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According to the Huffington Post, the CEO of one of America's largest pharmaceutical companies issued a bleak warning about the prospect of a vaccine for the novel coronavirusby the end of the year, saying lawmakers touting the possibility were doing a "grave disservice to the public." Ken Frazier, the CEO of Merck, made the comments in an interview with Harvard Business School last week. He directly targeted politicians who have asserted that a vaccine is around the corner, without naming President Donald Trump, saying such statements were premature and "actually tell the public not to do the things that the public needs to do." "What worries me the most is that the public is so hungry, so desperate to go back to normalcy, that they are pushing us to move things faster and faster," Frazier said during an interview last week with Harvard professor Tsedal Neeley. "But ultimately, if you're going to use a vaccine in billions of people, you better know what that vaccine does."
I recently was sent this article by Russ Taylor, someone I "met" online. Taylor says Trump's last and most awful dirty trick to try and get reelected will be to hustle Americans one last time with an unproven perhaps even fake vaccine. Is this true? I do not know. I do know that nothing is beneath Trump and the Republicans in the voter suppression and lies department. So I do know that this could be true and is worth making public in case.
Frank Schaeffer
Trump's "Silver Bullet Coronavirus Vaccine" Will be the Biggest and Last Dirty Trick
By Russ Taylor
TO: Whomever cares about the impending demise of our American Democratic Republic
Here's how it will go down: On, or in the near vicinity of October 15, 2020, Donald Trump will walk to a White House podium clutching a number of glass vials in his grubby little hands. He will proceed to grandly announce to "The Great American People" that their prayers have been answered by Trump's Operation Warp Speed (as promised), that the Silver Bullet Coronavirus Vaccine is at hand with distribution to begin immediately. In making this announcement, Trump will be well on his way to flipping the entire Covid-19 debacle in his favor. The hope-hunger, the desperation for a vaccine amongst the American people, cannot be overstated. Trump may be poorly educated, unread and incurious in general, but when it comes to his political survival, we would be well advised not to underestimate what George Will called his "feral cunning".
The vaccine that Trump will present in mid-October will be the "Chimpanzee Virus" candidate now racing to conclusion in the UK at the Jenner Institute, an affiliate of Oxford University which is partnered with the UK's pharma giant AstraZeneca. It is worth noting that neither AstraZeneca or Jenner Institute has ever developed a proven successful vaccine though this fact has not stopped Jenner's director, Adrian Hill, from throwing serious shade on (and outright lying about) American science legend William Haseltine who has developed at least two successful vaccines. True, Jenner's Prof. Sarah Gilbert does have a MERS vaccine (using the Chimp virus platform) being tested in Saudi Arabia since last December but the results of that effort are still out. Anyway, more on this later.
Full disclosure: While I do have university training and real world experience in both print and electronic journalism, that was many decades ago. I would characterize myself as a very motivated amateur. So, bear with me as I attempt to stitch together a lot of info from a bunch of paper strewn over my desk and adjacent floor.
On April 22, 2020, the UK Telegraph newspaper published the following: "Boris spoke to Donald Trump to discuss coronavirus and international trade." Now, I don't have a transcript of that little chat between two right-wing pols who are allegedly quite chummy, but given that Boris and Donald were and are in pretty much the same leaky political boat due to their perceived (very correctly perceived in my view) early bungling of the Covid-19 pandemic I suppose it went something like: Boris to Donald: "Wouldn't it be nice if your Operation Warp Speed had a UK vaccine to present to the American people about, say, mid-October? " Trump is all ears and drooling at this point. Boris goes on to say that "the fine folks at the Jenner Institute have a prime candidate and my Secretary of Health Matt Hancock has pretty much axed all those cumbersome vaccine development regulations that in other times would make development of a new vaccine a matter of years and not months."
Now, you may say that I have a fine imagination/intuition and you might be right about that. But here are a few facts that I drew upon to construct the above narrative. On April 22, 2020 an article was published in Pharmafield (I take this to be a UK trade publication) under the byline of Emma Morriss. In her article, Ms. Morriss writes that "the UK government has launched a new coronavirus task force to drive forward, expedite and co-ordinate efforts to research and then produce a coronavirus vaccine." Further down in the article we read where "The taskforce will focus on five strands of activity including: item number three: Reviewing government regulations to facilitate rapid and "safe" (my quotes, not hers) development of a vaccine." But here's what I regard as the clincher: On April 21, 2020, CNBC quoted UK Secretary of Health Matt Hancock as follows: "In normal times, reaching this stage would take years, and I'm very proud of the work taken so far," he said in a daily news briefing. Just above that quote is a photograph of this handsome, young and very ambitious UK right-winger, Mr. Hancock, and the cutline for that photo says: "British Health Minister Matt Hancock said Tuesday (April 21) that a vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford University (aka Jenner Institute) will be tested on people Thursday." (aka April 23rd)
So, Hancock pops off as you see above just the day before Boris and Donald get on the phone together. I think we can all put two and two together here.
But, enough for now about UK stuff (but more later). On April 27th the estimable David D. Kirkpatrick, writing for what Gay Talese once called "The Great Grey Lady" in his book The Kingdom and The Power, a book about the legendary New York Times newspaper that I read when I worked for a small daily that the Times had just purchased in '72 in Florida, Mr. Kirkpatrick writes: "The Oxford scientists now say that with an emergency approval from regulators, the first few million doses of their vaccine could be available by September—at least several months ahead of any of the other announced efforts—if it proves to be "effective"." (again, my quotes, not his). Yes indeed, safe and effective, that's what any good vaccine must prove to be and we could be forgiven if we ask just how likely it is that the Oxford vaccine will prove out given that (A) The previous record for a vaccine is four years (I think it was Mumps) and (B) There are very good reasons for the stringent protocols that make the average vaccine development time turn out to be in the area of ten years. HMMM! What could go wrong here?
Well, it just may be that we have a major documented clue as to just what might be a good reason to suspect that the Oxford/Jenner Institute/AstraZeneca vaccine will ultimately not prove to be effective. I hold in my hand a copy of an official press release (dated Friday, May 15) from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning an effectiveness trial of the Oxford vaccine that involved six rhesus macaque monkeys at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML). I note that this is almost a month after Boris and Donald had their aforementioned conversation and I find myself asking why the Brits would do their monkey trials at an American lab? My suspicion here is that Donald Trump has, some time ago, figured out that he can reach into any crevice or cranny of the executive branch bureaucracy and destroy anyone therein who does anything he does not like. This is not just my casual observation. It is beyond dispute. Just saying.
Be all that as it may, this latter day "Monkey Trial" (not to be confused with Mr. Scopes' trial that began July 21, 1925) first came to my attention when it was being trumpeted by the likes of CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell (who I like to call the "NorahVirus") as a "major breakthrough" in the quest for a Covid vaccine. What Ms. O'Donnell completely failed to mention was that all of the six monkeys that were given the Oxford vaccine and then challenged with the virus ended up contracting the virus. Maybe I'm just old school about this stuff but I have this notion that a vaccine is supposed to prevent you from getting the virus.
If you really want to delve seriously into all this "Monkey Business" (where are Donna Rice and Gary Hart these days?) I suggest (strongly) that you Google an article that a man I consider to be a great American, William Haseltine, published on May 16, 2020 in that well known purveyor of lefty propaganda, Forbes Magazine. The article is titled: "Did The Oxford COVID Vaccine Work In Monkeys? Not Really". Seriously folks, if I've managed to get your attention by now just Google Haseltine's Forbes piece and read the damn thing, all of it, and you will have the story as it actually occurred and not the obfuscation, water-muddying and lies being floated by Trump's groveling NIH lackeys and the self-serving Jenner Institute Director Prof. Adrian Hill who had the British upper-crust gall to say, as he was quoted in a May 31, 2020 article in the UK Telegraph: "The honest truth, I think, is that the author (i.e., Haseltine) is a long-retired (i.e., older than dirt Yank) senior Harvard virologist, infectious disease guy. He's not a vaccine developer," he said. Well now, Mr. Snark (Hill) is either ignorant of the facts or lying. I saw Dr. Haseltine (he's not an MD but PH.D.) on MSNBC with Katy Tur a few weeks back and he clearly stated that he has personally developed at least two vaccines. He went on to say that when it comes to a Covid vaccine it is not a question of "when" but a question of "if" as coronaviruses are notoriously difficult to develop vaccines for.
Pardon me if I have my American "back" well up here but I happen to know that William Haseltine is something of a legend (scientist, businessman, philanthropist) in my country's science circles and I take severe umbrage when this Brit bastard verbally urinates on Bill Haseltine's shoes. Moreover, by way of a sidebar, I have read Christopher Wylie's immensely important book: Mindf*ck, Cambridge Analytica and The Plot to Break America. I have read all of it, about how a Brit upper-cruster (maybe he clubs with Adrian Hill) name of Alexander Nix gave the Russians the software-algorithm suite invented by Wylie, along with the scraped Facebook data to feed that software-algorithm, that was then applied by Nix's Cambridge Analytica in concert with the minions of Trump's buddy Putin to deliver the electoral college to Trump in 2016. If you haven't yet read Mindf*uck I think it's right up there with Whitaker Chambers' book Witness on the must-read list for all Americans. My takeaway from Wylie's book (one of them) was that there are members of the UK ruling class who do not have warm fuzzies where the American Republic is concerned. Indeed, I suspect some of these slimy limeys have never entirely forgiven or forgotten that we kicked their asses out of here back in the late 18th century.
But I do digress, do I not? So, I have here a CBS News piece dated May 21, 2020, almost a month after the Boris-Donald conflab and six days after Trump's NIH trumpets the "good news" per the Rocky Mountain Lab monkey trials. The big news on May 21 (courtesy of Melissa Quinn) is that Trump's Operation Warp Speed has just dropped $1.2 Billion of American taxpayer cash on the Oxford/Jenner vaccine compared to the paltry $80 Million previously shoved in that direction by Boris. Are the puzzle pieces coming together to form a discernable "picture" for you yet? Now, why in the world would Mr. America First, Mr. America does everything bigger and better than anyone else, give $1.2 Billion to a "foreign" vaccine when there are plenty of good candidates here in the U.S.?
The answer was to be found in a piece I found perusing the NYT feed on my smart phone on July 6th, a column written by Elisabeth Rosenthal. Ms. Rosenthal's column was a cautionary deal concerning the likely high cost of the hoped for vaccine. She wrote: "There is reason to worry that our deliverance from the coronavirus will cost us plenty. BARDA, (i.e. Trump) paid AstraZeneca (i.e., Jenner/Oxford) up to $1.2 Billion toward development, production and delivery of its candidate vaccine, in order to secure 300 million doses in October. Britain paid the equivalent of $80 million for 100 million does to be delivered in September."
I find it interesting that Ms. Rosenthal seems more concerned with dollars out of pocket per putative dose than with the extreme likelihood that my country will be decimated by the second Trump term that the Oxford/Jenner vaccine will be decisive in delivering. To be sure, I do not mean to throw any shade on Ms. Rosenthal. I think she's like most of the talented and hard-working professionals in the upper ranks of American print journalism, i.e., very focused on the task at hand, very focused on a narrow set of parameters. This is why American and British fascists get away with so much. As Sarah Kendzior says in her book: Hiding In Plain Sight, The Invention of Donald Trump and The Erosion of America, that is just simply what they do. They hide in plain sight.
Here's the deal folks: Unless certain people who have the wherewithal to do so tell the American people that the Trump Vaccine is coming in October, that it will be flawed, but the flaws will not be well known until after the election, Trump will likely pull off what will go down in history as one of the premier acts of political jiu jitsu, perhaps the best such ever done. He will take his greatest political liability, his total bungling of the pandemic, and in one bold stroke he will transform it into a tidal wave of public gratitude for his deliverance vaccine. I liken the vast despair, the hunger for hope in my country to a huge mass of water built up behind a straining dam. Trump will break that despair dam with his vaccine, and make no mistake, it will be very well promoted as HIS vaccine, and thereby ride the wave of goodwill descending from that broken dam into a second term. The American Democratic Republic WILL NOT SURVIVE A SECOND TRUMP TERM!
Now, some will argue that the American people will not be so easily deceived. Oh, really? And I suppose the 2016 presidential election and last 3.70 years were all just some bad dream I had? This election, given all the voter suppression and outright theft that will be perped by the Republicans, given that Trump's rabid base will crawl over broken glass and the coronavirus to vote for him while some urban Dems may not show up due to the danger, this election will be close, and if you think that the Trump Vaccine will not turn the tide for him you are whistling past the graveyard of American Democracy.
Please people, and I hereby address all those with a keyboard or a microphone that is plugged into whatever modality of American Media, for pity's sake, consider the above case that I have made and alert America to what is coming in October.
If anyone would like to take issue with the facts that I have adduced here or the analysis pertaining thereto, feel free to email me at tayloruss@gmail.com.
Russ Taylor, American
P.S. After Trump's October Surprise the Norah O'Donnells will feed Americans two weeks of visuals featuring the distribution and administering of the vaccine. That will be the two weeks preceding Trump's historic come-from-behind win.
Donald Trump Wants Civil War
2 Comments. Leave new
Priscilla Poupore
Thank you for revealing so many unholy truths. I do believe Christianity and in fact all organized religions are the basis of most suffering and certainly most deaths on Earth
Jenvieve
Well, this morning's news about the almost 2 billion dollar contract with Pfizer and a German pharmaceutical company bears this out. I wonder what the $$ connection is to Trump and how much of that money will go for executive bonuses? The December rollout gives Trump time to tease a "cure" without having to deliver. We MUST get him OUT,


