text:
How Schools Work
Author: Arne DuncanPublish On: 2019-08-06
How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates.
Author: Arne Duncan
"This book merits every American's serious consideration" (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids' education, and threatens our nation's future. "Education runs on lies. That's probably not what you'd expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it's the truth." So opens Arne Duncan's How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids. Drawing on nearly three decades in education—from his mother's after-school program on Chicago's South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC—How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can't help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the "most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama's Cabinet." Going to a child's funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person. How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work. "As insightful as it is inspiring" (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less.
7 Mindshifts for School Leaders
Author: Connie HamiltonPublish On: 2022-10-05
This means that schools have a universal economic function to provide people with the skills and abilities to be ... Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success from One of the Nation's Longest-Serving Secretaries of Education with, ...
Author: Connie Hamilton
Publisher: Corwin Press
With the right approach, no problem is unsolvable. How do you approach and solve problems in education that have been around so long that they just feel...normal? Perpetual issues—numeracy, reading ability, equity, grading, and teacher retention—are often continually managed, but not solved like the crises they are for future sustainability. This innovative guide introduces seven mindshifts that will help you engage with your community, access diverse resources, embrace radical new ideas, create equity, and chart a course of school improvement to solve those "unsolvable issues" so that your students and teachers learn and grow. Features include Seven adaptable models—one per mindshift—for finding your own solutions to perennial problems Stories highlighting the successful implementation of each mindshift Discussions to help you match mindshifts to particular problems Technical tips and reflection questions Persistent problems in education can only be solved if we approach them as the crises that they are. This book gives you the tools you need to become a new kind of school leader—one empowered to not just deal with the outcomes of perennial complex issues, but extinguish them altogether so that your students can thrive.
The Choice We Face
Author: Jon HalePublish On: 2021-08-10
James Forman , Jr. " The Rise and Fall of School Vouchers : A Story of Religion , Race , and Politics , " UCLA Law ... How Schools Work : An Inside Account of Failure and Success from One of the Nation's Longest Serving Secretaries of ...
Author: Jon Hale
A comprehensive history of school choice in the US, from its birth in the 1950s as the most effective weapon to oppose integration to its lasting impact in reshaping the public education system today. Most Americans today see school choice as their inalienable right. In The Choice We Face, scholar Jon Hale reveals what most fail to see: school choice is grounded in a complex history of race, exclusion, and inequality. Through evaluating historic and contemporary education policies, Hale demonstrates how reframing the way we see school choice represents an opportunity to evolve from complicity to action. The idea of school choice, which emerged in the 1950s during the civil rights movement, was disguised by American rhetoric as a symbol of freedom and individualism. Shaped by the ideas of conservative economist Milton Friedman, the school choice movement was a weapon used to oppose integration and maintain racist and classist inequalities. Still supported by Democrats and Republicans alike, this policy continues to shape American education in nuanced ways, Hale shows—from the expansion of for-profit charter schools and civil rights–based reform efforts to the appointment of Betsy DeVos. Exposing the origins of a movement that continues to privilege middle- to upper-class whites while depleting the resources for students left behind, The Choice We Face is a bold, definitive new history that promises to challenge long-held assumptions on education and redefines our moment as an opportunity to save it—a choice we will not have for much longer.
The Buying and Selling of American Education
Author: Susan Tave ZelmanPublish On: 2022-10-17
What percent of high school graduates are illiterate in the United States? ... How schools work: An inside account of failure and success from one of the nation's longest-serving secretaries of education. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Author: Susan Tave Zelman
Traces the history of American education as a foundation to examining persistent weaknesses in education today.
Author: Frederick C. LunenburgPublish On: 2021-01-13
1. Why do city schools have more fiscal problems than suburban or rural schools? 2. What state taxes are used to provide school revenues? ... success from one of the nation's longestserving secretaries of education.
Author: Frederick C. Lunenburg
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Now with SAGE Publishing! The bestselling Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices has been considered the standard for all educational administration textbooks for three decades. A thorough and comprehensive revision, the Seventh Edition continues to balance theory and research with practical application for prospective and practicing school administrators. While maintaining the book's hallmark features—a friendly and approachable writing style, cutting-edge content, and compelling pedagogy—authors Frederick C. Lunenburg and Allan Ornstein present research-based practices while discussing topical issues facing school administrators today. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides. Learn more.
With Grit and a Big Heart
Author: Theodore G. ZervasPublish On: 2022-05-06
The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques, 1906-1960. New York: Monthly Review Press. Duncan, Arne. (2018). How Schools Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success from One of the Nation's Longest-Serving Secretaries of Education.
Author: Theodore G. Zervas
This book is about the teaching profession and what it takes to become a successful teacher
Congress A to Z
Author: Chuck McCutcheonPublish On: 2022-06-13
How Schools Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success From One of the Nation's Longest-Serving Secretaries of Education. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2018. Jennings, Jack. Presidents, Congress, and the Public Schools: The ...
Author: Chuck McCutcheon
Publisher: CQ Press
Congress A to Z provides ready-reference insight into the national legislature, its organization, processes, major legislation, and history. No other volume so clearly and concisely explains every key aspect of the national legislature. The Seventh Edition of this classic, easy-to-use reference is updated with new entries covering the dramatic congressional events of recent years, including a demographically younger Congress, the urban-rural divide, and climate change. Each of the more than 250 entries, arranged in encyclopedic A-to-Z format, provides insight into the key questions readers have about the U.S. Congress and helps them make sense of the continued division between Republicans and Democrats, the methods members use to advance their agendas, the influence of lobby groups, the role of committees and strong-willed leaders, and much more. Key Features: Available in both electronic and print formats Quick answers to questions as well as in-depth background on the U.S. Congress Detailed tables and index Entries now include cross-references and lists of further readings to help readers continue the research journey
The Influence of Theorists and Pioneers on Early Childhood Education
Author: Roy EvansPublish On: 2022-02-24
How schools work: An inside account of failure and success from one of the nation's longest-serving secretaries of education. Simpon & Schuster. Elkind, D. (1983). Montessori education: Abiding contributions and contemporary challenges.
Author: Roy Evans
The chapters in this book reflect on the major shifts in the views of early childhood thinkers and educators, who have contributed to contemporary theoretical frameworks pertaining to early childhood learning. The book also revisits and critically analyses the influence of developmental theories on early childhood education, starting in the 1890s with the work of G. Stanley Hall that established the close association of early childhood education and child development. Several chapters comprise critical examinations of the fundamental influence of thinkers such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, Adler, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and so on, on early childhood learning. The book also contends that these theoretical conceptions of child development have heavily influenced modern views of early childhood education. This book is a significant new contribution to early childhood learning, and will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of Education, Public Policy, History of Education, Psychology, and Sociology. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Early Child Development and Care.
Handbook of Research on Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Author: Wang, ViktorPublish On: 2022-06-24
How schools work: An inside account of failure and success from one of the nation's longest-serving secretaries of education. Simon and Schuster. Eason, S. H., & Daniel, L. G. (1989). Trends and methodological practices in several ...
Author: Wang, Viktor
Publisher: IGI Global
Education inevitably influences society and our future. As literature and experience tells, educational leaders impact not only their institutions, but ultimately the learning outcomes for a large portion of society's members. Educational leaders are charged with more than creating a viable future for an institution; they are also charged with contributing to and creating a viable, positive human future—not an easy task amid the turbulence and disruption of our times. The Handbook of Research on Educational Leadership and Research Methodology discusses the evolution of educational leadership knowledge, thoughts, and practices by sharing the perspectives, experiences, theories, and philosophies related to educational leadership and research methodologies across all levels of education. Covering topics such as critical race design, toxic leadership, and adult learning, this major reference work is a critical resource for faculty and administrators of both K-12 and higher education, principals, superintendents, chancellors, directors, pre-service teachers, teaching instructors, government officials, librarians, researchers, and academicians.
Achievements and Legacy of the Obama Presidency
Author: Michael GrossmanPublish On: 2022-01-22
Caro, Robert A. 1982. The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Random House. Duncan, Arne. 2018. How Schools Work: An Inside Account of Failure and Success from One of Nation's Longest Serving Secretaries of Education.
Author: Michael Grossman
This book provides a broad analysis of the legacy of the Obama presidency, representing multiple perspectives across the partisan and disciplinary divides. The chapters in this book are grouped into three major legacy categories: domestic policy, foreign policy, and rhetoric. Domestically, the contributors examine the "Obama coalition" and its staying power in the age of Trump, President Obama's legacy regarding the use of executive power, his impact on intergovernmental relations, and his impact on the welfare state and education. On the foreign policy front, the central focus is on whether Obama was in fact much different from his predecessor, what impact he had on the Middle East and Afghanistan, and whether his pivot to Asia yielded the hoped-for results. The contributions in this book also aim to (re-)assess the Obama legacy in light of the subsequent efforts by his successor to undo many of the policies embraced and implemented during the Obama years.
A Girl Aboard the Titanic
Stories of Extreme Picky Eating
Real Mosquitoes Don't Eat Meat
MATEMÁTICAS FUNDAMENTALES (Usando recursos educativos digitales)
Lacquered Boxes
The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941–1942
The Book of Movement Exploration
Helen Gibson Carves the Animals of the Nativity
Legenden der Drachenreiter (Die Rückkehr der Finsternis 2)
The Cosmic-Chemical Bond: Chemistry from the Big Bang to Planet Formation
Pronunciación lógica del inglés. Un método práctico
Wrecking Yard of Games and Activities
Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine
A Comparative Dialectical Study of Genitive Constructions in Aramaic Translations of Exodus
Conversations with Shelby Foote
istoria (st dimotikou) 10-0182 / ιστορία (στ δημοτικού) 10-0182
The Story of Stone Soup
Kanzi's Primal Language
Hunt for Justice
New Vaccines and Chemotherapy
The Soccer War
Dark Psychology And Gaslighting
Goddess for Hire
Masked Prey
Twas In Trafalgar's Bay And Other Stories (1888)
The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance
International Economics: Theory and Policy (10th Edition) (Pearson Series in Economics)
Fifty Great Short Stories
The Pocket Scavenger
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 1: The Sword of Summer (Rick Riordan's Norse Mythology)
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
Perfect Evil: A Dark Gay Romance
Role Development in Professional Nursing Practice
The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence
Quantum Physics for Babies (Baby University)
Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History, Vol 1
My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie
Teach Like a PIRATE: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator
Integrated Chinese: Simplified Characters Textbook, Level 1, Part 1 (English and Chinese Edition)
Contemporary Criminal Law: Concepts, Cases, and Controversies
The Origins of Tolkien's Middle-earth For Dummies
Upcycle with Country Design Style
Cultural Diversity in Health and Illness (9th Edition)
Dark Agents, Book One: Violet and the Trial of Trauma
Getting To Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams
Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Designs Animals, Mandalas, Flowers, Paisley Patterns And Beautiful Artwork
Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One)
Big Shark, Little Shark (Step into Reading)
The Official LSAT SuperPrep: The Champion of LSAT Prep
On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft
Federal Income Taxation, Principles and Policies (University Casebook Series)
Can Business Save the Earth?: Innovating Our Way to Sustainability
Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics, 12th Edition
The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook: Fresh and Foolproof Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker
Design and Analysis of Connections in Steel Structures: Fundamentals and Examples
51 Spanish Verbs (51 Verb Series)
Psychological Criminology
'Tis: A Memoir


