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Luxury Holidays / Asia
Luxury Singapore Holidays
A thriving and modern city, a luxury holiday to Singapore successfully blends traditional culture, exemplary cuisine and inspirational architecture.
Singapore is one of the most enchanting cities on our planet. It's an island city state that delights everyone who visits. Whether it's breath-taking skyscrapers and their magical cityscape scenery, an action-packed time on Sentosa Island or an opportunity to experience the melting pot of cultures in the local suburbs and hawker centres, Singapore really does have the lot.
Stay in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District at The Fullerton, which fronts onto the majestic Marina Bay area. With tantalisingly tasteful interior decor and the chance to access the refined atmosphere of The Straits Club, with 24-hour personalised service and a sunlit roof garden, it's an ideal base to experience the Lion City's indulgent qualities.
The Orchard Road is quite simply one of the best places in Asia for those who love a spot of retail therapy. With a huge range of shopping complexes and authentic markets, you can get everything from luxury designer goods to bargain basement surprises.
The Four Seasons Hotel is just a stone's throw from the retail hub on the tree-lined Orchard Boulevard. With two exquisite on-site restaurants and a world-class spa, the Four Seasons can be your Singaporean oasis after a busy day hitting the shops.
The five-star elegance of The Shangri-La Hotel is also nearby the famous Orchard Road. With 15 acres of lush botanical gardens, five on-site restaurants and a sumptuous beauty spa, you can easily forget you're in the heart of the city at Shangri-La.
Perhaps the most iconic hotel on the island is Raffles Hotel. An international landmark that oozes British colonial heritage, Raffles has been providing legendary service to its distinguished guests for well over a century.
Fanatical foodies will adore Singapore's plentiful hawker centres that are dotted throughout the city. With great-value authentic street food style cuisine and a chance to mingle with the locals, it's a dining experience you'll never forget. Of course, Singapore is home to an ample choice of trendy restaurants and bars too.
Take a trip to the Marina Bay Sands and its observation deck on the 57th floor, offering panoramic city views and two upscale bars and restaurants. The Marina Bay area also comes alive when the Formula One motor racing comes to town each year, with the Singapore street circuit fast becoming one of the most exciting races on the F1 calendar.
Singapore is so much more than just a stopover destination. Enjoy a luxury holiday in Singapore with one of Inspiring Travel Company's exclusive and unique hotels, offering a tranquil oasis in the heart of the city action. Our in-house team of experts have personally visited every Singaporean resort we offer and can help you to design a bespoke luxury holiday in Singapore like no other.
Shangri-La Singapore
The hotel has been completely refurbished and work was completed in May 2017.
The hotel is surrounded by 15 acres of botanical gardens and rooms are located in 3 distinctive wings each with its own unique style.
There are lots of shopping choices nearby from small boutiques, stalls and antique shops to the famous Orchard Road.
The facilities are vast with outdoor pool, tennis courts, state of the art gym, Spa and 11 dining options.
The Tower Wing has a dedicated floor for Family rooms and interconnecting options and there is a kids club.
Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa, Singapore
This all-round resort is suitable for both couples and families alike and comprises of 454 rooms and suites, each with a balcony offering views of the hills, garden and pool area or the sea. For the best sea views book the Panoramic Sea View Room. If you're travelling with family, the Deluxe Pool View Rooms will accommodate up to two young children with two adults. Explore innovative dining conce...
Down on the island of Sentosa, which is connected to mainland Singapore via a causeway, the Capella hotel offers a relaxing retreat from the bustle of the city yet remains wonderfully close to all the highlights of this great destination. The Capella Singapore sits on 30 acres of manicured gardens and towering trees, spilling down the hillside towards the South China Sea; a privileged position tha...
Situated in the Marina Bay area, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore is a 608 room and suite hotel, just a short walk from the Integrated Resort and Singapore Flyer. This luxurious hotel is home to an impressive 4,200 piece contemporary art collection including works by famous artists such as Frank Stella, Dale Chihuly and Andy Warhol. The rooms and suites feature luxurious amenities such as...
Four Seasons Hotel, Singapore
Nestled amidst the tree-lined famed Orchard Boulevard, Four Seasons Hotel Singapore offers unrivalled levels of hospitality. 254 spacious and superbly appointed suites await utter relaxation after dinner in one of the two excellent restaurants offering a variety of worldwide cuisine. Everything you could possibly wish for is at your disposal, including air-conditioned tennis courts and simulated g...
Rendezvous Hotel Singapore
Rendezvous Hotel Singapore (formerly the Rendezvous Grand) was completely refurbished in November 2013 and successfully combines colonial architecture with contemporary interior design. Offering excellent value for money, the Rendezvous Hotel enjoys an enviable city location within 10 minutes walk of the well known Orchard Road shopping district and 5 minutes from two MRT stations that will conne...
Sleek and sophisticated in design the 527 rooms and suites boast floor to ceiling windows with views over the city skyline, the ocean or the bay. When you're not spending time exploring Singapore, relax by the 25 metre outdoor swimming pool or in the Spa; or work out in the fitness studio where personal trainers can be organised. The hotel offers a variety of dining options. Head to Dolce Vita for...
Raffles Singapore
Maybe one of the most famous hotels in the world, Raffles Singapore is an institution conveniently located in the heart of the city. Boasting colonial grandeur and a guest list to rival that of the Queen of England's garden party, choosing this hotel means you will be keeping good company. From its beginning in 1800 to today, distinguished guests such as Rudyard Kipling and the Duke and Duches...
The Fullerton Singapore
With a fantastic location, the hotel offers both scenic views over the Singapore River and easy access to the main shopping and cultural districts. A range of spacious rooms and suites means offers a stylish option for every traveller. After exploring Singapore's highlights, retire to the hotel's outdoor infinity pool or luxuriate at the excellent spa. The Straits Club offers discerning guests an ...
Singapore and Borneo
It is only a two and a half hour flight from Singapore to Borneo making it an easy way to explore the colourful sights of Singapore before looking for colourful wildlife in Borneo. Accommodation Details Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort: 7 nights, room only Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore: 3 nights, room only...


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Britain's decision to leave the EU could force the European Central Bank into providing even more stimulus, just when it hoped it was done easing policy after years of extraordinary effort, analysts said on Friday.
Plunging confidence and market turmoil will dent investments and growth in Britain and the euro zone, weighing on inflation, even as the ECB is bending over backwards to boost consumer prices after it undershot its target for more than three years.
Indeed, markets <ECBWATCH> are already pricing in almost 10 basis points worth of rate cuts by the end of the year while a key long-term inflation gauge <EUIL5YF5Y=R> fell to its lowest level at 1.32 percent on Friday, far from the ECB's target of almost 2 percent.
But the ECB is also unlikely to take hasty action, waiting at least until the September meeting, when new economic forecasts are presented, and using its July 21 meeting only to guide markets. It has repeatedly emphasized patience with its current measures, suggesting it would take its time to assess the impact.
"In the euro zone, spillovers from Brexit will materialize through trade, financial and confidence channels," UniCredit economist Erik Nielsen said. "Overall, we plan to lower our euro zone GDP forecast for 2017 to 0.5-1.0 percent from the current 1.6 percent.
Quick ECB reaction is also unlikely as the bank's inflation forecast may contain some buffer since the projections unveiled earlier this month did not fully incorporate the expected impact of approved but not yet implemented measures.
The ECB could cut its sub-zero deposit rate even further, though its room to maneuver is limited since negative rates weigh on bank earnings and curbing banks' ability to lend would counter the very stimulus the bank wants to provide.
The easiest step could be to extend the bank's 80 billion euro per month asset purchase program beyond next March but new instruments are also possible, analysts added.
"Our forecast already anticipated further easing in September, in the form of an extension of the current asset purchase program through end-2017," JPMorgan economist Greg Fuzesi said.
"We now expect additional easing involving a 10 basis point cut in the deposit rate and a further extension of asset purchases into 2018," he added.
Such measures may need time to be devised since the ECB's asset buys, worth 1.74 trillion euros, were at risk of running into some of the bank's self imposed limits, so an extension could require the adjustment of some parameters.
Still, hinting at its willingness to take action, the ECB on Friday repeated that it would continue to fulfill its responsibilities to ensure price stability.
"The fall in oil prices and the weaker economy will drive the economy of the euro zone and Germany back into deflation," Marcel Fratzscher, the president of the German Institute for Economic Research said. "I expect that the ECB will ease monetary policy not just in the short term but also on the long term."
"The referendum... means that the period of zero interest rates will probably last significantly longer," Fratzscher said.


