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833 F. 2d 730 - International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge No v. Soo Line Railroad Company
833 F2d 730 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge No v. Soo Line Railroad Company
126 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3061
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE
WORKERS, DISTRICT LODGE NO. 19, an unincorporated
labor organization, Appellee,
SOO LINE RAILROAD COMPANY, a Minnesota corporation, Appellant.
Eighth Circuit.
Submitted May 14, 1987.
Decided Nov. 12, 1987.
Rehearing En Banc Granting Jan. 13, 1988.*
Richard T. Conway, Washington, D.C., for appellant.
Roger A. Jensen, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellee.
Before HEANEY, Circuit Judge, FLOYD R. GIBSON, Senior Circuit Judge, and MAGILL, Circuit Judge.
HEANEY, Circuit Judge.
The Soo Line Railroad Company (Soo Line) appeals from a decision of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota enjoining the Soo Line from entering into separation agreements with individual members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District Lodge No. 19, (Machinists' Union) in violation of the Railway Labor Act (RLA), 45 U.S.C. Secs. 151-188, until such time as the Soo Line complies with the notice and bargaining procedures set forth in the RLA.
The Soo Line contends on appeal that the district court did not have jurisdiction over the subject matter of the dispute between the Soo Line and the Union for the reason that the dispute between them was not a major dispute subject to the mandatory bargaining procedures of the RLA, but was rather a matter personal to each employee and did not concern rates of pay, rules or working conditions. Alternatively, the Soo Line argues that if there is a dispute within the meaning of the RLA, it is a minor dispute subject to resolution by the National Railroad Adjustment Board. In our view, the findings of the district court are not clearly erroneous, and its legal conclusions are correct. We thus affirm.
On February 19, 1985, the Soo Line acquired the core rail assets of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company (Milwaukee). On January 1, 1986, the Milwaukee was merged into the Soo Line system. On September 10, 1985, the Soo Line entered into an employee protective agreement with the Machinists' Union. The preamble of the agreement states:
The purpose of this agreement is to provide pursuant to 49 U.S.C. Sec. 11347 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, and the Milwaukee Restructuring Act, for joint and equitable arrangements to protect the interest of Employees adversely affected by the acquisition; and to provide for expedited changes in services, facilities, operations, seniority and existing collective bargaining agreements * * *. [Emphasis added.]
The agreement provides that existing collective bargaining agreements shall be preserved. It states that any employee of the merged railroad company laid off as a result of the acquisition of the Milwaukee is entitled to certain benefits from the Soo Line, including a severance allowance which, depending on the employee's length of service, could exceed $38,000.
In December, 1985, the Soo Line decided to reduce the number of employees on its payroll. It offered voluntary separation pay plans to certain employees represented by unions other than the Machinists' Union. Under this plan, employees who accepted separation would receive $15,000 in severance pay and, if they were older than 60, would have their health and welfare benefits continued for a period of five years. To take advantage of the plan, each employee was required to:
Release all rights under labor protective conditions, including but not limited to, statutory, contract, or agreement labor protection and those conditions commonly referred to as Appendix B. * * * [R]esign and relinquish all rights of or claims to employment with the Soo Line Railroad * * * and release and discharge said railroad company, * * * parent or subsidiaries, from any and all claims of whatsoever kind and nature growing out of or in connection with said employment.
No negotiations were held with the unions representing these employees. Many employees accepted the separation plan and terminated their services with the Soo Line. The Machinists' Union learned of the program and questioned the Soo Line with respect to the applicability of the program to machinists. The Company said it was not applicable. Thereafter, eight machinists, all over sixty years of age, contacted the Soo Line asking to participate in the severance plan. Their requests were honored and, after signing the necessary releases, their services with the railroad were terminated. Each received a separation allowance of $15,000 and became eligible to continue to receive certain health benefits until age sixty-five.
When the Machinists' Union learned that the severance plan was being offered to some of its members, it objected. In response to the objection, the Soo Line and the Union negotiated, in March and April of 1986, in an effort to reach an acceptable separation agreement. The negotiations were unsuccessful. At no time prior to or during the series of meetings between the Soo Line and the Machinists' Union did the Soo Line issue a notice pursuant to section 6 of the RLA, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 156, triggering the dispute resolution procedures of the RLA. The Soo Line thereafter announced its intention to solicit machinists pursuant to its own separation agreement containing essentially the same terms as the agreements signed by other machinists. The Machinists Union then filed this action seeking to restrain the Soo Line from entering into separation agreements with individual machinists.
The matter was submitted to the district court on affidavits, exhibits, and abbreviated oral testimony. The parties stipulated that the hearing on the preliminary injunction could be considered as the hearing for a permanent injunction. The district court held that the dispute between the parties was a major one. It reasoned that section 6 of the RLA
establishes a comprehensive series of bargaining procedures, complete with detailed timetables and provisions for notice, to be followed by employers and bargaining representatives in effecting changes in rates of pay, rules, and working conditions. 45 U.S.C. Sec. 156. When employers wish to make changes in any regulated areas, the statute mandates written notice of the desired modification, after which conferences between management and labor take place, with the optional assistance of the National Mediation Board.
It then reviewed the cases which have defined the difference between major and minor disputes and found that the dispute between the parties was major. It stated:
[T]he Court is not called upon to review the status of either labor or management at the interstices of an agreement. Instead, the case presents fundamental issues of whether or not a person may even be an employee or a member of a union. We are not defining an interemployment relationship, but the fundamental nature of the employment relationship itself.
Both parties agree that there is no provision in the existing agreements between the Union and Soo Line allowing solicitation of individual union members or for individual lump-sum separation agreements. Under the Elgin definition and the decisions of the other courts which have faced the jurisdictional issue in the present context, this dispute is major, and this Court therefore has jurisdiction over it.
The court then went on to hold that individual agreements such as those proposed by the Soo Line are impermissible. In reaching its decision, it relied on J.I. Case Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 321 U.S. 332, 337, 64 S.Ct. 576, 580, 88 L.Ed. 762 (1944), Order of Railroad Telegraphers v. Railway Express Agency, 321 U.S. 342, 345, 64 S.Ct. 582, 584, 88 L.Ed. 788 (1944), and on two district court cases, Brotherhood of Railway Airline Clerks and Steamship Clerks v. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co., 115 LRRM 3635 (N.D. Ohio 1983) (prohibiting negotiation of individual severance agreements), and Southern Pacific Transportation Company v. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, 636 F.Supp. 57 (D.Utah 1986) (same). The district court stated that like the present case, both C & O and Southern Pacific
involved individual severance agreements where bargained-for furlough programs were in place. Because the proposed individual agreements circumvented the union's involvement in an established subject of collective bargaining, and because this circumvention occurred in areas occupied by existing collective agreements, those courts found the railroads' conduct to be illegal.
This Court sees no significant difference between those cases and the present one. If these company/individual agreements were to be allowed, the union would be denied the right of access to formal negotiation concerning compensation for severance; a right secured to it by Section 6. Further, these events occur in a setting in which an existing furlough plan is in place. Under these conditions, the Court finds that Soo Line's conduct violates the RLA and its underlying policies. [Citation omitted.]
Thus, the court held that injunctive relief is appropriate and enjoined the Soo Line from entering into individual separation agreements with employees represented by the Machinists' Union until such time as the Soo Line complies with the notice and bargaining procedures of section 6 of the RLA, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 156.
The district court properly held that it had jurisdiction over the subject matter of the dispute. Under the RLA, the Soo Line has an obligation to bargain collectively with the Machinists' Union and to refrain from interfering with that Union's representation of its members. The United States Supreme Court decided in 1944 that an employer may not, in most instances, use individual contracts to defeat the procedures prescribed by the National Labor Relations Act. It stated:
[T]he individual contract cannot be effective as a waiver of any benefit to which the employee otherwise would be entitled under the trade agreement. The very purpose of providing by statute for the collective agreement is to supercede the terms of separate agreements of employees with terms which reflect the strength and bargaining power and serve the welfare of the group. Its benefits and advantages are open to every employee of the represented unit, whatever the type or terms of his pre-existing contract of employment.
* * * We are not called upon to say that under no circumstances can an individual enforce an agreement more advantageous than a collective agreement, but we find the mere possibility that such agreements might be made no ground for holding generally that individual contracts may survive or surmount collective ones. The practice and philosophy of collective bargaining looks with suspicion on such individual advantages. Of course, where there is great variation in circumstances of employment or capacity of employees, it is possible for the collective bargain to prescribe only minimum rates or maximum hours or expressly to leave certain areas open to individual bargaining. But except as so provided, advantages to individuals may prove as disruptive of industrial peace as disadvantages. They are a fruitful way of interfering with organization and choice of representatives; increased compensation, if individually deserved, is often earned at the cost of breaking down some other standard thought to be for the welfare of the group, and always creates the suspicion of being paid at the long range expense of the group as a whole.
J.I. Case Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, 321 U.S. at 338-39, 64 S.Ct. at 580-81.
The principles enunciated in J.I. Case Co. are equally applicable to employees covered by the RLA rather than the National Labor Relations Act. Order of Railroad Telegraphers v. Railway Express Agency, 321 U.S. 342, 64 S.Ct. 582, 88 L.Ed. 788 (1944). The precise evil identified in J.I. Case Co. is present here.1 The Machinists' Union and the Soo Line have negotiated a labor protective agreement which specifically sets forth the benefits that employees who are laid off as a result of the merger are to receive.2 These benefits exceed those available to employees who accept voluntary separation. It is obvious that the Soo Line will benefit if it can obtain agreements from employees to retire voluntarily and to waive their rights under the labor protective agreement signed by the company and the union. (It will pay those employees voluntarily separating from service less than it would pay those employees separating as a result of the merger under the labor protective agreement.) It is equally obvious that voluntary retirement under the company's terms is attractive to some employees. As might be expected, the eight machinists who initially accepted voluntary separation were older employees to whom separation was attractive. They were eligible for retirement benefits, were paid $15,000, and guaranteed continuation of their health benefits in exchange for, in effect, retiring a few years early. These employees were not necessarily those who would have been eligible to receive benefits under the labor protective agreement. The fact that the Soo Line and certain individual employees will benefit is not, however, sufficient, in and of itself, to find a violation of the RLA. The important thing is that these agreements have an adverse impact on the machinists as a group.
The impact on the union and its members of the voluntary separation plan will be significant. As a result of the individual agreements, work has been or will be transferred from one facility to another, seniority and bidding rights of some employees will inevitably be affected, and some employees will, in all probability, be deprived of the opportunity to be separated under the terms of the labor protective agreement. Although the jobs of the remaining employees may be more secure after voluntary separation of some machinists, they would have also become more secure if employees were separated pursuant to the labor protective agreement.
The Soo Line argues that some of the layoffs were unrelated to the merger and were caused by a decline in business activity. It points out that in these circumstances the employees laid off would not be eligible for any benefits under the labor protective agreement. This is true, but at least some of the employee layoffs were a result of the merger. The bottom line is that the union, as the representative of all of the machinists, is entitled to balance the advantages and disadvantages of any proposed plan and to negotiate with respect to them. One thing is certain; every employee who accepts voluntary separation decreases the likelihood of the Soo Line being required to compensate an employee under the labor protective agreement.
The Soo Line and the Machinists' Union attempted to negotiate a new separation agreement, presumably an agreement to provide for the separation of certain employees and to establish separation allowances for affected employees. The agreement presumably would have applied to separations whether caused by loss of business or by virtue of the merger, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement. At this point, the Soo Line was requested to follow the procedure set forth in the RLA. See 45 U.S.C. Sec. 156 (requiring 30-day notice of intended change in agreement). Instead, it proceeded unilaterally with its plan for a voluntary separation and in so doing, violated the clear and specific terms of the RLA. See id. ("carriers * * * shall give at least thirty days' written notice of an intended change in agreements affecting rates of pay, rules, or working conditions."); 45 U.S.C. Sec. 152 seventh ("No carrier, its officers or agents shall change the rates of pay, rules, or working conditions of its employees, as a class as embodied in agreements except in the manner prescribed in such agreements or in Section 156 of this title").
Alternatively, the Soo Line argues that if there is a labor dispute, it is a minor rather than a major dispute. The district court found to the contrary and we agree. The dispute does not involve interpretation of either the collective bargaining agreement or the labor protective agreement. It rather involves an effort on the part of the Soo Line to ignore both of these agreements and to negotiate individually with the employees on a matter which is a subject of mandatory bargaining. Therefore, the Soo Line cannot meet its "relatively light burden" of showing that its action is at most a minor change in the agreements of the parties. See Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, Lodge 16 v. Burlington Northern R.R. Co., 802 F.2d 1016, 1022 (8th Cir.1986).
MAGILL, Circuit Judge, dissenting.
I dissent. The majority holds that the district court properly had jurisdiction over what was a major dispute. I believe, however, that the events at issue here cannot be characterized as a dispute and thus are not subject to collective bargaining under the Railway Labor Act. Moreover, assuming arguendo that a dispute exists, I believe it is unquestionably a minor, rather than a major, dispute and thus was insufficient to vest the district court with jurisdiction, but rather, should have been submitted to binding arbitration.
This case has its genesis on February 19, 1985. On that date, the Soo Line acquired the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company (Milwaukee) from its trustee in bankruptcy.
On March 1, 1985, the Soo Line and the Machinists' Union (Union) entered into a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The CBA was negotiated pursuant to the Railway Labor Act, and set out rules concerning working hours and conditions, layoffs, promotions and seniority, and grievances and discipline. The CBA made no mention whatsoever of an employee's voluntary resignation.
Pursuant to the acquisition of Milwaukee (Acquisition) the Soo Line entered into an employee protective agreement (Protective Agreement) with the Union on September 10, 1985. The Protective Agreement was required by 49 U.S.C. Sec. 11343et seq., which mandates that conditions protective of labor be established when specified railroad transactions take place. As the preamble of the Protective Agreement states:
The purpose of this agreement is to provide pursuant to 49 U.S.C. Section 11347 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, and the Milwaukee Restructuring Act, for fair and equitable arrangements to protect the interests of Employees adversely affected by the Acquisition; and to provide for expedited changes in services, facilities, operations, seniority and existing collective bargaining agreements to enable the expanded railroad system created by the Acquisition to be operated in the most efficient manner, as one completely integrated railroad. (Emphasis added.)
As the majority opinion accurately summarizes, "[t]he agreement provides that existing collective bargaining agreements shall be preserved. It states that any employee of the merged railroad company laid off as a result of the acquisition of the Milwaukee is entitled to certain benefits from the Soo Line, including a severance allowance which, depending on the employee's length of service, could exceed $38,000." Maj. op. at 731 (emphasis added). The majority later notes that the Protective Agreement "specifically sets forth the benefits that employees who are laid off as a result of the merger are to receive." At 734 (emphasis added). Thus, the majority appears to recognize two key aspects of the Protective Agreement: (1) that it only applies to employees who are "affected," or laid off, and (2) that it only applies if the layoff is the result of the Acquisition.
Despite this recognition, the majority then holds that the Protective Agreement bars employees, not found to be affected by the Acquisition, from voluntarily deciding to resign and from seeking the lump-sum separation agreement made available by the Soo Line (Individual Plan). Such an extrapolation of the Protective Agreement is unwarranted and unsupported.
