text:
EU Commissioner urges tougher checks on citizenship bids
August 7, 2018 at 10:36am
The EU says member states need to keep an eye on the number of citizenships they hand out in exchange for investment, with Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova warning that citizenships for sale represent a security threat.
In an interview with the German daily Die Welt on Tuesday, EU Justice Commissioner urged EU countries to be more cautious when granting citizenships.
Jourova said an increasing number of EU member states had been issuing citizenship to third-country nationals if they had previously invested large sums of money in their respective countries.
The Commission was "extremely concerned" about the escalation of "golden passports," being offered, the Czech politician said.
"The granting of citizenship poses a serious security risk because it gives beneficiaries all the rights of EU citizens and allows them to move freely throughout the Union. We do not want Trojan horses in the EU," Jourova told the daily
"Some Member States must do more to ensure that citizenship is not granted to criminals who want to endanger European security or launder money. The EU must not become a safe haven for criminals, corruption and dirty money," she continued.
The newspaper singled out Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Bulgaria, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia and Hungary as examples of EU states that had handed out a significant number of citizenships to wealthy Russians, Chinese, Africans and Turkish people in exchange for investment.
Jourova insisted member states needed to "quickly adopt" new EU laws on combating money laundering.
"We don't want any trojan horses in the EU," she said. "Some member states must do more to ensure citizenship is not awarded to criminals."
Previous PostPerseids meteor shower promise magical nights
Next PostBill allows posting court summons on house doors


text:
Whiskey Shivers are coming back to the Netherlands in June
Saskatchewan is how it sounds: A province in the prairies of Canada. Sixteen times the size of NL, but with less than one million residents. Lots of nature, and lots of silence. Perhaps lots of time to fill the silence with natural sounds, too.
This is where the quartet The Dead South comes from, and fits perfectly within this description. The debut album Good Company revealed the four hatted, hairy and bearded fellas, with singer Nate Hilts as a focal point. The album is a perfect fit to the genres Folk, Neo-Folk and Bluegrass-Folk or even alternative Country with refreshing tunes to it.
The first album really was a promise that is now fulfilled with the new release titled Illusion & Doubt. No doubt the four piece from the prairies has matured. Harmony changes as well as excellent and virtuosic instrumental parts have been added to their incredible energetic, passionate and sometimes surprisingly catchy melodies.
This month the band is playing five shows in the Benelux and all ticketed shows have sold out way in advance. There is three free shows for you to attend though:
06-NOV: Aarschot (BE) @ Live In De Loods
23-NOV: Brugge (BE) @ Charlie Rockets
24-NOV: Eindhoven (NL) @ Wilhelmina - SOLD OUT
25-NOV: Den Haag (NL) @ Zwarte Ruiter
26-NOV: Utrecht (NL) @ TivoliVredenburg / Cloud 9 - SOLD OUT
Related artist: The Dead South back

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


SURVEY ON UNDERWATER ACOUSTIC SENSOR NETWORKS TO MAXIMIZE TARGET COVERAGE BY USING EFFICIENT CAMERA SELECTION.
OPINION MINING AND SENTIC ANALYSIS IN SOCIAL NETWORK BASED ON ELM.
TEACHER JOB SATISFACTION AS A MOTIVATIONAL TOOL FOR SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS: AN ASSESSMENT OF PRIVATE BASIC SCHOOLS IN GHANA .
SHELTERED ENERGY AWARE ROUTING AGAINST BLACK HOLE ATTACK .
AN ENHANCED CROSS LAYER SCHEME FOR BACK OFF ATTACK AND NETWORK LAYER MISBEHAVIOR DETECTION IN MANET .
QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION TAXONOMY FOR TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS.
A NOVEL HYBRID FEATURE EXTRACTION TECHNIQUE FOR CONTENT BASED IMAGE RETRIEVAL.


text:
Home Woman
Full sheet with Poem by Wallasse Ting
Artist: Claes Oldenburg American (1929-)
Title: Woman
Plate: 1C.41
Description: Condition A+
Original lithograph on white wove paper
From the One Cent Life Portfolio
From edition of 2000
Printed by Maurice Beaudet, Paris, 1964
Published by E.W. Kornfield, Bern, Switzerland
Artist's initials in plate lower right
Unnumbered as issued
Unobtrusive center vertical fold as issued
Shipped boxed flat.
Certificate of Authenticity.
Image Size: 11 in x 11 1/2 in 28 cm x 29.2 cm
Sheet Size: 11 1/2 in x 16 1/8 in 29.2 cm x 40.9 cm
Price: Temporarily out of stock
I can usually source this poster. If you are interested please contact me. Greg
11 in x 11 1/2 in 28 cm x 29.2 cm / 11 1/2 in x 16 1/8 in 29.2 cm x 40.9 cm - Sold
Liquid error (sections/product-template.liquid line 253): Could not find asset snippets/icon-error.liquid Quantity must be 1 or more
"I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something more than sit on its ass in a museum." Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg came to New York City from his hometown of Chicago in 1956, when he was twenty-seven years old. Initially aiming to make his mark as a painter, by 1960 he had changed his mind: the way to upend the art of his time was through sculpture—sculpture of a sort never seen before. The results are some of the most audacious and provocative art objects of the twentieth century. Crudely rendered, as if by a child, Oldenburg's sculptures and drawings presented an abstracted version of reality, "a mixture of things as they are and things as they are imagined to be. (momo.org)
Portfolio Cover by Lichtenstein
One Cent Life Portfolio
The 1964 One Cent Life Portfolio was written by Walasse Ting, edited by Sam Francis, and published by E.W. Kornfeld. This ambitious project of loose limited edition color lithographs, beautifully incorporates American Pop and European Expressionism.
See Greg's collection of One Cent Life
The complete portfolio includes 62 original lithographs by Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Enrico Baj, Alan Davie, Jim Dine, Sam Francis, Robert Indiana, Asger Jorn, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean-Paul Riopelle, James Rosenquist, Antonio Saura, Bram Van Velde, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann and other American and European POP artists.
"It very quickly became the manifesto of a new generation of painters and the expression of the new pictorial research that they were engaged in…." (Gemini Fine Books & Arts, Ltd.)


In software, one of our favorite tool to deal with uncertainty is iterations. But is it always the better option?
The last week I've got the question two times of how to address critical in deliveries from subcontractors. For example: hardware, preparation of land, machinery, buildings or third party platform updates. How can these be addressed? Do iterations hold the answer? Are there better options?
Let me introduce lean flow thinking and show how it can be used to improve the outcome of critical third party in deliveries in your projects.
Here are the slides from my session "Multi-team sprint planning" from Scrum Gathering 2008 in Stockholm.
Here is all the other material from the Scrum Gathering. Interesting stuff!
Many companies with existing legacy code bases bump into a huge impediment when they want to get agile: lack of test automation.
Without test automation it is very hard to make changes in the system, because things break without anybody noticing. When the new release goes live, the defects are discovered by the real users, causing embarrassment and expensive hotfixing. Or even worse, a chain of hotfixes because each hotfix introduces new unanticipated defects.
This makes the team terribly afraid to change code, and therefore relucant to improve the design of the code, which leads to a downward spiral of worse and worse code as the system grows.
Ignore the problem. Let the system decline into entropy death, and hope that nobody needs it by then.
Rebuild the system from scratch using test-driven development (TDD) to ensure good test coverage.
Let the team improve test coverage a little bit each sprint.
Guess which approach usually works best? Yep, the last one – improve test coverage a little bit each sprint. At least in my experience.
The third option may sound tempting, but it is risky. Who's going to do the test automation? A separate team? If so, does that mean the other developers don't need to learn how to automate tests? That's a problem. Or is the whole team doing the test automation project? In that case their velocity (from a business perspective) is 0 until they are done. So when are they done? When does test automation "end"?
No, let's get back to the fourth option. Improve test coverage a little bit each sprint. So, how to do that in practice?
Automate a few tests each sprint, starting from the highest priority.
First classify your test cases by risk. Look at your list of tests. Ignore the cost of manual testing for the moment. Now what if you could throw away half of the tests, and never execute them? Which tests would you keep? This factor is a combination of the probability of failure and cost of failure.
Highlight the risky tests, the ones that keep you awake at night.
Now think about how long each test takes to execute manually. Which half of the tests take the longest? Highlight those.
Finally, think about how much work it is to write a automation scripts for each test. Highlight the most expensive half.
So, which test do you think we should automate first? Should we automate "Change skin" which is low-risk, easy to test manually, and difficult to automate? Or should we automate "Block account" which is high risk, difficult to test manually, and easy to automate? That's a fairly easy decision.
But here's a more difficult decision. Should we automate "Validate transfer" which is high-risk, hard to test manually, and hard to automate? Or should we automate "Deposit cash" which also is high-risk, but easy to test manually and easy to automate? That decision is context dependent.
Which do you automate first? The high risk test that is easy to test manually, or the low risk test that is difficult to test manually?
Which do you automate first? The test that is easy to do manually and easy to automate, or the test that is hard to do manually and hard to automate?
Which do you automate first? The high risk test that is hard to automate, or the low risk test that is easy to automate?
Those decisions will give you a prioritization of your categories, which in turn lets you sort your list of test cases by priority. In my example I decided to prioritize manual cost first, then risk, then automation cost.
So that's it! A prioritized backlog of test automation stories.
You could of course also invent some kind of calculation algorithm. A simple such algorithm is that each highlighted cell = 1 point. Then you just add upp each row and sort. Or just sort the list manually using gut feel.
You could also use a more specific unit for each category, if my simple binary scheme isn't sufficient.
Remember though that our goal for the moment is just to prioritize the list. If you can do that with a simple and crude categorization scheme then there's no need to complicate things right? Analysis is useful but over-analysis is just a waste of time.
Irregardless of the stuff above, each new product backlog story should include test automation at the story level. That's the XP practice known as "customer acceptance tests". Not doing that is what got your system into this mess in the first place.
The exact form of the agreement doesn't matter. You can change it every sprint if you like. The important thing is that the test automation debt is being gradually repaid, step by step.
After finishing half the stories on your test automation backlog you might decide that "hey, we've paid back enough debt now! Let's just skip the rest of the old test cases, they're not worth automating anyway", and dump the rest. Congratulations!
So this solves the problem?
Index card generator – version 2!
Many people use a spreadsheet to house their Scrum Product Backlog. That works quite fine. However, during sprint planning meetings it is usually much more effective to use physical index cards. See my book Scrum and XP from the Trenches for the reasoning behind this.
Here's a simple tool that generates printable index cards in A5 format directly from your Excel-based product backlog. Thanks Stefan Nijenhuis for making this available!
There is nothing to install. This is simply an Excel document containing a product backlog and a "generate index cards" button.
For more info, see the readme inside the document.
This version requires only Microsoft Excel. The previous version required both Excel and Access.
Here's another excel-based index card generator from Claudio Gambetti. Contains a few extra features such as tracks (a.k.a. themes) and components, as mentioned in my book. You choose your flavor. Thanks for contributing this Claudio!
Thanks David Vujic for making this available.
I've written up a page with a pretty graphical summary of what Planning Poker is.


