The scheme provides lump sum and pension benefits to your dependants in the event of your death. The benefits payable will depend on your circumstances at the time of your death.
The lump sum will automatically be paid to your spouse, registered civil partner or nominated non legal partner. If you do not want this to happen you can nominate someone else to receive the benefit using the Death Grant Nomination Form. You should note that the lump sum may be subject to Inheritance Tax if it is not paid to your spouse, registered civil partner or qualifying partner. If no beneficiary is nominated and you do not have a spouse or registered civil partner, the lump sum can only be paid to your estate.
To nominate a non legal partner please complete the form SB39.
Children's pensions are paid until the age of 23. If the child remains unable to earn a living and the condition existed at the date of your death, the children's pension can be paid indefinitely.
If you are an active member of the scheme and your employment is full time, at the time of death your beneficiary will receive a lump sum payment equal to 2 x your final years pensionable pay. If you are part-time this will be 2 x your actual earnings.
Survivors pension will be an initial rate short term pension payable from the day after death for a period of six months, at the rate of the monthly pensionable pay/salary at the time of death and will be paid by the employer.
Widows will then get a survivor's pension payable for life equal to ½ the amount of the upper tier ill-health pension you would have received on the date of your death. You must have a least two years qualifying service.
Widowers, nominated partners, civil partners will get a survivors pension payable for life equal to ½ the amount of the Upper Tier Ill-Health pension you would have received on the date of your death, based on your membership since 6th April 1988 only.
Children's pension will be ¼ the amount of your notional Upper Tier Ill-Health pension per child, if there are no more than two children. If there are more than two children the amount is shared equally among them.
If you are an active member at the time of death the SPPA will pay a lump sum equal to two years reckonable pay provided you have not drawndown any of your pension.
Survivors pension will be a initial rate short term pension payable from the day after death for a period of six months at the rate of pensionable pay/salary, paid by your employer.
Children's pension will be 18.75% of the amount of your notional upper tier ill-health pension per child, if there are no more than two children. If there are more than two children the 37.5% is shared equally among them.
If you are a preserved member of the scheme at date of death a lump sum is payable at a rate of 3 x your preserved pension.
Widows will then get a survivor's pension payable for life equal to ½ the amount of the preserved pension accrued. No short-term pension is payable.
Widowers, nominated partners, civil partners will the get a survivor's pension payable for life equal to ½ the amount of the preserved pension accrued based only on service from 6th April 1988. No short-term pension is payable.
Children's pension will be ¼ the amount of your preserved pension per child, if there are no more than two children. If there are more than two children the amount is shared equally among them.
Widows will the get a survivor's pension payable for life equal to 37.5% the amount of the preserved pension accrued. No short-term pension is payable.
Children's pension will be 18.75% of the amount of your preserved pension per child, if there are no more than two children. If there are more than two children 37.5% is shared equally among them.
If you die within 12 months of leaving the scheme, and your benefits remain in the scheme, a lump is due of three times your annual pension accrued at date of leaving the scheme.
Widows will then get a survivor's pension payable for life equal to ½ the amount of the Upper Tier Ill-Health pension you would have received on the date of your leaving. No short-term pension is due.
Widowers, nominated partners, civil partners will get a survivors pension payable for life equal to ½ the amount of the Upper Tier Ill-Health pension you would have received on the date of leaving. This is based on your membership from 6th April 1988 only. No short-term pension is due.
Children's pension will be ¼ the amount of your notional Upper Tier Ill-Health pension per child, if there are no more than two children. If there are more then two children ½ is shared equally among them.
If you die within 12 months of leaving the scheme, and your benefits remain in the scheme, a lump is due of three times annual pension accrued at date of leaving the scheme.
Adult dependants will the get a survivor's pension payable for life equal to 37.5% of the amount of the Upper Tier Ill-Health pension you would have received on the date of leaving the scheme.
Children's pension will be 18.75% of the amount of your notional Upper Tier Ill-Health pension per child, if there are no more than two children. If there are more than two children 37.5% is shared equally among them.


text:
Neglecting What Matters Most
Why Pre-School Education is Overlooked in Ethiopia
Although the government incorporated a pre-primary school program into the Education and Training Policy in 1994, attention is still not being paid to the sector. Instead, the major focus for the government has been scaling-up primary, secondary and tertiary schools. Shortages and high turnover of teachers, a lack of clear direction to develop early education and budgetary shortages have been the major problems keeping pre-primary school programs from expanding as EBR's Samson Berhane reports.
Shetaye Kassa, 39, lives with her seven year old son in a small house she rents around Betel, located in Kolfe Keranyo District. Her inadequate income kept Shetaye, who is illiterate, from sending her son to kindergarten until last year. "Although I applied to three kindergartens operated by communities, my son couldn't get a seat because of limited space," Shetaye told EBR. "After three years of waiting I decided to register my son in a private kindergarten last year despite my limited income."
This kind of situation is not uncommon across the country. Even though preschool education has existed for decades, early childhood care and education is one of the most neglected areas in Ethiopia. According to the latest statistics, 10Pct of the population (around eight million kids) from four to six years of age in Ethiopia, are eligible for pre-schooling. However, only a little over three million, or 39Pct, of them are enrolled in pre-school programmes.
Pre-school programmes, also known as pre-primary education, are delivered through three modalities in Ethiopia; kindergarten, non-formal preschool and 'O' class. Kindergartens are largely operated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), communities, private institutions, and faith-based organizations, whereas non-formal pre-school services are delivered through child to child initiatives, which enable older children who are already in school to provide support to younger children before they start formal education. Out of the total children attending pre-school programmes across the country, 35Pct are enrolled in kindergarten and non-formal preschools, and 65Pct of children attending pre-school programmes are incorporated under the 'O' class system, which introduces students to the school environment and prepares them for primarily education.
The rate of participation in pre-school was found to be the lowest in the states of Ethio-Somali and Afar, while the highest participation was in Addis Ababa followed by the states of Tigray and Harari. Yet pre-school facilities are hardly noticeable in many urban towns and cities, except for relatively developed urban areas such as Addis Ababa, Adama, Mekelle, Dire Dawa and Hawassa. What's more, in a country where 80Pct of the population lives in rural areas, access to pre-school education is very low. "It seems like the resounding long term impact of preschool for children to reach their full potential has been neglected by the government and other stakeholders," argues Ali Amente, an expert at Save the Children with over a decade of experience in pre-school management and education.
Of course, despite the wider recognition of the importance of early childhood education for national development, there is still lower government intervention in resource allocation and budgeting. Although the nation's education policy recognizes the pre-primary phase of education, there has been no active governmental engagement in this area.
The engagement of the government in pre-school education does not go beyond planning and curriculums. Indeed, the government has made it clear that its involvement in early years education (preschool) is limited to curriculum development, teacher training and other supervisory support. "There is a mistaken perception, among both the wider society and government officials, that early education is not as crucial as primary or secondary education," says Dagnachew Melese, 'O' Class School Readiness Program Manager at Save the Children.
An example is Halaba Edget Kindergarten School, which is located in South Nation Nationalities People Regional State, 108km from Addis Ababa. The school has not received a penny from either from the federal or the regional government.
Ever since he became a teacher two years ago at Halaba Edget, Firew Hirigito has been disappointed with his work. With a gross monthly salary of ETB600, he is not even able to afford his daily expenses. Skipping meals and having no money on hand are Firew's every day circumstances. He spends half of his salary on rent. "There are times when I come to school without even having one meal," he says.
This is not because the School, whose budget is covered by the community living around Halaba, is not willing to give him more benefits and salary. Instead, it is due to the lack of support from the government for the school, while another neighbouring primary school receives a budget as high as ETB200 per student. Surprisingly, Firew is the highest earner among his colleagues. There is even a teacher who is paid ETB300 a month in the school, whose facilities were bought with finance received from Save the Children. "These dismaying realities have resulted in a high staff turnover in the school," argues Firew.
While pre-schooling accounts for as high as a quarter of the budget allocated to the education sector in Kenya, it is below one percent in Ethiopia. Both the federal and regional governments allocate an aggregate of below five birr per student for pre-schools, whereas ETB200 a student is allotted to primary and secondary education. As a result, the existing pre-schools in the country, especially those owned by the government and financed by communities, are below global standards and are not able to procure all the required indoor and outdoor materials for their pupils. Jigjiga is a good example of the severity of the problem.
According to a case study conducted by Yigzaw Haile (PhD) and Abdirahman Mohammed, scholars from Jigjiga University, on the practices and challenges of public and private pre-schools of Jigjiga city administration last year, it was discovered that the practices in all sampled pre-schools were below government standards. The schools were unable to use local stories, which is crucial in early education, since teachers were not from the community, and thus teachers and principal's contributions to the preschool were found to be limited. To be exact, about 82.4Pct of the sampled 19 pre-schools had no early childhood care or education qualification, and 70.6Pct of the pre-school teachers said they had inadequate classroom space.
By the same token, the majority of early childhood education centres in Ethiopia lack adequate teaching and learning resources and facilities, which are suitable for children in their learning environment. These include a lack of properly ventilated classrooms, furniture, kitchens, safe clean water, playgrounds, toilets and play material. At most, there may be chalkboards and chalk in pre-education classrooms, even though there should be toys, books and paints, among other things.
Adding to the financial constraints that have led to ineffective implementation of early childhood education, there is a shortage of qualified pre-primary school teachers because childhood educators are not well trained, while the majority of them are not properly compensated. According to a study conducted by Yigzaw and Abdirahman, all of the pre-schools in Jigjiga included in the study were found to be operating without outside the government curriculum.
In most cases, the teacher – who is paid less and treated as lower status compared to those teaching higher grades – don't have specialized teacher training to organize, manage and teach the diverse group of students in pre-school classes, according to a curriculum expert who has conducted a study on the matter. To make matters worse, in many cases, teachers may well come from another part of the country and may or may not speak the children's home language. Realizing the problem, the government planned to train 100,000 pre-school teachers over five years, starting in 2015; it hasn't yet achieved a quarter of the target.
Moreover, monitoring and evaluation gaps are also reasons for the underdevelopment of pre-school education in Ethiopia. Adding to the unavailability of a separate directorate at the Ministry of Education and regional education bureaus, responsible government institutions have not fully embraced monitoring and evaluation. "Thus, monitoring activities have not been harmonized, resulting in a duplication of effort, an inefficient use of resources, and an inadequate appreciation of monitoring and evaluation results," argues the curriculum and education planning expert. "To develop pre-school education, the short term solution is incentivizing the private sector."
Against this backdrop, the government has planned to raise the pre-school education enrolment rate to 80Pct in the next two years. It is currently at 39Pct, according to the Ministry of Education. "Considering the level of attention paid to the area, achieving the target would be very tough," explains Ali, the expert. Dagnachew agrees. "To meet the target, Ethiopia must learn from the best performing neighbouring countries," he stresses.
In Kenya, for instance, the budget allocated to preschools is USD43.5 a student, while it is below USD0.03 in Ethiopia. This has made the nation, relative to other East African countries, to be far behind in terms of pre-school enrolment. In Kenya, the pre-school enrolment rate is around 53.5Pct, according to the nation's Ministry of Education.
Although Ethiopia is less advanced in the area compared to other nations, Abraham Asfaw, education improvement program director at the Ministry of Education, chooses to remain optimist. "The fact that the government made its intentions clear for the nation's education strategy shows the level of attention paid to the sector," he says. "Additionally, to realize the education road map, which had taken pre-school into consideration, will make efforts put to achieve the 2020 target more efficient."
6th Year . Aug 16 - Sep 15 2018 . No.65
Published in Focus
More in this category: « High-End Men Barbers Burgeon The Irony Behind Wheat Scarcity »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Something Wonderful!
Editor's note: This week's devotion is pulled from the book Dam Break in Georgia—a collection of personal testimonies from those who survived the devastating flood that swept through the Toccoa Falls College campus in the early hours of November 6, 1977.
The rage of the waters was not assuaged. The next residence in the doomed row [of houses] lay right in the path of the fury and was also angrily swallowed. It belonged to Paul and Mary Williams. How "Uncle Paul" and Aunt Mary" met death we cannot know, but we can surmise that they met it as they did life, with serenity and equanimity.
Uncle Paul was a Texan. He met Aunt Mary at Toccoa and though she briefly served as a missionary in Cuba, she came back promptly to marry Uncle Paul. Just as promptly he took her back to Texas and stayed there twenty years. But the pull of Toccoa Falls and the hearty charisma of R.A. Forrest proved irresistible. They came back. Uncle Paul was a rancher, a cattleman and a dairyman. But even in the days when a full-fledged farm operated at Toccoa Falls, he was more. Uncle Paul was wise, philosophical, Will Rogers-like and dear to the students, staff, and faculty alike.
Aunt Mary was the kind who brought cookies to the guard shack for cold and lonely boys. The day before the flood she had given a married student, Jim Weiss, a ball of popcorn. When there was a vacancy on the Board of Trustees at Toccoa Falls College, Uncle Paul was nominated. Aunt Mary was the director of Christian Service for women for more than twenty years. At the time she died, she had in her purse $100 in Christian Service funds for the purchase of materials. When her purse was found after the flood the money was intact.
Aunt Mary not only directed Christian Service activities, she participated in them. At the hospital, in the schools, and in town, doors were opened because she cared for people. Dr. Opperman, TFC college president, affirms that sometimes at the end of the month when there was no way to meet the payroll for the college, Uncle Paul would walk in and lay a check on his desk. His resources were on the line for God.
When Uncle Paul was alive he always had appropriate stories, but he has a completely new story now. The grown children of Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary call them blessed. Their lengthy lives are over and their bodies rest on the hillside near the graves of Dr. and Mrs. R.A. Forrest.
The college that affectionately called them Uncle and Aunt honored them in death. They will be among the last to be buried on the tiny hillside. Just the Friday before the flood, Aunt Mary saw the Rev. Nathan Penland, executive director, Alumni Affairs, in the campus post office. He may have looked downcast, because Aunt Mary said, "Don't get discouraged, Nate. I know we all do at times. Paul and I really believe God is going to meet the school real soon in a very unusual way. We don't know exactly what He's going to do, but it's going to be wonderful."
And wonderful it was! For godly people with heaven in view.
(Dam Break in Georgia—Sadness and Joy at Toccoa Falls by K. Neil Foster © 1978 Horizon Books Publishers, Camp Hill, PA 17011)
November 12, 2007 Looking unto Jesus WHEN WE HAVE A NEED, where do...
November 19, 2007 God's Love St. Augustine once said, "He who is filled...
November 26, 2007 In Everything Give Thanks "In everything give thinks; for this...
March 5, 2007 Where Character Is Developed With Intellect THE APOSTLE PAUL was...
My Story By Patricia McGarvey 1978 It was another rainy afternoon at Toccoa Falls. Most of...
"I have never once taken up a collection for the school," says Dr. Forrest. "I have always depended upon prayer as an answer to all of our problems." So Toccoa Falls . . . is endowed by prayer and supported by prayer—the prayers of thousand of alumni, all over the world, and the prayers of the students who gather each night, in a group to ask God's help and guidance before going to be."
by Dr. Richard A. Forrest, Taken from an article that appeared in The Atlanta Constitutionon June 3, 1946 Taken from an article that appeared in The Atlanta Constitutionon June 3, 1946


