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Home Department
Small Boat Channel Crossings
Sir Desmond Swayne
(New Forest West) (Con)
7. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of small boat channel crossings. (903760)
Sir David Evennett
(Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)
16. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of small boat channel crossings. (903770)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
(Tom Pursglove)
May I, too, associate myself with the tributes that have been paid, and that no doubt will be paid for the rest of the day, to both Sir David and James Brokenshire? They were model parliamentarians and great friends, and we are far poorer in this House for their passing.
Illegal entry to the UK via small boats is unsafe, unfair and unacceptable. We are working tirelessly to make the route unviable through a comprehensive package of measures—there is no one single answer. Our new plan for immigration and the Nationality and Borders Bill will address the challenge of illegal immigration by increasing maximum sentences for people smugglers and making it easier to swiftly remove those who enter the UK illegally.
What urgency does my hon. Friend attach to the implementation of offshore processing along the Australian model?
Tom Pursglove
My right hon. Friend will know that the provisions in the Bill are comprehensive, many and varied. As I said, there is not one single answer to the challenge that we face in relation to illegal channel crossings. We must make the route unviable and, of course, in the Bill we reserve the right to do exactly what my right hon. Friend advocates.
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Nationality and Borders Bill is key to preventing the vile people-smuggling gangs from continuing to facilitate channel crossings and putting so many lives at risk?
As ever, my right hon. Friend gets to the nub of the issue. I make the point again, because it bears repeating, that there is no one single answer to resolve the challenge that we face. In swift order, we require the comprehensive measures set out in the Bill, which are there to tackle dangerous crossings. Of course, we also need global assistance to help us to achieve our aims. We must put these evil criminal gangs out of business once and for all and preserve human life, which is exactly what the measures we have proposed seek to do.
Afzal Khan
(Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
I want to add my sincere condolences to Sir David and his family and friends. Sir David was kind to everyone in Parliament and he will be greatly missed.
Last week, Sir David and I were part of a parliamentary delegation in Qatar. During the visit, we met the unaccompanied child refugees who had been evacuated from Afghanistan and are now being housed in temporary accommodation in Qatar. As many as 13 of those children have family members in the UK and are desperate to be reunited with them. Will the Home Secretary now take steps urgently to facilitate the reunion of those children with their families?
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question. We are working across Government on these matters. I know that engagement is going on through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office with the authorities that he describes. We have a proud record and tradition in this country of providing sanctuary to those who find themselves in desperate circumstances. That absolutely continues to be the case. That is a firm commitment of this Government and it is perfectly in line with this country's proud traditions. People across our country would expect us to continue to do that, and that is exactly what we will do.
Mr Speaker
I call the SNP spokesperson.
Stuart C. McDonald
(Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)
I and my colleagues, from the bottom of our hearts, send our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of both Sir David Amess and James Brokenshire. It is fair to say that, in short, everyone knew Sir David and everyone liked and respected him, without exception.
I shadowed James Brokenshire as Immigration Minister in my first year in this place, and he made my job 10 times tougher, not only because of his mastery of the brief, but because he, too, was a person whom it was impossible not to respect and to like and we will sorely miss him.
At the last Home Office questions, the Home Secretary suggested that I had not read the Nationality and Borders Bill when I said that it would see Uyghurs, persecuted Christians and Syrians fleeing war prosecuted and sentenced to prison, but I have read it and that is precisely what clause 37 will do. I welcome the Minister to his place, but if he does not want to see Uyghurs, persecuted Christians and Syrians prosecuted and imprisoned, will he take that clause out of the Bill?
I would expect nothing less from the hon. Gentleman given that we are beginning line-by-line consideration of the Bill tomorrow in Committee. I have no doubt that he will have studied every single clause very carefully and will be interrogating me on each of them. We do not want to see anybody persecuted. As I have said previously, as a country and as a Government, we are absolutely determined to make sure that there continue to be safe and legal routes, so that people who qualify can continue to access sanctuary in this country. Also, of course, through our international engagement, we always press home that human rights must be respected and upheld at every turn.
Mr John Baron
(Basildon and Billericay) (Con)
I warmly welcome the Minister and, indeed, the Government's forthcoming legislation on this issue, but may I urge on him the utmost haste and speed in delivering it to this House for our consideration? The trade, as it were, of human trafficking is a hideous crime. Lives are being lost now. It is making a laughing stock of the two systems on both sides of the channel. We need to put a stop to it. It should not be beyond the wit of the Government to do so.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend who has consistently raised these matters. He is right to say that we want to deliver the provisions of the Nationality and Borders Bill as quickly as possible, because we believe that they are fundamental to preventing these dangerous channel crossings as part of an overall package to deliver on that. I hope that the Bill will command support across the House.
My hon. Friend is also right to raise the issue of collaboration with our international partners; of course, the French are integral to that. We have an arrangement with the French. It is bearing results, but there is clearly still more to do. This issue cannot be resolved entirely without that collaboration.


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The Original Sail Plans for America's Oldest Warship
This famous ship beat up another famous ship 201 years ago today.
By Kelsey D. Atherton | Published Aug 19, 2013 11:00 PM
Naval History Photographs
On the afternoon of August 19, 1812, about 400 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the USS Constitution knocked the masts off the British warship HMS Guerriere. The battle earned the U.S. ship the nickname "Old Ironsides," in no small part due to the density of American oak, which repelled cannon shots better than the less-dense oak from Europe. Today the USS Constitution, with 215 years of service, is the longest-serving warship in the U.S. Navy.
Pictured above is the original sail plan for the USS Constitution from 1797. Pretty majestic, right?
Back in the 1790s, the U.S. faced an uncertain world of revolutions, rising superpowers, and piracy off the coasts of Africa. The Naval Act of 1794 created the first U.S. Navy ships since the Revolutionary War, including the USS Constitution.
Two very important and competing threats influenced the construction of the USS Constitution. The first was pirate attacks against American merchant ships in the Mediterranean. To outgun these pirates, the ship carried 44 heavy cannons.
The second challenge was the threat of the more-established European navies, which maintained much larger warships than those of the U.S. Called "ships of the line," they were massive, heavily armed, and held hundreds of crewmen and marines. The USS Constitution was built to outgun any ship the same size or smaller, and at the same time to sail faster than any bigger ship.
Crucial to those goals was a narrow body and a lot of sails: 42,710 square feet of sail on three masts, to be exact.
Today, the USS Constitution is both a commissioned naval vessel and a living museum in Boston Harbor.
GlobalFlyer vs. Voyager
_GlobalFlyer might go nonstop around the world, a feat Voyager accomplished in 1986. But that's where the similarities end. With new aerodynamics, materials and design, Burt Rutan's new craft is significantly more sophisticated than the old record breaker. Aerodynamics: The GlobalFlyer team is using advanced computer technology–specifically, computational fluid dynamics–to vastly reduce the airplane's drag and optimize the structure for long-range, exceptionally high-fuel-load flying. Materials: The thousands of pounds of fuel in Voyager's four-section wings made them droop down to the runway, where they scraped against the ground during takeoff. In order to avoid the same problem, GlobalFlyer's wings are constructed of a single 100-foot-long piece of reinforced composite. Design: Without horizontal tails to stabilize it, Voyager flexed and twisted in ways that made it hard to control. GlobalFlyer has complete tail assemblies, which dampen unwanted up-and-down movement._
A Flying Gas Tank
Sixteen fuel tanks inside the plane's wings feed fuel into the header tank beneath the engine. The tanks require constant monitoring to maintain the plane's balance in flight.
80 hours of Comfort
The carbon-fiber seat can be upright or reclined. For takeoff and landing, the pilot sits on cushions to see out the canopy; he'll use instruments to navigate at other times.
The high-tech instrument panel includes a touchscreen display, GPS nav, live satellite-fed weather and autopilot; the old-fashioned flight controls still use cables and pushrods.
GlobolFlyer
_Stretching structural integrity and aerodynamic performance to new limits, GlobalFlyer Looks for the long way home. Wing shape
The sailplane-like airfoil design of the 114-foot-long, 400-square-foot wings gives the GlobalFlyer outstanding glide performance. Boom and tail
Each 40-foot-long boom holds landing gear and 5,454 pounds of fuel. Designers streamlined the tail assembly, because too much weight so far behind the plane's center of gravity would create instability. Jet engine
The Williams FJ44-3 business-jet engine is modified to use military-grade JP-4 fuel, which has a lower freezing point than normal jet fuel. Drogue Chutes
Undetachable chutes that add 20 square feet of equivalent drag can initiate a final descent or stabilize the aircraft in an emergency. Main fuselage
The center fuselage holds the header fuel tank, cockpit, engine mount and landing gear. Unlike Voyager, which flew at 11,000 feet, GlobalFlyer cruises at 45,000 feet and so requires a pressurized cabin._
Building GlobalFlyer, 2003
Clockwise from above: Burt Rutan inspects the GlobalFlyer cockpit. Tail assemblies will dampen movement better than Voyager's (1986). Engineers prepare wings for aileron attachment. The engine's exhaust nozzle is made entirely from carbon-fiber composite–a particular challenge given the high temperatures. Project engineer Jon Karkow framed by the cockpit entry, which will be filled with a pressure-sealed plug-style door. Other engineers affix epoxy-soaked strips of carbon-fiber fabric inside the fuselage.
Kelsey D. Atherton
Kelsey D. Atherton is a military technology journalist who has contributed to Popular Science since 2013. He covers uncrewed robotics and other drones, communications systems, the nuclear enterprise, and the technologies that go into planning, waging, and mitigating war.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Highlanders extend winning streak to 9 games
By Scott Loftis
CarrollCountyNews@cox-internet.com
The Eureka Springs Highlanders won their ninth consecutive game on Friday, picking up a 47-26 conference victory at Decatur.
Despite the 21-point margin of victory, Eureka Springs coach Brian Rambo said the Highlanders (23-5, 5-1 1A-1) didn't play particularly well.
"It was kind of an ugly game," Rambo said. "We guarded really well, but for whatever reason we seemed to be out of sync."
Senior guard Garrett Cross scored 26 points to lead Eureka Springs, while senior forward Carter Drennon added 10.
Cross had 15 of the Highlanders' 21 first-half points.
Decatur (2-14, 0-6) is a solid defensive team, Rambo said, and the Bulldogs' physicality affected the Highlanders.
"We just couldn't make a bucket," he said.
Still, the Highlanders picked up a conference road win and stayed on course for a big game Friday at home against Flippin in a game that could decide the conference title.
The Bobcats (19-10, 7-0) handed Eureka Springs its only conference loss on Dec. 7, but the Highlanders weren't fully healthy. With time to recuperate and a long break for the holidays, Eureka Springs has lost just one game since then.
"I think it'll be a different game at our place," Rambo said.
The Highlanders hosted St. Joe in a nonconference game Monday night.
Eureka Springs 52, Decatur 36
Junior guard Katelyn Ross made four three-pointers and scored 15 points as the Lady Highlanders recorded their 19th victory of the season.
Junior forward Megan Holloway added 12 points for Eureka Springs (19-11, 5-1).