Deliciously rich tobacco flavor drizzled in sweet, sticky honey Our unique and original Vapor Select Black Honey Tobacco E-Liquid never disappoints!
This is by far our favorite product. My online shopping experience was easy and expedient. I used the online chat feature to find out how to access "My Rewards" to claim a credit I was given after my previous order. It a pleasure to be a VaporLounge customer.
Great service - was delivered fast and great price. I will be ordering again.


Capitol Hill Hotel is located in close proximity to the Washington Monument and the Tidal Basin—great for taking wedding photos under Washington D.C.'s iconic cherry trees. When the night is over, retreat to one of our chic guest suites to enjoy your night as a newly married couple.
Wedding Room Blocks in Washington D.C.
Capitol Hill Hotel's stylish guest rooms and convenient location are ideal for hosting out-of-towners here for your big day. Our spacious suites can host everyone from couples to families to friends traveling together, and we also offer kid-friendly amenities for those traveling with little ones. Continental breakfast and Wi-Fi are included with your room rate and fees, and we will also make sure your guests have all the wedding weekend essentials: irons and ironing boards, lots of closet space, kitchen or kitchenettes for storing snacks and pre-wedding bubbly, and plenty of in-room coffee for the morning after!


This year the theme was 'a Royal Occasion' as our guest speaker was Siobhan Clarke, a royal historian based at Hampton Court Palace. In keeping with current happenings, her talk was on the significance of royal babies through the ages which was very much enjoyed by all the ladies present.
Before lunch Jan Costello, a patient from our Vitality Centre, shared her story, outlining how St. Rocco's has supported her through every step of her journey and highlighting the important friendships she has made with other patients along the way. Her story really struck a chord with those present and many ladies both commented on Jan's bravery in sharing her story and also on how they had no idea of all the different kinds of support and care that we can offer to patients.
Thank you to all the local businesses and organisations who kindly donated fabulous raffle and tombola prizes and to those who had stalls on the day. So far the event has raised over £4,000.


The Horned Frogs are last in the Big 12 and have dropped five straight. The Vols are a middling 10-10 overall and 3-5 in SEC play. This will be an easy one to skip, unless you want to watch Tennessee's Kevin Punter, who is averaging 22.9 points a game.
Auburn has the 302nd-ranked scoring defense in the nation, allowing 78.2 points per game. But they like to chuck up the three-pointers (9.6 per game, 20th in the nation). The Cowboys have the Big 12's second-worst scoring offense (70.8 points per game), but might be able to pick up that average. Auburn is 9-10, while Oklahoma State is 10-10. Not exactly a Bubble Watch type of game.
As strong as the Big 12 has been this season, it's no stretch to think that seven teams might back the NCAA Tournament. Thing is, the Wildcats are currently the seventh-place team with an uninspiring 12-8 record. They are 53rd in the NCAA's RPI. Ole Miss is 103rd in that RPI, so this won't be a resume builder for the Wildcats, but it's one they need to win if they harbor NCAA hopes. The Rebels' Stefan Moody returned Wednesday after suffering a hamstring injury, and he is sixth in the nation in scoring (24.3 points a game).
The Hogs are averaging 82.3 points per game but they are allowing 76.1 per contest. It's all part of the "Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball" they play under coach Mike Anderson. Tech has lost six of seven and played just four true road games this season. There's a good chance they'll have trouble keeping up.
The Bulldogs are 1-4 on the road and that victory was at Mizzou. They've lost at home to K-State in December and Chattanooga in November. Only Missouri and Alabama are scoring fewer points per game in the SEC. Meanwhile, the Bears are averaging 80.2 points per game and is solid on the boards, with a rebound margin of 10.3, the ninth-best in the nation. Rico Gathers is averaging 10.7 rebounds a game.
The Longhorns are 10-1 at home, having lost to UConn in December. This month, they've beaten West Virginia and Iowa State, and hung around at Kansas into the second half. Vandy is a 12-8, which includes a seven-point loss to KU in Hawaii and a two-point loss at Baylor. The Commodores could surprise the Longhorns or at the very least keep things interesting.
The Mountaineers rebound well (their 10.1 margin is 10th-best in the country), are 22nd in scoring defense (63.6 points per game) and have that press that can give teams fits. The Gators are allowing 64.7 points per game (37th in the country) and they will try to slow things down. While Florida is fifth in the SEC with a 5-3 record, they are 9-1 at home and have won four straight in Gainesville.
This is a contrast in styles. The Aggies are allowing just 63.8 points a game (24th fewest in the nation). The Cyclones are 12th in the country in scoring, averaging 84.4 points per game. Iowa State is coming off an emotional win over KU on "Big Monday," and is 4-4 in games in Texas during the regular season over the last two seasons. Texas A&M is 13th in the nation, winning by an average of 14.6 points per game.
This is two of college basketball's blue bloods. However, KU is in fourth place in the Big 12, while the Wildcats are the 20th-ranked team in the nation. Everyone settle down. I'm just having a little fun. This game will be a blast. A few weeks ago, it seemed like the Jayhawks would win this one easily. But since a loss to Auburn on Jan. 16, the Wildcats have won three straight by an average of 22.3 points. KU has struggled of late (by its standards), but both teams should bring out the best in the other.
Perhaps this is a surprise, but two of the nation's best players will be on display. The Sooners' Buddy Hield is averaging 25.9 points a game (second in the nation) and his 79 three-pointers are the third-most in the country. LSU freshman Ben Simmons 19.8 points per game and is third in the nation, grabbing 12.7 rebounds per game. These guys are both going to be in the NBA soon, so enjoy watching them face off on Saturday.


Being still is something at which I've never excelled. My dad tells me that when I was a small child, they practically had to tie me down to the ground to keep me from floating off into space. "You were always bouncing," he says. Oh how much my own child is like me!
I think all of this Go! Go! Go! energy has seeped into every part of my life. And sometimes I'm too far gone gone gone I've run passed the point of no return. I feel that I must always be doing something in my work life (makes sense, need to eat) and personal life. Make it happen. I'm a Make It Happen kind of person.
Unfortunately, with all of this act of activity it doesn't give my self much chance to quietly listen or read the world around me. I don't, in fact, need to be in motion or in the act of planning. Stop. Listen. Do nothing.
And boy is that nearly an impossibility.
In both my personal life and work life, I'm feeling that gut instinct tell me to stop. Like a sigh or as subtle as a breath.
And see what happens instead.


