As elite private schools continue to benefit from government funding, Australian education standards are sliding in global terms and politicians remain reluctant to take a stand. By Mike Seccombe.
Perhaps you remember the ladder of opportunity. It was then opposition leader Mark Latham's pitch for the 2004 election, directed at aspirational voters who were concerned – rightly, as history has since shown – by the increasing inequality and declining social mobility resulting from the policies of the Howard government.
There were a number of rungs to Latham's ladder, but all the focus fell on one. That was his plan for major change to the funding of Australia's schools.
Australia, like a number of other countries that are sliding on international comparisons, tends to have a competitive, punitive approach to under-performing schools, threatening their funding.
His proposal was to cut $520 million of federal government funding from 67 of the nation's richest private schools over five years, and to freeze funding at existing levels for 111 others. The savings from this were then to be redistributed among the most needy government and non-government schools.
It was based on a formula that determined all primary schools should receive $9000 a student, and all secondary schools, $12,000. All the targeted schools, Latham said, already received more than that in fees alone.
Then prime minister John Howard called the policy "class warfare". The wealthy private schools warned of fee hikes and a flight by students to the government schools, which would not be able to cope. The plan was savaged in the conservative tabloid media, which called it a "hit-list".
A few weeks after the announcement, Latham lost the election. Indeed, there was a significant swing to the government. And that was the last time anyone in either of the major parties dared suggest that private schools received more taxpayer support than was fair and that maybe something should be done to redress the situation.
Until last Monday week, that is, when the current education minister, Simon Birmingham, suggested some wealthy private schools were overfunded. He stopped short of saying they would lose money, but the logical inference was they should.
The political response was very like 2004, except with the roles reversed. Now it was Labor talking about a government hit-list.
It may well be that Plibersek was hoping to bait Birmingham into actually naming private schools that were in need of fiscal trimming. It may be that she intended to use the intense media attention attracted by his admission as a point of contrast with the billions he plans to cut from government schools.
But it looked to a lot of people like she was defending elite private schools.
She wasn't, of course. Plibersek is a strong advocate of public schooling and one of the very few in parliament who is not only state educated herself but who sends her children to state schools.
Equally, though, she was scrupulous to avoid giving the impression she was attacking elite schools. Ever since the Latham debacle, Labor has lost heart for that fight. The lesson they took from 2004 was that taking on the non-government schools was electorally perilous.
That prevailing wisdom is very questionable, however. If you go back and look at the polls from 2004, they show Latham's schools funding policy was actually very popular. Sixty-five per cent of the electorate supported the idea of taking money from rich private schools and redistributing it. So, whatever the voters' reasons for rejecting Latham, his school funding plan was not one of them.
Polls consistently show two-thirds of Australians want a more equitable education system. The fact this proportion is about the same as the proportion of people who send their kids to state schools perhaps indicates an element of the politics of envy. But there is more to be concerned about than that. The evidence strongly suggests our segregated school system is making Australia less globally competitive. In colloquial terms, a dumber nation.
Year by year, in one international comparison after another, we are sliding down the global rankings. In the most comprehensive of these, a year ago, the OECD assessed the performance of 15-year-olds in 76 countries. Australia ranked 14th, behind some surprising places, such as Poland, Estonia and Vietnam.
We'll get to the likely reasons for this shortly. First a little background on our unique school education system.
Sometimes, for cultural or historical reasons, countries develop systems in particular policy areas that are peculiar to them – in both senses of the word. Think of Japan's sentimental protectionism of its agricultural sector or the United States' crazy gun laws. They have their roots in the culture – in one case the urge to self-sufficiency and in the other to self-defence – but have maintained outsized political power long after they've been shown to be harmful.
Australia's school system is like that. It is peculiar to us. Schools elsewhere are one thing or the other: they either run on government money or they run on private money. Only in Australia can they get funding from both sources. Elsewhere, if parents decide they want an elite education for their children, they pay elite money. Nowhere else in the developed world do the taxes of people on modest incomes help support schools to which they could never afford to send their children.
National peculiarities tend to be rooted in cultural or historical contexts, and the story of how the Australian school system came to be this way began as a cultural one, rooted in the sectarianism of 60 years ago. Catholics wanted their own schools but state governments, which were responsible for all education funding, were reluctant to fund them.
"Catholic schools in the UK and Canada and New Zealand are considered public schools, because they receive public funding and don't charge fees," says Laura Perry, associate professor of education policy at Murdoch University.
But not here, so Catholic schools in Australia were poor. In 1964, the conservative government took some pity on them and provided some direct, one-off grants.
Recurrent grants began under the conservatives in 1970. At first, as a flat rate per non-government school student, but in 1974 the Whitlam government extended the largesse to state schools and also introduced special targeted programs for disadvantaged schools, special education, teacher professional development and innovation.
It remained the case, however, that state governments were the major funders of state schools and the federal government the main funder of non-government schools.
And it grew from there. We need not go into all the subsequent policy shifts, but one big one deserves mention.
That is the so-called socio-economic status (SES) funding model introduced by John Howard's education minister, and leading light in the Institute of Public Affairs, David Kemp.
It purported to ensure needs-based schools funding, but in practice greatly increased the money going to private schools, particularly elite private schools.
By the calculation of Perry, and Emma Rowe of Deakin University, per student funding for private schools went up by $1584 between 1999 and 2005, compared with $261 per state school kid.
The figures are worth noting not only because they highlight the inequity of the Howard government's approach to schools funding but because they coincided with another significant development in Australian education.
At the same time as these payments were increasing, Australia started to drop down the international education rankings.
Kemp and others on the conservative side of politics attributed this to inadequacy in the state school system and suggested things could be improved by greater "choice" in schooling – read: more private schools.
He went on to suggest a voucher system, to enable even more to shift out of the government sector. That new senator was Simon Birmingham.
A few months after Birmingham's speech the government changed and so did the rhetoric, but the trajectory of funding for government and non-government schools continued to favour the latter.
The last Labor government did, however, take a more evidence-based and less ideological approach to determining the reasons for Australia's slide down the educational rankings.
In 2010, then education minister Julia Gillard commissioned a major review of school funding conducted by an "expert panel" chaired by businessman and philanthropist David Gonski. In November 2011 it produced the so-called "Gonski report".
It said that all government funding should be "sector-blind" and needs based. That is, all schools should have the same base funding, plus extra loadings according to the relative disadvantage of their students. It also called for a huge amount of extra spending.
It was politics that made it so expensive, as Gonski explained in one of his rare public comments on the matter, giving the Jean Blackburn Oration to an audience of educators at Melbourne University in May 2014.
"Our calculations were based on our terms of reference and the announcement of the government of the time that 'no school will lose a dollar per student as a result of the review'.
Carmen Lawrence, former Labor premier, now professor of psychology at the University of Western Australia, was a member of the Gonski expert panel and she, too, says the whole exercise would have been much cheaper but for the fact Labor was still haunted by the ghost of Latham and the 2004 election.
That's why Gillard insisted that nothing could be taken away from overfunded elite schools. And that, says Lawrence, was a big mistake.
People understand that public education has been allowed to "erode in favour of privilege", she says.
And so Labor's lack of courage gave the country a more expensive and somewhat inferior reform from the start. Other compromises and mistakes were made in the process of trying to implement the recommended changes. The states, encouraged by Tony Abbott's opposition, played ducks and drakes about signing up, which resulted in differing deals for different jurisdictions. Labor back-end loaded the greater part of the cost beyond the forward estimates of the budget.
The eventual deal saw commitment to get all schools funded to the 95 per cent of the resourcing standard set by Gonski, with the states to cover 30 per cent of the cost. Still, because of the previous commitments to increasing funding to private schools, it would take 100 years before state schools and the wealthiest independent schools were equally funded.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties repeatedly altered their position, first opposing the reforms, then just before the 2013 election promising to honour them, then reversing their position after the election, then saying they would not fund Gonski past 2017.
The 2014 budget claimed $80 billion of cumulative savings in health and education by 2024-25, compared with the spending arrangements put in place by Labor. About $30 billion of that was from education.
Some money has since been recommitted, and the current government will spend more on education over coming years. But what is promised is significantly less than the "full Gonski". About $29 billion less, on the government's own figures.
Birmingham is negotiating funding arrangements with the states, trying to divide them on the basis of the different funding deals they struck in the past. So far, they have refused to be divided.
Through all this politicking Australian education standards have been sliding.
In 2000, when the OECD began producing its Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores comparing the performance of different countries, Australia ranked fourth for reading, sixth for maths and eighth for science.
By 2012, the country ranked 13th, 19th and 16th in those respective categories, albeit in a larger pool of 65 countries compared with the initial 41.
Equally concerning is the fact that the difference in competence among Australian students is greater than in many other countries. At the top end, we still do well; but we have a large tail of students who do not.
There's no point blaming teachers for this, as another member of the Gonski expert panel, former NSW Education Department director-general Ken Boston, said in a recent speech.
"We found no evidence to suggest that teachers in our most disadvantaged and low-performing government, Catholic and independent schools are not as skilled as those in the most advantaged schools," he said.
Pete Goss, school education program director at Grattan Institute, underlines the point.
"Money has to flow to where it's needed, and Australia has been pretty uniquely bad at doing that," he says.
Australia, like a number of other countries that are sliding on international comparisons, tends to have a competitive, punitive approach to underperforming schools, threatening their funding.
And they need more expertise, in the form of specialists, to provide that help. It should be "more disadvantage, more help", Goss says.
In Australia, though, the kids in least need are the ones getting the most resources.
Ironically, Gonski and other studies have shown that the school environment is less important for kids from advantaged family backgrounds than for those from low SES backgrounds.
"High SES kids, if they are put into heterogeneous classes, with a more diverse group of kids, suffer no penalty," says Melbourne University professor Barry McGaw, a former director for education with the OECD.
A key to the success of many high-performing countries, he says, is that all schools are resourced the same, and have a heterogeneous student population.
He cites the example of Poland, which formerly streamed students into different schools on the basis of their perceived ability.
It became, in fact, the fastest improving of all countries, and now does better than Australia.
Sweden, of all places, provides the opposite example, as Pete Goss explains.
"They've had the worst slide in the OECD," he says.
Back in 2000 the country was a top performer on the PISA scale. But as part of an economic liberalisation regime, the Swedish government opened up schools to private providers.
By 2012, Sweden had fallen to 28th place on the PISA list. A key factor in that decline, according to OECD and other analyses, was the introduction of a voucher system. It was intended to allow middle-class parents to select the best schools for their children. But it resulted in a huge increase in the achievement gaps among students. An OECD report released last year called on Sweden to "revise school-choice arrangements to ensure quality with equity" and "improve the access of disadvantaged families to information about schools".
It is not known whether Simon Birmingham has read that report.
But no one in either of Australia's political parties is prepared to seriously take on the task of redistributing money away from segregated rich schools.
Tanya Plibersek at least appreciates that the way to lift Australia's game is to work towards "the ideal … notion that you can send your kid to your local school, with confidence, because they are all properly resourced".
Simon Birmingham is aware of the mistakes of the past. He told Radio National's Patricia Karvelas that he had been "very careful, ever since becoming education minister and dealing with the budget challenges we have, to not repeat those Gillard government words that no school would lose a dollar".
Sadly, though, he's also been very careful not to say anything specific that might bring on the fight with elite education we really need to have.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on Oct 8, 2016 as "Schools of injustice". Subscribe here.


