text:
Larry Alford.
Search and Discovery
If you think Google has made doing scholarly research a cinch, U of T's chief librarian Larry Alford has news for you
June 19, 2013 | By Scott Anderson
With its 44 libraries on three campuses, U of T's library system is the third-largest among North American universities. Guiding the ongoing development of this vast information resource is chief librarian Larry Alford. Alford joined U of T last year from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he was dean of University Libraries. He spoke recently with editor Scott Anderson.
What are the biggest challenges facing U of T Libraries?
One of the challenges that all libraries face is making sure that students are wise and savvy users of information resources. We think search engines have simplified access to information, but in many ways technology has made finding information more complex. People don't know what is hidden to search engines, or what complex databases are not included in the library's standard discovery tools, or what articles are peer-reviewed and behind pay walls.
Secondly, the digitization of vast amounts of information provides a new opportunity for the expansion of human knowledge. Researchers can look at trends through newspaper articles or other publications across centuries. They can analyze data to look for connections across different disciplines or within one discipline. This is an area where librarians need to work with faculty and graduate students as facilitators.
What is the library doing to meet these challenges?
This year, we started a pilot project called "personal librarians" to make sure that first-year students have the name and email of a person who can help them use the library. It's been so successful that we'd like to find the resources to extend it to every first year student and then to every undergraduate and ultimately every graduate student and faculty member.
We have some fascinating projects going on with faculty using information in new ways. For example, an economics professor is working with our staff to do sophisticated economic trend analysis of the oil industry in Canada. We are planning to hire a librarian whose role would be to work directly with faculty on projects like this.
Can you speculate about how technology might change the library over the next few years?
Students are increasingly using mobile technology, so we're trying to make sure our discovery tools are usable on mobile devices. We're also working to make sure the library is present in social media spaces. While I think printed books will continue to be an important part of how people learn and convey information, electronic books are going to become increasingly important. U of T Libraries already has more than a million electronic books, and over the next five years I suspect we will see the number of printed books we acquire decline significantly.
How will technology change the way students and faculty use the library?
In many ways, but broadly speaking, digital information collapses the amount of research that can be done into a much shorter period of time. At my previous institution, I worked with a student who did an honours paper using some 18th-century collections we had online. The research he did in a semester would have taken a faculty member 20 years ago much of her career to do. This holds huge potential for the advancement of human knowledge.
What library values or services won't change?
Libraries are still very much about acquiring materials and preserving them, regardless of the format, so that they are still accessible hundreds of years from now. Many of the blogs and websites that led to the Arab Spring are now gone; they just disappeared. And yet pamphlets distributed in Paris by various factions during the French Revolution still exist, stored in libraries. We in libraries must begin to acquire and preserve the "pamphlets" of the 21st century – blogs, websites and other digital commentary on the events of our time.
Have you made any exciting acquisitions lately?
A donor is making possible the acquisition of the lifetime correspondence of General James Wolfe, who led the English forces in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. We're very excited because this is such an important part of Canada's cultural heritage and history. We are also acquiring the personal library of Marshall McLuhan. These are the books McLuhan used to develop his ideas, complete with marginalia and passages he underlined. For McLuhan scholars, it's a treasure.
What do you think about the Open Access journal movement?
It's hugely important. Faculty members do a lot of important research in many different disciplines, which the university and taxpayers support. The research then becomes scholarly articles, which are peer-reviewed and published in journals. Often these journals are behind expensive pay walls. There is a cost to peer-reviewing and publishing articles that has to be paid for. But the final results of scholarly communication also need to be broadly accessible – not just at the universities that can afford to pay for them. Open access publishing has the potential to contribute enormously to the growth of human knowledge and understanding.
How might the current model change?
Changing constructs that have been in place for a hundred years is difficult; it has to be incremental, not revolutionary. I think this is happening. We're increasingly seeing journals becoming open access but also governments are beginning to insist on this. The Canadian Institutes for Health Research implemented a new policy that requires any peer-reviewed articles that came out of CIHR-supported research to be in an open access depository within 12 months of publication.
Let's talk about the physical renovations that have recently taken place at Robarts, and a proposal for a significant addition
Russell Morrison and his wife, Katherine, gave much of the money that made the renovations possible. Part of the plan is to construct the Robarts Common – a 1,200-seat space off of Huron Street, which will provide additional study space for students and places for collaboration and group study. I think this will make a huge difference to student life on this campus. We've raised about half of the money for that. We need about $18 million more to get construction started.
What has impressed you the most so far about U of T Libraries?
It's one of the world's great libraries. I'm not sure that this is always recognized in Canada or at the university. The Fisher Library was just named number two on a list of the top 50 library spaces in the world. It's a national treasure. On my second day here, I went from looking at some of our 11th-century illuminated manuscripts to our data centre. The extraordinary staff here bridge that 1,000 years with their expertise and knowledge.
A shorter version of this Q&A appeared in the Summer 2013 print edition of U of T Magazine.
Tags: U of T Libraries
Editor, University of Toronto Magazine
You Can Learn More Than You Think from a Beer Label
In U of T Libraries' collections, scholars find the raw material for their research
More Study Space Is on the Way
Robarts Common will create new places for students to study, work together and access the world's digital knowledge
By Sharon Aschaiek
Russell J. Morrison Believed in Libraries
One of U of T's most generous benefactors, he helped improve study spaces for students
More Faculty & Staff
Fadi Masoud Wants to Save Our Cities from Flooding
In Toronto's transforming waterfront, he sees the beginnings of a more resilient urban form
By Katrina Onstad


In these past six months, we've all had our shares of ups and downs, but it really feels like we've created some sustainable awareness and made positive changes in the way we take care of each other and ourselves.
Macroeconomic news took a back seat to markets last week. The sell-off in China continued and the crisis in investor confidence, amidst the summer vacation season, led to a global retrenchment, with most global equity markets losing ground last week.
I wish I could say this is a motivational post, but if I did you would certainly be disappointed. What it is, however, is the God's honest truth.
U.S economic data improved last week, lifting confidence that the U.S. economy is on solid footing. It appears the economy has survived the stronger U.S. dollar and confidence breakers of the Greek debt crisis and softer first quarter economic data.
Should you "pull back" from a bull market?
In early 2015, the current bull market hit a milestone when it became the fourth-longest run-up since World War II. But such a long-running rally presents investors with a dilemma: Should they stay invested and hope for more profits, or cash out to "lock in" gains?
The challenge is almost over and Team Tingalls has put in the effort to Get Fit! Fitness and health are a big part of our corporate culture at Tingalls Graphic Design. From stretching breaks, to actual exercise — we've made fitness and healthy living a part of our daily lives, inside and outside of the workplace.
There are many aspects of fitness that all of us are addressing as part of the Get Fit Challenge. The exercise components include strength, balance, flexibility, and aerobic capacity. It's amazing that just a little bit of exercise can yield pretty rapid results. When at the gym, now I can easily handle mixing up my treadmill work with sprints. On weight machines, I'm gradually increasing the pounds. I'm holding planks longer and getting closer to real pushups.
Will the Fed end its zero interest rate policy soon?
Data on consumer spending for the second quarter showed that growth remains modest, with some indication that consumers continue to focus on managing their balance sheet rather than maximizing spending.
We're closing in on the last few weeks of the challenge, and I'm feeling great! I haven't lost as much weight as I would have liked, but I've continually seen the number on the scale go down each week. Plus, I'm building muscle and feeling stronger than ever before.
Like most people, over the years I've tried many times to lose weight and get in better shape. I've joined a gym, tried dieting, and even tried quick weight-loss foods and other gimmicks. While I initially experienced some short-term success, none of these worked long-term. I ended up getting frustrated, stopped what I was doing, and lost any progress that I'd made.
Could July unemployment numbers signal Fed rate increase?
The release of this week's July employment report will likely receive heightened interest from Federal Reserve watchers after last week's soft second quarter Employment Cost Index report. Private industry wages and salaries rose just 0.2% for the second quarter and have gained only 2.2% over the past year. The Fed has noted liftoff from zero interest rates will be data dependent. Wage growth is a key sign to the Fed of health in the employment market.
When I was approached about taking part in the Get Fit Challenge I was very excited — not only to represent Applied Tech, but also to jumpstart a summer workout routine! It just so happens I am also getting married this fall; yet another reason to get in shape!
I could talk about business accolades all day. But what can I say about Steve Huck, the person, outside of work that is just as positive?


