Edenbridge Bonfire Society has revealed its celebrity Guy for 2017.
The annual Edenbridge Bonfire celebration is held on the nearest Saturday to November 5, with a torch lit procession, bonfire and firework display, and this year the event will take place on Saturday, November 4.
Edenbridge Bonfire is especially famous for its 11m tall celebrity Guy, with past characters including Katie Hopkins, Donald Trump and Wayne Rooney.
This year, disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will be thrown on the bonfire, it has been revealed.
A spokesperson for Edenbridge Bonfire Society said: "As with last year there were many strong contenders for this year's celebrity guy, particularly in the political and cultural world. However, Weinstein was the obvious option due to allegations of outrageous and despicable conduct, which we at Edenbridge Bonfire Society obviously found completely abhorrent.


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Local author interview: C.L. Pauwels
As a new feature on this site, I am conducting interviews with various local authors I have worked with and/or have inspired me. Today we begin with one of my mentors, C.L. Pauwels.
What was the first creative piece you wrote?
The first time I remember writing anything creatively was in third grade. For Parent's Day, somehow my teacher staged all of us in a play I wrote about astronauts landing on the moon (yes, this was in the Neil Armstrong days – I'm old!) and teaching aliens English (!) vowels "A-E-I-O-U!" (I think that was the point of an assignment?). I'm sure I must have had help, and I wish I had a copy of that script today!
More personally, when my grandfather died in 1998, Nana gave me small notebook in which he'd collected all sorts of little poems and stories I'd written for him over the years. I don't remember most of them, but I'm so happy he saved them for me.
What initially inspired you to write the Jadz series?
First in that series, Forty & Out (2014) is based on the first mystery I published – a short story in 1989. At that time, I'd worked in the criminal justice field for almost ten years, and since I'd grown up reading Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Agatha Christie, et al, it seemed a natural progression to write my own crime fiction.
And while readers often ask, no, the book is not based on a real crime – that I know of!
Is there any particular message you'd like your novels to convey?
Many authors use their novels to beat readers over the head with some greater message, and while my values and beliefs come through in my work, that's not my goal. I write fiction to entertain, to provide an escape, and if along the way I can open a reader's eyes to new ways of thinking, all the better. My written worlds are diverse and socially aware, and peopled with all races, cultures, and lifestyles.
That's also where I differ with those who say an author's persona should be apolitical. If you don't like my life philosophy – whether through politics, religion, or whatever – you won't like my books anyway. Why hide who I am?
What inspires you most when you are feeling discouraged?
Connecting with fellow writers like you!
Creatively speaking, what are you working on currently?
I'm neck-deep in revisions/rewrites for #3 in the Jadz serious, working title Unwelcome Ties. It's actually a reworking of my 2010 master's thesis, which was an expansion/revision of my first NaNoWriMo win from 2005. How's that for coming full circle? But I love the main storyline too much to let it go, so it's getting an update that will include the early days of Jadz, and how she came to be the kick-ass detective we meet in Forty & Out.
I also have a nonfiction project simmering that really is based on a criminal case I worked when I was deputy clerk at the federal court in Toledo.
What authors are speaking to you most of late?
I've been rereading the entire Sue Grafton Alphabet Series, in homage to her after her untimely death in 2017. I had literally just finished Y is for Yesterday two days before her daughter announced, "The alphabet now ends with 'Y'." Yes, I cried!
I'm also working my way through fellow Yellow Springer M. Ruth Myers' Maggie Sullivan series. It's set in 1930s Dayton, and her characters are such fun to follow.
How do you feel about the state of the book industry? What would you change about it if you could?
I know this is heresy, but I wish Amazon were not so powerful! So many wonderful independent bookstores have been driven out of business by that behemoth. Plus the discount-driven mentality has seriously hurt the income potential for authors as a whole by devaluing the books we strive so hard to create.
And while it's nice that now anyone can write a book and publish it online – traditional publishing gatekeepers be damned, now anyone can write a book and publish it online. "Fake news" is enough of a problem in the mainstream media, and now it's a serious issue in the book industry as well. I spend so much time teaching my students how to separate fact from fiction, and the self-publishing world doesn't help.
Obviously that's a complex topic I can only rant on briefly here. All my opinion, of course, but you did ask!
Bonus question: In tribute to a site I used to write for, The Uncommon Geek, I am going to ask THE question. Do you prefer Star Trek, Star Wars, or both, and why?
Star Trek, definitely. Hubby and I are halfway through season three of Enterprise, having started (how long ago now?) with episode one of the original series and working our way through Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Yay, Netflix!
The Federation universe is a hopeful version of a future I doubt we'll ever attain – peaceful co-existence, exploration of new worlds without conquering them, eliminating racism/sexism/poverty/disease (mostly) – that's a dream worth having.
And no, we don't watch Discovery. It's fine as a new science fiction saga, I suppose (two episodes were more than enough for me), but it's not Star Trek. I'm cautiously optimistic for Star Trek: Picard, however. We'll see!
As for Star Wars, the original trilogy are favorites, not a fan of Anakin Skywalker's character at all (what a whiner!). The next trilogy, and the more recent films are hit and miss.
Dare I mention Firefly? 😉
Firefly indeed! I love it to death, and anyone who has read even a handful of chapters in the After Terra saga can attest to its influence on my work. I'd like to thank Cyndi for her time and graciousness in participating in this interview, as well as all the good work she has done for me and fellow writers as part of the Antioch Writer's Workshop. She has also been a counsel to me as both a human being and a writer in some dark times. She has my gratitude for this.
Pauwels' first and second novels, Forty & Out and Burned Bridges, are both available through select bookstores as well as on the aforementioned Amazon juggernaut. I am providing links below, as well as to her official social media and blog site.
Until next time. Stay classy, internet.
C.L. Pauwels blog and official website
Spacepage
Amazon listing for Forty & Out
Amazon listing for Burned Bridges
Antioch Writer's Workshop
C.L. Pauwels
local author
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clpauwels says:
Thank you again, Daniel, for sharing my work – and for the kind words! You're a treasured part of my writing community.
"Classy" indeed. 😉
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All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advice. Any statements about profits or income, expressed or implied, does not represent a guarantee. Your actual trading may result in losses as no trading system is guaranteed. You accept full responsibilities for your actions, trades, profit or loss, and agree to hold the Newsprofiteer team and any authorized distributors of this information harmless in any and all ways. The use of this website constitutes acceptance of our user agreement. Logos and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. So, I've decided to give them a proper answer: How much interest do you earn on a million dollars?
The answer is, of course, it depends. It depends on several factors including: What is the interest rate? How often is the interest calculated and paid during the period? Obviously the higher the interest rate, the better. Even small differences result in large amounts of money over long periods of time.
Compound interest works it's magic best over long periods of time. I'll give a couple of examples using different periods of time. How often is the interest calculated and paid? Is the money compounded yearly, quarterly, monthly, or daily? For our example we'll assume the money is compounded monthly. So, it doesn't take long for the money to really add up.
You can use a compound interest calculator to experiment with different interest rates, periods of time, and compounding periods. How much interest do you earn on one million dollars? If you really want to know how much interest one million can make then stop all the talk and do something. Just send me one million dollars and I will invest it. As others have said, tax is a critical issue here. It's much more efficient to put a million pounds into stocks, where there's no higher rate tax to pay. As I say, your US readers will need to look into the equivalent tax bands over there.


Jerry Blank's main body of work focuses around Tribute paintings to jazz legends, rock and roll giants, sports greats and celebrated stars of the entertainment world. Most of his work is in an impressionist montage style, capturing images from the subject's career and life. In addition, Jerry has extensive suite of paintings with pay tribute to European cityscapes, Las Vegas cityscapes, landscape, figurative expressions and various other subjects.
Spending most of his early career as a graphic designer, Jerry went to Paris in 2000 to paint, travel and speak French. Returning with fifty-one paintings after a year, his fine art career was launched. His work is in private and commercial collections internationally.


