numerical sign (#) so that it is ignored by the program.
* brlport= : serial port to which the brailledisplay is connected, e.
g. /dev/ttyS0 for com1, /dev/ttyS1 for com2 etc.
Apollo2. If mbrola4sbl is used set spkname to mbrola.
* spkport= : seriel port to which the speech is connected, e. g.
/tmp/sbl.log, x = 2 is very verbose.
recompiled to use the sniffer.
brailledisplay. x specifies the value and must be bigger than 0.
used, e.g. german for German or us for American English.
changing. x must be bigger than 0.
profiles to which you can change manualy.


text:
ΑΛΗΘΩΣ
Is Mahmoud Abbas serious about cancelling Oslo Accords?
October 5, 2015 Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video	| Gaza, Human rights, Israel, Jerusalem, Palestine, West Bank, Zionism | Leave a comment
'We Hope This Information Has Been Helpful'
By Brett Max Kaufman | ACLU | October 2, 2015
The ACLU's long-running effort to shed light on the government's "targeted killing" program has had its share of breakthroughs — most importantly, the Second Circuit Appeals Court's release of a July 2010 Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memorandum laying out the purported legal justification for the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen.
But while we've been at it for more than half a decade, the government continues to stonewall. For years in our Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, the government claimed that it could not even "confirm or deny" the existence of records related to the program — a program that was, even then, openly discussed in the media, in the halls of Congress, and in government officials' formal speeches. Then the government refused to identify or release records that the courts finally forced it to admit it had.
Today, that — um — changed.
This morning, the ACLU actually received a responsive targeted-killing record from the government. It sums up the government's current stance with respect to disclosures relating to the program.
Eight pages completely redacted, with this at the end:
How's that for "helpful"?
October 5, 2015 Posted by aletho | Civil Liberties, Deception, Timeless or most popular	| Human rights, United States | Leave a comment
Misrepresentation of the Colombian Conflict
By Matt Peppe | Just the Facts | October 4, 2015
A week and a half ago news emerged from Havana that the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the Colombian government had reached a framework for a final peace agreement to be signed within six months. This was hailed as a breakthrough in the half-century-old conflict and an opportunity to bring peace to the people of Colombia. But by adopting the government's narrative, mainstream media have failed to recognize the primary cause of the violence and the inevitability that it will continue in the future.
The decades-long policy of the Colombian government has been a national security strategy of counterinsurgency, developed in the late 1950s under the sponsorship of the US military. The goal of the US government was to maintain a business-friendly political system that would implement economic policies amenable to multinational corporations and foreign capital. Resistance to such policies was deemed subversion, and people who sympathized with such resistance were branded as internal enemies to be eliminated or neutralized by military means.
The narrative of the national security doctrine holds that if the insurgent threat is eliminated, then peace will be restored. The implicit assumption is that the FARC rebels have always been the side standing in the way of peace. According to this interpretation, when the FARC initiated their military operations the state was acting for the benefit of the nation as a whole by organizing a counter response.
But this narrative is historically inaccurate. The Colombian conflict is not a battle of society at large against a group of guerillas, but a battle of a small group of elites controlling the state apparatus against the majority of the population.
"As in many other Latin American countries, we can find the seeds of present-day social inequality and strife in the concentration of Colombia's land and resources under the control of a tiny minority, matched by the progressive dispossession of the majority of people, which originated with colonialism in the sixteenth century," explains Jasmin Hristov in her book Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia. [1]
After the FARC developed as the armed wing of the Communist Party in Colombia, the counterinsurgency doctrine – developed by the US military and codified in manuals distributed as early as the 1960s – taught the US's Colombian counterparts to view any advocacy for social justice or democratic reform as a form of Communist insurgency. In addition to armed rebels, clergy, academics, labor leaders, human rights workers, and other members of civil society became potential insurgent targets.
To further extend their reach into Colombian society, the government legally authorized paramilitarism in 1965 with Plan Lazlo to form "civilian defense forces" armed and incorporated into the Colombian military system. [2] These forces serve the government's goal of preserving the status quo by carrying out their dirty work through the use of death squads, assassinations, torture, intimidation and disappearances while providing cover and the appearance of distance from the state itself.
The Colombian conflict cannot be understood without recognizing the true nature of the actors involved and the interests they represent. "The paramilitary has never been, and is even less so now, a third actor (the state and the guerillas being the other two), as portrayed in mainstream security discourses," writes Hristov. [3]
Writing in the New York Times after the peace agreement was announced, Ernesto Londoño declared the "three-way fight among guerilla factions, government forces and right-wing paramilitary bands that often acted as proxies for the state had killed more than 220,000 people and displaced an estimated 5.7 million."
Dan Kovalik, Professor of International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, disputes the notion that paramilitaries merely occasionally serve as proxies: "It is impossible to talk about the paramilitaries as separate from the Colombian state, for the Colombian state helped create the paramilitaries, and human rights groups have concluded year after year that the state has provided them with weapons, logistical support and has carried out joint operations with them, Even federal courts confronted with this questions under the Alien Tort Claims Act have concluded that the paramilitaries are sufficiently integrated with the state that their misdeeds constitute state action."
Aside from inaccurately describing the fighting, Londoño's statement uses statistics about the cumulative violence without describing who holds responsibility for the deaths and displacements. Later in his editorial, Londoño implicitly blames the FARC for the majority of the violence: "Dozens of victims traveled to Havana to speak about abuses they endured at the hands of the guerilla leaders. Some implicated government forces in brutal acts… The special war tribunals the government intends to start adjudicating crimes will be dismissed as kangaroo courts by those who would have favored a military defeat of the FARC."
If one accepts the national security narrative that most violence by the government amounts to collateral damage as a result of reaction to insurgent aggression, then guerillas would be responsible for the majority of deaths and injuries. But this is hardly the case.
Kovalik notes that "human rights groups have consistently concluded that the Colombian state and its paramilitary allies commit the lion's share of the human rights violations in that country – in the worst years, at least 80% of the abuses can be attributed to these forces."
US Government Intervention and Plan Colombia
Londoño also credits US policy with providing the impetus to achieving peace: "Washington's forceful intervention in the war, an intervention that began in the late 1990s, enabled the Colombian government to weaken the FARC and ultimately set the stage for peace negotiations."
Washington's counterinsurgency policy is seen not only as an instrument for peace, but as the primary factor enabling its achievement. This is stunning historical revisionism that portrays the instigator and sponsor of massive violence that has lasted decades as an honest broker for ending this violence.
In reality, Washington's intervention began 40 years earlier than Londoño claims, and it created the war that has raged ever since. By any objective measure, US policy in Colombia has been an abject failure. Under US direction, funding and training, the Colombian state has had one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere. Many human rights organizations attest to this, and have demanded an end to US military aid to Colombia.
"Year after year US policy has ignored the evidence and the cries of the United Nations, Colombian and international non-governmental organizations and the people of Colombia. Plan Colombia is a failure in every respect and human rights in Colombia will not improve until there is a fundamental shift in US foreign policy," writes Amnesty International USA.
A Human Rights Watch report declared that: "all international security assistance should be conditioned on explicit actions by the Colombian Government to sever links, at all levels, between the Colombian military and paramilitary groups. Abuses directly attributed to members of the Colombian military have decreased in recent years, but over the same period the number and scale of abuses attributed to paramilitary groups operating with the military's acquiescence or open support have skyrocketed."
Bogotá professor and historian Renán Vega Cantor, in a study of U.S. involvement in Colombia, writes that: "State terrorism that has been perpetual in Colombia since the end of the 1940s feeds off the military support and financing of the United States, as much as the interests of the dominant Creole classes, to preserve their wealth and power and deny the fulfillment of elemental economic and social reforms that are redistributive."
What the New York Times and the mainstream media miss in their analysis is that the current neoliberal Colombian sociopolitical system necessitates the continuance of violence to accommodate capital.
"The guerilla was not the cause of the Colombian conflict but rather one of its symptoms, and simultaneously became a contributing factor in the sense that its very existence has provided the ideological substance for the pretext and justification behind state-sanctioned violence and militarization, Thus unfortunately the presence of the guerilla has been used by the powerful to legitimate the onslaught on social forces that challenge the power of the dominant classes," writes Hristov in her latest book, Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism: Violent Systems of Capital Accumulation in Colombia and Beyond. [4]
Hristov says that in order for the government to meet FARC's demands, they would have to invest in social programs at the expense of the military-security apparatus currently in place. But since these systems serve the neoliberal economic restructuring that funnels land and resources from the masses to the tiny elite minority, it would be naive to assume this will happen.