text:
For an African entrepreneurial area
November 22, 2016 · by The Council on Business & Society	· in The Academic Eye.	·
Prof. Hamid Bouchikhi, Director of the ESSEC Impact Entrepreneurship Center, asserts that for an African entrepreneurial area to materialize requires in-depth work with the younger generations. Because innovative entrepreneurs are, for the most part, young graduates from higher education, the mental setting up of an African entrepreneurial area calls for massive encouragement of infra-African student mobility…
The flagging pace of advanced economies and the slowdown observed among the BRICS countries has turned gazes towards Africa whose demographic vitality, the emergence of a solvable middle class and economic growth rates that are hardly dreamt of elsewhere, we rightly admire. The development, throughout the continent, of a new generation of innovative, ambitious, self-confident entrepreneurs, connected to the world and perfectly harnessing new technologies, leads us to hope in the beginning of an African development model which is less dependent on public or foreign investment and the beholder of stronger local innovation.
However, it should be noted that ambitious African neo-entrepreneurs are coming up against numerous endogenous obstacles representing real competitive disadvantages in relation to their American, Asiatic or European counterparts.
Too long to enumerate, the remainder of this article will be devoted to the adverse effects of the extreme fragmentation of the African continent, a major stumbling block to the development of an African entrepreneurial area.
Globalize the African approach
There where an American, Chinese, European or Indian entrepreneur operates on a continental, even world level, African entrepreneurs operate in a much narrower domestic space which reduces their potential market and prevents them, practically, from accessing sources of financing and talent in other African countries. In truth, intra-African movements of people and resources are so complicated that an African entrepreneur with a major innovation can much more easily deal with other continents, even move there, and thereby exacerbate the brain drain which penalizes African economic development to such a great extent.
The initiatives to make Africa a large entrepreneurial and economic area are many and we can all think of administrative measures and agreements that have sought to render intra-African movement more free-flowing. Nevertheless, these initiatives, some of which are already in place, are meaningless if they are not activated by entrepreneurs having internalized Africa as their natural field of action. Otherwise said, the African entrepreneurial area must first root itself in the mindsets of those entrepreneurs active on the continent. Having taken part in events gathering together young African entrepreneurs, I have regularly observed that that the continent constitutes a blind spot in their field of vision. As a large majority, they have no direct experience with other African countries and lack networks even though they may be very connected with players on the American or European continents where, very often, they have studied or even worked for many years.
Collaborative entrepreneurship
Consequently, for an African entrepreneurial area to materialize requires an enormous effort to be made with the younger generations. Because innovative entrepreneurs are, for the most part, young graduates from higher education, the mental setting up of an African entrepreneurial area calls for massive encouragement of infra-African student mobility.
The study of several statistical sources from African higher education gives room for hope. According to estimates from the World Bank, the continent counts 18 to 20 million students in higher education. If we consider that the proportion of future entrepreneurs is 5% within this population, there would be one million potential entrepreneurs on African campuses! Compared to their counterparts on the other continents, African students are more mobile (5.7% according to UNESCO) but almost exclusively choose European, American and, recently, Asiatic destinations. Orienting 6% of students towards countries on the continent for all or part of their studies would mean exposing, each year, 60,000 potential entrepreneurs to Africa (6% of one million).
The level of these figures demonstrates the interest and the necessity for a voluntarist effort to produce an African Erasmus able to encourage and facilitate the intra-continental mobility of students. Initiatives exist and should grow more. The European Union has set up an intra-academic mobility program for the ACP areas (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific). For lack of a public assessment of this initiative, the elements available point to it not having (yet?) had the expected impact. The African component of the Erasmus Mundus program seems, for its part, much more used – something that can be easily understood given that it is addressed to African students wishing to study in Europe.
The MINDS institute, headed by Graça Machel Mandela, has announced the launch, in 2017, of a program closely resembling Erasmus by and for Africans. It should be hoped that the institute finds the necessary financing and, especially, the effective means to better 'sell' continental destinations to young African students. The scale of the continent and the rapid growth in higher education headcount require other initiatives, notably private establishments, both profit and non-profit, which have reached a critical mass in Africa and enjoy wider margins of freedom to form trans-frontier African partnerships.
The media must also contribute to the intra-continental mobility of students by the highlighting of pockets of higher education and research excellence which exist throughout Africa, and by the celebration, under various forms, of young innovative entrepreneurs having had a direct experience with other African countries and for whom this experience has served as a stepping stone in an entrepreneurial adventure.
The ESSEC Impact Entrepreneurship Center
OECD Entrepreneurship figures
Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS)
With acknowledgement to ESSEC Knowledge
The Council on Business & Society Global Alliance is an ongoing international dialogue between four of the world's leading business schools and an organiser of Forums focusing on issues at the crossroads of business and society – The Council Community helps bring together business leaders, academics, students and journalists from around the world. #CouncilonBusinessandSociety
Tags: Africa, African entrepreneur, COP22, Council Community, Council on Business & Society, entrepreneurship, ESSEC Business School, FGV/EAESP, Fudan School of Management, Keio Business School, Professor Hamid Bouchikhi
← Doing good by doing well: A window on Moroccan businesses and the energy challenge
Do Gender Stereotypes Influence Financial Decisions? →


A burning toaster was to blame for a kitchen fire in Bridgnorth.
Fire crews were called to an address in Harley Way shortly before 7pm on Monday but when they arrived the flames had been put out.
Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service sent two crews from the town and Much Wenlock along with an operations officer to the scene.
In another incident a crew from Cleobury Mortimer Fire Station were called to a report of a tree fire, in Beaveney Wood, at 5.45pm only to find that it was a false alarm.
The service said, "the fire was a controlled burn with the occupier in attendance. No action required by fire service personnel."
The fire fighters left the area shortly after 6pm.


text:
/*
 * Hibernate Validator, declare and validate application constraints
 *
 * License: Apache License, Version 2.0
 * See the license.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>.
 */
package org.hibernate.validator.internal.constraintvalidators.hv;

import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import jakarta.validation.ConstraintValidator;
import jakarta.validation.ConstraintValidatorContext;

/**
 * Validate that the character sequence (e.g. string) is a valid URL using the {@code java.net.URL} constructor.
 *
 * @author Hardy Ferentschik
 */
public class URLValidator implements ConstraintValidator<org.hibernate.validator.constraints.URL, CharSequence> {
	private String protocol;
	private String host;
	private int port;

	@Override
	public void initialize(org.hibernate.validator.constraints.URL url) {
		this.protocol = url.protocol();
		this.host = url.host();
		this.port = url.port();
	}

	@Override
	public boolean isValid(CharSequence value, ConstraintValidatorContext constraintValidatorContext) {
		if ( value == null || value.length() == 0 ) {
			return true;
		}

		java.net.URL url;
		try {
			url = new java.net.URL( value.toString() );
		}
		catch (MalformedURLException e) {
			return false;
		}

		if ( protocol != null && protocol.length() > 0 && !url.getProtocol().equals( protocol ) ) {
			return false;
		}

		if ( host != null && host.length() > 0 && !url.getHost().equals( host ) ) {
			return false;
		}

		if ( port != -1 && url.getPort() != port ) {
			return false;
		}

		return true;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I can't believe it's 2019 already! And just two weeks before my first book BUY THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE publishes! It's an exciting (and honestly terrifying!) way to kick off a new year!
January is a time for reflection, renewal, and for me, tremendous gratitude. 2018 marked a year of change and growth for me and for TO THE MARKET. I'm grateful to an amazing community of people that have supported me on this journey. As we kick off 2019, I'm looking forward to another year of charting a path for change.I remember the moment I knew I would write this book! I had two advisors – Ann Sardini and Leigh Flayton – who really believed TO THE MARKET had something important to say. They gave me the confidence to put the book forward and I'm so glad I did. . And now, with just two weeks until it publishes, I am overwhelmed with the generosity of so many in their words of support, their guidance, and their shared passion. 2019 is already off to a great start. What plans to you have in store for 2019?
Stay informed about ethical sourcing, sustainability and the incredible opportunities to economically empower communities through the dignity of work and the intersection with supply chain transparency.


text:
Fiat Chrysler picks London base
FCA has agreed to lease three floors of a building in London for its new headquarters.
Fiat Chrysler picks London base FCA has agreed to lease three floors of a building in London for its new headquarters. Check out this story on detroitnews.com: http://detne.ws/1s8Z9Ot
The Detroit News Published 2:35 p.m. ET Sept. 18, 2014
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. (Photo: David Coates , The Detroit News )Buy Photo
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's global headquarters will be located in London.
The automaker, created from the upcoming merger of Chrysler Group LLC and parent company Fiat SpA, has agreed to lease three floors of a building in the city's West End business district, said Richard Gadeselli, Fiat vice president of international corporate communications.
Gadeselli, in an email, said the facility will be the corporate offices for both FCA and CNH Industrial NV, a commercial-vehicle producer spun off from Fiat in 2011. Employees are expected to move in to the building at the end of the year.
The company would not release how many employees are expected to occupy the floors or any other details. Fiat has had corporate offices in the same London area for more than 40 years.
When the merger was announced in January, Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said the headquarters for the new company would be located in the United Kingdom, but did not provide a specific location.
The London headquarters was chosen for tax purposes and to avoid political controversy in the automakers' current home countries. Chrysler — founded in the U.S. in 1925 — was part of the $85 billion automotive bailout using U.S. taxpayer money, and Fiat was founded in Italy in 1899.
Marchionne has continually downplayed the significance of a "headquarters," saying many executives have worked between Auburn Hills and Italy for years.
The finalized headquarters comes less than a month before the merger is finalized. Shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 13.
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1s8Z9Ot


text:
Radio Galaxy Feedback in X-ray-selected Groups from COSMOS: The Effect on the Intracluster Medium
Giodini, S. and Smolčić, V. and Finoguenov, A. and Boehringer, H. and Bîrzan, L. and Zamorani, G. and Oklopčić, A. and Pierini, D. and Pratt, G. W. and Schinnerer, E. and Massey, R. and Koekemoer, A. M. and Salvato, M. and Sanders, D. B. and Kartaltepe, J. .S. and Thompson, D. (2010) Radio Galaxy Feedback in X-ray-selected Groups from COSMOS: The Effect on the Intracluster Medium. Astrophysical Journal, 714 (1). pp. 218-228. ISSN 0004-637X. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20100527-112348383
See Usage Policy.
Use this Persistent URL to link to this item: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20100527-112348383
We quantify the importance of the mechanical energy released by radio galaxies inside galaxy groups. We use scaling relations to estimate the mechanical energy released by 16 radio-active galactic nuclei located inside X-raydetected galaxy groups in the COSMOS field. By comparing this energy output to the host groups' gravitational binding energy,we find that radio galaxies produce sufficient energy to unbind a significant fraction of the intragroup medium. This unbinding effect is negligible in massive galaxy clusters with deeper potential wells. Our results correctly reproduce the breaking of self-similarity observed in the scaling relation between entropy and temperature for galaxy groups.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/218 DOI Article
http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/714/1/218/fulltext Publisher Article
ORCID:
Smolčić, V. 0000-0002-3893-8614
Finoguenov, A. 0000-0002-4606-5403
Oklopčić, A. 0000-0002-9584-6476
Schinnerer, E. 0000-0002-3933-7677
Massey, R. 0000-0002-6085-3780
Koekemoer, A. M. 0000-0002-6610-2048
Salvato, M. 0000-0001-7116-9303
Sanders, D. B. 0000-0002-1233-9998
Kartaltepe, J. .S. 0000-0001-9187-3605
© 2010 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2009 October 30; accepted 2010 February 19; published 2010 April 8. S.G. acknowledges support by the DFG Cluster of Excellence "Origin and Structure of the universe" (http://www.universecluster.de). S.G. thanks A. Merloni for helpful comments. V.S. acknowledges support from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through grant AST-0838260. V.S. and A.O. thank Unity through Knowledge Fund (http://www.ukf.hr) for collaboration support through the "Homeland Visit" grant. A.O. thanks California Institute of Technology for generous support through NASA grants 1292462 and 1344606. We acknowledge the contributions of the entire COSMOS collaboration; more informations on the COSMOS survey are available at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/∼cosmos. The authors acknowledge the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for support. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
COSMOS, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
Grant Number
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) UNSPECIFIED
Owens Valley Radio Observatory UNSPECIFIED
NSF AST-0838260
Unity through Knowledge Fund UNSPECIFIED
Caltech/NASA 1292462
intergalactic medium; galaxies: active; galaxies: clusters: general; radio continuum: galaxies; X-rays: galaxies: clusters
Issue or Number:
Classification Code:
PACS: 98.54.Gr; 95.30.Sf; 98.70.Qy; 98.65.Bv; 98.54.Cm; 98.80.-k
CaltechAUTHORS:20100527-112348383
Persistent URL:
https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20100527-112348383
Official Citation:
S. Giodini et al 2010 ApJ 714 218 doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/218
Usage Policy:
No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
Ruth Sustaita


