text:
Women's Sport in lockdown: Rugby's next phase
By Katie Smith on June 28, 2020 Posted in Olympics, Rugby, Women in Sport
Unlike the men's competition, which is set to restart in August following a COVID-19 enforced suspension, the top tier of English women's rugby, the Tyrells Premier 15s ("Premier 15s"), was declared null and void back in March. Regulation 22.9 of the Rugby Football Union ("RFU") Regulations brought the season to a premature end:
"The Tyrrells Premier 15s season shall be deemed concluded on 16 March 2020, there shall be no playoffs, and there shall be no winner of that competition."
With the Premier 15s competition being a closed league, there were no knock-on effects of promotion and relegation to navigate. At the same time as the abandonment of the Premier 15s was announced, all women's competitions at level 2 and below were also curtailed, with promotion and relegation retained throughout the pyramid in accordance with a weighted points per game calculation of final league position.
It is not just the domestic game, which has suffered as a result of COVID-19. The 2020 Women's Six Nations Championship continues to be suspended; six out of 15 matches remain to be played with no timeline set as yet for the tournament's resumption. The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics means that the popular rugby sevens tournament will not get a chance to shine this year either.
The promising platform for women's rugby in 2020 has no doubt been severely impacted by the global pandemic. This piece considers some of the upcoming changes and opportunities in the women's game, which will hopefully coincide with a resurgence in interest and a raising of its profile in 2021.
The domestic game
The top tier of the women's game in England is coming to the end of a 3-year cycle, which commenced in 2017 with the league's relaunch, restructure, and a landmark 3-year title sponsor agreement with the snack brand Tyrells worth a reported £2.4million.
At the earlier than planned conclusion of this cycle (given the curtailment of this season), the Premier 15s undoubtedly still has a way to go. Although viewing figures and attendance numbers have increased over the seasons, the average crowd attendance was just 345 in the 2018/2019 season, with the 'Game Changer' event at Harlequins in 2019 representing a record attendance at a women's club game of 4,837. This season's edition of the 'Game Changer' was set to be held following the close of the Six Nations; it is difficult to know if the record 10,974 crowd watching England beat Wales 66-7 at the Stoop in March 2020 would translate to an increase in attendance at the same ground for Harlequins Women v Wasps FC Ladies.
Not long after the Premier 15s season was curtailed this March, the RFU announced that Tyrells would not be renewing its title sponsor of Premier 15s, leaving the league in search of a new partner. The timing might not appear to be the best as finding a new title sponsor could well prove more difficult in these uncertain economic and sporting times. However, with the Premier 15s set to start a new 3-year journey, combined with the excitement of the upcoming big international tournaments in 2021, the timing may well prove attractive to potential commercial partners. Securing the investment of a new sponsor will be crucial in continuing the push towards long-term sustainability for the league. No doubt the backing of an engaged sponsor will help to raise the league's profile; to encourage participation at grass roots level; and ultimately to assist in the league's slow steps towards professionalism.
From next season, several changes are being introduced to the Premier 15s. The league will continue to be locked and maintain its 10-team structure until at least the end of the 2022/23 season, with no sides relegated to level 2 (the two amateur Women's Championship leagues, North 1 and South 1).
The RFU announced a new process last August whereby the 10 teams currently competing in the Premier 15s would be independently audited at the start of the 2019/20 season to assess their suitability to remain in the league. The teams would be ranked from 1 to 10 "based on a combination of their ability to deliver the competition's Minimum Operating Standards and their on pitch performance". The top six teams were invited to join the league for the new three-year cycle. The remaining four teams were invited to tender for a place in the competition, with the tender also open to all RFU Member Clubs, universities and colleges. Ultimately, two new teams, Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs, were successful in their application to join the league, with Richmond and Firwood Waterloo effectively relegated to the Championship.
The introduction of Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs to the league signals a shift towards teams being aligned to men's Premiership clubs, in a similar pattern to that experienced in women's football in recent years. The introduction of new teams aligned to men's Premiership clubs will certainly offer new impetus and opportunities for the league, for example, lucrative and profile-raising double-header events. The financial backing and commercial reach of these clubs may also prove important as the league and the women's game grows.
Another new move for the Premier 15s is the introduction of a salary cap, with clubs needing to stay within a £60,000 cap per squad. Currently, not all clubs pay their players but some pay retainers, match fees and/or other benefits. Notably, 28 England players also receive an annual salary through central full-time professional RFU contracts. The objective of the salary cap is to increase competition in the Premier 15s, with the international players, who will command a salary, likely to be more evenly distributed throughout the clubs.
It has been reported that the majority of Premier 15 clubs operate on budgets of £100,000 a year, with the RFU investing £75,000 into the clubs annually. This budget was not just to cover one team but two, as each club also ran an 'A' team, competing in the Premier 15s Development League. The Development League will be scrapped from next season and squad sizes will reduce from 60 to 40. This will allow the clubs to be more focused and potentially lead to a closing of the gap between the Premiership and the Championship, as a number of the Development players will be likely to move to those teams.
On a global level, women's rugby has experienced unprecedented growth in recent times. In 2019, there were a reported 2.7 million players globally (growth of 28% since 2017), representing over 25% of the global playing population. The same survey found that 40% of rugby union's fan base are female.
World Rugby have voiced their continued commitment to the women's game – in 2019 the 'Women in Rugby' brand and global campaign 'Try and Stop Us' was launched and "aimed at driving increased participation and engagement among fans, audiences, players and investors in the women's game". Just last month, in response to concerns raised in some quarters about the impact of COVID-19 on the women's game, World Rugby said that women's rugby was among its "top three priorities". The governing body has also launched the new World Rugby Women Coaching Rugby Toolkit, aimed at increasing the number of female coaches.
The delay to the Tokyo Olympics as a result of COVID-19 may also present an unintended opportunity for women's rugby by bringing closer together two flagship events, the Olympics rugby sevens and the 2021 Rugby World Cup. With the Olympics confirmed as running to 8 August 2021 and the World Cup in New Zealand set to start on 18 September 2021, it might make for a difficult choice (or a grueling schedule) for those players who compete in both 15s and 7s. However, this will undoubtedly be an exciting time for fans and players alike and provide an excellent platform for women's rugby. Hopefully these showpiece events will go some way towards making up for lost time during the 2020 lockdown.
Tags: olympics, rugby, women in sport, women's rugby world cup


Global light vehicles market in he 2016 hit the new record of 93.5 million units, up 4.4% or near 4 million units from the previous record of the previous year.
The final results was above any expectations, considering the fall of entire regions (South America, Asean, MENA, Russia) and towed by the Chinese market boomed in the second half of the year with an astonishing speed.
This consideration should be taken in mind while reading the global ranking by brand ( the ranking by Manufacturer Group is published separately) with brands strongest in China taking advantages over the others.
The leadership is not under discussion, as Toyota with 8.47 million units (+0.0%) has a huge gap over all the others.
In second place Volkswagen with 6.353 million sales (+1.7%) has improved the speed in the second half, thanks to the position in China keeping the distance from the attack of Ford, third with 6.23 million (+2.3%), ahead of the German rival in the single months of March and June.
The battle for the fourth place is really amazing with Nissan ahead with 4.95 million sales (+4.7%) just ahead of Hyundai. losing volume first time in a decade with 4.86 million. Both are now challenged by the fast growing Honda, actually 6th with 4.77 million sales (+6.6%), up one spot overtaking Chevrolet, seventh with 4.16 million (-4.4%).
Kia stands in eight place with 3.31 million sales (+4.4%) ahead of Renault with 2.41 million (+13.8%), the fastest growing within the top 15, and in 10th place Mercedes with 2.32 million (+10.5%).
In the table below, the top 50 brands global ranking.
All data are sourced from our Mobility Database, feed on daily basis with data on OEM, Brands, Models, Segments collected in over 140 markets, actually the widest Vehicles Database worldwide.
Below, you can sort our interactive tables to see data regarding Brands, Groups and Models. Please bear in mind that sales data are subject to adjustments as sources will update their information. This report is updated at the publishing date and will not be modified while the next on this subject will report year to date data updated.


The peak of production of oil with the reserves, the production and consumption to explain in liters.
The aim is to explain in short what is the major trend to follow in order to invest in the next 10 years : the peak oil.
1. Imagine this: we have 10 litres of oil and 1 litre of oil we need daily.
We divide 10 liters by the daily consumption, we obtain ten days of oil consumption.
No! You suspect it well, it is not also simple.
2. If we say to you "you have 30 days' consumption of oil reserves,"then you imagine that the person who calculated that consumption has been cautious and consumption has dropped to 0.33 liter per day (10/30=0.33).
Nevertheless, she informs you that you consume 3 liters a day! You say the person exposed to the sun for too long, 3 liters * 30 days = 90 liters!
It's impossible your reserves are 10 litres.
3. We scam you without lying.
4. The illusion is that there are indeed 30 days of total consumption, but not at 3 litres per day every day! That consumption is valid only for one day. (No luck! Precisely where you are).
5. We do not lie to you when we say to you that there were 30 days of oil, we do not lie to you either when to you are told that today you can consume 3 liters.
However, you will be confused with a gallinacean having undergone a lobotomy when we promise you 30 days of oil to 3 litres per day with 10 litres of reserves.
6. Next time you see a television journalist to say that it remains for 30 years oil reserves, maybe he confuses you with a chicken with reduced intellectual capacity.
7. Even the IEA, which is the energy that FIFA is soccer, which nevertheless demonstrated a complacent about the production of oil, said in its annual report for 2007 " The eventuality, for the period which separates us from 2015, from a crisis towards the offer which would come along with an inspiration of the oil prices is not to exclude. "
8.. Peak oil will push up the price of oil and energy in general (gas, uranium, coal, electricity…). This is the most important trend to follow the next ten years.
In 2003 and 2004, I told you oil goes up, I say to you today not to release it is just the beginning.


