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Classic Galleries
Original Issue
Craig Neff
STOP THEPRESSES
When Pocket Bookssaid last week that it was scrapping plans to publish Personal Fouls, the bookabout North Carolina State's basketball program that had been anticipated withdread on that school's campus (SI, Jan. 30), North Carolina attorney generalLacy Thornburg hailed the decision as "a victory not just for NorthCarolina State University, but for truth generally." It may not have beeneither.
Pocket, adivision of Simon & Schuster, said only that author Peter Golenbock'smanuscript did not meet its publishing standards, but presumably the companyfeared libel suits. According to a proof of the book's dust jacket obtained bythe Raleigh News and Observer in January, Golenbock's book, subtitled TheBroken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano'sNorth Carolina State, alleged that during Valvano's tenure as coach large sumsof money had been given to players, positive drug tests covered up and gradesaltered. Valvano denied the charges, and questions have been raised about thethoroughness of Golenbock's research. In a Jan. 10 letter to Simon &Schuster, Thornburg warned that publishing allegations such as those on thedust jacket would be grounds for a libel suit if proven false.
But Thornburgshouldn't crow too loudly about Simon & Schuster's decision. Personal Foulshad a large advance order before the plug was pulled and may yet be publishedby another company. And the dust jacket allegations have spawned investigationsof Valvano's program by at least three bodies: an internal N.C. State panel,the NCAA and a state university system commission, which has enlisted the helpof the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI).
John A. SimondsJr., the former student manager of the Wolfpack basketball team and one ofGolenbock's sources, says that he recently has been interviewed at length byNCAA and NCSBI investigators, who asked him about a number of specificinstances of alleged wrongdoing at N.C. State. "I'm willing to stand at thetop of the tallest building and tell this story," said Simonds. "I knowwhat the truth is."
Sources have toldSI that Valvano has quietly been looking into the possibility of moving to theLos Angeles Clippers as coach and/or general manager. Valvano's agent, ArtKaminsky, says that he and Valvano have had no contact with the Clippers, but aspokesman for Clipper owner Donald Sterling said Valvano has had"exploratory" discussions with Sterling since early February. Two othersources say Kaminsky has also discussed with Sterling Valvano's possiblehiring. In any case, it would appear that the book is not yet closed onPersonal Fouls.
HYPE GOES TOWAR
Militaryimagery—bombs, attacks, gunners and so on—has long been a part of the languageof sports, but in three recent cases it has been taken to inexcusable extremes.Promoters of the June 12 rematch between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns—afight billed as The War—sought to enliven a Leonard-Hearns press conference inLas Vegas by showing footage of storm troopers goose-stepping into Polandduring World War II. A foldout ad for Maxfli golf balls in the Jan. 27 issue ofGolf World magazine featured a group of PGA Tour pros dressed as commandos andbearing bullet-laden bandoliers, hand grenades and machine pistols. And at OxonHill (Md.) High, the football coach, Michael Pearson, was put on administrativeleave after several of his defensive standouts gathered to pose for aphoto—apparently envisioned as a "top guns" publicity poster—with amachine pistol, a bayonet and an assault rifle. An Oxon High spokesman said theweapons were confiscated by security personnel before any pictures of playerswere taken, and Pearson has refused to comment on the case.
TAKING ASTAND
In late Januarytwo amateur hockey teams in Montreal, Notre Dame de la Consolata and Fèdèrationsportive olympique 49, engaged in a 20-minute bench-clearing brawl, duringwhich police were called in. Last week officials of the Quebec Ice HockeyFederation suspended all of the players on both teams for the remainder of thisseason and all of next season.
The harshpunishment is sending the right message: There's no place for fighting inhockey. Unfortunately, the leadership of the violence-plagued NHL still doesn'tget that message. When he was asked about a survey of 1,500 Canadians bypollster Angus Reid, in which 74% of the respondents said that the NHL would bemore entertaining if it were less violent, league president John Ziegler calledthe findings "worthless" because the pollsters had not defined the term"violence."
STALKING THEBURKINA FASO
SI's AlexanderWolff, one of our resident Olympic-pin-trading aficionados, ventured to LakePlacid, N.Y., last weekend for the first-ever national pin-collectors'convention. He reports:
Despite asnowstorm that socked in much of the East Coast, nearly a thousand people filedinto the Olympic Center to ogle the wares of 31 vendors, who had come to theAdirondacks from such far-flung precincts as Seattle and Los Angeles. Theytraded and sold (for $1 and up) everything from corporate sponsors' pins toInternational Olympic Committee session badges. These were folks who knew theirMauritius from their Mauritania.
Among the hottestitems—selling for at least $100 if you could find one—were rare nationalOlympic committee pins from Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta). Gabon andNiger. Also in demand was a TV screen-shaped ESPN pin bearing—without IOCpermission—the Olympic rings; about 500 of these were produced for the CalgaryGames.
The show wasstaged by the Olympin Collectors Club, which started with seven members in 1982and now has 800. "We're at a point where our computer's memory is justabout full of members' names," said club president Don Bigsby of Albany,N.Y. Club members can't wait until 1992, when winter and summer games beginalternating every two years and new Olympic pins hit the market twice asoften.
Perhaps thelargest display in Lake Placid belonged to Rowan Fay, pastor of PilgrimHoliness Church in Marcy, N.Y., who exhibited his wares over four full tablesand a wall display. But, though the show ran through Sunday, Fay packed upSaturday evening and headed home, where less secular duties beckoned. To onepinhead anyway, there actually seems to be a higher calling.
THE FALLENPADRE
It's part ofSteve Garvey's misfortune that news of his allegedly having impregnated twowomen—neither of them the woman he married two weeks ago—comes at the height ofthe Wade Boggs scandal (page 38). "We're getting lumped together, but it'snot the same." says Garvey, 40, the former star first baseman for theDodgers and Padres. "I've been single for the past seven years."
Still, the newshas tarnished Garvey's once-sterling image and may hinder his expected pursuitof a political career. "I just hope the intelligent person will look atthis and ask. 'Has Steve's behavior been consistent with how he has handledsituations in the past?' " he says. "I think it has been. I haveaddressed the problem. I have told the women that if the children are mine, Iwill assume the responsibilities."
To the womeninvolved, Garvey has been all too consistent. In 1981 Garvey, then a member ofthe Dodgers, separated (and was later divorced) from Cyndy, his wife of 10years, with whom he has two daughters, Krisha, 14, and Whitney, 12. His nextsteady companion was Judith Ross, an L.A. businesswoman, who lived with himfrom '83 until '86. Ross, 34, says she and Garvey have rekindled their romanceseveral times. "In 1988 he was still trying to pursue me, and he was againtalking about marriage." she says.
But marriage towhom? In 1986 Garvey had met Rebecka Mendenhall, an editor at Cable NewsNetwork in Atlanta. "In August 1987, Steve told me he had fallen completelyin love with me," says Mendenhall. Mendenhall says she and Garvey becameengaged last November and set an April 1 wedding date. She even ordered acustom-made wedding dress.
On Jan. 4 Garveyphoned Mendenhall with bad news. He told her that another woman, whose name hasnot been revealed, was claiming to be pregnant with his child. Mendenhall, 33,soon learned that she, too, was pregnant; she claims Garvey is the father. ButGarvey had by now fallen in love with yet another woman, Candace Thomas, 30. ofPalos Verdes, Calif. Mendenhall says Garvey called her in late January tocancel the wedding and told her, "Marriage is not for me." On Feb. 18,Garvey and Thomas were married in Deer Valley, Utah.
Garvey, who hasbeen working as a commentator on CBS radio baseball broadcasts and has taped apilot—with Fawn Hall—for a syndicated TV show, reports that he is blissfullyhappy with Thomas. "I can tell you," he says, "love affairs stilldo happen."
•Jay Leno, comedian: "Oklahoma's football team hasalready been ranked 10th in the preseason polls—that's both UPI andFBI."
PATRICK MCDONNELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS/ALAN GRETH
Until Garvey's marriage to Thomas...
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO
...Mendenhall was his first lady.
Full Frame: Michael Phelps Goes Fishing
John Calipari vs. the State of Kentucky
Hitting Pitchers: Enjoy (Mock) Them While You Can


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Rakuten TV SVoD partnership with TalkTalk
Rakuten TV, the European VoD platform, has formed a new partnership with pay-TV provider TalkTalk TV, to offer its users a new SvoD service. The service is available now to TalkTalk TV customers who are subscribed to a TalkTalk TV 'Boost'.
The deal will see TalkTalk TV Boost customers gain access to the new 'Rakuten TV Movie Club' as part of their subscription. TalkTalk TV customers will be able to enjoy movies from an extensive movie catalogue including titles which will be refreshed each week.
The TalkTalk TV partnership marks the next stage in Rakuten TV's strategy to increase its presence in Europe, following the announcement of its extension plans earlier this year, where the platform tripled its distribution from 12 to 42 countries to reach more than 30 million European households, counting on a wide catalogue of top movies to offer the best cinematic experience for Smart TVs in 4K HDR.
Rakuten TV is now available in 42 countries and forms part of the Internet and e-commerce Japanese giant Rakuten, one of the world's leading internet services companies, offering a wide variety of services for consumers and businesses, with a focus on e- commerce, fintech and digital content.
Spain: Rakuten content for Agile TV
Rakuten acquires Wuaki.tv
TalkTalk off-net TV customers switched to Rakuten TV
Dolby, LG, Rakuten team for HDR SVoD
Sky, TalkTalk extend distribution partnership

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Crowd Mics is a wifi sound amplification product that enables the audience members to be heard during Q&A sessions or any other live event by speaking into their iOS and Android devices. Smart phones turn into wireless microphones when the presenter plugs into the venue sound system with a smart phone headphone jack.


