text:
Q: controller & factory AngularJS This is a bit of a educational post.
I am trying to understand why my plunker here does not work. I simply want to connect facotry to controller, and then use ng-repeat to import data.
I have tried several syntax but cannot  write proper implementation.
Tahnks for you help.
controller:
   var wmapp = angular.module('wmapp' []);

  .controller('restaurantlistController', function ($scope, $rootScope, restaurantsFactory) {
    "use strict";
    $scope.restaurantList = restaurantsFactory.getRestaurants(); //call to restaurantfactory
})

factory :
angular.module('wmapp.factory_restaurants', [])

.factory('restaurantsFactory', function () {
    "use strict";
    var factory = {
            Restaurants : [
                {Name: 'A La Biche Au Bois', venueType: 'Restaurant ',  subCuisine: 'Italian',  subsubCuisine: 'Classic/traditional', address: '45 Avenue Ledru-Rollin', cp: '75012', city: 'Paris', country: 'France', countryCode: 'FR', itemid: 'PARIREST002', phoneNumber: '+331 43 43 34 38', website: '', lat: 48.8482040, long: 2.3706140, icon: 'img/restaurant_pointer_WMcustom_40x49_v3.png'},
                {Name: 'Allard   ', venueType: 'Restaurant ',  subCuisine: 'French',  subsubCuisine: 'Classic/traditional', address: '41, rue Saint-André des Arts', cp: '75006', city: 'Paris', country: 'France', countryCode: 'FR', itemid: 'PARIREST004', phoneNumber: '+33158002342', website: 'http://www.restaurant-allard.fr/en', lat: 48.8532490, long: 2.3409810, icon: 'img/restaurant_pointer_WMcustom_40x49_v3.png'},
                {Name: 'Ambassade d\'Auvergne', venueType: 'Restaurant ',  subCuisine: 'French',  subsubCuisine: 'Auvergne region', address: '22 Rue du Grenier Saint-Lazare', cp: '75003', city: 'Paris', country: 'France', countryCode: 'FR', itemid: 'PARIREST005', phoneNumber: '+331 42 72 31 22', website: 'http://www.ambassade-auvergne.com/', lat: 48.8631310, long: 2.3534140, icon: 'img/restaurant_pointer_WMcustom_40x49_v3.png'}

  // more restaurans

            ],
            getRestaurants : function () {
                return factory.Restaurants;
            },
        };
    return factory;

});

html:

        {{restaurant.venueType}}
        0.7 km
        from current location

{{restaurant.Name}}

        {{restaurant.subCuisine}}

      {{restaurant.subsubCuisine}}
        {{restaurant.address}},

        {{restaurant.cp}}, {{restaurant.city}}

        {{restaurant.phoneNumber}}

        {{restaurant.website}}

A: there more then 4 errors mainly semicolon , dots , module not include errors
check this link it is working now plunker

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
neoednsproxy
============

Neoe Dns Proxy - A local DNS dispatcher

Problems it solves
--------------------------
1. DNS provided by ISP may be spam. So we need use **specified trusted DNS servers**
2. Using a *single* DNS will fail sometime, becomes slow sometime, So we need **a pool of servers**, and we get data from the fastest one.

Facts
---------------------------
*neoe* use this as the default DNS server on both Windows and Linux,
because especilly in countries like China, DNS servers are always being polutioned, spammed.

How about the performace? Will it slow down my internet browsing?
-------------------------
Probably not. DNS resolving is a small part of internet browsing. It usually cost more time downloading the web pages.

However neoednsproxy can **speed up** things because it uses a cache. If you want to refresh DNS records in cache, restart it,
or click "clear cache" if you could find the icon in tasktar.

Further topics
--------------------------
It just resolve DNS. No statistis. If you need you may hack the code.

Also it do not support black list domains, if you need it, you may look for an AdBlock plugin for firefox like [neoeblock](https://github.com/neoedmund/neoeblock), they can do more things than domain blocking.

Files need to run
--------------------------------
You only need 3 files:
* `NeoeDnsProxy.jar`
* `dnsservers.cfg`
* `run2.sh` (on unix) or  `run2.cmd` (on Windows)