text:
Q: Customizing a GCE Ubuntu VM image I have a Google Cloud Platform account that I access from a VirtualBox VM. I am using the Google Compute Engine for a project that I am currently working on, and I had to create a custom image based on the Ubuntu 14.04 image that's available there.
I made changes to the Ubuntu image by ssh'ing into an Ubuntu 14.04 instance, (from my Vbox VM terminal) installing the Matlab compiler runtime, and downloading some other files that I needed. I created the custom image by following the steps according to the documentation.
However, now the changes I made are only available to me when I SSH from my Vbox VM terminal. I need to be able to run a certain matlab program Via startup scripts, how can I make it so that all users using this image have access to the customizations I made? Is there a way I can do this without having to make the edits by ssh'ing from the developers console and redoing all the changes?
EDIT: I don't think I was very clear so Ill give some examples. say my Google account is alexanderlang. When I ssh into an instance created from my custom image from the developers console, bash prompt looks like:
alexanderlang@myinstance $

My Vbox username is alex, and when I ssh into the same instance from my vbox terminal, bash prompt looks like:
alex@myinstance $

alex@myinstance can run matlab programs, but alexanderlang@myinstance cannot. I'm talking about the same instance, created from the same image. I think this might have something to do with the ssh keys for my custom image, but I don't know how to change or remove those keys.

A: When you connect to your VM instance via ssh by using either Developers Console or gcloud, the user account is dynamically created (if it doesn't already exist) by setting metadata on the VM. The question is: how does each tool choose your username?
When you use Google Developers Console, the only information it knows about you is your Google Account name, so it uses that, e.g., <first-name>_<last-name> or similar.
When you connect to your instance via gcloud, it knows the value of $USER so it uses that instead.
Note that in either case, your account has passwordless sudo access, so if you want to switch from one account to the other, you can run:
sudo su alex

while logged in as alexanderlang and then you have access to all the programs that alex does.
Similarly, you can run:
sudo su alexanderlang

while logged in as alex to do the reverse.

Startup scripts run as root. To run commands as another user, you need to do two things:

*

*change to that username

*run commands as that user

sudo su alex will create a new shell and hence ignore the rest of the script (until you manually exit the user shell, which is not what you want).
You can use sudo su alex -c 'command to run' but since what you want to run is a complex script, you need to first save the script to a file, and then run it.
Your options are:

*

*pre-create the shell script to run

*dynamically generate it from the startup script

Doing (1) is easy if the script never changes. For frequently-changing scripts (and it sounds like, many dynamically created VMs), you want to use option (2).
Here's how to do this in a startup script:
cat > /tmp/startup-script-helper.sh <<EOF
# ... put the script contents here ...
EOF

sudo su alex -c '/tmp/startup-script-helper.sh'

A: You can use Packer to create a derived image from a stock GCE VM image. Packer will let you do the following very easily:

*

*boot a GCE VM using an image you specify

*run some customization step, e.g., shell script, or Chef/Puppet/etc.

*save the resulting image in your Google Cloud Platform project

Then, you can boot any number of new VMs using your newly-created image.
Note that since your VM image will be stored on Google Cloud Storage, you will be charged for the space it uses. Current pricing for Google Cloud Storage standard class is USD $0.026 / GB / month. A typical VM image should be less than 1GB.
You can see a complete example of how I used Packer to build VMs and pre-installed Ambari on it via my GitHub repo.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Art of Building a Bunker (QuipTake) 2013 SummerWorks Review
August 12, 2013 Christina Kostoff
On Sunday evening I went down to the Scotiabank Studio Theatre to check out The Art of Building a Bunker as part of this years SummerWorks Festival. I experienced a contentious and truly satisfying bit of Theatre- a difficult journey "down the river of inclusivity and into the ass of the world".
Upon entry I am immediately struck by the set design: the environment set up is a surreal structure; a visually striking three-dimensional blueprint of a subterranean room. This creative set reminded me of an art installation; the truly inspiring design by Camellia Koo sets an unsettling and dramatic tone.
We are introduced to the character of Elvis as he is attending a mandatory sensitivity training course for work. In this one-man show, Adam Lazarus delivers a wonderfully endearing performance as Elvis, a man overcome by having to deal with others in the world, and of all the tragic characters of his sensitivity training course. Lazarus is able to immediately set up comedic and believable tension between Elvis and the sensitivity training leader, Cameron.
The play is very funny. Lazarus and co creator Guillermo Verdicchia have developed hilarious characters and snappy dialogue but what expands its meaning is the moments of real discomfort and the challenges that Elvis experiences when confronting his own anxiety. We quickly learn that underneath his attitude and bravado lies a man who is very afraid and feels powerless within his world.
This is not an easy play at times. The character of Elvis rants about his frustrations and his comments are both relatable and offensive to hear. The underlying sadness and disturbing nature of Elvis' pain is artfully mitigated by comedic circumstances, but on a deeper level, a large part of this experience for me was figuring out how much of myself I saw in Elvis and, in his many moments of discomfort, how much of me was afraid to relate to him.
A hilarious ride through sensitivity training and one's man inner struggle with, as Cameron would put it, "His inner obstacle to becoming."
The Art of Building a Bunker plays at ScotiaBank Studio Theatre (6 Noble Street)
Friday August 9, 2:00 pm; Sunday August 11, 9:30 pm; Monday August 12, 4:30 pm; Tuesday August 13, 7:00 pm; Thursday August 15, 9:30 pm; Friday August 16, 2:00 pm; Saturday August 17, 4:30 pm.
All individual SummerWorks tickets are $15 at the door (cash only). Tickets are available online at http://summerworks.ca, By phone by calling the Lower Ossington Box Office at 416-915-6747, in person at the SummerWorks Info Booth (located at 100A Ossington Avenue, first floor) Aug. 6-18 10AM-7PM (Advance tickets are $15 + service fee)
Several money-saving passes are available if you plan to see at least 3 shows.
Previous PostGood People Bad Things (Moving Target Theatre Company) 2013 SummerWorks ReviewNext PostThis Wide Night (Wide Night Collective) 2013 SummerWorks Review

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home » News » Politics » Buhari showing his true colours with death threat, says Atiku
Buhari showing his true colours with death threat, says Atiku
On February 18, 2019 10:23 pmIn Politics, Trendingby Idowu Bankole
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says threatening people with death in context of election is incitement to electoral violence.
Atiku was reacting to a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari that ballot-snatchers will pay with their lives.
In a statement on monday, Phrank Shaibu, aide to Abubakar, quoted his principal as saying Buhari's comment is an offence going by the electoral act and that the retired general is only showing his true colours.
Atiku said the president has "complete" disregard for the country's laws.
"We were shocked to hear General Buhari live on national television threatening to kill people for an offence where no such proscription exists under law. The last time we looked the death-penalty was not a sanction of the 2010 electoral act," he said.
"In fact, threatening people with death in the context of an election is incitement to electoral violence, which is an offence under that act.
"Once again General Buhari is showing his true colours and complete disregard for our constitution and the laws of this country. He is getting confused with when he was President under military rule.
"His fig leaf of being a 'reformed democrat' has been blown away by this latest statement leaving his democratic credentials as naked as the day he was born."
Abubakar said he would establish Electoral Fraud Commission (EFC) to check malpractices during polls.
ALSO READ: Malami urges INEC to postpone election in Zamfara
"I have always been a democrat and defender of our laws and constitution," he said.
"So rather than make up new penalties on the spot in a press conference, our plans to establish the EFC by using the framework of the 2002 establishing act of the EFCC have been well researched so that we can introduce this new entity within days of assuming office."
"Likewise, we do not believe in the principle of retrospective legislation so it will be empowered to investigate and prosecute electoral malpractice based on the 2010 Electoral Act. Any person considering conducting electoral malpractice, inciting violence or the illegal arrest of political opponents should be put on notice that my administration on entering office will apply the full force of the law on them.
"We do not believe that one illegal act deserves another so a PDP government will always operate within the framework of our legal structures and laws."
While warning against the use of the military for "mundane" matters, he said the over-exposure of the military in a democracy has its inherent dangers.
Idowu Bankole
View all posts by Idowu Bankole →
Liverpool v Bayern: Shaqiri ready for acid test
Labour hails Buhari for saving over 165,000 jobs in food, beverage sector
12:11 pmWhy cybercriminals now use multiple attack methods
12:05 pmDigital revolution'll be the greatest of revolutions — Tickoo, NIIT boss
Breaking: Northern Elders Forum, CNGs order herdsmen out of South
Nigeria's deteriorating security situation took a turn for the worse Tuesday night in Abuja with the Northern Elders For...
Obasanjo's selfish letters landed him in prison —Yakasai


text:
enum RenderModel {
  ForwardRenderModel
};

const char* ModelToString(RenderModel m);

class RenderModelSimulator {
 public:
  RenderModelSimulator() = delete;
  RenderModelSimulator(const RenderModelSimulator&) = delete;
  RenderModelSimulator& operator=(const RenderModelSimulator&) = delete;

  virtual ~RenderModelSimulator();

  virtual void Update() = 0;
  virtual void Resize(int width, int height) = 0;

 protected:
  explicit RenderModelSimulator(std::unique_ptr<RenderNode> root);

  std::unique_ptr<RenderNode> root_;
};

std::unique_ptr<RenderModelSimulator> ConstructSimulationModel(
    RenderModel model,
    std::unique_ptr<RenderNode> render_tree_root,
    int window_width,
    int window_height);

#endif  // GPU_TOOLS_COMPOSITOR_MODEL_BENCH_RENDER_MODELS_H_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


nat sarif padhne se dil ko sukuon milta aur nat hamare dil me aspsi akhlash paida karta hai.
Ya Allahu Ya Allahu - Reciting Naats is the best way to pay homage and regards to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.). Ya Allahu Ya Allahu is available in best quality audio online which you can listen, download, and share among your friends. Naats in Urdu, English languages are available for diverse viewers. This page offers MP3 Naat online without media player. Find all latest 2018 Naats & get easily download audio free Naat in MP3 Format. Post your comments about Ya Allahu Ya Allahu below.


