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News Sports Lifestyle Opinion Hollogram Obituaries eNewspaper Legals
Three Alamogordo businesses discuss local economy climate
Duane Barbati
ALAMOGORDO – With the Christmas shopping season in full swing, some Alamogordo retailers are optimistic about the local economy despite the German air force leaving Holloman and consumers moving more towards purchasing goods online.
On the positive side, retailers are hopeful about the recent arrival of two F-16 training missions at Holloman Air Force Base.
According to the National Retail Federation, 2017 holiday retail sales predictions are up between 3.6 percent and 4 percent over last year's.
The Daily News talked to three local retailers Dollar Boots & Jeans, EZ TV & Appliance and Peace Out about the local economy, the outlook for retail businesses, and how online sales are affect their business.
Dollar Boots & Jeans, 2850 N. White Sands Blvd., sells western wear and work apparel for men and women.
Shawna McNatt manages the family owned business. The McNatt family bought the business on April 1, 2013.
Shawna McNatt said business has been steady.
"It's not been increasing," McNatt said. "I think a lot of it has to do with the online stuff. We're strictly a in store business. Our big deal is customer service. Customer service you don't get online. You can come into the store and actually try the clothes on."
She said she is branching out more to offer customers tennis shoes, work apparel and athletic wear.
"It's not just western," McNatt said.
She said she is not seeing a lot of the German air force personnel coming into the store because they're leaving Holloman.
"I think all the new squadrons coming in will make up for that," McNatt said. "We're hoping things will pick up."
She said she believes the new Hobby Lobby, Melrose Family fashions & Home Goods and Harbor Freight Tools coming to the White Sands Mall will help increase business north of town.
"It's been staying the same for us but I think it's going to help us with all the stores coming in," McNatt said. "Hopefully it will get people to shop more locally then going to Las Cruces and online. We're hoping it will increase our visibility. We're in a perfect location for that."
Peace Out, 622 E. Ninth St., is a niche vape, skateboard and skateboard accessories, and hookah shop. Peace Out owners Ralph Lermayer and his wife, Meg, have been in business for 9 years.
"The vape industry has really been taking off," Ralph Lermayer said. "We're doing well on the vapes. It used to be the hookah. We're just going with what works."
Lermayer said he does no online business.
"We're mainly retail," he said. "It's 100 percent word of mouth. We're not blacklisted with the base. We don't sell any of the little pipes or K2 stuff. I believe it ruins people's lives. We don't sell it."
Lermayer said he believes a lot of Alamogordo shops are struggling.
"I kind of see businesses going out like Hastings," he said. "Other businesses are not going great. It's customer service. We don't hire other people. It's just Meg and I."
Meg said she believes customer service is their biggest reason for their success.
"We treat people like people instead of the next dollar," she said. "It makes a difference and people really appreciate it. We not moving them through like cattle. We talk to them. We treat them like regulars. They know we're here to help them with any trouble or if they need any advice with our products."
Ralph said he relies on repeat business with the vape units that they sell.
"We get people that have to come back," he said. "We sell them one of these units, they need the liquid and coils to run the unit. It's not like they buy it and we don't see them again."
Meg said she believes helping her customers is a part of how they do business.
"A vape unit can be very daunting and challenging for some," she said. "Especially older people, they like to feel like they can come back in and ask questions or get help. It might be as simple as how to turn it back on because they forget it goes off. They can't get that help online. It's about getting people to quit smoking. If you just throw something at them and send them on their way, they're going to go back to smoking. It's about helping people."
EZ TV & Appliance, 1307 E. 10th St., sells big-ticket items like flat-screen televisions, refrigerators, washers and dryers, and now offers Serta mattress.
EZ TV & Appliance co-owner Mark Eaton said he believes the retail business is changing every year.
"From our particular point of view, it continues a challenge out there," Eaton said. "There's a lot of competition. We have big box stores, Internet and everybody is trying to eat from the same plate, and get their unfair share of what's there. They're doing some pretty strange and desperate thing in pricing and giving away some free stuff."
He said he is beginning to see the Alamogordo economy coming back.
"We see it come back slowly," Eaton said. "We're hoping 2018 will bring a columniation of a lot of things. We see a lot of new things happening out at the mall with the improvements, squadrons out at Holloman and the pellets out at the mines. Hopefully it will make for a brighter future."
He said he believes EZ TV is a traditional family owned business.
"Because we're a family owned business, we're strong with family values," he said. "Sunday is a family day. You got to have one day off."
He said he has received more foot traffic due to Albertsons opening across the street for our business.
"It definitely has helped with more foot traffic," Eaton said. "Four years ago, we brought on Serta mattresses that has been extremely successful for us. I didn't get to alarmed when Hastings and Kmart closed. Holloman is still the major driver. It's the major driving force in Alamogordo. We felt like that was still going to be strong. We didn't know what the elections were going to bring. It was scary because one was in favor of a strong military and the other was not. It was our biggest worry."
He said he believes with the big box store closures, it brings up opportunities for mom and pop stores.
"It leaves a void," Eaton said. "Local folks can come back in and start up those business to provide a service. I think we were fortunate. We didn't see major fluctuations in things. We would see a month that was off but we would see it come back. It's always been a roller coaster here anyway."
He said he believes the biggest concern for the business long-term is the Internet.
"Amazon is the monster out there," Eaton said. "Hopefully we'll see things come back full circle and people will want to do business with local individual. We're enhancing our website after the first of the year. We will have modernized look to it. We'll have pricing and what we have in stock. We can fill orders. I won't have a shopping cart. We're moving toward it."
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© 2023 www.alamogordonews.com. All rights reserved.


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Q: How can I do this using DevExpress XtraReports I have a report with the following set up, the issue is that i need to grab the OrderDate into my link, but when I use HtmlItemCreated , the OrderDate is created after the CreditCard label so I cant ever grab the text of the OrderDate label. Or how can I do this?, I know I can grab the e.Brick.Text when I am in the HtmlItemCreated but, I cant do it there because its being created first then the other one that has the value. This is being created first
private void xrLabel200_HtmlItemCreated(object sender, HtmlEventArgs e)

and then this
 private void OrderDate_HtmlItemCreated(object sender, HtmlEventArgs e)

My Issue again is that I need the OrderDate created in the OrderDate_HtmlItemCreated but , its being generated after it has gone through xrlabel200's evernt handler.
I dont know what to do I have tried changing the positions of the handlers etc.. and nothing.. here is a snapshot of the report if anyone can help me out
The OrderDate is at the header, the CardType is a link and thats where I am trying to append the date.. as follows
under
 private void xrLabel200_HtmlItemCreated(object sender, HtmlEventArgs e)
{
 string cardTypeName = e.Brick.Text;

        switch (cardTypeName)
        {
            case "N/A":
                CardTypeID = 0;
                break;
            case "MASTER CARD":
                CardTypeID = 1;
                break;
        }
//OrderDate.Text is always returning XRLabel3 (which is the name) because it has not been populated
link.HRef = string.Format("mywebsite.aspx?sDate={0}&ctId={2}", OrderDate.Text, CardTypeID);
        link.InnerText = e.Brick.Text;
        link.Target = "blank";
        currentCell.Controls.Clear();
        currentCell.Controls.Add(link);
        currentCell.Attributes.Remove("onmousedown");
}

A: Cant you base your code on the contents of the underlying datasource rather than the displayed report contents?
Doing this would mean you have no requirements to process code in a specific order.
e.g. GetCurrentColumnValue

