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Myanmar's 2015 Elections
What's Next for U.S. Policy toward Myanmar?
by Phuong Nguyen • December 18, 2015 • 1 Comment
By Phuong Nguyen The resounding victory of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), in the November 8 elections is an outcome many in the United States had long wanted to see. But rather…
Time to Envisage a New Chapter in U.S.-Myanmar Relations?
by Murray Hiebert • November 13, 2015 • 1 Comment
By Murray Hiebert & Phuong Nguyen Washington woke on November 13 to the anticipated, yet still exhilarating, news that the party of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy (NLD), had won around 80 percent of…
Aung San Suu Kyi's All-or-Nothing Election Strategy
by Gregory Poling • November 6, 2015 • 0 Comments
By Gregory Poling Editor's Note: The following post is the fifth in a series by CSIS Sumitro Chair scholars framing the political situation ahead of Myanmar's general elections in November 2015. Millions of citizens in Myanmar will go to the…
Myanmar's Fragmented Ethnic Politics Mean Post-Election Horse Trading Will Likely be Messy
by cogitASIA Staff • November 2, 2015 • 0 Comments
By Khine Thant Editor's Note: The following post is the fourth in a series by CSIS Sumitro Chair scholars framing the political situation ahead of Myanmar's general elections in November 2015. The critical role of ethnic political parties as kingmakers…
Myanmar Military's Role in the Elections: Straddling the Old & the New
by Phuong Nguyen • October 21, 2015 • 0 Comments
By Phuong Nguyen Editor's Note: The following post is the third in a series by CSIS Sumitro Chair scholars framing the political situation ahead of Myanmar's general elections in November 2015. When Myanmar's military, known as the tatmadaw, helped orchestrate…
Myanmar Military Bets on Ruling USDP to Cling to Power in November Elections
by Murray Hiebert • September 28, 2015 • 0 Comments
By Murray Hiebert Editor's Note: The following post is the second in a series by CSIS Sumitro Chair scholars framing the political situation ahead of Myanmar's general elections in November 2015. One of the biggest unknowns about Myanmar's November 8…
Myanmar's Electoral Landscape Vibrant, but Fraught with Uncertainties
by Phuong Nguyen • September 18, 2015 • 1 Comment
By Phuong Nguyen On September 8, Myanmar entered a two-month election campaign period, the culmination of at least a year of excitement, political intrigue, and wrangling among different players. The United States and other international players have been concerned that…


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Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle Defended His Team Against The Oilers Non-Existent Complaints About Face-Offs
PuckDaddy- Anaheim Ducks coach Randy Carlyle decided to play some mind games with the Edmonton Oilers at media availability before Game 1 of their second-round series.
The Oilers had the worst faceoff percentage in the NHL at 47.0 last season while the Ducks had the league's best at 54.7 percent – so Carlyle felt the need to point this out with cameras rolling.
"I know they're going to make faceoffs a priority. They're going to be whining to the officials. I know that's coming because that's just the way playoffs are because everybody has their crosses to bear on what the opposition is doing," Carlyle said. "Because we've been a strong faceoff team, I'm sure they're going to complain to the officials about the way we're taking faceoffs. That's just the process that takes place."
Oilers coach Todd McLellan was asked about Carlyle's comments and chuckled.
"Already? Already? I've been whining about or faceoffs all year because we're in 30th place. I don't think that's a brilliant comment by any means. When you're in 30th you're not happy where your team's at," McLellan said. "Sometimes these games are played and sometimes some of those comments are almost an admission of guilt at times because they're very effective in the faceoff circle and they do do some things, so that's always nice to distract."
You know what, I am kind of torn on this move. On one hand, I like the idea of disarming your opponent of what would have been a surefire, go-to excuse given the drastic difference between the teams abilities at the dot. He can laugh now, but it's more probable than not that Todd McLellan would have complained about the less noticeable tricks of the puck-battling trade when his team's numbers inevitably deflated further. On the other hand, Randy Carlyle basically just outed his team as a bunch of devious draw takers. There's a reason you don't take the stand to declare your innocence before you've officially been charged, and it's because you would look guilty as all hell if you did. For that reason, I think I have to say that - while I love the intent of this message - I don't think it does jack for the quack attack.
Let's be honest here. Whining about gamesmanship in the middle of a series that you're currently on the wrong side of comes off as sour grapes 100% of the time. Very rarely will it ever change the way an official calls a game, because most officials are smart enough to realize that it's just a ploy to guilt them into policing a fundamental part of the game in a way that benefits the team that's currently at odds. Coaches still do it on the off-chance it does work, but - in general - their whining is less efficient and more full of shit than the average person's use of toilet paper.
Giving credence to that potential whining by denying it's legitimacy before it's even spoken into existence, however, is an actual reason for suspicion. Randy Carlyle is essentially the professional equivalent of the guy who blurts out "I'M NOT CHEATING ON YOU!" when his girlfriend asks why it took him so long to get home. Maybe she was going to accuse him and maybe she wasn't, but now she doesn't even have to because his conscience is obviously more unclean than his dick probably is.
In reality, this back and forth is dumber than thinking it will actually change anything that takes place on the ice, but - as a general rule of thumb - it's better to shut the fuck up and not give your opponent an ever-so-slight benefit of the doubt without them even having to sound salty about not getting it. If I were a referee I would currently be more inclined to keep a watchful eye on the Ducks...after going to both benches and telling the grown men standing behind them to stop treating me like a gullible child of divorce.

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Dying Light Revives An Old Game With Its Latest DLC, And It's Out Now
Hellraid is now available and launches with a brand new trailer.
By Richard Wakeling on August 14, 2020 at 8:26AM PDT
Dying Light: Hellraid is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The latest piece of DLC for Dying Light--the six-year-old open-world zombie game--is actually a revival of sorts for developer Techland. The studio was working on a fully-fledged Hellraid game before it began development on Dying Light, but the project was ultimately put on hold as the team consolidated its resources to focus on the future of its zombie game.
Now it lives again like the reanimated corpse of a famished zombie. Hellraid begins with the discovery of a mysterious arcade cabinet in the basement of Dying Light's first hub area. No one in the Tower knows where it came from, but it opens up a gateway to another realm that transports you from the familiar streets of Harran and into a demon-infested dungeon.
You'll wield medieval swords, axes, and hammers to fend off the hordes of skeletons and otherworldly monstrosities out to kill you. There are bounties to pick up to earn additional prizes for repeated runs through the dungeon, and the whole thing can be played either solo or with up to three other players.
Techland initially began work on Hellraid after wrapping up production on Dead Island. The game was revealed and originally intended to launch in 2013, but was eventually delayed with a re-engineered version due to launch on Steam Early Access in 2014. That never happened and the game was put on hold in 2015 as it failed to meet the developer's own expectations. There was, however, a mobile game called Hellraid: The Escape that launched in 2014.
As is par for the course with anything brandishing the Hellraid name, the DLC was actually delayed, too. Techland originally planned to release it in July, but delayed the launch after gathering feedback during its beta.
Hellraid is finally out now, though, and Dying Light owners can purchase the expansion for $9.99 / £7.99 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The full game is still on hold but it doesn't look like we'll be seeing it anytime soon. Techland is currently working on Dying Light 2 and "a new, unannounced IP."
Dying Light 2 currently has no release date after being originally scheduled to launch sometime in Spring 2020. Since then, however, the game was delayed indefinitely, with Techland writing, "We need more development time to fulfill our vision." The studio also cut ties with writer Chris Avellone amid allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
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Q: subtracting RGB values from an Image in Python I'm working in a project where I need to subtract the RGB values from an Image. In example I want to subtract the BLUE channel from RED, so RED gets the difference value of the subtraction.
I have the next properties of the image:
Dimension:1456x2592,
bpp:3
The image I'm using gives me the following arrays:
 [[[ 63  58  60]
     [ 63  58  60]
     [ 64  59  61]
      ...,
     [155 155 161]
     [155 155 161]
     [155 155 161]]

     [[ 58  53  55]
      [ 60  55  57]
      [ 62  57  59]
       ...,
      [157 157 163]
      [157 157 163]
      [158 158 164]]

I know those are the values(RGB) from the image, so now I move on to do the code (I based on this code)
import cv2
import numpy as np
from PIL import Image

# read image into matrix.
m =  cv2.imread("ITESO.jpeg")

# get image properties.
h,w,bpp = np.shape(m)

# iterate over the entire image.
# BLUE = 0, GREEN = 1, RED = 2.

for py in range(0,h):
    for px in range(0,w):
        #m[py][px][2] = 2
        n = m[py][px][2]                //n takes the value of RED
        Y = [n, 0, 0]                   //I create an array with [RED, 0, 0]
        m, Y = np.array(m), np.array(Y)
        m =  np.absolute(m - Y)       //Get the matriz with the substraction

y = 1
x = 1
print (m)
print (m[x][y])