MillerCoors proudly celebrated their inaugural MillerCoors T.A.P. Awards in the City of Atlanta at the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, the evening was hosted by Radio One personality Ebony Steele of the "Rickey Smiley Morning Show". The MillerCoors T.A.P. Awards encompassed honoring the brand's top tier accounts, market influencers, a formal presentation of the "Premium Influencer" and "Sound of the City" award recipients, a charitable tribute to the 100 Black Men of Atlanta and more. Sounds for the evening where provided by DJ Salah Ananse. T.A.P.Awards guest were privy to an evening of "Taste, Appreciation and Prestige" as MillerCoors took their award winning beverages from behind the bar and brought them to life with four signature brand experiences. Guests had the chance to create signature beer cocktail recipes developed by mixologist Tasha Branch (Let's Make A Drink) exclusively for MillerCoors. On hand to highlight MillerCoors contribution to the environment and proper waste disposal was Remix Recycled. This event also featured brand specific, interactive experiences, brand/exhibitions, multimedia engagement and some amazing giveaways that included box seats to Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Falcons games.


text:
1. AI-based: these ones really rely on training and are fairly complicated to set up. You train the chatbot to understand specific topics and tell your users which topics your chatbot can engage with. AI chatbots require all sorts of fall back and intent training. For example, let's say you built a doctor chatbot (off the top of my head because I am working on one at the moment), it would have to understand that "i have a headache" and "got a headache" and "my head hurts" are the same intent. The user is free to engage and the chatbot has to pick things up.
Note — If the plan is to build the sample conversations from the scratch, then one recommended way is to use an approach called interactive learning. We will not go into the details of the interactive learning here, but to put it in simple terms and as the name suggests, it is a user interface application that will prompt the user to input the user request and then the dialogue manager model will come up with its top choices for predicting the best next_action, prompting the user again to confirm on its priority of learned choices. The model uses this feedback to refine its predictions for next time (This is like a reinforcement learning technique wherein the model is rewarded for its correct predictions).
By 2022, task-oriented dialog agents/chatbots will take your coffee order, help with tech support problems, and recommend restaurants on your travel. They will be effective, if boring. What do I see beyond 2022? I have no idea. Amara's law says that we tend to overestimate technology in the short term while underestimating it in the long run. I hope I am right about the short term but wrong about AI in 2022 and beyond! Who would object against a Starbucks barista-bot that can chat about weather and crack a good joke?
In our research, we collaborate with a strong network of national and international partners from academia and industry. We aim to bring together different people with different skill sets and expertise to engage in innovative research projects and to strengthen the exchange between research and practice. Our partnerships can take various forms, including project-based collaboration, research scholarships, and publicly funded projects.
I will not go into the details of extracting each feature value here. It can be referred from the documentation of rasa-core link that I provided above. So, assuming we extracted all the required feature values from the sample conversations in the required format, we can then train an AI model like LSTM followed by softmax to predict the next_action. Referring to the above figure, this is what the 'dialogue management' component does. Why LSTM is more appropriate? — As mentioned above, we want our model to be context aware and look back into the conversational history to predict the next_action. This is akin to a time-series model (pls see my other LSTM-Time series article) and hence can be best captured in the memory state of the LSTM model. The amount of conversational history we want to look back can be a configurable hyper-parameter to the model.
Students from different backgrounds can share their views and perspectives on a specific matter while a chatbot can still adapt to each one of them individually. Chatbots can improve engagement among students and encourage interaction with the rest of the class by assigning group work and projects - similarly to what teachers usually do in regular classes.
As you roll out new features or bug fixes to your bot, it's best to use multiple deployment environments, such as staging and production. Using deployment slots from Azure DevOps allows you to do this with zero downtime. You can test your latest upgrades in the staging environment before swapping them to the production environment. In terms of handling load, App Service is designed to scale up or out manually or automatically. Because your bot is hosted in Microsoft's global datacenter infrastructure, the App Service SLA promises high availability.
Great explanation, Matthew. We just launched bot for booking appointment with doctors from our healthcare platform kivihealth.com . 2nd extension coming in next 2 weeks where patients will get first level consultation based on answers which doctors gave based on similar complaints and than use it as a funnel strategy to get more appointments to doctor. We provide emr for doctors so have rich data there. I feel facebook needs to do more on integration of messenger with website from design basis. Different tab is pretty ugly, it should be modal with background active. So that person can discuss alongside working.
Next, identify the data sources that will enable the bot to interact intelligently with users. As mentioned earlier, these data sources could contain structured, semi-structured, or unstructured data sets. When you're getting started, a good approach is to make a one-off copy of the data to a central store, such as Cosmos DB or Azure Storage. As you progress, you should create an automated data ingestion pipeline to keep this data current. Options for an automated ingestion pipeline include Data Factory, Functions, and Logic Apps. Depending on the data stores and the schemas, you might use a combination of these approaches.
Unlike Tay, Xiaoice remembers little bits of conversation, like a breakup with a boyfriend, and will ask you how you're feeling about it. Now, millions of young teens are texting her every day to help cheer them up and unburden their feelings — and Xiaoice remembers just enough to help keep the conversation going. Young Chinese people are spending hours chatting with Xiaoice, even telling the bot "I love you".
With our intuitive interface, you dont need any programming skills to create realistic and entertaining chatbots. Your chatbots live on the site and can chat independently with others. Transcripts of every chatbot's conversations are kept so you can read what your bot has said, and see their emotional relationships and memories. Best of all, it's free!
When we open our news feed and find out about yet another AI breakthrough—IBM Watson, driverless cars, AlphaGo — the notion of TODA may feel decidedly anti-climatic. The reality is that the current AI is not quite 100% turnkey-ready for TODA. This will soon change due to two key factors: 1) businesses want it, and 2) businesses have abundant data, the fuel that the current state-of-the-art machine learning techniques need to make AI work.
Dan uses an example of a text to speech bot that a user might operate within a car to turn windscreen wipers on and off, and lights on and off. The users' natural language query is processed by the conversation service to work out the intent and the entity, and then using the context, replies through the dialog in a way that the user can understand.
In so many ways I think chatbots are only just getting started – their potential is much underestimated at present. A big challenge is for chatbots mature so that they do more than is possible as a result of content entry wizards. If your content is created with a few easy clicks, it is unlikely to be much inspiration to anyone – and to date, despite much work in the field, the ability to emulated the creative open ended nature of real intellingence has seen only very partial success.
There is a general worry that the bot can't understand the intent of the customer. The bots are first trained with the actual data. Most companies that already have a chatbot must be having logs of conversations. Developers use that logs to analyze what customers are trying to ask and what does that mean. With a combination of Machine Learning models and tools built, developers match questions that customer asks and answers with the best suitable answer. For example: If a customer is asking "Where is my payment receipt?" and "I have not received a payment receipt", mean the same thing. Developers strength is in training the models so that the chatbot is able to connect both of those questions to correct intent and as an output produces the correct answer. If there is no extensive data available, different APIs data can be used to train the chatbot.
Reduce costs: The potential to reduce costs is one of the clearest benefits of using a chatbot. A chatbot can provide a new first line of support, supplement support during peak periods or offer an additional support option. In all of these cases, employing a chatbot can help reduce the number of users who need to speak with a human. You can avoid scaling up your staff or offering human support around the clock.
Simplified and scripted. Chatbot technology is being tacked on to the broader AI message, and while it's important to note that machine learning will help chatbots get better at understand and responding to questions, it's not going to make them the conversationalists we dream them to be. No matter what the marketing says, chatbots are entirely scripted. User says x, chatbot responds y.
The chatbot is trained to translate the input data into a desired output value. When given this data, it analyzes and forms context to point to the relevant data to react to spoken or written prompts. Looking into deep learning within AI, the machine discovers new patterns in the data without any prior information or training, then extracts and stores the pattern.
According to the Journal of Medical Internet Research, "Chatbots are [...] increasingly used in particular for mental health applications, prevention and behavior change applications (such as smoking cessation or physical activity interventions).".[48] They have been shown to serve as a cost-effective and accessible therapeutic agents for indications such as depression and anxiety.[49] A conversational agent called Woebot has been shown to significantly reduce depression in young adults.[50]


