text:
Music Chris Bourn December 11, 2019
Can Normal People Tell the Difference Between the Remastered Album and the Regular One?
Despite all those 'deluxe' anniversary reissues cluttering up iTunes, reclusive mastering engineers are still the unsung heroes of music
Quality is a slippery concept. We always say we want more of it in our art and entertainment — a good many of us will insist that we insist on it. But then you have someone like Martin Scorsese imploring Netflix viewers of his movie The Irishman, "If you ever want to see one of my pictures, or most films — please, please don't look at it on a phone, please…" Perhaps it's because he knows that what really motivates the marketplace has little to do with careful craftsmanship, deft artistry, attention to detail and the like, and instead is driven by much more basic needs: Impact, convenience, instant gratification, refined sugar. We see ourselves as selective and discerning when it comes to our cultural choices, but as any celebrated veteran auteur will tell you, when we consume en masse, we're basically toddlers.
This dissonance between how we think we like to be entertained and the brute realities of what sells is even more pronounced in the music business. And it's something that Scott Hull, owner of Masterdisk — a leading mastering studio with a stately reputation in the industry — has been grappling with for much of his 37-year career. Lately he's been taking photos when he's out shopping to document how "the word 'mastering' or 'mastered' is showing up in the stupidest things." Like the mysterious "mastering" process for bottled water Hull recalls seeing in a store recently, or the thing he spotted around Halloween: "There was a pumpkin 'mastering' kit. The word has become so meaningless."
Whatever mastering a pumpkin might involve (lipstick? fire-retardation?), the term's modern function as a slap-on marketing cliché is a far cry from its original meaning in the recording industry. As Hull articulates it, his contribution to the recorded work, in making an album's final mixes sound consistent, vibrant and ready for commercial release, involves a high degree of expertise and no small amount of aesthetic judgement: "It's an oversimplification, but the mixer creates the artwork; the mastering engineer finishes the frame and makes sure it's lit well. How it's presented to the world in its final form — that's the mastering engineer's part to play."
Hull came into the industry in 1983, and over the years heavyweight artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Donald Fagen, Dave Matthews and Sting have entrusted him with putting the final shimmer on their records. He also mastered the Grammy-winning album Two Against Nature for Steely Dan, Fagen's precisionist band who, aside from being hands down the finest proponents of popular music anywhere ever on this Earth (all opinions expressed are author's own), were always famously exacting about their recorded sound. So coming from Hull, a brief lament about how the name of his craft is being taken in vain is slightly heartbreaking to hear.
But he's got a point: Google the word "remastered," and alongside some recent marquee reissues from stars of the 1980s (a Toto box set, as well as Kate Bush's big back-catalogue refresh from 2018), you're confronted with "remastered" sneakers, men's jackets and eye-shadow; "remastered" office furniture; and "remastered" SpongeBob SquarePants coasters.
Its gratuitous overuse today is testament to the huge commercial dividends the music industry has reaped from the expression, especially in its heyday of splashing it around record stores in the 1990s and early 2000s. "Basically, it's all about money," says Dan, who spent some years working for a major label in the U.K. before moving to the DVD sector, where he says, "my job was to come up with 'special edition' product to flog the same film to people who already own them."
In pop music by the late 2000s, says Dan, a "remastered" tag had come to mean much the same thing: "With the death of transactional consumption by young people (they just stream their films and music now), it's become all about getting older people, who still like to pay for a physical product, to re-transact. Traditionally, you'd try and tie this in with an anniversary — say 20, 30, 40 or 50 years since release — and maybe throw in a new audio remaster."
For many consumers, shelling out for a subtly retweaked version of their favorite record might seem a baffling waste of earnings. But cynical double-dipping on the part of the record companies aside, there's clearly a healthy appetite for remastered audio out there, even as music marches on into the digital era. In 2009, EMI's release of The Beatles' back catalogue as digitally remastered albums broke chart records around the world, selling 2.5 million globally in the first 11 days. Earlier this year, when the U.K. album chart for 2019 up to October was compiled, at 29 was the remastered edition of Fleetwood Mac's 1977 Rumours album, while at 13 was Queen's Platinum Collection, a 2011 remastered version of a multi-album compilation that was originally released in 2000 — which itself was essentially a remaster of three greatest hits albums Parlophone put out in the 1990s.
Masters of the Tune-iverse
Fiddling around at the fringes of a finished album might exhilarate the audiophiles, but for the average, untrained music fan, does it really have much of an impact? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer to this is very much Yes, no matter how tone-deaf you might believe yourself to be. The nuances in EQ and incremental adjustments in remastered records have more of an effect on you than you might think — in fact, gradually accumulated over the decades, those increments have had a tectonic influence on the whole landscape of popular music and how we perceive it.
If you're mystified by this, a useful entry point is via a studio snafu from 2008 that has become notorious among metal fans and professional engineers alike. That year, the band Metallica released their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, on CD, initially to a good deal of acclaim. But it wasn't long before the band's fans started complaining, in anguish and at length on internet forums, that there was something noticeably off about its overall sound. One listener went so far as to get in touch directly with the record's mastering engineer, who sensationally responded by disowning the project, agreeing that the final sound wasn't to his taste either, adding, "Believe me I'm not proud to be associated with this one."
An initial insistence from Metallica's management that 98 percent of fans were happy with the album's "exciting" sound was undermined somewhat when an alternative version of the album slipped into the public domain, as noodle-repertoire for the PlayStation 3 game Guitar Hero. This rendering of the record, apparently a pre-mastered mix, gave fans a golden opportunity to compare its overall tone with the official commercial product. More than 22,000 of them signed an online petition for the CD to be remastered, their verdict being that the video-game version was the fuller, less grating, more authentic-sounding article — and that, yes, even to ordinary fans' ears, mastering really can make a world of difference.
The songs that ended up on the CD had apparently undergone an extreme dose of "compression" or "limiting" — audio processes that are often used to "squash" the very loudest moments, or peaks, in a track to make them quieter; this, in turn, creates the headroom for volume levels across the rest of the music to be ratcheted up without causing the signal to distort. The result is usually a song that, overall, feels louder and more intense — typically qualities that form a major part of a mastering engineer's remit. But "smashing" a track in this way comes with a cost, since it can seriously affect the complexion of the final mix.
"Among the first things to go is the low end — you tend to lose punch from stuff," explains Julian Tardo, at Church Road Studio in Hove, England, who also teaches mastering to music-technology students at a nearby college. "Snares tend to lose the bass out of them — they start to just sound like hard claps. Everything starts to get a bit mushy the more you squash it." The more overall volume you squeeze from the music, he says, the more "you have to repair the byproducts of that, by adding more EQ to clean things up again. And you're ever having to go around this vicious circle of trying to undo the terribleness that the limiting imparts in order to somehow keep it sounding transparent — and it's just bloody difficult."
Who Started the Loudness War?
The controversy over Death Magnetic is a window into something few of us are aware of, but has been steadily eroding our collective perception of popular music for the last 30 years or more. In mastering circles, it's known as the "Loudness War," and it's turned the areas of mastering and remastering into hotly contested quasi-ethical battlegrounds.
As Tardo explains, it all stems from mastering's history and its intimate relationship with the formats on which audio is mass-produced. "The thing about cutting a record to vinyl is that you have a very prescribed dynamic range," he says, noting that "dynamic range" — loosely, the safe zone in any given medium between the very quietest and the very loudest signals it's able to accurately reproduce — "is the 101, the kernel, of what mastering is all about." Imagine that on the road there's a long tunnel with a height restriction ahead (and I hasten to point out that this is my analogy, not Tardo's); your job, in essence, is to carefully park a truck load of noisy zoo animals inside it without decapitating any of the giraffes, ostriches or flamingos.
When you move on from vinyl and enter the realm of digital reproduction, that loudness ceiling gets substantially higher. So as the new digital CD format began to supplant LPs in the second half of the 1980s, mastering engineers found themselves on a new frontier of dynamic possibilities, with way more available space to tweak their tones. Initially the idea, says Tardo, was "that you could continue cutting as you had been to vinyl, at much the same dynamic range, but you'd have even more headroom to play with, and so you'd really not have to worry about overs" (i.e., hitting the noise threshold at which the recorded sound would begin to distort).
For a while, then, it was business as usual. Tardo cites early CD releases by Prince as good illustrations of this, or the landmark 1985 release by Dire Straits, which was one of the first albums specifically aimed at the CD market: "Import the songs from a CD of Brothers in Arms [into music-production software], and the audio is just incredibly quiet. So, clearly, the original master was based on the analogue cut, for the vinyl."
"We spent a lot of time working on Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms at about that time," recalls Hull, who has fond memories of his early years assisting the Chief Engineer, Bob Ludwig, at Masterdisk. "That was either the first or the second CD I bought. Bob had mastered the original, and then we remastered it and made hundreds and hundreds of copies of that over several years in different versions." Back then, says Hull, being enlisted by a record label to make a master specifically for the new CD format was a rare privilege, largely because it was so expensive: "The machine to make a recordable CD was $50,000," while "at the very minimum it was $500 to transfer an analogue tape to digital and do the encoding [for] CD. That's with no creative work whatsoever."
