text:
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate: Native Composer
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate: Native Composer
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate combines traditional musical material from the Chickasaw and other Native American tribes with such old-fashioned formal devices as fugues and sonata form.
What It Means To Be Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate
Who is Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate?
Photo by Alana Rothstein
Frank J. Oteri: I want to begin with your full name and what it represents.
JIT: My name is Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate. Impichchaachaaha' is a house name from the Chickasaw side of my family. Chickasaws historically have house names and clan names. The exact way they work is a little complex, but generally a house name is very much like a European surname. So if this were the year 1857 or something like that, I would be known by both names. I would either be called Jerod of Impichchaachaaha' or Jerod Tate. It would be interchangeable. I also come from what's called the Shawi clan—which is the raccoon clan; that all comes my paternal grandmother's side. My mom's Irish.
FJO: You did not grow up on a reservation—
JIT: —Oklahoma actually doesn't have any reservations except for the Osage people. Out of the 39 tribes that live there only one has a reservation, so most Oklahoma Indians don't come from reservations. We have what are called statistical boundaries. We still live within a statistical nation and the boundaries are there. But it doesn't function the same as a reservation that you would find in the Southwest or in the Plains.
FJO: So what was your first exposure to Native American music?
JIT: The American Indian music that I grew up with was both Chickasaw and what's called Southern Style Pow-Wow singing. We were in Oklahoma with 39 tribes that are all very distinct. So I heard a lot of different styles. I went to events with my father, and I would hear traditional music from different tribes. At the same time, I also heard him practicing classical piano.
FJO: That's a strange combination, and perhaps one that most people might find surprising.
JIT: The classical connection with Indians is still new and fresh, but it's actually the Indian side of my family that's classically trained. My whole inspiration for playing the piano was my father, who is a classically trained vocalist and pianist. Growing up, I heard him playing very serious repertoire—Bach and Rachmaninoff—and he just played it recreationally in the house. He continues to sing to this day. He performs in musical theater, and he sings for his church as well.
There's some history that is really important: I come from a tribe that's in Oklahoma right now, but we're originally from the Southeast around the Mississippi area. The eastern tribes had very deep contact with European countries. It wasn't really American contact yet. It was all with France, and Spain and Great Britain and the Scotch and Irish. That had been going on for a couple hundred years before there was a [United States of] America. In the removal in the 1830s, we were all moved to Oklahoma, and by that time, even before the removal, most of the southeastern tribes were actually like small empires. We still had very traditional ways—we spoke the language on a daily basis—but we also lived in houses that looked very much like Southern plantations and had a lifestyle that was very common to what a European lifestyle was. So we brought that over to Oklahoma, and we rebuilt our own schools out of brick. We had our own education system and part of that education system was European. So the fine arts were actually part of our lives for a few hundred years before I was born.
American Indians in general around the country have been involved in all of the other genres of fine art on a very deep level. We have very famous contemporary Indian painters, and they are using the classic Western materials that are not aboriginal to this country at all. So when you look at a painting, you see acrylics, or oils, or canvasses and it's done with brushes on an easel. None of that is from here originally.
Another comparison I like to draw is that the two things that Indians are known for the most are beadwork and horses, neither of which is originally from here. We did a great job of stealing horses and making it a part of our culture. It was a huge boon for Indian country to have a horse, so we became incredible horsemen right away. And beads replaced traditional quill work. Beads were just a really neat new material we discovered. I believe they [originally] came from Asia. Indians are now world famous for beadwork which is an artform that wasn't here a couple of hundred years ago.
FJO: And the majority of contemporary Native American literature is written in English.
JIT: Right. You won't read any American Indian literature in our native languages. It's all in English. And so it's something that we all just take for granted because we all speak English in this country and so when people pick up a book, they're not necessarily thinking to themselves, "Wait a minute, this isn't the native language of that author." We're just reading it and enjoying the content, but the fact is that all of that material is totally Western material.
To bring all that around to the classical part, I think what's happening with classical composition in Indian country is actually something that's normal in the development of Western classical music. Generally music follows the other fine arts that have come just before it. It's almost like classical music has been a reaction to cultural aspects of the time. Rather than being on the front of it, it's on the tail. And then it's this full-bodied reaction. That's kind of how I see all that historically.
FJO: But to extend your analogy, English has become a universal language. Many people used to say that Western classical music was also a universal mode of transmission. But nowadays many argue that it, too, is a marginalized and culturally specific paradigm. At this point in time, there are tons of musical traditions with practitioners all over the world—jazz, rock, hip-hop, even seemingly really culturally specific genres like bluegrass, klezmer, or tango. And even the most culturally specific traditional music can be transmitted globally through recordings, although, for better or worse, mainstream American pop music has become the global sonic vocabulary.
JIT: Yes. Yes. I agree with that. One thing that is really cool is that Indians are involved in all those genres of music. For the last 30 years, Indians have been involved in all kinds of different rock forms and also different multi-cultural collaborations.
FJO: So is it ultimately the most effective medium to convey a contemporary message about a specific identity other than it? Why choose Western classical music as the frame for what you're doing?
JIT: I find the history and the genesis of classical music to be incredibly fascinating. And pardon some of my historical mistakes in how I express this, but the way I view classical music is that generally it was born with monks in a Catholic church. On a more common level of thinking, these guys were singing traditional tunes. I equate that with the traditional music of my tribe: It's the old music of a culture, a certain group of people with a standard set of tunes and music that was used for the mass and different occasions and that was it. And it was all learned orally. Then what happened was somebody got the idea, "Well, we've got so many of them that it's getting hard to keep track of them." So they started writing it down. That was the birth of what we call classical music. A shift took place, and that is why we're now starting to preserve what we're doing in a way that we haven't done before. It's a different way of treating it. Now that you've got it down on paper, you can actually do what is so unique to classical music and that is the idea of abstracting your own music. You're taking your basic material and you abstract it. We've been doing this for so long, let's add octaves now. Let's add fourths and fifths and let's start expanding. And I just see that as such a wonderful, natural, creative process that was born out of the Catholic Church. And I'm so thankful to them for doing that. Of course, it took a long time for anything to evolve, but it came from that creative and abstracting impulse within a folk music of the Catholic Church.
What's so cool about that way of doing things is it kind of became this weather system that then could start shifting over to different parts of Europe and then to Eastern Europe and to Asia and Africa and, of course, over to America. You can abstract anything you want to. So now we can ask everybody in the world to participate in it. Bring who you are into this aspect of it. And that's exactly what's happened all over the place. The composers that we know the most are the ones that have brought their own cultural and nationalistic identity into that process and that way of abstracting in classical music. So I don't see it as assimilating Western music. I see it as participating in this way of classical abstraction.
FJO: So it's ultimately about the process of writing things down.
JIT: Yeah, it really is.
FJO: You came to composition rather late; you were 23.
JIT: Well, I have to admit I wrote one piece when I was 12 for a good friend of mine that I went to school with, Stephen Baird. It was for piano and tuba. But I lost it. It's something I really wish I could find. But that's the only piece that I tried writing as a kid. I would say it was a little on the George Winston side, kind of minor-ish stuff. Anyway, after that, it was just practicing piano.
Then my mother, who's a choreographer, wanted to do a set of new ballets with her students at the University of Wyoming, and she just turned right to me and said would you like to write the score? I laughed when she said that. I was like, "You're crazy." And she's like, "What do you mean I'm crazy? You grew up with all my dancing and in the theater. You know all this stuff. I'd love it if you wrote this music." So I was grumpy and went off and just said there's no way. But what I realized was that she'd hit me with something that I wanted desperately. Sometimes we deny something we want at first. I remember going right back down to practice Brahms and stopping. I started thinking and I just started writing music. I kind of secretly did that for about a week and then I came to her and said, "I've got music. I'm giving it a try." We sat down and we talked about it and played through it, and she said that's exactly the kind of music I want. She knew me; obviously I'm her son and so she had an idea of how I might compose. And so that's how that began.
It was a two-and-a-half-hour ballet based on Indian stories from the Northern Plains and Rockies. What I didn't do was use traditional tunes because I didn't want to just start ripping off tunes from other tribes. I wanted to be careful about that. So [instead] I did stuff that sounded similar. It was more like [conveying] the ethos of it. In the middle of writing it, I was just so into it. It became very, very clear that that was something that I really wanted to do. So the ballet was premiered and performed and the Colorado Ballet performed it, which was really nice.
After that, I went right back to school. I was at [the] Cleveland [Institute of Music] as a piano major. I didn't even know who [the composition professor] Don Erb was, but when I came back to school I went to see Dr. Erb and I said, "I'm a piano major here. You don't know me, but I want to do this and I want to do it right." And he said he was really concerned because double majoring is really difficult—it takes a lot of time and he generally discourages that. And I said I'm going to do it anyway, so I either do it right with you, or I just do it by myself. And he said, "Let's do it then." I guess he appreciated my audacity and my gumption.
Immediately I called my dad and I said that I need learn our tribal music. It was really great to have this splurge with Northern Plains and Rockies music, but I really wanted to focus on Chickasaw stuff. It was something I just took for granted pretty much as a kid. I didn't really focus on it. But when I was composing, that's when it became incredibly important to me. So I started learning our music.
That's pretty much how that evolved. I feel like my parents both have given me the perfect way in which to express myself fully as a human being. I don't see myself doing anything else. It just feels right.