"Even in a post-FARC era the state would always have a pretext, such as BACRIM [criminal bands with roots in nominally disarmed paramilitary groups] or the existence of other guerilla groups, to maintain its high level of militarization," Hristov writes. [5]
The portrayal of the Colombian conflict in the New York Times and other mainstream media replicates state propaganda, in the form of the national security doctrine, while failing to account for the inherent violence of the economic system in Colombia that has driven the perpetual militarism and coercion in the country.
While any agreement offering the prospect of decreased bloodshed is encouraging, the fact that the Colombian state continues to abide by the Washington Consensus and its neoliberal socioeconomic model sadly signifies that the country is inevitably headed for continued violence, dispossession, and suffering by the vast majority of the population.
When the Colombian government and the western media recognize that Washington intervention exacerbates the violence, rather than helps minimize it, then possibly Colombia can begin to extricate itself and pursue a course that will enable the Colombian people to achieve lasting peace and social justice.
[1] Hristov, Jasmin. Blood and Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia. Ohio University Press; 1 edition, 2009. Kindle edition.
[4] Hristov, Jasmin. Paramilitarism and Neoliberalism: Violent Systems of Capital Accumulation in Colombia and Beyond. London: Pluto Press, 2014. (pg. 153)
[5] Hristov, 2014 (pg. 157)
Matt Peppe writes about politics, U.S. foreign policy and Latin America on his blog. You can follow him on twitter.
October 5, 2015 Posted by aletho | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering	| Colombia, FARC, Latin America, Plan Colombia, United States | Leave a comment
Afghan Doctor Slaughter Pulls Back Curtain
By Nicolas J S Davies | Consortium News | October 4, 2015
On Dec. 26, 2009, a U.S. Special Operations team flew from Kabul to Ghazi Khan village in the Narang district of Kunar province. They attacked three houses, where they killed two adults and eight children. Seven of the children were handcuffed before they were shot. The youngest was 11 or 12, three more were 12, and one was 15. Both the United Nations and the Afghan government conducted investigations and confirmed all the details of the attack.
U.S. officials conducted their own inquiry, but no report was published and no U.S. military or civilian officials were held accountable. Finally, more than five years later, a New York Times report on Joint Special Operations Command's (JSOC) Seal Team 6 named it as the U.S. force involved. But JSOC operations are officially secret and, to all practical purposes, immune from accountability. As a senior U.S. officer told the Times, "JSOC investigates JSOC, that's part of the problem."
Accountability for the U.S. attack on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz on Saturday, killing at least 22 people, is likely to be just as elusive. The bilateral security agreement that President Karzai refused to sign, but which President Ghani signed in September 2014, provides total immunity from Afghan law for U.S. forces and officials. So whoever should be held legally responsible for the massacre at the hospital will only be subject to accountability under U.S. military and civilian legal systems, which routinely fail to prosecute anyone for similar war crimes.
What makes this attack unique is not that U.S.-led forces attacked a hospital or killed civilians, but that, for the first time in many years, a Western NGO found itself operating behind enemy lines in territory controlled by Anti-Coalition Forces (ACF) or Taliban. Doctors Without Borders (or MSF for its French initials) thus found itself subject to U.S. rules of engagement under which Afghans have lived and died in their thousands for the past 14 years, effectively excluded from the protections formally guaranteed to civilians, the wounded and medical facilities by the Geneva Conventions.
While UN officials have condemned the attack on MSF in Kunduz, the UN itself has been complicit in the under-reporting of civilian casualties in ACF-held territory in Afghanistan. The UN has issued reports on civilian casualties based only on the small number of civilian deaths that it has fully investigated. When Western officials and media have cited these numbers as estimates of total civilian deaths in Afghanistan, the UN has failed to correct that misleading and dangerous impression.
For instance, when the UN documented 80 civilian killings in U.S. night raids in 2010, this was based on completed investigations of only 13 of the 73 incidents reported to the UN that year. Nader Nadery of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, who worked on the UN report, estimated that 420 civilians were killed in all 73 incidents.
But Nadery still failed to make it clear that these 73 incidents were only the ones reported to the UN, which had little or no access to ACF-held areas that were targeted by thousands of U.S. night raids and the bulk of 5,100 U.S. air strikes in 2010. U.S. officials and the Western media have used these absurdly low estimates of civilian casualties in Afghanistan to whitewash the deadly effects of 60,000 U.S. air strikes and thousands of special forces night raids over the past 14 years.
'War Is Not Pretty'
As a former U.S. Navy Seal told the New York Times, "War is not this pretty thing the United States has come to believe it to be." But it is not really "the United States" that has come to see war as a "pretty thing." Rather it is our leaders who have targeted the American public with propaganda or "Stratcom" – "strategic communications" — to disguise the horrific reality of war, while providing JSOC and other U.S. forces with secrecy and legal cover to systematically violate the Geneva Conventions.
As retired Admiral James Stavridis told the Times, "If you want these forces to do things that occasionally bend the rules of international law, you certainly don't want that out in public."
While U.S. forces feel free to disregard the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, the People On War survey conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) found that ordinary people in war-torn countries like Afghanistan hold strongly to the international legal conventions that are supposed to protect them.
This ICRC report did find the United States exceptional, not in believing war to be "pretty," but in its failure to educate its people and its soldiers about the Geneva Conventions and the protections they guarantee to civilians in wartime.
While three-quarters of people in other developed countries knew that soldiers in war "must attack only other combatants and leave civilians alone," only 52 percent of Americans were aware of this basic principle of military law. Twice as many Americans as people in other countries subscribed to an erroneous and lower legal standard that military operations should only "avoid civilians as much as possible."
The ICRC concluded that, "Across a wide range of questions, in fact, American attitudes towards attacks on civilians were much more lax."
U.S. officials claim that their air strikes are carefully designed and vetted by military lawyers and planners to ensure minimum "collateral damage," but William Arkin discovered a dirty little secret about this process when he was invited to observe an attack on an alleged ACF leader in Afghanistan from the safety of the U.S. Combined Air and Space Operations Center in Qatar.
Arkin watched on a large TV screen as A-10 Warthog planes dropped two 500-pound bombs on a convoy of vehicles. U.S. officials explained that 1,000-pound bombs would have caused more casualties, while 150-pound Hellfire missiles might have missed their target, so the 500-pound bombs were carefully chosen to kill the target without causing unnecessary casualties.
But then one of the planes did something unexpected. It turned to make a second pass and blanketed the whole area with 30mm armor-piercing shells from its Gatling gun, which fires 65 shells per second. A "precision strike" had just turned into an indiscriminate massacre. A U.S. official quickly told Arkin that this was "not unauthorized."
The dirty little secret Arkin had discovered was that, once such an operation is under way, special forces ground controllers in the area take full control, and the plans drawn up by lawyers and controllers far from the action no longer apply. Similar rules may have applied to the U.S. air strikes on the MSF hospital in Kunduz, making it difficult for anyone in Washington or Kabul to stop them once they were under way.
Erroneous Raids
Senior U.S. military officers have told Dana Priest of the Washington Post that more than 50 percent of U.S. special forces night raids target the wrong person or house. But that didn't stop President Obama making them a central tactic in his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, boosting the number of night raids from 20 raids in May 2009 to 1,000 per month a year later.
There is no reason to believe that U.S. air strikes are more accurate or based on better intelligence than night raids by special operations forces. British military adviser Kamal Alam explained to the BBC last Friday that Russian air strikes in Syria are likely to be more accurate than U.S. ones because they have the critical advantage of being guided by Syrian military intelligence on the ground.
Alam noted that even the Iraqi government depends on Syrian military intelligence in its campaign against the Islamic State, and added that this is a source of embarrassment to U.S. officials, who have no such human intelligence capabilities in Syria or Iraq.
Maybe the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz will force more Americans to confront the ugly reality of the devastating air war our country has waged across half a dozen countries for 14 years. [See Consortiumnews.com's "America's Endless Air Wars."]