But from around 1988 onwards, hi-fi manufacturers were selling CD players at household prices, and gold-rush economics set in. "That was the moment when the labels all realized, 'Wow, we have to take our entire back catalogue and get it prepared for CD,'" says Hull. "They hurried to get product out the door as quickly as possible. And about a year or so later, there started to be this horrific backlash because people's CDs didn't sound as good as the records that they had. There were problems with levels, some were distorted. They had literally taken the tapes out of the vaults — sometimes not even the right tapes — and handed them to a copy clerk who worked for the label. They made a quick copy, and they slammed it out on CD."
To evade the record-buying public's ire and save their shiny new format, record companies began approaching mastering studios to get their catalogues refitted properly for the compact-disc era, triggering a boom period for studios like Masterdisk. "They coined the phrase at that point, 'remastering' — or 'remastered for CD,'" says Hull. "That was literally what remastering meant."
More Gain, More Pain
What's all this got to do with ultra-compressed rock albums and the looming Loudness War? Well, in re-inserting outlandish notions like quality and attention-to-detail into their release schedules, record-company executives began to pick up on something the studio engineers already knew. A cognitive quirk of the way our brains interpret sound means that virtually everyone tends to equate "louder" with "better." "In my workroom, if I'm comparing two sources of music that are absolutely identical," explains Hull, "but one is a tiny bit louder than the other one, the listener often doesn't hear it as louder: They hear it as punchier, brighter, with better definition on the bass and more emotional."
Transfer this deceptive psychoacoustic phenomenon onto the airwaves, where newly released singles have to compete for listeners' attention, and those records mastered that little bit bolder started to sound like they had a strong competitive edge. Cottoning on to this, the labels nudged their output meters up, hit single after hit single, and the race toward mutually assured saturation was on.
"Of course, as a mastering engineer, you're reacting to your client," says Tardo. "The client wants it loud, you make it loud. You'd liase with the A&R person who's saying, 'This might be a hit record: We want it banging.' And so you're just going to smash the dynamics and get it louder."
Tardo's musical career began as a member of the band Insides, who released two albums on cult indie label 4AD back in the 1990s (and who recently got back together to work on a new one); he recalls this as a period when exploiting the dynamic possibilities of CDs evolved into an art form in itself. "By the time you hit, let's say 1995, levels are definitely hitting the point at which, on digital, you could clip [distort] the music," says Tardo. "So at that point, even more compression comes in, more limiting, and all sorts of ingenuity from the mastering engineer to try and make it loud without it digitally clipping."
In the two decades since, music has trapped itself in an ever-heightening clamor for more cowbell, but few of us have noticed; in fact, audiences' ears adjusted to the ultra-squashed sound of hit records over time, and as consumers, we've now come to expect it from our artists. It's a situation that many audio experts feel is absurd, and this perspective is summed up succinctly on the website for Dynamic Range Day, an awareness campaign run by the British mastering engineer cum sonic activist Ian Shepherd: "The effect is now so extreme that we have reached a bizarre situation where Justin Bieber's new CD is louder than Motörhead, AC/DC and The Sex Pistols!"
"We consume and move on so quickly," agrees Hull, "and I'm certain some of that has to do with the fact that the music kind of assaults us on the first listen. And we don't go back to dig in deeper because frankly, you can't hear deeper into the mix."
In certain musical contexts, of course, such as the gut-twisting end of EDM, a heavily compressed, sonic pounding is exactly what the music requires and can produce exciting results. But where detail and nuance are important, it's hard to see why this apocalyptic butterfly-crushing has been allowed to go on for so long. "The reason it hasn't gotten corrected," Hull suggests, "even though every professional audio dude and woman on the planet understands the caveat, is that the decision-makers are still Pavlovian in their reaction — or I should say they're Spinal Tap in their reaction: 'This goes to 11, so it's better.'"
"In many cases I can spend hours explaining the technical details," he adds, "and the whys and wherefores, but at the end of the day, the decision-makers go, 'Ours needs to be just as loud as everyone else's record, or we're going to feel ridiculous; we're going to sound ridiculous.'"
Remastering to the Rescue?
There are signs, though, that the industry's fetish for loudness is wearing thin. Strong commercial arguments have emerged against pushing productions to their dynamic limits, and they're beginning to cut through. The climb-down is being driven by two big trends over the last five years or so, which have yet again transformed the way we consume music.
The first of these, as you might have guessed, is the dominance of streaming services in our listening lives. The pre-eminence of platforms such as Spotify, Tidal and YouTube has brought with it a useful side-effect known as "loudness normalization" — essentially, hidden volume dials that are cleverly automated to ensure the songs on your playlists output at similar levels in your headphones (on Spotify, this is the "Normalize volume" switch in "Settings"; in iTunes it's the "Sound Check" tick box). Enforcing a level playing field online means that one-upmanship becomes pointless, and much of the incentive for driving up volumes in the mastering studio drains away.
More than this, in the arena of loudness-managed streaming, says Tardo, "The track whose dynamics you smashed, now it only sounds good when it's played super-loud. When you turn it down, it sounds rather like a slightly rounded-off, soggy version of itself. So played against other tracks that were less compressed, those tracks now sound better than yours."
"In many ways, streaming is the savior of the mastering engineer's craft and aesthetics," he suggests — because, when producing masters that are destined for online audiences, "now I feel that I can have it sounding more the way I want it to sound personally, rather than having to kowtow to unsubtle, crude expectations."
The second market swing that's allowing music to decompress back toward its natural state is the surprise resurgence of vinyl in the past few years. According to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America, in 2017, streaming accounting for 65 percent of the U.S. market for recorded music as CD sales continued their steady, 20-year decline. Meanwhile, revenues from vinyl LPs were up 10 percent from the previous year, and in 2018 they jumped by almost 15 percent more, a revival that's nudged physical revenues ahead of digital downloads for the first time since 2011.
Renewed interest in the old format has triggered another lurch for our wallets from the record industry. Says Dan, in no uncertain terms: "The boom in vinyl means that record labels have totally milked it and are re-releasing any old shit for no reason whatsoever, other than they can make some money off people in their 30s and older trying to relive their youth. I mean, not to single them out, but take a look at the stuff that Universal is churning out."
Unfortunately for the major labels, until recently, vinyl had been something of a neglected child, lost somewhere in the late 1990s amid the Loudness War and the shiny-thing lure of CDs; many albums created in that period had never had an original vinyl release. So during the past five years, record companies have once again been busy transferring their catalogues on to a lucrative "new" format, albeit one that's been around since the 1930s.
Did they do it right this time? "Believe it or not, the labels made exactly the same mistake they made the first time!" says Hull. When turntables and LPs came back into vogue, he sighs, the labels simply sent their CD masters out to a cutting and pressing studio in the Czech Republic, "because it's ridiculously cheap, and ridiculously fast." Though he caveats: "They actually do do really nice work there, but if a client says, 'Do it cheap and fast,' well, they'll do it cheap and fast. And the end results are these records now that look good but don't sound that good. They made the same mistake by hurrying the process, and by not putting the best professionals in the game." Just like before, the labels are having to backtrack and revisit to address the quality deficit they created, and so, says Hull, "there's now a remastering step for vinyl."
For him at least, this is a welcome development. It's allowed him to concentrate more on the format that he loves and the aesthetic sculpting that comes with it. "I'm very enthusiastic about making vinyl from original analogue recordings, and I've been doing more original recording of live instruments in live studio spaces to analogue tape," he says. He's embarked on a podcast called Making Vinyl, and one of his recent projects has seen him return to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature — which happens to be one of those peak CD-era albums that didn't make it onto wax — to lovingly remaster it for its long-overdue debut on vinyl.
As a marketing confection, "remastered" has meant different things over the decades, then. Occasionally, the word's appearance on album art has been little more than music-industry gaslighting. But on the whole, it can be seen as something more like an intervention — a phenomenon whose impetus has been to keep mass-market music authentic, to respect (if on the second bounce) the music and the people who created it, and an attempt at least to prevent the major labels from ripping off their own ears so they can insert them into their bottom lines.
From the point-of-view of a good mastering engineer, though — one who cares passionately about your enjoyment of the finished article — it's shorthand for quality and a valuable assurance of something done right. When that Steely Dan vinyl makes its way to stores, says Hull, "You'll see the Masterdisk stamp on the piece of plastic when you buy the record, and that indicates that it was actually cut at Masterdisk, and my initials are on it. That's the pride in the craft for me."
Music in the 2020s is likely to need sensitive and skillful remastering more than ever. Especially since, as another of Hull's famous clients once pointed out: "Gentleness, sobriety are rare in this society."
Chris Bourn
Chris Bourn is a writer and editor who has writed and edited for many a title, including British Maxim and Time Out. He does stories for MEL covering health, happiness, and how things came to be.


