Heavy rains since Saturday threw life out of gear in Mumbai and Maharashtra with several parts of the state remaining under water till late this evening. As many as 15 persons have been killed in the state so far in rain-related incidents.
A man pushes a bicycle as a bus passes by along a flooded road after a heavy rainfall in Mumbai on Sunday.
The flood situation in parts of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday remained grim as the toll in rain-related incidents mounted to 51. As the Godavari river continued to flow above the danger mark, more than 350,000 people in about 160 villages in Khammam district were hit by flash floods.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has agreed to release Krishna waters to Tamil Nadu from the Telugu Ganga project from August 15. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy gave an assurance to this effect when a ministerial delegation from Tamil Nadu met him here yesterday.
The Central Information Commission has flayed the Central Bureau of Investigation for its tardy probe into the Bofors pay-off case, while rejecting the application of former Union Minister Arun Jaitley seeking papers relating to the de-freezing of the bank accounts of the Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.
The CPM state secretariat, which met yesterday at the Alimuddin Street party office, directed both the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and his former boss, Mr Jyoti Basu, to refrain from making any more statements on the CAB elections vis-à-vis Jagmohan Dalmiya issue.
In an unprecedented move, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday issued notices to Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and APCC president K. Keshava Rao for contempt of court. The order was issued by Justice P.S. Narayana taking serious note of the remarks made by the Chief Minister and the APCC president against the court last month.
Assurances from the Union Government as well as the Oversight Committee that the implementation of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs will not dilute quality notwithstanding, institutions of higher education have proposed varied measures to ensure academic excellence.
Concerned over the inordinate delay in acquiring the crucial piece of land from Uttar Pradesh for the construction of the Commonwealth Games village, Parliament's Standing Committee on Urban Development has urged the Delhi Development Authority to start developing infrastructure for the 2010 Commonwealth Games right away on the land it possesses.
The Delhi Police today claimed to have cracked the sensational murder case in which seven members of a family were stabbed to death in the Inderlok area. The police claimed that the accused arrested has been identified as Sanjay Babu (28).
The police arrested a suspected SIMI activist from Phulwari Sharif in the city for questioning in connection with the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts. The police said Ziauddin Ansari, who allegedly had links with the banned SIMI, was taken into custody late Friday night.
In a city, where strays breed in every street corner, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has decided to fine owners of pet dogs that dirty Mumbai's streets. As per BMC's new draft rules, owners of pet dogs will be fined Rs 500 if they do not clean up after them.
The Bangalore Golf Club is situated in the most prestigious area in the city, bang close to three five star hotels, minister quarters and the Chief Minister's residence. This is proving to be its nemesis.
Keen to reap electoral dividend on its decision to implement OBC quota in higher education institutions, the Congress is taking steps to take the message to the grassroots level before the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.
The Congress today announced that Mr Rahul Gandhi would be accompanying Congress president and his mother Sonia Gandhi to formally launch the party's campaign in Uttar Pradesh.
Timely action averted a flare-up of communal violence in Mau last night when mischievous elements damaged some calendars inside a mosque in the Niaz Muhammadpura locality in the already tense city.
Indian scientists are developing life-saving drugs for dreaded diseases from depths of the ocean, the medicine chest of the new millennium. The research programme "Development of potential drugs from the ocean" has been initiated by the Ministry of Earth Sciences for diseases like cancer, diabetes, dyslipidemia, malaria, tuberculosis, central nervous system disorders, anti-infective and anti-fertility.
The controversial Malaysian cruise liner "Blue Lady" was recently granted permission by the Environment Ministry to beach at Alang for dismantling. The ship had been allowed to anchor near Pipawav Port in Amreli district by the Supreme Court on humanitarian grounds.
A meeting of the Union Cabinet has been called early tomorrow morning to approve the Action Taken Report, along with the report of the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority, ahead of their tabling in Parliament.
He sings quawaalis to ensure two square meals for his family of five and begs to solemnise the marriages of poor and deprived girls. This is the incredible story of the 50-year-old blind-by-birth beggar Mohammad Yakub from Deohara village of Aurangabad district in Bihar who, unlike many others, begs for a social cause.
An NGO, Campaign Against Child Labour, has welcomed the Centre's decision to ban employment of children in the domestic sector and demanded strict enforcement of the law to make it effective.
Vrindavan gears up for birth anniversary of Lord Krishna.
Movies 'Darwaza Band Rakho', 'Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar' running successfully.
The Met Department said heavy rains were recorded in many parts of western Maharashtra. It has predicted more rain with gusty winds.
Mumbai saw transport services being thrown out of gear as roads and subways remained flooded. Trains on the Western and Central Railways' lines had to be cancelled this morning as the tracks were waterlogged.
However, it being a holiday, most of the residents of the city were not affected. The traffic, even in the interiors of the city, was badly hit after waterlogging was reported in many neighbourhoods, including Andheri, Milan and Khar subways.
The traffic police said roads were submerged around the Sion Circle area, Hind Mata Chowk and Chunabhatti areas in central Mumbai.
Air services were disrupted after flights to and from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport were cancelled. According to an airport official visibility was down to 300 metres only.
The Disaster Management Cell of the state government has warned residents not to venture out unless necessary since heavy rains may continue.
Across Maharashtra, the deluge continued. In Pune, heavy rains caused the main rivers, Mula and Muthha, to flow above the danger mark. The authorities issued a flood alert with 25,000 cusecs of water being released from the Khadakvasla dam.
In Nanded district, more than 13,000 persons were evacuated from marooned villages. In the Marathwada region some 25 villages were still cut off completely by floods, officials said.
In Vidarbha's Gadchiroli district the Army, the Navy and the Air Force have been called in to conduct rescue operations.
The traffic on the Nanded-Nagpur-Akola-Hyderabad road has also been halted.
The IAF choppers were pressed in after the Godavari river crossed the danger mark. The Vishnupuri dam was opened to accommodate the excess water in the river.
" We have stepped up our rescue and relief operations in the flood-hit areas of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, despite the inclement weather," IAF spokes man Wing Cdr Mahesh Upasni said.
The IAF had carried out 102 sorties, rescuing hundreds of people and heli-lifting, using Dhruv, Chetak and Mi 8 choppers, over 75 tonnes of relief material, he said.
The flood situation in parts of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday remained grim as the toll in rain-related incidents mounted to 51.
As the Godavari river continued to flow above the danger mark, more than 350,000 people in about 160 villages in Khammam district were hit by flash floods.
The rains and floods have left about half a million people homeless since Friday. While it has not been raining in several affected areas since Saturday evening, the heavy inflows in Godavari and Krishna due to incessant rains in upstream Maharashtra and Karnataka were causing concern.
While the situation was improving in north coastal Andhra, which bore the brunt of floods during the past three days, things have not improved in parts of Telangana and south coastal districts.
The water level in Godavari at the temple town of Bhadrachalam in Khammam district Sunday crossed 66 feet, against the danger mark of 53 feet, posing a threat to the town and several villages surrounding it.
The district authorities have pressed into service 13 boats and two helicopters to evacuate people from marooned villages. About 13 families in Konavaram near Bhadrachalam are standing on the roofs of their houses waiting for help.
Two more helicopters have been sought from Eastern Naval Command, which has its headquarters in Visakhapatnam. Officials said food and water packets were also being dropped to the marooned people.
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who undertook an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Vijiyanagaram and Khammam, asked authorities to be ready to meet any eventuality.
He announced a compensation of Rs.50,000 each to the families of those killed in the rains. "According to our estimates, 531 houses have collapsed due to the rains. The state government will get all of them rebuilt," he said.
More than 70,000 persons have been shifted to relief camps in Khammam alone.
The flood situation in Adilabad district bordering Maharashtra also remained grim with the water levels rising in Penganga and Pranhita, inundating more than 200 villages. Traffic on national highway 7 connecting Hyderabad to Nagpur has come to a standstill.
In the coastal districts, authorities discharged huge quantity of water into the sea from Prakasam barrage across Krishna river in Vijayawada.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has agreed to release Krishna waters to Tamil Nadu from the Telugu Ganga project from August 15.
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy gave an assurance to this effect when a ministerial delegation from Tamil Nadu met him here yesterday.
The seven-member delegation, comprising Rural Development and Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin and Public Works Minister K. Ponmudi and senior officials, held discussions with state officials for the supply of Krishna water to meet the drinking water requirements of Chennai.
"Last year, we had released 3.7 tmc of Krishna waters to Tamil Nadu. This year, we are hopeful of releasing more water," Mr Reddy said at a joint press conference with the visiting Tamil Nadu ministers.
During the talks, the Tamil Nadu delegation pleaded for an early release of water since the water stored in reservoirs catering to Chennai's needs would last only a month.
The Chief Minister responded positively to Tamil Nadu's request for increasing storage levels in Somasila and Kandeluru reservoirs in Nellore district to meet the needs of Chennai on time.
Mr Reddy said his government would take up the issue with the new Krishna Water Tribunal for the need for upper riparian states of Karnataka and Maharashtra to keep their commitment of providing 5 tmc ft of Krishna water each for Chennai.
The Central Information Commission has flayed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its tardy probe into the Bofors pay-off case, while rejecting the application of former Union Minister Arun Jaitley seeking papers relating to the de-freezing of the bank accounts of the Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.
"The CBI is directed to expedite the investigation in the matter lest its credibility should get unduly tarnished," Information Commissioner Prof M M Ansari in his 15-page order said.
"The CBI has been investigating the case for nearly 16 years without much success. Though the CBI has claimed exemptions from disclosure of information on valid grounds....these exemptions would not be available after the expiry of 20 years of such public action under the provisions of the Right to Information Act," he observed.
Mr Jaitley, a Rajya Sabha MP, had sought all documents, manuscripts and files pertaining to the freezing of bank account Nos 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, maintained at London by Ottavrio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria Quattrocchi, by the Queen's High Court in January this year. The money in these accounts was withdrawn the day London court passed the order.
The agency informed the commission that it was still investigating the source of funds from Switzerland to London and a letter of Rogatory had been issued by the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi, in April this year and is under execution.
"When the court is duly seized of the matter and prosecution has started the case, the exemption from disclosure of information under section 8(1)(h) of the Act has been correctly applied by the CBI Appellate Authority," the commission said in its decision.
The CBI informed the commission that the bank accounts were freezed for a limited period by the order of the court in London to enable the CBI to determine the sources of funds and to ascertain whether the money attributable to the receipt as commission from suspected sources was credited in those accounts.
"The action of freezing of the accounts was taken on the basis of suspicion of having received the commission, which could not be verified and proved by the CBI till now," the agency told the commission.
The investigating agency told the CIC that Mr B Dutta, Additional Solicitor-General, was deputed to appraise the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of the UK about the progress made by the CBI with regard to its investigation.
"Subsequently, the said accounts were defreezed on the advise of the Queen's High Court to the bank concerned. The CPIO also mentioned that Dutta has not made any written submission to the CPS nor did he advise them on the matter in any form," the agency contended.
However, this was objected by the applicants representative, who claimed that Dutta had advised them for de-freezing the accounts, which got revealed when a fax message was received from CPS indicating the advise to CPS given by Dutta to which a confirmation was sought from the CBI.
The CBI had registered a case in January 1990 under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act on allegations of a criminal conspiracy during 1982-97 to the extent of Rs 64 crore in the purchase of 410 FH-77 guns from A B Bofors. The FIR was registered based on the source information and the report of Joint Parliamentary Committee, Report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India and others.
Both leaders made contradictory statements on the recent CAB elections bringing the rift inside the CPM into the open, thus affecting the party's image.
After the two-hour-long meeting arranged at the instance of Mr Basu, the party secretary, Mr Biman Bose, told mediapersons that "disputes over the CAB elections vis-à-vis Dalmiya episode" had been resolved.
He said, henceforth, neither Mr Bhattacharjee nor Mr Basu or other CPM leaders would make any public statements in this connection.
The party would also not get involved in the CAB matter or in the matter of any other sports organisations, he added.
Incidentally, the Chief Minister had projected the city police chief, Mr Prasun Mukherjee, as his candidate against Mr Dalmiya in the CAB elections.
Initially, he wanted Mr Dalmiya not to contest the election but the request was turned down. In the elections, Mr Dalmiya finally won, which the Chief Minister felt was his defeat.
And soon, the angry Chief Minister made some objectionable remarks on Mr Dalmiya's victory saying "the evil had won over the good", obviously hinting at those supporting Mr Dalmiya, who is close both to Mr Basu and the state Sports Minister, Mr Subhas Chakraborty.
Mr Basu strongly objected to the Chief Minister's public statement over the CAB elections, which were free and fair and held under the supervision of a former HC Judge. He also did not approve of the CM's decision of projecting the city police chief in the CAB elections.
In an unprecedented move, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday issued notices to Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and APCC president K. Keshava Rao for contempt of court.
The order was issued by Justice P.S. Narayana taking serious note of the remarks made by the Chief Minister and the APCC president against the court last month.
The single judge order was in response to a letter written by Mr V. Rama Rao from Khammam who drew the court's attention to the comments made against the High Court.
The alleged comments were made by Mr Reddy and Mr Rao while reacting to certain observations made by Justice Narayana against the State Election Commission (SEC) during the disposal of a writ petition.
The judge was reported to have commented during the hearing of a petition that the appointment of the SEC had become a farce and lacked transparency.
In a strongly worded response, the Chief Minister, at a press conference, said the remarks appeared to have been made to benefit the Opposition party. Justice Narayana, while issuing the show-cause notice, said the government should have taken recourse to appeal instead of making insinuating remarks against judge.
APCC president Keshava Rao had rubbished the proceedings in the court last month.
In the interim report submitted to the Oversight Committee, the Group on Agriculture-Education Institutions has proposed additional coaching.
An additional budget has been sought by the group for establishing a communication, language and soft skills lab.
The Engineering and Technology Group has recommended that determination of the admission criteria may be left to the JAB for the IIT or the respective Board of Governors with minor variations within a specified range to be decided by the respective class of institutions.
The group has specifically noted that the "cut-off figures should not be lowered to accommodate or fill the reserved seats".
Apart from remedial classes to bring OBC students on a par with other students, the group notes "curriculum framework can be devised for such programmes at the institutional level".
The Group on Management Education said the programmes in IIMs and NITIE, relevant to the OBC quota, were "all postgraduate programmes".
It has sought reservation to be extended to the two-year PG Diploma Programme and equivalent programmes only as other programmes like Fellow Programme, Executive Development Programme and Faculty Development Programme may require work experience, sponsorship etc.
Apart from remedial programmes based on the deficiencies of the students admitted under quotas, the group has demanded that IIMs and NITIE which were established as Centres of Excellence remain so.
