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ADL's Supreme Court Review 2022
Leading legal scholars discussed the most important cases of the term at ADL's 23rd Annual Supreme Court Review, presented in partnership with the National Constitution Center. The event took place virtually on Tuesday, July 12. You can watch the program below.
With important cases during the current term including voting rights, church-state separation, reproductive rights and immigration, what are the most significant takeaways from this term's rulings?
On July 12, 2022, ADL held our 23rd Annual Supreme Court Review program presented virtually in partnership with the National Constitution Center. Distinguished legal scholars and Supreme Court analysts Dahlia Lithwick, Erwin Chemerinsky, Gregory G. Garre, Amy Howe and Frederick Lawrence discussed the important cases of the term, the impact of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination and confirmation to the Court, as well as what to expect at the Supreme Court next year.
Play Video: ADL Supreme Court Review 2022
1 hr, 27 min
ADL Supreme Court Review 2022
Additional Resources & CLE Materials
Agenda & CLE Materials
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AK, AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, LA, MN, MO, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, WA, WI and WY.
There is no charge for CLE credit.
Credits issued will be based on verified attendance.
For additional questions, please email CLE@adl.org.
Take Action: Support the Equality Act to Strengthen Equal Protection & Due Process Protections
The Equality Act would explicitly protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, & jury service, and expand protections for women, people of color and people of faith.
Dahlia Lithwick is a senior editor at Slate, and in that capacity, writes their "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" columns. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Commentary, and others. She is host of Amicus, Slate's award-winning biweekly podcast about the law and the Supreme Court. She has appeared on CNN, ABC, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and is a frequent guest on The Rachel Maddow Show. She has testified before Congress about access to justice in the era of the Roberts Court and how #MeToo impacts federal judicial law clerks. She earned her BA from Yale University and her JD degree from Stanford University. Her new book, Lady Justice, is forthcoming from Penguin Press (September 2022).
Erwin Chemerinsky is the current Dean of Berkeley Law. Prior to assuming this position, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law, and has taught at Duke University, USC Law School and UCLA Law School. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the U.S. Supreme Court. In January 2021, he was chosen as the President-elect of the Association of American Law Schools. He is the author of fifteen books, more than 200 law review articles, and numerous op-eds in newspapers across the country. His most recent books are Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights (Liveright 2021) and The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State (with Howard Gillman) (Oxford University Press 2020).
Gregory G. Garre is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP and chair of the firm's Supreme Court and appellate practice. He previously served as the 44th Solicitor General of the United States, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, and Assistant to the Solicitor General, and is the only person to have held all of those positions within the Office of the Solicitor General. He has argued 47 cases before the Supreme Court and scores of additional cases before the courts of appeals. Following his graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and to Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He speaks frequently on issues related to the Supreme Court and appellate practice.
Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University's Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master's degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Frederick M. Lawrence is Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Lawrence is also Distinguished Lecturer at the Georgetown Law Center, and has previously served as president of Brandeis University, Dean of the George Washington University Law School, and Visiting Professor and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. He is the author of Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law. He has testified before Congress, appeared as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, among others, and has frequently contributed op-eds to major news sources. Lawrence received a bachelor's degree from Williams College magna cum laude where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a law degree from Yale Law School where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.


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I'll take Manhattan
By Joseph Farah
Published December 28, 2010 at 12:00am
Barack Obama has finally done something right.
I'm always asked by interviewers if I can think of anything Obama has done that is commendable.
Frankly, until now, he's done nothing but plot ways to steal my wealth. But things are about to change.
Maybe you missed it, but Obama has endorsed a United Nations resolution declaring the rights of indigenous people that could mean large swaths of the U.S. will be returned to native Americans like me.
I'm hereby staking my claim to Manhattan.
Maybe you didn't know I have native American blood coursing through my veins. I'm more well-known for my Lebanese and Syrian ancestry. But, truth be told, I have a fair amount of Indian heritage on my mother's side. So this proposed redistribution of wealth is welcome news for me.
Where do I apply? I want to return wampum for Manhattan.
Part of me doesn't even want to share this good news with you, because I want to be first in line for what is rightfully mine – everything from Soho to the upper west side. But the newsman in me feels compelled to tell you what's up.
Obama is getting behind the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which says people like me "have a right to lands and resources they traditionally occupied or otherwise used."
Now, truth be told, I have never lived in Manhattan. But that's only because hundreds of years before I was born my ancestors were swindled out of what was rightfully theirs by shady Europeans who traded plentiful seashells they probably picked up illegally on my land in the first place.
I suspect Obama himself plans to cash in on this action.
During the 2008 campaign, you might recall, he was officially adopted by the Crow Nation, an Indian tribe in Montana, and they gave him an Indian name.
"My Crow name is 'One Who Helps People Throughout the Land,'" he boasted.
If you want to be eligible for this program, I would strongly advise getting yourself adopted by a tribe right now. This promises to be the biggest land grab since the Gold Rush.
So how is all this going to work?
Apparently the litigation process was first laid out in a roadmap drawn up during the Carter administration. Tribes would be given the opportunity to repurchase lands and "extinguish the rights of current occupants," according to Jennings Nottoway, professor of anthropology at Pima Community College in Tucson.
"Re-purchase would restore land back to its original owners thus strengthening tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction over its people and land," she told WND. "Also, it would allow tribes the opportunity to develop socially, politically and economically as competitors as nation states within a global context under the act of self-determination."
She figures about 30 percent of aboriginal land was not ceded to the oppressive forces of invaders from Europe through the process of treaty, "but assumed – false premise or without proof – ownership and subordination."
"Tribes are not asking New Yorkers to leave Manhattan and leave their homes, memories and the lands on which they are built upon, but to make available open lands/spaces for repurchase that would be used exclusively for tribal affairs."
Sounds fair to me – especially if I can be one of the beneficiaries of this belated effort to achieve justice.
Anyway, what do we have to lose?
The U.S. economy is in shambles.
What harm could it do to redistribute lands based on nothing more than the racial and ethnic heritage of Americans?
Are you with me?
Support me on this and I just might make a deal with you to bring casino gambling to midtown Manhattan.
My only regret is that I didn't recapture Macy's and Saks before the Christmas season.
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.
@JosephFarah
The night of long knives – tech-style
My vote, your vote, our vote was stolen!
Another reason Trump won in a landslide
Have COVID-19 deaths been inflated?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS - Transmission Impossible - 3 CD Box Set
TRIPLE DISC COLLECTION OF EARLY MOI BROADCAST RECORDINGS Emerging from the L.A. R n B scene during 1964, Frank Zappa s first wave Mothers Of Invention signed to Verve Records in 1966, the same year their debut album, Freak Out, was released. Followed by a string of eclectic, experimental, critically acclaimed records, Zappa disbanded the group in 1969. During this first incarnation, MOI toured frequently both at home and overseas, with many of their most interesting performances recorded for FM radio broadcast. This set brings together a number of these recordings with Disc One featuring Mothers shows at Stockholm in 1967 and New York in 1968. Disc Two includes their show given in Toronto in February 1969, just prior to the initial line-up s demise. Disc Three of this collection finds the Mother Of Invention Mark II performing at The Fillmore West in San Francisco in November 1970.


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El Sesia és un riu del nord-oest d'Itàlia, afluent del riu Po. El seu nom antic fou Sessites.