Cross Contamination is a huge problem for a lot of Coeliacs and it can be the reason a lot of people get ill accidentally, especially if you are cooking in a kitchen where meals containing gluten are also prepared.
Preparing food in a completely Gluten Free zone is very important as even a small trace of gluten is enough to make some Coeliacs ill, so be sure to clean all work surfaces and equipment thoroughly.
If you've been recently diagnosed it might be a good idea to invest in new utensils, especially ones that can't be washed easily – like sieves, chopping boards etc.
Sometimes it's good to have separate equipment from family members or housemates. A separate toaster is usually a good idea, as is guarding it with your life to make sure no one dares contaminate it with gluten!
Keep all ingredients separate from those containing gluten – in my house I have my own cupboard.


Use slotted angle to build just about anything.
Rugged and strong angle delivers extra supporting strength.
Build everything with slotted angle – carts, ladders, benches, shelving, cases, racks, and more. An excellent framing system. Made of either 12 or 14 ga. roll-formed steel. Finished in Gray powder coat enamel. Slotted angle hardware sold separately. FOB Shipping Point.
Use with Slotted Angle Hardware (sold separately) - Zinc-plated 3/8" – 16 x 3/4" Hex head bolts and nuts sold in boxes of 75 each.
Use with Slotted Angle Cutter (sold separately) - Cuts angle easily and efficiently. Red in color.
3 x 1-1/2 x 10'0"3 1-1/2 10'0"


It was time to fill up the 5' box in the 2015 Ram 1500 Sport Crew Cab 4x4 so we headed to Blue Grass Nursery, Sod and Garden Centre. We filled it up with enough wood chips/mulch for more than your yard can handle. Randy, yard manager, says it was enough for a yard and a half.
Next Leaving Thomas Will Start Your Day Off Right!


FROM the pyramids of Giza to the Australian Great Barrier Reef, the world's most spectacular sites of both man-made and natural beauty have always piqued our curiosity and been the focus of many of our travel plans.
But these world heritage sites should not be taken for granted, as far too often they are under threat from outside forces, whether its climate change, mass tourism, or conflict.
In a bid to protect these unique destinations, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) places those considered under the most serious threat on the List of World Heritage in Danger. These include some obvious ones, such as the site of Palmyra in Syria which was devastated by Islamic State, and some not so obvious ones, like the center of Vienna, Austria, currently under threat from the spread of high-rises and new development.
There are sadly a handful of precious sites highlighted in Asia-Pacific. Hopefully, the protection efforts will work, and these will be around for a long time yet.
Rennell – the world's largest raised coral island – is a small Polynesian outlier of Solomon Islands. With neighbouring Bellona, it forms tiny Rennell and Bellona Province, population approximately 3,000. Rennell is an island divided. The western side of the island has seen extensive logging since 2006, and more recent, and highly controversial, bauxite mining. This extractive activity, and its various and often opaque enabling arrangements, has caused extensive divisions within the Rennellese population, both on-island and in Honiara. West Rennell has become highly fractured. In contrast, pristine and unique East Rennell, dominated by the largest insular lake in the Pacific islands, Lake Tegano, is a UNESCO world heritage area – but locals just aren't benefiting from the listing.
The largest raised coral atoll in the world is a testament to evolutionary processes and home to Lake Tegano.
Rennell Island is the largest raised coral atoll in the world. Rennell is a testament to evolutionary processes and is home to Lake Tegano. The atoll covers an area of 87,500 hectares, and it is 15 kilometers wide and 86 kilometers long. It is a world heritage property occupying a third of the Island. Lake Tegano alone covers 15,000 hectares, making it the largest lake in the insular Pacific. The lake is home different endemic species including sea snake. The surrounding terrain is covered with dense forest that has remained in its natural state and has a rich biodiversity. There are four species and nine subspecies of land and water birds respectively. Rennell Island has gained recognition across the world for its unique ecology and rich biodiversity.


About: Interested in e-learning, I'm not really an expert, but I do seem to be good at linking technology to education.
In my last role as an ILT Content Advisor,I provided appropriate e-learning and ILT solutions for both staff and students, and supported teaching staff in the development and creation of interactive online learning resources and activities.
I am passionate about education, and how technology can hopefully have a positive impact on learning, particularly in Further Education.
Interests ILT, Xtranormal, Prezi, Scrabble, Music, Films, Real Ale!
Leave a note on David Dunbar's profile.


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Q: How to reboot after resetting password Recently I had a problem with the authentication in ubuntu 12.04. I managed to solve the problem by using this procedure
But after successfully changing my password, I couldn't find a way to reboot my laptop. I wonder how can one reboot in that freakish environment?

A: You can reboot via the terminal with shutdown -r now, assuming you're root.

A: Just try reboot command if you are root.

