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Stris & Maher LLP
Law360 Covers Ninth Circuit's Call on Government to Submit Brief in Case of Two Counties Against Volkswagen
Law360 wrote about a major development in EPC of Hillsborough County v. Volkswagen Group of America, No. 18-15937 (9th Cir.), featuring a comment from founding partner of Stris & Maher and lead appellate counsel for the counties, Peter Stris. The article is accessible here.
More on the case:
On August 22nd, the Ninth Circuit took a major step in a closely-watched case against Volkswagen arising out of emissions cheating that sparked a nationwide scandal several years ago. The court invited the U.S. Solicitor General and EPA to express their views about whether the federal Clean Air Act preempts state and local governments from enforcing their own laws against tampering with a car's emission control system. In this case, Hillsborough County, Florida and Salt Lake County, Utah sued Volkswagen for tampering that occurred on cars within their borders. Although many states and counties have likewise sued the company for its misconduct, this is the first such case to reach a federal court of appeals.
The order comes after Mr. Stris argued the case before Judge Tallman, Judge Ikuta, and Judge N.R. Smith on August 6, 2019. Video of the argument can be found here.
Four Motions to be Heard on September 7, 2018 in Bechard v. Broidy, Davidson, and Avenatti
Stris & Maher Nationally Ranked by Chambers in Two Categories
Daily Journal Names Stris & Maher One of California's Top 20 Boutique Firms
Peter Stris & Radha Pathak Win California Lawyer's Attorneys of the Year Award
Stris & Maher Among Most Successful Supreme Court Firms of 2015 Term
Stris & Maher Announces Election of Three New Partners
Stris & Maher Named to National Law Journal's Appellate Hot List for Third Time in Four Years
Bridget Asay Elected to American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Stris & Maher Named as Finalist for The American Lawyer's National Specialty/Boutique Litigation Firm of the Year
Stris & Maher Featured in Benchmark Litigation
© 2020 Stris & Maher LLP. All rights reserved. Disclaimer.


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Listing Agent: Josh Belcher | Agent phone: (865) 661-7175
Courtesy of: Keller Williams Signature | Office phone: (865) 588-9300
Address: 9011 Highway 321
County: Loudon County - 32
City: Lenoir City
Approximately 129 acres of prime development opportunity. Sited at the corner of I-40 and Hwy 321N in Lenoir City at exit 364. Over 2,000' of frontage along Interstate 40 and approximately 1,000' of road frontage along highway 321. Massive mountain views. Additional commercial interest has been expressed for smaller parcels. This will ONLY be sold as a complete package including parcel ID: 002 093.00, 005 003.00 (Mountain Land Company, zoned commercial), 002 094.00, 002O A 001.00 (Dixie Holding LLC, zoned residential). Electric and natural gas pipeline on property. Water and sewer area available across HWY 321. Measurements and tax information are approximate.
Listing Agent: Josh Belcher Agent phone: (865) 661-7175 Courtesy of: Keller Williams Signature Office phone: (865) 588-9300 Information provided by KNOXVILLE AREA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS ©Copyright 2022. All rights reserved. This information is being provided for the consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties the consumers may be interested in purchasing. This information is updated weekly, however, some of these properties may subsequently have sold and may no longer be available. The Real Estate Broker providing this data believes it to be correct, but advises interested parties to confirm the data before relying on it in a purchase decision. Updated: 30th January, 2023 9:16 PM (UTC)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This set supplements the 8198 set for T1 to T3. Contents: 4 catenary masts, 16 tower masts, 30 sections of catenary wire, 8 cross spans, 30 catenary wire insulators, 8 insulators, 6 connecting springs, 5 catenary terminal clips, and instructions. The SET extension set program is a progressive system with which you can expand track layouts from the starter sets in steps. The E 8190 or E 8191 is used to expand the 81530/81535 or 81562 set. You can then systematically expand in any sequence desired with the T1 8192, T2 8193 and T3 8194 track extension sets. When you start off with the 81781/81785 starter sets, you already have the E 8191 track extension set integrated into the starter set, and you can then easily expand further with the T1 8192, T2 8193 and T3 8194 track extension sets. The 8198 catenary set for S+E and 8199 set for T1+T2+T3 make it easy to add working catenary operation in the SET program so that two trains can be controlled independently of each other on a track.


This tournament, like Wimbledon in June, is sponsored by Rolex. But it has been unusual to see the brand's watches advertised so magnanimously; generally one sees a discrete Rolex clock here and there – and of course the watches placed on the wrists of the many Genevan brand's ambassadors – among them Juan Martin del Potro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – though rarely on court.
In fact, Roger Federer's Rolex was usually only visible during the various television interviews. But just after the final, of course, the first thing he took out of his racquet bag was his trusty Rolex GMT-Master I BLNR, ensuring it was highly visible as he accepted the trophy from tennis legend Rod Laver. See more about Federer and his Rolexes at Video: Roger Federer Explains A Few Of His Special Rolexes.
Rafael Nadal, on the other hand, wore his Richard Mille RM 27-02 religiously and very obviously on court. I know that he is contractually obliged to wear it while playing – which he has said took a bit of getting used to at the beginning – but I also know that it is now something akin to his good luck charm. For much more on this very special sports watch unusually outfitted with a tourbillon, see Richard Mille RM 27-02: The Quintessential Sports Tourbillon.
While Richard Mille's watches are very rare and very expensive – the Swiss company headed by French visionary Mille makes and sells around 1,500 timepieces per year – it had two brand ambassadors competing in the 2017 Australian Open. And as luck would have it, they played against each other in the third round. Nadal ended up the winner of this five-set nail-biter against Alexander Zverev, who wore the Richard Mille 27-01 during tournament play – Nadal's previous good luck charm.
Zverev's older brother Misha cleared the field a bit by upsetting current world number one and previous Rado ambassador Andy Murray before losing to Federer in straight sets in the quarterfinals.
Federer then played Swiss countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the semifinals. An Audemars Piguet ambassador, Wawrinka wore the same model on court that brought him so much luck at the 2016 U.S. Open, the Royal Oak Offshore, but this time with a black rubber strap instead of the very visible pink of September's win (see Stan Wawrinka Wins 2016 U.S. Open Wearing Pink Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore). Unfortunately for him, there was no stopping this player he knows so well in yet another five-set thriller.
Meanwhile, Nadal had come up against two more Rolex ambassadors: Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals and Grigor Dimitrov, who wears an Explorer II (albeit not on court), in the semifinals. Yet another close five-set match was on the books before these two exited the court on Friday.
Other notable timepiece aficionados playing in the tournament were world number two Novak Djokovic, who surprisingly lost in the second round after just re-signing with watch sponsor Seiko (see Seiko Nets Renewed Partnership With Novak Djokovic). TAG Heuer ambassador Kei Nishikori wore a very light, black TAG Heuer Professional Golf Watch on court as he unsuccessfully battled Federer in the fourth round. Tenth-seeded Tomas Berdych, also a watch aficionado (see Time For A Contender: Meet Tomas Berdych, The Tennis Champion With A Passion For Watches) and ambassador to newcomer watch brand Felio Siby, lost to Federer in the third round.
Just as big a tennis story broke on Saturday, January 28 when Serena Williams defeated sister Venus Williams in the women's final of the Australian Open to win her seventh Australian Open and 23rd overall Grand Slam tournament, surpassing Stefanie Graf's record of 22 and making her the most successful player of the Open Era (Margaret Court remains the all-time leader with 24 Grand Slam titles, but these were not solely gained in the Open Era). Williams also regained her number one WTA ranking from Rolex ambassador Angelique Kerber with this historic win.
All four finalists were in their thirties – Nadal, just 30 years of age, was the youngest – making this the "oldest" Grand Slam pairing of finals in recent memory. By the way, exactly these four players contested the men's and women's finals of Wimbledon 2008.
These two matches played this weekend in Melbourne were historic in every sense. And it's nice that so much quality timekeeping can be associated with them.


Don't miss out on the party of a life time, and by party of a life time I mean.. finally ordering that pizza you have been craving for weeks. So, dress yourself up (probably in a shirt that has this design on it), get your dancing shoes on and sit right on the couch and turn on your game system and spend the next 8 hours gaming and eating pizza. And if the party is still going on, get out and have a few drinks with your pals, even the ones you meet tonight.