#display image
#cv2.imshow('matrix', m)
#cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.imwrite('new.jpeg',m)
img = Image.open('new.jpeg')
img.show()

img = Image.open('new.jpeg').convert('L')
img.save('new_gray_scale.jpg')
img.show()

When I print the J matrix it gives the following arrays:
B,G,R
Blue = BLUE - RED
[[[  3  58  60]
  [  3  58  60]
  [  4  59  61]
  ...,
 [ 95 155 161]
 [ 95 155 161]
 [ 95 155 161]]

[[  2  53  55]
 [  0  55  57]
 [  2  57  59]
 ...,
 [ 97 157 163]
 [ 97 157 163]
 [ 98 158 164]]

But I'm not able to open the new image and if I set one RGB channel to one value it shows me the image. I use the next lines for that:
import cv2
import numpy as np

# read image into matrix.
m =  cv2.imread("python.png")

# get image properties.
h,w,bpp = np.shape(m)

# iterate over the entire image.
for py in range(0,h):
    for px in range(0,w):
        m[py][px][0] = 0 //setting channel Blue to values of 0

# display image
cv2.imshow('matrix', m)
cv2.waitKey(0)

How can I subtract the RGB channels from each other?
PS: In MatLab it works like a charm, but I'm not able to do it in python.

A: Pay attention that this operation is changing the dtype of the matrix (image) from uint8 to int32, and this can cause other problems. A better way (and more efficient) to do this, IMO, is this:
import cv2
import numpy as np

img =  cv2.imread('image.png').astype(np.float)  # BGR, float
img[:, :, 2] = np.absolute(img[:, :, 2] - img[:, :, 0])  # R = |R - B|
img = img.astype(np.uint8)  # convert back to uint8
cv2.imwrite('new-image.png', img)  # save the image
cv2.imshow('img', img)
cv2.waitKey()

A: Code manipulating  RGB negative values to zero...
m =  cv2.imread("img.jpg")

# get image properties.
h,w,bpp = np.shape(m)

    # iterate over the entire image.
    # BLUE = 0, GREEN = 1, RED = 2.

    for py in range(0,h):
        for px in range(0,w):
            n = m[py][px][1]
            Y = [0, 0, n]
            m, Y = np.array(m), np.array(Y)
            a = (m - Y)
            if (a[py][px][0] <=0): #if Blue is negative or equal 0
                a[py][px][0] = 0   #Blue set to 0
    cv2.imwrite('img_R-G.jpg',a)
    img = Image.open('img_R-G.jpg').convert('L')
    img.save('img_R-G_GS.jpg')

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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'Why is the world looking away'? Gisela Hofmann on Yemen
Published on June 4, 2017 by thetalkingofthesoul
Gisela Hofmann is a German friend who, literally, lives for Yemen. Throughout the years, she lived in the country, learnt Arabic and has become a peace advocate.
Gisela sent me a letter asking to publish it. It is her cry, the cry of a woman who has loved ones under constant bombs and castrated by a siege. Gisela cannot visit her 'family in Sanaa' and dreams of the day she will be reunited with them.
In the meantime, eight-hundred days have passed since that first bomb dropped on Yemen in the night of March 26 2015. The country has been totally destroyed, official figures estimate over ten thousand casualties, a child dead every ten minutes succumbing to preventable diseases, over fourteen million food insecure, three million internally displaced, a third cholera outbreak which has claimed lives of over six hundred people with a skyrocketing seventy thousand suspected cases.
Yemen has collapsed, Gisela dreams of peace and writes:
"For more than fifteen years, we have been personally associated with Yemen enjoying a close friendship with a family in Sanaa.
Throughout these years, we were able to stay with our friend-family twice a year, every year. We also lived for several months in Sanaa in a rented a flat.
Our visit in November 2014 would be the last for a long time. We did not suspect this at the time. Since then, we are only connected via internet, though this is not continuously possible for a variety of reasons but, basically, our friends have no electricity and have no money.
We are suffering, we feel helpless: we cannot do anything for our beloved family.
Since the beginning of the Yemen-war and the suffering of the population, this country has been in the shadow of all other political "proxy wars".
I would like to talk about my friends and family members, I want to describe their current life situation.
My heart is heavy when I think of them. Especially the children and my warm-hearted women-friends. I know how they feel, although I never hear complaints despite the very difficult situation. The humility and pride of these generous people does not allow it.
The following lines are dedicated to Mohammed, Latifa, and Safia and their families (how much I miss them):
"Why is the world looking away?
I'd like to write about the current life of the citizens in Yemen. I can report what I am constantly being told by my friends as, for myself, it is not possible in the current situation to return to Yemen: Sanaa airport is under Saudi-led Coalition imposed blockade and it has also been partially destroyed by airstrikes..
The biggest problem posed by the siege is that for Yemenis there is no way to let vital relief supplies and aid be brought into the country.
If you run a finger on the map, throughout the whole country, you realise that the important main roads, transport routes and sea ports have been destroyed. This means that the urgent transport of aid and relief supply to the suffering people, to hospitals and distribution of safe, drinking water to villages is impossible or extremely difficult.
People outside the cities are abandoned and can depend exclusively on themselves.
Nobody looks, takes care of the population as military strategies are in the foreground. With few exceptions, there are no foreign embassies and/or diplomatic representatives in the country.
It is close to impossible for the people of Yemen to flee elsewhere. Even for families living abroad it is difficult to care for the loved ones gripped in the famine-cholera-aggression- torn homeland. Flights to and from Yemen are virtually close to zero and escaping to neighboring countries requires money which Yemenis do not have.
It is neighboring Saudi Arabia leading the war on Yemen. Since 26 March 2015, the Saudi led Coalition has kept Yemen under continuous military attacks.
Like in any given war, the simple, common people are those suffering the unthinkable.
Primarily children, sick people and the elderly.
The children of our friends-family have been out of school for months in a row out of fear of air-raids, or because schools were closed or teachers on strike having received no salary for over eight months.
A friend's daughter contracted hepatitis caused by contaminated water. In order to receive immediate medical treatment, the family had to sell the last personal possessions. The treatment lasted longer than normal because the child was malnourished. Malnutrition maims the immune system of weakened children making them more prone to diseases.
The father of the little girl had to donate his own blood to treat her and has, since then, been donating regularly to help others in need.The current situation allows many families to virtually just vegetate, exist, nothing else. A graceful life is no longer possible.
Schools, hospitals have shut down: government personnel have been out of salary for eight – nine months.
In the meantime, prices are soaring. A bottle of gas costs five times as much as compared to the beginning of 2015. Most people cannot afford it any longer: they use what they can to make a fire.
Speculation is rampant: some much-needed items must be bought exclusively in dollars cutting off most of the population.
There are those who have lost everything because of an airstrike: home and loved ones. Yemen is in a constant mourning.
The world is wrapped in silence, passively supporting these eight-hundred days of war crimes against the Yemeni population. Syria and Iraq have overshadowed the plight of Yemenis.
In spite of pain and suffering, there is life, though. There are tireless people, fighting with heart and intelligence for the future of Yemen. These people fight with peaceful means vehemently against Yemen's unjust, forgotten war.
A termination of the aggression is imperative. If I look at the situation of Yemen I feel anger along with an inexpressible sadness, because I see what this country has become.
In the 1980s, at the time of Ali Abdallah Saleh's leadership, perhaps the country began slowly to open and move forwards. Yemenis saw progress in their own land and enjoyed international recognition. After the Unification of South and North Yemen in 1990, a flourishing period began, starting from tourism. People from all parts of the world visited the long closed, untouched, historical country. Tourism became the largest employer of Yemen. Now even archaeological sites have fallen victim of indiscriminate air-raids, even towns and monuments protected by the UNESCO. Treasures of mankind have been lost, forever.
An immediate halt to the inconsiderate arms deals and sales to those aggressing Yemen, would represent a huge step towards the end of the war on my second home. It would push the sides involved in the conflict to find solutions, involving only diplomatic means.
Had it happened before, many Yemeni children would still be alive and the homes of countless Yemenis would not be in rubbles.
Last February there was a defence and arms exhibition, 'only' 2500 km from Yemen. Weapons worth billions of dollars were sold while back in Yemen a nation was and is starving to death.
This forgotten country needs more attention. It is important tell to the world about the suffering of Yemenis who are at their limit. They cannot take it any longer.
The first article of our German basic law states: "Human dignity is untouchable".
It should apply also to Yemenis. "
Categories Gisela Hofmann, letter, peace, Sana'a, Saudi Arabia, war, Yemen
Previous A Young Yemeni Artist's Dream
Next There is no 'I Want'
8 thoughts on "'Why is the world looking away'? Gisela Hofmann on Yemen"
joliesattic says:
So sad. I think in general people care but feel helpless. They do not have the resources or power to influence or control. They are afraid. They are the singular voice that no one is listening to. I think too people are tired of fighting wars that cannot be won for so many reasons. When I worked for a well known non profit, we would send out supplies to help, but these would be confiscated by corrupt governments that kept them for themselves. Those that needed it never saw them. There is so much people don't know. It's not that people don't care, they just can't control the powers that be to get them where they need to go. I saw it too many times and it leaves one feeling disenfranchised with mankind.
thetalkingofthesoul says:
I have to say I agree with you on so many levels. What I find myself saying, far too often lately, is that what we are witnessing these days is simply bigger than us.
We cannot fight all the battles against corruption, wars (which are always unjust), terrorism and all the problems afflicting us.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and commenting.
Yes, If we all as individuals work on ourselves and take it one at a time, perhaps our conduct could influence others. That is the only thing we can control and that is our own behavior. If we would only look past our own doubts, take individuals on their own merit and discard demographics, can you just imagine how beautiful that could be?
It is the reality I dream of every single moment of my day. And night.
We can really do much as individuals. Be the change. It's on us.
Bob Oort says:
Every event where people are mercilessly killed by some brain disturbed individual, group of religious fanatics or some religious/political organization, is a heinous, disgusting, insane coward act imposed on this society. The crime gets even worse when the media, the press and groups and individuals in the society publish biased, unwarranted or misleading views on such events that can never, ever be justified by any reason whatsoever.
To make things worse, the politically controlled news media publishes front page after front page of incidents in Western countries that are but a minuscule drop in the ocean compared to what is done by the US/UK/SAUDI COALITION in Yemen, a country literally turned into a lifeless desert cemetery by the constant bombardments killing millions of children, men and women – and let's not forget Syria, Gaza, and many other places throughout the Arab world and Africa where these disgusting crimes take place daily, monotonously.
It says it loud and clear in every law book on Earth: "Murder is a crime and the perpetrator(s) must be duly punished for such crimes". Even without any law book whatsoever, it is clearly engraved in anyone's conscience that MURDER IS A CRIME – you don't have to refer to your religious fairytale scriptures to have that spelled out in black and white. Morality ends with murder and individual and mass murder perpetrators living above the law and their own moral consciousness, must be held to account and pay for their crimes it's as simple as that, full stop.
Make no mistake about this insane religious/political institutions war on humanity, it started long ago, long before the vague and fabled stories of Abraham, Moses, Noah, Christ, Muhammad, the Greek, Roman and British empires. This war is a war for a piece of real estate, a war for the so called "Promised Land", a religious war, a war throughout several millenniums that has seen the barbaric murder of billions of people all for sake of religious/political power and control over the enslaved masses.
All religious institutions, all political institutions, all hierarchies claiming authority over the masses are a fraud, they are a blatant lie to the world, it has been so since time immemorial. The question however is not who you can point fingers at, for there are too many people involved in these crimes against humanity. The question is "When are the masses going to educate themselves and stand up against the crimes committed against those who do not live to take part in the insanity of wars against humanity".
Bob Oort, WORLD PEACE EMBASSY administrator
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WorldpeaceEmbassy
Nothing to add. Wish I could tell you you are wrong, pessimistic, mad.
Pingback: 'Why is the world looking away'? Gisela Hofmann on Yemen – اسم الموقع


