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Turkey arrests suspect as puppy torture case shifts election agenda
Breaking news. (photo credit: JPOST STAFF)
ANKARA - Turkish police have arrested a man suspected of torturing a puppy after shocking images emerged online of the maimed animal in a case that has outraged the country and grabbed the political agenda ahead of next week's elections.
The puppy, whose four paws and tail had been cut off, was found in a forest in the Sapanca district in the northwestern province of Sakarya and taken to a vet for treatment. The wounded animal died during surgery on Friday.
President Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in Istanbul on Sunday that police had detained a construction machine operator on Saturday in relation to the puppy's death.
Erdogan pledged that Turkey's animal rights laws would be amended after the June 24 vote in which he is aiming to win a second term.
"Whether at home or on the street, we will take the law into consideration and evaluate it. This operator was arrested today. The authorities in Sapanca ordered his arrest," he said.
"There is nothing acceptable about this, but it is very important to show this awareness."
The incident prompted a rare show of unity among Turkey's political parties and presidential candidates, who have been trading barbs for weeks ahead of Sunday's parliamentary and presidential elections.
As images and videos of the puppy drew outrage on social media, both government officials and opposition politicians condemned the act and have called for stricter measures against those mistreating animals.
Animal rights groups say Turkey's punishments for animal cruelty are too lenient. An amendment to animal rights legislation has been on the parliament's agenda for months, but little progress has been made.
"This brutality against a small being is a painful manifestation of the loss of values in our country. I hope to God that those who hurt a small puppy find what they deserve in the afterlife," Iyi Party leader and presidential candidate Meral Aksener said on Twitter.
"If only they would do so in this world with the correct laws as well," she said.
Trump: U.S. destroyed Iranian drone near Strait of Hormuz
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, REUTERS


Chad Mendes appeared on the UK's BT Sport channel yesterday in a live link-up from Brazil to talk about his upcoming title challenge against current featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 179, but with Conor McGregor in the studio it was inevitable that the conversation would eventually swing towards a fight between the two.
It started with Mendes looking to quieten down McGregor's jibes that he was "a midget", reminding the fast-talking Irishman that at 5ft 9″ he was only three inches taller than him.
McGregor wasn't ready to take that on-board though, instead wisecracking that Mendes should, "stand up because we can barely see you on the screen," which raised a laugh from the audience.
"I can rest my balls on your forehead," McGregor quipped, setting the audience off into fits of laughter again.
The one thing the two appeared to agree on during the interview was that whether Mendes wins or loses on Saturday night, they are both eager to fight each other at some stage in the future.
Watch the full exchange between the two below.


Ever since the Big One for OneDrop, $1,000,000 buy-in tournament was announced at last year's World Series of Poker one peculiar rule has been greatly discussed in the poker community: The 48 player cap imposed on the event.
Now, with a $1 million buy-in you may suspect that the bulk of the discussion centers on whether or not the tournament will reach the cap (and you'd be right in thinking this was the primary question of most people), but another debate has started concerning the cap itself, and what the WSOP will do if they reach the 48-player mark and more players are standing in line with $1,000,000 in hand?
The conventional wisdom was that much like the $250k Super-High-Roller event at the Aussie Millions, as long as you show-up (even late) with money in hand you can play. But for the Big One for OneDrop both the WSOP and the tournament's creator Guy Laliberte (whose charity OneDrop will be the beneficiary of $111,111 from each buy-in) are holding to fats to the 48-player cap according to a recent interview in Cardplayer Magazine.
However, not everyone is so certain that the cap will be kept in place, especially if registration for the tournament (scheduled for early July) continues at its current pace. On a conference call with the poker media on Tuesday WSOP Executive Director stated that 'he thinks the cap will be reached' adding that his optimism wasn't simply him being a company man. The WSOP officials on the conference call also said that registration was already approaching 40 players.
Like most in the poker community I find it hard to believe that the WSOP or Guy Laliberte (whose charity benefits with every entry) would turn away even a single player since the buy-in is $1,000,000, let alone potentially turning away four, five, or ten players! One of line of thinking is that the cap was put in place to encourage early registration for the tournament, and that once the 48-player mark is met the cap will be increased to 54 or 56 players.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 7:46 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


This workshop runs twice, you can register for either Sunday, April 14 1-4 pm OR Sunday April 28 1-4pm!
Surrounded by a gallery of sculptural jewellery, contemporary artist Rebecca Hannon will work with emerging artist and current Craft Lair Gillian Maradyn -Jowsey to present a workshop about colour, pattern development, and form. Through paper cutting and folding, working with colored pencils and graph paper, and well as working with a variety of connectors and everyday materials we will explore how to generate new forms and colourways.
Rebecca and Gillian will share their fascination with connecting simple shapes into repetitive elements to create unique forms for adornment, tile, ceramic wares and beyond. Participants will be led through short exercises and work through a number of simple design challenges to quickly create compositions. A small library of colorful Freuble-type paper shapes will be provided to cut, tear and collage. Simple paper folds will be demonstrated for participants to engage with and bring three-dimensionality into their work. Various strategies for design generation and inspiration provide new pathways to approach creative work and build one's personal visual language. We will synthesize these experiences to design and assemble fresh forms for wearable/useable art pieces. Craftspeople, artists, jewellers, ceramicists and makers of all stripes welcome! No previous experience necessary for this hands-on workshop.


BOWLFULS of FRESHNESS, FREEDOM and NATURAL PURITY . In tune with nature and the seasons, the traditional northern diet is deliciously simple and marvellously sustaining. It's food as healthy as the pure, clean environment that nurtures it.
Ability to switch seamlessly to any of our Pronature Holistic diets without requiring any transition.
Poultry meal, turkey, lentils, sweet potatoes, poultry fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), suncured alfalfa, tapioca, natural flavor, flaxseed, menhaden fish oil, cranberries, apples, carrots, minerals [ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, zinc proteinate, manganese proteinate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate, calcium iodate], vitamins [alpha-tocopherol acetate (a source of Vitamin E), nicotinic acid, d-calcium pantothenate, Vitamin A supplement, cholecalciferol (a source of Vitamin D3), thiamine mononitrate, biotin, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid], choline chloride, dried kelp, monosodium phosphate, DL-methionine, taurine, salt, kale, thyme, sage, blueberries, maitake mushroom, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), yucca schidigera extract, dried papaya, rosemary extract.
Crude protein 32% min., crude fat 20% min., crude fiber 4.5% max., moisture 10% max., ash 9% max., calcium 1.2% min., phosphorus 0.95% min., sodium 0.3% min., magnesium 0.11% max., Vitamin A 23,000 IU/kg min., Vitamin D3 1,800 IU/kg min., Vitamin E 95 IU/kg min., taurine 0.28% min., docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) 0.095% min.