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Home » Celebrity
Tiger King: Meet The Clinton Johnson Band that sang Joe Exotic's songs
Sun Mar 29, 2020 at 1:23pm ET
By John Thomas Didymus
The Clinton Johnson Band performed Joe Exotic's songs on Tiger King. Pic credit: Netflix
The Clinton Johnson Band performed Joe Exotic's songs in Netflix's hit documentary series, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.
Following the success of Tiger King, The Clinton Johnson Band, from Vancouver, Washington, is hoping to capitalize on their role in the popular show.
The band is hoping to get their big break following the exposure they got from the Netflix show and they are hoping to soon land a record deal, according to TMZ.
Joe Exotic did not perform his songs on Tiger King
Tiger King fans were surprised to learn that Joe Exotic did not sing the country music songs he performed on Tiger King and that a band called The Clinton Johnson Band performed the songs instead.
Joe Exotic only lip-synced the songs and pretended to play the guitar, according to TMZ.
Meet The Clinton Johnson Band
The Clinton Johnson Band was originally a duo of country singers, Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton. Danny Clinton passed away in October due to heart-related health issues.
Vince told TMZ that Tiger King was not the first time their songs have been featured in a TV or film production. Their songs have featured in a few films and TV shows.
Slate reports that the band's songs were featured in the movie, Nude Nuns With Big Guns. In 2010, The Clark County Columbian named The Clinton Johnson Band among local artists and bands to watch.
Vince told TMZ that they ended up performing songs for Tiger King after they responded to Joe's ad for musicians to help him write a theme song for his zoo and work with him on songs for a TV show he was making.
You Might Also Like: Tiger King star Joe Exotic confirms aggressive cancer diagnosis, says Carole Baskin will party over it
Joe Exotic has a YouTube channel where he uploads his music videos
Tiger King features some of the videos that Joe Exotic made for his songs. The full versions of his home-made videos are available on YouTube.
Joe Exotic has a YouTube channel where he uploads music videos for his songs. According to Slate, Joe Exotic did not write any of the songs and he did not sing most of them himself.
Johnson told TMZ that they did about 20 songs for Joe.
Regarding how they made the songs, he explained that Joe Exotic would suggest a theme for the song and provide some details about what he wanted the song to be about. Vince Johnson would then write the song and the tune and Danny Clinton would sing it.
After they've finished working on the song, they sent it by email to Joe. Vince told TMZ that as far as he knew, Joe was not a singer and did not play any instruments.
Vince's comment was corroborated by Rick Kirkham, a former reality TV producer. According to Vanity Fair, Kirkham said they tried to make Joe sing for a reality series but they soon learned he "couldn't even hold a tune."
"It was absolutely ridiculous. Joe got a little bit drunk and high, and we actually coaxed him into singing part of one of the songs. He couldn't even hold a tune. It was just so ludicrous."
Johnson said he did not realize until months later that Joe Exotic intended to take full credit for their songs, according to Slate. He also said that when he watched the YouTube videos and saw Joe Exotic lip-syncing their songs, he called him.
"I called him up, I was hot and he bamboozled me about his reality show—that it was coming soon and he would make everything right as rain. I just wanted the proper credit."
Joe Exotic used one of his music videos to poke fun at Carole Baskin.
The music video for the song Here Kitty Kitty (below) is about rumors and unsubstantiated claims that Joe Exotic's rival, the animal activist Carole Baskin, murdered her husband and fed him to her tigers. The video features a Carole Baskin look-alike feeding tigers raw meat from a plate that also has a mannequin model of a human head.
The Clinton Johnson Band is hoping to land a record deal
Vince Johnson told TMZ that following the success of Tiger King, The Clinton Johnson Band has been receiving a lot of attention from media outlets. However, he said he was still hoping that music labels would reach out to them.
He said they recorded enough songs for three albums before Danny Clinton died.
You can listen to some of their music here on Reverbnation and here on Spotify.
Joe Exotic is currently serving 22 years in prison after being convicted for involvement in an attempted murder-for-hire plot.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is streaming on Netflix.
John Thomas Didymus
John Thomas Didymus has worked as a writer since 2010. He has written...read more
Tags Joe Exotic


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group of animals.jpg
__edited, body plans, Cladistics, Nature, sexually selected traits, speciation
https://episodes.castos.com/id/IDTF-579-Luskin-What-is-Speciation.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:10:25 | Speakers: Casey Luskin, David Boze
On this episode of ID the Future, David Boze interviews Casey Luskin about a recent study published in Nature that claimed that scientists can predict the number of species that will develop within a clade. Such forecasts of speciation are based on the amount of living space available and the prominence of sexually selected traits. However, many of the differences between "species" are quite trivial; what constitutes one species as separate from another when there are no fundamental distinctions?
safari-animals-in-africa-composite-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
__edited, adaptation, body plans, Evolution: a Theory in Crisis, insects, living systems, Nature's Destiny
Dr. Michael Denton on Predetermined Body Plans and Primal Patterns in Nature
https://episodes.castos.com/id/IDTF-542-Michael-Denton-on-Predetermination-of-Body-Plans-in-Nature.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:15:43 | Speaker: Michael Denton
On this episode of ID The Future, medical geneticist Dr. Michael Denton discusses the implications of insect body plans as predetermined types rather than collections of adaptations. Denton questions the ability of a Darwinian process to account for the patterns found in living systems. Denton suggests that, while there are countless variations or "adaptive masks" present in organisms, they all extend from original "primal patterns." Tune in to hear this fascinating discussion! Dr. Denton is the author of Evolution: A Theory in Crisis and Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe.