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Swedish police shoot dead suspected killer
TT/The Local/pvs
Crimecriminalshooting
[email protected]cal.se
Police in Eskilstuna in eastern Sweden on Tuesday morning shot dead a man suspected of killing his mother with a knife.
Neighbours had alerted the police about a violent brawl in an apartment where a woman in her 50s lived. When police arrived at the address just before 1am on Tuesday night, they encountered a 26-year-old man, who held a knife in his hand, and they found the stabbed dead woman.
"We suspect that he had murdered his mother," said Eskilstuna police press officer Fred Wallén.
The man was ordered by police to drop the knife but he refused to comply. When police fired a warning shot he was hit.
The 26-year-old was rushed to hospital in Eskilstuna in a very serious condition and it is unclear when exactly he died, Wallén said, explaining that it has not been ruled out that he was already dead when the ambulance arrived, or that he died on the way to the hospital.
The detailed circumstances of the knife attack and the shooting remained unclear early on Tuesday morning.
"Everything happened so fast," said Wallén.
Wallén added furthermore that the investigation into what happened has been delayed because the only two people involved are dead.
"Witnesses are to be interviewed and a forensic examination of the scene has to be completed."
School attack: Teen held on suspicion of injuring two in southern Sweden
Swedish woman charged with helping IS recruit teenage son as child soldier
Ex-CEO of Swedish bank to face trial over money-laundering scandal
Hackers steal research data from Sweden's Volvo Cars
Sweden Democrat MEP convicted of sexual assault
Swedish teenager sentenced to eight years for police murder
Child dies after 'fall from great height' in Stockholm – two adults arrested
19-year-old Swedish rapper Einár shot dead in Stockholm
17-year-old Bulgarian citizen shot dead at hairdressers in Copenhagen


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JR - Crossing
Lazarides Rathbone
16th Oct to 12th Nov 2015
All photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland
Ephemerality – a quality word we like to bandy around when generalising about the culture of street art. We tend to forget that also gallery shows don't last forever so if you are reading this review after 7pm today, Graffoto apologises as it's now too late to catch this show. Which is a shame and I thank my lucky stars that at last I managed to visit the show and grab a quiet hour in there today, the last day.
JR is a street artist whose work is best described as "Big Art". He has been doing art and a grand scale for many years including a lot of jaw-dropping traffic stopping work in London.
Cordy House - 2008
Old Truman Brewery, 2008
Inside Out Project 2011 (audience participation event!)
Inside Out - Somerset House 2013
The "Crossing" referred to in this show refers to the journey undertaken by many immigrants to the USA, on arrival in Upper New York Bay the gaze of the Statue of Liberty (est 1886) bid welcome while Ellis Island served (1882 – 1954) as a credential checking facility for the 8 million mainly European migrants who passed through its registry room. According to Wikipedia, a mere 2% of the arrivals were repatriated whence they came for reasons of poverty, chronic ill health or "insanity". Eight thousand died in the hospital facility established on Ellis Island and it is in those derelict ruins that JR filmed a very moving elegy to an immigrant's passage, featuring Robert de Niro.
The exhibition has four aspects. The film at the top floor, is worth watching first as it is beautiful, the narration is poetic and it provides a lot on context for the Elis Island archival photographs.
Immigrants, nurses, travellers and welcoming party, JR has sought to represent all parties in that early 20th century human migration drama. The Ellis Island aspects of the static art divides into JR pasting Ellis Island archive photos onto beautifully weathered wood, and JR's photographs of his paste ups in situ in the old hospital of the Ellis Island portraits.
"Arriving on Ellis Island #6"; Ellis Island archive photo on wood - a welcome party?
"Arriving on Ellis Island #3"; Ellis Island archive photo on wood
Photo of paste up in situ, Ellis Island Hospital
The fourth element resulted from JR's 2014 collaboration with New York Ballet Company. Ballerinas photographed in urban and industrial contexts are fine but the real photographic gem is the portrait created by oversize half tone dots imprinted on ballet dancers costumes. At a reasonable distance the dancers fade but we gain an appreciation of a portrait of a pair of eyes in huge scale.
Les Bosquets, Eye See You
Now you see it
Now you don't
Close up, the portrait disappears and the individuals emerge. It's all about humanity, near or far.
This staged example of a ballet dancer dancing inside an opened container in a stack of empties is very impressive in its execution and brings one thought to mind – globalisation; the USA is the world's greatest exporter of fresh air in empty containers, that's trade imbalances for you. That may or more likely may not have been JR's point.
"#198 Métal et Tutu"
JR's exhibition prompts one great big question which is, supposedly one third of the USA population can trace roots to that half century of immigration so if we are inclined to romanticize that early 20th century migrant movement, then surely we must question our individual and big society response to the largest movement of war-displaced migrants in a generation now taking place across Europe.
JR: http://www.jr-art.net/
Ellis Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island
Lazarides: http://www.lazinc.com/exhibitions/1313,jr-crossing
Posted by NoLionsInEngland at Wednesday, November 11, 2015 No comments:
Labels: JR


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May 13, 2019 Edition
BY: KARINA URQUIZO
Every Friday starting at 5:00 pm. Art evening at Amelia Wilkes plaza (Cabo San Lucas main park). Paintings, sculpture, Jazz and more. At Amelia Wikes Plaza (where the bandstand is) Downtown San Lucas. Spanish with some help in English. Free.
May 13. Monday. 5:00 pm. Musicanto por el dia de las Madres (Singing and Music for Mother's Day). Music and Choirs concert. Concerts Hall La Paz. Spanish. Free. More info Phone 612 122 2286.
May 14.Tuesday. 11:00 am. Cabaret del Doctor Misterio (Dr. Mystery's Cabaret). Play for kids. Dr. Mystery is a loony scientific, poet and loves to enjoy solving mysteries. Spanish. Free. City Theater. Downtown La Paz. More info Ph: 612 125 0207
May 16. Thursday. 8:00 pm. Cinema Vagabundo movie club. Yo no soy Guapo (I Am Not Handsome). (2018) Documentary. Directed by Joyce García, tugs the viewers close into the culture of Mexico City's sonidero parties, a world that is equal parts gritty, lively, and unrestrained. DJ's blast cumbia in primarily urban, working-class neighborhoods, giving attendees a chance to find escape and communion amid the heavily percussive music. Spanish sometimes with English subtitles. Cultural Pavilion -the big gray building- at the Marina Cabo San Lucas. Free.
May 16. Thursday. 7:30 pm. Los Cabos movie club presents The Color of Paradise. (Iran, 1999) Drama, Art House & International. Directed by Majid Majidi. The story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife. Original language with Spanish subtitles. Free. Main auditorium COBACH School, Matamoros St and Mijares St. Downtown Cabo San Lucas. Free
May 16. Thursday. 7:00 pm. Piano Concert. By Jose Sandoval. Classic Mexican music played by Jose Sandoval Gutierrez. Pianist. Concert Hall La Paz. Downtown La Paz. Tickets $100 pesos.
May 17. Friday. From 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm. 1st Alternative Music Festival. Music by Lariferpol, Dynamic Range Proyect, Alter Vio-Luciano Pavan, Walksider and more bands, tickets VIP$500 pesos (3 drinks included), general $250 pesos. The Roof Food & Wine. Marina Cabo San Lucas.
May 17. Friday. 6:00 pm. Una Mirada de Mujer Sobre el Mineral El Bolero (A Woman's Point of View About The El Bolero Mine). Mario Manuel Cuevas and Juan Manuel Romero Book presentation. The book is about Helene Escalle's letters from 1886 to 1889. The Miner's Museum of Santa Rosalia. In Santa Rosalia, Mulege. (Museo del Minero de Santa Rosalía) 6:00 pm. More info Ph: (615) 152 29 99. Spanish with some help in English. Free.
May 17 and 18. Friday and Saturday. Musa de la Danza (Dance Muse). Spanish. Tickets 75 pesos (about 4 bucks). City Theater. Downtown La Paz. More info Ph: 612 125 0207
May 23. Thursday. 8:00 pm. Cinema Vagabundo movie club. Cannabis in Uruguay. (2015) Documentary. Directed by Federika Odriozola. On June 19, 2012, Uruguay's President José Mujica called on Uruguayans to take thirty days to reflect on the value of life and peaceful coexistence. This message was accompanied by fifteen measures "for life and coexistence", within which one took a leading role generating national controversy and international repercussion. Uruguay intended to regulate the production and trade of marijuana with State control. Spanish with some English subtitles. Cultural Pavilion -the big gray building- at the Marina Cabo San Lucas. Free.
May 23. Thursday- 7:30 pm. Los Cabos movie club presents Barán (Iran 2001). Art House & International. In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives. Original language with Spanish subtitles. Free. Main auditorium COBACH School, Matamoros St and Mijares St. Downtown Cabo San Lucas. Free.
May 26. Sunday. From 4 to 10 pm. Trifest. Urban culture festival with skate tournament and freestyle battles, this time with mural painting show. Cuauhtémoc Park. Mutualismo St., downtown La Paz. Spanish. Free.
May 30. Thursday. 8:00 pm. Cinema Vagabundo movie club. Another Day of Life. (2018) Animation, Art House & International. A movie based on the book written by legendary Polish war correspondent Ryszard Kapuściński. The story of a journalist, left to himself to write a feature story on the civil war in Angola on the advent of its regaining independence in 1975. Kapuściński, an idealist who had been to many front lines before, Angola was to change him forever. He was to get closer to the realities of war; he was to discover that journalistic reporting was far too limiting for him; he could dispatch his reports to the editor's office by telex, yet his enormous imagination and internal voice are ill-fitted to this message-limiting machine. English with Spanish subtitles. Cultural Pavilion -the big gray building- at the Marina Cabo San Lucas. Free.
May 30. Thurdsay. 7:30 pm. Los Cabos movie club presents. The Syrian Bride. (Israel 2004) Comedy, Drama, Art House & International. In Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in the Golan Heights of the Israeli-Syrian border, the Druze bride Mona is engaged to get married with Tallel, a television comedian that works in the Revolution Studios in Damascus, Syria. They have never met each other because of the occupation of the area by Israel since 1967; when Mona moves to Syria, she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. Original language with Spanish subtitles. Free. Main auditorium COBACH School, Matamoros St and Mijares St. Downtown Cabo San Lucas. Free.
Jun 6. Thursday. 7:30 pm. Los Cabos movie club presents. Los Otros Californios (The Other Californians) Mexican documentary about the people who live on this side of the Peninsula. Presented by the director César Talamantes. Q&A session. Spanish with some help in English. Main auditorium COBACH School, Matamoros St and Mijares St. Downtown Cabo San Lucas. Free.
June 14. Flute Concert on Friday at 7 p.m. Playing Works from Vivaldi, Mozart, Debussy, Saint- Saëns, Briccialdi, Tchaikovsky by Emmanuel Agundez Encarnacion, Flute; Fernanda del Peón Pacheco. Piano and Aureos Ensemble. Spanish with some help in English. Free. Centro Municipal de las Artes. La Paz.
Jun 22. Saturday. Afternoon and night. World's Music Day 2019. Organized by Promotora Cultural Vivarte AC. This music festival is celebrating their 11th anniversary in Cabo and the Summer Solstice in San Jose. The festival began in France as La Fete de la Musique in 1982 and was adopted in every continent. Now it is celebrated in more than 120 countries and 700 cities as an International Festival with musicians, composers and new talent. The stages will be visible around downtown San Jose. Spanish and some help in English. Free.
Compiled by Karina Urquizo. If you would like to see your event listed here, email her at ninaurquizo@hotmail.com


