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A Year to Forget?
The industry takes stock of an undeniably tough '09.
Footwear Webdesk | October 1, 2009
"Trying" is the word that Bob Campbell, CEO of BBC International, lands on when trying to sum up the past 12 months in the footwear business. Rialto president Matt Dragos proposes "inconsistent" or "unpredictable." The difficulty didn't come as a shocker to anyone not living in a cave in the fall of '08, when the effects of the banking and housing market's collapse collided with election uncertainty, with the resulting economic ripple sparking pronounced consumer anxiety. But as Jan. 1 approaches and a consternating year rolls to an end, many are stopping to reassess the takeaways from 2009 while looking ahead to the future.
"When you're talking retail, every day, every year could be better," says Gary Weiner, president of Saxon Shoes in Richmond, VA. "This was a year where the best retailers did OK if they were lucky, and anybody who wasn't good—anybody who wasn't on their toes—just got hammered or disappeared."
"It's [been] a funny year," SportsOneSource analyst Matt Powell notes. "It started off really strong—much better than anticipated. And then it quickly died." By March, consumers had battened down the latches of their wallets, fearing job losses, salary cuts, tanking stocks and other cataclysmic effects, and sell-throughs hit the skids. As the National Retail Federation of Washington, D.C., rattled off month after month of reports confirming "dipping," "slowing" and "disappointing" year-over-year sales results, footwear retailers and vendors were snapped into the new reality by unprecedented market patterns. According to Mitch Kummetz, senior research analyst for R.W. Baird & Co., "These companies were working off of a playbook that didn't really exist before. They had never seen quite this much of a deterioration in consumers and their business."
Retailers felt the crush first, and those not in solid standing prior to '09 bore the brunt of the fallout, with many turning to rock-bottom sales promotions to liquidate merchandise and drum up cash flow. "It was the people who really needed the money that sold at bottom [prices] and got hurt," reports Alan Miklofsky, chairman of the National Shoe Retailers Association and owner of The Shoe House in Tucson, AZ. "Retailers who may have been in problem situations already didn't have the ability to hold through the worst part of the year, and things just became worse."
However, those in good standing who were nimble enough to react quickly seem to have weathered the worst. "What we've seen over the past 18 months is brands and retailers adjusting to the new dynamic," says Christopher Svezia, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. Most agree that the recession has set off a remarkable period of learning and market correction that puts the entire industry in better standing moving into 2010. "Everybody's learning how to do more with less," Powell notes. "I think that's always healthy."
Angel Martinez, CEO of Deckers Outdoor Corp., stresses that '09 will definitely go down as a year for the business to remember. "It's always important to have successfully made it through a difficult time and struggles," he says. "It allows your organization to improve, focus on the things that matter most and get back to fundamentals." Analysts, manufacturers and retailers say that for most companies, that meant a) increasing corporate efficiency and b) adjusting inventory levels (which had inflated right along with consumer spending). Those able to do this quickly once the recession smoke turned to fire fared best, and Kummetz notes these factors were directly responsible for profitability levels rising above the predictions made early in the year. "The tough environment gave some of these companies an excuse or a reason to get their costs in line," he says. Once a turnaround takes hold, he adds, those that have tweaked their operations to fit the new economy will be best positioned for the future.
Getting payroll and expenses under control and smartly managing inventory has paid off for Rialto this year, Dragos reports. Although he estimates between 500 to 1,000 Rialto-carrying doors closed in '09, the exec reports it has ultimately (and surprisingly) been a pretty good year for the company. Dragos cites a fast reaction to the recession's challenges as the reason why.
Retailers say efficiency and inventory management is key on their end, too, and many note smartening up now will surely lead to eventual success. Just ask Weiner, who describes Saxon Shoes as the "tallest midget" in the game. "In the grand scheme of retail right now, we're all midgets," he stresses. "Nobody is hitting home runs out there, but we're doing as well or better than most."
Campbell says BBC International's ongoing diversification across retail tiers, geographical regions and licensed brands helped buoy business this year. "It assists us when times are challenging," he notes, explaining that any slack in one area is generally picked up by another. While BBC couldn't match is record-setting 2008 sales this year (last year's Hannah Montana craze was tough to repeat), it has seen international expansion of the Polo brand and recently sealed a deal to become Disney's sole U.S. footwear licensee. The recession just validated BBC's strategy, the exec notes, stressing that the goal is to have the best partners and brands in order to nab a share of existing business, regardless of how much there is to go around.
Making your customer happy is always a means to that end, but it became more important for both vendors and retailers this year. For brands, that meant doing everything possible to support retail partners facing their worst fears in 2009. Martinez notes Deckers leaned on its strong balance sheet and offered special programs and terms where possible to help them weather the storm. Campbell says staying on top of delivery times was also essential, as retailers aren't forgiving—not even as lead times grow increasingly shorter.
On the retail side, pleasing consumers boils down to offering innovative, value-packed product at a price they are willing pay—not giving them more of the same. In terms of product, many brands got more conservative after noticing consumers reeling, and that wasn't necessarily the best choice. Especially on the athletic side, Powell says, "There's not a lot of great, fresh product out there. Those that are are selling well."
Staying a step ahead of consumer desires also proved a boon, as any buyer who stocked up on boots this fall will tell you. "Nobody has enough boots," Joe Ouaknine, CEO of Titan Industries, told Footwear Plus in mid-November. "That tells you, if you have the right trend, you're going to do business."
Whether Larry Tarica, president and COO of Jimlar Corp., parent company of Frye, presaged this season's boot demand or not, his business confidence did not flag in the face of early media reports contesting a second-coming of the Great Depression. "We actually considered these conditions to provide an opportunity for us to increase our market share, and we continued to invest heavily in design, product development and brand management," he says, reporting that the tactic worked; Jimlar expects to see a double-digit sales increase in 2009. Tarica does, however, acknowledge consumers' turn to lower-priced products—or at least those holding greater value—and says he expects this sentiment to linger.
Similarly, Martinez notes Ugg Australia, which also continues to see strong sales, must continue to provide premium product while keeping prices steady to keep consumers faithful. "We don't want to compromise [our] materials," the CEO says. "If consumers value our product, they'll continue to support the brand."
Rialto's Dragos recalls one retailer who told him "moderate" is no longer a dirty word. He says that has meant good things for his brand, which has always tried to build as much perceived value into its products as possible. "That's always helped us, but now when customers are potentially buying because of price point, they can spot that attention to detail."
In addition to fashion boots, analysts call out several other hits of 2009: canvas and vulcanized sneakers, performance running shoes, and wellness product, which hit the masses this year in a big way thanks to Skechers Shape-Ups and Reebok's EasyTone line. So despite some industry bitching and moaning, "There are pockets of things happening," Powell says. Transitioning into 2010, he adds, "I do think we'll see retailers make some specific bets on certain categories." Kummetz offers further encouragement for fashion merchants: "We're hearing anecdotes that high-end consumers are coming back. People are looking for newness in fashion versus just deals."
And should the state of retail as of Dec. 31, 2009, be the state of retail for the foreseeable future, Ouaknine offers a reminder that everything is relative: "A year ago, we were limping and [moaning in pain]. A year later, we're still limping, but we're used to it. When people ask how we're doing, we answer, 'Not bad at all.'" —Leslie Shiers
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The goal of the Poor People's Campaign, which was co-launched by the Rev. William J. Barber II, the former head of the state NAACP and the architect of the Moral Monday protest movement, is to push the plight of poor people to the top of the agenda in statehouses and U.S. Congress.
Barber was in Washington, D.C., on Monday leading the action in the nation's capital.
The Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, led the rally in Raleigh that drew several hundred people to Bicentennial Plaza just south of Jones Street.
"Somebody's hurting our people," Petty told the crowd gathered in the 90-plus degree heat. "Today we're focused on children, women, people with disabilities and the LGBT community. "
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. outlined a multi-faith, multicultural plan in the late 1960s to draw attention to income inequality, working conditions and economic injustices that he thought the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 failed to address.
Though King was assassinated in April 1968, the Southern Christian Leadership Council forged ahead with the slain civil rights' leader's plans, bringing a crowd to Washington in May 1968.
Fifty years have passed since then, but Barber and others who organized the modern campaign say many of the needs and demands outlined a half century ago remain unmet.
According to the U.S. Census, nearly 41 million people live in poverty.
The speakers at the Raleigh rally urged those around them to lift their voices to speak out "and bring into the public discourse how the poorest among us are being treated" — among other causes. Women's pay still lags behind men, many states don't have protections for the LGBT community, and some lawmakers are shifting funds for public education elsewhere, they said.
"We believe in the transformation of the war economy into the peace economy," 27-year-old Winston-Salem resident Love' Lemon said, her voice rising and falling in a fiery sing-song preaching voice similar to King's and Barber's. "These are devastating times and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, but I'm not going to be devastated."
Shortly after the rally, several dozen people wearing brown arm bands stepped off the sidewalk into Jones Street.
As they linked arms and sang protest songs such as "This Little Light of Mine," Raleigh police blocked vehicular traffic in front of the state Legislative Building.
Within a half hour, after wrapping yellow crime scene tape around the area, police began approaching the protesters and asked them to leave.
Unlike the methods used by General Assembly police inside the Legislative Building during Moral Monday protests since 2013, Raleigh police did not cuff the protesters' wrists with zip ties nor did they arrest them.
The police, who encouraged the protesters to move their act of civil disobedience to a shadier part of the street, issued citations, accusing the men and women of impeding the flow of traffic.
The officers gave protesters an opportunity to walk away, and several who had planned to risk arrest chose to leave the area instead of face the fiscal and personal costs of a citation.
Sam Singer was one of the protesters who locked arms in the street on Monday. She came to the capital city from Asheville, troubled by the direction of North Carolina lawmakers.
She came with Carolina Jews For Justice and walked away from the police vans with a citation accusing her of impeding the flow of traffic on Jones Street.
"It's really critical to make sure our legislators understand the severity of what's going on," she said.
An earlier version of this report inaccurately reported the church where the Rev. Nancy Petty is pastor. She leads Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh.