"There must be no unjustifiable demands on the institutes to lower admission standards in order to accommodate the enhanced intake," the group said.
The Group on the Central Universities echoing similar views had in its report stated: "The OBC quota should not be taken as an arithmetical exercise covering multi-faceted expansion.
Concerned over the inordinate delay in acquiring the crucial piece of land from Uttar Pradesh for the construction of the Commonwealth Games village, Parliament's Standing Committee on Urban Development has urged the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to start developing infrastructure for the 2010 Commonwealth Games right away on the land it possesses.
The Commonwealth Games village, which is to be constructed near the Akshardham temple on the banks of the Yamuna in East Delhi, is being delayed as a crucial piece of land, measuring 41.3 acre, belonging to the Irrigation Department of the Uttar Pradesh Government is yet to be acquired.
The committee, in its report, expressed concern that if the land from the UP Government was not acquired at the earliest, it would be very difficult to carry out development work for the games within a short span of five years.
While acknowledging the efforts made by the DDA for acquiring the piece of land, the committee desired that at the same time the matter should be sorted out expeditiously at the highest level because of constraints of time and the importance attached to the games.
The committee was of the view that the Cabinet Secretary should intervene to sort out the issue, or if found necessary, the matter could be sorted out at the ministerial level also. However, it recommended that whatever the land the DDA possess right now, should be developed without waiting for the acquisition of land from the UP Government.
The DDA comes directly under the Ministry of Urban Affairs because of the limited statehood status of the national Capital.
Meanwhile, the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is attaching considerable importance to the Commonwealth Games.
The Delhi Police today claimed to have cracked the sensational murder case in which seven members of a family were stabbed to death in the Inderlok area.
The police claimed that the accused arrested has been identified as Sanjay Babu (28). He was a relative of the deceased family.
Delhi Police Commissioner Dr K. K. Paul said at a press conference, called here today, that the accused confessed to his crime, although the weapon of crime and the blood stained clothes the accused was wearing on the night of the crime, were still to be recovered. "The accused had thrown the clothes in a adjoining drain and we are trying to recover them. The accused has confessed his crime," said Dr. K.K. Paul.
It is apparent that the police arrested the accused merely on his statement and with lack of strong evidence.
According to the police officials, the accused entered the house of the deceased at around 10.30 pm on July 30. He stayed there for the night and allegedly killed the entire family one by one by slitting their throats during the night.
Dr Paul said the postmortem report had confirmed that no sedatives were given to any of the deceased.
Dr Paul said the deceased Santosh was mausi (maternal aunt) of Sanjay. Sanjay and his family, including brothers and sisters, used to live in the same house jointly some years back. But they had an altercation and left the house. Sanjay wanted to settle the scores as he felt insulted at that time.
Meanwhile, Sanjay also got the information that Om Prakash was into money laundering business and had Rs 30,000 in his house. The police said on the fateful night, he had planned to take the money.
Dr Paul said Sanjay, after entering the house, first killed his uncle Om Prakash and then Santosh Rathore, his aunt, by slitting their throats. He hid their bodies under a cardboard on the ground floor and went upstairs where five of their children — Manju (19), Preeti (17), Dolly (15), Puja (14) and Anuj (8) — were present.
When the children asked Sanjay about their parents, Sanjay reportedly replied that he had sent them to bring some goods from outside.
Sanjay asked all five of them to sit outside the room and reportedly called them one by one inside the room on the pretext that he was performing a 'puja ceremony' and slit their throats.
Surprisingly, all the five children, four of them grown up, did not put up a resistance even after seeing their siblings lying dead on the floor.
He also set the bodies of his uncle and aunt on fire. This, according to the police, he did because he wanted to destroy the evidence.
The police have also claimed to have recovered Rs 20,000 from his possession.
The police arrested a suspected SIMI activist from Phulwari Sharif in the city for questioning in connection with the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts.
The police said Ziauddin Ansari, who allegedly had links with the banned SIMI, was taken into custody late Friday night.
Ansari's detention followed a request from the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai police, which suspected his involvement in the blasts in Mumbai suburban trains that claimed more than 200 lives.
The ATS personnel were expected to arrive in Patna shortly to take Ansari to Mumbai for further interrogation.
A fortnight ago, the ATS along with the Bihar police had arrested two prime suspects, Mohammad Kamal and Khaleel Aziz, of the Mumbai blasts from Madhubani near Indo-Nepal border in Bihar.
The arrest of three suspects in connection with the Mumbai blasts from Bihar, including Ansari, was preceded by the reported arrests of around 12 suspected ISI agents from different parts of the state in the past few years.
A series of events reportedly has raised serious apprehensions about Bihar having common international borders with Nepal and Bangladesh, may be fast emerging as a new terrorist hub in the eastern part of the country.
In a city, where strays breed in every street corner, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to fine owners of pet dogs that dirty Mumbai's streets.
As per BMC's new draft rules, owners of pet dogs will be fined Rs 500 if they do not clean up after them.
According to Mumbai's Additional Municipal Commissioner R.A. Rajeev, who is the brain behind the proposal, hefty fine will be levied on people dirtying the roads.
"We will have mobile squads to levy fine ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 10,000," says Rajeev. As per new rules, residential housing societies will be held responsible for garbage dumped in their neighbourhood. Fine of up to Rs 10,000 may be levied collectively on the residents of such buildings.
At present, residents are required by law to segregate garbage and deliver it for collection by BMC's garbage trucks. The civic body had removed open bins on the roadside two years ago after notifying garbage collection timings. However, slum residents still dumped garbage where the old bins stood.
The BMC says things will now get better with the amount of fine being increased. Earlier, those urinating or defecating on the streets were fined Rs 50. Now they will have to pay Rs 500. "We will have at least 400 employees on the roads to enforce the law," says Rajeev.
The BMC has 80 nuisance officers at present. Cynical residents, however, feel that enhanced fine will only corrupt nuisance officers who will pocket heavy bribes.
Civic employees unions are, however, gung-ho about the proposal and indications are that many employees will volunteer for the post of nuisance detectors.
According to the biggest union, Municipal Mazdoor Union, employees are waiting for a notification to be issued asking for volunteers.
The Bangalore Golf Club is situated in the most prestigious area in the city, bang close to three five star hotels, minister quarters and the Chief Minister's residence. This is proving to be its nemesis. As if stray balls hitting cars cruising alongside it was not enough, the last straw seems to be a lofty shot which dented the car of Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy.
The High Grounds police, under whose jurisdiction the club falls, had dispatched a letter to the Deputy Commissioner (Urban) on July 25 asking him to order the closure of the club. The missive was sent because a golf ball hit a policeman standing on duty at the Chief Minister's residence on July 22. A golfer, Subiah, was arrested on charges of negligence after a complaint was registered in the matter.
Even as the police was looking into the matter, a more serious incident occurred. Mr Kumaraswamy's car was hit by a ball on August 3 when it was moving in a convoy towards his residence alongside the golf course. After initial panic, security men realised they were not under attack but a golf ball was responsible for the impact on the car.
This time the errant golfer got away as the security personnel could not locate the ball which club authorities said was coded with an identification mark which could have helped in tracing the hitter. However, the golf course management was targeted by the city police. A case has been registered against the management today as well as the "missing" golfer.
Additional Commissioner of Police Bipin Gopalakrishna told TNS that the police has been consistently asking the golf club management to take steps to prevent such incidents but to no avail. He said it was up to the club management to increase the height of the netting along the Sankey Road, besides other measures which could include restrictions during peak traffic hours.
There have been other cases of stray balls hitting cars and pedestrians. In the second week of July a driver of a Karnataka High Court judge was injured when a stray ball hit him while he was walking along the ministerial bungalows adjacent to the club. Six more cases of damages to vehicles as well as injuries have been recorded by the police, even though it says the number could be much higher as many cases go unreported.
The club was on the outskirts of the city when it was established 150 years ago. However, it now lies in the heart of a VIP area. The narrow road on both sides of the club is chockablock with vehicles at all times during the day. The state government has earlier proposed shifting the club to the outskirts of the city but the move has not been taken up till yet.
Golfers say shifting the club was no answer and would harm their interests. "The central location of the club is one reason why we can have a daily round without much inconvenience," says Arun S Kumar. He said efforts could be made to replace the old netting as well as increase its height to prevent balls from going out on the road, besides ensuring beginners did not play during peak traffic hours.
The party's OBC department, headed by Mr K.C. Lenka, is implanting plans to set up committees in every block of the state by the month-end to spread the message about the party's concern for the welfare of OBCs.
Each of the committees, being set up at block, district and state level, will have a chairman, two vice-chairman, three conveners, besides executive members.
An OBC mahapanchayat will be held in Lucknow next month in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party MP Rahul Gandhi are expected to participate.
One of the tasks given to the block committees is to tell people in villages about the steps the Congress governments have taken for the welfare of OBCs and other weaker sections.
The AICC general secretary, Mr Ashok Gehlot, said the MP from Amethi would attend the August 8 Kanpur rally along with Mr Gandhi.
The Congress is kicking off its election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, which is scheduled to go to the polls early next year, with the Kanpur rally.
Mr Gehlot announced that Ms Gandhi would be addressing four rallies in different regions of the state in the next one month. The dates and venues of Ms Gandhi's other meetings would be decided later.
Mr Gehlot's announcement comes a day after PCC chief Salman Khursheed's statement that Mr Rahul Gandhi would lead the party in Uttar Pradesh and the party would mould itself according to his plans.
The Congress has already indicated that it may go it alone in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
An FIR has been registered against two persons in this connection. According to District Magistrate P. Guruprasad, the incident occurred at around 9 p.m. last night when a calendar inside a mosque in the Muslim-dominated locality was found damaged.
Within no time a large mob collected on the roads. However, an alert force headed by the DM and the SP arrived on the spot and the situation was diffused after an assurance to bring the guilty to book.
The city had witnessed violence and has remained tense since the murder of local BJP leader's son Ankit Kumar Soni on August 2.
According to IG (Varanasi Range) A.C. Sharma, several persons have been detained for interrogation.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra declared that the government was protecting the murderers of the class IX student as they owed allegiance to the SIMI.
Meanwhile, the district administration is also gearing up to ensure that the proposed visit of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to the city on August 8 passes off peacefully.
Indian scientists are developing life-saving drugs for dreaded diseases from depths of the ocean, the medicine chest of the new millennium.
The research programme "Development of potential drugs from the ocean" has been initiated by the Ministry of Earth Sciences for diseases like cancer, diabetes, dyslipidemia, malaria, tuberculosis, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, anti-infective and anti-fertility.
So far, over 6,500 marine samples have been screened and three potential drugs, CDR-34-D-123 for anti-diabetic, CDR-134-F-194 and CDR-134-D for anti-diabetic-cumanti-hyper-lipidemic activities-identified.
The project has been designed to cover exploratory and product-development phase with participation of pharmaceutical industries. Pharmacological, toxicological and clinical trials for anti-diarrhoeal, anti-diabetic, anti-cholesterol leads would continue further.
Under the exploratory phase, bulk and repeated collection of marine organisms and their bio-evaluation are being carried out to obtain potential leads. While human trials have already been initiated for the development of anti-diabetic drug on CDR-134-D-123, the other two compounds are in different stages of pre-clinical investigations.
The scientists had now also identified molecular targets for screening anti-cancer leads from marine resources, Minister of Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal told Lok Sabha today.
An MoEF official confirmed that the letter for the go-ahead had been faxed to the Gujarat Maritime Board on recommendations of the Supreme Court Technical Committee, which the MoEF received on August 1.
With the decks having been cleared for dismantling "Blue Lady", formerly S.S. Norway, at the Alang ship breaking yard, ways to dispose of the embedded asbestos are being discussed at a meeting of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and Gujarat Maritime Board officials in Gandhinagar.
The decision, however, will give rise to some more controversy on the contentious issue as environmentalists are now planning to move the apex court, terming it an "illegal order" and gross violation of the Supreme Court order of June 5.
As per Indian Platform on Ship-breaking activist Gopal Krishan, Supreme Court has only directed the technical committee to grant permission for anchoring and not beaching.
Following protests from environmentalists, who maintained that the ship was carrying toxic asbestos material and PCBs that were hazardous to health, the apex court, on June 5, directed that the ship could not be dismantled unless it was properly examined by an expert agency.
A meeting of the Union Cabinet has been called early tomorrow morning to approve the Action Taken Report (ATR), along with the report of the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority, ahead of their tabling in Parliament.
The meeting would take place just an hour before the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are scheduled to be reconvened at 11 am after they were adjourned on Friday following protests by the Opposition on the leakage of the Justice Pathak report to the media.
The government is expecting a stormy day ahead with the Opposition set to make the leakage of the report a major political issue.
Deliberations of the Cabinet would also be taking place in the backdrop of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, indicted in the report on the Iraqi oil-for-food scam, giving a privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and his team of officials virtually burnt the midnight oil to prepare the ATR within 72 hours of the report's submission to the government.
Justice Pathak report is a 110-page document, including 32 pages of annexures.
Mr Karunanidhi argued that reservations had been denied to the OBCs since 1950 in educational institutions, state-run-units and the Central administration. "Delayed social justice is denied human rights for the OBCs," he observed.
He sings quawaalis to ensure two square meals for his family of five and begs to solemnise the marriages of poor and deprived girls.
This is the incredible story of the 50-year-old blind-by-birth beggar Mohammad Yakub from Deohara village of Aurangabad district in Bihar who, unlike many others, begs for a social cause.
The officials of the district administration said till date Yakub had used his 'earnings' of 18 years to solemnise the marriages of more than 50 destitute and orphan girls.
Besides, he also helped financially in the construction of both mosques and temples.
The day of this philanthropist beggar begins early by begging in buses and prominent localities. Most of the people willingly oblige him because his reputation for benevolence through begging has already travelled far and wide.
Like any father, Yakub also does not want his children to resort to begging in future. Both his children study in a nearby madarsa.
Being blind, he cannot count his income. He thus puts all his income in biscuit cans and when they are full, he donates the money for a good social cause.
For Yakub, " to die rich is a disgrace" and he says he would like to die as a beggar only supporting social cause.
An NGO, Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), has welcomed the Centre's decision to ban employment of children in the domestic sector and demanded strict enforcement of the law to make it effective.
CACL national convener Ranjan Mohanty has demanded the government to prepare a time-bound action plan to completely eradicate child labour from the country.
He said banning child labour in homes, hotels, restaurants, tea shops, resorts and dhabas by enlisting these as prohibitory sectors under the Child Labour Act 1986 had been a long pending demand of the CACL. However, a mere law would not help until it was strictly implemented, accompanied with necessary rehabilitation package for children rescued from different sectors, he added.


