Fantastic post, Jason! I spent half the day yesterday trying to figure out how to add Power App that would enable me to collect feedback from my report readers, so I think this gets me another step along that process.
Not really sure how to share as you will not have access to the PowerApp that I made. Let me know if you have any questions when you follow the steps and I will try to help as much as I can.
Great Piece of Work..! I am very new to power Apps…it will be good if you can share the complete step by step video for reference in future.
I'm Trying to do this without the sending of the Email. My second screen shows "no Items" where it should show the comment box.
For my Form1 what should i write for Item Property?
How do you change the fields available to PowerBIIntegration once you've created the app ? Or do you need to start again if you chose to supply more or different fields to the PowerApp from PowerBI ?
I think you can just add the field in Power BI in edit mode, and then edit the PowerApp to get the field in. After saving, the new changes should be visible. That said, it is still in Preview mode, so you might face some wrinkles.
Worked it out. Delete PowerApp from Power BI Report. Re-add (not using Edge) PowerApp visual, re-open in studio and it updates the Integration object.
How did you get it to show the date in the comment screen?
This looks fantastic!! Thanks for sharing this.
1. Would it be possible for the user to edit/delete their own comment?
2. Can this be done in a way to read from and write back to a SQL Server db instead of the Excel sheet?
3. How is the PowerApp share/published? Could anyone in my organization find this app in the AppSource and add comments to this?
So my PowerApp is shared with my organization, but when i tested the app with a colleague's account on PowerBI, i couldn't view or add any comments because the excel file wasn't shared with that person. Is sharing the file with all report users the only way to go ahead with my Excel based POC of this commenting feature?
How did you get the "Stock" Information for the comments/email? Did you hard code the 3 stocks? My DB will have thousands of items.
I have created this app but my app is not working ,their is an error when i am running this app .when i have clicked on Email button it show's error that "No items to display".
I would like to capture the comments, when the combination is selected. For example, i have two slicers, one is "country" and other is "Period".I Have a simple table visualization, with Country,Period, Sales. when i Clicked on a particular row in the Visualization table, my PowerApp should pick up the selection. currently i was able to filter for one dimension (Period) [Filter(Table1, Period in PowerBIIntegration.Data.Period)], However i need to pass entire row from power BI to Power APP to filter in the PowerAPP visual.
Is there any way to tweak this?
Is it possible to make a video of the steps. I am new to power apps and i tried following the above steps. but getting error.
Can i together with the comment show the stock value when the comment was posted?
Do you have a video/guide from A-Z how to create this app from the beginning ?
Power apps works for Power bi service level, but it is not working with Powerbi Report server.
2. SHarepoint list where to add lesson learned. the list has case no, case title, lesson learned.
then I would like to use the powerapp custom visual into the powerBI report to feed the sharepoint list and add the comment. so my sharepoint list column case no and case title should be then populated from the table 1 available into the Powerbi report. the lesson learned will be filled in by users thourgh the powerapp custom visual.
could this work? if yes, how could I do it?


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Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, Rep. Chris Stewart say Trump made right call in backing off military strike on Iran
By Dennis Romboy@dennisromboy Jun 21, 2019, 9:46pm MDT
Share All sharing options for: Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, Rep. Chris Stewart say Trump made right call in backing off military strike on Iran
FILE - Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, leaves a Republican lunch meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 14, 2019. Lee says he's convinced President Donald Trump made the right call to scuttle an attack on Iran after talking to him Friday.
J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mike Lee says he's convinced President Donald Trump made the right call to scuttle a military attack on Iran after talking to him Friday.
"It is clear the Iranian regime is a threat, and that such threats cannot be eliminated by wishful thinking like President Obama's reckless deal with Tehran," Lee said. "But neither does every provocation call for a military response."
The president said he was prepared to strike three sites that military leaders told him would kill 150 Iranians. He tweeted that the death of 150 people would not be "proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone."
"Sanctions are biting & more added last night," Trump tweeted.
Lee, R-Utah, said economic sanctions on Iran are working.
"Tehran has had to cut back support for international terrorist organizations, their criminal nuclear program, and their oil exports are plummeting. The Iranian economy has been crippled, and the Iranian people know it is their own leaders' fault," he said in a statement.
FILE - Rep. Chris Stewart talks with students during campaigning at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Oct 16, 2018.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, also said Trump made the correct call in putting off any airstrike. He said it's clear Iran is deliberately trying to provoke the U.S. with "one attack after the other," including on ships in the Gulf, a Saudi airport and a pipeline.
"They are trying to get us to respond, and so it means that our retaliatory act has to be carefully planned and executed," he told reporters at a town hall meeting in Provo. "That's why I think it was the right thing for the president to hold off for now, to consider the widest range of options and to pursue an action that will deter further Iranian aggression without falling into any kind of trap they might want to lay for us."
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he appreciates Trump's commitment to a meaningful but proportionate response.
"Neither the US nor the International Community can ignore Iran's aggression. As one of the world's most violent state sponsors of terrorism, this falls into a pattern we've seen from them before," he tweeted.
Lee said Iran's recent provocations are a "transparent attempt by a desperate" regime to distract the Iranian people from the true source of their troubles, adding it has been "playing a game" that served violent autocrats for decades at the expense of American interests.
"Changing the regime's behavior is the right goal, but it's not at all clear airstrikes will achieve it. They may unintentionally strengthen the regime by unifying the Iranian people. President Trump is finally changing the rules of the game, and is winning," he said.
Lee said if and when Iran's aggression demands a military response, that decision rests with Congress.
Trump calls off Iranian strikes, citing likely deaths

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Mental Health affects everyone; mental health issues affect about 80% of people in one way or another. Chances are you know someone who is or has dealt with mental illness and recovery, or know of someone who is going through the process of dealing with some sort of anxiety, depression, addiction or eating disorder.
This year Mental Health America has made their theme Pathways to Wellness, which sheds light on key points that we at Rogers Memorial Hospital would like to pass along.
Wellness is essential to living a full and productive life. One must develop and maintain a set of skills and strategies to prevent the onset of or shorten the duration of illness, while promoting recovery and well-being. Being well is more than just being free of disease, it is understanding how, when and why to seek help and willing to fight things like stigma. Things that can assist in building balance and overall wellness are diet, exercise, plenty of sleep, a healthy self-image, and the development of coping skills that promote resiliency. Each of us goes through stressful times in our lives, and the development of good coping skills allows us to maintain mental health in the face of sometimes overwhelming stress.
Wellness involves a complete and general well-being. It's really a balance of emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental health. Being willing to take good care of one's mental health means taking stock of feelings, emotions, stress levels, and coping mechanisms, even getting screened just as you would for various physical illness'. One must fully embrace wellness to improve the mind, body, and spirit, in order to maximize the potential for a person to lead and full and productive life. Wellness will also lead to prevention of mental health conditions, substance use conditions and promote societal features like greater academic achievement by our children, a more productive economy, and a solid family structure.


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Tag: Denver
Daily Fantasy Baseball 2015: These MLB Advanced Metrics Can Make You a Winner
by Curtis Calhoun under MLB
Fantasy baseball is often a game of mix-and-match when figuring out the right players to pick in daily fantasy leagues. One aspect of the game is often overlooked by a majority of fantasy baseball players and can help immensely in figuring out players to select.
While looking at too many forms of advanced statistics may do more harm than good, there is no doubt that some metrics are essential in helping a fantasy team win.
Here are a few key MLB advanced metrics to use in daily fantasy baseball leagues.
Cleveland, Denver, Fantasy, Fantasy Baseball, Los Angeles Leave a Comment more...
Jun/12
Cardinals Trade Rumors: 5 Potential Deals to Shore Up St. Louis Bullpen
by Will Grapperhaus under MLB
Last night against the Miami Marlins the Cardinals came back to win a game in which they trailed in the eighth inning for the first time this season. They were 0-26 in those situations until Monday night.
However, the Redbirds' bullpen tried their best to punt the game to the Marlins in the seventh as Fernando Salas got just one out while allowing runners to reach second and third. Scatter-armed Eduardo Sanchez followed and walked three men in a row—the first intentionally with the other two coming Rick Ankiel-style.
The Cardinal relievers walked eight batters on the night in 10 innings.
Fortunately for St. Louis, Heath Bell and the Marlins' bullpen have had continuing struggles of their own and blew a four-run lead in the ninth (but at least they forced the Cards to, you know—hit the ball).