Sabse badakar hum 2. En septembre, les Itinéraires Ignatiens sont de nouveau proposés en différents lieux de la région lyonnaise. The daily newsletter you need to start your day.
The following is an incomplete list of the songs known to have been recorded performed by Lata Mangeshkar in Hindi Malayalam languages. Story of two unemployed. Many of her old songs have featured in various new films ( Hollywood or Indian films) & have also been credited. Jigar kaleja songs download.
Listen and download old hindi filmi songs of Lata Mangeshkar. The website is dedicated to Old Hindi Filmi Songs of a legendary singer of India, Lata Mangeshkar.
Lata Mangeshkar started her career in 1942 and has recorded songs for over a thousand hindi films. Jigar kaleja songs download. One quick read each morning and bam!
This website contains the songs she sung for hindi movies from 1943 to 1960. " theSkimm is my secret weapon. NTR one of the best movie and it' s also cover some invironmental issues.
I' m the smartest person in the room". Réunions d' informations: au 20 rue Sala 69002 LYON Lundi 17 septembre à 19h00 Mardi 18 septembre à 14h00 Pour télécharger le tract cliquez ici Born in Punjab, he trained under such eminent classical musicians as Ghulam Ali Khan in Lahore. Mohammed Rafi,, extremely popular Indian playback singer who was idolized during his lifetime.


Students will easily further their understanding of mathematics using the FX-55 Plus Fraction Mate calculator display. This powerful calculator offers a wide range of capabilities from basic math and fractions though pre-algebra. Its true fraction display shows numerator over denominator just as it is written in textbooks and the FX-55 can perform division in the same way students are taught - with quotients represented by an integer with a remainder.


Generating revenue from an online store isn't just about marketing. Site performance also has a huge impact on how many people find your store, how much they buy, and how often they return. These five site performance tools can help you to improve your sales.
Effective search engine optimization leads to increased conversions, larger orders, and stronger customer loyalty. Product search is important, but it can be a challenge to keep your store optimized as your product catalogs fluctuate and user behavior changes. If you are already using Endeca, Endeca Search Optimizer is a turnkey optimization tool that can help make sure you're getting the most from product search.
Page load times affect everything from your search ranking to your customer's level of satisfaction. Site Optimizer is a suite of four tools designed to boost load times across browsers, devices, and geographies.
When your traffic suddenly doubles or triples, you want to know that all those new visitors are getting the best possible impression of your site. Site Tester is a tool that allows you to perform virtual load testing to see how your site performs under the most stressful conditions.
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks can immediately knock your site offline. DoS mitigation services are meant to deflect these attacks before they impact your site, and provides immediate support if you ever have a more serious issues, so your shoppers can always reach you when they are ready to purchase.
Nothing degrades consumer confidence like a security breach involving credit card records. PCI Assure is a third-party PCI compliance solution that adds several layers of extra protection to your online checkout, so your shoppers have no cause for hesitation during checkout.
With these five site performance tools from Tenzing in your arsenal, you can prevent technical issues from compromising your ability to serve your customers. Contact us to learn more about how we can improve your sales.


text:
package org.apache.activemq.artemis.tests.integration.jms;

import org.apache.activemq.artemis.api.core.TransportConfiguration;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.core.registry.JndiBindingRegistry;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.core.server.ActiveMQServer;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.JMSServerManager;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.config.ConnectionFactoryConfiguration;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.config.JMSConfiguration;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.config.impl.ConnectionFactoryConfigurationImpl;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.config.impl.JMSConfigurationImpl;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.config.impl.JMSQueueConfigurationImpl;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.jms.server.impl.JMSServerManagerImpl;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.tests.integration.IntegrationTestLogger;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.tests.unit.util.InVMNamingContext;
import org.apache.activemq.artemis.tests.util.ActiveMQTestBase;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;

import javax.jms.Connection;
import javax.jms.ConnectionFactory;
import javax.jms.Destination;
import javax.jms.ExceptionListener;
import javax.jms.JMSException;
import javax.jms.Message;
import javax.jms.MessageConsumer;
import javax.jms.MessageListener;
import javax.jms.MessageProducer;
import javax.jms.Queue;
import javax.jms.Session;
import javax.naming.Context;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;

import static java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit.SECONDS;

public class ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest extends ActiveMQTestBase
{
   // Constants -----------------------------------------------------

   private static final IntegrationTestLogger log = IntegrationTestLogger.LOGGER;

   private Connection connection;

   private MessageConsumer consumer;

   private CountDownLatch exceptionLatch;
   private CountDownLatch reconnectionLatch;
   private CountDownLatch allMessagesReceived;

   private JMSServerManager serverManager;

   private InVMNamingContext context;

   private static final String QUEUE_NAME = ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest.class.getSimpleName() + ".queue";

   private static final int NUM = 20;

   private final ExceptionListener exceptionListener = new ExceptionListener()
   {
      public void onException(final JMSException e)
      {
         exceptionLatch.countDown();
         disconnect();
         connect();
         reconnectionLatch.countDown();
      }
   };

   private Listener listener;

   private ActiveMQServer server;