Interdependence theory is often used to understand how positive and negative experiences within romantic relationships impact a partner's behavior. The theory postulates that as one romantic partner witnesses the other partner behaving in prosocial ways there is an increase in trust, dependence, and commitment, a cycle known as mutual cyclic growth. The current study was interested in the opposite direction of this cycle, mutual cyclic decline, where behaviors that are interpreted as anti-relationship in nature would undermine trust, commitment, and dependence. Specifically, the current study was interested in behaviors enacted through social media. One hundred seventeen students who were in a romantic relationship participated in an online survey and 11 female participants completed a follow-up interview. Forty-eight percent (n=56) of survey participants who used social media indicated their partner had enacted at least one social media behavior that negatively impacted their relationship. Forty participants experienced a negative behavior by their partner via Facebook, 21 participants via SnapChat, 15 participants via Instagram, and 29 participants via Twitter. Directed content analysis was used to analyze the interpretations of behaviors for both the interviews and the survey's open ended questions. Codes for interpreting behaviors included the categories of lack of loyalty/fidelity, lack of supportiveness, lack of openness, lack of similarity display, and lack of personal connection. The first four categories were previously discovered by Baxter (1986) and Sheets (1997) when studying face-to-face communication behaviors, and the final category was newly discovered. In addition, a common theme mentioned by participants was that part of the reason behaviors were perceived as negative was due to the virtual presence of others witnessing the behavior. This study provided further evidence that behaviors enacted through social media can be interpreted as undermining relationships across multiple forms of social media.