Jason Motte was fortunate that Jose Reyes' scorching liner to center was right at outfielder Shane Robinson to end a strange night of baseball.
While we give manager Mike Matheny and GM John Mozeliak a moment to wipe their brows, let's look at five trades that would immediately help the Cardinals' stressed bullpen.
Antonio Bastardo, Baseball, Denver, Huston Street, Jonathan Broxton, Kansas City, MLB Trade Rumors, NL Central, Opinion, Philadelphia, St Louis, St Louis Cardinals Leave a Comment more...
MLB Spring Training Is Over: The Game's 10 Most Overrated Players
by Zack Farmer under MLB
Everybody has their list.
They get a ton of attention and for this group, unwarranted. They're overrated.
Which stats are the best indicators of being overrated?
OPS? WAR? Should an eye test be taken?
Potential sometimes cannot be judged on stats.
Let's take a look at the 10 most overrated players in baseball.
Baseball, Carlos Gonzalez, Cliff Lee, Denver, Jonathan Sanchez, Jose Bautista, New York, NL West, Opinion, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Giants, US Cities Leave a Comment more...
2011 NL West Preseason Preview: Colorado Rockies
by Jeffrey Brown under MLB
Colorado Rockies (2010 record: 83-79)
Notable additions: RHP Matt Lindstrom, INF Jose Lopez, C Jose Morales, INF/OF Ty Wiggington
Notable subtractions: 2B Clint Barmes, RHP Octavio Dotel, SP Jeff Francis, 3B Melvin Mora, C Miguel Olivo
The offense:
Catcher: Chris Iannetta
Infield: Todd Helton (1B), Eric Young Jr (2B), Troy Tulowitzki (SS) and Ian Stewart (3B)
Outfield: Carlos Gonzalez (LF), Dexter Fowler (CF) and Seth Smith (RF)
The Rox finished in third place in the NL West last year, but they could challenge for the division title this year. The key to the Rockies' fate in 2011 is whether they learn to bring their bats to the ballpark when they are on the road, where they were a dismal 31-50 last year (largely because they hit 72 points less in road games).
Gonzalez and Tulowitzki are the heart of the Rockies offensive attack. This will be a big year for both players in terms of solidifying themselves among the elite offensive players in the game. Gonzalez had a breakout campaign in 2010, but needs to prove he isn't a one-year wonder. Tulowitzki was relatively pedestrian throughout the majority of the year, but then had an extraordinary month (.303, 15 HR and 40 rbi over his last thirty games) to salvage the season.
The team needs Chris Iannetta, Todd Helton and Dexter Fowler to improve markedly if it is to make a run at the division title. I could throw Smith and Stewart on the list as well, but at least they provided a little bit of power last season, whereas the others provided little in the way of anything.
Iannetta was brutal last year no matter where he played. Helton performed well below expectations whether at home or on the road. Fowler was okay at home but was a non-factor in road games (he hit just .211 and compiled a .297 OBP away from Coors).
The organization is hoping that new hitting coach Carney Lansford will be able to make a significant impact on the offense in his first year in Denver.
On the bench, I like the acquisition of Wiggington, as he will provide some right-handed pop at the corners and enable Helton to rest periodically. I don't believe Jose Lopez will contribute much to the team and expect he will eventually just serve as a backup for EY, though even that role could fall to Wiggington if Lopez struggles.
The pitching staff:
Rotation: Ubaldo Jimenez, Jorge de la Rose, Aaron Cook, Jhoulys Chacin and Jason Hammel
Bullpen: Huston Street, Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt, Matt Lindstrom, Matt Reynolds and Franklin Morales
Back in the day, you could count on Rockies pitchers to struggle at home while posting a pretty solid set of numbers on the road. Those days are in the past. Last season the club posted a better ERA at home (3.86) than on the road (4.04).
Jimenez had a brilliant start to the 2010 season, going 15-1 with a 2.20 ERA in the first half. He came back to earth in the second half, but still finished the year at 19-8, with a 2.88 ERA and 1.155 WHIP. De la Rosa likewise got off to a nice start, but injuries derailed him and he was largely ineffective when he returned.
The club must hope Aaron Cook's performance last year was nothing more than a blip in his career progression, as his 5.08 ERA was more than a run higher than his average for the previous five years.
If the club is to improve away from home, better efforts from Cook and Hammel would go a long way towards achieving that goal: they posted 5.85 and 5.71 ERAs, respectively, in road games last year.
Felipe Paulino, acquired from Houston in the deal that sent infielder Clint Barmes to the Astros, is a dark horse to join the rotation this spring if any of the other starters should struggle or get injured.
The back end of the bullpen is very strong. Huston Street enters the season as the closer after posting 20 saves in 25 opportunities last year. The bullpen in front of him is deep and includes a solid veteran trio in Belisle, Betancourt and Lindstrom, who would be a tremendous addition if he can harness his stuff and remain healthy. The Rox potentially have one of the top bullpens in the league if everyone can stay healthy.
Prediction for 2011: 2nd place (87-75)
The Rockies spent a lot of money this winter, but it wasn't in free agency. They opted to lock up Tulowitzki (6 years, $119 M) and Carlos Gonzalez (7 years, $80 M) to long-term deals. Those two guys, along with SP Ubaldo Jimenez, provide the core for a team that could compete for a division title this season.
As stated in the body of the article, the club's ability to compete for a title will be predicated on its ability to compete tougher and win ballgames on the road. I expect some improvement in that regard in 2011, but not to the point where they will be able to overtake the defending world champions.
Top Five Prospects:
1. Tyler Matzek, LHP
2. Wilin Rosario, C
3. Christian Freidrich, LHP
4. Kyle Parker, OF
5. Rex Brothers, LHP
Matzek was the Rockies' first-round pick (11th overall) in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, when he was the top high school pitcher in the country. Some pundits believe he fell out of the top ten in the draft due to his pre-draft declaration that he was "looking for unprecedented money" to forego college. The Rockies opened up the vault and gave Matzek $3.9 million late in the signing period to join the organization.
He pitched for Asheville (South Atlantic League) last year and posted a 5-1 record with a 2.92 ERA and 1.39 WHIP. He was named the league's No. 3 prospect (No. 1 pitching prospect) at the end of the year despite having suffered with a bout of biceps tendinitis.
He has four good pitches, but his low-90s fastball is clearly the strongest pitch in his repertoire (rating a "70″ on the scout's 20-80 scale). His fastball sometimes hit 96 during his rookie campaign, but it would often touch the upper-90s when he was in high school. Scouts believe he has the potential to increase his velocity as he matures.
His secondary pitches are still a work in progress, with the slider being the most well-developed among them (rating a "60″ on the scouting scale). His curve ball is pretty good but needs some work. His changeup is furthest away, as the scouts say he slows his arm speed noticeably when throwing it.
Baseball, Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies, Denver, Huston Street, NL West, Rankings/List, Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, Ubaldo Jimenez, US Cities Leave a Comment more...
2011 Colorado Rockies: Projecting the Lineup
by Deborah Horton under MLB
The 2011 Colorado Rockies have a lot of potential firepower in their mostly very young lineup. Jim Tracy has yet to make a final decision on an opening day roster, but in looking at his spring training games so far, piecing a projected lineup together is getting a little easier.
The Rockies have a couple of the game's hottest bats right now and this could be a breakout year for them, which in turn could lead to a very good year for the Rockies. A few questions remain, but let's take a look at what the Rockies lineup might look like on opening day.
Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies, Denver, Dexter Fowler, ian stewart, NL West, Preview/Prediction, Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki Leave a Comment more...
2011 Colorado Rockies Season Preview and Predictions
by Jack Jones under MLB
The Colorado Rockies were unable to make it back to the postseason for a third time in four years, as they finished 2010 third in the division with a record of 83-79.
The Rockies, however, have the pieces in place to make it back to the playoffs this season, as they have a ton of great players on the field and on the mound. Colorado should contend for its first NL West crown in team history.
Here is a closer look at the Rockies' starting lineup and starting rotation for the 2011 season, plus our MLB predictions on where they will wind up the year in the NL West.
The Rockies have two of the best young players in the game in Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki. Both have what it takes to bring home the MVP award this year if they can stay healthy and Colorado contends for the division title.
