There was no crying at my funeral and I was glad of it. It made me proud to see how bravely my mother bade farewell to her youngest boy. My sister, Ayaka, touched her elbow in case she faltered but my mother stood firm throughout the ceremony. She knew that my death was honourable, that I embraced it with tears of joy.
I was sad, of course, to be leaving this life. Sometimes it had been very sweet to me. Like that time I kissed Eriko in the cherry orchard behind her father's house. Or when my older brother came home in his soldier's uniform, with a flag furled and tucked under his arm, and everyone in the village came over to listen to his stories of our glorious deeds in Manchukuo. But there was no point regretting my death. It was, after all, impossible to undo.
I was gone already when the mouth of hell opened thirty miles away. A hundred thousand brilliant souls fled before the darkness. They tore silently, like reflections of sun from a giant mirror, across the sky above our village. Trees shook, flags shivered, in a premonitory gust of wind. The whole earth lurched, as though woken from ancient dreams. My mother may have thanked the gods that I had gone ahead of this terrible storm and its aftermath of corpse shadows, powdered stone and mangled iron, the archipelagos of scorched flesh on the backs of survivors.
But I would see them. I would stand on a hillside and gaze down, with these dead man's eyes, at the evaporated city. And long before that day, at the moment of catastrophe, following so close to my own, I felt the air quiver, I heard the strange thunder. Hiding in my cave beside the beach near our village, I watched the sideways ripples on the sea – the cross-stitching of old waves and new, like the conflict between two moons. I thought the world was ending. I hoped it might, to eradicate the incomprehensible truth: that I was still conscious.
After the shockwaves, after the great cloud and its contrails like scars in the sky's belly, I hobbled back to the village where I had lived and cowered beneath my beloved's house. I listened to the shuffling of sandaled feet above my head and to the mournful drone of her father's voice. Sometimes her mother replied, very quietly, like a cat moaning in a bad dream. But Eriko was completely silent. Down in the sand, keeping company with crickets and sand fleas, I strained to hear my sweetheart's voice, longing in vain to hear her weep. Eventually I had to move. I was being tortured by hunger. I could not rid myself of old habits.
The next few days I spent in the cave beside the sea. When the beach was empty I would take a walk along the shoreline, looking at the flotsam – mainly pieces of wood, a few barnacled crates, dead crabs, a GI's boot, a charred hand. I thought about my corpse, how it should be floating somewhere out in that immensity, or trapped on the ocean bed, swirling with hungry fish.
Some course of action had to be followed. But I was powerless to make a decision. I seemed to have left my will in the fuselage, or else it had left me long ago, well before my death, when I was still a boy perhaps, out catching squid in the sea at night, or devoting myself to lessons at school. The entire world, from which I could not divorce myself, seemed to float on indecision.
Then the second bomb fell.
A few villagers stirred from their houses after the shrill, whining and divine voice had finished sounding on the radio. Who could believe what had happened? Several people I had known halted and seemed to peer in my direction. A few of them narrowed their faces, as though confronted by the smell of something rotten. But it was impossible: everyone knew what had become of me.
Resting in a moonlit wood, I remembered that night a picture from when I was little. It came from an old scroll, the GakiZoshi. My mother had shown it to me one afternoon while the cherry blossom snowed down outside our house. The scroll showed a group of hideous ghosts crawling among the living. The ghosts had been gluttons in their lifetimes, they had loved worldly things too much and now they could not tear themselves away. After my mother showed me this picture in her book, I could not sleep for many nights. I was terrified that one of the hungry ghosts – with its staring eyes and gaping mouth and bloated scaly belly – was squatting beside me in the darkness. When I told my mother about these fears, she said that ghosts were harmless; we could not see them, or touch them, or hear them. Even when they sat beside us, we knew nothing about it. And so, having attended my own obsequies, I had to face the truth. I was dead, of course. I had no right to hang on among the living.
To my eternal shame, I did. I longed to reveal myself to Ayaka, or to find Eriko where she slept and weep into her shoulder. Unwilling to leave familiar surroundings, I fashioned a rod; I made a line from the bark of a shuro palm and twisted thorns to make a hook. I fished in the cove at night. In the early hours, when the fishermen were out at sea, I would steal fruit from their gardens.
One day in September, when my solitude became unendurable, a suffocating weight, I ran through the desolate street and returned to my mother's house, to my house, where I had spent the whole of my life and to which my soul was most deeply attached. Trembling with apprehension, I stalked up and down in the grove. There was a single faint light in the house. I could visualise every detail of the lampshade with its pattern of red cherries and the simpler earthenware vase into which, months before, I had fixed a candlestick to replace the useless light bulb.
Night fell. An obscure bird called loudly above my head. Ayaka, I knew, would be out with the women, mending nets. I summoned all my nerve, or what I still imagined was my nerve, and crept up the familiar wooden steps.
My mother was kneeling on the floor, mending a gown with some wrong-coloured string. Her back was turned. I could tell that she sensed me. I saw her fingers stop moving and her body grow rigid. Did my presence make her hair stand on end? I could have spent eternity in that familiar room, with my mother kneeling as though at prayer, sensing her son and resisting her senses. I knew she would not turn, and that I could no more speak to her than fish may breathe out of water. But my death had not released me from time: I knew that I was transgressing, that Ayaka would soon return. I looked about the darkening room with only the feeble light from the candle to see by. And to my consternation, I could see no pictures of myself. The school photograph of me in my cadet uniform had given way to a pale rectangular ghost, a frame-shaped absence on the wall. And where were my schoolbooks? Gone, or sold, or used up as kindling. Mother, I wanted to cry, where are my clothes that you used to fold so lovingly? In my frenzy I must have made a noise, shaking cabinets and opening doors. Yet my mother, whom I could discern immobile in the deepening gloom, did not speak or move. Her face was averted, her eyes fixed on a spot on the floor.
Shivering with grief, I fled to the grove at the back of our garden where, after a long time, I looked up to behold a white figure on the porch of the house. The figure withdrew and I advanced to discover some green tea and plums left on a dish beside the pond. It was an offering to the dead. I took it. But my shame the next day was so great, so terrible – like the aftermath of rotten fish on a man's stomach – that I fled the garden, and the village, and the district, to begin my lonely wanderings.
Our prefecture of Yamaguchi had not suffered so much as its northern neighbour. I found out what had happened there; being dead could not spare me the worst of it. I heard the feeble croaking of survivors in their makeshift hospital tents. I saw a scorched parchment of flattened houses and fallen trees, becoming at the centre a sort of nothingness, white like an ulcer, or a quarry exhausted by industry. Close to the centre, I heard a doctor say, the sand had turned to glass.
I could not stay in that valley. It was too full of ghosts. There was no mistaking their distended bellies, the scaly and corrupted flesh, the eyes dulled by shame and despair. Living people – doctors and orderlies, stinking foreign devils with faces so reproachably alive – walked among the corpses. They may have thought they were helping. But there is no remedy for broken spirits.
How did I know they were ghosts? Because some of them saw me. A few weary eyes met mine, one or two heads faintly nodded. Others even spoke to me. I could not tell what they were saying. Perhaps they wished to know my story, or to tell me their own. I could have listened more closely. But it would have been to scoop ashes into my mouth.
I said nothing, feeling only pity for him. How could he hope to regain himself, or stay honest, when he was a shadow blown about the world?
After the snow began to fall, Honest Morito betrayed his name. He stole, with my help, the scrawny rooster from a dung heap. We broke into rice stores and ran, trembling with cold and fear, into ditches to chew our loot. Sometimes I woke up to find him praying. Do the gods hear the dead? I doubt it very much. Yet perhaps they had taken pity on him, I thought one morning, to explain his absence from my side. In the next village, I heard rumours that a poor farmer had been robbed and murdered during the night. Nobody could believe a neighbour was responsible. Search parties set out to find the culprit. Only I knew that they would never catch him. Honest Morito had disappeared straight to Hell.
As for me, my hope of rebirth was only a dream. Instead I learned, with the cunning of necessity, how to inhabit another man's body. In the four years that followed, I was a fisherman in Kobe, then a gardener in Kyoto. He was a quiet young man, that gardener, who knew little about plants but worked hard to please his employers. He had few friends. Women barely noticed him. He seemed to prefer solitude and liked to sit in the calm of a Zen garden, watching with empty thoughts the stilled flow of sand, the nodding of cherry boughs. Yes, I could have stayed in that man forever. But there lived in one of the gardens a very old monk. He worshipped in a small temple and kept watch on the progress of the seasons from his wooden bench under a bamboo screen. The first time he saw the gardener I felt uneasy. I was afraid of his placid, wrinkled smile and distrusted the monk's vigilance. When, after many months, he extended a bony arm and waved us over, I could not turn away.
The old monk said nothing. Calmly he scrutinised the gardener's face. I wanted to run. The monk tilted his pale head, as though trying to look past the gardener – or through him, into my eyes. I sensed him probing for me. He began to speak, addressing my host, about the rain and the problems of frost. Outwardly, he was just an old monk talking to a gardener. Inwardly, he was trying to prise me out of my shell. I knew that my presence had been detected. 'You should rest,' the old monk said. 'You have laboured much and needlessly.' The gardener thanked the monk but refused the offer of a place on his bench. Bowing with respect, he returned to his flowerbed.
In the morning I fled Kyoto.
The last man I inhabited was a factory worker in Wakayama. I did not enjoy life on the workshop floor, where we fixed dials on wireless radios, and soon I was longing to see my village again, to swim in the cove and sleep beneath its wind-twisted pines. Like the ghosts in the Gaki Zoshi, I have loved the world too much. Or to be precise, I have loved my world – the sufficient planet of home. It was no easy decision to shed my disguise. I feared the long journey south and dreaded what I might find there. Desire, however, proved stronger than fear.
Five years dead, I returned to my village.
My mother's house was sinking into the undergrowth. Weeds pushed their way up the wooden steps. Everything was in darkness. The obvious thing to do was to ask a neighbour what had happened. But that was quite impossible, of course, and anyway I did not need to be told. My mother was gone.
Ayaka I found by the fish-gutting sheds, washing linen in the stream. She did not see me where I hid behind a pile of stinking crates. I recognised a man's clothes spread out to dry in the morning sun. Their owner revealed himself soon enough.
Yoshi had always admired my sister. Should I have lived to protect her from such a fool? Had I betrayed her by my sacrifice? Foul, stinking Yoshi had climbed into her belly to be sure of his claim. I cannot believe that she willingly accepted his marriage proposal. With mother dead and brothers killed, an orphan, what choice did my sister have?
I crawled away, hollow with impotent rage, and bedded down on the edge of old Nagayama's farm. In the morning, I awoke to hear children's voices on the other side of the barn door. I was dazzled by morning sunlight. Above the shield of my arm, I saw a small boy and a small girl gaping at me. The boy was carrying a basket of white mushrooms. It fell from his grip, pale soft skulls rolling in the grass. I tried to speak, to reassure them, but what emerged from my parched throat sounded like a growl.
The children were new to the world. They did not know not to see me. I blocked my ears and considered hitting them to make their screaming stop. I chased them from the barn door, only to behold a fat young man running from old Nagayama's house, brandishing a rake. I could hear him bellowing as I ran through the orchard – and scalped myself on a washing line. Clothes fell onto the grass; the line wavered with a faint hum like a struck chord. Sprawling on the ground, I saw a young woman staring. I forgot at once my status. I hobbled on my knees and tried to catch her hands.
For an instant, a little instant worth exchanging with all eternity, she looked at the place where I knelt. Then her eyes slid up to the rake travelling at speed through the morning mist. I managed to avoid the blow, falling onto my backside. Hanazo Kuwata swiped several times above my head, fanning me with the rake's fingers. We had been enemies at school. I knew him to be a coward and a bully: Hanazo the Monkey. To see Eriko take refuge behind him was unendurable. I shielded my eyes against it, and opened them long after the breeze from the rake had ceased. They were walking back to the house, the parents escorting their children to safety. I saw only Eriko's back, her hair bound up in a simple knot, the nape I had kissed.
For two days I scavenged and thieved. All my victims had known me once. Now, though I stole food in broad daylight, sometimes from the very table where they were eating breakfast, the villagers blushed and looked away. Imagine the license! Raised in obedience of the law, I now found that I could do whatever I pleased. I tripped up grim patriarchs in the street and urinated in my headmaster's fishpond. Shrieking and gibbering like a Kabuki ghost, I upset vegetable carts and spilled dumplings from their bowls. I scratched at the doors of frightened children, whose parents merely moved them to another room. This behaviour of mine continued, it worsened with every averted face, every back turned to my mischief. Look at me, I meant to say, look at me, you bastards. Until, one afternoon, somebody did.
The plums were too enticing to be left on the stall. I did not see the fruit seller, having decided to ignore those who ignored me. I raised the ripest plum to my mouth.
A round, narrow-eyed, piglike face loomed over mine. I had never seen it before. 'I'm warning you. If you don't pay for that, I'll smash your face.' From behind his back, like a conjuror, the stranger produced a walking stick. My heart skipped with terror and joy. I lowered the plum towards the stall. The fruit seller lowered his stick. I snatched the plum and bit into it.
Where did my energy come from, which allowed me to run so fast, while the fruit seller gave chase? Whoever this man was – a newcomer to the village – he was not as swift as me. Having shaken him off my tail, I hid in the dusty alley behind the post office. Slumping down, panting, with the plum bleeding in my hand, I noticed that I had cut my foot.
The last thing I saw of the fruit seller, he was casting his eyes down at his palm, in which a coin had been pressed, fresh from Emon's pocket. His piggy face was swollen with incomprehension. Nobody would blame him for his behaviour. He was new to the village and knew nothing about my story.
I was meant to fly to my glorious death on 6th August 1945. But the aeroplane was already scrap and failed to get airborne. Its godlike days were ended. So too my country's. We limped away, like dogs in disgrace, to hide in the shadows. Eventually my country emerged but I did not. There was no room in my village for a grounded thunder god. I should have killed myself, sitting in that silent cockpit, with the ruin of my world far gone like a wood blown naked by a winter storm. I should have plunged that sword into my belly and saved my honour. But after the disbelief and the rage, after the tears and the tantrum, with blood welling up beneath my headband where I had dashed my forehead against the controls, I was filled with the sweetness of living. I remembered Eriko's parted lips, and the cherry blossom, and the taste of cabbage soup as only my mother could make it.
So it has been my punishment to walk as a shade in the brilliant world. I have been the scratching at a locked door, the tingle in a woman's spine, the fruit stolen from the shelf.
I am the ghost who bled.


