I'm sure our guest this week needs no introduction? Right? The cute Emilie Ahern! Check out her blog for more of her gorgeous work!
It looks nothing like the sketch, in case you haven't noticed that. But that was my starting point, I promise. I like the outcome though. I still have a circle, some squares and I painted the edges of the cardboard to mimic the scalloped edge too. How effective was all that? Not sure. Haha! I had tons of fun though.
The story of the cardboard. . . I was totally inspired by Sasha H --->> da bomb! :) She rocks cardboards like no one else. No one I tell ya! I don't have nicely cut cardboards like her, (hahaha!!).. . . but, when BHG returned my Valentine layout with that particular cardboard attached to the ziplock bag. Perfectly 12 x 12. A shame not to use it? Thought so!! I tore it to my liking and so it started from there.
Squared Hambly. Tiny frames. Yellow staples. Doodlebug Jewels.
My favorite alpha stamps from Fontwerks again!
Pretty row of buttons. Globs of Distress Stickles.
Its 5.30am on a Monday morning here, The Girls are in bed, and as you already know, I love Mondays. So here's hoping for a good week ahead? Yeah? Last week was tough, it was the week where you feel tired and fat and the three way mirror certainly doesn't help. Ever had that kinda week? *grins* It will just get better, I am sure of that! See you soon!
Sasha love this layout and the cardboard is awesome!!!!!
i'm in love with this layout!
Awesome lo Sasha! I love working with carboard too. It's so different and funky!
I hope that you'll have a good week. It's only 8pm Sumday night here, so the MOnday routine is almost here, another week but at least it's going to be a long weekend for everyone, I'm looking forward to that.
gorgeous! totally love how you used the stamps and cardboard!
Oh I am in love wih this layout. I so need to do a layout using cardboard. I love the look. And no two layouts are the same because o how you peel the cardboard.
Wow!! I love this!!! I love the peeling effect of the cardboard!
Love the cardboard box - you my box buddy. Next time we get shipment at the store I keep for you one stack? Haha. Here's wishing you a wonderful week ahead!
Sasha-honey ... could you bottle up some of that creativity and post me some !!!!
The layout is FABULOUSLY gorgeous (have i violated some English language/grammar rule ?!)and of course, lovely photo of your darlings !
Love love love the look of this!!! This to me is pure perfection! And I also like the little details, like the stickles (??) around the gems ... pure genius!
Gorgeous!!! I can't stop looking at it!!
omg, I have those weeks more than I care to admit.
Your layout is beautiful! The brights and the cardboard are such a fun combination!
Congrats on all the gorgeous publication. Yes.. we should be seeing more of that.. you are sooo talented.
Well, I still love your take nonetheless! Love the grungy and edgy feel that corrugated boards give! I guess sketches are just guidelines with it being so versatile! I'm guilty of not following sketches to a T too! So don't worry yah?
It still spells Sasha's Gorgeousness all over!
Love ur work as always. :) Hugs and Blessed week ahead!
oh I love this- awesome with the corrugated cardstock !!!!
holy moly girlfriend - love what you did with the cardboard - amazing stuff!!
Ack, I love this!! I"m a fan of the cardboard myself (and of sasha's work ;-) - you rocked it, girl!!
You rock Sasha! All your work is FAB! And thanks sooo much for stopping by my blog (am honored). =D Happy Heart's Day and hope you have a great weekend!!!
oh yeah I have weeks like that...and then the light changes and I look in the mirror and wow, it's all good. :) hope that happens to you!
Another AMAZING and gorgeous LO - I am soooo digging what you and Sasha do with the cardboard!! Pure yumminess!
Do you ever wonder. . .


Big name backing means these European newcomers intend to make a big splash in their first LEC season.
With actively involved investors like EDM legend Steve Aoki and Grammy award winning band (and League of Legends fans) Imagine Dragons, Rogue bring some serious celebrity clout to the table when they make their LEC debut in 2019. Rather than brute force their way up the rankings with big name signings, the team are committed to building a strong, lasting competitive presence through unmatched player development. Imagine Dragons have already graced the Worlds stage after performing the song Warriors for a crowd of 40,000 fans at the League of Legends World Championship in 2014; their team will be setting their sights a repeat performance as a competing squad to lift the trophy.


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Q: Having trouble while adding double quotes to a string that is inside a variable in C#? I am trying to pass a filepath to xcopy command for copying a folder from one location to another( CodedUI using C#).
While doing the same the problems is, I am trying to add double quotes around the path but it's not taking the correct path format.
Code:
string Path = "Some path to folder location";

// Tried all these solutions

Path = '\"' + Path + '\"';
Path = '\"' + Path + '\"';
Path = string.Format("\"{0}\"", Path );

Expected: ""Some path to folder location""
Actual:"\"Some path to folder location"\"
Please help.

A: To add double quote, you need to add '\' before ' " '.
Note that : if you are having '\' in path, you have to take care of it like below.
if path is "D:\AmitFolder"
string path = @"D:\AmitFolder";
//Or
path = "D:\\AmitFolder"
string str = "\"" + path + "\"";
Console.WriteLine(str);

here str will be  "Some path to folder location"
Output:

as in above line we are adding "\"" string as prefix and "\"" as post fix of the main string.

A: In debugger you will see the backslash.
Sent your output to Console and you will see the result is good.
 string Path = "Some path to folder location";

 Path = "\"" + Path + "\"";
 Console.WriteLine(Path);

A: From what i understand, you want to see

"Some path to folder location"

when you print it. If so, do:
string path = "\"Some path to folder location\"";

or
string path = "Some path to folder location";
var finalString = string.Format("\"{0}\"", path);

A: Maybe you should try verbatim strings like @"the\path\to\another\location".
This is the best way to write paths without having to struggle with escape codes.
EDIT:
You can use double quotes in a verbatim string:
@"""the\path\to\another\location"""

A: If you're trying to preserve two sets of double quotes, try building the string like so:
var path = "hello";
var doubleQuotes = "\"\"";
var sb = new StringBuilder(doubleQuotes)
    .Append(path)
    .Append(doubleQuotes);
Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString()); // ""hello""

Of course, if you want single quotes you simply swap doubleQuotes for singleQuotes = "\""; and get "hello".

A: While storing string values if any double quotes are to be added they need to be escaped using backshlash(\). Single quotes are used for character data. The following code should get the output needed.
Path = string.Format("\"{0}\"", Path);

Also I have created a small fiddle here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


"Combined with the reimbursed ATM fees for debit card transactions from Schwab Bank and Schwab brokerage accounts, mobile deposit provides great value for people on the go."
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Charles Schwab has announced the launch of mobile deposit capabilities for Android smartphone users, enabling Schwab brokerage and Schwab Bank clients to deposit checks remotely by taking a picture of a check with their Android smartphone camera. Charles Schwab launched its first native Android application last month and is one of the only financial services firms to provide its clients with integrated mobile deposit capabilities for both bank and brokerage accounts.
According to a recent Schwab survey of 2,000 consumers on mobile banking and investing, nearly seven in ten Americans ages 18-44 showed interest in depositing checks using a mobile phone, citing convenience as the primary reason. More findings from this survey can be found here and on Schwab's new corporate blog, Schwab Talk.
To deposit a check via Android or iPhone®, clients will select the Schwab Bank or Schwab brokerage account into which they wish to deposit funds, enter the deposit amount, take a photo of the front and back of their endorsed check and hit submit.
In addition to the new mobile deposit feature, Schwab's native Android application enables clients to transfer money between Schwab Bank and Schwab brokerage accounts; place trades within their brokerage account; and view balances for Schwab Bank and Schwab brokerage accounts, Schwab 529 College Savings Plans and Schwab-administered 401(k) and stock option plans.
In the next few months, Schwab also plans to introduce an Android app for the more than 1.4 million participants in 401(k) plans serviced by Schwab Retirement Plan Services. This first app will include view-only access to 401(k) account information, including balances, year-to-date personal performance, contribution rate, a 45-day transaction history, and Schwab contact information. There are enhancements planned for the app in the coming year.
The Charles Schwab Mobile Financial Consumer survey was conducted by Kelton Research between April 14 and April 20, 2011, using Random Digit Dialing of listed and unlisted numbers. Quotas were set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the entire U.S. population age 18 and over. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 2.2 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.
Unlimited ATM fee rebates apply to cash withdrawals using the Schwab One Visa® Platinum Check Card or the Schwab Bank Visa® Platinum Debit Card (also referred to as a "Check Card" or "Visa Check Card") at ATMs where they are accepted. ATM fee rebates do not apply to any fees other than fees assessed for using an ATM to withdraw cash from your Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Schwab One brokerage account or your Charles Schwab Bank account. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and Charles Schwab Bank make their best efforts to identify those ATM fees eligible for rebate, based on information they receive from Visa and from ATM operators. In the event that you have not received a rebate for a fee that you believe is eligible, please call a Schwab One Client Service Specialist at 1-800-421-4488 or a Schwab Bank Client Service Specialist at 1-888-403-9000. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and Charles Schwab Bank reserve the right to modify or discontinue this ATM fee rebate at any time.


