PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A sales manager who "just couldn't abide" by the way Merck wanted him to market the drugs Vioxx and Zocor to doctors took the lonely step of filing a whistleblower suit against his employer.
Seven years later, Merck & Co. will pay $671 million to settle complaints it overcharged government health programs and gave doctors improper inducements to prescribe its drugs.
And whistleblower H. Dean Steinke, the Michigan sales manager whose lawsuit led to about $400 million of the recovery, gets a $68 million reward.
"He did it because he really, truly thought that Merck was doing the wrong thing and he just couldn't abide by it, even though he was putting his career on hold," said Steinke's lawyer, Steven Cohen of Chicago. His small firm, which specializes in such cases, will receive an undisclosed share of the award.
Steinke, who through his lawyer declined an interview, had climbed the sales ladder at Merck for about 12 years and was a district sales manager when he filed the lawsuit. He made the move only after his internal complaints were ignored, Cohen said.
Steinke believed that Merck, as it introduced the much-anticipated painkiller Vioxx and tried to ward off competition for Zocor, an anti-cholesterol drug, had crossed the line when it came to inducements to physicians.
The government investigated his sealed lawsuit, which also alleged that Merck overcharged government health plans, under the Federal False Claims Act.
Prosecutors ultimately alleged that Merck paid physicians, hospitals and others excess fees to run supposed educational programs, from lunches to speaking engagements to visiting professorships, in hopes they would favor their products.
Prosecutors also accused Merck of giving doctors and hospitals steep volume-based discounts on Vioxx, Zocor and Pepcid, in the hope that patients would come to rely on them. The company failed to offer Medicare and other government agencies the same price, as required by law, they said.
"It's heroin-dealer economics. Your first shot of dope is free and then it's more expensive," said Pat Burns, a spokesman for the whistleblower group Taxpayers Against Fraud.
As part of the agreement, Merck denied any wrongdoing.
Steinke left Merck a month after he filed his lawsuit in December 2000 and went to work for a small pharmaceutical company that shared his values, Cohen said. He made repeated trips to Philadelphia to help government investigators.
"The whistleblower is stuck in a very lonely and isolated circumstance while the government's investigation is proceeding," Cohen said.
His award includes $44.7 million from federal agencies -- roughly 20 percent of the government's recovery -- and about $23.5 million from various states, Cohen said.
The remainder of the settlement announced Wednesday stems from a lawsuit filed by a New Orleans doctor, William St. John LaCorte. His award had not yet been determined.
Cohen described Steinke, who is married with no children, as a reserved man from "good midwestern stock."
He recently left his drug-company job.
whistleblowers are found to be out of a job and or a career in 80% of cases studied.
They can be bullied out of their livelihoods in any manner of ways. None of them obvious or punishable when looked at one at a time. But like a death from thousand cuts, the results are still a death.
The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
'And that's the way it is with stress management.
We won't be able to carry on.
VANCOUVER -- A reporter for the Vancouver Sun was awarded the second-largest libel suit judgment in Canadian history on Wednesday.
David Baines, a business writer, was awarded $875,000 plus $75,000 in special costs after Supreme Court Justice John Rowan found a Florida journalist had carried on a "campaign of vilification with the intention that Baines be left with no credibility. His intent was to destroy Baines's career."
There were three defendants: David J. Robinson, the Florida publisher of the Bull & Bear; Market News Publishing Inc., a Vancouver electronic publisher of business news; and Florida journalist George Chelekis. Judge Rowan found Mr. Chelekis liable for most of the damages.
Mr. Baines, who is on vacation, was unavailable for comment.
The suit against Mr. Chelekis and the publishers was filed by lawyers for Southam Inc., which owns the Sun, after a series of articles written by Mr. Chelekis was reprinted in the two newsletters and over the Internet.
Mr. Chelekis accused Mr. Baines of threatening his life and that of his secretary, and of working with former Vancouver Stock Exchange trader and private investigator Adrian du Plessis to manufacture negative news about selected companies to drive down their share prices.
"In the course of his campaign, Chelekis manufactured three separate and deliberate lies, the first, that David Baines threatened his life; the second, that Baines was trading against his column; and third, that Mr. Baines was involved in a homosexual relationship with Adrian du Plessis," Judge Rowan wrote in his judgment.
Judge Rowan termed Mr. Chelekis's conduct as arrogant, vindictive and continuous during the two-year campaign against Mr. Baines.
Sun editor in chief John Cruickshank said the suit against Mr. Chelekis and the two publishers was not the newspaper's preferred course.
"We did it after it was clear Chelekis was attempting to destroy the credibility and career of David Baines and damage the credibility of the Sun's business section and doing it with a calculated smear campaign fabricated entirely of lies, many of them despicable."
Mr. Baines' work has always been in the public interest, Mr. Cruickshank said. "His powerful investigative stories about the VSE have always been important for investors and important for the health and welfare of the exchange itself."
The largest libel award in Canadian history was against the Church of Scientology, which was held liable for $1.6 million over statements made about an Ontario lawyer.
Mr. du Plessis, who has also launched a suit against Mr. Chelekis and the two publishers, said the judgment is gratifying.
"I can only hope when my lawsuit goes through the system, there will be similar results," he said.
has in damaging his creditability.
(c) the giving of information or evidence by the employee against the employer with respect to the alleged violation of any Provincial or federal Act or regulation by the employer while carrying on the employer's business; or if the dismissal, suspension, layoff, penalty, discipline or discrimination constitutes in any way an attempt by the employer to evade any responsibility imposed upon him under this Act or any other Provincial or federal Act or regulation or to prevent or inhibit an employee from taking advantage of any right or benefit granted to him under this Act.
Eleanor Clitheroe recalls feeling numb, disoriented and barely able to comprehend "what was coming down" five years ago, when she was fired from her post as chief executive officer of Hydro One in a controversy over expenses.
Ms. Clitheroe's distress was amplified by the public nature of her firing. However, she adds, anyone who is suddenly fired or laid off is likely to be swept up by the same tsunami of emotions.
"There's a sense of loss of control and embarrassment, and a question of self-worth," says Ms. Clitheroe, who tells her story in a podcast recently posted on the website of Ottawa-based coaching firm, CareerJoy (www.careerjoy.com).
Ms. Clitheroe, who is now an Anglican priest, said in an interview this week that her aim in doing the podcast was to help others adjust to life after a job loss.
"Whether it is public or otherwise, people will be very severely and strongly impacted by it," says Ms. Clitheroe, who sold her $2-million home after she lost the top job at Hydro One and moved with her family into married students' quarters at the University of Toronto, where she studied theology.
To recap: Ms. Clitheroe, who initially trained as a lawyer, worked in senior roles at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and as a deputy finance minister with the Ontario government before moving to Hydro One, where she was appointed CEO in 1999, with a mandate to take the power transmission company private – a mandate that was later reversed as a result of changing political priorities. In June, 2002, the entire board of directors resigned in a power struggle with the provincial government over executive compensation. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Clitheroe was fired – with no severance – from her $2.2-million-a-year post and publicly castigated for her expenses, which allegedly included $330,000 in limousine services over three years.
Arguing that her controversial perks and expenses had been approved by the former chairman of Hydro One – in part to help her juggle her dual roles as CEO and the mother of two young children – Ms. Clitheroe launched a wrongful dismissal suit against the company. The case is still before the courts.
It was a hard fall from the top, says Ms. Clitheroe, who set about reassessing priorities and putting her life back together.
The job, she realized, had consumed most of her waking hours, to the detriment of her family life. And even if she had wanted to lead another company, "it was very clear that I wouldn't have the opportunity to do another significant job like that, at that time, in Corporate Canada … because of the controversy that was raised at that time," says Ms. Clitheroe, whose wrongful dismissal case is still before the court.
When the initial shock wore off, she started consulting friends and family – and went on two religious retreats – to figure out her next move. In the end, it was four of her closest friends who influenced Ms. Clitheroe, at the age of 47, to abandon corporate life, return to school and train to become a parish priest – a calling she had considered in her younger years.
But starting over was not easy. Ms. Clitheroe found her study skills were rusty; she had forgotten how to do footnotes; she sometimes found herself weeping over textbooks at 3 a.m., pulling "all-nighters like a 20-year-old … "I thought: 'How did this happen to me? This isn't my life.' But it was my life, and it's become a very joyful life," says Ms. Clitheroe, who serves as executive director of Prison Fellowship Canada, which assists offenders and their families, as well as serving as a parish priest in Oakville, Ont.
Her advice to others who have suddenly lost their jobs is to be open to change, even if the change might initially appear to be a step backwards.
Mr. Kearns adds that the loss of a job is particularly traumatic – and the options are less apparent – when the person involved has no life outside of work.
As with a death, the grieving process generally goes through stages: denial ("this is not real – I'm having a bad dream"); anger (how dare you lay me off, I have given so much"); bargaining ("is it possible to finish this major project?"); depression ("I don't have anything to offer, what will be the financial implications?"); and acceptance ("now I can move forward").
It is important to analyze what might have gone wrong that led to the layoff, Mr. Kearns says. Often jobs are lost because of mergers, acquisitions and other events that have nothing to do with the displaced employee's performance, he says.
She now counsels others that, while people often have little or no control over the circumstances that lead to the loss of their jobs, they can and should take control over what happens next.
Targets Are Not Mentally Ill!
Psychological pain should not be minimized or denied by Targets themselves or by others. Stoic bravery or toughness are no match for suicidal thoughts or feelings of terror when you turn into the company parking lot in the morning. Seek help. You owe it to yourself and the people who love you. They recognize and want the very real pain you endure from bullying to stop.
The greater the severity of psychological pain, the more dangerous and the longer the effects seem to last. It is a fact that those exposed to domestic violence are hurt more by the verbal abuse rather than physical wounds which heal easily.
Read recent medical research linking increased heart disease risk with psychosocial factors.
In a matter of a few months, it is possible that a vibrant, healthy, competent employee can be driven to ruin--economic, personal health and the loss of a support network. And this is all due to the unilateral decisions made by an incompetent, insecure, vicious individual backed by the power of an employer who did not want to get involved in a "personality conflict" between two people.
1. Alarm--the turning on of the body's defense systems, that is designed to be brief for it is truly widespread in its effects throughout the body--it enables the "flight or fight" response in the face of danger--physical or psychological. The body reacts the same to fright from the impending pounce of a tiger as it does to an insult from the bully. Alarm triggers the sympathetic nervous system that releases adrenaline, in addition to many other functions.
2. Resistance--the maintenance of an alert stage that the body expected, and needs, to be turned off. Resistance to the bully and all that that requires depletes the body's defenses. If you stay in the resistance stage too long, the body will rebound then it's finally turned off, the body rebounds and the actual damage occurs when the stressor is gone. The parasympathetic nervous system restores normalcy; it turns off the sympathetic.
3. Exhaustion-- which can lead to death if the stressor never disappears and the body and mind must fight indefinitely. Exhaustion is a full system breakdown, mentally and physically. It demands that the stressor be removed or it will claim your life. To get to exhaustion, you have to ignore all the warning signs that your body gives you (see above psychological and physical effects).
A cautionary word about stress "management." It is usually the wrongdoer's prescribed solution for the Target. No amount of cognitive distortion or discounting will stop life-jeopardizing stress caused by a bully and her accomplices. The only long-term solution to stress is to REMOVE THE STRESSOR. Separation from the bully is an imperative first step. To argue otherwise prolongs the Target's misery.
The relevance of this study to bullying is twofold.
First, this study demonstrates the equivalence of the impact of nonphysical stressors (which are also considered torture by U.N. conventions, but not current U.S. standards under the Bush administration) on PTSD, depression and the perception of control over one's life. Psychological mistreatment mimics physical torture as it impacts abused individuals.
The authors make the related point in the original article that stress is reduced when the abused person has the ability to aggress against the torturers. In the workplace, with so much bullying perpetrated by higher ranking people, the target is prevented from responding aggressively. Thus, suffering is magnified by a sense of helplessness and uncontrollability.
Second, witnesses to mistreatment of others also suffer. This is vicarious trauma. Clearly physically torturing individuals in front of families is much more extreme than typical workplace bullying. But the human psyche, however resilient when under extreme duress, is prone to injury and harm from psychological manipulations of a person's reality. Robbing people of control over their own circumstances is a fundamental, cruel deprivation that causes serious psychological harm. But bullied targets always knew this.
If ever government whistle-blowers needed protection from official retaliation it is now, in the secrecy-obsessed Bush administration. Federal employees daring to disclose fraud and abuse in their bureaucracies have been under virtual siege, isolated as pariahs and shipped off under gag orders to lesser jobs in far-off places.
Appeals to court review under the 17-year-old Whistle-Blower Protection Act have proved fruitless, with the Supreme Court ruling in May that workers have no right to First Amendment protection when they warn lawmakers and taxpayers of government waste and folly. The ruling has thrown the issue back into the lap of Congress. Fortunately, there is enough anger emerging on both sides of the aisle to raise hopes for remedial legislation.
The Senate has unanimously approved an amendment to close loopholes and spell out whistle-blowers' rights in more forceful detail for the courts. It is attached to a pending military bill, with proponents working for comparably tough legislation to be accepted by the House.
The outcome is not certain. The Justice Department has been opposed to strengthening the law, and a countermove is afoot to give the administration even more power to prosecute whistle-blowers as leakers of official secrets. The coming showdown is a chance for electioneering incumbents to take a stand against the administration's mania for foiling the public's right to government transparency.
The best display of Congressional intent would be for lawmakers to not just reaffirm the 1989 law but to extend it to all the national security bureaucracy and to private contractors. The nation's need for timely whistle-blowers has been painfully driven home by gaffes in pre-9/11 homeland security, the premises for the Iraq invasion, and the administration's illicit intelligence gathering at home.
This week in a Houston courtroom, it has been entertaining to read how Enron Corp.'s Kenneth Lay blames everyone for his firm's collapse except himself and his former CEO Jeff Skilling.
To hear Mr. Lay tell the tale, he was just doing his duty and the whole mess was the result of negative press articles, a crooked CFO, short sellers and pessimism.
Of course, the CFO was the reason behind the negative press articles, the short sellers and the pessimism. And, last time anyone checked, the CFO is a person who is appointed by and reports to the CEO and chair of a company.
What's going on here is Messrs. Lay and Skilling are trying to blame everything on Enron's CFO, Andrew Fastow, who has already gone to jail. But Fastow has testified that Messrs. Lay and Skilling knew about troubles and lied to the public, investors, regulators and employees. The two are charged with fraud.
What is pertinent to remember is that no matter how Mr. Lay recasts the facts, one CFO stealing US$45-million does not a US$25-billion fraud make.
Enron was a rotten culture and didn't suddenly hit trouble. The US$45-million that Mr. Fastow stole was a drop in the bucket compared with the tens of billions that were hidden from balance sheets in offshore entities that Messrs. Lay and Skilling inked.
Take what Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins said in an interview with me in Banff in 2004. She has appeared as a prime witness this month at the Houston trial.
"Enron was different than WorldCom where just a few people decided to cook the books," she said. "This was systemic. Ken Lay made everyone use his sister's travel agency. People were co-opted. I can't tell you how many times I heard the phrase from executives, 'it's not exactly legal, but I think it'll stand up in a court of law.' "
Sherron Watkins told me she had doubts about Enron for years, but in 2001 came to understand the byzantine nature of Enron's outside activities.
In her case, she found out the portfolio of assets she was in charge of were used to pump up earnings, hide losses and camouflage fraud.
"The chief financial officer had set up a paper company he and others owned, which was funded with Enron stock options, to do business with Enron. In other words, he was doing business with himself," she said. "You can't do this."
In spring, 2001, she asked for an audience with Mr. Lay after Enron CEO Jeff Skilling suddenly quit, cashing in US$66-million in options, saying he left because he could not keep the stock rising in value.
"It made a bunch of us angry at Enron. We said he didn't call in sick, he called in rich," she said. "It confirmed my fears that something horrible was facing this company."
As a savvy investment banker and accountant, she realized the company and its investors were being defrauded. In summer, 2001, she sent an anonymous letter to Mr. Lay, then followed up by describing in detail all of the accounting irregularities to him in a 30-minute meeting that August.
Things didn't change and the company went into bankruptcy in December that year.
By December, 2001, the company admitted its US$13-billion in debts were really US$38-billion. Sherron testified before Congress and ended up on the cover of Time magazine for her courage.
Despite all the evidence about wrongdoing and billions in hidden debt, Mr. Lay told the jury this week that Enron had no underlying business problems that a little public relations couldn't have solved.
He also blamed his accountants (defunct Arthur Andersen) for restatements of earnings, never mind that the restatements were needed because of bad business practices.
As for Sherron Watkins' letter and warnings, his memory was fuzzy but he did recall that his accountants and lawyers dismissed its allegations.
Joanna Gualtieri, a lawyer and founder of Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform in Ottawa, says new accountability rules in the United States are making disclosure the cornerstone of every company.
Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins wrote letters to former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay concerning questionable accounting practices.
Senior executives in Canada should encourage whistle-blowers -- employees who are prepared to stick out their necks when they spot a wrong -- because they just might help executives save their necks from prosecution and civil action.
Complicating their defence is the fact former Enron executive Sherron Watkins did warn Lay about the company hiding financial losses in so-called Raptor hedges but he dismissed her concerns.
"The obvious question becomes 'well why didn't you listen more closely when you were warned and if they are truly innocent that becomes a sort of hallmark case.' "
A whistle-blower can not only help a company prevent financial losses from theft and fraud but also protect senior executives from prosecution and civil action.
"Yes it [whistle-blowing] assists the company but I'm also suggesting something even more fundamental is that it's going to assist you the CEO or CFO and save you from possible prosecution," Ms. Gualtieri says.
"I tell people that because of these new accountability rules, you want to know what is going on. In other words, disclosure is really the cornerstone of your organization. You want to simply reduce the possibility you as the CFO or CEO will be blindsided by these risks being taken way down the line."
Corporate meltdowns at major U.S. firms such as Enron and WorldCom led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act -- legislative reform that puts increased responsibility on a company's board of directors to prevent corporate malfeasance.
In Canada, there is both a legislative and corporate lag to making the changes that would help whistle-blowers step forward without fear of suffering job loss or marginalization if they remain at the company.
"Even in the U.S., the whistle-blower still has a hell of a ride," says Ms. Gualtieri, who exposed the excessive costs for diplomatic accommodations at the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 1980s. "Really credible reports are that 85% of whistle-blowers will suffer serious repercussions. In Canada, it's probably higher. I would say closer to 95%. I've never spoken to anybody who has stepped up who hasn't suffered."
It is in the interest of the bottom line to find out about fraud or misappropriation of goods. One of the key ways to do that is to encourage employees to step forward without fear they will end up being victimized.
"If they [the employees] notice that management is serious, it sends a strong message," says Ray Haywood, Investigations and Forensic Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"We [executives] are not looking for people to tell tales on the person working next to them but if it's a thing that affects the integrity or the brand or the bottom line of our company, we'd like to know about it and we'll react to it."
Canadian companies often incorporate whistle-blower policies into a larger loss prevention package.
"I think they are much more interested when we talk about this [whistle-blowing] in a much more holistic or expanded sense," Mr. Haywood says. "That it fits in to their whole approach to preventing theft and fraud and other things that impact negatively on the company."
Companies have tried various approaches to handling whistle-blower complaints, such as setting up a corporate ombudsman to deal directly with the issue or allowing employees to file anonymous complaints via the phone or e-mail. Usually, anonymous red flags are handled by third parties who then funnel the information to a company executive or HR department.
Anonymity will most likely be sacrificed as the claim moves forward especially if it involves complex issues. Employees have to feel there is something in place to protect them beyond just words in a policy statement.
"Enron had an ethics professor on their board; Enron had a wonderful code of ethics and a number of the trappings of an integrity program," says David Nitkin, president of EthicScan Canada. http://ethicscan.ca/ "The problem was it didn't have protection for the whistle-blower and the woman who did come forward didn't have her activities acted on."
He says there were at least 50 Enron employees who would put on a show every time Wall Street analysts toured the company to make them believe they were making millions selling energy futures.
"Don't tell me people didn't know, that's my experience whether it's a secretary, whether it's a co-worker or a spouse, somebody knows or suspects."
That fear of how they will be treated often turns potential whistle-blowers silent.
"I think we do need to see more actual examples of people who blow the whistle and are protected by their company," says Mark Schwartz, assistant professor, Atkinson School of Administrative Studies at York University in Toronto.
"Firms still focused on the bottom line continue to abuse and punish their whistle-blowers even if they claim to protect them."
There is the obligation, on the part of the whistle-blower, to report the matter internally before running to the media. They should only go outside the company if there is the chance they will be severely punished and the matter not acted on. In turn, whistle-blowers should be able to expect they will be treated with respect and protected.
"[They need to know] they will be protected from harassment if they do blow the whistle, says Prof. Schwartz. "It's not just a question of putting it on paper. You need to have managers that are constantly reminding employees about all of this right up to the CEO. There are examples of some CEOs saying, 'if you see a problem you should actually feel comfortable contacting me'. Warren Buffett did that right after the whole Salomon Brothers incident, sent out a memo to all employees and gave everyone his home phone number."
There is also enormous pressure on a company's board of directors (of particular concern to Canadian companies trading on U.S. markets) because of Sarbanes-Oxley to stay completely informed about what is occurring at their company, either through a channel a whistle-blower can use to contact them directly or at least making sure the CEO keeps them fully aware.
"I would put the elementary obligation on the independent member of the board," Mr. Schwartz says. "He or she is the final gate keeper and when someone like Sherron Watkins blows the whistle to Ken Lay, he should have presented it to the board of directors and he didn't."
Guidelines released by the mutual fund industry this week to detect and deter inappropriate short-term trading and market timing may be "the calm before the storm," according to a lawyer in mutual fund practice.
"I think this is just the first shoe to drop," said Rebecca Cowdery, a lawyer with Toronto-based Borden Ladner Gervais, and a former regulator with the Ontario Securities Commission.
"I think what everybody is waiting for is, what is the OSC going to do? They have been on site asking 15 companies for more information. There is tremendous uncertainty about how the OSC is going about this review, what they are looking at and what they will allege is improper."
Late trading, where trades are made at the market's net asset value, or NAV, after stock markets close, is considered a non-issue in Canada, where trades are given an electronic time stamp.
But market timing, which involves taking advantage of the "stale prices" of foreign securities used to determine a fund's NAV, and short-term trading, namely buying and purchasing the same securities within a short time frame, do occur in this country.
The practices tend to make money for a few investors while increasing costs and therefore reducing returns for most people.
Investment Funds Institute of Canada guidelines propose imposing fees on short-term moves -- using fair value pricing, where fund managers estimate values of securities that release news after market closing -- and refusing to sell to clients who have made abusive short-term trades.
Reaction to the guidelines has been that many mutual fund companies already adhere to such policies, and that the IFIC has no regulatory power to enforce them.
"If I can criticize the IFIC paper, and I don't mean to, it doesn't go into enough detail about what was so wrong with some of those cases of short-term trading in the United States," said Cowdery.
She cited "sticky assets" as one example.
"You say to market timers, 'You can come in and out of our fund as long as you put $5 million into our other funds.' And in some cases the fund manager almost facilitated the market timing by giving them advance information of what was in the portfolio."
Few people shed light on unethical practices in Canada's investment industry because of a lack of protection for whistle- blowers.
Lethbridge financial adviser Larry Elford found abuses in the mutual fund industry "so prevalent and so pervasive" that last fall he filed a $13.1-million lawsuit against RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities Ltd.
"Unfortunately, I was naive enough to expect management to truly want to become part of the solution, and I did not recognize that they were in fact part of the problem," said Elford.
Supported in private but shunned in public by colleagues, he retired this July.
Then there's Saskatoon financial adviser Kent Shirley, who has filed a $50,000 claim against his former Assante boss, Brian Mallard.
Shirley alleges Mallard wanted him to participate in or ignore "unethical practices," such as providing insider information to clients, making personal loans to clients, giving stock advice to clients, facilitating trades while not properly licensed to do so, selling personal stock to clients, and issuing personal guarantees on client accounts.
Mallard, as founding chairman of Advocis, the umbrella group of Canadian financial advisers and insurance sellers, said this past January that having security regulators oversee financial advisers and planners was like "killing a bug with a bat."
He suggested letting advisers and planners police themselves.
In 1989 the U.S. beefed up protection for whistle-blowers, but Canada hasn't followed.
"It has been raised before, but I don't know if it's been discussed at the security regulators level," said Cowdery.
"I really don't think it's being addressed in Canada, and probably should be."
One of the first independent financial planners to be acquired by fund distribution giant Assante Corp. has left, presumably to be once again independent.
In recent months, consumer advocate Joe Killoran did jail time after trying to shed light on the alleged suicide of Mallard's former assistant and would-be whistleblower Kent Shirley. Regulators, Advocis, the press and now Assante all seem happy to leave this one swept under the rug.
article below demonstrates how whistleblowers are never looked upon as welcome by the company's or organizations they work with. They are considered as traitors worthy of discrediting or worse by many. Their only crime is in holding the interests of the public, the safety of the public or some other principle above and beyond the interests of that of the company, or a select few members of the company.
HOUSTON -- Federal prosecutors drew on a bit of star power in their effort to prove that former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay1 took part in a criminal conspiracy to hide financial problems at the company in the months before it collapsed into bankruptcy in December 2001.
Former Enron Vice President Sherron Watkins2 is probably the closest thing to a public hero to emerge from the Enron saga. Her efforts in the summer of 2001 to warn Mr. Lay about possible accounting scandals at the energy titan have won her praise in the media and Congress.
In testimony yesterday at the conspiracy and fraud trial of Mr. Lay and former Enron President Jeffrey Skilling3, Ms. Watkins recounted how she went to Mr. Lay in August 2001 with concerns about some of the company's financial transactions.
The transactions, which masked hundreds of millions of dollars of losses on Enron investments, were done with partnerships run and partly owned by the company's chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow4, who was Ms. Watkins's boss at the time.
While Ms. Watkins didn't break any new ground, she did give prosecutors an opportunity to raise questions about Mr. Lay's conduct through a witness untainted by the problems that have burdened several others.
Among the previous government witnesses in the trial's first six weeks were former Enron executives who have pleaded guilty to company-related crimes, including Mr. Fastow.
Like Mr. Fastow, Ms. Watkins drew a nearly packed courtroom, and the crowd didn't seem to faze her. She appeared relaxed and animated, often gesturing with her hands as she looked at the jurors and elaborated on a particular point.
In describing her August 2001 meeting with Mr. Lay, Ms. Watkins said the Enron chairman "seemed surprised" by some of her concerns, but "seemed to take me seriously" and promised to investigate.
However, she again criticized both the scope and independence of the resulting internal investigation. Ms. Watkins also criticized as misleading some of the public statements Mr. Lay made subsequent to their August meeting about Enron's financial condition and its dealings with the LJM partnerships.
During cross-examination, Chip Lewis, one of Mr. Lay's attorneys, pointed out that the LJM transactions had been approved by accountants and attorneys inside and outside Enron. He also emphasized that Mr. Lay had listened to Ms. Watkins's concerns, ordered an investigation and protected her from possible retribution from Mr. Fastow.
He noted that in that same 2001 third quarter, Enron decided to unwind the LJM-related transactions that Ms. Watkins had complained most strongly about.
The closing down of the "Raptor" financial vehicles resulted in a more than $500 million charge to earnings that quarter. While Ms. Watkins conceded some points to Mr. Lewis, she didn't back down from her principal criticisms of what occurred at Enron.
In an apparent effort to take some shine off Ms. Watkins's public image, Mr. Lewis probed her sales of Enron stock in August and then in October of 2001. She acknowledged that "I had information the public didn't have. I wish I hadn't sold."
However, Mr. Lewis, perhaps mindful that his client had also cashed in large amounts of stock during this period, said it wouldn't be insider trading if there was not a fraud.
Ronald Woods, a Skilling attorney, criticized Ms. Watkins for "making outrageous statements" about the defendants, including comparing Mr. Skilling to a mob boss, in speeches and interviews she has given since Enron's collapse. He said that if the pair were acquitted, Ms. Watkins could see her income source from the speeches -- at as much as $30,000 a pop -- dry up. Ms. Watkins replied that her speeches were mostly about leadership, and whatever the trial's outcome, the men would "remain failed business leaders."
In questioning earlier in the day, defense attorneys worked to repair any damage done on Tuesday by the testimony of Vince Kaminski, a former Enron risk-management executive, who had said Mr. Skilling transferred his group in 1999 to another part of the company after he criticized an LJM-related transaction. Yesterday, Mr. Kaminski acknowledged that transfers at Enron were commonplace, and that he wasn't unhappy about the 1999 move. He added that Mr. Skilling had never done anything to restrict the work he did.
The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.
I feel that whistleblowers are still not well enough protected. The myriad of ways that management or superiors (or others) can use to obtain the "bureaucratic payback", or "ostracization" of someone who makes the mistake of committing the truth cannot even be imagined, much less protected against by the legislators. Examples, stories, awareness and work with those who have gone through it are needed to make this kind of abuse a thing of the past. See an Enron example below.
The first time Sherron Watkins tried to tell the truth about Enron, in an anonymous memo to Enron's CEO in August 2001, she stood alone. No one else was willing to point out what the world now knows: Enron achieved its stunning earnings growth through questionable accounting gimmicks.
Sherron Watkins wrote a memo warning that Enron could "implode" from accounting misdeeds.
But when the former Enron vice president takes the stand Wednesday as a prosecution witness in the government's trial of former Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, she'll no longer be alone.
In the summer of 2001, Watkins joined Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow's global finance group. A former accountant at Arthur Andersen, she soon learned the secret to Enron's success: a bogus accounting gimmick that allowed the company to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from investors.
Scores of executives, lawyers and accountants had approved the company's financial statements. But Watkins realized immediately that the company couldn't hedge its losses with partnerships that were capitalized with Enron's own stock.
Feb. 12, 2001: Jeff Skilling named CEO.
Aug. 14: Skilling resigns. The next day, Sherron Watkins sends anonymous letter to Ken Lay, now Enron's chairman and CEO.
Aug. 22: Watkins meets with Lay to discuss her concerns.
Oct. 16: Enron reports $638 million third-quarter loss and $1.2 billion reduction in shareholders' equity in company.
Oct. 24: Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow ousted.
Oct. 30: Watkins meets with Lay again and gives him another memo.
Nov. 8: Enron restates earnings for previous five years to account for $586 million in losses.
Dec. 2: Enron files for bankruptcy-court protection.
Jan. 23, 2002: Lay resigns as chairman and CEO.
After Jeff Skilling resigned abruptly as CEO that August, she wrote her now famous anonymous memo, warning Lay that Enron could "implode in a wave of accounting scandals." A few days later, she came forward and met with Lay, now chairman and CEO.
Thinking that Lay had been duped by Skilling and others, she urged him to get an outside law firm to review the transactions approved by Enron's auditors at Andersen and the company's lawyers at Vinson & Elkins.
When Fastow learned that Watkins had gone behind his back to complain to Lay, he was furious. Watkins eventually told a congressional committee that she feared for her safety.
When Watkins met with Lay again in October, she urged him to fire Andersen and Vinson & Elkins, restate Enron's earnings, and blame Skilling and Fastow.
Lay didn't do that, and Enron wound up in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Watkins eventually became one of Time magazine's persons of the year for 2002, and she co-authored a book about her experience at Enron, Power Failure.
Watkins is expected to testify about her conversations with Lay. Through the first six weeks of the trial, prosecutors have introduced a parade of cooperating witnesses who have implicated Skilling, but it wasn't until last week, when Fastow testified that he warned Lay repeatedly of Enron's financial problems, that the government did any real damage to Lay.
"Sherron Watkins will testify that she told Lay Enron was a house of cards," says John Coffee, an expert in securities law at Columbia University. "She is going to be a bridge from Fastow, who is not the most reliable or credible witness."
Defense lawyers are expected to remind jurors that auditors and lawyers approved all of Enron's accounting transactions. They're also likely to point out that Watkins sold $48,000 worth of stock after meeting with Lay and advising him of the accounting problems.
On the questionnaire all prospective jurors fill out, at least one of those chosen said she admired Watkins' bravery in writing to Lay. According to a court transcript, the unidentified juror said she could be open-minded about Watkins' testimony, but knew how women were sometimes treated at big companies.
"I know how it is with a woman in the corporate world," she told Judge Sim Lake during jury selection.
Lay's lawyer is "going to have to be diplomatic," says Christopher Bebel, a former federal prosecutor. "If someone's up there, and he's 280 pounds and he wears a leather jacket that says Hell's Angels, you can be pretty tough, but if you've got Mother Teresa on the stand, you've got to be balanced."


