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Bay Area famous graves
Charlie Wells, Chronicle Staff Writer
1of15David Hewes' grave is at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
2of15Jack London is interred in Glen Ellen, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
4of15This is a view of "Millionaire's Row" in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
5of15Joe DiMaggio is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
7of15Francis "Lefty" O'Doul is interred at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
8of15Wyatt Earp is interred at Hills of Eternity in Colma, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
10of15Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
11of15Sarah Bowman is interred in the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio in San Francisco, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
13of15San Francisco Mayor George Moscone is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
14of15The Hearst family plot is at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, Calif.Charlie Wells/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
Everybody in San Francisco dies. Where they go after that, though, is usually anybody's guess.
Parisians know that their bygone glitterati are buried at Père Lachaise. Boston's Brahman elite are famously enshrined at the bucolic Mount Auburn. And it's a well-known fact that Washington's American heroes are interred in identical white trim at Arlington.
Every major metropolis, it seems, has a celebrity cemetery: a burial ground for the city's somebodies that becomes something of an icon itself.
But in a city whose history is marked by so many big names - the de Youngs, the Hearsts, the Ghirardellis - few seem to remember the resting places of even our most memorable figures.
To pay our respects, we set out on a search for not only the Bay Area's famous, but also the cemeteries where they rest.
Because only a handful of cemeteries and columbaria remain within the city limits - it has been illegal to bury the dead in San Francisco since the turn of the past century - the journey took us from the Peninsula, through the East Bay and up into Wine Country, winding through a surprisingly large collection of lavish graveyards:
Mountain View, Oakland
Why it's worth a visit: Mountain View is the grande dame of the Bay Area's burial grounds. Established in 1863 and designed by the planner of New York's Central Park, the cemetery houses some of the region's most notable figures. To visit Mountain View is to visit Rome: The grounds' 226 acres span shallow hollows and rolling knolls dotted with elaborate stone mausoleums, obelisks and monuments that call to mind the ruins of a former age. As you walk farther into the grounds, you'll feel immersed in nature - that is, until you reach the very top and see San Francisco across the bay.
The graves: The cemetery's map, available at the office just past the gates, lists the burial sites of 50 famous (and not so famous) figures, including:
-- Domingo Ghirardelli (1817-1894): San Francisco's most successful chocolatier is buried in a decadent stone mausoleum on Millionaire's Row, a strip of wealthy families' tombs that looks like an Ivy League frat row. Instead of chocolate, the mausoleum features sculpted fruit arrangements just beyond the front door.
-- James Folger (1835-1889): The founder of Folger's Coffee lies in a north-facing knoll just west of Millionaire's Row. Folger's plot is demarcated by a moderate-size chest tomb, surrounded by his family.
-- Henry Kaiser (1882-1967): Kaiser Permanente founder Henry Kaiser's remains lie in Mountain View's Main Mausoleum. While Kaiser's tomb is not the most visually striking, the walk through the mausoleum to his resting place is an alluring attraction. Several of the building's halls are lined from the granite floor to the high ceiling with book-shaped urns, creating the impression of walking through a wood-paneled library of ashes.
-- Henry Durant (1802-1875): The founding president of the University of California is buried beneath a simple black granite stone on a crowded knoll top.
-- David Hewes (1822-1915): Hewes was a California financier who hammered in the famous golden spike of the Transcontinental Railroad. Although not built of gold, Hewes' mausoleum is an impressive sight, boasting: Doric columns, copper grate doors and beautiful stained glass that can be seen through one of the broken glass windows.
Cypress Lawn, Colma
Why it's worth a visit: In a town often called the city of the dead - many of San Francisco's cemeteries were relocated here - Cypress Lawn stands out with its winding pathways and beautiful mausoleums. From bronze statues to Grecian temples, the monuments here reflect the unique personalities of their residents in a way that few other local cemeteries' do.
The graves: Nearly all of the famous residents are on the cemetery's east side, so pick up a map from the office (on the west side) and head back east.
Notable inhabitants include:
-- William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951): The newspaper czar's love for Mediterranean architecture is evident in the Hearst mausoleum, a monument that looks like a small version of the Greek Parthenon. The tomb is unmarked from the outside with an understated engraving of the name Hearst inside.
-- Charles de Young (1845-1880): The bronze statue that marks the grave of The Chronicle's co-founder is unique among most tombs in the Bay Area in that it depicts de Young's likeness. Aside from simply grasping his physical appearance, however, we also get a sense of who de Young was and what was important to him: He holds a piece of paper and a quill, which seem to represent his publishing background.
-- Lefty O'Doul (1897-1969): San Francisco native Lefty O'Doul rose to fame after a stint on the San Francisco Seals. He moved on to the Yankees and the Dodgers and was instrumental in introducing baseball to Japan. Above a bat and a ball, O'Doul's tombstone details the legend's baseball records.
-- Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1843-1929): Firebelle Lil, the eccentric benefactress of Coit Tower, is buried in a stately mausoleum near the back of Cypress Lawn. While the site bares little resemblance to San Francisco's famous North Beach tower, its beautifully patterned iron door sets the grave apart.
Holy Cross, Colma
Why it's worth a visit: Holy Cross, which first opened in 1887, is Colma's oldest cemetery. Just south of Cypress Lawn, Holy Cross' grounds are less rambling than Mountain View or Cypress Lawn, but its graves are garnished with quintessential Catholic regalia. What's more, many of San Francisco's most recognized heroes called themselves Catholic, so celebrity grave seekers hoping to spot famous figures from sports, politics and music shouldn't skip Holy Cross.
The graves:
-- Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999): In Paris, fans of Oscar Wilde leave lipstick kisses on the famed writer's tomb. In Colma, devoted followers of Joe DiMaggio leave behind baseballs before the grave of this renowned ballplayer and husband of Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe. DiMaggio's tomb is one of the most adorned with memorabilia: in addition to baseballs, American and Italian flags, and flowers, baseball bats are placed before the large, dark stone monument.
-- George Moscone (1929-1978): San Francisco's assassinated mayor rests beneath a small, flat marker in an open swath of low-lying graves. Paying a visit to Moscone's modest tomb feels like stopping by a family member's: Compared with the grandiose monuments so many Bay Area celebrities left behind, Moscone's is small and familiar.
-- Edmund G. "Pat" Brown (1905-1996): The father of an American political dynasty, former California Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown (father of Jerry Brown) lies under a surprisingly modern grave; the detail of a white cross is the only visible engraving on the dark, upright granite slab. The Brown name - the tomb's only other marking - is etched beneath in Gothic print.
-- Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976): Italian American jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, who composed much of the music used in the animated version of Charles Schulz's Charlie Brown comic, lies with his wife under an unassuming grave marker, similar to Moscone's.
Hills of Eternity, Colma
Why it's worth a visit: Hills of Eternity is a small cemetery with only one immediately recognizable name, but a stop by the Jewish resting place is a must for any well-rounded cemetery tour. The highly organized grounds make finding residents quick and easy, and the tombstones are gorgeous. A stop by the cemetery shouldn't take longer than half an hour.
The grave:
-- Wyatt Earp (1848-1929): It might come as a surprise to many that famous cowboy and O.K. Corral shootout victor Wyatt Earp (who was Methodist) is buried in a Jewish cemetery outside San Francisco. But rumor has it that after his O.K. Corral triumph, Earp also won the heart of Josephine Marcus, a wealthy San Franciscan Jew who met the cowboy when she ran away from home to the Arizona Territory. The two are buried side by side under a tombstone engraved with characteristic Old West font, in stark opposition to the traditional Jewish tombstones that fill the grounds. Visitors to Earp's grave are known to leave behind poker chips, cards and bullets.
San Francisco National Cemetery
Why it's worth a visit: Also referred to as the Golden Gate National Cemetery, the Presidio's veteran graveyard became the first national burial ground on the West Coast in 1884. It has grown into a haunting monument to the country's war dead. Like Arlington, much of San Francisco's military graveyard comprises row after row of nearly identical white domed tablet tombstones. The wide array of military heroes, the geometrical patterns created by the rows of grave markers and views of the Golden Gate Bridge peeking out from behind the trees make the cemetery a perfect location for war history buffs, photography fans or even those just looking for a stunning view.
-- Sarah Bowman (1813-1866): The cemetery houses the remains of many famed soldiers, including a large number of American servicemen killed in the Pacific Theater. However, one anomaly worth checking out is the grave of Sarah Bowman. Bowman was over 6 feet tall and accompanied Zachary Taylor's troops in the Mexican War, during which time she cared for wounded troops. She eventually opened a notorious brothel in Texas and later, a boardinghouse. For those interested in the history of powerful women, Sarah Bowman's grave is a must-see.
Neptune Society Columbarium, San Francisco
Why it's worth a visit: An eerie but strikingly beautiful monument to the city's dead sits just behind Rossi Playground in the Inner Richmond. The Neptune Society Columbarium, designed by Bernard J.S. Cahill in 1898, is something straight out of old Europe. Yet the bright colors, intricate indoor mosaics and niches decorated with personal flairs of the deceased all prove that a memorial to death can be uplifting. A chat with the incredibly friendly groundskeeper, who's been working at the Columbarium for decades, will fill you with facts and funny stories about both the notable and everyday people memorialized in the dazzling structure, including:
-- Chet Helms (1942-2005): The father of San Francisco's Summer of Love is memorialized in a bright niche decorated with personal photographs and memorabilia from his days as a music promoter in the city.
575 Castro St., San Francisco
Why it's worth a visit: The site of Harvey Milk's (1930-1978) now famous camera store on Castro Street has become a monument in its own right. Just a few blocks down from the Castro Muni station, the plaque on the sidewalk out front covers the ashes of a trailblazing figure. It's common to see tourists snapping photos of the store and memorial.
Jack London State Park, Glen Ellen
Why it's worth a visit: Just off a beautiful Sonoma County wine trail, Jack London State Park is a monument to the famed Bay Area writer's life and work. Formerly a part of the writer's Beauty Ranch, the park houses not only a cottage where London once worked and the remains of a burned-down house cherished by the writer, but also a museum and the author's grave site. The trail leading from the park's first parking lot to the burial ground is an easy yet pretty walk. Bring a lunch or stop by to relax and reflect from a day spent sampling local wines.
-- Jack London (1876-1916): The author once told his wife that upon his death, she should roll a red boulder from the burned house over his grave. London's wife did just that: The literary figure's burial marker is a moss-covered rock surrounded by a rugged fence; the ambiance of it all exudes London's masculine writing style and love for the outdoors. {sbox}
Charlie Wells