The error in this regard began in the district court, which failed to make any findings as to whether or not the eight Union members who sought the Individual Plan were affected by the Acquisition. Such a finding is essential in this case, because of the carefully circumscribed conditions necessary to trigger application of the Protective Agreement. From what I can discern of the district court's vague analysis, the court apparently concluded that any furlough or reduction in work force, whether specifically related to the Acquisition or not, would cause the Protective Agreement to apply.1 Even a cursory reading of the Protective Agreement shows that such a sweeping interpretation is wrong. The majority, rather than correcting the district court's erroneous analysis, both accepts and compounds it. After noting the Soo Line's argument that some of the "layoffs" (as termed by the majority) were unrelated to the Acquisition, and accepting as true the proposition that in these circumstances, the "laid-off" employees could not benefit from the Protective Agreement, the majority then concludes that "at least some of the employee layoffs" were the result of the Acquisition. Maj. op. at 735. This imprecise analysis is wrong in three respects. First, the employees at issue were not laid off but came forward voluntarily, seeking the Individual Plan.2 Second, there was no finding in the district court that "some," or for that matter any, employees at issue were affected by the Acquisition. Third, assuming a finding that some employees were so affected, the Protective Agreement would apply to only those employees but could not be used to bring within its scope employees to whom it clearly does not apply, namely, those employees who were not affected by the Acquisition.
I also reject the majority's conclusion that the CBA and the Protective Agreement prohibit the Individual Plan. The district court accepted that both the CBA and the Protective Agreement were silent on the issue of individual lump-sum separation agreements. District Court Order at 6. The majority concludes, however, that the issue of individual voluntary resignation, which is nowhere mentioned in either the CBA or the Protective Agreement, nonetheless falls within the scope of these agreements and qualifies under them as a major dispute.3 I take issue with the majority's effort not only to fit a square peg into a round hole, but to remove the peg from its correct hole in order to do so. It seems clear to me that if an issue is not covered by an agreement, then the issue is simply not covered. The Individual Plan offered by the Soo Line has no conflicting effect on either the Protective Agreement or the CBA.
There is no effect on the Protective Agreement because of the accepted fact that the Protective Agreement makes no mention whatsoever of voluntary lump-sum separation plans. Thus the Protective Agreement is inapplicable to this case, first because it applies only to employees affected by the Acquisition, and as I have noted, there were no findings that the eight Union employees at issue were so affected, and second, because even if these employees had been affected by the Acquisition, the Soo Line's actions in this case neither ran afoul of nor remotely approached any prohibition in the Protective Agreement. Similarly, the Individual Plan does not controvert the CBA. Of great importance in this regard are the statements of Mr. Jensen, counsel for the Union, speaking before the district court:
I asked [Ms. Cathy Frankenberg, Director of Labor Relations for the Nonoperating Crafts with the Soo Line Railroad] whether or not there was anything that allowed what the Burlington or Soo Line was doing, whether there was anything in the collective bargaining agreement allowing it or prohibiting it, she said no. And I think that's true. * * * Rest assured if there was something in the collective bargaining agreement or the protective agreement that the Soo Line was violating by entering into these separation agreements we would have grieved it and we would have take[n] it to the Systems Board.
Hearing Transcript at 51 (emphasis added).
The majority next concludes that the presumed dispute is major, not minor, and thus requires mandatory bargaining. The majority notes that the dispute does not involve interpretation of either the CBA or the Protective Agreement. The majority then summarily concludes that the Soo Line is trying "to ignore both of these agreements and to negotiate individually with the employees on a matter which is a subject of mandatory bargaining." Maj. op. at 735. This statement presumes its own conclusion.
The Supreme Court set out the difference between major and minor disputes in Elgin, J. & E. Railway Co. v. Burley, 325 U.S. 711, 65 S.Ct. 1282, 89 L.Ed. 1886 (1945):
[I]t is clear from the [Railway Labor] Act itself, from the history of railway labor disputes and from the legislative history of the various statutes which have dealt with them, that Congress has drawn major lines of difference between the two classes of controversy.
The first ["major" disputes] relates to disputes over the formation of collective agreements or efforts to secure them. They arise where there is no such agreement or where it is sought to change the terms of one, and therefore the issue is not whether an existing agreement controls the controversy. They look to the acquisition of rights for the future, not to assertion of rights claimed to have vested in the past.
The second ["minor" dispute] class, however, contemplates the existence of a collective agreement already concluded or, at any rate, a situation in which no effort is made to bring about a formal change in terms or to create a new one. The dispute relates either to the meaning or proper application of a particular provision with reference to a specific situation or to an omitted case. In the latter event the claim is founded upon some incident of the employment relation, or asserted one, independent of those covered by the collective agreement, e.g., claims on account of personal injuries.
Elgin, 325 U.S. at 722-23, 65 S.Ct. at 1289-90 (citations omitted, emphasis added). The Supreme Court went on to explain that major disputes involve "large issues about which strikes ordinarily arise" while minor disputes represent individual disputes, "aris[ing] incidentally in the course of an employment" and are "of a detailed or individual quality." Id. at 724, 65 S.Ct. at 1290.
The district court, upon whose analysis the majority relies, found this dispute to be major because it did not require review of "the status of either labor or management at the interstices of an agreement. Instead, the case presents fundamental issues of whether or not a person may even be an employee or a member of a union. We are not defining an inter-employment relationship, but the fundamental nature of the employment relationship itself." District Court Order at 6.
I believe, however, that under applicable law this issue, if at all a dispute, is a minor one. This dispute does not relate to "the formation of collective agreements or efforts to secure them." Elgin, 325 U.S. at 723, 65 S.Ct. at 1290. No one seeks to change the terms of the existing agreements or bring a new one into being; rather, as the testimony established, the CBA and the Protective Agreement simply do not cover this issue. This issue falls squarely within the definition of a minor dispute as an "omitted case," because it is founded upon an incident of the employment relation independent of those covered by both the CBA and Protective Agreement.
The message of J.I. Case, relied upon by the majority, is that individual employment contracts may exist side-by-side with a collective bargaining agreement. J.I. Case, 321 U.S. at 336-37, 64 S.Ct. at 579-80. This message was repeated in Order of Railroad Telegraphers v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 321 U.S. 342, 347, 64 S.Ct. 582, 585, 88 L.Ed. 788 (1944): "Collective bargains need not and do not always settle or embrace every exception. It may be agreed that particular situations are reserved for individual contracting, either completely or within prescribed limits." This message was forcefully restated in Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987). The Court stated: "J.I. Case does not stand for the proposition that all individual employment contracts are subsumed into, or eliminated by, the collective-bargaining agreement." The Court then noted that "a plaintiff covered by a collective-bargaining agreement is permitted to assert legal rights independent of that agreement, * * * so long as the contract relied upon is not a collective-bargaining agreement." Caterpillar, 107 S.Ct. at 2431-32. The Individual Plan at issue here can stand side-by-side with both the CBA and the Protective Agreement, because it is not covered by either agreement, nor does it detract from rights created by the two agreements. Rather, the Individual Plan represents the employees' assertion of their legal right to contract individually by seeking a retirement option available to them.
The district court and the majority both cite Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks v. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co., 115 LRRM 3635 (N.D. Ohio 1983) and Southern Pacific Transportation Co. v. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, 636 F.Supp. 57 (D.Utah 1986), for the proposition that individual lump-sum separation agreements may not coexist with pre-established collective agreements. I believe these cases are inapposite. The Chesapeake and Ohio court found first that the voluntary separation plan violated the Railway Labor Act because it "would constitute individual agreements which subtract from the collective bargaining agreement and result in a diminution of defendant's obligation under the collective bargaining agreement." Chesapeake and Ohio, 115 LRRM at 3639. In that case, however, the applicable collective bargaining agreement contained specific employment protection provisions and furlough allowances that far exceeded any protection afforded to the machinists in this case under either the CBA or the Protective Agreement. During the hearing in the district court, the following interchange took place between counsel for the Soo Line and Ms. Frankenberg, Director of Labor Relations for the Nonoperating Crafts with the Soo Line:
Q. What is the difference in the level of protection afforded the BRAC employees under the agreement with the C & O and the level of protection afforded the machinists under this current dispute?
A. In the BRAC agreement an employee who has performed three or more years of service with the C & O in the clerical craft--
THE COURT: Is employed for life?
THE WITNESS: And has a bolted position, has a life time protection to certain obligations that they must meet.
THE WITNESS: And that can be differentiated from that protection which the machinists have because they have to be affective [sic] in order to be eligible for protection and the cap on that protection is six years.
Q. So basically after a certain period of time they [the Chesapeake and Ohio clerks] have lifetime protection.
A. The clerks [in the Chesapeake and Ohio case] do, yes. Hearing Transcript at 41-42.
Another distinction is that unlike the BRAC agreement in the Chesapeake and Ohio case, here the major protection given to employees is limited to employees who can prove that they are "adversely affected" by the Acquisition. The Individual Plan thus does not subtract from the CBA as did the individual lump-sum separation agreements in Chesapeake and Ohio, nor is the Soo Line's obligation under the CBA or Protective Agreement diminished by the Individual Plan.
The Southern Pacific case, also relied on by the majority, appears to have adopted the rationale of Chesapeake and Ohio, see Southern Pacific, 636 F.Supp. at 59, and accordingly I do not find it to be any more persuasive authority.
In sum, the two cases are inapposite for the reason that their existing agreements provided a much higher level of protection for employees, thus in effect "closing the door" to a voluntary lump-sum separation plan, while the CBA and Protective Agreement in this case, by virtue of their silence on the subject, can coexist with a voluntary lump-sum separation plan. Indeed, any language in the Protective Agreement which could be arguably construed as touching upon a voluntary lump-sum separation plan appears to allow such a plan. Section 9 of the Protective Agreement provides in part:
Nothing in this agreement shall be construed as depriving any Employee of any rights or benefits * * * which such Employee may have under existing job security or other protective conditions or arrangements; provided, however, that if an Employee is eligible for protection under both this Agreement and some other * * * arrangements, such Employee shall elect between protection under this Agreement and protection under such other agreement.
Thus any interpretation of the Protective Agreement which concludes that it somehow covers a voluntary lump-sum separation plan must also conclude that such a plan does not violate, but rather, is contemplated by, the Protective Agreement.4
Contrary to the district court's and the majority's reliance on Chesapeake and Ohio and Southern Pacific, I find other cases more convincing. In Chambers v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 692 F.2d 109 (10th Cir.1982), an employee protective agreement similar to the one at issue was entered into pursuant to a merger. The railroad and an employee, however, had made an individual contract under which the employee relinquished seniority rights and accepted a transfer to another location in exchange for a lump-sum payment. The court affirmed dismissal of the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, on the ground that the plaintiff's claims raised "minor disputes for determination by the Adjustment Board, not the courts." Chambers, 692 F.2d at 112.
Similarly, in Clausen v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 98 LRRM 2844 (D.Mont.1978) an employee accepted an individual lump-sum payment in lieu of any benefits he might accrue pursuant to a merger protection agreement. The collective bargaining agreement in effect at the time had no provision applicable to seniority or transfer allowances. Contrary to the plaintiff's assertion that the existence of the collective bargaining relationship between the railroad and the Union precluded individual contracts, the court held that plaintiff's argument was "clearly faulty" under J.I. Case and failed to state a claim. Clausen, 98 LRRM at 2845-46. See also Antonioli v. Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., 451 F.2d 1171, 1175-76 (3d Cir.1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 906, 92 S.Ct. 1608, 31 L.Ed.2d 816 (1972) ("The validity of these documents [lump-sum retirement agreements which waived rights under an ICC labor protection order] as evidencing a knowing and intelligent waiver of rights is established by this record. Therefore, plaintiffs' claim must fall on the additional ground of the existence of a valid waiver of the asserted rights.").
Finally, the majority asserts that the Individual Plan has an adverse impact on the machinists as a group. In support, the majority states that seniority and bidding rights of some employees will inevitably be affected. Certainly seniority rights will be affected; however, the effect on existing Union members will be a positive, not a negative one. As a result of the demand made by these eight machinists, all over sixty years old, for the Individual Plan, the seniority of remaining Union members will be increased. The majority further states that the Individual Plan may deprive some employees of the opportunity to be separated under the terms of the Protective Agreement. I do not follow this statement. Any employee who opts for the Individual Plan is not being deprived, but is making a free choice. An employee who decides against the Individual Plan remains as eligible as ever for the benefits of the Protective Agreement. The Individual Plan has no impact on the terms of and benefits offered by the Protective Agreement. It merely represents an alternative open to the free choice of the employees. The majority then concedes that the remaining employees will have greater job security after some machinists opt for the Individual Plan, but argues that this would also be the case if employees were separated pursuant to the Protective Agreement. That may be so, but it fails to show any adverse impact on remaining employees as a result of the Individual Plan.
In sum, because I believe the better-reasoned case law combined with common-sense analysis supports allowance of the Soo Line's Individual Plan, I think the district court did not have jurisdiction in this case. Accordingly, I dissent.
Opinion and judgment vacated
The Soo Line cites Clausen v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 98 LRRM 2844 (D.Mont.1978) in support of its action. We do not believe the case supports Soo Line's position. In that case the district court simply dismissed the plaintiff's complaint without prejudice for failure to allege that the employer's actions were inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement
The Soo Line argues that an employee protective agreement signed by the parties is not a collective bargaining agreement within the purview of J.I. Case Co. and therefore the Soo Line can enter into voluntary separation agreements with individual employees even if the agreements are in derogation of the terms of the protective agreement. We disagree. Once a labor protective agreement is negotiated and signed by the employer and the union, it has the same status as the collective bargaining agreement it may modify. We do not read Antonioli v. Lehigh Coal and Navigation, 451 F.2d 1171 (3rd Cir.1971) to hold to the contrary. Two of the three counts in the complaint were dismissed on statute of limitation grounds and the third count on res judicata or, alternatively, law of the case grounds. In note 15, the court states that an individual employee may waive his rights under a labor protective agreement for valid consideration. An employee may do so if the agreement between himself and the railroad company is not in derogation of the rights of others. No such claim was asserted in Antonioli
The district court's analysis of this issue is as follows:
If these company/individual agreements were to be allowed, the union would be denied the right of access to formal negotiation concerning compensation for severance; a right secured to it by Section 6. Further, these events occur in a setting in which an existing furlough plan is in place. Under these conditions, the Court finds that Soo Line's conduct violates the RLA and its underlying policies."
District Court Order at 8.
Indeed, the instances in which the Soo Line offered the Individual Plan involved other unions and were not disputed. In this case, the Union employees who opted for the Individual Plan approached the Soo Line on their own accord. Thus I am skeptical of any argument that the Union employees at issue were affected by the Acquisition, because their position had been unchanged by the Acquisition until they decided, for reasons personal to them, to approach the Soo Line seeking individual lump-sum separation agreements
Although the majority cites no case law, see maj. op. at 734 n. 2, I accept for purposes of this argument their contention that the Protective Agreement has the status of a collective bargaining agreement
This interpretation finds further support in section 8 of the Protective Agreement, which provides that if a dispute should arise with respect to the "interpretation, application or enforcement of any provisions of this [Protective] Agreement, it may be referred by any party to an arbitration board for resolution in accord with the provisions of Article I, Section 11 of the New York Dock Conditions." The Eighth Circuit has concluded that this language imposes mandatory and binding arbitration of disputes. Hoffman v. Missouri Pacific Railroad, 806 F.2d 800, 801 (8th Cir.1986)