A high quality original Victorian throne toilet seat, hand made from very thick mahogany with an amazing grain. There is a historical split on the lid which has been consolidated and will not travel.
This is the type of seat that can be used with floor or wall brackets, or a floating shelf.
Rubber bungs will be supplied for you to fit to the underside specific to your toilet. A fantastic quality seat that will add a touch of class to your smallest room in an instant.
NB. Toilet and floor brackets are available separately.


Create a stamp machine algorithm that could always spit out the fewest postage stamps to cover any arbitrary postage pricing. Let's say you had available to you the following stamp denominations : 1 cent, 2 cent, 6 cent, 20 cent. How would you go about writing an algorithm that made sure to optimize the number of stamps to sum to a particular value?
My immediate answer was use genetic algorithms, because that way you don't have to come up with the algorithm, just the fitness function. Luckily the interviewer didn't think I was making up some snide remark, but still asked me go through the exercise of using recursion to walk a tree of possible denominations. (After all, the interviewer was trying to see how I went about solving the problem). In the end, I think the interviewer agreed that a genetic algorithm would be a simple and effective solution to the problem.
The scenario above motivated me to try out a genetic algorithm on a similar problem, optimizing the number coins used to make exact change. I wanted to make the possible coinage simple enough to be available to you everyday cashier, so the only possible coins available in the app are pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. This way, the phone user wouldn't be hunting in their cash register for half dollars.
The first step in creating the app was to come up with a simple design. Most of the functionality for the app is in the genetic algorithm and the viewmodel. The ViewModel is named the MakeChangeViewModel and the genetic algorithm is contained in the BinaryChromosome, the Population class, and the GAUtility. The fitness function for the chromosome is inside of CalculateCoinSum method. The BinaryChromosome is basically a binary string that is converted to a series of coin values. The CalculateCoinSum method adds these values contained in the chromosome until they come closest to the entered change and determines a fitness based on how exact the sum matches the value with the fewest coins.
Genetic Algorithms work similar to the way life works. Chromosomes can mutate and breed with each other, and those chromosomes who have the best fitness are most likely to survive and reproduce for the next generation of chromosomes. As wacky as this sounds, it's a great way to come up with optimal solutions without having to know how to get there. The fitness function is the tricky part of using genetic algorithms, because everything else about genetic algorithms remains the same for any solution you are trying to derive. In the coin optimization problem, the fittest set of coins are those coins that add up to the amount of change we want with the fewest coins. We need to come up with some code that represents a fitness value based on this assumption.
In our fitness function, we don't actually add up all the coins in the chromosome. We only add up the coins until they just go over the sum of the amount of change we are looking for. This way we can come up with the best solution of a set of coins quicker. Below is the fitness function for our chromosome containing a particular set of coins.
Now the hard part is done, and we can just let the genetic algorithm do its thing to come up with the best chromosome after a couple of 100 generations. Once we have our answer we can stick it into the ViewModel and display it on the phone screen.
The purpose of the view model is to handle input for the amount of change and then pass the amount onto the genetic algorithm so that it can come back with which set of coins to return as change. The ViewModel also binds the coins to the view and displays the coins to the user. It's a fairly simple viewmodel because all it needs is 2 commands: one for clearing the desired change and one for calculating the desired change. It also contains a binding for the change itself, ChangeEntered. And finally, there is an ObservableCollection representing the coin results displayed to the user, Coins.
The data template maps the value of the coin to two converters. One converter scales the coin according to the coin type (penny, nickel, quarter, dime), the other converter maps the coin value to an image in the application. Listing 4 shows the value converter for converting the coin integer value to an image. The converter simply does a lookup on the name of the coin and inserts it into an string that matches the file path of the image.
Listing 4 - Value Converter for showing a coin result image.
A change app can be useful if you are a cashier and feeling a bit overwhelmed at the end of the day calculating change in your head. This windows phone app may be just the solution to your change-counting-woes. Now if only the windows phone could actually spit out the change, wouldn't that be a sudden change in the way you'd do business.
Congrats to A.R. on a concise version of a very basic problem.
Actually I just ran your code, A.R. that you wrote, and although you have the write idea, your code doesn't work. I did get the job by the way . Coins don't actually work as well as stamps for this scenario, because your very simple 1 line algorithm will work for coins, but not denominations of stamps.
The problem is that you can have 18 cent stamps, made up of 3 6 cent stamps or a 1, 2, and 15 cent stamp and both are valid solutions.
since coins are all multiples of 5, the GA doesn't really give you much, but it does the trick. Anyway thanks for your contribution.
LOL. Sorry I couldn't get it to you sooner Luke.
"don't use cannon to kill mosquito"