Whether any institution can succeed in holding U.S. officials legally accountable for the bombing of the MSF hospital or not, it may finally bring home the horrors and the indiscriminate nature of our country's endless air war to millions of Americans. U.S. propaganda will try to portray this as a tragic isolated incident. It is not. It is a war crime, and only the latest in a 14-year-long policy of systematic war crimes.
Nicolas J S Davies is the author of Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. He also wrote the chapters on "Obama at War" in Grading the 44th President: a Report Card on Barack Obama's First Term as a Progressive Leader.
October 5, 2015 Posted by aletho | Deception, Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes	| Afghanistan, JSOC, New York Times, UN, USA, USAF | Leave a comment
Syrian Army Invites Terrorists to Surrender Before Major Operation
Sputnik – 05.10.2015
Syrian air force helicopters dropped leaflets in the south of Hama province, inviting terrorists to surrender and warning civilians about the beginning of a major military operation.
Agitational leaflets were dropped on the territories of Rastan and Talbiseh settlements, currently controlled by Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra militants, RIA Novosti reported.
There were two types of dispersed leaflets. One contained a detailed instruction on how to behave when approaching Syrian troops' checkpoints and urged civilians to leave their homes on the threshold of a forthcoming military operation.
"With this leaflet you are allowed to safely pass Syrian Arab Army checkpoints," the leaflet for civilians said. "The army will provide food supplies and medical assistance. Cooperate with the Syrian army and leave the war zone for the sake of your own lives."
In the other leaflet, Syrian citizens who took sides with terrorists were offered to surrender their arms and give up confrontation with the army.
"The future is in front of you, and this is your chance to return to your motherland's embrace," it said. "Use this chance before it is too late. Lay down arms just like hundreds did before you. The government will take care of you and welcome your return."
The Syrian Army is preparing for a major anti-terrorist operation in the south of Hama province, including the settlements of Rastan and Talbiseh, currently controlled by extremists.
The primary goal of the Syrian leadership is to secure a route between the towns of Homs and Hama. The towns are fully controlled by government forces, but settlements between them are considered the main stronghold of terrorists, including ISIL, in this part of Syria.
October 5, 2015 Posted by aletho | Aletho News	| Al-Nusra, ISIL, Syria | 1 Comment
I Wish Nobody Was Bombing Syria
By Ron Paul | October 5, 2015
The US regime change policy for Syria has been a catastrophe. More than 200,000 killed and an entire country reduced to rubble at least partly because President Obama decided that "Assad has lost his legitimacy." How is it that the president of a country 6,000 miles away has the authority to decide whether another leader belongs in office or not? What if Rouhani in Iran decided that Obama had lost his legitimacy for killing a number of American citizens by drone without charge or trial? Would we accept that?
At least three years of US efforts to train rebels to overthrow the Syrian government has produced, as General Lloyd Austin, Commander of US Central Command, testified last month, "four or five" trained and vetted "moderates" in Syria. The $500 million appropriated for this purpose has disappeared.
The neocon solution to this failure to overthrow Assad and "degrade and destroy" ISIS is to increase the bombing and lead a ground invasion of Syria. The confusing policy of fighting Assad and also fighting his enemies does not seem to bother the neocons. They want us to forget all about their recent failures in Libya and Iraq and to try the same failed strategy one more time.
But something dramatic happened last week. Russian president Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the United Nations criticizing the US policy of partnering with one set of extremists – al-Qaeda and its allies – to attack both ISIS and Assad. "Do you realize now what you have done?" asked Putin.
Shortly after Putin's UN speech, he requested and was granted authority from the Russian parliament to use force in Syria in response to the Syrian government's request for assistance against the rebels. Russian fighters and bombers began flying sorties over Syria almost immediately. In less than a week of Russian bombing, considerable damage appears to have been done to both ISIS and to al-Qaeda affiliates – some of which are considered allies by the US and were actually trained by the CIA.
It may be tempting to cheer Russian military action in Syria, as it seems ISIS is finally suffering some considerable losses. Press reports suggest large numbers of desertions in their ranks after the Russian attacks. All of a sudden what looked to be an inevitable ISIS takeover of Syria once Assad was overthrown, seems far less likely with the Russians on the scene.
But I cannot cheer the bombs, whether they are Russian bombs or US bombs or French or British bombs. I do not believe a terrorist group created by foreign intervention in the region will be solved by more foreign intervention in the region. Bombs represent a total failure of policy. They destroy a country's economy and infrastructure.
I wish the American people would finally demand that their government end its destructive policy of trying to change any regime that does not bow to Washington's demands. I wish Congress respected our Constitution enough to demand that the president seek a declaration of war before attacking a foreign country. I wish President Bush and his neocon advisors had never decided to overthrow the Syrian government. I wish President Obama had fired the neocons who led him from one foolish intervention to another. I wish the CIA had not trained rebels to fight alongside al-Qaeda in Syria. I wish we would reject the shrill cries of the warmongers. I wish the US media was more than just a propaganda arm of the US government.
I am not thrilled that Russia is bombing Syria. I wish nobody was bombing Syria.
October 5, 2015 Posted by aletho | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite	| Russia, Syria, United States | 1 Comment
PROFESSOR SUCHARIT BHAKDI INTERVIEWED BY WILLEM ENGEL
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Unsealed docs: Clinton was on 'pedophile island' w/ 'young girls' & cite Epstein saying former president 'owed him favor'
RT | July 31, 2020
Newly unsealed files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case imply that former US President Bill Clinton visited the investor's private island along with "young girls," and that the FBI knew well about the minors' abuse.
Comprising hundreds of pages of documents, the trove was released on Thursday night following a judge's order last week to have it unsealed, over the objections of Ghislaine Maxwell, a former girlfriend to Epstein who has recently been charged as an accomplice in his alleged sex-trafficking operation.
The records stem from a 2015 defamation suit filed by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, which was placed under lock and key after the case was settled in 2017, but was recently unsealed, as a result of a lawsuit brought last year by conservative blogger Mike Cernovich and the Miami Herald newspaper.
Among other revelations, the documents indicate that former US president Bill Clinton consorted with "young girls" during at least one visit to Epstein's private resort in the Virgin Islands, where the billionaire was said to host regular "sex orgies."… continue
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Three Mile Island, Global Warming and the CIA
By Aletho News | January 9, 2012
There appears to be something about launching bombs or missiles from afar onto cities and people that appeals to American military and political leaders. In part it has to do with a conscious desire to not risk American lives in ground combat. And in part, perhaps not entirely conscious, it has to do with not wishing to look upon the gory remains of the victims, allowing American GIs and TV viewers at home to cling to their warm fuzzy feelings about themselves, their government, and their marvelous "family values". Washington officials are careful to distinguish between the explosives the US drops from the sky and "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD), which only the officially-designated enemies (ODE) are depraved enough to use. The US government speaks sternly of WMD, defining them as nuclear, chemical and biological in nature, and "indiscriminate" (meaning their use can't be limited to military objectives), as opposed to the likes of American "precision" cruise missiles. This is indeed a shaky semantic leg to stand on, given the well-known extremely extensive damage to non-military targets, including numerous residences, schools and hospitals, even from American "smart" bombs, in almost all of the bombings listed below.
Moreover, Washington does not apply the term "weapons of mass destruction" to other weapons the US has regularly used, such as depleted uranium and cluster bombs, which can be, and often are, highly indiscriminate. … continue
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Erich Thummer (* 16. Dezember 1930 in Hart im Zillertal; † 7. April 2022) war ein österreichischer Klassischer Philologe.

Leben
Erich Thummer besuchte das Bischöfliche Gymnasium Paulinum in Schwaz in Tirol. Ab 1950 studierte er Klassische Philologie an der Universität Innsbruck (bei Karl Jax und Robert Muth). Am 17. November 1954 legte er die Lehramtsprüfung in den Fächern Griechisch und Latein ab, am 25. Mai 1957 wurde er mit der Dissertation Die Religiosität Pindars promoviert. Im Sommersemester 1957 vertiefte er seine Studien an der Universität Wien. Nachdem er 1957/1958 als Lehrbeauftragter am Seminar für Klassische Philologie gewirkt hatte, wurde er am 1. September 1958 zum Assistenten ernannt. Von 1963 bis 1964 forschte er am Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C.

