Directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance protects corporate directors and officers in the event that they're personally sued for actual or alleged wrongdoing when managing a company. The insurance helps cover defence costs and damages (awards and settlements) arising out of wrongful action allegations and lawsuits.
D&O insurance is the financial backing for a standard indemnification provision, also known as the hold harmless provision, which shifts potential costs from directors and officers for losses related to an action they took on behalf of the company.
The coverage reimburses the organisation when it indemnifies the individuals and also provides 'entity coverage,' which eliminates disputes of coverage allocation if both the directors and officers and the insured organisation are named in the same lawsuit.
What perils does a D&O policy cover?
The list goes on, and as new exposures like cyber liability continue to gain prevalence, the complexity of the risk landscape surrounding directors and officers is growing fast.
What businesses need D&O insurance?
The costs associated with lawsuits arising from D&O exposures are now so great that D&O insurance has become a necessity for many businesses. Organisations that do not purchase the coverage risk going bankrupt or sustaining losses from which they will struggle to recover properly.
What's driving demand for D&O insurance?
Employees today are more aware of their rights than ever before, and they're not afraid to exercise them even if that means pursuing a class action lawsuit. Likewise, active investors are also holding businesses accountable for their actions in order to improve practices and drive successful, profitable businesses.
International laws and regulations like the strict data protection laws slowly gaining prevalence around the world are also making it more important for businesses to purchase D&O insurance. As stated previously, management can be held responsible for a company's failure to comply with laws and regulations.
What happens if a claim is made after a director ceases to hold office?
What is run-off cover and does the ideal duration differ between markets?
Run-off cover, also called a tail policy or closeout insurance, covers directors and officers after they cease to hold office. This might be because they've retired, sold their company, or even gone insolvent. In Australia, the standard duration of run-off coverage is seven years, whereas in the US, the standard length of a tail policy is six years. Like the US, the average duration for a run-off policy in the UK is six years.
Approximately 20-years-ago, the concept of worldwide D&O liability insurance was introduced, giving multinational corporations another option beyond traditional global [non-admitted] programs. Many started using a Difference in Conditions (DIC) program approach, which enabled local operating entities to insure their own operations on an admitted basis in each country of operation. The local policies could be customised to local laws and regulations, while sitting under a worldwide policy (often written out of the US).
However, this approach can be challenging because of variations in international law and differences in rules and regulations around negotiating and binding insurance coverage etc.
Michael Rossi of The Insurance Law Group wrote a paper called 'The key to developing a truly global D&O program' in which he said: "The main reason why many D&O insurance programs are not truly global in nature is that D&O policy wording, wherever a program is purchased, is not viewed in a global context.
not reviewed against standard D&O insurance wording for global programs purchased in the US. Likewise, a global D&O insurance program placed in the US typically is not reviewed against standard D&O insurance wording in programs available in the UK. This is just an example, and any number of jurisdictions could be cited.
The global law firm Clyde and Co cites cyber risk as one of the top emerging risks faced by directors and officers in companies around the world today. Those in top managerial positions can be held liable if a company's confidential information is disclosed during unauthorised access by an outside third party. There are strict data breach and privacy laws in place to protect consumers from such incidents. For example, in February 2018, Australia enforced a new mandatory data breach notification regime which requires companies holding personal information to report data breaches to the Federal Privacy Commissioner.
The same can be said for Canada's Digital Privacy Act, which was enforced on November 01, 2018, and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was enforced on May 25, 2018. The GDPR protects the privacy and data of all individuals within the EU and has extra-territorial reach, addressing the export of personal data outside the EU. Directors and officers who fail to make their companies GDPR compliant could face D&O liability claims in the event of a data breach.