I am running robocopy batch file from server 2003 to copy a folder from server1 (server 2008 r2) onto a nas drive.
robocopy /e /xo /ts /tee /r:0 /log:c:\backuplogs\robologs\folder-1.doc "\\server1\folder-1" "\\backupserver\backup share\backupfolder"
Hi the logs folder do exist. What i have found is when i use the same parameters on different source and destination folders, on servers running server 2003, the copying works but it doesnt work on server 2008.
When you compared, you ran RoboCopy on the same machine (not the servers)?
While the 53 error occured, do you have access to both source and destination at exactly that moment?
Any of these servers dual-homed?
You said you're running it 'from' a 2k3 server to copy 'from' a 2k8 server to the NAS.
Otherwise, you might try a fully qualified name, or even IP address in your command.


The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second book in the trilogy by Stieg Larsson. It's the continuation of The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. Although the story in Tattoo ended, a the continuation of the story of Lizbeth continues.
The story is very fast paced. Much faster than Tattoo and readers get to know so much more about Lizbeth's past. A few incidents in Tattoo that was thought as random was revealed to be not so random after all.
I am really at a lost as to what to say about this book except that it's very good. Extremely thrilling and fantastic in every aspect a thriller is.
You can read Fire without Tattoo but it's best you read Tattoo first and subsequently the final book, The Girl Who Kick The Hornet's Nest. I don't have Hornet's Nest so I am now looking for it.


text:
Q: Why does WinDbg show System.Int32 variables as 24 bytes? I'm analyzing a memory dump of a .NET process using WinDbg and I've noticed it reports the size of all System.Int32 variables on the heap as 24 bytes. Here's an example of a relevant DumpObj call on one of the variables:
0:000> !DumpObj /d 00000061c81c0e80
Name:        System.Int32
MethodTable: 00007fff433f37c8
EEClass:     00007fff42e30130
Size:        24(0x18) bytes
File:        C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_64\mscorlib\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\mscorlib.dll
Fields:
              MT    Field   Offset                 Type VT     Attr            Value Name
00007fff433f37c8  4000456        8         System.Int32  1 instance              141 m_value

As far as I know, the size System.Int32 is supposed to be 4 bytes. What is the source of this discrepancy?

A: There's an overhead to any object on the heap. On 32-bit MS.NET runtime, this is 8 bytes, and on 64-bit, 16 bytes (disclaimer: this isn't strictly contractual and may change in the future or in a conforming implementation of a .NET runtime).
Since your int is boxed, it will have the 16-byte overhead. So you might expect 20 bytes to be used total. Well, except that on 64-bit systems, objects (and structures) are padded to 8-byte boundaries, so you actually get 24-bytes per int.
In contrast, when you use a struct with 16 integers, you'll only use 16 + 4 * 16 = 80 bytes of memory, for a total of 5 bytes per integer.
And again, most of this is an implementation detail, so not something you can rely on; it's perfectly possible for a valid .NET runtime to store a single int in 1 MiB of memory if it desires to do so, and it could also store it in some compact representation or with interning, as long as it conforms to all the contractual behaviour of the type. It's also quite simplified even compared to actual MS runtime implementations - for example, if your object gets large enough, it will need more overhead.

A: it is not size of int32  do dd or dq address and see your int32 stuck in the second dword or qword
there is an implicit overhead of 12 bytes or 24 bytes per object for x86 / x64 respectively
0:004> .shell -ci "!DumpObj /d 01c72360" grep -i size
    Size:        12(0xc) bytes
    .shell: Process exited
    0:004> dd 01c72360 l4
    01c72360  5890c770 000001b5 80000000 5890afb0
    0:004> .shell -ci "!DumpObj /d 01c72360" grep -i method
    MethodTable: 5890c770
    .shell: Process exited
    0:004> .shell -ci "!DumpObj /d 01c72360" grep -i value
          MT    Field   Offset                 Type VT     Attr    Value Name
    5890c770  400044f        4         System.Int32  1 instance      437 m_value
    .shell: Process exited
    0:004> ? 1b5
    Evaluate expression: 437 = 000001b5

leaving int32 apart lets dissect a widestring "stream"  in x86
actualsizereqdfor(L"stream\0") = 7 * sizeof(wchar_t) == 7 * 2  == 0n14;
sizeof(method table )                                          == 0n04;
sizeof(sizeof(L"stream))                                       == 0n04;
sizeof(padding ?? terminator ?? whatever ?? )                  == 0n04;
so total size                                                  == 0n26

result of dumpobj
0:004> !DumpObj /d 01c73ad0
Name:        System.String
MethodTable: 5890afb0

Size:        26(0x1a) bytes

String:      stream
Fields:
      MT    Field   Offset                 Type VT     Attr    Value Name
5890c770  40000aa        4         System.Int32  1 instance        6 m_stringLength
5890b9a8  40000ab        8          System.Char  1 instance       73 m_firstChar
5890afb0  40000ac        c        System.String  0   shared   static Empty

raw display
0:004> db 01c73ad0 l1a
01c73ad0  b0 af 90 58 06 00 00 00-73 00 74 00 72 00 65 00  ...X....s.t.r.e.
01c73ae0  61 00 6d 00 00 00 00 00-00 00                    a.m.......

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Page 1 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >
China Car Forums (https://www.chinacarforums.com/forum/index.php)
- Others (https://www.chinacarforums.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13)
- - Youngman Lotus (Europestar) L3 (https://www.chinacarforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2823)
CCF mod 07-16-2007 06:15 AM
Youngman Lotus (Europestar) L3
Proton has secured a deal to supply fully built-up (CBU) Proton GEN2 cars to Youngman Automobile Group Ltd Co. to be sold in China. The agreement was signed between Proton Managing Director Dato' Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir and Youngman through its Chairman, Pang Qingnian.
The deal involves a minimum of 30,000 Proton GEN2 CBU cars that wil be rebadged in China under the brand EUROPESTAR and eventually Youngman and Proton (through Lotus Engineering) will be developing a new range of EUROPESTAR cars together. This supply contract is for a period of 20 months from the date of the first delivery of vehicles.
I think it's best that the underlying components of these new EUROPESTAR cars use component sharing with Proton cars, that way the economies of scale for both Youngman's EUROPESTAR and Proton can improve together. From what I understand, the deal involves technical licensing of the GEN2 platform as well as the CamPro engine for future EUROPESTAR cars
Proton MD Syed Zainal says these are landmark win-win agreements as it would enable Proton to sell its products and commercialise its technologies in China through Youngman for their brand of passenger cars in a huge market with promise of exponential growth. Imagine, the Chinese auto market is already huge as it is, yet in reality Chinese car ownership is only at 1% of it's population and is set to grow by 20 to 30% annually.
"We are therefore positive with the prospects and export optimisation that will result in production volume increase at the Tanjung Malim plant. We are equally optimistic of the opportunities in commercialisation of PROTON's technologies and intellectual property rights," added Syed Zainal.
However, in Proton's announcement in Bursa Malaysia, it stated that the relationship of Proton and Youngman is one of independant contracting parties and shall not be construed as creating an agency or partnership between the parties.
http://paultan.org/archives/2007/07/...star-in-china/
BringIt 07-16-2007 10:35 AM
What's a "fully built-up (CBU)" car??? It sounds like an import of a fully assembled car, right? Doesn't that get hit with heavy taxes?
CCF mod 10-26-2007 01:48 PM
First spy pics of Chinese Gen-2:
http://s2.mojalbum.com/avtomobilizem...16_9895570.jpg
Admin 10-27-2007 10:45 AM
hey martin, those spy pics are really nice! i like proton but this is sad that they are entering china, since chinese manufacturers should eb taking out proton in its original domains like south east asia...
a chinese car manufacturer should just buy them out
im sure they are valuated very low
At the moment Proton is in financial difficulties as it's experiencing decrease in sales and in marker share. The company is looking for foreign partner. At the moment they are at talks with VW but no deal has been made yet.
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says the government has not decided yet whether to allow management control of Proton by Volkswagen AG. He cited Volkswagen's insistence on wanting to be very certain of everything - you could call it cautiousness - as one of the reasons why the deal is taking some time to be finalised.
"We want as soon as possible but we can't force them to hurry up," added Abdullah. Apparently Volkswagen is just waiting for a nod from the government in regards to the management control.
source: paultan.org
Youngman finally got its Chinese name - from China Car Times
Today we're happy to report that the Lotus Racer, made via the Youngman Proton tie up will be called the Jing Su in China, this means to contend with quickness, or it could be translated as to struggle with quickness.
The Lotus designed motor should be on the Chinese market by the end of December priced at 120 to 150,000rmb. We're not sure how, or where they will sell it though, we've yet to see a Youngman dealership, and if the car looks anything like this, they just wont sell.
Raul 12-05-2007 09:13 AM
I found a new picture of Chinese Gen-2. This time it is called a 'RCR' ?
http://images2.sina.com/auto//cr/200...2149973000.jpg
found more pictures from auto.tom
http://auto.tom.com/uimg/2007/11/13/...7050_38974.jpg
http://auto.tom.com/uimg/2007/11/13/...115_132057.jpg
It seems the car will indeed be named RCR:
http://s2.mojalbum.com/kitajci-foto_...1_10362729.jpg