Referències

Enllaços externs

 http://www.fotogian.com/sesia.html
 http://www.vercellink.com/fotografie/sesia.php

Rius del Piemont
Rius de la conca del Po

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Directors Weigh in on "Overboarding," Non-GAAP Metrics
BDO Survey covers financial reporting and executive compensation among other issues
Chicago, IL – According to a new survey by BDO USA, LLP, one of the nation's leading accounting and consulting organizations, three-quarters (74 percent) of public company board members are in favor of placing limits on the total number of boards on which a director may serve and they generally favor more stringent limitations than those supported by proxy advisory firms. When asked if regulators should provide additional guidance on the use of non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) measures in financial statements, directors are fairly evenly split (51 percent for vs. 49 percent against); however, a majority (67 percent) believe auditor involvement would provide higher investor confidence in the reporting of non-GAAP measures. Overall, better than three-quarters (70 percent) of directors feel the plethora of disclosures in current financial statements make it difficult to decide what information is important.
"The 2016 BDO Board Survey reveals frustration among boards with the growing number of disclosures in financial statements today, though they clearly see use for non-GAAP metrics – especially with regard to executive compensation calculations," said Amy Rojik, Partner in the Corporate Governance Practice at BDO USA. "Directors are also clearly in favor of setting limits on how many total boards on which a director can serve, but not on the amount of pay they can earn for their service."
Overboarding
In recent years, directors have seen a major increase in the number of hours required to serve on a public company board. Given this trend, in 2017, proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis have indicated they will oppose non-executive directors with more than five board seats. Interestingly, board members themselves are in favor of more severe limits.
When asked about the issue of "overboarding," approximately three-quarters (74 percent) of directors believe corporate boards should proactively limit the number of boards on which a director can serve. Of those in favor of setting limitations, more than three-quarters (79 percent) would set more severe limits than the proxy advisors. Forty-four percent would set the limit at three boards, more than a quarter (28 percent) chose four and less than 10 percent said two (6 percent) or one (1 percent). Only 19 percent of directors agreed with the proxy advisors' suggested limit of five board seats.
Financial Reporting Disclosures
Seventy percent of board members believe that there are so many disclosures in financial statements today that it is difficult to decide what information is most important. When asked to identify the most meaningful financial reporting disclosures for investors, approximately half (49 percent) cited critical audit matters that involve complex judgments on material issues. Non-GAAP financial measures that provide supplemental information on a business' performance (29 percent) and how the organization is addressing risk management (19 percnt) were the next most cited as meaningful disclosures.
More than two-thirds (71 percent) of public company board members believe disclosures regarding the audit committee's oversight of the external auditor provide value to current and potential shareholders. Alternatively, less than a quarter (24 percent) of directors believe disclosures regarding sustainability matters (climate change, corporate social responsibility, etc.) are important to investors' understanding of a company's business and enabling them make informed decisions.
Non-GAAP Metrics
Board members were split when asked whether they thought additional guidance from regulators on non-GAAP metrics would be helpful, given the increased use of these measures in financial statements. About half (51 percent) were in favor of additional guidance, while a similar proportion (49 percent) saw no need for more regulatory guidance. Of those in favor of additional guidance on non-GAAP measures, close to half (46 percent) identified EBITDA as the metric that causes them the most concern. Restructuring costs (14 percent), stock-based compensation (13 percent) and acquisition integration costs (13 percent) were areas of concern cited by much smaller minorities of directors.
Two-thirds (67 percent) of the board members feel auditor involvement would provide higher investor confidence in the reporting of non-GAAP measures, compared to one-third (33 percent) who do not feel it will have an impact.
Despite the popular criticism that non-GAAP or pro forma figures – when used with compensation metrics – can help executives draw bigger pay packages, approximately three-quarters (74 percent) of directors are opposed to prohibiting the use of non-GAAP measures in executive compensation calculations.
Frequency of Say-on-Pay. In 2011, the Dodd-Frank Act instituted mandatory "Say-on-Pay" shareholder votes on executive compensation which should be conducted every one, two or three years, as determined by the shareholders. The frequency of these shareholder votes is to be revisited and voted on every six years. In 2017, most public companies will be conducting a new shareholder vote to determine the frequency of Say-on-Pay votes moving forward. This year's survey reveals that directors see a disconnect between themselves and shareholders on this issue.
Based on their experience over the past six years, a majority (56 percent) of board members believe the votes should take place every three years, compared to approximately one-fifth (19 percent) preferring two years and one-quarter (25 percent) opting for every year. However, when asked to predict how their shareholders will vote on the frequency of Say-on-Pay votes, half (51 percent) of the directors predicted every year. The remainder were split between every two years (22 percent) and every three years (27 percent).
Communicating on Pay. Forty-one percent of directors do not consider it appropriate to communicate with institutional shareholders regarding incentive pay packages. In contrast, at least one-fifth (22 percent) of directors say their board or compensation committee does proactively communicate with institutional shareholders on the topic and slightly fewer (18 percent) indicate they are considering such communications. Interestingly, of the relatively few actively communicating, two-thirds (66 percent) believe it has positively impacted their investor relations. Only three percent believe it hasn't. The remainder (31 percent) weren't sure.
CEO – Median Employee Pay Ratio. Beginning with 2018 proxies, public companies will be required to disclose the ratio of median employee pay to CEO compensation. This 2018 requirement will report on 2017 compensation. When asked if their boards had begun to take steps to comply with this new requirement, directors were split. Almost half (49 percent) are familiar with the new requirement but have taken no actions, while better than one-third (37 percent) are already preparing pay ratio calculations for internal planning purposes – though they will not disclose the ratio prior to the required disclosure date. Relatively few (8 percent) say they are planning to disclose the pay ratio calculation prior to the mandatory disclosure date. Surprisingly, 6 percent of the directors say they are still unfamiliar with the requirement.
Director Pay Limits? Recent shareholder lawsuits alleging excessive director pay have put a spotlight on how boards determine their own pay. When asked about the topic, a majority (56 percent) of board members were opposed to director pay limits, compared to 44 percent in favor of limits. Of those in favor of limits on director pay, a strong majority (81 percent) favor total compensation limits versus the remainder (19 percent) that prefer only equity limits.
Presidential Preference?
When asked which of the two major party presidential candidates would positively impact corporate governance, Donald Trump (25 percent) received twice the support of Hillary Clinton (12 percent), but the most popular opinion (54 percent) of the board members was that neither candidate will have a positive impact.
BDO Board Survey
These are just a few of the findings of the 2016 BDO Board Survey, conducted by the Corporate Governance Practice of BDO USA in September 2016. The annual survey examines the opinions of 160 corporate directors of public company boards regarding financial reporting, executive compensation, risk management and other corporate governance issues.
BDO USA's Corporate Governance Practice is a valued business advisor to corporate boards. The firm works with a wide variety of clients, ranging from entrepreneurial businesses to multinational Fortune 500 corporations, on myriad of accounting, tax, risk management and forensic investigation issues.
About BDO USA
BDO is the brand name for BDO USA, LLP, a U.S. professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies. For more than 100 years, BDO has provided quality service through the active involvement of experienced and committed professionals. The firm serves clients through more than 60 offices and more than 400 independent alliance firm locations nationwide. As an independent Member Firm of BDO International Limited, BDO serves multinational clients through a global network of more than 1,300 offices in over 150 countries.
BDO USA, LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership, is the U.S. member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. For more information, please visit: www.bdo.com.
New Changes from the SEC
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Illuminati Confirmed By Previous Canadian Defense Minister
We're all still waiting on some hard proof.
Maggie McAvoy
Eric Lysenko/Shutterstock
Everyone has his/her own hypothesis about the mysterious group, but actual evidence of such a secret society does not seem to exist. People always want to rant about the subject for hours; based off their ramblings they are then dubbed either extremely smart or simply paranoid.
The Illuminati…conspiracy theory or cabal?
Paul Hellyer, former Defense Minister of Canada, is the most recent public figure to claim the Illuminati is real. He believes the organization is run by a group of the excessively rich.
Hellyer is one of those individuals that people would deem extremely smart considering his esteemed position within the Canadian government. After reading his take on the Illuminati, however, one might call into question his intellect.
In a recent interview with the Lazarus Effect podcast, Hellyer said the following:
"I learned way back that at least a decade ago it was claimed that the US, in corporation with visitors from other planets, had developed some exotic forms of energy that would allow us to do the changeover from fossil fuel to clean energy within the 10-year deadline.
But nothing is being done about it – you've got the small cabal that's really running the world. They've managed to keep that technology under wraps until they can cash in the trillions of dollars worth of oil assets that they've got.
This is not a good state of the world that we've got. It's not going to change unless hundreds of thousands of people band together.
And it's not going to change until hundreds of thousands of people band together and say, 'Look, you've got to come clean. Tell us what is going on, and change your priorities to save the world for further generations instead of blowing it on wars.'"
While Hellyer never explicitly mentions the Illuminati, it's clear to what he's alluding. The way he goes about describing a fix, however, comes across as paranoid and even slightly senile. Nevertheless, this is a difficult subject about which to speak, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.
The Illuminati…what do you think?
Could this be the proof you need? Click here to find out.
In this article:fake, government, illuminati, News, real, secret, Society, truth
Written By Maggie McAvoy
Tyre Nichols: 29-Year-Old's Death Highlights How Little Progress Has Been Made
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Jefferson co-valedictorian Boru Guyota helped feed others and found his speed on the track
By Betsy Hammond | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Ross William Hamilton/The OregonianBoru Guyota never ran track in his native Ethiopia. As a teenage refugee new to Portland the Jefferson High student discovered his running talent during a freshman P.E. class and relied on track workouts to keep him motivated and alert every year of high school.
Boru Guyota
More achievers
Read more about achievers from your county and across the Portland area.
was newly arrived in Portland as a 16-year-old refugee from Ethiopia when he applied for a job.
He spoke Oromo and Amharic but barely any English, and he was just a freshman at
But he got the job.
He had two of the key qualifications — the skill and perseverance needed for farming and the desire to help others.
That job — helping grow vegetables on a one-acre organic farm on Sauvie Island, then selling the food at a farmers market and giving it to low-income residents of North Portland — is one he kept for three years.
It was one of the two biggest highlights of his years as a top student at Jefferson. He and classmate
Robert Gill
are this year's valedictorians.
"I love working on the farm," Guyota says. "It was very interesting."
The job, provided by Food Works of Janus Youth Programs, has several purposes: to help youths earn money, provide fresh organic produce to needy Portlanders and instill business and leadership skills in the teens who take part.
"I helped my grandfather work the farm back in Africa, and I faced a lot of challenges back in Africa," including punishing droughts that meant no crop would grow and many of the family's goats starved to death, he says. "One of my favorite parts of the job is to go around the community and give out food ... a bag of cabbage, broccoli, summer squash, lettuce, peppers and corn, all organic. When we give it to the people, they really appreciate what we have been doing."
Planning which vegetables to plant, testing and amending the soil, weeding, washing vegetables and selling them at weekend farmers markets helped him do better in school, Guyota says. Adding nitrogen to the soil and seeing plants thrive as a result helped chemistry class make more sense, he says.
Guyota's other passion, discovered by chance during a freshman P.E. class, is running.
Training and competing on the school track team was his other highlight of high school — even though he trained so hard that he was normally too tired to do homework afterward. His father, Bikila, would wake him up at 3 a.m. so he could do his math and science homework and write papers before school.
"My dad wants me to work very hard in school," he says.
During the freshman P.E. class, the teacher offered 100 points to the student who could run five laps around the school track the fastest. Eager for points, Guyota ran his heart out.
The teacher told the track coach how he'd lapped other students, and the coach asked him to join the team. After he got third place in his first race, Guyota vowed to train harder.
Since sophomore year, he never again lost a high school race. And he has rarely been beaten this year, when, as a 20-year-old, he was deemed too old for high school meets and had to race collegiate runners. He won the state meet in the 800 meters in 2009 and ran a personal best of 1:52.6 to win his section at the Oregon Twilight meet at Hayward Field this spring.
He plans to run track while studying nursing at the University of Portland next year and hopes to try out for the 2012 Olympics.
Even though training hard tires him, it helps him feel alert and happy to learn well, he says.
"Afterwards, I feel very healthy. I can think very clearly. I can't imagine how else I would feel as happy."
Betsy Hammond


