text:
The tobacco debate – Kuensel Online
The tobacco debate
August 6, 2020 /0 Comments/in Editorial /by kuensel1
With the government allowing controlled sale of tobacco, a hugely contested and debated issue in the past is being talked about again.
The government's decision is appreciated not for making tobacco available from the duty free outlets, but because it is seen as a rational decision in the wake of Covid-19 and increasing breach of border protocols.
There is a discourse on the decision and the whole issue of tobacco. This time, it is a healthy discourse. This is what we need as the government's decision has provided a window of opportunity to table the Tobacco Control Act for amendment.
The Act was dubbed as the most draconian legislation when punishment meted out for bringing in a few grammes of tobacco without paying tax was imprisonment for three years. Since then, it has been amended twice. Yet there are issues. The Act has not served its purpose. It has, rather, created several illegal activities like smuggling.
Tobacco, in any form, is bad for health. When we banned the sale of tobacco, we made international headlines. Countries around the world, both developed and least developed, have been fighting the tobacco ill. Not many managed to do it. Our decision was seen as an example and we were lauded in the international arena. However, the purpose of the tobacco legislation is not to impress others, an inherent Bhutanese quality.
Anti-smoking sentiments in Bhutan from which the lobby stems is, of course, very strong, and is based on fairly sound foundations. It is health on one side and religion on the other. If tobacco was the main cause of tuberculosis, a poor man's disease, Buddhism was against tobacco. It is said that tobacco grew from the waste of menstruation to intoxicate and disturb Guru Rinpoche while in meditation.
The tobacco law is clear. The government has opened itself to criticism for allowing its sale. But lets not pretend to not understand the motive. Bhutanese could import a certain quantity before borders were closed and foreign travel restricted. Without an avenue to buy from, the outlets became the foreign agency or in our case border town or duty-free shops for the privileged.
This is an arrangement to let tobacco users enjoy their right and a solution to the increasing problem of breaching border protocols. Recognising that increased incidents of border crossing and getting in touch with people across the border could undermine our preventive measures, the controlled sale was allowed.
It is a temporary measure in a state of emergency. The Covid-19 is a global emergency and laws have to be tweaked to fight a pandemic.
We have done this during the pandemic. Businesses were closed, timing was changed and gatherings were disallowed. Some would say that the health ministry forcing people to wear masks is against their fundamental rights. But everybody agrees or cooperates because they understand the priority. The priority today is to prevent a community outbreak. Depriving people access to tobacco will not prevent a transmission. In fact, it is seen as a potential risk.
There are suggestions to make the tobacco legislation strict. We did that, but governments were taken to courts. Lobby groups won the sentiments of the masses. When it comes to the tobacco legislation, it is like the Aesop fable of the man taking his family and donkey to the market.
For the first time, ordinary Bhutanese have access to tobacco legally and without having to pay through their nose. The decision didn't allow Bhutanese to grow or import and sell tobacco. Bhutan Duty Free is made the "foreign agent" or simply put, a duty free shop at an airport in Kolkata or Bangkok.
What we should be concerned about is if the few outlets would curb illegal border crossing. If the outlets are concentrated in Thimphu and Phuentsholing, it will not serve the purpose. In fact, the decision will create another kind of black market where people will buy from the outlets and sell it to dzongkhags.
http://drukson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/kuensel_big_logo5-1.png 0 0 kuensel1 http://drukson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/kuensel_big_logo5-1.png kuensel12020-08-06 11:25:202020-08-06 11:25:20The tobacco debate
January 19, 2021 /by kuensel1
Last two mega zones turn yellow
Gas price increases amid lockdown
Opposition recommends improvement in Covid-19 management
Uniform application of laws necessary
Unlocking the frustrations
Lockdown – a death rehearsal
The state must protect tenants during emergencies
Time to balance trade-imbalance
Use of biogas in Semjong growing kuensel kuensel Gomtu residents risk travelling to Samtse


text:
Columbia University Press, 2022
Since 1986, the British government, faced with dwindling budgets and growing calls for public accountability, has sought to assess the value of scholarly work in the nation's universities. Administrators have periodically evaluated the research of most full-time academics employed in British universities, seeking to distribute increasingly scarce funding to those who use it best. How do such attempts to quantify the worth of knowledge change the nature of scholarship?
Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra examines the effects of quantitative research evaluations on British social scientists, arguing that the mission to measure academic excellence resulted in less diversity and more disciplinary conformity. Combining interviews and original computational analyses, The Quantified Scholar provides a compelling account of how scores, metrics, and standardized research evaluations altered the incentives of scientists and administrators by rewarding forms of scholarship that were closer to established disciplinary canons. In doing so, research evaluations amplified publication hierarchies and longstanding forms of academic prestige to the detriment of diversity. Slowly but surely, they reshaped academic departments, the interests of scholars, the organization of disciplines, and the employment conditions of researchers.
Critiquing the effects of quantification on the workplace, this book also presents alternatives to existing forms of evaluation, calling for new forms of vocational solidarity that can challenge entrenched inequality in academia.
pardoguerra.org

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We appreciate every opportunity we have to participate in projects. Here are some we currently have in progress.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. was honored to be selected by Speedway Properties again to reroof several of their existing facilities in Lincoln, NE. We have worked with Speedway Properties in the past both building new facilities and reroofing existing properties. The 6800 reroof will utilize the High Profile Metal Over Metal (HPMOM) MR-24® Standing Seam Roof System, while the 6810 reroof will utilize the Low Profile Metal Over Metal (LPMOM) MR-24® Stand Seam Roof. Both systems allow the new roof to be placed over the existing roof.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. is excited to have been selected to complete a project in Antelope Valley in Lincoln, NE. The project consists of a mixed-use redevelopment of the entire block between K St. & L St. on Antelope Parkway. This four-story facility will be a mix of apartment space as well as commercial retail space. It will be constructed of structural steel and wood frame, and will also include an environmentally green roof with an irrigation system. Our scope of work includes site work, concrete, masonry, metals, carpentry, and various interior and exterior finishes.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. was excited to be selected to work with Bryant HVAC to build their new headquarters located in Lincoln, NE. The pre-engineered metal building will consist of warehouse space, a fabrication shop, and employee offices. The roof will utilize Butler's MR-24® Standing Seam Roof with an 80-foot clear-span. Our scope of work for the project will include site work, concrete, masonry, metals, and carpentry.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. has partnered up to complete another project with a repeat customer. After choosing Ayars & Ayars, Inc. to build a nursing facility in Aurora, NE, they decided to also move forward on a similar project in Burwell, NE. This facility will provide a much-needed service for Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Care with Memory Care in the Burwell area. We will provide a safe and quality building to the residents by crafting a comfortable and inviting area for everyone who enters the front door. This 74-bed facility will have all the great amenities needed to live an exceptional lifestyle including spacious resident rooms, dining areas, physical therapy space, and a beauty shop.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. is excited to continue our growing relationship with Christ Community Church. We have completed several projects on their Omaha, NE campus, including a new gym remodel. The existing interior will be demolished to allow for new flooring to be installed along with remodeled bathrooms and locker rooms. The scope of the work for this project included site work, concrete, metals, and carpentry.
Community Action Partnership selected Ayars & Ayars, Inc. for our first project together to complete a tenant finish at their Commercial Kitchen & Distribution Center in Lincoln, NE. Our crew will install a new structural steel support system for a new roof mechanical unit. We will also install fixtures and kitchen equipment throughout the facility. Our scope of work for the project includes site-work, concrete, metal, and carpentry.
Full Fledged Brewing Company is looking to become the first brewery located within Council Bluffs, Iowa city limits after a new zoning law was passed. They selected Ayars & Ayars, Inc to complete this tenant finish project that will house the new brewery. Demolition will remove a majority of the exterior doors, windows, and pavement. Interior work will replace various fixtures to improve the aesthetic of the space and to accommodate brewery equipment. Our scope of work for the project includes metal, masonry, concrete, and carpentry.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. was excited to be selected by HAZ-MAT Response to construct their newest facility in Gretna, Nebraska. This Butler Pre-Engineered Metal building will allow the company to continue its service to the Lincoln and Omaha areas in the event of a hazardous waste situation. This new location will shorten the amount of time it will take to respond to calls. At 10,800 sq. ft. the building will also serve as office space for the company. Our scopes of work for the project include site work, concrete, metal, and carpentry.
When Heppner's Auto Body in Woodbury, Minnesota was running low on space, they called on Ayars & Ayars, Inc. to come up with a fix. This project includes selective demolition of interior walls, replacing a portion of the existing roof, and a 7,227 sq. ft. Butler Pre-Engineered Metal Building addition. Once complete, Heppner's will be able to utilize two brand new paint booths, along with extra space to execute day-to-day operations.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. teamed up with Makovicka Physical Therapy to tenant finish two of their existing location in Lincoln, NE. As Makovicka expanded it was only logical for Ayars & Ayars, Inc to build their new practice in Plattsmouth, NE. The entire site, including the existing building and concrete, will be demoed and replaced by newly poured concrete footings, foundation/sidewalks and a 7,500 sq. ft. wood frame building. Our scope of work for the project includes site work, concrete, masonry, carpentry, and metal.
Speedway Properties continues to choose Ayars & Ayars, Inc. to work on their many projects throughout Lincoln. Each project furthering our ever-growing relationship, this time to complete new addition and site improvements to their existing Nebraska Book Store. This massive addition utilizes a pre-engineered steel framing system for a new lower bay and dock area. Our scope of work for the project includes site work, concrete, masonry, carpentry, and metal.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. was honored to be selected by Ready Mix to build their new concrete plant in Strang, NE. The new facility will feature two main areas. One constructed for use as the office space for employees and another to house the concrete plant. The roof system selected for the project is Butler's MR-24® standing seam roof system, that will include moisture protection components. Our scope of work for the project will include site work, concrete, metal, and carpentry.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. has completed several projects with Rare Earth Salts at their Northgate Crossing Campus, including an addition to their existing facility we completed in 2017. The addition will include a new office area and also a remodel to an existing lab. The new addition will utilize a structural steel framing system and a Butler MR-24® Standing Seam roof system. Our scope of work for the project will include site work, concrete, masonry, metals, and carpentry.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. is currently collaborating with one of their many repeat customers to complete a 30,000 sq. ft. interior renovation for Rasmussen Mechanical in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This renovation features 23 offices, two conference rooms, a training area, and a new entryway and vestibule to create a great first impression. Our scope of work includes concrete, carpentry, electrical and finishes.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. is excited to announce that we have been selected to provide project management and construction services for a remodel to Sunbelt Rentals existing facility in Omaha, Nebraska. The project will start with selective demolition of walls, flooring, and footings. Then, we will add in a small tools showroom, a break room, two offices, and a conference room.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. is currently working on our first project with the Evangelical United Lutheran Church on a remodel at their existing facility in Lincoln, NE. We will remodel their existing ceiling in the chapel to include suspended acoustical tile to improve sound quality during worship and build a small addition that will incorporate a new covered entry, which will allow easier access into the facility during inclement weather. Our scope of work for the project includes site-work, concrete, masonry, carpentry, and metal.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. is no stranger to working with school districts to help them design/build a new facility for their education goals. Including a new elementary school in Bladen, NE for the Silver Lake Public Schools District. An existing facility is already present on site and Ayars & Ayars, Inc. will build the new facility around the existing facility, eventually connecting the two buildings. Our scope of work for the project includes site work, concrete, masonry, metals and carpentry.
Ayars & Ayars, Inc. has completed several projects with BNSF Railway over the course of many years and across much of the United States, including the construction of their new Way Facility in Illinois. The existing building will be demolished and replaced with a structural steel building with a Butler MR-24 Standing Seam roof system. Our scope of work for the project includes site work, concrete, carpentry and metal.