A: The answer is right in that procedure:

Type in reboot. If that doesn't work, hit Ctrl+Alt+Del

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home / Science / Mysterious Air Force Space Plane Returns after Record-Breaking Flight
Mysterious Air Force Space Plane Returns after Record-Breaking Flight
1:44:00 AM Science Edit
"The X-37B continues to demonstrate the importance of a reusable spaceplane. Each successive mission advances our nation's space capabilities."
And those capabilities would be … what? Air Force secretary Barbara Barrett didn't give that information in her announcement that the super-secret X-37B spaceplane landed in Florida on October 27 at 3:51 am ET after spending a record 780 days in Earth orbit doing … what? Barrett didn't answer that question either, which is not surprising since it has gone unanswered before, during and after all five secret missions of the Orbital Test Vehicle program.
"We're doing experimentation. You know that, publicly we've said that. We're doing experimentation predominantly to get after what I'll say is buying down risks for things that can be very expensive in space, and get a good solid understanding of how one would prepare ourselves for either a large buy, an expensive buy if you will, or in this case, get on with how one want to operate in the future."
Well, that explains … nothing. While being equally evasive about the schedule for the long-awaited first flight of the B-21 very-long-range stealth bomber (the proposed December 2021 date is out), Randall Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO) who was speaking at an Air Force association breakfast, said nothing of substance about the X-37B, which at least has flown. When it landed, he reiterated about the "Air Force Research Laboratory experiments" and dis note that this X-37B provided "a ride for small satellites" but did not disclose their purposes.
What about the Space Force?
"The safe return of this spacecraft, after breaking its own endurance record, is the result of the innovative partnership between Government and Industry. The sky is no longer the limit for the Air Force and, if Congress approves, the U.S. Space Force."
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein went all Buzz Lightyear in his announcement of the X-27B's safe return and future, but didn't add anything new either.
What about SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 rocket launched this X-37B?
"SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched X-37B on its fifth mission – OTV-5 – on September 7th, 2017, just a handful of months after successfully launching a similarly secretive mission (NROL-76) for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and a handful of months prior to the company's even more mysterious 'Zuma' launch. SpaceX's OTV-5 launch had to race against the clock to beat Hurricane Irma's forecasted landfall and the company managed to launch just a few days prior, while the booster's post-landing operations had to be similarly expedited."
As Teslarati points out, SpaceX is heavily involved in secret missions and has no interest in disclosing anything. It's also possible that SpaceX is busy readying its reusable rocket for the next launch – scheduled for 2020 – of the X-37B reusable spacecraft.
Could this be the inside of the X-37B? Who knows?
As Porky Pig used to say … "That's all, Folks!"
Could he have been a secret Air Force spokesperson?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Solving certain linear equations with coefficients in $\{1,2\}$ without Gaussian elimination. I'm trying to solve this system of linear equations for every $n\in \mathbb{N}$ ($2$ on the main diagonal, $1$ anywhere else):
$$2x_{1}+x_{2}+...+x_n=1$$
$$x_{1}+2x_{2}+...+x_n=1$$$$...$$
$$x_{1}+x_{2}+...+2x_n=1$$
Obiously I can use Gaussian Elimination, but it seems like a lot of technical work and I don't know how can it be generelized to every $n$.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

A: By symmetry, all the $x_i$ are equal; so each is equal to $1/(n+1)$.

A: Hint. Use Guassian elimination for the case when $n=2$.  Then do it for $n=3$.  Then prove the hypothesis you develop.

A: If you write the system in matrix form $AX=B$, note that the determinant of the matrix $A$ is different from zero. This is easy to prove by induction and developing the determinant along a row or column.
The determinant different from zero means there is a unique solution. Try putting all $x_i$ equal to each other and you'll find the solution.

A: You could try to show that there is a unique solution like Raskolnikov suggested. Then, there will be an $a$ such that $$x_1 + x_2 + \ldots + x_n = a$$
All the equations can then be written on the form $$a + x_i = 1$$
which means that all $x_i$ are equal.


(HealthDay)—When a state bans texting while driving, will the number of car crash victims showing up in its emergency rooms drop?
Only a small proportion of cases of a person with dementia going missing are reported to police, according to a new study.
(HealthDay)—An unrestrained driver is a strong predictor for having an unrestrained child passenger in both fatal and nonfatal crashes, according to a study published online Feb. 4 in Pediatrics.
Sri Lanka is suffering its worst-ever dengue outbreak, with the mosquito-borne virus killing 225 people and infecting more than 76,000 this year.


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Янтарне (; ) — село в Кам'янському районі в Молдові (Придністров'ї). Входить до складу Рашківської сільської ради.

Більшість населення - українці. Згідно з переписом 2004 року - 59%.