You can now include articles on your website with our new articles add-on! Set-up your own categories in each MarketGrabber edition. Articles can include photos, video and social networking links. Optimize your articles with title, description and keyword metatags.


text:
Robert Dover broke ground as the first openly gay Olympian
Equestrian athlete was a six-time Olympian and four-time bronze medalist
By Josh Barr
When he competed in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games, equestrian athlete Robert Dover said he focused solely on the satisfaction he took in representing the United States at the Olympics, on home soil no less.
He enjoyed living in the Olympic Village with a view of the pool and the swimming and diving competitions.
"My recollection was watching on TV as our swimmers and divers won medals and looking out the window at the pool and being psyched," Dover said. "The whole mood of our Olympic Team was fabulous. We were yelling, 'U-S-A, U-S-A!' as we went into the Olympic stadium and we were living as a team.
"The last thing on my mind was my sexuality."
Dover had known he was gay for a few years, but he was not yet comfortable with being openly gay. He then lived two years in the mid-1980s in Germany, where he feared he had contracted AIDS. Upon returning to the U.S. for the Olympic trials and finding out that he was healthy, Dover resolved to change and try to help others.
"That next year, when I came home to get ready for the Olympics in Seoul, I said, 'You know what? This is not how I'm going to be with people,' " Dover said. "I made a statement that I was gay and I was very concerned about the fact that so many people within the equestrian community were dying of this disease."
Dover and Robert Ross – now his husband for more than three decades – founded the Equestrian Aid Foundation.
At Seoul 1988, Dover became the first openly gay athlete to compete at a modern Olympic Games. While living in the Olympic Village, traveling to watch other sports and during equestrian events, Dover said, he would look around and try to figure out how many athletes were gay but had yet to come out.
"It wasn't like people were waving gay flags, but in most sports there were gay athletes," said Dover, a six-time Olympian who won bronze medals in four consecutive Games beginning at Barcelona 1992. "They say people have gaydar, we could see very easily who we were."
While Dover was the first openly gay Olympian, it was not until the past decade or so that more elite gay athletes have let their sexuality be known, such as figure skater Adam Rippon, hockey player Julie Chu, freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy and soccer player Megan Rapinoe, among others.
"It is incredible how much people have evolved, all over the world," Dover said. "There is a big, big difference and I have been fortunate enough to live through all these changes."
Dover remained involved with the Olympic Movement for several more years – coaching the Canadian team at the London 2012 Olympic Games and then coaching the U.S. team to a Pan Am gold and a bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games — and said he always felt accepted.
"I know there are divers and swimmers who have a different story to tell with regard to how they were treated in their sport," Dover said.
"I feel very fortunate that the equestrian community is made up of progressive thinking people for the most part and I feel like that the U.S. Equestrian Team and the federation itself has always been very fair with me and they have been my family."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Sheridan Junior High School seventh/eighth-grade science teacher Rachael Esh is like many of her students, with limited exposure to many STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
Esh was among 30 teachers -- mainly from various Wyoming school districts -- who were on the University of Wyoming campus this summer for a 10-day schedule that included various STEM-related workshops.
The program was originally developed when Natrona County School District (NCSD) leaders and teachers created a strategic plan to boost graduation rates. They worked with UW instructors in developing the program.
Esh says she has not had professional development opportunities related to STEM, but has had other opportunities for professional teacher growth, such as place-based education.
Esh says the program was beneficial and will help her communicate to her students the importance of STEM-related careers.


•	As soon as a student enrolls at Foothills and the initial transcript is analyzed, Counselors will use the graduation calculator to determine the timeline until graduation upon each scenario.
•	The student name, staff name, and date, along with number of credits remaining is placed in this programmed online-form, producing a variety of graduation timelines to the student, based on the student's time commitment to work.
•	Print this and place a copy in each student's folder maintained at the Reception desk, so student have a regular opportunity to view, and can discuss with Mentors as the student progresses through courses.
•	Complete a new Graduation Calculator at each Fall and Spring parent meeting (during the FTE window) to update progress.


