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Billy Joel Podcast – "The Strangercast"
A series celebrating the songwriting artistry of Billy Joel and his album "The Stranger"
Created: 7/2008 - 9/2008
The Strangercast Player
"You have hits and you have artistry at the same time, it wasn't just writing a dumb pop song. Although, you know, theres nothing wrong with a dumb pop song. I've written my share of dumb pop songs." -Diane Warren
The Story – Exploring The Influence of a Commercial Breakthrough:
The songs on The Stranger need no introduction. Our job here was to explore the story of a songwriter coming into his stride on through the stories of his peers, and recollections from those that were influenced by him. Keeping the tone personal and heartfelt builds a connection with the listener, developing a deeper appreciation for the work.
The Cast – Fellow Songwriters and Performers:
Billy Joel (Archival interview & New Interview)
Gavin DeGraw – Current pop star, huge Billy Joel fan
Diane Warren – Writer of huge pop hits
Duncan Sheik – Pop songwriter, carving his own path on Broadway (Spring Awakening)
Sting – Songwriter who started around the same time as Billy
Jimmy Webb – Songwriter of classic pop hits.
Phil Ramone (New Interview) – Producer of The Stranger
Production Notes – Combining Old and New:
Sourced an original interview with Billy from the time of the album's release
Re-purposed new interviews the marketing department did with Billy and producer Phil Ramone.
Interviewed Sting backstage before The Police show at PNC Bank Arts Center.
The Strangercast, a Billy Joel podcast was launched around the release date of The Stranger's reissue, and episodes were downloaded 40,000 times.
The 30th anniversary edition of The Stranger has sold over 75,000 copies in the three months since the podcast was released.
Executive Producer, Project Lead, Casting: Jeremy Meyers
Interviewer, Editor, Co-Producer: Joseph Vella, Vella Interactive


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World Crises News
July 6, 2010 / 1:49 PM / 10 years ago
Russia's Putin sets out new strategy for N.Caucasus
* Calls for reducing poverty and endemic corruption
* Russia struggles with growing Islamist insurgency
(Recasts, adds comments, details)
By Darya Korsunskaya
KISLOVODSK, Russia, July 6 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday unveiled a new strategy aimed at foiling Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, promising to reduce grinding poverty and stamp out rampant corruption.
Russia is struggling to contain an upsurge of attacks by rebels in the mainly Muslim provinces along its southern flank who in March took their war to the Russian heartland with deadly bombings in the Moscow metro.
Local leaders say a potent mix of clan feuds, poverty, Islamism and heavy-handed tactics by law enforcement agencies has driven youths into the hands of rebels who want to create a Sharia-based pan-Caucasus state.
In a shift from a decade of uncompromising statements on the North Caucasus, Putin focused on social and economic policies, called for local leaders to listen more to human rights groups and even said he sometimes felt sympathy for the rebels.
"I sometimes even feel sorry for these people who are still running around in the woods there," Putin told members of his ruling party in Kislovodsk, a city just east of the mainly Muslim regions of the North Caucasus.
We need "to show that the state is in a condition to effectively guarantee the security and safety of investments in the North Caucasus, to defend them from criminals, the tyranny of officials and protection rackets," he said.
Putin, who in 1999 led Moscow into a war against Chechen separatists, is famous for sometimes crude comments on the rebels, promising to "rub them out in the outhouse" and later mocking a French reporter who grilled him on the second Chechen war with an invitation to undergo a circumcision in Russia.
But during several hours of questions after his speech, Putin said he hoped the rebels would return to normal life.
CAUCASUS POLICY
President Dmitry Medvedev said in November that strife in the North Caucasus was Russia's biggest single domestic problem, a step some analysts said was an implicit admission that Moscow's approach needed to be changed.
Human rights activists say the Kremlin has relied for far too long on local leaders and security forces whose hard-handed tactics have exacerbated the insurgency.
Medvedev has demanded officials improve the economy of the North Caucasus, which was devastated by two wars against Chechen rebels since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
"Any investor should be treated, in my view, as a member of the family," Putin said, adding that local leaders should focus on reducing unemployment which in Ingushetia runs at more than half of the able bodied population.
Putin, who is accused of cracking down on freedoms during his eight-year presidency from 2000 to 2008, said local leaders should talk more with human rights groups and warned elites remained far too distant from their populations.
"We need a permanent, productive dialogue with social and human rights organisations," Putin said, though he cautioned that many human rights organisations were funded from abroad.
"People in the North Caucasus are not able to even knock on the door of the official structures, they are unable to find support or even understanding, they come up against a wall of indifference, of passing the buck and bribery," he said.
When asked by a party activist what should be done to stop the corruption which she said eats up half of all the federal money sent to the North Caucasus, Putin quipped: "hang them". (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Alexei Anishchuk, editing by Ralph Boulton)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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TV Series 1/12 Airing
Log Horizon: Entaku Houkai | Episode 01 | 80 MB | 720p | Download Links | [Ongoing]
Score: N/A/10
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Magic
Status: Airing
Summary: Third season of Log...
Log Horizon 2 | 80MB | 720p | Download Links | [Complete]
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Magic, Shounen
Summary: After being trapped in the world of Elder Tale for six months, Shiroe and the other Adventurers have begun to get the hang of things in their new environment. The Adventurers are starting to gain the trust of the People of the Land, and Akiba has flourished thanks to the law and order established by Shiroe's Round Table Alliance, regaining its everyday liveliness. Despite this success, however,...
[C] CONTROL - The Money and Soul of Possibility
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control | 80 MB | 720p BD | Download Links | [Complete]
Genre: Action, Mystery, Super Power, Thriller
Summary: Money is power, and without it, life is meaningless. In a country whose economy is in shambles, second-year Economics university student Kimimaro Yoga understands this fact all too well, as he is surrounded by the relatively luxurious lives of his peers and struggling to make ends meet. However, his world is turned on its head when a stranger in a top hat arrives one late night at his door. Going...
Log Horizon | 80MB | 720p | Download Links | [Complete]
Summary: In the blink of an eye, thirty thousand bewildered Japanese gamers are whisked from their everyday lives into the world of the popular MMORPG, Elder Tale, after the game's latest update—unable to log out. Among them is the socially awkward college student Shiroe, whose confusion and shock lasts only a moment as, a veteran of the game, he immediately sets out to explore the limits of his new...
Maoyu ~ Archenemy & Hero
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha | 80 MB | 720p BD | Download Links | [Complete]
Genre: Adventure, Demons, Fantasy, Romance
Summary: Fifteen years have passed since the war between humans and demons began. Dissatisfied with their slow advance into the Demon Realm, the Hero abandons his companions to quickly forge ahead towards the Demon Queen's castle. Upon his arrival at the royal abode, the Hero makes a startling discovery: not only is the Demon Queen a woman of unparalleled beauty, but she also seeks the Hero's help....


In 2010, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards published a much-lauded autobiography, Life, recounting his page-turner of a life as a bona-fide rock star — vices, women, clashes and all. This month he releases a follow-up and… it's a beautifully written children's book. Gus & Me further tells the story, introduced in Life, of his grandfather Theodore Augustus Dupree (a.k.a Gus) and the impact he had on a young Richards growing up in London. It was Gus, a dance-band musician, who encouraged him to take up the guitar, who brought him to instrument repair shops as a kid — "Men tested the guitar strings: dinka-plink dinka-pink" — and taught him his first song, the Spanish Malagueña. It's a touching read, all the more so when you discover the accompanying illustrations are done by Richards' own daughter, Theodora. Bonus: The book comes with a CD of the rocker narrating the tale himself.


Maury Ellen Kelly Durkin March 14, 2008 Maury Ellen Kelly Durkin, 54, of Largo, Fla., and formerly of Archbald, died March 14 from injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident in Largo.
LOUISE MAURY APRIL 2, 1997 LOUISE SAVOY MAURY, OF OLD BOSTON SETTLEMENT, JENKINS TOWNSHIP, DIED WEDNESDAY AT HER HOME.
CATHERINE MAURY JUNE 22, 1993 CATHERINE M. MAURY, OF SEWARD AVENUE, PISCATAWAY, N.J., DIED TUESDAY IN JOHN F. KENNEDY HOSPITAL, EDISON, N.J.