Примітки

Кам'янський район (Молдова)
Села Молдови
Населені пункти, засновані 1981

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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A Signal From the Noise
GEOINT holds promise for understanding climate change through the lens of national security
By: Melanie D.G. Kaplan | August 18, 2015
On a sunny afternoon in May, President Barack Obama stood before a class of U.S. Coast Guard graduates and unequivocally made the case for climate change as a national security issue.
"I'm here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country," he said.
The same day, the White House released a new report, "The National Security Implications of a Changing Climate," which chronicles the national security implications of climate change and stresses that its impacts increase the "frequency, scale, and complexity of future defense missions."
For days, the Internet was abuzz with reactions. Some applauded President Obama's strategy; some questioned whether national security is the best lens through which to frame climate change. In short order, headlines returned to crises that demanded immediate attention: torrential downpours in Texas, record-breaking heat in Alaska, drought in California, a deadly heat wave in India.
In his speech, President Obama said terrorist group Boko Haram exploited the instability partially created by severe drought in Nigeria, and that drought and crop failures helped fuel the early unrest in Syria. Regardless of the causes of climate change, the U.S. now faces increasingly volatile environmental conditions on American soil as well as in politically fragile parts of the world that can't be ignored. The resounding call is to arm our defense, intelligence, and homeland security communities with environmental intelligence in order to better anticipate climate-related security threats.
The GEOINT Community plays a critical role in leading the effort to better understand climate change and mitigate damage. From imaging and measuring the Earth to mapping environmental and human risks, GEOINT can provide increasingly accurate and timely information about a changing planet to yield better decision-making.
Yet there are many uncertainties: How can the dots be better connected with current data? How can warnings be improved? What is the best way to graphically represent the second and third order national security effects such as changes to growing seasons and water security? How is a changing climate tied to extreme weather events?
"The question that many policymakers have is, when an extreme event happens, can it be scientifically tied to the fact that we've changed the climate?" said Rear Adm. (ret.) David Titley professor of practice at Pennsylvania State University's Department of Meteorology and director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk. "For millennia we've had storms and droughts, but the data shows that we're having more severe heat waves. When it rains, it rains harder." Connecting these events with climate change, he said, requires adequate monitoring. "Having long-term time series is very important. "If you can do that long enough, the signal comes out of the noise."
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Engel, director of the National Intelligence Council's (NIC) Environment and Natural Resources Program, said he's not surprised certain weather phenomena, such as an increase in the number of extreme weather events, are occurring as a result of climate change; however, the rate at which this is happening is disconcerting.
"If these really are fundamental changes we're seeing, and not just the normal statistical variation in weather," he said, "we're in for one whale of a rough ride."
A 2013 Harvard report, "Climate Extremes: Recent Trends with Implications for National Security" details the security risks of extreme weather and climate change, finding that higher temperatures, stronger tropical cyclones, wider areas of drought, increased precipitation, Arctic warming, and continued sea level rise will affect water and food availability, energy decisions, and the design of critical infrastructure. The report stressed the U.S. government is not prepared for the "new climate normal" and must better observe key indicators, monitor unfolding events, and forewarn of impending security threats.
The biggest environmental threats to national security are threefold: changes in the Arctic, sea level rise, and extreme weather, which includes dangerous heat, drought, and flooding.
When Weather Fuels the Fire
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects sea level could increase up to 23 inches this century. Satellite data collected over a 23-year period beginning with the TOPEX/Poseidon launch in 1992 shows a steady global sea level rise of about three millimeters per year, nearly 50 percent faster than the rate in the previous century.
The future of weather satellites
Although the Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on Earth thus far, nations have been working together to keep the region peaceful. Russia and the U.S., for example, recently agreed to regulate trawling in newly melted waters. However, rising temperatures and melting permafrost means reduced military vehicle access, degraded infrastructure, and uncharted waters for commercial activity. Most significantly, the melting Arctic is a major factor in sea level rise around the globe.
Sea level rise has led to more frequent "nuisance flooding"—whether at the Tidal Basin a mile south of the White House or in the streets of Miami—but the potential for greater flooding has prompted the U.S. Navy to carefully examine its coastal bases in conjunction with geospatial data such as tidal gauges and LiDAR to ensure the service is prepared for long-term operations.
Bordering India's east coast, Bangladesh—a country the size of Iowa with a population of 157 million—is often cited in sea-level rise scenarios. As heights increase, millions of people will be dislocated from the country's coastal flood plains. A flood may drive the people of Bangladesh to move into areas or across borders where they're not wanted, causing food and water shortages, or worse—violence.
Christine Parthemore, a senior research and policy fellow at the Center for Climate and Security, who previously worked at the Department of Defense (DoD) and teaches a class on climate change and national security at Johns Hopkins University, said it's important to focus beyond the Arctic, where it's easy to see ice melting. According to her, the most serious geopolitical hotspots lie between 20 degrees north and south of the equator.
"We need to look at North Africa and a lot of places in Southeast Asia that are both important to U.S. security interests and strategy," she said. "I think climate change is going to wreak havoc in these parts of the world, and we have the knowledge to put these pieces together and mitigate the potential security risks."
The unknown destabilizing potential of extreme weather is what defense experts are calling a "threat multiplier"—weather events are not causing wars, infectious disease, or terrorism, but they are a contributing factor.
Marc Levy, deputy director of Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network and an author of the IPCC report, said he's never seen anything more serious in security terms than climate change. Levy added it's easy to imagine how a political hotspot layered with a climate hotspot could result in disaster, citing examples of regions where preexisting grievances coupled with an unprecedented drought or flood has led to unrest.
The Syrian Civil War is the latest candidate for what Levy calls a "climate war," given the unprecedented, widespread drought, massive relocation, and violence, leading to 3.3 million refugees and a death toll of 220,000.
"I think the easiest thing the Pentagon deals with is the operations stuff—trucking in water because local supplies have run out," Levy said. "Harder to handle are the effects from a climate shock that trigger a breakdown of order—political events like the Arab Spring, a severe food crisis, or refugee camps in Europe with people crossing the Mediterranean."
From Theory to Application
Experts believe climate change can lead to political unrest and civil wars. In July 2013, the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan had grown to the country's fourth largest city in the aftermath of the Syrian Civil War. State Department Photo: Public Domain
In addition to the IPCC and White House reports, the climate change-national security connection is the subject of numerous reports from a number of organizations, including the NIC, G7, National Research Council (NRC), and CNA Military Advisory Board. Climate change has also been addressed in the DoD's Quadrennial Defense Review and the Director of National Intelligence's Worldwide Threat Assessment.
While the DoD and Intelligence Community have said publically climate is a threat to be taken seriously, the question remains: What are they doing about it?
"It's one thing to mention in a report, another to take action," Levy said.
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Mike Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said thinking about chronic, long-term threats such as climate change is difficult for Americans, versus threats in front of us today, such as extreme weather or ISIS.
For starters, the government needs a clear message and plan, and neither has been communicated well to Americans, Flynn said. Those having a hard time putting bread on the table need a "crystal clear explanation" as to why climate change matters.
"I don't think the Intelligence Community has done it well, I don't think the administration has done it well, I don't think the international community has done it well, and the presidential candidates aren't talking about it," Flynn said.
Muddying the White House's message, the CIA shut down Medea, its decades-old, off-and-on climate study program in May, just days after the administration released its "National Security Implications of a Changing Climate" report. The program had provided civilian scientists with environmental data collected by submarines and satellites to help study the connection between security and climate change.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey's Civil Applications Committee (CAC) allows civilian agencies access to classified satellite imagery for non-military, non-classified purposes such as monitoring climate change. CAC activities include remote sensing applications such as monitoring sea ice, glaciers, and volcanoes; detecting and tracking wildfires; coordinating emergency response to natural disasters; and monitoring ecosystems.
The consensus among experts is a lack of information sharing and no central authority hinders analytic capabilities.
Rear Adm. Jonathan White, director of the Navy's Task Force on Climate Change, said the U.S. needs to better fuse and synchronize observations of what's happening at ground level with the ability to predict what is coming in terms of a changing climate.
For example, we can zoom into Google Maps to see a restaurant, but in the future, White said, could we pull up a map and see what a flash flood would do to the same block?
"Then we could start making decisions," White said. "That granularity is something we should be striving for. We're not there yet, but it starts with GEOINT."
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has stepped in this direction, recently awarding Arizona State University a multi-million dollar academic research grant with multiple option years to help fund the university's Foresight Initiative. The initiative examines how to anticipate and visualize global environmental change, specifically as it relates to better decision-making.
Ted Cope, NGA's director for Basic and Applied Research, described climate change as a "wicked problem with no solution," but with a set of continual tradeoffs. For example, he described the tradeoff of increasing the amount of water released from a hydroelectric dam during an extended draught to sustain agricultural needs while diminishing the electrical production of the dam, which would cause widespread economic impacts. He said Foresight, when fully realized, will allow multi-discipline government experts, planners, and decision-makers to collectively "see projected outcomes of their decisions and policies" leveraging models, simulations, and super computer power to formulate mitigation and adaption strategies.
Cope said Foresight will also demonstrate how GEOINT can contribute authoritative data to serve as a credible "game board" to establish initial conditions as the foundation for launching anticipatory conjectures relevant to decision-making. [Editor's note: Since press time, NGA determined not to renew ASU's funding for 2016, despite the university meeting and exceeding expected research outcomes to date. The agency described the decision as a result of changes in its government research and funding priorities. ASU, with recent awards in this area, plans to continue its research and collaborations with U.S. Department of Energy labs.]
In June, NGA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research held a first of its kind Climate and Human Security–Geospatial Data and Mapping symposium at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The goal of the symposium was that it serve as a catalyst for a "broad community of purpose across the government," Cope said, "to explore how we collectively could get better synergy for tackling the complexities of climate change effects on national security-related issues." A conference paper published late this summer will capture the proceedings and recommended actions.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is taking steps to study climate change as well. Satellite data can be used to capture wavelengths of fluorescent light from vegetation and determine the level of photosynthetic activity in that vegetation. This practice has already been done using data from systems such as Japan's Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite and Europe's Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment. However, ESA's Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) satellite is expected to provide unprecedented capabilities in fluorescence observation and help scientists better understand the global carbon cycle, state of food security, and effects of climate change on crops. FLEX is a candidate for ESA's eighth Earth Explorer mission in competition with CarbonSat, which intends to study levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere to understand how they are linked to climate change. ESA and the Earth observation community will select in September which mission will launch under Earth Explorer.
Gaps Remain
For the amount of scientific data we have on the world's changing climate, we still lack the ability to predict its effects, said Jim Baker, director of Forest and Land-Use Measurement for the Clinton Foundation. The ability to answer the queries of the Intelligence Community (How much will it rain? What will this volcano do?), he said, requires a stronger understanding of the atmosphere, as well as faster computers to crunch the data.
"We know the overall trends, but knowing when a drought or storm will start or end is very tough, and that's exactly what national security wants," Baker said. "If you have an area of conflict—Syria or Iraq—and there's a big change in climate there, do you know what the weather impacts are? Other than broad predictions, I'd say no."
Security experts say the only thing harder than predicting the climate is predicting human behavior. Climate change is largely a human geography problem, rather than one of physical geography. When a region is hit with a climate shock, one community may come together and become more resilient while the other deteriorates and becomes violent. How will any one population react?
Currently, the Intelligence Community addresses such questions by gathering multidisciplinary subject matter experts on a particular region, Engel said.
This composite map factors four variables to determine climate change vulnerability: physical exposure, population density, household and community resilience, and governance.
"If the climate scientists tell us in 2040 [a particular] country will experience [a predicted] kind of stress, you ask the experts, 'how will people react?'" he said. "In a part of the world that has high Internet connectivity and an existing grievance against the government, a stress from climate change may put people in the streets and result in social disruption, if not political disruption."
However, the Intelligence Community is working toward visualizing such intelligence. That's exactly what the Climate Change and African Political Stability Program (CCAPS) at the University of Texas at Austin's Robert S. Strauss Center is doing. Funded by DoD's Minerva Initiative, CCAPS' online tool enables policymakers to visualize data sets on climate change vulnerability, conflict, and aid in any combination over set time periods for any African country. The tool uses historic and real-time data to depict chronic hotspots and relative vulnerability levels, and is intended to be a point of departure for further dialogue.
With a $1.9 million grant from the Pentagon that began in September 2014, the center is developing a similar tool for South and Southeast Asia that is expected to be available next year. The center is also starting work on a Middle East mapping project to explore the nexus of water, energy, and human security. Finally, they're looking at adding the ability to explore different scenarios, i.e., if health care quality or sanitation were improved one percent, how would that change overall vulnerability? Ashley Moran, associate director of the center, said the idea is to create plug-and-play tools that can interface with existing DoD systems and allow decision-makers to explore intervention strategies.
The Air Force's 14th Weather Squadron is also exploring how to overlay maps with public health data that would be useful in better preparing for situations such as Haiti, where a devastating earthquake was followed by a hurricane and a cholera outbreak. In addition, the squadron is working on creating a global version of the U.S. Drought Monitor so the DoD and Intelligence Community can improve six-month outlooks. This would inform them when a country is 90 days from running out of water, and enable them to visualize reservoir levels and local unrest as a drought becomes imminent.
Levy said connecting the dots in these ways is more important than any one initiative. He noted that an NRC report, which recommended the Intelligence Community establish a system of periodic "stress testing" for countries to better manage potentially disruptive climate events, made an important suggestion, but the government hasn't yet acted on the recommendations.
The Intelligence Community wants to know how to determine risk, said Roger-Mark DeSouza, the Wilson Center's director of Population, Environmental Security and Resilience.
"How do you assign a value for risk that you can use for decision-making?" he said. "You try to be objective, but it's a little bit of an art. If there's a way to do that in terms of technology, it would be very compelling."
Cope said at NGA, the bigger challenge is not the technology, but rather educating a new generation to think about these multidimensional problems and to reason spatially, temporally, and contextually. He said the next level of capabilities would enable users to see connections and interdependencies as well as consequences of their decisions before they're made.
"How can we enable people to make these good resource decisions and help them visualize the outcome?" Cope said. "Having a keen grasp of the near present, having insights to connections, and observing that something has changed—that's what gives us that magic anticipatory power."
Posted in: Features Tagged in: 2015 Issue 3, Disaster Relief, Human Geography, Humanitarian Issues, Weather
The Decennial Enumeration
Location-based technology harnessed for the 2020 census estimated to save taxpayers millions
By: Melanie D.G. Kaplan | September 2, 2020
Evolutionary Metamorphosis
The accelerating pace at which technology is changing the GEOINT tradecraft requires greater flexibility and adaptability than ever before
By: Brad Causey | July 14, 2020
USGIF Announces 2020 Achievement Award Winners & Runners-up
Outstanding organizations and individuals are recognized for contributions to the GEOINT Community
By: USGIF | April 22, 2020