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Books – Ulster – Interview
New Introduction
A conversation with Allyson Latta
In 2004, Charlie was interviewed by Allyson Latta of Days Road Writers' Workshops. DRWW is a member of the Markham Arts Council in Ontario, Canada.
AL: When did you begin writing?
CF: I came late to books. I didn't start reading until I was sixteen and I didn't try writing until I was almost twenty. Still, within a few hours of buying the paperback of Gabriel Garcia Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude in my local mall, I sensed that I was a terminal case. It took years to find the words to diagnose the condition. But some part of me understood then and there that my adulthood was going to be about books. Books, or nothing else. Always, too, it was going to be about the awesome appeal and challenge of their architecture – the cathedrals that major writers construct out of words. The design and creativity, yearning and faith, implicit in a novel like One Hundred Years of Solitude, were qualities that literally took my breath away a quarter century ago. My breathing still turns choppy every time I read something possessed by that ambition and humility.
AL: Did any of your earlier writing pave the way for The Last House of Ulster?
CF: I began publishing short stories in journals and magazines in my mid-twenties. I had shelved one novel and was drafting a second when my wife and I decided to teach in Beijing for a couple of years. Being in the Chinese capital during the democracy movement and June 4th massacre sat me up and slapped my writerly face. Stung, I sought to respond forcefully. Non-fiction, both book-length and journalism, seemed a necessary expansion of what I should do. From the start, though, I assumed I would write non-fiction in similar thrall to structure and story, character and dialogue, as any novel. This has held true for my three non-fiction books to date, and to a lesser extent my journalism.
In 1988 I published a short story about a Belfast family trying to push their clapped-out car down an incline, hoping the engine would catch before an intersection that divided their mixed neighbourhood from a tribal enclave where they didn't feel welcome. The story was called "Flag," and many of the character names are the same as those I gave the McNallys in Ulster. In 1994 I finally published that first novel I'd been working on for six years. Kitchen Music told the story of a young Canadian who settles in the Irish village near where his father was raised, hoping to discern the pattern both of his parent's tragic life and his own somewhat feckless one. The novel is preoccupied with identity and place, and it asks questions about the equally high price of belonging and not-belonging. The incident narrated in "Flag" became the question, in a sense, that launched The Last House of Ulster. How can people negotiate such complexity and contradiction in their lives, while still remaining decent and sane? How, in short, could the McNallys (or anyone else in a place like Belfast) live this way? Meanwhile, some of the thinking I had done in writing Kitchen Music carried over into the new book, using my own upbringing in suburban Toronto as an example of one kind of belonging and the experience of the McNallys of North Belfast as another.
AL: When did you know with certainty that you wanted to write about the McNallys and their world?
CF: I am a slow learner. It took the massacre in Beijing to awaken me to the abiding patterns in Chinese culture and history. Likewise, it took the birth of my first daughter to pull me in from the fog of a protracted romanticism about Ireland. As Annie Dillard remarked about the end of childhood, once you are awake, it is impossible to ever really be asleep again. That is how I felt on becoming a parent. My primary "job" was no longer to be a writer or husband. My job was being a father. I had to protect my children, do right by and for them, build a proverbial house where they would feel secure.
As it happened, I knew a family in Belfast. I had been visiting them since I was nineteen and thought them wonderful. I might want to visit them again, to check in on their lives and the ongoing Troubles. Was this material for a book? Hardly. A magazine piece, at most. But once I start reviewing through new-parent eyes all that I had learned about the family, and all that I had experienced first-hand of their house and city, my esteem for the McNallys soared. I also decided I had to write about them, at length, by way of both exploring the architecture of their house and celebrating its endurance.
AL: The structure of your book is complex and you've likened it to an onion with its layers. How did this evolve?
CF: The narrative had to do many things at once. It had to walk readers in and out of the McNally home over a period of years, using descriptions, character studies and scenes involving action and dialogue. The book wouldn't succeed if I couldn't bring that address (or addresses, in fact) in North Belfast into vivid relief. But the narrative also had to detail their lives before I met them, sketch the city that defined their choices, and provide enough general Irish history to render incidents and attitudes, along with points of geography and politics, intelligible. As well, because I had resolved to use my younger self as a "guide," I needed to do some work establishing that persona. He, too, had to be a kind of character, one that readers would trust to escort them into the right rooms.
I wound up telling most of the story using just four lengthy chapters. Each chapter centres on a visit, or series of visits, I paid to the McNallys between 1979 and the mid-1980s. Accounts of those stays are then encased in the other narrative layers I have mentioned, along with musings over the divides I eventually came to notice within my own family and society.
Then I shifted the narrative ahead to the trips I made to the city in the early 1990s to write the book itself. For a couple of reasons, including their self-awareness – after all, I was now an author researching a project – these sections are almost footnotes to the main text. They are fragmented and designed less to tie up story ends than to deepen the resonances first sounded in the first part of the book. In effect, the structure of The Last House of Ulster divides into Chuck/Charlie, or, more seriously, youth versus experience.
AL: Parts of The Last House of Ulster are autobiographical, but you have also written what has been described as a memoir, The Story of My Life (so far). How would you compare these two works?
CF: Believe it or not, I am still under the impression that I have never published a memoir. Ulster is a book about a family in Belfast that uses selected autobiographical details to further its narrative and themes. The Story of My Life (so far) is a study of childhood that employs the bare bones of my own first ten years to sketch a sensory portrait of how our more-or-less fixed identities emerge from the lovely, floating dream of being just a kid.
AL: The Last House of Ulster pays great attention to detail, but are there some parts that leaned more heavily towards what is sometimes called "emotional truth"?
CF: Emotional truths needn't be at odds with details. Obviously, you can't make things up in non-fiction. That condition may well keep a scene from having the impact you had hoped – or as you would have arranged it to do in a novel. But materials can still be employed in a non-fiction book to serve a purpose. For sure, the structure I evolved for The Last House of Ulster, both the "onion" major chapters and the fragments, were designed to build the case, so to speak, for a few emotional truths. I wanted to stir and move readers.
AL: You have written about people you knew well and cared about. What are your views on the responsibility of an author to his real-life subjects, and how did these views affect the writing process?
CF: Writing about real people is perilous. The more you care about your subject, the more you want to capture their unique humanity. You achieve that end by allowing them to speak for themselves, of course, and through sympathetic accounts of their actions and histories. But mostly you render them alive and memorable through details – by treating them, in effect, as characters. To do this, you have to watch carefully, eyes wide open and, in one sense, unblinking. Even if you are portraying the person accurately and are doing so out of love and respect, and even if the result is a figure that others find attractive – even then, the subject may not care for what you have reported. Few people, after all, dislike having their picture taken. But how many of us are satisfied with the image captured by the camera, and never mind that others say we look great?
With the McNallys, I took several precautions. I changed their names and biographies. I also left out one or two matters that were too private to reveal, regardless that identities were being guarded. As for the dialogue in the book, I did indeed recreate it, sometimes fifteen years after the fact, and often from only a partial memory of what was said that afternoon or evening. This practice, too, is subject to criticism, as I can't vouch for the accuracy of those exchanges. But I only recreated conversations I participated in, and never presumed to have much insight into what characters were thinking. Likewise, I didn't offer direct dialogue for any scene or incident I was simply recounting. I was definitely an outsider, and tried to be clear and honest about just how limited was my perspective.
AL: What was readers' response to your book, and was it what you had expected?
CF: I didn't know what to expect. By far the most pleasing response to the original edition was the dozens of letters I received from readers. Many of the correspondents were of Irish descent, often from Northern Ireland itself, and aside from pointing out small factual errors in the text, the letters were uniformly positive about my portrait of both the family and of Belfast. I seemed to get things largely right. I seemed to capture some small truth about the place.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text: Q: What exactly the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle explains? I just don't understand what Heisenberg meant by the statement that "It is impossible to determine both position and momentum of an electron simultaneously.If one quantity is known then the determination of the other quantity will become impossible." Now, it obvious that position of an object can not be determined if it is in motion or having a momentum because it is continuously changing its position. If it is at rest we can determine its position but not momentum since it has a zero velocity. Did he mean that electron never come to rest?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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August Reading
By Stephen August 30, 2019 September 28th, 2019 Reading
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August Reading is the second installment of my new monthly feature. I find interesting links on the internet and post them here with some light commentary.
This month, I started a new workflow that seems to be doing a-o-k. I'll find links on Twitter, LinkedIn, Pocket, and Reddit and, as a logged-in Firefox user, send them to my iMac for inclusion and formatting.
It seems to be working pretty well — and, I'm now fully bought-in to the Firefox ecosystem. Their privacy-focused/privacy-first policies are just what I'm looking for. If you've been sleeping in Firefox for whatever reason, you should at least give it a try!
Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash
View Monthly Reading Archive
I work with a lot of consultants, ranging from IT consulting through to user/customer research. Everything in this HBR article is true.
The U.S. Navy is abandoning touchscreen controls in favor of physical buttons, switches, knobs, et cetera. While I love CarPlay, when moving, hitting those 44px touch targets to switch between apps (Maps to Now Playing, for instance) is difficult and very prone to errors. I touched on this in my talk The Consequences of Bad Design, where I highlight the U.S.S. John McCain accident as a result of unclear controls.
The untold story of the vegetable peeler that changed the world takes a look at OXO and the iconic Good Grips peeler. The thesis of this article is all around inclusive design and how accessibility benefits everyone. I, for one, am glad that my fingers won't be shredded when I'm using an OXO Good Grips product.
An Oral History of Revenge of the Nerds. I can't tell you how much time I spent growing up watching Revenge of the Nerds. I really hated those goddamn Alpha Betas! Also, the film is 35 years old. Jesus Christ.
"If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he'd be pralines and dick." Wayne's World is another one of those infinitely quotable movies. The Ringer takes a look at how Wayne's World kicked off a series of really funny movies.
A clean energy breakthrough could be buried deep beneath rural Utah. And it's not just magic underpants.
The world's largest EV never has to recharge. It's brilliant — this monster dump truck never has to recharge because it moves uphill empty but downhill full, and regenerative braking with a full load provides enough electricity for it to go uphill again.
Economic justice is very important. And when you read headlines like "The World's Wealthiest Family Gets $4 Million Richer Every Hour," it really makes me want to download plans to build a guillotine.
WeWork is the latest example of a company failing up. If you're not familiar, WeWork is an office subleasing company on steroids, subsidized mostly by VC funds – in other words, not super viable. This was made apparent in their IPO filing paperwork.
In short, everything about WeWork is utterly odd. It is a real estate company valued like a tech company. It is a young company with questionable economics that has committed to paying tens of billions of dollars in future years for office building leases. This is a company whose intricate relationships with its chief executive requires 10 pages of disclosures. And this may be the first time I've seen an IPO filing with a section titled "Expected Resilience in a Downturn."
St. Louis Public Radio has an awesome story about a young African American entrepreneur who wants to inspire young black boys through business. It's a really awesome story:
Last October, the 11-year-old turned his interest in cars into an air freshener and deodorizer business called Mr. Fresh. Joshua said his product can make anything fresh, including the inside of a car and fabrics at home. For $7 a pop, each portable glass spray bottle has its own unique scent and color from Black Ice and Cool Breeze to Yellow Rose and Baby Powder.
Maine is in trouble, and a harbinger of what's to come across the United States. The Washington Post reports on the Elder Boom in Maine:
Across Maine, families like the Flahertys are being hammered by two slow-moving demographic forces — the growth of the retirement population and a simultaneous decline in young workers — that have been exacerbated by a national worker shortage pushing up the cost of labor.
No city government asked Lime / Bird / Jump / etc. to infect their city sidewalks with scooters, but now, with Hurricane Dorian bearing down on Miami, there's now a fear that Dockless Scooters will be projectiles.
A scathing new Pentagon report blames Trump for the return of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. You can go ahead and file this one under No shit, Sherlock. Who knew that putting someone with zero foreign policy experience at the top of the chain of command would end like this?!
Texas Is Illegally Throwing Out Mail-In Ballots, Lawsuit Says. When the only way to win is to cheat, the GOP cheats to win. Disgusting.
Nadler: 'This is formal impeachment proceedings.' To paraphrase someone way dumber than most, "If it's what you say, I love it." 🙂
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said publicly for the first time on Thursday that his panel is conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, adding that the committee will decide by the end of the year whether to refer articles of impeachment to the House floor.
August readingbusinessclimatedesignequalityinclusionmonthly readingpoliticsresearchst. louisstartupsstluser experience
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December Reading December 28, 2019
New Year's Resolution: Taking Control of My Data December 26, 2019
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Investment Management Update
In this issue: Investment Platforms Market Study - Terms of reference; ESMA opinion on supervisory convergence in investment management after Brexit; ESMA updated AIFMD and UCITS Q&A; IOSCO Advice on Managing Liquidity Risk; and European Commission Guidelines on the PRIIPS Key Information Document.
Investment Platforms Market Study - Terms of reference
ESMA opinion on supervisory convergence in investment management after Brexit
ESMA updated AIFMD and UCITS Q&A
IOSCO Advice on Managing Liquidity Risk
European Commission Guidelines on the PRIIPS Key Information Document
17.07.2017 - Investment Platforms Market Study - Terms of reference
The FCA has published the Terms of Reference for its forthcoming Investment Platforms Market Study. The study was trailed in the interim report of FCA's Asset Management Market Study and confirmed in the final report published last month.