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Payze of Georgia to Compete for Victory on 'Visa Everywhere Initiative' Global Final 2021
Payze of Georgia winner of Visa Everywhere Initiative 2021 for Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) Region will pitch on VEI 2021 global final for gaining validation, global exposure and special monetary prize
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) will host the global final of an innovation program and competition for startups and fintech companies – Visa Everywhere Initiative on September 14, 2021.
The Visa Everywhere Initiative helps fintech innovators in two ways: as a program, it plugs them into the network of startups that our product teams from all over the world access when searching for solutions; and as a competition, it gives them a forum in which to make a pitch to a panel of payments experts, win prizes and gain wider attention.
The mechanic of entering the competition requires submitting an online application form via www.visa.com according to the terms and conditions of the contest, which follows by the selection of Regional-Finalists from Latin America, CEMEA, North America, Asia Pacific, Europe. On the next stage, those five regional winners are nominated on the global finals, in order to be determined the final winner of the competition.
This year, the first place for CEMEA and $15,000 in prize money went to Payze of Georgia. Payze now advances to the global finals and compete against the regional winners from 4 regions being held on September 14 with $100,000 in prizes available including $50,000 for the overall winner.
"We are extremely proud that Payze will enter the competition with a national pride and represents Georgia and CEMEA region on global final of the Visa Everywhere Initiative on September 14, 2021. At Visa, we strongly believe, that fintechs and startups remain the main drivers of constant development and the unique idea of the competition will support them to create a culture of innovation across the globe, gain global exposure and desirable collaboration with Visa. We are looking forward to seeing Payze on the final stage and wish a successful performance in the contest," said Diana Kiguradze, Visa Country Manager for the Caucasus region.
Founded in 2020 by Giorgi Tsurtsumia and Kakha Gelashvili, Payze is an innovator of financial transactions, helping businesses in CIS countries accept payments from around the world through a single integration. By April 2021 Payze has been processing more than serving more than 200 merchants growing 35% month over month in gross transaction volume.
"Visa Everywhere Initiative is definitely innovational event and a great opportunity for fintech companies from all around the world. The platform empowers the best fintech products to gain access to the network, get global exposure and receive a chance to partner with Visa. We are very honored and proud to be selected as the winner of CEMEA region and represent our country – Georgia and CEMEA region on a global final stage," told Giorgi Tsurtsumia, co-founder, Payze.
The event will be live-streamed worldwide on the leading online publisher TechCrunch and hosted by TechCrunch's Neesha Tambe. Direct link to watch the live-streaming here
Click here to hear more from a conversation between Giorgi Tsurtsumia, Co-Founder and CEO of Payze and Otto Williams, Head of Product & Solutions CEMEA.
About the Visa Everywhere Initiative
The Visa Everywhere Initiative is a global, open innovation program that tasks start-ups and fintechs to solve payment and commerce challenges of tomorrow, further enhance their own product propositions and provide visionary solutions for Visa's vast network of partners. The program launched in the U.S. in 2015 and quickly expanded into a global program with more than 7,000 participating startups. To date, startups have collectively raised over $2.5 billion in funding, and the program has been activated on six continents – touching more than 100 countries. For more information, visit visa.com.
Tags: Innovation programVisa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Toxic (Pretty Little Liars Series #15)
by Sara ShepardSara Shepard
#1 New York Times bestselling series
The fifteenth book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that inspired the hit ABC Family TV show Pretty Little Liars.
High school seniors Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna barely survived their most recent encounter with A. And it's not over yet . . . The police don't believe that the real A is still out there, but the girls know what—and who—they saw. If they don't track down this final tormentor soon, A will silence them forever.
Full of unexpected twists and shocking revelations, Toxic is the penultimate book in New York Times bestselling author Sara Shepard's compelling Pretty Little Liars series.
Pretty Little Liars Series
Sara Shepard is the author of two New York Times bestselling series, Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game, as well as the series The Perfectionists. She graduated from New York University and has an MFA from Brooklyn College.
Toxic (Pretty Little Liars Series #15) 4.1 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 39 reviews.
I happen to be a GIANT PLL fan, so of course I liked Toxic. love love loved it! The plot twist at the end, whew! I honestly don't know if I can wait till December! Obviously, one of my favorite part s was Noel and Aria, and everything that happened there, but I really did like the book. One thing I did notice was that the whole scene at the end with Noel and Aria seemed a lot like in Ruthless, but whatever. I'm glad things turned out the way they did! Overall, immensely satisfied! This would have to be hands down one of my all-time favourite teen series , since the fact remains that I love the TV Show and the Kindle Worlds Fan Fiction books. As we near Book #15 it does make me sad to think that one day like many other series that the Pretty Little Liars will be gone. You would think though after 15 books that "A" could not dig any more dirt up on these girls or that you would run out of twists and turns that the novel could take. In Book #15 it starts with re-hashing how the girls escaped the fire at the Poconos, the one where Ali had tried to kill all four girls but failed and talked about how Ali had hired Tabitha to head to Jamaica and pretend to be her so that the girls would think it was "A" which of course we know they did and then Tabitha was killed. With Ali's accomplice Nick behind bars and the fact that Ali is supposedly dead , the girls believe that maybe once and for all they can lead a normal life but with the "A" still out there and Ali really alive, it doesn't look like the girls will be let off that easy. This is a fantastic read. Just check it out.
Like always, Sara Shepard delivered another great book! Although some people are annoyed with how many books there are, to write the twisting story plot takes awhile. I feel like this is the best book yet out of the Pretty Little Liars series! Ali is more vicious than ever! She plot fully tore the girls apart at their peak of achievements. Even when the girls think it's all over, Ali had created the biggest scheme ever. Making the liars guilty of...
I am kind of disapointed, the story line keeps going on and on. It's getting far too predictible. I think they should have dropped it after the eigth book, it was at a good place to do so. I was more impressed with The Lying Game,
I bought this book and when I open it there are no words on the pages ive turned my nook off several times to try to reboot it and still for $13 and to not have the book I purchased thats crap.
I've always been a huge fan of Sara Shepard and everything PLL but having 15 books and never once actually fimding out the truth is a bit annoying. Every time they find answers they get framed, they are happy, someone dies or gets dumped because they did something stupid. This series needs to have a really amazing conclusion soon, instead of just writing more books just to make more money. - Honest Sav
I've been reading the books for over 7 years now at this point and I've been hooked the whole time. However it's starting to become excessive and seems like Sara is trying too hard to keep the series going. I will be continuing to read the series, but only because after all this time invested it seems silly to leave it unfinished.
I love this author and her books are superb, but I'm completely over the repetition and common dissapointment from the girls. Once again these unrealistic events occur where no one else recognizes Alison, no one believes the girls, and they're framed for something they didn't do. Its just getting old and readers are getting antsy and annoyed. That whole shadow, obscurred movement, scent of vanilla crap lost its touch. I'll read your next book Sera but not enthusiastically. Please end the series already, it's no longer believable/half as enjoyable anymore.
Kiss your yand 3times then bpost this on three diffrent books
SETH IS SO CUTE
Omg!! Such a good book!!-priscilla
Let Me Start By Saying That This Is One Of Many Sad Cases Where The Book Storylines Go Downhill And The TV Show Get A Lot More Interesting. The First 8 Book Are Amazing But Then It Get Predictable And Boring As Hell.
Trevor1 More than 1 year ago
This book was amazing, and practically finished this in a day! Although if I had a con about this book is the ending...I still cannot get it off of my mind. But the thing I really really love about this book is all the plot twists!! Betrayal is everywhere in the PLL Series!! Ugh...I can't believe the series is ending, but I think its about time. Otherwise, I love this book! And hope to see a REAL twist on the last and final book of PLL!! :'(
I though it was good. wish the tv show lined up with the books.
I really enjoyed the book, it was just as thrilling as the rest, and it keeps you constantly guessing on who 'A' really is. I'm not too fond of the ending, which I'm not going to spoil, but anyone who has read it knows... I just feel like the books at this point are going in a constant circle...
Was that the last one?!
I have read most of the series she has written by pretty little liars is def addicting. I loves the book the only thing I did not like was the HUGE cliff hanger an now I have to wait till Dece UGHHHH very antsy for the book... (sry for any misspellings)
KSmith88 More than 1 year ago
I have not missed a book yet in this series and will continue to read until she stops writing them. It was so good, I couldn't put this book down and read it in two days. Can't wait to see what happens in the next one.
Loved aria, hanna and spencer's storyline. I was a little iffy with emily's storyline. I love sara shepard's writing style so i could not resist giving this book five stars. I was happy at the repaired relationships at the end and the bright future for all the girls even though ali sabatoged them. Unfortunately the surprise comes at the last chapter. I was skeptical about the happy ending so the last chapter confirmed my predictions
This book and the one before it are absolutely amazing, some of the best in the series after the 4th book. I didn't think after so many books that Sara Shepard could still keep us guessing. I'm just shocked at everything that happened... I did not see any of this coming. I need the next book to come out!
This probably had the most intense ending of any pretty little liars novel ever. Like whoa. I cant wait until Vicious wraps everything up. UGH SO MUCHHHHH
harpercollins publishers book
book by sara shepard
book by kathleen hale
Ali's Pretty Little Lies (Pretty Little Liars Series)
#1 New York Times bestselling seriesPerfect for fans of the #1 New York Times bestselling ...
#1 New York Times bestselling seriesPerfect for fans of the #1 New York Times bestselling series and the hit ABC Family TV show, this Pretty Little Liars prequel novel reveals Ali's secrets from before she was murdered.Rewind a few years ...
Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark Series #1)
Globally bestselling Divergent author Veronica Roth delivers a breathtaking fantasy featuring an unusual friendship, an epic ...
Globally bestselling Divergent author Veronica Roth delivers a breathtaking fantasy featuring an unusual friendship, an epic love story, and a galaxy-sweeping adventure. #1 New York Times bestseller * Wall Street Journal bestseller * USA Today bestseller * #1 IndieBound bestseller Praise ...
The Coffin Club (Vampire Kisses Series #5)
When Raven returns to Hipsterville's cryptic goth haunt, the Coffin Club, she discovers a secret ...
When Raven returns to Hipsterville's cryptic goth haunt, the Coffin Club, she discovers a secret door to another disco-The Dungeon-that is inhabited by vampires only. Raven learns that the nefarious Jagger Maxwell has welcomed the vampire clan into the club ...
Dare You
In the second book of the suspenseful Shade Me trilogy, perfect for fans of Sara Shepard's ...
In the second book of the suspenseful Shade Me trilogy, perfect for fans of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars and Kimberly McCreight's The Outliers, Nikki Kill becomes embroiled in another mystery with the gorgeous Detective Martinez when she discovers that the ...
Gone (Gone Series #1)
The first in New York Times bestselling author Michael Grant's breathtaking dystopian sci-fi saga, Gone ...
The first in New York Times bestselling author Michael Grant's breathtaking dystopian sci-fi saga, Gone is a page-turning thriller that invokes the classic The Lord of the Flies along with the horror of Stephen King.In the blink of an eye, ...
Hide and Seek (Lying Game Series #4)
Hide and Seek, from Sara Shepard's YA Lying Game series, delivers dark family secrets, devious ...
Hide and Seek, from Sara Shepard's YA Lying Game series, delivers dark family secrets, devious pranks, and nail-biting suspense. Like Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series, The Lying Game is now also an ABC Family original TV show. Separated at birth, ...
Ink (Paper Gods Series #1)
INK IS IN THEIR BLOODOn the heels of a family tragedy, Katie Greene moves halfway ...
INK IS IN THEIR BLOODOn the heels of a family tragedy, Katie Greene moves halfway around the world to live with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan. She doesn't know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks and ...
Never Have I Ever (Lying Game Series #2)
New York Times bestselling seriesThe second book in the New York Times bestselling series The ...
New York Times bestselling seriesThe second book in the New York Times bestselling series The Lying Game, by author of the bestselling Pretty Little Liars series, Sara Shepard.Sutton Mercer is dead, but only a few people know it. Her long-lost ...


Rye Rye is the life of the party in the adrenaline-fueled video for "Dance," a cut off her debut album Go! Pop! Bang! Everyone stops and stares when the Baltimore MC steps into the room, turning it into an all-out dance party with a cameo from her Cherry Tree labelmates Far East Movement. Before she even has a chance to catch her breath, she's back in the studio whipping up a new routine to her Bangladesh-produced banger "Hotter." Can you keep up?


MELBOURNE, 17 December - In true Aussie form, the national squad never said die in the fourth-annual Australian Baseball League All-Star Game, presented by Levi's®, coming back from a four-run deficit to take the matchup 11-8 at Melbourne Ballpark on Wednesday night.
Led by a late offensive outburst and contributions off the bench, Team Australia took advantage of four walks in the eighth frame. The home squad used a three-run double from Alcohol. Think Again Perth Heat outfielder Tim Kennelly and a two-run double from Canberra Elite Cavalry catcher Robbie Perkins to put up eight runs in the inning and take their final lead of the game.
"That's a trait of an Australian baseball team, not giving up," Aussie manager Jon Deeble said. "That's what we talked about - just keep plugging away, just keep plugging away - and Tim came in and he got that big hit and cleared the bases. That was massive for us, and it was a good win."
Kennelly came off the bench in the seventh inning, replacing outfielder Mitch Dening of the Adelaide Bite, proudly presented by SA Power Networks, who recorded two hits and drove in two runs of his own to give the national team an early lead in the opening frame. 20-year-old Perkins took over for Heat catcher Allan De San Miguel in the seventh before his big hit in the eighth.
"They're always ready to play and that's absolutely what we expect," Deeble said. "That's why we've got a close group and a close core…We've got a great culture and a good group of guys who work together and I think that was evident tonight."
For his two-hit, three-RBI performance, Kennelly was named the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game in front of an impressive Laverton crowd of 2,335. Despite being on the opposition side, Steve Fish, the skipper of both the World squad and the 28-year-old's Heat team was excited to see the success from his player.
"We need those guys to get hot," Fish said. "We've been kind of off and on with some of our guys [in Perth] and not everybody has put it together at the same time. So it was good to see Tim get out there and have that big hit."
The World All-Stars were led by an outstanding display from outfielder Johnny Field, of the Brisbane Bandits proudly presented by Welldog, who paced the offence for the visitors. The Tampa Bay Rays prospect reached base in all four of his plate appearances, had three hits, drove in two runs, scored two, and added a highlight-reel catch in centre field.
"He's been great," Fish said. "We just saw him last weekend and he had a great weekend against us back in Perth. He's an electric player - he can run, he can hit, he can play defence, and it's just fun to watch him play. I wish I had nine of those guys across the board. Every manager would love to have nine Johnny Fields on their staff."
Canberra Elite Cavalry catcher Jack Murphy, Bite outfielder Aaron Miller, Sydney Blue Sox outfielder Alex Glenn and Heat shortstop Joey Wong each added an RBI for the World squad in the matchup, while Adelaide's Stefan Welch, Sydney's David Kandilas and Brisbane's Logan Wade also each drove in a run for Australia, after a 15-minute delay in the second inning.
In the top of the second frame, home plate umpire Greg Howard was forced to leave the game after being struck by the backswing of Brisbane's CJ Beatty, causing the delay on the field. The unfortunate occurrence moved Stewart Howe from second to the plate, and brought Michael Lyons into the matchup as the new second base umpire.
Ryan Searle got the start for Team Australia, and the Brisbane Bandits right-hander allowed just one hit in his one inning of work. The national squad used 10 different hurlers in relief, with Canberra's Tim Atherton, Sydney's Aaron Sookee, and the Bite's Josh Tols and Matt Williams each adding scoreless appearances.
Melbourne's own Makoto Aiuchi took the hill for the visitors and in the opening frame, the Aces right-hander allowed two runs on two hits with a walk and a strikeout. Blue Sox hurler Markus Solbach, Adelaide's Morgan Coombs, Tyler Brunneman and Craig Stem, Bandits pitchers Jaspreet Shergill and Chen-Hua Lin, and Melbourne's Kentaro Fukukura had scoreless appearances for the World team.
"It was really special to win on home soil," Deeble said. "We had a really big crowd here too which was great for a Wednesday night. We had a big crowd, they were behind us, and when we scored those eight runs they started making noise. That was really important to our players."