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Philip Seymour Hoffman Autopsy Inconclusive
Further tests will be needed to confirm if Hoffman indeed died of a heroin overdose
By Denver Nicks and Eliana Dockterman @DenverNicksFeb. 05, 2014
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The Oscar-winning actor passed away on February 2, 2014. We take a look back at some of his past performances.
Philip Seymour Hoffman's autopsy is inconclusive and further tests are needed to determine why the actor died, the New York City Police medical examiner's office said Wednesday. Hoffman died on Sunday, at age 46, of what many assumed to be a heroin overdose, but the coroner now has to run more tests, the Associated Press reports.
Medical examiner spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said there is not yet a timetable for when further tests will be completed. While awaiting results, police continue to investigate the incident as a suspected drug overdose.
Hoffman was found unconscious on the bathroom floor of his Manhattan apartment Sunday morning with a syringe needle still in his arm. Police reportedly discovered roughly 50 bags of heroin, used syringes, and other drug paraphernalia in his apartment. He'd last been seen at 8 p.m. on Saturday and had missed an appointment to pick up his three children Sunday morning, ABC News reports.
"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone," Hoffman's family said in a statement. "This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers."
Hoffman, whose extraordinary talent and artistic versatility made him among the most beloved actor/directors of his generation, was publicly candid throughout his career about his struggle with addiction. He stopped using drugs in his early 20s and remained clean for more than two decades before relapsing and checking into rehab last year.
"I saw him last week, and he was clean and sober, his old self," David Bar Katz, the friend who found Mr. Hoffman Sunday, told the New York Times. "I really thought this chapter was over."
Oscar-nominated three times for supporting roles, Hoffman won an Academy Award for Best Actor as the leading man in the 2005-film Capote. Over the course of his truncated career, he appeared in more than 50 films while acting and directing on and off Broadway. At the time of his death, Hoffman was in the final stages of working on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay parts 1 & 2, set for release in November this year and November 2015, respectively.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We have had the privilege of working with Clean Vibes, LLC for several years at the Forecastle Festival, a major music festival that takes place in Louisville, Kentucky's Waterfront Park. It is our sincere pleasure to recommend Clean Vibes to you in the strongest possible terms.
Louisville Waterfront Park is an 85 acre reclaimed green space at the edge of the Ohio River in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, and we host over 150 events per year. We have been recognized by the Urban Land Institute as one of the Top 10 Parks in the Nation, have received the Rudy Bruner Silver Award for Urban Excellence, and the Phoenix Award from the Environmental Protection Agency among many other accolades. Park Maintenance is a very serious business for us, as our space is a former abandoned industrial wasteland. Without question, Anna Borofsky and her team at Clean Vibes perform event clean up in the most competent and environmentally responsible manner ever demonstrated in our 25 year history.
Clean Vibes answers a real need for major events producers and has set the bar for the best practice in waste diversion at events in Kentucky. Over a weekend of 60,000 plus attendees for a major music festival, Clean Vibes trains the general public to sort and dispose of landfill, compost and recycling at this major event. The amount of recycling and compost that they are able to divert from the landfill is staggering. This is not only best practice for the industry, it is a meaningful educational experience for those that attend.
Anna and her team have a wonderful rapport with everyone from Solid Waste administrators of Metro Government to the dumpster delivery drivers, staff and volunteers who assist with this yeoman's effort.
We are so proud to host Clean Vibes and brag about what they are able to accomplish in our community. Their work is important to us, important for the special events industry and important to our environment. They leave our park better than they found it and have begun to revolutionize the way that we view waste disposal for a public facility and for special events.
Another Planet Entertainment has hired Clean Vibes to handle our event waste management needs at our music festivals for years.
They have exceeded our expectations time and time again. They allow for us to make our events as green as possible, by orchestrating our cleanup needs from load in to load out, and always smoothly.
We have received exceptional customer service and Clean Vibes have had great communication with us regarding our events, and with the City and County of San Francisco.
Their staff has always been competent, knowledgeable and passionate.
Another Planet Entertainment strongly recommends Clean Vibes for any event looking to reduce their carbon footprint and promote a green image.
Randall's Island Park has had a long and wonderful relationship with Clean Vibes over the past several years. Last year alone Clean Vibes staffed all of our major events, covering multi-day festivals - tirelessly. They have operated event cleaning and recycling operations in connection to some of our largest Citywide special events held annually at Randall's Island Park.
As a major NYC regional park, visited by over 3 million people, we take park cleanliness and environmental stewardship very seriously. Clean Vibes is the only company we have worked with in the past two decades who has consistently exceeded our expectations in site clean-up and recycling. They have gone above and beyond the specific "event site" to clean and maintain park pathways, parking lots and adjacent areas of the Event Lawn - impacted by ticket holders. The Clean Vibes crews are well supervised, pro-active, energetic and a pleasure to work with. Our experience has shown that with Clean Vibes staffing an event - they have "set the tone" for event patrons to pick up after themselves and dispose of trash responsibly while visiting the park and the event at Randall's Island Park.
I recommend Clean Vibes without hesitation. They have always been a pleasure to work with and we hope to continue to do so in the future.
Thanks for helping making The Virgin Mobile Festival 2008 a "Green" success. Thanks to you and your team's hard work we can truly call Virgin Festival green. Clean Vibes definitely understands what it takes to make a festival of this size run smoothly which is in contrast to what past greening companies have been able to help the festival with. This years festival used all B99 biodeisel and we were able to recycle and compost 85% of our waste. The amazing thing is we did it without having to bend over backwards to restructure our operations. Cleans Vibes clearly gets how to operate within a large event, delivers as promised and negotiates in a straight forward manner so we look forward to working with them in the future.
Filco Carting has handled the waste, recycling and composting hauling services for Clean Vibes for several very large New York City outdoor events during the past five years. We found them to be the best managed and most environmentally conscious cleaning company in the industry. Their outstanding, cost-effective services have resulted in the highest diversion rates possible for the lowest hauling, processing, recovery and disposal charges we offer.
Filco highly recommends Clean Vibes to all production companies putting on major entertainment events.
We have used Clean Vibes for several years at various events across the country. We have never been disappointed with the level of professionalism and the quality of the service they provide. One reason that we transport them across the country to take care of the High Sierra Music Festival is because we know that the job will get done, and it will get done well.
We have yet to find another company who is as comprehensive as Clean Vibes when it comes to sustainable grounds management. It's one less thing to worry about when producing our events. They're a turn-key operation, and consistently have worked very well with the local waste management companies in all the communities we have hosted events in. They make trash and recycling look fun!
Along with clean up duties for the city of Bonnaroo, Anna and her team have a passion for doing the right thing. They've been helpful in the educational process of our fans and also helping to explore all of Bonnaroo's other greening initiatives.
As producer of Power To The Peaceful SF, one of the largest and greenest free, one day festivals in the States, working with Clean Vibes has been a great partnership. Before "green" became trendy, Clean Vibes has been pro-active and present at cleaning, greening and educating businesses and the public at festivals and much more. Knowing that they are involved with our or any other festival I may attend, makes me feel great because I know that the site will be left as a healthier, greener and cleaner site than before the event happened!
Visit the Clean Vibes Trading Post!