This book is the second of two volumes, which represent leading themes of current research in automorphic forms and representation theory of reductive groups over local fields. Articles in this volume mainly represent global aspects of automorphic forms. Among the topics are the trace formula; functoriality; representations of reductive groups over local fields; the relative trace formula and periods of automorphic forms; Rankin - Selberg convolutions and L-functions; and, p-adic L-functions. The articles are written by leading researchers in the field, and bring the reader, advanced graduate students and researchers alike, to the frontline of the vigorous research in these deep, vital topics. The companion volume (""Contemporary Mathematics, Volume 488"") is devoted to global aspects of automorphic forms.


The DevOps and Agile movements are putting increasing pressure on traditional approaches to IT Service Management (ITSM) as many organizations embrace new technology and become more and more cloud native.
These concepts related to the movements are all about evaluating what a business needs, how agile that business needs to be and how you apply Lean and Agile thinking to modernize ITSM. Every organization has a specific goal or business outcome which is critical to generating revenue. So, anyone working in supporting roles should understand the impact of their activities on that ultimate goal and seek to eliminate waste, including in IT.
But how readily are organizations accepting the need to move from functional to outcome-oriented activity?
Few organizations think in broad terms but, rather, are often forced by compelling events to question their current models and evaluate a better way to do what is required to support their business outcomes. Without that pressure they may not feel compelled to change, and we see this in segments of various sectors and industries rooted in "industry traditions". Many organizations moving forward with digital and cloud technologies are more likely to feel the compulsion to evolve rather than incrementally change.
In practice, two things have become increasingly more important: the need to be more agile; to react quickly to changing needs and the demand to increase velocity when delivering new technology features and functions.
This is forcing IT organizations to a reckoning point: find approaches that work better as their businesses evolve, and ensure that every organizational movement translates to energy.
This also affects the identification and elimination of waste: do you have steps slowing down your ability to deliver, and are they necessary? Do you have a series of "gates" to pass through to progress in a serial-based activity flow rather than a more lean and agile based approach where only truly necessary steps are followed?
Much of what keeps people back is F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) related to risk management and the singular belief that traditional, rote processes are a protection against risk. In the hierarchy of IT needs, isolating the business from risk was always high up. Yet, today, it's not only possible to manage risk at speed and increase velocity without the "wheels falling off", but it is necessary to perform multiple activities simultaneously and still managing business risk.
Many fear that, as we tear down the pillars of traditional ITSM, we may reintroduce risk. However, with the right approach (such as appropriate mitigation plans and proper checks and balances), you should be able to take on more risk as a trade-off to having a more agile approach that supports and grows the business. Many businesses will be in a better position to choose an acceptable level of risk for their situation in order to gain more business value. Adopting this approach means engaging the entire organizations at a more holistic level and accepting the need for difficult conversations between parts of the organization that might not normally interact.
If organizations are looking to improve ITSM, then ITIL and the components of the service lifecycle remain extremely relevant today.
When questioning how to reduce waste in systems and challenge dogma about how things should be implemented in practice, ITSM professionals should be following the spirit of ITIL's processes rather than treat it as a spiritual proclamation. You don't have to create seven meetings to agree a process but you do need to look at your practices, modernize them, eliminate waste and focus on the outcomes (and not the outputs) of the ITIL processes in the context of organizations today.
The ITIL Practitioner guidance is a very good first step in practical application of ITIL within organizations, guiding them to focus on "minimum viable process", a.k.a. implementing the fewest required processes and procedures to achieve the desired outcomes and value, while mitigating risks and reducing costs.
A good example of where we can apply Lean or Agile thinking to traditional ITSM processes is in the realm of Change Management where many organizations still manage change through a weekly "Change Control" meeting.
Meetings are often a good place to investigate if applied effort is being wasted rather than creating business value. In many companies, a weekly change control meeting is attended by an average of 20 or more people (I have witnessed change control meetings that had well over 100 attendees). The cost to a company to gather that many people on a call for an hour or more weekly can be tremendous; add the wait time that a potential change has while waiting for the next meeting and business value can often be unnecessarily delayed by weeks rather than minutes or hours.
In many cases, technology and automation can be leveraged to move the decision point from these meetings to real-time decisions by the business owners and key stakeholders of these systems.
For example, approval of changes that have a low potential risk (impact to the business), can often be delegated to system owners. The higher the potential risk, the greater the approval authority that was needed. In this dynamic, the only time meetings are needed is in the case of an emergency change, where the potential for risk is greatest. In these cases, an emergency meeting is called and all key stakeholders or their delegates are informed of the risks and approve the change as appropriate.
I have seen variations of the above approach implemented at a variety of companies. In each case, these companies had increased change velocity by an average of 30-40%, and thus increased the velocity of development and the enablement of key business functions as well. In other words, by eliminating wasteful effort, more of the organization's "potential energy" is converted to value for the business.
We are, ultimately, in the early stages of transforming to some future state ITSM model(s). There is a mounting evidence that IT needs to be more agile as business needs change. While we as an industry move towards this future, we need new ITSM support models to help achieve the accompanying velocity.
What is Agile ITSM and what does it need to be successful?
Future state ITSM (operating) models need to finally place the customer at the center of things, replacing processes, concepts and methods. Service Management (the original version created by product marketing) was all about understanding the customer, what makes them tick, what they value, what they do in pursuit of success, and how they exploit product and organizational capabilities in that pursuit.
Nothings changed. We just lost our way as IT bubble citizens... But you know this Shane - I know that.
I do like the author's point about outcomes vs outputs; but the article hardly scratches the surface. If we take the idea of outcomes to drive our view of service management - we should focus on the value stream rather than processes. For example - what about the relationship between agile delivery, technical debt and the level of incidents that affect a service. Traditionally ITIL proposes 'proactive problem management' as a mechanism for reducing incidents in a service, whereas from a lean perspective this should have already happened during development. Whilst Agile aims to reduce technical debt, in practice it may not due to the necessity for speedy delivery. Examining the service from this perspective and applying Lean will have greater potential for improvement than the change process. Looking at from this perspective the degree of change control should be inverse to the level of quality realized in the 'production line' of the service as happens in manufacturing.
Good article but disagree with the statement "the only time meetings are needed is in the case of an emergency change" because that assumes a degree of maturity on the part of the organization. Every organization is different and risk tolerance is something that cannot be flatly determined. Flexibility is key in delivering an ITIL solution to an organization.
Overall, though, many good points are raised.