From Elizabeth Cady Stanton's electrifying call for women's rights in 1848 to the passionate outcries of women involved in the Women's Marches of today, this program endeavors to put the issue of Women's Equality into a culturally, historically, politically, and socially relevant context of the United States and beyond.
Lake County Women's Coalition invites you to a FREE and OPEN-TO-THE-PUBLIC round-table discussion focusing on current issues surrounding women's equality. Tremendous strides have been made, but there is still a long way to go toward achieving true equality for women. Our panel will include multi-generational voices from our community, telling their own stories as they relate to specific topics.
Economic Equity: Barbara Richardson, the first female Lake County Deputy Coroner. Barbara will share how she became Deputy Coroner in 1976 and the path she followed to be accepted and respected by her male counterparts, focusing on job discrimination and pay equity. She will illustrate the journey women are making from the sticky floor of poverty to breaking through the glass ceiling.
LGBTQ Rights: Joanne Rae, a member of the LGBTQ community. Joanne will emphasize the issues of reproductive justice and transgender discrimination while discussing the rights of LGBTQ individuals to live their lives with dignity and security. She will touch on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, health services, child custody, and military policies.
Racial Justice: Cheryl Hudson-Jackson, YWCA Lake County. Cheryl will talk about systemic racism as told through her experiences as a woman of color while helping us understand what racism looks like. She will show us how to identify stereotypes and learn the differences between bias, discrimination, and racism while increasing our awareness of our cultural differences. Her story will focus on the double burden of race and gender discrimination placed on women of color.
Ending Violence Against Women: Sandra Bankston, Victim Advocate for Lake County State's Attorney's Office. Sandra will speak to the stories of her clients who are dealing with various forms of violence including domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, gender bias in our political system, and the violence of poverty emphasized by attacks on poor women and children.
Equal Rights Amendment: Lisa Cherry, Gender Equity Fund. Lisa will address how pay equality, job opportunities, political structure, social security, and education will remain an elusive dream without a guarantee of equality in legislation and the U.S. Constitution.
We will also feature a brief theatrical production from members of the Round Lake High School Ghostlight Readers Theatre.
Warren Newport Public Library will once again host our Annual Event.
Details for Reservations Coming Soon!
The Lake County Women's Coalition is an alliance of business, professional and civic women's organizations in Lake County, Illinois.
The LCWC is a General Not for Profit Organization, registered in the State of Illinois.
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El buque auxiliar de la  clase Marqués de la Ensenada fue un petrolero de flota (AO). Botado el 10 de mayo de 1990, estuvo operativo en la Armada Española desde el 6 de marzo de 1991 hasta el 31 de enero de 2012. Su nombre se debe a Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea, Marqués de la Ensenada, quien fue intendente de Marina y secretario de Estado de los reyes Felipe V y Fernando VI.

