text:
Martin McKee: Taking stock of Brexit—what comes next?
The consequences of a "no deal" Brexit are so catastrophic that it is almost inconceivable that a serious politician would allow it to happen
As 2018 draws to a close and politicians in London and Brussels get ready for a much needed break, we have an opportunity to take stock of where the Brexit process has got to and what the implications might be for health.
To recap, the UK and EU negotiating teams agreed a draft text of the agreement for the UK's withdrawal from the EU. This was strictly limited to getting the UK to the next stage of the process, the negotiations of the future relationship. With some minor exceptions it covered only three areas, citizens' rights, the financial settlement, and the Irish border. Negotiations on a long term relationship would only begin in April 2019 and, given the length of time to reach the withdrawal agreement, it seems reasonable to assume this could take many years.
Previously, and extremely reluctantly, Theresa May had been forced to concede that any agreement with the EU would be put to a "meaningful vote" in the House of Commons. However, it soon became clear that there was no chance of the vote supporting it, with opposition from all of the other parties, including her supporters in the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, but also a substantial number of Conservatives, including those supporting Brexit and Remain. It was clear that the prime minister would be unable to get it through Parliament so she pulled the vote.
So where now? Amid scenes that parliamentary sketch writers likened to a pantomime, and with cabinet ministers publicly making completely incompatible statements, the prime minister maintains that she can somehow overcome the opposition within Parliament to get agreement on her deal. Few find this remotely plausible. The EU has already made major concessions to allow the UK to sign up to it, too many in the view of some member states. Heads of EU27 governments, by now tired of having their schedules disrupted by meetings called at short notice that go nowhere, have made it abundantly clear that the deal on offer is the best one possible. Of course, it is much worse than staying in the EU, but that is the UK's choice. It is up to it to find a solution to its domestic political problems. But is this possible?
At a time of national crisis, one might think that the political parties could work together in the common good. Yet, rarely have British politics been so polarised. Moreover, throughout the entire Brexit process the prime minister has been determined to limit any discussion to a small inner circle. This excludes not only opposition parties and devolved administrations, but also her party, much of her cabinet, and even apparently, successive Brexit secretaries. It seems very unlikely that she will now change.
Nor is it clear who she would talk to in the Labour Party. The party's official policy is to seek a general election and, if that fails, to consider a second referendum. Yet, although it is now obvious that it cannot achieve the first objective, by winning a confidence vote, Jeremy Corbyn does everything possible to avoid moving to the second option. Labour is as divided as the Conservatives and, by all accounts, is also led by someone who is locked inside a tiny circle of advisers. Claims that Labour could somehow negotiate a better deal, while maintaining restrictions on freedom of movement are, to say the least, implausible, given the steadfast commitment of the EU to the integrity of the single market, which includes free movement. Those searching for an explanation of what is happening ask whether, just as there are those in the Conservative Party who see Brexit as an opportunity to create a free market state, free of "red tape", in the form of workers' rights, food safety regulations and the like, there are some around the Labour leader who would welcome Brexit as an opportunity to create a socialist revolution. There are also some politicians, in both of the main parties, who talk of a "WTO deal", although no such thing exists. Trade experts are agreed that reverting to World Trade Organisation arrangements would be catastrophic, and would ignore the many other issues related to EU membership. This proposal also ignores how President Trump's refusal to reappoint WTO judges is bringing the organisation to the brink of a crisis.
The prime minister's strategy now seems to be to threaten that, if the House of Commons rejects her deal, there will be no deal. To reinforce this message she has ordered the civil service to step up planning for such an eventuality, while cabinet ministers even suggest that the UK could "flourish and prosper" in such an event.
This view is not shared by those who would have to try to keep the system working, with those involved in getting food on the shelves of British supermarkets using terms such as "Armageddon". Their concerns are not allayed by the absence of any detail in the documents produced so far by the UK government, which continue to express a hope that something will work out. This contrasts starkly with the European Commission's documents, which spell out in precise detail the measures that it will take. Recognising that competence for many of the issues affected by Brexit are shared between the EU and Member States, the Commission calls on national governments to do everything possible to support both UK and EU27 citizens who are at risk. It has not, however, gone unnoticed that the spirit of generosity in the EU's approach, and that of national governments such as the French, is not reciprocated in the UK's Immigration White Paper. Crucially, the EU makes very clear that these measures will be adopted unilaterally, to protect the EU 27. If the UK government is determined to pursue a "no deal" situation, it must make its own arrangements.
But is the UK really serious about planning for "no deal". Many are sceptical. The health secretary Matt Hancock says that the plans will work "if everybody does everything they need to do". We can assume this is core to the plans as he repeated the phrase five times when giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee. The government's published advice is based largely on the assumption that the EU will agree to provisions to alleviate its problems. This would involve what has been termed a "managed no deal", although the government (but not every minister) rejects that term. Yet that will not happen, for many reasons, including that it would resemble some aspects of the existing situation with Switzerland. The EU and Swiss government have been negotiating a single overarching agreement since 2014, but having finally reached one in principle, the Swiss Federal Council has been unable to agree and has initiated a public consultation to break the deadlock.
There is some evidence that the government is taking planning seriously. It has committed to increase spending on "no deal" preparations to £4.2 billion, a substantial sum from a government that invokes the lack of a "magic money tree" to refuse claims to address the many other challenges facing the country. As others have noted, this money could usefully be spent elsewhere. Yet £2 billion of this will not be spent until after March 2019 and there are serious doubts about whether the sums already committed can be spent, given the time it will take to recruit and train new staff and to create completely new organisations and IT systems. Similarly, the announcement that 3,500 troops would be placed on standby has inspired little confidence, given that the government deployed 18,200 during the 2012 Olympics.
But beyond the rhetoric, is anything actually happening. Not much, it seems. The health secretary reports that he is buying up fridges, but an analysis undertaken by this journal found that NHS Trusts are almost totally unprepared, lacking any central guidance. And time is running out. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, representing community pharmacies, reports shortages and rising prices, which it believes may be related to Brexit. The government is planning to allow pharmacists to change prescriptions if the drug is unavailable, without contacting the prescriber. GPs in Wales and Cornwall are already reporting shortages of medicines, thought to be due to stockpiling, while others have warned that, even without Brexit, the pharmaceutical supply chain in the UK is more precarious than is often realised.
The consequences of a "no deal" Brexit are so catastrophic that it is almost inconceivable that a serious politician would allow it to happen. This, taken with the lack of any evidence of serious planning for such an eventuality suggests it is a negotiating tactic by the prime minister. Unfortunately, the entire Brexit process, from the decision to hold the referendum, to then call an early general election, to invoke Article 50 without any planning, and to fail to build a national consensus, has been characterised by miscalculations and mistakes. But crashing out without a deal would be the most dangerous mistake of all.
Martin McKee is professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Brexit, Martin McKee
Christmas 2018: Ding! Dong!—not too merrily on high
Sarah Markham: Online tool provides support for people with suicidal thoughts