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Home > LJ > Vol. 54 > No. 3 (2010)
Taking It to the Streets: A Public Right-of-Way Project for Disability Law
Elizabeth Pendo, Saint Louis University School of LawFollow
Pendo, Elizabeth (2010) "Taking It to the Streets: A Public Right-of-Way Project for Disability Law," Saint Louis University Law Journal: Vol. 54 : No. 3 , Article 14.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol54/iss3/14
All Issues Vol. 63, No. 4 Vol. 63, No. 3 Vol. 63, No. 2 Vol. 63, No. 1 Vol. 62, No. 4 Vol. 62, No. 3 Vol. 62, No. 2 Vol. 62, No. 1 Vol. 61, No. 4 Vol. 61, No. 3 Vol. 61, No. 2 Vol. 61, No. 1 Vol. 60, No. 4 Vol. 60, No. 3 Vol. 60, No. 2 Vol. 60, No. 1 Vol. 59, No. 4 Vol. 59, No. 3 Vol. 59, No. 2 Vol. 59, No. 1 Vol. 58, No. 4 Vol. 58, No. 3 Vol. 58, No. 2 Vol. 58, No. 1 Vol. 57, No. 4 Vol. 57, No. 3 Vol. 57, No. 2 Vol. 57, No. 1 Vol. 56, No. 4 Vol. 56, No. 3 Vol. 56, No. 2 Vol. 56, No. 1 Vol. 55, No. 4 Vol. 55, No. 3 Vol. 55, No. 2 Vol. 55, No. 1 Vol. 54, No. 4 Vol. 54, No. 3 Vol. 54, No. 2 Vol. 54, No. 1 Vol. 53, No. 4 Vol. 53, No. 3 Vol. 53, No. 2 Vol. 53, No. 1 Vol. 52, No. 4 Vol. 52, No. 3 Vol. 52, No. 2 Vol. 52, No. 1 Vol. 51, No. 1


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Capricorn EMU unveiled by Rhätische Bahn and Stadler
SWITZERLAND: Rhätische Bahn's first Capricorn electric multiple-unit was unveiled at Stadler's Altenrhein factory on April 15.
The metre-gauge EMUs are branded with the Romansh name for the Alpine ibex which appears on the arms of canton Graubünden. They are scheduled to be delivered in 2019-22.
The SFr361m order for 36 four-car EMUs placed in two batches in 2016 was RhB's largest ever rolling stock procurement. It forms part of a multi-stage fleet renewal programme launched in 2007. RhB issued nine and 15-year SFr100m bonds to finance the order.
The first units are expected to enter service in late 2019 on the Landquart – Davos – Filisur route. From 2021 pairs of units will divide at Klosters to serve Davos and St Moritz. The EMUs will also be deployed in the Surselva and Unterschnitt areas.
The 11 kV 16·7 Hz EMUs have a maximum speed of 120 km/h, 1 h rating of 1·4 MW and continuous rating of 1 MW. They are equipped with air brakes, rather than the vacuum or dual braking of older RhB rolling stock. Automatic couplers will enable the splitting and joining of units in service to support the introduction of 30 min headways on single-track routes.
Each unit is 76·4 m long and 2 670 mm wide, with 165 seats, including 35 in first class. Three of the four cars have low-floor entrances, and the units comply with Switzerland's accessibility laws with tactile signs, wheelchair spaces and one of the two toilets being wheelchair-accessible.
There are multi-functional spaces for bicycles, skis and other sports equipment as well as for prams and luggage. The passenger information system includes a stream of the driver's view on internal display screens, and the windows can be opened.
RhB double-tracking caps successful year
SWITZERLAND: Two sections of double track on Rhätische Bahn's Albula main line are ready to open, RhB Director Renato Fasciati announced on November 29, presenting the highlights of what Chairman Stefan Engler said had been 'a very successful and at the same time challenging year'.
Rhätische Bahn opens 'Little Sister' bridge
SWITZERLAND: Rhätsiche Bahn services are scheduled to be diverted over the recently-completed second Hinterrhein bridge at Reichenau from November 4, enabling the original bridge dating from 1895 to be closed for renovation.
Breakthrough for new Albula tunnel
SWITZERLAND: Rhätische Bahn's 5 860 m long new Albula tunnel was holed through on October 2. Train services are expected to start in late 2021 or early 2022, with more than 15 000 trains carrying 1·2 million passengers/year.


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The expansion joint along the walls depends on the total length of the floor. For lengths of 13 metres . Questions about Quick-Step vinyl flooring? Check out this.
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Nov 12, 2015 . Hard surface material such as sheet vinyl, will also become very brittle in cold temperatures and . when installed in high humidity environments it will gain moisture and expand. . Wood floors also react to heat and humidity.
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Feb 27, 2017 . When you install laminate and other types of snap-together floating floors, you need to leave an expansion gap between the floor and the wall.
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Nov 25, 2014 . An expansion gap is essential when it comes to laminate flooring installation. The recommended expansion gap is a minimum of ¼ inch.
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Open room area not to exceed 50 linear ft. in either direction or total of 2500 sq. ft. 8. Install Adura .. cut then expansion must be maintained around doorjamb. Do not install .. or automobile-oil drips onto the vinyl floor covering. 5. Use mats.
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Do you believe in the casino legends? Have you ever heard of the myths everybody truly believe? Do you believe in those myths? Or you think you are just superstitious and there are no myths? Well, if you are superstitious, you believe in the myths.
Well, yeah, a pattern. It is next to impossible, as the slot machines are based on the random number generation that is based in its turn on random choice. These generators make millions of the european roulette free combinations every second. So how can you guess it?
There is no pattern, according to which they generate the numbers. The human brain or the computer brain cannot track the pattern down, even if it was possible. It would require long weeks of data gathering and then processing. Even if you were able to track them down, you would not hit the button at the needed moments, as every millisecond there is another winning combination. Still hesitating? Then Big Book of Slots is just for you.
Well, if you really think that you dragged the destiny to that very slot machine, you are so wrong. Look up and read once again. There are millions of combinations that appear every second. You have nothing to do with that winning. Moreover, in cases, when one is playing in online casinos, the state of things doesn't change.
Don't be naive. It is not. A couple of jackpots can be hit in a row. It is not regulated, as the slot machines work on random number generation. You can try it in free online slot gambling.
Again. It is not true. The casinos are not allowed to change the RNGs after the slot arrives at the casino. So, it is not true that you cannot win at slots, which are located further in the casino. It is mere myth.
Again. Where do the people take such horrible shameless legends? The machines, no matter if they have a lever or a button, have the random number generator that defines all the winning combinations.
Pulling the lever or pushing the button is a matter of taste, not luck. If you still have another opinion, you should read Frank Scoblete's books.


