Tens of thousands of pro-unity demonstrators waving Spanish, Catalan, and European Union flags took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday (October 29) as the country faced its worst political crisis in the four decades since its return to democracy.
"Don't be ashamed of loving Spain, be ashamed of hating it," read one banner that was being brandished at Sunday's massive demonstration in Barcelona against independence and in favour of Spanish unity.
Spanish flags filled the Passeig da Gràcia, the broad street running through the city's centre where the event took place, and many of the hundreds of thousands of people present wore them wrapped around their shoulders, like capes. Some participants rode mopeds to and from the event carrying the flag aloft. Meanwhile, "Viva España" pumped out of giant loudspeakers.
Catalan unionists appear to have been emboldened by the dramatic events of last Friday. The Catalan parliament approved a declaration of independence, sparking celebrations among separatists. But the same afternoon, the Spanish senate approved a motion allowing the central government to introduce direct rule in the region, including removing from office the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and his entire cabinet, and calling elections in December.
Until recently, pro-union Catalans had struggled to find a united voice and mobilise, despite the fact that polls showed they formed a narrow majority in the region. Meanwhile, those who wanted independence regularly staged massive demonstrations. But this is the second such show of force by unionists in Barcelona in the last month, reflecting not just their numbers but also how divided the region has become.
While many of those present agreed with the Spanish government's decision to implement direct rule by triggering article 155 of the constitution, some wanted to see it take an even harder line. Teixedó believes Madrid should take control of the Catalan public broadcaster, TV3, for example, which he and many other unionists accuse of pro-independence bias.
"The measures could be rather tougher, given the government we've had in Catalonia," said Margarita Obregón, a 69 year old who had come out to demonstrate despite the fact that she needed a crutch.
Despite the mainly festive atmosphere, anger was also in the air, with chants calling for Puigdemont to be imprisoned. The attorney general is soon expected to present legal action against him and other independence leaders, which could lead to jail sentences.
There were occasional violent scenes during the afternoon and members of far-right groups were seen making fascist salutes.
But others who took to Barcelona's streets despaired at the binary nature of the Catalan crisis.
Otero said he had hoped the Catalan and Spanish governments would negotiate a way out of the crisis before Friday's drama. Previously a supporter of Ciudadanos, which has been stridently making the case for direct rule for several months, he now says he prefers the more moderate proposals of the Catalan Socialist Party, which advocates reform of Spain's territorial model.
"There's no reason why we should be facing off over this, because in the end we're all Catalans and we all have Catalonia's best interests at heart," he said.


text:
食物权
食物权准则
Launch of the publication "State food provisioning as social protection"
Events - 07.10.2015
The publication State food provisioning as social protection – Debating India's national food security law, presented by the author Mr Harsh Mander, provides an overview of the most important debates which ensued in the four and a half years of the official writing of the India's National Food Security Act (2013). The Act is legally binding for national and federal state governments to further extend the outreach of social protection to the country's population.
These discussions cover several questions about the nature and extent of the state's duties and possible strategies for food provisioning as part of a larger framework of social protection.
The debates summarized are based on the author's participation in many of the processes related to the right to food in India over the last decade and more, in many different capacities, as the Special Commissioner to the Supreme Court in the PUCL Right to Food Case, as Member-Convenor of the Working Group of the Prime Minister's National Advisory Council (NAC), which was charged with the drafting of the first version of the National Food Security Bill and as a member of the Right to Food Campaign.
Starting from the Indian experience and focusing on the richness of its debates, the event aimed at
stimulating the discussions on the fundamental issues related to the role of the State in fighting hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
The event was chaired by Mr Daniel Gustafson, Deputy Director-General Operations, and presenteded by
Mr Harsh Mander, author of the publication, Director of the Centre for Equity Studies, India, and Special Commissioner to the Supreme Court of India in the Right to Food case.
The presentation was followed by a multistakeholder discussion to exchange experiences and share knowledge on these important subject matters.
分享本页内容
State food provisioning as social protection – Debating India's national food security law
The debates are also available as a set of briefs titled "Ten debates on right to food and social protection – Learning from India's experience" available here in English:
1. Debating state obligation
2. Choosing between bread and freedom
3. Going beyond the right to food
4. Cash versus food
5. Does universal mean 'uniform'?
6. Protecting children
7. Gender-just food security laws
8. Those at the edge
9. Strings attached
10. Enforcing rights
监察长办公室
法律办公室
道德操守办公室
粮农组织各部及办公室
非洲区域办事处
亚洲及太平洋区域办事处
欧洲及中亚区域办事处
拉丁美洲及加勒比区域办事处
近东及北非区域办事处
国家代表处
有关我们的信息请查看
下载我们的应用程序

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Looking for your perfect dating site but not sure which one's the right fit? We're here to help.
We've compared two of the most popular sites for the 50+ crowd - Zoosk and OurTime - to help you decide which site to head to, to make online dating work for you.
OurTime is all about helping senior singles find exactly what they're looking for - whether that's companionship or a relationship. You won't be matched with someone twenty years younger than you or with whom you have nothing in common. Get daily matches or search on your own - the choice is yours.
Zoosk's Behavioral Matchmaking tool is a definite stand-out. The unique algorithm continuously learns your likes and dislikes and suggests matches based on these preferences. So the more you use the site, the better the site understands what it is you're looking for.
OurTime is part of a group of newer dating sites that have sprung up in the last few years to fill the void of singles left out by more traditional dating sites. The site comes from the same people behind Match.com, which means they know what they're doing - they've already got over one million users.
Zoosk has been around since 2007 and is the most popular dating site, with millions of users worldwide.
One of Zoosk's most highly rated bonus is its security feature. Security is a huge concern in online dating. Zoosk's photo verification software ensures that any photo you upload to the site is the real deal - so no fake profiles here.
OurTime has great chat options that make it easy to connect with other users - such as safe SMS messaging, instant chat and mutual matching introductions.
You can choose to sign up with Zoosk for either 1, 3 or 6 months at a cost of $29.95. $19.98 or $9.99/month respectively. This makes Zoosk one of the most reasonable options for online dating on the market today.
At OurTime, the price is $11.99/month when you sign up for the 6 month basic package and $12.99/month if you opt for the premium plan (features include a highlighted profile and highlighted messages).
Zoosk and OurTime both offer great features, a huge pool of users and are extremely mobile-friendly, which makes it easy to browse profiles and chat from anywhere.
But thanks to bonus features like Behavioral Matchmaking and more competitive pricing, Zoosk takes home top prize in this battle.