Ready-to-wear collections by designers from Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Ukraine, Belarus, Thailand, Armenia, Italy and Georgia hit the catwalks this month, as Moscow hosted Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia.
The week opened with a show from the Russian fashion house of Slava Zaitsev, named after designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who has been well known in Paris since the Soviet era. His original style, which draws deeply on tradition and is rooted in Russian national costume, is easily recognizable in any city or country. It was an eye-catching opening show for Moscow Fashion Week.
His collection traditionally emphasizes the idea that every culture has its own history of national costume, which, if skillfully adapted by designers, helps create unique apparel from the mix of traditions with universal, seasonal trends.
Another highlight of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Russia was the British brand BasharatyanV. The brand was founded by Veronica Basharatyan, who moved to Great Britain at the age of 20. After studying fashion at top British schools, Veronica recently launched her own clothing brand.
The collection she brought to Moscow Fashion Week (Basharatyan Spring/Summer 2013) featured unobtrusive interpretations of Armenian ornaments and even some details of the national costume: streaming false sleeves, belts resembling the traditional patterns of the world-famous Armenian metal stamping, and faux-fur summer coats.
Lilia Poustovit, a very talented, up-and-coming designer from Ukraine, presented her Poustovit collection on the catwalk, with her other brands on display in a Milan showroom and in some of the best fashion boutiques around the world, including the Le Form in Moscow and Dome Market in London. This time, her collection was imbued with curious optic ornaments, based on patterns from toy kaleidoscopes and Buddhist and Hindu mandalas.
Rich coral, dusty blue and navy were the main colors used in both the prints and the plain details of floor-length dresses, tunics and knee-length skater dresses. The collection's indisputable hits were small caramel coral bags on a long shoulder strap.
The U.S. brand of Armenian origin, Von Vonni, featured genuinely feminine styles. The collection is sold in one of Russia's few department stores, TsUM. Ruched-waist dresses ending just above the knee and fabrics in small soft pastel patterns made the static presentation of a few designs fit in very well with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia.
Ozwald Boateng's was possibly the most anticipated fashion show at Merecedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. Born in Ghana, designer Ozwald Boateng is one of the world's best-dressed men. After years of working for Givenchy Homme as creative director, he now runs a boutique in an upscale district of London.
Boateng sold his first collection when he was just 16 and, a few years later, he was awarded a special medal by Queen Elizabeth II for his special contribution to the fashion industry. His suits can now be seen on Hollywood stars at the Oscars; Boateng's clients include such international stars as Will Smith, Russell Crowe, Samuel L. Jackson, and Daniel Day-Lewis.
Outside of well-tailored men's suits, Boateng actually designed costumes for Neo and Morpheus in The Matrix Reloaded. At this month's Fashion Week in Moscow, apart from the collection of men's apparel for the new season, Ozwald Boateng also presented, for the first time, his debut capsule collection for women.
The Ozwald Boateng Spring/Summer 2013 collection is a strange mix of slim-fitting jackets with sharp outlines and wide, loose-fitting trousers. The Ghanaian designer's show in Moscow's Manezh opened with black and dark-blue jacket suits, gradually replaced by grey and beige examples.
The show finished on a more relaxed note, with jackets featuring bright blue-and-green prints paired with shorts. In addition to the classic suit, Boateng advises men to complete their look with hats – most of them reserved and low key, but some in original bright colors and with wide brims.
In the new Giles Spring/Summer 2013 Collection, the unquestionable genius of British fashion designer Giles Deacon demonstrated a selection of dresses of varying length and style. Little black dresses intermingled with bright and almost eccentric gowns that were studded with Swarovski crystals. The show ended with graphic dresses and futuristic headgear in metallic fabrics. The collection, which includes dresses for all occasions, was much admired by Moscow's fashionistas.
Oleg Biryukov and Svetlana Tegin once again headlined at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The famous Biryukov minimalist dresses, maxi skirts and comfortable three-quarter sleeve coats are available in Moscow and St. Petersburg, at Bosco di Ciliedgi and Le Form. The new Biryukov Spring/Summer 2013 Collection is surprisingly colorful: basic dark blue, coral, white and black became the main colors for the brand's new collection, while floor-length dresses with stripes in these colors were its signature look.
Svetlana Tegin is a recognized master when it comes to jersey. Tegin purchases the unique cashmere and angora for her collections in Mongolia, where wonderful cardigans, wraps and many other items for her winter collections were also made. Inspired by the Victorian style, with its wraps, capes, cardigans and long dresses in gloomy steel grey, dark grey and black, the new Tegin Spring/Summer 2013 collection also features long pleated skirts and "royal" high-collar jackets in coffee tones.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia closed with a show of men's prêt-a-porter from the popular Italian brand Pal Zileri. Offering high combinability of its apparel, as is expected of a commercially successful global brand, the collection's message could be interpreted as "wear-and-go." From the brand's boutiques or corners in Russia, this is precisely what the fans of this famous ready-to-wear brand do.


text:
Isoflavones in soybean help protect pigs against viral infections
URBANA, Ill. - Pigs that eat soybean as a regular part of their diet may be better protected against viral pathogens, a new study from University of Illinois shows. The researchers attribute the effect to isoflavones, a natural compound in soybeans.
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a widespread disease that costs U.S. swine producers around $650 million every year. There is evidence that feeding soy helps protect pigs against the disease, but it's not clear why or how it works, says Ryan Dilger, co-author on the study and associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, Division of Nutritional Sciences, and Neuroscience Program at U of I.
Dilger and his collaborators previously pointed to dietary soy isoflavones as the active ingredient, and they wanted to explore that hypothesis further.
"In this study, we're looking specifically at isoflavones and whether they have a beneficial effect on the immune response," Dilger says. "We wanted to understand how we can take a primary protein source in a diet that's already used for pigs and provide a practical way for producers to combat the endemic PRRSV."
Isoflavones are a flavonoid compound that occurs naturally in plants, with a particularly high concentration in soybeans. It has well-known health benefits and is used as a dietary supplement for humans, explains Brooke Smith, lead author of the study and graduate researcher in the Veterinary Medical Scholars Program at U of I.
"When they're included in the diet of infected pigs, these isoflavones seem to be supportive by either helping the pigs clear secondary infections or setting them up for a more successful immune response so they clear the infection and don't succumb to it," Smith says.
Dilger adds the research is unique in focusing on nutrition. "We are using something that's going through the gastrointestinal tract to try and alter the immune response to a virus which is actually in the lungs. So never does the virus come into direct contact with the isoflavones. These are two different systems," he says.
The study included 96 pigs, divided into three groups. Two groups were infected with PRRSV; one of these groups received a supplement of isoflavones while the other did not. A control group of non-infected pigs received a diet without isoflavones.
Infected pigs that did not consume isoflavones had about 50% higher rate of infection-related mortality than those receiving the supplement. Consequently, isoflavones in the diet could have a significant economic effect for producers, the researchers conclude.
In a second part of the study the researchers looked more specifically at whether isoflavones might benefit the immune system indirectly by changing profiles of bacteria in the large intestine of the pig.
"We did not know whether there was a direct effect of isoflavones on the immune system or whether it was a result of isoflavones benefitting resident bacteria, which then had an indirect effect on the host," Smith says.
They were able to rule out the indirect effect of isoflavones through bacteria. However, even though the researchers were not able to explain the biological mechanisms, it is clear isoflavones are beneficial.
Soybean is usually a part of pig diets, and the researchers recommend producers keep it that way. They say more studies are needed to determine the ideal amount for optimal benefits.
While isoflavones have a wide variety of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative cell activities, they also have estrogen-like components that can affect breeding females and change the reproductive cycle. Swine producers need to balance anti-viral effects with estrogen activity when determining the isoflavone level in diets for gilts.
The researchers point out that their findings can also have implications for human health. The inspiration for their study came from research in humans that looked at antiviral properties of isoflavones.
"We've brought the human context into the pig, and we've put it in the scenario of production agriculture. We learned something that may benefit swine producers, but certainly it goes back in the other direction as well, to potentially help with human health," Dilger explains.
The first study, "Dietary soy isoflavones reduce pathogen-related mortality in growing pigs under porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome viral challenge," is published in the Journal of Animal Science.
Authors include Brooke Smith, Ryan Dilger, Maci Oelschlager, and Muhammed Shameer Abdul Rasheed, Department of Animal Sciences and Division of Nutrition Sciences, University of Illinois.
The second study, "Alterations of fecal microbiome characteristics by dietary soy isoflavone ingestion in growing pigs infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus," is also published in the Journal of Animal Science.
Authors include Brooke Smith, Ryan Dilger, Stephen Fleming of Traverse Science, Champaign, and Mei Wang, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois.
Funding for the studies was provided by the United Soybean Board and Archer Daniels Midland.
The Department of Animal Sciences, the Division of Nutritional Sciences, and the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition are in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Related Immune System Articles from Brightsurf:
How the immune system remembers viruses
For a person to acquire immunity to a disease, T cells must develop into memory cells after contact with the pathogen.
How does the immune system develop in the first days of life?
Researchers highlight the anti-inflammatory response taking place after birth and designed to shield the newborn from infection.
Memory training for the immune system
The immune system will memorize the pathogen after an infection and can therefore react promptly after reinfection with the same pathogen.
Immune system may have another job -- combatting depression
An inflammatory autoimmune response within the central nervous system similar to one linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) has also been found in the spinal fluid of healthy people, according to a new Yale-led study comparing immune system cells in the spinal fluid of MS patients and healthy subjects.
COVID-19: Immune system derails
Contrary to what has been generally assumed so far, a severe course of COVID-19 does not solely result in a strong immune reaction - rather, the immune response is caught in a continuous loop of activation and inhibition.
Immune cell steroids help tumours suppress the immune system, offering new drug targets
Tumours found to evade the immune system by telling immune cells to produce immunosuppressive steroids.
Immune system -- Knocked off balance
Instead of protecting us, the immune system can sometimes go awry, as in the case of autoimmune diseases and allergies.
Too much salt weakens the immune system
A high-salt diet is not only bad for one's blood pressure, but also for the immune system.
Parkinson's and the immune system
Mutations in the Parkin gene are a common cause of hereditary forms of Parkinson's disease.
How an immune system regulator shifts the balance of immune cells
Researchers have provided new insight on the role of cyclic AMP (cAMP) in regulating the immune response.
Read More: Immune System News and Immune System Current Events


This pack contains 8 high quality equalized, compressed and panned Caustic 3.2 Stereo Beatbox kits especially designed for the Caustic 3.2 App workflow. Important: If you intend to keep the pack for reinstall/multiple device install, the apk must be installed for 2+ hours after your initial purchase and download (Per Google Play policy). The included samples are 44hz 16bit stereo. If the included. beatbox presets don't cover the sound you need, all 64 high quality samples are included and named from each kit to enable you to construct your own Beatbox or PCMSynth setups. The installer extracts the presets and samples into the root/caustic directory on your device. Once installed, the installer APK can be safely uninstalled from the device. Tags - Caustic, Caustic 3.2, BeatBox, PCMSynth, Caustic Guide, Lil DrumMachine, Lil GrooveBox, drum machine, groovebox, sampler.