Oyster lovers got a small reprieve Friday when the National Park Service agreed to let Drakes Bay Oyster Co. - which provides more than one-third of California's oysters - continue harvesting the salty delicacies for at least another 30 days.
The agreement is in response to a last-ditch injunction request by restaurants, bars and other businesses that rely on Drakes Bay oysters. A hearing is set for Sept. 9.
Drakes Bay's retail operation is still set to close Thursday, but the harvesting can continue at least another month, or 30 days after the court rules on the injunction.
"This is great news for Bay Area oyster lovers," said Stuart Gross, an attorney representing the restaurants and other businesses. "It presents the possibility that Drakes Bay Oyster Co. can continue to be a source of wonderful, fresh oysters for some time to come."
The U.S. Department of the Interior said in 2005 that it would not renew Drakes Bay's 40-year lease at the Point Reyes National Seashore because it wants to include the 1,100-acre property in a marine wilderness area. The case attracted widespread attention as food lovers, environmentalists and property rights' advocates debated the best use of the land in west Marin County, which has been home to oyster-harvesting operations for at least a century.
The matter was resolved in January when U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he wouldn't renew the lease, which is set to expire Thursday.


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Terry Whisnant is leaving Florida State
By Eric AngevineMay 11, 2013, 8:01 PM EDT
If you're looking to showcase your talents in an up-tempo system, Florida State is not where you want to be.
That's what Terry Whisnant has realized after two grind-it-out seasons on Leonard Hamilton's team, so he's decided to leave the Seminoles and move closer to his hometown of Cherryville, NC. Whisnant is said to be looking to join either Jeff Lebo's Pirate crew at East Carolina or Cliff Ellis and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
"I'm just going to relax and think about it and make my final decision next Wednesday or Thursday," said Whisnant, who visited Coastal Carolina last Wednesday and Thursday and East Carolina on Friday. "They're both great situations for me."
Whisnant started the past season averaging close to 30 minutes per game, but saw his floor time fall drastically when the ACC season began. His low point was a one-minute mopup appearance against Clemson in the ACC tournament. He finished the season averaging just over five points per game.
Whisnant is a decent three-point shooter, and the defensive skills he picked up under Hamilton's tutelage could make him a devastating presence for either of his target programs. At 6'3″ and 174 lbs., he could provide a physical backcourt piece, which either veteran coach would be happy to have.
Eric Angevine is the editor of Storming the Floor. He tweets @stfhoops.