NEW SEASON NAILS – The Military Manicure.
Chanel always creates the latest trend when it comes to nails and the Chanel Mysterious has kicked off another, each season we look to see what they will pull out of the bag in the mani department and as ever I'm excited and looking forward to more brands coming out with khaki colours to rival Chanels perfect polish. It's more modern edgy take on black and a step forward from Greige, pair it with shorter nails for a professional look.


The 2150cdn is Dell's new player at the lower end of the workgroup colour laser market – a monolithic machine designed to print up to 23ppm. Although some of its lower-end colour page printers use LED engines, this machine and others in the same range continue to use laser mechanisms.
If you believe the Borg have what it takes in industrial design, you'll love the 2150cdn, which, without the pipework, is still a big, black cube. The only things to really break the square-cut lines of the machine are the inset output tray in its top surface and the triangular ridge supporting its 2-line, 16-character, backlit LCD display.
The control panel is very logically designed, with just seven buttons. There's a diamond of cursor keys, with a tick for OK in the centre, plus a key to call up the menus and another to cancel or back-up through the levels.
A single paper tray sits in the front panel and allows for 250-sheets of plain paper. There's scope for envelopes and special media, too, but only one item at a time, as the printer has a feed slot, rather than a pull-down, multi-purpose tray. A second 250-sheet tray is available as an option, but the maximum capacity is still only 501 sheets.
The drum and fuser unit is supplied in situ and is accessed by folding down the front panel of the printer. It should only need maintenance at the end of its life and replacement is included in the standard service agreement, the first year of which is included in the price of the 2150cdn. The four toner cartridges, which are available in two yields, slot in at the side, behind a hinged cover.
Dell supports both Windows and Mac OS X with drivers and supplies software and there's also support for Novel Netware, Citrix and various Linux flavours.