Body Positivity — Meant To Be, Yasmine.
My weight has fluctuated since elementary school. For as long as I can remember my life has been filled with conversation surrounding food consumption, calories, and carbohydrates. That kind of existence can cripple your confidence, and it did until I learned as an adult to quiet the noise of the world and ask myself - what did I want for my life and my body. Using my platform to promote body acceptance is important to me because falling in love with myself literally saved my life.
If you are struggling with body acceptance or would like for me to speak at an event, please fill out the contact form below. Help me spread this message that is self-love!


No wonder you have decided to move from New York to Philadelphia. Philly is just a couple of hours car ride distance from NYC. You will love it after moving to Philadelphia because of its rich American history, wonderful landmarks, and delicious food. The first step is to hire Brooklyn movers and storage professionals to help you with your relocation. Hiring good and reliable movers is the most important step of every move. Since you have decided on moving to Philadelphia we are going to help. We will give you information and advice about what you can expect after you move to Philly.
The first thing you will probably want to know is the price of living in Philadelphia. Well, let us just tell you that you are definitely going to save money. First of all, hire affordable movers and find out where to get free cardboard boxes, if you want to save money on your relocation. Moreover, you should know that moving to Philly means saving money. The living costs here are much lower than in NYC. The prices in Philly are quite reasonable compared to many other cities in the USA.
There are many great neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Just like you did your research before you got a house in Brooklyn, you should also do your research about the best places to live in Philly. No matter if you are single or you have a family, you will definitely manage to find a neighborhood in Philly that will fit your needs.
They are all close to the wonderful Fairmount Park. There are beautiful biking and walking trails you will definitely enjoy. If you decide to live here you will get that small town experience.
This part of Philly is perfect for families. The neighborhoods are residential and you will have that safe suburban way of life if you move here. Northeast Philly takes up a large area and there are many great quiet and safe neighborhoods. You will enjoy awesome and affordable shopping since the popular Philadelphia Mills outlet mall is located here. Moreover, you must take your family to the popular Chickie's and Pete's restaurant. You can try fabulously delicious crab fries there.
The most famous and largest university in Philly, the Temple University, is located here. So fantastic education is guaranteed. In addition to this, you will love the cuisine. There are many wonderful ethnic restaurants here. Moreover, there are many great historic landmarks to visit and fantastic people to meet.
They call this part of Philly the University City. This comes as no surprise since the University of the Sciences, Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania are all located here. Since there are so many students here there are many places where you can find cheap fun. There are amazing restaurants, clubs and a great movie theatre. Moreover, there are many parks and green spaces.
This part of Philadelphia is all about sports. Some of the most popular stadiums are located here. Eagles stadium is located at the Lincoln Financial Field. The Phillies have their stadium located at the Citizens Bank Park. The 76ers have their stadium at the Wells Fargo Center. Apart from sports, there is a developed Italian community here. You are going to love the Italian food and Italian restaurants. Moreover, there is an Italian Market here where you can buy authentic Italian ingredients. This part of Philly is famous for its diversity.
You can go for a walk and discover these beautiful sights yourself. On, the other hand, there are guided tours as well. Visit Reading Terminal Market to find the best food. You also have to visit Chinatown that is very close to the downtown area. In addition, the places you should also visit are the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia Art Museum and the Free Library of Philadelphia.
This is an area you just have to visit after moving to Philadelphia. This area of the city is experiencing the biggest boom. The most prominent development in Philly is happening here. Moreover, this part of Philly is a heaven for foodies. You can find cuisines from all over the world. Try dining in a Venezuelan restaurant and then have some German beer in a great beer hall. There is a train line that the locals call the El. You can ride it and go from neighborhood to neighborhood in minutes. The Fishtown is the place for all fun lovers. There are many great venues and clubs. If you want to try your luck, there is even the famous SugarHouse Casino.
You definitely have to visit the main symbol of American independence – the Liberty Bell.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a must visit. You will see the popular stairs shown in the movie Rocky. There are art pieces from America, Europe, and Asia.
If you are an animal lover you should visit the Philadelphia Zoo.
Eastern State Penitentiary is a prison where Al Capone was locked up. Around Halloween, you can enjoy haunted prison tours here.


Yes, there is such a thing as a paintball bazooka (AKA paintball grenade launcher), and I am their biggest fan. Paintball bazookas are a great way to spice up your paintball game. And they can be pretty deadly on the paintball fields. Plus….. we should not discount the cool factor of these guns. They look ridiculously badass, and your friends will beg for a piece of their action.
Let's go through the benefits of a paintball bazooka, and see what these guns can do for you.
I say "relatively" because they are not cheap. A paintball bazooka costs around 400 dollars, which compared to a high end paintball gun, is an absolute steal. A decent paintball gun with all the bells and whistles costs around a grand. You could get two and a half paintball bazookas for that price. Or you could purchase a 600 dollar paintball gun AND a paintball grenade launcher.
For 400 dollars… you get a lot of gun… Paintball grenade launchers are gigantic! And quite simply make all surrounding players gaze in admiration. Finally, some has done it.
Now you can play paintball games that involve paintball grenade launchers. Which opens up a whole slew of possible war scenarios. A paintball bazooka will give you and your friends a sense of realism. Yes, these guns are model replicas of real life guns. Classical paintball rifles originally tried to do the same thing, but had little success. I guess the giant paintball hopper protruding from a paintball rifle gives it away….. most paintball guns won't fool anybody, but paintball bazookas look like the real deal.
Don't let the title of paintball bazookas fool you, you can put more than paintballs in these guns. The most common alternative is airsoft bb's, and in fact, many people prefer airsoft ammunition. The main reason being that airsoft ammunition is cheaper than paintballs. Paintball Bazookas allow you to Get creative though. You don't have to spend anything if you use various objects lying around the house. Just be carefull that you are not using any objects that could injure someone. Be safe, but feel free to experiment. A paintball bazooka can be loading with anything that will fit into its gigantic barrel.
Good luck to all you unfortunate bazooka victims out there. Paintball grenade launchers hit multiple targets at once. Your ammunition (whatever that may be) will fire in all sorts of unpredictable angles. An opposing player will have no chance. Where can you hide, if every bit of area is being doused with paintballs? Fire one of these in the direction of the other team, and you've not only hit your main target…. you've hit a few of his buddies as well!
A paintball bazooka is not all that expensive, and overall, will be a really cool investmet. Not only do paintball bazookas look badass, they are also rather usefull on the paintball fields.
Paintball Minigun or Paintball Grenade Launcher?
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As an inveterate tinkerer, I've developed a ton of house rules for ACKS over time. Here are the ones I'm using for my Black City campaign. Updated class descriptions (including custom classes) can be found on the Black City Class Summary.
In general, I'm using new rules from the ACKS Heroic Fantasy Handbook (HFH) except for Heroic Fate, and I've tweaked thievery and spellsinging.
Thievery Skills: I am not using the adventuring equipment from the Heroic Fantasy Handbook (except maybe as "magical" items), nor am I using the Dexterity modifiers or encumbrance rules from the Heroic Adventures chapter.
Missile Attacks into Melee: When shooting into melee, the character can either shoot wildly (roll normally to hit, target is determined randomly by referee) or – if the target is at short range – take an aimed shot. Aiming allows the attacker to select his target, but the attack throw is made with a a -4 penalty. If a natural 1 is rolled on the attack throw, the shot hits an unintended target (selected by the referee).
Precise Shooting: This proficiency reduces the missile attack penalty against opponents engaged in melee by 2. In addition, the character will not hit unintended targets when taking an aimed shot at short range, even on a roll of natural 1. Selecting this proficiency a second time eliminates the missile attack penalty entirely.
Backstab & Armour: Characters wearing armour heavier than leather are restricted to ×2 damage on a successful Backstab.
Surgery hasn't been invented yet, so Healing is restricted to 2 ranks (Physicker).
Lamp oil cannot be used in combat. Flasks of Military Oil only burn for 1d4 points of damage. Greek Fire burns for full 1d8 damage and costs 25gp.
Where each value is the max weight in stones for a given movement rate (120'/90'/60'/30′).
Fighter Trade-Offs (Custom Classes): Fighter Trade-Offs for custom classes are only 125XP instead of 150XP (see ACKS Player's Companion, p.79).
This decreases slightly the base XP for a number of Fighter subclasses, which I've included in my Black City Class Summary and the relevant class descriptions.