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


EDIT: Version 2s of both of these chapters are up. 13 got a massive dialogue rehaul for the sake of improved flow (nothing changed in meaning, so if you're satisfied with the previous version, you're still cool), and 14 had a two-page-spread that was still HUGE, but it's fixed now. Also, Melly fixed the reader issue for ch. 14.Vamos a continuar, tortugas!
Jeeze, when's the last time we released so much in two weeks? That's right, Turtle friends, WE'RE STILL BACK! And once again, Midterms serve their purpose as the best motivator around, as any collegiate will tell you– as a vehicle for procrastination, free rides for all! On that note, I realize it seems unfair to release more chapters of a series which has already received recent attention in the face of so many other neglected projects, but this one bears other… motivating factors for the team. That said, we're back with your favorite Vampire Boyfriend. No, no, not THAT one. The one with Vampires (uh), Werewolves (are you sure this is a different one?), Tengu (okay, now we're getting somewhere), and… Angels? WELL WHO WOULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING.
First off, chapter 13! We're coming fresh off the climax of chapter 12 where Cana gets twinked out, and this time around we get to see the effects in action, and, just so you know, it's pretty. Freakin'. Sweet. Editing this time around by c0de_da1sy, QC'd by Melfra, and typeset and translation by yours truly. Be sure to take a quick look at the translation notes either before you read or after you finished, because the first two pages don't make a lick of sense otherwise.
We've got a few more chapters in the QC pile to work through, so release rates should be picking up for the time being. Boy, this is all kinds of exciting! We're still looking for new typesetters and editors (with experience, please!), so if you're interested, drop by the forum and check out our tests.
19 Comments on "Procrastination: the mother of all invention!"
Thanks a lot! Thank you for your hard work too!
Thanks for the hard work!! I think some pages from chapter 13 got mixed up with chapter 14.
Alright, thanks for letting me know. The problem was just with the reader – files were ok, but it's all fixed now!
Thanks a lot for the hard work! F�s in Brasil love this manga!
Gotta love female characters that can kill stuff. At least a bit.
Thanks for these, the plot gets… weirder and weirder?
Wow, thank you so much for these! Your releases are always so clean and HQ *^* Best of luck with your midterms!
Thanks for the double release! What a mysterious turn of events!
Oh man, these chapters were AWESOME!!!! The plot thickens indeed, I can't wait for the next chapter!
Thanks again for your hard work, this fan from Mexico truly appreciates everything you do.
Thank you! Things are getting interesting. Besides, the quality of your releases is impressive, as always. I'm probably going to start worshiping you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! This made my day! Love these chapters! Your guys quality is amazing!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUUUUU. if i had the time/if i wasnt prone to finger cramping i'd write you guys a million thank you's. <3 thank you thank you thank youuu.
OHMYGAH! Thank shu shou much as always! ?
I agree with aphaia, if only my fingers didn't have its own limitations with strength, I would be typing you guys scriptures of all my greatest thanks to you! ? ?? ? ??
I'll laugh harder if that tengu turns out having a Sigma in the end, just like kotomine merely enjoying the struggles and despair of Aki XD.


text:
Despite two short spells of old-fashioned wintry weather, January was as a whole very mild, the 15th warmest on record. Both day – time and night – time temperatures were well above average. Rainfall was well above average too, by exactly one inch (25.4mm)! The three – and six – month totals were, as a result, close to average but the 12 – month total remained below average. Both sunshine and wind speed were a little below average.
There was some wintry weather in February too, but very warm days at the start of the month meant that it was, overall, a very warm month, the 9th equal warmest since 1850. The absolute maximum of 15.4°C was the 3rd highest since 1962. Rainfall in February was close to average. It was a sunnier month than normal, and a little windier than usual. For the winter as a whole, the mean air temperature was 5.1°C, the 6th equal warmest on record (with 1869 and 1990); in recent times, there have been warmer winters – 1989 (6.3°C) and 1998 (5.7°C), the other warmer winters being 1975, 1863 and 1935. The 12 – month running mean air temperature rose above 10°C for the 3rd time in Durham's climatic history; most remarkably, the February value of 10.15°C was the highest on record – in other words, the 12 – month period up to and including February 2004 was at that point the warmest 'year' in Durham since records began – and indeed remains so. The 12 – month running mean remained above 10°C up to and including June, but the mean value of 10.15°C was not exceeded.
In March, yet again, temperatures were well above average. Mean air temperature was 19th highest since records began, although March was warmer in both 2002 and 2003. The 12 – month running mean stayed above 10°C for the second month running. It was a dry month, having only just over half the normal amount. Despite the lack of rain, sunshine was slightly below average. There was a gust of 111km/hr on the 19th.
April was another very warm month. Mean air temperature was the 2nd highest on record after 1949, and this contributed to the 2nd warmest start to a year after 1990. Mean daily minimum was the highest on record (Tabulated records are available only from 1950). There were very few ground frosts, only 3, the equal lowest April total since 1950 (with 1971 and 1987). As might be expected with such high night-time temperatures, it was a cloudy month. Sunshine was well below average, although only 4 days recorded no sunshine at all – the last 4 days of the month as it happened.
There were problems with the temperature recording equipment at the start of May and monthly values had to be estimated by comparison with nearby stations. On this basis, it seems clear that May was another warm month: mean maximum was the 9th equal highest for May since 1950 whilst mean air temperature was the 17th highest for May since 1850. It was a dry month, but not particularly sunny. It was the 3rd warmest spring on record, beaten only by 2003 and 1945.
June was a wet, dull month but, nevertheless, a warm one. The mean air temperature was the 10th equal warmest for June since 1850. Overall, it has been the warmest first half of a year on record. The top ten January – to – June averages are listed below and make interesting reading, the top eight all being since 1989.
1868 – 8.1
Rainfall in June was above average. Sunshine levels were below average, and overall, the cumulative total was by then well down on average – and far behind 2003. June 2004 was windier than usual; this is somewhat unusual in that over recent years, mean wind speed has tended to be below average.
July was a dull, wet month of only average temperature, relatively disappointing in other words. Mean maximum temperatures were below average, the lowest since 2000 but, not surprisingly given the cloudy weather, mean minimum temperatures were somewhat above average. Overall, mean air temperature was just above average, but one only has to go back to 2002 to find an equally disappointing July – and July 2000 was a good deal cooler. July rainfall was a little above average; again, 2002 was wetter. Rain fell on 19 days, a relatively high total, and the largest number since 1998. It was a dull month too, with over an hour less sunshine per day on average than normal, though only the dullest since 2001. The sunniest day (26th) recorded only 10.2 hours. July was nevertheless a relatively calm month with wind speeds somewhat below average.
August was a warm but very wet month. Mean air temperature was 1.6°C above average, lower than last year, but still 11th highest since 1850. Mean minimum temperature was 2nd highest on record since 1950. The minimum on the night of the 8th / 9th was 16.8°C, a remarkably high value, and the next night was only marginally cooler. Most remarkable in August was the rainfall, more than twice the monthly average. The total of 156.8mm was the 6th highest for August since 1852, exceeded only in 1917, 1927, 1878, 1986 and 1956 (the August record with 175.7mm). The total of 52.2mm on the 9th was only the 14th daily total at Durham since 1881 of 50mm or over. 72.2mm fell on the 9th and 10th, associated with a decaying hurricane, and altogether 88.4mm fell in four days (9th – 12th). There was also a daily catch of 25mm on the 19th. Not surprisingly, long-term totals were now well above average, and the 12 – month running total was the highest since October 2001. Sunshine was again below average, another disappointing month. For the summer as a whole, an average temperature of 15.2°C placed 2004 as the 14th warmest on record since 1850, following 2003's record breaker. It was the 11th wettest summer on record (289.6mm), the wettest since 1997. 1867 holds the summer rainfall record with 383.4mm; summers tended to be relatively wetter in the latter part of the 19th Century.
Unlike August, September was a dry month, with only a third of normal rainfall. Even so, there were 13 rain days. It was a mild month, with all three temperature measures one degree above average. Sunshine was a little above average too, only the second such month in a rather dull and disappointing year.
October was another very wet month, reversing the trend from September and sending long-term totals back well above average. It was the 18th wettest October since 1852 and the wettest since 2000, although the number of rain days was the same in both years. Remarkably, for the first and only time in 2004, monthly mean air temperature dipped below the long-term average, but only just (by less than 0.1°C)! Sunshine reverted to the usual pattern for 2004 and fell below average yet again.
November was another warm month, the 14th warmest November since 1850, although 2001 and 2003 were both warmer. Most remarkably, it was a very dry month, only 14.4mm, the second lowest November total on record since 1852. Nonetheless, there was a little less sunshine than normal, and the cumulative total for the year remained well below average. Overall, it was the 10th warmest autumn on record, but almost a degree cooler than the record – breaker in 2001.
December was another warm month, not quite as far above average as November but still ranking 124th highest in a series of 155. Daily maxima were in particular well above average. This was reflected in a sunny month, a good deal sunnier than November in fact. It was also a very dry month: whilst there must be some doubt about a figure as low as 8.2mm, only 17mm was recorded at Ferryhill, so hopefully the total is reliable. That being the case, it was the 3rd driest December since 1852, only 1871 and 1852 being drier. There was a gust of 102km/hr on the 23rd.
2004 was another remarkably warm year, the warmest on record at Durham since records began in 1850, the mean of 9.95°C beating the previous highest (2003) by 0.05°C. It was quite a wet year too, the total of 726mm ranking 110th in a series of 153. There were far fewer hours of bright sunshine than normal, however; the total was the 16th lowest since 1881, making 2004 a dull and disappointing year in that respect. It only goes to show that global warming does not necessarily mean unbroken sunshine!
Adjustments to the rainfall record
Regular readers will have noticed my concern about some of the recorded rainfall totals over recent time, since indeed we moved to an automatic weather station in 1999. It has become apparent that, unless the automatic rain gauge is checked very regularly, it can easily become blocked and fails to record any rain (which presumably just sits in the funnel and gradually evaporates). I hope that a regular maintenance programme is now in place but it does mean that I have had to adjust the long-term record. This has been done using the nearby Barkers Hough gauge (data kindly supplied by Rachel Merrix at the Environment Agency); the two gauges have a very high correlation so any deviation is immediately obvious.
I give below my best estimate of the 'correct' Durham rainfall record since 1999. Any month that has been adjusted is in red; italics indicate that little or no rain was recorded at the Observatory; a bold figure shows that some rain was recorded at the Observatory but the record for the entire month was in doubt. In both cases the Barkers Hough gauge has been used to calculate a monthly total for the Observatory.
One consequence of the recalculation is that the very low total for 2003 reported last year has been adjusted upwards so that, although it remains a low amount, it was by no means as extreme as previously indicated.
Professor Tim Burt