of passers-by as a road for travel.
others used for wiping off the dirt alone.
only by definition, all is well.
possible reactions, not all welcome.
upon the faces of all people.
I am married to my wonderful husband Karl and have three lovely girls. I am a Homeschool Mom, author and explorer of contemplation, prayer, poetry, going deeper and higher in the love of God, devotional music, piano playing, and creative expression. I am a pilgrim on this earth!
Beautifully said, Jenneth! May God continue to bless you and your writing life.
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First steps for baby otters!
These beauties might look all sweet and innocent but I can assure you that they can really pack a punch! The rest of our otter group, consists of 2 females and 5 males from previous litters. These guys will help out with rearing our young pups, and its a great learning experience for them in later life, when they go off and have families of their own.
When first-born, the youngsters are white (later turning to brown with a pale underside) and with their eyes closed. They're born in an artificial holt here at Newquay Zoo, after a gestation of around 60 to 64 days. The right hand side of the holt is shut off from public viewing allowing Jam (mum), to have some privacy when she is due to give birth. When she was pregnant, at around 45 days she looked like she has swallowed a small football! We closed the public viewing off around two weeks before she was due to pop, to make her feel as comfortable as possible. During Jam's pregnancy we also increased her diet, as the young inside her take a lot of energy to grow!
At 6 weeks old our young pups were sexed and microchipped! This is where a microchip (very similar to the ones your pet cat and dogs are microchipped with) is placed under the skin, in between the shoulder blades (interscapular). This can then be read using a chip reader. 'ID-ing' the individuals makes things a lot easier, as they can look quite similar when they grow up. The microchip number then gets added to their records at the Zoo. At the same time we also sexed the pups, (checking whether they are males or females), this is quite easy with this species as the distance between the bum and bits is very short in girls and about an inch difference between the boys. During the sexing, we found out the current litter consists of three males and one female. To do all of this we lock the adults out of the nest boxes for a short period of time, and handle the young wearing latex gloves as to not put our scent on them. At this stage they're not overly 'bite-y' (give it a couple of months!) After this, we put the young back into the nest box and let the adults back in.


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Q: OBIEE New Calculated Item - Greater than or equal to I am trying to create a new calculated item that selects all of the members in the column "Columns.SLA" greater than or equal to 3.
Thank you!
New Calculated Item Conditional Operator Syntax Error

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


There were many improvements in the treatment of illnesses during the Victorian era, stemming from a greater understanding of the spread of disease and a better knowledge of anatomy and the body's systems generally. Prevention was thought to be better than cure, and people took solutions such as Epsom salts and caster oil to keep their bodies ticking over. Many pills and tonics were available from chemists, and many claimed to be 'Cure Alls', stemming every illness from coughs and colds to shortness of breath and arthritis.


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Home	Tags	Posts tagged with "national human rights commission"
national human rights commission
NHRC Seeks Action Taken Report from Taloja Jail on Stan Swamy
by Vaishali Sharma July 2, 2021
New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has asked for an 'action taken' report from the Taloja jail superintendent in connection with allegations that 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy was denied medical facilities.
The Telegraph has reported that NHRC assistant registrar of law, Subhra Tyagi, sent the email to jail authorities on June 26.
The email was sent after Father Santhanam A., a Jesuit lawyer from Tamil Nadu, moved NHRC seeking its attention in the case. In his May plea, he had said that an Ayurveda doctor was then treating the severely ailing activist, in spite of the fact that he had showed several symptoms of COVID-19.
Stan Swamy, incarcerated since October 2020 over what the NIA claims are his connections to the Elgar Parishad case, also suffers from Parkinson's and has difficulty in even sipping water from a glass.
The lawyer had said most jail staff and several prisoners, many of whom were undertrial, had tested positive for COVID-19. He also alleged that the activist was vaccinated in spite of having a fever, against medical protocol.
Shortly afterwards, Stan Swamy tested positive for COVID-19. He was then shifted to the Holy Family Hospital following an order by the Bombay high court and was recently shifted to the intensive care unit because his medical condition grew serious. The high court, in the meantime, also extended his stay at the hospital.
When Swamy was produced before the Bombay high court from the prison via video-conferencing, he told the court that his mental and physical health had declined steadily in the jail.
He had refused to get admitted to the JJ Hospital, saying he had been there twice earlier but had found no relief and would "rather die in prison than go to JJ Hospital" and would prefer to "be with his own."
Writing on the sub-par medical facilities at Taloja Jail – where the 16 activists and lawyers accused by the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case are being held – The Wire's Sukanya Shantha had noted that the jail has a capacity to house 2,124 people but currently has more than 2,700, making COVID-19 protocols like social distancing impossible to follow.
Her report further highlighted basic inadequacies when it came to medical care:
"And to make things worse, Taloja prison, like most other prisons in the state, lacks basic medical facilities. Three Ayurvedic doctors have been handling healthcare in the prison for the longest time. Each time someone among those arrested in the Elgar Parishad case has fallen ill, they have had to move Bombay high court to ensure adequate treatment is made available to them."


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Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) will support sychronization of email, calendar and contacts.
Note: While setup instructions are provided below, Google does not officially support the BlackBerry devices at this time.
Please make sure you have enabled IMAP in your main Google Apps Mail settings.
Select the icon that lets you set up email (this can be called Setup, Setup Wizard, Email Setup, BlackBerry Set-up, E-mail settings, or Personal Email Set-up) Different versions of Blackberry OS have slight different dialog. The following describes the typical dialog.
Select Other as the email type. Do not select GMail.
In the Email field, type in your full SCU.EDU address, eg. Bronco@scu.edu. In the Password field, type in your Google Apps Mobile Device password. Click Next.
Allow the system to add your account. You should get a successfully added message. Scroll down the screen to the Synchronize section. Tick either Calendar or Contacts to have Google Calendar and Contacts synchronize with your phone. Click Next.
When you see the Activation Complete message, click OK.
Click Close to close the setup wizard. Check your email, calendar and contacts on the Blackberry device. It may take a little while to completely synchronize all the data.
Please note, most changes on the Blackberry synchronize fairly quickly back up to Google. Typically, changes on Google may take a little longer, maybe overnight to synchronize on the Blackberry.