New Fallout 4 gameplay trailer!
To celebrate the upcoming launch of Fallout 4, Bethesda has just released a new gameplay trailer!
Fallout 4 is a highly anticipated follow up from the 2008 video game Fallout 3 and the biggest launch title since The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.


categories 26,766, tutorials 1,186, courses 32,025, translations 2018 Envato Pty Ltd. Watch The Video Tutorial, follow these Step by Step Instructions. Ha, i dont know). Not all puppets have a tail. Keep up with Aunt Annie's Crafts. Now cut the legs. First glue the front (face) of the head to the front of the cone, then glue the back of the head to the cone back. Cut out the pieces. For our first paper dog hand puppet we kept things simple: some floppy dog ears, a tongue, a cute Dog Nose, eyes and a dog eye patch! If you decide to color in this craft, we recommend phd you color the parts before you cut them out.
Trace the wings on paper, a folktale from western China is presented in the play that features grades the puppets in this project. Cut out the cone body, apply glue to the glue tab and on the inside of one edge. Get access to over 400, from, unlimited Downloads 000 creative assets on Envato Elements. Cut the wings out, you can naturally make this craft project for kids without a template too.
Your puppets are done, dO heroine psychology research paper check out Make Film Play today. With the seam of your fold on the outside. Now let this cute little doggy puppet join is lovely black and white dog friend 5992shares, if your kids love to color in and give their creations their personal touch the template stencil will be perfect for them to use. You can use just some white sheets of printer paper and decorate or use coloured construction paper if you have some.


subject to obligations under the Value Added Tax Act.
Pursuant to the VAT Act entities which fall within the requirements of the law are obligated to register with the National Revenue Agency, which maintains a special VAT Register. Upon registration each entity/person is issued a unique ID number for VAT purpose having BG prefix.
The requirement for VAT registration applies to each taxable person who is established within the territory of the country and who performs taxable supply of goods or services in exchange for consideration.
Also a taxable person who is not established within the territory of the country and who performs taxable supplies of goods or services covered under Article 12 of the VAT Act (other than those for which the tax is chargeable from the recipient) is required to register under the VAT Act.
According to the VAT Act there are two types of registration � compulsory and optional.
BGN 50,000 or more in transactions with place of supply in Bulgaria for which the VAT should be charged by the supplier for a period not exceeding the last twelve consecutive months preceding the current month.
Such persons should file an application for registration within 14 days after the lapse of the tax period during which such turnover has accrued.
Entities established in an EU Member State performing supply of goods with installation in Bulgaria to customers who are not registered for VAT purposes are also obliged to register irrespective of their taxable turnover.
Foreign entities which receive services with a place of supply in Bulgaria for which the recipient has to self-charge Bulgarian VAT are obliged to register irrespective of their taxable turnover.
Any entity may apply for voluntary VAT registration and benefit from the regime of the VAT system. However, if voluntarily registered, such entity will not be able to deregister for two years following the year of registration.
In order to register for VAT purposes foreign entities have to appoint a local fiscal representative, unless they have a registered branch in Bulgaria. The requirement does not apply to EU based entities.
The rate of VAT applicable to accommodations provided by hoteliers is 9%.
supply of goods provided by agents, brokers and other intermediaries.
the transfer of the right of ownership of land, excluding development land and land situated under buildings; the creation or transfer of limited rights in rem to land (excluding the establishment or transfer of right of construction, which is VAT exempted only until the issuance of construction permit for the building), as well as the letting or leasing of land; transactions with buildings or parts thereof, which are not new, with building land, as well as the creation and transfer of other rights in rem thereto, are an exempt supply. The letting of a building or part thereof for residential use to a natural person who is not a merchant shall likewise be an exempt supply. However the transfer of a right of ownership of a regulated lot within the meaning given by the Spatial Development Act, with the exception of the building land of buildings which are not new, is not exempt from VAT.
The VAT Act provides the intra-Community supply of goods which actually replaces the regulation of export under the previous VAT Act as far as transaction between merchants from different member states is concerned. Intra-Community supply of goods is any supply of goods, transported from the territory of the country to the territory of another Member State, where both supplier and recipient are registered for VAT. Intra- Community acquisition is acquisition of the right of ownership of goods, as well as the actual receipt of goods, which are dispatched or transported to the territory of the country from the territory of another Member State, where the supplier is a taxable person registered for VAT purposes in another Member State.
Intra-Community supplies with the exception of the exempt intra-Community supplies referred to above which are liable to tax at the zero rate.
In intra-Community acquisitions, the recipient charges 20% VAT and is entitled to deduct credit in the same amount for input tax.
Foreign entities not established and not VAT-registered in Bulgaria performing certain supplies to local businesses do not have to register for VAT purposes. The applicable VAT will be self-charged by the local customer.
Supply of goods under a triangular transactions � under some conditions the ultimate customer self-charges VAT, while the supplies for the first two entities are exempt with right to deduct the input VAT.
VAT is generally reported and paid monthly. The tax period is a calendar month. The monthly VAT returns are to be filed and monthly VAT payments made by the 14-th day of the following month.
VAT Information exchange system (VIES) returns have to be filed monthly by the same deadline if intra-Community supplies of goods or certain services have been performed during the respective month.
EU based foreign entities which are not registered and established for VAT purposes in Bulgaria can receive a refund of the local input VAT incurred for goods and services used for supplies with a place of supply outside Bulgaria. A specific procedure through the authorities of the EU Member State of establishment has to be followed.
Non-EU based entities may be entitled to a refund on a reciprocal basis (i.e., if their country of tax residence provides the right to refund VAT to Bulgarian entities). A specific procedure through the Bulgarian revenue authorities has to be followed.
Recent amendments to the VAT Act have implemented the option granted to European Union Member States with Directive 2010/45/EU to apply a cash accounting scheme.
In accordance with these new provisions of the VAT Act, eligible taxable persons will have the opportunity to delay payment of output tax to the state budget until they have received payment from their customers. To apply the cash accounting scheme, the taxable persons must apply for formal permission from the revenue authorities.
Only taxpayers with an annual taxable turnover up to EUR 500,000 can apply for this regime. In addition, the cash accounting scheme is not applicable for certain types of transactions such as import, export, intra-Community acquisitions and supplies and other supplies explicitly listed in the VAT Act.
The right to VAT credit of companies receiving invoices from persons applying the cash accounting scheme will arise when they have paid for the goods/services received. Thus, there may be a mismatch between the month in which the invoice is received and the month when the input VAT on the invoice may be claimed for deduction, which is when the invoice is paid. In addition, in order to deduct input VAT on such invoices, the recipient must have a payment document and a special protocol issued by the supplier in addition to the invoice.
the person is capable of financing the project, as well as of constructing and maintaining facilities ensuring the implementation of the said project.
There are two regimes in the new VAT Act regarding the tourist sector depending on the services provided. The rate of tax applicable to accommodation provided by hoteliers (which is called �basic tourist service�) is 9 %. The provision by a tour operator or a travel agent, acting in his own name, of goods or services in connection with the journey of a tourist for the direct benefit of the tourist, is treated as a supply of a single service to tourists.
The goods and services directly benefiting the tourist shall be the goods and services which the tour operator or the travel agent has received from other taxable persons and has provided to the tourist without alteration. If the place of transaction of a single service to tourists is in Bulgaria, the tax rate is 20%. However, if the supplies of goods and services for the direct benefit of the tourist have a place of transaction within the territory of third countries and territories (i.e. outside the territory of the Community) they are taxed at zero-rate.
Intrastat is a system for collecting statistical data about intra-Community movement of goods between Bulgaria and the other EU Member States.
The deadline for filling Intrastat returns is the 14th day of the month following the month of arrival or dispatch of the goods.


text:
using System;