But she said fate called during her senior year as an Elementary Education student at Illinois State University. The calling came in a third grade classroom at Heyworth (IL) Elementary School.
Many would argue she was "doing" a great job teaching, but Fisher's intuition was telling her she was going down the wrong path, at least at that time. And though it may not be fair to the instrument, an unassuming ukulele was to blame. The self-described "high school band-nerd" said she was introduced to the uke during her sophomore year at ISU.
It wasn't long before Fisher and her friends were on the ISU Quad jamming between classes.
Once she got a taste of performing her own music, Fisher said she was hooked, and with uke in tow, she recruited her best friends to form a band.
At the end of that school year, those friends graduated and moved on to other towns and jobs. Fisher, still a sophomore and now "all in" on writing and performing her music, said she wanted to keep the band going.
"Patience" is a song she wrote for the bands 2015 self-titled release. It's the first album "Alex and the XO's" released after she left ISU. Fisher said the song came out of her decision to put teaching on hold and pursue music professionally.
Fisher is the bands principle lyric writer, but the band works collaboratively to turn her musings into music, with each member writing their own musical part. The songs have a " jangly", catchy alt-pop sound, but trying to decipher Fisher's lyrics can be challenging. Fisher called it intentional.
"Honestly" is another song Fisher wrote for the album. She said it's a reminder to not over-think things.
"Alex and the XO's" have done three "mini-tours" across various regions of the U.S. Fisher said the long nights and days traveling together that can fray even the best of friendships has actually helped the band come together.
The band has also learned no detail is too small when planning a tour. Fisher said hotels, distance between gas stations, and whether or not phones will have cell service are just some of the variables that must be considered. Keeping traveling expenses to a minimum is also important, and to that end, Fisher said the "couch surfing industry" has been invaluable.
She admits at first she was dubious of staying in the homes of complete strangers.
She says a popular couch-surfing website allows them to get prior approval to stay with other bands or fans when on tour. She says it's not unlike staying at a bed and breakfast.
Click "Listen" to hear samples from Alex and the XO's self titled release, and to hear Alexandra Fisher discuss how she navigates the sometimes tricky terrain of being a woman in a male dominated music world.


text:
'IIT Guwahati campus lush landscape of inspiration
GUWAHATI: Emerging as a top 10 engineering institute in the country, IIT Guwahati (IIT-G) stands out for its state of the art infrastructure, over 6,000 students and a sprawling green campus. Institute buildings occupy 31% of the campus, water bodies 14% and the rest of the area is devoted to green space. Of the 704 acres, 93
IITG transforming itself into a green campus
GUWAHATI: IIT Guwahati (IITG) is moving ahead as one of the top 10 engineering institutes in the country, transforming itself into a green campus with over six thousand...
The Times of India 2019-08-28
For the first time, waterfowl steal rhino thunder in Kaziranga
The waterfowl of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) have come out of the shadow of the one-horned rhino after more than a century. On December 19-20, the KNP authorities...
The Hindu 2018-12-17
Migratory birds return home as temperature rises
Bijnor: With rising temperature and the gradual change of season, migratory birds have started their return flight home. Their numbers have started dwindling in the...
Okhla Bird Sanctuary to be revamped by December 2018: DFO
NOIDA: Having failed to secure funds from Noida Authority to implement a one year old revamp proposal, the district forest office claims to have finally received support...
Six more Greater adjutant storks spotted in Guwahati
GUWAHATI: Rapid urbanisation, vanishing greens and water bodies have led to the disappearance of the threatened species, the Greater adjutant stork, which was once found in large numbers in the city. There are only 226 of them now, said bird watchers. About 25 years ago, Bamunimaidan area of the city would be a thriving breeding ground, but not any more, said Moloy Baruah,...
Waterfowls find Wayanad a good home
Wayanad is perhaps known as a hotspot of forest birds. But the recently concluded Asian Waterfowl census reveals that water birds are also at home here, thanks to the two reservoirs set up in recent times. Ducks, cormorants and darters are coming back to its landscape after several decades, though in small numbers. The survey was organised by the Hume Centre for Ecology and...
IIT-Guwahati plans to set up extension centres in northeastern states
The IIT-Guwahati is planning to set up extension centres in northeastern states and run programmes to bring Class 12 students from state-run schools for exposure visits at its campus. "We plan to expand the reach of the institution to other parts of the northeast by opening extension centres with necessary approval from...
India TV
Water level higher, 4,000 more birds at Okhla this month
NOIDA: For birdwatchers, this season can't be any better. Nearly 20,000 migratory birds have been spotted at Okhla bird sanctuary in the past two weeks, making it a delight for many. According to officials of forest department, 4,000 more birds arrived this month compared to January last year. "Last year, there were 15,000 to 16,000 birds around this time. The water level is...
Endangered Himalayan vulture makes a comeback in Himachal\'s Kinnaur
Apart from Himalayan vultures, birders said they also spotted over 60 species of birds, including White-cheeked Nuthatch, Ferruginous Pochard, Bearded Vulture, European Goldfinch, Eurasian Sparrow hawk and Red-headed Bullfinch. india Updated: Oct 17, 2018 11:38 IST Gaurav Bisht Hindustan Times, Shimla Endangered Himalayan Griffon vulture seems to have made a comeback in...
Birders fear diversity of migratory species falling in Basai, Sultanpur
GURUGRAM: The Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) recorded 67 species of water birds in Sultanpur National Park and the Basai wetland, in the first week of March, even as winter migratory water birds start flying back due to rising temperature. The birders reported 46 species and 3,825 birds at Sultanpur, and 21 species and 1,081 birds at the Basai wetland. At Sultanpur, out of 46...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Guatemala Congress again votes to maintain president's immunity
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's Congress on Thursday once again voted to maintain beleaguered President Jimmy Morales' immunity and shield him from a probe into suspected illicit campaign funding, a move that could raise tensions among anti-graft protesters.
For the second time this month, lawmakers discussed a motion, pushed by the attorney general's office and the United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), to remove Morales' immunity.
Although the motion enjoyed greater support than before, the 70 votes in favor fell short of the two-thirds of Congress necessary for it to pass.
The commission wants to determine the origin of some $800,000 in funds Morales managed as secretary general of the conservative National Convergence Front (FCN) party he led from 2015 to 2016. Morales has denied any wrongdoing.
Critics say lawmakers threw their lot in with Morales as they fear the scope of a larger commission investigation into all major parties' campaign financing.
The latest vote, in which 42 lawmakers voted against the motion with 46 absent, came the day after thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets, calling for the resignation of Morales and lawmakers, whom they blame for trying to trip up anti-graft investigators.
"Today ... Congress has exposed itself in front of the people with this decision," said Raul Romero, a conservative lawmaker from the Force party, who voted in favor of stripping Morales' immunity.
In August, Guatemala's attorney general and CICIG jointly sought to investigate Morales, a former comedian, over the illegal financing allegation. Two days later, Morales declared the head of the U.N. body "persona non grata."
Under the leadership of Ivan Velasquez, a veteran Colombian prosecutor, the commission has caused problems for Morales, first investigating his son and brother, and then training its sights on him.
The Guatemalan president won office in 2015 running on a platform of honest governance after Perez Molina was forced to resign and imprisoned in a multi-million dollar graft case stemming from a commission investigation.
Reporting by Bill Barreto and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Richard Chang


text:
St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
2 Additional Information
2.1 St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church Membership
3 Cite This Article
The St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba began services in 1989 and formally organized in 1990. The first building was occupied in 1990. Al Friesen is considered the founding leader of the group. The congregation emerged from a Bible study group led by Al Friesen. In 2004 the congregation moved to its present location.
Pastor Jerry Plett served in 2014 as a congregational leader. The language of worship was English.
Messenger (EMC) (6 July 1990): 11.
Address: 2005 St. Mary's Road, Winnipeg, MB R2N 4P1
Website: St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church
Denominational Affiliation:
Evangelical Mennonite Conference (1990-present)
St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church Membership
Samuel J Steiner
Steiner, Samuel J. "St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. October 1997. Web. 15 Jan 2021. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=St._Vital_Evangelical_Mennonite_Church_(Winnipeg,_Manitoba,_Canada)&oldid=165486.
Steiner, Samuel J. (October 1997). St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 15 January 2021, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=St._Vital_Evangelical_Mennonite_Church_(Winnipeg,_Manitoba,_Canada)&oldid=165486.
Retrieved from "https://gameo.org/index.php?title=St._Vital_Evangelical_Mennonite_Church_(Winnipeg,_Manitoba,_Canada)&oldid=165486"
Evangelical Mennonite Conference Congregations
Manitoba Congregations
Canadian Congregations


Baylor's Institutional Review Board has announced the launch of their newly updated website. The site has been completely redesigned to provide investigators with all the information and tools they need to properly manage research involving human subjects. The new site contains answers to frequently asked questions including whether or not a project falls under the purview of the IRB, what type of training is required and where to access necessary forms.
Click here to visit the new IRB site. Contact Deb Penney at 254-710-3708 with any questions.