42% of UK shoppers are on the lookout for promotional offers for the festive supermarket shop, according to a survey by Valassis, involving 2,002 people. This percentage has increased in recent years from 38% in 2015 and 2014. 46% agree that they spend more time at Christmas seeking out promotions to ensure they keep within their budget, up from 42% in 2016.
2-for-1 offers are the most popular promotion with 48% of consumers stating these would entice them to shop away from their main supermarket over the festive season, an increase from 43% last year. Additionally, 16-24 year olds are the most motivated with 57% citing 2-for-1 offers as a reason to shop away. These offers are closely followed by Everyday Low Prices (EDLPs) tempting 43% of shoppers and coupons and vouchers favoured by 42%.
There has also been a year-on-year decrease in supermarket loyalty. Only 16% of consumers stated they will not shop away from their main supermarket this festive season, down from 21% last year. This lack of loyalty is not just for Christmas with 11% claiming to visit just one store each month. The "deep discounters" are set to rule the roost this Christmas, with 28% of those surveyed planning to do their main shop at Aldi, up from 25% last year, and 27% at Lidl.
Online grocery shopping/home delivery has increased year-on-year with 25% of consumers stating they use this option either "often" or "always," compared to 21% in 2016. Self-checkouts continue to increase in popularity, as a result of the rise of top-up shopping trips, with 40% of shoppers saying they often or always use them, up from 26% in 2016. Younger age groups (over half of 16-24 and 25-34 year olds) are more likely to use self-checkouts. Beyond grocery, younger shoppers are also more likely to regularly use their phone for digital offers in High Street shops and restaurants – 24% of 16-24 and 30% of 25-34 year olds.


text:
Q: Conversion between google.protobuf.Timestamp and std::chrono::time_point I'm trying to properly convert a std::chrono::time_point<std::chrono::steady_clock> (C++) to a google.protobuf.Timestamp (protocol buffers) and back again to a steady_clock.
I would prefer it to be represented in nanosecond resolution as the data I plan to serialize / deserialize are timestamped measurements which will be evaluated in a different context.
As I fail to find a definitive standard of the epoch time for std::chrono::time_point<std::chrono::steady_clock> I wonder if anyone else have tried it out?
Thanks for any answer :)


Despite the 9/11 catastrophe, the USA's much-hyped intelligence community yet again failed to head off a preventable disaster. Major Nisal Malik Hassan's attempts to contact al-Qaeda and radical Muslim clerics were closely monitored, but the decision was taken to watch rather than reel hint in, hoping to land bigger fish.
So the 39-year-old US Army psychiatrist was free to attend his place of work early one afternoon in November 2009, carrying two handguns – a semi-automatic FN pistol and .357 Magnum revolver – plus lots of ammunition. The Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood was busy processing personnel returning from or leaving for overseas tours of duty when Hassan produced the FN pistol and started shooting, discharging over 100 rounds in quick succession.
Moments later 13 people – 12 soldiers and one civilian worker – lay dead or dying, while 30 others had been felled with gunshot injuries. As Hassan chased a wounded soldier out of the building, civilian base police officers arrived. Sergeant Kimberly Munley exchanged shots with Hassan before falling to the ground after being hit three times. Sergeant Mark Todd then took up the fight. Hassan missed him twice before being shot himself. He fell unconscious to the ground with four bullet wounds and was handcuffed by Todd.
After regaining consciousness in hospital, Hassan was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder, leaving investigators to puzzle over his motivation. He was a practicing Muslim of Jordanian origin, who had expressed interest in suicide bombings and had close contact with Anwar al-Awiaki, his imam, at the mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, which was also attended by two 9/11 hijackers. Various theories were advanced to explain the massacre, from Hassan's reluctance to accept an imminent Afghanistan posting to fury that his superiors refused to prosecute soldiers who had admitted committing atrocities against Muslims in the course of psychiatric sessions.
You should know: Shortly after the Fort Hood shootings Major Nisal Hassan's lawyer announced that his client had been paralyzed from the waist down and was unlikely to walk again.


Investment Company: Esquire Investment Group, Inc.
Real estate issues, including broker and agent liability, consultant, loans, damages, documents, law, standards of care, transactions, claims, residential and commercial, short sale and foreclosure issues. Escrow, HOA, landlord- tenant, leases, mortgages and hard money loans, loan refinances, loan modifications, purchases, construction defects, and boundary disputes. Business broker issues, including liability, disputes, fraud, transactions and buy- sell agreements.
Author: Nixon v. Fitzgerald: Recognition of Absolute Immunity From Personal Damage Liability for Presidential Acts, Pepperdine Law Review (1983), Number 3, page 661.
Authorizes the representation of parties in real estate transactions, supervision of agents, and the receipt of compensation for representation of buyers and sellers.
Authorizes the practice of law in all of the Superior Courts of the State of California.
Authorizes the practice of law in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, including the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.
Provides daily decisions by the California Court of Appeal and California Supreme Court, and continuing legal education.
Provides legal education seminars and monthly editions of the Valley Lawyer Magazine.
Provides access to CRISNet MLS (Multiple Listing Service) matrix, risk management questions and answers and legal education, mediation and arbitration services to agents and brokers, and buyers and sellers.
Provides access to a wide variety of benefits, business tools, real estate market data, educational opportunities and discount programs designed to help agents and brokers succeed in the present market.
Provides tenant screening, rental forms, legal questions and answers, and monthly Apartment News and Buyers Guide.
Dedicated to maintaining the highest standards in escrow through continuing education and legislative advocacy.
Professional network of nearly 33, 000 residential real estate professionals from across the country and around the world, and provides agents with the tools, resources and strategies they need to help them guide buyers and sellers through the residential sale process.
An affiliate of the National Association of REALTORS, it is dedicated to providing education, resources, information, and opportunities to real estate management professionals, and bounds members with the strictly Code of Professional Ethics.
Twelve hours of DRE approved Consumer Protection continuing education.
DRE approved Ethics continuing education.
SRAR News, Southland Regional Association of Realtors, Inc.
Apartment Management Magazines, Apartment News Publications, Inc.
Download a complete curriculum Vitae for The Forry Law Group by clicking here.


text:
By Cormac O'Malley
The Changes Stephen Rochford Needs To Make If Mayo Are To Beat Dublin On Saturday
The build up has been dogged with controversy but thankfully Mayo versus Dublin Part II is almost here. These two teams know each other inside out at this stage so will there be any surprises on Saturday? What can the management teams do to gain an edge? Yesterday we looked at what Dublin could do to improve so today we turn our eyes West.
What can Stephen Rochford do differently this time while still maintaining the same level of performance from his side?
Love him or hate him, everyone has an opinion on Aidan O'Shea. If he scored 2-5 his detractors would still say he didn't pass enough. If held scoreless, the knives are immediately out for not having an impact. The truth is that O'Shea had a decent game in the drawn match. Not everything he did worked, but not everything Mayo did helped him either. Mayo cannot remain static in their tactics so utilising O'Shea away from full forward for at least twenty minutes could be a perfect move. He is a great foot passer, can burst onto passes, and as with Cillian O'Connor's equaliser, he can set up a score.
Bringing O'Shea to the forty to give Cian O'Sullivan some company could be just what he and Mayo need to upset Dublin.
Barry Moran came on in the closing stages of the final but his impact was minimal. Coming on for Alan Dillon after injury to the Ballintubber man, Moran's position was ambiguous. If he appears in the replay, you can be sure the Mitchell's man will have a much more defined role.
He could easily be pitched in to midfield by Stephen Rochford to combat Dublin's long kick-outs or more likely, we could see him head to the edge of the square. Andy Moran and O'Shea enjoyed some joy off the Dublin full back line, separately, but throw in Barry to join either of them and it could lead to serious chaos. It's an option from either the throw-in or in the second half. It could give Mayo an outlet that they did not have the last day out.
Follow Fenton
Seamus O'Shea has been a major part of this Mayo side over the last few years. He has had the sixth highest number of possessions this season according to SURE GAA Season of Statistics. His black-card in last year's semi-final was a serious blow to Mayo's challenge in the end. However, last Sunday wasn't his finest day with three, glaring, unforced turnovers on handpasses. Chances are that he won't make that mistake again. There is the option though of having Donal Vaughan follow Brian Fenton, with Tom Parsons taking up McAuley or Bastick. Vaughan's athleticism and point scoring could stop the Raheny man's gambols forward and thwart those breaks that caused Mayo such worry last time out. Introducing a fit again Chris Barrett into the half back line and bringing O'Shea off the bench in the second half might tip the balance in the midfield battle for the Green and Red.
Why We Could See An Upset In This Weekend's All Ireland Ladies Final
#AllIrelandFinal Mayo dublin
Cormac O'Malley
See more from Cormac O'Malley
Mourinho Caught On Camera Asking Bale If He Wants To Go Back To Madrid