Mit einer kommentierten zweisprachigen Edition der isthmischen Oden Pindars habilitierte sich Thummer 1968 in Innsbruck. Am 17. Juli 1968 erhielt er eine Dozentur für Klassische Philologie. Am 14. Februar 1973 wurde er zum außerordentlichen Professor für Klassische Philologie ernannt. Ab 1996 war er im Ruhestand. Er starb im April 2022 im Alter von 91 Jahren.

Literatur
 Robert Muth: Die Habilitationen aus Klassischer Philologie an der Universität Innsbruck. In: Acta philologica Aenipontana. Band 4 (1979), S. 7–21 (zu Thummer besonders S. 21)

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Altphilologe (20. Jahrhundert)
Hochschullehrer (Universität Innsbruck)
Österreicher
Geboren 1930
Gestorben 2022
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
CN Announces 20 Percent Rise in its Quarterly Cash Dividend
MONTREAL, Jan. 26, 2016 - CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a 20 per cent increase in the Company's quarterly cash dividend. With this increase, CN's dividend on an annualized basis is C$1.50 per common share.
In a press release, Luc Jobin, CN executive vice-president and chief financial officer, said: "We are pleased to uphold our track record of consistently returning cash to shareholders. This dividend increase is testimony to our confidence in the strong cash flow generation capacity of CN throughout business cycles, and reaffirms our objective of gradually increasing the dividend payout ratio toward 35 per cent."
A quarterly dividend of thirty-seven-and-one-half cents (C$0.375) per common share will be paid on March 31, 2016, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 10, 2016.
Including today's announcement, CN has declared annual increases to its dividend 20 consecutive times, averaging 17 per cent per year, since its initial public offering of shares in 1995.
Certain information included in this news release constitutes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and under Canadian securities laws. CN cautions that, by their nature, these forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are subject to our board's discretion in respect of the declaration of dividends. The Company cautions that its assumptions may not materialize and that current economic conditions render such assumptions, although reasonable at the time they were made, subject to greater uncertainty. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results or performance of the Company or the rail industry to be materially different from the outlook or any future results or performance implied by such statements.
Important risk factors that could affect the above forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic and business conditions, industry competition, inflation, currency and interest rate fluctuations, changes in fuel prices, legislative and/or regulatory developments, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, actions by regulators, various events which could disrupt operations, including natural events such as severe weather, droughts, floods and earthquakes, labor negotiations and disruptions, environmental claims, uncertainties of investigations, proceedings or other types of claims and litigation, risks and liabilities arising from derailments, and other risks and assumptions detailed from time to time in reports filed by CN with securities regulators in Canada and the United States. Reference should be made to "Management's Discussion and Analysis" in CN's annual and interim reports, Annual Information Form and Form 40-F filed with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators, available on CN's website, for a summary of major risks and assumptions.
CN assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect future events, changes in circumstances, or changes in beliefs, unless required by applicable Canadian securities laws. In the event CN does update any forward-looking statement, no inference should be made that CN will make additional updates with respect to that statement, related matters, or any other forward-looking statement.
CN's team consists of approximately 25,000 railroaders transports more than C$250 billion worth of goods annually for a wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource products to manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail network of approximately 20,000 route-miles spanning Canada and mid-America. CN – Canadian National Railway Company, along with its operating railway subsidiaries – serves the cities and ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. For more information about CN, visit the Company's website at www.cn.ca.
SOURCE CN
CP-NS combination will ease congestion in key Chicago rail hub, CP argues in white paper
CALGARY, Jan. 20, 2015 - Canadian Pacific (TSX: CP) (NYSE: CP) today released a white paper showing how CP's proposed combination with Norfolk Southern Corp. (NS) will alleviate congestion in the key rail hub of Chicago.
The full text of the white paper, The Opportunity to Alleviate Congestion in Chicago, is below. A PDF version can be downloaded at: http://www.cpr.ca/en/investors.
The Opportunity to Alleviate Congestion in Chicago
The status quo is not an option for North American rail
Canadian Pacific (CP) has proposed a transformational merger with Norfolk Southern Corp. (NS) that would enhance competition and create new markets and options for customers across North America. This transaction would also alleviate congestion in the key rail hub of Chicago, where gridlock in the winter of 2013-14 hobbled the industry for months and threatened to hinder the U.S. economic recovery.
A CP-NS combined network would have a meaningful, lasting impact on Chicago congestion for the clear benefit of customers, competitors and the broader economy. A CP-NS combination would reduce congestion and create capacity in Chicago by:
- Providing options to shift traffic to alternative routings, which would also serve to relieve pressure across the network.
- Making operational improvements to a switching carrier and moving processing interchanges within Chicago to underutilized hubs outside the city.
- Identifying a number of other opportunities for operational improvements in train and routing management.
Chicago is a Capacity-Constrained Major Railway Hub
Chicago is the most critical freight hub within North America's rail system where the threat of gridlock is constant and rooted in the status quo. In 2014, roughly 25 percent of all rail freight traffic traveled through Chicago1 where six major Class I freight railroads connect. According to the recently released Amtrak Chicago Gateway Blue Ribbon Panel Report, Chicago is also "the most important hub in Amtrak's national network."2 Additionally, more than 700 weekday Metra commuter rail trains operate in the Chicago area.3
Today, this hub is a chokepoint for rail freight and passenger traffic as capacity in the region is constrained. On a good day, it takes a train on average "30 hours to get through Chicago – about the same amount of time it takes the same train to travel from Chicago to the East Coast."4 But, in this constrained environment, surges in freight volumes, severe weather and other adverse events can quickly lead to significant disruption and that disruption can impact the national economy.
We learned this lesson in the winter of 2013-2014 when a bumper grain crop and prolonged, extreme weather conditions collided to create gridlock that impacted the entire North American rail system for several months. With freight volumes expected to double by 20255, this is a problem that must be addressed now. Otherwise, "the next Chicago rail crisis is inevitable."6 The Amtrak Blue Ribbon Panel issued a call to action with a stark warning:
"If aggressive action is not taken now to address what may well be our country's most significant transportation bottleneck, the adverse national, regional and local impacts on passenger and freight rail transportation, and on the economy, will be enormous."7
No Easy Fix
There is neither an easy nor inexpensive fix. With so many stakeholders, it is difficult to gain alignment and reach consensus on improvement initiatives, especially since most solutions are costly, complicated and impact different stakeholders in different ways. Despite best efforts to address congestion in Chicago, programs such as the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE), have fallen far short. Among other problems, CREATE lacks funding.8 Even fully funded, CREATE on its own cannot do enough to avert future gridlock. Much more must be done.
CP is Focused on Improving Chicago
In 2014, approximately 22 percent of all CP's traffic traveled through Chicago, and roughly 47 percent of all of CP's interchange traffic interchanged in the city. Even when things are functioning smoothly in Chicago, it serves as a chokepoint. Shippers have complained that it takes 48 hours for a train to get from LA to Chicago and then another 30 hours to travel across the city.9 The time to get through Chicago translates into higher inventory and equipment costs for the entire supply chain, and additional delays due to surge volumes or inclement weather can substantially increase these negative impacts and costs. Consequently, when problems arise in Chicago, as they did in 2013-14, customers across the network pay a higher price. The importance of a fluid Chicago to the North American rail industry as a whole, means it is critical to be proactive in finding solutions before the next significant gridlock situation occurs.
As delays occur, customers typically will request additional cars to make up for the slower cycle times.10 However, adding more cars is often the wrong thing to do. It is like adding cars to a highway during rush hour: It exacerbates the congestion and prolongs the disruption.
A CP-NS combination provides both the flexibility to avoid Chicago and the ability to improve operations in Chicago, which will be of enormous benefit to CP and NS customers. A more efficient Chicago lowers costs, improves service, and in turn, enables our customers to be more productive and more competitive.
Positive Impact of Transaction Encompasses More Than CP-NS
A CP-NS combination would also have a much broader impact by opening up capacity for other carriers and improving operational efficiency within Chicago. Furthermore, even if some carriers continue to insist on a Chicago interchange, notwithstanding the alternative locations that a CP-NS combination makes possible, the option to shift traffic to these alternative routings temporarily provides a critical safety valve that can relieve pressure across the network. As a result, the national rail network would be more robust and resilient.
