text:
Resistance to antibiotics is rising worldwide, threatening gains made over the past seventy years in reducing the burden of infectious disease. ProMED has reported news related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) throughout its 23-year history. In the past month, we've posted several that illustrate the challenges. Here are three I found particularly interesting.
In an extended genetic analysis of 1,777 Klebsiella samples taken from patients at the 2,000-bed Houston Methodist hospital system between 2011 and 2015, a strain of antibiotic resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae was found to cause more infections than one that has been well-studied. (See ProMED Archive Number: 20170522.5055025.) Klebsiella pneumoniae causes infections - including outbreaks in health care settings worldwide - that are increasingly difficult to treat because many strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics. The researchers found that the strain that caused the plurality of infections in the hospital patients studied was as virulent as pandemic CG258 strains, leading them to hypothesize the emergence of an especially successful clonal group of antibiotic-resistant K. pneumoniae.
Your financial help supports our mission to improve health and combat infectious diseases throughout the world. By sparking connections among health practitioners and researchers around the globe - and reinforcing these critical connections daily - ProMED is a singular force in creating and sharing the vital information you need to prepare for, prevent, manage, and treat infectious disease. We need your help to carry on. Please, help us now.
Research into the multi-drug resistant fungus Candida auris was detailed in another post. (See ProMED Archive Number: 20170520.5050111.) Since the CDC released a clinical alert about the emerging fungus in June 2016, 77 clinical cases have been reported. Subsequent screening of close contacts of these patients identified an additional 45. Patients' rooms were environmentally tested and C. auris was identified from mattresses, furniture, surfaces, and infusion pumps, indicating environmental contamination; the fungus was not isolated from rooms after thorough cleaning with disinfectant.
Support from subscribers like you makes our efforts to improve global health possible. Help from ProMED's friends allowed us to deliver a record number of reports in 2016, touch more people, and extend the reach of ProMED's timely, dependable data to include practitioners in regions that disproportionately bear the burden of infectious diseases. Through the generosity of your peers around the world, ProMED enlarges and enhances the international infectious disease family. Please join them today.
In Kenya, lack of sanitation, poor lab capability, and inadequate disease surveillance are enabling the spread of the H58 strain of Salmonella Typhi, which is multidrug resistant. (See ProMED Archive Number: 20170430.5005152.) The traditional first-line drugs commonly used to treat acute typhoid continue to be prescribed, but since the 1970s, S. Typhi strains have emerged that are resistant to these antimicrobials, leaving costlier second and third generation drugs as the only alternatives. This added expense increases the burden on already strapped health systems.
Incomes are expanding in low-resource countries and the accompanying increase in the use of antibiotics is saving lives. But, while it continues to be true that lack of access to these medications kills more people than does antibiotic resistance, the availability of antibiotics is not a responsible substitute for public health.
The International Society for Infectious Diseases plays a key role in improving public health by sparking and sustaining critical connections among scientists, practitioners, and the global infectious disease community. ISID supports research and education, advocates for effective infectious disease prevention, management, and treatment, and promotes global disease surveillance through ProMED. But the only way to ensure ProMED remains the most current, reliable source for infectious disease news and the primary vehicle for communication and collaboration with peers in outbreak investigations and prevention efforts is by demonstrating your commitment. Won't you please join your peers in supporting ProMED today? Please, give what you can afford, but please give!
Larry Madoff, MD
P.S. ProMED is committed to building capacity and connecting you to your peers around the world. To succeed, we need your support and that of your affiliated institutions. Please, help us further by asking your colleagues to help too.
International Society of Infectious Diseases | membership@isid.org |http://www.isid.org
9 Babcock St., Unit 3


The truth is how you present your website will determine how customers view you and your product. This can directly translate into how effective your website actually is and whether or not you get alot of sales or just a few. Think of it this way. Whenever you go into a store you usually always go in from the front entrance, not the side or the back, but the front. Just like when people visit your website, they probably always come in from the home page and go around your site. Sometimes they may come in from another link to one of your subpage but trust me they will jump on your front page to check it out and rightly so.
There are thousands of articles, books and forum posts which showed that content is king in search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, you can find some ways that can help you improve this king content for your web site.
* Content for people first, not for search engines - Some webmasters make a common mistake that they optimize everything for search engines but forget about web visitors. The goal of our website is not only to get high search rankings, but also to sell our service. So you should give your web visitors what they are really looking for. Make sure your content flows naturally and you're not just trying to stuff more keywords in the interest of search engines. If users don't find your content convincing they won't buy from you.
Read more: How Important are Backlinks?
If you have been keeping up with the latest internet marketing and SEO trends, you might already be aware that, for many... the Adsense bonanza has come to a screeching halt. The glory days of page and directory generation software has come and gone, as the search engines have caught on and struck back with a vengeance.
Hundreds of millions of pages, created by this type of software, have been banned forever. Once high flying websites have fallen back down to earth with a resounding thud... leaving their owners with only a memory of those sweet dollars-for-clicks and a big fat PR 0 for their troubles.
So is that it? Game over?
Your success on the internet is directly related to how many other sites are linking back to yours. The goal of every webmaster is to get more inbound links. I have listed three simple steps below to automate and multiply the process. Once the process is started you will be getting inbound links while you sleep.
Write Articles. It is hard work to write a quality article but you will find it to be a long term strategy for building inbound links that will pay off for years to come in both link popularity and traffic to your website. You may not consider yourself an expert on a particular subject, but if you have a website I'll bet you are an expert on the subject you have chosen for that website. Write an article on the theme of your website and submit it to the various article directories on the internet. Believe it or not, you are an expert. You just haven't realize it yet.
You've spent the last few months optimizing your web site. You did your homework and learned all about optimizing techniques for your web page. Your relevant keywords are prominently placed in all the right places on your pages. Yet your site still isn't ranking the way you want. What do you do?
It's time to improve you link popularity!
Why bother with link building? Link popularity and link quality are very important because every major search engine now considers them as a part of their ranking algorithms. If you don't have links, you won't rank well for competitive keywords.


The Slaps played at the WLUW 40th Anniversary concert.
In honor its 40th anniversary, Loyola's student-run radio station, WLUW 88.7 FM, organized a free concert at Ireland's Pub 10 Sept. 7.
The event was originally located on the East Quad of Loyola's Lake Shore Campus, but due to inclement weather, the concert was moved indoors.
WLUW hosted Chicago-native bands, Deeper, The Slaps and The Valley. Aside from the music, non-profit organization Ourmusicmybody and music television JBTV had tables at the event, as well as the School of Communication, Alumni Relations and WLUW.
WLUW partnered with Iceland Airwaves to give attendees the chance to win an all-expense paid trip to Iceland with tickets to local music festival, Iceland Airwaves, which includes more 220 acts from almost 30 countries, including Hayley Kiyoko, Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy.
Alex Lowe, a first-year student studying psychology and neurobiology, said she decided to come to the concert because she loves live music.
Sophie Wyniemko, a first-year student studying environmental policy, enjoyed the atmosphere of Ireland's Pub.
"I've never been down here [to Ireland's Pub], so I think the atmosphere itself is really cool," Wyniemko said.
The Valley, an indie rock band, started out the night. They energetically performed multiple songs and engaged with the crowd by coming off the stage and dancing with people standing front row.
A variety of The Valley's friends and family members joined them on stage for songs — one band member's older brother came on stage to rap during the set.
During the set, The Valley organized a moment of silence for rapper Mac Miller, who died Sept. 7, and performed a song inspired by his music.
The Slaps, the second act of the night, started out with a significantly sadder song than The Valley called "The Whistle Song," which introduced a mellow vibe. As the band continued its set, the members became more enthusiastic.
The Slaps are an indie rock/garage punk band comprised of three members, Rand Kelley, Ramsey Bell and Josh Resing. The three members are students at DePaul University and have been playing together since Sept. 2016, when Kelley and Bell met Resing at a party.
People in the audience danced and sang along to the artists' clear voices. The lead singer spoke very casually to the crowd. During the set, they introduced and performed new music.
At the end of the set when the lead singer announced their last song, many audience members called out in protest, wanting an encore they never received.
Deeper was the last of the three bands to perform. The band, comprised of members Shiraz Bhatti, Mike Clawson, Nic Gohl and Drew McBride, formed in 2014. One of the band's goals in creating music is to avoid falling into a single genre, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Their music was slightly more aggressive than the previous two bands and concert-goers started a few mosh pits.
The band was extremely lively, jumping around to the upbeat music they were playing. The songs were more punk rock with a vibrant, positive undertone.


text:
Q: nested forms django, nested models I have two classes say A and b in django models
class Address(models.Model):
    address_1 = models.CharField(max_length=128)
    address_2 = models.CharField(max_length=128,blank=True)

class Facility(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=250, unique=True)
    location = models.ForeignKey(Address)

I want to create django admin form so that I can edit both Facility name and address when I add Facility object in admin interface.
I dont want the reverse, means I dont want to edit Facility name when I add Address object.
Any help will be appreciated.

A: Do you know about inline admin?
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/admin/#django.contrib.admin.InlineModelAdmin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
USER=`whoami`
# get os
UNAME=`uname`
# get hostname
if [ "$UNAME" = "Darwin" ]; then
    # if os x
    HOSTNAME=`hostname -s`
else
    # if not os x
    HOSTNAME=`hostname`
fi

# set number of cores for each server
# set compilers
if [ "$HOSTNAME" = "sun2.cs.tamu.edu" ]; then
    CORES=8
elif [ "$HOSTNAME" = "compute-linux1" ]; then
    # hell yeah
    CORES=32
    CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.7
    CXX=/usr/bin/g++-4.7
else
    CORES=4
fi

RELEASE_BUILD_DIR="build"
DEBUG_BUILD_DIR="debug"

echo "Starting Release Build..."