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G2A – Don't Believe Their Half-Truths
Andrew Otton / April 13, 2017 at 8:00 AM / Gaming, Gaming Editorials / Comments
G2A is pretty smart. They know that because they often have the best deals on games, people are going to buy from them. Most people don't care about what buying from G2A does or think about why the deal is too good to be true. A good deal is a good deal. G2A has become the king of responses that say nothing while openly attacking those accusing of them of wrongdoing or otherwise criticizing their business practices. This has happened yet again in their recent dealings with Gearbox Software. G2A's response to Gearbox's list of demands does all that while taking the opportunity to try to beef up their own reputation. What G2A responded with reads more like an advertisement than a refutation, with plenty of deception and half-truths thrown in for good measure.
Most of what they claim in their response can be seen as untrue from my article I wrote last year, but this has offered up some new information, as well as providing the opportunity to get into the specifics of why G2A is so awful. This article is going to go through the entirety of G2A's response, pointing out where G2A is misleading or not telling the whole truth, and expanding on certain elements of G2A beyond the scope of their response to further illustrate their many problems.
This last week brought forth a lot of confusion, and caused a lot of inaccurate information to appear on the internet about G2A.COM. Although this saddens us, at the same time we are also glad to have the opportunity to thoroughly explain many of the inaccuracies and misunderstandings tied to G2A.COM.
It all began with a few negative reactions from some YouTubers, and in particular from John "TotalBiscuit" Bain, to an announcement that G2A.COM is working together with Gearbox Publishing. Our partner, Gearbox Publishing, unfortunately decided to publicly publish a letter with a list of ultimatums, without consulting us about the truth of the allegations made by John Bain. This is an excellent example that rash actions, without full knowledge of the facts, can be harmful to both the developer and the marketplace. Especially since all of the requests made of G2A.COM in the ultimatum have in fact long been part of our marketplace.
This is how G2A begins their response. That the public list of demands and press release from Gearbox Software led to inaccurate information and confusion. This is because, as they say, all of the things listed in Gearbox's demands, what they call ultimatums, have been in the G2A marketplace for a "long" time. I can't really refute that entirely, I suppose, as there is some version of every thing that Gearbox demanded, but that version is so manipulative and created with the sole purpose of preying on the ignorant that it is laughable for G2A to equate their version to what Gearbox demanded. In other words, G2A creates what, at face value—the value of their response here—seems like consumer friendly practices, but then somehow has thought of ways to twist it around to screw the consumer and developers/publishers all in one. Like I said before, G2A is pretty smart.
G2A Shield
After that introduction, G2A goes into G2A Shield. For those unaware, G2A Shield is a service G2A offers that provides certain benefits like cash back on purchases, faster customer service response time, and other things. G2A talks about G2A shield, as Gearbox's demands stated they wanted G2A Shield's benefits offered to everyone for free because all customers deserve fraud protection. The assumption here is that G2A Shield's purpose is fraud protection, at least primarily. Here's where G2A starts:
We agree that every buyer on the marketplace should be protected – and that is exactly how it is on G2A.COM. We firmly attest that G2A.COM protects and secures both our sellers and buyers far better than most functioning marketplaces. In the very rare cases in which a purchased key does not work properly, each user has the right to issue a complaint, and either receive a different key or a refund.
The main purpose and function of G2A Shield is to provide buyers with immense convenience and comfort, as well as additional features such as 10% cashback (which actually ensures that the Shield subscription cost and more is refunded to each person that buys games more than once every few months).
There are many things wrong with G2A Shield worth getting into, but this offers a good opportunity to take a look at the image above. G2A Shield members get a "convenient and secure shopping experience" according to the advertisement on its page. The implication here seems to be that those without G2A Shield do not get a convenient and secure shopping experience. The confusion that G2A brought up in their introduction may actually exist due to their own marketing. So does G2A Shield offer customers the guarantee that they will have a key refunded/replaced if it is indeed fraudulent? Or does it mean that G2A Shield members' purchases are more secure in that they will somehow be at less of a risk of purchasing those fraudulent keys? Either way, it seems like G2A Shield offers some higher level of fraud protection.
That's not the only place they use such language either. There is a G2A Shield page within each member's account page that also details its features, trying to sell it to them. What you see in the above image is an example of their marketing of the service. Is ensuring a safe purchase a part of G2A Shield or not? Do customers without G2A Shield not have access to safe purchases or are they just not guaranteed that all of their purchases are safe?
Security should never be a membership perk you have to pay for. For any and every other business ever, it is considered the bare minimum.
G2A then continues by looking at the process of what a customer without G2A Shield goes through when a key does not work:
If the buyer does not have a Shield subscription:
1. The buyer reports the problem to the seller. If the seller sees that the problem resulted because of the seller's error or fault, then the seller either refunds the buyer's money or provides a new key – and the matter is solved instantly.
2. If the seller does not agree to the buyer's complaint, the buyer writes a message to the G2A Resolution Center. The message receives a case number, and our employees (G2A.COM's customer support team is fluent in nine languages, six of which are available 24/7, and the average wait-time is barley a few minutes) begin to investigate. Our customer support then contacts the seller, to give them a chance to clarify any doubts, and then our customer support team does everything they can to bring about a satisfactory resolution for both parties. The buyer typically receives a resolution in a matter of hours, in contrast to many other marketplaces where users sometimes must wait a few weeks to receive an answer (or never receive an answer at all).
It's pretty straightforward but does not address a key issue, one that G2A says, as you will see in a bit, does not exist. What about in cases where a buyer finds a key does not work, then goes to the seller, moves on up to G2A itself, G2A tries to talk to the seller, and the seller doesn't answer. Where does the refund or new key come from then? G2A claims later in this response that they often eat the refund for customers, but I can't imagine them not trying everything they can to get out of it.
And why might this be an issue you ask? Because anyone can make an account in no time flat, post up keys for sale, then disappear. Nobody will get a response from them. They sold their stuff, got their money, and now they're done. But that's a pretty rare occurrence, as most of the time what's for sale is a 100% legitimate key; by that I mean it is one that will work.
Here's the more likely scenario. Someone buys a bunch of keys for games with stolen credit card information. They then put the keys up for sale on G2A or another site like it. The key sells, it works, the buyer and seller walk away happy. Later, the credit card owner sees the charge, issues a chargeback, and the original retailer of the keys has to return the money for the keys and often a fee as well. When many developers or publishers get word of a batch of keys taken with stolen credit card information, they often cancel those keys. This is the exact process a happily self-proclaimed scammer told to Kotaku. It is best summed up here:
Reis [the scammer] doesn't make money off a chargeback. He makes money by selling the Steam keys. The chargebacks aren't triggered immediately, so he's getting the keys before the payment processor has time to investigate (or be alerted to) stolen credit cards. Chargebacks can occur days, weeks, or months later, which means Reis has plenty of time to sell the Steam key sent to his email address.
So the used-to-be happy and now not-happy buyer comes back to talk to the seller because his key magically does not work. The seller doesn't exist anymore. What does G2A do in that situation? They don't really say. And they won't say because they do not acknowledge illegally obtained keys being sold on their platform. G2A claims it does not have a lot of fraudulent keys being sold on their platform.
Before we get more into illegally obtained keys, let's see what the G2A Shield member goes through when they have a key that does not work:
If the buyer does have a Shield subscription:
1.The buyer opens and connects with live chat, which is available 24/7. The buyer does not have to contact the seller – but simply needs to describe the problem to G2A.COM's customer support team. The buyer will most likely receive a refund during the chat which last a few minutes, and G2A.COM takes it upon itself to contact the seller and resolve the case on that end.
G2A Shied [sic] is very well-priced given the benefits it offers. This of course does not mean that we do not realize the service still requires a lot of improvement. We are constantly working on Shield and we will debut many new solutions over the coming months.
Again this seems to add to that confusion G2A spoke about in their introduction, as the service is entirely different for those with and without G2A Shield—not just in the speed of customer service. For those without G2A Shield, they have to contact the seller, then G2A, then G2A has to contact the seller, and then the buyer may get a refund depending on what G2A finds. Those with Shield contact G2A and have the opportunity to be refunded before G2A ever contacts the seller.
That seems like a pretty significant difference to me. In one, there's a real chance a buyer does not get a resolution. Why would a scammer care about making G2A happy if they got their money? They can just as easily make a new account and get on with it. So, again, what does G2A do in that situation? They have not said.
But the G2A Shield member is sitting happy in that they have a real chance they get their refund before this knowledge of the seller ever takes place.
Again, that seems like there's a difference in the fraud protection. So not only is the marketing for G2A Shield suspect, so is their explanation. It just brings up more questions, the most important being, is G2A Shield a service that offers better fraud protection or not? By G2A's own description, it appears to be the case. It's worth reiterating that security and fraud protection should never be up for sale. It is the bare minimum.
Before leaving G2A Shield entirely, as G2A's response has nothing left to say, there are a few more things to look at. First, G2A recognizes that there are problems with G2A Shield, namely in one specific area: cancelling it. To cancel the service is to go through an eternity of pages, clicks, and attempts to keep you paying. It's best shown off here. Over ten steps and some waiting to cancel the service. I think all can agree that is more than ridiculous.
G2A recognized the problem in a reddit AMA they held a couple of months ago where they said that changes would be coming soon. As far as I know, the problem with cancelling G2A Shield remains the same.
Then there's the little predatory snafu with Indiegala last month. Indiegala was trying out G2A Pay, a service G2A offers retailers as an additional payment option, and those that used G2A Pay found themselves signed up for G2A Shield unknowingly. G2A claims that this was due to an IT error, but if you look at the screen above, it seems like a pretty clear attempt at intentional obfuscation to get people on the service. There was a checkbox, that does not look like a checkbox but a shield with "ON" next to it, that customers had to click off to deny the start of their free 30 day trial for G2A Shield. All well and good, they can just cancel the free trial right? Well, it's a little more complicated as G2A does not allow cancellation of G2A Shield until two days before the free trial ends. It seems pretty obvious they were hoping people would not notice the service so they'd later be charged.
Requiring people to wait 28 days until they can cancel makes absolutely no sense either, unless G2A is hoping that people forget about it, leaving it to charge their card. When someone cancels it shouldn't matter. If they try G2A Shield for free and don't like it, let them cancel it. If G2A is worried people will take advantage of the benefits for free and not pay, then require they pay for one month before the free 30 days kicks in. That is a pretty common, acceptable approach, which G2A does employ. But G2A forces people to then have to remember until they have only two days left on their trial to cancel it. And all of this is before the absurdity of the process it takes to cancel G2A Shield.
Is there any other way to interpret its purpose than G2A just hopes they get some extra money out of the deal from those that forget to cancel? There are other ways to interpret that, but are there any valid ones? I don't think so.
This is not the only place where the G2A Shield checkbox was a little off. When you purchase a game on G2A Shield, you're met with this on the checkout page:
There's the price of the game, and the G2A Shield box is already checked, meaning you're going to slap on another $3.18 to the purchase. To be fair, there's a good chance you're going to notice that extra money added to your total. However, I think we can all agree it shouldn't come checked. Even G2A agrees with that, at least in the Indiegala instance. G2A's response to that situation said that the IT error mistakenly had the checkbox already checked. Is the same IT error to blame for G2A Shield being checked on their own service?
Adding salt to the wound, the version of G2A Shield the checkbox signs you up for is the worst. That $3.18 fee is only good for this one purchase and lacks other benefits that are included in the monthly subscription. If you were to buy a subscription to G2A Shield, it is only $1.06 a month. In other words, you pay three month's worth for a single purchase, with fewer benefits.
The last thing I wanted to mention is something I noticed when looking for hidden fees for the next section of this article. When you end up getting your key for a game, you're met with this page:
Whether you have G2A Shield or not, the message on the right is always displayed. As another reminder, it was G2A who said all of the information out there about their service is confusing and Gearbox only added to it with its inaccurate information. It is interesting, then that the message included here seems to be confused with G2A's claim that G2A Shield is not about fraud protection. That all of their users have that protection.
The message says that G2A Shield gives you a 100% guarantee of either a working key or a refund. Again, the implications seems to be that you are not 100% guaranteed to get a working key or refund if you do not have G2A Shield. Nearly every piece of marketing I've come across for G2A Shield seems to be pointing towards one thing: G2A Shield is indeed a paid service for fraud protection.
It becomes really easy, then, to understand why so many may have what G2A would label an inaccurate misconception. When everything points to G2A Shield being one thing and G2A says no it is not that thing, it's really hard to take anything they say as truthful. The age old saying that actions speak louder than words applies here. G2A's words say one thing, but their actions in the form of their marketing paints the exact picture everyone accuses them of.
G2A said in the introduction of this response that "this last week brought forth a lot of confusion, and caused a lot of inaccurate information to appear on the internet about G2A.COM." As far as I can tell, the only confusing information came from G2A itself and existed long before their most recent controversy.
G2A and Hidden Fees
This is all, in this response, G2A has to say on hidden fees and transparency:
G2A.COM has over 13 million clients precisely because it offers attractive terms for both buyers and sellers. We would not have been able to build such a successful marketplace by introducing hidden fees. All fees and rates are clearly and explicitly described in corresponding tables. In addition to the price, VAT is added based on the buyer's country, and if applicable, a fee depending on the buyer's chosen payment method. Both of these fees are independent of G2A.COM, and we clearly inform the buyer about them before any purchase is made. No one on our marketplace is unwittingly charged extra fees.
This, of course, does not mean that we pat ourselves on the back for a job well done and call it day. We are constantly working on bettering the marketplace and regularly make improvements. In fact, some improvements are currently in the final stages of testing and will soon go live.
Now, I can't say that there are 100% truly hidden fees on G2A, because if you go looking for them, you will indeed find them. However, they do their damndest to hide them from you without being 100% hidden.
Here's what the checkout page looks like when purchasing a game. So far you can see the $4.12 Total.
You're then taken to this page once you move on. So far, pretty easy. The now Grand Total remains $4.12. However, it is on this page where things take a turn. Let's take a look at the well-advertised G2A Pay button.
That takes you to this page. Very clearly you can see that if you use G2A Wallet—a more convoluted Steam Wallet where people pay for coins that are then used to buy games—you pay no fee. The implication here is that the other payment options do have fees attached to them because they very clearly do not have the green "NO FEE" icon on them. But, I did not want to use G2A Pay so I went back a page to the one before. I put in my credit card information, paid, and was met with the following.
Wait a second, all of a sudden I'm up to $4.63? That doesn't seem right.
Oh, there was a payment fee. I don't remember seeing that anywhere. It was not on the checkout page, nor was it on the payment options page.
I went back and tried it with a different game. Here I can now obviously see the fee there before I go through with the payment. However, because I was unfamiliar with how G2A worked, as I have never purchased anything from there before, I had no idea a fee was involved. And nowhere along the way did G2A let me know there would be, except when I went into G2A Pay. Unfortunately, I thought those fees were just with G2A Pay. My own mistake, for sure.
Looking at that image, the total is at the very top right of the page. Now look at the Credit Card / Debit Card box at the bottom of the image. That is the beginning of the box, which opens up quite a lot where you put in your name, address, credit card info, etc. All confirmations for purchase are done down there, away from the Grand Total. You do not see the final price in that box. There is no warning of a fee associated with your purchase.
So, for me to have seen the fee on the first go around, I would have had to have known to look at the Grand Total, scroll down and put in my credit card information, get to the part where I confirm purchase, scroll back up to see the new Grand Total with a little Payment fee added on, then scroll back down and hit confirm on my purchase.
Hidden? Not by a strict definition. It is not hidden. However, G2A does nothing to help make you aware that a fee is coming your way. Obviously, I fell victim to what they hoped with my very first purchase. And I bet many people experience that for the first time and say screw that, time to go buy some coins to put in my G2A Wallet to avoid these fees in the future.
Note: While I did end up purchasing a key from G2A for SUPERHOT, and did use it on Steam to verify it was in fact real, I went ahead and purchased the game directly from the developers themselves as well at full price.