Tulowitzki hit .315 with 27 home runs and 95 RBI. Gonzalez busted onto the scene to lead the NL with a .336 batting average, providing a lot of power with 37 home runs and 117 RBI.
The Rockies also have Todd Helton, who will continue to hit in the middle of the lineup. However, Helton will be 37-years-old this season and simply is not the player he once was.
The Rockies are also high on center fielder Dexter Flower and third baseman Ian Stewart. Flower led the majors with 14 triples last season and, at the age of 24, he still has a ton of room to grow. Stewart is also a young 26 and, while he hit only .256, he managed to hit 18 home runs and drive in 61 RBI.
Another guy Colorado would like to see improve this year is right fielder Seth Smith, who started off great but ended up hitting just .192 with five home runs and 14 RBI after the All-Star break.
The Rockies would also like to see better stats out of catcher Chris Iannetta and newly acquired second baseman Jose Lopez, both of whom had great 2009 seasons only to disappoint in 2010.
Starting Rotation
The Rockies appear to have their ace of the future in Ubaldo Jimenez who, in his breakout season, threw the first no-hitter in team history, going 19-8 with a 2.88 ERA. Jimenez gives the Rockies just what they have been looking for at the top of the rotation.
After Jimenez, the Rockies have a pretty good No. 2 starter in Jorge De La Rosa and an up-and-coming prospect in Jhoulys Chacin.
De La Rosa didn't quite have the success he had in 2009, but should be able to bounce back this season. Chacin went just 9-11 but had a 3.28 ERA and 1.27 WHIP at the age of just 23, which has us thinking 2011 could be a breakout season for the youngster.
The back of the rotation doesn't figure to bring the same punch. Both Jason Hammel and Aaron Cook struggled to get it going in 2010, and we have a hard time seeing either starter making a huge improvement.
2011 Projections: Second Place NL West
No question the Rockies have what it takes to win the West this year, and we would actually be shocked if they didn't increase their win total from last season. However, overcoming the San Francisco Giants and their top of the line rotation will be a difficult task.
The Rockies' MLB odds to win the NL West this season are currently listed at +200.
Colorado Rockies, Denver, NL West, Preview/Prediction Leave a Comment more...
Carlos Gonzalez: Why the Colorado Rockies Made a Mistake by Extending Him
by Gregory Pinto under MLB
Carlos Gonzalez had a breakout season last year, and Colorado Rockies fans are drooling all over themselves with the thought of having their young star around until at least 2017.
That became a reality today when the Rockies agreed to sign Gonzalez to a seven-year contract extension in the $80 million range, according to Troy Renck of The Denver Post, via Twitter.
At first glance, it appears as though the Rockies got a great deal on a premium player, but don't be fooled.
The Rockies haven't had much success with long-term contracts, and Carlos Gonzalez has hardly proved that he is a premium major league talent. This could get, well, rocky.
Gonzalez, 25, came into his own in the outfield for the Colorado Rockies last season. The young left-handed hitter exceeded all expectations, posting an incredible slash line of .336 / .376 / .598, belting 34 home runs and driving in 117 runs.
Praised as a "five-tool outfielder" throughout his career in the minor leagues, he utilized all five of those tools in 2010, hitting for average, hitting for power, stealing 26 bases while being caught stealing just eight times and collecting eight outfield assists.
An impressive season, without a doubt, and at first glance, you can see why the Rockies have no problem paying "CarGo" over $11 million a year over the next seven seasons—but did they have to?
Acquired in the deal that sent former Rockies star outfielder Matt Holliday to the Oakland Athletics, Gonzalez played his first full season in 2010, appearing in 145 games in the Rockies' outfield. In years prior, he played in just 89 games for the Rockies in 2009 and 85 for the Athletics in 2008 before he was traded.
Interestingly enough, Gonzalez has bounced around the minor leagues, even at a young age. After signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela, the D-Backs sent him to Oakland in the mega-deal that landed Arizona Dan Haren, and the A's later sent him to Colorado for half a season of Holliday.
Don't get it twisted—the Rockies are happy to have him.
With that being said, however, the young outfielder has accrued just over a year of major league service time. That means that without his extension, he wouldn't have been eligible for free agency until after the 2015 season. Even more interestingly, the Rockies could have had Gonzalez for at least one more cheap season. The outfielder isn't even eligible for arbitration until 2012.
By most people's standards, the Rockies jumped the gun on this one. Buying out a talented player's arbitration years before they actually reach arbitration isn't all that uncommon. What is rather surprising is that the Rockies are paying him $11 million a season without even fully knowing what they are getting themselves into.
If anything, you would think that the Rockies would have learned from their mistakes in the past, offering free agents long-term contracts without being fully aware of what they're getting in return.
The first mistake came in the form of one of the worst free agent signings in the history of baseball, when the Colorado Rockies inked starting pitcher Mike Hampton to an eight-year, $121 million deal after the 2000 season, one of the most lucrative sports contracts of all time. (According to Wikipedia, it is now the 29th largest contract of all time.)
The deal, which would pay Hampton more than $15 million annually, was signed after he posted a record of 15-10 with the New York Mets the year prior to go with an ERA of 3.14. Though SABRmetrics weren't used much back in 2000, if they had been, the Rockies may have avoided this fatal flaw, as Hampton's 3.82 FIP may have raised a few eyebrows.
Regardless, the deal was signed, and Hampton disappointed more than a few people in the first year of his contract. He posted a record of 14-13 in his first full season with the Rockies, and his 5.41 ERA was among the worst of qualifying pitchers.
In recent years, the Rockies organization has made several adjustments to their ballpark to limit pitchers struggling like this, including adding the humidor, but in terms of performance, Hampton wouldn't have been much better. His command was sporadic and his psyche took a nasty hit in Colorado.
The following year was even worse. He posted a losing record of 7-15 with the Rockies and an ERA over six in 30 starts. Just two seasons into their eight-year pact, the Rockies had seen enough. They would go on to eat a large portion of his contract and trade him to the Florida Marlins, along with Juan Pierre, for four players, including Charles Johnson and Preston Wilson.
The second long-term commitment the Rockies made was to longtime first baseman and face of the Rockies franchise Todd Helton. After a 2002 season that saw Helton post a slash line of .329 / .429 / .577, along with 30 home runs, the Rockies signed Helton to a nine-year, $141.5 million contract.
Unlike Hampton, Helton performed well over the course of his contract. He batted over .300 during the first five years of the deal, with his lowest home run total being 15, as he resorted to being more of a contact first baseman. He played above average defense and compiled 31.8 WAR through 2010.
The biggest flaw in Helton's game has always been injuries. He missed significant time in 2008 with back problems and has missed time in every year since. It worried the Rockies enough to rework the back end of his contract, which would extend him two years at a lower salary and defer $13.1 million.
As time passes by, however, this seems to be the way the Rockies franchise likes to operate. In the 2010 offseason, they locked up the new face of their franchise, All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, to a 10-year, $157.75 million extension. Though it is unfair to judge an extension that has not taken effect yet, it is worth noting that the Rockies extended a player that they already had under contract until after the 2014 season.
So why was it unwise to agree to an extension with Carlos Gonzalez so prematurely?
The Rockies had time to wait on Gonzalez. Since he was not eligible for arbitration until after the 2011 season, they could have waited to see how he performed following his breakout year. If he regressed to normal, which seems likely at this point, judging from his astronomical highs in 2010, they may have been unable to extend him at a friendlier rate.
Scott Boras, Gonzalez's agent, must have been thinking the same thing. Known for taking his players all the way through arbitration and into free agency, Boras jumped at the opportunity to get his client, an unknown talent in the outfield with great potential, security for the rest of his life.
In fact, if Gonzalez is able to maintain his success, he'll be eligible for another huge deal when he reaches free agency again at age 32—a year older than fellow Boras client Jayson Werth, who just inked a seven-year, $126 million deal with the Washington Nationals.
Now that the Rockies and Gonzalez have agreed to an extension, they are in it for the long haul. Bill James projects Gonzalez to post a slash line of .308 / .357 / .545 with 28 home runs. However, to most baseball experts, James' projections are compared to "best case scenarios," and Gonzalez might not even perform that well.
He doesn't have great speed but can steal bases, and he isn't a great defender but isn't a slouch in the outfield either. He could work on lowering his strikeout rate and raising his walk rate; patience at the plate has never been his forte.