text:
What is a Zombie? The Original Voodoo Undead
Zombies, ever since the original "Night of the Living Dead," have become legion in the entertainment industry. Books like "World War Z," TV series like "The Walking Dead," and the "Resident Evil" video games and movies all portray zombies in relatively the same way though. Mindless, shambling dead bodies who must prey on the flesh of the living. However, if you visit the original source material found in the Haitian religion of Voodoo, you'll find a very different monster than what you're expecting.
Voodoo zombies are in fact risen corpses, but only in the spiritual idea. The word zombi is actually the name of a spirit or deity who would, in theory at least, be induced to enter a corpse and to reanimate it with a new life force. A person is poisoned, without their knowledge, through a combination of nefarious means which may include the skins of certain species of toad along with puffer fish poison. This poison can induce a death like paralysis, at which point the person might actually be buried. Timed correctly a vodun could pull a "re-animated" zombie out of the grave and then ply that person with datura, a plant that has pain killing effects several thousand times higher than cocaine and which induces memory loss and a break with reality. Once all of this had been completed, the zombie master had someone who was psychologically bound to him that would follow commands without question and who would work until he dropped if that was the case. Voodoo zombies had no expression, no thoughts and their glassy complexion made them appear like the walking dead. Usually these zombies were sold off to plantations, or to other places where their newfound tireless work ethics would bring a high price.
These real life events were first sensationalized by anthropologists, and then the hype caught fire in Hollywood. Movies like the original "White Zombie," with Bela Lugosi (the actor famous for playing Dracula) were good examples of the feel of voodoo zombies, but as time went by that flavor changed. The misunderstanding of what voodoo is, which is to say that it was portrayed as black magic, witchcraft or outright devil worship. Many of the rituals that take place in voodoo were sensationalized, turning them into orgies of sex and bloodshed that often times involved cannibalism, which might be where the human-eating tendencies of modern zombies come from.
If you think about the origin of zombies, they might be even more terrifying than the monsters of fiction we all have to currently deal with in our nightmares. They were still impervious to fear and in large part to pain, and unstoppable wave of obediant force. But voodoo zombies were real people, who were broken and bent to the will of a left-handed vodun using nefarious means to create an army of unquestioning servants. Fact is stranger than fiction, and all that.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Terms and Conditions apply. Offers subject to availability. Images shown for illustration purposes only. Offers shown excludes any additional contributions from Evans Halshaw or Vauxhall UK. Please contact your closest Evans Halshaw Vauxhall dealer for full details. All details correct at time of publication and are subject to being withdrawn or changed without notice. Not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. Test drive subject to applicant status and availability. Retail customers only. Pendragon Motor Group Limited is a credit broker/intermediary that can introduce you to a limited number of lenders to provide funding for your vehicle. They may incentivise us for introducing you to them. Offers are only valid on 09/03/2019.
Vauxhall Network Q is one of the first manufacturer led used car buying schemes. Designed to ensure every customer is getting the best possible used Vauxhall.


text:
Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting Co.,Ltd.
Contents Sales
» Japanese
Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting Co.,Ltd. ("KBC") is a TV Asahi Corporation-affiliated broadcasting station headquartered in Fukuoka, a bustling city of 1.5 million that has served as a gateway to Asia since ancient times.
On the occasion of its 60th anniversary in August 2013, KBC announced a new slogan, "KBC: Closest to You", which is underpinned by the company's strong track record in recent years. KBC has won the trust of the local community with its radio and TV programming, various events and social action projects, and it serves as the leading broadcasting affiliate in the Kyushu-Okinawa region.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright © KBC Co.,Ltd. 1998 -


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Q: precompiledapp.config - how do I create it? I'm having a problem with a web application where the events in the global.asax class aren't being executed when I build the application through our build server and publish the website. In Application_Start is a single line of code sets up our logging, and in Application_Error I have some error handling code. Locally it all works fine, and if I copy the files directly from my development folder to the server rather than publishing it via the build server everything works fine.
From loads of Googling it would appear that this is a problem with the precompiledapp.config file being missing - sure enough it doesn't exist anywhere. However, nowhere can I find out how I actually get the TFS Build Server, or Visual Studio (2010), to create this file so that I can publish it.
Any advice on how I can generate this file would be much appreciated.
EDIT: A bit more information. I've just tried publishing the website through Visual Studio 2010 rather than the build server and this created the precompiledapp.config file. I copied all the files across to the server (except web.config which I left intact) and it logs successfully (which suggests the global.ascx events are being fired). What I need to do now is try and get the build server to do the same thing - any ideas?

A: Make sure your custom config file is set as a content file and Copy To Output is set to Always in the config file properties in Visual Studio.

A: I seem to have resolved this issue now.
As I mentioned in the Edit of my original message, when I published the website through Visual Studio 2010 to a local folder it created the Precompiledapp.config file, and copying the folder contents to the test version of the application got everything working. As I can't seem to get the TFS Build server to create this file, I decided to try just copying the file from my local publish folder to the test application, along with the rest of the files from the tfs build, and everything seems to be working as it should.
So although I've not managed to figure out how to get the build server to generate this file, my main issue is resolved and I'm able to use the global.asax file again.

A: I'm late to this question BUT you should probably verify that you have the correct SDK that visual studio would use to build the precompiled app (I think it's Azure SDK even if not doing anything with Azure but not 100% on that).
If you have visual studio installed on the build server you can just install the web workload (opening the solution will prompt it). I did this with Visual Studio 2019 today. MSBuild was ignoring not only my *.pubxml settings but even passed in properties via command line arguments to msbuild.exe (which overwrite the ones in the *.pubxml file).
I opened Visual Studio, it prompted me to install the necessary workload and I did. Everything started working as expected after that.
To precompile, in your pubxml file make sure to have this:
<PrecompileBeforePublish>True</PrecompileBeforePublish>

Also, this post refers to your Edit comment about how to get the build server to do it when it works on your machine.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The product contains out-of-specification microbial levels.
The microbial level poses virtually no risk to healthy people. However, people with severely weakened/compromised immune systems, such as those with cystic fibrosis, may be susceptible to adverse health effects.


they all hate us .
it's only so often you come across bloggers who's photos you genuinely hit like on, rather than just for the sake of it . perfection is an understatement for this duo . must admit i'm slightly infatuated with the wardrobe of Tash Sefton and Elle Ferguson from They All Hate Us .
we all know i take so many photos that i now see in squares and that i'm oddly captivated by images. both real and imagined. pictures that capture my curiousity are special primarily because i often don't know why. is it the subject? the mise en place? the composition? the colours? the textures? the graininess? or because of the feelings it may evoke?
this is the cover artwork for the 'house of balloons' mixtape by the weeknd. i came across it earlier this week while i was hanging out in my dark, den of inequity, creativity and absurdity. i can't decide whether the tunes or the image is sexier.


text:
Home Editorial Justyn Knight impressive at 2017 IAAF World Championships
World Track Champs
Justyn Knight impressive at 2017 IAAF World Championships
File photo from national cross country championships
© Copyright – 2017 – Athletics Illustrated
Toronto's Justyn Knight made a statement during the 2017 London IAAF World Track and Field Championships Saturday, where he finished in ninth place in the 5,000-metre final. It was another impressive move forward in his career.
He finished less than seven seconds behind the winner Muktar Edris of Ethiopia. Edris won in the time of 13:32.79. Knight crossed the finish line in the time of 13:39.15. The legendary Mo Farah of Great Britain was dethroned in this race finishing second in 13:33.22, while American Paul Chelimo (formerly of Kenya) earned bronze with a finish of 13:33.30. Knight was less than six seconds from medalling.
"I think the best way to describe my feelings toward this championship is happy but not satisfied," shared the Syracuse University athlete. "Finishing ninth in the world is a huge honour, however, I know that moving forward I need to expect more from myself."
The 21-year-old blossomed during his grade 11 and 12 years at St. Michael's College School, where he won the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) cross-country championships in 2013. His rise has been steady, which includes a competitive performance in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships with a 22nd place finish. His NCAA career has been nothing short of spectacular with several top-five finishes at the national championships in cross-country as well as on the track in the 3,000m and 5,000m distances.
His personal best in the 5,000m event is one of the all-time best Canadian results at 13:17.51. Only three Canadians have run faster, Cameron Levins, Jeffrey Schiebler and Mo Ahmed who currently holds the national record at 13:01.74. He also owns the Canadian 10,000m record at 27:02.35, which he set during the 2017 world championships.
Ahmed was in the race as well and finished sixth with his 13:35.43.
To have two Canadians in the top-nine is impressive and more-so by their finish times – a handful of seconds from glory. The future for Canadian distance running looks bright.
"It was a great learning experience and I can't wait to compete on the world stage again."
2017 IAAF World Championships
Justyn Knight
Previous articleJennifer Simpson's brilliant 1500m silver medal performance
Next articleGlobal Sports Communications' team finishes second to the U.S. in medals