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home > Shop > Electronics > Transports > ESOTERIC N-03T NETWORK AUDIO TRANSPORT
ESOTERIC N-03T NETWORK AUDIO TRANSPORT quantity
SKU: ESO-N-03T. Categories: Music Servers, New Arrivals, Transports. Tags: esoteric, ethernet, MQA, N-03T, network, ROON, streamer. Brand: Esoteric
The N-03T fulfills every music lover's dream: to access music freely from your living room chair and enjoy the very best audio quality. The DSD master audio source provides a crystal-clear audio experience, your CD collection is arranged in a library for easy access, and streaming services put new music at your fingertips. The N-03T is a network audio transport system specially designed to connect with an external DAC or a Super Audio CD player's built-in DAC via USB connection. Other than your audio system, all you need is a home LAN (Wi-Fi router, etc.), a tablet or smartphone and a NAS (music server) to store your music library. That's all you need for an easy, comfortable music experience where you don't have to compromise on quality.
Compatible with a Wide Range of Audio Sources
Care has been taken with every detail to achieve audio quality suitable for high-end network playback. The N-03T is compatible with a vast range of formats (DSF, DSDIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, MP3 and AAC) and supports playback up to DSD 11.2MHz and PCM 384kHz/32-bit by USB output. Gapless playback is also supported for all lossless formats for uninterrupted playback of live or opera recordings.
ESOTERIC Sound Stream
Album artwork courtesy of
© WARNER MUSIC JAPAN
Japan's largest class hi-res audio distribution site
http://www.e-onkyo.com/music/
Esoteric Sound Stream is an Apple iOS and a Google Android network playback app for tablets and smartphones designed with an emphasis on intuitive operability. Simply select music tracks by using your tablet or smartphone to create a customized playlist and then play the playlist. All screens are intuitively designed for easy operation and access to playlists and libraries, making it easy for anyone to use. It also has a wide range of advanced features that meet the demands of even the most experienced users.
A key feature is the excellent search and retrieval function that fully utilizes tag information. Images are also stored in the app, enabling you to instantly scroll through album artwork and libraries according to categories such as artist, year of recording, composer or category.
High-Sampling Digital Output
he N-03T has a USB port enabling digital output up to DSD 11.2MHz and PCM 384kHz/32-bit. This allows the N-03T to be connected to a USB DAC or a disc player with a USB port.
Two other digital output systems (XLRx1 and RCAx1) are also included, supporting PCM up to 192kHz/24-bit and DSD2.8MHz (DoP).
Music Server Function
The N-03T can also be used as a simplified music server in which a player and a library can be integrated by connecting large-capacity storage devices to two USB ports on the front and rear of the unit.
Compatible with a Wide Range of Streaming Services and Audio Codecs
Esoteric has partnerships with a wide range of streaming service and audio codec providers, and preparations are underway for compatibility with new services.*
*Information on newly supported services will be released on the Esoteric website. However, regional restrictions may be implemented on some services.
Begin your encounters with new music through TIDAL, a high-end music streaming service that has officially partnered with ESOTERIC. TIDAL's lossless music distribution service operates on a fixed rate basis. Offering instant access to its enormous sound library, TIDAL enables users to enjoy their favorite music online with excellent sound quality.
Learn more here: TIDAL
ESOTERIC is an official partner of Qobuz, the leading Hi-Res music streaming and download service in Europe. Benefit from 1 month Free Qobuz Hi-Fi trial (worth = £19,99€)
Learn more here: qobuz
roon ready
Roon is the most engaging, enjoyable way to browse your music. Being Roon Ready means that ESOTERIC network players transparently discover and connect to Roon, with no network configuration, with bitperfect delivery of audio to your dac. Together, Roon and ESOTERIC deliver the power, flexibility, and performance benefits of networked audio, with the easiest setup and highest reliability available.
Learn more here: Roon labs
Spotify is an on-line music streaming service delivering over 40 million music. Two types of services are provided, a basic service called "Spotify Free" for free, and on-demand and high-quality sound subscription serive called "Spotify Premium" at flat rate.
Learn more here: Spotify
MQA is an award-winning technology that delivers master quality audio in a file that's small enough to stream or download. Using pioneering scientific research into how people hear, MQA captures and authenticates the sound of the original studio performance.
Learn more here:MQA
The N-03T decodes MQA 44.1k/48kHz data to 88.2k/96kHz which are compatible with conventional PCM D/A converters.
Equipped with Two Powerful Independent Power Supplies
The N-03T is equipped with two large independent toroidal transformers, one for the internal network module and one for the other digital circuits, enabling the ideal supply of power to each circuit block. Unlike a standard switching power supply, these large linear power supplies are made with high quality components such as large filter capacitors and Schottky barrier diodes. The dedicated power supply for the network module also has an EDLC (Electric Double-layer Capacitor), a super-capacitor that has 1F (1,000,000μF) capacitance. These provide a dramatic improvement in audio quality.
High-Rigidity Chassis Construction
The bottom chassis used to secure the circuit components has a dual layer structure with two steel plates (5mm and 2mm). The power supply transformer and other components are arranged three-dimensionally on the two layers to prevent interference between components, and laser-cut slits are applied to each layer for effective controlling of vibration. And a thick, heavyweight aluminum panel enclosure and Esoteric's unique pinpoint feet (patents no. JP4075477 and JP3778108) provide thorough mechanical grounding against vibration.
Versatile Range of System Plans
Ever since we were first established, Esoteric's philosophy has centered on modular audio systems, breaking audio down into separate devices and refining each one to achieve maximum audio quality. The N-03T network audio transport system can be combined with Esoteric's range of D/A converters (D series) and Super Audio CD players (K series) to build your system just the way you want it.
System Plan 1 N-03T/P-02X/D-02X/G-02X
System Plan 2 N-03T/D-02X/G-02X
System Plan 3 N-03T/K-03Xs
System Plan 4 N-03T/D-05X
* The arrangements in these photos are for illustrative purposes only. In actual use, avoid stacking components. Mount them individually in an equipment rack.
* Insert the name
* Insert a valid email
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ESOTERIC D1X GRANDIOSO MONO DACs
ESOTERIC D1X GRANDIOSO MONO DACs (PAIR)
ESOTERIC G-01X
ESOTERIC G-01X MASTER CLOCK GENERATOR

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Curious Labs today announced Poser 5, the newest version of its 3D-character animation tool. The title packs plenty of new features, including dynamic cloth and strand based hair, photo-based facial modeling, FacePutty and MorphPutty tools, and a new FireFly Renderer, among others. Poser 5 will ship for Windows later this summer for US$549.00; plans for a Mac version will be announced later as well.


Everybody is welcome to attend this missions celebration event! The theme for the evening is "Missions: Past, Present, Future", We will have a catered (American) meal, with freewill offering. Come dressed in your favorite mission country attire, or come as you are! Celebrate our service to our Lord around the world, around our country and in our own backyard.
We will have reports from those returning from Haiti recently.
The India team will make their report.
The International ministry will bring us up to speed with everything going on now.
Our very own Youth Missions will give a report on what is in the works.
We have the new Interim Pastor from St. Paul, Pontiac, Pastor Jon Trinklein and Deacon Matt joining us, with possible other guests.
We will get an update from OMNI in Zambia.
MOST Ministries will be giving us an update where the need is currently for other short term missionary opportunities.
Please attend in the native dress of your favorite mission country.
Please RSVP to Clay Donnell, Missions Director, at clay@6iservices.com or text 810-560-1485, or email/call churchoffice@st-matthew.org / 248-624-7676.
RSVP deadline for the meal and childcare is Feb. 28.