When the ink dries on Gonzalez' contract, the Rockies will have a large chunk of money tied up in a select group of players—Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, Jorge De La Rosa, Aaron Cook, Huston Street and Gonzalez, with another potential huge contract on the way for young ace Ubaldo Jimenez. It wouldn't have hurt the Rockies to wait Gonzalez out for a few seasons to see how he performs.
So even though Rockies fans should be glad to have a talent like Carlos Gonzalez around for the foreseeable future, you have to wonder whether he'll ever be able to have another season like he did in 2010, and if waiting a few years would have saved the Rockies a few dollars. Only time will tell.
Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies, Denver, NL West, Opinion Leave a Comment more...
Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Five 2011 MLB Surprise Teams
by Zack Lessner under MLB
Now that the least interesting World Series in years is finally over, all 30 MLB teams can again have hopes and dreams for the upcoming season. Most of the 2010 playoff teams are again favorites heading into the off-season, but there is always yearly change in who makes the playoffs.
The following list is mostly compiled of teams who were not competitive at all late into the year. The teams are in order of how much change their 2011 season will be from their respective 2010 seasons. A major motif for these teams is how their youth will take it to the next level.
Here are the teams that were considered afterthoughts in 2010, but who are going to surprise everyone in the 2011 season.
Chron, Dallas Braden, Denver, Hanley Ramirez, Houston, Houston Astros, Justin Upton, Miami, MLB Playoffs, MLB Rumors, NL West, Phoenix, Preview/Prediction, San Francisco Bay Area, Ubaldo Jimenez, Wandy Rodriguez Leave a Comment more...
Jim Tracy Costs the Colorado Rockies When It Matters Most
by David Martin under MLB
Take off the purple-colored glasses for a minute. Forget about the magic of 2009. Forget about the past for a moment.
The Rockies had climbed back into the game on Carlos Gonzalez's first career grand slam. With the score 8-6, Joe Beimel allowed Stephen Drew, a guy who seems to only hit against the Rockies, to hit a solo home run to right field to expand the lead to 9-6.
Anyone who follows baseball knows that if there ever was a must-win for the Colorado Rockies, Thursday was it.
Apparently Jim Tracy didn't get that memo.
All of the talk recently has been about the Rockies' burned-out bullpen. Well, don't ask Huston Street and Rafael Betancourt if they are out of gas—they haven't pitched since Sunday.
With the closer and setup man comfortably resting in the bullpens, newly acquired Octavio Dotel promptly served up a solo home run to Chris Young to open the bottom of the eighth, giving Arizona a comfortable four-run lead.
Hindsight is 20/20, but after the Rockies climbed back to within a run of the Diamondbacks in the top of the ninth, those tack-on runs that Arizona added in the seventh and eighth innings sure seemed important.
Shining brightly on the scoreboard for Tracy to see was the score of the Giants-Cubs game. It was clear that a loss would move the Rockies 3.5 games out of first place with 10 games to go. That means that even a sweep of the Giants wouldn't even put the Rockies in front of them. That means that the Rockies effectively moved themselves from a contender into an extreme long shot in just four days.
When a game means as much as Thursday's did for the Rockies, it must be treated like Game 7 of the World Series. Instead, Tracy treated it as just a regular season game in May. There is absolutely no sense of urgency from the man calling the shots for the Rockies.
Make no mistake—the bad calls didn't start in the eighth inning for Tracy. Manny Delcarmen was summoned to pitch the sixth inning for the Rockies after Esmil Rogers had let things get out of hand. Since coming over from the Red Sox, there has been one thing that the right-hander has let everyone know: The trade did not affect his ability to miss the strike zone. He does that very well.
Delcarmen walked a man and gave up two hits and a run…a run that ended up being extremely crucial. He did this with Matt Reynolds, the reliever who has been extremely effective for the Rockies since they called him up in August, comfortably resting in the bullpen.
Someone needs to tell Tracy that the Rockies are 3.5 games behind in the NL West race. The way he is calling the shots, it looks as if he is nursing a four- or five-game lead.
Case in point is September call-up Paul Phillips making the start behind the plate on Sunday with a chance to sweep the Dodgers. Phillips is a good player; he has Major League experience and is not going to be in awe of where he is. That said, he spent nearly the entire season in Triple-A for a reason. He is the perfect example of a journeyman catcher.
Maybe it was coincidence, but in that game Rockies pitchers were charged with four wild pitches. One of those wild pitches allowed the leadoff hitter to get on base in an inning in which the Dodgers scored three runs with two outs.
There is no doubt that players have to rest. Miguel Olivo simply cannot catch every single game. Huston Street and Rafael Betancourt cannot pitch in every game. Todd Helton is another guy who cannot play every day.
However, with Jason Giambi going 1-for-8 since launching a walk-off home run against the Diamondbacks on September 12th, a game in which the Rockies were in a must-win situation was not the time to put him in the lineup.
The Rockies felt the effects of his poor defense when Jonathan Herrera made an errant throw in the fifth inning when the Diamondbacks put four runs on the board. It was a bad throw, without a doubt. However, Helton most likely at least catches the ball and keeps an additional run from coming across.
There simply is no sense of urgency with Tracy. It was not simply one situation where he could be second-guessed on Thursday; it was multiple times.
Mistakes happen. Every manager makes them over the course of 162 games. However, mistakes like Tracy continues to make are mind-boggling. Rockies fans are quickly understanding why Tracy was shown the door in both Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. He makes the same mistakes over and over and never takes responsibility for them.
For the most part, the Rockies' postseason hopes are over. They essentially need to sweep the Giants in the weekend series at Coors Field and then lose only one of the remaining seven games. It can happen, but the odds of that are highly unlikely.
In fact, if the Rockies fail to sweep the Giants, they may as well pack it in. They need to gain three games in the standings, not one. Losing a single game to the Giants and their three best pitchers simply is not an option.
For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com.
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com.
Colorado Rockies, Denver, Jim Tracy, NL West, Opinion Leave a Comment more...
Colorado Rockies Take Tough Loss
by Daniel Dayton under MLB
Two games…that was two games.
The Rockies just dropped one of the most emotionally exhausting games I've ever seen, 12-11. Hey, it's football season, so I guess they needed to have a football game score.
The big number now is 6.5 games. If the Rockies had won, it would have been 4.5 games. That's how big it is to play the team currently in the lead of the National League wild-card race, the Philadelphia Phillies.
This was a makeup game from a rainout earlier in the season—a one-game home stand at Coors Field squeezed into a six-game road trip. The Rockies fly right back out to San Diego for a three-game series with the National League West-leading San Diego Padres.
I can't imagine what the Rockies are feeling right now. I know how drained I am, and I'm not playing. But the Rockies have to win baseball games. That's what winning teams do…they win. Pretty simple concept, but that's where we are in the season.
Yeah, it's tough for the Rockies to hit on the road. Yeah, it's particularly tough for the Rockies to hit in PETCO Park. Yeah, it's a tough week of travel on top of all that. Tough.
The Rockies have to win this series, if not sweep it. That's it. No excuses are left. No room for errors. It doesn't matter if Mark Belisle's arm finally fell off in the seventh inning at Coors against the Phillies, or if Matt Reynolds finally proved he's human, or if Joe Beimel still has whiplash from watching Chase Utley's homer go out.
The Rockies' new bullpen arm acquisition from the Boston Red Sox, Manny Delcarmen, met the team for the first time Thursday, and then he got a chance to show what he can do for the Rockies. Four runs on four hits and only one out in the seventh inning…he'll fit right in.
"Not the way I wanted my first day to go, but I want to get the ball and get back out there," said Delcarmen, who allowed Jayson Werth's 19th homer on a bad change-up that tied it at seven (quote from Yahoo! Sports and the AP). Funny…I don't have the same desire to see you have the ball.
Carlos Gonzalez should have been given two runs for his single-shot home run…that got out of there faster than the crowd after someone yells, "Cops!" at a backroom casino.
The clock is running out. Keep fighting, Rockies…I know I don't have it in me after Thursday's game. The good news: The Padres are only 3-7 in their last 10 games. A sweep of the Friars would put the Rockies only 4.5 games back in the National League West race.
This article also featured on The Rockies Reporter and on My Team Rivals: Rockies.
Colorado Rockies, Denver, NL West, Opinion Leave a Comment more...