In 2008, Sólveig Eiríksdóttir and Elías Guðmundsson participated in the operation of Gló í Listhúsinu. It had been run for one year by Guðni Gunnarsson and Guðlaugur Pétursdóttir in conjunction with Rope Yoga activities in the same house. From the first day of opening Gló, the goal was clear: to make people feel right, share love and thus have a positive impact on both physical and mental health. When it came to Solveig and Elías, better known as Solla and Elli,they acted locally, there was no radical change but perfect harmony with their own values.
The decision was taken on Friday and new owners began to process food immediately after spending the weekend shopping for the food at Hagkaup and cutting down vegetables in the kitchen at Engjateigi. Solla's creative power and passion resulted in a magical and powerful voice during the day, but is displayed in an unwavering knowledge of the courses she held in the evening.
In May 2013, Gló opened a new location at Laugavegur 20b, which has both a history of Iceland's health impact and Solla itself. In the house, Náttúruulækafélag Íslands (NLFÍ) had been housed for a long time, but there was also a long-run restaurant On the next grasses where Solla herself had worked early in the process. She had come to an old home country with a new approach and received the most bright hope.
A year after the opening of Laugavegur, strong companions were born when Birgir Bieltvedt and Eygló Björk Kjartansdóttir married a stake in Gló. Thereafter two new places were opened. First, Gló was in Fákafen, where a magnificent grocery store and Tonic Bar were also serving nutritious and refreshing drinks, while the Fákafen dining hall was designed with a new style. From the beginning, specially designed bowls have been offered at their request, complemented by fresh vegetables, wholesome protein and delicious sauces. Soon after opening in Fákafen, guests were welcomed to Gló in Hæðasmára, Kópavogur, where there was also a central production hall of Gló.
Today, the four places are of the same passion and passion and lay in the air when Solla and Elli opened the door for the first time on Engjateigur, but now in a concerted effort of two couples whose aim is to improve constantly and constantly seek new ways to meet the diverse needs of health conscious Icelanders. All product development, food design and innovation are still in the hands of the creative and energized Sollu, an unwavering source of ideas and affection, as it is equally likely to be found in an original vegetable dish, singing in the dishes or in the hug of a close employee.
The globe grows every day, both in size and no less within the number of gold coins that have formed the Glow family in all its glory.


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text:
Assefa Mezgebu (Etiopía, 19 de junio de 1978) es un atleta etíope, especialista en la prueba de 10000 m, en la que ha logrado ser subcampeón mundial en 2001.

Carrera deportiva
En el Mundial de Edmonton 2001 ganó la medalla de plata en los 10000 metros, con un tiempo de 27:53.97 segundos, llegando a la meta tras el keniano Charles Kamathi y por delante de su compatriota el etíope Haile Gebrselassie.

También ha ganado dos medallas de bronce en la misma prueba, en las Olimpiadas de Sídney 2000 y en el mundial de Sevilla 1999.