This literature review will cover four elements of communication theory: the power of real life spaces like conferences and community building, the influence of opinion leaders, and the potential of digital optimism. These four elements will be applied later be in the TED's Case Profile and further examined in TED's Case Analysis and Discussion.
5. Each book can be read in a single session. Just an hour or so. I see this as a terrific fit for our over-busy lives. One reason reading has been in decline is that it's just too daunting to start a traditional 80,000-word book knowing it will take hours and hours to complete. You could argue that traditional books are the length they are in part because people once had fewer competing claims on their leisure time, and in part because the physical nature of a printed product means that books have to be a couple hundred pages long to feel like value for money.
But today the question to ask of a non-fiction book is: what is the right length to explain this idea? There are many 80,000 word nonfiction books that communicate most of their value in a couple of chapters, the rest padded out because -- well, gee -- books just have to be a certain length. We're excited to offer books that are mostly in the 15,000 - 20,000 word range. And just as an 18-minute talk can often (because of the discipline of compression) be better than a 60-minute talk, so these short books encourage authors to offer focused gems of explanation.
6. Our authors rock! Most of them have given TED Talks (and these are included by the way, in each book as a video epilogue), but the books dig into their subject matter far more deeply than their TED Talk ever could. A TED Talk is typically 2,000 words. These are 10x more. From the future of humanity to the secrets of happiness, these books offer transformational thinking.
We certainly don't think any TED talk offers all there is to know on any topic. Of course not. But you can learn enough to get excited about knowing more. A TED talk is not a book. It is not a peer-reviewed scientific paper. It can't be either of those things. Nor does it want to replace them. On the contrary, it wants to amplify them and bring news of their significance to a broader audience.
But understanding the world isn't just about digging deep. One of the biggest problems of modern intellectual life is that everyone is buried too deeply in their own trench and has little visibility of what is going on elsewhere. Today's world of knowledge is simply too vast, too intricate for anyone to be at the leading edge in multiple fields.
And this has dangerous consequences. Most of our worst problems can't be tackled successfully without multidisciplinary thinking, which is impossible unless you can find a way for people to understand each other. One of the reasons people come to TED is to hear from some of the world's leading experts in a way that's accessible. If you want to be a psychologist, go to university. But if you want to get important insights on which aspects of modern psychology might be relevant to your life or work, you could do a lot worse than listen to Dan Gilbert. Or Barry Schwartz. Or Amy Cuddy. Or Danny Kahneman.
So in a world where ideas are pared to bite-size morsels and spoon fed via social networks, and people themselves aren't really inclined to act on them anyway, what is the real-world value? What's the point? The point is that ideas can and do matter. The world is a better place because people had ideas about equality and science and creativity. TED's not wrong, some ideas are worth spreading (though I'd question whether or not TED is the best judge of just which ideas should be spread—they once had Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love deliver a talk on "genius"). But ideas require action to make a difference. If we care about something, clicking a "Share" button or a "Like" button is literally the least we can do and we shouldn't be surprised to discover the world can't be changed through the Facebook newsfeed.
TED is just a conference, after all; one with entry fees and free juice. But as a conference, it struck me as one of the more enriching and engaging ones. One of the more legitimately valuable conferences I've attended. Are parts imperfect? Yes. Cringe-worthy? Perhaps. Is it out of touch sometimes? How could it not be? Are TEDsters in love with themselves and their ideas? Definitely.
What better kind of Temporary Autonomous Zone — what more useful kind — can you think of than one built on new ideas?
So although Lara Stein, the TEDx program head, first joined the ValenciaWomen Reddit discussion with a flat explanation of policy ("While we do vet licensees carefully, we do not review or approve every speaker lineup....From time to time, a licensee gets it wrong....If we feel there has been a blatant disregard for the TEDx rules, we will not renew the license"), she and her colleagues eventually started engaging with critics, asking them questions and teasing out more-constructive feedback.
The TED team asked members of the "TEDx movement" for more feedback and for help monitoring the quality of events. The team also offered help with vetting speakers. The message was clear: Spreading important ideas was the shared purpose, improving quality was a shared problem, and it would take a shared effort to fix it.
These two things -- great ideas and the human connections they create -- make TED a unique phenomenon. Other conferences, such as the World Economic Forum in Davos and D: AllThingsDigital in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, have similar elite A-list rosters. But TED, which takes place annually in Long Beach, California, is the only one that fully exploits the power of what you might call, with apologies to Cisco, the human network. In the nine years since publishing entrepreneur Chris Anderson bought TED, it has grown way beyond a mere conference. By combining the principles of "radical openness" and of "leveraging the power of ideas to change the world," TED is in the process of creating something brand new. I would go so far as to argue that it's creating a new Harvard -- the first new top-prestige education brand in more than 100 years.
Of course TED doesn't look like a regular Ivy League college. It doesn't have any buildings; it doesn't grant degrees. It doesn't have singing groups or secret societies, and as far as I know it hasn't inspired any strange drinking games.
Still, if you were starting a top university today, what would it look like? You would start by gathering the very best minds from around the world, from every discipline. Since we're living in an age of abundant, not scarce, information, you'd curate the lectures carefully, with a focus on the new and original, rather than offer a course on every possible topic. You'd create a sustainable economic model by focusing on technological rather than physical infrastructure, and by getting people of means to pay for a specialized experience. You'd also construct a robust network so people could access resources whenever and from wherever they like, and you'd give them the tools to collaborate beyond the lecture hall. Why not fulfill the university's millennium-old mission by sharing ideas as freely and as widely as possible?
If you did all that, well, you'd have TED.
I certainly hope this is true, and take that to be a sketch of an appealing possible world. But I'm not really sure it's the most likely outcome. After all, as Brad DeLong likes to point out the "get a bunch of people in a room to listen to some guy talk" model of education was an organizational response to the high price of books. In principle, it would seem to have been made obsolete by the printing press and the public library. Yet obviously that didn't happen. Colleges and universities managed to make themselves indispensable sources of credentials and social prestige. And though they've of course incorporated information technology innovations into their work, they still engage in an incredible quantity of pre-Gutenberg educating.
Which is just to say that I think there's a need to not just let this process play out, but for alumni of the richest universities—people like Salam and Kamenetz and myself—to take some direct action. Simply put, people need to be told that giving money to fancy colleges mostly seems like a big waste rather than something praiseworthy. Money should be given to educational institutions (whether at the K-12 or "higher" level) that are doing good work helping children from underprivileged backgrounds (and, no, offering generous financial aid to kids from poor families and then not admitting any doesn't count) or else to innovative programs aimed at diffusing knowledge much more widely than a pool of several thousand undergraduates. Institutions will change when people try to force them to. People give money to non-profits in order to elevate their social status—if we change social conventions about what constitutes praiseworthy donating, then things will change.
The success of TED doesn't mean that traditional elite institutions don't have a place. But it provides a very constructive kind of competition. As TED's "mindshare" expands, we will hopefully see more efforts like MIT's OpenCourseWare, if only because elite schools don't want to lose their relevance and their influence. Eventually, the mission of these schools, with their vast resources, will focus more on the wider public than on their own enrolled students, thus delivering more educational bang-for-the-buck. TED is, in a small but important way, teaching educators how to solve the problem of scalability.
...Duly noted. Those are Fast Company's words, not TED's. Everyone I've spoken to there has been far from smug or grandiose; more like awed and humbled by the power of what they've unleashed in the community of folks--a vast majority of whom are neither famous, nor rich, nor Westerners--who are proud to call themselves TEDsters. But I stand by the comparison, because I think it brings up interesting and provocative questions, and that's what we're here for.
The point of the article is that the quality of the education TED provides (mainly for free) is of the same or better quality as you would get at a top university. That brings up the questions of how necessary a college education is today and what the future of education looks like tomorrow.
I think about this question all of the time for various reasons. For example, I have a college degree in Computer Science. I do not have a degree in music, and that hurts me in certain ways. I have no doubt that some speaking/performance opportunities may never open up to me in music unless I get a music degree.
Sometimes, I consider doing that. It is tempting. But then it occurs to me that I may not need one. After all, I study with a top college teacher already. He helps me with everything I really need to know from composition to theory to performance. I can't imagine that any theory class in any university in the country would be much better.
If I want even more, there is a wealth of information available in books and online. In other words, opportunities like TED are available to musicians too. For a very modest amount of money and effort, you can get a world class musical education without ever enrolling in a university. And if you go that route, you will not have to take classes that you don't want/need and won't have to deal with certain other things that waste time and productivity.
Now granted, TED is taking a big brand risk. But brand strategy is all about taking calculated risks that may allow you to extend your brand in new and interesting ways.
I think TED did mitigate some of that risk by not allowing the community to use the main TED brand itself (which remains tightly controlled), but instead giving them their own (albeit dangerously similar) brand in TEDx.
In addition, the TEDx strategy has helped TED fix one of its main brand weaknesses—the perception that it is elitist. In one year, TED has transformed from a brand that you can "see but not touch" to a more open brand that allows anyone to participate.
It is truly amazing to see how the TED community has embraced the new approach. Just take one look at the page listing all of the upcoming TEDx events. Staggering.
The one place where I worry most for TED is in the experience of the TED brand. With 700+ events being held in one year, will everyone who runs a TEDx event do an equally good job in the caring and feeding of the brand?
My guess is, without some sort of TED or TED-community-based oversight, there will be a few bad brand experiences in that bunch. Hopefully the large quantity of good experiences will drown out the bad ones.
So to sum things up, was TEDx a brand risk in the traditional sense? Yes.
But in my view, the risk is so heavily outweighed by the community and brand-extending benefits that it was absolutely a risk worth taking.
The big brains at TED schooled their rabid audience Friday on the perils of pseudo-science. The ultimate warning: presenting bad science on the TEDx stage is grounds for revoking your license.
Random word associations have long been a part of the TED approach, but it's called poetry, not science. And while no licenses have been revoked for presenting bad science yet (the Charlotte TEDx license was renewed even after the Powell incident), TEDx is giving its community fair warning that it's an option they will exercise if necessary.
As we wrote last year, some of the die-hard TED faithful have been grousing about audience fragmentation and cliques-within-cliques at the conference since its move to Long Beach a few years ago. People — especially some from Silicon Valley– have pined for the days when everyone was stuck in the same hotel in Monterey and there wasn't much else to do except listen to speakers, have great conversations and get to know one-another.
Until this year, the only option was inventing a time machine or another conference with the same panache, A-list attendees and editorial chops. Both would take time. So entrepreneur and conference organizer Francisco Dao has a more immediately feasible idea: Rent out a hotel in Monterey, sign up for the TED live feed, get a bunch of huge screen TVs and bean bags and invite fifty of the most interesting people he can find to virtually attend the conference together. The idea is brilliantly obvious: No one disputes the quality of the TED content, it's the breakdown of the community that has some attendees in a funk. So Dao isn't remaking or reinventing the content, he's reinventing the community in the mold–and even in the location–of classic TED.
"How To Deliver A TED Talk" is a complete guide for creating presentations that inspire others through your story. Based on intensive study of the most popular TEDTalks, this step-by-step playbook shows you how to select your topic, craft your narrative, master your delivery, and refine your design.
This logo creator is based on the original work by Yongho Shin, and maintained by Brian Alexander. Source is available on GitHub at https://github.com/ironprogrammer/tedx-logo-creator. If you encounter any issues, please let us know on the issues page.
Enter the name of your TEDx event then hit enter on your keyboard.
There's the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, for financiers, the Sun Valley retreat for media moguls, and Renaissance Weekend for the political set. Then there's a range of TED offshoots and wannabes, from EG and TEDMED, both started and later sold by Wurman, to the ultra-hip techie fests such as South by Southwest, PopTech, and Techonomy. Wurman will add another three to the mix in the next three years: Prophesy 2025, the Geeks and Geezers Summit, and FEDMED.
The business model of hosting conferences has become increasingly appealing to various business sectors, particularly the media industry, as newspapers, hit by a downturn in advertising, look for new ways to squeeze money out of their brands. To the attendees who pay four to five figures to attend, sometimes six for premium tickets, and to the invitees who agree to be the bait for those who pay, the lure is the promise of being on the cutting edge of a new thought, one that hasn't yet been committed to the internet or spread virally on social networks.
Soulellis.com is an online design journal founded in 2001, featuring ephemera, commentary and work by Paul Soulellis.
Pick it up, Anderson & co. Start culling the herd and making your talks rare animals again—instead of just cash cows. Save me, save me, save me from yet another TED diatribe by an overly-coached tween.
TED Talks America was built by makers -- curious, enthusiastic amateur inventors whose tinkering habit sparked whole new industries. At TED@MotorCity, MAKE magazine publisher Dale Dougherty says we're all makers at heart, and shows cool new tools to tinker with, like Arduinos, affordable 3D printers, even DIY satellites.
TEDxSummit Thursday Morning Sessionon TEDxWorkshop on Livestream - Watch live streaming Internet TV. Broadcast your own live streaming videos, like TEDxWorkshop in Widescreen HD. Livestream, Be There.


text:
<SageTVPlugin>
  <Name>Picasa Web Albums</Name>
  <Identifier>picasaWebSTVI</Identifier>
  <Description><![CDATA[Allows you to browse your Picasa Web Albums in SageTV]]></Description>
  <Author>evilpenguin</Author>
  <CreationDate>2010.08.24</CreationDate>

  <ModificationDate>2010.08.24</ModificationDate>
  <Version>1.0.1</Version>
  <Desktop>false</Desktop>
  <OS>Windows</OS>

  <Screenshot><![CDATA[http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10975&d=1282870226]]></Screenshot>
  <Screenshot><![CDATA[http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10977&d=1282870305]]></Screenshot>
  <Webpage><![CDATA[http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50447]]></Webpage>

  <ReleaseNotes>
    * v1.0.1
    * Initial Release
  </ReleaseNotes>

  <PluginType>STVI</PluginType>

  <Dependency>
    <Plugin>picasaWebScraper</Plugin>
    <MinVersion>1.0</MinVersion>
  </Dependency>
  <Dependency>
    <STV>SageTV7</STV>
    <MinVersion>7.0.9</MinVersion>
  </Dependency>

  <Package>
    <PackageType>STVI</PackageType>
    <Location><![CDATA[https://github.com/OpenSageTV/sagetv-plugin-repo/releases/download/1/picasaWebSTVi_v1_0.zip]]></Location>
    <MD5>18F72A505496D7AB26BFC26703BB1761</MD5>
  </Package>

  <STVImport>picasaWeb.stvi</STVImport>

</SageTVPlugin>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home. > IRV America > IRV In the News > All Articles
IRV in the News...All ArticlesCommentaryOp-EdsEditorialsLetters to the Editor
Reforming runoffs could boost turnout
By Erik Engquist and Daniel Massey
Published October 18th 2009 in Crain's New York Business
State Sen. Liz Krueger says instant runoff voting would do more than save the expense of repeating elections when no candidate gets 40% of the vote. It would reduce negative campaigning and boost turnout, she says. Voters would rank candidates, and if no candidate wins a majority of No. 1 votes, the last-place finisher would be dropped and a new count made combining No. 1 and No. 2 votes, and so on until someone surpasses 50%.
"Candidates don't want to be seen as nasty [to rivals], because if they can't get your vote for No. 1, they want your vote for No. 2," says Ms. Krueger, D-Manhattan.
She has a bill pending that would allow localities to implement instant runoff voting. The bill would not have affected the increasingly nasty mayoral race, but it could have elevated David Yassky over John Liu in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary for city comptroller. Turnout plunged in the runoff two weeks later, and Mr. Yassky lost by 12 points.