It is not an ordinary feast. The foods and drinks prepared in it will give us satisfaction like no other.
God is knocking on your door, waiting for your response to His invitation.
How should we respond to the Lord's invitation to dine with Him in a great feast?
God lovingly invites you to the Feast of Agape.


Four ladies are sitting together talking about their sons.
The first one brags, "My son is is a bishop, every time he walks into a room people say, 'Your excellence'."
The second lady brags, "My son is is a cardinal, every time he walks into a room people say, 'Your eminence'."
The third lady brags, "My son is is the pope, every time he walks into a room people say, 'Your holiness'."
The final lady says, "My son doesn't have a title, he weighs 500 pounds and is only 5 feet tall. But every time he walks into a room everybody says, 'Oh my god!'"


Do you have a lawn or a garden in front of your house? If yes, then you must have trees, shrubs, plants, bushes etc. in your garden or lawn. An over growing garden or lawn looks ugly and unhealthy and obstructs the view of your house also. People are practicing this pruning of trees from a very long time. Both science and aesthetics have approved that pruning of trees is always good for the beauty and health of trees.
To beautify your yard, pruning of tree is essential. You should be aware that if you are cutting the dead limbs or the part which is growing faster, then you are actually doing a favour to the tree and helping it out with a new look. As you go for a haircut, same way it is a haircut for your tree. A well groomed tree enhances the shape of the tree. In this way it is enhancing the aesthetic look of your lawn or garden also.
If pruning is done with a proper technique, it makes the root stronger and helps the tree to stand upright firmly even in a storm. It also helps the new branches to grow. Hence you should hire the right tree trimming services perth. Pruning is very beneficial for a fruit producing tree. Remember dead woods make the tree prone to insect infestation and disease. Pruning helps in fruit production also.Pruning removes the hazardous branches that can fall easily during a storm or even during a high wind. It is very dangerous if this happens in real. Like humans, trees also fall sick.
With pruning you can actually treat or prevent the disease from spreading throughout the trees.
Pruning of the trees will keep the boundary hedges under control and maintains a good shape, keeping the foliage dense and attractive. It will give you a better view of the area if you are staying by a lake, mountains or any picturesque location.
To conclude, pruning actually comprise of the work of a plant's natural growth pattern. It maintains the mature trees as well as the shrub species. It gives such an effect that the plant or tree has not been touched at all. So beautifully pruning can be done.
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text:
Kaliňák provided a cover-up for kidnap
On July 25, 2017, the Vietnamese intelligence service put a Vietnamese national, Trinh Xuan Thanh, whom it had kidnaped in Germany two days earlier, into a Slovak government plane in Bratislava, say Slovak policemen and bodyguards who were present. Ex-minister Robert Kaliňák was aware of the action. The government plane flew Thanh to Moscow, and he was later sentenced to life in prison for corruption in Vietnam. The policemen and bodyguards wish to stay anonymous, as their version of events contradicts the official one Kaliňák is feeding to the media. Under his command, the Slovak police declined to investigate the kidnap, although one person has already been sentenced in Germany for involvement. (N/2)
Kaliňák denies his involvement, and maintains that Thanh was not onboard the Slovak plane. He is irritated by the demands of the Most-Híd coalition party to set up a parliamentary investigation committee and launch a police investigation. Most-Híd also demands the provision of whistleblower protection to policemen willing to come forward and provide information to investigators.
(N/2)


The Ministry of Defence activities are overseen by the Minister of Defence – a civilian who is politically responsible before the Saeima (Parliament) and the Prime Minister.
The Ministry of Defence State Secretary is a state civil service official who oversees the administrative work of the Ministry of Defence and ensures the continuity of operations when the political leadership of the Ministry changes.
The Administrative Structure of the Ministry is formed by departments and independent sections.
On 1 January 2010, the structural reform of the defence sector was completed. Within the framework of the structural reform, the resources and structures of the existing National Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence were optimised and the implementation of separate functions was decreased.
In taking over the functions of the NAF Headquarters and Units, soldiers were also included into the Ministry of Defence staff. Thus the Ministry of Defence went from being what was once a civil institution to becoming a civilian-military institution. By optimising functions and staff, we were able to save on human resources (the number of people employed in the Ministry of Defence was not increased upon integrating military persons) and to achieve a faster and more effective process for adopting decisions.


RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Syneos HealthTM (Nasdaq:SYNH), the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization combining a CRO (Contract Research Organization) and a CCO (Contract Commercial Organization), today announced that Chief Financial Officer Jason Meggs is scheduled to present at the 2018 Baird Global Healthcare Conference in New York, NY, on Thursday, September 6, 2018, at 12:15 p.m. ET.
A live webcast and archived audio replay of the event, as well as links to the presentation materials, will be available on the Company's Investor Relations website at investor.syneoshealth.com.
Syneos Health (Nasdaq:SYNH) is the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization. Our company, including a Contract Research Organization (CRO) and Contract Commercial Organization (CCO), is purpose-built to accelerate customer performance to address modern market realities. Created through the merger of two industry leading companies – INC Research and inVentiv Health – we bring together more than 22,000 clinical and commercial minds with the ability to support customers in more than 110 countries. Together we share insights, use the latest technologies and apply advanced business practices to speed our customers' delivery of important therapies to patients. To learn more about how we are shortening the distance from lab to life® visit syneoshealth.com.


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Submitter Tara saw this in southern Indiana.
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text:
Южный белобокий дельфин () — вид дельфиновых из рода Sagmatias. До ревизии 2019 года обычно классифицировался в составе рода короткоголовых дельфинов (Lagenorhynchus).