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In Marvel's Midnight Suns, the gameplay and launch trailer features the hulk
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Marvel's Midnight Suns Releases Launch Trailer and Gameplay Featuring Hulk and Other Action
Today, 2K Games and Firaxis Games released a new trailer. A lot of gameplay for the tactical RPG "Marvel's Midnight Suns."
This is the first video of a launch trailer nature, as the game is only a few days away from release. In fact, it is a cinematic trailer showing the destruction of Sanctum Sanctorum just before the game's storyline.
Even more interesting is the gameplay shown in the live streaming, which includes plenty of comments from the developers.
First, we get to see the Hulk in action, which is great because we haven't seen much of it yet. In addition, another segment of the gameplay features a very high-quality, very difficult mission that players can enjoy when they reach the end of the game.
This mission, according to the developer, is so hard that there is really no room for error.
Related: FORTNITE X MARVEL: ZERO WAR IS NOW AVAILABLE IN A HARDCOVER COLLECTION
We also know that all of the DLC characters will be present and have their own stories. Spend time together in the monastery, and they are unlocked fairly early in the game. So that they can be played with almost instantly once you play.
Marvel's Midnight Suns will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on December 2. Meanwhile, the release dates for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One versions have been further delayed and will be announced at a later date.
Perhaps most interesting is the ability to customize the main character, Hunter, to your liking. He is the first Marvel superhero to be customizable, allowing you to choose almost any cosmetic parameter as you wish. You can also influence the growth of their powers through three different paths.
The new "Super Mario Bros," Trailer is a Peach Blossom
The Nintendo Switch version of Mato Anomalies will be released on March 10, 2023


Boasting 5,000 lumens, native WUXGA resolution, 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and a light source life of up to 20,000 hours, the cutting-edge Canon LX-MU500Z laser installation projector is the perfect high-quality imaging partner.
A blue laser diode and yellow phosphor wheel provide a light source life of 20,000 hours, while enhanced durability and no replacement parts ensure minimal maintenance.
5,000 lumens, native WUXGA resolution and DLP technology create an enhanced viewing experience with high brightness and crystal-clear images.
Multiple connection possibilities include VGA, HDMI and MHL for image, audio and control – easy to set up and perfect for medium to large lecture rooms.
Flexible installation and perfect geometry at any angle, landscape or portrait, with a huge lens shift function, 1.36-2.18 throw ratio and 4 corner keystone correction.
Use the intuitive controls on the body panel or remote control to instantly turn on the projector light source and deliver distraction-free projections at just 35 dB.


Let's assume we have an array with an N length, made of capital letters A, B, and C. We call the array 'a right array' if between every two C letters which come one after another in the array, there are more A letters than B letters. My job is to discover whether or not a given array is 'right' and if so, I should print out "RIGHT", else I should print for how many pieces (places between to Cs) the given condition is untrue (there are more Bs than As).
Input: In the first line we enter the number of lettes in the array N (1 < N > 200). In the next line we enter the array without empty spaces in-between.
Output: Print out the answer in a single line.
Now, I have tried solving this problem, but the third example isn't working for me - I get an output of 2 and as given above I should get 3, other than that - it compiles perfectly fine.
Why LinkedHashMap can't sort HashMap while TreeMap can?
Is it useful to pass std::weak_ptr to functions?
What is the following list of behind the scenes inside the range-based for loop?
Is a see-through child div possible?


The following firm provides research coverage of Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP).
*All statements and expressions of opinion made in the analyst reports of the investment dealers and securities firms referenced on this website are the opinion and assumptions of each respective investment dealer and securities firm. They are not meant to be a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold securities of EEP. All forward-looking statements made in these analyst reports are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from expectations. EEP makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements made in such analyst reports. The ideas, beliefs, and information that are provided in such reports do not necessarily represent those of EEP. EEP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Individuals interested in obtaining copies of research reports should contact the investment dealers directly.


Substitute Potassium and Ammonium Dichromate in all techniques using gelatin or albumin. Es. Salted paper; Albumen prints. It is used in all procedures based on: gelatin, methyl cellulose, polyvinyl acetate, casein, albumin.
It should be used in light inattinica given its sensitivity to any light source.
Storage in the refrigerator is recommended. A preservation of even more years is achieved by storing the product in the freezer.
Small amounts of 2.5% solution ready for short use you can keep them in dark PE bottles.
The DAS contrary to the dichromate is not toxic and carcinogenic.
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East African regional grouping has agreed to create a trust fund for the reconstruction of Somalia.
This follows a special summit of Heads of state on Somalia refugees held in Kenya.
The money, the amount of which the leaders did not specify, will be used for the construction of basic facilities inside Somalia that will make the country habitable for Somali refugees returning from neighbouring countries.
The Intergovernmental Authority and Development (IGAD) consists of Somalia's neighbours Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea.
It has been 25 years since the first refugees set foot at the Daadab, Somali's neighbours met in Nairobi to seek a lasting solution to the Somali refugee crisis.
More than 20 years of war have left the country battered but regional leaders are hinging their hopes of a stable Somalia on the election of Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed as the country's new president.
Kenya says the refugees will be more useful at home.
Interior Security minister Joseph Nkaissery says 60 000 refugees have returned home since the voluntary repatriation, since the return process started in December 2014.
Donor fatigue and the lack of commitment by the international community to help Somalia's neighbours shoulder the refugee burden came into focus.
More 20 000 African Union troops that are battling the AL Qaeda linked Al Shabab militants in the country.


We love Maca and all its amazing benefits here at Wise Cicada and we want to share the love with you beautiful people! So we are holding a week long event celebrating all things Maca!
We also have a Maca Superfood workshop – on the 26th April where you will be able to meet the dynamic duo behind the Seleno Health company, learn everything there is to know about this incredible superfood and try some yummy maca delights while you're at it – YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS!
And of course all of the Maca products used throughout the week will be available to purchase from our store at a special reduced price!
So join us from the 21st April – 28th April and spread the word of this multi-beneficial superfood!