Every new WordPress core update is exciting, we get to see new features and see what additions we can make improve our websites.
4.7 gave us the eye catching video headers within a new Twenty Seventeen theme.
All of these updates are valuable making development time more efficient however this update is a particularly exciting as we are introduced to the new Gutenberg editor.
A tribute to the German inventor famous for starting the Printing Revolution the Gutenberg is a complete overhaul of the WordPress editor changing how WordPress users create content.
By using this blocks concept, you can now determine what every part of your content is. Not only that, you can define their specifications per block. So, for instance, you can turn a single line of text into a quote by simply changing its block type.
What is really special on Gutenberg, it brings a completely new way how the editor works. It makes the content manipulation much easier as was the case previously. New content is added to Pages and Posts via blocks. You just need to click the "+" symbol in the editor. This way, you can add any type of content, such as gallery, videos or embed codes. Even custom blocks can be created.
Nested blocks mean a block that can be added or exist within another block. Thus, we are implying blocks that are usable as sub-blocks of existing ones.
By nesting blocks, you can work with additional forms of content and get better formatting for presenting your content on the frontend. It can help in layout and structuring of your content on the frontend as well.
One of the coolest things about the new WordPress editor is reusable blocks. Think of these as a completed block that you can save along with its settings. For instance, if you've made a cool looking layout for the intro of your blog articles, you can save this as a reusable block. After that, you only have to go to Add Block -> Saved to pick your reusable intro block. How cool is that!
What else is included in WordPress 5.0?
• All of the previous default themes, from Twenty Ten through to Twenty Seventeen, have been updated to support the block editor.
• You can improve the accessibility of the content you write, now that simple ARIA labels can be saved in posts and pages.
• WordPress 5.0 officially supports the upcoming PHP 7.3 release: if you're using an older version, we encourage you to upgrade PHP on your site.
Not everyone has a positive view on Gutenberg however as they see the editor as a threat to there own custom-made page builders.
This is because there is a huge amount of work behind these Page Builders. Custom Page Builders become redundant once Gutenberg editor arrives. But it is not necessary to look at it as an imminent threat. So far, Gutenberg lags far behind most of the most used Page Builders.
If you're the kind of person that believes "if it aint broke don't fix it", you'll be able to stick with the classic WordPress editor for the foreseeable future. However, if you plan on adapting, you'll want to start reading up on how Gutenberg works right away. This will give you a step ahead of your competition once WordPress 5.0 is live, and will help you determine which of your themes and plugins may be most affected.