   @Test
   public void testExceptionListener() throws Exception
   {
      connect();

      ConnectionFactory cf = (ConnectionFactory)context.lookup("/cf");
      Destination dest = (Destination)context.lookup(QUEUE_NAME);
      Connection conn = cf.createConnection();
      Session sess = conn.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
      MessageProducer prod = sess.createProducer(dest);

      for (int i = 0; i < NUM; i++)
      {
         Message message = sess.createTextMessage(new Date().toString());
         message.setIntProperty("counter", i + 1);
         prod.send(message);

         if (i == NUM / 2)
         {
            conn.close();
            serverManager.stop();
            Thread.sleep(5000);
            serverManager.start();
            cf = (ConnectionFactory)context.lookup("/cf");
            dest = (Destination)context.lookup(QUEUE_NAME);
            conn = cf.createConnection();
            sess = conn.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
            prod = sess.createProducer(dest);
         }
      }

      conn.close();

      boolean gotException = exceptionLatch.await(10, SECONDS);
      Assert.assertTrue(gotException);

      boolean clientReconnected = reconnectionLatch.await(10, SECONDS);

      Assert.assertTrue("client did not reconnect after server was restarted", clientReconnected);

      boolean gotAllMessages = allMessagesReceived.await(10, SECONDS);
      Assert.assertTrue(gotAllMessages);

      connection.close();

   }

   // Package protected ---------------------------------------------

   // Protected -----------------------------------------------------

   @Override
   @Before
   public void setUp() throws Exception
   {
      super.setUp();

      context = new InVMNamingContext();

      server = createServer(false, createDefaultNettyConfig());

      JMSConfiguration configuration = new JMSConfigurationImpl();
      serverManager = new JMSServerManagerImpl(server, configuration);
      serverManager.setRegistry(new JndiBindingRegistry(context));

      configuration.getQueueConfigurations().add(new JMSQueueConfigurationImpl().setName(QUEUE_NAME).setBindings(QUEUE_NAME));

      ArrayList<TransportConfiguration> configs = new ArrayList<TransportConfiguration>();
      configs.add(new TransportConfiguration(NETTY_CONNECTOR_FACTORY));
      ConnectionFactoryConfiguration cfConfig = new ConnectionFactoryConfigurationImpl()
         .setName("cf")
         .setConnectorNames(registerConnectors(server, configs))
         .setBindings("/cf")
            .setRetryInterval(1000)
         .setReconnectAttempts(-1);
      configuration.getConnectionFactoryConfigurations().add(cfConfig);
      serverManager.start();

      listener = new Listener();

      exceptionLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
      reconnectionLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
      allMessagesReceived = new CountDownLatch(1);
   }

   // Private -------------------------------------------------------

   // Inner classes -------------------------------------------------

   protected void disconnect()
   {
      ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest.log.info("calling disconnect");
      if (connection == null)
      {
         ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest.log.info("connection is null");
         return;
      }

      try
      {
         connection.setExceptionListener(null);
         ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest.log.info("closing the connection");
         connection.close();
         connection = null;
         ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest.log.info("connection closed");
      }
      catch (Exception e)
      {
         ManualReconnectionToSingleServerTest.log.info("** got exception");
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }

   protected void connect()
   {
      int retries = 0;
      final int retryLimit = 1000;
      try
      {
         if (context == null)
         {
            return;
         }
         Context initialContext = context;
         Queue queue;
         ConnectionFactory cf;
         while (true)
         {
            try
            {
               queue = (Queue)initialContext.lookup(QUEUE_NAME);
               cf = (ConnectionFactory)initialContext.lookup("/cf");
               break;
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
               if (retries++ > retryLimit)
                  throw e;
               // retry until server is up
               Thread.sleep(100);
            }
         }
         connection = cf.createConnection();
         connection.setExceptionListener(exceptionListener);
         Session session = connection.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);
         consumer = session.createConsumer(queue);
         consumer.setMessageListener(listener);
         connection.start();
      }
      catch (Exception e)
      {
         if (connection != null)
         {
            try
            {
               connection.close();
            }
            catch (JMSException e1)
            {
               e1.printStackTrace();
            }
         }
      }
   }

   private class Listener implements MessageListener
   {
      private int count = 0;

      public void onMessage(final Message msg)
      {
         count++;

         try
         {
            msg.getIntProperty("counter");
         }
         catch (JMSException e)
         {
            e.printStackTrace();
         }
         if (count == NUM)
         {
            allMessagesReceived.countDown();
         }
      }
   }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Workplace Is Even More Sexist In Movies Than In Reality
Mar. 10, 2015 , at 12:05 PM
By Walt Hickey
Filed under Women in Film
Reese Witherspoon in a scene from "Legally Blonde."
Tracy Bennett / MGM Pictures
Movies take place in a weird alternate universe where men outnumber women by more than 2-to-1, and where it's strikingly rare for women to have a real conversation about something other than a man. This imbalance extends to how certain jobs are portrayed in movies, even as bit parts, and reinforces old gender stereotypes.
I recently started diving into the OpusData database, which tracks film releases, box office performance and — most interestingly — screen credits. For instance, you can look up every role since 19951 that was credited as "bartender." There have been 145 such roles with gender data, and about 85 percent of the time the performer playing that bartender was a man.
I pulled that data for a couple dozen careers, some considered prestigious, others specifically gendered:
The vast majority of these are supporting roles — the scientist in the background as the protagonist discovers the deadly disease has mutated, the emergency room nurse holding the respirator as our hero is wheeled into surgery on a gurney, and so on. But they represent Hollywood's background, the fabric you may take for granted but that can strongly influence perceptions about gender. If every engineer on screen is a dude, that sends a message about who can be an an engineer.
Even in fields with a large gender gap in real life, what we see on-screen is even worse. Yeah, medicine and law skew male, but not as much as in the movies. In 2005, 30 percent of lawyers were women, but in this data set, only 11 percent of lawyers or attorneys were played by women. And according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 32 percent of doctors were women in September 2014, but on screen, only 10 percent were women.
I did clean the data a little bit; specifically, in the "president" category I removed college presidents, aides to presidents, vice presidents and non-U.S. presidents. I kept sci-fi presidents (Presidents Alma Coin and Coriolanus Snow in the Hunger Games franchise, for instance) that were based on an alternate-universe U.S.
This list isn't totally complete — we included, for instance, President Thomas J. Whitmore from "Independence Day," but we would have missed him had he been credited only as "Thomas Whitmore."
If there's a president on screen, he's probably a guy. The only women in the data set were Julianne Moore as President Coin in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1," Amy Aquino in the forthcoming film "The Lazarus Effect," and Stephanie Paul hamming it up as a faux Sarah Palin in the (fantastic) comedy "Iron Sky."
The most interesting information to me was what turned up when I searched for characters whose names contained "Dr." On screen, the prefix "Dr." is usually just there to indicate that this character is the smart person in the five-man band and at some point the brawny lead will probably tell them to explain something again, "In English, please?" It's kind of disappointing that only 1 in 4 Dr.'s on screen since 1995 were women, right?
If this looks bleak, don't worry, it gets worse! This was, all things considered, a pretty casual look. But the Media Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California Annenberg took a closer look at 129 top-grossing family films — you know, the kind aimed at impressionable children — released between 2006 and 2011.
They found that female characters accounted for only 3.4 percent of characters in the C-suite — that is, top-level business executives — 4.5 percent of high-level politicians, and 0 percent of developers, investors and editors-in-chief.
Indeed, according to that report, "Not one speaking character plays a powerful American female political figure across 5,839 speaking characters in 129 family films."
Last week, my colleague Nate Silver spoke to Sheryl Sandberg about her new initiative, Lean In Together, and speaking on women in Hollywood, Sandberg said:
"The data on gender equality in every industry is horrible. It's bad in Hollywood, and it's bad in my own industry, technology, as well. Women became 50 percent of college graduates in this country in 1981. That's decades ago — that's plenty of time for women to get to the top in the same numbers as men. It hasn't happened."
So why is that? She continued:
"What's really holding us back are these stereotypes. We don't believe women should lead, so when they do, we react negatively. We don't believe men should be caregivers, so when they do, we tell them to man up."
The data appears to bear this out. When it comes to caregivers, male nurses on screen are as rare as female lawyers. And as for leaders, only 10 percent of officials and 28 percent of executives are women on the big screen. Seems like she's got a point.
1995 is when OpusData was started, so its credits data after that time is more consistently reliable.
Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight's chief culture writer. @WaltHickey
Sexism (23 posts) Women in Film (9) OpusData (6) Sexism On Screen (2)


Goal: to consistently deal with spatial units.
Plan: investigate at which locations knowledge about the units is assumed/needed/appended to the data. at some places there could be even hard coded conversions. Build in explicit check-and-error, or correction when two objects are combined with different units.
mri related functions: transformation matrix!