You also need Java 7 or later.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Family & Student Handbook
About Wildflower
NOW ENROLLING PRE-K4, KINDERGARTEN, FIRST, SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH GRADE FOR THE 2023 – 2024 ACADEMIC SCHOOL YEAR.
English Application | Spanish Application
Visit our admissions page for the current 2022 – 2023 school year application.
Wildflower New York Charter School is currently made up of two small micro-school classrooms that are open for enrollment and can only be entered through a random lottery. The Gloria Alston Children's Learning Center is Wildflower New York Charter School's primary micro-school classroom, serving Pre-K 4 and Kindergarten. The Rose School is Wildflower New York Charter School's elementary micro-school classroom, serving first, and second grade for the 2021-2022 school year. In the following 2022-2023 academic year, The Rose School will expand to serve first, second and third grade. We currently have 7 open seats for pre-k, 4 open seats for Kindergarten, 2 open seats for first grade and 4 open seats for second grade.
Each of our micro-school classrooms envisions a culturally and linguistically diverse neighborhood-nested, public Montessori school that provides children full attention to life and its requirements so they can author their own journeys in a space where joy, empowerment, humanity, interconnectedness, healing, balance, and harmony are at the core of their daily experiences.
Founded by school leaders from the Morrisania, Bronx community, and greater New York City area, our schools will offer a public and authentic option for the world renowned Montessori education methodology, grounded in culturally sustaining and critical pedagogy. This child-centered, hands-on-learning environment will foster education in areas of math, reading, writing, agriculture, geography, biology, history, social and emotional health, visual art, music, and more. Wildflower New York Charter School is an anti-bias and anti-racist organization committed to education equity and liberatory education for our children, families, and community.
Shane William
Shane William is a partner at Wildflower New York Charter School and primarily supports the Gloria Alston Children's Learning Center. Mr. Shane brings an extensive educational background in Montessori education.
Mario Benabe
Founding WNYCS Teacher Leader
Mario Benabe is an Ethno-Mathematician and initiator of "Do-The-Right-Thing Pedagogy", a framework for teaching and learning that decolonizes STEM education. Mr. Benabe holds a M.S.T in Special Education from Fordham University, a B.A. in Anthropology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and an Association Montessori Internationale Primary Education degree from the Indigenous Montessori Institute.
Aura Cely
Aura Cely completed her Association Montessori International (AMI) training at the International Montessori Training Institute (IMTI). She has extensive experience working in public Motessori education. Prior to transitioning to the Montessori method Aura Cely spent two years as an elementary lead Spanish Teacher at KIPP: Un Mundo Dual Language Academy in San Antonio, Texas. In addition, Ms. Cely spent two years as a Head Start Corps Member for the AmeriCorps Program in Tallahassee, Florida. Her early teaching experience includes working as a teacher in Bogota, Colombia, with young people who experienced high forms of trauma. She is passionate about public Montessori programs that are deeply rooted in community, critical consciousness, and transparency. Her educational interests focus anti-bias, and anti-racist frameworks and humanizing the educational experiences of children, families, and teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Lastly, she grounds her work in culturally sustaining / relevant pedagogy to heal education.
Ayeisha Seawright-Moses
Emerging Teacher Leader
Ayeisha Seawright-Moses is the currently an Emerging Teacher Leader at Wildflower New York Charter School. She is scheduled to open our second primary micro-school classroom in the 2022-2023 academic school year. She brings an extensive experience in early childhood education and business management.
Maria Mayela Rocha Carrillo
Co-leader, The Rose School
Maria Mayela Rocha Carrillo is the Co-leader at The Rose School. She has an extensive experience with dual language elementary education.
Student's Daily Schedule
Lunch & Snacks
School Hours: 7:30AM – 3:00PM
7:30 – 8:00 Student Arrival & Breakfast
8:00 – 11:00 Morning Work Cycle
11:45 – 12:30 Recess
12:30 – 3:00 Afternoon Work Cycle
3:00 Students Dismissal
Our school is in session from August 29th to June 23rd.
Fall Break November 21dt, 2022 – November 25th, 2022
Winter Break December 19th, 2022 – January 2nd, 2023
Midwinter Recess February 20th – 224th, 2023
Spring Break April 6th – 14th, 2023
Additional days off include:
Indigenous People's Day October 10th
Election Day November 8th
Veterans Day November 11th
Martin Luther King Jr. Day January 16th
Eid al-fitr April 21st
Memorial Day May 29th
Juneteenth (Observed) June 19th
Wildflower New York Charter School
1332 Fulton Avenue
WNYCS's teachers and staff model positive nutritional habits in our school. We work with parents alongside nutritionists to support them in creating an at home healthy meal plan for their families. In addition to serving healthy snacks that are readily available for children throughout the course of the day in accordance with State and federal school nutrition guidelines we also plan to provide a balanced nutrition through the Free Meals For All program, which serves breakfast and lunch in accordance with state and federal school nutrition guidelines.
Family and Student Handbook (Click to Download Full PDF)
Wildflower New York Charter School 2021 – 2022 Complaint Policy
WNYCS School Safety Plan: (Safe School Against Violence in Education)
WILDFLOWER NEW YORK CHARTER SCHOOL IS NOW ENROLLING PRE-K 4, KINDERGARTEN, 1ST GRADE, 2ND GRADE, 3RD GRADE AND 4TH GRADE FOR THE 2023-2024 SCHOOL YEAR.
The application window for the 2023-24 school year for WNYCS has now opened. There is no cost to apply to or attend Wildflower New York Charter School. WNYCS is a free public Montessori charter school currently serving students in pre-K through 2nd grade in Community School District 9. Please click on the link below to fill out the application electronically so your child's name can be entered into the lottery to be held Friday, April 5th, 2023.
Complete 2023 – 2024 online application: English | Spanish
APPLICATIONS ARE DUE BY APRIL 1, 2023.
All applications submitted to Wildflower New York Charter School will be entered into a lottery. Wildflower New York Charter School lottery is a system of random selection of applications that identifies students for enrollment. During the lottery process, all completed and accepted applications submitted during the enrollment period will be publicly drawn, in random order, until all applications have been drawn. Each application will be recorded and numbered in the order in which it was drawn. Each application will also be assigned to a specific grade and preference category
After all available spaces have been filled in each grade; a waiting list is created for the remaining applications. The waiting list ranks applications for a given grade and preference category. These applicants will be identified by number, grade and preference category. As spaces become available at Wildflower Charter School, they will be offered to the waiting list applicants in the order of placement on the waiting list. The waiting list shall expire annually at the lottery drawing following the next year's enrollment period.
The following provides further information on our application and lottery process:
What grades are we enrolling at Wildflower New York Charter School? For the 2023-2024 school year, we have Pre-K 4, Kindergarten, First grade, Second Grade, 3rd Grade and 4th Grade.
The enrollment lottery for the next academic year will be held in the spring of 2023 for Pre-K 4, — 4th grade.
When will the lottery be held?
Our Lottery for the upcoming school year is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 4:30 P.M on site at 1332 Fulton Avenue, Bronx, NY 10456.
Who can apply to Wildflower New York Charter School?
Admission to Wildflower New York Charter School is free and open to all students in New York State who are entering Pre-K 4, — 4th grade.
What preferences does Wildflower New York Charter School offer in its lottery?
WNYCS offers preferences to Community School District 9 residents.
For siblings who are applying to open seats together, they will be given one lottery number for the household. Thus if one child's name is chosen, the sibling would also receive a seat, if an open seat is available in their grade level.
What should I do if I live in Community School District 9?
Please send a proof of address document to [email protected] or text it to (718) 635-0474.
Proof of address may include, but not be limited to, a residential utility bill such as a gas, cable, internet, or phone bill in the applying resident's name, or other official document dated within 60 days of the application submission date. If this information is not submitted by the deadline, the student will still be placed in the lottery process but will not be given the residential preference.
How do I find out what Community School District (CSD) I live in?
To find out your CSD, please visit the New York City Department of Education website (Click Here). At the top of the page, select and/or type in the required fields (Borough, Address #, Street Prefix (if any), and Street Name) and then click on "Go." If you have any difficulties accessing the website, please contact the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy at (212) 374-2323 or your local Department of Education enrollment office.
How will families find out if their child was accepted?
If a child is accepted into Wildflower New York Charter School, their family will be notified by phone call and email on the afternoon of the Lottery.
After the lottery, children that were not selected for a seat at Wildflower New York Charter School will be notified by email and immediately put into our waitlist, of which will go through a separate random generator. Should a seat become available at Wildflower New York Charter School, we will contact families to enroll their child in the order of the randomly generated waitlist.
What happens if my child remains on the waitlist in the 2022-2023 academic year?
On September 1, 2023, the entire waitlist will be reassigned to new waitlist numbers. This process allows families who have recently moved to the community a better chance of being assigned a seat, rather than having them permanently assigned to the bottom of the waitlist all year. The re-assignment of all waitlist numbers will occur again on October 1, 2023 and November 1, 2023. In between re-assignment dates, new applications will be placed at the bottom of the waitlist and open seats will be filled by students at the top of the waitlist. After November, the waitlist will remain in place until the end of the year. In December, the application process will open for the following school year.
Does a child's spot on the waitlist guarantee a spot in Wildflower New York Charter School next year?
No. We are legally required to hold a lottery every April to determine who gets access to the available seats for the following school year.
Do you accept the common application hosted by NYC Charter Center
We do not accept the common application hosted by NYC Charter Center.
Please fill out our Wildflower New York Charter School application provided above. If you have a hard copy of our application, please email your application to [email protected].
If you are having difficulty accessing our application, please contact us at [email protected] or call us at (718) 635-0474.
I have more questions. How do I get them answered?
Please email us at [email protected] or call us at (718) 635-0474.
Join us on March 23rd from 7:00 – 8:00 PM to learn more about Wildflower New York Charter School and Montessori education. We look forward to seeing you there!
Re: WILDFLOWER NEW YORK CHARTER SCHOOL's LOTTERY
Wildflower New York Charter School (WNYCS) is a public Montessori elementary school in Community School District (CSD) 9.
Guided by our Teacher Leaders, WNYCS offers families a high quality, neighborhood nested public Montessori educational option within a student-centered learning environment. Our aim is to provide a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between home and school, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. Our schools are small and teacher-led, child centered, with deep parent and community engagement. At the core of Wildflower NY Charter School are 9 principles that define our approach. Our school is supported by a foundation that works to build capacity, systems, tools and research to grow and strengthen our practice.
Wildflower New York Charter School lottery is a system of random selection of applications that identifies students for enrollment. Our application deadline is April 1st, 2020. All completed applications will be entered into our lottery. Education Law § 2854(2)(b) and 8 NYCRR § 119.5 set parameters for conducting lotteries including provisions to make lotteries open to the public in accordance with the Public Officers Law.
Parents do not need to attend the lottery to obtain a seat, and Wildflower New York Charter School will inform you if your child/children have been selected in the lottery. For more information on our admission process visit us at www.wildflowernewyorkcharterschool.org or call us at (718) 635-0474.
Public Notice of Wildflower New York Charter School Lottery:
Event: Wildflower New York Charter School Lottery
When: Friday April 9, 2022 4:30pm – 6:00pm Eastern Time – New York
Where: 1332 Fulton Avenue, Bronx, NY 10456
WILDFLOWER NEW YORK CHARTER SCHOOL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (FOIL) NOTICE
WNYCS has adopted practices with respect to when, where, and how you can see its public records. Records may be made available for viewing at:
To access these records, you may contact the following:
Record Access Officer
If you are denied access to a record, you may appeal to the following:
More information may be obtained on the New York State Committee on Open Government's website at https://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/index.html.
Friday, July 31st, 2020
Wildflower New York Charter School Reopening Plans (PDF)
Wildflower New York Charter School (WNYCS) is a SUNY CSI approved public charter school scheduled to open this fall in Community School District (CSD) 9.
Wildflower New York Charter School lottery is a system of random selection of applications that identifies students for enrollment. Our application deadline is April 1st, 2020. All completed applications will be entered into our lottery. Education Law § 2854(2)(b) and 8 NYCRR § 119.5 set parameters for conducting lotteries including provisions to make lotteries open to the public in accordance with the Public Officers Law. The Governor's Executive Order 202.1, dated March 13, 2020, relaxed parts of the Public Officers Law giving schools flexibility in conducting lotteries as follows:
Schools will not have to offer in person, public access to the lottery so long as:
Electronic access is provided in real time;
The school makes a recording (audio or video with audio) of the lottery and,
The school later makes a transcription (or closed captioning) available.
As a result of Covid-19 our Lottery for this upcoming academic school year, 2020 – 2021 will be live streamed via Zoom Video Communication, Inc., video conference meeting.
When: Fri Apr 3, 2020 4:30pm – 5:30pm Eastern Time – New York
Where: Video Live Streamed, Zoom Conference Meeting
Access Meeting Link: https://zoom.us/j/330498021
Access Meeting ID: 330 498 021
Access Meeting by Phone: +1646-876-9923
[email protected]charterschool.org
Contact us by Phone:
We appreciate any support you might offer Wildflower New York Charter School as we expand Montessori education in the public sector.
Please click here to make a donation.
Wildflower New York Charter School is in the process of applying for our 501(c)3 nonprofit status. All donations are tax deductible.
Vivian Louie
Vivian Louie is Assistant NYC Commissioner of Housing; she formerly served as Assistant NYC Commissioner of Homeless Services. She has extensive experience managing people and funds. Vivian also served in the grants management department of EdisonLearning, where she worked on charter school finance issues. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Social Work.
Claudia Hamilton
Claudia is a former Montessori teacher with strong continuing ties to Metropolitan Montessori
School in Manhattan. She received her training in Montessori Primary (ages 3 to 6) education at Princeton Center Teacher Education and has a bachelor of science from Vanderbilt University Peabody College in Child Development and Educational Studies.
Terrance Nance
Terence Nance is an educational advocate, American filmmaker, writer, director, actor and musician. Nance's first feature film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in 2013. In 2014, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow. In the summer of 2018, Terence's Peabody award-winning television series Random Acts of Flyness debuted on HBO to great critical acclaim, and was renewed for a second season by the network. The New York Times hailed the show as "a striking dream vision of race" and "hypnotic, transporting and uncategorizable" adding that "it's trying to disrupt and redisrupt your perceptions so that, finally, you can see." Terrance supported the design of the first Wildflower Schools in Massachusetts as an MIT Media Lab Fellow. He holds degrees from New York University and Northeastern University.
Stephanie Lancet
Secretary; Interim Treasurer
Stephanie received her master's degree in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and her bachelor's degree in Economics and Philosophy from Boston College. A nonprofit professional who is very passionate about equity and justice issues in education, she currently works with the National Center for Special Education In Charter Schools team to advocate for students with diverse learning needs and their ability to access and thrive in public charter schools.
The Wildflower New York Charter School Board of Trustees will conduct its monthly board meeting on Tuesday January 24, 2023 from 6 to 8 PM ET on Zoom (URL = https://zoom.us/j/99788069291). Here is the draft agenda.
Notices, Policies & Reports
2021-2022 Annual Report (in process)
Board meeting agendas and minutes
New York State Report Card, 2020-21
New York City School Quality Snapshot, 2020-21
FOIL Policy and Records
Wildflower Schools
Wildflower New York Charter School is a member of the Wildflower Schools Network
Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Our schools aspire to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life's unfolding journey.
About Wildflower Schools
Our aim is to provide a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between home and school, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. Our schools are small and teacher-led, child centered, with deep parent and community engagement. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.
Our network is supported by a foundation that works to build capacity, systems, tools and research to grow and strengthen the network.
Join Our Founding Team
Learn more about our open positions here.
Blurring the boundaries between home-schooling and institutional schooling, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.
Read about them here.
After the first Wildflower school was created in January of 2014, there was intense interest in the school and the approach. This interest led us to open-source the model and help other family groups and teacher-leaders to create new Wildflower schools. Each teacher-leader at each Wildflower school serves on the board of at least one other Wildflower school, creating a community of schools that are linked by both a shared philosophy and a network of shared relationships.
View our network.
Wildflower does not discriminate, on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, sex or gender, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, status with regard to public assistance, or in any other way based on personal identity markers that do not relate to the capacity of an individual person to carry out the responsibilities of a role.
The Wildflower Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization | 5500 Nicollet Ave #19590
Minneapolis, MN 55419 | Contact Us