text:
• Play the sound file
[Music clip: From Haydn's Derbyshire Marches, piano version]
01 — Intro. And Radio Derb is on the air. Greetings, listeners, from your volcanically genial host John Derbyshire, here with VDARE.com's summary of the week's news.
This has of course been the last full week of 2018 — a year when the National Question has become a major political issue, not only in the U.S.A. but also in Europe.
Not much has actually been done policywise; but the fact that people all over are now talking about our issues — immigration, citizenship, sovereignty, border control, asylum — is enough of a white pill all by itself. Let's keep the talk going, keep pressing the issues, and hope for some real consequences in 2019.
[Permalink]
02 — Trump the timid. Steve Sailer captured post-1965 U.S. policy very neatly with his phrase "invade the world, invite the world." It's the inviting that we mainly concentrate on here at VDARE.com, but the invading is worth citizens' attention, too; and as Steve's phrase suggests, the two things are not unconnected.
We have done an awful lot of invading this past half-century, most of it to no point at all, and at a cost of thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars.
Candidate Donald Trump on the 2016 campaign trail seemed to get the futility of it all. He talked of bringing our troops home, advised South Korea to nuke up, said we should withdraw from NATO and shut down our missionary wars in the Middle East.
Millions of us responded eagerly to all that, as we did to his talk of bringing order to our immigration system. That's how Trump got elected.
Two years later very little has been done on either clause of Steve's phrase. We're still inviting the world on a huge scale, a scale that makes sense only to cheap-labor lobbyists and anti-white ethnic ideologues. And yes, we're still invading the world. We're still in NATO; we still have 26,000 troops in Korea; our war in Afghanistan is in its eighteenth year, with one-eighth of the country under enemy control and one-third "contested."
The President, in that careless, half-hearted way he has, threw us a small bone last week by announcing that we would withdraw all our troops from Syria and half from Afghanistan. The news is welcome, but it's way too little.
Why is Trump so half-hearted, so timid? Did you ever think you'd hear the words "Trump" and "timid" in the same sentence? I don't know how else to describe the President's actions, though. I long to see him throw down gauntlets, challenge the Executive apparatchiks, the Congressional seat-warmers, the puffed-up Judiciary.
There are so many gauntlets he could throw down. Just at random from this week's browsing: A long, closely-argued piece on the CIS website by immigration wonk Andrew Arthur making the case that Trump can, by himself, make E-Verify mandatory. Quote: "All that it requires is the will, and 60 days' notice before implementation." End quote.
Where's the will, Mr President? Sure, the congresscritters will screech and the lefty judges will frown; and perhaps they could stop what you're trying to do. The only way to find out is to try doing it, to throw down the gauntlet.
So thanks for the Syria bone, Mr President. Could you now try something big, something bold, even if it makes Ivanka cry?
03 — What asylum should be for. F.H. Buckley has a good column on the withdrawal from Syria, pointing out that in all these stupid, futile interventions we have had help from local people who saw us as on their side, and put themselves in danger to help us.
When we pull out our troops — Buckley is speaking specifically of Syria, and the Kurds — we are leaving those allies to their fate, which may not be a happy one.
As Buckley points out, we've been here before. After Vietnam fell in 1975 we admitted hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese. A lot of them just didn't want to live under communism, but some significant proportion — I'd like to see an estimate of that proportion, though I never have — had actively helped us in South Vietnam and were in real danger.
There are people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria today in that same position. Notably so are the Kurds of northern Syria who have actually been fighting alongside American troops against ISIS. The Kurds face hostility not only from the Syrian government, but also from Turkey, which has a longstanding policy of crushing Kurdish separatism.
The situation of the Kurds is tragic to be sure, and they attach a nontrivial moral issue to our withdrawal from Syria. I mean them no disrespect; in a world ordered by me, they'd have their own country.
That said, I could not help but smile when reading the December 20th Washington Post story about the Kurds' reaction to Trump's decision. Longish quote:
The decision represented yet another setback to Kurdish aspirations for some form of statehood, which have repeatedly met disappointment at the hands of the United States. The letdowns began after President Woodrow Wilson pushed for but failed to secure a separate Kurdish state at the 1919 peace conference following World War I, which drew the borders of the modern Middle East.
Kurds say the hopes they have since placed in the United States have continued to be dashed. In 1975, the United States abandoned support for a Kurdish uprising in Iraq after President Saddam Hussein struck a deal with their ally, the Shah of Iran. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush encouraged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, but when Kurds in the north and Shiite Arabs in the south responded to the call, the U.S. military refrained from going to their aid. Most recently, the Trump administration last year withheld support for an independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iraqi troops rolled unopposed into areas the Kurds had controlled.
Again, I don't wish to be unkind, and this smile I'm sporting is a grim one; but given that we've been letting them down since 1919 — that's a hundred years, guys — it's kind of amazing that any Kurds still trust us.
Yes, we should pull out of all these places, while swearing a solemn national oath that any future wars we fight abroad will be won quickly, not lost slowly. And I can't believe it is beyond our abilities to identify people with a clear claim on our sympathies, and offer them asylum as we pull out.
That's what asylum should be for. Instead we're handing it out to hundreds of thousands of liars and crooks from Central America, carefully coached by the people-smugglers with tales of violence and danger.
If these parasites and scofflaws continue to get asylum while we refuse it to Kurds and Afghans who have actually fought alongside us, that would be a monstrous national disgrace.
04 — Race denialism versus reality. Boy, race realism's a tough sell, isn't it? I've been doing my best to make the case for honesty about race, but the people who run Western countries, along with all our bigfoot opinionators and educators, would submit to being boiled in oil rather than admit the reality of innate race differences.
Latest illustration of this comes from London. The police force of that city — the Metropolitan Police, known as "the Met" — has a database of gang activity in the city. This database was set up after nationwide race riots in August of 2011, riots that included attacks on the police and much looting and destruction of property.
Those 2011 riots illustrate, all by themselves, the stubborn race denialism of British authorities. That the rioters were mainly black jumps out at you from the video footage. It's amply confirmed by the arrest figures.
Britain's far-left broadsheet newspaper, The Guardian, reported for example that in the city of Nottingham, which is only nine percent black, 62 percent of defendants in riot-related court cases were black — a fact that The Guardian of course tried to spin as racist injustice in policing, the court system, and society at large.
Yet to refer to those 2011 riots as "race riots," as I just did, is a gross breach of bad manners in Britain.
Well, back to the present day. As I said, one consequence of those riots seven years ago was the establishment by the Met of this database of gang activity in London.
Word leaked out that blacks were heavily over-represented on the database. The Met reports to the Mayor of London, a chap named Sadiq Khan. Hizzoner ordered a review of the database, and last Friday the reviewers released a report.
Guess what: Eighty per cent of the gangbangers on the database were black. Only sixteen percent of Londoners are black.
Racism! Discrimination! The Mayor has ordered an overhaul of the database to make the numbers come out right — that is, to accord more with the race-denialist Narrative and less with reality.
This isn't the stupidest example of race denialism from 2018. The award for that still has to go to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Back in March I reported on how Amy Wax, a professor at that law school, had mentioned in a video exchange some months prior that, quote: "I don't think I've ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely in the top half," end quote.
This was in the context of a discussion about affirmative action in which Prof. Wax expressed sympathy for black students who get affirmative-actioned into classes they can't cope with.
When that video exchange was brought to the attention of Ted Ruger, the Dean of U. Penn. Law school, earlier this year, Dean Ruger flatly contradicted Prof. Wax. He called her a liar in print and took away some of her classes.
Asked to provide evidence that Prof. Wax was indeed lying, that her assertion was false, Dean Ruger refused. We're just going to have to take his word for it, he told us. O … kay.
As I said, race realism is a hard sell, and not getting any easier. "Humankind cannot bear very much reality," wrote the poet; but, as Prof. Wax noted, reality has a way of winning the argument at last.
It can take a while, though. Until then the smiley-faces, happy-talkers, big-city Mayors and Law School Deans are in charge, Heaven help us.
05 — Collegiality and its enemies. A shout-out here to James Flynn. This is a mere echo of a much longer and more knowledgeable shout-out to Flynn at the Unz Review, December 10th, by James Thompson — who is, like Flynn, an academic psychologist.
Flynn's research has been in human intelligence. If you've heard of the Flynn effect — the steady rise, across several decades, of IQ scores on standard tests in developed countries — well, that's Flynn. He did most of the documentation on it.
Flynn is a lefty. Eighty-four years old now, Flynn tells us that back in his youth he was such a lefty he kept getting fired for his activism, and that was why he left the U.S.A. in 1963 to live in New Zealand, where he still lives. He has stood as a candidate for the New Zealand parliament on the ticket of Alliance, a Democratic Socialist party.
You won't be surprised, then, to learn that Flynn is a race denialist. He acknowledges the differences in mean IQ scores for different races, but thinks they are environmental in origin, not biological.
Boo, hiss, I hear the race realists say. Hold on, here, though. Flynn is a conscientious scholar, with respect for data and willingness to engage in polite disagreement with people who interpret that data differently.
I saw Flynn debate Charles Murray at the Manhattan Institute twelve years ago. It was one of the most civilized exchanges I've had the good fortune to witness. Flynn and Murray of course differ on the interpretation of IQ data, and are poles apart politically — Flynn socialist, Murray libertarian — but they dealt with each other respectfully and listened thoughtfully to each other's arguments, each doing his best to refute the other with data and logic. The event was a model of collegiality.
"Collegiality" is not the word I'd use to describe what happened to Noah Carl, a 28-year-old social scientist in England. Carl has done research, and published papers in learned journals, on how people's intelligence interacts with their beliefs and attitudes — with their politics, for example. On the strength of this work, he's just been given a research fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
So far, so good … until the Thought Police discovered a paper Noah Carl had published this April in a journal of evolutionary psychology arguing that it was wrong to stifle research into possible genetic components of race differences in IQ.
Note that Carl's paper takes no position on the nature-nurture issue; it only argues for open inquiry. Quote: "Stifling debate around taboo topics can itself do active harm." End quote.
That got the race-denialist establishment all a-flutter. Three hundred academics from around the world signed an open letter denouncing Noah Carl's work as, quote, "ethically suspect and methodologically flawed," and demanding that Cambridge withdraw the Fellowship offer. Further quote:
We are shocked that a body of work that includes vital errors in data analysis and interpretation appears to have been taken seriously for appointment to such a competitive research fellowship.
Of course, in the spirit of Dean Ruger at U. Penn. Law School, they did not feel obliged to supply actual examples of Carl's "errors in data analysis." We should just take their word for it. They're good people; Carl's a bad person; why would you take a bad person's word over the word of good people? Are you a bad person? That's the intellectual level we're operating at here.
There was full coverage of the Carl controversy at Quillette, December 7th.
Back to James Flynn. Flynn published an article in the Journal of Criminal Justice November-December issue, title: Academic freedom and race: You ought not to believe what you think may be true. It's a clumsy and ambiguous title, if the good professor won't mind my saying so, and I'm not clear why it's in the Journal of Criminal Justice, but it's a stirring defense of the right of academics like Noah Carl to study and publish on controversial topics like race and IQ. Money quote:
I know of no alternative to the scientific method to maximize accumulation of truth about the physical world and the causes of human behavior.
End quote. I stood up and cheered when I got to that bit.
From what I know about the production cycle of academic journals, I'm pretty sure Flynn wrote that before the flap over Noah Carl at Cambridge blew up. He doesn't refer to the Carl business in his paper. The paper is very timely none the less; and we can never have enough defenses of academic freedom, or enough reminders that you can be a leftist — like Flynn — without being a totalitarian.
So let's hear it for James Flynn: a lifelong lefty who doubts genetics has anything to do with observed race differences in behavior, intelligence, and personality, but who sturdily defends the right of scholars to inquire into such topics.
06 — Miscellany. And now, our closing miscellany of brief items.
Imprimis: We're definitely living in a transgender moment. Western society is being reconfigured, turned upside down to accommodate the tiny number of people who are confused about their sex.
Every day brings new headlines. Sample from today, headline: All-Women's College to Begin Accepting Transgender Students. This is Stephens College, a private all-women's college in Missouri. If you're a guy and you'd like to go to Stephens, no problem! Just "identify" as female and you're in!
OK, here's my question. I'm an opera fan. Most opera singers fall into one of six categories based on the range and quality of the voice. From highest to lowest: men are tenor, baritone, or bass; women are soprano, mezzo, or contralto.
Range-wise there's a lot of overlap, especially among the ladies. If you play me a snippet of a female voice in the lower range and ask me if this gal bills as a mezzo or a contralto, I wouldn't be right more than seventy percent of the time.
Sex-wise, on the other hand, there's no overlap. Range aside, the timbre of a male voice is just different from a female's. A male, any range, could sing a couple of bars; and a female could sing the same notes; and you'd have no trouble saying which was which. Even castrati — there's a sound clip of one at the Wikipedia entry for "castrato" — didn't really sound like females, if that clip is representative.
So my question is: Are there any transgender opera singers? If not, are we going to get some? If we get some, how will they persuade us that they are one sex when their voice obviously proclaims them the other?
Item: Gaia is angry! So at least I surmise from recent reports of volcanic activity.
Most horrible was last weekend's tsunami in Indonesia, caused by a huge landslide into the nearby sea, the landslide itself caused by an eruption in what's left of the original Krakatoa, which famously blew up in 1883. The most recent death toll I've seen for last weekend's tsunami was 429.
Meanwhile Mount Etna on Sicily erupted on Christmas Eve; then Gaia followed up with an earthquake two days later, damaging the city of Catania — which, just to drag out the opera theme a bit, was the home town of the composer Vincenzo Bellini, a great favorite of mine.
The big old Mexican volcano Popocatépetl popped on December 15th, an event I shall say more about in my December Diary.
There's been unusual activity at Yellowstone, too. The Steamboat Geyser was quiet for four years: this year it's erupted thirty times. Yellowstone sits on a supervolcano. If that sucker blows it's goodbye, civilization.
When I mentioned all this to Mrs Derbyshire she went total Chinese on me. "It's because human affairs are disordered," she told me. "Earthquakes, volcanos — they just correspond to what's happening in the human world."
Hey, who knows? The 1976 Tangshan earthquake in north China killed a quarter million people. A few weeks later Mao Tse-tung died and the Cultural Revolution ended. I know better than to argue with Mrs Derbyshire.
Item: Two weeks ago on Radio Derb I noted the centenary of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's birth. Along the way there I said that with all proper respect to Solzhenitsyn's suffering and courage, I thought he was a dull writer.
Then I wondered if that might be just the fault of his translators and added, quote: "If any fluent readers of Russian are listening, I'll be glad to air your opinion in a future podcast."
Well, I did hear from a Russian listener. Longish quote, with his permission, and slightly edited:
I would like to … express my complete agreement with your assessment … This position is not uncommon among Russians, even those who are literary critics. Here is Lev Pirogov (a fellow nationalist) [inner quote]: "I am not of a popular opinion that Solzhenitsyn was a bad writer. In my opinion, he was an average writer, while sometimes being close to a good one (and sometimes even beyond that, of course) … If you take from Solzhenitsyn his struggle, what will be left? If you take from Tolstoy his moralizing there will still be a great artist left … The Solzhenitsyn phenomenon is not a literary one. It is a sociological,ideological, political one. Its essence is resonance that makes bridges fall." [End inner quote.]
This doesn't mean that no one in Russia appreciates Solzhenitsyn as a stylist. For example, Andrei Nemser, who is one of the foremost historians of Russian literature, definitely does. All I am trying to say is that there are multiple opinions on Aleksandr Isayevich's work in Russia and yours is one that is shared by many, even by those who deeply respect the late great dissident.
End longish quote.
Thank you, Sir. I mean, of course, Большое спасибо!
Item: Quote of the week comes from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in a Christmas interview with one of Hungary's daily newspapers. Quote:
We do not want our countries to be inhabited by a mixed population and therefore we are protecting our borders and oppose migration.
End quote. That's plain and straightforward. Why can't more national leaders talk like that?
For us in the U.S.A. of course it's a couple of hundred years too late to complain about having a mixed population; but we can still reasonably ask for our population not to become any more mixed than it currently is. That's not cruel, or hateful, or Nazi: it's just … conservative.
Item: You may have heard that the ChiComs are trying to stamp out celebrations of Christmas. Just a couple of cautionary notes about that.
One: This is China. It's a big place and local authorities have a lot of power. "Heaven is high, the Emperor far away," they've been saying for three thousand years.
Hence these reports on Twitter about huge Christmas trees in department stores in Shanghai, Ningpo, and elsewhere. No, China's not turning Christian; but Chinese people do love an opportunity to shop, give out gifts, have feasts. Christmas is as good an excuse as any.
Two: This is China, land of the 後門, the "back door." The Chinese are world champions at finding a way round stupid rules and regulations. If they want to indulge in a little Christmas spirit, they'll find a way.
In China, there's always a way — always some workaround, some evasion, someone you can bribe. If you can find it, everyone will admire your smarts. Then they'll imitate you.
07 — Signoff. That's it, ladies and gents. Thank you for listening and very best wishes to all for 2019.
Look for my December Diary here on VDARE.com next week; and there will of course be more from Radio Derb next Friday.
Here's Peter Dawson.
[Music clip: Peter Dawson, "Auld Lang Syne."]