# create and switch to build dir
if [ ! -d "$RELEASE_BUILD_DIR" ]; then
    mkdir "$RELEASE_BUILD_DIR";
    cd "$RELEASE_BUILD_DIR";
    # generate release build make files
    CC="$CC" CXX="$CXX" cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
    # make on all cores
    make -j"$CORES"
else
    echo "Running make clean in $RELEASE_BUILD_DIR"
    cd "$RELEASE_BUILD_DIR"
    make clean
    make -j"$CORES"
fi
    echo "Release Build Done!"

echo "Starting Debug Build..."

# cd back to project root
cd ..
# create and switch to build dir
if [ ! -d "$DEBUG_BUILD_DIR" ]; then
    mkdir "$DEBUG_BUILD_DIR";
    cd "$DEBUG_BUILD_DIR";
    # generate debug build make files
    CC="$CC" CXX="$CXX" cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..
    # make on all cores
    make -j"$CORES"
else
    echo "Running make clean in $DEBUG_BUILD_DIR"
    cd "$RELEASE_BUILD_DIR"
    make clean
    make -j"$CORES"
fi
    echo "Debug Build Done!"

# cd back to project root
cd ..

echo "Release Build PROJECT_ROOT/$RELEASE_BUILD_DIR/"
echo "Debug Build PROJECT_ROOT/$DEBUG_BUILD_DIR/"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Movies starring Farrah Forke
Complex of Fear (1993)
90 mins Crime, Mystery, Thriller, TV Movie
A serial rapist watches an apartment block from the woods before striking, he does it again and again and the cops are baffled as they are unable to catch him. Sounds like it could be a tense, suspenseful thriller when sadly ...
Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7 (1993)
87 mins Adventure , Drama, TV Movie
Like so many TV movies about planes going down "Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7" which is also known as "Lost in the Wild" is based on a true story and unlike some movies this one tries to tell the story rather than...
90 mins Sci-Fi, TV Movie
It seems that Jules Verne's story "Voyage au centre de la Terre" is a favourite of studios as it has been made into a few big screen and small screen productions over the years. But this 1993 version of "Journey to the Center...
Abandoned and Deceived (1995)
95 mins Drama, TV Movie
Abandoned and Deceived (1995) Lori Loughlin stars as a divorced wife struggling to support her children after her ex husband abandoned her and stop paying child support payments...
Ground Control (1998)
93 mins Drama, Thriller
When I spotted "Ground Control" on the DVD rack and saw the cast list which included Kiefer Sutherland, Kelly McGillis, Bruce McGill and Henry Winkler I was thinking that maybe this was a movie which slipped under the radar o...
* This is purely a list of reviews on The Movie Scene featuring the name Farrah Forke as one of the principle cast members.
1 pages	/ 5 reviews
Simple list of Farrah Forke movies
RANDOM MOVIE QUOTE
Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
MOST READ REVIEWS THIS WEEK
1) Out of Reach (2013)
2) Fatal Friends (2015)
3) Evidence of Truth (2016)
4) Dangerous Lessons (2016)
5) Reflections (2008)
6) 911 Nightmare (2015)
7) The Ultimate Sin (2007)
8) Abducted (2015)
9) The Promise (1999)
10) The Other Mother (2017)
HOME | ABOUT | SITEMAP | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY
© Copyright 2020. The Movie Scene - all rights reserved
Image and video are used in accordance with Fair Use, and are property of the film copyright holders.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Blogging or web blogs are no strangers dilakalangan internet users. Blog is a medium to publish writings diinternet, be it writing, video or pictures and so forth.
Improved search on google with the keyword "How to create a blog" into a proof that many people who are interested in this blog or want to manage a site yourself.
Well so that's a bit of discussion about what functions and usefulness of blogs for bloggers, and hopefully can be useful.
0 Response to "Function and usefulness of blog - learn to write with blog"


text:
MUNDRE KO COMEDY CLUB 19 KULENDRA BK (SALKO PATA TAPARI )
Time Management in 21st century. Be smart and know Life-changing lessons.
Heart Failure: Stages, Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention
How to be Happy ? here are 10 simple ways to be happy.
hot asian rapper girl
Duli Duli – YATRA Movie Song || Melina Rai || Salin Man Bania, Malika Mahat, Rear , Prechya, Jahanwi
GoPro's new Hero-9 Black Launched – Here's all you need to know about!
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 & Note 20 5G Ultra price in Nepal
SOPHIE, innovative music artist & trans idol dies aged 34.
SanoMa Sanu – Samir Acharya | Ft. Araaj Keshav | Rahul Shah | VIBE & WAVE | Official Music Video
Home/Kushal Shahi
Kushal Shahi
Everyone wants to become better at managing time. Who doesn't, right? Like most people, however, you've probably been struggling. And, chances are that the reason that's true is that you have been focusing on the wrong things. You see, time management is not just about changing your behavior. Moreover, it's about changing your mental attitude as well. Time management is…
One of the most popular ancient game, " Kasimala Paya"
One of the most famous ancient Games, Kasimala Paya is mostly played by Newar communities. Moreover, this sport is pretty much similar to Ludo. The board is divided into seventeen equal vertical blocks which are further divided into three horizontal blocks. Similarly, in the middle row, there are five safe blocks marked with stars. Each player has seventeen pieces to…
IPL 2021: Get the latest Indian Premier League updates
IPL, popularly known as the Indian Premier League, is the greatest Cricket game. This year it has been scheduled between 11 April and 6 June. The IPL season 14 opening match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capital will likely be played on 11 April 2021. Likewise, the 2021 Finals could be played on 6 June 2021. …
An acid attack survivor Jenny Khadka registered and participated in the model hunt event. Her mentor and also rising social activist, Ujjwal Bikram Thapa has inspired many acid survivors including Jenny. It proves that passion, determination, and hard work never dies. She overcame her fear and has become a more courageous woman. Moreover, she inspired many such acid attack survivors.…
These days, one person or the other has home pets. So, I am sure that you have seen pets like cats, dogs in your house, or your neighbor's house. Moreover, these pets not only bring happiness to people's faces but also become a companion in their daily life. Similarly, I also have a parrot at my home. My parrot's name…
This article explains the current scenario of Cricket World. Be it in India, Australia, England, or anywhere the perception of cricket fans about the team's selection and their performances are pretty much the same everywhere. Cricket is a popular sport. And, billions of cricket fans around the world enjoy watching and playing cricket. However, you must have heard disapproval from…


text:
Google is determined to crush Amazon's Alexa in 2018
No Comments on Google is determined to crush Amazon's Alexa in 2018
Google is bringing its Assistant to smart screens like the Lenovo Smart Display beginning this summer.
CES 2018 was bound to have plenty of news about smart assistants like Amazon's (AMZN) Alexa making their way into a seemingly endless array of gadgets. But Google (GOOG, GOOGL) just blew up any notion that Amazon would dominate the show by announcing that it's bringing Google Assistant to everything from a slew of new speakers, to smart displays, headphones and even your car.
The move is yet another direct shot by the search giant at Amazon, and is sure to further heat up the race between these two tech titans to make their AI assistants a major part of consumers' digital lives.
Google's first big move is the introduction of smart displays powered by Assistant. Think Amazon's Echo Show or Echo Spot, but running on Google Assistant. Unlike Google's Home or Home Mini, though, the tech giant isn't rolling out its own first-party smart display. Instead, it's teaming up with companies like JBL, Lenovo, LG and Sony (SNE). Amazon, produces its own hardware for its Echo Show and Spot.
The Lenovo Smart Display — pretty direct name — is certainly more attractive than Amazon's Echo Show, which has been criticized for its bland, blocky style. Lenovo will be offering an 8-inch Smart Display with a soft grey back for $199 and a 10-inch version with a bamboo back for $249. The Echo Show has a seven-inch screen and costs $229.
Google Assistant-powered smart display devices can be used in vertical and horizontal modes.
Naturally, Google makes it a point to explain that Assistant-powered smart displays will run YouTube, which the company pulled from Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV in retaliation for Amazon's decision to not carry Google products on its shopping site. In December, Amazon resumed carrying Google's Chromecast after a two-year absence.
Google Assistant-powered smart displays will let you do everything from check your schedule, to get directions, which you can then send directly to your smartphone. You'll also be able to check the weather, look up things like cooking directions and more.
Assistant in the car
Beyond smart displays, Google says it's also bringing Assistant to cars via Android Auto. The service will let you do things like pull up your Spotify playlists, navigate using Waze and, in the future, order Starbucks and reserve parking spots.
At first, you'll need to pair your smartphone with your car to use the feature, but Google says it's working with vehicle manufacturers to integrate Assistant directly into their vehicles' infotainment systems.
Google Assistant is also coming to Android Auto this year.
Answers to questions you ask Assistant will differ from the current voice commands in Android Auto by being tailored to your existing Google preferences, rather than basic search responses.
It's worth noting that Amazon's Alexa works in vehicles, as well, and can let you do everything from remotely starting your car to adding items to your shopping list.
More speakers and headphones
Google also announced that it is bringing Assistant to a variety of new smart speakers from companies including Altec Lansing, Bang & Olufsen, iHome, JBL and Klipsch. Google says Assistant will land in a number of headphones manufactured by Jaybird, JBL, LG and Sony in the coming months.
According to Google, the headphones will offer the ability to tap one earbud to activate Assistant, similar to Apple AirPods, and control the music you're listening to, get notifications and hear and respond to messages.
From all of these announcements, it's clear Google didn't come to CES to play around. The company is set on putting its stamp on the digital assistant market and overthrowing Amazon's Alexa as the top dog. But with so many Alexa-powered devices on the market, Google still has quite a bit of work to do.
More from Dan:
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
← New devices and more: what's in store for the Google Assistant this yearNew devices and more: what's in store for the Google Assistant this year → This Swerve Drive is Almost Entirely 3D Printed