G2A: Those Against Us Are Against a Free Market
G2A then moves on to the topic they spend the most time on, attempting to refute the idea that they are a harbor for people to sell illegally obtained keys:
It is of the utmost importance to us that only legally acquired keys appear on G2A.COM. Our marketplace only loses due to fraud, as G2A.COM refunds buyer's out of our own pocket for keys that stop working, even though we have no legal obligation to do so. We even issue refunds for keys that stop working a year and a half later, regardless if the buyer had a G2A Shield subscription or not. Let us be clear here: we care about the satisfaction of every single customer.
Some developers, and a few influential YouTubers (with John Bain at the forefront) would like to spread an image of G2A.COM as a place which exists from being an intermediary in selling illegally acquired keys. This depiction is far removed from reality. The reality is that the keys on G2A.COM come from legitimate sources. Our marketplace is a leader in security and boasts one of the lowest fraud rates in the industry. G2A.COM employs over 100 people whose job is to ensure the legality of keys, transaction security, and compliance with the most stringent anti-fraud regulations.
If there was not so much evidence to the contrary, this statement wouldn't be so absurd. Looking back at the article I wrote on G2A last year, let's revisit the list of issues developers have had with G2A (and this list is by no means exhaustive):
tinyBuild had thousands of chargebacks at once, which led to the closing of their storefront.
"Ubisoft had an issue with Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed Unity keys on G2A, which they then deactivated the keys for, causing a flood of players to ask what happened."
Devolver Digital came out and said that keys on G2A were not legitimate.
"The Elder Scrolls Online deactivated a bunch of keys because they found them to be fraudulently obtained."
"Natural Selection 2 deactivated over a thousand keys, while losing around $30,000 due to chargebacks."
"7 Entertainment, owner of sites like Kinguin (a G2A competitor), purchased thousands of Humble Bundles and then resold them on their site later for a low price. 7 Entertainment has since changed their policy to specifically prohibit Humble Bundle codes to be sold on Kinguin. That article goes into several developers running into problems with G2A and other sites as well.
"IndieGameStand, an online indie game retailer, has lost thousands of dollars to G2A and sites like it, in exactly the same way as tinyBuild with chargebacks."
"Due to the widespread issue of fraud, Trion Worlds has invested a lot of time, money, and effort into developing a fraud protection system for themselves to prevent loss."
"The Worlds of Magic developer, Wastelands Interactive, ran into an issue where people posed as YouTubers in emails to request keys for preview. They found that roughly 70% of the keys they sent went to the so-called YouTubers and resold later on services like G2A."
"Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, had a run in with G2A where they found G2A selling LoL accounts and boosting services, something that is very much against LoL terms of service. Riot says they spent weeks trying to figure something out with G2A but could not find a resolution, which ended in Riot banning G2A from sponsoring any LoL pro team."
Nowhere in that list is a developer, publisher, or other company having a problem with keys being resold. Nothing there calls for the end of sites like G2A because they offer people the chance to sell spare keys they have lying around. Nearly all of the developers and companies get to the same core issue: they lost thousands and thousands of dollars on chargebacks. And the only reason those chargebacks exist at all is because of those scammers. And why do they keep on stealing credit card information to then resell keys?
Well, revisiting that Kotaku article, it's because it is easy. The scammer they spoke to specifically mentioned that G2A was one of the best sites to sell stolen keys on because of how easy it was. The scammers don't care about chargebacks, that's not where the scammer makes their money. All they are looking for is a place to quickly unload a lot of stolen keys at once. Again, as said before, the keys are legitimate keys in that they will work, they are just obtained illegally. So there's nothing to alert anyone right away until the chargebacks come rolling in. By that time, the scammers utilizing G2A are long gone on their next escapade.
It's super easy create an account and start selling keys on G2A as well, which only invites more people in to use the service to sell illegally obtained keys. After the tinyBuild incident in June of last year, G2A rolled out some new security that wasn't there before. Now sellers must verify a social media account and telephone number. They are also limited to only ten auctions at once; any more than that requires further verification. After trying to sell more than ten at once (I did not put anything up for sale, only went far enough to see the verification), sellers must go submit a ticket to G2A for further verification, as seen below.
To their credit, that is indeed the case. Limiting people to only ten auctions at any one time before they have to get further verification does make it a bit more inconvenient for scammers to sell a lot of keys at once. But making a fake social media account and setting up dummy phone numbers is incredibly easy to do, so it wouldn't be too hard to make a bunch of profiles at once time and then just put ten auctions up at once on each simultaneously.
The press release announcing this new security last year shows G2A claiming even more stringent verification would be coming, like forcing sellers to have a valid credit card or something along those lines on their account. As of now, I can see nowhere where that is the case currently.
I went ahead and submitted a ticket to see what it would take to sell more than ten auctions at any one time on G2A and received this response:
Here is a description of how proofs should look like depending on your auction's type:
-Key
Scans or screenshots of keys which you have listed in your auctions. Name of products and game codes should be visible.
What is more, add receipts for your codes as an attachment.
-Steam gift
Please make a full screenshot in a way so your Steam account's name, button 'Send Gift' and the description of your gift are visible.
Here you can see how it should look like, but it should not be blurred: https://scr.hu/pv14WO
On top of that, please add a screenshot from your Steam purchase history where payment for the gift is visible
That actually seems pretty solid to me and fairly hard to fake, so good on G2A for that. They have made it more difficult for one single account to sell a large batch of keys at one time. Regardless, as said above, getting around this may definitely be more of a hassle, but it's still very possible to sell keys in large batches using multiple accounts to do so.
The verification at this level needs to start at the very beginning—from the moment someone wants to sell a key on G2A. Right now just requiring people to tie a social media account and phone number to an account is not really any verification at all. Right now it's just another step scammers need to take to sell something illegally obtained but is not any real barrier whatsoever. Before last year scammers simply strolled down the street, then the new security came in and they had the inconvenience of having to step up the curb; any real security would require scammers to at least have to scale a chain linked fence lined with barbed wire on top.
After attempting to tackle the idea that they are not a haven for illegally obtained keys, G2A goes on to attack everyone who says bad things about them:
For some developers, however, the sole problem is that their games are sold on G2A.COM – which is why they accuse us using baseless and unproven allegations.
Before we explain this more thoroughly, we want to establish two basic facts:
1.We fundamentally value and respect the right to a free market operating within the law.
2.The law does not prohibit the sale of digital goods by those who have acquired them legally.
If someone does not agree with the above points, then we will unfortunately never reach an understanding. If you do agree, then we ask that you please read further.
Let us imagine a situation in which a developer sells a large number of keys to a service which offers bundles. The developer's game, along with four other titles, end up in a bundle which costs two euros. A user buys the bundle, and instead of assigning all five games to the user's account, the user re-sells them on G2A.COM – setting a price of one euro per game. The developer does not lose anything on this sale, as they have already sold the key once and received money for it. The user, on the other hand, gains three euros (simple math: the user spent two euros, and made five).
The problem is that some developers do not want to accept that people resell their games. The developers would like to control the market and all the sales channels within it, imposing higher prices and prohibiting the resale of unused games. G2A.COM does not agree with this – we respect the buyers' rights, buyers who often unfortunately believe that the rules set forth by developers follow the law.
If you believe that G2A is 100% legitimate, ethical, and utilizes good business practices that are pro consumer, then yes this is really the only conclusion you can come to if developers/publishers were truly against the free market, as G2A says. If G2A had a lot of things in place for fraud protection for the consumer, the seller, and the developer/publisher, I couldn't help but to agree with them. But, I definitely do not think G2A has any of those things in an acceptable state. That's the brilliance of their attacks against developers who have spoken out about G2A, though. Pretty much everyone can agree a free market is best and people should have a right to sell things they own. If G2A can succeed in painting a picture of game companies who are against that, meaning G2A themselves are the victims here, they'll win. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
My biggest problem with this is that I have not seen a single developer anywhere mention that one of the sole reasons they do not like G2A is because they offer a marketplace to resell digital products. Not a single time. There are definitely developers/publishers out there trying to prevent people from reselling digital items, like cd keys, but they're not at the forefront of G2A's detractors. Look at list of companies/developers who have had dealings with G2A again. Do any of them go into the problem of people reselling their own keys? No. All of them are about fraud protection.
Next, G2A says it cannot give every developer access to some sort of system to look through active cd keys, one of Gearbox's demands, because they cannot be trusted:
This is why G2A.COM will not give developers with whom we have not signed an agreement unlimited access to and the ability to modify our databases. G2A.COM has to protect every honest seller, and by giving such access to all developers, we would allow for a situation in which a developer could delete every key on our marketplace regardless of its origin. Such an action would be damaging to the industry, to gamers, and illegal.
So G2A would set this up in such a way that all developers could do whatever they want? There would be no safeguards for this exact scenario, even if some were deleted by mistake? This is such hyperbolic nonsense that I can't really give it any credibility. This makes entirely no sense whatsoever, and even me in my quick reactions can think of a system that would work just fine (like allowing developers to just run codes against G2A's database with those that match getting flagged). Besides, there's already the prefect system in place that does exactly what developers are looking for in G2A Direct.
And it's hard to ignore G2A protecting their "honest seller" while at the same time painting a nefarious picture of developers who disagree with them.
G2A Direct
The solution to this from G2A's point of view is already in place, G2A Direct:
What is the solution to this situation? G2A.COM currently cooperates with all interested developers to ensure only legally acquired keys are sold – without any contracts and, more importantly, without any fees. All a developer must to do is provide evidence that the keys that they want to block have been illegally acquired (this evidence can be, for example, a report from a financial institution). Our cooperation is not limited to just the immediate deletion or blocking of keys – we will without hesitation, and, of course without charge, provide all information about fraudulent sellers to appropriate law enforcement agencies.
This situation is different only for those developers who are in the Direct program – since we have signed contracts with these developers, we have complete confidence that they will not do anything which would contradict the two above-mentioned facts [about the free market]. Therefore, they are the only ones who are able to check our database independently and without limitation.
Our Direct program (which, as an aside, already counts over 100 developers) is the answer to all of the complaints developers have about not just our marketplace, but marketplaces in general. We say this not only based on the arguments laid out above, but also on the fact that G2A.COM is the only marketplace in the world which allows developers to charge a commission on the sale of their games by third-parties. An analogy of this in the "physical" market would be if Samsung received money every time an individual on eBay resold a Samsung TV which had been previously bought in a different store. Additionally, participation in G2A Direct is at no cost to the developer. This program has been crafted in such a way that there is no reason why any developer could in any way suffer losses by participating in it.
So that thing G2A won't do before? Well, developers that have entered a contract with G2A get access to G2A's database. So what was the point earlier about why developers can't be given access? It probably has to do with certain protections created in whatever contract developers have to sign to become a G2A Direct partner. They "trust" these developers because why else would they become partners? Obviously, only pro free market developers would become partners with the likes of G2A.
If the alternative is to have G2A full of stolen keys from your game that will then lead to thousands in chargebacks, it doesn't seem like there's much of a choice at all for most is there? It's pretty simple, lose a lot of money or partner up with G2A where all of these protections are suddenly in place.
Feels wrong, doesn't it? It's a very mob-like mentality, and I'm not talking a big group of angry people. It's like someone comes around to your store and robs it. Then not so long after a couple of guys show up offering you some "protection" and the promise this will never happen again, with a fee of some kind of course.
G2A Direct just strong-arms developers into a relationship they don't really want to be in in the first place. The really great benefit they are offered is what should be available to everyone: tools to root out illegally obtained keys. Other than that, it's not much. Their listings for their games come up first. Well, when the developer price is $24 and the best price from another seller is $4, what are people going to choose?
They also can put a royalty of up to 10% on every key sold of their game on the platform, which is admittedly pretty neat. But shouldn't that be the real selling factor for developers partnering up to be in G2A Direct? Why is the most attractive part of the service that which should be the most basic feature offered to all?
Again, G2A has failed to provide the fundamental, the most foundational, aspect of a service they offer, instead trying to spin snake oil as liquid gold. G2A Direct is just G2A Shield for developers. They have a lot of the same problems, as well as the same purpose, all the while G2A tries to market them as these great premium services that only idiots would pass up.
At the bottom of the article I wrote last year on G2A, I talk about the G2A Direct program some more, which was newly announced back then. There are also some initial developer reactions to its announcement.
Also, last month Polygon spoke to several G2A Direct developers on why they joined the service and what they thought of both it and G2A itself.
G2A is now done responding to Gearbox and ends their response with this:
G2A.COM's goal is to provide the best possible conditions for both buyers and sellers, while providing the best prices for legal games. We do everything in our power to uphold the best possible relationships with developers and ensure the highest standards in the fight against dishonest sellers.
At the same time, we respect our critics and believe that they have the good of the industry at heart. Unfortunately, sometimes they do not understand how G2A.COM works and as such this misunderstanding causes them to mislead the public about our company. The best proof of this are the four ultimatums formulated in part by John Bain, which, it turns out that were completely unnecessary as all of the issues raised have long been a part of the G2A.COM marketplace. Most of the allegations levied against us are based on both a lack of knowledge, and a lack of desire to learn the other side of the story. The best example of this is quoting false and defamatory statements while ignoring the facts. This is why we constantly emphasize that we are open to meetings and discussions with anyone who has doubts about how our marketplace works.
Maciej Kuc [Head of Public Relations] & the G2A.COM Team
I don't think the problem is that G2A's critics don't understand how it works, the problem for G2A is that they understand too well how it works. All the right buttons continue to be pushed, and it's clear G2A's critics are on to something when G2A sends out responses like this. The responses are wishy-washy at best, throwing up smoke all around the tender area recently poked to try to make people look elsewhere.
While I'd normally have a problem with the lack of dialogue between two groups, which G2A calls for at the very end, here it's hard to blame G2A's critics. What would be the point when G2A consistently puts out responses and press releases that read like this one? Where they offer half-truths as refutations against their problems all the while insinuating nefarious intent behind those that would criticize them. What sort of open or real dialogue could be had from that?
Right now G2A just emulates old time gangsters brought into the modern age of the Internet, forcing their will on consumers and developers alike in an effort to line their own pockets. They will offer "solutions" every once in a while for good press, but don't buy it. Everything is a band-aid, or a "step in the right direction," but none of it really fixes anything. More than that, every step in the right direction is three steps towards another avenue for G2A to make money, like G2A Shield. Simple bandages won't fix G2A's problems, it will take some major surgery. We can't leave it totally up to G2A either, as if they were in charge of the treatment, they'd keep handing out the thinnest bandages to keep people believing they were on the right track, applying a new one only after the first is bled well through. Then they'd return with a new one but also have the premium offer as well; the one that may actually work and only stupid people would pass up.
Don't buy what G2A is trying to sell in this advertisement for their services disguised as a response to Gearbox and don't buy anything from their service at all. It hurts you, it hurts developers, and it hurts other legitimate third party sellers out there.
And remember that G2A is not the only place out there like this, it is just the biggest. If a retailer looks too good to be true, it is.
You can find their response in full here.
What do you think of G2A's response? What needs to be changed? Will you use G2A in the future?
Andrew Otton
Editor in Chief at TechRaptor. Lover of some things, a not so much lover of other things.
Indiegala Customers Automatically Signed Up for G2A Shield Due to G2A "IT Error"
G2A Begins Verification for New Sellers
G2A Responds to "G2A - Don't Believe Their Half-Truths"
Gearbox Withdrawing from G2A Partnership