text:
We Rest Our Case: American Slavery Is Widely Mistaught
After hearing from skeptics about our Teaching Hard History report findings, TT Director Maureen Costello came across striking new evidence that the project is necessary.
Maureen Costello
Teach This in a Learning Plan
Add to an Existing Learning Plan
START A NEW LEARNING PLAN
Bookmark We Rest Our Case: American Slavery Is Widely Mistaught
Would you like to print the images in this article?
Do Not Print Images
I heard from plenty of skeptics last month when Teaching Tolerance announced that a year-long investigation showed that U.S. students were getting short shrift when it came to learning the full impact of American slavery on our nation. Teachers lamented poor resources, textbooks routinely whitewashed the story, and state standards were, in a word, timid. As a result, high school seniors we surveyed were unable to identify slavery as the key reason for southern secession and didn't know that the Constitution both enshrined slavery and ultimately needed to be amended to end it.
We pointed out that, in general, teaching about slavery was superficial, failed to recognize the many ways enslaved labor fueled the economic growth of the entire nation during the 19th century, minimized the humanity of those who were enslaved, and failed to connect the dots between the past and the present.
The skeptics questioned the survey, argued with the centrality of slavery as a cause of the war, and defended current school curriculum. A handful of textbook publishers pushed back, too.
But only a few weeks after we published our report, new evidence landed in my inbox in the form of a promotional email from the Bill of Rights Institute, a Koch brothers-funded nonprofit whose purported mission is to educate young people about the Constitution by sponsoring student contests, providing curriculum and training teachers.
This particular email was shilling a "Homework Help Video" in a series aimed at preparing students for the APUSH exam. The topic was "Slavery and the Road to Civil War."
I watched the YouTube video, and all I can say is, "I rest my case."
The short presentation is narrated by a youthful actor reading a script that panders to the target audience by commiserating about "any exam that your teacher is inflicting upon you."
And then, in just 4.25 short minutes loaded with the kind of superficial facts you'd find in a middle school textbook, the Bill of Rights Institute manages to get at least eight of those facts wrong, causing this history teacher's head to explode a little. Here are a few areas where the Bill of Rights Institute should have done some fact-checking:
Wrong: The 1820 Compromise maintained a "balance in Congress between the number of free states and slave states."
It's a common mistake to conflate the House of Representatives with the Senate, but not one you'd expect from a group dedicated to educating about the Constitution. In fact, the balance was in the Senate. In the House, by virtue of the three-fifths clause, southern states got a boost, so that a southern vote for representative effectively had more weight than a vote from a non-slave state. Not mentioned in the video.
Wrong: The issue was reopened in "1846, with America's victory in the Mexican War."
While most AP courses aren't about memorizing names and dates, it would be good to get the date right when you do mention it. The Mexican War began in 1846; victory didn't happen for another two years. More importantly, what re-opened the debate was the so-called Mexican Cession, including what is now New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado, a part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, signed in 1848.
Wrong: The Compromise of 1850 "allowed TX and CA to enter the Union under the concept of popular sovereignty."
This is emphasized with a bulleted list and helpful maps illustrating how California and Texas voters chose freedom and slavery, respectively, in 1850. Hey, hip dude, you might want to brush up here. The reason we entered the Mexican War in 1846 was because Texas was already a state. Texas was annexed to the United States as a slave state in 1845 by joint resolution of Congress. Popular sovereignty never applied in Texas.
Wrong: The Compromise of 1850 preserved "the political balance in Congress, and sectional tensions calmed."
Actually, it ended the balance in the Senate. With the admission of California, there were 16 free states and 15 slave states. And anger over the stronger Fugitive Slave Act fueled the growing abolitionist and Free Soil movements.
Wrong: "Slave-owners supported popular sovereignty because it meant slavery could expand into northern areas."
Clearly, no part of the Mexican Cession can be geographically defined as a northern area, unless you're pushing the idea that slavery was an exclusively southern institution and the North was, by definition, anti-slavery.
Incomplete: Abolitionists opposed popular sovereignty because they didn't think "inalienable human rights, such as liberty, should ever be subject to a popular vote."
While this is true, it vastly understates the motives and ideologies of abolitionists.
Wrong: Popular sovereignty in Kansas came about because of the Compromise of 1850.
In fact, the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act extended popular sovereignty, and the possibility of slavery, to territories where slavery had been outlawed under the Missouri Compromise. The omission of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in a video that seems determined to list every major political stepping stone on the road to war is puzzling, but omitted it is.
Whitewashed: The Dred Scott decision is an unfortunate one whose worst offense was finding that "slaves were no more than personal property that could be taken across states lines."
In fact, Chief Justice Roger Taney's decision in Dred Scott is appalling for enshrining racism in our law. Here's what Taney actually wrote: "They [enslaved people] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."
In discussing our report, Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries, one of the Teaching Hard History advisors, characterized the way American slavery is taught as "educational malpractice." This "lesson" is ample evidence of what that malpractice looks like.
Even were it accurate, it fails all the criteria for teaching hard history. It's superficial, drained of humanity and neglects to reckon with the economic and social reality of what opponents called "the slave power."
It's also false advertising. As a former APUSH teacher and reader (what those of us who gathered to read and rate the essays for the College Board called ourselves), I will note that the level of information in this video is far short of the deep content and thinking required of an AP student.
Teachers everywhere, please don't recommend this resource to your students unless you are ready to plead guilty to educational malpractice.
Costello is the director of Teaching Tolerance.
Login to join the conversation
Bookmark Teaching Hard History: American Slavery
Teaching Hard History: American Slavery
This report summarizes research conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017 on the state of teaching about American slavery in K-12 schools.
Kate Shuster
Bookmark The Courage to Teach Hard History
The Courage to Teach Hard History
The central role that slavery played in the development of the United States is beyond dispute. Yet, the practices of teaching and learning about this fact remain woefully inadequate. Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries introduces Teaching Hard History: American Slavery, which can help change that.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries


Wouldn't it be great if picking a hard drive was as easy as looking at the price per gigabyte? Unfortunately, it's not that simple; there are a lot of options to consider with hard drives when buying or renting a Mac or PC.
Let's take a look at the three most common types of hard drives, and what you need to know about each.
The dominant form of high-capacity storage up until recently, hard disk drives (HDD) record information onto spinning magnetic disks. While the disks spin, a drive arm is able to read and write information on the disk, storing and retrieving data as needed.
HDDs simply offer better value with a lower cost per gigabyte.
There are two main advantages to an HDD: capacity and cost. HDDs simply cost less per gigabyte than their SSD or flash counterparts. As such, users that have high data-storage needs will find far better value with an HDD.
HDDs do have their downside, and it is a significant one. Because they feature moving parts, there is a higher chance for damage and failure. This presents a particular risk for laptops that use HDDs. Sudden movements or drops can cause irreparable damage to an HDD.
It is quite easy to confuse these two types of storage. Many will insist they are just different names for the same thing, but there is a subtle distinction between the two – particularly as they're used when discussing Mac specifications.
Flash storage use microchips to store information. Unlike RAM and other types of memory, these do not need a power supply to retain data. These microchips are incorporated into a device's design, reducing bulkiness. This can be seen particularly well in the new MacBooks and MacBook airs – both of which use flash storage.
A solid-state drive (SSD) takes the flash storage concept and puts it in the same form factor as an HDD. It connects to a device through the same SATA interface HDDs use.
SSDs have the same form factor as HDDs.
Flash storage and SSDs offer significant advantages over HDDs, particularly when it comes to durability and read and write speeds. The main tradeoff, however, is cost. Per gigabyte, these types of storage are still far more expensive than HDDs.
Companies planning IT purchases should assess their storage needs accordingly. If cost and high capacity are priorities, stick with HDDs for now. If durability is the goal, flash and SSD are worth the expense.