I was surprised when I received the Korean translation of Dear Everybody and it was a hardback. Most translations are paperback. Then I opened it up and saw that it had a two-color interior that picks up the blue from the cover. American publishers don't do that kind of thing with novels. It's a really beautiful book. I wish that I could read it. Which reminds me, if anybody is good with Korean Google, I'd be grateful for a good jpg of the cover or any reviews that may be out there.
There's a really nice early review of Us at The Next Best Book Club. The good Lori Hettler says, "Michael Kimball has blown me away with his upcoming release Us -- a beautiful, heart-wrenching novel." Plus, she pulled one of my favorite bits as an excerpt.
I have an interview with Blake Butler up at The Faster Times. We talk about There Is No Year, the space on the page, being receptive, doubling, and a possible sequel.
More interviews @ The Faster Times: Gary Lutz, Blake Butler, Laura van den Berg, Brian Evenson, Robert Lopez, Dylan Landis, Padgett Powell, Sam Lipsyte, Dawn Raffel, Kevin Sampsell, Gina Frangello, Evan Lavender-Smith, Ken Sparling, Matt Bell, Ingrid Burrington, Andy Devine, and Jessica Anya Blau, Deb Olin Unferth, and Susan Henderson.


Our November program in our 2017 lecture Series featured two very fine speakers, who with a compelling depth of knowledge, wit and clarity, were able to speak on a very complex topic- the cause and impact of the Reformation. This year marks the 500th anniversary that Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle church. The Rt. Rev. Louis Medgyesi, Bishop Emeritus of the Calvin Synod Conference and Pastor of the Hungarian reformed Church of Fairport Harbor began the program with an historical review of church history and trends leading up to the events of 1517 and how they impacted the world, along with examples in our own United Sates and also in Hungary. Rev. Peter Toth, pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church of Lorain then discussed the various theological ideas impacting the church today, and he mentioned various examples of where the ideas of the Reformation have influenced modern theology, philosophy, even psychiatry. He also highlighted some of the debates that are prominent among Christians today. The program was well-received by our audience, and we welcomed visitors who were new to the Museum, and were interested in this topic and how the Reformation impacted Hungary throughout its history, and how the Reformation spread in 16th century Hungary.


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Home Gillman, Joan
Joan Gillman
Joan Hogan Gillman currently serves as a Corporate Director of public and private companies. She was Executive Vice President, Time Warner Cable, Inc. and President, Time Warner Cable Media. In her role, Ms. Hogan Gillman she led the ad sales force and leads the effort to deliver advanced advertising, data and interactive solutions for advertisers and network partners. She joined Time Warner Cable in May of 2005 as Vice President of Interactive TV and Advanced Advertising.
Ms. Hogan Gillman has been on the cutting edge of new technology in media and advertising since she first joined the internet industry in 1995. From 1995-1997, she served as Vice President of Marketing for the leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the healthcare industry, Physicians' Online. From there, she made the jump into Digital TV when she moved to the U.K. and headed up the business development, regulatory and legal teams for British Interactive Broadcasting, the digital and interactive TV joint venture between BSkyB, BT, HSBC and Matsushita. After returning to the U.S. in 2001, Ms. Hogan Gillman served as President of Static2358, the interactive TV, games and production subsidiary of OpenTV.
Prior to making the jump to business, Ms. Hogan Gillman worked in politics for former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, serving as his Legislative Director, State Director, Assistant Press Secretary and Legislative Aide.
Ms. Hogan Gillman is a member of Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) and Women in Cable and Telecommunications (WICT), and is a Betsy Magness Fellow Class XV. In 2009, she was named a "Wonder Woman" by Multichannel News and was named to the CableFax Magazine Sales Hall of Fame. She also serves professionally on the boards of NCC, CAB and Adlink, and personally on the boards of The College of the Holy Cross, Worchester, Mass., The City Parks Foundation, New York City, and the David T. Langrock Foundation, Providence, R.I.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts from The College of the Holy Cross, and a Master of Arts in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She currently splits her time between New York City and Westport, Conn., with her husband Ted, daughter Allison, 5, and son Zachary, 2.
Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable operator in the U.S., serves more than 14 million subscribers in 28 states, and delivers a broad range of video, voice and high-speed data services to residential and commercial customers.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Last year we brought you inspiration, practical tips, school speakers and insightful Ofsted myth-busting session. The Frog Conference 2019 promises to be bigger and better!
This year we're responding to one of the hottest topics for schools right now, in the shape of the proposed new Ofsted Inspection Framework, with its focus on school-led curriculum and move away from data-based evidence. Sean Harford (National Director, Education - Ofsted) is rejoining Frog as keynote speaker. A golden opportunity to join the conversation and hear opinions from peers on this much talked about topic!
What impact is The Frog Academy having on schools?
What's new and what's coming next?
"I feel that Frog is on a special mission and doing so well."
"Excellent discussion with the Frog representative in the 121 meeting. Individual concerns taken care of and a sense of genuine caring about the product."
"Good for getting ideas on how to use Frog more effectively, inspired me to go away and try a few things."


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Q: Arithmetic Fuchsian lattices that are not finite index subgroups of Eichler orders? Lindenstrauss' proof of AQUE (arithmetic quantum unique ergodicity) assumes that the Fuchsian lattice is an Eichler order or, if I understand it correctly, a finite index subgroup of an Eichler order.
What would be an example of an arithmetic Fuchsian lattice that is not of finite index in an Eichler order?

A: I hate to see an easy question without a proper answer, so I'll elaborate a bit on few_reps comment which really contains all there is to say about this question; his reference to Reid and MacLachlan's book also stands for this answer.
If $\Gamma$ is any Fuchsian group derived from a quaternion algebra then there are infinitely many maximal Fuchsian lattices commensurable to $\Gamma$. In particular, since there are up to conjugation only finitely many maximal orders this implies that there are infinitely many examples of arithmetic groups not derived from a quaternion algebra in any given commensurability class.
For an explicit example of such you can take $\Gamma={\rm SL}_2({\mathbb Z})$, a prime $p$ and
$$
\Gamma_0(p) = \left\{ \begin{pmatrix}a&b\\c&d\end{pmatrix}\in\Gamma:\: p|b\right\}.
$$
Then the normalizer $\Gamma'$ of $\Gamma_0(p)$ in ${\rm SL}_2({\mathbb R})$ is not contained in ${\rm SL}_2({\mathbb Q})$ since
$$
\begin{pmatrix} 0&-\sqrt p\\ (\sqrt p)^{-1}&0\end{pmatrix}
$$
belongs to $\Gamma'$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In other blog-related news, I'm sorry I haven't been able to put up short stories the past two weeks. Because I'm so consistently having trouble with Short Story Sundays, and short stories in general, I've decided to cancel those – unless on a certain week I really want to do a short story – and replace them with Story Snippet Sundays (sorry, I had to keep the alliteration) and share excerpts from my novel. Thoughts on that change? Do you like the excerpt idea or would you rather I just let it go altogether?
In book-related news… I'm published! As of Thursday, my Short Story Collection Vol. 1 became available on Amazon in paperback for $8.99. It will be available for Kindle in the near future (I don't have a set date yet), but for now it's only available in paperback. Stay tuned and I'll let you know when it's available for Kindle, too. Buy in paperback here.