Diseño y construcción

El petrolero de flota Marqués de la Ensenada A11 se deriva del diseño B-219/A de Bazán, proyecto de petrolero civil que adquirió la Armada Española con la voluntad de hacerse con un buque de abastecimiento a muy bajo coste, con estándares de construcción civiles y un económico motor diésel. Su principal misión es el suministro de combustible a las fuerzas navales y al Buque de aprovisionamiento en combate , de mayor tonelaje, al que el A-11 facilitaría una operatividad continua en Alta Mar.

Cuando este buque entró en servicio con la Armada Española, existía una importante deficiencia en buques de abastecimiento para la flota tras la baja del Petrolero militar, con el mismo numeral,  en 1988.

Tras permanecer varios años en servicio, se observó que una de sus mayores limitaciones era el disponer de una corta pista de aterrizaje de helicópteros, por lo que hubo que ampliarle la popa, añadiendo una sección de unos tres metros de longitud que permitió la operación de aparatos de tamaño medio como los SH-3, aumentando la eslora del buque hasta los 126 m.

Capacidades

Disponía de cubierta de vuelo y hangar para cualquier tipo de helicóptero en servicio con la Armada Española, típicamente SH-3 o AB-212, fundamentalmente para operaciones de reaprovisionamiento vertical (VERTREP).

La capacidad de carga del A-11 permitía reabastecer de combustible al 100% a 14 fragatas de la Clase Santa María, aunque al reabastecerse estas al 50% de su capacidad, el petróleo podía realizarse en 28 ocasiones a estas fragatas.

Operaciones

Inicialmente, fue destinado a Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,con el nombre de Mar Del Norte cambiando su nombre y su base por la de Rota en el año 2000.

El 2003 escoltó junto a la fragata  al  hasta el puerto iraquí de Um Kasar durante la invasión de Irak de 2003, donde este, procedió a la instalación de un hospital de campaña que atendía tanto a heridos en el combate como a refugiados civiles.

Entre sus despliegues, la unidad integró en aguas argentinas la edición 2007 de la Fase Atlántico del ejercicio combinado UNITAS, junto a naves de la Armada de Estados Unidos, Armada Argentina, Armada de Chile y Marina de Brasil.

Durante la primavera-verano de 2009, participó en la operación Atalanta de la Unión Europea para la lucha contra la piratería en aguas de Somalia, en las que llegó a escoltar al crucero de placer Melody, de bandera panameña y operado por una empresa italiana, que había sido atacado por piratas. Junto a la fragata Numancia, retornó a su base de Rota el 24 de agosto de 2009 tras ser relevados por la fragata Canarias.

Desde finales de enero, hasta principios de febrero de 2011, se integró en la agrupación permanente número 1 de la OTAN (SNMG-1) para participar en la operación Active Endeavour en el Mediterráneo occidental.

El Boletín Oficial de Defensa (BOD) del 30 de noviembre de 2011 publicó la Resolución 600/18448/2011 por la que causa baja en la Lista Oficial de Buques de la Armada con fecha 31 de enero de 2012, firmada por el almirante jefe de Estado Mayor de la Armada (AJEMA) Manuel Rebollo el 16 de noviembre de 2011.

Se le retiraron todos los elementos útiles y/o contaminantes en el Arsenal Militar de La Carraca, en San Fernando (Cádiz), tras lo cual, fue remolcado desde la base naval de Rota hasta la península de Aliaga en Turquía, a donde arribó el 25 de febrero de 2015, para proceder a su desguace.

Véase también
Crucero Marqués de la Ensenada
Destructor Marqués de la Ensenada
Anexo:Buques retirados de la Armada Española

Bibliografía

Enlaces externos

Marqués de la Ensenada
Buques de guerra de los años 1990
Barcos de 1991

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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HPE bringing data centre care services to channel
By Joseph F. Kovar on Nov 14, 2018 9:30AM
Hewlett Packard Enterprise this week expanded its Pointnext Datacentre Care Services offerings, and promised to turn the services into a SKU in January aimed at making it easy for its channel partners to bring them to customers.
The new SKU would make it easier for solution providers to either attach the Datacentre Care Services to an HPE product sale or to offer it to clients looking for a better way to manage their HPE and non-HPE servers and storage, said Gerry Nolan, worldwide senior director for operational services in HPE Pointnext.
Currently, channel partners wanting to bring HPE's Datacenter Care Services to clients had to do it on an individual basis, Nolan told CRN USA. That will change with an actual services SKU they can sell, he said.
"So that as channel partners put together deals where they're selling, for example, servers with storage, they can now insert a Datacentre Care SKU to provide this experience for those types of opportunities," he said. "We know that the channel will be excited about this because it was the channel that was asking for this for quite some time, and we've been working on it."
HPE wants to bring that SKU to partners who have little or no services capabilities of their own, and to those with their own high-margin services businesses, Nolan said.
"If you're strong in a particular space as a partner, maybe you're strong in SAP HANA, but there may be areas where we could augment your skills," he said. "So we built a joint framework where we can partner up with a particular company, and the partner owns the customer. [The partners] can buddy up with HPE and Datacentre Care, and pick and choose the components or the menu items that they're perhaps not as strong in and deliver that to their customers."
HPE's Pointnext services business was launched early last year at about the time HPE spun off its US$20-billion enterprise service in a merger with CSC to form DXC Technology.
Pointnext is HPE's technology services organisation focused on accelerating digital transformation around hybrid IT and intelligent edge computing.
HPE on Tuesday expanded its Datacentre Care Services capabilities with a refresh of the offering focused on seven areas, Nolan said.
These include new capabilities in areas such as backup and recovery, security, and enhanced SAP HANA skills, he said.
Also new is a ramping-up of Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud capabilities, Nolan said. "We're one of the cloud service providers for Microsoft, and we also have a Microsoft Azure Stack solution," he said. "And we've built up a team of experts which we can bring to bear for customers trying to deploy hybrid cloud, either on- or off-premises with Azure. IT performance, another area where we see customers struggle."
HPE is also expanding its performance optimisation capabilities, and its enhancing its automation services capabilities with a wide range of tools including Chef, Puppet, Docker, SoftStack, and Ansible. Also new is the ability to deploy EnterpriseDB Postgres as a better way to help customers manage their database environments, he said.
This article originally appeared at crn.com
Copyright © 2018 The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.
data centre hpe
By Joseph F. Kovar
HPE steps up as a service sales, GreenLake 'Acceleration' and looks beyond enterprise
Dell, HPE, Cisco battle for HCI system leadership
Dell, Nutanix fight for hyperconverged market lead; HPE soars
HPE wins $24 million NSW Health deal