We understand the need for great customer service and aim to deliver without exception.
Established in 2001, formerly Whitehouse Honda Motorcycles, the company changed hands as a result of a management buy-out in 2006 by the current owner Rob Francis. We supply new Honda motorcycles and have an extensive range of pre-owned motorcycles and scooters covering all styles and makes.
To help improve air quality, an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be in place in central London from 8 April 2019. Your bike will need to meet new, tighter exhaust emission standards (ULEZ standards) or you will pay a daily charge to travel within the zone. This will be expanded to also include the inner London areas from 25 October 2021.
Use the following link to check if your bike is recognised as meeting the ULEZ standards.
Any vehicle that meets the ULEZ standard will be able to travel in the zone without paying the ULEZ charge.
Honda Racing BSB Fireblade SP1 Replicas.


Click on the hamburger picture to open the starter project.
You are given a top-bun div with CSS styling to start with. You can change this bun to make it your own, however you want your bun to look! Start by looking at the CSS and figuring out, what does each of those properties do? Try changing the numbers around and clicking run, especially with the border and border-radius properties.
Make your own bottom bun, patty, lettuce, pickles, onion and more! You must create at least 8 ingredients of your own.
The first button, "Grow" should get both wider and taller on hover. Look at the HTML to figure out what classname you will need to use to select this button. On hover, increase the width and the height of the button.
On hover of the "Background" button, change the background-color.
On hover of the "Spin" button, use the transform property to make the button spin in a complete circle. Must use a transition for this to show on the screen.
Click the picture below to open the starter code.
Your task is to create a picture dictionary to help non-English speakers learn vocabulary words! On hover over each div with a vocabulary word, we'll be inserting a picture of the word!
See the first word "Apple" as an example. We have a div with a class of "apple", then in CSS we select ".apple" and add a background-image on hover. Then we can use the background-size property to make the image the same size as the element. Feel free to change the size of your divs by editing the div CSS provided.
Add at least 3 more vocabulary words, where the background-image on hover is a picture that matches the word.
Change the name of your airline to something of your choice.
Your task is to add a table for flight information underneath the
Schedule
.
We have a

 element started for you already with three table rows (

). Inside the first row, add four table heading 	 tags. They should say "From", "To", "Date and Time", "Price".
Add a border to the th and td tags.
Add border-collapse: collapse; to the table tag if you do not want double borders.
Add a background-color to the th tag.
You can also add a background color to the table tag, if you would like to do so.


All of the aliens in the show have some type of 'otherworldly' power. Some are stronger then others, some have better control than others, but they all can do things that humans are not capable of.
They can all do some things, like changing colors of items, altering appearance of items, heating items, make mechanical items work, unlock doors, etc.
make people see what she wants them to.
We don't know if these powers are unique to the individual, or if they are just better at them than the others, like a talent. Perhaps other aliens could learn to do these things.
In an interview, JK said that the alien's powers reflected their personalities.
In the Pilot, Liz asks Max what powers the aliens have.
He says - "We can connect with people, as you know. We can manipulate molecular structures, and we can..."
Liz interrupts him and we never hear what the 'and' is, but we do know that each of the pod squad seem to have a 'special' power that is unique to them, or perhaps they are just better at it.
The guys' unique powers seem to be more physical, and the girls have more psychic or mental abilities.
In the episode 'The White Room' we learn a bit more about the aliens' powers.
Max is being held in the White Room and attacks Agent Pierce with a burst of super speed. This is the only time we see this ability in the show, and it is quickly over as Max seems to have used up all his energy and collapses. Pierce tells Max - "The serum we injected you with – very effective in suppressing the neurotransmitters in your cerebral cortex. Experiments on the alien in the forties taught us that that's where most of your powers come from."
Later in the episode Nasedo tells Michael a bit more.
"Humans are weak – which doesn't bother me – and wasteful. Their brains are incredible machines they haven't even begun to use. When you were engineered, you were given the capacity to do everything the human brain is capable of."
Nasedo also tells Michael about some limitations to their powers.
"That door is made up of depleted Uranium; a metal composed of heavy atoms, which we can't manipulate."
Here is a list of alien powers used in seasons 1 & 2.
each different type power that was used by each person.
and I prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.
- Presumably blocks Kyle from getting flashes when he healed him.
In a blur of motion, a figure whirls around in the DARK room – there's a BRIGHT LIGHT EMANATING from his hand! An alien energy burst?
Max instinctively ducks and throws out a hand to ward off whatever seems to be coming at him. As he's bathed in a REDDISH GLOW from o.c. he closes his eyes and braces himself for the impact.
On the other side of the energy field, sits a teenaged STONER, staring at the iridescent light show while he cradles a joint in one hand and a small lighter-torch in the other.
Max is shocked -- he had no idea he could do something like this. He pulls his hand back and the field DISAPPEARS. The Stoner blinks a few times...then exhales a cloud of SMOKE. He gives Max a wasted smile.
Dude. Did you see that?
The Stoner blinks again...then gets an even bigger smile on his face.
Max takes a deep breath and steadies himself.
- Seems to be about to kill Tess in the pod chamber. He raises a hand to her head until she reminds him that it would kill his son too.
ISABEL: How am I supposed to dreamwalk Melissa Foster when I don't know who she is?
MAX: Valenti showed you her picture. Try to dreamwalk her.
ISABEL: I know everyone that I dreamwalk. I have no idea who or where this girl is.
Michael doesn't have as much control over his powers as Max and Isabel and often unexpected things happen.
This takes place in the bathroom just before Michael tells Max that he sealed Kyle's locker shut.
Max, something's happening to me. Check this out.
Michael takes an abandoned cup of coffee that's sitting on the windowsill. He puts his hand over it.
Those guys beating the hell out of you got me angry, and suddenly I'm able to do all this stuff I never could do before. It's like I'm you or something.
Michael turns the cup over. First dry ground coffee comes out. Then sugar. Then he pours the rest out -- water.
Michael reaches over to a CD that's glowing on the table next to them. The minute he touches it, the loud music and the glowing stop.
(Tess says she was trying for a mind warp of fire, but the fire became real.
Max enters. Tess looks terrified, sits on a chair.
MAX: You should lie down.
TESS: I think I'm losing my powers. I couldn't flip the CD on from across the room. I do it every day of my life without a second thought. What's happening to me?
Tess grabs Kyle. When he turns they are eye to eye, inches apart. Tess in her weakened state breathes deep, and closes her eyes - mindwarping Kyle. It's not easy for her. She is losing her powers. Kyle looks at Tess.
KYLE: So what are we doing in here?
LIZ: Trying to find the trigger. The trigger for Maria's mom was the T-shirt. When she saw the T-shirt it made her remember everything that happened that day in the UFO Center. For Alex it must have been the Thai food. It made him think of Las Cruces.
of her powers until season 3.
Or did she experience changes a lot earlier?
(River Dog was in the cave too, but didn't appear in the vision. So how did Liz get there?
her own, reaching Max, and saving his life.
- We never actually see Ava using powers, but we presume she has them.
In MTD she raises her hand, prepared to use powers.
*Courtney explains this as, he is able to take any information from your mind that he wants.
Nasedo tells Michael about some limitations to their powers.
notable times when alien powers did not work.
happen. It was before your time. But I can't just heal people."
or maybe in Leaving Normal Max doesn't yet realize he can just heal people.
In the Pilot, Max tells Liz that he saved her by manipulating molecular structures.
So maybe at that point he thinks he can't heal, but only manipulate molecules.
But later he realizes that he can heal?
- Max is unable to heal Michael, or 'restore his balance'. They must use the healing stones.
(So does that mean that the drugs didn't effect Max's ability to connect?


11/10/2016 | Doc. 14165 | Committee Opinion Lessons from the "Panama Papers" to ensure fiscal and social justice.
08/01/2016 | Doc. 13937 | Report Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq.
13/09/2013 | Doc. 13301 | Report The activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2012-2013.