text:
Why Choose Delta
ML for Good
Delta Teaching Fellows
Delta Fellows >
Delta Fellow Profiles
Nonprofit Grants >
2019 Data Grant
Data Grants FAQ
Past Grant Recipients
Executive Director
Jonathan Wang
Jonathan graduated from UC Berkeley in 2014 and started his career in economic consulting. He now works at Uber in Data Science on the Public Policy team. Through his experiences working as a pro-bono management consultant through The Berkeley Group, he developed a passion for collaborating with social sector organizations to affect greater change. This inspired the founding of Delta Analytics which bridged Jonathan's interests in data and social impact. Outside of his work with Delta Analytics, he enjoys reading, music, and fences foil.
Director of Education Programs
Sara Hooker
Nominally Irish, Sara spent her childhood in Africa, growing up in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho and Kenya. She believes in empowering nonprofits to use data for good. She regularly teaches machine learning courses to the wider community, and will be in Nairobi, Kenya this summer helping build technical capacity in communities around the world. Her research interests include machine learning transparency and fairness, audio processing and unsupervised learning. Her prior experience in industry includes working as a recommendation engineer at Udemy, and working on anti-trust models and analysis as an economic consultant. In her spare time she loves running, exploring the coast of California and eating scones while sipping coffee in Mountain View where she lives.
Director of Operations
Cecilia Cheng
Cecilia works on the operational aspects of Delta Analytics. She has a background in economic consulting and in law; perhaps unsurprisingly, she is especially interested in the economic analysis of judicial processes and how data can be used to make legal ideas more robust. In her spare time, she travels, sings, and passively takes credit for cooking from a mix. Cecilia is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Yale Law School.
Director of Fellowship Experience
Taylor Hines
Taylor graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics and statistics. He currently works as an economist at Compass Lexecon.
Director of Projects
Takeo Hiraki
Takeo graduated from UC Berkeley in 2014 with a degree in Business Administration. He previously worked on the Strategic Finance team at Uber and currently works as a Product Manager at Dote Inc. While attending Berkeley, Takeo worked with a variety of nonprofits as a pro-bono consultant with Net Impact, where he found that there was a wide gap between expectations of how nonprofits should use data, and the resources that are readily available to them. Outside of work Takeo enjoys hiking and traveling.
Partnerships Lead
Anna Shen
Anna graduated from UC Berkeley in 2014 with a degree in Political Science with a concentration in Empirical Methods and Quantitative Analysis. She is currently the User Acquisition Manager at a healthcare startup called Curology. She first became interested in pursuing data for good when she learned about the Camden Coalition in one of her public policy courses: Dr. Jeffrey Brenner stumbled upon the realization that the majority of healthcare costs in Camden were originating from just 10% of the population. Using this data, Brenner developed a technique called hotspotting that allowed him to identify these at risk individuals and follow up with preventative care, reducing overall healthcare costs in Camden by over 40% in a single year. From then on she was convinced that data was key to identifying and solving problems. After that course she became involved in Berkeley's Measure D, the nation's first tax on soda which passed in 2014, and conducted the initial public survey on the groundbreaking measure. She believes data can empower communities and transform lives. In her free time she likes to do yoga.
Program Manager, Educational Programs
Amanda Su
Amanda works on problems in health outcomes research. She previously worked in economic consulting, focusing on designing surveys and modeling market structures. In 2017, Amanda helped co-found the Teaching Fellows program at Delta Analytics to increase accessibility to data education. Amanda is broadly interested in projects related to healthcare, immigration, education, and policy.
Curriculum Development Lead
Hannah K. Song
Hannah is a Research Fellow at Columbia Law with an emphasis on employing text analysis and Natural Language Processing methods in economic topics. She has previously worked in economic consulting and graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in Economics and Rhetoric. Hannah is passionate about finding quantitative solutions to problems in mental health, poverty, and criminal justice. In her free time she enjoys trail running and reading science fiction.
Code Lead
Brian Spiering
Dr. Brian Spiering is passionate about teaching programming (primarily Python), Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP). He is currently a computer science professor at the University of San Francisco. He was previously a Data Science Instructor at Galvanize. Brian is active in the San Francisco tech community through volunteering and mentoring.
2018 Project Leads
Sean is the project lead for Career Village.
Sean graduated from USC in 2011 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Sean is a data scientist with a defense contractor focusing on applying machine learning to improve cybersecurity for government agencies. This is Sean's second year with Delta Analytics. Last year, he was a fellow working on a project with the Rainforest Connection. Sean's favorite part about Delta Analytics is the community of talented data scientists and engineers working with great nonprofit partners to foster positive change in the world. Outside of work, Sean enjoys tasting coffee, whiskey, and running foolishly long distances in the mountains
of California.
Anna is the project lead for Open Media Foundation.
Anna graduated from MIT in 2009 with a degree in aerospace engineering. After working as a data analyst and data scientist with a few companies she found her way to Intel where she is researching deep learning algorithms for natural language processing. She is passionate about finding the most reliable and understandable way of letting an end user learn more about their data and loves applying these techniques for social good. Outside of work, Anna enjoys dancing, hiking, reading, and spending time with her husband and cats.
Jennifer is the project lead for Medic Mobile.
Jennifer is a Senior Fellow in the Singapore Ministry of Health's Office for Healthcare Transformation. In that role, she provides advice on the design and evaluation of systems-level innovations in the promotion of good health, prevention of illnesses, and the delivery of care. She also does pro bono consulting on success metrics, program improvement, and program evaluation. Areas of focus include health, education, job training, and housing. Previously, Jennifer held a variety of positions managing analytics for healthcare organizations. She received an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University, an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. In her spare time, she likes to read and travel.
Aniruddha is the project lead for Mission Economic Development Agency.
Ani grew up in Kolkata, India, and received graduate degrees in economics from the Indian Statistical Institute and Northwestern University. He currently lives in Berkeley and works as an economic consultant in Oakland, where he oversees projects related to antitrust litigation, and mergers and acquisitions. He is passionate about pushing cities to build more housing, so that more people can experience the joys of living in a vibrant metropolis. In his spare time, he enjoys going to the theater, cooking, woodworking, and walking around listening to podcasts. If you spot him staring at a plaque on the side of an unusual building, come and say hi. He might tell you a long story about a "fascinating" piece of trivia that he just learned.
Hannah is the project lead for BUILD.
Hannah is passionate about harnessing data toward social good, in areas such as poverty, mental health, and public policy. Hannah currently works as an Analyst at Analysis Group, an economic consulting firm. In her free time she enjoys trail running and reading science fiction.
Alice is the project lead for City Year.
Alice has always had an interest to learn more about how she could donate her time and skill to make an impact in the space of education, women and underprivileged children. This notion has led her to volunteer as a prject lead for Delta Analytics. Alice currently works full time at Genentech as a Senior Business Process Manager. In her free time she enjoys traveling, hot yoga and running.
Sara and Steven are joint project leads for Rainforest Connection.
Sara is a Data Scientist at Udemy, an edtech company devoted to lifelong learning. She is the Executive Director at Delta. She loves applying deep learning technology for good.
Steven and Sara are joint project leads for Rainforest Connection.
Steven is passionate about the environment and thrilled to see Rainforest Connection using machine learning to make an impact. Steven works full-time at Stitch Fix as a data platform engineer, and likes to play guitar in his free time.
Andrew is the project lead for Samasource. He is our first project lead that also works with our grant recipient full time as a project manager.
Andrew is passionate about leveraging data to increase efficacy of social sector strategies. Andrew currently works at Samasource, managing projects in Kenya, Uganda, and India, while also tying Samasource's business operations data to impact metrics. There are very few activities Andrew loves more than eating avocados.
Karla is the project lead for Botanic Gardens Conservation International.
Karla is the PL for BGCI and is looking forward to contributing to the future of trees on our planet. She is an independent contractor who works often with HyperArts Web Design building tools for different types of companies. She has an MBA and is interested in all kinds of things.
Ajay is the project lead for TechnoServe, a non-profit which is a second time around Delta Grant Recipient.
Ajay is passionate about leveraging data to create impact beyond his day job at Google. Ajay is in product marketing at Google, working on the Cloud business. In his free time, he enjoys trying new wines, tennis, hiking in the Bay Area, and baking cakes.
Roberto is the project lead for Social Justice Collaborative.
Roberto is enthusiastic about making the world a better place, both finding data driven solution to social impact problems and also helping people along the way. Roberto works as a Senior Data Scientist at Netflix. He was previously on the data science team at Stitch fix, and he enjoys watching movies and shows, playing video games and going out with friends in his free time.
View our Prior Project Leads
© 2019 Delta Analytics, a 501(c)(3) non-profit [Tax ID 47-4911804].