Внешний вид и строение
Длина тела до 2,7 м и вес до 115 кг. Спина чёрная, на боках белые полосы. Морда — тёмно-серая. Брюхо — белое.

Распространение
Обитает в субантарктических водах вокруг архипелага Огненная Земля и у материкового побережья Чили и Аргентины.

Поведение
Любит места с быстрым течением. Собирается в группы по пять-десять особей. Иногда весной в брачный период собираются в стаи до 100 особей.

Литература
 National Audubon Society: Guide to Marine Mammals of the World ISBN 0-375-41141-0
 Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals ISBN 0-12-551340-2

Примечания

Дельфиновые
Морские млекопитающие
Млекопитающие Тихого океана
Млекопитающие Атлантического океана
Животные, описанные в 1848 году

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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An International Center for Sports Studies study of Europe's five biggest football leagues had revealed that Sergio Pellissier is second in the list of players who have spent the longest time with one club, behind Juventus's Gianluigi Buffon. With sixteen and a half seasons, he leads Barcelona's Iniesta and Borussia Dortmund's Weidenfeller. Pellissier has made 498 appearances and scored 135 goals.


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News @ Illinois Springfield
The latest news and information
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Poll finds UIS students favor Obama
If the election were held today, an overwhelming majority of University of Illinois at Springfield students would vote for Barack Obama, according to a campus poll taken between September 25 – October 4, 2008. Pollsters found that most students are not swayed by the vice presidential candidate, and the economy and gas prices are the major influences on their vote. The poll was part of a class project for the Interviewing 465 class in the Communication Department at UIS.
A total of 384 students were interviewed on campus, giving the poll a 95% confidence level +/- 5%.
Of those polled, 289 were registered to vote. If they had to vote today, 257 said they would choose Obama, and 96 said they would vote for John McCain. Only 31 said they would choose a third party.
More than two-thirds of those polled said the vice presidential candidate did not affect their decision on who should be president. More than 60% of those polled said age is not an important factor in their choice for presidential candidates.
When reviewing election issues that have the most influence on their votes as students, 40% of respondents said the economy had the most influence on their vote, followed by gas prices, the war, healthcare, and finally homeland security.
Nearly 62% of those polled believe their vote matters. And three-fourths of those polled were registered to vote.
The poll was conducted on the UIS campus as part of a class project. The Interviewing class researched polls, election issues, and the candidates and then spent considerable time formulating the seven questions that were asked of students. The questions and the results are listed below.
1. Are you a UIS student?
2. Are you registered to vote?
3. If the election were today and you had to choose between McCain, Obama, or a third party, who would you vote for?
McCain - 96
Obama - 257
Third party - 31
4. Did the presidential candidates' choice for vice president affect your decision on who should be president?
Yes - 117
No - 267
5. Do you believe age is an important factor for presidential candidates?
6. Which election issue from this list has the most influence on your vote?
a. economy - 152
b. gas prices - 95
c. the war - 73
d. healthcare - 47
e. homeland security - 17
7. Do you think your vote matters?
For more information about the poll, please contact Lana Kains at 414-5956 or Mary Bohlen at 206-7362.
Labels: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, General, Students
posted by Donna McCracken at 2:35 PM
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Home England North Yorkshire York The Punch Bowl (JD Wetherspoon) Updates
Pub reviews (21)
The Punch Bowl (JD Wetherspoon), York
5-9 Blossom Street
YO24 1AU
J D Wetherspoon
27th Apr 2020, 18:27
Picture submitted by adam bell approvedmore
Picture submitted by adam bellmore
Review submitted by Gill Smithmore
Called in last month for refreshment before setting off round the wall for a walk, and enjoyed Ilkley Lotus and Leeds Midnight Bell. One of the better JDW outlets with toilets on the ground floor.
23rd May 2019, 18:58
Review submitted by Alex Conway amended by Alex Conway
21st Apr 2019, 19:59
Picture submitted by Brainy Pool approvedmore
Picture submitted by Brainy Poolmore
Review submitted by Brainy Poolmore
pleasant enough circuit Spoons with a slight rough edge to it on a weekend. Full of people you wouldn't want to drink with but did have a good enough beer selection including the nice Saltaire No 5 Stout.
2nd Nov 2017, 19:01
Picture submitted by Aqualung . approvedmore
Picture submitted by Aqualung .more
15th Dec 2016, 12:03
Review submitted by custodian 42more
Ended off the night in here which is the better of the two Spoons in York. I've always liked this place and the beer selection wasn't too bad. Not a bad Spoons in all.
2nd Aug 2016, 20:02
Review submitted by Aqualung .more
Although not originally a pub it does look like one from the outside. Inside it's a single room that wraps itself around the bar with a small conservatory at the back. It was fairly busy on my Thursday afternoon visit. There was a mini Hop Studio festival on at the time with five of their beers, Eau Du Soleil, Dubbel, Raja, Pale & Blush. The rest of the 10 hand pumps had the JDW Trio Of Doom and 2 ciders. I went for the Dubbel & Eau Du Soleil (£2.55 each). The Dubbel was fine but the Eau Du Soleil was cloudy, tasting pretty poor and I can't imagine it is supposed to be like that. It's a shame about the dodgy pint as this seems to be a good Spoons. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt with a 7.
26th Nov 2015, 14:18
Review submitted by Alex Conway
Review submitted by Pub SignManmore
Dating back to 1770, this place has served as both a shop and a pub in the past, but in the last 13 years it has been operated by the ubiquitous Wetherspoons chain. The location, close to Micklegate Bar and the train station, make this an extremely popular venue, evidenced by the fact that it was completely packed out when we visited for Saturday morning breakfast. The interior sees a centrally positioned servery with the counter running down the left hand side of the room from front to back. Plenty of typical 'Spoons seating is available throughout, including standard tables and chairs, high tables and stools and a few padded banquettes. There are lots of pillars and partitioning screens, some of which have pleasant stained glass inserts, which hint at former separate rooms and help break the space up a fair bit and add some much needed character. To the rear is a conservatory style space with a quarry stone floor and plenty of daylight, acting as an antidote to the otherwise gloomy rear half of the room. I think I counted ten hand pumps, although I may well have missed some through the crowds along the long bar counter. There seemed to be a pretty good ratio of guest ales to 'Spoons regulars, although I opted for a mug of tea to accompany my breakfast, having endured a long session the day before and facing a similar sized mission later that day. The barman serving me was very friendly and said that Sunday mornings were normally even busier, which is saying something. The fact that this place was originally a pub is a real benefit, as it hasn't got that instantly recognisable corporate feel that a great many Wetherspoons pubs suffer from. Having said that, there isn't much here that you won't have seen countless times before and were it not for the cheap breakfasts, you would have to wonder why anyone would bother with such a place in a city rich in excellent pubs.
Review submitted by Quinno _ amended by Quinno _
Review submitted by Steve Cmore
The Punchbowl is an L shaped Wetherspoons that was packed at 10:30 on Saturday morning with punters looking for breakfast. I was one of these people who opted for a £2.99 breakfast that was as good as any greasy spoon to be honest. My egg did look like it had been in a fight with the floor, but a swift swig of premix coke left me unworried. Being a Spoons the usual drink and meal deals are all available. The interior is L shaped and there is a conservatory at the rear that backs onto a small outside seating area. It was too early to be counting hand pumps, but a standard draught range was available. I had an enjoyable breakfast and would return for another.
Review submitted by Just a quick pint, then I'm offmore
Compact for a 'spoons, so getting a table can be difficult (even at breakfast time). Partly opened-out as part of the conversion process, with a number of fairly small seating areas in and around the bar. More traditional in appearance than many too. Excellent selection of real ales from ten handpumps, including a fine pint of Vale SPS (£2.10).
Picture submitted by Quinno _ approvedmore
Picture submitted by Quinno _more


Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com and his associate David Morris promoted Richard Gaikowski as a "new" Zodiac suspect, and they also promoted Gaikowski's original accuser Blaine Blaine as a reliable informant. Voigt, Morris and Blaine all appeared in the History Channel documentary MysteryQuest, the first television broadcast to name Richard Gaikowski as a Zodiac suspect. Visitors to Voigt's website, viewers of MysteryQuest, and others who are led to believe that Gaikowski is a "new" suspect and that Blaine is a reliable informant might reach different conclusions after reading the rest of the story.
Blaine's report described his amateur efforts to solve the case as "a systematic investigation" similar to the work of a "scholar." Blaine stated that he had visited the crime scenes and "numerous" libraries, and, he had read newspaper articles and books about the case. According to these letters, Blaine claimed that he first learned that Gaikowski was a serial killer in May 1986 when he had amassed a volume of material on the man in question. Blaine claimed that he had investigated Gaikowski's family, friends, girlfriends and former employers in the South Dakota, although he used the misspelling "Dekota." Blaine also stated that he had secretly recording several telephone conversations with Gaikowski without Gaikowski's consent or knowledge. After amassing this collection of material, Blaine wrote what he described as a 500 page manuscript which detailed in amateur investigation. Blaine stated that Gaikowski had become suspicious of this investigation and threatened Blaine's life. Blaine claimed that Gaikowski had also killed "two people" as a warning.
Blaine wrote that "it had been established that the Zodiac was specifically involved with [Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin]," despite the fact that no credible evidence had ever been presented by anyone to support this alleged connection. Blaine apparently believed that the Zodiac crimes "centered" on the killer's alleged relationship with Ferrin. Citing the reports that a man had bothered Ferrin where she worked as a waitress, Blaine claimed that the Zodiac was a specific individual who had visited Ferrin at work during the spring of 1969. Blaine also repeated the unsubstantiated claims that the Zodiac had stalked Ferrin in the months before her death. The stories of a mysterious stalker could be traced to Pam and Linda yet neither sister had ever reported this information to police during the investigation of Darlene's murder. Blaine, at some point, developed his own information that Richard had known Darlene, and even claimed that an argument between the two had played some part in Richard's reported 1965 arrest and the subsequent loss of his job. Blaine also believed that the Zodiac's "Mt. Diablo Code" was the key that revealed the identity of the killer. Blaine's solution named Darlene Ferrin and Richard Gaikowski as well as Gaikowski's home town of Webster, South Dakota.
Like Graysmith, Blaine had written his own book around this theory, titled Goldcatcher and Zodiac, a title which had apparently confused some people who, as Blaine wrote, mistakenly assumed that he authored a work of fiction because they were, according to Blaine, "lacking in critical perception." Blaine also described the obstacles he faced when asking authorities to seriously consider the "overwhelming" evidence of Richard's guilt. Blaine also wrote that he had obtained a notebook filled with Gaikowski's handwriting and that the disappearance of these writings may have sparked Gaikowski to kill other people in order to intimidate Blaine and end his amatuer investigation. According to Blaine, Gaikowski fired a gun at Blaine's van and then stated that Blaine was dangerously delusional and should forget about the Zodiac case. The report concluded with Blaine's plea for help and despair at his current circumstances.
At the time that Blaine Blaine was claiming that Richard Gaikowski was the Zodiac, Blaine wrote a letter to Gaikowski in which he stated that he was enclosing the first chapter of his "historic novel" titled Goldcatcher and Zodiac. Blaine stated that he hoped Richard would enjoy reading the chapter and expressed his desire to visit Richard's home in order to watch some films. Blaine asks Richard to send him a written invitation and suggests that the two also have dinner together because Blaine is "always starved." Blaine also wrote that he could not wait to see his former friend. At the top of the page, Blaine had drawn a Zodiac symbol next to Richard's name.
In 1969, Blaine worked with Richard at a California newspaper, and, according to Blaine, Richard had instructed him to write a message to the Zodiac and told him exactly what words to use. The message then appeared in the newspaper – one of several owned by the same chain that owned one of the three newspapers contacted by the killer. Richard had written extensively about his encounters with local police and subsequent yet brief incarceration for drinking and driving [according to one account, Gaikowski staged the event and was never actually arrested]. Blaine viewed these articles as Richard's effort to cast suspicion on himself.
On August 20, 1986, Blaine wrote a letter to Napa County Sheriff Ken Narlow and Inspector Napoleon Hendrix of the SFPD. Once again, Blaine presented himself as a paranoid and delusional crackpot who had become obsessed with Richard Gaikowski and now viewed authorities as conspirators who were protecting a killer. Blaine wrote that Gaikowski "might" have killed a cab driver Leonard Carl Smith, who was shot to death in his cab in a crime somewhat similar to the Zodiac's last known murder of cabdriver Paul Stine in San Francisco many years earlier. Blaine's letter included a long, tenuous list of theorized connections between Gaikowski and Smith. Blaine also believed that Gaikowski was trying to send messages with this crimes and the subsequent media reports of his evil deeds.
According to one account, Ken Narlow decided to "stake-out" Gaikowski's home for a few nights. Such action is not common, wise, or even standard procedure. The decision to stake-out a suspect's residence usually follows other avenues of investigation and usually comes only when good reason to suspect the individual has been established. This is not how Narlow and other investigators handled the investigations of other suspects. However, given the nature of the claims made by Blaine that Gaikowski was actively engaged in attempts to intimidate him, and was killing other people in an attempt to do so, Narlow may have believed that a stake-out was warranted because he may have thought that he could catch Gaikowski engaged in some illegal act. Yet, it is difficult to believe that Narlow, an intelligent and professional lawman, would engage in such action without also taking the usual steps when investigating a suspect, i.e. gathering information, checking criminal records and attempting to obtain the suspect's fingerprints. This was standard procedure – something Narlow usually followed – and the failure to follow this procedure can only be considered baffling at best.
According to Blaine and others, Narlow staked-out Gaikowski's home as part of his investigation of the suspect, but stopped the investigation after Pam Huckaby, the sister of Zodiac victim Darlene Ferrin, interfered. Tom Voigt described this scenario on his Internet message board.
By all accounts, this event occurred long after Gaikowski was already aware that Blaine was accusing him of being the Zodiac, long after Gaikowski had allegedly warned him to cease his investigation, and long after Gaikowski had allegedly murdered at least two people in an attempt to intimidate Blaine. Narlow's decision to stop investigating Gaikowski because the suspect had been "tipped off Gaikowski" makes no sense, given the fact that Gaikowski was already aware that he was suspected. If Narlow had "nothing compelling to begin with," the decision to stake-out the suspect's home seems odd, at best. If the surveillance was initiated at the request of Blaine, and based on the alleged threats to Pam, the explanation that the investigation was ended because Pam interfered makes no sense whatsoever, as Pam was already involved, and Gaikowski, if he had, indeed, threatened both Blaine and Pam, had to know that both Blaine and Pam would most likely report the threats, and their suspicions, to authorities. Further, the fact that a suspect has become aware that authorities were investigating him had never deterred law enforcement agents in the past investigations of suspects. Tom Voigt had repeatedly described Pam as a witness who suffered from "severe credibility issues," yet he also repeatedly quoted her as a reliable source when doing so suited his needs and helped to implicate his pet suspects.
On April 6, 1987, Blaine fired off another letter; this time, he wrote to Narlow and Fred Shirasago, an agent assigned to the Zodiac case at the California Department of Justice. Based on Blaine's written statements, both Narlow and Shirasago had been aware of Blaine's claims for some time. Blaine claimed that Narlow was abusing his authority in order to thwart Blaine's amateur investigation because Narlow was then running as a candidate for sheriff. According to Blaine, Narlow reportedly referred to him as a "goofy person," and, Shirasago called him a "fruitcake." Blaine also claimed that Shirasago had lied to the family of Darlene Ferrin in order to discredit Blaine and his investigation. Blaine specifically stated that Narlow told him that Gaikowski's fingerpints did not match those believed to belong to the Zodiac. According to Blaine, Narlow and Shirasago had shouted at him and treated him with contempt. Blaine also claimed that Narlow fingerprinted him and stated that Blaine was bothering Darlene Ferrin's family and interferring in the Zodiac investigation. Blaine wrote: "What happened next was that Ken Narlow rushed over to Gaikowski's house, confronting him, taking fingerprints, and hand writing samples, and then cleared him!" According to Blaine's own account, Narlow reportedly stated that Gaikowski had produced a passport with a stamp for London, England in December, 1968, the time of the first suspected Zodiac murders on Lake Herman Road. Gaikowski himself stated in another account that he had been overseas at the time in question. Blaine theorized that Gaikowski's connections to the counter-culture undergound in the Bay Area had somehow provided him with a fake passport used to hide his true travel history.
Narlow and Shirasago were not impressed by Blaine's claims and Blaine described this lack of interest as a "major coverup" in which authorities were going to conceal the "whole bloody truth." Blaine respectfully demanded that both Narlow and Shirasago "disqualify" themselves from the investigation and that other, more responsible authorities would launch a new "professional" inquiry into Blaine's claims.
1: Blaine stated that he had given both Narlow and Shirasago "detailed information" regarding Gaikowski which "matched in every detail the Zodiac," yet, this is clearly not true. None of the information presented by Blaine established any connection between the Zodiac and Gaikowski, and, this information did little to support Blaine's claim that Gaikowski was the killer. (Note: Blaine wrote: "…Gaikowski, who is the Zodiac…" – a clear indication that he had gone from a man with a theory to a man who was utterly convinced beyond all doubt.) That Narlow and Shirasago were not convinced by this information is perfectly reasonable, despite Blaine's complaints.
Today, Blaine's enablers are quick to reject any version of the story in which anyone ever checked Gaikowski's fingerprints against those believed to belong to the Zodiac. The claim is that Narlow, himself, said that no fingerprint comparison was ever conducted. Apparently, the story is that Blaine misheard Narlow; a convenient story, to say the least. Fingerprint comparisons were standard procedure when examining Zodiac suspects – except in this case, for reasons unknown.
Another puzzling and possibly exculpatory exhibit was included in the collection of documents pertaining to Richard Gaikowski – a handwriting sample that appeared to have been written for police, or, written in response to the accusation that Gaikowski was the Zodiac. The writing does not appear to be similar to that of the Zodiac, as Narlow and Shirasago allegedly told Blaine handwriting experts had concluded. This sample is similar to another sample linked to Gaikowski.
According to Blaine, he somehow obtained a book that had been in Gaikowski's possession. Few details are available concerning the origins and custody of this book, but the story told by Blaine was once again sensational and shocking. Titled Plato and Parmenides, a popular philosophy text used in college courses, the title page of the book featured a signature , "Paul Stine," the name of the Zodiac's last known victim. Blaine has stated that the book did not show any traces of blood. According to Tom Voigt, Blaine contacted SFPD sometime in 2001, and gave this book to an unidentified individual. At that time, the Zodiac case had been assigned to Inspectors Kelly Carroll and Mike Maloney – two men who, by all accounts, took great care to properly investigate the case and check out many theories and suspects. Maloney even traveled to Ireland to investigate the work of one amateur codebreaker in Ireland. A book bearing the signature of a known Zodiac victim was just the kind of evidence that any competent investigator would gladly investigate.
Those who mourned his death arranged to celebrate Gaikowski's life at his San Francisco home, and friends shared memories with reporter Michael Taylor of The San Francisco Chronicle. "Richard just had a bohemian air about him," said friend Ken Tray, the executor of Gaikowski's estate. "He was on the edge of soul." Another friend, Jay Hanke said, "He was a hip cat… He was a beatnik." As he departed this earth, Gaikowski may have been comforted by the fact that he had lived a full life and was remembered fondly by his family and friends. The accusations of Blaine Blaine seemed long-forgotten but, when Richard Gaikowski died at the age of 68, he never suspected that his one-time-accuser would return on worldwide television to claim that Richard Gaikowski was the most notorious serial killer in American history.