text:
May Mini-Camp Wonders
By Sydney Mayhew
In Santa Clara, California the San Francisco 49ers under head coach Mike Nolan made a titanic transition from a mediocre type mini-camp under former head coach Dennis Erickson to a mini-camp snapping with intense physical drills and mental execution of the implementation of Mike McCarthy's West Coast Offense.
First round draft pick Alex Smith was the centerpiece of course inside this mini-camp and had reporters eyes and ears peeled for any and all deviations from the normal routines. This mini-camp highlights offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy's first look at quarterback Alex Smith in conjunction with quarterback's coach Jim Hostler.
The top priority of course is for Alex Smith to mentally understand all the aspects of the West Coast Offense and to make those distinctions on the field with precision over time.
"We've got to train him to run the offense," McCarthy said. "The first hurdle is to learn the terminology. Second will be the communication of language and huddle command, getting in and out of the huddle. The third hurdle will be at-the-line cadence and starting to run the offense. The timing and rhythm he needs to establish with his teammates is going to come with reps."
Mike McCarthy has held a quarterbacks school so to speak since March 21st and its intention is to get the roster of quarterbacks up to speed on his version of the West Coast Offense. All three returning quarterbacks in Tim Rattay, Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett have been attending the 90-miniute-a-day program.
Alex Smith is now at a distinct disadvantage in that he's only been a 49er since April 23rd, which places him far behind the regular pack of quarterbacks. Since that time Alex Smith has been in studies with the playbook that is very extensive and has been trying to come to grips with all of its fundamentals.
Smith is well known for his intensive work study habits and posting a high point grade average in school in whatever he takes on, in fact he received his economics degree from the University of Utah just two years ago.
The pressure that comes with being the No.#1 draft pick in this years NFL draft has to be monumental to comprehend, certainly Alex Smith is feeling that almost everyday now.
Mike McCarthy knows what the outside expectations are, but he cautions at what may be conceived as Alex Smith being able to come right in and perform miracles. That will be hardly the case in his opinion and wants to prepare all 49er fans for rough times ahead.
"It's very important to maintain a practical approach in the development of a quarterback, no matter where he's drafted," McCarthy said. "I understand the importance of a No. 1 pick, but it would be a disservice to the quarterback, the offense and the football team to have unreasonable expectations. It's going to be a step-by-step process."
Alex Smith led Utah to a 12-0 record last season, and he ran a spread offense that was unique in its own accord in which he lined up in the shotgun formation. Mike McCarthy will seek to erode away what Dennis Erickson taught the past two years and revert everyone back to the system that resembles the West Coast offense that Steve Mariucci implemented as 49ers coach from 1997-2002.
Both Mike McCarthy and Steve Mariucci spent some time on Mike Holmgrens staff with the Green Bay Packers. Tim Rattay as of now is the sole quarterback that played when Steve Mariucci was still coach of the 49ers.
Tim will see a variety of different looks and will have to adjust back to the old days rather than remember the throw the ball deep mentality of a Dennis Erickson type offense.
The most important point of emphasis in this mini-camp for Mike McCarthy is to teach all of his quarterbacks the meaning of proper footwork. He will be articulate in every detail and phase of each quarterbacks particular stance and drop-back exercise.
"It's important for anybody," McCarthy said. "It's important for Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett and it's important for Tim Rattay. The footwork training is different from what they've been taught in the past."
The relationship that is about to form between incumbent starter Tim Rattay and Alex Smith will be interesting to see as time unfolds. Tim Rattay missed April mini-camps because of foot soreness he suffered in the final month of the regular season last year.
He has publicly welcomed Alex Smith on to the team but made it quite clear that he intends to hold on to the starting position no matter what it takes.
"I'm going to try to get myself ready to go and help him and all the quarterbacks as much as I can," said Rattay, healthy for the first time since December.
Inside this mini-camp both Tim Rattay and Alex Smith shared repetitions with the first team with Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett picking up the remainder. Alex Smith has come into this group with a great deal of humility and a sense of awe in some aspects in that he has high expectations to play like he belongs in this lineup.
"The quarterbacks here are great guys, and they've all helped me," Smith said. "Tim has a lot of game-time experience. He's very relaxed back there and knows what he's doing. It's good to have him back there."
Tim Rattay has earned real durability concerns despite playing behind an offensive line riddled with injuries last season and many of them under-performing at that.
His ability to take a hit and get up and brush it off is obviously by now questionable at best. He will be in for the fight of his life as he attempts to hold on to the starting position.
"I'm going to compete, play as well as I can and hopefully, if it works out that I'm better, I'll be the starter," Rattay said. "That's my goal."
The NFL Network and ESPN attended Alex Smith's first workout in Santa Clara with the first team of the San Francisco 49ers. Reporters and broadcasters stretched from one end of the closed to the public field to the other. On Alex Smith's first snap in an 11-on-11 drill as a 49er, he had everyone's undivided attention.
On his very first play it turned out to be a false start, with many a rookie attending trying to sort this whole thing out on the line itself, and adjust to the voice and verbal count of Alex Smith.
On take two it was even worse in that, Smith took the snap, dropped back, bumped into his fullback and dropped the ball. Certainly the expectations are for Alex Smith to be the reincarnation of Joe Montana or Steve Young.
We cannot erase those images of excellence and glory out of our collective minds but we have to. No single person is immune to the rigors of the NFL and all of its pressures so to speak.
"I'm still just trying to get adjusted with everything," Smith said. "A lot going on for the first practice. I'm just trying to pick it up as fast as possible."
Not all was lost though in this session as Alex Smith during an 11-on-11 session, arched a high pass deep down the right sideline that landed perfectly into wide receiver Brandon Lloyd's arms. And in a seven-on-seven drill, Smith was seen throwing a pass deep over the middle to tight end Aaron Walker, and he hit Lloyd in the numbers on a slant.
Alex Smith also showed sound foot techniques in that he proved his mobility, by deftly rolling out to his right and finding running back Frank Gore along the sideline. All of the fascination is turning towards Alex Smith as he is expected to be the starting quarterback sooner rather than later.
His competition in Tim Rattay, Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett are mere obstacles to his legitimate seat as the starting entity to the San Francisco 49er throne. He's not in a battle to unseat a veteran quarterback in the likes of a Brett Favre, Peyton Manning or a Donovan McNabb.
The 49ers will not pay Smith a $20 million dollar signing bonus to see him carry a clipboard for very long. Mike Nolan wants to see what Alex Smith brings to the table in this competition and from what he's seen already he is coming away impressed.
"I'd like to bring him along quickly. I'd like to see how much he can handle," Nolan said.
"I don't want to determine myself what he can do and can't do. I want him to determine what it is he can and can't handle." "By giving him a lot, we'll learn what that is."
Mike Nolan came away from this mini-camp with good feelings on Smith's command in the huddle, especially where NFL veterans surrounded him. He called the plays correctly, which is no small chore when you're in a new system, and even had his teammates lined up in the right spots.
Alex Smith turned 21 during his first NFL mini-camp. He split two thirds of the first team snaps with starter Tim Rattay. Although Smith had a few bumps and bruises along the way he still showed very encouraging signs of being able to compete for this position.
Anyway you look at it Alex Smith is well on his way to taking command of this team in the near future. The groundwork for the quarterback competition has been laid out and Smith will go head to head with Tim Rattay for the starting position.
"I've been looking forward to this day for so long," said Smith. "It felt like it was never going to get here. It couldn't get here fast enough, and it's finally here. That's the best thing, to get out there and throw and be a part of the team."
To the wide receivers that Alex Smith throws to this mini-camp one really opened up Mike Nolan's eyes as to Arnaz Battle. Battle made early impressions as he had his first eight catches of his NFL career last season.
He has kept his head down and is working hard to prove himself as being a legitimate wide receiver option not yet fully utilized by the 49ers.
Arnaz Battle a converted quarterback to wide receiver out of Notre Dame flashed great playmaking ability in just limited duty last year. He emerged as the leading candidate for the featured "Z" position formerly held by Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens.
"If anybody is performing a little more consistently, it's Arnaz Battle, but it's still pretty competitive," Nolan said. "I'd rather be saying here's a clear-cut starter at both spots, but we're not there yet."
On the last day of this mini-camp, which fell on a wet, blustery Sunday, Alex Smith closed with an outstanding performance by executing a hurry up offense.
He called some plays at the line of scrimmage in the hurry-up offense; he received other orders through a radio earpiece, of which included the last one of the three-day mini-camp, in that he scrambled away from pressure to deliver a pass right through defenders to Derrick Hamilton for a touchdown.
"You see talented people do things and they make it look easy," Coach Mike Nolan said, discussing the rookie quarterback. "That's a difficult job that he's doing out there. It was good to see him take it down the field. He didn't have a lot of glitches."
"I was just trying to make something happen," Smith said. "In that drill, you're just out there playing and not thinking too much. It felt good. If you had asked me if I was going to be able to do that two days ago, I probably would've laughed, but it's coming along quickly."
Both Alex Smith and Tim Rattay looked good in their quarterback roles at the conclusion of this mini-camp. Mike Nolan said he would have a better grasp on where the quarterbacks were in the next mini-camp slated for June. Meanwhile Smith will continue to study the playbook, look at film and perform voluntary workouts on his own.
"I'd feel comfortable playing with him, Center Jeremy Newberry said. "He's working hard and doing the right things and putting in the hours." "At the same time, he's still trying to learn the stuff and get it straight in his head, so it's hard for him to take complete control. I think we'll see more of that as he gets more comfortable in the system."