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TALENTRECAP.COM Singing American Idol
'American Idol's Gabby Barrett Shares Sweet Video of Daughter Singing
Gabby Barrett via Instagram
American Idol Season 16 finalist Gabby Barrett's daughter might be following in her parents' musical footsteps. Gabby recently posted a video to Instagram showing 1-year-old Baylah May singing into a microphone.
Gabby Barrett Posts Video of Daughter Singing
On Wednesday, Gabby posted a black and white video to Instagram showing Baylah holding a microphone up to her mouth and singing. Although she didn't say any specific words or follow a particular tune, it was still a cute moment.
"My girl. Singin to mama!" the 22-year-old country singer wrote in the caption of the clip. Fans were loving the video, commenting heart emojis. One follower even wrote, "I hear the potential!!"
Both of Baylah's parents are musical. Her father, Gabby's husband Cade Foehner, was also on American Idol Season 16, making it to the Top 5 while Gabby finished third. They met during their time on the show and got married in 2019. Cade is also Gabby's guitarist.
In June, Gabby posted a photo of herself holding Baylah on stage during a rehearsal for a Florida show, with Cade playing guitar. Gabby wrote, "She gets to see what mommy & daddy get to do!"
SEE ALSO: GABBY BARRETT, HUSBAND CADE FOEHNER STAR IN SWEET NEW MUSIC VIDEO FOR 'PICK ME UP'
'American Idol's Fritz Hager Debuts New Music Video for Song 'Caroline'
A post shared by Gabby Barrett Foehner (@gabbybarrett_)
The Couple Is Expecting Another Baby
Baylah was born in January of 2021. On Mother's Day of this year, Gabby and Cade announced that they're expecting their second child together. This time, they're having a boy. The couple posted an ultrasound video to share the news.
Gabby is currently on tour with Jason Aldean, but she's set to depart early to go on maternity leave after the August 27 show. The couple hasn't announced a due date, but Gabby said in a May interview that she was at the beginning of the second trimester of her pregnancy.
The singer has had a lot of success since her time on American Idol, with both her debut single "I Hope" and her 2020 album Goldmine. Her latest single is called "Pick Me Up."
American Idolcade foehnergabby barrett
All Four Judges Will Return for 'Dancing with the Stars' Season 31
A singing competition where participants compete to impress the American public and judges - Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan to win a recording contract.
Andrew Portugal January 31, 2023
Katharine McPhee Wants More Kids With Husband David Foster
Jennifer Hudson Has Secretly Been Dating Common For Months
Carrie Underwood Reveals That She Works Out For Longevity More Than Looks


When one listens to music, they don't always hear the drums despite their being the beat that keeps the rhythm together. However, with the band Hot Victory it is pretty hard to ignore the drums. The word for this album is, let's all say it together now: Percussion.
Though there are other sounds on the songs, the drums still stand out the most. They aren't on a loop, like you'd think of being on a beat tape or the such, so It's not really a pop sound in them. But then the other end of the spectrum seems to remind me of "Stomp" and I don't think I'd go quite that far either.
This really just reminds me of when I was in my high school marching band, and prior, as it has that feel to it of being very live drums but not to the way you want to get up and pound a garbage can. It's hard for me to remember sometimes what drums can sound like when not in a loop or a machine, but this is an excellent reminder of that.
The closest thing- and really one of the only things- that I can find to compare this to would be What Cheer? Brigade, but again, that's a stretch because it is so percussion heavy. And sometimes when you get metal bands with double bass drums or rappers with the heavy beat it can negatively affect that playback on a cassette. But not with Hot Victory—these drums stay crisp and smooth throughout.


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Q: PHPUnit .bat file not receiving any inputs I have a problem with my phpunit.bat file. I can access the phpunit.phar just fine through the terminal. I think it's worth mentioning it was working yesterday without problem before I tried to install the extension PHPUnit Test Explorer. I've uninstalled it since but the error is still here. I wonder why vscode doesn't send anything to the .bat file (from my understanding I could gather from internet on this issue).
This is the results I get when I access to phpunit through the terminal as an environment variable:

But when I try to run the test through the command palette, I get nothing from the unit test.

My phpunit.bat is as follow. I don't understand why it works through the terminal and not the command palette.

and my settings.json is
{
"files.autoSave": "afterDelay",
"debug.allowBreakpointsEverywhere": true,
"diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace": false,
"launch": {

    "configurations": [],
    "compounds": []
},
"php.validate.executablePath": "F:/Xampp/php/php.exe",
"intelephense.environment.phpVersion": "7.1.32",
"phpunit.phpunit": "C:/dev/phpunit.bat",
"phpunit.php": "F:/Xampp/php/php.exe",
"phpunit.files": "ESO DECRYPTE/classes/tests/*Test.php",
"phpunit.args": [],
}

Please advise! Thanks a lot.
Best,

A: So I've fixed the problem by changing from the "phpunit.phpunit" variable from .bat to .phar in settings.json. I don't know why the .bat stopped working.
Now both PHPUnit and PHPUnit Test Explorer works!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


NYC based Gen X-er who works too much, dreams too much, and loves nostalgia too much. Proud, single mother of an almost teenager. Loves travel, Europe, history, food, coffee, and the Oxford comma.
I traveled to Washington, DC last week for a case I had been working. It had the distinction of having reached the highest court in the country. I had the honor of being invited to watch the oral argument that was to be heard at the Supreme Court of the United States.
I flew in on Tuesday evening. I woke up on Wednesday morning to soft falling snow. Washington, DC is funny in that the city becomes paralyzed with a mere few inches of snow (slush, really). I was afraid that our hearing was going to get postponed as the rest of the city operations were closed, but fortunately, the Supreme Court was tough, and they remained open.
The rest of the city, however, was a ghost town.
My 17:30 flight back to New York was delayed, so I decided to just cancel the flight entirely and book a 15:05 train back home. It was a good move, and I was home by 19:00.
I cannot know how she is feeling because I grew up with both my father and mother. I saw her crying in her room last Friday and when I asked her what was wrong, she said that it was the night of the father and daughter dance at school, and she said that she had been dodging questions from her classmates as to the whereabouts of where her father is.
She knows where her father is. He is in Brooklyn, less than ten miles away from where we are. He has never made attempts to see her. Prior to the new year, she even sent him a "friend" request on a social media site. Not only did he not accept her request, he even took the extra step to block her.
She cries, not because she longs for him, but because she cannot understand why her own father, her own flesh and blood, wants nothing to do with her.
I cannot understand it either.
The life of a single parent is hard. It is damn hard. There are many days when I wonder how I can possibly do it all – wake up, make her breakfast and a lunch to bring to school, race to get her to school, race to make it to work on time, race to pick her up from afterschool, bring her to her scheduled activities, go home and make dinner, spend time with her, do household chores, exercise – and still stay somewhat sane.
I told her that because I was not given ample notice and that I already had other things planned for Tuesday evening, I would not be able to attend the spring concert but that I would still drive her to school so that she could perform. She seemed content with that.
On Tuesday, I drove her to school in the evening and I picked her up after the concert. I asked her how it went, and she said that it went fine. She then mentioned to me how "Ally's mom and JJ's mom were there and they recorded me and told me how great I was." I told her that I would ask them for a copy.
I answered, "Yes, that's it." I could tell she was angry that I did not attend her spring concert, but after all the prior weeks preparing for her Communion, I really was not in the proper frame of mind to attend her Spring Concert, especially considering that she had failed to mention it to me until the prior night.
I told her that I wished that I was like other moms, too, and that I wished I could get the help that they have — a husband or a family to help them with everything since I was alone and doing all the work of bringing home an income, making sure that she gets to/from school, eats three times a day, and has activities she can do to keep her mind and body busy.
Some days are just damn hard. Yesterday was one of them.
G had her First Communion this past Saturday. In her words, she feels "good." I am proud of her.
We had a small luncheon after Mass at the neighborhood Greek restaurant. After lunch, we went to visit the local firefighters as the city was holding an open house at all the firehouses around the city.
It was a great Saturday. Sunday was not so bad either as I finally had time to upload my photos from my recent trip to Italy. I'll be posting those soon – cheers!