text:
Saving Land and Money Through Repowering
North American Clean Energy Issue
Wind farm repowering encompasses anything from completely decommissioning aging wind turbines and replacing them with newer (larger, more efficient turbines) at the same site, to partial repowering by replacing key components in existing wind turbines to improve generating capacity and reliability. Repowering may also modernize interconnection infrastructure, including designing new roads or adding more turbines. The goal is to have a wind farm with a greater and more efficient generating capacity than before.
NACE Wind Power May/June 2021
While repowering can help avoid the prospect of scouring an ever-shrinking inventory of Critical aspects to examine before moving forward include the following:
• Regional and local laws and jurisdictions: Projects that were developed in the late 80's and early 90's may be subject to changes in laws and regulations affecting local and regional jurisdictions. In the past, a developer may have had to consult with various agencies at the federal, county or city level for permitting. A thorough review of current regulations in local and regional jurisdictions is critical to ensure that repowering plans comply with prevailing laws, and to understand any costs or delays that could result from legal changes, particularly if a developer wants to take advantage of tax credits.
• Structure of real property agreements: A comprehensive review of the original site control documents will identify whether limiting factors or real property tax and assessment implications could affect repowering. For tax purposes, many local tax authorities consider the initial term of the lease from its inception; something that cannot easily be altered with the extension of a lease to accommodate the repower of the project for financing.
• New wind-turbine technology: Turbine technology has dramatically improved within the last ten years. Average capacity factor and efficiency has increased while costs have decreased, providing key incentives for developers
in monetizing repowered projects.
• Integration of hybrid technologies: As projects are re-engineered, the option of adding batteries and/or solar will be of interest to many developers. One of the obvious benefits of co-locating wind, solar and/or storage is the ability to maximize existing grid infrastructure. Storage is likely to become a key consideration for developers seeking to maximize revenues when repowering wind farms.
• Financing: There has been a dramatic shift in the financing environment for wind projects, including title insurance pertaining to a severance of the mineral and surface estate. In the past, developers did not have to be concerned with a severance of the minerals evidenced in title reports for purposes of obtaining ALTA coverage, because it was believed that the spacing of the wind turbines across the property allowed for other uses. The risk environment has significantly changed, so that wind projects now face constraints in addressing the rights of third-party mineral holders. Title must be carefully examined to identify potential rights of other parties to exploit the project property for oil, gas, and coal development. Accommodation agreements or other affirmative documentation may be required to control the rights of these parties to access the property.
Checklist for wind repowering:
1. Identify local and regional zoning and permitting requirements including restrictions on property, public right-of-way, as well as visual and safety setbacks.
2. Assess new turbine technology, determine which technology will conform to the proposed site.
3. Model the feasibility and suitability of combining technologies.
4. Model the legacy operating wind data.
5. Confer with the Department of Defense.
6. Submit wind turbine coordinates to Federal Aviation Administration.
7. Undertake Phase I Environmental Site Assessment.
8. Evaluate the feasibility of operating the project through the remaining PPA term to compare the results to repowering the current wind turbines.
9. Review real estate agreements to determine suitability for repower and economic impact of regeneration or extension.
10. Identify potential off-takers and negotiate a new Power Purchase Agreement.
11. Perform an early and detailed review of the title work to address the potential of third-party mineral holders to allow for negotiation of affirmative agreements.
A tremendous advantage of a wind repower project is that it is typically safe or "de-risked" from community and jurisdictional concerns because the wind farm already exists. In addition to creating a viable investment, repowering means that legacy operating and existing wind data can mitigate many of the challenges that face developers in building on a new site.
Kimberlee Centera
Kimberlee Centera is a risk management expert for the development and financing of large-scale generator energy projects for public utilities and community development. She possesses the expertise to identify, manage and mitigate risk. Kimberlee works on complex high-value projects, such as a wind farm development that powers a JP Morgan Chase property. A leading renewable energy expert, Kimberlee has been a guest on numerous radio programs including National Public Radio's Marketplace. She frequently serves as a speaker and educator at wind and solar conferences. Kimberlee Centera Email: kcentera@terraprosolutions.com
Leave your name and email below along with what you are looking for in the message box. Or you can call us at 858.573.2000
North American Clean Energy
Free Article Download