Imagine being immersed in a splendid green oasis surrounded by the soft rolling hills so and olive groves tipical of the Tuscan countryside and yet be able to stroll along to the Medioeval hamlet for your morning capuccino or to dine in one of he local trattorias.
Villa al Monte is uniquely situated on the edge of the medieval hamlet Monte San Savino, in a peaceful panoramic position with views of 180° of the surrounding countryside. This ancient home has been finely and elegantly restored with every modern comfort and lies in a peaceful position and at the same time is just 300 mts from the hamlet and the buzz of everyday life, where you will find all amenities and non the less, artistic and historical treasures.
The villa is surrounded by large well cared for gardens and olive groves and as you relax around the pool you will again enjoy the magnificent panorama.
Ideally situated in the triangle of Cortona, Siena & Arezzo all of which are within easy reach. The area is rich in art, culture and history, an area which hasn't lost it's ancient tradition and where you will be taken back in time as you wonder along the country roads immersed in the splendid Tuscan scenery, interrupted only by the ancient towns where you can savour the culinary arts of Tuscany.
A truly unique position where you can savour the ancient traditions of this splendid ancient villa and the surroundings and yet have all the comforts of everyday life a stones throw away.
A friendly, complementary 'Pizza Night', at the villa, is offered to guests (on request) where the freshly made dough will be crowned with typical toppings and slid into the ancient, wood, pizza oven for a few sizzling minutes to reveal the most mouth watering pizza you have ever tasted.
Charming little, secluded cottage situated in an oasis of peace and tranquillity near Monte San Savino in the Siena, Arezzo, Cortona triangle, a lovely picturesque corner of Tuscany, which will leave you spellbound. Characterised by the soft rolling hills, ancient castles, charming little hamlets and breathtaking scenery.
Many are the cultural and artistic treasures in the area.
An ideal choice for those who wish to relax in complete harmony with nature, the property is surrounded by olive trees and old oak trees through which you can catch glimpses of the town of Monte San Savino rising in the distance.
In Monte San Savino you can sit and enjoy antipasti with a glass of wine whilst taking in the majestic medieval architecture, or stop for an ice cream at one of the many 'gelaterias' the town has to offer. Equally, the local pizzeria only 5 minutes from the villa by car will not disappoint whether you fancy dining in, or 'd'asporto' back at the villa. At just 5km is the A1 motorway which will take you to Florence and Rome, and within easy reach is the dual carriageway for Perugia Siena, Lake Trasimeno, Assisi and many other interesting places making Villa La Gioga an important landmark and base for visiting the most important centres in Tuscany and the nearby Umbria.
which are by no means less fascinating like Lucignano and Gargonza..
The cottage itself is surrounded by private gardens where you will find a 10x5m private swimming pool.
The two covered patios equipped for outdoor dining, will surely add to the pleasure of a most memorable holiday.
A splendid villa rental near Radda in Chianti in one of the most beautiful areas of Tuscany.
This lovely vacation rental villa is situated in the heart of the Chianti region on a wine producing estate with breathtaking view of the private vineyards just 1km from the characteristic borgo of Radda in Chianti.
The house has been lovingly restored and furnished with careful attention and eye for detail.
The lovely gardens, which are to the rear of the property have an array of aromatic plants such as lavender with shady corners and a magnificent pergola for dining outdoors, with cooking facilities, barbecue and pizza oven. Private 12x5 raised swimming pool which on one side is ground level with a wooden platform.
Guests may help themselves to the fresh products in the vegetable garden.
A relaxing stroll around the estate through woods and vineyards will surely prove very memorable.
At just a short distance are the main tourist areas in Chianti.
Siena and Florence can easily be reached for day trips.
The villa is on 2 levels each with external access only.
It is possible for you to order meals (with a fixed menu varying daily) to be delivered to the villa. Contact us for details.
Characteristic farmhouse near Cortona in Tuscany immersed in large private gardens, situated at the foot of the ancient town of Cortona.
The Cortonese hillside, La Fortezza and the ancient wall which encloses the town, dominate the view of the surrounding hillside.
Guests have exclusive use of the delightful 12x6 swimming pool, with Roman steps, which lies in an extremely panoramic position and from where you can enjoy the view in complete relaxation.
Or you may care to wine and dine to your hearts content in the cool of the shady patio.
This homely villa is of typical Tuscan style with beamed ceiling and terra cotta floors and has every modern comfort.
La Poventa is just 4km from Cortona and a 5 minute drive away.
In Cortona you can take stroll down the ancient streets or wonder through the gardens and Piazzas discovering the many little bars and restaurants offering excellent local cuisine.
From the local train station (4 kms) you can take trains to Arezzo Florence, Perugia, Assisi, Rome.
Air cond. in 3 bedrooms.
Elegant Villa, situated on the Tuscany and Liguria border near Villafranca in Lunigiana, half way between the splendid beaches of Versilia and the Romantic "Golfo dei Poeti" and the "Cinque Terre" in Liguria.
A most suggestive property with an imposing ground floor portico with vaulted stone ceiling, you will also find the vaulted ceilings in the bedrooms, a particularity which gives testimony of the ancient origin of the villa creating a particularly suggestive atmosphere, which will surely take you back in history.
On the upper floor the large vaulted fresco ceilings add to the charm and character of this beautiful villa.
The villa is surrounded by a vast gardens, where you will also find the splendid 16x8m swimming pool surrounded by lovely lawns from where you can catch glimpses of the chain of mountains that supply the world with marble and granite.
There are many outdoor areas for relaxing and for dining "al fresco" from the large stone portico and the vine covered pergola to the gardens and the large terrace on the first floor.
The house has been furnished with extremely good taste and an eye for detail.
Villa Aulla offers a relaxing and refined holiday, with possibility of excursions to Lucca, Pisa and to the Ligurian coast where you will find many little fishing villages sheer over the sea and an unforgettable panorama.
From the local train station you can take trains to La Spezia (30 Min)and the Cinque Terre (1 hour).
This splendid villa, near Camaiore, has been recently renovated with loving care and attention.
Very spacious and luminous and imposing woodbeams in the bedrooms and terra cotta floors.
Large gardens surround the villa and there is a 12*6m swimming pool, large Portico with table and chairs for dining "al fresco" and comfy arm chairs for simply relaxing outdoors, which will surely add to the pleasure of your holiday.
The villa, although situated in a rural setting is just 2 km from all amenities and the lovely Versilian beaches.
A comfortable holiday home from where you can easily reach the pearls of both Tuscany and Liguria with it's splendid Gulf of La Spezia (40 minutes drive) and the renowned "Cinque Terre" for which no comment is necessary.
Nearby (200 mts) there there is a rail track.
Charming villa, in panoramic position, nestled in the peaceful, Versilian hillside, far from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
A tastefully furnished, comfortable home within walking distance (800 Mts) of the small hamlet of Pedona where you can wander along to savor the culinary charm of this wonderful region.
To the front of the house, almost part of the lounge proper, there is a very attractive, large pergola for outdoor dining or where you can simply relax with a glass of local wine and admire the surrounding scenery. The 8*4 swimming pool will most certainly add to the pleasure of your holiday.
When you can steal yourself away from these awe-inspiring surroundings, you may wish to venture into the history and culture of the main tourist areas, Florence, Lucca & Pisa not to mention the marvelous "Cinque Terre" in Liguria which are all within easy reach.
Many are the tiny hamlets and small ancient towns you will meet along the way, which are certainly worth a visit, strolling up the cobbled streets to the "piazzas" (there is one in every town), turning back the pages of history, is a pleasure which is second to none. The short distance from the sea allows you to combine culture & nature with a typical summer holiday.
The villa has all modern comforts with broadband internet and satellite TV.
Enchanting villa rental near Pietrasanta with reathtaking views of the Tuscan coast stretching as far as Portovenere and Liguria.
The villa lies in a peaceful position, immersed on the hillside above Pietrasanta, 300mts above sea level in a most scenic position which will leave you spellbound.
The splendid panorama is enriched by the brimless pool gently blending in with the sea, seeming almost one and the same.
This refined home has been finely furnished with an eye for detail and has excellent external areas for dining "al fresco" in the shade of the portico or you may enjoy breakfast or afternoon drinks under the gazebo down by pool.
Situated just 2 km from a small hamlet of just a few houses with a bar, grocery store and a restaurant.
all amenities can be found down in the valley a 10 minutes drive away.
An Ideal base for visiting the most important cultural and historical centres in Tuscany, Le Cinque Terre in Ligurua not to mention the buzzing Versilian coast.
A usb pen for single PC internet connection is provided.
The narrow, winding roads are best suited to medium size vehicles.
Particularly impressive is the view over the vast planes which stretch over to the sea with glimpses of the surrounding mountains.
The villa is extremely elegant and well cared for even for the most demanding with attention to every particularity, In all it's elegance it also offers a very comfortable home, very luminous with large picture windows. From the terrace you can admire the exceptional sunsets.
A refined home, just 9 km, from the beaches in Versilia and from where you can easily visit the pearls of both Tuscany and Liguria with it's splendid Gulf of La Spezia (40 minutes drive) and the renowned "Cinque Terre" for which no comment is necessary.
From Viareggio you can take trains to Florence city centre, the Cinque terre, Pisa & Lucca.
In the terraced gardens you will find the irregular form (9x4.5 Mts) swimming pool with Roman Steps.