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Checklist 172: A Ring of Trouble
On this week's Checklist, we'll revisit the issues with Amazon's Ring, take another look at iCloud backups, and hit the highlights from Apple's latest round of OS updates.
A Ring security camera app that sells user info
How to kill iCloud Backup (and why you might not want to)
A slew of smallish updates from Apple
More issues with Ring
The security and privacy issues around Amazon's Ring doorbell camera system are making news yet again, due to one Amazon engineer's strikingly blunt public criticism of Ring. According to the Amazon employee:
"The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society. The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back."
That's a pretty uncompromising stance, but one which we're broadly sympathetic to. The very existence of a network of surveillance cameras whose video feeds can be accessed remotely is a privacy threat — even if we trust the intentions of the people running the system — because that data is potentially accessible by other parties whose motivations may be less benevolent.
This fundamental problem with Ring and data security was also underscored by a recent report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which detailed a number of consumer privacy issues with the Ring Android app. The app, it seems, was collecting all sorts of personal information about users: their names, IP addresses, mobile carriers, doorbell settings, and more. The information was then sent on to third-party analytics companies and even Facebook, presumably with the goal of selling the detailed user profiles created from the data to advertisers and vendors. According to the EFF report, users were unaware of this data collection, and there was no way to opt out. The issue with the Ring mobile app selling user data to third parties is likely to be less of a problem for iOS users, since Apple has taken steps to curb this kind of behavior on its platforms.
The overall picture of Ring that's emerging is genuinely troubling — and apparently not only to watchdog groups but also to people within the company itself — and that's why we'd recommend that anyone thinking about getting Ring seriously consider the privacy implications of doing so.
How to get rid of iCloud (and why you may not want to)
On last week's podcast, we talked about some of the potential privacy issues with iCloud backups. Following up on that, we'd like to take a closer look at how to turn iCloud backups off — as well as some reasons why this might not be a good idea.
First, let's take a look at the benefits of using iCloud to back up an iPhone. To begin with, if you need to restore your device, iCloud backups mean that you don't have to do it manually. If you, for example, damage an iPhone and need to get it replaced at the Apple Store, having an iCloud backup means that you can restore all of your apps and settings pretty much instantly from the cloud. Restoring a device from a local backup would be more time-consuming. Secondly, iCloud.com is undeniably convenient. It's a one-stop shop for you to manage all of your Apple devices and access important apps like Calendar and Find My. For people who want to use their iPhone to work on documents created on their Mac, it's invaluable.
But despite the many advantages of iCloud, there will still be some people who feel that the privacy trade-off — having their backups potentially accessible to someone at Apple — is just not worth it. So for those folks, here's how to turn off iCloud backups:
Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup, and tap iCloud Backup in order to see the toggle switch to turn iCloud backups off.
Remember that any iCloud backups made previously are still on Apple's servers, and will have to be deleted manually. But before you do this, make sure that you back up your device locally before proceeding. To delete your old cloud backups, go to Settings > [my name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups. There you should see all of your old backups. Tap on a backup to see the option to delete it.
Apple updates everything
Apple released quite a few updates to its OSes this week. In what follows, we'll take a look at some of the more interesting ones.
iOS 13.3.1 fixed something that wasn't a security vulnerability per se, but nonetheless had to do with a potential security issue. Apple says that they addressed a bug in the Communication Limits feature which was allowing users to add new contacts without first entering the Screen Time passcode. Since Communication Limits used with Screen Time is a parental monitoring tool, this means that children had been able to add new contacts without a parent's permission, which could have been a potential safety issue.
Another iOS bug which Apple fixed was a problem in Mail in which remote images were loading even when "Load Remote Images" was disabled. This has security implications, because spammers and hackers use remote-loading images to determine whether or not an email address is valid. They include images served from unique URLs in their initial emails. If they see that one of these unique URLs was used to load an image, they know that the email address they sent it to was valid — and they follow up with even more spam emails or, worst-case, phishing emails.
Turning off remote loading of images is a good way to become invisible to the bad guys, denying them the confirmation that they're looking for so that they'll assume that your email address is non-responsive and move on to another target. That's why it's a good security practice to disable remote image loading and to only load images manually when you see that the message is from a sender you trust. And that's also why it's good news that Apple has addressed this issue.
On the Mac side of things, Apple released the third version of Catalina: macOS 10.15.3. One update worth mentioning is a fix to a bug which had allowed apps to read files outside of Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is a macOS security feature which, among other things, is supposed to keep apps "in their own lane" and prevent them from accessing files and locations that they shouldn't have access to. If apps can bypass Gatekeeper and read files that they shouldn't be reading, potentially sending that information somewhere else, it's a clear security risk, which is what makes this a significant update. There are fixes for safer web browsing as well: Safari 13.0.5 eliminates some vulnerabilities that could have allowed malicious code to be executed on a user's system or permitted address bar spoofing attacks.
Lastly, the tvOS update addressed a vulnerability which could have allowed maliciously crafted XML — or "Extensible Markup Language" — to result in arbitrary code execution on a user's system. XML is one of the ways that machines communicate with one another, and this bug could have allowed someone to send a message containing malicious code to a target system, and get the target system to execute that code.
As we always say whenever there are updates, please take a moment to update all your OSes if you haven't done so already — and consider setting yourself up for automatic updates in the future.
That takes us to the end of this week's Checklist, but if you have a security question or would like to suggest a topic for a future show, drop us a line at Checklist@SecureMac.com.
Security camera hack exposes thousands of video feeds
Checklist 300: Things to Consider When Smartening Your Home
Checklist 254: Every Day is Black Friday
Best of the Checklist: February 6th, 2020
Top 4 Black Friday scams in 2021


During SIHH 2016, Audemars Piguet released two Royal Oak Frosted Gold watches – a 33mm quartz version and a 37mm automatic one. For those who enjoy some bling in their watches and a larger case size, the brand has a added a 41mm limited edition option, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Frosted Gold 41mm watch, to the line.
Sometimes one can get lost in the seductive illusion that more is done by hand than, in reality, is possible with certain techniques and modern expectations for tolerances. The frosting gives the gold a shiny effect similar to that of having diamond powder on the surface, just less reflective. The bezel edges are polished and case edges beveled for some additional pop in between the frosting, and the caseband is brushed . The "frosted" finishing is not often seen in cases, which makes this an interesting and unusual look that should probably be viewed in person to determine just how attractive/wearable/masculine/blingy or otherwise it is. Aside from the use of the frosted gold, this is essentially the blue-dial version of the time-only Royal Oak that we've come to know in various forms over the years since Gerald Genta designed it.
While the previous smaller variants were offered in white and rose gold, this 41mm Royal Oak will only be available in white gold. It has the blue tapisserie dial with a matching blue date window. I always thought the Royal Oak shined best with a blue dial. The hands and applied markers are gold, of course, and filled with a sliver of Super-LumiNova to make the watch legible at night. The Audemars Piguet replica watch bracelet is the familiar and very comfortable design. Like the 37mm frosted gold sibling, it is powered by the automatic caliber 3120, which offers 60 hours of power reserve, beats at 3Hz, and has the customary, solid 22ct gold, decorated monobloc rotor – all of which is visible through a display caseback.
Those wanting to stock up on some bling will have to hurry as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Frosted Gold 41mm replica watch is limited to 200 pieces only. If you happen to miss out, you could always console yourself by purchasing a set of Royal Oak cufflinks that the brand released with the watch.
This entry was posted in Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and tagged Audemars Piguet Royal Oak replica watch, Replica Audemars Piguet Watch by smsdm2s. Bookmark the permalink.