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Refusing Treatment: the NHS and market-based reform
Laura Brereton and James Gubb, October 2010
Civitas publishes the findings of a year-long study into the effectiveness of the market in the NHS: whether and why it has driven the performance of providers as was intended; and what should be done to make it work better going forwards.
Based on in-depth interviews with executives at NHS (foundation) trusts, PCTs, practice-based commissioners and private sector providers across three health economies in England, the study finds isolated examples of the market having significant positive effects on quality, efficiency, innovation and patient-focus. As one leading clinician said:
'[The trust being a business] makes us think in a lean fashion. For example, we recently streamlined prosthesis and implants. It wasn't our preference, but doing it saved money without adversely affecting patient care. We have to be making money in our own patch. If were not, we have to ask ourselves why, because other hospitals can make money on the tariff… You cant lose money this way in the real world, and you shouldnt be able to do it in the health service.' (p.34)
However, the study concludes that overall the market has thus far failed to deliver such benefits on any systematic scale.
The question is why benefits have not been more widespread. Refusing Treatment draws on the evidence presented by interviewees to consider two cases: one, whether this is so because the idea of a market is flawed; two, because it has been stifled and not allowed to bed in. On balance it finds in favour of the latter:
Most participants saw the benefit of the basis of the market: an impartial purchasing function separate from providers.
Where the market has been used (i.e. where providers report feeling genuine competitive pressure from patient choice and where PCTs have put services out to tender and chosen alternative providers) participants did report positive effects.
Generally, a 'market' has not been in operation in the NHS: few services have been put out to tender and most providers are able to act as monopolies dictating terms to PCTs, rather than competing for PCT business. One provider executive said:'We don't need to compete, we're as full as we can be… simply being the local NHS provider has resulted in increased demand over the past few years. We've not needed to take any action.' [p.70]
The study uncovers numerous barriers that must be removed, skills developed and attitudes changed if the market is to be effective. It finds:
A structural imbalance of power favouring providers (hospital trusts) at the expense of purchasers (PCTs/practice-based commissioners).
An uneven playing field between NHS and private/voluntary sector providers, to the tune of a 14 per cent cost-advantage for NHS providers.
Severe constraints on the ability of PCTs to effectively tender services. These include: existing NHS providers operating at 'full' capacity; significant barriers to entry for private and voluntary sector organisations; bullying and predatory pricing by hospital trusts; poor data quality; and (above all) the bureaucratic and time-consuming nature of the procurement process.
Payment-by-results for non-elective care to be inappropriate and encouraging unnecessary use of secondary care.
PCTs and hospital trusts have yet to adapt to operating in a market environment. In particular, PCT management and commissioning skills – in terms of strategy, decision-making, performance management and tendering – are weak. Many hospital trusts, too, appear either unprepared or ill-equipped to respond to the needs of commissioners, with poor cost control.
A deep cultural reverence for the NHS as something more than a health system is acting as a powerful break on market incentives. In particular, the emotive notion of the 'NHS family' encourages a counter-productive 'us vs. them' attitude between the NHS and private and voluntary sectors. It also enables hospital trusts to exert a powerful force on PCTs tending towards the status quo – often where patients would be better served by the introduction of new services in the community. One provider executive said:'PCTs are scared of the providers' political power. They are afraid of putting services out to tender… and that the hospitals will then go and do something to retaliate that will cause the PCT managers to lose their jobs.' [p.73]
The latter is found to be the most important factor explaining the failure of the market to bring greater benefit for patients. 'Most people in most places have tried to block [it]', said one DH official.
The report makes a number of recommendations that remain relevant as responsibility for commissioning is transferred from PCTs to GP consortia:
There must be a sustained commitment on behalf of the government to the market and to principles and parameters that support it. This, above all, means consistency in policy (the continued lack of which is discouraging long-term investment) and that ministers start telling a new story for the NHS as a health service that strives to offer high quality universal health care coverage, free-at-the-point-of-use, from the best providers available. It should no longer be presented as a culturally revered system of nationalised provision and government focus should be on supporting PCTs as commissioners, not on supporting hospital trusts.
The DH should be re-cast from acting as the headquarters of a large corporation of providers to being the 'headquarters' of a commissioning system. It should be split into provisioning and commissioning arms (the NHS Commissioning Board). The temporary provisioning arm should provide management oversight before all NHS trusts become foundation trusts or are subject to alternative solutions (taken over, reconfigured or, where unsustainable, closed). Initial tasks for the new NHS Commissioning Board should be to: develop a more effective and less 'tick-box'-type regulatory framework; encourage a less burdensome and prescriptive approach to tendering; encourage relational contracting; simplify standard NHS contracts; and work towards a system of more integrated payment for non-elective care.
The report does not support the abolition of PCTs in favour of GP consortia: it does not believe this addresses the root causes of the market's underperformance. However, when formed, GP consortia should be framed along the lines of local health insurers charged with the goal of securing the best possible health care for their citizens within a constrained budget. They should act as independent, unbiased, evaluators and purchasers for patients free from institutional allegiance.
Providers should be placed in a more competitive framework. This would entail: the enforcement of meaningful competition law; the enforcement of full cost allocation and accounting; ironing out cost disadvantages for the private/voluntary sectors; and the creation of a proper failure regime for NHS providers.
Further Analysis and Commentaries
Lord Warner, former Labour Health Minister
This Civitas study thoughtfully unpicks some of the myths about the extent of markets in the NHS. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives completed a full purchaser/provider split or enabled a market to be achieved across most NHS services. The ISTCs of the Blair government never gained more than 4-5% of the electives market rather than the 15% the critics feared. As the report shows PCT commissioners have mostly lacked the strength and competence to challenge powerful acute hospital trusts effectively. As the NHS moves from feast to famine this report is a timely reminder that we should return to the lapsed debate about whether a more effectively marketised NHS would deliver the innovation, quality and productivity the NHS will need to satisfy a demanding public.
The report brings out well the point well that too many organisations have had so much new money that they didn't need to chase new business. It has been difficult for new providers to enter the NHS market and bring the challenge and innovation they bring in other sectors. Politically it remains easier for politicians and managers not to rock the boat by replacing failing and underperforming services. As the interviews in this report reflect too many NHS personnel are too comfortable of frightened to create the discomfort and public angst that a properly functioning market would bring. At the end the publication leaves nicely poised whether as the money gets ever scarcer ministers, doctors and managers will choose to reach for more effective market mechanisms if central targets and performance management are also to be abandoned. The Treasury may want to have more of a say on these issues.
Dr Bill Moyes, former Executive Chair, Monitor
For the first 55 years of its existence the NHS was run on the basis of central command and control. Patients had almost no information about its performance and no means to influence where or how they were cared for, waiting times for treatments lengthened, changes in services were politically – driven and there was little incentive for clinicians and managers to improve the productivity of staff or assets. As this report concludes, many of these flaws can be tackled by the introduction of market-like mechanisms without sacrificing the ability to offer care free. But achieving this will require major shifts in the culture of both the commissioners and the providers.
The new NHS Board needs to develop a strong commissioning function, locally and nationally. It should set clear standards of clinical outcome, quality of care and patient satisfaction and purchase care from any provider – public, voluntary or private sector – who can consistently deliver healthcare to these or higher standards within the tariff. Providers who cannot do that, and who fail to improve their performance, should not be allowed to sell services into the NHS until their performance meets the standards required. And the NHS Board should publish information on the performance of providers so that commissioners and patients can make informed and good choices, rather than being persuaded to use the local service simply to keep it going.
Providers also need to change. They need to become dynamic, patient-focussed businesses operating in a challenging environment. The techniques of service line management need to be adopted across the whole provider sector to illuminate the performance of each service, and clinicians need to use this information to all aspects of service performance.
The underlying model on which the NHS is based is a good one, but its operation has been consistently poor. It needs to change if the provision of free care is to survive. Adopting enthusiastically the market-based reforms of Labour and now the Coalition is the right way forward.
Martin Rathfelder, Director, Socialist Health Association
Socialists have always been suspicious of markets, and some still think that the National Health Service is an island of socialism in a sea of capitalism. But in reality it has proved impossible to repeal, or even amend, the laws of supply and demand in the NHS. Even though the patients don't pay directly for treatment people make their living out of the NHS, buying, selling, investing money, losing it and making profits. People with more resources generally get a better deal than those with less. Treatments are still rationed, and always will be.
The Labour Government's tentative attempts to harness market forces to improve quality and efficiency in the NHS have created an unstable situation, as this book describes. Markets seem to have made a minor contribution to the reduction of waiting lists, but otherwise we seem to have all the costs of markets with few of the benefits. This publication points a way forward, but it is still unclear whether the proposals of the coalition government can harness market forces for the benefit of the large majority of NHS patients who are unable personally to exercise much choice about where they are treated, and are more concerned about how they are treated. If GPs are going to be exercising buying power on behalf of their patients can we really align their incentives with the interests of their patients? Because if we can't we might as well go back to centralised direction.
David Worskett, CEO, NHS Partners Network
In the context of the challenges now facing the NHS, it is more important than ever that the process of NHS market reform is revitalised as it provides potentially one of the most important means of helping the NHS meet the challenges it now faces. As this report and others correctly identify, the independent sector is uniquely placed to help develop innovative approaches to healthcare that drive quality and patient satisfaction up, increase productivity, and thus ensure that the unprecedented funding pressures on the NHS do not lead to a decline in the quality of care available in England.
Extending the principle of "any willing provider" beyond acute care to other NHS services will ensure that further opportunities to maximise value and encourage innovation are realised and will place power and choice firmly in the hands of the patient. The new government's commitments in this area will remove some of the many barriers that have prevented the market from reaching its full potential. As always under such circumstances, good providers will have nothing to fear, but poor providers will be forced to improve.
Dr Peter Davies, GP, Halifax
Agoraphobia is a fear of the marketplace. In this book the authors show us just how afraid of the marketplace the NHS actually is. And strangely it is probably the shoppers (commissioners) who are more scared than the shops (providers). The story of the NHS in the last several years is that commissioners have been afraid of their own shadow. They have been both clinically and managerially underpowered. What's reassuring, and fascinating, is that the themes James Gubb and I described last year in "Putting Patients Last" recur but this time from the managerial perspective. The managers are just as frustrated as the doctors.
In May in the British Journal of General Practice I described the NHS as being like an overgrown garden – large hardy perennials, many overgrown weeds, many slugs and snails, no one having really taken it in hand and cut back overgrown vegetation. I still think the metaphor is correct. The market may be the means by which the NHS garden becomes an integrated functional whole, and the weeds get removed. We may move towards a market as envisaged by Adam Smith and his description of how competition also leads to co-operation via the action of the "invisible hand" that guides multiple providers to meet the needs of multiple purchasers. No non-market, planned economy has ever succeeded in matching supply with demand. You can have as many intermediate process measures and lengthy reports as you like, but the outcome of centralised processes such as Ukrainian Tractor Production or the NHS's MTAS scheme tend to be disastrous.
Perhaps it is now time to allow the market, within a proper regulatory framework that protects the core values of universal access, free-at-the-point of need, to do its work on the NHS: to see if GP commissioners can get the purchasing decisions made that will allow the NHS to bring demand and supply into alignment. Andrew Lansley in his recent White Paper has set out a very challenging set of changes for the NHS, and has given my speciality its biggest ever challenge and biggest ever opportunity. For the patients' sake I hope that as a GP I am up to it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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La trilogia d'Els jocs de la fam és un conjunt de tres títols escrits per Suzanne Collins: Els jocs de la fam, En flames i L'ocell de la revolta, publicats entre 2008 i 2010 amb un gran èxit de vendes. Es tracta d'una distopia pertanyent a la literatura juvenil que narra la història de com Katniss Everdeen derroca un règim totalitari en qüestionar-lo a través de la seva participació en els jocs del títol. Aquesta competició es basa en l'eliminació física i televisada de joves triats a l'atzar en els districtes rebels. Amb la seva inesperada victòria, dona esperances per a una insurrecció, que es duu a terme des d'un districte fantasma que organitza un govern a l'ombra fins a la guerra final.