Go ahead and open your image with a compatible host program. I photographed the waterfall in RAW so I opened my image with Photoshop CC.
Duplicate your original layer (Background) and rename it. You can do this by using the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+N on a Mac.
I like to rename my new layer to the program I use to edit the image. Also, I like to have an original layer to ensure I can always go back and start from scratch if I want!
When you are ready to open Adjust, go to Filter and open the plugin.
When Adjust opens, you will see the workspace window that features Collections, Presets, a Preview of the image, Custom Adjustments, and more.
You can see all the adjustments in the Custom Setting Panel on the right hand side of the screen.
This is a fast and easy way to edit images to have more contrast, greater saturation, and finer details.
Adjust also allows you to create custom settings, which is what we'll be doing today! The Custom Setting Panel is located on the right side of the program window. Here you can change Global Adjustments, Local Adjustments, and Finishing Touches. These tools are for adjusting exposure, detail, color, and noise. You can use the arrows to open and close different parts of the program, the checkboxes to activate or deactivate adjustments, and sliders to increase or decrease adjustment choices.
The three tabs we'll be working in today are Adaptive Exposure, Details, and Color. Here's a little more information on what the sliders do to your image. Try them out and see how they change your image!
Adaptive Exposure: An adaptive technique to enhance the dynamic range of your image. Here you can apply a variety of tone mapped effects using the slider to adjust the range of the highest and lowest luminance regions where detail is visible. You can also correct exposure, balance lighting, and redefine tonal values.
Regions: The larger this number is, the more local contrast and detail enhancement you'll get.
Contrast: Controls whether the exposure equalizations tend to take more of a "u" (valley) shape or more of a "n" (hill) shape on the histogram. This is not the same as your standard contrast adjustment!
Brightness: Standard brightness adjustment parameter. Increasing this parameter increases the overall brightness of the image while decreasing the parameter decreases the overall brightness of the image.
Protect Highlights: Built-in protection from highlight blowout. Increasing this parameter reduces the harshness of highlights and reveals previously obscured detail in highlight areas. A setting of 0 disables highlight protection.
Protect Shadows: Built-in protection from shadows. Increasing this parameter opens up the shadows and reveals previously obscured detail in shadow areas. A setting of 0 disables shadow protection.
Strength: Determines the degree of detail enhancement applied to stronger details in the image. Works in conjunction with the "Details Threshold" value. A value greater than 1.0 strengthens the details in the image while a value less than 1.0 reduces and smooths details.
Detail Boost: The amount of detail enhancement applied to the smaller details in the image. A value higher than 1.0 strengthens the weaker details in the image while a value less than 1.0 reduces the strength of smaller details. This parameter affects mostly weak details. Strong details should be adjusted using the Strength slider.
Threshold: A larger threshold allows more image elements to be considered "details" and a smaller threshold limits elements considered "details".
Radius: The larger the Details Radius is, the larger the size of the enhanced details will be. The smaller this parameter is, the smaller the size of the enhanced details.
Sharpen: The amount of sharpening to the image. This is a quick sharpener that conveniently deals with images with mild-to-moderate blur.
Process Details Independently: Allows you to adjust exposure and details separately. When this box is checked, only underlying exposure will be adjusted when you use the Exposure tab. The details will only be adjusted through the Details tab. This gives you extra flexibility in editing your image and tends to reduce the overall noise in the final image.
Adaptive Saturation: Balances saturation in the image. This setting works in conjunction with the Regions setting. A setting of 0 disables adaptive saturation balancing while a setting of 1 applies full adaptive saturation balancing.
Color Regions: The number of regions to divide the image into for Adaptive Exposure processing. The larger this number is, the more local contrast in saturation you'll get.
Saturation: Standard parameter to increase or decrease the overall saturation of the image.
Saturation Boost: Increase or decrease the saturation of less saturated colors in an image.
Hue: Controls the distinct color of the spectrum.
Now that we know what everything does, let's try it out!
The first thing to edit is the exposure of the image. The actual view of the waterfall in real life was not flat but rather very detailed with a splash of glacier blue water. Gullfoss Falls was crisp and clean and I want my image to show that as well.
For this image, I set the Adaptive Exposure slider to 0.30, which changed the dynamic range of the image. I cranked up the Regions slider to 25 so that I could get more local contrast and detail enhancement. I made a slight adjustment to the Contrast (0.20) and bumped the Brightness up to 0.50 to make the image brighter overall.
Remember, unless you're going for a very heavily process effect, such as HDR, you'll want to make slight adjustments to the sliders until you find the perfect look!
The next thing to address is the details in the photograph. The falls had tiny details like rocks and channels in the ice. I want my image to show the beauty of the waterfall but also the small details that showcase the raw beauty of the scene.
I went ahead and moved the Strength Slider to 1.25 and that strengthened the details in the image. I made a small adjustment to the Detail Boost and set it to 1.05. This brought out the weaker details in the image. I bumped up the Threshold slider to 0.20 and that made more image elements considered details. To further enhance the large details, the Radius slider was set to 39.95. I then set the Sharpen slider to 1.40 to sharpen the overall image.
These settings worked for my image, but try out the sliders for yourself to find the perfect setting for your image! Now that you're learning what the sliders do you can see them in action!
TIP: Be sure to view your image at 100% to see the adjustment on your image. See where it says 20% in the heading of my image? It's to the right side! If you click on that you can select from a variety of zoom options.
My favorite adjustment to make to images is the color adjustment! This is where I can recreate the scene that I saw and remember. For this image, I really want to showcase the blues of the water.
I started adjusting the color by setting the Adaptive Saturation to 0.10, balancing the saturation in the image. I then cranked up the Color Regions to 50 so that the image has more local contrast in the saturation. I changed the Saturation to 1.40 so that the overall image is more colorful. I did not change the Saturation Boost or the Hue of the image.
These small changes probably don't look like too much. If you look at the top of the program you will see two buttons, a full scene button and a side by side scene button. It's kind of to the left. Click the side by side button to view your original image next to your edited image. What a change!
If you found a really great combination of adjustments, you can save them as your very own preset!
In the bottom left hand of the Adjust window, you will see a plus sign. Select to save your settings.
A window will appear and you can name your new preset, add in pertinent information, select a collection to save it to, or create a New Collection to save the new preset to.
You can see the information I added in here! I'll use this preset on other images from the same location.
To create a New Collection, simply select the New Collection Button. Enter a name for the new collection and click OK.
Once the new folder is created, you will see the Save Preset window again. Make sure to select the folder you just created! Then select OK to save your new preset with a name, description, and info the selected category.
You can now see the new folder in the Collections Menu, which we learned about in Step 4. If you select the new folder, you'll see the contents populate under the Presets list, which we learned about in Step 4 as well.
Once you are done with your adjustments, click OK at the bottom of the right hand side of the Adjust window. Adjust will close and return you to Photoshop CC or to your host editor. At this point you can make any other edits that you like! I'm happy with how my image looks so I am going to save a .PSD file, to preserve the layers, and a resized .JPG file so that I can share it online with my friends.
With minor adjustments in Adjust, my image went from drab and soft to dynamic, sharp, and vibrant! I'm really happy with the results I was able to get today in just a few minutes.
I do solar imaging, using specialized Hydrogen-alpha equipment. I've been using the trial version of Adjust as a plug-in to Photoshop CC for a few days.
Your tutorial above is the most straight-forward "path" I've seen yet.
Thanks, I used your tutorial to fix a group picture of my granddaughter at a city council meeting. Her team won Florida State HS Bowling Championship and I have to print one for each of the team members. Big improvement.
Excellent! Thank you so much for this detailed, yet easy to follow tutorial.
I just purchased Topaz and am looking forward to trying the whole array of plug-ins. I'm really interested in developing a good work flow. This is a great help.


Extending PHP does not mean just adding classes and functions. It also means adding functionality not previously supported by PHP. This can be done by writing functions in C that can be called from PHP. These functions should be able to receive parameters passed from PHP. The difference between a variable in a C source and a variable in PHP is that in PHP the variable in PHP is loosely typed. That is, in PHP a variable can be used as an integer, but later as a string or a floating point number, so its equivalent in C is zVal. "zval" is a structure containing the variable's type and a union made up of members of different types sharing the same memory address.
The PHP extension is a dynamically linked library ('dll' in Windows, 'so' in Linux) containing functions that can be called from PHP.
The process of creating an extension is described in the chapter "PHP at the Core: A Hacker's Guide to the Zend Engine" in the famous PHP manual.
Building the extension starts with tunning the 'ext_skel' script, which creates a directory for your extension including a skeleton of the extension's C code and a header file.
The next step is to add functions and global variables using macros.
Arguments are passed to local C variables using the function 'zend_parse_parameters'.
The next step is to edit config.w4(Linux) or config.w32(windows), then run 'phpize' and 'configure' to create a Makefile.
The dynamically loaded library will be created in the 'modules' directory. Use 'make install' with root permissions to copy your extension to the PHP extension directory.
Unfortunately, the guide is far from being complete, so to look for examples, browse 'pecl.php.net' for source codes.


Alvin's prank call gets out of hand when the person on the line vows to track him down.
Feeling bad for Chessy on Valentine's Day, Theodore makes an online alias, pretending to be a girl.
When one of Simon's inventions malfunctions, Jeanette and Alvin switch places and now each must live as the other.
Worried about a zombie attack, Alvin and Theodore try to protect their loved ones.
Alvin and Brittany deliver vastly different versions of why the fire alarm went off at the school.
The Chipmunks and Chipettes are sent to a summer camp that is actually split into two separate areas that are run by brothers Auggy and Austin.
When Alvin finds a treasure map in Miss Croner's basement, the chipmunks set off in search of lost treasure.
Jeanette decides to plant a garden on the school grounds, but Bocarter manages to install vending machines instead.
After Theodore makes a wish, the Chipmunks try to learn what it was, so they can make it come true.
Alvin borrows Simon's invisibility suit, but gets trapped when the zipper gets stuck.
Simon falls ill and asks Alvin and Theodore not to go see a new movie without him, but Alvin is unable to resist.
After Brittany and the girls release a video that goes viral, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore try to top it.
Alvin never accepts the responsibility of his short comings and misdeeds, instead always blaming them on either of his brothers, which angers them and Dave.
Simon is assigned with caring for a snake named Rosie at home for a week, but Dave's phobia of snakes presents a dilemma, so Simon creates a robotic clone of Rosie in an attempt to help Dave conquer his fear.
After learning about King Arthur, Theodore starts a round table, but he secretly does not want Alvin to join.
When Bocarter's father helps him with his class project, Alvin enlists Dave's help to balance the playing field.
When Brittany hurts her foot, Jeanette takes her place as the principal's assistant.
The principal threatens to cancel the school dance if Alvin and Derek are caught fighting again.
The boys feel pressure to keep up with their nemesis when Bocarter boasts about having the most powerful computer.
When the children at school tease Kevin about his lame parties, Alvin decides to host a cool paintball party at his house for Kevin.
When Alvin learns that he might be held back a year, he plots to make Simon and Theodore fail as well so they can all stay together.
Alvin claims only boys can be super heroes, so Brittany makes a bet with him that Jeanette can create super hero suits and gadgets for them, and the loser has to trot around the classroom while slapping their rear end and chanting, "I'm a little donkey."
While watching a horror movie, The Chipmunks' scared reactions were recorded and uploaded to the internet, going viral, much to their humiliation.
Miss Smith finally reaches her breaking point and has a nervous breakdown after having to deal with Alvin's disrupting behavior in class, prompting her to quit teaching altogether.
When retrieving their frisbee that was accidentally tossed into Ms. Croner's house, Theodore accidentally gets himself taped inside an outgoing package, which Alvin and Simon pursue after it was picked up by the postal service before Theodore ends up getting shipped out in the mail.
Principal Meadows's beloved cat goes missing, and she is very upset about it.
Theodore becomes exhausted with the other kids in school constantly asking him for favors, which he can't say no to.
Simon writes a message to his teacher but regrets it when it accidentally gets sent by Alvin.
A parasitic toad accidentally settles on Brittany's face and Alvin and her are charged by Miss Smith to keep it alive until the specialist arrives to take it off.
Lies spread by Dave and Alvin become a big problem for the both of them.
After using Simon's invention, Alvin accidently clones himself and his clone ends up causing trouble for him.
The Chipmunks And Chipettes look for their Halloween Candy.
Simon is inadvertently hypnotized, so his IQ drops whenever he hears a bell. The next day, he participates in a knowledge contest, but the bell sound emitted by the buzzers turn him into an idiot every other round.
Dave agreed that if Alvin can do his chores for a month, he will spend a weekend with him doing whatever Alvin wants.
There's a big bicycle competition and everybody with a bicycle is entering and also getting robbed.
Alvin and Simon argue over who is the real hero when Simon creates a super hero costume for a convention.
Chaos ensues when Alvin promises too many favors in order to make a special present for Dave.
Alvin dresses Theodore up like a baby in order to impress the girl of his dreams.
Dave begins to exhibit strange behavior, worried, the chipmunks follow him to learn the reason for the change.
When the chipmunks set out to help Jeanette make a student film, they have different ideas about the project.
When Alvin signs up to teach an after school music class, he is treated differently by his classmates.
When Alvin makes fun of Simon's magic act, Simon challenges him to a magic duel.
Alvin teaches some kids how to get rid of their fear of bullies.
The Chipmunks and Chipettes find a dragon egg.
When Theodore finds a dog, he keeps it. But then realizes he must keep it from being seen by Dave.