text:
Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of 138728 Medicare Beneficiaries With Incident Parkinson Disease in the United States in 2002
Table 2. Occurrence of Dementia/Cognitive Impairment in Incident Parkinson Disease Compared With Total Medicare Population
Table 3. Parkinson Disease Death According to Subject Characteristics and Disease Complications
Table 4. Parkinson Disease Mortality According to Geographic Variables From 2002 to 2008
Table 5. Parkinson Disease Mortality Compared With Common Diseases of Elderly Individuals From 2002 to 2008
Chen H, Zhang SM, Schwarzschild MA, Hernán MA, Ascherio A. Survival of Parkinson's disease patients in a large prospective cohort of male health professionals. Mov Disord. 2006;21(7):1002-100716602107PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Driver JA, Kurth T, Buring JE, Gaziano JM, Logroscino G. Parkinson disease and risk of mortality: a prospective comorbidity-matched cohort study. Neurology. 2008;70(16 pt 2):1423-143018413567PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Hely MA, Morris JG, Traficante R, Reid WG, O'Sullivan DJ, Williamson PM. The Sydney Multicentre Study of Parkinson's disease: progression and mortality at 10 years. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1999;67(3):300-30710449550PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Diem-Zangerl A, Seppi K, Oberaigner W, Poewe W. Mortality in Parkinson's disease, a 20-year follow-up study. Mov Disord. 2010;25(5):661-66220201025PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Marras C, McDermott MP, Rochon PA, et al; Parkinson Study Group. Survival in Parkinson disease: thirteen-year follow-up of the DATATOP cohort. Neurology. 2005;64(1):87-9315642909PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Ben-Shlomo Y, Marmot MG. Survival and cause of death in a cohort of patients with parkinsonism: possible clues to aetiology? J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1995;58(3):293-2997897409PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Berger K, Breteler MM, Helmer C, et al; Neurologic Diseases in the Elderly Research Group. Prognosis with Parkinson's disease in Europe: a collaborative study of population-based cohorts. Neurology. 2000;54(11):(suppl 5) s24-s2710854358PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
D'Amelio M, Ragonese P, Morgante L, et al. Long-term survival of Parkinson's disease: a population-based study. J Neurol. 2006;253(1):33-3716021349PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Fall PA, Saleh A, Fredrickson M, Olsson JE, Granérus AK. Survival time, mortality, and cause of death in elderly patients with Parkinson's disease: a 9-year follow-up. Mov Disord. 2003;18(11):1312-131614639673PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Herlofson K, Lie SA, Arsland D, Larsen JP. Mortality and Parkinson disease: a community based study. Neurology. 2004;62(6):937-94215037696PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Hughes TA, Ross HF, Mindham RH, Spokes EG. Mortality in Parkinson's disease and its association with dementia and depression. Acta Neurol Scand. 2004;110(2):118-12315242420PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Montastruc JL, Desboeuf K, Lapeyre-Mestre M, Senard JM, Rascol O, Brefel-Courbon C. Long-term mortality results of the randomized controlled study comparing bromocriptine to which levodopa was later added with levodopa alone in previously untreated patients with Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 2001;16(3):511-51411391747PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Guttman M, Slaughter PM, Theriault ME, DeBoer DP, Naylor CD. Parkinsonism in Ontario: increased mortality compared with controls in a large cohort study. Neurology. 2001;57(12):2278-228211756610PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Raschetti R, Spila-Alegiani S, Vanacore N, Ancona C, Meco G. Mortality in a population-based cohort of patients treated with antiparkinsonian drugs. Acta Neurol Scand. 1998;97(1):20-269482674PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Ishihara LS, Cheesbrough A, Brayne C, Schrag A. Estimated life expectancy of Parkinson's patients compared with the UK population. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2007;78(12):1304-130917400591PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Costello S, Cockburn M, Bronstein J, Zhang X, Ritz B. Parkinson's disease and residential exposure to maneb and paraquat from agricultural applications in the central valley of California. Am J Epidemiol. 2009;169(8):919-92619270050PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Kamel F, Tanner C, Umbach D, et al. Pesticide exposure and self-reported Parkinson's disease in the agricultural health study. Am J Epidemiol. 2007;165(4):364-37417116648PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Weisskopf MG, Weuve J, Nie H, et al. Association of cumulative lead exposure with Parkinson's disease. Environ Health Perspect. 2010;118(11):1609-161320807691PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Willis AW, Evanoff BA, Lian M, et al. Metal emissions and urban incident Parkinson disease: a community health study of Medicare beneficiaries by using geographic information systems. Am J Epidemiol. 2010;172(12):1357-136320959505PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
US Department of Health and Human Services. Agency for Healthcare Related Research and Quality Web site. www.ahrq.gov. Accessed August 4, 2011
Wright Willis A, Evanoff BA, Lian M, Criswell SR, Racette BA. Geographic and ethnic variation in Parkinson disease: a population-based study of US Medicare beneficiaries. Neuroepidemiology. 2010;34(3):143-15120090375PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Chronic Condition Data Warehouse Data Dictionaries Web site. http://www.ccwdata.org/data-dictionaries/index.htm
Charlson M, Szatrowski TP, Peterson J, Gold J. Validation of a combined comorbidity index. J Clin Epidemiol. 1994;47(11):1245-12517722560PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. US Department of Agriculture Web site. http://usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome
US Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau Web site. http://www.census.gov/
Schootman M, Jeffe DB, Lian M, Gillanders WE, Aft R. The role of poverty rate and racial distribution in the geographic clustering of breast cancer survival among older women: a geographic and multilevel analysis. Am J Epidemiol. 2009;169(5):554-56119103608PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Willis AW, Schootman M, Evanoff BA, Perlmutter JS, Racette BA. Neurologist care in Parkinson disease: a utilization, outcomes, and survival study. Neurology. 2011;77(9):851-857218322214PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Riedel O, Klotsche J, Spottke A, et al. Cognitive impairment in 873 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease: results from the German Study on Epidemiology of Parkinson's Disease with Dementia (GEPAD). J Neurol. 2008;255(2):255-26418204803PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Tang MX, Cross P, Andrews H, et al. Incidence of AD in African-Americans, Caribbean Hispanics, and Caucasians in northern Manhattan. Neurology. 2001;56(1):49-5611148235PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Sabbagh MN, Adler CH, Lahti TJ, et al. Parkinson disease with dementia: comparing patients with and without Alzheimer pathology. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2009;23(3):295-29719812474PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Sakakibara R, Uchiyama T, Yamanishi T, Kishi M. Genitourinary dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 2010;25(1):2-1220077468PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Pennington S, Snell K, Lee M, Walker R. The cause of death in idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2010;16(7):434-43720570207PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act. https://www.cms.gov/mmaupdate/downloads/pl108-173summary.pdf. Published April 2004
Movement Disorders Neurology Parkinson Disease Dementia and Cognitive Impairment
Willis AW, Schootman M, Kung N, Evanoff BA, Perlmutter JS, Racette BA. Predictors of Survival in Patients With Parkinson Disease. Arch Neurol. 2012;69(5):601–607. doi:10.1001/archneurol.2011.2370
Predictors of Survival in Patients With Parkinson Disease
Allison W. Willis, MD; Mario Schootman, PhD; Nathan Kung, MD; et al Bradley A. Evanoff, MD, MPH; Joel S. Perlmutter, MD; Brad A. Racette, MD
Author Affiliations: Departments of Neurology (Drs Willis, Kung, Perlmutter, and Racette) and Internal Medicine (Drs Schootman and Evanoff), Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri.
Objective To determine the life expectancy of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) in the United States and identify demographic, geographic, and clinical factors that influence survival.
Design Retrospective cohort study of 138 000 Medicare beneficiaries with incident PD who were identified in 2002 and followed up through 2008.
Main Outcome Measures Confounder-adjusted 6-year risk of death as influenced by 3 groups of factors: (1) race, sex, and age at diagnosis; (2) geography and environmental factors; and (3) clinical conditions. We examined hospitalization diagnoses in patients with terminal PD and compared PD mortality with that of other common diseases.
Results Thirty-five percent of patients with PD lived more than 6 years. Sex and race significantly predicted survival; patients who were female (HR [hazard ratio], 0.74; 95% CI, 0.73-0.75), Hispanic (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.65-0.80), or Asian (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.82-0.91) had a lower adjusted risk of death than white men. Dementia, diagnosed in 69.6% of cases and most often in African American patients (78.2%) and women (71.5%), was associated with a greater likelihood of death (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.69-1.75). Parkinson disease mortality was greater than that of many common life-threatening diseases. Patients with terminal PD were hospitalized frequently for cardiovascular disease (18.5%) and infection (20.9%) but rarely for PD (1.0%). Regional survival rates were similar but patients with PD living in urban high industrial metal emission areas had a slightly higher adjusted risk of death (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.10-1.29).
Conclusions Demographic and clinical factors impact PD survival. Dementia is highly prevalent in patients with PD and is associated with a significant increase in mortality. More research is needed to understand whether environmental exposures influence PD course or survival.
Quiz Ref IDAlthough Parkinson disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease among elderly individuals, there are conflicting data on the survival rates of patients with PD. Some studies of incident PD mortality have suggested a higher risk of death when compared with the general population,1-3 while others have suggested no difference.4,5 Similarly, studies provide conflicting data on whether age at diagnosis or sex affects survival.6-12 Two administrative database studies used insurance claims13 and anti-parkinsonian drug prescription data14 to examine PD mortality but included prevalent cases from ethnically homogenous populations, limiting the generalizability of their findings.15 Other studies were limited by exclusive case recruitment from specialty clinics or drug treatment trials. At the time of our study, there were no available survival data on PD cases diagnosed after 2000, population-based data from the United States, nor detailed survival data on women and nonwhite individuals. In this nationwide retrospective cohort study, we examine the 6-year survival rates of patients with incident PD in the United States using Medicare claims data from more than 36 million elderly Americans per year, and we broadly investigate mortality and survival in PD using the largest cohort to date.
In addition to detailed demographic analyses of PD survival, we performed several unique PD mortality investigations. It is unclear why patients with PD may experience shorter life spans, what illnesses dominate in terminal PD, and how PD mortality compares with other illnesses of elderly individuals. Dementia is a known comorbidity in PD, but its pervasiveness and impact on mortality across demographic subpopulations in PD is unknown. Therefore, we investigated the reasons for hospitalization in the last year of life in patients with PD, produced comparative mortality data for PD, and determined the impact of dementia on PD mortality.
Quiz Ref IDEnvironmental exposures, most notably to pesticides, have been associated with increased risk of PD in rural areas.16,17 Lead and manganese have emerged as potential urban environmental risk factors for PD, evidenced by recent findings of increased lead deposition in the long bones of patients with PD compared with those of control subjects (odds ratio [OR], 3.21; 95% CI, 1.17-8.83)18 and our report that PD incidence in urban areas is greater where emissions of manganese are highest (risk ratio, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.54-2.07) using a national, nonmobile, neurologist-confirmed cohort.19 However, it is unknown what the potential impact of postsymptom-onset exposures to pesticides or metals could have on disease course or survival. In an exploratory aim, we investigated whether PD survival varies by geography (eg, state, region of the country, urban/rural classification) and then examined the variation in survival by local metal emission using our previously identified urban high- and low-emission areas.
This study was approved by the Human Studies Committee at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri.
Medicare is a government-mandated insurance program used by 98% of Americans 65 years and older. We searched all Medicare outpatient and physician claims data beginning from 2002. Beneficiaries with claims for PD and International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code 332 or 332.0 were extracted, and incident cases were identified using previously published methods.20,21 Those who also had diagnostic claims for secondary parkinsonism (code 332.1) or other degenerative diseases of the basal ganglia (code 333.0), regardless of the order of diagnoses, were excluded from further analysis.
Demographic and clinical data
Medicare Beneficiary Annual Summary Files contain individual-level demographic, health service use, and survival data, as well as clinical data on 21 common conditions, identified using International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision –based algorithms.22 We used the clinical data from these files to calculate an age-weighted modified Charlson comorbidity index score for each PD case.23 These data were also used to determine whether a PD case had been diagnosed with Alzheimer dementia/senile dementia or related disorders, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Chronic Condition Warehouse algorithm22 (hereafter referred to as dementia) between 1997 (the first year available) and 2008.
To investigate terminal health experiences in PD, we extracted inpatient clinical summary data and health care service use data from the 2005 Medicare Beneficiary Annual Summary Files for patients with PD who died between January 1, 2006, and March 30, 2007. Last year of life hospitalization, skilled nursing facility, and hospice use rates were calculated. To identify specific illnesses that factor into the death of a person with PD, we extracted the first 10 (all that were available in this data set) diagnosis-related group codes for each hospitalization that occurred in the year leading to death. Diagnosis-related group codes are used nationwide to indicate the clinical reason for each admission to Medicare. These were grouped by organ system or disease process: (1) cardiovascular, (2) infection, (3) pulmonary, (4) malignancy, (5) gastrointestinal, (6) cerebrovascular, (7) musculoskeletal, (8) psychiatric, and (9) other. Hospitalizations for degenerative nervous system disorders were assigned to the category of Parkinson disease. Finally, clinical and survival data for the entire aged Medicare population were extracted from these files to compare PD mortality with that of other common diseases among elderly individuals.
Geographic factors