text:
Exxon, Valero rebound, energy stocks up
Steve Gelsi
Chesapeake CEO rebuts article posing questions about shale gas
VLO
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Energy stocks rebounded Monday, with shares of Valero Energy Corp. bouncing back from recent losses, despite lower crude oil prices.
Energy stocks drew strength from the broad equities market, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.38% moved up by 109 points by the end of the day.
Within the 30-stock index, energy stocks Exxon Mobil XOM, +1.98% and Chevron Corp. CVX, +2.63% rose 1.5% and 1% respectively.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK, +2.05% shares fought their way back from negative territory to end about flat, as the company issued a rebuttal to a New York Times article that posed questions about domestic shale gas production and reserve estimates.
The NYSE Arca Oil Index (XOI) rose 0.6% to 1,236. Component Valero Energy Corp. VLO, +3.84% rose 2.2%, after losing ground in recent sessions.
The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index (XNG) rose 0.4% to close at 651. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index OSX, +0.36% rose about 0.3% to 250.
In energy futures, crude oil for August delivery CL1Q dropped 55 cents to settle at $90.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. See: Futures Movers for more on crude oil prices.
After moving into negative territory earlier in the day, energy stocks in the S&P 500 SPX, +0.81% collectively advanced by 0.5%, lagging the 0.9% rise in the broad index.
Raw footage of New Mexico wildfire
Chesapeake Energy CHK, +2.05% ended the session about flat, closing at $28 a share.
CEO Aubrey McClendon sought to rebut to a Times article entitled, "Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid Natural Gas Rush."
It contained emails and comments from energy industry players and analysts who raised questions about whether natural gas is as easy and inexpensive to extract from shale as companies are saying.
In a statement issued late Sunday, McClendon said Chesapeake's reserve accounting techniques are "strong and have stood the test of time for decades."
It's "ludicrous to allege that shale gas wells are underperforming as we sit awash in natural gas, with natural gas prices less than half of what they averaged in 2008," McClendon said.
Southern Union SUG, +0.49% shares fell 0.6% to $39.63 after big gains on Friday. Analysts at Gimme Credit said two rival offers for the pipeline firm amount to an apples verses orange comparison. The Williams Cos. WMB, -0.22% all cash bid of $39 a share, plus assumption of debt is attractive in its simplicity, analysts said. The earlier bid from Energy Transfer Equity LP ETE, -3.57% will help two key officer shareholders to defer taxable gains and provide them with five-year consulting deals.
"Our conclusion is that Williams, or anyone else offering a higher, clean, all-cash offer is probably going to win this contest," analyst Philip Adams said.
Also Monday, MDU Resources Group Inc. MDU, -0.54% said it expects second-quarter earnings to come in at the low end of its forecast as a result of production disruptions in the face of bad weather in the U.S. The company continues to expect 2011 earnings of $1.05 to $1.30 a share.
However, management lowered its 2011 production forecasts because rain and flooding have hampered operations in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Bakken area, the Bismarck, N.D.-based company said.
"Like other producers, a number of wells were shut in at various times, and development efforts have been slowed," the company said.
MDU now expects 1% to 5% oil production growth for this year, down from its earlier range of 5% to 10%. MDU also anticipates that natural gas production will fall 8% to 12%, wider than its earlier estimated drop of 4% to 8%.
MDU also said it paid an undisclosed price for 20,000 acres of leaseholds in the Bakken region of North Dakota.
Shares of MDU Resources rose 0.2%.
Barron's: Big Contrarian Investor Sold Apple, Intel, and Microsoft Stock. Here's What It Bought.
Hexavest of Montreal slashed each of its positions in Apple, Intel, and Microsoft stock, and initiated a small position in electric-vehicle firm Nio in the fourth quarter.
GM stock soars toward another record after Microsoft partnership on driverless cars
AMC Entertainment stock rockets on very heavy volume, after issuing of $100 million in notes due 2026


Going abroad and finally packing bags, we have to choose carefully what to bring, here are some pointers for travelling to Dubai.
Filipino food and stuff are readily available in the city. I put that first, because some of us are very particular with our own food and things, I know I am. So don't worry, delicacies, specialties and what not (tuyo, tinapa, daing, balut and more) it's all here in Dubai.
In terms of medication - if you are on maintenance, ensure to bring the prescription, especially when you bought it in the Philippines. Rather than this, I can't think of anything that will make a huge difference in terms of stuff from the Philippines. With few clothes and important documents, anyone will survive in Dubai.
It's more significant to be aware of WHAT NOT TO BRING. By all means, avoid bringing banned items into the country.
The UAE government prohibits drugs, narcotics and chemicals and before you enter the UAE, you are advised to take all precaution to ensure that you do not carry such substances; either in person, your luggage or in medicines you may be carrying. Strict penalties include imprisonment followed by deportation.
Other banned items include pornographic material, non Islamic religious pamphlets for missionary activities, fireworks, ivory, weapons & ammunition, chemical and organic fertilizers, laser pens, radar jammers/other unauthorized communication devices, endangered animal species, and any objects, sculptures, paintings, books or magazines which do not adhere to the religious and moral values of the UAE.
Adults coming in through Dubai Airport are permitted to purchase cigarettes and alcohol (only non-Muslims), as per Dubai Customs laws. As per UAE regulations, inbound and outbound travelers also need to declare any cash in excess of AED 100,000.
Do ensure that your medicine does not contain a banned or restricted substance. If your medicine contains any banned or restricted substance, it is advisable not to carry them on your flight/travel into the UAE. However, if for medical or emergency reasons, you need to carry any medicines, please ensure that you have a medical prescription from a UAE-licensed doctor, or if treatment was undertaken abroad, you must carry both a doctor's prescription as well as a detailed medical report, both of which should be suitable attested. You are not permitted to bring more than three month's supply of medicine, as per guidelines of Ministry of Health. Besides the narcotics listed, all other recreational drugs including cocaine, heroin, cannabis and opiates and its derivatives are banned. Be careful of carrying in poppy seeds which are banned, so avoid accidentally carrying bakery products that might contain such seeds.
Also banned is qat leaf, betel leaf or nuts, niswar, gutkha, which while admissible in some countries is not permitted in the UAE. Do also keep in mind that on your flight out from any UAE airport, you need to comply with new regulations regarding liquids in your hand luggage, which should be contained within a transparent re-sealable plastic bag of not more than 1 litre capacity. Medicines and baby foods can be carried in your checked in luggage, but if you need medicines during your flight, you can place in your hand luggage, provided you have documentary evidence to prove that it is your medication.


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Category: Bullying of Gender Variant Youth
Dan Ramos Removed as Bexar County Chair
By John Dean Domingue, TCRR Correspondent
[Full disclosure—John Dean Domingue is an organizer within the Direct Action Network of San Antonio (DANSA), an organization intimately involved in the Dan Ramos story.]
Tonight, in a 104-5 vote, the Bexar County Democratic Party County Executive Committee (BCDP CEC) removed Dan Ramos as the chair of the party after homophobic and racist slurs uttered by the former chair in March of this year.
In a comment on one of the original news stories about Dan Ramos while the story was still developing, Dan Graney wrote, "Such remarks by a party official are totally unbecoming the office to which he was elected." Graney, along with CEC precinct chair Dee Villarrubia, led the effort to remove Ramos from his position.
The sustained and difficult effort to remove Ramos included holding a vote to determine if he should go to trial by the party, trying him in absentia and rendering a guilty verdict, summoning a majority quorum (which has not happened since 2009), and voting for his official removal.
"The removal of Dan Ramos as Chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party marks a turning point for the civil rights movement in Texas. No longer will our community allow social diseases like homophobia and racism to infect the diverse people of San Antonio," said Jay Morris, the founder of DANSA, which has been organizing to remove Ramos since his initial comments.
The next step of the process will be to elect a replacement within 20 days of the ouster vote.
mopress	Bullying of Gender Variant Youth, LGBT Rights	Leave a comment May 4, 2011 1 Minute
Bexar County Dem Chairman Creates Rift with Comments
[Full disclosure—John Dean Domingue is an organizer with the Direct Action Network of San Antonio (DANSA), an organization intimately involved in the Dan Ramos story.]
The Bexar County Democratic Party (BCDP) has been in an uproar attempting to remove the party's chair, Dan Ramos, who has been spewing anti-LGBT, anti-black, and anti-disability rhetoric coupled with continuous refusals to apologize or resign for almost two months.
On March 11th, Ramos gave an interview [1] to the San Antonio Current in which he compared the Stonewall Democratic Party, which represents LGBT rights, to termites, the Tea Party, and Nazis, and said, "[they're] just like the blacks . . . they're American, but you can't get your way just because you're black."
The next week, on the morning of March 17th, Ramos held a press conference [2] , during which he reiterated almost word-for-word his statement about black Americans and said about homosexuals, "Look: this is not natural. This is like a kid who was born with a polio leg, you can't kill him and you can't sweep him under the rug," implying that parents of disabled children should want to kill or hide their children and ignoring the fact that polio is not a congenital disease.
The San Antonio community, along with other communities, became outraged over these statements and immediately began to organize against Ramos. On the same day as Ramos's press conference, the Direct Action Network of San Antonio [3] (DANSA) along with the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio [4] (SDSA) organized a protest demanding Ramos's resignation outside of a fundraiser where the chair was thought likely to be that evening. Although Ramos did not attend, the activists seemed to have successfully communicated, through their ca. dozen attendees and inspirational signs, their message that Ramos's rhetoric could neither be tolerated in San Antonio nor anywhere else.
Ramos's judgments about blacks and gays ignited the passion—and in some instances, rage—of many San Antonio residents. In a JaySays.com blog entry [5] , DANSA founder Jay Morris writes, "In my household, only 50% of the gays are white, Anglo and blue eyed. In my closest circle of friends, that drops significantly – to roughly 1 out of 10." Morris writes in another entry [6], "I find the comment [about blacks] terribly offensive and degrading to the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks, and many more heroes of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement."
Within a couple weeks, literally dozens of organizations (both political and non-political) and elected officials called for the resignation of Ramos [7] , including Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, as well as Boyd Richie, the chair of the Texas Democratic Party. By the end of March, almost 60 organizations and officials joined in. And then came the April 4th BCDP County Executive Committee (CEC) meeting, and Rally for Resignation.
The BCDP called its usual BCDP CEC meeting for April 4th at Luby's Cafeteria on Main Street and put a proposal on the agenda to try Ramos for a violation of Robert's Rules of Order, the set of parliamentary rules that governs the group when the usual rules have no answer.
However, according to DANSA [8] , Ramos called a conflicting meeting at a different Luby's location, despite the fact that it broke party rules. DANSA reacted by organizing the Rally for Resignation, a sidewalk protest outside of the Luby's location of the conflicting meeting. About four television stations and two print media sources covered the rally's 30 or so attendees (some of whom drove from Austin and Houston), which demonstrated to the San Antonio community that the forces against Ramos were building with each successive week over which he refused to resign.
The CEC meeting held at the Main St. location of Luby's Cafeteria resulted in a vote to bring Ramos to trial by the party for his neglect. That trial took place at the Metropolitan Community Church on April 16th and ended with a unanimous guilty verdict [9] by the trial committee; however, because of the way in which the trial was announced, the verdict could not take official effect and instead acted as a recommendation by the trial committee to the BCDP CEC.
The CEC announced another meeting for May 3rd to take an official vote for the removal of Dan Ramos with a majority quorum. The CEC has not had a majority quorum since 2009, and thus would be a monumental occasion if the vote actually takes place.
[1] http://blogs.sacurrent.com/?p=6445
[2] http://www.foxsanantonio.com/newsroom/raw_news/videos/vid_124.shtml
[3] http://dansa.usfreedomring.com
[4] http://www.stonewallsanantonio.org/
[5] http://jaysays.com/2011/03/bcdramos/
[6] http://jaysays.com/2011/03/demand-for-dan-ramos-resignation-escalating-protestors-hit-the-fund-raisers/
[7] http://www.qsanantonio.com/ramos.html
[8] http://dansa.usfreedomring.com/april-5-2011-rally-for-resignation-of-dan-ramos/
mopress	Bullying of Gender Variant Youth, LGBT Rights	Leave a comment May 3, 2011 3 Minutes