At Lowell Russell Concrete, our passion lies in designing timeless custom interior and exterior concrete structures for our customers. We are a family-owned business based in Minnesota and have over 35 years of experience in the concrete industry.
We have been continually recognized by the Better Business Bureau and Angie's List for our excellence in customer service, and we intend to continue that tradition in the years to come.
We have designed numerous interior and exterior structures for our community and neighbors that range from the unique to the extraordinary, and we use only the highest quality materials and latest proven technology in our concrete mix, stains, impressions, custom art reproduction and stenciling.
We offer an extensive variety of concrete products, ranging from exterior surfaces such as driveways, walkways, patios and pools, to interior surfaces such as countertops, floors, and, yes, even furniture!
With 24 primary color stains or any combination of each, you can choose from a full color palate to obtain the exact color(s) you wish to achieve. Our Chemstaining process ensures that the color will last as long as your concrete, and will not fade or discolor with time or exposure to the elements.
Our design department can make your dream a reality by incorporating your custom artwork into the finished product. Bring us your artwork, a symbol, an emblem, a company name or logo and we can make it happen! We can even work from old photos, computer-generated images, or a picture drawn on a napkin!
We believe in the use of stamped and texturized impressions versus rolled impressions, as our method penetrates deep into the concrete surface to leave a lasting impression of your design. We can make your surface appear to be made of wood, marble, tile and even leather – all with the added concrete benefits of strength and durability!
Your finished product will stand the test of time with beauty and grace. For custom work performed by proven experts in your area, trust your concrete needs to Lowell Russell Concrete. We guarantee you will be satisfied with the results!


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Charles Nierlich III
G. Charles "Chip" Nierlich III '94
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
http://www.gibsondunn.com/
G. Charles "Chip" Nierlich is a partner in the San Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, an international law firm with more than 1,100 lawyers and 18 offices in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is a member of Gibson Dunn's Litigation Department, which has been recognized twice by The American Lawyer as the winner of the biennial "Litigation Department of the Year" competition (in 2010 and 2012). Mr. Nierlich is also a member of the Steering Committee of Gibson Dunn's Class Action Practice Group, as well as a practice group leader for the firm's Electronic Discovery and Information Law Practice Group.
Mr. Nierlich's practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, including defending class actions and antitrust, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practice claims. He is the co-author of the Unfair Competition Law chapter of the California State Bar Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section treatise, as well as numerous articles on class action practice. He has represented a number of well-known and innovative companies, including Amazon.com, Apple, Chevron, CytoSport (maker of the popular Muscle Milk protein products), Micron Technology, and Nissan North America.
Mr. Nierlich's work has been recognized by numerous publications. He was recently named one of the "Top Forty Under 40" emerging business leaders (and one of only five lawyers on the list) by the San Francisco Business Times. Law 360 identified Mr. Nierlich as one of five top class action attorneys in the country under 40, and he has been recognized multiple times as a top litigator by Super Lawyers and in Institutional Investor's Benchmark Litigation Guide.
Mr. Nierlich received his undergraduate degree (B.A.), magna cum laude, from Claremont McKenna College in 1994 and his law degree (J.D.), magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1997. Prior to working at Gibson Dunn, Mr. Nierlich was a Judicial Clerk for the Honorable Morris S. Arnold in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (1997-1998) and then a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis (1998-2001).


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CA, Joshua Tree, GPS
Pinto Wye Arrastra
Guy Starbuck June 11, 2021
An arrastra is a simple and primitive gold milling device. Heavy stones are dragged over gold ore to crush it. Mercury and water are added to the floor of the arrastra to create an amalgam and capture the gold.
There is somewhat of a mystery about who built this arrastra and used it. There is a small incline shaft up on the hillside above the arrastra and there are a couple of prospects in the area. The arrastra could have been built to mill ore from these prospects. Perhaps the ore played out too quickly and the miners moved on before using the arrastra heavily.
It is also possible that this was a custom mill for other mines in the area, maybe it was centrally located to serve some of the other mines?
The location in the backcountry of Joshua Tree National Park is also a bit of a mystery too because there is no good source of water nearby. It would have needed to be brought in for the arrastra to work.
Arrastra on the hillside
The design itself of the arrastra is also rare because of that wagon wheel sitting on top. It is a "wagon wheel" arrastra, meaning that a wagon wheel is attached to the central axis to drive the drag stones. This type of arrangement is quite unusual and very few, if any, are left in the wild. This is one of only two known examples of this type of arrastra remaining in the backcountry of a National Park. The other one is inside of Lake Mead and in worse shape.
Typically, arrastras were driven by walking a mule or horse around the perimeter. The wagon wheel design was to accommodate a belt for an engine, in this case a four horsepower International gasoline engine (long since removed), to power the arrastra. Having two wheels on the arrastra allowed for switching the rotation speed of the crushing stones. The larger wheel was probably added later to reduce the revolutions per minute and slow the crushing down to a desired speed.
The gasoline engine suggests a date after 1900s for the arrastra but probably before the end of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The Monument was created in 1936 and no new mining claims would have been allowed after that date; work on existing claims could continue. So, it is likely the arrastra was built before then. The park service has restored this arrastra and there is a small sign at the site explaining the workings of the arrastra.
An Old Camp
Pipes Canyon
CA, Death Valley, GPS
Owlhead Mountains Fuel Tank and Dart


text:
Q: Excel Consistently Insert Blank Row at Top of Sheet (after frozen first row) I am trying to create an Excel sheet that'll have a blank row at the top for my coworkers to request things. Unlike this post "Consistantly insert rows from top of page in Excel" my excel sheet has a frozen first row as labels for the columns. Either way, the code didn't work for me anyways, so I would like clarification on the previous post as well.

A: This can be solved with a little modification to the explanation you are referring to. First I froze the first row. Then I recorded a macro that inserts a row above the second row. This is the code.
Sub NewRow()
        Rows("2:2").Select
        Selection.Insert Shift:=xlDown, CopyOrigin:=xlFormatFromLeftOrAbove
End Sub

Then I added a button by clicking on the developers tab and insert. Then I connected the macro to the button. For a detailed explanation: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-a-button-and-assign-a-macro-to-it-in-a-worksheet-d58edd7d-cb04-4964-bead-9c72c843a283.
You should also be careful that your button doesn't resize when inserting new rows, this can be prevented by right-clicking the button and choose edit. Then you have to go the properties tab and select "don't move or size cells".
Now you have a fully functional button that inserts rows below your frozen pane.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Price of Compromise
By Mark A. Finley
One of the most important, if not the most important, things in life is our ability to make decisions. Poor decisions eventually bring negative results and affect our entire lives. Good decisions ultimately result in positive results in our lives now and for all eternity.
In this lesson we will study the decisions made by Abraham and his nephew, Lot, and the powerful influence those decisions had upon their lives, their families, and future generations.
1. When there was conflict between Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen, what generous suggestion did Abraham make?
"So Abram said to Lot, 'Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left'" (Gen. 13:8, 9).
Abraham allowed Lot to choose __________________________. Abraham would choose second.
2. What poor choice did Lot make? What words described the inhabitants of Sodom?
"Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan…. And Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord" (Gen. 13:11-13).
Those who lived in Sodom were " ______________and ___________________against the Lord."
Lot made a choice based on personal prosperity, not on the will of God. Eventually Lot moved into Sodom and his family was tainted with its corruption.
3. What three things did our Lord say about Abraham?
"For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice" (Gen. 18:19).
A. For I have ______________________________________________him.
B. His children and his household _____________________the way of the _________________.
C. To do ____________________________________and ___________________________ .
4. When Abraham heard that God was going to destroy Sodom because of its wickedness, what question did he boldly ask God?
"And Abraham came near and said, 'Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?'" "'Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord'" (Gen. 18:23, 27).
Abraham asked God, "Would You also destroy the ____________with the _________________?"
Abraham prayed for God to spare the city, pleading with Him to save the city for as few as 10 righteous people. But there weren't even 10 people who could be called "righteous."
5. When destroying angels entered the city and the evil inhabitants of Sodom desired to abuse them, what compromise was Lot willing to make?
"See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof" (Gen. 19:8).
Rather than trust God, Lot was willing to offer his ___________________________ to the clamoring crowd.
6. What was the response of Lot's sons-in-law to his appeal to leave Sodom?
"So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, 'Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!' But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking" (Gen. 19:14).
His sons-in-law thought Lot was ________________________________________________.
Lot's compromise and failure to stand for right influenced his entire family. Even his sons-in-law did not take him seriously. The angels had to take Lot by the hand and lead him, his wife, and their two daughters out of the city.
7. What was the ultimate fate of Lot's own wife?
"Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah…. But [Lot's] wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen. 19:24-26).
Lot's wife became a _____________________________of __________________________.
The results of Lot's life of compromise were tragic. They influenced his own family, and generations to come. Even after leaving the city, Sodom's influence still affected Lot's daughters. They got their father drunk, became pregnant by him, and bore two sons, Moab and Ben-Ammi. The Moabites and Ammonites fought against Israel for years.
8. What promise did God make to faithful Abraham?
"Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him" (Gen. 18:18).
God said about Abraham, "All the nations of the earth shall be ___________________________in him."
What a contrast between Abraham and his nephew Lot! Abraham's faithfulness, trust in God, and obedience blessed his family and succeeding generations. God honored his faith. Lot's life of compromise led to one disaster after another.
We have the same choices today. A life of compromise with sin eventually influences our families, our friends, and future generations. A life of faithfulness to God also impacts those around us. God's promise is still true: "Those who honor Me I will honor" (1 Sam. 2:30).
Why not claim His promise right now and determine to make each choice in harmony with His will?
Next month's Bible Study will be about "Persistent Prayer."
Published in November
Changed Lives Change the World
Daniel: The Blessings of Obedience
Moses, A Life of Trust
Moses God's Friend
More in this category: « If You, Then I'll... The Place of Prayer »