The left lays special claim on so-called "Millennials," the latest class of brainwashed zombies to roll out of their four-year indoctrination factories who are programmed to be even more liberal than their predecessors, in favor of things like "social justice," men pretending to be women, and increasingly confiscatory gun control.
Imagine, then, how threatened they must be by one of their own who turns against them.
Kaitlin Marie celebrated her graduation from Kent State by posing with an AR-10. She stated that she wants the right to defend herself. She further schools people in the fact that an AR-10 is no more an "assault rifle" than a pistol, not having the ability to fire on automatic.
This is the liberal nightmare: an attractive, articulate woman not only standing up for the right to bear arms, but actually modeling with her weapon! Marie is actually making the exercise of Second Amendment rights fashionable, which is why she is such a danger to the left.
The whole point is you can't fight violence with violence. Making guns more common isn't going to decrease gun violence. It's common sense.
The good guy with a gun is a myth. The idea that you'd be able to do anything with a public shooter other than maybe shoot a bystander or get shot yourself by police is idiotic.
This isn't the old west.
I think what Marie is doing is the very best way to fight for our Second Amendment rights in the court of public opinion. For liberals in big cities, it is a cultural thing: they simply aren't used to seeing people carrying weapons. The more citizens of all walks of life post photos of themselves with their weapons, the more accepted it will be.
For once, I agree with the left – I want to see a lot of diversity. I want to see photos of young men with guns, women with guns, black people with guns, Hispanics with guns, Asians with guns, Jews with guns, all smiling role models who will normalize and even popularize the idea of gun ownership.


text:
Kyiv: Russian submarines in Black Sea contravening Montreux Convention
Monday, July 8, 2019 2:00:35 PM
Russia is violating the Montreux Convention, which regulates the usage of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and the Sea of Marmara, said Ukrainian General Staff spokesperson Leonid Zalyubovskiy, as reported by Ukrinform. The Ukrainian military has documented heightened activity of Russian submarines in the Bosporus strait, he noted.
"By pretending to do technical maintenance, Russia is effectively carrying out a full-fledged deployment of submarines in the Mediterranean region," the spokesperson explained. He did not clarify how many Russian submarines had been detected by the Ukrainian military, but remarked that what Moscow is doing is a "blatant violation of international law".
Ukraine has already notified Turkey, which is responsible for the strait according to the convention. Ankara is aware of the situation and is investigating, Zalyubovskiy noted.
Zalyubovskiy also made mention of the increased Russian activity in the Mediterranean and Black seas observed by Ukraine over the last two months during a recent international scientific conference on maritime law in Kyiv. According to the convention, submarines from states bordering on the Black Sea can only leave the sea for repairs or servicing.
The convention in question was signed in Montreux, Switzerland on 20 July 1936 and came into force on 9 November that same year. Initially it was signed by the Soviet Union, Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, the UK, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Japan and France, and Cyprus became a signatory in 1969. The document regulates the passage of military vessels through the Turkish Straits.
Russia, Black Sea, Ukraine, Kyiv, Europe


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Palestinian delegation visits Hariri: There will be no crisis between Lebanon and us
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Learning New Skills Can Boost Brain Power in Older People
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Common Chemical in Cosmetics and Toothpaste Linked to Osteoporosis
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Who Falls in Love Harder or Loves More Deeply - Men or Women?
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Sunday Is the Cheapest Day to Book Flights, Research Finds
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Movies and chick-lit since the beginning of time have typically portrayed women as more romantic by nature, more dedicated to relationships and more loyal to their mates than their male counterparts. Recently, several new studies have emerged to legitimately challenge this cultural axiom and potentially change our way of thinking.
So, who falls harder? Men or women? Is it even possible to measure the depth of a person's love? What are the basic components that define what love is?
While each person is different to be sure, there are certain behaviors and generalities that are thought to be common to all loving relationships. Dr. Robert J. Sternberg, Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, thinks that these core elements "are the same in any loving relationship whether with a lover or with one's own child" and include intimacy, passion and commitment. Being able to share one's self with another human being, having the ability to give and get emotional support when it is needed, knowing that you can count on someone to be there for you in times of strife and turmoil, being able to put another's welfare ahead of your own, and having the capacity to be genuinely happy for someone other than yourself, are all critical behaviors that are present in true love. Mothers have known this forever. There is an old saying that "a woman is capable of more sacrifices than a man." Henry Ward Beecher said that "there is no slave out of heaven like a loving woman: and, of all loving women, there is no such slave as a mother."
While mothers know that men can be equally affectionate, there are gender differences, to be sure. Women are often perceived as being more fragile and vulnerable, but this is because men often hide their feelings and can appear cold and aloof. According to Psychology Today: this "can give us a false sense that women…fall more deeply in love than their partners" when in truth…. "men may be going through extreme emotional turbulence inside their minds and hearts. Heartbreak hurts a man just as much as it would a woman, but it is hard to tell from the outside because pain can be hidden under silence."
According to Debate.org, 48% of the men and women they polled think women fall harder than men do, but 52% disagree, citing the differences in the way men and women express their love that tends to be misinterpreted. Different does not always mean worse than, or inferior to. Women tend to be more verbose in general, while men do not openly express their emotions in quite the same way. But this does not mean that they are not feeling an equally strong or deep emotional attachment. This is backed up by Marissa Harrison, a psychologist from Pennsylvania State University who thinks that women are much more cautious when it comes to love, while men tend to fall in love harder and faster. Studies show that a man's requirements to fall in love are significantly less stringent than those of a woman. While a woman tends to assess a partner based on his ability to provide for her and protect future offspring, a man usually bases his decision on much more superficial criteria, and this often results in him being smitten as early on as the first date. Statistics also show that more men believe in love at first sight than women do.
In another experiment, Ms. Harrison polled 172 college students and asked them how long it took them to say "I love you." The results of her questionnaire may surprise you. Men often declare their love after just a few weeks, as compared to women who tend to be much more cautious and wait several months before expressing their feelings. Many of us women can remember our moms instructing us not to be the first one to use the "L" word in a relationship.
Despite what you might think, when men fall in love, they often fall very hard and are a bit more attached to the relationship than women are. Because of this, (with the exception of sociopaths and sex-addicts of both genders) it is thought that men take longer to recover from a break-up than women do. Women also have the additional benefit of getting emotional validation from their network of girlfriends to whom they turn when they are in need of support. Men, in general, do not have the same level of emotional intimacy with their guy-friends. In fact, an article on the website The Rules Revisited offers this "insider" tip for women: "If a man isn't falling for you from an early stage - say, the first month - it isn't going to happen. Don't wait around for his feelings to "grow" the way yours sometimes do. They will not."
Lest you think that these findings are exclusive to heterosexual men and women who are in relationships, you should know that the way people express the intensity of their love within same sex couples is no different, proving that love is, well, just love.
So, remember that men and women are more alike than we are different, and it is these differences that make life interesting.
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Odyssey of the Mind provides an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge in meaningful and creative ways.
A group of education stakeholders and policymakers will gather Aug. 22 to set performance standards for 2017-2018 school accountability.
The Kentucky Department of Education has expanded its cohort of regional visual and performing arts specialists for the 2017-18 school year.
At its meeting in Frankfort, the Kentucky Board of Education discussed the development of a new accountability system for public schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Corbin Middle School teacher Kristal Doolin shares how changing to a growth mindset helped her reach students she previously had failed to inspire.