You may be one of the more than 800,000 people in the United States suffering from hyperhidrosis, otherwise known as excessive sweating. This condition can often lead to negative impacts on your everyday life. Fortunately, there is a procedure that can alleviate the symptoms of hyperhidrosis — miraDry.
Hyperhidrosis can either be a congenital or an acquired condition. One type — focal hyperhidrosis — generally begins in adolescence and is an inherited condition. Secondary hyperhidrosis can develop at any time and is due to disorders such as those affecting the thyroid or pituitary glands. Gout, tumors, menopause and certain drugs can also cause an onset of this condition.
Hyperhidrosis can either generalized (over the entire body) or localized (occurring in specific body parts, such as the armpits, palms and feet). Generalized hyperhidrosis is usually caused by an underlying medical problem.
The miraDry procedure is a proven way to treat localized excessive sweating in the armpit area. It is an FDA-approved treatment that uses microwave energy to destroy the sweat glands.
The procedure will last about 40 minutes and uses a local anesthetic. The miraDry device is held over the treatment area and will emit electromagnetic energy. You should not experience any pain during the procedure, although you may feel some pressure and a warm sensation.
After the treatment, you may experience soreness and/or swelling that can be treated with non-prescription pain relievers. While there is little to no downtime after a miraDry treatment, you should avoid strenuous exercise for a couple of days.
Dr. Eric Seiger and his team at the Skin & Vein Center are well versed in the miraDry procedure, as well as other treatments that can help you with excessive sweating in other areas of the body such as the palms and feet.
Skin & Vein Centers are some of the only places in Michigan that has miraDry certified technicians who can safely and effectively administer these treatments.
To discuss your options for excessive sweating, call the Skin & Vein Centers, for a complimentary consultation.


I am producing with the brilliant conceptual director and performer Natasha Tsakos, who is known for pioneering ways of integrating technology with live performance to bring the project Billion Billions to life.
Billion Billions is a full evening theatrical show roller-coasting through time, from the "Big Bang" to the age of Singularity, orchestrating state of the art projection mapping synchronized with livestate of the art projection mapping synchronized with live performers and integrated with real-time data, mobile interactivity and actionabilty in a deeply immersive and entertaining way.
By using 3D projection mapping techniques, the stage, set pieces AND performers can seamlessly morph and transform into any desired character and environment, bringing boggling HD optical illusions, and enabling movie editing transitions to better move the story in a dynamic and cinematic way.
More about Billion Billions here.


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Home / Guest Post / That Moment Mathieu Perreault Met His Biggest Fan, Matthew Perreault
That Moment Mathieu Perreault Met His Biggest Fan, Matthew Perreault
By Ian Oland
January 4, 2016	2:59 pm
In the 2006 NHL Draft, the Washington Capitals selected tiny QMJHL centerman Mathieu Perreault with the 77th overall pick, and RMNB fell in love. During his time in Washington's organization, Perreault won two Calder Cups in Hershey and played on the President's Trophy-winning Caps team. He was a dazzling possession player for the Caps before the team had an analytics department. And we can't forget about the #PerryCellys and onesies.
A few years ago, the Caps traded away the man we once called Perreaultcho-cinco to make room for first-round pick Tom Wilson. Now Perreault, continuing to blossom as a player, has a new biggest fan. His name is Matthew Perreault.
I'll let his dad Danny Perreault explain.
So for Christmas my son wanted to see his favorite player Mathieu Perreault. The reason why he's my son's favorite player is that my son's name is Matthew Perreault and, like Mathieu, he wants to be a forward in the NHL!
Up until last year he had played half goalie and half forward, but when he found out that Mathieu was a full-time forward that ended his goalie career. I checked the calendar and the Winnipeg Jets were in town to
play the Edmonton Oilers on December 21st. I e-mailed the Jets organization and also called their PR department. It was a team policy that there are no meet-and-greets on game days, but the Jets allowed us to come to their game-day practice at Rexall Place.
That day, we took a sign (my amazing wife's idea) along with us that explained why we were there. During practice, Mathieu waved at us. When he stepped off the ice, he signed the jersey and hat my son was wearing. We were so enthralled by the moment, we never snapped a picture of the two Matty P's together. Despite that, massage therapist Al Pritchard grabbed us a puck off the ice before we left to cap off the visit. Mathieu was so generous with his time and made my son feel so dang special. I know it was just a few minutes of his time, but it was something that my son and I enjoyed immensely and will remember forever!
That night we arrived to the game very early, and we had modified the sign to say thank you. Mathieu acknowledged us again and tossed a puck over the glass for us. This puck Matthew kept and the one we received earlier went to his brother. The only thing left would be to have Mathieu score a goal, which he said he would try to do. But the Jets ran into a hot goalie and lost the Oilers despite putting 47 shots on goal.
What a fun story.
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.
© RMNB LLC 2009-


No matter the rubbish that's happening in the world, they smile and the world is a better place.
Monica Dux's recent article discussing marriage versus weddings hit a chord with many, depicting traditional white weddings as exercises in doll-like gender roles and wanton excess, but here's an alternative view from a mother's perspective.
I love weddings. Mine, my daughters', all the ones I've attended. In all their whiteness and fluff, yes, and even expense, I think they're one of life's greatest and most joyous highlights. I even like carriages.
But that's not why I like them. I like them because they are a glorious celebration of love and the formalisation of two people's lifelong commitment. Why wouldn't you want to embrace that joy and shout it from the rooftops, and have your family and closest friends involved in the celebration? In our family, marriage is taken very seriously (like really lifelong stuff) and weddings are revered. So they're 'big' events. Not necessarily in terms of size or cost, but in terms of importance, of detail, of planning, of emotion.
Weddings, at least for us, are about sharing the celebration. The marriage is the personal commitment of the couple but the wedding is the shared celebration of that commitment. It's exciting, it's important, it's momentous, so let's have an event that is worthy of the sentiments. The intention is they're only going to do this once so let's make it memorable. In fact, let's have a party.
Weddings are also about celebrating how we got here and what's important to us all as family and friends. We, the bride's family, who love her (and now him too) are part of this journey and celebration. We raised her, guided her, protected her, and cherished her, and now we are ceremonially 'passing the baton' to someone else as they become their own separate entity, still joined but detached. Of course they were together before, but this is the public declaration and we're celebrating it and living the exquisite joy of love in families, and among friends. Enough love to have us all teary-eyed with exploding hearts, before the event, during, and even after – entire tables of adults, silently weeping at the pulsing emotion rebounding in the room. It wasn't embarrassing – it was beautiful.
Some choose to elope or marry in a registry office to escape the hype and the cost, and maybe avoid potential fighting and embarrassment. If that's your preference, great – do what's right for you. But it's not right for others. For many it's about family and friends too – we are an integral part of the celebration. All cost considerations aside, I personally would have been shattered to discover my child had married and excluded us from sharing the moment with her. We would be devastated to have our children marry without us, just as they would be devastated if we couldn't be there to be part of it. Sometimes I refer to my daughters' weddings as 'our weddings'. It's not a misnomer.
No doubt the preparations drive many to distraction and perhaps mortal combat because there are too many options and opinions, and knives may occasionally be drawn. But I even love preparing for weddings – well, mostly. The planning, the choices and even the stress is part of building the momentum and anticipation and a nod to the importance of the final event. You know, it's a big thing this getting married. We're allowed to make a fuss.
It's undeniable weddings often involve considerable up to ridiculous cost. But each couple and family is capable of deciding what they want to spend and how they want to spend it, in a way that makes them happy. If photography is important to you, get a great photographer, or if music's your thing, hire a band. If it's not, save your money. If you want lots of friends to come, cut back somewhere else. Horses for courses.
And 'special' doesn't have to mean exorbitant. We, as a family, in preparing for Wedding Number 2 are looking for bargains, sourcing treasures second hand, borrowing items and reusing others. Even Dad is making decorations from recycled bits of discarded timber. The 'girls' will have working bees to handcraft invitations with the most basic of materials in a charming and thoughtful way. It's not necessarily about cost but caring and creating something that's worthy of the celebration.
Does the wedding then overplay the marriage or the lifelong commitment? No doubt for some it does (think Kardashian). But for us, and so many others, it acknowledges the importance of the latter. It's not about the bells and whistles, love those as we may.
I agree with Monica it's a travesty of social justice that currently in Australia only heterosexuals get to participate in this array of wedding choices, and let's all agree marriages can be celebrated in any number of ways with any number of budgets. But let's also remember why so many of us are having weddings, even the ones with tiaras and masses of tuille. Let's just hope we can avoid sub-standard catering at all times, weddings or not.


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Pendem is een bestuurslaag in het regentschap Japara van de provincie Midden-Java, Indonesië. Pendem telt 6414 inwoners (volkstelling 2010).

Plaats in Midden-Java

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This infant loss meme and heart quote was created for National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day. We hope this image brings peace to you and to others.
See a collection of Linnea's beautiful fine art portrait photography on her website. If you liked this infant loss meme and heart quote you may find peace with this healing quote. Feel free to share whichever inspirational quotes that you would like but please do not crop off Linnea's logo at the bottom.