Designed to be easily mounted in any orientation in either ducted or non-ducted systems. All units include integral inlet and outlet flanges for direct in-line mounting. The units are produced in an ISO 9001 certified facility and are listed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL 705) and UL Listed for Canada (cUL 705).
Designed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to provide optimum air flow, efficiency, quality and durability.
Constructed of heavy gauge steel components in a fully welded assembly.
Designed for large volumes of air at medium pressure levels.
Statically and dynamically balanced for vibration free operation.
Designed for heavy commercial or industrial applications where large volumes of air are required at low static pressures.
Constructed of heavy gauge aluminum with 6 cast blades and a cast hub.
Blade pitch is determined at the factory and the blades are locked into place with roll pins.
E Series airfoil blade has a non-overloading characteristic such as is found in a centrifugal type wheel.
Designed for use where higher static pressures are required.
Constructed with 4 or 6 extruded aluminum airfoil blades and mounted in a cast aluminum hub.


text:
Curse of the Dead Gods exits Early Access on February 23rd
PARIS — Jan. 14, 2021 — Passtech Games and Focus Home Interactive are excited to announce that Curse of the Dead Gods, the uniquely demanding dark fantasy action roguelike, will officially release on February 23 on Steam and the Epic Games Store. It will also make its console debut that same day, arriving on PlayStation®4, Xbox One and — in a new announcement — Nintendo Switch.
Curse of the Dead Gods succeeded throughout development on Steam Early Access, maintaining about 90% positive reviews thanks to frequent new gameplay additions and improvements based on community feedback. Alongside the vast array of content already available, Curse of the Dead Gods will launch with a brand-new update featuring the true ending of the journey, as well as a unique way to explore the Temple dedicated to the God of Death itself.
"The full release of Curse of the Dead Gods wouldn't have been possible without all of the incredible work from the entire team and our excellent community of early access players," said Sylvain Passot, Studio Director at Passtech Games. "The amazing community that has grown around the game has really pushed it to the right direction. We can't wait to welcome all the players to the Temple, and we're looking further ahead to 2021 for exciting new content!"


DEC 3RD: GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL!
On December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India leaked poisonous methyl isocyanate gas killing fifteen thousand helpless men, women and children. Hundreds of thousands more were permanently maimed. Bhopal was, and remains, the world?s worst chemical industry disaster.
Twenty years later, survivors and their families are being re-victimized by the deliberate thwarting of scientific and medical studies concerning the disaster. To this day, they have been denied definitive information about the precise composition of the leaked gas and its long-term effects. Each day, children are born with defects that may be related to the gas leak. Beautiful Bhopal, once known as the ?City of Mosques? is a sad, disgraceful testament to the absence of environmental and human justice – very much a place where ?the world stopped watching?.
"Bhopal: The Search for Justice", straddles the intersection between science, politics and human rights. Exploring charges of corruption, graft and greed, the film follows Raajkumar Keswani, the local journalist whose prediction of the Union Carbide disaster proved prophetic. Set against the rich visual tapestry of India, Keswani travels through the Indian bastiis where the poorest victims live, and to the offices of frustrated doctors and scientists. Finally he makes his first trip to North America in search of answers.