If you are looking for the most reliable ride in Florida for non-emergency medical transportation we are your go-to team. Our professionals are trained to safely and comfortably transport wheelchair, handicap, elderly or stretcher patients with genuine care and compassion.
Contact us today to get a quote or simply ask a question about our services. Once you fill out and submit the form below we will be in contact with you within 24-hours.
Feel free to contact us by phone as well. Thanks to our state of the art cloud-based phone system our phones ring no matter how many calls are currently on the line. This means someone is always there to answer your call during normal business hours.
Local Service Areas: We currently have 2 locations providing local medical transportation services to Melbourne, FL and Vero Beach, FL.
Long Distance Service Area: We service the entire state of florida for rides 150 MILES OR MORE. We will even transport you out of state or from another state to Florida. Contact Us to learn more!!


text:
Why Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal will take Rs 5 cr salary cut
'Nyaya Bharti', which will start with Rs 10 crore funding from Bharti, will help the undertrials at district court-level by paying bail and surety amounts.
Updated: November 27, 2015 12:40:56 pm
"We have a asymmetric traffic of 10 times to 1. We have to manage our own networks. We have to ensure that quality of service of my customers is not going down," Mittal said. (Reuters)
Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Thursday said that he will take voluntary cut of Rs 5 crore in his annual salary to contribute to 'Nyaya Bharti', which will help the undertrials at district court-level by paying bail and surety amounts.
The company will launch a legal aid service to provide assistance to first-time undertrials languishing in jails for minor offences. Nyaya Bharti will start with Rs 10 crore funding from Bharti.
"To start with, we will roll out Nyaya Bharti in the Delhi-NCR and Punjab and add more states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Rajasthan. Bharti Airtel will contribute Rs 10 crore each year as part of CSR for this project," said Mittal.
Mittal said the idea of launching the legal aid service, besides Bharti's education and sanitation initiative under CSR, came to him during his visits to Patiala court for his case.
"Most undertrials suffer in jails simply because of their ignorance of the law and their rights to liberty, their inability to pay the meagre amounts required for bails and bonds and lack of persons to stand surety," he said.
Mittal said half of the funding, or Rs 5 crore, will come from the salary he draws. He drew a salary of Rs 27.17 crore in 2014-15.
The initiative, for which young lawyers will be roped in to pour into thousands of cases of languishing undertrials, bring them to a screening committee and provide them legal defence, including bail bonds, is aimed at being rolled out by April 1, 2016.
"It is estimated that there are over 280,000 undertrials in 1,387 jails in India, constituting nearly 68 per cent of the total prisoner population," he said, adding only first time offenders charged with minor offences will be taken up.
Under Nyaya Bharti, a screening committee of independent persons will be set up that will identify the cases that need to be taken up.
It will work under the aegis of Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, and will have a separate Governing Board.
Sunil Mittal
SKS Microfinance slashes interest rate by 1%, fourth time since Oct 2014
Bajaj Finance reports highest-ever quarterly net profit in Q3
Interview: Sanjeev Aggarwal, CFO, JK Tyre & Industries: 'We intend to reduce our long-term debt by about 40% by FY24'


Centrifugal juicers are cheaper, quicker to juice, require less chopping of fruit and veg before juicing, usually less bulky, and slightly easier to clean.
So if you`re looking for your best centrifugal juicer, the list below will simplify your search.
This list (which most of them are priced under $100) is compiled based on user experiences (user reviews) which gives you real and honest point of view.


text:
Richard Andrew Link
LINK, Richard Andrew, 79, passed away on Monday, December 28, 2020 in Mechanicsville, Virginia. He was preceded in death by his parents, Simon A. Link and Anna M. Link; his sister Carol Ann Schneider; his wife of 55 years, Eileen C. Link (pictured in photo with Rich). Rich is survived by his four sons Richard A. Link II (Martha) of Locust Grove, Virginia; Paul C. Link of Mechanicsville, Virginia; John K. Link (Donna) of Suwanee, Georgia; and Ryan A. Link (Dawn) of North Chesterfield, Virginia. Rich is also survived by six grandchildren Anna C. Link, Forrest A. Link, Laura M. Link, Sarah E. Link, Emily K. Link and Lorelai K. Link. Born in Baltimore Maryland, Rich graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School in 1959. Rich enlisted into the Glen Burnie Maryland National Guard in April 1962 and was activated during the Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War in October 1962. He would continue Service in the Newport News Virginia National Guard 105th Howitzer Battalion and received an honorable discharge in 1968. Also, that same year, he would graduate from Christopher Newport College. Rich was also employed a sales engineer by the General Electric and retired after 38 years of service. He will be missed very much, and he is loved dearly by his friends and family very much. Due to the current pandemic restrictions, the family will not be able to receive friends and family. A Roman Catholic memorial service will also be celebrated privately. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association honoring Rich's wife Eileen C. Link, at www.alz.org, or Alzheimer's Association, Greater Richmond Chapter, 4600 Cox Rd., Suite #130, Glen Allen, Va. 23060.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Richard Andrew Link, please visit our floral store.
You can still show your support by sending flowers directly to the family, or by planting a memorial tree in the memory of Richard Andrew Link


text:
Chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami (AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Threatens US, Allies Over Protests
Hossein Salami
Iranian protests
"If you cross our red line, we will destroy you," said the leader of the Guard. "We will not leave any move unanswered."
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened the U.S. and its allies Monday as he addressed a pro-government demonstration attended by tens of thousands of people denouncing last week's violent protests over a fuel price hike.
Gen. Hossein Salami, echoing other Iranian officials, accused the U.S., Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia of stoking the unrest.
He said the rise in gasoline prices was a "mere pretext" for an attack on the nation.
"If you cross our red line, we will destroy you," the general vowed. "We will not leave any move unanswered."
He said that if Iran decides to respond, "the enemy will not have security anywhere," adding that "our patience has a limit."
Amnesty International says more than 100 people were killed in the protests. Iran has not released a death toll and cut off the internet for several days, making it difficult to ascertain the extent and severity of the demonstrations.
At the pro-government rally, which state TV referred to as the "Rise of the people of Tehran against riots," protesters carried signs bearing traditional anti-U.S. slogans.
But speakers also criticized President Hassan Rouhani's administration for the way the fuel price hike was implemented, even as they called for capital punishment for rioters and further restrictions on social media platforms.
Iran has been gripped by an economic crisis since the U.S. restored painful sanctions after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal.
I found a very interesting article on Americans United with Israel! Click to read this: --> https://americaunitedwithisrael.org/irans-revolutionary-guard-threatens-us-allies-over-protests/