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Firstline supervisors of gaming workers are most often employed by the Amusement & Recreation industry. The average yearly wage for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers was $44,192 in 2016. The top 3 most similar occupations to Firstline supervisors of gaming workers by wage are Emergency medical technicians & paramedics, Rolling machine setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic, and Automotive body & related repairers.
The top 3 locations that employ the most Firstline supervisors of gaming workers are Spring Valley & Summerlin South PUMA, NV, Henderson City (West) PUMA, NV, and Whitney, Sunrise Manor (South) & Paradise (Northeast) PUMA, NV. The top 3 locations with a relatively high concentration of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers are Whitney, Sunrise Manor (South) & Paradise (Northeast) PUMA, NV, Spring Valley & Summerlin South PUMA, NV, and Las Vegas City (Southwest) PUMA, NV.
Information on the businesses and industries that employ Firstline supervisors of gaming workers and on wages and locations for those in the field. Amusement & Recreation is the industry that employs the most Firstline supervisors of gaming workers, both by share and by number, though the highest paid industry for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers, by average wage, is Traveler accommodation. Firstline supervisors of gaming workers are paid most in Henderson (East) & Boulder Cities PUMA, NV but are relatively concentrated in Whitney, Sunrise Manor (South) & Paradise (Northeast) PUMA, NV.
In 2017, Firstline supervisors of gaming workers earned an average of $44,192, $7,873 less than than the average national salary of $52,065.
Emergency medical technicians & paramedics make somewhat more than Firstline supervisors of gaming workers while Rolling machine setters, operators, & tenders, metal & plastic make somewhat less. This chart shows the various occupations closest to Firstline supervisors of gaming workers as measured by average annual salary in the US.
In 2017, Firstline supervisors of gaming workers had a wage GINI coefficient of 0.222, which is lower than than the national average of 0.479. In other words, wages are distributed more evenly for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers (shown in red) than for the overall labor force (shown in gray).
This map shows the Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) in the United States shaded by average annual wage for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers.
This map displays which Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) in the United States have a relatively high population of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers.
The most common industries employing Firstline supervisors of gaming workers, by number of employees, are Amusement & Recreation and Traveler accommodation.
The highest paying industries for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers, by average wage, are Traveler accommodation and Amusement & Recreation.
The number of people employed as Firstline supervisors of gaming workers has been growing at a rate of 16.8%, from 20,737 people in 2016 to 24,216 people in 2017.
This graphic shows the share of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers employed by various industries. Amusement & Recreation employs the largest share of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers at 83.9%, followed by Traveler accommodation with 15.7% and false with 0%.
Demographic information on Firstline supervisors of gaming workers in the US. The average age of male Firstline supervisors of gaming workers in the workforce is 44.8 and of female Firstline supervisors of gaming workers is 47.6, and the most common race/ethnicity for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers is White.
54.7% of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers are Male, making them the more common gender in the occupation. This chart shows the gender breakdown of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers.
64.3% of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers are White, making that the most common race or ethnicity in the occupation. Representing 12.1% of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers, Black is the second most common race or ethnicity in this occupation. This chart shows the racial and ethnic breakdown of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers.
The median age of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers is 46, and Male employees are generally 2.83 years younger than than their Female counterparts.
Data on higher education choices for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers from The Department of Education and Census Bureau. The most common major for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers is Business but a relatively high number of Firstline supervisors of gaming workers hold a major in Business.
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for Firstline supervisors of gaming workers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Firstline supervisors of gaming workers need many skills, but most especially Monitoring, Active Listening, and Speaking. The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) shows that Firstline supervisors of gaming workers need more than the average amount of Negotiation, Repairing, and Management of Personnel Resources.


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Australia to get its first CLT & GLT plant
Architecture news & editorial desk
Australasian timber products manufacturer Timberlink, has announced plans to build a new plant to manufacture cross laminated timber (CLT) and glue laminated timber (GLT).
The new state-of-the-art softwood CLT and GLT manufacturing facility – the first of its kind in Australia – will be co-located with Timberlink's recently upgraded softwood sawmill in Tarpeena, South Australia. The sawmill at the Tarpeena site currently employs over 200 people and contributes $150 million to the local economy.
Construction work will begin this year with the new plant scheduled to open in 2023. While a significant number of jobs will be created during the construction phase, the new manufacturing facility will initially provide 27 full-time permanent jobs, with the staff strength increasing to 50 once the plant achieves capacity.
The $59-million project in Tarpeena is supported by the South Australian State Government's $2-million grant from the Regional Growth Fund.
South Australian Minister David Basham explained that the new plant will generate quality, long-term manufacturing jobs in the region, and will showcase the best of the timber industry, creating jobs and industry value for decades.
Timberlink gratefully acknowledges the District Council of Grant for their strong support and enthusiasm for the new facility to be located in Tarpeena. Mayor Richard Sage and Council supported the project and worked with Timberlink management to achieve this outcome for Tarpeena.
"CLT and GLT is the building material of the 21st century. The product is being embraced by leading architects, builders and designers, replacing concrete and steel in our cities with timber that stores carbon and is the ultimate renewable," Timberlink's chief executive officer, Ian Tyson said.
"Timberlink and the District Council of Grant share an excellent working relationship. We welcome Timberlink's announcement to expand operations in Tarpeena, which brings new employment and demonstrates continued confidence in our local economy and timber industry," Mayor Richard Sage said.
"The government's Regional Growth Fund was established to unlock economic activity in our region and this is exactly what this will do," Nick McBride MP said. "These are high tech, secure, modern manufacturing jobs, exactly the kind our regional communities are built on."
timber products manufacturing employment timber industry Softwood CLT glue laminated timber sawmill

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


July 2011 - Magnolia Creative Co.
Three years ago my daughter was diagnosed as being highly allergic to eggs. A 5 on the test means you are allergic and she scored a 28! Needless to say overnight our family's diet had to change. It really wasn't that hard except when it came to sweets. It was so hard to tell her she couldn't eat cake, some ice cream or cookies at her friend's birthday parties. I learned a great trick to be able to make Audrey cakes and cupcakes without the egg!
Take 1 store bought cake mix and add one canned soda, mix together, pour into pans and bake as directed. That's it! It's so easy and it even removes all the fat that eggs and oil add in. No one could tell the difference and even complimented how light and fluffy they were. Most importantly Audrey didn't notice and that made me so happy. I have even made cupcakes and cake pops with this same method. For a white or vanilla cake use Sprite and for Chocolate use Coke, diet or regular, it does not matter.
Hopefully this helps some of you who have children with food allergies. It can be so hard and no parent wants to tell their child they can't partake in birthday traditions like CAKE! I've even found a wonderful sugar cookie and royal icing recipe that are dairy and egg free as well!
ALSO today is the last day to enter our giveaway hosted by A to Zebra Celebrations! You can win a $75 gift certificate for anything on the website!
1. Go to Magnolia CreativeCo. and and then post on the A to Zebra blog what you would use your gift certificate for.
Good luck and have a great weekend everyone!
Giveaway ending soon! Enter today.
Tomorrow is the last day to enter our giveaway hosted by A to Zebra Celebrations. You can win a $75 gift certificate to MagnoliaCreativeCo.com store to use on ANYTHING. There are a bunch of new invitations and printable designs. Also with school right around the corner you can stock up on teacher gifts like our personalized travel mugs, a personal favorite of mine! Share the giveaway with your friends for EXTRA entries too!
1. Go to the Magnolia website. and tell post on the A to Zebra Celebrations blog what you would use your gift certificate for.
I am thrilled to have the Zebra and Zinnia party I styled with Her Royal Heinous featured on Hostess with the Mostess yesterday.
are ON SALE through the end of the week!
The inspiration for this party came from a fabric remnant I found at Hobby Lobby. I loved the bright green color and it was enough to make a tablecloth for a small table in my daughter's room. The hydrangeas were in full bloom at my house and we were dying to use them as a backdrop. Amelia from Her Royal Heinous came up with the Zinnia aspect, and the Zebra and Zinnias collection/party was born!
I designed the entire collateral collection which includes the invitation and matching address label, party circles, hat, table tents, banners, straw slip ons, cupcake wrappers, etc. Everything is pink, green and white with a great summer feel and embellished with pearls for a 'lady like' touch.
We served pink lemonade with lemons and limes, sugar cookies and rice krispy treats decorated with royal icing flowers purchased from Mochasof, chocolate, key lime and berry cupcakes from Target and Little Debbie tulip cakes placed on candy sticks. The main cake was vanilla and decorated with wafer thin pink and green butterflies purchased from Modern Luxe Events. I made the cake because my daughter is allergic to egg, which makes it difficult to purchase sweets from bakeries and stores. To make an egg free cake I simply use store bought cake mix and a sprite for white and vanilla cakes or a coke for chocolate cakes. Yes it's that easy – just the dry mix and 1 can drink, stir and bake according to the package. It works great for cupcakes too! Using the butterflies and flowers is the perfect example of how you can easily dress up a home made or store bought cake into a party perfect show piece.
Each child received their own personalized melamine dinner plate that served as a place card. The plate also matched the name card on the back of the child's chair. The wooden flatware was purchased from Shop Sweet Lulu and was wrapped in a pink napkin and sealed with a pearl embellished napkin ring. Placed on every chair was a party hat and a favor bag filled with strawberry woppers. Each child also received a small 'grow your own zinnia kit' in pink, of course.
Even in the Louisiana heat the choice of sweets held up and the girls had a great time!
– Invitations, Melamine Plates & Other Party Collateral: Magnolia Creative Co.
you order – shipping is only $5!
A to Zebra Celebrations Giveaway!
I hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did. My husband and I became godparents to one of our best friends son. It was a very special event and a true honor. We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing by the pool and just trying to stay cool in this crazy Louisiana heat!
This week we're doing a giveaway with A to Zebra Celebrations for a chance to win $75 gift certificate to MagnoliaCreativeCo.com.
New store design = shopping discount!
I LOVE the new website design and I hope you do to! Amy Sheppard from Coffee, Crafts and Cupcakes created it and I just couldn't be happier!
To celebrate the new shop I'm offering 10% off every order now through the end of August!
matter what or how much you order!
Perfect for a Birthday, Baby Shower, or many other events, these cake decorations are the perfect accessories to dress up your store bought or homemade cake and take it to the next level!
Wear your springtime celebration this season with this pastel bunting flag necklace! Each "flag" is hand cut ceramic, hand painted and kiln fired. They are linked together and attached to antiqued silver plated steel.
You pick the colors and your name. Pennants are 8 inches by 8 inches.
These oilcloth banners are perfect for your outdoor party. Use them to brighten up an old barn, patio, balcony, stair railing, a sun-room, or porch. Each one is double-sided so they'll look good from any angle. Because they are water resistant, they are great for outdoor entertaining and can withstand a little water, wind, and sunshine. So add a little fun to your summer! Length is approx 10 ft and number of flags/pennants is 11. Flags are cut 8 1/2″ long and 7 inches wide. Buy multiple banners for longer distances.
Last Day for the Pennant Giveaway!
1. Like Magnolia Creative Co. on Facebook and follow our blog. Feel free to say hi and introduce yourself on the Facebook page too! Leave a comment on CupcakeMAG's blog telling us you did.
Like CupcakeMAG I Sprinkes, The Bakers Confection, Mimosa By Me, Two Sugar Babies, and Lori Savage Custom Designs on Facebook. Leave a comment on this blog telling us you did!
The giveaway is open to people ages 18 years and older. Giveaway ends TODAY! A winner will be selected at random and announced on CupcakeMAG's blog so stay tuned!
I'm so excited to have Jackson's Baptism featured on A to Zebra Celebrations today.
Here is more about the event. After such a non-traditional birth announcement for Jackson I wanted to do something somewhat traditional for his baptism and also to make my mother happy 🙂 I fell in love with these plates that I found on Shop Sweet Lulu and wanted to design the entire even around them. I started with the invitations. I've been on an orange kick lately so I wanted to incorporate that color.
unpainted wood craft letters from Hobby Lobby.
I've been seeing a lot of ruffle edge cakes lately and loved them. Allyson from Aly B's Bakery here in Shreveport created this wonderful lemon cake based on the invitation and the ruffle edge that I wanted.
I wrapped the wooden flatware I purchased from Shop Sweet Lulu with orange polka dot ribbon and more Twinery twine.
party meatballs, roll, water and lemonade and of course the yummy cake and cupcakes.
I wanted a floral centerpiece but I also wanted the cake in the middle. So to solve the problem I hung the flowers from twine and mason jars from my chandelier. It was perfect!
The day was great and it was so much fun to celebrate this special time with our friends and family.
Invitations and party collateral: Magnolia Creative Co.
hosted by CupcakeMAG I Sprinkles. There are many great prizes from Magnolia Creative Co, Two Sugar Babies, The Bakers Confections,Mimosa By Me, Lori Savage Custom Designs and Magpie and Cake. You have until MONDAY to enter, good luck to all!
Celebrate special days with special dinnerware! Birthdays, report cards, home runs or any special achievement can be made extra special with a special plate.
There is a new plate in the shop – The Chalkboard Birthday Plate!
This 11.25″ rimmed dinner plate has a chalkboard edge suitable for writing any special message and for a limited time get FREE PERSONALIZATION! Choose your own cupcake color and edge style too!
Our "It's Your Day" plate can also be customized by color and a chalkboard edge too! These chalkboard plates are hand wash only! Order yours today!