text:
Speech from the Throne: March 2, 2017
THIRD SESSION OF THE TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE
Some parts of this page will not display.
JavaScript is not available in this browser or may be turned off.
This release was issued under a previous government.
Friends, welcome everyone to the first day of this new session of Alberta's Legislature.
As we gather today on Treaty Six land, we are reminded again of the bedrock importance of this institution to the democratic life of our province.
Albertans come from every part of the globe.
We are an open and inclusive society built on enduring values – compassion, hard work and justice.
In an uncertain world, these values are more important than ever – our North Star to guide us through our deliberations as we seek to build a better province for every Albertan, no matter their background, birthplace or creed.
We are one province, one people on a common journey towards a common future.
Let's never forget that.
The power of these values revealed themselves again this past year.
Albertans came together in a time of extraordinary danger.
As the Wood Buffalo wildfires tore through communities, we stood as one – as fellow citizens with a shared responsibility to each other.
When called upon, ordinary women and men from all walks of life do extraordinary things.
Therein lies hope for the future, not only here in Alberta, but throughout the world.
Of course, the wildfires were one of the most significant events in what has been a very challenging time in Alberta's history.
The collapse in the world price for oil continues to affect the well-being of families and communities, reverberating at boardroom and kitchen tables throughout the province.
Cutting the growth of government spending
It has also affected the province's bottom line.
For too long, Alberta tied spending to the price of oil, which resulted in volatile funding swings for core services.
For instance, under former governments the rate of yearly spending growth increases was as high as 11 per cent.
Your government stopped that practice.
Through diligent action and targeted reductions, we are bringing the rate of spending growth down, thoughtfully and prudently.
Your government has cut and amalgamated government agencies, frozen salaries for cabinet ministers, MLAs, political staff and management in the civil service, and streamlined spending across government.
For example, last week your government took action to cut salaries and eliminate bonuses for the highest paid executives of agencies, boards and commissions, including eliminating perks such as retention bonuses, golf club memberships and housing allowances.
As we pursue further spending reductions, your government will hold firm to the belief that spending reductions should never happen at the expense of our schools, hospitals and those very things Albertans rely on to weather the downturn and provide for their families.
Such reductions certainly should not happen at the expense of Albertans who need government to have their backs in a crisis, such as the residents of Wood Buffalo.
Working to make life better for families
Now more than ever, the fundamentals matter.
Albertans are worried about the basics: paying the bills, keeping or finding a job, saving for retirement and their children's education, and caring for loved ones.
As our economy recovers, families rightly expect their government to help them come through the downturn and make their lives better.
Your government understands this is its core responsibility – to make life better for everyday Albertans.
Over the last two years, your government has aimed its every action and decision at meeting this test. We will continue to do so.
Building new pipelines
Making life better starts with coming to terms with an economic reality that past governments failed to address.
Alberta is too dependent on selling its energy products to one customer at one discounted price.
As a result, we have been at the mercy of global economic forces over which we have no control.
This must change.
Under this government, it is changing.
In last year's Speech from the Throne, your government committed to erasing doubts about Alberta's environmental reputation as part of an effective economic diversification strategy that would break Alberta's land lock and open up new markets for our oil.
The plan is working.
Last November, the Government of Canada approved the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Line 3, citing Alberta's Climate Leadership Plan as key to its decision.
Let there be no doubt, the approval of these two pipelines is a historic step forward.
Though we won't celebrate until the first drop of oil leaves Canadian shores from a new pipeline, we recognize the spirit of cooperation and hard work by those who have brought us to this point.
Our energy industry, Indigenous communities, environmentalists, and ordinary Albertans came together in common purpose, showing, once and for all, that a strong economy and a clean environment can – and must – go hand in hand.
In the weeks and months ahead, your government will remain focused on bringing this pipeline to completion.
But to get the job done, we must all pull in one direction.
We must speak with one voice and communicate one message: a strong energy industry supports a strong Canada.
This is a message we will repeat at every opportunity.
On the Trans Mountain Pipeline, our work is not done.
In any and all appropriate forums, your government will continue to make the case that this pipeline is critical for Albertans and all Canadians.
To that end, your government will defend our province and its key industry in court, seeking intervener status on legal challenges to the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
Trans Mountain is not the end of our market diversification efforts. This year we will also continue to work thoughtfully and respectfully with the federal government, Indigenous communities and elected officials across Canada on the Energy East pipeline proposal.
Creating and supporting jobs
Your government's singular determination to build new pipelines to Canada's shoreline is for an equally singular reason:
Alberta's energy industry creates good jobs, and good jobs are the bedrock of a strong province.
Good jobs in Alberta's energy industry
Since the beginning of its mandate, your government has zeroed in on the task of supporting Alberta's energy industry.
Three weeks ago, Alberta celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Leduc #1 oil strike, which inaugurated the rise of modern Alberta – strong, confident and proud.
Over those seven decades, Albertans have become world-class innovators.
The same is true today. Through innovation, our energy industry will always stay ahead of the pack.
Innovation is one of the driving motivations behind Alberta's modernized royalty framework.
The new framework is now doing its work, offering incentives to reduce costs, improving efficiency and, through increased activity, creating jobs – a fact recognized by industry leaders and energy experts.
Although the framework only came into force in January, many producers opted in early, leading to the approval of 158 new wells that would not have otherwise been drilled last year, with each well supporting up to 135 direct and indirect jobs.
Mid-January of this year saw a 50 per cent increase in active rigs compared with the same point in 2016.
Shipments in energy products in December of last year were the highest in two years and almost double the 2016 low.
Your government is taking action to build on this momentum, and make life better for families.
In addition to accessing new overseas markets, this year further work will be undertaken to add value to our energy products here at home.
Through the Petrochemical Diversification Program, your government will continue to work alongside our energy industry to push forward on the construction of two new world-class petrochemical plants.
These new plants will create thousands of jobs and diversify our economy by adding value to our energy resources here in Alberta, producing products used in plastics all over the world.
Later this year, we will receive recommendations from the Energy Diversification Advisory Committee. Committee members are currently consulting with industry, economists, academics and labour to find ways to get more value and more jobs from our energy resources, and diversify our economy.
Also, your government is working with Ottawa to create good oilfield service industry jobs and make sure more orphaned wells, those no longer under the care of a company, are safely closed and reclaimed.
Creating jobs across our economy
As important as it is to create jobs in energy, it is equally critical we create jobs across our economy, in agriculture, forestry, tourism and manufacturing, as well as in emerging sectors, such as high-tech, craft brewing and more.
To help, your government has cut small business taxes, created new tax credits to encourage innovation, and helped entrepreneurs get loans to start new businesses.
The newly introduced Capital Investment Tax Credit and the Alberta Investor Tax Credit – both of which are tax credits other provinces have enjoyed for years – are doing exactly what they are supposed to: helping business expand, innovate and hire more people.
This year, work continues to support small businesses, entrepreneurs and job creators.
Alberta's agricultural producers are the world's best, and so are the products made by them.
Building on investments your government made last year, such as capital to expand the Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator and Food Processing Development Centre in Leduc – an investment that doubled the size of that facility, making it the largest of its kind in Canada – this year will see further support to help Alberta's agrifood entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs across the province will also get tailored new supports.
The expansion of more entrepreneurship incubators in communities across Alberta will help get good ideas off the ground and provide new businesses with tools to help them grow.
Alberta small businesses with this type of support average a 25 per cent annual growth rate compared with a rate of less than five per cent nationally.
Your government will also remain nimble and responsive to good ideas for bringing more business to Alberta, like we were with the City of Lethbridge to ensure the expansion of Cavendish Farms – the single largest private-sector investment in the history of Lethbridge – which will create good jobs and more opportunities for Alberta farmers.
This year, your government will also move forward on attracting more renewable energy investments.
When it comes to renewables, investors worldwide are looking to Alberta as the next exciting place to bring their money.
This spring, the first competitive renewable energy auction will take place, securing up to 400 megawatts of new renewable energy investment in Alberta.
Over the coming years, more renewable auctions will take place, keeping Alberta on track to add 5,000 new megawatts of renewable energy capacity while also generating more economic activity, in a more diversified economy, and creating jobs.
While your government works to attract more renewable energy, we need to ensure that green power is backstopped by strong, stable power from clean-burning natural gas.
So, this year, your government will continue with Alberta's electricity market transition.
By changing our electricity market so it is no longer a risky outlier in North America, we can provide more stable, predictable prices, less risk for investors, and attract the new natural gas generation investments needed to create jobs and power Alberta's future.
While we are building renewable energy infrastructure, we are also building the hospitals, schools, highways and transit that are the lifeblood of the modern economy.
Jurisdictions with the foresight to invest today will be tomorrow's economic leaders.
Last year, shovels were in the ground on nearly 300 transportation projects, more than 100 schools, plus universities, colleges and health facilities.
This year, even more progress will be made on Alberta's historic capital plan, putting thousands of Albertans to work on construction sites, building the infrastructure we need to secure our economic future and way of life.
With interest rates at historic lows, there is simply no better time to get projects built and create good jobs.
Protecting Alberta's international trade interests
This year, action is also being taken to protect Alberta's interests and jobs in a fast-changing global economy.
The Premier just returned from Washington D.C., where she had productive conversations with Members of Congress, officials from the Canadian Embassy, industry representatives, policy experts and others.
Those conversations were grounded in advance work with representatives of key Alberta industries. The Premier and members of cabinet got good advice from industry leaders on how to best approach upcoming trade discussions, with a focus on protecting jobs and seizing new areas of opportunity. These important conversations will continue.
Your government's message to officials in Washington was clear: a strong Alberta contributes to a stronger Canada and a stronger continent.
Your government will continue to work closely with Ottawa and officials in Washington to ensure our shared economic interests are protected and advanced.
In order to bolster and diversify Alberta's trade relationships, additional trade missions will be undertaken this year to key markets across the world, including Japan, India and China.
Making life more affordable
Whether it's selling Alberta to new markets, attracting new investments, building pipelines, or putting Albertans to work on vital infrastructure projects, your government's focus is the same – creating good, family-supporting jobs.
Those good jobs are even better when paycheques go further, and paycheques go further when life is more affordable.
Reducing school fees
Every September, parents across Alberta scramble to cobble together money to pay for a host of school fees. Rather than having a bit extra to put into savings or groceries or their mortgage, parents are forced to redirect their money to pay for education services.
For years, families have said enough is enough, the fees are too much. And yet, school fees have grown and grown.
This session, your government will take a major step forward to make life more affordable for parents and families by eliminating instructional supply and material fees at Alberta's public schools.
Your government will also eliminate busing fees for children travelling to their designated school.
The first bill tabled this session will start that work, by eliminating these fee categories in time for the start of the next school year.
These changes will reduce total mandatory school fees by approximately 25 per cent. Work to further reduce school fees for families will continue.
Capping electricity rates
But that is far from the only step your government is taking to help protect the family budget and make life better.
This year, your government is capping electricity rates for families and businesses – because an electricity bill isn't a jack-in-the-box.
There is no need for a surprise.
Rates will be capped below the average price families have paid over the last decade. If electricity prices go up past the cap, electricity bills won't. Period.
Legislation will be introduced this session to make this cap the law.
Not only will energy bills be capped, but tools will be made available to bring energy bills down.
Your government will help families, businesses, non-profits, farmers, municipalities and Indigenous communities save money and increase energy efficiency with programs to support more energy-efficient appliances, heating, lighting and more.
In addition, your government will make it more affordable to install solar panels on homes, supporting jobs and growth in Alberta's residential solar industry and helping families power their homes with more green energy.
All the while, carbon levy rebates will continue going right to the bank accounts of two-thirds of Alberta households.
Protecting consumers
But to protect the pocketbooks of families, your government is not stopping there.
We banned door-to-door energy sales and put an end to predatory payday lending. This year, your government will take further action to protect consumers and give them more peace of mind.
Also in this session, your government will make consumer protection laws in Alberta stronger and introduce a Consumer Bill of Rights.
Strong support for health care and education
Focusing on jobs and affordability helps to make life better for families. So too does a focus on other fundamentals, such as high-quality public services.
This year, your government will build on its plan to protect and enhance health care, education and the public services families in Alberta count on every day.
Strong public education
Albertans want their children and grandchildren to fulfil their potential and realize their dreams.
It's for this reason that generations of Albertans built a strong public education system to provide our children with tools they need to lead productive and happy lives.
It's for this reason that through the economic downturn your government has made classroom education a top priority, including reversing planned cuts that would have taken teachers out of the classroom.
Through the Future Ready initiative, we are freezing tuition, working with parents to modernize our curriculum, expanding access to student loans, and investing in more apprenticeship and training.
This year, in addition to eliminating certain school fees, your government will continue to provide stable, predictable funding to our schools, universities, colleges and institutes, and will announce the approval and construction of new schools.
Strong public health care
At the same time as we are improving education across the province, we are also improving health care.
Modern new hospitals are being built, such as the new cancer building in Calgary, and services at rural health centres are expanding, such as the one in Sylvan Lake.
But hospitals aren't the only answer. We can deliver more care in our communities.
This year, your government is partnering with the Alberta Medical Association to help communities find and retain the health-care professionals they need, both in rural and urban areas, and especially in under-served communities.
New ways to pay doctors are being developed, ways that support them in spending more time with each patient.
Taken together, these initiatives mean families spend less time on the highway and in the waiting room, and more time with a medical professional who knows them.
Your government will continue to create new long-term care and dementia spaces, and offer more home care services to help seniors live safely in their homes and communities.
We will make life better for vulnerable Albertans by putting nurse practitioners on the frontlines to care for homeless women and youth in Calgary and Edmonton.
We will invest in mental health care, with specific programs for youth, for children and families, for Albertans who have experienced trauma, and for Indigenous communities.
We will move forward with supervised consumption services and other harm-reduction measures to address the rising tragedy of opioid overdose deaths.
Above all, we will maintain a stable, dependable health care system that Albertan families can rely upon to make their lives better.
Protecting people, workers and families
For Alberta's youngest and most vulnerable, more needs to be done to help struggling families thrive and to make sure every child has a safe home.
When a child's home isn't safe, we have a responsibility to step in and do whatever it takes to make sure kids are protected.
Child protection is one of the most important services any government can provide, and we owe it to our children to get it right.
It is for this reason your government created a new department to focus on services for children and launched an all-party Ministerial Panel on Child Intervention.
Building on the work of that panel, your government will introduce new legislation focused on ensuring child death reviews receive the utmost care and attention.
Your government will also build on our work to better help and protect victims of sexual and domestic violence with the introduction of legislation that eliminates barriers to pursuing justice.
For Albertans with disabilities, more work will be done to provide timelier, more accessible services.
More work will also be done this year to modernize working conditions for Albertans.
For low-income families in need of housing, your government will continue to address long-overdue repairs of the affordable housing units we already have, and we will build more units for families and seniors in need.
Hundreds of thousands of families will continue receiving the Alberta Child Benefit and the enhanced Alberta Family and Employment Tax Credit to ensure that children get a good start in life.
This year, your government will also make further progress on its commitment to $25 per-day child care.
Bids to create or expand new affordable and innovative child-care centres will be awarded in the coming weeks.
Your government will also continue to make sure Alberta's lowest-paid workers – most of whom are women, and many of whom are parents – get a modest and predictable raise, staying on track to fulfil our commitment to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Supporting local government
In addition to creating jobs, making life more affordable, and supporting strong public services, this year your government will take further measures to support communities and families.
Important work remains this session on the Modernized Municipal Government Act.
This work will build on the strong, respectful relationships developed with municipal leaders.
Those relationships have allowed us to bring in new measures that empower local governments, enabling them to provide their communities with better services and more jobs.
Your government, the City of Edmonton and the City of Calgary will also continue to work together to create city charters, with a view toward building stronger, more vibrant cities that attract trade, investment and jobs.
Working with indigenous communities
Important work remains to improve relations with Indigenous communities and people.
To date, the Alberta government has signed new relationship agreements with Treaty Eight and the Metis Nation of Alberta. This year your government will pursue further agreements.
When it comes to ensuring that First Nations communities have access to safe drinking water, our country has a shameful record.
Many First Nations communities in Alberta currently have boil water advisories and have for some time. This is unacceptable.
Indigenous people in Alberta need to see concrete action that makes their lives better.
Working with First Nations and the federal government, your government will address the critical need for access to clean drinking water on reserves, thereby making real progress on fulfilling the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Protecting our natural heritage
As we work to create better conditions for communities across Alberta, we also have a responsibility to protect our extraordinary natural heritage.
Albertans love to hike, fish, hunt, and enjoy our natural beauty.
This year, your government will continue to improve parks across our province and build on the historic protections we have brought into place, such as the recently announced protections for the Castle area.
Consultations on the plan to protect the Castle area will continue this year, as will your government's commitment to create better opportunities for everyone to enjoy our parks. Investments will be made in new campgrounds, trails and roads, and we will support all types of recreation with real improvements to our parks – whether you are exploring on a motorized vehicle, horseback or lacing up hiking boots.
Alberta's natural beauty is part of the wealth we all inherited, and that natural inheritance must be protected and passed on for future generations to enjoy.
Strengthening our democracy
Finally, to make life better for families, we will continue to strengthen our democratic institutions.
To date, your government has taken big money out of politics and enacted an ambitious democratic reform agenda.
This session, that work continues.
New measures will be introduced to expand protection for whistleblowers and to strengthen our conflict of interest laws.
Conclusion – working to make life better
Grit built this province.
Grit will build its future.
That future is in the hands of us all: farmers, teachers, oil workers, nurses, welders, entrepreneurs, public servants, and so many others – everyone who made the decision to call this northern slice of the continent their home and never looked back.
As a province, we have had our ups and downs.
But we have always been at our best when we are focused on what matters.
Two years ago oil prices collapsed.
It hurt – badly.
Did Albertans panic? No.
Did we sacrifice the very things that make our province strong? No.
We didn't do those things, because that's not who we are and it wouldn't have solved a thing.
What we did was simple. We got down to work and stayed focused on what matters to everyday Albertans – good jobs, protecting pocketbooks, strong health care and education.
These are the things that count – the things that make life better.
Two years later, our economy is starting to turn the corner.
We are on our way to breaking the land lock, jobs are coming back, our kids have good schools, and our loved ones have the care they need.
Are we there yet? No.
Though the world around us may be growing more uncertain, your government will remain calm and focused.
Now is not the time to let our steady hand waver.
As we have from the start, we will continue to create jobs, diversify our economy, and protect the health and education services on which families rely.
In that work, we will make life better for Alberta families.
Thank you, friends.
God bless Alberta.
God bless Canada.
And God save the Queen.
Speech delivered
Her Honour, Lois Mitchell,
Throne speech highlights
Watch the throne speech
News: Making life better for families (Mar 2, 2017)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
DWP – Department of Wayward Perversion?
Call him RTU: In the Army to which he once belonged, failures were 'Returned To Unit' (or quietly retired). This man's policies are not just failures; they're disasters.
So let's give him the nickname he deserves.
Is the madness currently exhibited by the Department of Work and Pensions a symptom of the Secretary-in-a-State's personal condition, or an indication of a much wider malaise?
This is a question we should be asking, publicly, with increasing frequency as each new revelation about the Department's irrational behaviour is revealed.
This article, for example, suggests that wayward perversion is now normal behaviour there. How else is one to interpret the actions of government officers who refuse to carry out a function for which they have all the tools and information necessary, while practically foaming at the mouth in their eagerness to convince us that they can manage assessment tasks – even if they must be done by hand and at enormous cost?
Today we learned that Samuel Miller, the disability specialist accusing the British government of employing draconian austerity measures to expose its sick and disabled citizens to fatal stress, has received new information from the DWP on the deaths of disability benefit claimants.
The department published an 'ad hoc' report in July last year, on deaths that occurred during 2011, but – perhaps discouraged by the overwhelmingly negative backlash caused by the admission that an average of 73 people were dying every week after being marked 'fit for work' or able to make themselves ready for work – its ministers have refused to publish a follow-up.
Freedom of Information requests from both Mr Miller and myself have been refused – mine on the grounds that it was "vexatious" (although the DWP definition of this word clearly differs from that defined in the relevant Act of Parliament).
Now it has confirmed that "the Department does hold information which could be used to analyse the mortality of benefit claimants after November 2011 but this has not been compiled".
The information is all there, waiting to be provided. People have requested it, under an Act of Parliament that states it must be handed over, if it is in the public interest for that to happen. But ministers have vetoed this, stating reasons that can only be described as perverse.
This happened on the same day that the Daily Mirror revealed "Ministers are blowing £1.3 million on staff to carry out checks for its flagship benefits cap – because the computer system needed to do the job has yet to be built".
The cap, locking benefits to a £500-per-week limit for all families, was introduced in a few pilot areas in April, in order to cut the amount of money being spent on social security by £270 million. But a Parliamentary answer by employment minister Mark Hoban revealed that the department had been forced to employ 112 workers to check what each household receives and determine whether any are exempt from the cap.
He said it would remain in place "until an automated solution is developed and introduced".
It is clear that ministers at the DWP had no intention of admitting that this work was being carried out manually at huge cost – just as they have done everything they could to deny the failure of the Universal Credit computer system that has meant the roll-out of Iain Duncan Smith's flagship scheme was at first limited to the easiest claims in just one Job Centre, where they could be worked out on paper.
What sort of person believes that £1.3 million is better spent on a face-saving exercise than a life-saving one? This, too, is perverse. The money could be spent supporting some of the many thousands whose lives are being wrecked by current DWP policies.
Sadly, we all know exactly who would behave this way: Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Lying.
One of the few facts about LieDS' life that we know to be true is that he spent time in the military, where he served as a bag-carrier for a superior officer. Put this career under scrutiny, though, and there are parts of it that don't stand up. for example: the claim that he left the Army as a captain is not true, according to the London Gazette.
A commenter on politicalscrapbook.net has discovered that he only made it up the greasy pole to Lieutenant before leaving.
Another commenter pointed out that he attended Sandhurst, and that "five years out of Sandhurst you either make Capt. or leave". This suggests another possibility.
'Returned To Unit' or 'RTU' refers to a military member being returned to their home base or home unit, and may be applied to a soldier who has failed officer training – but in these cases it is more likely that the person in question will be quietly returned to civilian life. The Army is not proud of its failures.
This is what Iain Duncan Smith is – a failure. His DWP policies show that in painful (and in some cases, terminal) clarity. It seems likely that his Army career, if examined with proper rigour, was similarly disastrous.
So here's an idea. Let's not call him 'IDS' any more. That's far too respectful for this piece of… work.
From now on, he can be RTU.
This entry was posted in Benefits, Conservative Party, Politics, UK and tagged 'ad hoc', Army, austerity, benefit, cap, computer, death, Department, disabled, Employment and Support Allowance, ESA, face-saving, FOI, Freedom of Information, Iain Duncan Smith, Job Centre, lieutenant, life-saving, mark hoban, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, mortality, Pensions, perverse, perversion, Samuel Miller, Sandhurst, sick, Universal Credit, vexatious, Vox Political, work on August 8, 2013 by Mike Sivier.
← Finally! a paper's actually READ Francis report instead of assuming wrongly On the Road to Serfdom with Von Hayek →
10 thoughts on "DWP – Department of Wayward Perversion?"
Steven Goodman August 8, 2013 at 1:13 am
With Unum in an advisory role within the DWP network,I feel their presence is starting to be felt, firstly with the issue raised in this article and secondly by my own experiences of being severely disabled by mental health issues. Unum if you are not aware are a company who lobbied for the privatisation of the welfare system in 2002. It was they that came up with the Tory slogan in their proposal "It must appear to be better off in work rather than welfare!"… loosely translated this means welfare must dissappear below the poverty line to achieve the effect. In this position the workforce shall learn to fear redunancy…thus seeking other means of protection….purely by chance the afore mentioned multi-national insurance giant will be able to save you with its "Unemployment Protection insurance policies"
All well and good, bar a couple of facts – name one Privatisation that has been of benefit to the UK population? Whilst you chew over that one bear in ming UNUM are currently facing a large number of litigations in the US for immoral and illegal acts in pursuit of not honoring their policies when it comes to paying out…
So why would the tory's unholy trinity get into bed with a corporation with such a bad reputation ? (The US GOvernment won't have anything to do with them)…Though I cannot say for certain I feel a forensic accountant might have better luck.
I base that surmise on the fact there is only one reason for making an unholy alliance with dubious people……
Mike Sivier August 8, 2013 at 1:20 am
As it happens, we're quite familiar with Unum around here…
http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2013/04/22/are-british-workers-being-lured-into-health-insurance-that-will-never-pay-out/
Editor August 8, 2013 at 8:02 am
Pingback: DWP – Department of Wayward Perversion? | Jay's Journal
guy fawkes August 8, 2013 at 11:49 am
Everything about this government and it's ministers appears to be perverse – Mc vey, hunt, ids etc.
Tommy August 8, 2013 at 11:56 am
How on earth did this idiot ever get into the army?I believe he served in the Scots Guards.He is now in the DWP which is taking war pensions and benefits off veterans and keeping decisively quiet about it by not showing his ugly face anywhere.
hugosmum70 August 8, 2013 at 12:53 pm
probably DARE NOT show his face anywhere.
califoniaredwood August 8, 2013 at 5:37 pm
Returned to Unit…….even they didn't want this lying toe-rag
Pingback: Is this spoof benefit form the basis for Coalition unemployment policy? | Vox Political
Pingback: DWP – Department of Wayward Perversion? |...