ReaderGirls is today's stop for the Bloodmaiden Book Tour today. We welcome author Christine E. Schulze.
Bloodmaiden's summary: Zale. Gauthier. Varden. These three dynasties... They all sound like something out of an ancient, oriental myth or fairy tale. The concept of humans and dragons helping and living in harmony with one another, without fear. To me, that's exactly what they are. A distant dream only read of, whispered secretly, quietly yearned for. For, you see, I am the new Quelda of Tynan. These words echo the mystery, horror, and romance found within Schulze's fantasy novel. Along with her new husband, Chalom, Crislin must choose to embrace cruel tradition, run from it, or stand against it. The young couple's only hope is to rally the help of the three peaceful dragon dynasties of Sulaimon-but tradition is not on their side, even outside the realm of Tynan. The dragons outside Tynan's borders have been rumored as too stubborn and proud to believe their Tynanian brothers would commit such horrors as inflicted upon the Quelda. Gaining their aid is not a likely hope. Yet, any hope at all is valued in Tynan... If they are to stand a chance of bringing cruel tradition to a permanent end, Crisilin and Chalom must brave the constant, consuming blizzards of the Ever-white. They must brave the three dynasties and the challenges awaiting there. Together, they must convince the dragon emperors to allow them access to the shrines which house the sacred Aria - protective strands of music which may be able to disperse the evil from Tynan and unite the four dynasties of Sulaimon as a whole once again. Their only aid stems from a sprite whose moods are as unstable as her magic, a young minstrel, and a mysterious fox. Despite the odds, such plans are daring, dangerous, unprecedented, but fully possible - if they can escape the Wall first.
Hello, readers. My name is Christine E. Schulze, and I thank you for stopping by to check me out, check out Bloodmaiden, or maybe even to enter a giveaway or follow the whole tour. I'm honored to be here, whatever your reasons for being here too.
To start off in this first guest post, I'd just like to first of all give a big thanks to everyone involved in the tour—I'm definitely excited to be here!—and tell a little bit about myself.
I've always had a passion for writing. I've been writing since I was around four; my debut novel came when I was a flower girl in a wedding. The bride, a friend of the family, asked me to write her a story for a wedding gift. Using the adventures of some of my favorite toys, Jonny to the Rescue was forged; it would much later serve as the backdrop needed to create my currently self-published series, The Legends of Surprisers. From here began a wild adventure from which many seeds would sprout, seeds to plant all sorts of stories from the gardens of Fantasy/Adventure, Christian/Fantasy, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and later, with some of my fantasy books, bits of Horror and definitely Romance as well.
I'm often asked what I like to read. I like to read a lot—the only thing is that I don't actually read a lot. Often too busy writing, creating, or promoting my works in one way or other. But I do love and draw inspiration from authors such as Diana Wynne Jones, C.S. Lewis, Neil Gaiman, and others. I've been told Bloodmaiden compares to The Hunger Games, which I'm interested in reading. I just finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth and yearn to devour its sequel; it reminded me a bit of Bloodmaiden mixed with the film 28 Weeks Later. I've also had readers compare excerpts of Bloodmaiden to Tolkien's and Rowling's works, a humbling praise for a new author as myself.
Besides writing and reading, I have a wide range of other interests. So wide, that I find it wise to focus on my main passion of writing. If I tried to focus on everything I'd like to, nothing would ever get done. One must have wisdom to discover which things are most important to work on.
So, I call myself a "dabbler". Here and there, I like drawing, photography, graphic design, singing, playing piano, and composing music. I've helped create some promotional artwork and music for Bloodmaiden which will be displayed in a later blog post. Beyond that, I enjoy working at a daycare with my "onesies", as I've lovingly dubbed them, and also plan to pursue some substitute teaching for elementary students and possibly even modeling on the side.
Well, there's a bit about me and my interests. Again, nice to meet all of you, and feel free to ask me any questions you might have right here. God bless, and enjoy the rest of the tour!
About the author: Christine E. Schulze has been creating books since she was too young to even write them in words. Her collection of YA fantasy books, The Amielian Legacy, is comprised of series and stand-alone books which can all be read separately but which weave together to create an amazing fantasy. Her fanatsies also incorporate many other genres, such as Christian fantasy, romance, and even a spark of horror at times. She hopes to inspire readers throughout the world with these books by publishing in both traditional and electronic formats to make them available to all readers.
Three very lucky readers will win a copy of Bloodmaiden and have their names appear in Ms. Schulze's upcoming book! Enter today.
We thank Christine E. Schulze and The Bookish Snob Promotions.
I love it when authors share insight into themselves.. it helps make the story more personable :) Thanks for sharing a great post Christine!
the book sounds interesting going on TBR pile can't wait toread it.
Book has very interesting story and the cover is amazing.
I think its awesome that you started writing when you were 4. I love the Bloodmaiden cover its so pretty.
Thanks for all the compliments and encouragement! Thanks also to my lovely host; I've enjoyed touring here!


text:
Trumpist Insurrection
USA Today hailed Giuliani as "hero of 9/11," omitted Kerik controversy
Written by Brian Levy
Published 02/02/07 12:57 PM EST
A USA Today article referred to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a "hero of 9/11." But, while mentioning a leaked memo in which Giuliani's campaign staff set out potential areas of vulnerability, the USA Today article did not note the memo's reference to a particular scandal relating to terrorism preparedness.
On February 1, USA Today reported on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's (R) potential presidential candidacy in a front-page article that bore the headline "Giuliani: Can hero of 9/11 win over his own party?" The article, which said that Giuliani was "[d]ubbed 'America's mayor' after he led New York City's response to the Sept. 11 attacks," discussed a leaked memo that details Giuliani's campaign plans, but omitted the memo's mention of a scandal relating to preparedness for terrorism.
The article noted that the memo included "questions about [Giuliani's] private-sector businesses," "his current and former wives," and "[h]is stance on social issues." However, the memo also included the word "Kerik" as a "prob[lem]," presumably referring to Giuliani's former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, whom the USA Today article did not mention. Giuliani had pushed President Bush to nominate Kerik as homeland security secretary, but Kerik withdrew because, he said, he had failed to make "required tax payments and related filings" for a housekeeper. As Media Matters for America noted, Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk weblog (now known as CJR Daily) suggested the so-called "nanny problem" was given as the reason to draw attention away from Kerik's alleged misdeeds, including various lawsuits, allegations of corruption, and potential conflicts of interest.
In the book Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (HarperCollins, 2006), Village Voice senior editor Wayne Barrett and CBSNews.com senior producer Dan Collins documented Kerik's history as part of a pattern of security-related cronyism in Giuliani's administration. On 9-11, "Giuliani's preference for the comfort of a huge entourage had disconnected the city's management and its fighting force at a crucial moment," Barrett and Collins concluded (Page 350). They added that Kerik was "a prime example of this managerial dysfunction all morning" because in the 102 minutes between the first impact of a plane into the World Trade Center and the collapse of the North Tower, "Kerik became Giuliani's bodyguard, just as he had been in the 1993 mayoral campaign," rather than leading the police's efforts (Page 350).
In 1993, when Kerik met Giuliani, Kerik was "the lowest rank above patrol. ... He'd never passed a promotional exam. He was 24 credits short of a college degree in a department where you couldn't become a lieutenant without one" (Page 317). Barrett and Collins described Kerik as "a man whose personal, financial, and social life was a mess, and whose concern for following the rules and avoiding ethical conflicts appeared close to nonexistent" (Page 321). Nevertheless, Giuliani made Kerik police commissioner and supported Kerik's nomination for secretary of homeland security, "conclud[ing] that Kerik was competent to lead one of the nation's largest and most critically important bureaucracies" (Page 321).
In addition to Kerik, Giuliani's first-responder leadership included fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen and emergency management commissioner Richard J. Sheirer. On Page 353 of Grand Illusion, Barrett and Collins described their background:
All three had no real management credentials until Giuliani promoted them. Von Essen and Kerik went from the lowest ranks of their departments to the very top without ever passing a promotional exam. Giuliani had begun his mayoralty with a circle of managers, like [former Boston police commissioner Bill] Bratton and [former Office of Emergency Management director Jerome M.] Hauer, with track records elsewhere. He was ending it with a cult of personality.
A September 9, 2002, New York Times article (subscription required) described Hauer as "by all accounts among the nation's quintessential emergency professionals." Barrett and Collins claimed that Hauer's replacement, Sheirer, was a "Giuliani loyalist who had spent most of his career as a fire alarm dispatcher and a leader of one of the few unions to endorse Giuliani's 1993 candidacy, the dispatchers' union" (Page 31). Similarly, prior to Von Essen's nomination for fire commissioner, he had "never moved up the promotional ranks a single step [but] delivered his union to Rudy Giuliani in the 1993 election" (Page 60).
The USA Today article did not analyze Giuliani's performance on 9-11 or his record on preparedness for terrorism. Several media figures have noted that Giuliani's ties to Kerik could reflect badly on Giuliani during a campaign. As Media Matters noted, on the July 16, 2006, edition of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, NBC News chief foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell attempted to bring up the criticism Giuliani received for pushing Bush to nominate Kerik as a possible setback to Giuliani's candidacy. As Media Matters also noted, on the May 2, 2006, edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Chuck Todd, editor in chief of National Journal's The Hotline, also cited Giuliani's association with Kerik as an obstacle to Giuliani's presidential ambitions.
Media Matters has documented the media's seeming reluctance to look past Giuliani's reputation as "America's Mayor" despite the numerous controversies marking Giuliani's political career.
From the February 1 USA Today article "Giuliani: Can hero of 9/11 win over his own party?"
Rudy Giuliani would seem to have all the credentials a candidate for president could want: A hero of 9/11, a crime-busting federal prosecutor, a two-term Republican mayor in an overwhelmingly Democratic city and one of the most admired politicians in the country.
He's got a big problem, though. First, he has to be nominated by Republicans who don't yet know his views on social issues.
"People remember how he provided leadership at a time the city needed it and the country needed it," says coin-company executive Jeff Marsh, 41, as he waits to greet Giuliani at the annual dinner of the Littleton (N.H.) Chamber of Commerce. While Marsh's admiration of Giuliani the man is evident, however, his support for Giuliani the presidential candidate is no sure thing. Giuliani's advocacy of abortion rights gives him "some pause," Marsh says ruefully.
Giuliani, who declined to be interviewed for this story, also shows appeal beyond the GOP.
Dubbed "America's mayor" after he led New York City's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, Giuliani had a nearly 4-1 favorable rating among all those polled. McCain had a 2-1 favorable rating, and the rating for Democratic hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton was only a bit more positive than negative.
Giuliani's strategists recognize his vulnerabilities. A campaign memo leaked to the New York Daily News last month and acknowledged as authentic by spokeswoman Sunny Mindel listed some of them: questions about his private-sector businesses, which have made him a millionaire and entangled him with clients from thoroughbred racing to the energy industry. Controversies around his current and former wives, a soap-opera saga played out in public. His stance on social issues, to the left of any major GOP contender since the party adopted an unyielding anti-abortion line in its 1980 platform.
"Probs (problems) that are insurm (insurmountable)?" asks the memo. "Does any of it cause RWG (Giuliani) to lose his lustre?"
Laura Ingraham criticizes National Guard presence following deadly insurrection as "an obscene move by Democrats to militarize Washington"
Video & Audio 01/15/21 10:22 PM EST
Newsmax host warns Democrats will "round up all the Republicans" into "COVID internment camps"
Video & Audio 01/15/21 9:38 PM EST
Right-wing media use loner activist's arrest to revive conspiracy theories about "antifa" at the January 6 insurrection
Article 01/15/21 8:46 PM EST
Fox contributor on Biden presidency: "We also need to be ready to push back against the ungodly policies that are sure to come"
Right-wing media claim evidence that January 6 violence was planned in advance exonerates Trump
All six presidential and vice presidential debates since 2016 have ignored LGBTQ issues
Article 10/08/20 11:07 AM EDT
Presidential debate moderators need to ask about LGBTQ issues
Article 09/23/20 9:50 AM EDT
Mainstream media are whitewashing Patriot Prayer, a violent far-right group in Portland
Article 08/31/20 5:27 PM EDT
© 2021 Media Matters for America