namespace CitroidForSlack.Plugins.Utiline.Exceptions
{
	[Serializable]
	public class ParseCommandException : Exception
	{
		public ParseCommandException() { }
		public ParseCommandException(string message) : base(message) { }
		public ParseCommandException(string message, Exception inner) : base(message, inner) { }
		protected ParseCommandException(
		  System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationInfo info,
		  System.Runtime.Serialization.StreamingContext context) : base(info, context) { }
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Click Here for More Articles on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Review Roundup: MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM on Netflix, Starring Viola Davis & Chadwick Boseman
See what the critics are saying about the play-to-film adaptation!
BroadwayWorld.com Dec. 17, 2020
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is coming! Netflix will release the film adaptation of August Wilson's play on December 18th. Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman star - this will mark Boseman's final on-screen role.
When Ma Rainey, the "Queen of the Blues," makes a record in a studio in Chicago, 1927, tensions boil between her, her white agent and producer, and bandmates.
Adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson's play, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM celebrates the transformative power of the blues and the artists who refuse to let society's prejudices dictate their worth. Directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the film is produced by Fences Oscar® nominees Denzel Washington and Todd Black. Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige and Dusan Brown co-star alongside Grammy® winner Branford Marsalis' score.
The critics have spoken...
David Clarke, BroadwayWorld: "Releasing on Netflix and in select theaters on December 18, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM will be a film event that is hard to miss. And, honestly, that is anything but bad. As a playwright, August Wilson is one of the voices that legitimized black theater in the views of mainstream, white audiences. If we are lucky, this film will further legitimize black film with mainstream, white audiences. In doing so, it'll also hopefully build conversations around fair and equal compensation for work, among others, as that particular predicament is integral to the plot and character motivations of this period piece that is still unresolved almost 100 years after this film takes place."
A.O. Scott, New York Times: Not because it's timely in an obvious or literal way - the argument of Wilson's oeuvre is that time to reckon with racism is always now, because Black lives have always mattered - but because of some unexpected emotional resonances. Wilson's text is a study in perseverance, but it's haunted by loss, and to encounter it at the end of 2020 is to feel the weight of accumulated absences. Some are permanent and tragic, like losing Boseman at just 43. Others are, we hope, temporary. This is a rendering of a work written for the stage that begins with a concert - a sweaty, sensual spectacle of the blues in action. It's also a movie that you'll most likely encounter in your living room or on your laptop, further confounding an inevitable identity conundrum. Should we call this theater, cinema or television - or a sometimes graceful, sometimes clumsy hybrid of all three?
Eric Kohn, IndieWire: "An actor's showcase for Viola Davis as the show-stopping singer and the late Chadwick Boseman as the scheming trumpeter angling to steal her spotlight, director George C. Wolfe's reverential adaptation livens up the material with sizzling color and vivid closeups. Save for a few digressions, however, Wolfe and screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson have put the play into the movie, rather than vice versa."
Peter Debruge, Variety: "How fortunate that Boseman's legacy should include this film, an homage to Black art that's tough enough to confront the costs of making it."
Oliver Jones, Observer: "Discussing shoes, molecules, the existence or nonexistence of God and the devil, it is in scenes like these, in which the lines take on different meaning and bounce off each character's past experiences, that you can feel the full force of Wilson's play barrel down from the stage and into your living room."
Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily: "There's something biblical about Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a parable acted out under the weight of America's original sin. An abundance of monologues gives a clear indication as to the stage origins of this Jazz Age-story, but they also add to the fire-and-brimstone feeling accentuated by director George C. Wolfe's darkly enticing adaptation."
Caryn James, BBC News: "George C Wolfe, best known as a theatre director who sometimes makes films (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) doesn't shy away from the material's theatrical roots. The film takes place largely in two down and dirty rooms, the recording studio and a basement where the band rehearses, but it doesn't feel stage bound. Wolfe finds the right balance between letting Wilson's trademark monologues flow and shooting them in a cinematic way that keeps the film moving."
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap: "Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman get the meatiest roles here - and make the most of absolutely every second they're on camera - but this Netflix feature is just as much a showcase for the talents of the always-brilliant Colman Domingo and the legendary Glynn Turman. Wolfe not only guides his top-flight cast to greatness, but he also keeps the plays themes of art vs. commerce and representation vs. exploitation front and center."
Esther Zuckerman, Thrillist: "Seeing Boseman one last time will inevitably be the draw for many queuing up Netflix to watch Ma Rainey, which also stars Viola Davis as the blues singer around whom the narrative orbits, but it's also an immensely satisfying rendering of one of the best plays of the 20th Century, a reminder that Wilson's work should be as essential to American education as Shakespeare or Arthur Miller."
Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: "Whether or not Boseman knew it would be his last performance while giving it is moot. It is unquestionably his finest, crackling with passion, intelligence and anger (righteous and otherwise), and delivered with an eyeball-magnetising feline grace. What's more, it feels anything but final."
J. Don Birnam, The Splash Report: "Davis, a veteran of Wilson's material focused on the African AMERICAN EXPERIENCE in the early half of the 20th Century from her Oscar-winning turn in Fences, is a natural for the role. She exudes the confidence and disdain required of her, while utilizing her entire body to convey the sense of scale of who was clearly an imposing, impressive, and memorable figure."
Shannon Miller, The A.V. Club: "Ma Rainey's is the ballad of a promising talent whose rising star is unceremoniously dimmed. That aspect takes on fresh significance-a uniquely cruel irony-in George C. Wolfe's new adaptation. After all, Levee is played by Chadwick Boseman, in his final screen role, shot before his shocking death in August. The film has more than its share of toast-worthy elements, from its sharp ensemble to its dutiful nods to 1920s Chicago and Old Hollywood, courtesy of Tobias A. Schliessler's illuminating cinematography. But the appearance of the actor, in one last tremendous star performance, only enhances the material's tragic power."
Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune: "To see Boseman, who died of colorectal cancer in August at age 43, tear into the role of Levee, August Wilson's restless, reckless trumpet player in Netflix's arresting adaptation of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" - well, it's enough to make you cry. And to rejoice."
Amon Warmann, Empire: "It's in those discussions where the timelessness of Wilson's writing, adapted for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, really shines through. Navigating an entertainment system that's rigged against people of colour, ownership over one's art, and knowing your worth are all things that Black artists still grapple with today."
Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: "Broadway has been shuttered for months now of course, and will be indefinitely. But Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a jewel in the crown of the late August Wilson's acclaimed Pittsburgh Cycle (though in fact it takes place almost entirely in Chicago) is exactly the kind of chewy, loquacious showcase even the most decorated performers - including Viola Davis, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn in the 2017 film version of Wilson's Fences - dream of."
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: "Viola Davis burns a hole in the screen projecting the indomitable pride and hard-won self-worth of the legendary early 20th century blues singer named in the title of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, one of 10 plays that comprise August Wilson's epic cycle depicting 100 years of African American experience."
Justin Chang, The L.A. Times: "Most of all, there is the late Chadwick Boseman, giving a furiously inventive screen performance that also happens to be his last. It's one spellbinding final reminder of what we've lost, and of how easily God, to invoke one of Wilson's unseen major characters, can giveth and taketh away."
Johnny Oleksinki, New York Post: "The mind hops between wonderment at a sterling performance that switches from mischief to despair with balletic grace, to paralyzing depression knowing this is the last time we'll see this talent in action."
Odie Henderson, RogerEbert.com: "It wouldn't be August Wilson without great speeches. "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" has several, and Hudson keeps the author's generosity in dispensing them to all the main characters."
Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: "Reflecting on Wilson's almost painful foreshadowing, it now seems inevitable that Boseman would be cast as Levee in this George C. Wolfe-directed, Denzel Washington-produced Netflix adaptation. (Also inevitable: Boseman's posthumous Best Actor Academy Award. Wait for it.)"
MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM is One of Barack Obama's Top Films of 2020
VIDEO: Viola Davis Talks About Playing Ma Rainey on JIMMY KIMMEL
Exclusive: MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM Stars Open Up About the Genius of August Wilson & More!
Washington, Davis, and More to Discuss MA RAINEY on SUNDAY MORNING


text:
Q: Memory analysis for UINavigationController I'm doing some profiling over my application to check for possible memory leaks. My application is TabMenu based with subsequent UINavigationController for each tab. When I go deep in an UINavigationController, the memory curve is rising, which is normal. The problem is that when I go back in the Navigation (popping ViewControllers), the consumption goes down a little bit but not as I expect. Because what I expect is the memory to be about the same as when entering a certain level of the UINavigationController hierarchy, but it's not.
Is this normal? Does it mean that I have some memory leak?
Following is the specific piece of code:
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NTM_Accommodation *accommodation = [self.resources objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    UIViewController *controller = [[NT_DetailsAccommodationViewController alloc] initWithResource:accommodation];
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
}

I'm using ARC.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Abstract: In recent years, endomicroscopy imaging has become increasingly used for diagnostic purposes. It can provide intraoperative aids for real-time tissue characterization and can help to perform visual investigations aimed to discover epithelial cancers. However, accurate diagnosis and correct treatments are partially hampered by the low numbers of informative pixels generated by these devices. In the last decades, progress has been made to improve the hardware acquisition and the related image reconstruction in this domain. Nonetheless, due to the imaging environment, and the associated physical constraints, images with the desired resolution are still difficult to produce. Post-processing techniques, such as Super Resolution (SR), are an alternative solution to increase the quality of these images. SR techniques are often supervised, requiring aligned pairs of low-resolution (LR) and high-resolution (HR) patches to train a model. However, in some domains, the lack of HR images hinders the generation of these pairs and makes supervised training unsuitable. For this reason, we propose an unsupervised SR framework based on an adversarial deep neural network with a physically-inspired cycle consistency, designed to impose some acquisition properties on the super-resolved images. Our framework can exploit HR images, regardless of the domain where they are coming from, to transfer the super-resolution to the initial LR images. This property can be particularly useful in all situations where pairs of LR/HR are not available during the training. Our quantitative analysis, validated using a database of 238 endomicroscopy video sequences, shows the ability of the pipeline to produce convincing super-resolved images. A Mean Opinion Score (MOS) study also confirms this quantitative image quality assessment.


Gilman Law Investigates Lawsuit Against Temple-Inland, Inc.
Gilman Law LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is actively investigating shareholder allegations that Temple-Inland ("Temple-Inland") and certain of its officers and directors made materially false and misleading statements or failed to disclose material information related to the company's business and operations in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1940.
On August 27, 2009, GFG and its wholly-owned subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. Accordingly, GFG and Guaranty Bank (the "Bank") are not named as Defendants in this lawsuit.
For over 40 years, the lawyers at Gilman Law have been involved in all major aspects of securities fraud litigation. The firm specializes in cases involving stock manipulation, securities fraud, and shareholder rights violations. A shareholder class action lawsuit was commenced in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. If you purchased or otherwise acquired shares of Guaranty Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: GFG) between December 12, 2007 and August 24, 2009 ("Class Period"), and either lost money on the transaction or still hold the shares, you may contact Gilman Law LLP by January 10, 2012 to discuss your rights, including as to recovery of your losses or to obtain additional information.
h) based on the foregoing, Defendants lacked a reasonable basis for their positive statements about the Company, its prospects and growth.
Gilman Law has extensive experience representing both individual and institutional investors in securities class action suits. Gilman Law has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients and can help you recover any losses that you have incurred as a result of Temple-Inland's fraudulent practices. For a free evaluation of your case or to obtain additional information, please complete the form above or CALL TOLL FREE (888) 252-0048.