For advanced environmental protection and workplace safety: the Chinese Government has initiated various measures designed to curb China's high air pollution. Many foundries are affected by the new regulations too – but not the customers of StrikoWestofen Asia (Taicang). This is because melting furnaces and dosing furnaces made by the StrikoWestofen Group fall significantly below even the new maximum permissible limits for energy consumption and dust emissions.


text:
The Loomis Chaffee Log
NBA Draft Preview: Getcha Head in the Game
While it isn't always heavily embraced by the top draft prospects, the NBA Draft Combine is beginning this coming week and it seems like a good time for some predictions on where the top prospects will actually end up at the beginning of the 15/16 NBA Season. This combine will prove a make or break situation for a lot of young athletes but the star-studded class of 2015 has a few notable players that chose not to take part in the proceedings. Top prospects Jahlil Okafor, Karl Towns, and D'Angelo Russell have decided to forgo the trials and focus on training individually and in tight training groups. All of these decisions lead up to one event, however – the draft. Regardless of their participation in the combine, these players will or won't be drafted, and this list is just a quick speculation about what's going on in the minds of NBA shot callers.
The Picks:
1. Minnesota Timberwolves: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky, 6'11", PF/C, Freshman
This pick makes the most sense based on a slew of attributes possessed by Towns, most notably his defensive proficiency. His athleticism, size, defensive capability, and ability to stretch the floor make him a perfect fit for the wolves. Pairing Towns with reigning rookie of the year Andrew Wiggins, expect a fast, tough, and athletic style of play from the young duo. For some perspective on their age, together Wiggins and Towns are 36 days younger than Tim Duncan, and two years younger than Jason Kidd; that's some real potential.
2. New York Knicks: Jahlil Okafor, Duke, 6'11", C, Freshman
Arguably the best prospect overall, Okafor brings a slow but extremely polished skill set to the disgustingly bad Knicks front court. In college he drew double teams, triple teams, and at one point had all five players guarding him and was still able to get a nice bucket or two. He finished the year with the most double-doubles in NCAA DI and second in AP player of the year voting and was the ACC Player of the Year. If the Knicks don't take him here, the next team on the board will immediately jump on him.
3. Philadelphia 76ers: D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State, 6'5″, PG/SG, Freshman
Without a single half-way decent point guard around and most likely both of the elite level bigs taken off of the board at this point, the Sixers will be deciding between top tier ball handlers D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay. Although Russell took the college basketball world by storm this year as a freshman, throwing up big shots and fancy passes seemingly every game, don't be surprised if the 76ers do pass on him. Having played in the pros in China for one year and a million dollars after decommitting from SMU, Mudiay can bring in toughness and pro readiness to a lacking offense. In the end, I would take Russell because he's proven, he's nasty, and he is the best point guard I've ever seen play basketball in person, but anything can happen in a draft as stacked as this one.
4. Los Angeles Lakers: Emmanuel Mudiay, China, 6'5″, PG, 1996
Rather than picking up their two most coveted guards in Rondo and Goran Dragic, Showtime will end up taking the intriguing "international" prospect from China. Like I said before this kid is a grinder, who gets to the hoop and draws fouls on everything. He's mimics James Harden, but worse. Ultimately, there are some attitude problems and clearly he needs to work on his jumper after shooting a China League worst 16.7 percent over five games played. However, he's got a lot of potential to work with and is one of the better above-the-rim athletes in the draft and I would be content having my hometown team snag the young talent, after all, he's only 18.
5. Orlando Magic: Justise Winslow, Duke, 6'6″, SF, Freshman
The Orlando Magic have been clearly building an identity over the past few drafts. Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon, and Victor Oladipo are all the same type of player and adding another twin in Winslow makes sense. Their new athletic, above the rim style is sure to offer both a lot of future potential in great athletes as well as immediate revenue in tickets for the next log city. Winslow was by far my favorite player in college this year, coming out of a developmental power house in Duke and having freak athleticism as well as a great rebounding, shooting, and on-ball touch; this kid has a lot to like about him. Oh yeah, and he jumped over a guy to block him one time.
All of these next picks are need-based, not necessarily based on actual merit as I do have higher guys on my board. I also have a rule for never taking international prospects in the top ten so half this list really makes me a little agitated. The Kings, at pick six, need a frontcourt player to pair with Demarcus Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein, 'nuff said. The Nuggets had success with an international prospect last year so although it is a gamble, I understand why they would choose to play the cards on Mario Hezonja. The hornets are not only filling a great need but also getting a great player. Having met Stanley Johnson at a high school tournament back in Cali, I love him. He's athletic, energetic and an extremely hard worker; he can score all the way out to the three point line and put out dunks- just check out his mixtape bruh. This is just the top nine but other notable prospects are Myles Turner, Frank Kaminsky, Devin Booker, Kelly Oubre, and Georgia State's own hometown hero R.J. Hunter. Expect all of them to be in consideration for at least the bottom five of these top ten.
Spotlighting Senior Athletes: Nalinda Wanikpun and Eamon Moylan
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Administration Makes the Right Call to Reopen Campus
The Evolution of Athletes Taking a Stand the Right Way
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We are happy to announce that The Log has released
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Head over to our website to watch an informative i
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22 LC Students Chosen for All-NEPSAC Pelicans 2020
Varsity Basketball Players Claim Top Awards
The Student Newspaper of The Loomis Chaffee School


text:
Q: linq count optimization I'm writing a linq query and I'm wondering if I'm doing it right: I'm passing in 2 parameters, TheDate and UserID
Var Output = from c in in MyDC.Table1
  where c.Datetime.Date == TheDate.Date
  where c.UserID == TheUserID
  select new MyMode()
  {
    Var1 = (from c1 in MyDC.Table1
            where c.ID == c1.ID
            select c1.ID).Count()
    Var2 = ...

  }

I'm thinking I should be able to do the count for Var1 without going back to the original MyDC but for now that's what I have.
Let me know if there's a better way to do it.
Thanks.

A: Wouldn't that be the same as:
Var1 = c.Count()

Are you needing to group on some value, too?

A: The count is an override using method-based syntax.
var defaults = new[] { "zero", "one", "two", "three", "four" };

var abc = defaults.Select((o,i) => i);
abc.Dump();

outputs: IEnumerable (5 items)
0
1
2
3
4
o is the object and i is the index.  I usually use method syntax so I'm not sure on the conversion to it.

A: If you group by c.DateTime.Date and c.UserId in the original query then the Var1 is just the count of items in the group.

A: var result = from c in MyDC.Table1
             where c.Datetime.Date == TheDate.Date
             && c.UserID == TheUserID
             group c by c.ID into g
             select new
             {
                 Var1 = g.Count()
             };


text:
import re
import pywikibot
import subprocess
from pywikibot import pagegenerators
import time

start=time.clock()

args = pywikibot.handleArgs()
site = pywikibot.Site('it', 'wikipedia')

today = time.strftime("%Y%m%d")

path = '/data/project/alessiobot/data/voci_orfane/'+today+'.txt'
template = u'{{O||mese={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}}}'
comment = u'Bot: voce orfana, inserisco template O'
regexp = r'\{\{(?:template:|)(o)[\|\}]'

def main():
    add_lists = pagegenerators.TextfilePageGenerator(path)
    for page in add_lists:
        pywikibot.output(u"\t\t>>> %s <<<" % page.title())
	# Check if the page exists or if there's already the template
	try:
            oldtxt = page.get()
        except pywikibot.NoPage:
	    pywikibot.output(u"%s doesn't exist! Skip" % page.title())
	    continue
	res = re.findall(regexp, oldtxt.lower())
	if res != []:
	    pywikibot.output(u'Template alreday in %s, Skip' % page.title())
	    continue

	# Ok, the page need the template. Let's put it there!
	newtxt = u"%s\n%s" % (template, oldtxt)
	pywikibot.output(u"\t\t>>> %s <<<" % page.title())
        try:
	    page.put(newtxt, comment)
	except pywikibot.EditConflict:
	    pywikibot.output(u'Edit Conflict! Skip')
	    continue
	except pywikibot.LockedPage:
	    pywikibot.output(u'Locked page! Skip')
	    continue

if __name__ == "__main__":
    try:
        main()
    finally:
        pywikibot.stopme()
	end=time.clock()
        print "Run time: ", end-start

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This evening whilst taking a break from writing – and whilst K.F. Goodacre cooked me a delicious meal of mediterranean chicken and honeyed banana for dessert – I sat down to watch one of my absolute favourite shows, BBC Two's World's Weirdest Events (formally known as Nature's Weirdest Events). The series basically does what it says on the tin and uses science to explore incredibly weird and often flesh-crawling phenomena that occur in the natural world, such as starfishes tearing off their own limbs, giant flowers that bloom once every ten years and smell like corpses, toads whose offspring hatch beneath their skin… and gift-giving crows.
I'd never heard of this phenomenon before, so I'm definitely going to try and find a way to weave it into my story!
If you get a chance to watch the full episode, do. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the freaky, eerie, esoteric weird like me!
*Incidentally, the characters of Saline and the Crow were originally inspired (with permission from the artist) by a song called Saline The Salt Lake Queen by Rasputina.