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Israel News for 3-1-19
March 1, 2019 /in news /by [email protected]
Indictment of PM
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced yesterday that he has decided to recommend indicting PM Netanyahu on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges stemming from 3 cases. He said that his decision to indict was not final, as there was would first need to be a hearing arranged in coordination with the PM's legal team. A last minute petition filed by the Likud with the Supreme Court to prevent the recommendation was rejected.
The charges against the PM include:
– accepting gifts from businessmen in exchange for providing them with favorable treatment related to various government related matters
– Making a deal with the owner of Yediot Ahronot to weaken rival newspaper Israel Hayom in exchange for favorable press coverage
– promoting regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq and its then-majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch in return for bribes and favorable coverage on Walla! News, which is owned by Bezeq.
The PM denies all charges. Appearing on national TV following the announcement, the PM called the timing of the announcement, six weeks ahead of elections, "outrageous" and accused his political opponents of carrying out an "unprecedented witch hunt." He accused the Attorney General of threatening democracy, called the accusations a "blood libel" and pledged to debunk all charges against him.
Gantz called on Netanyahu to "show responsibility and resign". The leaders of Labor and Meretz also called for the PM to resign. Likud MK's stood behind Netanyahu and dismissed the charges as being false. The right wing parties will also continue to support the PM.
[ So it's doubtful whether this (potential) indictment will change the upcoming election results and prevent the PM from forming another government. ]
For further reading click here.
UN Report
Israel vehemently attacked a report released by the UN Human Rights Council which accused Israeli soldiers of intentionally firing on civilians and committing crimes against humanity during a string of riots by Palestinian demonstrators last year on the Gaza border that left 189 people dead.
PM Netanyahu said, "The UN Human Rights Council is setting new records of hypocrisy and lies stemming from its obsessive hatred toward Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. Hamas is the one firing missiles at Israeli civilians, throwing explosive devices and carrying terrorist activity during demonstrations on the Gaza border."
He added, "Israel won't allow Hamas to violate its sovereignty and hurt its citizens and will preserve its right to defend itself. IDF soldiers will continue defending with determination Israeli communities and civilians from Hamas and other terror organizations funded by Iran, which declares its intention to annihilate Israel."
The commission also faulted Hamas for not preventing use of incendiary devices tied to kites and balloons, used to attack Israel.
Jerusalem Housing
The Jerusalem City Council is set to approve a plan to construct 25,000 new housing units in the capital, including about 10,000 units for the haredi public. The plan includes building new neighborhoods and expanding existing ones. The plan was delayed during Nir Barkat's tenure as mayor of Jerusalem, and has moved forward under current mayor Moshe Leon.
Poland Sues
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has filed a lawsuit against NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell, who said in a recent report from Warsaw that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was against "the Polish and Nazi regime." She subsequently apologized on Twitter. But the Polish institute isn't satisfied.
Tags: Israel News
https://i0.wp.com/www.israelam.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/salute-ad.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1 800 1200 [email protected] https://www.israelam.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/israelam-logoNEW-300x100-300x100.jpg [email protected]2019-03-01 07:25:592019-03-01 07:25:59Israel News for 3-1-19
Israel News for December 8, 2016
Israel News for January 24, 2017
Israel News for 3-26-18
Israel News for 9-18-2019
Israel News for April 1, 2016
Israel News for 2-27-19 Israel News for 3-4-19

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Helena Lovejoyová (narozená jako Harold Schwartzbaum) je fiktivní postava z amerického animovaného seriálu Simpsonovi. Je manželkou reverenda Timothyho Lovejoye, se kterým vlastní springfieldský kostel. Je to springfieldská drbna, která o ostatních šíří pomluvy, často i nepravdivé. Je kamarádkou Marge Simpsonové a členkou skupiny Springfieldské investorky. V dílu Nešťastná svatba farář naznačuje, že je Helena transsexuálka, která se dříve jmenovala Harold Schwartzbaum.

Server Screen Rant Helenu Lovejoyovou zařadil na první místo seznamu 10 nejnenáviděnějších vedlejších postav Simpsonových. Web Looper ji umístil na 31. příčku žebříčku 50 nejlepších postav Simpsonových všech dob.

V původním znění jí hlas propůjčila Maggie Roswellová, v českém znění je její hlavní dabérkou Petra Jindrová Lupínková.

Reference

Postavy seriálu Simpsonovi
Fiktivní Američané

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home › Author Interview › Dental Records: Teeth hold clues to shifting diets in victims of the Great Irish Famine
Dental Records: Teeth hold clues to shifting diets in victims of the Great Irish Famine
Author Interview	 August 15, 2016 0 Jen Laloup
In the mid-19th century, a devastating famine hit Ireland. The country's inhabitants saw their primary food staple destroyed by blight, a bacterial disease that makes potatoes uneatable. Blight continued to cause potato crop failure for several years, leading to one of the worst famines in history – an estimated 1.5 million people died, and over 1 million emigrated from Ireland to escape disease and starvation.
During the famine, many of the county's poor avoided starvation by migrating to the Kilkenny Union workhouse, where they received food and shelter in return for hard labor. But infectious disease spread quickly in the overcrowded workhouse, and many died, forcing authorities to dig mass graves.
Over 160 years later, researchers began excavating the remains of the 970 people buried in the Kilkenny Union workhouse famine cemetery. Julia Beaumont, lecturer in biological anthropology at the School of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, U.K., and colleagues saw this site as a unique opportunity to examine how a historical famine affected people's diets.
Her team analyzed 20 teeth, each collected from a different person excavated from the Kilkenny Union site, to investigate dietary and physiological changes the individuals went through during the Great Irish Famine. The team found isotopic signatures in the teeth that reflected the expected dietary change from potatoes to maize, which was imported from America to provide relief during the famine. The study, published in PLOS ONE, also revealed prolonged nutritional and other physiological stress resulting from insufficient sustenance during childhood.
To learn more about Beaumont's research, I interviewed her via email.
You worked as a dentist for many years before you decided to jump into research. What prompted the switch, and why did you decide to study dental development in past populations?
JB: [As a child] I attended an all-girl senior school and admired the science teachers I saw there, great role models who made science interesting and exciting. I have always been easily bored, and when my daughter was visiting the University of Bradford to study there, I spoke to the academics in Archaeological Sciences about getting involved with research. They sat me down for a chat with Janet Montgomery whose ground breaking research using dental enamel was establishing the methods for investigating migration. I was hooked, applied to study a Master's and then a PhD part- time, and realized that my "past life" gave me the perfect grounding to work out how and at what period of life the chemical signals are incorporated into developing teeth. Research, I find, can never be boring!
Why are teeth good indicators of a person's diet?
JB: Teeth grow at a really regular rate, and in every population and even in times of hardship. As teeth use the proteins from your food and drink to grow dentine, "you are what you ate," and by recovering the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from the teeth, we can estimate your diet at that age.
"The unique benefit of working with individuals from such a well-recorded historical period is the fascinating combination of scientific research and contemporaneous documentary evidence."
How did you become interested in studying the people of the Great Irish Famine in particular?
JB: My PhD work started with a cemetery in London where migrants from the Great Irish Famine were buried, with hints at the changes in diet in their bones and teeth we later found in the Kilkenny workhouse. The unique benefit of working with individuals from such a well-recorded historical period is the fascinating combination of scientific research and contemporaneous documentary evidence.
In your new study you used a technique called "incremental dentine collagen analysis," which evaluates stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in tooth dentine. You also analyzed rib bones from the Kilkenny Union workhouse inmates. What does comparing teeth and rib bones tell us about changes in diet?
JB: This technique for sampling tooth dentine allows us to estimate how old an individual was when the tooth was growing, and gives us a profile of the diet during that time: with the right tooth we can go from pre-birth (with a milk tooth) right through to the early 20's (with a wisdom tooth). The rib bones are re-modelling throughout your life, and therefore, only represent an average of the last 2–5 years. This means that in adults we can compare childhood diet (from teeth) with the diet in recent years (in the rib). The measurements showed that adults in this group were mainly eating potatoes as children and in the period before death, had eaten maize as their main source of calories: with one notable exception, a woman who had also eaten maize at the time of an earlier famine in her childhood.
You mentioned in your press release that you could identify the marker for starvation in the teeth you studied prior to the workhouse residents being given maize as famine-relief food. What was the marker and why is this finding significant?
JB: The marker we have found is a pattern of "opposing co-variance" with nitrogen isotope ratios rising while the carbon isotope ratios reduce. This is the first time that these changes have been
identified in dentine. We know that in times of stress, you can recycle parts of your protein and fat which produces these changes: these have been seen in other tissues such as hair, but are too short-term to appear in bones like the rib, and the historical records of the foods consumed in this famine have allowed us to be sure that what we see is real, and not caused by an unusual diet.
What are some possible applications for this study, and what's next for your research?
JB: Being able to identify short-term markers for nutritional stress opens possibilities for identifying mass famines in the past of which previously we have been unaware. It may also help in forensic cases where a modern child has suffered neglect – either nutritional or physiological stress. My current research is using donated milk teeth from modern children in order to identify markers for stress in childhood where we know the medical histories: the Tooth Fairy project in Bradford.
Research Article: Beaumont J, Montgomery J (2016) The Great Irish Famine: Identifying Starvation in the Tissues of Victims Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Bone and Incremental Dentine Collagen. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0160065. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160065
Image Credit: Famine Memorial by Eddie Wong via Flickr
bioarcheology, diet, Great Irish Famine, history, PLOS ONE, starvation, stress, tooth
Science Bites: August 8th
Pulling Strings for You: Problem-solving success for Barbados bird species


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Nettwerk
Since forming his first band with two friends, Chad Stokes has performed to audiences worldwide, including multiple sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and TD Garden as well as a special reunion performance at Boston's Hatch Shell that drew over 120,000 fans. Stokes is also a co-founder of Calling All Crows, a non-profit dedicated to bringing bands and fans together tocreate change through hands-on activism and service. To date, Calling All Crows has raised over $550,000 and invested more than 30,000 hours of service in local communities across NorthAmerica and Europe. Stokes released The Horse Comanche, co-produced by Sam Beam of Iron and Wine, Brian Deck (Gomez, Josh Ritter) and Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart). Also featured on the 10-track album are special guests Lucius on the song "New Haven."