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Dongtan () es una nueva ecociudad planeada al este de la isla de Chongming (en la desembocadura del río Yangtsé con el océano Pacífico), en las afueras de Shanghái, China, que está siendo diseñada por un equipo internacional de profesionales encabezado por el arquitecto chileno Alejandro Gutiérrez, consultor de la compañía británica Arup. La urbe comenzará a construirse en 2007 y contará con una superficie de 8.500 hectáreas y unos 500 mil habitantes.

Diseño ecológico
En 2004, Gutiérrez fue contactado para que analizara el desarrollo de un complejo inmobiliario en la isla. El problema era que se emplazaría cerca de un humedal, sitio protegido por el Convenio de Ramsar, donde habita el ave espátula, de la cual quedan sólo mil ejemplares en toda Asia. El poder económico de Shanghái hizo viable la iniciativa; incluso actualmente se estudia la construcción de dos ciudades más en el área y otras dos en Pekín. En octubre de 2005 se presentó el diseño final, aprobado por la Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation. La iniciativa cuenta además con el apoyo del gobierno chino. La inversión en su etapa inicial fluctuará entre los 500 y 1000 millones de dólares.

Dongtan sólo utilizará energía renovable (biomasa, eólica y solar). Los automóviles y el transporte público funcionarían con hidrógeno u otro tipo de energía limpia. En una primera fase ellos botan todo se reciclará el 80% de la basura y el resto irá a parar a rellenos sanitarios. El agua potable será utilizada dos veces: primero para consumo humano y luego para descargas sanitarias y regadío de cultivos orgánicos. Los edificios tendrán una altura máxima de 8 pisos y ahorrarán dos tercios de la energía que consume uno convencional, por lo que serán edificios energéticamente eficientes. La ciudad estará apartada 3,5 kilómetros del humedal y el transporte público será la base para movilizarse. En una primera etapa contará con buses, luego se sumarán tranvías y un ferrocarril suburbano que comunicará con Shanghái. Asimismo, el diseño inteligente contempla que sus habitantes se movilicen a pie o en bicicleta.

La ciudad estará dividida en villas de 25.000 a 30.000 habitantes. Desde el punto de vista económico se sustentará con tres polos de desarrollo: centros de educación superior e investigación de temas relacionados con el uso de la energía, turismo y desarrollo agrícola.

Está previsto que antes de 2040 la ciudad deberá tener un tamaño equivalente a la mitad del que tiene Manhattan.

Referencias
 Detalle en el sitio web de Arup
 Arquitecto chileno lidera equipo que diseñó primeras cinco ecociudades en China, en La Tercera (6 de mayo de 2007)

Arquitectura moderna
Arquitectura sustentable
Shanghái
Localidades planificadas
Ecociudades

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We are supporting our Aussie farmers.
Creep Quiz. Are you Safe Online?
We will be having our World's Greatest Shave day here at school.
Finer details of the trip.
Parent/Teacher interview afternoon to allow you to consult with your child's teachers.
Kepnock Students will march in 2 Ceremonies on ANZAC Day.
The booking system will be accessible.
A perfect opportunity for your business to showcase your formal products/services.
Fish tank is an entrepreneurial program run by a student Committee.
If you did not get your photo taken when they were here last time.
Junior -9:25am Senior - 10:25 am School Captains , House Captains and Student leaders.
3 fun water actives/events best dressed house, best house spirit.
School holidays are almost upon us.
25 November is White Ribbon Day.
Stand up and speak out against domestic and family violence.
Good luck to all year 12 students starting exams today.
'Fractured' is our annual Arts Showcase event.
Students are required Thursday 26 October 6:30 pm for a 7:00 pm start.
Monday, 16 October 2017 is a Student free day.
3.30pm Friday, 1 September 2017.
Congratulations to the members who participated last weekend.
Come to school in your teams colour and show your pride for your state.
Interviews will be held in the RJ Young Hall.
School Watch is a community based awareness and crime prevention program.
All summer sports finals due to be played on Friday are cancelled (including indoor sports).
The cross country will be run next term.
The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.
Parent teacher semester two interviews will be held Monday 1 August from 4 pm to 6 pm.
The Parent/Teacher interview afternoon will be held on Monday, 18th April from 4pm - 6pm.


Al-Barka, Basilan (March 27, 2017) – Since February 2015, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has brought free services closer to the public through People's Day, a monthly activity. On Monday, March 27, the regional government went to Basilan province's Al-Barka town, the Abu Sayyaf Group's former stronghold, to mount such event.
People's Day brings different line agencies of the ARMM in convergence to offer free basic social services to the region's constituents for free, and to reach the people at the grassroots level.
"We want to ensure that residents in Al-Barka have access to all the vital services and assistance from the government," said ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman who led the activity supported by Basilan Governor Jim Saliman, Al-Barka Mayor Darussalam Lajid, heads of regional line agencies, and local officials.
The town may have earned an unfavorable reputation, but the ARMM government is leading the way to make it become a more welcoming and better place. Gov. Hataman said the aim is to free Al-Barka from banditry and poverty by guaranteeing the delivery of government projects in the town.
For 40 years, the town served as the bastion of the terror group Abu Sayyaf, which Gov. Hataman said hampered the government in bringing in support to the town. "The people here deserve quality government service and we are bringing it in," he said.
· distribution of devices to persons with disabilities, among others.
The Basilan provincial government also distributed relief goods to the residents.
Takasan Adirul, 65, was thankful that his family received assistance. He added that seeing many people for the first time made the distribution more meaningful. "Ngayon lang kami nakakita ng ganito karaming tao," Adirul said. "Kahit maraming kaguluhan, alam naming maraming tutulong sa amin," he added.
Gov. Hataman added that the people should lead in winning the peace in their place, with the assistance from the local government unit and the ARMM government as well.
The governor also inked a memorandum of agreement and groundbreaking ceremony of the P10-million project under the ARMM-Health, Education, Livelihood, Peace and Governance and Synergy (HELPS) that would directly benefit Barangay Macalang. Barangay government center and other high-impact projects would be among the projects under the ARMM-HELPS in the barangay.
Since 2012, including the P132.5 million infrastructure budget for 2017, the Al-Barka town would receive P877 million worth of projects from the DPWH-ARMM. Almost 90% of this amount funded 45 kilometers of roads in the town.
Gov. Hataman added that People's Day will also be held in the region's five provinces – Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi – in the coming months. The primary target areas of People's Day will be conflict-affected barangays in the five provinces.
The ARMM People's Day is a monthly activity that serves as an opportunity for regional line agencies and offices to offer and render their front-line services to the people of ARMM. Agencies are using this platform as an exposure to actualize their objectives and goals in pursuit of an improved and effective service to people.


When your ability to clearly hear decreases to the point at which you need one or two hearing aids, the process might not happen suddenly. If your hearing goes downhill over time, you might not realize the degree to which you're struggling with hearing what's around you. Visiting a hearing specialist for a test -- and getting hearing aids to restore your hearing -- can drastically improve your quality of life. It can be a big step forward to make the initial consultation appointment, but to do so, you have to first realize that your hearing could stand improvement. Here are three signs that you can benefit from a hearing test.
Hearing difficulties can affect people in a number of ways, but many people commonly experience trouble with hearing clearly in noisy and crowded settings. If you find that the noise in a public area such as a shopping center or restaurant generates a steady din that prevents you from keeping up with the conversations with those in your immediate vicinity, you're getting a subtle sign that your hearing might need to be checked.
It can often be easy to notice that you have trouble hearing -- but difficulty accepting it. If you find that you're making subtle changes to various parts of your life to compensate for your hearing difficulty, it's definitely time to schedule a hearing test. For example, you try to avoid social settings because you're embarrassed of being unable to clearly follow a conversation or you find that you avoid initiating discussions with family members. Or, perhaps you begin to skip activities that were previously enjoyable, such as talking to your grandchildren on the phone or attending speeches from guests at your local service club. Don't let your hearing limitations limit your enjoyment of life -- it's time to restore your quality of life by seeing if a hearing aid can help you.
One person's struggle to hear can lead to issues with his or her family members. Family members can get frustrated with having to repeat themselves, while the person who has trouble hearing might impatiently accuse family members of speaking in hushed tones or keeping the TV volume low. If you're seeing signs that your hearing is causing difficulties with your spouse and children, you're getting a hint that your hearing is worth having tested by someone like Audiology Consultants, P.C.


