Are you looking for a nonpartisan voter guide to the Steve Daines vs. Amanda Curtis Senate race? One that will give you an unbiased, no-spin comparison of candidate positions on key issues? That's what our Campus Election Engagement Project guide will give you! We are a national nonpartisan initiative working with college and university administrators, faculty, and student leaders to increase student participation in America's elections. For the 2014 elections we have created and distributed voter guides to campuses in more than 20 states so they can provide their communities with accurate information for informed voting. Because these guides have been so well received and are useful for all voting citizens who want to be better informed, we are also posting them here.
We developed our guides by analyzing information from trusted resources such as www.votesmart.org, www.ontheissues.org, www.ballotpedia.com, www.politifact.com, www.factcheck.org, www.vote411.org and from candidate websites, public debates and interviews, and statements in major media outlets. We also showed them to groups like campus Young Republicans and Young Democrats at the schools we work with to verify their fairness and lack of bias.
So here are the issue-by-issue stands for Steve Daines and Amanda Curtis , with additional links at the bottom for each candidate if you'd like to dig deeper.
Economy: Do you support the Dodd-Frank Act, which established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and sought to increase regulation of Wall Street corporations and other financial institutions?
Curtis: Supports refinancing of student loans, greater Pell Grant support, and investment in career & technical schools.
Curtis: Probable yes. Supports development of all energy resources, but supported disclosure of energy efficiency for state buildings and supports green jobs as priority.
Curtis: No--Says it's not perfect but "making a huge difference" in access to health care. Criticizes MT legislature for blocking Medicaid expansion to people making 138% of poverty line.
Immigration: Do you support the D.R.E.A.M. Act, which would allow children brought into the country illegally to achieve legal status if they've graduated from high school, have a clean legal record, and attend college or serve in the military?
Curtis: Probable yes--promoted Montana measure to give in-state tuition for undocumented graduates of Montana high schools.
Curtis: Unknown--but wants "clear exit strategy" for any involvement.
Marijuana: Do you support efforts to decriminalize and/or legalize marijuana?
Curtis: Supports medical marijuana and decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana.
Taxes: Have you signed the Americans for Tax Reform Pledge to oppose "any and all tax increases" meant to generate additional revenue?


text:
from time import clock
from in_boundary import in_boundary
V = "1"
O = "0"
from get_printable_map import get_printable_map
from get_solution_hash import get_solution_hash
from apply_solution import apply_solution

TIME_SAVER = 15 # the smaller the quicker, recommand 7

class Structure(object):
	def __init__(self, test_map, solution_space, N):
		self.M = self.N = N
		self.solution_space = solution_space
		self.test_map = test_map
		L = len(test_map)
		W = len(test_map[0])
		self.L, self.W = L, W
		self.expanded = set()
		self.components = [set([(-1, x) for x in xrange(0, W)])]
		self.expand(self.components[0])
		self.components.append(set([(L, x) for x in xrange(0, W)]))
		self.expand(self.components[1])
		for i in xrange(L):
			for j in xrange(W):
				if test_map[i][j] == V and not (i, j) in self.expanded:
					self.components.append(set([(i,j)]))
					self.expand(self.components[-1])
		self.dis_map = [{} for _ in self.components]
		print self.mark_components()
		self.tangent_map = {}
		self.tangents = [set() for _ in self.components]
		for index, component in enumerate(self.components):
			self.compute_dis_map(self.dis_map[index], component, index)
		# print self.tangent_map
		self.compute_path()
		self.paths.sort(reverse=True)
		# test
		arrg = {}
		for pl, ps, contangent in self.paths:
			arrg[pl] = arrg.get(pl, 0) + 1
		print arrg

	def find_structure_external(self):
		self.time0 = self.time_last = clock()
		self.find_structure(-1, [set([0, 1])], set(), [])

	def find_structure(self, index, disjoint_set, solution, tangents):
		# self.M = self.N - int((clock() - self.time0) / TIME_SAVER)
		if clock() - self.time_last > 5:
			self.time_last = clock()
			print get_printable_map(apply_solution(self.test_map, solution))
			print tangents, "ELAPSED", int((clock() - self.time0) * 10) * 0.1
		i = index + 1
		while i < len(self.paths):
			path_len, points, tangent = self.paths[i]
			if path_len + len(solution) > self.M:
				i += 1
				continue
			if points & solution:
				i += 1
				continue
			n_disjoint_set, is_valid = self.get_disjoint_set(disjoint_set, tangent)
			if not is_valid:
				i += 1
				continue
			n_solution = set(solution)
			n_solution.update(points)
			_, duplication = self.solution_space.add(n_solution)
			duplication = duplication == None #
			if duplication:
				i += 1
				continue
			n_tangents = list(tangents)
			n_tangents.append(tangent)
			self.find_structure(i + 1, n_disjoint_set, n_solution, n_tangents)
			weight = int((clock() - self.time0) / TIME_SAVER)
			if weight == 0:
				i += 1 + int(len(points) * (clock() - self.time0) / TIME_SAVER)
			else:
				i += int(len(points) ** weight * (clock() - self.time0) / TIME_SAVER)

	def get_disjoint_set(self, disjoint_set, tangent):
		connected = set(tangent)
		n_disjoint_set = []
		for component in disjoint_set:
			join_points = component & tangent
			if len(join_points) > 1:
				return None, False
			if len(join_points) == 1:
				connected.update(component)
			else:
				n_disjoint_set.append(component)
		n_disjoint_set.append(connected)
		return n_disjoint_set, True

	def compute_path(self):
		n = len(self.components)
		self.paths = []
		self.paths_dedup = set()
		self.components_dis = [[0 for _ in self.components] for __ in self.components]
		for i in xrange(n):
			for j in xrange(max(i + 1, 2), n):
				dis, starts = self.get_dis(self.tangents[i], self.dis_map[j])
				self.components_dis[i][j] = self.components_dis[j][i] = dis
		for i in xrange(n):
			for j in xrange(max(i + 1, 2), n):
				dis, starts = self.get_dis(self.tangents[i], self.dis_map[j])
				for s in starts:
					self.search_path(i, j, 1, dis - 2, set([s]), s, set([i, j]))

	def search_path(self, i, j, d1, d2, points, p, connects):
		if d2 == -1:
			path_hash = get_solution_hash(points)
			if path_hash in self.paths_dedup:
				return
			self.paths_dedup.add(path_hash)
			self.paths.append((len(points), points, connects))
			return
		x, y = p
		for dx in xrange(-1, 2):
			for dy in xrange(-1, 2):
				nx = dx + x
				ny = dy + y
				np = (nx, ny)
				if in_boundary(nx, ny, self.L, self.W) and \
					self.dis_map[i].get(np, -2) == d1 and \
					self.dis_map[j].get(np, -2) == d2:
					bad = False
					for index in self.tangent_map.get(np, set()):
						if self.components_dis[i][index] + self.components_dis[index][j] < \
							self.components_dis[i][j]:
							bad = True
					if bad:
						continue
					npoints = set(points)
					npoints.add(np)
					nconnects = set(connects)
					nconnects.update(self.tangent_map.get(np, set()))
					self.search_path(i, j, d1 + 1, d2 - 1, npoints, np, nconnects)

	def get_dis(self, tangents, dis_map):
		dis = min([dis_map[p] for p in tangents])
		starts = [p for p in tangents if dis_map[p] == dis]
		return dis + 1, starts

	def compute_dis_map(self, dis_map, component, index):
		queue = []
		p = 0
		for x, y in component:
			dis_map[(x, y)] = -1
			queue.append((x, y))
		while p < len(queue):
			x, y = queue[p]
			for dx in xrange(-1, 2):
				for dy in xrange(-1, 2):
					nx = x + dx
					ny = y + dy
					if in_boundary(nx, ny, self.L, self.W) and \
						not (nx, ny) in dis_map and self.test_map[nx][ny] == O:
						dis_map[(nx, ny)] = dis_map[(x, y)] + 1
						queue.append((nx, ny))
						if dis_map[(nx, ny)] == 0:
							if not (nx, ny) in self.tangent_map:
								self.tangent_map[(nx, ny)] = set()
							self.tangent_map[(nx, ny)].add(index)
							self.tangents[index].add((nx, ny))
			p += 1

	def mark_dis_map(self, dis_map):
		test_map = [line[:] for line in self.test_map]
		for x, y in dis_map:
			if in_boundary(x, y, self.L, self.W):
				test_map[x][y] = chr(ord('b') + dis_map[(x, y)])
		return get_printable_map(test_map)

	def mark_components(self):
		test_map = [line[:] for line in self.test_map]
		for index, component in enumerate(self.components):
			for x, y in component:
				if in_boundary(x, y, self.L, self.W):
					test_map[x][y] = chr(ord('a') + index)
		return get_printable_map(test_map)

	def expand(self, component):
		queue = list(component)
		p = 0
		while p < len(queue):
			x, y = queue[p]
			self.expanded.add((x, y))
			for dx in xrange(-1, 2):
				for dy in xrange(-1, 2):
					nx = x + dx
					ny = y + dy
					if in_boundary(nx, ny, self.L, self.W) and \
						not (nx, ny) in self.expanded and self.test_map[nx][ny] == V:
						self.expanded.add((nx, ny))
						component.add((nx, ny))
						queue.append((nx, ny))
			p += 1

def populated_structure_solutions(solution_space, test_map, N):
	structure = Structure(test_map, solution_space, N)
	structure.find_structure_external()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Batallé's white pig is an animal of outstanding quality, the product of an internal selection programme devised to turn out a homogeneous meat product of the very highest quality.
Selección Batallé employs a crossbreeding programme to obtain the Batallé's white pig. Together with a specific diet, this programme allows for the production of pigs with a high percentage of lean, and premium quality meat, thanks to the participation (25%) of the "el Único" by Batallé in the product.
Carnica Batallé produces a broad range of products obtained from the white pig. When butchering, the greatest care is taken with the cutting, handling and final presentation of each piece of meat.
The cuts of meat from the Batallé's white pig are distinguished by their fine colour, smooth texture, and delicious flavour.
Its optimal ratio between lean meat quantity and quality allows the Batallé's white pig to stand out from other sources of pork.