The Arizona Wildcats (19-2, 7-1) will be looking for a little revenge on Friday night, as their lone Pac-12 college hoops betting loss this season came at the hands of their next opponents, the Oregon State Beavers. That last meeting, a 58-56 win for the Beavers is one that still sticks in the craw of the Arizona players and coaching staff, all of whom have admitted that it was a less than impressive effort on their part.
Date/Time: Friday, January 30th, 10:00 PM Location: McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona NCAAB Odds: Arizona -17.5 The outing on Jan 11 was a rough night for the Wildcats offense, which only managed to shoot 37.8% from the floor, and just 4 of 17 from outside the paint. That said, they were up against a defense that is considered one of the best in the nations, and they were in fact right in it till the very end. Had T.J. O'Connell sunk an off-balance shot in the final seconds, the #6 ranked Arizona Wildcats would still be looking at a perfect conference record. Arizona has rebounded from that loss very nicely, reeling off 5 straight wins and doing so by an average of over 19 points per game. They have been solid defensively during that stretch, holding 4 of their 5 opponents under 44% shooting. Arizona already ranks pretty high in shooting with a 49.8% average, but they went well beyond that in beating Oregon 90-56 on Wednesday, going 59.3% from the floor. Oregon State (14-6, 5-3) know that they are in for a different game away from the cozy confines of their home court. Arizona has gone 33 games unbeaten at home, and have won 30 of 3 of their last home meetings versus the Beavers. Furthermore, Oregon State hasn't notched a road win against a ranked team since way back in 1985. The Beavers are also coming in off a rough 55-73 loss to Arizona State on Wednesday night. That was certainly out of character for a team that was top 10 in points per game allowed (56.1) heading into that game. Gary Payton II and Malcolm Duvivier put in solid performances in that game, but their supporting cast managed to go just 8 for 21 from the field.
Oregon State is going to need a solid effort from everyone if they hope to leave Arizona with a win under their belts. The likelihood of that happening against a team that seems to still be smarting from the loss to the Beavers earlier in the month seems pretty slim. Look for Arizona to win this one by a comfortable margin.