text:
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;

public class TimeModeManager : MonoBehaviour {

    public static float timeLeft;
    public static int airborneBalls;

    private Text timerText;
    private int timerTextFontSize;
    private RectTransform timerRectTransform;

	// Use this for initialization
	void Start () {
        airborneBalls = 0;
#if UNITY_STANDALONE
        timerTextFontSize = 30;
#elif UNITY_ANDROID
        timerTextFontSize = 70;
#endif
        timerText = GetComponent<Text>();
        timerRectTransform = GetComponent<RectTransform>();
        timerText.fontSize = timerTextFontSize;
        timeLeft = 90;
        timerText.text = "Timer: " + (int)timeLeft;
#if UNITY_ANDROID
        timerRectTransform.sizeDelta = new Vector2(350, 90);
        timerRectTransform.anchoredPosition = new Vector2(-timerRectTransform.rect.width / 2, -(timerRectTransform.rect.height / 2));
#endif
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update () {
        if(timeLeft > 0)
        {
            timeLeft -= Time.deltaTime;
            timerText.text = "Timer: " + (int)timeLeft;
        }
        else if(TimeModeManager.airborneBalls == 0)
        {
            GameOverManager.gameOver = true;
        }
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The world's largest experiment in using blockchain-based networks to pay for things is about to begin.
Japan's citizens have an expensive habit: paying for things with cash.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the country's largest bank and the fifth largest in the world by total assets, has teamed with American internet company Akamai to build a blockchain-based consumer payment network in time for the Olympics. If they pull it off, it could be the fastest and most powerful consumer payment network to date. They claim that in tests it's been able to handle more than a million transactions per second, with each transaction confirmed in two seconds or less, and say it could eventually achieve 10 million transactions per second. (Visa's credit card network, by comparison, handles several thousand transactions per second. Bitcoin tops out at about seven transactions per second, and each transaction can take up to an hour to confirm.) The system is designed to handle all kinds of payments, from automated highway tolls to payment-card swipes to in-app purchases.
MUFG, which has also tested its own crypto-token, is far from alone. Mizuho Financial Group, a large holding company, has been experimenting with blockchain technology for several years as part of a project dubbed "J-Coin" and plans to release its own digital currency for retail payments in March. SBI Holdings, a big financial-services firm, says it's building its own token, also for retail payments, called S Coin.
In the process, Japan will become the world's biggest test bed for the decade-old idea that a cryptographic ledger and a network of computers can be used to create an electronic form of cash. It might even regain its position as a global leader in both finance and technology—a status it hasn't enjoyed for decades.
The story of how it got to this moment, however, begins with a catastrophe.
The disaster was particularly traumatic for Japan, recalls Aya Miyaguchi, who at the time was working for Kraken, a US-based exchange that was one of the few competitors to Mt. Gox. "For the most part, people did not know anything about Bitcoin," she says. When the news of the collapse broke, "many in the country panicked," she says, and the Japanese media panned cryptocurrencies.
This worried Miyaguchi, a native of Japan who moved to the US 10 years ago and now heads the Ethereum Foundation. "I thought the entire ecosystem could be at risk without proper information and education," she says. She felt a duty to help educate regulators, investors, and the public about cryptocurrency and blockchains.
Fukuda was not acting in a vacuum. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Japan's tech industry, once the envy of the world, had lost big chunks of global market share to foreign companies, particularly in South Korea and China. The government was on the lookout for new industries in which the country could compete. Policymakers were particularly concerned about how Japan had fallen behind China in fintech, says Thomas Glucksmann, a former Mt. Gox employee who now runs Asian corporate partnerships for Diginex, a Hong Kong–based consulting firm focused on blockchain technology.
Fukuda decided not to slap down the cryptocurrency industry after the Mt. Gox collapse, but to cultivate it. Instead of immediately creating new rules for blockchain technology, the government set up an industry-led self-regulatory organization. Eventually, Japan rolled out the world's first (and still only) licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges, which went into effect in April 2017.
The authorities were less forgiving after hackers looted half a billion dollars in January 2018 from Coincheck, an unlicensed exchange that was operating under an exemption. Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) launched investigations of the nation's cryptocurrency exchanges and ordered several of them to fix shoddy security practices. The regulators toughened up licensing, slowing new approvals to a halt; Coincheck, now under new management, finally got its license only this month.
Regulating cryptocurrency without hindering innovation is a challenge for many governments. But Japan seems to be striking a pretty good balance. After the Coincheck incident, the FSA "studied very hard about cryptocurrency and cybersecurity" and wound up better informed than most consultants in the industry, says Oki Matsumoto, chairman and managing director of Monex, Coincheck's new owner. As with the Mt. Gox fiasco, the government turned the Coincheck hack into a teachable moment.
There's at least one more reason to think blockchain-based cash can succeed in Japan: retail investors there already love crypto.
The affection apparently stems from their affinity for trading foreign currencies. Japanese traders account for more than half of all global margin trading in the foreign exchange market. Of late, they've expanded to cryptocurrency trading, taking advantage of Japan's bustling (and now regulated) exchange scene. It's hard to pin down the Japanese cryptocurrency market's exact size, but it has become Asia's biggest market since China clamped down on trading in 2017. Analysts at Deutsche Bank say Japanese retail investors were a big reason why Bitcoin's price shot up to almost $20,000 in late 2017.
Of course, cryptocurrency trading is popular in many countries, yet it isn't used much in retail payments anywhere. Why should Japan be any different? Its retail sector is decidedly low-tech: most stores don't even accept credit or debit cards. To shop online, people commonly print out a bar code at home and take it to a convenience store, where they pay in cash.
But even if that's the case, why blockchains? Today's cryptocurrencies tend to be volatile unless they're backed by fiat currency in a bank account. They are difficult to use and keep safe from hackers, and blockchain transactions that turn out to be fraudulent can't be reversed. Third-party services like exchanges can have big security problems, as the Mt. Gox and Coincheck hacks showed. And the most popular blockchains are slow and require masses of computing power to secure the ledger, which gives them huge carbon footprints.
The systems Japan's banks are building could change that. MUFG's blockchain will run on Akamai's servers. The company is skilled at building proprietary algorithms to deliver web content to users around the world, its core business. That expertise readily translates to running a network that's more energy efficient, faster, and cheaper to operate than a public blockchain, Champagne says. So much so, MUFG believes, that even payments too small to make sense on traditional credit card networks will be feasible.


10,000s of tips. on romantic dates, gifts, presents, birthdays, anniversaries, marriage proposal stories, you name it!
Want to surprise your sweetheart with a little trip? Here are some ideas and suggestions.
If you want to accelerate the passion in your relationship, try these hot and juicy questions that will get your blood pumping.
Tired of the same old "dinner and a movie" date? So are we! Try these creative dates ideas and re-ignite your dating life.
Some great kiss tips, kissing trivia and games and ideas for puckering up those lips with your love.
We have hundreds of famous quotes on love & friendship.
Over 100 romantic love letters from famous couples in history.
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Learn the meaning of flowers, gems, how to say "I love you" in other languages and more.
A collection of some of the most romantic love poems to inspire you.
Super hot tips and ideas to heat up the passion and love life in your home.