La trilogia barreja elements d'acció, entreteniment i crítica social (com el paper de la telerealitat, la violència o la diferència de classes) en una història que s'estructura amb un triangle amorós i on l'heroïna assumeix un paper de líder per amor a la seva família. L'èxit dels llibres ha propiciat la seva adaptació al cinema i la seva traducció a diverses llengües, entre elles el català.

A més a més, l'any 2020 es va publicar Balada d'ocells i serps, una preqüela de la trilogia original que passa 64 anys abans de la primera novel·la i està protagonitzada per Coriolà Snow, que ocupa el càrrec de president de Panem en les altres novel·les de la sèrie. Així doncs, es podria considerar que la sèrie d'Els jocs de la fam és una tetralogia.

Referències

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The Albigenses
Articles (Wiki)
Taken from the book Foxes Book of Martyrs. The Albigenses were a people of the reformed religion, who inhabited the country of Albi. They were condemned on the score of religion in the Council of Lateran, by order of Pope Alexander III. Nevertheless, they increased so prodigiously, that many cities were inhabited by persons only of their persuasion, and several eminent noblemen embraced their doctrines. Among the latter were Raymond, earl of Toulouse, Raymond, earl of Foix, the earl of Beziers, etc.
Torturing Albigenses
A friar, named Peter, having been murdered in the dominions of the earl of Toulouse, the pope made the murder a pretense to persecute that nobleman and his subjects. To effect this, he sent persons throughout all Europe, in order to raise forces to act coercively against the Albigenses, and promised paradise to all that would come to this war, which he termed a Holy War, and bear arms for forty days. The same indulgences were likewise held out to all who entered themselves for the purpose as to such as engaged in crusades to the Holy Land. The brave earl defended Toulouse and other places with the most heroic bravery and various success against the pope's legates and Simon, earl of Montfort, a bigoted Catholic nobleman. Unable to subdue the earl of Toulouse openly, the king of France, and the queen mother, and three archbishops raised another formidable army, and had the art to persuade the earl of Toulouse to come to a conference, when he was treacherously seized upon, made a prisoner, forced to appear barefooted and bareheaded before his enemies, and compelled to subscribe an abject recantation. This was followed by a severe persecution against the Albigenses; and express orders that the laity should not be permitted to read the sacred Scriptures. In the year 1620 also, the persecution against the Albigenses was very severe. In 1648 a heavy persecution raged throughout Lithuania and Poland. The cruelty of the Cossacks was so excessive that the Tartars themselves were ashamed of their barbarities. Among others who suffered was the Rev. Adrian Chalinski, who was roasted alive by a slow fire, and whose sufferings and mode of death may depict the horrors which the professors of Christianity have endured from the enemies of the Redeemer.
Almericus
The reformation of papistical error very early was projected in France; for in the third century a learned man, named Almericus, and six of his disciples, were ordered to be burnt at Paris for asserting that God was no otherwise present in the sacramental bread than in any other bread; that it was idolatry to build altars or shrines to saints and that it was ridiculous to offer incense to them. The martyrdom of Almericus and his pupils did not, however, prevent many from acknowledging the justness of his notions, and seeing the purity of the reformed religion, so that the faith of Christ continually increased, and in time not only spread itself over many parts of France, but diffused the light of the Gospel over various other countries.
In the year 1524, at a town in France, called Melden, one John Clark set up a bill on the church door, wherein he called the pope Antichrist. For this offence he was repeatedly whipped, and then branded on the forehead. Going afterward to Mentz, in Lorraine, he demolished some images, for which he had his right hand and nose cut off, and his arms and breast torn with pincers. He sustained these cruelties with amazing fortitude, and was even sufficiently cool to sing the One hundredth and fifteenth Psalm, which expressly forbids idolatry; after which he was thrown into the fire, and burnt to ashes.
Paris, Malda, and Limosin
Many persons of the reformed persuasion were, about this time, beaten, racked, scourged, and burnt to death, in several parts of France, but more particularly at Paris, Malda, and Limosin. A native of Malda was burnt by a slow fire, for saying that Mass was a plain denial of the death and passion of Christ. At Limosin, John de Cadurco, a clergyman of the reformed religion, was apprehended and ordered to be burnt.
Burning Albigense Books
Francis Bribard
Francis Bribard, secretary to cardinal de Pellay, for speaking in favor of the reformed, had his tongue cut out, and was then burnt, A.D. 1545. James Cobard, a schoolmaster in the city of St. Michael, was burnt, A.D. 1545, for saying 'That Mass was useless and absurd'; and about the same time, fourteen men were burnt at Malda, their wives being compelled to stand by and behold the execution.
Peter Chapot
A.D. 1546, Peter Chapot brought a number of Bibles in the French tongue to France, and publicly sold them there; for which he was brought to trial, sentenced, and executed a few days afterward. Soon after, a cripple of Meaux, a schoolmaster of Fera, named Stephen Poliot, and a man named John English, were burnt for the faith.
Monsieur Blondel
Monsieur Blondel, a rich jeweler, was, in A.D. 1548, apprehended at Lyons, and sent to Paris; there he was burnt for the faith by order of the court, A.D. 1549. Herbert, a youth of nineteen years of age, was committed to the flames at Dijon; as was also Florent Venote in the same year. In the year 1554, two men of the reformed religion, with the son and daughter of one of them, were apprehended and committed to the castle of Niverne. On examination, they confessed their faith, and were ordered to execution; being smeared with grease, brimstone, and gunpowder, they cried, "Salt on, salt on this sinful and rotten flesh." Their tongues were then cut out, and they were afterward committed to the flames, which soon consumed them, by means of the combustible matter with which they were besmeared.
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text:
Club Balonmano Puerto Sagunto (Handballclub Puerto Sagunto) ist ein Handballverein aus der Stadt Sagunt in der Provinz Valencia, Spanien. Er spielte in der Liga Asobal, Spaniens erster Handballliga.