Motor Trend reviews the 2012 Mazda CX-9 where consumers can find detailed information on specs, fuel economy, transmission and safety. Find local 2012 Mazda CX-9 prices online.
Fear Factor is an American stunt/dare game show that originally aired on NBC from 2001 to 2006. It was later revived by NBC in 2011, only to be cancelled again in 2012. The show was revived a second time in 2017 to air on MTV.The original Dutch version was called Now or Neverland.When Endemol USA and NBC adapted it to the American market in 2001, they changed the name to Fear Factor.


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CEV Small Countries Association
Beach Volleyball, CEV, FIVB
Alison & Bruno validate World Championship with Olympic gold
28/08/2016 CEV SCA	Leave a comment
The mission is complete for Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt as the Brazilians validated their success from winning the 2015 FIVB World Championships to capture the Beach Volleyball gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games here early Friday morning with a two-set victory over Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy.
Played in a steady rain starting at mid-night at the 12,000-season "Coliseu on Copacabana", the top-seeded Alison and Bruno posted a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) win in 45 minutes over the 10th-seeded Lupo and Nicolai. It was the sixth win in nine international meetings for Alison and Bruno with the Italians with five-straight victories in the series.
The two teams were also meeting for the fourth-time in an international gold medal match with Alison and Bruno winning three times, including a victory in mid-March in Vitoria where the Brazilian live and train. In addition to the Olympic and world championship gold medals, Alison and Bruno have won eight other FIVB World Tour events.
The first set featured six ties and four lead changes as the Italians jumped to a 5-1 lead before being caught and passed by Alison and Bruno, who put together a 7-2 run to take a 13-10 lead. Lupo and Nicolai fought back to take a 19-18 lead before the Brazilians closed out the set with three-straight points featuring an Alison attack, an Italian error and an Alison block.
Lupo and Nicolai grabbed three-point leads at 8-5, 9-6, 10-7 and 11-8 to start the second set. A three-point run by the Brazilians tied the set at 11s as five side outs to follow to give Lupo and Nicolai their last lead at 14-13. At that point, Alison and Bruno scored seven of the last 10 points of the match to secure the win. Alison, who had six blocks in the match, fueled the charge with three successful attacks and a stuff.
While Lupo and Nicolai were securing Italy's first-ever Olympic Beach Volleyball medal, Alison and Bruno became Brazil's second men's team to top a Summer Games' Beach Volleyball podium. The legendary tandem of Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos were the first with a gold medal performance at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
The Brazilian men have also collect three silver (2000, 2008 and 2012) and one bronze (2008) medal in Olympic Beach Volleyball competition. Alison and Emanuel were silver medal finishers at the London 2012 Summer Games where the Brazilians were defeated in three-sets by Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany in the finale.
With an Olympic medal, Bruno achieved something that his famous uncle Oscar Schmidt never accomplished while competing in five "Summer" Games' basketball competitions for Brazil (1980-1996). Uncle Oscar Schmidt did score more career Olympic points (1,094, 28.8 points per game) than any other player in history while competing in Moscow, Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta Summer Games.
In a late match Thursday for the Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medal, second-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen posted a 2-0 (23-21, 22-20) win in 46 minutes over the eighth-seeded Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Konstantin Semenov of Russia to give the Dutch their fifth win in six international meetings with the Russians.
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And your SCA champions are @flvb.lu. After losing a tight first set, Luxembourg won the next 3 sets closely to take the title (23-25, 26-24, 27-25, 25-21)
Faroe Islands grab the bronze medal match 3-0 after a strong performance against @nivolleyball (25-11, 25-13, 25-11)
@volleyballireland take home 5th place after defeating Greenland 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-18)
And Luxembourg take their place in the final tomorrow vs Scotland after overcoming a great fight back from Faroes 3-2 (25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 15-7)
@scottishvolleyball land the first spot in the SCA women's final beating @nivolleyball 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-9)
@flvb.lu storm to a 3-0 victory over Greenland (25-8, 25-10,25-14)
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Schools are Open: Security, Safety and Health Top List of Admins' Concerns
September 6, 2019 by helpdesk1
Safety in school is a big concern, and the South Orangetown School district is starting the year with School Resource Officers in both of the town's high schools and shared among the district's other schools. Town supervisor Chris Day says while they and the police department are prepared safety and security-wise, they're also seeing various health issues…
Day says vaping is affecting students even in the middle schools, and it's sometimes hard to detect whether they are doing harmful drugs with them. Day says education about the dangers of drugs is being taught in the older elementary schools in the town's school districts.


CORE Performance Company: the point?
so what is the point, or "the point" (as a dance)??? i don't know...and maybe that is the point. i probably can't explain it in words...because we are dancers...we dance (duh). it is a performing art...it is meant to be seen. in this video, claire is trying to explain her point of view as a dancer in the trio that corian created.
maybe the point is about differences and similarities, relationships and solo studies, intention and dynamics, needs and wants...it is hard to put into words, but i think individually we all clearly know what it feels like personally. how else can we move an audience, if as performers we are not clear with ourselves as to what our own personal journey is...so that then as a collective we can move foward in this endeavor together. what is even more beautiful is that Sue (our fearless leader) doesn't even know what "the point" is...i'm sure she has ideas, but the fact that we are all in this together is comforting.
maryjane yesterday said something that spoke volumes about this dance (the point)..."we are all going for the same thing, but trying to find it in different ways."
of course, this is my own recollection and experience of the work...and it was beautiful, heartbreaking, bonding, lush, and simple...all in all, it was a good day...another day we all got to live, work...and most of all dance.
tomorrow we have class, a little bit of work...and then a christmas party, but no more point work...so it begs the questions: What is the point? What do you need to survive? what is your intention? what dynamic choices do you make? and lastly, how does it feel?
once you have possibly answered those questions...i ask you this...where do you go from there?
you go inward, to keep going on.


Every day when David Oddsson goes to work, the head of the Central Bank of Iceland must brave a crowd of jeering protesters, angry that the man they view as the chief architect of Iceland's near-total financial collapse refuses to step down. This tiny country of 300,000 spent the past decade becoming a financial hub of Europe, loading its banks with so much debt that when they finally collapsed, their inability to pay back account holders in the U.K. led that country's prime minister, Gordon Brown, to freeze Icelandic assets under a law designed to fight terrorism.
Iceland Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir has said the country still has two valuable natural resources that could help it climb out of the current crisis—fish and renewable energy. Many believe the country's fishing stocks may already be overtaxed, however, and the vast swathes of land required to build additional hydropower dams in Iceland make them politically unpopular. That makes the exploitation of the thousands of megawatts of untapped geothermal power lying just beneath the feet of Iceland's citizens very appealing.
"When I started in this industry in 1995, we produced under 50 megawatts of geothermal power, and today it's 10 times that," says Ásgeir Margeirsson, CEO of Geysir Green Energy, which is a shareholder in one of the leading geothermal power companies in Iceland.
But Iceland's plan to become the dominant player in global geothermal power production through financing such projects, on the other hand, is as dead as the 50 percent of the country's livestock that were snuffed out by the eight million tons of sulfur dioxide- and fluorine-laced aerosol released by the volcanic Laki fissure in 1783.
"With[in] another two years, we would have been in a position to be the strong player we've always believed was needed in the market," says Alexander Richter, a former director in the Global Geothermal Energy Team of Glitnir Bank, which financed geothermal projects in the U.S., China and elsewhere, and is one of the three banks the Icelandic government recently nationalized. "The sense in the seafood and energy industries is that [the financial services built around those two industries] basically all disappeared overnight. ... We were in Reno, Nev., at a geothermal trade show on basically the same day it went down here—it was surreal."
Karl Gawell, executive director of the U.S.-based Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), notes that before the crisis, Iceland's small domestic market for energy encouraged its geothermal industry to seek expansion opportunities overseas. Unfortunately, financing for those projects is difficult to come by because of the dismal global economy.
"In general, there is financing out there for geothermal, but it's difficult to get and it's expensive," Gawell says. "You have to have a really premium project to get even credit card interest rates."
Unlike the financial side of Iceland's geothermal power industry, the engineering sector is using the crisis as an opportunity to sell its services internationally. Despite—and because of—the collapse of its domestic civil engineering business, Mannvit Engineering, Iceland's largest engineering consultancy and a significant employer of geothermal engineers, is expanding its overseas business as fast as it can.
The collapse of the Icelandic krona means that Mannvit's services are cheaper than ever. The company hopes to land more geothermal contracts in Chile and even in the U.S., the latter of which it has never before operated. "We used to be expensive, but because of the huge devaluation of the krona, we are now more competitive in our prices," Maack says.
GEA's Gawell warns that even as Icelandic expertise becomes more competitive, demand for it could be drying up due to global financial distress. "On the other hand, in the long run I don't think there's any question we're moving into a climate change regime for energy," Gawell says. "Countries that rely on fossil fuels will have to invest in new technology and efficiency or will pay higher prices. I think Iceland will be in very good position in those markets."
Preparing the next generation of engineers to capitalize on the long-term trends in renewable energy is the one part of the geothermal industry that is booming. A new master's program in alternative energy that is a joint effort of Icelandic and foreign universities (and includes a specialization in the physics of geothermal power), has been drawing more attention than ever.
"Up to now Iceland was expensive to visit, much less live in," says Arnbjörn Ólafsson, director of international affairs at the School for Renewable Energy Science in Akureyri, Iceland. "We've had more applications now than ever before. It basically started in October, which was the week after the collapse in Iceland. The visits to our Web site, especially from the U.S., went up 50 percent. It shows that there's a lot to the old saying about 'any information is better than no information at all.'"
Whereas many in Iceland, including its new prime minister, who took power February 1 and who is a Social Democrat, are optimistic that the country's renewable power surplus can help rebuild its economy, there are significant obstacles that must first be overcome. The further development of geothermal resources, for instance, is heavily dependent on outside investment, yet the most important source of outside investment to date, new aluminum smelters, has become politically unpopular because of concern about the environment, and economically unsound, as long as the price of aluminum stays low.
Attracting energy-hungry alternatives to smelters, such as data centers and solar silicon plants, are an official priority of Landsvirkjun, Iceland's national power authority. Orkustofnun, Iceland's National Energy Authority has even floated the idea of building undersea cables that could transmit power directly to the European grid. But so far none of these projects has progressed past position papers and declarations.
"The change the left wing party brings is to prioritize alternatives to the smelters," Geysir's Margeirsson says. "But it is a question of investors coming in and having the courage to invest in these big projects."
Richter, who resigned from the newly nationalized Glitnir Bank in December, and then immediately launched a Web site that aggregates news about new geothermal projects, is skeptical that new opportunities for Iceland to use its energy will come swiftly.
"The prime minister said we are blessed with two resources that have helped the country for centuries—fish and geothermal," he says. "In a sense, that's a very naive view." Iceland must overcome a huge foreign debt that it has already promised to pay off, a collapsed currency that makes imports expensive as well as high inflation combined with high unemployment, Richter notes.
Both Richter and Margeirsson worry that a buyer for Iceland's electricity may not materialize in the current gloomy economic climate. What's more, any buyer looking to invest in the country must be willing to accept Iceland's commitment to limiting development and keeping the country environmentally friendly. "You have people like Björk who are critical of current development policies," Richter says. "So we have to do this in a more sustainable way. It can't be all just heavy industry—we have to watch out for the environmental issues…. There's a big discussion around that. How do you maintain growth so that the country itself is not selling out?"