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Links 20/2/2015: Android Studio v1.1, GDB 7.9
Posted in News Roundup at 8:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Linux-based desktops work despite Windows app prevalence
With so many devices already based on Linux — Android devices and Chromebooks, to name a few — it makes sense for some companies to consider virtual and cloud-hosted Linux desktops. Windows applications are a hurdle, however.
Desktop */Linux Trends In Canada
Now that we've pretty well figured out that the huge "Unkown" thing in StatCounter's "desktop" OS category is closely related to Android/Linux, this graph makes sense. Some people in Canada are hooking up Android/Linux systems to big screens. GNU/Linux is growing pretty well, not explosively, but definitely breaking out of the ~1% doldrums. ChromeOS is on a plateau, probably because schools just buy once or twice per annum. It's all good. The grand total? 2.6%. It's not wonderful but a far sight better than a year ago and this time GNU/Linux seems to be going places steadily. We have product/salesmen/promoters doing the job, finally. The growth in share is small, but this is a measure of a considerable rate of change of shipments/units/migrations on top of a huge installed base of PCs.
Why you should consider cloud-hosted Linux desktops
With all the licensing troubles that can come with hosting Windows desktops in the cloud, some companies — and vendors — are looking to Linux operating systems instead.
VMware plans to offer a Horizon View client for Linux, and Horizon DaaS, formerly Desktone, has had a hosted Linux option for years. Citrix is planning a similar strategy for XenDesktop and XenApp with Linux Virtual Apps and Desktops. These two big-name virtualization vendors putting attention on Linux shines a spotlight on the OS.
Docker Project Partners with Oceanic Society for Open-source-a-thon to Support Whale and Marine Wildlife Conservation
Docker to host 'Open-source-a-thon' — proceeds will be used to adopt blue whale
Every summer, I board a charter boat out of Captree State Park in New York to go fishing. Why do I do this? I love to fish and I cannot afford my own boat, so it is a great way to experience the Long Island nautical life for the afternoon (not to mention catch a tasty dinner). It is also a great way to have a technology-free day, leaving the smartphone at home and replacing it with a rod in my hand.
War Of Words: Cisco, HP Trade Barbs Over HP Open-Source Network Switch Launch
Facebook is aiming to overcome Cisco and Juniper with Open source Networking
acebook recently released as an open source project its design for a networking device that it says will coordinates the actions of hundreds of thousands of servers in Facebook's data centers.
HP Targets Cisco and Facebook With New Line of Open-Source Networking Gear
Hewlett-Packard said on Thursday that it would sell a new line of networking switches that are manufactured by a Taiwanese company and depend on Linux-based, open-source software from another company.
Kernel Space
Demand for Linux developers on the rise
The demand for Linux developers has jumped seven percent in comparison to last year, a study has shown.
The 2014 Linux Jobs Report shows that hiring managers at tech-powered companies are focusing more attention on Linux talent, and that's reverberating in the market, with stronger than average salary increases to those working with the OS.
Dice and The Linux Foundation surveyed both hiring managers and Linux talent to gain a 360-degree view of the thriving jobs landscape, and here's what they found.
Intel Quark SoC x86 Platform Support For Linux 3.20/4.0?
Ingo Molnar has asked Linus Torvalds to pull the x86 platform support for Intel Quark SoC systems for the Linux 3.20/4.0 kernel.
Code Merged This Week For Linux 3.20/4.0 Is Just As Exciting As Last Week
Last weekend I covered the changes so far for the next kernel release, which will be called either Linux 3.20 or Linux 4.0 depending upon Linus Torvalds' end decision. This week more exciting code has landed.
Why All Linux (Security) Bugs Aren't Shallow
Zemlin quoted the oft-repeated Linus' law, which states that given enough eyes all bugs are shallow. That "law" essentially promises that many eyes provide a measure of quality and control and security to open source code. So if Linus' law is true, Zemlin asked, why are damaging security issues being found now in open source code?
Linux clockpocalypse in 2038 is looming and there's no 'serious plan'
The year 2038 is still more than two decades away, but LWN.net editor and longtime Linux kernel chronicler Jon Corbet believes software developers should be thinking about that date now, particularly in the Linux world.
Corbet raised the issue at his annual "Kernel Report" talk at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in Santa Rosa, California this week. "Time to start worrying," he said.
The issue is similar to the dreaded Y2K bug, in that a longstanding deficiency in the way some computers record time values is due to wreak havoc in all manner of software, this time in 2038.
Graphics Stack
It Could Be A While Before Seeing The Tamil GPU Driver Code
While the Tamil driver is moving along for open-source ARM Mali T-Series graphics support, it could be a while before seeing the actual source code.
Luc Verhaegen presented at FOSDEM a few weeks back about his work on Tamil, the Lima driver project's work on supporting the newer ARM Mali T-Series GPUs found on various SoCs. While Luc showed off some demos and is working towards a Tamil Mesa driver, the code hasn't yet been opened up.
Calibre eBook Converter and Viewer Now Has Better ODT Format Support
Calibre, an application that can be used to view, convert, and edit eBooks, has been upgraded and it has advanced to version 2.20. It comes with a quite a few new features and is now ready for download.
Ubuntu Touch Could Get Tox, a P2P Ultra Secure Messaging App
The Ubuntu Touch platform is about to received a new messaging client called Tox that aims to provide the most secure environment possible for its users.
c, calcc and calccmd: Three small calculators
Why I Want Text-File Preferences For Every Application I Use
I recently started using a text editor called Vim. For the uninitiated, Vim is a lightweight text editor often used for writing code that it comes pre-loaded on some if not all remote servers. Since it's designed to be used without a mouse, there are tons of keyboard shortcuts to learn. This part isn't a huge deal—for now just know that Vim is a text editor, like Notepad or Sublime Text or Word. (And note that I am still pretty shitty at using it.)
Instructionals/Technical
Block Basic Web Attacks with NginX
Nova metadata recorded in libvirt guest instance XML
Buffer Overflow: Overwriting the Return Value
How To Install Qterminal 0.6 On Arch Linux, Manjaro, Antergos And Other Arch Linux Derivative Systems
How To Install UberWriter 14.09.08 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems
How To Install Kernel 3.16.7 CKT6 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems
How To Install Kernel 3.14.33 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Deepin And Other Ubuntu Derivative Systems
Wine or Emulation
Wine 1.7.37 Adds UTF-7 Encoding, Interface Change Notifications
Wine 1.7.37 was released today with various changes that have built up in the Wine community over the past two weeks.
Wine 1.7.37 Adds Multi-Channel Audio Support, Fixes 71 Bugs
Wine 1.7.37 has just been released today, February 20, and it brings interface change notifications, support for the UTF-7 character encoding, various graphical fixes for themed controls, support for multi-channel audio, a new implementation of Wininet on top of the Win32 sockets, as well as several bugfixes.
The Wine Development Release 1.7.37 Is Now Available
Bleed, A Bullet Hell Platformer Now On Linux
Bleed is an indie bullet hell shootem-up platformer by Bootdisk Revolution. Originally released in 2013, the developer had stated low hopes of a native port release, but the wait for that day is now over! After showing up silently in my library, I decided to finally check it out and am very pleased to play this game!
Strength Of The SWORD ULTIMATE, Fully Funded & Coming To Linux
The game is a 3D, third-person, arcade-style, action-game that combines the tactical and skill-based combat of a Fighter with the progression, overwhelming odds, and awesome boss battles of an old-school Brawler!
Editorial: Linux Gaming Will Be Fine Even Without Steam Machines Succeeding
Let's get this straight, the Streaming feature of Steam and SteamOS is not the main aim of Steam Machines, but it is a complementary feature designed to help Windows gamers who can't get their entire catalogue on SteamOS right away. I've seen some writers mention the Streaming feature as if that is what SteamOS was mainly designed for, but it's the tip of the iceberg. It's certainly a nice feature, but there's a lot more to Steam Machines.
Bleed 2D Platformer Is Now Available on Steam for Linux
Bleed is a new 2D action platformer developed and published by Ian Campbell on Steam for Linux. The developer has released a patch for the game and made it compatible with the Linux platform.
Desktop Environments/WMs
Xfce 4.12 Should Be Released in One Week, at the End of February
After several emails between Xfce developers and numerous delays, it appears that the highly anticipated Xfce 4.12 desktop environment will finally be released at the end of February 2015, in the last weekend, most probably on March 1, if nothing goes wrong.
Xfce 4.12 Is Still Planned For Release In One Week
Earlier this week we wrote about plans for Xfce 4.12 to finally be released and that it was being targeted for the end of February. Unlike failed Xfce 4.12 plans of the past few years, it looks like this release will actually pan out in one week's time.
GNOME Desktop/GTK
Using play/pause buttons in Chrome with GNOME 3
I wrote a post last summer about preventing Chrome from stealing the media buttons (like play, pause, previous track and next track) from OS X. Now that I'm using Linux regularly and I fell in love with Google Play Music All Access, I found that GNOME was stealing the media keys from Chrome.
The fix is quite simple. Press the SUPER key (Windows key or Mac Command key), type settings, and press enter. Click on Keyboard and then on the Shortcuts tab. You should now see something like this.
Bodhi Linux 3.0.0 Released – Detailed Review and Installation Instructions
Bodhi GNU/Linux is a Ubuntu-based distribution designed especially for Desktop computing and is best known for its elegant and lightweight nature. The Distribution philosophy is to provide a minimal base system that can be populated with the applications as per user's choice. The base System only include those applications which are essentially required viz., 'Etecad' File Manager, 'Midori' web browser, 'Terminology' terminal emulator, ePhoto and ePad. Apt or AppCenter can be used to download and install lightweight applications in one go.
LinHES 8.3 Finally Makes the Switch to Kodi, Includes MythTV 0.27.4
Cecil Watson, the developer of the LinHES (formerly KnoppMyth) GNU/Linux Live operating system designed especially to be used as a home entertainment system, proudly announced the immediate availability for download of LinHES 8.3 (Lorne Malvo), a release that introduces a new Linux kernel, as well as updated Nvidia drivers and core components.
Red Hat Family
Red Hat: Open Source ARM Platform Gets Closer to Prime Time
Red Hat's (RHT) investment in ARM hardware is heating up. This week, the company announced that more than 35 hardware and software companies have joined its ARM Partner Early Access Program, and that it expects its partners to begin delivering ARM software and drivers to the open source community starting now.
New features in Fedora 22 Workstation.
Matthias Clasen recently posted some updates on the Fedora development list about new features in Fedora 22 Workstation. As you may know, we're getting ready to issue an Alpha, so it's a great time to try out these changes.
Debian Family
Canonical/Ubuntu
Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS Arrives with Linux Kernel 3.16
Canonical announced that Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr), the second point release for the latest LTS branch, has been released and is now available for download.
Locally Integrated Menus (LIM) Set As Default In Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet
After getting an option to always show the menus as well as global menu (Appmenu) support for Java Swing applications, yet another menu-related change has landed in Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet: locally integrated menu (LIM) is now the default menu.
Wayland/Weston 1.7.0 Make It For Ubuntu 15.04
While Canonical remains committed to Mir as the future display server technology for Ubuntu Linux both on the desktop and for mobile devices, the upcoming Ubuntu 15.04 release does have the latest Wayland/Weston 1.7 support too.
Flavours and Variants
Kubuntu 14.04 LTS Update Out
The second update to our LTS release 14.04 is out now. This contains all the bug fixes added to 14.04 since its first release in April. Users of 14.04 can run the normal update procedure to get these bug fixes.
Kubuntu 14.04.2 LTS Officially Released, Users Can No Longer Upgrade to Plasma 5
Kubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr), a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that uses the KDE desktop environment, has been released and is now available for download.
Edubuntu 14.04.2 LTS Has Been Officially Released
Along with the release of Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr) GNU/Linux computer operating system, as announced by Adam Conrad on behalf of Canonical, the Edubuntu team was also proud to announce earlier today, February 20, the immediate availability for download of Edubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, a release that includes new kernel and graphics stacks.
Elementary OS 0.3 Freya Beta 2 : Video Overview and Screenshot Tours
Elementary OS 0.3 Freya Beta 2 has been released by Elementary OS Team, based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and featuring with pantheon desktop environment, it comes with various User Interface improvements, UEFI/SecureBoot support, better and more discoverable multitasking, updated 3rd party apps (including Geary, Simple Scan, Document Viewer & more), Updated development libraries (including Gtk 3.14), Security and Stability improvements, tons of stylesheet and icon changes and fixes along with other interesting changes as well as almost 600 bug fixes.
Raspberry Pi, oh my: From classrooms to the space station
Well, this is starting to look sort of like "Jamie's Mostly Raspberry Pi Stuff", but that's not intentional. There are just a lot of interesting things going on with the RPi at the moment, so that's where I seem to be spending a lot of my time right now.
The big news, of course, was the announcement and immediate availability of the Raspberry Pi 2 hardware two weeks ago. The new hardware needs updated software to really make the most of its capabilities, so there was also a new Raspbian and NOOBS release (1.3.12) made at the same time.
GDB 7.9 released
Release 7.9 of GDB, the GNU Debugger, is now available via anonymous FTP. GDB is a source-level debugger for Ada, C, C++, Objective-C, Pascal and many other languages. GDB can target (i.e., debug programs running on) more than a dozen different processor architectures, and GDB itself can run on most popular GNU/Linux, Unix and Microsoft Windows variants.
Is the Samsung Galaxy S6 about to become the coolest Android phone ever?
Gauging what a smartphone is going to look like before its released is sort of like solving one of those toss-up puzzles on Wheel of Fortune – the answer gets clearer the longer you wait.
T-Mobile Galaxy S5 lands Lollipop to lead this week's Android device update roundup
The T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy S5 is the latest to jump on board the Lollipop train. It's been refreshing to see Samsung's flagship score the latest Android build so quickly in comparison to previous versions of Android, especially with a new Galaxy S6 just around the corner.
However, there are other updates to consider. Each week we gather up all the major software updates for the biggest devices; phones and tablets on U.S. carriers (and unlocked phones, of course), wearables, and round them all up so you don't miss a thing.
Android Studio v1.1 hits the stable channel
During Google I/O 2013 we were first introduced to Android Studio, though it would be two years before it would leave beta. Android Studio 1.0 arrived last December, but Google is wasting no time in pushing the platform forward now that it is out of beta. With that in mind, Android Studio 1.1 is now hitting the stable channel after two months of cooking in the background.