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100 Million Cyber Attacks on Tourist Attractions Prove Every Business is at Risk
Surprising statistics uncovered after a Freedom of Information (FOI) submission reveal that London's Kew Gardens, Natural History Museum, Tate Gallery, and Imperial War Museum saw a total of 109 million cyber attacks over just the last three years.
These cyber attacks and attempted hacks included various attempts to steal information, phishing, spyware, malware and ransomware attacks.
A Need for Greater Cyber Security Expertise
Sheila Flavell, COO of digital skills and solutions company FDM Group told InfoSecurity Magazine she believes there needs to be a "sharper focus" on boosting interest in building cyber-security skills.
Flavell says:
"These incidents are a reminder of the urgent need to increase the UK's level of cyber expertise."
She describes cyber attacks as a "real and relentless threat." Critically, the fact that Kew Gardens alone was hit by 86 million attacks in 2018 illustrates the need for any type of business to address cyber-security risks sooner rather than later.
Hackers appear to be targeting the financial and personal information of Kew Gardens' 800 staff and over 100,000 members. The FOI results obtained by Parliament Street say a Kew Gardens server was breached and an email account compromised across the three-year period.
A spokesperson for Kew Gardens told the Evening Standard that cyber-security was foremost within the organisation:
"We have observed a very significant increase in the number of cyber hack attempts…We can confirm these attempts were successfully blocked by our firewalls and perimeter defences…Security remains one of our primary concerns."
There is no further information apparent on the reported Kew Gardens breach, though it is evident that cyber-security is taken seriously in order to only have one breach amidst millions of attempts.
The Imperial War Museum also experienced eight successful ransomware attacks out of around 10 million attempts over the course of the three years. The Tate Gallery reported four successful malware or phishing attacks and nearly 500,000 attacks in 2018.
The Natural History Museum is focusing on cyber-security as it works to adapt its business to the digital age. A spokesperson for the museum, Ian Golding said:
"Ensuring we have the best cyber protection is of paramount importance as we continue to protect, display and digitise our collection."
Organisations of Every Size and Purpose Face a Growing Risk of Cyber Attack
According to a recent TechRadar summary of cyber-security statistics, Carbon Black research in 2018 found that 88% of organisations in the UK had experienced a data breach in the previous 12 months.
Other research by Opus and the Ponemon Institute of 1,000 professionals responsible for cyber-security found that 59% of companies experienced a data breach caused by a supplier or other third-party.
McAfee Labs has found that cyber threats are evolving so quickly that an average of 480 new threats per minute were discovered during the third quarter of 2018.
Radware's 2018-2019 Global Application and Network Security Report found the average cost of a cyber-attack was $1.6 million both in direct losses and those attributed to customer reputation. Back in the UK PCI Pal found that 44% of UK consumers would stop spending with an organisation immediately after a serious data breach. 41% of consumers would move their patronage elsewhere permanently.
It's not just large and well-known organisations that are increasingly targeted by cyber attacks. Ponemon Institute's "2018 Cyber-security in Small and Medium Size Businesses" report based on the US and the UK found 67% of small to medium sized business had experienced a cyber attack and 58% a data breach in the 12-month period covered by the report.
Though all four tourist attractions are prominent and successful ones, the sheer volume of cyber attacks goes to prove that it's not just financial institutions and government departments at the greatest risk.
Cyber-criminals target large and small organisations as well as individuals, proven by the fast-growing volume of attacks. With the type of attack changing by the second it is imperative that any business has a continuous focus on cyber-security and at every level within the business. Malware and phishing attacks can begin a breach with simply one individual unwittingly opening the wrong email and lead to the compromise of entire servers.
You can significantly reduce your risk by investing in a programme of security awareness training for your employees, helping to make your workforce, your strongest defence. Why not sign up for a free demo and get started, today.
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Read her answers and get fascinated by her super interesting life!
I've visited Hong Kong, Greece, England, Haiti, Scotland, Italy, France, Spain, Costa Rica, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Belgium, and Switzerland.
I moved from North Carolina to Hong Kong when I was 22 because I had just graduated from college and was completely unable to find a job related to my field, journalism. After sending out over 200 resumes and getting no responses, I ended up taking a job working the 6AM shift unpacking boxes at Old Navy. I stuck with it for 6 months before packing it in and moving to Hong Kong, where I had studied abroad in college.
I've lived in the US, which is my home country, as well as Hong Kong, Greece, and England over the past 7 years.
I do enjoy moving around, and I enjoy seeing new places and meeting new people. Since I run my business from my laptop, I can work pretty much anywhere there's an Internet connection, so I take advantage of that. And we live in such a big, interesting world — I always want to experience more of it.
The simultaneous novelty and reassuring sameness — I love getting to see new places and meet new people, and I also love how the more I go to different places, the more I see how people all over the world are much more similar than they are different.
It's hard being apart from my close friends — of my two best friends, one lives about 600 miles away from me right now and the other is 3,500 miles away. We still talk and text all the time, but it's not the same as living near someone. And getting visas can be insane. The last time I was getting my visa for the UK sorted, I had to get over 100 pages of documents in order — and the immigration lawyer even spelled my name wrong on the application, which of course really matters for a visa. The whole thing was a nightmare.
It depends on how long I plan on staying in a place. If I'm just planning on living there for a couple of months or a year, then I like a furnished place. If it's longer, part furnished is better — then I've got the basics, and I can upgrade anything I want to.
My laptop, my journals and pens, and a small ceramic cat I bought in a market in Tin Shui Wai — it's the first thing I set up wherever I go.
It also depends on how long I'm planning on staying in a place. That being said, it's really important to me to live in beautiful, simple surroundings, so if I'm staying somewhere for anything longer than a month, I want the place to either look nice or to be able to decorate it myself.
I can't imagine that I would — but you never know. Not for a few more years, at least!
To be honest, I can't imagine really retiring! I love writing, and I picture myself doing it until I die. But as for where I might be doing that when I'm older… somewhere warm and sunny. I'm pretty much down for anywhere in the latitudes between say, Rome and Johannesburg.
The first step is always the hardest, and this whole process seems much scarier than it actually is. You will constantly be amazed by your ability to adapt if you just throw yourself into it. Also, on a practical note, pack way, way less than you think you need.
Rachel Allen is the founder of Bolt from the Blue Copywriting, which helps small and brave business owners like you shake up the world one industry at a time with devastatingly incisive copy and content that gets right to the heart of who you are and makes your readers' synapses sparkle.


Four years after the SARS virus prompted international panic, researchers are realizing that very little useful information was collected during the epidemic on how to treat the disease. The finding holds lessons for the treatment of bird flu.
The virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) zipped around the world in 2002 and 2003, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 700. In the heat of the moment facing an entirely alien disease doctors tried out any drugs they thought had a good chance of working.
Even at the time, researchers and doctors realized that the drugs might not be effectively fighting the virus or easing symptoms, but they felt they had little choice but to continue treatment in the hope that something would work.
Soon after the outbreak, an expert panel on SARS treatment at the World Health Organization recommended a systematic review of clinical results. The aim was to steer doctors towards the correct treatment should the disease rear its head again.
Epidemiologist Lauren Stockman at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and her co-workers trawled through the medical literature for studies on six SARS treatments. Among those they focused on were antiviral treatments, such as ribavirin, and corticosteroids that were used to dampen down the immune system.
The team found more than 54 clinical studies of SARS-treatment outcomes: the vast majority were inconclusive and eight showed evidence of possible harm from the drugs, they report in PLoS Medicine1.
This doesn't rule out the possibility that some of the drugs had a beneficial effect. But, the researchers say, it's impossible to tell. That's because the treatments were not given with the rigour expected of a clinical trial.
In a typical clinical trial, the individuals taking one drug are compared with a group taking a placebo, a higher dose of the drug, or a different drug. But it is ethically difficult to give patients a placebo in the face of an unknown and potentially lethal infection and there wasn't time to consider other comparison groups. Without them, the results of any treatment are difficult, if not impossible, to interpret.
It is also tricky to compare studies with each other, Stockman says. Each one involved different drug doses or combinations and treated patients of different ages and health. So if individuals improved in one study and deteriorated in another, it is difficult to attribute this to the drug versus these other factors.
The researchers found that some studies suggested that ribavirin and steroids actually harmed patients; ribavirin increased the risk of anaemia and steroids are linked to bone deterioration and fungal infections. On the other hand, some of the drugs used during the epidemic do seem to inhibit the SARS virus in laboratory experiments on infected tissues, they found.
The picture isn't all gloom, Stockman says, because the findings could teach public-health officials and doctors how to react during outbreaks of other diseases, such as avian influenza. (SARS has dropped out of the limelight because cases plummeted after 2003, and it has not emerged with any ferocity since.) "Hopefully we can try to prevent this for other illnesses," Stockman says.
Should avian influenza start spreading among people, then experts say that hospitals must be poised to start well-controlled trials of experimental drugs and vaccines. They should plan in advance, for instance, which drugs to test and which control groups will be needed. The challenge is to establish protocols beforehand and co-ordinate such tests across different hospitals and even different countries.
This is the aim of the Southeast Asian Influenza Clinical Research Network, a collaboration involving 12 hospitals in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia plus other institutions. Starting later this year, the participating hospitals will start a clinical trial to test the currently recommended dose of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) against a higher dose, in individuals infected with bird flu.
Stockman L. J., et al. PLoS Medicine, 3. e343. (2006).