Despite careful monitoring, I do not take any responsibility regarding any information and content displayed on external linked websites. I will not assume liability for any damages resulting from this website.
Unless otherwise indicated, all images and content on this website are copyrighted. It is not allowed to use any of it for commercial purposes without prior written permission.
© 2018 Anna Albertine Baronius. All rights reserved.


The Ithaca Little Red continued their dominance of STAC and Section IV opponents by winning all 12 events vs Visitor Vestal.
Seldoen Oshoe had her best times of the season on her way to winning both the 100 Fly and 100 Breast. Indie Stratton (100 Free and 100 back) and Annika Browning (200 Free and 500 Free) were also double individual winners. Jordan Lu won the diving and is currently undefeated in dual meet diving competition.
The Little Red are now preparing for the Shenedehowa Invite, where they will swim against some of the top teams in the state, including reigning state Champion, Pittsford.


text:
Black Listed Entertainment TV & Film
HBO is Adapting Lydia Diamond's Broadway Play "Stick Fly"
Black Listed Fashion Style
The EBONY Fashion Fair, Making and Changing History
Black Listed News Social Justice & Activism
Ruby Bridges and Desegregation
Black Listed Entertainment Music
Prince Launches European Piano Tour
Black Listed Celebrities Entertainment
Woman Charged With Caring for Bobbi Kristina Was Impostor, Police Say
Bad Brains Guitarist on Life Support
Black Listed News What's Happening Now
Students Call Attention to Racism on Social Media
Black Listed Lifestyle Society
Trayvon Martin's Mom Gets Candid
Clinton to Meet With Members of Black Lives Matter Movement
Breaking News: 10 Things to Know on October 8, 2015
Black Listed
HBO is Adapting Lydia Diamond's Broadway Play "Stick Fly"
A screen adaptation of Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly has been ordered by HBO.
You'll recall that a recent Broadway run of the play was produced by Alicia Keys and Reuben Cannon, with Kenny Leon directing, and a cast that included Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Dulé Hill, Mekhi Phifer, Tracie Thoms, and Condola Rashad, who was nominated for a Tony Award (Best Featured Actress) for her performance.
The play was met with mixed reviews, opening on December 08, 2011, and closing on February 26, 2012.
Stick Fly chronicles the a weekend of secrets, prejudice, hypocrisy and adultery that are exposed during a well-to-do African American family's weekend stay at their home in Martha's Vineyard.
And now the family dramedy is headed to the small screen, in what will be an hour-long drama, adapted by the playwright (Lydia Diamond), with Alicia Keys and Nelle Nugent executive producing along with HBO.
Word is that HBO has only committed to a script, so a lot of work still has to be done before we see this fully realized on our TV screens.
No word on whether the stage cast will follow Diamond, Keys, and the play to the screen.
In this article:alicia keys, broadway, hbo, Lydia R Diamond, stick fly
Rashid Johnson & Sanaa Lathan on the Cultural Relevance of 'Native Son'
Phylicia Rashad Set to Make Broadway Directing Debut
Issa Rae's Reaction to Recent Pregnancy Rumors Is Hilarious
Lena Waithe Is Joining the Cast of 'Westworld' Season 3


Reduce costs and save time! Use our powerful web application for your negotiations and Request for Quotations.
Reduce the paper work! Manage all supplier documents and contracts centrally. Evaluate your suppliers with some clicks.
You need support for online Auctions? You need support to implement an e-Sourcing solution? Use our experts on demand.
Why choose Clickbuyer? Ask our customers.
In our first e-Auction event we saved over 26% on the RFQ prices. This was a great result. The team of Clickbuyer identified for us the successful negotiation design!
- Michael Kayser, Procurement Manager at Turner Ltd.
Our web-based e-Sourcing solution is easy to use for buyers and suppliers. We are confident that: "A complex negotiation in Clickbuyer is easy like on ebay and a professional supplier evaluation is easy like on booking.com". We implement only features which brings substantial value add for our users. Clickbuyer fulfills the security requirements of companies like Siemens.
Customers benefit from the experience and expertise of our e-Sourcing specialists. We implemented e-sourcing solutions in large procurement organizations as well as in small and medium companies. It is important for us to support you personally in your specific procurement projects. For that reason, we offer the e-Auction execution service.
The trainings for our e-Sourcing system are of course at no additional cost for our customers. We provide online and onsite trainings. The objective of the expert training is the effective use of procurement methods like e-auctions, supplier evaluations, balance of power or preferred supplier lists in your organization.
You have already a supplier database and don't want to lose or duplicate the data? No problem. We can import regularly your supplier data into Clickbuyer. The interface solution can be a simple excel file or the data can be transferred for example via ftp.
We are a small company without a procurement department, but with the support of Clickbuyer we were able to reduce by 12% the prices for two of our main components.
Intensify the competition among suppliers and close the negotiation in a short time. Some of our customers are using the following features successfully since more than 9 years.
With Clickbuyer some administrative tasks are done faster. Use the following features to win transparency and optimize the process flow.
You have a negotiation case where you want to conduct an online auction? We analyze your specific negotiation case and find the best solution to achieve your targets.


text:
Mylothris carcassoni is een vlindersoort uit de familie van de Pieridae (witjes), onderfamilie Pierinae.

Mylothris carcassoni werd in 1948 beschreven door van Son.

Witjes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
=pod

=head1 NAME

Bio::EnsEMBL::Compara::Production::GenomicAlignBlock::DeleteAlignment

=head1 SYNOPSIS

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module deletes a specified alignment. This is used in the low coverage genome alignment pipeline for deleting the high coverage alignment which is used to build the low coverage genomes on.

=head1 PARAMETERS

=head1 CONTACT

Post questions to the Ensembl development list: ensembl-dev@ebi.ac.uk

=head1 APPENDIX

The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods.
Internal methods are usually preceded with a _

=cut

package Bio::EnsEMBL::Compara::Production::GenomicAlignBlock::DeleteAlignment;

use strict;
use Bio::EnsEMBL::Registry;
use Bio::EnsEMBL::Compara::Production::DBSQL::DBAdaptor;
use Bio::EnsEMBL::Utils::Exception qw(throw);
use Bio::EnsEMBL::Compara::Graph::NewickParser;

use Bio::EnsEMBL::Hive::Process;

our @ISA = qw(Bio::EnsEMBL::Hive::Process);

=head2 fetch_input

    Title   :   fetch_input
    Usage   :   $self->fetch_input
    Function:   Fetches input data for gerp from the database
    Returns :   none
    Args    :   none

=cut

sub fetch_input {
  my( $self) = @_;

  #create a Compara::DBAdaptor which shares the same DBI handle
  #with $self->db (Hive DBAdaptor)
  $self->{'comparaDBA'} = Bio::EnsEMBL::Compara::Production::DBSQL::DBAdaptor->new(-DBCONN=>$self->db->dbc);
  $self->{'comparaDBA'}->dbc->disconnect_when_inactive(0);

   $self->{'hiveDBA'} = Bio::EnsEMBL::Hive::DBSQL::DBAdaptor->new(-DBCONN => $self->{'comparaDBA'}->dbc);

  #read from analysis table
  $self->get_params($self->parameters);

  #read from analysis_job table
  $self->get_params($self->input_id);

}

=head2 run

    Title   :   run
    Usage   :   $self->run
    Function:   Run gerp
    Returns :   none
    Args    :   none

=cut

sub run {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->deleteAlignment();
}

=head2 write_output

    Title   :   write_output
    Usage   :   $self->write_output
    Function:   Write results to the database
    Returns :   1
    Args    :   none

=cut

sub write_output {
    my ($self) = @_;

    return 1;
}

#Deletes genomic_align_block, genomic_align, genomic_align_group and
#genomic_align_tree of the high coverage alignment
sub deleteAlignment {
    my $self = shift;

    #delete genomic_align_tree
    my $sql = "DELETE genomic_align_tree FROM genomic_align_tree LEFT JOIN genomic_align_group USING (node_id) LEFT JOIN genomic_align USING (genomic_align_id) WHERE method_link_species_set_id=?";

    my $sth = $self->{'comparaDBA'}->dbc->prepare($sql);
    $sth->execute($self->method_link_species_set_id);
    $sth->finish();

