outlets such as Landfall . . .
In some instances booze and bad relationships also took their toll.
And the notion of nationalism turned to international and then individualism in subsequent years.
So that crucible of creativity (and conflict) was diluted and dissipated, but the ripples rolled ever outward.
Bloomsbury South is an excellent account of a crucial and defining period in New Zealand's cultural, social and intellectual life.
Another important book by Peter Simpson who writes with clarity, insight, flair and restained, thoughful passion for his subjects.


Petrol and diesel prices were increased by 28-31 paise per litre across Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai on Friday. Petrol and diesel prices are currently revised on a daily basis. The new rates are passed on to fuel stations at 6 am every day. Petrol prices were hiked by 29 paise per litre in Delhi and Mumbai, 28 paise per litre in Kolkata and 30 paise per litre in Mumbai, data from Indian Oil Corporation showed. Diesel prices were raised by 29 paise per litre in Delhi, 30 paise per litre in Kolkata and Mumbai, and 31 paise per litre in Chennai.
Petrol prices have been raised in the range of Rs. 0.97-1.03 per litre across Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai in five straight days. Diesel prices have been raised by Rs. 1-1.24 per litre. Petrol and diesel prices have been hiked for five straight days.
Prior to the five consecutive hikes, petrol and diesel prices were not raised for about three weeks before Karnataka elections. Because of this, oil marketing companies (OMCs) now need to raise petrol prices by Rs. 4.6 per litre, or 6.2 per cent, and diesel rates by Rs. 3.8 per litre, or 5.8 per cent, according to brokerage Kotak Institutional Equities.
With Friday's increase, diesel price in Delhi was at a fresh all-time high while petrol price in Delhi was about 0.6 per cent away from an all-time high of Rs. 76.06 per litre, recorded in September 2013.
With effect from 6 am on Friday, May 18, petrol retailed at Rs. 75.61 per litre in Delhi, Rs. 78.29 per litre in Kolkata, Rs. 83.45 per litre in Mumbai and Rs. 78.46 per litre in Chennai, according to Indian Oil Corporation. Diesel prices were at Rs. 67.08 per litre in Delhi, Rs. 69.63 per litre in Kolkata, Rs. 71.42 per litre in Mumbai and Rs. 70.8 per litre in Chennai.
Crude oil prices climbed above $80 per barrel on Thursday for the first time since November 2014, before retreating on a stronger dollar and climbing US output to end unchanged. Global inventories of crude and fuel have dropped sharply in recent months owing to robust demand and OPEC or Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries-led production cuts.
"The current hike has come in the wake of US sanctions that are expected to severely limit the exports from Iran, one of the biggest producers in the Middle East… For the Indian consumer short-term pain at the pump is going to stay… we do not expect a very steep hike in the prices in the medium term, the prices in the short term would remain volatile with a positive bias," said Rahul Agarwal, director, Wealth Discovery/EZ Wealth.
So far this year, petrol prices have been increased by Rs. 5.64 per litre in Delhi, Rs.5.57 per litre in Kolkata, Rs. 5.58 per litre in Mumbai and Rs. 5.93 per litre in Chennai, according to data from Indian Oil, the country's largest fuel retailer. Diesel prices have been raised by Rs. 7.44 per litre, Rs. 7.33 per litre, Rs. 8.15 per litre and Rs. 7.97 per litre respectively.
The rupee has recovered for two straight days against the US dollar. On Thursday, it closed at 67.70 against the greenback. Despite the pullback, some experts believe that the possibility of the rupee heading towards the 70 mark against the US dollar is increasing.


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text:
In the Footprints of Mozart is a 1914 American silent short drama film directed by Tom Ricketts starring Ed Coxen, George Field, Winifred Greenwood, and Ida Lewis.

Cast
 Ed Coxen as Stanton, a young musician
 Winifred Greenwood as Ruth, his sweetheart
 Ida Lewis as Ruth's mother
 George Field as Mozart, age 30
 Charlotte Burton as Mozart's wife
 William Bertram as Joseph Allen
 Edith Borella as Wife of an old friend of Stanton
 John Steppling as a businessman
 Harry De Vere as a musician
 Adelaide Bronti as a poor neighbor

External links

1914 films
1914 drama films
Silent American drama films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
Films about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1914 short films
Films directed by Tom Ricketts
1910s American films