The building includes more than 300 lineal feet of Ruskin 9 1/2-in.-high EME520DD louvers that protect ventilation openings from wind-driven rain penetration.
Architectural products from Ruskin, Grandview, MO, are doing double duty at a new customer center–providing performance features while supporting the architect's aesthetic concept. The center, which serves a large insurance company, is part of a larger campus-style project that includes four office towers and approximately 2-million sq. ft. of floor space. In addition to the insurance company, the complex will house residential, health, and retail businesses.
Ruskin architectural representative Steve Bryan, with ADW Corp., Carrollton, TX, worked closely with Armetco Systems (a Justin, TX, installer of exterior cladding and curtainwall systems), building architects, the building owner, and Ruskin engineers to secure orders for Ruskin EME520DD wind-driven rain-resistant louvers and hinged doors and EV811AB horizontal screen louvers.
"The project posed many challenges for engineering and manufacturing," said Bryan. "The 4-ft.-deep EV811AB equipment screens required 6-in.-deep blades to be integrated at strategic locations." In addition to the aesthetic requirements, the engineers needed to design a 45-ft.-high picture-frame screen to withstand an elevated 57-psf wind load. The building includes more than 300 lineal feet of 9 1/2-in.-high EME520DD louvers that protect ventilation openings from wind-driven rain penetration.
"Perhaps the biggest engineering and manufacturing challenge was the design and installation of the large, hinged EME520DD louver doors," said Bryan. "The building employs three sets of double doors, the largest roughly measuring 17 ft. 6 in. wide by 8 ft. 6 in. high." Each hinged leaf of the double door weighs approximately 500 lb. and uses special heavy-duty hinges and rolling casters to help support its weight.


text:
Smithville Brookshire Bros store director turns over keys
Sarah Acosta
Smithville Brookshire Brothers store director Donny Watson officially turned his keys over to Sam Burgess on Oct. 10, a long-time tradition for the grocery store chain.
Watson is making the move into the energy business, where he will put his accounting degrees to work.
"It's a great opportunity for Donny," said Luke Gustafason, Brookshire Brothers district director. "He's served our company well for a number of years and we support him in his new endeavors."
Burgess, the new store director, was previously managing the Rosebud Brookshire Brothers and also managed the Hearne location.
"Burgess is community minded and has a long history of volunteerism and leadership in the towns where he has lived," Gustafason said. "We have no doubt this strong volunteer and sports lover will jump in and get involved in Bastrop County."
Brookshire Brothers is an employee-owned company with more than 7,000 employee-owners across east Texas and western Louisiana.
"Our employee-owners sink their roots in deep and make an impact in their town," said Sally Alvis, Brookshire Brothers director of business development and public relations.


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var _extends2 = _interopRequireDefault(require("@babel/runtime/helpers/extends"));

var _objectWithoutProperties2 = _interopRequireDefault(require("@babel/runtime/helpers/objectWithoutProperties"));

var React = _interopRequireWildcard(require("react"));

var _platform = require("../../lib/platform");

var _classNames = require("../../lib/classNames");

var _usePlatform = require("../../hooks/usePlatform");

var _Spacing = require("../Spacing/Spacing");

var _Separator = require("../Separator/Separator");

var _utils = require("../../lib/utils");

var _Footnote = require("../Typography/Footnote/Footnote");

var _ModalRootContext = require("../ModalRoot/ModalRootContext");

var _useAdaptivity2 = require("../../hooks/useAdaptivity");

var _getSizeXClassName = require("../../helpers/getSizeXClassName");

var _excluded = ["header", "description", "children", "separator", "getRootRef", "mode", "padding"];

/**
 * @see https://vkcom.github.io/VKUI/#/Group
 */
var Group = function Group(props) {
  var header = props.header,
      description = props.description,
      children = props.children,
      _props$separator = props.separator,
      separator = _props$separator === void 0 ? "auto" : _props$separator,
      getRootRef = props.getRootRef,
      modeProps = props.mode,
      _props$padding = props.padding,
      padding = _props$padding === void 0 ? "m" : _props$padding,
      restProps = (0, _objectWithoutProperties2.default)(props, _excluded);

  var _React$useContext = React.useContext(_ModalRootContext.ModalRootContext),
      isInsideModal = _React$useContext.isInsideModal;

  var platform = (0, _usePlatform.usePlatform)();

  var _useAdaptivity = (0, _useAdaptivity2.useAdaptivity)(),
      sizeX = _useAdaptivity.sizeX;

  var mode = modeProps;

  if (!modeProps) {
    // Подробнее в "none" можно прочитать в ADAPTIVITY_GUIDE.md
    mode = isInsideModal ? "plain" : "none";
  }

  var separatorClassName = (0, _classNames.classNamesString)("Group__separator", separator === "show" && "Group__separator--force");
  return (0, _jsxRuntime.createScopedElement)("section", (0, _extends2.default)({}, restProps, {
    ref: getRootRef,
    vkuiClass: (0, _classNames.classNames)("Group", platform === _platform.Platform.IOS && "Group--ios", (0, _getSizeXClassName.getSizeXClassName)("Group", sizeX), mode && "Group--mode-".concat(mode), "Group--padding-".concat(padding))
  }), (0, _jsxRuntime.createScopedElement)("div", {
    vkuiClass: "Group__inner"
  }, header, children, (0, _utils.hasReactNode)(description) && (0, _jsxRuntime.createScopedElement)(_Footnote.Footnote, {
    vkuiClass: "Group__description"
  }, description)), separator !== "hide" && (0, _jsxRuntime.createScopedElement)(React.Fragment, null, (0, _jsxRuntime.createScopedElement)(_Spacing.Spacing, {
    vkuiClass: (0, _classNames.classNames)(separatorClassName, "Group__separator--spacing"),
    size: 16
  }), (0, _jsxRuntime.createScopedElement)(_Separator.Separator, {
    vkuiClass: (0, _classNames.classNames)(separatorClassName, "Group__separator--separator")
  })));
};

exports.Group = Group;
//# sourceMappingURL=Group.js.map


A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Dublin Institute of Technology for the degree of M.Sc. in Computing (Information and Knowledge Management), March, 2014.
This project will examine the area of trust on the Semantic Web and develop a framework for publishing and verifying trusted Linked Data. Linked Data describes a method of publishing structured data, automatically readable by computers, which can linked to other heterogeneous data with the purpose of becoming more useful. Trust plays a significant role in the adoption of new technologies and even more so in a sphere with such vast amounts of publicly-created data. Trust is paramount to the effective sharing and communication of tacit knowledge (Hislop, 2013). Up to now, the area of trust in Linked Data has not been adequately addressed, despite the Semantic Web stack having included a trust layer from the very beginning (Artz and Gil, 2007). Some of the most accurate data on the Semantic Web lies practically unused, while some of the most used linked data has high numbers of errors (Zaveri et al., 2013). Many of the datasets and links that exist on the Semantic Web are out of date and/or invalid and this undermines the credibility and validity, and ultimately, the trustworthiness of both the dataset and the data provider (Rajabi et al., 2012). This research will examine a number of datasets to determine the quality metrics that a dataset is required to meet to be considered 'trusted'. The key findings will be assessed and utilized in the creation of a learning tool and a framework for creating trusted Linked Data.
Clarke, P. : A framework for the analysis and user-driven evaluation of trust on the semantic web, Masters Dissertation, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2014.