Christie's announced in a press release on Thursday that Depp would be unloading parts of his collection at auction in London later this month.
He will be selling nine works in all, which he assembled over the course of 25 years, with most of the pieces completed in 1981 by the famed street artist.
Among the pieces being sold by Depp is Basquiat's 1981 piece Pork, which was painted on a wooden door and is expected to bring in between $3.5 – $5million.
'Nothing can replace the warmth and immediacy of Basquiat's poetry, or the absolute questions and truths that he delivered,' said Depp of the artist.
Im sorry but that piece of "art" looks like crap.
I agree with James….why the hell would someone pay that kind of money for that?


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Q: React Datepicker exclude past time I am currently working on a project with a bus booking system. How to exclude the past time of the day or disable the past time, to not be able to select booking?

<DatePicker
  selected={startDate}
  onChange={(date) => setStartDate(date)}
  showTimeSelect
  minDate={new Date()}
  timeFormat="HH:mm"
  timeIntervals={60}
  timeCaption="time"
  excludeTimes={[
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 17),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 18),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 19),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 20),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 21),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 22),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 23),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 24),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 0),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 1),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 2),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 3),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 4),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 5),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 6),
    setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), 7),
  ]}
  dateFormat="MMMM d, yyyy h:mm aa"
  showDisabledMonthNavigation
  required
/>

A: This answer was worked for me:
 setHours(setMinutes(new Date(), 0), getHours(new Date())

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Crosscultural evangelism can be scary. But veteran crosscultural minister Katie Rawson shows how we can witness the way Jesus did, entering into people's worlds and drawing them into God-centered community. She equips readers to evangelize Jesus' way, depending on him as companion and guide and venturing out in joy to be and share good news.
Filled with compelling stories, practical resources and relational tools, this guide gives crosscultural training and shows how you can share the gospel through story and diagram, with clear communication and authentic community.
"Combining her extensive experience, great stories, disciplines of spiritual formation and thought-provoking reflection exercises, Katie Rawson has given us a go-to guide for training in crosscultural understanding, friendships and outreach. She helps the reader understand crosscultural conversion, worldviews and values, and spiritual warfare. This is a read-this-book-first resource for those who want to cross the street to befriend a Muslim neighbor, invite an Asian international student to their home or prepare for a short-term mission trip to India."
"Grounded in years of missions experience and biblical teaching, Rawson provides a powerful primer on understanding culture, developing crosscultural relationships, and communicating across cultures. A must-read for anyone hoping to serve and to share the gospel in crosscultural contexts!"
"We live in a world of neighborhoods, businesses, schools and churches that are increasingly diverse. To communicate a contagious faith in Jesus requires that we engage with those who are of very different cultures and worldviews. Katie Rawson provides a clear path through the many complex issues that we inevitably face while doing so. The book is filled with concrete and helpful tips on what to do and say in a wide variety of situations, but best of all, it is written with a deep sense of expectation of and dependence on the guidance of the Holy Spirit—the master of crosscultural communication."
"Katie Rawson's book confronts every believer with a heart for crosscultural ministry and every current or prospective message bearer (missionary) with the question of what we are truly producing in those we minister among. Are we really producing disciples who have had their previous worldview transformed by the values of Jesus and the kingdom of God? How often in crosscultural ministry is this not the case. This problem can relate to the great strongholds and spiritual oppression that keep these precious people bound in darkness. Katie deals with these issues head-on and with lots of wisdom and personal experience. I encourage every believer with a heart to see Jesus' transforming power across every culture to read this book. I wholeheartedly recommend it."
"Crossing Cultures with Jesus fills a gap in the literature for international student ministry (ISM). Although numerous small publications address specific needs within ISM, Rawson gives us a much more comprehensive work that finds the heart of ISM in the heart of God. Sound biblical teaching undergirds each chapter, enhanced by appropriate principles from missions and cultural anthropology. Stories from ISM—many of which are from the author's own experience—provide examples of how the principles can be applied in multicultural contexts. Chapters include sections for both personal reflection and group discussion. Crossing Cultures with Jesus will be a valuable resource for ISM staff members and interns. In addition, this book can provide church missions personnel with a strong rationale for supporting ISM in their own communities."
"A thorough and engaging tool, useful for anyone wanting to understand the gospel and crossing cultures. This book dives deep into Scripture and illustrates sophisticated academic topics with real-life stories. Practical, insightful and very helpful. This book was written with transformation of the heart and transformation of ministry in mind."
"These are interesting times for we Christians who live in an increasingly multicultural country. On the one hand, it can be tempting to share the good news of Jesus with great zeal but little crosscultural savvy. On the other hand, it can be tempting to relate crossculturally with great sensitivity and grace but never get around to sharing the good news. In Crossing Cultures with Jesus Katie J. Rawson shows us that it is possible to share the good news of Jesus and still be gracious and sensitive as we relate crossculturally. This is such an important book for the times we live in. Crossing Cultures with Jesus is thoughtful, biblical and thoroughly practical."
"These are exciting days. God is allowing people from all cultures to travel around the world. Believers now have opportunities to share Jesus with people from places we will never travel to. This book equips us through multiple true stories so that we will be much more effective in sharing Jesus. Each chapter also has excellent discussion questions."
"Rawson helps us move across cultures in God's love. This book is very practical, with many real-life examples. Small groups will appreciate the helpful discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Rawson's ideas have been tested and refined through more than thirty years of real ministry experience. Please enjoy this thorough and practical guide to crosscultural ministry."
"This is a one-of-a-kind and much-awaited book in the field of cross-cultural evangelism. With thoroughness and insights from Scripture, scholars and stories, Rawson gives us a strong case that in Jesus, we have the model of the ultimate culture-crosser. This book combines her love for Jesus, dependence on the Holy Spirit, evangelistic zeal, academic credentials, many years of experience in international student ministry, devotion to prayer and commitment to sound Bible study. It is a must-read guide for anyone desiring to share Jesus across cultures."
"Katie Rawson has made a much-needed addition to the resources of those of us in cross-cultural ministry. Her insights and personal stories make it an easy read but at the same time offer depth and honesty to topics seldom ever addressed—the elephants in the cross-cultural room. She has called out some of our fallacies and misconceptions and done so with gentleness and truth. And she has not stopped there, but has given us real tools and insights that will assist us all to be better friends and followers of Jesus. This book is a real treasure."
"This is the book I wish I'd had when I began international student ministry thirty years ago. A clear, thoughtful and biblical analysis of how to relate to students with very different cultural backgrounds from our own. Katie Rawson has provided us with a treasure trove of ideas and motivation for acquiring the necessary skills for sharing Christ with and discipling international students, helpfully illustrated with many examples from her own ministry. With lots of questions for reflection and Bible passages for meditation it can be read alone, but even more helpfully as a small team or group wanting to encourage one another to grow in their Christian maturity and effectiveness as disciples. A wonderful resource that I commend wholeheartedly—not just to the international student worker but to anyone wanting to share the gospel with someone from another culture."
"This book is a goldmine of inspiration, education, and encouragement for anyone interested in sharing Christ with individuals of a differing culture or faith. You might call it a grace-filled look at cross-cultural evangelism, but it goes way beyond just evangelism, exploring topics like spiritual warfare, worldviews, trust, community, storytelling, and more. . . . Highly recommended."
"Crossing Cultures with Jesus is my new go-to book for preparing a short-term mission team."
Visit crossingculturesbook.org for additional international student ministry resources and evangelistic tools.
Katie J. Rawson (DMiss, Fuller Theological Seminary; PhD, University of North Carolina) is senior resource developer with International Student Ministry (ISM) at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Raleigh, NC. She is a contributor to Passport to the Bible: An Explorer's Guide. Ever since her experience as an international student in France, Rawson has been fascinated by other cultures, studying French literature for her first doctorate and crosscultural communication for her second. She has ministered among international students with InterVarsity for over three decades, serving at North Carolina State University and UCLA and leading an ISM staff team in the Carolinas and Virginia. Rawson lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.