Android malware fakes phone shutdown to steal your data
The malware requires an Android device to be "rooted," or modified to allow deep access to its software. That may eliminate a lot of Android owners who don't modify their phones.
New Android malware makes your phone look like it's off, and then spies on you
Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week
Android 5.1 Update: What to Expect
The Android 5.0.2 Lollipop update and Android 5.0.1 Lollipop update no longer serve as the company's most current version of its new operating system. That distinction belongs to Android 5.1 Lollipop, a mysterious new update that is currently available on select Android One smartphones. Today, we want to set the table and take a look at what we expect from Google, its Android 5.1 update and the Android 5.1 release.
YouTube is launching an Android app for children
YouTube will release a new app designed for kids on Monday, the Google-owned video service has confirmed to The Verge. The app — called YouTube Kids — will reportedly offer original episodes of TV shows aimed at youngsters, in addition to videos from child-centric channels on YouTube, and will let parents set timers to stop their spawn from watching too long.
Android L 5.1 Release Date & Download: Update Coming to Motorola Devices After Nexus & HTC?
Some devices have already been rumored to be running on Android 5.1 Lollipop, but when will it be issued to Motorola devices?
At the start of February, Tech Radar said that owners of the second generation Motorola Moto G (2014) may receive the Lollipop update soon.
Android 5.1 Lollipop release date confirmed for HTC One M7 GPE, Nexus devices to follow soon
Google's forthcoming Android 5.1 Lollipop update returns to the spotlight, as a HTC official has confirmed its release date for March on a spate of devices including the HTC One M7 Google Play Edition (GPE).
Facebook benefits from formalising management of open source
Facebook is now contributing more to external open source projects and keeping closer tabs on its own open source efforts
Facebook Picking Up the Pace on Its Open-Source Code Journey
Bind Exploit Closed in Ubuntu 14.10
Canonical has announced that a Bind vulnerability has been found and fixed for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems.
Pivotal pivots to open source and Hortonworks
A few days ago Pivotal made three major announcements: the creation of a Big Data Product Suite, a partnership with Hortonworks and the launch of an 'Open Data Platform'.
INTERVIEW: TIM O'REILLY
There are many memorable quotes attributed to Tim O'Reilly. Which isn't surprising. He's been talking for decades about open data, the internet and the direction technology is taking us. Like Arthur C Clarke, much of what he's predicted, talked about and written has proven incredibly judicious. He popularised the ideas behind 'Web 2.0', as well as the incoming wave and impact of social media. He believes in an open government and that the internet will become a global brain of networks and things.
Enterprise Software Giants Live In An Open Source World
A decade ago now, I was recruited by ZDNet to launch a blog about open source software.
At the time, the concept was controversial. Proprietary giants like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) argued that open source was insecure, that the business model would not work, that it would destroy the enterprise software space, that they couldn't make money with it.
One decade on and it's clear what has happened. Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android dominates the consumer space, and those who advocate proprietary models would claim it proves their point. Android OEMs don't make money, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), with its proprietary model, is making a fortune.
Pivotal Open Sources Their Big Data Suite
Untangling the intense politics behind Node.js
The news that broke at the Node Summit last week — that Joyent and others are proposing to create a Node.js Foundation — came as no surprise to anyone who has been watching the controversy around everyone's favorite server-side JavaScript platform. It's been clear for a while that Node.js has outgrown its roots and become an important structural tool for the software industry.
Node.js's hosts at Joyent didn't plan for this — the code had been an employee project rather than a strategic investment. While Node.js is an important part of Joyent's operations, it's not a key product for the company, which has certainly spent far more to host it than it has received in business value as a pioneer of container-based cloud deployment. Joyent deserves credit for acting responsibly and maintaining its commitment as steward, despite the intense interest — and fierce political intrigue — in which it found itself.
Node.js fork JXcore goes open source, aims for mobile developers
With all the noise surrounding the Io.js variant of Node.js, it's easy to forget about another Node fork that's been quietly percolating: JXcore. Last year it added multithreading (sort of) and the ability to turn Node apps into stand-alone executables — but at the cost of JXcore being a closed source project.
ONF launches open source community to bolster SDN software development
The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) has announced the launch of an open source software community and code repository aimed at consolidating and accelerating development efforts around software and solutions that take advantage of software defined networking.
Mozilla Firefox 36 Will Bring Support for HTTP/2
This just got in: Mozilla Firefox 36.0 will bring support for the brand-new HTTP/2 protocol, according to the official release notes from the last Beta version of the web browser. HTTP/2 will enable a faster, more responsive, and more scalable Web.
SaaS/Big Data
PLUMGrid Offers Virtual SDN Sandbox for Testing OpenStack Concepts
There are lots of IT adminstrators out there wrestling with sticky issues as they pursue OpenStack deployments, and many of them say that they simply need to experiment with security and stabiity before rolling out mission-critical applications. Enterprises simply don't want to trust a cloud platform and move apps and data to the cloud without having full platform confidence.
Q&A: MapR Technologies' Tomer Shiran on Hadoop, Myriad, Apache Drill, and Data Analytics
Recently, MapR Technologies, focused on Hadoop and Big Data analytics, has been out with some interesting announcements that we covered. We wrote about Myriad, an open source project focused on consolidating big data with other workloads in the datacenter, in this post. And we covered the latest release of the MapR Distribution including Hadoop in this post.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
LibreOffice 4.3.6 "Still" Is Out with 110 Fixes
The Document Foundation announced the release of LibreOffice 4.3.6, which is a new maintenance version in this branch of the famous office suite.
Creating Forms for Easy LibreOffice Database Entry on Linux
The LibreOffice suite of tools includes a very powerful database application ─ one that happens to be incredibly user-friendly. These databases can be managed/edited by any user and data can be entered by anyone using a LibreOffice-generated form. These forms are very simple to create and can be attached to existing databases or you can create both a database and a form in one fell swoop.
Pentaho's Open Source Background Keeps It Flexible in a Changing Marketplace
Enabling customers to ride the waves of tech trends is a big part of Pentaho Corporation's business approach, said the tech company's Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing, Donna Prlich, during a live interview on theCUBE. With a new technology emerging every day, Prlich explained, it's essential for customers to be flexible without sacrificing their ability to "get value from Big Data."
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
GDB 7.9 Brings Improvements To The Python Scripting API
Today's release of GDB 7.9 brings many improvements to the Python scripting API, compilation and injection of source code into the inferior with GCC 5.0+, resume improvements, hardware watchpoint support on GNU Hurd x86, MIPS SDE target, and a number of new commands.
Tell Lenovo: respect user freedom and prevent future Superfishes
Security experts have discovered a highly threatening vulnerability in software preinstalled on some Windows computers manufactured by Lenovo through January 2015. Extreme negligence on the part of Lenovo and unscrupulous programming by its adware partner Superfish seem to have caused the vulnerability.
Public Services/Government
Visegrad countries and Bulgaria compare eGovernment practices
Best practices in the implementation of eGovernment services by public administrations in Bulgaria will be compared with those in the Visegrad countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, at a workshop in Sofia on 26 February. According to a press announcement, Bulgaria's coalition government is making the modernisation and increase of eGovernment services one of its priorities.
Openness/Sharing
This electrical engineer built an open-source headlamp for doctors in developing countries
That's what Amanda DelCore learned through the work of Dr. Laura Stachel, who designed a portable light kit when she saw that doctors and nurses in developing countries had to postpone treatment when their lights would go out. The doctors and nurses were especially excited about the headlamps included in Stachel's kit because they were hands-free.
What do off-patent GM soybeans say about possibilities of open source biotech?
March of 2015 marks the beginning of a new era in genetically modified foods. It's the first year farmers can plant a generic version of glyphosate-resistant soybeans—the first GMO to be patented by Monsanto in 1996. There are some caveats to this, but it's also a case that no longer fits the anti-GMO meme denouncing large agribusiness for holding intellectual property rights over seeds.
The open data platform, like United Linux before it, will fail
ODP, much like UnitedLinux before it, is an effort by the also-ran vendors in a market to prop themselves up against more successful competitors. It's bad strategy, and bad for Hadoop. Fortunately, like United Linux, ODP will fail.
PHP 5.6.6 Patches for GHOST Vulnerability
The so-called GHOST (glibc gethostbyname buffer overflow) vulnerability that was first disclosed in January isn't just about glibc apparently. On February 19, PHP developers released PHP 5.6.6 providing a mitigation for CVE-2015-0235 – aka – GHOST.
PHP version 5.4.38, 5.5.22 and 5.6.6
Announcing a Specification for Hack
Today we are excited to announce the availability of the initial specification for the Hack programming language.
Sources: Marissa Mayer is firing people at Yahoo (YHOO)
Adobe Photoshop: changing your perception of reality for 25 years
On the 25th anniversary of the launch of Adobe Photoshop, Sophie Curtis examines why the software program has become a cultural phenomenon
Metrolink delays after ANOTHER driver ends up on tram tracks on new Manchester Aiport line
Since November 25, at least 12 drivers have ended up on the tram tracks – half of those on the new Manchester Airport line.
Friday's security updates
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
Top 10 Bogus ISIS Stories
ISIS's violent bona fides are not in doubt to anyone paying attention. They've targeted religious minorities, beheaded aid workers, sold women into sex slavery and have been all-around devastating for those under their rule. But as America debates the possibility of a full-scale ground invasion of ISIS-controlled territory, it's important to note that much of the ISIS threat — namely that which targets the West — has been habitually overstated by an uncritical media.
Veteran War Reporters: O'Reilly's Falklands Fibs Violate "Journalism 101″
Revelations that Bill O'Reilly may have misled viewers about his reporting from the Falklands War back in 1982 are drawing fire from veteran war correspondents who contend apparent embellishments like O'Reilly's hurt the credibility of all combat journalists.
How Fox News Responded To Bill O'Reilly's Falklands Fibs
Fox News has gone to war with Mother Jones after the liberal magazine published a story raising questions about the credibility of host Bill O'Reilly's past statements about his experience as a war correspondent.
Who Killed the Argentine Prosecutor? More Than 400,000 March for Justice in Buenos Aires as Controversy Grows
As many as 400,000 people marched through the pouring rain in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires on Wednesday demanding an independent judiciary. The march came one month after the mysterious death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had accused Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of helping to cover up Iran's role in the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people and injured hundreds in Buenos Aires. On January 18, Nisman was found dead in his apartment of a gunshot wound to the head. His body was discovered just a day before he was due to testify before lawmakers on his findings on the 1994 attack. Just four days before his death, Nisman appeared on television and outlined his allegations against the president and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman. Investigators initially said Nisman's death appeared to be a suicide, but no gunpowder residue was found on his hands. If it was not a suicide, who killed him? That question has gripped Argentina for the past month. We make sense of this unfolding story with Sebastian Rotella, senior reporter for the investigative news website ProPublica. He first covered the investigation into the 1994 bombing as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times based in Buenos Aires.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
CNRL's Steve Laut Says Oilsands Face 'Death Spiral' If They Don't Cut Costs
As the world's oil glut continues to build, wiping out hopes of a price recovery, the head of one of Canada's largest oilsands operators is warning the industry faces a "death spiral" if it doesn't figure out how to cut costs.
Speaking before the Chamber of Commerce in Fort McMurray, Steve Laut, president of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL), said oilsands companies can still return to health, but only if they aggressively begin to cut costs.
Costs have risen so far, so fast that oil producers were making three times as much profit in 2004, when oil was at $40 a barrel, than they were a few years ago when oil was at $100 a barrel, Laut said, as quoted at the Globe and Mail.
UK Surveillance: The Fightback Begins – Please Join
It's one of the longest, most-detailed stories that The Intercept has published so far, and is well-worth reading in its entirety. What it shows is that GCHQ and the NSA really do want access to everything, and that they are prepared to do more or less anything to get that. Put together with all the other Snowden revelations, plus the news from earlier this week about infected hard drive firmware – almost certainly another NSA project – and things might seem utterly desperate.
And yet there are some glimmers of hope. A couple of weeks ago, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which reviews complaints about surveillance in the UK, decided that British intelligence services acted unlawfully in accessing millions of people's personal communications collected by the NSA – the first time it has ever ruled against the intelligence and security services in its 15-year history. It's true that the ruling was unsatisfactory in many ways, but it still sets an important precedent. And then just this week, the UK government was forced to make a humiliating admission that it was unlawful for intelligence agencies to have monitored privileged conversations between lawyers and their clients for the past five years.
NSA's Stealing Keys To Mobile Phone Encryption Shows Why Mandatory Backdoors To Encryption Is A Horrible Idea
Over the last few months, ever since both Apple and Google announced plans to encrypt data on iOS and Android devices by default, there's been a ridiculous amount of hand-wringing from the law enforcement community about requiring backdoors, golden keys and magic fairy dust that will allow law enforcement to decrypt the information on your phone… or children will die, even though they actually won't.
It would be nice to see that the revelation of the NSA undermining one use of encryption led people to realize the stupidity of undermining other forms of encryption, but somehow, it seems likely that our law enforcement community won't quite comprehend that message.