Referencias

Atletas de Kenia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
package org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.action;

import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.NamedWriteableRegistry;
import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.Writeable;
import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContent;
import org.elasticsearch.test.AbstractWireSerializingTestCase;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.action.util.QueryPage;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.action.GetDataFrameAnalyticsStatsAction.Response;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.DataFrameAnalyticsConfigTests;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.DataFrameAnalyticsState;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.AnalysisStats;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.AnalysisStatsNamedWriteablesProvider;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.classification.ValidationLoss;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.common.MemoryUsage;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.common.MemoryUsageTests;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.classification.ClassificationStatsTests;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.common.DataCounts;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.common.DataCountsTests;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.outlierdetection.OutlierDetectionStatsTests;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.dataframe.stats.regression.RegressionStatsTests;
import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ml.utils.PhaseProgress;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.function.Supplier;
import java.util.stream.IntStream;

import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.not;

public class GetDataFrameAnalyticsStatsActionResponseTests extends AbstractWireSerializingTestCase<Response> {

    @Override
    protected NamedWriteableRegistry getNamedWriteableRegistry() {
        List<NamedWriteableRegistry.Entry> namedWriteables = new ArrayList<>();
        namedWriteables.addAll(new AnalysisStatsNamedWriteablesProvider().getNamedWriteables());
        return new NamedWriteableRegistry(namedWriteables);
    }

    public static Response randomResponse(int listSize) {
        return randomResponse(
            listSize,
            () -> randomBoolean()
                ? null
                : randomFrom(
                    ClassificationStatsTests.createRandom(),
                    OutlierDetectionStatsTests.createRandom(),
                    RegressionStatsTests.createRandom()));
    }

    private static Response randomResponse(int listSize, Supplier<AnalysisStats> analysisStatsSupplier) {
        List<Response.Stats> analytics = new ArrayList<>(listSize);
        for (int j = 0; j < listSize; j++) {
            String failureReason = randomBoolean() ? null : randomAlphaOfLength(10);
            int progressSize = randomIntBetween(2, 5);
            List<PhaseProgress> progress = new ArrayList<>(progressSize);
            IntStream.of(progressSize).forEach(progressIndex -> progress.add(
                new PhaseProgress(randomAlphaOfLength(10), randomIntBetween(0, 100))));
            DataCounts dataCounts = randomBoolean() ? null : DataCountsTests.createRandom();
            MemoryUsage memoryUsage = randomBoolean() ? null : MemoryUsageTests.createRandom();
            AnalysisStats analysisStats = analysisStatsSupplier.get();
            Response.Stats stats = new Response.Stats(DataFrameAnalyticsConfigTests.randomValidId(),
                randomFrom(DataFrameAnalyticsState.values()), failureReason, progress, dataCounts, memoryUsage, analysisStats, null,
                randomAlphaOfLength(20));
            analytics.add(stats);
        }
        return new Response(new QueryPage<>(analytics, analytics.size(), GetDataFrameAnalyticsAction.Response.RESULTS_FIELD));
    }

    @Override
    protected Response createTestInstance() {
        return randomResponse(randomInt(10));
    }

    @Override
    protected Writeable.Reader<Response> instanceReader() {
        return Response::new;
    }

    public void testStats_GivenNulls() {
        Response.Stats stats = new Response.Stats(randomAlphaOfLength(10),
            randomFrom(DataFrameAnalyticsState.values()),
            null,
            Collections.emptyList(),
            null,
            null,
            null,
            null,
            null
        );

        assertThat(stats.getDataCounts(), equalTo(new DataCounts(stats.getId())));
        assertThat(stats.getMemoryUsage(), equalTo(new MemoryUsage(stats.getId())));
    }

    public void testVerbose() {
        String foldValuesFieldName = ValidationLoss.FOLD_VALUES.getPreferredName();
        // Create response for supervised analysis that is certain to contain fold_values field
        Response response =
            randomResponse(1, () -> randomFrom(ClassificationStatsTests.createRandom(), RegressionStatsTests.createRandom()));

        // VERBOSE param defaults to "false", fold values *not* outputted
        assertThat(Strings.toString(response), not(containsString(foldValuesFieldName)));

        // VERBOSE param explicitly set to "false", fold values *not* outputted
        assertThat(
            Strings.toString(response, new ToXContent.MapParams(Collections.singletonMap(Response.VERBOSE, "false"))),
            not(containsString(foldValuesFieldName)));

        // VERBOSE param explicitly set to "true", fold values outputted
        assertThat(
            Strings.toString(response, new ToXContent.MapParams(Collections.singletonMap(Response.VERBOSE, "true"))),
            containsString(foldValuesFieldName));
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
You are here: Home › When It Comes to Mental Health Support for Teens and Adolescents, Schools Need to Do More Connecting with Their Students Early, Before It's Too Late: FeelU
When It Comes to Mental Health Support for Teens and Adolescents, Schools Need to Do More Connecting with Their Students Early, Before It's Too Late: FeelU
By Send2Press Newswire on July 2, 2019 in Mass Media News
FULLERTON, Calif., Jul 02, 2019 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- "Depression, isolation, bullying, anxiety, suicides, and school shootings are more prevalent today than ever before," says the 17-year-old high school junior and the co-founder of FeelU, Amaan Jiwani.
"Most professionals and experts agree: early intervention makes all the difference in the world. FeelU for students will provide a comfortable, private and easy to use tool right in their hands," continued Amaan Jiwani.
We have all the hotlines and lifelines as we continue to treat mental health in the realm of crisis management.
"Mental health cannot just be crisis management - no wonder things keep getting worse," Amaan Jiwani further added. In today's highly public and social media, viral video world, young people are very concerned about how they look and are perceived by their peers in and outside of school.
The apprehension towards visiting a school psychologist's office, with the fear of public ridicule, is preventing opportunities for early intervention in many of the most prevalent mental health challenges faced by students today.
FeelU(TM) is an extremely simple to use mobile and web messaging app that will allow students to communicate with their school selected psychologists and counselors with anonymity and privacy. Schools of any type and size can be linked to the FeelU app, where the schools will link the appropriate psychologists and counselors to receive message and alerts as the student initiate conversations.
Learn more at: https://feelu.org/
Interested schools please visit https://feelu.org/ or email us at partner@feelu.org. We are looking for partners and advisors to bring FeelU to schools all around the world and make a difference in people's lives.
FeelU - Be Heard ... Anonymously!
News Source: FeelU
Related link: https://feelu.org/
This press release was issued on behalf of the news source, who is solely responsible for its accuracy, by Send2Press Newswire. To view the original story, visit: https://www.send2press.com/wire/when-it-comes-to-mental-health-support-for-teens-and-adolescents-schools-need-to-do-more-connecting-with-their-students-early-before-its-too-late-feelu/
Business, California Business, crisis management, Education and Schools, FeelU, FeelU for students, FULLERTON, Calif., mental health application, Mobile Technology, Product Launches, Software, Technology
San Francisco Personal Injury Attorney Shaana Rahman Named a 2019 Northern California Super Lawyer
OverSightMD Expands Aging in Place Solutions with Connelly Certified Care in Illinois

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


September 20, 2018 — Today, the Call of Duty® World League, presented by PlayStation®4, unveiled plans for an all-new season of the CWL, which will feature the highly-anticipated Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4. The upcoming season will usher in a new level of competition featuring five vs. five team play, single season CWL Pro League format, a dedicated amateur circuit featuring its own prizing and the largest overall purse in league history of $6 million USD. The action will kick-off following Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's release on October 12, with the first high-profile LAN competition scheduled to take place Dec. 7 – 9th in Las Vegas.
Today's news was shared in a CWL special broadcast from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch's livestream studio. Hosted by Clint "Maven" Evans and Joe "Merk" DeLuca, the broadcast went into great detail about the upcoming season, updates to the pro schedule, all-new amateur opportunities as well as an in-depth interview with Treyarch to discuss five vs. five gameplay coming to the CWL when Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches this October.
© 2018 Major League Gaming Corp. ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY and CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. MAJOR LEAGUE GAMING is a trademark of Major League Gaming Corp. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.


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Erwin Böhme (ur. 29 lipca 1879 w Holzminden, zm. 29 listopada 1917 w okolicach Zonnebeke w Belgii) – niemiecki lotnik; as myśliwski z czasów I wojny światowej.

Podczas walk w czasie I wojny światowej odniósł 24 zwycięstwa powietrzne latając na samolocie Albatros D.I. Służył w stworzonej przez Oswalda Boelckego eskadrze myśliwskiej Jagdstaffel 2 (Jasta 2). 28 października pilotowana przez Böhmego maszyna zderzyła się w powietrzu z maszyną Boelckego, podczas walki z brytyjskimi samolotami 24. dywizjonu RFC. Böhme przeżył kolizję, Boelcke zmarł.

Böhme został zestrzelony 29 listopada 1917 r. podczas ataku na brytyjski samolot rozpoznawczy Armstrong-Whitworth F.K.8.

Odznaczenia
 Pour le Mérite – 24 listopada 1917
 Królewski Order Rodu Hohenzollernów – 12 marca 1917
 Krzyż Żelazny I Klasy
 Krzyż Żelazny II Klasy

Linki zewnętrzne
 Erwin Böhme w theaerodrome.com

Asy myśliwskie Niemiec I wojny światowej
Odznaczeni wojskowym Orderem Pour le Mérite
Odznaczeni Orderem Hohenzollernów
Urodzeni w 1879
Zmarli w 1917
Ofiary I wojny światowej


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Henry Kučera (15 February 1925 – 20 February 2010), born Jindřich Kučera () was a Czech-American linguist who pioneered corpus linguistics,  linguistic software, a major contributor to the American Heritage Dictionary, and a pioneer in the development of spell checking computer software. He is remembered in particular as one of the initiators of the Brown Corpus.

Early life and education
Kučera was born in Třebařov (between Pardubice and Olomouc) in Czechoslovakia and later moved with his family to Hodonín, where he studied. When the Communists came to power in February 1948, his studies in philosophy and linguistics at Charles University in the Czech capital of Prague were interrupted. He was forced to leave Czechoslovakia in April 1948 when it became clear that his political writings had placed him at risk of detention by the Communist authorities.

Kučera then moved to Allied-occupied Germany where he worked under the supervision of the U.S. CIC (Counterintelligence Corps) for refugee organizations, assisting Czech refugees with relocation programs and preparing passports. It was during this time that he met Pavel Tigrid, who went on to become Kučera's mentor and longtime friend. Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Tigrid went on to become the Minister of Culture for Czechoslovakia.