text:
Education does not insure morality Nor are professionals better persons
Filed under: Health,News and politics,Police — thenonconformer @ 8:08 am
Tags: abuse, accountability, Bad Cops, Canada, Canadian Government, Canadian Politics, City of Montreal, Conservative Party of Canada, Conservatives, ex MP Vic Toews, ex PM Harper, Government of Canada, Justice, Liberal Party of Canada, LOSS OF CREDIBILITY, NDP, Quebec, RCMP, Rob Nicholson, Stephen Harper, TARNISHED REPUTATION, Unscrupulous
Marois Quebec government's proposal to create a new watchdog to oversee universities and Hospitals now as well is valid, natural.. some of the biggest crooks are even the educated folks.. and our Doctors, Nurses, Hospitals and the Police, RCMP are also now very poorly managed too ALL AT THE TAXPAYER'S EXPENSES.
THE NEWS MEDIA IS DETAILING THE CORRUPTION FOR DECADES OF EVEN THE ENGINEERS.. NOW I HAVE BEEN FOR DECADES WRITING ABOUT THE MUCH TOO MANY UNACCEPTABLE WHITE COLLARED CRIMES, ABUSES BY THE PROFESSIONALS.. EVEN WHERE THEIR OWN SELF REGULATION TENDS TO BE MERE MASTURBATION AND DO NOT BELIEVE THE LIES ALL OF THE WRONG DOINGS IT IS IN QUEBEC MOSTLY, IT IS CANADA WIDE https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/?s=pROFESSIONALS
"MONTREAL – Testimony by the head of a local engineering firm at the Charbonneau Commission this week has seriously tarnished the reputation of the engineering profession in Quebec, the director of the province's professional order of engineers said Friday. André Rainville, executive director of the 63,000-member Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, said he was shocked by engineer Michel Lalonde's testimony Thursday that implicated at least a dozen major engineering-consulting firms in the province in a corrupt system of price-fixing and illegal funding of former mayor Gérald Tremblay's political party. Other firms named by Lalonde include: Dessau, CIMA+, Tecsult, SM, BPR, Roche, HBA Teknika, Claulac, and Leroux, Beaudoin, Hurens & Associés. "
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Inquiry+testimony+blow+engineering+profession+director/7874696/story.html#ixzz2J5Im0QBihttp://www.montrealgazette.com/Inquiry+testimony+blow+engineering+profession+director/7874696/story.html#
CLEARLY A VAST AMOUNT OF SENIOR, MANAGERIAL QUEBEC ENGINEERS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED TO BE A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE QUEBEC CORRUPTIONS, ALSO NOW IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO KNOW FROM WHAT UNIVERSITY THEY GRADUATED..
"The steady stream of revelations before the Charbonneau inquiry makes it easy to become bleary or blasé. But this week's testimony deserves extra attention. It contains the most disturbing disclosures yet.Here's why.
Until now, we've learned that systemic collusion and corruption in public works contracts have existed mostly at the level of the Mafia and those construction companies whose business is generally confined to Quebec.
What Michel Lalonde told the Charbonneau Commission on Thursday broadens our understanding of systemic crime among contractors, and alarmingly so. He opened what is not so much a can of worms as a barrel of snakes.
Lalonde, president of Génius Conseil (better known under its former name, Groupe Séguin), served in effect as the coordinator of collusion among all — repeat, all — of Quebec's largest engineering-consulting firms. They include not just SNC-Lavalin, often called the flagship of Québec Inc., but also CIMA+, Dessau, Génivar, Roche, Tecsult and several others. They often subcontract work to the previously implicated construction companies. Their leaders regularly make the society pages,
Lalonde himself was not one of the big boys. That his company was smallish made him, he explained, the cartel's ideal emissary in dealing with Montreal city hall — he could be relatively impartial. Between 2004 and 2009, he said, he worked with the city's then public works director (Robert Marcil), the then treasurer of the ruling party, Union Montreal (Bernard Trépanier), and the then executive-committee chair (Frank Zampino) to steer contracts to the appropriate member of the cartel. Bribes would then go the supposedly neutral contract-selection committee, composed of civil servants, so that it would ratify the choice. Depending on its size, each cartel member allegedly contributed either $100,000 or $200,000 in cash to Union Montreal in the 2005 election year, for a total of $1.3 million in illegal donations. The firms would also kick back three per cent of their contracts to the party, Lalonde said (as previous witnesses have said the construction companies also did).
To be sure, this isn't the first time executives of these high-class companies have been incriminated for local bid-rigging. Last fall, for example, the past president and a past vice-president of SNC-Lavalin were charged with fraud in connection with their company's supervision of the McGill University Health Centre's superhospital. In 2011, police also charged two Roche executives for fraud in suburban Boisbriand. Here, according to Lalonde, we have companies representing the upper crust of Quebec's corporate world that: Subvert local democracy by illegally swamping a political party's electoral war chest, with the result that when that party gains power it is beholden to these corporations. Corrupt not only Montreal's political structure but also the senior ranks of Montreal's supposedly neutral civil service. (True, earlier testimony has shown that the Mafia and construction companies had corrupted several civil servants, including Gilles Surprenant and Luc Leclerc, but the elite cartel allegedly bribed their boss, Marcil.)" Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Henry+Aubin+Inquiry+opens+barrel+snakes/7874233/story.html#ixzz2J5IMUkgs
Also "two class-action lawsuits in Ontario and Quebec that are seeking more than $1 billion on behalf of disgruntled shareholders. The suits allege that SNC-Lavalin violated securities law by misrepresenting that it had adequate controls and procedures to ensure accurate disclosure and financial reporting."
Read more: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/canada-s-biggest-engineering-firm-snc-lavalin-spent-160m-bribing-gadhafi-s-son-report-1.1129830#
LOOK ALSO NOW HOW USELESS THE POLICE, RCMP AND THE GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN IN ALL OF THIS TOO
Education does not insure morality Nor are professionals generally better persons over others as any wise persons knows that there are plenty of immoral cops, realtors, lawyers, nurses, doctors now too. When you criticize openly the bad persons , especially bad cops, doctors, nurses, professionals you tend to get a false denial, remark in response like you are crazy, you need professional help. They still really cannot face the reality there are things in their life that need serious, drastic changes. These people in denial are the ones who often need professional help for their own short comings, sickness. Their false denial, diversion, distortion does not change the negative reality about their own unacceptable acts. Corruptions occurs now Not just in Churches, amongst the police, politicians, civil and public servants. https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/?s=professionals
NOW REALLY WHAT DOES WE "ENSURE OUR POLICIES AND PROCEDURES RELATED TO CONTRACTING AND PROCUREMENT REFLECT BEST PRACTICES" MEAN? WHEN IT IS UNENFORCED TOO OFTEN. AND BEST PRACTICES FOR WHOM? THE HOSPITAL, THE DIRECTOR, THE GOVERNMENT, OR THE PEOPLE? OR THE CROOKS STILL? ALL THIS STILL IT MEANS NOTHING IF YOU ARE STILL STEALING AND COOKING THE BOOKS LIKE MANY OTHERS ARE DOING? IT STILL DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE PROCESS HAS INTEGRITY OR IS DEVOID OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES? WHEN IN REALITY NO ONE FALSELY REPORTS THE CRIMINAL; ACTIVITIES STILL AND WHITE COLLARED CRIME IS STILL COVERED UP NO ONE GOES TO JAIL..
Promised past Accountability and Transparency were mere election gimmicks now too.. A bad Liberal is just as bad as a bad Conservative always as well. So who is being fooled by all this? The liars do only mostly fool themselves as to who and what they really are.
So a grey cloud also hangs over the McGill University Health Centre, a symbol of the anglophone community's ongoing place in Quebec. Duhaime's fraud charge involves his successful effort to land the contract for the MUHC's $1.3-billion hospital.
" Since he left Montreal in late 2011, Dr. Porter has become a lightning rod for criticism – a dramatic shift from how he was treated for most of his seven years in Quebec, where he held several prominent public and corporate posts. In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed him to the civilian committee that investigates complaints about Canada's spy agency, CSIS. In 2010, Mr. Harper made Dr. Porter the chair of the committee. Now he is the target of three lawsuits, all claiming that he has defaulted on loan payments that were made to him while he was in Montreal. The Quebec government has also released a report accusing him of allowing the McGill University Health Centre to slip into financial disarray and has assigned the network of six hospitals a special financial overseer, a move the government says is one step short of trusteeship. "
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/police-zero-in-on-mystery-company-at-centre-of-montreal-hospital-scandal/article7893625/?
HOUSE CLEANING IS STILL VERY MUCH IN ORDER
DON'T BE STUPID AND BELIEVE ALL THE LYING SPINS AS TO WHY IT TAKES SO LONG TO INVESTIGATE THE BAD COPS or bad professionals, bad civil and public servants..
Have you also noticed how the Canadian Federal Conservative government even and it's watch dog the RCMP are undeniably hesitant to prosecute their provincial counterparts for wrong doings? Tax evasions, citizen abuse, tax payer's money abuses
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/tag/white-collared-crimes/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/is-nothing-sacred-any-more-and-when-will-it-all-end/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/there-is-no-new-thing-under-the-sun/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/by-their-false-denials-who-is-fooling-whom/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/the-conservatives-are-realy-now-no-better-over-the-liberals-in-canada/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/doctors-nurses-hospitals-triages-in-montreal-quebec/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/how-to-deal-with-the-bad-doctors/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/money-revenue-generating-traffic-tickets-and-bad-civil-and-public-servants/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-pretend-law-and-order-conservatives-are-hypocrites/
Comments Off on Education does not insure morality Nor are professionals better persons