Residential information was used to assign each PD case to (1) a state/US territory, (2) a census region (Northeast, Midwest, South, or West), and (3) a US Department of Agriculture Rural-Urban Continuum category.24,25 To investigate the impact of passive environmental metal exposure on PD survival in urban areas, we applied our previously developed county-level metal exposure classification derived from Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory data. A geographic information system was used to spatially link geographic data to the residential, demographic, and clinical data, allowing quantitative analysis of survival by state and region and between urban areas with high or low metal release.
Descriptive analyses
The race, sex, age, and geographic distributions of the study population were determined. We compared the cumulative incidence of dementia by race, age, and sex. For investigation of terminal PD health care consumption, we report the rate of use of last-year-of-life hospital, skilled nursing facility, and hospice services for patients who died in 2006 or the first quarter of 2007. We also identified the clinical condition categories associated with hospitalization in this terminal PD cohort. To provide comparative mortality data in patients with PD, we compared crude mortality rates and adjusted survival between patients with incident PD and the entire Medicare beneficiary population, as well as beneficiaries with (1) myocardial infarction, (2) colorectal cancer, (3) congestive heart failure, (4) ischemic heart disease, (5) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (6) Alzheimer dementia, (7) hip fracture, and (8) stroke/transient ischemic attack.
Survival analyses
Survival status was determined from 2002 to 2008. Cox proportional hazards models estimated the risk of death associated with demographic, clinical, and geographic variables. The time-to-event variable was from the beginning of the study period to the date of death (measured in months). Surviving cases were censored at the end of 2008.
Our primary model examined the risk of death according to race (white, African American, Hispanic, or Asian), age at diagnosis, and sex. A second model included the diagnosis of dementia as a variable of interest. Separately, we investigated survival according to geographic variables: (1) state, (2) census region, and (3) rurality. We then compared survival between patients with PD residing in urban counties with the lowest and highest quartiles of lead and manganese release. We adjusted all analyses for race, age, and sex, as well as for socioeconomic, clinical, and health care predictors that may influence survival in PD: (1) socioeconomic deprivation,26 (2) age-weighted modified comorbidity index, and (3) treating physician specialty.27 Finally, we compared the survival rates of elderly patients with PD with that of patients with common life-threatening diseases, adjusting the model for race, age, sex, and comorbidity index.
Standard methods were used to produce odds ratios or Cox proportion hazard coefficients with 95% confidence intervals. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS versions 16 and 17 (IBM SPSS).
Subject demographics
We identified 138 728 Medicare beneficiaries with incident PD, 99.3% of whom were identified by International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code 332.0. White individuals composed 90.6% of the cohort; the remaining were African American (6.1%), Hispanic (2.2%), and Asian (1.1%). The age-adjusted incidence of PD in our cohort was greater in men (537.36 per 100 000) than in women (367.70 per 100 000), consistent with previous studies (Table 1).
Dementia had been diagnosed in 69.6% of our study population by the end of the study period. Thirty-one percent (n = 43 621) of PD cases had documented clinical evidence of dementia or cognitive impairment prior to PD diagnosis. The highest frequency of dementia was found in African American individuals (78.2%) followed by Hispanic individuals (73.1%). White and Asian subjects with PD had lower, similar rates of dementia (69.0% and 66.8%, respectively). Seventy-one percent of women with incident PD were diagnosed with dementia within 6 years of diagnosis, compared with 67.5% of men. Dementia frequency increased with age (Table 2).
Survival according to patient characteristics and clinical conditions
Quiz Ref IDSixty-four percent of patients with PD died during the 6-year study. African American individuals had the highest crude death rate (66.4%) followed closely by white individuals (64.6%). Hispanic individuals had a lower frequency of death (55.4%); Asian individuals had the lowest death rate (50.8%). Adjusting for age, sex, comorbidity index, socioeconomic deprivation, and treating physician specialty with white individuals as the reference group, African American individuals had a slightly higher risk of death (hazard ratio [HR], 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08), but Hispanic individuals had a 14% lower adjusted likelihood of death (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.82-0.91) and Asian individuals had a 27% lower adjusted likelihood of death (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.65-0.80). Women with PD had a 26% lower adjusted risk of death than men (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.73-0.75). Survival decreased with age. Patients with PD with dementia had a lower survival rate (28.1%) than those without dementia (53.9%). Patients with dementia and PD were 72% more likely to die during the study (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.69-1.75) (Table 3).
Survival according to geographic variables
Crude death rates and adjusted likelihood of death were similar across states, between regions of the country, and by rural/urban classification (Table 4). However, adjusted PD death risk was 19% higher in those living in urban areas with high industrial manganese output at the time of diagnosis (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.10-1.29) when compared with the adjusted risk in low-manganese counties. A sensitivity analysis using only neurologist-diagnosed cases reduced the magnitude but not the direction of this finding. There was no increase in the risk of death associated with residence in an urban county with high industrial lead emission.
Comparative mortality
Beneficiaries with incident PD had crude mortality rates comparable with Medicare beneficiaries with incident diagnoses of acute myocardial infarction (65.8%), hip fracture (66.6%), and Alzheimer dementia (68.2%). As displayed in Table 4, the age-, race-, and sex-adjusted 6-year risk of death among those with PD was nearly 4 times greater than those without PD or other common diseases (OR, 3.87; 95% CI, 3.82- 3.93). Additionally, patients with PD had a significantly higher adjusted mortality than those with new diagnoses of colorectal cancer, stroke/transient ischemic attack, ischemic heart disease, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Table 5).
Terminal pd
We identified 12 897 patients with PD who died in 2006. Hospitalization in the last year of life was very common; 73.5% of patients with terminal PD were hospitalized at least once. Hospice services were used frequently as well, by 69.8% of those who were dying. Skilled nursing facility services were used the least often, by 44.0% of patients with terminal PD.
We identified 44 543 hospitalizations (average, 3.4 per person). Diagnosis-related group data were available for 44 505 of these admissions. The most common reasons for hospitalization in terminal PD were infection (20.9%), cardiovascular disease (18.5%), and noninfectious pulmonary disease (12.8%). Less common reasons for hospitalization included treatment of and/or evaluation for gastrointestinal (9.3%), genitourinary (7.4%), musculoskeletal (6.4%), nervous system (5.9%), and endocrine (4.0%) disorders. Otolaryngologic, hematologic, traumatic, cerebrovascular, psychiatric, and malignant diseases together accounted for the remaining 13.8% of hospitalizations. Notably, PD was reported as 1 of the 10 primary illnesses in only 1.0% of hospitalizations.
In this nationwide, population-based study, we report the survival of Medicare beneficiaries with incident PD. Our data suggest that PD is associated with a reduced life expectancy compared with common diseases of elderly individuals. Quiz Ref IDFurthermore, we demonstrate that dementia occurs commonly in patients with incident PD 65 years and older; this had the strongest effect on age-adjusted survival among the variables that we studied. Dying patients with PD are hospitalized frequently for cardiovascular and infectious diseases rather than nervous system disorders, and they use hospice care. Our exploratory data raise the question that environmental factors may also influence risk of death after diagnosis.
There are several strengths to this study. This cohort of nearly 140 000 patients with PD provides substantial power to detect variables with large and small effects on survival. We are also able to provide survival data for women and minorities, who are often absent or underrepresented in PD epidemiologic studies. Our study design linked otherwise separate clinical, administrative, and environmental data sets to investigate unique combinations of predictors of survival in patients with PD.
The use of the Medicare database for case identification also permitted detailed investigation of dementia/cognitive impairment in PD. Previous estimates of dementia in PD are variable, suggesting a prevalence of 26% to 89% in white individuals.28 Interestingly, the ethnic pattern of PD-associated dementia in our data set appears to follow that seen in Alzheimer disease, with African American individuals and women being affected more often than whites and men.29 This may suggest a unique pathophysiologic course of dementia in African American individuals and women with PD, or it may reflect the increased susceptibility of women and African American individuals with PD to develop coexistent Alzheimer dementia.30 However, given the broad definition of dementia/cognitive impairment used in this study and the difficulties with clinical diagnostic accuracy, clinicopathologic studies are needed to clarify the pathologic basis of dementia in women and minorities with PD. However, our data highlight the need for prevention of or treatment for dementia in patients with PD because of its effect on survival.
Our methods also allowed us to identify potential areas of improvement in the care of patients with PD by identifying illnesses temporally associated with death. There are several reasons why patients with PD may be hospitalized for cardiovascular disease and infection often prior to death. Patients with PD are likely susceptible to urinary tract infections and pneumonia secondary to disease-mediated bladder dysfunction and microaspiration.31,32 Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of hospitalization in Americans older than 65 years,20 and PD is not thought to confer protection against cardiovascular disease risk factors. Fewer than half of patients with PD are treated by neurologists,27 indicating that another possible contributor is that the management of PD symptoms consumes the majority of health care encounters. This may lead to less-aggressive screening for or treatment of other common illnesses. Additionally, physicians and patients alike may attribute nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, or exercise intolerance to PD when they in fact represent other illnesses such as subacute cardiopulmonary disease. Future studies investigating specific ways by which specialist care reduces PD mortality would be valuable.
Many researchers have investigated the environmental triggers of neurodegeneration in PD, with pesticides and redox-active metals such as lead and manganese implicated in multiple studies. Exposure to a combination of maneb (an herbicide that contains manganese) and paraquat, by virtue of living within 500 m of application sites, has been associated with an increased risk of being diagnosed with PD (HR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.13-2.73).16 We recently reported that age-, race-, and sex-adjusted PD incidence is greater in urban counties with the highest industrial release of manganese (risk ratio, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.54-2.07) compared with urban counties with no or low release of this metal, using a nonmobile, neurologist-confirmed cohort.19 This additional finding of a slightly higher adjusted death risk in urban areas with high manganese output, but not just urban areas of the United States, calls into question whether continued exposure to basal ganglia toxins after symptom onset may accelerate the clinical course of idiopathic PD or be associated with the development of important comorbidities. Future studies with detailed clinical and exposure data are essential to determine whether postsymptom-onset exposures to neurotoxins (including pesticides and metals) are associated with the development of more severe PD clinical features or more rapid progression.
There are several limitations to this study. Differential misdiagnosis is always a potential bias in studies that rely on clinical or administrative data. It is possible that in addition to PD, cases with 1 of the much rarer but more lethal Parkinson plus syndromes may have been included in our cohort. Future studies testing the endurance and robustness of our case definition methods may include prescription data record review (using cases diagnosed after 2003 when the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act33 was passed) may be helpful. However, these diseases are rare and unlikely to significantly alter our primary findings. It is possible that dementia in men and white individuals with PD may be underreported, but a recent study suggests that white men tend to see neurologists more often than patients with PD in other demographic groups.27 Differences in health care–seeking behaviors or health care access could potentially impact our baseline population, clinical, or survival data. Although we accounted for known demographic, comorbid, and physician factors likely to impact survival, there may be undiscovered confounders that would alter the risk ratios we obtained.
Our environmental data analyses were performed primarily to generate hypotheses for future environmental epidemiologic research and assess for geographic confounders in survival, and they should be interpreted cautiously. We lack historical individual exposure data (community or occupational) that are impossible to obtain retrospectively for an administratively identified cohort over the decades of exposure that may be relevant for an adult-onset neurodegenerative disease. Although specific to manganese, the change in risk was modest and could be explained entirely by unknown confounders. There may be unknown nonneurologic mechanisms by which PD mortality is increased in urban areas with high metal emissions. Quiz Ref IDIn spite of these limitations, postsymptom-onset environmental exposures may need to be considered when investigating future neuroprotective therapies in PD as ongoing individual exposures may influence disease course.
Correspondence: Allison W. Willis, MD, Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 660 South Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8111, St Louis, MO 63110 (willisa@neuro.wustl.edu).
Accepted for Publication: October 4, 2011.
Published Online: January 2, 2012. doi:10.1001/archneurol.2011.2370
Author Contributions: Dr Willis had full access to and takes full responsibility for the accuracy of the data. Study concept and design: Willis, Evanoff, Perlmutter, and Racette. Acquisition of data: Willis and Racette. Analysis and interpretation of data: Willis, Schootman, Kung, Evanoff, and Perlmutter. Drafting of the manuscript: Willis and Kung. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Schootman, Evanoff, Perlmutter, and Racette. Statistical analysis: Willis, Schootman, and Evanoff. Obtained funding: Willis and Racette. Study supervision: Perlmutter and Racette.
Financial Disclosure: None reported.
Funding/Support: This study was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health grant 5T32NS007205-27; National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research grants UL1RR024992 and KL2RR024994; National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health grant K24ES017765; the St Louis Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association; the American Parkinson Disease Association; Walter and Connie Donius; and the Robert Renschen Fund.