Aus Sponsoringgründen tritt der Verein seit dem Jahr 2012 unter dem Namen Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto an, vorher auch als Alser Puerto Sagunto.

Geschichte
Das Unternehmen Altos Hornos de Vizcaya betrieb in den 1950er Jahren die Sportgruppe Grupo Atlético AHV, in der vor allem Leichtathletik betrieben wurde, später auch Basketball. Nachdem das Basketballteam von der ersten in die dritte Liga zurückgestuft worden war, widmeten sich die Spieler fortan dem Handball, zunächst dem Feldhandball mit sieben Spielern, ab 1956 mit elf Spielern. Ab 1958 spielte der Verein in der División de Honor, der höchsten spanischen Liga. In der Saison 1968/1969 wurde der Verein Altos Hornos Zweiter der spanischen Liga. Wie überall, vollzog sich auch in Spanien der Wandel vom Feldhandball zum Kleinfeldhandball bzw. Hallenhandball. Damit einher ging die Verpflichtung für die spanischen Vereine, ab der Saison 1970/1971 eine Spielhalle für die Heimspiele zu betreiben. Da das nicht realisiert werden konnte, wurde der Verein Altos Hornos aufgelöst.

Am 23. November 1970 wurde dann der Club Balonmano Puerto Sagunto gegründet. Da mit der Auflösung des Vorgängervereins auch dessen Spielrecht in der ersten Liga verlorenging, übernahm der neue Verein das vakante Startrecht in der Primera División Nacional von der zweiten Mannschaft des BM Marcol Valencia. Da es in der Stadt noch immer keine Halle gab, wurden Heimspiele in Almenara und Paterna ausgetragen. Mitte 1975 wurde dann eine Halle in Sagunt errichtet. Nach der Saison 1983/1984 stieg der Verein in die Segunda División ab. Nach dem Einstieg eines neuen Sponsors im Jahr 1983 gelang erneut der Aufstieg in die Primera División. In der Spielzeit 1993/1994 gelang der weitere Aufstieg in die neu geschaffene División de Honor B, die zweite spanische Liga. Nach der Saison 1996/1997 stieg der Verein in die dritte Liga ab. Nach der Saison 1999/2000 stieg das Team wieder in die Primera División auf. Nach dem Einstieg der Firma Alser S. L. als Sponsor in der Saison 2005/2006 belegte der Verein in der Spielzeit 2006/2007 und 2007/2008 jeweils Platz 1 der Gruppe C der Primera División, 2007 erreichte man auch den Aufstieg in die División de Honor B. In der Saison 2009/2010 stieg BM Puerto Sagunto als Meister der División de Honor in die erste spanische Liga, die Liga Asobal, auf.

In der ersten Spielzeit in der höchsten Liga, der Saison 2010/2011, belegte der Verein den 12. Platz und schaffte damit den Klassenerhalt. In der Saison 2011/2012 belegte das Team den letzten Platz; da die Vereine AMAYA Sport San Antonio und CBM Torrevieja aber aus wirtschaftlichen Gründen absteigen mussten, konnte BM Puerto Sagunto in der Liga bleiben. In der Spielzeit 2012/2013 belegte der Verein Platz 10 der Liga und erreichte das Viertelfinale der Copa del Rey. Im selben Jahr wurde das Unternehmen Fertiberia neuer Hauptsponsor. In der Spielzeit 2013/2014 gelang erst im letzten Spiel (gegen Villa de Aranda) der Klassenerhalt. Die Saison 2017/2018 beendete das Team auf dem 15. Platz und stieg in die zweite Liga ab. 2019 gelang dem Verein nochmals der Aufstieg in die Liga Asobal. In der Saison 2019/2020, die wegen der COVID-19-Pandemie abgebrochen wurde, gelang der 11. Platz. Nach der Spielzeit 2020/2021 stieg das Team erneut ab. Die erste Mannschaft spielt seitdem in der División de Honor Plata, der 2. spanischen Handball-Liga.

Platzierungen seit 1990

Heimspielstätte
Heimspielstätte ist der Pabellón Polideportivo municipal "internúcleos".

Spieler
Beim Verein spielten auch Michael Apelgren, Gonzalo Carou, Bruno Kozina, Aidenas Malašinskas, Ángel Pérez de Inestrosa, Ignacio Plaza Jiménez, Chen Pomeranz, Nikola Prce, Carlos Grau (2013–2014) und Seufyann Sayad.

Weblinks
 www.cbmpuertosagunto.com Offizielle Website

Einzelnachweise

Sport (Sagunt)
Gegründet 1970
Sagunt


The Icelandic team wanted to show the Hungarian guests as much as possible in a few days. The students prepared the visits and gave presentations concerning the visits. On the picture below is the Hungarian group in the concert hall Harpa in Reykjavík.


text:
Nintendo wins court battle over Wii motion control patents
By Dave Tach@dptach May 13, 2013, 7:00pm EDT
Source U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Share All sharing options for: Nintendo wins court battle over Wii motion control patents
The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled today that Nintendo did not infringe upon motion control patents held by Motiva LLC, saying litigation against the Wii maker was "Motiva's only activity that could be related to commercializing the technology."
Motiva filed suit in 2008 claiming that Nintendo's Wii console had infringed on patents that allowed a system to track player position and movement and that importing the Wii consoles would harm a U.S. industry.
According to the ruling (PDF link), Motiva needed to prove that it had made "significant investment in plant and equipment," "significant employment of labor or capital" and "substantial investment in its exploitation, including engineering, research and development, or licensing."
In today's ruling, Judge Sharon Prost wrote that Motiva failed to meet the "economic prong of the domestic industry requirement."
"Motiva was never close to launching a product incorporating the patented technology — nor did any partners show any interest in doing so, for years before or any time after the launch of the Wii," and "the evidence demonstrated that Motiva's litigation was targeted at financial gains, not at encouraging adoption of Motiva's patented technology," Prost wrote.
Moreover, an administrative law judge ruled in 2011 "after briefing and a five-day evidentiary hearing," that Nintendo did not infringe on either of Motiva's patents. Motiva appealed, and the Circuit Court declined to revisit those findings.
"We are very pleased with this result," Richard Medway, Nintendo of America's deputy general counsel, said in a press release from the company. "The court confirmed that Motiva's sole activity, litigation against Nintendo, did not satisfy the ITC's domestic industry requirement. Nintendo has a passionate tradition of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent."