This mini-camp was a classic old style type of 49er mini-camp. The ones we saw before training camps were closed to the public and moved to Santa Clara. In this camp reporters saw players smacking into each other, Coaches could actually be heard exhorting, teaching and critiquing.
For instance: A punt coverage drill was explained to a group of would-be special teams head busters. The drill was then stopped at various points to make sure the coverage team was aligned correctly. But even after this everyone went back to the huddle, and the drill was run over and over again.
Everything moved at a rapid well directed pace. Skirmishes broke out between players feeling the sudden urges of intensity, but never got out of hand where someone got hurt. Expectations were being established right before your eyes and new standards were being set so players knew where they stood and what was and wasn't permitted.
Dennis Erickson being the clown he is was a very laid back coach one that allowed his players to set their own standards rather than set guidelines for the team itself. He was a very low-key, hands-off, let anything-go kind of baffling coach.
He was one that allowed in my mind the infrastructure of the organization to rot like an unwanted garden.
General Manager Terry Donahue was no better. He was off-site most of the time, thus no one really knew who was in charge for most of the time. Day to say routines was left without true leadership decisions or even direction.
This in essence created a leadership vacuum like never before, one that tripped up the 49ers over the years and sent it on a downward spiral into the basement of our own division.
In order to get a (2-14) team headed in the right direction great leadership is needed and that presence must be felt. Well we are getting that in mini-camps and we'll get that in every single game as well with Mike Nolan on the sidelines. Come Sept. 11th, on opening day against the St. Louis Rams the 49ers will be ready to play.
Nolan even believes that we have a chance to challenge for the division. A very lofty expectation from a team mired in muck for the past two seasons.
I can tell you one thing though and that is that every player will be on that field with a determination and intensity that has been lacking for many a season.
Mike Nolan will demand it and standards will be high. Players will know on a daily basis who is in charge and what is expected from them. I honestly wish that training camp could be a public gathering like it used to be so that we could witness this transformation from cellar dwellers to record setters.
Analyst believes 49ers may be backing Jimmy Garoppolo to boost his value
NFL Draft Scout's Matt Miller, formerly of Bleacher Report, joined KNBR on Monday and discussed a topic that is sure to dominate San Francisco 49ers-related headlines until March — Jimmy Garoppolo. While many in the media believe head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch may keep their options open when it comes to upgrading the quarterback position, both have repeatedly backed Garoppolo as the team's starter heading into the 2021 season. "As for the quarterback position, Kyle and I both have spoken, and spoken fairly directly as to the fact that we expect Jimmy to be our quarterback," Lynch said on Monday. "That's consistently met with other stories, but
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Home Military China shows off its own 'mother of all bombs' again
China shows off its own 'mother of all bombs' again
The Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has published a video depicting the airdrop of a new aerial bomb: the "mother of all bombs". The video was uploaded to the Chinese social network Weibo to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the organisation's founding.
Joseph P Chacko
Chinese mother of all bombs
The Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has published a video depicting the airdrop of a new aerial bomb: the "mother of all bombs." The video was uploaded to the Chinese social network Weibo by the official PLAAF account to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the organisation's founding. No other information regarding the new bomb has been revealed.
Wei Dun Xiu, a military analyst, stationed in Beijing, thinks that the video demonstrates the usage of a thermobaric bomb. Based on the explosion's power, Wei concludes that PLA military engineers had developed their own "mother of all bombs" comparable to the American GBU-43B.
In 2019, a video from the Chinese state-owned business NORINCO leaked online, revealing the presence of such a bomb in the Chinese military for the first time. Even then, observers believed the PLA had tested the largest non-nuclear bomb of Chinese origin.
The Chinese military demonstrated for the first time the devastating potential of its "mother of all bombs." The main bomber of the Chinese Air Force, the H-6K, can only drop one of them at a time, according to a 2019 article by the Xinhua news agency.
Visible Features
According to public videos, the Chinese "mother of all bombs" is substantial. Additionally, the equivalent mass is assumed. According to reports, only the Xian H-6 bomber can carry and use the bomb, which may reveal its dimensions and weight.
The diameter of the bomb is somewhat smaller than the breadth of the aircraft's cargo compartment. The length of the product is anticipated to be at least 6 metres, excluding the suspension of two bombs simultaneously. The carrying capacity of the most recent models of the H-6 reaches 10 to 12 tonnes, which is the maximum permissible capacity.
The bomb's body was shaped simply, typical for unguided weapons. The hull has an ogive head, a cylindrical middle section, and a tapered, stabiliser-equipped tail fairing. In the time between the two displays, the stabiliser's design has changed, which is surprising. In both instances, there are eight planes, but on the more recent bomb, they are connected by a ring.
Alleged impact of Chinese mother of all bombs
The body lacks any steering surfaces. There are no indications of folding rudders either. This indicates that the bomb is 'free fall', with its trajectory governed by the combat course of the carrier aircraft and other external factors.
The head fairing is distinguished by a central rod of short length and many protrusions with uncertain functions. Almost certainly, this is a contact fuse target sensor. However, the use of a distant target sensor that gives an explosion at a particular height above the surface cannot be ruled out.
It was unclear what charge was used; however, it was reported that it was not a volumetric detonating warhead. A big bulk of high-explosive fragmentation charge is used, and a mixture of explosives may be employed to achieve maximum power. With open source data, it will not be able to estimate the mass and TNT equivalent of such a charge.
Since the bomb is free fall, the carrier aircraft must approach the target from a distance of several kilometres and enter the potential destruction zone of hostile anti-aircraft guns, exposing itself to recognised dangers. Moreover, the absence of control and guidance systems significantly raises the ammunition's Circular Error Probability (CEP). Even with the most advanced sighting systems on the carrier, it is extremely difficult to strike a small target. It is possible for the deviation from the target to be so great that even the increased power of the ammunition cannot compensate for it.
Why the PLA's long-range aviation required such weaponry needs to be clarified. The H-6 bomber's ordnance load consists of various guided and unguided bombs of smaller calibres, and this terminology is adequate to accomplish all primary combat missions. A multi-ton bomb is not the most successful or essential design compared to existing weapons. Apparently, the PLAAF weighed the benefits and drawbacks of such weapons and determined they were necessary, prompting the NORINCO Corporation to create them. It is unknown whether a multi-ton bomb will be beneficial in actual operations. However, it should be noted that this enhances the variety of available ammunition and the versatility of bomber aircraft.
It should be emphasised that the Chinese "mother of all bombs" was only shown twice. In both instances, she appeared in industrial and military advertisements. Perhaps the one-of-a-kind bomb was designed merely to demonstrate or test the capabilities of industry and long-range flight. Its use outside of demonstration activities is, therefore, not envisioned.
H-6K
Mother of all Bombs
PLAAF
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Joseph P. Chacko is the publisher of Frontier India, Flicks Town and D2Mobi. He holds an M.B.A in International Business. Twitter: @chackojoseph *views are Personal Twitter: @chackojoseph *views are Personal.
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Deutschland Meets Detroit: UAW partners with German union to launch all-out invasion of Mercedes & VW plants in U.S.
By LaborUnionReport | 11:00 PM on April 16, 2013
For a long time, foreign automakers have viewed the UAW as a "disaster." The union's reputation is not undeserved, one might add.
Not withstanding the UAW's contribution to the decline of Detroit's Big Three, it's been more than two years since the UAW's Bob King announced his union's intent to "shame" foreign auto makers into unionizing their American workers through "blackmail."
Moreover, it's been nearly two years since the UAW's King began talks with the German union IG Metal and VW's works council.
With some set backs, to date, progress at unionizing foreign automakers' U.S. operations has been slow going for Detroit's most progressive union boss–to say the least.
Now, even as the UAW fights with its own employees, things have begun to heat up in the South.
The UAW and IG Metal have teamed up to unionize the workers at Mercedes-Benz' plant in Alabama and VW's plant in Tennessee.
Although both plants are in Right-to-Work states, unionization of one or both plants would be a huge boost to the failing union–especially in Alabama, where Mercedes is adding 1,000 more workers.
The UAW has now set up a website aimed at attracting Mercedes workers to the union.
As part of the unions' mission, the website states:
To build a local union that supports the growth, success and mission of Mercedes; supports the individual dignity of each Mercedes worker; helps build a stronger local community; and keeps good quality jobs in Tuscaloosa. [Emphasis added.]
Clearly, the UAW and IG Metal are banking on Mercedes workers not having seen pictures of Detroit lately.
In addition to some clear rosy-eyed revisionism on the website, the unions have a pop-up video that seems geared toward getting the Alabama workers to march lockstep into…marching.
Whether or not the UAW and its new German ally, IG Metal, will be able to convince the Mercedes and VW workers to forfeit their right to speak for themselves to the UAW remains to be seen.
Slate: Where Do Detroit's Inefficient Work Rules Come From?
National Labor Relations Board rejects complaint from former UAW members
The UAW, Having Stripped Detroit Bare, Looks To The South
UAW plays large role in U.S. auto decline
"Truth isn't mean. It's truth."
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)
Get LUR updates on Twitter.
Image credit.
Tags: ALABAMA BOB KING DETROIT UAW UNION BRIEFS UNITED AUTO WORKERS
Finland Introduces First 'Transgender' Figure Skater, and Things Go Very Badly
Bonchie
streiff