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Silence of the Humpbacks
by Jessica Torode | Nov 1, 2018 | Conservation, News, Research, Threats
Rhys Sharry
Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) use sound to communicate, navigate, mate, and locate prey. But underwater noise from human sources-such as shipping, transportation, seismic exploration, and military sonar-has doubled in intensity every decade for the past 60 years, and this is having a negative impact on cetacean populations worldwide. It may even be altering the singing behaviour of humpback whales.
During the breeding season, sound is particularly important to humpback whales. Males produce long, complex "songs", likely used in winter breeding grounds to attract females or convey status or position. Unfortunately, these low-frequency calls may be masked by shipping noise.
A new study by Tsujii et al. (2018) in PLOS One found that shipping noise altered male humpback whales' singing behaviour. Using a fixed hydrophone (essentially an underwater microphone), the researchers recorded sound production of the whales in the presence of a passenger-cargo ship in the Ogasawara Islands, 1000 km south of Tokyo. They found that fewer whales sang within 500 m of the ship in comparison to areas without ship presence. When the ship approached in close proximity, the main reaction of humpback whales was to stop singing completely. Humpbacks also reduced sound production after the ship passed.
There is growing evidence that underwater noise affects more than just humpback communication. Avoidance behaviour, interruption of feeding and displacement from foraging areas, and changes in respiration and dive patterns have been noted in areas with high levels of underwater noise. Although further research is needed, these short term behavioural responses of individual humpbacks could have larger consequences on the population as a whole.
DOUG DAVIS
Humpback whales lunging up through a school of herring. There is growing evidence that anthropogenic (human-caused) noise can interrupt feeding behavior and cause humpbacks to move away from foraging areas.
In this study, the effect of shipping noise was easier to measure because of the remoteness of the island and the lack of vessel traffic. However, in many other areas, including the coastal waters of B.C., shipping, seismic exploration, military sonar, and transportation contribute to a very noisy environment. The culmination of all these activities can make the effect of vessel noise hard to isolate, but nonetheless impossible to ignore.
This October 2018, the B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network launched the WhaleReport Alert System, an alert system that broadcasts pertinent details of whale presence to operators of large commercial vessels, tugs, and ferries. These alerts will inform commercial mariners of the presence of whales in their vicinity and will better enable vessels to undertake adaptive mitigation measures, such as slowing down or altering course to reduce underwater noise. WRAS cannot function effectively without regular, real-time observations reported to the B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network via the WhaleReport App. By reporting your cetacean sightings, you can contribute to conservation-based research and make our waters a safer place for these vulnerable animals.
The WhaleReport Alert System (WRAS) has been developed to alert the operators of large commercial vessels, tugs, and ferries to the presence of whales so that they may reduce the risk of disturbance and collision.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (2013). Recovery strategy for the North Pacific humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Canada. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa. +67 pp. https://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/virtual_sara/files/plans/rs_rb_pac_nord_hbw_1013_e.pdf
Hildebrand, J. (2009). Anthropogenic and natural sources of ambient noise in the ocean. Marine Ecological Progress Series, 395, 5-20.
Tsujii K, Akamatsu T, Okamoto R, Mori K, Mitani Y, Umeda N. (2018) Change in singing behavior of humpback whales caused by shipping noise. PLoS ONE, 13(10): e0204112. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204112