text:
Q&A with author Adam Rogers
Adam Rogers is the author of the new book Proof: The Science of Booze. He is articles editor at Wired, and he lives in Berkeley, California.
Q: You write of alcohol, "Our history with the stuff is our history on earth, a history of humans becoming modern, tool-using, technology-making creatures." Why is there such a close connection?
A: It is one of the first ways we started to make stuff, one of the first examples of a thing that happens in nature that we changed and domesticated.
This is something that few animals really do, to tune it and hone it. They tend to do it by instinct. We, instead of taking what nature gives us, we build from it. [Alcohol] has traveled with us from the moment we became civilized to today.
Q: In the book, you discuss hangovers and the lack of information about what causes them. Why is there such a lack of information?
A: I can only speculate on the "why." Some of the people who do the work say that one possible reason is that government funding agencies are worried about the effect of working on a drug that could make people drink more. There's a vast amount of research on addiction, and that makes sense.
You could argue that hangovers [lead to] lost wages and work time, but there's a little bit of a moral question [when it comes to] government research. Why the drinks companies don't fund the research—maybe some of the same moral issues [come into play]. Now, [many of the people who study these issues] are at a meeting in Seattle—it's possible they'll introduce new information.
Q: You also talk about the impact of ethanol on the body. What happens once the person tastes the alcohol, and what is the effect?
A: That's a huge question. Pieces of it are not well understood, especially the effect of alcohol on the brain. Ethanol is a very volatile small molecule, and it evaporates at a lower temperature than water. It dissolves a lot of other substances, and carries flavors and aromas. We perceive five tastes, but there's a lot more going on. Also, there's a burning sensation from the ethanol, and a cooling sensation from the ethanol.
As the molecules move to the inside part of the nose, thousands of nerve endings pick up pieces of what you're smelling and tasting. That's how the brain generates flavor.
This is all before it has an effect on the brain and the gut. When it gets to the gut, the body starts to break down the ethanol using enzymes. With digestion, the pancreas, kidneys and liver are involved.
Alcohol inhibits a hormone that keeps you from peeing too much, so you will pee out more liquid. The body can't keep up, and the ethanol makes its way to the brain. It passes through the blood-brain barrier like a ghost.
What it does in the brain is not well understood. No one is sure which receptors are responsive to ethanol. What does ethanol do to the brain? Inhibition of inhibition. It slows down the brain's ability to slow us down. It's telling the brain we don't have to feel we're up and awake.
This is the impact with one or two drinks. In the book, I'm less interested in the impact of binge drinking. With just [a small amount], it will change your behavior and the way you perceive situations.
Q: What surprised you most in the course of the research for this book?
A: Not being able to articulate the complete mechanism [relating to the effects of ethanol] surprised me. I knew there was a huge body of research on the effects of ethanol, but it surprised me that there was no mechanism.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: When I pitched the idea for the book, I planned on not having history [be a big part of the book], but the history of ethanol was so fascinating, it's in the book. How we make and consume it is a lens on our relationship with the natural world and how we study it.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with author Alyson Foster
Q&A with author A.X. Ahmad
Q&A with author Julia Dahl
Q&A with author Jennifer Senior
Q&A with author Marc Leepson
Q&A with author Rabih Alameddine
Q&A with author Sally Warner
Q&A with author Michael Goldfarb
Q&A with Turkey expert Soner Cagaptay
Q&A with author Adelle Waldman
Q&A with author Naomi Wood
Q&A with author Nikesh Shukla
Q&A with author Rita Zoey Chin
Q&A with author Jean Kwok
Q&A with author Clifford Chase
Q&A with author Laura van den Berg
Q&A with children's author Dan Gutman
Q&A with counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt
Q&A with author Bruce Rosenstein
Q&A with author Jacob M. Appel
Q&A with author Meryl Gordon
Q&A with author Neely Tucker
Q&A with author Celeste Ng
Q&A with author Kevin Clouther
Q&A with author Ian Thornton
Q&A with author Allie Larkin
Q&A with author Na'ima B. Robert
Q&A with author Martin Goldsmith
Q&A with author Courtney Maum
Q&A with author Kate Pullinger
Q&A with artist and illustrator Tony Siema
Q&A with author Timothy Schaffert
Q&A with author A. Turk
Q&A with author Mubina Hassanali Kirmani
Q&A with author Helen Rappaport
Q&A with author Lawrence Goldstone
Q&A with author Lisa See
Q&A with author Anita Shreve
Q&A with author Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Q&A with author Kyung-sook Shin


text:
extern uint64_t siphash(const uint8_t *in, const size_t inlen, const uint8_t *k);

#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Win a Family Four Pack of Tickets to Clementon Park!
How would you like to have a blast with your family at Clementon Park on Monday August 15, 2011? Here's your chance!
Delco Deal Diva has teamed up with BEN-FM and Real Mom in the Media to offer you a four pack of tickets to Clementon Park in Clementon, NJ on Monday August 15, 2011.
Dora the Explorer and Sixers' World B Free will also be making an appearance from 10a-Noon. I know my daughter is going to flip when she sees Dora!
Clementon Park has something for everyone. It is perfect for bringing along the whole family! Together you can experience the fun of their wide variety of water park attractions, thrill rides and family rides.
Of course we all love a good deal, so keep in mind that Every Monday in August, admission to Clementon Park is just $10 when you enter the park before 11am (tickets usually run from $19.99 – $37.99).
Mandatory: Tell me why you and your family would like to spend the day at Clementon Park.
•Tweet the giveaway on Twitter (leave me a link to your tweet) Be sure to include @DelcoDealDiva in your post.
Leave a seperate comment for each entry; be sure to leave your email address so I may contact you if you are the winner. Winner will be drawn via random.org on Friday August 12th at 6:00PM. Winner will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to respond. In the case that the winner does not respond within 24 hours, an alternate winner will be drawn.
Tickets are valid on Monday, August 15, 2011 ONLY. Winner will be responsible for their own transportation and parking fees.
Disclosure: This ticket giveaway for Clementon Park has been sponsored by BEN FM and Real Mom in the Media. I did not receive compensation for this post. I was provided with tickets to attend Clementon Park and tickets to host this giveaway. Opinions are solely my own.
We are having a stay-cation next week and can't really do much financially right now. My kids would LOVE to go to an amusement park for the first time.
i want to win because i would love to take my 2 daughters. and my husband too. it looks like lots of funa nd a fun family day.
Haha! I was thinking it was Friday. Disregard the "late" comment.
Heather…it's no problem! To post a link to a tweet, you look at the tweet you sent. Under the tweet is a time (3 hrs ago, etc)…click onto that time and the link will open in its own page. Copy and paste the link at the top of the page.
I can't believe I won!!! Thank you so much! Looking forward to a day filled with fun! Thanks again…I'm truly appreciative!