Claims that a CP-NS combination would have a minimal impact on Chicago or even exacerbate the problem are unfounded. While CP does not yet have access to relevant NS data to evaluate the full magnitude of the impact a merger could have on Chicago, preliminary analysis shows that it is substantial and positive. In the North American rail industry, there is complete agreement on the need to reduce, not add to, the more than 13.5 million rail cars that pass through Chicago annually. A CP-NS combination would be a positive step forward in reducing this traffic and alleviating congestion in Chicago.
However, the impact on Chicago of a CP-NS combination is not just about current NS and CP traffic in isolation. Both railways interchange with other railways in the city and a combined network allows both run-through and bypass options for this other traffic, thereby removing processing and duplicate interchanges within the city.
Direct routes from eastern Canada and the northeast U.S. to Kansas City or St. Louis and intermediate interchanges open up new scenarios and reduce dependency on Chicago. Thus, we are confident that once we are able to review NS data, we will be able to identify even more opportunities to unlock additional capacity in Chicago.
Bypass Congested Chicago Yards on the Belt Railway of Chicago (BRC) and Indiana Harbor Belt (IHB) Railway
BRC and IHB act as the middle men in Chicago for rail freight. The interchange between Class I's of a substantial amount of Chicago traffic is handled by these two railroads, which operate on capacity-constrained routes and yards. A combined CP-NS entity will be the majority owner of the IHB, which would put it in a position to make much needed improvements in the operational efficiency of this switching carrier while ensuring that IHB switches all carriers on a neutral and non-discriminatory basis. Further, rather than stopping in BRC and IHB yards for processing, a combined CP-NS will be able to build trains elsewhere and bypass yards in Chicago for interchange with other Class I railroads at underutilized hubs outside of Chicago. This reduces congestion and creates much needed capacity for all carriers on the BRC and IHB.
Specific Opportunities to Alleviate Congestion in Chicago
CP has identified the following opportunities in the combined network that would help reduce congestion in Chicago and expects to identify additional opportunities once it obtains access to NS data:
Manifest Trains
A "manifest" train is made up of cars, or blocks of cars, with multiple origins and/or destinations. Manifest trains require a considerable amount of switching as cars from multiple origins must be assembled together in blocks by destination, and those blocks must then be joined with other cars or blocks of cars headed in the same direction to form a train. Today, much of the blocking of CP's manifest traffic is performed at CP's Bensenville Yard in Chicago and interchanged over the BRC. With a CP-NS combination, CP could capitalize on blocking activities performed at NS' Yard in Elkhart, IN. Current CP traffic could be added to manifest trains that could then run straight through or bypass Chicago entirely. Blocking for westbound traffic that CP currently interchanges with other western carriers could similarly shift to Elkhart and run through or avoid Chicago. For example, CP could block traffic from eastern Canada and northeast U.S. into Elkhart, adding to manifest trains that operate into Union Pacific's (UP) yards at North Platte, NE, Proviso, IL and Pine Bluff, AR.
Automotive Trains
CP serves automotive plants in Ontario and must interchange much of this traffic in Chicago. Loaded automotive racks (rail cars used to move automobiles), from the plants headed west are interchanged in Chicago with either the UP or Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). When an automotive customer requests empty automotive racks, CP gets the majority of those racks from other carriers in Chicago. A CP-NS combination would provide the option to interchange loaded traffic at St. Louis, Kansas City, and at intermediate interchanges south of Chicago. In addition, it would allow for sourcing of empty automobile racks from locations other than Chicago, enabling more efficient and reliable handling and routing of this equipment, while reducing congestion in Chicago.
Intermodal Trains
CP has two intermodal train departures per day from one terminal in Chicago involving 10 destination terminals. NS has upwards of 18 departures per day out of four Chicago intermodal terminals connecting to 34 destination terminals in the south and east. A CP-NS combination provides options to consolidate or to use more efficient routings for at least some of this traffic. For example, westbound CP intermodal traffic that CP today terminates on the west side of Chicago could move via Buffalo into NS' 47th Street intermodal terminal, eliminating the cross town move through Chicago.
Quad Cities11
CP currently must route eastbound Quad Cities' traffic through Chicago. By utilizing NS connections in western Illinois extending into Iowa, a combined CP-NS may be able to route that traffic more efficiently and bypass Chicago without a circuitous backhaul to Kansas City.
Kansas City and Detroit
CP traffic that originates in eastern Canada and northeastern U.S. that is currently routed via Chicago could be routed more efficiently through Detroit to Kansas City for interchange with other carriers. The traffic would bypass Chicago and save approximately 73 route miles.12 Westbound CP traffic received at Kansas City could be handled similarly.
Eastbound manifest grain and occasional potash trains that originate in the northern plain states or in western Canada could avoid an intermediate handling on the BRC by moving directly to Elkhart and then down into St. Louis where they could be interchanged with the UP or with the river barges.
CP believes that Buffalo is an underutilized gateway to the northeast that could be used to route manifest, intermodal and unit trains that are currently routed through Chicago. This could include Croxton, NJ and Elizabeth Marine Terminal, NJ intermodal traffic as well as traffic from western Canada. CP traffic that now is routed over Lake Erie could be routed over the shorter route south of the lakes and eliminate two border crossings.
Proposed Transaction will Positively Address Congestion Issues in Chicago
A combined CP-NS network will reduce congestion in Chicago and free up capacity for other railways. By diverting hand-offs between railways to underutilized hubs outside the city and reducing processing in yards within the city, there is a real opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to address the congestion in Chicago while significantly improving service for diverted traffic. The result is a stronger and more resilient rail network better able to avoid and recover from future service disruptions.
The status quo is not an option for Chicago.
1 http://business.financialpost.com/welcome-to-chokepoint-usa, By Kristine Owram, November 18, 2015
2 Report of the Amtrak Chicago Gateway Blue Ribbon Panel at 10 (October 2015) ("Amtrak Report").
3 Id. at 12.
5 Illinois Section American Society of Civil Engineers, Rail – 2014 Report Card for Illinois' Infrastructure, April 2014, http://www.isasce.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014-Illinois-Rail-Final-Report.pdf
6 Amtrak Report at 7.
8 Amtrak Report at 18.
9 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/us/chicago-train-congestion-slows-whole-country.html?_r=0, By John Schwartz, May 7, 2012
10 The amount of equipment (cars and locomotives) needed to move a given volume in a given time is a function of train speed. Slower train speeds require more equipment to move the same volume. Consider a trainset that normally makes four roundtrips in a month. If the trainset is able to make only two roundtrips due to system congestion, another trainset would be required in order to move the same volume.
11 Davenport and Bettendorf, IA and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline, IL.
12 Comparison of NS route - Kansas City to Detroit via NS Springfield-Ft Wayne-Butler (717.7 Miles) vs. CP route - Kansas City to Detroit via CPRS via Sabula-Bensenville-Elkhart (790.8 Miles).
Forward Looking Statement
This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating, but not limited, to CP's proposal to NS regarding a possible business combination, the anticipated results and benefits of the proposed transaction and matters relating to regulatory approvals and changes. This forward-looking information also includes, but is not limited to, statements concerning expectations, beliefs, plans, goals, objectives, assumptions and statements about possible future events, conditions, and results of operations or performance. Forward-looking information may contain statements with words or headings such as "financial expectations", "key assumptions", "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "will", "outlook", "should" or similar words suggesting future outcomes.
Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance. By its nature, CP's forward-looking information involves numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information, including but not limited to the following factors: the ability of the parties to agree to the terms of a proposed transaction; the ability of the parties to obtain the required regulatory approvals; the ability to recognize the financial and operational benefits of the transaction; changes in business strategies; general North American and global economic, credit and business conditions; risks in agricultural production such as weather conditions and insect populations; the availability and price of energy commodities; the effects of competition and pricing pressures; industry capacity; shifts in market demand; changes in commodity prices; uncertainty surrounding timing and volumes of commodities being shipped via CP; inflation; changes in laws and regulations, including regulation of rates; changes in taxes and tax rates; potential increases in maintenance and operating costs; uncertainties of investigations, proceedings or other types of claims and litigation; labour disputes; risks and liabilities arising from derailments; transportation of dangerous goods; timing of completion of capital and maintenance projects; currency and interest rate fluctuations; effects of changes in market conditions and discount rates on the financial position of pension plans and investments; and various events that could disrupt operations, including severe weather, droughts, floods, avalanches and earthquakes as well as security threats and governmental response to them, and technological changes. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive.