I published an article today on my Linkedin profile Using Artificial Intelligence to Calculate Characteristic Town Index In this article, I described a milestone project that we recently accomplished and how it made me instantly famous in the field.The follow is the content of the Linkedin article.
Characteristic town development is a hot topic in China. I am extremely excited to announce that using artificial intelligence we have successfully developed Characteristic Town Index for 3,700 towns in China. Based on the index, we are able to identify the most promising towns objectively and efficiently for development. This is the first time that artificial intelligence is used in characteristic town evaluation. It is a cross-team effort under my leadership as the CTO of Hangzhou Jingli Company.
Multiple teams have spent months to collect 69 variables that are relevant for 3,700 towns. These variables cover climate, geography, economy, ecology, transportation, Internet infrastructure and so on.
Expert systems are subjective, rigid and static. It is hard to adjust expert systems based on the discrepancies between their outputs and the realities. The feedback mechanism is lacking.
Data, machine learning models and applications should form closed loops. The data are used to train models. Models' outputs provide decision support for applications. The data are updated and enhanced when models are applied in real world, e.g., finding better target variables. These closed loops allow models to be improved iteratively.
This article has made me instantly famous in this field in China. However, the success doesn't come instantly at all. The core ideas are from my award-winning academic paper published two decades ago "Using genetic learning neural networks for spatial decision making in GIS". I feel fulfilled that I finally implement the ideas for practical applications in the field of GIS.


For 38 years, in a region where the quality of air is integral to living and working, Taqeef has pioneered the air-conditioning industry, together with leading international brands such as Fujitsu General, Midea, Mdv, Cooline and Sampo. Established in 1972 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Taqeef has touched every fabric of society and communities from homes to offices, schools to mosques, government institutions to private corporations. Taqeef comprises Saya Trading in Abu Dhabi, Electronic Appliances in Al Ain, Taqeef in Ras Al Khaimah and Taqeef in Dubai.
Taqeef was looking for a new BI technology that would provide insight into their existing data to impart data-driven decision making across the organization. After examining several business intelligence solution options, the organization chose to go with Tableau Software because of its advanced visualization and ease of use. With Tableau in hand, Taqeef sought expert help in getting their data initiatives off the ground. This included the right mix of consulting along with some amount of Tableau training. They needed assistance from a Tableau partner that fully understands how to implement lasting data analysis solutions in Tableau.
Edgematics business intelligence consultants stepped in and evaluated Taqeef's specific needs. Server requirements were quickly analyzed, and a strategy for onsite consultation was developed. They met with Taqeef's key staff and discussed the goals of data exploration, how to obtain the data, and how to prototype customized dashboards. They then constructed a data environment optimized for Tableau. The ad-hoc consulting provided by Edgematics ensured a successful implementation. In order to give Taqeef rapid results, Edgematics implemented a detailed, hands on Tableau training workshop to train staff and provided some assistance on building visualizations with Tableau.
Edgematics enabled Taqeef to go from analyzing disjointed data to visualizing it effortlessly in Tableau. They now had Tableau dashboards not only for analytical purposes but also for strategic purposes. C-level dashboards to daily reports are now being generated in Tableau. Tableau's integrated mobile experience now connected them to insight from anywhere, using iPads. Tableau training from Edgematics not only enabled Taqeef to tackle their current data goals; it also opened the door for them to explore a number of new opportunities for analysis in Tableau. Being able to transform data into actionable insights has now enabled Taqeef to move from opinion-based decisions to data-driven decisions.


text:
A recent Court of Appeals decision, Matter of Sharon S.B. v. Elizabeth C.C. changed the definition of "parenthood" in New York State, expanding the definition beyond biological parents. This case does not give step-parents standing to seek visitation or custody of step-children, but it is a stepping stone in the process. This case gave standing to non-biological, non-adoptive, "de facto" parents in very specific circumstances. Matter of Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A.C.C., 28 NY 3d 1 (2016), 2016 NY Slip Op. 05903.
But, the Court made a caveat which prevents this decision to directly apply to step-parents: the parties must have together agreed to conceive and co-parent the child. Step-parents generally come on the scene later than the making of the conception with someone other than them decision. The Court went to great lengths to assure this. Specifically, the Court held that:
"A person who is not a biological or adoptive parent may obtain standing to petition for custody or visitation under Domestic Relations Law Sec. 70, in accordance with the test outlined…."
And the test is: "…where a petitioner proves by clear and convincing evidence that he or she has agreed with the biological parent of the child to conceive and raise the child as co-parents, the petitioner has presented sufficient evidence to achieve standing to seek custody and visitation of the child." Ibid. at 28.
Though this case, and the companion cases determined with it, addressed same sex couples, which is an absolute boon to the children of these couples, the principles behind it are not limited to same sex couples. As with any matters of child custody and visitation, the best interests of the child are of paramount concern, which New York has completely ignored in determining standing in these cases. The same disregard is shown in step-parent standing for these children.
"Standing" is the requirement that a person who brings a lawsuit be a proper party to request adjudication of the particular issue involved. In NY Domestic Relations Law §70, the term "parents" in a custody action has been limited to biological parents. This is why the non-biological member of a same sex couple and step-parents alike had no right to seek custody or visitation. Petitions for that relief would simply be dismissed. This case changes that in specific situations for same sex couples, as set forth in the above quotation.
Back to best interests of the children. Many other states, including Oklahoma, Arizona, New Jersey and more, have statutes and case law recognizing the import of standing for "de facto" parents. This includes those individuals with no biological connection to the child/children, but with an established an emotional and psychological parental relationship. New York is behind the curve on this, with this case only being one step in the correction of the abandonment of the best interests of children in the face of losing a de facto parent completely. One does not need a degree in psychology to know, without a doubt, that removing a fit, involved de facto parent from a child after 2, 3, 5, 10 years as the acting parent (usually father) will cause emotional and psychological damage to a child.
Yet, New York maintained a cavalier disregard of the emotional and psychological well-being of these children, forcing them to bear that damage without remedy. It is morally reprehensible, yet New York continues to visit this horror upon our children. Matter of Brooke S.B. is the first case recognizing this gross flaw in determination of the best interests of children, and it is huge. An absolutely stunning recognition of the problem that has always existed and which needed correction. Though it is worthy of note that step-parents can be tapped for child support of a child they have no right to see and they have no standing, rights or remedy to see that child. New York recognizes only an obligation of step-parents, but grants them no rights.
As to step-parents, there are hurdles yet to be jumped before their import in the lives of children is recognized, but this is how laws change. One case at a time, and only the cases that are appealed. Trial court decisions have little impact in changing the law, but for the fact that they make the foundation to create the appeal. This case acknowledges the negative emotional and psychological impact on children who lose the non-biologic same sex
The New York Court of Appeals was very clear, repeatedly writing that this determination was limited to the facts before it, refusing to make a determination beyond the facts of the parties agreeing to conceive and co-parent, with proof by clear and convincing evidence of these facts, to obtain a grant of standing. The Court did not want to open the floodgates for step-parent rights. Clearly. But in the mere act of trying to keep those floodgates closed, there is a tacit acknowledgment that there is something behind those floodgates, and it is thousands of step-parents that should be entitled to standing. And, worse, the ongoing emotional and psychological devastation perpetrated upon children who have had a fit, involved de facto parent ripped from their lives. The situation is nothing less than heartbreaking.
Some of the hurdles that will have to be jumped for step-parents to attempt to gain standing:
Constitutional impediment in that biological parents have a constitutional rights to bring up their own children and make decisions for them. How do de facto parents fit into these constitutional rights of biological parents?
With two living, involved biological parents, whose "parenting time" will be forfeited for the de facto parent's time with the child?
How best to overcome the need for agreement between the parties to "conceive and raise the child as co-parents.
What will the real test be to determine if someone is a de facto parent entitled to custody rights of the child?
Jumping these hurdles will not be easy, but the efforts should not be given up merely because it will be difficult. Loved children deserve the efforts. All it takes is the right case, taken up on appeal to open the doors. It can happen. It should happen or New York cannot rightly claim that decisions make paramount the best interests of the children.
If you would like to discuss issues of custody and visitation for step-parents, please Contact Diana, or call 315-565-2760.