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Daily Vaper
Experts Come Out Of The Woodwork To Slam Gov. Cuomo's Sister For HuffPo Video About E-Cigs
(REUTERS/Charles Platiau)
Guy Bentley Research Associate, Reason Foundation
March 15, 2016 4:14 PM ET
Margaret Cuomo M.D., sister of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo produced a video Monday for HuffPo that peddled several falsehoods about e-cigarettes, and various experts have since come out to criticize her conclusions.
Cuomo, a contributor for Huff Po, argued e-cigarettes are "at least as harmful to your health as regular tobacco cigarettes." It's one of many recent flawed analyses inexplicably equating vapor products with combustible forms of tobacco. Fortunately, experts didn't hesitate to discredit her argument.
"Because of their chemical composition, e-cigarettes are at least as harmful to your health as regular tobacco cigarettes are," says Cuomo. "E-cigarettes contain many harmful chemicals that tobacco cigarettes do not contain such as formaldehyde, benzene, propylene glycol, and metals like cadmium, nickel, and zinc."
The problem with her statements is that they are entirely inaccurate, experts pointed out to The Daily Caller News Foundation. The medical literature on the chemical composition of tobacco cigarettes is extensive and it is widely known that cigarettes do contain formaldehyde, benzene, cadmium and nickel.
Her remarks are drawing widespread criticism from medical and e-cigarette experts, especially her claim that "e-cigarettes are at least as harmful to your health as regular tobacco cigarettes."
"All the available research to date suggests that although there are toxicants in e-cigarettes, they are at far lower levels than in smoked tobacco," said Professor Linda Bauld, Professor of Health Policy, University of Stirling; Deputy Director, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies. (RELATED: Study: E-cigarettes Are 95 percent Safer Than Tobacco)
"The statements in this video suggest otherwise, which is simply factually incorrect. I'd be extremely concerned if clinicians used the statements in this video as the basis for discussing e-cigarettes with their patients and discouraged e-cigarette use in current smokers."
"It is unfortunate and sad that there are all these misguided zealots who think they are fighting a righteous battle that justifies lying for the greater good and is in fact supporting the tobacco industry and promoting smoking," added Professor Hajek, director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine's Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London.
Experts in the field of e-cigarettes fear videos like Cuomo's will contribute to a greater misunderstanding of the relative risks of smoking vs vaping.
"It's appalling and it's ignorant," said Sally Satel, a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
"Anybody watching this would be drastically misinformed. It reinforces all the other disinformation permeating the media. I sadly think people might see it and think there's more evidence that these (e-cigarettes) are worse for people or just as bad as smoking. There's nothing good about this."
Robert West, professor of health psychology at University College London and author of a recent paper showing how e-cigarettes have helped smokers quit, said he agreed with Cuomo that marketing to children should be restricted and was sure she meant well but he strongly disagreed with the substance of her video.
"She is mistaken in her views about the relative risks of e-cigarette and tobacco cigarettes. Not even the most ardent opponents of e-cigarettes who are experts in the field believe that they are as harmful as tobacco cigarettes and most believe them to be substantially less harmful because the concentrations of known toxins are multiple times lower or not present at all," said West.
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Tags : andrew cuomo margaret cuomo
Guy Bentley


text:
// Copyright 2011 The Bazel Authors. All rights reserved.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
package com.google.devtools.build.buildjar.javac.plugins;

import com.google.devtools.build.buildjar.InvalidCommandLineException;
import com.sun.tools.javac.comp.AttrContext;
import com.sun.tools.javac.comp.Env;
import com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler;
import com.sun.tools.javac.util.Context;
import com.sun.tools.javac.util.Log;
import java.util.List;

/**
 * An interface for additional static analyses that need access to the javac compiler's AST at
 * specific points in the compilation process. This class provides callbacks after the attribute and
 * flow phases of the javac compilation process. A static analysis may be implemented by subclassing
 * this abstract class and performing the analysis in the callback methods. The analysis may then be
 * registered with the BlazeJavaCompiler to be run during the compilation process. See {@link
 * com.google.devtools.build.buildjar.javac.plugins.dependency.StrictJavaDepsPlugin} for an example.
 */
public abstract class BlazeJavaCompilerPlugin {

  protected Context context;
  protected Log log;
  protected JavaCompiler compiler;

  /**
   * Preprocess the command-line flags that were passed to javac. This is called before {@link
   * #init(Context, Log, JavaCompiler)} and {@link #initializeContext(Context)}.
   *
   * @param args The command-line flags that javac was invoked with.
   * @throws InvalidCommandLineException if the arguments are invalid
   * @returns The flags that do not belong to this plugin.
   */
  public List<String> processArgs(List<String> args) throws InvalidCommandLineException {
    return args;
  }

  /**
   * Called after all plugins have processed arguments and can be used to customize the Java
   * compiler context.
   */
  public void initializeContext(Context context) {
    this.context = context;
  }

  /**
   * Performs analysis actions after the attribute phase of the javac compiler. The attribute phase
   * performs symbol resolution on the parse tree.
   *
   * @param env The attributed parse tree (after symbol resolution)
   */
  public void postAttribute(Env<AttrContext> env) {}

  /**
   * Performs analysis actions after the flow phase of the javac compiler. The flow phase performs
   * dataflow checks, such as finding unreachable statements.
   *
   * @param env The attributed parse tree (after symbol resolution)
   */
  public void postFlow(Env<AttrContext> env) {}

  /**
   * Performs analysis actions when the compiler is done and is about to wipe clean its internal
   * data structures (such as the symbol table).
   */
  public void finish() {}

  /**
   * Initializes the plugin. Called by {@link
   * com.google.devtools.build.buildjar.javac.BlazeJavaCompiler}'s constructor.
   *
   * @param context The Context object from the enclosing BlazeJavaCompiler instance
   * @param log The Log object from the enclosing BlazeJavaCompiler instance
   * @param compiler The enclosing BlazeJavaCompiler instance
   */
  public void init(Context context, Log log, JavaCompiler compiler) {
    this.context = context;
    this.log = log;
    this.compiler = compiler;
  }

  /** Returns true if the plugin should run on compilations with attribution errors. */
  public boolean runOnAttributionErrors() {
    return false;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Burnham says stop HNS privatisation till after the general election – We say stop NHS privatisation full stop!
Another really positive stall in Longton today. Well over a hundred people coming over to sign our petition against the proposed £1.2 billion sell off of NHS cancer and end of life care services in Staffordshire.