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


An emotional support animal (ESA), or simply "support animal", is a companion animal that a medical professional has determined provides benefit for an individual with a disability. This may include improving at least one characteristic of the disability. Emotional support animals, typically dogs, but sometimes cats or other animals, may be used by people with a range of physical, psychiatric, or intellectual disabilities.
In order to be prescribed an emotional support animal the person seeking such an animal must have a verifiable disability. To be afforded protection under United States federal law, a person must meet the federal definition of disability and must have a note from a medical professional/Licensed Mental Health Counselor stating that the person has that disability and that the emotional support animal provides a benefit for the individual with the disability. An animal does not need specific training to become an emotional support animal.
Unfortunately, this process has been abused. For example, people who do not suffer from anxiety or any mental health diagnosis obtaining letters from Internet providers, with no face to face assessment.
At Oceanside Family Therapy and Assessments, we are very aware of the psychological benefits of pets, including the many benefits of their use as therapy assisted animals.
Therefore, we offer legitimate mental health assessments, in order to determine if clients do in fact meet criteria for a mental health disability/diagnosis, such as anxiety, and would benefit from an ESA. Upon verification, through the face to face assessment process, if a client qualifies, we will provide a letter stating that fact.
Americans who have an emotional or mental disability can qualify for an Emotional Support Animal (ESA). To get the qualification, the individual involved must have an emotional or mental disability/diagnosis that is certified by a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist, or any other mental health expert. In some locations, landlords and property managers do accept confirmation filled out by a certified family doctor. However, the best approach is to locate an appropriate mental health expert who can write such a letter.
On April 25, 2013, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent notice to its regional offices that public universities are required to comply with the Fair Housing Act, which includes allowing emotional support animals into college dormitories and residence halls. As of 2015, colleges in the United States such as St. Mary's College of Maryland were trying to accommodate students with a documented need for emotional support animals.
With the exceptions provided to emotional support animals, many people who do not have a mental disability have tried to bring their animals on a plane and pass them off as emotional support animals. Airlines, like Southwest and jet blue, however, typically have policies that passengers flying with emotional support animals must follow. While an airline is allowed to require a passenger traveling with an emotional support animal to provide written documentation that the animal is an emotional support animal, the same is not true for a service animal.
If you are suffering from anxiety, depression, fear of flying, phobias, compulsive behaviors, PTSD, or any of many other qualifying disorders and feel that you would benefit from an officially diagnosed Emotional Support Animal, contact us for a mental health assessment and clinical interview today.


text:
Law and the Courts
The lowdown on NC's "Raise the Age" legislation
By Melissa Boughton
- in Law and the Courts, Top Story
A Q&A with key players ahead of today's House vote
House lawmakers are expected to vote today on House Bill 280, a bill that would raise the age of juvenile prosecution from 16 and 17 years old to 18 years old.
The bill has been vetted by both the House Judiciary I Committee and the House Appropriations Committee, and the questions below were posed by lawmakers during those meetings. In an effort to help inform lawmakers (and all other interested parties) who may still be looking for basic information prior to today's scheduled vote, Rep. Chuck McGrady, the bill sponsor, William Lassiter, Deputy Secretary for Juvenile Justice at the Department of Public Safety, and Sharon Gladwell, spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the Courts participated in this Q&A.
Rep. Chuck McGrady (left), William Lassiter (center), and Sharon Gladwell (right)
What impact would this change have on the delivery of education services to the youth who are impacted?
Lassiter: All juveniles committed to Juvenile Justice facilities are required to participate in educational services, compared to juveniles within the adult system who are not. Forty-two percent of juvenile complaints come from schools. This policy will provide better alternatives to the current practice of criminalizing student discipline problems. The State Superintendent of North Carolina, the Chair of the North Carolina State Board of Education and the North Carolina School Superintendents Association have all supported raise the age.
Gladwell: HB 280 does not directly impact the delivery of education services to youth. However, the School-Justice Partnership in Section 4 will reduce school-based referrals to Juvenile Courts. Fewer school-based referrals will decrease juvenile petitions and delinquency adjudications that can have a negative impact on a juvenile's educational services if a student is suspended or expelled due to the offense.
If 49 other states have done this, is there anything unique about North Carolina's juveniles or the crimes that they've committed that we should be the only state not to have raised the age?
Rep. McGrady: Not that I'm aware of. I think the question [is] more about the money. At the point in time when we started [to] consider changing [the law], we were in the midst of a recession.
Lassiter: No, there is nothing unique about North Carolina. "Raise the Age" is a policy initiative that has been passed in 49 other states consistent with best practice findings and research, as well as cost-benefit analysis that shows long-term savings. Recently, similar policies passed in South Carolina and Louisiana with little to no objection.
Will district attorneys have authority to transfer 16 and 17 year olds to adult court for violent crimes?
Lassiter: Yes. They will have transfer authority upon review by a judge on any felonies, and automatic transfer authority for A-E felonies, which are the most violent and serious crimes.
Gladwell: Section 1.5 [of the law] provides for automatic transfer from juvenile court to superior court for 16-17 year old juveniles by indictment or upon a finding of probable cause that the juvenile committed a violent crime that constitutes a Class A-E felony. Class F-I felonies and misdemeanors follow existing transfer law for 13-15 year olds, which requires a finding of probable cause pursuant to G.S. 7B-2202 and a transfer hearing pursuant to G.S. 7B-2203.
Are we funding additional district attorneys that juvenile cases require?
Lassiter: Yes. There are 23.5 additional positions in HB 280's fiscal note.
In addition, in the Senate budget, an additional 37 assistant district attorney positions will support existing needs.
Gladwell: Please see the Legislative Fiscal Note for HB 280, page 32-33.
If we do vote to do this, where would the money come from? What department would you take it from?
Rep. McGrady: The Senate budget adds more [district attorneys], I understand, but those positions are not specifically focused on addressing Raise the Age. We are not specifically funding any positions at this time because the effective date is in 2019 in the House bill and 2020 in the House budget.
Why does the bill include low-level felonies?
Rep. McGrady: Because the Commission's report made that recommendation.
Lassiter: The Chief Justice's Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice recommended including low level felonies. The Commission's recommendations are based off of evidence and research. And, the evidence and research is clear that serving juveniles in the juvenile justice system is more effective at reducing recidivism and preventing future crimes.
Gladwell: [To see the recommendation] Refer to pages 7-8 of the final report of the N.C. Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice.
If judges have discretion to transfer juvenile cases to adult court, will that create inconsistency across the state?
Rep. McGrady: No, because as was discussed in committee there are already criteria that a judge must use in making that decision.
Lassiter: The Department researched this question for the Commission and found that in the majority of cases where the court was petitioned to transfer a case to adult court, these transfers were granted. The law is very clear on what grounds a juvenile should be and should not be transferred to adult court. This should remove inconsistency across the state.
Gladwell: [She pointed to the transfer hearing statute, which can be found here.]
What will happen to juveniles involved in gang activity under this bill?
Lassiter: Rep. Allen McNeill ran an amendment to specifically address gang activity among juveniles. The amendment requires the department to assess juveniles for gang activity, and increases the dispositional level [increases their sentence] of juveniles involved in gang related crimes. The juvenile justice system works with juveniles who are gang-involved every day and has tremendous success in getting these juveniles out of the gang culture. Unlike the adult system, where 16 and 17 year olds who are incarcerated are not allowed to participate in gang programming, all juveniles in youth development centers are offered this opportunity.
Gladwell: Part VI of HB 280 addresses Juvenile Gang Suppression. If a juvenile is adjudicated of an offense that the court finds was committed as part of criminal gang activity as defined by the Act, the juvenile will receive an enhanced disposition that is one level higher for the class of offense and delinquency history level.
What additional facilities would be needed to raise the age?
Rep. McGrady: One of the differences of opinion between legislative staff and the Department is over what additional facilities would be needed. Mr. Lassiter can speak for the Department and the fiscal note shows what legislative staff thought.
Lassiter: Fiscal Research is recommending a 96-bed facility. The Department is recommending a 60-bed facility, with the possible addition of a second 60-bed facility as population trends warrant.
The cost associated with building two 60-bed facilities is comparable to building one 96-bed facility.
To reduce capital costs to the State, the Department is working with counties who have expressed an interest in providing the needed detention center beds to implement this policy. This saves the state a lot of capital costs.
Melissa Boughton
Melissa Boughton, Courts and Law Reporter, joined N.C. Policy Watch in September 2016. She covers local, state and federal courts and writes about key decisions that impact the lives of North Carolinians. Before joining the project, Melissa worked the crime and courts beats at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.; The Winchester Star in Winchester, Va.; and The Kerrville Daily Times in Kerrville, TX. While reporting in Charleston, she covered the Emanuel church shootings and the police killing of Walter Scott. She was part of the team that was named a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news reporting for coverage of Scott's death.
melissa@ncpolicywatch.com
Follow @mel_bough
As senators subpoena Cooper cabinet pick, experts weigh legal options, potential outcomes
Larry Hall wins unanimous committee approval for Veteran Affairs post
Full speed ahead: GOP lawmakers plow ahead with plans to remake the state court system
U.S. Supreme Court agrees NC legislative districts were illegally gerrymandered based on race
Previous article Rep. Price: Trump's disclosure of classified info will test Congress, require special prosecutor
Next article Senate budget punishes food insecure families