text:
Q: Recursive selection sort outputting incorrect values in C I've been working on a recursive version of selection sort. MaxInd worked fine with one iteration of SelectionSort, but once I made SelectionSort recursive, MaxInd started to produce incorrect values after the first iteration of SelectionSort, which caused my code to swap incorrect values. I'm not sure why it's doing this.
#include <stdio.h>

int MaxInd(int arr[], int i, int len, int max, int index){
    if (arr[i]>max){
        max=arr[i];
        index=i;
    }
    if(i==len)
        return index;

    index = MaxInd(arr,i+1,len,max,index);
    return index;
}
void SelectionSort(int arr[], int len){
    int index=0; int max=0; int i=0; int temp=0; int num=0;
    if(len<0){
        for(int j=0; j<6; j++)
            printf("array=%d\n",arr[j]);
            return;
    }
    num = MaxInd(arr, i, len, max, index);
    if(len>0){
        temp=arr[len-1];
        arr[len-1]=arr[num];
        arr[num]=temp;
    for(int j=0; j<6; j++)
            printf("%d ",arr[j]);
        printf("\n");
    }
    return SelectionSort(arr,len-1);
}
int main(void){
    int arr[6] = {1,4,3,7,9,2};
    int len=sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);
    SelectionSort(arr, len);
}