This research program at Human Science Lab seeks to yield critical insights on the underlying variables driving the change in human cognitive processes and accompanying genetic adaptation. The research adopts a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating recent advances in evolutionary studies.
This research program at Human Science Lab seeks to explore all possible strands that correlates physical spatiality with the human cognitive processes and devise interventions to optimise cognitive responses.
The Four-Step Leadership Theory is an oucome of the Leadership project at Human Science Lab. The principle states that the leadership achievement of an individual is proportional to the optimal use of four principal components that makes a leader - motivation, planning, energising and executing.
This research program at Human Science Lab investigates how material wellbeing and perceptual wellbeing works as relative determinants in conditioning our mind for positive emotions.


The Definitive Monet experience, right on your iPad!
Blue Lotus Apps is celebrated for presenting the most lavish lifestyle experiences, world class fine art applications, and inspiring, life-changing entertainment apps. You will be astonished with striking moments, vivid imagery, and unique interactions!


text:
https://deloitte.wsj.com/articles/digital-media-power-users-look-for-streaming-video-alternatives-01666116971
Digital Media 'Power Users' Look for Streaming Video Alternatives
Young "power users" turn to ad-supported video, user-generated content, and gaming as their frustrations with streaming video persist
Streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) providers are in a battle to attract new subscribers and retain the ones they have. But providers may have a problem, especially among power users, a high-value subset of customers.
In Deloitte's recent Digital Media Trends survey, 18% of respondents qualify as digital media power users, meaning they use social media services at least daily, are frequent gamers who play daily or weekly, and are subscribed to six or more paid streaming video services. This cohort is more likely to be young, have higher levels of education and income, and have children at home.
These consumers spend heavily on SVOD—the average power user subscribes to nine different services—but have frustrations related to cost, experience, and value. More than 60% of power users say they pay too much for streaming video services (compared with 40% of nonpower users), and about half have plans to reduce the number of streaming video service subscriptions they have (compared with 29% of nonpower users). They also say it's difficult to find the content they like to watch across different services, and that SVOD content recommendations are often off the mark.
Power users are so frustrated with these issues that they're nearly twice as likely as nonpower users to say they'd be willing to share more personal data about their interests to get higher-quality content recommendations on streaming video platforms.
All these factors may be contributing to the substantial subscriber churn among these digitally savvy consumers. In fact, the churn rate among power users is 58%, compared with 33% among nonpower users. (Churn rate is the percentage of people who have cancelled, or both added and cancelled, a paid SVOD service in the past six months.)
But power users aren't abandoning video content entirely: They seem to be leaning into ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) services and user-generated video content (UGC) online. The average power user has four AVOD services in the household (compared with an average of two among nonpower users), and nearly 70% say they watch more ad-supported streaming video services now than they did a year ago. Similarly, most power users (72%) say they spend more time watching UGC than TV shows and movies on streaming video services. The social feeds that power UGC are highly attuned to user preferences, which may be meeting power users' desire for a more customized and tailored content experience.
Other video formats aren't the only rivals: Power users are spread thin in terms of their digital entertainment preferences. They are more likely than their nonpower user counterparts to follow online influencers, use social media for shopping inspiration and purchasing, subscribe to a streaming music service, and value the social aspects of playing video games. Nearly 70% of digital media power users say gaming has taken time away from other entertainment activities.
Streaming video service providers looking to retain power users, increase their time spent on SVOD platforms, and reduce churn can consider the following recommendations:
To address power users' clear interest in AVOD services and UGC for video consumption, SVOD providers might consider adding ad-supported tiers and reexamining overall content offerings.
Power users show a preference for more relevant content recommendations and tailored ads, and they're more willing to give up their personal data to have that customization. With customers' consent, streaming video providers can build out the mechanisms to analyze user preferences and provide better, "stickier" suggestions. This could lead to more engaged viewers and more data for potential monetization strategies.
Streaming video providers have stiff competition for audiences—across both big and small screens. Much of this competing content is free of charge. Streamers might also consider bundling more video, music, and gaming services with their subscriptions to keep consumers on their platforms and give them the added value they are seeking.
—by Brooke Auxier, research manager, Deloitte's Center for Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Deloitte Services LP; and Danny Ledger, principal and US leader of the entertainment subsector, Deloitte Consulting LLP
What Creators Want From Brands
How Brands Can Connect Marketing KPIs to Business Objectives


Christmas in my family has always been super-duper special. The putting up of the tree is the beginning. Then there is the making of the rum balls, the creation of the christmas menu, the making of the big christmas morning breakfast, the hours of shopping, the stressing over what to get for dad, the wrapping of presents, the putting of the presents under the tree, the dragging of Mary out of the bed, the eating, the carolling and the ear bursting squealing.
It was my beloved moo-ma who passed on her christmas joy to of us. As little kids she used to write us long, detailed Santa letters in metallic pen and sometimes she would hang them from trees for us to find. We used to do all the fun stuff like leave carrots out for the reindeer and beer out for Santa. We'd wake up far too early on Christmas morning to find our Santa sacks filled to the brim. And that excitement has never really left me.
So this year, as my first Christmas in stinky old Sydney, I had to make it just as special. Joel is not really a huge Christmas person so I also wanted to show him what decking the halls is all about.
We went to Target to buy a tree, which these days cost around $150 which is craaazzzzeeeeeee. So we decided to buy some Christmas decorations, hunt down some sticks and decorate those instead.
Check it out – real candy canes!!
They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no, no, no.


text:
Wedding party etiquette Snacks that ruin diets Dorm room decor See her best looks
Nicki Minaj ruthlessly blasts Drake, DJ Khaled, Meek Mill and more in 'Barbie Dreams' lyrics
Anika Reed
Nicki Minaj is not here to play with her male rap counterparts, and she's coming for each of them.
Minaj dropped her album "Queen" a week early, and she had bar after bar of insults in "Barbie Dreams" for everyone from Drake and Meek Mill to DJ Khaled and Young Thug. As she says on the song's hook: "I'm just playing, but I'm saying."
Pusha T might have called Drake out for hiding a child, but Nicki said his wealth doesn't impress her AND he's always in tears: "Drake worth a hundred milli always buying me (expletive) / But I don't know if the (expletive) wet or if he crying and (expletive)."
More:Nicki Minaj 'Queen' track-by-track review
For her ex, Meek Mill, Nicki didn't hold back, even using a line from his song "Dreams and Nightmares": "Meek still be in my DMs, I be trying to duck him / 'I used to pray for times like this' / Face (expletive) when I (expletive) him."
Nicki saves one of her most lethal bars for DJ Khaled, whose 2014 comments about not performing oral sex on his wife had Twitter in a frenzy when the interview resurfaced them in May: "Had to cancel DJ Khaled / Boy we ain't speaking / Ain't no fat (expletive) telling me what he ain't eating."
She also has some feelings about Young Thug, who has admitted that 90 percent of his closet is filled with women's clothing and who modeled women's clothing in a Calvin Klein ad: "Used to (expletive) with Young Thug, I ain't addressing this (expletive) / I caught him in my dressing rooms stealing dresses and (expletive)."
She calls out Young Thug's lisp in the next bars: "I used to give this (expletive) with a lisp tests and (expletive) / How you want the puthy? Can't say your s's and (expletive)."
50 Cent, who has an executive producer credit on STARZ series "Power," was not immune from Nicki's wrath: "I tried to (expletive) 50 (Cent) for a powerful hour / But all that (expletive) wanna do is talk 'Power' for hours."
Twitter went wild for the song, with most applauding her in some way, either for the messiness of the song or for her no-cares-given attitude.
Even DJ Khaled, one of the targets of her lyrical wrath, congratulated Minaj.
And Minaj responded to a tweet that contained a crying-face emoji from Young Thug, another victim, "I love this person."
One user says that the song is "so messy."
Another person said that "Nicki snapped on Barbie Dreams like a substitute teacher that's fed up with students trying to convince her they ain't have no homework."
Someone else tweeted that "no song has ever made" them cry laughing like "Barbie Dreams."
Others on Twitter tweeted their own reactions to the song as well as their imagined reactions of everyone Nicki insults.
More: Nicki Minaj's new album 'Queen' is here today -- one full week early