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MTT & San Francisco Symphony depart on European Festivals Tour
Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will shortly be leaving on a 13-concert tour which will take them to 9 European cities, and include performances in some of the world's most celebrated music halls.
Their itinerary includes appearances at the Edinburgh International Festival, the BBC Proms, the Rheingau Festival in Wiesbaden, the Berlin Festival, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Lucerne Festival. They will also appear at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and will make their debut at the new Philharmonie in Paris.
Accompanying Michael Tilson Thomas and the Symphony will be pianists Yuja Wang – who plays the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 and Bartók's Piano Concerto No 2 – and Jeremy Denk who performs Henry Cowell's Piano Concerto. Composer John Adams leads the Symphony and the St Lawrence String Quartet in his SFS-commissioned work, Absolute Jest.
About the Bartók concerto, Yuja Wang says that she urged Michael Tilson Thomas to do it with her "because it's really hard for the collaboration between orchestra and pianist …. it's very hard to be together rhythmically, its very complicated. I'm a big fan of Stravinsky," she added, "so there's lots of similarity between this Bartok Second Piano Concerto and Petrouchka and Firebird …. I can hear lots of motives in those concertos. It has a very brilliant and shiny – almost like a Hungarian folk song voice – sound to it. It's devilishly hard for a pianist … but its definitely very fun to play …. it's a very joyful showpiece with lots of Hungarian colors and lots of different characters".
Tilson Thomas says that "Cowell invented the idea of the tone cluster – a great splodge of notes – which he often played with his fists or forearm – startling pieces". He describes this Piano Concerto as "big, romantic, swashbuckling … outrageous" – adding that it "takes a special spirit such as Jeremy Denk to put it over".
Denk describes Cowell's Piano Concerto as "really fascinating …. I don't think there's any piano concerto like it" ….. "it has a tremendous amount of unusual crazy techniques. I'm thinking of getting myself some oven mitts to protect myself," he jokes.
Absolute Jest was commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony for its Centennial Season, and it premiered during MTT and the Orchestra's acclaimed American Mavericks Festival in 2012. Adams describes it as "a colossal twenty-five-minute scherzo in which I take fragments of Beethoven's music and subject them to my own peculiar developmental techniques".
The tour repertoire also includes Mahler's Symphony No 1, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5, Beethoven's Symphony No 3, Schoenberg's Theme and Variations, Charles Ives' Decoration Day, and – at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest – the Symphony performs Enescu's La Voix de la nature.
A number of the works in the tour program have been released by MTT and the Symphony on SFS Media, the Symphony's Grammy-winning in-house recording label – the most recent having been the Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5 (with his Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture) and Adams' Absolute Jest, paired with Grand Pianola Music. The Beethoven Symphony No 3 and Ives' Decoration Day were the subjects of two of MTT and the Symphony's Keeping Score documentaries, released on DVD, and also available on SFS Media.
Detailed information on the tour schedule, and the works to be performed at each festival, can be found on the following links:
Edinburgh International Festival
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
The BBC Proms
Royal Albert Hall, London
Rheingau Festival
Kurhaus, Wiesbaden
Berlin Festival
Philharmonie, Berlin
George Enescu Festival
Sala Palatului, Bucharest
Lucerne Festival in Summer
Kultur-und Kongresszentrum, Lucerne
Philharmonie, Luxembourg
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Philharmonie, Paris
Gorgeous new Tchaikovsky recording from MTT & San Francisco Symphony
MTT conducts San Francisco Symphony in Bernstein & Mahler
MTT & San Francisco Symphony ring down the curtain with 'Fidelio'
MTT & San Francisco Symphony release new John Adams CD
Yuja Wang joins MTT & San Francisco Symphony for Bon Voyage concerts


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The kinds of things we see on social media everyday though! Two Nigerian girls, both named Ada have taken to Instagram to show off their lesbian activities.
In different posts, one with Instagram handle @rude_queen_r and the other @rude_queen_baby can be seen cuddling each other, leaving the bath tub completely naked together, using a lot of suggestive endearments and even touching their private parts.
Further investigation showed that the girls have a relationship with popular Nigerian pornstar kingblackhoc , and they even referred to him as 'boss', meaning the girls could be pornstars too.
I ask one question, don't this girls have parents or family members?? See more photos and videos below...
Chidinma Ojukwu: Fake Drivers' License, Intl Passport, Other Items Recovered
A fake drivers' license and Nigerian International passport, amongst other items were recovered from Chidinma Ojukwu, the prime suspect for the murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga. Ataga was found dead on Sunday with multiple wounds found in several parts of his body at a service apartment in the Lekki area of Lagos. The Lagos State Police Command had on Wednesday arrested 21-year-old Chidinma for allegedly killing Ataga, and some items were recovered from her. Here is a list of the items that were recovered from the suspect upon her arrest:
Kenya Denies Arrest & Deportation Of Nnamdi Kanu
"I am not in the picture of his presence in the country. I am only able to tell if somebody entered the country legally," he added, leaving room for speculation as to whether Mr Kanu has sneaked into Kenya through either illegal routes or under a false name. The Kenya government has dismissed claims that it is linked to the arrest and eventual extradition of separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu back to Nigeria, saying it could not ascertain whether the act took place in Kenya. Kenya's denial deepens the diplomatic crisis, given that Nigerian authorities had indicated they seized the activist in London before extraditing him to Nigeria, a claim the British government has since denied. Mr Dean Hurlock, the head of communications at the British High Commission in Nigeria has denied
Nigeria Urges Israel & Palestine To See Reason & De-Escalate
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja PRESS RELEASE MFA /PR/2021/18 OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA ON THE DEVELOPMENTS IN ISRAEL. AND PALESTINE The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to state that the Federal Government of Nigeria is watching with great concern, the unfolding developments in Israel and the State of Palestine and urges both parties to see reason and de-escalate the hostilities. The Nigerian Government further urges the two parties to remain committed to the two-state solution and, in the meantime, guarantee the rights of all citizens to live in peace and dignity. Signed Ferdinand Nwonye Spokesperson Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thursday, 13 May 2021. https://twitter.com/NigeriaMFA/status/1392803820602892289?s=19