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US, UAE press ahead to broker Israel-Sudan rapprochement
Sudan might be ready to establish ties with Israel, but first it needs for the United States to remove it from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the press after meeting to discuss normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and other Arab states, Jerusalem, Aug. 24, 2020. Photo by DEBBIE HILL/AFP via Getty Images.
Rina Bassist
sudanese economy, abdalla hamdok, normalization, israel-sudan relations, palestinians, terrorism, benjamin netanyahu
Three Sudanese parties held a joint conference in Khartoum Sept. 30, calling on the regime to accept an American deal for normalizing ties with Israel. "The American proposal is limited to the upcoming US presidential elections [on Nov. 3], and we shouldn't miss this historic opportunity. After announcement of the results of the US presidential elections, we will enter into a major crisis in Sudan if we don't agree to the offer made in the Emirates. Sudan will not be removed from the terrorism list for many years if we don't take advantage of the existing opportunity," said Mubarak al-Fadel, head of the Umma party.
For Jerusalem, the joint press conference reinforced impressions over Khartoum's willingness to close a deal soon. A senior Israeli diplomat told Al-Monitor that the ball is now in Sudan's court. Khartoum must now decide whether or not to accept the proposal made by American officials in Abu Dhabi some 10 days ago for a quadruple package deal.
The deal in the works is far from simple: Israel will achieve ties with a strategically important African country on the shores of the Red Sea; the United States will get a reinforced transitional regime in a country emerging from years of dictatorship; Sudan will be erased from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and will also receive generous financial aid; and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will receive diplomatic glory over mediating such a deal, along with a hefty bill to pay.
For many years, Sudan considered itself at war with Israel, though it did not participate in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Also, for almost three decades and under former President Omar al-Bashir, the country nurtured ties with Iran and championed the Palestinian cause. But after the 2015 severing of ties with Iran, and especially after the toppling of Bashir in April 2019, the diplomatic discourse in Khartoum changed. Sudan has not decided yet publicly on renewing ties, but all signs indicate it is well on the road for such a move.
On Feb. 3, Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met in Uganda with head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. After the encounter, Netanyahu went public and announced that the two enemy countries agreed to work together toward normalizing ties. Since then, Sudanese officials have expressed contradicting views over establishing ties with Israel. Sudan is now governed by a transitional Cabinet composed of military officers and civilians, and it seems that the Sudanese army is the one pushing Khartoum to renew ties with Jerusalem. The civil leadership fears that the Sudanese people will refuse to accept such a move, especially some extremist Islamist factions that were pushed aside after the fall of Bashir. Generating public anger in this transition period is the last thing the government now needs.
An Israeli expert on Africa told Al-Monitor that the civil leadership in Sudan has a hard time accepting renewal of ties with Israel, mostly because of the Palestinian issue. It would rather seperate the issue of removal from the terrorism-sponsoring list and ties with the Jewish state. But even the civil leadership seems to be coming around now. "Unlike the Sudanese army it is not necessarily attracted by Israel's military capabilities or the possibility of security cooperation," said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
As aforementioned, at stake is the removal of Sudan from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, which is the first and necessary step before Sudan's economic recovery. In other words, for the Sudanese civil leadership the question is less of establishing ties with Israel, and more the issue of pleasing the United States. Only the United States — with the help of Gulf countries — could extract Sudan from the economic crisis it suffers from.
Addressing the UN General Assembly Sept. 26, Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok referred to this precise issue. "Our prime concern is to obtain debt forgiveness and differential treatment. This is part of the work of our friends at the conference in Berlin. Also, Sudan's name should be removed from the list of countries that are sponsoring terrorism. … We hail the efforts of the US government and US Congress to remove Sudan's name from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism," he said.
Jerusalem is well aware of the diverging opinions within the Sudanese leadership over establishing diplomatic relations, which is why it has kept a rather low profile on the issue in recent weeks. It is letting Washington do the heavy lifting. Contrary to the UAE, Israel does not expect a flux of commercial ties if and when ties are established with Sudan, nor a great enthusiasm in the streets of Khartoum. Israeli tourists are not expected to flock to Sudan (as they dream to fly to Dubai), even if a normalization agreement is signed, though many Israelis are curious to hear and to learn more about this huge country, considered an enemy until not long ago.
Still, Israelis were surprised to hear in the press about the soon expected inauguration of the "Sudanese-Israeli Friendship Association." A report even claimed that thousands of Sudanese expressed interest in joining the association. A similar association has not yet been established in Israel.
On the morning of Oct. 1, UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al-Otaiba put a damper on hopes for an Israeli normalization deal with either Sudan or Oman. On Sudan, Otaiba estimated it intends to demand a higher price of the United States — much more financial aid then what was proposed in the Abu Dhabi meeting.
More from Rina Bassist
Israel turns its back on French-Egyptian Mideast initiative
Death of 16-year-old provokes settlers' ire against police, Palestinians
Israel's Gantz advances Palestinian construction plans in West Bank
Rina Bassist | Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Jan 15, 2021
Joint List frets as Netanyahu courts Arab voters
Mazal Mualem | | Jan 14, 2021
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Jared Szuba | Syria Conflict | Jan 13, 2021
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Karen Young | GCC Relations | Jan 13, 2021
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Palestinian factory workers strike in West Bank industrial zone
Danny Zaken | | Jan 14, 2021


Back in the day, cigarette cards were popular collectibles included in every pack and displayed photos of celebrities, advertisements, and more. Gallaher cigarettes, a UK-founded tobacco company that was once the largest in the world, decided to print a series of helpful how-to's on their cards, which ranged from mundane tasks (boiling potatoes) to unlikely scenarios (stopping a runaway horse). Most of them are insanely clever, though, like how to make a fire extinguisher at home. Who even knew you could do that?
The entire set of life hacks is now part of the NYPL's George Arents Collection. Check out some of the cleverest ones we could find below. You never know when you'll have to clean real lace!
More info: The New York Public Library.
#1 How to extract a splinter.
#2 How to cut new bread into thin slices.
#3 How to separate glass tumblers.
#4 How to revive cut flowers.
#5 How to make a fire extinguisher.
#6 How to test butter.
Next article Are These The Creepiest GIFs You'll Ever See?


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Posted September 14, 2020 by Pellucidinfo.com	Local News
The Federal Government reveals that it banned some foreign airlines from operating international flights into Nigeria in order to control the traffic of passengers.
When Nigeria's international flights resumed earlier this month after shutdown since March, eight foreign airlines were not approved to resume.
However, while speaking at a media briefing on Monday, September 14, the minister said the major criteria was based on how many passengers Nigeria can currently process amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
With international flights only allowed in Lagos and Abuja since operations resumed on September 5, Sirika said the government did not approve the airlines so the country can better manage its human and material resources to fight the novel disease.
He said, "If there were no challenges or restrictions, we would have opened the airport and everybody would come in.But we have a predetermined certain number that we can process in these our airports, and that's why we're opening only Lagos and Abuja."Based on that, we have to calculate based on facts, available numbers, protocols and facilitation to determine how many number of passengers can we handle per given time, from where and how.
The airlines were contacted. For those who are able to take passengers out of Nigeria that are non-residents on tourist visas were tabulated, calculated, and contacted, and those who are not able to do so.
So it had nothing to do with countries per se. Sirika said he has held talks in the past few days with officials of Lufthansa and Air France-KLM to discuss the policy with them, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also coordinating a meeting with other concerned airlines.
The minister also announced that international airports in Enugu, Kano, and Rivers will remain closed until Nigeria is able to process more international passengers."Everything is being well-calculated to ensure we are able to all remain safe.
All airports open for domestic flights Sirika also announced that all Nigerian airports, including private airports and airstrips, are now opened for domestic commercial flights.
When domestic flights were allowed to resume in July, it was done in phases as some airports still needed to get approvals from the Ministry of Aviation.
Sirika said on Monday private charter operations will no longer need approvals to operate within domestic airports in all government-approved airports, and in all government-owned airports.
However, those airports that are private airports – government-approved airports – the operators should check the safety status with the NCAA (Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority). Such airports like Jalingo, Uyo, Asaba, Gombe, Nasarawa, Damaturu, Osubi, etc.
So, you won't need any approvals from the minister but you should kindly check the status of these airports with the NCAA which is normal," the minister said.He noted that all flights into and out of the country that are private charter will still need approvals including technical stops.
Local News, Pellucidinfo.com, Pellucidinfo.com
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Pellucidinfo Aviation Minister Discloses Why Some Foreign airlines Are Prohibited Operation In Nigeria


The Cost of Mupirocin Resistance in Staphylococcus.
Control of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is based on the concept that resistance incurs a fitness cost in non-selective conditions. Fitness costs were assessed for low- and high-level mupirocin resistance in locally-derived Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis. Costs of resistance were assessed in pure cultures by comparing growth curve characteristics and in mixed culture as the proportion of resistant cells surviving. Costs were not present in comparisons of growth rates among groups of naturally-occurring isolates from the different resistance categories. However, in S. aureus, growth rates within resistance categories differed by approximately 30 – 90%. Among near-isogenic pairs of strains, fitness costs ≥10% were present in three of eleven pairs under pure culture and in six of eleven pairs under competition in mixed culture. Differences in intrinsic growth rates could easily mask fitness costs of the magnitudes observed. Thus, clinical outcomes also depend on whether there is a mixed infection and if so, on the growth rates of strains present.