Byram Hills guard Jen Mui drives to the basket in the Bobcats' home win over Rye.
It didn't take very long for Byram Hills sophomore guard Jennifer Mui to find redemption on Friday evening.
Just moments after missing a pair of free throws that could have sealed a Bobcat victory over visiting Rye, she delivered a huge 3-point shot to end an 11-0 Garnet run, break the tie on the scoreboard and lift her team to a thrilling 51-47 win in a key league matchup.
Mui's clutch basket rescued the Bobcats on a night they shockingly let an 11-point lead with only 2:40 left completely disappear. She had a chance to put an end to the Garnets' late comeback when she stepped to the foul line with 55 seconds to go and the Bobcats leading by four points, but misfired on both of her free-throw attempts.
That opened the door for a rare 4-point play at the other end of the court with 38 seconds on the clock by the Garnets' Bela Krslovic, whose 3-point jumper while getting fouled and subsequent free throw capped the big Rye run and tied the contest at 47 apiece.
For a good portion of the final quarter, it didn't seem as if the Bobcats would be needing any last-second heroics from Mui. They held a 37-30 advantage after three periods and their lead grew to 10 points after Mui provided three free throws in the first 64 seconds of the fourth.
When sharp-shooting forward Maggie Walsh, who finished with a game-high 21 points, drilled her fourth 3-pointer of the game, from the left corner with 4:21 remaining, the Bobcats' margin stretched to 43-32. Byram Hills built its largest lead of the night, 12 points, a minute later on a fast-break lefty layup by Beth Corelli.
But the Garnets' Amanda Latkany soon answered with a 15-foot jumper and Rye proceeded to outscore the Bobcats 13-1 over a two-and-a-half-minute stretch that nearly changed the outcome.
Krslovic hadn't scored at all until she made a 3-pointer during the Garnets' huge late spurt, trimming the Byram Hills lead to just six points with 1:40 to go. After her 4-point play, the ball wound up in the hands of Mui, who dribbled near the top of the key as the final seconds ticked off the clock. With the shot clock set to expire, Mui sent her decisive 3-pointer over the Garnets' Julia Bateman. Krslovic then misfired on a contested 3-point shot from the left wing that would have tied the game again, and Walsh sealed the Bobcat win by making one of two free throws with a second remaining.
The Bobcats had seized early control of the game when a Mui 3-pointer that broke a 5-5 tie was soon followed by another one from Walsh. Byram had an 11-7 lead after one quarter, then Walsh started the second with a spinning move toward the left baseline for a bucket. A Walsh 3-pointer from the right wing with 5:52 left in the half extended the Bobcats' edge to 16-8.
The Garnets, though, scored the last four points of the second quarter, and Greto's layup at the buzzer pulled them to within 19-16 at halftime. In the third quarter, Walsh erupted for nine points and Stefana Latella added five as the Bobcats outscored Rye 18-14.
When Rye closed to within 25-24 with 3:12 to go in the third quarter, consecutive baskets by Latella, Walsh and Corelli gave the Bobcats some breathing room again. A pair of layups by Walsh in the final minute of the period enabled Byram Hills to increase its lead to nine points.
The Bobcats, currently 13-3 and sitting atop the Conference II, League D standings, host a big showdown with Pelham on Thursday evening. Ryan can only hope to see the same kind of last-minute fortitude from her players that helped them avert a crushing loss against Rye.


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The support agents are not real superheroes - they work only from 09:00 to midnight.
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Here is an interesting thing - there are no video poker games in the lobby. We even tried to look for them with the help of the search bar, but we didn't succeed. However, on the starting page there is Jacks or Better, and if you click it, the website will ask you to log in. That we did, and guess what? Exactly, we found out nothing. Summing up, the library of games at Slot Heroes is far from perfect, though still better than at Pokies Casino - this venue has no games, it's closed.
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The variety of live games is decent - there are over 20 games waiting for you. The selection includes Casino Hold'em, Three Card Poker, variations of Baccarat, and some other games.
4 times the amount of the bonus - this is how much you can win with their welcome offer.
The third deposit - a 50% bonus up to £250.
The minimum deposit is £10, and the spins will be activated right after you'll launch Starburst. The wagering requirements are pretty high - 30 times the sum of your deposit and bonus. The winnings from the spins must be wagered 30 times, which is okay. The maximum conversion amount is capped at 4 times the sum of the bonus.
So, what can Slot Heroes Casino offer to such a cool superhero like you? A decent selection of games, nice support service, and stylish design. Not bad at all, but these guys really need to do something about their welcome bonus (the wagering requirements are too high!). That's a serious issue, so we hope they will change the conditions for the better at some point. It would also be great if they would increase their withdrawal limits and make their support 24/7. Overall, this venue slightly reminds River Belle Casino and Maxiplay Casino. If you like Slot Heroes but got tired of playing it, consider the aforementioned casinos.
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text:
News NM: NM struggles to keep drunken drivers off the road – how will it deal with drugged drivers?
NM: NM struggles to keep drunken drivers off the road – how will it deal with drugged drivers?
By Mike Gallagher, Journal Investigative Reporter
Driving under the influence of marijuana creates a challenge for New Mexico law enforcement, where DWI is already a serious problem.
"States like Washington, Colorado don't have the drunk driving issues that we have," said Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who opposes legalizing recreational marijuana.
Statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention support the argument that New Mexico has a bigger problem than those states. In 2016, New Mexico's drunken driving death rate was 4.8 per 100,000 population. The rate in Washington was 2.1, in Oregon 2.2 and Colorado 2.5 per 100,000 population.
Cervantes' concerns are echoed by Republicans including Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque, who oppose recreational marijuana legalization because, he says, it would increase the number of dangerous drivers on the road.
"Isn't the problem already bad enough?" he asked during an interview.
Marijuana use can affect brain areas that regulate balance, posture and coordination and can slow down reaction time. Alcohol also affects coordination and reaction time but also reduces attention span, vision and judgment.
Unlike alcohol, how much marijuana is needed to make a person too impaired to drive is still a subject of disagreement in the scientific community. In New Mexico, for example, a blood alcohol level of 0.08 is the level of presumed intoxication.
The science behind a similar standard for marijuana is much murkier – and there is no marijuana equivalent of a Breathalyzer test that suspected drunken drivers are required to take under the state's Informed Consent Law.
The only way to test for THC levels is through a blood test – which would require a search warrant that state law doesn't allow in a typical impaired driving case.
Even then, the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse says the role "played by marijuana in (vehicle) crashes is often unclear because it can be detected in body fluids for days or even weeks after intoxication and because people frequently combine it with alcohol."
Law enforcement agencies in Colorado and other states say crashes have increased because of people driving under the influence of marijuana and other drugs. How much of an increase is being studied. And supporters question how much of that increase is actually attributable to marijuana.
Arrests for drugged driving have also increased in states where recreational marijuana has been legalized. But how much of that increase is due to law enforcement agencies' increased training and enforcement after legalization?
An Albuquerque police spokesman didn't respond to requests for information about how many drug recognition experts APD had.
Some states have set standards for the amount of THC found in the blood test of a suspected drugged driver – similar to New Mexico's 0.08 presumed intoxication standard for alcohol.
Those states initially required drivers to submit to blood tests if they are suspected of driving while on drugs to keep a driver's license.
But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that states could not compel suspected drunken drivers to take a blood test without a search warrant because the procedure was invasive and blood evidence contains a person's genetic material – unlike a breath test for alcohol.
A year later, the state Supreme Court reiterated that and clarified that in New Mexico, police officers can obtain search warrants only in felony investigations – DWI is a misdemeanor – or if the traffic incident involves great bodily harm.
Although officers can administer a Breathalyzer in a suspected drunken driving case, if the issue is drugged driving, they have to rely on specially trained officers, called drug recognition experts, who can administer field tests to determine whether someone is under the influence.
"There are not enough State Police officers trained as drug recognition experts," said Jeremy Vaughan, president of the State Police Officers Association.
To become a drug recognition expert, an officer must have completed and passed the 24-hour National Highway and Transportation Safety Association DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Training course in all tasks. The officer should have experience in detecting and arresting DWIs to include testimony in court.
The officer must have completed the 16-hour NHTSA Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement course.
And that's before they take the drug recognition expert course.
Rehm, a retired Bernalillo County sheriff's captain, said, "This gets expensive. Even more so for smaller departments."
There is no marijuana breath test to give drivers suspected of being high.
"I know states are looking at various technological advances that would help determine if someone is under the influence while driving," said Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez. "But there haven't been any significant breakthroughs."
That leaves law enforcement with two alternatives – a blood test or a field sobriety test administered by a police officer trained as a drug recognition expert.
Emily Kaltenbach, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said legalization supporters in New Mexico have agreed to a blood THC level of impairment of 5 nanograms per milliliter – the standard adopted by several states as presumptive evidence of drugged driving.
Some European countries have set the THC blood level for impairment at 2 nanograms per milliliter. But they also have set blood alcohol levels for drunken driving at 0.05, compared with states in the U.S. that have it set at 0.08.
Some countries make a drugged driving exception for people using medical cannabis because the regular use of marijuana can result in low levels of THC in the blood for long periods without any signs of impairment.
But Kaltenbach said the science may not support whether THC blood levels have anything to do with a driver's level of impairment.
According to several government reports, smoking marijuana leads to a rapid high that can last a few hours, and THC concentrations in the bloodstream fall rapidly within a half-hour of smoking it.
But if someone eats a cannabis oil-laced candy, the THC gets into the bloodstream more slowly – and the concentrations can last longer.
"This is all pretty complicated," Vaughan said. "But we don't want to be in a position of playing catch-up. It takes money, and we're asking the Legislature to prepare for that.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace Freelancer.Web.ViewModels
{
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    {
        public int GadgetID { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Description { get; set; }
        public decimal Price { get; set; }
        public string Image { get; set; }