Teaching career
In 1949, he traveled to New York City aboard the . After receiving his PhD from Harvard University, he taught at the University of Florida at Gainesville for two years. Kučera then returned to Harvard as a research fellow. In 1955 he received an appointment at Brown University, where he was promoted to full professor in 1965. He spent the rest of his teaching career there. He retired in 1990 as the Fred M. Seed Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences with, among other honors, a black tie retirement party and the publication of a Festschrift about his accomplishments.

Works
While at Brown, he was able to further pursue his interest in linguistics. There he became interested in the computational analysis of human language, though at the time there were scarcely any tools for this type of research.

In 1963 and 1964, Kučera collaborated with W. Nelson Francis to create the Brown Corpus of Standard American English, generally known as the Brown Corpus. This was a carefully compiled selection of current American English as published during the year 1961 in 1,000 sources on a wide variety of subjects. It has been very widely used in computational linguistics, and was for many years among the most-cited resources in the field. Kučera and Francis themselves subjected it to a variety of computational analyses from which derived their classic work Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English (1967), followed by Francis and Kučera's Frequency Analysis of English Usage: Lexicon and Grammar (1982).

Shortly thereafter, Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin approached Kučera to supply a million word, three-line citation base for its new American Heritage Dictionary. This ground-breaking new dictionary, which first appeared in 1969, was the first dictionary to be compiled using corpus linguistics for word frequency and other information.

Kučera wrote one of the first spell checkers over Christmas break, 1981, in PL/I, at the behest of Digital Equipment Corporation. It was a simple, rapid spelling verifier. Further development resulted in "International Correct Spell", a spell checking program which was used on word processing systems such as WordStar and Microsoft Word as well as numerous small computer applications. Kučera later oversaw the development of Houghton-Mifflin's Correct Text grammar checker, which also drew heavily on statistical techniques for analysis. He founded Language Systems Incorporated (LSI), later Language Systems Software Incorporated (LSSI), to manage his software programs and updates until the patents expired in 2002. Houghton-Mifflin spun out Inso Corporation . With income largely from Microsoft and others licensing the spelling and grammar tools, in 1996 Inso acquired Electronic Book Technologies.

Honors
In addition to his PhD in Linguistics from Harvard University, Kučera had a doctorate from Charles University in Prague which was restored after the Velvet Revolution ousted the communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He received honorary degrees from Pembroke College in Providence, RI, Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA, and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic (1990). Kučera was a member of the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa.

References

Selected publications
 H. Kučera (1961). The phonology of Czech.

 Andrew Mackie, Tatyana K. McAuley, Cynthia Simmons, eds. (1962). For Henry Kučera. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Slavic Publications.

 H. Kučera and W. N. Francis (1967). Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English.

 H. Kučera (1968). A Comparative Quantitative Phonology of Russian, Czech, and German.
 W. N. Francis and H. Kučera (1983). Frequency Analysis of English Usage: Lexicon and Grammar.
 W. N. Francis and H. Kučera (1989). Manual of information to accompany a standard corpus of present-day edited American English, for use with digital computers.

External links
 Profile of Henry Kučera (from Language Industry Monitor).

 Obituary of Henry Kučera

1925 births
2010 deaths
Brown University faculty
Harvard University alumni
Linguists from the Czech Republic
Czech computer scientists
American computer scientists
People from Svitavy District
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States


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'Salem's' Lucy Lawless: 'All I want is everything'
The residents of "Salem" are going to be shaking in their boots come Season 2. But it won't be thanks to Mary Sibley (Janet Montgomery).
For the second outing of WGN America's drama about the townspeople and witches of 17th century Salem, Mass., a new, powerful woman is claiming her territory: Countess Palatine, Ingrid von Marburg played by "Xena: Warrior Princess'" Lucy Lawless.
"The countess is going to be, I think, a driving force in Mary's life because Mary has what I want," Lawless tells Zap2it. "I want everything. All I want is everything. Me and my curious son move in and it's not going to go well I'm afraid. But it'll be a lot of fun … I just want to give her hell."
During the Season 1 finale, Mary finally completed the Grand Rite and unleashed a plague on the people of Salem. However, the Countess — who is one of the only remaining descendants of an ancient line of European witches — doesn't respect Mary for her accomplishment, she only envies her for it.
"There's multiple agendas for her," says co-creator Adam Simon. "She wants to seize control. She is the character who was alluded to last season who Increase [Mathers] defeated attempting the Grand Rite about 60 years earlier. Now she doesn't look like she could be that old, but we find out she's much older than that. She's here to find out who is it that exceeded at what [she] failed to do, and [to find out if she can] seize it."
The Countess is clearly not an opposing force that "Salem" fans have encountered before. She is a beast in her own right and has secrets and powers that not even Mary fully understands.
"She's more than a rival," says co-creator Brannon Braga. "She's there to do bad things. She's Mary's biggest threat of all time."
"Salem" Season 2 premieres Sunday, April 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on WGN America.


Richard Casciato has always followed his own rhythm, and his artwork reflects impressions of nature and the subtleties of light on the world around us.
Richard studied Fine Art and Illustration at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. After receiving a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts, he continued his education, studying under such luminaries as Brad Holland, Everett Raymond Kinstler and Daniel Greene. As an assistant/apprentice to famed portraitist Burton Silverman, Richard continued his education as well as producing his own commissioned portraits, magazine illustrations, and corporate artwork.
As he developed a craftsman's line skill and respect for the subtleties of light, Richard's focus has flowed from portraits to landscapes. His continued fascination with the vagaries of light and shadow has taken him from brownstones of Brooklyn to the beaches of Mexico; from mountains to backyard still lifes.
Richard's award winning work over a twenty-five year span reflects the artist's journey through life. Collectors have particularly noted the feeling of the viewer being "in the painting." Attention to detail and ease of composition allows an accessibility valued in contemporary art.
When a painting is commissioned it becomes a very personal project for both the patron and the artist. We start with a conversation and identify the subject, level of background detail, painting size and your budget.
We will discuss any preferences or concerns that you have throughout the evolution of your painting.
My process for a commission requires several photos of the subject. Through candid photos I can get a very good idea of the subjects personality. I generally paint portraits after meeting with the person who is to be my subject. I will make sketches, take color notes and provide a sketch and color study for your approval. When we are satisfied I will take a final photo from which to paint from but not with the intent to reproduce !
My oil paintings are created either on cotton or linen fabric or the finest of French watercolor paper. I then prepare the surface with several coats of a gesso ground. I meticulously sand between each layer until I achieve the desired surface, and then I apply the oil paint. The paintings will be varnished but not framed. After completion an oil painting must be allowed to dry for one month before a temporary varnish can be applied. All work is performed in my studio and I will send you digital photo updates via e-mail if you like throughout the progression of your painting.
An 11″x14″ single person portrait in oil starts at $499. The commission is due in three equal payments: 1/3 after our first meeting, 1/3 after the painting is well underway and the final 1/3 upon delivery.
If you are interested in commissioning an original oil painting please contact me at studiocasciato@yahoo.com.


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Q: JPA: How do I prevent a field from being written back into the database? I'm using Hibernate 4.3.6.Final, JPA 2.1, MySQL 5.5.37, and Spring 3.2.11.RELEASE.  I have an entity with the following field and getter (no setter) …
@Column(name="CREATED_ON")
private java.util.Date createdOn = new java.util.Date();

public java.util.Date getCreatedOn()
{
    return createdOn;
}   // getCreaetdOn

I notice when I execute JPA save transactions, for instance …
public T save(T obj)
{
    if (obj != null)
    {
        final T id = (T) getId(obj);
        if (id == null)
        {
            m_entityManager.persist(obj);
        }
        else
        {
            obj = m_entityManager.merge(obj);
        }   // if
    }   // if
    return obj;
}

Hibernate/JPA will attempt to write a "NULL" into the "CREATED_ON" field in the INSERT statement.  How do I configure things within JPA so that if no value is present it doesn't attempt to write back a value at all?  The reason I ask is because by default the value is set to the MySQL "CURRENT_TIMESTAMP" value and this value isn't used if an explicit "NULL" is inserted.
Thanks, - Dave