I connected to the Fuji ceremony at 4 am on Sunday morning. I started with a prayer without words, and then offered prayers for regions and continents involved in conflicts. I continued with a meditation and prayers until 7 am. At that time, I drove back home and I saw the end of the online broadcast from Fuji Sanctuary. I was very tired by then, so I did another short wordless prayer and a short meditation before falling asleep.
When I woke up at 6 pm, I watched first part of the Fuji Sanctuary SOPP on Ustream and then at 9 pm I held a private ceremony of prayers for peace in each country. Technology is really making our world smaller and can definitely be used for good purposes!


text:
Category: Informational
P. Barker
R. Hedberg
Technical University Delft
DSA Metrics
(OSI-DS 34 (v3))
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
This document defines a set of criteria by which a DSA implementation may be judged. Particular issues covered include conformance to standards; performance; demonstrated interoperability. The intention is that the replies to the questions posed provide a fairly full description of a DSA. Some of the questions will yield answers which are purely descriptive; others, however, are intended to elicit answers which give some measure of the utility of the DSA. The marks awarded for a DSA in each particular area should give a good indication of the DSA's capabilities, and its suitability for particular uses.
Please send comments to the authors or to the discussion group <osi-ds@CS.UCL.AC.UK>.
1.   Overview                                                      2
2.   General Information                                           3
3.   Conformance to OSI Standards                                  4
3.1    Directory protocols.............................       4
3.2    Implementors' agreements and profiles  .........       6
3.3    Protocol stacks.................................       6
3.4    DIT structure  .................................       7
4.   Other protocols                                               7
5.   Extensions to the 1988 Standard                               7
5.1    Schema .........................................       7
5.2    Support for replication.........................       8
5.3    Support for access control .....................       8
5.4    Miscellaneous  .................................       9
6.   Miscellaneous characteristics                                10
7.   Management tools                                             11
7.1    Dynamic system management  .....................      11
7.2    Static system management  ......................      12
7.3    Data management.................................      12
8.   Operational Use                                              12
9.   Interoperability                                             12
10.  Performance                                                  13
10.1   Speed for various operations  ..................      14
10.1.1   Bind .....................................      14
10.1.2   List .....................................      15
10.1.3   Search  ..................................      15
10.1.4   Read .....................................      16
10.1.5   Add entry.................................      16
10.1.6   Modify entry .............................      16
10.1.7   Modify RDN  ..............................      16
10.1.8   Query rate  ..............................      17
10.2   The results.....................................      17
10.3   Environment used for benchmarking  .............      17
11. Security Considerations                                       21
12. Authors' Addresses                                            21
The purpose of this document is to define some metrics by which DSA products can be measured. Such metrics are valuable as whilst an X.500 DSA must conform to the specification in the standard - this is a sine qua non - protocol conformance is not in itself the hallmark of a usable implementation. A DSA must perform operations within a reasonable time; a DSA must offer good throughput of queries; a DSA must be able to handle a reasonable volume of data; if modification operations are provided, some sort of access control must be provided; a DSA and its data must be manageable.
In many respects, it is almost impossible to say that one DSA is better than other from looking at the responses to questions in this document. For some, the cost or level of support will be the key criterion. For another user, the flexibility of the schema management facilities, or the feasibility of running the DSA over an existing relational database, will be of prime importance. In many respects DSAs will just be different, rather than better or worse. However, all other things being equal, the look-up speed of a DSA is very obviously measurable, and there is a substantial number of questions on the speed of the various X.500 operations, and in particular on the look-up operations.
Throughout this document, some of the questions posed are annotated with a square-bracketed points score and an explanation as to how the points should be allocated. For example, a question might be
appended with "[2 if yes]", indicating score 2 points for an
affirmative answer to that question.  These points scores should be
collated in Table 1 at the end of the document.  The questions on DSA
performance are judged to be important enough to have a separate
table for those results:  they appear in Table 2 (and optionally
Table 3).  Together, these tables constitute a measure of the DSA.
The metrics are on a section by section basis, which should help the reader who is seeking, for example, a DSA with fast look-up capabilities and extensive access control facilities, to focus on the critical aspects of a DSA for their particular requirement. No conclusions should be inferred from adding the scores together into one overall grand total and comparing such totals for different DSAs, as no attempt is made to assign weights to the different characteristics.
Whilst much of this document should usually be completed by the developers or suppliers of an implementation, the section on performance could be completed by anyone running the implementation. Indeed, it will be beneficial if several sets of performance figures can be gathered for each implementation, for a variety of hardware platforms.
2. General Information
This section contains general information about the implementation under discussion.
1. Name of the information provider ................................
Name of the implementation ......................................
Version number of the DSA described in this document ............
Are there plans to implement the additional features describe in the 1992/3 standard? [6 for full implementation, 4 if both access control and replication to be implemented, 2 for some 1992 features] ..................................................
5. Name and address of supplier or person to contact ...............
Describe the hardware and software platforms supported by the DSA [up to 4 points may be awarded for this question]
(a)  Hardware (If appropriate, can summarise as, for example
"generic UNIX platform") ..................................
(b)  O/S (state version if critical)
i. UNIX) (be sure to indicate which flavour - e.g.,
SYSV [1], BSD [1], SUNOS, etc) ..........................
ii. VMS) [1] ................................................
iii. MS-DOS [1] ..............................................
iv. Macintosh [1] ...........................................
v. Other) [1] ..............................................
7. Name any other software required to run the system which is not
supplied with the operating system or with the DSA software
itself.  Examples might include a database package, or
communications software .........................................
8. Is this DSA an integrated part of a software package, and in such
case which ?  ...................................................
9.  Is the software free?  If the DSA needs other packages, are these
also freely available?  [3 if completely free, 1 if requires
commercial software package] ....................................
10. Is commercial support available for this implementation?  [3] ...
11. Is free, best effort support available from the developers?  [2].
12. Is free support available via user groups or email lists?  [2] ..
3. Conformance to OSI Standards
3.1 Directory protocols
Does the DSA implement DAP?
(a) Read ASE? [2] ...............................................
(b) Search ASE? [2] .............................................
(c) Modify ASE? [2] .............................................
Does the DSA implement DSP?
(a) Chained read ASE? [2] .......................................
(b) Chained search ASE? [2] .....................................
(c) Chained modify ASE? [2] .....................................
Statement requirements according to section 9.2.1 in X.519.
(a)  Supported application-contexts?  ............................
(b) Capable of acting as first-level DSA? [1] ...................
(c)  Chained mode supported?  [1] ................................
(d)  Security-level(s) supported?  [1 for strong + 1 for protected
simple + 1 for simple authentication] .......................
(e)  All attribute types according to X.520?  [1] ................
(f)  All object classes according to X.521?  [1] .................
Does the implementation meet the conformance clauses in section 9.2.2 and 9.2.3 of X.519? Static requirements [2 if yes on all]
(a) Abstract syntaxes of application contexts ...................
(b) Abstract syntaxes of information framework ..................
(c) Minimal knowledge ...........................................
(d) Support of root context .....................................
(e) Abstract syntax - attribute types ...........................
(f) Abstract syntax - object classes ............................
Dynamic requirements [2 if yes on all]
(a) Mapping onto underlying services ............................
(b) Distributed operations - referrals ..........................
(c) DirectoryAccessAC - referrals ...............................
(d) DirectorySystemAC - referrals ...............................
(e) Chained mode ................................................
17. Please list all conformance testing work applied to the
implementation (specify conformance test version number).  [2 if
any testing]
3.2 Implementors' agreements and profiles
Does the DSA conform to the following implementors' agreements?  If
so, state parts and version numbers.
18. EWOS? [1] .......................................................
19. OIW? [1] ........................................................
Does the DSA conform to the following profiles?  If so, state which
version numbers.
UK GOSIP? [1] ...................................................
US GOSIP? [1] ...................................................
State any other GOSIP profiles to which the DSA conforms ............
3.3 Protocol stacks
Which of the following transport and network layer protocols does the DSA support:
(a)  TP.x over CONS (state transport class)?  [2] ................
(b) TP.4 over CLNS? [2] .........................................
(c)  TP.x over X.25(1980) (state transport class)?  [2] ..........
3.4 DIT structure
A suggested DIT structure, detailing an object class hierarchy, is presented in X.521. Does the DSA:
(a)  Enforce this hierarchy?  ....................................
(b)  Allow the enforcement of this hierarchy?  ...................
24. Are structure rules optional or mandatory?  .....................
4. Other protocols
Not everybody uses OSI protocols at the network layer. Does the DSA support other "network" layer protocols?
(a) TP.0 over RFC1006 over TCP/IP [3] ...........................
(b) State any other options supported. .........................
26. Does the DSA also run over any lightweight stack?  If so,
describe it with reference to the OSI seven layer model [1] .....
27. Can local DUAs access the DSA directly by some method of
inter-process communications?  [1] ..............................
5. Extensions to the 1988 Standard
5.1 Schema
Does the DSA fully support RFC1274, "The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema"? [2] ............................................ If not, please supply a list of all those object classes, attribute types and attribute syntaxes in RFC1274 which are supported on a separate sheet. This might be summarised by saying, for example, "all those with standard attribute syntaxes", or "all except fooBar".
Does the DSA implement the schema management defined in the 1992 standard? [2] ..................................................
30. If not, is the schema stored in the Directory?  In a distributed
manner[2] or centralised[1] ?  ..................................
Can a DSA manager extend the schema and add new
(a)  Attribute types with existing syntaxes?  With compilation
[1], or without compilation [2] .............................
(b)  Attribute syntaxes?  With compilation [1], or without
compilation [2] .............................................
(c)  Attribute sets?  With compilation [1], or without compilation
[2] .........................................................
(d)  Object classes?  With compilation [1], or without compilation
Is it possible to add in or modify DIT structure rules, with compilation [1], without compilation [2] ........................
5.2 Support for replication
33. Does the DSA support the replication mechanisms as described in
the 1992 standard [2]?
34. Does the DSA support any other replication mechanisms?  .........
(a) Replication part of RFC1276 [2] .............................
(b) Other (please give a reference to any description of the
mechanisms, and indicate whether these mechanisms are used by
any other implementations) [1 for any mechanism] ............
If the DSA supports replication, does it support:
(a)  Replication of a single entry?  [2] .........................
(b)  Replication of a set of sibling entries?  [2] ...............
(c)  Replication of a subtree?  [2] ..............................
5.3 Support for access control
Does the DSA support access control as described in the 1992 standard [3]? ..................................................
If not, does the DSA have any access control mechanisms at all?
[2] .............................................................
If yes, does the access control scheme support the following:
(a)  Allow a user to maintain their own entry?  [1] ..............
(b) Allow a user to maintain some attributes in their own entry,
but not all attributes?  [1] ................................
(c) Give management rights to a DSA manager in a fashion analogous
to the privileges given to a UNIX super-user?  [1] ..........
(d) Give management rights to a data manager on a per subtree
basis?  [1] .................................................
(e) Give management rights (to an entry, group of entries,
subtree, etc) to a group of users?  [1] .....................
(f) Give access rights to users on the basis of the leading
portion of their Distinguished Name?  [1] ...................