Take advantage of user-generated content and your own branded media and create shoppable social galleries with tagged products.
Easily create and embed forms anywhere to your Shopify store. Rebase makes collecting information from customers as easy as it gets.
Search for brands on Facebook and add hundreds of locations in one click. Location information is sync'd automatically to ensure it's right.
Rebase helps Shopify merchants manage and grow their businesses through thoughtful solutions to commonly required features and applications.
Social gives validation to your shoppers by featuring your customers' posts using your brand's #hashtag alongside your own media. Curated by you, approved photos can be tagged to products and are shown on product pages automatically. Build specific feeds for landing pages or marketing campaigns that curate and showcase social posts however you need.
Wishlist and Back-in-stock done right Your customers can save products to wishlists, get notified when they'll be back in stock, and save their carts so they can come back later. Rebase tracks all this and allow you to learn from how they act and what they want more of. Customers can access their Lists at anytime through a page in your storefront.
Retail & Dealer Locator Give your customers the opportunity to find your retail locations or dealers instantly. A location's information is automatically populated from a Facebook Place or Business Page. Say goodbye to manual entry, time-consuming updates, and outdated information in your results.
The simplest interface for building customizable forms that can include file uploads, date-pickers and even supports required fields giving you the ability to capture any information necessary from your customers. Plans with no submission limits. No complicated code. Just create, copy/paste, and start gathering form submissions.
Use Rebase 360 Views to view traffic, view and edit product metafields, view wishlist and back-in-stock details, and see social media items associated with each product.
The people at Rebase are awesome! I was having a problem with spam forms though my site, and rebase solved my problem within the hour. Great customer service!
Rebase & the team behind it rules! Their app has provided an easy to use platform that allows us to best utilize Shopify for fayettechill.com. Our favorite feature is the beautiful social share/feed that appears throughout our site.
This app has been integral in our business. The set-up was easy, and the support team has been very helpful and responsive to all of my questions. We would highly recommend you try Rebase for your business.


delicious, honest food... prepared with love..
Additional platters £2 per head.
Scones with jam and cream or homemade cake with strawberry garnish.
Scone with jam and cream – one scone each.
** Please notev - for orders and deliveries on weekends and evenings, an extra £1.50 per head is applicable.


text:
Q: How to keep the psobjects ordered? I have the following script that gets objects from another scripts and converts it to a pscustomobject
& ".\script1.ps1" -ViewConnection "$cinput" -OutVariable xprtOut | Format-Table -Wrap

#converting xprtOut from Arraylist to pscustomobject to be used with ConvertTo-HTMLTable
$Arr = @()
foreach ($Object in $xprtOut) {
    $i = -1
    $arrayListCount = -($Object | gm | Where-Object {$_.MemberType -like "noteproperty"}).Count

    $customObj = New-Object PSCustomObject
    do {
        $customObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name (($Object | gm)[$($i)].Name) -Value ($Object."$(($Object | gm)[$($i)].Name)")
        $i--
    } while ($i -ge $arrayListCount)

    $Arr += $customObj
}

it works great and all but i notice the ordering of the objects changes.
how can i preserve the ordering in the function?
i am trying the answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/42300930/8397835
$Arr += [pscustomobject]$customObj

but that doesnt work. i tried placing the cast elsewhere in the function and gave out errors.

The ordered attribute can be specified only on a hash literal node.

i guess i am not sure where am i supposed to place the [ordered] or [pscutomobject] in the function since in my case i dont have @ symbol

A: This question is (as I see it) all about copying objects properties while keeping the property order in place.
The Get-Member (gm) cmdlet does not keep the order in which the properties are set in the input objects, but iterating through the PSObject.Properties does.
For PowerShell version 3.0 and above:
$Arr = foreach ($Object in $xprtOut) {
    # create an empty PSCustomObject
    $copy = [PSCustomObject]::new()
    # loop through the properties in order and add them to $copy object
    $Object.PSObject.Properties | ForEach-Object {
        $copy | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $_.Name -Value $_.Value
    }
    # emit the copied object so it adds to the $Arr array
    $copy
}

If you have PowerShell < 3.0, use the code below:
$Arr = foreach ($Object in $xprtOut) {
    # create an ordered dictionary object
    $copy = New-Object System.Collections.Specialized.OrderedDictionary
    # loop through the properties in order and add them to the ordered hash
    $Object.PSObject.Properties | ForEach-Object {
        $copy.Add($_.Name, $_.Value)   # or use: $copy[$($_.Name)] = $_.Value
    }
    # emit a PSObject with the properties ordered, so it adds to the $Arr array
    New-Object PSObject -Property $copy
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


IsoHunt, a popular website offering BitTorrents of mostly pirated material, is to shut down following a court settlement.
The torrent you are looking for does not appear to be in the database.
[ぬるぬる愛好会] NMS-005 拘束競泳水着 悪夢の素人伝魔責め ?
No torrent ID was supplied.


text:
RiverOaks Chorus
Women's Four-Part A Cappella Singing ~ Barbershop Style
Help Our Chorus
Visit/Contact
Visitors are always welcome!
Until we're able to sing together again, come to a Zoom rehearsal and see what we are all about!
When we're able to meet again, we'll make sure you have sheet music and we may ask if you'd like to join us on the risers for our warm-up activities or to learn a new song. Our Director will help determine which part you will be singing.
Wear comfortable shoes and clothing.
Once you've been to several rehearsals, you'll be given music and learning tracks of an audition song. Members of the chorus will join you to privately give you an opportunity to practice singing in a quartet.
When you're ready to audition, you'll sing in a quartet for the music staff and Director.
This is a membership organization and there are dues. To find out about the particular costs of membership, you can speak with our finance coordinator at one of the rehearsals.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church Hall
14646 Sherman Way
Tuesday nights
Meet in Multi Purpose Room,
not the chapel.
We are adhering to Governor Newsom's Executive order and in person rehearsals are suspended but our chorus is still active and new membership is encouraged. If you would like to be a visitor at our next Zoom rehearsal, email dianala@roadrunner.com
Contact us with questions or to let us know you are coming!
"I used to sing only in the shower, but that was getting boring and my water bills skyrocked! After joining RiverOaks, I met a group of wonderful women who all love to sing barbershop harmony together! I am so very happy to sing harmony by their sides. I've learned a lot about vocal production and my water bill has gone way down!"
riveroakschorus@yahoo.com
dianala@roadrunner.com
© Copyright 2021 RiverOaks Chorus. All rights reserved.


It takes strong relationships and the right chemistry to devise schemes that successfully evade or destroy environmental regulations.
Sometimes, members of Congress, polluters, and lobbyists are so busy that they don't have time to find those perfect relationships.
Plus, now that the Supreme Court has removed restrictions on corporate electoral spending, it's more important than ever to find the right match. Isn't it worth it, to make sure your corporation's or client's money turns into a fruitful relationship?
That's why we've created PolluterHarmony, the #1 matchmaking service for polluters, industry lobbyists, and politicians. Now it's easier than ever to buy and sell influence in order to sabotage America's clean energy future. Don't take our word for it! Read the success stories.