text:
Pop Eye
Music Choices
What's In Your Fridge
Straight Series
The Airborne Toxic Event gets ready to fly
by Mike Usinger on February 11th, 2009 at 3:47 PM
1 of 1 2 of 1
If Mikel Jollett isn't as wowed as he should be with where the Airborne Toxic Event finds itself today, it's because he never expected—or even aspired—to be making a living at music. As such, the Los Angeles–based quintet's rapid ascent in the indie-rock ranks isn't nearly as impressive to the singer-guitarist as it has been to those who have embraced the group's self-titled debut.
"I played in a punk band in college, and I played guitar in my living room for my neighbour's cat," the self-effacing Jollett says with a laugh, on the line from his City of Angels home. "But most of my time was spent writing. I had kind of decided that music wasn't for me. I decided that I was more suited for working on books and stories and working on transitions—the usual writer's tasks."
Even if he never finished the great American novel, Jollett is on his way to establishing himself as a gifted wordsmith, landing a short story in the Dave Eggers–published magazine McSweeney's Quarterly and finding himself pursued by such publications as the New Yorker. In the middle of a book that he intended to devote a whole year to working on, life threw him a bunch of major curveballs. As has been well-documented in every article written about the Airborne Toxic Event, Jollett's mom got cancer in 2006 right before he was diagnosed with a serious autoimmune deficiency. Toss a terminally ill father and a bad breakup into the mix, and you've got a chain of events that gets people seriously wondering what the hell they're doing with their lives. "A lot of stuff happened, including me quitting smoking," Jollett says. "I kind of lost it. Quitting smoking was particularly hard. I was two packs a day and the moment my mom got cancer I quit. I went through nicotine withdrawal. After being in the hospital for a week with my mom I came home and I was just sitting there shaking, partly from withdrawal and partly because my gas was turned off because I was so broke.
"It was then," he continues, "that I started playing guitar and singing. Sort of like how if you were sitting in a dark cave you might beat rocks together just to say you were doing something. After a few months I realized that I wasn't writing a novel—that wasn't going anywhere—but I was writing songs."
The result was The Airborne Toxic Event, a debut disc that finds Jollett leading a band with ambitions. From the wistful neo new-waver "Wishing Well" to the grandly symphonic "Sometime Around Midnight", the Airborne Toxic Event has mastered the art of knowing when it's time for the guitars to come crashing out of nowhere and create something epic. The album closer, "Innocence", makes it clear that the band's professed affection for punk rock isn't just lip service, while "Gasoline" smells like vintage garage pop from the Stiff glory years. Through it all, Jollett, not surprisingly, shows himself to be a man who has a way with words, detailing sonic stories such as "Missy" with lines like "She had eyes as big as porcelain plates/And skin as thin as paper drapes".
Apart from an undeserved slam from one of the hipper-than-thou snotbags at Pitchfork, The Airborne Toxic has been hailed as the work of a band headed for greatness. Or, failing that, at least an invitation to Coachella or Lollapalooza. Where Jollett and his bandmates were once thrilled to pack out clubs on their hipster-blessed home turf of Silver Lake, these days life is all late-night talk-show appearances and European tours. The singer is well aware that an Arcade Fire–like buzz has begun to build around the group, but says that keeping a perspective on things hasn't been difficult. That's partly because, for every time the Airborne Toxic Event has been invited to a mega-event like Pemberton Festival, there have been afternoons of humping equipment up the back stairs of clubs in rainy English backwaters.
"I don't know if I ever dreamed about rock stardom, and in any event, we're not even there yet," he says. "On the English tour we just did, London was good, but some of those shows were really small where we'd just end up playing to the other bands. When you're carrying your amps up and down into clubs, you realize you're just like any other rock band. As far as wild dreams go, it's not exactly cocaine and hookers every night."
Even so, from where Jollett is standing these days, that's still better than slaving over an unfinished novel in a cold apartment, hoping that someday someone will care about what you have to say.
"Sometimes writing can be fun," he says. "Like Lester Bangs in the middle of the night on uppers and cough syrup. Most of the time, though, you're like, "˜Fuck, how do I get this transition right so it's smooth?' Or, if you're novel writing, like, "˜What's a good name for this character that represents death?' I'd rather be sitting around playing music and drinking with my friends."
The Airborne Toxic Event plays Richard's on Richards on Wednesday (February 18).
John Fogerty plays his iconic CCR hits in Vancouver this fall


Hey, I hope someone can help. Flying to Hong Kong soon Business class. Is there a major difference between B.C. Syd - HK and Brisbane - HK. I have heard that Bris - HK is regional but on the website Syd - HK seems to be too. I have tried calling CX but it takes ages to get through. Please help.
CX102 - A330 REGIONAL PRODUCT - DO NOT FLY!
I can't believe the difference in product between the two CX routes!
There is a huge difference between CX business class on BNE-HKG and SYD-HKG. The BNE-HKG route is operated by 2-class A330-300 aircraft with regional business class. So that means no flat beds, old cruddy cradle seats with not great pitch.
The SYD-HKG (and MEL-HKG) routes use the CX Long-haul business class, which has flat (sloping) beds in business class and operated by 3-class aircraft (747-400 and A330-300).
Thanks for replies. I will definitely be changing to Syd - Hong Kong. Pity there's not a better service from Brisbane.
what about Melbourne to Hong Kong? the info you provided was great and would love commentry on this leg and also how do you get good business class deals?
I caught CX 100 from SYD - HKG in December 07, and they had the new lie-flat Business beds. Unfortunately, I wasn't in one of them!
If you catch this flight, it often arrives in HKG earlier than the scheduled 05:00 arrival time (based on an inadequate sample size n = 4). The Airport Express to Kowloon and Hong Kong does not operate at this time, and you will have to get a taxi or limo to your destination, which is not exorbitant at that time of day.


text:
from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
from django.core.exceptions import PermissionDenied
from django.db.models import Q
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.http import HttpResponseBadRequest
from django.views.generic import ListView
from django.views.generic import View
from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
from django.core.exceptions import FieldError
from cradmin_legacy import crapp

import csv
from trix.trix_core import models as trix_models

def compute_stats_for_assignment(assignment, howsolved_filter, user_count,
                                 from_date=None, to_date=None):
    if user_count == 0:
        return {'percent': 0, 'count': 0}

    if howsolved_filter != 'notsolved':
        queryset = assignment.howsolved_set.filter(howsolved=howsolved_filter)
    else:
        queryset = assignment.howsolved_set.filter(Q(howsolved='bymyself') |
                                                   Q(howsolved='withhelp'))

    # Filter based on date if present
    queryset = queryset.filter(solved_datetime__date__gte=from_date) if from_date else queryset
    queryset = queryset.filter(solved_datetime__date__lte=to_date) if to_date else queryset
    count = queryset.count()
    # Not solved is number of users that has solved something, but not this task
    numerator = user_count - count if howsolved_filter == 'notsolved' else count
    percentage = numerator / float(user_count) * 100
    return {'percent': percentage, 'count': numerator}

def get_usercount_within_assignments(assignments, from_date=None, to_date=None):
    user_ids = trix_models.HowSolved.objects.filter(assignment__in=assignments)
    user_ids = user_ids.filter(solved_datetime__date__gte=from_date) if from_date else user_ids
    user_ids = user_ids.filter(solved_datetime__date__lte=to_date) if to_date else user_ids
    user_ids = user_ids.values_list('user_id', flat=True)
    user_count = (get_user_model().objects
                  .filter(id__in=user_ids)
                  .distinct()
                  .count())
    return user_count

class AssignmentStatsMixin(object):
    def get_tags(self, course_tag=None):
        tags_string = self.request.GET.get('tags')
        if tags_string:
            tags = []
            removetags = []
            for tag in tags_string.split(','):
                tag = tag.strip()
                if tag:
                    if tag.startswith('-'):
                        removetags.append(tag.lstrip('-'))
                    else:
                        tags.append(tag)
            for removetag in removetags:
                tags.remove(removetag)
        else:
            tags = []
        if course_tag is not None and course_tag not in tags:
            tags.append(course_tag)
        return tags

    def get_from_date(self):
        from_date = self.request.GET.get('from')
        if from_date == '':
            from_date = None
        return from_date

    def get_to_date(self):
        to_date = self.request.GET.get('to')
        if to_date == '':
            to_date = None
        return to_date

    def get_sort_list(self):
        order_list = self.request.GET.get('ordering')
        if order_list:
            sort_list = []
            for order in order_list.split(','):
                order = order.strip()
                sort_list.append(order)
        else:
            sort_list = []
        return sort_list

    def get_queryset(self):
        queryset = super(AssignmentStatsMixin, self).get_queryset()
        for tagstring in self.tags:
            queryset = queryset.filter(tags__tag=tagstring)
        # Filter on dates if present
        if self.from_date is not None:
            queryset = queryset.filter(
                howsolved__solved_datetime__date__gte=self.from_date
            )
        if self.to_date is not None:
            queryset = queryset.filter(
                howsolved__solved_datetime__date__lte=self.to_date
            )
        queryset = queryset.distinct()
        return queryset

class AssignmentStatsCsv(AssignmentStatsMixin, View):
    def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        self.tags = self.get_tags()
        if not self.tags:
            return HttpResponseBadRequest()
        if self.request.cradmin_role.course_tag.tag not in self.tags:
            raise PermissionDenied()
        assignmentqueryset = self.get_queryset()

        user_count = get_usercount_within_assignments(assignmentqueryset)
        response = HttpResponse(content_type='text/csv')
        csv.register_dialect('semicolons', delimiter=';')

        try:
            response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="trix-statistics.csv"'
            csvwriter = csv.writer(response, dialect='semicolons')
            csvwriter.writerow([_('Simple statistics showing percentage share of how the '
                                  'assignments where solved')])
            csvwriter.writerow([_('Total number of users'), str(user_count)])
            csvwriter.writerow('')
            csvwriter.writerow([_('Assignment title'), _('Percentage'), _('Number')])
            for assignment in assignmentqueryset:
                csvwriter.writerow([assignment.title])
                bymyself = compute_stats_for_assignment(assignment,
                                                        'bymyself',
                                                        user_count)
                csvwriter.writerow([
                    _('Completed by their own'),
                    "{}%".format(bymyself['percent']),
                    "{}".format(bymyself['count'])])
                withhelp = compute_stats_for_assignment(assignment,
                                                        'withhelp',
                                                        user_count)
                csvwriter.writerow([
                    _('Completed with help'),
                    "{}%".format(withhelp['percent']),
                    "{}".format(withhelp['count'])])
                notsolved = compute_stats_for_assignment(assignment, 'notsolved', user_count)
                csvwriter.writerow([_('Not completed'),
                                    "{}%".format(notsolved['percent']),
                                    "{}".format(notsolved['count'])])
                csvwriter.writerow('')
        except Exception as e:
            raise e
        return response

    def get_queryset(self):
        queryset = trix_models.Assignment.objects.all().order_by('title')
        for tagstring in self.tags:
            queryset = queryset.filter(tags__tag=tagstring)
        # Filter on dates if present
        from_date = self.get_from_date()
        if from_date is not None:
            queryset = queryset.filter(
                howsolved__solved_datetime__date__gte=from_date
            )
        to_date = self.get_to_date()
        if to_date is not None:
            queryset = queryset.filter(
                howsolved__solved_datetime__date__lte=to_date
            )
        queryset = queryset.distinct()
        return queryset

class StatisticsChartView(AssignmentStatsMixin, ListView):
    """
    Class for the statistics charts displayed.