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home > Hart > Contract, Tort & Restitution Law > The Humanity of Private Law
The Humanity of Private Law
Part I: Explanation
By: Nicholas McBride
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About The Humanity of Private Law
The Humanity of Private Law presents a new way of thinking about English private law. Making a decisive break from earlier views of private law, which saw private law as concerned with wealth-maximisation or preserving relationships of mutual independence between its subjects, the author argues that English private law's core concern is the flourishing of its subjects.
THIS VOLUME
- presents a critique of alternative explanations of private law;
- defines and sets out the key building blocks of private law;
- sets out the vision of human flourishing (the RP) that English private law has in mind in seeking to promote its subjects' flourishing;
- shows how various features of English private law are fine-tuned to ensure that its subjects enjoy a flourishing existence, according to the vision of human flourishing provided by the RP;
- explains how other features of English private law are designed to preserve private law's legitimacy while it pursues its core concern of promoting human flourishing;
- defends the view of English private law presented here against arguments that it does not adequately fit the rules and doctrines of private law, or that it is implausible to think that English private law is concerned with promoting human flourishing.
A follow-up volume will question whether the RP is correct as an account of what human flourishing involves, and consider what private law would look like if it sought to give effect to a more authentic vision of human flourishing.
The Humanity of Private Law is essential reading for students, academics and judges who are interested in understanding private law in common law jurisdictions, and for anyone interested in the nature and significance of human flourishing.
1. Five Tough Cases
2. Three Explanations of Private Law
3. A Different Picture
4. Evaluating Private Law
2. An ABC of Private Law
1. Duty and Obligation
2. Rights
4. Powers and Disabilities
5. Interests
6. Functions
3. Human Flourishing I – The RP
1. The Nature of Flourishing
2. Finnis' Account
3. Four Modifications
4. The RP
4. Our Basic Obligations
1. The Basic Model
2. Two Objections
3. The Basic Obligations Claim
4. Protected Interests
5. Balancing Interests
6. Property Interests
5. The Law of Transactions
1. Gifts and Wills
2. Contracts
3. Trusts
4. Companies
6. Encouragements to Transact
7. Coda: The Nature of Unjust Enrichment
6. Preserving Legitimacy
1. Conditions of Legitimacy
2. The Objective Standard of Care
3. Responses to Torts
4. Triangles
5. Rent-Seeking
6. Informality
7. Assessing the Explanation
1. Five Tough Cases Revisited
2. Strict Duties
3. Strict Liabilities
4. F and Legal History
5. The Kantian Challenge
6. Final Thought
"McBride's claim that a particular conception of Human Flourishing … possesses a better explanatory fit to the private law currently in force in England and Wales than, say, Law and Economics, private law Kantianism, and "private law Moralism" is itself novel and sufficiently motivated to make it worth reading the book." – Claudio Michelon, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Law Review
Nicholas McBride
Nicholas J McBride is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He is the best-selling author of Letters to a Law Student (4th edition, 2017), (with... More Info
30 April 2020, PDF eBook
30 April 2020, Hardback
30 April 2020, EPUB eBook
27 December 2018, EPUB eBook
27 December 2018, Hardback
Key Ideas in Contract Law
10 August 2017, Paperback
10 August 2017, EPUB eBook
10 August 2017, PDF eBook