International travel with pets has come a long way. However, to benefit from this you will need to carefully plan your journey. In this article we will share some tips on what preparation you need to do when travelling with your dog.
*Not all dogs are considered safe to fly.* For example, most airlines do not recommend that puppies under 8 weeks, elderly or sick dogs fly, in either cargo or in cabin. There are also certain breeds of dogs that are not good candidates for flying, like short nosed dogs. So be sure to check your airlines regulations.
Since February 2000 pet owners have been able to apply for a pet passport through the Pets Travel Scheme (PETS). The pet passport allows pet owners to re-enter the UK from the EU without having to be quarantined.
We recommend that you contact the Pet Travel Scheme helpline: 0370 241 1710. They will be able to advise you on the latest regulations.
Is it a good idea to sedate my dog?
If your pet is particular nervous or it's a long haul flight you may want to consider sedating your dog. Talk to your vets for any prescriptions.
Get your dog use to their carrier in the weeks before your flight. Try leaving the carrier out with the door open allowing them to explore it on their own. Once they're interested, move onto putting them in the carrier and leaving the room a few times to make sure they stay calm.
A great way to do this is to play recordings of crowds and planes for them in the weeks preceding the flight. This will help desensitize your pet to the noises they'll face during the airport journey and hopefully stop them from panicking.
Let them stretch their legs and burn out from energy before they get into their carrier. Try a walk, run or long play session before you leave the house.
Try your best to stick to your dog's regular feeding times where possible prior to the flight. We suggest that you don't feed them for at least 3 hours before (unless medically necessary). This should give them time to digest and avoid accidents.
Make sure your dog has access to clean fresh water as much as possible before the flight. It's suggested that they drink every half hour up until the flight.
You may check in yourself prior to your flight, but if you're traveling with a pet you'll still have to check in your pet at the ticket counter. The ticket agent will print tags for your pet carrier, clearing them to go through security. There may be a fee payable at this time.
Before heading through security or cargo, take your dog to the airport pet relief area. This should help make sure your pet has a comfortable journey.
When checking your pet in at the ticket counter, you'll most likely be asked to drop your pet off directly at the airlines cargo facility. You will also need to find the cargo facility at your destination to collect your pet.
This is an absolute must, before purchasing your flight tickets. Some airlines have a strict no pet's policy or specific size restrictions. If you're planning on travelling with your dog; make sure your chosen airline can accommodate.
If you bought your ticket over the phone, let your representative know you plan on bringing your pet on the flight.
Different airlines may have different rules. So be sure to check their requirements regarding pet carriers. They will also have rules for the size and materials of carriers that get checked. Call your airline or check on their website to get a full list of their requirements. Check your carrier to make sure it is compliant with your airline's regulations. If it is not, buy a compliant carrier before your departure date.


Wedding and custom jewelry is available to suit your individual needs. All of the sterling silver and gold bands are made completely by hand with 100% recycled, made in the USA refined metals. Diamonds are recycled or conflict free. Please contact hello@hannah-hoffman.com to create a custom piece.


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Callosamia carolina är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Jones 1908. Callosamia carolina ingår i släktet Callosamia och familjen påfågelsspinnare. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Africa faces off with China over alleged racism and profiling
People gather on a street in the "Little Africa" district in Guangzhou, the capital of southern China's Guangdong province on March 2, 2018. Africans in southern China's largest city say they have become targets of suspicion and subjected to forced evictions, arbitrary quarantines and mass coronavirus testing as the country steps up its fight against imported infections. PHOTO | FRED DUFOUR | AFP
Even as it denied the furious accusations, China is unrelenting over Covid-19, but Africa took a common stand, saying the response from Beijing betrayed the gravity
Video clips emerged of blacks thrown onto the streets ostensibly because they did not meet the set of conditions imposed to tame spread of the virus.
In a departure from the traditional bilateral resolution of such issues, African countries appeared to take a common stand, and China's response betrayed the gravity of the matter.
By AGGREY MUTAMBO
A host of diplomats across the continent's capitals either summoned Chinese ambassadors or wrote sharp protest letters to Beijing, objecting to the mistreatment that was captured in widely circulated social media clips.
China is reported to have imposed compulsory Covid-19 tests in its southern Guangdong city, but enforcement of the order saw blacks evicted from their residences, denied service in restaurants, hospitals and supermarkets and in some cases even assaulted.
The AU Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki, said Africa was "extremely concerned" at the reports of racial profiling of black people and called for immediate action.
He held talks with Chinese ambassador to the AU, Liu Yuxi; even as African ambassadors in Beijing also pushed the Chinese government on the matter.
The United States also protested against the mistreatment of African Americans, even as Beijing rejected strongly the accusations of racial discrimination.
Covid-19, which had by Friday infected nearly 2.2 million and killed almost 150,000, originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan early this year.
The Asian country has, however, successfully curbed the spread of the virus by imposing tough measures against public gatherings even as infections continue to soar in other parts of the globe.
The world's second-biggest economy, which sees Africa as an important source of raw materials and market for its finished goods, is pulling all stops to prevent importation or fresh cases of the virus.
Remedial measures
Even as it denied charges of racial profiling, China has said that it will not relent in the fight against Covid-19, maintaining that every suspected individual will have to undergo strict quarantine measures.
The Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, on Wednesday placed a call to Mr Mahamat offering remedial measures, although a statement released by the African Union did not reveal specifics of the discussions.
Virus importation
Wu Peng, the Chinese ambassador to Nairobi, initially denied the accusations. But he later met with Kenya's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Macharia Kamau to receive Kenya's "displeasure" over the matter.
"No excuse can justify discrimination and prejudice," Kenya said in a statement.
Whether the Chinese response to the charge had calmed Africa was yet to be seen.
Kenya on Saturday sais it will evacuate its nationals, at their own cost, as a result of the social media clips.
China's measures to curb importation of the virus have included granting foreigners special medical cards certifying their coronavirus negative status, which is used for admission into restaurants or markets.
It is a measure that Chinese officials say will stop importation of the virus back to where it all began.
China had by Friday reported 83,760 cases of Covid-19 since it reported the outbreak in late December. Official records show nearly 78,000 people have fully recovered and more than 4,000 died.
A dispatch released last week by the Chinese Foreign Ministry indicated "both Chinese and foreigners are required to observe local anti-epidemic regulations."
China is using a controversial testing method called the nucleic acid test (NAT), which detects the genetic material of a micro-organism in blood. That test, some medical researchers say, is useful in detecting a disease early; but it can give data beyond Covid-19 status, by showing blood count and other existing infections like HIV or Hepatitis B.
The Chinese are also demanding that landlords let houses only to foreigners with special medical cards showing they were free of the virus.
Those certificates are obtained through forced quarantine, at own cost, for 14 days; after which one has to take four subsequent tests.
In total, one could stay in a hotel for up to four weeks, should anyone in the quarantined group test positive.
That Africans or people of colour were targeted may have something to do with the rank of Africa in the relationship with China, argued Joyce Kibet, the Head of Economic and Trade Pillar at the Regional Women Forum of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region .
Broken honeymoon?
China's close economic relations with Africa and hefty loans borrowed by the continent's leaders, she told The EastAfrican, have silenced any protestations against Chinese ill acts.
"This has continued to mute African governments' ability to pull out the justice card on China's human rights violations. The consequence of this is playing out as a current reality, as showcased by China's mistreatment of Africans domiciled in China," she said.
Africa should take this opportunity (of rare protests) to build a strong, short-term and long term continental human rights foreign policy model with China.
Such a model would allow the continent to respond collectively, as well as enact a collective escalation mechanism with regards to Sino-African human rights foreign policy that also calls for measurable gains towards China's human rights relationship with Africa."
The protest may have broken the "honeymoon" in China-Africa relations, Dr Kigen Morumbasi, a security expert and international relations lecturer at Strathmore University told The EastAfrican. Increased solidarity among Africans as shown this week, he argued, could pose a dilemma for Beijing.
"[It is] twofold: It threatens to weaken Africa's confidence on FOCAC (the forum on China-Africa Co-operation, a tri-annual conference) and dent China's social image on the continent," he said.
The Kenya Diaspora Alliance, a founding member of the nascent Africa Diaspora Alliance, demanded a stop to the mistreatment.
"We stand in full solidarity with our African sisters and brothers in China who have had to tolerate the barbaric acts we have seen on our screens and social media the past few days," said Shem Ochuodho, the KDA Global Chairperson.
Already, the spread of the virus had forced some African countries into local sustenance such as in production of masks, even though none of them wants to break bonds with the outside world.
"The main dilemma that China will face depending on how it tackles the matter is how Beijing will maintain the 'image' of China as a responsible international actor that seeks the creation of a harmonious society," Dr Morumbasi added.