text:
Queue And A
'Yellowstone' Star Piper Perabo Says A Romance Between Summer And John Is "Possible"
By Karen Kemmerle Twitter @kenobibear Dec 5, 2021 at 9:00pm
How Many Episodes of '1883' Are There? 'Yellowstone' Prequel Release Schedule
After her memorable introduction in last week's episode of Yellowstone—not many people walk away after being a part of a group that throws a rock a Dutton—protestor Piper Perabo's Summer Higgins continues to shake things up in "I Want To Be Him," the sixth episode of the fourth season. After spending a platonic night on the Yellowstone ranch with John Dutton (Kevin Costner), Summer is minding her own business in the kitchen the next morning when Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) happens upon her. In classic Beth Dutton form, she threatens Summer, who only backs down after Beth brandishes a knife. Thank goodness John was there to break them up!
After the most uncomfortable breakfast in the world, John takes Summer back into to town, but not before he helps free one of his calves who ended up on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. As Summer watches John and Rip (Cole Hauser) tenderly return the calf to its mother, it's clear that her sympathies shift. Though Summer is in Montana to protest the Livestock Association that "protects industrialized animal farming and the mass murder of millions of animals," she can see that John values the land and his animals just as much as she does. Decider got the chance to speak with the Golden Globe nominated actress about the real-life inspiration for the role, working with Kelly Reilly and Summer's evolving relationship with the Duttons.
DECIDER: Your husband, Yellowstone EP/director Stephen Kay, is a frequent collaborator of Taylor Sheridan's. Did he first approach you with the idea of playing Summer Higgins? Were you itching to become a part of Yellowstone?
PIPER PERABO: My husband, Stephen Kay, and Taylor Sheridan knew each other long before I ever entered the picture. They met years ago on Sons of Anarchy and really love working together, so eventually they became friends.
I had a dinner with Taylor, Stephen, and Taylor's wife, Nic, recently after I had been arrested for participating in a protest in the real world. Taylor asked me to tell him all about that experience. He loved my story and was really interested in civil disobedience and the notion of getting arrested for something you care about. I think that's where the beginnings of Summer Higgins started.
Summer enters the world of Yellowstone with a bang, not a whimper. What's the one thing you want Yellowstone fans to know about Summer Higgins?
Summer is a very different kind of character than others that have come into the Yellowstone world. She is open and wants to understand the whole picture. She doesn't need to have it her way. I think fans are going to be excited about the way that Summer's journey opens up.
Summer stands up to John, doesn't blink when Beth threatens her with a knife, and is part of the group that throws a rock at Kayce. Is it safe to say that the Duttons have found a worthy match?
That's high praise [laughs]. To match the Duttons is a pretty high level, but I'm proud that Summer will mix it up with them at all. Once you see Kayce jump out of his truck, most people will go running for the hills. I'm impressed that Summer stands her ground on any level.
Not many people go toe-to-toe with Beth Dutton and hold their hold, but Summer does. Can you talk about preparing for that scene in the kitchen when Beth confronts Summer at knife point? What is it like working with Kelly Reilly?
I've been a fan of the show since the first episode and a fan of Kelly Reilly even before that. I was so excited to do these scenes with her because I think she's so good. I love what she's made of the character of Beth. A lot of times in Yellowstone, it's two cowboys going toe-to-toe, but to see two women go toe-to-toe is really exciting. If you want to go up against the best, you go up against Beth Dutton.
Did you and Kelly get to rehearse that scene beforehand?
Kelly and I know each other in real life. We're friends, which I think can really help a scene like that, because there's a certain level of trust. Neither one of us is going to "stab" the other intentionally [laughs]. We did have a lot of rehearsal that day in the Dutton house. Kelly knows that space so much better than I do. It took me a minute to get my footing, but it was so fun.
People often think of activists as unmovable with set ideals, but it's clear from the scene in which John tenderly gets a calf back into the herd that Summer begins to rethink her agenda. What's in store for Summer as the season goes on? Do her interactions with the Duttons change?
When Summer first meets John, she sees him as a kind of monolith. What she starts to understand is that John cares as much about the land as she does. They come from really different worlds. They're both real fighters in their own ways for the conservation of the land. He teaches her a lot and broadens her perspective.
It seems like John has really taken a shine to Summer, inviting her back to the ranch. Could things get romantic between the two?
It's possible, but Beth Dutton is never far away. She doesn't like anybody messing with her family.
Where to stream Yellowstone

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I have been catching up with old friends lately. Over the years, everyone has had shifts of the wind in their lives. It is always inspiring to hear their stories about how they adjusted their sails. Some have ended up in unexpectedly successful places. Others are still on their journeys but are going in good directions.
I hope this quote inspires you to adjust your sails when the winds change!


Toyota has revealed the Auris Estate although this vehicle could be better known as a Sports Tourer. Contrary to popular beliefs, these estates are strongly in favor in certain markets which value their importance in day to day activities. Toyota plans on attracting this market segment with the Auris Estate. The Auris Estate is likely to spend a mass of its time in company parking lots as it is destined to be used to carry equipments and transport people.
The Auris Estate is just as neat the hatch back and features a sporty yet conventional design. It is fun to drive and is packed with space and technology. These features make the Toyota Auris range a predictable yet undisputable lineup. The hybrid variant of the Auris Estate is also on the cards and even though the specifications have not been revealed, experts claim that the battery and drive train could be lifted off the Auris hatchback.
Toyota claims that the Auris has the best in class boot space and with the rear seats down, this vehicle boasts of a massive 1658 liters boot, which is also class leading stuff. The loading deck is also well engineered as a result of which items can be easily stored and removed. The tail gate is large and the seats can be folded and removed quite easily.
The steering column is well spaced and the parcel shelf can be rolled out and can also be used as a divider between the rear load space and the seats. This makes the Auris Estate a very affordable yet practical machine. Toyota is offering a range of engine options on the Auris Estate and the range includes 1.3 liter, 1.6 liter and 1.8 liter petrol options while a 1.4 liter diesel is also on offer.
Toyota is also offering four trim levels on the Auris Estate while the Excel is the range topping version of the vehicle. Owing to Toyota's innovative engineering, the Auris Estate handles precisely like the hatchback. The rear portion is supported by a double wishbone suspension which has been adjusted to support a variety of weights.
However at moderate speeds under steer kicks in although the tires provide sufficient grip in most weather conditions while the chassis is well balanced. The hybrid power train option on the Auris Estate is an additional benefit which enhances the performance of the vehicle. Standard 17 inch rims have been installed on Estate while the 109 ft lb of torque generated by the electric power train along with the conventional engines seems to be incompetent at times.
The engine is quite revving friendly while the belt drive train system is quite efficient and empowers the engine to produce high torque figures. However, the engine is not as refined as people may expect it to be and there is a constant decibel level inside the cabin. This is a shame as the Auris Estate was near perfect otherwise. Toyota however manages to set the pace in the market owing to the affordable price tag.


text:
Q: What are ".~bpl" files? Using Code Gear Delphi 2007 (don't know if it matter), each time a ".bpl" package is compiled, a ".~bpl" file is created too.
What are ".~bpl" files? Are those files required or is there a way to avoid their creation?

A: It's the backup of the previous copy of the BPL file, just like the .~pas files are backups of the .pas files and the .~dsk file is a previous copy of your desktop settings file and the .~dfm is a previous copy of your .dfm file.
There's no way to avoid their creation, but they're harmless. I'm not sure why they would concern you, but you can always create a post-build event in your project to delete them after a successful build.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Victoria Carl (Zella-Mehlis, 31 de julio de 1995) es una deportista alemana que compite en esquí de fondo.

Participó en dos Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno, obteniendo dos medallas en Pekín 2022, oro en velocidad por equipo (junto con Katharina Hennig) y plata en el relevo (con Katherine Sauerbrey, Katharina Hennig y Sofie Krehl), y el sexto lugar en Pyeongchang 2018, en el relevo.

Ganó una medalla de plata en el Campeonato Mundial de Esquí Nórdico de 2023, en la prueba de relevo.