text:
Central African CAB program must spend US$215m funding effectively
October 21, 2009 Simon Marshall , Digital Transformation
The much under-served area of Central Africa (CA) will soon benefit from a US$215 million, high speed Internet project, but is it enough and will the money be spent effectively?
The first phase of the ten year program, called Central Africa Backbone (CAB), plans to lower the costs and raise the availability of broadband access in Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic. Existing fibre cable already deployed alongside the Chad-Cameroon sub-sea oil pipeline will boost connectivity and light the capacity needed by users who are presumably, by now, tired of relatively expensive, low-quality access.
According to the World Bank, which has endorsed the project (but which will not be providing all of the funding), the CA region pays the highest amount for its services on the continent. Users in CA spend twice as much per month than other African countries, and up to three times as much as the rest of the world. In other words, it's about time someone stepped in and spent the money to improve the quality and value available.
Phase one commands a budget of just over $26 million, which will likely be spent on lighting the fibre and connecting the countries. Phase two will see Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Principe, and Sudan gain service improvements, at an additional price tag of $130 million. The project needs about $98 million from private sector funding to make it work, but there's no indication where that spend will come from - although the rewards could be high.
The World Bank's recent Information and Communications for Development report identified that for every 10 percentage-point increase in high speed Internet connections there is a corresponding increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points. That's big news for countries in the CA region, but with each country notionally receiving about $19.5 million on average from the budget - even if the public funding is realized - every dollar will need to be made to count; remember that BT's 21st Century Network spend is keyed to about GBP10 billion - albeit a project of a different magnitude.