    #delete genomic_align_group
    $sql = "DELETE genomic_align_group FROM genomic_align_group LEFT JOIN genomic_align using (genomic_align_id) WHERE method_link_species_set_id=?";

    $sth = $self->{'comparaDBA'}->dbc->prepare($sql);
    $sth->execute($self->method_link_species_set_id);
    $sth->finish();

    #delete genomic_align
    $sql = "DELETE genomic_align FROM genomic_align WHERE method_link_species_set_id=?";
    $sth = $self->{'comparaDBA'}->dbc->prepare($sql);
    $sth->execute($self->method_link_species_set_id);
    $sth->finish();

    #delete genomic_align_block
    $sql = "delete from genomic_align_block where method_link_species_set_id=?;";
    $sth = $self->{'comparaDBA'}->dbc->prepare($sql);
    $sth->execute($self->method_link_species_set_id);
    $sth->finish();
}

##########################################
#
# getter/setter methods
#
##########################################

sub method_link_species_set_id {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->{'_method_link_species_set_id'} = shift if(@_);
  return $self->{'_method_link_species_set_id'};
}

##########################################
#
# internal methods
#
##########################################

sub get_params {
  my $self         = shift;
  my $param_string = shift;

  return unless($param_string);
  print("parsing parameter string : ",$param_string,"\n");

  my $params = eval($param_string);
  return unless($params);

  if(defined($params->{'method_link_species_set_id'})) {
    $self->method_link_species_set_id($params->{'method_link_species_set_id'});
  }
  return 1;
}


text:
Q: Python Pandas Dataframe with lists elements reports wrong type when calling `.info()`? I have a dataframe in Python 3 that looks like
>>> df_people
       name Information 1 Information 2
0      P1   [20, 21]      [50, 52]
1      P2   [30, 20]      [52, 55]
2      P3   [25, 33]      [60, 54]

created from the following code:
people = {"name":["P1", "P2", "P3"],"Information 1":[[20, 21],[30, 20],[25,33]],"Information 2":[[50, 52],[52, 55],[60,54]]}
df_people= pd.DataFrame(people)
df_people

Now, if I call df_people.info() I get:
>>> df_people.info()
<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 3 entries, 0 to 2
Data columns (total 3 columns):
name             3 non-null object
Information 1    3 non-null object
Information 2    3 non-null object
dtypes: object(3)
memory usage: 152.0+ bytes

The non-null object part worries me. Should it report something else?

A: Nope. You should not worry about the non-null objects.
This method shows you the information about a DataFrame including the index dtype and column dtypes, non-null values and memory usage.
It is just showing you that the data you fill inside it are not null i.e not blank.
You can also visit the official documentation of pandas dataframe about .info() here :
https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.info.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The closure began at about 5 a.m. after patching from an earlier break washed out.
A sinkhole closed all lanes of 15 Mile Road near Harper Avenue in Clinton Township for about five hours this morning.
As of about 10 a.m., the hole was completely repaired, said the township's supervisor Bob Cannon. It was about 2-by-6-feet wide, and 6-feet deep.
Both eastbound and westbound lanes were closed from Harper Avenue to Lansdowne Street after reports of the sinkhole came in about 5 a.m., confirmed Clinton Township police.
The hole was a result of a water main break that occurred last week, Cannon said. Although it was repaired with "cold patch," which is a temporary fix, last week's rain washed out the patching.
Today's hole was repaired with compacted stone, and officials will monitor the area until weather permits a permanent repair in the springtime, Cannon said. They don't anticipate further problems at the site until then.
Before it was repaired, the sinkhole appeared to have filled with water, said Captain Richard Maierle. The road was blocked off while crews investigated.
Police weren't initially sure of what caused the sinkhole or when exactly reports were first made.
The businesses at the junction, including a BP and Sunoco Gas Station, have entrances off of Harper Avenue and were still accessible during the road closure, said a dispatcher.
A few cars were disabled after hitting the sinkhole, WDIV-TV (Channel 4) reported.
Last year, a roadway was re-opened almost a year after a sewer line break caused a huge sinkhole in Fraser, about 4 miles west of this incident.
Two dozen families displaced for weeks — and three houses were condemned — thanks to the collapse. A court battle also ensued over who bore responsibility for the $75 million price tag for repairs.


text:
Aural Exploits
Online Retailer
Product 09 9112
One of the best ways of crafting the perfect song is knowing the basics of songwriting and of course, to know them by heart. This is basically a step-by-step process. Follow the steps below to compose songs to the best of your ability.
Step 1: Starting Your Song
Before writing a song, you have to define loosely of what you will make. Though, do not restrict yourself to scripts.
Be open to ideas.
Step 2: Prepare a Rough Draft
Being able to know how to write a good song lies on rough idea. Are you currently having nothing on mind? It's normal. Take your choice of instrument, hit the records and start on sketching. Sooner or later, you would be surprised how fast ideas will pour in.
Step 3: Find an Idea to Infuse in Your Song
One of the most difficult stages of writing a song is to get started. Pulling out ideas from scratch is not everyone's cup of tea. But this must not be the case. Every song has its central topic and starting with your primary concept serves as your guide.
Step 4: Look Back
Check out your sketches that you've recorded or written down. Find out parts of that song that reflects you the most. This allows you to connect to your listeners on a more personal level.
2019 Best Love Songs that Can Relate to Any Kind of Relationship
Musical Presents for your Loved One
Music on How it Stimulate Work Moods
How to Use Generator to Power a Sound System
Music-designed Hotels for Music lovers
The best music to grow plants
Listening to Music Pros
Considerations When Choosing The Best Laptop For DJing
Music Theory : Early Stages in the Development of Music Theories
Music Video and the Leaf Blower
2019 Any-Relationship Best Love Songs advantages dj laptop Early History of Music gift listening to music music music theory notes Plants present pros time signatures for music
The Basic of Music Theory
Follow Us – Social Media
Love is real. It is compelling enough to connect people into entering a romantic relationship regardless of barriers. Love songs can strengthen that bond, knowing you and your partner are not alone in experiencing the trials that so called odd-couples
It appears like everybody wants to become a pop superstar. Not only reality tv, but also the rising popularity of interactive social media and video screen sites like YouTube and MySpace, literally suggests there is a platform for everybody and
Copyright © 2019 Aural Exploits™


Understanding Innovation And The Ethics Of New Leadership.
Ethical leaders make ethics a clear and consistent part of their agendas, set standards, model appropriate behavior, and hold everyone accountable Dion Chang takes on the Heavy Chef stage to speak about understanding the ethics of new leadership.
Student entrepreneurship has long been a thing even before Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to start Facebook. In May, we've invited four of the hottest startup founders in South Africa to speak on the Heavy Chef stage and regale us with the opportunities and challenges of being a student entrepreneur. We're joined by Don Weiss, Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Columbia University, to round off a stellar evening. These four students are innovative and hungry to drive their business ideas, for the continent to benefit.


Just like the heat here, strawberry season has been slow to begin. The baskets of fruit at the farmer's market are still fairly expensive. But when faced with a divine smelling pint of beautiful, intensely red berries, I had to have them.
They needed to shine in this dessert. No cooking or baking. Just raw, potent strawberry flavour.
The filling of these tarts is a mascarpone and cream cheese concoction that works just as well as a cream cheese frosting substitute. It sets delightfully fluffy when placed in these tarts and I'm imagining it as a no-bake cheesecake in the near future.
The tart shells are a simple short crust pastry and sturdy enough to eat the tart with your hands. Which is good because you will want to do so immediately.
The strawberries stand proud over their creamy domain or fan out like red flowers over a fluffy white meadow. Beautifully sweet and vibrant with summer flavour.
Combine flour, sugar, and salt in medium bowl. Add in cold butter, cut into small pieces. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, combine butter with flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. You don't want the butter to melt. Add 1 tbsp of the milk and combine. You want the pastry to just stay together when pressed with your fingers. If it's still too dry, add additional milk 1 tsp at a time until it does. It does not have to form a uniform dough, you'll be pressing the moist crumbs into the tart molds, not rolling it out.
Press the pastry crumbs into the bottom and sides of 5-6, 3-inch tart molds. Refrigerate for at least half an hour. This is important, if you don't do this, the sides of the tart shells will melt back down to the bottom and you'll end up with a pastry disc. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until a light, golden brown. Let cool.
Combine cream cheese and mascarpone cheese in a large bowl. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat until combined and smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add icing sugar and mix on low speed to combine. Add heavy cream and beat on medium speed until fluffy and thick enough to spread. Spoon the filling into prepared tart shells.
Place strawberries on top of cream cheese filling. Either stand the berries up in concentric circles or slice the berries and arrange like a flower in overlapping layers. Or arrange the berries however you want, this is the fun part!
Combine the water, lime juice, corn starch, and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring often, until the mixture becomes clear and thickens slightly. Brush the warm glaze over berries on the tarts to give them a nice shine and seal everything together.