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Radio 21 ist der Name folgender Hörfunksender:

 Radio 21 (Belgien)
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 Radio 21 (Kosovo)


text:
Leftimania Uncovered
[First published on March 30, 2005] I've often wanted to know the political connections and ideological presumptions of a commentator, noted academic, or the leaders of a protest, as of "antiwar" demonstrations. But, it would take too much time to track down the information and establish its reliability. Now, this has been done for those like me who believe that what you see depends on where you sit. David Horowitz has set up a web site called DISCOVERTHENETWORK.ORG: A Guide to the Political Left (link here) that provides information about the backgrouond, ideology, and connections of groups and individuals.
For example, on Ward Churchill it begins a mulipage profile with this summary:
• Marxist professor of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado
• Advocates political violence
• Denounces "the slaughter perpetrated by the United States around the world"
• Accuses white Americans of genocide
• Characterizes the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus as a "mistaken landfall" that "unleashed a process of conquest and colonization unparalleled in the history of humanity"
• Lamenting that the terrorism of 9/11 had proved "insufficient to accomplish its purpose" of destroying the United States, Churchill said, "What the hell? It was worth a try.
Note that Marxist means communist. In discussing his case, virtually no major media has mentioned that he is a communist (I know of none). On this blog site, I'm going to hit the Marxism = communism as often as I can. The communists have largely succeeded, even with libertarians and conservatives, in hiding behind Marxism, which they make out to be a philosophy or theory different from communism. It is not. It is a philosophical and historical, socio-political theory alright, and precisely what all communist regimes have forced their slaves to except and exclusively study. Marx is to communism as Christ is to Christianity.
On Teresa Heinz Kerry, the guide says:
• Wife of 2004 Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry
• Chaired the Howard Heinz Endowment, a major funder of leftwing groups and causes
• Has personally financed the Tides Foundation, which funds many leftwing organizations
The mainstream media has overlooked the very important story of Teresa Heinz Kerry's close financial ties to radical Left. Mrs. Kerry has financed the secretive Tides Foundation to the tune of more than $4 million over the years. The Tides Foundation, a "charity" established in 1976 by antiwar leftist activist Drummond Pike, distributes millions of dollars in grants every year to political organizations advocating far-Left causes. The Tides Foundation and its closely allied Tides Center, which was spun off from the Foundation in 1996 but run by Drummond Pike, distributed nearly $66 million in grants in 2002 alone. In all, Tides has distributed more than $300 million for the Left. These funds went to rabid antiwar demonstrators, anti-trade demonstrators, domestic Islamist organizations, pro-terrorists legal groups, environmentalists, abortion partisans, extremist homosexual activists and HYPERLINK "http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11838″open borders advocates.
Do some browsing on the website, and you will find some amazing and, perhaps, depressing information. As a last example, note this of the Ford Foundation:
Originally funded by the Ford Motor Company stock from the estates of Henry and (son) Edsel Ford in 1936
• Largest private funder of the American left and its radical agendas
• Supports communist front groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild
• Key funder of the Open Borders lobby
• Assets: $10,015,612,595 (2003)
• Grants Awarded: $431,643,480 (2003)
My compliments to Horowitz and all those who helped him. The liberal and communist left can only survive in the United States and influence policy by hiding their activities, memberships, associations, and ideology under a vast blanket. Horowitz has helped to lift a corner of it.
"Navigating the left" (3/24/05) By Robert Stacy McCain
McCain's intro:
David Horowitz, a radical turned conservative author and activist, has created a Web site, DiscoverTheNetwork.org, which he describes as "a navigation tool for identifying, mapping and defining the left and its elaborate and extensive political network."
In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home, Mr. Horowitz discussed the idea for the site . . . .
Selected quotes:
Soon, pro-communist leftists like Angela Davis and Tom Hayden were being referred to as "liberals" by the media, and liberals like Norman Podhoretz and Jeane Kirkpatrick were being referred to as "neoconservatives." … So, to understand our present situation, I felt you have to try to restore accurate political labels. And that's partly what my new Web site, DiscoverTheNetwork.org, is about. . . .
Q: You have documented the Marxist backgrounds of several leading anti-war groups and individuals. Why do you think the media have routinely ignored these connections?
A: On one page, you get a list of every major anti-war organization and each listing is a link to a profile of the individual group, and each group is connected to a map icon, which, if you click on it, opens up a diagram that shows all the other groups with radical agendas … that they are connected to.
The fact that the two major peace organizations, International ANSWER and the Coalition for Peace and Justice, are headed by easily identifiable communists, was known to the mainstream media, specifically the New York Times. Because the New York Times is essentially a fellow-traveling institution of the left, it chose not to mention this fact.
Note that McCain refers to "Marxists," which Horowitz, quite correctly, terms communists.
1 Comment	| Marxism	| Tagged: leftism, leftists	| Permalink
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text:
Q: Two listeners for one event? I am trying to create a file according to two events:
the first is a JRadioButton: according to which radio button is selected, the file will be saved in the respective folder, the second event is the "add" button. I am struggling with creating the file in the right folder, so far I managed to create the file in the right folder when the radio button is selected, but that is not what I want.
How can I create the file at the right moment (when "add" button is pressed) according to the previously selected radio button?
Things like:
if(e.getSource() == button && e.getActionCommand() == jradio1)

Doesn't work and neither deos nested if.
I think I'm missing the big picture, anyone can help?

A: You could create a object that stores the location (possibly a String containing the filepath) of where you want the file, and which will update when you click on a given jradiobutton.
When you click the add button, you can then reference the same object to see where you should put the file.

A: Selected radio and the event that is fired when you select the radio button are two different thing.
From what you have have stated is that you want to create the file on click of the add button.
Do this

*

*You can just ignore the event fired on the radio selection.

*When the event is fired on the press of the Add button, read the state of the
radio and save the file

You can keep the instance of the radio class wide so that you can read it in the event handler for the button listener.