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Nasser () is a masculine given name, commonly found in the Arabic and Persian languages. Alternative spellings of this name, possibly due to transliteration include Naser, Nassar, Nasir, Naseer, or Nacer. People with this name may include:

Given name
 Nassar (born 1958), Tamil actor and director, sometimes spelled Nasser
 Nasser al-Bahri (1972–2015), Al Qaeda militant
 Nasser Beydoun, American business executive
Nasser Fahimi (born 1974), political and ideological prisoner from Iran
 Nasser Abu Hamid (1972–2022), Palestinian politician
 Nasser Hussain (born 1968), former England cricket captain
 Nasser Judeh (born 1961) Jordanian politician
 Nasser Kanaani (born 1970), Iranian diplomat
 Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1987), Bahraini royal
 Nasser Khalili (born 1945), British-Iranian collector, scholar and philanthropist
 Nasser Al-Khelaifi (born 1973), Qatari businessman
 Nasser Meftah (born 1995), Qatari football player
 Nasser Minachi (1931–2014), Iranian politician
 Nasser bin Zayed Al Nahyan (died 2008), Emirati royal
 Nasser Al Qasabi (born 1961), Saudi Arabian actor
 Nasser Al Saeed (1923–unknown), Saudi Arabian missing dissident since 1979
 Nasser bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1911–1984), Saudi royal
 Nasser Al-Shamrani (born 1983), Saudi Arabian footballer
 Nasser El Sonbaty (1965-2013), German bodybuilder
 Nasser Yeganeh (1921–1993), Iranian jurist and politician

Middle name/father name
 Abdul Nasser El Hakim (born 1960), Lebanese-born Curaçaoan businessman, politician, minister and a founder of the political party Movement for the Future of Curaçao (MFK)
 Amal Nasser el-Din, (born 1928), Druze Israeli author and former politician, former MP in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament)
 Ammar Abadah Nasser al-Wa'eli (1977–2011), Yemeni wanted for terrorism by the FBI
 Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari (born 1970), Yemeni who became briefly wanted in 2002, by the United States Department of Justice's FBI in connection with terrorism
 Fadel Nasser Sarouf, (born Valentin Sarov in 1976), Bulgarian-Qatari weightlifter
 Hussein ibn Nasser (1902–1982), Prime Minister of Jordan from 1963 to 1964
 Hussein Nasser Al-Huraiti, Kuwaiti politician and MP in its National Assembly
 Hussein Nasser Walji (1920–2005), Tanzanian politician
 Mansour Nasser al Bihani, Yemeni fighter who died in Somalia in 2011
 Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, Yemeni major general and government minister

Surname
 Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser, alleged terrorist from Saudi Arabia
 Amin H. Nasser, Saudi Arabian engineer
 Farah Nasser, Canadian journalist
 Fredy Nasser (born 1956), Honduran businessman
 Hana Nasser (born 1991), Israeli football player
 Hanna Nasser (1936–2015), Palestinian politician
 Hanna Nasser (academic), Palestinian academic and political figure
 Jacques Nasser (born 1947), former CEO of Ford Motor Company
 Jorge Nasser (born 1956), Uruguayan musician
 Larry Nassar (born 1963), former US gymnastics osteopathic physician who sexually abused and raped over 70 women in his career
 Latif Nasser (born 1986), American Canadian writer

See also
 Nasser (disambiguation)
 Gamal Abdel Nasser (disambiguation)

References

External links

Arabic-language surnames
Arabic masculine given names

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This topic contains 3 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by Guust 3 months ago.
Hi, after doing a lot of reading in your manual re. pricing manager and UserWP I was not able to find the right solution for the following idea.
One of the main goals of our website (www.globaldutchies.nl) is not only to have members publish their (paid) listing (accommodation) but also to build a community and with that community contribute to charity.
2. member without accommodation listing but able to book with accommodations of members with listing.
What would be the best way to make this happen. Or would we need a premium plugin to make this happen?
You should not use Buddypress and UsersWP at the same time.
Hi Guust, thanks for the advice. I am looking at S2Member plugin. Checking out the possibilities and options this seems to replace completely the Geodirectory pricing manager, so I will de-install this one. Or do I need to keep it for something else.
S2member can only charge a fee for access to pages, and is used for different levels of access to your site.
GD Pricing Manager can only charge for adding listings, and is used for creating different levels of listings.
If you only want one type of GD listing to be added for free, then you possibly can do without the Pricing Manager.
The topic 'Payment before being able to' is closed to new replies, this may be for inactivity, please open a new topic if you have a similar question.


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Q: split function in javascript to input type = "text" I've found some code via google that I could use it should be corrected to fit my but when I select something from my drop down menu, nothing happens. have no idea of what I'm doing wrong.
<select name="h1" id="h1">
            <?php

            echo "<option value=".$rowlift['H1'].">".$rowlift['H1']."</option>";
                $pris = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM priser ORDER BY id ASC");

            while($rowP = mysql_fetch_assoc($pris))

                echo "<option value='".$rowP['pris'].",".$rowP['id']."'>".$rowP['hojde']. "</option>";
            ?>
        </select>

<?php
            if($rowlift['p1'] != '')
                echo "<input type='text' id='pris1' name='p1' value='".$rowlift['p1']."'>";
            else
                echo "<input type='text' id='pris1' name='p1'>"
            ?>

i hope this the think you was looking for.. when i select something nothing happens.
    <select name="h1" id="h1">
      <option value=""></option>
      <option value="80,1">1000m</option>
      <option value="90,2">1200m</option>
      <option value="100,3">1500m</option>
      <option value="110,4">2000m</option>
      <option value="120,5">2250m</option>
      <option value="130,6">2500m</option>
      <option value="140,7">3000m</option>
      <option value="150,8">3500m</option>
      <option value="160,9">4000m</option>
      <option value="160,10">Elev man.</option>
      <option value="160,11">Elev auto</option>
      <option value="0,12">HM</option>
      <option value="2000,13">Tandem pass u/video</option>
      <option value="2300,14">Tandem håndhold video</option>
      <option value="2600,15">Tandem pass m/video</option>
      <option value="0,16">Tandem master</option>
      <option value="-100,17">Tandem video</option>
    </select>

            <input type="text" id="pris1" name="p1">

A: I think it should be mydropdown.value.split(',');

A: var dropdownId = document.getElementById("yourdropdownId");
var strUser = dropdownId .options[dropdownId .selectedIndex].value;

var mySplitResult = strUser .split(",");

wrap the above code in onchange()

A: this is how it should be.. :D
  <select name="sel1" id="sel1" onchange ="show()" >
          <option value="">Choose .....</option>
          <option value="80~1">1000m</option>
          <option value="90~2">1200m</option>
          <option value="100~3">1500m</option>
          <option value="110~4">2000m</option>
          <option value="120~5">2250m</option>
          <option value="130~6">2500m</option>
          <option value="140~7">3000m</option>
          <option value="150~8">3500m</option>
          <option value="160~9">4000m</option>
          <option value="160~10">Elev man.</option>
          <option value="160~11">Elev auto</option>
          <option value="0~12">HM</option>
          <option value="2000~3">Tandem pass u/video</option>
          <option value="2300~14">Tandem håndhold video</option>
          <option value="2600~15">Tandem pass m/video</option>
          <option value="0~16">Tandem master</option>
          <option value="-100~17">Tandem video</option>
        </select>