A: Try this for the field mapping
@Column(name="CREATED_ON", insertable = false, updateable = false)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Tag Archives: CAPCOM
Posted on June 20, 2013 by logansjog
With the release of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen we see a little deeper into the growth of console RPGs. So I intended to continue this review a while ago, I moved to playing another game: Atlus' PS2 game Persona 3: FES. This game had been on my Sunday playlist for several months, and in a few weeks I finally finished the experience. That lead to me hitting up Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and finally the last 2 days where I've been playing Vagrant Story. Long story short, I now think Dark Arisen needs to be appreciated in terms of where console RPGs are.
One merely has to look at TV Tropes laundry list of "Console RPG Tropes" that there is definitely a history here that should be appreciated, and much of it comes from Japan. With Japan not quite getting anything similar to a gaming PC revolution, more a retro move towards handhelds, their developers were not afraid of creating primarily for consoles. While the current state of the nations developer population might be questioned their past is not. And in my estimation progression of the system is really key to this history.
Dark Arisen is a pocket of energy. Good, bad, Dragon's Dogma was definitely a mix of fun combat and repetitive backtracking/dull storytelling. Dark Arisen is more focused by leagues. While the story behind Dogma seems to be that development realities only allowed a portion of the planned game to materialize. However, Dark Arisen actually used a stripped down experience to accentuate the experience. Using text to get atmospheric stories of pawns and arisen from the past, all called to the dungeon and finding themselves trapped on this evil island.
I guess I jumped past a few facts. Dark Arisen, the re-release of Dragon's Dogma with a new dungeon is Capcom going back t the console RPG space. The game is unique, in that the new content isn't really useful until you've leveled your character up enough in the original content. That original content so polarized people that it instilled a strong fan-base. Those that could play past the main quest and its fairly cliché sequences were able to open up the final dungeon and when the awesome monster fights were now constructed one after another the game created a unique tension and challenge most games inhabiting this sector, or genre, couldn't match. This particular aspect is what fans demanded, and Capcom's Dark Arisen is the answer.
With a dark sense to the new landscape new gear also arrives. While the addition of new skills was in reality just skill rings, the new weapons and armors continue the issue of power-creep in late game RPGs. The real problem with the original game was that eventually everyone leveled past any difficulty. Even with the new content's inherent difficulty once I finished my first run through the dungeon's 3rd stratum I didn't have any problem progressing through all 3 stratum a second time. The new weapons and armor are all way more powerful than what the game had in before. While all the games gear has the same upgrade balancing, the better gear always requires more rare items from more dangerous areas with the new additions requiring players attempt many kills of the most powerful enemies in all of the game, the very act of getting the upgrade materials will level your characters up.
Granted, I like the ease to which players can advance with the new content. Where the original game would have players going on 20 minute hikes across the entirety of Gransys looking for a particular creature, like a dragon, the new content just introduces dangerous enemies randomly. The idea is that the air is heavy and monsters can smell the blood from fresh kills, but the reality is every kill slowly changes the probability that a monster appears. If one wants to just run past the enemies if the spawns are causing trouble.
The game, while not perfect, is an attempt to draw some fresh blood, see what I did there, into the console RPG scene. While many developers are attempting to create bigger worlds this team has instead focused on going deeper, creating an environment that requires players to explore and adapt to the subtleties inherent within the combat system. With this release I hope this team has cemented how to leverage environments to test mechanics because any further releases could surely be impressive. Lets just hope along the way their storytelling grows some too.
| Tagged CAPCOM, Console RPGS, Dragon's Dogma, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Dragons, RPGs	| Leave a comment
Posted on May 20, 2013 by logansjog
So I picked up Dark Arisen, the re-release of Dragon's Dogma. I wanted to try it out, but I didn't use my old system-so no save data. That means no infinite ferrystones-not as big a deal now that they're 900 caps, but still, I had to start at the beginning.
I've never really pushed myself this hard to get a playthrough of a game in, I had to really try to get to a decent level to take on the new content. Basically they "listened" to fan feedback and created new content for later in the experience. One of the games core issues is that
the game isn't set up really well for getting higher leveled characters. What most people found playing this game is that if you made it through the vapid and poorly written main questline you had a chance to say "screw the pleasantries" and engage in really genuinely fun combat that was challenging in a portion of the game called the everfall-only open "post-game".
What happens is, once you actually choose to jump through to the next playthrough the enemies are still as difficult as the first time. No bump in damage, no higher defensive stats-just killing wolves instead of hellhounds. Good move if you are moving from a powerful and methodically crafted warrior into a magic class without any stats yet, bad for people who have built up their characters at all. The new game plus spectrum is a serious let-down. Though the main-quest was always a chore, with the plus that any gear you wear through the final dragon battle would become upgraded to the highest tier-Dragonforged.
Yeah, a lot of effort for that free gear. So they made something to do while finishing your chores, a difficult dungeon filled with randomness and exceptional gear to roam ad infinitum while finishing any new playthroughs.
I pushed myself to finish the main quest, quite early I thought, but still a bore-espescialy so when there isn't any "wonder" in the situation. One of the reasons this game reviewed so poorly was what it looked like. It appeared to be an open world RPG on par with what many western developers have begun to create, like Bioware or Bethesda. In reality the open world was just to make the battles free range. In an attempt to 'out Dark Souls Dark Souls' the developers created a larger world with trappings like relationships and side-quests, all while forgetting to express the dungeon crawl mentality behind it all. And to top it off the game was cheap. What probably should have been a larger world, with more interesting quests and more dungeons to explore was often going back to the same places for a new quest. Exploring lost it's umph once a gamer realized there would always be a chimera here, a cyclops there, the randomness only felt like it because some monsters moved based on your quest progression.
Replaying the game this has been really apparent. It's kind of sad, a unique game so completely hampered, likely they didn't really intend to create the end product but changes had to go in. I don't know, but one thing I found out is that a huge amount of quests, or side-quests I should say, are able to be bugged. It never happened to me before, probably because I was attempting to do some of them, but if you skip a couple you won't be able to do a lot of the quests later in the game.
Not a bother now that there's Bitterblack Isle. This is the chance for the development team to do a dungeon crawling homage, this time with actual random battles, less rote story, and even less art assets somehow. The modular level design is unique in it's ability for gamers to feel like they know the best way to deal with a situation. Considering that this area will be just like a previous one you can do things like scope out the situation stealthily even on your first attempt. Unless your pawns get their own idea.
Yes, the big "advancement" of the game really falls on it's face in this expansion. The pawn AI, the characters who you create, choose a class and skills/spells, and loan out/rent from friends, that AI has real problems with this new content. Being that the new content has new monsters a huge amount of people whose pawns you pick up don't have the content, so they haven't "learned" anything about the new monsters. This means they choose less than ideal tactics constantly, all the while spouting off about aught and naught, et al.
Whoever decided on this voice acting direction is just a bad person.
While the new content is difficult, it's the pawns that give you a huge headache. Unless they are just uber-powerful it's quite difficult to keep them from killing you. They don't work well with the new smaller environs, and when they start dropping you constantly find yourself trying to keep everyone from dying. The idea that only the main character can revive the fallen AI allies makes less sense in this dungeon than ever.
As well the "new skills" are actually rings. Randomly generated rings, so if the skill you want doesn't come up you can't use it, and often you have to choose between one skill or another at the cost of lowered debilitation resistance. And whoever decided that debilitations or status ailments should be such a big part of the game should have made a few quests detailing the way to deal with this stuff. I have, from my last playthrough, found so much of my carry weight comprised of medicine to heal one debilitation or another I barely have the average weight limit.
While the new gear does fundamentally change how people play, where you used to need to balance what classes you played as to have decent health and stamina, or health and magic, you can now(if you get the right rings/armors) just push for what you wanted in the first place be it huge stamina and attack or health and defense…But this is all super random.
While people perfected finding the right box to get their "loot" in the Everfall dungeons last year, now your items are vouchers. Cursed loot needing to be purified at the start of the dungeon, so get your items however and reconvene with Orla to purify your gear and possibly get that ring, that sword that allows you to deal without he new super damaging enemies.
The first breakthrough for me was that you should probably not kill every enemy. For one thing I was too low level to kill many enemies when I first entered, but after several encounters with Elder Ogres I can say that I can't beat the things and they only show up if I have a pile of corpses around. That's another element of this dungeons randomness, every corpse raises the odds that a powerful enemy will spawn. So, it took me a while to realize that this ogre that was grinding my gears wasn't a permanent part of the level, he just showed up because I killed some enemies I should have ran past.
For the long term players, the level 120s or 180s, this isn't a problem, in fact it's music to their ears considering the ONE SAVE FILE POLICY. Yeah, they haven't been able to enjoy a challenge, outside of the original games online boss, for a long time. Considering a new game would mean no playing around with all the gear they had found it would be a huge waste.
So, while I have'n finished the title, I can say it is a unique venture. Shining light on the pawns means the stress and wear of the system shows. Expanding the difficulty means there is a long time new players have to play before the new content is available, and many early adopters still won't find it as challenging as expected. The new skills and gear aren't what they seemed, but it's Capcom, so…
Capcom took a unique venture with this game, and pushing out this new content means they must have future plans regarding role playing. Or that they wanted to turn a planned sequel into a re-release and give up. But based on the PS4 demo titled "Deep Down" with a dungeon crawl motif I feel they want to continue down this path, whatever the obstacles may be.
| Tagged CAPCOM, Dark Arisen, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Dungeon Crawler	| Leave a comment


Grandson: Grandpa Bob, I have a real good friend.
Me: That's wonderful! Who is it?
Grandson: Jesus is my best friend.
After a moment of dumbstruck silence, I asked, "How can anyone who may or may not have lived over 2,000 years ago be your best friend?" Of course, there was no answer. But my daughter-in-law said, "That's all right. He learned that when he was in kindergarten at St. Pius." I was told by several adults at the table to drop the subject and not give another of my lecturers on humanism.
What can grandparents do when their grandchildren are being raised in a traditional religion? Not a whole lot, I think, but it's not a hopeless cause. Here's some of what I've done:.
Read Arthur Dobrin's Teaching Right from Wrong: 40 Things You Can Do to Raise a Moral Child, which is helpful for grandparents too. Here are just four of the 40 things: Give your children books that show different kinds of people playing, working, and living together; live your life as you want them to lead theirs; comment on compassionate behavior and let them know that caring is an important value; let them know what you value and why.
Dan Barker's Maybe Yes, Maybe No; Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong; and Just Pretend: A Freethought Book for Children are excellent starters, as are Hy Ruchlis' How Do You Know It's True: Discovering the Difference Between Science and Superstition and Helen Bennett's Humanism, What's That? A Book for Curious Kids which is great for explaining your values.
The resources of The Teachers' Press and particularly "Thinking Logically: A Study of Common Fallacies" are indispensable. The latter includes a student text and two teachers' manuals. Each of the 13 fallacies conclude with questions to ask to avoid falling into the fallacy described, e.g., thinking that something is true because it is stated by someone who claims to be an "authority" and thinking that the truth about something can be determined by the number of people who believe it.
Before joining the AHA, I served as coordinator of school-based service-learning in Learn and Serve America, which was then a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. So I realize it is not just books that should be provided but also your hands and feet. There are many community services in which you and your grandchildren can be engaged. They will see that a person can be good without god as the motivator. Some examples: working together in soup kitchens, tutoring ESL children, and assisting at homeless shelters and animal shelters.
Since both of my grandsons are whizzes at tennis, I've suggested that they teach others, including Special Olympics kids, how to play the game. Both are becoming fluent in Spanish and could translate their favorite books into that language. And since I am something of a "recycling nut," you can be sure they are now becoming little acorns.
You can teach grandchildren to be compassionate and caring and to reason and seek evidence for their thoughts. Do it by example.
Bob Bhaerman, Ed.D., is an educational consultant for the American Humanist Association.


Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is surrounded by quite a bit of controversy at this time. It's definitely died down since James Gunn was fired from the project earlier this year, but that doesn't change how fans feel about it. The movie has been delayed from its initial 2020 release date, and it's currently unknown at this time when we'll see it.
Marvel Studios always has a plan in place, and while they're still said to be using Gunn's GOTG 3 script, obviously, a new director will be in place. A lot of people viewed Disney's firing of the director as a silly knee-jerk reaction, but given the nature of the tweets the director was fired for, and Disney's family first image, it wasn't really much of a surprise.
Here's hoping Guardians of the Galaxy 3 will still live up to the high expectations that MCU fans definitely have for it, given the last two films.
We'll presumably see some of the Guardians characters in Avengers: Endgame, which is due out this April.
Are you excited for Guardians of the Galaxy 3? Be sure to tell us all of your thoughts in the comments section down below!


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Author`s name Pravda.Ru
Soldier mother's protest gains popularity
Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who has been camped outside President Bush's ranch near Crawford, Texas, took her antiwar protest to the Internet Wednesday, joining a conference call with bloggers around the country, along with a stray congresswoman. A lot of women supported her idea of staying near President's ranch and decided to unite their forces in the protest.
Local authorities and activists also are gearing up for a possible confrontation Friday. The group's protest site sits beside a two-lane country road between Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch and the Broken Spoke Ranch, where his top campaign fundraisers are invited to a barbecue with the president.
Sheehan, who has been demanding an audience with the president, told the bloggers that she has felt intimidated by the Secret Service, has been awakened in the middle of the night by thunderstorms and has a sore throat. But, Sheehan said, she has no plans to end her vigil until Bush meets with her to discuss the war, he goes back to the White House or she is arrested. "This is going to be a very, very long haul," Sheehan said, in a call hosted by Democratic strategist and Internet guru Joe Trippi. Trippi, who managed Howard Dean's presidential campaign, urged the bloggers to write about her protest on their individual sites. The liberal online advocacy group MoveOn.org is also taking up Sheehan's cause, soliciting signatures for a petition in support of her cause and announcing plans to run an ad in the local paper, the Waco Tribune-Herald.
Many of the bloggers on the call gushed over her protest ("We love you, Cindy") while Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) also chimed in to express her support, Washington Post inhforms.
Sheehan, who earlier this week described her protest on the popular liberal blog Daily Kos, complained that the mainstream news media have not paid enough attention to her cause - although she was interviewed Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition" - and asked the bloggers for their support. "If we didn't have the Internet, none of us would really know what was truly going on," she said. "This is something that can't be ignored."
The base for the protesters — these and others over the past three years — is a modest two-bedroom bungalow near the center of town with the grand name of the Crawford Peace House. Since 2002, it has served as refuge, kitchen, laundry, flophouse and launchpad for thousands of protesters in this town of 705 residents, USA Today reports.
Operating on a shoestring, the protest center has been an annoyance for the White House and an embarrassment to some town residents. But it often has succeeded in its goal of getting publicity for a range of causes and groups at odds with the administration.
This spring, protesters even won a $43,000 settlement from the town, McLennan County and the Texas Department of Public Safety after a judge ruled that the arrest of five demonstrators in 2003 was unconstitutional. Their protest had begun and ended at the Peace House.
Last summer, the Peace House screened Michael Moore's anti-war documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, in a parking lot near the Crawford High School football stadium. More than 3,000 people attended from as far away as North Dakota and helped the group raise $16,000.
When groups arrive, the Peace House can feed 400 to 500 at a time from a kitchen outfitted with stainless steel tables, industrial-size woks and a commercial stove. There are 20 sleeping bags for those who want to spend the night. Organizers plan to buy 20 hammocks today for those who want to rest in the garden, according to USA Today.
"We ran out of steam last month, and we couldn't pay our phone bill," says Hadi Jawad, another co-founder who sells heavy equipment in Dallas. He became politically active in 1998 to protest international sanctions against Iraq. The publicity about Sheehan has turned things around again, he says. "Now we're getting support from all over the country."


Lord's Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen, who arrived Wednesday in The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court, is remembered by his grandmother as a victim himself, having been kidnapped as a boy by the LRA and turned into a child soldier.
Ongwen's grandmother Anna Angeeyo, 80, told Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper that she last saw him in 1990 as "an innocent and quiet" boy "who liked digging." Ongwen was abducted by the LRA as he came back from a primary school in northern Uganda, she said.


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Selena Gomez Shows Her Strength After Social Media Break: "I Am Proud of the Person I Am Becoming"
Back on the gram, the "Same Old Love" singer is looking forward
Michael Cerio
Frederick M. Brown / Stringer
In September, Selena Gomez took a break from social media, deciding instead to focus on herself after a tumultuous year.
"As much as I am grateful for the voice that social media gives each of us, I am equally grateful to be able to step back and live my life present to the moment I have been given" she wrote on Instagram at the time. "Kindness and encouragement only for a bit! Just remember- negative comments can hurt anybody's feelings."
Related: There's a New 'Most Liked' Picture on Instagram
On Monday the singer returned after almost four months, posting several photos of herself and a few words about her own journey. "Last year was definitely a year of self-reflection, challenges and growth" she writes. "It's always those challenges which show you who you are and what you are capable of overcoming. Trust me, it's not easy, but I am proud of the person I am becoming and look forward to the year ahead. Love you all."
It's been awhile since you have heard from me, but I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year and to thank you for your love and support. Last year was definitely a year of self-reflection, challenges and growth. It's always those challenges which show you who you are and what you are capable of overcoming. Trust me, it's not easy, but I am proud of the person I am becoming and look forward to the year ahead. Love you all.
A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Jan 14, 2019 at 2:09pm PST
Many wonder if this means her third solo studio album is on the way. After a string of singles, the word was last summer that her new album was finished, but it seems some personal matters might have delayed the release. The album would be Gomez's first since Revival was released in 2015.
Selena Gomez is one of the most followed accounts on Instagram. With 144 million followers, she is only outnumbered by Cristiano Ronaldo.


Multi-zone air conditioners, as opposed to single zone ones, are for larger areas than a single room. They offer the purchaser a specialized system that activates two or three interior units that are physically in separate quarters.
Each of these indoor units features its own remote battery driven temperature control, thus freeing the customer to command the temperature individually in diverse rooms. Additionally some of the models provide you with an unbeatable plasma air purifying system and defrost controls.
The LG mini split outdoor unit is extremely quiet and neighbor friendly as well. Stand more than just a few paces away and you'll be amazed at what you don't hear. LG's rigorous design and construction standards are responsible for sound levels of as low as 21 dbA, among the lowest offered by any air conditioning system you can buy.


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Q: Make a Java class visible from any ClassLoader I'm using a Java Agent (Agent.class) to transform a method in a program (Program.class) in a way that includes a call to the Agent class.
public Program.getMultiplier()F:
    ALOAD 1
    ALOAD 2
    FDIV
+   INVOKESTATIC Agent.getCustomMultiplier(F)F
    FRETURN

I've inspected the class loaders and their parents of both Agent and Program classes, and their hierarchy looks like this:

*

*Agent.class: AppClassLoader <- PlatformClassLoader <- null

*Program.class: URLClassLoader <- PlatformClassLoader <- null
When the Program executes the added INVOKESTATIC instruction, it throws a ClassNotFoundException -- it cannot find the Agent class as it was loaded by a different class loader.
As a temporary solution, I've tried forcing AppClassLoader to become a parent of URLClassLoader with reflection, which works in older Java versions but has been removed since Java 12.
Is there a more reliable way to make sure my Agent class is visible from any class loader?

A: You can add classes to the bootstrap class loader using appendToBootstrapClassLoaderSearch. This makes the classes of the specified jar file available to all classes whose defining class loader follows the standard delegation pattern.
But this requires the classes to be packaged in a jar file. When you specify the Agent's own jar file, you have to be aware that classes loaded through the bootstrap loader are distinct from the classes loaded through the app loader, even when they originate from the same jar file. Further, the classes loaded by the bootstrap loader must not have dependencies to classes loaded by by other class loaders.
If your getCustomMultiplier method is supposed to interact with the running Agent, you have to separate the agent and the class containing this method.

A: Have your Agent listen to the creation of new ClassLoaders and then attach instances of them to the new ClassLoaders.
This way you preserve your "Agent listens to ClassLoader" interface, even if it now extends beyond the one platform class loader you expected the Agent to listen to.