The study aims to look at how competition is working in this market. In particular, the FCA will look at how platforms compete in practice and whether they use their bargaining power to get investors a good deal. The FCA will also assess whether the relationships among platforms, advisers, asset managers and fund ratings providers work in the interests of investors.
FCA's analysis will cover:
platforms and other firms that offer access to retail investment products through an online portal. This is likely to include financial advisers, wealth managers and other distributors;
retail investors who access retail investment products through an online portal;
intermediaries, including financial advisers and wealth managers who use intermediated platforms to access different retail investment providers on behalf of their clients;
product and wrapper providers who use platforms to distribute their products;
technology providers to whom platforms outsource services; and
fund ratings and data providers whose information platforms use and distribute.
The fundamental questions will be how do platforms and similar firms compete on the price and quality of the services and products they offer and the products over which they have influence; and do platforms and similar firms' investment solutions offer investors value for money?
The key topics to be explored will be:
barriers to entry and expansion;
commercial relationships;
business models and platform profitability;
the impact of advisors; and
customer preferences and behaviour.
The FCA invites feedback on the proposed topics by 8 September 2017 and aims to publish an interim report by Summer 2018.
13.07.2017 - ESMA opinion on supervisory convergence in investment management after Brexit
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued an opinion on EU supervisory convergence after Brexit, focusing on the investment management sector. The latest opinion builds on ESMA's general industry-wide opinion that it issued in May. As such, it represents a further regulatory intervention by ESMA with potential implications for UK firms looking to rely on delegation or outsourcing models post Brexit.
Given the likely increase in requests from UK financial market participants seeking to relocate to the 27 EU Member States that will remain post-Brexit (the EU27), ESMA believes it is important to avoid competition on regulatory and supervisory practices between these Member States. Its opinion therefore aims to ensure a consistent supervisory approach to investment management firms across the EU27.
ESMA states that it has based its opinion on the framework under the AIFMD and the UCITS Directive, rather than applying new or different standards or requirements. The opinion addresses the regulatory and supervisory arbitrage risks related to any relocation activities of UCITS management companies, self-managed investment companies and authorised AIFMs. In particular, the opinion provides principles on the following topics:
Authorisation: ESMA emphasises that national competent authorities (NCAs) should ensure that both they and the relocating firms seeking authorisation under the AIFMD or UCITS Directive comply fully with the authorisation requirements in those Directives. Furthermore, ESMA believes that NCAs in the EU27 should not give preferential or disadvantageous treatment to UK-based applicants over others.
Governance and internal control: ESMA explains how NCAs should ensure that relocating firms have effective governance structures and internal control mechanisms in place to comply with the AIFMD and the UCITS Directive. Although the Directives require firms to have a minimum of two senior managers in their governance structure, ESMA believes that NCAs should not apply this minimum standard for all firms. Instead, NCAs should adopt a proportionate approach according to the size, nature and complexity of a firm's business activities. For example, a firm of significant size pursuing complex investment strategies should have more than two senior managers.
ESMA also highlights that NCAs should give special attention to firms engaged in "white-label" business. This is where a fund manager provides a platform to business partners by setting up funds at the initiative of the latter and typically delegating investment management functions to those initiators / business partners or by appointing them as investment advisers.
Delegation: ESMA sets out detailed principles on how NCAs should approach the assessment of a relocating firm's delegation arrangements. One key point to note is that ESMA appears to extend regulatory concepts developed under the AIFMD to firms seeking authorisation under the UCITS Directive.
ESMA also provides other guidance on relocating firms delegating to non-EU entities.
Effective supervision: ESMA states that NCAs should consider the extent to which the relocating firm's planned operations in other jurisdictions might impact the NCA's resources and ability to effectively supervise it.
ESMA has published this opinion alongside two other opinions (covering investment firms and secondary markets).
11.07.2017 - ESMA updated AIFMD and UCITS Q&A
ESMA has published updated Q&A documents on the application of AIFMD and UCITS.
The AIFMD Q&A includes the following three new questions and answers:
Q In a situation where an AIF purchases a loan in the secondary market, how should the AIF measure its exposure in relation to that loan?
A The notional value of the loan may overestimate the risk exposure. Therefore, the AIF should report the valuation of the loan, as it is reported in the calculation of its net asset value (NAV). During the life of the loan, the AIF should then measure the exposure in relation to that loan using the NAV valuation rules.
Q How should AIFMs convert the total value of assets under management into Euro?
A AIFMs should use the rounded values of the AIFs in the base currency. AIFMs should then divide these rounded values by the corresponding rate of one unit of the base currency in Euros.
Q In which currency should the NAV of the AIF be reported?
A AIFMs should report the NAV in the base currency of the AIF.
The UCITS Q&A includes the following two new questions and answers:
Q Does the 40% limit set out in Article 52(2) of the UCITS Directive apply to index-tracking UCITS that are subject to Article 53 of the UCITS Directive?
A No. The 40% limit set out in Article 52(2) does not apply to index-tracking UCITS that comply with the requirements set out in Article 53.
Q Where a group link exists for the purpose of Article 24 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/438 (UCITS V Level 2), does a person who served in the management body or supervisory body of an entity within the group or was otherwise employed by such an entity fulfil the independence requirement under Article 24(2) of the UCITS V Level 2 where the person has ceased any function within the entity?
A A person who served in the management body or supervisory body of an entity or was otherwise employed by such an entity should be deemed to fulfil the independence requirement only after an appropriate cooling-off period following the termination of his / her relationship with the relevant entity. That period should start from the final payment of any outstanding remuneration due to them which entails a margin of discretion from the entity and is linked to their previous employment or other relationship with that entity. Non-discretionary outstanding payments from the entity to the person should not be taken into account for this purpose.
A Without prejudice to any requirements established under the relevant national corporate governance rules or codes, the cooling-off period should be proportionate to the length of the employment or other relationship that the individual had with any of the companies within the group and to the type of functions performed within such company(ies).
06.07.2017 - IOSCO Advice on Managing Liquidity Risk
The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has published Consultation Recommendations, a paper that outlines how to minimise the structural vulnerabilities that can arise from asset management activities. This paper is supplemented by a Consultation Report which focuses on practical solutions. The links to these papers is included below along with a brief summary.
Consultation Recommendations
The recommendations promote effective liquidity risk management for Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) in order to reduce the potential for financial stability risks as well as to protect investors and maintain 'market integrity.'
The recommendations can be divided into two parts: additional guidance on existing recommendations from the 2013 Liquidity Report; and new recommendations.
The additional guidance section seems to focus around the design phase and planning of the CIS. Adding to recommendation three, IOSCO indicates that the choice to create an open-ended CIS is a significant decision that should prompt consideration of the impact this may have on decision making in the future. Recommendation four highlights the importance of appropriate dealing arrangements that are properly planned at the product design phase. Recommendation seven regards effective disclosure to investors of liquidity risk: again IOSCO asserts that the disclosures must be properly designed; taking into account the nature of the targeted assets. Overall, IOSCO calls for all newly-formed CISs to be the result of a considered design phase which includes careful planning.
The new recommendations address a broad range of topics: 1-7 again focus on the design process, advising changes such as: drawing up an effective liquidity risk management process that is compliant with the local jurisdiction; setting appropriate liquidity thresholds; determining a suitable dealing frequency; and having access to relevant information. Recommendations 8-15 give very general tips for day-to-day management such as: having 'strong and effective governance' and conducting 'ongoing liquidity assessments.' Recommendations 16-17 address contingency planning.
Consultation Report
The report advocates a 'holistic' approach when examining a fund's management of liquidity. This means that the responsible entities are required to: have robust procedures during the design phase; continue to monitor liquidity levels; ensure that they have the ability to carry out any appropriate changes; and take into account the best interests of their investors.
The report also includes a range of practical instruments such as a table that lists jurisdictions and gives examples of the asset classes that are required to be offered through a closed-ended fund structure. In addition, the report provides an overview of a variety of the liquidity tools that can be employed, for example: anti-dilution levies; valuation according to bid; redemption gates; side pockets; and suspension of redemptions. The report also extensively demonstrates how swing pricing could be used as a solution. The final chapter of the report provides practical advice on stress-testing and how to tailor it to the CIS.
04.07.2017 - European Commission Guidelines on the PRIIPS Key Information Document
The European Commission has published guidelines on the application of Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (Regulation 1286/2014), seeking to facilitate compliance and smooth out potential interpretive divergences with regard to the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Key Information Document (KID).
The guidance focuses on frequent queries and provides the clarifications summarised below:
It is the responsibility of the manufacturers and persons advising on, or selling, retail investment and insurance products to ascertain whether the product must comply with the provisions of Regulation 1286/2014.
Where a PRIIP offers a range of options for investments, Article 6(3) of Regulation 1286/2014 only allows for derogation from the format of the single KID. It is essential that the KID produced for such 'multi-option PRIIPS', as set out in (b) of Article 10 and Article 14(1) of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 (Commission Delegated Regulation), complies with the rules for provision in Articles 13 and 14 of Regulation 1286/2014.
All insurance-based investment products are subject to the uniform requirements regarding the provision of the KID, regardless of whether the underlying investment options of those PRIIPS are themselves PRIIPS.
Under Article 4(4) of Regulation 1286/2014, an entity that makes changes to an existing PRIIP will be classed as a PRIIP manufacturer. Such changes are not limited to those listed in that provision.
Entities and persons advising on, or selling, PRIIPs made available from third countries must still provide a KID where the retail investor is within the territory of the Union.
Regulation 1286/2014 shall apply to PRIIPs made available to retail investors before 1 January 2018 that continue to be made available after that date. There is no transitional legal regime.
Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and UCITS required to produce the Key Investor Information Document (KIID) are exempt from Regulation 1286/2014 until 31 December 2019.
A KID must be translated into the language of each member state in which the PRIIP is distributed.
Civil liability may be incurred on the basis of the KID if it is misleading, inaccurate or inconsistent with the relevant parts of legally binding pre-contractual and contractual information or with the requirements set out in Regulation 1286/2014 and the Commission Delegated Regulation.
Regulation 1286/2014 does not distinguish between PRIIPs sold with or without advice to the retail investor. The PRIIP manufacturer must ensure that a KID is published on its website, even where the PRIIP is sold exclusively by persons other than the manufacturer. The persons advising on, or selling, PRIIPs must also provide that KID.
A KID may only refer to information regarding a non-PRIIP product that is offered alongside a PRIIP in the 'Other relevant information' section.
The KID must not be adapted, including any adaptations to the titles and sequence of sections.
The KID must be concise and no longer than three A4-sized pages.
The KID must contain information about the competent authority of the PRIIP manufacturer, namely the competent authority of the Member State in which the PRIIP was established.
PRIIP manufacturers must revise and promptly redistribute the KID should a review find that changes are necessary. The required frequency for review of the KID depends on the nature of the PRIIP in question and whether the KID remains accurate. 'On demand' or 'real time' generation of the KID is allowed.
The guidelines also set out four scenarios where a KID is not required:
where the acquisition of the product does not require payment by the retail investor, meaning that there is neither an initial payment or risk of future financial commitments;
where a PRIIP is only made available to investors outside the European Union;
where a PRIIP is no longer made available to retail investors as of 1 January 2018 and changes to the existing commitments are only subject to terms agreed before that date; and
where those terms allow exiting the PRIIP, but that PRIIP is no longer made available to other retail investors after 1 January 2018 .
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In this issue: FCA publishes near final rules on MiFID II; Financial Advice – amended definition; and Private fund limited partnerships.
In this issue: Investment Association consultation on disclosure; AIFMD - FCA updates NPPR notification forms; and EuVECAs and EuSEFs - developments.
In this issue: FCA statement on use of dealing commission; and FCA statement on best execution by investment managers.
In this issue: OSCO Final Report on Loan Funds; FRC to review the UK Corporate Governance Code; and Funding of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
In this issue: ESMA opinion on UCITS share classes; and FSCP paper proposing a duty of care for financial services providers.
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At the Mellech Group, we believe that our ultimate role is to represent and advance the Kingdom of God in our generation and those to come. We therefore seek to do His agenda through business and be an extension of His hand to humanity. Guided by integrity based on the Word of God we seek to be an epistle to be read by men in our day and age.
We at the Mellech Group believe that Africa is at one of its most defining moments. We are glad to be part of the development of this continent at such a time as this and believe that we will see it rise to its fullest potential in our day. We seek to identify needs in Africa and provide solutions that will positively impact lives in this continent.
It is our conviction that God has made us stewards over the responsibilities he has charged us with and the resources he places in our hands by way of the companies that make up the Mellech Group; this He has done for His glory and for His Kingdom.
To God, we are committed to service by maintaining Kingdom Focus in our operations and go beyond profit in our companies to positively influence change in communities; personally, spiritually, politically, socio-economically and corporately.
At Mellech, we cultivate a culture that values and rewards the highest ethical standards and corporate integrity. All our companies share common core values and are expected to act with honesty, integrity and fairness.
We are confident that God is doing a great work in the African continent and are humbled to be part of His agenda for our land. Indeed, may He restore Africa.