It was late last year when we first got a look at the upcoming BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe. Essentially it will be a sedan version of the current generation 2 Series. Now, our spies have once again captured BMW's upcoming sedan undergoing cold weather tests in Northern Sweden. The new spy photos also bares more detail of the 2 Series Gran Coupe.
Going into the details, the Gran Coupe prototype seen here is still heavily covered in camouflage. That said, it does not appear to have any significant changes compared to the first time it was seen undergoing road tests. It will likely a adapt an aggressive looking front fascia similar to that found on the coupe.
As for the rear, it is heavily covered in snow hiding most details of the vehicle. We do see however that its general shape is similar to that of other BMW Gran Coupe models which employ a somewhat fastback design. It is also uncertain whether it will be a liftback or feature an actual trunk.
Noticeably however, the test mule seen here is sporting large, blue-colored brake calipers. This indicates that the vehicle seen here could be an M-variant rather than just a standard 2 Series. Furthermore, it is likely the vehicle is still in the early phase of development given the use of false taillights and non-production headlights.
Underpinning the 2 Series Gran Coupe will be BMW's front-wheel drive based UKL platform with all-wheel drive being offered as option. Expect a range of gasoline and diesel engines to be made available once it debuts with the option of automatic or manual transmissions.
Report: Will Nissan give the 370Z another refresh soon?


text:
Home » Blog » SUICIDE OF THE WEST
WHAT IS DIFFERENT FROM 2006?
In 2006 former Culture Minister Chris Smith and I argued that the West was in danger of committing suicide, but the jury was still out. "Down one road, the road currently bearing more traffic, lies cynicism, unmitigated selfishness, indifference, re-centralization and aggression … Down the other road lies a recovery of our nerve – confidence in ourselves and our culture; emotional unity within America and within Europe, and between Europe and America, and with other European settlements, a society and civilization comprising a billion responsible individuals, bound together … by attitudes of personal striving, optimism, reason, compassion, equality, individualism and mutual identity. Travelling this road is not that hard; but it requires a change of direction."
In 2018, Jonah Goldberg argued much the same, but specifically in relation to American democracy – we must, he said, "keep the principles of our civilization alive by showing our gratitude for it … Decline is a choice. Principles, like gods, die when no believes in them anymore."
Was Goldberg justified in striking a more pessimistic line? Are we losing the battle for Western civilization, threatened not by external enemies but by our own ingratitude? Is the decline of America and the West inevitable?
Suicidal Trends since 2006
My take is that there is a lot of disturbing evidence, including:
The Disappearing Center – in both the US and the UK, and to lesser extents elsewhere, the political center is in retreat. Trump's authoritarian anti-immigrant nationalism has spawned and been spawned by a Democratic Party moving towards socialism or an equally illiberal, centralizing creed based on identity politics. In the UK, there has been profound division caused by the narrow popular vote in favor of leaving the European Union, and the attempt of elites to subvert democracy by overturning the referendum result – as well as by a move by Labour and smaller Opposition parties smartly to the left, again towards identity politics, and in the case of Labour, a semi-Marxist agenda.
Illiberalism of the liberals – the attempt by leading academics, politicians, and social-media loudmouths to impose intellectual and cultural uniformity, based around a leftist and trendy agenda. It has become commonplace for people who don't conform to the new orthodoxy to be no-platformed, abused, persecuted, and in some cases even lose their jobs. Freedom of thought and expression is militantly out of fashion.
Coarsening and pollution of political discourse – driven by social media and the relentless abuse of people with differing views, we have seen appeals to unpleasant emotion rather than calm reason, an outbreak of name-calling – especially "racist" and "fascist" – that is reminiscent in tone if not exact designation of the Nazis and communists at the height of their hate-mongering. The number of people inciting hatred is small in absolute terms, but their influence has grown massively, feeding off mutual recrimination, intimidation, violence, and the echo chambers of Twitter and other media.
The defenders of freedom are conspicuous by their absence. So-called "hate crimes" – very often the violation of a narrow and bigoted code of political correctness – are being pursued in several countries including the UK by the police and prosecutors. Very few people are willing to stand up for freedom against the malice and personal vendettas waged by extremists.
Perhaps even more worrying is the lack of historical appreciation and accuracy – what we may term "historicity" – in the universities, the press, television, and the internet. In many leading American universities, history as a discipline has sidelined the history of what Goldberg calls "the miracle" of Western democracy and capitalism, replacing classical history with a plethora of modern fads such as "gay and lesbian studies". In accordance with political ideology, but in violation of the facts, most people believe that poverty is increasing – when it is plummeting, especially globally – and that "threats to the planet" are increasing when on balance they are declining.
The lack of historical accuracy is part of a wider, totally pernicious trend – news media in the US and UK (and probably elsewhere) no longer even strive to give a balanced and accurate picture. Several television channels, including some of what used to be the best and most prestigious, have become dedicated to propaganda and spin rather than truth.
There has always been perhaps inevitable bias in television news, toward the sensational and violent – "if it bleeds, it leads" – which gives ordinary people a totally misleading view of how terrible modern society is – when it isn't. But even worse is the use of media to peddle a party line or fixation of the elite. The British Broadcasting Corporation used to be world famous for its objectivity and balance, but on the issue of Brexit, at least, the coverage is skewed quite deliberately to the view of the BBC and other elites in parliament and the universities that implementing the popular vote of 2016 cannot be contemplated under any circumstances.
Liberal society and freedom cannot long survive a "post truth" mentality from politicians and media – once the truth cannot be recognized and celebrated, we are on the way back to the 1930s, to the triumph of Nazis, communists, and other tyrants.
As Jonah Goldberg describes so well, popular culture is essentially 'romantic', rebellious, and hostile to capitalism and other Western values. Movies in particular have become increasingly violent and nihilistic. Does this matter? It can't help.
The original author of Suicide of the West, James Burnham back in 1964, penned a telling phrase – with liberalism, he said, "the preferred enemy is to the Right". It is remarkable that even moderate conservatives are now routinely denounced as "fascists" and "scum", whereas advocates of communism and other murderous ideologies, if perceived as trendy and leftist, get pretty much a free pass.
Problems of migration and 'integration indigestion' are also undermining the solidarity of society. In the UK, we have seen frequent unwillingness of leftists to scrutinize or criticize crimes of certain Muslims – such as sexual grooming – for fear of appearing 'racist'.
So far, so bad – the West appears to be well on the way to suicide. And yet:
Some Important Qualifying Considerations
The tragedy is greatest in the US, and it comes from both left and right. Though Trump may be doing some necessary and desirable things, an important job of the presidency is to personify all that is best in America and its exceptional contribution to the world's freedom and the dignity of the individual. Almost without exception, thoughtful Europeans cannot respect or admire Mr Trump; there is no doubt that he has dramatically lowered the 'soft power' of the US. The widespread opinion – which I share – that the alternative contender for president in 2016 would have been an equal disaster, though for quite other reasons, makes the situation worse and not better. How could the election have been between two totally unsuitable candidates? Meanwhile the Democratic Party is flirting with the worst kind of ersatz socialism and trendy causes – the movement towards the authoritarian left is greatest in America, rivalled only by what is happening in the UK.
If one is trying to be optimistic, however, one can view the current vile and virulent politics of America as an unhappy and probably temporary aberration. The power of the Constitution and the independence of the three branches of government – not to mention the sheer strength of the American democratic tradition – are such that when Trump goes, and when both parties nominate sensible and inspiring presidential candidates, we may wonder what all the fuss was about.
Similarly, the British Labour Party's embrace of a Marxist-Trotskyite junta is unlikely to result in a Leninist coup. Either Jeremy Corbyn will be made to stand down as Labour leader – though an even worse leader, one who combines competence and political savvy with extreme views, cannot be ruled out – or Labour will lose an election badly and appoint a leader in the party's long tradition of democratic socialism, or there will be a serious split in the party making it unelectable.
Even Brexit may be about to be 'sorted' – in which case the nastiness and division caused by Britain's Europhile elites will quickly evaporate. Or possibly Opposition parties will force a new referendum – before the first has been implemented – and Britain will either stay in the European Union or leave, and in either case the matter will be settled. My money is – quite literally – on Britain leaving the European Union on World Trade Organization terms, and, after a few hiccups, the result being a rip-roaring success. A successful moderate center-right Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson could be in power for a long time, and the wilder shores of right and left activism will recede.
The ebb and flow of hostility to the West's heritage is not the only mitigating factor. The decline of the Western ethic also varies enormously from country to country. I am writing this post in the Netherlands, where I am living for a month. What strikes an outsider is how tolerant, well integrated, disciplined, relaxed and effective the Dutch Last year I spent five weeks in Australia, and what impressed me was how well second-generation immigrants, such as Chinese young people, have adapted to Australian culture, which is a poster for enduring Western values. I also spend two or three months a year in South Africa, and although it has certainly not been immune to many of the adverse trends I've discussed, the country is a paradise and a beacon of Western values compared to how it was before the 1994 transition to majority rule.
In Western Europe the picture is mixed – France is in places a broken society, Scandinavia is mainly okay, Germany is mainly solidly, even stolidly, a tribute to civilization, Switzerland is a haven of peace, prosperity and localized democracy outside the EU, Italy and Greece have been broken on the rack of the euro, Spain has never made a proper transition to democratic values, yet Portugal, another ex-fascist polity, despite also suffering high youth unemployment due to euro, is mainly democratic and functional. The picture in Eastern Europe is mixed but again, compared to the communist era, most countries have adapted or re-adapted well to Western values and prospered accordingly.
National characteristics and values are charmingly diverse, but generally fit well with democracy and free markets, with only the specter of "ever closer union" within a bureaucratic and undemocratic European super-state threatening to throttle the birthplace and heart of the West itself.
Given this diversity in outcomes, perhaps we should hesitate before being too dogmatic about the suicide of the West. With a few notable exceptions, and the rumblings from centralizing Euro-maniacs, the West's suicidal tendencies are confined largely to the US and UK, and even here they may be transient. We can but hope.
Economics, of course, determines a lot. Successful economies are free market ones; communist ones can only become successful by aping capitalist mores. Economic communism always self-destructs. But in a way a thriving modern capitalist economy is so super-productive that it makes it possible to support a large unproductive state sector that creates dependence and corrodes freedom. If we were less rich, we could not pay large tribute to the state and still survive.
This recalls a paradox which the great economist Joseph Schumpeter examined in the 1940s. Although he believed in capitalism, he saw the growth of large, unaccountable bureaucracies, whether nominally in the state or private sectors, as heralding the death of individualistic family enterprise and therefore of bourgeois values, leading to a kind of creeping socialism which could, and he thought, would, succeed.
Today, we see the decline of large corporations and the rise of entrepreneurial powerhouses which have transformed the world, giving us fantastic new products which are either incredibly ingenious and beguiling, or incredibly cheap. Yet the playthings of the new, iconoclastic billionaires paradoxically make it possible for large segments of workers, sometimes even the majority, to be trapped within the maw of the state. If there are not enough jobs in the hugely profitable new enterprises to go around, the state and quasi-state sector is happy to oblige by creating unproductive jobs in education, healthcare, the so-called social sector, the military, and endless new environmental and regulatory agencies.
The result can be a capitalist or rather entrepreneurial economy – since many of the new mega-successful firms are not capital intensive – which allows the creation of new, unproductive, socialist sectors, which encourage dependence on the state and create vested interests inimical to free market values. Does this trend of the free market feeding its enemies conduce toward the destruction of classical Western values? I rather think it may, and I see no easy way to roll back the waves.
Yet this trend-gazing, however brilliant and partially correct, can lead to wrong conclusions. After all, Schumpeter had good reasons for thinking that socialism was the future, and he was completely wrong. From 1950 right up to today, the free market around the world has gone from strength to strength. Bourgeois values may be unfashionable, but they are pretty strong too. People, even those preaching socialism or some insidious 'ism' to their inferiors, like to make money. Ask Tony Blair. Ask the Clintons. Ask Bernie Sanders. Ask the left-wing moguls of Hollywood. Ask the bureaucrats in Brussels or Beijing. Bourgeois values are always rife within socialist or semi-socialist elites; it is just the bourgeois contribution to the economy and society which sometimes flags a bit.
There are two other reasons to believe that the West may not commit suicide. One is the persistent and vibrant pulse of individualism. The rules for success today at all levels are highly and increasingly individualistic, so that attempts to impose authoritarian rule are likely to be resisted. Look behind the political cant and posturing of many young people today and you see individuals who are resistant to any constraints on their self-expression. There may be a hard core of dangerous people who are disciplined, violent revolutionaries, but I suspect they are no more numerous than they were when I was at university a million years ago.
The other reason for continued belief in the West is the entrenched nature of democracy and the common sense of ordinary electors. Our elites and intellectuals may be able to believe six impossible things before breakfast, but normal people cannot. They may sometimes vote for extremists, but if these form a government they will make a mess of things, and the electors will throw them out. The West is not like Russia in 1919 or the Weimar Republic in 1933. I would not put it past Corbyn and his ilk to try to abolish elections and stay in power forever, but I am sure they would not succeed. People are attached to their voting power – hence the so-called populist outrage at the attempts of British MPs to reverse the people's vote for Brexit in 2016.
The other reason for hope is the inbuilt common sense of people in the West. Our intellectuals and elites may be able to believe six impossible things before breakfast, but normal people cannot.
Three Possible Outcomes
The first – and it is a realistic possibility – is that the West degenerates into a new kind of civilization: cynical, violent, crime-ridden, with authoritarian governments, a large state sector, persecution of some unfashionable minorities such as Jews, and a quasi-police state. The free market may be allowed to persist in some form, but the spirit of Western civilization – its emphasis on freedom, individualism, and personal responsibility – will have been lost, perhaps eternally.
The second scenario is that some countries maintain Western civilization – in approximate order of probability (my opinion obviously) Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the UK, Germany, Austria, and Portugal. Others may be horribly divided or fall into the trap described above. The United States is the most important question-mark – current auguries are not good.
The third possibility is that there is a genuine, widespread revival of belief in Western values. This is a cause worth supporting and something that you, dear reader, can embrace enthusiastically. If it can be saved, Western civilization will be preserved one person at a time.
3 Responses to "SUICIDE OF THE WEST"
Jesse Stoddard says:
S L Swain says:
So much clear insight into what's happening and the possible consequences.
So how do we preserve democracy and freedom of speech without fear?
Thank you for this thought provoking article. It is quite understandable that you have written Greece off. However after years of devastation and disarray, they just threw out the populist leftist government in favour of a centre right reformist government. Words like investments and entrepreneurship have become trendy again in Greece. I really hope that other countries follow suit and eliminate the populist voices
Get the latest blog posts delivered straight to your inbox.
The 80/20 Principle in Studying
The 80/20 Principle in Studying and How to Use It || Motivated Mondays.
The Star Principle
Koch Greatest Hits
Tweets by @RichardKoch8020
Newsletter & Books
Subscription / Link
Subscribe to the blog posts Richard Koch: Live A Thousand Lives
@ Richard Koch