Publications at Saunders & Co.
The attorneys at Saunders & Co are experts in the areas that they practice and they are acknowledged leaders in their respective fields. The firm's attorneys are frequently asked to write articles, to make presentations, and to contribute chapters in books on a variety of legal topics. A selection of the most frequently requested works are listed and available below.
Doing business in the Turks & Caicos Islands; The Turks & Caicos Islands Chapter of Legal Aspects of Doing Business in Latin America. Juris Publishing.
Starting a Business, Working and Living in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Property ownership in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Trusts in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Property ownership through a company or trust.
A Guide to the TCI Ordinary company.
A Guide to the TCI Exempted company.
Guidance on the grant of an Insurance license.
Checklist for the registration of a ship.
Fund Administration in the TCI.
You can access these articles in PDF format by clicking the link to the article or, if it is not available via a clickable link by requesting the article via email from info@saunders.tc.


Test whether at least one element in a collection passes a test implemented by a predicate function.
Tests whether at least one element in a collection passes a test implemented by a predicate function.
If a predicate function calls the next callback with a truthy test argument, the function stops processing any additional collection elements and returns true for the test result.
thisArg: the execution context for fcn.
The function accepts the same options as anyByAsync().
If provided an empty collection, the function calls the done callback with false as the test result.
Neither anyByAsync nor the function returned by the factory method guarantee asynchronous execution. To guarantee asynchrony, wrap the done callback in a function which either executes at the end of the current stack (e.g., nextTick) or during a subsequent turn of the event loop (e.g., setImmediate, setTimeout).