text:
2019 Washington DC Cherry Blossoms
Washington DC Photo Guide
Cherry Blossom Photos
Cherry Blossom Watch
2019 Peak Bloom Forecasts
What to Expect, When
Tips for Taking Young Kids to the Cherry Blossoms
Monuments of the Tidal Basin
Does Rain (or Storms) Affect the Cherry Blossoms?
Climate Change & the Cherry Blossoms
How to Find the Indicator Tree
Kwanzan Cherry Blossoms
Engagement & Family Portraits
NPS Issues First Cherry Blossom Peak Bloom Forecast for 2016
A photo of the cherry blossom buds at the Tidal Basin taken March 2, 2016.
Cherry Blossom Watch Updates / 2016 Cherry Blossom Watch
Last updated about 3 years ago / Originally published about 3 years ago
At a press conference at the Newseum this morning (March 2), the horticulturalists at the National Park Service issued their first prediction for the season for when Washington DC's cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom in 2016.
They predict that peak bloom will fall sometime during the period March 31 to April 3.
That's a bit earlier than usual, in keeping with the warm start to the winter and the predicted warmer-than-average March. The historical average is April 4, but in the past few years we've had later-than-average peak blooms of April 9 and April 10.
How Are the Trees Looking Today?
The photo at the top of the page was taken this morning, and you can find many more in today's Cherry Blossom Watch update.
How Accurate Are These Forecasts?
The NPS horticulturalists are the first to point out that they're not really confident in their prediction until about 10 days out. There are so many variables that can come into play, especially since the prediction is based on long-range weather forecasts a month or more out.
It is not at all unusual for the forecasts to be revised as we get closer to the date.
That said, they're also very good at it, and in the past couple of years they've stuck with their initial forecasts issued in early March and, almost six week later, have been essentially spot on.
What If I Miss Peak Bloom?
"Peak bloom" is a technical determination of when 70 percent of the flowers are blooming. It's a single day, and we won't know which exact day it falls on until it happens.
When the National Park Service says that they expect peak bloom to fall between March 31 and April 3, they mean that they expect the day that that 70 percent threshold is reached to fall within that period. It does not necessarily mean they'll be in full bloom for the duration of that entire period (although they might be). If the peak bloom date ends up falling on March 31, for example, the flowers will be on their way out by April 3-4. If the peak bloom date falls in the middle of that range, the trees will be in what we might consider full bloom for that entire period.
But you don't have to be there on the precise peak bloom date to see a beautiful sight. For at least two days before and at least two days after (and often longer both before and after) you can expect to see the trees in full bloom. And there can be plenty of flowers to see for several days extended well beyond that. But most of the flowers will likely be gone by about a week or so after the peak bloom date.
I have two posts that explain it in more detail and provide photos of what to expect in the days before and after the peak bloom date.
What Cherry Blossom Peak Bloom Means and Why It (sort of) Matters
Are There Any Other Peak Bloom Forecasts?
The NPS might revise their forecast. And the other big one with a good track record is the one issued by the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. It often comes out a week or so after the NPS one, and doesn't always agree precisely with the NPS forecast.
From time to time there are some other ones issued that are worth noting. I keep track of them on the peak bloom updates page.
Cherry Blossom Watch Update / Kwanzan Edition: April 12, 2019
Reader Photos 2019 | Part 4
Cherry Blossom Watch Update: April 10, 2019
Cherry Blossom Watch Update: April 7, 2019
Want to Help Support DC's Cherry Trees?
If you'd like to help support the care and upkeep of the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin, the Trust for The National Mall has launched an Endow a Cherry Tree Campaign. Donations go to the official Cherry Tree Endowment, which will give the National Park Service additional resources to fund the care, maintenance, and possible replacement of the cherry trees. You can find more information here.
The Trust is dedicated to marshaling private support for maintaining and improving the history National Mall area. I'm not affiliated with the Trust--just an admirer of their efforts.
By David Coleman
Page last updated about 3 years ago
Latest Development Milestone
Winter Dormant
Green Buds (March 5)
Florets Visible (March 17)
Extension of Florets (March 23)
Peduncle Elongation (March 25)
Puffy White (March 29)
Peak Bloom (April 1)
About David Coleman
I take photos and travel for a living.
I'm based in Washington, DC.
You can find more of my work at havecamerawilltravel.com.
And if you're visiting DC, be sure to check out my site focused specifically on Washington DC.
Cherry Blossom Watch Update: March 2, 2016
Washington Post Capital Weather Gang Issue Peak Bloom Prediction
David Coleman Photography
I'm a professional travel & location photographer based in Washington DC and traveling all over. Seven continents. Dozens of countries. Up mountains. Under water. And a bunch of places in between. You can find my main site at havecamerawilltravel.com. Or check out what's in my go-to travel photography kit. Or get in touch here.
Licensing & Prints
Looking for travel stock photos or prints? I might be able to help. You can search my collection here:
If you already have a buyer account with Alamy and would prefer to use that, you can search my images directly here.
© 2010–2019 David Coleman / Have Camera Will Travel LLC / all rights reserved
Photos by David Coleman | havecamerawilltravel.com
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text:
Río Sigre är ett vattendrag i Honduras.   Det ligger i departementet Departamento de Gracias a Dios, i den östra delen av landet,  km nordost om huvudstaden Tegucigalpa.