text:
Lewis Cass High School is a high school located in Walton, Indiana, United States. It is a part of Lewis Cass Schools.  It was formerly named Lewis Cass Jr./Sr. High School before a reorganization of Thompson Elementary, Galveston Elementary, and the middle school resulted in all schools in the corporation bearing the Lewis Cass name.

Athletics

Lewis Cass athletic teams compete in the Hoosier Athletic Conference, following the disbanding of the Mid-Indiana Conference in 2015.

See also
 List of high schools in Indiana

References

External links
Lewis Cass High School

Public high schools in Indiana
Schools in Cass County, Indiana
Buildings and structures in Cass County, Indiana

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Vintage Productions
+32 (0)3 205 83 00 info@vintage.eu
Lansstraat 3
Call us info@vintage.eu
UAntwerp – Faculty of Law
Nexus branding & launch campaign
A new postgraduate training center
The Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp has been organising postgraduate courses for professional lawyers for about 35 years now. Together with the Antwerp Bar Association, the Faculty of Law founded the "CBR" in 1985 – "CBR" stands for "Centrum voor Beroepsvervolmaking in de Rechten" (Center for Professional Development in Law). The CBR started with legal courses for lawyers only but grew year after year into a known academic institute for postgraduate training.
But now, anno 2020, the Faculty of Law felt that a next, big step is necessary! The need for a uniform and academic, continuous education increases more and more in a fast-evolving legal environment. Even – and especially – during a professional career. To meet the growing expectations and to address a new and wider audience, the Faculty of Law wanted to start up a new training center.
Branding & launch campaign of Nexus
The Antwerp Faculty of Law approached Vintage with the request to create a name and branding for the training centre and to set up a launch campaign.
Since the new center would unify and connect all postgraduate courses and activities of the Faculty of Law, Vintage came up with Nexus as the center's name. Nexus is the Latin word for "connection" and is a synonym for "hub", the core of an activity. It is a legal term that stands for a connection between persons as part of a causal relationship. Nexus also refers to the postgraduate education as the following ("next") step in an academic career, after bachelor and master.
Vintage designed the Nexus logo which includes a visual element referring to the University of Antwerp and a textual part consisting of Nexus, "Permanente vorming" (continuous education), Faculteit Rechten (Faculty of Law) and Universiteit Antwerpen (University of Antwerp). It is a clear logo that is used consistently on all of the training center's marketing, communication and course material. This way it raises awareness to make Nexus become first in mind when talking about postgraduate law courses (in Antwerp).
Nexus was officially launched on September 14th and Vintage set up a campaign to announce the transition from CBR to the new training center both internally and externally. The campaign consisted of a number of consecutive teaser moments and online and offline tools as well as social media updates.
It included:
E-mail & website (teaser) banners
Countdown teasers (website & social media)
Corporate flyer
Internal & external infographics
Letter by the Dean of the Faculty of Law
"Powered by Nexus" stamp
Interested to learn how we can help you to raise your brand awareness with a new, fresh identity? CONTACT STIJN
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text:
Crimson leopard-print headscarves
This story was produced by the Glimpse Correspondents Program.
Aisha has a date tonight.
Aisha is twenty seven. Most of her friends are married. She's still pretty, but worries she's losing her looks. Her figure, which she once described as "professional," has bagged down with plumpness, the result of a love of fried bananas.
And in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where sharia (Islamic) law reigns, a single date means a lot more than in the West. Meeting for coffee often means agreeing to be viewed as a couple in the eyes of Acehnese society. Certainly, after a second date, friends will start gossiping—jokingly and not—about a wedding.
Aisha isn't sure if other people are labeling her and Fajar a couple yet, but she hopes so. They work together at the bank: she's up front as a teller; he's in back as an accountant. They've never gotten beyond casual conversation when he drops papers off at her desk—the other tellers are watching. Most of Aisha's information about Fajar comes from gossip and Facebook stalking, but she's liked what she's heard: quiet but still friendly, a diligent employee, loyal to his widowed mother. She's also noted that he's older, expected to be promoted soon, dresses well, and drives an expensive Honda Tiger motorbike.
But in some ways he remains a mystery. Take, for example, the bruise—birthmark?—a little to the right of the center of his forehead. It's so faint she's not even sure it's there. Could it be a developing zabiba, the callus exceptionally devote Muslims earn through a great deal of prayer, bowing with each verse until their heads bump the tiles?
Everyone says Fajar never misses any of the five daily devotions, but he dresses very modernly in jeans, a soccer warm-up jacket despite the heat, and knock-off Adidas. Never has she seen him in a peci, the traditional hat religious men wear. She's also seen how tired he is after staying up until 4:00 a.m. to watch his beloved Manchester United soccer team play halfway across the world.
But Aisha can't waste too much time debating whether it's a zabiba or birthmark. Her shift at the bank has just ended at 3:00 p.m. sharp; the date is 7:30 p.m. at Q&L Coffee. If the night is going to be a success she needs a new outfit, especially a jilbab (headscarf). She knows her best friend, Putri, is a terrible person to ask for fashion advice, but she can't imagine sorting through dozens of veils without help, weighing the messages they will send alone; it is too daunting.
Her cellphone clock adds a minute: four hours and twenty nine more until she will sip coffee with Fajar.
Aisha abandons caution and calls Putri.
Aceh, Indonesia, is a scarred land. It is the northernmost province in Indonesia, on the tip of Sumatera Island, and the only place in the world's largest Muslim country to implement sharia law.
It is still recovering from twenty five years of separatist rebellion and the devastating 2004 tsunami, which killed approximately 125,000 people in Aceh Province. In ten minutes Banda Aceh, Aceh Province's capital city, lost about a fourth of its population: 60,000 souls.
The rebuilt Banda Aceh is a puzzle of crooked lanes where honking motorbikes swerve around stray cows and old men push kaki limas – wheeled food-carts selling meatball soup or fried pastries – ringing bells. The buildings are mostly drab and single story, shedding peeling paint. The needles of cellphone towers and domes of hundreds of mosques dominate the skyline, their calls to prayer filling the city with haunting music five times a day.
When the azan, or call to prayer, echoes through Banda Aceh, the frenetic city suddenly calms. Once choked streets empty into haunting stillness; restaurants and shops shut their doors and draw their blinds; the population files towards mosques and prayer rooms.
Islam is central to Acehnese identity. Banda Aceh was the first place in South East Asia to convert to Islam, around 1,200 C.E. It spread from there, eventually encompassing all of Malaysia, most of Indonesia, and portions of Thailand and the Philippines.
The desire for sharia law has fueled separatist Islamic rebellions since the 1950s, as Indonesian's central government insisted the province remain subject to the country's secular constitution. In 2001, Aceh was granted the right to implement sharia law for Muslims (though not for Aceh's minority Christian or Buddhist populations) in an attempt to appease separatists. Special sharia courts and a sharia "morality" police were created.
All forms of Western modernity in Aceh accommodate themselves to Islam: little signs hang in Internet cafes asking men and women not to share computers; the wide-screen TVs that hang in every roadside coffee shop stick to soccer, rarely showing the provocative music videos common elsewhere in Indonesia; and though Acehnese women might wear jeans, they also always cover their hair with headscarves. For a Muslim woman to show her hair on the streets is an offense punishable by law.
It is the responsibility of the sharia police to enforce prohibitions on infractions such as drinking, failure to attend Friday prayers, and all actions mesum (sexually inappropriate), from premarital sex to failing to wear a jilbab. Punishments can include: caning, fines, and public shaming, including having buckets of sewage dumped on offenders in front of a crowd. Although such cases are extremely rare, sharia courts can also sentence adulterers to be stoned to death. The most powerful enforcer of Islamic standards, however, is Acehnese society, its censure and gossip.
Correct dress and fashion for women are fraught issues in many Islamic communities. According to most Acehnese interpretations of the Koran, it is only appropriate for women to show their faces, hands, and feet. The neck and ears are a gray, verging into black, area.
But Banda Aceh is not Afghanistan or Pakistan. Burkas, the black "body tents" that conceal everything but a woman's eyes, are extremely rare. Instead, walking down the street reveals a kaleidoscopic-whir of different jilbabs: headscarves of all colors and styles, combined in inventive ways with Western, Acehnese, and Islamic outfits.