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exploring colour through art and science
exploring colour with art and synchrotron radiation
The Diamond Discovery Day
Star Species
Green Tree Frog
Heliconius
Cyphochilus (beetle)
Pollia condensata
A peacock showing off its colours, Sultanpur National Park, India photo Jatin Sindhu
STRUCTURAL COLOUR: STAR SPECIES NUMBER 6
Name: Peacock
Special Power: The Power to Make Charles Darwin Sick!
About 150 years ago, and "almost a lifetime" either side, Charles Darwin was beleaguered by the problem of the peacock's tail. Just the sight of a feather, he wrote in April 1860, "makes me sick!" The plumage of the male bird represented a hole in his theory of evolution. According to Victorian thinking, beauty was divine creation: God had designed the peacock for his own and humankind's delight. In On The Origin of Species published the previous year, Darwin had challenged the dominant theory of creationism, arguing that man had been made not in God's image but as a result of evolution, with new species formed over generations in response to their environment.
But beauty, and a supposed aesthetic sense in animals ("We must suppose [that peahens] admire [the] peacock's tail, as much as we do," he wrote), took Darwin the best part of his life to justify – not least because the theory he eventually landed upon went against the grain of his entire worldview. Sexual selection was of strategic importance to Darwin, says Evelleen Richards, an honorary professor in history and philosophy of science at the University of Sydney: it was a naturalistic account for aesthetic differences between male and female animals of the same species, shoring up his defence of natural selection.
"No one had come up with this theory in quite the same way as Darwin, and yet it was built into his thinking on natural selection: sexual selection explains what natural selection cannot," she says. Natural selection was the "struggle for existence", sexual selection was the "struggle for mates". It attributed the development of plumage, courtship dances, song and other so-called "secondary sexual characteristics" to females' choices of mates, creating a positive feedback mechanism over generations.
"A girl sees a handsome man and without observing whether his nose or his whiskers are the tenth of an inch longer or shorter than in some other man, admires his appearance and says she will marry him," he wrote in 1868. "So I suppose with the peahen; and the tail has been increased in length merely by on the whole presenting a more gorgeous appearance."
Richards argues that, more than natural selection, Darwin's theory of sexual selection was uniquely his own and, perhaps as a result, often misunderstood. His theorising drew upon a wide range of influences, many of them deeply personal, including his grandfather Erasmus's radical writings on evolution and his own relationship with his wife.
The 'peafowl' include three species of birds in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the Phasianidae family, the pheasants and their allies. The two Asiatic species are the blue or Indian peafowl originally of the Indian subcontinent, and the green peafowl of Southeast Asia. The term peacock is properly reserved for the male; the female is known as a peahen, and the immature offspring are sometimes called peachicks.
Peacocks are known for their piercing calls and their extravagant plumage. The latter is especially prominent in the Asiatic species, which have an eye-spotted "tail" or "train" of covert feathers, which they display as part of a courtship ritual.The functions of the elaborate iridescent colouration and large "train" of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate. As stated above, Charles Darwin suggested they served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by sexual selection. More recently, Amotz Zahavi has proposed in his handicap theory that these features acted as honest signals of the males' fitness, since less-fit males would be disadvantaged by the difficulty of surviving with such large and conspicuous structures.
As with many birds, the peacock's vibrant iridescent plumage colours are not primarily pigments, but structural colouration. Optical interference Bragg reflections, based on regular, periodic nanostructures of the barbules (fiber-like components) of the feathers, produce the peacock's colours. Slight changes to the spacing of these barbules result in different colours. Brown feathers are a mixture of red and blue: one colour is created by the periodic structure and the other is created by a Fabry–Pérot interference peak from reflections from the outer and inner boundaries.
Such structural colouration causes the iridescence of the peacock's hues. Interference effects depend on light angle rather than actual pigments.