text:
Looking for a German translator
Else Münsterberg to Jane Addams, 1912.
As we head into the World War I years, Jane Addams' life and her letters go international!
We are looking for someone familiar with German and early 20th century handwriting to work on a document-by-document basis translating German-language documents. At present we have only a handful, letters by women activists like Else Münsterberg of Berlin and Rosa Manus of the Netherlands, and short pamphlets enclosed in Addams' incoming letters. But we anticipate adding more over the next few years.
If you are interested, please contact Cathy Moran Hajo (chajo at ramapo.edu) to discuss the work.
Jane Addams: Taking a Stand
This spring, the Jane Addams Papers Project was delighted to help fund two eighth grade students, Lucy Roberts and Lindsey Alexander, from Chamblee Middle School in Georgia present their ten-minute performance on Jane Addams at the National History Day competition. The students advanced through their regional and state competitions and needed some help funding their trip to Maryland and the national contest. When preparing for the competition, they relied on the Jane Addams Digital Edition to provide primary source materials.
"National History Day requires projects to have a variety of sources, both primary and secondary," said Lucy Roberts, who portrayed Jane Addams in the performance. "The Jane Addams Papers was so organized and helpful to help with primary sources. As far as the actual sources themselves, we used her letters and speeches to learn about her thoughts and political views." The girls used excerpts from Addams's autobiographies, which they found on the digital edition, as well as her opinions on immigration and labor to make their performance more historically accurate.
"What I think was the most interesting thing about Addams was her work as the city's garbage collector. To me that was not only pretty surprising but admirable as well," added Lucy.
National History Day invites students between sixth and twelfth grade to research a historical topic based on an annual theme and present their findings in a creative style manner as documentaries, research papers, exhibits, performances, or websites. With this year's theme called "Taking a Stand in History," Lucy and Lindsey were assigned to research Addams in class.
Lucy and Lindsey's performance, "Jane Addams: Taking a Stand," opened at Addams's funeral in Hull-House in 1935. Lindsey, portraying a resident, passionately recited a eulogy about Addams and her life. Then, the play took the audience back in time by dramatically portraying Addams's most significant accomplishments, such as becoming valedictorian at Rockford Seminary, co-founding the Hull-House, opposing World War I, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. As Addams, Lucy used direct quotes from Addams's letters and speeches, and Lindsey acted as a variety of Addams's associates, such as Ellen Gates Starr, a Chicago Tribune reporter, and a poor immigrant, providing context for Addams' views.
"Performing was much more difficult than I expected," said Lucy. "There are a billion things you need to think about: facing the audience, speaking clearly, remembering your lines, blocking, props, etc. That's why I enjoyed it so much. Not only do I love a challenge, but I got to see an idea turn into something tangible and real."
Lucy enjoying time in Baltimore
Lucy and Lindsey did not win the national award, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience and their sightseeing in Baltimore. They visited Inner Harbor, the National Aquarium, and Hard Rock Café. "I really enjoyed that because the hard work was over and we could finally relax and enjoy the city," said Lucy.
We are glad to have been able to help the girls have such a rewarding experience and congratulate them on their success.
The theme for 2018 is: Conflict and Compromise in History.


On Jun. 13, 2017, at Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) more than 100 Airmen, family members and distinguished guest attended the 100th anniversary celebration of the 34th and 37th Bomb Squadrons.
As explained in the article "T-birds" and "Tigers" celebrate 100 years, By Airman 1st Class Donald C. Knechtel, 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs, the units are two of the oldest in the U.S. Air Force (USAF), with the 34th BS "Thunderbirds" formed on May 10, 1917, and the 37th "Tigers" formed on June 13, 1917.
Both squadrons have played significant roles in the nation's defense dating back to the Army Air Corps and their involvement with World War I.
According to Col. John Martin, commander of the 28th Operations Group, the 34th BS "Thunderbirds" and 37th BS "Tigers" have consistently proven themselves in combat, showing courage through airpower in the face of impossible odds; and in the process, cementing their place in history.
Key players in the Doolittle Tokyo Raid on mainland Japan that boosted American morale, the actions of the crew members belonging to the two units served as a watershed moment during WWII.
Executing a key role in two wars did not limit the units' ability to supply aircrews and aircraft during the Cold War and Vietnam. Eventually after supporting both conflicts, the time came for the nation to shift focus to Southwest Asia as tensions arose in the area.
In fact in 1998 the 37th BS deployed in support of Operation Desert Fox where the B-1 flew its' first combat sorties over Iraq, striking Republican Guard barracks. In 1999, they flew combat sorties over the sky of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia in support of Operation Allied Force, flying over 100 missions and dropping over 1,260 tons of Mk-82 munitions.
After the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, both units were deployed. The 34th BS departed that same month and employed more than 6.9 million pounds of munitions, hitting Taliban and al Qaeda targets in the first 101 days of combat.
Supporting Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), aircrews dropped more than 60 percent of all Joint Direct Attack Munitions used in the conflict, and flew more than 360 sorties. Ellsworth flew more than 5 percent of the strike missions, but dropped nearly 40 percent of the total tonnage of bombs – over 1,730 tons – effectively driving the Taliban from power in what is now a democratic Afghanistan.
Two years after, the squadron operated from a forward location in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Aircrews flew combat missions over Iraq and two B-1s from the 34th BS were credited with bombing high priority targets in Baghdad, bringing an end to the ruling regime and their ability to conduct major combat operations.
Some of the other missions supported included Operations Southern Watch, Odyssey Dawn, Freedom's Sentinel and Inherent Resolve.
According to Simmons in Odyssey Dawn, for the first time ever, aircraft launched from U.S. soil to strike military targets in Libya in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn. Despite the blizzard conditions of March 2011, maintenance personnel readied four B-1s that launched within 72 hour from receipt of the order.
In 2015, the 34th and 37th supported Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria.
Looking at those more recent record-setting deployments in 2015 in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility (USCENTCOM AOR) the two squadrons and AMUs were credited with employing more than 7,000 munitions against enemy targets, flying more than 900 combat sorties.
In 2016, the 34th BS was the first of the two squadrons to transition to the Pacific Command AOR. During that first deployment, the B-1s flown by aircrews and readied by maintainers provide the global reach that not only deter aggressors, but assures our allies of America's commitment to international security.
With an impressive history to live up to, the current 34th and 37th BS aircrew and maintainers stand ready to continue a proud heritage.