2002-11-25 Application filed by Ferree Bret A., David Tompkins filed Critical Ferree Bret A.
2004-04-19 Assigned to RIVERBEND DESIGN LLC reassignment RIVERBEND DESIGN LLC ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: TOMPKINS, DAVID, FERREE, BRET A.
An artificial disc replacement (ADR) includes a pair of opposing endplate components, each attached to one of the upper and lower vertebrae, a cushioning component disposed between the endplate components; and a filler material contained within the cushioning component. The filler material may be a gas, liquid, foam, or gel, including a hydrogel. In a preferred embodiment, the ADR may further include one or more opposing, spaced-apart projections configured to impinge if the endplate components are subjected to an excessive force. Such projections may allow for unrestricted motion between the endplates until impingement, or may restrict translation between the endplates until a greater excessive force is reached. One or both of the endplate components may include a modified surface to increase adherence to the respective vertebral endplates.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/191,639, filed Jul. 9, 2002; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/415,382, filed Oct. 8, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,704, and Ser. No. 09/580,231, filed May 26, 2000; the entire content of each application and patent being incorporated herein by reference.
In a preferred embodiment, the ADR may further include one or more opposing, spaced-apart projections configured to impinge if the endplate components are subjected to an excessive force. Such projections may allow for unrestricted motion between the endplates until impingement, or may restrict translation between the endplates until a greater excessive force is reached.
FIG. 8B shows the deployable projection of FIG. 8A in place within the ADR endplate by an optional fastening mechanism.
Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a side view of an ADR according to this invention, wherein a cushioning component  102 is disposed between endplate components 104. In the preferred embodiment, spikes 106 or other projections extend from the endplates to help hold the ADR between the vertebrae.
FIG. 2 is a cross section of the device. Note that the endplates  104 have projections 110, 112 that hold and seal the tire-like cushioning component 102. Note further that the projections may be designed to impinge if the ADR is subjected to more than a certain force to protect the cushioning component form excessive pressure. Unless this pressure is reached, however, the metal projections preferably allow unrestricted motion between the endplates until the pressure on the ADR is high enough to force the metal projections together.
Alternatively, metal projections may be used to restrict motion—translation, for example—before enough axial load is applied to the ADR to force the projections together tightly. In either case, when the load on the ADR exceeds a certain amount, for example  350 P.S.I. the metal projections may be used to carry the additional load.
FIG. 3 is a cross section of an alternative embodiment of an ADR according to this invention. In this case a metal hub  302 cooperates with the tire-like component 304 to hold the air, fluid, gel, or other material within the tire. This embodiment is related to FIG. 7 in U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,704. The metal hub 302 may also cooperate with the endplates 310 to limit force on the tire like component.
FIG. 4A is a lateral view of an embodiment of the invention with endplates including barbs  402 that help prevent extrusion of the ADR from the vertebrae. The barbs bend easily on insertion, but they resist extrusion from the direction of insertion. FIG. 4B is a view of the endplate drawn in FIG. 4A with the barbs extended.
FIG. 5A is a view of the lateral aspect of an endplate  502 with alternative, deployable projections 504 including retaining rings 506 used to hold the projections 504 together. The ring is forced towards the endplate as the endplate is forced into the vertebra. FIG. 5B is a view of the endplate drawn in FIG. 5A with the projections separated.
FIG. 6 is a cross section of an alternative embodiment of the device wherein the cushioning component  602 is sealed before it is situated between endplates 604. FIG. 7A is a side view of an ADR endplate with alternative projections 704 including a bone-ingrowth surface with holes 706, for example, to allow bone to grow into the projections to better maintain the ADR between the vertebrae. FIG. 7B is a view of the top of one of the projections 704, and FIG. 7C is a cross-section through the top of one of the projections.
FIG. 8A is a view of an alternative, externally deployable projection. In this case, a flexible wire or band like piece  802 is inserted through a hole 804 in the endplate 806 following insertion of the ADR. FIG. 8B shows the deployable projection 802 held in place within the ADR endplate by an optional fastening mechanism 810.
The material of the annulus fibrosis may be reattached to maintain the disc replacement material, or synthetic bands, fabrics, or plates may be added, as required. In the event that multiple prostheses are used within a common disc space, the bodies may include interlocking shapes or structures of varying design to enhance their physical cooperation. In addition, if the replacements are arranged from anterior to posterior, devices more posterior may be smaller or of a lesser "durometer," or those placed anteriorally may be larger or less compressible (or both), again, to enhance an overall lordotic shape. Finally, in all of the embodiments disclosed herein and in the parent applications hereto, septae may be added in the where the air, liquid, or gel is disposed to strengthen the structure.
a filler material contained within the cushioning component.
2. The ADR of claim 1, wherein the filler material is a gas, liquid, gel or foam.
3. The ADR of claim 1, wherein the filler material is a hydrogel.
4. The ADR of claim 1, wherein one or both of the endplate components include a modified surface to increase adherence to respective vertebral endplates.
5. The ADR of claim 4, wherein the modified surface includes spikes or other projections.
6. The ADR of claim 4, wherein the modified surface is conducive to bony ingrowth.
7. The ADR of claim 4, wherein the modified surface includes a projection that may be introduced externally and advanced to penetrate at least a portion of a vertebra.
8. The ADR of claim 4, wherein the modified surface includes barbs that resist extrusion from the direction of insertion.
9. The ADR of claim 4, wherein the modified surface includes deployable projections with retaining rings used to hold the projections together until forced into the vertebrae, at which time the projections spread apart.
10. The ADR of claim 4, wherein the modified surface includes deployable projections with retaining rings used to hold the projections together until forced into the vertebrae, at which time the projections spread apart.
11. The ADR of claim 1, further including one or more opposing, spaced-apart projections configured to impinge if the endplate components are subjected to an excessive force.
12. The ADR of claim 11, wherein the projections allow unrestricted motion between the endplates until impingement.
13. The ADR of claim 1, wherein the projections restrict translation between the endplates until a greater excessive force is reached.
one or more opposing, spaced-apart projections configured to impinge if the endplate components are subjected to an excessive force.
15. The ADR of claim 14, wherein the projections allow unrestricted motion between the endplates until impingement.
16. The ADR of claim 14, wherein the projections restrict translation between the endplates until a greater excessive force is reached.
17. The ADR of claim 14, wherein the filler material is a gas, liquid, gel or foam.
18. The ADR of claim 14, wherein the filler material is a hydrogel.
19. The ADR of claim 14, wherein the endplate components include a modified surface to increase adherence to the respective vertebrae.
20. The ADR of claim 19, wherein the modified surface includes spikes or other projections.
21. The ADR of claim 19, wherein the modified surface is conducive to bony ingrowth.
22. The ADR of claim 19, wherein the modified surface includes a projection that may be introduced externally and advanced to penetrate at least a portion of a vertebra.
23. The ADR of claim 19, wherein the modified surface includes barbs that resist extrusion from the direction of insertion.
24. The ADR of claim 19, wherein the modified surface includes deployable projections with retaining rings used to hold the projections together until forced into the vertebrae, at which time the projections spread apart.
25. The ADR of claim 19, wherein the modified surface includes deployable projections with retaining rings used to hold the projections together until forced into the vertebrae, at which time the projections spread apart.
US20150265415A1 (en) * 2005-09-01 2015-09-24 Darin C. Gittings Prosthetic Intervertebral Disc.
ES2216021T3 (en) 2004-10-16 Prosthetic spinal disc nucleus.
ES2283108T3 (en) 2007-10-16 Intervertebral disc nucleus Percutaneous Prosthetic and manufacturing process.


View alumni that have participated in South Umpqua High School Rugby. If you participated in Rugby while at South Umpqua HS, register now and add your name to the list with a message to your old friends.
Looking for South Umpqua alumni who participated in Rugby but are not listed? Classmates.com® has hundreds of more South Umpqua alumni listed.
If you participated in Rugby while at South Umpquahigh School, be the first to add your name.