text:
Golisano Autism Center to be built on South Avenue
@jjdandc
Leaders of four local agencies announced Tuesday the vision of a $5 million center in Rochester, which they expect to improve autism services after a very large boost provided by Tom Golisano.
Al Sigl Community of Agencies, Autism Up, CP Rochester and Mary Cariola Children's Center are working together to build the Golisano Autism Center Rochester, on South Avenue, near Science Parkway. Golisano, a billionaire businessman who has evidence of his philanthropy around the area, has committed $3 million to the project.
More than 10,000 people in the area have been diagnosed with autism. The 25,000 square foot Golisano Autism Center Rochester is expected to include shared program spaces, a sensory gymnasium, classrooms and therapy rooms, for starters. Ground breaking on South Avenue, near Science Parkway, is scheduled for this fall, with the facility opening during fall 2018.
ARTICLES ABOUT AUTISM:
Putnam: Fair connects families, autism resources
Audience cheers as 11-year-old with autism plays piano (2016)
Guest essay: Take time to understand autism (2016)
Nazareth gets $1.2 million for autism (2016)
Parents building options for their son with autism (2015)
For those with autism, struggle to find shelter (2015)
Sarah Milko, executive director of Autism Up, said this center "is huge for all families living with autism.'' Agency leaders pointed out how people living with autism will have access to services and programs through their lifetime, including behavioral and primary care supports and a housing and employment liaison.
"The Golisano Autism Center will provide everything families in our community have been craving for their loved ones,'' Milko said. "Coordinated support. Innovative programming. A collaborative community approach. Most importantly, a clear path to the future.
"By collaborating to provide all of these autism services under one roof, we are taking the next step to surrounding our organization and our families, with the very best autism services we can provide. We'll make sure that everyone has access, no matter where they live or what their income.''
Golisano's financial contribution consist of a $2.5 million challenge grant and $500,000 from the Golisano Foundation. Thomas O'Connor, president of Al Sigl Community of Agencies, shared a story in which the leaders of the agency were asked to stop their presentation in front of Golisano Foundation leaders and were asked to return to the room a short time later.
"We came back into the room and Mr. Golisano shared with us that in their 30-year history, he had never asked a group to leave the room and come back in,'' O'Connor said. "But he felt so strongly about this initiative and how much he wanted to support it, that it was important that we get an answer that morning.''
O'Connor described the need for autism services in the area as "desperate" and 'immediate." The collaborating agencies have begun to work on raising the remaining $2 million to cover construction costs.
"That will create an innovative and revolutionary model that will propel us forward, and possibly impact lives for generations and make Rochester the gold-standard for autism services,'' O'Connor said.
JAMESJ@Gannett.com


According to Shapiro and Varian's Information Rules, "Technology changes. Economic laws do not" (2).
The "laws" are not laws. They're observations about how people act. And as Shapiro and Varian's text itself demonstrates, people act differently under different circumstances. Shapiro and Varian's assertion about unchanging economic laws is a foolish and mistaken attempt to bluster out an assertive and authoritative ethos in the face of the fact that economies and cultures change. It strikes me as something akin to Covey's claims about the Seven Habits: a rhetorical system composed not so much for the way it might produce knowledge as for the way it might sell books.
In fact, economic "laws" — or, more properly, observations about the ways economies work — change. In a culture driven by the engine of slave labor, understandings of scarcity, competition, and social welfare shape economic activity in ways profoundly different from the ways in which our contemporary understandings of the same phenomena — scarcity, competition, social welfare — shape economic activity.
And Shapiro and Varian's suggestion of a constancy of economic principles is interesting in a volume that seeks to engage and understand the ways that economic change influences the way we produce, distribute, and use information. For example: they make the point that "production costs of an information good involves high fixed costs but low marginal costs. The cost of producing the first copy of an information good may be substantial, but the cost of producing (or reproducing) additional copies is negligible" (3). Sure; yes, we know this. But according to Shapiro and Varian, the capitalist must therefore "price your information goods according to consumer value, not according to your production cost" (3). OK: so when we produce an information good — a text — its value is reckoned out there in the world, and in terms of what it does for other people. And we know that information goods, especially as essays, carry higher value when they proliferate; when they're non-scarce. In that sense, textual value is, to a degree, social and affective: when a hundred people read a personal essay, whether it's poorly written or a polished piece, the value of that personal essay — because of the affective connection those readers are making to what the author's saying — increases.
This understanding of textual value as social and affective might offer interesting ways for us to think about Lester Faigley's worries in "Judging Writing, Judging Selves" that as writing teachers, we tend to like (value) the personal essay perhaps too much and for inappropriate reasons. (Yes, I admit that's a crude and reductive summary of Faigley's point.) But it should also point us toward the ways Amy Robillard uses Julie Lindquist's College English essay on "Class Affects, Classroom Affectations" to re-think the affective value of student's written labor/work, and remind us that student work is part of that immense below-the-waterline portion of the diverse economic iceberg described by J. K. Gibson-Graham following Duncan Ironmonger's time-use studies demonstrating that less than half of gross domestic product consists of cash-commodified market transactions. It might even help to counter the arguments of those who see Peter Elbow's points in "Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking" as somehow frivolous, uncritical, or silly, given that the behaviors Peter describes are, in fact, elements of the construction of one form of economic value as aspects of consumer choice — although, again, we should understand that that form of economic value is not the only one.
And this goes back to the concern Faigley raises and Robillard elaborates: it's easy to see and acknowledge the affective value of the personal essay, but we're not often inclined to admit the affective value of other genres, the affective value of other forms of intellectual labor. Which is foolish, because the ways that we like instances of those other genres is an affective relationship, as well, and those ways contribute to their increased value. This is the toughest move for me to make, though: I'm not sure how willing I am to admit that simply liking a circulating instance of intellectual labor/property is an economic act.
Personalize your product and personalize your pricing. This is easier to do on the Internet than on virtually any other medium since you communicate with your customers on a one-to-one basis.
Information is social, we know, and they indicate that the ways we shape and circulate it are simultaneously personal and economic. Shapiro and Varian's advice, while grounded in a market-based perspective, offers us some interesting ways of thinking about writing and its value. Certainly, it's in one way the same old "know your audience" advice rhetors have been familiar with for 2000 years, but when we put it into the cycle of work, appropriation, ownership, and use, it takes on a different meaning. And I love that phrase "tracking their clickstream" and want to apply it to our discipline's thoughts about process, reading, and citation, which I think I'll try to do in my next post.
Elbow, Peter. "Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking: Sorting out Three Forms of Judgment." College English 55.2 (1993): 187-206.
Faigley, Lester. "Judging Writing, Judging Selves." College Composition and Communication 40 (1989): 395-412. Rpt. Landmark Essays on Voice and Writing. Ed. Peter Elbow. Davis, CA: Hermagoras, 1994.
Ironmonger, Duncan. "Counting Outputs, Capital Inputs and Caring Labor: Estimating Gross Household Product." Feminist Economics 2.3 (1996): 37-64.
Lindquist, Julie. "Class Affects, Classroom Affectations." College English 67 (2004): 187-209.
Robillard, Amy. "Young Scholars Affecting Composition: A Challenge to Disciplinary Citation Practices." College English 68.3 (2006): 253-70.
Shapiro, Carl, and Hal R. Varian. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School, 1998.
Here's a cheesy graphic that looks like it belongs in Microsoft's Clip Art portfolio. Unfortunately, I'm afraid, it's also my attempt to think about (1) how economic activity works qua writing and (2) how writing works within our discipline as economic activity.
Sure: another simplistic attempt to represent how writing happens; an obvious, boring, and self-evident attempt to talk about The Process. Well, OK, not so fast, pardner: there are economic points of intervention here. Locations of heterogeneous practice and valuation.
First, on Work: this is Bruce Horner's nuanced definition of work. This is the understanding from Terms of Work for Composition that our discipline regards and values Work in different ways, as scholarship, as pedagogy, and as the quotidian student activity of the classroom.
The value of each of those forms of work is somehow appropriated, and appropriated — according to Gibson-Graham and Resnick and Wolff — by different parties at different points in the progression from production to distribution. At the point of production, value can be appropriated in slave relations wherein the producer has no control over the conditions under which he produces (prison labor; the work of intellectuals under Stalin), feudal relations, market relations (you publish an article in order to put it on your cv and be promotable), gift relations, independent relations (you appropriate the value of your own labor), and others. I don't have a sufficient grasp on rhetoric and the economics of distribution to be able to talk about those practices of appropriation here, but folks like Jim Ridolfo and Amy Robillard are doing smart and admirable work in that area.
Appropriation, as unavoidable economic practice, leads to various forms of textual ownership. Capitalism, as a mode of thought, concerns itself with private ownership. Socialism, as a mode of thought, concerns itself with state ownership. Communism is a mode of thought that inadequately addresses and fails to encompass public ownership, and I don't think we yet have a term that is more adequate to that task. And as a term that addresses or attempts to address non-ownership, "The Commons" is certainly fraught with difficulties, as is "The Public Domain." Nevertheless: work's value is appropriated and becomes property, non-property, or something in between.
I need to show this, I think, in projects — both students' and my own — and then connect this cycle to my critique of how comp's discourse has failed to engage a vocabulary of economy, and offer some concrete examples of work > appropriation > ownership > use > work et cetera. But that circuit, so far, is the happiest definition I have for what "economy" means in composition.
Does it work for you, or have I missed or ignored key considerations?
From Smith and Cannan, it's quite clear: we must understand value as existing in and delimited by time. (This is why economic productivity, as a sort of value judgment about the quality and intensity of a nation's workers, is measured over time.) So how do writing teachers talk about time? One obvious way, of course, is in our talk about process. Some of us even incorporate something like a Labor Theory of Value into the way we evaluate student writing, proposing to students that the work they put into composing stands in some relation of value to their performance in the course and the ultimate gradebook worth of their compositions. For writing teachers who base their pedagogies upon the process model, the Labor Theory of Value — for all its problems — is an economic reality in institutions that require grade-based valuation.
We're familiar with the problems presented by the Labor Theory of Value. We know that Adam Smith tried to get away from it, David Ricardo promulgated it, and Karl Marx tried to re-think it. We know that contemporary mainstream economics has discarded it as thoroughly flawed and problematic, choosing to focus instead on the notion of marginality and how producers and consumers react to fluctuations in supply and demand at the marginal frontier. But I'd contend that the categories of "producer" and "consumer" are themselves too-easy oversimplifications in today's information economy, and contend further that the notions of supply and demand are wholly inadequate in addressing the things that we can best characterize in economic terms as non-rivalrous experience goods: which is to say, essays.
Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Ed. Edwin Cannan. New York: Random House, 1994.
I've been going through this year's CCCC program, and there are way too many things that I really want to go to: sixteen panels, two SIGs, one workshop, and one caucus. And that doesn't even include the panels whose times interfere with one another.
So if you have any interest in either of the latter two panels, I'd be grateful to hear whatever impressions you might have of them in a couple months. I'm very much looking forward to (once again) posting my notes and impressions of the sessions I'm able to attend.
Good stuff from my perspective, and I'm curious to hear what those respected expert peers might say.
Scholars have trajectories, traced by the contrail arcs of their intellectual projects. As a newly minted professor, I've been thinking about what mine might be: how do I characterize what I've been working on and what I want to continue to work on as a line across the sky of my discipline?
What I'm doing, I think, is trying to develop an economic phenomenology of student writing, and with it a language of value that can talk about why people want to write that moves beyond the instrumental. Instrumentality we know quite well: do X and get Y. Barter and exchange: simple transactions. The richer field, though, is the motivation that inheres within the moment, the act of writing for writing qua writing. So I'm putting together unlikely bedfellows — Elbow and the so-called expressivist compositionists with Gibson-Graham and the so-called Marxian economists — but with a specific attention to moment, to the temporally present acts of writerly production, circulation, and distribution. I'm not much interested in questions of history — "Where did this come from?" and "What will this lead to?" — except as phenomenologically enacted: "What is this doing now?" This isn't to say that I support any sort of ahistoricity: it's just that economic analysis as applied to composition pedagogy too easily lends itself, as we see in the literature, to an abnegation of responsibility; to the sometimes irresponsible assertions that current problems are best thought about in terms of their past causes or future consequences, rather than considering — as Elbow, Emig, and others show us — possible immediate interventions.
J. K. Gibson-Graham describes some problematic tendencies in economic thought that I see some of the literature in composition as still taking for granted as foundational assumptions: "the tendency to represent economy as a space of invariant logics and automatic unfolding that offered no field for intervention; [and] the tendency to constitute 'the' economy as a singular capitalist system or space rather than as a zone of cohabitation and contestation among multiple economic forms" (xxi). (See, as an outstanding example, Giroux's recent JAC piece.) As writing teachers, I believe we understand that such ways of thinking are inadequate, and yet the vocabulary with which we have been left to understand economic concerns is so fundamentally incommensurate with our understanding of day-to-day pedagogical practice — with the daily fact of being and teaching and writing in the classroom — that we simply don't talk about economy except as something taking place outside the classroom. Our economic attitudes remove us from the classroom scene and moment of the creation of intellectual and affectual value.
That's, as I see it, my contrail. It starts in definitional concerns and the idea of an economic vocabulary for composition, develops into notions about the multiplicity of valuations for writing, and attempts to begin to address the place of open source economic concepts in the the classroom. Beyond that, I'm not sure what it might look like, other than a thin and incomplete white line across a wide blue sky.
The institutional powers at my school are terrified of the Web. All of the useful online tools — grade books, attendance records, even Blackboard — are only accessible via a school-issued computer and Virtual Private Network. Course web sites have to go through various layers of approval and changes have to be sent through an extradepartmental authority.
In some ways, I understand why: here, we're a .mil as wel as a .edu, and there have been considerable .mil hacking embarassments in the past, including one incident last semester that DoD responded to in typical fashion by shutting down practically everything on the .mil network for two days; the proverbial locking the barn door after the horse is gone.
One challenge I'm continuing to run into is the hierarchical and monolithic nature of IT here: the Army gives all the students and all the faculty their computers, and only certain programs and practices are approved. I can't count on students accessing the course web site via Firefox on their Ubuntu laptop at the local coffee shop: here, it's IE, Windows Vista, and 802.11i (!) all the way, no matter what. So I can encourage them to use Open software, but really, when Uncle Sam gives you all the corporate stuff for free, incentives and evangelizing become a bit more difficult. And I can't exactly fight Uncle Sam on this stuff.
But still. It'd be so, so nice to have simple, secure FTP access to courseware of my choice on campus websites. To have a path to Perl and my own /cgi-bin.
My friend Daniel, in his military career, spent two nights in an Israeli prison for attempting to buy guns on the black market, as he'd been tasked to do by his Special Forces unit.
There are other things, worse things, that happened to Daniel beyond the weapons market. And as much as I like this poem that makes me think about him, it isn't so good in the middle part: it hectors, Daniel would have said. That stuff about the American death, blue uniforms, barrels, hands: too easy, facile, and the title as well. Cheap, almost.
Akbar wraps an AK-47 in cloth.
he slides them all under the countertop.
more cash than most men earn in an entire year.
he may have oiled in his own hands.
from this dark place, to the other.
And then there's that ending, with the stars. That wasn't Daniel's ending, but I want to hope that maybe it was his sister's. He worried about her, about her boyfriends, about their parents. Worried about whether she was pregnant.
Daniel never caught a break. He ate a bullet in a New Mexico hotel room.
What, in your opinion, are the ten best PhD programs in rhetoric and composition?
Of course, the criteria themselves for 'best' are open to debate, and again, it depends on what one's scholarly interests are. I'd certainly expect to see Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UT Austin, Michigan State, Carnegie Mellon, and Syracuse at or near the top of a lot of lists, and I've got strong feelings about the excellence of other programs as well — Pitt for its unique and compelling cultural studies approach, and UMass and UNH for their deep (and evolving) historical investment in the process approach — so I'll ask: what do you think? What would your top 10 be, and what would you say their particular areas of excellence are?