    <input type="text" id="pris1" name="pris1">


text:
My brother Phil gets quoted (again) in the media
Winter didn't freeze out region's homebuyers
For the second consecutive month there has been a decline in sales of existing homes nationally. The drop was 6 percent in December, and more of the same is expected for January and February when those numbers are announced, said the National Association of Realtors.
Not so for markets in Westchester.
There has been good business in this post holiday and pre-spring period, said J. Philip Faranda, broker/owner of Philip Real Estate LLC, and president of Hudson Gateway MLS.
"I can understand how the national numbers would be dragged down a bit by the very extreme weather we see in other regions of the country. Overall, I expect the market to catch up as people dig out in the snow belt," he added.
Friday, February 28, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Olympic ice dance champs do their Indian folk dance
Charlie Davis and Meryl White. I didn't pay much attention to the Winter Games, but my friend and business associate Judy insisted I watch some of the Davis and White youtube video posted performances. This is from 2010.
there's something wrong with anyone who isn't impressed with this.
Nice story: Mom gives birth at 68th and 3rd.
And then help from Good Samaritans.
Good news - cold weather is killing off stinkbugs!
Although we've had a few around our house.
Up to 95% mortality according to this National Geographic posting.
Be glad you're not an Asian stinkbug, which are dying off in large numbers due to the cold, a new experiment shows. The invasive insect, commonly called the brown marmorated stinkbug, has been plaguing homes and devouring agricultural crops in 38 states.
Thomas Kuhar, a professor of entomology at Virginia Tech, and his team have been gathering stinkbugs for the past three years near his campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, to use in lab experiments. The bugs spend the winter outside in insulated buckets that mimic the walls, shingles, and attics that they inhabit when the temperature drops.
That normally works out quite well for the bugs—but this year stinkbugs have been, well, dropping like flies.
"In the previous two years, natural mortality averaged about 20-25 percent," he wrote in an email. In January 2014, however, Kuhar's team discovered that the subfreezing temperatures had killed off 95 percent of the population.
Normally the bugs have a twofold strategy for dealing with cold weather: first holing up in those walls or attics, and then activating cryoprotectants in their body that act like antifreeze, explained Kuhar. (See video: "How Arctic Frogs Survive Being Frozen Alive.")
But Kuhar's recent observations suggest that in weather this extreme, the stinkbug's natural defense mechanisms may not be enough—even though they're generally better adapted to colder climates.
Rugby: Good game - Scotland vs. Italy, Six Nations
Played in Rome.
Thursday, February 27, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Kimmel: (funny) Liam Nessen threatens audience member!!
Already 200,000 views on youtube. A set-up of course.
The strange deaths of two former Navy SEALS
Very strange. Neither had a history of drug use.
The larger mystery was how two men in their 40s who had endured the grueling work of Navy SEALs — one of them surviving multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — ended up dying together in the cramped quarters of the Maersk Alabama, a ship made famous by a 2009 pirate hijacking that was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie "Captain Phillips."
While veterans, especially those returning from war zones, have shown a high prevalence of substance abuse and other risky behaviors, friends, family and acquaintances of the two men said they seemed to have adjusted well to civilian life after years in the military. They were known as much for their zest for life as their hulking physiques.
Still, long days at sea guarding against piracy — a threat that has receded significantly in recent years — were a stark contrast to their past lives in an elite military unit. Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Kennedy worked for a private security company, Trident Group, protecting the Maersk Alabama's crew and cargo from attacks. Boredom, both men had told friends, was the real enemy on the open sea.
People who knew the men expressed shock that either would have used heroin, and former crew members on the Maersk said drug use was prohibited. When Jeremy White, a former Navy reservist and workout partner of Mr. Kennedy — so clean cut and chiseled that he was nicknamed Captain America — was asked about possible drug use by his friend, he said, "There's no way you can do their job and that."
Gold find! What can happen when you walk your dog. ...
The full story below the video. This is from the Telegraph (UK).
A California couple out walking their dog on their property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million (£5.9m) in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree.
Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them.
Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000 (£16,100), some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million a piece.
The pair are choosing to remain anonymous, in part to avoid a renewed gold rush to their property by modern-day prospectors armed with metal detectors.
They plan to put most of the coins up for sale through Amazon while holding onto a few keepsakes.
Before they sell them, they are loaning some to the American Numismatic Association for its National Money Show, which opens on Thursday in Atlanta.
What makes their find particularly valuable, is that almost all of the coins are in near-perfect condition.
That means that whoever put them into the ground likely hid them away as soon as they were put into circulation.
Because paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s, Mr Hall added, it's extremely rare to find any coins from before that of such high quality.
The coins, in $5, $10 and $20 denominations, were stored more or less in chronological order, McCarthy said, with the 1840s and 1850s pieces going into one canister until it was filled, then new coins going into the next one and the next one after that.
The dates and the method indicated that whoever put them there was using the ground as their personal bank and that they weren't swooped up all at once in a robbery.
Although most of the coins were minted in San Francisco, one $5 gold piece came from as far away as Georgia.
The coins were found along a path the couple had walked for years.
On the day they found them last spring, the woman had bent over to examine an old rusty can that erosion had caused to pop slightly out of the ground.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
A quick, fun science quiz
Sent to me by my friend Ellen.
I got one wrong out of 13 - I'd be embarrassed to 'fess up as to which one ...
Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz
http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/
Great! Gov. Jindal (LA) vs. Gov. Malloy (CT)
Easy to tell the Democrat from the Republican! This followed a meeting of a number of governors with the President.
Discussion: the disease that killed Harold Ramis
Lots of publicity the last couple of days about autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, which I'd never heard of, because of the death of actor and scriptwriter ("Ghostbusters) Harold Ramis.
Here is a somewhat detailed discussion of the diesease.
Piers Morgan co-workers happy he was fired by CNN
He was/is a pompous, condescending prig.
"He was always such an a------ to people working for him," one insider says of the bombastic Brit. Morgan's last show is likely to be this week, but no specific date has been set. We hear it was low ratings and a bad attitude that killed it, and the decision was made by network boss Jeff Zucker. "The makeup girls suffered the worst — he was rude and belligerent," says our source. "The general feeling is Morgan didn't show any respect to anyone working under him — the people who were trying to make him look good."
Last Thursday, "Piers Morgan" was seen by just 364,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen. That was easily beaten by Fox News' "The Kelly File" (1.9 million) and MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" (925,000). Morgan was questioned in November in London by cops investigating phone hacking, but a CNN spokeswoman said that interview was not a factor in his show being canned.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Krauthammer: "The Myth of Settled Science" re: climate change
Great column (Krauthammer is a scientist; graduate of Harvard Medical School), dead on in his evaluation and explanation of how science works. Hit the link for the whole column.
I repeat: I'm not a global warming believer. I'm not a global warming denier. I've long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly what this will cause in 20, 30 or 50 years are white-coated propagandists.
"The debate is settled," asserted propagandist in chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. "Climate change is a fact." Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge. Take a non-climate example. It was long assumed that mammograms help reduce breast cancer deaths. This fact was so settled that Obamacare requires every insurance plan to offer mammograms (for free, no less) or be subject to termination.
Now we learn from a massive randomized study — 90,000 women followed for 25 years — that mammograms may have no effect on breast cancer deaths. Indeed, one out of five of those diagnosed by mammogram receives unnecessary radiation, chemo or surgery.
So much for settledness. And climate is less well understood than breast cancer. If climate science is settled, why do its predictions keep changing? And how is it that the great physicist Freeman Dyson, who did some climate research in the late 1970s, thinks today's climate-change Cassandras are hopelessly mistaken?
They deal with the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans, argues Dyson, ignoring the effect of biology, i.e., vegetation and topsoil. Further, their predictions rest on models they fall in love with: "You sit in front of a computer screen for 10 years and you start to think of your model as being real." Not surprisingly, these models have been "consistently and spectacularly wrong" in their predictions, write atmospheric scientists Richard McNider and John Christy — and always, amazingly, in the same direction.
Climate-change proponents have made their cause a matter of fealty and faith. For folks who pretend to be brave carriers of the scientific ethic, there's more than a tinge of religion in their jeremiads. If you whore after other gods, the Bible tells us, "the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit" (Deuteronomy 11).
Sounds like California. Except that today there's a new god, the Earth Mother. And a new set of sins — burning coal and driving a fully equipped F-150.
But whoring is whoring, and the gods must be appeased. So if California burns, you send your high priest (in carbon -belching Air Force One, but never mind) to the bone-dry land to offer up, on behalf of the repentant congregation, a $1 billion burnt offering called a "climate resilience fund."
Ah, settled science in action.
Obamacare example: woman loses her cancer med
Same story. Prior affordable coverage that provides a life-saving medication is cancelled and the woman - who knows the health insurance ropes - she runs a medical practice - is toast. The author is a college president.
"If you like your coverage you can keep your coverage."
Stephen Blackwood: ObamaCare and My Mother's Cancer Medicine. The news was dumbfounding. She used to have a policy that covered the drug that kept her alive. Now she's on her own.