text:
Pentagon lists possible project cuts to pay for border wall | TribLIVE.com
Politics Election
Pentagon lists possible project cuts to pay for border wall
Mon., March 18, 2019 7:51 p.m. | Monday, March 18, 2019 7:51 p.m.
Construction crews replace a section of the primary wall separating San Diego, above right, and Tijuana, Mexico, below left, seen from Tijuana, Mexico. The Pentagon has sent a 20-page list of military construction projects to lawmakers who want to know which might be cut to pay for President Trump's wall along the border with Mexico.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon sent a 20-page list of military construction projects to Congress on Monday that might be slashed to pay for President Trump's wall along the Mexican border. Democrats expressed hope that by knowing which local projects could be targeted, lawmakers would be likelier to override Trump's veto of a measure aimed at preventing the cuts.
"Now that members of Congress can see the potential impact this proposal could have on projects in their home states, I hope they will take that into consideration before the vote to override the President's veto," Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
Trump Admin finally releases its list of at-risk #milcon projects that could be put on the chopping block in order to divert billions to pay for Trump's ineffective #borderwall. Take a look – military bases in your state could be negatively impacted.
https://t.co/xJyDzjSITS
— Senator Jack Reed (@SenJackReed) March 18, 2019
With the House scheduled to vote Tuesday on overriding Trump's veto, the spokeswoman for the top GOP vote counter predicted the president will prevail anyway.
"House Republicans have stood strongly with President Trump on securing our nation's border and overwhelmingly supported his emergency declaration by large margins when we voted on this weeks ago; this will not change," said Lauren Fine, spokeswoman for No. 2 House GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The Pentagon document listed hundreds of projects envisioned around the United States and world worth around $12.9 billion. Not all will be subject to cuts, the Defense Department wrote, making it difficult to determine exactly which would be vulnerable.
The list included more than $100 million for water treatment plant improvements at Camp Lejeune and airfield security and other work at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina. That is the home state to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who initially said he opposed Trump's emergency but voted for it. Tillis, who could face a tough re-election fight next year, said the White House had shown a willingness to consider curbing presidential powers to declare future emergencies.
Also listed were an air traffic control tower at Fort Benning, Ga.; a maintenance hangar at Travis Air Force Base in California; and a drone hangar at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea.
In their initial votes, the House and Senate both fell short of the two-thirds majorities that will be needed to override Trump's veto. That suggests the override effort will fail unless the political tide shifts.
Trump declared a national emergency at the Mexican boundary last month after Congress limited him to just under $1.4 billion to build border barriers. He invoked a law that would let him siphon other budget funds — $3.6 billion from military construction — to build the structures and fulfill his prime 2016 campaign promise.
The House voted to block his emergency by 245-182 in February. The Senate followed last week by 59-41, including a dozen GOP defections. Lawmakers expressed concerns that Trump was ignoring Congress' constitutional control over spending and worries about the cuts' impact back home. Trump vetoed the bill Friday.
In a letter accompanying the list, Defense Department officials said they wouldn't touch items for which money would be awarded by the Sept. 30 end of this fiscal year or for projects like housing. They didn't specify which would be exempted.
Even so, Democrats latched onto the potential cuts to drum up support for the veto override.
"What President Trump is doing is a slap in the face to our military that makes our border and the country less secure," Reed said.
Three top Democrats said in a statement that the projects were facing cuts "to placate the President."
Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Hawaii's Brian Schatz said, "This madness will not stop until more of our Republican colleagues are willing to put the military ahead of party politics."
A spokesperson for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Armed Services panel, said the document "is not a list of projects that will definitively be impacted." She said Inhofe will continue working with defense officials to find targets "without negatively affecting any military construction projects."
Trump said throughout his campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall, which it has consistently refused to do.
Democratic-aligned groups including state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against the emergency declaration, potentially blocking the money for months or more.
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text:
The Girls! living it up to liberate Columbus women
Jon McAllister
Ryan Vile (left) and Jessica Wabbit, whose real name is Jessica Ankrom, of The Girls! perform Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Ryan Vile (left), Jessica Wabbit and Bent, whose real name is Ben Larson, of The Girls! perform Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
The Girls! perform Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Bent of The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Bent (left), Raeghan Buchanan and Joe Damn, whose real name is Joe Rosenblum, of The Girls! perform Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Big Nick of The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Ryan Viile (left), Bent and Big Nick of The Girls! perform Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Jessica Wabbit (left), Big Nick (back), Raeghan Buchanan and Joe Damn of The Girls! perform Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Raeghan Buchanan of The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Ryan Vile of The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Jessica Wabbit of The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Joe Damn (front) of The Girls! performs Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Jessica Wabbit of The Girls! climbs onto a bass drum mid-performance Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
After jumping from a drum kit, Jessica Wabbit of The Girls! drops to the floor while singing Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Jessica Wabbit of The Girls! finishes a song on the floor Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Jessica Wabbit of The Girls! finishes a song on the floor Nov. 3 at the Summit in Clintonville. The band is known for stripping down to their underwear during their performances. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
To be engulfed in ex-boyfriends, alcohol, heartache and even death can be a devastating environment to traverse. In many cases, the barren result of such negative experience is immobilizing.
However, Columbus power pop band The Girls! wants fellow women and anyone else to join them as they dance the bad things away.
"We want the girls to have a party," said frontwoman Jessica Wabbit, whose real name is Jessica Ankrom, "Not being told what to do and not feeling like they can't be comfortable being themselves."
Three of the six group members sat around a table on the patio of Little Rock Bar Tuesday night.
"I'm all about liberating girls 'cause I've been in two really abusive relationships. I'm a rape victim," Ankrom said. "I want women to feel like they can have fun and do whatever the f— they want.
"The ridiculous ideals that women have to be held up to physically — the first thing they do is get with some guy who puts them in a cage essentially," she added.
"And not in the fun way," Ankrom joked, provoking laughter from recently added guitarist Joe Damn, whose real name is Joe Rosenblum.
Let's Not Be Friends by The Girls!
"First they're their father's daughter, then they're somebody's girlfriend and then they're married and that's all they ever do — dude, you can do whatever you want," Ankrom said.
When Ankrom left the father of her child, she was making $8 an hour and working 12 hours a week.
"And I made it f—— work," Ankrom said proudly.
"I have a self, I am a person and I can do this, and so can you," she said. "You don't need a guy, you don't need anything, all you need is yourself and you need to dance your ass off."
The idea is one the band takes seriously.
"It's a goddamn mantra," Rosenblum said. "The fact that feminism has to be a movement is a travesty in its own right.
"It should not be about finding some a–hole with a good job and a healthcare plan who can finally provide for you to be just a woman, that's absolutely an archaic thing that just needs to go and f—— die," he said.
The band released its first album, "Let's Not Be Friends," on April 18 on vinyl. The concept, and the entire record, is about one person that Ankrom spent 10 years of her life with.
"To me (the album) means I'm at least leaving something behind in the event of my untimely death, and also people can take something out of that s—–, s—– relationship," Ankrom said.
Since releasing the record, Ankrom has been writing songs of happier content — inspired by recently falling in "genuine" love — which will go toward a new record currently in the works.
"Love is what inspires me the most," she said.
In July, The Girls! lost its original guitar player and a well-known member of the Columbus music community, Joey Blackheart, whose real name was Joey Moore.
"I lost my musical soulmate when Joey died," Ankrom said.
"I'm well f—— aware of what shoes I have to fill," Rosenblum said, who was asked to play in the band after Blackheart's death.
When people ask tambourine player Raeghan Buchanan who replaced Joey, she just corrects them by saying, "we added a member."
Moore died of a drug overdose July 9.
"When Joey and I played together, it was like we were reading each other's minds," Ankrom said. "And when he used, I could tell there was an absence of that, like I couldn't feel him when I was playing."
The music wasn't "golden" like it always was, Ankrom said.
Rosenblum has tried to align the spirit of the songs with his technical ability, and as he explained it, "f— it up as best as I can."
The three Girls! members laughed, lightening the seriousness of the topic. Overall, the transition has been as smooth as it could really be, given the circumstance, in Ankrom's opinion.
"I was a fan before I ever joined — I got to make five damn good friends," Rosenblum said. "It was definitely more of a concern to become friends with them and be there for people who were having a real s— month inside of a s— year."
"Ya know, keep bringing beer and cigarettes to practice," Rosenblum laughed.
Rosenblum's initial reaction to being asked to play guitar was to talk them out of it, he recalled.
"I had lost a band member previously to an untimely death, I lost another to addiction, so I kind of had a vague idea of what was going on — I still don't pretend to completely get it," Rosenblum said.
"(When Rosenblum tried out for the band), he was really good with everyone so upset," Buchanan said.
"I think one song in, I threw my guitar down and started crying and ran out the back door," Ankrom said, recalling Rosenblum's tryout.
"And Joe was like, 'What did I do?!'" Buchanan said laughing. "We're like, 'You played good! It freaked us out!'"
"When we play together, it's magical, now I'm learning how to make new magic," Ankrom said, before Buchanan added "Joey Blackheart lives on through the band."
While The Girls! carries on Moore's legacy, it still serves as the mobile of Ankrom's dreams, emotions, and future.
"This is the band I've always wanted to be in, this is the band I've dreamed of being in, this is something I've worked towards musically my whole life," Ankrom said. "I haven't gotten that exact right recording, but I've got the right group of people and I think that that's going to happen. That everything I dreamed up when I was 17 and started doing this is all falling into place."
"Columbus is kind of incestuous," Rosenblum said.
"There's a lot of people who hang out together and wind up in bands," Rosenblum said. "I knew (The Girls!) as cool people before there was even thought of me playing guitar."
"The way (Buchanan) got in the band, she just loved our band and was at every show," Ankrom said, "and she would get up on the stage with us and dance. I was like, 'let's give her a tambourine — and singing lessons."
Having Buchanan in the band is hugely important to Ankrom, though she claims to have "haters" on the subject with fans occasionally questioning Buchanan's presence in The Girls!.
"They're like, 'you don't need her in the band!' Ankrom said, "I have a lot of people come up to me and say that she doesn't need to be in the band, that 'she's taking attention off of you' and blah blah blah."
Ankrom brought Buchanan in the band to do just that. Having her best friend in the band takes the pressure off of Ankrom, who self-admittedly has some insecurity about playing live.
Even outside of shows, she wears sunglasses all the time because she's so shy.
Through all the ups and downs of life, Jessica Ankrom and the rest of The Girls! continue to battle through.
"We decided early on — and it sounds kinda corny I guess — but, we knew that Joey (Moore) would have wanted us to go on," Buchanan said. The three agreed that the band was the mechanism by which they can "keep going."
"Just because I have a kid doesn't mean that all my dreams still can't come true, and I aim to fight for it," Ankrom said.
Her goals include getting signed to a good label, going on a few good tours, retiring and having her own studio. "And putting my son through an extremely, obscenely expensive college, like spend all the money on him," she said.
As for relationships and heartbreak, the front woman has discovered one thing for certain:
"You'll meet that person that gets you. My life is a fairy tale," Ankrom said.
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text:
After it has become commonly known that CRASH has to leave the fort at Aalsmeer, we received many reactions. Both from individuals and from organizations and regional politicians. This greatly supports the CRASH volunteers. The reactions we have received not only originate in the Netherlands but also surviving relatives of crew members from America and the UK and from the Royal Air Forces Association in their reactions confirm the great importance to retain and support CRASH in finding adequate housing. The fort still appears to be the all-favorite location.
However, the Municipal Executives of Haarlemmermeer county maintains its decision that the fort at Aalsmeer needs to be emptied by CRASH in 2019. The plan is to restore the fort and find a party to exploit the fort commercially.
The publicity surrounding the departure of the CRASH air war and resistance museum '40-'45 has also created opportunities. For example, a number of options within the region have come up that could potentially accommodate CRASH apart from the firstly intended location in Nieuw-Vennep. One of them is still the Boogaard Farm on the Rijnlanderweg in Nieuw-Vennep. The new owner of the farm has suggested an investigation into the possibilities to create a completely new facility for CRASH. The Discussions and negotiations on this subject have started recently and will continue until the end of September, after which decisions will be made. The Boogaard Farm, the resistance and hiding stronghold in the polder, was once, 15 years ago, identified as a worthy location by CRASH. The farm has a huge historical value for the Haarlemmermeer and is therefore a wonderful place to establish a new CRASH air war and resistance museum '40-'45. For CRASH this appears to be the best alternative after a mandatory move from the fort.
CRASH remains active even during the possible dismantling of the museum in the fort. Our "Spitfire Hall" on the fort site will remain open and we will install a temporary small version of the CRASH air war and resistance museum '40-'45 there. More information about this will follow and you can consult our website www.crash40-45.nl where the information is kept up to date on a daily basis. Also on our Facebook page and Instagram.