text:
Derbyshire pensioner found hanged at home
Jon Ball
Published: 06:00 Monday 09 December 2019
A pensioner was found hanged in his own home, his inquest heard.
Andrew Hilton, aged 75, was found at his home on Mill Street, Belper, on November 27.
Mill Street, Belper.
At the opening of his inquest, at Chesterfield Coroner's Court, Peter Nieto, Derby and Derbyshire area coroner, said the provisional cause of death was given as "ligature suspension".
The inquest heard Derby-born Mr Hilton, a retired day centre manager, was estranged from his wife Chiutican.
The hearing was adjourned for a review in February.
Sex toy company is looking for testers - and here's how to apply
Workers putt their way to success for charity


It was a day for finishing touches – to the ballpark and the lineup.
Workers mowed the infield and outfield grass at Nationals Park, getting that curly "W" in center field just right, before the Washington Nationals hosted the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition game Saturday that also served as a dress rehearsal for today's opener.
There were wires being tucked away, pillars near an entrance being painted blue and other last-minute fixes. And, in the distance beyond left field, there was the view of the Capitol Building dome, no adjustments necessary.
The day before the Nationals play the first regular-season major league game at their $600 million-plus new home, hosting the Atlanta Braves tonight, Washington manager Manny Acta discussed the last two up-for-grabs spots in his starting nine.
Nick Johnson, who missed 2007 with a broken right leg, got the nod over Dmitri Young at first base, while Ronnie Belliard beat out Felipe Lopez at second.
Woody Williams was put on unconditional release waivers by Houston, which still owes the pitcher $6.5 million.
The 41-year-old right-hander was 8-15 with a 5.27 ERA last season and had an 11.32 ERA in spring training this year. He gave up five runs and five hits in three innings during Friday's 10-0 exhibition loss to Detroit.
Williams is 132-116 with a 4.19 ERA in a 15-year career that includes stints with Toronto, St. Louis and San Diego. He had a career-high 18 wins with the Cardinals in 2003.
A groin strain has put Hideo Nomo's comeback bid with the Kansas City Royals on hold.
The right-hander is headed back to Arizona for physical therapy on the right groin muscle he injured earlier this week. But the 39-year-old doesn't think the injury will end his attempt to return after spending the past two seasons out of the major leagues. He would be willing to pitch in the minors to prove he's ready.
Royals manager Trey Hillman said Nomo showed he still has major league ability.
Nationals: First baseman Nick Johnson and second baseman Ronnie Belliard were picked by Manager Manny Acta to start for Washington. Johnson had been competing with Dmitri Young during spring training for the first base job. Johnson missed the 2007 season with a broken leg. Belliard was in competition with Felipe Lopez.
Rays: Right-hander Grant Balfour was designated for assignment and fellow relievers Kurt Birkins and Chad Orvella were placed on the 15-day disabled list when Tampa Bay made its final cuts of spring training. The Rays also purchased the contract of infielder Eric Hinske from triple-A Durham and said he will start Monday's season opener at Baltimore in right field.
Diamondbacks: Trot Nixon accepted a minor league assignment from Arizona after he lost out to outfielder Alex Romero for a spot on the Diamondbacks' opening day roster. The Diamondbacks signed Nixon to a minor league contract at the start of spring training.
Tigers: Relief pitcher Aaron Fultz and Detroit agreed to a minor league contract. The 34-year-old left-hander will report to triple-A Toledo. He was released Friday by Cleveland after compiling an 11.88 ERA in seven spring games.