Proposed scientific research involving human subjects that falls under the responsibility of employees who work at the Isala clinics.
Proposed scientific research involving human subjects that does not fall under the responsibility of employees of the Isala clinics, if permission for this has been granted by the Board of Directors.
Proposed scientific research involving human subjects in a multicentre context that falls under the responsibility of employees who work at a hospital and under the responsibility of employees in hospitals or research locations throughout the Netherlands.
* A local researcher can be given an exemption in the case of non-sponsored research or other financial support. For the exact rates, please contact the secretariat of the MREC.


text:
Pushing Cosplay Past the Color Barrier
Posted by Robert Roth | Aug 31, 2016 | Geek Stuff
Photo courtesy of Lanka Comic COn
cos·play (noun) /ˈkäz-plā/
The practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game.
Costume play, or cosplay as it's most commonly known, is a worldwide phenomenon with dedicated fans who spent countless hours and sums of money to recreate the looks of their favorite characters. There are entire conventions dedicated to it, and those fan conventions that aren't still fill up with costumed homages to characters both well-known and obscure.
For some cosplayers, though, issues of race, gender, and body-type come into play. Most well-known characters, after all, demonstrate idealistic body types that generally don't exist in nature. And they're mostly white. This, combined with the ignorance and privilege of some in the geek community, has led to less than ideal experiences for some folks who merely want to enjoy losing themselves in the guise of their favorite characters.
But it can also be a rallying cry for some, such as cosplayer Chaka Cumberbatch, who started a the #29daysofblackcosplay on Twitter earlier this year.
"When we call out racism in this subculture," wrote Chaka on Black Girl Nerds, "we are often ridiculed, silenced and told to make a space of our own if we want to see our faces. Challenge accepted. This is how we'll represent ourselves. This is how we'll uplift each other. This is how we will make this hobby open, inclusive and welcoming to everyone."
It shouldn't go without saying that some cosplayers can have a rough go of things when dealing with overzealous con-goers. When you add in the challenges of dealing with racism, ableism, and misogyny, it can be enough to test the mettle of even the most dedicated fan.
Take Shannon who, with her sister Kimberly, recently attended Otakon in Baltimore, a city whose population is two-thirds black. For her, race has made entry into the cosplay community all the more challenging. Shannon had been looking forward to dressing as Takumi from Fire Emblem Fates. But when the day finally game, she hesitated.
"This morning, I didn't want to put this costume on," said Shannon on Kotaku. "Maybe it shouldn't matter to me, but this is not a black character."
Her sister concurred. Despite the high attendance of people of color at Otakon, cosplayers still felt the pressure of being part of a largely white nerd community.
"It's a lot of internal back and forth," Kimberly said in the same Kotaku interview, who was cosplaying as Rinkah from Fire Emblem Fates. "I can look good, but I won't look as good as someone with a lighter skin tone cosplaying this character."
Still, it's cosplayers like Shannon and Kimberly, pushing the boundaries of cosplay, that help open up opportunities for others.
The worldwide appeal of cosplay also helps. Sri Lanka recently held their second Comic Con, for instance. As the popularity of cosplay increases in regions without a mostly white population, it lessens the bonds placed on cosplayers of color.
The only real answer to problems of diversity in cosplay, or course, is the address the lack of diversity in movie, comic book, and video game characters. Until then, though, cosplayers like Chaka, Shannon, and Kimberly will help to create a more open and accepting cosplay community, one costume at a time.
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Robert Roth
Robert is a working class queer nerd overthrowing the capitalist patriarchy one wry comment at a time. Besides volunteering as editor and publisher of Queerspace Magazine, he's a writer, designer, illustrator, photographer, and filmmaker. He's a lifelong gaymer, and is old enough to remember when RPGs only came with paper and dice.
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by Robert Roth, Queerspace Magazine

Pushing Cosplay Past the Color Barrier

by Robert Roth, Queerspace Magazine
August 31, 2016

cos·play (noun) /ˈkäz-plā/

The practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game.

Costume play, or cosplay as it's most commonly known, is a worldwide phenomenon with dedicated fans who spent countless hours and sums of money to recreate the looks of their favorite characters. There are entire conventions dedicated to it, and those fan conventions that aren't still fill up with costumed homages to characters both well-known and obscure.

For some cosplayers, though, issues of race, gender, and body-type come into play. Most well-known characters, after all, demonstrate idealistic body types that generally don't exist in nature. And they're mostly white. This, combined with the ignorance and privilege of some in the geek community, has led to less than ideal experiences for some folks who merely want to enjoy losing themselves in the guise of their favorite characters.

But it can also be a rallying cry for some, such as cosplayer Chaka Cumberbatch, who started a the #29daysofblackcosplay on Twitter earlier this year.

"When we call out racism in this subculture," wrote Chaka on Black Girl Nerds, "we are often ridiculed, silenced and told to make a space of our own if we want to see our faces. Challenge accepted. This is how we'll represent ourselves. This is how we'll uplift each other. This is how we will make this hobby open, inclusive and welcoming to everyone."

It shouldn't go without saying that some cosplayers can have a rough go of things when dealing with overzealous con-goers. When you add in the challenges of dealing with racism, ableism, and misogyny, it can be enough to test the mettle of even the most dedicated fan.

Take Shannon who, with her sister Kimberly, recently attended Otakon in Baltimore, a city whose population is two-thirds black. For her, race has made entry into the cosplay community all the more challenging. Shannon had been looking forward to dressing as Takumi from Fire Emblem Fates. But when the day finally game, she hesitated.

"This morning, I didn't want to put this costume on," said Shannon on Kotaku. "Maybe it shouldn't matter to me, but this is not a black character."

Her sister concurred. Despite the high attendance of people of color at Otakon, cosplayers still felt the pressure of being part of a largely white nerd community.

"It's a lot of internal back and forth," Kimberly said in the same Kotaku interview, who was cosplaying as Rinkah from Fire Emblem Fates. "I can look good, but I won't look as good as someone with a lighter skin tone cosplaying this character."

Still, it's cosplayers like Shannon and Kimberly, pushing the boundaries of cosplay, that help open up opportunities for others.

The worldwide appeal of cosplay also helps. Sri Lanka recently held their second Comic Con, for instance. As the popularity of cosplay increases in regions without a mostly white population, it lessens the bonds placed on cosplayers of color.

The only real answer to problems of diversity in cosplay, or course, is the address the lack of diversity in movie, comic book, and video game characters. Until then, though, cosplayers like Chaka, Shannon, and Kimberly will help to create a more open and accepting cosplay community, one costume at a time.

This article first appeared on Queerspace Magazine and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
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We had the privilege to sit down and chat with the one the only Tex Grebner. Tex is highly amateur outdoorsman with a YouTube show. We absolutely love his unique character and passion for the outdoors. Take your time and listen to Tex's journey to a healthy lifestyle, because its inspiring. His honesty, truth, authenticity, and pride is what makes Tex Grebner a legend.


Just a short blog update to inform everyone that I have moved over to a new role in IBM. I now work in IBM Dubai as a Technical Solutions Manager, assisting with the somewhat recently announced ai Lab.
On the plus side, I will be playing with a more wider spectrum of Watson + AI related technologies, and will discuss here when I get the chance.
In the meantime here are some blogs I recommend.
Dave's blogs (always fun!) Blog1, Blog2.
I would also recommend to check out the Top 100 people to watch list.