A: Just use the name of the Radio button as the action command.  Same for the Add button.  When the radio button is selected, it saves its name as the target location.  Here is an example of how it can work.

    import java.awt.Dimension;
    import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
    import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

    import javax.swing.ButtonGroup;
    import javax.swing.JButton;
    import javax.swing.JFrame;
    import javax.swing.JPanel;
    import javax.swing.JRadioButton;
    import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

    public class SavingFiles extends JPanel {

       String selectedLocation = null;

       public static void main(String[] args) {
          SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> new SavingFiles().start());
       }
       public void start() {

          String[] fileLocations =
                { "f:/location1", "c:/location2", "G:/location3"
                }; // etc

          int nRadioButtons = fileLocations.length;

          int defaultLoc = 0;
          YourActionListener listener = new YourActionListener();
          ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
          for (int i = 0; i < nRadioButtons; i++) {
             if (i == defaultLoc) {
                selectedLocation = fileLocations[i];
             }
             JRadioButton button =
                   new JRadioButton(fileLocations[i], i == defaultLoc);
             group.add(button);

             button.addActionListener(listener);
             // do something with button
             // store it or add it to panel.
             add(button);
          }

          JButton addButton = new JButton("Add"); // also acts as actionCommand
          addButton.addActionListener(listener);
          add(addButton);

          // Boiler plate
          JFrame frame = new JFrame("SavingFiles");
          frame.add(this);
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 80));
          frame.pack();
          frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
          frame.setVisible(true);
       }

       // Note that if actionCommand is not set, then the button name
       // serves the same function.
       private class YourActionListener implements ActionListener {
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ev) {
             String actionCommand = ev.getActionCommand();
             if (actionCommand.equals("Add")) {
                // add file to 'selectedLocation'
                System.out.println("adding file to " + selectedLocation);
             }
             else {
                selectedLocation = actionCommand;
                System.out.println("Location set to " + selectedLocation);
             }
          }
       }

    }


This petition made change with 94,082 supporters!
Eric Dompierre , a 19 year old junior with Down syndrome who attends Ishpeming High School, will be ineligible to compete in football and basketball his senior year because of age restrictions set in place by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
This rule is the only rule that the MHSAA does not allow itself to waive. Changing this rule will enable a small number of deserving students who have experienced a hardship due to a combination of intellectual and physical disabilities early in life to play a full four years of high school sports. This would put Michigan in line with 23 other states who currently allow waivers to their maximum age rule.
Embarrassing these students by unnecessarily sitting them in the stands benefits no one. It shouldn't require a large number of people demanding that they do the right thing, but that may be what it takes. Please sign this petition and show your support for Eric and other student athletes like him.
If you live in Michigan, please also contact your local school board and urge them to support this petition and the proposal to allow waivers to the age limit so that Michigan joins 23 other states in allowing certain athletes with both intellectual and physical disabilities to play a full four years of high school sports. You can view this proposal and the rationale behind it at IshpemingSchools.com.
Dean Dompierre needs your help with "MHSAA: Allow my son and some disabled students to play for 1 year past the current age limit". Join Dean and 94,081 supporters today.


Place the potatoes, 2 cups water, salt and pepper into a medium saucepan with a lid. Bring to a boil and return to a simmer, cover and cook until very tender, about 20 minutes. Add the potatoes, but not the liquid, to a food processor, and puree until smooth. Add the butter and the vanilla bean seeds to the puree, and pulse again until all ingredients are incorporated and smooth. Hold until ready to plate.


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No matter how old we are, we never outgrow the desire to collect souvenirs from our travels.
While we have the ability to take and share photos instantly, nothing reminds us of the places we've been and the good times we've had quite like a tangible trinket – the more interesting and uncommon, the better. You'll find no shortage of distinct souvenirs in U.S. national parks' gift shops, from stuffed animals to collectible coins to games, including a U.S. National Park-themed Monopoly board. You'll also find plenty of items unique to each park, including the four described below.
Bear Carvings from Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which lies along the North Carolina-Tennessee border, is home to roughly 1,500 black bears. The animals can often be spotted lumbering across hiking trails and resting in tree branches. If you're lucky, you might catch sight of one – they are adorable, but keep your distance! Whether or not you spy one in the park, you can make sure you see one every day afterward by picking up a hand-carved wooden bear statue at one of the regional gift shops. The carvings vary from lifelike to comical, large to small, so you can find a bear that best suits your home.
Wood shavings from a bear carving in progress
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Sequoia Seeds from Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park in California – less than 300 kilometers east of San Francisco – wows with its monumental features, from towering cliffs to plummeting waterfalls to sequoia trees so tall you can't see the tops. The 500 or so giant sequoia trees that rise from the park's Mariposa Grove have been reaching for the sky for 3,000 years or so, but they all had much more modest beginnings. You can nurture your own sequoia sapling with a grow-a-tree kit from the park's gift shops. The kits come with everything you need to grow your own sequoia, including seeds and a miniature greenhouse. All you need to do is plant the seeds and ensure they have plenty of sunlight and water.
Sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park are thousands of years old
Turquoise from Grand Canyon National Park
Pop into any souvenir store in Arizona and you're bound to find the state's official gemstone: turquoise. The blue gemstone, mined in several places across the state, is a staple accent in cowboy hats, belt buckles and jewelry sold in the region. For a unique keepsake, pay a visit to the Havasupai and Hualapai Indian reservations, just west of Grand Canyon National Park. Tribal members set up makeshift markets selling a wide variety of necklaces, earrings, bracelets and other accessories that feature the brilliant blue stone. Once you've found your perfect souvenir, experience the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that extends out over the canyon's ledge.
Traditional turquoise jewelry handmade by Native American artists
Grand Canyon Skywalk
Pueblo Pottery from Mesa Verde National Park
While many of the U.S. National Parks strive to protect the USA's natural wonders, Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest corner of Colorado (about 400 kilometers northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico) preserves a fascinating slice of human history. The park encompasses nearly 5,000 archaeological sites where ruins of the ancestral Pueblo people have been discovered. This native civilization occupied the area from 600 to 1300, leaving behind an impressive array of structures, including 600 cliff dwellings, artifacts, artwork and pottery. You can even take a piece of the history home with you. Recreations of the original artifacts are available in the gift shop, and they make beautiful home accents.
Colorful examples of Native American Pueblo pottery
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HP is one of the largest tech firm in the world with products ranging from PCs to LCD monitors to devices like printers. HP may be best known for its computers, but a large portion of the company's profits come from printers and more specifically the ink that often costs more to replace than the printer cost to purchase new.
HP is set to try to reinvigorate the printing industry with a new line of printers that has a very interesting feature -- their own email addresses. When HP talked about using its newly purchased webOS operating system on devices like printers, there were many who though that a web connected printer was a gimmick and something that most consumers would not use. However, as more information on HP's goals and Google's plans for cloud-based printing is unveiled, webOS in printers is looking more and more like a very big deal.
The New York Times reports that the new web-connected printers with their own email addresses are set to hit the consumer market this month while products for business user will come this fall. HP promises that a myriad of devices like smartphones and tablets will be able to print documents and images without having to be connected to a printer.
With the new HP printers, users of iPhone OS or Android-based would simply need to email a photo to the printer's email address where it could be automatically printed and waiting when you get home from an event. The head of HP's printing operations is Vyomesh I. Joshi. Joshi said, "We think by next year more printing will be done from the Web than from word-processing applications."


text:
Fright Gallery 2005 review
October 29, 2005 April 28, 2022 Steve Biodrowski Fright Gallery Archive, Halloween 2005, Halloween in San Fernando Valley, Halloween Recommendations
One of our favorite haunts in 2003 was "Experiment in Terror," a fairly unique Halloween attraction in the form of a scripted tour of a haunted house, complete elaborate mechanical effects far beyond those seen in most haunted mazes. What was nice about the show was that it was almost an interactive play, with actors portraying characters who guided you from room to room, as you got lost deeper and deeper in the old mansion and were desperately trying to find a way out. The performances and dialogue occasionally went for campy comic relief, but the experience was both frightening and fun.
Sadly, Experiment in Terror seems to have been a one-off venture by The Fright Gallery, an amateur troop of actors who have been putting on a "terrifyingly hilarious experience in suburban lawn art" for decades now. The good news is that they continue their annual tradition of dressing up the front yard of a house on a small residential street not far from Disney Studios, where they present a Halloween-oriented musical-comedy spoof. It's not exactly what most people think of as Halloween entertainment, but that only makes it stand out from the deluge of haunted mazes and fright film festivals each season.
This year's play is entitled "Twisted," which may sound like a take-off on the 1996 tornado movie TWISTER, but it's actually a spoof of THE WIZARD OF OZ. With this in mind, the house on Lamer is decorated with cornstalks, suggesting Kansas, in addition to the more traditional cemetery decor (tombstones and a few ghouls roaming about). Every half hour, the curtain opens, and the show begins, running for something like fifteen minutes of lip-syching to pre-recorded music, complete with scenery changes, fog effects (for the melting demise of the "Wicked Witch of the West Coast"), and a handful of high-energy songs.
In this version, the cast seems to be made up entirely of the living dead. Dororthy isn't interested in going somewhere over the rainbow but somewhere beyond the grave — preferably somewhere out west, in a blue state. Swept up by a twister, which she sees as her way out of "Dullsville, Kansas," she finds herself in what seems to be a Beach Party movie — or what one would have looked like if John Wates had gone back in time and taken over American International Pictures in the 1960s.
The presentation has a distinct campy feeling that would not be out of place in the West Hollywood Halloween parade on Santa Monica Boulevard. It's not quite as hilarious as intended; some of the puns (like the Wicked Witch's line: "I'll get you and your little band Toto too") fall flat. But it all winds up with a rousing final number, "The Best Place to Be Dead," which is certainly good enough to become a great novely song for Halloween, if not a Top 40 hit single.
We went on Friday night, the opening for this season, and caught the second performance — which ran as smoothly as if the cast had been performing it for weeks. There was a good crowd, but it was still relatively easy to find a nice place up front, from which you could see all the action on stage. As the days draw nearer to Halloween, things will probably get much more crowded, so come early.
Obviously, this is far from a traditional yard haunt, and the point is not really to frighten. But it is funny — quite a different experience from what you get at other Halloween attractions. And even if you're not into Wizard-of-Oz spoofs (we can take or leave them), you cannot fail to be impressed with what the Fright Gallery manages to achieve on a temporary stage built in a front yard. The settings and stagecraft are truly wonderful, and you have to be grateful to anyone who puts in this much work just for the fun of it.
Fright Gallery's "Twisted" continues nightly through October 31, with performances every half-hour, starting at 7:15. There is no admission price, but donations are accepted. After seeing the show, you'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to want to part with at least a dollar or two in exchange for the evening's entertainment.
← Knott's Scary Farm 2005 – Review
Fright Fair 2005 Review →
Halloween Haunt Odyssey