Camping is available at the following locations within the park: Embery Lookout and Mount Mittamatite Summit. No bookings, no fees.
2WD access via unsealed road to Embery Lookout and Mount Mittamatite summit (dry weather road only).
Mount Mittamatite summit suitable for tents. Embery Lookout is suitable for tents and camper trailers. All areas are unpowered.
Dogs are permitted and must remain on a lead at all times.


text:
Judicaël Perroy
Friday, May 3, 2019, at 7:30 PM
Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York City
The extraordinary French virtuoso, winner of the 1997 Guitar Foundation of America International Competition, known for his probing exploration of the guitar's literature and for his masterly Bach transcriptions
"His sheer facility was astonishing, but more remarkable still was his mastery of instrumental color … He played every note as though it might be his last." — San Antonio Express News
BACH Suite, BWV 997 (arr. Hoppstock)
MERTZ Fantaisie Hongroise, Op. 65, No. 1
VILLA-LOBOS Suite Populaire Bresilienne: Mazurka-Choro, Valsa-Choro
ANTONIO JOSE Guitar Sonata
SCRIABIN Prélude, Op. 9, pour la main gauche (tr. Fougeray)
RACHMANINOV Prélude, Op. 23, No. 5 (tr. Fougeray)
Judicaël Perroy has become widely known as an extraordinary virtuoso classical guitarist and musician with several prizes to his credit. In 1997 he captured the prestigious first prize of the 15th Guitar Foundation of America International Competition and Convention (GFA) awarding him tour of the United States and Canada with more than sixty concerts and master classes. In between his North American tour that year, he gave several concerts in France where his performances were broadcast live on France-Musique followed by extensive recital tours throughout the world.
Highly sought after and in great demand as a teacher, he is regularly invited to give master classes at many of the top conservatories and universities in the United States and abroad. Mr. Perroy's students have won several top prizes in regional, national and international competitions including Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), while emerging as mature and upcoming rising stars of classical guitar and international music scene. Mr. Perroy is currently the Professor at the Ecole Nationale de Musique d'Aulnay-sous-Bois a position which he has held since 2004. He holds the Certificate of Aptitude (CA), and has taught at the Ecole Nationale de Musique Blanc-Mesnil from 1995 to 2004. Furthermore, in winter of 2000, he was the chosen substitute for the chair of guitar department, Steven Robinson, at Stetson University. During his GFA victory tour Mel Bay Publications recorded and published his live concert in Lubbock (Texas).
Following his GFA victory tour, a CD recording entitled Aspen Suite as well as his earlier CD recording on the French label QUANTUM received high praise and won 5 Diapasons, awarded by Diapason Magazine and was subsequently re-released on Bayard Musique recording label in 2008. He has recorded two new CDs for the collection of Bayard Musique Meditation including a Disc with flutist Florence Bellon and another with harpist Joanna Kozielska. More recently, he recorded an all Bach CD for Naxos label which includes an impressive and unprecedented performance of Bach's second keyboard Partita transcription on the classical guitar.
Born in 1973 in Paris, he began playing the guitar at age 7 attending the Conservatoire Municipal Inter-districts of Paris. He studied with Delia Estrada and Raymond Gratien at the Ecole Nationale d'Aulnay-sous-Bois where he graduated with honors. At age 11, he performed as soloist in two concertos by Vivaldi with Ensemble Instrumental du Mans, under the direction of André Girard and continued his musical studies with Roberto Aussel and Daniel Lavialle. At 14, he won second prize at the International guitar competition of Ile de France. In 1992, he won the grand prize and audience prize at the 15th Concours international de guitare René Bartoli by unanimous jury decision. In 1994, he received Licence de Concert from Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris from Alberto Ponce's class and later that year he was awarded the 1st prize at the 7th International Competition of Bourg-Madamewhere the final vote was by the general public without any jury. In 1996, he was the first prize winner of his graduating class at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris (Paris Conservatoire).


text:
| [[Sonic 3D Blast demo tape (partially found cassette tape of unused game soundtrack; 1996)]]
|| Added the second video featuring more songs from the tape.
| [[SpongeBob SquarePants (partially found deleted scenes of Nickelodeon animated series; 1999-present)]]
|| Added the re-airings of the episode Procrastination featuring the deleted scenes.
== Watch List ==
Favourite TV shows: Stranger Things, Rick and Morty, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Animaniacs, Invader Zim, Rocko's Modern Life, The Epic Tale Of Captain Underpants, Chowder, Fresh Prince Of Bel Air
Sonic 3D Blast demo tape (partially found cassette tape of unused game soundtrack; 1996) Added the second video featuring more songs from the tape.
SpongeBob SquarePants (partially found deleted scenes of Nickelodeon animated series; 1999-present) Added the re-airings of the episode Procrastination featuring the deleted scenes.
Dexter's Laboratory "Rude Removal" (found unaired episode of animated series; 1997) I want to hear the characters from Dexters Lab swear and not just through YouTube Poop.
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (cancelled iOS port of Genesis platformer; 2014) TBA
Sonic 3D Blast demo tape (partially found cassette tape of unused game soundtrack; 1996) TBA
Sonic the Hedgehog Winter Consumer Electronics Show 1991 Demo (lost build of Sega Genesis/Mega Drive video game; 1991) TBA


text:
Which chat is the main one for Stack Overflow, if any?
You know how Stack Exchange sites tend to have a main chat that is always open (never frozen), and it stays that way forever — and how it was probably the first one to exist for the site?
(e.g.: for Gardening and Landscaping, it's called "The Garden Shed")
What is the name of Stack Overflow's standard chat, if it has one? I see a lot of chats (many with lots of activity), and no clues as to which one is the standard one.
Samuel Liew♦
ShuleShule
There are no main chatrooms; SO has an entire site dedicated to SO chats, in addition to rooms using SO as the parent on chat.stackexchange.com – Zoe - account abandoned Sep 13 '18 at 16:28
related: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/348331/… – rene Sep 14 '18 at 7:27
What are you looking to chat about? – MonkeyZeus Sep 14 '18 at 14:33
SOCVR. What else ? – Jean-François Fabre♦ Sep 14 '18 at 17:46
@MonkeyZeus I was previously under the impression that the main Stack Overflow chat would be precisely where to go to chat about whatever you want, with a loose focus on programming generally (not as a substitute for Q/A on site), but that it was also the place to go for sure for comments that are too chatty or off-topic. – Shule Sep 15 '18 at 2:58
Stack Overflow is huge—it gets something like 10 times the traffic of the biggest other SE site, and about half the total traffic for the network.
The "main" chatrooms as you describe them actually exist for language tags, but if you want a "one huge eternal chatroom for the whole site" sort of thing, then we probably don't have that. Tavern on the Meta is that for Meta, but the main site just has too many sub-cultures for a single chatroom to unify.
NissaNissa
We actually prefer not to talk too much about generic Meta topics on SOCVR, it's mostly about curating content. – E_net9 is disappointed in SE Sep 13 '18 at 6:32
There is a chat named "General" (#3) but it's really, really inactive – Luca Kiebel Sep 13 '18 at 16:43
We've tried creating welcoming 'lobbies' in the past. The problem is, without some pre-defined consensus of what a topic should be, nobody really notices when things get so far out in the weeds that that the room actually becomes off-topic (and often unwelcoming, as new users are seen more as interruptions than anything).
I'm willing to try an "information desk" again if some other folks would be willing to give it an earnest go, because we could at least check the transcript to see if we've given advice to someone looking for help using the sites or chat system, but again, previous attempts at this just resulted in a stream of ad-hoc and vague programming questions under the guise of "where to ask this?".
Open to suggestions on something more sustainable but .. to date .. we've yet to come up with anything that stuck.
I'd expect a lobby like that to be riddled with trolls, so you should prepare with adequate moderation background to prevent it from becoming a cesspool. Also every once in a while we get users in tag-specific chatrooms asking about <thing> because "I couldn't find a room for <thing>". Take git questions for instance. I don't think this problem has a solution, my point is just that I also expect more or less disguised programming questions if such a lobby were to exist. – Andras Deak Sep 13 '18 at 16:35
I'd be willing to hang out in such a lobby if it were clearly defined by the room owners that actual programming questions don't fly there and if the room had room owners to actually enforce that standard. It'd be nice to have a general "tell me how the site works a bit but not in a long comment chain" kind of room where newcomers can ask about common pitfalls and collaborate on improving their questions. Less formal then the mentorship project but could still work. – Magisch Sep 14 '18 at 8:03
@AndrasDeak Such trolls would just be banned per the Terms of Service. Doesn't seem like much of a concern for me (it should be implicit in any chatroom, especially a 'site-wide default' chatroom that sufficient RO curation is expected -- even small rooms will get frozen [and some site-wide default rooms have been permafrozen before] for lack of acceptable RO behavior). – TylerH Sep 14 '18 at 14:29
@TimPost I'd be willing to hang out and also help room-own such a room should one be created. I imagine the scope of programming questions, like Magisch said, would be "ask on main if you have a specific question, or if you just need a simple pointer, here's the room for that language", along with the general safety rules of "no politics, no religion, etc.". This could also be a good opportunity to tie in the tutoring thing SO has done recently; the tutors could hang out here and invite new users to 1-on-1 chats and help curate their first post(s) (also similar to Magisch's comment) – TylerH Sep 14 '18 at 14:33
"help using the sites or chat system" - isn't that basically Meta, which is covered on ... well, Meta, or the Tavern? If anything, it might make sense to have a place for general discussion or opinion-based questions, but I'm not sure how many of such questions are language-agnostic (which are the only ones you can really post in a general room). – Dukeling Sep 15 '18 at 20:17
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged support chat .
Why isn't there any general chat room for Meta Stack Overflow?
How do I remove myself from a chat?
Does Stack Overflow store URL referral data anywhere publicly?
Stack Overflow account reset/duplicate?
How can we support languages other than English in Stack Overflow's chat… And should we?
Clarification about chatrooms' retention
How do I find the right Stack Exchange site to post on?