text:
itel rolls out the new stylish icon Vision 2 with exiting features
Home > Interview > In Focus > 'Regulatory uncertainty makes business planning for fintech companies very challenging'
'Regulatory uncertainty makes business planning for fintech companies very challenging'
by Saqib Sarker - December 24, 2020 December 21, 2020
Interview with Kokila Alagh, founder of KARM Legal Consultants
Kokila Alagh the UAE-based legal consultancy firm KARM Legal Consultants in 2018. Among its focus areas are fintech, blockchain, insuretech, medtech, data protection, and cyber laws. She is also a board member of MENA Fintech Association, a not for profit association that "fosters an open dialogue for the MENA Fintech community," seeking to "…[shape] the future of financial services" in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
Alagh talked to Fintech magazine through an email interview recently. Here is an edited excerpt:
Can you talk a little bit about your background and your work, especially in the field of Fintech?
KARM was officially launched at the Global Legal Forum in 2018 at the Peace Palace, The Hague – the home to the International Court of Justice and the mecca for the global legal community. KARM is my third venture in the region. I have founded and have been a managing partner of two full-service law firms in the past.
At KARM, we have built a multidisciplinary team of lawyers who are willing to look at the law and legal solutions unconventionally. Our niche expertise extends to new technology projects in the fields of fintech, blockchain, crypto-assets, data protection and privacy, robo-advisory, etc. KARM was founded with the idea of being the bridge between the startups/SMEs and conglomerates and the regulators.
Specifically, with respect to fintech, KARM advises on the appropriate and legal use of various technologies, from the stage of developing a fintech solution, to fintech transactions. We represent a client before the financial and other regulators as needed. We advise on various areas of crowdfunding, electronic-payment platforms, digital banking, peer-to-peer lending and digital investment management, amongst various other aspects related hereto.
With various regulatory bodies globally working actively in this space, we are able to provide advice and services to clients related to corporate and licensing models, regulatory compliance, capital and fundraising, consumer protection, sector-specific regulations and sandbox testing models.
What are the major legal challenges in integrating fintech into the traditional financial structure?
The rapid growth of emerging fintech initiatives globally has led to a number of challenges and risks from a legal perspective. The primary challenge for fintech integration is navigating through the complex and intricate financial regulations and requirements that have been previously created for traditional financial structures.
Globally, regulators have been playing catch-up to the rapid development of fintech, and it has been especially challenging for regulators to find the right balance between the encouragement of the emerging technologies and the need to regulate adequately.
Regulatory uncertainty makes business planning for fintech companies very challenging, and the financial and compliance cost of regulation has resulted in new companies exiting the market. Therefore, it is imperative for a clear assessment of the regulatory risk which will be fundamental to a fintech company's success.
Fintech companies also are largely funded by either traditional funding (such as venture capitalists) or alternative modes of financing and this brings certain legal considerations with respect to funding options and aligning this with the company's future growth plans.
Further, fintech companies collect and process large amounts of data to create solutions that adhere to market trends and consumer preferences. With respect to this, fintech companies need to ensure compliance with data protection legislation applicable to their jurisdiction and adopt appropriate cyber resilience and data governance practices.
Traditional financial institutions have appreciated the benefit of innovation that fintech has brought to the market and globally are looking into partnering with emerging technology to accelerate the development of fintech.
This creates legal challenges in terms of mergers and acquisitions to identify the appropriate type of collaboration to protect the interests of SME fintech companies and to secure their intellectual property rights.
This will require legal advice on deal negotiation, legal and regulatory due diligence and the relevant commercial considerations.
You have been involved in the AMF (Arab Monetary Fund) paper on 'Alternative Modes of Finance: Overview and Guidelines for the Arab Countries'. Talk about this.
The sphere of alternate financing has been created by the onset of retreat from the services of the mainstream banks, finance houses and other financial (credit) institutions, which have been challenged by limited assets and capital constraints, leading to a slow credit cycle and low returns on equity. Defective and outdated business models are decreasing the fortunes of these credit-shy institutions such as, inefficient money transfer practices which ultimately cost banks billions every year in foregone revenue.
The growing demand for credit from the business and consumer markets, including informal markets, have forced global financial market infrastructures regulators to encourage fintech innovations, however, with the reciprocal responsibility of adequate regulation thereof – achieving a necessary balance between growing, continuous innovation (accepting this to be a need and not to be stifled unnecessarily) and regulation of financial technology innovations. The subject of alternative forms of financing and liquidity creation is highly regarded to be the need of the hour, pre-Covid-19 and post; but now more than ever.
Our AMF paper captures the current state of the fast-paced, evolving financial market and to highlight the environment in which tokenization is used as a viable means of liquidity creation, in its varied forms; and also – the stimulus of a drive away from traditional finance to the new age, alternative finance solutions, including that of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, together with technological innovation bolstering this further.
It seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of the alternative modes of finance available to the market and provides guidance concerning tokenization projects, as well as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending ecosystems, for the proper and adequate regulation thereof, for adoption and implementation as may be appropriate, by any authority desirous to do so.
The paper has also provided recommendations on key measures that the authorities should consider and adopt, while developing or revamping a national regulatory framework.
You are a board member of MENA Fintech Association. Can you tell us about the scope and type of work this organization does?
The MENA Fintech Association (MFTA) is a one-of-its-kind organization that brings together start-ups and entrepreneurs, corporates and financial institutions, professionals and academia, regulators and investors. Our firm KARM Legal is the founding member of the organization and I am in charge of the policy and governance vertical.
Under the initiatives taken by MFTA, the Association along with KARM has released "Regulations Simplified," a publication for simplifying the digital assets framework provided by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, UAE for the industry.
KARM, through MFTA, has also undertaken the drafting of policy and regulatory guidelines for the ambassadors and members of the Regional fintech Working Group of the Arab Monetary Fund on "Cyber Resilience Oversight Guidelines for the Arab Countries, Concerning Financial Market Infrastructures" and also "Digital Identity and e-KYC Guidelines for the Arab Countries" and "Alternative Modes of Finance: Overview and Guidelines for the Arab Countries".
From the onset, the aim of the organization has been to unite the community to promote collaboration and stimulate discussions about the development of fintech and other forms of emerging technologies.
Can you talk about the commonly used alternative sources of finance for SMEs and larger institutions?
Alternative finance, an initiative introduced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) can broadly be defined as the sources of funding which have emerged outside of the incumbent banking systems and traditional capital markets. It is considered an umbrella term, encompassing a wide range of financial solutions — most notably, that of crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and more recently, tokenization.
Global leaders operating as crowdfunding platforms had introduced new opportunities to source funds for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) campaigns for investors to invest in. In recent years, the rise in the formation and implementation of alternative finance solutions has been nothing short of extraordinary. It's speedy and expansive growth cannot be denied, nor overlooked. Alternative sources of finance that are available to SMEs and larger institutions include crowdfunding, tokenisation, P2P Lending and online invoice trading.
Tagged FinTech insuretech KARM KARM Legal Consultants Kokila Alagh meditech
Banks awash with savings deposit during the Covid-19 pandemic
'If local software are not used in the local market, export of the same is a daydream'


text:
Posted on Jun/12/2016 by Rosalba Scarrone
Filed under Press Release
Young maritime historian makes history
http://www.phillytrib.com/lifestyle/young-maritime-historian-makes-history/article_7627f62b-7440-570a-942e-05824058b17b.html
Bobbi Booker Tribune Staff Writer | 0 comments
Byron Huart has been a member of the independent press corps for over eight years reporting on celebrity, comic book and pop culture events in the New York Metro area and Philadelphia since 2007. However, what makes Huart unique is his passion for ships. His expertise has allowed him to create a niche as the sole African-American maritime historian that hails from the millennial generation.
He has captured his passion in pictures in the new exhibit, "City of Ships: A Photo Exhibition by Byron Huart" openinig May 27 at the National Lighthouse Museum, 200 The Promenade at Lighthouse Point, Staten Island, N.Y. The exhibition runs through July 1.
"I consider myself the underdog, and it is very difficult," said Huart, 28. "People take a second look at me and are very surprised to see that a person like me is very interested in this stuff. The only people that I have seen of color are travel agents. I am very happy that I have broken a lot of boundaries."
Huart is the U.S. correspondent and New York City branch founder of Liveboat Italy, an Italian-based cruise and travel publication that covers various events and topics of the cruise industry. Since its founding in 2009, Huart in cooperation with Liveboat Italy founder Rosalba Scarrone founded the Liveboat USA branch, thus expanding the site's demographics to the American travel market.
For the past six years, Huart has effectively spearheaded the New York City and East Coast area travel events coverage and has effectively produced over 200 video features, thousands of photographs and numerous articles featured in publications such as Maritime Matters and Cruise Business Review.
In 2015, PowerShips magazine's 75th anniversary edition focused on Huart's work as a professional photographer and travel journalist. "In Powerships, I am the first young African American to be honored in a magazine like that with an eight-page feature," explained Huart. "It is important because I represent the future, and I want to inspire more young [people] to go out there and do what I do. It's progressive and it is something that I do because I have a passion for it. It is a change and it is different in an industry that is mostly dominated by elderly Caucasians. You don't see young African Americans out doing this because they have other interests. The mission I've embarked on is bigger than going out there and taking pictures of ships: it's documenting history that no one is willing to go out and do."
While Huart has traveled the globe documenting ships new and old, a 63-year-old ship docked at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia since 1996 holds a particular fascination for him. The SS United States is a luxury passenger liner built in 1952 operated uninterrupted in transatlantic passenger service until 1969. Built at a cost of $79.4 million ($724 million in today's dollars) the ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the U.S. and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. Her construction was subsidized by the U.S. government, since she was designed to allow conversion to a troopship should the need arise.
"I've visited the ship, toured it, documented and photographed the ship many times," said Huart. "Whenever I am in Philly, I always go down to photograph her at sunrise or sunset because I consider the SS United States a ship that has cheated death many times. I am just surprised that it has survived that long …The SS United States specifications are approximately 53,000 tons and her length is 990 feet long. The reason the ship is worth saving is because the ship was over-built. She was built at top-secret specifications for the United States-Soviet Union war that never came. She was meant to be both a passenger ship and convert into a troop ship to carry 10,000 troops and go 40 knots and survive, then, the weapons of the time. The ship was built like a battleship. They could never build a ship like that again. I believe she deserves a second chance at life — she was American built and there will never be another ship like her again."
For more information on "City of Ships-A Photo Exhibition by Byron Huart", visit lighthousemuseum.org.
bbooker@phillytrib.com
byron huart City of Ships-A Photo Exhibition Huart is the U.S. correspondent lighthousemuseum Liveboat Italy New York City branch founder Rosalba Scarrone