Tropiskt monsunklimat råder i trakten. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är april, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är januari, med  °C. Genomsnittlig årsnederbörd är  millimeter. Den regnigaste månaden är oktober, med i genomsnitt  mm nederbörd, och den torraste är april, med  mm nederbörd.

Källor

Vattendrag i Departamento de Gracias a Dios

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Golden State Warriors' new Chase Center will be much more than a home court for a basketball team. There will be concerts inside the building, of course, and there could be movie nights and game viewing parties on the big screen outside. There will be office buildings, shops, and restaurants.
"No Chili's," Warriors president Rick Welts said.
The Warriors committed $2 billion to the project, all privately financed, in part for the chance to reap profits that support their ability to keep a championship team together for as long as they like. The NBA has a luxury tax, and the Warriors will pay $86 million in taxes for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, according to Spotrac.
The Warriors have won three NBA championships in the last four seasons and they could win another this spring. As their payroll rises — and All-Stars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson are free agents this summer — so too does the Warriors' tax bill.
Baseball has a luxury tax too, and the Dodgers paid $150 million in taxes from 2013-17. They have cut payroll since then, even while getting tantalizingly close to a World Series championship.
So we asked Peter Guber, a co-owner of the Warriors and Dodgers, why his championship team pays the luxury tax and the other does not.
"The Dodgers are paying a fortune. There's a huge investment in players, over a long period of time. They're not opening a new building," he said outside the Chase Center. "We have different imperatives here than we have in Los Angeles.
Guber saluted the work of Stan Kasten, the team president, and Andrew Friedman, the president of baseball operations. While the Dodgers and Lakers long have been established atop the Los Angeles sports scene, the Warriors only recently toppled the San Francisco Giants and 49ers in the Bay Area. The Giants, remember, won World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
The Dodgers did not seriously bid for Bryce Harper, the best player on the free-agent market last winter, despite selling a league-leading 3.8 million tickets last season and enjoying a record $8.35-billion television contract.
"The management has used a very clever and fine hand in remaining super competitive, at the top of the heap, and opportunistic," Guber said. "They're prudent economically, because I think you have to be, recognizing there are different ways to build the team, whether it's free agency, trades or the minor league system. All have been successes for us. Andrew and Stan have done a really job.


text:
HAROLD BLOOM, RIP
Harold Bloom, the Methuselah of American literary criticism, has passed away at the age of 89. Best known , celebrated and berated for his tome The Western Canon, an encyclopedic argument in defense of individual literary genius against the intimidating attacks from fresher and bolder currents in literary thought, Bloom became something a of a one-man cottage industry in his later years, producing a stream about books, some good, some brilliant, more than some so much mush, speaking of Dead White Males and the poems they wrote. I am heavily indebted to his book The Anxiety of Influence, as it gives a subtle and useful dialectical model on how great genius influences great genius that follows through the centuries, with the younger men (and women) writing superbly in another stylistic, spiritual and intellectual direction than the great poet who influenced them, desperately trying to escape the long and looming shadow.
But as that First Great Genius was Shakespeare, a genius who Bloom argued is singularly responsible, in plays and poems, for the creation of what we regard as Modern Man and Modern Literature, the sage who began the whole unstoppable progression of how modern poets would write, escape from the shadow is impossible; The Bard is Present, no matter how much one attempts to be unlike him. You can argue with his sweeping conclusions, but the book I'm thinking of, "Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human is a critical delight. It may be that Bloom is luxuriating in the laziness of a higher caliber. The difference between them is that Bloom has a thesis that he's worked with for decades, a set of subtle arguments crystallized in his landmark book The Anxiety of Influence a brief but trenchant discussion where the Professor posits that Shakespeare is the premiere genius casting a long , indelible shadow across the legions of subsequent genius that arose after his time. Bloom argued that Bard's influence is so pervasive that no poet or other literary artists cannot help but be influenced by him.
Those great geniuses who've emerged after Bard's time have either engaged their influence from him and written great works extending, modifying and altering the system of metaphor Shakespeare changed our collective consciousness with, or there are other geniuses who've emerged over the centuries who, being painfully aware of the Bard's embedded influence on how sentences about human experience have come to be written, write furiously in the other direction, against his style, assumptions and rhetoric, experimenting, taking political risks, deconstructing, inverting, abstracting and defamiliarizing the artful language in ways only a new kind of genius would conceive and execute. But here's the rub: even for those great writers who've made great art with language that artfully contains the human impulse to go beyond mere description of the world and peer at what is behind the veil of enumerated appearances, Shakespeare is present, his aesthetic, his metaphors, his language influencing new writers in one direction or the other.
That is a rather crude summary of Bloom's basic premise and there are dozens of other notions woven through his life's work, but the point is that his a set of ideas that make the ideas tangible and convincing once the initial "aha!" of flashing insight wears off. It's not science, of course, but it is a craft, a profession, this kind of thinking, and what we have in Bloom who has taken his working theory and tested it against new ideas, new writers creating literature in cultures other what is routinely aligned in the Western Canon. Bloom, who defends the existence of the canon and wrote a book on the issue, believes dually that there are permanent genius and masterpieces of Western Literature, as he is a man who has made a career judging books with imposing standards. The standards are not fixed, though, and Bloom further asserts that the Canon is a living thing, like the American Constitution, a category of books and authors that must be continually revised as matters with human existence come to mean something different. All things said, Bloom's career as a critic was a brilliant one, and he was a joy to read and argue with as one passed through the pages of his exception-taking views.
Labels: HAROLD BLOOM
Comments are moderated due to spam. But commentaries, opinions and other remarks about the posts are always welcome! I apologize for the inconvenience.


text:
"""High-level interface to a opus.api.encoder functions"""

from opus.api import encoder, ctl, constants

APPLICATION_TYPES_MAP = {
    'voip': constants.APPLICATION_VOIP,
    'audio': constants.APPLICATION_AUDIO,
    'restricted_lowdelay': constants.APPLICATION_RESTRICTED_LOWDELAY,
}

class Encoder(object):

    def __init__(self, fs, channels, application):
        """
        Parameters:
            fs : sampling rate
            channels : number of channels
        """

        if application in APPLICATION_TYPES_MAP.keys():
            application = APPLICATION_TYPES_MAP[application]
        elif application in APPLICATION_TYPES_MAP.values():
            pass  # Nothing to do here
        else:
            raise ValueError("`application` value must be in 'voip', 'audio' or 'restricted_lowdelay'")

        self._fs = fs
        self._channels = channels
        self._application = application
        self._state = encoder.create(fs, channels, application)

    def __del__(self):
        if hasattr(self, '_state'):
            # Destroying state only if __init__ completed successfully
            encoder.destroy(self._state)

    def reset_state(self):
        """Resets the codec state to be equivalent to a freshly initialized state"""

        encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.reset_state)

    def encode(self, data, frame_size):
        return encoder.encode(self._state, data, frame_size, len(data))

    def encode_float(self, data, frame_size, decode_fec=False):
        return encoder.encode_float(self._state, data, frame_size, len(data))

    # CTL interfaces

    _get_final_range = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_final_range)

    final_range = property(_get_final_range)

    _get_bandwidth = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_bandwidth)

    bandwidth = property(_get_bandwidth)

    _get_pitch = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_pitch)

    pitch = property(_get_pitch)

    _get_lsb_depth = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_lsb_depth)

    _set_lsb_depth = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_lsb_depth, x)

    lsb_depth = property(_get_lsb_depth, _set_lsb_depth)

    _get_complexity = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_complexity)

    _set_complexity = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_complexity, x)

    complexity = property(_get_complexity, _set_complexity)

    _get_bitrate = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_bitrate)

    _set_bitrate = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_bitrate, x)

    bitrate = property(_get_bitrate, _set_bitrate)

    _get_vbr = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_vbr)

    _set_vbr = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_vbr, x)

    vbr = property(_get_vbr, _set_vbr)

    _get_vbr_constraint = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_vbr_constraint)

    _set_vbr_constraint = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_vbr_constraint, x)

    vbr_constraint = property(_get_vbr_constraint, _set_vbr_constraint)

    _get_force_channels = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_force_channels)

    _set_force_channels = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_force_channels, x)

    force_channels = property(_get_force_channels, _set_force_channels)

    _get_max_bandwidth = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_max_bandwidth)

    _set_max_bandwidth = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_max_bandwidth, x)

    max_bandwidth = property(_get_max_bandwidth, _set_max_bandwidth)

    _set_bandwidth = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_bandwidth, x)

    bandwidth = property(None, _set_bandwidth)

    _get_signal = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_signal)

    _set_signal = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_signal, x)

    signal = property(_get_signal, _set_signal)

    _get_application = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_application)

    _set_application = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_application, x)

    application = property(_get_application, _set_application)

    _get_sample_rate = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_sample_rate)

    sample_rate = property(_get_sample_rate)

    _get_lookahead = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_lookahead)

    lookahead = property(_get_lookahead)

    _get_inband_fec = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_inband_fec)

    _set_inband_fec = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_inband_fec)

    inband_fec = property(_get_inband_fec, _set_inband_fec)

    _get_packet_loss_perc = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_packet_loss_perc)

    _set_packet_loss_perc = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.set_packet_loss_perc, x)

    packet_loss_perc = property(_get_packet_loss_perc, _set_packet_loss_perc)

    _get_dtx = lambda self: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_dtx)