text:
AMD's Kabini: Jaguar And GCN Come Together In A 15 W APU
By Don Woligroski published 24 May 13
AMD is ready to talk about the Temash and Kabini APUs, based on its Jaguar x86 architecture and Graphics Core Next design. We even have a reference Temash-based notebook here in the lab for benchmarking. How does it compare to Pentium and Core i3?
Page 14 of 14:
The Kabini-Based A4-5000: Mediocre Performance, But Great Efficiency
Page 1: Temash And Kabini: AMD's Mobile Future
Page 2: Jaguar: A Low-Power x86 Core
Page 3: The First APUs With AMD's GCN Architecture, Plus Power Management
Page 4: AMD's E-Series and A-Series APUs, Along With Their Bundles
Page 5: AMD's Kabini-Based Prototype And Our Benchmarks
Page 6: Results: Synthetics
Page 7: Results: F1 2012 And The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Page 8: Results: Tomb Raider And Metro 2033
Page 9: Results: Media Encoding
Page 10: Results: Adobe CS6 Suite
Page 11: Results: Productivity
Page 12: Results: Compression
Page 13: Power Consumption
Page 14: The Kabini-Based A4-5000: Mediocre Performance, But Great Efficiency
Before we try to reach any conclusions, check out the following chart summarizing performance in each of our benchmarks. Pay particular attention to those orange bars, which represent power efficiency. This is the relationship between each platform's power draw and average performance.
On one hand, the Kabini-based A4-5000 doesn't fare very well when it comes to charting frame rates in games and the time it takes to complete our wide range of desktop workloads. It gets beaten by the dual-core Pentium B960 in every discipline except gaming. But the efficiency bar tells a very different story. Even if you can get Pentium B960-based notebooks fairly inexpensively, you certainly cannot expect them to deliver great battery life with that 35 W processor in there.
So what about the Core i3-3217U, a 17 W processor? Surely that one is a more virile competitor, and not much more expensive than the Pentium. Core i3's on-die HD Graphics 4000 engine with its 16 EUs stomps all over the A4's 128 ALUs, despite the backing of AMD's capable Graphics Core Next architecture. Now, AMD claims that Kabini isn't meant to go up against Core i3. But we found notebooks with this exact CPU selling for as little as $360 on Newegg. It may turn out that the free market doesn't let AMD choose which Intel-based platforms its Kabini-based APUs contend with.
Fortunately, the A4-5000 roughly matched the Core i3-3217U's efficiency. More than likely the A4 is going to give you slightly better battery life at the expense of performance. The bad news for AMD is that 17 W CPUs from Intel already pin Kabini into the budget notebook space, and that's before an onslaught of Haswell-based parts from the top and Silvermont-based options down below.
Truth be told, though Kabini isn't the solution that has us most interested. Sure, it's great to see some compelling hardware from AMD up into the 25 W range. However, we really want to get our hands on Temash. AMD needs to work with OEMs to enable compelling form factors that change the way we work. We have several Atom Z2760-based tablets in the lab. It's great to have x86 compatibility on a handheld device with a full copy of Windows 8, but the build quality of those things frankly sucks. We're talking bending, flexing, intermittent dock connections, and cheap plastic. That's no way to tackle the tablet space. Oh, and we'd really like the flexibility to play something other than Angry Birds, too (though, based on the lackluster gaming numbers in the 15 W range, consider our expectations tempered down at 8 W).
At the end of the day, AMD's next-gen APUs likely have the best chance of success in well-built Windows 8 tablets at the right price. Given a choice between something running Android, an iPad with iOS, or a Surface with Windows RT, the hamstrung Microsoft option seems to get beat up on pretty savagely. But show me an unconstrained Windows 8 device for $100 more and I'll pull my wallet out for you. It's really a shame that AMD talked up what it has planned in this quickly-maturing space and then sent over a notebook that was outgunned in a segment Intel already has saturated with options.
Lastly, it's a bit of a bummer that neither Temash nor Kabini incorporate AMD's heterogeneous unified memory access (hUMA). This is the feature that will allow the GPU and CPU to share system memory without copying it back and forth, eliminating a massive source of latency in today's APUs. This is where we expect the company's SoCs to stand apart from some of the other highly-integrated processors being designed. Unfortunately, we won't see hUMA in a shipping APU until Kaveri is released later this year.
Current page: The Kabini-Based A4-5000: Mediocre Performance, But Great Efficiency
Prev Page Power Consumption
Nvidia Driver Unlocks Performance Boosting GPU System Processor


text:
Occasionally, it's convenient to rename one or more instance groups as their purpose changes or as better names are found. In most cases it's desirable to maintain existing persistent data by keeping existing persistent disks.

Previously, the CLI provided the `rename job` command to rename a specific instance group one at a time. That approach worked OK in non-automated, non-frequently updated environments, but it was inconvenient for automated, frequently updated environments. As a replacement, the `migrated_from` directive was added to allow renames to happen in a more systematic way.

Additionally `migrated_from` directive can be used to migrate instance groups to use first class AZs.

---
## Schema {: #schema }

**migrated_from** [Array, required]: The name and AZ of each instance group that should be used to form new instance group.

* **name** [String, required]: Name of an instance group that used to exist in the manifest.
* **az** [String, optional]: Availability zone that was used for the named instance group. This key is optional for instance groups that used first class AZs (via `azs` key). If first class AZ was not used, then this key must specify first class AZ that matches actual IaaS AZ configuration.

---
## Renaming Instance Groups {: #rename }

1. Given follow deployment instance group `etcd`:

    ```yaml
    instance_groups:
    - name: etcd-primary
      instances: 2
      jobs:
      - {name: etcd, release: etcd}
      vm_type: default
      stemcell: default
      persistent_disk: 10_240
      networks:
      - name: default
    ```

1. Change instance group's name to `etcd` and add `migrated_from` with a previous name.

    ```yaml
    instance_groups:
    - name: etcd
      instances: 2
      jobs:
      - {name: etcd, release: etcd}
      vm_type: default
      stemcell: default
      persistent_disk: 10_240
      networks:
      - name: default
      migrated_from:
      - name: etcd-primary
    ```

1. Deploy.

---
## Migrating Instance Groups (to first class AZs) {: #migrate }

Before the introduction of first class AZs, each instance group was associated with a resource pool that typically defined some CPI specific AZ configuration in its `cloud_properties`. Typically there would be multiple instance groups that mostly differed by their name, for example `etcd_z1` and `etcd_z2`. With first class AZs, multiple instance groups typically should be collapsed to simplify the deployment.

1. Given following instance groups `etcd_z1` and `etcd_z2` with AZ specific resource pools and networks:

    ```yaml
    instance_groups:
    - name: etcd_z1
      instances: 2
      jobs:
      - {name: etcd, release: etcd}
      persistent_disk: 10_240
      resource_pool: medium_z1
      networks:
      - name: default_z1

    - name: etcd_z2
      instances: 1
      jobs:
      - {name: etcd, release: etcd}
      persistent_disk: 10_240
      resource_pool: medium_z2
      networks:
      - name: default_z2
    ```

1. Collapse both instance groups into a single instance group `etcd` and use `migrated_from` with previous group names.

    ```yaml
    instance_groups:
    - name: etcd
      azs: [z1, z2]
      instances: 3
      jobs:
      - {name: etcd, release: etcd}
      vm_type: default
      stemcell: default
      persistent_disk: 10_240
      networks:
      - name: default
      migrated_from:
      - {name: etcd_z1, az: z1}
      - {name: etcd_z2, az: z2}
    ```

    !!! note
        Other referenced resources such as resource pool and network should be adjusted to work with AZs.

    !!! note
        Migration from one AZ to a different AZ is not supported yet.