A daring student sports a sheer lime-green jilbab above a knee length dress and leggings; an old woman carries a basket of mangos home from the traditional market on top of a tightly wound pashmina, her loose robe tangling around her; a housewife hurries down the street to buy sugar at the neighborhood convenience store, wearing only pajamas decorated by a motif of teddy bears and a jilbab songkok, a pre-made headscarf favored for its ease of use; a rich woman keeps her chin high, careful not to jerk her head and disturb the elaborate, almost sculptural, folds of her glittering sequined veil…
The number of styles is almost endless, as are the signals they send, in a society that very much judges a woman on what she wears.
Aisha and Putri shop at Suzuya, Banda Aceh's biggest store, whose selection spans from durian to knockoff Calvin Klein underwear. It has the feel of a scaled down Carrefour or Wal-Mart. They like it because they can try on clothes in the aisles and not bother folding them back up correctly, unlike in claustrophobic traditional market stalls where the owner always lurks, peeking over customers' shoulders.
Around 3:45 p.m., Putri stops Aisha at a table of discount tablecloths, picks one up, and wraps it around her head. "Here, this is it! And cheap too! Wouldn't you look beautiful?" Putri says, laughing.
Putri describes herself as a "firecracker" and "a modern person who lives" – she highlights the irony – "in this place." Certainly, her style calls a lot more attention to itself than Aisha's. Putri wears a black and teal headscarf, the bold colors alternating in zebra stripes. The headscarf matches her outfit: a black pullover and shimmering aquamarine dress, and beneath that tight black jeans and flip flops pounded paper-thin by long use.
It's harder to notice Aisha next to the flamboyant Putri. Aisha's headscarf is black without pattern or texture, wrapped in a clean style, and pinned with an unobtrusive plastic rhinestone brooch. She wears a baggy maroon shirt with knockoff Louis Vutton symbols stitched onto the sleeves. Her pants and flip flops are the same mud brown. She thinks of herself as, "A good girl. Simple. Modest. I don't demand a lot."
When someone talks to her, she has a habit of stepping back so that if the person reached out to touch her she would remain just beyond their fingertips. She lives at home with her mother who spends most of the day studying Arabic so that she can read the Koran without translation.
"Oh, so you're ready to serve?" Aisha says, slapping away Putri, who is trying to wrap the tablecloth around Aisha's head.
They continue through the aisles, heading towards the jilbab section. The women appreciate the air conditioning: headscarves and full body clothing are hot, especially in tropical climates. The loudspeakers play the Indonesian equivalent, in both sound and sappiness, of an American Christmas pop tune—"Insyallah," last Ramadan's big hit. When it is time for one of the five daily prayers, the market broadcasts the azan over the same loudspeakers.
They start sorting through the hundreds of jilbabs scattered across the table.
There can be almost infinite variation in what constitutes a headscarf. Throughout history, women in cultures across the world have implied modesty and piety by covering their hair, from Catholic Nuns who wear wimples, to the women of modern-day Afghanistan who veil themselves with burkas.
The Islamic practice for veiling derives mainly from the following passage in the Koran, though there are other shorter elaborating verses and hadith. In them, Allah commands through Muhammad:
O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their jalabib [cloaks or veils] all over their bodies. That will be better, that they should be known [as Muslim women], so as not to be bothered. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
What exactly women are being ordered to do has been heatedly debated ever since. Some Muslim religious authorities have interpreted the passage as a directive for women to cover everything except their eyes—or even a single eye, which is all that is necessary to see with.
Others take a more relativist approach, recommending that women should be modest within the context of their society and time. Anthropologists have suggested that the full body burkas worn today are nothing like those worn in Muhammad's time.
Westerners often think of headscarves as designed to cover only a woman's hair, but they are technically supposed to cover a woman's breasts as well. This directive is often obeyed only cursorily, with women arranging a perfunctory corner of scarf so that it dangles down their fronts. A more orthodox woman, however, will wear a veil that covers her chest, or even extends to the waist.
The word jilbab in most Islamic countries denotes a longer veil that fully covers a woman, often to the ankles, but in Indonesia refers only to headscarves. Indonesian jilbabs come in a diversity of colors and materials, and can be arranged in an infinite variety of styles, from loosely flowing veils to artistic arrangements held together with seemingly hundreds of pins. All sorts of accessories can be added, from glittering pins and brooches to hold a veil's folds in place, to sun-visors that integrate with the headscarf. For every occasion, from playing volleyball to praying, there is a different kind of veil.
Today, in Indonesia, the first choice a potential jilbab buyer has to make is "pre-made" or "loose." Pre-made jilbabs, also known as jilbab songkok, are already formed, with a hood, facial opening, and drape sewn into place, so that a user only has to slip it on to be presentable. These kinds of jilbabs are especially popular for children; many are made up to look like popular cartoon characters or animals. A jilbab songkok with stuffed ears sewn onto the hood and tiger stripes has been especially popular lately in Banda Aceh.
Mature women wear "pre-made" veils around the home, for yard work or gardening, or to run down the street to complete a quick errand. Jilbab songkok are considered unfashionable in Banda Aceh, partly because of their popularity in the province's many remote villages, where women are more concerned with ease than style.
Aisha chooses a "loose" jilbab.
A "loose" or "free" jilbab starts as a square, rectangle, or triangle of cloth, usually measuring around three feet long and two feet wide. Additional fabric allows for more elaborate designs, such as sculpted intricate folds and whorls, while smaller cloths create tighter sleeker fits.
Scarves come in all colors and patterns, each with its own meaning. Dark solid colors convey conservatism or modesty; intricate patterns of sequins or fancy stitching, often depicting flowers or religious themes, indicate wealth; western or non-traditional symbols, such as leopard print or even the anarchist "A" show the wearer is "less fanatical," in Putri's words.
Paying attention to color is especially important when a woman is choosing a jilbab because Indonesia's standards of beauty favor pale skin. A woman with dusky skin can't wear a dark hue for fear of making her skin shade blacker, while those with middling skin tones tend towards neutral light colors like pinks and creams to whiten their complexions by association. Only the luckiest, and fairest, can get away with bright hues; sometimes, Aisha gets jealous just seeing an orange jilbab float through a crowd. Her favorite color is orange and it has always seemed unfair that she cannot wear the color because of her complexion.
"How about this?" Putri says, holding up an ocean blue scarf with a light blue pattern, like watercolor clouds, brushed on. By 4:15 p.m., the friends have thoroughly searched all the jilbabs on the tables and winnowed them to four selections.
"I don't want Fajar to think I'm already married to the American president," Aisha answers. The headscarf Putri is waving is known as the "Obama headscarf" because of its popularity after the first lady of the USA wore it on a diplomatic visit to Indonesia in 2010.
So they're down to three jilbabs: the first is simple, black and unadorned except for a thin fringe of lace; the next is a leaf-green scarf that signals conservatism—the color reportedly was Muhammad's favorite—and is a little more eye-grabbing than the black veil; and the final headscarf is a thin, almost sheer, magenta, decorated by tassels strung with ruby-colored plastic globes. But now the friends are stuck.
Part of the problem is that they can't figure out what, exactly, Fajar would like. Does he want a modern girl, someone with a little bit of flair and westernized views? Should they signal with the magenta jilbab that Aisha is bolder than the average girl? Or does he want someone more traditional? Will he be embarrassed by a showy jilbab, but impressed by Aisha's modesty and humility in wearing a simpler scarf? Or might the black or leaf-green jilbab strike him as dull and chilly and turn him off?
Aisha also thinks about her neighbors: what would they think if they saw her in the tasseled veil? They argue the choices over and over.
"You say he has the zabiba, that he's so religious. So chose something that would appeal to an imam," Putri says, exasperated. She'd been pushing for something bolder even than the magenta jilbab, pointing out the tasseled scarf isn't that radical.
Eventually, they decide it is better to play it safe. No one will be offended by a conservative jilbab, but Fajar could discount Aisha immediately for wearing the magenta scarf.
"Even if many guys say they don't want a traditional wife, they really do, deep down. Or want you to act like one, for most things," Aisha points out. That advice has been rattling in her head since reading an article in Paras, an Indonesian fashion magazine. The magenta scarf is flung back onto the table.
Next, Aisha decides, "Green makes my skin look yellow," and picks up the black jilbab. Aisha recognizes the black headscarf as closest to what she'd wear in everyday life.
"If I wear that one," she says, pointing to the magenta headscarf with the tassels, "it's like false advertising." As she looks at herself in the mirror, the black jilbab wrapped around her head, she sees a version of herself which is just a little bit prettier, a little bit more elegant with the edge of lace softening her face, than the everyday, but which is still her.