These and other factors are detailed from time to time in reports filed by CP with securities regulators in Canada and the United States. Reference should be made to "Management's Discussion and Analysis" in CP's annual and interim reports, Annual Information Form and Form 40-F. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on current expectations, estimates and projections and it is possible that predictions, forecasts, projections, and other forms of forward-looking information will not be achieved by CP. Except as required by law, CP undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Rule 425 Disclosure
This announcement is neither an offer to purchase or exchange nor a solicitation of an offer to sell securities. Subject to future developments, additional documents regarding the proposed transaction may be filed with the SEC. Investors and security holders are urged to read such disclosure documents regarding the proposed transaction, if and when they become available, because they will contain important information. Investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of the disclosure documents (when they are available) and other documents filed by CP with the SEC at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The disclosure documents and these other documents may also be obtained for free from CP at http://www.cpr.ca/en/investors or by directing a request to Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, 7550 Ogden Dale Road S.E., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2C 4X9, Attention: Office of the Corporate Secretary.
CP and its directors, executive officers and other employees may be deemed to be participants in any solicitation of CP or NS shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information about CP's executive officers and directors is available in CP's Annual Report on Form 40-F for the year ended December 31, 2014, which was filed with the SEC on February 23, 2015. Additional information about the interests of potential participants will be included in any proxy statement filed in connection with the proposed transaction.
About Canadian Pacific
Canadian Pacific (TSX:CP)(NYSE:CP) is a transcontinental railway in Canada and the United States with direct links to eight major ports, including Vancouver and Montreal, providing North American customers a competitive rail service with access to key markets in every corner of the globe. CP is growing with its customers, offering a suite of freight transportation services, logistics solutions and supply chain expertise. Visit cpr.ca to see the rail advantages of Canadian Pacific.
SOURCE: Canadian Pacific
Lilly Ledbetter to Address Women in Transportation
January 19, 2016 – (Washington, DC) Lilly Ledbetter, the Women's Equality Activist responsible for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, has been confirmed as the keynote speaker for the 2016 annual conference of WTS International, the association for the professional advancement of women in transportation.
"Every year as we plan for the WTS Annual Conference, we seek to partner with an individual that resonates with our mission. Ms. Ledbetter exemplifies our association's guiding principles of diversity, inclusion, and commitment to ethical leadership, integrity, and respect for all," said Marcia Ferranto, WTS CEO and President. "We take pride in knowing that we are helping to build the world's infrastructure and shaping future generations of transportation leaders. Working toward equality in the transportation workforce is what drives our members—Lilly Ledbetter will certainly propel them even further as she addresses them this May in Austin."
The Annual Conference is WTS International's flagship event. It attracts more than 600 corporate and governmental industry leaders worldwide, including executives, CEOs, government administrators, and leading engineering authorities. Attendees at the conference gather to network, discuss the state of the world's transportation infrastructure, strategize on advancing professionally through glass ceilings, and explore the local city's successful municipal and private transportation and traffic projects. For the full duration of this year's Austin conference, private corporations, public agencies, and government officials invested in every transportation mode will exhibit, present, learn and network.
Lilly Ledbetter is an author, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. In 1979, Lilly Ledbetter was hired as a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She worked tirelessly and was often praised by Goodyear for her fine work. Ledbetter eventually became aware that she wasn't being compensated as much as her male counterparts towards the end of her career. After retiring from Goodyear in 1998, she sued the company for paying her significantly less than her male counterparts. The lawsuit ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which denied her claim because she did not file suit 180 days from her first pay check even though she said she didn't know it at the time. Successively, the 111th United States Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 to relax the timeliness requirements for the filing of a discrimination suit so long as any act of discrimination, including receipt of a paycheck that reflects a past act of discrimination, occurs within the 180 day period of limitations.
For more information about the WTS Annual Conference, visit https://www.wtsinternational.org/networking/annual-conference.
WTS International and WTS Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC, is an international organization dedicated to the advancement of women in the transportation industry. With more than 6,000 members, WTS is turning the glass ceiling into a career portal through its professional programs, networking opportunities, and unparalleled access to industry and government leaders. WTS Foundation has provided more than $1 million in scholarships to deserving women throughout the transportation industry, supporting the next generation of transportation professionals and advancing the principles of WTS. WTS is committed to advancing women in transportation through expanding existing scholarship opportunities to women pursuing transportation-related degrees, providing and promoting more educational opportunities and career development to advance women in transportation, and publishing research related to advancing women in transportation. More information can be found at www.WTSinternational.org
CN Announces 20 Percent Rise in its Quarterly Cash...
CP-NS combination will ease congestion in key Chic...
Lilly Ledbetter to Address Women in Transportation...


text:
Q: maven flex build failed I'm trying to build a maven project in Eclipse with 2 modules the one is a java code and the other is a flex code.
The instaled maven version is 3.3.9 , the jdk is jdk7_u80.
The maven install -X command gave me the following error :

[DEBUG] Looking up lifecyle mappings for packaging swf from
  ClassRealm[project>project.project:prjt-flex:01.00.00,
  parent: ClassRealm[maven.api, parent: null]] [ERROR] Internal error:
  java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.String cannot be cast to
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  org.apache.maven.lifecycle.mapping.LifecyclePhase     at
  org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:121)  at
  org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:863)  at
  org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:288)   at
  org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:199)     at
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    at
  sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)     at
  org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:289)
    at
  org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229)
    at
  org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415)
    at
  org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356)
  Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.String cannot be
  cast to org.apache.maven.lifecycle.mapping.LifecyclePhase     at

The problem seems coming with module the flex, in the following the pom.xml:
<properties>
        <flex.version>4.5.1.21328</flex.version>
        <template.dir>src/main/html-template</template.dir>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
        <flexmojos.version>4.0-RC2</flexmojos.version>
    </properties>
    <build>
        <sourceDirectory>src/main/flex</sourceDirectory>
        <plugins>
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                <groupId>org.sonatype.flexmojos</groupId>
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                <extensions>true</extensions>
                <configuration>
                    <fullSynchronization>true</fullSynchronization>
                    <showWarnings>false</showWarnings>
                    <optimize>true</optimize>
                    <allowSourcePathOverlap>true</allowSourcePathOverlap>
                    <sourceFile>flexprojt.mxml</sourceFile>
                    <output>target/flexprojt.swf</output>
                    <localesCompiled>
                        <locale>en_US</locale>
                    </localesCompiled>
                    <includeStylesheets>
                        <stylesheet>
                            <name>style.css</name>
                            <path>assets/css</path>
                        </stylesheet>
                    </includeStylesheets>
                    <localesSourcePath>locale/{locale}</localesSourcePath>
                    <compilerSourcePath>
                        <path>src/main/flex</path>
                    </compilerSourcePath>
                    <rslUrls>
                        <rsl>{artifactId}_{version}.{extension}</rsl>
                    </rslUrls>
                    <targetPlayer>${flash.version}</targetPlayer>
                    <fonts>
                        <advancedAntiAliasing>true</advancedAntiAliasing>
                        <maxCachedFonts>20</maxCachedFonts>
                        <maxGlyphsPerFace>1000</maxGlyphsPerFace>
                        <managers>
                            <manager>flash.fonts.JREFontManager</manager>
                            <manager>flash.fonts.AFEFontManager</manager>
                            <manager>flash.fonts.BatikFontManager</manager>
                            <manager>flash.fonts.CFFFontManager</manager>
                        </managers>
                    </fonts>
                    <modules>
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                            <sourceFile>context.mxml</sourceFile>
                            <finalName>context</finalName>
                            <destinationPath>/</destinationPath>
                        </module>
                    </modules>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
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                        <goals>
                            <goal>wrapper</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <templateURI>folder:html-template</templateURI>
                            <parameters>
                                <swf>${project.build.finalName}</swf>
                                <width>100%</width>
                                <height>100%</height>
                            </parameters>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <dependencies>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.sonatype.flexmojos</groupId>
                        <artifactId>flexmojos-threadlocaltoolkit-wrapper</artifactId>
                        <version>${flexmojos.version}</version>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>com.adobe.flex</groupId>
                        <artifactId>compiler</artifactId>
                        <version>${flex.version}</version>
                        <type>pom</type>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.compiler</groupId>
                        <artifactId>flex-fontkit</artifactId>
                        <version>${flex.version}</version>
                        <type>jar</type>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.compiler</groupId>
                        <artifactId>afe</artifactId>
                        <version>${flex.version}</version>
                        <type>jar</type>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>com.adobe.flex.compiler</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aglj40</artifactId>
                        <version>${flex.version}</version>
                        <type>jar</type>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>com.adobe.cairngorm</groupId>
                        <artifactId>cairngorm3</artifactId>
                        <version>3.0.21</version>
                        <type>pom</type>
                    </dependency>
                </dependencies>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.1</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.5</version>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

A: I fixed this issue by building the project with maven 3.1.1 version.