This week on America's most symphonic podcast on the Alt-Right, Halberstram returns to discuss the latest happenings in political media of the week with McFeels. From tax reform to the looming possibility of a government shutdown over DACA on the heels of injustice for Kate Steinle in San Francisco that will be blamed on the Democrats, to a J-Left in freefall from yet another barrage of unabated MeTooism, there are many great white pills to be had, including our new ally in the war on globalist terror who asks for nothing but to be paid in drowning refugees . It's all ahead on Fash the Nation!


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6 Ways We're Already Geoengineering Earth
Brandon Keim
Scientists and policymakers are meeting this week to discuss whether geoengineering to fight climate change can be safe in the future, but make no mistake about it: We're already geoengineering Earth on a massive scale. From diverting a third of Earth's available fresh water to planting and grazing two-fifths of its land surface, humankind has […]
Scientists and policymakers are meeting this week to discuss whether geoengineering to fight climate change can be safe in the future, but make no mistake about it: We're already geoengineering Earth on a massive scale.
From diverting a third of Earth's available fresh water to planting and grazing two-fifths of its land surface, humankind has fiddled with the knobs of the Holocene, that 10,000-year period of climate stability that birthed civilization.
The consequences of our interventions into Earth's geophysical processes are yet to be determined, but scientists say they're so fundamental that the Holocene no longer exists. We now live in the Anthropocene, a geological age of mankind's making.
"Homo sapiens has emerged as a force of nature rivaling climatic and geologic forces," wrote Earth scientists Erle Ellis and Navin Ramankutty in a 2008 Frontiers in Ecology paper, which featured their redrawn map of the human-influenced world. "Human forces may now outweigh these across most of Earth's land surface today."
Draining the Rivers
Of all the fresh water accessible in lakes, rivers and aquifers – what scientists call "blue water" – humankind uses about one-third every year. A fourth of Earth's river basins run dry before they reach the sea.
At local scales, this changes weather patterns. The Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River for example, seems to be causing temperatures in its valley to drop, which in turn reduces rainfall. The draining of Kazakhstan's once-vast Aral Sea has made regional temperatures hotter in summer and colder in winter, and rain now rarely falls.
Whether regional changes in turn have global consequences remains to be seen.
Images: 1) Aral Sea in 2006/European Space Agency. 2) Aral Sea in 1973/U.S. Geological Survey.
Painting Earth Black
In 500 million households, mostly in Asia and Africa, cookfires are fed by wood, coal and animal dung. Smoke carries particles of what is known as "black carbon" into the atmosphere, where they form a heat-absorbing layer; raindrops form around the particles, and when they fall, black carbon ends up absorbing heat on the ground, too.
It's estimated that half of a 3.4-degree-Fahrenheit rise in Arctic temperatures over the last century is a result of black-carbon pollution, and it may also have altered weather patterns in a way that's reduced rainfall over South Asia and West Africa. Black carbon is also causing Himalayan glaciers to melt, threatening water supplies for hundreds of millions of people.
Image: Purple indicates areas of high black-carbon density, August 2009/NASA
The Infinite Farm
About 12 percent of Earth's land surface is now used for crops. Some of the consequences are difficult to predict. It's hard to know, for example, how agriculture in the Great Plains has affected weather. Other consequences are more obvious. Deforestation of the Amazon rain forest disrupts regional cycles of evaporation and condensation, raising the possibility that Earth's lungs could become a savanna. Should the Amazon rain forest lose much of its carbon dioxide-absorbing capacities, planetary temperatures will rise.
More immediately, fertilizers used in farming have injected vast amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into regional environments. About 120 million tons of nitrogen are removed from the atmosphere each year and converted into fertilizer-friendly "reactive" forms, while 20 million tons of phosphorus are mined from the ground. In both cases, that's far more than would enter the biosphere naturally, and most of it is carried by streams and rivers to the sea, where it fuels rapidly growing marine dead zones.
Image: The conversion of southeastern Amazon rain forest (red) to farms and ranches (green)/NASA
Wiping Out Reefs
Of all the extinctions now taking place, perhaps the most dramatic is that of coral reefs, the rain forests of the oceans and a foundation of many marine ecosystems. As a result of pollution, climate change, overfishing and ocean acidification, one-quarter of global reef cover has been lost in the last 50 years and one-third of reef species are endangered.
The loss of corals and the animals that depend on them doesn't just threaten fishing. From a geophysical perspective, ecosystems are biological mechanisms that regulate flows of nutrients and energy. Stripped-down ecosystems — like the once-rich northwest Mediterranean, now dominated by bacteria and jellyfish — can't always do the job. Some scientists think that massive ocean extinction events in the past caused Earth's carbon cycle to fluctuate wildly for millions of years afterwards. Marine ecosystems lost their regulatory abilities, and changes in climate and weather followed.
There have been five planetary extinction events in the last half-billion years. The sixth is happening now.
Image: Coral bleaching in Australia's Great Barrier Reef/Matt Kiefer, Flickr
The Plastic Revolution
Human industry has led to the invention of chemicals that were unknown in Earth's history, and can remain active in the environment for thousands of years. These include compounds used in pesticides, and especially in plastic, some 60 billion tons of which are produced every year.
At high doses, these chemicals can disrupt animal endocrine systems, cause cancer and alter reproduction. At low doses, their effects aren't known, but may involve subtle and widespread stresses that ultimately change the composition of ecosystems.
The United Nations estimates that there are 47,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of Earth's oceans. Low levels of organic pollutants and plastic-derived endocrine disruptors have been measured all over the world, even in areas where they've never been used, such as Antarctica.
Image: Plastic inside a decomposing Laysan albatross chick/Duncan Wright
Altering the Atmosphere
The economic engine of the Anthropocene is literally fueled by pulling carbon-rich materials from the ground, and burning them. As a result, about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide are sent into the atmosphere every year, making fossil fuel consumption the biggest of all humankind's unwitting geoengineering experiments.
With atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide higher than at any time in the last 15 million years, global weather patterns are changing and average temperatures rising. Some of this carbon dioxide is absorbed by ocean water, altering the proportion of hydrogen and carbonate ions, and making the water more acidic. Corals, plankton and shellfish may literally dissolve.
Over the next several centuries, oceanic pH may change more than it has in the last 300 million years.
Image: John Norton/Flickr
Q&A: Geoengineering Is 'A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come'
Exclusive Excerpt: Hack the Planet
Climate Hackers Want to Write Their Own Rules
Op-Ed: Stop Trying to Save the Planet
Time-Series Photos From Space of Aral Sea Death
How to Slow Climate Change for Just $15 Billion
Mediterranean Is Scary Laboratory of Ocean Futures
Western Oceans Quickly Going Acidic, Say Scientists
Toxic Soup: Plastics Could Be Leaching Chemicals Into Ocean
7 Tipping Points That Could Transform Earth
9 Environmental Boundaries We Don't Want to Cross
Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.
Brandon is a Wired Science reporter and freelance journalist. Based in Brooklyn, New York and Bangor, Maine, he's fascinated with science, culture, history and nature.
TopicsagricultureAntarcticaanthropocenecarbon dioxideEarth Scienceengineeringenvironmentextinctionfarmingnitrogenoceanspesticidesplasticwater


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