← Will iTunes Ever Get A Subscription Service?
Note: This article is part of a two part series. You can read Part 2 here.
The articles these past few weeks have focused on digital music with a heavy emphasis on converting your CD collection into a digital music library. Chances are, you have amassed a fairly large collection of music files. If you own an iPod, be it a Nano or the iPod with Video, you probably have more music on your computer than you can fit on your portable device. This makes managing the music that goes onto your portable music player extremely difficult. As a result, you are often times left wanting to listen to a song or album you do not have on your device at the time. Fortunately, iTunes gives us Smart Playlists (Microsoft calls them Auto Playlists in Windows Media Player). With a series Smart Playlists we can control what music goes onto our portable player at all times and managing 3-4 playlists is a lot easier than managing thousands of individual files. In this week's tech article, I am going to show you how to use Smart Playlists to easily manage a portable music library on your portable music player.
Before we begin though, I need to clear up a few things. For starters, I assume that you have your ID3 tags in your mp3 files as accurate as possible and that you also have as much information you could find included. The more information you have in your ID3 tags and the more accurate it is, the better playlists you can create. I also need to state before we begin that I will focusing on iTunes' Smart Playlist feature rather than Windows Media Player's Auto-Playlists. This is for two reasons; one, I am more familiar with iTunes' Smart Playlists and two, what little experience I have with Auto-Playlists did not leave me liking it a whole lot. In my opinion (other people's mileage may vary) the Auto-Playlist feature of Windows Media Player does not give you the same level of control that Smart Playlists does. Smart Playlists utilizes almost every editable field in their Smart Playlist creation dialog, while Auto-Playlists only deals with a handful of fields leaving out several important ones.
With that disclaimer out of the way, lets take a look at the basic Smart Playlist dialog and get familar with it. You can click on the images to view the full size versions.
This example is probably the simplest Smart Playlist you can create. It has only one set of criteria and the "Live Updating" flag checked. The more of your tags that are filled the better and more accurate Smart Playlists you can make. Lets take one of my personal Smart Playlists that I carry around on my iPod.
As you can see this playlist gets somewhat complex. I use a variety of criteria and then use all kinds of settings at the bottom. One of the most important things in this Smart Playlist is the "Limit to" checkbox. By using the "Limit to" checkbox I have told the Smart Playlist to only select seven hours of random music. The resulting playlist is 6 hours and 59 minutes long. You might also notice that I tell it not to include a bunch of genres, this is so I do not get non-music included in my playlist.Most people, when they create Smart Playlists, the focus on the criteria and ignore the power of the checkboxes. Yes, the criteria is important and you need it to determine what kind of Smart Playlist you create but it is the checkboxes that really give you the power of what actually happens. Below is a table that tells you what each checkbox does.
Limit to Limit to allows you to limit the number of tracks in the playlist through various means including: minutes, hours, megabytes, gigabytes, and songs.
Live update Live update means that as tracks are played, added, and removed from the iTunes library they are added/removed from the playlist.
It is really these checkboxes that give Smart Playlists so much of their power. So you definitely want to experiment with these to get playlists that work for you. I use Smart Playlists to manage my iPod since I have a 60GB iPod and over 80GB worth of music. Editing only a few playlists and then letting 3 or 4 playlists fill in the music allows me to put around 40GB of music on my iPod leaving me enough for videos, photos, and drive space for transporting files around.Next week, we will go over exactly how to use Smart Playlists to manage your portable digital music player.
There is more in part two of this series. You can read Part 2 here.


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ACADEMICIANS' GALLERY
HENRY KONDRACKI RSA (ELECT): LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Exhibition Dates:
6 December 2019 - 5 January 2020
Monday to Saturday 10-5pm, Sunday 12-5pm
Please note the gallery will be closed on the following days - 25, 26 and 29-31 December
On 1st January the gallery will open at 12pm
RSA Lower Galleries
Henry Kondracki, an artist based in Edinburgh, is known for his evocative scenes of city life and the Scottish landscape. This exhibition focuses on a series of works centred around locations of literary significance in Edinburgh and the surrounding area. Embracing the rich cultural heritage of his native city, Kondracki depicts the hometown of Walter Scott, Muriel Spark and Ian Rankin in his typically vibrant, impressionistic style.
Known for painting the city in all seasons, Kondracki captures the mood of Edinburgh, be it in glorious summer sun or autumnal drizzle. Working in fluid, gestural brushstrokes, he paints the city in motion, viewed from buses, pavements and coffee shops. For this exhibition, Kondracki has painted locales associated with moments in novels and with the lives of writers. Miss Brodie walks down the Vennel toward the Grassmarket and the birthplace of Rebus is lit by ghostly moonlight. A moment in the Meadows brings to mind Robert Burns: 'come autumn, sae pensive, in yellow and grey'.
Kondracki was born in Edinburgh but having been rejected from his local art school, he went to London to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art (1981 – 1982), and then at the Slade School of Art (1982 – 1986). He has won the Cheltenham Drawing Prize, the Hunting Art Prize and has been twice the recipient of the Slade Fine Art Prize. Kondracki has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally. His work is held by many public collections including Glasgow Museums, Manchester City Art Gallery, the Fleming Collection and Art in Healthcare. He was elected a Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2016.
View the exhibition online here.


text:
Madman Feature Films A Faithful Man
A Faithful Man
Languages: French
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Widescreen (16:9)
Catalogue Number: PAL197
Copyright: © 2018 Why Not Productions
Classification Sex scenes & offensive language
Complicated love, Parisian style
Director: Sean Garrity
Louis Garrel stars as Abel, a dashing journalist whose girlfriend, Marianne (Laetitia Casta), informs him in the opening scene that she has fallen pregnant, and is leaving him to marry the father (who happens to be Abel's best friend). So begins a tale that stretches over a number of years, filled with unexpected joys and heartbreaks; Marianne will remerge into his life, as will Eva (a radiant Lily-Rose Depp), the impetuous younger sister of the man he was abandoned for. Shifting points of view as nimbly as its players, this beguiling tale, co-written with the legendary Jean-Claude Carrière (Belle de jour, Cyrano de Bergerac), effortlessly navigates through the bric-à-brac of loves and secrets with a winning, New Wave-esque sensibility; Paris' streets and cafés appear almost magically unchanged since Truffaut's 1960's. However it's Garrel's carefully considered yet light touch that charms and captivates, leaving audiences feeling an enduring sense of satisfaction.


text:
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import unicodedata

def extract_text(html):
    soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "lxml")
    return unicodedata.normalize("NFKD", soup.get_text())


I love it when inspiration just flows don't you? Tonight my wonderful amazing hubby has taken both boys and so I've been busy with my Photoshop and have been working on a few fun things to share with you all in the future. I have finished this though and I wanted to share it.
I made Relief Society welcome packets, but what about the Primary kids, I'm sure without a doubt that kids are more fearful of going to a new ward, whether visiting or new, and so why not give them a little something to help them :) This is meant to be a bag topper so you fold it over a baggie(ziploc or a fancy one) and then staple it to the baggie. My idea for this is to either purchase a box of crayons or you can be fun and awesome and make your own crayons into the round ones or into a fun shape using a candy mold or even make a big rainbow one! There's 2 methods for making your own, baking in the oven and using the stove top. If you want to go a little extra you could also assemble a little coloring book to go with it, LDS coloring pages has FREE pages from the Friend.


text:
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SERVER = casper.cli.get('server')

casper.start(SERVER, function() {
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    this.waitUntilVisible('#results', function () {
        email_auth = this.getGlobal('EMAIL_AUTH')
        this.echo(JSON.stringify(email_auth));
        this.test.assertEquals(email_auth.email, EMAIL);
        this.test.assertEquals(email_auth.auth, API_KEY);
        this.test.pass('Results visible');
    });

    // Run a thumbnail job
    this.evaluate(function () {
        window.location.hash = '#process/thumbnail';
    });

    this.waitForSelector('#runButton', function () {
        this.evaluate(function () {
            $('#runButton').click();
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    this.waitWhileSelector('#runButton:disabled', function () {
        this.test.pass('Job done');
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});
casper.run();