(g) Is it possible to define a protection mechanism for each
individual attribute type in one entry?  [1] ................
(h) Maximum number of Distinguished Names that can be defined for
one access right to one attribute in one entry? If unlimited, state the constraints. [1 if more than 6 DNs are feasible] :
(i) Does the DSA support the extended access control techniques
described in "An Access Control approach for Searching and
Listing" by Hardcastle-Kille and Howes, in the Internet
Draft, OSI-DS 21?  [2]
(j) If there are features of the access control mechanisms which
are not brought out by the above questions, please describe
these additional features [up to 2 for wonderful additional
features!]  .................................................
Does the DSA fully support RFC1276, "Replication and Distributed Operations extensions to provide an Internet Directory using X.500"? [2] .... If not, please give a list of features that are supported.
If the DSA uses RFC1006 and/or X.25(1980) at the network layer, does the DSA conform to RFC1277, "Encoding Network Addresses to support operation over non-OSI lower layers" [3] ...............
6. Miscellaneous characteristics
41. Does the DSA use its own database, or can it be used in
conjunction with a general-purpose database package such as
Oracle?  [1 for own, 1 for ability to map onto general purpose
databases, 1 if any such mappings have been made] ...............
42. If the DSA runs as a static server, state the start-up time for a
DSA with a database of 20000 entries.  If this varies widely
according to configuration options, give figures for the various
options.  .......................................................
What is the maximum number of simultaneous associations that the DSA may have open? [1 if more than 15 associations] ............
Maximum database size, in entries, megabytes, or as appropriate. If none, state what the constraints are. [1 if a database of more than 100,000 entries is feasible] ..........................
What is the run-time size of an entry as specified in section 10 (on performance)? This should be the marginal size of an entry and thus should include the overhead of default indexes, etc. ..
What is the on-disk database size of an entry as specified in section 10 on performance? .....................................
47. Does the DSA make of indexing?  [2 if yes] ......................
If so:
(a)  Can the database be fully inverted?  [1] ....................
If not, state for which:
i. attributes indexes are automatically built ..............
............................................................
ii. attributes/attribute syntaxes indexes may be built ......
(b) Does the index improve performance on:
i. Exact match [1] .........................................
ii. Leading substring match [1] .............................
iii. Approximate match [1] ...................................
iv. Any substring match [1] .................................
v. Trailing substring match [1] ............................
(c) What is the increase in run-time size of an entry when adding
an index?
(d) What is the increase in on-disk database size of adding
another index?
48. What sort of approximate match algorithm does the DSA use?
Describe it briefly .............................................
Does the DSA attempt to use relay DSAs (which have access to more than one network) in order to achieve connectivity with DSAs which are not on the same network? [2] .........................
7. Management tools
7.1 Dynamic system management
Are there tools for monitoring DSA activity, using:
(a) DAP? [1] ....................................................
(b) CMIP? [1] ...................................................
(c) SNMP? [1] ...................................................
Are there tools for controlling a run-time DSA? [2] .............
7.2 Static system management
If knowledge information is stored within the DIT, are there tools for knowledge management? [2] ............................
Are there tools for checking that attributes with Distinguished Name syntax contain values of entries in the DIT (i.e., they do not contain "dangling pointers")? [1] ........................
7.3 Data management
54. If the DSA doesn't use a general-purpose database package, what
data management tools are available?  ...........................
Are there any tools for arboriculture - the moving, copying or deleting of DIT subtrees? [2] ..................................
8. Operational Use
The DSA may have lots of wonderful features -- on paper!  But has the
DSA been shown to work in practice?  The following measures are
intended to give some measure of confidence that the DSA's viability
has been demonstrated.
56. How many entries in the largest DSA in use in operational use?  :
57. What is the largest set of DSAs supporting an organisation?  ....
What is the estimated number of organisations using this implementation for service use? [8 if more than 100 organisations, 5 if more than 50 organisations, 3 if more than 20 organisations, 2 if more than 5 organisations, 1 if more than 1 organisation] ...................................................
Is this DSA used commercially with an installed base of more than 10 customers? [2] ..............................................
9. Interoperability
The X.500 Directory is the OSI Directory. OSI stands for Open Systems Interconnection -- DSAs have to be able to inter-operate. They also have to be seen to interoperate.
60. Is this DSA in use in X.500 pilots?  ............................
(a) Is this DSA in use anywhere in the COSINE/Internet Pilot? [3]
(b)  Is this DSA in use in any other major pilot?  [2] ...........
61. Name any other systems which you believe the system to
interoperate with.  (It is not sufficient to say "any system
which supports the conformance clauses ...")  ..................
62. Please name all interoperability testing applied to the
implementation, specify test suite and what other implementation
that was used [1 per implementation, up to maximum of 5] ........
10. Performance
This section should give an outline to the expected performance of the DSA. A number of operations are timed in order to give a feel for the DSA's speed and throughput. Note that all operations should be resolvable within a single DSA. Chaining and referral are not assessed, although it should be possible to infer, albeit approximately, the speed of distributed operations.
i. The tests should be made against an organisational database of
20000 entries. Some tests are against subsets of this data, and so the database should be set up according to the following instructions.
Create an organisational DSA with 20000 entries below the organisation node. Sub-divide this data into a number of organisational units, one of which should contain 1000 entries, another of which should contain 100 entries, and a third which should contain just 10 entries. The entries, which should differ, should be created with the following attributes:
(a) Common Name
(b)  Surname
(c) Telephone number
(d) Postal Address (of 100 characters)
(e) Object class
ii. In all the tests, two timings should be taken. In order to
normalise the test results as much as possible, it is suggested that these tests be undertaken on an otherwise lightly loaded machine.
(a) A typical "cold start" reading should be given. In this
case the system will not have the advantage of any benefits that derive from operating system paging, or caching.
(b) A best possible figure should be given, which indicates the
upper limit of DSA performance.
iii. The timings should relate to the default set-up, and should be
entered in Table 2. If significant performance gains can be made by use of configuration options, such as building extra indexes to support searches, measures of the improved performance may also be given, and should be entered in Table 3. Attention should be also drawn to any optimisations, heuristic or otherwise, which are not evidenced in the following tests.
iv. Please note that the tests should be made using a DUA and DSA
with full 7-layer stacks, rather than some lightweight protocol.
10.1 Speed for various operations
The tests are described, one subsection per operation. The results should be entered in Table 2 (and Table 3 if a non-default set-up is also measured).
10.1.1 Bind
The time it takes for a DUA to bind to the Directory. This time should include all the initialisation time a DUA process needs before it can query the Directory: e.g., reading of tailor files, schema information, etc. Give the bind time for each of the following levels of authentication. State "n/a" if the implementation does not support a particular level of authentication.
Simple protected
10.1.2 List
Give the time for listing a set of organisational unit sibling entries.
10.1.3 Search
In this section, two sets of search operations should be performed on the DSA.
i. A single level search of 100 entries within an organisational
ii. An organisation subtree search, on the subtree of 20000 entries.
The following searches should be tried. Unless otherwise stated, the "XXX" or "YYY" part of the search filter should be chosen in such a way as to return a single result. Unless stated otherwise the results should return all attributes for the entry.
Exact match for a surname:
surname=XXX
Leading substring match for a common name:
commonName=XXX*
Any substring match for a common name:
commonName=*XXX*
Trailing substring match for a common name:
commonName=*XXX
Approximate match for a common name:
commonName"=XXX
More complex filter, searching by object class and two other attribute types:
objectClass=person AND
(commonName=XXX* OR telephoneNumber=*YYY)
75. Search returning all entries (i.e., 100 entries in the single
level search, and all 20000 entries in the subtree search:
objectClass=*
In this case, no attribute values should be returned in the result set.
10.1.4 Read
A single read operation, returning all attributes.
10.1.5 Add entry
Add an entry beneath an entry which has:
(a) 0 children
(b) 10 children
(c) 1000 children
10.1.6 Modify entry
Modify an attribute value, other than an RDN value, for an entry which has
10 siblings
1000 siblings
Modify an entry
(a) Add description attribute
(b) Remove description attribute
10.1.7 Modify RDN
Modify an RDN value for an entry with the following number of siblings.
Modify RDN
(a) 10 siblings
(b) 1000 siblings
10.1.8 Query rate
As the time taken for a single read will usually be negligible, the following list and set of reads should give a clearer indication of the query rate.
A list to return 100 entries for persons, and then a read of each entry returning all attribute values.
10.2 The results
The results of the tests just described should be entered in Table 2 (and optionally Table 3), at the end of the document.
10.3 Environment used for benchmarking
Date of test.........................................................
Name of tester ......................................................
The results will be directly correlated to the test set-up used, and
in particular, the hardware.  Please answer the following questions
to describe the test environment:
(a) Processor (make and model) ..................................
(b) Processor speed (MIPS) ......................................
(c) Primary memory available ....................................
(d) If disk-based DSA, disk I/O interface and disk speed ........
(e) O/S version .................................................
(f) Network type and bandwidth (e.g., 10 Mbit Ethernet) .........
(g)  Protocols in transport layer and below (e.g., TP 0, RFC1006,
TCP/IP) .....................................................
(h) How/where timings obtained?
C procedural interface ..................................
DUA shell (e.g., Quipu's DISH) ..........................
+-------------------------------------------------+
|             Section            ||    Points     |
+--------------------------------||---------------+
| No.||Description               |Maximum|Scored  |
+----||--------------------------|-------|--------+
|    ||                          |       |        |
|   2||General Information       |  20   |        |
|   3||Conformance to OSI        |  35   |        |
|    ||          |               |       |        |
|   4||Other protocols           |   5   |        |
|   5||Extensions| Schema        |  16   |        |
+----||          |---------------|-------|--------+
|    ||to the    |Replication    |  10   |        |
|    ||1988      |Access Control |  15   |        |
|    ||standard  |Miscellaneous  |   5   |        |
|    ||Miscellaneous             |       |        |
|   6||characteristics           |  15   |        |
|   7||Management tools          |  10   |        |
|   8||Operational use           |  10   |        |
|   9||Interoperability          |  10   |        |
|    ||                          |  see  |        |
|  10||Performance               |table 2|        |
Table 1: DSA Metrics
+------------------------------------------------------+
| Operation         ||   Cold DSA    ||     Optimum    |
|                   ||               ||   Performance  |
+-------------------||---------------||----------------+
| Bind              ||               ||                |
|    --Anonymous    ||.............. || .............. |
|    --Simple       ||.............. || .............. |
|    --Simple Prot  ||.............. || .............. |
|    --Strong       ||.............. || .............. |
| List              ||               ||                |
|    -- 10 entries  ||.............. || .............. |
|    -- 1000 entries||.............. || .............. |
| Search             |single|subtree |single|subtree   |
|                    |level |        |level |          |
|                    |------|--------|------|----------|
|    -- exact        |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
|    -- leading sub  |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
|    -- any sub      |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
|    -- trailing sub |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
|    -- approx       |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
|    -- complex      |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
|    -- return all   |....  |......  |..... | ......   |
+--------------------|------|--------|------|----------|
| Read              ||.............. || .............. |
| Add               ||               ||                |
|     0 siblings    ||.............. || .............. |
|     10 siblings   ||.............. || .............. |
|     1000 siblings ||.............. || .............. |
| Modify            ||               ||                |
| Modify RDN        ||               ||                |
| Query rate        ||.............. || .............. |
Table 2: Speed of operations - default set-up
Table 3: Speed of operations - non-default set-up
Gower Street
Fax:   +44 71 387 1397
EMail: P.Barker@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Roland Hedberg
Rekencentrum
Delft Technical University
Michiel de Ruyterweg 10-12
Postbus 354, 2600 AJ Delft
EMail: Roland.Hedberg@rc.tudelft.nl
Umdac
University of Umea
s-901 87 Umea
EMail: Roland.Hedberg@umdac.umu.se