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An election to Limerick City Council took place on 10 June 1999 as part of that year's Irish local elections. 17 councillors were elected from four local electoral areas  for a five-year term of office on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Results by party

Results by Electoral Area

Limerick No.1

Limerick No.2

Limerick No.3

Limerick No.4

External links

1999 Irish local elections
1999

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Yale Cordage Releases Series of New Instructional Splicing Videos
[May 25, 2021] Yale Cordage released a series of new instructional splicing videos to their website and YouTube channel. The videos cover a wide range of products, including industrial single and double braid products as well as climbing lines, and are intended to complement their existing Qualified Splicer Program.
"Our goal in creating and updating the instructional splicing videos is to offer content that improves consumer education and familiarity with our products while simultaneously providing a much-needed training resource. These videos will not only be beneficial to our end users, but to our value-add distributors and retailers" says Bill Putnam, President of Yale Cordage.
The Yale Qualified Splicer Program is offered by the company as a tool to ensure that riggers are performing their work correctly. Yale Qualified Splicers have completed an appropriate Yale Qualified Splicer Program Kit, and there are several kits available upon request.
The company plans to continue working towards completing new videos for other approved splicing methods. Written splicing instructions for those videos, yet to be released, will also be made available on the company's website.
View instructional splicing videos here


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North Dundas
North Glengarry
North Stormont
South Dundas
South Glengarry
South Stormont
About CNW
COLUMN: Education system has many woes
May 7, 2015 Phillip Blancher Opinion 1
SOUTH DUNDAS — The publicly-funded education system in Ontario has many woes, that can be boiled down to four main issues. Each of these are easily solved, but the solutions require fortitude from the powers that be, and a realization from the users that they can't get everything they want.
Ontario is inching towards an all-out teachers strike between the elementary and secondary teacher unions. A few boards have been selected for strike action now, however the elementary union has a mandate for a province-wide strike. These are the same unions which supported Kathleen Wynne during the last general election. The unions are quickly realizing what many others have already, that Wynne over-promises and under-delivers. While generally supportive of the teachers right to strike, union rights, and that they expected promises made to be kept. As a parent, it is hard to explain to your eight year old that his class field trip may be postponed or cancelled because of labour unrest.
A solution to this may just be, honour the promises to the teachers, but cut administration to pay for it. There is no need for the amount of people in the board offices across the province. The teachers are the front-line workers and the most important part of the education system for children. Educational Assistants and other support workers are second most important. A bloated administration system, regional and sub-regional board offices, administration support staff, all not as important. So cut from there. When school boards were amalgamated starting 20 years ago, it was done to reduce administration costs and focus on front-line education. Now administration is bloated. Cut from the top, to fund the teachers.
Too many education systems
It is time to merge the catholic and public boards into one school system. Ontario has four, English-Public, English-Catholic, French-Public, French-Catholic. Merge them all into one system and remove all religion from publicly funded education. If a parent wishes for their child to go to a Christian school, or a Jewish school, or a Muslim school, then allow for that parent to not pay for the public system, and they can instead pay for private school.
The separate school system in Ontario was set up in 1867 under Section 93 of the British North American Act, and has been a constitutionally-protected institution since. Many parents, this writer included, have sent their children to the local catholic school because it was perceived to be the better school in the community, or that they had more supports in place for children. If the systems were merged, there would be a rationalization of schools across the province and an end to duplication, triplication, or in some cases quadruplication of schools. Administration would be cut and that money could then be put in place to help kids who need the extra supports, or just not spent at all.
The merger of the four systems into one, would end the unconstitutional hiring practices of the catholic boards, where non-catholics are unable to be hired for teaching positions. The removal of religion from education would bring back the teaching of morals and religion to where it belongs, in the family, and in the church, temple or mosque. It would put all children on the same footing across the province. One system, one set of rules, one set of standards.
Sex Education in Ontario
The new and divisive sex-education curriculum needs to be reviewed and scrapped. Having read some of the curriculum , and the British Columbia curriculum which the Ontario one was purported to be based on, it is a perversion. The Ontario plan was written by Ben Levin, an admitted and now convicted sex-offender. It has not been reviewed by the Minister of Education Liz Sandals, and parents are understandably upset about the new curriculum. The British Columbia curriculum is based on "body science", how the body works, and why. The Ontario plan is social engineering pure and simple. Scrap it, start over. There is no question that a 20 year old curriculum needs to be updated, but not this.
Focus on the basics
Ian Lee, an economics professor with the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, has stated repeatedly on TV, radio and print, that students entering university are not prepared enough coming out of Ontario high schools. Basic skills such as proper research skills, writing skills, vocabulary skills, all missing. If you have a high school student in your family, ask them what a bibliography is, or what the proper use of "they're, their, there" is. These fundamental basics are not being drilled in to students in school, but how to use an iPad use is. As are how to use Wikipedia, Power Point and Google.
Over the last 20 to 30 years, education curriculum has been watered down to the lowest common denominator, so that no one will fail, or at least it is extremely difficult to fail. That has been the wrong solution. Strengthening the basics, and putting supports in place to help students who are struggling is the best solution. It will lead to students being better equipped to enter the world of work, or higher education, and therefore be more successful. That is the whole point of education, is to prepare youth to do better than their parents.
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Child porn post to Instagram sparked Cornwall…
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Cornwall man sentenced in Ontario child porn sweep
NDP introduces federal candidate, Patrick Burger
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Q: what does "Nothing like the easy stuff" mean? This sentence is in the movie, fast and furious 5 the Rio heist. And this is the subtitle.
Roman: How are we supposed to get Reyes' handprint?
Dominic: Han.
Dominic: You're up.
Han: Sure. Nothing like the easy stuff.
Gisele: Let's go. I'll drive.

A: "(There is) nothing like X" means that X is special and good.

There's nothing like cup of tea in the morning

So literally "The easy stuff is great". or "Thank you for giving me the easy task to do". But this should be understood in context. I suspect that "Getting Reyes handprint" is going to be difficult. So calling this "the easy stuff" is ironic. So we understand this to be the character complaining about having the hardest task.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Colombia's Cranky Voters
Posted by Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
Comments Off on Colombia's Cranky Voters
photo courtesy CrossMediaLab UJTL
Historians may remember 2016 as the Year of the Cranky Voter, and not principally because of anything Donald Trump has accomplished (or still may).
First, British voters overruled just about everyone in their government and mandated that the country's politicians steer the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Then, just last weekend, voters in Colombia narrowly rejected a peace accord that would have ended more than a half-century of bloody conflict with the onetime Marxist guerrilla group known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.
The result seemed to take both voters and officials off-guard. The Miami Herald reported that most major polls gave "yes" a healthy lead over "no" prior to voting, leading some to speculate that some voters who supported the peace deal were complacent regarding the outcome or that "no" voters who meant their vote simply as an anti-FARC gesture did not think the position could actually win. In addition, bad weather caused by Hurricane Matthew may have contributed to relatively low voter turnout, at 37 percent of the registered electorate. Even former President Alvaro Uribe, who campaigned for the "no" vote, reportedly had to scramble to write a victory speech at the last moment.
So what happens next in Colombia? President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon and FARC leadership signed the accord in a highly publicized Sept. 26 ceremony attended by dignitaries from all over the world, including Secretary of State John Kerry. Now it seems those dignitaries bore witness to a wedding in which the couple forgot to take out a marriage license.
Opponents had complained from its inception that the deal, which took negotiators four years to hammer out in Havana, was too lenient to the rebels. Most guerrillas would have received amnesty outright, and those accused of more serious crimes who were willing to confess would face alternative penalties that did not include imprisonment. The deal was structured to allow the FARC to transform itself from a private army into a political party, with a chance to participate in determining Colombia's new direction.
While it is understandable that many Colombians found the amnesty provision difficult to swallow, FARC leaders had no intention of going to jail for the kidnappings, murder and drug dealing that sustained their movement over the past decades. They planned to enter the Colombian Congress instead, taking advantage of seats reserved to them in the next two elections. In return, however, the guerillas had agreed to peacefully relinquish their weapons, bringing an end to over 50 years of fighting.
Not surprisingly, the initial reaction to the country's vote from FARC leaders has been that it is up to Colombia's politicians to sell the deal to the nation without renegotiation. After all, the original negotiations took years, and FARC leadership took responsibility for getting its fighters to ratify the deal as presented. But getting Colombian voters to accept the accord unchanged is unlikely to happen, at least not without more violence.
President Santos, who will remain in office until 2018, seems determined to do what he can in the time he has left. According to The Wall Street Journal, the president said he would name a committee to meet with politicians who opposed the peace deal, especially members of Uribe's party, in order to try to respond to their concerns.
The FARC leaders were not the ones to announce an end to the ceasefire – that was Santos' government, which announced it would end on Oct. 31. Yet it is unclear how much the FARC will be willing to compromise on the terms of the deal itself, even with this additional pressure. Rodrigo Londono, who signed the accord in September on the FARC's behalf, has insisted that the deal as it exists is not open to revision of any kind.
Regardless of the FARC leadership's views, however, the rebels who have been fighting fungus, boredom and the occasional military detachment in the jungle all these years seem to be ready to rejoin society. The fighters had already begun to demobilize ahead of the Oct. 2 vote, and some FARC caches of explosives have been destroyed. It isn't clear that the rebel leaders can keep their forces from deserting if they do not quickly agree to a new deal. The FARC had long ago given up the pretense that it still represented a political movement; the rejected deal would have achieved none of the rebels' original aims of radical land and economic reforms. What are FARC soldiers fighting for these days, other than a small paycheck and to keep their commanders out of prison?
Eric Farnsworth, the vice president of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, pointed out to the Miami Herald that the FARC "infused their own side with a sense that peace was possible." He added, "Once that mental shift occurs, it's awfully hard to get people to go back to the jungle and start fighting again."
If I had to guess, I think there will be relatively small changes before the deal can ultimately get approved. Rebels may lose their guaranteed legislative seats, for instance, and some leaders might even be tried on the understanding that they could receive executive clemency or leniency. This presupposes that the FARC does not resort to widespread new violence, something it has thus far eschewed. In the event of new FARC aggression, all bets will be off, and the prospects for peace will recede until such time as the Colombian military eventually brings them to heel.
So maybe the lasting lesson of this episode is that in a year like 2016, no celebration of an election outcome is in order until the votes have been counted. The global electorate is in a cranky mood and does not care to be taken for granted.
Larry M. Elkin is the founder and president of Palisades Hudson, and is based out of Palisades Hudson's Fort Lauderdale, Florida headquarters. He wrote several of the chapters in the firm's book, Looking Ahead: Life, Family, Wealth and Business After 55. His contributions include Chapter 1, "Looking Ahead When Youth Is Behind Us" and Chapter 4, "The Family Business."
Unionizing The Electoral College
An Early Bedtime For Harry Reid?
How Prosecutors Win Even When They Lose
Making A Budget Without Making Choices
The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author. We welcome additional perspectives in our comments section as long as they are on topic, civil in tone and signed with the writer's full name. All comments will be reviewed by our moderator prior to publication.
Civil War, Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, Peace, Politics, The FARC-EP
⇐ Eric Meermann in the Yonkers Tribune
Long-Distance Storm Chasing ⇒
Larry Elkin
Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, has provided personal financial and tax counseling to a sophisticated client base since 1986. After six years with Arthur Andersen, where he was a senior ... Read Full
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The New Republic Monday 86 Monday, English as the National Language: How Democrat's are harming the Latino population. BLOODBATH IN WISCONSIN...Woman opens fire on Detroit riverboat, shoots 7, escapes... Man Arrested For Wearing, Superhero Outfit To HOME DEPOT; 'Trying To Inspire Hope'... 979) 31T-ALK6 You Just Got Robbed..... Robbers film victims for 'You Just Got Robbed' reality show...Time to fight back against Dirty Harry... Cash pours in to Romney campaign; another $100 million month...Obama: $75 million...979) 31T-ALK6, WH Press Corps Goes Seven Weeks Without a Question: 979) 31T-ALK6, Protesters damage Obama Oakland office.
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text:
Boven (album)
 Jan Boven
 Don Boven
 Ton van Boven
 Theo van Boven
 Marion van Boven
 "n boven k", zie binomiaalcoëfficiënt
 Boven (Sint Eustatius)