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Texas community finds calm – and Chicken Sandwiches – in the storm
Taylor Gill Jun 25, 2019
As the town of Sugar Land, Texas began to flood, Chick-fil-A Team Members jumped into action.
No one predicted the intensity of the storm. In just four hours, 12 inches of rain fell on Sugar Land, Texas, and the nearby Brazos River quickly flooded neighborhoods. Drivers searched for higher ground, but came up short, the impassable roads leaving many stranded in their vehicles for hours.
As they saw the town outside overcome with distress from the downpour, the Team Members at two Sugar Land Chick-fil-A restaurants jumped into action. They posted on the restaurants' social media pages, inviting anyone in need of dry and safe shelter to come to the restaurants to wait out the storm.
As the news spread, panicked residents and families poured in to Chick-fil-A Rosenberg and Chick-fil-A Greatwood, filling each restaurant almost to capacity. They were greeted with dry towels, hot THRIVE Farmers coffee, free Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwiches and friendly faces that encouraged them to make themselves at home.
"It quickly became clear that we weren't going anywhere soon, but it was fantastic to ride out the storm in such a cheerful and welcoming atmosphere," said local resident Joe Sanders, who was there with his family.
Children happily watched the movies that played on the restaurants' TV screens, while parents made calls to let family and friends know they were safe. It wasn't long before the overwhelming sense of distress that first filled each restaurant was replaced by a collective feeling of relief.
"It was a comfort to know that for however long we needed to camp out at the restaurant, these Team Members were working hard to make a difficult situation a little brighter and more tolerable for us," Sanders said.
Quart Graves, the local franchise owner of both restaurants, says that the relief efforts were completely spearheaded by his Team Members, who refused to close the restaurants until the last guest had a safe place to spend the rest of the night.
"I'm really proud of my team," said Graves. "This was all their idea – they wanted to help their community in a time of need, and that's exactly what they did."
Tagged In: Chicken Sandwich Team Member Texas Relief
Chick-fil-A Team Members serve kindness on their day off
Sometimes, the scariest, most uncertain moments lead to an outpouring of compassion, service and support that can ripple far beyond the places they originated. The day before Easter, 11-year-old Danny Agee was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was a devastating diagnosis that required immediate surgery. What followed was an act of generosity in a small Texas town that went viral, taking the youngster's story into homes across the country. Reporters and camera crews from all over wanted to talk about the special Easter delivery made by Chick-fil-A.
Renovation empowers Tennessee Chick-fil-A to give back
When Chick-fil-A Operator Ben Prine learned his restaurant in Cookeville, Tennessee, was due for some renovations, he was thrilled about the new investments to improve the customer experience. Yet the excitement surrounding those renovations was quickly tempered by a deep concern for the more than 80 Team Members at his restaurant.
Hospitality leader earns $25,000 scholarship from Chick-fil-A
Committed, focused and determined – these are all traits that perfectly describe Matthew Nunez and his relentless pursuit of his dreams, despite the challenges he has had to endure.


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The Dining Room is available during the off-season for events. Call (734)242-7200 for information!


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Police evict Occupy Oakland protesters
Police forcibly evicted anti-Wall Street protesters from their camp in downtown Oakland early on Monday, setting the stage for possible showdowns with some demonstrators who vowed to dig in after marching through the streets.
15 November 2011 • 08:41 am
Demonstrators re-enter the Frank H. Ogawa plaza after authorities moved in and evicted Occupy Oakland's encampment Credit: Photo: REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Throngs of protesters headed back to Frank Ogawa Plaza in the late afternoon, regrouping hours after officers in riot gear cleared the area and arrested 33 people as they removed about 100 tents. But the police action avoided clashes that marked a previous attempt to shut down the encampment.
"This movement cannot end!" a speaker told the crowd as the march began outside a downtown library. Police largely stood back, and at one point even stopped traffic for the marchers, who authorities said could return to the plaza so long as they did not camp there.
The march ended peacefully with activists huddling in a "general assembly" meeting, with speakers divided between those who urged rebuilding their camp in defiance of police and those who advocated various other tactics.
Recent unrest surrounding the Oakland encampment has helped rally nationwide support for Occupy Wall Street, a movement launched in New York in September to protest economic inequality and excesses of the financial system.
By late evening, Oakland crowds had largely dissipated after a consensus emerged to join a march and rally planned for Tuesday by students and faculty on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley.
The daylong Berkeley strike was called in response to a confrontation last week with campus police who cleared out a short-lived encampment there and arrested 39 protesters. Organisers said their rally on Tuesday would culminate with the "re-establishment" of their "Occupy Cal Encampment."
The move to clear out Ogawa Plaza, after nearly a month of indecision on how to handle the Oakland protests, came days after a fatal shooting near the encampment fuelled renewed pressure on the city to close it down.
Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said the shooting death of Kayode Ola Foster, 25, last Thursday left him no choice but to again dismantle the encampment.
"We had to take action. I tried to do it the next day (following the shooting) but I didn't have the resources ready. I was going to go all in," he said.
Jordan said it was unclear if Foster had been living in the protest camp but that the suspected gunman had been there for several weeks. Occupy Oakland organisers have said the incident was unrelated to their movement.
Officers in the early morning raid on Ogawa Plaza appeared to take a less aggressive approach than in a similar action three weeks earlier, and were met with less resistance from Occupy Oakland demonstrators.
"We had to bring the camps to an end before more people got hurt," Mayor Jean Quan told a news conference later.
Monday's action saw officers sometimes smiling and talking with protesters as they took down tents while a helicopter overhead illuminated the area. A separate line of officers kept a chanting crowd from entering the camp.
Meanwhile, several blocks away from Ogawa Plaza, some 40 tents remained standing at a separate park where a smaller group of demonstrators said they have been camping with relatively little attention paid for the past few weeks.
Protesters there said they too had received eviction notices from the police on Sunday but that no move had been made to force them to leave the park.
The decision to evict the camp at Ogawa Plaza prompted the resignation of a top adviser to Quan, whose handling of the protests has come under withering criticism. The adviser, Dan Siegel, called the move a mistake.
"I don't know if it will remain calm or if it will become very volatile," Siegel told Reuters in an interview.
Quan, asked about Siegel's resignation, said only: "He's moving on, I'm moving on."
City officials said there were no injuries to citizens or officers and that Ogawa Plaza, where protesters had camped for about a month, would reopen for peaceful demonstrations.
Taxi driver Brad Newsham, holding a placard with the slogan "Re-Occupy," said: "We were moved off by the 1 per cent and the powers that be."
A previous attempt to clear the square on Oct. 25 had sparked confrontations between protesters and police that evolved into one of the most violent episodes since the anti-Wall Street movement began in New York.
Former Marine Scott Olsen was critically injured during those altercations, galvanising protests nationwide. In the aftermath of the confrontations, Oakland protesters were able to return to the plaza.
Oakland is one of just several cities where authorities have acted in recent days to shut down Occupy camps, saying they have become sources of rising crime.
In Eureka, California, early on Monday, police arrested 33 people in dismantling a protest camp there.
The weekend saw police clearing operations in Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as well as threats of action in other cities if protesters did not clear out on their own.
In St. Louis, where 27 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested on Saturday, lawyers for members of Occupy St. Louis planned to take their battle to regain a downtown campsite to federal court on Tuesday.
They were seeking an injunction that would allow an overnight presence in Kiener Plaza, the downtown city park near the Gateway Arch where protesters against economic inequality maintained a camp for six weeks.
Meanwhile in New York, protesters said they would seek to shutdown Wall Street on Thursday by holding a street carnival to mark the two-month anniversary of their campaign.
Organisers acknowledged that the move could be the group's most provocative yet and could lead to mass arrests and further strain relations with city authorities.
Live Politics latest news: Boris Johnson blaming fishermen for post-Brexit issues, says Sir Keir Starmer
By Catherine Neilan 18 Jan 2021, 3:02pm
If I were a Year 11 student currently being assessed at Levels 1 – 3, I would boycott the system
John Nield 18 Jan 2021, 3:00pm
By Charles Hymas 18 Jan 2021, 3:00pm


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In Tanzania's cities of Dar es Salaam, Unguja, and Pemba a series of trainings organized by the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) Africa, brought together over a hundred schoolchildren, youth peace club members and their patrons aiming at equipping them to understand, practice and learn how to live together using the Learning to Live Together (LTLT) toolkit.
leaders how to use the LTLT toolkit and enabling children and youth from different religions and culture to work together towards development.
The toolkit, which is the first outcome of the worldwide Ethics Education Initiative launched by the Arigatou Foundation and GNRC in 2008, approaches the issue of Ethics Education from the perspective of Intercultural and Interfaith learning, human rights and quality education, where ethics and values are nurtured and where youth and children are given the space to develop their innate potential for spirituality, to understand and respect people from other cultures and religions.
During the recent training in Tanzania, activities undertaken included preparation of lesson plans, presentations and exercising on how to use the manual and most importantly — how to put into practise the lessons learned.
The Swahili version of the resourceful manual will be launched during the upcoming GNRC Fourth Forum.