text:
Q: Negative modulus in complex numbers? This is an introducory task from an exam.
If $z = -2(\cos{5} - i\sin{5})$, then what are:
$Re(z), Im(z), arg(z)$ and $ |z|$?
First of all, how is it possible that the modulus is negative $|z|=-2$? Or is the modulus actually $|z|= 2$ and the minus is kind of in front of everything, and that's why the sign inside of the brackets is changed as well? That would make some sense.
I assume $arg(z) = 5$. How do I calculate $Re(z) $ and $Im(z)$? Something like this should do the job?
$$arg(z) = \frac{Re(z)}{|z|}$$
$$5 = \frac{Re(z)}{2}$$
$$10 = Re(z)$$
And analogically with $Im(z):$
$$arg(z) = \frac{Im(z)}{|z|}$$
$$5 = \frac{Im(z)}{2} \Rightarrow Im(z) = Re(z) = 10$$
I'm sure I'm confusing something here because, probably somewhere wrong $\pm$ signs.
Help's appreciated.
And finally: is there some good calculator for complex numbers? Let's say I have a polar form and I want to find out the $Re(z), Im(z)$ and such. Wolframalpha seems like doesn't work fine for that.

A: Currently, the number is not in polar form, as it should be in the form $r(\cos(\theta) + i \sin(\theta))$, where $r \ge 0$. Note the $+$ sign, and the non-negative number $r$ out the front. Every complex number, including the one given, has a polar form (in fact, infinitely many), and from this you can read off the modulus and argument. But, since this is not in polar form, you need to do some extra work.
First, try absorbing the minus sign into the brackets:
$$2(-\cos 5 + i \sin 5).$$
Then, recalling that $\sin(\pi - x) = \sin(x)$ and $\cos(\pi - x) = -\cos(x)$, we get
$$2(\cos(\pi - 5) + i \sin(\pi - 5)).$$
This is now in polar form. The modulus is $2$, and one of the infinitely many arguments is $\pi - 5$.

A: If $z=a+bi$, with $a,b\in\mathbb R$, then $\lvert z\rvert=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$; in particular, $\lvert z\rvert\geqslant0$ for any $z\in\mathbb C$.
Actually, $\bigl\lvert-2(\cos5-i\sin5)\bigr\rvert=2$, $\operatorname{Re}\bigl(-2(\cos5-i\sin5)\bigr)=-2\cos5$, and $\operatorname{Im}\bigl(-2(\cos5-i\sin5)\bigr)=2\sin5$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Baseball plans to improve after disappointing finish
Collin Brazan, Editor
The Nicholls State University baseball team missed the Southland Conference Tournament for the second year in a row with a 29-27 overall record this season.
This was the first time since the 2012 and 2013 seasons that the Colonels missed the postseason two consecutive seasons. Only one spot out of the postseason, Nicholls finished with a conference record of 15-15.
"It's the most pain I've ever felt as a head coach," Nicholls coach Seth Thibodeaux said. "I was disgusted."
Nicholls was just a win or two out of the tournament, as the team was not ousted until they lost their final matchup of the regular season, losing two out of three games against the University of Central Arkansas. The No. 8 University of New Orleans and the No. 7 Lamar University were only a game ahead of Nicholls with conference records of 16-14, while the No. 6 Stephen F. Austin State University and the No. 4 Central Arkansas were two games ahead at 17-13.
"I'm disappointed because losing at the end and not finishing is not what we worked on, and really is very uncharacteristic of our team and our program," Thibodeaux said. "I think every year we're a top four team in our league, but at some point, our players are going to have to believe that, too."
Some of the team's members found positives to build on in the future, even with the disappointing end to the season, including a home record of 21-9.
"I think we played great defense this season," junior infielder Joey Morales said.
Sophomore Adam Tarver said he felt that the team played great defense and pitched well, and that their offense produced more than it had in the past, yet the team was never able to get all three elements to click at the same time.
"We just need to play Nicholls' style of baseball and all of that should fall into place," Tarver said.
Moving forward, both the coach and his players said that their goal is to win the Southland Conference Tournament and make a run in the NCAA Tournament, but improvements needed to be made first.
"[We] just need to realize that every game is important to play, that every game really matters," Tarver said.
Along with further improving what will remain of this season's team, the Nicholls baseball squad views it is necessary to teach the new players and get them up to speed.
"I heard we have a good group of guys coming in, so when they step here day one in the fall, [we have to show] leadership and we shouldn't have a problem getting them on pace," Morales said.
Thibodeaux echoed what Morales said, specifying that good leadership would be essential to the team's success moving forward.
"Incoming guys are all position players that we're really going to count on this year, but those guys are going to do what their leaders push them to do," Thibodeaux said. "If our leaders go in and show them the way right away, then we have a chance at winning the Southland Conference."
Other stories filed under Archive
Campus closed Friday
What the roundabout means for campus traffic
Nicholls chemistry professor received a patent for postdoctoral research
Other stories filed under Sports
Getting to know former Nicholls pitcher Cole Stapler
Softball looks ahead after second place finish in tournament
The Nicholls State University softball team finished as the second place team in their conference before ending postseason play as the runners up in t...
Men's tennis to open Southland Conference tournament
The Nicholls State University men's tennis team will compete against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi this Saturday in Beaumont, Texas in the Sou...
Softball prepares for conference tournament with two series
Baseball seeks improvement as season comes to an end


$1099$10 and 99 cents$0.92 / oz.
Shop Clear Shampoo with Pump 24/ 7 Total Care (21.9 oz.)21.9 oz.
$789$7 and 89 cents$0.36 / oz.
Shop Marc Anthony True Professional Clear Dry Shampoo (3.17 oz.)3.17 oz.
Shop Marc Anthony True Professional Refreshing Clear Dry Shampoo Coconut (7 oz.)7 oz.
$829$8 and 29 cents$1.18 / oz.