THE jeans are tight and the hair big when you step back in time on the set of hit TV drama Ashes To Ashes.
It's 1981, nearly dinnertime and former Sheriff of Manchester Gene Hunt is wearing in his cowboy boots as Alex Drake adjusts her perm.
The job of ensuring actors Philip Glenister and Keeley Hawes look the part, along with the rest of the cast, is down to costume designer Rosie Hackett, who spent months researching the era.
There's an interview with Rosie in today's MEN but, like Chris Skelton in his white jeans, it was slightly squeezed for space.
So I thought fans might like the option of reading this fuller version online.
Rosie's father Bert Hackett is a celebrated cartoonist for The Birmingham Post but started as a graphic illustrator at the MEN.
She began her own career as a fashion stylist on music videos in the later Eighties, including several for Annie Lennox. "You can work off memory, which is exciting because it all starts to come back to you," explains Rosie.
"And, equally, you've got to be careful of that because your memory can be faulty.
So where do you start to re-create the fashions of the year Charles and Diana married, Imagination sang about Body Talk and New Romantics drained the nation's supply of eyeliner?
"It's a really quite solid grounding of going through libraries, things like the Radio Times, TV Times, The Observer colour magazine and Vogue. So you can get quite a range of different culture, classes, types of people.
"What you're trying to do then is find people, characters or actresses and actors who were popular at that time, that stick in your head, who almost epitomise a period.
"In 1981 Joanna Lumley was a big deal – her hair and her whole style. But there were lots of different influences for Keeley's character. They spanned everything from American films through to television and advertising.
"What you get in the early Eighties are a lot of magazines that are aspiring to glamour, luxury, champagne corks popping all over the place. And everything was real silk.
"For Phil there were lots of different influences. I would say Johnny Cash, that whole sort of man in black approach. And there was a photograph of Richard Burton – that was an influence.
Rosie admits her job was made a little harder by off screen trends. She worked with Rochdale's Anna Friel on the 2001 film Me Without You, set in the 1980s, and later noticed a fashion shift towards that decade.
"Actually, that makes your job even more difficult because it's harder to create a period look when it's already out there in the street. You don't want to look 'now' fashionable. You need them to look like Eighties' characters.
In fact, most of the complaints on Ashes' fansite The Railway Arms have been about the tops Alex wears which expose a single bra strap, while Gene's dark 1981 coat, suit and boots have got the thumbs up.
Were any costumes tricky to track down? "Loads. The right shape jeans, which really kind of nail the Eighties, are difficult to find. It's quite a nasty shape.
"We trawl eBay to get certain makes of jeans and Camden Market in London. And Eighties' tracksuits are very difficult to find.
"The clothes have got to be the right shape. You've got two types of jeans. One is really tight but they've always got this high waist and you just tuck everything in.
Rosie was also responsible for the Ashes' Pierrot clown, which appears to represent death as far as Alex is concerned. It was inspired by the figure in David Bowie's video for the song Ashes To Ashes.
"We basically looked at the original costume and then discussed it. I know the director wanted him to have a sort of apocalyptic feel. Then I designed something that was a similar shape, so you had the silhouette of the original clown, so it would be identifiable.
As for Rosie's final reflections on 1981 fashion: "Well, the worst faux pas sometimes become my favourite things. Like those awful jeans. And then you start to really like them – and the white socks.
"I remember at the time hating men who wore white socks with slip on shoes. I remember going on to my dad about it.
"And, of course, we use that on everybody. You'll notice all the CID have white socks with slip on shoes. They give you an immediate 1980s-ness.
"Something I do hate with the women's clothes in the Eighties was really wide sleeves. They're so unflattering on a woman. All the sleeves are huge.
Ashes To Ashes continues on BBC1 at 9pm tonight.
can u show me the clown.


Trim-Tex Drywall Products' team of skilled motorsports competitors just got even stronger with the addition of professional driver Josh Bilicki.
Staring with kid-karts at the age of four, Bilicki has excelled on every level and worked his way up to the highest echelon of the sport. 2015 marked Bilicki's first year of professional sportscar racing in the IMSA Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge and in 2016 Bilicki made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut. This season Billick will compete part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 97 Chevrolet Camaro and part-time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 51 Chevrolet SS for Rick Ware Racing. He will be donning a Trim-Tex helmet each time.
Koenig shares in Bilicki's enthusiasm, welcoming him to the team.
At the 14th edition of the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by Hawk Performance from Willows, Calif., Dec. 3-4, the Trim-Tex Mazda MX5 Global Cup Car, built by Long Road Racing, battled 66 cars and 55 different teams to score third in class and 17th overall. It was the respected squad's endurance that helped it cap off the year with a podium finish at a brutally challenging 25-hour marathon race.
Now Koenig is pumped to see what Bilicki can do in a Trim-Tex helmet.
"It's going to be an exciting season. We are very pleased to have so many talented racers on the team," Koenig said.
Bilicki joins IMSA sportscar standout Trent Hindman, 16-time Top Fuel Motorcycle champion Larry "Spiderman" McBride and NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Joey Gladstone on team Trim-Tex motorsports.