A: You may be able to do something specific that works for URLClassLoader, but not all classes are loaded by an instance of URLClassLoader. Any OSGi project won't, most web servers also use their own classloaders in order to support hot reload, etc.
As far as I know there's no way to just casually update some 'global parent of all classloaders' or inject one; there's no such parent, and even if there was, a classloader is free to ignore its parent entirely.
Therefore the general answer is: No, you can't do that.
But, let's get our hacking hats on!
You're an agent already. One of the things you get to do as agent is to 'witness' classes as they are being loaded. Just invoke .addTransformer on the instance of Instrumentation you get in your agentmain and register one.
When you notice the Program class being loaded, do the following:

*

*Take the bytecode and toss it through ASM, BCEL, Bytecode Buddy, or any other java 'class file reader/transformer' framework.

*Also open up a class from within your agent's code (I wouldn't use Agent itself, I'd make a class called ProgramAddonMethods or whatnot as a container - everything inside is for the program to use / for your agent to 'inject' into that program.

*Add every static member in ProgramAddonMethods directly to Program. As you do so, modify the typename on all accesses (both INVOKESTATIC and the read/write field opcodes) where the etypename is ProgramAddonMethods and make it the fully qualified name of the targeted class instead.

*inject the INVOKESTATIC as you already do, but, rewrite it so that it's going to its own class, as you just copied all the static methods and fields over there.

*Then return the bytecode of that modified class from your transformer.

This 100% guarantees you cannot possibly run into any module or classpath boundary issues and it will work with any classloader abstraction, guaranteed, but there are some caveats:

*

*Just don't attempt to futz with instance anything. Make it all static methods and fields. You can make fake instance fields using an IdentityHashMap if you must (e.g. a static IdentityHashMap<Foo, String> names; is effectively identical to adding private String name; to the Foo class.. except it's a bit slower of course; presumably as you're already in a mess o reflection that's acceptable here).

*Your code has to be 'dependency free'. It cannot rely on anything else, no libraries other than java.*, not even a helper class. This idea quickly runs out of steam if the job you're injecting becomes complicated. If you must, make a classloader for your own agent jar using the appropriate 'thread-safely initialize it only once' guards, and have that load in a bundle that does have the benefit of allowing dependencies.

This is all highly complicated stuff but you appear to have already worked out how to inject INVOKESTATIC calls, so, I think you know how to do this.
This is precisely what lombok does to 'patch' some methods in eclipse to ensure that things like save actions, auto-formatting, and syntax highlighting don't break - lombok injects knowledge of generated notes where appropriate and does it in this exact manner because eclipse uses a classloader platform called Equinox which makes any other solution problematic. You can look at it for inspiration or guidelines, though it's not particularly well documented. You're looking in particular at:

*

*The lombok.eclipse.agent package in the eclipseAgent source root.

*The lombok.patcher project which is lombok's only actual dependency, in particular the lombok.patcher.PatchScript.transplantMethod method.

Note that the next method may also interest you: lombok.patcher's 'insert' doesn't move the method - it injects the body of the method directly in there (it 'inlines'). This requires some serious finagling of the stack and is only advised for extremely simple one-liner-esque methods, and probably is excessive and unneccessary firepower for this problem.
DISCLAIMER: I wrote most of that.


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What's left to play for in the final round of the Premiership
The final day of the Premiership Rugby season plays out on Saturday with plenty to play for despite the fact that three of the four semi-finalists having secured their places while Newcastle have been confirmed as the relegated side.
There is also still one place in the Champions Cup up for grabs.
The race for a semi-final place
Confirmed: Exeter Chiefs, Saracens & Gloucester
In with a chance: Northampton Saints & Harlequins
Saracens could leapfrog Exeter Chiefs and end the regular season on top this weekend if their side, which features only a few players from their Champions Cup final win over Leinster last weekend, can claim a full house of points against Worcester Warriors while Exeter fail to beat Northampton Saints.
The Chiefs have named a strong side to face the Saints at Franklin's Gardens and could end up opposite Chris Boyd's side in the semi-finals if both teams finish in their current positions on the log.
Bath are within a bonus point victory of Northampton's table position, but due to the fact they have won fewer games, they are unable to claim a playoff spot. Harlequins make the trip to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to face Wasps and will be hoping that Exeter deny Saints any points, with a win will over Wasps will seeing them claim the final playoff spot and deny Northampton a semi-final on first ask under Boyd.
A win for Northampton will secure them a place in the semi-finals regardless of the result at the Ricoh.
Champions Cup Rugby Next Season
Confirmed: Saracens, Exeter Chiefs, Gloucester, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks, Harlequins
In with a chance: Bath, Wasps, Bristol
Bath currently hold the final Champions Cup playoff spot after Sale Sharks confirmed their place in next season's competition by making the Challenge Cup semi-finals.
Todd Blackadder's side need just one point to secure their place, with Bristol Bears and Wasps needing Leicester Tigers to do them a favour by beating Bath at Welford Road.
As previously mentioned Northampton Saints are chasing a playoff spot while Wasps need a bonus point victory to claim a place in the Champions Cup.
Bristol Bears, like Wasps, need the teams above them not to pick up points, that includes Wasps, and for them to take a full five-point haul from their clash away to the relegated Newcastle Falcons.
If Wasps and Bristol were to pick up bonus point victories and Bath failed to pick up a single league point, Wasps claim the final Champions Cup slot, having won more games than the Bears; nine wins to eight in favour of Wasps as it stands.
Bristol Bears
Gloucester Rugby
Premiership Rugby 2018/19
Welford Road
Concern for Eddie Jones with Billy Vunipola set to miss the Six Nations


From: Notice of Intent: Revitalization Tax Exemption Bylaw 2018 No. 7261 which appeared in the Nanaimo News Bulletin on May 3, 2018 on page 5.
Reading between the lines of the Notice, it means that for each property within the "Downtown" area described by the map which forms part of the bylaw and which meets the conditions described in the bylaw (primarily the investment of $500,000 dollars or more in new construction or structural "improvements" on any eligible parcel), that that improvement will not be taxed for up to 10 years. This, of course, does not mean that the City will be able to pluck the tax dollars not collected from the air, but rather that they will be plucked from the pockets of all other Nanaimo taxpayers.
Interpreted, it means that we are offering discounts -which might otherwise be described as bribes- to those with more than a half million dollars to spend on construction in downtown Nanaimo. I don't know about you, but to me a discount tells me that the product you are selling is overpriced and represents a deficiency of belief in the value of the product itself: to the conscientious buyer it is a flag that all is not as it might seem. Serious players may be offended, while risk takers will be attracted. This is all part of the usual economic game in business… But in this case, the catch is that the winners and the losers in this part of the business game are not those playing it, since the tax difference doesn't affect either of the two parties directly involved, but rather falls on the taxpayers who must make up the difference.
I find it curious, after chiding the Nanaimo Recycling Centre for not presenting a business plan with their ask, that this bylaw should come forward with no estimates of the potential costs to be borne by Nanaimo taxpayers as a result of it, i.e. no business plan. Despite the serious budgetary expenditures on our City computer system and data collection, no estimates of the number of properties which could, as matters now stand and with an investment of $500,000 or more, be eligible to take part, or, as an extension, the taxes which could be shifted to general taxpayers to make up the difference. Nor does it examine the effects of changes in zoning, site requirements, etc. which could modify the liability of taxpayers under this scheme.
It strikes me that sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander and that a long hard business plan look at this bylaw and its effects, not only on the downtown, but on the whole of Nanaimo should be undertaken before it is passed.
NOTE: The shorter version below was put on Facebook, I'd be interested in your comments and questions on the two versions… Facebook does not include much in the way of text format discrimination.
After coughing up $17+ million dollars for the Fire Station downtown, what's the next task for the taxpayers of Nanaimo?
Got a half million or more burning a hole in your pocket? If you own or buy a downtown property which meets the criteria of the DRTEP (Downtown Revitalization Tax Exemption Program) you can get 18% of your structural improvements paid for by the citizens of Nanaimo over the 10 years of the exemption (mil rate for business is .0178). This works out to about $8900 dollars per $500,000 investment per year or 89,000 over the ten year period. Put all the possible such exemptions in the downtown together and you will get the sum which the rest of us will have to come up with to make up the difference. (The Conference Hotel by itself should be about 40 times the half million dollar figure.) Does this make sense if you have $500,000 or more to invest?? Does it make sense if you don't have a half million, but will pay for it anyway?? Where is the business plan?? What are the stakes?? Qui bono??