Boca Raton, F.L. / November 3, 2018 – CNS Summit will host its 9th Annual Meeting November 1-4, 2018, in Boca Raton, Florida. The summit will bring together leaders in the fields of health care, biotech, and pharmaceuticals. More than 600 participants will include C-suite executives, regulators, and innovators.
Patrick J. Kennedy, former Rhode Island Congressman and international advocate for parity in mental health and substance use disorder treatment, will be among the featured speakers November 3, 2018. Kennedy will address the importance of bridging the gap between mental illness, substance use disorder and treatment for mental health disorders.
According to its website, the event aims to shape the future of health care with a focus on collaboration, innovation, and technology, and to foster collaboration between industry leaders and stakeholders.


text:
Women's Tennis Lands Four on All-UAA Team
ALL-UAA TEAM
St. Louis, Mo., May 13, 2019 — No. 18-ranked Washington University in St. Louis had four student-athletes named to the 2019 All-University Athletic Association (UAA) Women's Tennis Team, as announced Monday by the conference office.
Freshman Divya Sharma picked up second-team honors at No. 2 singles, while sophomores Ashley Lessen and Laurel Wanger earned second-team honors at No. 2 doubles. Senior Brigitte Hodge rounded out the honorees by earning honorable-mention accolades at No. 3 singles.
DIVYA SHARMA
Sharma had a tremendous rookie campaign recording a 17-9 mark in singles, including a 9-7 mark while playing No. 2 singles. She had a nine-match winning streak from Sept. 21-Feb. 23, and was named the UAA Athlete of the Week on March 25 and April 22. Sharma was 23-11 in her rookie campaign.
ASHLEY LESSEN/LAUREL WANGER
Lessen and Wanger posted a 6-4 record playing No. 2 doubles in 2018-19. The duo was 2-1 at the UAA Championship, and had wins against No. 34 Case Western Reserve and No. 21 New York University in the back draw. Lessen was 14-17 this season, while Wanger had a 22-26 overall record.
BRIGITTE HODGE
Hodge, a two-time honorable-mention all-UAA honoree, recorded a 15-8 record in singles. She was 9-3 at No. 3 singles, and also had a 1-0 mark while filling in at No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Hodge won seven of her last nine singles matches and finished the year with a 17-12 overall record. She had a 65-36 mark (51-29 in singles) in her four-year career.
WashU posted a 12-12 overall record and placed sixth in the conference.


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Extell ditches luxury rental plan at One57
38 units at Barnett's Billionaires' Row skyscraper now to be listed for sale starting at $3.5M
Apr.April 11, 2016 05:38 PM
Gary Barnett's Extell Development is abandoning plans to put 38 unsold units at its One57 project on the luxury rental market, and will now try to sell those apartments instead.
The units in question, located on the 32nd through 38th floors of the supertall skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street in Midtown, will start at $3.45 million. Extell's move to sell the apartments as condos corresponds with slipping demand and an influx of supply in Manhattan's luxury rental market, according to Bloomberg.
"We recognize the demand for efficiently-sized luxury inventory below $10 million," Barnett told Bloomberg in a statement. "There is absolutely no comparable product currently on the market." Seven of the 38 units will be priced at north of $10 million, according to a project spokesperson, and all the units will be delivered fully furnished.
Increased supply in Manhattan's luxury rental market has pushed rents down for the priciest units; the median monthly rent for apartments in the top 10 percent of the market fell 3.5 percent year-over-year in March to $8,228, according to Miller Samuel data.
Extell initially expected to reserve the lower floors of the 75-story building for rentals, and began marketing units on the 37th floor for lease last May. Those rentals ranged from $13,350 per month for a one-bedroom, 1,021-square-foot apartment to $50,336 per month for a three-bedroom unit. The condos on the upper floors of the building have commanded some of the highest prices in the city, with one penthouse selling for a record-breaking $100.5 million. Some condos remain, however, and have struggled to sell.
The developer also attempted to sell all 38 rental units in question as a single package being offered to investors for $250 million, the Wall Street Journal reported in November. [Bloomberg] – Rey Mashayekhi
Extell DevelopmentGary Barnettone57
Extell lands $690M refinancing package for One Manhattan Square
Chelsea residents paid Gary Barnett $11M to protect their views from a planned tower
Extell just went public with Central Park Tower listings
Gary Barnett gives Jerusalem a chance with land purchase
Extell, Tabak poised to take over prized Hell's Kitchen parcel
New York's biggest, baddest and juiciest real estate lawsuits of 2022
Brooklyn, Queens gain market share in wild year for new condo sales
Another $50M sale as Barnett's Central Park Tower discounts continue


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Its Lit: Gucci Mane Has Just Landed A New Book Deal
09.27.16 | No Comments | KayyIFWT
Gucci Mane has just been doing it big since he has been released from prison. Aside from new music, Gucci has claimed a new life, a new clothing line, and now we learn he has just inked a new book deal with Publisher Simon & Schuster.
Soulja Boy Confirms 400 Million Dollar Deal!
Soulja Boy has been away from TV for a while but has still been getting to the money! The rapper just confirmed that he will be raking in some major dough.
Samsung Is Reportedly In Talks To Purchase TIDAL
02.26.16 | 3 Comments | IFWT Staff
Maybe Money News
Just months after hitting one million subscribers, it has been reported that TIDAL may be taken over by Samsung. The music streaming service, which was purchased by mogul, Jay Z last year for $56 million and has several artist owners is currently in negations with Samsung to take over. TIDAL is currently worth $100 million and is home to about 2.5 million subscribers. According to sources at the New York Post, "Samsung is re-engaging; they are working on something really big, and they're keeping it very quiet in case it leaks." This is not the first time Jay Z has partnered with Samsung. Back in 2013, he released 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' in a deal with Samsung that included one million free downloads of the album for fans. Rihanna did something similar just a few weeks ago with her 'ANTI' album. Samsung is just one company with hopes to purchase TIDAL. Sources indicate that Spotify and Google are also interested. Stay tuned for details…
(Photo) Miss Columbia Offered Up To $1 Million In Mega Porn Offer
Despite being complete devastated, when Steve Harvey crowned her Miss Universe and then snatched her crown back and handed it over to Miss Philippines, things just might be looking up for Miss Columbia aka Ariadna Gutierrez. According to a TMZ report, Vivid Entertainment's Steve Hirsch has offered the pageant queen, up to $1 million for a celebrity sex tape. Hirsch pitched the idea to Miss Columbia in a persuasive letter saying, "The only name that most people remember is Vanessa Williams," reminding her that Williams got put on the map with nude photos in a Penthouse. Read more below. ARiiE:Twitter | Instagram Hirsch went on to further lay out the details of the of his offer saying, "You will pick your partners, the type of sex you want to have and how many movies you ultimately appear in." To make his offer sound even sweeter he added, "Commission the making of the first Vivid Girl Crown for you and we believe it will be grander than anything Miss Philippines will ever wear." Check out the full letter in the gallery. Source TMZ
He Doesn't Get Tired: Kevin Gates Inks Energy Drink Distribution Deal
Kevin Gates is known for his lyrics, "I Don't Get Tired." In between working on his upcoming album Islah, Louisiana rapper took his lyrics and turned them into an energy drink. Partnering with Candyman Vending Services, Gates has landed a distribution deal for his drink appropriately titled "I Don't Get Tired." Check it out below.
Common Inks HBO Television Deal
Entertainment News TV
Common has just signed a two-year first-look deal with HBO. Through this contract, with the help of his manager/partner Derek Dudley and development head Nicole Dow, Common will be permitted to produce a series of projects, through his production company Freedom Road Productions. He is also currently working on a drama with HBO's competitor Showtime. The untitled production is set in Chicago and and is preparing to shoot a pilot episode. Common opened up about the upcoming series saying, "We're showing the world what it is to be a young person growing up in Chicago, the good and the tough parts. The humanity." Congratulations, Commmon!
Barclays Center Is Now Home To TIDAL Theater Through New Sponsorship Deal
Just one week after TIDAL's benefit concert TIDAL X: 1020, an exclusive interview with Billboard reports that the Barclays Center Theater will now be the official concert space for TIDAL. The space previously known as Cushman & Wakefield Theater was renamed today and will carry on being known as the Tidal Theatre. According to reports, "the deal is unique in that it is believed to be the first time a digital content company has come in as a sponsor for a live performance venue." Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark said,
"As evidenced by [Tidal X: 1020] the other night, Tidal, when they want to, can put on some big time events, and we anticipate having quite a few here at Barclays Center," Yormark said. "It's just another strategic alliance that I think helps to advance the content business here at Barclays Center, and we're very excited about it."
Read more below.
50 Cent Signs A Two-Year Premium Television Deal With Starz
09.30.15 | No Comments | JaneenIFWT
With Power doing well in the ratings world, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson was able to land himself yet another deal with the premium cable television network, Starz. The two-year deal allows the rapper/actor to create new projects for Starz through his G Unit Film & Television, Inc. company. Find out more below.
Will Smith And Jada Pinkett Smith Have Allegedly Called It Quits With A $240 Million Divorce Deal
Say it ain't so! After 17 years of marriage, Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith are calling it quits. The couple are allegedly ending their marriage with a major divorce deal. Hit the jump for more.
DJFunkFlexApp New Music: Troy Ave – Real N*gga (Remix) Feat. Young Dolph, T.I & Young Lito
07.30.15 | 1 Comment | IFWT Staff
Troy Ave out with a remix to the heated track we call "Real N*gga" Featuring Young Lito and the souths Young Dolph & T.I take a listen below…