This Monday, Oct. 23, 2017, photo provided by Starbucks shows the company's 2017 holiday cup on display in Seattle. This latest holiday cup is mostly white, for customers to color in themselves.
"We hope they'll color it in to represent what the holidays means to them," said Leanne Fremar, a creative director at the company.


text:
House votes to strike down FCC net neutrality rules
Lawmakers pass a resolution of disapproval largely along party lines
By Grant Gross,
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to kill network neutrality rules approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in December, with majority Republicans arguing the regulations amounted to a government takeover of the Internet.
The House voted 240-179 largely along party lines to approve a resolution of disapproval that would roll back the FCC regulations. Two Republicans voted against the measure, while six Democrats voted for it.
The FCC's rules would prohibit wired broadband providers from selectively slowing or blocking Web content and applications.
To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted kill network neutrality rules approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in December, with majority Republicans arguing the regulations amounted to a government takeover of the Internet.
Republicans argued the net neutrality rules aren't needed and would open the door to heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet. "Congress has not authorized the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the Internet," said Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican and main sponsor of the bill. "If not challenged, the FCC's power grab would allow it to regulate any interstate communications service on barely more than a whim and without any additional input from Congress."
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, should it pass through the Democratic-controlled Senate. The FCC, in crafting net neutrality rules, sought input from groups on "all sides" of the issue, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in a position statement this week.
"The Federal Communications Commission's rule reflected a constructive effort to build a consensus around what safeguards and protections were reasonable and necessary to ensure that the Internet continues to attract investment and to spur innovation," the OMB said this week. "Disapproval of the rule would threaten those values and raise questions as to whether innovation on the Internet will be allowed to flourish, consumers will be protected from abuses, and the democratic spirit of the Internet will remain intact."
Some House Democrats questioned why lawmakers were devoting time to the net neutrality issue when the U.S. government faces a shutdown Saturday if Republicans and Democrats can't come to agreement on the federal budget. Democrats also argued the bill would allow broadband providers to block any Web traffic.
"At such a moment of grave threat to our economic health, what are we doing on the floor today?" said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat. "The Republican leadership insists on bringing to the floor a bill that will end the Internet as we know it and threaten the jobs, investment and prosperity the Internet has brought to America. This is an outrageous sense of priorities and policies."
The FCC's net neutrality, or open Internet rules, have widespread support from consumer groups and Web-based companies, said Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat. AT&T and Comcast have opposed the bill, Democrats argued.
But the FCC's actions will hurt the Internet, one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy, Republicans argued.
"We're here to put the brakes on runaway bureaucracy," said Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican. "The FCC has overstepped its authority and is attempting to seize control of one of the nation's technological success stories."
Cliff Samuels Jr said...
Yet another example of how the Republican controlled legislature is helping the BIG money companies pad their pocket books. We are already seeing the effects on data access by the cell phone companies with higher rates, new added data fees, and caps on data usage.
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The outspoken abolitionist senator Charles Sumner, after delivering a speech on the senate floor, was accosted by the Southerner Preston Brooks, who, outraged by Sumner's words, bludgeoned the senator with a gutta-percha cane, which Brooks was able to do with impunity, due to a tradition holding that the laws of the United States did not obtain on the senate floor.
Daagh, how can 'bludgeoned' be a noun? 'an action brooks carried out...' is modifying cane, and bludgeoning is an action. Can you please elaborate on the reasoning behind E?
Sam was promoted to Account Manager, a position which holds significant responsibility. In this sentence 'a position...' is modifies 'account manager' correctly and is an appositive phrase. Please correct me if im wrong. However in the above question, 'an action ....' is modifying 'bludgeoned the senator...' So can you explain how is it a noun modifier and an appositive phrase?
John, the most brilliant student in the class, could not solve this problem.
Tabby, my cat, is ill.
Here, "an action (that) Brooks carried out with impunity..." is an absolute phrase (noun= an action, noun modifier (that) Brooks carried out..."), and this absolute phrase modifies the whole clause "who bludgeoned the senator".
Coming to your example: "a position" is an appositive modifier for "account manager", but this appositive is again modified a relative clause ( modifier of modifier - appositive modifiers are nouns themselves). Thus the example that you gave and the option E use different types of modifiers.
Hello. Can you please elaborate the difference between "D" and "E". Why is answer choice "D" not correct?
"being able to do so" Eliminate (D).
The "this" in (C) is vague, since it doesn't clearly refer to a noun.
The "which" refers to a cane. However, one does not "carry out" a cane, one "carries a cane". One does "carry out an action". Eliminate (A) and (B).
Therefore, we do not want "which" but a summative modifier, or word, that aptly captures the preceding phrase. (E), which uses "action", does a perfect job of doing so.
Relative pronoun "which" wrongly modifies GPC. We need something that can refer to the action of "bludgeoning".
"which" can not refer to "entire clause/verb". It can only modify "noun/noun phrases"
"this" can only refer to "nouns" and not to actions/results.
Modification errors. "Based on a tradition...must modify a "noun".
"Being" is wrong in this context.


Take a glimpse of the dolphins at their playful best. Dolphin watching trips are very popular in Goa. Dolphin watching trips are organised in the sea along Goa's Coast right from Palolem in the south to Vagator in the north.
The are usually organised by local boat operators most prominently in the sea off Calangute, Candolim as well as Palolem beach. Dolphin watching combined with fishing trips attract a lot of visitors specially from Great Britain as well as Scandinavian countries.


Ditch the boring black and update your everyday bag with this chic Michael Kors Hamilton leather trim striped canvas tote bag.
Style = Off-white canvas with a red stripe running through the middle with dark brown leather trim.
Finished with the monogrammed gold padlock with the key hanging in a leather pouch.
Double top handles with a chain and leather shoulder strap.
Gold protective feet on the base. Magnetic snap top with 1 zip pocket, key fob and 4 slip pockets on the inside.
Top handles drop - 4"
Shoulder strap drop - 12"
Condition - Excellent with just 1 tiny black dot on the front brown leather near the right side and some tiny scratches on the gold hardware. Also 2 pen marks on the inside leather near the top otherwise it's in mint condition.


text:
Can brown fat be used to fight obesity?
Melinda Wenner Moyer
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 19:23 UTC
© Richie Pope
For most people, "fat," particularly the kind that bulges under the skin, is a four-letter word. It makes our thighs jiggle; it lingers despite our torturous attempts to eliminate it. Too much of it increases our risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes (the most common form of the condition). For decades researchers have looked for ways to reduce our collective stores of fat because they seemed to do more harm than good.
But biology is rarely that simple. In the late 2000s several research groups independently discovered something that shattered the consensus about the absolute dangers of body fat. Scientists had long known that humans produce at least two types of fat tissue-white and brown. Each white fat cell stores energy in the form of a single large, oily droplet but is otherwise relatively inert. In contrast, brown fat cells contain many smaller droplets, as well as chestnut-colored molecular machines known as mitochondria. These organelles in turn burn up the droplets to generate heat. Babies, who have not yet developed the ability to shiver to maintain their body temperature, rely on thermogenic deposits of brown fat in the neck and around the shoulders to stay warm. Yet investigators assumed that all brown fat disappears during childhood. The new findings revealed otherwise. Adults have brown fat, too.
Suddenly, people started throwing around terms like holy grail to describe the promise of brown fat to combat obesity. The idea was appealingly simple: if researchers could figure out how to incite the body to produce extra brown fat or somehow rev up existing brown fat, a larger number of calories would be converted into heat, reducing deposits of white fat in the process.
Brown fat proved difficult to study, however, in part because it was so hard to find in adults. In addition, some experts doubted that enough brown fat could remain in the grown-up body to make much of a difference for the obese. Finally, the easiest way to get brown fat warmed up and going is to expose people to low temperatures, which somewhat diminishes brown fat's appeal as a weight-loss tool. The more researchers learned about brown fat, the more complications and questions arose.
Comment: Exposure to cold reveals 'switch' that controls formation of brown, white fat
Now, however, the understanding of brown fat is turning a corner. Scientists have learned new ways to pinpoint its location underneath the skin. The latest evidence suggests that it can indeed reduce excess stores of fat even in the obese. Researchers have also identified compounds that can activate brown fat without the need for unpleasantly chilling temperatures. As bizarre as it sounds, fat may become an important ally in the fight against obesity.
Big Fat Complexities
In 2009 three different groups independently published papers in the New England Journal of Medicine confirming their discovery of active brown fat cells in healthy adults. Investigators spent the next five years figuring out how to study brown fat more easily and in greater detail.
The most popular method of mapping where brown fat is located under the skin has been to scan the body using combined positron-emission tomography and computed tomography (PET-CT). This technique produces highly detailed images of the body's interior but requires a costly and invasive procedure, says Paul Lee, a research officer at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. To perform such scans, doctors first inject patients with solutions of radioactive but benign sugar molecules. Once the mitochondria inside brown fat cells start working, they consume the radioactive sugar, which emits gamma rays that the PET part of the scan can detect. The CT scan outlines the various different types of tissue, and the combination of the two technologies identifies brown fat cells that happen to be active while overlooking all the dormant deposits.
Lee says several new methodologies are on the horizon that could make investigating brown fat in people easier and far more accurate. Scientists have, for example, devised ways of measuring brown fat with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a technology that uses giant magnets to harmlessly align water molecules in the body in such a way that detailed images of its different tissues are created and that is much less invasive than PET-CT scans because no injections are necessary. Another relatively inexpensive and noninvasive option is thermal imaging, which identifies hotspots of brown fat under the skin by monitoring the temperature of the overlying skin.
As tools for studying brown fat have improved, experimenters have challenged previous pessimism about its ability to help people lose weight. In a 2012 study, six men remained inactive for three hours while wearing a cold suit that circulated water with a temperature of 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit over their skin-cold enough to lower their body temperature without causing too much shivering. That way the researchers could be sure that most of the extra calories burned during those three hours were expended by brown fat cells rather than quivering muscles.
The volunteers burned an extra 250 calories compared with what they would have used up during three hours of inactivity at more typical indoor temperatures. Although that may not sound like a lot, an extra 250 calories a day for two weeks would consume enough energy to allow a dieter to lose a pound of fat. "Even very modest increases in metabolism over a long period can lead to significant weight reduction," says Barbara Cannon, a physiologist at the Wenner-Gren Institute for Experimental Biology in Stockholm, who was not involved in the study.
Recent experiments have also revealed that brown fat's benefits go far beyond burning calories. A 2011 study using mice found that brown fat can fuel itself with triglycerides taken from the bloodstream-exactly the kind of fatty molecules known to increase the chances of developing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that raises the risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Brown fat cells also draw sugar molecules from the blood, which could help lower the risk for type 2 diabetes; chronically high levels of blood glucose wreak havoc on the body's ability to manage those levels in the first place, which in turn sets the stage for diabetes.
Beige Power
Given these findings, an increasing number of scientists and biotech companies are trying to develop ways to multiply the number of brown fat cells in the body or somehow boost their activity. In addition, they are exploring the possibility of transforming white fat cells into tissue that behaves a lot like brown fat-what they call "beige" or "brite" (brown in white) fat.
Figuring out whether cool temperatures trigger the production of beige fat, in addition to revving up brown fat, seemed like a good starting point. Last year Japanese researchers asked 12 young men with lower than average amounts of active brown fat to sit in a 63 degree F room for two hours a day for six weeks. At first, the study participants burned an average of 108 extra calories in the cold compared with more normal indoor temperatures. After six weeks, however, their bodies were burning an extra 289 calories in the cold, and PET-CT scans indicated that their beige fat activity had indeed increased. A group of similarly aged and healthy men who were not repeatedly exposed to the cold showed no change in their metabolism. The researchers think that over the six weeks low temperatures increased the activity of a gene named UCP1, which seems to guide the conversion of white fat into beige fat.
Don't fancy low temperatures? Investigators have identified several molecules that may be able to stimulate such "browning" of white fat without the need for cold. Two 2012 studies showed that a hormone called irisin, which is released from muscle cells after exercise, coaxes white fat to behave like brown fat. In one of these studies, researchers injected mice with a gene that tripled the levels of the hormone in the blood of mice that were obese and had dangerously high amounts of sugar in their bloodstream. The mice lost weight and regained control of their glucose levels in just 10 days.
Exercise has also been shown to increase UCP1 activity in brown fat, making it more active. Other naturally derived browning stimulators currently under investigation include brain-derived neurotrophic factor-a molecule that usually promotes growth of neurons-and SIRT1, a protein whose purpose remains mysterious but that may help the body manage stress.
Whereas converting existing white fat into beige fat is a promising approach, some researchers, including Cannon, think it may prove more helpful to increase amounts of brown fat itself. In 2013 she and her colleagues reported that brown fat can burn at least five times more stored energy than beige fat. Ideally, Cannon says, scientists will learn how to keep stores of brown fat as large and active throughout adulthood as they are in infancy: "The goal should be to maintain brown fat forever rather than having to re-create it."
Many researchers are confident that they will eventually hit on specific brown fat-based treatments, although most admit that such interventions most likely are 10 years away at least. In the meantime, though, self-motivated individuals can start applying some of the insights about brown fat to their own lives. "There is no doubt that an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle are the two chief drivers of the obesity epidemic," Lee says, but "lack of exposure to temperature variation could be a subtle contributor."
In other words, central heating has its drawbacks, in part because it may dampen brown fat's activity. No one is quite ready to suggest turning down the thermostat in winter as a way of losing weight, however-although it undoubtedly saves money on your heating bill. Whether it might also help keep you trim and ward off chronic diseases remains to be seen.
Comment: See also:
Brown Fat, Cold and Exercise May Yield Key to Weight Control
Brown fat communicates with the brain sharing information important for fighting obesity
Healthy brown fat can improve your metabolic health and keep you slim