If Trump is elected, I fear for the future of our nation and the world.
And that is why I will not join in the vicious quarrels between partisans of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. I refuse to give ammunition to Trump for the campaign. Sanders and Clinton—and their allies-should focus their energies on defeating Trump, not on attacking one another.
As I have said many times, Bernie's background is fertile fields for criticism of the grossest kind. His love affair with socialism and attachment to some really sordid people like Fidel Castro, make Trump's overtures to Kim Jun Un seem like child play. Just wait till the con artists get a hold of the many organizations that he joined and participated with. He will go down like George McGovern.
Before you say that Sanders has better poll numbers than Hillary against Trump, remember that the Republican attack machine has not touched Bernie. They are happy to let him do their job on Hillary. If he were the candidate, you would hear nonstop about his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, about Burlington's sister city status, when he was mayor, with Yaroslavl and Managua (under the Sandinistas). This would not bother readers of this blog, but it will be catnip for the attack machine.
In an attempt, then, to save us from the Republican smear machine, Ravitch uses their same means to achieve the same goal, which is to paint Sanders as unelectable. It's too bad that Ravitch never checked out the facts for her short list of Bernie atrocities. If she had bothered to look beyond the gossip that Randi Weingarten provided to her, she would have found the smelly bombshell that she has lobbed to have been already defused by those who depend on facts, rather than the kind of scandalous fear-mongering that is aimed to unfairly demonize the only candidate with his integrity intact.
Senator Bernie Sanders's long-ago "honeymoon" in the Soviet Union is held up by his opponents as evidence of dubious judgment, and even Communist sympathies or anti-American tendencies. The self-described socialist was questioned about the visit during a debate of Democratic presidential candidates in October as a way to raise doubts about his electability.
Those descriptions and concerns are based on distortions and exaggerations: The trip, which began the day after his wedding with his second wife, Jane, in May 1988, was undertaken as part of Sanders' official duties as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. And in any case, most of his critics seem to have forgotten that the Soviet Union at the time was hardly the place for an admirer of communism to find comfort.
Under Sanders, Burlington developed sister-city programs with places that reflected his sympathies, notably Puerta Cabezas, Nicaragua. That pairing was in keeping with Sanders' opposition to President Ronald Reagan's attempts to undermine the leftist Sandinista government. Sanders and the Burlington Board of Aldermen even wrote angry letters demanding that the president "stop killing the innocent people of Nicaragua."
Like the Puerto Cabezas project, the sister-city program with Yaroslavl has been very successful. Each has different constituencies of support. Puerto Cabezas mostly attracted the energy of left-wing activists who were initially involved because of their support for the Sandinista Revolution and opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America. The Yaroslavl project received more broad-based backing, including from a number of business people in the city.
The Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev was opening to the world, no longer exactly an enemy of the U.S. and more an intriguing, unknown entity. In 1987, Gorbachev effectively signed the planned economy's death sentence, permitting so-called "cooperatives" -- essentially private companies that could produce and trade goods as freely as the tired and greedy bureaucracy allowed. Thus began the second stage of what Gorbachev called perestroika, or restructuring. It also included political reforms that attempted to shift the center of power from the Communist Party to the Soviets -- a system of representative government that handled the Soviet Union's housekeeping.
At the same time, of course, the economy was falling apart, not just because oil prices were at record lows and the Soviet government was beginning to print money desperately to finance essential programs, but because the centralized planning system was rotten: Essentially, bureaucrats across the country were falsely reporting that plans and quotas were being met, when in fact workers were stealing all they could, and their bosses were either lost in a stupor of incomprehension or trying to figure out how the new "cooperatives" could help them get rich.
During the "honeymoon" in Yaroslavl, Sanders interviewed Alexander Ryabkov, head of the city's executive committee -- the Soviet equivalent of a mayor -- for a Burlington radio station. Ryabkov, a career bureaucrat obsessed with construction, gave a stilted account of the city's plan to build an apartment for every family in the city by 2000 -- a year that lay in a too-distant future in a country where no one, not even Gorbachev himself, could predict what would happen the following week. My grandmother's sister lived in a communal apartment in Yaroslavl, where the kitchen and other amenities were shared with her neighbors, and she never expected to move into a place of her own. Less than a year after the Sanders visit, Ryabkov stepped down after being accused of pripiski, the common practice of reporting an inflated rate of compliance with the central plan that many bureaucrats used to appropriate scarce resources.
Judging by the interview, Sanders wasn't particularly impressed by Ryabkov's claims. He noted that the quality of housing and health care in Vermont was far better than in Yaroslavl. In response, Ryabkov told him that a typical Yaroslavl family only spent 3 to 4 percent of its income on rent and utilities and that health care was free. Unsurprisingly. Sanders sounded as if he liked that part, on principle.
Sanders was doing what every American who witnessed the perestroika-era Soviet Union or even read about it in a newspaper did: trying to make comparisons and find similarities. Yaroslavl's Kirov Street looked to him like Burlington's Church Street: both led to a church. In Yaroslavl, housing and health care were the most important issues; they were important in Burlington, too. After decades of hostility, it was finally possible to travel and talk to people. That wasn't trivial: In 1988, foreign correspondents based in Moscow still had to ask the Foreign Ministry for permission to travel outside the capital. Most Russians were meeting Americans for the first time. There was a sense of new opportunities, of an emerging warmth between the two nations. "We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad," Billy Joel sang after touring the Soviet Union in 1987.
Nonetheless, Yaroslavl in 1988 wasn't a pretty picture: an exhausted industrial city on the Volga, its only attraction the ancient churches that were kept shining white and gold for the tourists' sake. The infrastructure was threadbare, falling apart like everything in the Soviet economy in those days. Just four months before Sanders' visit, a freight train derailed in Yaroslavl, spilling almost a ton of heptyl, a highly toxic rocket propellant that was such an extreme danger to locals that some neighborhoods had to be evacuated while more than 1,000 people dug up the contaminated earth and removed it in trucks to be burned.
There is nothing Sanders could have seen in the Volga River city that he would have wanted to transplant to Vermont. And he never sang the Soviet Union's praises. In his book, he only said that his "honeymoon" -- actually, a working trip with a delegation of 10 -- had been "very strange." He never became a Russophile, either. As senator, he backed U.S. sanctions against Russia after it annexed Crimea, calling for the political and economic isolation of President Vladimir Putin.
To his credit, however, Sanders has continued to meet with Yaroslavl delegations that kept coming to Burlington long after he ceased to be mayor. Irina Novikova, who is in charge of the exchanges in Yaroslavl, last saw him in the U.S. in 2013. She was impressed. "He's a man of global thinking," she told me. "An uncommon man, with this broad perspective on the whole world."
Sanders is unashamed of his leftist views, which seem to appeal to a large number of Democratic voters. His Russian trip, though, wasn't about leftist ideology: In 1988, that was much easier to find in Nicaragua or Cuba than in the Soviet Union. Rather, it was about keeping an open mind about a bizarre land that was slowly emerging after decades of oppression and isolation. I appreciate the open-mindedness: My country has since sunk back into a Soviet-style mire, and when it opens up again, people like Sanders will be welcome. They always are the first to show up.
I just hope he understood during that 1988 trip that free health care and housing aren't really free. I can't tell from his speeches if he did.


A is a mxn matrix and B is an nxn symmetric, positive-definite matrix, where m is large relative to n (e.g., m=50,000 and n=100).
I am wondering how to obtain more substantial speedup. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
the reference BLAS and only 0.9 seconds using OpenBLAS.
> A is a mxn matrix and B is an nxn symmetric, positive-definite matrix, where m is large relative to n (e.g., m=50,000 and n=100).
> Here is a sample code.
> I am wondering how to obtain more substantial speedup. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
specialized structure that you can take advantage of (e.g., sparsity)?
>where m is large relative to n (e.g., m=50,000 and n=100).
>Here is a sample code.
I would suggest using OpenBLAS 0.2.x instead.
Thank you for the response. I use Windows. Is there a pre-compiled version of openBLAS for windows that would make it easy for me to use it?
You can achieve substantial speed up by using a faster BLAS (e.g., OpenBLAS or MKL), especially on systems with multiple CPUs. On my (6 year old, but 8 core) system your example takes 3.9 seconds with using the reference BLAS and only 0.9 seconds using OpenBLAS.
> Thank you for the response. I use Windows. Is there a pre-compiled version of openBLAS for windows that would make it easy for me to use it?
> You can achieve substantial speed up by using a faster BLAS (e.g., OpenBLAS or MKL), especially on systems with multiple CPUs. On my (6 year old, but 8 core) system your example takes 3.9 seconds with using the reference BLAS and only 0.9 seconds using OpenBLAS.
> > A is a mxn matrix and B is an nxn symmetric, positive-definite matrix, where m is large relative to n (e.g., m=50,000 and n=100).
> > Here is a sample code.
> > I am wondering how to obtain more substantial speedup. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> > Thank you for the response. I use Windows. Is there a pre-compiled version of openBLAS for windows that would make it easy for me to use it?
OpenBLAS is provided as a binary for Windows, see http://www.openblas.net/ .
Does Microsoft open R come with pre-compiled BLAS that is optimized for matrix computations?
> Does Microsoft open R come with pre-compiled BLAS that is optimized for matrix computations?
Yes, see https://mran.microsoft.com/rro#intelmkl1 for details.
> > You can achieve substantial speed up by using a faster BLAS (e.g., OpenBLAS or MKL), especially on systems with multiple CPUs. On my (6 year old, but 8 core) system your example takes 3.9 seconds with using the reference BLAS and only 0.9 seconds using OpenBLAS.
> > > A is a mxn matrix and B is an nxn symmetric, positive-definite matrix, where m is large relative to n (e.g., m=50,000 and n=100).
> > > Here is a sample code.
> > > I am wondering how to obtain more substantial speedup. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