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Skaggs scheduled for evangelism conference
Renowned bluegrass and country musician Ricky Skaggs will be among the speakers and musicians appearing at the 2009 Empower Evangelism Conference Feb. 16-18 at First Baptist Church of Euless.
The conference will also include music from The Booth Brothers, Charles Billingsley, Curtis Brewer, Philip Griffin, and John McKay.
The winner of 12 Grammy Awards, a veteran of 37 years in professional music and the CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1985, Skaggs is known not only as a leading ambassador of the
bluegrass genre but also as a follower of Jesus Christ.
He has performed with musical headliners such as the late Bill Monroe, Emmylou Harris, Travis Tritt, the Dixie Chicks and Bruce Hornsby.
He has spent the last decade turning out mostly bluegrass albums through his own label, Skaggs Family Records.
In September 2007, Skaggs' Kentucky Thunder band teamed up with The Whites for their first collaborative gospel album, "Salt of the Earth," which earned a Grammy earlier this year.
Vocals were shared by Skaggs, his wife, Sharon White Skaggs, sister-in-law Cheryl, and father-in-law, Buck.
Panel says Muslims must be engaged with Christian truth claims
"You can't destroy radical Islam with bombs. Sooner or later you have to take on that ideology. Someone's got to start confronting that which is motivating them," said Islam expert Jay Smith of London as he displayed a copy of the Quran, the Muslim holy book. "This is what destroys them. This book makes them do what they do."
As one of six speakers at the Inter-Faith Workshop on Islam hosted by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary last fall, Smith advocated the confrontational style of evangelism for which he is famous in England. There he participates in Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner where Christians and Muslims openly air their disagreements.
The speakers in Kansas City attempted to dismantle what they said are popular misconceptions that Islam is a religion of peace and that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
Patrick Sookhdeo of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, Sasan Tavasolli of the Outreach Foundation, Samuel Shahid of Good News for the Crescent World, as well as Midwestern President R. Philip Roberts and missions professor Robin Hadaway spoke during the workshop.
"There's not one seminary, one Bible school that's taking this on," Smith charged as he called for more thorough preparation of Christians to understand Islamic teaching and apologetics.
Roberts seized the opportunity to accept Smith's challenge, pledging further detailed studies of Islam if Smith would return to teach.
The fear of confrontation neutralizes the Christian's witness to Muslims, Smith said. Noting that some 43,000 videos attacking Christianity are available on YouTube?offered up in English from sources in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh?he found only six Christian videos challenging Islam.
Since that survey, Smith and others have uploaded dozens of films attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers to his rebuttal of Islamic beliefs. Smith said Christians cannot depend upon government to counter the Islamic convictions that are at the root of much terrorist activity. He recalled former Prime Minister Tony Blair's contention that he only saw peace and tolerance represented in the Quran after reading it three times.
"As a politician he cannot say what he knows. You can only imagine the vigilantism that would take place. He is elected to office by a constituency and many of them are Muslims. But I'm not elected to office and I don't have a constituency, save one. His name is Jesus."
Sookhdeo, referring to United Nations projections, said, "Muslims are very conscious of the idea that they will ultimately out-populate us." He factored the impact of legalized abortion to present a dismal forecast for Europe as the increasing Muslim population becomes a majority by 2022.
"The argument is made that massive labor shortages require opening doors to principally Muslim immigrants," Sookhdeo said in describing Europe's dilemma. "Haven't we killed off a whole generation? Then we will end up with a community that will ultimately destroy us. We will have reaped what we have sown. All of these things are interlinked."
He explained how the strategy of Islamization differs from the expansion of Christianity. Having served in Christian ministry for 40 years, Sookhdeo has found that missionary endeavors often lack an ecclesiology that disciples and equips believers.
"We believe what we've got to do is get out there and get as many people as possible saved and then we leave them be," Sookhdeo noted.
"Islam is very different," he said, describing provisions for meeting basic needs, particularly with the influence of Saudi money pouring into countries to build new mosques, schools, hospitals, radio and television. "Every conceivable aspect of Muslim life brings them back to the Quran, Muhammad and sharia?a set of rules, guidelines and principles that govern all of Islamic society."
He shared his frustration with media analysts who say terrorism has nothing to do with religion or ideology and more often point to "poor Muslim young people who can't get work" as the cause.
"Most of the great analysts have never read Islamic theory, the books that reveal the strategy of the doctrine of separation of parallel societies."
Sookhdeo explained the process of first creating a consciousness of Islam, requiring every woman to wear hijab to affirm her morality, and Muslims defining themselves in terms of Islamic identity. "Then they create institutions?an Islamic Legal Society or Islamic Women's Society?all based on sharia principles," Sookdheo said.
From there they approach local, regional and national governments, arguing for observance of Islamic holidays, separate space in swimming pools. "Then they begin to say, 'We are here, you mus
France: From Cross to Crescent
PARIS?It's a sight that would shatter most Americans' romanticized image of Paris.
Just a 15-minute metro ride from the trendy shops and quaint cafes of the Champs-Elysees, a virtual sea of North and West African Muslims spills out the gates of a neighborhood mosque. Like waves breaking on a beach, their bodies bend in unison as hundreds of men prostrate themselves before Allah. Their prayers are guided by an imam's Arabic incantations.
The crowd's prayer rugs cover a city block's worth of sidewalk. Tourists point and take pictures. Some French pedestrians are visibly uncomfortable as they negotiate their way around the assembly.
But the scene isn't an aberration. Instead, it's evidence of a trend that's changing the way Southern Baptists view the international mission field: Islam is expanding across Europe.
FROM CROSS TO CRESCENT
Fueled by immigration and high birthrates, the number of Muslims on the continent has tripled in the past 30 years, making Islam Europe's fastest growing religion. While European Muslims build mosques and win converts, European Christians (excluding evangelicals) are witnessing what's been called a near free-fall decline in church attendance.
Tourists make up the overwhelming majority of those crowding Notre Dame in Paris, snapping photos during Mass as if the cathedral was more museum than place of worship. Even more alarming are statistics that only 5 percent of the French own a Bible and 80 percent have never even touched one. The shift is so dramatic that many demographers now believe more people in Europe practice Islam than Christianity.
No one knows exactly how many Muslims call Europe home since most European nations don't track ethnicity or religious affiliation in census data. Guesses put the number around 20 million.
France accounts for the highest concentration of Muslims in the European Union?5 to 6 million, or about 8 percent of the population. Many entered the country as immigrants in guest-worker programs following World War II, but untold numbers have flooded France and other European nations illegally.
STRIVING FOR ACCEPTANCE
While the French government has made strides to help Muslim immigrants integrate into French society, things haven't always gone smoothly.
In 2004, a law banning Muslim girls from wearing head scarves in French public schools ignited an uproar among immigrants. A year later, riots broke out in Muslim-majority areas of Paris after the deaths of two North African teenagers. The summer of 2007 saw peaceful but public protests by West African immigrants in a dispute with the French government over papers that would allow them to remain in France legally.
Such tension drives some immigrants away from their Muslim heritage while others gravitate toward it.
Osman* is among the men worshipping outside the Paris mosque. Handsome and energetic, the 20-something works as a technician for the city's water department. Born in Paris, Osman's parents are Christians who came to France nearly 30 years ago from Togo, West Africa. But after years of struggling to assimilate into French society, Osman finally found acceptance among other West African immigrants by converting to Islam.
Yet as Christianity's presence in Europe wanes, there is hope.
SLOW BUT STEADY PROGRESS
Evangelical churches have seen slow but steady growth. In France, evangelicals numbered just 60,000 in 1940 but have climbed to nearly 500,000 today. Now about 3,000 evangelical churches worship in France?more than a third planted in the past 20 years. Immigrants are helping to swell the ranks of these churches, sometimes composing as much as 50 percent of the congregation.
Tony Lynn, a Southern Baptist missionary serving in Paris, said that most evangelical churches inside the city average 35 to 65 people on Sunday. Lynn and his wife Jamie?both from Michigan?have spent the past five years in Paris working to plant churches among the city's 100-plus unreached people groups.
Lynn said one of the biggest obstacles to the gospel is a hallowed tradition of secular humanism that the French call "laicite." Roo
Northern Lights pierce Islam's iron curtain
WESTERN EUROPE?Jonathan Hillman needed a miracle. God sent him a porta-potty truck.
The 25-year-old from First Baptist Church in Guymon, Okla., watched as police tried to ease the congestion of cars bottlenecked at the mouth of one of Europe's busiest seaports.
Hillman was among a team of Southern Baptist volunteers handing out packets of gospel materials to cars passing through the port's gates. Most of the drivers were North African Muslims headed for countries across the Mediterranean. Traffic backups like this were an answer to prayer because they bought volunteers time to offer the packets to every car.
Unfortunately for Hillman, the police were making headway. Traffic had started moving again, and cars were close to speeding past volunteers. He knew it might be the only chance for some to ever hear about Jesus.
From nowhere, a porta-potty truck lumbered into the circle that funneled cars through the port's gates and came to an abrupt stop. Horns blared. Within minutes, the truck undid more than an hour of diligent traffic direction by the police. Packets in hand, volunteers went back to work.
Hillman is one of hundreds of Southern Baptists who've taken part in Project Northern Lights to spread the Word of God across North African nations where sharing the gospel is a criminal offense.
"Very often we take for granted the availability of God's Word in the free world," said Dave Webber,* the Southern Baptist worker who runs Project Northern Lights. "The Muslim world has a very high wall around it."
The 39-year-old former pastor from Florida has spent several years serving in Northern Africa and the Middle East with his family. Home to the world's second-largest desert, the Sahara, North Africa also ranks among the planet's most spiritually barren places.
HEIGHTENED DEMAND
"Governments across North Africa absolutely prohibit the distribution of the Bible," Webber explained. "It is not illegal to own one, but it is illegal to give someone else one. The sentence for a first offense is five years in prison and over $300,000 in fines."
It's no surprise, Webber added, that such threats make the Bible and other gospel materials virtually impossible to find in these countries.