The experience in the hospital with my father-in-law recently brought back a lot of memories from 15 years ago with my mom and her treatment for cancer. She relapsed several years ago and has now been gone for over two years but it could have been last month for all I knew.
Memories are very powerful. They are a uniquely human experience. Without our memories, life would have very little context. So, whether the memories are good or bad they have value.
I'll share a few memories that were turning points in my life.
When I was quite young (7 or 8 I imagine), I was taking tap dancing lessons. I can still move through the "shuffle ball change" in my mind. We had a recital where family and friends came to watch us perform. I was in the spotlight and loved it.
The year before, I was Little Red Riding Hood in my Kindergarten play. My memories of that experience are not as vivid but I obviously loved performing.
That would soon change but it makes me feel good to remember my love of performing.
Soon after the tap dancing recital moment, my mom and dad who had been separated decided to get back together. For most kids, I'm sure this would have been a dream come true. I knew that was not likely to be the case.
Dad had decided that we needed a fresh start and moved us to Colorado from Texas. Colorado is beautiful but it is light years away from Texas in many ways. Not necessarily good or bad…just different.
I had quite a Texas twang that was not appreciated in Colorado. Being the little over-achiever, imagine my horror when the teacher threatened to fail me unless I pronounced the words properly.
The teacher actually recorded me reading because I could not understand what I was doing wrong. Geez! That's the way everyone says it where I'm from. She played the recording in front of the class.
So much for my budding interest in performing. It was quite traumatic.
I can assure you that the accent is gone to this day. And, I have found a way to perform that works for me. Today, it's mostly public speaking.
It IS nice to be void of the twang. I'm just not sure the means justified the end.
Memories are our human building blocks.
Fast forward about 30 years. I spent close to a month living in a community just outside of Rio de Janeiro in 1997.
I shared many stories from this experience in my book, "What Would the Sage Do Now?" The highlight of the trip (and there were many) was one evening ceremony where the entire community had assembled.
As the evening was winding down, I sat quietly taking in the surroundings.
Most people there spoke only Portuguese so I could not communicate easily with them. The community infrastructure was quite challenging. For example, I climbed 63 steps every couple of days to take a warm shower. The water was warm only if there was sun.
So, when I found myself sitting there with love pouring from my heart and the distinct feeling that there was nowhere else I would rather be, it was a defining moment in my life. I knew I would never be the same.
Within several months of returning from the trip, I sold my business and made wholesale changes in my life. It's been a pretty bumpy ride but I know it was the right decision.
Whether a memory is good or bad, it's a building block for who we are today. We choose how we use it.
Do you have a special memory that was a defining moment in your life? Please share it.
And, take a moment to complete the sign-up form so you can receive updates or even participate in the Moments of Aware Appreciation Movement.


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Wonder what else is out there? Let me help you find an agent to set up a consultation and tour.
Thinking about leaving the Bay Area? We've all had that conversation. The good news is almost everywhere is less expensive.
Just an hour's drive from San Francisco, Sonoma is all about soaking up the relaxed vibe and warm weather. There's a rustic charm going on with down-to-earth locals, farmers, winemakers, and acclaimed chefs at farm-to-table restaurants. The Sonoma plaza is a historic landmark with about thirty restaurants and community festivals all year round. Outstanding Farmer's Market, held at the plaza every Tuesday evening from April to October.
Elevation: 85 feet
Weather: near-coastal warm summer mediterranean climate
Summer high/low temperature: 80's/50's
Winter high/low temperatures: 50's/30's
Sunny days/year: 300
Destinations: Bike riding, wineries and vineyards, farm-to-table cuisine, day spas, Bodega Bay coastline, hot air ballooning.
School District: Sonoma Valley Unified School District
City of Sonoma Official Website
Napa is a beautiful city that's considered the heart of the wine country. It's a little wonderland boasting beautiful weather, stunning scenery, custom hotels, Michelin-rated restaurants, and world-class wineries. All this with a small town feel.
Known for: Sitting at the poolside, dramatic vistas, wineries, amazing food, interesting architecture, hot air balloons, golf, biking, hiking, spas
Destinations: Lake Berryessa, Napa Farmer's Market, The Wine Train, Indian Springs Resort and Spa, Skyline Wilderness Park
Climate: Mediterranean climate found in only 3% of the world. Warm days, cool evenings, and hot dry summers.
Summer highs/lows: 80's/50's
Winter highs/lows: 50's/40's
School District: Napa Valley Unified School District
City of Napa Official Website
Hailed as one of the best towns in the country by residents, visitors, and reputable sources such as Outside Magazine and Men's Journal, Bend is an outdoor enthusiast hub with a bit of urban cool:
Known for: microbreweries, mountain biking, fishing, hiking, rock climbing, white water rafting, and golf
Destinations: Mt Batchelor Ski Resort and Cascade Lakes
Elevation: 3600 feet
Climate: high desert climate with cool nights and sunny days
Summer high/low temperatures: 70-80's/40's
School District: Bend-La Pine Schools District
City of Bend Official Website
Reno has a unban-suburban mix with a thriving craft beverage scene, trendy dining spots, events, festivals, a month devoted to the arts, shopping and a beautiful riverfront promenade. Great place to experience all that the outdoors has to offer.
Recently, tenacious small-business owners and developers revamped Reno's downtown and Midtown districts, making way for a fresh new scene.
No state income tax. Tesla opened its Gigafactory in 2016. Apple, Microsoft, and Patagonia have offices in Reno.
Known For: Outdoor recreation... biking, fishing, kayaking, golf, skiing. Foodie paradise. Festivals year round.
Destinations: Mt Rose Ski Resort 14 miles away, Truckee River, Washoe Lake, Pyramid Lake, Tahoe, Arttown Art Festival, Great Reno Balloon Race
Climate: Semi-arid, 300 days of sunshine a year, 6-7 inches of rain annually
School District: Washoe County School District
City of Reno Official Website
Austin keeps making headlines. Voted the number 1 place to live in America for affordability and quality of life three years in a row. Live music 7 nights a week. Barbecue is a religion...with Tex-Mex for breakfast. Healthy people. Booming tech town. Apple announced plans for a $1 billion campus with up to 15,000 employees. Google, Oracle, and Facebook have offices downtown. No state income tax.
Climate: long hot summers, short mild winters. Rains 2-3 inches each month.
Summer high/low temperatures: 90's/70's
Neighborhoods: West Side for Porsches and Mercedes. South Side for funky, hippies. Downtown for music, bars, and restaurants.
Destinations: Town Lake, Barton Springs, Zilker Park, Alamo Drafthouse, Franklin and Salt Lick BBQ, food trucks
School District: Austin Independent School District
City of Austin Official Website


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The Maple Leafs are falling
The AmericasFeb 7th 1998 edition
And illegally holding too
ICE hockey is a fast, violent and often dishonest sport: hardly suitable, one might think, to be Canada's national game. But so it is. Invented, or at least formalised (the Dutch raise prior claims) on Canada's frozen ponds over a century ago, it is now deep-rooted in the national identity. "Our game," Canadians call it. But it has also gone global, giving them mixed feelings of pride and—more often—frustration.
None of the other 13 hockey teams competing in the Winter Olympics that start in Nagano, Japan, this weekend will carry such a weight of emotional baggage. Canadians do not just hope, they expect their men to win the gold medal. "We're the best in the world," goes the credo. With top professionals accepted in the Olympics for the first time, the Canadians have a chance to prove it beyond dispute.
But will they? Flag-wavers aside, Canadian fans are none too sure. The United States, Sweden, Finland and maybe Russia could take the gold. (Nor are Canada's women, four times the world champions, sure of gold: the American women look stronger.) The reality is that Canadian dominance ended about 40 years ago, when powerful teams from the Soviet Union emerged to dominate the Olympics and most other international tournaments until the mid-1980s.
True, as Canadians routinely complained, these Russian "amateurs" were no such thing, while Canada's best, playing in the American-Canadian National Hockey League (NHL), were barred as professionals. Miffed, Canada actually withdrew from international competition from 1969 to 1976. But the gripe wore thin as Soviet teams showed they could beat the NHL stars in North American-organised tournaments; and thinner yet as the Swedes, Finns, Czechs and Americans swept amateur championships formerly dominated by Canada.
Canada's record has improved in the past decade, but not enough to stifle anxious media examination of what is wrong with the national game. The answer is, plenty: messy fraud and sex-abuse scandals; Canada's first-ever loss to the United States in the 1996 World Cup; the junior team's eighth place—after five straight golds—in the 1997 world championship.
More alarming is that, at the top level, in the NHL—six of whose 26 teams are Canadian—play has become defensive, frequently foul and dull. At the start of the 1990s, each NHL game, on average, saw more than seven goals; today, barely more than five. Skilful play is being stifled by illegal interference and brute aggression. Even a top star admits the games are "boring". Canadian fans are switching off in droves: since 1989 televised hockey has lost 41% of its audience.
The loss of quality is often blamed on continued expansion of the NHL (and yet another four teams are to be added by 2002); and it is happening NHL-wide, not just in Canada. But critics see a specifically Canadian malaise: Canada just is not producing top-class players. Twenty years ago, the players in Canadian NHL teams were almost all Canadians; now only 60% are. The top scorers tend to be Russians and Nordics, developed in amateur programmes renowned for emphasis on the basic skills. Even with a recent back-to-basics coaching drive, young Canadians spend only half as long on fundamentals as Nordic players.
The NHL was busy discussing its problems this week. Its team owners are themselves much to blame. They thought bone-crushing aggression would pack the rinks, so they hired bruising hulks as players. Yet it is the speedy, skilful players who provide the excitement. Canadian eyes at the Olympics will be on two of their best: Wayne Gretzky, seen by some as the most talented NHL player ever, and his heir-apparent, Paul Kariya. The playing surface chosen for Nagano is the wider one used in Europe. It will give the Canadian stars the space to shine that they rarely get at home; many Canadians would like to see it used in the NHL.
Certainly the league offers them little joy right now. In its four six-or seven-team geographical divisions, their best-placed team at midweek was Montreal's Canadiens, second in the north-east. Toronto's Maple Leafs held last place in their division, Calgary and Vancouver the bottom two in theirs.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "The Maple Leafs are falling"
More from The Americas
Driven away
Why Ford is leaving Brazil
Waiting for whiplash
Joe Biden will shift gears in Latin America
Green wave, blue breakwater
Argentina's legalisation of abortion will provoke a backlash