All TOCHI submissions are managed through the Manuscript Central system. You will need to create an account with that system in order to submit. Click the button below to visit Manuscript Central, create an account, and submit your paper.
We strongly suggest that you read all of the material on this page before submitting.
Is TOCHI the Right Place to Publish Your Work?
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) is committed to being the premiere archival journal in the field. We therefore welcome a broad range of submissions of original work. If you have original results that convey something important and are relevant to HCI, we want to read your manuscript.
If you are not familiar with the journal, read the TOCHI Charter.
You are also welcome to examine our Current and Past Issues.
The journal publishes only original and significant research papers, and especially likes to see more systems-focused, long-term, or integrative contributions to human-computer interaction. We also publish individual studies, methodologies, and techniques if we deem the contributions to be substantial enough.
TOCHI will consider carefully argued, cited, and supported research essays (e.g. to raise an important perspective on emerging issues in the field) but rarely publishes survey papers unless they offer a major original contribution. TOCHI also considers proposals for Special Issues.
Published manuscripts are typically 20-60 pages — with rare exceptions on either side of that range.
Please note that simultaneous submissions are not allowed. Your work must not, wholly or in part, be under consideration at other venues (conference, journals, book chapters, etc.) at the time of submission to TOCHI.
Submissions should cite relevant HCI work and show the relationship of the new contributions to prior research. Don't just list related papers but make clear how and why your results build on them and offer distinct increments of knowledge. Potentially relevant papers are published at CHI and related conferences such as CSCW, UIST, and Mobile HCI, as well as journals including TOCHI itself and HCI, IJHCS, and IwC, among many others. TOCHI welcomes interdisciplinary papers that draw links to other literatures, but papers that do not also richly cite HCI research either have overlooked relevant work, belong in a different journal, or should carefully position the contributions for a general HCI audience by carefully justifying and motivating their relevance.
If you are still uncertain, submit your paper. We are glad to assess complete manuscripts for TOCHI; our editorial board will quickly decline any works that are not suitable for the journal, typically within a few days.
But please do not query: the Editor-in-Chief will not offer feedback on abstracts, partial submissions, or ideas — it is only possible (or even fair) to assess a contribution based on the entire manuscript, and for that you must submit the paper to TOCHI.
ACM is transitioning to the new authoring templates found at: http://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions.
Separate Word for Windows and Word for Mac consolidated templates are available.
The templates are updated to the latest software versions, were developed to enable accessibility features, and they use a new font set. We strongly prefer to receive submissions that use the official template, as we find it helps reviewers to view the material more seriously as a potential contribution.
TeX: The new TeX template consolidates all eight individual ACM journal and proceedings templates. The template requires that a call be made within the source document for \documentclass so that an article is formatted according to the specifications to the publication. Detailed instructions can be found in section 2.2 of the User and Implementation Guide (http://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/publications/consolidated-tex-template/acmart.pdf).
All manuscripts are initially assessed by the Editor-in-Chief and the Information Director.
Papers that clear this first hurdle are passed up to the editorial board. Otherwise we issue Quick Rejects, often within a few days.
Our average response time is about 50 days but this distribution is highly bi-modal (i.e. responses typically go out very soon, or after a few months).
90-day Turn-Around. We strive to make all decisions within 90 days. However, due to factors beyond our control (such as tardy external reviews), some decisions will take longer. Manuscripts submitted during the winter holidays, summer break, and especially during the CHI conference reviewing process (late September through about mid-November) may experience a longer turn-around because so many experts in the field become swamped with reviews.
Querying. If your manuscript has been with TOCHI for longer than 90 days, feel free to query at tochi@acm.org for an update on its status; such author inquiries are often a helpful inducement for reviewers to complete their work on an over-due manuscript.
or if we deem that the contribution is not substantial enough (or presented clearly and convincingly enough) to find likely success with external reviewers.
Please note that such decisions are aimed at efficiency for everyone involved — there is certainly no dishonor associated with them, and they have the major benefit of returning control of the manuscript to the authors almost immediately. And quick rejections often still come with a thoughtful letter from the editorial board explaining why we felt that the paper was not a good fit for TOCHI. This information may help authors to find a more suitable publishing venue — sooner, before deadlines are missed — or it may provide helpful advice with an eye towards revising the paper for future submissions elsewhere.
And we always welcome new submissions. Please do try us again with a different manuscript.
There is no hard upper page limit for TOCHI submissions or published articles. Average submissions are between 25-35 pages, and it is not uncommon for published papers to reach 40-60 pages. TOCHI occasionally considers even longer papers, but we will not review book-length manuscripts or theses. As a rule-of-thumb, if your manuscript reaches about 70-75 pages (including references) you need to seriously consider shortening it or moving certain details (study materials, tables of detailed results, source materials, etc.) into appendices.
Also note that while TOCHI has no minimum page length, papers below about 20 pages rarely have enough depth to make a substantial contribution.
Manuscripts that lack sufficient contribution — particularly if very long or very short — may be quick-rejected by the editors without full review, as noted above.
When reporting statistics, sufficient information, such as degrees of freedom, should be presented such that the reader can corroborate the analysis. For more recommendations and examples, see the "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association" (APA Manual).
ACM journal articles are normally original papers which have not been published elsewhere. Widely disseminated conference proceedings and newsletters are a form of publication, although they may not be archival. Publication or republication of a (perhaps revised) paper which has been widely disseminated is permitted only if the Editor judges that (a) the revision contains significant amplification or clarification of the original material or (b) there is a significant additional benefit to be gained from journal publication.
Authors are required to submit a statement describing the relationship of their TOCHI submission to their own most closely related prior papers (or concurrently submitted papers). This description should clearly state the unique contribution of the current submission relative to the authors' prior publications, or, if the paper has no relation whatsoever to prior papers, the statement should clearly say that. The author statement should be included with the submitted paper; it can appear directly after the other back matter such as references and appendices.
We recognize that occasionally submissions to TOCHI are revised versions of papers that have been considered elsewhere. As long as the paper is not currently being reviewed in any other venue, you are welcome to submit your paper to TOCHI. However, sometimes TOCHI reviewers were the same individuals that reviewed an earlier version of your paper. And in any case, reviewers are a scarce resource, and it is important for the health of our research community to use that resource efficiently and with respect. So, we ask that on a voluntary basis, you include with your submission information about reviews of prior versions of the current submission that you think will help the reviewers make an informed and efficient decision. For example, this could take the form of including the original reviews and venue name. Or, you could summarize what you think were the key concerns and how you refined the paper in response to those concerns.
ACM has a new Author Representations Policy, which may be found at: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/author_representations.
Authors must submit manuscripts in PDF format. In order to create a PDF document, you will need access to Adobe Acrobat. We strongly recommend that you use the "press quality" or equivalent setting when creating a PDF version of your submission, which will ensure that the images embedded in your document are of the maximum resolution possible.
The use of the ACM format is not required for the initial submission, however we encourage authors to examine the ACM format to facilitate the conversion that will be necessary upon acceptance. More information can be found in the instructions for submitting a manuscript following acceptance below. It may also be useful to examine previous issues of TOCHI to see examples of writing, article organization, and citation style.
Before submitting a manuscript, please use a spelling checker and correct errors in punctuation, grammar, figure and table numbering, and so forth. The appearance of carelessness can prejudice reviewers.
Figures and Tables in Submitted Papers: Please place all of your figures, tables and their captions in-line in your document at the approximate location where you expect them to appear in the final version. Submissions using out-dated formats that place tables, figures, and/or captions at the end of the document (presumably for typesetting purposes) will be returned to their authors.
Statement of previous research: To assist in the review of your paper, we suggest that your paper contain a statement describing your previous activity relevant to this submission. Please see our policies on prior publication and submission above. If you choose to, please submit the statement in your cover letter or at the end of your document that covers both of these aspects of your submission.
First, the statement should describe the relationship of your TOCHI submission to your mostly closely related prior papers (or currently submitted papers). This description should clearly state the unique contribution of the current submission relative to the authors' prior publications, or, if the paper has no relation whatsoever to prior papers, the statement should clearly say that.
Second, the statement should note whether this paper has been previously submitted to a conference or journal. If the paper has been previously submitted, you should include information about the reaction of reviewers to the previous submission and describe any action that you took to address their concerns.
Supplemental Content for Review: Authors can now be concise AND thorough in a way not possible before: The ACM Digital Library will host ancillary material for a paper on its web site. This material, an online appendix that does not appear in the print journal, is linked to and accessed nicely from the online table of contents. This allows the best of both worlds: a concise presentation that is more likely to be read by general readers and students, and details (e.g., complete questionnaires, raw data, an annotated bibliography, or short animations) that are of interest mainly to others working in the area. Authors that wish to use this option should attach such material as an appendix to their submission, provide a readme.txt that describes the material and any requirements there may be for using it, and indicate in their cover letter that this material is intended to be ancillary material included in the digital library.
Language Services: ACM has partnered with International Science Editing (ISE) to provide language editing services to ACM authors. ISE offers a comprehensive range of services for authors including standard and premium English language editing, as well as illustration and translation services, and also has significant international outreach, especially in China. Editing is available for both Word and LaTeX files. As an ACM author, you will receive a generous discount on ISE editing services.
The ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) is now using the ACM ScholarOne Manuscript Central site to receive and process submissions. If you submit a non-PDF file that gets converted to PDF automatically on submission to the site, we suggest that you check the converted PDF file for errors.
When you submit you paper, please check that all authors of your paper are registered in ACM ScholarOne Manuscript Central site to be TOCHI reviewers. This is a requirement for submission. All authors who submit manuscripts to TOCHI are obligated to serve as referees in the review of other TOCHI submissions.
When we receive your manuscript and verify that it can be read and is within the scope of the journal, an Associate Editor will take responsibility for handling the review process. The Associate Editor will assign the article to 3-4 reviewers, study the reviews that are returned, and make an overall recommendation to the Editor. The contact author will be told the identity of the Associate Editor, but not the identities of the reviewers.
A manuscript submitted for the first time might be accepted or rejected, but most articles that are ultimately accepted will first receive a "Revise and Resubmit" recommendation. If this happens, it may be very worthwhile to persevere, revising the manuscript to fix problems and clarify misunderstandings. Resubmissions should be accompanied with a cover letter that explains in detail how the comments of the reviewers were addressed.
You will receive an acceptance notification from the Associate Editor or Editor-in-Chief. This will likely come with a set of final comments on your paper that you may wish to address in your camera-ready manuscript.
TOCHI will notify you about conference presentation options. All accepted TOCHI papers have the opportunity to present at one of a few select SIGCHI conferences. Additional information about this can be found below.
TOCHI will request materials from you. Shortly after receiving your acceptance notice, you will receive a second e-mail from the TOCHI Information Director alerting you that the Manuscript Central site is ready for you to upload your final document materials. This includes source files (in Word or Latex), PDFs of the source files, and high-resolution files (ideally EPS) for each of your figures. While there is no enforced deadline for uploading your final materials, please keep in mind that your paper cannot be assigned to an issue until the materials have been reviewed by the Information Director and ACM.
Your paper will be checked by the Information Director and ACM. These checks are to ensure the material is suitable for the publisher and the verify that all copyright issues have been addressed. If third-party copyrighted material is found in your manuscript, then it will be necessary for you to obtain the appropriate permissions to use this information. If everything is good, then your materials will be sent directly to the publisher.
The publisher will copy-edit and typeset your paper. A copy editor will mark up your paper for grammar, punctuation, and structure errors and apply ACM style conventions. The typesetter will then enter the copy editor's changes into your source file and typeset the paper using ACM fonts and style sheets. After the paper is typeset, you will receive a PDF proof along with the copy editor's marked-up version of your paper to check for errors introduced by the copy editor and/or typesetter. No other changes to the document will be allowed at this stage of final production, so it is important that your camera-ready files be prepared carefully.
Your paper will appear. Papers appear on the ACM Digital Library as they are processed by the publisher. Your paper will also be assigned to an issue, and once this issue is completed then your paper will also appear in print. Issues appear 6 times a year on roughly 2 month intervals: February, April, June, August, October and December.
To help in the preparation of your final documents, please read the ACM Accepted Manuscript Preparation Guidelines.
Please also note that you must prepare your source files (text and bibliography) in LaTex or Word formatted in ACM style. Source files must be submitted, and no other other source file formats will be accepted by the publisher.
Note that you may submit additional electronic materials, such as benchmarks and source code, to be archived together with your paper in the digital library. In addition, you may use color graphics in the digital library. The print version will still be black and white, so please ensure your paper is easy to read in both formats.
To ensure proper indexing, classification, retrieval and dissemination, authors must include the following in the manuscript.
Descriptive Title: A title that accurately and clearly tells what the paper is about is generally the best. Cute or clever titles will not fare as well with the search engines and filters of the foreseeable future.
Author Names and Affiliations: Authors' names should be given without titles or degrees along with the name and address of the organization for which the work was carried out. The author's current address should be given in a footnote on the first page. Identify the contact author for co-authored work.
Computing Classification System: An important aspect of preparing your paper for publication by ACM Press is to provide the proper indexing and retrieval information from the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS). This is beneficial to you because accurate categorization provides the reader with quick content reference, facilitating the search for related literature, as well as searches for your work in ACM's Digital Library and on other online resources. Please read the HOW TO CLASSIFY WORKS USING ACM'S COMPUTING CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM for instructions on how to classify your document using the 2012 ACM Computing Classification System and insert the index terms into your LaTeX or Microsoft Word source file.
Citations: Please examine Current and Past Issues for examples of proper citation format.
All papers accepted to TOCHI have the opportunity to present their work at one of several participating SIGCHI conferences, including the annual CHI, CSCW, UIST and MobileHCI conferences. This allows journal paper authors to get greater exposure for their work, and allows people to take advantage of the greater continuity of the journal review process while still having their work presented at a prestigious conference.
Each paper will have the opportunity to present at only one conference within approximately a year of their paper being accepted. A list will be maintained on this web page of conferences that authors are eligible to present at, and authors will choose their preferred conference shortly after their paper is accepted. For conferences other than CHI, a liaison from the conference will evaluate the paper to judge whether it has a topical match to the conference. In the (hopefully rare) event that the liaison feels there is not a match, then the authors will still have an opportunity to present at the CHI conference.
Note that while papers are invited for presentation, authors may elect to forego presentation without penalty. Presentation is not required for your paper to be published by TOCHI.
If you are the author of a TOCHI paper that chooses to present at CHI, then you will receive an invitation e-mail in October or November of the year before the conference. Instructions will be provided in this e-mail explaining the process for presenting at CHI, and you will be required to submit some additional information for the CHI program through the Precision Conference system.
Note that the actual deadline by which your paper must be accepted in order to present at a given conference is generally a few days in advance of that conference's program committee meeting, which varies from year to year. The deadlines listed above are based on typical program committee dates from the past few years, but may differ and are not under the control of TOCHI.