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text:
Q: MotionEvent.getX(int) does not work on onTouchEvent if the view is RotationY(90) I'm testing multi-touch
I want to rotate the view with RotationY when the view is dragged.
In single touch, I solved it using getRawX.
However, I can not get getRawX (other pinters) values in multi-touch while the view is rotating.
So I used "MotionEvent.transForm (view.getMatrix ())".
This seemed to work.
However, in RotationY(90) there was a problem of coordinates.
[Play Youtube]
Full source
   View single_touch, multi_touch;

float single_preX;
boolean isSingleStating = false;

float multi_preX1,multi_preX2;
boolean isMultiStating = false;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    single_touch = findViewById(R.id.single_touch);
    single_touch.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            switch(event.getAction() & MotionEvent.ACTION_MASK) {
                case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
                    if(isSingleStating){
                        float deltaX = event.getRawX() - single_preX;
                        single_touch.setRotationY(single_touch.getRotationY()+(int)(deltaX/3));
                    }
                    single_preX = event.getRawX();
                    isSingleStating = true;
                    break;
                case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                    single_preX = 0f;
                    isSingleStating = false;

            }
            return true;
        }
    });

    multi_touch = findViewById(R.id.multi_touch);
    multi_touch.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            switch(event.getAction() & MotionEvent.ACTION_MASK) {
                case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
                    if(event.getPointerCount()!=2){
                        return false;
                    }
                    event.transform(multi_touch.getMatrix());
                    if(isMultiStating){
                        float deltaX = ((event.getX(0) - multi_preX1) + (event.getX(1) - multi_preX2))/2f;
                        multi_touch.setRotationY(multi_touch.getRotationY()+(int)(deltaX/3));

                    }
                    multi_preX1 = event.getX(0);
                    multi_preX2 = event.getX(1);
                    isMultiStating = true;
                    break;
                case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                    multi_preX1 = 0f;
                    multi_preX2 = 0f;
                    isMultiStating = false;
            }
            return true;
        }
    });
}

Who can solve this problem?
Please contact me if you resolve this issue.
Email : markjmind@gmail.com


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You are here: Home › Have fun › For Kids › Rome To Increase Tourism with Aquarium, "Made in Italy" Museum, New Congress Center
Rome To Increase Tourism with Aquarium, "Made in Italy" Museum, New Congress Center
For Kids, New Museum Openings, News, With Kids	 November 24, 2010 0 BuzzInRome
Arts, culture and religion, the leaders of tourism in Rome, are not enough for Italy's capital. The city of Rome wants to increase the number of travelers with a Second District of attractions in the southern suburb of EUR and along the coast. These sights will have nothing to do with churches and archeological ruins so to attract new travelers and those who have already been to Rome but would only make another visit to experience something completely new.
Mauro Cutrufo, Rome's Vicemayor, the city's highest-ranking Tourism official, said on November 5 that this year has so far posted an increase of 1 million visits from 2009 and that a 400,000 unit rise is expected in 2011. Chinese tourists rose by a staggering 400%, while the more mature markets of the US and Japan saw a rise of 14% in 2010. Nonetheless, Cutrufo is not satisfied with the 14 million tourists Rome had this year, he aims to reach Paris and London's levels with new ideas.
Besides the big targets a Formula 1 race in Rome by 2013 and the Olympic Games of 2020, Rome will build recreation and green parks, new golf clubs, expanded congress and fair events, and improved yachting and sailing facilities to boost alternative tourism.
These are the projects whose works are in the most advanced stage. Devoted to the biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea, Rome's aquarium will be inaugurated in the second half of 2011. Located in EUR's artificial lake, actually beneath the water level, Mediterraneum was already in the mind of Piacentini, Italy's master architect, who designed the whole EUR area in the 1940s.
The Civiltà del Lavoro Palace, EUR's most iconic building was inaugurated in 1940, therefore it just needs some renovation and adaptations to host MI, the permanent exposition of the "Made in Italy" products that make "Italian" synonym of the highest quality, from fashion to industrial design.
And a huge "Cloud" will mark the skyline of Rome after its completion in 2012. Rome's new congress center Nuvola, with an auditorium able to seat 1850 people, will have under its ceiling a 32 meters high, 75 meters wide and 198 meters long floating cloud, nuvola in italian.
Religion and Spirituality Meet Contemporary Art for Christmas in Rome
Contemporary, Vintage, Rock and Classical: Rome's Music Offer for the Summer
Electro Minimal, Deep House, Reggae To Be Rome's 2011 Nightlife SoundTracks
New Caravaggio Painting In Rome on Jun16-Jul15. Itinerary of His Works in Rome & Environs.
How BuzzInRome Fell in Love with Eataly Roma….
Rome's Flaminio Borough Turns 100 But Still Hosts Big Events And Is Poised For More!
February 2014 in Rome: Valentine's Day, Six Nations, Carnival and Much More!
Painting, Mosaic or Acting Courses? Yes, You Can. In Rome, In English!
Rome's Dance Fever Rises In December with Nutcracker, Rock the Ballet & Roland Petit.
BuzzInRome > Have fun > For Kids > Rome To Increase Tourism with Aquarium, "Made in Italy" Museum, New Congress Center


On March 3, in the city of Brescia, Italy, the traditional open armwrestling championship XIII Supermatch will take place.
– Last year, at the invitation of the armwrestling federation of Italy, we took part in organizing this event, – says Igor Mazurenko, president of the Professional Armwrestling League. – This time we also did not give up this honor, and today I'm happy to invite everyone to the thirteenth Supematch in Brescia!
The event will be held in a huge hotel Villa Fenaroli.
- Together with the Italian federation, we have prepared awards for the winners of the tournament and Vendetta. In addition, all athletes will compete in branded t-shirts, - Igor Mazurenko shares. - Everyone will be able to watch the championship in live broadcast on the armbets.tv! I invite you to Supematch!


I'm quite excited by this series Denny has begun posting on his blog; Skeptic Toolkit. Our culture is inundated with pseudo science; information that looks like science but isn't. How do we know which is which? Who do we trust? How do we search out answers? This is a great introduction to skepticism and I hope you'll all read it.


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text:
package com.github.pixelstuermer.littleNotes.controllers;

import java.util.Date;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.data.mongodb.core.MongoTemplate;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.security.access.prepost.PreAuthorize;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestHeader;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import com.github.pixelstuermer.littleNotes.models.Collection;
import com.github.pixelstuermer.littleNotes.models.CreateResult;
import com.github.pixelstuermer.littleNotes.utils.Roles;
import com.mongodb.BasicDBObject;

import io.swagger.annotations.Api;
import io.swagger.annotations.ApiOperation;

@RestController
@RequestMapping( value = "/create" )
@Api( description = "Creates notes" )
public class CreateController {

   @Autowired
   MongoTemplate mongoTemplate;

   @Autowired
   Collection collection;

   @RequestMapping( method = RequestMethod.POST, value = "/new" )
   @PreAuthorize( "hasAnyRole('" + Roles.ADMIN + "','" + Roles.USER + "')" )
   @ApiOperation( value = "Creates a new note document" )
   public ResponseEntity<CreateResult> deleteObjectIdNotes(
      @RequestHeader( value = "author", required = true ) String author,
      @RequestHeader( value = "note", required = true ) String note ) {
      // set current Date
      Date date = new Date();

      // prepare mongo query
      BasicDBObject document = new BasicDBObject();
      BasicDBObject metaData = new BasicDBObject();
      BasicDBObject payload = new BasicDBObject();

      document.put( "metaData", metaData );
      metaData.put( "created", date );
      metaData.put( "changed", date );

      document.put( "payload", payload );
      payload.put( "author", author );
      payload.put( "note", note );

      try {
         mongoTemplate.getCollection( collection.getCollectionName() ).insert( document );
         return ResponseEntity.ok().body( CreateResult.builder().success( true )
            .created( date.toString() ).id( document.getString( "_id" ) ).build() );
      }
      catch ( Exception e ) {
         return ResponseEntity.badRequest().body( CreateResult.builder().success( false )
            .created( null ).id( null ).build() );
      }
   }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Documentary, Feature
Chelsea: An Essential City
Chelsea – An Essential City
A small Latinx immigrant city on the Boston harbor provides fuel, food and an essential workforce for the entire Northeast Region. "Chelsea – An Essential City" (working title) is a window into an essential city and its essential workers on the frontline of a battle against a global pandemic.
The city of Chelsea, Massachusetts is often overlooked. It's the smallest city in the state of Massachusetts – 1.8 square miles in total – sitting on a tiny peninsula in the Boston Harbor. Yet in the spring of 2020 Chelsea became the city with the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the state and one of the highest infection rates in the country. Chelsea was on the frontlines of the first wave of the pandemic, but why?
Eight out of 10 residents of Chelsea are essential workers. The majority are Latinx immigrant workers.
This film is a portrait of Chelsea, a city made of essential Latinx workers whose contributions allow daily life to go on in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Because of its proximity to the airport and its extensive seaport Chelsea's contributions are essential to the basic functioning of the region. Food, cargo ships, oil, natural gas, gasoline and tons of consumer goods enter New England through Chelsea. Many factories and industrial operations are located there. Rocksalt to de-ice winter roads in 350 cities is stored in Chelsea. Tanks along the Chelsea Creek hold 100% of the fuel for Boston's Logan airport – one of the busiest international airports in the country. Chelsea is a vital part of the regional supply chain powering the industrial and consumer economy of most of New England. It is also home to the New England Produce Center – one of the largest produce distribution centers in the country selling produce to all of New England, multiple mid-Atlantic states, and southern Canadian regions.
Yet Chelsea bears a disproportionate burden despite the benefits it provides. Pre-existing conditions that made COVID-19 such a deadly disease are precisely the conditions most prevalent in Chelsea: it is among Massachusetts cities with the highest incidences of asthma, pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Chelsea and her residents are symbolic of the contributions of Latinx immigrant workers; providing essential labor and bolstering industries for the larger economy, yet bearing the largest burden and going largely unseen. While the benefits of their labor are essential to daily life during a pandemic, the majority of residents in Chelsea live below the poverty line and due to immigration status, do not qualify for assistance.
Roseann Bongiovanni, Green Roots' executive director, whose organization is on the front-lines of pandemic relief, sees several clear messages emerging from the pandemic that need to be heard across the nation: "First, all essential workers are, in fact, essential. They must be treated with the same respect as nurses and doctors. Second, communities of color cannot continue to serve as environmental sacrifice zones.
"Much like Hurricane Maria's lasting impact in Puerto Rico, the devastation of the first wave of COVID-19 has laid bare and further exacerbated already existing inequality. Now Chelsea faces a tidal wave of evictions and continues to have the highest COVID infection rate in the state.
Sabrina Aviles
Jenny Alexander