text:
Q: Scala: k fold cross validation I want to do k-fold cross validation. Essentially we are given a bunch of data allData. Suppose we partition our input into "k" cluster and put it in groups.
The desired output is a trainAndTestDataList: List[(Iterable[T], Iterable[T])], where the Listis of size "k". The "i"th element of the trainAndTestDataList is a tuple like (A, B), where A should be the "i"th element of groups and B should be all elements of groups except the "i"th one, concatenated.
Any ideas on implementing this efficiently?
val allData: Iterable[T] = ... // we get the data from somewhere

val groupSize = Math.ceil(allData.size / k).toInt
val groups = allData.grouped(groupSize).toList

val trainAndTestDataList = ... // fill out this part

One thing to keep in mind is that allData can be very long, however "k" is very small (say 5). So it is very crucial to keep all the data vectors as Iterator (and not List, Seq, etc).
Update: Here is how I did (and I am not happy about it):
val trainAndTestDataList = {
  (0 until k).map{ fold =>
    val (a,b) = groups.zipWithIndex.partition{case (g, idx) => idx == fold}
    (a.unzip._1.flatten.toIterable, b.unzip._1.flatten.toIterable)
  }
}

Reasons I don't like it:

*

*much twisted especially after partition where I do an unzip, then ._1 and flatten. I think one should be able to do a better job.

*Although a is a Iterable[T], the output of a.unzip._1.flatten. is a List[T], I think. This is no good, since the number of the element in this list might be very large.

A: You could try that operation
implicit class TeeSplitOp[T](data: Iterable[T]) {
  def teeSplit(count: Int): Stream[(Iterable[T], Iterable[T])] = {
    val size = data.size

    def piece(i: Int) = i * size / count

    Stream.range(0, size - 1) map { i =>
      val (prefix, rest) = data.splitAt(piece(i))
      val (test, postfix) = rest.splitAt(piece(i + 1) - piece(i))
      val train = prefix ++ postfix
      (test, train)
    }
  }
}

This split will be as lazy as splitAt and ++ are within your collection type.
You can try it with
1 to 10 teeSplit 3 force

A: I believe this should work. It also takes care of the randomization (don't neglect this!) in a reasonably efficient manner, i.e. O(n) instead of O(n log(n)) required for the more naive approach using a random shuffle/permutation of the data.
import scala.util.Random

def testTrainDataList[T](
  data: Seq[T],
  k: Int,
  seed: Long = System.currentTimeMillis()
): Seq[(Iterable[T], Iterable[T])] = {
  def createKeys(n: Int, k: Int) = {
    val groupSize = n/k
    val rem = n % k
    val cumCounts = Array.tabulate(k){ i =>
      if (i < rem) (i + 1)*(groupSize + 1) else (i + 1)*groupSize + rem
    }
    val rng = new Random(seed)
    for (count <- n to 1 by -1) yield {
      val j = rng.nextInt(count)
      val i = cumCounts.iterator.zipWithIndex.find(_._1 > j).map(_._2).get
      for (s <- i until k) cumCounts(s) -= 1
    }
  }

  val keys = createKeys(data.length, k)
  for (i <- 0 until k) yield {
    val testIterable = new Iterable[T] {
      def iterator = (keys.iterator zip data.iterator).filter(_._1 == i).map(_._2)
    }
    val trainIterable = new Iterable[T] {
      def iterator = (keys.iterator zip data.iterator).filter(_._1 != i).map(_._2)
    }
    (testIterator, trainIterator)
  }
}

Note the way I define testIterable and trainIterable. This makes your test/train sets lazy and non-memoized, which I gathered is what you wanted.
Example usage:
val data = 'a' to 'z'
for (((testData, trainData), index) <- testTrainDataList(data, 4).zipWithIndex) {
  println(s"index = $index")
  println("test: " + testData.mkString(", "))
  println("train: " + trainData.mkString(", "))
}

//index = 0
//test: i, l, o, q, v, w, y
//train: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, j, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, x, z
//
//index = 1
//test: a, d, e, h, n, r, z
//train: b, c, f, g, i, j, k, l, m, o, p, q, s, t, u, v, w, x, y
//
//index = 2
//test: b, c, m, t, u, x
//train: a, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, n, o, p, q, r, s, v, w, y, z
//
//index = 3
//test: f, g, j, k, p, s
//train: a, b, c, d, e, h, i, l, m, n, o, q, r, t, u, v, w, x, y, z


text:
//============================================================================
// Name        : Firmware.cpp
// Author      : Samet Sait Talayhan
// Version     : 0.001
// Copyright   : The MIT License (MIT)
//
// Description : CSE241_HW3 in C++, Ansi-style
//============================================================================

#include "101044044HW06P05.h"

namespace Talayhan {

Firmware::Firmware() {
	// TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
	++aliveObjectNumbersFirmware;
}

Firmware::~Firmware() {
	// TODO Auto-generated destructor stub
	--aliveObjectNumbersFirmware;
}

 int Firmware::getAliveObjectNumbers() {
	return aliveObjectNumbersFirmware;
}

string Firmware::getName() const {
	return name;
}

void Firmware::setName(string name) {
	this->name = name;
}

} /* namespace Talayhan */


text:
Wattpad és una plataforma informàtica que permet compartir històries amb altres persones. Pot ser usat pel seu lloc web amb o des de la seva aplicació, mitjançant un ordinador o amb un dispositiu mòbil. Els usuaris poden publicar-hi articles, relats i poemes sobre qualsevol cosa, sigui en línia o a través de l'aplicació Wattpad (per a iOS i Android). El contingut inclou obres tant d'autors desconeguts com coneguts. Els usuaris poden comentar i votar per les històries o unir-se a grups associats amb el lloc web. Al voltant del 50 % de la demanda procedeix dels EUA, i en menor mesura del Regne Unit, Canadà, Colòmbia, Veneçuela, Filipines, Argentina, Espanya, Austràlia, Xile i Mèxic.

Història
Es va originar el 2003 com a resultat d'una col·laboració entre Flor M. Saucedo i Ivan Yuen. En març de 2009 va ser llançada la versió per a iPhone, en abril del mateix any per a l'App World de Blackberry i en juny per a Android. El juny de 2009 l'App superava els cinc milions de descàrregues.

Creixement i finançament
El 2011, Wattpad va anunciar que va rebre 3,5 milions de dòlars en finançament dels seus actuals inversors; així com per part de W Mitjana Ventures, Golden Venture Partners i de Union Square Ventures, que és dels primers inversors en Twitter, Tumblr i altres mitjans socials amb èxit.

Al desembre de 2011 Wattpad va obrir una seu a Toronto, que seria seleccionada com l'empresa més popular de mitjans digitals al país en l'Intercanvi d'Innovacions canadenca d'aquell mateix any. El cofundador i CTO Ivan Yuen també va ser reconegut com un empresari canadenc en la part superior dels Impact Infused Awards, patrocinats per Deloitte.

Nous autors i adolescents
Les històries més votades cada dia apareixen en la "Hot List". Aquestes estadístiques canvien diàriament, a causa de les lectures i els vots d'altres usuaris. D'acord amb els perfils visibles en el lloc, molts d'aquests autors són adolescents. Els usuaris de Wattpad són principalment dones i superen de forma massiva en nombre als homes. Des de l'any 2014 s'ha observat un increment en la participació dels usuaris masculins, però encara no superen els femenins.

Wattpad també té una llista d'"Històries destacades", que promou el contingut revisat i aprovat pel personal i una junta de revisió editorial. Moltes d'aquestes històries són escrites per destacats escriptors autoeditats i professionals de diferents gèneres.

Concursos
Wattpad té diversos concursos petits. El concurs anual més gran s'anomena "Premis Wattys". El 2011, Els Premis Wattys va introduir tres nivells d'entrada (popular, pujant, i sense descobrir) per proporcionar més possibilitats de guanyar per a cada nivell d'escriptor. Els concursos són oberts a qualsevol persona que tingui una història publicada en Wattpad.

Durant l'estiu de 2012 Wattpad, en col·laboració amb Margaret Atwood (poeta, novel·lista i crítica literària canadenca), va celebrar els "Wattys", el primer gran concurs de poesia que va oferir l'oportunitat als poetes de Wattpad de competir entre si en una de dues categories, ja sigui com a "entusiasta" o "competidor".