text:
Registration Lookup Register Your Dog
Service Dog Information
Emotional Support Dog Information
Therapy Dog Information
Register Your Dog
Peek through the large windows of the low-slung brick building at 667 E. Calhoun St. and you might see two 40-pound, 6-month-old black Labrador retrievers being put through their paces by trainer and Woodstock resident Kirk Halma. The energetic pups sit, lie down, stay, come, and heel at the sound of Halma's voice and with a simple motion of his hand.
But these are no ordinary dogs, nor is Halma doing ordinary family pet training.
Halma, through his nonprofit True Blue Dogs, is training the canines to be service dogs for people who live with psychiatric and/or physical disabilities.
While most people are familiar with guide dogs for the blind, service dogs can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
A service dog is trained to alert its owner at the first indication of panic or anxiety, signaling the person to begin breathing exercises or meditation, as well as fetch medication for the owner.
In addition to assisting its owner during a crisis, a service dog is a constant companion, a source of calm for someone who finds tranquility elusive.
"You train a dog to become something special," Halma said, "to help a person live a normal life."
Halma's journey
After a career in commercial development, Halma started K-9 Motivation 11 years ago, training about 1,200 dogs to be well-behaved family pets.
"I worked with the dogs that no one else wanted to work with," Halma said.
Despite working with many "problem" dogs, Halma estimates that 98 percent were trainable.
But it was after training a German shepherd as a service dog for a domestic abuse victim in 2014 that Halma discovered his true calling.
"That was the best training – the best thing – I've ever done," he said.
Halma taught the dog to alert its owner when it sensed an oncoming panic attack, as well as to retrieve the owner's medication.
After Halma attended a conference in St. Louis about training service dogs, he was even more enthused about what service dogs could do, but he came home with a critical takeaway.
"There was no way I could do this alone," Halma said.
Fortunately for Halma, his wife, Kate, had experience with nonprofits and shared her husband's passion for the project. She could navigate the process of setting up a 501(c)(3) and the complicated procedure to get the necessary federal and state approvals.
The couple asked several friends, some of whom had dogs that Kirk had trained, to serve as a board of directors, with Kirk as founder and director of training and Kate as executive president. They sent off their nonprofit application in 2017 and then waited a year-and-a-half to receive federal approval, a delay due in part to the month-long government shutdown in 2018-19.
True Blue Dogs
When the dogs work in public, they wear a vest with the True Blue Dogs logo. The name evokes the dedication, loyalty, companionship, and bond between service dogs and their owners.
"If you see a dog in a True Blue Dogs vest," Halma said, "you know that dog is a service dog."
A service dog's specialized training is "a lot of work," he said.
The training begins with breeding. Labrador retrievers and golden retrievers make the best service dogs, Halma said, with some German shepherds also good candidates.
A North Carolina organization, Project2Heal, breeds dogs for the intellect, temperament, and robust health that a service dog requires. Project2Heal staff members nurture and socialize the puppies during their first eight weeks of life.
Buying a puppy to train as a service dog can cost between $1,500 and $3,000. Project2Heal grants its dogs to trainers in whom the organization has confidence to carry out the necessary specialized training.
Marlee, a 6-month-old black Lab female, was a grant from Project2Heal to True Blue Dogs. In March, Halma will receive a red fox Lab from the same organization.
"Project2Heal is a phenomenal partner," Halma said. "To be chosen [as the recipient of a puppy] that early in our process is a huge compliment to start out."
Marlee and her male companion, Montana, named for his home state, are in the midst of their year of specialized training with Halma. In addition to mastering obedience, they work on equipment that Halma has in his studio.
When Halma pulls out a metal-and-plastic bridge, the dogs are learning to focus. The apparatus looks like a gymnast's balance beam, with one ramp leading up and another down. The dogs walk, sit, and lie down on the bridge. Montana is even comfortable turning around on the thin structure.
To acclimate the dogs to enclosed spaces, Halma pulls out a tunnel that resembles a Slinky toy with a nylon covering. The dogs enter the tunnel and race out the other side. That helps the dogs grow comfortable with small spaces, so that one day they can sit calmly at their owners' feet under a restaurant table, for example.
After a year, Halma and his board will match each dog with an applicant. Then Halma will begin the customized training of the dog with its recipient, a process that could take an additional six months.
Great need, many applicants
When Halma began mulling the switch from pet training to service dog training, he wanted to know how many people could benefit from having a service dog. He found that 20 percent of the people living in the U.S. in 2010 were disabled in some way, a total of 68.5 million people.
"[The figure] twisted my brain," Halma said.
Currently, the nation has about 200,000 service dogs, or one dog for every 325 people who are disabled and might benefit from having a service dog.
Anecdotal evidence bears out the strong demand. Halma's mentor – Behesha Doan, founder of This Abled Veterans of Carbondale – trains 12 service dogs a year and receives 200 applications from people wanting a dog.
Although Marlee and Montana are still nearly a year from being ready to serve clients, True Blue Dogs has already received two applications.
The application process itself is arduous. Anyone requesting a dog must fill out a 27-page form. The hardest thing to do, Halma said, is to decide which applicant should get an animal.
"The dog has to be placed with a person who is committed to getting well," he said.
"The dog does not heal the person; the dog helps the person heal himself."
Costly enterprise
The full cost of training each dog runs between $25,000 and $50,000, Halma said. Insurance companies' coverage does not usually extend beyond covering guide dogs for the blind.
Since the mission of True Blue Dogs is to provide service dogs for free to people who will be helped to get well, the need to raise funds is ever-present.
True Blue Dogs had its first "friend-raiser" in November at Woodstock Country Club, where Halma told his story and attendees could meet Marlee and Montana.
Turnkey Digital, Blue Ribbon Millwork, and Animal Hospital of Woodstock have made key donations.
The studio will offer shirts and hats with the True Blue Dogs logo for purchase to raise some funds.
While True Blue Dogs has gratefully received a number of smaller donations, it needs a continuous monetary stream to underwrite Marlee's and Montana's training and that of future dogs.
"Hopefully, we can train more and more dogs that can help people who need them," Halma said.
Share Tweet Copy URL
Next News »
Students Get Therapy Dog
When middle school students return to class on Jan. 11, they'll find a new face at the door: Daisy. Daisy is a therapy dog and the personal pet of Rob Kreger, principal of the Rock L. Butler Middle School. The five-year-old golden retriever is not a school pet or mascot, but rather a working dog […]
Therapy Dogtor
Last March, Caroline Benzel, a third-year medical student, began to notice the stress and discomfort her nurse friends were feeling from the pressures of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. "[Personal protective equipment] can be really rough on the skin," Benzel, 31, tells PEOPLE. Benzel and her 3-year-old Rottweiler, Loki (who's also a therapy dog) hatched a […]
Therapy Dog Pups
When Stanley the miniature fox terrier's owner passed away, the little dog started a 'paw-some' new role – bringing puppy love to some of the Gold Coast's oldest residents. After Carinity Cedarbrook Diversional Therapist Julianne Staff adopted Stanley, he began visiting the aged care community at Mudgeeraba as a therapy dog. Therapy dogs help to […]
Puppy Cams
A nonprofit is providing an unusual form of therapy for those on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic – puppy cams! "You spend five minutes with a puppy and try not to smile," said registered nurse Robin Lingg Lagrone. Lingg Lagrone says watching little furballs wag their tails and prance on their paws helps […]
Pet Committee
When Moore County's school doors were abruptly closed earlier in 2020, two- and four-legged volunteers from the Moore County Citizens' Pet Responsibility Committee (PRC) were in their 12th year of presenting a six-session Pet Responsibility Education Program for fourth-graders. The PRC quickly shifted gears and placed its program materials online as part of a home […]
The Right Rescue Dog
If your New Year's resolution is to add a canine family member, good for you. Somewhere out there is the perfect puppy or adult dog for your family. You have a lot of things to think about when you begin to look for that new family member, puppy or dog? Large or small? Purebred or […]


text:
SPLC names internship after student press freedom advocate
SPLC News
January 8, 2007 October 5, 2020 Student Press Law Center
The Student Press Law Center announced today the creation of the Louis Ingelhart Journalism Internship at the SPLC.
Ingelhart, journalism professor emeritus at Ball State University and a former Student Press Law Center board member, died of complications from pneumonia on Sunday at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Ind. He was 86.
Ingelhart was regarded by many as the first professional advocate for the free press rights of high school and college journalists. From his years as a high school student newspaper editor in the 1930s to being a high school and college media adviser and scholar, Ingelhart was known throughout the nation as someone who cared about student journalism and the ability of students to make their publications their own. He served on the SPLC board from virtually the organization's founding until becoming a board member emeritius in 2000.
"No one has had a bigger impact on student press freedom or the success of the SPLC than Lou," said SPLC Executive Director Mark Goodman. "When the Center was struggling financially in the early 1980s, he was one of a small group that pledged their support and got pledges from others to keep us afloat. He knew how crucial it was to have a national advocate for student journalists in their struggles against censorship."
"The Louis Ingelhart Journalism Internship at the Student Press Law Center is one way for us to immortalize the contribution he has made," said Goodman.
The internship will allow a college student journalist or recent college graduate spend a semester with the Student Press Law Center gathering information about student press freedom issues and conflicts around the nation and writing about them for the Center's Web site and magazine.
For more details about applying for the Louis Ingelhart Journalism Internship, go to the SPLC Web site internship page. To make a contribution to support the Ingelhart Internship, contact the SPLC or go to www.splc.org/give.
For more information, contact: Mark Goodman, Executive Director, (703) 807-1904.
Tagged press-release