BREAK-AWAY? CHECK, DISCS? YEP. CRAZY FUN? YOU BET!
There's nothing like strengthening a marriage on a Custom Tandem. This newlywed couple spec'd out a great looking color scheme on their Di2 specific bike and enjoy the hills of the Bay area and High Sierras. With S&S couplers, there's nowhere they can't go with their sweet ride. And BTW, they've both been riding their single Curtlo bikes long before the wedding.


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Colette's Paris Concept Store To Close After 20 Years
The fashion retailer announced the news on Wednesday morning.
A post shared by colette (@colette) on Jul 12, 2017 at 2:13am PDT
Colette is to close its concept store in Paris. WWD reports that staff in the French capital were told the news on Wednesday morning. The store, situated on 213 rue Saint-Honoré, first opened in March 1997 and will close for the last time in December.
"As all good things must come to an end, after 20 wonderful years, Colette should be closing its doors on Dec. 20 of this year," the store said in a statement, explaining that founder Colette Roussaux was ready to retire. Until our last day, nothing will change. Colette will continue to renew itself each week with exclusive collaborations and offerings, also available on our website," it added.
It is expected that Saint Laurent will take over the location. "We would be proud to have a brand with such a history, with whom we have frequently collaborated, taking over our address," the statement continued. "We are happy of the serious interest expressed by Saint Laurent in this project, and it could also represent a very good opportunity for our employees," it added.
WWD states that the store reported profits of $31 million in 2016, with online accounting for roughly 20 percent of sales.
Clothing, Colette
style / News


Lucas Till was part of CBS's MacGyver panel for the Television Critics Association. As the new lead, he was excited to talk about being Angus MacGyver. Before the series, Till filmed a role in the Monster Trucks movie and he was just as enthusiastic about that. Speaking with reporters after the MacGyver panel, Till described the film's unique take on the title vehicles, which in real life refer to trucks that perform in stadium arenas.
Monster Trucks' road to the screen has been a long and winding one. Originally put into development in 2013, it finished shooting in 2014 for release in summer 2015… only to be delayed to Christmas 2015, and then to spring 2016, and then all the way to early 2017. But Paramount is finally ready to offer us a little peek of what's in store. And what's in store is far weirder than we would have guessed.
X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters in one month, so the first official clip from the film has arrived right on schedule. If you're looking for some footage showcasing superpowered beings exchanging blows or glimpses of the villainous Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) leveling entire cities, you're probably going to feel a little let down. However, this clip does feature Rose Bryne's Moira MacTaggert – returning to the X-Men series after sitting out X-Men: Days of Future Past – giving James McAvoy's Professor X and Lucas Till's Havok a briefing on the subject of just how screwed they really are, and that's nifty enough.
Thought ditching the old-timers from X-Men: Days of Future Past would make X-Men: Apocalypse a bit less cumbersome? Maybe so, but there are still members of the younger cast roster signing on for the new movie. Bryan Singer's mutant extravaganza continues to grow with the confirmed return of Lucas Till, who played Alex Summers a.k.a. Havok in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
See the official X-Men Apocalypse Lucas Till announcement after the jump.
For a while there, it looked like Hollywood might be learning a lesson about toy-based films. Yes, the Transformers franchise continues to rake in the dough, but Battleship was one of the floppiest flops of the year, and Universal scrapped their plans to make movies based on other Hasbro board games.


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text:
Heard County Hall of Fame inducts 10 new members
August 13, 2018 by Staff Reports 1 Comment
2018 Heard County Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees (L-R): Coe Bonner, Dontavious Jackson, Shereetha Jackson, Emily Chambers, Ross Henry, Skip Reeves, Kyle Yates, Charles Echols (Not pictured: Hank Pike and the late Mr. Don Staples)
(Franklin, GA) — Ten new members were honored by being placed into the Heard County Athletics Hall of Fame Friday prior to the Braves scrimmage game versus Alexander.
Friends and family members of each honoree were present as the esteemed members of the second class were officially inducted into the Hall at the HCHS school cafeteria Friday afternoon before being ushered down to Staples Stadium to be introduced to the large crowd in attendance for the special night.
At the initial ceremony in the cafeteria, those families and friends in attendance were able to hear remarks from one guest of honor for each inductee and in most cases from the inductee themselves.
The recognized coaching/faculty inductee for the 2018 HOF class was the late Mr. Don Staples. Staples was an iconic coach and principal at Heard High School from the 1950's until 1970's and the namesake of the football stadium.
The highlight of his coaching career was leading the boys' basketball team to the state semifinals in both 1959 and 1960 in Class B. The 1960 team had an awesome record of 30-1.
The community representative in the 2018 class was Heard County Sheriff Ross Henry, a dedicated supporter of the Heard County athletic programs for many years. Most notably, Henry has supported the football program where he has accompanied Coach Barron and the team at almost every road and home game for the past 18 years.
Ross Henry was also an accomplished member of Heard High's first football team in the early 1970's and graduated from HHS in 1975.
Football inductee Mr. Coe Bonner was an explosive athlete at Heard County in the 1990's. He was a very well-rounded athlete and as a senior, he was awarded the Golden Helmet Award. After graduation Coe attended Southern Illinois University where he was the 1996 rushing yardage leader with 1,234 yards. He scored 11 touchdowns and averaged 5.4 yards per carry. He was named to first team offense in the conference.
Coe finished his career at Southern Illinois as the 12th overall TD leader, finished as 11th overall with most 100 yard rushing games. He was listed in numerous categories in the Southern Illinois record book in all-purpose as well as rushing yards.
Emily Chambers was selected for the Hall of Fame for her accomplishments in both varsity softball and basketball teams during her four years of high school,1985-1989. She was a member of the all state basketball team in 1987, and MVP of both the softball team and the basketball team during her senior year.
Off the court and athletic playing field, Emily also excelled and was the Valedictorian of her class. She went on to play basketball all four years at Columbus College, being one of the first to play all four years in that program's history.
Charles Echols was also a two-sport standout for the Braves in baseball and basketball in the mid 1980's. Charles was one of the primary leaders on the 1985 North Georgia Championship baseball team in Class A during his senior year while batting over .500. He finished his high school baseball career with a better than .400 batting average. He also served as team captain in both baseball and basketball during his time with the Braves.
Charles has since continued to serve the community as a successful travel softball coach and is currently on the softball coaching staff at Heritage High School in Coweta County. His daughters Ebonee and Charla are current members of the Michigan State University softball team.
Dontavious Jackson was an electrifying football player for the Braves in the Early 2000's. Known by many as Foo, there were not many who were on his level. Despite an injury his senior year, he signed a scholarship with University of Georgia and later played for the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Dontavious was one of the country's top players coming out of high school despite missing all but the first half of the first game of his senior season. He rushed for 4,742 yards with 56 touchdowns in less than three seasons as a running back for the Braves and was also credited with 242 career tackles on defense.
Shereetha Jackson was a three-sport standout for the Lady Braves in the early 2000's excelling in basketball, softball, and track and field. She was especially strong in Track and Field placing in the top four in the state in Class A in the Shot Put three different times.
Shereetha was the Class A Shot Put State Champion her senior year, while placing fourth in her freshman year and second during her sophomore season.
Hank Pike was a tackling machine in the early years of Brave football in the mid 1970's. He played linebacker and recorded over 100 tackles in multiple seasons. He was listed on the first team defense in every poll at that time, and was a four-year starter at linebacker. He also was named to a high school all-american team.
Skip Reeves was a dynamic athlete for the Braves during the 90's. He accumulated numerous awards in multiple sports. Skip most excelled in baseball playing for the Braves from 1989-1992. During his career, he played in 71 games, scored 70 runs, had 95 hits, and 63 RBI's. Further breaking down his statistics he amassed 26 stolen bases, 60 singles, 18 doubles, and 13 home-runs.
The most overwhelming stat for Reeves was out of 235 career varsity at bats he only struck out 19 times. He was the Offensive MVP in 1990 and a four-year letterman MVP in 1991 and 1992. While attending Georgia State University, Reeves carried a .302 career batting average.
Current Brave head wrestling coach and assistant football coach Kyle Yates was a multi-sport star for Heard County in the 2000's. He was all-state in both football and wrestling during the same year. Kyle played four years of high school baseball and was a two year starter. As a wrestler, he was a two time state placer. In football, he started all four years on the offensive line and two years on the defensive line.
Kyle was First Team All Region Offensive Lineman three times and First Team All State Lineman his senior year. He was also a part of the first region championship in the history of Heard County football and the first undefeated regular season. Despite not originally being offered a scholarship there, Kyle went on to become a four-year starter in football at the University of West Georgia.
Guests speakers representing and speaking for each nominee were Tim Barron (Ross Henry, Kyle Yates, Dontavious Jackson), Tracey Hunt (Hank Pike), Vic Lovelace (Charles Echols), Kathy Scott (Emily Chambers), Derrick Quinn (Skip Reeves), Eddie Payne (Coe Bonner), Jannie Davis (Shereetha Jackson), Donna Brooks, Sandra Stevens, Ryan Brooks, and Roy Awbrey (Don Staples).
The Heard County Hall of Fame committee is already accepting nominations for the 2019 Hall of Fame Class. Click here to download a nomination form.
Filed Under: BRAVE NATION, LOCAL NEWS, SCHOOLS, SPORTS, TOP STORY
Heard County Heard County Hall of Fame inducts 10 new members - Heard County says:
[…] August 13, 2018 by Staff Reports Leave a Comment […]