Palmarés internacional

Referencias

Esquiadores de fondo de Alemania
Esquiadores de fondo en los Juegos Olímpicos de Pyeongchang 2018
Esquiadores de fondo en los Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín 2022
Medallistas olímpicos de oro de esquí de fondo
Medallistas olímpicos de plata de esquí de fondo
Medallistas olímpicos de oro de Alemania
Medallistas olímpicos de plata de Alemania
Medallistas olímpicos de oro de Pekín 2022
Medallistas olímpicos de plata de Pekín 2022
Deportistas de Alemania en los Juegos Olímpicos de Pyeongchang 2018
Deportistas de Alemania en los Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín 2022
Alemanas del siglo XXI
Deportistas femeninas de Alemania
Esquiadoras

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


It's ok, we are not going to bore you to death talking about each airport just yet. We will just jump straight into what you want.
Here are our picks for the top 3 cheap airports to fly into in the USA!
To me travelling is one of the best things in the world.
Nothing beats exploring new cities or watching the sunset from a new viewpoint. Meandering a local market and stuffing your face with new & exciting food is what dreams are made of.
The one part of travelling I don't like is the price of plane tickets. Sure, there are great sites like Skyscanner & Secret Flying. They help you find the cheapest flights to some of your favourite destinations. But they do not always find a great deal for every place you want to go.
The United States has over 370 commercial airports. This is a huge number of potential destinations. Airports like Honolulu International are (not surprisingly) very expensive to fly into.
So what are the cheapest airports to fly into?
Ready to book your flights now?


While we can't reverse the effects of aging on our eyesight, we can take common-sense steps to promote eye health and protect our vision.
With approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day, a growing cohort of older Americans needs to start considering how to best take care of themselves as they age. From supporting strong bones to promoting heart health, there's a lot to consider as you work hard to enjoy a long, healthy retirement.
Among these concerns, it's important to remember eye health. More than half of Americans will experience cataracts by the time they're 75, so it's clear that our eyes share in the burden of getting older. While the deterioration of your vision may not be fatal, it can have a direct impact on your quality of life, and that means that it's important to understand what steps you can take to maintain eye health as you age.
Between lifestyle changes and medical due diligence, you can help protect your vision throughout your retirement. If you're considering what you can do to keep your eyes healthy, consider the following seven tips.
A healthy diet can give your eyes the building blocks they need to stay strong as you age. By eating foods rich in vitamins, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids, you'll be providing your body with nutrients that are essential for healthy vision. Opt for leafy greens, salmon, and other ingredients as you build out your list of vision-friendly recipes. And, at the same time, cut down on junk food to maintain overall health.
Lifelong habits can be hard to kick, but cutting back on harmful ones can keep your eyesight healthy in the long run. Smoking reduces the flow of nutrient-rich blood to the eyes and introduces toxins that your eyes may otherwise absorb, such as nicotine. Smokers have an increased risk of most major eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, uveitis, cataracts, and dry eye. By quitting smoking, you'll be doing your vision a huge favor.
Reaching retirement might mean more time on vacation and in the sun, but that light can do real damage to your eyes if you don't protect them. In fact, UV rays directly contribute to cataracts and can accelerate degeneration in the eye. This means that you should always wear sunglasses when you go outside — ideally those that have 100% UVA and UVB protection.
Overworking your eyes can have long-term, adverse health effects, especially as you age and especially if you spend a large part of the day staring at a computer, tablet, or smartphone screens. To protect your eyes from strain, it's a good idea to follow the 20-20-20 rule. That is, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Small lifestyle changes can go a long way toward healthier eyes. If you find yourself staying up too late or getting up too early, trying making some adjustments so you can get a full night's sleep. Similarly, trying getting regular exercise into your weekly routine. By getting the blood pumping, you'll be boosting circulation, which is great for your eyes.
While you may have dismissed temporary issues with your vision when you were younger, it's better to be proactive as you age. If you see flashes, experience cloudiness in your vision, or are troubled by eye pain, you should reach out to your doctor and discuss your symptoms. If something's wrong, you can be ahead of the curve, and if nothing's wrong, all the better.
As you get older, you should schedule eye exams on a regular basis. Doing so will help both you and your eye care specialist determine what the baseline is for your eyesight. This helps you know when something might amiss and it helps your doctor track any new and worrying developments.
If you're looking to get an eye exam on the books with trained and trusted specialists, schedule an appointment with ICON Eyecare. Our team can connect with you about any concerns with aging eyes and help you make lifestyle changes that fit your needs.


As part of the response to poverty creating policies, TSCB aims to challenge the political roots of the social crisis. TSCB provides monthly access to clothing, shoes and toiletries for anyone in need, no referral or evidence of need required. Based at The Newport Hub on the 2nd Saturday of every month from 1-3pm, clean and good quality clothes, advice and guidance, hot food and drinks, and various activities and entertainment in a safe family and community setting. Donations of clothes so far have been extremely generous and at present no more can be taken. TSCB do however need cash for running costs such as rent for the building, new underwear, food & drink and storage solutions – this is where you lovely generous people come in and join 4 People Not Profit to Party.
help push through privatisation of public services like the NHS.
A brief summary of TTIP is as follows. It is a trade deal which is being negotiated between the US and the EU with the aim of reducing any barriers to trade taking place. One issue is the problem of the different standards that are currently in place on each side of the Atlantic. An example is the use of insecticides; large numbers of products are banned in the EU while America allows their use. Americans are happy to eat hormone reared beef washed in lactic acid and chicken rinsed in chlorine, while Europeans have banned such cost effective methods of food production. This leaves campaigners wondering whose guidelines will be applied and fearing that there will be a general lowering of standards.
However, the biggest concern about TTIP is an element called ISDS. This stands for Investor State Dispute Settlement. Currently about 20% of world trade deals contain this element so there has been the chance to see how it works in practice. It gives corporations the right to challenge national governments over any legislation they might want to introduce. The much quoted example of this is that of the Philip Morris tobacco company, who are taking legal action against the Australian government for legislating that in future all cigarettes must be sold in plain packaging. Philip Morris fears this will reduce their profits. The legal action does not take place in Australian courts but in a separate corporate legal system, using special lawyers who both represent the parties and also form judge and jury. Another impact of the ISDS is that if the NHS was privatised and a future government wanted to put it back in public hands, they could not do so under TTIP without it going to an ISDS court. The private companies with a stake in the NHS could sue for millions in loss of earnings. Effectively this would make a return to public ownership impossible for any government.
In February I represented Global Justice Cleveland and joined eighty other people at St Pancras Station to travel to Brussels for two days to protest against TTIP. We started off with a tour of Brussels, the tour was called 'Know your enemy'. We were told that there are a staggering 20,000 lobbyists in Brussels representing big business with the aim of influencing EU policy making.
Further protests were held in key locations where the negotiations were taking place across Brussels. We also met Green MEP's who spoke about TTIP and explained their stance which is that they are completely against it and as a result they are not taking part in the negotiations. They praised us for our campaigning and encouraged us to continue. We later met two Labour MEP's who sit on the Trade Committee, one of them was our own Jude Kirton-Darling. Unlike the Greens the Labour MEP's are taking part in negotiations and are trying to argue in favour of a 'good TTIP'. Some activists were disappointed with this stance, believing that this is a contradiction in terms. In their defence Jude believes that the only way to have an influence is to take part in the debate.
It is good news that awareness of TTIP appears to be growing so larger numbers of MEP's and MP's are being lobbied by their constituents. While I was in Brussels I really got the feeling that by uniting across Europe it will be possible to beat TTIP.
Life on earth consists of over 8 million species, and we are suppose to be one of the most intelligent species among them. Yet not only do we threaten the existence of our own species, we threaten every other species as well. If we carry on along the path we are going it looks like we are heading for extinction.
The environmental spectrum new online radio show is not perfect and neither is it the answer to our problems, but it may help those trying to preserve life on earth and get others to help, as this should be everybody's responsibility.
Enjoy and play your part good luck!
Yes I have got to admit it ……I am a scumbag-ist, and I think you should be too. I just hate scumbags who do horrendous scumbag like things and sadly in today's world filled with terrorism, war and general unprovoked violence there are plenty of scumbags about.
Unfortunately though in today's modern age we seem to be slipping back into primitive tribalism, where scumbags do horrible things and we make broad generalisations about everyone who we identify as part of the group of that individual scumbag. Now in ancient times tribalism used to be a very useful survival mechanism to identify enemies who were part of one particular group to avoid or fight, and to identify with your own group for protection. But in today's complex age of multiculturalism and living in such diverse societies this primitive evolutionary mechanism of tribalism serves no useful purpose.
The hangover of ancient tribalistic thinking forms the basis of racism and ignorance of other cultures and people today. Some of the worst horrors of recent history come from this broad hatred of entire groups of people based on the acts of a tiny few, such as Genocides committed against the Jews by the Nazi's or the Hutu's against the Tutsi's in Rwanda.
It is this same primitive thinking which is causing such hatred against Muslim's in today's current climate. Admittedly some Muslims have done some very bad things in recent years, from 9/11 to the beheading of Lee Rigby. But these people were individual scumbags who committed appalling acts. To now label all Muslims or even the majority of Muslims as scumbags as well, makes no logical sense.
As an example of this sheer irrational thinking, we also see in the news that recently there has been a lot of middle aged white men in the entertainment industry who have been found to be scumbag paedophiles. Does this mean we should be worried about the rest of the middle aged white men in the entertainment industry. Should we not just lynch Jeremy Clarkson and Terry Wogan now and protest outside the BBC? Of course not! This would be ridiculous but is the same principle as believing all Muslims are terrorist scumbags.
Just because a selection of people who do very bad things belong to a certain demographic, does not mean the rest of the people in that certain demographic are also liable to do similar very bad things. The only judgement you can make is on the individual and the people who do these awful things are individual scumbags. To label the entire group or demographic they belong to as scumbags is insulting to many thousands or even millions of good people, and is just fuelling further division, distrust and hatred in society.
So let's unite and be scumbag-ists together and aim our hate at the individuals who deserve it!