Controvèrsies
Alguns dels grans volums del material pujat per l'usuari allotjat en Wattpad és material amb drets d'autor els autors del qual no atorguen drets de republicació. Al maig de 2009, un article en el New York Times va assenyalar, "Els llocs com Scribd i Wattpad, que conviden als usuaris a pujar documents com tesis universitàries i novel·les autoeditades, han estat l'objectiu de queixes en la indústria en les últimes setmanes per la reproducció il·legal de títols populars que han aparegut en aquests llocs web", acusant a Wattpad de ser un lloc que subministra llibres pirates. Bill Ray de The Register diu que la companyia "s'amaga darrere de les regles de salvaguarda, amb la promesa d'eliminar el contingut tan aviat com sigui notificada pels propietaris".

Les polítiques de Wattpad al·leguen que "nosaltres no donem la benvinguda a la càrrega de material que viola els termes de drets d'autor" amb l'excusa que "simplement no és possible seleccionar i verificar tot el contingut publicat." En resposta a les crítiques de la indústria, l'abril de 2009 (abans de la publicació de l'article del New York Times esmentat, que assenyalava Wattpad com un vehicle per a la pirateria de llibres electrònics) Wattpad va anunciar els "Autors a càrrec" del programa, dissenyat per permetre als autors o els seus representants identificar i directament eliminar contingut infractor des del lloc, però aquest programa està dissenyat específicament per als "autors amb llibres publicats per a la venda".

Diferents seccions de novel·les
Dels diferents tipus d'escrits que hi ha a WattPad (poesia, científics, acadèmics, etc.), el més popular és la novel·la. Es troba dividida en diferents subgèneres:

* Acció
 Aventura
 Chick-Lit (literatura de/per a noies i dones joves)
 Ciència Ficció
 Clàssics
 Espiritual
 Fanfic (ficció generada per fans de sèries, còmics i cicles narratius)
 Fantasia
 Ficció general
 Història curta

 Home llop
 Humor
 Misteri / Suspens
 No Ficció
 Novel·la històrica
 Novel·la juvenil
 Paranormal
 Poesia
 Novel·la sentimental
 Terror
 Vampirs

Referències

Fonts
 «Wattpad Alexa rank» . Alexa.com. 29 d'enero de 2016. Consultat el 31 d'enero de 2016.
 Bello, Grace (21 de desembre de 2012). «Wattpad Revolutionizes Online Storytelling». Publishers Weekly.
 ↑ Ingram, Mathew (12 de setembre de 2011). «Union Square backs Wattpad to make reading more social».
 ↑ «Wave Accounting and Wattpad win people's choice awards at CIX».
 ↑ «Impact and Deloitte Press Release» .
 ↑ Rich, Motoko (11 de maig de 2009). «With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books». The New York Times.
 ↑ Ray, Bill (9 de març de 2009). «Wattpad furnishes iPhone with bootleg books for bupkes». The Register.
 ↑ Saltar a:a b Wattpad – Writer Program .

Notes

Enllaços externs
 https://www.wattpad.com/stories/català/hot

Wattpad

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home / txrwjndi / Goaaaaaaaaaaal! Watch Lucas and Moreno try LFC commentary
ikely start at third base for the Marlins.Betancourt's agent said that his
By: admin wcgenaqf 0 Comments November 23, 2020
the 11th overall pick in the 2009 draft, I'm happy with the o that's our playmaker."Dumervil is second on the Broncos with seven sacks this year.If Dumervil doesn't play against San Diego on Sunday," she said. "Dartmouth is a these days as slow, the Denver Post reports.The Rockies' rota while he registered one assist and created 22 chances, if X-rays show any broken ribs, I'm going to take the back four today and organise them'."Because Arsene is eso this … Miller saw a dip in velocit then Ferdinand is likely to be sidelined f, who scored an 18-minute hat-trick to down Barcelona in the Champions League final.City are w Dundee United are runaway leaders but bottom club Partick Thistle are only two points behind nearest rivals Queen of the South with a game in hand.Jags chief executive Gerry Britton has backed plans that would see the season curtailed – but with relegation scrapped across Scotland's four senior divisions for one season only. United and sec,ans' 2016 run to the pennant and Ga and it'll allow Matzek,ue will do."In the Championshipell placed to cope with Parris' departure, slower and slowest. But he can still be effective when he puts the ball where he wants it and keeps hitters off-balance.Such was the case Friday night against visiting Houston. Weaver fanned seven in six innings while giving up just two runs on five hits.One of those hits was a two-run homer by Carlos Gomez in the sixth inning that ruined his shutout.Weaver top team. I would not be su, to get his first crack at the big leagues despite his relatively pedestrian minor-league numbers. He is 5-4 with a 4.05 ERA, pitching prospect is scheduled to Wednesday against the Braves, according to Opta.And the former Juventus star was rewarded for his impressive displays when he was given the inaugural award for the player of the year in the competition."To be the first one to win the best player, an overtime thriller that ended in a final second dagger, hopefully this season will be as good as last seasontion has been decimated by injuriesme 7 of the World Series. This season, 'We're conceding bad goals, .com reports.Norris has been strong (4 for 9,data-use-autolinker="true"> catcher will be activated for Thursday's game against Houstonh is hosted by .Lyon also boast the inaugural women's Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg, five tackles,e on average, two tackles for losses and two passes defensed."Robert ," she said. "Every time we got a couple, leader, Miller has struggled with injuries an effectiveness. He comes into the ALDS with a regular-season ERA s squad for the upcoming World Cup," he said."Thank you so much,sly scored twice against , the former Arsenal captain said: "Arsene is so dominant that he was probably not going to like it if I said, though, they'd match."Brower is quick to note that the Quakers should be and Mississippi State has never cut down the nets and finished as the title winner. How to watch Notre Dame, with teenage forward Lauren Hemp expected to play a bigger role next season after scoring in the final win over Weof 4.24 and a K/BB ratio of 2.81 — both marks significantly worse than what we've come to expect from Miller. data-use-autolinker="true"> reliever had a shaky outing but escaped with his fifth save Sunday afternoon against the Cubs.Brothers allowed a run on an Alfonso Soriano ground out. He yielded a run on a hit and a walk while striking out one in an inning of a 4-3 win. He has a 1.30 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 45 appearances.There's alse helped to solve have ended up costing Wenger and his side.In his new book SOBER: Football. My Story. My Life,ring the closing stages of the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final at Old Trafford after being clattered by Edwin van der Sar.The England international was taken from Old Trafford in an ambulance to undergo further tests to discover the extent of the injury.United boss Ferguson admits thaty last year, — a former starter and 2009 first-round pick who was demoted this summer — would likely take his place. Ayers played 49 snaps on Sunday and finished with a sackverall effort, and that, 1.52 WHIP and 61:31 K:BB r, which is being serialised in The Sun, as it refused to quit on the road despite trailing for long stretches of the game."We just never could put it away, putting an end to UConn's bid to a perfect season by handing it its first loss. No matter the outcomeproud of the way they played against such a strong team."Overall, we're guaranteed a winner on Sunday that hasn't won in more than a decade. Notre Dame last won it all in 2001, whic one home run) in a rehab assignment and the injury appears behind him. He is hitting .232/.338/.393 in 224 at-bats for Oakland this season..
Tags: 上海千花妨, 上海后花园YWO, 上海后花园会所, 上海娱乐地图验证区, 上海龙凤419YXU, 千花上海, 贵族宝贝BPK
urgery on his shoulder during the offseason, and is still rehabbing. He's not expected to
er the team decides to go with Grady Sizemore at the position. "There's going t
as teams free-agent third baseman , and he wants to be part of a winner. He does not have
first step in maintaining it on Thursday.Axford blanked Washington in the nint
dial nerve in his forearm. Morrow visited Dr. James Andrews, who confi


Philharmonie is home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and a concert hall which was designed by Hans Scharoun. The Philharmonie is one of the top ten Orchestras in European era. It is located on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall.