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REGIONAL BRIEFS
THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
Gurdaspur man found murdered
Amritsar, October 1
William Masih, a rickshaw puller, hailing from Gurdaspur was found murdered in Ranjit Avenue C-block area here today.
Police officials at the murder site in Amritsar on Monday. photo: sameer sehgal
Holy city to host first Punjabi music festival on October 20
Already high on success and popularity, the Punjabi music industry is ready to welcome another celebration of its talent. Amritsar will host the first Punjabi Music Festival on October 20.
Three lawyers booked for duping man of Rs 1.5 lakh
The city police has booked three advocates for allegedly duping one Kishan Lal Gupta of Ranjit Avenue area here.
EARLIER STORIES
Police to take de-addiction path to check snatchings
Plan to streamline city traffic
Govt asked to make efforts for release of 54 Indian POWs of 1971 war
HC orders on illegal hoardings defied
Police starts anti-encroachment drive
Police groping in the dark
Daring daylight robbery in city
Doc attacked at Hospital
Mentally ill man beaten to death
Say No to sifarish please, Mayor tells MC officials
MC 'denies' info on pvt schools
The Municipal Corporation has denied information regarding number of private schools being run in the city and house tax being paid by these schools, alleged RTI activist Sandy Randhawa.
Two flesh trade rackets busted
The city police today claimed to have busted two flesh trade rackets and arrested as many as 16 persons, including eight girls.
For them, fun has just started
It's an age-old thing, or says an old-age thing. The moment you enter the senior citizen phase in life, everything comes with a perspective. Ageing comes with a fear attached, for most it means end of fun. But for some, it means the fun has just begun.
Madan Mohan Arora along with wife Dazy Arora during a road trip to Srinagar-Leh-Ladakh. A Tribune photo
Displaced shopkeepers await relief
Even after a month of taking over the possession of shops or houses inside the Durgiana Mandir Complex for the proposed beautification project by the Land Acquisition Department, none of the owners or the tenants have received compensation.
Two arrested for betting on cricket
The Civil Line police has arrested two persons for allegedly betting during the T-20 Cricket World Cup match. However, an accomplice of the accused managed to escape from the spot.
Little Mahatamas
Schoolchildren of DAV Public School dressed as Mahatma Gandhi participate in a school function on the eve of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in Amritsar on Monday. photo: vishal kumar
New rule in two months: Huge rush at revenue offices
Revenue offices nowadays are witnessing an unexpected flow of visitors. Reason: The visitors want to register their properties before the new rule of bringing along the original owner while registering properties through the power of attorneys comes into effect.
Anti-Sikh riots: Photo exhibition in memory of victims
Various Sikh and human rights organisations would launch a campaign "Forgotten Citizens" on the 28th anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Zonal youth festival concludes at Guru Nanak Dev University
Shanti Devi Arya Mahila College, Dina Nagar, won the Championship Trophy of 'A' Division and Sikh National College, Qadian, won the Championship Trophy of 'B' Division of Zonal Youth Festival of 'B' Zone of the Guru Nanak Dev University.
Getting ready: Gandhian Sham Lal washes a statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the eve of his birth anniversary in Amritsar on Monday. Photo: Vishal Kumar
Gavie Chahal back to his first love
Six years back, Gavie Chahal was just another aspiring actor in Punjabi cinema, who shifted base to Mumbai, struggled to get work and didn't even had any right connections.
Shortcoming with traffic wing needs immediate action
Yet again, another set of traffic management plan which has been launched recently, seem to be nothing but an old wine in a new bottle.
Interns programme concludes
A five-week-long International Interns Programme concluded at Global Institutes today.
He was apparently strangled to death. His hand and legs were cuffed before he was murdered by the persons. The police has informed his family members.
The body was located by people who were passing through the area. The body was found in the shrubs at a secluded place in the Ranjit Avenue area. They immediately informed the police.
Manjit Singh, SHO, Ranjit Avenue police station, said a case under Section 302 of the IPC was being lodged against unidentified persons. He said the police was waiting for the family members and further action would be taken after recording their statements.
Nishan Singh, in charge, Ranjit avenue police chowki said the preliminary investigations revealed that Masih who belonged to the Dhariwal area in Gurdaspur was strangled to death. The police team found a rope around his neck used in the crime. His hands and legs were also tied by ropes. He said he was killed somewhere else and later his body was thrown in the shrubs. There were no other injury marks on his body.
He said later his rickshaw was also recovered from the Rattan Singh Chowk area. He said further investigations were going on.
The victim, identified as William Masih was a rickshaw puller and hailed from Gurdaspur.
His hand and legs were cuffed before he was strangulated.
The body was found in the shrubs at a secluded place in the Ranjit Avenue area
The police team found a rope around his neck used in the crime.
He said he was killed somewhere else and later his body was thrown in the shrubs. There were no other injury marks on his body
The police has informed his family members
Neha Saini
Hans Raj Hans along with organiser Navtej Sandhu announces the first Punjabi music festival during a press conference in Amritsar on Monday. photo: vishal kumar
Bringing the biggest names in the industry and honouring celebrated talent amongst them, the festival to be held at Amritsar College of Engineering, Manawala, will be all about combining the traditional and commercial forms of Punjabi music. Announcing the festival, culture promoter and organiser Navtej Sandhu shared the need for having such an event. "God has been very kind on Punjab in bestowing such a pool of talent in music. We wanted to honour the stalwarts of the industry who have contributed in making Punjabi music a worldwide phenomenon and also motivate young artistes who are ready to take the baton from their predecessors."
The festival will be a glittering star night where prominent names of the industry would be nominated and honoured in various categories.
Also present on the occasion was renowned singer Hans Raj Hans, who felt that such an event would also become a platform for the music fraternity to join hands for a cause. "It would be an event where who's who of the industry will be present. It would be an opportunity for all of us to join hands and work towards a cause," said the singer who is nominated for the Legend of Punjabi music category.
Others nominated in various categories include Gurmeet Bawa (Lifetime Achievement Honour), singer Sarbjit Cheema (Goonj Punjab Di), Dolly Guleria (Maan Punjab Da), Tejwant Kittu (Best Music Director) and more. Their would be special honours in memory of some legends of the industry like Kuldip Manak Honour for Harjit Harman, Shiv Kumar Batalvi Honour for Amardeep Gill and Pargat Sidhu and Hakam Sufi Honour for Lakhwinder Wadali. Singer Sherry Maan would be presented with Youth Icon award while Meenu Sandhu will recieve Best Debutant Singer. And Viewer's Choice honour will go to Rana Ranbir and Yuvraj Hans.
In a statement to the police, Gupta alleged that advocates Kultar Singh, Sukhbir Singh and Karanbir Singh had cheated him of Rs 1.5 lakh.
He said there was a dispute between him and his landlord, Raghbir Singh, over a house. In December 2010, the advocates offered to intervene in the matter and told him that he could purchase the house.
He said a deal was finalised for Rs 36.50 lakh and he gave Rs 1.5 lakh in advance to the advocates. He said on the date of registry on March 31, 2011, they did not turn up. Gupta said on September 21 the accused called him and his daughter and used abusive language against them and also threatened them of dire consequences. He said the advocates also did not return his money.
The police said a case under Sections 420, 506 and 120-B IPC had been registered against the advocates and further investigations were on.
He said over the past decade, a number of private schools, national chain of schools and even those run by societies have come up in and around the city.
He said a majority of these schools are housed in palatial buildings, covering hundreds of acres of land which was once under agriculture. He maintained that these schools were charging hefty fees from students and it was the right of citizens to know whether they were paying the entire dues or not.
Furnishing the copy of the letter he wrote to the Public Information Officer, MC, on July 25, he sought that at what rate these schools pay house tax and how much so far has been collected? He also asked that did schools need to seek Change of Land Use (CLU).
When he didn't get a reply, Randhawa gave a reminder to the same authority on August 27 as a first appeal.
It took another nearly two months to the APIO of the MC to react. The APIO in a communiqué on September 20 intimated him that the information regarding the private schools in the city does not exist and available in material form. "A research work is required to tabulate, to collate and create new information for you which is not permissible as per the RTI Act, 2005."
In a separate RTI, a city resident PC Sharma alleged that his query regarding the reason of exempting house tax to a school and the powers under which it was exempted did not elicit positive response. He maintained that he was constrained to write to the Secretary, Vigilance, Punjab, regarding the exemption.
The police also arrested two hotel owners for running prostitution rackets. They have been charged under the Immoral Trafficking Act and two separate cases have been lodged in this connection.
Hotel owners have been identified as Kulwinder Singh and Mohit Kumar.
Acting on a tip-off, the Rambagh police raided a hotel located in the area from where it nabbed seven persons, including five girls. It also arrested Kulwinder Singh besides Gurpreet Singh of Rampura village in this regard. The police authorities said the accused used to charge money from the customers for calling call girls.
Also the police conducted raid on a hotel located in the Chowk Pragdas area, the police arrested four girls out of which one belonged to Gurdaspur and another from Pathankot. Besides Mohit Kumar, owner of the hotel, the police also nabbed Rajesh Kumar of Gurdaspur, Varun Kumar of Ganda Singh Colony, Sunny Kumar of Katra Karam Singh and Ravi Kumar of Himmatpura.
On International Day for Elders, there are some who speaks out their mind and make us wonder- Is old age something to dread or cherish? For them, it's just another decade and a new beginning as they live life afresh.
No age for adventure
Madan Mohan Arora (58) and his wife Daisy (52) have brought on some lifestyle changes when for most, life doesn't have space for much changes. Loving and living life to the fullest, they have made it a point to enjoy the fading years to the maximum. "We love travelling, socialising and being involved in lot of activities. I believe it's very important, especially when you step in old age as otherwise life becomes boring," shares Daisy.
Back from a 15-day road trip to Srinagar-Leh-Ladakh, the couple took adventure heads on, their age nowhere near their passion. "The road trip was an exciting change. It was an experience of a lifetime," shares Madan, who enjoyed the rough terrain with equal ease as the serene beauty. The couple doesn't believe in 'taking life easy' in old age as they think life can be happening and age has nothing do with it. "There goes an old saying that you are only as old as you think you are. And we definitely go by that spirit," says Madan.
Another example of living life to the brim at a ripe age of 55 is Balpreet Kaur Sidhu. The young-at-heart housewife, mother and grandmother from the city, says that old age is not about wear and tear, medical bills and taking senior citizen benefits. "In fact, I believe it is a time one can enjoy the finer things in life as you are free of your worldly responsibilities." Her leisure activities though include lots of travelling, trekking, hiking and even learning horse-riding. "I have been a part of travel groups trekking and hiking in Dhauladhar ranges, Shivalik ranges and love to go to uphills for a quick retreat. It's something that enlivens me," she shares. She makes sure to maintain a fitness regime to avoid any wear and tear during her excursions. "My idol is the legendary marathoner Fauja Singh ji, who even at the age of 104 can give any youngster a run for his money, literally."
Fighting for a cause at 70
Talking about adventure, another senior citizen from the city is on an adventure of his own. Brij Bedi, an aggressive, nearing his seventies, social activist feels energetic when working for a cause. Call him by many names, man on a mission, one man army or crusader, Brij has worked consistently to change lives, "I feel age is no bar when one decides to bring change. It's been over two decades that I have been fighting for things I feel for, whether it's the traffic menace, defacing of heritage structures, fighting drug abuse or providing education to the needy. I feel invigorated and alive when taking up a new challenge at a time," shares Brij. Currently, he is running a school for underprivileged at Maquaboolpura.
GS Paul
The authorities have served notices to 54 shopkeepers, while eight shops have already been demolished.
The displaced traders and residents alleged that their claim applications had been rejected on frivolous grounds by the authorities.
On the other hand, officials maintained that the claimants could not furnish the requisite documents to establish their ownership rights on the 'surrendered' property.
The Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT), under whose supervision this project would be executed, has awarded the work to construct a commercial complex in the first phase to a local firm, which has already started the work.
The authorities had assured the shopkeepers on new accommodation in the upcoming complex at reserve price.
Raghunandan, who owns a shop-cum-residence in the Durgiana complex, was dejected by the negligence and non-cooperative attitude of the department. "I have been travelling from Improvement Trust office to the MC's MTP department with the documents of my property deed on the basis of which I had claimed compensation. Even after a lapse of over a month, no department has reached a logical conclusion," he said.
Gaurav, who runs an ice-cream shop, and lives on the upper floors with his family has decided to move court against the authorities. "Despite numerous reminders about my compensation, no one from the authorities' sides cared to reply," he said.
Vipin Sachdeva, who had been running a printing press from three shops for the past over five decades, resented that the authorities should have made an alternative arrangements for them before acquiring their shops.
"The proposed commercial complex would take over a year to complete. Where would I shift my machinery till then?" he asked.
Om Prakash, a grocery shopowner, said in the absence of any alternate site, they would be out of work till the new complex comes up. "Till date, not even a single penny has been given by the authorities as compensation", he said.
Official speak
Land Acquisition Collector Pardeep Sabharwal: Hardly anyone among them could establish their ownership rights. After scrutinising the documents available with them, it was found that majority of them had raised structure on the land which was owned by the Durgiana Committee itself. The deed between the committee and the traders state that the cost of land has to be adjusted out of the monthly rent of the shop. By law, they are not entitled for any claim.
Ramesh Sharma, General Secretary, Durgiana Committee: Traders were repeatedly told to find some alternate place outside the Durgiana complex where some temporary arrangement of running their businesses could be executed. But they were adamant on erecting kiosks within the complex. This was straightaway rejected by the authorities. Moreover it was not feasible to erect kiosks inside the complex. Still, we are in their support and if they could find any place, we would request the authorities on their behalf, to let them establish their business temporarily, till the new complex is built.
The arrested persons have been identified as Hargoind Singh, a resident of Ranjit Vihar, and Naveen Kumar, a resident of Gali Masit Wali, Islamabad area, while Hargoind's son, Jaskaran Singh Sodhi, managed to dodge the police.
However, Jaskaran and Sahil Kumar, owner of a hotel on the Albert road, were booked by the Civil Line police on Saturday in connection with a firing incident at Barishta Coffee House in Ranjit Avenue.
The police has registered a case under Sections 420 of the IPC and 13-A/3/67 of the Gambling act against the accused.
The police has recovered five mobile phones and registers and other documents from the spot. The registers contain the names of suspected customers who had betted on the cricket match.
Investigating Officer Nishan Singh said Hargoind was wanted in many cases of smuggling of fake currency, gold biscuits and narcotic substances. He was recently released from a jail on bail. He said further investigations were on and raids were being conducted to nab Jaskarn.
Neeraj Bagga
People wait for their turn outside the Revenue Office in Amritsar. Photo: Sameer Sehgal
The new rule would come into force after 2 months.
Hundreds of people gather in front of the windows outside Sub-Registrar office I and II as early as five in the morning.
This inflow of visitors has somewhat worried the limited employees of the department.
Unable to handle the rush of people, a clerk of Amritsar -2 fainted a few days ago and had to be rushed to a private hospital. It prompted the Deputy Commissioner Office Employees Association to submit a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal to review the new "token system" and increase the strength of staff and material.
Association president Ashunil Kumar said the workload had increased alarmingly while the number of employees remained the same. There are only four employees while two computer sets in each branch.
The administration has introduced a 'token system' at these offices some days ago.
Once the new rule come into effect, it will be mandatory for the seller who had sold the property through a power of attorney to be present during its registration and should declare that he had received the amount. Similarly, the buyer must disclose the source of the money. Buyers who had procured the plots and houses years ago are flocking the office to escape the new rule.
A resident of Medical Enclave Swarn Singh said earlier model used to consume a day and now at least three days are to be reserved for the same work.
Sunil Kumar, a resident of Lohgarh, said he had procured a plot on Loharka road some years ago. After learning about the rules, he visited the Revenue department office at 6:30 am on Friday and managed to submit his all papers only at 12 pm.
Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia in a press release welcomed the newly introduced token system in tehsil office of Amritsar.
He said the token system had been introduced to streamline the procedure of registration of land and other properties.
He accepted that there is a shortage of manpower and infrastructure in Amritsar tehsil and said it would be taken care of with the appointment of more officials.
This was stated by Supreme Court lawyer HS Phoolka while releasing Jassi Jasraj's musical album "Tejab-1984", dedicated to the victims of the riots, here today. The album contains four songs and a narrative of 35 minutes by Phoolka explaining what happened in the communal frenzy.
He said the entire campaign would be aimed at drawing the attention of the nation towards delay in getting justice for the victims of the carnage. He said a peaceful programme in the memory of nearly 3,000 persons who perished in the riots would be held at the India Gate on November 3. Meanwhile, a mobile photo exhibition, which would start from Jallianwala Bagh on October 21, would culminate in New Delhi on November 1.
For the first four days, the exhibition would remain in the holy city and after that it would reach Sultanpur Lodhi on October 25 and after covering Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib, the exhibition would remain opened at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi from November 1 to 5.
Students of Sikh National College, Qadian, with the winning trophy in Amritsar. A Tribune photo
The festival concluded here today in the Dashmesh Auditorium of the university. More than 600 students from university-affiliated colleges from Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts participated in 24 events.
In 'A' Division, RR Bawa DAV College for Girls, Batala, was runners-up while SRPA AB College, Pathankot, finished third. In 'B' Division, Guru Arjun Dev Khalsa College, Chohla Sahib, was the runners-up.
Dr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Professor, in charge (F & D), said the cultural activities were also essential for students along with studies. He exhorted students to work hard. "The students should make sure that their studies should not suffer with these activities. The youth festivals provide a platform for youth to show their hidden talent and to develop their personality," he said.
Six years back, Gavie Chahal was just another aspiring actor in Punjabi cinema, who shifted base to Mumbai, struggled to get work and didn't even had any right connections. But that didn't stop him from making the best possible debut in Bollywood and doing what any newcomer has not yet done – punching Salman Khan on screen. Well, the Punjabi hunk has hit it right with 'Ek Tha Tiger' and is back to his first love, Punjabi cinema. On his recent visit to Amritsar to promote his Punjabi film 'Pinki Moge Wali' opposite Neeru Bajwa, the actor got candid about his latest release, a dream debut and finding his own space in tinseltown.
"I'll be coming back to Punjabi cinema after a long time with 'Pinki Moge Wali'. It's an amazing comedy and a sweet love story that will surely entertain audiences. I have already received messages from fans and peers on the film doing good in Punjab."
The Punjabi actor who was earlier seen in movies like 'Yaaran Naal Baharan', 'Mehndi Wale Hath' et al believes in quality work and is not bothered by the numbers. "I waited for the right kind of projects and scripts to come by. I wanted to do roles that people appreciated and not just be another blink-and-miss character. The Punjabi cinema has hit its purple patch and we have the luxury to choose and experiment with our characters as actors now," he shares.
As for his Bollywood dreams, Gavie took his time before getting his dream debut. "I consider myself lucky to have bagged a film like 'Ek Tha Tiger', working with one of the best production houses, director Kabir Khan and the superstar of Bollywood Salman Khan. I'd call it a perfect combo," he says. Well, a word of appreciation from the man himself, Yash Chopra, was the icing on the cake. "I felt elated and motivated after his kind words after watching my performance. I'll remember that forever." After an impressive debut, gathering appreciation and awards for it as well, Gavie finally seems to have paved way for more Punjabi actors to be a part of the big game.
G.S.PAUL
In 2007 too, a traffic plan hosted with similar fanfare was released in collaboration with the MC and the police department, but it was largely restricted to paper only.
Nevertheless, the ground realities like the ill equipped traffic police department, lack of infrastructure for road safety, the unauthorized plying of vehicles and the MC's inability to remove the massive encroachments on the roadsides-could never be addressed. Sources said that the Amritsar traffic department which contributes over Rs 50 lac in the state exchequer by way of depositing the penalties collected from the traffic violators, could never find prominent place on the agenda of the government.
There are around 200 police men in Amritsar traffic police. This included an ADCP, an ACP, two inspectors, four Sub-inspectors, 15 Assistant Sub Inspectors and the rest as head constables and constables. They share the responsibility of governing over 10 lakh vehicles plying on city roads and often find themselves helpless to curb the blatant traffic violations for want of equipments.
Numerous times it has been observed that the two wheelers driving without helmets or the ones who jump the traffic signal or use mobile phones while driving, manage to flee and the cops on duty become helpless because they do not have wireless communication which could enable them to nab the offenders at next point. Similarly, the alcometers to check the drunken driving and the CCTV cameras on the key points remained as mere announcements on political dais.
A traffic cop told that most of the times, they have to use their own private vehicles to perform the official job.
The police department has two tow-away vans to deal with the wrongly parked vehicles. Interestingly, it was their operators only who told that these vehicles would often remain out of fuel.
"We avoid using the tow away vehicles because of fuel constraints. On many occasions, we thought of including the fuel expenses in the wrong parking penalties but that too is a tedious exercise because the offenders here manage to get scot-free after using their influential contacts", said a cop.
According to a rough estimate over 35,000 unregistered autos are being operated in illegal way within the city limits. It is an open secret that majority of their drivers do not possess valid driving licence. Many are being driven by even underage drivers. The need of the hour is to launch a rigorous drive against them. On the other hand, the MC could seldom be a helping hand in getting the roads or footpaths free from illegal encroachments.
ADCP (Traffic) Rachchpal Singh Ghuman: "The shortcomings in the traffic wing would be communicated to the higher authorities. The fuel expenses have been cut short to almost half of what used to be normally sanctioned, that's why we are facing difficulty. Despite having scant staff and resources, we do our best to manage it all. Due to shortage of wireless sets, we could only sanction them for Inspector level officers, whereas this equipment has to be there with every team deputed on the checking point."
Claudia Aiello and Guilia Todisco from Italy and Ivan Povkh and Iryna Kidalko from Ukraine were the resource persons in the teaching programme. They held discussions with students of MBA and BTech classes on topics of entrepreneurship, leadership, globalisation, social networking and human rights and global village.
Students found the workshops and lectures informative. International interns were presented mementos. Vice Chairman Dr Akashdeep Singh said such international exposure was helpful to students.
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Destin, FL is a paradise for animal lovers! Whether you head out on the water or stay on dry land, there are numerous opportunities for seeing the Emerald Coast's signature fauna. To help you make the most of your next vacation, the Henderson Park Inn has put together a guide to viewing the beautiful wildlife in Destin Florida.
No trip to Destin is complete without seeing a dolphin! The Gulf of Mexico is home to a thriving year-round dolphin population that typically numbers around 40,000. Bottlenose dolphins are the most common species in the region, but the Destin area is also known to feature Atlantic spotted dolphins, which are famous for their distinctive spotted coloring.
The Southern Star Dolphin Cruise is a very popular way to see these beautiful creatures in Destin. Guests will enjoy a scenic 2-hour cruise through Destin Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico on an 80-foot glass bottom boat. The Southern Star's slogan is "expect a miracle," so chances are good that you'll spot some dolphins during your tour.
The jetties are an unparalleled destination for viewing aquatic wildlife in Destin Florida. This man-made rock structure in Destin's East Pass has become an artificial reef for a variety of sea creatures. When you go snorkeling at the jetties, you'll have the chance to see puffer fish, hermit crabs, blue crabs, octopuses, flounder, wrasse, redfish, small snapper, and sheepshead. Dolphins and sea turtles have also been known to make appearances around the jetties. For a fun snorkeling expedition to the Destin Jetties, we recommend booking a trip with Destin Snorkel.
Located about a half hour away from the Henderson Park Inn, Eden Gardens State Park is a great place for butterfly viewing. This idyllic park includes a designated butterfly garden where you can see nature's most beautiful insects. In addition to its lovely butterflies, Eden Gardens also boats colorful camellias and azaleas from October through May, a heritage rose garden, a hidden garden, a historic mansion, and a reflection pond with koi fish and water lilies.
Overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, the Okaloosa Island Pier provides the ideal vantage point for spotting the area's signature wildlife. Sea turtles frequently swim around the pier, often getting close enough for visitors to take some spectacular photos. Other sea creatures that have been seen around the pier include dolphins, porpoises, jellyfish, manta rays, sharks, herons, and numerous species of fish. Please note that it costs $2 per person to walk the Okaloosa Island Pier.
Guests at the Henderson Park Inn won't have to travel far to see some beautiful animals, because our bed and breakfast is located adjacent to Henderson Beach State Park! Featuring shorebirds, wading birds, and migratory birds (in the spring and fall), Henderson Beach is a must for bird watchers. The park is also home to rabbits, gopher tortoises, bobcats, small reptile species, and migrating monarch butterflies (in the fall). Dolphins and sea turtles are sometimes visible in the water, so be sure to bring your binoculars or camera.
When you stay at the Henderson Park Inn, you will have the perfect home base for viewing wildlife in Destin Florida. Our adults only bed and breakfast has been voted the most romantic hotel in America by the users of About.com and TripAdvisor.com. We are also proud to hold the Conde Nast Johansens Award for Excellence. To start planning your next escape, browse our selection of Destin hotel rooms!