text:
NWSL's KC Current Unveil World-Class, $18 Million Training Facility And The Players Are Stunned
By Travis Yoesting June 22, 2022
This is how you invest in women's sports.
@thekccurrent | Twitter
Two days before the 50-year anniversary of Title IX, the KC Current of the NWSL unveiled one of the most inspiring investments in professional women's sports in America. The $18 million KC Current training facility opened on Tuesday is the first such complex built specifically for an NWSL team. It's incredible, and the players couldn't believe their eyes.
Funded privately by club owners, the facility includes state-of-the-art weight/cardio room, training room, hydrotherapy room, locker room, lecture/film room, kitchen/player's lounge (with a chef), boot room, coaching spaces and two grass fields plus one artificial turf pitch.
It's beautiful, and it belongs entirely to a professional women's soccer team.
KC Current Training Facility
Welcome to our new home pic.twitter.com/MG8Gg0U18q
— KC Current (@thekccurrent) June 22, 2022
"From the moment we purchased the team, we knew these elite athletes deserved world-class facilities to call their own," co-owner Angie Long said. "In less than one year since breaking ground, our training complex is open. It's a true 'home away from home' for our players — a space designed exclusively for them."
Added co-owner Chris Long: "The overreaching goal in making an investment and commitment of this magnitude is to continue on our path of becoming the best women's soccer club in the world. Every detail of this facility has been optimized for this team and these players to stay at the top of their game in every respect."
Players were given a walkthrough of the complex for the first time on Tuesday, and their reactions showed just how impactful this type of investment is for women's sports. Throughout the league's 10-year history, clubs have often had to share facilities with other men's professional teams or even high school and college teams.
"This really is our home now."
We love our gals. And we love this game. pic.twitter.com/7SiDoVFK7Z
This is just the beginning for the Current's investment in the NWSL. The club has plans for a $120 million soccer-specific stadium at Berkley Riverfront Park in Kansas City, Missouri, which will become the first stadium built for a professional women's soccer team in the country.
All this comes after a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement for the first time guaranteed a living wage for NWSL players earlier this year. Salaries are on the rise and investment continues to increase in the league. There's never been a better time to hop on board the NWSL train.


Most companies (if not all) have one very similar quest: get positive reviews.
Sixty-seven percent of consumers are influenced by online reviews when making a purchasing decision.
Unfortunately, it seems like the only people who want to leave reviews are the people who are angry. They certainly don't help you get new customers.
Don't be discouraged, though. There are a few things you can do to increase your positive reviews. If you follow these tips, it won't be long before you start reaping the benefits of positive reviews.
You know you need to use a call to action (CTA) to get people to buy products. You also need to use CTAs to get people to leave reviews. After you complete a positive transaction, ask people to leave a review. If they are happy with you, they will want to show it by doing what you ask. Point them in the right direction, and they'll do the rest.
People will climb a mountain to write a bad review. However, people don't want to go out of their way to write a positive review. You have to make it very easy for them, or they won't do it. Send them an email that directs them to the online review site or include buttons on your site. The easier it is, the more positive reviews you will receive.
You'll also get more positive reviews by giving people an incentive to leave a review. You have to be careful with this, though. You cannot buy reviews, and you cannot give an incentive to leave a positive review. You can only give an incentive to leave a review. The incentive has to be the same across the board, regardless of if the review is positive or negative.
You can enter all of the reviews in a drawing and give the winner a prize. Hold the drawing each month. That is a great way to get people to leave reviews. You'll find that your negative reviews will stay the same because people don't need incentives to leave bad reviews. However, your positive reviews will go up dramatically.
Good reviews can make a huge difference for your business. Use these tips so you can bring more people into your business. As your positive reviews go up, the number of customers you serve will go up, as well.
If you're looking for ways to increase the quality of your outreach, try using a marketing automation tool that can help you with your marketing and sales goals. People won't think twice about giving you a positive review!
Interested in writing a Guest Post? Click here!


text:
Dilip Kumar Keshri
Institution: P.G. Department of Zoology, Gaya College, Gaya-823001
STUDY ON LATERAL NEUROSECRETORY PATHWAY AND THE NERVI CORPORIS CARDIAC! EXTERN! IN NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEM OF PRE COPULATING FEMALE SPILOSTETHUS PANDURUS (SCOPALI)
http://anveshika.org/proceedings-of-the-zoological-society-of-india/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/12/20Dec-2018-curve.pdf
December 18, 2018 · Volume 17 - Issue 2
In the brain of pre-copulating female Spilostethus pandurus, Locus-3 has lateral neurosecretory cells which are observed in two groups, each of 2-4 cells arranged symmetrically on either side of locus-3. The axons of lateral neurosecretory cells (LNSC) form the lateral neurosecretory pathway and nervi corporis cardiaci externi (NCC II). The axons of LNSC run directly and do no decussate in the brain and come out independently through the ventral surface of protocerebrum as short paired NCC II. The NCC II of each side innervates the corpus cardiacum of its same side in the female Spilostethus pandurus.
HISTOMORPHOLOGY OF LNSC IN NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEM OF PRE-COPULATING FEMALE SPILOSTETHUS PANDURUS (SCOPALI) (HETEROPTERA: INSECTA)
http://pzsi.anveshika.org/proceedings-of-the-zoological-society-of-india/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/14-Dec-17.pdf
The lateral neurosecretory cells (LNSC) of pre-copulating female Spilostethus pandurus are observed in two groups, each of 2-4 cells and are arranged symmetrically on either side of Locus 3. The neurosecretory material of LNSC are stained light purple with PF and red with CHP. The neurosecretory product of LNSC are present in very poor amount in pre-copulating female Spilostethus pandurus, a heteropteran bug of economic importance.
AN OBSERVATION ON MEDIAN NEUROSECRETORY PATH WAY AND NERVI CORPORIS CARDIACI INTERNI IN NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEM OF PRE-COPULATING FEMALE. SPILOSTETHUS PANDURUS (SCOPALI)
http://pzsi.anveshika.org/proceedings-of-the-zoological-society-of-india/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/15-June-17.pdf
The axons of median nerosecretory cells of locus 1 form the median neurosectory pathway and nervi corporis cardiaci interni (NCCI). The NCCI of two sides decussate each other in the anterior dorsal median part of the protocerebrum, comes out from the brain and enter the aorta wall. The median neurosecretory pathways can be differentiated into two parts viz. the very short prechiasmatic and the long postchiasmatic portions in pre – copulating female Spilostethus pandurus, a heteropteran insect of economic importance.
STUDIES ON SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN AQUATIC, AERIAL AND TOTAL OXYGEN UPTAKE IN A FRESH WATER FACULTATIVE AIR BREATHING TELEOST, CLARIAS BATRACHUS (LINN.)
http://pzsi.anveshika.org/proceedings-of-the-zoological-society-of-india/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/Chapter-12.pdf
Studies on seasonal variations in aquatic, aerial and total oxygen uptake in a fresh water facultative air breathig fish, Clarias batrachus (Linn. ) were made for a period of twelve months. In this fish aquatic, aerial and total 0, uptake ranged respectively between 4 1. 8-61. 2; 6. 2-30. 8 and 49. 0-91. 0 cc/kg/h. The percent 0, uptake through aerial route were lowest (12.157%) in January and highest (33.846%) in June. The aquatic/aerial ratio was lowest (1.945) in June and highest (7.226) in January. The reason for such variations have been discussed in this paper.
PESTICIDES INDUCES CHANGES IN AQUATIC, AERIAL AND TOTAL OXYGEN CONSUMPTION IN A FRESH WATER FACULTATIVE AIR BREATHING TELEOST, CLARIAS BATRACHUS (LINN.)
http://pzsi.anveshika.org/proceedings-of-the-zoological-society-of-india/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/Chapter-5.pdf
The present paper deals with the effect of certain pesticides (namely Dithane M-45 and Metacid 50) on aquatic, aerial and total oxygen consumption besides equivalent energy utilization (E. E. U.) in a fresh water facultative air breathing siluroid fish, Clarias batrachus (Linn. ). The exposure of fishes to both the pesticides at different concentrations caused significant decrease in total oxygen uptake but on the otherhand significant increase in O, uptake through aerial route was noticed. The reason for such changes have been discussed in this paper.