text:
All homes New Search listing Search name Europe USA France Australia UK Canada Spain The Netherlands Italy Germany Mexico NZ
Translation feedback
If you see an error with one of our language translations, provide the existing and new translations and we'll fix it as soon as possible.
Existing text
Enter a listing number and press Search button
Enter a first name and press Search button
Lovely Berkeley Craftsman Home Close to San Francisco
House • Berkeley CA United States
1 Car space
1 Car available
Primary home
Exchange types accepted
Non-simultaneous
Non-reciprocal
Listed January 2019
Login or Register to see detailed descriptions of this home.
Cupboard / drawers
Suitable for infants under 2
Suitable for children ages 2-12
Our 2 story, craftsman style Berkeley home is located on a quiet, tree-lined street within easy walking distance to many shops, movie houses, restaurants, and the University of California. Berkeley is a foodies Mecca with hundreds of restaurants, cafes, bistros and bars. We are ideally situated for easy trips by car or public transport to San Francisco (20 mins) , the Napa/Sonoma Wine Country (45 minutes) , Carmel/Monterey (1. 5 hours) or longer trips to the Sierras for skiing or camping at Lake Tahoe or Yosemite National Park (both about 3. 5 hours) Berkeley is home to Tilden Regional Park with thousands of acres of hiking trails, an 18 hole municipal golf course and a small lake with a sandy beach - great for picnics and swimming. Berkeley has a vibrant music and theatre district and is home to many art galleries, museums and workshops.
Great neighborhood, close to shops and restaurants Only 20 minutes to San Francisco by car Central to many Northern California attractions Walking distance (10 minutes) to two rapid transit stations (BART). There are ocal bus stops within a block or two
Login or Register to see this home's location on a map.
Login or Register to see reviews for this home.
Dana & Don
Travelling group
Though the two of us are often alone when we travel, we also frequently travel with another couple.
Member description
My husband, Don, and I (Dana) are avid travelers. We have had 24 fabulous exchanges and two hospitality exchanges.We have swapped in Europe, Australia and the United States and hope for many more in the future. We have two grown children who live in California and they sometimes accompany us on our trips. Don is a professional photographer and Dana owns and operates a retail clothing shop. We like just about anything outdoors - hiking, biking, tennis, swimming, skiing... We also enjoy museums, art galleries, and exploring great cities. We're wine lovers and enjoy visiting local wineries when we travel. We're pretty casual folks and are open to new adventures and new places. Tempt us!
Login or Register to contact this member.
Desired destinations
Open to any destination
Can travel at any time
Destination flexible
Dates flexible
Portugal (Flexible)
"Would love the Algarve, but also Lisbon, Douro. Tempt us."
Europe (Flexible)
Australia (Flexible)
New Zealand (Flexible)
United States (Flexible)
Login or Register to see availability and make an offer for this home.