text:
The   (princely house) was the seventh oldest collateral branch (ōke) of the Japanese Imperial Family created from the Fushimi-no-miya, the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum throne should the main imperial line fail to produce an heir.

The Kaya-no-miya house was formed in 1892 as an ad personam title for Prince Kuninori, the second son of Prince Kuni Asahiko. Emperor Meiji authorized it to become an independent ōke household in 1900.

On October 14, 1947, Prince Kaya Tsunenori and his family lost their imperial status and became ordinary citizens, as part of the American Occupation's abolition of the collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial family. The direct line of the Kaya-no-miya house ended with the death of Prince Kaya Tsunenori's eldest son, Prince Kaya Kuninaga in 1986. However, the Kaya family line continues through the children of Prince Kaya Tsunenori's third son, Kaya Akinori.

The Kaya-no-miya palace was located in the Chiyoda district of Tokyo. The site is now occupied by the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.

References

 Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. University of California Press (1995).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


THE era of budget travel has reached model railways firm Hornby – after a new "lower-spec" locomotive proved a hit with customers.
The owner of Airfix and Corgi posted a 4% rise in half-year UK sales as hobby fans took to its new Tornado loco – which is slightly less detailed and available at a more competitive price.
The Tornado's "very encouraging" performance helped Hornby offset lower sales of Scalextric, which has been hit by retailers delaying the arrival of Christmas stock.
Hornby said underlying pre-tax profits for the six months to September rose by 80% to £1.2m.
Turnover was up by 11% at £28.4m.