    This views takes the pk of a Tag to filter the assignments
    """
    template_name = 'trix_admin/statistics.django.html'
    model = trix_models.Assignment
    context_object_name = 'assignment_list'
    paginate_by = 20

    def get(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        self.tags = self.get_tags(self.request.cradmin_role.course_tag.tag)
        self.sort_list = self.get_sort_list()
        self.from_date = self.get_from_date()
        self.to_date = self.get_to_date()
        return super(StatisticsChartView, self).get(request, *args, **kwargs)

    def _get_selectable_tags(self):
        tags = (trix_models.Tag.objects
                .filter(assignment__in=self.get_queryset())
                .exclude(tag__in=self.tags)
                .order_by('tag')
                .distinct()
                .values_list('tag', flat=True))
        return tags

    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        context = super(StatisticsChartView, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
        context['user_count'] = get_usercount_within_assignments(self.get_queryset(),
                                                                 self.from_date,
                                                                 self.to_date)
        context['assignment_count'] = self.get_queryset().count()
        context['selected_tags_string'] = ','.join(self.tags)
        context['selected_tags_list'] = self.tags
        context['selectable_tags_list'] = self._get_selectable_tags()
        context['course_tag'] = self.request.cradmin_role.course_tag.tag
        context['sort_list'] = ','.join(self.sort_list)
        # List of ways to sort. To add or remove ways to sort just expand or remove from this list.
        context['selectable_sort_list'] = [(_('Title'), 'title'),
                                           (_('ID'), 'id'),
                                           (_('Date created'), 'created_datetime'),
                                           (_('Last updated'), 'lastupdate_datetime')]
        context['from_date'] = self.from_date
        context['to_date'] = self.to_date
        return context

    def get_ordering(self):
        ordering = self.request.GET.get('ordering', None)
        if ordering is not None:
            ordering = ordering.split(',')
            for order in ordering:
                try:
                    str(self.model.objects.order_by(order))
                except FieldError:
                    return None
        return ordering

class App(crapp.App):
    appurls = [
        crapp.Url(r'^$', StatisticsChartView.as_view(), name=crapp.INDEXVIEW_NAME),
        crapp.Url(r'^ascsv$', AssignmentStatsCsv.as_view(), name='ascsv'),
    ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Kafkadesk
Ultra-local news from Central Europe
Politics & International
Kafkawhat?
Kafkadesk partners
Kafkadesk contributors
Business & Economy Czech Republic News Poland
Czech Republic and Poland have lowest unemployment rates in the EU
by Kafkadesk Kraków office
Warsaw, Poland – Yesterday, the EU's statistical office released its unemployment figures for January 2020, with a more than promising outlook for Central Europe. According to Eurostat, the Czech Republic (2%, +0.1 percentage point compared to January 2019) and Poland (2.9%, -0.9 pp year-on-year) had the two lowest unemployment rates in the EU, ahead of the Netherlands (3%) and Germany (3.2%).
The EU's long-time employment champion, the Czech Republic's jobless rate reached "close to its lowest point" last year, according to analysts, and should only remain stable or increase over the next few years.
Although the Czech and Polish unemployment figures might be to some extent a rightful cause for celebration, both countries have long been struggling with growing labour shortages hurting domestic companies and businesses' ability to remain competitive.
With a joblessness rate of 3.4% (-0.2 pp compared to twelve months ago), neighbouring Hungary also ranks in the top 5 EU countries with the lowest shares of unemployed people compared to the total available workforce.
Slovakia (5.7%, or -0.2 pp y/y) didn't perform as well as its Visegrad allies, but remains 1 to 2 percentage points below the EU (6.6%) and Eurozone (7.4%) average.
Czech Republic and Poland had the two lowest unemployment rates in the EU in January 2020. Source: Eurostat
In total, Eurostat estimates that there were more than 920,000 unemployed people in total in Visegrad countries in January.
Over the past year, the EU's labour market has largely improved, with 19 member states reporting a drop in unemployment which has reached, EU-wide, its lowest level since 2000, according to Eurostat.
Southern European countries however keep struggling with the highest joblessness rates in the bloc, with Greece (16.5%), Spain (13.7%), Italy (9.8%) and France (8.2%) topping the ranking.
TagsCzech Republic • Employment • European affairs • Hungary • Poland • Slovakia
About Kafkadesk Kraków office
Staffed with a growing team of passionate journalists and local contributors, our Kraków office is fully dedicated to covering all-things Polish, from reporting on the latest news to promoting fascinating local initiatives across Poland.
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The Ruling: O, where did you go?
It's the amount of points you score for making a basket behind the arc. It's the amount of terms FDR served. And it's the amount of points Mercer's offense scored Saturday.
It's the least amount of points the Bears have scored in a game since the program was re-established in 2013. (Its previous low was six against Wofford Nov. 22, 2014.) They've scored more points against teams like Georgia Tech and Auburn.
Mercer lost 20-3 to Samford on Homecoming because of the poor offensive outing. The Bears led the game at one point, connecting on a 36-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead. But there weren't many positives after that.
Samford tied the score with a field goal and then scored a touchdown with 33 seconds remaining before halftime to take a 10-3 lead at the break.
The second half was worse. Quarterback Kaelan Riley threw an interception and fumbled, the special teams had a punt blocked, and the offensive line allowed two safeties. Two. Safeties. In one half.
Samford scored its lone touchdown of the second half midway through the third quarter to lead 16-3, then used the two safeties in the final 15 minutes to put away the Bears.
Mercer entered the game averaging 29 points per game, so it's not like this has been an issue throughout the season. They were just stifled in every aspect of the game.
They struggled to run the ball; the Bears carried it 26 times for 33 yards. The passing game was ineffective most of the game, largely due to pressure on Riley. He was hurried a season-high nine times.
Before the game, Mercer's offensive line ranked 25th in the country allowing 1.25 sacks per game.
Riley finished 18-of-38 for 158 yards, an interception and a fumble. On top of not running it or throwing it well, the offense lost three turnovers and allowed two safeties. Lamb was pretty straightforward with his reasoning for the poor offensive effort.
And there were several penalties that hurt the offense, but still: It was a pretty bad performance. It was not the Mercer offense we've come to know this season.
Running back Tee Mitchell was truly one of the lone bright spots in the game. He had six carries for 33 yards and six catches for 32 yards. But even he was having trouble determining why the offense struggled so much.
The opening kickoff was a pretty good foreshadowing of how the game would go for the Bears. Well, I should say opening kickoffs.
There were three. On the first attempt, Mercer was called for an offsides. On the second attempt, the ball was kicked out of bounds. Samford declined and made Mercer kick it again.
Then the Bears kicked it out of bounds again. Finally, Samford was like, "MAKE IT STOP!" so it took the penalty and the game continued.
After Mercer scored its field goal, it kicked off again. And there was another penalty. The Bears had four straight penalties on kickoffs to start the game.
There have been a couple kicks sent out of bounds this season, but Saturday was certainly another level. Lamb said the team simply needs to execute better.
"We've had a really good year in special teams, but [Saturday] it kind of came crashing down," Lamb said.
I know I've mentioned this in nearly every column this year, but it deserves to be said again: This defense ain't messing around.
The Bears' defense held Samford to only 16 points, an offense that was averaging 28.9 points per game. The defense also forced four turnovers, one of which was at the goal line right after a Mercer turnover.
The defense did everything in its power to win this football game.
Six of the 16 points came off a play that easily could have been an interception. Samford's Chris Shelling bobbled it, then caught it, then bobbled it again, then caught it, then bobbled it again, then finally caught it.
All in all, it resulted in a touchdown that helped seal the game for Samford.
Senior linebacker Lee Bennett, who leads the team with 86 tackles, said his defense never gave up.
After the loss, Mercer's record fell to 4-5 overall and 3-4 in conference play. The playoffs are out of the question now, but two games remain.
The Bears will travel to Cullowhee, NC, Saturday to play Western Carolina in their final conference game of the year.


Sponsorship guarantees are getting more and more common, as a way to secure new business. But what happens when the expectations sold (sometimes, those offered in better economic times) don't match the result. That's what Bartley Kives of the Winnipeg Free Press asks today.
Back in 2007, city council approved a plan to sell the naming rights to city buildings, vehicles or even services as part of what Mayor Sam Katz described as an effort to "fix our crumbling roads, provide city services and keep our taxes competitive."
The city later issued a tender to find a company to sell those rights and selected Winnipeg's Chess Communications in January of this year. City council then approved a $785.3-million operating budget that called for $1.5 million to flow from corporate or individual sponsors.
None of the cash has materialized so far, chief financial officer Mike Ruta notes in a financial status report that goes before council's finance committee on Thursday.
City Councilman Justin Swandel says the agency over estimated, but he is still optimistic that the sponsorship money will flow albeit probably not at the $1.5MM/year level.
The promise of municipal sponsorships as a way of financially supporting city services took on added notoriety earlier this year when KFC proposed the idea of letting the colonel fill city potholes in five major cities.
In Winnipeg though, another story. These are the dangers of relying on unsecured sponsorships to fill critical city services.