I tried doing a quick search on this topic but couldn't find anything on these forums.
I'm purchasing an Ultimaker 2 soon and want to get a kit together of spare parts ready for when disaster strikes.
In your experience, which parts tend to go the most? I was planning to purchase 1 build plate, 1 hot end assembly, 1 heater cartridge, and 1 temp sensor from the UM parts site.
This machine would be used at least 3 hours daily so it will see a bit of wear and tear.
Also possibly get his heater block and temp sensor - but mainly this polyimide washer should increase the lifetime of the teflon isolator from a few months to a few decades.
Other than that you should get some wood glue and mix with water to coat the glass (easier to use than glue stick to get a very very thin coat). And a paint brush to paint it on. Also get a small putty knife and sharpen the hell out of it until the edge is as thin and sharp as a razor blade. Also get some screwdriver hex drivers when the printer arrives - I forget the sizes but 90% of the screws all have the same metric hex size - probably 2.5mm? or 2mm? And then the fan screws might have a smaller size.
Screwdriver style handles for hex wrenches is what Ultimaker assembly people use and they are 10X faster and easier than those stupid L shaped hex wrenches.
Definitely an extra PTFE coupler and a spare nozzle as well. If you have the extra cash I would just get the hot end pack.
Aren't new UM2 buyers getting a "care package" with a nozzle and 2 PTFE couplers?
From Q2 2015 we will ship every Ultimaker 2 with 2 additional nozzles and 2 additional PTFE teflon parts to assist you in a successful, trouble free printing experience.
Keyword in this quote is: Q2.
Thanks all of you for the great input! I will be well prepared now.