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Harvard faculty to the rescue! Kathleen Coleman and the makers of "Gladiator"
Monday, March 3, 2008, 16:27 - Learn Latin Language, Popular Latin Phrases, Mottos, Slogans
A lengthy, but quite interesting article about some experiences of Harvard faculty members, who are often called upon to help out with Latin (from translating mottos to consulting movie-makers).
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=522254
Kathleen Coleman's short-lived experience as a consultant for the movie "Gladiator" is especially amusing:
She recalled one exchange between the filmmakers in a 2005 Financial Times article: �Kathy, we need to get a piece of evidence which proves that women gladiators had sharpened razor blades attached to their nipples. Could you have it by lunchtime?�
�That was not a very good experience for her,� department administrator Teresa T. Wu said. �I think she won�t work with Hollywood again.�
I sure hope this article does not result in more people calling the Classics Department with questions they could have resolved otherwise.
French phrases for mottos, slogans and language learning
Friday, February 29, 2008, 20:30 - French Language, Popular Latin Phrases, Mottos, Slogans, Heraldry, Symbols and Emblems
Made a new little list:
French phrases used as heraldic mottos.
French phrases adopted as mottos, in my opinion, have slightly different connotations, as opposed to the Latin ones. They have a certain air of chivalry and perhaps a distinctly feudal sense of duty and allegiance. Or, perhaps, Latin mottos better represent the aspirations and ideals of the well educated religious and academic elite, while French mottos are more indicative of the warrior culture of the Middle Ages. It is my belief, of course, that it is not a bad idea to start learning a language by noticing that you may already have some knowledge of it. Mottos are exactly the kind of thing that can be known to people who otherwise are clueless about the actual grammar or vocabulary of a given language.
Latin course online - paid for by the British government!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 13:29 - Books, dictionaries and texts, Church (Christian, Ecclesiastical etc.) Latin, Learn Latin Language, Reviews, Software
That's right! A simple course, good enough for a beginner is available at the website of the National Archives:
The tutorial covers the period between 1086 and 1733, when Latin was the official language of documents written in England.
Knowing Latin will help you to read documents from this period. After 1733, official documents were written in English.
No previous knowledge of Latin is required.
Their mission is pretty clear and laudable. What makes these efforts special, they are aimed to teach Medieval Latin, which is somewhat rare, even though the demand for such courses is quite high, I believe. You can find a good number of quality textbooks online that cover Classical Latin, but for Medieval Latin there are only a few books that you probably have to buy. I particularly enjoy, as I have made it clear, the government involvement in this project.
Latin Course online (Beginner's Level)
Latin Course online (Advanced Level)
Latin vs. Sanskrit
Monday, February 18, 2008, 14:22 - Books, dictionaries and texts, World History: Ancient, Medieval & Modern, Learn Latin Language
Interesting article:
http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Newsletters_ ... nscrit.asp
I�ve seen a figure of 1.4 million Sanskrit manuscripts currently in existence. For Classical Greek and Latin combined, there are 30,000 manuscripts. This is Sanskrit�s monument, that vast scope of surviving, hand-written documents sitting in people�s libraries and temples. The size of the corpus is absolutely enormous. And the breadth of material boggles the imagination. Everyone knows the Kama Sutra, for example, which is a manual on sexual technique. But there are also texts on elephant-raising, architecture, astrology, medicine, grammar, spiritual traditions, geography � the vast scope of subjects covered by Sanskrit documents is amazing.
An elderly Sanskrit scholar, who had spent 50 years studying the language, was once asked what it was like to have spent so long on the subject. He replied, �Sanskrit is a boundless ocean, and I am still standing on the shore�. There is no such thing as finishing Sanskrit. You don�t have to worry about getting anywhere. You should always look behind you and get your satisfaction from what you�ve done, because it�s a journey without an end.
What is its future?
I am the only person, possibly in the world, who truly believes that Sanskrit is the language of the future. We can�t easily read Shakespeare without a glossary. There�s no way you can read Chaucer without a glossary because English is changing so quickly. But I can pick up a Sanskrit document written in the last 2,000 years and make a good fist of it. It hasn�t changed. In 1,000 years time, Sanskrit will still be the same, but every other language will have changed beyond in recognition.
How fortuitous! I was just thinking about picking up another book on elephant raising! Seriously, I have deep respect for Sanskrit literature, but my allegiance forever lies with Latin. I also know a few people who are convinced that Latin is the language of the future, of which I am highly doubtful. There is also a small discrepancy in saying that Sanskrit is a boundless ocean (and even an elderly scholar feels like he is only standing on its shore) and proclaiming that Sanskrit has not changed and one can easily understand ancient texts. True, it must have been better codified early on, but Classical Latin ain't changing either. Besides, if you know Classical Latin you can read with ease many medieval texts. Anyway, I just don't see the point in saying that a certain language is so much better and more important than others. Those other languages are equally important linguistically (kudos to Mr. Chomsky!) and may have produced great literatures, even if the people who wrote in those languages did not have much to say about elephant raising!
Temple Church inscription
Her-story strikes back
David Beckham's new tattoo. A Latin phrase, of course!
Latin and Greek Courses by Assimil (the "sans peine" series) -- a review
Fidelity of the people of Cornwall


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Home European Football FA Cup Liverpool rout Aston Villa to reach FA Cup fourth round
Liverpool rout Aston Villa to reach FA Cup fourth round
Anene Peters
Birmingham (UK), Jan. 9, 2021 Liverpool scored three goals in five second half minutes to reach the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-1 win at Aston Villa on Friday.
This was after the home side were forced to field academy players due to a mass COVID-19 outbreak among their ranks.
Sadio Mane scored twice for the English champions while Georginio Wijnaldum and Mohamed Salah added one each to cancel out a fine goal by Aston Villa's 17-year-old striker Louie Barry.
The player was netting on his senior debut for the Midlands side.
Aston Villa stunned Liverpool 7-2 in the English Premier League (EPL) at the same venue in October, but they had no chance of emulating the success this time around.
Nine of their first team players and five staff members tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Aston Villa's Under-23 coach Mark Delaney took charge of the game instead of first team manager Dean Smith and the club also closed their training ground following the outbreak.
Mane headed Liverpool into a fourth minute lead before Barry enjoyed a moment of glory in the 41st minute.
That was when he levelled as he raced clear of Rhys Williams and steered a low shot into the bottom left corner.
Liverpool's incessant pressure paid dividends after the break with Wijnaldum restoring their lead on the hour.
He side-footed a sublime shot past goalkeeper Akos Onodi after good work from Salah and Takumi Minamino.
Mane made it 3-1 with a looping header from a Xherdan Shaqiri cross.
Salah sealed Liverpool's progress with a shot on the turn past Onodi, who made an array of fine saves throughout the match.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp was not entirely happy with the performance, having praised the youngsters while pointing out that his side had made too many simple errors.
"The kids did really well —— that's good," he said.
"Problems in passing and moving. Too many on the wrong side of the ball, not enough recoveries of passes.
"We had chances and shot the ball directly at the goalie —— we changed it in the second half. It was rusty but better in the second half."
In the evening's other fixture, Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Crystal Palace 1-0 thanks to Adama Traore's 35th minute strike.
This was after he beat visiting goalkeeper Jack Butland with a thunderbolt from the edge of the penalty area.
Wolves dominated as Fabio Silva headed over the bar early on and Butland parried a low Nelson Semedo drive.
But he was powerless when Traore teed himself up and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.
The home team's manager Nuno Espirito Santo praised Traore after the winger netted his first goal of the season in any competition.
"It was a special goal from a special player," said the Portuguese.
"I am very happy because I think this goal will boost his confidence. He has been really trying in training sessions and that is why I am so happy."(
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http://Naija247news.com
Anene Peters is an intern with Naija247news Media. He's focus is on tech and science. He's a graduate of Abia State University with a major in Computer Science and Communications. You can contact him for press events on 0903 927 6505
Anene Peters - January 12, 2021


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The great problem of fetal alcohol syndrome in Italy
One of the Lancet Global Health study reveals that 10% of pregnant women continue to drink alcohol. alarming numbers, which are aggravated when the focus shifts on our country. In Italy, in fact, 50% of lactating women consumes more alcohol than recommended. This exposes the fetus to the so-called fetal alcohol syndrome, which leads to develop neurological disorders and birth defects.
A team from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto (CAMH) has produced an estimate of the percentage of women who continue to take alcohol during pregnancy. In order to obtain these data, the researchers reviewed the world literature on the subject in a systematic way. They were able to also create a comparison of the percentage of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and fetal alcohol syndrome rates. The analysis was conducted at both the world, both at country level and at the level of the six regional structures the World Health Organization (Europe, Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia, the Americas, the Western Pacific).
The study shows that worldwide, 10% of pregnant women continue to drink alcohol, although the percentages vary from country to country. In Europe the percentage exceeds 25%, with peaks in Italy, UK and Russia; here the percentage beat and sometimes exceed 50%. These countries are also born a greater number of children with fetal alcohol syndrome: in Italy there are about 82 cases of syndrome of every 10,000 newborns. In the United States, however, there are approximately 22 cases per 10,000 births, compared with 10 cases per 10,000 in Canada. In the Middle East, where the consumption of alcohol is almost completely absent for religious reasons, there is less than 1 in 10,000.
Drink more than recommended during pregnancy does not automatically lead to fetal alcohol syndrome. Nevertheless, the connection between increased alcohol consumption and more cases is obvious. According to the study, about one mother who consumes alcohol of 67 will give birth to a sick child. However, it is still unclear what other factors come into play in the development of the disease. The researchers think that genetics, stress, smoking and diet play a role, but currently lack evidence to support the thesis. The only safe form of prevention remains so complete abstention from alcohol and, for safety, a comprehensive prenatal screening.
Source: osservatoriomalattierare.it