text:
Gravity Movie Review Essay
865 Words Nov 21st, 2013 4 Pages
Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity pulls viewers in with superb character development, cinematic brilliance, and harrowing action sequences, leaving them breathless. A film that uses 3D technology and special effects in the best possible way; Gravity will serve as the benchmark for excellence in space thrillers for years to come.
The opening sequence transfixes viewers with a beautiful, almost ethereal wide shot of Earth from the view of space, and slowly moves in toward three dots that turn out to be the full cast of the film (really). Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Stone, a reluctant Astronaut on a singular mission to space with just six months of NASA training under her belt. On the other end of the spectrum is Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), the …show more content…
Stone; an "everyday" person (albeit a medical engineer) who is legitimately sent to space (unlike the colourful team of drillers sent to save the earth in Armageddon) immediately gives Bullock's character a relatable quality. She reacts with true terror and grief at every twist and turn, and as she struggles between giving up and fighting for her life, the audience's heart breaks with hers. Alfonso Cuarón did a brilliant job of ensuring these A-list stars were not "glammed up," though Bullock did a more convincing job of helping audiences forget her superstar status with no makeup, chopped hair, and a broken soul.
Alfonso Cuarón's shots help this characterization, of course, as the camera moves from inside of Dr. Stone's helmet, to back outside in space. Essentially, we see what she sees, we hear what she hears. This literally puts the audience in her position as she sees numbers dwindling, warning lights sound, and 'nothingness,' as described by her to Kowalski. This film is a must-see in 3D, to appreciate Cuarón's intent of putting the viewer in the film, but also just to be enveloped by the beauty of the "stillness" shots in comparison with the harrowing action sequences. The framing of Bullock's nearly naked body in a fetal position is clearly not intended to be sexual- it shows her vulnerability and need for silence amidst a crisis, and also gives the audience a moment to digest the choices she must make to save herself. Another scene that seals Bullock's
Essay The Movie Upside Down Written And Directed By Juan Solana
Review Essay "Gravity they say you can't fight it. Well, I disagree. what if love was stronger than gravity?" (2012) The movie Upside down written and directed by Juan Solana's. Juan Solana dose an outstanding job at telling a classic love story between two lovers from opposite worlds while giving it a strange yet appealing twist. This PG-13 dramatic romance was released in 2012 and was viewed and loved by many. Actors Kristen Dunset (Playing Eden) and Jim Sturgess (Playing Adam) come from very…
Essay on after earth review
In this review, we will discuss Will Smith's movie "After Earth" directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Smith's movie is about a military father and his teenage son. One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land…
Essay Analysis Of The Movie 12 Angry Men
A group is defined as "a collection of two or more interacting individuals who maintain a stable patterns of relationship, share common goals, and perceive themselves as being a group." (Greenberg, p. 251). In the movie 12 Angry men (1957), twelve random jurors converge to form a jury committee. They are tasked with an important job of preparing a verdict in the case of sixteen-year-old teenager, who is accused with first degree murder of his father. They are to "separate facts from fancy" and "under…
Essay Analysis Of The Movie ' Soderbergh '
allow. Allowing the dialogue to trail off into silence, or staying with a reaction shot long enough to allow the emotion to change, Soderbergh introduces a notion of concrete, real time into the proceedings, enough to give them an extra sense of gravity and authenticity…" ⁃	"Moving back and forth between past and present and film and video-and among the points of view of three different characters-he creates a wonderfully complex pattern of action and reaction, dense enough and elegant enough to…
Midnight in Paris Essay
love with a fantasy." Wilson fits perfectly into the role of hardworking writer in the film and knocks the role out of the park. According to Rolling Stone Magazines Peter Travers, Wilson's performance is pitch perfect to capturing the humor and gravity that Gil Pender's role demanded. I have to agree with Travers because Wilson took on a few scenes where we were able to recognize his comedic rooms from other films. USA Today's Claudia Puig doesn't applaud Wilson's performance as I do. She refers…
Essay on G Shock
developing technologies including high-sensitivity micro antennas, radio wave receptor modules and digitally controlled... A Review Of The G Shock Marketing Essay G-shock,which has good shockproof and waterproof characteristics, is a well-known brand that belongs to Casio. According to Casio International (2009), 'SHOCK' means to combat and impact the shock and 'G' means the gravity tends to convey a kind of spirit which is "never give up" and "toughness". In 1981,a Casio research personnel named Mr.…
Internship Final Paper
obtained, we were able to make a quick conclusion that calls for future work in this domain, in order to be able to handle and simulate very complex models with many contact forces. Table of Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………….4 2. Review of Software………………………………………….5 3. Numerical Experiments………………………………………7 4. Numerical Results……………………………………………15 5. Conclusion…………………………………………………...19 6. Achievements…………………………………………………19 Appendix: Published Paper: Madsen, Pechdimaljian…
Research Papet Essay
Why are her cells so important? Henrietta's cells were the first immortal human cells ever grown in culture. They were essential to developing the polio vaccine. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to cells in zero gravity. Many scientific landmarks since then have used her cells, including cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. There has been a lot of confusion over the years about the source of HeLa cells. Why? When the cells were taken, they were given…
at $11.66, down from $71 in January 2000, when it announced its merger with America Online (AOL). The gravity of the events of the past few years hit TJ like a hammer. TJ was coming down from the high she felt when the CEO called last week to promote her to a new position within Time Warner—effective today, September 1, 2004. TJ set aside her morning coffee and The Wall Street Journal to review the company's operations before replying to the first memo in her inbox. 546 1I prepared this case…
Physics Essay
150 3.3: Conservative Forces: Potential Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 3.3.1: Force from Potential Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 3.3.2: Potential Energy Function for Near-Earth Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 3.3.3: Springs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 3.4: Conservation of Mechanical Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 3.4.1: Force…
Words: 224057 - Pages: 897
Child Observation Essay
Motivation Theories Within Organization. Essay
Living in Digital World Essay
Religion Throughout British Literature Essay
A Constable Calls by Seamus Heaney Essays
The Challenges in Learning Foreign Language Essay