FEE: $100 per performance. SPECIAL NOTE: Playwright Deborah Brevoort has created two shortened versions of THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE especially for high school competitions. One script is a 40 minute version of Brevoort's play, and the other runs 50 minutes. These competition versions of the play are available only in manuscript. Please call customer service at 212-683-8960 to order.


text:
victorya chase
I Am the Gray Area
Series Review: The OA
Overview: Surprise! Netflix has released a slipstreamy sci-fi/fantasy drama just in time to ignore the family for 8 hours over the next holiday. Or when you're on the verge of catching what's going on at work so are a bit too congested to fully sleep.
In the OA a woman is found and she turns out to be the missing child of an older couple named Prairie. The only thing is, when she left she was blind and now she can see. She also now wants to be called The OA instead of Prairie and won't talk to her parents about what happened over the past seven years.
Prairie AKA THE OA gathers together a group of misfits who want to believe in something and choose her. There's Steve – the 17 year old bully beating up people he's jealous of and on the verge of being sent to military reform school; Jesse the orphaned stoner kid; French the super smart non-white kid who might just make it if he can keep that scholarship, who also has to support his drunk/drugged mom who spends time at school meetings sleeping with the fathers there; Buck, the transgendered kiddo who really wants to believe in good; and Betty, the older teacher who has lost sight of why she teaches – to save those lost souls, per the movie. Together, they meet at an abandoned house (one where construction has stopped after the bubble burst) to listen to The OA tell about her life story, how she got her sight back, and teaches them modern dance.
Her story is long (6 of the 8 hours!) and goes from Russia, to a place of captivity with 4 others, across the universe and to Saturn, and focuses on seeing the inner self and finding the correct movements to transcend, to protect against evil. This with a focus on Near Death Experiences (NDE) as that is when she has gone all Slaughterhouse Five and traveled to other worlds to learn the dance moves to save her friends and, ultimately, herself.
Other aspects of the show include the frustration of her parents at what's happening, the town's reaction both to her being with their boys and the fascination with her return. A little time is given to the boys current stories, at least a few of them, and Betty.
I was really engaged from the beginning. The story is king of cool, like a Millennial Orlando without gender politics, but rather wealth politics and the like. She was the daughter of a Russian oligarch who taught her to 'outcold the cold'. But she was still wealthy and loved him. But then all the children of the Russian oligarchs were killed in a bus crash, she alone survived only she didn't – she agreed to go back to earth only blind. When he has to disappear, she's first at an opulent school for the blind, then later at the house of a relative in the US which is part brothel, part illegal adoption ring. She is adopted as a miracle and raised in the suburbs. She has premonitions of the future. She goes to NYC and is captured by a man obsessed with those who have had Near Death Experiences and put in an ecosystems with others. They plan their escape and it takes those 7 years for her to leave. She dies a lot, but always comes back.
There are a lot of theories at play and I was as enchanted as the kids in the show, sitting there listening to those tales and wondering what was next. I also like and buy into the story of the outsiders who come together to better themselves through a book club (only, in this case, it's an oral history).
I also like the way trauma is addressed, and how different people view it without asking the one who went through it. The OAs parents are at a loss and follow the doctors advice to monitor closely, not even allowing her on the internet. Then the OA meets with an FBI counselor who talks to her about creating her story and believing it and finding others for help. He tries to get her parents to take her out, treat her as human, when they want to see her as fragile and in need of protection. There is the public fascination with the trauma of others, how they weave the stories they want out of scant information for sensationalism, to soothe themselves that while monsters exist, they exist to harm others, not them. That part was intriguing and I could have used more of it.
The Bad:
There's a lot of hokiness throughout and I wondered multiple times how the actors kept a straight face, because the movie is done with utter earnestness. The film has a couple scenes of the kids doubting her story and looking for it on google, but they believe pretty quickly because, cue X-Files, 'They want to believe.' A good portion of the story hinges on learning dance movements (The Five movements) that can open a portal to the other world where The OA can save her friends. She teaches these to the crew she's assembled. Two of the movements alone can bring someone from the dead and cure all disease, all five is a miracle.
The ending is where this comes into play and pissed me off. I won't say the situation, but will say it was a 'very bad thing' that seemed too easy per the story set up, far too easy an ending situation to have happen and overtly manipulative of the viewer. It also followed the format of these 'lost boys' movies where they temporarily lose faith, then something big happens, they realize they're all together, and they do the thing they didn't believe before and thus save their world. In this case the thing they did was. . .begin to dance. All disbelief was gone, as was the good will I had developed over the course of the previous 7 hours.
The Female:
The OA: AKA Nina, AKA Prairie. She's the blond blue-eyed heroine of sorts, the one whose story informs the others. People gather around her, see her as kooky but cool, and she drives the narrative. In fact, in can be seen as somewhat progressive if not more than somewhat that it's her voice, her story, and whether you believe the story or not, these eight hours are about her telling it. She is not only the lead, but the creator of the reality we are led into.
Betty: The meek and mild school teacher whose brother died from heroin and has given up on many things, including herself. Meeting the OA gives her purpose enough to continue on and deal with his death.
The OAs Mom: She's going through a lot of complicated stuff, and it's cool that her emotions are so varied and exhausting. The relationship is strained with both her husband and daughter, who she never understood to begin with and now really doesn't understand.
Two Women Trapped with The OA: I forget their names, one sings and the other sleeps with one of the guys.
Other females include moms of the kids, a sister, and a girlfriend.
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? (Two women talking to one another, not about a man) I think it sorta does. The women plan escape, granted that's from a man, but there. The OA and Betty talk about her brother, so those conversations don't count, but then the OA talks to the spirit in the other realm who is female, so that counts. She also, sometimes, talks to her mom. So it's probably a clear OK for passing.
Overall, until the ending, I dug it. It was a good way to ignore the weather and had some interesting ideas about how we tell stories, why, and why we listen and need stories in our lives. I just want to ignore the last half hour or so.
Posted in Uncategorized on December 17, 2016 by victoryachase. Leave a comment
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Film Review: Mute
Film Review: Wonder Woman
Movie Review: Autopsy of Jane Doe
Movie Review: Power Rangers
Series Review: Santa Clarita Diet
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Roll Call of Awesome
Adam Crittenden
Adam Whitlach
Autie Zombie Girl
C. Dulaney
Martin Rose
Patrick Rutigliano
Zombie Zak


The outbreak was in February. The last bastion of civilisation collapsed three weeks later. By the end of November, Britain is a hellish wasteland that belongs to the undead. Survivors from across the Atlantic seaboard took refuge on the Welsh island of Anglesey. Beset by dangers from within, they departed to establish a new refuge in Belfast. Not all of them arrived.
Six took the last plane on its last flight, but they crashed in France.
Expecting a sprinting fight through the ruins of Belfast, they packed light. With few weapons and barely any food, their chances of survival are slim. The chances of rescue are slimmer. There was no evacuation in France. No quarantine. No rationing. There are zombies, and there are people who believed they, alone, were the last survivors of the old-world. So begins a frantic race against the undead through the snow and storm ravaged ruins of Northern France.