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Military & Wars
Escape from Aleppo
De (autor): N. H. Senzai
"Filled with kindness and hope...Heartbreaking...Necessary." --Booklist (starred review)
Nadia's family is forced to flee their home in Aleppo, Syria, when the Arab Spring sparks a civil war in this timely, "harrowing" (Publishers Weekly) coming-of-age novel from award-winning author N.H. Senzai.
Silver and gold balloons. A birthday cake covered in pink roses. A new dress.
Nadia stands at the center of attention in her parents' elegant dining room. This is the best day of my life, she thinks. Everyone is about to sing "Happy Birthday," when her uncle calls from the living room, "Baba, brothers, you need to see this." Reluctantly, she follows her family into the other room. On TV, a reporter stands near an overturned vegetable cart on a dusty street. Beside it is a mound of smoldering ashes. The reporter explains that a vegetable vendor in the city of Tunis burned himself alive, protesting corrupt government officials who have been harassing his business. Nadia frowns.
It is December 17, 2010: Nadia's twelfth birthday and the beginning of the Arab Spring. Soon anti-government protests erupt across the Middle East and, one by one, countries are thrown into turmoil. As civil war flares in Syria and bombs fall across Nadia's home city of Aleppo, her family decides to flee to safety. Inspired by current events, this novel sheds light on the complicated situation in Syria that has led to an international refugee crisis, and tells the story of one girl's journey to safety.
Autor: N. H. Senzai
Editura: Simon & Schuster/paula Wiseman Books
Varsta: 08 ani
Categoria: Military & Wars
Shooting Kabul - N. H. Senzai
Flying Over Water - N. H. Senzai
The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri
Sitto's Kitchen: A Treasury of Syrian Family Recipes Taught from Mother to Daughter for Over 100 Years - Janice Jweid Reed
The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World's Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books - Matti Friedman
Nowhere Boy - Katherine Marsh
Last Sanctuary in Aleppo - Alaa Aljaleel
The Cat Man of Aleppo - Karim Shamsi-basha
Syrian Revolution - Yasser Munif
Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri
Death Is Hard Work - Khaled Khalifa
Unexpected Love Objects of Dunya Noor
The Sandcastle Girls - Chris Bohjalian
The Road from Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging - Jordan Ritter Conn
SEAL Team Six: Hunt the Viper
Utopia and Civilisation in the Arab Nahda - Peter Hill
War Doctor - David Nott
Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War and Plea for Peace - Bana Alabed


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B&N Book of the Year Finalists
Explore the Best Books of 2020
The Barnes & Noble Book Club
Leave the World Behind (Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)
by Rumaan AlamRumaan Alam
Hardcover(Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)
$22.99 $27.99 Save 18% Current price is $22.99, Original price is $27.99. You Save 18%.
This Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition contains a Q+A with author Rumaan Alam and a reading group guide.
A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong
Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it's their house, and they've arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it's hard to know what to believe.
Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?
Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam's third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.
Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition
Rumaan Alam is the author of Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, Buzzfeed, and elsewhere. He studied at Oberlin College, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
★ 07/13/2020
In Alam's spectacular and ominous latest (after That Kind of Mother), a family's idyllic summer retreat coincides with global catastrophe. Amanda and Clay, married white Brooklynites with two children, rent a secluded house in the Hamptons for a summer vacation. Their "illusion of ownership" is shattered when the house's proprietors, G.H. and Ruth, an African American couple in their 60s, show up unannounced from New York City. Widespread blackouts have hit the East Coast, and G.H. and Ruth are seeking refuge in the beach house they've rented out. The returned owners are greeted with polite suspicion and simmering resentment: "It was torture, a home invasion without rape or guns," thinks Amanda. G.H. and Ruth, in turn, can't help but wish their renters gone ("G. H.'s familiar old fridge yielded nothing but surprise. He'd not have filled it with such things"). But over a couple days, they form an uneasy collective as a series of strange and increasingly menacing events herald cataclysmic change, from migrating herds of deer to the thunder of military jets roaring overhead. The omniscient narrator occasionally zooms out to provide snapshots of the wider chaotic world that are effective in their brevity. Though information is scarce, the signs of impending collapse—ecological and geopolitical—have been glaringly visible to the characters all along: "No one could plead ignorance that was not willful." This illuminating social novel offers piercing commentary on race, class and the luxurious mirage of safety, adding up to an all-too-plausible apocalyptic vision. (Oct.)
"Leave the World Behind is so many things—funny, sharp, insightful about modernity and race and parenthood and home—but at its core it's a story of our shared apocalypse; a steady look at humanity in the moment it tumbles from a great height. I have not been this profoundly unnerved by a science fiction novel since Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go."
Carmen Maria Machado
Here in your hands, wrapped in the delicious cloth of suspense, Leave the World Behind begs us to ask the most important questions. How do we let the other in? Where do we draw the borders of home? A prescient book, built for these strange times, sure to entrance and electrify.
"Leave The World Behind is that rarest of things, a beautifully written, emotionally resonant page-turner. Alam explores complex ideas about privilege and fate with miraculous wit and grace."
Jenny Offill
"This novel left me tense, overwhelmed, and bristling with admiration. Rumaan Alam is a brilliant writer, a beautiful prose stylist with an uncanny talent for drawing characters—both their individual quirks and foibles, and the subtle gradations of class and circumstance. In this novel he combines those gifts with absolutely superb pacing and atmospheric control, balancing the comic and the tragic, the real and the surreal, the cynical and the empathetic, the individual and the collective. I'm blown away by this novel."
Lydia Kiesling
Alam has a tremendous talent for bringing the complexities of family tensions to life. In the confined space of a single home, this remarkable novel takes on some of the hardest questions of our time about class, race, and who we become in moments of growing uncertainty. In every eloquent scene, Alam reveals something new about what being a family means in the twenty-first century."
Idra Novey
Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind is a canny Trojan horse of a novel, and also a Pandora's Box. Like the family at its center, we're seduced utterly by the bounty and insularity of its world, only to find ourselves, inch by inch, approaching a larger darkness lurking just beyond. With a potent Shirley Jackson energy, it is both eerily timeless and sharply prescient at once, and lingers long after its final page."
Megan Abbott
Rumaan Alam's witty, incisive take on the American privileged classes has always been hilarious, but there's a sinister shadow behind the satire in his latest book, as it becomes increasingly tense and unsettling. Alam has achieved a rare feat—a comic novel that is also genuinely terrifying.
"You will want to read Leave the World Behind very quickly, you will want to read it very slowly and savor every word. Rumaan Alam's ingenious, gorgeously written novel feels both like a prophecy and a contemporaneous response to our anxious era, all of it building to a perfect finale.
Laura Lippman
Author of the popular novels Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother, Alam returns with an edgy work about a couple who leave New York City for some down time with their children at a rented house on Long Island. Then a man and a woman claiming to be the house's owners appear at the door, moaning that they have fled a major blackout in the city. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
★ 2020-06-17
An interrupted family vacation, unexpected visitors, a mysterious blackout—something is happening, and the world may never be the same.
On a reassuringly sunny summer day, Amanda, an account director in advertising; Clay, a college professor; and their children, Archie, 15, and Rose, 13, make their way from Brooklyn to a luxury home (swimming pool! hot tub! marble countertops!) in a remote area of Long Island they've rented for a family vacation. Shortly after they arrive, however, the family's holiday is interrupted by a knock on the door: The house's owners, a prosperous older black couple—George Washington and his wife, Ruth—have shown up unannounced because New York City has been plunged into a blackout and their Park Avenue high-rise apartment didn't feel safe. Soon it becomes clear that the blackout is a symptom (or is it a cause?) of something larger—and nothing is safe. Has there been a nuclear or climate disaster, a war, a terrorist act, a bomb? Alam's story unfolds like a dystopian fever dream cloaked in the trappings of a dream vacation: Why do hundreds of deer show up in the house's well-maintained backyard or a flock of bright-pink flamingos frolic in the family pool and then fly away? What is the noise, loud enough to crack glass, that comes, without warning, once and then, later, repeatedly? Is it safer to go back to the city, to civilization, or to remain away, in a world apart? As they search for answers and adjust to what increasingly appears to be a confusing new normal, the two families—one black, one white; one older, one younger; one rich, one middle-class—are compelled to find community amid calamity, to come together to support each other and survive. As he did in his previous novels, Rich and Pretty (2016) and That Kind of Mother (2018), Alam shows an impressive facility for getting into his characters' heads and an enviable empathy for their moral shortcomings, emotional limitations, and failures of imagination. The result is a riveting novel that thrums with suspense yet ultimately offers no easy answers—disappointing those who crave them even as it fittingly reflects our time.
Addressing race, risk, retreat, and the ripple effects of a national emergency, Alam's novel is just in time for this moment.
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The Bad Beginning (Netflix Tie-in Edition): Book the
NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIESIn the tradition of great storytellers, from Dickens to Dahl, comes an ...
NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIESIn the tradition of great storytellers, from Dickens to Dahl, comes an exquisitely dark comedy that is both literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted. Never before has a tale of three likeable and unfortunate children been ...
Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork: A Guide
Long the world's favorite meat, pork has surged in popularity in American kitchens thanks in ...
Long the world's favorite meat, pork has surged in popularity in American kitchens thanks in part to high-protein diets, but mostly because of its adaptability to just about every taste. Whether you like spicy Asian flavors, flavorful pan braises, or ...
eBook Magic: An Overall Approach to Writing and
E-Book Magic uses humor, anecdotes and 'blunt talk' to spill the trade secrets that successful ...
E-Book Magic uses humor, anecdotes and 'blunt talk' to spill the trade secrets that successful authors have been using to sell e-books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Apple's ibookstore. It also looks at success in a way never ...
Filled with never-before-seen photos and art throughout, the much-anticipated autobiography from rock icon and lead ...
Filled with never-before-seen photos and art throughout, the much-anticipated autobiography from rock icon and lead singer of Blondie, Debbie HarryBRAVE, BEAUTIFUL AND BORN TO BE PUNK Musician, actor, activist, and the iconic face of New York City cool, Debbie Harry is ...
How to Be a Girl in the World
From the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Notable and Charlotte Huck Honor Book Forever, or ...
From the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Notable and Charlotte Huck Honor Book Forever, or a Long, Long Time comes a poignant coming-of-age novel about the complicated parts of growing up, finding your voice, and claiming your space. Perfect for ...
Morris Mole
From internationally acclaimed author-illustrator Dan Yaccarino comes a heartwarming tale about finding your own courage.Meet ...
From internationally acclaimed author-illustrator Dan Yaccarino comes a heartwarming tale about finding your own courage.Meet Morris Mole—he has always been a little bit different. When the moles are running low on food, it's up to clever Morris to save the ...
On the Come Up Collector's Edition
This collector's edition of the acclaimed, bestselling novel contains a letter from the author, deleted ...
This collector's edition of the acclaimed, bestselling novel contains a letter from the author, deleted scenes, a picture of the author as a teen rapper, an annotated playlist, Angie's top 5 MCs, an annotated rap, illustrated quotes from the book, ...
Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to
President Obama's former United States chief of protocol looks at why diplomacy and etiquette matter—from ...
President Obama's former United States chief of protocol looks at why diplomacy and etiquette matter—from the international stage to everyday life.History often appears to consist of big gestures and dramatic shifts. But for every peace treaty signed, someone set the ...