The Congress today said the Election Commission is only the arbiter and not the controller of the democratic process and asked the poll body to introspect and explore possibility of shifting voting from EVMs to the alternative system of paper ballots.
The opposition party also said that the EC should not be an advocate for electronic voting machines (EVMs) and should conduct polls to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
A major row erupted last week over a video of a VVPAT demonstration by a poll official in Madhya Pradesh where the machine attached to an EVM allegedly dispensed slips of only BJP as the opposition demanded reverting to the old ballot paper system of voting while scrapping use of EVMs.
"Ultimately democracy is based on public trust and if there is a feeling of widespread distrust in the Electronic Voting Machines, the Election Commission rather than taking a succinct stand on it, should introspect," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.
He said the fact that EVMs can be tampered with is something which has been demonstrated over and over again by different stakeholders, including BJP, Congress and others.
Tewari said that democracy is based upon public trust and that people and all stakeholders must have trust that the instrument of exercising their franchise and the instrument of tabulating that franchise is something which is tamper-proof.
"Now if that confidence is not there, the Election Commission does not require to become the advocate of the electronic voting machines.
"The Election Commission could very well turn around and say that if the stakeholders do not have confidence, yes we are ready to explore the possibility of shifting voting to the alternative system of paper ballots," he said.
The Congress leader wondered how it bothered the EC that if rather than EVMs, the voting is done on paper ballots. He said "ultimately if the stakeholders, whether rightly or wrongly, are apprehensive that these machines are being tampered upon or are capable of being done so, there is no reason for Election Commission to be defensive about it".
Tewari said if the stakeholders of the democratic process are feeling apprehensive, whether rightly or wrongly, the Election Commission should walk the extra mile and voluntarily say that "alright if the stakeholders are not having confidence in this paradigm, we can have the next election on paper ballot. What is the difficulty with that?"


text:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
	"-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
	"http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<!-- Hibernate映射文件的根元素 -->
<hibernate-mapping package="com.imu.coursenet.domain">
	<class name="Course" table="tb_course" >
		<!-- 使用读写缓存 -->
		<cache usage="read-write"/>
		<!-- 映射标识属性 -->
		<id	name="courseId" type="integer" column="courseId">
			<!-- 指定使用identity主键生成策略 -->
			<generator class="identity"/>
		</id>
		<!-- 映射普通属性 -->
		<property name="courseName" column="courseName"	type="string"
			not-null="true" length="50" unique="true"/>
		<property name="courseDescription" column="courseDescription"
		type="string" length="100"/>
		<!-- 映射和Department的关联关系 -->
		<many-to-one name="department" column="departmentId"
			class="Department" lazy="false"/>
		<!-- 映射和CourseType的关联关系 -->
		<many-to-one name="courseType" column="courseTypeId"
			class="CourseType" lazy="false"/>
		<!-- 映射和CourseDetail的关联关系 -->
		<set name="courseDetails" inverse="true">
			<key column="courseId" />
			<one-to-many class="CourseDetail"/>
		</set>
		<!-- 映射和CourseDetail的关联关系 -->
		<set name="posts" inverse="true">
			<key column="courseId" />
			<one-to-many class="Post"/>
		</set>
	</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
NTE Financials
Partnering to Improve Learning
Safe and Supportive Learning
Effective, Efficient & Responsive Systems
APPLY NOW: 2020-2021 Funders Collaborative Grants
Great Start, Great Future Kickoff
Safe and Supportive Schools
South Ward Community Schools
PC+ Virtual Conference 2020
Campaign Central
Director, Early Learning Strategy
Robert Clark, Co-Chair
Newark Opportunity Youth Network
With over 22 years of experience in youth development, Robert Clark is the first YouthBuild graduate to found a YouthBuild program in a major city--Newark, NJ. Since launching YBN in 2003, Mr. Clark has been instrumental in establishing its national reputation for promoting juvenile justice reform, re-entry programming for school-aged young people, and vocational training. He is also the leading visionary behind the Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN), a cross-sectoral city-wide initiative launched in 2016, that manages a collective of organizations committed to supporting Opportunity Youth, Including NJ's first Alternative Charter school: LEAD.
Celia M. King, Co-Chair
Leadership Newark
"It is an honor and a privilege to be able to contribute as a board member of the Newark Trust for Education. As an independent organization, we work diligently on behalf of the students of Newark, and our focus is high student achievement and academic excellence for all students."
Celia M. King serves as the executive director of Leadership Newark, Inc., where she is responsible for ensuring a myriad of citizens committed to the City of Newark, enhance their skills and knowledge based on numerous public policy issues affecting the community.
The Hon. Ras J. Baraka, Ex-Officio Member
Mayor Ras J. Baraka was elected Mayor of the City of Newark in May 2014, becoming Newark's 40th Chief Executive since the City's incorporation in 1836.
A native of Newark, whose family has lived in the City for more than 70 years, Mayor Baraka was educated in the Newark Public schools and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and a Master's Degree in Education Supervisions from St. Peter's University in Jersey City.
Nancy Cantor
Rutgers-Newark
"As an educational leader I have devoted my advocacy to making more real the promise of higher education as the road to social mobility, a context for democratic practice, and a participant in community building and public problem-solving."
Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark since January 1, 2014, is a distinguished higher education leader who is helping to forge a new understanding of the role of universities in society.
Alejandra Ceja
Panasonic Foundation
Alejandra Ceja is the Executive Director of the Panasonic Foundation. Ceja assumed this role in June of 2017 and is responsible for leading the Foundation's investments in educational equity.
Ceja is the former Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She was appointed by the White House in 2013 to serve President Barack Obama and the U.S. Secretary of Education to increase the educational attainment and life outcomes of Hispanics across the nation. In this capacity, Ceja helped cultivate 150 Commitments to Action totaling $335 million to build on and accelerate federal, state, and local investments in high quality education for Hispanic students.
Irene Cooper-Basch
Victoria Foundation
"While reform efforts and superintendents come and go, the Trust is here for the long haul to ensure that student outcomes follow a positive, upward trajectory."
In June 2006, Irene Cooper-Basch became the third Executive Officer and Secretary of the Board for Victoria Foundation, a private grantmaking institution founded in 1924,with current assets totaling $200 million. Prior to this appointment, she served as a Program Officer at Victoria Foundation and the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey for10 years. Both foundations have a strong grantmaking focus on the city of Newark, New Jersey.
Jacqueline Cusack, Ed.D.
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Jackie Cusack currently serves as Executive Director for the Center for Pre-College Programs at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). In this capacity she leads the development and administration of the university, state, and federally funded programs for underserved elementary and secondary students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). During her tenure at NJIT, which began in 2012, Ms. Cusack has also served as Consultant to the President and Special Assistant to the Vice President in the Division of Academic Support and Student Affairs. Other professional experience includes serving as Consultant to the Montclair Public School District and as Executive Director of the Montclair Child Development Center.
Josephine Garcia
Newark Board of Education
Josephine Garcia, a Newark resident for nearly four decades, serves as a Legislative Aide to City of Newark Council Member, Carlos M. González. She has garnered various accolades for her extensive work with the community during her 18 years of service as a municipal employee.
She has a vested interest in Newark Public Schools, having graduated two of her three sons out of high schools in her beloved City. As a concerned parent, Josephine served 10 years on the Parent Council Executive Committee at the Robert Treat Academy (RTA) and five years as a volunteer of the Science Park High School (SPHS) Parent-Teacher Association. Her accomplishments in these capacities include: spearheading successful initiatives, such as the well-attended International Night at SPHS; helping to raise several thousands of dollars at a magnet fundraiser event at RTA and multiple sold-out RTA movie nights. She also has assisted leading her fellow parent council members in the implementation of a healthier lunch program for RTA students.
Shané Harris
Prudential Foundation
"As a local education fund, The Trust works to reduce fragmentation of efforts and mobilize civic leadership."
Shané Harris serves as the Vice President of The Prudential Foundation, where she is responsible for management of Foundation staff and program strategy and overseeing the distribution of $25 million in annual Foundation grants. Ms. Harris oversees education policy for Prudential's Community Resources Department and advises senior management on their support of education initiatives. She also serves as Secretary of the Foundation.
Fr. Edwin Leahy, O.S.B.
Saint Benedict's Preparatory School
Father Edwin D. Leahy, O.S.B., became the 23rd Headmaster of Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in 1972. Having graduated from St. Benedict's Prep in 1960, he earned a B.A. in philosophy from Seton Hall University in 1968 and a Master's in Divinity with distinction in 1975 from the Woodstock College at Union Theological Seminary, New York. In 1966 he took his first vows as a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Newark and was ordained to the priesthood in 1972. Fr. Edwin began his work at St. Benedict's Prep in 1967, teaching biology and religion and assisting with the wrestling and American football teams. Following the suspension of operations of St. Benedict's in 1972, Father Edwin was named to direct the efforts of monks, interested parents, alumni and friends to re-open the School as soon as was feasible. Under his direction St. Benedict's re-opened in 1974 with 89 students and 14 faculty members.
Superintendent Roger León
Newark Public Schools
Roger León was born in the city of Newark, grew up in the city of Newark, remains a proud product of the Newark Board of Education, dedicated 25 years of service to the children in the Newark Public Schools, and still lives in Newark.
Mr. León attended Hawkins Street School from Kindergarten to 8th grade and graduated from Science High School. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences at Rutgers University and was determined to remain in Newark to teach and impact lives at both of his alma maters. For three years, he taught 5th grade at Hawkins Street School and was the Head Coach of the Science High School Debate Team for eight years. His classes won local competitions and his students demonstrated high academic growth. The debate team won local, state, and national championships. The 8th Grade Algebra Pilot resulted in his move to Rafael Hernández Elementary School. Mr. León taught Algebra I to 8th graders for high school credit and provided intensive professional
development in mathematics to Newark teachers across the district. The success of this project resulted in hundreds of 8th grader students earning high school credit in Algebra I, teachers earning dual certification in Mathematics, and the district's highest elementary mathematics standardized test scores in years.
Raymond Ocasio
La Casa de Don Pedro
"The Trust's only constituencies are the students and parents of Newark."
Since 1998 and under Mr. Ocasio's stewardship La Casa has experienced tremendous growth and consolidation of its programs and advocacy activities while adding vigor to its economic development work by employing a focused, targeted, comprehensive and integrated strategy plan.
Barbara Reisman
Maher Charitable Foundation
"One of our primary goals is to keep the public in public education. Transparency in decision making, access to timely information, and meaningful participation by Newark's citizens are values central to the Trust."
Barbara Reisman has been Executive Director of The Schumann Fund for New Jersey since 1997.
The Schumann Fund makes program and policy grants in New Jersey to expand access to high quality early childhood education, for environmental protection and education in urban New Jersey, and to improve public education.
Junius Williams, Esq.
Newark Historian
"The community's voice is vitally important in the conversation of education reform in Newark. As such, The Trust will augment and support the voices already engaged in education reform, providing information and access to other resources as needed. This is one way The Trust helps to align efforts."
Junius W. Williams is a noted attorney, educator, musician and community advocate. Williams is the founder of RiseUp North Newark, an interactive website that tells stories of the Black Resistance Movement, community building and black politics. Recently, Williams has served as the chairman of Newark Celebration 350, the organization that has planned and financed more than 200 activities to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the city's founding. Williams is also the founding Executive Director of the Abbott Leadership Institute (ALI), at Rutgers University-Newark, where he taught advocacy skills to parents and professional educators.
The Newark Trust for Education
494 Broad Street, Suite LL30
Follow @NewarkTrust on Twitter
Created by Shadrach Stephens with NationBuilder