text:
Express Entry: What you need to know ahead of July 2022
May 4, 2022 by
Express Entry draws for Federal Skilled Worker Program and Canadian Experience Class candidates are set to resume in early July 2022. The announcement was made by Canadian Immigration Minister, Sean Fraser, on April 22. It represents a major change in the recent Canadian immigration landscape and comes as very positive news as Express Entry […]
The post Express Entry: What you need to know ahead of July 2022 first appeared on CIC News.


The power of domain knowledge in deep learning, federated learning in tensorflow, supercharging your twitter rants with charts, Jupyter notebook evolution, top books on computer vision, crash course on deep Q nets, data labelling frameworks, upcoming AI conferences, new Machine Learning jobs and more 🚀.
Deep neural networks are great at learning complex patterns, however one of the most powerful methods that is often overlooked is introducing a-priori knowledge into your deep learning pipeline to simplify and even improve the performance of your models. This great presentation by CMU Professor Russ Salakhutdinov dives into this topic and provides an insight of both the technical, scientific and human dimensions to this topic. The slides are available online, as well as the video of his presentation.
Federated learning comes back this week, the method which allows for machine learning models to be trained across multiple edge devices in the network instead on a central server. A few weeks back we shared a tutorial on how to convert your PyTorch ML pipeline in to a federated one - this week the tensorflow team brings us an insight of a federated learning example with tensorflow using the good old MINST dataset. An exciting technique that can allow us to put the 3 billion smartphones in the world and 7 billion connected devices to work whilst having the potential to truly respect privacy.
Supercharge your twitter interactions using the great tool chain provided in this article to add live and interactive plots in your tweets and beyond. This tutorial shows you how to create this tweetable piece by using ggplot2, R's plotly R package and a few other tools. To add extra points your can also use interesting themes such as the XKCD plot themes (yes, they are actually a thing).
Great article covering an important piece of technology that has been leading the way in various areas of machine learning - Jupyter Labs. The article covers an overview of JupyterLabs, together with a 101 of how to install and interact with this fully fledged IDE. If you are interested on learning about more Notebook-like projects check out the data science notebooks section in our machine learning operations list.
Machine learning mastery brings us a comprehensible list of great books to get started into the broad and deep world of computer vision. This great article provides a list of Jason's top 5 computer vision textbooks as well as his top 3 computer vision programmer books. If you need further motivation to look into this field, there is also a great post that covers 9 applications of deep learning for computer vision.
"Out of all the different types of Machine Learning fields, the one fascinating me the most is Reinforcement Learning. For those who are less familiar with it — while Supervised Learning deals with predicting values or classes based on labeled data and Unsupervised Learning deals with clustering and finding relations in unlabeled data, Reinforcement Learning deals with how some arbitrary being (formally referred to as an "Agent") should act and behave in a given environment." Could not have been put in better words for motivations to read into this field, this article provides a great start by introducing a "Hello world" exercise with Deep Q Networks.
We are very excited to have a new addition in the Machine Learning Operations list on Data Labelling tools. Data labelling is one of the most challenging steps in machine learning projects, and often presents itself as a blocker. These open source tools aim to provide a solid base for teams and companies to introduce best practices in their data labelling process - some tools even providing functionality for team collaboration.
Labelimg - Open source graphical image annotation tool writen in Python using QT for graphical interface focusing primarily on bounding boxes.
Computer Vision Annotation Tool (CVAT) - OpenCV's web-based annotation tool for both videos and images for computer algorithms.
Labelbox - Open source image labelling tool with support for semantic segmentation (brush & superpixels), bounding boxes and nested classifications.
Doccano - Open source text annotation tools for humans, providing functionality for sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and machine translation.


text:
Q: Limits in an inner product space Let $X$ be a real or complex inner product space, and $\{a_n\}$ a sequence in $X$ with $a\in X$.
I want to prove the following:

*

*$\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}(a_n,b)=(a,b)$ for all $b\in X$ and $\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}||a_n||=||a||\implies\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}a_n=a$

*$\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}a_n=a\iff\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}(a_n,b)=(a,b)$ uniformly on the unit sphere $\{b\in X:||b||=1\}$.

What I know:
1 I thought $\left\| a - a_n \right\|^2 = (a-a_n,a-a_n) = \left\| a \right\|^2 + \left\| a_n \right\|^2 - 2 (a_n ,a) \to 2\left\| a \right\|^2 - 2 \left\| a \right\|^2 = 0,$ for $n\rightarrow \infty$. Is this correct?
2 I have no idea where to start this. Any hint to start me off would be greatly appreciated!

A: For the $\Rightarrow$ part:
We have $|(a_n,b)-(a,b)|=|(a_n-a,b)|$. The Cauchy Schwarz inequality gives us
$$|(a_n-a,b)|\leq ||a_n-a||\cdot||b||=||a_n-a||\rightarrow0$$
as $n\rightarrow\infty$.
For the $\Leftarrow$ part:
We have
$$||a_n-a||=\sup_{b\in X}\{|(a_n-a,b)|:||b||=1\}=\sup_{b\in X}\{|(a_n,b)-(a,b)|:||b||=1\}\rightarrow0$$
as $n\rightarrow\infty$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: dataframe.js - Is it possible to sum multiple columns in a grouped dataframe? This question is specific to dataframe.js.
Here is the test data I am using
let data = [
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.1,
        cnt_1 : 1,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.1,
        cnt_1 : 3,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.1,
        cnt_1 : 5,
        cnt_2 : 4
    },
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.1,
        cnt_1 : 7,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.2,
        cnt_1 : 9,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.2,
        cnt_1 : 11,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2021,
        v : 0.2,
        cnt_1 : 13,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2020,
        v : 0.1,
        cnt_1 : 15,
        cnt_2 : 20
    },
    {
        year : 2021,
        v : 0.1,
        cnt_1 : 17,
        cnt_2 : 20
    }
];

And The result I expected looks like ...
| year      | v         | cnt_1_sum | cnt_2_sum |
    ------------------------------------
    | 2020      | 0.1       | 31        | 84        |
    | 2020      | 0.2       | 20        | 40        |
    | 2021      | 0.2       | 13        | 20        |
    | 2021      | 0.1       | 17        | 20        |

I could do that with single column like below. But got no idea with multiple columns.(In this case, cnt_1 and cnt_2)
let df = new DataFrame(data);
let grouped = df.groupBy('year', 'v');
let cnt1_sum = grouped.aggregate(grpObj => grpObj.stat.sum('cnt_1')).rename('aggregation', 'cnt_1_sum');
cnt1_sum.show();
// and shows below
| year      | v         | cnt_1_sum |
------------------------------------
| 2020      | 0.1       | 31        |
| 2020      | 0.2       | 20        |
| 2021      | 0.2       | 13        |
| 2021      | 0.1       | 17        |

The only way I know is join 2 dataframes with year and v. But it is so ... inefficient when there are multiple grouped columns.(if got 8 columns then should I have to join 8 dataframes?)
So here is the question. It there anyway to

*

*apply stat function to multiple columns ?