text:
Q: Android Studio App works on real device, but not on virtual device emulator? So strange. I've been testing with the virtual device emulator this whole time, working just fine.(On a Mac mini computer)
Then I brought a real android device to test the app-and while the app works fine on the real device, it suddenly stopped working on the emulator.
It boots up and builds as normal, but when I attempt to login into the app on the emulator it does not login properly, it says login failed(though the login is correct & the login works on the real device).
I saw a post with a similar question and it said to increase the memory/storage so I tried that, however same result.
What could have caused this?
How can I get the emulator to function properly again? Thanks in advance.
This is the Logcat:(if ya notice awkward spaces, disregard that-I took out the directory name due to security reasons)
Update: RESOLVED. First off, for the first time, out of nowhere the input userid slot had "multiple lines" of the userid-so I (cmd A)selected all, delete to clear that.
As well as a colleague of mine logged in and there is a security measure that only one device may be capable of logging into that account.
2021-03-31 01:13:22.883 4028-4028/? I/libc: SetHeapTaggingLevel: tag level set to 0
2021-03-31 01:13:22.883 4028-4028/? I/zygote64: Disabled memory mitigations for process.
2021-03-31 01:13:22.911 4028-4028/? I/: Not late-enabling -Xcheck:jni (already on)
2021-03-31 01:13:22.919 4028-4028/? I/: Unquickening 12 vdex files!
2021-03-31 01:13:22.937 4028-4028/? D/CompatibilityChangeReporter: Compat change id reported: 171979766; UID 10121; state: DISABLED
2021-03-31 01:13:22.941 4028-4028/ D/ApplicationLoaders: Returning zygote-cached class loader: /system/framework/android.test.base.jar
2021-03-31 01:13:23.010 4028-4028/ D/NetworkSecurityConfig: No Network Security Config specified, using platform default
2021-03-31 01:13:23.010 4028-4028/ D/NetworkSecurityConfig: No Network Security Config specified, using platform default
2021-03-31 01:13:23.020 4028-4051/ D/libEGL: loaded /vendor/lib64/egl/libEGL_emulation.so
2021-03-31 01:13:23.020 4028-4051/ D/libEGL: loaded /vendor/lib64/egl/libGLESv1_CM_emulation.so
2021-03-31 01:13:23.021 4028-4051/ D/libEGL: loaded /vendor/lib64/egl/libGLESv2_emulation.so
2021-03-31 01:13:23.040 4028-4028/ W/: Accessing hidden method Landroid/view/View;->computeFitSystemWindows(Landroid/graphics/Rect;Landroid/graphics/Rect;)Z (unsupported, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:23.040 4028-4028/ W/: Accessing hidden method Landroid/view/ViewGroup;->makeOptionalFitsSystemWindows()V (unsupported, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:23.064 4028-4049/ D/HostConnection: createUnique: call
2021-03-31 01:13:23.065 4028-4049/ D/HostConnection: HostConnection::get() New Host Connection established 0x7c727832d0, tid 4049
2021-03-31 01:13:23.066 4028-4049/ D/HostConnection: HostComposition ext ANDROID_EMU_CHECKSUM_HELPER_v1 ANDROID_EMU_native_sync_v2 ANDROID_EMU_native_sync_v3 ANDROID_EMU_native_sync_v4 ANDROID_EMU_dma_v1 ANDROID_EMU_direct_mem ANDROID_EMU_host_composition_v1 ANDROID_EMU_host_composition_v2 ANDROID_EMU_vulkan ANDROID_EMU_deferred_vulkan_commands ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_null_optional_strings ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_create_resources_with_requirements ANDROID_EMU_YUV_Cache ANDROID_EMU_async_unmap_buffer ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_ignored_handles ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_free_memory_sync ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_shader_float16_int8 ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_async_queue_submit GL_OES_EGL_image_external_essl3 GL_OES_vertex_array_object GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_ldr ANDROID_EMU_host_side_tracing ANDROID_EMU_async_frame_commands ANDROID_EMU_gles_max_version_3_0
2021-03-31 01:13:23.062 4028-4028/ W/RenderThread: type=1400 audit(0.0:280): avc: denied { create } for scontext=u:r:untrusted_app_27:s0:c121,c256,c512,c768 tcontext=u:r:untrusted_app_27:s0:c121,c256,c512,c768 tclass=vsock_socket permissive=0 app=
2021-03-31 01:13:23.067 4028-4049/ W/OpenGLRenderer: Failed to choose config with EGL_SWAP_BEHAVIOR_PRESERVED, retrying without...
2021-03-31 01:13:23.068 4028-4049/ D/EGL_emulation: eglCreateContext: 0x7c8277fb70: maj 3 min 0 rcv 3
2021-03-31 01:13:23.066 4028-4028/ W/RenderThread: type=1400 audit(0.0:281): avc: denied { create } for scontext=u:r:untrusted_app_27:s0:c121,c256,c512,c768 tcontext=u:r:untrusted_app_27:s0:c121,c256,c512,c768 tclass=vsock_socket permissive=0 app=
2021-03-31 01:13:23.068 4028-4049/ D/EGL_emulation: eglMakeCurrent: 0x7c8277fb70: ver 3 0 (tinfo 0x7c127a6198) (first time)
2021-03-31 01:13:23.077 4028-4049/ I/Gralloc4: mapper 4.x is not supported
2021-03-31 01:13:23.078 4028-4049/ D/HostConnection: createUnique: call
2021-03-31 01:13:23.078 4028-4049/ D/HostConnection: HostConnection::get() New Host Connection established 0x7c727820d0, tid 4049
2021-03-31 01:13:23.078 4028-4049/ D/goldfish-address-space: allocate: Ask for block of size 0x100
2021-03-31 01:13:23.078 4028-4049/ D/goldfish-address-space: allocate: ioctl allocate returned offset 0x1fd9ac000 size 0x8000
2021-03-31 01:13:23.095 4028-4049/ D/HostConnection: HostComposition ext ANDROID_EMU_CHECKSUM_HELPER_v1 ANDROID_EMU_native_sync_v2 ANDROID_EMU_native_sync_v3 ANDROID_EMU_native_sync_v4 ANDROID_EMU_dma_v1 ANDROID_EMU_direct_mem ANDROID_EMU_host_composition_v1 ANDROID_EMU_host_composition_v2 ANDROID_EMU_vulkan ANDROID_EMU_deferred_vulkan_commands ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_null_optional_strings ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_create_resources_with_requirements ANDROID_EMU_YUV_Cache ANDROID_EMU_async_unmap_buffer ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_ignored_handles ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_free_memory_sync ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_shader_float16_int8 ANDROID_EMU_vulkan_async_queue_submit GL_OES_EGL_image_external_essl3 GL_OES_vertex_array_object GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_ldr ANDROID_EMU_host_side_tracing ANDROID_EMU_async_frame_commands ANDROID_EMU_gles_max_version_3_0
2021-03-31 01:13:26.071 4028-4028/ I/TextInputLayout: EditText added is not a TextInputEditText. Please switch to using that class instead.
2021-03-31 01:13:26.073 4028-4028/ I/TextInputLayout: EditText added is not a TextInputEditText. Please switch to using that class instead.
2021-03-31 01:13:38.025 4028-4028/ W/: Accessing hidden method Ldalvik/system/CloseGuard;->get()Ldalvik/system/CloseGuard; (unsupported,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:38.025 4028-4028/ W/: Accessing hidden method Ldalvik/system/CloseGuard;->open(Ljava/lang/String;)V (unsupported,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:38.025 4028-4028/ W/: Accessing hidden method Ldalvik/system/CloseGuard;->warnIfOpen()V (unsupported,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:38.124 4028-4079/ W/: Accessing hidden method Lcom/android/org/conscrypt/ConscryptEngineSocket;->setUseSessionTickets(Z)V (max-target-q,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:38.125 4028-4079/ W/: Accessing hidden method Lcom/android/org/conscrypt/ConscryptEngineSocket;->setHostname(Ljava/lang/String;)V (max-target-q,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:38.125 4028-4079/ W/: Accessing hidden method Lcom/android/org/conscrypt/OpenSSLSocketImpl;->setAlpnProtocols([B)V (max-target-q,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:38.170 4028-4079/ W/: Accessing hidden method Lcom/android/org/conscrypt/OpenSSLSocketImpl;->getAlpnSelectedProtocol()[B (max-target-q,core-platform-api, reflection, allowed)
2021-03-31 01:13:41.629 4028-4049/ D/OpenGLRenderer: endAllActiveAnimators on 0x7ce27c92d0 (RippleDrawable) with handle 0x7c027b6050
2021-03-31 01:14:48.248 4028-4049/ D/OpenGLRenderer: endAllActiveAnimators on 0x7ce27d0740 (RippleDrawable) with handle 0x7c027dd950