text:
Lew it right
Robert Lewandowski went from scrawny Blackburn transfer target to Champions League goal machine whose health regime stunned Pep Guardiola and earned him 'The Body' nickname
By Joe Coleman
19th August 2021, 9:18 am
Updated: 19th August 2021, 10:57 am
Robert Lewandowski may be about to turn 33, but the striker has just finished another goal laden season with Bayern Munich.
He enjoyed a remarkable 55-goal season in 2019/20 as the Bundesliga champions completed a treble by winning the league, the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League and he picked up where he left off with 41 Bundesliga strikes in 29 games last season. Now, he's looking to ply his trade elsewhere.
Getty Images - Getty
Lewandowski has been too hot to handle at Bayern in recent seasons
He has been linked with Manchester City and Real Madrid as a result, but Lewandowski's career could have been so, so different – if it wasn't for a volcano…
Sam Allardyce's quest for a striker when manager of Blackburn Rovers saw him scour Europe for a goalscorer to boost their Premier League survival chances in 2010.
With David Dunn and Morten Gamst Pedersen creating chances on a regular basis, Jason Roberts, Franco Di Santo, Nikola Kalinic and David Hoilett were just not cutting it up top.
Head of recruitment Martyn Glover recommended Lech Poznan hitman Lewandowski to Big Sam, who had scored 21 times in 34 games. Discussions were had, a £4million fee was agreed and the deal was all but done.
Lewandowski is one of the most deadly strikers in the world
However, the volcanic ash could which spurted from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull mountain grounded almost all flights from northern Europe, including Lewandowski's flight to the UK to agree the deal.
Instead, Borussia Dortmund pounced in the summer and Rovers were made to kick themselves as Glover (now Head of Recruitment at Southampton) watched as the Poland international developed into one of the most lethal strikers on the continent.
Lewandowski has reached the 40-goal mark in six successive seasons and will hope to get his country off to the perfect start, too.
This season the 32-year-old broke Gerd Muller's record for most goals in a single season in Germany but he has not always been the muscle bound hitman you see before you
But the physical specimen you see before you now was not always in such chiselled condition. In 2006, he was released by Legia Warsaw (his home town club) for being too weak. Krzysztof Sikorski, one of his early coaches, recalls: "He was very thin. His legs were like sticks, and I was always scared that others would break them."
His family have extraordinary physical attributes and athletic genes are distributed throughout; Lewandowski's father, Krzysztof, was a Polish judo champion and soccer standout. His mother, Iwona, was a professional volleyball player. His older sister, Milena, played competitive volleyball.
So how did the scrawny striker develop into the Polish powerhouse fans have become accustomed to today?
Jurgen Klopp played a huge part in Lewandowski's development
Lewandowski married Anna Stachurska, a karate World Cup bronze medalist, in 2013. Mrs Lewandowski is a well-known sports nutritionist, with a website, blog, books, DVDs and more than 1.6 million Instagram followers.
As well as cutting out cow's milk and soya milk, the fitness fanatics rarely imbibe alcohol and have massively reduced their consumption of fatty and sugary foods.
ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI'S TYPICAL DIET
Created by fitness guru wife Anna, the Bayern Munich striker has all the ingredients to succeed
Breakfast: Porridge
Lunch: Spaghetti with veg, beetroot juice with fresh spices
Snacks: Pancakes or brownies with matcha tea
Dinner: Fresh fish or meat
She told Bild: "The most important thing is training and nutrition. We refrain from lactose and wheat flour. It's about quality food.
"Pancakes, brownies, vegetable spaghetti, porridge or millet. We also like to eat high-quality fish.
"Sometimes after training we drink beetroot juice with cinnamon or cayenne pepper. When we mix many foods at once, sometimes we aren't doing the right thing.
"We feel bloated, have to loosen our trousers. The mix is too much for our body."
@annalewandowskahpba
Anna Lewandowska is a fitness guru and helps her husband stay on track
Tom Williams in Bleacher Report. wrote: "So successful was Lewandowski's approach to nutrition and fitness that at Dortmund he was nicknamed 'The Body' by his admiring teammates."
Former Dortmund teammate Nuri Sahin said: "Lewy has the most incredible body, it's just pure muscles. It stuns the other players in the changing room."
As well as striker specific drills at Bayern, the forward also partakes in high-intensity workouts which focused on explosive power.
Lewandowski trains and eats like a machine in order to fuel his body
IG: @_rl9
The striker takes good care of himself
His dedication to his fitness impressed Guardiola when he was his manager in Germany
Not only does he enjoy weightlifting and kickboxing with his wife, Lewandowski works out at his home gym.
"We've got a gym at home and I use it on my days off, usually with my wife Anna," he told an interviewer.
"Sometimes I do special exercises to work on my concentration, which is very important for a striker. And I need strength in order to compete against powerful defenders."
When Pep Guardiola ended his sabbatical from Barcelona and took the Bayern manager's job, he was stunned to learn of Lewandowski's physical and mental dedication to the sport.
A post shared by Robert Lewandowski (@_rl9)
"He is the most professional player I have ever met,' he said in 2016 according to AS.
"In his head, he thinks about the right food, sleep and training: 24 hours a day. He is always there, never injured, because he focuses on these things.
"He always knows what is important to be in the best condition. But I was always very, very pleased with him, from the first moment."
Success and physical prowess help drive the Lewandowski's
With a contract in Bavaria lasting until 2023, the German champions have complete faith that Lewandowski will still be a prime centre forward, breaking their usual stance on contract extensions for players over 30 years old.
He has played 30 or more games per season in the Bundesliga in the past decade – a record only beaten by a one other player, a goalkeeper.
And perhaps the most crucial reason for this unwavering consistency is his approach to getting rest periods, including hiring a sleeping coach.
Resting is crucial if you want to look and be as good as Robert Lewandowski
"There were two or three sessions where we met," he told Sport Bid. "It goes over some details as to how I can regenerate better.
"For example, that there is no source of light in the room at all. We even discussed in which position I sleep best.
"Since I'm right-handed and my right foot is stronger, it's better for me to sleep on my left side. I'm trying to put that into practice, but it's obviously hard to implement it one-to-one."


Due to overwhelming demand, we are MOVING the NACHTMYSTIUM/ALCEST show to the historic Sons of Hermann Hall. I know you wanted a crusty/sweaty/teen-steam vibe, but this show just needs to be placed in a bigger venue.
Here is a map so you can see how close it is (for the out-of-towners).
Thanks for understanding and your continued support.
This entry was posted on March 4, 2012 at 10:00 pm, filed under News and tagged alcest, atlas moth, bruce lamont, hull, mutilation rites, nachtmystium, sons of hermann hall.


text:
Q: ggplot2 heatmap with tile height and width as aes() I'm trying to create a heat map for an OD matrix, but I wanted to scale the rows and columns by certain weights. Since these weights are constant across each category I would expect the plot would keep the rows and columns structure.
# Tidy OD matrix
df <- data.frame (origin  = c(rep("A", 3), rep("B", 3),rep("C", 3)),
                  destination = rep(c("A","B","C"),3),
                  value = c(0, 1, 10, 5, 0, 11, 15, 6, 0))

# Weights
wdf <- data.frame(region = c("A","B","C"),
                  w = c(1,2,3))

# Add weights to the data.
plot_df <- df %>%
  merge(wdf %>% rename(w_origin = w), by.x = 'origin', by.y = 'region') %>%
  merge(wdf %>% rename(w_destination = w), by.x = 'destination', by.y = 'region')

Here's how the data looks like:
> plot_df
  destination origin value w_origin w_destination
1           A      A     0        1             1
2           A      C    15        3             1
3           A      B     5        2             1
4           B      A     1        1             2
5           B      B     0        2             2
6           B      C     6        3             2
7           C      B    11        2             3
8           C      A    10        1             3
9           C      C     0        3             3

However, when passing the weights as width and height in the aes() I get this:
ggplot(plot_df,
       aes(x = destination,
           y = origin)) +
  geom_tile(
    aes(
      width = w_destination,
      height = w_origin,
      fill = value),
    color = 'black')

It seems to be working for the size of the columns (width), but not quite because the proportions are not the right. And the rows are all over the place and not aligned.
I'm only using geom_tile because I could pass height and width as aesthetics, but I accept other suggestions.

A: So I think I have a partial solution for you. After playing arround with geom_tile, it appears that the order of your dataframe matters when you are using height and width.
Here is some example code I came up with off of yours (run your code first). I converted your data_frame to a tibble (part of dplyr) to make it easier to sort by a column.
# Converted your dataframe to a tibble dataframe
plot_df_tibble = tibble(plot_df)

# Sorted your dataframe by your w_origin column:
plot_df_tibble2 = plot_df_tibble[order(plot_df_tibble$w_origin),]

# Plotted the sorted data frame:
ggplot(plot_df_tibble2,
       aes(x = destination,
           y = origin)) +
  geom_tile(
    aes(
      width = w_destination,
      height = w_origin,
      fill = value),
    color = 'black')

And got this plot:
Link to image I made
I should note that if you run the converted tibble before you sort that you get the same plot you posted.
It seems like the height and width arguements may not be fully developed for this portion of geom_tile, as I feel that the order of the df should not matter.
Cheers

A: The issue is that your tiles are overlapping. The reason is that while you could pass the width and the heights as aesthetics, geom_tile will not adjust the x and y positions of the tiles for you. As your are mapping a discrete variable on x and y your tiles are positioned on a equidistant grid. In your case the tiles are positioned at .5, 1.5 and 2.5. The tiles are then drawn on these positions with the specified width and height.
This could be easily seen by adding some transparency to your plot:
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)

ggplot(plot_df,
       aes(x = destination,
           y = origin)) +
  geom_tile(
    aes(
      width = w_destination,
      height = w_origin,
      fill = value), color = "black", alpha = .2)

To achieve your desired result you have to manually compute the x and y positions according to the desired widths and heights to prevent the overlapping of the boxes. To this end you could switch to a continuous scale and set the desired breaks and labels via scale_x/y_ continuous:
breaks <- wdf %>%
  mutate(cumw = cumsum(w),
         pos = .5 * (cumw + lag(cumw, default = 0))) %>%
  select(region, pos)

plot_df <- plot_df %>%
  left_join(breaks, by = c("origin" = "region")) %>%
  rename(y = pos) %>%
  left_join(breaks, by = c("destination" = "region")) %>%
  rename(x = pos)

ggplot(plot_df,
       aes(x = x,
           y = y)) +
  geom_tile(
    aes(
      width = w_destination,
      height = w_origin,
      fill = value), color = "black") +
  scale_x_continuous(breaks = breaks$pos, labels = breaks$region, expand = c(0, 0.1)) +
  scale_y_continuous(breaks = breaks$pos, labels = breaks$region, expand = c(0, 0.1))