"You do look really pretty," Putri says, laying her head on Aisha's shoulder.
Now it's time to assemble the rest of the outfit. Putri parades graphic t-shirts with snarky cartoons on the front, but she knows Aisha won't bite—she's mostly doing it for her own amusement. Aisha has taken out a selection of Paras and is paging through the magazines for inspiration. Finally, she settles on a flowing white shirt/dress, with a collar and a row of buttons like a man's formal shirt at the top, but billowing out into a shin-length skirt at the bottom.
"I'd like him to think I am a business woman, that I'm successful, but the dress shows I am still a woman," Aisha explains.
In the shoes department, as it strikes 4:30 p.m., Aisha falls for a pair of gleaming white pumps, with a tiny window at the front so her big toe can be seen, but which otherwise cover her skin. No arguments from Putri: the shoes are that nice. Since the shirt/dress and shoes are both white, they decide that color is obviously the theme of her outfit.
So that Aisha doesn't look like a blank canvas, they add purple waist-belt and cream colored slacks. Putri likes the first pair of pants Aisha tries on, which show a half-moon of plump bottom, but Aisha decides to buy a size up.
"Better safe than sorry," she says again. That too is a sentiment from an article in Paras.
Jilbabs and headscarves around the world are part of a greater Islamic practice known as hijab, an Arabic word which means "cover" or "curtain."
Hijab usually refers to appropriate Islamic dress for women, of which a jilbab is just a part. Body contours can be vaguely discernible, but too-tight clothing is looked on as "cheating" and "and not much different from being naked." Hijab can also mean the veil, impossible to penetrate, drawn between man and Allah.
Some Islamic theorists, especially those supporting burkas, suggest that hijab was established not only to protect female modesty from men, but to guard women against their own vanity. A black featureless sheet, they argue, makes it hard to be vain about one's body or clothing, allowing an individual to focus on spiritual concerns.
In Islamic countries where burkas are not the norm, hajib has often had the opposite effect, making women extremely conscious of their clothing. Women are brought up to see their clothes as expressing their religion and identities. Expecting to be judged on their dress, women calibrate their outfits down to the smallest accessory. Because so much attention is focused on women's clothing, fashion becomes especially important to the population. The Middle East plays a key role in supporting the French haute couture industry, though most of the designer garments are shown off only in private.
Just as there are glossy fashion magazines in the West, they exist too in Indonesia, albeit without an inch of skin, besides the face and hands. Walk into any bookstore and you will find magazines pitched to every degree of religiosity. The most liberal magazines are generally international stalwarts—Vogue, etc.—translated into Indonesian and with a few country-specific articles, but they are difficult to find in Banda Aceh.
Magazines specifically for Muslim women, such as Paras, are significantly more conservative, showing only hand and facial skin, and occasional tight suggestive outfits, but they still include articles like, "Sex: The First Night" and "Asymmetrical Jilbab Arrangement". Truly conservative magazines feature burkas. All of them are filled out with recipes, gossipy profiles of Indonesian or Arab pop stars, light reportage, informative articles about Islam (a sample title, "Islamic Info: the Tradition of Kissing the Hand"), and encouragement to remain true to the magazine's interpretation of Islam. They also, of course, display fashion shoots, advertisements, and pages of outfits.
In one advertisement titled, "Secret Garden Collection," a light-skinned Indonesian woman poses before the ivy entangled wall of an English manor, leaning slightly into the vines as if pushed by an invisible force. She wears a duchess's riding jacket with a pattern of roses, a high-waisted Victorian dress which nearly screams "corset underneath!", and a red velvet sunhat with a gift-wrap bow. Mixed in with all this is a jilbab and, in a quirk of some Indonesian models, a wedding ring.
Many of the fashions displayed in the magazines, and most of the outfits seen in Banda Aceh's packed cafes on a Saturday night, rely on suggestion. Putri, for example, has been noticing a certain style: a bang carefully combed so that it dangles just under the lip of the jilbab, almost like gravity has innocently teased it into that position. What is that lock hinting at?
Aisha and Putri analyze the bang like it's evidence in a murder mystery. When Putri tries to explain her reactions to the hairstyle, she finds herself tripping on her words. Perhaps what she means, calling it "sexy but not really sexy," is that the hair is not explicitly seductive, rather hinting that the woman has sexuality, which is what the headscarf is supposed to hide. More importantly, that twist of hair suggests the girl disagrees with the authorities, that she's braver, a little westernized…
Aisha points out that maybe the bang signals the girl is "approachable," that you could "ask her on a date." Putri picks up on this, "Some women in Banda Aceh do not date before they get married. Sometimes the guy shows up, asks her father, asks her, and right away, that day, it's agreed. Maybe it's a way to have a choice about guys. Because it's a lot harder to ask someone on a date if they're in a very religious jilbab."
In the end, neither Aisha nor Putri can quite pin the styled bang down. They agree it probably has meanings they can't puzzle out. What is the bang trying to say? Maybe only the woman knows. Maybe the woman couldn't quite say herself.
By now, it's 5:15 p.m., and Aisha is supposed to meet Fajar at 7:30 p.m., after the magrib evening prayers. As they hustle towards the cashier, Putri stops and pulls a headscarf from a discount rack: it's crimson with a leopard-skin pattern of black spots.
"How about this one?" she giggles.
Aisha can't stop laughing. "Do you want him to think I am a wild animal?" But Putri gets her to try it on and pulls her to a mirror. The face that Aisha sees staring back is recognizable as her own, but also different: someone she only vaguely knows, capable of doing deeds she would never be brave (or stupid) enough to dare. It's like meeting a lost twin, someone she shares a primordial connection with, but who she doesn't know how to talk to.
"It's so amazing. If you're not going to buy it, I am," Putri says.
When Aisha and Putri get home at 6:00 p.m., they take off their jilbabs. Jilbabs are required in public by sharia law, but not in private or among family members. Even Aisha is glad to be free of the scarf now that it's appropriate. The cloth was starting to feel scratchy where it rubbed her cheek and one of the pins holding the folds together kept poking her in the neck.
A bucket shower is Aisha's first order of business. Aisha's mother takes a break from translating the Koran to cook the two a fortifying snack of fried bananas. After washing, Aisha stands in front of a fan to dry her hair enough to get a headscarf over it.
Once Aisha is dressed, it is time for the jilbab. She gathers up her hair, bunching it so that Putri can slip a songkong on (not to be confused with jilbab sonkong), an extra tight-fitting hood that lies under a loose jilbab to make sure no hair escapes. Putri sighs in disgust, "Your hair's so pretty, at least let a few pieces out." Putri wants to comb in a slight bang, so that it's just visible under the brim of the jilbab.
If Putri could, she wouldn't wear a jilbab. There were times in a tumultuous youth when she didn't, but she soon learned that her protests created more trouble than she could handle. This was before 2001, when sharia law was made official, so she was never arrested, but she got plenty of verbal harassment, "advice" from teachers and authority figures, and knew the rumors tip-toeing around the neighborhood.
Eventually, she proved the whispers true by dating a Western NGO worker after the tsunami. One might think she'd be numb to the criticism by now, but that's not the case at all: she's just gotten better at hiding her frustration and hurt. She hopes to get a scholarship soon, to America or Europe, somewhere she can abandon her jilbab and all the baggage that goes with it.
When travelling in more liberal parts of Indonesia—in parts of Jakarta or Indonesia's Christian provinces jilbabs are the minority—Aisha has experimented with not wearing a headscarf. She liked how the wind blew in her hair, that her hair didn't smell of sweat after taking her veil off, but ultimately she decided to keep wearing a jilbab.
It's not that she felt naked or threatened without it, she's tried to explain to Putri, it's that she felt like the style wasn't her. The jilbab is part of her faith, part of how she sees herself, part of her identity.
In the West, many organizations and individuals have attacked headscarves as anachronistic and repressive. There is an assumption that if women had a choice, they would remove them. Aisha knows many women for whom this is true, but she doubts the majority would. All the other provinces in Indonesia lack sharia law, she reasons, and most women in those places still wear headscarves.
Putri does not agree with Aisha. She is sure that if sharia law were lifted, "90%" of the population would fling off their veils. She believes most women, like her, wear the jilbab in frustrated acquiescence.