text:
Leeza Gibbons talks about father, Philips Lifeline, Betty White Special
By Markos Papadatos Jun 14, 2017 in Entertainment
Emmy winner Leeza Gibbons opened up with Digital Journal about how she almost lost her father ("Pops') as she calls him to a heart attack but, technology, the Philips Lifeline, saved his life.
The only way Gibbons was able to get her dad to wear a medical alert device was to give it to him as a gift, where he would never turn down a gift from his daughter; furthermore, Betty White wears one, thus making it "cool" for his generation. "Part John Wayne, part eccentric professor, all raconteur. That's my dad: a strong independent man with a mind of his own! He's always been my hero, but after my mother died and dad was living alone, I worried about him. What if something happened? What if he needed help? It took some convincing, but I finally talked dad into getting a personal emergency response system. That gave me a lot of peace of mind knowing that help was just the push of a button away and for a couple of years he wore his Philips Lifeline without anyone even knowing that he had it. And then, as it always seems to happen, out of nowhere he had a heart attack and hit the floor. If he hadn't been wearing his Lifeline, my dad wouldn't be here today," she said.
The talk show host is honored to be a spokesperson for Lifeline, along with television icon Betty White. "Well, Betty White is my favorite optimist and just the ultimate cool isn't she? I've known Betty for a long time, but I didn't know that she also had a Philips lifeline for years. Who knew Betty White would report to the set with a little life-saving button hanging around her neck discreetly tucked underneath her blouse? Betty and I saw an opportunity to open up the dialogue around how accessible technology is and how many ways there are to apply it to your life. For example I've loved meeting people of all ages who use their lifeline to combat depression, or anxiety attacks, or just to feel more safe and secure while taking a walk after dark. You can design a personalized system to reflect your needs. My dad now has what they call a GoSafe. He can travel anywhere in the United States, including on a boat in the water or in the shower and the service goes with him. So, for example, if dad is out fishing and he passes out , his GoSafe would automatically call for help even though he would be unable to push the button. Response operators would be able to locate his exact position and send help," she elaborated.
On her plans for the future, Gibbons responded, "I'm trying to stay more present and I think I'm getting there. Still, it's always good to have goals and dreams so big that we can grow into them. I get lots of energy from lifting others to a higher platform so they can have a better, brighter view of the future. Whether that's my kids, tv audiences, readers of books or guests in one of my support centers, I like to be a source of inspiration or connection, so many of my goals take me closer to opportunities to do more of that through TV shows or live events."
"The effort of trying my best is at the center of everything," she said, about her daily motivations." As basic as that sounds, it's true. Whatever is on my agenda, whatever plans are in the calendar and no matter who I'm meeting with, I try to be present and give it the best I can in that moment. Those choices are the foundational supports for creating what's next and I'm big on moving forward, so that's the frame I like to put on each day."
Leeza Gibbons supplied publicity photo
Throughout her career, she won an Emmy award for "Outstanding Host in a Lifestyle/Travel Program" for My Generation and she won Celebrity Apprentice "I'm very proud of those big moments, of course, but it's the more internal ones that resonate with me. When I was a young reporter, my boss, the news director, warned me against taking a chance with my next career move advising me if I didn't stay in traditional news that I may never work again. I'm proud that I listened to my gut and choose to veer off into other programming which led me to my work in the entertainment industry. I also forged my own path when I chose to take a break from my on-air work for a while to start a nonprofit to support family caregivers after my mother and grandmother got sick with Alzheimer's disease. I've never regretted following my heart, starting a nonprofit (Leeza's Care Connection) and pursuing something that has come to meet so much. I'm most proud when I stay grounded in my values, believe in myself and trust that I am enough."
For aspiring television personalities, he said, "As with any industry, failure is your greatest teacher, so be prepared to embrace the times you mess up, fall down and don't make the cut. We learn the most about about ourselves and other people do too, when the chips are down. Be fair, gracious and kind, but that doesn't mean you have to be a pushover or relinquish boundaries. When your work speaks for itself don't interrupt. If you can't handle stress, you won't manage success, so learn to re-frame how you think about when things fall apart."
"When your gifts and talents are used to their highest capacity for the greatest good in a way that creates the most abundance (however you define it), that's success," she said. "For me, personal life and work are fluid things and both important parts of me. I've felt successful at finding peace because I stopped looking for the elusive balance a long time ago. Now I try to invest my time versus balance it."
For her fans, Leeze Gibbons concluded, "Thank you for allowing me to fail, to try again, to be real and to share the journey. I often tell family caregivers at Leeza's Care Connection that it's important to sometimes: 'stop achieving and start receiving.' I have been blessed to receive so much love and support. I'm grateful."
To learn more about Emmy winner Leeza Gibbons, check out her official Facebook page and follow her on Twitter.
For more information on Leeza's Care Connection, check out her official website.
More about Leeza Gibbons, Philips Lifeline, Dad, Emmy, Host
Leeza Gibbons Philips Lifeline Dad Emmy Host Television Betty white


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At Arizona Ammunition, LLC.® we try to remain versatile for our customers with different offerings of loaded custom ammunition. From time to time we get inquiries about blanks for rifles. Blanks are just that-blank -meaning no projectile. The brass case mouth is crimped closed and the cartridge has a reduced load so that all it does is go "bang". That is it! This is still loaded 50 BMG rifle ammunition and will be dangerous if not used properly. You must be careful with it at all times!
An IMPORTANT POINT- Our blanks will likely NOT function a semi-auto rifle or full auto firearm. That takes a special loaded round for that purpose and often a block in the barrel to make the semi-auto or full auto function. WE DO NOT MAKE THAT TYPE LOADED 50 BMG blank loaded ammunition.
Our Blanks are much shinier than this stock photo!
You should also know that most blanks will cause your firearms to get much dirtier faster. Surplus will be the worst. We make all our blanks with modern clean burning gun powder. The firearm will still get dirty quite fast!
Just have fun with your firearms!


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Posted on February 15, 2010 by Skooldays
Who remembers the Slinky?
Back in the 50s and 60s the Slink was a toy every kid was proud to have. Most remember the Slinky as a loose spring that can travel down stairways. Slinky wasn't overly expensive and so was easily achievable for kid's pocket money.
Richard James demonstrated it at a toy department in Philadelphia back in the 1940s. In 1946, Slinky was introduced at the American Toy Fair. The toy was a massive hit for the Mr. and Mrs. James. In 1998, Slinky was sold to Poof Products, Inc. Slinky became Pennsylvania's official state toy. In its first 60 years Slinky has sold 300 million.
Anyone remember the Slinky toy commercial jingle in 1962.
It became the longest-running jingle in advertising history.
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvellous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy!"
Slinky History
The Slinky was originally was made from steel. There are versions made from plastic. (not the same in my mind even if they do have a rainbow of colours)
It's still available in the modern computer world we live. Though it may only be seen today in science and physics lessons rather than as a toy. Still the Slinky lives on.
Slinky – Blast from the past
Toy Story – Most Retro Top 5
Corgi James Bond Aston Martin
Rubber Poppers
Weebles
This entry was posted in Pop Culture, Toys and tagged 1950, 1960 by Skooldays. Bookmark the permalink.
1 thought on "Slinky"
Wendy Frere on May 26, 2010 at 4:03 am said:
For anyone who wants to wear their nostalgia, bleeple.com.au hand-screenprints original patent drawings of beautiful iconic inventions and innovative everyday objects on white, black or grey marle 100% cotton t-shirts. No nasty transfer prints! Design classics like Slinky, Zeroid, the Easy-Bake Oven, Mouse-Trap, the Eames Chair, the Harley, the Zippo Lighter, and Wilbur & Orville Wright's Flyer.
This was in once…
What about this year?
Try this instead


A developer has been building/customizing forum based websites for their customers and found a partner in Ripple Web that allows them to offer hosting to their customers. Their customers are generally less technical and are focused on the content of their forums, not any of the details in running their software or hosting options. The developer now offers a "managed" hosting solution to their customers.
With the requirements of each forum being different, each server is custom configured for the demands of the forum site.
The developer rents the "unmanaged" servers from us, marks them up and manages the OS and applications that they install on the servers. They also take advantage of some of the discounts that we offer for paying 6-12 months in advance as well as for multiple servers to increase their profit margin on the hosting services that they offer.