A game of sudoku where your brain will be exploited to the fullest. You will have to crunch numbers and figure out what number goes where in order to solve this puzzle game and get a higher rank in the world table score. We wish you good luck in the cool sudoku game! The game has 9 groups of 9 squares. in each group can only put numbers from 1 to 9 without repeating. Each number can be repeated either put in the same horizontal or vertical line of the entire board.
Good Game. I Love SudoKU.
And it's GO! GO! GO!. Race your jeep through the dangerous canyons and be first to the finish line.
This game takes the Ether series in a new direction by combining elements from shooters and tower defense games. Customizable backgrounds, thirty unique enemies, and game-changing upgrades make every game different! Arrows or WASD to navigate, mouse to select.
Ride your motorbike like a champion. Collect stars to get extra scores. Drive as fast as you can to be the 1st.


text:
Dergé  was van ca. 1640 tot ca. 1910 een Tibetaans koninkrijk in Kham.

Stichting van het koninkrijk in de zeventiende eeuw
Kham had met Amdo deel uitgemaakt van het Tibetaanse rijk van de Yarlung-dynastie. Na de val van het rijk in het midden van de negende eeuw was Kham verdeeld in tientallen clangebieden en vorstendommen die elkaar in steeds wisselende coalities bevochten.

De clan die later de koninklijke familie van Dergé zou worden migreerde in de dertiende eeuw vanuit het zuiden van Tibet naar Kham. De clan claimde zijn afkomst terug te kunnen voeren naar Gar Tongsten, de belangrijkste minister van het Tibetaanse rijk in de tweede helft van de zevende eeuw. De clan bleef enige eeuwen een weliswaar belangrijke, maar op zich niet bijzonder invloedrijke familie.

Omstreeks 1635 wist de familie echter eigenaren van naburige landgoederen hun wil op te leggen en hun bezittingen te veroveren. Daarmee werd de familie de dominante machtsfactor in dat deel van Kham. In 1639 werd hen nog een groot gebied geschonken door Güshri Khan, de leider van de Khoshut-Mongolen. Vanaf dat moment kan er gesproken worden over een koninkrijk Dergé. Het koninkrijk bleef haast drie eeuwen in stand, wist zijn grondgebied in de achttiende eeuw nog een keer te verdubbelen en werd befaamd door de drukkerij van Dergé, de bouw van beroemde kloosters en de aanwezigheid van veel lama 's met indrukwekkende intellectuele prestaties die veel bijdroegen aan de Tibetaanse cultuur.

De feitelijke stichter van koninkrijk rond 1640 was Jampa Püntsok. Hij was een monnik, net als zijn drie opvolgers als koning. Het gebied dat deze monastieke koningen bestuurden werd een  densa  genoemd, enigszins te vergelijken met wat in Nederland een sticht was. Het bestuurlijk en monastiek centrum van Dergé in die periode was de koninklijke tempel van Lhündrup Teng. De koningen waren verbonden aan de sakyatraditie van het Tibetaans boeddhisme

De vijfde koning was Tenpa Tsering ( 1676- 1738). Zijn oudere broer, ook opgeleid als monnik en die koning zou worden overleed. Tenpa Tsering was niet als monnik gewijd. Hij moest nu echter zowel het leiderschap van de monastieke gemeenschap op zich nemen, het koninkrijk besturen en ook nog voor nakomelingen zorgen. In wezen regeerde Tenpa Tsering als een leek, maar hij werd de bekendste monarch in de geschiedenis van Dergé. Er zouden nog twee opvolgers na hem komen die de monnikswijding ontvingen, maar daarna verdween de traditie van de combinatie van monnik en koning.

Ontwikkelingen in de achttiende eeuw
In 1720 verdreef een Chinees leger de Mongoolse stam van de Dzjoengaren uit Centraal-Tibet en Lhasa. Dat is de aanvang van de periode van het Chinese protectoraat over Tibet. In 1724 werd het oostelijk deel van Kham - ongeveer 2/3 deel van het gehele gebied - politiek en administratief onderdeel gemaakt van de provincie Sichuan. Het westelijk deel van Kham - ongeveer 1/3 deel van het gebied - wordt onderdeel van Centraal-Tibet en wordt verondersteld bestuurd te worden vanuit Lhasa. De bovenloop van de Jangtsekiang in het noorden en de Drichu in het zuiden vormden globaal de grens tussen de beide delen van Kham. Het grondgebied van Dergé lag in het oostelijk deel van Kham.

Autoriteit van de Qing-dynastie in het oostelijk deel van Kham was afhankelijk van een netwerk van lokale heersers. (In het Chinees tusi) Zolang deze  tusi  formeel een zekere loyaliteit toonden aan de keizer en vooral de bevolking verhinderden directe belangen van de Qing aan te vallen, konden zij vrijwel ongehinderd hun eigen gang gaan. Tenpa Tsering ontving van de Chinese keizer Yongzheng ( 1678 – 1735) een Chinese titel, die iets als  Grote Vredesbewaarder  betekent, de hoogste titel in Kham. Hij wordt daarmee formeel tribuutplichtig aan de keizer, maar dat verschaft ook alle ruimte om andere lokale heersers aan hem te onderwerpen. In zijn regeerperiode en dat van zijn opvolger werd het grondgebied van het koninkrijk verdubbeld. Dergé werd het rijkste en belangrijkste vorstendom van Kham. In de periode van de koning, Puntsok Tenpa, ( overleden 1751) en de opvolger van Tenpa Tsering werd een geheel nieuwe editie van de tengyur, het tweede deel van de canon van het Tibetaans boeddhisme gedrukt.

In deze periode begint een verschuiving plaats te vinden van de culturele vitaliteit vanuit Centraal-Tibet naar Kham. De burgeroorlogen van de zeventiende en begin achttiende eeuw, de politieke instabiliteit en de maatregelen die noodzakelijk werden geacht de verworven machtspositie van de gelugtraditie in Centraal-Tibet te verankeren, hadden daar voor een ander cultureel klimaat gezorgd. Dat kenmerkte zich onder meer door aanzienlijk minder tolerantie van de gelug ten opzichte van andere geestelijke tradities van het Tibetaans boeddhisme en het ontstaan van een invloedrijke sektarische factie binnen die gelug.

Het gevolg daarvan was, dat tradities, zoals met name de kagyü nieuwe ruimte probeerden te vinden in Kham. De achtste tai situ Chökyi Jungne (1700-1774) was in de achttiende eeuw de belangrijkste tulku van de in de burgeroorlog in Centraal-Tibet verslagen karma kagyütraditie. Hij probeerde in Kham die traditie te doen herleven. Hij wist nabij een al bestaande tempel in Dergé een nieuw klooster Palpung te bouwen. Het klooster werd spoedig een van de grootste centra voor innovaties van wetenschap en kunst van het Tibetaans boeddhisme. Uit die relatie groeide in samenwerking met de sakyatraditie de grootste drukkerij die het historisch cultureel Tibet ooit gekend heeft met beroemde blokdrukken van de kangyur, het eerste deel van de canon van het Tibetaans boeddhisme en het epos van koning Gesar.In 1733 kwam de beroemde Dergé-editie van de kangyur uit, waarvan de blokdrukken nog steeds in de huidige drukkerij aanwezig zijn. Het was in gebieden als Derge dat het niet sektarische ideaal van het Tibetaans boeddhisme uit de 13e en 14e eeuw nog bewaard bleef. De schilderstradities die vanaf de achttiende eeuw in Palpung ontstonden hadden tot in de twintigste eeuw een dominante invloed in de Tibetaanse schilderkunst.

Later in die achttiende eeuw was er enige interne onrust in Dergé. De toenmalige koning en koningin, Kundrub Dega Zangpo ( 1768-1790) en Tsewang Lhamo,( overleden 1812) waren diepreligieuze personen. Zij maakten een pelgrimstocht naar Centraal-Tibet. Daarbij bezochten zij het klooster Samye en ontmoetten daar de befaamde Jigme Lingpa (1729–1798) een kluizenaar uit de nyingmatraditie. De koning en zijn vrouw werden discipelen van hem. Jigme Lingpa weigerde naar Dergé te komen, maar zond een van zijn leerlingen, de eerste Dodrubchen, Jigme Trinle Ozer (1745-1821, die de leermeester van de familie werd.