Carcinoid, a form of neuroendocrine cancer, is a terminal disease but generally responds well to treatment by Sandostatin, a drug that slows tumor growth and reduces (but does not eliminate) the symptoms of fatigue, nausea and gastrointestinal dysfunction. My mother received a painful shot twice a month and often couldn't sit comfortably for days afterward.
And then in November, along with millions of other Americans, she lost her health insurance. She'd had a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan for nearly 20 years. It was expensive, but given that it covered her very expensive treatment, it was a terrific plan. It gave her access to any specialist or surgeon, and to the Sandostatin and other medications that were keeping her alive.
The news was dumbfounding. This is a woman who had an affordable health plan that covered her condition. Our lawmakers weren't happy with that because . . . they wanted plans that were affordable and covered her condition. So they gave her a new one. It doesn't cover her condition and it's completely unaffordable.
Though I'm no expert on ObamaCare (at 10,000 pages, who could be?), I understand that the intention—or at least the rhetorical justification—of this legislation was to provide coverage for those who didn't have it. But there is something deeply and incontestably perverse about a law that so distorts and undermines the free activity of individuals that they can no longer buy and sell the goods and services that keep them alive. ObamaCare made my mother's old plan illegal, and it forced her to buy a new plan that would accelerate her disease and death. She awaits an appeal with her insurer.
Will this injustice be remedied, for her and for millions of others? Or is my mother to die because she can no longer afford the treatment that keeps her alive?
The "Affordable" Care Act is a brutal, Procrustean disaster. In principle, it violates the irreducible particularity of human life, and in practice it will cause many individuals to suffer and die. We can do better, and we must.
Jane Fonda - PO'd about being 76
Long article in the Mail online (UK). Not sure why I'm posting this. ... Yawn.
'I have so little time left!' Jane Fonda, 76, reveals she can't stop crying as she comes to terms with her own mortality
Monday, February 24, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Rugby: Ireland vs. England, Six Nations Tournament
Played at Twickenham.
A tough winter; but here's Russian winter
Forwarded from my friend Ellen.
Senator McCain laughs @ Susan Rice explanation
Remember - Benghazi murders caused by a video. "... It's a little embarrassing"? No, a patent disgrace.
Sunday, February 23, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
WSJ Op ed "I'm Black, Don't Abort Me"
An effort by an African-American writer to call out other African-American "intellectuals" and "journalists" (I'm using the terms very loosely!).
"I'm Black, Don't Shoot Me," is the website headline of a column in Friday's Washington Post by Eugene Robinson.
The column is a response to last week's verdict in the Michael Dunn trial. Jordan Davis, a black 17-year-old, was shot dead in his car by Dunn during a dispute over loud music. Dunn was found guilty on three counts of attempted second-degree murder—three other teenagers were in the car with Davis and survived—and could spend the rest of his life in prison. But the fact that the jury hung on the first-degree murder charge stemming from Davis's death has some black liberals in high dudgeon.
According to the latest Justice Department figures, blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but represent 50 percent of homicide victims. Moreover, black offenders kill 90 percent of black murder victims. And in the vast majority of interracial crimes, the victim is white and the perpetrator is black. In 2008 there were about 520,000 interracial violent crimes reported, and 82.5 percent were black-on-white, while just 17.5 percent were white-on-black. Messrs. Robinson and Coates would have us believe that black people in America should be more fearful of the Michael Dunns and George Zimmermans than of fellow blacks. Which is preposterous.
What these crimes statistics don't show is how early the black-on-black violence begins. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has just released a report showing that more black babies in the city are aborted than born. In 2012, there were 6,570 more abortions than live births of black children. ... Blacks are 25 percent of New York's population, but the black babies aborted were more than 42% of all abortions.
Perhaps that might interest black liberals who want to downplay black-on-black violence and lecture us about the value that whites place on black lives.
Yanks pumped about new pitcher Tanaka
The guy from Japan, being paid $225 million.
Yankees in awe of Masahiro Tanaka's split-fingered fastball
Austin Romine watched the pitch leave Masahiro Tanaka's glove, then heard it hit Brian McCann's glove behind him. He just had no idea what he had just seen.
"I had to turn around and ask what the pitch was," said Romine, who was taking live batting practice against the Yankees' new star pitcher. "I've never seen a ball move like that before. It's special."
Pope + Pope Emeritus @ Cardinal Ceremony
Saturday, February 22, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Ukrainian medic's "last" tweet (luckily not)
Shot in the neck, she thought she was dying.
Facebook $16 bil. purchase of WhatsApp explained in 90 seconds
On the Telegraph (UK) website. WhatsApp is very popular in other countries, not so much (yet) in the USA.
Worth $16 billion? That's hotly debated. And I have no real clue about it.
How the digital age and social media are changing wife/hubby communications
From my friend Linda - pretty good -
We had a power outage at my place this morning and my PC, laptop, TV, DVD, iPad and my new surround-sound music system were all shut down. Then, I discovered that my iPhone battery was flat and to top it off, it was snowing outside so I couldn't play golf. I went into the kitchen to make coffee and then I remembered that this also needs power, so I talked with my wife for a few hours.
She seems like a nice person.
Farmer's Almanac vs. Gov't. Climate Scientists: Almanac wins
Really good article.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) predicted temperatures would be "above normal from November through January across much of the lower 48 states."
"Not one of our better forecasts," Mike Halpert, the Climate Prediction Center's acting director, told Bloomberg Businessweek.
Who could have predicted such a harsh winter? The Farmers Almanac did, according to a CBS News report from August 2013. The nearly 200-year old publication hit newsstands last summer and predicted that "a winter storm will hit the Northeast around the time the Super Bowl is played at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands in New Jersey," and also predicted "a colder-than-normal winter for two-thirds of the country and heavy snowfall in the Midwest, Great Lakes and New England."
"We're using a very strong four-letter word to describe this winter, which is C-O-L-D. It's going to be very cold," Sandi Duncan, the almanac's managing editor, told CBS News in August.
Neat! "Beauty of Mathematics"
I don't usually go for these slightly syrupy pictures/videos but I thought this was pretty cool. As is often the case, on youtube comments you'll find some pretty nasty ones. you wonder what people are afraid of.
Krauthammer on FCC "study"
He's right of course.
WSJ op ed on the FCC and the first amendment
This op ed was in the Journal on February 10th, and is suddenly drawing some attention. Drudge linked to it yesterday.
Pretty outrageous. And the author, who I'd never heard of, is himself an FCC Commissioner. This certainly won't help his career.
The FCC Wades Into the Newsroom Why is the agency studying 'perceived station bias' and asking about coverage choices?
... everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.
Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, where I am a commissioner, does not agree. Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.
The purpose of the CIN, according to the FCC, is to ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters about "the process by which stories are selected" and how often stations cover "critical information needs," along with "perceived station bias" and "perceived responsiveness to underserved populations."
The FCC says the study is merely an objective fact-finding mission. The results will inform a report that the FCC must submit to Congress every three years on eliminating barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and small businesses in the communications industry.
This claim is peculiar. How can the news judgments made by editors and station managers impede small businesses from entering the broadcast industry? And why does the CIN study include newspapers when the FCC has no authority to regulate print media?
Kimmel: "Obamacare-care" - very funny
UPDATE: Here's an interesting short commentary on why nobody raised their hands. Perhaps the producers asked them not to, as part of the joke? or - my thought - perhaps people too embarassed to admit to it?
WSJ on the CBO saying raising the minimum wage costs 500,000 jobs.
Their (the Congressional Budget Office) estimate. Could be one million jobs. On other hand, incomes of about 16 million people could rise (becausei f the minimum wage rises, so do the wages of many others).
Hurting the 0.3% CBO. says a $10.10 minimum wage could cost 500,000 jobs.
CBO estimated that President Obama's latest proposal—$10.10 by 2016 from $7.25 today—could cost half a million Americans their jobs as "some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated, the income of most workers who became jobless would fall substantially, and the share of low-wage workers who were employed would probably fall slightly."
A wage of $0 an hour doesn't sound good, especially for the poor. But the White House rolled out chief economist Jason Furman to point out that the report overall was good news. "CBO's central estimate" is that the $10.10 minimum would "lead to a 0.3% decrease in employment," said Mr. Furman, who deserves a raise for having to make these arguments. "And CBO acknowledges that the employment impact could be essentially zero." Yes, but CBO also says that it could be as high as one million; the 500,000 figure splits the difference.
Cute picture: Save that elephant!
Great, crazy picture - "What do I do next?"
The Telegraph (UK) had this in their daily email yesterday.
Caption: A young elephant had to to be rescued after falling into a hole next to a railway embankment in north-east India.
Got to love Krauthammer's explanation of who thinks Climate Change is important
Too true!
Kimmel: President's Day man on street interviews
And these people vote.FDR best known for the Louisiana Purchase and his twitter feed.
Krauthammer, five years since the stimulus
Totally right.
Research on jokes: "Who tells the best jokes? Neurotic, aggressive jerks"
From the NY Post -
Along the way, comedy researchers have stumbled upon surprising truths. For instance, lawyer jokes were almost nonexistent in the 1950s, whereas today more than 3,000 websites are dedicated to attorney mockery. Jokes about cleanliness ("Why do Italian men wear mustaches? To look like their mothers.") don't work in Europe, where nobody thinks it's odd if you don't shower very often.
Example of incongruity humor: Woman walks into a bar with a duck on a leash. Bartender says, "Where'd you find the pig?" Woman says, "This isn't a pig, you idiot, it's a duck." Bartender says, "I was talking to the duck."
Hit the link for more; for instance research that religious men aren't good joke tellers ...
A look at George Soros investing position