By adding Muvi Kart to your website you can sell goods related to your content (Such as, Movie Merchandise) or you can also set up a separate store where you can sell various items including electronics, apparel, books, digital content and many more like any other online store. (Note: We charge 0.5% of transaction) You can add item to your online store, check the order status, add shipping cost, restrict country/countries where you don't want to ship your product, offer free goods on checkout and also keep track of your revenue generated from selling goods in your online store with our "Revenue Analytics" feature.
To add Muvi Kart to your website, first you need to activate it.
To activate Muvi Kart go to "Marketplace" -->"Manage Apps" in your CMS.
Click on "Activate" under "Muvi Kart".
When you click on "Activate" a window will open with "Yes" and "Cancel" option.
Click on "Yes" to activate.
Once the Muvi Kart feature is activated, you can see it in your CMS menu.
Before adding Muvi Kart to your website, first you need to add a Payment Gateway. Otherwise you will not be able to add Muvi Kart.
Muvi Kart is enabled for Physical Only, Modern, Revo and Classic Template.
After activating your Muvi Kart, it's now time to add items to your online store.
To add items to your store, go to "Manage Content" --> "Content Library" in your CMS.
In "Content Forms" field, select "Muvi Kart Form" from the drop-down list(See Below Screenshot).
Click on "Add Content" to go to Add Content page.
"Item Permalink" will be automatically generated. You can also edit the Item Permalink.
In the "Price" field, mention the price of the item. Here you can select multiple currencies for the item.
Type the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number in the "SKU Number" field. It is a unique number for each item.
In the "Status" field select, "Active", "Inactive", or "Out of Stock" from the drop down menu.
If you have enabled Personalization, then select Enable or Disable option. If you will select the Enable option then the product can be customized by the end user.
On the right hand side of the page under "Upload Poster", upload an image of the item. You can add multiple images for an item. Simply click on under poster to add any additional image related to the product. To remove a poster simply click on the "X" on the image.
Finally, click on "Save" to add the item to your store.
Once the items are added to your store, your customers can see them when they visit your website. If you have added a standalone Muvi Kart store, then your customers can see the displayed items like normal online store. (See Below Screenshot). Here they can click on "Order Now" or "Add to Cart" to purchase the item like they do in normal online shopping.
You can link an item with a specific VOD content. When users will click on the content they will see the item in the content details page. Users can click on the item displayed in the content details page to purchase it. This is useful when you want to sell movie merchandise. For example, Spider man T-Shirt, Superman Cap, Star Wars DVD etc.
To add an item to a content, select "Link to Content" in "Item Type"
Fill up the other fields for the item and click on "Save"
The item will be linked to the content. When the users click on the content, they will see the item in the content details page.
Note: Link to content is only enabled for "Classic Template" and"Traditional Template". Users can only view the item linked to the content if you have activated one of these templates.
You can add a preview or trailer of your product. You can upload the video from your computer or upload from Video Library or Embed a third party video link.
In the content type select "Physical"
To change the Preview/Trailer, click on "Change Video". Select the preview from the computer/video library/Embed 3rd Party.
To remove the trailer/preview, click on "Remove". When asked for confirmation, click on "Yes" to remove the trailer.
Once the Preview/Trailer of the product is added, users can view it by clicking on "View Trailer" on the item details page.
You can add a default shipping cost to all your items. When your customers will purchase any item from your online store the shipping cost will show separately under the item cost. Here you can also set shipping cost in Multiple Currencies.
To add default shipping cost please go to "Muvi Kart" --> "Shipping" in your CMS.
Under "Shipping Rules," select the check box for "Default Shipping Prices". Mention the amount in your default currency (If you have set multiple currencies for your website then you can add multiple "Default Shipping Prices" in different currencies).
You can allow the shipping of your product to particular country/countries.
To allow shipping to particular country/countries please go to "Muvi Kart" -->"Shipping" in your CMS.
Under "Shipping Rules," in "Allow Shipping to Country" field, select the country/countries from the drop down menu.
Finally, click on "Update". (See Below Screenshot).
You can set minimum order price for FREE shipping. Set a minimum price for which you can offer FREE shipping to your customers. (For example, if you set minimum order price $200 for free shipping, when a customer buys goods from your store more than or equal to $200, then he/she will get FREE shipping for the order). Here you can also set minimum order price in multiple currencies.
To set minimum order price for FREE shipping, please go to "Muvi Kart" -->"Shipping" in your CMS.
Under "Shipping Methods & Product Sizes" ( "Muvi Kart" -->"Shipping"), you can define different types of shipping methods (i.e. Standard, Express) and product sizes (i.e. Small, Medium, Large). These values will be displayed while you will add an item to Muvi Kart.
Type a name for the Shipping Method and click on "Add". The shipping method will be added to the list.
To edit a shipping method, click on the edit icon.
To remove a shipping method, click on the trashcan icon. When asked for confirmation, click on "Yes" to delete the shipping method from the list.
Type a product size name ( i.e. Small, Medium, Large) and click on "Add". The product size will be added to the list.
To delete a product name from the list, click on the trashcan icon. When asked for confirmation, click on "Yes" to delete.
You can add different shipping price for different countries. So, when a customer selects a country form the drop down list in your website and place an order, he/she can see the shipping price for that country only. Also, you can define shipping price according to "Shipping Size" (Small, Medium, Large) and "Shipping Method" (Standard or Express) for a specific country.
Note: To add "Shipping Size" and "Shipping Method" you need to add a support ticket.
Under "Shipping Costs", click on "Add Shipping Cost"
Repeat the process to add different shipping price for another country.
If you wish you can Edit or Delete the shipping price that you have already added for a specific country.
To remove the shipping price of a specific country, click on "Delete" button under "Action". When asked for confirmation, click on click on "Yes" to delete the shipping price.
To edit the shipping price, click on "Edit" under "Action. Make the necessary changes and then click on "Update"
As per your wish or as a promotion of your website, you can offer some selected item/items as FREE gift to your customers at the time of checkout. So, when the customers' checkout they can get the item/items free of cost. To enable free offer, please go to "Muvi Kart" -->"Settings" in your CMS. Under "Free Offer", select the check box "Enable Free Offer on Checkout" option and then type the item name on the search bar. The item will be added to your free offer list. You can add single item or multiple items. Finally, click on "Update".
By enabling Kart Geo-Block, you allow your customers easily switch countries for viewing and ordering products available in their home country while accessing the website from a different country. When you enable this option, in the front-end your customers can select the country of their choice from the drop-down menu (In the drop-down, only users can see the countries which are added in Allow Shipping to Country). They can only view the items those are available for their country and place order.
To enable "Kart Geo-Block", go to "Muvi Kart" --> "Settings" in your CMS.
Select the Geo-Block category from the list and click on "Save".
Once the Kart Geo-Block is enabled, your customers can select the country of their choice from the drop-down list on your website. (See Below Screenshot) The item/items blocked for the selected country will not be displayed on the shopping cart.
Note: Customers can view this option only if you have activated "Physical Only" template. In other templates (Classic, Traditional and Modern) customers cannot view this option.
When users visit your store, they can purchase the items of their choice.
To purchase an item, they need to click on the "Explore" to view the item details.
If the user clicks on "Add to Cart" then the item will be added to his/her cart.
Users can also mention how many items they wish to purchase.
Then they have to click on "Checkout"
They need to fill up their shipping address details and select the shipping size.
Next, they have to put their credit card information.
Finally, they have to click on "Confirm Order"
The order will be placed. Users can view their order details in the "Purchase History"
Note: When users click on "Add to Cart" in the website, it will also reflect in the cart of their mobile app and vice versa.
Once your customers placed the order, you can view its status in the "Order Screen" page. Here you can also manually edit orders (Add/Delete Items, Update Shipping Address and View Payment Information).
To view the order status, go to "Muvi Kart" -->"Order" in your CMS.
Here you can see different columns to view the order status, such as "Order Number", "Date", "Customer Name", "Item Name" and "Total Amount".
There is a search bar where you can search a particular item to see its current order status. You just need to type the "Order Number", "Customer Name" or "Item Name" in the search bar.
To edit an order click on the "Order Number".
You can download order status in CSV format.
In the "Order Screen", click on "Export to CSV"
All the order status will be downloaded in MS Excel file.
Your customers also can view the status of their orders by clicking on the "Purchase History". However, they have to first login to your website to view the purchase history. (See Below Screenshot).
You can view the items you have already added to your Muvi Kart store under Content Library. Here you can also edit a specific item as per your requirement.
Here you can view all the items you have added to your store. To find a specific item, you can use the filtering and sorting options available.
To edit a specific item, click on "Edit Item" on the extreme right-hand side of the item.
Make necessary changes and click on "Update"
You can add Shipping Status, Tracking Codes and Tracking URL to a specific order. The Shipping Status and Tracking Code will be visible to the end user in his/her purchase history. The end user can click on the tracking code which would redirect him/her to the courier service. You can also update the Payment Status, and check the transaction reference on order page to verify or refund payments from the gateway.
On the next page click on "Change Status". A window will open.
In "Tracking Code" field, type the tracking code of the item. If the user has ordered multiple items and the shipping address is same then select the check box "Copy to All Items" to give the same Tracking Code to all items ordered by the user.
Finally, click on "Save" to save the changes.
You can view the revenue generated by selling goods in your online store for a particular period of time or by selling a particular item. You can also view the graphical representation of your revenue report.
To view your revenue report, go to "Analytics" --> "Revenue" in your CMS.
Then click on "Physical Items". (See Below Screenshot).
Select the time period from the calendar to view revenue of a particular period.
On the right hand side of the page you can see the revenue graph. By looking at the graph you can easily know how much revenue you have generated for a particular time period or by selling a particular item.
By clicking on "Download CSV", you can also easily download the revenue report in CSV format.


text:
Youth-led innovation: Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators
Judy Sebba, Vivienne Griffiths, Barry Luckrock, Francis Hunt, Carol Robinson, Steve Flowers
CENTRIM
youth-led-innovation-report 2009Final published version, 418 KB
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/youth-led_innovationLicence: Unspecified
Sebba, J., Griffiths, V., Luckrock, B., Hunt, F., Robinson, C., & Flowers, S. (2009). Youth-led innovation: Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators. NESTA. http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/youth-led_innovation
Sebba, Judy ; Griffiths, Vivienne ; Luckrock, Barry et al. / Youth-led innovation : Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators. London, UK : NESTA, 2009. 41 p.
@book{5cf39b18cbc74320a42e6696aade1caa,
title = "Youth-led innovation: Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators",
keywords = "Innovation, CENTRIM",
author = "Judy Sebba and Vivienne Griffiths and Barry Luckrock and Francis Hunt and Carol Robinson and Steve Flowers",
publisher = "NESTA",
Sebba, J, Griffiths, V, Luckrock, B, Hunt, F, Robinson, C & Flowers, S 2009, Youth-led innovation: Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators. NESTA, London, UK. <http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/youth-led_innovation>
Youth-led innovation : Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators. / Sebba, Judy; Griffiths, Vivienne; Luckrock, Barry et al.
London, UK : NESTA, 2009. 41 p.
T1 - Youth-led innovation
T2 - Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators
AU - Sebba, Judy
AU - Griffiths, Vivienne
AU - Luckrock, Barry
AU - Hunt, Francis
AU - Robinson, Carol
AU - Flowers, Steve
KW - Innovation
KW - CENTRIM
BT - Youth-led innovation
PB - NESTA
CY - London, UK
Sebba J, Griffiths V, Luckrock B, Hunt F, Robinson C, Flowers S. Youth-led innovation: Enhancing the skills and capacity of the next generation of innovators. London, UK: NESTA, 2009. 41 p.