De koning overleed in 1790 waarna de koningin regent werd voor hun vierjarige zoon. Tijdens die periode laat zij onder meer de  Nyingma Gyubum drukken, de aparte canon van de nyingma-traditie, de enige gedrukte canon van de traditie in het Tibet van voor 1959. Andere nu beroemde blokdrukken die uit die periode dateren zijn de Verzamelde Werken van haar eerste leermeester Jigma Lingpa en een nieuwe editie van de Verzamelde Werken van Longchenpa, de belangrijkste Tibetaanse auteur van de dzogchen. Meerdere tulkus uit die periode hebben over haar geschreven en verzen aan haar opgedragen. De dertiende karmapa Düdül Dorje (1733-1797) noemde haar in de beschrijving van zijn visioenen een emanatie van de godin Tara

Er zijn een aantal aspecten aan het eind van haar leven, waar verschillende bronnen niet eensluidend over zijn. Er is unanimiteit, dat Tsewang Lhamo gedwongen werd afstand te doen van de troon en met haar zoon, de kroonprins Tsewang Dorje Rigdzin in ballingschap gaat . Er zijn bronnen die dit toeschrijven aan een aantal sakya-monniken die toch met enige afgunst gekeken hadden naar de gunsten die de nyingma -traditie ontvangen had. Ook een seksuele relatie tussen haar en de Dodrubchen zou een rol hebben gespeeld. Meer recente research gaat ervan uit, dat dit niet het echte argument kan zijn. Aan het eind van de achttiende eeuw had Dergé het grondgebied verder uitgebreid naar het noorden. Dat bracht het in conflict met een aantal nomadische stammen onder wie met name de Goloks. Die vielen in 1806 het gebied van Dergé binnen. Tsewang Lhamo zou hierop geen adequate actie hebben ondernomen en dit zou de belangrijkste reden voor haar verbanning zijn.

Voor haar dood in 1812 was de kroonprins al enige tijd terug in Dergé. Hij werd in het klooster van de sakya verder opgevoed en later koning Uiteindelijk kwam dit het niet-sectarische ideaal toch ten goede. Tsewang Dorje Rigdzin (1786-1847) werd een aanhanger van alle tradities in het Tibetaans boeddhisme. Hij abdiceert na enige tijd, werd een monnik en schreef het gezaghebbende  De koninklijke genealogie van Dergé  , waarin hij opnieuw het niet- sectarische ideaal profileert.

Ontwikkelingen in de negentiende eeuw
Het verdraagzame intellectuele en religieuze klimaat in Dergé was ook een bepalende factor in het ontstaan van de Rimé-beweging. De naam is afgeleid van twee Tibetaanse woorden: Ris (sektarisme) en Med (weerlegging). In veel literatuur wordt het – volstrekt ten onrechte – beschreven als een oecumenische beweging. In wezen was het een culturele renaissance van de periode van het Tibetaans boeddhisme uit de dertiende en veertiende eeuw.

De beweging trachtte de verschillen tussen geestelijke stromingen binnen het Tibetaans boeddhisme op een meer eclectische wijze te benaderen. De Rimé heeft veel samenvattingen van een groot aantal geschriften uit diverse tradities gepubliceerd. Het doel van de beweging was niet de verschillende stromingen te unificeren, maar de verschillen te erkennen, te waarderen en een dialoog op basis van een gemeenschappelijke culturele erfenis te hebben. Het was de bedoeling een totaal overzicht te geven van de Tibetaanse traditie in al haar verscheidenheid. De beweging werd gedragen door belangrijke tulkus uit de nyingma-, sakya- en karma kagyü-tradtie, aangevuld met enkele vertegenwoordigers van uit de bön. De gelug ontbrak in de beweging.

De belangrijkste iniatiefnemers,Lodrö Thaye ( 1813-1899 en Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820 – 1892 ) waren lange tijd verbonden aan het hof van Dergé. Beiden waren zeer productieve schrijvers en grote verzamelaars van tot dan toe onbekende teksten die in Dergé gedrukt werden. Belangrijke werken daaronder waren de  Schat van de Mondelinge instructies  die over de essentie van meditatie handelde vanuit het gezichtspunt van alle scholen en vooral de encyclopedie van de Schat van Alles wat er te Weten valt . Het laatste werk gaat ervan uit, dat alle boeddhistische geschriften en leerstellingen culmineren in het realiseren van de dzogchen.

De negentiende eeuw was echter ook een periode van endemische stammenstrijd in Kham. In de regeerperiode van de koning Damtsig Dorje (1811-1852), begon een Khampa-warlord van de stam van de Nyarong, Gonpo Namgyal, omringende gebieden te veroveren. In 1860 stond hij met zijn troepen aan de grens van Dergé, dat in 1863 veroverd werd. Verschillende kloosters, clans en facties verzochten zowel China als Tibet om een interventie. China was echter verwikkeld in de Taiping-opstand en de Qing-dynastie had geen mogelijkheden meer militair in Kham in actie te komen. De toenmalige regent in Tibet. Wangchug Gyalpo, besloot een Tibetaanse troepenmacht vanuit Centraal-Tibet naar Kham te zenden. Uiteindelijk gaf Gonpo Namgyal zich over.

De Tibetaanse regering in Lhasa stelde over Derge en omgeving een eigen Tibetaanse gouverneur aan. Dergé en omgeving zou tot 1908 formeel onder het gezag van Lhasa vallen. Er werden harde straffen opgelegd aan lama's en kloosters die verdacht werden van medewerking aan Gompo Namgyal. Het harde autoritaire bewind vanuit Lhasa in deze periode heeft de aanzet gegeven tot meerdere bewegingen in de 20e eeuw - tot diep in de Tibetaanse diaspora - voor een onafhankelijke Khampa-staat, onafhankelijk van Peking, maar ook van Lhasa.

De inval van Gompo Namgyal en de Tibetaanse interventie had de balans tussen de belangen van de monarchie, de monastieke grootgrondbezitters en de stamhoofden verstoord. Vanaf dat tijdstip zouden diverse groeperingen in Dergé hun belang op basis van politieke opportuniteit verbinden aan óf de regering in Lhasa dan wel aan de Chinese gouverneur-generaal van de provincie Sichuan.
Enige tijd na de Tibetaanse interventie maakte de koning Chime Dagpai Dorje ( 1840-1898) een tocht met dertig stamhoofden naar Centraal-Tibet. Tijdens deze reis doodde een van de stamhoofden een staflid van de nog altijd in Centraal-Tibet aanwezige Chinese amban. Ondanks hevige oppositie van de stamhoofden leverde de koning de dader uit. Terug in Dergé bleek, dat de stamhoofden het gezag van de koning niet meer accepteerden.

De koning beriep zich op de titel  Grote Vredesbewaarder  , die ooit door Yongzheng aan zijn voorganger Puntsok Tenpa was verleend en vroeg steun aan de gouverneur-generaal van de provincie Sichuan. Het gezonden Chinese leger was echter te gering in omvang om de rebellerende stamhoofden te verslaan. Uiteindelijk vonden er onderhandelingen plaats. Die hadden tot resultaat dat de koning en zijn vrouw verbannen werden naar Chengdu waar hij 1898 overleed. Volgens sommige bronnen in de gevangenis aldaar. Er brak een strijd om de opvolging uit tussen zijn twee zoons, Dorje Senkel en Djembel Rinchen.

Na de Britse Veldtocht in Tibet in 1903 en 1904 was de Chinese regering ervan overtuigd, dat de Britten ieder moment Tibet tot een Brits protectoraat zouden kunnen maken, zoals bijvoorbeeld met Bhutan en Sikkim was gebeurd of zelfs een volgende invasie zouden kunnen ondernemen die rechtstreeks China zou kunnen betreffen. De enige manier om dat te voorkomen was opnieuw autoriteit over Tibet uit te oefenen. De eerste stap was om de situatie in Kham te gaan controleren. Zhao Erfeng kreeg de opdracht de positie van China in Kham te herstellen en die te consolideren. Dorje Senkel vroeg in de strijd met zijn broer ondersteuning van Zhao Erfeng, Het resultaat was dat die broer, Djembel Rinchen, gedwongen werd tot een ballingschap. In ruil voor een riante jaarlijkse toelage ging Dorje Senkel in 1910 akkoord met een soevereiniteitsoverdracht van Dergé aan de provincie Sichuan. Dat was in feite het eind van het koninkrijk Dergé. Er zouden later in de twintigste eeuw nog een aantal personen zijn die zich koning van Dergé noemden, maar daar was geen enkele vorm van autoriteit meer mee verbonden.

Ontwikkelingen van het gebied Dergé na 1910

De dertiende dalai lama riep in 1911 na de feitelijke val van de Qing-dynastie de onafhankelijkheid van Centraal-Tibet uit. In 1912 werd de Republiek China uitgeroepen. De dalai lama zag voor zich zelf als missie om zo veel mogelijk etnische Tibetanen onder gezag van de regering van Tibet te krijgen. In de periode tot en met 1917 waren er herhaaldelijk militaire conflicten met China over de afbakening tussen oostelijk en westelijk Kham. In die periode was dan ook meermalen sprake van een andere  de facto grens. In 1917 werd bij de wapenstilstand van Rongbatse een grens afgesproken, die vrijwel identiek is aan de situatie van 1863. Dergé kwam weer onder het gezag van de Tibetaanse regering in Lhasa.