1. Deploy.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Week 1 of the Alliance of American Football's first season is in the books, as are our grades for every player on every play of every game. Mirroring our Team of the Week from the NFL side of things, this season we'll award players to our team of the week in an attempt to shed light on the top performances from the previous weekend's slate of action.
Wolford lit up the field for the Hotshots in an impressive debut even if fans were expecting to see Trevor Knight at quarterback. He threw a league-high four big-time throws and limited the mistakes with zero turnover-worthy passes. His 9.5 yards per attempt led the AAF as well, as did his 275 passing yards, four touchdowns and 84.0% adjusted completion percentage. An all-around strong first performance for the former Wake Forest standout.
Trent Richardson may have hit paydirt twice but Pressley was more dominant in all aspects of the game on Sunday. He ran the ball 18 times for 64 yards, having to earn 61 of those yards after contact. He forced four missed tackles and averaged 3.6 yards per attempt. He rounded out his afternoon by hauling in a deep pass touchdown from Wolford to cap the strong debut.
Ross is just another on the list from the Hotshots as he led the league with two touchdown receptions and an additional three first-down catches. He was one of just two receivers to go over 100 yards in the air as he also made contested catches seemingly his job. He was targeted three times on contested situations and hauled in two of those receptions, as no other receiver had more than one.
Hyman racked up the yards in what seems to be a short-area passing attack for the Apollos, totaling 34 yards after the catch, running for 19 of those after first contact with a defender. Hyman's two receptions went for first downs as each of his catches were chalked up as an explosive play. Look for him to be featured more in the Orlando offense depending on the severity of Marvin Bracy-Williams' injury.
Moore turned three receptions into 78 yards, all three of which converted first downs. He was not necessarily a threat after the catch but he did convert his lone contested target into a reception.
Christian wasn't utilized much early but did haul in a touchdown reception and two more first-down receptions on his three catches, reaching 44 yards in the process. He was a plus-blocker in run blocking and in pass protection, giving him an impressive 92.4 overall grade, the top grade this weekend.
Jones-Smith did his best work in pass protection, not allowing a single pressure on 21 pass-blocking reps.
O'Brien held his own in pass protection, allowing just a single hurry on 40 snaps in pass protection while he also finished with the second-highest run-blocking grade among guards in Week 1.
Hassenauer ranked first among centers with his dominant run-blocking performance and was no slouch in pass protection either, not allowing any pressures in 40 snaps.
Jackson's pass-blocking grade was the second-highest among any offensive line position this weekend as he ranked first among guards, not allowing a single QB pressure on 35 snaps in pass protection.
Kling IV was the only tackle this weekend to rank in the top five in terms of both run-blocking and pass-blocking grade as he allowed just one hurry on 44 pass-blocking snaps against Orlando.
Perhaps the most famous player from the early slate of games, Washington absolutely crushed San Diego QB Mike Bercovici on a hit as that was just a small sample of his dominance on the edge for the Commanders. He racked up four pressures on just 17 pass-rushes with two sacks and a forced fumble on the hit on Bercovici.
Purcell brought pressure up the middle but it was his run defense that lands him on the team of the week despite Salt Lake allowing 38 points. He batted a pass, accumulated four pressures and made a stop in run defense to round out his evening.
A former college standout in terms of PFF grades, Thompson brought the same kind of force we were used to seeing from his days at Georgia in his first game with the Hotshots. He recorded two pressures on just 15 pass-rushes while he also made four total tackles without a single miss.
Moore led all defenders with a whopping nine total pressures as he carried over his expertise from his NFL playing days. He rushed the passer on 30 snaps to accumulate the league's second-highest pass-rush grade at the position in the process.
Not much more can be said about a two-interception performance, especially when you capitalize on one of those picks with a touchdown return in the process. Garvin 90.1 coverage grade was by far the best among linebackers as it ranked third among all defensive players from Week 1.
Based upon his large amount of snaps played for the Express, Gates gets in here after leading the league in tackles with 12 total (10 solo, 2 assists). He flew around the field and even saw six targeted passes come his way, allowing just four receptions for a mere 24 yards. His two forced fumbles kept Memphis in the game early.
Reaser absolutely shut down receivers in his coverage on Saturday night, allowing just two receptions on five targets (40.0% completion percentage) and all of 14 yards. He broke up two balls and saw just a 47.9 passer rating when targeted.
Summers was also dominant in pass coverage, allowing one lone reception on three targets, but limiting that reception to negative yardage. His interception was a highlight and quarterbacks saw just a 2.8 passer rating when throwing his way.
Sanchez made the splash play of the weekend, making an acrobatic interception against San Diego as he limited receivers to just four receptions and just 20 yards on his six targets. He allowed a passer rating of just 31.9 on throws into his primary coverage.
Targeted just once as the primary coverage defender, Stewart made an interception while he also flew all over the field for the Commanders. He racked up five total tackles and two defensive stops and an additional pass breakup.
Hill was a force on the back end for the Apollos, making a pass breakup in coverage and limiting another reception on a throw his way to just seven yards. He made seven total tackles and did not miss a single attempt in Orlando's season-opening victory.


Search for Camden, London commercial property for Sale and Lease. Browse all of Realla's Camden commercial property listings, including Camden investment properties, Retail and Office Buildings, Industrial Property, Hotels and other commercial properties currently available for sale in Camden.
Showing over 700 Camden Commercial Property Listings out of 90,000 total Commercial Real Estate Properties For Sale and For Lease on Realla.co.
Camden Town is a vibrant and diverse area of North London sitting astride Regent's Canal, with the property located across the canal from Camden Lock with its plethora of retail and leisure offerings.
The subject property is located in West Hampstead which is an affluent suburb of North West London. The property is situated on Fortune Green Road, close to its junction with Ingham Road, within a small parade of independent shops and restaurants. Transport links are convenient with West Hampstead (London Overground, Jubilee Line and Thameslink) Stations being nearby. Numerous bus routes also serve the area.
Camden Town is one of the top tourist destinations, famous for Camden Lock & Stables Market which generates a very high footfall. The property is located in the prime part of Camden High Street within a parade of multiple local retailers & restaurants. The immediate area is also undergoing a substantial regeneration. Transport facilities are excellent as the shop is just a couple of doors down from Camden Town Underground Station (Northern Line). Camden Road Station (London Overground) is also within walking distance & numerous buses serve the area.
Accommodation: Comprises a ground floor suite of approximately 3200 sq ft with attractive reception area, and high quality glazed removable partitioning providing 10 separate offices and additional storage rooms and kitchen/staff facilities. • Gas Heating • Comfort Cooling Systems • Perimeter Trunking • Ventilation System • Good Natural Light via Roof Lights • Tiled Male & Female Toilets • Kitchen Facilities with Appliances • On Street Meter Parking Rent: £96,000 p.a.x VAT is Applicable Lease: 10 years from 29/09/2017 on full repairing and insuring terms via service charge arrangement incorporating rent review in 2022. Lease is outside the security of tenure provisions of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954. Service Charge: 56% of Landlord's costs in insuring the building. 100% of costs in insuring for 3 year's loss of rent. Contribution to a contingency fund re structural repairs. Business Rates: RV: £55,500 Rates Payable: £27,361.50 p.a.
The property is located on a prime stretch of Camden High Street. A two-minute walk away from Camden Town Tube station which is serviced by the Northern line.
The shop is a double fronted retail unit located in the heart of Kentish Town, benefiting from A1 & A2 use. It is within a few minutes' walk from Kentish Town Mainline Rail Station and Underground Station (Northern Line). Local occupiers include Post Office, Superdrug, Lidl, Nandos and Boots the Chemist.
Location: The shop is located in the heart of Kentish Town, benefiting from A1 & A2 use. It is within a few minutes walk from Kentish Town Mainline Rail Station and Underground Station (northern line).
The 'shop' is located in the heart of Kentish Town having the benefit of A1 use. It is within a few minutes' walk of Kentish Town Mainline Rail and Underground Station (Northern Line). Local occupiers include the Post Office, Co-Op, Superdrug, Lidl, Nandos and Boots the Chemist.
The premises occupy a prime position on the East side of Southampton Row close to the junction with Cosmo Place. Nearby traders include Organic Remedies, Subway, Marco's New York Italian American Restaurant, Starbucks,The Bookware House, Pizza Express and Caffe Nero.
See the latest Camden, London commercial property listings from across the market. Currently there are 743 available commercial properties in Camden, London. New Oxford St, London WC1A is the latest commercial property to rent (1,700 sq ft), listed by PSK Knighton.
Realla operates a heavily trafficked listing service for Camden, London commercial properties and other markets in the UK with more than £6 billion of commercial property for sale and 12 billion sq. ft. of commercial property space for lease. Realla also attracts a large community of Camden, London commercial real estate professionals with 1,000s of members comprised of agents, corporate executives, service providers, and more than 1 million buyers, tenants and other principals throughout the UK.
Realla's Camden, London commercial property listings include conventional offices, serviced office spaces, retail units & shops, leisure, entertainment & licensed properties, industrial units, commercial land & plots and much more.
Realla.co - for all your Camden, London commercial property needs.


Hello, everyone! I really loved the article below on developing bot personalities. I recently took my Myers-Briggs test (any other ESFJs in the house?), so the idea of giving your bot a personality based on that test is a really interesting one.
How did you decide on your bot's personality? Any creative ideas?
Conversational interfaces have reduced user experience down to a few lines of text. With bots, UX becomes conversational, products talk back, and persona's now go both ways. Every bot has a voice — which means every bot needs a personality.
In this episode of the O'Reilly Bots Podcast, Pete Skomoroch and Jon Bruner talk to Jason Laska and Michael Akilian of Clara Labs, creator of a virtual assistant—Clara—that schedules meetings and interacts in natural language through email.
The rise of chatbots also signals a landscape-altering reality: the decline of standalone mobile apps. Alphabet, Facebook, Snap and others see a world in which a spoken or typed word can trigger software that is intelligent enough to handle airline reservations, make clothing purchases, or a reorganize someone's calendar.
Let's face it: when we're programming, we're all beginners sometimes. Whether we're brand-new coders learning the basics of how to build an app, or seasoned professionals trying out new APIs and web services, part of being a programmer is putting yourself in unfamiliar territory.
But trying new things can be a little intimidating. So we've invented a brand new way to get help in realtime with Glitch: it's as easy as raising your hand.
Glitch is a community (and a website) that "helps you build the app or bot of your dreams". Botwiki has several tutorials and guides on how to use Glitch to create and host bots.
Build, train and publish a simple question and answer bot based on FAQ URLs, structured documents or editorial content in minutes.
Calling all bot developers, enthusiasts, marketers of NY! Dashbot is coming to East Coast and we're bringing together a power panel of bot leaders on Monday, June 5 at Samsung NEXT.
Our next theme is "bots" – – and everything around bots including, why do they always seem to have female voices? The future of computing revolves around these three actors: humans, digital assistants, and bots. Chatbots will work as go-betweens between systems and people.
Talk 1 - Creating a Slack Bot What happens when you get some cool new tech, you build useless things with it! We had an Alex Dot and Slack so we built a company work report tool that talks to you.
Talk 2 - Upgrading to PHP7 In this talk I will highlight some cool new features, as well as some traps to look out for when upgrading to PHP 7. This was spurred on by the fact that at the PHP conference last year, the majority of attendees where still on PHP 5.5 - 6.
RSVP early to grab a seat.
For next couple of meetups, we will working on Bot series to build bots for different platforms and use cases using open source technologies.