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CIA attack 'revenge for Mehsud'
In video message Jordanian says Khost blast avenged Pakistani Taliban leader's killing.
Al-Balawi had apparently been recruited by Jordanian intelligence before the CIA Khost base attack
The eighth victim of the suicide attack was a Jordanian intelligence officer, identified by Jordan's state news agency Petra as Captain Sharif Ali bin Zeid.
Mehsud retaliation
Al-Balawi said in the video: "We say that we will never forget the blood of our Emir Baitullah Mehsud, God's mercy on him.
"To retaliate for his death in the United States and outside the United States will remain an obligation on all emigrants who were harboured by Baitullah Mehsud."
Video: Mehsud's death sparked CIA attack
Video: The many faces of the CIA base bomber
US spies in Afghanistan 'ignorant'
Inside Story: Is the CIA losing Afghanistan?
Mehsud was the leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella organisation, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and was blamed for numerous suicide bombings and other attacks in the country.
He was initially reported dead after a missile fired by a US drone hit his house in the Zangar area of South Waziristan on August 5 last year, but it was not until later that month that the group acknowledged his death.
Hakimullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban commander who succeeded Baitullah Mehsud as the leader of the umbrella group, is shown sitting next to al-Balawi in Saturday's video.
"God willing his successor the Emir of Pakistan's Taliban Hakimullah will go on the same methodology and the same path until we achieve victory or meet the same fate like that of Hamza Abdul Muttaleb," al-Balawi said.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Swat valley, said that the video showed "there was clearly a link between the Pakistani Taliban, headed by Hakimullah Mehsud, and some of the al-Qaeda elements operating in the area".
"This was a video that was expected, everyone was told al-Balawi had recorded a message before he went on this mission."
Father speaks out
Following the release of the video, Khalil al-Balawi, Balawi's father, spoke from his home in the Jordanian capital, Amman and confirmed that it showed his son, saying he was not astonished by what his son had done.
"We are not surprised, fighting the arrogant, unjust, haughty and tyrant American who kills civilians and innocent people makes the whole Islamic world hate America … I say that Hammam sacrificed his body and soul for the oppressed.
"Khalil al-Balawi also harshly criticised intelligence officials for his son's change. "I blame the agencies that recruited him, and changed him," he said.
"They changed him. They turned him from a human, a doctor, to a person with a heart full of negative and hostile emotions toward others."
Obituary: Baitullah Mehsud
The slain leader of the pro-Taliban group in Pakistan was blamed for numerous attacks.
CIA probes Afghanistan deaths
US spy chief says agency undeterred by attack that left seven agents dead in Khost.
CIA confirms deaths in Afghanistan
Taliban claims responsibility for attack while five Canadians die in separate incident.
Foreigners killed in Afghan attacks
Separate attacks kill Canadian troops and eight Americans, said to be CIA employees.