text:
Q: Reduce number of SQL queries inside WP_Query loop to fetch author data This question applies to scale and does not concern typical blog implementations. I'm working on a web app where I'm running standard WP_Query to fetch some custom post types. This usually results in running of about 10 SQL queries. Within the loop I need to access both post meta for the post and user meta for the author of the post. Accessing post meta is trivial with use of get_post_meta inside of the loop. WordPress caches results of WP_Query and hence "does not make" additional queries each time get_post_meta called within the loop.
However, things get ugly when retrieving user data for the post author. Typically I would need to call get_user_by within the loop to fetch user data. Here comes the problem. If I use WP_Query to fetch 50 posts each by a different author, calling get_user_by within the loop results in 100 SQL queries (two queries for each user for fetching data from users table and usermeta table). This is in addition to the 10 SQL queries I mentioned earlier. 110 SQL queries! — this is insane.
Next, I thought of using WP_User_Query to fetch user data before the loop runs.
    $custom_query = new WP_Query($args);
    foreach($custom_query->posts as $post) {
        $post_authors[] = (int)$post->post_author;
    }
    $user_query = new WP_User_Query( array('include' => $post_authors) );

I expected WP_User_Query to be smart like WP_Query and reduce the number of queries. This did reduce queries to 51 as opposed to 100 earlier. One query hit the users table for all users and 50 queries hit the usermeta table one for each user. Better, but not what I expected.
How do I reduce the queries for my scenario?

A: After a lot of trial and error I learnt that WP_User_Query takes an argument fields which can be set to 'all_with_meta'. This reduces number of queries to two for any number of users that are fetched in a single go and also provides benefits of caching. Usage would look like:
$user_query = new WP_User_Query( array('include' => $post_authors, 'fields' => 'all_with_meta') );


text:
College Application Guru Turned Author Lacy Crawford on 'Early Decision'
'Early Decision'
'Early Decision' author Lacy Crawford breaks down the college admissions craziness for Lizzie Crocker.
Lizzie Crocker
Updated Jul. 11, 2017 8:44PM ET / Published Aug. 24, 2013 4:45AM ET
Wavebreak Media Ltd./Corbis
At this point in the summer, most high school juniors are already acquainted with the horrible agony that is the college admissions process. They've taken the expensive SAT prep courses, visited at least a dozen campuses, and spent weeks agonizing over their personal essays.
Indeed, the personal essay in particular causes students and parents to tear their hair out, knowing it could make or break their application. For 15 years, Lacy Crawford worked with high school students to hone these essays, a torturous but rewarding experience that she chronicles in her forthcoming book, Early Decision.
The book tells the story of Anne, a 27-year-old application guru who coaches five high school seniors through the harrowing application process. From the privileged daughter of a Duke University trustee to the inner-city kid who taught herself about immigration reform, their admissions journeys take them through endless rewrites of Common App essays, counseling sessions at their sprawling suburban homes, and after-hours phone conversations with sniveling mothers and passive aggressive fathers desperate to secure their children slots at Ivy League schools.
We talked to Crawford about dealing with overbearing parents, how the admissions process has changed over the years—and how to get into the school of your choice without getting trampled in the college rat race.
When did you decide to chronicle this part of your life?
My work with students tapered off dramatically in 2010, after I had my first child. And then friends told me I was already too late to apply for preschool for my son and needed to hurry up and get on the list. So I panicked and called some schools and sent over applications. I remember one morning I was working on an application that had essay questions about my son. I looked over and he was lying on the carpet on his back and I thought, "Oh my god, this is how it happens. This is how it begins." I'd been secretly judging these parents for ten years but there I was, ready to step on the same moving walkway, and I thought, "I know how this ends." This ends with me hiring someone like me to get my kid into college. So I started writing the book as a private investigation.
You were so entrenched in these kids' lives—more life coach than college essay counselor.
That may be a mark of how young and naïve I was when I started. I didn't have a degree in education or counseling or anything, but I had grown up an overachiever in a family and a community that put a lot of pressure on the same type of thing. I felt like I could relate to the experiences these kids were having. I wanted to help shift the frame a little bit away from their parents and under them so they could take control of the process. So yes, I was deeply involved. And the anxiety these mothers face during this process—there are few people they can vent to. I think some of them hired me quite simply so the mothers would have someone to call when they were freaking out after their glass of wine at dinner.
The wealthier families and micromanaging parents really stick out in the book.
There were billionaires who flew me all over the place. That was eye-opening and foreign to me. But there were also plenty of normal parents whose kids were in public high schools and who felt overwhelmed because their college counselors had 100 kids and they had no idea where to begin. I also had students that I took on pro bono from underserved schools who were the first in their family to go to college. We talk about the college application crisis. But the crisis has nothing to do with rich kids not getting in; it has everything to do with everyone else not even knowing where to begin.
Is most of Early Decision based on your first few years working with these kids?
When I first started doing this work I had 15 or 20 students a year, and I focused much more on helping them with the nuts and bolts, helping them to establish deadlines, that sort of thing. As I got older, and I did this more and more, I started to feel that if the student couldn't work out the deadlines on his own, he didn't deserve to go to that school and I wasn't going to do the work for him. What I did instead was help him figure out what it was he loved to study and what he might wish to pursue. I got more involved in their lives as the years went on.
Have any former students or parents contacted you recently?
I know some parents got their hands on early copies of the book. They all want to know if they're in it. The students I've been in touch with are having a great time reading it, but there's a bit of a selection bias involved. I wouldn't reach out to the people whose stories are directly told, but I'm not sure they would recognize themselves.
But I have to say I'm getting many requests for help. I don't do this for money anymore, but there are people who are important to me asking for help because they're applying to law school or business school or Fulbright or Rhodes.
What changed about the admissions process over the 15 years that you did this?
Application rates have soared and admissions rates have plummeted. Some of that is just demographics and more kids applying to these schools. Some of it is the common application—the fact that it's easier to send an application to a school than it was when I was applying 20 years ago or more. Suddenly Harvard can brag about its 5.6 percent—or whatever it is—acceptance rate and parents get hysterical. That wasn't happening when I first started out. Suddenly there were all these standardized tests online. There were achievement tests, there were multiple essays. It seems logistically challenging but not yet philosophically challenging. By the time I finished doing this it had become a flat-out race. College admissions is the culmination of every parent's ambition and anxiety. It's a last hurrah for a parent—the last thing they feel they can mastermind before they lose their child to independence.
And as you said, people now apply to 20 schools, if they don't go the early decision route. When I was in school, that's what everyone did, and I graduated from college in 2009.
What's going on now is that some of the schools are early action so they let you apply to other schools "early action" as well. I have students who are applying to six or seven places early action. It's the same rate, just shifted two months earlier. Everyone wants to stand out and everyone wants to have a yes in their pocket going into the regular season. If you're a parent or a kid who has never done this before, it's like figuring out in March that you have to learn how to file your taxes by April 15. It's awful and terrifying. And it's gotten awfully complex.
What did you learn as a writer from your work with these kids?
It's not terribly dissimilar to journalism. If you have to turn around a lot of pieces on a deadline, you do learn something of efficiency, how to just get over yourself and get it done. I think it made writing less precious. The gift that I could give to these students who had terrible writer's block was telling them: "We need 11 essays and we're going to do 10 drafts of each of them. I'm not your English teacher. I'm not grading you. Shut up and write something."
Are you anxious about people contacting you once the book comes out?
There are plenty of people contacting me already, asking for advice about college. That's kind of heartbreaking because if I were able to sit down with them for two hours I might be helpful, but that's not my job anymore.
You can figure out how to get into a school if you read this book, but I think you can also figure out how to get out of the whole craziness in the first place. My fantasy is that it will be empowering—as much as I think "empower" is a terrible word.