Nowadays, we look back at everything old in glory. Whether we're considering the quality or the artistic look, we always have a weak spot and immense respect for what is vintage and what belongs to the past, and yet, still holds a place in the present. And this is what makes everything created with this new font a guaranteed success.
This is the Harlend font created by Angin Studio. It's made based on hand lettering inspired by an old American style. An amazing choice for t-shirt designs, labels, branding, packaging, logos, posters, flyers, cards, badges etc. The font comes in three different styles (outline, regular, rough) that you can choose from, and that gives a new look to all the ligatures, the alternates, and the swashes, all of which you can include in your new and creative projects.


text:
Q: Issue in blocking user in chatlist using smack and open fire server I want to block a particular friend from my chat list with XMPP. code works fine. There is no Exception, but I am not able to block a user.
I'm using open fire server. what changes should i made on server?
Can u guys have any idea?
My code:
public void XMPPAddNewPrivacyList(Connection connection, String userName) {

    String listName = "newList";

    // Create the list of PrivacyItem that will allow or
    // deny some privacy aspect

    List<PrivacyItem> privacyItems = new Vector<PrivacyItem>();

    PrivacyItem item = new PrivacyItem(PrivacyItem.Type.jid.toString(),
            false, 1);
    item.setValue(userName);
    privacyItems.add(item);

    // Create the new list.

    try {
        PrivacyListManager privacyManager = new PrivacyListManager(connection);
        privacyManager = PrivacyListManager
                .getInstanceFor(connection);
        privacyManager.createPrivacyList(listName, privacyItems);

    } catch (XMPPException e) {
        System.out.println("PRIVACY_ERROR: " + e);
    }
}

A: try this ...
public boolean blockFriend(String friendName) {

    PrivacyItem item=new PrivacyItem(PrivacyItem.Type.jid,friendName, false, 7);
    PrivacyListManager privacyManager = PrivacyListManager.getInstanceFor(connection);
    List<PrivacyItem> list=new ArrayList<PrivacyItem>();
    list.add(item);

    try {
        privacyManager.updatePrivacyList(NEWLIST, list);
        privacyManager.setActiveListName(NEWLIST);
        return true;
    } catch (SmackException.NoResponseException |XMPPException.XMPPErrorException | SmackException.NotConnectedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return false;
    }

}

and for unblock
just replace false with true in object of privacyitem `

A: I think that the problem should be one of the following:

*

*userName isn't correct, for example "someuser@myxmppserver.com".

*You are not listening for privacy changes I mean, you didn't implement the PrivacyListListener interface.

*In the PrivacyItem constructor don't you should use PrivacyRule.JID instead PrivacyItem.Type.jid.toString()?.

*If you wanna block a friend don't you should use updatePrivacyList instead createPrivacyList.

I reccomend you take a closer look to the documentation  Smack documentation

A:     // Here function for block user on xmpp

    public boolean blockUser(String userName) {

    String jid = userName@localhost
    String listName = "public";

    // Create the list of PrivacyItem that will allow or
    // deny some privacy aspect

    //ArrayList privacyItems = new ArrayList();

    List<PrivacyItem> privacyItems = new Vector<PrivacyItem>();

    PrivacyItem item = new PrivacyItem(PrivacyItem.Type.jid, jid, false, 1);
    // item.setValue(userName);
    item.setFilterIQ(false);
    item.setFilterMessage(false);
    item.setFilterPresenceIn(false);
    item.setFilterPresenceOut(false);

    privacyItems.add(item);

    // Get the privacy manager for the current connection.

    // Create the new list.
    PrivacyListManager privacyManager = PrivacyListManager.getInstanceFor(XMPPUtils.INSTANCE.connection);

    try {
        privacyManager.updatePrivacyList(listName, privacyItems);
        privacyManager.setActiveListName(listName);

        return true;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Log.e("PRIVACY_ERROR: ", " " + e.toString());
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return false;
}

A: Privacy is a method for users to block communications from particular other users. In XMPP this is done by managing one's privacy lists.
1 - In order to add a new list in the server, the client MAY implement something like:

    // Create a privacy manager for the current connection._
    PrivacyListManager privacyManager = PrivacyListManager.getInstanceFor(myConnection);
    // Retrieve server privacy lists_
    PrivacyList[] lists = privacyManager.getPrivacyLists();

2 - In order to add a new list in the server, the client MAY implement something like:

// Set the name of the list_
String listName = "newList";

// Create the list of PrivacyItem that will allow or deny some privacy aspect_
String user = "tybalt@example.com";
String groupName = "enemies";
ArrayList privacyItems = new ArrayList();

PrivacyItem item = new PrivacyItem(PrivacyItem.Type.jid, user, true, 1);
privacyItems.add(item);

item = new PrivacyItem(PrivacyItem.Type.subscription, PrivacyItem.SUBSCRIPTION_BOTH, true, 2);
privacyItems.add(item);

item = new PrivacyItem(PrivacyItem.Type.group, groupName, false, 3);
item.setFilterMessage(true);
privacyItems.add(item);

// Get the privacy manager for the current connection._
PrivacyListManager privacyManager = PrivacyListManager.getInstanceFor(myConnection);
// Create the new list._
privacyManager.createPrivacyList(listName, privacyItems);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Territories Cannabis Retail Licences
Premier: Sandy Silver, Liberal
Population: 35,874 (2016) StatCan
Minimum wage: $13.85 CAD per hour (2018)
Private Retail Stores: Permitted
Cannabis Retail Store Count: 5
Store Regulator: Cannabis Yukon
Premier: Joe Savikataaq
Population: 39,407 (est. 2021)
Minimum wage: $16 CAD per hour (2018)
Store Regulator: Nunavut Liquor & Cannabis Commision
Application Fees: $2,000
Premier: Caroline Cochrane
Store Regulator: Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission
Store Locations: Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Norman Wells, Yellowknife (2)
Insurance Requirements: There are no minimum insurance requirements specified at this time.
Yukon has established a hybrid private and government-run cannabis retail model. The Yukon Liquor Corporation (YLC) regulates the sale and distribution of cannabis in the Yukon and operates Cannabis Yukon, the Yukon's only legal online non-medical eCommerce site.
The YLC is responsible for issuing cannabis licenses and for overseeing the activity of private operators. Anyone can apply to become a designated cannabis vendor; the YLC oversees the evaluation of all applications and provides recommendations to the Cannabis Licensing Board, which holds the sole authority to grant the licence or not.
There are currently five cannabis retail stores in Yukon, whose locations were chosen based on population and accessibility. Depending on sales, it is expected that new retail locations will open up in the near future.
The cannabis retail store locations are:
The Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission (NTLCC) regulates the sale and distribution of cannabis in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Consumers can purchase cannabis products online through the government-run NTLCC website, or in-store at designated cannabis vendors.
Anyone can apply to become a designated cannabis vendor; the NTLCC oversees the evaluation of all applications and provides recommendations to the Minister of Finance for approval.
There are currently five cannabis retail stores in the Northwest Territories, whose locations were chosen based on population and accessibility. Depending on sales, it is expected that new retail locations will open up in the near future.
The five dispensary locations are:
Nunavut Cannabis Retailers
Up until recently, there were no cannabis retail stores in Nunavut, and all sales are conducted through online transactions regulated by the Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission (NULC). Provincial regulations do allow for private licensing through agents selected by the NULC. Currently, the NULC's approved agents are:
Canopy Growth Corporation (Tweed)
AgMedica (Vertical Cannanbis)
On May 19th, 2020, the Government of Nunavut announced it was preparing to allow businesses within the territory to sell recreational cannabis. Effective June 1st, 2020 the Government began accepting applications for cannabis retail licence applications to operate physical cannabis stores and online stores in Nunavut.
Application Submission: Once an application is received, the Office of the Superintendent will send a confirmation email to the applicant. Initial Review: The Office of the Superintendent will review the application information to ensure it is complete. Missing information will delay the initial review period. Once complete documentation is received, the Office of the Superintendent undertakes an initial review and ensures the applicant(s) are eligible to obtain a cannabis retail licence. Community Consultation: If the application is for a Physical Store, the community where the potential store is to be located will be consulted (see below for details). Licensing Decision: (Physical Stores) The Superintendent will provide the Minister of Finance with a final report on each licence application received for a Physical Store. The Minister will then consider the report and provide direction to the Superintendent on approving a cannabis retail licence application for a Physical Store. Licensing Decision: (Online Stores) The Superintendent will approve a cannabis retail licence application to operate an Online Store if the applicant(s) meet the standard eligibility requirements.
Source: Nunavut Cannabis Retailers Handbook
The Government of Nunavut has approved and issued cannabis retail licenses to the following business(es):
Name: Nuna Cannabis Store Inc
Address: 1501 Federal Road, Iqaluit, Nunavut
Email: support@nunacannabis.com
The Territories in Canada are vast and sparsely populated. If you would like to open a cannabis retail store in the Territories, you should be armed with a business plan as well as industry best practices.
Contact CannDelta today to book a consultation on setting up a successful cannabis retail store: 1 (877) 274-6777
Click on your province below to see the most up-to-date legal requirements for cannabis retail store licenses in your region.
By this point, you're probably wondering "How much does it cost to open a dispensary in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut?" Download our free e-book below for all the answers you've been looking for.
Speak to a Consultant Now about Applying for a Cannabis Retail Licence and Get Started Today!