We'll begin our mini-tour in Kauai, the Garden Isle. A host of the of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, Kauai's courses meld into the rainforests, canyons, and cliffs of the island's natural landscape. Huge ferns, waterfalls, orchids, and rich, dense green grass are the background on which the game is played. There are six 18-hole championship courses, two 27-holes, and one 9-hole course on this pristine island, plenty enough choices to make Kauai a vacation-long destination all on its own.
Next south on the tour is Oahu. This second biggest of the islands also holds diverse terrain. Though well populated, it offers a wealth of conveniences. There are more golf courses on Oahu than any other island, with over forty public and private courses and resorts. You could find yourself in rainforest, desert, or at the edge of a cliff looking out across the great Pacific ocean. Some courses are distinctively island-style, while others make one mindful of golf in the United Kingdom. When you're not golfing, there's always so much to do, from relaxing strolls to skydiving, that you may be tempted to make Oahu itself the only island in your itinerary, but don't. Be sure to taste Maui, Kauai or the Big Island as well. Until you've visited them all, you really haven't seen all of Hawaii.
Protected from further development, Molokai has one simple, understated golf destination. The Ironwood Hills Golf Course has no carts, no tee times, and no clubhouse. Just you, the course and a chance play the game in paradise. The courses at the neighboring Lanai, close enough that Molokai can be seen from the cliffs and shores, enjoys at least 6 championship courses, three of them inland. Jack Nicklaus' masterful The Challenge at Manele course is found on the cliffs overlooking Hulopoe Bay. Meandering over lava, ravines and kiawe, as well as trees and other natural obstacles, this is one of his most famous and picturesque designs. Meanwhile, The Experience at Koele by Greg Norman and Ted Robinson is not to be missed. Designed so that every hole has a staggering view, this 18-hole championship course is unique in the world; reason enough to visit the Islands all by itself.
Maui forms the third leg of the triangle between Molokai and Lanai. The secret has been out about Maui for a couple decades now, but it remains an awesome delightful wonderland. Sporting seven coastal championship courses and a total of at least 15, there may be no place more breathtaking and surreal than Maui for golfing. The backdrops are each postcard-perfect, richly green turf meeting nearby deep blue ocean horizons, the oranges and yellows of the sun and clear skies over the Pacific casting a glow on it all. Paradise is found on Maui, and life is never lived as fully as when playing on such awe-inspiring courses.
Finally we come to Hawaii, the Big Island. The youngest of the chain, her calm volcanic flow continues to expand the shores from time to time. There are over 20 courses now (and more being developed all the time, it seems,) most of them on the western Dry side of the island, near the airport and Kailua-Kona. One can still enjoy the game on the Wet side at places like the Naniloa Country Club in Hilo and the Hilo Municipal, for example. Or set out on the King's Golf Trail. Once again, this one island could easily make up an entire golf vacation destination.