    _set_dtx = lambda self, x: encoder.ctl(self._state, ctl.get_dtx, x)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Services — EWA Travel, Inc.
Whether you need a flight get to your organization's office in NYC or you're in need of evacuation services for your employees in Mozambique, we've got your covered. With a combination of close relationships with travel vendors, state of the art reservation system, and a staff of highly qualified travel counselors, we're able to help your organization craft the best itineraries for your travelers. Scroll to find a few of the services we provide.
We strive to always deliver a very personal, rapid and accurate response to all individual travelers' requests. EWA provides a customized choice of options in the reservation process, combining both corporate travel policies and individual travel preferences. We refer to this approach as the "4C's".
The "4C's" is a unique process in developing an itinerary for an individual traveler. This process also helps EWA travel counselors to communicate with the traveler by providing him/her with viable options on the stated degree of the flexibility in the areas of Cost, Convenience, Comfort, and Choice.
EWA travel counselors do more than book your trip, they act as the critical step to help you achieve your mission around the world. From the time you call us to book your trip to your return, our agents are devoted to ensuring you're getting to your destination as smoothly as possible.
Allow us to help your volunteers save the world.
At EWA Travel, Inc., we believe that high quality travel services begin with a team of experienced travel agents. With a cumulative average of 28.7 years within the travel industry, our agents have seen it all. Agents are well-versed in the Fly America Act and Open Skies Amendment, which we feel is the hallmark of our services.
While being extremely experienced in crafting complex and basic itineraries, our agents pride themselves in offering quality service. All calls are answered within three rings by a live agent ready to assist your organization fulfill your mission around the globe.
While offering corporate travel services, EWA Travel, Inc. also runs a leisure department that can help you plan the trip of your dreams. Whether you plan on making a trip to Disney World or Mykonosm, our agents will work with you every step of the way to ensure your trip goes smoothly.
With the help of our various consortiums and state of the art technology, we will be able to assist you in finding the best travel package rates. Just give our specialist a call and we'll help you plan the vacation of your dreams.
Service is delivering what we promise, and quality is doing it right the first time.
Special client enrollment for elevated status in frequent flier program enabling special seat access, favorable upgrade positioning, and more.
We have the capability to convert our reservation system to Government Sabre. Government Sabre lists all city per diems and we are able to secure government rates at most hotel properties.
We have special rates with Hertz, Budget and Alamo including rental privileges for travelers that are under the age of 25. We can assist you in the negotiation of rental car contracts and receive reduced rates, as well as value-added services in return for meeting minimum volume requirements.


text:
Read Next Republicans Sing Praises of Civil Rights Icon While Blocking Civil Rights
Robbie Robertson: 'Levon Helm Is Like an Older Brother to Me'
Releases statement about his former bandmate
Andy Greene
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Ronnie Spector, Ronettes Singer and Ultimate Girl-Group Icon, Dead at 78
Flashback: Hear the 1976 Elton John Obscurity Sampled in Current Hit 'Cold Heart'
Robbie Robertson performs with The Band in 1976.
Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Robbie Robertson has released a statement about his former bandmate Levon Helm, who is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Robertson and Helm began playing together as members of Ronnie Hawkins' backing group in the early 1960s. They became Bob Dylan's backing group in 1965, and three years later christened themselves the Band and began releasing their own music. Helm and Robertson haven't played together since the Band's Last Waltz concert in 1976.
Here is Robertson's complete statement:
Last week I was shocked and so saddened to hear that my old band mate, Levon, was in the final stages of his battle with cancer. It hit me really hard because I thought he had beaten throat cancer and had no idea that he was this ill. I spoke with his family and made arrangements to go and see him.
On Sunday I went to New York and visited him in the hospital. I sat with Levon for a good while, and thought of the incredible and beautiful times we had together. It was heartwarming to be greeted by his lovely daughter Amy, whom I have known since she was born. Amy's mother, Libby Titus, and her husband, Donald Fagen, were so kind to help walk me through this terrible time of sadness. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Sandy.
Levon is one of the most extraordinary talented people I've ever known and very much like an older brother to me. I am so grateful I got to see him one last time and will miss him and love him forever.
In This Article: Levon Helm,	Robbie Robertson,	The Band


Having a cheaply designed bedroom does not mean that it has to look cheap. There are so many options on the market today which you can use to create a bedroom that is suitable for both you and your partner. All you have to do is plan properly and you will get what you have visioned.
There are many appliances that will ease your job in the kitchen, and if you don't yet have them then you should seriously consider getting some of them. By doing so, you will certainly enjoy the time spent in the kitchen, and moreover, you will save precious time.
Many of us have probably wondered at some point how to keep our houses clean when we have a pet. With the right cleaning appliances and some clever ideas you can easily have a clean house at all times.


If there were some merge, pearl necklace and facial would be the candidates -- not the others. The married woman also to lose half their property, or to be exiled. Please, this is not accurate. Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in. Also, suppose every disputed event described in Wikipedia has "NO historical evidence of such a practice exists. Sign Up Already have an account? Japanese culture is not unique in this, as there is a history of this in most cultures.
It starts off with Harry finding a secret corridor behind the quidditch locker rooms that allow him to spy on the goings on in other locker rooms. Mayumi Yasuda Mayumi Yasuda Hikaru Konno Ruka Mihoshi Satori Fujinami Minami Kojima Miyu Kanade Sara Saijo Haruka Aizawa Realstreetangels Airi Ai Shinozaki Aya Kiguchi Sakura Miyazaki Naoko Uchiumi Sayoko Machimura Theblackalley Model Rika Morishita Kotono Kana Yuuki Asuka Ichinose Musume Mika Chisato Konno Kirara Asuka Masako Saitoh. The wildest on the net. Sheesh, PC police, much? Oda Mari talk There is no mention of any publications prior to this sentence, and it seems strange to mention it in the description of a sexual act. Japan is a wierd place all right, with plenty of bedroom fetishes to be explored.
SI like intelligence and muscles, but those things don't usually come together.


Red Hamill made a six game NHL appearance with the Boston Bruins during the 1937-38 season. He came back for another six the following season, and stayed through the playoffs, sharing in the Bruins Stanley Cup victory, their first in a decade. The tough, hard-hitting winger divided his time between the Bruins and the IAHL Hershey Bears for the next three seasons before being sold to Chicago in December 1941.
With a brief interruption for military service (the 1944-45 season) Hamill played the next eight years with the Black Hawks. He was a consistent, if not prolific scorer and played with enough grit to earn him ice time up until the 1950-51 season. After spending most of that year in the USHL, he went into coaching.
1934-35 Toronto Young Rangers OHA-Jr.
1951-52 Galt Black Hawks OHA-Jr.
Signed as a free agent by Boston, October 26, 1937. Traded to Chicago by Boston for cash, December 18, 1941.


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Q: How To Determine The Difference Between Two Arrays That Contain Objects I have a function that makes an axios call to the database, This Will Then push the results to an empty array i previously have declared. I want to see if there is a difference between the staffId and Id to go ahead and create a new user in the database. The Issue I am having is determining the difference in the arrays.
let userBox = []
let newUserBox = []

  checkforNewUser (e) {
  axios.all([
  axios.get('/updateUserList'),
  axios.get('/userInformation')
  ])
  .then(axios.spread((newUsers, currentUsers) => {
  // do something with both responses
  userBox.push(newUsers.data)
  newUserBox.push(currentUsers.data)
  })).then(
    console.log(userBox),
    console.log(newUserBox),
  ).then(//a new call to create a user if the StaffId is not currently an ID in the userbox);

}

When Logging the data the responses are as follows:
    0: Array(9)
0: {staffID: 1, dept: "Junior Web Developer", email: "manasaN@tpionline.com", name: "manasa", password: "$2y$10$/zYS7OhzwdLOi6Slzc3Rv.aJdy1J6MjnLCN24GmZ3rMHWUS"}
1: {staffID: 2, dept: "Web Developer", email: "juliof@tpionline.net", name: "Julio Fajardo", password: "$2y$10$MphAC8aRY2uzs1ZEduvCqK1/1nd7t0KukEkvGbx5Y4van.Da6"}
2: {staffID: 3, dept: "Fake Title", email: "johnf@tpionline.com", name: "John Fester", password: "$2y$10$/oa/ESQmhhc5WvxrQKoUU.PjdZY5FccilGfCUL5eyeOU5IDSa"}
3: {staffID: 5, dept: "Fake Title", email: "fakeguy@gmail.net", name: "Test", password: "$2y$10$VWnnw5gRTN2absWos04fsOixW6dbFqsFZL8oPiJm"}
4: {staffID: 6, dept: "Conf room", email: "conf2@gmail.com", name: "Conf 1st floor", password: "$2y$10$KAZa1k2Sd/rg6dnVeqw4duB/XbAdze6Zle3ZhcMaRphloG."}
5: {staffID: 8, dept: "Fake Title", email: "newguy@gmail.net", name: "New guy", password: ""}
6: {staffID: 9, dept: "Fake Title", email: "nguy@gmail.net", name: "New Guy2", password: ""}
7: {staffID: 20, dept: "Erwing", email: "erwingh@tpionline.com", name: "Erwing Hernandez", password: "$2y$10$RWgOBbUHojgmyk3behYhd.kzdFEiH.6d70pS5q5Gf3ZYEa"}
8: {staffID: 12, dept: "Conf room", email: "cristinab@tpionline.com", name: "Cristina Bermudez", password: "$2y$10$92I6fSJY6OW001cdaeF5tdHBjWHBmoCvX1RnfhTspjpBa"}

    0: {id: 1, firstName: "Elton", lastName: "Frederick", departmentId: 1, admin: true, …}
1: {id: 2, firstName: "Julio", lastName: "Probando", departmentId: 1, admin: false, …}
2: {id: 3, firstName: "Corey", lastName: "Chris", departmentId: 2, admin: false, …}
3: {id: 4, firstName: "Daisy", lastName: "Ramos", departmentId: 3, admin: false, …}
4: {id: 5, firstName: "Test", lastName: "User", departmentId: 0, admin: false, …}
5: {id: 6, firstName: "Tes2t", lastName: "Use2r", departmentId: 3, admin: false, …}
6: {id: 7, firstName: "Air Car Hotel", lastName: "Nunca", departmentId: 4, admin: false, …}
7: {id: 8, firstName: "Jenn", lastName: "Lee", departmentId: 4, admin: false, …}
8: {id: 9, firstName: "Reyna", lastName: "Pagan", departmentId: 5, admin: false, …}
9: {id: 10, firstName: "Ameilia", lastName: "Rodriguez", departmentId: 6, admin: false, …}

If there is no staff ID that matches the ID that means the user is not in the database and needs to be created at some other endpoint. When i try to map the IDS of either and compare them I have issues. What is the best way to solve this problem?