But i still want to build it with 3.3.9 version and i didn't know which version of flex compiler i need.

A: You should point your IDE to use your externally installed (on your OS) version of maven instead of using its bundled maven.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Kayak rentals are for true adventurers. Those who are not afraid of water trips, that get you real close to the marine life. You can t say you have done it all and not know where to get these little boats. Unless you are new to the world of Galaxys Edge Vacation Packages. If that is the case, there are a few things you need to know. Before you can acquire your first one.
You must take the time to find a good place to borrow from. There are many that provide this service. But are they all going to give you quality functioning boats? You need to look up ratings and talk to people who do this on a regular. Not all places will provide the best service or give the best service.
How much are they likely to cost? This is another thing the internet can help you with. You can go on a price hunt and see which rates are better. However, this is the average amount that you can expect to pay. Firstly, you will be charged based on the type of boat and how long you want to use it. You can go from an hour to an entire day if you wish. It depends on how long your adventure will last.
Here is a price list of what you are likely to pay: For a recreational one, an hour is $14 a day is $60, the least expensive one. For a Performance one, per hour $17 for the day $ 72. A Tandem is $22 by the hour and $90, a stand-up paddleboard is $16 per hour and $ 70 the entire day. Then there is the option of a canoe, which accommodates two people. It is $22 for an hour and $90 a day.
You have to go in knowing how long you are going to use it. You must plan your time and your course. Even though you are being charged per hour. You can t use it for less than two hours, so the minimal time per session is two hours. You also need to know which kind you need from the beginning. You have to specify, otherwise, you could end up paying more money for one you don t really want.
There are certain rules that different companies have about, lending their boats out. You need to read up on these before you approach them about a transaction. Some places stop giving boats away 2 hours before closing time. This means if you don t make it in time, you will come back empty-handed. This would be a strange way to start your adventure.
Get some lessons first before you attempt to even get one yourself. You must know how to use it. The adventure of it all is something worth looking forward to. But you must always practice safety. For those that are taken away, a roof rack that is secure is required. For the performance ones, you need to have undergone a course or have experience using it.
The prices aren t too bad, you won t feel guilty taking out the money for it. The experience of being on the river or at sea in one of these is indescribable. Ensure that you know what you are doing and that you are safe on the water.
We can help you find reasonably priced Galaxys Edge vacation packages when you refer to this website. To make a reservation, log on to the following page http://www.magicaldreamjourneys.ca/disney-vacations right away.


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Repeated studies of voucher programs across the country show that vouchers result in worse test scores for students.
Vouchers do not improve student achievement and, in many states, lead to a decline in achievement. Recent studies of the Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, and the District of Columbia voucher programs have revealed that students who used vouchers perform worse academically than their peers. In addition, studies of long-standing voucher programs in Milwaukee and Cleveland found that students offered vouchers showed no improvement in reading or math over those not in the program.
Voucher programs also fail to offer participating students greater educational resources. Students in the District of Columbia voucher program, for example, were less likely to have access to key services such as English as a Second Language programs, learning supports, special education supports and services, and counselors than students who were not part of the program. Similarly, a survey of the Milwaukee voucher program conducted in 2013 found that out of 110 Milwaukee voucher schools surveyed, 39 reported having no art, music, physical education, library or technology specialist teachers.


text:
Asia Times|Opinion
Quang warned against 'might-makes-right' mindset
By Xuan Loc Doan
Partly due to his prolonged and serious illness, Tran Dai Quang, who died on Friday, did not have a very positive impact on Vietnam's domestic and foreign policies during his two-and-a-half-year tenure as the country's president.
However, he did do a few remarkable things to raise Vietnam's image and interests on the world stage. One of these was probably his speech at the 38th Singapore Lecture, organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and chaired by Singapore's deputy prime minister and coordinating minister for national security, Teo Chee Hean, during his state visit to Singapore – and his maiden overseas trip as Vietnam's head of state – in August 2016.
In that speech, the first such by a Vietnamese leader, he said: "In addition to opportunities and advantages, the world is faced also with many grave difficulties and challenges" that included "disputes over resources [and] territorial and maritime disputes." He asserted, "The seriousness of these challenges is extremely worrying as long as the 'might makes right' mindset and the resort to the use of force still exist."
Zooming in on the South China Sea, he said, "Located at the heart of Southeast Asia," this resources-rich and strategically vital sea "not only brings about many important benefits to nations in the region but is also a vital route for maritime and air transport of the world."
He added, "Yet, recent worrying developments" there "have had a negative impact on the security environment of the region, especially maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight."
He then told the audience, which included Singapore's former prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, and other high-ranking officials, "Should we allow instability to take place, especially in the case of armed conflicts, there will be neither winners or losers but rather all will lose."
By that time, China had massively developed and weaponized disputed islands, raising alarms in many countries in and outside the region.
About six weeks before Quang's intervention, an arbitral tribunal formed under the auspices of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) had invalidated many of China's claims and actions in the disputed waters. Beijing had, however, rejected the legally binding ruling and used its new-found economic and political clout to discredit the international tribunal and its landmark award.
Thus, though Quang did not mention China or any other country by name, his remarks were aimed at Beijing's aggressive activities in the South China Sea and its might-makes-right approach to the maritime disputes in particular.
Most importantly, in such a high-profile speech, he clearly and firmly stated Vietnam's "consistent position" vis-à-vis "the East Sea [Vietnam's name for the South China Sea] issue" – that is "to remain resolute and persistent in the defense of national independence, sovereignty and territorial unity and integrity" and "to settle disputes by peaceful means through the political, diplomatic and legal process on the basis of international law, including [UNCLOS]."
Again, such remarks were mainly aimed at China and, undoubtedly, did not resonate well in Beijing. Vietnam is locked in disputes with its giant neighbor over both the Paracels and the Spratlys. China remains opposed to any political, diplomatic and legal solution to the disputes based on international law, including UNCLOS, because, as the UNCLOS-based arbitral tribunal ruled, there is "no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources" within its so-called "nine-dash line," which covers almost all the South China Sea.
In line with what Quang said in his Singapore lecture, in a Vietnam-Singapore joint statement issued at the end of his visit, both sides "emphasized the importance of resolving disputes peacefully, including full respect for legal and diplomatic processes, without resorting to the threat or use of force, in accordance with international law, including as reflected in the 1982 (UNCLOS)."
In a message of condolence to his counterpart, the Communist Party of Vietnam's General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, China's Xi Jinping said he was "deeply saddened" by Quang's passing. He called Vietnam's late president "a close comrade and friend of the Chinese people" as he "committed himself to inheriting and carrying forward the China-Vietnam traditional friendship."
This is somehow understandable because Hanoi regards ties with his comrades in Beijing as a top priority, and like any other Vietnamese leader, Quang had to cultivate bilateral cooperation.
The last foreign dignitary Quang received – on Wednesday, just two days before his death – was Zhou Qiang, China's chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court. In that meeting, Quang and Zhou pledged to further enhance judicial cooperation between the two countries.
Quang, Vietnam's second most important leader after party chief Trong, made a state visit to China in May 2017. During that five-day trip, besides attending the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, he also had talks with President Xi and met with China's other top three leaders – namely Premier Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress, and Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Yet, though he was warmly received by the Chinese leadership, they may not have forgotten his Singapore lecture, which was, in many respects, seen as a rebuke to Beijing's South China Sea posture.