*add a column with data ? (withColumn API is not working with plain array)

A: It is possible to achieve this by writing something analogous to how aggregate() function works. Here is the code that can get you started:
// assuming that sourceDf has columns ['key', 'col1', 'col2']
const groupedDf = sourceDf.groupBy('key');
const complexAggregateDf = new DataFrame([...groups].map(({groupKey, group}) => ({
  ...groupKey,
  'sum1': group.stat.sum('col1'),
  'sum2': group.stat.sum('col2'),
}), [...groupedDf.on, 'sum1', 'sum2']);

A: I was able to do it by changing slightly Igor's code:
const __groups__ = require('../node_modules/dataframe-js/lib/symbol').__groups__;
const groupedDf = sourceDf.groupBy('key');
const complexAggregateDf = new DataFrame(Object.values(groupedDf[__groups__]).map(({groupKey, group}) => ({
  ...groupKey,
  'sum1': group.stat.sum('col1'),
  'sum2': group.stat.sum('col2'),
}), [...groupedDf.on, 'sum1', 'sum2']);


text:
Q: if function does not work in Excel.Can't see the issue So for school i'm working with this huge excel Dataset. I'm trying Excel 365 to find the word terrorist and return the value 1 with the follow code:
=IF'(A22="terrorist", "No", "Yes")

But I keep getting the excel error.

There is a problem with the function

*

*you type =1+1, cell shows: 2
to get around this type an apostrophe (') first:

*

*you type '=1+1 cell shows =1+1

Whats going wrong?

A: Remove the ' - use simply:
=IF(A22="terrorist", 1, 0)

This will show 1 if A22 = "terrorist", otherwise it will show 0.


text:
Conservative leader calls for sped-up review process on Enbridge pipeline
NewsScott Brooks - January 17, 2020 3:56 pm 0
VICTORIA, B.C. - The Province of British Columbia says legislation is underway that could see a property tax relief...
In a statement released on Wednesday, John Cummins recommended that two additional review panels be established to hear the over 4,000 individuals, groups and companies that have filed to be heard at the Joint Review Panel's public hearings about the project. He also recommends that only Canadians should be allowed to testify at those hearings, not outside interest groups.
"Canadians should be heard, but these hearings cannot go on indefinitely. Most importantly no one group or community should have a veto on the development of a project that is so important to British Columbia," said Cummins in a statement.
He stated he appreciates the concerns of local communities, and that stringent regulations must be in place to ensure the project "is done in an environmentally safe and secure manner." However, he stated the pipeline "is vitally important for the economic future of BC and Canada," and blasts the provincial Liberal government for not making its support of the project clear.
Attempts to reach the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for comment on these recommendations have been unsuccessful so far.
Cummins comments come after Joe Oliver, Canadian Natural Resources Minister, also called for an expedited review process for the project last month.
The Joint Review Panel for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is a three-person panel of experts in energy and the environment. The panel is set to hear testimony starting with a community hearing in Kitimat, B.C., on Jan. 10 and 11. Hearings are scheduled to take place in communities across northern British Columbia and Alberta throughout next spring, although no hearings have been scheduled in the B.C. Peace region.
After hearing oral statements from registered participants who live in or near the proposed project area, the panel will hold final hearings on that evidence late next year. The panel will then hear oral statements from registered participants who do not live in or near the proposed project area late next year and into 2013. In April, 2013, the panel is expected to hear final arguments from the applicant, intervenors and government participants. Based on that projected schedule, the panel is anticipated to release an Environmental Assessment Report and make its final decision on the project around the end of 2013, though that timeline remains subject to change.
More information on the Joint Review Panel process can be found online at http://gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/hm-eng.html.
The Northern Gateway Pipeline Project involves the construction of two, 1,170-kilometre-long pipelines running from central Alberta to British Columbia's coast, as well as the construction and operation of the Kitimat Marine Terminal to facilitate the transport of Canadian crude oil to the Asia-Pacific. Proponents of the project maintain the pipeline would allow Canada to no longer be land-locked into only exporting crude oil from Alberta to the United States. First Nations communities and environmental groups argue the pipeline would threaten environmentally-sensitive areas, and increase development of Alberta's oilsands and the greenhouse gases that are produced as a result.
Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline
John Cummins
Previous articleConservative leader calls for sped-up review process on Enbridge pipeline
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BC Oil & Gas Commission finds CCPA report on fracking near Peace River dams "selective"
Energy News Scott Brooks - January 17, 2020 3:33 pm 0
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. - The B.C. Oil & Gas Commission has released a statement responding to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' call...


text:
package core

import (
	"testing"

	"github.com/stretchr/testify/suite"
	"github.com/wercker/wercker/util"
)

type PipelineSuite struct {
	*util.TestSuite
}

func TestPipelineSuite(t *testing.T) {
	suiteTester := &PipelineSuite{&util.TestSuite{}}
	suite.Run(t, suiteTester)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestParseApplicationIDValid() {
	applicationID := "wercker/foobar"

	username, name, err := ParseApplicationID(applicationID)

	s.Equal(nil, err)
	s.Equal("wercker", username)
	s.Equal("foobar", name)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestParseApplicationIDInvalid() {
	applicationID := "foofoo"

	username, name, err := ParseApplicationID(applicationID)

	s.Error(err)
	s.Equal("", username)
	s.Equal("", name)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestParseApplicationIDInvalid2() {
	applicationID := "wercker/foobar/bla"

	username, name, err := ParseApplicationID(applicationID)

	s.Error(err)
	s.Equal("", username)
	s.Equal("", name)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestIsBuildIDValid() {
	buildID := "54e5dde34e104f675e007e3b"

	ok := IsBuildID(buildID)

	s.Equal(true, ok)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestIsBuildIDInvalid() {
	buildID := "54e5dde34e104f675e007e3"

	ok := IsBuildID(buildID)

	s.Equal(false, ok)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestIsBuildIDInvalid2() {
	buildID := "invalidinvalidinvalidinv"

	ok := IsBuildID(buildID)

	s.Equal(false, ok)
}

func (s *PipelineSuite) TestIsBuildIDInvalid3() {
	buildID := "invalid"

	ok := IsBuildID(buildID)

	s.Equal(false, ok)
}


Who needs to apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)?
•A nonresident alien individual eligible to get the benefit of reduced withholding under an income tax treaty (see Publication 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities).
•A nonresident alien individual not eligible for an SSN who is required to file a U.S. tax return or who is filing a U.S. tax return only to claim a refund.
•A nonresident alien individual not eligible for an SSN who elects to file a joint U.S. tax return with a spouse who is a U.S. citizen or resident alien.
•A U.S. resident alien (based on the substantial presence test) who files a U.S. tax return but who is not eligible for an SSN. For information about the substantial presence test, see Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.
•An alien spouse who is claimed as an exemption on a U.S. tax return but who is not eligible to get an SSN.
•An alien individual who is eligible to be claimed as a dependent on a U.S. tax return but who is not eligible to get an SSN. To determine if an alien individual is eligible to be claimed as a dependent on a U.S. tax return, see Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information, and Publication 519.
•A nonresident alien student, professor, or researcher who is required to file a U.S. tax return but who is not eligible for an SSN, or who is claiming an exception to the tax return filing requirement.
•A dependent/spouse of a nonresident alien U.S. visa holder, who is not eligible for an SSN.
ITINs are for federal tax reporting only and are not intended to serve any other purpose. The IRS issues ITINs to help individuals comply with the U.S. tax laws and to provide a means to efficiently process and account for tax returns and payments for those not eligible for Social Security Numbers (SSNs).
An ITIN does not provide authorization to work in the United States or provide eligibility for Social Security benefits or the Earned Income Tax Credit.
When and how do I apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)?
You need an ITIN as soon as you are ready to file your federal income tax return, since you need to attach the return to your application. To apply for an ITIN, complete Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. See the related Instructions for Form W-7 (PDF) for documents needed and where the application is to be submitted. Refer to the website Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for specific information.
There are exceptions to the requirement to include a U.S. tax return with the Form W-7. For example, if you are a nonresident alien individual eligible to get the benefit of reduced withholding under an income tax treaty, you can apply for an ITIN without having to attach a federal income tax return. For a complete list of exceptions to the requirement to attach an income tax return, refer to the Exceptions Tables in the Instructions for Form W-7 (PDF).
I am a nonresident alien living in a foreign country and I will receive U.S. source royalty income. Do I need to obtain an ITIN?
U.S. source royalty income paid to a nonresident alien generally is subject to a 30% U.S. federal income tax. If you are claiming a reduced rate of U.S. federal income tax on U.S. source royalty income under a tax treaty, you should obtain an ITIN and provide it to the withholding agent on a Form W-8BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding (PDF). The Form W-8BEN is not filed with the IRS.
Also, per the Exceptions Tables in the Instructions for Form W-7 (PDF), specifically Exception 1(d), Third Party Withholding on Passive Income, individuals who are receiving royalty distributions during the current tax year and are required to provide an ITIN to the withholding agent for the purposes of tax withholding and/or reporting requirements, must submit a signed letter or document from the withholding agent verifying that an ITIN is required to make distributions during the current tax year that are subject to IRS information reporting or federal tax withholding. For a sample signed letter, see Sample Letter from Withholding Agent in Publication 1915, Understanding Your IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
I am a nonresident alien in a foreign country. I was notified that I inherited some money in the United States. The executor requests that I provide a tax identification number. Is it sufficient to provide them with a foreign tax identification number?
No. The executor is required to include a Schedule K-1 (Form 1041) for each beneficiary when filing Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts, for a decedent's estate. The Schedule K-1 must provide the beneficiary's tax identification number.
Additionally, a nonresident alien heir or beneficiary who wishes to claim applicable reduced rates of U.S. federal income tax on distributions from the estate under a tax treaty should file with the executor of the estate a Form W-8BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding (PDF), which must provide the individual's tax identification number. Please refer to Income Tax Return of an Estate—Form 1041 in Publication 559, Survivors, Executors, and Administrators. The Form W-8BEN is not filed with the IRS.
If the heir or beneficiary does not have a social security number, he/she must apply for an ITIN from the IRS. Please refer to Form W-7 and Instructions for information on applying for an ITIN.
I sent in an ITIN application with a Form W-7 and a notarized copy of my foreign passport. However, my application was not accepted due to the notarized copy. Why was the notarized copy not accepted?
Effective January 1, 2013, the IRS implemented new procedures for issuing new ITINs. Specifically, the new procedures apply to most applicants submitting Forms W-7 after June 21, 2012.
Under these new procedures, Forms W-7 must include original documentation such as passports and birth certificates, or copies of these documents certified by the issuing agency. For more details, refer to IRS Implements Changes to ITIN Application Requirement.
Copyright © 2014 ExpatCPATax.com. All rights reserved.