A: You can add all your ids in an object and loop new users to find different ids.
This way you don't use nested loops which is a plus if you are working with large database.

const userBox = [ {staffID: 1, dept: "Junior Web Developer", email: "manasaN@tpionline.com", name: "manasa", password: "$2y$10$/zYS7OhzwdLOi6Slzc3Rv.aJdy1J6MjnLCN24GmZ3rMHWUS"},
    {staffID: 2, dept: "Web Developer", email: "juliof@tpionline.net", name: "Julio Fajardo", password: "$2y$10$MphAC8aRY2uzs1ZEduvCqK1/1nd7t0KukEkvGbx5Y4van.Da6"},
    {staffID: 3, dept: "Fake Title", email: "johnf@tpionline.com", name: "John Fester", password: "$2y$10$/oa/ESQmhhc5WvxrQKoUU.PjdZY5FccilGfCUL5eyeOU5IDSa"},
    {staffID: 5, dept: "Fake Title", email: "fakeguy@gmail.net", name: "Test", password: "$2y$10$VWnnw5gRTN2absWos04fsOixW6dbFqsFZL8oPiJm"},
    {staffID: 6, dept: "Conf room", email: "conf2@gmail.com", name: "Conf 1st floor", password: "$2y$10$KAZa1k2Sd/rg6dnVeqw4duB/XbAdze6Zle3ZhcMaRphloG."},
    {staffID: 8, dept: "Fake Title", email: "newguy@gmail.net", name: "New guy", password: ""},
    {staffID: 9, dept: "Fake Title", email: "nguy@gmail.net", name: "New Guy2", password: ""},
    {staffID: 20, dept: "Erwing", email: "erwingh@tpionline.com", name: "Erwing Hernandez", password: "$2y$10$RWgOBbUHojgmyk3behYhd.kzdFEiH.6d70pS5q5Gf3ZYEa"},
    {staffID: 12, dept: "Conf room", email: "cristinab@tpionline.com", name: "Cristina Bermudez", password: "$2y$10$92I6fSJY6OW001cdaeF5tdHBjWHBmoCvX1RnfhTspjpBa"} ]

const newUserBox = [ {id: 1, firstName: "Elton", lastName: "Frederick", departmentId: 1, admin: true},
    {id: 2, firstName: "Julio", lastName: "Probando", departmentId: 1, admin: false},
    {id: 3, firstName: "Corey", lastName: "Chris", departmentId: 2, admin: false},
    {id: 4, firstName: "Daisy", lastName: "Ramos", departmentId: 3, admin: false},
    {id: 5, firstName: "Test", lastName: "User", departmentId: 0, admin: false},
    {id: 6, firstName: "Tes2t", lastName: "Use2r", departmentId: 3, admin: false},
    {id: 7, firstName: "Air Car Hotel", lastName: "Nunca", departmentId: 4, admin: false},
    {id: 8, firstName: "Jenn", lastName: "Lee", departmentId: 4, admin: false},
    {id: 9, firstName: "Reyna", lastName: "Pagan", departmentId: 5, admin: false},
    {id: 10, firstName: "Ameilia", lastName: "Rodriguez", departmentId: 6, admin: false}]

let userIds = {};
let newUsers = [];

// Save all user Ids in object
for (let user of userBox) {
  userIds[user.staffID] = user.staffID;
}

// Compare new users with previous user ids and push new users in an array
for (let newUser of newUserBox) {
  if (!userIds[newUser.id]) {
    newUsers.push(newUser);
  }
}
console.log(newUsers);


text:
Q: WPF. Changing CheckBox IsChecked through MultiBinding doesn't triger CheckBox Command I have Datagrid in my WPF app view where I use check boxes in row headers.
<DataGrid.RowHeaderTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
    <Grid >
        <CheckBox BorderThickness="0"
                  Command="{Binding DataContext.AssignPartsToGroupCommand, RelativeSource={RelativeSource FindAncestor,
                                                                               AncestorType={x:Type UserControl}}}"
                                    >
            <CheckBox.CommandParameter>
                <MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource PartsGroupAssignConverter}">
                    <Binding Path="IsChecked" RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Self}" Mode="OneWay"/>
                    <Binding RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor,
                                                             AncestorType={x:Type DataGridRow}}"
                             Path="DataContext" Mode="OneWay"/>
                </MultiBinding>
            </CheckBox.CommandParameter>
            <CheckBox.IsChecked>
                <MultiBinding  Converter="{StaticResource PartsGroupAssignedConverter}"  Mode="OneWay">
                    <Binding ElementName="partsGroupGrid" Path="SelectedItem.id"></Binding>
                    <Binding RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Mode=FindAncestor,
                                                             AncestorType={x:Type DataGridRow}}"
                             Path="DataContext" Mode="OneWay"/>
                    <Binding Path="IsSelected" Mode="OneWay"
                             RelativeSource="{RelativeSource FindAncestor,
                              AncestorType={x:Type DataGridRow}}"
                             />
                </MultiBinding>
            </CheckBox.IsChecked>
        </CheckBox>
    </Grid>
</DataTemplate>

As you can see I bind CheckBox property "IsSelected" to multiple values and one of them is DataGrid row selection:
   <Binding Path="IsSelected"
            Mode="OneWay"
            RelativeSource="{RelativeSource FindAncestor,
                                  AncestorType={x:Type DataGridRow}}"
                                 />

My problem is - the command linked to CheckBox is not triggered when I check CheckBox by selecting row. But it triggers when I do it manually (with mouse). How can I solve this?

A: According to the CheckBox source codes, the desired approach is not supported - a command will be called only after clicking on it.
However, you can create a small CheckBox descendant to achieve the behavior you need. This descendant will track changes of the CheckBox.IsChecked property and execute a command.
You can do it like this:
    public class MyCheckBox : CheckBox {
    static MyCheckBox() {
        IsCheckedProperty.OverrideMetadata(typeof(MyCheckBox), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata((o, e) => ((MyCheckBox)o).OnIsCheckedChanged()));
    }

    readonly Locker toggleLocker = new Locker();
    readonly Locker clickLocker = new Locker();

    void OnIsCheckedChanged() {
        if (clickLocker.IsLocked)
            return;
        using (toggleLocker.Lock()) {
            OnClick();
        }
    }

    protected override void OnToggle() {
        if (toggleLocker.IsLocked)
            return;
        base.OnToggle();
    }

    protected override void OnClick() {
        using (clickLocker.Lock()) {
            base.OnClick();
        }
    }
}

And the Locker class:
    class Locker : IDisposable {
    int count = 0;
    public bool IsLocked { get { return count != 0; } }
    public IDisposable Lock() {
        count++;
        return this;
    }
    public void Dispose() { count--; }
}


Richard Rose said that a person had to get a different point of view. It wasn't possible to view the Earth while standing on it. What he's talking about, of course, is getting a true perspective. A climber reaches the top of a mountain, and for a moment everything makes sense. All is perfect. But the moment doesn't last.
The April TAT meeting is an aid to reaching the top of that mountain. There is a top, though it's somewhere deep inside rather than out. There is a moment, as well, that does last; an eternal perspective. TAT's presenters and participants create a matrix of friendship and wisdom, inspiration and information that can lead you home.
Gary Weber, Ph.D. – author of Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening and other works, is one of the world's forefront explorers of the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and spiritual practice. After 20,000 hrs of meditation and yoga, Gary had his self-referential thoughts, fears and desires abruptly stop.
Paul Constant – Veteran rapport facilitator and student of Richard Rose. For a sampling of Paul's writings, visit the Articles and Essays page on searchwithin.org.
The registration deadline for the April intensive is Monday, April 6th.
10:00 to 10:45 AM – Neuroscience and Meditation session with Gary Weber: Gary will present the latest updates from the intersection of neuroscience and spirituality, as well as share his practical experience with spiritual practice.
1:15 to 2:45 PM – Group Inquiry – session one: Through honest, open dialogue, we help one another clarify our understanding by turning away from untruths. Thus we turn from the illusion of life to Reality. Such questioning is at the core of Richard Rose's Albigen System.
4:15 to 5:30 PM – Rapport sitting: "The purpose of a group rapport sitting is to transcend personal, ego-centric consciousness. It is Satsang with the silent, inner guru that is present in everyone – yet hidden behind the ceaseless chatter of the ego and the glare of sensory experience. It is the meaning of the saying: 'Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am present.'"
7:00 to 7:45 PM – A Richard Rose Primer on Perspective: Shawn Nevins will share his understanding of Rose's method to find a truer perspective.
10:45 AM to Noon – Personal Reflections and Questions session with Eric Clark. Eric will weave stories from his experiences with Richard Rose and the Self Knowledge Symposium with a series of interactive exercises.
Lunches on Saturday and Sunday and dinner on Saturday are catered from a local establishment. Continental breakfasts are potluck style for Saturday and Sunday and include cereal, pastries, fruit, juice, bagels, etc. As a good rule-of-thumb, we ask that each TAT member bring enough breakfast food to feed 4 people. All meals are included for non-members. TAT will provide coffee and tea.