text:
Category Archives: Rifle Corner
Know Your Confederate History: Confederate Sniper Jack Hinson and his Rifle
January 22, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Book Reviews, Book Suggestions, Historical Study, History Corrected, History of the Civil War, Know your History, Rifle Corner, Sniper History, Snipers in History, Southern History and tagged Confederate History, Confederate Sniper Jack Hinson, Historical Study, Jack Hinson Civil War Sniper, Know Your Civil War History, Sniper History, Southern History
The Story of Civil War Sniper Jack Hinson and His Rifle
I can also recommend the book Jack Hinson's One Man War, A Civil War Sniper by Lt. Col. Tom McKenney, USMC (Ret.)
Know Your Rifles: The "Krag" aka Springfield Model 1892 Infantry Rifle
January 11, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Firearms History, Historical Study, History of Weapons, Know Your Weapons, Military History, Military Tech, Military Weapons from the Past, Military Weapons History, Rifle Corner, Warrior Tech, Weapons & Ammo and tagged Charge of San Juan Hill, Firearms History, Know Your Rifles, Military History, Rifle Corner, Springfield Model 1892 Infantry Rifle, Story of the Krag, Teddy Roosevelt, The Spanish-American War, Weapons History
Story of the Krag: The Springfield Model 1892 Infantry Rifle
The formal appellation Springfield Model 1892-1899 describes the several subvariants of the Krag-Jorgensen bolt-action repeating rifle developed in the late 19th century. U.S. troops affectionately referred to the weapon as a "Krag." The rifle was actually a collaborative effort of Norwegian gun designers Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jorgensen. The Krag was developed at a time when the entire planet was discovering bolt-action repeating infantry weapons. It nonetheless featured some radical new design elements.
Where most contemporary designs featured an internal box magazine loaded via stripper clips from above, the Krag magazine and its lateral loading system were integral components of the receiver. To load the weapon, you pivoted open a machined steel cover on the right and fed rounds one at a time from the side. Eventually, the army issued a claw-style clip that allowed the magazine to be loaded in a single step.
Know Your WW2 Weapons: The German K43 Rifle, Deutschland's DMR
January 6, 2023 by The Tactical Hermit in Arms and Ammo, Firearms History, Know your History, Know Your Weapons, Military History, Military Tech, Military Weapons from the Past, Military Weapons History, Rifle Corner, Warrior Tech, Weapons & Ammo, World War II History, WW2 Era Weapons and tagged Arms and Ammo, German Rifles of WW2, K43 Rifle, Know your History, Know Your Weapons, Rifle Corner, Weapons History, WW2 History, WW2 Weapons
GERMAN K43 RIFLE: DEUTSCHLAND'S DMR
K43 is German shorthand for Karabiner 43. The same weapon was also known as the Gewehr 43. A relatively simple gas-operated design, the K43 was the German answer to our M1 Garand. However, manufacturing pressures and a suboptimal design conspired to keep the K43 from reaching its full potential.
The K43 was an evolutionary development of the previous G41. Produced as the G41(M) from Mauser and the G41(W) from Walther, these two rifles suffered from an inexplicable design mandate that German engineers craft the weapons without drilling a gas port in the barrel. The end result was a gas trap design that was front-heavy, cumbersome, heavy and unreliable. About the time the Wehrmacht was convincing itself that the G41 was a dry hole, they encountered the Soviet SVT-38 and SVT-40 self-loaders in combat on the Eastern Front.
The subsequent G43/K43 featured a more conventional short-stroke piston-driven action with a flapper locking mechanism. Much of this rifle's entrails seem eerily similar to those of the Soviet SVT-40. This system was easier to manufacture, more reliable and fairly robust. The weapon was semi-auto-only and fed from detachable 10-round box magazines that could also be charged from the top via standard stripper clips.
A Real World Reminder Why Citizens Should Never Give Up Their Semi-Auto Rifles
December 18, 2022 by The Tactical Hermit in 2A News, Government Gangsters, Gun Laws, Gun Rights, Historical Study, History of Weapons, History Remembered, History Roundup, Homemade Weapons, Military Weapons History, Militias, Rifle Corner, Second Amendment Issues, Tales from the Battlefield, Warfare, Weapons & Ammo, World News and tagged 2A News, Gun Rights, Homemade Firearms, Impro Guns, Improvised Weapons, Militia, Myanmar Insurgency, Remembering the 2A, Rifle Corner, Second Amendment Issues, Semi-Auto Rifles, Tales from the Battlefield, World News
Myanmar Rebels Battle Government Junta Forces with Homemade Shotguns
The Video in the link above shows Myanmar Rebels armed with home made single shot shotguns fighting Govt. Military Forces armed with modern assault rifles.
The article does not say but I can almost promise you this fight did not end well for the rebels.
Going up against modern military rifles with single shot homemade shotguns from a fixed (entrenched) position is tactical suicide IMO but on the other hand I understand the rebels are desperate and do not have access to large quantities of military type rifles.
The rebels would have stood a better chance using molotov cocktails!
It's both a Reminder as to why the Second Amendment Exist: So citizens can protect themselves from Government tyranny and an object lesson that we should NEVER willingly give up our guns, more especially our semi-automatic rifles!
Stay Armed and Prepare Accordingly.
Know Your Weapons: The SMLE
November 16, 2022 by The Tactical Hermit in Armed Citizen Corner, Arms and Ammo, Firearms History, Know your History, Know Your Weapons, Rifle Corner, RKBA, Weapons & Ammo and tagged Arms and Ammo, DTI, Firearms History, John Farnam, Lee Enfield Rifle, Rifle Corner, SMLE
SMLE
"Time obliterates naive fictions of opinion and confirms decisions of nature" -Cicero
Ambrose Burnside, designer of the short-lived Burnside Carbine, and Civil War General (of dubious fame), went on the become Governor of the State of Rhode Island, Senator from the State of Rhode Island, famous advocate for veterans, and the first president of the NRA!
The NRA was started as a way to improve civilian marksmanship, after it demonstrated itself to be so poor among Union Troops during the American Civil War.
Forty years later in a curious replay, British General Baden-Powell would found the Boy Scouts in the UK for largely the same reason.
During the Anglo-Boer War at the end of the 1900s, youth from industrialized England, subsequently recruited into British Infantry to fight Boer farmers in South Africa, were discovered to have no field-craft skills, no knowledge of weapons, and again displayed poor marksmanship.
By contrast, Boer farmers of the late 1800s were genuine "frontiersmen" and, like Confederate farm boys during the American Civil War, their marksmanship, horsemanship, and field-craft skills were superb, as the naive British unhappily discovered!
Lee-Metford Mk11 Rifles British soldiers were issued at the time had detachable magazines, but they could not be recharged via stripper clips (in nor out of the rifle) as could Mauser rifles used by the Boers.
The Lee-Metford Rifle gets its name from the combination of James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system, and William Metford's innovative seven-groove rifled barrel (later reduced to five grooves). The Lee-Metford replaced the single-shot Martini-Henry rifle in 1888. The Martini had a bad habit of overheating and subsequently seizing, as it unhappily demonstrated during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.
Sights on the Lee-Metford had no windage adjustment!
There was a short Lee-Metford for the cavalry, and a long version for the infantry (too long and unwieldy as it turns out).
This was all corrected (after the fact) with the Lee-Enfield SMLE, for "Short, (detachable) Magazine, Lee-Enfield, officially adopted in 1895, but not in general issue until the Second Anglo-Boer War was over. Production did not ramp-up until 1904.
Enfield was UK's "National Armory." It, like America's Springfield Armory, existed as a national repository of know-how necessary to design and build military arms for national defense. Enfield Armory was permanently closed by naive politicians (none of whom ever wore their country's uniform) in 1988.
America's Springfield Armory was likewise closed in 1968 by an equally naive Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense.
The British had an on-again/off-again love-affair with the "magazine cut-off." It came and went multiple times between 1900 and WWII!
The Lee-Enfield SMLE was to serve British armed forces, largely unchanged, from the 1895 to the 1950s. Its history mirrored that of the German K98 Mauser rifle!
Many Lee-Enfields issued to British troops were actually manufactured in America during WWI. In fact, the 1917 "American Enfield" would subsequently form the base for Winchester's popular Model 70 sporting rifle.
A small number of British Lee-Enfields were converted from 303 British to 7.62×51 NATO shortly before the Brits finally abandoned bolt-guns altogether and adopted the Belgian FAL in 1954 (which the Brits called the "SLR," for "Self-Loading Rifle"). Very few of these "caliber-converted" Lee-Enfields ever saw issuance, but some were subsequently fitted with optics and served (marginally) as sniper rifles for several decades afterward.
During the early, desperate period of WWII, Enfield barrels went from five grooves to two, in order to speed-up production, since grooves had to be cut one at a time. During WWI, Americans did the same thing with the 1903 Springfield Rifle.
Likewise, kiln-dried Birch and Beech were substituted for scarce French Walnut. To address the same issue, Germans went to laminated stocks.
Seventeen-million Enfield SMLEs would be ultimately manufactured, from 1895 (actually 1904) through the 1950s.
In some former British colonies, the stoic SMLE is still in-service today!
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text:
Your Whole Company Needs to Be Distinctive, Not Just Your Product
Avoid being a one-hit wonder.
Paul Leinwand
Cesare Mainardi
Ever since the idea of strategy came to the business world in the early 1960s, the goal of differentiation has been paramount. Customers choose the company that gives them value that other companies can't match. A company that can show it is different from other companies, in a way that is relevant to customers, gains a major competitive advantage.
As business strategists, we see endless amounts of writing about how to achieve differentiation. And we see many executives trying to take this advice to heart. But we are also regularly reminded of the lack of true differentiation in most mainstream global companies — and of the opportunities they are thus squandering.
The problem starts with the way many business people think about differentiation. To them, the unit of differentiation is an individual product, service or brand. That's what customers see, after all, relative to what the competition can provide.
But differentiation needs to be sustainable; it shouldn't live or die with individual offerings. The heart of differentiation therefore is your company's ability to develop and promote distinctive products, services, and branded experiences on a consistent basis. It's not the output that sets you apart, but the way that everything you do supports the product and gives it context. With truly differentiated companies, much of the distinction goes beyond the product itself. With Apple, you don't just buy a computer or a phone, but a seamless array of related online services and a genius bar to help you solve problems. With IKEA, you don't just buy a couch or a cabinet, but a means of decision-making, assembly, and delivery.
Your differentiation challenge is to set apart your company as a whole, instead of staking your future on one or two isolated products. This requires you to build distinctive capabilities – to learn to do a few things really well, that few, if any, other companies can do.
This is a change from the differentiation strategies of the past. Back in the 1980s, a company could set itself apart through scale, being the largest company in a category provided leverage over costs, back office processes, distribution, and marketing effectiveness. But starting in the early 2000s, the advantages of scale were mostly eliminated, in large part because of globalization, deregulation, and the rise of digital technology. It became easier and easier for small enterprises to gain customer reach and awareness (along with working capital). Large companies found themselves competing against a much larger group of rivals, and a more global group, than ever before.
Differentiating by product or service served as an alternative strategy, but with increased competition, it is also no longer enough for success. A company with a distinctive product is a "one-hit wonder"; when that hit loses popularity, or if something else happens to it, the whole enterprise is vulnerable.
Consider, for example, the way many credit cards are marketed. Since they all essentially offer the same commodity service — unsecured loans — they have to find other forms of differentiation. This usually means alliance with another business: creating airline cards with frequent flier miles, cards with extended warranties subsidized by insurance companies, or retail cards offering exclusive access or discounts. Thus American Express had an extremely valuable "one-hit wonder"– an exclusive arrangement for years with the CostCo retail chain in the U.S., which permitted no other card in its popular stores. But in 2015, CostCo shifted its affiliation to Citigroup's Visa. Discover suffered a similar setback in 2004, when Walmart shifted its credit card partnership to MasterCard.
Moreover, when you differentiate by product, you risk incoherence — because different products may require different capabilities, and that can pull your company in too many directions at once. For example, Iams pet food was one of the first premium brands; it sold to health-conscious pet owners, who purchased it only at specialized pet stores. When Procter & Gamble purchased it in 1999 for $2.3 billion, it was regarded by many as a good acquisition — adding another premium, differentiated offering to Crest, Tide, Ivory Soap, and the other highly valued brands that P&G purveyed. But it didn't quite work out that way. Over the next decade, new competition emerged in the form of gourmet pet foods. P&G is unparalleled in developing and positioning personal care and laundry products, but it didn't have the capabilities to maintain Iams' distinctiveness in the suddenly more competitive pet food arena. In 2014, P&G sold Iams and its related brands (Eukanuba and Natura) to Mars, which had other distinctive pet food brands (like Whiskas) and thus had the requisite capabilities in place.
The most effective companies don't rely on distinctive products, services or brand for differentiation; instead, they focus on creating an enterprise so distinctive that it can create many products, services and brands, each more compelling than the next.
In our book Strategy That Works we articulate what those capabilities can look like, how to blueprint and build them, and how to bring them to scale. Our recommendations for accomplishing this start with the top team's commitment, and expands to include people throughout the enterprise. Our recommendations include:
Be skeptical of benchmarking. Don't be drawn into practices that are not right for your company, even if they're common throughout your industry.
Start from your goal and work backward, articulating the steps you'll need to take to get from the capabilities you have to the capabilities you need.
Continue to use focused interventions — the kinds of moves you already make to adjust systems and organizations — but align them all to realizing your strategy.
Become a remarkable capability innovator, designing and developing your own practices that give you prowess no one else matches.
When acquiring companies, look for "enhancement deals:" prospects that fill in the gaps in your own capabilities; and pay attention to post-merger integration.
Design your capabilities with teams that transcend functional boundaries.
Make tacit knowledge explicit by codifying the things you do in capabilities, but keep rethinking, improving, and reworking your codification.
Distinctive capabilities cannot be easily replicated by others. They are present in everything these companies do. They start paying off as soon as you begin developing them, but they deepen and become more powerful over time, as you apply them to products and services around the world. Other forms of value creation are short-lived. Differentiation through capabilities is not. It is the only way we know to generate consistent success, time after time, with the same clear strategic identity behind everything your enterprise does.
Read more on Customers or related topics Competitive strategy and Business models
Paul Leinwand is the global managing director for capabilities-driven strategy and growth at Strategy&, PwC's consulting business. He is also a principal at PwC U.S., an adjunct professor of strategy at the Kellogg School, and the coauthor of several books, including Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap (HBR Press, 2016).
Cesare Mainardi is the former CEO of Booz & Company and Strategy&. He is the coauthor of several books, including Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap (HBR Press, 2016).