text:
FINRA Wins Discrimination Retaliation Lawsuit
The hotly contested, high-profile Wall Street employment lawsuit of Wile v. FINRA found the industry's self-regulatory organization defending against charges by a former Deputy Regional Director. Plaintiff Wile's allegations touched on purportedly discriminatory practices involving disability, sex, and age -- and also brought an unflattering scrutiny of FINRA's arbitration forum. Consequently, the outcome of this federal lawsuit was of interest to many constituencies. Read how it all turned out.
As previously reported in the BrokeAndBroker.com Blog, FINRA was defending against allegations brought by former 25-year veteran NASD / FINRA employee Jill Wile, who at the time of her March 1, 2013, termination was a Deputy Regional Director in the FINRA Southeast Regional Dispute Resolution office in Boca Raton, Florida. Wile alleged that the self-regulatory organization had engaged in unlawful disability, sex, and age discrimination and/or retaliation under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"); Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"); the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), and the Florida Civil Rights Act ("FCRA"). Jill Wile v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc.(SDFL, First Amended Complaint, 14-80218-CV, June 20, 2014). In part, Wile alleged in her First Amended Complaint:
18. One week later, on May 7, 2012, Wile sent a written complaint of disability, sex, and age discrimination to Chris Snyder ("Snyder"), FINRA's Associate Director of Human Resources. Wile's complaint indicated that she felt her only option for continued employment at FINRA in her current position was through acceptance of the PIP plan, though Ray had threatened that she would not succeed under the plan. Wile noted that in her 24 years with FINRA, she had received only Exceptional or High Contributor performance ratings, and that she was well-respected by the users of the arbitration forum, the arbitrators, and staff. She noted that when she turned 50, Ray began treating her as a problem employee and treating her less favorably than the male manager in the office, Kevin Rosen ("Rosen"). Wile also pointed out in her complaint that Ray had criticized her for dressing too youthfully on casual Fridays by wearing jeans and a short-sleeved shirt - because "she was 50." When men and younger womenwore this type of clothing on casual Fridays, Ray did not criticize them for dressing inappropriately at any time.
26. Wile also disclosed that Ray had been treating her differently, and more negatively, than Rosen, the male manager in the office, in part by being supportive of Rosen's efforts to work close to normal business hours in order to be with his family. Like Wile, Rosen managed the office staff responsible for case administration, addressed case-related issues and personnel issues, responded to arbitrator and party inquiries, reported directly to Ray, and assisted Ray in the overall administration of the Southeast Regional office. When Wile complained to Ray in March 2012 that she had been working 12-hour days for almost two years, plus time on weekends, Ray responded with the threat of termination set forth in paragraph 16 above. Ray also asked Wile to perform secretarial functions, such as generating and printing letters for his signature, which he did not ask Rosen to do.
27. Wile also provided several examples of younger female employees whose dress on casual Fridays violated Ray's office dress policy, but whose choice of attire was not criticized by Ray.
28. This supplemental complaint again reported to FINRA that Ray targeted older employees to fire upon his arrival at the Boca Raton office, and also that older employees who were not fired were demoted with no opportunity for improvement. "I believe I am now being targeted because I objected to age discrimination in the workplace."
The Champagne Toast
As set forth in her First Amended Complaint, a substantive aspect of Wile's case involved tis incident:
43. Before returning from medical leave, in a letter dated October 12, 2012, Wile had advised Berry of her concern that a FINRA panel held a champagne toast on April 3, 2012 at the Boca Raton office. On that date, Wile was summoned to a conference room by Ray to meet with the arbitration panel in FINRA Arbitration Case Number 10-04432 entitled Meri Ramazio and Tamara Smolchek vs. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. FINRA staff had served the award in the case on the same day.
44. When Wile arrived, Ray was already in the conference room, along with Lisa Lasher, Senior Case Administrator and Margaret Blake, Case Assistant. The three panel members appointed to the above-referenced case - Bonnie A. Pearce (Chairperson) ("Pearce"), Fred Abramoff, and Harriet A. Kottick - were also present in the conference room. When Wile entered the conference room, she observed a celebration taking place, which appeared to conflict with the arbitrators' sworn impartiality. She was immediately handed a glass of champagne in order to participate in a champagne toast that Pearce was making to the issuance of the award in the case. Wile did not drink the champagne. She was later informed by FINRA that Pearce had provided the champagne.
45. Upon departing the conference room, Wile advised Ray that she thought the champagne toast regarding the arbitration was inappropriate in light of FINRA's mandated neutrality. In response, Ray ordered Wile not to disclose the celebratory gathering and champagne toast to Berry.
46. One purpose of Wile's October 12, 2012 letter to Berry was to permit him to determine whether the celebration of April 3, 2012 in the Smolcheck case should be disclosed to Respondent Merrill Lynch, in view of its existing federal court challenge to the impartiality of the Panel Chair. See Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Tamara Smolchek and Meri Ramazio (S.D. Fla. Sept. 17, 2012) (denying petition to vacate and confirming arbitration award) (case settled following appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Case No. 12-15166). No action was taken in response to Wile's letter, with the exception of a letter from Berry to her, dated December 6, 2012. In that letter, Berry reported that Ray denied instructing Wile not to report the champagne toast to him, and criticized her for not reporting the toast earlier. This action was unjustified, and an obvious retaliation for Wile's report of Ray's conduct.
47. This pattern of retaliating against Wile by falsely blaming her for following senior management's instructions was not new. In 2012, she was blamed by FINRA for the removal of three arbitrators for bias and misconduct when she had been ordered by FINRA's most senior management to recommend their removal - after she had reviewed the case and recommended only counseling for them.
FINRA's Answer
FINRA generally denied Wile's allegations and asserted various affirmative defenses. For an extensive consideration of FINRA's response, read FINRA's Answer Jill Wile v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (SDFL, FINRA's Answer to the First Amended Complaint, 14-80218-CV, July 10, 2014).
On January 28, 2015, a SDFL jury rendered a verdict after trial in favor of FINRA and against Wile.
Bill Singer's Comment
A decisive and clear-cut win for FINRA over its former employee.
Among the most critical battles fought during a trial is one that comes near the end of hostilities and focuses on what should and should not be included in the Court's instructions to the jurors. In particular, skirmishes are waged by each side in order to get what is deemed favorable language concerning the applicable law for the issues in dispute. Further, each side will argue as to what may and may not be considered as evidence and proof. Laypersons will often seek a copy of the Complaint and Answer as a means of gaining insight into how a case was decided; however, for veteran lawyers, in addition to those pleadings, the Jury Instructions provides significant insight into how everything boiled down before going into deliberation.
Wile's First Amended Complaint
BrokeAndBroker
Bill Singer


Office work isn't good for our health, sitting for long stretches of time is killing us. Treadmill desks offer a unique solution to those of us who are desk-bound for the better part of the work week. But can we continue to work productively while we walk?
The small-scale study included 18 students split into two, equal groups. One was set with the task of reading a document for 40 minutes while seated, while the other group was asked to do the same exercise on a treadmill desk on a 2.5 kilometers per hour (that's 1.55 miles) setting.
The participants had to retain as much of the information as possible within the 40 minutes while also responding to emails. Researchers were attempting to mimic the daily routine of workers. Also some of the emails contained pertinent information to the text they were reading.
After a 10 minute break, researchers then gave the students a true/false quiz, testing them to see how much information they had retained. The participants were also hooked up to an EEG machine to measure brain activity for increases in activity that's involved in memory.
Perhaps it's worth while for desk-bound workers to start walking around the office. We already know how horrible sitting is for us. Recent studies even show that exercise can't make up for sitting at a desk all day. So, if you can't afford to mod your workspace with a treadmill desk, maybe consider taking your Blackberry out on a on a stroll—answer some emails while recovering from your stretch of sitting every 30 minutes.


Crystal Palace has managed to pull themselves out of the relegation battle on the temporary (maybe permanent though). The brilliance of Zaha has a lot to do with the recent resurgence. But for how long they can stay safe, no one can actually tell. After a hassling introduction to the season which saw the dismissal of De Boer with Roy Hodgson coming in to pull the team clear.
Burnley on the other end is enjoying an unbelievable season. It is doubtable if Sean Dyche or the most ambitious Burnley fan would have expected Burnley to be at seventh position on the table at the second half of the season.
Fans would be contented just staying in the league thus it is without argument overwhelming that they are in contention for the European spots. The team is clearly beating itself and the benchmarks it has set at the start of the season. All these elements put together makes the Crystal Palace Vs Burnley match all more exciting.
4. In the event where the team you chose wins, 888Sport would pay your qualifying stake of €5 at the normal odds and then enhanced odds would be credited to your account as free bets.
5. 888Sport would credit you with your free bets within 3 days of the match.
6. These free bets are only valid for a period of 7 days after you are credited.


text:
WrestleMania V was een pay-per-viewevenement in het professioneel worstelen dat geproduceerd werd door de World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Dit evenement was de 5de editie van WrestleMania en vond plaats in het Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (New Jersey) op 2 april 1989.

Matchen

Externe links
  WrestleMania V op Online World of Wrestling
  WrestleMania V op WWE

WrestleMania
Professioneel worstelen in 1989

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Reconstruction (Anaparastasi) [1970]
Though Reconstruction might not rank amongst Angelopoulos' greatest works, it was, nonetheless, a very good feature debut for him. Further, this, along with his next feature Days of '36, provided for a smooth progression into the kind of aesthetics and themes his films are generally associated with, particularly on account of the increasing political commentaries. Shot in stark and high contrast black-and-whites, and coupled with sparse dialogues, minimal flourish, bleak visuals and austere tone, the film appeared, on hindsight, highly reminiscent of Bela Tarr's works. Based on an actual event, the story concerns the murder of a Greek man, who had just returned home in his sparsely populated village from Germany where he had emigrated to seek work, by his philandering wife (Toula Stathopoulou) and her lover (Yiannis Totsikas) who works as a gamekeeper. The boldly employed fractured narrative which kept shifting back and forth temporally, show the attempts of the police to reconstruct the crime and determine the exact degree of culpability of the two, and events before and after the crime. But the exact moment of murder is never shown, thus making the film an interesting analysis on the nature of truth. Theo, however, didn't just limit the scope to the crime; rather, he used that as the springboard for meditation on the slow disintegration of life and depopulation in the tiny and impoverished Greek village, and in turn an allegorical and telling commentary on the political turbulence and erosion suffered by the country during the course of 20th century. In that sense, therefore, the film might even be considered as a precursor to Haneke's desolate and allegorical masterpiece TheWhite Ribbon.
Director: Theo Angelopoulos
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama
Language: Greek
Labels: 1970s, 4 Star Movies, Crime/Gangster, Drama, Greek Cinema, Recommended
The Man From London [2007]
Silver Linings Playbook [2012]
Hour of the Wolf [1968]
Le Deuxième Souffle [1966]
Cool Hand Luke [1967]
Leningrad Cowboys Go America [1989]
Lincoln [2012]
Tokyo Drifter [1966]
The Collector (La Collectionneuse) [1967]
Jadu Bansha [1974]
No [2012]
The Match Factory Girl [1990]
Ariel [1988]
That Obscure Object of Desire [1977]
Lady in the Lake [1947]
Shadows in Paradise [1986]
The Seventh Continent [1989]
The Aviator's Wife [1981]
The Blue Dahlia [1946]
The Tenant [1976]


Reddit user Powderbomber has shared two images of a koala they caught outside their house.
"Found old fuzznuts here having a yarn with the guinea pigs right outside my front door", the caption reads.
Clearly "old fuzznuts" is giving zero fucks.
What do you think "old fuzznuts" is thinking here?