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Tzniut, Hair-covering, and My Wife the Gadol
image from www.etsy.com
I went for a walk with my wife over Shabbat. One of the topics that came up was the over-the-top, obsessive focus on "tzniut" (including hair-covering for married women) and how we both believe it's caused by overly-theologizing the issue. "God doesn't care whether I cover my hair" is my wife's refrain.
Why does she cover it then? First let's ask a more fundamental question: Why do any mitzvah, if not for theological reasons, that is? I see two basic reasons. One is that it carries a certain inherent value. It provides some tangible benefit - personally, interpersonally and/or societally. The second reason is simply that it helps a person identify him/herself as Jewish. For my wife, covering her hair is a bit of both. In her words: "I don't want some guy checking me out, thinking of me as a possibility." Meaning, covering her hair serves the function of "Sorry, I'm taken!" But mostly she does it because it's a Jewish-identity statement, like me wearing a kippah. Nothing to do with it being "un-tzenua" to show her hair. Nothing to do with any "rewards" or "olam haba" or bringing the geulah, etc. Nothing to do with "doing Hashem's will." She doesn't go for that any more than I do. And she doesn't judge people who choose not to cover their hair. If it really bothered her, she wouldn't do it either. Simple as that. She also acknowledges that if the community norm were to suddenly change such that married women didn't cover their hair, she wouldn't miss it. But since it is, and since like I say it doesn't bother her, "Am I going to be the one woman not covering her hair? No." So that's where she's at.
Anyway, we were lamenting the fact that crazy thinking on the part of the frum community leads many people to reject what are otherwise positive values like tzniut. It is a more enlightened mode of being not to be overly sexualized, or more generally not to "flaunt", not to deliberately put yourself (whether your body or your opinions) in other people's faces, not to put yourself into situations where you'll be tempted to cheat on your spouse, etc. But the way it's taken in the frum world, with so many rules about how a proper "Bas Yisroel" (Jewish girl) should dress, behave, walk, talk, wear her hair, her handbag, etc. (I won't even get into the details of the craziness here), with all the heavy God-talk about doing the will of Hashem and the Heavenly rewards/punishments at stake, tzniut goes from being a concept that has something profound and enlightening to add, to something that often borders on being sick and obsessive. It ironically has the capacity to sexualize things that should be asexual to a normal person. It creates the kind of sexual repression that leads to perversion and molestation. And it also causes young people to say "forget it" and throw out the whole idea. As we were walking, we passed a boy and girl making out, standing right there on the sidewalk, in a religious neighborhood. Now, my wife and I understand. We weren't "outraged", nothing of the sort. But we also recognized that there's something "off" about doing that in plain view, simply from a common-sense, derech-eretz, sensitivity perspective, and it struck us both as sad that the concept of tzniut had been hijacked in the form of extreme religiosity, and turned into a dirty word that kids feel they need to rebel against.
That's what I wanted to say about hair-covering and tzniut. I also want to say how incredibly lucky I am to have married someone so normal, so easy-going and pragmatic, who feels strongly about Jewish identity but doesn't get sucked into all the B.S. I'm also lucky that she's put up with me all this time. She's seen me through my charedi phase, my kabbalistic phase, my "Torah is a technology" phase. And meanwhile she's been normal and even-keeled all along. As an example, my wife has never been a big "davener". There were times when this bothered me, and (now I want to kick myself for it!) I may have even suggested to her that she go to shul more often. But now I see her non-interest in shul/davening as a "ma'alah", a positive trait, a sign of normalcy! Amazing how one's perspectives can change so radically. And it just goes to show, you also need to be "tzenua" about what you believe, not take your opinions so seriously - because you just might come to see things differently someday.
My main point here is that it's possible to be religious, enjoy it, feel a sense of connectedness with the Jewish people, with our values and tradition, without falling into all the theological nonsense. It frustrates me that a fixation on the nonsense makes a mockery of Judaism and turns people off. And the other personal point - it's clear as day to me that I've learned more from my wife than from all my rebbeim combined. What took years for me to develop toward she's known and been living all along. And even though she likes to poke some loving fun at me now about my various "phases", in all those years she never lectured me, never made me feel I was off. She just kept on doing her thing and let me take my own journey. That's my wife - a true Gadol!
tesyaa June 3, 2013 at 6:57 AM
While you may have a point about not flaunting one's body or one's availability, this is subjective, and relative. There is nothing wrong with wearing a bathing suit on a beach, but it's inappropriate to wear a bathing suit on a city street. It's OK to wear a tank top on a city street, but it's not OK to wear it in a corporate law firm's office. Even nudity may be appropriate in a nudist colony, but not on a family beach. What is modest is not set in stone. But the Jewish concept of "tzniut" assumes objective standards. I object to these objective standards.
Atheodox Jew June 3, 2013 at 11:16 AM
For sure modesty is a relative thing - not entirely absolute or objective, and I think JRKmommy makes a good case that it's also somewhat relative even within halacha.
Actually, you touched off an interesting distinction. I used the word "flaunt", and yes I do think that part of tzniut has to do with a person's subjective outlook. Someone who walks out with little clothing with the specific thought of "look at me" is different than someone who does so because it's an extension of who they are, feeling free and comfortable with their own body, etc. The act can be the same, but the second is 100% tzenua and the first less so. But you can't exactly make laws based on what's in a person's heart. You need some sort of accepted universal norm (at least for a particular "makom").
BTW, that's why I reject the objection to Women of the Wall based their "intent", as in: "They're not *really* interested in davening - they're just looking to score political points." To me, either it's legal for women to daven at the Kotel with tallis and tefillin or it's not. You can't make a law based on people's "motivations" - which can obviously vary significantly from one person to the next.
So I'm thinking that maybe it makes sense to speak about the "middah" of tzniut as something distinct from the "halacha" of tzniut. I was really talking primarily about tzniut as a middah. In terms of halacha, I have to say I'm a bit conflicted. I can see the argument that as long as someone conducts themselves within the accepted "decency" norms of a place, that's called tzenua. But I can also see covering up a bit more even when everyone else is walking around in tank tops, either because the culture is deliberately lewd or promiscuous, or simply because dressing a certain way (going back to my post) can also be a Jewish self-identity statement.
Law mom June 3, 2013 at 8:04 AM
To a certain extent, there are both objective and subjective standards.
Along with some basic rules for any public place, there is also the concept of "minhag hamakom", or local custom. Hair covering, according to many, is part of "daat yehudit", or the traditional practice of Jewish women, as opposed to an explicit commandment.
Rabbi Moses Feinstein treated the American public space/business workplace as requiring a lower level of tzniut, since interaction between men and women was seen as a common occurance:
"Female-male propinquity, so feared in the synagogue, is not a problem on the subway. Mistrust of the moral degeneracy of America is replaced by an appreciation and acceptance of the American work ethic. For the sake of business Jews may wear American-style clothing (IM YD 1:81); men may remove their head covering (IM HM 1:93; OH 4:2); widows may remove their head covering (IM EH: 157); and men may dye their hair (IM YD 2:61). Men and women may travel together on the subway to work (IM EH 2:14); men may be lifeguards where women swim (IM EH 4:62); and women can continue to work in offices where sexual transgressions have occurred (IM OH 4:117). In one responsum (IM YD 2:44), he justifies hiring a woman as a mashgiah, a position usually reserved for men."
From http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feinstein-rabbi-moses
C. Laundry June 3, 2013 at 7:05 PM
AJ - what a lovely tribute to your wife!! It is so touching how you write about her!
I usually don't worry too much about tzniut - pretty comfortable in typical secular clothes. I used to feel very uncomfortable/self conscious around my OJ friends/relatives because I felt I may be being judged based on my clothes. They'd never remotely said anything judgy to me about what I wear, but knowing that they are part of a culture that measures these things had this effect on me. . . . Lately that feeling has completely evaporated (e.g. I'm in a fitness class where everyone but me is frum, and I don't really have any qualms about wearing my regular fitness clothes . . .most of the time). This is possibly in part thanks to blogging, and learning that the standards/expectations seem to be different for secular people.
Along these lines, your reactions to the people making out were different than mine would have been. I always kind of envy couples who can be so openly passionate, but I do think it's disrespectful in a frum neighbourhood . . .
JRK: frum men aren't supposed to dye their hair?
Atheodox Jew June 4, 2013 at 1:27 AM
I always kind of envy couples who can be so openly passionate
Wow, what a great point. If I'm going to be totally honest with myself, there is an element of envy mixed in. Just like there is with anything where people are enjoying certain freedoms which I don't partake in due to personal commitments I've made (Jewish-related, marriage/family-related, etc.). Doesn't mean I'm not happy and good with my decisions in life - I am. But sometimes you still feel pangs of what you don't have - it's human I think. Of course what you say also explains the psychology of religious people who react angrily at "non-compliance" - for sure part of it is redirected jealousy.
juda June 4, 2013 at 3:21 PM
another rational for the laws of tznius is very likely gufah because of this very human tendency of those watching to feel jealousy and frustration at the fruits that are out of there reach so out of respect and consideration for the have-nots feelings we are expected to try to play down to a certain extent the good we have and not vainly flaunt it
Atheodox Jew June 5, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Good point Juda. And even if that's not the "reason" for tzniut (my sense is it's mostly to keep people from giluy arayot), for someone who's a true ba'al nefesh and sensitive about his/her actions, just like you want to be careful in the area of halbanat panim and ona'at devarim you also don't want to be the inadvertent cause of anyone's suffering by making them feel "impoverished", lacking or hungering for something that's out of their reach. It's like being sensitive to lo titen michshol in the area of lo tachmod (if that makes sense).
G*3 June 5, 2013 at 5:00 PM
> "God doesn't care whether I cover my hair" is my wife's refrain.
How does she know that?
If god cares about what you eat, what you wear, etc., why is it implausible that He cares whether she covers her hair? There are arguments that can be made about the interpretation of Sotah, but the impression I'm getting is that this is more of a gut feeling than an academic objection – a protestation that the notion that God might care about whether she covers her hair is silly.
> it's possible to be religious, enjoy it, feel a sense of connectedness with the Jewish people, with our values and tradition, without falling into all the theologicalnonsense.
I'm not sure what you mean by "theology" here. You seem to be describing a connection to Judaism based on emotion rather than a coherent, well, theology. But what you're dismissive of isn't theology, it's the socially-driven chumrah treadmill and, I think, the overly-mystical aspects of current frumkeit.
G*3,
You're right - "God doesn't care whether I cover my hair" is not an academic objection. Nor is it isolated. I think she'd apply that statement to any ritual observance. She's not particularly theistic, but I think she'd say she believes that if God is out there and cares about anything, it's the way we treat one another. Which is not exactly a radical or foreign belief. (See e.g. Yeshayahu first chapter.)
I'm not sure what you mean by "theology" here.
I mean justifying observance of Judaism based on the notion that this is what God wants/expects from us. Though if I had to pick my battles, I'd definitely start with chumras and mysticism! (The former for quality-of-life reasons and the latter for anti-superstition reasons.)
> I mean justifying observance of Judaism based on the notion that this is what God wants/expects from us.
What other reason would there be to follow halacha?
Atheodox Jew June 6, 2013 at 3:54 PM
The reasons I brought in this post are 1) intrinsic value (perceived meaning, enjoyment, benefit, etc.) and 2) Jewish self-identity (as a way of maintaining cultural distinctiveness, being part of the community, committing oneself to the Jewish national enterprise, etc.). For me that's plenty.
tesyaa June 9, 2013 at 7:53 PM
The problem is the package. Yes there are isolated observances I enjoy, and there are some nice things about Jewish national identity. But other mitzvos range from annoying to oppressive to disgusting (bedikot, anyone?) And some aspects of Jewish national identity are at best self-serving and at worst racist. So the package, on the whole, is not worth the minor benefits.
Atheodox Jew June 10, 2013 at 2:54 PM
tesyaa,
Just out of curiosity, why do you have to take the whole package? If there's something that truly annoys or disgusts you (be it an observance or an idea/belief), why not just let it go? Yes, if you live in a frum community there's no getting away from certain problematic or obnoxious beliefs and attitudes, and there's a certain amount of "playing the game" that you need to do to be in the community (less so further "left" in the religious spectrum), but to a pretty large extent you can define what *your* world is (family life, marital life, ritual life), no? (To emphasize, I'm not trying to convince you of how great everything really is - I just want to understand your experience here.)
Holy Hyrax June 27, 2013 at 10:31 AM
So you're atheist and your wife is not particular a believer either? And yet you both keep to the mitzvoth? Quite interesting.
I am so happy I found your blog today! Your wife sounds just like me, only I would add, I hate my hair so it's great to have an excuse to cover it up. :-) Also suffering myself from the strain of being frum while feeling atheistic. I feel I need to continue the charade for the sake of my children and their sense of stability. Anyway, glad you're here! I feel less alone now. As I stroll through my community at gatherings, I always wonder who else is a secret atheist. There must be more of us! Batgirl
Atheodox Jew July 3, 2013 at 5:04 AM
Hi Batgirl - welcome!
Glad you found the blog. Can I ask how?
Yes, there are tons of people out there who don't believe to varying degrees, and who are suffering for it to different degrees. My wife for example is a fairly happy camper. She has her friends, a very busy life, is very much involved in the community, and basically ignores the belief package. It doesn't weigh on her like it does me. She's more brass tacks/tachlis: "What do I believe? What does anyone believe? Who the hell cares! Are you a decent person or not? Are you part of the Jewish people or not?" That's her take. Me - I get bothered by conceptual stuff. And when someone like you says they're suffering from having to put up a charade, that also bothers me. What kind of "Torat emet" is it where we have to pretend that outright fantasy is "emet"?
Anyway, I have this idea of presenting a non-dogmatic form of Torah observance, in the hopes of elevating the Torah world, or at least creating a new kind of Torah sub-community. But even if that fails, what you say is right on the money - if all it does is help people feel less alone, that itself a great thing!