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Acadian Ambulance offering accelerated programs
Published 5:14 pm Friday, December 17, 2021
By Pamela Sleezer
(Special to the Leesville Leader)
With an unprecedented amount of calls over the recent two years, and no signs of slowing, Acadian Ambulance officials are offering new accelerated programs to anyone who might be interested in a career in EMS.
While traditionally, EMT-basic classes have taken four months to complete, the new accelerated program offers the EMT certification in a seven-week course.
Lindsey Leger is a recruiter with Acadian Ambulance for the Southwest Louisiana area, and she said the opportunity for anyone interested in beginning their career as an EMT is a chance that should be taken advantage of.
"We are now offering to hire people when they are enrolled, and so you are basically being paid to go to class right now," Leger said.
The next accelerated classes begin Jan. 10, with a deadline to apply of Dec. 23, so Leger stressed that time is of the essence for anyone considering the opportunity.
Classes will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and completion will include the signing of a 2 year contract with Acadian Ambulance.
"There is nothing out of pocket for applicants to pay. When they graduate, they will be a fully functioning EMT," Leger said.
Leger has been with Acadian Ambulance for five years, and she said the career opportunities are virtually endless once a basic EMT certification is achieved.
"I tell everyone this is the first step in an incredibly rewarding career. From an EMT-basic certification, a person can go on to become certified as a paramedic. From there, they can specialize in critical care and even on to serve with the air med team. I've even seen people use this as a stepping stone for medical school. There is just so much room for growth once you begin," she said.
Leger said Acadian Ambulance, as well as many other emergency medical services, are seeing an incredible growth in the need of their services, and a demand for more medics to help fill that need.
To illustrate that demand, Leger reported that on Friday, Dec. 10, Acadian Ambulance received 150 emergency calls and had 50 scheduled transports, all within the southwest region.
"More and more people are calling 911, and we are in need of more medics to respond to those calls," Leger said.
Anyone interested the accelerated program, or other programs, can visit Becomeamedic.com to apply.
Merryville veteran gifted service dog


text:
<!DOCTYPE html>

    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no" />
    <meta name="msapplication-tap-highlight" content="no" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=no, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, minimum-scale=1, width=device-width" />

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/index.css" />
    <title>TP1</title>

            Modelo:

            Versao:

    <button id="doubleTouch">vibrar</button>
    proxima pagina


To grow in wisdom is your Soul's ultimate wish. Your DNA Code is the manual for finding your Soul's Path. It is a collection of Soul characteristics that represents your own unique self.
We ask a Higher Soul for the Code, Sir Anthony. We have been in contact with him for 20 years now and we have asked for more than 15 000 codes. The beauty is you recognize yourself quickly on the first acquaintance with your code. Along with this aha! effect you experience by yourself that your code is a reflection of your inner being.
If you would like to know more about the DNA Code, we recommend our books. A first English translation is now available.
DNA Report of your Soul (4p – 80 €): This is an extensive version of your DNA Code with a detailed explanation. It contains your Birth Code, Evolution Code, your Type and your Basic Profile, and all the additional Soul qualities: Life Purpose, Age Code, Sphere Behavior, Pitfall Behavior, Settler Behavior, Venus Mars Trap and Adjustment, the Q-Code, the C-Code and the Z-Code.
Update Evolution Code (1p – 15 €): If you would like to follow up the evolution of your wisdom level you can ask for a Code Update.
More detailled informations on all Codes and their application can be found in our book The unveiling of your Soul Path.
Would you like to apply for a request? Go to Online.


text:
Peter Manley (Cheam, 7 maart 1962) is een voormalig Engelse darter.

Manley heeft als bijnaam One Dart, omdat hij ooit bekendstond als de speler die slechts één dart nodig had om zijn dubbels te gooien. Hij is een van de meest besproken spelers in het dartscircuit. Vooral vanwege een voorval tijdens de finale van de Ladbrokes World Darts Championship van 2002. Hij verloor deze finale met 7-0 van dartlegende Phil Taylor en weigerde na afloop Taylors hand te schudden. In de jaren daarna kwam dit op enorm veel boegeroep vanuit het publiek te staan. In 2005 veranderde dit enigszins nadat hij (Is This the Way to) Amarillo van Tony Christie oppakte als zijn opkomsttune. Manley kwam veel rustiger en socialer over en dat resulteerde weer in een positievere reactie van het publiek.

In 2006 stonden Taylor en Manley wederom in de finale van de "Ladbrokes" en opnieuw wist Phil Taylor met de grootst mogelijke score van 7-0 te winnen. Dit keer schudden beide spelers elkaar wel de hand na afloop van de partij.

Tot op de dag van vandaag wist Manley slechts één groot toernooi op zijn naam te schrijven sinds hij overstapte naar de PDC. In 2003 won hij de Las Vegas Desert Classic.Daarnaast stond hij in 2007 en 2008 in de halve finale van dit toernooi.

In 2007 bereikte Manley de finale van de Masters Of Darts, waarin hij kansloos verloor tegen Raymond van Barneveld (7-0). In de pouleronde van het toernooi wist hij als enige alle Nederlandse opponenten te verslaan. Zijn halve finalepartij tegen Mervyn King was een ware klassieker: Manley vocht na een 5-3 in sets en 2-0 in legs achterstand zich terug in de wedstrijd en won met een aantal honderdplus finishes alsnog met 6-5.

De laatste grote overwinning die Peter Manley op televisie boekte, was zijn overwinning bij de laatste 64 van het UK Open 2009. Hij versloeg hierin titelhouder James Wade in een ware thriller met 9-8. Ook zijn overwinning in de eerste ronde van de Las Vegas Desert Classic 2009 tegen Mark Walsh mocht toch wel verrassend worden genoemd. Manley won deze partij met 6-4.

Peter Manley is getrouwd met Crissy Howat.