The music of Lucas Richman has been performed by over two hundred orchestras across the United States including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the symphonies of Detroit, Atlanta, New Jersey and Houston. In November, 2009, as the result of an NEA commission, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra premiered his Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, a setting of poetry by Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky, which Jahja Ling and the SDSO recorded for release in December, 2011. He has fulfilled commissions for numerous organizations including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Johnstown Symphony, the Debussy Trio, the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Organ Artists Series of Pittsburgh. September, 2015, brought the now critically-acclaimed Albany Records release of a new CD, IN TRUTH Lucas Richman, which features the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performing his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: In Truth (Jeffrey Biegel, piano), in addition to his Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra: The Clearing (Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, oboe) and Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra (Inbal Segev, cello).
Mr. Richman's numerous collaborations with film composers as their conductor has yielded recorded scores for such films as the Academy Award-nominated The Village (with violinist, Hilary Hahn), As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Se7en, Breakdown, The Manchurian Candidate and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl; in 2010, John Williams invited him to lead the three-month national summer tour of Star Wars in Concert. Recent recordings he has led from the podium include Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project (a project from within the film music community that has generated over $200K in donations), Noel Paul Stookey's recent solo release One & Many, and Marvin Hamlisch's final score, written for the Emmy Award-winning HBO movie, Behind the Candelabra.
Mr. Richman has served as Music Director for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and recently completed a 12-year tenure as Music Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2015. Mr. Richman received a GRAMMY Award (2011) in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album for having conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Christopher Tin's classical/world fusion album, Calling All Dawns. He has appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the SWR Radio Orchestra of Kaiserslautern, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Zagreb Philharmonic.


Do You Like Your Weekends?
The text with two exercises. Key is included. Thank you!!!
The present downloadable worksheet is recommended for high school students, elementary school students and adults at Elementary (A1), Pre-intermediate (A2) and Intermediate (B1) level. It can be used for enhancing your class' Speaking and Reading skills. It is about the theme of People. There is an answer key provided with the exercises.


Home » Site Seeing or Sightseeing – Which is Correct?
When you go on a vacation and you visit tourist attractions, are you site seeing or sightseeing?
The confusion between these two words is an extension of the confusion between site and sight. If you know the difference between site and sight, you will know whether site seeing or sightseeing is correct?
If not, no worries! Let's go over these two words.
What is the Difference Between Site Seeing and Sightseeing?
In this article, I will compare site seeing vs. sightseeing. I will outline the correct term and use it in several example sentence so that you can see it in context.
Plus, at the end, I will show you a mnemonic device that can help you choose either sightseeing or site seeing as the best choice for your own writing.
What does sightseeing mean? Sightseeing is a noun that refers to the activity of visiting tourist attractions.
Cassidy visited Jamaica, but since she had been there before, she did not do much sightseeing and spent time with her friends in Kingston instead.
Portland is full of tourists who are hellbent on sightseeing, which clogs up the freeways at rush hour and makes city natives cranky.
Sightseeing is a compound word, which means it is made up of multiple smaller words added together. The first part of this compound word, sight, refers to places of interest to tourists and visitors in a city. Seeing means visiting or literally looking at in this context.
As a compound word, sightseeing should always be spelled as a single word when referring to the activity of visiting tourist attractions. The two-word alternative sight seeing is considered a typo in this context.
What does site seeing mean? Site seeing is a common misspelling of the word sightseeing. Since it is a homophone of sightseeing, the confusion is somewhat understandable.
While a sight is a place of interest to a tourist, a site is a place where something is being built, e.g. a construction site. Most people don't tour various construction sites on vacation.
The data is not exhaustive in its scope, since it only deals with books, but you can still clearly see that sightseeing is preferred by the vast majority of writers.
If you are writing about visiting tourist attractions or other worthy locations, you should always choose the compound word sightseeing over separate words like sight seeing or site seeing.
Sightseeing is the standard term and has been for some time.
To help you remember that sightseeing is correct, remember that it is a single word, like tourist. Tourists go sightseeing, and since they are both one word, it should be easy to remember that sightseeing is the standard version.
You can also remember that tourists don't—generally speaking—seek out construction sites to tour on vacation.
It is sightseeing or site seeing? Sightseeing is a noun that refers to the activity of visiting tourist attractions.
Sightseeing is the correct spelling.
Sight seeing and site seeing are both misspellings.
To conclude, use sightseeing, not any other version of this term.
1 What is the Difference Between Site Seeing and Sightseeing?