text:
Q: JavaScript hard refresh of current page How can I force the web browser to do a hard refresh of the page via JavaScript?
Hard refresh means getting a fresh copy of the page AND refresh all the external resources (images, JavaScript, CSS, etc.).

A: Accepted answer above no longer does anything except just a normal reloading on mostly new version of web browsers today. I've tried on my recently updated Chrome all those, including location.reload(true), location.href = location.href, and <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" />. None of them worked.
My solution is by using server-side capability to append non-repeating query string to all included source files reference as like below example.
<script src="script.js?t=<?=time();?>"></script>
So you also need to control it dynamically when to keep previous file and when to update it. The only issue is when files inclusion is performed via script by plugins you have no control to modify it. Don't worry about source files flooding. When older file is unlinked it will be automatically garbage collected.

A: Changing the current URL with a search parameter will cause browsers to pass that same parameter to the server, which in other words, forces a refresh.
(No guarantees if you use intercept with a Service Worker though.)
  const url = new URL(window.location.href);
  url.searchParams.set('reloadTime', Date.now().toString());
  window.location.href = url.toString();

If you want support older browsers:
if ('URL' in window) {
  const url = new URL(window.location.href);
  url.searchParams.set('reloadTime', Date.now().toString());
  window.location.href = url.toString();
} else {
  window.location.href = window.location.origin
    + window.location.pathname
    + window.location.search
    + (window.location.search ? '&' : '?')
    + 'reloadTime='
    + Date.now().toString()
    + window.location.hash;
}

That said, forcing all your CSS and JS to refresh is a bit more laborious. You would want to do the same process of adding a searchParam for all the src attributes in <script> and href in <link>. That said it won't unload the current JS, but would work fine for CSS.
document.querySelectorAll('link').forEach((link) => link.href = addTimestamp(link.href));

I won't bother with a JS sample since it'll likely just cause problems.
You can save this hassle by adding a timestamp as a search param in your JS and CSS links when compiling the HTML.

A:
⚠ This solution won't work on all browsers. MDN page for location.reload():

Note: Firefox supports a non-standard forceGet boolean parameter for location.reload(), to tell Firefox to bypass its cache and force-reload the current document. However, in all other browsers, any parameter you specify in a location.reload() call will be ignored and have no effect of any kind.

Try:
location.reload(true);

When this method receives a true value as argument, it will cause the page to always be reloaded from the server. If it is false or not specified, the browser may reload the page from its cache.
More info:

*

*The location object

A: This is a 2022 update with 2 methods, considering SPA's with # in url:
METHOD 1:
As mentioned in other answers one solution would be to put a random parameter to query string. In javascript it could be achieved with this:
function urlWithRndQueryParam(url, paramName) {
    const ulrArr = url.split('#');
    const urlQry = ulrArr[0].split('?');
    const usp = new URLSearchParams(urlQry[1] || '');
    usp.set(paramName || '_z', `${Date.now()}`);
    urlQry[1] = usp.toString();
    ulrArr[0] = urlQry.join('?');
    return ulrArr.join('#');
}

function handleHardReload(url) {
    window.location.href = urlWithRndQueryParam(url);
    // This is to ensure reload with url's having '#'
    window.location.reload();
}

handleHardReload(window.location.href);

The bad part is that it changes the current url and sometimes, in clean url's, it could seem little bit ugly for users.
METHOD 2:
Taking the idea from https://splunktool.com/force-a-reload-of-page-in-chrome-using-javascript-no-cache, the process could be to get the url without cache first and then reload the page:
async function handleHardReload(url) {
    await fetch(url, {
        headers: {
            Pragma: 'no-cache',
            Expires: '-1',
            'Cache-Control': 'no-cache',
        },
    });
    window.location.href = url;
    // This is to ensure reload with url's having '#'
    window.location.reload();
}

handleHardReload(window.location.href);

Could be even combined with method 1, but I think that with headers should be enought:
async function handleHardReload(url) {
    const newUrl = urlWithRndQueryParam(url);
    await fetch(newUrl, {
        headers: {
            Pragma: 'no-cache',
            Expires: '-1',
            'Cache-Control': 'no-cache',
        },
    });
    window.location.href = url;
    // This is to ensure reload with url's having '#'
    window.location.reload();
}

handleHardReload(window.location.href);

A: UPDATED to refresh all the external resources (images, JavaScript, CSS, etc.)
Put this in file named HardRefresh.js:
  function hardRefresh() {
    const t = parseInt(Date.now() / 10000); //10s tics
    const x = localStorage.getItem("t");
    localStorage.setItem("t", t);

    if (x != t) location.reload(true) //force page refresh from server
    else { //refreshed from server within 10s
      const a = document.querySelectorAll("a, link, script, img")
      var n = a.length
      while(n--) {
        var tag = a[n]
        var url = new URL(tag.href || tag.src);
        url.searchParams.set('r', t.toString());
        tag.href = url.toString(); //a, link, ...
        tag.src = tag.href; //rerun script, refresh img
      }
    }
  }

  window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", hardRefresh);
  window.addEventListener("deviceorientation", hardRefresh, true);

This code do a fully controled forced hard refresh for every visitor, so that any update will show up without a cashing problem.
Duplicated DOM rendering is not a performance issue, because the first render is from cache and it stops rendering in <script src="js/HardRefresh.js"> where it reload a page from server. When it run a refreshed page it also refresh urls in page.
The last refresh time x is stored in localStorage. It is compared with the current time t to refresh within 10 seconds. Assuming a load from server not take more than 10 sec we manage to stop a page refresh loop, so do not have it less than 10s.
For a visitor of page the x != t is true since long time ago or first visit; that will get page from server. Then diff is less than 10s and x == t, that will make the else part add query strings to href and src having sources to refresh.
The refresh() function can be called by a button or other conditioned ways. Full control is managed by refining exclusion and inclusion of urls in your code.

A: window.location.href = window.location.href

A: For angular users and as found here, you can do the following:
<form [action]="myAppURL" method="POST" #refreshForm></form>

import { Component, OnInit, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  // ...
})
export class FooComponent {
  @ViewChild('refreshForm', { static: false }) refreshForm;

  forceReload() {
    this.refreshForm.nativeElement.submit();
  }
}

The reason why it worked was explained on this website: https://www.xspdf.com/resolution/52192666.html
You'll also find how the hard reload works for every framework and more in this article
explanation: Angular

Location: reload(), The Location.reload() method reloads the current URL, like the Refresh button. Using only location.reload(); is not a solution if you want to perform a force-reload (as done with e.g. Ctrl + F5) in order to reload all resources from the server and not from the browser cache. The solution to this issue is, to execute a POST request to the current location as this always makes the browser to reload everything.