Instead of risking life and limb to distribute God's Word inside North Africa, volunteers focus on the more than 18 million North Africans living and working in Europe. Every summer, hundreds of thousands of these immigrants flow through southern Europe's ports?most returning to North Africa to visit family. Ferries carry the travelers, their cars and hopefully, the gospel, across the Mediterranean.
But the project's strategy hasn't gone unnoticed, partly due to the sheer volume of material it distributes. More than 20,000 gospel packets are given away at the ports every summer. Each includes a green, pocket-sized, French-Arabic New Testament, as well as a JESUS film DVD and other evangelical literature. Distribution totals over the project's 11-year history top 200,000 packets, making it the single largest source of New Testaments in North Africa.
"This project makes the front page of newspapers in several North African countries," Webber said. "There is often instruction for people not to receive the packet."
He added with a grin, "That usually makes them want it all the more."
Receptivity at the port ranges from 20 percent to 60 percent day to day, a difference Webber credits to spiritual warfare rather than the stereotype that Muslims are hostile to the gospel.
"Typically the response at the port is far more favorable than people would imagine…. Even if they disagree with what we're doing, they're usually very polite."
Several years ago, a North African man passed through the ports and was offered a gospel packet by a Northern Lights volunteer. He took it home where he studied the New Testament and watched the JESUS film.
The man was considered a hajj, a title given to those fulfilling one of Islam's five pillars by completing a pilgrimage to Mecca. He had not only traveled to Mecca once as required by the Quran, but four times?even bringing his wife along for the journey?a mark of esteem among Muslims.
Multicultural London: 'capital of the world,' faith in flux
LONDON?On a crisp October day in London's Trafalgar Square, the solemn marble monuments of Great Britain's former empire gaze upon a curious scene:
It's "Simcha on the Square," a celebration of 350 years of Jewish life in London. Thousands gather?and not just English Jews and gentiles eager to enjoy some kosher food and traditional music. The crowd includes people of nearly every conceivable appearance and background: turban-wearing Sikhs, Indians, Chinese, Africans, Rastafarians, hipsters, bikers. They dance or tap their toes to the beat of performances by "the Jewish Elvis" and "K-Groove," a Klezmer-reggae-jazz band.
Multicultural bliss, at least for an afternoon.
Welcome to the new London. Bowler-hat London no longer exists. Nor does the London of Shakespeare, of Charles Dickens or even the 20th-century London of the Beatles. Sure, millions of tourists still visit the great sites of the old city. They still ride the double-decker red buses and flock to watch the queen and the changing of the guard.
But London is no longer really an English city; it is a world city. Set to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, it now proclaims itself the "capital of the world."
'A WORLD IN ONE CITY'
With a population of some 8.5 million people (estimates range as high as 14 million for the greater metro region), London vies with Paris as the largest city in Western Europe. Much of the world's high-powered finance flows through its gleaming office towers and great investment houses.
Population numbers and dollars, however, don't tell the true tale of London's global reach.
As a coverage by The Guardian newspaper confirmed in 2005, London has become "a world in one city." From Algerians in Finsbury Park to West Africans in Woolwich, the newspaper ranged through the alphabet, finding major and minor ethnic/language communities throughout the city: Bangladeshis, Chinese, Indians, Iranians, Jamaicans, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Poles, Russians, Somalis, Sri Lankans, Turks, Vietnamese?to name only a few groups.
London "is uncharted territory," Guardian reporter Leo Benedictus wrote. "Never have so many different kinds of people tried living together in the same place before. What some people see as the great experiment of multiculturalism will triumph or fail here….
"Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by the people of London, and the city has at least 50 non-indigenous communities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually every race, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a handful of Londoners."
Since its earliest beginnings as Londinium, a Roman garrison town built in 43 A.D., this great metropolis of merchants and empire builders has attracted pilgrims, missionaries, immigrants, traders, colonial subjects and invaders. But the human waves that have washed over London in the last generation or two have brought the greatest cultural change since the Normans invaded in 1066.
A few glimpses:
?Emerge from the London Underground train station in Southall and you'll think you're in New Delhi. Temples, mosques, south Asian restaurants and markets dominate the area. On some streets there isn't a white face in sight. Parts of Hackney feel like Ho Chi Minh City; parts of Wembley feel like Mogadishu. Other areas look and sound like Moscow (at least 250,000 Russians live in Britain) or Istanbul (more than 150,000 Turks and Kurds).
?The largest Sikh and Hindu temples outside India are in London. Hundreds of mosques, large and small, serve as many as 1.3 million Muslim Londoners.
?An estimated 600,000 Poles have flooded London over the last several years, the largest of successive waves of Russians, Albanians, Bulgarians and other Eastern Europeans streaming into the city.
Some of London's ethnic communities are insulated, even isolated. Others freely mix and mingle with white Britons and other immigrants. Their children mingle even more, creating new cultural variations.
"When we first arrived in London, you'd see teens from many different nations walking home from school and hanging out?all calling themselves 'Brits'?not English, but 'Brits,'" said missionary Patrick Sims*, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board's city strategist and team leader for London. "Now there's been a move to forming gangs. Drugs and crime are on the rise. We can't tackle that issue on a large scale, but we can come alongside teenagers and share the hope of Christ."
U.S.-Muslim engagement seen as key to security, prosperity
WASHINGTON?Deep misunderstandings between the United States and Muslim communities around the world are causing serious problems and solving them will require constructing "bridges of understanding," says the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"Polls show there is a huge lack of understanding of Americans in the Muslim world. We need to broaden and deepen the understanding on both sides," Richard Land said. "The U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project will galvanize every aspect of American society to engage the Muslim society."
The U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project is a broad bipartisan coalition that recently completed 18 months of extensive research into the challenge of reversing extremism, increasing international security and improving relations with the Muslim community. The project's 33-member leadership group included, among others, the ERLC's Land, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Texas congressman Steve Bartlett, and former Minnesota
congressman Vin Webber.
The group, which had 11 Muslim-American members and was supported in its work by Search for Common Ground and the Consensus Building Institute, held a briefing Sept. 24 on its report?entitled "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World"?at the Rayburn House Office Building and a press conference at the National Press Club.
"This initiative is a serious, comprehensive, bipartisan effort that seeks to address a critical problem: The world Muslim community misunderstands Americans and Americans misunderstand them," Land said in a written endorsement. "This initiative lays out a detailed and comprehensive plan to vastly decrease that misunderstanding through a multi-faceted approach that will build constructive bridges of mutual understanding between Americans and Muslim world."
The group's plan calls for significant shifts in American foreign policy to create a safer U.S. and a better world and suggests a "new blueprint" on how to reconstruct America's relationship with Muslims around the world, said Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Project leadership has called for the next president of the U.S. to recognize the importance of improving U.S.-Muslim relations in his inaugural speech.
"We hope this work will be taken seriously in the presidential campaign," Heintz said. "We look forward to working with the next administration, because this is going to take a significant presidential leadership and ongoing leadership from the Congress of the U.S."
The report suggests a "four pillar approach" for U.S.-Muslim engagement: 1) diplomacy as the "primary tool for resolving conflicts involving Muslim countries," 2) efforts "to improve governance and promote civic participation in Muslim countries, and advocate for principles rather than parties in their internal political contests," 3) an emphasis on "job-creating growth in Muslim countries," and 4) a focus on improving "respect and understanding between Americans and Muslims around the world."
"The leadership group believes that we must elevate diplomacy for conflict resolution," said Land, who is also a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "The leadership group, the U.S. military and the U.S. public all recognize the limits of military force and the need for a more comprehensive set of tools to resolve conflicts with and within Muslim countries. Military force may be necessary but is not sufficient alone to defeat extremists in Muslim countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan or prevent attacks elsewhere," he continued.
"As the late, the great Winston Churchill once said, 'To jaw-jaw is … better than war-war,'" Land said.
Land said U.S. military leaders are not averse to diplomatic, political and economic initiatives to aid in the isolation and defeat of Islamic extremists.
"By changing our approach, we will also help reverse the widespread perception of Muslims around the world that the U.S. is engaged in a 'war on Islam,'" Land said.
Contrary to popular belief, most Muslims are not supportive of extremists and terrorists, said Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America. Like most Americans, they desire to experience democracy and freedom in their countries and communities.
Both Mattson and Land noted Islamic terrorists have killed more Muslims than non-Muslims.
"At best, only five percent of the worldwide Muslim community supports terrorists," Land said. "In effect what you have in these terrorists groups is a 'death cult' that is taken root within Islam.
"For instance, in Iraq 12 uniformed Iraqi police and military have been killed by terrorists for every one American uniformed service person who has been killed. These Iraqis have been killed because they refused to knuckle under to this death cult's radical and twisted interpretation of Islam," he said. "Americans need to understand this is a gross distortion of Islam as a whole," Land stres
Coffee shop prayer yields fruit in London
LONDON?Patrick and Sarah Sims*, International Mission Board team leaders for London, believe in practicing what they preach.
"Our job is to engage the unengaged," Sims said. "We can't ask our team members to do something we're not modeling ourselves."
The question, during their transition to a new strategy, was this: "In the mind-boggling ethnic kaleidoscope of London, which unengaged community should we approach?"
They had been working to reach south Asians in a Sikh-dominated area of west London. Sarah was teaching English as a Second Language when she was asked to take over a class for Somali women. More than 150,000 Somalis have streamed into London as refugees and asylum seekers since civil war began tearing apart their homeland in the early 1990s. Proud, clan-oriented, wary of outsiders, strongly Muslim, they have a reputation as one of the most self-contained groups in the city.