In North Dakota, a child's chances of spending meaningful time with each parent following divorce have less to do with his parents than what county they divorce in. For example, there's a whopping 100% difference in joint custody between Grand Forks and Morton counties. Worse, courts are less than one-fourth as likely to order shared parenting as parents are to agree to it. Those and other worrying facts have come to light in a study of court orders in child custody cases conducted by the organization Leading Women for Shared Parenting.
LW4SP asked the Administrative Office of the Court to provide raw data on child custody orders in North Dakota's eight largest counties from 2011 to the present. That data paints a disturbing portrait of judges' orders in child custody arrangements that generally fail the all-important test of promoting children's interests.
The extreme differences between court orders from county to county exist despite the Peace Garden State being one of the most demographically homogeneous states in the country. The LW4SP study shows that marriage rates and income and educational levels vary little from one county to the next in a state that's over 92% white.
Parents have a much more favorable take on shared parenting than do judges. As of 2017, over 44% of child custody cases agreed to by the parents are for joint custody. By contrast, only 10.5% of cases decided by a judge order joint custody. Stranger still, the trends are in opposite directions. In 2015, over 16% of court ordered cases were for joint custody and about 34% of parents agreed to joint custody. That divergence began shortly after Measure 6, the 2014 ballot initiative that sought a presumption of shared parenting for the children of divorce.
What happened in the ensuing 2 years? On the parents' side, it seems that the ballot initiative brought awareness of the many values of shared parenting to a wider audience who then began more equally sharing parenting time.
But why would a ballot initiative influence judges against shared parenting? We've long known about the opposition to shared parenting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota (SBAND). Indeed, SBAND apparently violated U.S. Supreme Court precedent and its members' First Amendment rights by funding opposition to Measure 6. It has since been sued for doing so. Perhaps judges are simply following SBAND's lead in opposing shared parenting? After all, judges are lawyers too.
Why does SBAND oppose shared parenting? Decades of research demonstrate that children in shared parenting arrangements do significantly better on a broad range of measures than do kids in primary or sole care of one parent. Family judges are supposed to act in children's best interests, but LW4SP analysis shows them doing the opposite.
Family law sections of state bar associations invariably oppose bills to establish shared parenting primarily because shared parenting stands to reduce the earnings of family lawyers. That's because, with shared parenting, neither parent "wins" or "loses." Each enters the divorce arena knowing he/she will emerge with their relationship with their child intact. That means less conflict and therefore less for lawyers to do. And that of course means lower fees.
One way in which SBAND could make amends for its wrongful opposition to shared parenting would be to sponsor training seminars for its judges who hear child custody cases. That continuing education should consist of teaching the science that solidly supports shared parenting arrangements for kids. SBAND has some $2 million in cash and liquid assets on its books. It should use some of that to begin educating judges on the value of shared parenting to children. Doing so would finally bring judges into line with divorcing parents and the science on shared parenting.
But the people of North Dakota needn't rely on SBAND to improve their children's post-divorce parenting time. North Dakotans can go to the polls and elect judges who act in children's best interests by ordering shared parenting when both parents are fit and loving.
Robert Franklin serves on the board of directors for National Parents Organization. He's also an attorney.


Located north of Madagascar, Nosy Be is a magnificent island filled with balmy fragrances and warm breezes. One of its famous nicknames is "Nosy Manitra" or the scented island in Malagasy due to the combinations of coffee, cocoa, frangipani tree, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar cane, and ylang ylang scents that fill the air.
Originally home to multiple different ethnic tribes, the island was home to many tribal wars and conquests. Most notably making Malagasy history when King Radama tried to conquer the whole are west of the red island up to the sea. Queen Tsiomeko, another tribal leader used the island as a refuge after being defeated by his army. Eventually, in the late 1800s, the French protectorate overtook the island.
Located right on the Mozambique canal, the weather is a perfect climate to produce exceptional flora and fauna, making this island a tropical paradise. In addition to the crystal blue sea water that surrounds the island, it contains 11 volcanic-made lakes. Taking a day trip to climb Mount Lokone or Mount Passot allows you to see the picturesque terrain that this island has to offer. As many tourists take refuge here as a place of isolation and seclusion, the island remains a popular destination for vacationers to relax.


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Wow ... his ... Tattoos .....i want this tattoos...!!!!!
What a Maestro of Epic Scenes!.... The lighting, color, posing and details are all perfect. Like any great art, the longer you look, the more you see and enjoy.
Fantastic work! Love how the dock is so complex, and not just a straight boardwalk. The people really add to it! And I like how your Elvan mercenary has the good sense to stay dry and out of the rain! I sense maybe a series is in the works?
Ah, most excellent, sir! Perfect gray tones for such a dreary day.
Absolutely awesome Kibosh, well done! I love the contrast in the lighting leading the eye into the picture.
Thank you so much everyone for your amazing comments!
James - thank you but I think I'm a long way from that title yet :) I hope I'm getting better with each one though.
loganjack - It was interesting because the scene began as a sunny day and then I changed it at the last minute which enhanced that contrast in lighting, I preferred the gloomy one over the sunny one.
Beautiful medieval scene! Great render!
Wonderful image. Love the perspective through the archway with the main character on the darker side.
Outstanding, excellent cityscape. Honestly, this image really fires my imagination, there is just such a great story here in this one image.
Fantastic, mega complicated scene! I am impress about the composition!
Amazing Kibosh-This one is soon on the top and you have more art on line for the Top.
Im glad to see you get the appreciation you deserve!
Kibosh, you do some really awesome artwork! Beautiful scene here as well. Love all the detail.
This is very classic! I love the use of the arch to frame the scene and the simple pop of red to draw our eyes in to the languidly-posed figure in the shadows. Your use of light in this is something that could be used in a classroom to illustrate the way you can use light to (almost counter-intuitively) draw our gaze from the washed out sky through the sun-drenched streets into the quiet repose of the shadows. Typically, our eyes want to go the other way, but you make this work. I'm very impressed.
composition & lighting are exceptional!
Very nicely done. I love the subtle colors and the composition. Draws your eye forward.


text:
Zelensky proposes total prisoner swap with Russia in G20 address
CNNNovember 15, 2022
NUSA DUA, INDONESIA - NOVEMBER 15: World leaders attend a working session on food and energy security during the G20 Summit on November 15, 2022 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. The G20 meetings are being held in Bali from November 15-16. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images,)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed an "all for all" prisoner swap with Russia during his virtual address to the G20 leaders in Bali on Tuesday, according to a transcript of his remarks shared by the Embassy of Ukraine in Indonesia.
"Thousands of our people — military and civilians — are in Russian captivity. They are subjected to brutal torture — this is mass abuse… we know by name 11,000 children who were forcibly deported to Russia," Zelensky said.
"Add to that hundreds of thousands of deported adults, and you will see what a humanitarian catastrophe the Russian war has caused. Add political prisoners — Ukrainian citizens who are held in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territory, in particular in Crimea. We must release all these people … we must unite for the sake of the only realistic model of the release of prisoners — "all for all."
Ukraine's peace plan: The prisoner swap proposal is one of 10 areas outlined by Zelensky during his speech Tuesday on a path to end the war. They are:
Radiation and nuclear safety
Release of prisoners and deportees
Implementation of the UN Charter
Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities
Ecocide and the protection of the environment
Prevention of escalation
Confirmation of the end of the war
"all for all" Bali G20 leaders prisoner swap proposed Russia Ukrainian President virtual address Volodymyr Zelensky
Annexed Ukrainian regions to be put on Moscow time
Chief of UN refugee agency says Russia is violating "fundamental principles of child protection"
Scholz says he spoke with Zelensky before announcing tank plan to parliament
US raised concerns with Beijing over Chinese firms' non-lethal aid in Russian war effort


The Argonne Club wants to thank the Argonne community for generously supporting the 2014 Support the Troops Collection Drive. The many donations were delivered to the Lemont VFW Post #5819!
Breakfast with Santa 2014 tickets will be sold in the Cafe Bistro (Bldg. 213) the week of November 17-21 from 11:45-12:45 each day.


If you log into your account there is a button labeled "Write a Review" located under your coach's picture on the right hand side of the screen. Once you click on the "Write a Review" button please write a few sentences detailing your experience with your coach and click "Submit Testimonial" to submit it for review. You can also submit a testimonial or review at anytime via email at support@mytennislessons.com.