Error when trying to access active network connections.
Searching /Kernel/Session in Naming Service +Warning, no type found for resource "localhost", using default value "single_machine"
That is why you get the first error: Error when trying to access active network connections.
Thanks for response, but it's already installed in my PC.
net-tools is already the newest version (1.60-26ubuntu1).
I figured out how to install Salome in ubuntu 18.04.
Cntrl + Alt + T for terminal.
1. First thing is that your system should be up to date.
run this command " sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade "
2. Create salome directory in home.
run this command " mkdir salome " make sure you are in system home directory"
4. After downloading you have like this in your download directory "Salome-V8_4_0-univ_public.run"
5. Then make a file as a program.
run this command " chmod +x Salome-V8_4_0-univ_public.run ".
6. Now type "ls" in terminal and see 2 files.
7. Then install salome in your PC.
run this command " ./Salome-V8_4_0-univ_public.run "
8. press Just "Enter" and choose language English or French.
9. after that you have a salome icon in your PC screen.
If you have any problem regarding this, please mail me. " shubham.tiwarifs@gmail.com"
So I've fixed (I think) the issues I've had. tl;dr is that there's a dependency on using Python 2.X, but all references to that are simply "python" instead of "python2". That basically screwed up everything, nor do I understand why they didn't just specify "python2".
The Salome application was successfully created.
A) When I run this code, it comes up with an error. I have to change "python" to "python2" to get the script to work.
B) When the script works, I get "/bin". "/bin" isn't where these files are located. Not even remotely. I'm honestly not sure what this part of the script was supposed to be doing.
To fix this, I just hardcoded the "$SALOMEDIR" to the "~/salome/Salome-V8_4_0-univ". After that change it worked.... sort of.
The directory it installed it into was "~/salome/Salome-V8_4_0-univ/y". Not sure where the "y" came from. I tried to run "y/salome" and again ran into python errors this time.
I'll skip the nitty gritty, but at the end, I had to replace "#! /usr/bin/env python" with ""#! /usr/bin/env python2" to get it to work. I'll look into submitting a bug report, as this seems like a pretty large oversight. Most people have installations of python 2 and 3.
Thank you very much! This worked for me also!
Thanks to all, i am very glad to help you. If you have any problem then mail me definitely I'll help you as soon as possible.
Thank you for comments which are very helpful to me.
What should I do to launch program?
there are Salome version issue, i am sending you a link then download Salome V8.4.0 version.and follow the same step which have you.
But before that you have to be delete all files of Salome.
Searching /Kernel/Session in Naming Service +++Gtk-Message: 19:57:32.866: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
It does sound strange, but you should try with Universal binaries for Linux. It works perfectly for me on all ubuntu versions !
i wanna tell you one thing, if you are facing problem with 18.04 then please go with 16.04. It's a reliable, easy to use, and you will get all solution.


text:
PODCAST: Protecting Water and Wastewater Facilities that House Hazardous Chemicals
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Download | Subscribe
Facilities that produce, use, or store hazardous chemicals can be dangerous to the communities where they are found, and could become targets of terrorists looking to inflict mass casualties and damage. In the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of these facilities, which include public water systems and wastewater treatment works. What safeguards are in place to protect communities from the risks these water facilities could potentially pose? We talk with GAO's Nathan Anderson, an expert on critical infrastructure protection and a director in our Homeland Security and Justice Team.
View the transcript
Nathan Anderson
AndersonN@gao.gov
Facilities that produce, use, or store hazardous chemicals could be targeted by terrorists. The Department of Homeland Security identifies and regulates high-risk facilities that contain certain quantities of these chemicals.
Some facilities with hazardous chemicals are excluded from DHS's chemical security program, but are regulated by other federal agencies. For example, the EPA regulates public water facilities, which may use large quantities of chlorine. DHS has reached out to hundreds of these facilities to assess their vulnerabilities. We recommended DHS use EPA data to better plan its outreach to facilities that pose the greatest risks.
Access Control and Perimeter Security Measures at a Water Treatment Plant
Certain facilities excluded from the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program are regulated by other programs containing requirements or guidance that generally align with at least half of the CFATS 18 standards. For example,
the U.S. Coast Guard regulates about 3,000 excluded facilities under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA). The MTSA program—designed to deter a maritime transportation security incident—contains requirements or guidelines that generally align with CFATS' standards (e.g., perimeter security), according to GAO's analysis; and
there are about 150,000 public water systems and more than 25,000 wastewater treatment works regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that are excluded from the CFATS program. EPA's Risk Management Program regulates certain facilities for accidental chemical releases. Also, the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 program requires certain public water systems to develop risk assessments and emergency response plans. GAO found that these programs include requirements or guidance that generally align with over half of CFATS' standards (see figure) but do not align on elements such as employee background checks.
Number of Department of Homeland Security Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards That Generally Align with Select Programs' Requirements or Guidance
DHS has conducted outreach to hundreds of excluded water and wastewater facilities but has not assessed available EPA data that may help better inform outreach planning decisions. Through the Protective Security Advisor Program, DHS conducted voluntary outreach security assessments with 389 water and wastewater facilities from March 2017 to April 2020. GAO found that there are at least 1,600 water and wastewater facilities with threshold quantities of hazardous chemicals and that at least 65 of the 389 outreach security assessments involved such facilities. DHS receives data monthly from EPA that identify facilities with threshold quantities of hazardous chemicals but has not assessed the data to inform Protective Security Advisors Program outreach planning. By assessing EPA data when planning outreach to public water system and wastewater treatment works facilities, DHS could help better ensure that it is allocating resources to provide the greatest possible risk reduction.
Facilities that produce, use, or store hazardous chemicals could be targeted or used by terrorists to inflict mass casualties and damage. DHS established the CFATS program to assess the risk posed by facilities with threshold quantities of hazardous chemicals of interest and inspect them to ensure compliance with DHS standards. However, certain types of facilities subject to other regulatory programs are excluded from the CFATS program by statute. Excluded facilities include facilities regulated under the MTSA program, public water systems, and wastewater treatment works.
GAO was asked to review issues related to excluded facilities. This report addresses, among other things, the extent to which (1) selected federal programs that regulate excluded facilities contain requirements or guidance that align with CFATS standards, and (2) DHS conducts outreach to excluded facilities. GAO analyzed the most recent available data on excluded facilities from DHS, EPA, and other agencies; reviewed and analyzed statutes, regulations, and program guidance; and interviewed agency officials.
GAO recommends that DHS assess EPA data when planning outreach to public water system and wastewater treatment works facilities. DHS concurred with GAO's recommendation.
For more information, contact Nathan Anderson at (206) 287-4804 or AndersonN@gao.gov.
Recommendation for Executive Action
Recommendation: The Director of DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency should assess EPA data when planning outreach to public water system and wastewater treatment works facilities (Recommendation 1).


Add oreo biscuits to a food processor and process to form fine oreo crumbs. Transfer to a bowl. Reserve some for garnish.
Add cream cheese to the oreo crumbs and knead to form a gooey oreo dough. Make 20 small balls out of the oreo dough, transfer to a plate and freeze for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, dip the oreo balls in the melted chocolate and transfer the dipped chocolate oreo balls to a tray with help of a fork. Make sure to shake off any excess chocolate. While the chocolate is still wet, garnish the oreo ball with a little-reserved oreo crumb.
Repeat with remaining balls and chocolate.
Refrigerate the oreo balls for 10 minutes to harden. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve immediately or store in an airtight container for later use.


Maternal cardiac arrest is a low-frequency, high-risk pregnancy complication with 2 lives at stake. Incidence is approximately 1 in 12,000 to 50,000 pregnancies with a greater than 40% mortality rate. Understanding physiologic changes of pregnancy and how to perform a perimortem cesarean section (resuscitative hysterotomy) are critical aspects of caring for maternal cardiac arrest.
Most common causes are hemorrhage, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, pulmonary embolism, amniotic fluid embolism, sepsis, preeclampsia/eclampsia.
Attach to monitor and defibrillator.
Goal is to deliver fetus expeditious manner.
Mallemat H. Supportive management of critical illness in the pregnant patient. EM Critical Care/EB Medicine. 2012;2(3):1-16.
Weingart S. EMCrit Conference Blast Winner: Peri-Mortem C-Section. EMCrit Blog. Published February 12, 2013. Accessed March 22, 2018. Available at https://emcrit.org/racc/peri-mortem-c-section/.


Dawn's Roses captures the Hazy Light of Cape Cod. Bathed in an incredible array of prismatic greens and reds. it is truly a masterpiece. The roses climb the front of the oldest house in Truro on Highland Road near the Highland Lighthouse. It is 24"x36" and is in a beautiful guilded frame.