Provides dependencies desktop file and common fixes for MATLAB.
add libxss as dependency to allow addon manager to work.
I did not change the default jvm shipped with matlab hence jre7-openjdk wasn't needed. Is the version shipped still considered insecure?
My employer only supports the (a) releases with it's license server so I can not test (b) releases. If someone who updates with each release want's to take over the package let me know.
Because the path is not hard-coded based on version, reinstalling the package should make it work with the (b) releases but I cannot verify this.
@runical, thanks for the heads up (fixed now), glad someone besides me is using the package.
Hey, thanks for the update! Unfortunately, is seems you forgot to run mksourceinfo to update the meta data on the AUR and you didn't update the optinal dependency on GCC from GCC47 to GCC49.
Hey man, you might want to add libselinux to the depends/optdepends as that fixes the simulink issue where the welcome window does not open (in R2016b).


text:
Genie es un lenguaje de programación de alto nivel, moderno, y de propósito general en desarrollo activo desde el año 2008. Fue diseñado como un dialecto  alternativo más simple y limpio para el compilador Vala, preservando al mismo tiempo la misma funcionalidad del lenguaje Vala. La sintaxis de Genie se deriva de numerosos lenguajes modernos como Python, Boo, D y Delphi.

Al igual que Vala, Genie usa el sistema de tipos GObject para crear clases e interfaces declaradas en el código fuente de Genie, sin imponer requisitos adicionales de tiempo de ejecución (es decir, a diferencia de Python, Java o Mono, este no requiere una máquina virtual).

Genie permite el acceso a las bibliotecas de C, especialmente las basadas en GObject (como GTK+), sin necesidad de utilizar otro API. Durante la compilación, el código se traduce primero a código fuente y cabeceras de C, que se compilan entonces al código de máquina con cualquier compilador C disponible como GCC, lo cual permite el desarrollo de software multi-plataforma.

Aunque tanto Vala como Genie son desarrollados y promovidos por el proyecto Gnome, los programas desarrollados en Genie no dependen del entorno de escritorio Gnome, y usualmente requieren solo de GLib.

Diferencias con Vala
Genie usa el mismo compilador y bibliotecas que Vala; de hecho, los dos se pueden utilizar juntos. Las diferencias son solo sintácticas.

Sangría
Como un lenguaje que toma a Python como referencia, Genie utiliza espacios en blanco o tabuladores en lugar de llaves para delimitar bloques.

Ejemplos de código

Un simple "Hola Mundo"
En este ejemplo se utiliza de forma explícita cuatro espacios para el sangrado.
[indent = 4]
init
    print "Hola, mundo!"
Otro ejemplo:
init
	a:int = 0
	if (a > 0)
		print "a es mayor que 0"
	else
		print "a no es mayor que 0"

Objetos
Sin ninguna declaración explícita para el sangrado, por defecto se usa la tabulación.
class Ejemplo

	def run()
		stdout.printf("Hola, mundo!\n")

init
	var ejemplo = new Ejemplo()
	ejemplo.run()

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Página principal de Genie (en inglés)
 Página principal de Vala (en inglés)
 Página de Barry Kauler sobre Genie (en inglés)
 Página de Nicolas Joseph con muchos ejemplos de código
 Documentación de la API
 Charla IRC sobre Genie en Gnome hispano, febrero de 2010
 Código de Genie para principiantes
 Genie Doc

Lenguajes de programación multiparadigma
GNOME
Software de 2008
Lenguajes de programación imperativa
Lenguajes de programación orientada a objetos
Lenguajes de programación de alto nivel

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We are looking for English copywriter to write description of boats, hotels basis on other descriptions. Content will be written for selling website. Based on descriptions from owner and others you need to write new content (for SEO and humans) with listed features. I have 300 hotels up to 300 - 400 words each. Plus rooms descriptions up to 100 words.
Text has to be uncial and should be written in English or American style.
based on the website we provided and/or other resources you may find about it in the internet. Make it true and real but use your own words.
Please make descriptions only to check you skills, check time and think how much do you want for one desctiption of Emperor Leo or Virgo form owner site. I will send you links, please let me know.


text:
Q: Как работать с сайтами, которые генерируют куки, либо токены в js Как я понял, мне в любом случае придется копаться в js сайта, и от туда изучать логику генерации куки/токена.
Есть ли какие-нибудь программы/расширения, которые позволяют отследить где генерируется куки/токен в js

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Django Endless Pagination - Showing Current Number of Results (not pages) I am using django's endless pagination for search results and I want to create a message at the top simply stating, for example:
showing 20 results of 124
Or even better:
showing results 20 to 40 of 124
I do not see any way to get the current number of results in the endless pagination documentation. How would you do this?

A: Solution:
After using the paginate template tag, call {% get_pages %} and set the total results as a variable like this:
{% paginate items %}
{% get_pages %}
{% with total=pages.total_count %}

Total results: {{ total }}

{% for item in items %}
 ...
{% endfor %}

{% endwith %}

A: People tend to overcomplicate this. I found thee current_start_index and current_end_index functions fairly well documented in the source ( but not in the actual documentation ).
Here is how you would use them to achieve that.
{{ pages.current_start_index }} through {{ pages.current_end_index }} of {{ pages.total_count }} results
Hope this helps someone :D

A: I would do as follows:
Count the total number of entries from database and pass to the template that would be 124. and then use paginate limit to limit the number of total entries per page. Count that and show  however you want.

A: I have wrote my own custom tag for that matter by using the existing tag:
from endless_pagination import (
    settings,
    utils,
)

@register.inclusion_tag("endless_pagination/show_more.html", takes_context=True)
def show_more_with_counts(context, per_page_count, total_count, first_page_count=0,
    verb='enteries', loading=settings.LOADING, show_total_in_end=True):
    # This template tag could raise a PaginationError: you have to call
    # *paginate* or *lazy_paginate* before including the showmore template.
    data = utils.get_data_from_context(context)
    page = data['page']
    # show the template only if there is a next page
    if page.has_next():
        request = context['request']
        page_number = page.next_page_number()
        # Generate the querystring.
        querystring_key = data['querystring_key']
        querystring = utils.get_querystring_for_page(
            request, page_number, querystring_key,
            default_number=data['default_number'])
        curr_page_num = int(request.GET.get(querystring_key, 1))
        if curr_page_num == 1:
            if first_page_count:
                start = first_page_count + 1
            else:
                start = per_page_count + 1
        else:
            if first_page_count:
                start = (curr_page_num * per_page_count) - first_page_count
            else:
                start = (curr_page_num * per_page_count) + 1
        end = (per_page_count + start) - 1
        if end > total_count:
            end = total_count
        label = 'Load %(start)s to %(end)s of %(total)s %(verb)s' % {
            'start': start, 'end': end, 'total': total_count, 'verb': verb}
        return {
            'label': label,
            'loading': loading,
            'path': data['override_path'] or request.path,
            'querystring': querystring,
            'querystring_key': querystring_key,
            'request': request,
            'show_total_in_end': show_total_in_end,
        }
    else:
        if total_count > 0:
            return {
                'label': 'Showing %(start)s of %(end)s %(verb)s' % \
                    {'start': total_count, 'end': total_count, 'verb': verb},
                'show_total_in_end': show_total_in_end,
            }
        else:
            return {}

Also I have following show_more.html template:
{% load i18n %}
{% if querystring %}

        {{ label }}

{{ loading|safe }}

{% elif show_total_in_end %}
    {{ label }}
{% endif %}

How to use:
{% show_more_with_counts 10 qs_count verb='users' %}
# it will say `Load 1 to 10 of 100 users` for first page
# it will say `Load 11 to 20 of 100 users` for 2nd page, and so on

You have to pass per_page_count, total number of objects in a queryset or list total_count, and the verb to use.


"My house is practical. I thank you as I thank the railway engineer or a telephone service... but you have not touched my heart. You apply stone, wood and concrete, that is construction... ingenuity is at work.
But suddenly you have touched my heart, you have done me good, and I am happy... this is beautiful... this is architecture... art enters in."
Interior design and architecture are two complementary professions which, in my opinion, should not be separated into two different jobs. Otherwise the result will be two different ways of thinking about the space in the same project.
One Lebanese designer goes so far as to assert: "interior design is a recent profession that was born when the architects stopped doing their job completely."
The relationship between architects and interior designers is mediated by an architectural object or interior space. A piece of furniture or artwork reveals itself differently in each time we move it. A group of pieces gives us a different but diverse content. With each move it takes on a new identity, a new feeling, and this makes it interesting.
The object make a network in depth (history) and breadth (geography). This network evolves and materializes through a process of inspiration, image, and historic precedent. From this evolution emerges the designer's identity.
Some interior designers and architects consider themselves distanced from the social, political, and cultural terrain, and not tied (by blood) to any particular nationality, tradition, or history. Others recognize that they are anchored in their origins, namely their ethnicity and non-Western roots. How are these factors manifest in their design work?
To answer this question I have looked at the work of three designers. The first describes himself as "modernist"; the second considers himself as "conserving" the Lebanese identity and heritage; and the third deals with each subject and each program differently.
A chalet by Lebanese interior designer Dory Hitti.
Hitti is against the idea of a home looking like a museum.