text:
Techblog: Wie Cliqz Nutzer vor Web-Tracking schützt
|In Privatsphäre, Technik
|By bjoern
Im ersten Teil unserer Untersuchung haben wir erläutert, wie Tracking-Betreiber Browserverläufe von Anwendern sammeln und Nutzerprofile erstellen. Der zweite Teil erklärt, wie Cliqz Tracking verhindert und wie unser Anti-Tracking im Einzelnen funktioniert. Er richtet sich vor allem an Technikinteressierte, die mehr über Tracking-Gegenmaßnahmen erfahren möchten. Daher belassen wir den Text im englischen Original.
How We at Cliqz Protect Users from Web Tracking
In the last Techblog post we described how online tracking companies collect user browsing histories and build user profiles. In this post we describe how we can block this tracking behaviour, and specifically how Cliqz anti-tracking achieves this.
There are already many tools available which aim to prevent the kinds of tracking we have described. In general these act as browser extensions which monitor network traffic and intervene when tracking is detected, i.e. blocking UIDs in transmission. These can be categorised into two groups:
Blocklist-based: These tools use curated blocklists in order to block third parties seen to be tracking. This predominately targets advertising trackers as an extension or side-effect to Adblocking features. Examples include Ghostery, Disconnect, Firefox tracking protection, and uBlock Origin.
Heuristic/algorithm-based: These tools use heuristic and/or algorithmic analysis to determine when to block or modify requests. Examples include Privacy Badger and Cliqz's own anti-tracking system.
Blocklist-based methods have several shortcomings. Firstly, blocking requests is very coarse grained and can easily break site functionality. Overly broad blocking rules may block many requests which are of no privacy risk. On the other side, exceptions made to prevent site breakage may then allow some privacy leaks, for example the Facebook like button is still allowed when using the EasyPrivacy blocking list, and there are many other such exceptions.
Secondly, as these lists are manually maintained, they will always be playing catchup against trackers. Tracking companies can constantly change their URLs, domains and methods to prevent blocking, and those generating the lists must respond in each case.
Finally, blocking lists bestow significant power to their curators. With blocking browser extensions being used ever more (over 40% of users for some market segments), those who write the block list would have the power to cut off a significant proportion of a company's traffic — deservedly or not.
Heuristic approaches like Privacy Badger are limited by just having local knowledge. In many cases we will not know if data sent is unique to us until we have tested it in another browser and seen a different value, like in the fingerprinting example in the previous post. Thus some kind of collaboration is required between users to determine what data is safe, and what is not – and this is the method Cliqz's anti-tracking uses.
Cliqz Anti-tracking
As we outlined in the previous section, blocklists have several drawbacks, and we did not want such an aggressive system. Likewise, relying purely local evaluation of whether data is a UID or not has significant limitations. Therefore, we designed a system which combines local with global evaluation of tracking data. It is also designed to be conservative — we only remove data which we determine to be UIDs, and leave the rest alone. Our system modifies request URLs instead of blocking. This aims to reduce site breakage, and enable services to collect data, provided it does not compromise the user's privacy.
Like existing tools we focus on removing UIDs in transmission, rather than trying to prevent UID generation. Therefore we have three transmission vectors: HTTP Headers, URL Path and Post data. The latter we currently do not handle as our data shows that the reach of this method is very low, however our system allows us to continually monitor the situation, should this change.
The Cliqz anti-tracking system is split into two subsystems. One that handles only Cookies, and the other which handles all other data sent in headers and the URL path.
Cookie Protection
Protecting from tracking cookies is relatively simple. This is because the vast majority of third-party cookies have no function beyond tracking. Therefore we can very simply strip these from the request without breaking the page.
However, blanket third-party cookie blocking is not an ideal solution, because some third-party widgets do require cookies, to, for instance, authenticate with their service. In order to enable this use case, our system allows cookies in cases when user interaction with the widget is detected. When this happens, the third party is temporarily whitelisted to allow cookies.
This implementation effectively prevents all cookie tracking, and rarely breaks the user-experience on web pages. This is despite the fact that over 96% of third-party cookies are removed.
Unsafe Data Removal
The second anti-tracking subsystem deals with the non-trivial problem of identifying whether the data sent in a request is 'safe' or not. By this we mean, that the data point could be used as a UID, i.e. it is unique to the user. Once we identify what data is unsafe we remove it from the request before it is sent by the browser. This means that if a tracker tries to aggregate their data using this UID, then all Cliqz users will appear as one, and thus will gain crowd anonymity. The algorithm therefore runs as follows:
When a page is loaded, for each third-party request:
Analyse the URL, headers and postdata of the request.
Tokenise this data into key-value pairs.
Evaluate the safeness of each key-value pair.
If there are unsafe values, remove the data from the request.
How can we determine what data is safe or not? A UID is characterised as a value which is unique to a single user, and which is repeatedly seen by this user. Such values can be detected by aggregating the data seen by multiple users over a period of browsing time. However, by the time this aggregation would tell us what the UIDs were, it would be too late — the trackers would already have the data. Therefore, our algorithm does the inverse: Detecting the values which cannot be UIDs, and removing all other data.
The advantage of this method is that the protection for new users is available straight away. New UIDs will not be known by the system, and therefore be removed by default. Furthermore, the set of safe values is significantly smaller than the set of unsafe. Safe values will be categorical in nature, and therefore be only ever be O(1) in size, while the set of UIDs will be O(n), where n is the number of users.
We can also classify many values as safe locally, without having to consult the global safe value set. Our system uses the following rules for local classification:
If a value has not been seen previously for the (third party, key) pair, it is safe.
If a value is too short, i.e. has too little entropy to be a UID, it is safe.
If more than 3 different values have been seen for a (third party, key) pair over a two day period, then the value is not persistant, and therefore safe.
If none of these rules are able to classify the value as safe, we use the global safe set, which tells us which values have achieved a quorum of users who all saw the same value.
Consider a hypothetical visit to the site example.com, which has tracker.de as a third party. After processing a request we generate a set of T = [(s, d, k, v)] tuples as follows:
T = [
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= z,  v= 1459866821),
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= fl, v= 21.0)
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= u,  v= CCAAAABI)
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= vr, v= 1440x1024)
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= c7, v= e9d4a7e4d2185cec)
We can then evaluate these values:
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= z, v= 1459866821): This was the first time we saw the value 1459866821 for the given (d, k), so this data is safe.
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= fl, v= 21.0): The value 21.0 is too short to be a UID, so it is safe.
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= u, v= CCAAAABI): More than 3 different values seen in the last two days for the same (d, k), so safe.
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= vr, v= 1440x1024): Always the same value seen for this (d, k) pair, however the value is in the global safe set (as it represents a common screen resolution), therefore safe.
(s= example.com, d= tracker.de, k= c7, v= e9d4a7e4d2185cec): Always the same value seen, and not in the globally safe set, so this value is unsafe and will be removed.
Building the Global Safe Set
We build the global safe set daily using the data sent from users' clients. Clients collect the tuples of data from each request while browsing and send this back to us every hour, adding a timestamp parameter. The values in the tuple are hashed to prevent user-identifiable information being sent to us. The client guarantees that a maximum of one message is sent per user per hour, so this can be used instead of a user id to count the number of users for each (third party, value) tuple. If the number of users exceeds the quorum threshold for a given hour, it is added to the safe set.
This model allows users to create this collaborative safe value set without compromising their privacy. Any privacy sensitive information in the data is obfuscated by the hash function, and, as no UID is required for our aggregation, we cannot derive any browsing history beyond the single hour granularity (there is no way to link messages from different hours), and the most information that could be gained is the first-party domain names visited. This protection is further strengthened by the use of our Human Web technology which further obfuscates the source of each message we receive.
Cliqz vs Other Anti-tracking Systems
The algorithmic, data-driven system for removing UIDs from third-party requests which we have described has several advantages over other anti-tracking solutions. As an online system we can respond much quicker, and without human oversight, to changes in trackers and their techniques. If a tracking company switched domains to try and avoid blocklists, we would have the data to block this tracking within a day. Human-curated blocklists would take comparatively longer to update.
In our paper we did several tests to measure the difference between our system and other blocklist systems. Our tests indicated a reduction in breakage on web pages caused by our system, compared to adblockers. We also saw that blocklist-based systems blocked more often, but a large proportion of these blocks were false positives: requests which did not contain any UIDs.
The downside of our method is that, unlike other blockers, we see a net performance loss when loading complex web sites. This is because, other blocking systems simply block the javascript which will then attempt to calculate and send a fingerprint, while we will block just the outgoing request with UID. Thus blockers get a performance benefit of avoiding running this resource-heavy tracking javascript code.
However, we believe that in the long term, this property is a net benefit. Unlike other anti-tracking systems, Cliqz can forgive. If a tracker updates its code, and switches to a method which no longer sends UIDs, then our system will immediately stop blocking their data. With blocklists, there is no such mechanism — trackers are then incentivised to circumvent the block (for example using a new domain name), rather than improving their data collection methods.
Our anti-tracking system has now been running successfully for over a year, blocking around 300 million cookies and removing around 10 million UIDs per day to keep our users free from tracking. The same system, as described here, is now also available on our mobile browsers to provide the same protection across even more devices, and give users control over what data third-parties can collect about them.
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