A glance at XXXTentacion's Spotify page will show that "Jocelyn Flores" is one of the late rapper's most popular songs. Featured on his 2017 debut album, 17, the double-platinum-selling record named after a teenager who took her own life has become a signature track of the artist, but the girl's family is now accusing him of exploiting her death for his own publicity.
The story surrounding "Jocelyn Flores" claimed that Flores was a friend of X who committed suicide in May 2017. While the rapper and Flores did have a relationship, according to new details revealed by The Daily Beast, the two had only been talking to each other for 11 days.
X reportedly flew Flores out to Florida to be with him and model for the Revenge fashion line he was working on. But after an altercation ensued between Jocelyn and another girl when $7,000 went missing from X, he told her she could no longer stay with him due to his probation (he had only been released from jail 61 days prior). Flores left with two members of X's crew and headed to a Hampton Inn hotel, where she was reportedly found dead in the bathroom less than 24 hours later.
The family adds that the only condolences they received from X came in a video he posted on social media where he said he wasn't able to contact the family personally. Flores' step-dad claims he set up a phone conversation with the rapper's publicist, but nothing ever came out of it.
"We just wanted to know what her last day was like," Ramirez said. "That torments me. I just want to know the last day. Please. Tell me anything. What did she do that day? What did she eat? When was the last time you saw her? Did you take her to Universal Studios like you promised her? What is it that you did with her? What was her last day like?"
"Jocelyn Flores" has gone on to sell over 2 million copies and in June, following the murder of XXXTentacion, the song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100, appearing at No. 19 on the chart.
X was shot and killed outside Riva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach, Fla. on June 18. Four suspects have since been arrested and charged with murder, and are currently awaiting trial.


text:
True North Reports
The other side of Vermont's news
TNR News
TrueNorthReportsTV
Travels With Charlie
Vote for Vermont
The Woodchuck Report
The Vermont Neighbors Project
American Socialism
Economy and Jobs
Left-Wing Violence
Taxes, Fees and Fines
Waste, Fraud and Abuse
McClaughry: Retirement fund blues
TNR / 1 week ago January 11, 2021
By John McClaughry
Not the least of the fiscal problems facing the 2021 governor and legislature is the perilous condition of the two state retirement funds, for state employees (VSERS) and public school teachers and staff (VSTRS). Both of these funds are "defined benefit" funds: the state government has the obligation to pay enough into the funds each year, along with contributions from current employees, to make sure there will be enough there to pay current and future retirees the promised pension checks for the next 30 years.
That annual state payment is the actuarially determined Annual Required Contribution (ARC). The actuaries, looking years into the future, have to make assumptions about numbers of current and future retirees and crucially, the expected returns on the invested funds (now just over $4 billion).
If the actuaries calculate that there won't be enough in the funds to make the required payments, the shortfall is the Unfunded Actuarially Accrued Liability. Ideally, this should be close to zero.
John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute.
The Treasurer's Office recently made public the actuaries' report of the condition of the two pension funds as of the beginning of fiscal year 2021, now half over. The accompanying Other Post Employment Benefit funds (OPEBs, mostly health care) are pay-as-you-go, requiring an appropriation each year to cover the expected retiree expenditures.
Here is the latest evaluation of the fiscal health of the two funds. (There's a third fund for municipal employees that the state manages, but state taxpayers are not on the hook for its performance.)
The unfunded liability for state employee pensions is $1.040 billion. For teachers, it's $1.933 billion. Total: $2.973 billion. These two liabilities have increased by $604 million in just one year.
The state employee pension plan is 66.4% funded; the teacher plan, 51.3%.
For OPEB (unfunded), the projected expenditures for state employees are $1.425 billion; for teachers, $1.259 billion. Total: $2.684 billion. The projected OPEB costs have increased by $416 million in just one year.
The total of the two pension funds and expected OPEB obligations went from $4.637 billion a year ago to the present $5.657 Billion. That's an increase in required expenditures of over a billion dollars in a single year.
How did we get to this dismal situation? For one thing, for decades the legislature often voted less than the Annual Required Contributions, and that ran up the unfunded liabilities. Why? Because the ARCs are very large numbers in the annual appropriations bill, and reducing them produces no immediate calamities and frees up money for which other interests are clamoring.
For another, administrations played games with the crucial expected yield on the invested assets in the two pension funds. Until recently it was claimed to be an utterly unrealistic 8.25%, at a time when bond yields (around half of the funds) were around 2%. The projected yield has now been allowed to slide down to 7.0%, which accounts for much of the sharp increase in unfunded liabilities. A more realistic number would be at or even below 6%.
Further, the two unions who guard their retirees' pensions and health benefits are firmly opposed to increasing worker contributions to their respective pension funds, or retiree contributions to their OPEB health benefits. Not surprisingly, the union negotiators want somebody else — taxpayers — to pay lots more to reduce the liabilities. Woe unto the governor or treasurer who stubbornly insists on increased worker payments, because both unions (VSEA and VT-NEA) are well organized to inflict retribution at the polls.
If this problem keeps on festering, at some point taxpayers will simply not allow legislators to short other programs to make huge bailout payments to support unionized retirees who are pocketing far more than a large fraction of the (non-unionized) taxpayers.
The bond rating agencies, taking note of its growing unfunded liabilities, will start downgrading the state's overall credit. (Moody's already has, from AAA down a notch to Aa1 two years ago). That means higher interest payments on state debt. It would be costly — and disgraceful — for Vermont to become the Illinois of New England.
With tough gubernatorial leadership, some other states — Michigan and Rhode Island among them — have reshaped their retirement plans. The most important change would be to convert both pension funds into defined contribution plans, commonplace in the private sector. The unions could still lobby for higher contributions, but there would be no more actuarial underfunding. The taxpayers would still be saddled with the responsibility of paying off the legacy underfunding year after year.
Treasurer Pierce is currently engaged in closed door reform negotiations with the two unions. The governor needs to back her up. So should the legislators, who have dismissed reform proposals from Treasurers Douglas and Spaulding in years past.
Images courtesy of Flickr/401kcalculator.org and John McClaughry
Click to share on Parler (Opens in new window)
January 11, 2021 in Commentary. Tags: Pensions
Weiland Ross: If free expression of ideas is no longer tolerated, we have no choice but to be afraid
Roper: Vermont director of elections testifies to how easy mail-in ballot fraud is
How MLK's vision compares to Black Lives Matter's agenda
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6 thoughts on "McClaughry: Retirement fund blues"
RICHARD GALLAGHER says:
"Defund (VSTRS)"
ed letourneau says:
Where do I go to get a 6% return on my savings?
John Freitag says:
Thank you for this update on this depressing situation. While a beneficiary of the state employees pension fund, where as Facilities Manager for our Town's school for 33 years my pension comes from, I have long advocated for a reduction both a reduction in current benefits for those like myself and an increase in contributions from those now working. The alternative to prudent action now is the need for more drastic action in the future.
At some point an article on what is included and how pensions both for teachers and state employees are calculated would be helpful to show the public what exactly they are contributing too.
James B Hall says:
We arrived where we are because of incompetence, mismanagement, lack of oversight by the Legislature, and the compounding effect of just letting it be for years and years. It is that simple. Put another way, it is the old "Howard Dean" trick: a pot of money laying by itself, without a critical need/earmark at that point in time, or just plain waiting for the day it will be needed can't happen. The spend and tax mindset always kicks in, so we use the money for something else and it will take care of itself. Remember the Transportation Fund? We are still playing "Catch Up", bigtime because of all the money siphoned from the T fund; yes the money may have been returned, but the work in the meantime was delayed…. just drive a few Vermont roads and it will quickly come back to remind the traveler where we went wrong. Sickening as this concept is, it is still playing out; only with different players and a different stage set. And we allowed it to happen, is the bottom line. Long past time for that Housecleaning, that is still very much in need of happening.
It will be a long time before returns are equal to what they have been these last 3 or 4 years. If we could not make it then, well, you catch the drift here.
God help us in our time of need, top to bottom.
Keld Alstrup says:
The future yield expectation should probably be no higher than 5%, which would probably bring the unfunded liabilities to increase by another billion dollars.
Mark on Big Marijuana's proposed bypass of local voters not Guv's idea
The Resolute Voice on John Klar: Vermont Gov. Phil Scott calls his own party 'racist'


We at Anita Benge Accountancy Services offer an advice service for all accountancy related matters. We can offer advice same day via email or telephone. Our time slots are normally in one hour slots between 9am – 5pm. If you require longer or outside of office hours we can arrange an suitable time for all outside of office hours.