"Just look at the teenagers downtown on a Saturday night. Already some of them are getting braver. Sometimes they wear very loose veils, sometimes none at all. I like seeing their hair. It is beautiful."
The exact number of women who would choose either side is uncertain. Apocryphal stories about how many women wore jilbabs before sharia law was introduced in 2001 vary wildly, usually depending on the teller's religiosity or secularity. (Though perhaps it is telling that liberals confidently claim ninety percent of people would abandon their jilbabs, while conservatives hedge and haw, before asserting that "less than half, maybe forty percent, would remove their veils: many of the young people don't like it.")
Both sides claim a silent majority. Both parties allege a higher moral ground. Liberal activists claim the practice is barbaric. Some male imams warn that failure to wear a jilbab damns a woman to hell.
One point, however, most women, liberal and conservative, seem to agree on, is that individuals who abstain from wearing jilbabs are not going to hell. "How do people even know," Putri asks, "exactly what someone was saying a thousand years ago meant? Maybe Muhammad only meant it for his time. And there are a lot of interpretations of those verses. They can't say I'm going to hell for not wearing it."
"Allah," Aisha agrees, "is very kind. Allah is mostly concerned with people not doing evil, not hurting each other. It is pretty silly saying you'll go to hell for not wearing a jilbab." Most women they know hold a similarly benign view of future punishments. It is usually men who make more drastic claims.
As for accusations that jilbabs are barbaric and anachronistic, Banda Aceh's women are acutely aware of the image of headscarves in Western eyes. Less than two weeks before Aisha's date with Fajar, students from Banda Aceh's universities took over a main intersection in the city, waving placards which read, "I am beautiful in my jilbab."
Some of the women wore very conservative dress with their headscarves; others matched their veils with jeans and other western clothes. They were protesting French laws that ban headscarves in public institutions and burkas outside the home.
Putri cheers the French ban on headscarves, the smirk on her face suggesting she sees the irony of other Muslims being forbidden to wear veils, while she is forced to. When asked to describe what it feels like to wear a jilbab, her voice roughens with frustration and humiliation; it stretches until it is tenuously controlled.
"Yes, it represses me. How can I be myself wearing this? Headscarves stop me from being myself; they stop society from being fair in judging people because no one sees me when I don't wear this. They only see—," she flails her hand towards her head. "It makes it impossible to be equal between men and women. And it stops me from being normal and accepted in the international community. They will always look down on me because I am a Muslim."
While burkas certainly strip women of their identity, according to Aisha, jilbabs do not always limit personality. Part of the rationale driving feminist's support of France's ban on veils is that they obscure a woman's identity. A burka is very different than the jilbab Aisha now models, but as Aisha looks into the mirror, she recognizes herself. The simple black cloth with the fringe of lace—it's her—the same way the aquamarine and black zebra stripe jilbab is, in some way, Putri. Aisha would be concealing something if she didn't wear it.
At 6:45 p.m., Putri paints Aisha's toenails red so that her big toe shines bright as a diamond, emphasized by the oval window in the toe of her white shoe. The single drop of color is glaringly evident in the otherwise white and black outfit.
Aisha dusts her face with whitening powder. The hesitant sweet smell, its crisp dryness on her cheeks, sooths her nerves.
Aisha completes her preparations by pinning the folds of her jilbab across her chest with an heirloom brooch once worn by her grandmother. The brooch has only one of its three original pearls: the spaces the other two used to occupy are blank dents in the metal. Her grandmother, long dead, who lived before the implementation of sharia law, used the brooch to fasten her jilbab on holidays or when her children came to visit.
That is, when she wore a jilbab. Sometimes she chose not to.
Aisha pulls into the parking lot of Q&L Coffee fashionably late, at 7:40 p.m.
As she parks she glances around, wondering if she'll see Fajar lounging at a table, smoking, scrutinizing her. Instead, a young couple rushes by, almost elbowing her into the gutter. Aisha prepares to snap at them then notices the girl's headscarf: it is not crimson, but it is decorated with a leopard skin pattern of black spots. She stares at their retreating backs, noticing how close they walk, a thin inch apart, with such comfortable familiarity that they must touch when no one else is around.
She remembers the girl's face, pouty, a little defiant, certainly in love. What if Aisha had worn the crimson leopard-print headscarf? She has a vision of herself in that jilbab, strutting into the café, a different person, another future waiting for her. Some part of Aisha will always be wondering what it would be like to sport a provocative jilbab, even to let her hair free, just as she knows Putri will always be questioning, in the attic of her heart, if it is her God-given duty to happily wear a jilbab.
Aisha shakes the image away. I am who I am, she thinks. She takes out a pocket mirror, adjusts the black jilbab, and reapplies her lipstick.
She has made her statement. She is ready to be seen. She walks into the café.
[Note: This story was produced by the Glimpse Correspondents Program, in which writers and photographers develop long-form narratives for Matador.]
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Ilocano is an Austronesian language spoken by about 7 million people in the Philippines, mainly in the northwest of Luzon island, and also in Mindanao. There are significant numbers of Ilocano speakers in the USA, Middle East, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Canada and Europe as well.
Ilocano was originally written with the Baybayin syllabary, which is also used to write Tagalog, but this was gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet the Spanish arrived in the Philippines in the 16th century. One of the first publications in Ilocano was the Doctrina Cristiana of 1621.
The language is also known as Ilocano, Iluko, Iloco, and Iloko, and the Ilocano people call themselves Samtoy, a contraction from the Ilokano phrase saö mi ditoy, meaning 'our language here'.
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For investors, Ukraine's conflict with Russian separatists is likely to play out in the corn and wheat markets, where prices may rally globally if the country's currency weakens.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The world's eyes are yet again on Ukraine, as fighting in eastern provinces intensifies and Russian and U.S. military forces stare each other down in the Black Sea.
So what is an investor to do? Start by forgetting Ukraine's natural gas pipeline to Europe: The effects of the conflict will more likely play out in the world grain markets.
First, the gas worries, which may be little more than hot air. Yes, the European Union does import a lot of gas from Russia, but less than previously. At year-end the total was around 9 billion cubic feet a day down from close to 14 billion at the beginning of 2011, according to estimates from the Energy Policy Research Foundation.
On top of that the fighting won't likely impact the pipelines because they aren't in the same region of the country, says Max Pyziur, senior advisor at the foundation.
"As for whether Russia will turn off the gas, I don't think it can afford to at the moment," says Dr. Tracey German, Russian expert at the Defence Studies Department of Kings College London. "It needs to maintain regular sources of income."
Of course, none of that means that Russia will cease its belligerence, just that the gas won't be turned off anytime soon.
The real action is much more likely to play out in the corn and wheat markets, where prices may rally globally if the country suffers a continued currency crisis. Here's how it works.
Ukraine is a major player in the global export market for these grains. When farmers are concerned that the local currency is going to drop significantly they can, and do, hold back from exporting their grain as a hedge against the devaluation.
In January 2014, the dollar would buy you 8.1 Ukrainian hryvnia; currently you'd get around 21.
Those Ukraine farmers that did hold back wheat or corn would have made out like bandits on a payment in U.S. dollars.
"That's a rational economic response if you are a producer," says Jerry Norton, grains analyst for USDA's World Agriculture Outlook board. "If they have another devaluation in currency, you would assume they'd do that again."
Ukraine's farmers have a lot of grain to hold off the market. A lot. Ukraine is projected to be the world's third-largest exporter of corn and the sixth-largest of wheat, according to projections from the USDA. The projections are for 16 million metric tons of corn and 10.5 million tons of wheat for the 2015-2016 season.
So if Ukraine's farmers keep hold of their stockpiles, we'd likely see a rally in wheat and corn prices, assuming other things remain the same.
If the fighting continues to intensify through the summer, then it seems probable that investors will lose confidence in the hryvnia, leading to further declines. Ukraine's farmers must be only too aware of the situation, and my bet is they are getting ready to stockpile grain, if necessary.
Who will benefit from any such corn and wheat rally other than the farmers? Commodities futures traders, of course, along with makers of plant nutrients such as Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT and Mosaic (MOS - Get Report) as well as agricultural firm Monsanto (MON, which makes Roundup weed killer and engineered seeds.
In addition, investors might want to take a look at the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (MOO - Get Report), which holds both Monsanto and Mosaic as well as other farm-related stocks. Generally, agricultural companies can charge more for their products when the price of crops is robust.