June, Wednesday 2, 2004 – Sarous: Once upon a time there was a young man named Sarous.
Evolved from a fish, I'd say, and maybe that's the truth; but he's been a doctor for so very long now that it's hard to tell.
Spoke the gospel of King Snorn to the stickbugs, the fishes, the moles, the stones, and the rats. Sarous was one of thousands, tens of thousands, of citizens of that great grey kingdom born that day. And he had a vision.
His vision was an estimable one.
"Imagine that we could see the animalcules of imperfection," he said to Melissa, who would later be his wife.
Is all imperfection of human origin?
Sarous drank two and a half cups of coffee before he found his answer.
"No one would prefer to cause suffering," he said.
So he went to his lab and he labored there to become a doctor, and from there to learn the techniques necessary to discover, diagnose, and purge moral decay. He found the animalcules of senseless cruelty and the general systemic pathology of spinelessness. He dug out for the first time the organ of privilege— not the testicles, as Yaoharneth-Lalai had hypothesized, nor yet the ovaries (as bitterly avowed by Mung), but rather a small sexless nodule of dubious provenance crunched up between the bowels and the gall. He caught at last the monopole that makes a jackass bray and the thwarted man to pout; he made a vaccine against the brutal rage; and if he found no general solution, no lens to show imperfection nor purgatives to sweat it out, still he grew legendary in the art of detecting and treating moral degeneration and decay.
In the early days he tested his diagnoses often on Melissa; at first as experiments, and then as control, and finally with a strange urgency to find a flaw, as if the negative results he found were illegitimate to a one.
Yet still something moved in him— something strange and uneasy, that kept his hand hovering near the latest draw of Melissa's blood.
"Oh, you will," she observed.
He thought about it. Then he laughed again.
She had a qualm that day, but he qualmed it out; for all his strange obsessions the intentions of her husband were still good.
Medicine advanced. The technology of Sarous' work improved. He demonstrated practical results of clear legitimacy: sinners redeemed, murderers unmasked, qualms uncoiled into repentance, certainty, or calm. Word of his skills spread throughout the kingdom.
It became very popular for the people to submit their enemies and their goads to him for testing. Occasionally this had the desired outcome; at other times, it had a null result, or rebounded upon the issuers of these claims of moral decay.
It was in that latter fashion that Dr. Sarous deposed King Snorn.
And Sarous ran his tests.
Slowly the King's head sank onto his chest. His beard crunched against his tabard; and he thought.
"It is too deep," Sarous said.
Despair condensed to ice in the King's veins. He went still. His eyes fell closed. His white hair hung around his head. He slept and he did not wake again. His body went cold and then turned to stone upon his bench. The people acclaimed Dr. Sarous to his throne, and asked him to purge unrighteousness from their ranks.
They built the ziggurat to honor him.
Everywhere they lauded Sarous' name.
And in quiet and alone in the deeps of night, Melissa had a thought.
He ran his seven hundred and thirty-first test of her the morning after. He frowned at the results. He ran the test again.
He looked at the palm of her hand and he saw the marks of it, the faint red flush of moral decay.
Leaning close he saw the touch of it on her throat, in the smallness of her backpack, in the blackness of her hair.
"It is not curable," he said. A cold wind blew.
"—I must try a cure," he said.
His thoughts were far away, with the results of the test, with the structure of her disease. Could he get it out, he wondered, if he bled her soon enough? If he operated? Could he preserve some portion of her, perhaps, to be later grown again?
"You're not listening, love," she said.
He blinked. He refocused. He looked at her face. Of course. I am not listening.
"It isn't logically possible for your diagnostic techniques to be correct," she said.
"You'd say that," he agreed.
And she talked, she explained, on and on she talked, but he did not listen.
And she still thought then, to judge her smile, that she would win this fight, and perhaps on equal grounds she ought; but it was all symptoms, you see; all symptoms, every word of it, and it was not sign.
You won't believe your nosebugs!
I haven't written in a while — other than to discuss Hitherby Tarot — because I've been very busy. But I thought I'd dash off a bit about evolution.
I'm fully aware that evolution can be used in a general sense to represent an attempt to improve oneself in some way. But, given that the Roomba in the Tower as an LED that reads "Evolution occurs over multiple generations" (or something like that, I haven't looked it up), the standard biological understanding of evolution seems relevant. Evolution requires replication, mutation, and selection pressure. Not all of these seem to be present, so the mention of what's happening as evolution seems a bit off. It wouldn't if it didn't seem so pseudo-biological, perhaps.
BTW, when Sarous has the thought "I can fix this broken world", he becomes, essentially, a selection pressure. The population that he culls will evolve to show less imperfection by his standards. It doesn't matter, for this process, whether they actually are imperfect or not.
rpuchalsky: I'm getting the impression that the evolution in this case isn't biological, but mental, and in this portion of the Hitherby universe, the physical form is a manifestation of the mind. The more sophisticated the mind, the more human-like the physical form. Evolution in this case does not seem to me to describe a generational process, rather, a series of epiphanies.
ethan_greer, I guess what I meant to say is that evolution doesn't really mean an increase towards greater sophistication. Sure, people use the word casually to mean "a series of epiphanies" or something, but the current storyline has so many biological elements (for instance, morality through medicine) that the casual use of the word is beginning to crack.
One requirement for evolution is economics — scarcity — because without that, there's probably no selection pressure. The Paradise-Fall story could be seen as a kind of story about the beginning of evolution — both reproduction and selection pressure start at the same time. As such it would seem to have a good deal to do with the Hitherby theme of imperfection being in some ways better than perfection (because it at least gives you somewhere to go, something to do).
The best, most interesting popular book for evolution, in my opinion, is probably Dawkins' _The Selfish Gene_.
There exist entities in the Hitherby universe who would prefer to cause suffering. The monster. Martin, if it was transformative. Possibly siggorts count.
I'm not sure I really understand this entry yet, but all the stuff about lenses and fixing the broken world seems like a critique of Jane and Martin's methods.


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