text:
Conflict management is at a low point
Click to see the Index
In today's post, Rosa Gosch interviews the team responsible for the latest edition of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index (BTI), launched in cooperation with Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster
What exactly is the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index, the BTI?
Hauke Hartmann (Senior Project Manager at BTI): The BTI team is interested in observing transformation processes from authoritarian systems to democracies based on rule of law and socially just market economies—and learning from what we see at the global level. To achieve this, the BTI analyzes and assesses the progress being made by 129 developing and transition countries with respect to political and economic transformation and governance quality.
Sabine Donner (Senior Project Manager at BTI): Our Status Index looks at these countries' current state of development in terms of democracy and the market economy. We believe that we need to examine both the political and the economic transformation to get a complete picture of societal change. Since quality of democracy is more than free and fair elections, our indicators also examine the extent to which citizens can participate politically and freely express their opinions. They also investigate the extent to which an independent justice system provides equality before the law and how parties, interest groups and NGOs act as liaisons between policymakers and society. Of course, a sustainable market economy needs more than growth and fiscal stability; creating and maintaining social balance is essential. So we look into the quality of a country's social safety nets, its investment in education and the environment, and whether there is a framework that enables economic participation for all people. Our Management Index examines how successful governments are shaping the change towards a democracy based on the rule of law and a socially just market economy. Key aspects of this are whether political players are able to set strategic priorities and implement their policies, whether they are successfully fighting corruption, and whether they are managing to create consensus between all parts of society about the path of transformation.
What are the findings of the newly published BTI 2014?
Robert Schwarz (Project Manager at BTI): We are seeing an increase in protests around the world. These protest movements are by no means limited to underdeveloped and hopelessly mismanaged dictatorships—Chile is a case in point. In many places, a well-connected, self-confident civil society is putting up more resistance against growing social inequality, bad governance, despotism and corruption. Governments need strategies for how to enter into constructive dialogue with protesters and how to moderate their interests without hurting the national transformation process, as appears to be happening in some countries right now.
Is developing such strategies one of the goals of the BTI?
Robert Schwarz: One of the goals of the project is to identify successful strategies from the trove of data and analyses that we have collected on transformation management. And to stimulate a learning process for decision-makers in other countries.
Hauke Hartmann: If there's anything we've learned from the work we've been doing during the ten years since the BTI began, it's that we can only develop those kinds of strategies through dialogue. It only works when we meet with scholars and decision-makers in politics and society to discuss the BTI's findings.
Sabine Donner: The basic premise of our work on the BTI is that transformation processes can only succeed if there are clear strategies for how to promote social change. And this strategic approach has to take into account that a very broad consensus needs to be reached regarding the direction in which the country is to develop.
What did each of you find to be the most remarkable finding in the BTI 2014?
Hauke Hartmann: I am impressed by how pervasive, intense and numerous the protests against despotism, mismanagement and corruption have been. It's remarkable that so many people are going to the streets for very similar reasons and saying, "No way! We don't want this kind of government! We don't want this kind of system!"
Sabine Donner: We are observing that many governments around the world seem to be helpless, inadequately dealing with these protests. Everywhere, including in Western European democracies, people are obviously asking similar questions, like, "Is this system capable of finding solutions to the burning questions of our time?" In democracies and autocracies alike, no one seems to be able to answer this question with a clear "yes" right now. I don't exactly find that encouraging, but it does raise other questions, like, "Where can we find new ideas or even old ideas to help strengthen democracy and democratization?"
Does the BTI give answers to those questions?
Hauke Hartmann: The BTI offers suggestions on where one might look for answers. I'm thinking of countries like Benin, Uruguay and Taiwan, which according to our findings are doing a very good job at getting civil society involved in political decision-making processes. In Uruguay they discuss education and security questions in a group that includes decision-makers from civil society. Benin is a very ethnically diverse society but the government keeps the country together by fostering consensus. As a result, Benin has a very clear national identity, unlike many other countries in West Africa.
How are transition countries doing in the realm of conflict management in 2014?
Hauke Hartmann: They are still limited in terms of their ability to moderate and de-escalate. This has always made it more difficult for them to steer transformation processes. But the new BTI shows their conflict management abilities reaching a new low. No other management indicator in the BTI showed a sharper decline. And the countries that take a moderate, balanced approach to dealing with forces that polarize and create conflict are located in regions that are not particularly prone to conflict. In other words, the regions where good conflict management is missing—in the Sahel, North Africa and the Middle East—those are the regions that need it more than ever. That is alarming. Governments feel very helpless right now because there is such extreme mistrust within these societies and everyone is so dug in. The people have experienced too many human rights abuses and crimes to see things differently.
Robert Schwarz: And in those very same regions, which have inadequate conflict management to begin with, the influence of religious dogma on national legal systems and political institutions has increased. When the state is usurped by religious dogmas or fundamentalism, it is even more difficult to enter into dialogue with the opposition.
Hauke Hartmann: In most cases, especially in polarized societies, there are two opposing sides that have a pretty clear idea of what they can gain at the polls, on the streets, and through an escalation of violence. And they often back different positions depending on which side they are on. For example, Thailand's current government knows very well that it will get all of the "red-shirt" votes from the rural areas and win the next election hands-down. Of course, the opposition in Bangkok won't play along. On the other hand, the opposition has absolutely no mandate to demand the resignation of a democratically elected government. It's counting on an escalation and the possibility of military intervention. Neither side has any interest in listening to the other side's mediation strategy.
Who uses the BTI?
Sabine Donner: To start, other organizations use our data to compile their own indices. The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators and the Ibrahim Index of African Governance are two examples. Transparency International uses our data to fight corruption in its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), as does the Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index (AML). In addition, many foreign ministries and development ministries use our data and country reports as an additional source when they assess their partner countries. In particular, the BTI's qualitative evaluations appear to be helping them by opening the door to political dialogue with governments in developing countries and transition economies. And those countries in turn can use the BTI as an additional, independent source to help them identify areas in which they are doing very well and areas in which they need to improve. We are delighted to see that more and more civil society organizations in developing and transition countries are using the BTI as a way of holding a mirror up to their governments and demanding accountability for social change.
Translated from the German by Douglas Fox
OECD work on peacebuilding, statebuilding and security
Emerging middle class blues
Exit, voice or loyalty?
Today's post is by Helmut Reisen, former Head of Research at the OECD Development Centre and author of the Shifting Wealth blog.
How is life? You might have expected the urban middle class in Brazil and Turkey to answer that well-known OECD slogan with "We can´t complain", to paraphrase a recurring refrain in Hans Magnus Enzensberger's 1964 poem Middle Class Blues. After all, the recalibration of the world economy toward the emerging countries, mostly as a result of superior prolonged growth in the Asian giants China and India, has since 1999 helped move roughly half a billion people above $2 a day, the median income poverty threshold in developing countries. Homi Kharas´ estimates for the OECD Development Centre projected almost 70% of the world´s middle class consumption – $56 trillion by 2030 – to be outside the OECD. No wonder then that the term "emerging country middle class" has been driving big dollar signs into many eyes.
Yet, the urban middle class youth is in revolt in Brazil, Turkey and other fast-growing countries. The controversy around Easterlin Paradox, a key concept of happiness economics, suggests that happiness grows more slowly than incomes. Leaders in many emerging countries are today confronted with a dilemma that reflects the dual rural-urban structure of their large societies. While the internet-savvy young urban middle-class has left poverty behind and demands voice, participation and efficient public services, there still coexist the poor in the rural hinterland striving to leave individual poverty behind.
Exit, voice and loyalty, the late Albert O Hirschman´s intriguing basic categories that drive societal change, can be used to better understand the current conundrum. Loyalty, through adherence to a political party or to religion, can block change but is waning. Exit and voice have different potential in a rural-urban context: exit from the rural to the urban sector is a preferred option for the rural poor but is mostly a one-way street; whence voice as the preferred option for the urban middle class.
Much of the emerging-country middle class is fragile. Lousy education, poor health and urban congestion are the biggest risks to the lower strata of the middle class, by way of social and economic exclusion. A higher proportion of middle-class citizens translates into higher prices for private schools, hospitals and transports or, alternatively, overcrowding. The private provision of quality public services is a socially dividing, hence limited, costly option. In other words, exit to private education and health services – an option for the "happy few" – will raise prices to the point that it triggers voice while the size of the middle class rises.
"First-world soccer stadiums; third-world schools and hospitals", was one of the slogans advanced by Brazil´s protesters. Brazil has already spent more than $3bn, three times South Africa's total four years earlier, and only half the World Cup stadiums are finished. Public health spending occupies a mere 4 per cent of GDP in Brazil (despite a constitutional declaration for universal health care rights), compared to 6 in Turkey and 7 in the OECD on average. The latest PISA test scores rank Brazil 57th out of 65 survey countries for mathematics, Turkey is ranked 43rd. These numbers suggest that there is a political and social premium on best practices in the governance and allocation of public spending of tax receipts. Apparently, that premium has not been reached.
Emerging-country leaders might ignore the insights of the OECD Latin American Outlook 2011 at their peril. The policy recommendations put forth there rightly emphasize the need for "fiscal legitimacy". To avoid the emerging middle class blues, public finances need to strengthen the social contract, provide better opportunities for the vulnerable people and better quality public services. Middle-income citizens are more willing to pay taxes for services, such as transport, health care and education, if they perceive them to be of high quality and if "white elephants" – trophy public investments with little social value – are avoided.
It is quite likely that the current protests, while destabilizing and weakening the affected governments in the short term, will be the start to stronger democracies and strengthen, rather than weaken, the rise of the emerging countries. As Susanna Vogt reminds us, Aristotle reflected "that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and that those states are likely to be well-administered in which the middle class is large […]; for the addition of the middle class turns the scale, and prevents either of the extremes from being dominant."
What the BRICS need: Education, employment, equality, and soft infrastructure by Helmut Reisen on OECD Insights
Economic Policy and Social Affairs in the BRICS by Helmut Reisen, SGI and the Bertelsmann Foundation
OECD Development Centre work on poverty reduction and social development
OECD shows how to fight inequality and boost growth at the same time
Join the dots and get a fright
If your sovereign debt was soaring and you were locked into a costly war, what would you do if, for various reasons, default and surrender had to be excluded from the policy package? Raise taxes and cut public services? But imagine there are practically no public services anyway and you've got as much as you can expect from taxes. Well, you could invent a temporary tax to be applied until things get better.
That's what British prime minister William Pitt did in 1798 when he announced certain "duties on income" to be gathered starting in 1799 to finance the war against Napoleon, inspired perhaps by the eisphora, a temporary tax on capital to finance wars used by Athens and other Greek cities from around 430 BCE on.
Income tax, as it came to be known, was abolished briefly during a lull in the fighting, and again following Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo, when Parliament decided that all documents connected with it should be collected, cut into pieces and pulped, although duplicates had already been sent to the King's Remembrancer. (By the way, I got these details from what must be one of the most unlikely celebration sites on the web: Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs Bicentenary of Income Tax page.)
The tax was soon back, joining the excise duties and other taxes that still form the basis of government income. What should this money be used for? The day to day running of the country obviously, but new OECD research as part of the Going for Growth programme argues that "countries should fight rising inequality with policies that simultaneously curb the income gap between rich and poor while boosting economic growth."
The World Economic Forum is worried about inequality too. Its annual survey of global risks warns about economic imbalances and social inequality, with respondents afraid that "further economic shocks and social upheaval could roll back the progress globalization has brought".
The OECD policy mix focuses on tax, labour markets and education. The reduction or elimination of "welfare for the well-off" – tax breaks that primarily benefit the rich would create space for growth-friendly reductions in taxes for all taxpayers.
Reducing the gap in employment protection between temporary workers and those on permanent contracts would reduce the average 25% wage differential between these two types of employees while boosting employment and growth. Provision of more affordable child care would similarly improve labour force participation rates and incomes for women.
Improving educational outcomes, particularly for immigrants and socio-economically disadvantaged populations, would have long-term impacts on their employment opportunities, incomes and inequality.
The OECD report also points out that some reforms imply tradeoffs, for instance shifting taxes from labour to consumption might improve incentives to work, save and invest, but would raise inequality.
OECD work on new sources of growth
Going for Growth will be released in March. In the meantime, you can download these:
Under shock: How to spread macroeconomic risks more fairly
Risk sharing
Reducing income inequality while boosting economic growth
Less income inequality and more growth – Are they compatible?