text:
TASEVA Katrin
TASEVA Katrin (BUL)
TASEVA
Kati (trud.bg, 16 Apr 2019)
Sport Studies - Vasil Levski National Sports Academy, Sofia, BUL
Levski Iliana [BUL] / Central Sports Army Club [BUL]
Branimira Markova, BUL
She took up the sport at age four in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. (vestnikpriatel.com, 09 Jan 2018)
"It began when gymnastics coaches came to our kindergarten and handed out fliers, so I brought one home and showed my parents. At the beginning I was hesitant, but when I watched girls playing with the ribbon I wanted to be like them." (vestnikpriatel.com, 09 Jan 2018; sportal.bg, 26 Apr 2015)
To win a medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (plovdiv24.bg, 16 Aug 2020)
Winning silver in the team all-around at the 2018 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. (plovdiv24.bg, 16 Aug 2020)
Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast Maria Petrova. (plovdiv24.bg, 16 Aug 2020)
Coaches Branimira Markova and Svetlana Tsvetkova. (vestnikpriatel.com, 09 Jan 2018)
"Never give up and be brave." (plovdiv24.bg, 16 Aug 2020)
In 2018 she was named Woman of the Year in the sport category in Bulgaria. (168chasa.bg, 25 Mar 2019)
In 2018 she auctioned the gold medal she won, as well as the clubs with which she had performed, at the 2018 World Cup event in Sofia, Bulgaria. She put the items up for sale to raise funds for Bulgarian footballer Ivan Todorov, who had been diagnosed with a malignant tumour in his foot. The fundraising efforts were successful and Todorov underwent successful surgery in December 2018. The anonymous buyer returned the medal and clubs to Taseva in January 2019. (168chasa.bg, 25 Mar 2019; btv.bg, 13 Jan 2019)
2021 - Games of the XXXII Olympiad TOKYO (JPN)
World Cup qualifying for OG
2015 - World Cup 2015 Cat. B BUDAPEST (HUN)
2015 - World Cup 2015 Cat. B BUCHAREST (ROU)
2021 - 37th European Championships VARNA (BUL)
2020 - 36th Senior and Junior European Championships KYIV (UKR)


text:
/**
Template Controllers

@module Templates
**/

/**
The views_start template

@class [template] views_start
@constructor
**/

Template['views_start'].helpers({
    /**
    Get most recent campaigns.

    @method (campaigns)
    **/

    'campaigns': function(){
        return Campaigns.find({}, {limit: 4, sort: {id: -1}});
    }
});

Template['views_start'].created = function(){
	Meta.setSuffix(TAPi18n.__("dapp.views.home.title"));
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Error while reindexing on Solr - RSolr::Error::Http: RSolr::Error::Http - 400 Bad Request - undefined field type I have setup Solr 4.4 on Ubuntu server with Tomcat 6 following this link - http://www.arborisoft.com/how-to-install-apache-solr-4-4-on-ubuntu-12-04/.
Model Activity is indexed using Solr (Ruby on Rails project). While reindexing, I get this error:
RSolr::Error::Http: RSolr::Error::Http - 400 Bad Request
Error: {'responseHeader'=>{'status'=>400,'QTime'=>59},'error'=>{'msg'=>'undefined field type','code'=>400}}

URI: http://localhost:8080/solr/update?wt=ruby
Request Headers: {"Content-Type"=>"text/xml"}
Request Data: "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><delete><query>type:Activity</query></delete>"

Backtrace: /home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/rsolr-1.0.12/lib/rsolr/client.rb:284:in `adapt_response'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/rsolr-1.0.12/lib/rsolr/client.rb:190:in `execute'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/rsolr-1.0.12/lib/rsolr/client.rb:176:in `send_and_receive'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/sunspot_rails-2.2.0/lib/sunspot/rails/solr_instrumentation.rb:16:in `block in send_and_receive_with_as_instrumentation'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.0/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:164:in `block in instrument'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.0/lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.0/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:164:in `instrument'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/sunspot_rails-2.2.0/lib/sunspot/rails/solr_instrumentation.rb:15:in `send_and_receive_with_as_instrumentation'
(eval):2:in `post'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/rsolr-1.0.12/lib/rsolr/client.rb:82:in `update'
/home/deploy/.rbenv/versions/2.2.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.2.0/gems/rsolr-1.0.12/lib/rsolr/client.rb:146:in `delete_by_query'(eval):2:in `post'
Tasks: TOP => sunspot:solr:reindex => sunspot:reindex
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

sunspot.yml
staging:
  solr:
    hostname: localhost
    port: 8080
    log_level: WARNING
    path: /solr/