In recognition of outstanding quality performance, AVX Corporation, a leading manufacturer of passive components, was a recipient of Delphi Corporation's 2005 Pinnacle Award. Delphi, a world leader in mobile electronics and transportation components and systems technology, presented the first annual Pinnacle Award to AVX at the Michigan State University Executive Management Center in Troy, Michigan.
As a supplier to Delphi, AVX received the honor in recognition of its supply and delivery performance, being an active member of the Delphi supplier portal and Commodity teams and having ISO/TS16949 certification.
AVX designs and manufactures passive components to serve a wide variety of industries, ranging from telecommunications to military & automotive.


text:
Nicola L. Hein
review by Brian Olewnick
You say you like your guitar served harsh? This, then, is the record for you. Seven extreme, and fascinating, live-recorded abusals of the instrument (a severely battered one, judging from the cover image) by Hein using Wittgenstein quotes from 'On Certainty' as titles. With an odd exception here and there, it's a pretty unrelenting journey, not due to excessive loudness (though there's some of that) but in Hein's insistence on "unmusical" attacks.
One has the impression that, in large part, Hein is assaulting his guitar, mauling it broadly enough that gurgling static acquires an equal share of the resultant sound-environment as anything overtly emanating from strings. Some picking and thrumming emerges � it's often heard below the surface, slightly reminiscent of certain early Frith ventures � but we've gone past any Bailey-esque notion of abstraction, lyrical or otherwise, into in-your-face sonics: rapid-fire, little room for breath, jagged-edged.
The second track (I won't enumerate the very lengthy track titles), with bowing and feedback, actually abates matters somewhat, though only in a lessening of the wall of sound, not a reduction of harshness; it's very effective. The third features recognizable guitar playing plunged into abysses of burbling fuzz and loose circuitry. The fourth cut is the outlier here, a relatively delicate sequence of arpeggios (again recalling Frith), lovingly layered, wistful though still carrying an acidic tinge; very fine. Then it's back into the maelstrom, easing off briefly now and again but essentially diving into that metallic, cracking world peered into earlier. It's a bracing trip, not for the faint-hearted, but decidedly rewarding for listeners attuned to Kevin Drumm, Keiji Haino and other denizens of that terrain.
Nicola L. Hein: The Oxymothastic Obhectar


The KTM Duke 125 is a brute of a bike and one that stands out on UK roads.
It's got 15hp at its disposal, which makes for plenty of performance despite remaining within the remits of the A1 Light Motorcycle Licence.
And in terms of ride, it's brilliant as it manages to combine comfort with poise around corners, something not all 125s can confess to.
It's also well-equipped with slick-looking and informative gauges and displays.
For all this performance and equipment, you might begin to think that the Austrian-designed Duke is extortionate…it's not and prices start from under £4,000 for new models.
The most eye-catching thing about the Duke is its looks: It's dynamic, chunky and stylish.


text:
Home Arsenal's Interest in Signing Leroy Sane Has Been Confirmed!
Arsenal's Interest in Signing Leroy Sane Has Been Confirmed!
Chris Richards a Crystal Palace Target Is in The Final Stages of A Transfer to Join Leeds United!
A total of £80 million has now been spent on new players by Arsenal in just five weeks of the summer transfer season. Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner, and Marquinhos are just a few of the players that Mikel Arteta has brought into the Arsenal squad this summer.
As of late, Bayern Munich forward Leroy Sane has been mentioned as a possible transfer target for the Emirates Stadium after working with Arteta for three and a half years at Manchester City.
Football London has taken a look at all the latest speculations regarding a prospective deal for the former Manchester City Wideman.
Georg Holzner, a Bayern Munich transfer analyst, believes that Bayern will be selling some of its more "well-known" players during the upcoming summer transfer market. Since both Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman signed new long-term contracts at the Allianz Arena this year, Sane may perhaps be one of these well-known players available for sale, a significant gain for Arsenal.
Arsenal is reportedly interested in signing Sane this summer, according to reports from Bild and Mundo Deportivo. To get him away from the Bundesliga's big guns, though, will cost the club €70 million (£59 million).
Arsenal was interested in signing Sane before they tried to get Raphinha, a Brazilian winger who has already joined Barcelona, according to Ben Jacobs, a transfer expert at the club's home base in Munich. The Sane thing is something to monitor in the coming weeks," Jacobs remarked on The Done Deal Show.
A month ago, I was told that Real Madrid would be interested in signing Leroy Sane, and I believe that they would take it into consideration if another club made an approach for the player. Even if I haven't heard any rumblings out of Chelsea, I have heard more from Arsenal, who said this was a name on their radar at the outset of the window but then switched to Raphinha."
Sane is a tremendous admirer of Arsenal manager Arteta, who he credited with helping him grow as a player in 2020. A statement from Sane to the Independent reads: "I can only say good things about Mikel Arteta."
His advice on the pitch has been invaluable since we began training together." To enhance my football, he informed me what I was doing well and what I needed to work on. After Pep, they both helped me to progress to a new level of success. As of the right moment, he's doing an excellent job at Arsenal for me.
This may take some time for everyone to grasp, but you can tell he has an idea of how he wants his team to play and how he wants them to play together. In my opinion, he'll be a wonderful head coach as well."
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text:
' Memory and Icons'
'Radical Camouflage at Documenta 13'
'Digital Partisans'
'The Hockney Industry'
'Museum Photography and Museum Prose'
'Spectacle and Terror'
'Digital Commons'
'Sebastiao Salgado and Fine Art Photojournalism'
'In and Out of Love with Damien Hirst'
'Empowering Technology: The Exploration of Cyberspace'
/220 , Nov Dec 1996
Back to NLR I/220, Nov Dec 1996
Pierre Bourdieu, Photography: A Middle-Brow Art
Polity Press: Cambridge 1996
Julian Stallabrass
Cold Eye
What appear to be a sequence of old snapshots in faded colour have been framed and hung on the gallery wall. They look as if they had been dug from some forgotten trunk in a family home, yet they show only backgrounds—walls, garden lawns, a deserted tea-table, an empty pram. An artist, Stephen Murphy, produced these pictures by digitizing old snaps and replacing their figures with a plausible background sampled from the surrounding area. On close inspection, shapes slightly differing in tone trace the effaced subjects in outline; these photographs are both a glimpse of a future world depopulated by some catastrophe, and images of our passing and forgetting.
Murphy's pictures are only one example of the recent integration of family photography into fine art. Such work comments not only on the power of digitization over photography but also on that topical matter, the crisis of the family. Many fine-art photographers now take pictures of domestic scenes, and even—most notoriously in the work of Sally Mann—of their own families. Various exhibitions have been dedicated to this trend, which received the ultimate official sanction at the Museum of Modern Art with Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort.footnote1 On the face of it, this seems a surprising development: fine-art photography had always been concerned to distinguish itself from the hordes of snappers who degrade the medium. Yet now it flirts with subsumption into the mass.
In this context, the reissue of Pierre Bourdieu's 1965 book on the 'middle-brow art' appears singularly ill-timed, for it is hard to see how such a development could be accommodated within the sociologist's rigid schemas.footnote2 For Bourdieu and his collaborators, photography is determined, not directly by its intrinsic qualities but by the fact that it has become a mass social practice. In making film in rolls rather than single sheets or plates, bringing developing and printing from amateur darkrooms to mass manufacture, producing cameras which automatically expose, focus, wind on, wind back, pretend even to compose, and beep or blink admonishingly at the user's mistakes, first Kodak, and then the other giant corporations, altered photography forever. It became, above all, a family matter. The vast bulk of photographs, claims Bourdieu, are taken without much skill or conscious effort at times when families come together—and even amateur enthusiasts fare little better in his confident judgement: 'In a sample of 500 amateur photographs, the pictures which showed any technical or aesthetic effort amounted to less than 10 per cent.' (p. 194n) Taking photographs is a demonstration of a family's integration and the resulting prints are used for the same purpose, shown or sent to acquaintances and relatives. Not much is expected from these modest pictures, only that the people in them should be recognizable. If aesthetes object to the endless succession of snapshots with stiff figures placed dead centre, they are in error, because they mistake what they are looking at for failed attempts at art. This mundane photography continues, of course, a little less formal perhaps than the stilted examples in Photography where self-conscious couples stand insignificantly before the bulk of some tourist monument, but nevertheless largely unchanged. Who has not found themselves with their arm thrown awkwardly over a relative's unfamiliar shoulder to make a picture in which 'subjects are shown pressed against one another' and 'people's eyes converge towards the camera so that the whole picture points to its own absent centre'? (p. 81)
Bourdieu's aim in this book is ambitious, being no less than to create an account of how social relations become subjectively internalized, and of how that subjectivity in turn acts on the external world. The objective and the subjective are inseparable on this view: 'aspirations and demands are determined, in both form and content, by objective conditions which exclude the possibility of desiring the impossible.' (p. 16) To study photography is to look at how various groups actually practice it, and at the relation of these groups to one another. Only in this way can we explain photography's 'instruments, its chosen objects, its rhythms, its occasions, its implicit aesthetic and even its subjects' experience of it, the meanings that they secrete in it and the psychological satisfactions that they derive from it.' (p. 19)
While, as an art, photography is governed by class-based attitudes which affect culture as a whole, it is more deeply marked by its status as a virtually universal social practice. So while the class battle between bourgeois, Kantian taste and lower, literal, 'barbarous' taste is familiar, the combination of views attached to photography is peculiarly illuminating. Bourdieu tells us that senior executives are very likely to grant photography the status of an art when asked about it abstractly, but very unlikely to actually indulge in such a vulgar pursuit. Photography's equivocal status places those who seek to make it an art in a very fraught position, condemning them to an activity 'uncertain of its legitimacy, preoccupied and insecure, perpetually in search of justification.' (p. 129)
Elizabeth Wilson, 'A Note on 'Jumanji''
Ronan Bennett, 'New Labour and Northern Ireland'