Welcome to 4P's class page!
We are going to research different explorers from the past and the modern day to learn about what they did and where they explored!
World Book Day comes to Robert Bakewell!
RB Estate Agents - Bradgate House FOR SALE!
Legion Hadrianus XVI before they left for the wall.
Autumn 1 - The Romans!


The nearest airport is in Atlantic City, NJ. From the airport, take Garden State Parkway South to Exit 13. Turn left off of the exit and proceed to the second traffic light. Turn right at the traffic light onto Dunes Drive. Continue on Dunes Drive. The resort is on the right at 79th Street and Dunes Drive. If you anticipate arrival after 8pm on the scheduled day of check-in, please contact the resort at 800/462-9703 (609/368-5121) for check-in instructions.


Jul. 21, 2018 11:29 a.m.
Being a fifth generation rancher, Roger Patenaude know a little something about hard work.
So, when the 2017 wildfires broke out, heavily impacting him and his family's ranchlands, Patenaude, at 63 years old, set to work doing what needed to be done; fighting fire, recovering cattle, putting up fencing and salvage logging more than 35,000 metres of timber burned in the fires. He didn't take one day off in six months, and only a couple days over the year.
Dealing with the bureaucracy of government following an emergency on the scale of the 2017 wildfires, however, has been a whole other challenge.
Patenuade said his financial losses from the fires are "close to $1 million," but he has also suffered a personal toll fighting government.
Patenaude said in turn, the government has refused to defer tax on the income made from having to salvage log the timber, which his family has been nurturing and protecting for 60 years, once considered as money in the bank.
The timber was also valued about 25 per cent less due the fires, one of which was caused by a backburn.
"The Lexington backfire caused most of our damage on our timber," he said.
Aside from the financial losses, which so far the government refuses to cover, what Patenaude really wants to see changed is the permitting system in an emergency. He wants ranchers deemed an essential service during an emergency.
Patenaude watched during the fires as his lowbeds carrying bulldozers destined for the Big Lake fire were turned around at 150 Mile and not let through the roadblocks. He recalls he couldn't leave the ranch to get a pail of oil for his irrigation system for fear he couldn't get back in.
"I want that to change, ranchers need the freedom to move in an emergency. You can't just walk away from 550 head of cows. If I walked away from my cows in the middle of winter the SPCA would put me in jail, but they expect me to walk away from my cows in the middle of a fire? That I don't understand. There is no one else more capable to look after my cows or my family.
Patenaude said if there was another fire, he would make the same choice to stay on his land.
"Our family's been here for five generations. The regional government apparently knows better than I do, or my family does and comes in and tell you to leave?


Are you searching for home insurance coverage in Dubre, KY? Enter your Zip Code to compare the best options available nearby. Comparing multiple quotes is the best way to save money on your homeowners coverage in Cumberland county.
Have you been asked by your mortgage lender to get homeowners insurance? Did you just purchase your first home and understand the value of insuring it but don't know what type of coverage to buy? If so, here is some information to help you get the Dubre, Kentucky homeowners insurance you need.
Obtain quotes from insurance agents in person to get personalized help. Or, for more convenience, you can get Dubre homeowners insurance quotes free online. Protect your home with affordable insurance today.
Each and every house owner ought to have residence owners insurance. Property owners insurance policies go over your property in the celebration that any home harming incidents must take place. Most home owners insurance policy procedures cover fire hurt, theft, vandalism and other situations. The adhering to write-up provides detailed ideas about property owners insurance coverage that any individual can use.
If you need to have to file a claim with your homeowner's insurance coverage organization, do so immediately. Rapidly reply to any ask for for data as fully as you can. The much more information the insurance firm has, the faster they can procedure your claim. Also, much injury endured by homes will only worsen with time, meaning that if you enable it sit, the expense will be greater.
When you are dealing with house owners insurance policies keep in mind that some insurance firms will really decrease your high quality if you get your house loan paid out off. They will believe that considering that you very own the home outright you are much more very likely to consider better care and pleasure in your residence.
The very best homeowner's insurance coverage in the planet may contain provisions that require you to hold your house in working buy. You ought to scrutinize it to see how significantly standard servicing you are essential to do on your residence in buy to be confident that all contingencies are lined. In any other case, you might conclude up possessing a coverage-connected predicament you weren't mindful of, due to the fact the coverage specified you required to keep that certain component of your home in excellent operating get in buy to file a claim.
The greatest way to lower your insurance policy payment is to raise your deductible. A substantial-deductible coverage is a guess from the house, so to speak. You're preferring the risk of having to shell out for a high deductable in excess of the truth of obtaining to shell out a greater volume of income every single thirty day period. So, if you are conservative, this may possibly not be the best suit. But if you happen to be willing to likelihood getting to spend out that large deductible, then this strategy is value adopting.
Mortgage loan companies will need you to have home owners insurance policy on your home. A policy can assist defend your investment towards particular kinds of normal disasters. Obtaining out how significantly a coverage is going to cost you for your prospective new home is an crucial element of knowing if you can manage the residence you are considering.
Make sure that your home is adequately safeguarded with the proper variety of smoke detectors, and you could qualify for a price reduction on your property owners insurance policy premiums. Putting in much more than the advised quantity of smoke detectors can also outcome in a low cost from some insurance companies. Verify your coverage to see if qualify for a reduction in your rates.
A safety program can support conserve you considerably cash about your insurance policies expenses. This will not only give you peace of mind, it will also preserve you income on your insurance rates. The much less risk you are, the lower your premium will be. You will sooner or later save enough on rates to shell out for a lot, or even or all, of the protection program.
Doc all of your valuables and preserve the photographs or video clips of the issues that you want lined under your house insurance coverage, in a fireproof lockbox. This will safeguard your information and make submitting a declare for the missing or wrecked items with your residence insurance company, simpler and quicker.
Employing these guidelines can aid you select a plan that operates with the two protection and cost and understand about how to employ it. You can determine an acceptable coverage that totally protects you in the occasion of a disaster or accident.


text:
Q: How to put a ULong to a ByteBuffer in Kotlin I just the answer in this post How to convert a Data Class to ByteBuffer in Kotlin?
And it works as expected. The problem is that nearly all data types are possible to put except the unsigned once. There are putLong etc. functions for bytebuffers but not for putULong.
Any hint would be apreciated.
Kind regards,
C.W.

A: There is an one-to-one correspondence between ULong and Long, so you can convert ULong to Long, put that into the buffer, and vice versa when reading. For convenience, declare these extension functions:
fun ByteBuffer.putULong(value: ULong): ByteBuffer = putLong(value.toLong())

fun ByteBuffer.getULong(): ULong = getLong().toULong()

and they can be called just like get/put*().


Our strawberry pie candles are highly scented with the amazing fragrance you would expect to smell when staring at a fresh baked pie. These large pie candles have a colored base, the perfect crust, and delicious topping. We hand craft these strawberry scented pie candles using a blend of paraffin waxes. Our scented candles make a unique house warming gift or a can be used as the centerpiece on a dessert table. Resist the urge to eat these scrumptious looking candle pies though, you might bend your fork. We assemble the 9 inch pies in a foil pan which should be placed on heat resistant surface when burning to protect your table surfaces from heat damage. We put 4 wicks into these for a uniform burn.
We purchased this as a gift for my mother-in-law who had been looking for a pie shaped candle for months. She absolutely adores it. It looks realistic and smells great!


Despite multiple benefits, there are various issues which have negatively impacted the rate of adoption of SD-WAN, including scepticism about Internet performance; multiple vendors entering an already vendor-heavy market; and vendors confusing clients by implying that SDWAN is a plug and play solution which they can simply manage on their own - resulting in indecision when it comes to outsourcing the WAN.
Of course, there is the natural resistance to change that comes with emerging technology, however, SD-WAN is a compelling option for businesses because of the cost savings, improved agility and availability, and ability to act as a risk management tool.
Improved performance, agility and speed.
Business agility is critical, especially in the IT arena, and network complexity is one of the primary reasons why organisations implement SD-WAN solutions. The agility of SD-WAN makes it appealing as the roll out is quick, easy and standardised, with little complexity – provided its provisioned by an experienced network provider capable of central configuration. SD-WAN technology enables greater enterprise efficiencies through: managing bandwidth availability and usage, traffic routing and prioritisation and ease of administration. Mission critical applications can be prioritised and required configurations rapidly deployed for short periods of time, like month end, at the click of a button from one centralised control point.
Because SD-WAN gives businesses the ability to leverage a public Internet connection, without compromising security, it offers almost immediate cost-savings to adopters - but it's entirely dependent on use case. SD-WAN will be cost-effective for, amongst others, industries that involve project sites, retail branches and roaming brokers, and where it's too expensive and cumbersome to deploy fibre to a temporary location. The corporate connectivity benefits of SD-WAN could be considered as the solution between pure mobile solutions, and SLA-driven MPLS WAN connectivity; thus, one must first consider the business need before deploying.
Available and ready to go.
SD-WAN technology is easily shipped overnight. It's an instant solution that can connect to wireless mediums such as LTE and has near zero touch configuration – making it an attractive option for the onsite, timebound operations that are characteristic of the construction and engineering sector. Because SD-WAN is software-driven, it's inexpensive, but it's also self-provisioning, and resilient.
With more control comes less risk, but because we're using the Internet, there is an element of security risk that needs to be managed through built-in capabilities on-site. When implementing SD-WAN, the client decides on the application prioritisation and standardised configuration. Should a new virus pop up or security scare occur, we can rapidly patch those devices remotely across the network.
Who is SD-WAN right for?
Companies of all sizes are looking toward this next generation WAN technology and are attracted by the potential SD-WAN offers, but understanding the differences between SD-WAN and more traditional WAN solutions is key. Whether you're a mid-sized business or a global enterprise, your service provider should help determine which WAN solution is right for you.
Businesses considering SD-WAN should determine whether they want to outsource their WAN to a trusted partner or build an in-house WAN competence, with the associated technical expertise and tolerance for technology complexity. The benefit of system integrators and service providers like Internet Solutions is access to specialist skills and centralised deployment of SD-WAN configurations - ensuring rapid, error-free rollout.
Decision makers must also consider the business drivers across the categories of performance, cost, availability, agility, bandwidth requirements and application architecture, and then, guided by the service provider, decide which WAN model is best for the enterprise infrastructure requirements.