A: I'm able to reindex now. schema.xml had this line missing:
<field name="type" stored="false" type="string" multiValued="true" indexed="true"/>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
[ January 21, 2020 ] The Week in Photos: 1/13 – 1/20 Featured Story
[ January 21, 2020 ] Go Figure: BC's 3-Point Percentage Continues to Plummet While Attempts Increase Basketball
HomeSportsFootballRenaissance Man Jamie Silva Cannot Stop Creating
Renaissance Man Jamie Silva Cannot Stop Creating
March 30, 2017 Riley Overend Football
There's no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate Renaissance man. As a painter, engineer, architect, and scientist, he epitomized nearly every bit of the term. But da Vinci never played in a Super Bowl.
Jamie Silva, BC '07, is a Renaissance man in his own right. The former All-American safety at Boston College can rattle off his own long list of expertise that may not rival da Vinci's—but you'd be hard-pressed to find another ex-NFLer with a resume like his.
At just 32 years old, Silva has seen action in a Super Bowl for the Indianapolis Colts, designed his own clothing line, earned a job with the NFL as a uniform official, run social media marketing campaigns for companies, and broke into the film industry as an actor, producer, and location manager. Plus, he's already a father of four children with his wife, whom he met at BC.
The East Providence, R.I. native has always been an imaginative spirit who sees the world through a unique lens. It started with mastering his first art—and after talking to him, believe me, it is an art—the art of dumpster diving. He inherited the skill from his grandfather, who taught him literally that one man's trash is another man's treasure.
The key, Silva says, is to not waste time. He mapped out which wealthy neighborhoods around him would have trash pick-ups the next day, and then would drive around in search of valuable items that might be left outside. Sometimes, he would sift through dumpsters behind technology stores in search of working electronics and cell phones.
At his peak, he made $2,000-3,000 per year selling off items he found in the garbage. That was enough to fund dates, movies, Spring Break trips, and other college shenanigans. Now, with so many other opportunities on his plate, he considers himself "out of the game."
"I don't dumpster dive as much as I used to," Silva chuckled. "But if I see something on the side of the road and it's worth it—I got a good eye for it—then it's mine."
Silva's affinity for fashion came about in much the same way. He purchased most of his wardrobes in college from thrift shops and secondhand stores, showing off flamboyant outfits like his flannel, three-piece plaid suit after games in the locker room. In the hyper-masculine world of football, he became a unicorn of sorts when he decided to grow his hair down to his shoulders.
"He'll look like he's dressing for a play sometimes," then-head coach Frank Spaziani said back in 2007.
During his time in Chestnut Hill, Silva got his hands on a rare, vintage BC hockey sweater that the coaches used to wear in the 1980s.
"It was the only one that anyone had ever seen," Silva said. "I would wear it and people would be like, 'Where did you get that?'"
That sweater became the model for the first product of his clothing line, Bells and Bain. After reaching a licensing agreement with BC, he began selling vintage items like hockey sweaters alongside more modern gear like maroon and gold leggings and tank tops. Silva has even worked with Le'Veon Bell, the star running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, to develop his own clothing line.
Silva, who lives in Pittsburgh with his family, also deals with the Steelers as part of his job with the NFL. As a uniform official, Silva patrols the sidelines during games and alerts players if they're violating league protocol with their attire.
"I warn them pregame, I warn them during the game, and if they still don't switch it up, then the league can fine them," Silva said. "The NFL can call me mid-game and say, 'You gotta go tell Antonio Brown to change this or that.'"
"They've gotten stricter over the past few years," he added. "There's a lot of money that brands like Nike put into it so [the NFL] wants to keep those relationships up with them."
In the offseason, his focus shifts away from the gridiron to movie sets. A few summers ago, he moved out to Los Angeles to work at the Warner Bros. Pictures studio in an intern-esque role. There, he assisted with the Godzilla remake and learned many tricks of the trade that have helped him ascend to location manager and producer positions in recent years. Using his experience in Hollywood and in film classes at BC, Silva can now operate the camera, direct second units, and serve in managerial roles for movies and TV shows.
Even as his imaginative spirit takes him down divergent career paths, his first true love remains constant: football. The studio lights on set for a shoot just don't compare to the gleaming lights of a Super Bowl, and the thrill of selling a product pales in comparison to the rush one gets when intercepting a pass.
"That opening kickoff," Silva recollected about Super Bowl XLIV, "running down the field, it was like a lightning bolt from all the camera flashes."
Though his career was cut short by a nasty ACL and MCL tear in 2010, Silva had the privilege of playing with one of the greatest quarterbacks of his generation, Peyton Manning.
Silva recalled one interaction with Manning that particularly stood out in his mind. The former teammates hadn't seen each other in five years and had exchanged texts only a few times since Silva left the league. Nevertheless, when Manning recognized him from afar during his Super Bowl-winning season with the Denver Broncos, he didn't hold back. The 39-year-old MVP busted through the door, jumped on Silva's back, and hollered, "What are you doing here?"
When Silva first signed on to the Colts as a rookie, he remembers the media hounding him with questions about the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
"Have you ever seen someone with the approach of Peyton?" the reporters would ask.
"Yeah," Silva responded, meaning no disrespect.
The media members were shocked, almost offended at the response.
"Well," Silva replied, "I've played with Matt Ryan for the past five years."
While journalists may have scoffed at that comparison back then, they're likely to see the similarities now that Ryan has won an NFL MVP Award and quarterbacked the defending NFC Champs. As teammates for half a decade, Silva had an inside look at Ryan's meticulous approach and the success it brought on the Heights.
"On the field and in the locker room, they're very similar," Silva said of Ryan and Manning. "They're very likable and they get respect because of the way they carry themselves. They're very professional, very appreciative of the people around them."
With Ryan leading the Eagles' offense and Silva at the helm of the defense, the duo instilled a culture change that catapulted BC into the national spotlight. During their senior year, the team started 8-0 and rose to the No. 2 ranking in the country. The Eagles finished as the No. 10 team in the nation after beating Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl, 24-21. Silva had a career day in his final game in a BC uniform, recording two interceptions and 10 tackles en route to winning MVP honors.
At BC and beyond, coaches and players have raved about Silva as the ultimate competitor. So how does he satisfy his competitive edge now that sports have largely left his everyday life?
"The ability to be creative and bring things to life—it brings out the competitive edge," Silva said. "There's nothing like going out there and playing football. But definitely being an entrepreneur and being creative and being able to display that is certainly helpful."
Another day, another business, another form of artistic expression for Silva. What's next for this Renaissance man? Chances are, he doesn't even know the answer himself—but you can bet that he won't stop creating as long as the ideas keep coming.
Featured Image Courtesy of BC Athletics
bells and bain
jamie silva
About Riley Overend 134 Articles
Riley Overend is a former Sports Editor for the Heights. He hails from the Bay Area, and likes to think of himself as a Kanyesseur. You can follow him on Twitter at @RileyHeights.
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text:
Gryżyna may refer to:
Gryżyna, Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)
Gryżyna, Lubusz Voivodeship (west Poland)
Gryżyna Landscape Park, a protected area in Lubusz Voivodeship
Gryżyna, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (north Poland)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Culture, Society & Family
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Prehistoric puzzle settled: carbon dioxide link to global warming 22 million years ago
The modern link between high carbon dioxide levels and climate change didn't appear to hold true for a time interval about 22 million years ago; but now a new study has found the link does indeed exist.
Fossil leaves from Africa have resolved a prehistoric climate puzzle — and also confirm the link between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global warming.
Research until now has produced a variety of results and conflicting data that have cast doubt on the link between high carbon dioxide levels and climate change for a time interval about 22 million years ago.
But a new study has found the link does indeed exist for that prehistoric time period, say researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
The finding will help scientists understand how recent and future increases in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide may impact the future of our planet, say the SMU researchers.
The discovery comes from new biochemical analyses of fossil leaves from plants that grew on Earth 27 million years ago and 22 million years ago, said geologist Tekie Tesfamichael, lead scientist on the research.
The new analyses confirm research about modern climate — that global temperatures rise and fall with increases and decreases in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere — but in this case even in prehistoric times, according to the SMU-led international research team.
Carbon dioxide is a gas that is normally present in the Earth's atmosphere, even millions of years ago. It's dubbed a greenhouse gas because greater concentrations cause the overall temperature of Earth's atmosphere to rise, as happens in a greenhouse with lots of sunlight.
Recently greenhouse gas increases have caused global warming, which is melting glaciers, sparking extreme weather variability and causing sea levels to rise.
The new SMU discovery that carbon dioxide behaved in the same manner millions of years ago that it does today has significant implications for the future. The finding suggests the pairing of carbon dioxide and global warming that is seen today also holds true for the future if carbon dioxide levels continue to rise as they have been, said Tesfamichael.
"The more we understand about the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and global temperature in the past, the more we can plan for changes ahead," said Tesfamichael, an SMU postdoctoral fellow in Earth Sciences.
"Previous work reported a variety of results and conflicting data about carbon dioxide concentrations at the two intervals of time that we studied," he said. "But tighter control on the age of our fossils helped us to address whether or not atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration corresponded to warming — which itself is independently well-documented in geochemical studies of marine fossils in ocean sediments."
The researchers reported their findings in Geology, the scientific journal of the Geological Society of America. The article is "Settling the issue of 'decoupling' between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature: [CO2]atm reconstructions across the warming Paleogene-Neogene divide."
Co-authors from the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in Dedman College are professors Bonnie Jacobs, an expert in paleobotany and paleoclimate, and Neil J. Tabor, an expert in sedimentology and sedimentary geochemistry.
Other co-authors are Lauren Michel, Tennessee Technological University; Ellen Currano, University of Wyoming; Mulugeta Feseha, Addis Ababa University; Richard Barclay, Smithsonian Institution; John Kappelman, University of Texas; and Mark Schmitz, Boise State University.
Discovery of rare, well-preserved fossil leaves enables finding
The findings were possible thanks to the rare discovery of two sites with extraordinarily well-preserved fossil leaves of flowering plants from the Ethiopian Highlands of eastern Africa.
Such well-preserved fossil leaves are a rarity, Tesfamichael said.
"Finding two sites with great preservation in the same geographic region from two important time intervals was very fortunate, as this enabled us to address the question we had about the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and global temperatures," he said.
Scientists know that variations in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide affect carbon fixation in leaves during photosynthesis. This causes leaves to develop anatomical and physiological changes such as the frequency and size of stomata — the pores on the surface of a leaf through which carbon passes.
Scientists can measure those attributes, among others, in fossil leaves, so that leaf fossils can be used as proxies for Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide history.
The sites producing the leaves for the SMU study were discovered separately in years past, but major fossil collections were produced through field work coordinated by the SMU research team and their co-authors, who have been collaborating on this project for several years.
The work has had funding from the National Science Foundation, The National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, the SMU Ford Fellowship Program, SMU Research Council, the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, and the Dallas Paleontological Society Frank Crane Scholarship.
The fossils are housed permanently in the collections at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. Institutional and governmental support came from the National Museum of Ethiopia, the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, and Addis Ababa University.
Previous studies firmly established a temperature difference
One of the sites dates to the late Oligocene Epoch, and the other to the early Miocene.
Previous studies that measured ocean temperatures from around the world for the two intervals have firmly established a temperature difference on Earth between the two times, with one much warmer than the other. So the SMU study sought to measure the levels of carbon dioxide for the two time periods.
For the SMU analyses, fossil leaves of a single species were collected from the 27 million-year-old late Oligocene site. The leaves had been deposited during prehistoric times in the area of Chilga in northwest Ethiopia most likely at a river bank. The Earth's climate during the late Oligocene may have been somewhat warmer than today, although glaciers were forming on Antarctica. The SMU study found carbon dioxide levels, on average, around 390 parts per million, about what it is on Earth today.
Fossil leaves of the 22 million-year-old species from the early Miocene were collected from ancient lake deposits, now a rock called shale, from the modern-day Mush Valley in central Ethiopia. The early Miocene climate at that time was warmer than the late Oligocene and likewise the SMU study found higher carbon dioxide levels. Atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 870 parts per million, double what it is on Earth today.
The SMU study confirmed a relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature during the late Oligocene and early Miocene.
Paleoclimate data can help predict our planet's future climate
While carbon dioxide isn't the only factor affecting Earth's climate or global mean temperature, it is widely considered by scientists among the most significant. Much is known about climate change and global warming, but questions still remain.
"One of those is 'What's the sensitivity of the Earth's temperature to carbon dioxide concentration? Is it very sensitive? Is it not so sensitive?' Estimating temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations for times in the past can help find the answer to that question," Jacobs said. "There's a lot of work on paleoclimate in general, but not as much on the relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature."
The finding is an important one.
"The amount of temperature change during this interval is approximately within the range of the temperature change that is estimated from climate models for our next century given a doubling of carbon dioxide concentration since the industrial revolution," Jacobs said.
With the new model reaffirming the prehistoric relationship, scientists can look now at related questions, said climate change scientist Lauren Michel, who worked on the study as a post-doctoral researcher at SMU.
"Answering questions about the rate of change and which factors changed first, for example, will ultimately give a clearer picture of the Earth's climate change patterns," Michel said. "I think it is valuable to understand the relationship of greenhouse gases and climate factors represented in the rock record so we can have a better idea of what we can expect in the future and how we can prepare for that."
SMU study confirms relationship that previous methods overlooked
Previous studies found little to no correlation between temperature and carbon dioxide for the late Oligocene and early Miocene. That has puzzled paleoclimate researchers for at least a decade.
"We have a good test-case scenario with these well-preserved plants from both time slices, where we know one time slice, with higher levels of carbon dioxide, was a warmer climate globally than the other," Tesfamichael said.
"It's been a puzzle as to why the previous methods found no relationship, or an inverse correlation," he said. "We think it's for lack of the well-dated proxy — such as our fossil leaves from two precise times in the same region — which deliver a reliable answer. Or, perhaps the models themselves needed improvement."
Previous studies used methodologies that differed from the SMU study, although all methods (proxies) incorporate some aspects of what is known about living organisms and how they interact with atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Some studies rely on biochemical modeling of the relationship between single-celled marine fossils and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and others rely on the relationship between stomata and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration observed in the living relatives of particular fossil plant species.
"Each method has its assumptions," said Tesfamichael. "We will see if our results hold up with further studies of this time interval using the same methodology we used." — Margaret Allen, SMU
Variations in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide affect carbon fixation during photosynthesis and can be measured on a preserved fossil leaf like this one from Ethiopia. (Credit SMU)
Researchers measured and counted the leaf pores and epidermal cells on well-preserved fossil leaves from the Highlands of Ethiopia to determine the concentration of carbon dioxide present in the Earth's atmosphere 22 million years ago and 27 million years ago. (Credit SMU)
Fossil leaves from prehistoric plants collected from the Ethiopian Highlands of Chilga and Mush River Valley tell scientists how much carbon dioxide was present in the atmosphere millions of years ago.
To book a live or taped interview with Tekie Tesfamichael in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.
To book a live or taped interview with Bonnie Jacobs in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.
Tekie Tesfamichael
Bonnie Jacobs
Neil J. Tabor
SMU Department of Earth Sciences
Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences
Dedman College
Margaret Allen	2017-12-20T16:13:25-06:00	November 14, 2017|Categories: Earth & Climate, Fossils & Ruins, Plants & Animals, Student researchers, Subfeature|Tags: Bonnie F. Jacobs, Dedman College, Lauren Michel, Neil Tabor, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Tekie Tesfamichael|
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This 1957 Corvette is like new! An incredible restoration was carried out on this 'Vette making it just as clean underneath as it is on top. Powering this lightweight roadster is the 283C.I. V8 with two 4-barrel carburetors matched to a 3-speed manual transmission, which was the only manual available in early 1957 models, 1 of only 2,045 with this engine option. Finished in bright Venetian Red with a Red interior, it is 1 of only 1,320 that left the factory in that color. If you are looking for a stunning classic Corvette, this is the one for you! It is sure to win awards at shows wherever you go and provide plenty of fun and memories for years to come. Come visit our showroom in Venice, Florida or contact us online or over the phone today to add it to your collection.