text:
The Writer's Cohort
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture: Relativity of Conflicts
It honestly took a few days for The Chinese Room's Everybody's Gone to the Rapture adventure game to sink in.
I mean really sink in.
You see, I think sometimes when we finish playing/watching/reading something, we expect to have an immediate reaction to it. The message and theme and plot -- Everything clicks right at the end. Everything makes sense.
That was not how it worked with Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. At least for me.
But that's what I liked so much about it.
The game takes place in a cozy, English village. But what's so off-putting about this all-too-charming town? All of the people are gone. They've mysteriously vanished. Have they gone to the rapture? Did they evacuate? Were they murdered? Who knows?
You see, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture starts after the world has already ended.
There is no one left. But you, of course.
In the game, you travel through the different parts of the village. A scientist named Kate somewhat guides you towards the end of the end, if you will. You get to explore and interact with certain objects like radios, doors, hidden passages, etc. Sometimes, entering a certain area will trigger a story scene. In a brief moment, the player gets to see a memory. It is, essentially, a snippet of what life was like leading up to the end of the world.
Left behind are memories and recordings of a village that feels so real -- so lived in, and now so blatantly empty.
The job of the player is to kind of uncover what happened to these people.
But, what really blew my mind about the game was the relativity of the conflicts I confronted in my playthrough.
Good stories are all about conflict, yes? And it's safe to say that the world ending is a pretty huge conflict, right?
But the world ending wasn't what was most important to me.
What I cared about most, were the villagers. Watching the story unfold, the player realizes that all of the people involved in the story share large amounts of history with each other. There is a lot of drama in this small town, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture throws the player headfirst into the deep end of a vicious whirlpool of commotion.
My favorite part of the game was thinking I was going to be figuring out what happened to the people -- when I was honestly more curious about why a certain relationship didn't work out with two of the main characters.
That's what makes this game so important.
Relativity of conflicts.
The thought of the world ending is overwhelming to say the least, but the thought of a relationship ending is something people can relate to. It creates this sense of, "Hey, the world may be ending, but I'm, honestly, just really sad because my favorite character is heartbroken, and I know why because I've felt that, too."
I think a lot of people look for clarity in games. They want a good ending or a bad ending. They want black or white. What was so intriguing about this game is the way it leaves the player feeling. It left me with more questions than answers, but not about what happened in the game. It made me question things about my own relationships and myself.
This visually spectacular, non-linear journey captivated me until the very end, and then days after. While I enjoyed my first play through, I know the game still holds many more mysteries to uncover and quite a few more trophies to earn.
The Chinese Room launched Everybody's Gone to the Rapture on August 11, 2015, and it is available to purchase on the PlayStation store.
By Daddy on August 21, 2015
Adam Kuta


The Coil N' Wrap 006-114 Light Check And Safety Plug allow you to check the lights on your trailer or fifth wheel without having to plug into your tow vehicle.
Simply plug your 7-pin adapter into the LightCheck to get a reading in seconds.
Can be used to test turn signals, brake lights, and amber warning lights.
Lights on the unit will illuminate, allowing you to walk around and see if your lights work or not.
Safety feature allows you to use your trailer lights without a tow vehicle connected.
The LightCheck will not blink if your lights are not working properly.
Works with any lights including LEDs.
RV Pigtails FM77-01 7-Way Blade to 7-Way Pin With Door 10" RV Pigtails FM47-01 4-Way Male Flat to 7-Way Pin With Door 10" RV Pigtails FM77-05 7-Way Blade to 7-Way Pin With Door 10" RV Pigtails FM77-02 7-Way Pin Trailer Side to 7-Way Blade Car Side With Door 10"


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We endeavour our products will be useful for wide range uses - unprepared in the programming, software development area as well as for well skilled professionals.
We will suppose our task being executed well, if our customers are employing our software products according to the principle - "take and use" without additional learning.
On the other hand, in our projects we are able to connect and integrate our experience and technical skills with virtual Internet knowledge to create commonality design philosophy for e-business software. We are aspiring to the web development software standards(modules) acceptable for most different particular conditions and applied areas.
Diofant's software developers are employing our products everywhere: for access restriction to web site pages or files, to create any distributed access circuitries to the website and control user authentication and authorization access for user groups, for on-line software selling.


text:
The 2018 Marriott Hotels strike was a strike of more than 7,700 workers across the United States at 23 hotels operated by Marriott International in late 2018. The strike began in October and went through early December.

Strike
Various professions across the hotel industry including housekeepers, cooks, servers, dishwashers, doormen, and concierges walked off the job as members of the Unite Here labor union. Their slogan was "One job should be enough", as a reference to the Fight for $15 movement in the service industry where employees are demanding a living wage. This walkout began in early October and spread to 23 Marriott hotels across the US to cities including San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, and Honolulu.

The strike ended and workers went back to work on December 5, 2018 after negotiations with Marriott.

As a result of the strike, housekeepers in San Francisco, whose median wage is $23 per hour, will receive a $4 per hour raise over the four year contract. Strikes in other cities also resulted in various new employment contracts that offered better wages and benefits, along with any workers who individually interact with guests to be receiving a silent GPS-enabled panic button for protection against sexual harassment in the workplace.

See also

1912 New York City waiters' strike
Hotel workers rising

References

Marriott International
Labor disputes in the United States
2018 labor disputes and strikes
UNITE HERE
Marriot


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552.260 (19S) Introduction to Literary Studies II a
Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Werner Delanoy
Introduction to Literary Studies II a
This course is a continuation of Introduction to Literary Studies I, the focus being on longer narrative texts (novels), films (this also includes drama) and theories of literature, i.e. different schools of literary criticism and their comments on the core texts. Moreover, students will be asked to write a research paper in the area of literary studies.
Interactive class including both teacher- and student-led projects.
(1) Plays, graphic novels and novels: William Shakespeare: Macbeth (play and graphic novel); Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights;
(2) Films: Wuthering Heights (1939; Dir. William Wyler); Wuthering Heights (1991; Dir. Peter Kosminsky)
(3) Selected secondary sources.
(4) Literary History: 16th, 19th, and 20th century British literature;
(5) How to write a research paper in the area of literary studies.
Successful completion of Introduction to Literary Studies I.
Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights;
William Shakespeare: Macbeth;
Selected secondary sources (see moodle course);
552.260 Introduction to Literary Studies II a (2.0h PS / 3.0 ECTS)