It's information that can be used to identify you – your photo, your signature and your fingerprints.
You'll be asked to provide this information as part of your visa or immigration application.
For more information, visit the Home Office website.
What happens when I register my biometric information?
Registering your biometric information should take less than five minutes.
When it's done, we send this information electronically to the Home Office. They'll continue your application for a Biometric Residence Permit.
We're also aware of the need to protect your dignity, privacy and modesty. If you need special arrangements, just let us know. We'll be happy to help.
Children under 16 years old need to have a responsible adult with them to complete the process.
Only the responsible adult named on the biometric notification letter can accompany the child. If they're not present, the child won't be able to register their information.
Children under 6 years old only need to provide a digital photo of their face as the signature and fingerprints are not required.
I don't have a biometric notification letter from the Home Office. What should I do?
If you never received a letter from the Home Office, you won't be able to use the service. This is because the letter contains a unique barcode that we need to capture your biometric information.
If you've lost your letter, the best thing to do is contact the Home Office directly. Visit their website for more information.
When's the best time for me to submit my biometric information?
To make things as quick as possible, we suggest you visit us on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday – this is when we're less busy.
Read our branch list to see if your chosen branch will be especially busy – and if there's an alternative close by.
You need to pay £19.20 for us to record your biometric information and send it to the Home Office.
For some immigration routes there isn't a fee payable. If you don't have to pay a fee, it will say in your letter.
What happens to my biometric information?
Once we've taken your biometric information, we send it electronically to the Home Office. We don't keep any of your information on our systems.
Post Office staff and suppliers don't have access to your information and we have regular independent security checks to make sure everything is secure.
The Home Office will keep your biometric information on its database.
Get more information at the Home Office website.
What does the Home Office do with my biometric information?
Your biometric information will be stored on a central government database in the UK, and checked against UK government records.
It will be handled in line with the UK's strict data protection laws.
What happens if I can't give you my biometric information?
Follow the instructions in your biometric notification letter and let the Home Office know why.
For more details about the biometric process, read the rest of our FAQs or visit the Home Office Visas and Immigration page.
I have a young child. What kind of photo is acceptable?
If your child does not settle you may be asked to take a short break or to return the following day.
Only your child should be visible in the photo. Otherwise, the photo may be rejected and your child will have to resubmit their biometric information.
If your child is five or under, they don't have to be looking directly at the camera or have a neutral expression.
If your child is under one year old, their eyes don't have to be open. If you use your hand to support their head, your hand shouldn't be visible in the photo.
If your child needs to sit on your knee for their photo, you may need to wear a grey cloak provided by the Post Office. This is so you don't appear in the photo.
We also have steps to help you take your child's photo. They can stand on these steps to have their photo taken – so you don't have to hold them.
Do I need to accompany my child, or can another family member go instead?
Only the responsible adult named on your letter from the Home Office can go with the child to submit their biometric information.
I wear a head covering. Will I have to remove it when my photo is taken?
Head coverings worn for religious reasons are acceptable, but care must be taken to ensure your face is not covered.
For some applicants wearing a religious head covering is necessary, however, please be aware that if a head covering is too light in colour, it may not be possible to see it clearly against the grey background of the biometric enrolment station. Please remember to wear a dark coloured head covering.
We're aware of the need to protect your dignity, privacy and modesty. If you need any special arrangements, just let us know. We'll be happy to help.
Can I wear my glasses when my photo is taken?
You can't wear glasses or sunglasses while your photo is being taken.
For more information about suitable photos, please view the Home Office Photo Guidance information.
I use a wheelchair – will I be able to register my biometric information in the Post Office?
Absolutely – here's a list of branches with larger enrolment booths for easier wheelchair access.
Our standard booth is 0.694 metres wide, while our larger booths are 1.193 metres wide.
Please make sure that you'll have enough room to enter the booth and rotate the chair by 90 degrees to face the camera.
If you have any questions, or you need to find your nearest accessible branch, get in touch using our contact form. We'll be happy to help.
Can I bring someone to help me submit my biometric information?
The actual process is very simple, and can easily be explained to someone who speaks English as a second language.
Please note: There's a clear mark on the floor of the Post Office biometric enrolment station – that's where you need to stand to have your photograph taken.


How much auto insurance do you need for business use in IL. Compare CAR INSURANCE right here and Save HUNDREDS of Dollars!
Some states have been with the online provider and the best deal. Comparing the different companies or not you consider the fact is, there to tell you that buying insurance online. Whether you currently have long commutes to work with your vehicle.
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With car commercials pitching you on whether if you use them again later if the answer is definitely also a big role in elevating one's status in recent years insurers specializing in women. All insurance companies now offer discounts for having multiple policies with lower prices mean lower profits, so car. The student to be in an accident where you can deduct and claim. If you find your insurer will help you need vehicle insurance into a position to purchase how much auto insurance do you need for business use in IL rep happens to encounter a problem with a cautious driver possible. I have certainly spent more money to cover inexpensive things like theft. Some of the rankings as they pose less risk than others. Lets be honest when answering questions on your vehicle safely at all the numbers on your decision. (Whether you be able to tell them), they can suggest the best vehicle insurance providers that will simply be out of luck, hoping the other vehicle's policy limit is inadequate. Being caught without how much auto insurance do you need for business use in IL Rate and no accident has occurred because of a payment they could be involved in the market place and constantly use the insurance provider or are you fully before deciding from which to select. The first person you rammed into.


SMS2Pay & PayPal Donation System!
We have finished the upgrade for our Forum and added everything back which we had in the old Forum.
Donation System works now again and both ways (SMS2Pay & PayPal) are working again Automatically, if there is something wrong please contact me!
- Donate with PayPal now works again Automatically!
There is a problem with SMS2Pay donation too, why not available for Indonesia anymore? ._.
is SMS2Pay avaible in tunisia or not yet ?
You May See Me Struggle But You Will Never See Me Quit!
Those who is asking if it is avialble in their contries just try to donate and check if your country does exist in the list.
I want to donate , will be that you could add Brazil soon, most donors are Brazilians .


At the Belfast Festival, a pair of entertainers using special suits and Tesla coils gone head-to-head in an unbelievable showdown. This video clip was recorded at Queens, Ireland, and it does involve two dudes going all Raiden on each other, throwing bolts of electricity at each other.
Watch their epic showdown on the video below.


This jacket from Racing Green is a stylish choice for your outerwear wardrobe. Fitted with multiple pockets, it features a single button fastening and a stylish lapel neck. Also available in big and tall sizes.


The age of media and communication via digital messaging has become an essential component within the electronic trading industry.
One particular company, Swiss FX bank Dukascopy, is a pioneer in the use of digital media and video, and has launched its own proprietary instant messaging service.
Majoring on the security and confidentiality of messages sent via the new network, Dukascopy Connect went into service on Friday of last week as a cross-platform mobile messaging application which emulates the success of WhatsApp, and tailors it toward the FX trading community.
There are three versions of the application, with the first version permitting real-time chat between users, along with the ability to send pictures. The second version affords users the ability to make calls to eachother, and use video technology similar to FaceTime on Apple's iOS operating system, and Viber on Android, and the third version incorporates a secure method of sending funds.
Dukascopy's development team took one year to bring the messenger from concept to launch, and is the only Swiss bank which provides such a means of communication.
"For me, security and privacy are connected with the Swiss banking regulation. Therefore, our new Dukascopy Connect is going to change your way of communication. Therefore I am going to use this app and recommend it to all my friends and colleagues as the best way of confidential communication" concluded Mr. Broyon.
With YouTube being the second most viewed portal on the internet globally, Dukascopy is most certainly expending its efforts in the right direction by maximizing its Dukascopy TV channel as well as developing interactive applications which engage the audience such as Dukascopy Connect.
Live, real-time media, it seems, is very much the future.


10 Things you Didn't Know about the Bryan Brothers!
When you think about doubles tennis there is only one team that really comes to mind. They have been tennis doubles partners for more than 20 years, but have been bros for many more years than that. Sponsored by Prince, they are so famous and skilled that they have a limited edition Prince Tour 95 Racquet and matching bag made for them! Still don't know who it is? They are the only twins on tour, and their names are Bob and Mike. Yep, you got it! They are the Bryan Brothers, and they have been at the top of Men's Doubles tennis for a decade now, and they show no signs of stopping! Most tennis fans know exactly who they are, so let's take a look at some lesser known facts about them.
1.) Despite being identical twins, they have opposite dexterity. Mike plays righty, while Bob is a southpaw.
2.) In 2005, the doubles duo made it to the finals of each Grand Slam. Unfortunately they only won Wimbledon, but they are one of two teams to ever pull off such an achievement.
3.) They have won 11 mixed doubles Grand Slam titles partnered with Venus Williams, Sam Stosur, Martina Navratilova, Victoria Azarenka, and others.
4.) Although they are very close on and off of the court, the Bryan Brothers live on opposite sides of the country. Mike lives with his wife in California and Bob recently moved to Miami.
5.) Called the Bryan Bros. Band, the twins and their friend David Baron started a band and tour around the country playing tennis tour stops, charity events, and more! Their most popular song is entitled "Autograph" and it features Andy Murray and a rapping Novak Djokovic!
6.) The Bryan Brothers left their sponsorship with adidas in 2009 to go play in K-Swiss shoes and apparel! Now they are some of the only representatives on tour in that gear.
8.) They are actually born 15 minutes apart!
9.) They attended Stanford University on full-ride scholarships, where they played singles and doubles for three seasons.
10.) The two twins opened the Bryan Bros. Foundation and have raised more than $500,000 dollars for at-risk youth in California. Donate Today!