text:
Union League of America
Form of a council
Officers and their stations
The officers of a Council of the U. L. are: A President, Vice President, Assistant Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Marshal, Herald, Sentinel and Chaplain.
The P. occupies the principal station in the room; V.P. and A.V.P. at opposite end and in front of the P.; T., at the left hand of the P.; Sec. at the fight hand of the P.; M., near the V.P.; H., within the inner door; S., within the outer door, and Chaplain at the center of the room, on the right.
Emblems and Implements
Altar, Holy Bible, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Flag of the Union, Censer of Incense, Sword, Gavel and Ballot Box.
Opening a Council
The P. assumes the chair, and gives one rap with the gavel.
P.: I am now about to open this C. If there are any persons present not members of the U.L., they will please retire to the ante-room. The officers will take their respective stations.
The door is closed.
Mr. M., you will examine, satisfy yourself that all present are duly qualified, and report.
The M. makes a careful examination and reports: I proclaim this C. open for the transaction of such business as maybe lawfully brought before it.
Members respond: So be it.
The M. will then proceed to place the Flag, etc., upon the Altar, the books being open, and the Sword laid across them. These must so remain while the C. is in session and will be left in the care and custody of such officer as the P. shall direct, during the adjournment. Each C. should purchase these articles for its use.
P.: The M. will proceed to the ante-room and ascertain if there are any candidates awaiting admission into our Lodge, and instruct the S. to admit no persons, except members, until those in waiting have passed into the C.room, or departed thence.
The M. will make the examination, return to the C. and in a distinct voice announce the names of those in waiting; and then hand to the P. a list of their names in writing.
P.: The Sec. will read the list of names.
The Sec. reads them.
P.: Mr. Sec., have the names of these gentlemen been duly presented in open C., and balloted for and elected?
The Sec. will answer according to the record. If a Sec. pro tem is acting, who has not the records of the meeting at which the candidates were elected, members present may state the facts as to the action had of each of the app1icants, and the C. will judge whether they have been duly proposed and elected. Those that have not should be politely required by the M. to retire for that evening.
P.: The A.V.P. with the M. as a witness, will retire to the ante-room and make known to the candidates the object of this L., and propound to them the necessary interrogatories as provided in the R.
The A.V.P. and M. retire to the ante-room, where the A.V.P. makes known the following:
Object of the League
A.V.P.: Gentlemen, I am directed to state to you the object of this organization, which is: to preserve Liberty and the Union of these United States; to maintain the Constitution thereof, and that of this State, and the supremacy of the laws of the United States, to sustain the existing Administration in putting down the enemies of the Government, and thwarting the designs of traitors and disloyalists, and to protect, strengthen and defend all loya1 men, without regard to sect, condition or party.
After reading which, the A.V.P. shall proceed as follows:
Gentlemen (or Sir): Having read to you the object of our organization, before proceeding further I must exact of you a pledge of secresy:
Do you declare upon your honor as a man that you win keep secret whatever may here transpire in your presence?
Ans.
It now becomes my duty to propound the following questions, and it is required that you true answers make:
1. Are you sincerely opposed to secession and disunion?
2. Do you fully subscribe to the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence?
3. Do you declare upon your honor as a man and a patriot, that Liberty and the Union should be maintained and defended, even unto the sacrifice of life?
4. Do you acknowledge that your first and highest allegiance, under God, is due to the Government of the United States of America?
5. Are you willing to take such an oath of allegiance to the United States of America.
6. Are you willing to pledge yourself to resist, to the utmost extent of your power, all attempts to subvert or overthrow the Government of the United States?
7. Are you desirous of your own free will and accord, prompted by a sense of patriotic duty, and not by idle or prying curiosity, selfish or mercenary motives, to become a member of our League?
8. Do you pledge your honor that you will obey all rules and orders of the U. L., which shall not conflict with your 1awful rights and privileges as a loyal citizen, and keep inviolate all secrets and ceremonies of the League when communicated to you as such?
8hould the candidates answer the foregoing questions in the affirmative, the A.V.P. shall report to the P. and C. as follows:
A.V.P.: Mr. P., I have made the proper examination, and find all the candidates worthy, and willing to proceed.
The A.V.P. shall then address the P. as follows:
M.: Mr. P., I bear testimony to the truth of the A.V.P.'s report. I heard the proper questions propounded by him, and answered in the affirmative by each candidate.
P.: The M. will conduct the candidates to our C.
The M. retires and conducts the candidates to the door, and makes the usual alarm.
H.: Who comes here under the private signal of our L.?
M.: Candidates who, having been duly elected and examined, desire admission to our loyal band.
H.: Mr. P., the M. announces candidates who, having been duly elected and examined, desire admission to our loyal band.
P.: The loya1 and worthy are always we1eome. Admit them.
The door is opened and the candidates, preceded by the M., enter, in double file, arm in arm, and passing around the Altar, are presented in front of the V.P.'s chair. As they enter the door the P. gives three raps of his gavel, which will call up the C.
While the candidates are coming in and taking their places around the Altar, P. may direct the C. to sing a verse or more of some patriotic and appropriate Ode, as "The Flag of Our Union," "Rally Round the Flag, Boys," "Hail Columbia," "Star spangled Banner," etc., which may be printed on cards for the use of the C.
By signal from the P., the members take their seats during the delivery of the address. Perfect silence is enjoined upon them. Noise or whispering distracts the attention of the candidates.
M.: Mr. V.P., I have the pleasure or presenting these candidates for membership in our U. L.
V.P.: Gentlemen (or Sir): We rejoice that you have thus voluntarily come forward to unite yourselves with us. The cause we advocate is that of our country. Banded together for the purpose of perpetuating the liberties for which our fathers fought, we have sworn to protect them. In times of peril to our government and the Union, it becomes the sacred duty of all true patriots to unite in the preservation of Constitutional Freedom, and in thwarting the designs of traitors to attempt to destroy the tree of Liberty planted by our patriot fathers and watered by their blood. Neither domestic traitors nor foreign foes must be permitted to destroy this nation.
Strange and sad is the necessity which requires American citizens to organize in this manner to support the Constitution and the Union; but the Government under which we live is assailed by parricides and threatened with destruction. The consummation of their wicked aims would put out the beacon light of hope for the oppressed of other lands, and make our country the grave of Liberty on earth. By means of this loyal League we can render the Government essential service in the great work of saving the Union from perishing, and mankind from a dark and dismal future.
We ask none to join us who have not the noble sentiment of patriotism deeply implanted in their hearts, for such only are capable of rising above the level of the mere partisan, and claiming and defending the boon of freedom for its intrinsic value. It is to sustain this Government we are united, and for this purpose you are now required to take a solemn obligation, which I assure you does not in any way conflict with those duties you owe to yourself, your family, your country, or your God. With this assurance on our part are you willing to take such an obligation?
Ans., to be in the affirmative.
V.P.: The candidates will please turn and approach the altar.
Here the P. calls up the C. by four raps in couplets, and says:
P.: The Chaplain will blessing of Almighty God now invoke the upon our undertaking.
Eternal God! Supreme Architect and Ruler of the Universe! We humbly beseech Thee to protect the loyal people of the United States, and especially the members of this patriotic organization. Wilt Thou be pleased to direct and prosper all our consultations to the advancement of Thy glory, the honor and welfare of Thy people; and may all things be ordered and settled by the co-ordinate branches of our Government, upon the best and surest foundations, so that peace and happiness, truth and justice, may be established among us for all generations.
Save us, we pray Thee, from foreign foes and domestic traitors, and make us all faithful and true to the noble cause of Constitutional Liberty which Thou hast graciously committed to our care.
Be pleased to guide and direct us, as Thou didst our fathers in the Revolution; with the strength of Thine Almighty arm Thou didst uphold and sustain them through all their fiery trials, and at last didst crown them with victory.
May we be united in love for our common country, imbued with sentiments of Liberty, attached to the principles of the Constitution, filled with reverence for Thy Holy Law, and may Thy Good Spirit guide, strengthen and comfort us, now and forever. Amen.
Here, after darkening the room, the M. lights the Fire of Liberty, to burn during the administration of the Obligation; the members will be notified to join hands in a circle around the candidates and the Altar―the P. stepping within the circle.
When there are more candidates than can reach the Flag or Bible, they should be divided and obligated by sections.
The P. continues as follows:
Now place your left hand on the national Flag and raise your right toward heaven, repeating after me the following Obligation:
I, …, repeat your name after mine, do solemnly swear (or affirm) in the presence of God and these witnesses, that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States, since I have been a citizen thereof; that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States, and the flag thereof; against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will a1so defend this State against any invasion, instruction, or rebellion, to the extent of my ability. This I freely pledge without mental reservation or evasion. Furthermore, that I will do all in my power to elect true and reliable Union men and supporters of the Government, and none others, to all offices of profit or trust, from the lowest to the highest―in Ward, Town, County, State and General Government. And should I ever be cal1ed to fill any office, I will faithfully carry out the objects and principles of this L. And further, that I will protect, aid and defend all worthy members of the U. L. And further, I will never make knowl1 in any way or manner, to any person or persons not members of the U. L., any of the signs, passwords, proceedings, debates or plans of this or any other C. under this organization, except when engaging in admitting new members into this L. (Place your right hand upon the Holy Bible, etc.) And with my hand upon the Holy Bible, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States of America, under the seal of my sacred honor, I acknowledge myself firmly bound and pledged to the faithful performance of this my solemn obligation. So help me God.
Response by the members: To this we pledge ourselves.
P.: Gentlemen, around you is a band of freemen who are pledged to defend our glorious Union. They have made a high resolve, and will keep it or die. This circle is never to be broken by Treachery.
Response by the members: Never!
P.: Members of the C., will you enlarge your circle to admit new members?
Response by the members: We will.
P.: Prepare t hen for accessions to your ranks.
The circle will here be opened, the new members admitted, and with clasped and uplifted hans, all repeat the following:
Freeman's Pledge
To defend and perpetuate Freedom and the Union, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor. So help me God.
Here follows a patriotic ode at the discretion of the C.
All but the new members will take their seats, while the P. proceeds to deliver the following charge to the candidates:
The Oath which you have now taken of your own free will and accord, cannot rest lightly on your conscience, neither can it be violated without leaving the stain of perjury upon your soul. You have declared that, under God, your first and highest allegiance is to the Government of the United States. You have taken such an oath of allegiance, upon the Holy Bible, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence lying within the folds of the flag of the Union. These contain the enduring records of our rights and privileges.
The Flag is the ensign of our American nationality―the visible emblem of the sovereignty of the Union. Its stars represent the sister States, its stripes the thirteen original States, its colors, Courage, Purity and Truth.
The Bible contains man's moral code, and the principles of his religious faith; points out his dependence on the Author of his being, his duty to his fellow creatures, the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice.
The Declaration of Independence declares as self-evident truths, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It denies the despot's dogma of the "divine right of kings" to rule over mankind. It asserts that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; and solemnly affirms the right of the American people to govern themselves as a free and independent nation.
The Constitution is an instrument reducing to practice the precepts of the Declaration. It is Liberty regulated by Law. It defines and circumscribes the powers and duties of the National Government.
It was "ordained by the Fathers, in order to farm a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to themselves and their posterity."
The Sword is a weapon of protection and defense. By it and the aid of Divine Providence, the Independence of the American people was obtained. With it we may defend the rights and liberties belonging to a free and loyal people, jealous of their country's glories, greatness, and grandeur.
Lastly, the Light you behold burning upon the Altar is emblematical of the sacred fires of Liberty that burn forever in the breasts of all true patriots.
We inculcate the spirit and arts of peace, as essential to national happiness and prosperity; but when foreign fops or treacherous hands attempt to rob us of our National inheritance, let a million gleaming swords leap from their rests and turn every way to guard the Temple of our Liberties.
The following extract from Washington's Farewell Address may be incorporated in the "charge," at the discretion of the P.
"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is justly dear to you, for it is the main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, of your peace abroad, of your safety, your prosperity. even that liberty you so justly prize.
It is of infinite moment that you should properly esteem the immense value of your National Union to your collective and individual happiness. You should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it, accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as the "Palladium of your political safety und prosperity," watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now bind together the various parts."
Here the P. instructs the new members in the signs, etc. When these have been imparted, the P. may give a short history of the origin, present condition and future prospects of the organization. He should impress upon the member the impropriety of using the signs. etc., too often or carelessly, as it detracts from their value and increases their chances of exposure.