"I was a little afraid, because I came into this class and there were all these black women, covered head to toe" in all-enveloping burqas (an outer garment worn by some Islamic women to conceal their body), Sarah recounted. "But once I got to know them, they were sweet and outgoing. They are very devout Muslims, but they are open to being friends. After about six months, everywhere I looked I saw Somali women. I really felt like God was saying to me personally, 'This is where your focus needs to be.'"
That doesn't mean it was easy. Despite their openness, the Somali women were initially suspicious of Sarah's intentions. But she persisted. In England, she was a struggling foreigner like them?common ground for building relationships. She began to be invited into Somali homes for tea, to learn about their lives and struggles.
Patrick, meanwhile, tried seeking out Somali men. "It was like running into a brick wall," he admitted. You don't just "make friends" with Somalis who have no reason to know you?much less trust you.
One day he was drinking coffee with a co-worker in a cafe when four distinguished-looking Somali men walked in. "I said, 'Let's pray and ask God that I can meet those guys,'" Patrick recounted. As they finished praying, the men were leaving the cafe.
Four months later, he spotted a new Somali community center around the corner. "After going in there and introducing myself three times, I met Farah*. Sure enough, he was one of those guys we had prayed for," Patrick said. "Now he is my best friend. He is basically the elder Somali in this part of town. Everybody respects him; everybody meets with him."
Somalis in London face enormous challenges: educating their children, finding jobs, healing broken families, recovering from the trauma of fleeing their homeland, countering the radical Islamic groups that try to recruit Somali youths. Patrick now works with Farah and other Somali leaders to help in practical ways?including efforts to bring positive change to Somalia itself.
Farah is the key. One day while driving with Patrick, Farah unexpectedly began reflecting on his own beliefs. "You know, I believe in Jesus," he said. "I believe in God. But I struggle with this idea that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in one"?a common stumbling block for Muslim seekers.
Patrick: "I just drove and listened; I didn't say a word. We got back to his office and he said, 'Hey, do you want to go and have a coffee?' So guess where we ended up? Back at the very coffee shop where we had prayed I would meet these guys. I shared the gospel and Farah listened to all of it."
Farah hasn't embraced it?yet?but the discussion goes on. Farah believes all Somalis should have the right to understand and freely choose their own religious beliefs. Perhaps 300 of the 13 million or more Somalis scattered worldwide are followers of Jesus.
"This is a man of influence, a man of peace, a man who desires to see better days for his people," Patrick said. "He has introduced me into the community, and it was all through prayer that our relationship grew.
"Prayer is a lot more powerful than we really believe."
Texas missionaries to Muslims move from fear to friendship
As SBTC Mission Service Corps missionaries, a husband-and-wife team named Carl and Kerry (last names withheld for security reasons) recall their initial fear of working with Muslims in North Texas.
"When we first came to Dallas, we were scared of them," Carl, a former music minister, recalled. However, the fear of working with an unknown culture soon dissipated.
"Our view of Muslims has changed tremendously," Carl said. "We find them the most delightful, hospitable people you'll ever meet. They're some of our very best friends."
These newfound Muslim friends are international refugees?individuals and families who flee their country because of conflicts such as war, persecution and ethnic cleansing. Displaced from their homeland and often aided by the State Department, refugees to America arrive with little or no personal possessions.
They must transition to a new way of life quickly, forced to learn a new language and secure a job within months of their arrival. They must learn how to use public transportation and shop for groceries as well as adapt to cultural differences.
"A lot of our ministry is in meeting those needs," Kerry said. "And while we meet those needs, we develop relationships with them. They're very open to it because somebody's there to help them and love them."
The couple teaches English classes, provide transportation and aid refugees in finding employment.
As friendships develop, Carl and Kerry turn conversations to spiritual matters.
"The key is not coming in trying to tell them what they need to hear but asking questions about what they believe and just being friends," Carl said.
"Through asking questions, many of them become open. They want to talk about their faith, and some of them ask questions about our faith. We've found that they are very open to discuss it."
Carl and Kerry evangelize through chronological Bible storying, Bible study groups in apartment complexes and "Jesus Film" viewings for groups in their native languages.
"When they see Jesus and who he was and what he did, it really impacts them," Kerry said.
While most Muslim refugees are open to learning about Jesus, social and cultural persecution from within the Muslim community often dissuades them from making a commitment to Christ.
Some pray to receive Christ but refuse the public testimony of baptism for fear of harassment from their Muslim family and friends.
Sharing the gospel with Muslims does not generally produce immediate results, but this does not discourage the couple. "It takes a lot of time," Kerry said. "But the more we work with Muslims, the more I realize that it's all about God and the Holy Spirit at work. We're just messengers, and the spiritual work is done by God."
Carl and Kerry also speak to churches and groups about how they can minister to refugees. They encourage churches to adopt refugee families and train Christians how to teach English language classes.
For those concerned about their ability to teach English, Kerry offers reassurance.
"It's not about English. It's about relationships. We use English to build a bridge into their hearts so that through those relationships, we can share Jesus with them."
The couple believes every Christian can minister to Muslims, be they neighbors, co-workers or international refugees. Along with prayer, they recommend developing friendships, asking genuine questions, and pointing them to Jesus.
Carl expects Christians will experience the same transition from fear to friendship when they begin to minister to Muslims.
"People just need to realize that all you have to do is be a friend, ask a lot of questions, show a lot of love, and you can have a ministry to a Muslim family."
SBTC Empower Evangelism Conf. to focus on Holy Spirit power in fueling an awakening
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." ?Ephesians 1:13-14
EULESS?"Empowered: The Holy Spirit in You," based on Ephesians 1:13-14, is the theme for the 2009 Empower Evangelism Conference, scheduled Feb. 16-18 at First Baptist Church of Euless. The annual SBTC event will feature notable preachers such as John Bisagno and Jonathan Falwell as well as renowned country/bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs and popular author and Christian apologist Lee Strobel.
"The Empower Evangelism Conference is designed with the prayerful intent that God would revive our love and zeal for our Savior and for the people for whom Jesus came to seek and save," explained SBTC Evangelism Director Don Cass. "The theme, 'The Holy Spirit in You,' based on Ephesians 1:13-14, reminds us of our identity and the guarantee because of the Holy Spirit in us, of our redemption and inheritance promised through Jesus Christ.
"It is my prayer that God will use this conference to begin the awakening so many of us have been praying for. If you miss a single session you may miss experiencing God's explosion of power and a special word from him just for you. I urge you to be present for every session."
The women's session will begin at 1:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16, and will include speakers Rhonda Kelley, wife of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley; Mary Jo Sharp, a NAMB certified apologetics instructor; Jan Silvious, a popular women's speaker and former co-host with Kay Arthur of the "Precepts Live" radio program; and musician and speaker Dawn Smith-Jordan.
In addition to Bisagno, Falwell and Strobel, conference preachers will be Sammy Gilbreath; Will Graham; Don Harms; Robert Jeffress; Fred Luter; Jimmy Pritchard; Ed Stetzer; Jerry Spencer; and Jerry Vines (see bios on next page). In addition to Skaggs, other musicians include Charles Billingsley, The Booth Brothers; Curtis Brewer; Philip Griffin; and John McKay. Dramatist Clyde Annandale will also bring Bible characters to life through his award-winning acting. Annandale played King David for Benjamin Netanyauh at the 50th anniversary of the statehood of Israel.
For more information on the Empower Evangelism Conference, visit the website sbtexas.com/evangelism or call the SBTC's evangelism department at 817-552-2500 or toll-free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC).
Baptist church, non-profit join forces in senior housing project
COMO?Pastor Randy Boyte has a tender spot in his heart for retired ministers who spend their golden years without much to live on. He saw his father, a pastor, struggle through a lean retirement.
"If it had not been for the Southern Baptist Annuity Board (now GuideStone Financial Resources), my mother would have been in dire straits," said Boyte, who is using his experience with his parents to help other retired Southern Baptists?pastors and laymen alike?have a secure place to live.
Through a generous and innovative grant program from the Reno, Nev.-based Elder LifeCare Foundation, a non-profit founded in 2002 to improve quality of life for seniors, Elm Ridge Church in Como will oversee the construction of up to 90 homes for retired Southern Baptist couples over age 70 at no cost to them?except for utilities?for the rest of their lives. Utility costs will be minimal, he said, because the homes will use solar energy.
Boyte said Elder LifeCare Director Steve Patterson, whom he has known for 20 years, contacted him about the project, also jointly sponsored by Coleman & Co. of Branson, Mo. Elder LifeCare has similar ventures in Australia, Canada and Europe.
If nursing care is ever needed, in-home, 24-hour care will be provided as long as residents live, he said, and plans call for a 3,500-square-foot medical facility on the property.
The homes will be built on 90 acres the church purchased 18 months ago adjacent to its worship facilities, and Boyte said he has 10 couples qualified for the 2,000-square-foot homes so far. Boyte and Associate Pastor Vern Hawkins are seeking another 80 qualified couples. The program does not require a couple be impoverished, he noted.
Qualifying Southern Baptist couples must share biblical values. The intent is to build a
community of like-minded believers, Boyte said.
"The church hopes to bless any retired Southern Baptist pastors or retired Southern Baptist laymen couples who are interested in quality living in a gated community and also avail themselves to some added health benefits not normally covered," Boyte said. "The qualifying couples can of course come from Hopkins County, but could qualify to be a resident in the development regardless of where they may live at the present time."
The first group of residents will get to choose their floor plans and interior colors, he added.
Phase 1 will include the construction of 30 homes, with two additional phases planned on its land off State Highway 11 near Como, about 80 miles east of Dallas, Boyte explained.
Elder LifeCare Foundation will provide the housing as an insurable interest benefit, with residents granting the foundation the right to purchase a life insurance policy on them with the foundation as the beneficiary.
"They will never have to sign over any bank accounts or other properties they own," Boyte explained. "This a God-send because this was the land we bought with a vision to bless retired Southern Baptist retirees.
"The benefit for retirees is free housing, solar-paneled energy, and all they have to pay are utilities on this house. But I believe the most awesome part of this is these couples will never, ever have to think about going into the nursing home because of 24-hour, in-home nursing care."
For more information on the project, contact Boyte or Hawkins at 903-488-3706.