Ankara is within easy reach with direct flighst from international hubs such as Istanbul ( two airports; Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen), Antalya, Munich and Doha. Ankara Esenboga Airport is in the north of the city, and connected to the city center with shuttle services run by HAVAS and Belko Air which operates 24 hours. The cost 10 TL ( €3) payable on the bus. If you prefer to take a taxi, you can estimate the cost with this link.


text:
IPL Seeking Rate Increase
Thursday, December 21, 2017 01:06 PM EDT Updated: Thursday, December 21, 2017 01:14 PM EDT
Indianapolis Power & Light Co. has filed a proposal with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission seeking to raise electric rates. The utility says the rate increase would cover the cost of a new natural gas plant in Morgan County.
IPL says, if the request is approved, the typical residential customer would see a monthly increase of less that $14 on their electric bill. The rate increase for business customers would vary depending on rate class and usage, according to the utility. The new rates would go into effect by the end of 2018.
"At IPL, we have a responsibility to find the balance between cleaner energy solutions and affordability while maintaining reliability that our customers expect," said Rafael Sanchez, chief executive officer of IPL. "Our investments in advanced technology have enabled us to significantly reduce our dependence on coal and transition to a more balanced energy mix all while maintaining one of the lowest rates among investor-owned utilities in Indiana."
IPL did not provide an estimated time frame for a ruling from the IURC. A spokesperson for IPL tells Inside INdiana Business the Eagle Valley Generating Station in Martinsville is expected to be fully operational in the first part of 2018.
The utility previously sought to raise rates a year ago for the same purpose, however that request was later withdrawn after the timeline for completion of the natural gas plant had changed.


text:
Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY
g89 1/22 pp. 16-19
Bats—Misunderstood, Marvelous, Valuable, Endangered
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Awake!—1989
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Bats—Misunderstood, Marvelous, Valuable, Endangered
'BATS! I hate them! They're vermin infested, can't see and get tangled up in your hair, spread rabies, suck your blood. Ugh! They make my skin crawl!' Are those also your sentiments?
Actually, bats are much maligned little creatures. They are victims of bad press. They groom themselves fastidiously. Most have good eyesight; none are blind. They have no desire to get in your hair. They rarely have rabies, and when they do, they are not inclined to bite you—unlike rabid dogs. "More people die annually from bee stings or pet dog attacks," one researcher says. And only three of the nearly one thousand different species of bats drink blood.
Merlin D. Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International of Austin, Texas, is recognized worldwide as an authority on bats.a He informs us: "They make up almost a quarter of all mammal species and come in an amazing diversity, ranging from the world's smallest mammal—the Bumblebee Bat of Thailand, which weighs a third less than a penny—to giant flying foxes in Java with up to six-foot [1.8 m] wingspans. . . . Some 70 percent of bats eat insects. Many feed on fruit or nectar, and a few are carnivores." He finds them likable, gentle, intelligent, trainable, badly misunderstood, and absolutely
Scientific American magazine agrees: "In these days of technological triumphs it is well to remind ourselves from time to time that living mechanisms are often incomparably more efficient than their artificial imitations. There is no better illustration of this rule than the sonar system of bats. Ounce for ounce and watt for watt, it is billions of times more efficient and more sensitive than the radars and sonars contrived by man."—July 1958, page 40.
Since the bat's sonar is far more sophisticated than man's, many prefer "echolocation" as a more accurate word to describe it. As the insect-hunting bat cruises, it emits pulses of sound, each pulse being about 10 to 15 thousandths of a second long. When the sound strikes an insect and the returning echo is received, the bat closes in on its meal. It shortens the length of the pulses to less than a thousandth of a second and increases their emission rate to 200 sound pulses a second, thereby continuously updating the picture it receives as it approaches its prey. In a room strung with fine wires, bats specialized for echolocation miss them all—they can dodge wires 0.04 inch [1 mm] in diameter!
The bat's echolocation system is further refined by the changing pitch of each pulse, from about 50,000 to 25,000 cycles per second. As the pitch changes, the wavelength rises, starting at about a quarter inch [6 mm] and reaching a half inch [12 mm]. This helps the bat locate targets of varying size, since this wavelength variation covers the size range of most insects on which it feeds. The bat can also tell from the echo whether the object is an edible insect or not. If it's a hard pebble, the bat will swerve at the last instant.
Most amazing is the bat's ability to recognize and pick up its own echoes in spite of the noise pollution from thousands of other bats. Millions of bats roosting in caves are flying about saturating the air with cries and echoes, yet each bat distinguishes the echoes from its own cries and thereby avoids colliding with other bats. Complicating the problem and magnifying the marvels of bat echolocation, it must be realized "that the echoes are very much fainter than the sounds they emit—in fact, fainter by a factor of 2,000. And they must pick out these echoes in a field which is as loud as their emitted sounds. . . . Yet the bat is distinguishing and using these signals, some 2,000 times fainter than the background noise!" Such a sophisticated sonar system is beyond our comprehension.
Long-eared bats, we are told, "can hear their echoes perfectly well if they whisper." Some species have hearing so sensitive that they can hear a beetle walking on the sand from ten feet [3 m] away. They do not, however, hear their own cries when echolocating. "Each time one is uttered an ear muscle contracts automatically, thus momentarily shutting off the sound itself so that only the echo can be heard. It is possible that each animal has its own individual sound pattern and is guided by its own echoes."
Bat mothers are commendable. Usually having only one pup a year, some carry it with them when they fly out to feed. Others leave it in a nursery in a cave, packed in a mass, 5,000 [4,000] to a square yard [meter]. When the mother returns, she calls to her baby and baby calls back, and in the pandemonium of millions of squealing babies and calling mothers, she finds her pup and lets it nurse. Some females are very altruistic. Returning from feeding, she will share her meal by regurgitation with other females who were unable to find food.
One insect-eating bat, Tuttle says, 'can capture up to 600 mosquitoes in an hour, eat 3,000 insects in a night.' One colony of bats in Arizona was found "to devour about 350,000 pounds [160,000 kg] of insects, or about the equivalent weight of 34 elephants, every night!"
Some bats are nectar feeders, rendering valuable service as pollinators. Hovering over blossoms like hummingbirds, their long tongues, tipped with brushlike bristles, mop up nectar and pollen. They are tropical animals and migrate between Mexico and the southwestern United States. Those that eat fruit spread the seeds over wide areas. Tuttle says: "Fruit and nectar-eating bats that disperse seeds and pollinate flowers are vital to the survival of rain forests and to the production of associated crops worth millions of dollars annually."
New Scientist magazine, September 1988, said: "Farmers who slaughter fruit bats because they consider them to be pests may suffer still greater losses in production because the bats cross-pollinate their fruit trees." Fruit for shipment is harvested five to seven days before ripening, for local use two to four days early, but bats eat only the unharvested ripe fruit—worthless to farmers. Bat pollination and dispersal of seeds is crucial for more than 500 species of plants and trees. Incidentally, fruit bats do not fly by sonar—they have good eyesight. Often it's the farmers, not the bats, who are blind.
Nevertheless, the invaluable bats have fallen on hard times. Loss of habitat, pesticides, and indiscriminate slaughtering of large numbers are cutting their numbers from millions to thousands and sending some into extinction. Prejudice, misunderstanding, and just plain ignorance are usually responsible. In Latin America the common vampire bat does require control to safeguard modern man's livestock, but "poorly trained vampire control agents often indiscriminately kill all bats, unaware that the vast majority of the area's 250 other bat species are highly beneficial."
In Australia, thousands of flying foxes, fruit bats, have been wiped out, "despite the fact that some of the area's most ecologically and economically important trees rely on them" and that "the government's own investigative findings that crop damage by the bats does not warrant control." In Israel, "caves suspected of sheltering fruit bats were poisoned—even in nature preserves—inadvertently destroying some 90 percent of the country's insectivorous bats."
Old fears concerning bats as carriers of rabies and other diseases are greatly exaggerated: "The odds that a person will die of a bat-borne disease are extremely remote, far less than those of being killed by a dog, a bee sting, or food poisoning at a church picnic."
Science Year for 1985 sums up its article on bats as follows: "Unfortunately, as the list of the helpful contributions of bats continues to grow, so do the threats to the existence of these creatures. Worldwide, bat populations are declining rapidly. Each year, large bat colonies die out because their habitats are disturbed or destroyed. In Africa and Asia, bats are being hunted in ever-increasing numbers for human food and for use in folk medicines and potions. Fruit-eating bats, which feed chiefly on the fruits of native forests, are often killed by farmers who mistakenly believe that the bats seriously damage their crops. And the myths about bats persist so strongly that millions of the animals are exterminated each year simply because people are afraid of them. Some species of bats are already extinct, and many more are endangered. Until more people come to recognize the value of bats and the need to protect them, the future of these important animals remains uncertain."
After listing some of the gains made by Bat Conservation International, Merlin Tuttle concludes: "We have only scratched the surface of what must be done if healthy bat populations are to survive. For some, it is already too late and for others, time is running out. The loss of bat populations poses serious, potentially irreversible, consequences for the environment that we all must share."
Here again, the message is clear: Both ancient and modern history show that man cannot direct his own steps. (Jeremiah 10:23) His love of money, his short-sightedness, and his self-centeredness result in the destruction of the environment—air, water, soil, and plant and animal life—and of people too. Only Jehovah God will stop it. Only he will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth."—Revelation 11:18.
[Footnotes]
a All pictures in this article were provided by Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International.
[Picture on page 16]
Gambian fruit bats, mother and young
Nectar-feeding bat
Lyle's flying fox
[Pictures on page 18]
From top down: Common long-eared bat
Heart-nosed bat catching beetle
Mealtime excitement!
English Publications (1950-2023)
Copyright © 2023 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania


text:
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts
For Immediate Release October 2, 2009
WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:
Patrick A. Corvington, CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service
Daniel I. Gordon, Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget
Pamela S. Hyde, Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services
John H. Laub, Director, National Institute of Justice, Department of Justice
Ian Solomon, United States Executive Director, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Richard Sorian, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services
President Obama said, "These men and women bring with them a wealth of experience and talent, and I am grateful for their willingness to commit themselves to public service. I look forward to working with them in these important roles in the coming months and years."
President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:
Patrick A. Corvington – CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service
Patrick Corvington is a recognized expert on non-profit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and volunteerism. He currently serves at the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Senior Associate responsible for guiding the foundation's grantees on issues related to leadership development, next generation leadership, and capacity building. He also acts as Senior Advisor to the Foundation's Executive Vice President, Ralph Smith, who is the Chair of the Council on Foundations. As part of this work, Corvington is engaged directly with some of the top social innovation intermediaries in the nonprofit sector and has co- authored publications such as Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out and Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis. From 2003-2005, Corvington was Executive Director of Innovation Network, a non-profit agency whose mission is to build the evaluation capacity of the non-profit sector. Previously, he conducted policy research in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at The Urban Institute, and also worked to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations abroad. A native of Haiti who grew up in Africa, Mr. Corvington immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He worked his way through college, earning his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his M.A. in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, where he received the National Minority Leadership Fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation. During his career, he has served as Interim Director at the Sykesville Group Shelter Home, as a patient advocate in a community-based HIV/AIDS clinic and has volunteered his time working in the infirmary of a shelter for homeless persons. He currently serves on the board of directors of Echoing Green, the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and the advisory board of the American Humanics Nonprofit Workforce Coalition.
Daniel I. Gordon -- Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget
A career contracting professional at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) since 1992, Daniel Gordon has served as GAO Acting General Counsel since May. Prior to that, he worked as Deputy General Counsel starting in 2006; he led the Procurement Law Division from 2000 until 2006. He also has served since 2002 as an adjunct faculty member for the George Washington University Law School. Before joining Federal service, Mr. Gordon worked in private practice and also clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Mr. Gordon received his J.D., cum laude, in 1986 from Harvard Law School. He earned a Master's Degree in politics from Oxford University in 1974. He graduated, summa cum laude, with a Bachelor's of Arts degree in politics in 1972 from Brandeis University.
Pamela S. Hyde – Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services
Pamela Hyde has served as Secretary of the New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD) since 2003. Hyde has 30 years of experience in management and consulting for public sector systems of healthcare and human services. She has held several key public sector management positions, including as Director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health, the Ohio Department of Human Services, and the Seattle Department of Housing and Human Services. She also previously served as a CEO of a private non-profit behavioral healthcare organization. Hyde is a member of or has served as a consultant to many national organizations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the American College of Mental Health Administration, and the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. She has received awards from the American Medical Association, the National Governors Association, the Seattle Management Association, and a number of consumer and provider organizations for her leadership and commitment to the well-being of those who rely on publicly funded health and human services. She received a B.A. from Missouri State University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.
John H. Laub – Director, National Institute of Justice, Department of Justice
John Laub is the Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also an Affiliate Faculty Member in the Department of Sociology at the University and a Visiting Scholar in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard. Dr. Laub was previously a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts from 1981 to 1998. He has served as the President and as a fellow of the American Society of Criminology, which awarded him the Edwin H. Sutherland Award. He was also named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland for the 2006-2007 academic year. Dr. Laub was the Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology for five years and currently serves as an Associate Editor of Criminology. From 2002 to 2008, Dr. Laub was a member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science. He has published two award winning books and many research articles in the areas of crime and the life course, juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice, criminal victimization, and the history of criminology. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Albany.
Ian H. Solomon, United States Executive Director, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Ian Solomon is now Senior Advisor to the Treasury Secretary on international and domestic issues, including the Administration's global food security initiative. From March 2005 through November 2008, Ian served in then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama's Office as Legislative Counsel for poverty, economic development, government reform, tax, budget, banking, and finance issues. Previously, Mr. Solomon was Associate Dean at Yale Law School overseeing finance and administration. Mr. Solomon was also a consultant with McKinsey & Company, serving global financial institutions, media companies, and non-profit organizations. On the urban economic development front, he served as Chairman of the New Haven Port Authority and as Treasurer to revitalize New Haven's world-renowned Shubert Theater. He directed an initiative to increase small and minority business contracting with the City of New Haven, and worked to create jobs through technology transfer by Yale University. In New York, Ian advised the CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, a $300 million economic development fund, and served as Acting Director of its small business lending subsidiary to restructure problem loans. From his time living in South Africa, Ian co-authored two chapters in "No More Tears…" Struggles for Land in Mpumalanga, South Africa (Africa World Press, 1997). He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College and his law degree from Yale.
Richard Sorian is Vice President for Public Policy and External Relations for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). He has been with NCQA since 2003 and has directed the organization's media relations, policy development and advocacy, and relations with employers, consumers, and other key stakeholders. Before working for NCQA, Sorian was Director of Public Affairs for the Center for Studying Health System Change and a Project Director at the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy. From 1993 to 1998, Sorian was a Senior Advisor for Health Policy Communications in the Office of Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. In that capacity, Sorian focused on health care reform, HIV/AIDS policy, and health care quality improvement. In 1997-98, he served as Deputy Director of the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, where he directed work on the Patient's Bill of Rights. From 1980 to 93, Sorian was an award-winning journalist covering U.S. health care policy development. He was editor of Medicine & Health and the Journal of American Health Policy. He is also the author of three books: The Bitter Pill: Tough Choice in America's Health Policy (1989); A New Deal for American Health Care (1993); and The Health Care 500 (1988). He is a graduate of George Washington University and, in 1989, was awarded a Fellowship for Advanced Studies in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.


According to data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a research and consultancy group, the alkaline water market has grown from being a $47m business in 2014 to a $427m business in 2017. It's projected to be worth $687m by the end of 2018.
Over this same time there has been a slew of popular scientific articles explaining exactly why alkaline water, or an alkaline diet, is pseudoscience (including right here). The basic science is pretty straightforward, and even a grade-school understanding is enough to conclude that alkaline water is snake oil.
From a chemical point of view, an acid is any molecule that can donate a proton or accept an electron pair in a reaction. A base (something that is alkaline) is the opposite – it can accept a proton or donate an electron pair. Acids and bases therefore neutralize each other. The measure of how acidic/basic a substance is is pH, with 7 being neutral, <7 being acidic, and > 7 being basic. This is also a logarithmic scale, so a pH of 5 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 6.
Water (H2O) usually has a neutral pH, but water dissociates into H and OH ions. Hydrogen ions are acidic, and OH ions are basic. The number of such ions in pure water is usually small, partly because they react with each other to form back into H2O. So what is alkaline water? Real alkaline water has something in it to make it basic, such as baking soda. Some products claim to alkalinize water electrically, but again any ions in the water will quickly neutralize themselves – pure water will always tend toward a pH of 7.
Now here is where the real pseudoscience comes in – the notion that you can benefit your health by eating or drinking alkaline food or water. The claim is that the when the body becomes too acidic this causes a host of health problems, and you can fix them by simply balancing the acidity with alkaline water. The problem with this claim is that it is extremely misleading.
The body maintains a very narrow pH (7-7.4), which is the range at which the chemical reactions that keep us alive are optimal. If the pH strays outside this range, you will indeed become acutely ill. For this reason animals have evolved a host of powerful mechanisms to keep the blood and tissues within this very narrow pH. For example, our kidneys will produce urine that is more or less acidic to help balance pH.
Also, since carbon dioxide is acidic, we can maintain a specific pH in the blood just by varying how much we breathe and blow off CO2. In fact, our respiratory rate is determined primarily by the amount of CO2 in the blood – not oxygen. The concentration of CO2 can be adjusted moment to moment, and of course occurs involuntarily without our conscious input.
These mechanisms for maintaining a narrow range of pH (in a healthy person) overwhelm the effect of whatever you eat or drink. The only exception to this are serious acute medical conditions that affect pH, or consuming poisons that affect your pH. Consuming regular food and liquids, regardless of their pH, will simply not affect the pH of your body. Therefore the entire premise of an alkaline diet or alkaline water is pure BS, nothing but pseudoscience.
Despite the promotion of the alkaline diet and alkaline water by the media and salespeople, there is almost no actual research to either support or disprove these ideas. This systematic review of the literature revealed a lack of evidence for or against diet acid load and/or alkaline water for the initiation or treatment of cancer. Promotion of alkaline diet and alkaline water to the public for cancer prevention or treatment is not justified.
A causal association between dietary acid load and osteoporotic bone disease is not supported by evidence and there is no evidence that an alkaline diet is protective of bone health.
I found one exception to the conclusion that there is no plausible benefit from drinking alkaline water, and that is for acid reflux. While a benefit is far from well established, this is the only claim that is at all plausible. Using antacids to acutely treat acid reflux, to buffer the acid in the stomach, does make sense, although the effects should only be very short term. Drinking alkaline water could work just like taking a Mylanta, and .
However – there are no studies of actual efficacy in humans. There is therefore no reason to recommend or use alkaline water for acid reflux over well-established effective treatments.
Therefore – there is no plausibility at all to the claims that alkaline food or water has any general health effect, and in fact there are good reasons from basic biology to conclude that there should be no health effect from adjusting the pH of what you eat (of course, except avoiding strong acids or bases that can burn tissue). Alkaline water is pure snake oil.
Why, then, is the popularity of this snake oil on the rise? As is a common theme here at SBM, there is a triumph of marketing over science and reason. This also represents the power of celebrity over evidence. Celebrities like Tom Brady and Beyonce have been touting the benefits of alkaline water. Add in a little placebo effect, and the public is easy to convince that almost anything works.
There also appears to be something psychologically appealing to magic water. Water has a reputation for being wholesome and healthful, partly because it is essential for life. We are attracted to the notion of pure water, and repulsed by water that is foul or contaminated. These emotions would have an obvious survival advantage in the wild. Pushing these emotions just a little gives us extra-wholesome water with magical healing properties. For this reason there are all sorts of magic water products on the market, and there probably always will be.