text:
The light from one candle: a love story (A Biography of Bishop Francis Marrocco) by Rita Larsen Marrocco ISBN 0-9735136-0-8 ©2002
Father Jimmy: the life and times of Jimmy Tompkins By Jim Lotz ISBN 1-895415-23-3 ©1997 Breton Books, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
The Humble Giant: Moses Coady, Canada's Rural Revolutionary By Jim Lotz ISBN 2-89507-668-5 ©2005 Novalis, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario
Masters of their own destiny By M.M. Coady ©1939 Harper & Brothers, New York.
Tompkinsville: The Story of North America's First Housing Co-operative Charles Currie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQCXhTeK20
The Institute of Social Action and Social Catholicism in Canada in the 1950s* by Brian F. HOGAN, C.S.B. University of St. Michael's College, Toronto Canadian Catholic Historical Association, Historical Studies, 54 (1987), 125-144. This paper was presented to The Canadian Society of Church History, June * 1987. http://www.cchahistory.ca/journal/CCHA1987/Hogan.pdf
Institute of Social Action St. Patrick's College, About Gerald Clarke, the last dean of St. Patrick's College and reference to his thesis titled Co-operative Homebuilding in Ontario, 1953–1957 https://carleton.ca/economics/2010/clarke-gerald-edmund-july-5-1925-%E2%80%93-july-20-2010/
Rerum Novarum – Roots of Social Action in the Catholic Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rerum_novarum
60 Years: Grimsby Homebuilding Co-operative by Chris Tait and Richard Pierce. In preparation for the 60th Anniversary of the Grimsby Co-operative Homebuilding, Chris Tait, the grandson of co-op builders Frank and Winifred Cheverie made this film with footage by and an interview with builder, John Blake. https://youtu.be/oxCI2Qzi8Ww
You can do it! The story of the Antigonish Movement Produced by: Peter Murphy/Seabright Video and The Tompkins/Coady Multi-Media Project Sponsored by: The Bergengren Credit Union DVD , 1 videodisc (70 min.) ©2009 9 minute version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhe6GOtC5J0
Co-op at 60 – Honouring the Builders Credits and Acknowledgements