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actions :create, :remove
default_action :create

attribute :service_name, :name_attribute => true
attribute :path, :kind_of => String , :required => true
attribute :policies, :default => [], :kind_of => Array, :required => true


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Jump to: B | K | L | M | P | T | V | W
Basham, A. L. (1951) History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas, a Vanished Indian Religion. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00033876
Bashir, A. (1951) The religious policy of Akbar, 1556-1605. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029598
Kafrawy, Muhammad (1951) A critical study of the poetry of Isma'il b. al-Qasim known as Abu'l-Atahiya. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029323
Letele, Gladstone Llewellyn (1951) The Role of Tone in the Southern Sotho Language. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00033690
Locke, Marjorie A. (1951) The early life of Ou-yang Hsiu and his relation to the rise of the ku-wen movement of the Sung Dynasty. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029611
Mookerjee, Monotosh (1951) Mediaeval illustrated manuscripts of Eastern India and Nepal. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029119
Morris, Ivan I. (1951) The style of Murasaki Shikibu, with particular reference to literary influences. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029120
Pillai, Krishna Raghavan (1951) Studies in the "Vakyapadiya". PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029303
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1951) The background and early life of An Lu-shan. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029319
Tinker, Hugh Russell (1951) Local government in India and Burma, 1908 to 1937: A comparative study of the evolution and working of local authorities in Bombay, the United Provinces and Burma. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029666
Vimalananda, T. (1951) The epigraphy and palaeography of Ceylon down to the 10th century A.D. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029667
Williams, R. H. B. (1951) A critical edition of the Jaina Prakrit text "Munivaicariyam," with translation and grammatical notes. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00029610


NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Maths Chapter 11 Mensuration Ex 11.2 are part of NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Maths. Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Maths Chapter 11 Mensuration Ex 11.2.
The shape of the top surface of a table is trapezium. Find its area if its parallel sides are 1 m and 1.2 m and perpendicular distance between them is 0.8 m.
The area of a trapezium is 34 cm2 and the length of one of the parallel sides is 10 cm and its height is 4 cm. Find the length of the other parallel side.
Let the required side be x cm.
Length of the fence of a trapezium A shaped field ABCD is 120 m. IF BC = 48 m, CD = 17 m and AD = 40 m, find the area of this field. Side AB is perpendicular to the parallel sides AD B and BC.
The diagonal of a quadrilateral shaped field is 24 m and the perpendiculars dropped on it from the remaining opposite vertices are 8 m and 13 m. Find the area of the field.
Let ABCD be the given quadrilateral in which BE ⊥ AC and DF ⊥ AC.
AC =24m, BE = 8m and DF = 13 m.
The diagonals of a rhombus are 7.5 cm and 12 cm. Find its area.
Find the area of a rhombus whose side is 6 cm and whose altitude is 4 cm. If one of its diagonals is 8 cm long, find the length of the other diagonal.
Let ABCD be a rhombus of side 6 cm and whose altitude DF = 4 cm. Also, one of its diagonals, BD =8 cm.
The floor of a building consists of 3000 tiles which are rhombus shaped and each of its diagonals are 45 cm and 30 cm in length. Find the total cost of polishing the floor, if the cost per m2 is ₹ 4.
Mohan wants to buy a trapezium shaped field. Its side along the. river is parallel to and twice the side along the road. If the area of this field is 10500 m2 and the perpendicular distance between the two parallel sides is 100m, find the length of the side along the river.
∴ The length of the side along the river is 2 x 70, i.e., 140 metres.
Top surface of a raised platform is in the shape of a regular octagon as shown in the figure. Find the area of the octagonal surface.
There is a pentagonal shaped park as shown in the figure. For finding its area Jyoti and Kavita divided it in two different ways.
Find the area of this park using both ways. Can you suggest some other way of finding its area?
Diagram of the adjacent picture frame has outer dimensions = 24 cm x 28 cm and inner dimensions 16 cm x 20 cm. Find the area of each section of the frame, if the width of each section is same.
We hope the NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Maths Chapter 11 Mensuration Ex 11.2 help you. If you have any query regarding NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Maths Chapter 11 Mensuration Ex 11.2, drop a comment below and we will get back to you at the earliest.


We pride ourselves on being a custom cutting veneer mill and are dedicated to our production customers. If you have an interest in high quality veneer production we are happy to work with you to satisfy these needs.
Email terry@universalveneer.com or call +1-740-522-1147 for information on pricing and availability.


Roma streams on Netflix on Friday, Dec. 14.
If you've talked to anyone who has seen Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, they've probably told you that you've just gotta see it in the theater.
It's the best-reviewed film of the year, an intimate, meditative, occasionally harrowing portrait of a young woman working as a maid for an upper-class family amidst the political upheaval of early 1970s Mexico. The movie's rich, textured images are designed to be viewed on a massive screen.
Roma is a Netflix release (it starts streaming Friday), and although it's receiving the widest theatrical rollout of the service's films thus far, it's screening almost exclusively in big cities. The odds it'll play Spokane are, basically, nil. We small-town plebeians will just have to settle for watching on our couches.
That might not seem like a big deal, but Roma, like Cuarón's previous Gravity, demands the sort of immersion you can't replicate at home. And I should know: I went to Seattle last weekend specifically to see the movie at the Cinerama theater. With Cuarón's stunning visuals towering over me, I fell head over heels in love with Roma. It was an overwhelming experience, one I'm happy I had.
So we arrive back at the great Catch-22 of Netflix: They're producing interesting films and making them instantly available, but should you want to see its most visually stunning features on a big screen, you're probably out of luck.
Credit must be paid to Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos for financing the distribution of a vision as bold and uncompromised as Roma. But he can also take credit for this recent quote about his subscribers: "They're gonna love [Roma] on their phone. ... Most people see most movies that change their lives at home."
OK, that last part is true: I've never seen most of my favorite movies on a big screen. But at least give an epic movie the courtesy of a screen that isn't the size of a Pop-Tart.
On the opposite side are elitist critics who are ride-or-die for the big screen experience: If you didn't see Roma on a big screen, did you really see it? I did, but I had to drive more than 500 miles through a snowstorm to see it how Cuarón intended. Most people aren't crazy enough to do that.
The original print version of this article was headlined "Roma and the Netflix Conundrum"


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Stunning Makeover for Woman Born with Bilateral Cleft Palate
Beauty By The Doctors Staff on 7:01 AM PDT, May 6, 2015
Playing Woman Receives Life-Changing Facial Makeover
When Alesha first appeared on The Doctors in October, 2014, she shared how her bilateral cleft palate and cleft lip not only had affected her appearance, but also led to social difficulties for her during childhood and little to no job or dating prospects for her in adulthood.
"I would love to be able to smile like everybody else," she said at the time. "If there was a magic wand to fix everything, I would be a new person."
The Doctors sent Alesha to the Southern Nevada Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Clinic for a consultation, and the team of specialists there agreed to perform the procedures to fix Alesha's cleft lip and palate, improve her speech and restore her smile.
The team, including oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Jeff Moxley, plastic surgeon Dr. John Menezes, dentist Dr. Ilya Benjamin and psychotherapist Dr. Stacy Kaiser, joins The Doctors to discuss the complicated process to transform Alesha.
"She's an unusual case in that she's a fully grown adult," Dr. Menezes says. "Most of these cases are complete by the time [the patient is] 17."
Alesha's transformation occurred in two stages: the first phase involved removing her remaining two teeth and excess tissue and installing several dental implants and a brand-new set of teeth. The second phase was the lip, nose and palate reconstruction, which occurred three months after the dental surgery to allow Alesha time to recover.
To add the finishing touches on Alesha's new appearance, The Doctors send her to celebrity hair stylist Ken Paves and eyebrow guru Damone Roberts. Alesha tells Ken she has decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that provides wigs to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.
"This wallflower is turning into an orchid," she tells him.
Alesha joins The Doctors onstage to reveal her incredible new look:
"I asked you guys for normal; you gave me stunning," Alesha says to her team of doctors. "I don't have words to say, 'Thank you' enough for everything you guys have done."
Living with a Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate
Raising a Child with a Severe Cleft Palate
Model Discusses Rare Condition Affecting Her Appearance
'Sad Face' Makeover in Just Minutes?
Red-Carpet Makeovers for Two Deserving Women!
A Makeover That Erases 10 Years!
The Drs. Top 10: Best Makeovers!
Amanda's Amazing Loose Skin Transformation!