text:
word root
4 entries found.
pissed (adj.)
1929, "drunk," past-participle adjective from piss (v.). From 1946 as "angry," from piss off.
Related entries & more
piss (v.)
"to urinate, discharge the fluid secreted by the kidneys and stored in the urinary bladder," c. 1300, pissen, from Old French pissier "urinate" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *pissiare, of imitative origin. To piss away (money, etc.) is from 1948. Related: Pissed; pissing. Pissing while (1550s) once meant "a short time."
He shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not have my money to spend in liquor. [Grose, "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 3rd edition, 1796]
To piss money on the walls "throw money around recklessly" is attested from 1540s.
He who once a good name gets,
May piss a bed, and say he sweats.
["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
nettled (adj.)
"vexed, irritated," c. 1400, figurative adjectival use of past participle of nettle (v.).
Nettled. Teized, provoked, out of temper. He or she has pissed on a nettle; said of one who is pevish or out of temper. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1785]
piss off (v.)
1958, intransitive, "go away," chiefly British; the transitive meaning "annoy (someone)" is by 1968, chiefly U.S.; from piss (v.) + off (adv.). Pissed off "angry, fed up" is attested by 1946 (Partridge says 1937); said to have been used in the military in World War II; in common use from 1970s.
1. etymology
2. bear
4. insult
5. alpha
6. alphabet
7. harm
9. family
10. science


30 Minute Cheesy Garlic Shrimp Alfredo: A cheesy, garlicky delicious pasta packed with shrimp, and an easy homemade Alfredo. Great weeknight dinner!
. I use it all the time. Or skip the blender and just heat and whisk by hand. I prefer to simplify the whole process. This recipe gets rave reviews, and consists of things you might already have on hand, or can keep in the freezer for those busy nights.
If you want to make this lower fat, substitute a fat free cream cheese, low fat milk option, and cut down the butter, or leave it out. Fat adds flavor, so keep that in mind, but this can be a really great guiltless meal. I know that sometimes I make those swaps, and hardly miss it because the garlic and the cheese still impart so much flavor.
Rinse your shrimp well in a colander before cooking so you don't get a "fishy" taste in your sauce.
Stir the garlic so it doesn't burn. If it gets too brown it will be bitter.
Keep stirring when you pour the milk mixture in, you don't want it to burn.
Use a heavy bottomed pot to help reduce the likelihood of scorched milk.
If you don't eat all of it in one sitting, when reheating add milk to get to the desired consistency as it will get thicker!
Shrimp Alfredo: A cheesy, garlick-y delicious pasta packed with shrimp, and an easy homemade Alfredo. Great weeknight dinner! This easy shrimp Alfredo pasta is a family favorite for a reason.
Substitute chicken to make a chicken fettuccine Alfredo instead of a shrimp Alfredo pasta.
This was easy and was very good! I added some small scallops and did add the Parmesan cheese (it was optional).


text:
Steven Blogs!
A blog on things of life, but mostly on geeky topics
My resumé
Linux Command Line
Tech Bookmarks
Reddit Markdown
Nederlanstalige Templates
Adieu, SiteGround!
New (old) home for the blog!
Deconstructing an SMS scam in 4 steps
Wanted: No more call center position offers (M/F)
Multiple Polish city domains compromised.
lotalotohn on Joomla! Next: Dead to the CMS. Hail the Application Platform
Daniele Rosario on Why bother sharing your slide decks?
Steven Zeegers on Professionalism & Volunteers, not mutually exclusive.
Marcos Peebles (@MarcosPeebles) on Professionalism & Volunteers, not mutually exclusive.
Amy Stephen on Professionalism & Volunteers, not mutually exclusive.
Embracing the Linux Command Line
March 26, 2014 by Steven Zeegers·Comments Off on Embracing the Linux Command Line
For a very long time, I avoided the command line of Linux like a plague. Sure, I'd mess around with Ubuntu occasionaly. But only in desktop mode. SSH access? I'll just stick to FTP instead, that's far less complex!
Until last year I told myself using the command line was "too hard" and "not worth the hassle". That changed somewhere last year. I had to do some work on a dedicated server, via the command line. There was no other option.
Before I knew it, I adjusted to using the command line. I learned the basics, and started applying it everywhere. and now I can't go back. Manipulating files using FTP? Ewwwwww… Uploading a ZIP file I can just grab on the server with WGET? Madness! Setting up cron jobs? Sure, I can do that.
I am not a "master of the dark arts" of the command line. I likely never will be. But that's okay, because the basics are already saving me a lot of valuable time. I'm not afraid of the dark, scary terminal anymore. 🙂
Put your "opinion" where you own it.
March 12, 2014 by Steven Zeegers·Comments Off on Put your "opinion" where you own it.
Today, a collegue of mine told me how a 'rant' about a big IT company he made on Linkedin, mysteriously vanished after he refused to take the post down. This after company first called him (!) and ordered him to take it down. Yay for free speech!!
Of course I could blog about how disturbing it is that Linkedin gives companies the tools to apply that sort of "censorship". But my opinion of Linkedin is fairly low as it is, so… pass.
But I would like to point out that, if you've got an opinion on a topic, there's only one "great" place to share it. And that's a blog or site which you own. Somewhere a post only gets removed if you choose to do so.
Don't even get me started on blogging on sites where the traffic only benefits the platform. Like Linkedin, for example.
So, my general advice: If you've got an opinion on something, and it's not illegal – get your own blog. If your excuse not to do so is that you're afraid people might respond less than favorable, you shouldn't be sharing that opinion to begin with. 😉
edit: Minor edits for typo's & better wording
Closing Toralkodocs.net
March 9, 2014 by Steven Zeegers·Comments Off on Closing Toralkodocs.net
More than a year ago, I launched Toralkodocs.net, a website for "commercial" Joomla documentation. After some deliberating I've decided to pull the plug on Toralkodocs when the hosting is due for renewal, in June.
The goal of Toralkodocs.net was to build a Joomla documentation site, which would be updates frequently. But due to a lack of time, inspiration and other issues, toralkodocs never became a success. There are no regrets – I tried something, it didn't quite work out as planned, and now it's time to let go of the idea – for the time being, at the very least.
Founders Forever
Toralkodocs' hosting was funded with donations of people, who joined the 'Founders Club'. Most of these founders have a subscription that ends in August. When I made the pitch, I did included a "No promises!" clause and people accepted that they were making a donation to a project that might, or might not work out.
While I can't give them a refund for the two remaining months, I hope to make up for it in the future, when I release new "commercial" products. Think big discounts or free access. I will make sure to inform you (when you're on that list) when something interesting pops up. Thank you for your support, and for believing in Toralkodocs.
Edit: I've recently discovered Leanput which is very close to how I write my books. I will be researching on moving my docs there. Which means there will be updateable books, minus the overhead of hosting, sites and subscription management.
Investing time and money to save on both
March 4, 2014 by Steven Zeegers·Comments Off on Investing time and money to save on both
My company is currently making some changes to the way we work. You can always make improvements somewhere. For us, one of the area where we wanted to make changes was the automating of our hosting & domains billing / administration.
Company-wide we're using OpenERP which is a good product, but for our Hosting & Domain department we have chosen to migrate to WHMCS. This is a tool especially built for "Hosters". It allows you to automate most of the administrative tasks that come with hosting.
It keeps track of domains / hosting about to expire
It'll automatically send a payment (renewal) invitation
If the client pays (online) the system will mark their invoice as paid.
Once the system is setup, you basically only have to keep an eye on it, and make small updates when ready.
We're hoping it will help us save some time. Our company doesn't employ a dedicated administrative person. So every hour spent on billing clients, or reminding them to pay, could be better spent by the sales person / developer who's doing the administration.
Sure, it might require a small investment of money and a bigger investment of time; but in the long run we'll hopefully profit from the time / money spent. And if it encourages our clients to pay faster (which it will) then it's a win-win situation! 😉


Just in time for the peak of fall produce, Gail Simmons gave us a genius tip for getting the most deliciousness (and the least mess) out of a pomegranate without turning the kitchen into a crime scene.
Just in time for the peak of fall produce, the ever-gracious Gail Simmons gave us a genius tip for getting the most deliciousness (and the least mess) out of a pomegranate: Cut it in quarters and submerge it in a bowl of cold water. Rub the seeds gently underwater—they'll pop out easily, without bleeding their juice everywhere. "The pomegranate isn't compromised at all," says Simmons. "It's just taking a nice little bath. And not splattering your entire kitchen."