Gespeelde WK-finales
1999: Phil Taylor – Peter Manley 6–2 ('best of 11 sets')
2002: Phil Taylor – Peter Manley 7–0 ('best of 13 sets')
2006: Phil Taylor – Peter Manley 7–0 ('best of 13 sets')

Resultaten op Wereldkampioenschappen

PDC
 1998: Kwartfinale (verloren van Dennis Priestley met 3-4)
 1999: Runner-up (verloren van Phil Taylor met 2-6)
 2000: Halve finale (verloren van Dennis Priestley met 2-5)
 2001: Laatste 32 (verloren van Jamie Harvey met 2-3)
 2002: Runner-up (verloren van Phil Taylor met 0-7)
 2003: Laatste 32 (verloren van Simon Whitlock met 1-4)
 2004: Kwartfinale (verloren van  Bob Anderson met 2-5)
 2005: Laatste 32 (verloren van Josephus Schenk met 2-4)
 2006: Runner-up (verloren van Phil Taylor met 0-7)
 2007: Laatste 32 (verloren van Wynand Havenga met 3-4)
 2008: Kwartfinale (verloren van Kirk Shepherd met 4-5)
 2009: Laatste 64 (verloren van Mensur Suljović met 2-3)
 2010: Laatste 32 (verloren van Mark Webster met 2-4)

WSDT (Senioren)
 2022: Laatste 16 (verloren van Phil Taylor met 1-3)
 2023: Laatste 32 (verloren van Scott Mitchell met 0-3)

Resultaten op de World Matchplay

PDC
 1996: Laatste 16 (verloren van Jamie Harvey met 3-8)
 1997: Laatste 16 (verloren van Alan Warriner met 1-8)
 1998: Kwartfinale (verloren van Keith Deller met 9-13)
 1999: Runner-up (verloren van Rod Harrington met 17-19)
 2000: Laatste 32 (verloren van Ronnie Baxter met 6-10)
 2001: Laatste 32 (verloren van Steve Beaton met 8-10)
 2002: Laatste 32 (verloren van Bob Anderson met 15-17)
 2003: Halve finale (verloren van Phil Taylor met 10-17)
 2004: Kwartfinale (verloren van Mark Dudbridge met 9-16)
 2005: Halve finale (verloren van John Part met 16-18)
 2006: Laatste 32 (verloren van Andy Hamilton met 2-10)
 2007: Laatste 32 (verloren van Michael van Gerwen met 9-11)
 2008: Laatste 16 (verloren van Matt Clark met 6-13)

WSDT (Senioren)
 2022: Kwartfinale (verloren van Phil Taylor met 4-8)

Externe link
 Officiële website Peter Manley

Manley, Peter

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
How can I found a new village?
In order to found a new village you need 3 settlers, an empty spot on the map and enough culture points. You do not have to research settlers as you can directly build them with a palace level 10, 15 or 20 or a residence level 10 or 20. To build the palace you need a main building level 5 and an embassy. To build the residence you only need a level 5 main building. After training the 3 settlers you can choose an empty spot on the map and click "Found new village" (Hint: you need 750 units of each resource!) then your settlers will leave their home village and found the new village for you.
How can I conquer a village?
For this, too, one needs at least a residence/palace level 10 as well as an enemy village one can conquer. Additionally enough culture points are needed - like for founding a new village. One cannot conquer the last of a player's villages and neither their capital.
As soon as the steward of a town (senator, chief, chieftain) as been researched in the academy one can train him in the residence/palace like a settler. However, one may not have already trained settlers in order to be able to train a steward. To conquer a village the steward needs to attack the desired village a couple of times after the enemy residence/palace has been demolished. Once the village's loyalty reached zero the village will become one's own. Once this happened one should build a palace or a residence to raise the loyalty again.
How do I get culture points?
One gets culture points (CPs) by constructing and extending buildings. Already produced culture points can be seen in the residence and palace. Additionally information about the required culture points for additional villages is displayed there.
Culture points
Iron Mine
Cropland
1 1 2 2 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 9 11 13 15 18 22 27 32 38
4 4 5 6 7 9 11 13 15 19 22 27 32 39 46 55 67 80 96 115
5 6 7 8 10 12 14 17 21 25 30 36 43 51 62 74 89 106 128 153
6 7 9 10 12 15 18 21 26 31 37 45 53 64 77 92 111 133 160 192
Great Barracks
Great Stable
Stonemason's Lodge
Hero's Mansion
Culture points needed for additional villages
- 2000 8000 20000 39000 65000 99000 141000 191000 251000
The more villages one has, the more culture points are necessary to found or conquer additional villages. One cannot lose culture points, however, one needs more for additional villages.


You are going to love these Indian apple fritters! I'm sharing the most delicious recipe for apple jalebi! These apple donuts are served in a warm cardamom spiced syrup and garnished with crushed pistachios.
These apple jalebis are so decadent! They're also somewhat guilt-free! I consider them to be a "healthier" dessert. They are paleo-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan too!
Indian desserts are known to be fairly unhealthy. I believe my paleo adaptations are a better option than going with store-bought and I'll tell ya why.
It's because you know exactly what you're putting into it. I always choose to use high quality ingredients. For example, while these apple fritters are fried – I fry them at home in a good quality neutral oil like avocado oil. When you buy them at the store, who knows what's in them.
Traditionally, jalebis are made with a fermented batter, which is what makes them nice and bubbly. Most of the time, yogurt is used as a leavening agent but I ferment the batter a different way! I use these probiotic capsules. You just empty the probiotic powder into the batter and then discard the capsule's casing. Allow the batter to ferment – then dip the apple slices into the batter!
The probiotic powder helps to ferment the batter and so you end up with a crust that's just as nice and bubbly when deep-fried in hot oil. I use the probiotic powder to keep this recipe dairy-free/vegan so that those with food allergies/certain lifestyles can also enjoy this dessert. I myself am gluten-free which is why I try to create delicious recipes that the majority of people can enjoy.
This apple jalebi recipe along with some of my other paleo Indian desserts (like my other jalebi recipe or my gulab jamun recipe) are from my eBook, South Asian Persuasion: 100+ Paleo Indian Recipes. All of the recipes in my eBook are gluten-free, grain-free and lactose-free (ghee is the only dairy I use in the book). If you follow a paleo diet or are gluten-free, you will most definitely want my paleo Indian ecookbook!