text:
What's the office dress code?
Two-thirds of UK employees enjoy following a dress code, rising to 67% among 18 to 24-year olds and 69% among 55 to 64-year-olds, new research has found.
Of those surveyed 57% said they did so to look more professional to customers, 26% said it made them feel professional and 9% felt it made everyone equal.
By contrast, of those who felt employers should loosen their dress codes, 28% said it made people feel uncomfortable, 24% complained that they didn't allow people to show off their personality and 18% pointed out that styles were always changing anyway. The study also revealed that nearly a quarter of men and more than a fifth of women had been told off for wearing the wrong attire to work.
But some companies are loosening up on tighter dress code policies. Goldman Sachs was recently praised for relaxing its strict City dress code, which banned clothing items such as short trousers for men. In a memo to staff, the banking titan said it would be embracing a "year-round casual dress code", though requested that employees consider their smartness when in client-facing meetings.
Dress codes can be useful for letting people know where they stand, and alleviating concerns about getting dressed in the morning. It is important, however that when developing a dress code, employers consider what is appropriate and practical in the office.
← Increasing retirement age – how can employers plan?
Do you provide employer references when asked? →


text:
On Cricket: Mike Brearley on Kohli, aesthetics & prejudices of the game
Dr KN Raghavan January 28, 2019 07:34 AM IST
Mike Brearley has showered heaps of praise on Virat Kohli in his latest book 'On Cricket'.
John Michael Brearley, popularly know as Mike Brearley, is a person with many unique records. He was a member of England cricket team from mid 1970s to early 80s, and led the side in 31 out of the 39 Test matches that he played.
He had a very average record as a batsman scoring only 1,442 runs at an average of 22.88 per innings, with 91 as his highest score. But he is remembered as a successful captain, under whose charge England won 17 Tests and lost only four.
After his retirement from the game, he served as president of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for a term.
His brilliance in academics saw him graduate from Cambridge University and work as a lecturer in Philosophy before moving on to practise as a psychoanalyst, where his success led to nomination as president of British Psychoanalytical Society.
He successfully campaigned for cutting off cricketing links with South Africa on the issue of 'Apartheid' in 1968 and seconded the motion moved in MCC in this regard.
He has also authored numerous books on cricket. 'Intellectual' and 'articulate' are two words that come first to mind when one thinks about Brearley.
He possessed an amazing ability to manage top cricketers such as Ian Botham, Bob Willis and David Gower and was once famously referred to by Rodney Hogg, the Australian fast bowler, as the 'bloke with degree on people'.
He commanded the respect of the side despite his own moderate performances as a player and was a motivator par excellence, knowing the right buttons to press to get the best out of them.
LESSONS FROM THE PANDYA-RAHUL CHAT ROW
His books and articles are a sheer delight to the reader as he expresses his views in excellent language, combining his formidable analytical skills with experience as a international cricketer, while retaining an element of objectivity.
His latest book 'On Cricket', brought out by Hachette in 2018, does not disappoint those who await his offerings.
It comprises of a series of articles that he has written on various topics, which have been clubbed under 11 categories.
The scope and sweep of the subjects covered are so vast and range from aesthetics of the game to issue of racial prejudices in cricket.
He has not baulked from commenting on sensitive matters such as match-fixing and ball-tampering.
But for the lay reader, the most interesting are those chapters that deal with his playing days and his observations about other cricketers.
WHERE DOES INDIA'S TRIUMPH DOWN UNDER RANK AMONG THEIR GREATEST VICTORIES?
It is widely recognised that Brearley's greatest achievement was in taking over the captaincy during the Ashes series of 1981 when England were trailing 0-1 after the first two Tests and then shaping a amazing turnaround that saw them win by a margin of 3-1.
In the third Test at Headingley, Australia, after choosing to bat first on a green track were 210/ 3 at the close of play on first day. Brearley has written that at this stage he thought that going into the match with a four-pronged pace attack comprising Willis, Botham, Chris Old and Graham Dilley, leaving out off spinner John Emburey was a mistake.
He felt that it would have made more sense to have played Emburey in the place of Willis, who was not fully fit, going through bad form and having troubles with over stepping.
He has confessed that he did not envisage that Willis would suddenly roar back into form and bowl a deadly spell when he captured 8 wickets for 43 runs in Aussie second innings to script an 18-run win that brought England back into the series. It takes a supremely confident, completely honest and innately humble person to acknowledge that good turn in fortune was brought about by a huge slice of luck, overcoming the common human frailty to claim credit for glad tidings.
Brearley brings the same intellectual honesty and understated modesty into his writings.
A considerable portion of the book is devoted to the great cricketers against who he had played. There is a chapter about Dennis Lillee, detailing the greatness of the Aussie pacer as a fast bowler, his competitive spirit, complete devotion to his craft and contribution to the game after his playing days in grooming fast bowlers in India.
The infamous 'aluminium bat' incident involving a much-publicised attempt by Lillee to play with a bat made of metal and the events that took place in the field in its aftermath find detailed description but Brearley has concluded this piece by making a touching reference to the warmth that this long-time opponent exuded as a person and human being off the playing field.
Brearley has analysed the innovations that have taken place in the area of batting and bowling during the last three decades.
In this section, chapters are devoted to Sarfraz Nawaz, father of reverse swing, Muthaiah Muralitharan who introduced 'doosra', and Shane Warne, the lord of leg spin, among bowlers, while in the batting segment strokes such as scoops and switch hits are covered.
Shane Warne, the lord of leg spin.
He has also written about his own contributions to laws of cricket, which involve making provision in the statute for forfeiting an innings and keeping helmets used by fielders behind the wicket keeper when not in use.
On the issues of cheating and other forms of gamesmanship, Brearley's views are coloured by his experiences as a player.
He condemns match-fixing but recommends a stricter punishment for senior players like Hansie Cronje and Salman Butt who forced players under them to perform such shameful acts.
But he has adopted a softer line on ball-tampering as he feels that attempting to change the condition of match ball to suit the bowlers is something that most fielding sides indulge in, at least occasionally.
He has attributed the outcry over actions of Steve Smith and company at Cape Town to the widespread disenchantment over poor behaviour of Aussie cricketers.
Spirit of Cricket
An entire chapter is devoted to 'Spirit of Cricket', where matters such as 'walking' by batsmen and sledging are covered.
Surprisingly, the person for whom Brearley professes maximum admiration is Ian Chappell, who the author felt, never budged from the basic principles, whatever the situation or provocation.
The section that I liked best was the one on wicketkeepers, where his insights as a former stumper makes the reading more interesting.
The person for whom Brearley professes maximum admiration is Ian Chappell.
He laments at the very beginning that quality of wicketkeeping has suffered a fall after advent of limited overs' cricket as sides prefer to pick a batsman who can also don the big gloves behind the stumps rather than go in for a specialist.
There are chapters about four stumpers - John Murray, Rodney Marsh, Alan Knott and Kumara Sangakkara - who he rates as the best he has seen. Syed Kirmani, who has kept wickets splendidly standing up to the legendary spin quartet of India, also finds a mention in this section.
The Indian heroes
Indian cricketers figure prominently in this book. There is a section devoted entirely to Indian batsmen, in addition to a chapter on Bishen Bedi. Further, Kapil Dev figures prominently in the write-up about the four fast bowling all-rounders - Botham, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee being the other three - who straddled the cricketing world during the 1980's.
The piece on Bedi comes in the section titled 'Heroes' and is laudatory, with the focus on his beautiful bowling style and outspoken, yet warm and generous nature.
Virat Kohli is hailed as a bridge between the two cultures of Test cricket and limited overs' version of the game in the book.
The part about batsmen starts off with Ranji, followed by Pataudi, the two princes who caught the attention of British cricketing elite. There is a chapter about Sachin Tendulkar titled "Indian Bradman", but the real surprise is the piece about Virat Kohli, on who Brearley has showered heaps of praise.
Hailing Kohli as a bridge between the two cultures of Test cricket and limited overs' version of the game (originally coined by Suresh Menon), he quotes Martin Crowe's description about the Indian captain -- 'he combines the intensity of Dravid, the audacity of Sehwag and the extraordinary range of Tendulkar'.
While there cannot be higher praise in cricketing terms than this, Brearley closes the chapter with a small note of warning that Kohli, like President Kennedy, needs strong men around him as his own checks and balances to prevent proper pride from crossing into arrogance.
The book is laced with pithy humour, often directed against the author himself, which never fails to bring a smile on one's lips.
An example goes like this. Once Rodney Hogg asked while doing television commentary "Why did you give up wicketkeeping Mike?
Brearley replied " I wasn't very good at it", but Hogg did not let go "But you carried on with your batting!
To conclude 'On Cricket' is an excellent book which falls under the category of "must read" for all cricket lovers.
It should form part of collection of those with a sense of history who are eager to know the finer points about this beautiful game and its evolution during the last five decades.
(The author is a former international umpire and a senior bureaucrat)
Read more: Vantage Column
ODI cricket
MORE IN VANTAGE POINT