text:
Alleging sexual abuse, former Ben Lippen School student sues teacher, school
Karen Chávez
Asheville Citizen Times
Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse.
A graduate of Ben Lippen School - a Christian boarding school formerly located in West Asheville - is suing a former female teacher and the school, alleging years of sexual abuse.
Rachel Howald, 50, says in the lawsuit filed Jan. 15 in Buncombe County Superior Court that Pamela Kaye Herrington, a teacher and coach at the high school, sexually assaulted her repeatedly from 1986-88 when she was 16 and 17 years old, and that the school provided multiple opportunities for the teacher to victimize her.
The alleged assaults took place in dormitories and Herrington's campus apartment, in school vehicles used for transporting student athletes, at school athletic events off campus, in hotel rooms during travel for sports and in Howald's own home, according to the suit.
"For anybody that came before me and, God forbid, anybody that may have been a victim after me, that was enough of an impetus to come forward," Howald told the Citizen Times this week.
Related: Reports of child sexual abuse rise sharply in Asheville, Buncombe County
Howald is able to bring the suit based on the North Carolina act to protect children from sexual abuse and strengthen and modernize sexual assault laws, which went into effect Dec. 1, 2019. The new law requires anyone age 18 and older to report potential violent or sexual offenses against child victims to law enforcement.
Another aspect, known as the "look back" law, allows victims of child sexual abuse at any time to bring civil lawsuits against their attackers through Dec. 31, says Howald's representation, Boz Tchividjian, an attorney with Landis Graham French PA in DeLand, Florida.
Howald is also being represented by the Fidelity Law Group of Charlotte and Peter Janci of Portland, Oregon.
Before the law went into effect, minor victims only had until age 21 to sue for damages. The statute of limitations was also raised to age 28.
Howald is asking for compensatory damages and punitive damages for the "severe physical and mental injuries arising from the sexual assaults/batteries" she suffered by Herrington, in an amount to be determined by a jury trial.
It's really hard to put a specific dollar amount on what happened to Rachel and the impact it's had on her life. We think the jury is best suited to make that determination after hearing all of the evidence," Tchividjian said.
Related: Buncombe County DA: Investigation underway into alleged Asheville School sexual assault
According to the lawsuit, Herrington was in her late 30s and unmarried when she was hired by the school in 1982. Of the many claims, the lawsuit alleges that Ben Lippen School allowed Herrington to live in one of the girl's dorms alongside the students, gave her unsupervised and unrestricted access to the students' rooms and used her position to target, groom and "sexually victimize" some of those students, including Howald.
The lawsuit alleges that Herrington began grooming Howald, whom she coached on three teams, by providing her with special benefits not available to other students, such as allowing her to listen to any music she wished, including music not approved by the school.
"Every instance of Defendant Herrington's sexual abuse of Rachel was perpetrated without Rachel's consent," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims Ben Lippen School "repeatedly left Rachel unsupervised in the care of Defendant Herrington" when she stayed at the school into the late evenings for events like "movie night," when "Rachel was sexually abused by Defendant Herrington over and over again," the lawsuit says.
"This abuse included but was not limited to, fondling Rachel's breasts, squeezing Rachel's nipples, and grinding her vaginal area aggressively into Rachel's upper thigh or on top of Rachel's vaginal area..."
Opinion: Faculty at Asheville School must speak out after being asked to 'move forward'
The lawsuit faults Ben Lippen School for having had no policy for supervising or restricting interactions between faculty members and students; no policy against having students spend time or stay overnight in faculty dorm rooms; no policy preventing adult staff from being alone with students in school vehicles; no policy preventing adult staff from being alone with students in hotel rooms during overnight trips for school-sponsored events; and allowing some staff unrestricted use of an all-access passkey to dorm rooms without student consent, among other violations.
Related: Asheville School internal review finds no fault with Title IX sexual assault investigation; backlash
Howald, whose father was a doctor, attended other private schools until 10th grade, when she entered Ben Lippen as a day student. Her mother was a faculty member there. The majority of students at the school, then on Dryman Mountain off Ben Lippen School Road, lived on campus.
While she now lives in the New York City area and works in advertising, Howald said she has suffered significantly for more than 30 years since the abuse.
"There's not a single day of my life that I haven't been impacted by it. The shame of it and the PTSD aspect of it don't ever go away," Howald said.
Part of her decision to come forward after so long was the fear that Herrington was still working around children, Howald said. She filed a criminal complaint against Herrington with the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office in 2017, but detectives did not press charges, according to the incident report.
"One of the things that I've learned in all the nonprofit work that I've done around sexual violence issues is that a lot of perpetrators count on the fact that victims aren't going to say anything. And they are 1,000% correct in that assumption," she said.
Another reason Howald said she is suing Herrington and Ben Lippen now is that she is legally able due to the two-year look back window.
For subscribers: Alleging sexual abuse by two teachers, Asheville School alum sues prestigious boarding school
The new law also enabled Walter Triplette, a graduate of Asheville School, to sue the private boarding school in West Asheville for what he says were years of sexual abuse by two male teachers. Triplette filed the lawsuit in December.
It came in the wake of allegations by Agnes Hill, now 17, that she was sexually assaulted by an older male student on the Asheville School campus in 2019 when she was a 15-year-old freshman. She has since left the school and filed a complaint with Asheville Police, who are investigating the incident.
For subscribers: Teen says sex assault happened at elite Asheville School
Ben Lippen School, also known as Columbia International University, was established in 1940 in Asheville as a missionary school. It is now a "Christ-centered" pre-K-12 school in Columbia, South Carolina, where it relocated in 1988.
The college is not named for a person, but rather is a Scottish phrase meaning "mountain of trust" according to its website.
"It has been anything but that for me," Howald said.
Karen Chávez has been a journalist for 25 years, including as an editor and reporter for the past 20 years for the Asheville Citizen Times and USA TODAY Network. Email her at KChavez@CitizenTimes.com or follow on Twitter @KarenChavezACT.


investors who invest in UK firms.
shareholder value and a clear focus on taking the business to the next level and releasing this value.
Our investors benefit from our extensive network of referrals and introductions which are designed to bring quality opportunities to the table.
Our team provide support, expertise, experience and connections – adding growth and value to many companies across the UK.
Our selection criteria focuses on growth potential and releasing value for stakeholders within a 3 year period.


Adam James's life is far from perfect. A talented drummer from a small suburb of Chicago, he keeps to himself, downplaying his abilities, thinking that he is less than all those around him, including his popular twin brother, Aaron..
When a free-spirited new girl with a troubled past moves in across the street, Adam's eyes are opened to a new world of possibilities. Olivia Cartwright's philosophies on life give her a deeper understanding of the world. An instant connection between Adam and Olivia draws them closer, but he wonders why anyone would choose him when a better version exists, particularly when Aaron also takes an interest in her.
Will the friendship with Olivia change Adam, or will he continue to close himself off in his own world?
Adam has a choice to make: risk his friendship with Olivia or fight for something more.
It seems Adam has a lot to learn about love….and life.
My Only, is also the story of a love triangle that divides twins, pits brother against brother, fact against theory (this analogy is brilliant) and sadly there can be no winners. The angst between the brothers is well rendered as they vie for the love of the new girl in town.
Adam is "theory"… He likes a girl, but does nothing about it.
Aaron is "proven fact"… He likes a girl and "acts".
They are twins and have been compared all their lives but it is their differences that alienate them now. That, and Olivia. One is inherently nicer than the other and I'd like to tell you that the good guy wins… But that would diminish the actuality that makes this story especially profound.
I came to a point in the story where the conflict was such that I couldn't see a way forward for the brothers as a family unit, if either if them continued in their pursuit of Olivia. It seemed that neither brother was going to be able to accept the other being with her, and have it be believable. It was only through the quirky and honest character traits of our heroine; "Experience. People. Figuring things out. Being a good person." Those are the things matter to her, that this crisis is successfully overcome and Sophia Duane should be acknowledged for this.
I loved almost everything about this novel, except the epilogue. I am characteristically never ready for those and contrarily to the ideas expressed in My Only I didn't want to make my peace and move on. I found myself wanting to process it!


NY A07301 Intro Relates to preneed insurance premiums.
NY A06706 Intro Relates to small business savings accounts; provides tax incentives for contributions and distributions.
NY A07050 Intro Extends the radon task force's reporting date to November 1, 2020.


text:
Tel : +44 (0)1732 843833
NIAB EMR
Developing your career at East Malling
Horticultural Research Departments
Home > About NIAB EMR > Staff > Dr Sue Crosthwaite
Dr Sue Crosthwaite
Senior Group Leader- Circadian Biology
Department:Genetics, Genomics & Breeding
Click here to contact via email
My interest lies in understanding how organisms sense and respond to their environment. Over the last 20 years I have studied the molecular basis of circadian rhythmicity utilizing the model organism Neurospora crassa. The circadian clocks that drive rhythmicity are endogenous timekeepers that enable organisms to prepare for predictable changes in environmental conditions. Changes in gene expression orchestrated by such clocks result in the adaptation of an organism's cellular biochemistry, physiology and behaviour to a given temporal niche. Currently my focus is the role of clock genes in the vascular wilt Verticillium dahliae and the role played by circadian clocks in determining plant-pathogen interactions. I also have a keen interest in RNA biology and recent work has focused on non-protein coding RNAs and RNA splicing.
Xue, Z., Ye, Q., Anson, S.R., Yang, J., Xiao, G., Kowbel, D., Glass, N.L., Crosthwaite, S.K., Liu, Y. . (2014). Transcriptional interference by antisense RNA is required for circadian clock function Nature. 514. 650-653.
Arthanari, Y., Heintzen, C., Griffiths-Jones, S. and S.K. Crosthwaite.. (2014). Natural Antisense Transcripts and Long Non-Coding transcripts in Neurospora crassa PLoS ONE e91353.. doi: 10.1371.
Tseng, Y-Y. , Hunt, S. M., Heintzen, C., Crosthwaite, S. K. *and J-M, Schwartz* [* these authors contributed equally to this work] . (2012). Comprehensive modelling of the Neurospora circadian clock and its temperature compensation PLOS Comp Biol. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002437..
Chen, D., Vollmar, M., Rossi, M.N., Phillips, C., Kraehenbuehl, R., Slade, D., Mehrotra, P.V., von Delft, F., Crosthwaite, S.K., Gileadi, O., Denu, J.M. and I. Ahel. . (2011). Identification of macro- domain proteins as novel O-acetyl-ADP-ribose deacetylases. J Biol Chem. 286, . 13261-13271.
Lee, H-C., Li, L., Gu, W., Xue, Z., Crosthwaite, S.K., Pertsemlidis, A., Lewis, Z. A., Freitag, M., Selker, E. U., Mello C. C. and Y. Liu . (2010). Diverse Pathways Generate MicroRNA-like RNAs and Dicer-Independent Small Interfering RNAs in Fungi. Mol. Cell. 38. 803-814.
NIAB EMR Managing Director
Programme Leaders
Science Project Leaders
Science Research Staff
Ross Newham
Will Roberts
Professor Mario Caccamo
RT @fffatuk: Delighted to be representing the UK and @NIABEMR in the 1st Meeting of the @ECPGR Berry Working Group in Dresden ki… https://t.co/a7RfUJiAKW,
RT @niabgroup: Did you see our research on fava beans featured in @thetimes this weekend? Take a look 👇 (£) https://t.co/pftSf6dOMD,
RT @harryinashed: We have two informatics jobs going @niabgroup - working with me in Cambridge, collaborating across the orgnaisation… https://t.co/etYIY5S1CI,
Follow @NIABEMR
ME19 6BJ
Tel : (+44) (0)1732 843833
Fax : (+44) (0)1732 849067
2016 © NIAB EMR a private company limited by guarantee. Registered in England Registration No. 09894859. Charity Registration No. 1165055. Registered Office: NIAB EMR, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, CB3 0LE, UK.
Web design agency - ARDENT