A: The most reliable way I've found is to use a chache buster by adding a value to the querystring.
Here's a generic routine that I use:
    function reloadUrl() {

        // cache busting: Reliable but modifies URL
        var queryParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
        queryParams.set("lr", new Date().getTime());
        var query = queryParams.toString();
        window.location.search = query;  // navigates
    }

Calling this will produce something like this:
https://somesite.com/page?lr=1665958485293

after a reload.
This works to force reload every time, but the caveat is that the URL changes. In most applications this won't matter, but if the server relies on specific parameters this can cause potential side effects.

A: The accepted answer location.reload(true); DOES NOT WORK.  Here's why (taken directly from the MDN page):

Note: Firefox supports a non-standard forceGet boolean parameter for location.reload(), to tell Firefox to bypass its cache and force-reload the current document. However, in all other browsers, any parameter you specify in a location.reload() call will be ignored and have no effect of any kind.

You may, though, come across instances of location.reload(true) in existing code that was written with the assumption the force-reload effect occurs in all browsers. A GitHub "location.reload(true)" search returns several hundred thousand results. So there's a lot of existing code which has it.
The history of it is: some version of Netscape Navigator added support for it, which apparently eventually got picked up in Firefox. And at one point the W3C Web APIs Working Group took up an issue to consider adding it to the specification for location.reload(). However, it was never actually added.
So a boolean parameter is not part of the current specification for location.reload() — and in fact has never been part of any specification for location.reload() ever published.
Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Location/reload
So, how to force a hard refresh? Two ideas:

*

*Use query strings, as suggested/explained/demoed in multiple other answers in this thread;

*Flood the W3C with requests.
https://www.w3.org/Consortium/contact
(Had suggestion #2 been widely adopted years ago, we could have stopped using the query string hack years ago.)


text:
Sports Headquarters
Oskaloosa Indians
State softball starts Monday
Jul 22, 2019 by Rick Watts
The State high school tournament gets under way Monday (7/22) in Fort Dodge with Lynnville-Sully taking on Newell-Fonda in the Class 1A quarterfinals. The Hawks are 26-8 on the season; Newell-Fonda is 37-5. And Monday…
Osky begins 3A baseball playoffs Today
The Oskaloosa High baseball team opens the Class 3A District 12 playoffs tonight (7/19). The Indians will host Nevada at 8 at the High School. You can hear the game on KBOE-FM and KBOE Radio…
Indians baseball second in LHC
Second place. That's where the Oskaloosa High baseball team finished in the Little Hawkeye Conference standings after Indianola swept a doubleheader at Grinnell Wednesday night (7/17). Indianola beat the Tigers 3-0 and 3-2 to move…
Osky softball is going to State
They're going to State. The Oskaloosa High softball team won the Class 4A Region 1 championship Tuesday night (7/16), beating ADM 1-0 in Adel. The Indians were held to just two hits, but managed to…
Indians slay Demons in 10 innings
The Oskaloosa Indians baseball team ended the regular season with a bang Monday night (7/15). Tyler Miller's home run in the tenth inning gave the Indians a 3-2 victory at Washington. Noah Van Veldhuizen also…
Indians softball going for State
Tuesday night (7/16) in Class 4A softball, 14th ranked Oskaloosa can advance to State with a victory at number 2 ADM in the 4A Region 1 title game. KMZN AM & FM will have live coverage…
Oskaloosa's baseball team sweeps Pella Christian
Oskaloosa's baseball team reached the 20 win mark for the season Thursday (7/11) as the Indians swept a doubleheader with Pella Christian at Lacey Recreation Complex. The Indians took the first game 12-1 in five…
Osky softball opens playoffs with win over Grinnell
The Oskaloosa High softball team opened the Class 4A Region 1 playoffs Thursday night (7/11) with a 5-2 victory over Grinnell in Oskaloosa. The Indians took advantage of two Grinnell errors to score an unearned…
IGHSAU softball playoffs
In Class 1A Region 5 on Wednesday (7/10): Sigourney 14, Montezuma 2 (4 innings) Jordan VanEe was 3/3 with 4 RBI and was the winning pitcher for Sigourney. North Mahaska 3, New London 1 Lynnville-Sully…
Osky baseball drops extra inning game
Back to back heartbreakers for the Oskaloosa High baseball team. Seventh-ranked Centerville defeated the Indians 4-3 in eight innings Wednesday night (7/10) in Oskaloosa ….and just like Tuesday night's (7/9) loss to Fairfield, the Indians…
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Please contact Rick Watts with questions at rwatts@kboeradio.com
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Copyright © 2021 KBOE Radio


text:
National | View from Osaka
Kansai executives offer advice on improving nation's diplomacy
Masayoshi Matsumoto, chairman of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, delivers a speech at the Kansai Press Club in the city of Osaka last November. | KYODO
by Eric Johnston
OSAKA – 'Track II diplomacy" is the official neutral-sounding phrase used to refer to diplomatic efforts by "nonstate" actors. In thriller films and books, it's usually portrayed as a game of shadows between powerful but mysterious groups and individuals who may, or may not, be working to save the world.
Hollywood-style drama aside, Track II diplomacy, at its most transparent, plays a vital role in a country's international relations, and involves businesses, NGOs, academic experts, and others. Certainly corporations in Japan are not shy about Track II diplomacy and The Kansai Association of Corporate Executives is particularly vocal, sending missions abroad to discuss Japan's diplomacy and security.
In a report released last month, the association showed it was capable of outside-the-box thinking. The Kansai region has long had stronger trade relations with East and Southeast Asia than the Tokyo region. Kansai's political and economic leaders have never made their "Asia First" worldview a secret.
Such views are reflected in the report when they worry Japanese diplomacy may be too America-centric. A potentially dangerous policy, given uncertainties about the mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump and what Kansai (and much of Japan) sees as a more isolationist U.S. Time to put more emphasis on Asia, is the advice.
If the report had stopped there, it would have been dismissed, rightly, as the usual thinking from Kansai. This time, however, the corporate executives offered specific suggestions for more fundamental improvements of the nation's diplomatic structure as it faces the reality of a rapidly aging society, declining birthrate and the prospect of a shrinking traditional diplomatic corps.
The first proposal is to revamp the current national examination system in order to allow more people in the private sector with overseas knowledge and language skills to become involved with formal diplomacy. Their second proposal is to establish a national graduate school that specializes in training students to think more effectively about diplomatic and security issues, with the hope that graduates go on to a career as diplomatic specialists.
The Kansai business leaders envision classes attended by Japanese with backgrounds in politics and international relations and being tutored by Japanese and international diplomatic and security experts while networking with foreign scholars from international universities and think tanks. The new graduate school would also offer high-level foreign language training, with an emphasis on the kinds of language and communication skills needed in modern diplomatic negotiations.
The proposal is to be welcomed for offering sincere answers to very difficult questions about what, exactly, the structure of diplomacy in 21st century should be, and not only in Japan. Nobody would disagree that diplomats everywhere need all the help they can get. Or that Japanese diplomats, notoriously reticent at international conferences and often quite poor at dealing with the international media, would benefit from increased language and communication training.
But the private sector is ultimately responsible only to the needs of a narrow group of shareholders, not the country. Business is about making a profit this quarter. Diplomacy is, ultimately, about the art of preventing war. A corps of professional diplomats who don't also have complex financial ties and personal loyalties to private firms is a good thing, not a bad thing.
In an age where corporations exercise more influence over our lives than ever, it's easy to assume business types playing a bigger role in official diplomacy is desirable, natural and inevitable. The proposals of the Kansai executives will sound good to many. But attempts by those heretofore involved in Track II diplomacy to jump onto Track I diplomacy without first establishing clear lines of responsibility, high standards of transparency, and strict legal accountability risks running Japan's diplomatic efforts off the rails.
View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.
Osaka, diplomacy, business lobby, Kansai Association of Corporate Executives


text:
from django.conf import settings
import django.contrib.postgres.fields.jsonb
from django.db import migrations, models
import django.db.models.deletion

class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('account', '0022_accountblacklist'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.CreateModel(
            name='UserPreference',
            fields=[
                ('id', models.AutoField(auto_created=True, primary_key=True, serialize=False, verbose_name='ID')),
                ('key', models.CharField(max_length=255)),
                ('timestamp', models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)),
                ('value', django.contrib.postgres.fields.jsonb.JSONField()),
                ('user', models.ForeignKey(on_delete=django.db.models.deletion.CASCADE, to=settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL)),
            ],
            options={
                'verbose_name': 'User preference',
                'verbose_name_plural': 'User preferences',
            },
        ),
        migrations.AddConstraint(
            model_name='userpreference',
            constraint=models.UniqueConstraint(fields=('user', 'key'), name='unique_user_preference_key'),
        ),
    ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The term "tobacco product" means any product made or derived from tobacco that is intended for human consumption, including any component, part, or accessory of a tobacco product. This includes, among other products, cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco.
A law or regulation made by a city or town government.


DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's government and rebels traded accusations of a chemical attack Tuesday on a northern village near Aleppo. However a U.S. official said there was no evidence of any such attack.
The reports could not be independently verified because of tight media restrictions, particularly in government-controlled areas that are virtually shut to all foreign media and outside observers.
But if confirmed, it would be the first known use of chemical weapons in the 2-year-old civil war and a glimpse of one of the nightmare scenarios for this conflict.
One of the international community's top concerns since fighting began is that Syria's vast arsenal of chemical weapons could be used by one side or the other or could fall into the hands of foreign jihadi fighters among the rebels or the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is allied with the regime.
The accusations emerged only a few hours after the opposition to President Bashar Assad elected a prime minister to head an interim government that would rule areas seized by rebel forces from the regime.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said at least 31 people were killed. State-run news agency SANA said more than 100 others were wounded, some of them in critical condition. SANA published pictures showing casualties, including children, on stretchers in what appears to be a hospital ward. None showed signs of physical injuries.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi called it the "first act" of the newly announced opposition interim government.
The head of Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said the group was still investigating the alleged chemical attack near Aleppo.
"Everyone who used it, we are against him, whatever he is," Mouaz al-Khatib told reporters in English in Istanbul. "We are against killing civilians using chemical weapons, but let us wait some time to have accurate information."
The regime has not said that rebels have been able to seize any chemical weapons "so we assume that the opposition does not possess such weapons," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research center in Geneva.
"I would not rule out that the military would use chemical weapons and try to pin it on the rebels," Alani said.
"The only strategy that this regime has been left with is character assassination of the opposition and blame the rebels for all the bad things that are happening in the country."
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said a rocket attack on Khan al-Assal killed at least 26 people but its director, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said he had no information on chemical weapons being involved in the attack.
He said the rocket landed near a military installation in the village.
Syria's policy has been not to confirm or deny if it has chemical weapons. But in July, then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told a news conference that Syria would only use chemical or biological weapons in case of foreign attack, not against its own people.
The ministry then tried to blur the issue, saying it had never acknowledged having such weapons.
But the regime is believed to possess nerve agents as well as mustard gas. It also possesses Scud missiles capable of delivering them, and some activists said Tuesday's attack was with a Scud missile.
In comments made to the pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV station, the information minister held the international community responsible for arming the rebels and described this as a "dangerous escalation."
"This is the first act by the government announced in Istanbul," he said.
Overnight, Syria's opposition coalition elected Ghassan Hitto, a little-known American-educated IT manager to head an interim government to administer areas seized by rebel forces from Assad's troops.
In his first speech after his election, Hitto ruled out dialogue with the regime.
"We confirm to our people that there is no place for dialogue with the Assad regime," he said in a speech to media and members of the opposition Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul.
He said the interim government will be headquartered in rebel-held territories in northern Syria and urged international recognition for the new entity.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said rebels detonated a weapon containing an unidentified chemical agent early Tuesday in the province of Aleppo, calling it an "extremely dangerous" development.
It said that evidence of rebels getting hold of weapons of mass destruction had taken the confrontation to a new stage. Russia has been a main ally of Assad's regime since the start of the uprising, in which more than 70,000 have died.
Anti-regime activists denied the government allegations of using chemical weapons.
An activist in Khan al-Assal said rebels had recently seized much of the village including a facility that housed a military academy.
The Aleppo Media Center, affiliated with the rebels, said there were cases of "suffocation and poison" among civilians in Khan al-Assal after a surface-to-surface missile was fired at the area. It said in a statement the cases were "most likely" caused by regime forces' use of "poisonous gases."
An activist in Aleppo province who identified himself as Yassin Abu Raed, not his real name, confirmed the attack and said there were at least 40 cases of suffocation in the area and several deaths.
But he said no details were available as casualties were being taken to a government-controlled area in Aleppo.
Abu Raed declined to give his real name because of security concerns.
He said it did not make sense for the rebels to fire a chemical weapon at an area they had recently seized, and accused the government instead.
"Why would the Free Syrian Army bomb themselves with a chemical weapon?" he asked.
He said casualties were taken to a hospital in a government-controlled area in Aleppo which is sealed off.
As rebels make gather momentum with the capture of military bases and other strategic sites, concerns have mounted over the security of the chemical weapons arsenal.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said recently that the longer the war goes on, the greater the danger of its institutions collapsing and extremists getting their hands on chemical weapons arsenal.
Karam reported from Beirut. Barbara Surk in Beirut, Ben Hubbard in Istanbul and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.


Jim Cregan & Lois & Michaela Wilson: "Jim Cregan joins me to talk about how he went from British building site to Australia and back again. In the process launching his own brand of Iced Coffee after not being able to find it in the UK when he came back from OZ. You can now get Jimmysicedcoffee in Tescos, Sainsbuys, Waitrose, Selfridges and even in Animal's clothing shops. We talk brand building through University tastings, his Ride Club, Cinema Club and festivals.
Also on todays show are sisters and Virgin StartUp ambassadors Michaela and Lois Wilson, who talk about their edible art business, Saint Aymes. We talk building a brand that transcends genres - whilst I eat their amazing chocolate that really does look too good to eat..."


15 Creative Ideas to keep your talent engaged.
For something that should be fun, purposeful and meaningful, just the mention of staff engagement can cause frown lines for most. Engaged employees should be your most valued commodity, they are motivated, take ownership, are productive and become leaders in your company.