Accidents happen and glass breaks, but thankfully at Competition Glass we can help repair or replace most any glass window, door or mirror.
Our trained glaziers are experts at all things glass. With our recognized dedication to customer service we can guarantee that Competition Glass is the right choice to handle any glass repair or replacement work you need completed.
In the unfortunate event that your business experiences vandalism, we can provide same-day emergency services, including temporary board up. This includes board ups to prevent damage from the elements and/or theft from the public.


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The Day Freddie Mercury Died
Nick DeRiso
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Freddie Mercury was the face of Queen's wildly popular mixture of hard rock, pop, cabaret, glam and opera in the '70s, before becoming one the the AIDS virus' most well-known casualties in the '90s. He died on Nov. 24, 1991, just one day after issuing a statement in which he confirmed rumors that he had the disease.
At Queen's zenith, Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon forged a completely new hybrid that centered on Mercury's brand of impish decadence, one that ultimately became bound up in the mythology of his early passing, as well. But the group, and Mercury, was always more than the sum of its out-sized bacchanalia. Queen's signature creative moment was also Mercury's, as he layered his own voice into a choir for "Bohemian Rhapsody," a painstaking process in the days of reel-to-reel tape. Over the years, Mercury also wrote "Killer Queen," "Somebody to Love," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions" for Queen, while issuing a well-received solo reinterpretation of the Platters' "The Great Pretender" in 1987.
Along the way, the band's unique musical alchemy, not to mention those elaborate studio concoctions, set the standard for a series of suitably far-flung bands: Journey swiped Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker for its first albums with Steve Perry, while Styx would borrow heavily from Mercury's knack for Broadway prog. Neo-classical heavy metal artists like Yngwie Malmsteen consistently referenced the band's crunchy rock template, while Metallica went so far as to record their own version of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy." There are countless others.
None of them, however, could approach Mercury's unique on-stage presence, confirmed all over again after their hit-making days were largely over when Queen galvanized fans worldwide as part of the Live Aid concerts. Born Frederick Bulsara in Zanzibar to a government accountant, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia resulting from AIDS just six years later. Mary Austin, Mercury's one-time partner and life-long friend, has faithfully followed the singer's wishes and kept the whereabouts of his ashes a secret -- even from his parents.
Mercury continued recording until not long before his death, losing none of his vocal power, even as his body began to noticeably waste away. While working on "The Show Must Go On" in 1990, May questioned whether Mercury was well enough to continue. "And he went, 'I'll fucking do it, darling' — vodka down — and went in and killed it," May remembered. "Completely lacerated that vocal." Enough sessions work was left over, in fact, for a huge-selling posthumous release; 1995's Made in Heaven would go four-times platinum in the U.K.
Austin also received both Mercury's opulent Edwardian mansion, located in West London, and the bulk of his fortune. May and Taylor, meanwhile, have continued on as Queen with a series of guest singers, including George Michael, Paul Rodgers and -- most recently -- American Idol finalist Adam Lambert. They also established the Mercury Phoenix Trust in 1992 in memory of Mercury, raising awareness and funds as part of the fight against AIDS.
Freddie Mercury Year by Year: Photos 1973-1990
Next: Top 10 Queen Songs
Source: The Day Freddie Mercury Died
Filed Under: Freddie Mercury, Queen


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Editorial : Capitalizing the visit
By Guest on 1:25 am September 12, 2017 No Comment
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spent two days in Kashmir and half of his four day visit ended with the culmination of his tour to the Valley. The Union HM left for Jammu where he is scheduled to meet a cross section of people.
Before leaving for Jammu, Singh had a detailed press briefing here where he put forth various suggestions for seeking a resolution of the vexed Kashmir issue.
He suggested five-Cs- Compassion, Communication, Coexistence, Confidence building and Consistency — for attaining a permanent solution of Kashmir issue.
Since a lot of speculation was made here as the Union Minister had during the past weeks issued many statements on Kashmir, where he had stated that the solution to this problem will be found till 2022.
According to Rajnath Singh the five-Cs should be implemented for the permanent solution. However, he yet again did not elaborate as to how the five C's formula will help resolve the issue. Rajnath who is on his fifth visit to the state in the last one year's felt that the situation in Kashmir has improved.
But the moot question remains, as to what is the outcome of the visit. Is the visit just an addition to the rhetoric that the ruling party has been putting forth on Kashmir. If the answer to this question is in negative then what made the Peoples Democratic party cancel the mega rally they had planned on the eve of the Union Ministers arrival in Srinagar.
The PDP which was made to believe that the Union Minister will make some mega announcements like initiation of talks with Pakistan, start of a dialogue process with the separatists and other measures that need to be taken to ease out the situation in Kashmir and initiation of a dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir issue, felt that nothing of that sort is going to happen.
The PDP leadership was made to cancel the rally so that they could not lead themselves into a awkward position.
The Union Government it seems is once again missing the core point. The issues in Kashmir are being ignored once again. The Union government is not trying to rope in Pakistan as it is not making any move to break the thaw that has crept into the relations between the two countries.
The nature of relations between the two countries is that the two are not interested even in breaking the ice to make an eye-to-eye contact.
It is well understood that contentious issues such as Kashmir can never be a beginning of a resumed dialogue process. That is probably the fact that both the countries have realized. Surely there cannot be permanent peace without resolving Kashmir. But the process needs to be initiated on the terms of mutual interests and the constituencies the leadership of both the countries have to address.
Besides, the Union government needs to address the sentiments in the Kashmir Valley. For that the governments statements of announcing formulae's need to be initiated on ground. And involving the separatist leadership at this juncture can help in achieving a breakthrough.
Editorial : Capitalizing the visit added by Guest on 1:25 am September 12, 2017
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Grosvenor Hall has a capacity of 40 residents, there are 32 rooms which are single occupancy, 4 are shared with 30 having en suite facilities, we also listened to the those residents who preferred to have a larger room and not have en suite, so left 10 rooms without this facility when the home was extended in 2008.
Grosvenor Hall is a grade 2 listed building formerly Bracebridge Hall of which several photos/painting are in the main hallway depicting its bygone days. Many of its original features remain, including the beautiful ceiling in the upstairs lounge.
To the rear of the Home there is a secure, mature garden area, with raised flower beds, a vegetable garden and seating areas for residents, their family and friends.
The garden also has a designated area for those residents who wish to smoke, as no smoking is allowed within the building.
WHERE'S MY NEAREST Grosvenor Care?