text:
Welcome Back, CSI-
So I've spent all summer waiting to find out just who shot Horatio Caine, and just where he was shot (i.e. whether it was fatal or not). Whoever it was, the season ender wrapped up with a fairly broad hint that the Unpleasantly Smug member of the CSI crew was somehow involved in the killing. Personally, I'm hoping it was Kim Coates, since I'm a fan of that actor, and it's good to see him getting work.
The biggest question, though, is whether there's going to be an ironic quip and 'throw-to-the-credits', since Horatio's not around to do it. Will they avoid the ironic quip entirely? Will everyone take off their sunglasses at once, and observe a moment of silent respect for he whose sunglasses shall be taken off no more? Only time will tell, if by time you mean one minute, because that's when the new episode starts.
The episode opens with a recap of the manner in which Horatio was shot in the season ender, which then fades to the Unpleasantly Smug Guy and the new coroner from the season ender zipping up a body bag and loading it into a truck. Then the CSI team arrives. After the body's already gone. Which is exactly how they normally operate. USG tells Eric and Callie that Horatio's dead, which suggests that it's all some kind of elaborate scam, and that faking his death is somehow vital to catching his killer. Although, unless he actually suspects Eric and Callie to be involved in the murder, it's kind of mean to keep them in the dark.
Rather confusingly, when they showed black and white photos of Horatio's 'enemies', they were so cut off that I wasn't able to recognize all of them. Obviously Kim Coates was in the lineup (yay!), but it looked like the second person was Frank, Horatio's sidekick who, despite having to listen to all of the quips, certainly didn't have a motive to murder Caine. The last person I didn't even recognize, perhaps owing to the fact that I rarely, if ever, watch CSI: Miami. The show also flashes back to USG getting a suggestive text message in order to remind the audience that he's a vital red herring to be suspected.
Then they throw to the commerical with the assurance that they're going to 'get' whoever did this. No sunglasses, no careful posing in profile... if Horatio's dead, I'm not sure the show can survive his absence.
Back from commerical and it's a morgue scene, which is certainly weighing things more in the 'Horatio's actually dead' camp. But then Eric looks at the body, and finds out it's not Horatio. Oh well. Turns out the body was taken by a Federal Agent, but Eric is too busy being indignant to get the name of said agent.
Rather confusingly, Eric's back at the airport in the next scene, suggeting that he drove across town just to check on a body, then drove right back to continue the whole CSI thing. One of the other CSIs (the latin girl whose name they, infuriatingly, never seem to mention), is examining the pool of Horatio's blood while distinctly not wearing a harinet.
They find a bit of blood in a larger pool of (suspiciously moist, given that Eric's been to the lab and back since Horatio got shot blood, and figure out that the fleck belongs to someone who was killed in prison the day before. That's right, they get DNA results from a dried fleck of blood in less than half an hour. Wow.
This leads them to a henchmen of Ortega, the drug dealer, who was the only person released from prison that day - apparently he elected to still wear his prison shoes after being released. How convenitent. Was he arrested barefoot? He was at the airport, planning to shoot Horatio, when he witnessed the shooting, then he took a photo of the body so he could claim to Ortega (the guy who made futuristic bullets from the season ender) that he killed Horatio. In the phone's camera, they see someone standing on a hangar.
It turns out that up on the roof is a bandage dropped by a Federal Agent, the same one who stole the body. They get his cell phone, and find out that he sent a suspicous message 'it's done' to a phone number, which they dial, hoping to find his accomplice in the assassination of Horatio Caine. The phone rings, revealing that it's USG's cell phone! Which raises the question: Why didn't either of them know USG's cell phone number?
USG quickly cracks, revealing the entire scheme - they faked Horatio's death to get the arms dealer off his back, and the arms dealer's man at the airport was there to kill Horatio. Then we cut to Horatio, and the time limit on the idea that Horatio was dead clocks in at just under twenty minutes.
This raises a larger point, though - we're 20 minutes into an episode of CSI: Miami, and there hasn't actually been a murder yet. Horatio goes up to check on Elizabeth Berkeley and Horatio Jr., and tells them he's got to go underground, but it's not exactly clear why. Do they know who's trying to kill him, don't they? Or is something more suspicious going on?
Back from commerical again, Caine is meeting a suspicious man in the everglades, doing an overall terrible job of pretending to be dead. Turns out that the suspicious man is a Cuban businessman whose life Horatio saved, and now the marker is being called in. Horatio collects ten million dollars that he's going to need to get teh sci-fi bullets off the street. But can he pull it off?
Eric takes Ortega onto the streets, in the hopes that being seen with cops will be enough to motivate him to reveal who he sold the bullets to. Then, in another amazing coincidence, as they're driving around, they stumble across a couple of armed robbers shooting up an armored car with the magic bullets. Then, the armed robbers escape using the magic of a fade to white, which covers the fact that, the way they were burning through ammo, there's absolutely no way they could have gotten away from the cops while laden down with any money at all. In another lucky coincidence, Ortega manages to escape from the cop car during the melee, leaving him out to cause more trouble for Caine.
It turns out (based on a fleck of skin) that the heist was pulled by bikers, and one of them is easily arrested and brought in for questioning. He taunts Eric (who's questioning him, for some reason) about the fact that, with armor-piercing bullets, they're the ones running the show now! Eric then walks into the next room to talk to Horatio about the situation. That's right, Horatio was waiting in the next room. Which, like all rooms in that police station, has huge glass walls. This is the worst job I've ever seen anyone do at pretending to be dead.
Now we get the details of Horatio's plan - he wants a lady cop to deal with Kim Coates, hoping that he'll sell her all of the sci-fi bullets. Kim immediately assumes that it's a setup, then decides to do business anyway. The idea is to get Kim to buy back all of the bullets he sold to gang members around town, and then arrest (or ideally presumably kill) him when he's ready to sell them in bulk.
As we move to the next commericial, I have to wonder: what kind of timeframe is this all taking place over? The fact that it's always day in CSI: Miami certainly gets confusing, especially when people don't change their clothes. As a result, it really feels like the entire plan to fake Caine's death all happened the same day he was dealing with the fake ammo, and now everything after it is happening that afternoon. Suffice to say, it's not the most coherently-edited show. Having the occasional transitional scene take place at night would go a long way towards fixing this, as well as covering for the fact that DNA searches never take more than ten minutes.
Now we're back at the scene of the ambush, shooting the editing all to hell once again - so Eric took a break from INVESTIGATING the CRIME SCENE to go back to the station and interview a suspect, then went back to the CRIME SCENE to finish INVESTIGATING it? Since they had a prisoner actively fleeing, shoudln't that have been their priority?
Then they investigate just how the armored car was stopped - in a lift from the Italian Job, they managed to turn all the lights red, save one. How was this accomplished? Apparently Federal Agents have infra-red dingles that allow them to change lights at will, and this partiuclar dingle is owned by an ATF agent that Callie used to date, who's undercover with the bikers who robbed the armored car.
In a lucky bit of policework, Ortega called the henchman from the airport, allowing them to use the cell phone signal to find him, because he called from the place where he was planning on escaping from. Conveniently, he's still there when the cops roll up, and they're able to arrest him without incident.
Then it's back to the Ron storyline, as we watching him buying the bullets back from the bikers. Now it's time (since it hadn't happened in the episode yet) for someone to praise Horatio out of the blue. Both Ron and the bikers agree that, with Caine out of the way and armor-piercing bullets in their guns, criminals will now own the city! That's right, apparently it's Horatio Caine's intervention that's keeping Miami, FLA from turning into the Road Warrior.
Next thing you know, we're down at the dock, where Ron is planning to flee with the ammothe Lady Cop's money, and it seems like Elizabeth Berkelely has gone back to Ron. But it's all a scam, and Horatio shows up to arrest him for possession of illegal ammo. Ron decides to shoot it out instead, which seems like a bit of a stretch, given that he hasn't done anything worse than buy a few illegal munitions. One of Horatio's bullets pierces a propane tank, causing the ship to go up in a really spectacular explosion, which, of course, cover's Ron's escape into the water.
The epsidoe ends with Eric and Horatio discussing the futility of endeavor - no matter how many criminals they put away, there's always more crime just around the corner. Left unresolved at the end of the episode are a few points, such as: Were they were able to catch the other gang members who were involved in the gun heist? Was the Cuban man is upset about not getting his ten million dollars back? On that subject - since they assumed Ron was going to use that money to buy the ammo back, and were in fact following him around taking pictures of him doing so, shouldn't they have marked the money so that they could then go and arrest all the gang members on federal gun trafficking charges?
Well, despite the general failure of the episode's writing an editing, Horatio's back, and that's all that matters to me. I'll be continuing to cover CSI: Miami so long as he's out there saying ridiculous things and taking off (or putting on) his glasses.
Final note - I'm not much for identifying music, but the cue that played over the 'dramatic' scenes this week sounded a lot like the dramatic tune from Terminator 2.
Posted by Vardulon at 9:50 PM
Labels: CSI, greatness, review, television
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Venture Fund
"FEARLESS MEDIA"
ACCESS, INTRODUCTIONS, investment services & PARTNERSHIPS
IDENTIFYING & INTRODUCING MAJOR TRADITIONAL MEDIA COMPANIES TO NEW DIGITAL-FIRST INVESTMENT & M&A OPPORTUNITIES
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SERVING AS THE "EYES AND EARS" FOR A LEADING INTERNATIONAL MEDIA COMPANY TO LEADING INNOVATORS IN THE U.S.
The media division of a leading multi-national conglomerate has made it a priority to identify, invest in, and potentially buy one or more leading U.S. based digital-first media, VR, and AR companies. CREATV Media serves as the company's "eyes and ears" in the U.S. and overall "Bridge to Hollywood" to identify such relevant leading companies and facilitate key strategic introductions, as well as to play a continuing role in educating the company about overall digital media-related developments and opportunities.
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CONSULTING FOR A SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE-FOCUSED OTT VIDEO BUSINESS LOOKING TO EXPAND INTO THE CONSUMER MARKET
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ADVISING A LEADING FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRM AND ITS CLIENTS ON OVERALL DIGITAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
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high impact PR, POSITIONING & VISIBILITY
ADVISING A TECH STARTUP ON ITS OVERALL POSITIONING & LAUNCH STRATEGY, AND MAXIMIZING PRESS VISIBILITY
CREATV Media was engaged by a tech startup to best position it for its upcoming launch and secure maximum press coverage and overall visibility. CREATV Media worked closely with the company's CEO to prioritize press targets for direct outreach by CREATV Media on behalf of the company.
The company was prominently featured in its top 2 leading press targets with feature stories as a result of the team's efforts, in addition to significant additional coverage.
ORGANIZING & DEVELOPING EVENTS, DEMO DAYS
WORKING WITH COMPANIES TO ORGANIZE AND PROGRAM DIFFERENTIATED, HIGH IMPACT EVENTS THAT ATTRACT LEADING EXECUTIVES & INFLUENCERS
Companies continuously look to expand their visibility, positioning, relationships and overall opportunities in the digital media landscape. Several companies have leveraged CREATV Media's key contacts and relationships and have worked with CREATV Media to create and host high-impact invitation-only events and demo days for high level decision-makers and influencers.
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CREATV Media works on an ongoing basis with companies to organize and program casual industry "meet-ups" in major cities in order to facilitate direct introductions with key players in the overall ecosystem and expand overall influence and visibility in the space.
M&A ADVISORY SERVICES, SUPPORT & DEALMAKING
ADVISING ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC MUSICAL ARTISTS OF ALL-TIME TO MAXIMIZE THE PERCEIVED VALUE OF ITS IP ASSETS, IDENTIFY POTENTIAL BUYERS & FACILITATE AN OUTCOME-MAXIMIZING TRANSACTION
One of the most successful musical artists of all-time works with CREATV Media to advise it on how best to package and position itself for a potential sale of never-before-available global IP rights.
CREATV Media also works with the artist, and other iconic artists and bands, to identify potential buyers, connect them to engage in strategic discussions, and actively explore a potential sale of valuable IP and related rights.
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ADVISING A LEADING DIGITAL-FIRST MEDIA COMPANY TO INCREASE ITS PERCEIVED ENTERPRISE VALUE FOR POTENTIAL STRATEGIC INVESTMENT OR ACQUISITION
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