text:
Exhibition Layouts
BRM Express Newsletter
BRM Store - Readers' Offers
BRM Shop Finder
World of Railways - News and Reviews
World of Railways - Modelling Techniques
World of Railways - Layouts
London Festival of Railway Modelling - Alexandra Palace - 23/24 March 2019
National Festival of Railway Modelling - Peterborough - 7/8 December 2019
Garden Rail
Narrow Gauge World
Engineering in Miniature
British Railway Modelling Awards for 2019 now open for voting
In Retirement.
Retired P-Way Engineer.
UK Railways Without the Great War?
Trog replied to GWRSwindon's topic in UK Prototype Questions
I don't think that is true. A Germany & Austria V Russia & France & Serbia war may have been reasonably inevitable given the political conditions in the Balkans, and the structure of the alliances between the countries in each block, But the main grit in the relationship between Germany and the British Empire was Germany building up its navy to a size that challenged the Royal Navy. Britain would probably have been quite happy for Germany to be all powerful on land. It was the challenge at sea that caused friction. If the Germans had settled for a fleet of a size to defend against France. Britain would probably have stayed friendly with Germany and not become closer to France. Then when WW1 came along Britain might well have said none of our business.
Ironbridge power station
Trog replied to matt-b's topic in UK Prototype Questions
I was involved years ago with replacing an original L&B bridge in Wolverton Works that was banned to mainline diesels and electrics, as that nice Mr Stephenson in a sad lack of foresight had used cast iron girders that were not up to the job. However this restriction did not stop the works double heading trains with their 08 shunters
UK railways with a different WW2
Trog replied to DavidB-AU's topic in UK Prototype Questions
I don't think your alternate time line works OK France and Britain could have stood up to Germany in 1936, which would perhaps have toppled Hitler from power and prevented WW2. But if he survived in power that then leaves a problem with operation Barbarossa in that the only sensible route into Russia from Germany is through Poland, and we all know what happens if Germany invades Poland. Even with the British Army distracted by Dunkirk and unfriendly Germany tourists lining the French Channel coast, the British forces defending Egypt went through the invading Italian troops like a hot knife through butter. I doubt Italy would have dared to go to war with a Britain that they did not think had already been beaten by Germany, and if they did without German interference the Royal Navy would have closed the Mediterranean to Italian shipping overnight. The Italian advance into Egypt would probably have got about as far as Rome in six months. Without a war in the West the Dutch and British would then have been able to heavily reinforce their possessions in the Far East, and the American Pacific fleet not having to provide so many ships in the Atlantic would also have been stronger. So the Japanese would have had to consider that they would have much stronger opposition than in the real world, and we know that many in Japan were warning that the USA alone would steam roller Japan under with its industrial power. Without a war in the West there would also have been no Taranto so the Japanese might not have got the idea for the attack on Pearl Harbour. Then without a cunning plan to beat America on day one of the war the Japanese would have had to further consider their chances in a slogging war against the USA, British Empire and the Dutch. Bearing in mind that one of the things that drove the Japanese into war was that the Americans cut off their oil supply, Japan being very short of domestic energy supplies. The prospect of a long drawn out naval war against the odds and starting out with no fuel reserves would probably have made even the Japanese think twice. So I think the WW2 alternatives are no WW2, as it happened or Hitler being wise enough not to attack Russia while Britain was unbeaten. With the third option probably ending with the name Berlin replacing Hiroshima in our history books.
The big thing that changed Britain from being friendly to Germany and distrustful of France to the reverse was when Imperial Germany started to build up a fleet to challenge the Royal Navy. If Kaiser Wilhelm had decided to concentrate on his army and not challenge Britain at sea, and then kept clear of the Low Country neutrals. Britain might not then have been that upset about another Franco German war. Being content to prosper while two potential rivals weakened each other. Without British back up and having lost the previous Franco German war, it is then possible that the French would have followed a Maginot line type defensive stance, along a shorter Western Front just along the Franco German border. Making the main theatre of operations the Eastern Front, with a large German drive into Russia. The main thing that lost Germany WW1 was the British sea blockade. Without a hostile Grand Fleet at Scarpa Flow blocking the exit from the North Sea, Germany would have been a lot better off, and keeping the Royal Navy out of WW1 minus GB, would probably have become a German priority. As others have said a neutral Britain might have made money selling arms to the combatants, with both sides avoiding upsetting British opinion in the same way that Germany restricted their submarine operations in case they brought the USA into the real WW1 against them. I would then see British society moving in much the same direction as it did in the real world but more slowly, without the impetus and technical progress provided by the shocks of total war. With Railway mergers occurring steadily on a commercial basis, but no doubt there would have been a few oddities where some small companies with a sound income and independent mind set, or just ones no one wanted to take over stayed in existence, against the trend to enlargement. The four main groups West and East Coast, Southern and Western were already partly in existence as geographical and/or business alignments, so we might have got a flavour of the big four. But with some surviving "Pre-Grouping" companies included in the mix. Then again someone might have got clever and ambitious, perhaps with a combined LNWR/L&Y group taking advantage of a head start given by an early merger given their history. To strangle the potential ECML group by pre-emptively taking over a company at the north end of that line. So that you end up with Euston for the North and Scotland, via an upgraded WCML with Kings Cross being the main station of a group serving the Midlands and Eastern counties. The possibilities are endless.
West Somerset Railway's future in doubt after £800k loss
Trog replied to KeithMacdonald's topic in UK Prototype Questions
I think with the use it would get on a preserved line that starting from new materials with a bit of patch replacement of the early failures you could get nearly 50 years use out of softwood sleepers. and a hundred years out of the rail. Given that there was still some 1950's rail in the WCML as recently as a couple of years ago.
Yellow ends?
Trog replied to rogerzilla's topic in UK Prototype Discussions (not questions!)
My brothers car has a system that dips the headlights just for the section of the beam containing an on coming car. With full beam continuing to shine past on either side. Perhaps something similar could be used so oncoming drivers will not be dazzled. The lack of the high beam in that sector should not be a huge hazard to track workers as the slight added risk of the beam dipping would be cancelled out by the beam dipping being a tip to look behind you.
Bridge bashing
Trog replied to chriswright03's topic in UK Prototype Discussions (not questions!)
There used to be a low bridge on the Harpenden - Hemel Hempstead branch with a light weight deck that was hit so often that it had permanent lifting eyes fitted to allow it to be lifted back into place.
The human side of the railway...
Trog replied to Rugd1022's topic in UK Prototype Discussions (not questions!)
There is a little bit of brickwork on the downside by the road bridge, that may be the last remains of the station. Apart from the loading dock on the other side of the A5 bridge.
Myself I think that bright head lights are the best safety improvement for years, and are worth wagon loads of safety paperwork. However a combination of a headlamp in a yellow front has got to be better that either on its own. I found that after nearly forty years of working on track I was sensitised to the particular shade of yellow paint used, and that it attracted my attention regardless of any movement. I also found that on a hot day heat shimmer deflects the light beam randomly spreading the beam and reducing its effectiveness. Conversely the shimmering effect on the image of the yellow front of an approaching train gives a false impression of more movement so that instead of steadily enlarging the trains image also changes in size, which is quite eye catching.
Perhaps they have some old school bosses who put staff safety over image.
Grandmother rights? :-) Although I don't think any LU stock has yellow ends.
Ruston-Bucyrus No4 face shovel
Trog replied to The Bigbee Line's topic in UK Prototype Questions
The floors on Flatrols tended to be lower than those on Lomacs of a similar size. So if you were an Engineer wanting to load machines on site, it was easier to load them on Flatrols than Lomacs. The four wheel single Flatrols were lower than the bogie double Flatrols so if you were loading a dozer a single Flatrol was the best option. The larger doubles were fine for 360' excavators as the digging arm could be used as a prop to help the machine climb onto the wagon or held out to change the point of balance. Both useful aids where all you had to help load the machines were a couple of soggy rotten softwood sleepers.
Could be worse I once had to load a scarifier fitted D4 dozer on a Flatrol, during a North London Line Job. there was no cant but the fact that on the other side of the wagon there was just a fence consisting of a couple of strands of wire to stop the machine falling off the bridge we were on and onto the ECML was slightly concerning.
Ghosts in the Machine.
Trog replied to TheSignalEngineer's topic in UK Prototype Discussions (not questions!)
As an approximation expect a conductor rail to loose about 1/64 of an inch off the head each year due to wear.
Seacow, Dogfish,........or both?!
Trog replied to Satan's Goldfish's topic in UK Prototype Discussions (not questions!)
Would have been amusing if they had been. but they were just full of ballast.
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text:
Crystal Schick/Yukon News In this Dec. 3 file photo, a bylaw officer stands in the background as Daniel MacKenzie speaks to city councillors during a regular committee meeting in Whitehorse. MacKenzie was arrested on Dec. 29 and granted conditional bail at a hearing on Jan. 3.
'Magic Cool Bus' operator granted bail
Daniel MacKenzie is scheduled to appear in court next on Jan. 23
Jackie Hong
Jan. 4, 2019 3:30 p.m.
A man who spent recent months trying to get a safe-rides-home program off the ground in Whitehorse has been granted bail after being arrested on charges of criminal harassment and uttering death threats.
Daniel MacKenzie, who had been using a repurposed school bus dubbed the "Magic Cool Bus" to give free and by-donation rides home to bar patrons, was arrested Dec. 29 after allegedly stalking a woman, threatening to kill another and also uttering death threats towards Yukon government employees.
He was granted bail at a hearing before justice of the peace Sharman Morrison in Whitehorse territorial court Jan. 3.
MacKenzie must abide by 15 conditions, including residing at his father's house in Marsh Lake, remaining in the Yukon, abiding to a curfew, abstaining from drugs and alcohol and managing his mental health in such a way that he is unlikely to commit any offences.
Following the reading of his bail conditions, MacKenzie, who was allowed to sit by his lawyer Robert Dick, asked if he was allowed to smoke cigarettes.
Morrison confirmed that cigarettes are not considered a drug under the Criminal Code. She directed MacKenzie to speak to Dick about his follow-up question on whether he'd be allowed to smoke marijuana.
MacKenzie is scheduled to appear in court next on Jan. 23.
Contact Jackie Hong at jackie.hong@yukon-news.com
'Very strong response' to be submitted in light of draft plan on ANWR drilling: Minister Frost
Yukoners amass at RCMP detachment in support of Wet'suwet'en


text:
Frans Frithiof Ferdinand Friberg, född 15 juli 1892 i Karleby, död 11 december 1921, var en finländsk jägarkapten under första världskriget och finska inbördeskriget.

Friberg var son till John Friberg och Angela Lakanen. Han studerade fem år vid Karlebys svenska samskola och studerade sedan till lots. Som många andra blivande jägarsoldater begav sig Friberg till Tyskland och intogs i november 1915 vid 27. jägarbataljonens 3. kompani. Under första världskriget deltog han bland annat under striderna vid Missé och bevistade artillerikursen i Polangen 1917. Den 11 februari 1918 ankom Friberg och jägarbataljonen till Vasa och anslöt sig till de vita i inbördeskriget. Friberg blev plutonchef vid 1. jägarregementets 2. jägarbataljonens 3. kompani, varifrån han i april övergick till befälsposten över 1. kompaniet. Han stred bland annat i slaget om Viborg och sårades vid Kämärä den 23 april.

Efter kriget överflyttades Friberg till gardets jägarbataljon och sedan till Karelens 2. regemente. Han tjänstgjorde som kompanichef vid flera kompanier, flyttades i augusti 1921 till 1. cykelbataljonen och blev sedermera kompanichef för dess 2. kompani. Våren och sommaren 1920 var han befälhavare över norra Olonets försvarsdistrikt och var militär representant i Vitkarelens provisoriska regering.

Friberg var sedan 1919 gift med Helmi Pettinen.