        public int CategoryID { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


"With Exacq VMS increasingly being placed at the heart of high security and mission critical video surveillance systems, our new Training Certification Program will enable system integrators to demonstrate they have the necessary knowledge and skills to help end-users take full advantage of Exacq's long list of innovative and practical features."
Successful completion of the Foundation, Advanced and Elite intensive training and evaluation courses, will result in system integrators being awarded exacqVision Authorised Integrator, Select Integrator or Elite Integrator level certifications.
Subject to the level achieved, the certifications will come with a wide range of other benefits which the integrator can utilise for their customers solutions including camera licences. In addition, Advanced and Elite partners will have preferential access to technical support services, marketing support and a free demonstration version of Exacq Enterprise level software.
From small applications requiring a small number of cameras, through to large, scalable projects with thousands of cameras, Exacq is designed to offer an uncomplicated, intuitive user experience.
There are currently 3,608 reasons why Exacq stands out in a crowded VMS market. The number reflects how many cameras have been successfully integrated with the Exacq platform. These cameras are produced by over 60 different manufacturers and include older generation IP network cameras, as well as the very latest open platform, ultra high definition and thermal imaging models. Each camera has been physically connected to the Exacq VMS and tested with the results published on the Exacq website. The number of cameras tested will continue to grow as and when new cameras are introduced to the market.
By proactively integrating the 3,608 cameras, Exacq has significantly reduced the time it takes to design, implement and commission a VMS solution which may involve handling images captured by a wide variety of cameras.


text:
Honda Civic named North American Car of the Year for third time by North American jury of automotive journalists
Sample article from our Automobile Industry
January 14, 2022 (press release) –
Civic wins North American Car of the Year for 3rd time—previously taking top honors in 2006 & 2016; no car has won the award more times than Civic
All-new 11th-generation Civic honored for simple and sporty design, class-leading safety performance, excellent driving dynamics and fun-to-drive personality
Civic is America's most popular vehicle with young and first-time buyers
The all-new 2022 Honda Civic, the 11th generation of America's most popular compact car, has earned the prestigious 2022 North American Car of the Year award. Civic was honored by the North American jury of automotive journalists for the third time, with the 10th-generation Civic winning in 2016 and 8th generation taking the top honor in 2006.
This marks the fourth time in the past six years that a Honda model has received a North American Car or Truck of the Year award, following the Honda Civic (2016), Honda Ridgeline (2017) and Honda Accord (2018).
"The Honda Civic has long set the standard by which other compact cars are measured and this all-new Civic raised that bar in every conceivable way," said Michael Kistemaker, assistant vice president of Honda national sales, American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "We're especially proud for the Civic development team in Japan and our production associates at our plants in Greensburg, Indiana and Alliston, Ontario where the 2022 Civic Sedan, Hatchback and Si are built."1
The North American Car, Utility and Truck of the Year awards honor excellence in innovation, design, safety features, performance, technology, driver satisfaction and value. Initiated in 1994, they are judged by 50 professional automotive journalists from the United States and Canada who work for independent magazines, television, radio, newspapers and industry websites.
Redesigned from the ground-up, the all-new Honda Civic Sedan, Hatchback and Si models feature a more rigid body structure, an advanced and enhanced chassis wrapped in a more sophisticated, sleek and sporty design with top class interior space and comfort. The drivetrain options include a high-torque VTEC® Turbo engine and a 6-speed manual transmission. The 2022 Civic also includes a host of new standard safety, driver-assistive and connected-car technologies.
Honda has produced nearly 11 million Civics in North America (more than 5 million in the U.S.), representing nearly 30 percent of our vehicle production in the region since Honda began making cars in America 1982.
About Honda
Honda offers a full line of clean, safe, fun and connected vehicles sold through more than 1,000 independent U.S. Honda dealers. Honda has the highest fleet average fuel economy and lowest CO2 emissions of any major full-line automaker in America, according to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Honda lineup includes the Civic, Insight and Accord passenger cars, along with the
HR-V, CR-V, Passport and Pilot sport utility vehicles, the Ridgeline pickup and the Odyssey minivan. Honda's electrified vehicle lineup includes the Accord Hybrid, CR-V Hybrid and Insight hybrid-electric sedan.
Honda has been producing automobiles in America for 40 years and currently operates 18 major manufacturing facilities in North America. In 2021, 95 percent of all Honda vehicles sold in the U.S. were made in North America.
More information about Honda is available in the Digital Fact Book.
More from our Automobile Industry Coverage
Honda Motor Co. Ltd.
Jason Irving
- SVP Enterprise Solutions -
We offer built-to-order automobile industry coverage for our clients. Contact us for a free consultation.


This is Concord's top auditioned ensemble for Band. Seating is limited to 1–2 people per instrumental part. Focus of this ensemble will be for excellent wind and percussion players to rehearse and perform excellent music on stage in a concert setting. The literature will focus on high school — college level band music. Performances will be evening concerts throughout the year, plus MANDATORY trips and adjudications that are scheduled.
Pre-requisites: Ability to read notes and rhythms in standard musical notation, and an audition for admittance.
Recommended: Private instrumental instruction, enrollment in the Concert, Marching or Flex Band.
This ensemble is our mid- and beginning-level groups designed for continuing Wind & Percussion instrumental students. It will focus on band literature at the high school level. This is a perfect ensemble to build playing skills as well as an opportunity for Wind Ensemble students to play more. There will be a limited number of after-school or evening concerts throughout the year. Enrollment is open to Wind & Percussionists who meet the pre-requisites below.
Pre-requisites: Ability to read notes and rhythms in standard musical notation. There will be an audition for placement in one of the two ensembles.
Recommended: Private instrumental instruction, enrollment in the Marching Band.
This ensemble is designed for continuing instrumental students wanting to play jazz music. It will focus on literature at the 9th – professional level jazz band music. This is a perfect ensemble to build playing skills as well as an opportunity for Marching Band/Wind Ensemble, Concert Band or Symphonic Band students to play more. The band will meet after-school in the Spring with evening concerts throughout the yea.
Enrollment will be based on an audition and/or recommendation by the director.
Pre-requisites: Ability to read notes and rhythms in standard musical notation. Wind and Percussionists must be a member of one other instrumental ensemble. Audition with director may be necessary.
Recommended: Private instrumental instruction, enrollment in the Marching Band/Wind Ensemble, or Concert Band course.


About MUSUBIKAN: we all came to aikido in very different ways, but in the end it brought us together in one place. Although we have different abilities, skills and talents we are connected and have a common mission: Aikido, in all its wonderful shapes and expressions. Maybe we have gathered together in deep humility to meet our personal imperfection or maybe it just feels better, if you do not have to deal with your own limitations on your own. Everybody supports everyone on this never ending way to become a better person, to shape the ego, to open the heart and connect. Musubikan means to be in full conciousness and awareness as an integrated, centered, humble and strong individuum in the here and now.
Aikido community: we are part of a wonderful Aikido connection and participate on many seminars per year, not only in Germany, also in other countries, like Greece, Bulgaria, Norway, Italy and hopefully more in future. Many Aikidokas we know became to true friends and are like family now. Aikido is the martial art of connection, deep inside, with the nature and other people. Sounds good? Then take part and enjoy!