Trong, who has already become the most powerful party leader in decades, will now have a bigger say in Vietnam's key personnel decisions and its overall direction over the next two years or even beyond
As for Quang, about two months after that China trip, things turned badly for him. As head of state, his main duties were, among others, to welcome foreign leaders and dignitaries, host diplomatic events, visit foreign countries and attend international meetings. However, he completely disappeared from public life for several weeks and this raised speculation about his health.
When he reappeared to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Da Nang and other world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Hanoi, in November, he looked unusually thin and pale – completely different from the healthy Quang that appeared in China six months earlier.
Images and footage from his public engagements last week, including meetings with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, Cuban Vice President Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, showed he was even frailer. When hosting a welcoming ceremony for Widodo, who made the first trip to Vietnam since becoming Indonesia's president in 2014, Quang appeared unsteady on his feet.
Speaking to VnExpress, a popular state-run online newspaper, following his passing, Nguyen Quoc Trieu, head of the national board responsible for the health of the country's senior leaders, said Quang had, in fact, fallen ill in July 2017 and traveled to Japan six times for treatment. Trieu also revealed that the former police general had contracted a rare and toxic virus that could only be managed, not cured.
In addition to his poor health, other developments did not go well for him. Some officials from the influential Ministry of Public Security, which he had led for five years before becoming president, were investigated and charged with corruption in an anti-graft campaign launched and led by Trong. This raised speculation that he would be removed.
His death will likely strengthen Trong's – and his faction's – position. Quang, 62, was a potential successor to the 74-year-old party chief. Though he had passed the retirement age, Trong managed to extend his tenure at the Communist Party of Vietnam's national congress in 2016.
It's now speculated that Trong may also assume the presidency or somebody close to him, such as Tran Quoc Vuong, executive secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam's secretariat, who made a trip to China and was received by Xi Jinping last month, will be appointed to the role.
In either case, Trong, who has already become the most powerful party leader in decades, will now have a bigger say in Vietnam's key personnel decisions and its overall direction over the next two years or even beyond.
This may concern some of Vietnam's main partners, such as the US and Japan, as well as many Vietnamese, because Trong is seen as ideologically conservative and pro-China.
But Quang's death and the not-so-positive reaction to it may make Vietnamese leaders realize that while they are important, power and politics are not the most important things in life. What really matters is not the position they hold but what they can do for the country and the people.
Quang is not very fondly remembered, notably among intellectuals, rights activists and pro-democracy advocates, partly because the late president, who rose from the powerful ministry responsible for intelligence gathering and thwarting domestic and foreign threats to the one-party regime, had a reputation as a hardliner with little tolerance for dissent.
Asia Times is not responsible for the opinions, facts or any media content presented by contributors. In case of abuse, click here to report.
PoliticsSoutheast AsiaVietnamForeign PolicyOpinionTran Dai Quang
Xuan Loc Doan
Dr Xuan Loc Doan researches and writes on a number of areas. These include Vietnam's domestic and foreign policy, ASEAN, EU, UK's politics and international politics in the Asia-Pacific region.


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New European Painting emerged in the 1980s and reached a critical point of major distinction and influence in the 1990s with painters like Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer and Bracha Ettinger whose paintings have established and continue to create a new dialogue between the historical archive, American Abstraction and figuration. The major new European painters of this era show strong engagements with painful personal and general history, as well as shared history; its memory and its oblivion; and with life under the shadow of World War II, utilizing research in new and old materials, photography and oil painting.
These were followed by painters like Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas and others,. A third wave came with artists like Neo Rauch, Michaël Borremans and Chris Ofili. Neo-expressionism and other related movements in painting have emerged in the final two decades of the 20th century in Europe and in the United States, but this New Painting is not expressionist. Rather it is a renovative kind of abstraction and figuration that relates to the parallel practice of a turning into art of personal and historical photographic archives.
New European Painting relates to the post-traumatic traces of war and it involves working oil painting and drawings with new media like photography, xerox and digital media to create and develop a postmodern archive "fever". This painting relates through this aspect to the post-World War II "archive" art with artists like Christian Boltanski and Jochen Gerz, and it is often a part of this tendency. Yet, though this painting has a clear figurative stroke it is strongly connected to Lyrical Abstraction to contemporary reconsiderations of the Sublime in art while creating a new inner space in painting and in the series of paintings.


text:
Emergency aid lands in Lebanon as world offers support
Yahoo – AFP, 5 August 2020
Workers in Qatar load a field hospital onto a flight for Beirut to help Lebanon's already
stretched health services treat the more than 4,000 people injured in Tuesday's
Emergency medical aid and pop-up field hospitals were dispatched to Lebanon Wednesday along with rescue experts and tracking dogs, as the world reached out to the victims of the explosion that devastated Beirut.
The blast centred on the city's port caused massive destruction and killed at least 113 people, heaping misery on a country already in crisis.
Gulf states were among the first to respond, with Qatar sending mobile hospitals to ease pressure on Lebanon's medical system, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.
A Qatari air force plane with a cargo of hundreds of collapsible beds, generators and burn sheets touched down in Beirut in the first of a convoy of flights to the Mediterranean country.
Medical supplies from Kuwait also arrived, as the Lebanese Red Cross said more than 4,000 people were being treated for injuries after the explosion, which sent glass shards and debris flying.
A Greek C-130 army transport plane bearing a dozen rescuers landed at Beirut's airport, itself damaged in the catastrophic explosion.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called on "friendly countries" to support a nation already reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades as well as the impact of the coronavirus.
As emergency crews hauled survivors from the rubble of demolished buildings, France said it was sending search and rescue experts aboard three military planes loaded with a mobile clinic and tonnes of medical and sanitary supplies.
President Emmanuel Macron is to travel to Lebanon on Thursday, becoming the first world leader to visit Beirut after the disaster, as France seeks to swiftly push reconstruction in its former colony.
French Securite Civile (Civil Security) officers at Roissy airport, near Paris, stand `
ready as France sends three planes with search and rescue personnel and medical
equipment to Beirut
"France is at the side of Lebanon. Always," Macron tweeted in Arabic.
Cyprus -- which lies just 150 miles (240 kilometres) to the northwest and where Tuesday's blast were both heard and sighted -- said it was sending eight police tracking dogs and their handlers aboard two helicopters, to help in the search for victims trapped under rubble.
Tunisia offered to send medical teams to collect 100 wounded people and evacuate them for treatment, as well as sending in two military transporters carrying food and medical aid.
From Europe, authorities in the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Poland offered an array of assistance including doctors, police and firefighters, together with rescue experts and sniffer dogs.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran stood "ready to offer medical and medicinal aid and help treat the injured", and Jordan's King Abdullah II also promised to dispatch a field hospital.
The United Arab Emirates sent 30 tonnes of medicines, medical supplies and surgical equipment.
'Stay strong, Lebanon'
The World Health Organization said it was dispatching trauma and surgical kits from its base in Dubai after what it called a "shocking event" that comes at a "particularly difficult time in Lebanon".
"As you've seen, many hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and people are still looking for the injured and the dead, so it's a very sad day," the UN agency's emergencies director Michael Ryan told an online session.
Close allies and traditional adversaries of Lebanon alike sent their condolences, with Iran and Saudi Arabia -- long rivals for influence over the country -- both sending messages of support.
A member of Qatar's security forces organises boxes to be loaded into a plane as
the Gulf country sends field hospitals and medical aid to Lebanon from an airbase
near Doha
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the great and resilient people of Lebanon," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.
"Stay strong, Lebanon."
Saudi Arabia said it was following the situation with "great concern".
Unusually, neighbouring Israel offered humanitarian aid -- to a country with which it is still technically at war -- via international intermediaries.
Lebanon's flag was to be projected onto Tel Aviv's city hall later Wednesday, in Israel's latest gesture.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres expressed his "deepest condolences... following the horrific explosions in Beirut," which also injured some UN personnel.
US President Donald Trump, who said it looked like "a terrible attack", without giving any evidence, said: "Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families... The United States stands ready to assist Lebanon."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the pictures and videos from Beirut "shocking".
And Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims and their families so that they might "face this extremely tragic and painful moment and, with the help of the international community, overcome the grave crisis they are experiencing".
Labels: Accident - Disaster, Aid, Deaths, Disaster Management, Health, Health Care, Lebanon
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