He's increased his puts (makes $$ when stocks go down) on the S & P (possibly just increasing his hedging of overall postion) and bought calls (Makes $$ when underlying position goes up) on gold mining stocks.
Note also that while this is the latest data on his holdings, it is based on holding 45 days ago.
... the "Soros put", a legacy hedge position that the 83-year old has been rolling over every quarter since 2010, just rose to a record $1.3 billion or the notional equivalent of some 7.09 million SPY-equivalent shares. Since this was an increase of 154% Q/Q this has some people concerned that the author of 'reflexivity' and the founder of "open societies" may be anticipating some major market downside.
,,, while the SPY puts are most likely simply a hedge to his overall bullish exposure, perhaps more notable was the $25 million call position that Soros put on the gold miners ETF which has been beaten into oblivion over the past year, in the fourth quarter. Does Soros think that it is finally the miners' turn to shine?
Moral of the story: Doing an evening hike? Bring a flashlight.
College students in California, from China.
After the sun went down, they realized they were too far up the canyon to return to their cars before nightfall and had only the light from their cellphones to guide them down a slope 100 feet above a pool, the sheriff's account said. They called 911 shortly before 7 p.m..
As the volunteer rescue team responded, a separate group of hikers coming down the canyon heard calls for help, officials said. Equipped with headlamps, the hikers led the students down the trail, where they met up with search and rescue personnel. All returned to their cars safely.
Good investment article on not letting ideology kill your investment returns
As in, don't let liberal-conservative-right wing-left wing-democrat-republican mess with investment management reality. Off the Bloomberg website by a financial manager I hadn't heard of before.
"It's going to blow up the deficit, won't create any jobs and will cause all sorts of other problems."
A hedge-fund manager was lecturing me about the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, better known as the Bush tax cuts. I had been suggesting that this fund close its short positions on technology stocks, and move to a more constructive equity posture. I was getting nowhere.
The fund manager, active in New York Democratic politics, couldn't see past the policy issues involved. As long as George W. Bush was the U.S. president, this manager's bias was against long positions. But as an astute market observer noted at the time, "Give me a trillion dollars, and I'll throw you one hell of a party."
How did missing that party work out for him? From the pre-Iraq war lows, U.S. markets rallied 96 percent during the next four years. Chalk up another bad investment decision to political bias, emotional involvement and lack of objectivity.
Before Republicans chuckle too hard, the exact same conversations played out six years later. In March 2009, I kept hearing how the newly elected, Kenyan-born, Marxist President Barack Obama was going to be bad for investors. Some 10,000 Dow points ago -- literally, the very day of the lows -- Michael Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H. W. Bush, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled, "Obama's Radicalism Is Killing the Dow."
That was 160 percent ago.
More good stuff if you hit the link. And I suppose I ahve to plead womewhat guilty to being an "inflationista" (see the article).
NYT columnist on parenting: "Parental Pity Party"
Ross Douthat has a Sunday column in today's NY Times - he's kind of their token politically conservative, practicing Catholic. His columns aren't always interesting, but this one hits the spot and is also amusing.
WHEN I became a father, I expected to change in all the predictable ways — to become more responsible and more exhausted, to lose contact with friends and lean more heavily on relatives, to grow steadily balder of head and softer of belly. What I didn't expect is that parenthood would make me such a whiner.
Fortunately, Jennifer Senior's new book, "All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood," is an excellent primer on possible explanations for the great parental pity party. It ranges across the problems with family policy in the United States (basically, we don't have one), the changing role of children (who went, she notes, "from being our employees to our bosses"), the unsettling of gender roles, the "having it all" stresses inherent in the maternal quest for work-life balance, and the way economic uncertainty and technological change make it hard for parents to figure out what kind of world they're supposed to be preparing their children for.
But Senior's most insightful emphasis, I think, is on the gap that's opened — thanks to our society's extraordinary wealth and libertarian social ethic — between the lifestyles and choices available to nonparents and the irreducible burdens still involved in raising children.
HIt the link - it's a good, short column.
Girl whose parachute failed tells her story
Love her answer whether she'd skydive again.
Joe Girardi comments on Derek Jeter's retirement announcement
Confused - but successful - woman seeking to take retiring Congressman Henry Waxman's seat
"The congressional election in California's 33rd District, a coastal tract encompassing some of the wealthiest, most liberal quarters of Los Angeles County—Bel Air, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills, to name a few—just got a little weird."
Amusing article about a self-help celebrity woman who probably fits the bill of being the currently popular "spiritual but not religious" type. It takes about ten minutes to read.
"God Help Us. Marianne Williamson's campaign to save America's soul, starting with California's 33rd Congressional District"
New Age spiritual teacher, guru to movie stars, friend of Oprah—she is both self-actualized and self-made. Born to a Jewish family in Houston in 1952, by the late 1970s, Williamson confesses, "I was a total mess." After bouncing "from relationship to relationship, job to job, city to city, looking for some sense of identity or purpose," she found herself living in New York, "seeking relief in food, drugs, people, or whatever else I could find to distract myself."
She wallowed in this depression until stumbling across a book that she credits with transforming her life. That book was A Course in Miracles, a 1,300-page spiritual manual (complete with student workbooks and instructions on how to teach it) written by New York psychologists Helen Shucman and William Thetford and published by the Foundation for ParaSensory Investigation (now the Foundation for Inner Peace). Williamson heeded the book's call to become a "miracle-worker." In 1983, now living in Los Angeles, she began lecturing on The Course (as she calls it) at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz. She developed a large following, particularly among Los Angeles's gay community, which was then being ravaged by the initial outbreak of AIDS. By the end of the '80s, she had helped to found the Los Angeles Center for Living and Project Angel Food, both nonprofits providing assistance to people suffering from HIV, AIDS, and other life-threatening illnesses. ... In response to numerous media reports of her explosive temper and overbearing management style, Williamson, ever ready to embrace her own weaknesses, nicknamed herself "The Bitch for God."
In 1992, she wrote a self-help manual, A Return to Love, expounding on excerpts from The Course. A Return to Love's overall spiritual lesson is that we as human beings are in fact all one being, not under but with God, that all of our minds are actually one mind, and that we have tricked ourselves into thinking we are separate from one another, thus creating fear, which dominates us and throws us into collision with everyone else, who, we need to remember, are really also us. According to Williamson, there is only one way out of this destructive cycle, and that is (spoiler alert) a return to love.
Lots more fun if you have the time and hit the link above.
Always fun watching MSNBC - all-Christie-all-the-time
When in the gym in the evening, I channel surf the three cable news networks. CNN and FOX cover the news of the day, while MSNBC obsesses over the NJ Governor, as they try incessantly to nail him.
I didn't see this particular bit, but it is typical. Christie = Capone.
Kimmel: Unveiling of the 50th annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover
I guess this is legit!...
An interview with Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley
A man I admire, a true Franciscan. The interview starts a little alowly, but then gets much more interesting.
As in every other area of life, women are better than men at economic forecasting
Here's a good - and interesting example.
Another study: Even if you only start exercising later in life, exercising and "aging well" are related,
A good article from the NY Times -
being physically active during adulthood is particularly important. In one large-scale study published last fall that looked at more than 12,000 Australian men aged between 65 and 83, those who engaged in about 30 minutes of exercise five or so times per week were much healthier and less likely to be dead 11 years after the start of the study than those who were sedentary, even when the researchers adjusted for smoking habits, education, body mass index and other variables.
But here's the question -
Whether exercise habits need to have been established and maintained throughout adulthood, however, in order to affect aging has been less clear. If someone has slacked off on his or her exercise resolutions during young adulthood and early middle-age, in other words, is it too late to start exercising and still have a meaningful impact on health and longevity in later life?
And the studies say, better to start exercising late then never -
In the eight years between the study's start and end, the data showed, those respondents who had been and remained physically active aged most successfully, with the lowest incidence of major chronic diseases, memory loss and physical disability. But those people who became active in middle-age after having been sedentary in prior years, about 9 percent of the total, aged almost as successfully. These late-in-life exercisers had about a seven-fold reduction in their risk of becoming ill or infirm after eight years compared with those who became or remained sedentary, even when the researchers took into account smoking, wealth and other factors.
Those results reaffirm both other science and common sense. A noteworthy 2009 study of more than 2,000 middle-aged men, for instance, found that those who started to exercise after the age of 50 were far less likely to die during the next 35 years than those who were and remained sedentary. "The reduction in mortality associated with increased physical activity was similar to that associated with smoking cessation," the researchers concluded.
Kimmel: Outsourcing Olympic jokes to an Indian Call Center
Very funny.
Latest on HUD's attack on Westchester, and my town being on the "exclusionary" list.
Thanks to my friend Maria sending this around.
Mamaroneck off the list, other towns, including Croton and Ossining still on it.
In a report last year, the federal court monitor overseeing the settlement listed seven communities as having so few opportunities to build affordable housing that their zoning codes were legally exclusionary. The report was an attempt to break a deadlock between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the county over a zoning analysis required by the settlement. The county has repeatedly asserted that there is no exclusionary zoning in Westchester and HUD has rejected its analyses as inadequate.
Sid Caesar
An original.
And here's some doubletalk, with Imogene Coco And Carl Reiner