A: The correct way to handle the return statement would be to write it like this
return SelectionSort(arr,len-1);

You are supposed to return an int from the function - but you didn't put any return statement - and then again you tried to use it's value. This is undefined behavior.
That will make sure - after it hits the bottom of recursive calls it will return the value returned correctly so that successive parent functions get it. Don't forget that return just terminates the execution of a function and returns control to the calling function.
Also note that - sorting functions are generally made to not return anything (void return type)- but in this case after all that of work, you are returning something that is nothing other than 0. So it leaves us with the question - is it the correct value you are returning?
Also your maxInd function would return 6 in the first call - and it is wrong. It can't be a valid index in a length 6 array in c as array indexing is 0-based on c. Otherwise you are invoking Undefined Behavior on your code. Correct order would be to - first check whether it (the index) is out of bound, if it is, then on that case return the index otherwise go looking for it via making successive calls.
if(i == len)
    return index;

if (arr[i] > max){
    max = arr[i];
    index = i;
}

Just correcting the code - gives a correct result.(Removing undefined behavior from your code) (By correct result I mean it sorts the array but you are least concerned about it). Here.
Also as Jonathan Leffler mentioned, the indentation in your code was misleading. The compiler generated message is [-Werror=misleading-indentation] and you should treat it accordingly. You can see how proper indentation makes this error go away.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Comparison of different methods of managing bluestem pastures.
The objectives of this experiment are to determine the effects of different stocking rates, deferred and rotation grazing, and burning on livestock gains, productivity of pastures, and the vegetation itself. Results are reported here for the third year of the experiment. Only two years' results on burning and understocking have been obtained. The results for 1949 and 1950 may be found in Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Circulars 265 and 273, respectively.


Artists from across the country and around the globe journeyed to Atlanta once again to compete in the North American Bodypainting Championship.
This year the event expanded from a single day to a three-day event including a new ground-breaking Ultra Violet show in 3D and the Body Art Ball, a French themed bodypainted cabaret.
The Georgia Freight Depot, drew record crowds and created raving new fans of this emerging art form.
The Living Art Gallery was flooded with patrons enjoying selected works by Paul Chelko in addition to fine art bodypainting prints by world-renowned artists.
Social media was buzzing with images and shares from the event further expanding the message of empowerment.


Destination French Polynesia vacation homes owners direct no agency fees. Whether it is a house, villa, apartment, studio or bungalow, IHA offers a wide range of accommodation for seasonal rental provided directly by owners. Book safely, our rental ads on destination French Polynesia are verified, just enjoy a pleasant stay with family or friends.


Nice conditioner. though they sent me a sample of their "FAST "conditioner. which I think I like better!
it made my hair soft, but no growth Nisim International Response: You need to use the Hair and Scalp Extract to promote regrowth or FAST Shampoo to grow existing hair faster.
Please see my review for Nisim shampoo. I use the conditioner along with the shampoo and scalp extract.


text:
Russian investment values Facebook at $10 billion
Written by Tim Smalley
Tags: #digital #investment #russian #technologies #valuation #zuckerberg
Companies: #facebook #sky
Facebook yesterday announced that Russian Internet investment outfit Digital Sky Technologies has made a $200 million investment in the social networking site in exchange for a 1.96 per cent stake.
This means Facebook is valued at just over $10 billion (£6.41 billion), which is 50 per cent lower than it Facebook's valuation when Microsoft invested in the social networking behemoth in 2007. Admittedly, market conditions were much better at that time, but even then many felt the valuation was lofty.
DST will not have a seat on the board in return for its investment, but the $200 million worth of shares it acquired are preferred, just like Microsoft's.
The Russian investment outfit is also planning to buy another $100 million of common stock from existing employees and common stock holders. These shares are understood to have a different valuation to the preferred shares it has just purchased, as they are part of a different transaction – it's unclear on the valuation of these at this time, but it's understood to be a lower price.
"This investment demonstrates Facebook's ongoing success at creating a global network for people to share and connect," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.
"We've worked hard to bring more than 200 million people – 70 per cent outside of the US – onto Facebook to share with friends, family and co-workers. A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the global perspective they bring – backed up by the impressive growth and financial achievements of their Internet investments. We're looking forward to working with the DST team," he added.
Discuss in the forums.
Facebook expected to go public in early 2012
Investors are expecting Facebook to hit a $100 billion valuation.
Facebook competitor Diaspora opens
Diaspora, which aims to address privacy concerns surrounding Facebook, is asking for users.
Facebook builds massive data centre
Facebook is joining the likes of Twitter and Apple in building its own large-scale data centre.


The tipping point at which public cloud operations attain a 50% share of IT workloads will come in 2030. Until then, and beyond, we face "decades of a hybrid [cloud] world".
That's the view expounded by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger at VMworld this week in Barcelona. It's a view that can be read as a pessimistic one. I'll come back to why, but first here's what he said.
Using VMware-derived figures the VMware CEO said in 2006 – the year Amazon Web Services launched – the proportion of traditional IT to cloud had been 98% to 2%. By 2011 the split between traditional IT, and public and private cloud had reached 87%/7%/16%. In 2016 that figure is 73%/15%/12%.
VMware estimates 50% of operations will be cloud-based – public and private – by 2021.
By 2030 the public cloud will achieve tipping point. Gelsinger said VMware calculations indicate a 19%/52%/29% split between traditional, public and private cloud in that year.
So, another way of reading VMware's vision as explained at VMworld is that the transformation to the cloud will actually be very long and drawn-out and that for the foreseeable future – probably two decades, even by VMware's projections – the most mission-critical workloads, such as financial transactions, will not be ready for the off-prem cloud.
That is because customers just don't trust the public cloud for their most vital assets – their data – and availability and/or latency cannot be guaranteed, especially over the last mile where matters might not be in the hands of an IT professional but those of force majeur, or even a JCB operator.


text:
Talks + Tours
Classes + Workshops
Music + Performance
Youth + Educators
Creative Aging
Contemporary Council
Frye From Home
Through April 3
Art on the Mind: Ten Years of Creative Aging
Since 2010 the Frye Art Museum has been at the forefront of museum programming for people living with dementia and care partners. Featuring artwork from program participants, this exhibition illustrates the success of arts engagement in bringing joy, respect, and dignity to people living with dementia while destigmatizing the disease.
Through August 21
Human Nature, Animal Culture: Selections from the Frye Art Museum Collection
This exhibition focuses on portrayals of domesticated animals from the Frye Art Museum's collection as a way to examine how human-animal relations have shifted over time, and to reflect upon the role art plays in mediating our relationships with animals more broadly.
Through January 23
Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art
This presentation brings together seven artworks—all acquired in 2019 and on view at the Museum for the first time—by a range of local, national, and international artists. The works showcase diverse perspectives and forms of expression while complicating the narratives around mediums and genres traditionally associated with the Frye's collection, such as painting, landscape, and portraiture.
Through April 17
Boren Banner Series: Sadie Wechsler
The Boren Banner Series is a public art initiative that gives regional artists the opportunity to create a billboard-size work for the museum's east facade. For this presentation, Portland-based photographer Sadie Wechsler has created a new work inspired by the ecological history of the Frye's First Hill neighborhood.
© 2022 Charles and Emma Frye Free Public Art Museum. All Rights Reserved.


By olduvai in Liberty on February 4, 2019 .
We know today he was lying, as was Colin Powell (and the entire Bush administration). Which is also interesting because a number of Mueller's accusations against various 'suspects' are basically just that: someone has lied to Congress and must be punished for it.


Notice is hereby given that a meeting of the Raglan Community Board will be held in the Supper Room, Town Hall, Bow Street, Raglan on Tuesday 13 November 2018 commencing at 2.00pm. A public forum will be held from 1.30pm.
Note: In the event that the business of any Committee is not concluded on the advertised date, the meeting may be continued on a later date scheduled by the Committee prior to adjournment.
This notice is given under section 46 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.


Start school on the right foot with a classroom designed for learning and comfort. All Around color-coordinates with our complete line of educational rugs. Offered in multiple sizes, shapes, and colors to fit any early childhood space, this simple yet inviting rug is certain to create a welcoming, attractive environment when children are motivated to explore, create, and learn.


You can't fully enjoy the benefits of off-road adventures when you're always worrying about the condition of your truck's body. Daredevil adventures require daredevil attitude and daredevil accessories. Equip your truck with rocker guards, rock sliders, and rocker panels when going on off-road tours. And don't forget to consult Stylin Trucks first before embarking on any trip to make sure you got everything you need.
Those mountainous terrains can be quite challenging if your ride is not fully equipped with the right off-road accessories. You can't skip your way around the hilly tracks and rocky roads. So what happens when you encounter large obstacles along the way? Don't worry because truck rock sliders can help save the day and erase your fears of having a damaged truck body in the middle of nowhere. Sliders are usually manufactured using heavy-duty box section steel. But some prefer tubular steel which is also quite effective in blocking massive rocks on the road.
Since the road in remote areas is quite unpredictable, you should be prepared when crossing such pathways. Rocker guards, rock sliders, and rocker panels can help you survive the broken road and are effective in protecting the door bottoms and door sills from huge rocks along the way. These metal pieces are mounted on the sides of your vehicle, just a little below your door sills. It runs from the front wheel to the rear wheel.
Stylin Trucks is your one-stop shop for all your truck needs. We offer rocker guards, rock sliders, and rocker panels to make your trip worry-free. Scan our selection today!