"Following the massive destruction brought to Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe by Cyclone Idai, Rev Dennis Tongoi who leads the Gafcon Sustainable Development Network put Gafcon leaders in touch with one another and contact was made with Mozambican Bishop Vicente Msosa, who was present at Gafcon 2018 in Jerusalem.
– GAFCON's Membership Development Secretary, Canon Charles Raven, shares about the disaster unfolding in Africa.
"An entire community was submerged when people woke up on Saturday morning. Many have been left homeless and numerous others have either been confirmed dead or are still missing" said the urgent call to Anglican Aid from Tawanda Masango, newly returned to Zimbabwe from Sydney.


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Q: Autotools - tar This does not look like a tar archive After running make distcheck I get the message that I have successfully built the package and is ready for distribution. If I untar the tar.gz with tar -zxvf hello-0.2.tar.gz it successfully extracts all of its contents. However, when I try to extract them in different machines I get:
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

The weird thing is that it was working before.
On the machine I'm trying to build the package, I've updated my automake  1.10.1, autoconf  2.61, and tar  1.20 to automake  1.11.1, autoconf  2.65, and tar 1.23 and still the same issue.
Any ideas what could be the problem?

A: Actually this could happen when the server you download from applies another round of GZip and the client you used to download the file doesn't read/respect the HTTP Content-Encoding header and stores the HTTP payload as it was on the wire.
Although the file appears to have only the extension .tar.gz it is in fact .tar.gz.gz. after you run the gunzip once the file gets the extension .tar only but still this time running the tar command tar xf hello-0.2.tar recognizes the GZip format and implicitly runs the file through gunzip one more time before extracting.
You can check this by running head hello-02.tar.gz and head hello-02.tar. GZip is a very binary format, whereas tar is quite human readable. If the .tar file appears "too binary" you have a doubly encoded file on your hands.

A: The problem is not on the build machine; the problem is on the target machines.
Not all versions of tar automatically recognize the decompression to apply to a compressed tar file.  Given that gunzip followed by tar does work, then the tar on your target machine is one such.  The versions of tar on the mainstream Unix systems (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris) do not recognize compressed tar files automatically.  Those on Linux and MacOS X do.
Note that you can use:
gzip -dc hello-0.2.tar.gz | tar -xf -

to avoid creating the intermediate uncompressed file.


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About I.Sicily
Su I.Sicily
Data and data categories in I.Sicily
A note for new users
How to use I.Sicily
I.Sicily: publications & presentations
I.Sicily
~ Building a digital corpus of Sicilian inscriptions
A progress report
Posted by Jonathan Prag in Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on A progress report
We now have 3238 records in the I.Sicily database, but we're not yet online (not long now!) – why not? The major challenge throughout this stage of the project has been moving from an old, flat Access table of metadata (i.e. information about the inscriptions: bibliography, provenance, description, classification, etc.)…
Screenshot of part of the Access table
….to the much richer and more flexible XML EpiDoc format.
Provenance information encoded in TEI-XML
There is a lot that we can add in this process: if you compare the provenance information in the table with that in the Epidoc, the former just has place names, whereas the latter has Pleiades URIs (Unique Reference Identifiers) for the ancient place names, Geonames URIs for the modern places, and specific geodecimal degree coordinates for the precise locations where known. All of this information can be added in during the conversion process (thanks to the marvellous James Cummings), and while this involves manually creating tables of this information, doing it once, e.g. for each placename, outside the main table is far quicker and simpler than adding all of this for each individual record. In deciding to use Pleiades as our primary reference for ancient place names, we have taken the opportunity to edit and improve the Pleiades data for Sicily (and sometimes the data in OpenStreetMap and Geonames as well) – the benefits are cumulative all round (thanks to Valeria Vitale for doing most of this work, and Jeffrey Becker at Pleiades for continuing support!).
The same thing can be done (and we are doing so) for many of the other types of information. The EAGLE project has generated a number of online vocabularies for many of the classifications used in epigraphy (the problem of course being that every epigrapher uses these slightly differently, or with slightly different words – and different languages – so one of the major contributions of these vocabularies has been an attempt to try to align and translate terminology). During the conversion process we are incorporating reference to the URIs for Inscription Type (e.g. honorific), Object Type (e.g. altar), Material (e.g. limestone), and Execution Technique (e.g. engraved).
In all these cases, one benefit of taking the time to do this now, is that ensures that we clean up and normalise our own data. In the long term, the holy grail is that adding in all of these references to the XML opens the door to Linked Open Data, connecting the information which we're putting online to other related datasets and resources (for an easy example of this in action, have a look at the page for Syracuse in Pleiades, and then look at all the 'Related content from Pelagios' in the frame on the right side of the page: in due course, you could expect to see I.Sicily content referenced here too).
A further key part of this process is making sure that all of our records are clearly and uniquely identifiable. Internally we can do this without difficulty, and every record (i.e. every inscription) has its unique I.Sicily number (ISic 0000). We will in turn maintain each of those identities as a URI: http://www.sicily.classics.ox.ac.uk/isicily/inscriptions/0000. But we want to make sure that those identities make sense to others and are recognisable, and crucially that they align to any existing identities for the inscriptions. Indeed, that was one of the original objectives behind the first database, collecting all the traditional bibliographic references and trying to align them to ensure that there was a single record for each inscription. But now there are multiple digital online identities too. For Sicilian epigraphy the key existing resources are the Epigraphic Database Roma (EDR), which has about 2000 Sicilian records (on all materials); and the PHI Greek epigraphy database [this link is to the more accessible version which does not require JAVA], which has entries for c.1800 Greek inscriptions on stone from Sicily. Ideally, we want all of our records to cross-reference all of their records. Unfortunately, at this stage, there is no quick way of achieving this, and so in recent weeks I have been manually adding the EDR and PHI numbers to the I.Sicily records (a slow process, but much quicker within the simple framework of the flat Access table). One potential solution to this particular problem is the Trismegistos project, which began life working on ancient Egypt, but now aims to generate unique identifiers for all ancient papyrological and epigraphic texts. If every project references via a TM number, then they can all be aligned much more easily. We have recently exchanged data with Trismegistos and we now have TM numbers (many of them new) for about 90% of our records (huge thanks here to Mark Depauw). In the future we hope to collaborate with Trismegistos for the recording of names and people also.
Finally, we are doing our best to improve the information on the current location of the inscriptions, which curiously seems to be something that epigraphers have not always been very diligent about recording. We are working closely with several of the Sicilian museums already (in particular the Paolo Orsi Archaeological Museum at Siracusa, and the Museo Civico of Catania) to improve the cataloguing of their collections, and so to be able to provide inventory numbers. As part of that process we are providing a URI for every archaeological collection (and in due course every public archaeological site/park), which will enable the proper linking of inscription and museum records, and the conversion will embed that information in the XML also.
This whole process of data enrichment and conversion is very nearly complete. When it is, we hope to put a 'beta' version of I.Sicily online, to enable people to start using and testing the site and to help us develop it as a resource. You may have noticed that the thing that we haven't really talked about much so far is the texts themselves (and there will be images too). At this stage the project has deliberately concentrated on the metadata, since that is where our resources are much richer than those of the existing online datasets. In the first instance, therefore, most of the records will lack a proper marked-up EpiDoc text; but, having aligned our records with those of other online databases, users will still be able to get to a text for any inscription they are interested in at a couple of clicks. And we expect to convert and incorporate the majority of texts rapidly in the coming months. Our longer term goal is to build in a version of the Perseids platform to enable anyone to contribute texts or edits (subject to peer review and with due authorial credit) and so to build I.Sicily into a complete and very rich collaborative online corpus of Sicilian epigraphy.
O, and none of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of James Chartrand, at Open Sky Solutions (Canada), who is actually building all of this!
I.Sicily homepage
I.Sicily museums database
I.Sicily publication database
I.Sicily Zotero bibliography
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