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Reimagining Demand Forecasting For The Hospitality Industry
June 2, 2021 | Ira Vouk, Hospitality Consultant & Technology Innovator
The pandemic made it obvious (and painful) to hoteliers that in any situation that poses uncertainty it is crucial to quickly develop and deploy strategies to adapt to both short- and long-term shifts in demand. But here's the thing. Travel demand has always been uncertain. And history never repeats itself. Recent events just highlighted this fact for all of us and pushed the Revenue Management discipline towards further innovation in forecasting and optimization.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was having conversations with industry experts and hotel company executives who were sharing their frustrations about how the RMS tools they were using completely fell apart in a highly unstable environment. Many of those tools had rigid algorithms using the same approach and logic that was built in from the beginning, specifically: extrapolating STLY (same time last year) data onto the future to make forecasting and optimization decisions.
But, as it's now obvious for everyone, last year's data quickly became irrelevant for forecasting.
In addition to that, it's also clear that as we go into recovery, any hotel looking at last year's COVID-drained numbers for guidance in predicting demand isn't going to get any reasonable results.
Because demand has always been uncertain, and history never repeats itself, in the new world, we as an industry need to find a better way to forecast and optimize.
Finding A New Way To Forecast
In early 2020 it became clear that forecasting and optimization algorithms had to be reimagined. Responding to a constantly evolving demand landscape requires an intelligent and flexible revenue strategy platform that quickly learns and adapts to myriad factors that impact the decisions you make. A platform that is agile and adaptable.
Here at Duetto we strongly believe in agility. Throughout the initial design, which came on the heels of the recession of 2008-10, the Duetto platform was originally built with the necessary flexibility to allow it to easily adapt to a changing environment, be it recession, pandemic, or other.
Because of this Duetto helped thousands of hotels to navigate through the pandemic and will continue helping them thrive as we come out of the crisis and the industry finds its new balance.
How did we do this?
Due to the flexibility of the algorithm, Duetto was able to solve the forecasting problem for our customers immediately after we saw the first signs of the chaos that continued throughout 2020 and further into 2021. We instantly reacted by adapting the algorithm to the new uncertain environment. We changed the logic to put heavier weight on short-term history (2, 3, or 4 weeks of the immediate actualized hotel data) and forward-looking market demand signals to provide more accurate recommendations.
Our new 'short-term forecasting' updates were pushed live to all hotels within a few days, which allowed Duetto to immediately pivot and help our customers navigate through the crisis.
The graph above shows measurements of the accuracy of our forecasting algorithm over time for our entire customer base.
Y-axis is the accuracy metric (we used Mean Absolute Deviation for the purpose of this exercise), for revenue forecasts that are 14 days before arrival.
X-axis reflects stay dates. You're looking at the full 16 months from July 2019 through December 2020.
What we see here is that until March 2020 the algorithm was producing stable results based on the logic that was widely adopted by the industry before the pandemic. Then (in the middle of the graph, March 2020) - we started noticing the chaos in the data caused by the pandemic: demand instantly dropping, due to various government regulations, hotel closures, and guest concerns.
In just a couple of weeks, we adjusted the algorithm to be better adapted to the new environment and immediately pushed the updates to all customers.
What we see in the right portion of the graph is that after these changes were implemented, the predictive algorithm normalized and actually started performing slightly better than it was performing before the crisis.
It's pretty awesome. Scientific magic in action.
Hoteliers Adopt Short-Term Forecasting
Our hotel clients today are achieving better performance because of this switch to a short-term forecast. Here's what some of them have to say:
"We've been using the Duetto short-term forecast looking at two weeks of data. Once we re-opened we pushed out to three weeks. As it improves we will extend this to have as much data flowing as possible. And we will go on like that. Because Duetto looks at future data much more than at history, I think that Duetto is best placed to push a hotel in that recovery." - Nicolas Stockman, Revenue Manager, Hotel Arena, in our blog Getting Ready For The Tipping Point.
"We adapted to the short-term forecast so that Duetto puts more weight on short-term pick up than on same time last year comparisons." - Kris Vanaerschot, Chief Commercial Officer at Helios, in our blog Tech Investment & Social Media Boost Helios Hotels.
"It is hard for any RMS to forecast this [a pandemic] but as the forecast is based on the last few weeks it meant it ignored totally last year and only looked at very recent historical data. Given how dynamic the situation was, we didn't spend too much time looking at forecast accuracy and only used the Duetto short-term one." - Emmanuel Lacour, Group Director of Revenue, edyn, in our blog Re-Strategizing Revenue Keeps edyn Ahead.
And we're not stopping there.
We continue heavily investing in improvements to our forecasting and optimization algorithms and other analytics-related initiatives to support our position as the innovative industry leader. We have a team of industry experts, scientists, data analysts, and engineers working around the clock to continue perfecting our product offering in an effort to help the hospitality industry become more efficient, more successful, and more resilient.
Want to find out more about how Duetto's short-term forecasting could help your revenue strategy? Contact Us today to learn more.
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This week as we move towards Easter, our hearts and minds become reflective of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made to cover our sins.
Resurrection Sunday is a day of celebration. Our Savior is risen! He is alive!
But the only reason we can celebrate the resurrection of Jesus is because three days before was the death of Jesus. The truth that Jesus was fully dead, makes the truth that He was fully alive so much more spectacular.
Read carefully what Isaiah prophesied about the death of our Savior.
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
Jesus was scourged. He was beaten.
It was through the scourging that you and I find healing.
In Jesus' day, the worst criminals were whipped 39 times. The tips of the whip were woven with shards of glass and rock. It was a gruesome, bloody, and deathly experience.
Who came up with such an idea?
It was actually established by God.
When God established for Israel laws to live by, one of those laws was for criminals to be whipped no more than 40 times (Deuteronomy 25:1-3).
And to think…when God established these laws He knew full well that one day His own Son, Jesus Christ, would have to endure this horrific punishment.
That's the weight of sin.
That's the weight of love.
Sin demands a punishment. Jesus took upon Himself the weight of our sin. He was beaten and crucified to satisfy the penalty for your sin and my sin.
Gazing upon the torn, beaten, lifeless body of Jesus we find the ultimate act of Love. Sacrificial Love. Unconditional Love.
At the cross we find healing. Our sins forgiven and salvation purchased.
At the cross we find life. Not just any ordinary, get you through the day kind of life.
Abundant life. Overflowing life. Everlasting life.


Another great reminder from Dr. Mercola.
This entry was posted on September 18, 2015 at 7:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


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InfoQ Homepage News Achieving Predictability in a Complex World
Achieving Predictability in a Complex World
Aug 08, 2019 5 min read
Ben Linders
Predictability is the precursor and enabler for other important things people are looking for, like doing things faster and cheaper, argued Jose Casal at Agile Portugal 2019. He presented how to achieve predictability in three steps: focus on work in progress, reduce time to get work done, and consider how to get more done.
Casal started his talk by stating that when we ask people why they want to improve, we hear things like "we want to do things faster, cheaper and better; we want to deliver more, with better quality and with lower risk." All of those are important, but before we can achieve any of those, we must start with predictability, he said.
Casal presented Business Agility Nirvana: To reach a level of predictability and trust that enables us to deliver faster, better and cheaper than we did before. It's something that can't be achieved quickly; it takes time, patience, determination and above all focus, he said.
His suggestion, inspired by the work of Daniel Vacanti, is to achieve predictability in three steps, with each step focusing on one of the core flow metrics.
Normally, companies take on more work that they can deliver. Helen Meek, a colleague of Casal, calls this the "crocodile mouth". In this situation work stagnates in queues, it takes ages to be delivered, and predictability is a distant dream. If we don't do anything, the crocodile mouth will eventually bite hard and kill our business, said Casal.
He mentioned that step 1 is to focus on work in progress and stop the crocodile mouth from getting worse, and suggested to create policies to start applying the "Stop Starting, Start Finishing" motto of the Kanban community. "In this phase we just want to bring some balance and stability to the system; without these, predictability can't happen," said Casal. To achieve this, he suggested to experiment with putting a system-level WIP limit in place, or having a "One Out, One In" policy.
One we have achieved this balance, then it is time to go into step 2 and focus on elapsed time, said Casal. The reason for this is that even if we have balance, we probably still have far too much work on the go, he argued, so finishing work still takes ages.
In this phase, Casal suggested to make all sorts of process improvements to reduce the time it takes to get work done, for instance by identifying and dealing with the sources of delay and waste. "By the end of this phase, we would still maintain balance and stability and we will also see a reduction in the amount of work that is in progress and a reduction in the time it takes to complete work," said Casal.
Casal stated that at this stage, predictability would be present, but it may not be nirvana yet. "Now it is the time when we can start considering if and how we can deliver more," said Casal. Step 3 is all about throughput and how much work we can deliver. In this phase, Casal suggests to focus on making technical improvements. For instance, consider to skill up people and, for the first time, start considering growing the teams.
Most organisations try to scale too soon and jump straight to step 3 without making things predictable first, argued Casal. What they achieve is to scale their dysfunctions in an exponential way. Instead, we need to nail our system before we even try to scale it, he said.
InfoQ spoke with Jose Casal after his talk at Agile Portugal 2019.
InfoQ: How can we build a predictable system that works in complex and uncertain environments?
Jose Casal: Our work is complex and uncertain. Before doing any creative work, it is unknowable how long it will take us to do it, but this makes us very uncomfortable and we rather pretend to have certainty.
So, how can we build a predictable system? We use our past experience to forecast the future work using flow metrics to produce probabilistic estimates.
Measuring the elapsed time of work (also referred to as lead time or cycle time) and the throughput (also referred to as delivery rate) allows us to become predictable even in a complex environment.
I've worked with companies that agree on Service Level Expectations (SLE) using forecasts based on the elapsed time of their completed work. Using this approach to estimate completion time of single items of work is, in my experience, far more reliable and relatable than traditional estimation techniques (including popular techniques used by the Agile community). It is more effective to agree that we have "85% confidence to complete in five days or less" a product backlog item, than to say "it is 3 story points."
Other companies do release planning using Montecarlo simulations of their throughput metrics. Again, rather than traditional release planning techniques, it is far more powerful to use our flow metrics and be able to agree that we have "95% confidence that we can deliver at least 37 features in the next three months". With that forecast at hand, we can then prioritise the ones we think are more valuable.
Finally, there is a mind-blowing flow metric that most of the Agile world has not discovered yet: the aging metric. This metric can be incorporated into our daily scrum and allows teams to anticipate which stories that are in progress require the team's attention, so that they can be completed in a predictable way and according to our forecasts. When I've seen the aging-based daily scrum in action, it has been a truly eye-opening, transformative change.
InfoQ: What benefits have you seen in organizations when they focus on predictability when adopting agile?
Casal: I think the main benefit is that they become a healthier environment for people to work in. Predictability enables trust in the system and the people working in that system. Once we have trust, we can truly start becoming more transparent. With transparency, we can build more sustainable environments that foster more collaboration and quality. This helps us inspect and adapt in a more meaningful and deeper manner. So, we have the chance to really improve what we deliver and how we deliver.
InfoQ: How does predictability enable trust?
Casal: Above all, predictability enables trust both in the system and in the people. There are questions like "when will it be done?" that are always going to be present.
How we answer them matters, as it creates an expectation. Unfortunately, our track record of meeting that expectation is poor, mainly because we answer the question incorrectly. We provide deterministic answers. However, our work environments are uncertain and our answers need to be probabilistic. That's the only way to be predictable in a complex and uncertain environment.
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The settlement of Bar-sur-Aube goes far back into antiquity and the region is historically interesting for archeologists and adventurers. There is a vestige of an oppidum from the Iron age (the Tena).
The ringroad follows the old medieval bounderies.