An IRA is an INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNT. An IRA is a personal savings plan that provides income tax advantages to individuals saving money for retirement purposes.
You invest money in an IRA, up to the amounts allowable under the tax law. These investments are termed "contributions." In many instances an income tax deduction is available for the tax year for which the funds are contributed. The contributions, as well as the earnings and gains from these contributions, accumulate tax-free until you withdraw the money from the account. You therefore enjoy the ability to generate additional earnings, unreduced by taxes on these earnings, each year the funds remain within the IRA.
The withdrawals of the funds from the IRA are termed "distributions." Distributions are subject to income taxation, generally in the year in which you receive them. (Remember that in most cases you received an income tax deduction when you contributed the money to the IRA.) As with most things involving the government, the rules for distributions are more complicated than they need to be.
TRADITIONAL IRA: depending on your filing status (Single, Joint, etc), and your Adjusted Gross Income, your contributions may range from fully deductible to totally non-deductible.
EDUCATION IRA: money grows tax-free and has preferential tax treatment upon distribution to the beneficiary who uses it for authorized education expenses.
SEP IRA - Simplified Employee Pension: employer established and funded Simplified IRA.
SIMPLE IRA: includes the ability for the employer to establish and fund a retirement plan for the benefit of him/herself and his/her employees, and permits employees to contribute specific amount into an IRA.
ROTH IRA: Contributions are NOT deductible when the funds are contributed, but the Roth IRA earnings accumulate tax-free and remain tax-free upon distribution.
Any individual can open and make contributions to a traditional IRA, as long as you, or your spouse (if you file a joint return), received taxable earned compensation during the year and you were not 70 ½ years old by the end of the year.
A portion of your IRA contribution may be tax deductible. This does not apply to Roth IRAs; they have different rules. But, for a Traditional IRA, it depends mostly on the amount of taxable compensation you earned in that tax year and whether or not you, or your spouse if married, are an active participant in a qualified plan. Assuming you, or you and your spouse jointly, earned more in taxable compensation than the maximum deductible amount for your IRA contributions, and neither of you are active participants in a qualified plan, you should be eligible to deduct the full amount of your contribution up to the maximum deductible amount.
If you or your spouse is an active participant in a qualified or employer-sponsored plan, then the amount of your contribution that is tax-deductible can be reduced depending on your AGI (adjusted gross income).
Can I have multiple IRA accounts at different institutions?
How do I decide which IRA is right for me?
It depends on your taxable income, and your age and family status. The best way is to schedule a meeting with me, to help you determine which type of strategy will work best for you.
This page is for informational purpose only and should not be construed as tax advice. Please consult your tax advisor.


A stay in Finland, the land of a thousand lakes, is a balm for the body and soul, to help you completely escape the rush of daily life. Finland has the potential for an incredible nature experience with its open spaces, fresh air, deep forests, and the countless lakes are characteristic of Finland. With one of our vacation homes, you have the perfect chance to relax in the impressive nature.
Find more information about booking a NOVASOL vacation cottage in Finland in our Worth Knowing section.


The Arabian Cover Up is straight out of Aladdin, where the beautiful princess' gown flows in the breeze on the palace porch. The plunging v-neck is seductive, and the jewels will gleam like your eyes when you wear this exotic cover up.
Arabian Cover Up is from the Classics Collection.


Want to shout out a big YEAH! to the U.S Women's National Soccer Team, for their win!
Here's to another year of being a proud AMERICAN! THANK YOU!
I'm not that much of a soccer fan, other than watching my daughters play, but THAT WAS ONE AMAZING, FUN GAME TO WATCH!


Today marks the day we start the MR2 project. To start off the project we begin stripping the whole car apart to give it a thorough cleaning... and you won't believe how much junk we found inside this thing! If you're starting a new project car, watch the video to see the proper way to clean out your car.


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Kase, Toshikazu (Oral history)
Japanese civilian Principal Secretary to Foriegn Minister in Tokyo, Japan, 1941-1945
REEL 1 Recollections of period as Principal Secretary to Foreign Minister in Tokyo, Japan, 1941-1945: opinion of reasons for growing influence of Imperial Japanese Army in Japanese politics during 1930s; reasons for failure of Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe to find a negotiated settlement, 1941; degree to which Japanese and German aims coincided; reasons for Japan's plan to expand southwards; effect of German defeat at Stalingrad on young Japanese officers; reasons why Imperial Japanese Navy accepted need to fight Royal Navy and US Navy; background to General Hideki Tojo joining cabinet. REEL 2 Continues: question of how Pearl Harbor was not a sneak attack; character of Soviet agent Richard Sorge; reaction of pupil to American bombing of Tokyo; reaction to early Japanese successes; character of General Hideki Tojo; attitude of Emperor Hirohito to prospect of war with America. REEL 3 Continues: membership of clandestine organisation to promote swift end to the war; question of Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki's willingness to shorten the war; reaction to proclaimation made by Allies at Potsdam Conference, 1945; reaction to dropping of atomic bombs; reasons and attempts to negotiate with Russians; Russian invasion of Manchuria, 1945. REEL 4 Continues: question of concept of honour in Imperial Japanese Army; reaction to surrender of Germany, 5/1945; reaction of army officers' to Emperor Hirohito attempt to surrender; visit to Emperor Hirohito prior to Japanese surrender on USS Missouri, 8/1945; attending surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri, 8/1945.
Second World War (content)
Thames Television (Production company)
Thames Television (recorder)
Kase, Toshikazu (interviewee/speaker)
whole: Duration 50, Number Of Items 4
Kase, Toshikazu
Tojo, Hideki
Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
Japanese Government, Cabinet Secretariat
17/5(152)
17/5(152).6
31(52)/5
Anti war Nuclear warfare
Brewster, Irene (Oral history)
Collins, Anthony (Oral history)
Second World War Posters
American Airmen In Britain During The Second World War
Over two million American servicemen passed through Britain during the Second World War. In 1944, at the height of activity, up to half a million were based there with the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Their job was to man and maintain the vast fleets of aircraft needed to attack German cities and industry.


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Q: Default implementation in interface vs Abstract class in C# 8.0 Since C# 8.0, now we can have default implementation in interface. Does that mean there won't be any difference between interface and abstract class usage?
default interface methods


Right now there is not much there, but I will be remaking some of my pieces posted in my Facebook Gallery and putting them there in the next few months.
Also, I wanted to let you all know that I take commissions for all occasions and cosplay! Prices vary on the complexity and quality of the piece. I also take commissions for special occasion jewelry such as wedding and graduation pieces. I can also do basic repairs on jewelry, but not fine or high end stuff. Please contact me for information on all of these services.
for my fun and awesome logo!


The Edition 15 sees ULTRASONE expanding its product range with the addition of a new limited-edition set of high-end reference headphones with an open design and special driver technology.
The Edition 15 features an innovation in driver technology: introducing the completely new gold titanium compound technology (GTC). The driver combines a gold foil membrane and a titanium dome to deliver outstanding sound performance. Whether for listening to your favourite playlist in your living room or for professionally mastering music in a high-end studio, the Edition 15 will reproduce the entire sound spectrum in outstanding detail and with extreme transparency. The Edition 15 also feature LEMO connectors and a four-core cable, so they are fully ready for symmetrical operation.
The Edition 15 is the first set of open headphones to feature patented S-LogicEX® technology. Due to the way the drivers are arranged in the ear cups, the listening experience is incredibly natural and feels more like listening to music on high-quality speakers. The signals can be exactly located in the stereo panorama and in the three-dimensional bass, thus producing outstandingly authentic spatiality. Thanks to S-LogicEX® technology, the Edition 15 also achieves the same perceived volume with significantly lower sound pressure, which allows for longer periods of listening without fatigue. The Edition 15 features patented ULE (ultra low emission) technology, which protects against the electromagnetic radiation generated when using any headphones.
The Edition 15 is a truly special set of headphones, and this exclusivity is reflected in the materials used. The ear cups are made from American cherry wood, a material also used in instrument making. With features ranging from high-quality cushions with exquisitely produced Merino leather to stainless steel covers and magnetically attached micro velour ear cushions, the Edition 15 is the ultimate masterclass in modern headphones.
The Edition 15 is limited to 999 pieces, but each set of headphones has an even higher rarity value due to the unique characteristics of the wood used. Thanks to the individual fingerprint of this natural material, each of the 999 sets has its own completely distinct look. To underline this exclusivity, Ultrasone has given each set of headphones an individual serial number – for real individuality!


The story of a mother and daughter's long painful journey from tragedy, through opioid addiction, toward healing.
Saving Jenny includes intelligent commentary on a floundering health care industry…Percy shows a vast knowledge of drug addiction treatment in America, and many of her criticisms of it are astute and affecting.
In our materialistic world of almost murderous competition, there is tremendous pressure on children to excel at external achievements, and at ever-younger ages.
Part memoir, part analysis and solutions, Saving Jenny was written with a single goal: to help find a way to save lives.
This is a call for building Walls of Voices to honor the more than 700,000 people who have perished in America's drug epidemic over the last 20 years. They passed away in silence, in secret, and in shame. Their voices cry out to us for recognition, reconciliation, and reform.
These pages unmask a mental health industry focused more on profits than people, which regularly betrays those in its keeping, and the complicity of Big Pharma and insurance companies in these schemas. We see firsthand the abuse, negligence and illicit activities going on in psychiatric and rehab facilities.
Normal turned to PTSD and a substance abuse nightmare for Jenny the instant a taxi struck her, catapulting her 20' across a busy New York City Street. Jenny is one of the lucky ones to have survived the drug rehabilitation system, which routinely fails those at risk. Her story is multiplied across the U.S. in the shattered lives and torn-apart families of millions of Jennies.
Saving Jenny is the narration of a mother and daughter's long painful journey from tragedy, through opioid addiction, toward redemption. Its cautionary tale sheds light on drug dependency, suicidal depression, sexual exploitation and misdiagnosed mind disorders.
We discover that these are symptoms of much larger societal issues: the decimation of the family, childhood traumatization, and a culture devoid of human values.