text:
Basak (Bosak) is a Hindu surname in the Bengal region, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. In West Bengal and Assam this surname is written as Basak while in some districts of Bihar as Basak or Bosak. The name is also spelt Bysack or Basacks by different families.

Geographical distribution
As of 2014, 58.5% of all known Basaks were residents of India and 30.1% were residents of Bangladesh. In India, the frequency of the name was higher than national average in:
West Bengal (1: 717)
Tripura (1: 1,334)

Notables
 Subimal Basak
 Gour Das Bysack
 Netai Chand Bysack
 Arun Kumar Basak
 Jharna Basak
 Soumen Basak
 Birendra Basak
 Biren Kumar Basak
 Gour Das Bysack
 Shyamal Bashak

References

Indian surnames
Bengali Hindu surnames


text:
Decisive Action Operations Primer
by SFC Vincent Taijeron
Controlling your units. Coordinating your units is an art. Use the phase lines on your map to control movement of your units. By using the phase lines you can keep units "in line" and not let them get to far ahead. If one of your units prematurely initiates an attack other units may not be in position to support it. You also have coordinating points available in the graphics editor. I haven't used them much, but I believe you can use them to mark points on a route, mark attack positions or resupply areas, etc.
Establish an attack position before you make contact with the enemy. Simply draw another phase line that puts your units far enough from the enemy so you aren't engaged by his ground forces, basically you want a position where you won't be harassed. This attack position is where you organize for combat, position units, resupply, plan artillery positions to support the attack, using your UAVs get another look at the defense, etc.
Targeting priorities. High Value Targets or HVTs are targets the enemy commander needs to accomplish his mission. For example, through your analysis of the enemy you may determine that his artillery units are critical to his success; he has a lot of them, and feels that without them he will fail. This is a HVT, attack and destroys it, and you are halfway there. So, plan your targets accordingly and commit the right resources to defeat it.
Define unit boundaries. Unit boundaries help maintain the cohesiveness of your units by keeping together. For example you don't want to mix units from the 1st ID (M) with units from 1st AD. Likewise you want to keep your brigades within their own boundaries as well. Remember this is not a rule, in some cases you may want to "stack" your brigades one after the other. You decide, the bottom line is you must be able to manage your units, and the area they are operating in.
Maneuver units must be coordinated in their attack and maneuver. You don't want to send them in piecemeal, like General Franks (VII Corps Commander during the Persian Gulf War) said you want to hit them with a fist. Don't tickle the defender with one unit at a time; crush him with your whole body. Maneuver means getting your units into a position of advantage usually in the rear or flank of the enemy.
Artillery must be in position to support the attack. That's why I advocate attaching your direct support or DS artillery units to your maneuver brigades or battalions. DS units are Field Artillery units that "belong" to a division. Each division has a Division Artillery or DIVARTY that consist of four battalions, three DS battalions, and one General Support or GS battalion. The DS battalions provide direct support to the three maneuver (infantry or armor) brigades within the division; by attaching the DS battalions directly to the brigades they are able to provide more responsive fires to the supported unit. The DIVARTY GS BN usually MLRS will shoot SEAD or Counter-Fire (CF) missions for the division. In addition to DIVARTY units you may also be assigned Corps Artillery or CARTY units. These units are GS units and can augment the fires of the DIVARTY units. They will normally shoot CF and SEAD missions, but can shoot in interdiction mode, except for MLRS. In real life MLRS would not normally shoot interdiction fires. But this is a game so you can do what you like. I can tell you that MLRS is most effective against ARTY (CF) or ADA (SEAD).
Conduct a thorough recon. Remember recon is continuous, it never stops. The moment you lose "sight" of the enemy something bad will happen. That's why maintaining some kind of contact is so important. Using your recon units, and in some cases maneuver units, to establish a security screen to prevent the enemy from getting his recon units "eyes" on you. This is known as counter-recon. If you can, try to destroy these units, but don't become decisively engaged until you are ready.
NAIs or Named Areas of Interest are used to confirm or deny enemy presence or actions. You could place your NAIs around the objective, or you could place them in key terrain. What is key terrain? Key terrain would be any piece of ground that could offer the enemy some kind of advantage. For example the NTC map has a number of mountain passes, if the enemy were holding one of those passes it would be a nice thing to know. Roads or main avenues of approach (usually in restrictive terrain) are also key areas to watch. A great place for an NAI is a bridge, or some other "chokepoint."
TAIs or Target Area of Interest is where you plan to kill the enemy. TAIs offer a combat bonus to air strikes, ARTY, and helos, so you definitely want to plan them carefully. In the offense your TAIs are usually around your objective, but they can be placed along key areas of your route. You always want to use your helos in conjunction with TAIs. If you are going to commit a huge combat multiplier like your atk helos then you must maximize their effectiveness. You do this by engaging targets within TAIs. Remember you can reposition your TAIs, but they won't become effective until the next turn.
Units must be re-supplied before they go into combat. That's why you must pause to re-supply prior to initiating contact.
ADA units must be "networked" to cover a majority of the force, or you may assign them to critical units.
Attack Helos must also be synchronized with the force to deliver their blow at the right moment. For example on the approach march prior to contact you might send your atk helos in for a raid taking out critical points in the defense. Remember don't make your atk helos flying targets by not assigning them a target type. Assign target types at the beginning of the game just in case you forget during the heat of the battle.
Close Air Support or CAS should also be coordinated with the attack. Use them in conjunction with atk helos and artillery. If your air sorties are limited choose only the most critical targets.
UAVs. Your UAVs are an invaluable asset, use them to "trace" the main defensive belt, and use them deep to identify critical targets such as combat service support or CSS, and unit HQs. Use a zigzag pattern working towards you to get the best coverage. You will lose your UAVs at some point in the game; it's just a fact of life.
Sergeant First Class Vincent "TJ" Taijeron, USA, originally from the island of Guam, joined the Army at 17 and plans to retire from it at the end of 2001 at the completion of 20 years duty. He has served as Cannon Fire Direction Specialist, Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) Crewman in units including 9th ID (Motorized) " 1/11 FA Ft. Lewis, WA; 3rd ID (Mech) A Btry 76th FA (MLRS) Bamberg, Germany; 18th FA BDE (Airborne), 3-27 FAR (MLRS) Ft. Bragg, NC; 2nd ID A/6-37 FA (ATACMS) Camp Stanley, Republic Of Korea.
SFC Taijeron's decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal (3), Army Commendation Medal (3), and Army Achievement Medal ( 5).
You can write to TJ at taijeron@hpssims.com
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