Referenser

Män
Födda 1892
Avlidna 1921
Personer från Karleby
Personer i finska inbördeskriget
Finländska militärer under 1900-talet


text:
package edu.usc.irds.sparkler.util

import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.{SolrClient, SolrQuery}

import scala.collection.JavaConversions._

/**
  *
  * @since 5/29/16
  */
class SolrResultIterator[T] extends Iterator[T] {

  import SolrResultIterator.LOG

  var solr: SolrClient = _
  var query: SolrQuery = _
  var beanType: Class[T] = _

  var closeClient: Boolean = _
  var nextStart: Int = _
  var buffer: Int = _
  var limit: Long = _
  var currentPage: Iterator[T] = _
  var nextBean: Option[T] = _
  var numFound: Long = _
  var count: Long = 1

  def this(solr: SolrClient, query: SolrQuery, buffer: Int, beanType: Class[T],
           limit: Long = Long.MaxValue, closeClient: Boolean = false) {
    this()
    this.solr = solr
    this.query = query
    this.beanType = beanType
    this.buffer = buffer
    this.limit = limit
    this.closeClient = closeClient
    this.nextStart = if (query.getStart != null) query.getStart else 0
    this.nextBean = getNextBean(true)
  }

  private def getNextBean(forceFetch: Boolean = false): Option[T] = {
    if (forceFetch || (!currentPage.hasNext && nextStart < numFound)) {
      //there are more
      query.setStart(nextStart)
      try {
        LOG.debug("Query {}, Start = {}", query.getQuery, nextStart)
        val response = solr.query(query)
        numFound = response.getResults.getNumFound
        currentPage = response.getBeans(beanType).iterator()
        nextStart += response.getResults.size()
      } catch {
        case e: Exception =>
          throw new RuntimeException(e);
      }
    }

    if (count < limit && currentPage.hasNext) {
      Some(currentPage.next())
    } else {
      SolrResultIterator.LOG.debug("Reached the end of result set")
      if (closeClient) {
        SolrResultIterator.LOG.debug("closing solr client.")
        solr.close()
      }
      None
    }
  }

  override def hasNext: Boolean = nextBean.isDefined

  override def next(): T = {
    val tmp = nextBean
    nextBean = getNextBean()
    count += 1
    tmp.get
  }
}

object SolrResultIterator {
  val LOG = org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(SolrResultIterator.getClass)
}


text:
Ashes Of Time, alternativer deutscher Titel: "Die verlorene Zeit", (Originaltitel: ) ist ein chinesischer Wuxia-Film des Regisseurs Wong Kar-Wai. Es handelt sich dabei um den ersten Abstecher des Regisseurs in das Martial-Arts-Genre.

Der Film basiert lose auf den Figuren in Jin Yongs Werk Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Handlung
Mitten in der Wüste lebt ein Mann namens Ouyang Feng, der dort ein Wirtshaus betreibt. Das Lokal fungiert als "Marktplatz" für Schwertkämpfer und Personen, die Mordaufträge erteilen möchten – die beiden Personengruppen werden dort zusammengeführt. Das Wirtshaus wird von vielen fragwürdigen Gestalten besucht. Eine davon ist Huang Yaoshi, der einen magischen Wein entdeckt hat; er soll die Vergangenheit vergessen lassen. Huang verspricht Murong Yin, ihre Schwester Murong Yang zu heiraten. Als er dies aber nicht tut, heuert Murong Yin Ouyang an, um Huang zu töten. Ihre Schwester Murong Yang allerdings beauftragt Ouyang, um Huang zu beschützen. Dies kann als schizophren bezeichnet werden, da Murong Yang und Murong Yin in Wirklichkeit dieselbe Person sind.
Andere, hiervon unabhängige Erzählstränge wechseln sich ab. In einem werden Ouyangs Bemühungen dargestellt, eine Pferdediebebande zu eliminieren. Er verbündet sich mit einem weiteren Schwertkämpfer, der langsam erblindet und nach Hause möchte, um ein letztes Mal seine Frau zu sehen. Als dieser Schwertkämpfer getötet wird, trifft Ouyang einen weiteren, der ungern Schuhe trägt. Ouyang schickt diesen Mann den Pferdedieben hinterher – dieses Mal mit Erfolg.

Auszeichnungen (Auswahl)
Fant-Asia Film Festival 1997
 Bester Asiatischer Film (3. Platz)

Golden Horse Film Festival 1994
Golden Horse Award
 Beste Kameraführung für Christopher Doyle
 Bester Schnitt für Kit-Wai Kai und Patrick Tam

Hong Kong Film Awards 1995
Hong Kong Film Award
 "Best Art Direction", William Chang
 "Best Cinematography", Christopher Doyle
 "Best Costume & Make Up Design", William Chang
Nominiert
 Beste Action-Choreografie, Sammo Hung
 Beste Regie, Wong Kar-Wai
 "Best Film Editing", Patrick Tam und Kit-Wai Kai
 "Best Original Film Score", Frankie Chan
 Beste Kamera
 Bestes Drehbuch, Wong Kar-Wai

Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards 1995
 Beste Regie, Wong Kar-Wai
 Bester Film
 Bestes Drehbuch, Wong Kar-Wai

Internationale Filmfestspiele von Venedig 1994
Internationale Filmfestspiele von Venedig
 Beste Kamera, Christopher Doyle

Redux-Version
Im Frühjahr 2008 stellte Regisseur Wong Kar-Wai eine "Redux"-Version des Films vor. Premiere war im Mai 2008 bei den Internationalen Filmfestspielen von Cannes. Es folgten weitere Vorführungen beim Shanghai International Film Festival im Juni und beim Toronto Film Festival im September 2008.
In dieser neuen Version wurde der Soundtrack nahezu komplett ersetzt, zudem wurden Szenen ausgetauscht bzw. ergänzt oder herausgeschnitten.

Weblinks

 Ashes Of Time in der Hong Kong Movie Database (chinesisch, englisch)

 Kritik des Films bei Screenshot-online.com

Einzelnachweise

Filmtitel 1994
Taiwanischer Film
Chinesischer Film
Independentfilm
Martial-Arts-Film
Wuxia
Wong Kar-Wai


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text:
24 Sep Now in theaters, "Ad Astra."
Posted at 11:33h in News	by	Moderator 0 Comments
Directed by James Gray and starring Brad Pitt, "Ad Astra" tells the story of Astronaut Roy McBride as he undertakes a mission across an unforgiving solar system to uncover the truth about his missing father and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later, threatens the universe.
2 Pop Music talent Jason Ruder was Executive Music Producer and Supervising Music Editor (along with Co- Supervising Music Editor, Katrina Schiller); Terry Wilson and Lena Glikson were Music Editors on the film.
For more visit: https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/ad-astra
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text:
HomeMilitary AviationNo, the withdrawal of U.S. F-15s from Turkey doesn't mean NATO is leaving one of its members alone
No, the withdrawal of U.S. F-15s from Turkey doesn't mean NATO is leaving one of its members alone
December 21, 2015 Dario Leone Military Aviation, Troubled Areas, War on ISIS 22
The U.S. has withdrawn twelve F-15 fighter jets from Turkey but new NATO assets are on the way.
On Dec. 16, the U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagles and Strike Eagles that were moved to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey just last month, have started returning to their homebase at RAF Lakenheath, UK.
The twelve F-15s were not only deployed in response to the Government of Turkey's request for support in securing the sovereignty of Turkish airspace, but also to prove the U.S. Air Force ability to deploy aircraft and Airmen on short notice to Turkey, if needed.
Six of these Eagles were F-15C air superiority fighters that flew training missions with Turkish Air Force aircraft enhancing the interoperability between the two services. During the deployment, a bilateral agreement to summarize the procedures for combat air patrol (CAP) missions to be performed by U.S. aircraft in Turkish airspace has been reached.
Along with the F-15Cs there were six F-15E Strike Eagles which joined U.S. and coalition air assets in attack missions against ISIL positions in Syria and Iraq (even though the extent of their involvement in the raids is not clear).
Noteworthy the withdrawal of the U.S. Air Force jets coincides with a new series of measures approved by NATO to strengthen Ankara's air defenses on its border with Syria.
As reported by Reuters this defensive package will include both naval presence and maritime patrol aircraft.
An AWACS platform will monitor airspace exchanging information via data link with ground, airborne and sea based commanders with the latter stationed on German and Danish ships already sailing in eastern Mediterranean.
Moreover Spain has agreed to deploy its Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries on Turkey border after those belonged to Germany and U.S. have been withdrawn.
Although these defensive measures have been set to boost the Turkish airspace protection, they will also serve to discourage further incidents between Russia and Turkey after that a TuAF F-16 shot down a RuAF Su-24 near the Turkey-Syria border on Nov. 24.
Image credit: Senior Airman Trevor T. McBride and Staff Sgt. Stacy Fowler / U.S. Air Force
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In an uncharacteristic media release by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft have been reported as active in support of anti-ISIL operations in Iraq. The EC-130H Compass Call is a […]
Take a seat next to the B-52 heavy bomber's Radar Navigator
December 24, 2012 David Cenciotti Military Aviation 0
The following video brings you on board a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress during a mission from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. Anything related to the most iconic U.S. bomber is interesting. Still, I believe […]
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March 2, 2015 David Cenciotti Troubled Areas, War on ISIS 6
A B-1 launch is always an impressive sight. The following footage shows B-1 Lancer bombers with the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron launch from Al Udeid airbase, in Qatar, to pound ISIS targets in Iraq and […]