text:
The Sultan's Game
John Gollon, well known by chess variant enthousiasts for his book on chess variants, now unfortunately out of print, was working on a second book on chess variants. Also unfortunately, this second book was never published. Gollon has sent some materials from a draft of the book to Eric Greenwood (in 1976): the description given here is based on part of these writings by Gollon.
This game was invented by L. Tressan of Leipzig in 1840.
The game is played on an 11 by 11 board. With the usual set of pieces, three additional pawns and three new pieces: a general and an adjudant are given to the players. The game starts with the following opening setup:
King f1; Queen g1; General e1; Marshall d1; Adjudant h1; Rook a1, k1; Knight b1, j1; Bishop c1, i1; Pawn a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2, i2, j2, k2.
Black:
King f10; Queen g10; General e10; Marshall d10; Adjudant h10; Rook a10, k10; Knight b10, j10; Bishop c10, i10; Pawn a9, b9, c9, d9, e9, f9, g9, h9, i9, j9, k9.
Movement of pieces
The general has the combined moves of queen and knight; i.e., it can move as rook, bishop, or knight.
The adjudant has the combined moves of bishop and knight.
The marshall has the combined moves of rook and knight.
Pawns may make at their first movement a triple or double step (or a normal single step movement), so a white pawn on e2 can move to e3, e4, or e5 (or capture at d3 or f3). At each of the squares passed by, the pawn can be taken en passant. Pawns can promote to general, queen, adjudant, marshall, rook, knight, or bishop. In Tressan's other game The Emperor's Game, pawns could only promote to lost pieces, so this rule may well be also the case here.
A player can castle under the same conditions as orthodox chess. When castling, both the rook and the king move four squares in each others directions (thus rook and king do not end up at adjacent positions after castling.)
Other rules are as in orthodox chess.
Written by Hans Bodlaender, based upon material written by John Gollon, sent to Eric Greenwood in 1976, and sent to me by Eric in 1997.
WWW page created: September 1, 1997.
The Sultan's Game. Variant on 11 by 11 board from 19th century Germany. (11x11, Cells: 121)
Anders Jensen wrote on 2016-10-06 UTC
The game can be played at the website jocly.com under the name sultanspiel.
Here it is the rule for promotion that a pawn only can be promoted to a captured piece. Because of that a player who haven't had any pieces captured can't move a pawn to the last rank.
Another rule not mentioned here is that pawns who had made a single step move at their first move may choose between a singlestep move and double step move at their next move.
Author: Hans L. Bodlaender. Inventor: L. Tressan.
https://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/sultan.html
First Created: Monday, September 1st, 1997
Last Modified: Monday, September 1st, 1997
File Timestamp: Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:50:56 +0000


text:
I took the year off from Father's Day yesterday. For several years I'd been making a point, in my secular newspaper column, of writing something quite opposite to "feel-good" on the subject for the Sunday corresponding to this secular occasion. But glancing through the last couple of them, I thought, "That's enough now: People are going to think you are bitter."
And verily, as I was reminded from another recent (unrelated) ideological encounter, "bitterness" is among the few traditional crimes that continue to be punished in our postmodern, multicultural, de-stereotyped, ungendered, ecological, and very warped society. It is among the worst charges you can hurl at someone. Lying behind it is the pained suspicion that the bitter creature is claiming a victimhood status that may be fully justified. Nothing wrong with posing as a victim — so long as one is merely earning a living from it. But to actually be a victim, and especially of something like feminist-rewritten family law! That's bitter.
On the political level, my own case doesn't interest me — except insofar as it prevents me from writing openly about a subject on which I have acquired firsthand experience. My own case is hardly the worst of which I'm aware. And I've seen many where the man (and, in one strange case, the woman) has been merely stripped of his possessions and livelihood, as well as all hope of material recovery or a gentle old age. He may still have his old steady job, but he is now living in a basement somewhere and eating from tins. Tough luck, but laboring conditions remain worse in some parts of China.
The hard cases I've seen all involve children, and the use of them as weapons in close-quarter fighting. And the worst victims have been, typically, the best men. They agreed, consciously, to take the crunch, rather than have their kids caught in the crossfire. They did not fight back, when they realized how ruthless an estranged mate was prepared to be. Flaws they had and have plentifully in themselves; often enough, their susceptibility to persecution began in those flaws. Yet by agreeing that, "If someone must take the crunch, it will be me," there is some trace of Christ-like behavior.
None of us is Christ, however, and no martyrdom can be perfect except that which was performed on the cross. It is an open question whether children can ultimately benefit in any way from the destruction of their father by their mother (aided by the agencies of the state). The fallout from real injustice is never limited to what can be foreseen.
But note that invocation of "justice." It is with real justice that some fathers have been removed from their children's lives, and I have no interest in trying to reverse the unspoken feminist axiom, that "women are incapable of evil, and men incapable of good." Sound family law — to which we were certainly closer before than after the feminist revolution — must acknowledge that both sexes are fully human and therefore fully capable of sin and error. And the law itself must be flavored with this knowledge; it should never itself become an obstacle to the realization of the truth.
It was the present pope, when he was serving as adjutant to the previous one, who wrote what remains I think the clearest analysis of the problems we face in restoring some balance to a society that, not only through law but through popular culture, has demeaned fatherhood and exalted in its place not motherhood but a scheme for the "empowerment" of women. The document in question carries the cumbersome English title, "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World," and is dated May 31, 2004.
The text is the opposite of cumbersome, however. A thinking mind will be riveted, from the start, by the shockingly concise yet accurate analysis of the feminist position and what follows from it. I count only six sentences between:
A first tendency is to emphasize strongly conditions of subordination in order to give rise to antagonism: women, in order to be themselves, must make themselves the adversaries of men.
This theory of the human person, intended to promote prospects for equality of women through liberation from biological determinism, has in reality inspired ideologies which, for example, call into question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father, and make homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality.
In this brief interval, everything that has happened over the past 50 years would appear to be encompassed. And this is followed by a remarkably biblical tour, not of feminine wiles but of feminine virtues, and a very confident declaration of the indispensability of what has been abandoned: the very role, and true power, of women.
It offers, to my mind, the only possible way forward. We have gone as far as we can get in settling scores, so that there is no blood left to be shed in the battle of the sexes. The answer is not to settle more scores through the "Father's Rights" movement. It is instead, weirdly enough, to recall the original configuration, the necessary cosmic dance, of the masculine and feminine virtues.
And indeed, bitterness has no place in that meditation, as it can take no place in rebuilding the faith and trust upon which family life must be founded. Justice itself must look beyond settling scores, to the restoration of an order that is just, good, and even beautiful. It cannot stand on its own.
Tagged as family, Men, pope, women
By David Warren
David Warren is a Canadian journalist who writes mostly on international affairs. His Web site is www.davidwarrenonline.com.


text:
Motorcyclist escapes serious injury in Route 8 crash
Body found in the Naugatuck River in Torrington
Body recovered from Plymouth lake
Livingston, defense lead Tri-Town past Wolcott
Goshen first selectman announces running mate for November
Barkhamsted Braves celebrate 16-0 season
Terryville Black Sox top Tri-Town Trojans
Jeff Jacobs: On a visit to Connecticut, it's vintage Diana
Torrington area business briefs, July 14, 2019
At New Milford's Bad Dream Brewery, books and beer are winning
Litchfield County business briefs, July 7, 2019
Torrington area business briefs, June 30, 2019
CT Wine Festival set at Goshen Fairgrounds July 20-21
50 years of art and the moon landing
Thomaston's Landmark Community Theatre presents "Matilda"
Roxbury Pickin' & Fiddlin' Contest returns for 45th year
Rare plant, garden antiques sale benefits Women's Support
Connecticut Daylily Society to hold annual sale May 18, 2019
In New Preston, book signing for 'Garden Wild' inspires
Woodbury nature center offers gardening program
https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Imposter-sex-would-be-rape-under-new-law-13687896.php
Imposter sex would be rape under new bill
By Jordan Fenster
Updated 9:17 am EDT, Thursday, March 14, 2019
Jared Rohrig, a former Orange police officer and son of Milford's school board minority leader, leaves Superior Court in Milford, Conn. on Tuesday. Sept. 8, 2009.
Photo: Brian A. Pounds / AP
If a twin, for example, posed as his brother to sleep with his sister-in-law, he might be prosecuted for criminal impersonation or even sexual assault, but not rape.
At least not yet.
It has happened. Back in 2009, officials said former Orange police Officer Jared Rohrig pretended to be his twin, Joseph, in order to dupe a woman into having sex with him.
She noticed the absence of a tattoo of a cowboy on his buttocks and realized it was Jared and not Joseph. He was charged with sexual assault and faced a possible 10-year prison sentence but later pleaded down to first-degree unlawful restraint and criminal impersonation.
That situation could change. A bill has been proposed that would call it rape if the assault occurred "through the use of false or fraudulent representation, fraudulent concealment, false pretense or personation, trick, artifice or device."
Despite the Rohrig case, Rep. Steven Stafstrom (D-Bridgeport), co-chair of the legislature's Judiciary Committee, said, "It's not a crime with which there will be an extensive number of people charged."
There are already many instances specified in Connecticut's sexual assault statutes. Date rape, for example, is a crime in and of itself. Of course, it's sexual assault according to the law to have sex with someone who is "mentally defective to the extent that such other person is unable to consent," or too in your care or is physically helpless.
Psychotherapists who have sex with their patients are mentioned in the law, as are coaches, and sexual assault by medical deception is on the books.
But, until now, impersonating someone else in order to trick someone into sexual intercourse is not sexual assault according to the letter of the law.
"My understanding is that under current law if you basically trick someone into something it can be prosecuted as criminal impersonation, which is a Class A misdemeanor," Stafstrom said.
The goal, Stafstrom said, is not to get specific about every type of horrible thing a person might do, but make it easier for prosecutors to prosecute.
"You put enough law on the book to give a prosecutor the chance to decide what is the appropriate offence to charge based on the crime committed," he said.
The proposed law is in its initial stages — final language hasn't even yet been crafted and no public hearing has yet been scheduled — but Stafstrom believes it has a good chance of passage.
"On the face of it I don't see where the objection would come from but you never know what shakes out in a public hearing," he said.