text:
Sound Advice Let your ears guide you to game
The hickory tree was 60 feet tall, its stout branches laden with fall foliage. From a distance, I watched a...
By Jim Zumbo | Published Aug 1, 2003 4:00 AM
Default Photo.
The hickory tree was 60 feet tall, its stout branches laden with fall foliage. From a distance, I watched a squirrel run up its trunk; then I eased closer. Despite intense glassing with a binocular, I couldn't see the animal. Unless it had jumped into the canopy of a neighboring tree, I knew it still had to be there. I sat on the forest floor where I could see up into the branches and made myself comfortable.
Moments later a shard of hickory hull fell out of the tree, hitting the ground a few feet away. Another followed, and soon it was raining nut bits. I noted that the falling chips made a distinct sound as they struck the ground. Then I heard another noise from high in the tree. I could actually hear the squirrel cutting the nuts.
By looking up at the source of the falling shells, I pinpointed the squirrel's location, but I still couldn't see it. Then I saw movement and spotted its tail. A few moments later it moved enough for me to see its head and chest. My .22 cracked and the squirrel was mine.
That intense listening exercise taught me something I had never really appreciated: It's possible to locate game by being alert to the slightest sounds. I slipped through the woods the rest of the afternoon, testing my newfound technique. By the end of the day I'd collected my limit of bushytails–all but one simply by listening hard.
Even though that hunt occurred many decades ago, I learned a lesson I've never forgotten: The sense of hearing is as important as sight, perhaps more so. To see an animal, it must be at the right place or show enough of its form to be identified. To hear an animal, you don't need visual contact. You just have to be within earshot.
You can't learn to listen from a textbook. It must be experienced first-hand. For this to happen, you must pay more than casual attention to what you hear. Make a mental note of the sound; then recreate it in your mind.
Many years ago, I heard a subtle and strange scraping sound while hunting deer during an early September season in Colorado. I was new to Western big game at the time, and had no idea what was making the noise. I slipped toward it and saw a bull elk vigorously rubbing a sapling with his antlers. When I approached to a point where I had visual contact, I could see the tree shaking, but it was the sound that drew me toward it first.
Recently I was hunting turkeys in Texas. I took a midday break to fish for catfish in a small pond. The ranch manager was loafing around with me, and suddenly I heard a tiny shrill squeal. "A snake's got a frog," drawled my companion, without taking a look. "It's a nasty world out there."
Intrigued, I got up from my comfortable seat and walked to the sound. There was indeed a snake with a frog in its mouth.
Sometimes animal sounds are distinctly different from normal. Once, when hunting turkeys during a strong blow, I heard a gobbler that sounded like he was half a mile away. At least, I thought it was a gobble, since I couldn't hear all of it, just parts of it. I continued to call, and I kept hearing the strange response. Ten minutes later I saw the tom slowly working toward me. Before I shot him, his last gobble was 35 yards away. I barely heard it.
Any sound you hear in the woods should be treated with suspicion. Try to analyze what made it and how it was made. I was rattling whitetails in Texas with my hunting buddy Gary Roberson when I heard the distinct sound of something striking a nearby barbed-wire fence. It was a slight strumming sound. Roberson and I turned slowly to see a buck staring at us from along the fenceline. The deer had jumped it and his hoof had hit the top wire as he sailed over. That muffled metallic sound was all we had heard.
Another time I was sitting in a glade, watching a thick patch of pines and firs for an elk. It was public land, plenty of hunters were about, and I was hoping someone would push an elk to me. Suddenly I heard something strike a log in the woods. That was it; nothing else. It sounded like a hoof hitting wood. Then, several yards away, I heard a similar sound. Whatever was making it was moving within the timber where I couldn't see, and moving fast. I ran along the small ridge I was sitting on and had gained a hundred yards when a bull and four cows burst out of the trees. I claimed the bull, which I never would have seen from my original spot. Luckily I had interpreted those sounds correctly.
While I was hunting bears with outfitter Ron Alexander in Manitoba, he tapped me on the shoulder and whispered that a bear was coming. Ron saw my puzzled look and simply said, "Geese." Then I realized what he meant. Moments before, several geese had lifted from a nearby pond, honking incessantly. A bear had evidently spooked the geese. A few moments later the bruin showed up.
Various wildlife species can provide valuable clues to other animals' movements. Jays, magpies, ravens, squirrels and others may be trying to tell you that a trophy buck is near.
The sounds you make must be considered too. Remember this: The snap of a twig is quickly forgotten by the hunter, but is long remembered by the animal being hunted.
I firmly believe that a hunter who listens well, interprets sounds correctly and reacts appropriately will have a far better chance of scoring than the person who blunders through the woods, oblivious to the sounds that scream for attention.


text:
Robin Steans
rsteans@advanceillinois.org
Robin Steans is President of Advance Illinois, an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. She is also Board Chair of the Steans Family Foundation, where she helps guide education and community development grant making in the North Lawndale community. A longtime public school parent, Robin Steans has spent over twenty years working on public school reform. She served as Issues Director of the Small Schools Coalition, as Associate Director of Leadership for Quality Education, and taught at public high schools in Boston, San Francisco and Chicago before going on to earn her law degree.
Ms. Steans serves as a Trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center, and is co-founder and past Board Chair of the Celiac Disease Center at the University of Chicago. She helped found and currently serves as a Director of North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School, and has served on two Local School Councils.
Robin graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Brown University, received her master's degree in Education from Stanford University, and attended law school at the University of Chicago, where she graduated cum laude and Order of the Coif. She is married and has three children, all of whom attended and graduated from Chicago Public Schools.


Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Saturday night performance of Festival Opera – Abduction From the Seraglio had to be cancelled. Ticket holders for this performance may exchange their ticket for either Monday or Tuesday's performance at no charge. Please call the box office (510) 444-0802 to reserve your ticket. Or bring the Saturday ticket to the box office table on either Monday or Tuesday to exchange it for the current performance.


Dad David had always wanted to try an ostrich egg omelette. He found out there was an ostrich farm near his home in Montreal, so he decided to buy an egg and give it a go.
David turned the omelette making experience into a very fun family affair. He cracked open the extremely hard exterior of the egg with a hammer, and poured the contents into bowl. One single ostrich egg is the equivalent to a whopping 24 regular eggs.


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Ban on harmful single-use plastics starts to take effect
December 20, 2022 December 20, 2022 newsreviewmedia1 43 Views 0 Comments
The federal government's promise to prohibit the import and manufacture of harmful single-use plastics like checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware made from plastics that are hard to recycle, stir sticks and most straws is now in effect.
The prohibition on the sale of those items, meanwhile, will come into force in December 2023. Single-use plastic flexible straws are still available for people who need them for medical or accessibility reasons.
"As climate change continues to pose a serious threat to our health, limiting plastic pollution is crucial not only for our environment, but for our overall well-being," says federal Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos. "With this ban, we are expected to avoid 1.3 million tonnes of plastic waste over the next 10 years across Canada, leading to less pollution and healthier communities."
The ban on the manufacture and import of ring carriers will come into effect in June 2023. The six categories of single-use plastic items covered by the ban were selected because they're commonly found in the environment, are harmful to wildlife and their habitat, are difficult to recycle and have readily available alternatives.
"The convenience of single-use plastics comes at a devastating cost to our oceans," says Anthony Merante, a plastics campaigner with Oceana Canada. The independent charity is part of the largest international advocacy group dedicated solely to ocean conservation. "Plastic products like six-pack ring carriers and shopping bags are consistently found in the stomachs of whales and around the necks of seabirds. Once in the ocean, plastic can persist for hundreds of years. This ban is the first step toward stopping the problem at its source."
Additional initiatives are in the works. The federal government says it's working with provinces, territories and industry to set a collection target of 90 per cent for recycling plastic beverage bottles. It's also developing regulations to require that certain plastic packaging contain at least 50 per cent recycled content and to establish clear rules for labelling recyclable and compostable plastics.
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