Where to shop the MRE foods?
The MRE foods are not available at all the store which are available only at particular places only. But now you can shop the MRE foods in online itself as they are available in some of the online websites. This eases your work of searching and through shopping in online you can get any kind of MRE foods either for breakfast, lunch or for dinner and even you can get MRE snacks also.
What happens by not undertaking marijuana drug testing in the company?


text:
ACS Fellow and HLM, Peter Juliff, recognised in Australia Day Honours
By Australian Computer Society on Feb 05 2015 10:02 PM
On 26 January 2015 Australian Computer Society (ACS) Fellow and Honorary Life Member Professor Peter Juliff AM was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division on the 2015 Australia Day Honours list.
An ACS member since 1971, Professor Juliff was recognised for his significant service to information technology as a pioneer educator, and through professional organisations. He joined the Victorian Branch Executive Committee in 1975, and served as the Chairman of ACS Victoria in 1978, 1983-1984 and 1993, and as Vice-Chairman in 1977, 1981-1982. Professor Juliff was awarded a Fellow of ACS in 1984, the Peter Murton award for 20 years' service to the Branch in 1994 and Honorary Life Membership in 1999.
Professor Juliff was the Chairman of IFIP Working Group 3.4 on Professional and Vocational Education, reporting to UNESCO and also a member of a three-man IFIP committee for international standards for IT qualifications, Baltimore USA in 1998. He was also a member of the Management Committee for the Computer Industry Training Program administered by the ACS and Commonwealth Education Department. In 2001, he was awarded the IFIP Silver Core for services to International IT.
After 10 years in the Victorian Public Service culminating as a Public Service Inspector (EDP), Professor Juliff's academic career began in 1967 at what was then Caulfield Technical College and became Caulfield Institute of Technology. One of the highlights of this period was the involvement with the Commonwealth Government's Programmer in Training scheme which was introduced in 1971. In 1980 he was appointed Head of the new Department of Electronic Data Processing at Prahran College of Advanced Education. 1990 saw him move back to CIT, renamed Chisholm, and join Monash University as Head of Department of Software Development. In 1993 he became the Foundation Professor and Head of School of Management Information Systems at Deakin University and retired as Deakin's inaugural Emeritus Professor in 1999. In this span of more than 30 years he had been involved in the introduction of Computer Science as a Victorian Year 12 subject, conducted training courses for the Singapore National Productivity Board and the Chinese iron and steel industry and some of the residents of Melbourne's Pentridge Prison.
To this day, Professor Juliff continues his work with ACS through assessing applications under the Commonwealth Government's Skilled Migration Scheme and has recently completed his 50,000th assessment over the past 16 years.
"I am extremely pleased to see Professor Juliff recognised for his tireless efforts in contributing to the Australian ICT profession at large and also for serving on the Australian Computer Society Victorian Branch Executive Committee continuously for 20 years. This award is well deserved and illustrates the hard work that is often performed by quiet achievers over a sustained period of time. I thank Professor Juliff for his efforts on behalf of the Australian Computer Society and hope that he remains involved for many years to come." said ACS Victoria Chairman, Craig Horne.
Peter Juliff AM FACS HLM & Craig Horne, ACS
Victoria Chairman
Australian Computer Society - News and Media
acs and commonwealth education department acs victoria australian computer society peter juliff professional and vocational education professor juliff professor peter juliff the order of australia victorian public service
REMINDER: Nominate for the ACS elections
Nominate for the ACS elections
ACS Victoria office relocating to Docklands
Matthew Warren presented with President's Award


Mostly Positive (20) - 70% of the 20 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
Mixed (923) - 68% of the 923 user reviews for this game are positive.
""The full version of Bad Blood will feature new mechanics, features, and a wealth of additional content. These things will be added gradually throughout the whole Early Access phase.
Dying Light Bad Blood gameplay is constantly evolving. We are grateful for your support, let us know if you like the changes!
Human enemies are more vulnerable to explosions, particularly when standing in the epicenter. They die when thrown onto spikes and receive higher fire damage. They also get higher bullet damage.
Combat Challenge: kill other players to receive rewards. 1 player = 1 Token. You can exchange 1 Token for 1500 Scars, 5 Tokens for a Standard Stash, and 10 Tokens for 60 Blood Bucks.
Voice chat: a new feature available for DUO teams. You can enable it in the game options.
DUO mode is now available, we would like to thank you for your feedback and support. This time Dying Light Bad Blood gameplay has been enhanced with yet another large content update – Leaderboards!
Leaderboards. You can now check your score in real-time for the following categories: game score, kills, wins and zombie score. Good luck!
Leave your feedback here: http://badblood.support.techland.pl and help us improve Dying Light: Bad Blood. It's really appreciated!
To all our Dying Light: Bad Blood Founders: Check out some of the new content we've got coming up. This is all based on what you've been asking us for. So thank you - and keep the suggestions coming.
Enter a zombie-infested area and compete as one of 12 players to become the only survivor - or make a team and fight for survival together. Scavenge for weapons, destroy zombie hives to level up, and combine your advanced parkour mobility with brutal combat skills to outrun, outsmart, and outplay your opponents.
Add the element of cooperation to your ruthless fight for survival. Team up with your co-op partner, coordinate your attacks and watch each other's back to get rid of other teams and evacuate together.


text:
After Growing Her Hair for 17 Years, A Record-Breaking Cut Will Benefit Kids with Hair Loss – SalonToday
Luxor Spa & Salon > Blog for Spa Salon and Barbers Abuja Nigeria > After Growing Her Hair for 17 Years, A Record-Breaking Cut Will Benefit Kids with Hair Loss – SalonToday
The amazing "before" and "after"
Preparing for THE BIG CHOP
Hair Cuttery Stylist Gregory White at work.
Over five feet of hair to be donated.
A post shared by Zahab Kamal Khan Official (@zahabkamalkhan)
Khan, a local Northern Virginia resident, and native of Pakistan, has been growing her hair for the past 17 years. She set a new Guinness World Record for the Most Hair Donated to a Charity by an Individual. Her hair will be donated to Children With Hair Loss (CWHL), a non-profit that provides annual customized human hair replacements and styling services, at no cost to children and young adults with medically-related hair loss until they reach age 21. Setting the record requires donating a minimum of five feet of hair.
In addition to supporting children suffering from hair loss, Khan's donation advances efforts to raise awareness for women in sports as she has been recognized as the "Longest Haired Athlete." (Ms. Khan is a world-ranked squash player.)
With hair that was 6'3" long, Khan went for the big chop with the help of stylist Gregory White, who is an artist at a local Hair Cuttery Salon. Under the scrutiny of friends, family and local media, White went to work on Khan's impressive length and created a lovely lob.
AN AWARENESS-RAISING CUT
Khan moved to the United States in 2018. She is the owner of the Zahab Neha Foundation, a non-governmental organization she founded that helps student-athletes in Pakistan who want to continue playing their sports and pursuing studies but are unable to do so because of poverty and lack of resources. Since its founding in 2018, the foundation has cultivated donors to serve 60 children with monthly rent and tuition assistance so they can pursue education and athletic ambitions.
"Growing up in Pakistan, there were not many opportunities for girls to participate in sports. I have been fortunate to have had parents who pushed me to succeed," said Khan. "I am proud to support children in their academic and athletic endeavors."
Originally posted on Modern Salon
A recent survey shows that 46% of moviegoers are likely to change their appearance based on the movies they see, and hair is the second most likely thing they will change.
Among Jon Hamm, Drake, David Beckham and Liam Hemsworth, who would have your vote for best eyebrows? LongevitaHairTransplant.com was determined to find out which celebrities had the best brows and used the "Golden Ratio" to measure results.
Work alongside Sam Villa during CosmoProf in Las Vegas when you volunteer with The Beyond Project to help women impacted by human trafficking.
Minerva Beauty joins the community of beauty pros helping the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs.
Fundraising and celebration mark the 16th anniversary of the San Francisco affiliate that helps women pursue careers.
Partnering with the distributor and education provider gives Phorest more ways to help salons grow.
Another six winners will receive $500 each to pursue their beauty education.
Visit the War Paint store and you'll find more than makeup: A fresh trim from the mental health non-profit Lions Barber Collective, bespoke products made for your skin while you wait, an interactive virtual makeup conversation with Founder Danny Gray and much more.
by Stacey Soble
The franchise portfolio company WellBiz Brands, Inc., recently purchased the franchisor rights for Drybar, becoming the franchisor for 141 locations. In this exclusive interview, Senior Director of Development Lauren Wanamaker talks about growth plans, what the company looks for in a franchisee and a location, and how they plan to support the brand's success.
Emphasizing both feeling good and looking good, MixX Laboratory is a brand your clients should know about.
KAO VP R&D Dominic Pratt will succeed Cory Couts to lead Goldwell, KMS, Oribe and VARIS brands worldwide beginning September 2021.
A industry partnership results in quarterly scholarship opportunities for beauty school students.
Salon Owner and Platform Artist Mary Brunetti offers a peer review of David Kinigson's latest edition of "The Haircutter's Handbook."
Olaplex's new back bar treatment is designed to moisturize and smooth hair while adding shine and body in just 10 minutes.
As part of the partnership, the exclusive Eufora Smart Centers will be integrated into the award-winning Meevo 2 Salon and Spa Software.


So exited!!! Christmas clearance isle at the grocery store had these dark chocolate morsels for .25 cents a bag!!!🤩🤩 so got what was left… 15 bags for $3.75!
My plan is to make some delicious bon bons, chocolate covered pretzels and anything else I can think of for valentine's day to give out at work!