A well-sourced genealogy of the descendents of John McDaniel/McDonald through the male line, covering five six generations (c. 1730-early 20th century).
An essential reference for anyone researching this family line.
Delivered as an Adobe PDF on CD-ROM. Price US$ 40.00, includes shipping & handling.


We recently had a discussion about changing some aspects of the site and numerous comments appeared with regard to what we should change (over and above our current discussion). Part of that it seems is a misconception about what can/cannot be changed in terms of a site. So I thought I'd see if I could clarify some points.
Let's assume the website is a physical store. If you think of a physical store, there are aspects of a store that come pre-set – the way the walls are set-up, the floor plan, the number of windows, the amount of storage space and where your electrical outlets are. Other aspects are easier to change – paint and trim, the physical layout of the store – and others vary on a regular basis – the personnel, the games, etc. Each of these features cost a varying amount to change.
To change any of these systems in a significant manner, it would require specialised work; just like it would in a physical store. Want to put in some new windows? You need a contractor to cut the hole in the wall, get the licenses sorted, make sure electricity & plumbing isn't an issue (and hire the necessary contractors for that if it is), etc. It's a big change, and requires a lot of planning to make sure that it doesn't destroy the store.
On top of that though, there are store layouts and colours. You might have a barebones shop, but what you do to it – how many shelves you put in, what colours and trim are added, where each category of items is located – can make a huge difference. Working smart, you can make even a horrible floor plan less horrible.
These are 'simpler' to change. You can dash a coat of paint on much easier than ripping a wall down; you can put a new font in rather than adjusting site search. It might still require specialised help, but mostly you could do it yourself.
When you look at the changes that happen on the site, you can see how each of these changes play out. Some, like fixing Site Search require a lot of planning and a lot of funds – it's not easy ripping out retaining walls, shifting plumbing and electrical outlets to make the store better.
Other changes are simpler and can be down with minimal external help – changing how our products are categorised, the skin (colours) and even the general layout can be much easier. These can be less 'planned' and because in many cases we don't need external contractors, can be changed much more often.
There recently has been a highly contentious thread on BGG on Return Policies for Online Game Stores. I am not going to discuss the other store's policies, though we thought we'd clarify our own thoughts on the matter and bring up a question that has been on our mind.
For those of you who haven't read our Return Policy; it's out of the norm it seems for the online game store industry. I've rewritten it slightly to clarify some points that were clear in my mind but wasn't so in the policy itself.
It seems that online game stores either provide returns 14 days from time of order (i.e. the count starts the moment you order) or when an order is received (after shipping). The vast majority who do pre-orders do returns from 14 days from time of order; due to the potential concern it seems about returns for 'older' items held on the order.
I can actually see the reasoning behind that; but we've yet to have a customer 'take advantage' of our return policy in that way so far. If anything has 'cost' us; it's our willingness to take returns for opened products. So far at least, we're happy with our return policy as is and we'll be keeping it as it is.
So let's discuss pre-orders. We like pre-orders; in fact, we go out of our way to encourage customers to make pre-orders by providing more points for pre-orders and creating a new section for them. We're in the process of putting together a blog list of pre-order release dates as well since it's one of the major requests.
Why do we like pre-orders?
Actually; that's it. Knowing what games are of interest to our customers helps us not order too many 'dead' games; which makes a big difference really.
There's some talk of game stores 'getting' the capital beforehand – but we don't charge orders till we ship them generally. We allow for the possibility for this; but we generally don't take advantage of it.
inconsistent policies – due to the way PayPal functions, we can't 'hold' an authorisation for very long and must charge the card immediately. So some customers get charged and others don't.
Which leads us to something we've been considering for a while – switching to charging all orders immediately to make it more consistent.
Of course, we could do it the way other online game stores do it; consider a sale final after 14 days of the order. On the other hand, that brings its own host of issues including a counter-intuitive returns policy. So what do you all think?


text:
Africa's Youth employment and structural transformation through Industries without Smokestacks
On the 6th of September 2019, the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), the African Economic Research Consortium
(AERC) and the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative hosted a workshop on "Addressing Africa's youth employment and structural transformation through Industries without Smokestacks" at the Crowne Plaza, Nairobi. Industries without Smokestacks include tourism, horticulture, agro-processing, and transit trade.
The purpose of this workshop was to present the final version of the framework papers, share preliminary results on the South Africa case study, and kick-off other country case studies – including Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana and Rwanda.
n attendance, were representatives from the Youth Council, AERC, Brookings Institute and KIPPRA. In her opening remarks, the executive director KIPPRA, Dr. Rose Ngugi highlighted that KIPPRA had played an active role in youth empowerment, contributing to youth employment opportunities and youth related policies.
The executive director AERC, Professor Njuguna Ndung'u emphasized on the role played by AERC in research, capacity building, specific policy solution and leadership in various fields. Hinged on the youth development in March 2013 the AERC conducted policy seminar on youth issues and development through engagement with different stakeholder.
In his remarks, the Youth Council secretary, Mr. Raymond highlighted the benefit of the workshop and thanked KIPPRA for being at the forefront in giving feasible policy advice to the government. He majored on the how youths are the key impetus to driving Africa to next level through engagement and skills development. He called for opening of sectors that absorb many skilled youth powers in Africa. In Kenya youths accounts for 40% of the population and there is need to leverage this and improve country development agenda along this which will help in enhancing demographic dividend for Africa.
It was noted that there were some commonalities between countries of focus in the study. To build on this and fast track the progress of the research, Brookings Institute shall undertake to ensure contracts for the various country representatives are received in the week beginning 9th September 2019.
Some of the upcoming activities outlined for the project are as follows: The first drafts should be ready by May 2020; a workshop shall be planned to discuss findings of the research; the team shall undertake dissemination of outputs and the initiation of the book project in 2021.
At the end of the workshop, expertise perspectives and insights were shared to enhance the framework papers.
Food for thought: Does the education system affect the growth of some of these industries?