LAS VEGAS (KXNT) - The UNLV Rebels will once again be looking for a head basketball coach after the school parted ways with Marvin Menzies Friday.
Menzies completed his third season on the UNLV sidelines Thursday as the team suffered a quarterfinal 63-55 loss to San Diego State in the Mountain West Tournament.
The Rebels finished with a disappointing 17-14 record in the 2018-2019 campaign. Menzies posted a 48-48 record in his three years with the Rebels.
The firing ends the 57-year-old coach's second tenure at UNLV. Menzies workes as an assistant with the Rebels during the 2004-2005 season.
After struggling to an 11-21 record during his first shorthanded season at UNLV, the team posted a 20-13 record in 2017-2018 before backsliding this season.
With more time to recruit, Menzies had one of the nation's top recruiting classes for his second season, highlighted by McDonald's All-American Brandon McCoy, and won 20 games.


Is there something rather sinister hidden beneath the fluffy Big Society label that the British public find unpalatable?
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
This article is the first of a five part series. In today's article I shall be presenting readers with the findings of my research into the Big Society concept and will reveal the identities of some of the actors working behind the scenes. In part 2 we will explore, by reference to one UK example, the difference between Participatory Democracy and Representative Democracy. In Part 3 we will look at the leadership attributes favoured by the United Nations system of Global Governance and consider evidential links to a semi-secret International Leadership Training Organisation headquartered in the UK.
In Part 4 I will introduce readers to a video presentation in which an American researcher presents details of some of the Global movements that he strongly believes are working to create a New World Order.
I will continue with my usual practice of incorporating hyperlinks to my information sources within the text of each article.
The February, 2011 article Cameron relaunches Big Society 'with moral purpose' indicated that sources close to BigDave 'acknowledged that there had been a failure of communication over the Big Society which had damaged the Coalition's ability to sell its key policy in a number of areas'.
I ask: - Has the Government's communication strategy failed to inspire a sceptical public to engage in a truly inspirational Government initiative, or, in the alternative, is there something rather sinister hidden beneath the fluffy Big Society label that the British public find unpalatable?
We are not just responsible to those we know and love. We have obligations to those beyond our front door - to our neighbours and in our community. And we know people will only start connecting to the outside world outside their windows once they know that they can make a real difference. When your say to local people 'this is your street, this is your neighbourhood, if you want to make it better we'll help you and we won't stand in your way', they respond by doing just that.
Community is born through common purpose - and we're going to give people the power and control to drive that common purpose.
The Big Society is a guiding philosophy - a society where the leading force for progress is social responsibility, not state control. It includes a whole set of unifying approaches - breaking state monopolies, allowing charities, social enterprises and companies to provide public services, making Government more accountable.
This plan is directly based on the successful community organising movement established by Saul Alinsky in the United States and has successfully trained generations of community organisers, including President Obama.
What the Conservatives don't tell you is that Saul Alinskli was the aspiring destroyer of capitalism whose book Rules for Radicals was dedicated to Lucifer. Alinski believed there was no right or wrong in politics, only what was necessary to seize power. He advocated subversion by infiltration of political parties and institutions, above all by the use of 'community organisers'. You can examine an extract on Tactics from Chapter 7 of Rules for Radicals here.
The Government has been quietly giving our Queen's honours-style Big Society Awards every week since November ... The Winners get a letter from David Cameron, a plaque and an invitation to a Downing Street reception later this year.
The people are starting to realize that every action of Government seems to have one goal: the destruction of Britain, its indigenous people, traditions, religion, morality, economy, housing, education, health, defence, and now transport, as reflected in the damaging new taxes on fuel.
Dave changes the UN-EU term 'Civil Society' into Big Society to conceal Communitarian ideology. Removing rights from individuals and creating rights for groups (collectively known as 'Civil Society') is the central theme of the Communitarian political ideology. Dave doesn't want you to know that he's helping the EU replace individual rights and Democratic law with group rights and communitarian law.
Communitarianism is a 'Third Way' compromise between Capitalism and Communism. Communitarianism is not Fascism nor is it Communism, but a synthesis of these opposing ideologies which preceded it. It draws government-business partnerships from Fascism and employs group decision-making from Communism. Communitarianism will resemble a corporate state (Fascism) in which the elite will work under capitalist rules to continue generating wealth while the working class will be controlled by Communist model laws. The Communitarian syntheses incorporates not only elements of Fascism and Communism but also Globalism.
Communitarians believe that attaining a healthy society involved the successful merger of the 3 sectors of society. It requires a merger of the government sector, the private sector (business) and the social sector (which includes the churches). This merger is known also known as "Drucker's 3-legged stool", named after its main proponent, Peter Drucker, who is considered to be the father of modern management. Drucker believed that the only way to persuade the world to accept change is to engage all three sectors of society, working together to effect change.
In Drucker's model the church becomes interconnected with the state and corporate interests - in reality, becoming subservient to these interests.
In the United States one of the main organisations manipulating the Churches into this Communitarian partnership is the Leadership Network. Within the United Kingdom the prime suspect must be the leadership training organisation - Common Purpose.
Let's examine a number of examples of how Common Purpose people slot into 'Drucker's' 3-legged stool' in the context of the Big Society.
Big Society has been around in Liverpool for many years and the people of Liverpool are the definition of Civil Society: co-operating with each other around a common purpose which is to ensure their communities thrive.
Amongst the trustees of the Community Foundation for Merseyside I find Rosemary Hawley, Chair of Knowlsey Primary Care NHS Trust, Local Magistrate and Committee Member of Merseyside Common Purpose.
The Community Foundation for Merseyside is reportedly one of the largest charitable grant-makers in Merseyside, having awarded over £39 million of grants to local community groups and voluntary organisations throughout Merseyside in its 11-year history. It is part of the Community Foundation Network UK which claims itself to be Changing Communities - Transforming Society.
A natural part of the civil infrastructure of a community and a cornerstone of the Big Society.
there are 58 community foundations in the UK, covering all of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and most of England.
The principal sources of funding during the year for Community Foundation Network were 'the Office of the Third Sector (Cabinet Office).
Developing relationships with other Government Departments highlighting the scope for bottom up community led responses to issues, specifically, contributing to government consultations on: Quality of Life; Knives and Gangs, Preventing Violent extremism: Community Empowerment.
This is blatant astro-turfing which we will examine further in part 2 of this series of articles.
Amongst the Board Members of the Community Foundation Network UK sits Graham Tuttle of the Norfolk Community Foundation. Graham is a 1998 Common Purpose Matrix Graduate. Linkedin tells us that he graduated whilst with Marsh Global Claims Management Company named RECLAIM. In the 'Love Norfolk ..support Norfolk Community Foundation' event held on 27th October 2009 the welcome address was given by Graham Tuttle whilst the 7:45 pm Question Time slot was Chaired by Simon Delf of Common Purpose.
Atholl Duncan was 'appointed' Head of News & Current Affairs for the BBC in October 2006. He is currently director of the Hibernian Community Foundation and is a member of the advisory board for Common Purpose.
If we examine the Quartet Community Foundation for the West of England we discover that Deb Appleby was appointed by the Trustees as Chief Executive and took up her position on 12th July 2010. She had been Head of Policy & Performance at Dorset County Council since 2005 and she spent her early career as a chartered accountant before moving on to run Bristol Common Purpose. UK Column researchers have also discovered that Ronnie Brown, the Development Director for Quartet Community Foundation is a Bristol 1996 Common Purpose Matrix Graduate.
a bottom-up vision, not a government program dictated from the state to citizens. Big Society is about a cultural change where people "don't always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.
The paragraph above is as clear an example of the use of aesopian language as I can imagine. The Big Society is obviously one where the State seeks to cascade its control, via it's networked Common Purpose Graduates, down to every local grassroots organisation in the country. The blurring of the boundaries between the public sector, private sector and the third sector raises fundamental questions surrounding the issues of accountability to the tax paying public and transparency and openness.
I suspect that Council taxpayer money that should have been allocated to run local libraries, leisure centres etc will be re-channelled via the network of Community Foundations to be spent on United Nations Local Agenda 21 projects.
At its most fundamental level, achieving Sustainable Communities is a means of delivering sustainable development for individual places, balancing and integrating the UK's environmental, social and economic goals, placing People at the heart of the agenda. There is now a real opportunity to build Sustainable Communities - regenerating neighbourhoods and communities through a collaborative approach at local level and investing in our low carbon economy by mapping and prioritising the totality of public spending in any given area.
If you Google 'Sustainable' Communities' you will find that it it part of the United Nations Agenda 21 Programme. For those readers who are not sure what Agenda 21 is then I suggest that you watch these videos.
Evidently, your council tax is being spent by your local council who have been covertly implementing United Nations policies on British soil without either your knowledge or your consent.
In a spirited effort to convince a sceptical British public of the positive merits of the Big Society up pops the bearded Satanist leader of the Church of England.
'David Cameron's 'Big Society' can be understood by flicking through the pages of a 400 year old book, the Archbishop of Canterbury says: Big Society? You can find it in the Bible, says Dr. Rowan Williams.
Is this the passage he refers to, I wonder?
- 2 Cor 11:13 - 15.
Further reading: Who in the world wants UN Local Agenda 21, Niki Raapana.