text:
Q: Unable to lock Central Inventory. OPatch will attempt to re-lock Am installing an patch for Fusion Middleware in windows7 machine.
While applying the patch(command:  opatch apply) getting error as follows:
Unable to lock Central Inventory. OPatch will attempt to re-lock.

Kindly help me out.
Thank you in advance.

A: Check if you are running cmd as administrator. This solved the issue for me.

A: Found Solution:

*

*Remove the "locks" folder inside Oracle_Home/inventory.

*Remove the ".patch_storage" folder inside the Oracle_Home.

Make sure, JDK & PATH(set path=C:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\OPatch;%path%) to be set.
Then execute the command opatch apply
Enjoy Patching.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Suzanne est une sainte martyre décapitée pour sa foi chrétienne dans la région de Grand.

Hagiographie
Cette pieuse femme vivait dans l'ancien pagus Bleonensis en Belgica secunda, actuelle Champagne. Elle est vénérée dans l'ancien diocèse de Toul en Lorraine. Cette sœur en religion d'Euchaire, d'Élophe et de Libaire serait morte le  à la suite d'une persécution de l'empereur Julien. Elle est fêtée le  dans l'ancienne liturgie du diocèse de Toul.

Son nom sancta Suzana est apparu dans les martyrologes de l'abbaye de Poussay et les bréviaires de Toul. C'est la raison pour laquelle, malgré son appartenance au pays blaisois, cette sainte au prénom d'origine sémitique a rejoint la légendaire famille de Baccius et Lientrude installée à Grandesina (Grand).

Bibliographie
 Émile Badel, Les soixante saints de Toul, Imprimerie A. Crépin Leblond, Nancy, 1919, 184 pages. En particulier, le chapitre IV sur les saints du pays toulois.
 Père Gitry, Vie des saints par les Bollandistes, nombreuses éditions au
 Abbé Jean-Louis L'Huillier, Sainte-Libaire et les martyrs lorrains au , 2 volumes in octo, René Vagner, Nancy, 1889.

Suzanne
Saint catholique et orthodoxe d'Occident
Suzanne
Chrétien martyr au IVe siècle
Persécution des chrétiens sous l'Empire romain
Chrétien martyr en Gaule
Décès en 362


text:
enum Direction { NONE, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT };

class Character : public kuko::BaseEntity
{
    public:
    Character();

    virtual void Setup( const std::string& name, SDL_Texture* texture, kuko::PositionRect position, bool center = false  );
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    //std::string m_id;
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#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Never in my life did I expect to even consider thinking that I am ashamed of my country, the United States of America, but I truly am. My father, a proud World War II veteran, must be rolling over in his grave.
My statement is not made lightly, but patriotically. My father risked his life for the American principles that he taught me. He instilled in me that protecting those principles is a duty. They need to be protected now.
Donald Trump, a person whose actions and objectives are diametrically opposed to what makes America great, now presides over my country.. He is seriously and purposely attacking the soul of our nation for his own selfish purposes and autocratic aspiration. We Americans should have a zero tolerance policy for anyone governing our Democracy who blatantly manipulates the Truth with reckless abandon in order to shower himself with undeserved glory. The man is the personification of an abomination and has not a shred of common decency. He is dismantling the pillars of strength that have defined our country since its inception.
It is unfathomable that any true American could, for any reason, create the cruelty of cold-heartedly separating children, including infants, from their downtrodden parents at the border. He and his sycophantic minions literally decided that stealing babies is the American way to discourage people seeking asylum from corruption and the predators in their native lands.
Do we now really equate innocent victims fleeing from gangs of thugs with the very gangs who prey upon them? Can we not tell one from the other? How can we tell these people to legally cross into America at designated border crossings, when those crossings are closed? When did America become a Catch 22 nation?
The border policy (not law) imposed solely, soullessly, and maliciously by the Trump Administration is despicable. It is shameful. It is morally loathsome. Trump metaphorically pointed a gun at the helpless in an attempt to blackmail legislators into doing his bidding. When they didn't comply, he opened fire, disingenuously blaming Democrats for not giving in. This is the act of a childish bully, not a leader. He has literally and cowardly taken helpless hostages under the American flag and has disgraced that flag in the process.
This is not making America great again. Trump is trying to re-make America in his own greedy malevolent image. And he's doing it with the silent complicity of the cowardly Republican leaders and followers who control the Legislative houses of our government. Worse yet, he's counting on the silent complicity of American citizens as well. Those who follow or fail to contest evil are themselves accountable for that evil.
Do you see what he is doing to us?
How has America become so fractured that any of us would tolerate, never mind advocate, stealing children to use as pawns in an effort to achieve a political agenda? Have we become so hardened by Trump's outrageous antics that we've forgotten to recognize when true outrage is needed?
Raise your hand if you are proud to see this abomination and then, if you are not an atheist, think about God's agenda. No matter what religion you may practice, no concept of a benevolent God could condone, let alone enact, the systematic stealing of children and fracturing of families. Does your God's notion of family values end at the border?
This is nothing short of extreme governmental terrorism that could well spawn equal or worse terrorism in reprisal for decades when these innocent children grow up damaged and corrupted by what we are doing to them. We are sowing bad seeds.
These are children whose already victimized families were purposely broken under the auspices of America's/our, name!
Is nothing sacred any more? Can you let yourself be led by someone so self absorbed and heartless as the President of the United States of America?
Please God, help us to save America before it's too late.
America: Hateful not Admired any more.


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