text:
Leyton Orient winger Dennis praises Spurs youngster Marsh
Published: 12:00 PM September 19, 2019 Updated: 8:55 AM October 14, 2020
Leyton Orient substitute Louis Dennis tries to win the ball back against Macclesfield Town (pic: Simon O'Connor). - Credit: Archant
Leyton Orient winger Louis Dennis praised loanee midfielder George Marsh for his impact in their 2-2 draw with Exeter City at the weekend as well as in their 2-1 defeat to Crewe Alexandra.
The 20-year-old Tottenham Hotspur youngster, who joined the O's on loan last month until January, was handed his first league start in Devon and impressed.
The youngster did feature in Orient's 2-0 win over League One side Southend United in the EFL Trophy but has been eagerly awaiting his chance in League Two since.
He will hope his impact and man of the match display can get him a run in the starting line-up in the coming weeks.
Dennis said: "100 per cent, I said to him after the game that's a very hard game to come into and get your first start, and I think he did very well in there.
"He screened the back four well, putting in tackles, and I felt he did very well."
Marsh signed a two-year contract at Spurs in June and is highly-regarded at the Premier League club - he even travelled with the squad for the Champions League final.


 Proverbs 17:14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water, So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.
The beginning of strife is like letting out water, So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.
To start a conflict is to release a flood; stop the dispute before it breaks out.
The beginning of strife is [like] letting out water. Therefore leave off contention, before there is quarrelling.
The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: Therefore leave off contention, before there is quarrelling.
The beginning of strife is as when water first trickles [from a crack in a dam]; therefore stop contention before it becomes worse and quarreling breaks out.
The start of fighting is like the letting out of water: so give up before it comes to blows.
The beginning of contention is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off strife before it become vehement.
To release the waters (to speak rashly) is the beginning of contention; therefore, leave off strife before it gets started.
The causing water to break forth. is the beginning of strife: cast off contention before being irritated.
The beginning of strife is like releasing water: therefore leave off contention, before a quarrel starts.
[Like] the release of water [is] the beginning of strife; before it breaks out, stop the quarrel.
The beginning of strife is like letting out water; therefore leave off fighting, before it breaks out.
He that soweth discord and strife, is like one that diggeth up a water brook; but an open enemy is like the water that breaketh out and runneth abroad.
Starting a quarrel is like letting out water; stop it before strife breaks out!
A letting forth of water, is the beginning of strife, therefore, before it breaketh out, abandon, contention.
The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water: therefore withdraw from contention, before it be meddled with.
The beginning of contention is a letting out of waters, And before it is meddled with leave the strife.
13 He who returns evil for good, Evil will not depart from his house. 14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water, So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out. 15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.
Do not go out hastily to argue your case; Otherwise, what will you do in the end, When your neighbor humiliates you?
Then the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you."
Then Abner said to Joab, "Now let the young men arise and hold a contest before us." And Joab said, "Let them arise."
Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Joash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us face each other."
For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah 120,000 in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
Through insolence comes nothing but strife, But wisdom is with those who receive counsel.
He who loves transgression loves strife; He who raises his door seeks destruction.
Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife.
An angry man stirs up strife, And a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.
The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.
And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.


text:
Society Notes Blog>
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I found myself on a recent trip to Colorado Springs, the second largest city in Colorado, USA (behind Denver). The "City of Millionaires," so-called after the discovery of gold on the Pikes Peak mountain, one of the largest gold finds in U.S. history, was reached after a 10-hour flight from London to Denver and a 1.5 hour coach ride, with the -7 hour time difference from the UK taking some getting used to.
Despite the name, there are actually no springs to be found in Colorado Springs (there are however, springs in nearby Manitou Springs). Rather, I would find myself involved in various activities, visiting nearby towns and sights and sampling much of the local food and drink.
Firstly, a quick note about the weather. I travelled here in late October and for the most part, it was quite chilly. Colorado Springs is found over 1-mile above sea level and the effects of altitude were something I had been warned about before travelling. Not only does the altitude affect the temperature (the mornings are very cold, and even by afternoon it was still jacket-weather), but it was also easier to be caught short of breath, particularly after a long walk or climb.
For eating, good food wasn't hard to find. From the strange (popcorn covered with cheese), to the traditional (fish and chips in traditional English-Style pub The Golden Bee) to the interesting (Bison Steaks at MacKenzie's Chop House) I never went hungry for long.
Alongside the eating, there were plenty enjoyable drinking experiences too. Visiting Colorado Springs gave the beer-drinker in me a chance to sample some locally brewed beers. From finding one of my personal favourites on draft for the first time (Odell IPA) to sampling beers from local brewers Bristol Brewing Company (Laughing Lab Scottish Ale and Red Rocket IPA) I had many pleasant drinks here.
From the hotel, I was able to take a trip to a few nearby sites. The Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Centre allows you to hike around huge red sandstone formations once thought to be held sacred by local tribes. Climbing higher within the park, the view soon opens out to the surrounding towns and mountains (including one of America's most famous mountains, Pikes Peak, which makes up part of the Rocky Mountains.
The following day I made my way up part of Pikes Peak to the zip-lining area. This involves donning a hard-had and safety harness and one last bathroom stop (if the fear has set in) before an extremely bumpy jeep ride uphill. Before I knew it, I was throwing myself from the side of the mountain, flying upside down across huge valleys trying my best not to scream too loudly.
Before making my way back to the U.K., I opted for one last trip to nearby Manitou Springs. After a long lunch on a terrace (at the Stagecoach Inn) I passed an afternoon wandering about this gold-rush town and speaking to the locals. I asked a local shopkeeper about the "Emma Crawford Races" I had seen advertised on posters throughout the town.This is a local 'coffin' race and parade where many locals design cart-like buggies and race them on a specially designed track. Emma Crawford was a young woman who came to Manitou to seek a cure for an illness from the local springs but she sadly died and was buried. However, she had been buried too shallow and after a period of heavy rain, her coffin was washed downhill, frightening the locals and convincing them that she was haunting them. Or so the story goes.
Other activities in the surrounding area that I unfortunately didn't have time to visit are the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (the only mountainside zoo in the U.S.), the United States Air Force Academy, The Olympic Training Centre and the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.
Finally it was time to make my way back home. Another coach journey to Denver International Airport – an airport rife with theories of hauntings, and a huge red-eyed horse statue to greet you at the entrance – and a flight back through Heathrow, to Glasgow.