Abstract. Spatial and spectral information are obtained simultaneously by hyperspectral remote sensing. Joint extraction of these information of hyperspectral image is one of most import methods for hyperspectral image classification. In this paper, a novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed, which extracts spectral-spatial information of hyperspectral images correctly. The proposed model not only learns sufficient knowledge from the limited number of samples, but also has powerful generalization ability. The proposed framework based on three-dimensional convolution can extract spectral-spatial features of labeled samples effectively. Though CNN has shown its robustness to distortion, it cannot extract features of different scales through the traditional pooling layer that only have one size of pooling window. Hence, spatial pyramid pooling (SPP) is introduced into three-dimensional local convolutional filters for hyperspectral classification. Experimental results with a widely used hyperspectral remote sensing dataset show that the proposed model provides competitive performance.
How to cite: Li, N., Wang, C., Zhao, H., Gong, X., and Wang, D.: A NOVEL DEEP CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR SPECTRAL–SPATIAL CLASSIFICATION OF HYPERSPECTRAL DATA, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-3, 897-900, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-897-2018, 2018.


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Michigan Association of Chiropractors becomes first state association to enroll in F4CP's Group Membership
Chiropractic Economics October 14, 2014
October 14, 2014 — The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the value of chiropractic care, has announced the enrollment of its first Group Member: Michigan Association of Chiropractors (MAC).
Group Members are included within a premier class of support and are entitled to added benefits. Unique to this grouping, members receive permission to present qualified stakeholders with access to F4CP member benefits, including use of all marketing material, a listing within the nationwide directory, access to practice-building webinars and tool kits, and much more.
"Group Membership delivers tremendous value not only to our association as a whole, but also to our individual stakeholders who now have access to countless benefits at no added cost," Kristine Dowell, executive director of MAC, said. "We are excited about this new opportunity with the F4CP, as it presents a fresh method for engaging our membership and advancing the chiropractic profession."
Group Membership is available to associations that commit to an annual F4CP contribution in the amount of $10 per qualified stakeholder. DCs who practice full-time and pay full dues to the association are considered qualified stakeholders. If an association offers a discounted rate to full-time practicing DCs in their first three years of practice, the F4CP includes those stakeholders at no cost.
Kent S. Greenawalt, chairman of F4CP, applauded the enrollment of MAC.
"As always, we appreciate the commitment and generosity of our supporters, such as MAC, and will continue to develop new benefits that bring added value to them," he said. "We encourage other associations to learn more about Group Membership and consider supporting the F4CP at this level. Together, we can continue to grow the success of our profession."
Source: Foundation for Chiropractic Progress
Michigan Association of Chiropractors increases support to the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress
FCA second state association to enroll in F4CP's Group Membership
F4CP recognizes the support of Michigan Association of Chiropractors
North Dakota Chiropractic Association marks 20th organization to enroll in F4CP Group Membership
Local DC heroes promote good health with good deeds during COVID, flood relief
Foundation for Chiropractic Progress recognizes FCA, MAC for campaign support
Filed Under: Chiropractic News, News


TEHRAN, Aug. 01 (MNA) – Iranian Deputy Culture Minister Hossein Noushabadi says the Saudis are evading reaching an actual sentence verdict for the two security officers accused of sexually harassing two Iranian teenagers.
Citing suspicion, Saudi officers reportedly took two Iranian teenagers, aged 14 and 15, away, while performing body search on passengers at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah in April. The teenagers were subjected to indecent acts by the Saudi officers.
Following the harassment, Iran summoned the Saudi chargé d'affaires to ask Riyadh to expedite the measures taken in the process of punishing the accused.
So far, none of the preconditions the Islamic Republic had set, including the punishment of the two Arab perpetrators, in order to resume the Umrah Hajj pilgrimage have been met, said Noushabadi.
Noushabadi added that the Islamic Republic has found the verdict issued at a court of first instance in Saudi Arabia is completely disproportionate to the crime committed.
He further stressed that as long as the Saudi government has not made a formal apology and the criminals have not been punished, the entire Umrah flights will remain suspended.
Noushabadi also maintained that Saudis are not qualified to be in charge of Ka'ba and Hajj affairs, and that Iran looks forward for the formation of a council composed of trustees of Muslim countries to manage this sacred place.


text:
Q: Failed to execute 'evaluate' on 'Document': The string '//button[@class="btn btn-primary"]' is not a valid XPath expression using Selenium in Python I try to write a script in Python which allows me to put an Item into Cart on an Onlineshop.
I am not a Pro in programming so be kind to me :).
Here is the HTML:
<button
  class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn"
  data-attr-name="Product Detail Page - Level 1"
  data-attr-value="Add to Shopping Cart"
  data-attr-proddata='{
    "productName":"WLAN-Lautsprecher-Set MR 50",
    "productID":"1010950",
    "brand":"Blaupunkt",
    "ownedBrand":"",
    "priceWithTax":179.0,
    "quantity":1}'
  type="submit"
  disabled="disabled"
>

  In den Warenkorb
</button>

Here is the snippet of my code that causes the error:
...
driver.get(url)
time.sleep(15)
driver.find_element_by_xpath(//button[@class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn"][@type, "submit"]).click()
...

The error is:
SyntaxError: Failed to execute 'evaluate' on 'Document': The string '//button[@class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn"][@type, "submit"]' is not a valid XPath expression.
  (Session info: headless chrome=86.0.4240.197)

If i delete the "'" then a Syntaxerror occures:
 File "/home/pi/login.py", line 29
    driver.find_element_by_xpath(//button[@class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn"][@type, "submit"]).click()
                                  ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

It is only a Hobby-Project, but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.
P.S.: I run the code on a Raspberry Pi 4. with selenium with Chrome in headless-mode.

A: maybe you can try using
driver.find_element_by_class_name("js-add-to-cart").click()

ps.I'm a noob and I've never used xpath before so

A: This is the valid xpath use 'and' to add multiple attributes to expression
driver.find_element_by_xpath('//button[@class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn" and @type="submit"]')

also enclose locator in quotes

A: You were pretty close enough. As the error points out:
    driver.find_element_by_xpath(//button[@class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn"][@type, "submit"]).click()
                  ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

The python interpreter complains of invalid syntax as you have missed the quotes for the value of the xpath.

Solution
Effectively your line of code will be:
 driver.find_element_by_xpath('//button[@class="btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn" and @type="submit"]').click()

Alternative:
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//button[@class='btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn' and @type='submit']").click()

Considering find_element_by_* commands being deprecated and using find_element() instead:
driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//button[@class='btn btn-primary btn-block js-add-to-cart js-enable-btn' and @type='submit']").click()


Applying and living sustainability is nothing new for Redserve. Our demand for high quality standards in the development and construction of our projects has always been very important.
The challenge in this project was to translate the identity of the company as a responsible and sustainable organization into a building and its operation.
For our client Redserve developed the functional and organizational planning, provided the basics of sustainability and life cycle costs for the project and finally organized the competition.