In 1930 braken weer vijandelijkheden uit. De Tibetanen boekten aanvankelijk grote militaire successen. Er werden grote gebieden ten oosten van de Yangtse veroverd en in 1931 stonden de Tibetaanse troepen zelfs in de nabijheid van Dartsedo, ver in het oosten van Kham. Eind 1931 wist de Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui van Sichuan zijn troepen te hergroeperen en dreef het Tibetaanse leger terug. In juli 1932 verloren de Tibetanen weer de controle over Derge en in oktober van dat jaar werd er een wapenstilstand overeengekomen, waarbij de grens tussen het oostelijk en westelijk deel van Kham exact dezelfde werd als ruim 200 jaar daarvoor in 1724. Daarbij verloor de regering in Lhasa opnieuw de controle over Dergé. Die grens is ook de huidige tussen de provincies Tibet (de zogenaamde Tibetaanse Autonome Regio) en Sichuan

Geschiedenis van Tibet
Sichuan
Derge


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New Spring Wheat Growth The Palouse Near Colfax Washington Photographic Print On Canvas By Dennis Frates
Home » New Spring Wheat Growth The Palouse Near Colfax Washington Photographic Print On Canvas By Dennis Frates
The Palouse near Colfax Canvas Prints
The Palouse near Colfax Canvas Prints The Palouse is a region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of southeastern Washington, north central Idaho and, in some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primarily producing wheat and legumes. Situated about 160 miles (260 km) north of the Oregon Trail, the region experienced rapid growth in the late 19th century, and at one time, the population of the Palouse surpassed even that of the Puget Sound area as the most populous region of the state. The region is home to two land grant universities, the University of Idaho in Moscow and Washington State University in Pullman. Located just eight miles (13 km) apart, both schools opened in the early 1890s. Colfax is the county seat of Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,805 at the 2010 census. It is situated amidst wheat-covered hills in a valley at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Palouse River. U.S. Route 195, which forms the town's main street, intersects with State Route 26 at the north end of town; in the past, Colfax also lay at the junction of three major railway lines. It was named after Schuyler Colfax, the vice president from 1869-73. Traditionally, the Palouse region was defined as the fertile hills and prairies north of the Snake River, which separated it from Walla Walla County, and north of the Clearwater River, which separated it from the Camas Prairie, extending north along the Washington and Idaho border, south of Spokane, centered on the Palouse River.


This small development of just 23 detached villas is located in a quiet residential area just a few minutes walk from all the shops, bars, restaurants, supermarkets, sports facilities and medical centre in the highly desirable coastal town of San Pedro Del Pinatar. The villas are located between the main town of San Pedro and its beach area of Lo Pagan making it an easy walk to beaches, bars and restaurants here as well. The properties are either West facing over as park or East facing over open fields to the Sea. There are sea views from the roof solarium.
The protected natural park of San Pedro Salt Lakes with its large population of pink flamingos and large modern marina with shops, bars, restaurants, diving and boating centres is also just a short distance away.
These very spacious properties offer nearly 150m2 of living space distributed over 2 floors and come complete with a private roof solarium, private 6x3m pool and traced and landscaped gardens included in the base price.
The showhouse which is fully equipped and furnished is also currently available ready to move in for just €292,000.
We have received your request regarding the property reference: SPED ECO DV 3B. One of our agents will contact you as soon as possible.


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3. AdS 4 dyonic black holes in gravity's rainbow / Panahiyan, S. ; Hendi, S.H. ; Riazi, N.
8. Three dimensional magnetic solutions in massive gravity with (non)linear field / Hendi, S.H. ; Eslam Panah, B. ; Panahiyan, S. ; Momennia, M.
9. Dilatonic black holes in gravity's rainbow with a nonlinear source: the effects of thermal fluctuations / Hendi, S. H. ; Panah, B. Eslam ; Panahiyan, S. ; Momennia, M.
10. Phase Transition of Black Holes in Brans–Dicke Born–Infeld Gravity through Geometrical Thermodynamics / Hendi, S. H. ; Talezadeh, M. S. ; Armanfard, Z.


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Daily Graphic Editorials
Let's learn from Battor Catholic Hospital
Date: Jun 18 , 2018 , 12:46
All over the world, the incidence of cancers, as well as other diseases, is on the rise, with both men and women not being spared the ravages of these killer diseases.
Ministry must remove bottlenecks to railway redevelopment
BY: Zadok K. Gyesi
Movement of goods and services is one facet of human endeavour that is carried out daily in all parts of the world. This is done through road, rail, water and air transport.
Happy Eid-ul-Fitr
Muslims throughout the world are celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast, which is marked after the Holy month of Ramadan.
Mental patients' families must partner caregivers
Mental illness is by far the biggest health challenge that confronts economies of the world. The World Health Organisation, in 2010, said the illness cost the world $2.5 trillion that year, while it is projected to cost about $6 trillion by 2030.
Use this case to cleanse system
Chilling stories, sorrowful narratives, grief-stricken descriptions — all about the loss of a breadwinner, companion, mother, father or a loved one.
Galamsey fight for our collective good
Ghana has been hit hard by illegal mining because of the wanton destruction of our environment that comes with the illegal practice.
We can solve plastic waste problem
The issue of plastic waste has assumed a worldwide dimension, with dire consequences for the environment and causing climate change that appears not to go away, in spite of efforts by nations and environmental experts to deal with the problems.
Agric census, vital initiative
BY: Graphic.com.gh
At the mention of the word census, many minds are directed at the counting of people within an area or a country. Generally, census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population.
GFA exposé must teach us lessons
Corruption is an age-old problem whose antidote has been very difficult to find.
We await roll-out strategy for Ghana Card
The eventual take-off of the registration for and issuance of the Ghana Card to Ghanaians last Monday, after its abortive start on May 28, is welcome news, indeed.
Resolution of EC standoff can't wait any longer
From its inception as the Independent National Electoral Commission to its renaming as the Electoral Commission (EC), the election regulation body has done a lot to enhance the democratic dispensation of the country.
Redouble effort in curbing hunger
End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture are part of the Sustainable Development Goal Two (SDG 2) that seeks to end hunger.
Peacekeepers must live above reproach
The importance of peace to the advancement of societies and the world at large cannot be overemphasised. There has never been progress in societies where violence and lawlessness are a part of their existence.
Let's improve packaging, preservation of farm produce
Ghana is known to be an agricultural country because about 60 per cent of its labour force is engaged in the sector. In spite of the fact that the country has a total land area of about 23.9 million hectares, 57 per cent of which is suitable for agriculture, it is yet to realise its full potential in that area.
African states must fight crime, promote trade
Today, Ghana joins the rest of Africa to celebrate 55 years of the founding of the African Union (AU), originally the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
The growth should be sustained
Over the past one and a half years, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has progressively eased its hitherto extremely tight monetary policy stance, seeking to balance its key inflation targeting objective with support for faster economic growth.
Let's register for our Ghana Cards
BY: Getrude Ankah Nyavi
Development everywhere has never occurred in a vacuum; it has happened because of well thought-out programmes and policies that have consciously been followed.
We need confidence in banking sector
The banking sector has generated a lot of heat and anxiety among stakeholders in the financial services industry following interventions by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to ensure that the banks do the proper thing in the course of their work.
One million target on course
Though the issue of who first brought cocoa to the Gold Coast has come under serious debate, we know that after Tetteh Quarshie had brought the seeds from Fernando Po and planted them, other people took some of the seeds and planted them.
Solvency and liquidity: key watchwords
BY: Graphic Business
Since August last year, when the Bank of Ghana (BoG) applied the stick by revoking the licences of two banks, namely UT Bank and Capital Bank, a lot of premium is now placed on issues relating to the banking sector.
Let's maintain the integrity of news
Last Wednesday, at a media awards dinner organised to present the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize as part of this year's World Press Freedom Day hosted by Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo touched on a very important element of news dissemination that has been under attack of late.


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"Future generations ought to know this was a different kind of war," said Doris Stacy, 86. "Everybody got behind it."
Created by Congress in 2000, the Veterans History Project seeks to collect and preserve the personal accounts of American veterans and the civilians who actively supported war efforts.
Locally, Cargill and fellow volunteers Joy Becker and Jerry Deitz have interviewed more than 100 Central Coast residents. At first, Cargill said, veterans are often reluctant to tell their stories.
"You get a lot of hesitancy," she said. "Either they think they didn't do anything or they don't want to talk about it. … They just don't think it's a big deal."
"(The goal is) to get the personal story of the veteran," Cargill said, "not his unit's story, not his commander's story, but … what it was like for him."
Cargill first heard about the Veterans History Project through a support group for the wives of Vietnam veterans.
Since 2000, the Santa Maria woman has interviewed 96 people, ranging from World War II veterans in their 80s and 90s to soldiers recently returned from Iraq.
Becker, a San Luis Obispo resident, conducted her first interview in January and has logged about a dozen since then.
"It's been a wonderful experience," she said. "With every (story), I feel like I have a whole life adventure to explore."
Most of the interviews take place in a cozy room in the Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum, located at the back of the San Luis Obispo Veterans Memorial Building.
There, amid military recruitment posters, paintings and a framed speech by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, veterans share their stories on camera.
On Tuesday, Becker sat down with Herbert "Herb" Alloway, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served as principal at C.L. Smith, Monarch Grove and Morro Elementary schools.
Alloway described his experience as an airman, first class, between 1959 and 1965 — undergoing basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and serving as a comptroller at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and Osan Air Base in Korea.
Although the 69-year-old didn't see combat, he remembers Cold War tensions running high.
"People's nerves were really on edge," recalled Alloway, whose duties included blowing up the Osan base's finance building if North Korea were to attack.
Veterans' stories can range from funny anecdotes about boot camp hijinks to harrowing accounts of battlefield bloodshed.
Cargill remembers interviewing one World War II vet who fought in the Battle of Luzon in the Philippines. Positioning his arms and hands as if he were holding a rifle, "He looked at me and said, 'I had to shoot them or they would have killed me,' " Cargill recalled. "Tears were pouring out of his eyes."
"The ones that really affect me are the ones that get really emotional," she added, noting that many veterans are relating their experiences for the first time. "I feel very privileged to share in that emotion, in that vulnerability."
Time running out
After each interview, which typically takes an hour and a half, the volunteers send one digital copy to the veteran and another to the Library of Congress. A third joins the museum's public collection.
Becker and Cargill place a special emphasis on collecting the stories of World War II veterans — who, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, are dying at an estimated rate of 1,000 or more a day.
"I think these stories are precious and will be in the future," Cargill said, just like letters from the American Civil War. "They're all memorable. They're all very interesting."