text:
THE HANDSTAND
environment reports
Arctic Ice Melt, Psychopathic Capitalism And The Corporate Media
By David Cromwell and David Edwards
Last month, climate scientists announced that Arctic sea ice had shrunk to its smallest surface area since satellite observations began in 1979. An ice-free summer in the Arctic, once projected to be more than a century away, now looks possible just a few decades from now. Some scientists say it may happen within the next few years.
The loss is hugely significant because Arctic sea ice reflects most solar energy into space, helping to keep the Earth at a moderate temperature. But when the ice melts it reveals dark waters below, which absorb more than 90 per cent of the solar energy that hits them, leading to faster warming both locally and globally.
Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, warnsthat the Arctic may be ice-free in summer as soon as 2015. Such a massive loss would have a warming effect roughly equivalent to all human activity to date. In other words, a summer ice-free Arctic could double the rate of warming of the planet as a whole. No wonder that leading NASA climate scientist James Hansen says bluntly: 'We are in a planetary emergency.'
In a comprehensive blog piece on the Scientific American website, Ramez Naam points out that:
'The reality of changes to the Arctic has far outstripped most predictions. Only a few years ago, in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the bulk of models showed the Arctic ice cap surviving in summer until well past 2100. Now it's not clear that the ice will survive in summer past 2020. The level of sea ice we saw this September, in 2012, wasn't expected by the mean of IPCC models until 2065. The melting Arctic has outpaced the predictions of almost everyone – everyone except the few who were called alarmists.'
As well as global warming from carbon dioxide (CO2), there is the additional risk of warming from methane (CH4) being released into the atmosphere. Huge quantities of methane are locked up in land permafrost. But even vaster quantities exist as methane hydrates frozen below the shallow waters of the Arctic Ocean's continental shelves. Naam warns:
'If even 10% of the northern permafrost's buried carbon were released as methane, it would have a heating effect over the next decade equivalent to ten times all human greenhouse emissions to date, and over the next century equivalent to roughly four times all human greenhouse emissions to date.'
On a sane planet, action would have been taken long before now to limit the risk. But, as Greenpeace International head Kumi Naidoo notes, fossil fuel industries have been working hard to corrupt the political process:
'Why our governments don't take action? Because they have been captured by the same interests of the energy industry.'
As we noted in an alert last year, a Greenpeace study titled Who's Holding Us Back? reported:
'The corporations most responsible for contributing to climate change emissions and profiting from those activities are campaigning to increase their access to international negotiations and, at the same time, working to defeat progressive legislation on climate change and energy around the world.'
Greenpeace added:
'These polluting corporations often exert their influence behind the scenes, employing a variety of techniques, including using trade associations and think tanks as front groups; confusing the public through climate denial or advertising campaigns; making corporate political donations; as well as making use of the "revolving door" between public servants and carbon-intensive corporations.'
Drilling To Oblivion
Around the same time that a record low in Arctic sea ice was being recorded, a new report from the UK's House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee urged a halt to all oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, at least 'until new safeguards are put in place.' Committee chair Joan Walley MP said:
'The shocking speed at which the Arctic sea ice is melting should be a wake-up call to the world that we need to phase out fossil fuels fast. Instead we are witnessing a reckless gold rush in this pristine wilderness as big companies and governments make a grab for the world's last untapped oil and gas reserves.'
Caroline Lewis, member of the committee, warned that 'the race to carve up the Arctic is accelerating faster than our regulatory or technical capacity to manage it.' The race for corporate profits is now on, with Shell already committed to a 'multi-year exploration program' in the Arctic.
The receding Arctic ice is a 'business opportunity' for those wishing to exploit newly available shipping routes. Cargo that now goes via the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal will, in many cases, have a shorter Arctic route, ensuring 'efficiency savings' for big business.
Companies are also licking their lips at the prospect at getting their hands onvast deposits of minerals as Greenland's ice cap recedes.
'For me, I wouldn't mind if the whole ice cap disappears,' said Ole Christiansen, the chief executive of NunamMinerals, Greenland's largest homegrown mining company, with his eyes on a proposed gold mining site up the fjord from Nuuk, Greenland's capital. 'As it melts, we're seeing new places with very attractive geology.'
A good example of the psychopathic mind-set at the heart of corporatecapitalism. Science writer Peter Gleick responded incredulously on Twitter: '25 foot sea rise?' For that is indeed the catastrophic scale of global sea level risethat would occur with the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
EDITOR COMMENTS: On the above subject, in the Irish Times , I read only that the Dept. is to look for extra carbon taxes or levys from us all in Ireland, and that bio-fuel production should be increased. Can anyone following me read this without a scream of rage at our Government's utter stupidity?
What is certainly obvious for a start is that food production world-wide is now threatened catastrophically.Not only by using terrain that must be used for food production, but also the stockMarket agents are speculating on food prices driving them up irrespective of production.
Secondly, that our important cities in Ireland are under threat of flood that will be serious, totally destructive and possibly kill hundreds of people. To look for carbon tax money is so utterly ludicrous it beggar's belief. Methane release from the Arctic is already being detected and may accelerate in the near future. The beginning of the winter Arctic freeze date has passed, everyday we may look at that region with despair if the freeze delays or is not very strong, infact we need a paralytic freeze to lower itself all over the polar worlds, Arctic and AntArctic.
We need to think about barriers, tidal barriers right now. A study of the Thames barriers might be fruitful if introduced to students for their creative input. The business corporations complain that insufficient market orienation is not induced in University studies - Well, Survival techniques and food storage techniques are of urgent and crucial importance at this time.
Another thought - to make tidal barriers we will need steel and in some cases barriers in smaller cases than our cities might use wood? Why are we selling our forests?
Thames Barrier Information Centre
The Thames Barrier Information Centre allows tourists to learn about this vital piece of engineering which protects London from catastrophic flooding. The Thames Barrier Information Centre is one of the most popular London attractions with meteorology, geography and engineering enthusiasts, as well as those visitors that have a fascination with London's history.
The Thames Barrier is located at a point in The Thames between south-east London on the south bank and London's East End on the north bank. The barrier was built in 1982 and is operated by the Environment Agency.
The Thames Barrier is one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world. The Environment Agency runs and maintains the Thames Barrier as well as the capital's other flood defences.
The barrier spans 520 metres across the River Thames near Woolwich, and it protects 125 square kilometres of central London from flooding caused by tidal surges.
It became operational in 1982 and has 10 steel gates that can be raised into position across the River Thames. When raised, the main gates stand as high as a five-storey building and as wide as the opening of Tower Bridge. Each main gate weighs 3,300 tonnes.
A simple diagram showing how the gates work
The concept of the rotating gates was devised by (Reginald) Charles Draper. In the 1950s, from his parents house in Pellatt Grove, Wood Green, London, he constructed a working model. The novel rotating cylinders were based on a small household appliance — a brass gas tap which could be found in most post war houses in the UK. The barrier was designed by Rendel, Palmer and Tritton for the Greater London Council and tested at the Hydraulics Research Station, Wallingford. The site at New Charlton was chosen because of the relative straightness of the banks, and because the underlying river chalk was strong enough to support the barrier. Work began at the barrier site in 1974 and construction, which had been undertaken by aCostain/Hollandsche Beton Maatschappij/Tarmac Construction consortium,[3] was largely complete by 1982. The gates of the barrier were made by Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd[4] at Dent's Wharf on the River Tees.[5] In addition to the barrier itself the flood defences for 11 miles down river were raised and strengthened. The barrier was officially opened on 8 May 1984 byQueen Elizabeth II. Total construction cost was around £534 million (£1.3 billion at 2001 prices) with an additional £100 million for river defences.
Built across a 520-metre (570 yd) wide stretch of the river, the barrier divides the river into four 61-metre (200 ft) and two about 30 metre (100 ft) navigable spans. There are also four smaller non-navigable channels between nine concrete piers and two abutments. The flood gates across the openings are circular segments in cross section, and they operate by rotating, raised to allow "underspill" to allow operators to control upstream levels and a complete 180 degree rotation for maintenance. All the gates are hollow and made of steel up to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) thick. The gates fill with water when submerged and empty as they emerge from the river. The four large central gates are 20.1 metres (66 ft) high and weigh 3,700 tonnes.[6] Four radial gates by the riverbanks, also about 30 metres (100 ft) wide, can be lowered. These gate openings, unlike the main six, are non-navigable.
north bank of the river during normal operation looking across to The barrier from Silvertown on the New Charlton.
The barrier was originally designed to protect London against a big flood level, with a return period of one thousand years up to the year 2030, after which the protection would decrease, whilst remaining within acceptable limits.[13]
This defence level included long-term changes in sea and land levels as understood at that time (c. 1970). Despite global warming and a consequently greater predicted rate of sea level rise recent analysis extended the working life of the barrier until around 2060–2070. From 1982 until 19 March 2007, the barrier was raised one-hundred times to prevent flooding. It is also raised monthly for testing.[14]
Released in 2005, a study by four respected academics contained a proposal to supersede the Thames Barrier by a more ambitious 16 km (10 mi) long barrier across the Thames Estuary from Sheerness in Kent to Southend in Essex.[15]
In November 2011 a new Thames Barrier, further downsteam at Lower Hope between East Tilbury in Essex and Cliffe in Kent, was proposed as part of the Thames Hub integrated infrastructure development. The barrier would incorporatehydropower turbines to generate renewable energy and include road and rail tunnels, providing connections from Essex to a major new hub airport on the Isle of Grain.[16]