With a presence in 30 top universities across 15 countries, we offer our students a unique platform to get trained on consulting methodologies, connect with 500 other students and join a 3000 alumni network. We created a part time programme over 24 month that usually takes about 5 hours per week that complements our students academic programme by providing corporate skills and connecting globally.
Students are coached by executives when they work on global consulting projects. In some regions, they can have access to mentors who can guide them in their transition to corporate life.
ShARE students work on hot society or business topics together with colleagues from 10 other countries. You will join one of our 5 knowlege and one of the 17 hot society topics.
Our global members manage teams and students from various backgrounds and countries. This is a unique exposure that prepares them to become future leaders.
Our students join a 3000+ alumni network and whether they work in Paris, London, New York or Shanghai, they will always find some ShARE alumni to help.
ShARE recruits students from prestigious universities and applies a 3 step recruitment process.
Our students are grouped into international batch (I-Batch) composed of 5 other students from 3 continents.
ShARE is demanding. It requires in average 4-5 hours per week for a period of 2 years. Sometimes work load can go up to 30 hours when students work on a consulting project.
The ShARE vision is to create leaders who are open to the world and committed to shape it for the many.
Being a student at ShARE requires some commitment. You only get a lot out of it, if you do the whole program which takes 1.5 years.
All ShARE students join as junior members. This step, similarly to all, lasts for a semester. During that time, our students are trained on basic consulting methodologies. They also put this into practice through a case study that they share on our member access.
As senior members, our students can work on case with a start-up, on a joint project across several countries. They also join the I-Batch initiative.
Our students have acquired the consulting toolkit and can now work on global consulting projects and enjoy coaching by a mentor from a top company.
Senior students are usually project managers of global projects, managers of local teams or hold global responsibilities.
Have a look at our video to see how it works in practice.
We have currently 25 teams in 10 countries in 3 continents. All our teams are set-up within the top 5 universities of the country.
We have now more than 3000 alumni from 10 countries and placed in 30 cities.
Yang Ying was a student at ShARE-Fudan. She was also the project manager of the Social Business project of ShARE and Peace Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Yunus. She is now an associate at McKinsey in San Francisco.
Louis Antoine was a global member of ShARE in charge of business development. He is now a project manager at McKinsey in Paris.
Sijia is a co-founder of ShARE-SJTU. She is now a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group, in the Hong Kong office.
Vladimir is one of the first 7 members who founded ShARE in Shanghai. He is now the CEO of Labbrand, a leading branding consulting company in Asia, that he set up from scratch. Labbrand now has 100 employees and advises big names like Starbucks.
Pragyan is a founding member of ShARE-DSE. Pragyan did a PhD at LSE, worked for the Bank of England and is now an economist at the IMF in Washington.
Zainab is a former ShARE student at LUMS. She is now a consultant at the World Bank in Washington DC.
Niroshan was the global Co-President of ShARE in 2007. After ShARE, he joined the "talent programme". He made a big shift in his career and became the Managing Director of Kaymu, an online shopping market place sponsored by Rocket Internet, that he grew from 1 to 200 employees in 7 countries.
Yuankai was the president of ShARE-SJTU in Shanghai. He is now an associate at Morgan Stanley in the Shanghai office.
Pratik is a former student at ShARE-ISI. He is now a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in Mumbai.
We run recruitment every year. To be sure you not miss it, please send an email to join@share-share.org mentioning the team you want to join in the subject.
If you are a student in a top university where ShARE is not present and want to set up a team, send us an email to development@share-share.org.


NaugraExport is a leading lab microscopes & slides manufacturers, suppliers & exporters based in Haryana, India. Our laboratory microscopes & slides are widely recognized for their high efficiency, clear view & latest designs. While manufacturing our lab microscopes & slides we consider all the basic criteria to fulfill the industry norms to make our product reliable, superior & efficient.
We have a diversified range of lab microscopes & slides used widely in many educational institutes, testing & research labs, microbiology, biotechnology, forensic labs worldwide at affordable price.
Few of our laboratory microscopes & slides are student microscopes, medical microscopes, dissecting microscopes, stereo binocular microscopes, zoom stereo binocular microscopes, zoom stereo trinocular microscopes, PENTA microscopes, coaxial trinocular microscopes, inclined monocular microscopes, slides staining box, slide staining rack, slide box, teakwood slide box, slide tray, microslide glasses, microslide blood grouping glasses etc.
Mainly used for routine microscopy in labs of schools where high magnification is not required. It has a U-shape base, monocular stable inclinable body having coarse motion with rack and pinion, light control by disc or iris - diaphragm, complete in plywood cabinet. Stand	Stable & Robust, traditional Horse Shoe base.
provided with achromatic objective and 10x Ramsden eye piece with fine cross line hair.
changing of bulb by shifting the lever.
Made from best clear and optically flat glass, with ground and polished edges.
selected glass sheets, optically flat glass for microscope use, ground polished edges, clean and ready for use. Size 75 x 26 mm. ± 1.5 mm.
concavities, used for Serodiagnostic tests.
the slide is frosted to provide smooth writing. Surface edges and corners are bevelled and polished.
scratches and striations. Packed in plastic box for easy handling. Pack of 10 gms.
Glass trough with moulded glass cover. Side 117 mm. and height 65 mm.
Glass jar, with moulded glass cover, takes 10 slides 76 x 25 mm.
electrophoresis gels and membranes. Resist temperature from -70°C to +70°C.
All slides are held horizontally. Collapsible handles on both sides.
provided with index cardholder and lock.


When Total Revenue = Total Costs situation of no profit and no loss, and when the break- even point of the cost need to be assumed according to the batch of quantity is required is known as Economic Order Quantity or known as Break-even point. The pattern of supply and demand for the item is assumed with the certainty of various costs. The major objective of managing cost is to maintain the optimum level of investment required.


We need that during MB31 , Goods Receipt must happen at Std Price only and it should not depend on the Target Cost appearing in the Production Order .
Kindly guide us , as what steps need to be followed to define these price strategy control during the MB31 . Does it require some thing in SPRO ? .
The reqmt is not clear. If u say that during MB31 system should take material master price I think it takes that only. U have to set S (standard) as price indicator, run cost estimation through CK11N/CK40N after creating BOM, routing & activity price. It will update the price in material master which is based on the qty structure(BOM, routing). In MB31 u will get material stock and updated price.
What u told is right. The problem is there in case of partial qty confirmation. But overall if u want to see the cost at product level (if it is MTO) u will get the correct cost after final confirmation. Till then some erratic results will be there.
If I find any other approach I will let u know.


text:
Four hurt in three-car wreck in Newark Monday
Adam Duvernay
Four people involved in a three-vehicle accident in Newark were hospitalized Monday morning.
The crash happened just before 9 a.m. on Sunset Lake Road in the area of Broadleaf Drive, police said. That's when a 2000 Toyota Corolla driven by a 20-year-old Newark man crossed into the northbound lanes and collided head-on with a 2015 Honda Odyssey driven by a 46-year-old Dover woman, police said.
After the initial impact, a 2014 Kia Forte, operated by a 40-year-old Smyrna man following directly behind the Honda, also was struck and sustained damage, police said.
The Toyota driver had to be extricated from the vehicle and was transported to the Christiana Hospital in serious condition.
The Honda's driver and two juvenile passengers also were transported to the Christiana Hospital with undetermined, non-life threatening injuries, police said.
The operator of the Kia refused medical treatment at the scene.
More:Mass. pedestrian hit in Bear Friday dies
Contact Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@delawareonline.com or (302) 319-1855 or @duvINdelaware.


Business Intelligence is the answer! The Legal Management System (LMS) Business Intelligence Dashboard and Reporting module provides key analytics to law firm decision makers. The system gathers important accounting and general ledger data and presents the results in a graphical / drill down method providing meaningful and easy to understand information. The Business Intelligence software can be easily configured to present firm, office, practice group, department, client, matter, attorney data and others based on the individual needs of the law firm. The LMS Business Intelligence module gives firm management and individual attorney's access to the relevant information necessary to help them make better and more insightfully informed decisions about the firm's performance.
Business Intelligence is built upon the industry's leading robust Data Warehouse.
LMS provides a fully configurable business intelligence dashboard. Below are a few examples of the components.
Firm Profitability results are also included within the Business Intelligence Dashboard and Reporting module. Providing the most advanced profitability module in the industry today.
Firm Profitability can be measured at every reporting level based on the individual needs of the law firm. Through Direct, Indirect and Overhead cost allocations captured for each attorney, the module focuses on key business drivers, and enables a firm to quickly ascertain the effect that utilization, realization, leverage, and cost allocations have on the firms overall profitability and performance.
LMS Business Intelligence Dashboard is the latest tool for your users to access key Financial Statistics. It displays month-to-date and year-to-date key production statistics by Firm, Office, Department (Practice Group), Attorney, etc. It also allows you to drill down and create PDF reports for each view.
Drill down to the desired level in your firm.
© Rippe & Kingston 2018 - All Rights Reserved. Rippe & Kingston provides an array of solutions and services to clients around the world.