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National e-Invoice System – Tests starting in October
At the beginning of September, the Polish Parliament received a draft amendment to the VAT Act (Paper no. 1547 [PL]) concerning the introduction of the National System of e-Invoices (KSeF) as of 1 January 2022. However, according to information published by the Ministry of Finance, the system will be available in a test form from October onwards as to allow entrepreneurs to adapt their IT infrastructure before the changes come into effect.
When will e-invoicing start?
According to the provisions of the draft, "structured invoices," commonly referred to as e-Invoices, will be introduced on January 1, 2022, and their use will be voluntary for entrepreneurs at the beginning. Traditional paper documents and previously used electronic invoices will still remain a possible form of documenting sales. However, although the Act in its current form does not indicate any deadline obliging to use this solution, the information published on the website of the Ministry of Finance leaves no doubt that after a short test period, e-Invoice will become the only acceptable solution:
"In the first phase of e-invoice implementation, Polish entrepreneurs will use it voluntarily. It will operate as one of the permitted forms of documenting sales, alongside paper invoices and electronic invoices already present in economic transactions. In 2023, the use of e-invoices will become obligatory."
Source: sejm.gov.pl [PL] (22.09.2021 r.)
Main KSeF functionalities:
In addition to generating sales invoices on the supplier side, KSeF is also to be used to receive invoices documenting purchases on the recipient side. Access to e-invoices will be possible only through the Ministry of Finance software, which means that both the issuer and the recipient of the e-invoice will have to be granted rights to use the system. Not surprisingly, the draft Act submitted to the Polish Parliament provides that the recipient will be able to decide whether they accept this form of document receipt. e-Invoices stored in the system will be kept there for 10 years and will not have to be archived in paper form.
KSeF will be available to any taxpayer or person authorised by the taxpayer (e.g. employee of an accounting office), after authentication in the system using
qualified electronic signature,
qualified electronic seal,
trusted signature (available through the trusted profile),
a unique token generated by KSeF.
For non-individual taxpayers who will not be able to authenticate in any of the above-mentioned ways, authorizations can be granted by submitting a notice of authorization to use KSeF to the appropriate head of the tax office.
Access to an e-invoice placed in the system will be possible by providing:
the number identifying a given invoice in the National System of e-Invoices;
data of the taxpayer issuing the invoice: taxpayer's identification number (NIP), name and surname or business name of the taxpayer and invoice number;
date of issue of the invoice;
tax identification number (NIP) or other identifier of the buyer – if it appears on the invoice;
the tax amount;
the gross amount due.
Advantages and disadvantages of using e-invoices
To encourage entrepreneurs to use this solution, the Ministry of Finance points out a number of advantages, including:
Shorter VAT refund period – 40 days instead of 60;
Permanent and safe access to invoices, without fear of losing or destroying them – invoices are stored in the database of the Ministry of Finance;
Faster document flow – an invoice will be sent to the contractor directly from the Ministry's database;
Convenience of use – thanks to a unified graphic layout it will be easier and faster to find the necessary information;
Standardization to facilitate mutual settlements and accounting with the use of financial and accounting systems;
Easier archiving – the taxpayer will be released from the obligation to store invoices issued via the National e-Invoice System;
Exemption from the need to send the structure of the Single Audit File for e-invoices (JPK_FA) issued in KSeF.
However, some of the indicated benefits may also have a dark side, e.g. fast circulation of documents means that the date of receipt of the invoice will be identical to the date of its issuance, while the uniform appearance of the invoice will make it impossible to apply own graphic symbols and use visual identification, which, on the part of the issuer, may be important in terms of image, while on the part of the recipient may make it difficult to quickly identify documents and assign them to the correct service or purchase.
All data included in e-invoices will be immediately and automatically verified and forwarded to tax administration and control, which in practice will make it impossible to simplify invoicing or VAT settlements, and the system itself will require more extensive data than traditional invoices. KSeF may also limit or completely prevent cancellation of issued documents.
Changes to invoicing
The bill, filed in the Polish Parliament, also introduces a number of changes related to invoicing – as part of the so-called "SLIM VAT 2 package". The most important of these include:
Abolition of the obligation to mark consecutive copies of the same invoice with the word "Duplicate" (optional marking);
Abolition of the obligation to mark correction invoices with the words "Correction invoice" or "Correction" (optional marking);
Abolition of the obligation to indicate the reasons for the correction in the invoice (optional information);
Extension from 30 to 60 days of the possibility to issue an invoice earlier (before delivery of goods or services).
National e-Invoice System – adjustment of IT systems
For companies using their own accounting software, the introduction of e-invoices will require the integration of internal IT systems with the central system. In order to make it possible, the National Tax Administration [PL] has published on its website the working logical structure of the e-Invoice along with the documentation. The system is to be test-launched already in October this year.
It is worth bearing in mind that – for the period when the use of e-invoices will be optional – the Ministry has not indicated any legal regulations related to the consequences of malfunction of the system or its failure, and all comments in this regard made during consultations of the draft Act were met with the same response:
"It is envisaged that in the optional version, in the event of a possible failure, invoices will be issued bypassing the system as before."
Source: Consultation report on the draft Act of 1 February 2021 amending the Value Added Tax Act and certain other acts.
This circular is non-binding information and serves for general information purposes. The information provided does not constitute legal, tax or management advice and does not replace individual advice. Despite careful processing, all information in this circular is provided without any guarantee for the accuracy, up-to-date nature or completeness of the information. The information in this circular is not suitable as the sole basis for action and cannot replace actual advice in individual cases. The liability of the authors or getsix® are excluded. We kindly ask you to contact us directly for a binding consultation if required. The content of this circular is the intellectual property of getsix® or its partner companies and is protected by copyright. Users of this information may download, print and copy the contents of the circular exclusively for their own purposes.
2021, Doing Business in Poland, Tax Compliance, Tax Law


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Q: How do I read my model stored inside a folder in EFS? I am trying to execute the https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/deploy-multiple-machine-learning-models-for-inference-on-aws-lambda-and-amazon-efs/  using my own model, currently I get the project API running, upload my model to the mount point in EFS and to S3 bucket.
Although I have done all the steps correctly following the AWS article, something is missing for me to be able to run my own model. Since the machine learning model that AWS used is part of EASYOCR, it is used the following line of code to read the EASYOCR model.
model_cache[languages_key] = easyocr.Reader(language_list, model_storage_directory=model_dir, user_network_directory=network_dir, gpu=False, download_enabled=False)

But since I want to use my own model it certainly won't work. The following code shows my inference code that is running separately in Lambda. So the goal would be to integrate this code into the ready-made AWS project.
from io import BytesIO
import threadpoolctl
import sklearn
import pickle
import boto3
import base64
import json
import joblib

s3_client = boto3.client('s3')

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    # getting bucket and object key from event object

    data = BytesIO()

    s3_client.download_fileobj(source_bucket, model_key, data)
    data.seek(0)    # move back to the beginning after writing
    load_model = pickle.loads(data.read())
    print("load_model", load_model)

    response = load_model.predict([[140000]])

    # Function Return
    return {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'body': json.dumps(
            {
                "predicted_label": response,
            }
        )
    }

However, it doesn't make sense for me to replace inference code from AWS (app.py) with my code that is running in Lambda. I know that my model is stored in the /mnt/ml/models/ inside amazon EFS and the network directory is /mnt/ml/network/, but, I don't know how to use this information to read my model.
Would anyone have any suggestion, how I can read my model from Amazon EFS inside of the AWS inference function?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The whole human story, says Michael Twitty, is about people pushing out in search of food, the right food. "And everything in the black journey has to do with food, too," he says.
Mr. Twitty spoke as a guest of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, sharing some of his experiences as a food historian, as a cook, and as an African-American Jewish gay man exploring his cultural roots. Mr. Twitty, who cooks on plantations as a way to educate visitors about slavery and the culinary traditions of enslaved people, and who writes about Southern and African-American food on his blogs, Afroculinaria and The Cooking Gene, rocketed to social media fame in 2013 when he responded to celebrity chef Paula Deen's use of a racial slur.
His beef with Deen was not so much the use of the slur, which he contended was hardly shocking, but her role in what he calls "culinary injustice" in the very profitable Southern food industry. Gentrified cities like Charleston, South Carolina, he says, offer tourists the fantasy of antebellum life, complete with low-country Southern cooking, without acknowledging the roots of that culture—from food to music to dance—that comes from generations of enslaved people. The owners and chefs of the most profitable restaurants in the "chitterling circuit" are white, he says, which constitutes a form of culinary appropriation.
Servants? Mr. Twitty finds the use of this word especially galling.
His own great-great grandfather, who witnessed the famous surrender at The Battle of Appomattox, Virginia, was an enslaved man who fanned white people as they ate their meals.
Five fifth-graders from The Green School of Baltimore, a public K–5 charter school, attended the talk and shared some thoughts afterwards.